Real concern
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 3
SB Canto 6
- mām upetya punar janma
- duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
- nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ
- saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ
SB Canto 7
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: Concern, there are different kinds of concern. Just like... Again, concerning that what is actually my relationship with the world. So everyone's relationship is that he wants to enjoy this world. Is it not?
Śyāmasundara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Everyone wants. Everyone is struggling hard to get a better position in this world. That means to enjoy this world. So this is going on in the animal kingdom also. The animal kingdom also. Just like a dog, if he finds another dog coming, or another (indistinct), he will begin barking. So the real concern is just like we have created nationalism that "Nobody may come in my place." So this kind of mentality is there in the animal also. So human body should be concerned like that, like animal. He thinks like that.
Śyāmasundara: No, he's... In the beginning he is simple analyzing the relationship, basic relationship...
Prabhupāda: Basic relationship is that I want to enjoy this world. Does he agree to this point or not? I want to enjoy this world to the best of my capacity. That is my concern. Everyone is struggling for that.
Śyāmasundara: He simply says that between (indistinct), or being there, and the things of the world there is a relationship of care or concern, that's all. He doesn't say whether it's...
Prabhupāda: That is a concern, that I want to enjoy this world; others may not interrupt. That is my concern. I am living in this world, I am living in this apartment, I am asking my assistant, "Let not others come here, disturb me." So that is my concern. Just like in your country, they keep dogs: "Beware of dog," "Please do not come here." Eh? So this is my concern. I want to enjoy this world to the best of my capacity and others may not disturb me. This is plain and simple concern. What, beyond this, what is the concern? That is going on as nationalism. That is going on as individualism. That is going on as communityism, so many things.
Śyāmasundara: I guess if you look at it, every object that we relate with, we are concerned about it or for it only because it gives us or supplies us our pleasure.
Prabhupāda: That is my concern. I am keeping my things in the closet, locked. Why? (So that) my things may not be taken by somebody. This is real concern. I am keeping gun, (so) one may not hurt me, or may not attack me. That is called self-preservation. That is the concern. Self-preservation is the first law of nature. So that is in the animal kingdom. Everyone is (indistinct). Defence, what you call defence, that we are defying, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca. Our concern are divided into four parts. My first concern is where shall I eat, how shall I eat. And the next concern is where shall I sleep. And next the concern is how shall I enjoy my senses, who will be my partner. And next concern is how shall I live, how shall I defend. These are the concerns. And these concerns are there in the animals. So how human beings becomes better than animals? If the human being has got the same concern as the animals, then how the human being is better than the animals? What is that concern?
Śyāmasundara: He said that...
Prabhupāda: I'll give you just time to point out how that philosophers are less intelligent.
Śyāmasundara: He actually tries to answer those questions later, but in the beginning he comes to the same point, that what should we be concerned with here are the..., the concerns that he has just described, that just existing. Because in the end, even we are concerned with these things, still they disappear when we die, so there is really no basis for them. They are based on what he calls "nothingness"—eating, sleeping, mating, defending...
Prabhupāda: But if you don't eat, will you exist? Why nothingness? This is another rascal. (laughter)
Śyāmasundara: Because they are caused by anxiety.
Prabhupāda: This anxiety must be there. You must arrange for eating. We are speaking on the point of concern.
Śyāmasundara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: So what can I eat, that's a concern.
Śyāmasundara: Yes. If I do not eat, there's always some anxiety. If there's no food...
Prabhupāda: No. If I do not (indistinct), there must be eating. There must be eating.
Śyāmasundara: So if I feel hungry, I become full of anxiety, "Where is food? Where is food?" He says that this anxiety...
Prabhupāda: Not only that; before becoming hungry, I will acquire food. Just like we go in the market and purchase food. At that time I am not hungry, but I know I shall be hungry, I shall have to eat; therefore we shall have to prepare foodstuffs before I become hungry. That is concern. When I am purchasing foodstuff, I am not hungry actually, but still I know that I shall become hungry in the after..., lunch time, so I must prepare for. That is our concern. I am arranging for an apartment, not that at that time I am feeling sleepy, but I know that I will have to sleep at night. That's why I must have a place. This is my concern.
Śyāmasundara: He calls this concern is the symptoms of..., characteristics of existence, and he says that this existence has priority...
Prabhupāda: Yes. That we also say. Because I want to exist, therefore my concern means the struggle for existence. I am struggling, how to exist.
Śyāmasundara: But he says that this existence has priority over the essence. In other words, only when we get beyond...
Prabhupāda: What is that essence?
Śyāmasundara: This is what the man, a man has to choose-find out his essence. But first there is existence, before that search...
Prabhupāda: But the existence, therefore we say that your real problem is unless you know what is your position, then there cannot be any tangible program. If I know that I exist eternally, then my real concern should be how to check all these concerns so that I may live eternally without any concern. My question will be: "I am existing eternally. Why there should be concerns?" I must live and exist eternally without any concern. Why there have to be so many concerns? I do not want. Suppose the death. I know I shall death, but I do not know; I do not want to die. That is my concern. That my concern should be how I can live without death. That is real intelligent concern. There is death. I know I will die, but I do not wish to die. That is also fact. Suppose you are... If I take a sword and want to kill you, you know that you will die, why don't you accept, "All right, kill me. I'll have to die, so kill me"? Why you protest? Why you protest? Why you fly away? Why you (indistinct) defend? You know you shall die. So die now. (indistinct)
Śyāmasundara: Because he wants to enjoy...
Prabhupāda: Therefore I do not want to die. That is the philosophy. Death is there. (air raid siren in background) Just like here is the siren, and you are (indistinct) die, but why he's defending? Why this siren is there, "Now death is coming, be careful"? That means, in other words, "I do not wish to die." That is my real concern, that I do not wish to die, but death is forced upon me. Therefore my concern should be how to avoid it. That is real concern. That is real philosophy. Why you forget this psychology, that "I do not wish to die"? Somebody will... Even animals. I have seen one pig, a small pig, what is called, pig, small. So the master took (indistinct). Psychologically he understands that he is taken, now he will be killed. Just crying, "peh, peh, peh." So why? This is a pig. He doesn't want to die. So everyone does not want to die, but still he knows that he will die. Therefore the real concern should be that I do not wish to die, that death is forced upon me, and that is my real concern. That is real philosophy, whether there is possibility of. Know that. That is intelligence. That intelligence is (indistinct) there in the human form of life. Animal, they, although they know it that death is there, but I don't want to go, die, but they have no capacity to stop death. But human beings can do that.Conversations and Morning Walks
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Correspondence
1972 Correspondence
Page Title: | Real concern |
Compiler: | Rati, Haya |
Created: | 21 of Nov, 2008 |
Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=3, CC=1, OB=0, Lec=2, Con=2, Let=1 |
No. of Quotes: | 9 |