The demon in the shape of a big fat serpent expanded his lips from land to sky; his lower lip was touching the ground, and his upper lip was touching the clouds. His jaws appeared like a big mountain cave, without limitation, and his teeth appeared just like mountain summits. His tongue appeared to be a broad traffic way, and he was breathing just like a hurricane. His eyes were blazing like fire. At first the boys thought that the demon was a statue, but after examining it they saw that it was a big serpent lying down on the road and widening his mouth. The boys began to talk among themselves: "Dear friends, this figure appears to be a great animal, and he is sitting in such a posture just to swallow us all. Just see—is it not a big snake that has widened his mouth to eat all of us?"
Traffic
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 4
Regulations are meant for human beings, not for animals. The traffic regulations on the street, telling people to keep to the right or the left, are meant for human beings, not for animals. If an animal violates such a law, he is never punished, but a human being is punished. The Vedas are not meant for the animals, but for the understanding of human society. A person who indiscriminately violates the rules and regulations given by the Vedas is liable to be punished. One should therefore not enjoy his senses according to his lusty desires, but should restrict himself according to the regulative principles given in the Vedas. If a king is allowed to hunt in a forest, it is not for his sense gratification. We cannot simply experiment in the art of killing. If a king, being afraid to meet rogues and thieves, kills poor animals and eats their flesh comfortably at home, he must lose his position. Because in this age kings have such demoniac propensities, monarchy is abolished by the laws of nature in every country.
In contemporary civilization we see that there are many automobiles manufactured to carry us swiftly from one place to another, but at the same time we have created other problems. We have to construct so many roads, and yet these roads are insufficient to cope with automobile congestion and traffic jams. There are also the problems of air pollution and fuel shortage. The conclusion is that the processes we manufacture to counteract or minimize our distresses do not actually put an end to our pains. It is all simply illusion. We simply place the burden from the head to the shoulder. The only real way we can minimize our problems is to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead and give ourselves up to His protection. The Lord, being all-powerful, can make arrangements to mitigate our painful life in material existence.
SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13
His lower lip rested on the surface of the earth, and his upper lip was touching the clouds in the sky. The borders of his mouth resembled the sides of a big cave in a mountain, and the middle of his mouth was as dark as possible. His tongue resembled a broad traffic-way, his breath was like a warm wind, and his eyes blazed like fire.
In length and breadth the animal's tongue resembles a broad traffic-way, and the inside of its mouth is very, very dark, like a cave in a mountain.
SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Hearing that Lord Kṛṣṇa had killed Narakāsura and had alone married many brides, Nārada Muni desired to see the Lord in this situation. He thought, "It is quite amazing that in a single body Lord Kṛṣṇa simultaneously married sixteen thousand women, each in a separate palace." Thus the sage of the demigods eagerly went to Dvārakā.
The city was filled with the sounds of birds and bees flying about the parks and pleasure gardens, while its lakes, crowded with blooming indīvara, ambhoja, kahlāra, kumuda and utpala lotuses, resounded with the calls of swans and cranes. Dvārakā boasted nine hundred thousand royal palaces, all constructed with crystal and silver and splendorously decorated with huge emeralds. Inside these palaces, the furnishings were bedecked with gold and jewels. Traffic moved along a well-laid-out system of boulevards, roads, intersections and marketplaces, and many assembly houses and temples of demigods graced the charming city. The roads, courtyards, commercial streets and residential patios were all sprinkled with water and shaded from the sun's heat by banners waving from flagpoles.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
(My dear Lord, and the spiritual energy of the Lord, kindly engage me in Your service. I am now embarrassed with this material service. Please engage me in Your service.)
This is transcendental sound vibration. This is transcendental sound vibration, and this will help us to cleanse the dust on the mirror of our mind. On the mind we have accumulated material dust. Just like on the Second Avenue, due to the constant traffic of motor car, there is always a creation of dusting over everything, similarly, by our manipulation of materialistic activities, there are some material dusts which are accumulated on the mind, and therefore we are unable to see things in true perspective. So this process, this vibration of transcendental sound, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, will cleanse the dust. And, as soon as the dust is cleared, then, as you can see on the mirror the nice face of yours, similarly we can see our real, I mean to say, constitutional position, "what I am." And as soon as I understand that "I am not this body, I am spirit soul, and my symptom is consciousness," and that consciousness, as it is purified by this process, the whole material miseries will be over.
Just like at the present moment they have manufactured atomic bomb, and all the nations are anxious to keep peace, and they have started that United Nations organization to solve the problem. Although they are unable, but they are trying. So advancement of civilization means by nature some problem is offered, and they are trying to solve it. Anything you take, it is an attempt for trying to solve the problem. Just like in your country there is subway. What is that subway? Because on the surface there is a lot of traffic, to solve this problem they want to go underground. And in this way somebody thinks, "Oh, Western countries have advanced than the Eastern countries. They have made some solution." But after that, there is another problem. So problem after problem.
So when the question of order is there, then there must be one order-giver, and there must be one order-carrier. Otherwise, what is the meaning, order? Yasya ājñayā, by whose order. Whose means this whose, somebody bigger who is giving order, and the sun planet is carrying out the order. Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ. So there is order-giver. There is controller, the Supreme Lord, and there is order-carrier, the sun-god. Otherwise who is carrying the order? If it is only a lump of matter, then who will carry out the order? Now, this Tokyo city if it is a lump of matter only, then how the systematic order of traffic rules and regulation is... It is not only lump of matter, but there is somebody, the government or the king or the president, who is maintaining the order. This is conclusion. This is analogy. Then how you say that there is no controller? Where is your logic?
You cannot say it's by chance. And who is making this chance arrangement, that one is born so exalted, one is born so low? Then again we have to accept somebody is. So these are all foolish theories, "By chance, by kāma-haitukam." No, there is great arrangement. As the same... Just like the traffic control. There is a very big, great arrangement behind this. It is not by chance. By chance there has been not line, and they pass the car in certain line. No, it is not chance. How you can say, "chance"? So these theories are made by the demons.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So any field of activities, if we act for Kṛṣṇa, that is called yajña. Yajña means to act for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or the supreme authority. Just like a good citizen. A good citizen means who is acting exactly to the regulative laws. He is good citizen. Even in ordinary driving car, if you exactly follow the rules and regulation of traffic transaction, if you stop when there is red light, if you start when there is green light, you don't go to the left, if you follow these rules and regulation, then there is no question of your being a criminal. But as soon as you do not follow, immediately you are criminal. You will get a ticket. Therefore the regulative life means... That is religious life, when you execute your occupational duty just according to the law. There are state laws and there are laws also. So actually, we should perform the divine laws. State law is subordinate. That is legal. Otherwise illegal. But unfortunately, the whole state at the present moment, they are also illegal. Therefore what about the citizens? They are also illegal. And because both of them illegal, these illegal, illegitimate acts are being done, so many slaughterhouses are maintained, and people are eating meat illegally and becoming subjected to the sinful life. That is warned here.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Simply, wherever you go, (makes traffic noise) "sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh," and "gonh, gonh, gonh, gonh, gonh." Up in the sky, "gonh, gonh, gonh, gonh," and in the street, "sonh, sonh..." And then, when digging, "gut-gut-gut-gut-gut-gut-gut-gut-gut!" (laughter) Is it not? Don't you feel botheration. But they are thinking, "Oh, America is very much advanced in machine." And when there is that garbage tank? "Ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon!" (laughter) So many sounds are going on, always. Eh? Of course, you have got very nice city, nice roads everywhere. But this trouble... You have created so many troubles. And there are news that one lady was a patient. She became mad for the sounds. And I think they are thinking very seriously how to stop all these sounds. Is it not?
Śyāmasundara: Especially they have these airplanes now.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Dai Nippon representative: Year and a half ago, Mr. Tajima, he lose his son, twenty-eight years old.
Prabhupāda: Yes, I heard. In some accident?
Dai Nippon representative: By traffic accident.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dai Nippon representative: And since then Mr. Tajima has been very sad...
Prabhupāda: Religious.
Prabhupāda: (chants japa) So there are many Japanese vegetarian? Or he is only.
Dai Nippon Representative: Lately it is quite increasing in Japan, yes, becoming popular, because we have a lot of problems with pollution. We have a lot of social problem like pollution, traffic jam. So people, in order to keep good health, vegetarian is very good for health.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Vegetarian food is very nice. We can give you vegetable menu, three hundred items at least.
Dai Nippon representative: Three hundred?
Prabhupāda: Three hundred. Simply grains, fruits, and butter, that's all, and sugar. You give us these four items and we give you three hundred items. Yes. There is a ceremony in India, annakūṭa, Govardhana-pūjā. So in that ceremony, in each and every temple they prepare as many varieties as possible. Some of them prepare three thousand.
Prabhupāda: And doing it for unlimited years. When they will be finished, there is no guarantee. Here in your country they do, they have contract, "Yes, within six months." But there is no guarantee. But that show is going on, that "We are doing something." Because it's imitation. There was no need, but they want to make advanced like the Americans.
Śyāmasundara: Huge, open intersection, no traffic, they're building a flyover.
Prabhupāda: Similarly in Bombay also, they made one or two flyovers with great endeavor, and one flyover collapsed. That flyover between that Princesses Street and the Marine(?) Drive, yes, collapsed. Because all the contractors are thieves. Instead of giving cement, they are giving clay.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: This will be propaganda and to invite people to come and let them give in writing that "Here the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple must be there." Take thousand, millions of signatures. So prove that it is not nonsense. It is the most essential thing. This way. And so far traffic is concerned, now, there is big road. So make two gates, in and out, this side, so there is no question of traffic convenience. In this way, do presentation. That is my suggestion. And this letter will not be very much effective.
Prabhupāda: Uncivilized. A similar thing is happening in India where the civilization is supposed to be so... And actually it is so, but they have become so degraded that a responsible officer in the government, he is saying that "Bhajana is nuisance." You see. He has no knowledge what, how much valuable, spiritually valuable, bhajana is. In the Bhagavad-gītā... Gandhi accepted Bhagavad-gītā. It is said, catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛti... Gandhi was chanting in temple: Raghupati rāghava. So what they are following? Gandhi was against drinking and intoxication. Now they're introducing. So this is the position of the government. Therefore I suggest that according to the word, so far traffic, we are diverting the ways this way. And let people come here, join with bhajana, take prasādam, and they sign, "Yes, there must be a temple here." Let this. And make propaganda that people may come here, and... I am present here. I will speak. The same thing, as it is going on, kīrtana and speaking from Bhagavad-gītā. And after they are convinced, let them sign, "Yes, there must be a temple here." In this way, gather public opinion, one point, that bhajana is not nuisance, essential, we want it, and the other thing, we are making gate in and out to get... Submit a plan like that, that this is... There will be no... That may be a small road, lane, but here is a big road. And purchase that land in front and make a gate. Call a good architects, make a nice gate and road. Take this proposition. Our business is there. If we invite people, "Come..." Even without temple, if it is go on like that, people may come and take prasādam, and they give their consent, "Yes, it is nice," that is sufficient. Even there is no temple. Then, if such way, public opinion's created, and the sanction is there, immediately there will be temple. It may take some time. It doesn't matter. So far satyagraha (?) is concerned, it will be useless. Hungry people, they are making satyagraha, and they are replied with fire, killing them. In Patna it has become so.
Yogeśvara: Here's a problem. The women today want the same rights as men. How can they be satisfied?
Prabhupāda: Everything will be satisfied. Just like our women, Kṛṣṇa conscious, they are working. They don't want equal rights with men. It is due to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are cleansing the temple, they are cooking very nicely. They are satisfied. They never say that "I have to go to Japan for preaching like Prabhupāda." They never say. This is artificial. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness means work in his constitutional position. The women, men, when they remain in their constitutional position, there will be no artificial (indistinct) (loud traffic noises)
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: This road is good. There is no traffic.
Paramahaṁsa: All of the temples they are receiving letters regularly from (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: It is not meant for mass people. Only selected fortunate. My Guru Mahārāja used to say, "If I could make one person to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, then my mission would be successful." It is not for mass person. Only the fortunate they can do. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by introducing saṅkīrtana, even the mass can take part. When there is saṅkīrtana, everyone joins. And by joining in that way, they will become purified.
Prabhupāda: Ten miles. How long it will take to go and come?
Amogha: To the factory?
Prabhupāda: No, that area.
Devotee (1): It takes about one hour to go down there. Three quarters of an hour.
Prabhupāda: One hour? For ten miles?
Devotee (1): It's a lot of traffic.
Prabhupāda: Oh. What factories they have got?
Devotee (1): Big, big steel factories.
Prabhupāda: Steel factory.
Prabhupāda: Why it is congested today?
Siddha-svarūpa: Well, we came a little late, it's rush hour. All the people that live on that side of the island work on that side of the island. So they have to drive over every morning. And we happened to get the work hour traffic because we left a little late.
Harikeśa: They are turning Hawaii into New York City.
Siddha-svarūpa: Yeah, they're making it very difficult. They're going to develop this entire side of the island more and more, and so that they're taking agriculture land, and they'll be building subdivisions and people from the mainland will be moving, living in condominiums on this island.
Prabhupāda: That means for one convenience, they create another inconvenience.
Bhagavān: Everyone has camera. This way we go? (break) Everyone should chant softly.
Prabhupāda: But here we cannot walk in...
Bhagavān: We cannot all walk, I don't think. It is too thin here.
Prabhupāda: There are so many men. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) It is closed?
Bhagavān: They don't like traffic in here so...
Prabhupāda: Oh. That's nice. Good idea.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Oh. So we can.... But that will be very hastily. That.... The road is all right?
Jayapatākā: That.... The road to his place is all right. There's a shortcut from Krishnagara; if that's taken, then for a while, one kilometer, there's kacā road. After that, there's very, there's clear road with no traffic. Otherwise, if we.... We normally take that in the vans and in the jeep. We save about half an hour. But that way you have to go through one mile of kacā road. Otherwise, if you go by all pākā road, then it's a good road. Just takes a...
Prabhupāda: No, we shall go...
Jayapatākā: ...little longer.
Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. We shall go by the pākā. Kacā road may damage the car.
Mādhavānanda: Now everyone wants to travel by air. In some large cities, the airports are so crowded, there is so much traffic overhead, that now they have to develop means of...
Prabhupāda: All accident takes place while coming down. Or while going up. On the sky there is no danger.
Devotee: They call it traffic control system in the sky. Just like there is traffic on the road, they call it the traffic control system. They have so much traffic in the air.
Prabhupāda: What they control?
Hari-śauri: They keep them flying around the airport until there's room for them to come in.
Prabhupāda: That already they are doing. When there is no space, they send news, that "Don't come down." So they come like this.
Nandarāṇī: It is good for them here because they can preach. The guests who come, they are very attracted to these little children who can sing so many wonderful songs and read Sanskrit and preach from these heavy philosophical books that the Iranians cannot even understand. So they are learning to preach. I have a Gurukula here for the Indian children. Thirty children I have.
Prabhupāda: Oh, very good.
Nandarāṇī: I have class only two days a week because the city is big and I have to go myself and collect them from their homes or meet in one home downtown and the traffic is very difficult, so we only have class two days a week, but I teach Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa book.
Prabhupāda: They cannot come here?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Tomorrow morning I'll go?
Atreya Ṛṣi: Well, I would like it when traffic is low, because it's in the city.
Prabhupāda: When it is, traffic is...?
Atreya Ṛṣi: It is in the heart of the city.
Prabhupāda: No, when the traffic will be low?
Atreya Ṛṣi: Thursday is very good, otherwise... It should be both cool... I mean they're living there, it's not...
Hari-śauri: Six o'clock.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Six o'clock the traffic's heavy.
Hari-śauri: Six o'clock.
Prabhupāda: Morning?
Atreya Ṛṣi: Traffic is heavy. Iranians start early in the morning. The best time is Thursday. Thursday the traffic is not heavy. Thursday is nice, we can go there in twenty-five minutes.
Hari-śauri: (break) He says there's a lot of traffic even at six in the morning.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Iranians start work early. Some start at six-thirty.
Prabhupāda: Six-thirty.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, this is a very busy city. Some people work two, three shifts.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that I can... Always traffic I see.
Dayānanda: But there is no work on Thursday.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Thursday is very easy. We can go very fast and come back very fast. I have to call...
Prabhupāda: That's all right, make arrangement.
Prabhupāda: When they understand that you have got such discrimination, they are dissatisfied.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, what we have done, we have added in various different points like extra bedsheet, one rupee, extra this... We have added in these extra points. So the total does come to fifteen and twenty. I have spoken to all the travel agencies, and they are willing to go along with us. In fact, they think that fifteen and twenty-five is very cheap. But I then explain to them that we can't make it any more because we are in competition with...
Prabhupāda: But you don't get customer even lesser than that. First of all see your position. You may calculate in the mind that "This is cheap, this is not," but cheap or no cheap, you are not getting any customers. (chuckling)
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, because we never went after the tourist traffic. We have just started going after this foreign traffic with these brochures, and now we have...
Prabhupāda: And now, in the Sixth Chapter there are forty-seven verses. So divide forty-seven with seven.
Prabhupāda: Well, it will be finished by the time your customers...
Hari-śauri: Your tourist traffic is not going to come immediately.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: These are the months now, December, January, February...
Prabhupāda: All right, it has to be done like that, that all classes are going on every day. One who comes on Wednesday, it does not mean he has to wait. The class is there. It doesn't matter Wednesday or Friday. Next day he goes there, next class, next day he goes, next class. The difficulty may be that we have to set aside seven rooms. That we have got, room.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That we have in the gurukula building...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...but not at the moment.
Prabhupāda: No, no. gurukula building.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And also...
Prabhupāda: Gurukula building is meant for instruction. And the guesthouse is meant for boarding and lodging. That's all.
Prabhupāda: But there is no instruction. For women there is no such thing.
Hari-śauri: No women on the course.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No women?
Prabhupāda: That is bogus, another bogus.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That's bogus. But we have a lot of women who are coming to India for yoga. Half... The traffic is half men, half women.
Prabhupāda: Women cannot do it.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. The department, the sinful departments, illicit sex, meat-eating, this will be closed, and that will make simple.
Rāmeśvara: Completely?
Prabhupāda: No, at least we shall try to make closed. And if people become localized, then this traffic will be little. Just like I am trying to organize the farm. If people do not come out of home, then this system will be obsolete. There will be no more department. They have created hundreds. They do not know how to manage it. For livelihood they have to go to Bombay, and therefore they require so many local trains. But if they localized, they can get their livelihood locally, there is no question of these all...
Rāmeśvara: In America this is becoming the number-one problem—unemployment.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They must be. Artificial employment.
Prabhupāda: Durbhikṣa. Anāvṛstya durbhikṣā kara-pīḍitaḥ (SB 12.2.9). There will be no rainfall, scarcity of food, and government will tax. Government will contribute twenty-five crores, and they will tax three hundred crores on this beach.(?) And before giving twenty-five crores, the other three hundred crores they will divide amongst themselves. (chuckles) That's all. (break)
(in a car driving through traffic)
Rāmeśvara: ...two demons, she was feeling thirst. So Lord Śiva with the end of his trident created this hole. And then he sent his bull carrier to gather waters from all the sacred rivers in the universe. An then Lord Brahmā came...
Prabhupāda: Bindu-sarovara. Drop by drop. Bindu means drop. So the sarovara came into existence by contribution from all rivers. (break) Bhuvaneśvara will help me. I have got little hint.
Gargamuni: Maybe we should build a permanent house for Your Divine Grace also.
Prabhupāda: We shall build there, in our place.
Gargamuni: Yes, there. I mean a separate bungalow there.
Prabhupāda: No, if we build like Māyāpura, a portion is sufficient. It is well-known sanitarium.
Haṁsadūta: If we go to Govardhana, we would take the prasādam that was prepared here and bring it there, so that many people can take.
Prabhupāda: I have no objection.
Lokanātha: Or otherwise we can make real picnic. We could collect some grains there from door to door and cook some khicuṛi there.
Prabhupāda: That will be very nice.
Guṇārṇava: There are already many thousands and thousands of people there, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Perhaps it will take a long time to get there because of traffic. I was in Mathurā today. Every ten minutes buses and ṭāṅgās and so many kinds of vehicles were going to Govardhana. There are many, many thousands of people there today.
Pañca-draviḍa: Besides that, the devotees would have to walk nine hours in the sun.
Guṇārṇava: Perhaps the road will be very busy tomorrow, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whew!
Haṁsadūta: Can't walk?
Prabhupāda: No, let them take their time. They do that. It is very nice picnic.
Correspondence
1973 Correspondence
Your progress in translating work is very nice. It is actually most important of all that this translating of books is going on at the same time as the festivals. I have seen the photographs of your festival blocking the traffic and I am very much encouraged. The pictures should appear in all languages and you should write an article for BTG.
1975 Correspondence
I thank you very much for your kindly visiting our land the other day. Along with your secretary, Mr. Ramanbhai B. Tolat. The thing is that we are in a little difficulty on account of our entrance road being very narrow. Therefore, I request you to give up your strip of land in front of our Hare Krishna Land for opening the road which will facilitate the traffic congestions. Our Hare Krishna Land is an international institution for preaching Krishna Consciousness all over the world. So, I am seeking your sympathy for these world-wide activities. The other day, your secretary informed me that you will construct a community hall on the road-side, but I know that the strip of land in front of our land will not be required by you. Neither it can be used for any other purpose. So, if you will kindly recommend your committee. to give for this great cause, Krishna will be very much pleased upon you without any doubt.
| Page Title: | Traffic |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Serene |
| Created: | 11 of Jul, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=5, CC=0, OB=1, Lec=5, Con=24, Let=2 |
| No. of Quotes: | 37 |