Expressions researched:
"villager"
|"villagers"
Prof. Kotovsky: Yes, of course, Indian government program is more and more secular in general ideology, westernized.
Prabhupāda: But of course, people are not very happier. One gentleman... He's in government service. I am speaking, in 19..., sometimes, 1950. He was in statistics department, Mr. Dal(?), Kashmiri gentleman. He was coming to me in Allahabad. He told me that "I went... I go to the villages, and the villagers say, 'Bābuji, angrej ko bahut (indistinct)?' " That was his statement.
Prabhupāda: The villagers, they have cows and land. That is sufficient for their economic problem. But the industrialists, they are alluring them, "To get more money, come here." So they are going to the cities. And the food production in the village is neglected. And therefore the food grain price is rising. Actually, everyone should be engaged to produce food, but the modern set-up of civilization is that few people are engaged in producing food, and others are eating.
Prabhupāda: One man, he went out of his village, and after ten years, he came back, advertised himself that "I have become successful in yoga practice." So naturally villagers surrounded him. "Oh, you have...? What yoga practice you have learned?" "I can walk on the water." "Oh?" Actually, even at the present moment, if somebody comes and says, "I can walk...," many people will come, thousands of men. So when everything, arrangement was that he'll cross the river, walking on the water, one old man came. He said, "Sir, it is very wonderful, but it is two paise worth. Two paise worth." "Why?" "Now, you will walk and go the other side; I'll take a boat, pay him two paise. I'll do the same thing. So what is your credit?"
Prabhupāda: Still in Indian villages, the remote villages, there is barter. Yes. He has produced some grains, paddy. He will bring to the storekeeper. And the storekeeper will take, "For so much oil, you have to give me so much paddy." So he will weigh and keep it and give him oil. So he will arrange to sell the paddy. But for the villagers, he brings the paddy and he takes. They require little salt, little oil, some spices. That's all. Otherwise they have got their own thing. They have got dahl, their rice, wheat, everything. They have produced. In this way, still there are, Indian villages. There is no question of scarcity.
Bhagavān: The easiest way to manage, then, is to have everything more or less in small villages.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that was Gandhi's philosophy, village organization. These people, they are attracting villagers to work in the factory, and they are exploiting them. Instead of producing food, they are attracted by so-called high salaries, to the factory, and they are producing bolts and nuts, motor parts. But food is produced somewhere else. But the food producers, they are working in the factory. Therefore scarcity of foodstuff. But this factory owner, he has got more money. He doesn't care. The poor public, they are suffering. Our philosophy is that you produce your food anywhere. You stay, and keep cows, take milk, produce vegetables, food grains, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. This is our philosophy.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is a big... That's the reason. It's a big mistake. I had a discussion with one man. So I was stating that Mādhavendra Purī found this Deity, Gopāla, but their teaching is that Vallabhācārya found the Deity. I said, "No, Mādhavendra Purī handed the Deity over later on for worship, but it was he who found the Deity and originated the worship on Govardhana, and all the villagers..."
Prabhupāda: It has been confirmed in the court that this Deity belongs to Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas. There was big case amongst themselves, and the court gave judgement that "This Deity belongs to the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava."
Madhudviṣa: They don't like to pay money for parking space. They park out here and walk into their different office buildings. (break)
Prabhupāda: It is said (Bengali). A villager, very poor man, he says, "I am very poor man. I live on eating the grasshoppers."
Madhudviṣa: Grasshoppers.
Prabhupāda: Yes. "I have no money. But when I go to pass stool, I ride on a horse." They cannot pay parking fare, but still they keep a carriage. (laughs) (Bengali). Because the villagers go to the field for passing stool, so this gariba man, this poor man, goes on a horse.
Journalist: Do you mean every, the whole of India is Kṛṣṇa conscious?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they know what is Kṛṣṇa.
Journalist: But how many of them practice it?
Prabhupāda: How many millions? Still, if you hold any Kṛṣṇa conscious meeting, they will come by thousands, twenty thousand, thirty thousand, like that. Even village to village, if there is any chance of Kṛṣṇa conscious meeting, all the villagers will come, still.
Prabhupāda: Curd. So curd you can send to the city. They will convert into sandeśa, rasagullā and other preparations, and ghee. That is being done. In India the villagers, they do that. They are, keep cows. Convert them into curd or ghee, and ghee and curd sent to the city, they have got regular price for that. There is no question of waste of milk at any stage. One must know how to do it. So you can keep as many cows as possible and collect as much milk from them. You can utilize. And if some of the villagers trained up, they can open nice restaurant in the city. Utilize the ghee, curd, for making nice confectionary. People will purchase like anything. Just like in our Rathayātrā festival, whatever sweets they prepared, all sold at good profit. Your countrymen, they did not see such nice things. And when they taste it—"Very nice."
Guest (1): They have been a little in the villages with books and doing saṅkīrtana in the street. That is very good. But it...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Do saṅkīrtana. The villagers will join.
Guest (1): But at the same time, if we collect all the people together and put it in place and talk to them every day, continually for seven days or eight days...
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. It is possible. These are all practical proposals. There is nothing impossibility.
Mahāṁsa: We have plenty of rice now, and also the dahl will be harvested in about fifteen, twenty days. And the village people, this is their normal food, rice and dahl.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That's fine.
Mahāṁsa: So we can distribute to all the villagers.
Prabhupāda: Distribute rice and dahl and little vegetables, and they will come, take prasādam and chant.
Mahāṁsa: Also this bullock cart party can recruit many persons from villagers to come and stay at the farm.
Prabhupāda: That is first business, that they should join this movement and eat prasādam and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...food, they have begun spinning their own cloth.
Hari-śauri: How is it that, say, obviously they must be backed by very great pious activity, but somehow or other, they...
Prabhupāda: Therefore they have taken birth in India.
Hari-śauri: Is that special mercy that they seem to be impoverished?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Hari-śauri: Is that special arrangement that they seem to be impoverished? Say like the villagers, they're not very wealthy, or, uh...
Prabhupāda: That is due to misgovernment. There is no king; all rogues and thieves are in the government. Mismanagement. It is the government duty to see that everyone is doing nicely so that they can live peacefully, happily. There must be direction. Just like parentless children. Nobody is to take care; they'll be wretched. So India's position is like that. The parentless children. There is no good government. And they supply this control wheat that is not even touchable. Unfit for human consumption.
Prabhupāda: You eat, you live very nicely. There is no prohibition. But you cannot take more than what you require. This is Bhāgavata communism. If you take more, you'll be punished. (break) ...our philosophy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). The Indians are trained up like that. He is happy in whatever condition of life he is placed. He doesn't protest. Any Indian villager, he'll say "God has given me this position, that's all right." Therefore the modern man is complaining that in India, this God consciousness has made them lethargic. They do not do... They believe on the destiny.
Prabhupāda: So karma, ordinary fruitive activities should be carried on for yajñārthe, for the satisfaction of Bālajī, or Kṛṣṇa. Not otherwise. The same, what is gathered as contribution, it should be utilized for yajña. Because the money is given for yajña, not for other purposes. That is a fact. Of course, the money is there. The innocent villagers, they have given the money in good faith that Kṛṣṇa or Bālajī will accept it and their hard labor will be successful. Yajñārthe karmaṇa. Now that money should be properly utilized for yajñārthe. Actually, everything belongs to God, Bālajī. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). We are claiming unnecessarily, "This is mine." That is called māyā. Nothing belongs to us. Everything belongs to the Supreme Lord. But we have claimed the Lord's property as our own. That is misgiving.
Lokanātha: I come from village, and I'm happy now as I have taken to holy name and prasāda. So more, other villagers... Half of these boys are from villages?
Prabhupāda: Yes, they are villagers.
Lokanātha: They're chanting and they're so happy and they're going back to village.
Prabhupāda: Very good life. Very good life. The village life. Provided he has got proper engagement. Otherwise his mind will be disturbed, and he'll seek after wine, after women, after this, after that. Devil's workshop.
Prabhupāda: Eggplant. And this banana. So whatever he's grown he takes in a basket, goes to the market, immediately sold. And they're all fresh. Collected in the morning, and it is sold by eight o'clock. All fresh vegetables. There was no export, there was no facility of transport. These rascals introduced transport. Big scale transport, this railway. There was no railway. So transport means this villager, instead of selling locally or one mile away, he will dispatch in Calcutta. The Calcutta people, they are sitting on table and smoking and printing paper money and exploit.
Devotee (4): Should ISKCON devotees live in each of these little villages?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Yes, surrounding the temple.
Jagadīśa: They'll all be ISKCON devotees.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Turn them all ISKCON devotees, even these villagers.
Prabhupāda: I do not know what they like.
Mahāṁśa: There is a lot of sabji in the ḍāl also, today and it's hot. They like it.
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, whatever they like, the villagers, you prepare. If you have no money, I shall pay money.
Mahāṁśa: O.K.
Prabhupāda: But attract them. They will come here to eat, "Oh, very nice thing." That is wanted. I made this movement successful simply by love feast. They did not come to hear Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Mahāṁśa: Mebubshah. He's a Muslim but he's so loyal. He's the best man. And then Puru and Hanumān. These three people, they are very loyal and they are trustworthy. These people in the villages, they tend... Because they have their home there, so sometimes they want something for their home, so they will steal. And if some other village man steals, he will not stop them. He will say, "All right," because if he stops him, then in his village there will be trouble for him. See? So he will encourage his other villagers to steal. But these men, if they see some villagers stealing, they will stop them. This has happened.
Prabhupāda: This is natural. So how to deal with this?
Mahāṁśa: So we have both. We can get outsiders to come and stay here who we can give prasādam, make them chant, and give them mahā-prasādam. They love it. In the morning. We used to give them a little mahā-prasādam in the morning. They like it very much. By that, we gain their confidence.
Prabhupāda: We shall like that they will come here and stay and remain our twenty-four hours' son. That is very good also.
Jagadīśa: There is one confusion in my mind, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Mahāṁśa said that the local villagers will not be inclined to come here and live because they are living just outside. But my impression was, from hearing you speak was, that everyone, whether they're living just outside or a long distance outside, they are suffering from material existence. They're having to struggle for existence. They're being taxed by the government. There's so many problems to maintain themself. And every living being in the material world is struggling to maintain himself. But if we offer them a house here and some work and we give them all food, clothing, and...
Prabhupāda: That is our aim.
Jagadīśa: That's our aim.
Prabhupāda: That is our aim. So you can engage some men to cut the hill for blocks and gradually develop house.
Prabhupāda: Wardha. And I saw his cottage and everything. So I said this is the... After all he wanted to live very simple life in a cottage, why he declared war against the Britishers? What was the necessity? (Hindi) Britishers would never tackled you or objected. The villagers were using. Why so much energy was engaged, to drive away the Britishers?
Mr. Malhotra: No, he wanted the country to be free from the foreign rule.
Prabhupāda: No, now what freedom we have got? (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is very nice. Avagana-bhak. (?) To dip into the water is refreshing, very refreshing. It is enjoyable. You artificially create tank in your country, bathing tank. And here is tank. Why should you not enjoy?
Hari-śauri: Swimming pools.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Abhirāma: Gargamuni Swami says it is contaminated, that water.
Prabhupāda: It is contaminated for you, not for us. Why contaminated? So many people are taking. In Bengal, all villagers, they take bath in the pond, this tank. Large quantity, water, is not contaminated. A small quantity, water, is contaminated.
Gargamuni: They were in Assam, one of our traveling parties, and they met a Gauḍīya Math temple managed by Mādhava Mahārāja. And there were three or four brahmacārīs in the village, and they had the whole village actually engaged. They saw some of the activities. So they were engaged in making the village Kṛṣṇa conscious in their way. So similarly, we can do the same.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Gargamuni: Just like Gaura-Govinda, he's bringing many villagers here.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. He's good preacher.
Prabhupāda: Anyway, we can take up this enterprise immediately. Whether we can induce the villagers, neighboring inhabitants, to cooperate? That is wanted. Otherwise what we shall do with this building?
Mr. Dwivedi: Correct.
Prabhupāda: So our Gandhi's program failed because he could not attract the villagers to these activities. Everyone wants some attraction. That we were discussing, rasa, catur-vidhā-rasa, dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, Cc. Ādi 1.90). So we have to educate them to be attracted by the mokṣa-rasa. Then they'll stay. Unless there is rasa... Just like if you put a little sugar, small black ants will come immediately. The rasa is there. Raso vai saḥ. If... If you cannot attract people to some rasa, they'll not stay. Just like these Americans, foreigners, they have tasted little rasa in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore they are sticking. That we have to create. That is bhakti-rasa. So our first beginning is that the villagers may come, we have our temple, and they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and give them nice prasādam. And then, gradually, they will be attracted to this rasa. So that we want. So if we people cooperate... We have got our program already.
Prabhupāda: Somebody is economic development in the cities, artha. Somebody is attracted, sense enjoyment, sex. And somebody, very pure, mokṣa-rasa. Catur-rasa. So in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness all the four rasas are there. Simply we have to present. So that is possible by the bhakti-rasa. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam, arcanaṁ vandanam... (SB 7.5.23). So we have to begin. The villagers must come, sit down and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, and give them prasādam. If you can bring them, so far money is concerned for giving prasādam, that we shall arrange. Then, gradually, let them be engaged in spinning all their necessities of life, in plowing, in protection of the cows.
Prabhupāda: Tourists, Indian tourists, means going to some holy place. They have no other sightseeing, no program. All villagers, they are still... The pilgrimage in holy places, now no educated man goes. Very rarely. All these villagers by thousands... They... You see this Tirupati, Tirumala. All the contribution by the villagers. By their hard-earned money they keep something for going. You have seen Tirupati, Tirumal...? Standing for hours to contribute in a line. Hundreds of people. They'll come, contribute something. Then they'll shave their head, see the Deity, have some bath in the adjoining lake. Then they'll take prasādam.
Prabhupāda: No, in the village. They have got enough milk, grains. Is it not? Grāmete dudha dhana cala ekhana nai, gatas paya.(?) Eh? Fruit. They import. They make them poverty-stricken. If the villagers do not sell, ample fruit. But these townsmen, they go there, pay them, and out of greediness they sell their own food only for money. And then they spend for drinking and cinema and... Horrible civilization. Those packets, bring here.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Very good temple. And actually the farm is worth five or six lakhs' rupees. All surroundings all good. And another good thing I found was in Hyderabad the neighboring villagers were against us when we went there, but here they're all favorable. They all say "Hare Kṛṣṇa." When you walk, they greet you enthusiastically.
Prabhupāda: Gujarati people are Vaiṣṇava by nature.
| Page Title: | Villager (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, ChandrasekharaAcarya, Rishab |
| Created: | 30 of Sep, 2009 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=28, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 28 |