Prabhupāda: Yes, you have to perform yajña. And that yajña, at the present moment, is very easy, to . . . Saṅkīrtanaiḥ yajñaiḥ (SB 11.5.32). It is recommended that we have to recognize the authority of the Lord, and in this age, simply by performing saṅkīrtana-yajña, He will be satisfied. Saṅkīrtana-yajña means to glorify the Lord in so many ways. We glorify the Lord His form, His activities, His name, His quality. So it is not difficult job. We can sit together, family-wise, community-wise, or in office, in factory. We can sit down together and glorify the Lord. Is it very difficult job?
Justin Murphy: You make it sound very, very simple, of course.
Prabhupāda: Yes, then why don't you accept it?
Justin Murphy: Well I, for one, might. But . . .
Prabhupāda: No, no, I am not talking about you.
Justin Murphy: No, no, sure, certainly. But imagine the man, as we have to consider, the men, the thousands of them on their tractors, at their bulldozers, hacking down natural forest . . .
Prabhupāda: Thousand . . .?
Amogha: He says we have to consider the men who are working the machines to take down the forest for agriculture . . . Is that what you mean?
Justin Murphy: The point I'm making is that there are so many people in Australia who would have no time. They are too busy making money. They are too busy doing what . . .
Prabhupāda: But what you will do with money? If there is no grain, then will you eat money? (laughter)
Justin Murphy: Certainly not.
Prabhupāda: That is foolishness. That is foolishness. Money is not required. Required—food grains.
Justin Murphy: But unfortunately, of course, increasingly now, in our society, there is an increasing ability to produce food almost artificially. And this happens more and more . . .
Prabhupāda: Then where is the scarcity? Why you are complaining, "There is scarcity of water." Why? You are complaining "scarcity." If there is enough food, then why you are complaining about scarcity?
Justin Murphy: Well, I complain because I am a geographer, because I am working with an eye to the future, with an eye to a long-term situation where I can see that . . .
Prabhupāda: But I . . . your problem and my problem is not different. You are thinking . . . I am not thinking; it may be. But you require food grain, I require food grain, the animals require food grain, and everyone requires food grain. So if there is sufficient food grain, then everyone will be happy.
Justin Murphy: Yes, now perhaps. How about in fifty years' time, though?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Justin Murphy: How about in fifty or a hundred years' time?
Prabhupāda: But you were complaining about scarcity of water.
Justin Murphy: Yes, sure.
Prabhupāda: You do not?
Justin Murphy: But also . . . sorry, I don't mean—and perhaps I didn't explain myself well enough—I do not mean to address myself only to a problem which is here with us right now. Perth, for example, right now this city does not have a scarcity. There's plenty of water around. Seventy percent in fact of the water which is delivered to domestic homes every summer is put on gardens to make them green. It's not used for growing vegetables. It's not used for human consumption or human existence, for supporting human life. It's used for making lawns, such as outside this house—making lawns and trees green so that houses will be attractive and the property values will go up. Once again it's the money ethic. It's the money situation. It's what our society exists on. It's what makes it all go around. But what I am worried about is the situation in a hundred years' time. There isn't a scarcity now, although the water is getting . . . is becoming less and less acceptable, where, by taking down the forests, we're letting more water seep into the soil, it's unlocking the salt that's been in the soil for thousands of years, and so on. That's our problem. It's long term and it's complex. I'm worried about generations to come, not now.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. If there is rainfall sufficiently, that water is distilled water, pure water. So if pure water is distributed all over the country . . .
Justin Murphy: It's pure when it hits the ground, but it isn't, unfortunately, when it comes out into the streams.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Amogha: He says it's pure when the rain comes down, but when it hits the ground it becomes impure and then the salt gets in it.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. It is not . . . rainwater is pure water.
Justin Murphy: Sure.
Prabhupāda: So when it touches the ground, it may become impure. It doesn't matter. But the water is pure. Water is coming. You cannot take water from the sea and moisten the ground with. That is not possible. But if pure water comes down from the rain, it is utilized.
Justin Murphy: But a lot of the water that is in our dams and the water that we use for irrigation south of here, which is the basis for the dairy produce of Perth, is becoming slowly, because of its contact with the ground and its travel through the soil and its seepage out into streams and into underground areas, that water is slowly becoming, in many respects, almost as salty as the sea.
Prabhupāda: But first of all, you want water. If the water is reserved on the top of the hill, then it gradually comes down. That is nature's, God's, arrangement: let river fall down, and you can use that water. That is the nature's arrangement. Just like you keep your water on the tank, and by pipe you get down. But there is nature's arrangement. The water is stocked on the top of the hill, and throughout the whole year the pipe is the river. That water must be there. That is the first problem. Therefore here it is said, parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ (BG 3.14). You must have sufficient water. Water is already there. But it has to be purified, kept on the top of the hill, water tank, and it will come down in rivers. Then you take and utilize. And when the water falls down and there is sufficient water, the ground becomes cleansed, so it is no more polluted.