Garden Conversation
with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
October 9, 1976, Aligarh

Prabhupada: Every father loves his son. Therefore this is contradictory. He is blind, but he has called… (microphone rattling)

Indian: He has no locana.

Prabhupada: And he has called Padma-locana. Similarly, this harijana movement is a farce because they remain the Camara and Bhangis, and still they are called harijana. The same thing. No locana, but padma-locana. Everyone has got right. You can become the most advanced devotee. There is no hindrance. But they must be trained up as harijana. Not that artificially you simply rubberstamp harijana. Therefore that movement is failure. We have no objection to make anyone… Krsna says mam hi partha vyapasritya ye ’pi syuh papa-yonayah. Papa-yoni, lower class. Janma-aisvarya-sruta-sri, these four things, to take birth in high class family, janma, aisvarya, to become very rich, and sruta, to become very learned scholar, and sri, beautiful, these four things are there whose background is pious life. Otherwise, not possible. Janmaisvarya-sruta-sri. So those who are just the opposite—means not born in very high class family, not… They say “accident.” No, it is not accident. According to sastra, karmana daiva-netrena, there is superior examination. Yamaraja is there. Now, this man is now dead, this soul is now changing body. What kind of body he’ll get next? That is judged by the superior authority. Just like in the office a person is promoted. So his record is examined, how he has worked honestly to the interest of the establishment. All this consideration. Then he’s given increment of salary or promotion to higher post. This is common sense. So it is not accident. A man is born from the very beginning, a rich man’s son. That does not mean that it is accident. Daiva-netrena. By a superior arrangement he is given the chance to take birth in a aristocratic family or rich family or educated family or in a beautiful family. There is… But this is, so far it is concerned, it is body, and our movement, the Krsna consciousness movement, is not of the body. Body is superfluous. It is spiritual movement. Krsna therefore begins, asmin dehe, dehi. This body is external. Just like dress. We are having this dress. I am not this dress. I am within the dress. Similarly, the spirit soul is within this body, and spiritual movement means about that spirit soul. Not of this body. So that spirit soul is completely different from this body and… Just like a gentleman is gentleman. One may have a different type of dress. Not that everyone is expected of the same dress. But within the dress, a gentleman is gentleman. Similarly, although there are so many varieties of bodies, within the body the soul is pure part and parcel of Krsna. So the spiritual movement means to take up the spirit soul within the body and to elevate him from the conditioned life. That is spiritual movement. He has been put into condition. So that action can be taken without any hindrances. Without any impediment. Ahaituky apratihata. That verse I was speaking yesterday, that without any cause, without any impediments, the soul can be raised by the process. Krsna says mam hi partha vyapasritya ye ’pi syuh papa-yonayah. Never mind one is born in low class family, poor, ugly, uneducated family. It doesn’t matter. But he can be raised. What is the process? Mam hi partha vyapasritya. “One has to take shelter of Me.” That is Krsna conscious movement. We are giving equal chance everyone. It doesn’t matter what he is. Krsna says, mam hi partha vyapasritya ye ’pi syuh papa-yonayah. Papa-yoni means low class, poor, uneducated, ugly, no education. That is papa-yoni. So they can be raised. Krsna says. How? Mam hi partha vyapasritya. If he is engaged in Krsna consciousness. Therefore it is the topmost welfare activities in the human society. Anyone can be raised. There are different grades of life all over the world. Some are black, some are white, some are ugly, some are poor. Varieties. Some are trees, some are plants, some are aquatics, some are birds, beasts, insects. Different varieties of life, 8,400,000. Some of them demigods, Brahma, Indra, Candra. Very, very powerful. Just like this sun, that is also a planet, and the chief person is the sun-god Vivasvan. We get all this information. There is. These rascals, they do not know what are these planets, what are the arrangement. They are exactly like this planet. Just like here also, we have got president. It is expected, one president or one king in one planet. That was formerly. On this planet there was one king. The Pandavas, up to Maharaja Pariksit. Five thousand years ago. One king of the whole world. One kingdom, one ruling, one culture, Vedic culture. Gradually we’re losing… The culture is lost and anyone is doing as he likes. No king, no ruling. Therefore chaotic condition. Otherwise, according to God’s plan, every planet there is one chief person ruling. So in the sun there is a person. His name is given in the Bhagavad-gita. Imam vivasvate yogam proktavan. His name is Vivasvan. And his son is Vaivasvata Manu. Vivasvan manave praha. These things are there. And his son, Iksvaku. And from Iksvaku, the ksatriya-vamsa… In India still, the ksatriyas are known, two dynasties, one from sun, one from the moon. Candra-vamsa, Surya-vamsa. Still, they are. So the ksatriyas are coming. One dynasty is coming from the sun, another… So moon is not desert. These are simply rascals. They do not know anything, and rascals believe that the moon is desert, and the sun is desert. Only this planet is full of variety and beauty. No. We have to take lessons from the sastras. So anyone can be raised to the highest platform. Candalo ’pi dvija-srestho hari-bhakti-parayana.(?) Even one is born as candala… Candala means less than the sudras. The dog-eaters. Candalas. Sva-paca. They are called sva-paca. Sva means dog and paca means cooker. One who cooks the… There are still so many. In Korea, in China, in Hong Kong. They eat dogs.

Indian man: They consider it a delicacy. I had a German priest staying with me last year and he was telling me that he had wonderful soup. And when he found out what was the soup, he said, “Well, didn’t you see the puppy that was going about this morning? It is soup of the same puppy.”

Prabhupada: In Hong Kong. Yes. In Hong Kong you won’t find street dogs. They’ll eat them. So in India also there are dog-eaters. In Assam you’ll find. They make kukura-pitha. Kukura-pitha means that first of all the dog is given to eat some rice preparation with gur [Indian brown sugar] And pushing, pushing. When he dies, then it is roasted. Then that is very good food. (laughter) Kukura-pitha. The Assamese, they eat. There are different nations. Sva-paca, this word is there in the Bhagavad-gita. Vidya-vinaya-sampanne brahmane gavi hastini suni caiva sva-pake ca [Bg. 5.18]. This sva-pake means this candala. One who eats a dog. Sva-pake ca panditah sama-darsinah. So everyone can be raised to the platform of Krsna consciousness. There is no difficulty. That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement. So from early in the morning He is teaching. Udilo aruna puraba-bhage dwija-mani gora amani jage. He was not lazy. He was very busy. From early in the morning. So if we at least pretend to follow Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we cannot sleep. We must rise early in the morning. If you want to follow Caitanya Mahaprabhu, there is no question of sleeping in the morning. One must get up at least one and a half hours before the sunrise. That is mangala-arati. Mangala-arati means to get up early in the morning, take your bath, and be prepared for the mangala-arati. Then begin your chanting, prayer. This is activity. It is not… Krsna consciousness is not a lazy life. It is not lazy life. All Krsna conscious, Rama conscious, they are very busy. To speak, even the Hanuman, Jambavan, Angada, they are monkeys, still how they were busy, from the history we find, to serve Krsna, Ramacandra. Hare Krsna. I was questioned by some gentleman sometimes in 1940. He charged that the Vaisnava, “This Vaisnava means a lazy fellow.” He said like that. (laughs) So I said, “You have never seen a Vaisnava.” I told him, “You have never seen a Vaisnava.” “No, I have seen these Vaisnavas. They do not do anything and taking mala and pretending to be very highly elevated and sleep and snore.” That’s… You have seen… “But you have not seen. You might have seen these pseudo-Vaisnavas, but real Vaisnava you have not seen.” “What is that real Vaisnava?” And I said that in India there were two big wars. One war was the Rama-Ravana, and another war Kuruksetra. So in these two wars, the hero is Vaisnava. One is Hanuman and another is Arjuna. Have you seen them? Have you heard about them? Are they lazy fellows? Hanuman is Vaisnava. He could raise one mountain and jump over the sea and set fire in the very beautiful state of Ravana. This is Vaisnava. This is Vaisnava. And Arjuna, he was in the beginning hesitating that “My cousin- brothers, the other side…” (end)