Out of these five basic subject matters in Bhagavad-gītā it is established that the Supreme Godhead, or Kṛṣṇa, or Brahman, or the supreme controller, or Paramātmā—you may use whatever name you like—is the greatest of all. The living beings are in quality like the supreme controller. For instance, the Lord has control over the universal affairs of material nature, as will be explained in the later chapters of Bhagavad-gītā. Material nature is not independent. She is acting under the directions of the Supreme Lord. As Lord Kṛṣṇa says, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: "This material nature is working under My direction." When we see wonderful things happening in the cosmic nature, we should know that behind this cosmic manifestation there is a controller. Nothing could be manifested without being controlled. It is childish not to consider the controller. For instance, a child may think that an automobile is quite wonderful to be able to run without a horse or other animal pulling it, but a sane man knows the nature of the automobile's engineering arrangement. He always knows that behind the machinery there is a man, a driver. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is the driver under whose direction everything is working. Now the jīvas, or the living entities, have been accepted by the Lord, as we will note in the later chapters, as His parts and parcels. A particle of gold is also gold, a drop of water from the ocean is also salty, and similarly we the living entities, being part and parcel of the supreme controller, īśvara, or Bhagavān, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, have all the qualities of the Supreme Lord in minute quantity because we are minute īśvaras, subordinate īśvaras. We are trying to control nature, as presently we are trying to control space or planets, and this tendency to control is there because it is in Kṛṣṇa. But although we have a tendency to lord it over material nature, we should know that we are not the supreme controller. This is explained in Bhagavad-gītā.
Automobile
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Preface and Introduction
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 4
When one gets tired of keeping a burden on his head, he will place it on his shoulder. This does not mean that he has become freed from the strains of carrying the burden. Similarly, human society in the name of civilization is creating one kind of trouble to avoid another kind of trouble. 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.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa': (CC Madhya 20.108) "Every living entity is by constitutional position an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa." As soon as one engages in the service of Lord Vāsudeva, he attains his normal constitutional position. This position is called the liberated stage. Muktir hitvānyathā-rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ: (SB 2.10.6) in the liberated stage, one is situated in his original Kṛṣṇa conscious position. He gives up all engagements in the service of matter, engagements concocted under the names of social service, national service, community service, dog service, automobile service and so many other services conducted under the illusion of "I" and mine.
SB Canto 5
People have been educated to worship matter. According to the direction of modern society, men think they can advance in civilization by manipulating matter to build skyscrapers, big roads, automobiles and so on. Such a civilization must certainly be called materialistic because its people do not know the goal of life. The goal of life is to reach Viṣṇu, but instead of reaching Viṣṇu, people are bewildered by the external manifestation of the material energy. Therefore progress in material advancement is blind, and the leaders of such material advancement are also blind. They are leading their followers in the wrong way.
People rush about in cars going seventy and eighty miles an hour, constantly coming and going, and this sets the scene of the great struggle for existence. One has to rise early in the morning and travel in that car at breakneck speed. There is always the danger of an accident, and one has to take great care. In his automobile, the living entity is full of anxieties, and his struggle is not at all auspicious. Apart from human beings, other species like cats and dogs are also struggling very hard day and night for existence. Thus the struggle for existence continues, and the conditioned soul changes from one position to another. For a while, he is a child, but he has to become a boy. From a boy, he has to change into a youth, and from youth to manhood and old age. Finally, when the body is no longer workable, he has to accept a new body in a different species.
The prosperity of humanity does not depend on a demoniac civilization that has no culture and no knowledge but has only gigantic skyscrapers and huge automobiles always rushing down the highways. The products of nature are sufficient. When there is a profuse supply of milk, yogurt, honey, food grains, ghee, molasses, dhotis, saris, bedding, sitting places and ornaments, the residents are actually opulent. When a profuse supply of water from the river inundates the land, all these things can be produced, and there will not be scarcity. This all depends, however, on the performance of sacrifice as described in the Vedic literature.
Abundant honey can be obtained if the forests are protected. Unfortunately, in modern civilization, men are busy killing the cows that are the source of yogurt, milk and ghee, they are cutting down all the trees that supply honey, and they are opening factories to manufacture nuts, bolts, automobiles and wine instead of engaging in agriculture. How can the people be happy? They must suffer from all the misery of materialism. Their bodies become wrinkled and gradually deteriorate until they become almost like dwarves, and a bad odor emanates from their bodies because of unclean perspiration resulting from eating all kinds of nasty things. This is not human civilization. If people actually want happiness in this life and want to prepare for the best in the next life, they must adopt a Vedic civilization. In a Vedic civilization, there is a full supply of all the necessities mentioned above.
SB Canto 6
"The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy." Yantra means a machine, such as an automobile. The driver of the machine of the body is the individual soul, who is also its director or proprietor, but the supreme proprietor is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One's body is created through the agency of māyā (karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1)), and according to one's activities in this life, another vehicle is created, again under the supervision of daivī māyā (daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14)). At the appropriate time, one's next body is immediately chosen, and both the individual soul and the Supersoul transfer to that particular bodily machine.
In the Fifth Canto (5.5.4), while instructing his sons, Ṛṣabhadeva said, asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ: the body, although temporary, is the cause of all the miseries of material existence. As already discussed in the previous verse, the entire material creation is based on mental concoction. The mind sometimes induces us to think that if we purchase an automobile we can enjoy the physical elements, such as earth, water, air and fire, combined in forms of iron, plastic, petrol and so on. Working with the five material elements (pañca-bhūtas), as well as with our five knowledge-gathering senses like the eyes, ears and tongue and our five active senses like the hands and legs, we become involved in the material condition. Thus we are subjected to the tribulations known as adhyātmika, adhidaivika and adhibhautika. The mind is the center because the mind creates all these things.
Before the airplane was created, its ingredients already existed, having been caused by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but when the manifested creation of the airplane is ruined, the remaining debris is a problem for the so-called creators. Another example is that the West is creating many automobiles. The ingredients for these cars are supplied, of course, by the Supreme Lord, and the intelligence for the so-called creation is also supplied by the Lord. Ultimately, when the cars are demolished, the so-called creators are faced with the problem of what to do with their ingredients. The actual creator, the original creator, is the Personality of Godhead. Only in the interim does someone create something with intelligence supplied by the Lord, and later the creation again becomes a problem.
SB Canto 7
People do not know, however, that at any time they themselves may be kicked out of the scene and forced to accept bodies that have nothing to do with these enormous houses, palaces, roads and automobiles. Therefore when Arjuna was thinking in terms of his bodily relationships with his kinsmen, Kṛṣṇa immediately chastised him, saying, kutas tvā kaśmalam idaṁ viṣame samupasthitam anārya juṣṭam: "This bodily conception of life is befitting the anāryas, the non-Āryans, who are not advanced in knowledge." An Āryan civilization is a civilization advanced in spiritual knowledge. Not merely by stamping oneself an Āryan does one become an Āryan. To keep oneself in the deepest darkness concerning spiritual knowledge and at the same time claim to be an Āryan is a non-Āryan position.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Preface and Introduction
One may then justifiably ask, "How can I serve?" It is not simply a matter of meditation, which is just an activity of the mind, but of performing practical work for Kṛṣṇa. In such work, we should leave no resource unused. Whatever is there, whatever we have, should be used for Kṛṣṇa. We can use everything—typewriters, automobiles, airplanes, missiles. If we simply speak to people about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we are also rendering service. If our mind, senses, speech, money and energies are thus engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, then we are no longer in material nature. By virtue of spiritual consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we transcend the platform of material nature. It is a fact that Kṛṣṇa, His expansions and His devotees—that is, those who work for Him—are not in material nature, although people with a poor fund of knowledge think that they are.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Teachings of Lord Caitanya
One may then justifiably ask, "How can I serve?" It is not simply a matter of meditation, which is just an activity of the mind, but of performing practical work for Kṛṣṇa. In such work, we should leave no resource unused. Whatever is there, whatever we have, should be used for Kṛṣṇa. We can use everything—typewriters, automobiles, airplanes, missiles. If we simply speak to people about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we are also rendering service. If our mind, senses, speech, money and energies are thus engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, then we are no longer in material nature. By virtue of spiritual consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we transcend the platform of material nature. It is a fact that Kṛṣṇa, His expansions and His devotees—that is, those who work for Him—are not in material nature, although people with a poor fund of knowledge think that they are.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Sudāmā: The question also is there: the authority is the spiritual master, but the via media to the spiritual master... The difference between, like we were discussing in the automobile of śikṣā and dīkṣā-guru.
Prabhupāda: Then so śikṣā and dīkṣā-guru... A śikṣā-guru who instructs against the instruction of spiritual, he is not a śikṣā guru. He is a demon. Śikṣā-guru, dīkṣā-guru means... Sometimes a dīkṣā-guru is not present always. Therefore one can take learning, instruction, from an advanced devotee. That is called the śikṣā-guru. Śikṣā-guru does not mean he is speaking something against the teachings of the dīkṣā-guru. He is not a śikṣā-guru. He is a rascal.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Revatīnandana: The priests are all driving Lincoln-Continentals. All the priests drive very expensive automobiles. They're all dressed very nicely and they have very big cars, Catholic priests. They get so much money for forgiving sins.
Prabhupāda: They get money?
Revatīnandana: Yes, in Europe they used to sell indulgences. For a certain amount of money you get a certain indulgence.
Prabhupāda: Here also. The priests allow. The guru allow. The professional guru... His disciple will come: "Sir, doctor has advised me to take fish. Without taking fish my eyesight will be lost. He has advised. So what to do? You have asked me not to take fish. You said." "Oh, all right, I give you permission." He gives his permission. This is going on.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When I was in America, I got one report. One person was telling me they had read of this person. It shows the limit..., how unlimited one can eat anything. This one man, he has, he has been for twenty years eating an automobile. He takes the different parts of the automobile, grinding it down, and daily eats different parts of it.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā? Just see. Madman. There is iron, metal. He was eating?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's eating by grinding it very finely into powder. He's.... His program is to consume one entire automobile-tires, windshield, everything.
Dharmādhyakṣa: Just so he'll become famous.
Prabhupāda: And how he'll live?
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
Those who are under the material energy, they are pulled by the ear of the person by the material energy. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Yantrārūḍhāni. This body is a yantra, is an automobile, mechanical car. Just like I, we are placed on the motorcar and the driver moves us in different places, similarly, according to our karma, we are given a certain type of body, cat's body, dog's body, human body, this body, that body—8,400,000 species. So we are moving. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). So actually, we are under the control of the material nature. But ahaṅkāra-vimūḍha ātmā. Those who are fools and rascals, they are thinking "I am independent, I am God, I don't care for God," this or that... So many. So this is called mati-cchanna, madness. The Vaiṣṇava Kavi says therefore,
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Prabhupāda: Freight(?) motorcar.
Brahmānanda: It is a graveyard, automobile graveyard.
Ravindra-svarūpa: This is the end of their knowledge. A pile of junk.
Kīrtanānanda: Building and breaking.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...spent up in breaking and building. That's all.
Ravindra-svarūpa: That means that there's passion and there's ignorance, but there's no goodness.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They do not enquire why breaking and building? Why not permanent? That question does not arise, and they cannot solve it. They think this breaking and building is the nature. But we are giving information of another nature, which there is no breaking, no building-permanent.
General Lectures
If you've been following the scientifical pronouncements of doom possibility coming over television, radio, and slick magazines, as well as from the underground press, you will notice that there's increasing attention to the fact that our own fecal material, the waste products of our robots, have now so polluted Lake Erie that it's a great lake of green goo slime, biologically dead; that our atmosphere, the planetary atmosphere, is increasingly polluted with carbon wastes; and that we are so sunk in our attachment to automobile exhaust fumes, to sulphur wastes from great steel factories producing metals that can be sent flying to explode on the other side of the planet with the collaboration of the science faculties in such universities as this, (applause) so that we find ourselves increasingly sunk into what is called a materialistic habit, like a junky stuck on his junk.
The animal is running after the mirage, but there's no water there. Similarly the foolish human beings, as Prabhupāda aptly mentioned the other day to these professors who came to visit him, the dog is running with four legs, here and there, very, very busy, and the human being also he's running, but he's running in an automobile with four wheels. But he's thinking that his running is superior to the dog's running. Why? He's very busy running here and there for the same activities, and the dog is running with four legs. The activities are the same. So without culture the running in the car and the running of the dog is the same. So this Kṛṣṇa culture is now being spread all throughout the world. It's giving people to see how actually human life should be lived. And the temple is a place where practically we can set an ideal example of human life for the whole of human society. Therefore we're greatly indebted to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: So would even accidents between two automobiles, that would not really be an accident?
Prabhupāda: Because it is imperfect, therefore there is an accident.
Śyāmasundara: Oh! It is an accident?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: That is not determined by any...
Prabhupāda: No.
Bhavānanda: That's not determined even by karma?
Prabhupāda: What?
Śyāmasundara: One of Sartre's counterparts, one of his colleagues, Albert Camus, he also wrote about this philosophy, and himself he typifies this type of person. He simply died in an automobile accident by driving 130 or -40 miles an hour on a small road.
Prabhupāda: That is insects' philosophy, that's all. This is "I have my decision to run hundred miles an hour, not caring for others." So this is exactly like the insects.
Śyāmasundara: And they say I'm responsible for my actions, but it's a very irresponsible position because it doesn't take into consideration other people, or supposing he would have killed other people too.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Haṁsadūta: If someone gives us an automobile would we use it?
Revatīnandana: Things like that.
Prabhupāda: Yes, why not?
Revatīnandana: Just like this tape recorder.
Prabhupāda: Because originally, everything is possession of God.
Sister Mary: If you had a big house, a rich house. You would use that?
Prabhupāda: Yes. We shall turn into temple.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Repairing, four, five dollars, six dollars, and it is the same. And it is going on for the last one year.
Jayatīrtha: Like automobiles, automobiles are built to break down in four or five years at the most so that you'll have to go and buy a new one. That's the way they build them. They could make them stronger, stronger parts, stronger engines, but they don't, so that in four or five years they'll break down and you'll have to come back and buy a new one.
Prabhupāda: (Sanskrit) Even in ordinary dealings, people will cheat you. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. (Sanskrit) Everyone is cheating. Even in ordinary talking, they will tell so many lies. (break) They live nicely in fresh air, in open air, trees, and talking about their business and they are happy. They have no problems for eating, sleeping, mating, nothing.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Haṁsadūta: Pollution. Or reaction. You're getting... Just like you make an automobile; you get the reaction-air pollution. So if you kill animals, you will be killed.
Popworth: You think like this?
Haṁsadūta: And intoxication itself means that you are polluted. Toxic means poison. Poison means pollution. So if you indulge in intoxication, everything you do, say and think will be polluted. If you kill animals, the result is you're polluting nature's... There are laws of nature. Animal is part of nature. You're part of nature. So if you disturb nature, that means you're polluting the nature. And you are living in that nature. So you are suffering the reaction.
Schumacher: The Buddhists have got a good, a good formula on this, and...
Haṁsadūta: It's common sense. That's all.
Prabhupāda: It is not the question of Buddhist, Christian or Hindu. It is common sense philosophy.
Śyāmasundara: The ones that have automobiles and...
Guest: They're the Ditticoys.
Harry: Right. They're our Ditticoys. But if you get any trouble with them, let me know.
Śyāmasundara: Yeah. Well, two came around here once when we first moved in saying that Mrs. Ruffles had promised them that they could paint the place. And we thought it was a little suspicious the way they were talking. And we watched them. They were looking mostly at the lead, I think, in the glass. Finally, we told them to get off and not come back. But, a little suspicious of...
Harry: Umm. Yeah. This, if you do get them, let me know. 'Cause I'll soon warn them off.
Śyāmasundara: (laughs) Yeah.
Prabhupāda: Just like you have come here, a little tendency for hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Your life is succ..., on the path of success. And there are other, millions, they're not interested. So, for them, the śāstra says, "They're simply working like cats and dogs." Just like dogs sometimes goes very fast this way, that way, that way, they're passing with motor car, this way, (makes barking sound) "Onh, onh, onh, onh, onh, onh." They're simply spoiling time. In America, I have seen, always, (makes automobile noise:) "sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh." Here also. But we see these rascals spoiling time. But that will not appeal to the rascals. They'll say, "They are spoiling time. What these rascals are dancing Hare Kṛṣṇa on the Fifth Avenue?" They think, "Oh, they are crazy fellows." Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee: I was in an automobile accident.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Haṁsadūta: But he's all right.
Prabhupāda: Others also?
Haṁsadūta: No. It's just a cut.
Prabhupāda: So our real business is how to become free from all these designations. Yes. Then we come to the real consciousness. That real consciousness is that "I am eternal. God is eternal. I am part and parcel of God. My duty is to serve God. And now I am serving also. I am not free from service, but I am serving under designation." Just like you went to fight, because you designated yourself that "I am German." This is an example, that "I must fight, give service to my country." Somebody is thinking, "Give service to my community" or "to my family." Or if there is nobody else, at least "to my dog." So this is going on. So we have to close all these designations and become pure and serve God. And that is self-realization.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: (Chuckles) These are comfortable?
Madhudviṣa: Automobiles. Aeroplanes.
Pañcadraviḍa: Well, they enable comfort. A person can lie down in his comfortable bed in his nice apartment and listen to music out of the wall.
Prabhupāda: But what about his death, how he uncomfortably dying?
Pañcadraviḍa: Well, we can't change that.
Prabhupāda: Then what you can change?
Viṣṇujana: But they can give you drugs to make death so that you don't feel it.
Madhudviṣa: Yeah, you can die in your sleep.
Prabhupāda: That is, means another death. You check death by death. That's all. These are all rascals. You are not yet convinced that these, they are rascals. That is your defect.
Madhudviṣa: Yes, but there is some traditional respect. (break) When you were speaking with the priest yesterday, he was saying the chanting is material because it comes out of the mouth and it's made like a material sound vibration. Would it be possible for them to run scientific tests on the chanting, the sound of Hare Kṛṣṇa, to make a distinction between that sound and let's say the sound of an automobile's horn? Would that be perceptible?
Prabhupāda: No, the same sound. Sound is the same; when you are impure, this is material. Just like the tongue is the same, but when you are suffering from jaundice, you are tasting sugar as bitter, and when you will be cured, then the same tongue will taste it is sweet. So it depends on the purification of the body. Whole this bhakti-yoga or any yoga, the whole system is purification. Tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). Our existence is now impure. Therefore we have to accept birth, death, old age, and disease. And when it is purified, without any contamination, then there is no birth, death, old age. In diseased condition you cannot relish.
Devotee: So Śrīla Prabhupāda, if the sound is the same, does that mean that when you become fully purified you will also see the sound of an automobile horn as transcendental?
Prabhupāda: Yes, this is transcendental, this microphone, because it is being used for Kṛṣṇa's purpose. The same flower, when you use it for sense gratification, it is material. The same flower when you offer to Kṛṣṇa, it is spiritual. The flower is not different, but by the different use it becomes material and spiritual. I think I have said many times that there is actually no material existence. Therefore it is called māyā. Māyā means it has no actual existence. We create an atmosphere. That is māyā. Atmosphere of forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa, that is māyā. Anartha. Anartha, unnecessary. Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam (SB 1.7.6). If this park is given to us, we can immediately make it Vaikuṇṭha. We know how to do it. But it is not given to us. The same electric energy is creating heater and cooler. For the cooler there is no different electric energy. And for the heater there is no different—the same electric. Similarly, the material and spiritual is coming from Kṛṣṇa's energy.
Prabhupāda: No, big eagle, thunderbird. You have seen in this car?
Brahmānanda: Automobile is called.
Prabhupāda: But actually is there any bird called thunderbird?
Jagadīśa: It's a legendary bird from Indian legend. American Indian.
Prabhupāda: Indian legend?
Brahmānanda: Of the American Indians, the red Indians. Sometimes their chiefs are called Chief Thunderbird. It's a popular name for their chiefs.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh. We have got an idea of thunderbird. The bird flies in the, near the cloud in expectation of water, and they are not afraid of thunder. That is called cataka. That example is given by Rūpa Gosvāmī. The cataka does not take water from ground. They will take water when it falls from the cloud. So in the beginning of every cloud there is thunder. So this bird, because they expecting water from the cloud, the cloud is giving him thunder, but still he does not, will not take water from ground.
Bahulāśva: So this Satchitananda, before he became yogi, he was an engineer. So in his spare time—I was asking this boy, "What does he do? What is his life like?" I was wondering what he lived like. So he goes to bed at 8:00 at night, and no one sees him until 8:00 in the morning. So I asked, "Was he asleep?" So he said no, that he's in some trance. And then during the day he works on cars. He collects old automobiles, old classical cars, and he takes them apart and puts them together for a hobby.
Prabhupāda: He cannot give up his old habit.
Bahulāśva: No. He cannot give up the engineering habit.
Baradrāj: About this Yogi Bhajan also, when I was in Delhi ...
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee (1): They say that material objects are just like automobiles, dead, but they can't move without the influence of the spirit soul. So the human being or the trees and the jīvas were seeing that the body is moving, so many things are taking place. The point is that in the universe, wind is blowing, the ocean is moving...
Prabhupāda: It is (inaudible). You are in small soul, and there is big soul, Supersoul. Similarly, as the soul is (inaudible). There must be soul. Similarly, this material combination (inaudible). Without Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, there is no actual (inaudible).
Prabhupāda: Petrol smelling everywhere.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's from these automobiles, the exhaust. They say that in some cities like New York, just living in the city itself, it is like smoking two packs of cigarettes every day because of so much pollution in the air, so contaminated. (break)...in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the cure for madness is open space and fresh air. That's Ayurvedic method. So in the cities there's all kinds of confined spaces, the air is not all clean. There's so much madness. (break)
Prabhupāda: (in car) Scientists are changing their theories, how we can accept? Reasonably? You are changing your theories, how we can accept you are scientist? You are not sure of your position. Philosophers also, they say "I believe." What is the meaning of this philosophy?
Makhanlāl: ...Prabhupāda, you mentioned that soon there will not be so much use for automobiles. What will be our means of spreading the saṅkīrtana movement?
Prabhupāda: We shall walk. You'll have good exercise. (laughter)
Makhanlāl: By oxcart also?
Prabhupāda: If possible; if not, walk. What is that?
Hari-śauri: Maybe we can develop some mystic opulence and walk on the water.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So how long can this civilization go on, simply producing automobiles, like this? So the situation is that the people are always in a state of poverty. Just like the black people here in Detroit. Even they are making sufficient money, still they are always in a state of poverty because they don't know how to live. Prabhupāda related one story that the capitalist and the worker, both of them, they went to the goddess of fortune appealing for a benediction. So the capitalist asked, "Give me such money that I will be able to work one day and it will last me for six months." And then the worker, he went and he said, "Give me one thousand dollars I have every day to spend."
Prabhupāda: No, he said that "Give me the same money as the capitalist will spend in six months. I shall spend every day. I shall get that money every day and I shall spend it." So this worker class, there is no culture. You may pay them heavy amount of money, but they will spend it and remain a poor man. Because he has no culture.
Bill Sauer: Well, I believe there is a matrix of creation, a spiritual... Technical people call it an electromagnetic world, where I'm sure a lot goes on that we are unaware of, but I believe the... It's like one product of the fourth kingdom is the automobile. And that has it's spiritual world. Automobiles, if you destroyed all the automobiles, there are still blueprints around, there are still things that can manufacture other automobiles. But the trial, the improvement, the development the automobile has to take place as an automobile... Likewise, I think the spiritual improvement, the improvement of...
Prabhupāda: Automobile, automatically the automobile does not develop. When a man, a person, develops the design, that is a question of development. But the automobile as it is, it does not develop. It is matter. When matter is handled by a spirit soul, then there is change. Otherwise there is no change.
Rāmeśvara: They say if everyone joined this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, then no one would have any desire to invent the automobile, the airplane...
Prabhupāda: But it is useless waste of time. The sooner they give up all these attempts, they become saner. (break)... it is said it is simply waste of time. Yato āyur vyayaḥ param. Simply wasting time, valuable life.
Rāmeśvara: But the natural instinct is to want to enjoy varieties...
Prabhupāda: That is material life. The material life means falsely he's thinking that he'll be happy by material adjustment. That is material life. Falsely he's thinking. He'll never be happy, but they are thinking like that. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā (SB 7.5.31). Durāśayā means this hope will never be fulfilled. That is called durāśayā, a hope which is not going to be successful at any time. And throughout the whole history they have tried, the British Empire, the Roman Empire, the Egyptian Empire, so many they tried, but all failed.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Rāmeśvara: Yes. But what about certain technological advancements like airplanes and automobiles?
Prabhupāda: There are subtler aeroplanes. Aeroplane is mentioned in the śāstras. Now they are working on machine, but there are aeroplanes which can work on mantra.
Rāmeśvara: But that science is lost.
Prabhupāda: Not lost. It is there.
Hari-śauri: It's hidden.
Rāmeśvara: We can't practice that.
Prabhupāda: No, we can practice what is called ākāśa paṭala. This book is there in Germany. It was purchased by the Germans.
Prabhupāda: Again going to the pigeonhole. And whole night sex, and then morning go. This is their home. And for this purpose, big, big arrangement of railway lines, this, that. Automobiles and buses and whoosh, whoosh. Unnecessary things. It is a life of great struggle.
Hari-śauri: A death sentence with hard labor.
Prabhupāda: Try to understand the philosophy more and more. Read Bhagavad-gītā and Bhāgavata. And to your best capacity try to learn. Then you will get power more and more.
Hari-śauri: Even if we have no facility, if we are sincere, everything comes.
Prabhupāda: Facility will be given. He has everything. Our father is not impotent. He is potent. The overpopulation theory, it is wrong. If the father has given birth to so many children, He knows how to provide them.
Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
So if you are pressed now for time, the ponds may be constructed in the spring.
I have noted from your letter that you have available a Lincoln automobile which you are able to donate to us in Los Angeles. At the present we are requiring just such a car so I think you may make arrangements to have it brought here. This is all Krishna's Grace so as you are able please make arrangements for this. So far as your utilizing machinery at New Vrindaban, if such machinery is helpful than you may take advantage of them. We are not enemies of machines. If they can be used for Krishna's service then we welcome them.
1971 Correspondence
Regarding the automobile factory, that is very important news. In each and every factory if you can open a center with cooperation of the workers and the proprietor then certainly we shall make circumstances favorable for them that there will be no strike or dissension. So if you can introduce this program in factories, it will be a great achievement for our movement.
Regarding BTG, I have given a loan of $20,000 by check to Dai Nippon. I have given the information to Karandhara how to liquidate the Dai Nippon debt of $52,000. So follow this principle so that we shall not give chance for damaging our credit with them. I hope that the GBC members will see to this. I am thinking of returning to U.S.A. as soon as possible. Now everything depends on Krishna.
Our policy is to satisfy Krishna and keeping this point in view you should consult the GBC members and discuss these points and do the needful.
Yes, certainly Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha and Krishna will grace your temple. Just now arrangements are being made. One pair exactly like those in Boston will soon be on their way to Detroit. I will let you know when final shipping arrangements have been made.
So far purchasing of automobiles, use your discretion. If they cannot be donated then try for at least 50% commission.
1973 Correspondence
Thank you very much for your kind words. I am very pleased to see that you are taking this Krsna Consciousness movement seriously.
Your question as to why we use light bulbs, is answered as follows: light bulbs are also a part of Krsna's energy. Just as we use automobiles, adding machines, typewriters, dictaphone etc.
Whatever is there should be employed in service of Krsna. Without using matter in service of Krsna it becomes the cause of bondage, but by using it in the service of Krsna it helps us to become Krsna conscious.
In the Bhagavad Gita it is said, "The mind is the best friend and the worst enemy, for one who has learned to control the mind it is the best of friends but for one who has failed to do so it is the worst enemy." Due to long term association, the mind absorbed in material things has become contaminated, or dirty, the chanting process purifies the mind. Then the next stage, when the mind is cleansed one becomes free from the symptoms of material existence. Material existence means to be always hankering and lamenting. I must have a new automobile, I must have more money, I must have good wife, I must have this I must have that. Then when I have the thing, I lament, I have lost my wife, I have lost my money, I have lost my car, simply lamenting. So the second stage is to be free from this anxiety.
There must be feasting also, if not weekly then at least occasionally. All our life members and patrons should be invited. For example Mr. Bridge Mohan Chandiwalla who recently donated Rs. 5,000 is very favorable so we must endeavor to keep his sympathy and support.
You may inquire from Mr. Kilnani, who was previously a commissioner in Germany, what is the procedure for bringing one automobile into India. Recently he has imported his Mercedes Benz so we also have an auto we want to take to India. How to go about it?
1976 Correspondence
I have received on report from Brahmananda Swami in Nairobi about an incident that took place that took place when you were there. One Mr. Amarshi B. Shretta, P.O. Box 53, Kisumu, Kenya, had lent his automobile to you that you might use it for me when I came to Kenya. However, it was reported that you disappeared with the car overnight. Mr. Shretta is very much upset at this and he demands an explanation and an apology. There have been many complaints at the mismanagement in the past and now Brahmananda Swami has worked very hard to regain the respect and support of the Indian community in Kenya. Needless to say they are supporting our movement in Kenya and we must be straightforward in our dealings with them.
So now with so many testimonials, why these libraries will not purchase?
The scientists cannot make a machine from a seed. Why not? Can they make a typewriter machine tree, or an automobile tree, that you plant a seed and you get an automobile . . . it gets bigger, bigger, bigger until it is a full size automobile. They cannot make even one egg, and they are going to manufacture life? And we have to believe it? They are lunatics, this is demoniac. They want to compete with God.
Concerning the Deities in Chicago temple, if you want to have large size Gaura-Nitai then I have no objection. Your new travelling mobile temple sounds very nice. I shall be glad to see it when I visit Detroit.
| Page Title: | Automobile |
| Compiler: | Mangalavati, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 11 of Apr, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=1, SB=10, CC=1, OB=1, Lec=9, Con=19, Let=8 |
| No. of Quotes: | 49 |