View source for Nobody wants to become old man. Why he's enforced to become old man? But they have no brain to understand what is independence, what is happiness. They have taken distress as happiness. So that is due to lack of knowledge

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{{terms|"Nobody wants to become old man. Why he's enforced to become old man? But they have no brain to understand what is independence, what is happiness. They have taken distress as happiness. So that is due to lack of knowledge"}}
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{{compiler|Nabakumar}}
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[[Category:Nobody Wants]]
[[Category:Wanting to Become]]
[[Category:Old Man]]
[[Category:Why]]
[[Category:Enforce]]
[[Category:Old Man]]
[[Category:They Have No]]
[[Category:No Brain]]
[[Category:Understand]]
[[Category:What Is]]
[[Category:Independence]]
[[Category:What is Happiness]]
[[Category:They Have]]
[[Category:Take]]
[[Category:Happiness and Distress]]
[[Category:That Is]]
[[Category:Due To]]
[[Category:Lack of Knowledge]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Audio - NABAKUMAR]]
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<h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<h3>1976 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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If you are not free from the laws of nature, nature will enforce you to die. Then where is your independence? Nobody wants to die, so why he's enforced to die? Nobody wants to become old man. Why he's enforced to become old man? But they have no brain to understand what is independence, what is happiness. They have taken distress as happiness. So that is due to lack of knowledge. So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to elevate a person to the real standard of knowledge. Without knowledge a madman can say anything. A child can speak all nonsense. That is not knowledge. Knowledge is different.
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[[Vanisource:760717 - Interview - New York|760717 - Interview - New York]]
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Interviewer: So what is generally taken here . . . I mean, this is the American bicentennial year, and the Declaration of Independence talks about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Are you suggesting then that what is taken to be life is actually the antithesis of life—what is taken to be liberty is actually enslavement, and what is assumed to be the pursuit of happiness is nothing more than a rat race in which you try to make the best of what you can?

Prabhupāda: They do not know what is happiness. Bhagavad-gītā points out what is your distress. Can anyone say what is the actual distress? They do not know it. Distress they are taking as usual part of life. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam ([[Vanisource:BG 13.8-12 (1972)|BG 13.9]]). This is philosophy, to find out what is distress. This is directly said by Kṛṣṇa, that these are distresses: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, to take birth, to die, to become old and to become diseased. But they do not know it. Not only they, everyone, all over the world, they take it as part of life. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. When a man becomes diseased, when a man becomes old, or when a man dies, they take it it is usual. They have been accustomed to these distresses so much that they do not take it as distress. So this is their ignorance. This is their ignorance. They do not know what is distress, and they are struggling for moving the distress. Just like this independence. They do not know what is meaning of independence. Real independence is when you are free from these four kinds of distress. Does it mean that observing this kind of independence is real independence? It is simply fictitious. If you are not free from the laws of nature, nature will enforce you to die. Then where is your independence? Nobody wants to die, so why he's enforced to die? Nobody wants to become old man. Why he's enforced to become old man? But they have no brain to understand what is independence, what is happiness. They have taken distress as happiness. So that is due to lack of knowledge. So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to elevate a person to the real standard of knowledge. Without knowledge a madman can say anything. A child can speak all nonsense. That is not knowledge. Knowledge is different.

So the struggle for existence means to get out of distress, but the real distress they have set aside. The problem that, "I do not want to die, but I'll be enforced to die," so where is the advancement in this connection? They might have, so big, big scientists, they have discovered many, many things, but where is that thing that, "Take a pill and you'll never die. Take a pill, you'll never become diseased"? They can offer me . . . I had some abdominal pain, so they have given me dozens of medicine. But still they are not sure whether the pain will be cured. This is their science. So in this way things are going on, in ignorance, mūḍha. Therefore they have been described in the Bhagavad-gītā as mūḍha.
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