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At the present moment, without head ghost. A civilization of ghosts, without brain

Expressions researched:
"at the present moment, without head ghost. A civilization of ghosts, without brain"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

A ghost without head, yes, there is a ghost. So at the present moment, without head ghost. A civilization of ghosts, without brain. It is something revolutionary. Something revolutionary, but this is a fact.

Prabhupāda: So this brahma-bhūta stage is spiritual stage. We want to bring everyone to this spiritual stage. That is the sum and substance. We are not on the material stage. Therefore it is little difficult to understand. Everyone is on the material stage, but we are working on the spiritual stage. But the spirit and matter, we can distinguish. Without the spirit, the body is nothing but lump of matter. That you can . . . the spirit is there, the matter is there, but we are so dull, we do not understand what is that spirit. That is the difficulty of the modern society. This is the most important thing. Without the spirit, the body cannot move. They are daily experiencing that without spirit the body is nothing, decomposed matter. But still they are simply licking up that decomposed matter without taking care of the spiritual. This is the most defective position of the modern society. So it is not a Hindu religion or Christian religion. It is a science to understand.

Kathy Kerr: If a sufficient number of people could take care of their spirits, could achieve an understanding of the spiritual body and so forth, do you think that that would solve, say, for instance . . .

Prabhupāda: It is not possible that . . . because, at the present moment the number of educated persons, there are many. Many Ph.D.'s, D.H.C.'s. But nobody understands it. You cannot expect a fair number of persons understanding it. It requires little higher brain. But even some percent of the population understands this philosophy, then there will be peace and prosperity. Not that everyone. Just like in my body, not that every part of my body is brain. But if the brain is in order, then other parts of the body will act nicely. The leg is not brain, but if the brain is in order, the leg will move nicely. The difficulty is there is no brain. So without brain, without head, when the body moves it is ghost. So it is ghostly civilization. All ghost. There is a kind of ghost, perhaps you know, that without head. If a man is chopped of his head, and if he has got attraction, then he becomes a ghost without head. So at the present moment, all these so-called educated civilized men are ghosts without head. You now this, there is some ghost without head?

Jayādvaita: I hadn't heard about them.

Prabhupāda: No, in India they know. And I have described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Hari-śauri: They're depicted like that quite often in Europe, because they used to have the guillotine chopping the head off.

Prabhupāda: A ghost without head, yes, there is a ghost. So at the present moment, without head ghost. A civilization of ghosts, without brain. It is something revolutionary. Something revolutionary, but this is a fact.

Kathy Kerr: Are you doing anything to try and contact people, the educated men, to . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes, many. Many educated. They are coming, trying to understand. But it requires little brain. So-called educated with dull brain cannot understand. So to make their brain finer to understand, we are prohibiting four things: no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling. If one refrains from these four prohibited things, then he can develop his brain to understand. And if one indulges in these four things, his brain will never be able to understand. That is the . . . just like a dog having sexual intercourse on the street, so if I request the dog that, "Don't do this, it is not very good," he'll never understand.

Kathy Kerr: What purpose does the chanting serve?

Prabhupāda: Cleansing. The brain cleansing so that one can understand. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Cleansing. We have got so many dirty things within ourselves. By this chanting and following these regulative principles, it will be cleansed. Then just like a mirror full of dust, you have to cleanse it. Then you'll see your face very nicely. So this is the process of cleansing the mirror of heart. So when it is cleansed, then you can understand, "Yes, I'm not this body. I am soul. My business is different." That is wanted. Therefore we are encouraging people to come here, chant, dance and take prasādam. Gradual process. They have come. In the beginning, I had no place to stay even. Now we have got hundreds of big, big palaces.

Kathy Kerr: Why is it that you seem to attract a large following of youth?

Prabhupāda: Because my . . . it is fact, it is not a bogus thing. It is not some imagination, "By meditation you become God." We do not bluff like that. We give education, scientific education. The books are there. You'll find this Bhagavad-gītā . . . have you read ever? No. Here, how to understand God and myself, my relationship. There is no such thing that, "You sit down fifteen minutes and you become God." There is no such bogus thing. It is science.

Viśvakarmā: I think she was asking also why there are so many young people, why so many young are attracted.

Prabhupāda: Young, they are receptive. And another side is that in the Western countries, your younger generation, they have seen that their father and grandfather are not happy. Is it not a fact? So they are trying to find out something where they will find happiness. As such, they go to so many svāmīs and yogīs who come from India. But there also they are frustrated. But here they are finding the real substance. That you can ask any one of them; they will explain how they have come.

Page Title:At the present moment, without head ghost. A civilization of ghosts, without brain
Compiler:SharmisthaK
Created:2022-09-11, 09:14:09
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1