Beer

Expressions researched:
"beer" |"beers"

SB Canto 4

SB 4.18.16, Translation and Purport:

The sons of Diti and the demons transformed Prahlāda Mahārāja, who was born in an asura family, into a calf, and they extracted various kinds of liquor and beer, which they put into a pot made of iron.

The demons also have their own types of beverages in the form of liquors and beers, just as the demigods use soma-rasa for their drinking purposes. The demons born of Diti take great pleasure in drinking wine and beer. Even today people of demoniac nature are very much addicted to liquor and beer. The name of Prahlāda Mahārāja is very significant in this connection. Because Prahlāda Mahārāja was born in a family of demons, as the son of Hiraṇyakaśipu, by his mercy the demons were and still are able to have their drinks in the form of wine and beer. The word ayaḥ (iron) is very significant. Whereas the nectarean soma was put in a golden pot, the liquors and beers were put in an iron pot. Because the liquor and beer are inferior, they are placed in an iron pot, and because soma-rasa is superior, it is placed in a golden pot.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Jeremy Bentham:

Prabhupāda: You must feel, if it is happiness, you must feel happy. Just like eating is happiness. So if you actually eat, you must feel happiness. It is not that (indistinct). Eating, when you are hungry, eating is happiness. But if you are not feeling happiness then what is the use of eating? By eating if you are feeling happiness, then you are eating. Strength, you'll feel strength, "Yes, I was fatigued. Now eating I am getting strength." Satisfaction. These three things are to be there when you are eating. If there is no satisfaction, no strength, then what is the meaning of eating. There is no...

Śyāmasundara: Someone might raise the point, "Well, the man is hungry and he has no food, therefore in order to feel pleasure he must steal it and cause displeasure to someone else." But this Bentham says that there are four natural curves or preventions, preventative forces to keep people from egoistic over-indulgence. One is the physical consequences of over-indulgence. If I eat too much, I get sick. One is political, that I will be imprisoned if I transgress. I will be punished. One is moral, or popular opinion, the public will think badly of me if I over-indulge. And the fourth one is religious, that God will punish me if I am an evil-doer. These four preventions he says, keep us from over-indulging in pleasure.

Prabhupāda: But if there is some happiness, why there is no prevention. That is real happiness. There is no prevention, simply go on increasing.

Śyāmasundara: Indulging.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like Kṛṣṇa's happiness, there was no prevention. So that is real happiness. Prevention means material, limited. Just like drinking liquor. There is prevention also. There are no-alcoholic beer. You have seen the signboard? That is prevention.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 9, 1973, London:

Revatīnandana: I used to observe when I was going to the university that all my professors, their intellectual business was just a profession like digging ditches.

Prabhupāda: That's all. For earning money.

Revatīnandana: For their pleasure they're going home to drink beer and eat steak. That's all they're really interested in. They're just working to make money. I could see it and I didn't want to follow their footsteps.

Prabhupāda: Just like a śūdra, he cleans in the road for money. They are going as professor but the category is the same. You don't make any distinction between that sweeper and this professor. Or a hog and cat and dog. The hog is also working hard, whole day and night for stool, eating. So this man is also working like that. Beyond that he has no other knowledge.

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Anna Conan Doyle: He's not trained.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is the... So if we make our living condition very simple, there is enough time, enough time. But we don't say that you go back to the primitive stage of life. That is not possible. We simply request that wherever you are, simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is no difficulty. Then everything will be clear. And we are not charging anything for that, that: "You give me so many pounds. I'll give you a mantra." Not like that. (break) There is no necessity. Unnecessarily they are killing animals, and becoming sinful. So they have created their own field of activities just to become bereft of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Formerly, in the human society, there was no slaughterhouse. If they wanted to kill one animal, they went to the forest or anywhere. Kill one animal and eat it. But here it is now regular business. Somebody's supplying cows regularly by increasing livestock. That has become his business. And somebody's killing. So we have invented so many things like that, simply for sinful activities. How we can become happy? It is not possible. So many big, big factories for producing beer and liquor. But they have become accustomed to this. And the net result is now we increasing the hippie population. This irresponsible life is producing children, most irresponsible, brainless. Yes. But they have no eyes to see, that "How we are degrading. This is our children." I have been to Amsterdam. One park, there is...

Bhagavān: Fondel Park.

Prabhupāda: Bondel Park?

Bhagavān: Fondel.

Prabhupāda: Fondel. So hippies are there. Oh, how wretchedly, voluntarily they are living. They don't require to live in that way, but they are living. Lying down on the ground. No regulated principle. They do not know where to eat, where to sleep. Unnecessarily. Thousands of hippies. And they are thinking they're happy.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Haṁsadūta: Every city has two or three at least, very big, because everyone has to get such a plot.

Prabhupāda: And there are many ghosts also. Yes. Especially at night, if you go, you will see. There was a ghost in the house of John Lennon. John Lennon. I was guest there. There was a ghost. (break) ...binding to the māyā, to just remain a slave of māyā and drink this beer. (break)

Haṁsadūta: They introduced this.

Prabhupāda: So before that, there was no Christian?

Haṁsadūta: No, before that, there was no Christian.

Prabhupāda: What they were? No religion?

Haṁsadūta: They were like you said. They were just tribes people.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So these Germans were tribe people, uncivilized?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, before Christianity, Europe was completely uncivilized.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Therefore the order is "Thou shalt not kill." Simply their business was killing. Uncivilized persons, they kill animals and eat. So due to past habit they could not forget this killing business. This is the proof that this system of religion was preached among the crude people, not civilized. So why they introduced this beer?

Haṁsadūta: It was a kind of refreshment.

Prabhupāda: But before that, they were not drinking.

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Haṁsadūta: There may have been something like wine. The monks also used to make wine.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they make wine. Uncivilized men, they know how to make wine. In India they do so by rice boiling and keep it for some days. It becomes wine, fermented. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...used to say that "I was drinking beer in barrels." He said. Forty years ago he said me like that. Here I don't see them, but Hamburg I have seen, yes, passing urine on the roadside. There are so many urine coming from the wall. 'Cause the more you drink beer, you will pass urine more. The German language is trinken, trinking. Drinking means trinking. Yes, I have seen it. Trinking or trinken?

Haṁsadūta: Trinken.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...students, they are advancing for the unflinching faith on guru and Kṛṣṇa. This is the secret. (break) ...these devotees, how nice they are. They do not appreciate?

Haṁsadūta: I think most of them cannot understand it, but they sympathize, I think, because the principles are (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: That is appreciation.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1976, Melbourne:

Guru-kṛpā: So we will make propaganda several months before the festival.

Prabhupāda: No, you can go to the court.

Devotee (2): They are claiming we make too much mess on the streets after the festival, too many flowers on the streets.

Prabhupāda: So it is a festival. There must be crowd. You have no festival? Unfortunate.

Guru-kṛpā: They have festival, and it's beer cans, not flowers.

Prabhupāda: So you must fight to the court. How they can stop? It is our religious function. (pause) (break) ...to curb down this movement. In Europe, America, Australia...

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Without them, the factories cannot go on. That's all. The white men cannot work so hard. How they...? No gentleman can do that. This kind of work is meant for the fourth-class, fifth-class men. Therefore they cannot say anything. They require. And they know that their money will be taken away again by supplying them wine. They'll pay, and next moment, the wine merchant will take away. And the government will get huge profit without doing anything. And excise tax. Excise tax, government hasn't got to invest or do anything—simply take the tax.

Hari-śauri: Every time they put a tax increase, it's always on beer and cigarettes. Always, every time. And motorcars. Because they know the people are so much addicted that even if they squeeze and squeeze and squeeze, they will still get more, and the people will still pay.

Prabhupāda: And addicted people, they, they're after the.... Get money some way or other. Beg, borrow or steal. So these black men especially, they are expert. They are not expert in begging, but borrowing and stealing.

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Every few steps, there is a shop, young girls, wine, and a man is sitting.

Hari-śauri: Germany is very famous for its beer festivals. Germany. It's very famous for it's beer festivals.

Prabhupāda: Beer. Yes. Sadānanda told me. He was drinking beer in barrels. (laughs) He told me.

Hari-śauri: They even have a mug so big that it takes one gallon of beer at a time.

Prabhupāda: And they drink.

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's possible in the summer season, one of the big tourist attraction is to go to these big beer festivals. And you can go, they last about a fortnight, one week or a fortnight, and you can travel down the Rhine Valley and move every week to a new beer festival, like that, all through the summer. It's a big tourist thing.

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Such an important country. So nasty everywhere, park, street, what is there? This is not good sign. In other cities, you see so neat and clean. Washington, even that parkway, so neat and clean. Why this city is neglected? Los Angeles also, neat and clean. Which other cities we went?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Detroit.

Prabhupāda: Detroit is... Detroit is also.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That park was a little dirty also.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Beer cans and...

Prabhupāda: This is national degradation. Every state full of garbage, litters. Not only now, I was living here (indistinct); the last 10 years. At least I have seen.

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They allow the children sit down. They take soda water and the father-mother drinking. I have seen it. They are learning from the father and mother from the begin...

Hari-śauri: My father used to... Every Sunday they used to go to the pub, and then for Sunday afternoon, as a special treat, they would all get..., we'd be given a glass of beer.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Father-mother take... Because they think it is civilization. Elderly boys, the father mother tell, "What is the wrong, illicit sex? Take woman, take car. Enjoy life." I have seen it. They know, "This is life. Why...?" Therefore they say, "Brainwash. This Swamiji is controlling their minds and brainwashing." That is their charge. Wash, ne. The brain should be operated, surgical to take out all rubbish things from the... It is called membrane?

Pradyumna: Cerebrum?

Prabhupāda: Cereb?