Guest (2): How far is saṁskāra powerful like...?
Prabhupāda: Well, saṁskāra you can change in a second. Saṁskāra may be powerful. (indistinct) Kṛṣṇa assures you, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. He will give you protection. Saṁskāra means you did some sinful activities and you are suffering. But He gives you protection. Sarva-pāpebhyo. Then what is the meaning of saṁskāra? You can change your saṁskāra immediately by surrendering to Kṛṣṇa. Why you are so much concerned with saṁskāra? He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ... (BG 18.66), ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣa... The saṁskāra as effects of sinful activities, that is troublesome. So He gives you protection. Mā śucaḥ, "Don't worry." Why don't you take this? You don't want to change your saṁskāra, and who can help you? That is a different thing. You don't want to change. Otherwise Kṛṣṇa is ready to give you all help. How their saṁskāra is changed? From the very beginning of their life they are addicted to these principles: illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication, gambling. How they have changed? They don't touch it. How it has become possible?
Guest (2): I believe they were great yogīs in their past lives.
Prabhupāda: And why you not?
Guest (2): I don't know that.
Prabhupāda: Because you don't surrender. That is the fact. If you surrender, you become also great yogī.
- yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
- mad-gatenāntarātmanā
- śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
- sa me yuktatamo mataḥ
- (BG 6.47)
He is first-class yogī who is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, topmost yogī. So you think of Kṛṣṇa always; you'll become topmost yogī.
Guest: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Don't be sorry. Indians, generally they say, "Oh, we know everything about Kṛṣṇa. What we have to learn?" Yes. When they go to some Indian, they say like that. What do they say?
Śyāmasundara: "We know all these things."
Guest (2): I don't say I know everything.
Prabhupāda: Yes. What is that Madrasi gentleman?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Chiwari? Dr. Chiwari?
Prabhupāda: Yes. In your...
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, Krishnamurti.
Prabhupāda: Ah. They think, "Oh, what we have to learn from them about Kṛṣṇa? We are all-knowing." (Hindi) And you were speaking, some of your Madras colleagues. They come here and immediately they learn how to eat meat. (Hindi)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Before they came they were not eating meat, but when they come here they normally, they buy it, they cook it, and they not only just... They buy, themselves, and they do everything.
Prabhupāda: London... (Hindi) Practically cent percent Indians, they eat meat.
Guest (4): Swamiji, what is the role of meat-eating in...
Prabhupāda: Meat-eater means sinners. He cannot understand Kṛṣṇa.
Guest (4): Well, where is it...?
Prabhupāda: It is said in the śāstra, striyaḥ sūnā pānaṁ dyūtaṁ yatrādharmaś catur-vidhāḥ: "Four kinds of sinful activities: illicit sex life, striyaḥ; sūnā, the animal slaughter; pānam, intoxication; dyūtam, gambling." These are the four pillars of sinful life. So you have to break these pillars of sinful life. Then you can understand Kṛṣṇa. They have broken. On my word they have broken the first four pillars and therefore they are advanced.