Subjugation (Conv. and Letters)

Expressions researched:
"subjugate" |"subjugated" |"subjugating" |"subjugation" |"subjugative"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: Govinda told me that it started five hundred years ago in Western Bengal. Could you elucidate on this please?

Prabhupāda: This Bhagavad-gītā is read by the human society not only in India, but outside India, since a very long, long time. But unfortunately, as everything is deteriorated by the contact of material contamination, so people began to interpret Bhagavad-gītā in different ways. Therefore about five hundred years ago, Lord Caitanya appeared, and he started the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement under His personal guidance in Bengal. His birthplace is known as Navadvīpa. Now, He ordered every Indian to spread this message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world, in every village, every town. That was His order. But unfortunately, since India was under foreign subjugation, they could not spread, or they lost their own independence of culture. But everyone expected after declaration of independence by India, such things should come to the outside world. But the government did not take much care of it. So far I am concerned, I belong to Lord Caitanya's disciplic succession, and my spiritual master, who was just ninth generation from Lord Caitanya, he ordered me that "You try to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the Western world." Therefore in pursuance of his order, I have come here.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: I mean, just is Kṛṣṇa consciousness more readily accepted by the Far Eastern peoples? That is does their way of life make the acceptance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness any more easy than here in America? For instance, Americans are constantly rushing around and Europeans somewhat less. But they find it more difficult to be tranquil and peaceful than the Eastern peoples. For this reason, might it not be harder for Western peoples to accept Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: In India, due to her long subjugation by the foreigners, practically the so-called educated persons, they have lost their original culture. Rather, those who are not so-called educated, following the traditional rules and regulations, they are more Kṛṣṇa conscious. And the educated circle, they are thinking that this religious temperament is the cause of India's economic fall-down. But actually, that is not the fact. So not only India, in other countries also they are trying to imitate the economic situation or economic development of other countries, especially of America, but they do not find that in America, although the boys and girls, the younger generation, they are born of rich family, rich nation, they are still confused, and they are also hankering after something better. So the policy followed by India now, that is, to imitate the Western way of life, is not very happy mood. This means they have lost their original culture. And so far Western countries are concerned, I think they have sufficient arrangement for material comforts. Now they can very easily take up this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement because they have no disturbance for material hankering. And I think it is the time for them to accept this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement to make them perfectly well.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Darsana -- June 28, 1971, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: In India we require another..., altogether at least one hundred men, Americans. So contribute some men from each and every center. We have got fifty centers..., how many centers now?

Viṣṇujana: Seventy, I heard.

Karandhara: Almost sixty, fifty-eight.

Prabhupāda: So give one man from each center. It doesn't require that he is very advanced. Advancement will be done by training, by practical application in life. If you send from each center one man to India... If you can send more, that's all right. But at least one man. In India we have got many things to do. Because the business in India is important in this respect, that partly due to their subjugation by foreigners, their original culture has been killed. Just like in India, they did not know drinking tea, drinking wine, meat-eating, illicit sex. They did not know. Even fifty, a hundred years before, they did not know. These Britishers, in order to control them, very silently introduced all these things. I know in our childhood, this drinking of tea was unknown to any family. Meat-eating, there was no question. Just like in my life, I do not know what is meat-eating, do not know womanizing(?) or illicit sex life, because we are trained in that way. So due to foreign domination, they were killed; and after independence, these rascal leaders, they are killing it: "What is the wrong in meat-eating? What is the wrong in drinking?" They are canvassing: "Eat chickens, eat eggs,." This is going on. So at the present moment there is great propaganda from the side of the government and others to kill India's original culture. So when Americans go there and preach and they see, "Oh, so nice Vaiṣṇava, so nice devotee and so pure," they will become attracted, because that is their original culture. At heart they want to do that, but by artificial means they are being forced to accept something else. So when they see these foreigners and Americans so... And government is not very favorable of my movement there, because it is natural when the Americans exhibit a nice, pure Vaiṣṇava, they come attracted.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Krishna Tiwari: You, whenever you use word "follow," "authority," you are talking of subjugation.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Yes! Yes!

Krishna Tiwari: And subjugation is different than faith and belief.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Sub... We believe in the subjugation, because...

Krishna Tiwari: Well, I do not believe in the subjugation.

Prabhupāda: That is your madness, because you know.

Krishna Tiwari: No, no. No way, no way you can say that. (laughing)

Prabhupāda: No, no, don't be upset. You said that you are under the laws of nature.

Krishna Tiwari: I am.

Prabhupāda: Therefore you are under subjugation.

Krishna Tiwari: But, but I do not believe these kind of "authority" words.

Prabhupāda: You believe, you believe. When, when the laws of nature will force upon you death, you must believe.

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Krishna Tiwari: ...big difference between subjugative authority and being a part of the nature.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Subjugative, when you are forced to become old, when you are forced to become diseased, you are under subjugation.

Krishna Tiwari: Mistake. Not forced. It's automatic, it's, it's just a chain. It's a growth into. It's a factor; it's no force.

Prabhupāda: That automatic means just like you become criminal.

Krishna Tiwari: That, that's the way progress, I'm a part of it. I'm not under or over anybody, and no one is over, under, or above me. You are not under me. You are not over me.

Śyāmasundara: You're under nature's law.

Krishna Tiwari: Right, we all are. You, me, Swamiji, you, all of us are.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Exactly. Exactly.

Krishna Tiwari: Neither you are above me, nor you are below, nor I am above you. I may have respect for you, because I, on my own, believe that you are respectable. That is entirely different thing.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That's up to you.

Krishna Tiwari: Then authority. That's what I'm saying. This is up to me. But authority and subjugation are, are the two things which will not come.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: It's a matter of your choice. Accepting...

Krishna Tiwari: It's a matter of personal choice.

Prabhupāda: If you are not under subjugation, that does not authority?

Krishna Tiwari: I'm no, I'm no, I'm no subjugation to anyone. I'm a part of the nature.

Prabhupāda: How is that you're not...

Krishna Tiwari: If nature moves, I move with it. If the nature makes me old, I get old.

Prabhupāda: You have here subjugation.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Try to understand this, that life is always there, as God is there. So these living entities, part and parcel of God, they are also there. That God has got multi-energies, potencies. Out of that, three potencies have been taken as very important. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). God has multi-energy. Out of that, three energies have been taken as principal: material, spiritual, and marginal. The material energy is this material world. The spiritual world is the spiritual energy. And we living entities, we are also spiritual, but we are called marginal because we may live under the subjugation of material energy or spiritual energy. So the living entities, they are eternal. Their only position is marginal, sometimes manifested here, sometimes manifested there. So in the material world the living entities are already there. You haven't got to create. That is foolishness. It is never created. Simply in the material world it becomes manifest in four ways. Some of them are coming like trees, plants. And some of them are coming from perspiration... not coming, being manifested through fermentation, perception. And some of them are being manifested through eggs. And some of them are being manifested through embryo. The living entity were already there. Their struggle is going on, and they become manifest in the material world in four sources. In the spiritual world there is no such... They are eternally existing. There is no question of manifestation. So this is the science of living entities.

Room Conversation with Director of Research of the Dept. of Social Welfare -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Director: What if he's misguided? The world changes and since that book was...

Prabhupāda: Simply because they did not follow. Just like in India, this is the character of the brāhmaṇas that later on gradually the culture was lost since the last one thousand years, because India was subjugated by foreigners. The Mohammedans, they introduced some of their culture. Then the Britishers came. They intr... everyone wants an interest. The Britishers, when British rule came, their Lord Macauley's(?) private report was that "If you want to keep them as Indian Hindu, you will never be able to rule over." So it was British government's policy to condemn everything Indian.

Radio Interview -- May 25, 1975, Fiji:

Interviewer: Why did you choose to go to America and propagate the teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa in a western country?

Prabhupāda: Because Indian people, being subjugated for at least one thousand years, they have lost their original culture. And, being poverty-stricken, they are simply after money, by hook and crook. So in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayā apahṛta-cetasām (BG 2.44). Persons who have lost their consciousness on account of being too much attached to material enjoyment, they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So I thought that America, they have enjoyed enough of this material happiness, money and women, and they are now becoming disappointed. So they are at least on the platform of renunciation. They don't want any more like their fathers and grandfathers. Of course, they are not guided. Therefore I preferred to go there to guide them. So almost fifty percent of my devotees are, they are collected from these disappointed persons, young men. They are going astray. So they appreciate that I have saved them. Therefore they are after me, this younger generation, and they are helping me in broadcasting this Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Jagadīśa: I've understood that communism is presented by the administrative class when there is a condition of scarcity. When there is opulence, then there is room for personal individual enterprise, but when there is scarcity, that cannot be encouraged, and the common people have to be subjugated. So capitalism and communism are both simply philosophies how to keep the common man satisfied. So it's simply another means of exploitation.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is exploitation, and actually they have done it.

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Rūpānuga: Everyone has accepted the wrong authority. Everyone has accepted the wrong authority.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because he's misled by sense gratification, so even he approaches a guru, if the guru cannot satisfy his senses, he doesn't like. Because he's under the subjugation of senses, he expects that guru also will satisfy his senses, then he is guru. If guru says something against his sense gratification, "Ah, he is not guru." (laughs) Guru also must be a person who can satisfy your senses. This is his sense gratification.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: You can explain, daṇḍa means subjugation. So the three daṇḍas. Daṇḍa means subjugation. So kāya-manaḥ-vākya. "We have surrendered. We have voluntarily surrendered, subjugated ourselves, under God." Kāya-manaḥ-vākya. "Three daṇḍas are there, and one-myself. There are four daṇḍas within. So I am fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, or God, with my mind, body and words. This is the meaning." You can explain. This is symbolic reminder that "I have fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa with my body, mind and words, so I must serve Him."

Room Conversation with Scientists, Svarupa Damodara, and Dr. Sharma -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Sharma: Yes, I have met Swami Mādhava dāsa and his colleague, and I've gone through that article recently that they sent me about creation coming out of chaos. It is a very wonderful written article. They will be a real eye-opener for the scientists really. And I understand that you have a big plan to start a research institute with the help of the scientists. This will be really something that...

Prabhupāda: All Indian scientists should join.

Dr. Sharma: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That I want. To keep people in darkness is not science. They are keeping people in darkness. They do not know how nature is working, how they are subjugated to the laws of nature and trying to be independent.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

(BG 3.27)

Keeping people in darkness in the name of science, now it should be stopped. That is my humble humble opinion.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Gurudasa -- Seattle 29 September, 1968:

Regarding the Hindu community: Don't expect anything very wonderful from them, as we have got experience in Montreal—they have come in the foreign countries to earn money. As such, you cannot expect any cultural contribution. So you will tactfully deal with them, and whenever possible, vehemently protest against their foolish ideas. But you should try to support your statements on the strength of Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita. Best thing will be to avoid them as far as possible. I am concerned to preach this gospel amongst the Europeans and Americans, and I am not at all interested to preach amongst the Indians, because they have now become hodge-podge, due to so many years of subjugation by foreigners, and having lost their own culture.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Satyabhama -- Bombay 1 November, 1970:

So these two things are always side by side—Maya and Krsna—Krsna is service and Maya is sense gratification, so every moment we are prone to be subjugated by either of them. Our duty is therefore to be very, very careful. The poison is personal ambition. So everyone has the chance, therefore one should not be complacent. Doubts may come about, but one should be firmly fixed up that there cannot be any doubt on the Spiritual Master or Krsna.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Hanuman -- Bombay 18 March, 1975:

I have received one letter from Narayana dasa, saying that he has been informed by some of your men that you are GBC there and that he must subjugate to your authority. I never said that you were the GBC there. You cannot say that. If you are unable to work under the direction of Hrdayananda Gosvami, then you must work under my direction, but you are not independent. You cannot interfere with the programs that are now going on there. If you can work co-operatively, that is wanted, but if you cannot work with Narayana, that doesn't mean that you can disturb his program. He is working hard under the direction of Hrdayananda Gosvami. He is not under your authority. If you want to preach there, that is alright, but you cannot interfere with the work that Narayana is doing. If there is any difficulty, we can discuss it in India.