Akrūra said, "My dear son of Vicitravīrya, you have unlawfully usurped the throne of the Pāṇḍavas. Anyway, somehow or other you are now on the throne. Therefore I beg to advise you to please rule the kingdom on moral and ethical principles. If you do so and try to please your subjects in that way, your name and fame will be perpetual." Akrūra hinted that although Dhṛtarāṣṭra was ill-treating his nephews, the Pāṇḍavas, they happened to be his subjects. "Even if you treat them not as the owners of the throne but as your subjects, you should impartially think of their welfare as though they were your own sons. But if you do not follow this principle and act in just the opposite way, you will be unpopular among your subjects, and in the next life you will have to live in a hellish condition. I therefore hope you will treat your sons and the sons of Pāṇḍu equally." Akrūra hinted that if Dhṛtarāṣṭra did not treat the Pāṇḍavas and his sons as equals, surely there would be a fight between the two camps of cousins. Since the Pāṇḍavas' cause was just, they would come out victorious, and the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra would be killed. This was a prophecy told by Akrūra to Dhṛtarāṣṭra.
Unpopular
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 2
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said that if someone sincerely wants to see the Lord and at the same time wants to enjoy this material world, he is considered to be a fool only. One who wants to remain here in the material world for material enjoyment has no business entering into the eternal kingdom of God. The Lord favors such a foolish devotee by snatching all that he may possess in the material world. If such a foolish devotee of the Lord tries to recoup his position, then the merciful Lord again snatches away all that he may have possessed. By such repeated failures in material prosperity he becomes very unpopular with his family members and friends. In the material world the family members and friends honor persons who are very successful in accumulating wealth by any means. The foolish devotee of the Lord is thus put into forcible penance by the grace of the Lord, and at the end the devotee becomes perfectly happy, being engaged in the service of the Lord. Therefore penance in devotional service of the Lord, either by voluntary submission or by being forced by the Lord, is necessary for attaining perfection, and thus such penance is the internal potency of the Lord.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
"Thus one becomes unpopular in the eyes of the people in general, for this damages his religiosity and fame. A Vaiṣṇava, especially one who acts as a spiritual master, must not act in such a way. One should always be conscious of this fact."
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Chand Kazi was Mohammedan. So you know the story that Caitanya Mahāprabhu started civil disobedience, disregarded the section, I mean to say, imposed by the magistrate Chand Kazi that "You cannot hold the saṅkīrtana. The people are disturbed." Just like you are being threatened by the police. So this is not new thing. This thing is going on from the very beginning, even Caitanya Mahāprabhu's time. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu disregarded the notice. "Don't care for this Kazi. Go on." And when people... He was very popular, but we are not popular. Caitanya Mahāprabhu (laughs) was Kṛṣṇa. He had attraction. He was, although a boy of twenty years old, He had many followers. He ordered, "Oh, Kazi has ordered to stop. Now I order that hundreds of thousands of people shall assemble this night, and we shall go to the Kazi's house." This is civil disobedience. So people agreed, and there were hundreds of thousands of mṛdaṅgas and hundreds of thousands of people, and they chanted and crossed the whole street, don't care for any police action. And the Kazi saw, "Oh, it is a mass movement." He was afraid. You see? When any movement is taken by the people, then the government becomes afraid. Just like the marijuana movement? Now there is no more legal action. Government cannot because all people are taking to marijuana. You see? What is that? Mariana, marijuana. Marijuana. So you make this marijuana, taken by all people, then police will be afraid. You see? They'll not dare to stop you.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa or His incarnation comes in this material world, He maintains His position. That, the same thing. Mahatma Gandhi maintained his position. It is not that because Mahatma Gandhi went to jail, he became unpopular and nobody would respect him. No. He is respect was still there. Similarly, when the incarnation of God, Kṛṣṇa, He comes, He is not ordinary man. He is not ordinary man. He comes out of His good will. Paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ. The rascals, they do not understand what is Kṛṣṇa, and they think that "Kṛṣṇa is like one of us, a human being, like that. He is..." No, that is not Kṛṣṇa understanding. Kṛṣṇa...
Either I serve my family or serve my community or serve my nation or serve my government—in this way go on increasing—but your position is to serve. You... Here you will find, therefore, that the so-called master is also servant. Just like President Nixon. He was elected the master, president, but actually he was the servant of the popular vote. As soon as he became unpopular, he was immediately dismissed. So the president of a big state is the position that he is a servant. How you are not a servant? That is our nature. So people are engaged in service generally. "Generally" not. That is the law. If one hasn't got to serve anybody, no family, no children, no wife, then he keeps a dog, to serve him. Is it not a fact? I have seen in the Western countries, old man who has no family, his whole day he is keeping a dog and seeing the television. That's all. (laughter) Because nature is to serve. That you cannot... Therefore pravṛtti-mārga means that we are trying to become false master, sense gratification.
Prabhupāda: So in this way, misinterpretation, malinterpretation, and people are gliding down to abominable condition of this material life. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is a protest against all this nonsense. And therefore we, sometimes we are unpopular. But we don't care for that. Popular or unpopular, we must go on with our business. What do you think?
Śyāmasundara: Yes.
Guest (5): Do you mean one has to...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest (5): Unpopularity also means you are creating something.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs) That is the reaction.
Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: But Darwin doesn't have any conception of the jīva.
Prabhupāda: He's a nonsense. That's all.
Śyāmasundara: He sees only the bodies are changing.
Prabhupāda: Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke, sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Anyone, that is also mentioned there. Teṣām ātma vimanuna (indistinct). Foolish. Child. Child thinks "I am this body." (indistinct) means fools. Ātma vimanu: "I am this body." Animal thinks that "I am this body." Virakara (indistinct) ātmā vinanena anāśrita. They do not know what is my position. Misleading.
Śyāmasundara: There is a scientific subject which has become very popular now, called genetics, which has to do with the origins of life.
Prabhupāda: Well these so-called scientific theories are popular now and unpopular after few years. That's all. Again something popular. They are not science. Science cannot be popular now and unpopular after some days.
Śyāmasundara: But it's only because they have just discovered it.
Prabhupāda: Discovering, partial, that's like... They cannot discover. The things are there passing on, so many things, passing on.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That's all right. Because we have got substantial sale of books, we are free to get money. And it is unbelievable that religious books are sold thirty thousand, forty thousand, fifty thousand daily. There is no history.
Gargamuni: So that is a miracle.
Prabhupāda: Is it not miracle?
Satsvarūpa: Yes. Some of those devotees like Tripurari, a hundred big Bhāgavatams. It's not a popular book.
Prabhupāda: It is not popular actually. For the common man it is dry subject. And I have heard that after reading one book, somebody comes to purchase. "What is this, Bhāgavata?" "We have got six." "All right, give me six volumes." He is not a devotee. Why he purchases all the six volumes of Bhāgavatam? In London our Bhagavad-gītā As It Is was sold in two months, thirty thousand copies. That is the report. Thirty thousand copies.
Prabhupāda: Where there is evolution, there must be degradation. Otherwise, what is the meaning of evolution? Why it should be stagnant? If you go, ascend, then you can descend also. Now, the Mr. Nixon was elected president, and why he's being dragged, "Come down." He is not coming down, but he has already come down, degradation. Nobody likes him.
M. Lallier: Yes.
Prabhupāda: And the more he sticks to his position, he's becoming unpopular. So his degradation is already complete, but because he's in the office, post, he does not agree that, "I am degraded." But from the public point of view, he's degraded. Is it not?
M. Lallier: Yes. But do you think it is possible now to, to predict, to prevent degradation?
Yogeśvara: He says now there's been this degradation of human consciousness throughout the ages. So do you think it is possible now to stop this course of events, to stop this degradation in human consciousness?
Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are trying to stop this degradation of the human society.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee (3): He is already trying to tell him to follow in your footsteps surely, so just before I left he said he will try once again to chant sixteen rounds of japa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. He has tried already. He has a taste for...
Prabhupāda: If he simply understands that Lord Śiva is a Vaiṣṇava and if he worships Lord Śiva, then he will get the benefit.
Brahmānanda: I was just thinking that in Hyderabad you also spoke something very unpopular when you were discussing about the worship of Lord Śiva and Lord Kṛṣṇa. And you used the example of the milk and the curd.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Brahmānanda: And one man in the audience, he asked you, "Who is the milk and who is the curd?" And you said that "Kṛṣṇa is the milk, and Śiva is the curd." And he did not like that.
Prabhupāda: There is milk and the curd. So one must become milk, one must become curd. So if Kṛṣṇa is the origin of everything, then He must be the milk.
Harikesa: He says that if you renounce now, you can enjoy later. That if you take some austerity now, like meditation, abstaining from certain things, that later on you can enjoy sex life unlimitedly, have clear intelligence unlimtedly, and ultimately become the...
Prabhupāda: The Mahesh Yogi, TM. Transcendental meditation. But I don't think they say that if you undergo austerities you...
Harikesa: No, that was in the beginning they were saying...
Prabhupāda: Oh now he has changed!
Harikesa: Now he has changed, because it was too unpopular.
Prabhupāda: It is business.
Bhāgavata: Rajneesh is also like that.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Bhāgavata: Rajneesh, same philosophy.
Prabhupāda: Hm. But they do not know; na te vidu svartha-gati hi viṣṇum; these rascals they do not know what is the actual aim of life. They are, in the groups of ordinary men, they are doing some business opened this transcendental TM shop, that's all. Cheating. Cheating. All of them are are going on, cheating. Nobody knows the real interest is to go back to home, back to Godhead. Nobody knows.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: With the help of the telescope, then their eyes become perfect to an extent.
Prabhupāda: To ext... That is not perfect. As soon as you say, "to extent," that means imperfect. Perfect to the point, that is perfect.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Limitedly perfect.
Prabhupāda: That is not perfect.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your philosophy will be very unpopular with the general masses, Prabhupāda, because you are condemning everyone.
Prabhupāda: Yes, because they are fools and rascals.
Kīrtirāja: He said they have..., these translations of Aurobindo and Ramakrishna are modernized.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Kīrtirāja: I think they are modernized and compromised. That's why they are so popular, because you can do whatever you want...
Prabhupāda: It is not popular, not very.
Kīrtirāja: Yeah, and they aren't even popular, no.
Dayānanda: Popular amongst the mūḍhas.
Prabhupāda: They are mūḍhas. They do not know anything, and they write books.
Devotee: Didn't that Dr. Radhakrishnan go crazy at the end of life, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Kīrtirāja: I think you have visited him...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Where is guru? Goru, you say goru. When it is pronounced guru, I say, you say, don't say guru, but you say goru.
Guru-kṛpā: Goru.
Prabhupāda: Goru, no, do you know goru? Goru means cow.
Guru-kṛpā: Cow. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: (laughing) Otherwise they're going to find out, then don't say goru. Guru.
Guru-kṛpā: Guru.
Prabhupāda: Goru means cow. Śrī-guru-caraṇa-padma. Śrī-guru. (laughs) So they're all gorus, nobody guru.
Guru-kṛpā: Yes.
Prabhupāda: All rascals. Now that Ravi Shankar has become George guru. Somebody.... You were telling me? That this boy has been taught to take the dust of the feet of Ravi Shankar in the stage, and people did not like it. So he has become unpopular accepting a goru. (end)
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We're selling one half a million large size books each year.
Harisauri: The thing is that the materialists will always find that. They see the devotees and we say that we renounce everything, but they don't understand that renunciation means to take everything and give it to Kṛṣṇa. So when... Just like that time there was such a great commotion when we hired that Rolls Royce to take Your Divine Grace from the airport to the temple. So in the papers they didn't put anything that you said. They simply put "His Divine Grace is arriving in a Rolls Royce." So this is the general attitude of the common mass of people.
Prabhupāda: That is envious. So if they sell books, so that is making Kṛṣṇa unpopular?
Bhūrijana: But one must learn to be a good book salesman I think.
Prabhupāda: But selling book, Kṛṣṇa, does it mean that the booksellers are creating unpopular opinion? Does it mean?
Bhūrijana: Automatically, no.
Prabhupāda: When you say that they're making enemies because they're pushing this, what is wrong there? Actually, I can so far understand that you do not like to sell books, or you cannot sell books.
Bhūrijana: Actually I've never really tried.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Bhūrijana: I've never really attempted very much.
Prabhupāda: Those who are selling books you think of them they're not very advanced.
Prabhupāda: Pṛthu Mahārāja was to see that a brāhmaṇa is doing, acting like brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya is doing like kṣatriya. So it is government's duty to see that Bālajī's money, Kṛṣṇa's money, is to the farthing spent for His mission. That is your duty. That is government's duty, that nothing is misused, nothing is misrepresented. But we know how to execute the mission of Kṛṣṇa. Anyone can know because direction is there. It is not a secret thing. It is open secret. But you have to act upon it. That requires training. And so far my experience goes, the whole world will take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Unfortunately, I am struggling single-handed. And they are criticizing me in the Parliament. You have seen the recent article Blitz against me? What is that heading? "Ungodly face." I am doing ungodly? But they are advertising like that. Trying to make me unpopular. The Māyāvādīs, they say that Bhaktivedanta Swami is ruining Hinduism. They are saying like that. (Hindi) So I am being criticized in Parliament, I am criticized by the so-called jagad-gurus who have never seen what is jagat. And so on, so on.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Although nonviolence is a very good word, but who can accept it? We don't say such rascal things, imagination. We introduce Kṛṣṇa, encouraging, "Fight!" Nonsense nonviolence. (chuckles) "Kṣatriya, you should fight. Don't talk nonsense." Kutas tvā kaśmalam idam. "What kind of talking you are doing? You're My friend." And he wanted to introduce nonviolence. Where is nonviolence in Gītā? Artificial, all artificial.
Hari-śauri: When Arjuna wanted to stop fighting, Kṛṣṇa chastised him.
Prabhupāda: And he wants to prove nonviolence from Gītā. Just see how foolish he was. If you say publicly that he was a rascal, fool, then you become unpopular. But actually he was a rascal fool. (laughs) Artificial. Kṛṣṇa says, "You fight," and these rascals say, "Nonviolent." He's more than cheating. Māyāvādī.
Hari-śauri: Cheater.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Cheater, one must be due to ignorance. Generally one who is fool, he commits criminality. No sane man does it. Sane means he knows what is what. He does not commit mistake. But to commit mistake means he's insane, ignorant. That is not innocence-ignorance, foolish.
Ādi-keśava: Some are willing to help us. This one man Din Agnihotri from Southern University Law School, he helped us make the basis of the case. But most of the Indian lawyers, they will not help us.
Prabhupāda: Why?
Ādi-keśava: They are afraid of their own status. They are worried that... Because they work in those courts every day, and this is an unpopular issue, so they are afraid because their position is not so secure, so they will not help us in that way. They will come and talk to me and give some advice, but they don't want their name in the courtroom. So sometimes this is difficult, because we need expert lawyers, but these lawyers are atheists, so sometimes they argue with me. They say, "Why are you always trying to preach in the court when we are trying to present your case?" I said, "That is my business, and I am paying you." So sometimes they are arguing, "No, if you want to win this case, then we have to argue in this way." Just like when we were... They were questioning on the stand, and our one devotee was reading Bhagavad-gītā for the answers, and they were objecting, our lawyers, saying, "No, we shouldn't do this." But I was saying, "No, this is the way that they will see that we are genuine." In the end it proved it was right. The judge respected that.
Prabhupāda: Yes, we must argue from our books. Therefore I say without any lawyer. Keep one lawyer to present, but our arguments should be from the books.
Yaśomatī-nandana: Yes. Anyone who reads it, he is finished. All his nonsense is finished. That's a fact. He must become a devotee.
Hari-śauri: Everybody's telling them that "Whatever you believe, that's all right. It's all the same." You're telling them that "You either accept Kṛṣṇa or you're a demon."
Yaśomatī-nandana: Just now the political situation in India is so...
Prabhupāda: Tense.
Yaśomatī-nandana: So tense.
Prabhupāda: Congress position is not good.
Yaśomatī-nandana: Not good this time. And therefore we can always expect a big shock at the last moment from Mrs. Gandhi. She's so...
Prabhupāda: Emergency.
Yaśomatī-nandana: Yes. She's such a snakelike...
Prabhupāda: She has become unpopular.
Yaśomatī-nandana: She has become very unpopular now. (end)
Correspondence
1975 Correspondence
Whatever fund is collected for food distribution should be sent to India. Why is it not sent? The other funds coming from sales of books can be accounted for properly, so where is there any fraud? Sometimes a salesman can say something extraordinary in order to sell something, but that is not fraud. Just like they are selling this oil, saying that if you rub it on your bald head, hair will grow. Where is the case where a bald man's hair grew from this oil? But the government is not charging with fraud. Don't use these UNICEF cards, that will not be good. You can make ISKCON FOOD RELIEF cards. But the money collected using this card must be sent to India where we are actually feeding people. If we simply speak nicely to a person and try sincerely to get him to take the book he'll take it. Why should we adopt unfair means? We should not do anything which will create a bad impression or make us unpopular. People are after these books, they are hankering for them. We don't need to take cheating method. I never had to use any cheating method when I first began. I simply presented the real thing.
Regarding the controversy about book distribution techniques, you are right. Our occupation must be honest. Everyone should adore our members as honest. If we do something which is deteriorating to the popular sentiments of the public in favor of our movement, that is not good. Somehow or other we should not become unpopular in the public eye. These dishonest methods must be stopped. It is hampering our reputation all over the world. Money collected for feeding people in India should be collected under the name ISKCON Food Relief. Not any other name. And every farthing of that money must be sent to India, or better yet, buy food grains there and ship them here and we will distribute. But every farthing collected for that purpose must be used for that purpose. I have already sent one letter to Ramesvara explaining these points.
1976 Correspondence
I am in due receipt of your letter dated 13rd September, 1976 and have noted the contents. Regarding the editorial policy of BTG, if the editorial board is not expert enough they should be changed. Dr. O.B.L. Kapoor also had put a similar complaint. Yes, scientific articles must be published when sent by our men. I cannot see every article, but some of you should examine why nice articles are rejected. See if the board can be changed. If experienced editors are not there it will be unpopular magazine. These things are to be seen to immediately by the GBC. The board should be judged immediately and be changed if required.
| Page Title: | Unpopular |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti |
| Created: | 13 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=1, OB=1, Lec=5, Con=12, Let=3 |
| No. of Quotes: | 23 |