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You are animal of land. If you are put into the water, however expert swimmer you may be, you'll not be comfortable

Expressions researched:
"You are animal of land. If you are put into the water, however expert swimmer you may be, you'll not be comfortable"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

If you go into the sea and if you want to be comfortable, this is foolishness. You cannot be. You are animal of land. If you are put into the water, however expert swimmer you may be, you'll not be comfortable. That's not possible. So you are spirit soul. You cannot be comfortable in the material world. You can struggle, but that is not possible.

Prabhupāda: Miserable condition. So miserable condition is called māyā. The answer is in the Bhagavad-gītā, how we can surpass: mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. Clear answer. "Anyone who surrenders unto Me, he can get out of this miserable condition offered by the māyā." They're eating; the wave came. Again trying. This is struggle for existence. Survival of the fittest. Who survives? Who is the living entity who has surpassed the tribulations of material nature? Where is the fit?

Darwin's theory: survival of the fittest. Who is that fit? Nobody's fit. Even the so-called scientists, they are also not fit. Professor Einstein, when there was death, he could not save. He must die. So nobody's fit. Where is the survival of the fittest? Simply struggle for existence. Survival of the fittest means Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). This is fittest.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They were talking about the temporary existence of the material body.

Prabhupāda: Eh? That is foolishness. That is foolishness. Just like if you go into the sea and if you want to be comfortable, this is foolishness. You cannot be. You are animal of land. If you are put into the water, however expert swimmer you may be, you'll not be comfortable. That's not possible. So you are spirit soul. You cannot be comfortable in the material world. You can struggle, but that is not possible. And they are simply giving bluff, "In future, we shall. In future." This is rascaldom. They don't admit that it is not possible.

They simply give bluff, "In future." You see? "In future, it will be," we can also accept that, provided you have taken the proper means. But where is your future if you are wrongly directed? A child's future is bright when we see that he's being educated, he's going to school. But he's in the . . . playing on the street, where is his future? He has no future. He's wasting his time.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is the favorite theory for the scientists.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They like to do things in future.

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. We say it is nonsense. In future, it is all right. You say: "In future . . .", but where is your method for future prosperity? That I am talking. If a child is getting proper education, then we can say that he has got a good future. But if the child is wrongly directed, where is his future? A patient who has gone to the physician and undergoing treatment, he can expect in future he will be cured. But if he's lying down on the bed and does not know who is physician, then where is his future? He has no future.

So all these leaders, they're rascals, and who are following these rascals, where is his future? He has no future. They're all rascals. Anyone accepting, "This rascal is a great scientist," so his future is doomed.

Brahmānanda: The blind leading the blind.

Prabhupāda: That's all. They do not . . . he does not know what is future happiness. He does not know.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They don't want to admit that.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say they cannot do at the moment, but somebody will come up in future so they can show. But they don't want to admit . . .

Prabhupāda: So that's all right, but, at the present moment, you are rascal. Somebody when come, intelligent, that is another thing, but you are rascal. So why you are leading, cheating others? That is our protest, that you know that you are a rascal, and you are cheating others to become leader. That is our protest.

Why should you cheat others? Mūḍha. If he says that "How do you know I am rascal?" Because you do not know God. Therefore you rascal. Mūḍha. Na māṁ prapadyante mūḍhāḥ (BG 7.15). If you are . . . would have known what is God, then you would have surrendered to Him. Then you are intelligent. But because you do not surrender, you do not know what is God, therefore you are rascal. This is the definition of rascal. Jñānavān māṁ prapadyate. And intelligent means one who surrenders. He's intelligent. One who does not, he's rascal.

Brahmānanda: We have to expose these rascals.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our business.

(pause)

Na māṁ prapadyante mūḍhāḥ duṣkṛtino narādhama (BG 7.15). Always engaged in sinful activities. And because they are sinful, they have been given food by nature: "Eat dog. Eat the snail. Eat stool." Are these things eatables? And those who are intelligent, Kṛṣṇa conscious? For them, fruits, flowers, cāpāṭīs, nice things.

Brahmānanda: The swans and the crows.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The swans and the crows. So expose them as crows.

(pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The leaders in our society, nowadays, seems that they forget their own present moment, but they're thinking for their children, future.

Prabhupāda: So how they are thinking? If he does not know, what is the use of thinking rascally? One can think properly if he knows things. If he does not know, then what is the use of thinking? The madman also thinks. What is the use of such thinking? Now our thinking begins from the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13): as the body's changing from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, similarly the proprietor of the body will change this body at the last moment. Death means changing of the body. This is the . . .

Now we can think. When there is proper subject matter, then you can think: how it is, how the changes. You have no proper subject matter, nobody is to guide you, what is the value of your thinking? Like dogs and cats. You do not know how to think. That is possible. How to think, that is possible in human life. So if you don't take up opportunity how to think, then what is the use of your thinking like cats and dogs? Simply wasting time.

The valuable life, you are wasting. Making experiment in the laboratory, nonsensically, that from matter they'll create life. You see. How this nonsense . . .? What is the use of such thinking, which is never possible? These rascals are thinking on that, in that way, that they'll in future produce life from matter, which has never been possible in the history, past, present, and they're thinking, "Oh, bright future." That potter's thinking. Yes.

Brahmānanda: Actually, the future looks very dim because of the military. They've created such a military threat with their atomic bombs and armies and so on.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Brahmānanda: The future is very bad because of their military burden, atomic bombs. This is what the scientists have created. They're thinking a bright future, but actually the future is . . .

Prabhupāda: Very dark.

Brahmānanda: . . . seems very dark.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Idle brain is a devil's workshop. If they're not directed, then think like devil. We are thinking rightly because we are taking direction from Kṛṣṇa, the most perfect. Therefore our thinking has meaning. And what is the value of their thinking? It has no value. Now we are thinking . . . just like, take the first instruction, that within this body there is the proprietor of the body. You can go on thinking, "Then am I this body?"

So you can think on your finger, "I am this finger?" The answer from the within will come, "No, you are not finger. It is your finger. It is your finger. You are not finger." If I am finger, then if I cut my finger, why shall I not die, if I am finger? Therefore it is my finger. Just like I'll never think that I am this stick. It is my stick. That is thinking. That is thinking. If I wrongly think that I am this body, then your whole thinking process is wrong. And they are thinking like that, that we are this body.

Page Title:You are animal of land. If you are put into the water, however expert swimmer you may be, you'll not be comfortable
Compiler:SharmisthaK
Created:2022-09-03, 09:15:30
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1