Railway Robbery

Jayadvaita dasa: The British built the railroads.

Tamala Krsna Maharaja: The British built the railroads to link up all the big cities so that people would no longer live in villages. The British induced the villagers to come to the cities to work in the factories. Then they took all the goods and all of India's wealth to Britain. Gandhi's movement was to stop this. What did Gandhi say? Village industry. Go back to the village; begin the small, industries. Decentralize, dematerialize, deindustrialize. He had the intelligence to see that this was required. But unfortunately by the time so-called independence came, the people were already materialized to a great extent; enough people had become so polluted that they could no longer go back.

The materialistic disease eats away at a man's intelligence so that he loses the strength to realize his fallen condition; instead, he sees his fallen position as superior. But how has the city man actually improved his condition? Has he solved any of the real problems of life, such as birth, death, disease and old age? No. Does he actually know who he is-that he is pure spirit soul, not his body? No. So what is the gain? He lives in a big, comfortable house, complete with all luxuries and a big bank balance. But at the time of death, how will any of these help him? Can he take his house or bank balance with him? You see, the material disease is so bewildering that at the time of death a man clings desperately to all his possessions. All his life he has identified himself with his body and his possessions, instead of cultivating knowledge of the true self, the soul, and the real possession, love of God. As a result he dies in misery and ignorance, destined for a hellish future. But just as a crazy man thinks that he's sane and everyone else is insane, so a materially diseased person thinks, "I'm very well off, but the other man is not." The man in the village? "Oh, barbaric, backwards, impoverished." You see? But the Vedic villager lives simply and honestly, and with the better part of his time he cultivates spiritual knowledge. He has real wealth: knowledge of the self, of God, and his relationship with God.