once infected must suffer

So we have to give up this body and we have to accept another body. So labor or work for such body which will no more be material body. This is intelligence. Mad-yajino 'pi yanti mam [Bg 9.25]. Next body means as we are acting, according to the resultant action of our activities we get next body. Karmana daiva-netrena jantur deha upapattaye [SB 3.31.1]. How you get next life? In this life we are acting in a certain way, and by nature we shall get a similar body. Nature's law is so perfect that the law you... Just like infection. I have several times explained: you infect some disease, the disease will come out. Not that somebody will come to award you the disease. By nature's way it will come out. If you say that "Somebody will come," no. The nature's law is so perfect. Just like if you touch fire, immediately it will burn, not that you have to wait. Similarly, nature's law. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, prakrteḥ kriyamanani gunaiḥ karmani sarvasaḥ [Bg 3.27]. As you are associating with different modes of material nature, you are creating your future.    (More...)

Tamala Krsna: They think I'm an Indian. " 'If anyone comes around to our prasadam distribution program, that means he is hungry. If he is hungry, that means he cannot listen to our philosophy. If his hunger is not satisfied, he'll never become Krsna conscious. That is the point. If we just went around with a program of speaking and kirtana, they would come once or twice but they wouldn't see its practical value. But if you give them prasadam daily with kirtana and speaking, eventually you can convince them, "Look, this is our most practical way of life. Why don't you come and live with us completely and work with us?" ' " That's a quote from an article in Back to Godhead. "Though food is far more plentiful in the United States than in India, prasadam appeal seems to work its magic here just as well. The entire movement began only ten years ago in a storefront temple in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Today it owns the largest publishing house of Hindu classics, many in demand for leading university courses. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust in Los Angeles, the world's largest, last year's gross of one million dollars; incense-producing Spiritual Sky Scented Products Company; and Krsna Fashions Incorporated, a wholesale clothing manufacturer. An important portion of the movement's income comes from the contributions of lay devotees, who are successful businessmen. More comes from street-corner solicitation of alms by devotees during kirtana. How significant the last is was shown recently by the closing down of elevator service in the New York center. 'A lot of us are going on pilgrimage to India,' said Alahkara dasa. 'There won't be many around to beg. These elevators cost us $2,200 a month to run. So we're cutting down except for essential services.' " We don't do that anymore. That was the previous mismanagement. Someone had the idea that if you turn off the elevator, that's very good. But I told him if you're not going to run the elevator, then why did you move here? They had people walking up eleven stories, and it was crazy, just to save... Anyway, "These include moving foodstuffs and milk into the building. Much of the food comes from a 350-acre ISKCON-owned dairy farm in Academia, Pennsylvania, one of the six similar facilities in this country and Canada." They show pictures of devotees in the temple, devotees taking prasadam and two lady devotees. "The yoga," it says under the captions, "monks take breakfast by hand in rows on the dining area floor." Here it says, "Saried women devotees dwell in cloister atmosphere of the center." Then "The yoga of devotion: Tilaka of clay paste marks the devotee as a member of ISKCON sect. Central shrine in the temple is the focal point of twice a day services." A picture of Radha-Govinda. " 'Our life is our meditation' said a sikha-ed, saffron-clad monk in the Hare Krsna center. 'Everything we do is offered to Sri Krsna, but in addition to that there is the personal chanting, most...' " [break] "...slung from the devotee's neck. He often counts the beads without taking his hand from the pouch. In the early hours the Hare Krsna center buzzes with a droning sound, difficult to identify by the stranger who does not know that it comes from the monks, who are beginning their required sixteen rounds." They have given everything very detailed. "The personal chanting sometimes occurs in unusual situations-while escorting a visitor to the center, while waiting to complete a phone call, or even during pauses in a conversation." [laughter] Devotees are always chanting. " 'The mahamantra is the only mantra needed' the devotee says. Besides the sixteen rounds, devotees are expected to observe four rules. They must abstain from meat-eating, intoxication, gambling and illicit sex. Illicit sex is defined as any sexual act other than that intended for procreation. Sex outside of marriage is forbidden. Married, full-time devotees may have sexual relationship once a month at a time propitious for procreation. All the devotee's activities are regarded as bhakti-yoga, the yoga of devotion. He regards everything he does as service to God. The name he is given at initiation is followed by the word dasa, 'a servant.' Full-time ISKCON devotees adopt Vedic dress, one objective being to keep others aware of Krsna. Women wear saris, the men dhotis; both may wear shawls. The men shave their heads except for a single lock of hair at the back. [See the article 'The Krsna Cut.'] The lock, called a sikha, identifies the followers of Krsna." Actually, no one can imitate us because no one wants to give up their hair, so no one will try to make believe they are devotees. "Shaving the head announces renunciation of material pleasures. The tilaka is a mark made with clay-two narrow vertical stripes on the forehead meeting in a triangular swatch on the bridge of the nose. It identifies the body as a temple to be used only in the service of God. Full-time students follow a rigorously monastic life. They arise at four a.m. in the morning, begin four hours of prayer and chanting. At nine o'clock they have breakfast, seated cross-legged on mats on the floor. The men eat apart from the women. During the day devotees work at various preaching programs or at regular jobs. At seven p.m. devotional services are held in the center's temple. In Manhattan this features an ornate shrine including representations of Krsna and His consort, Radhe. Both are costumed sumptuously with elaborate care; both wear festoons of flowers. Visitors are cautioned, 'When you go in the temple remember that these statues you see are not representations of the Deities, they are the Deities. Krsna is in everything. Krsna is everywhere.' Temple kirtana." There's a picture. "Eleven-story New York sect's center is former Carmelite Baird home." Picture of the temple. "Services in the temple are attended by about five hundred every Sunday. Many of these are from New York's Hindu population. Frequently husbands bring their pregnant wives, dedicating their unborn child to Krsna. The kirtana begins with the chanting of the maha-mantra, slowly at first and melodiously. Later the chant will speed up as the spirit of the devotion spreads. Often the most rapid and intense chanting is done by a hard-core knot of dhoti-ed men before the curtains of the shrine." The devotees get in one group and start... [laughter] Hard-core devotees. "The rhythm approaches that of an express train, and the atmosphere is apt to remind a lay visitor of an old-fashioned football rally. Some of the onlookers try to keep up with the central group, clapping their hands, swaying their bodies, throwing arms upwards and, among the younger, adapting modern dance steps to the rhythm. When the shrine curtains are drawn back, devotees kneel and press their foreheads..."    (More...)

Prabhupada: So then pay more money. "Come on. You have earned money and give me. I shall give you food. And whatever I shall ask, you have to pay." This simple thing: more demand-price is more. Then why do you gripe, "Oh, everything is price growing, price growing." Why it will not? If I have got food, and you have to purchase, and I have got so many customers, I must increase. That is economic theory: more demand-the price is increased. And then you say, "There are so many problems we have to solve first." But you have created this problem, rascal. And you shall must suffer. You have infected some disease. Now you must suffer. It is like, say, karanam guna-sahgo 'sya [Bg 13.22]. The reason is that you have infected some quality of the modes of nature, and you must suffer for that. How you can deny it? If you have infected some disease like cholera, smallpox, and when you are suffering, how you can blaim? You have infected; you must suffer. Nature's law is so strict that as soon as you infect a particular type of quality of nature-there are so many-you must suffer for that, or so-called enjoy. There are two things: suffer and enjoy. So you must have to undergo the process. This is... Nature's process is so nice. As soon as you do something, there is reaction and you are bound up. Yajnarthe karma anyatra loko 'yam karma bandhanaḥ [Bg 3.9]. Bandhanaḥ means bound up. Immediately you become bound up. And still you are thinking "independent." The nature's law is so strict.    (More...)

So maha-bhaga yatha eva narakat naraḥ. So this is Sixth Canto. In the Fifth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam there is description of the hellish condition of life. According to the... Just like there is punishment according to criminality, similarly, there is punishment by nature's law. According to impious life, there is punishment. So people do not care for impious life. That is misfortune. No knowledge. Impious or vicious activities are done out of ignorance. Just like a person commits some criminality without knowing the laws, government laws. Ordinarily, just like in your country, "Keep to the right." If you drive your car on the left side, immediately you become a criminal. So in our country the car is driven on the left side. In this country the car is driven on the right side. So if some Indian gentleman says that "I am accustomed to drive on the left side. So what is wrong there?" "No, this country's law is 'right side.' You know or do not know, whatever may be in your country, because you have driven your car on the left side, you are criminal." So ignorance is no excuse. In the law court if you say, "Sir, it was not known to me," so that does not mean that you will be excused. Similarly, knowingly or unknowingly, if you do something sinful act, then you are immediately criminal. You'll be punishable. It doesn't matter whether you know or not know. Just like fire. This child, if he touches the fire, the fire will not excuse. There is no consideration, "Sir, here is a little child. He does not know this fire is burning." But as soon as he touches, it will burn. This is nature's law. You infect some disease knowingly or unknowingly, it doesn't matter, but the disease will be manifest. Suppose you have infected smallpox infection, contamination. Then it will be manifest.    (More...)