Evening Lecture at Gītā-Nagarī Farm – July 16, 1976, Port Royal

Krsna is so fond of that Vrndavana village life

Prabhupada: [sings: Jaya Radha-Madhava]

jaya om visnu-pada paramahamsa parivrajakacarya astottara-sata sri srimad bhaktisiddhanta sarasvati gosvami prabhupada ki jaya. ananta-koti vaisnava-vrnda ki jaya. namacarya srila haridasa thakura ki jaya. premse kaho sri-krsna-caitanya-prabhu-nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda ki jaya. sri sri radha-krsna gopa-gopinatha syama-kunḍa radha-kunḍa giri-govardhana ki jaya. vrndavana-dhama ki jaya. navadvipa-dhama ki jaya. samaveta-bhakta-vrnda ki jaya.

All glories to assembled devotees. Thank you very much.

Devotees: All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

[devotees offer obeisances]

[05:45]

So Krsna consciousness means to follow the instruction of Krsna. Our life has a certain aim in this material world. Sometimes we forget. Material world means forgetting our aim of life. That is natural. The basic principle of material life is forgetting Krsna:

When we forget… Forgetfulness is our nature. We are not as perfect as God; therefore there are so many inefficiencies. So forgetfulness is also another material quality. So material life means forgetting Krsna. Maya means when one has forgotten his relationship with Krsna. That is called maya. So Krsna is very kind. When we forget too much… This material world is forgetfulness, but still, according to the Vedic system, Krsna consciousness is maintained to some extent if you follow the Vedic principles. Then we revive our God consciousness, our relationship. That is explained by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu when He was talking with Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, that the Vedic principle is to revive or to remind our relationship with Krsna. In the Bhagavad-gita also Krsna says, vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ [Bg 15.15]: the real purpose of Vedic knowledge is to come to the understanding of Krsna consciousness.

So this Krsna consciousness movement is trying to revive the original, constitutional position. So one of them, in Krsna consciousness movement, is village organization, as you are trying here. Krsna, in His natural life, is a village boy in Vrndavana. Vrndavana is a village. There is no factory, there is no motorcar, there is no big, big skyscraper buildings; it is village. That Krsna likes. In the sastra it is said, vrndavanam parityajya padam ekam na gacchati [Laghu-bhagavatamrta 1.5.461]. Krsna is so fond of that Vrndavana village life, with His cowherd boys and cowherd girls, gopis, mother Yasoda, father Nanda, and Upananda, uncles, and big family, the cows and the calves, the trees, the Yamuna River. He is satisfied in that life. So at least those who are Krsna conscious, they should be satisfied with simple life in the village. That is part of Krsna consciousness.

But it does not mean that we shall avoid city life or town life. No. Everything, every place is Krsna's place. Everywhere there should be Krsna consciousness. But if we keep ourself within the village and properly organize, as Krsna personally showed us the example… He was personally taking care of the cows, calves. When He was a child, He was taking care of the calves. When He was grown up, He was taking care of the cows, although He was a very rich man's son; Nanda Maharaja was the village king. But still, He was working hard whole day, going in the morning to the pasturing ground and coming back in the evening. Then He used to take His bathing, change dress and immediately go to sleep. This was Krsna's pastime. So we should follow His footprints. What is that verse? Asraddadhanaḥ dharmasyasya…

Devotee: …dharmasyasya paran-tapa.

Prabhupada: Eh?

So whatever Krsna has taught by His personal life, by His teaching, to follow that is Krsna consciousness. Everything is there in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. His personal life is there, and Bhagavad-gita, His teachings are there, and He comes for this purpose: paritranaya sadhūnam vinasaya ca duskrtam [Bg 4.8], those who are naturally God-conscious, to deliver them, to make their life perfect, in this life. This life should be the last material life, and next life they should go directly to Krsna, mam eti. Tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti [Bg 4.9].

If we become fully Krsna conscious, simply try to understand what is Krsna, there is no difficulty. Krsna is the supreme controller. There is a supreme controller-that we have to accept, as we were discussing in the bus this morning. There is no way out. [laughter] There is no way out, that you will deny the supreme controller. So many material controllers. If you are a sane man, you'll understand very easily. And that supreme controller is Krsna. He comes personally and says,

There is no other controller above Krsna; therefore He is the supreme controller, isvaraḥ paramaḥ krsnaḥ [Bs 5.1], the supreme controller. The supreme controller, He is giving us instruction. If we follow His instruction, very simple, and remain in this village, satisfied with simple life, agricultural produce, milk, cows-how many nice things you have produced-where is the difficulty? There is no economic problem. You are getting so much milk that it is becoming a problem how to utilize it. [laughter]

And there is scarcity of milk. In India we are in scarcity of milk. So, krsi-go-raksya-vanijyam [Bg 18.44]. If you have got enough milk, you can make trade. Vanijyam, that is Krsna's instruction. You can… It is not that we hate the modern system. No. We do not hate anything. Nirbandhaḥ krsna-sambandhe [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 2.255]. We want to try to engage everything in Krsna's service. That is our [indistinct]. The modern machine is there; we don't hate it. We must find out the means how this machine can be utilized for Krsna's service. So if you have got excess milk, you can make it powdered milk, and you can send to India in any amount-it will be consumed. At least we can use it in our different centers; we can distribute. So there is no question. Besides that, you can prepare ghee from milk. From milk, first of all drink as much as you like, then convert it into yogurt next day, next day, next day. And then, when that is also enough, then churn it, take out butter-buttermilk and butter-and drink the buttermilk with chapati. It is very palatable, very nutritious. Then butter, if you have got excess butter, then turn into ghee, and ghee can be preserved for years. There's no question of preservation. You send it to cities and towns. And we are now encouraging to open prasada distribution restaurant. They can utilize the ghee. Then where is the problem? There is no problem. Each drop of milk you can utilize to the perfect utility point. Simply.

And if there is excess cows, you have got some woods, so you cut out the trees and make an encirclement and keep them there. They will live there. So there is no problem. Krsna was maintaining 900,000 cows. There is no problem. But give protection to the cows. That is the order of Krsna. We cannot be ungrateful, that we kill our mother. Milk is so important. We are drinking the milk of the cow, and in exchange, if we cut throat of the mother, that is not civilization. That is barbarism, less than animal. Animals also, they have respect for mother. So try to give protection to the cows-that is the way of pious activity-and you'll be not in scarcity. And live village life, simple life, and be satisfied with the bare necessities. There is no need of luxury. And save time and chant Hare Krsna. This is ideal life.

So I am very pleased that you are doing that, and do it more nicely, so that others may be attracted. This town life, industrial life, factory life, is asuric life. It is killing the human civilization. It is killing civilization. So there are many other businesses for a Krsna conscious person, because in the Bhagavad-gita, Krsna speaks all round: sociology, politics, philosophy, religion, culture, economics… Everything is there. If you simply try to follow Krsna's instructions, then you get cultural life all round.

So this is an ideal village. Develop it more and more. Our Paramananda is there. He is very experienced, and others are there. Do it very nicely. I am very happy to see that things are going nicely. Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Srila Prabhupada. [offer obeisances]

[21:50]

[kirtana]

[end]