So, so far the symptoms of this age are concerned, it will gradually deteriorate, gradually. We have got experience also, practical. Things are moving very rapidly toward worst, not towards best. Things are moving very rapidly. This is the symptom of this age. So our program is that they are trying to adjust things. Things cannot be adjusted unless we stand on the spiritual platform, because the actual necessity is spiritual demand. The best example is your country. Materially, you are so much advanced. No other country can be compared. But a section of younger generation, they feel frustrated, confused. Why? They are brought up very nicely. The government system is very nice. They can get education. Everything is complete. But still, they are not happy. They are finding something else which will make them happy. Why? This is spiritual demand. Just like this child cannot express what is the trouble. May be some ant is there within the bedding, and it is cutting on his delicate body, but he cannot express what is the actual trouble. Cries, expression of difficulty.

So here is the expert physician, Nārada Muni. And he is advising his disciple to make him expert. This is called paramparā system. In the same way, we are coming from the same disciplic succession. As Nārada Muni was expert physician for curing this material disease, similarly, he made Vyāsadeva expert physician; Vyāsadeva made Madhvācārya expert physician. So one has to come down in that disciplic succession and become expert physician, or bona fide spiritual master. Here, as we require to go to a physician, to a medical man, for curing our material, I mean, bodily diseases, similarly, to cure our material disease, one has to approach an expert spiritual, bona fide spiritual master. Otherwise it is not possible. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet. That is the injunction of the Vedas. Tad-vijñānārtham. If you want to know what is your healthy life, normal life, spiritual life…

Prabhupāda: Hmm. So the impersonalists or the voidists, so where is their God? So there is no God for them. Impersonal. So there is no activity. What they will hear and where they will chant? If you have no activity, then what shall I hear about you? If you are a dead stone, then what can I hear? Simply one…, a big stone. That’s all. So they have no this opportunity. These impersonalists, they are so unfortunate that they cannot hear. As soon as there is some activity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they will say, “It is māyā.” That is called Māyāvāda. “These are…, our activities, māyā, and therefore God’s activities are also māyā.” A poor fund of knowledge, or rascaldom. “Because I cannot do this, therefore God cannot do this. I am pleased in this way; therefore God can be… Permanent, they are identical.” Big, big sannyāsī explained like that. “When I am pleased, God is pleased. When I am dissatisfied, God is dissatisfied.”

Prabhupāda: So here the most important word is yudhiṣṭhiro dharma-bhṛtāṁ variṣṭhaḥ. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was known as Dharmarāja, very strictly following religious principles. So he killed… For his sake, sixty-four crores of men were killed in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. So he was not happy, although the battle, the fight, was religious fight. It is not whimsical. Just like in the modern days the politicians, they fight unnecessarily to fulfill their desire… Just like in our country, unnecessarily they divided Pakistan, and to fulfill the whims of the leaders, they are fighting, with nobody’s gain, neither there is any religious principles. So fighting whimsically by the politicians, that is not sanctioned. There must be dharma-yuddha. Dharma-yuddha means religious fight, fight on religious principles. So what was the religious principle? [aside:] Hmm, where is that mat? [Bengali] Here it is said, hatvā ātatāyinaḥ. Ātatāyī means aggressor. If somebody comes to your home to kidnap your wife, to take by force your property or to set fire in your house, he is called ātatāyī. He should immediately be killed. It is not that nonviolence nonsense. If somebody is coming to attack you unnecessarily, you must kill him first. It is not Vaiṣṇavism, “Oh, this man is coming to kill me. All right, let me embrace him.” No. That is not the rule. When there is ātatāyī, aggressor, you must fight, you must kill. That is religious.

So this was a discussion between Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. So the subject of discussion was that although the battle was declared, Arjuna, when he actually found that “On the other side there are my relatives,” how he could slain them? Kṛṣṇa advised that “Everyone must execute his prescribed duty without consideration of any personal loss or gain.” According to Vedic civilization, there are four divisions of the society. Everywhere the same divisions are there all over the world. This is very natural. Just like we can study from our own body, there is head, there is arm, there is belly and there is leg, similarly, in the society there must be a class of men who should be considered as brain; another class of men should be there who will protect the society from danger; another class of men will be expert in producing food grains and give protection to the cows and make trade; so, and the rest class of men, namely who cannot work as brain neither can work as protector from danger, nor they can produce food grains or give protection to the cows, they are called śūdras—as you cannot avoid, to make your body complete, the brain department, the arms department, the belly department and the walking or working department.

Prabhupāda: We. [laughter] [break] There was an artificial famine in India, and I particularly inquired from all devotees whether they have got any problem in this famine. They said, “No, we have no problem.” I have taken the statistics. In 1942 the artificial famine created by government… So there were big earthquake in Bihar. At that time one of my Godbrother, he was government auditor. So I inquired. In that earthquake only his house was saved. I have seen it many times. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati. That is the only… samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām. It is not meant for them, all these dangerous condition. Now the nuclear war means it will not continue very long. The first party who will drop the bomb on the other party, he will be victorious, and immediately the war will stop. They are simply arranging how to drop the atom bomb first. So one who will be able to drop the bomb first, he will be victorious. It doesn’t require long time. Just like in Japan, as soon as the Americans dropped the atom bomb in Hiroshima, immediately they surrendered. This will be the result. Now the question is who will be able to drop the bomb first.

Prabhupāda: When he…, when he became king, his brother was slain. Govinda dāsī: Yes. Prabhupāda: He fought with the Yakṣas and killed them. He was a young man. Yes. It is very nice. Govinda dāsī: Do you like it? Prabhupāda: Mmm! Govinda dāsī: I mean, do you like the idea? Prabhupāda: Yes. So you can make such picture book. Govinda dāsī: I just have to learn to work faster. Prabhupāda: So we can sell. You can make good income out of it.

Prabhupāda: No, there is a science. It is called ākāśa-paṭala. And, by yogic process, without any help from any machine, I mean to say, any vehicle, you can go yourself. Just like Nārada Muni goes everywhere. He can go anywhere. That is called laghima-siddhi. Laghimā. Laghimā means you become so light that you will be carried by the air. And you can believe it. Just like your mind, you can immediately carry you thousands of miles away. So although I am sitting here, immediately I can go in my mind to Māyāpura. I am sitting in my room and talking in this way; with my subtle mind, immediately. So the mind is so speedy that in one second you can reach Māyāpura, 15,000 miles away—within a second. That is everyone knows. But the gross body cannot do that. Your mind can do it. If I want to transfer my body here immediately to Māyāpura, that will not go. But by yogic process you can do it. That is called laghima-siddhi. Yogī, real yogī, means they attain perfection in eight items: aṇimā, laghimā, mahimā, then prāpti-siddhi, īśitva, vaśitva.

Prabhupāda: The clay, you make a framework with straw and apply the clay. It becomes quickly done. If you have got a frame, then it is very easy. You just apply the clay and then finish it nicely. Vṛṣṇi: What kind of…, what kind of clay do they use? Is it baked or…? Prabhupāda: Ordinary clay. They mix with some straw dust and cow dung. That is not permanent, but they very quickly work, one or two days they make one doll. Our Bharadvāja knows it perfectly. He is doing already, clay. They are so expert, in one day they will make one doll. And as soon as it is little dried up, then there are cracks, then they will finish it, fill up these cracks, and then at last they fix up the head. Head at last. Head is not straw; clay. Head is solid clay, but body made of straw and rope. Very quick business. One day they make the form, and the next day they cover it with clay, and the third day or fourth day, and it is dried up and finished. In this way, at most takes one week.

Prabhupāda: What is the central attraction? They have been accustomed—this is very reasonable; they will understand—they have been accustomed to material things, of which intoxication and women is the chief. So if you don’t give them some attraction, they will keep the same attractions in the village: the same intoxication, wine, meat-eating, gambling. So they will not be happy. They will import the same thing, because they have no other attraction. So if you give us chance, we can give them spiritual attraction. If you allow us that some of us can go and give them spiritual attraction. And practically the hippies, drug-addicted, they have attracted, they have got attraction now for Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, and they have given up their other bad habits, eating meat and drinking and illicit sex, gambling. If these things are imported again into the village, they must have some attraction. Because living entity is ānanda, sac-cid-ānanda, part and parcel of God. They want eternal, blissful life of knowledge. That is their hankering. So if you keep faith with them, give them knowledge, eternal knowledge, and more or less, just like Dhruva Maharaja accepted blissful life of eternal knowledge. He said, svāmin kṛtārtho’smi varaṁ na yāce. Eternal. That’s…, that is the way. Why the village people are attracted by the cities? When they come to the city they see, “Oh, it is heaven. So nice roads are there, they are very nicely riding on motorcars and buses, ...

Prabhupāda: That’s all right, then why don’t you follow Christ? Christ says “Thou shall not kill,” then why do you interpret? “Christ ate meat, therefore we shall open slaughterhouse,” this is rascaldom. This rascaldom [indistinct]. Because maybe somewhere he has eaten fish, therefore, by following in his footsteps, we shall open slaughterhouse and kill thousands of animals daily. The evidence is Christ has eaten fish. Do they not say that? And they are Christians. All others are sinful [indistinct], that’s all right, why don’t you kill [indistinct]. Several times these Christians [indistinct]. Devotee: Everyone in the world is becoming tenth-class men, but Śrīla Prabhupāda is turning the whole thing around. Had you not come, there would be no hope for the whole world.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is practical training. That is wanted. Simply theoretical knowledge… That is helpful, but training, that is the greatest need, that we have to create a set of first-class men. Then the world will be all right. That is an attempt of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, to make first class, ideal. Why they’ll be attracted? They are seeing that “The priests are doing the same thing as we are doing.” So how they will be attracted? Therefore Christianity is failing. They are also having the meat, illicit sex, drunkard—and they’re priest.

This is the analytical study of our material position. Very clear analysis. We, pañcabhiḥ, with five working senses—voice…, vāk, pāṇi, pāyu, udāra, upastha… Voice, arms, legs, anus and genital. There are twenty-four. The total material constituent parts are twenty-five, sometimes twenty-six they say. These seventeen, and the five elements gross and three subtle elements, in this way, altogether twenty-five including the soul. The soul is pure spirit, and other twenty-four elements, they are different varieties of material covering. In this way we are entangled, and we are desiring, and nature is giving us facility to enjoy our desires. This is the material world.