But even they eat meat they can chant Hare Krishna, there is no harm.
After his morning rest Srila Prabhupada relaxed with Parivrajakacarya Swami, Pradyumna and me in his room. He talked more about his favorite subject material scientists. The newspapers are still full of stories about the American landing on Mars, and their soil sampling for evidence of life. He condemned them all as bluffers and cheaters. He said that to accept the moon and Mars as simply stone, sand, and desert means we have to reject all the Vedic sastras. Why is everything simply sand, he asked. Even here we see deserts, mountains, fertile regions, cities, ice, snow, and seas, every type of condition, and life everywhere. So why not on the moon as well? Laughing, he said that the scientists are so unfortunate that everywhere they go is simply desert. He also asked why, if the moon is different from Earth, Mars is the same as the moon?
He stressed that our approach is also scientific, that we don't speak anything unscientific. Even if we accept that there is only sand, that means there must have been water originally, for sand is formed from water. And as soon as there is water, there must be vegetation. And from vegetation there must come other forms of life. The modern scientist's version that there was originally gas which liquified and then became solid agrees with the Srimad-Bhagavatam's version which describes how each of the panca-bhuta, the five basic material elements, come one from the other: ether, air, fire, water and then earth.
Prabhupada rejected outright my explanation that they say no life can exist on these planets because there is no atmosphere to support it. He said there was no question of there being no atmosphere. Some kind of atmosphere is present, but it is simply of a different type. Even on the sun there is life because the living beings there have bodies predominantly made from fire. He quoted Bhagavad-gita 2.23 (and chided me for not knowing immediately where the reference was when he quoted the Sanskrit) which states that every living entity can live anywhere, in all conditions because the soul is unaffected by material conditions.
"So where is question of atmosphere influence?" Prabhupada asked. "Suppose there is rock and sand and always hot weather; that does not mean there cannot be any life. The life is never affected by all these things. Make propaganda about this knowledge. People will understand that Krishna consciousness movement is not joking; it is something serious. That boy was saying that these scientist, they know me, the so-called astronomer, scientist? Who was this boy?"
"Yes. Jnanagamya. He used to do some science research as well," I said.
Parivrajakacarya Maharaja said that scientists think that if we have not seen something, it doesn't exist.
"You have to see from the book," Srila Prabhupada replied. "Seeing from the book is real seeing. What you can see with these blunt eyes? I have seen in these navigators. They see in the different plans and books, and they direct their ship or airplane accordingly. How can he see where we are going? They have got all plans and direction, and altitude, latitude, which direction is going on in front of the pilot. So everything is there. In what position the plane is there, how high it is and how low it will be, where it is, everything. On that direction they can fly. Otherwise, what they can see with the eyes? At most ten miles, and it is running at six hundred miles? What ten miles will do them? So sastra-cakshushat. Authoritative literature should be the eyes, not these blunt eyes. What is the value of these eyes? Here is authority: nainam dahati pavakah. You should go to the school, colleges, and from Bhagavad-gita give them knowledge. The whole world is in darkness, and these rascals are guiding them."
As he relaxed on his asana his thoughts returned to his breakfast. He had taken some more of the nim bada that I made for him in France and he asked if Parivrajakacarya and Pradyumna had tried it. "Did you like it?"
Parivrajakacarya said it tasted very healthy.
Prabhupada was puzzled. "Healthy?"
Parivrajakacarya smiled. "Healthy. It tasted like it was good for me."
I interpreted for him. "That means it didn't taste very nice, but we accepted it was good."
Parivrajakacarya laughed. "I know by my intelligence that it is good to keep eating, even though my tongue was saying 'stop.'" When I first joined Srila Prabhupada's party in Delhi last November I was given some of Srila Prabhupada's remnants which included some karela, bitter melon. I could hardly eat it because I had no conception that something bitter could be pleasant. At that time Prabhupada had laughed and told me it was an acquired taste and that we Westerners had no idea of proper foods. Now he again told us, "No, this nim is good. They say that if you eat at least two leaves of nim daily, you'll never lose your appetite, appetite will be continuing."
Although I have become accustomed to, and even gotten to like, kerela, nim is still a bit hard to take. I laughed, "Who can eat two leaves of nim?"
"No, if you practice," Prabhupada smiled, "it is not impossible."
Parivrajakacarya Maharaja mentioned that nim trees don't grow in Iran.
Srila Prabhupada made another of his unusual observations. "No tree. In the desert, where is tree? All desert. All this Middle East, desert. So they can be allowed to eat meat. Otherwise, what they'll eat? So everyone must eat something. So if there is no vegetation, if there is no sufficient, they can be allowed."
Parivrajakacarya described a visit he had made to some villages in the south of Iran. "The tents of nomads who kept sheep, that was their life. They had a tent and they had hundreds of sheep, and they would move the tent every month."
Prabhupada was interested to know why they kept changing.
"Because they're desert people. The sheep eat all the little green, and then they have to move on. All they had to eat was the milk of sheep and goats and sometimes when they would camp near a farm they would have vegetables. Sometimes. And then the meat of the sheep."
"And these dates. In the desert the date tree grows," Srila Prabhupada said. "Sometimes they eat camel also. Do they not?"
"Yes."
"They cannot be strictly vegetarian; it is not possible," Prabhupada said. "But even they eat meat they can chant Hare Krishna, there is no harm."
Parivrajakacarya did also point out that nowadays the government is irrigating the land and all kinds of vegetables and grains can be grown, so now people cannot use the excuse that they have to eat meat.
Prabhupada had another alternative. "They can have rains from the sky by chanting. The rain will fall from the sky. Who can check it? Krishna gives the water from the sky. Yajnad bhavati parjanyo."
Parivrajakacarya said that 2-3,000 years ago, this region was a very thick forest. But since then it has become desert, and the rain has stopped.
This was because the yajna had stopped, Prabhupada told him. Then he added yet another one of his insights as to why the moon could not be desert: "The thing is that the more people become sinful, they'll be disturbed by this natural atmosphere. Therefore I'm surprised that moon planet is inhabited by pious inhabitants, how there can be desert?"
Reference: Transcendental Diary Volume 4 by Hari Sauri Dasa
Recently Added
Trending Today