So more or less, everyone is crazy

The local devotees are cooking for Srila Prabhupada and he has been well-satisfied with their efforts. I have learnt that he doesn't particularly like avocados. They offered him some for lunch and he left them aside saying that they weren't so nice. Continuing his Bhagavad-gita lecture series at 7:30 P.M., Prabhupada spoke on verse four of Chapter Nine. He explained how everything comes from God and how God is within everything. At one point, perhaps as a result of his earlier conversation with the Mormons, he took the opportunity to explain why we worship the Deities. "Here it is said, maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta-murtina. And that expansion, that impersonal expansion, not manifested; you cannot see God in person in this expansion. Therefore sometimes we foolishly say that 'Can you show me God?' God is there. You have to make your eyes to see. Just like God is here in the temple but somebody is thinking that 'This is not God. This is a statue or an idol. They are worshiping idol.' Supposing it is idol, but if God is everywhere, why He is not in the idol? What is the argument? If God is everywhere, then why He is not idol? God has the power. And actually this is not idol. This is God's energy. The same example: the sunshine is everywhere, so originally sunshine is the cause of everything. Similarly, God's effulgence is the cause of material things also." In the question-and-answer session that followed, the first query was about Prabhupada's views on psychiatry. The questioner wanted to know whether psychiatric treatment was required to cure mental disorders. Prabhupada's answer was lengthy and at times humorous, offering a definition of mental illness unknown to today's psychiatrists. "First of all we have to understand that everything is expansion of God's energy. So if you understand God, then the energies are automatically understood. Yasmin vijnate sarvam etam vijnatam bhavati. This is the Vedic injunction. If you water on the root of the tree, then whole tree becomes luxuriantly flourished. So our proposition is: you take the root, Krishna, and you will understand everything properly from the root. If you want to understand the tree, whole tree, you try to understand it from the root, not from the top. So disease, any disease, if you understand the root cause of the disease you can give proper medicine, and he's cured. "So psychiatrists, generally their patients are crazy fellows; generally they treat crazy fellows. Is it not? No sane man goes to a psychiatrist." The devotees were laughing as Prabhupada continued. "Is it not a fact? So all these crazy men sometimes make the psychiatrist a crazy also. So more or less, everyone is crazy. "That is not my layman's opinion, it is the opinion of a big medical surgeon. There was a case in the court, murder case. The murderer pleaded that, 'I became crazy, mad, at that time.' So the medical man was called to examine. He was great civil surgeon in Calcutta. So he gave his opinion in the court that, 'so far I have treated many patients, so my opinion is that everyone is more or less a madman. More or less. It is a question of degree.' So our opinion is like that, that anyone who is not under the direct connection with God, he's a crazy man. He's a madman. Now you can treat. "So we are also psychiatrists. We are pushing this Krishna consciousness because anyone who is in this material world is more or less crazy, madman. He is completely under the control of God, but still he has the audacity to say, 'No, I don't believe in God.' Crazy man. So anyone who does not believe in God, he's a crazy fellow. You can treat him. Everyone is patient. This crazy fellow is fully under the control of material nature, and he's still thinking that he is independent. That is craziness. Everyone is thinking like that, so everyone is a patient of psychiatrist. "How we can declare independence? There is no independence. This is knowledge. Nobody wants to die, but nature says, 'You must die.' But the crazy fellow says, 'I am independent. I think like this.' What is the value of your thinking? You may think in your favor, but the nature will not allow you. So everyone is crazy who is declaring independence. He's a crazy." Srila Prabhupada complimented his inquirer, "This question is very nice. Anyone who does not believe in God, does not surrender to God, he's a crazy fellow, that's all." After taking a few more questions, he brought the discussion to a close and left the temple room amidst a lively kirtana. Prabhupada looked exuberant and thoroughly satisfied after an active day of preaching.