sea sufferers.'

As we rounded the tip of the promontory he noticed a group of surfers out to catch the waves. He paused briefly to watch them riding in on their boards, falling off and struggling to swim back out again for the next wave. He said that they would take births as fish in their next lives due to their absorption in water sports. "So," he quoted from Bhagavad-gita, "yam yam vapi smaran bhavam." [Whatever state one remembers when he quits this body, that state he will attain without fail. Bg. 8.6] Class continued with verse seven of the first chapter of the Sixth Canto, describing how a person takes with him the reactions created by the activities of his kaya (body), mana (mind) and vakya (words) into the next life where he suffers accordingly, unless he makes suitable atonement. Therefore Prabhupada said that murderers must be executed in order to free them from reactions to their misdeeds; otherwise they will suffer very severely in their next lives-four times as greatly. One must follow the dharma-sastras to counteract offenses, and he pointed out that if one follows sastra then he will not kill in the first place. He said that because kshat means "injury," it is the government, or kshatriya's duty, to protect the citizens from anyone who is unnecessarily injuring their bodies. Then he gave a broad vision of who should be protected. "The tree has taken birth. The man has taken birth. Why simply man should be saved, not the cows, not the trees? He must be saved. Unnecessarily there cannot be any killing. Lord Christ also, 'Thou shalt not kill.' Yes, this is the beginning of religious life. If you are accustomed to kill somebody, either man, animal, trees, fish, anything, there is not entrance to religious life because every living entity is the son of God." Giving the surfers as an example, he explained how the soul becomes contaminated by contact with different mixes of the modes of material nature. Combining the words "surfer" and "suffer" he made everyone laugh with an excellent and piercing pun. "This morning we were talking about the sufferers; what is called? The sea suffers? Surfers, yes. I call 'sea sufferers.' Yes, contamination ... so that in the next life he will become a fish. He'll be very free to dance in the ocean." He said they would indeed get such a birth and then spend millions of lifetimes coming once again to the human form. This perhaps struck home to some of his audience since a few young men in attendance had longish hair and were of the beach-going type. His conclusion was that we have a choice; we can go either up or down. Krishna offers us instruction so that we can go back home, back to Godhead. "But we are not prepared to surrender. That is our material disease. If we do not surrender to Krishna and take His instruction, that is our choice. But if you like, you can make your life successful within a moment simply by surrendering to Krishna. Thank you very much."