Krishna is black and we worship Him!

In the early evening Lekhasravanti brought in Mr. Jackie Vaughn, a black member of the House of Representatives for the State of Michigan. Prabhupada, whose voice was a little thick due to a cold, began their conversation by declaring that "Krishna is black and we worship Him!" As they laughed he added, "Yes, He is also from your community." He quickly established a friendly rapport with Mr. Vaughn. He explained that actually there is no question of black and white. "Krishna consciousness is above the skin?the soul is there. Either he's black or white or yellow, it doesn't matter. Dehino 'smin yatha dehe. This is the first education, that do not take the body, but the living force within the body. That is important; we have to understand that. We are talking from that platform." As the muffled strains of the evening arati filtered into the room from the temple below, Prabhupada informed him of the practicality of Krishna consciousness. He pointed out that the devotees are all living here together under the same roof, blacks and whites, with no problem, because everyone is happy to serve Krishna. Congressman Vaughn was a soft-spoken gentleman with a real concern for the welfare of others. He told Srila Prabhupada that in his work he was trying to do more for people, especially the poor. "Everyone tries. That is not a particular job for you," Prabhupada told him, and he explained that to perform real welfare activity required real knowledge. "Everyone is trying; the cats and dogs, they are also trying. The cat also very much anxious to give protection to the cubs, innocent, helpless. The dog also giving. The birds, they're bringing food for the offspring, and as soon as the mother comes, they become very much engladdened, 'Oh, here is food, here is food.' So this kind of sentiment is there even in the cats, dogs, animals, birds, beasts. That is natural. But we do not know how to do actual welfare activity. Somebody's engaged with his family. Somebody is engaged with his own body. This is only development of consciousness. "The animals, they are interested with the body, himself. The human being, they are interested with the extension of the body. Just like I am alone. Now when I become young man, then I have got my wife, then my interest is also for my wife. The wife's interest is for the husband. In this way, children, then interest extended, husband, wife, children. This is family-wise. Then little advancement, of the society. Little advancement, community. Just like in your country, the sense of black community, white community. Then, above that, for the nation. When there is war between America and other nation, then you black and white people forget the small interest for national interest. You advance to fight, to lay down your life. So in this way we can make progress, but such progress is not perfection." He used a many times quoted example from Srimad-Bhagavatam to give Mr. Vaughn a sense of focus that would include everyone and everything in his welfare activity. "Just like there is tree, and the whole tree is full of branches, twigs and leaves and flowers and fruits. So somebody is watering the fruit, somebody is watering the leaf, somebody is watering the branches, somebody the twigs, but everyone is improper. One who is watering the root, he's perfect. He knows how to do things. If you water the root of the tree, it will go to the twigs, it will go to the leaves, it will go to the fruit, it will go to the flower. One who does not know the root, however he might be working very diligently for the poor humanity or community or society, they will never be successful to gain the result?peace and prosperity. They are forgetting the root. And root is God. So they must put water in the root. Then it will be all right; otherwise, it will be all failure. The history of the world is like that. They are trying for the nation, for the society, for the community, and for the family, but everything has become unsuccessful." Mr. Vaughn, who sat in a chair facing Prabhupada's desk, nodded to affirm his understanding. "I suppose we could use the same analogy for black and white getting together. Oft times, we all become impatient because the progress appears to be so very, very slow." "Slow, but sure, that is wanted," Prabhupada told him. "If you are slow, it is not bad, but it must be sure. But if you become very busy without any surety, then what is this? Simply waste of time." Prabhupada was talking beyond current efforts to achieve inter-racial, inter-community and international harmony, which he has always regarded as useless. "Slow but sure. Sure. So what we are proposing, that is sure success. And all other things, they are very busy, but no success. This is the difference. So what is the use of that business if you are going to be failure? We see from the history these attempts have always been failure. Now this man who constructed this house, he never thought that I shall come here to preach Krishna consciousness. So his attempt is failure." Mr. Vaughn added, "Neither did he envision I would come here to hear you." Prabhupada laughed, appreciating his quick intelligence, and went on to expand his point. "So these small affairs, they'll be failure. Whatever they are busy now in the material world, everything will be failure. And Krishna consciousness movement, if you execute a little bit of it, it can save you from the greatest danger." Prabhupada told him that even though the American government is giving so much money to suffering people, still the suffering continues with no improvement. "Why?" he asked him. "What is the cause? What is the answer?" Mr. Vaughn's answer was a bit vague. "We are not making first things first." Prabhupada however was very quick to pick up on his remark and bring it into focus. "That means whatever we do, we do in ignorance. You do not know what is the first thing or what to do first. That we are correcting. Here is the first thing: Pour water in the root. We are correcting?Krishna, or God; then everything will be all right, otherwise failure. Now you American people you write, 'In God We Trust.' But if I ask you, 'What is God?' you cannot reply. Then how do you trust in God? Blindly. If we trust in God, we must know that God is actually the only trustworthy person. Then if I put my trust in Him, that is sensible. But if I do not know what is God, no idea, and if we simply write, 'In God We Trust,' what is this? This is slogan. But actually people are becoming godless. In schools, colleges, they are prohibiting, 'Don't talk of God.' Do they not?" Mr. Vaughn agreed. Prabhupada told him that it was hypocrisy to say, "In God we Trust" and then forbid any talk of God in the educational system. People should be taught practically how to trust in God. "If we say that in God we trust, then we must know what is God, whether actually we can put our faith and trust in Him, whether He is trustworthy, what is that God. This science should be introduced. There is science; we are preaching that science. Our Krishna consciousness movement means to teach Krishna science, science of God. So the government should take up, American government, and cooperate with us. Teach the people the science of God. Then it will be a great, benevolent welfare activity. Simply giving their money to the poor, to the needy, will not help them." Congressman Vaughn, while sincerely agreeing with what Prabhupada was saying, didn't seem to quite see the practicality of Krishna consciousness. He began to say that there was an immediate need. But Prabhupada cut in, offering him a stark example of the failure of such thinking. "Immediate, you can think like that, but there is no benefit, immediate or belated. There is no actual benefit. The unmarried girls are given this welfare, but still they are killing their children. Becoming more and more involved in sinful activities." "As a lawmaker, I would like to change that whole, what we call, vicious cycle." "You can change," Srila Prabhupada told him, "but if you do not change for the real good, then time will come, another change, another change. That is going on. Just like in Russia they wanted to change. They brought in revolution. But what is changed? They are still begging grains from America. So what is the use of that change? If you have to beg from other country for your food, then what is the benefit of such change? So this is going on. One thing established, and again it is changed. That is described in the sastra: punah punas carvita-carvananam?chewing the chewed. Like sugarcane. One has taken the juice by chewing and thrown it in the street, and somebody again takes it and chews it, what he will get it? It is already chewed. "Big, big empires, big, big society, big, big nation. That Hitler, he wanted to make something big. Napoleon wanted to make something big. Nothing big has been done. Where is Napoleon? Where is Hitler? So these are all temporary attempts. It is sure to be failure. Because they do not know how to do things. That is the defect. They are simply imagining, concoction. Here is a practical and sure proposal in the Bhagavad-gita. God comes and He's giving personal instruction, that 'Do things like this.' Your economic problem, your political problem, your social problem, everything... You ask any question, any problem, the answer is there, perfect. Why people should not take this perfect answer to all problems? That is intelligence. "Experiment we have made so many materially. They have all failed. We were under British rule. So where is that British rule now? And before that, there was Roman Empire, Carthagian Empire, Egyptian Empire, so many, Mogul Empire, now your American Empire. But these things will not help." This is an American election year and Mr. Vaughn seemed all too aware of the truth of Srila Prabhupada's words. "Every one of our presidential candidates is continuing to talk in the same vein, promising and promising all of a temporary nature of a solution to our problems." "Solution is here," Prabhupada assured him. "Krishna consciousness movement. You take this Movement after studying it scrutinizingly. You'll find, 'Yes, this is the only Movement for solution of all problems.'" Mr. Vaughn again expressed his appreciation for what Prabhupada was telling him, but still he was stuck in seeing how to apply it. "As a lawmaker for the State of Michigan, every day I'm struggling. I know what you're saying. I would like to. And then my surrounding is what they call much more practical." "No, it is also practical. We do not propose anything which is impractical," Prabhupada told him. "What do you think in our Movement is impractical? I have given you a practical example that you are paying so much money to the suffering women, especially who have got children but no husband. But what is the result? They're not satisfied. They're still committing sinful activities. Giving money is no solution. That is practical. And here, the same girl, I do not give her any money, but by Krishna consciousness, they're satisfied. It is practical. So therefore people should be enlightened with Krishna consciousness, then problems will be solved. Otherwise, even you give him some money, that money will be spent and no satisfaction. This is failure." "Our monetary problem... Actually, we have no monetary problem. Krishna has given us money. Our expenditure is more than, I think, $200,000 daily. But we are getting money. We have no money, but still we can sit down in such a nice palace. This is practical. So money is not problem. The problem is godlessness. So as soon as there is godlessness, there will be different types of suffering." Prabhupada told him that our institution is already set up, but great good could come to the country if the government was willing to cooperate with us. "A certain number of students must be trained up scientifically what is the meaning of God; that will be very much beneficial to the state or to the country. We can give solution for any problem. 'We' means Krishna. We are simply preaching Krishna's message. Krishna means God." He again offered Mr. Vaughn a means to connect with Krishna consciousness, just in case he was still feeling it to be a foreign concept. "Krishna means 'black' also. 'Krishna,' this word, means black also." "Black is beautiful?" Mr. Vaughn inquired. "Why not?" Prabhupada said. "He's the most beautiful. Otherwise, why people are attracted? There is a verse in the Brahma-samhita: kandarpa-koti-kamaniya-visesha-sobham... barhavatamsam asitambuda-sundarangam. He has got one peacock feather on His head and He's blackish, but wonderfully beautiful. These words are used. Kandarpa-koti-kamaniya. He's so beautiful that thousands of Cupids cannot be compared with His beauty. Cupid is understood to be the most beautiful person within this universe. You know Cupid? Yes. He enchants by beauty. But Krishna's beauty is so great that millions of Cupids cannot be compared with Him. It is a question of attraction. It is not a question of black and white. Attraction. So unless Krishna is beautiful, why He has got so many millions of devotees?" Then he very cleverly linked one analogy to the other, and his descriptive wit had everyone laughing as he offered his appraisal of how public services really work. "His blackness is compared with the black cloud. Asita-ambuda, ambuda means the cloud. The black cloud is full of water. When there is black cloud in the sky, you can be sure that the rain is going to fall down, not the white cloud. White cloud means no water. Is it not? So you understand this philosophy and add water to the suffering humanity. They are suffering in the burning, blazing fire of material existence. So blazing fire can be extinguished when the water falls from the sky, not by your fire brigade. When there is blazing fire in the forest, it is beyond your control. You cannot get there, fire brigade. So these small attempts of fire brigade are useless to extinguish the blazing fire of this material existence. The water must come from the cloud. That is by Krishna's grace. You have no control over the cloud. But that water wanted. Not your fire brigade water when there is all around blazing fire. "The small fire brigade, it can vibrate very loudly?dung, dung, dung?I'm going to, going to...' but they'll go when everything finished. That is practical. I have seen in India. There was a fire in a house, and they came late, when the business is finished. And still they're insisting, 'We shall pour some water.'" Everyone laughed as he narrated the scene. "Everyone asked them, that 'What is the use of?' 'No, this is our system.' The house is burnt into ashes, and they are looking the formality, 'Yes, we must put some water.' So that they can write in their books, 'Here we attended the fire and we have...'" With a big grin he shook his head. "This cheating is going on. In every problem, this kind of cheating is going on?official, that's all. The same example, you ask to the charity taker of welfare activities. The fire is going on, but officially the government satisfied, 'Yes, we are pouring water.' So what is the use of pouring water if the fire is going on? But officially, that's all. The house is burnt into ashes, but we are satisfied that our fire brigade man has poured some water, that's all. They do not know that they cannot do any benefit to anyone by this imperfect process. "If the whole money of the government is given to us, we can show result within six months how it is beneficial. Will the government give us money? Actually, people do not want to trust in God. That is the real fact. At the present moment, nobody has got any idea of God nor faith in God. What do you think?" "It's true," Mr. Vaughn agreed. "Very little faith. 'In God We Trust,' your original statement." I mentioned the letter to the President's secretary that Srila Prabhupada wrote from Hawaii in May. Prabhupada had Madhavananda prabhu read it out to Congressman Vaughn. "'Personal Secretary to the President, Office of the President of the United States, White House, Washington, D. C. Dear Sir: On your new two-dollar note it is stated 'In God We Trust' and directly beneath, 'Declaration of Independence, 1776.' On the two-hundredth anniversary of this occasion, why not begin teaching the science of God as described in the Vedic literatures, like the Srimad-Bhagavatam, which is authorized and appreciated by all learned professors in the universities throughout the whole world? This Krsna consciousness movement is going on since 1966 throughout the whole world, especially in the United States of America. It is a great fortune for the American people that they trust in God. Why shouldn't this spiritual education be given to the American people in an organized way? The whole world is going down and becoming godless. If the American people, who trust in God constitutionally, take this movement seriously, it will be a great service to the human society. We are prepared to cooperate in this connection if the American government takes it very seriously. Awaiting your reply with interest. Yours sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.' Dated May 9th." Mr. Vaughn asked if there had been any reply. We informed him that not to date, and Prabhupada asked him why he thought they were not replying. "I suppose you were asking too much," Mr. Vaughn said. "Too much? So am I wrong? I'm not asking for money." Mr. Vaughn assured him there was nothing wrong with his request, offering his opinion why there was no response. "You are doing away with our approach to dealing with problems. As you pointed out so well, it's always piecemeal, of a temporary nature. I do it in Lansing?we have a problem, we patch it up, of a temporary nature. We talk to do this, as a quick answer, solution, and we go away feeling better, that we have at least made, as we say, a step in the right direction. Next year, we'll be back with the same problem. I have this problem. Monday I'll go back to the State Capital..." "That is explained," Prabhupada told him. "Daivi hy esha guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya. We think, 'Now this problem is solved,' but actually it is not solved; it has created another problem. Therefore this word is used, daivi hy esha guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya. The problems are so great that you cannot solve it." "Each year it mounts," Mr. Vaughn agreed. "It's getting larger and larger, almost impossible to solve. Each year we say, 'This year is worse than any year in the history.'" Turning to the rest of us Prabhupada said, "See, this is the experienced government officer's statement. Therefore the word is used, duratyaya. What is the meaning? I read out the translation. "Very difficult to overcome." Mr. Vaughn humbly submitted that he added to what he called this "delinquency" by each day coming up with temporary solutions to the problems. "So you kindly give little attention to this Movement; it will solve all the problems," Prabhupada advised him. "You have read some of our books?" Mr. Vaughn said he had, and Prabhupada told him that the answers to all problems could be found in the Bhagavad-gita. The unfortunate thing is that no one is taking it. They prefer to create their own imperfect solutions. "I'm struggling," admitted Mr. Vaughn. "Everyone is struggling," Prabhupada said. "Just like you pour water on the leaf of the tree, and still it will fall down. He's perplexed that 'I am giving water to the leaf every day. How is it that it is dying?' But he never thinks that 'I have not done properly; therefore the leaf is dying.' He does not know what is the proper way. So things, if they are not done properly, it will not produce the desired result. That is going on." Mr. Vaughn expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to speak with Srila Prabhupada, and told him that he felt very fortunate to have met him. Bringing a congenial meeting to its close, Prabhupada asked him to visit the temple regularly and see the Deities. That, he said, would give him "so many inspirations."