We are cats and dogs in comparison – Remembering Srila Prabhupada

We drive across Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods, home of 3,000-year-old redwoods. Walking down the path under the tall, blue-green canopy, Swamiji reads the little signs before the largest trees, then looks up reflectively at the boughs.

"These trees are made to stand here for thousands of years because of their attachment to sex," he says. "We do not know what kind of body nature is going to give us next. Perhaps she will put us in a body like this. Then we will have to stand for so many years in one place."

He then tells the story of Nalakuvara and Manigriva, sons of Kuvera, the treasurer of the demigods. These two brothers, although great demigods, fell prey to wine and women, and one day, when drunk, entered the Ganges and sported naked with young girls. While they were thus frolicking, the sage Narada passed by, but Nalakuvara and Manigriva were too drunk to hide their nakedness. Desiring their welfare, Narada turned them into trees, immobilizing them so they could do no further harm. With their full consciousness intact, the brothers stood long years as twin trees in Nanda Maharaj’s courtyard, where the child Krishna often played. One day, because baby Krishna had been a naughty butter thief, His mother tied him to a large, wooden mortar. When this mortar lodged between the two trees, baby Krishna, with His superhuman strength, pulled the trees down. Out of these trees the two demigods, suddenly liberated, arose with bodies shining like fire, and praised the Lord with prayers and hymns.

"Being a tree is a kind of curse for those overly sinful," Swamiji says. "But for Nalakuvara and Manigriva, it was ultimately Narada’s blessing."

After an hour’s stroll, we leave Muir woods, returning along a winding seacoast road. The abrupt curves and dips cause Swamiji to get carsick. When he complains of dizziness, we have to slow down.

"When I first came to America on the Scindia boat, I was seasick," he says. "But on the plane from New York, I felt only a little popping in the ears. The plane is better."

Back at the temple, Swamiji feels quite sick. Kirtanananda and Ranchor tend him in his apartment, where he rests until the evening lecture.

"In this material world, we are captured by sex life and put into prison," he tells us. "Just today I saw one prison in the bay surrounded by water. What was that?"

"Alcatraz," someone says.

"Yes. So many arrangements are made there to keep the prisoners entrapped. Now we are in the prison house of the body. And what is our entrapment? Sex life. As long as we do not know that our happiness is with Krishna, we will try to enjoy this material world, and so be bound by sex life. Actually, we are suffering, but we think we are happy because of sex. Here we are subject to miseries arising from the mind and body, from other living entities, and from calamities of nature. These miseries cannot possibly be avoided. Just like this afternoon, when I was coming from Muir Woods, I felt uncomfortable due to some bodily pains. This is going on, and it is always the same: sometimes bodily pains, sometimes mental anxiety, sometimes national disturbance, or someone else giving us trouble. Now you are thinking that if you just end the Vietnam war, you will have peace. But there can never be peace here. This place is meant for misery, and so misery will come in one form or another. That is the nature of this material world.

"The great sage Rishabadev said that this material atmosphere is nothing but sex attachment. That’s all. You will find this attraction not only in human society but in animal society, bird society, insect society, every society. And if you go to the upper planets, to the abodes of the demigods, you will also find sex attraction. Even Indra, the king of the demigods, was very sexually inclined. And Lord Brahma, the highest living entity, had a beautiful daughter to whom he was attracted. And when Krishna, playing tricks, appeared as a very beautiful girl before Lord Shiva, Shiva became mad with lust. So when Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva become mad, what is our position? We are cats and dogs in comparison."

The hippies sit quietly, eyes opened wide, surprised not to hear Swamiji advocating sex, drugs, rock and roll, and passivism. They are used to so-called gurus from India telling them, "Enjoy! Enjoy!"

"A guru is not some pet, some fad," Swamiji says. "He is not a conversation piece. No. One must find the bona fide spiritual master and surrender to him. That is the injunction of Bhagavad-gita. Guru must be followed."

"Are you an authority on self-realization?" someone asks.

"Yes," Swamiji says. "Of course, I do not know whether I am an authority, but my spiritual master has authorized me to do this. I … I…" Swamiji hesitates a moment, seeming almost embarrassed. "I don’t think myself an authority. I am just trying to serve the order of my spiritual master. That’s all. But being an authority is not very difficult. Simply, if you try to understand Bhagavad-gita as Arjuna understood it, you will become self-realized. It is not a very difficult job. Unfortunately, people apply their own scholastic ideas in different ways, and so murder the whole process."

From the "The Hare Krishna Explosion" by HG Hayagriva dasa

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