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[Posted 19 November 2006]
The Direction of Care
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada |
What the Doctor Prescribes
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Kirtan: Ancient Medicine for Modern Man by Hansadutta das Kirtan is the most fundamental practice for reviving one's spiritual life. It is recommended in the Vedic scriptures, the world's oldest spiritual books, that one should chant this sixteen-word mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. This is called the maha-mantra. more |
The
law is cheating, medical science is cheating, and the government is
cheating. Top government officials are charged with taking bribes. If
the governor takes bribes and the constable takes bribes, then where is
the good society? People elect the leader who promises them happiness.
But since that happiness is maya [or illusion], he can never
deliver it, and society simply becomes filled with cheaters. Since
people are actually after this illusory happiness, however, they
continue to elect such unscrupulous leaders time and time again.
The position of a Vaishnava [devotee of the Supreme Lord Vishnu, or
Krishna] is to take compassion on all these ignorant people. The great
Vaishnava Prahlada Maharaja once prayed to the Lord, "My Lord, as far
as I am concerned, I have no problems. My consciousness is always
absorbed in Your very powerful transcendental activities, and therefore
I have understood things clearly. But I am deeply concerned for these
rascals who are engaged in activities for illusory happiness." A
Vaishnava thinks only about how people can become happy. He knows that
they are vainly searching after something that will never come to be.
For fifty or sixty years people search after illusory happiness, but
then they must die without completing the work and without knowing what
will happen after death. Actually, their position is like that of an
animal, because an animal also does not know what happens to him after
death. The animal does not know the value of life, nor why he has come
here. By the influence of maya, he simply eats, sleeps, mates,
defends and dies. That's all. Throughout their lives the ignorant
animals—and the animalistic men—greatly endeavor to do these five
things only: eat, sleep, mate, defend and die. Therefore the business
of a Vaishnava is to instruct people that God exists, that we are His
servants, and that we can enjoy an eternally blissful life serving Him
and developing our love for Him.