Who will drop it first?

Founder-Acharya of the world-wide Hare Krishna Movement, Brahma Sampradaya Acharya

Antiwar.com, Thursday, January 27, 2006--by WES ULM--How the Bomb Destroyed Our Republic

The newspapers and airwaves today are replete with the ominous vibes of global nuclear proliferartion, with Iran and North Korea the nuclear betes noires du jour. Nevertheless, by far the greatest threat to civilization does not reside in rogue nukes ensconced in distant lands. Today, 15 years after the fall of the USSR, the abiding menace is the wretched legacy of the Cold War - the nearly 10,000-warhead-strong collective nuclear arsenal of the United States and Russia, with both countries' arms targeted at the other, ready for launch within minutes, at each president's unchallengable whim.

The coming of nuclear war

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Prabhupada: Now the nuclear war means it will not continue very long. The first party who will drop the bomb on the other party, he will be victorious, and immediately the war will stop. They are simply arranging how to drop the atom bomb first. So one who will be able to drop the bomb first, he will be victorious. It doesn't require long time. Just like in Japan, as soon as the Americans dropped the atom bomb in Hiroshima, immediately they surrendered. This will be the result. Now the question is who will be able to drop the bomb first.

Siddha-svarupa: The Japanese didn't have any atom bombs to send back, though.

Prabhupada: No. It was in possession of Hitler. And your American stolen and kept it. Hitler wanted to use it, but, good sense, he did not like. He said that "I can do it immediately, but I will not do it." So three bombs they kept ready, and when Germany was in awkward condition these Americans, they stolen, and they used it in Japan. This was manufactured by the German.

Bali-mardana: Most of the American scientific knowledge for going to space, etc., is all gotten from the Germans.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Bali-mardana: They stole the German scientists. And the Russians also, after the war, they took many German scientists.

Prabhupada: I think the aeroplane was made by the Germans first.

Bali-mardana: Yes, the jet airplane, yes.

Prabhupada: Yes. And they took it, the idea, from Sanskrit literature. Yes. They purchased the book from Benares.

Devotee: In India we have, and Hawaii, the firecrackers going up, the idea was from there.

Harikesha: The Germans also had the idea that this universe is encaged in some hard layers. And they were trying to bounce waves off of the edge of the universe.

Prabhupada: No, the Germans, they very much praised Indian culture. That my godbrother Soulier, when he came to India he said that "When Indian students come to our country, first of all we inquire how much he has got asset of his own culture. If we find that he has got some knowledge in his own culture, then we receive. Otherwise we reject." As soon as they found that somebody is made of London culture, then immediately they reject. There are many Sanskrit scholars in Germany.

Harikesha: All of the good dictionaries are from Germany.

Prabhupada: No, Max Mueller was German.

Harikesha: A lot of the devotees have been wondering about book production if there is some war.

Prabhupada: War? The war will be for a few days only.

Bali-mardana: Then the presses can go on.

Prabhupada: This war will not prolong. That is not possible.

Harikesha: So this is not the big one.

Prabhupada: No, it is big war, but it will be finished within short time.

Bali-mardana: Drop their bombs, everything's finished.

Upendra: But the argument is that these bombs will create more disturbance than just the blowing up. They create what's called radio-active fallout.

Prabhupada: Yes, that will do. But the war will stop because the party which will be able to drop the bomb first, he will be victorious.

Harikesha: They've got these fancy...

Prabhupada: Then after effects, what will happen, that is another thing. But the war will not continue for ten years or five years, like that.

Bali-mardana: Many Communist countries now, they are not making any more big cities. They are keeping the population very spread out so that after the war they will be able to take over. Because if one has a big city, then the people can be killed very easily in one bomb, finished. [break]

Prabhupada: ...they are afraid of death?

Bali-mardana: Well, the Chinese figure they have so many people that even if there is a war...

Prabhupada: They are gainer.

Bali-mardana: There will still be so many of them left. [break]

Prabhupada: ...they will be left. [break]...America can drop the first bomb in Moscow, then they will come out triumphant. And the Communists will be finished. [break] ...friendship with Pakistan only for this reason. It is just on the border of Russia. If from Pakistan they can drop the first bomb in Moscow. [break]

Siddha-svarupa: ...in the United States and Russia are to get on special airplanes that are equipped... It's like a city in the air, where they will be able to wage war from the air so that even if the all the cities are destroyed, they will still be able to make strategy and keep sending missiles with warheads because they have so many missiles with warheads all over the country that even if all the cities are wiped out they can keep sending more. [break]

Prabhupada: ...they will get their food?

Siddha-svarupa: They have it so that they have something like a year's supply. [break]

Prabhupada: They are struggling for living. Still, they will not be allowed to live.

Illusion's Toll

"Forgotten Krishna, we fallen souls, pay most heavy the illusion's toll."[1] Because we have forgotten Krishna we are paying heavy, heavy toll, tax, taxation. What is that taxation? The taxation is nivartante mrityu-samsara-vartmani [2]. This human life is meant for understanding Krishna, but instead of understanding Krishna, we are understanding the so-called material science for sense gratification. This is our position. The energy which was given by nature to understand Krishna, that is being utilized how to manufacture something for sense gratification. This is going on. This is maya, illusion. Therefore it is, "Pay most heavy the illusion's toll." Toll tax. That we are paying because we have forgotten Krishna; therefore now we have manufactured the nuclear weapon—Russia, America—and you will have to pay heavily. They are already paying heavily. The armament preparation is going on. More than fifty percent of the income of the state are now being spent for this arm... heavily. Instead of other purposes, it is being spent for military strength, every state. So that heavy toll we are paying. And when there is war there is no limit how much we are spending for this devastation. So why? Because we have forgotten Krishna. This is a fact.

So these people they have made the United Nation, unnecessarily fighting like dogs. So this will not solve the problems. The problem will be solved if they pass a resolution that the whole world, not only this world... Krishna says, sarvaloka maheshvaram. Krishna is the proprietor, so why not accept? Actually He is the proprietor. Who has created this planet? We have created or father created? No. Krishna has created, but we are claiming, "This portion is American, this portion is Indian, this portion is Pakistani." Unnecessary. What is the value of this claim? We may claim it for fifty or sixty or a hundred years, and after that, one kick: "Get out." Where is your claim? But they do not understand this philosophy. They are fighting. That's all, that "This is mine. This is my land. This is my land." They do not know. Krishna said tatha dehantara praptih [3]. "You are American today. So tomorrow, even within America if you become an American cow or American animal, nobody will care for you. Nobody will care for your politics." But this art they do not know. This science they do not know. They are under illusion. They are thinking that "I shall continue to remain American, so let waste my time for American interest," so-called interest. There cannot be any interest. Prakriteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvashah [4]. Everything is being done by nature, and we are simply falsely thinking, ahankara-vimudhatma kartaham iti manyate. This illusion is going on. "Forgotten Krishna, we fallen souls, pay most heavy the illusion's toll." We are paying, paying. "Darkness around, all untrace. The only hope, Your Divine Grace." This message. Simply we are in darkness.

1 - Srila Prabhupada alludes to a poem he wrote as an offering to his spiritual master in 1936: "Adore Ye All the Happy Day".

2 - Bhagavad-gita 9.3: "Those who are not faithful on the path of devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of foes, but return to birth and death in this material world."

3 - Bhagavad-gita 2.13: "As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change."

4 - Bhagavad-gita 3.27: "The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature."