THE PRABHUPADA CONNECTION
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There Are Different Types of People
(Srila Prabhupada on the Bowery, New York City)

Prabhupāda: There are different types of people. The example is given just like there are different types of birds. A pigeon class... "Birds of the same feather flocks together." You see? That is natural. The pigeons will flock together and the crows will flock together. The swans will flock together. The swans will never go to the crow or the crow will never go to the swan. In human society also, the same natural tendency is there... So this is not new; it is by nature. Everyone has got a particular type of society, environment.

So literatures also, there are different kinds of literature. For the crowlike men there are different kinds of literature, and for the swanlike men there are different kinds of literature. So swanlike men... swan means haṁsa. From nature's study you can see, the swans, they have got a special qualification. What is that? If you give a swan milk mixed with water, the swan will take out only the milk portion, and the water portion will remain. That means those who are swanlike men, they take the essence, not the adulteration. Similarly, there are elevated persons who are also called paramahaṁsa. Paramahaṁsa, the same example of the haṁsa, swan. Paramahaṁsa means they are interested with the essence of this world, not with the adulteration.

What is the adulteration? The adulteration is matter and the essence is spirit. Just like this body. What is this body? This body is that I am a spirit soul, living entity. I am encaged in this material body. Everything. Even in the atom there is some active principle. A drug, there is some active principle. So similarly in this body, my body, your body or any body, what is the active principle? The active principle is that living soul. As soon as the active principle is gone, then it is useless. "Dust thou art, dust thou be-est." Then this body is made of this earth, and it again becomes earth—either as stool or as earth or as ashes. These are our experience.

Just like Hindus, they burn this body. So this body become ashes. And there are communities, they throw out the body for being eaten up by birds and beasts. So it becomes stool. Because after eating they will pass stool. So the after-effects of this beautiful body will be stool or ashes. We are now soaping so nicely, dressing so nicely this body, but the after-effects will be stool or ashes. Or earth. In your country you bury the body. So after few days it will be moth-eaten, and it will be turned into earth.

So we have to utilize. The paramahaṁsa means they take the essence. What is the essence of this body? The essence of this body is the spirit soul. So one should try to understand what is science of that spirit soul. They are not interested with the adulteration. Just like the example is given: the swan. The swan takes out the active principle. The swans, they live in a very nice place where there is very clear water, nice garden, nice fruits, flowers, birds chirping. You will find, these white swans are there. When I was in London I saw there was a... there is a nice Regent Park. There are many swans. That park is mostly flower, rose flower, nice park. So they are living there.

And the crows, where they live? They'll go where you throw away all nasty things. They will go and enjoy there, you see, the crows. Why? Why the crows does not do like the swans, and the... why swans do not do like these crows? These are the different qualities. The whole world is moving in different qualities. Therefore the quality of goodness, that has to be acquired in human form of life.

This temple is meant for the persons who are in the quality of goodness, those who are after the essence of the world— paramahaṁsa. And this our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is also meant for the paramahaṁsas. Not for the crowslike men but swanslike men, those who are white swans, trying to live in a very nice place, clear water, nice tree, nice fruits.

So in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the beginning you'll find in the introduction, paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satām. Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavaḥ atra. Atra means "in this book," "in this transcendental literature," dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra... (SB 1.1.2). Kaitavaḥ means cheating; dharmaḥ means religiosity. Religiosity or the cheating type of religiosity is not here. It is for paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ, for persons who are not envious.

The crowlike birds or crowlike men, or karmīs, they're envious. You'll find. And even, without any offense... just like dog, you pass on without any offense, he'll bark, "Ow, ow, ow, ow." (laughter) You have no offense. You have no offense, but it will try to pick up some quarrel with you. Sometime it will come to bite you, unless you have got sufficient stick to show. (laughter) So, similar... there are dogs and cats and hogs, there are similar men also. They will simply pick up quarrel unnecessarily. Sometimes political leaders... just like in Europe, Hitler unnecessarily picked up some war, and there was devastation all over the world. You see? There was no gain. The Germany become defeated and bifurcated. So this leader could not do anything good to the nation, but unnecessarily picked up some quarrel.

So that is the cause of world trouble: the crowlike men, the doglike men, the hoglike men. So we have to create paramahaṁsas, good men. Then you can expect peace and prosperity. If you create cats and dogs, then how can you expect that there will be peace, there will be no war, there will be no disturbance? No. Paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ vāstava-vastu vedyam atra (SB 1.1.2).

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to create a population of paramahaṁsa. That is our propaganda. We are not trying to create a class of men like crows or cats and dogs, but like the haṁsas. Of course, it is very difficult. When you try to create some M.A. pass, boys and girls, their number will be very little. Because anything valuable, the customer is very little. If you want to sell jewel, in the jewelry shop hardly you will find one customer in a day, or two customer in a day. But in a beef shop or a meat shop you will find hundreds of... you see?

So as soon as a thing is valuable, the number of customer will be less. So don't consider the quality of the good by estimation of the number of customers. The customer may be very little, but you should try to understand what is the quality of the thing.

So in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement you will please try to understand what kind of things we are going to deliver. Don't try to understand that, "These people have no very many customers." The customers will be less, because we have so many restriction, so people do not like it. Everyone thinks, "Why I shall be restricted? I shall be free." But actually, he is not free. Just like the dog thinks that he is very free, but he is chained up.

Similarly, every one of us are chained up by the laws of material nature. We cannot go even a inch beyond the laws of material nature. You cannot eat more what you can digest. The law of nature immediately will try to inflict punishment upon you. This is practical experience. You have to eat as much as you require. If you eat more, then you get indigestion, and if you eat less, then you become weak. You have to eat exactly what you require. That is the law of nature. Similarly, these Kṛṣṇa consciousness boys and girls, they're being taught not to eat more, not to eat less; not to enjoy senses more, not to enjoy less. Similarly, the paramahaṁsa life is a regulated life.

(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Los Angeles, January 15, 1970)

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