...All the villagers, they have been drawn in the city for producing bolts and nuts. Now eat bolts and nuts.

Desperate for Work

Government's duty to ensure employment for everyone

PRABHUPADA: Suggestion already I have given, that utilize this land for cultivation. I have seen so much land vacant. In Australia and in U.S.A. also, there is so much land vacant. They're not utilizing. Whatever production, they... Sometimes they throw it in the water. And I have heard in this Geneva, that there was excess of milk production. Therefore they want to kill twenty-thousand cows to reduce the milk production. This is their brain. Actually, there is no brain. So they, for brain, they should come to these shastras [Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita]. They should take guidance. Produce. Produce, utilize. But they'll not utilize. Rather, the limited number of people... At least in India, all the villagers, they have been drawn in the city for producing bolts and nuts. Now eat bolts and nuts. So Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's program was village organization. And our big Pandit topsy-turvied everything. Gandhi's program was very nice, to organize a village economy and produce your own food. If you work only three months, you get the whole year's provision. Whole year's provision. The balance time you save, chant Hare Krishna. This is our movement. And be spiritually advanced. Be human being. Otherwise, it is risky. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said, tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati [Bg. 2.13: "As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change."]. After all, we have to change this body; however big plan we may make, we have to give up this plan, and we have to change this body. But there is no guarantee what kind of body we are going to get. Suppose I, this time, this life, I am very busy for constructing a big skyscraper building, and next time, next life, if I get the body of a cat or dog, I'll have to live in that house because I have got attraction as a cat and dog, and who will care for me? So these are the facts. Because nobody can change the nature's law. Nature's law is exactly like infectious disease. Karanam guna-sango 'sya sad-asad-janma-yonishu [Bg. 13.22: "The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil among various species."]. They do not even believe that there is life after death. I talked, in Moscow, to a big professor, Kotovsky. He said, "Swamiji, after death there is nothing." He's a big professor. He has no knowledge of the soul, and he's a big professor. Just see. This is going on.

Now, as gradually this godless civilization will go on—that is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam—there will be problems. Anavrishti: there will be no rain. And durbhiksha. As there will be no sufficient rain, there will be no sufficient production. Actually, these things are already begun. And on the other side, taxation, the government taxation. In this way, people will be so much disturbed that they will give up their hearth and home and go to the forest. Acchinna-dara-dravinam gacchanti giri-kananam. They will be so much harassed because there will be scarcity of rainfall, there will be scarcity of food and there will be taxation. Then how one can keep the brain equilibrium? He will be mad. So unless we take the instruction of the shastras... Immediately, we should take this instruction of Bhagavad-gita: annad bhavanti bhutani parjanyad anna-sambhavam, yajñad bhavati parjanyah [Bg. 3.14: "All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña [sacrifice], and yajña is born of prescribed duties."]. Therefore we have introduced this Hare Krishna Movement. This is sankirtan yajña. In the Kali-yuga, this yajña is possible. So if all over the world... Or make an experiment in some portion. Just go. Just like we are making samples in West Virginia [here referring to the New Vrindaban farm community]. They are self-sufficient. And the saved time is being utilized for Krishna consciousness. This is the remedy. But society will not take this remedy. They have got their own remedy. So a few men may be happy, so-called happy. The other day, I saw in Calcutta Mr. Kanunga. He's the son of late governor of Gujarat. So he said... He's the manager of that coal distribution, government... So he said, "Now, being government concerned, the laborers, they're not working. They're sitting idly. So we have to increase the price. Cost is..." So this is the problem. People, being godless, they are dishonest, they are not working honestly and so many things. The only remedy is that people should be taught to become God conscious. And this method is very simple: chant Hare Krishna. Harer nama harer nama harer nama eva kevalam, kalau nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha [Chaitanya-charitamrita Adi-lila 17.21]. And samples are there, these European and American boys. They were addicted to so many bad habits. Now just see how sober they are, and they're chanting Hare Krishna. So everything is possible, provided you people take our instruction. Otherwise, there is no other remedy. What can be done? The remedy's there. The medicine is also there. But if you don't take the medicine, how the disease will be cured?

GUEST (INDIAN NATIONAL): I would ask the respected Swamiji, you referred to the departure of the villagers to the city and getting in that city life and the villagers become factory workers and all the evils which follow. And you suggested as a solution that if you live in the villages and work only for three months, then you'll have food to eat. But I'd like to point out that there is such a vast amount of unemployment in our villages in India. The vast populations are there doomed, and despite all these settlements, the villagers are not able to make enough food because they don't own the land and they are unemployed. And that's why they go into the cities. It is not necessarily the good life in the city which attracts them, but they don't own the land. The land is owned by other people, and they are not free to live in the village as free men and grow enough food for themselves. Now this is a question of owning the means of production. And we still have the zamindar system. We still have the system, and the rich people are exploiting. They do. Unless there is some kind of a revolution by which you can curb the power of the landlord, how can you be for land distribution of the village, of those who live in the village, and not go to city to pull a rickshaw or do other labor to earn livelihood?

PRABHUPADA: Thing is that it is the government's duty to see that nobody is unemployed. That is good government. That is the Vedic system. The society was divided into four divisions: brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya, shudra. And it was the duty of the government or the king to see the brahmana is doing brahmana's duty, and the kshatriya is doing the kshatriya's duty. Similarly, vaishya... So it is the government's duty to see why people are unemployed. Then the question will be solved.

GUEST (INDIAN NATIONAL): But they are the people who are also in the government.

PRABHUPADA: Eh?

GUEST (INDIAN NATIONAL): They are also... The entrenched people, the monied people, landowners, they also have a strong voice in the government.

PRABHUPADA: No. That, that means bad government.

GUEST (INDIAN NATIONAL): Yes. That is, that is true.

PRABHUPADA: That is bad government. Otherwise, it is the duty of the government to see that everyone is employed.

GUEST (INDIAN NATIONAL): That's what I am looking forward to, the day when the Krishna consciousness movement can become a real revolutionary movement which will change the face of society.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. I think it will bring revolution because the American and European young men, they have taken into hand. I have introduced to them. So I hope the European and American boys, they're very intelligent, and they take anything very seriously. So that... Now we are working for a few years, five, six years. Still, we have spread the movement all over the world. So I am requesting... I am old man. I will die. If they take it seriously, it will go on, and there will be revolution. Because we are not working whimsically, capriciously. We are taking authoritative version from the shastra. And our program is to publish at least one hundred books of this size. There is so much information. They can read all these books and take information. And we are now being received. In America especially, the higher circle, in colleges and universities, they are reading now these books, and they are appreciating. So we are trying our best, introducing the literature, practically working, instructing, as far as possible. But I think if the, these boys, young boys, take it very seriously, it will bring revolution.