The leader says, "Of course, it is very difficult to assure you for food grains. But from next week you will have television."

India's food grain reserves left to rot

Wheat lies out in the open in Sirhind, Punjab (NDTV photo)

Governments will not live by God's arrangement

PRABHUPADA: Leaders should be so sober and honest that the people should live peacefully, without any anxiety, without any want. That is the duty of the leaders to see. Perpetually they are in want, in scarcity, not in peace of mind, full of anxieties. In India especially, we see, the economy is so unsteady. The money value is decreasing every day. Nobody knows what will be tomorrow. Rice is selling today at two rupees kilo, tomorrow, three rupees, next day, four rupees. Where the income is coming? Therefore there is strike, railway strike. So this is the mismanagement. They cannot guarantee. At least in England I have seen that... Or why the England? In America also, the people are happy in this: they have got enough foodstuff, no scarcity. You see? India is in always scarcity. Goods are there. It is hoarded by somebody else. He will not let loose. He will not... Many goods are there, sufficient. The government stock. The government stock because the black marketeer, they have got some arrangement. So many things are going I don't wish to discuss. It is due to unclean politicians, unclean head of the department. Things are so mismanaged, and people are suffering.

DHANANJAYA: I was reading in the newspaper that a few days ago India exploded a nuclear bomb, an atomic bomb, underground. This was the first step. And they have declared that this was used for peaceful reasons, in order to develop...

PRABHUPADA: There was a cartoon. One leader is approached for food, that "We are in scarcity of food." The leader says, "Of course, it is very difficult to assure you for food grains. But from next week you will have television. Next week you will have television." So these improvements are going on — television — but they are starving. This is going on. Advancement of knowledge and learning is going on in discovering television, but there is no food. This is the mismanagement of the leaders. Dishonest. There is enough food. Punjab still produces food grains. Bengal still produces rice, but they are stocked by government men, and they are mishandling. They are lying on the station for dispatch, but they will not be dispatched. They are rotting. Rainy season spoiled the whole stock; still, they are not dispatched. Official: "There is no dispatch order. There are no wagons available." Simply mismanagement or bribe. This is going on.

And people are suffering. How it is possible to purchase? Suppose India's income, the average income, is very poor. Suppose one man earns ten rupees a day, and if he has to purchase ten rupees simply rice for the family, what for others? Then he becomes dishonest. He wants to earn money by taking bribe in his own capacity. So bribing has become a custom. Anywhere you go, unless you bribe, you cannot get release. And they say that "Whatever salary we are getting, that is not sufficient. Our extra earning is by taking bribe."

And now in the Western countries also the difficulty is arising. I do not know whether you are already, I mean to say, aware that so many boys, they are becoming hippies. They are reluctant to do anything. That is a very dangerous sign. If you... If unemployment, no engagement, that is not good for the country. Everyone should be employed. Everyone should be engaged in some service. That should be the policy of the government. And everyone should be happy, without any anxiety. That is good government. So many people unemployed, doing nothing, producing nothing. Is it not a problem?

RICHARD WEBSTER: Absolutely. It's the same everywhere.

PRABHUPADA: Yes, everywhere.

RICHARD WEBSTER: Except Germany, I suppose. I suppose everybody works in Germany still.

PRABHUPADA: So there are so many problems. On the whole, the material world is full of problems. That is described in the Bhagavad-gita by the Supreme Being, Krishna: duhkhalayam ashashvatam [Bg. 8.15]. "It is a place of miseries." You cannot make things very rightly going on. It is not possible. Therefore the best purpose will be served — leave this place, material world, and go to the spiritual world. That is our Krishna consciousness. We are advising people to become Krishna conscious, and that way, he will be able to leave this place of miseries and enter the eternal life in the spiritual world. Tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti [Bg. 4.9].

mam upetya punar janma
duhkhalayam ashashvatam
napnuvanti mahatmanah
samsiddhim paramam gatah

"After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection." [Bg. 8.15]

This is our... We don't try to adjust things here; it is not possible. It is not possible. However big philosopher I may be — I may give my ideas — it will never be possible to make here things peaceful. No, that is not possible. Just like if you want to make the lavatory very scientifically..., it is, after all, lavatory. Every minute it is becoming contaminated. So similarly, this world is so contaminated that you cannot make it completely free from contamination. That is not possible. Duhkhalayam ashashvatam [Bg. 8.15]. It is a place of miseries. And actually it is the fact. Now we are trying to get out of miseries, is it not? The civic activities means to get out of miseries. Is it not?

ATREYA RISHI: Yes, enjoy.

PRABHUPADA: Whole attempt is to be out of miserable condition. Just like medicine. What is the medicine? Medicine means an attempt to get out of the miserable condition of disease. But you cannot stop disease. You may discover very improved method of medical treatment, but you cannot stop disease. That is not possible. You can, I mean to say, discover many means to stop death — that is going on — but you cannot stop death. That is not possible. So in this way... And the Bhagavad-gita says that you might be very advanced in civilization and scientific knowledge to make improvement, the condition of life, but you cannot make solution of these things, janma-mrityu-jara-vyadhi-duhkha-doshanudarshanam [Bg. 13.9]. Birth, death, old age and disease, you cannot counteract these things. Still you have to...

RICHARD WEBSTER: Do you think it's worse now than it used to be? Can you say that it is worse, the condition of the world is worse now than it used to be or is it relatively the same or...?

PRABHUPADA: Oh, yes, yes. Worse now in these days because people cannot eat even. The facility which is given to the birds and beasts... They have no problem of eating. But you have created such a civilization that people are facing the problem so acutely that they have no means to eat. Do you think it is progress?

RICHARD WEBSTER: Well, I would tend to doubt it very much.

PRABHUPADA: Yes, that is the problem.

RICHARD WEBSTER: But some things have improved.

PRABHUPADA: Many countries... Especially we are Indian. We have seen in India. Nowadays there is no eatables. The government cannot supply food, failure, the problem which is not even amongst the beasts and birds. The birds and beasts, they have no such problem. They are freely living, jumping from one tree to another, because they know there is no problem of eating. And human society, there is problem of eating. What is the advancement? And there is enough place for producing food. I have seen Africa, Australia. Enough place. If the foodstuff is produced there, ten times of the population can be well fed. But they are: "Don't enter. Don't come here." The Africans will say to the Indians, "Don't come here. Go out." What is this? Therefore Krishna consciousness is so nice. We say, "Everything belongs to Krishna. We are all sons of Krishna. Let us live peacefully and utilize Krishna's property." This is the best philosophy. But the so-called politicians and leaders, they are saying "No, you cannot enter here," immigration. America has got enough place to produce food. But they will, although they have gone to the United Nation, UNESCO, they could not find out any solution. Although there is possibility of producing ten times of the requisites of the whole population of the world, they will not allow. They will not allow. On God's side, this planet, purnam idam purnam adah purnat purnam udachyate [Ishopanishad, Invocation] — everything is complete. You require water. They save three times water than the land. And the water is distributed over the land, parjanyad anna-sambhavah, so there will be sufficient food grains. And annad bhavanti bhutani [Bg. 3.14]. And if there is sufficient to eat, have sufficient eatables to the animals and to the men, then everything is prosperous. So where is that arrangement? There is enough land, enough possibility, enough water. Now utilize them and produce food grain, eat nicely and live peacefully and chant Hare Krishna and go back to home, back to Godhead. This is our philosophy. Why there should be industry? You want to eat after all. Instead of eating this flesh, killing poor animals, why don't you produce food grains, fruits, flowers, food grain, and take milk from the animals and produce milk products, all nutritious food, all nice food, and be happy and remember God for His kindness. This is civilization.