[Posted April 2, 2008]

Who is controlling water and oil?

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

The mini-controllers forget who really does control the world and other worlds and other universes

Guardian Mar 30, 2008 - JOHN GRAY, The Observer

Those who control oil and water will control the world

History may not repeat itself, but, as Mark Twain observed, it can sometimes rhyme. The crises and conflicts of the past recur, recognisably similar even when altered by new conditions. At present, a race for the world's resources is underway that resembles the Great Game that was played in the decades leading up to the First World War. Now, as then, the most coveted prize is oil and the risk is that as the contest heats up it will not always be peaceful. But this is no simple rerun of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, there are powerful new players and it is not only oil that is at stake.

It was Rudyard Kipling who brought the idea of the Great Game into the public mind in Kim, his cloak-and-dagger novel of espionage and imperial geopolitics in the time of the Raj. Then, the main players were Britain and Russia and the object of the game was control of central Asia's oil. Now, Britain hardly matters and India and China, which were subjugated countries during the last round of the game, have emerged as key players. The struggle is no longer focused mainly on central Asian oil. It stretches from the Persian Gulf to Africa, Latin America, even the polar caps, and it is also a struggle for water and depleting supplies of vital minerals. Above all, global warming is increasing the scarcity of natural resources. go to story

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Unlimited water supply

Who's in Charge of the Climate? A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
The Lord distributes His mercy in the form of rains on the scorched earth at times of dire necessity. He supplies rain when we are practically on the verge of death for want of water. God is merciful undoubtedly, but He bestows His mercy on us when we need it most. This is so because we forget God as soon as we obtain this mercy. We should therefore remember the mercy of God constantly if we want to avoid distress. We are eternally related with Him, despite the state of forgetfulness already described above. Bhagavad-gita confirms that the laws of nature are stringent because they are conducted by three different modes. But one who surrenders unto the Lord overcomes the stringency of nature easily. more

The supply may be stopped

excerpt from conversation with disciples, Honolulu, May 26, 1976

DEVOTEE: There's only a certain amount of grain. There's only a certain amount of water. So...

PRABHUPADA: Hmm?

DEVOTEE: There's some theories, where they think that there's only a certain amount of grains...

PRABHUPADA: Their theories we don't accept. There's so much water.

DEVOTEE: But, therefore, if they don't, if you don't work to conserve it, then everyone will starve.

PRABHUPADA: After all, you produce it, then conserve. These rascals, do they produce water?

DEVOTEE: No.

PRABHUPADA: Why he's anxious to conserve it? It is not his production. That is rascaldom. He has taken from some other sources, and he wants to conserve it. He does not think that "I did not produce it. It has come to me."

HARI-SAURI: Well they don't know how it's produced. So what's there they're gonna have to save, because they're not certain that there'll be any more supply.

PRABHUPADA: No. The sense is that if I've not produced, then even if I conserve the proper..., the supply may be stopped. Because it is, there is no control over, by me. Suppose you have got some water. How long it will be conserved? The water supply is stopped. Now suppose it's the ocean. There's enough water, but if Krishna desires, it will be dried up. Then, where you will get water? So what is the meaning of their such conserving?

DEVOTEE (3): Right.

PRABHUPADA: Enormous. Why should we bother about conserving? We should be Krishna conscious. That is our business. The child is born; immediately there is milk in the breasts of the mother. And one minute before, there is no milk. There is no milk. Just the child is born, immediately. Who supplies the milk? He does not see that eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman, that one Supreme is supplying all the necessities of the others. So our duty is only to become Krishna conscious. Other things will be supplied by Krishna.

DEVOTEE (4):The example that if God is supplying, then why doesn't He supply the underprivileged countries? Just like in some places like India people are starving. So why doesn't He supply places like that?

PRABHUPADA: Who says India is starving? You are saying. I'm Indian, I don't starve. You are false propaganda, "India's starving."

DEVOTEE (4): Bangladesh they...

DEVOTEE (2): I was in Bangladesh also; they're not starving.

PRABHUPADA: No one is starving. This is all propaganda. This propaganda.... You know in your country there are so many foundations. There is so many false organizations. They're under the name of India, they draw the money and take it. I've seen it. They have got arrangement with the trustees of the fund, and with some propaganda they draw money, and then they divide, the trustees and the organization. That's all. I've seen.

DEVOTEE (1): Places like Africa, such as Biafra, where they have...

PRABHUPADA: There are countries, there is, they are not opulent or affluent as you are. But that doesn't mean they're starving.

HARI-SAURI: Well, they show so many places of children with malnutrition, and they say that so many thousands of people are dying every week in certain areas...

PRABHUPADA: You have got your..., so many hippies are malnutrition. You have got enough food right there—malnutrition. What is this? Another...

HARI-SAURI: That's not actually a very good argument of theirs anyway, because here in America they were found to be dumping excess grains in the ocean, excess milk they give to the pig farms, like that.

PRABHUPADA: Mismanagement. This, of course nature's way, sometimes something is produced in large quantities, sometimes less quantity. Therefore the arrangement should be where there is less quantity, the large country with production will be distributed. But they'll throw into the ocean. Still, they will not supply to the country where there is less production.

DEVOTEE (4):It would seem that if money was not the means of exchange, this would not go on. Because then they would trade even excess food for other things that they required.

DEVOTEE (5): They limit the supply so they can sell things for higher prices.

PRABHUPADA: No, here the American policy, the Western policy, that if the people get easily food, they'll not come to work in the industry. That is their policy. If they get cheap food, then they won't work. That is human nature.

DEVOTEE (5): That is very interesting.

PRABHUPADA: Ha?

DEVOTEE (5): That's very interesting.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. So they want to keep them starving or in want, so they'll come and produce and make the capitalists rich. This is the system.

Sri Guru and Gauranga