These days, everyone is frustrated – husbands, wives, boys, girls. Everywhere, there is frustration, because our loving propensity is not being utilised properly. However, we can achieve complete satisfaction by directing our love towards the Supreme Person.
Everyone in this material world is born into ignorance, or darkness. Actually, the nature of this material world is that it is dark. It may be brightened with sunlight, moonlight, fire or electricity, but its nature is dark. That is a scientific fact. So everyone born in this material world – from the highest demigod down to the ant – is born into the darkness of ignorance.
Now, the Vedic injunction is, “Don’t remain in darkness; come to the light.” And for this, a spiritual master is needed. It is the duty of the spiritual master to open the eyes of the person in darkness with the torch of knowledge. People should not be kept in darkness; they should be brought into the light. Therefore, in every human society, there is a religious institution of some sort.
What is the purpose of Hinduism, Mohammedanism, Christianity or Buddhism? The purpose is to bring people to the light. That is the purpose of religion. And what is that light? That light is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Srimad-Bhagavatam states, “The codes of religion are directly given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead” (SB 6.3.19).
In the state, there are laws that you must follow. The head of the state gives some laws, and if you are a good citizen, you obey those laws, and live peacefully. These laws may be different according to time, circumstances, or people – the state laws of Nigeria may not agree 100 per cent with the laws of the United States – but in every state there are laws that you must obey. One has to abide by the law. Otherwise one is considered the lowest in society, a criminal, and is subject to punishment. That is the general principle.
Similarly, religion means to obey the laws of God. That’s all. And if a human being does not obey the laws of God, he is no better than an animal. All scriptures, all religious principles, are meant to elevate man from the animal platform to the human platform. Therefore, a person without religious principles, without God consciousness, is no better than an animal. That is the verdict of the Vedic literature: rating, sleeping, sex and defense – these four principles are common to both human beings and animals. The distinction between human life and animal life is that a man can search after God, but an animal cannot. That is the difference. Therefore a man without that urge for searching after God is no better than an animal.
Unfortunately, at the present moment in every state and every society, people are trying to forget God. Some people publicly say there is no God; others say that if there is a God, He is dead; and so on. They have built such a so-called advanced civilisation, with so many skyscrapers, but they forget that all of their advancement is dependent on God, on Krishna. This is a very precarious condition for the human society.
There is a very nice story that describes what happens to a society that forgets the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Once, a rat was being troubled by a cat. So the rat went to a saintly person who had mystic powers and said, “My dear sir, I am very much troubled.”
“What is the difficulty?” The rat said. “A cat always chases me, so I have no peace of mind.” “Then what do you want?” “Please make me into a cat.” “All right, become a cat.” After a few days, the cat came to the saintly person and said, “My dear sir, again I am in trouble.” “What is that trouble?” “The dogs are chasing me.” “Then what do you want?” “Make me a dog.” “All right, become a dog.” Then after a few days the dog came and said, “Sir, again I am in trouble.” “What is the trouble?” “The foxes are chasing me.” “Then what do you want?” “To become a fox.” “All right, become a fox.” Then the fox came and said, “Oh, tigers are chasing me.” “Then what do you want?” “I want to become a tiger.” “All right, become a tiger.” Now the tiger began to stare at the saintly person. “I shall eat you,” the tiger said. “Oh, you shall eat me? I have made you a tiger, and you want to eat me!” “Yes, I am a tiger, and now I shall eat you.”
Then the saintly person cursed him: “Again become a rat!” And the tiger became a rat.
In this way, we have denied God and are now trying to delete him.
So, our human civilisation is like this. It is written in the World Almanac that within the next 100 years people will be living underground – like rats. Scientific advancement has created the atomic bomb to kill men, and when it will be used, people will have to go underground and become like rats. From tiger to rat. It is nature’s law. If we defy the laws of our state, we will be put into difficulty. Similarly, if we continue to defy the authority of the Supreme Lord, we will suffer.
A godless civilisation cannot be happy. That is a fact. So we have started the Krishna consciousness movement to awaken this godless civilisation. Just try to love God; this is our simple request. You have love within you – you want to love somebody. A young boy tries to love a young girl; a young girl tries to love a young boy. This is natural, because the loving propensity is within everybody. But we have created circumstances in which our love is being frustrated. Everyone is
frustrated. Everywhere there is frustration, because our loving propensity is not being utilised properly. Why? Because we have forgotten to love the Supreme Person. That is our disease. So the purpose of religion is to train people to love God, because that is your constitutional position.
We are inviting everyone to come associate with us and try to love God. And the method is very simple: we chant His holy names – Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. The process of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra is universal. It is not Hindu or Indian. The Sanskrit word, mantra, is a combination of two syllables, ‘man’ and ‘tra’. Man means “mind,” and tra means “deliverance.” Therefore a mantra is that which delivers you from mental concoction, from hovering on the mental plane. Try an experiment: chant Hare Krishna for one week, and see how much spiritual progress you make. We don’t charge anything, so there is no loss. But there is great profit; that is guaranteed.
