Bhakti Vikasa Swami's Blog, page 167

Discussion about corrupt doctors and American society

Tamala Krsna: You may remember one of your disciples, his name is Madhusudana. Anyway, his cousin has joined us in New York. So this boy, he’s married to a girl who was the chief nurse for the biggest neurosurgeon in America, who operated on Kennedy. A very big man. So she told us something about the medical profession, some examples. She said the American doctors are extremely cruel, and one time she…

Prabhupada: Cruel they must be. They’re eating meat, raksasas.

Tamala Krsna: She was describing that one time they were all looking at this x-ray of one of the patients who had had severe pain. And inside the x-ray they saw that during the operation they had left the scissors and scalpel in the man’s body. And all the doctors were standing there laughing, as if it was a big joke. They thought it was a big joke. For a long time this patient had had much pain in the side, and he did not know why. Then they took x-ray, and they found a scissors and a scalpel left inside, and the doctors thought it was a big joke.

Prabhupada: Then again operated.

Tamala Krsna: Yes, another operation. Then another thing they were describing that there was a patient who was dying. There was no chance of his recovery, but still, in order to get… The man was a big man. So the television was covering because he was an important political figure. So the doctor performed this big brain operation, even though there was no purpose whatsoever, so that he could get advertised on the television as a very important doctor. And at one point he said, “Now bring in the television,” and he cut the man’s head and did a whole operation for no purpose at all. The person died anyway. But he was given advertisement that he was the most important surgeon. And they talk amongst themselves. She knew all this.

Prabhupada: They were arranging my brain operation.

Brahmananda: In New York. They threatened us that it must be done, that you must stay in the hospital. They refused that you should leave the hospital, and they wanted to take all these tests, spine…, put needles in the spine.

Hari-sauri: I read a story when we were in the U.S. about one doctor there. They took him to court, and they described how in order to get money, he was doing a very specialized operation on the spine. And he would tell people, for any reason at all, he would tell them that they must have this operation even when it wasn’t necessary. And he was taking at the same time eight amphetamines every day to keep himself going. And he made so many mistakes, and all these people after the operations, they would come and they were paralyzed, or one man, his skin became so sensitive that he couldn’t wear a shirt or anything because it was too painful, and another person would be crippled in another way from his mistakes that he made. And he was doing it simply on the basis to get more money. And at the same time he was living in a $100,000 house and maintaining big, big cars and like that. Then when they investigated him, they found out all these things.

Tamala Krsna: The whole profession is crooked. She told that they have a cure for cancer. There’s a cure for cancer. It comes from a natural herb available in South America. But the American Medical Association has forbidden the importation of this herb, because if they import it, then all of their cancer work is finished. And they’re making billions of dollars doing cancer research. So they won’t allow this herb to be imported. It has no bad effect, but they will not allow its importation. So one of our devotees, Jayananda, you know he has cancer now.

Prabhupada: Accha?

Tamala Krsna: Yes. Oh, he has very severe case of cancer.

Brahmananda: They say he will die from this.

Tamala Krsna: All over his body these nodule protrusions have come, big lumps growing out, cancerous growths. After Ratha-yatra this happened. So he went into the hospital, and they nearly killed him in the hospital. Practically they killed him. They put so many tests on him that he was nearly dead. He lost fifty, sixty pounds. He was practically dead. So then when I heard about this, I got him out of the hospital. There’s no purpose. I could understand they didn’t know what they were doing. They were just testing. So then he went… He’s now in Tijuana, Mexico, and since taking this medicine all of the growths have gone away. Now how long he will live, that is another matter. But immediately all of these symptoms, outward symptoms, they’re gone simply by taking this medical…

Prabhupada: Herbs.

Tamala Krsna: Yes, this special medicines. But this is illegal. You have to go outside the United States. Even though they know about it, they won’t allow it to come in, because then they will lose so much money. This girl who joined us, she was telling the most horrible things. She said they’re all… She had to quit the profession because she could not stand to be doing this kind of work with these people, the so-called doctors. They were so cruel and cheaters.

Brahmananda: When Gargamuni took you out of the hospital they threatened that now you will not recover, and now it is our responsibility, what we are doing. They tried to force us.

Prabhupada: I could understand that. Therefore I said, “No, I am quite…” [laughs] They were arranging for my brain operation. Very dangerous.

Tamala Krsna: This brain thing now, another thing they have done is… One of the things they do now in the hospitals is they give this shock treatment on the brain, and then they…

Brahmananda: They put electricity into the brain.

Tamala Krsna: The deprogrammers are using this. They call it “psychological readjustment,” and they put electrical wires…

Prabhupada: Yes, they put some machine in my head.

Brahmananda: Well, that was for testing the brain waves. But this way, they put electric current into the brain…

Tamala Krsna: And burn part of the brain, destroy the brain. One girl in our temple in New York, her father is the owner of Financed Foods, which is a very big food market chain like A & P supermarkets, very big, and her father owns it. So she… When she was young or before joining, she was a hippie. So her father didn’t like that she was a hippie, so he had her put in the mental institution, and for 120 days in a row every day they gave her these shock treatments, and now she cannot remember hardly anything. When we talk to her she is just like, almost like a vegetable. I mean to say she cannot function as a normal person because her brain has been destroyed. Her father was trying to make her normal. Still, she has become a devotee. Now her father has again called her, telling her that he wants to have her go to the hospital to make her more “sane.” He’s destroyed his daughter, but he doesn’t see that. I don’t know if I told you about the person in Texas. Did I tell that story?

Hari-sauri: No.

Tamala Krsna: No? Recently, about a month ago… This will give you an indication of the nature of how many people are becoming in America, and especially the authorities are becoming very unjust. One man had a son in Texas, and the boy was smoking marijuana. He was smoking for about a month or two. So for two weeks, when his father came to know, his father was telling him, “You should stop this smoking of marijuana,” but the boy continued to smoke it. So one night the father came into the boy’s room, took out a gun and shot his brains, killed him.

Prabhupada: Killed him?

Tamala Krsna: Killed his own son because he was smoking marijuana. He couldn’t stand that the boy was smoking marijuana. Then after killing him he went to the police and turned himself in. So he came before the judge, woman judge, and he said that “I could not help it. This boy is my son, and look what he was doing. It is abominable. I had to kill him.” And the judge said, “Yes, I can understand your feelings. It was intolerable.” And she let the man go without one day jail sentence. No reprimand even. So this is the thing that is starting to happen now, that they are lobbying in the Congress in the United States to pass laws that if someone is abnormal, then the parents should have the right to commit him to psychological treatments. Even the child may be fifty years old and the parent may be seventy years old, if the parents think that child is not sane, then they have the right to get the child committed. So this has been passed in a couple of states, and already in California…

Prabhupada: This is very dangerous.

Evening Darsana — February 15, 1977, Mayapur

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Don’t try to imitate. Follow His instruction

Umapati: [rephrasing question from devotee] The question was that Krsna had said that He would not take part in the Battle of Kuruksetra, but later on He did. So He had actually changed His word. So does the devotee also sometimes do that — say one thing but later on change his mind?

Prabhupada: You are not Krsna. [laughing] You are servant of Krsna. Don’t try to imitate the master. That is folly. You are servant, you remain always servant. Don’t try to imitate the master. Krsna has lifted the hill. Can you do that [laughing] by imitation? Don’t try to imitate. Follow His instruction. That is wanted. Krsna can do anything. He is God.

(August 5, 1976, New Mayapur)

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Four classes

There are four classes of men: lazy intelligent, busy intelligent, lazy fool and busy fool. [laughter] So first-class man is lazy intelligent. Just like you’ll see the high-court judges, they’re very lazy and most intelligent. That is first-class man. They are doing everything very soberly. And the next class: busy intelligent. Intelligence should be used very soberly. And the third class: lazy fool — lazy, at the same time, fool. And the fourth class: busy fool. Busy fool is very dangerous.

So all these people, they’re busy. In this country — everywhere, all over the world, not this country or that country — they have discovered this horseless carriage — very busy. [imitates cars’ noise] “ons, ons,” this way this way, this way. But actually, they are not intelligent. Busy fool. Therefore they are creating problems after problem. That’s a fact. They are so busy, but because they are fool, therefore they are creating problems. This is fact.

Srila Prabhupada; January 19, 1974

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Accepting God’s Mercy in suffering

A devotee always accepts his distress as minimized by God’s Mercy, although he would have to suffer many more times the suffering. Any one who accepts this philosophy of God’s Mercy in suffering conditions, and still makes progress in Krishna Consciousness, it is said that he is sure to go back to Home, Back to Godhead.

From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Gurudasa — Los Angeles 13 February, 1968

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A devotee’s business

A devotee’s business is to earn the favor of the Lord.

Srila Prabhupada, SB 2.8.21, Purport

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Forget and forgive

We should learn to forget and forgive minor incidents because whenever there are two men in a place, there is always some misunderstanding.

From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Gargamuni  — Los Angeles 11 January, 1968

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Better than a brahmacari

A brahmacari is good for living a life of celibacy, but a person who can live a life of celibacy in the presence of a beautiful and obliging wife is more than a brahmacari.

From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Hamsaduta — Los Angeles 12 January, 1968

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Follow Srila Jiva Gosvami’s path

Unless one is situated in uncontaminated goodness, it is very difficult to understand Lord Caitanya as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Thus in order to understand Lord Caitanya, one has to follow the direct disciples of Lord Caitanya — the Six Gosvamis — and especially the path chalked out by Srila Jiva Gosvami.

From Srila Prabhupada’s “Teachings of Lord Caitanya,” ch. 17: Lord Caitanya, the Original Personality of Godhead

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Powerful hari-nama

The powerful hari-nama is so strong that even one unconsciously or conscious… Sometimes they imitate: “Hare Krsna.” They have no intention to chant the holy name of Krsna, but they imitate or criticize, “Hare Krsna.” That has also effect.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.2.5-8 — Calcutta, January 10, 1971

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Distributing Harinama “sweetballs”

Visnujana: While we are chanting our rounds, or while we are chanting out loud in the kirtana, is it all right to be engaging our mind in thinking?

Prabhupada: This is practical way? [laughter] If you are not minding, the chanting will force you to mind upon Him. You see? Krsna sound will by force. Chanting is so nice. And this is the practical yoga in this age. You cannot meditate. Your mind is so disturbed, you cannot concentrate your mind.

Therefore chant, and by the sound vibration, it will forcibly enter it into your mind. Even if you don’t want Krsna, Krsna will enter within your mind. By force. [laughter] This is the easiest process. You don’t require to endeavor. Krsna is coming. [laughter] [Prabhupada laughs] It is very nice process. This is recommended, therefore, for this age.

And others also will be benefited. You chant loudly. Others who are not accustomed, they will also. At least… Just like on the street, in the park, they say “Hare Krsna!” How they have learned? By hearing this chanting. That’s all. Sometimes the children, as soon as they see us, they say “Oh, Hare Krsna!” In Montreal the children, when I was walking on the street, all the children, the shopkeepers, the storekeepers, they will say “Hare Krsna!” And that’s all.

So we have forced Hare Krsna within the mind. If you practice yoga, meditate, it may be beneficial for you, but this is beneficial for many others. Suppose something very good, you are enjoying yourself, some sweetballs — that is one stage. But if you distribute sweetballs, that is another stage.

So by chanting on the road, on the street, you are distributing sweetballs. [laughter] You are not miser, that you are eating yourself. You are so liberal that you are distributing to others.

Now chant, distribute. [laughter]

(October 18, 1968, Seattle)

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