Spiritualরজস তেমা ვেণ এরা সবাই আИт বাসুেদব-কথা িচ নেহ েস ϕসт (৩)
rajas tamo gune erā sabāi ācchanna vāsudeva-kathā ruci nahe se prasanna rajaḥ—the mode of passion; tamaḥ—the mode of ignorance; gune— by the modes; erā—their; sabāi—all of them; ācchanna—covered; vāsudeva-kathā—topics about Lord Kṛṣṇa, the son of Vasudeva; ruci—taste; nahe—not; se—they; prasanna—are happy or jubilant.
Most of the population here is covered by the material modes of ignorance and passion. Absorbed in material life, they think themselves very happy and satisfied, and therefore they have no taste for the transcendental message of Vāsudeva. I do not know how they will be able to understand it.
Commentary When rajas and tamas are prominent, people are impelled by passion and covered by ignorance, and thus have no spiritual understanding whatsoever. Nor do they have any inclination to acquire spiritual knowledge. They are simply not interested. Dominated by these lower modes of nature, their consciousness becomes absorbed in materialism, and their only goal in life is to accumulate objects for sense gratification and to enjoy them to their utmost capacity. A self-realized soul like Śrīla Prabhupāda can immediately discern where people are at by observing their behavior and the environment they have created.
A brief look at the inhabitants of Boston—their busy shopping streets, towering skyscrapers, and oversized cars—tells Prabhupāda that convincing such people of the need to become Kṛṣṇa conscious would be extremely difficult. As Queen Kuntī points out in her prayers (SB 1.8.26): edhamānamadaḥ pumān naivārhaty abhidhātuṁ vai—“Persons who are on the path of material progress, trying to improve themselves with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education, and bodily beauty, cannot approach the Lord with sincere feeling.” In the purport to this verse, Prabhupāda explains that the advancement of material civilization leads to pride and a kind of intoxication by material possessions. Consequently, people are incapable of approaching the Lord with sincere feeling because of a sense of great material satisfaction. Seeing this situation, Prabhupāda addresses the Lord in his prayer and expresses his concern: “They have no taste for the transcendental message of Vāsudeva. I do not know how they will be able to understand it.” Taste determines our actions. We do things because we like them, and we avoid things because we don’t like them, often regardless of whether those things are beneficial or not. Therefore, as Ṛṣabhadeva tells his sons (SB 5.5.4): nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti—“When a person considers sense gratification the aim of life, he certainly becomes mad after materialistic living and engages in all kinds of sinful activity.” People don’t hesitate to act sinfully if such actions provide the sweet taste of sense pleasure. In such a society, a preacher of Kṛṣṇa consciousness faces an almost impossible task. As Prabhupāda remarked in a lecture given in 1974 in Bombay: When I went to America, I went by ship. So, it stopped at the Commonwealth Pier in Boston. So, I was thinking that if I say 'No illicit sex, no meat-eating, and no intoxication, and no gambling,' these people will immediately say, 'Please go home.' " (laughter) Yes. That is the position. These are their daily affairs. These are their daily affairs in Western countries. And if you want to make them stop these things, they will think that ‘This man is a lunatic.’" One year latter, on March 2, 1975, the Appearance Day of his spiritual master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, Prabhupāda again spoke about his first impression of America: So, when I was seventy years old I decided, ‘Now I must do and execute the order of my Guru Mahārāja. And thus this movement was started in 1965 from New York. And I was not very much hopeful because it is very difficult task, just opposite the European and Western culture. When I first came, I had no money. So, I got a free passage through some Indian steam navigation company. So, I came by ship. When I was on the ship at Boston port, Commonwealth port, I was thinking that ‘I have come here. I do not know what is the purpose because how the people will accept this movement? They are differently educated, and as soon as I will say, 'So, my dear sir, you have to give up meat-eating and illicit sex and no intoxication and gambling,' they will say, 'Please go home.' (laughter) Because that was the experience of one of my Godbrothers. He went to London, and he had the opportunity to talk with one big man, the Marquis of Zetland. Marquis of Zetland was formerly the governor of Bengal. At that time I was a student. He was a Scotsman, and I was a student of the Scottish Churches' College. So he came to see our college, and he was standing in front of me in the second-year class. So, he was a very nice, good gentleman. He proposed to my Godbrother, ‘Whether you can make me a brāhmaṇa?’ So, my Godbrother proposed, ‘Yes, we can make anyone brāhmaṇa provided you follow this principle: no illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat-eating, no gambling.’ That Lord
Zetland immediately replied, ‘Impossible.’ (laughter) So I was thinking that ‘I will propose something which is impossible. Anyway, let me try.’ And Prabhupāda tried—not among highly educated people like the lords and ladies of England, but among the most unlikely candidates: America’s hippies, who were advertising free sex and drugs. Therefore, although Prabhupāda expresses in this verse the doubt, “I do not know how they will be able to understand it,” he also had firm faith that by Kṛṣṇa’s causeless mercy anything was possible, and that the word “impossible” would remain a word in a fool’s dictionary. During an interview in 1976 in Toronto, he was asked about his first impressions of North American society when he arrived and whether he felt it was ripe for Kṛṣṇa consciousness at that time. Prabhupāda answered: No. I was not very much hopeful. That I wrote in one poetry, that ‘Kṛṣṇa, why You have brought me in this country? What can I do? How I shall convince them, how they will understand the philosophy? But because You have brought me here, must be there is some purpose. So, all right. You make me dance as You like.’ That poetry I wrote in Boston, Commonwealth Pier, on the sea. I came by ship. So, I wrote that poetry, that I do not know what for I have come here, why Kṛṣṇa has brought me here. As soon as I shall say that there is no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no drinking, and no gambling, they'll say, ‘You go home. Don't talk.’ I knew this. Still, I attempted. But these boys kindly accepted. I never made any compromise. I said, ‘These are the first conditions to become Kṛṣṇa conscious: no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling. Are you agreed?’ They said, ‘Yes.? Then come. If I would have made compromise, ‘Yes, whatever you like you can do…’ No, I never did. Ask them. I never did.
Some of them left, that ‘It is too difficult. The primary necessities of life are denied here.’ (chuckles) But these boys, they have accepted, and therefore it is improving. They are young men, they have got all the desires for material enjoyment, but they have sacrificed everything.” A pure devotee’s confidence in Lord Caitanya’s inconceivable mercy and power by which even the seemingly impossible can be accomplished is expressed in the next verse.