“If economic problem is solved, then social, political, religious, philosophical, everything is solved”

BY: DAMAGHOSA DAS (ACBSP)

Hare Krishna To All
Pranams
Glories to Srila Prabhupada

Below Srila Prabhupada gives us the open secret of how to solve all our problems-economic, social, religious, political, and even philosophical—this is a step by step process given by the Vedas (Bhagavad Gita) for all humans to follow.

Prabhupada, April 23, 1976, Melbourne: […] Production…. You take the total land as God’s property, and all the population, they are sons of God. Then whole problem solved. Everything solved. If economic problem is solved, then social, political, religious, philosophical, everything is solved….

This morning, at prasadam time, I was reading Krishna Book and here is what came up—

KB 24 Worshiping Govardhana Hill
[…] On hearing this inquiry from Krishna, Maharaja Nanda replied, “My dear boy, this ceremonial performance is more or less traditional.
Because rainfall is due to the mercy of King Indra and the clouds are his representatives, and because water is so important for our living, we must show some gratitude to the controller of this rainfall, Maharaja Indra.

We are arranging, therefore, to pacify King Indra, because he has very kindly sent us clouds to pour down a sufficient quantity of rain for successful agricultural activities. Water is very important: without rainfall we cannot farm or produce grains.

We cannot live if there is no rainfall. It is necessary for successful religious ceremonies, economic development and, ultimately, liberation. Therefore we should not give up the traditional ceremonial function; if one gives it up, being influenced by lust, or greed or fear, then it does not look very good for him.”

And then again in BG we find….

Bg 3.14 P Karma-yoga
All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and yajna is born of prescribed duties.

Purport….Therefore, ultimately, we have to depend on the production of the field and not on the production of big factories. The field production is due to sufficient rain from the sky, and such rains are controlled by demigods like Indra, sun, moon, etc., and they are all servants of the Lord.

The Lord can be satisfied by sacrifices; therefore, one who cannot perform them will find himself in scarcity — that is the law of nature. Yajna, specifically the sankirtana-yajna prescribed for this age, must therefore be performed to save us at least from scarcity of food supply.

Bg 3.15 — Regulated activities are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Consequently the all-pervading Transcendence is eternally situated in acts of sacrifice.

Bg 3.16 — My dear Arjuna, a man who does not follow this prescribed Vedic system of sacrifice certainly leads a life full of sin, for a person delighting only in the senses lives in vain.

So it seems that Prabhupada is saying that all our social, religious, political, and philosophical problems will be solved if we first solve this economic problem -according to the Lord directions. He doesn’t say produce nuts and bolts – He says annad bhavanti bhutani — grow grains.

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Prabhupada, April 23, 1976, Melbourne: […] Production…. You take the total land as God’s property, and all the population, they are sons of God. Then whole problem solved. Everything solved. If economic problem is solved, then social, political, religious, philosophical, everything is solved.
Guest: If there was exchange for that money, I think you’d be right.
Prabhupada: No money required. No money required. Simply one is required to work to produce food grain. That’s all. No money required.

And God has given us so much land that we can produce food grain and we can keep cows’ milk, and from milk we derive so many rich, nutritious, full of vitamins foodstuff that the whole economic question solved immediately. But we are producing…. Instead of food grain, we are producing tobacco for smoking cigarette. We are producing coffee for going to hell.

So how you can expect social reformation? In Africa I have seen. Instead of producing grain, they are producing coffee, tea, and keeping the cows for killing, making business to sell meat to other countries.

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So in this purport Prabhupada explains that without producing real food that real people need, which is our first necessity, then how can we expect social reformation of peoples character? Starting with our own? Because the real goal of human life has not been assigned (to please Lord Vishnu — who tells us we SHOULD grow grains, etc), then all sorts of foolish things are made INSTEAD of the real necessities–food for man and animals. Therefore mankind, as a whole, degrades itself into animals with no higher purposes in life.

751001AR.MAU Lectures 241921/530501
… Simply we have to follow the instruction. It is not at all difficult. Then all the questions — social problem, political problem, economical problem, religious problem — everything will be nicely solved. We are presenting, therefore, Bhagavad-gita as it is.
And you take any question and the answer is there in the Bhagavad-gita, very nicely given.

Just like, say, our first problem is economic problem. So Bhagavad-gita says, “Yes. Economic problem will be solved very easily if you produce food grains.” Annad bhavanti bhutani. You produce food grain. Just like in your country I see there is enough land. If you people produce your food grain, within three months you can get all the necessities of life for the whole year.

And the balance time you can save, nine months. And these nine months you can utilize for advancing in spiritual life, because your life or my life, this human form of life, it is distinct from the cats’ and dogs’ life.

The cats and dogs, they cannot understand what is the basic principle of life. But a human being can understand. If he takes little care, he can understand that his problem of life is due to misunderstanding, accepting this body as self. This is the problem.

CONCLUSIONS

One might ask how is rain necessary for economic welfare? That’s pretty obvious, and mentioned above. But how so religiously,or even for liberation for that matter?

The answer is that sacrifice must be performed to please Vishnu, to get all ones necessities-namely first of all food,(“all living entities subsist on food grains”, BG) then with food we can work, why work? because we are forced to work,(even Krishna says He works) Who to work for? Vishnu.
How does liberation relate to rain/grain?
Without a healthy body,which comes from following this Vedic lifestyle, religious life, which should lead to moksa, is difficult to perform. Instead, with an unhealthy body/mind we spend all or most of our time looking for cures for something we are not (the body). And thereby miss our golden opportunity to once and for all solve this main problem — birth and death.

This is a very important topic — the interrelationship of prescribed duty-yajna-rains-grains-economic welfare-religious duties, social reform, and ultimately liberation. From Dharma (religious duties) comes artha (economic welfare), then kama (sense gratification), then moksa (liberation).This cycle of human benefits, Krishna explains is contained within regulated activities, which come from the Vedas, which come from Lord Vishnu. So when one is doing his proper duty, and this duty is prescribed by Lord Vishnu, then God Himself is present within these acts which are conducive to moksa.

Hari bol

Damaghosa das