Hayagriva: Socrates, in a very famous allegory or metaphor, pictures humanity living in a dark cave, and the teacher has seen the light outside of the cave. He knows that there’s something outside the cave that is light, and he may return to the cave to tell people in the cave that this is darkness. And the people in the cave, many of them would consider him to be crazy for speaking of such a thing as the light outside of the cave, and that this was a very, conceivably a very dangerous position to be in.
Prabhupada: But actually that is the fact. Just like we are say so many times, Dr. Frog. A frog within the dark well, he is thinking, “Here is everything.” And if he is informed, “Oh, there is big miles of water, Atlantic Ocean,” so this Dr. Frog, from within the well he has never seen the Atlantic Ocean, and he cannot conceive that the water can be so expansive.
So therefore those who are in the dark well, for them it is surprising that what is the light outside. But that’s a fact. And one who has fallen, he is in the…, if he is crying that “I am fallen,” so it is said that the man outside, he drops a rope, that “You catch this rope and I shall take it out.” But he does not catch up. Just like we are presenting that you, everyone in the material world, you are suffering, you take, catch up this Krishna consciousness. They are refusing, or they do not admit; that is going on. But if one is fortunate, he can catch up the rope, and the man wants to help him, he can get him out. But he has to catch up. It is Krishna’s advice also, that “You are crying, you are suffering, you are finding, trying to find out how your suffering will be ended.” That materialist, they are doing their own way, and the impersonalists, they are doing in their own way; the yogis, they are doing in their own way. Everyone is trying to get out of the suffering. But when Krishna says that these things will not help you, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66], he does not catch up. That is his misfortune. God Himself says that “You take.” “You take Me” means by His instruction in the Bhagavad-gita. “You take to Me, you will be saved.” But they will not. That is their obstinacy. And the Vedas therefore says, tamasi ma jyotir gamah: “Don’t remain in the dark well. You come out to the light.” But they will not come to the light. They want to remain in the dark well. And if you want to become perfect, that is their misfortune. Within this material world it is darkness, just like the, just now it is evening. It is giving us that actually it is dark. Because Krishna has supplied the sun, moon, therefore it is light. But there is another place where, without sun, without moon, you will get light. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita: na yatra bhasayate suryo, na pavakah, like that, there is a na yatra bhasa, tad dhama paramam, “That is My kingdom.” So everything is Krishna’s kingdom, but there is specially, that there is no need of sunshine, there is no need of moonshine, there is no need of electric light; it is all effulgent. So He is giving the information, but these rascals will not take. They want to make adjustment in the darkness of night. How it is possible? This is teaching also the nature’s way of work. The sun is in the sky, but the arrangement is such that twelve hours it is darkness and twelve hours it is light. But sun is there always. There is no doubt about it. But the arrangement, this is just to convince us that actually it is dark. With the sunshine it is sometimes day and sunny. Similarly, happiness can be by the…, to remain under this sunshine, under the illumination of Krishna. That is happiness, Krishna consciousness. And if you want to be happy in darkness… Just like in darkness at night the only happiness is sleeping and sex, that’s all. There is no other happiness. And when there was dark in New York, electricity failed, and so many women became pregnant. (laughs) Yes. In the darkness this is the happiness: either you sleep or you enjoy sex. That is happiness. That is material world; therefore it is darkness. That is said in the Srimad-Bhagavatam:
srotavyadini rajendra nrnam santi sahasrasah apasyatam atma-tattvam grhesu grha-medhinam [SB 2.1.2]
nidraya hriyate naktam vyavayena ca va vayah diva carthehaya rajan kutumba-bharanena va [SB 2.1.3]
These materialistic persons, they have got many things to hear, srotavyadini, huge, big, big volumes of newspaper, so many rascal information. Why they have got so many engagement? Apasyatam atma-tattvam: [SB 2.1.2] because they do not know what is self- realization. Grhesu grha-medhinam. They think that to live in this family life surrounded by wife, children, friends, this is life. So better use this newspaper and talk all nonsense and waste time. Their engagement is nidraya. At night they sleep or enjoy sex, nidraya hriyate naktam vyavayena, and in daytime they hanker after money, runs the motorcar head-break speed, neck-break speed.
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with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada / Socrates
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