THE SMELL OF MACHINES *************************** Here in the west we see that there are so many machines and these machines have contributed towards development. Simply with machines it is not possible to be happy. We cannot eat nuts and bolts. In this regard, Srila Prabhupada, our founder acharya, used to criticize the Western disciples, You Westerners, you are simply attached to your machines. You cannot go to sleep without smelling a machine at night - only if you have a telephone or something can you get to sleep, otherwise not. And narrated the story about a fisherman in India. In previous times the grihasthas were habituated to asking if anyone was hungry. And so one grahastha went outside and called out to see if anyone was hungry. He saw a fisherman and he said, Have you taken your meal? And the fisherman said, No. So he took him inside. Then he said, Please leave the basket outside, it is to smelly. After he fed him he asked the fisherman, Do you have some place to sleep tonight? He said No. He allowed him to sleep there. About one or two oclock in the night the grihastha had to get up to answer natures call and when he looked to see how the guest was doing, he found him tossing and turning. He asked, How are you sleeping? The fisherman replied, My sleep is very disturbed. I cannot get to sleep! Why is this? what is the difficulty? And the fisherman said, The difficulty is that I cannot sleep without my basket, that fishy smell, I cannot get to sleep. So then he said, Alright, bring in your basket, and you can go to sleep. Then the fisherman slept soundly. In the same way, everyone has to have a machine, in the west. To brush your teeth, you need a machine. So people have become addicted. Machines are okay - nothing is wrong with machines, expect that we must not think that machines will give us the actual happiness that we are seeking. If we use machines in Krishnas service, or in our business and give something to Krishnas service, that will give us actual spiritual bliss.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 20:54:05 +0000
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