Prabhupada 1053 - Because You Have to Run Society, it Does Not Mean that You Forget the Real Thing
750522 - Conversation B - Melbourne
Prabhupāda: Your body, yourself, everything belongs to God. This body is material body. That material energy, earth, water, air, fire—everything belongs to God. This sea belongs to God, water, vast water. You have not created, neither your forefather has created. So this body is made of earth, water, air, fire, five elements. So your..., the body is also God's. So far I am soul, I am also part and parcel of God. So everything belongs to God. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are falsely claiming that "It is our." This is māyā. Māyā means what is not fact. That is the meaning of māyā.
Madhudviṣa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this concept that everything belongs to God, it can't work unless everybody believes that everything belongs to God.
Prabhupāda: Then everybody may be mad. That does not change the fact. If some madman comes in this room and he fights, "I am the proprietor. You get out," so that is not the fact.
Raymond Lopez: I can understand, you know, you were talking about the sea and so on. But it's for people to use.
Prabhupāda: Use. You can use. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthāḥ (ISO 1). That is the Vedic injunction. What is given to you, you use it. Just like one gentleman has got five sons. He gives one son, "This is your property. This is your property. This you can use." But the sons must acknowledge that "This is father's property. He has given us." Similarly, in the Vedic śāstra it is said that "Everything belongs to God, and whatever He has given to you, you can use. Don't encroach upon others."
Raymond Lopez: But if He has given... You were saying that if He's given something to you and don't encroach upon others, but there are certain things that one person has or one group of persons have which, I think, truly can be said that...
Prabhupāda: And originally we have to accept, everything belongs to God. Just like father and sons. The son must know, "The property is father's." That is the real knowledge. Now, "Whatever father has given me, I will use it. Why shall I encroach upon others, my other brother, which he has got from the father?" This is good sense. "Why shall I fight with my other brother? My father has given him this property to him, so let him use that, and whatever he has given me, let me use it. Why shall I encroach upon his property?" This is good sense.
Raymond Lopez: I can understand when you say, "Don't encroach on other people's property." And I believe, if I understand you correctly, what you're saying is that if you have something, if someone's given you something and someone else wants to use it, then let him. I can understand that. But don't you get into the stage and can't you get to the stage at times that for some reason or other you don't want him to use it?
Prabhupāda: I don't want to use my thing?
Madhudviṣa: He's saying that if someone does not want..., if you don't want someone to use what you have. If someone tries to forcibly take...
Prabhupāda: No, that is another thing.
Raymond Lopez: The situation could arise when you wouldn't want somebody to use what you were using for some particular reason. You might be using it yourself at that time. That situation can arise that you don't want...
Madhudviṣa: We are believing that everything belongs to God. If someone else does not believe in that concept and tries to use what...
Prabhupāda: That is wrong, that I say. That is his wrong conception.
Wally Strobes: Well, how do you reconcile, or how do you work out a situation... If everything belongs to God, we have to run society, and...
Prabhupāda: But you don't forget that everything belongs to God. Because you have to run society, it does not mean that you forget the real thing.
Raymond Lopez: So I really don't object to that idea at all. But the thing is our, the system we're working within has got different concepts.
Prabhupāda: It should be rectified. It should be rectified.
Raymond Lopez: It should be? sorry?
Prabhupāda: Rectified.
Madhudviṣa: Rectified.