(The entrance to Srila Prabhupada's loft on the Bowery)
"This Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement is to give chance to this animalistic civilization to associate with devotees and mahātmās so that they can also become devotee and mahātmā. You associate with mahātmā, you become mahātmā. You associate with debauch, you become debauch. Practical. We have taken from the debauchery condition all our disciples. But they are now mahātmās. It is possible. By this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we can turn debauch into mahātmā. That is possible. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement is so nice.
Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura sings, pāpī-tāpī jata chilo hari-nāme uddhārilo, tāra sākṣī jagāi and mādhāi. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says that 'Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by His saṅkīrtana movement, has delivered all kinds of fallen souls,' pāpī-tāpī. Pāpī means sinful and tāpī means suffering. If you become sinful, then you must suffer. If you... Just like if you contaminate some disease, you must suffer. Similarly, if you contaminate sinful activity, then you must suffer. Pāpī-tāpī jata chilo hari-nāme uddhārilo. They have been delivered.
So how they have been delivered? Tāra sākṣī jagāi and mādhāi. The living example is Jagāi and Mādhāi. What was the Jagāi-Mādhāi's fault that he's considered pāpī-tāpī? They were addicted to these four principles: illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling. They were addicted to these principles. They were born in high brāhmaṇa family, but by bad association they became drunkard number one, woman-hunters, meat-eaters and gamblers and guṇḍās, like anything. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu delivered them. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's process was that He used to send daily His devotees to go and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and preach Hare Kṛṣṇa, just like we are trying to do here. We are sending our devotees…
So actually, Caitanya Mahāprabhu delivered such persons. Pāpī-tāpī jata chilo hari-nāme uddhārilo. So why they are called pāpī-tāpī? The pāpīs, the sinful men, they never enjoy. Just like in New York you have seen in Bowery Street, the drunkard... What is called?
Devotee: Alcoholics.
Prabhupāda: Alcoholic bumpers? (laughter) What do they call? What is the name?
Devotee: Bums.
Prabhupāda: Bums. Yes. The bums, just see how nasty they are. They were lying down on the street, and as soon as get some money, immediately go to the wine shop, purchase one bottle, and not eating nicely, no dress, nothing of the... Many of them. The Bowery Street is famous for that purpose. So they are not happy, but they are thinking they are happy. This is māyā. This is māyā.
The materialistic persons, by engaging themselves in sinful activities, they are not happy, but they are thinking that 'We are happy.' In this European portion of the world, they are... We have experienced two big wars, and still, the war cloud is always there. Not only here; everywhere. So this materialistic civilization, actually people are not very happy.
And as I have told you that people are going to live underground next hundred years. That means they'll lose this freedom of living in the free air for fear of this atomic attack. That is predicted in the World Almanac. You have seen, that people are going to live under. They'll... Sometimes they will come out to have fresh air in the surface. Otherwise, they will have to live underground.
So actually we are, by advancing this materialistic way of life, for the time being we may feel happy, but we do not know how much risk we are taking in our life. That science is not yet discussed. That science is described in the Bhagavad-gītā that if you hear also—we have begun—that this life is not meant for simply sense gratification with hard labor. No. This life is meant for restraining. Restraining. Tapa. We have to restrain our business of sense gratification. Without restraining our business of sense gratification, it is not possible to make ourselves liberated. That is not possible. This is entanglement.
Sat-saṅga chāḍi' kainu asate vilās. If people give up the association of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness society and they simply indulge in the sense-gratificatory process, then more and more they'll be entangled.
sat-saṅga chāḍi' kainu asate vilās
te-kāraṇe lāgila ye karma-bandha-phāṅs
(from Prārthanā)
People are now entangled in hard working. Actually, human life should be very easy, very easy—no hard work; living very simple life and eating very healthy food; living in open space; no quarrel, no antagonism; everyone is happy, everyone is free. That is human civilization. Not to become entangled. But at the present moment we have become entangled. So Ṛṣabhadeva says that mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimukteḥ (SB 5.5.2). If we actually want liberation from this entanglement, then we should associate with mahātmās, great souls."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, London, September 17, 1969)
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