KRISHNA CONSCIOUS COMMUNISM

"Similarly, one is intoxicated by thinking,  "I am very rich, I am very educated and beautiful, and I have taken birth in an aristocratic family in a great nation."  That's all right, but how long will these advantages exist? . . .

"Kuntidevi says that those who are intoxicated in this way cannot feelingly address the Lord. They cannot feelingly say, jaya radha-madhava:  "All glories to Radha and Krsna!" They have lost their spiritual feeling. They cannot feelingly address the Lord, because they do not have knowledge.  "Oh, God is for the poor man,"  they think. "The poor do not have sufficient food. Let them go to the church and pray, 'O God, give us our daily bread.' But I have enough bread. Why should I go to church?"  This is their opinion.

"Nowadays, therefore, because we are in a time of economic prosperity, no one is interested in going to the churches or temples. "What is this nonsense?" people think. "Why should I go to the church to ask for bread? We shall develop our economic condition, and then there will be a sufficient supply of bread."  In Communist countries this mentality is especially prevalent. The Communists make propaganda in the villages by asking people to go to church and pray for bread. So the innocent people pray as usual, "O God, give us our daily bread."  When the people come out of the church, the Communists ask,  "Have you gotten bread?"
"No, sir,"  they reply.
"All right,"  the Communists say, "Ask us."
Then the people say,  "O Communist friends, give us bread."

"The Communist friends, of course, have brought a whole truckload of bread, and they say, "Take as much as you like. Now, who is better - the Communists or your God?"

"Because the people are not very intelligent, they reply, "Oh, you are better."  They don't have the intelligence to inquire,  "You rascals, wherefrom have you brought this bread?  Have you manufactured it in your factory? Can your factory manufacture grains?"  Because they are sudras (people who have very little intelligence), they don't ask these questions. A brahmana, however, one who is advanced in intelligence [ie. Srila Prabhupada, the best Brahmana] will immediately inquire,  "You rascals, wherefrom have you brought this bread? You cannot manufacture bread. You have simply taken the wheat given by God and transformed it, but this does not mean that it has become your property."

Simply transforming one thing into something else does not make the final product one's own property. For example, if I give a carpenter some wood, some tools, and a salary and he makes me a very beautiful closet, to whom will the closet belong - to the carpenter or to me, the person who has supplied the ingredients? The carpenter cannot say, "Because I have transformed this wood into such a nice closet, it is mine."  Similarly, we should say to atheistic men like the Communists, "Who is supplying the ingredients for your bread, you rascal? It is all coming from Krsna. In Bhagavad-gita Krsna says, 'The elements of this material creation are all My property.'  You have not created the sea, the land, the sky, the fire, or the air. These are not your creations. You may mix and transform theses material things. You may take earth from the land and water from the sea, mix them and put them in a fire to make bricks, and then you may pile up all these bricks to make a skyscaper and claim that the skyscraper is yours. But where did you get the ingredients for the skyscraper, you rascal?  You have stolen the property of God, and now you are claiming that it is your property." This is knowledge.

"Unfortunately, those who are intoxicated cannot understand this. They think, " We have taken this land from the Red Indians, and now it is our property."  They do not know that they are thieves. The Bhagavad-gita clearly says that one who takes the property of God and claims it as his own is a thief (stena eva sah).

"The devotees of Krsna, therefore, have their own form of communism. According to KRSNA CONSCIOUS COMMUNISM, everything belongs to God. Just as the Russian and Chinese Communists think that everything belongs to the state, we think that everything belongs to God. This is merely an extension of the same philosophy, and to understand it one simply needs a little intelligence. Why should one think that this state belongs only to a small number of people?  In fact this is all the property of God, and every living entity has a right to use this property because every living being is a child of God, who is the supreme father. In Bhagavad-gita (14.4), Lord Krsna says, sarva yonisu kaunteya . . . aham bija-pradah pita: "I am the seed-giving father of all living entities. In whatever forms they may live, all living entities are My sons."

"We living entities are all sons of God, but we have forgotten this, and therefore we are fighting.  In a happy family, all the sons know, "Father is supplying food to us all. We are brothers, so why should we fight?" Similarly, if we become God conscious, Krsna conscious, the fighting in the world will come to an end.  "I am American,"  "I am Indian,"  "I am Russian,"  "I am Chinese" - all these nonsensical designations will be finished. The Krsna consciousness movement is so purifying that as soon as people become Krsna conscious their political and national fighting will immediately be over, because they will come to their real consciousness and understand that everything belongs to God. The children in a family all have the right to accept privileges from the father. Similarly, if everyone is part and parcel of God, if everyone is a child of God, then everyone has the right to use the property of the father. That right does not belong only to the human beings; rather, according to Bhagavad-gita, that right belongs to all living entities, regardless of whether they are in the bodies of human beings, animals, trees, birds, beasts, insects, or whatever. That is Krsna consciousness.

"In Krsna consciousness we do not think, "My brother is good, and I am good, but all others are bad."  This is the kind of narrow, crippled consciousness we reject. Rather, in Krsna consciousness we look equally toward all living entities. As stated in Bhagavad-gita (5.18) :

'The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater [outcaste]'

"One who is pandit, one who is learned, sees all living entities to be on an equal level. Therefore, because a Vaisnava, or devotee, is learned, he is compassionate,  . . . and he can work in such a way as to actually benefit humanity . . .

Those who are learned (panditah) do not discriminate. They do not say, "This is an animal, so it should be sent to the slaughterhouse so that a man may eat it."  No . . .
"A Vaisnava tries to elevate all living beings to a platform of Krsna consciousness. . .

"Therefore Kuntidevi says, tvam akincana-gocaram, indicating that to be free from the intoxication caused by high birth, opulence, education, and beauty is a good qualification.

"Nonetheless, when one becomes Krsna conscious, these same material  assets can be used for the service of Krsna. For example, the Americanswho have joined the Krsna consciousness movement were materially intoxicated before they became devotees, but now that their intoxication is over, their material assets  have become spiritual assets that may be helpful in furthering the service of Krsna. For example, when these American devotees go to India, the Indian people are surprised to see that Americans have become so mad after God. Many Indians strive to imitate the materialistic life of the West, but when they see Americans dancing in Krsna consciousness, then they realize that this is actually worthy of being followed . . .

"The Krsna consciousness movement therefore offers a great opportunity to the people of the West. They have an overabundance of the zeros of materialistic life, and IF they simply add Krsna their life will become sublimely valuable."

 HDG Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada - Teachings of Queen Kunti  pp. 55-59.