Lord Krishna's loving pastimes with the cowherd damsels have been always the source of controversy amongst the mundane moralists. How could God be possibly engaged in immoral activities? Is He then God? Or is Krishna just an ordinary man who poses as God? The following is a conversation with His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Hare Krishna founder, where all these questions become very soundly answered.
Prabhupada: ...even taking it that Krishna is after sex, then if sex is bad, then why you are after sex? The whole world is going on after sex. How you can deny it?
Ramesvara: He says that sex is not for God.
Prabhupada: Why? If sex if not there in God, then how it comes? If God created everything, so God did not create sex?
Ramesvara: They think it means we are saying God has a material body, because they associate sex with material body.
Prabhupada: Material body has no sex. A dead man does not enjoy sex. Do you think that a dead man enjoys sex? Suppose a beautiful girl-dead. Will you accept for sex? Then why do you take that sex is for the body? (train noises) "Sex if for the material body" is not the fact. When the soul is not there, where is sex?
Ramesvara: They consider sex to be his lower nature, animal nature.
Prabhupada: No. Everything is..., becomes animal nature when it is perverted, when it is contaminated.
Ramesvara: They do not have any conception of the positive.
Prabhupada: Eh?
Ramesvara: They have no conception of pure life. So they think that it's just...
Prabhupada: If they have no conception, we should give them conception that the body is dead, decomposed, then where is the sex? Where is the inclination? Similarly, the soul originally... As it is said in the Vedanta-sutra, that "Everything is coming from Brahman." Athato brahma jijnasa: "Now let us talk about Brahman." This is the meaning of athato brahma-jijnasah. Then next verse is..., sutra, code-janmady asya yatah [SB 1.1.1]. And Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita, aham sarvasya prabhavo [Bg. 10.8]. So unless sex comes from God... It may be perverted in the material world. That is another thing. But originally, pure sex must be there in God. Otherwise how it comes? Everything is emanating from the Supreme. Janmady asya yatah [SB 1.1.1]. So how you can say there is no sex? Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura explains that janmady asya, adi-rasa. Adi. Adi-rasa means sex enjoyment. So he has explained that sex has come from... Because we have used perverted sex, we have got a very bad idea. But actually sex is there in the original. Otherwise there is no question of madhurya-rasa. Hladini-sakti. There is no question of sex. You do not understand Absolute. The opposition party will inquire you, but sex is originally from Brahman. That is why...
Ramesvara: His argument was that when Krishna was here, He was having friendship with the gopis, who were married to other men.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Ramesvara: This is immoral.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Ramesvara: God never acts in an immoral way.
Prabhupada: So that you have made, immoral. Because if He is the proprietor, then He is the proprietor of everything. You have accepted one woman who belongs to Krishna. You are immoral. He is the original proprietor of everything, and everything belongs to Him, but He has given you one woman. Tena tyaktena. But no woman belongs to you. So you should stop connection with women. It is immoral. Otherwise every woman belongs to Krishna. How you can use Krishna's property? That is the disease, that we are trying to enjoy Krishna's property. Krishna's the proprietor. Bhoktaram yajna-tapasam sarva... [Bg. 5.29]. He's the bhokta, He's the enjoyer. How you can enjoy Krishna's property? That is immoral. And therefore you shall be punished. You are being punished. Because we are encroaching upon Krishna's property illegally, therefore we are suffering. Krishna is moral, you are utilizing unauthorized, using this material...
Ramesvara: His argument was that if God comes to this world and displays activities with women, it is natural that the followers of that religion will also want to have affairs with women.
Prabhupada: No. Because they have not studied Krishna, they misunderstand in that way. You are fond of woman. Krishna comes to show you that in the Vaikuntha, Goloka Vrindavana, there is woman, but not in this way. Originally there is. That is pure. So it requires education. You are not educated; you cannot talk. Now sex..., even in our material experience we find that by sex many great men has been found. So how you can accuse sex? You are talking. We should say, "You are a product of sex. So how do you say that sex is bad?"
Ramesvara: They say that when one man has many different women, then that is immoral.
Prabhupada: No, first of all answer. Suppose you are a big man, but you are product of sex. Are you born differently or through sex? What is the answer?
Ramesvara: Sex.
Prabhupada: Yes. Sex is not bad. When it is misused, that is the defect. Otherwise, sex is not...
Ramesvara: The Western conception is that one man can only have one woman.
Prabhupada: Why? If he can produce many big men, he can have hundreds of women. But you cannot do that. Therefore you are restrained. You are bad. You better restrain. Don't have sex, because you'll produce cats and dogs. But one who is able to produce great brain, great philosophers, he should produce hundreds. You do not know how to produce good brain. Therefore you stop! Don't produce cats and dogs. For you it is "Stop." You do not know how to use sex. Therefore you should stop. [break] You should not any more use sex. But one who can produce better brains should have hundreds of times. You must know how to produce. That is Vedic civilization, dharmah samskara idam...(?) It is not a secrecy, how to produce brain. And because brain is not produced, therefore there is agitation, that they have no brain. They do not know the value of this Krishna consciousness movement. You have been produced like cats and dogs; therefore you cannot appreciate. Therefore you should stop. But one who has power to produce brain, to produce Krishna conscious children, they should be use. Foodstuff is forbidden for a person who cannot digest. One who can digest food, he must eat sumptuously. There is no restriction for him. Food is not bad. One who cannot digest, it is bad for him. This is the conclusion. What is food for one is poison for another. If you cannot use sex power how to use it for better purposes, you should not use sex.
Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India
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