Who is The Real Thief ?

Kuntī says that this intoxication position, madaḥ, edhamāna-madaḥ (SB 1.8.26), increasing, pumān, such person, naivārhati, they cannot feelingly address, “Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava.” They cannot feelingly. That is not possible. Their feeling, spiritual feeling, is lost. They cannot feelingly address, because they do not know. “Oh, this God is for poor man. They cannot have sufficient food. Let them go to the church and ask, ‘O God, give us our daily bread.’ We have got enough bread. Why shall I go to church?” This is their opinion. Therefore nowadays, in the days of economic development, nobody’s interested in going to the church or temple. “What this nonsense? Why shall I go to the church for asking bread? We shall develop economic condition, and there will be sufficient supply of bread.”

Just like Communist country, they do so. The Communist country, they make propaganda in the villages. They ask the people to go to the church and ask for bread. They, innocent people, they ask as usual: “O God, give us our daily bread.” Then when they come out of the church, these Communist people ask, “Have you got bread?” They say, “No, sir.” “All right, ask us.” And then they ask, “O Communist friend, give me bread.” And the Communist friend has taken a truckload of bread: “Take. As much as you like, take. So who is better? We are better or your God is better?” They say, “No, sir, you are better.” Because they have no intelligence. They do not inquire that “You rascal, wherefrom you have brought this bread?” (laughter) “Have you manufactured in your factory? Can you manufacture grains, the ingredients of bread, in your factory?” Because they have no intelligence.

Śūdra. They are called śūdra. Śūdra means those who have no intelligence. They take it as it is. But one who is brāhmaṇa, one who is advanced in intelligence, he’ll inquire immediately: “You rascal, wherefrom you brought this bread?” That is the question of the brāhmaṇa. You cannot manufacture bread. You have simply transformed God’s grain.The grain, the wheat, is given by God, and you have simply transformed. But transforming something from something, that does not become your property.

Just like I give some carpenter some wood, some implement, and salary, and he makes a very nice, beautiful closet. To whom this closet will begi…, belong? To the carpenter, or to the man who has supplied the ingredients? To whom it will begin? The carpenter cannot say that “Because I have transformed this wood into such nice closet, it is mine.” No. It is not your. Similarly, who is supplying the ingredient, rascal? That is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, ”bhūmir āpo ‘nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva…, prakṛtir me aṣṭadhā”  (BG 7.4). “This is My property. You have not created this sea, the land, the sky, the fire, the air. It is not your creation.” You can transform these material things, tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ vinimayaḥ, by mixing and transforming. You take earth from the land, you take water from the sea and mix it and put it in the fire—it becomes a brick. And then you pile up all this brick and make a skyscraper building. But wherefrom you got this ingredient, rascal, that you are claiming this skyscraper yours? This is intelligent question. You have stolen the property of God, and you are claiming that it is your property. This is knowledge. This is knowledge.

So those who are intoxicated, they cannot understand. They think: “It is my property. I have stolen. I have stolen this land of America from the Red Indians. Now it is my property.” But he does not know that he’s a thief. He’s a thief. Stena eva sa ucyate (BG 3.12), in the Bhagavad-gītā. One who takes the property of God and claims his own, he’s a thief. Stena eva sa ucyate.

SOURCE : Lecture on S.B. 1.8.26, Los Angeles