In the context of the coronavirus crisis and people’s reaction to it, one prominent Brisbane, Australia,  newspaper, in a slightly mocking and condescending tone, published headlines implying that people were behaving wrongly as if WW III had begun. Well, it may not be WW III yet. But the arms of the doom’s clock have in fact been moved closer to midnight recently, as it was announced in the news.

Therefore the better way to look at the coronavirus events is to take it very seriously and consider it a rehearsal for a possible WW III scenario. As we all know, such a scenario is not at all impossible. Like it or not, everything is already in place for WW III, at the cost of zillions of dollars to the taxpayers. It will take now only one single individual like Adolf Hitler, who is singlehandedly responsible for the advent of WW II.

Let me quote Bhagavad-gita As It Is 16.9 by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Founder of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, His publishing house, and Founder of the Back to Godhead magazine. This chapter of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is is called “The Divine and the Demoniac Natures.”

“TEXT 9

etäm drishtim avashtabhya
nashtätmäno ‘lpa-buddhayah
prabhavanty ugra-karmänah
kshayäya jagato ‘hitäh

WORD FOR WORD RENDITION

etäm—this; drishtim—vision; avashtabhya—accepting; nashta—having lost; ätmänah—themselves; alpa-buddhayah—the less intelligent; prabhavanti—flourish; ugra-karmänah—engaged in painful activities; ksayäya—for destruction; jagatah—of the world; ahitäh—unbeneficial.

TRANSLATION

Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.

PURPORT

The demoniac are engaged in activities that will lead the world to destruction. The Lord states here that they are less intelligent. The materialists, who have no concept of God, think that they are advancing. But according to Bhagavad-gétä, they are unintelligent and devoid of all sense. They try to enjoy this material world to the utmost limit and therefore always engage in inventing something for sense gratification. Such materialistic inventions are considered to be advancement of human civilization, but the result is that people grow more and more violent and more and more cruel, cruel to animals and cruel to other human beings. They have no idea how to behave toward one another. Animal killing is very prominent amongst demoniac people. Such people are considered the enemies of the world because ultimately they will invent or create something which will bring destruction to all. Indirectly, this verse anticipates the invention of nuclear weapons, of which the whole world is today very proud. At any moment war may take place, and these atomic weapons may create havoc. Such things are created solely for the destruction of the world, and this is indicated here. Due to godlessness, such weapons are invented in human society; they are not meant for the peace and prosperity of the world.”

Taxes and death are inevitable. And many proud and most respectable citizens, on the order of the government, have sacrificed their lives in a just fight. We shall remember them tomorrow, April 25th, ANZAC day 2020.

During WW II, Australia suffered 39 800 military personal deaths and a total of 40500 total civilian and military death. And during WW I, Australia suffered an even greater number of military personal deaths only of 61 928. In the Vietnam war, 426 Australians were killed in action and in the Korean war 340.

In purport of Bhagavad-gita As It is 12.11, Srila Prabhupada gives another perspective on national service and sacrifice for one’s country:

“It is also found that when one who is not even interested in the activities of Krishna consciousness gives charity to some hospital or some other social institution, he gives up the hard-earned results of his activities. That is also recommended here because by the practice of giving up the fruits of one’s activities one is sure to purify his mind gradually, and in that purified stage of mind one becomes able to understand Krishna consciousness. Of course, Krishna consciousness is not dependent on any other experience, because Krishna consciousness itself can purify one’s mind, but if there are impediments to accepting Krishna consciousness, one may try to give up the results of his actions. In that respect, social service, community service, national service, sacrifice for one’s country, etc., may be accepted so that some day one may come to the stage of pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord. In Bhagavad-gitä (18.46) we find it is stated, yatah pravrittir bhütänäm: if one decides to sacrifice for the supreme cause, even if he does not know that the supreme cause is Krishna, he will come gradually to understand that Krishna is the supreme cause by the sacrificial method.”

In all cases, our best advice is:

Please chant

HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA

KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE

HARE RAMA HARE RAMA

RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

and prepare for the final battle now.

Kirtan is naturally more blissful than Japa.

Kirtan means congregational chanting, once the congregation ban is lifted of course. But kirtan can also be practiced as a single individual, why not? The numbers just make it more powerful and transcendentally overwhelming.

Japa means individual chanting on beads, as a means to count the mantras. There has to be a numerical strength as well, as Srila Prabhupada explains in 720622SB.LA for example:

“The Gosvämis, in Vrindävana, they used to chant, keeping in numerical strength. They were all liberated persons; still, for teaching us an example, they also used to chant keeping a numerical strength. Haridäsa Thäkura, he used to chant Hare Krishna mantra keeping a numerical strength, three hundred thousand times. Three hundred thousand times. So our prescription is only twenty-five thousand; not hundred thousand even. So it is not very difficult; it takes utmost two hours. We can find out, out of twenty-four hours, two hours. We can find out time.”

 

 

Post Scriptum:

As far as cruelty and death are concerned why not consider the following facts?

This is an extract from the latest newsletter of The International Society for Cow Protection: iscowp.org

“Dairy and Meat Industries

1) 21,000,000 dairy calves are slaughtered for veal or cheap beef every year globally.
2) Due to extensive biological manipulation, today’s dairy cows produce up to 12 times more milk than they would naturally produce to feed a calf.
3) Even so, virtually all dairy calves are stolen from their mothers within hours of birth in order to maximize profit. 97% of newborn dairy calves are forcibly removed from their mothers within the first 24 hours.  The rest are removed in a matter of days. On so-called humane dairy farms, cows are often taken within the first hour of birth as separation of mother and calf is considered less stressful when they have not been allowed to bond.”

Moreover, the slaughter of human beings in large scale conflicts may not, through the link of karma, be unrelated to the very huge and regular slaughter of bovines and other animals as well.