Money means gold, where is gold?

Harikeśa: So actually this money doesn’t even exist in Vedic society—money.

Prabhupāda: Money is not required. You require things. Just like instead of money, you are getting papers. Money means gold. Where is gold? You are cheated. Money means gold. So instead of possessing gold, you are possessing some paper, written there, “hundred dollars.” And you are such a fool, you are satisfied. You are being cheated. Bank’s check and currency notes, you keep it in your…, “Oh, here is my money.” Is that money? Just see.

Devotee (3): They only do that to make it easier for them, because they’ve got so much money that they can’t carry it…

Prabhupāda: That’s all right, but actually it is not money. You are befooled. You are such a fool that you accept a piece of paper as money. Therefore I say you are rascal. That is my business. If I say “Government, give me gold,” and government has passed law, “No, you cannot possess gold,” that means cheating. How I shall keep gold, that is my business. First of all you give me gold. It is due to me. But you are giving me paper. That means cheating is begun from you.

Harikeśa: How will the government decide what my gold is and what his gold is? How does the gold get distributed?

Prabhupāda: Gold coins. Formerly there was gold coins. We have seen in our childhood gold coins, silver coins. There was no paper.

Harikeśa: But you have to do something to get it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I will have to do something. That is another thing. But why you are cheating me? Instead of gold, you are giving me paper. Formerly… You have seen in Kṛṣṇa book that one fruit man came, and Kṛṣṇa was taking some grain. It was falling down. So that was the… A fruit man come, and you give him a packet of grain. Then whatever exchange is possible, the fruit man gives you fruit. That’s all.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That is called bartering.

Prabhupāda: Bartering. So there is no need of money. Similarly, you go to another shop. You get. So you produce your food, and in exchange, in barter, you get all things, other things. Somebody is producing something, somebody is producing something. But it can be done. Suppose I am a blacksmith. You want some work from me. So you say that “I’ll make this instrument for me.” So I say, “You give me one kg paddy.” So you give me one kg, I prepare you, so your necessity is fulfilled. Now I have got so much paddy. Now, I may go to purchase something else because I am blacksmith, so grains will be used for my eating, and for, say for ghee, I take the same grain somewhere. So where is the money need of?

Harikeśa: It’s very difficult to cheat in that system. It’s very difficult to cheat.

Prabhupāda: Cheat?

Harikeśa: In a system of bartering it’s very hard to cheat.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no cheating. Everyone is simply simple, honest. And here the government begins cheating. He is engaging you to hard work day and night and paying you a piece of paper, where it is written “one hundred dollars.” That’s all. This is your society, cheating and cheater. That’s all.
Harikeśa: People have a hard time understanding that point, because with a hundred dollar note you can buy things.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say you are all rascals. You do not know. If I say, the government may arrest me that I am infusing people in a different way. But that is the fact.

Harikeśa: So a government’s duty would be to abolish this false standard of money, and then automatically…

Prabhupāda: Yes. Government’s only duty is that government gives me land and I pay tax: “Whatever I produce, take one fourth.” Finish. All taxes. If I don’t produce, there is no tax. That’s all. That is the business between the government and the public. That’s all.

Harikeśa: If the public are giving like one quarter of a perishable item, what does the government do with that? Let’s say they were growing some vegetables, so they give one quarter of that to the government. What would the government do with that? They’ve got so many tons of vegetables.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: And everybody is taken care of, because they are growing it.

Prabhupāda: After all, vegetable will be eaten by somebody. So let government distribute there. Vegetable, grains, fruits, milk, ghee, yogurt, natural produce—they will be used by somebody. The government may store and distribute, those who are in need. That’s all.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Maybe somebody is only producing gold or gold plates, or somebody is producing something that isn’t food. So he would give that to the government.

Prabhupāda: Well, gold plates, that is not a necessary thing. He can eat on plantain leaf, natural production. That is luxury. So when people live simple life, the luxuries will no more be required.

Morning Walk 751016mw.joḥ

October 16, 1975, Johannesburg

https://prabhupadabooks.com/conversations/1975/oct?d=1

(submitted by Mohini devi dasi)

Comments

  1. Sudarsana Das Vanacari says:

    Just as Srila Prabhupada spoke (in 1972) that “in 50years time this will all be finished!” Yanukovich was the (pro Russian) elected leader in Ukraine but he did not want to burden the poor people in the country with IMF loan, making them ‘debt slaves’ to Kazarian Mafia Rothschilds Bankers. Enter CIA trouble-makers and “regime changers” Nuland and McCain (who created ISIS and Al Queda) armed Zionist Nazi thugs and criminals to terrorize Ukraine’s citizens to oust elected leader Yanukovich and install gangsters as they have been doing all over the world …… Rinse and repeat!

    US Dollar is a “dead man walking” and if it is not finished this year (31-50 Trillion Dollar USD National Debt) it will be finished in 2023 while the Ruble is steady and climbing. So this will severely affect the world and western countries tied to the US dollar with very, very tough times ahead, at least for several years possibly till 2030! It’s going to be a rough ride!

  2. Pamho agtacbsp, anandamaya bhyasat is the real gold for the bhakti yogi, is not fake like to make money as bhagavan das done after the fall down is been arrested by the police because he was making real fake money,anyway we know there’s cheating everywhere plus suicide as reaction to the cheating is increasing in this dark age plus mental health hospitals especially london is full up by people with personality disorder and in the future it will be worse that’s why many people preferred to die because kali yuga is the most terrible age full of calamities ,so i don’t blame them because I’m still alive for the holy name otherwise i was departing too.agtacbsp ys haribol

  3. Pamho agtacbsp, we been cheated by mistakes stools for gold ,the first cheating is to accept a false physical image then whatever is false connected to the temporary image of the material world is cheating, that’s the first cheating in accepting a false I and mine which get finished in the coffin ,dust you are and dust you go back say the holy bible, agtacbsp ys haribol

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