View source for You said that everybody who has laws should live under them. Does an individual have a right to choose his own laws?

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[[Category:Prabhupada Said (or Did Not Say)]]
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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1968]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="General_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="11" parent="Lectures" text="General Lectures"><h3>General Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureSeattleOctober91968_0" class="quote" parent="General_Lectures" book="Lec" index="23" link="Lecture -- Seattle, October 9, 1968" link_text="Lecture -- Seattle, October 9, 1968">
<div class="heading">Yes. Just like when you go pass "Keep to the right," you have got the right also to go to the left. But as soon as you go to the left, you are criminal. That's all.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture -- Seattle, October 9, 1968|Lecture -- Seattle, October 9, 1968]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Young man (5): You said that everybody who has laws should live under them. Does an individual have a right to choose his own laws?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like when you go pass "Keep to the right," you have got the right also to go to the left. But as soon as you go to the left, you are criminal. That's all.</p>
<p>Young man (5): But taking one of the commandments of the Christian Bible, "Thou shall not kill," and applying that to a federal law or our American scriptures, there you have two laws that are not stemming from the same law, with different interpretations...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: What is that?</p>
<p>Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The law in the Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill." But the federal law of the United States says you must go into the Army and kill. So which to follow? There is a difference. They both say opposite things.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. The thing is... It is very simple to understand that... Just like a soldier is killing and the state is awarding him medal. And the same soldier when comes home, if he kills somebody, he's hanged. Why? He can say, "When I was in the war field, I have killed hundreds of men and I was given gold medal. And now I have killed simply one man I am going to be hanged? Why?" So it is the cause. If the cause if great, then killing is no sin.</p>
<p>Young man (5): How does one interpret if the cause is great?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: By satisfy... That I have already explained. Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam ([[Vanisource:SB 1.2.13|SB 1.2.13]]). You have to see whether God is satisfied. That cause is great. Perfection of your activity will be judged whether by your action God is satisfied.</p>
<p>Young man (5): But you say that the way we hear from God is through words. And if these words are printed by the men that are making you fight, that's by the men that are making you fight. I have no assurance that it's the word of God unless every movement is God movement. Therefore...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, I don't say this movement or that movement. The general principle is that if you think by certain type of fighting God is not satisfied, then you should not fight. But if in some fighting God is satisfied, then you should fight. We do not say anything outright that this is bad or this is good. We say, anything that has given satisfaction to God, Kṛṣṇa, that is good. Anything which has not given satisfaction to Kṛṣṇa or God, that is bad. Now you have to judge yourself how Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. That requires training; that requires understanding. But the standard of... The same example, that the same state, the same man, when he was fighting in the battlefield, he was being elevated to higher position, rewarded. But same man coming back from the battlefield, he has killed somebody, some of his neighbor, he's hanged. But the same state is there. But man is there, the action is there, the same, but why the judgment is different? Similarly, we have to satisfy the great, and the greatest of the great is God, or Kṛṣṇa. If by your action Kṛṣṇa, God, is satisfied, then it is all right. I don't say that this fight is good, that fight is bad. Fight or no fight. Even without fighting, he may be bad. Just like the instruction which we get from Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna was denying to fight and he was considered by Kṛṣṇa bad, because He was not satisfied. This is the evidence. And when Arjuna decided to fight to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, it was taken as good. So whole thing should be tested, judged, by the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam ([[Vanisource:SB 1.2.13|SB 1.2.13]]). The perfection of any action... In the material world, "This thing is good," "This thing is bad," that is our mental concoction. Everything is bad here. Everything is bad. We have simply manufactured by our own imagination that "This is good," "This is bad." But to keep pace with the human society or peace in the human society, there is necessity of doing or adopting something which is approved by somebody, or the state. That is different thing. That is material. But actually at the ultimate end, as we have cited the quotation from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, good or bad means satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the Lord. If any action is approved or gives satisfaction to the Lord, that is good. If any action gives dissatisfaction to the Lord, it is bad. That is the general. Now you have to adopt yourself in the service of the Lord in such a way that you can know that this action is giving satisfaction and this action is not giving satisfaction. Then your life is all right.</p>
<p>Viṣṇujana: Then all our faculties of perception will be purified by adopting this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and we can understand.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means purification of all faculties. Because the faculties work on the basis of consciousness. If your consciousness is pure... Just like I am seeing. I am not seeing; my mind is seeing. So if my mind is pure, then my seeing is pure. Similarly, if my consciousness is pure, my mind is pure. It is superficial. I am moving my hand. I am not moving; my mind is moving. So all the senses, ten senses... And the central sense is mind. And behind mind, there is intelligence, and behind intelligence, there is consciousness. This consciousness, if purified, then whole thing is purified. If this consciousness is polluted, then the whole thing is polluted. So we have to purify the consciousness. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.</p>
<p>Viṣṇujana: So then a man who is not, does not have a purified consciousness has no way of knowing what is good or bad.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No. He is illusioned. Māyā. That is called māyā. He is accepting something bad as good. Just like one is accepting this body as self. The whole world is moving, accepting this body as the self. Dehātma-buddhi. But I am not this body. That's a fact. So it is illusion. Yes?</p>
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