View source for Why should you voluntarily go and be attacked? It is not that a devotee should take physical risk so long he has got some physical body. It is not a challenge to the physical laws: "Oh, I have become a devotee. I challenge everything." That's foolishness

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{{terms|"That is foolishness"|"Oh, I have become a devotee. I challenge everything"|"It is not that a devotee should take physical risk so long he has got some physical body. It is not a challenge to the physical laws"|"Why should you voluntarily go and be attacked"}}
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{{compiler|Visnu Murti}}
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[[Category:Why Should]]
[[Category:Voluntarily]]
[[Category:Attack]]
[[Category:Questions Posed by Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:It Is Not That]]
[[Category:Devotees of God Should Not]]
[[Category:Physical]]
[[Category:Risks of a Devotee of God]]
[[Category:Physical Body]]
[[Category:Body of a Devotee of God]]
[[Category:Challenge of a Devotee of God]]
[[Category:Law]]
[[Category:Becoming a Devotee of God]]
[[Category:Everything]]
[[Category:Foolishness]]
[[Category:Foolish Devotees of God]]
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<h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<h3>1972 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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So long you are in the material world, what is physical law, you cannot neglect that. Just like if you go to a jungle, there is tiger. It is known that it will attack you. Why should you voluntarily go and be attacked? It is not that a devotee should take physical risk so long he has got some physical body. It is not a challenge to the physical laws: "Oh, I have become a devotee. I challenge everything." That is foolishness.
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[[Vanisource:720228 - Conversation 2 with Bob Cohen - Mayapur|720228 - Conversation 2 with Bob Cohen - Mayapur]]
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Prabhupāda: That is my misdeed, that I accept a disciple who is nonsense. That is my misdeed.

Bob: This happens on occasion?

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is sure to happen, because we are accepting so many men. But it is the duty of the disciple to be cautious that, "My spiritual master saved me. I may not put him again into these suffering." (break) When the spiritual master is in suffering, Kṛṣṇa saves him. Kṛṣṇa thinks, "Oh, he has taken so much responsibility for delivering a fallen person." So Kṛṣṇa is there. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati ([[Vanisource:BG 9.31 (1972)|BG 9.31]]). Because the spiritual master takes the risk on account of Kṛṣṇa.

Bob: So your suffering is not the same kind of pain that an impure person . . .

Prabhupāda: No, it is not due to karma. (break) The pain is there sometimes so that the disciples may know that "Due to our sinful activities my spiritual master is suffering." (break)

Bob: . . . very well now.

Prabhupāda: I'm always well. (break) . . . well in this sense: even there is suffering, I know Kṛṣṇa will protect me. But this suffering is not due to my sinful activities. (break)

Bob: But let us say, when I . . . in the town I live in I drink boiled water because some of the water has disease in it. Now, why should I drink boiled water? If I have been good enough not to get a disease, then I may drink any water. And if I have been not doing proper, then I shall get diseased . . .

Prabhupāda: So boiled water is any water also. Boiled water is included within any water.

Bob: But, you see, I drink that to prevent disease.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So long you are in the material world, what is physical law, you cannot neglect that. Just like if you go to a jungle, there is tiger. It is known that it will attack you. Why should you voluntarily go and be attacked? It is not that a devotee should take physical risk so long he has got some physical body. It is not a challenge to the physical laws: "Oh, I have become a devotee. I challenge everything." That is foolishness. Anāsaktasya viṣayān yathārham upayuñjataḥ (Brs. 1.2.255).

Viṣaya, this physical necessities, the devotee is advised to accept the necessities of life without any attachment. Physical law is take the boiled water. But if boiled water is not available, does it mean he'll not drink water? If it is not available, you drink ordinary water. (break) We take kṛṣṇa-prasādam. But while in touring, in hotels, sometimes we have to take some food in the hotel. Does it mean, "Oh, I do not take any foodstuff from the hotel. I shall starve"? If I starve, then I'll be weak, I cannot preach. (break)

Bob: Does a devotee lose some of his individuality, in that . . .

Prabhupāda: No, he has got full individuality, but he sacrifices individuality for pleasing Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says: "You surrender unto Me." So he voluntarily surrenders. Not that he has lost his individuality. He keeps his individuality fully. But because Kṛṣṇa desires that he should surrender, he never minds. He's individual.

Just like Arjuna, he was . . . in the beginning he was declining to fight on account of his individuality. But when he accepted Kṛṣṇa as his spiritual master, he became śiṣya. Then whatever He ordered, "Yes." That doesn't mean he lost his individuality. He voluntarily accepted, "Whatever Kṛṣṇa says, I shall do it." Just as all my disciples, they have not lost their individuality, but they have surrendered their individuality. That is required.
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