HH Sivarama Swami interview, Kyiv 08 January 2018
The devotees living in cities are not in self-sufficient mode and probably even in villages are not in self-sufficient
mode. Thus when we are using the money, we are not self-sufficient. So the concept of self-sufficiency in itself is very broad, but simplifying our life may be more practical terminology. Learning how to live by what we need. If devotees
really study what we really need… they will see the real difference between the way of living and what they need to
live. When you start living by what you think you need, you start realizing that you need less. That is surely a
question where you draw the line, but self-sufficiency really is that whenever you need you can produce, not
individually, but at least within devotee community without necessarily exchange depending on currency. We need always
review because I’m not living by what I need, I have more than I need.
The most importantly our life should be based on principles of dharma. For instance the concept of milk and milk products. Do we need milk? If you draw the line very very low then you can say no, no one has died without milk, but because for purposes of health, because this actually basis of religion, therefore we need milk. But then we should be careful what kind of milk we get. So, ahimsa milk is placed where at least I drew the line, if I don’t get milk that sourced from protected cows then I won’t drink milk, butter or ghee or other things. Because that kind of milk that called non ahimsa milk, we call it blood milk, I don’t need. I just mean fact people propose you can offer that milk or milk products to Krishna and therefor the cows benefit is I don’t know I’ll be embarassed to give that kind of argument to karmi. Over and over again Prabhupada instructed us, have your farms, have your cows, get your milk to the cities, to the temples, to the restaurants. And of cource again the question of needful come up because if you want to be able to have curd with sabji three times a week it’s going to cost you more if you buying from ahimsa source. Because ahimsa milk may cost you 2,5-3 times more, but then may be it’s a tradeoff only to consume as much. If it becomes initial what we can afford. We spend a fortune on flowers. We buying flowers for deites, for spiritual masters, make garlands and then throw out. So some karmi may say it’s a waste of money. But not for us. It’s a principle of dharma. It’s our religion. Similarly it’s our religion that we actually protect cows. That is a duty of every devotee, especially grihastha, to be protecting cows. So if you are living in the city and you can’t care for cow, that is reasonable, at least don’t be using the excuse that at least the slaughtered cows are getting benefit because I’m drinking their milk. What are you doing to protect cows?
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