A lack of proper education makes a baby-killing society

Abortion is a symptom of a society with no proper education. There must be treatment of the cause of the symptoms.  Until then, not only will the abortion issue be a symptom of an uneducated society, but also a source of ongoing karmic suffering. It does not matter whether you are male or female, everyone is affected. And the leaders of society are also implicated, because under their rule, the citizens are acting sinfully.

For me, it is painful to call it an abortion.  It is the killing of a child in the womb, and putting a more neutral name on the act only serves to try to minimize the importance of what is really being done. I can find no record of my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ever using the term “abortion.”  He called it what it was, killing the child in the womb of the mother.

In western society, there is no education regarding either moral culture or karmic reaction. There is no education as to the proper use of sex life, the sacredness of it, moral principles in general, and sense control with God at the center. There is no education about the reaction to killing and eating the cow and bull.  Mostly everyone is schooled in perversity, hedonism, and how to be a useful tool for the capitalist elite, from a very young age.

Practically all the institutions and organizations that give some lip-service to the ideals of morality and chastity have no potency to change the lives of their followers because the leaders and educators offer no role model, and they have no understanding that every action creates some kind of reaction.  Their own lives are filled with hypocrisy. The behaviors that come from a lack of proper training cannot be mitigated by any government ruling. If there is not an educated and moral society, there will still be rampant illicit sex, with or without birth control, and no amount of government legislation of the symptom will have any effect. There has to be a change in consciousness. There has to be an opportunity for higher pleasure than sex life, which only the development of spiritual life can give.

The other relevant issue here is cow killing. The cow gives us milk and is therefore mother, and if we kill her, the result is that the cow killer comes back to be killed by mother, never seeing the light of day for many births. Thou shall not kill includes the humans, the animals, and even the unborn child in the womb.  How can we lay claim to happiness if we cannot follow even such a simple commandment?  The cow is not an ordinary animal. An entire society can be based on her proper care and utilization. I cover this in the introductory video series on PurelyPrabhupada.com. There are eight introductory videos, and the discussion of the role of the cow in society is discussed in number 8.

In Caitanya-Caritamrta, Ādi lila 17.166, it is stated, “Cow-killers are condemned to rot in hellish life for as many thousands of years as there are hairs on the body of the cow.” This includes the person who raised the cow for slaughter, the butcher, the transporter, the packer, the cook, the eater, anyone involved in the process of cow killing. To be a child in the womb, killed over and over again by the mother, is certainly one of the hellish punishments for killing mother cow. 

Srila Prabhupada was giving a class in Los Angeles May 17, 1970.  He was specifically discussing Śrī Īśopaniṣad, mantra 11. He made the following points in his lecture-

…So death means sleeping of this body. As soon as this body becomes old enough, useless, somehow or other, then the soul does not come back again to this body; he accepts another body, just like changing dress. So actually if you take sleep as death… As sleep is temporary, a few hours, similarly this death means sleeping for a few months. That’s all…

The child in the womb of the mother sleeps, unconscious, and when the body is made up, he has got his hands, legs, eyes, everything manufactured; then consciousness comes back, and that time the child moves and desires to come out, prays. One who is advanced in his previous life, he understands, “Oh, I am again put into this condition. I did not utilize my life for Kṛṣṇa consciousness; therefore I am again put into this condition.” It is very risky. Don’t try to go again into the womb of the mother. It is very, I mean to say, distressful, packed-up.

We all forget this. Sometimes the child is killed by the modern civilization. The most sinful child does not see the light. It is being killed from one womb to another womb. You see? This is going on. Those who are killing this, using these pills, they will be put into that womb, and they will never see light, and from womb to womb they will be transferred—horrible life, ghostly life.

So these are nescience. People do not know, and they are advancing: “I am civilized.” What nonsense civilization you have got. Try to understand this Vedic knowledge, then your life will be successful. Otherwise if you remain in the darkness, then this human form of… And this human form of life is important. Why?

This book is meant for the human beings, not for the cats and dogs and animals. This Īśopaniṣad, the Vedic knowledge, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, it is meant for human beings. So if we do not take advantage of this knowledge and keep ourself into darkness of animal life, then you are doomed.

March 3 ’75 Dallas lecture

So these children… Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha [SB 7.6.1]. That is Prahlāda Mahārāja’s instruction, that you produce children as much as you can train them to become eternally family members of Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual contraceptive. Don’t produce children like cats and dogs. This is our philosophy. If you can produce Kṛṣṇa conscious children, produce one hundred children. There is no objection. But if you cannot do that, then either don’t produce children or produce children as much as you can manage. This is Kṛṣṇa philosophy. Our philosophy is not simply negation. It is positive. They, general people, they are unnecessarily producing children, then cannot manage. So they are adopting so many sinful activities, so much so that they are now killing their own child within the womb and becoming implicated in sinful activities and prolong the life in this material world very miserably. Just see the miserable condition of the child, baby within the womb. She is… It is in the mother’s womb, and the mother, at the advice of the doctor, is killing. Why? Because that child—now it is child—he did it. He killed so many other children in his previous life; now he is being killed. Not only in one womb, but he will enter another womb—he will be killed. As many children he has killed, he will be killed in this way.

Srila Prabhupada was giving a discourse on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.13–15 in February of 1973 in New Zealand. The main idea of these verses is that sense control is essential for progress in spiritual life. Srila Prabhupada reminded us, “This is the chance, human form of life, to practice this and cure the disease of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease.” He went on to explain-

“This is not our condition of life to die or to take birth. Things have come to such horrible condition that birth has become also very much risky. One child, one living entity, takes birth in the womb of a human being, and that child is being killed by the conspiration of the mother and the doctor. This is going on. Without any hesitation, the mother is agreeing to kill the child, and the doctor is killing. And the small child, because it has taken birth in that womb, he is subjected to so many tribulations.

After all, again death. Just see, birth and death. The human civilization is coming to such horrible condition that mother is killing the child. Naturally, even the tigress has got motherly affection. The cubs, small tiger cubs, playing on the back of the mother, and the mother is patting. This natural tendency for raising or for getting children, child, there is even in tigress. But human civilization is coming to that stage that it is lesser than the tigress.

But whatever it may be, the real thing is that our disease is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [Bg. 13.9]. We have to stop this disease, simply repetition of birth and death and disease. If we tolerate… You can tolerate, but suppose if I become that child who is being killed by the conspiration of the mother and doctor. So, would I like? This is tribulation; it is going on by nature’s law. That child which has taken birth in that womb is not allowed to come out of the mother’s womb. He is being killed within the womb, and again he enters another womb; there also he may be killed again. This is the law of nature going on. But they do not know; they do not care. They think that “This child is being killed—I am safe.” But you may also be put into, because death is there. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. As soon as death is there, you have to accept another body.

So people are in so ignorance, the so-called material civilization—simply in darkness. Very horrible civilization at the present moment, we think. Simply darkness. They do not know the laws of nature; they do not know what is living entity, what is soul, what is God, how things are going on, how nature’s law is working. Nothing of the sort. Simply like animals—eat, drink, be merry and enjoy, that’s all. This is going on, very horrible civilization at the present moment, and this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the only movement to enlighten them to come to your senses; don’t be carried away by the laws of material nature….”

If you have already had an abortion, or been implicated in the killing and eating of mother cow, not knowing the karmic implications, don’t be despondent.  Krishna is very kind.  In the last chapter of Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, He gives us a chance.  Verse 66 of the 16^th chapter, spoken by Krishna Himself, states,

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me.  I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions.  Do not fear.”

Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport to this verse that the Lord promises protection to one who surrenders unto Him.  The second paragraph of the purport reads as follows-

“In the Eighth Chapter it was said that only one who has become free from all sinful reactions can take to the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Thus one may think that unless he is free from all sinful reactions he cannot take to the surrendering process. To such doubts it is here said that even if one is not free from all sinful reactions, simply by the process of surrendering to Śrī Kṛṣṇa he is automatically freed. There is no need of strenuous effort to free oneself from sinful reactions. One should unhesitatingly accept Kṛṣṇa as the supreme savior of all living entities. With faith and love, one should surrender unto Him.”

Just add Krishna to your life. The process is simple. You can remain in your occupation and chant the Hare Krsna mahamantra. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. The name Krishna means the most attractive person.  The Lord and His name are nondifferent. A person who becomes attracted to Krishna is most fortunate, and his or her future becomes very bright. Of this, there is no doubt.