Which Side of the Bars Are You On?

When I was a young brahmacari monk back in the mid 70's one day I was distributing ISKCON's Back to Godhead Magazine at a shopping center in Leesburg, Florida USA. My distribution activities came abruptly to a halt when I was arrested by a policeman and put into jail. On my second day in jail I chanted by daily quota of 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra by counting on the sections of my fingers. I refused to eat any of their jail food because it was not Krishna prasadam. As I gazed through the bars of my jail cell at the outside world I realized that because I was Krishna conscious I was on the liberated side of the bars and the outside material world that I peered upon was indeed behind the bars, not me. In others words, I was not imprisoned. Rather it was the material world that was imprisoned.

So my question to you, my dear reader, is "Which side of the bars are you on?".

Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom

Question: Why Do People Scam Other People?

Dear Guruji,

Please accept my obeisances!

hare krishna hare krishna
krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama
rama rama hare hare

I want to know why people scam other people. I myself was a victim of a broker scam. I see wherever I go, whenever I buy new things like a car or real estate people sell it at at high cost, unfair price or in other words a scam. The car dealer sold me a broken car which cost me dearly to fix it. A real estate agent sold me 100 square feet less than what was spoken and used a clause in the agreement that square footage can vary up to 10%. I was told that was only varied by 9%.

My question is why do people in general do business by unfair means? Why can't they give a win win situation for both buyer and seller. Why do people cheat more these days? i was quite upset in the beginning, but now I am getting used to this setup as it is becoming the norm nowadays. I will have to move on in life despite all these scams.

At the end of the day I know I did not do any unfair business with anyone. But how can I stop this streak. It is not a good feeling to be cheated by anyone. Also it makes me hate the people even more. How can i restore my original nature and ignore the frauds and be happy?

Sivakumar Anbazhagan

Answer: That is the Nature of this Material World

My Dear Sivakumar,

Please accept my blessings.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

This material world is a society of the cheaters and the cheated. This is why we want to make the whole world Krishna conscious so that we can put an end to all of this cheating. You kindly help us in our world deliverance mission of making the whole world Krishna conscious. Kindly dedicate your life to this mission. You will find great happiness within your heart and, you will make a tremendous positive difference on the world situation.

I hope this meets you in the best of health and in an ecstatic mood.

Your ever well-wisher,
Sankarshan Das Adhikari


Sankarshan Das Adhikari is one of the spiritual masters of the worldwide Hare Krishna Movement. He has dedicated the last 50 years of his life for bringing a spiritual revolution to planet earth by spreading the teachings of Lord Sri Krishna all over the world. He is based in Austin, Texas and when there is no pandemic regularly travels all over the world teaching his audiences how to attain Krishna consciousness, the highest stage of spiritual awakening. He is available for media interviews and to speak to groups and organizations either in person or via the internet.