178 THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION

judge is sitting soberly, apparently doing nothing, and he is getting a high
salary. Someone else is thinking, ‘‘I am working so hard in the same
court, rubber-stamping—and not getting one tenth the salary of the
judge.”’ He is thinking, ‘‘I am so busy, working so hard, and I am not get-
ting as good a salary as the man who is just sitting on the bench.’ The
situation is like that: the Vedic civilization is meant for self-realization,
not for a dog’s race.

Interviewer: Still, isn’t it usually considered honorable to work hard, to
struggle, and eventually ‘‘get ahead”’ in life?

Srila Prabhupada: The karmis, fruitive workers, have been described in
the Bhagavad-gita as mtidhas, asses. Why are they compared to the asses?
Because the ass works very hard with loads on his back, and in return his
master gives him only a little morsel of grass. He stands at the door of the
washerman and eats grass while again the washerman loads his back. He
doesn’t have the sense to think, ‘‘If I go out of the cottage of the washer-
man, I can get grass anywhere. Why am I carrying so much?”’
Interviewer: That brings to mind some people I know.

Srila Prabhupada: The fruitive worker is like that. He is very busy in the
office, and if you want to see him he will say, ‘‘I am very busy.”’ So what
is the result of your being so busy? He takes two pieces of toast and one
cup of tea. And for this purpose you are so busy? He does not know why
he is busy. In the account books he will find that the balance was one
million dollars and now it has become two million. He is satisfied with
that, but he will take only two pieces of toast and one cup of tea, and still
he will work very hard. That is what is meant by karmi. Asses—they work
like asses, without any aim in life.

But Vedic civilization is different. The accusation is not correct—
people in Vedic civilization are not at all lazy. They are busy for a higher
subject matter. Prahlada Maharaja stresses that this busy-ness is so im-
portant that it should begin from one’s very childhood. Kaumdra dacaret
prajfiah: one should not lose a second’s time. That is Vedic civilization.
The asses see, ‘‘These men are not working like I am’’—like dogs and
asses—and they consider that we are escaping. Yes, escaping your fruit-
less endeavor. The Vedic civilization is meant for self-realization.
Interviewer: Could you give us more of an idea what the Vedic civiliza-
tion is like?

Srila Prabhupada: The Vedic civilization begins from the varndsrama
system. In the varndsrama system there is this arrangement: brdhmanas
[intellectuals, advisors], ksatriyas [administrators], vaisyas [merchants,
farmers], stidras [workers], brahmacdris [celibate students], grhasthas
