Finding the Cure for Today’s Social Ills 211
things—illicit sex life, intoxicants, meat eating, and gambling—are very
great impediments to social improvement.
Prof. Kotovsky: That will automatically make life simpler because a per-
son who does not indulge in illicit sex, intoxicants, and such other things
has to lead a comparatively simple life.
Srila Prabhupada: The other day I was speaking in Bombay with a re-
spectable gentleman. I was telling him that Krsna says:

mam hi partha vyapdsritya

ye ‘pi syuh papa-yonayah
striyo vaisyas tathd Stidras
te 'pi yanti param gatim

‘‘Even those who are lowborn [pdpa-yonayah] — stri, vaisyas, and stidras—
are also included by accepting Me. By accepting My shelter they
are also elevated to the transcendental position.” [Bg. 9.32] Now why
have the higher classes of Hindu society neglected this injunction of the
Bhagavad-gita? Suppose one is padpa-yonayah, lowborn. Krsna says that
he can be ‘‘elevated to the transcendental position if he accepts Me.”’
Why wasn’t this message propagated by the higher class of people so that
the so-called lowborn could be elevated? Why did they reject them? The
result was that instead of accepting the Muhammadans, the Indians re-
jected them, and now they are partitioned off. They have become eternal
enemies of India. So for the first time we are trying to elevate persons to
the higher position of Krsna consciousness, even if one is lowborn. Be-
cause the soul is pure. In the Vedasit is said that the soul is untouched by
any material contamination; it is simply temporarily covered. This cover-
ing should be removed. Then one becomes pure. That is the mission of
human life—to uncover ourselves from this material environment, come
to spiritual understanding, and surrender to Krsna. Then life is perfect.
