THE FOUR PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

No meat-eating No illicit sex No intoxication No ganbling

(A Comprehensive Study)
By Satyaraja Das
INTODUCTION

No one likes to be told what to do. We pride ourselves on our freedom. And so when we see a
pamphlet saying "no meat-eating,"or "no illicit sex"-"don't do this" and "don't do that"-we are
naturally taken aback. We restricted. Our freedom seems stifled. But restriction is not necessarily
opposed to freedom. In fact, certain restrictions allow one the opportunity to became truly free.
For example, if I tell you "don't jump off the roof", (by restricting your jumping) I am helping you
to truly exercise your freedom. Indeed, your freedom of movement would come to an abrupt end if
you were to ignore that simple instruction. Similarly, if I ask you not to drink poison, is that
restricting? It is entirely for your benefit? Although restricting in one sense, in a far larger sense it
is nothing less than a requirement for freedom.

Yet many people in our present day and age are willingly drinking poison in the name of
freedom. Readers of this pamphlet may think it is unfair to compare the regulative principles
presented herein to "freedom." These principles can't possibly be as important for our freedom as
is abstaining from drinking poison. But we ask our readers to view the following with and open
mind. We feet that sufficient evidence is given to support our contention that these particular
restrictions are indeed required if we are to know freedom in this world.

According to the Vedic literature, the world's oldest religious scriptures, we are presently in the age
of Kali, an age that is sympathized by quarrel, hypocrisy, and general degradation. Of course, we
need not consult scripture to know for certain that this is true. Just open the newspaper. Headlines
abound with stories of murder, rape, burglary, crime. And thing get worse as the years pass.
Still, one can avoid the effects of the age of Kali, at least in one's own life. By practicing certain
regulative principles, one can remain free from the vices that g generally plague the common man.
In the same way that a lotus flower has the peculiar characteristic of being able to be in the midst of
a great lake and yet be untouched by the water thereof, a man may exist in the age of Kali and
know genuine freedom, untouched by the iniquities of the age.

The Srimad Bahgavatam (1.17.38) advises us to reject certain activities and thereby avoid the
demeaning effects of the age of Kali. These activities are striyah (illicit connection with the
opposite sex), suna (meat-eating), Panam (intoxication of any kind), and dyutam (gambling).
Modern man tends to think that the ability to openly engage in this kind of sensual activity is a sure
sing of freedom, completely unaware of the bondage it naturally causes. The late Christian
theologian Thomas Merton has properly assessed the nature of such "freedom" for the benefit of
everyone:

It should be accepted as a most elementary human and moral truth that no man can live a fully sane
and decent life unless he is able to say no on occasion to his natural bodily appetites. No man
who simply eats and drinks whenever he feels like eating and drinking, who smokes whenever he
feels the urge to light a cigarette, who gratifies his curiosity and sensuality whenever they
are stimulated, can consider himself a free person. He has renounced his spiritual freedom and
become the servant of bodily impulse. Therefore his mind and his will are not fully hi own.
They are under the power of his conditioning, his appetites. And through the medium of
his appetites, they are under the control of those who gratify his appetites. Just because he can
buy one brand of whisky rather than another,this man deludes himself that he is making a
choice; but the fact is that he is a devout servant of a tyrannical ritual. He must reverently buy
the bottle, take it home, uninhibited head off, get angry, shout, fight and go to bed in
disgust with himself and the world. This becomes a kind of religious compulsion with out
which he cannot convince himself that he is really alive, really fulfilling his personality. Such
Such a person is not merely sinning but is simply making an ass of himself, deluding himself that
he is real when his compulsions have reduced him to a shadow of a genuine person.

Meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication, and gambling-these are the four pillars of sinful life.
They run directly counter to the four basic pillars of religious life, namely mercy, cleanliness,
austerity and truthfulness. In the present pamphlet we will show how illicit sex runs counter to
austerity, and gambling runs counter to truthfulness. Of course,all of the pillars of sinful life are
interrelated, as are the pillars of piety. Thus, in our analysis, we will more often than not simply
shoe the overall detriment of the four pillars of sinful life. In this way, four pillars of religiosity will
appear attractive as a natural result.

It should be pointed out right from the beginning, however, that the four regulative
principles of religious life, while virtous in themselves, are not the sum and substance of true
spirituality; they are merely sub-religious principles. While one who follows these principles
(diligently) may be setting the proper stage for approaching spiritual life, actual spirituality may
still elude him. Therefore, we feel it incumbent upon ourselves to direct our readers to the Srimad-
Bhagavatam, which points out:

kaler dosa nidhe rajann

asti hy eko mahan gunah

kirtanad eva krsnasya

mukta-sangah param vrajet

 "My dear king, although Kali-yuga is full of faults, there is still one good quality about this
age. It is that simply by chanting the holy name of Krshna, one can become free from material
bondage and be promoted to the transcendental Kingdom."(S.B. 12.3.51) Therefore, readers of
this pamphlet are encouraged to chant the holy name of the Lord (Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare). By this process one
will naturally develop an affinity for following the four regulative principles. If not, one is still
encouraged to follow the basic religious principles outlined in this pamphlet. There is no loss, and
one who follows these principles will find much happiness in this life as well as the next.

NO MEAT - EATING

Many people think that to be a vegetarian you've got to be nuts-or at least a little fruity. In
recent years, however, the meatless way of life has surged in popularity, largely because of
mounting evidence that a sensible vegetarian diet is better for you than the typical meat-heavy
American fare. Consider these three compelling reasons for switching to a menu that emphasizes
vegetable foods: 1) To protect your heart. A comparative study of diet and heart disease in
seven countries showed that the death rate from coronary heart disease was highest in countries
where the most animal products were consumed. The Finns, who consumed the most, had the
highest death rate from heart disease. Americans were next (except for Seventh-Day Adventists,
most of whom eat no meat or poultry; they suffer from only half as much heart disease as other
Americans). In Japan, where very little animal fat is eaten, there are fewer deaths from heart
disease than in any other industrialized nation. Scientists at the University of Milan found in
one study that, on diets equally low in fat and cholesterol, persons eating animal protein had higher
levels of cholesterol in their blood than those fed a diet containing primarily vegetable protein.
Further, recent research indicates that certain types of fiber found in plant foods can actually help
lower blood cholesterol, High cholesterol leads to a condition known as arteriosclerosis, which in
turn causes heart attacks, strokes, and high blood c. Thus, the Journal of the American Medical
Association reported in 1961 that "a vegetarian diet can prevent 90-97% of heart diseases
(thromboembolic disease and coronary occlusions)."

2)To reduce the risk of cancer. Research over the last twenty years suggests that the same kind
of high animal-fat-and-cholesterol diet that may set the stage for heart disease can also contribute to
the growth of cancers of the colon, breast, and uterus. Among Seventh-Day Adventists, Japanese,
and East Indians (who also generally eat very little meat), these cancers are relatively uncommon,
but they are leading types of cancer among meat-eating Americans. In a study at the State
University of New Yourk at Buffalo, Prof. Saxon Graham, chairman of the department of social
and preventive medicine, found that people who regularly consumed large amounts of vegetables,
especially in the cabbage family, had lower-than-expected rates of the colon and rectum. A
chemical in these vegetables is known to block the action of certain carcinogens, cancer-causing
substances. Why do meat-eaters get more cancer? The meat people generally consume is aged
to increase flavor. When an animal is slaughtered, its flesh immediately begins to putrefy, and after
several days it turns a sickly gray-green. The meat industry masks this discoloration by adding
nitrites, and other preservatives. These substances make the meat appear red, but in recent years
many of them have repeatedly been shown to be carcinogenic. Said Dr. William Lijinsky, a
cancer researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratry in Tennessee, " I wouldn't even feed nitrate-
laden foods to my cat." 3)To help feed the world's starving people. A Harvard nutritionist, Jean
Marey, estimates that reducing meat production by just 10% would release enough grain to feed 6o
million people. United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim recently admitted that meat
consumption in the rich countries is the key cause for hunger around the world. How is this?
Many agricultural experts and economists feel that one of the chief factors that impairs the
achievement of an adequate world food supply is the gross inefficiency in land use entailed by a
diet centering on meat. All livestock animal obtain their primary nutriment from plants, thus
drawing heavily on those sources of vegetable protein that are later converted into animal products
such as meat and eggs. Thus, meat-eating is most uneconomical and impractical. If man were to
consume the vegetable foods directly, starvation and its corollary horrors could be wiped off the
face of the earth. This is no exaggeration. The need for eliminating the inefficient conversions
of plant food into animal products has been stressed by many prominent agriculturalists, such as
Mr.A.H. Boerma, the Director General of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization: " But if
we are to bring about a real improvement in the diet of the neediest, we must aim at a greater intake
of vegetable protein." The Director General insists that if the common man were educated in the
economics of starvation, he would immediately switch to vegetarianism. Such sentiments are
prompted by the fact that animals do not produce nearly as much edible protein as they take from
the plants upon which they feed. For example, a steer provides man with only 43 pounds of protein
per acre of land per year, while wheat supplies 269 pounds of protein per acre of land per year. By
eliminating the meat-centered diet, we could make much better use of productive land, thus
providing more people with an adequate diet rich in proteins and the other essential food elements
needed for good health. If we exclude dairy cows, the average conversion ratio for U.S.
livestock is 7 pounds of grain and soy fed to produce one pound of edible meat. According to this,
estimate, of the 14o million tons of grain and soy we fed to our beef cattle, poultry, and hogs in
1971, one-seventh, or only 20 million tons, was returned to us in meat. The rest, almost 118 million
tons of grain and soy became inaccessible for human consumption. And these figures are more
than the years old. Since then things have gotten worse. Although we lead the world in exports of
grain and soy, this incredible volume "lost" through livestock was twice the level of our current
exports. This is enough foodstuff to provide every single human being on earth with more than a
cup of cooked grain each day of the year. This is summed up quite eloquently, if also simply, in a
recent article in Vegetarian Times: 1,000 acres of soy beans yields 1,124 pounds of usable
protein. 1,000 acres of rice yields 938 pounds of usable protein. 1,000 acres of corn
yields 1,009 pounds of usable protein. 1,000 acres of wheat yields 1,043 pounds of usable
protein. And 1,000 acres of soy , corn, rice, or wheat, when fed to a steer, will yield only
about 125 pounds of usable protein.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE! Weren't humans designed to be meat-eaters? Don't we require

animal protein? And besides, I like to eat meat. The answer to both of the above questions is a
resounding No! Although some historians and anthropologists say man is historically omnivorous
(a consumer of both plants and meat), our anatomical equipment-teeth, jaws, digestive system-
favors a diet that shuns animal foods. The American Dietetic Association notes that 'most of
mankind for most of Human history has subsisted on vegetarian or near-vegetarian diets. "Contrary
to what the average American or European would like to belive, much of the world still lives that
way. Even in America, the love-affair with meat is less than a century old; perhaps it is a result of
the affluence of the twentieth century. Still, even today, more than 10 million Americans are
vegetarian. Man's body is simply not designed for eating meat. As the prominent Swedish
scientist von Linne states: "Man is not anatomically suited to a fleshy diet. His physiognomy is
more akin to the vegetarian species. The evidence that supports this contention is summaries in the
chart on the following page. Man's body is simply not designed for eating meat. As the
prominent Swedish scientist von Linne states: " Man's structure, external and internal, compared
with that of the other animals, shows that fruit and succulent vegetables constitute his natural food"
Man is not anatomically suited to a fleshy diet. His physiognomy is more akin to the vegetarian
species. The evidence that supports this contention is summaries in the chart on the following page.
As far as the protein question goes, the late Dr. Paavo Airola, one of the world's leading authorities
on nutrition and natural biology, had this to say, "The official daily recommendation for protein has
gone down from the 150 grams recommended 20 years ago to only 45 grams today. Why? Because
(1) reliable worldwide research has shown that we do not need so much protein, that the actual
daily need so much protein, that the actual daily need is only 30-45 grams a day; and (2) that the
protein consumed in excess of the actual daily need is not only wasted, but actually causes serious
harm to the body and even is causatively related to such killer diseases as cancer and heart disease.
In order to obtain 45 grams of protein a day from your diet you do not have to eat meat; you can get
it from a 100% vegetarian diet of a variety of grains, legumes, nuts, vegetables, and fruits." Dr.
Airola goes on to suggest that the lacto-vegetarian diet (a diet composed of dairy products and
vegetables) is the one most suitable from modern man. Dr. Airola also gives a good
explanation of man's curious addiction to meat. After all, if man was not meant to eat meat, why
does he seem to crave it so much? Dr. Airola says, "Meat, especially red meat, contains many
poisons, including a large amount of uric acid, which acts as a common addictive, similar to
nicotine, caffeine, etc., creating a constant craving for more. If you were to stop eating meat, you
may initially experience some withdrawal symptoms and cravings until your body excretes all the
poisons. Then the craving will disappear." Man should not be a creature of habit. Animals
instinctively eat the foods that suit their bodily frame, but man functions according to conditioning
and culture. We may be conditioned to eat meat, but (as we have pointed out in this article)that
doesn't mean meat is a healthful or economical food. We must always remember that human
beings are distinguished from the lower species by their ability to discriminate. With our superior
intelligence, we can discern right from wrong, healthy from unhealthy, good from bad. Why has
man been given intelligence superior to that of the swine or other animals? For the same reason that
a highly posted government officer is given better facilities for working than an ordinary office
clerk. Just as the officer has more important duties to discharge than the clerk, so human being have
more important duties to discharge than the animals. Unfortunately, modern man has largely
lost his power of discriminating in the matter of choosing the healthiest, cheapest foods to eat.
Widespread meat-eating is the perfect example. Man must not neglect the fact that he has
higher intelligence, which is obviously meant for higher purpose. If he were to simply use that
intelligence for the problems which beset the animals-eating, sleeping, mating and defending-he
would then be a sort of "polished" animal. Clearly, the human frame is a vehicle for achieving
something which the animals, in their present state, cannot. Still, if one wishes to consider the
whole panorama of life, he can see that the adoption of a harmless (or minimally harmful) diet is a
first step leading toward an individual's living in harmony with himself and the world. At the
present time we are living in a world steeped in violence and hatred. More than one billion of
its citizens are suffering from lack of an adequate diet, while a minority of the population is rapidly
depleting the world of its most valuable resources: clean water and arable land. Those who live in
the more developed countries, such as the United States, are faced with the increasing threat of
heart disease, stomach disorders, obesity, and a myriad of other physical ailments. At the same
time that people are crying out "Stop killing!" in their quest for world peace, they are paying to
have billions of animals brutally slaughtered for their dinner. Thus the change to a vegetarian diet is
a first step to help ease the suffering of diet naturally intended for man. However, real change will
never come about only by changing the food that goes into our mouths: We have to change the
sounds that come out of our mouths as well. As stated previously, the monkeys and pigeons are
also vegetarian; while vegetarian foods go into their mouths, only jibbers comes out. Since
everything comes from the bounty of the Lord, it is common sense and simple courtesy at least to
recognize our meals as gifts from God and to offer Him thanks. Even more spiritually elevated is
the understanding that if God and to offer Him thanks. Even more spiritually elevated is the
understanding that if God offers us meals out of love, we should reciprocate that love and offer
Him meals in return. We can. And by His mercy we may consult the holy scriptures to find out
how.The sound of such an offering is the sound of real peace. While vegetarian creatures of lower
species may be unable to acknowledge God's bounty, man can. What's more, with love and
devotion he can offer back to his creator the foods his creator has given him. This distinguishes
man from the animals. Such offered food is traditionally referred to as krshna-prasadam, of
God's mercy. While vegetarianism may offer a healthy life free of unnecessary disease, krshna-
prasadam offers that plus God realization. While vegetarianism may offer both material and
spiritual nourishment. By taking wholesome vegetarian foods and offering them to the Lord
according to the guidelines given in the Vedic literatures (which have been translated and
commented upon by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada), man can solve all
the problems of life. By taking vegetarian foods into the mouth and allowing praises of God to
Flow out, one can happily live in God consciousness forevermore. This is the open secret of Krshna
consciousness, Which begins when one chants the Lord's holy names: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare rama, Hare Rama, Hare Hare.

NO ILLICIT SEX

Although those who fancy themselves sexually liberated are actually bound from head to toe,
they think themselves free. What they don't know is that their "freedom" is like that of a football; it
is the freedom to be kicked from here to there.

Many feel that they've shrugged off the foolish and primitive shackles of sexual restraint and
opened themselves to progressive and liberating conceptions of male and female sexuality. But
here's one catch amongst many: Those who feel free to have unrestricted sex contract sexually
transmitted diseases just as freely.

And the diseases now raging through the ranks of the sexually liberated are not merely the
simple syphilis and gonorrhea we knew in more innocent times, when sex was hardly mentionable
in public. Today's sexual encounters engender such risks as herpes and chancroid.

As many as twenty million Americans have genital herpes, and up to half a million more catch
it every year. And once you've got herpes, you've bot it for life. The virus burrows into nerve cells
and stays there, unaffected by any known treatment. The psychological effects of the herpes stigma
are often bad as the physical effects of the disease itself.

Chancroid, a newly discovered venereal disease that features painful genital ulcers and blisters,
was relatively rare a year or so ago. But now it has become quite common, with a growth rate for
venereal disease, however, for every year many more individuals join the march for sexual
freedom.
 Where has this march led us recently? AIDS ( AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome). AIDS victims, due to a breakdown of their immune systems, are prone to a
grab bag of ravaging deseases. Once thought to be a condition peculiar to homosexuals, AIDS is
now affecting many heterosexuals as well. The number of cases has doubled every six months since
1981, and so far almost forty percent of all AIDS cases have proven fatal. Some researchers believe
that no one who has it will survive it.

Even if AIds doesn't kill you, in time you may wish it had. When you first get the disease, you
feel like you,'e got the flu. But a year later the "flu" hasn't gone away. Gradually the AIDS victim
loses his ability to fight off even the middles disease. AIDS victims are prone to an arm-long list of
so-called opportunistic infections-rare cancers and other diseases that don't affect people whose
immune systems are working properly. about a third of all victims have developed Kaposi's
sarcoma, a cancer of the skin and internal organs. Many others have come down with an unusual
pneumonia caused by a protozoan, Pneumocystis crinii.

In addition to the mounting plague of sexually transmitted diseases, promiscuity also generates
detrimental social effects. Unwanted children, despite having escaped the gauntlet of birth control
and abortion, are often neglected. Many times the father abandons the mother and child, and
sometimes both parents abandon the child. Such unwanted children are raised with insufficient
affection and guidance and easily fall prey to bad association. City streets and jails abound with
these youngsters. And it all began with sexually preoccupied parents. Further, abortion is on
the rise. Since the law was changed in 1970,more than 1,5 million abortions have been performed
in New York city alone. Well Over 100,000 more are exceeded the number of births. And we need
not go into how many women have gotten cancer and similar diseases by adopting"the pill" and
other birth control methods.

Why has nature engulfed us in such a nightmare? Why can't we enjoy a full, healthy sex life,
free from horrible side effects? Perhaps we should seriously reassess the purpose of sex.Perhaps we
are abusing sex, and being abused by sex in turn. Perhaps our ideas of sexuality are more perverse
then progressive, more lewd than liberating. Sex is meant for having children-the natural
result of sexual enjoyment is pregnancy. Bent on avoiding nature's arrangement, however, people
use contraceptives, have abortions, incur diseases-and spoil society. So we shouldn't consider
promiscuity's backlash an unjust retribution from a merciless God. It's simply one of a nature's
ways of telling us that unrestricted sexuality is unnatural.

This assertion, of course, goes quite counter to the tenet of the sexual liberation movement that
through surrender to sex we can gain a new innocence and thus enter a world radiant with intense
and joyous experience. But such a liberated posture ignores that body which is the vehicle of
sexual pleasure is also the vehicle of pain, disease, old age and death.

The initiation into sex, that experience of overwhelming subjugation to the body for pleasure,
is precisely that experience which contributes most to the diminished capacity for living. This is not
so hard to see. Our first sexual act precipitates a tenacious identification with the body, forges a fast
bond to it. Thereafter, we are committed to the project of seeking happiness through the senses. At
the same time, we awaken to a deep and abiding dread: We have sealed our pact with mortality. As
sex deadens the spirit, it quickens all the senses. It becomes the center of all material enjoyment.
Yet sensual pleasures depend entirely upon the favorable arrangement of circumstances, and so the
more a person is committed to pursuing these pleasures, the greater his anxiety. Most of all he
needs money. Sex indentures him to ceaseless labor. Securing attractive sexual partners is at best an
elaborate and trouble some pursuit, fraught with dangers to one's self-esteem. As a person becomes
older, the pursuit becomes harder and depends almost entirely upon hi s ability to maintain his
social prestige and display his opulence and generosity. There is no end to worry and to fear.

On the other hand, we may try to withdraw from the anxieties of the sexual marketplace and
take the advice of countless popular songs by seeking the one we "love" and who "loves" us in
return. Such a discovery is rare enough, but it hardly ends our sufferings. On the contrary, nothing
can compare to our anguish when we lose the object of our love-or that one's love for us. Love is no
shelter (death will bring all material relationships to an end). And we have discovered that as
people increasingly demand sexual fulfillment from marriage, the less durable such relationships
are becoming.

Our inability to sustain relationships is at the heart of our predicament. All our happiness and
our achievements depend upon our successfully perpetuating relationships, and our ultimata failure
to do so is called death. Small losses prefigure the larger ones. We want to live,to expand our
organism, to increase the power of our being -in short, to overcome death. As sex is the is the act of
creation of life, we turn to it to commune with the energy of life itself and to prove our vital power.
This power becomes embodied in offspring. Our family becomes the nucleus of a fortification
composed of real estate, money, social connections, privilege, and power. We feed our vital force
by competing with enemies and destroying them. In this way we prosper and gloriously expand.
Yet all these activities have a desperate and driven character. We are trying to fool our powerful
friends, aristocratic relatives, and sweet faced children are fallible soldiers in the war, and that all of
us are doomed. This is the plight of the materialist.

Consider the possibility that our involvement in sex, and in the whole frantic enterprise of
sensual life that expands from it, constitutes a kind of intoxication or stupefaction of awareness
that occludes our normal consciousness of our real nature-a nature that is in fact not subject at all to
death. If this is so, there is a prospect for realizing, through the excavation of that eternal self, an
inherent and inalienable happiness absolutely independent of that eternal self, an inherent and
inalienable happiness absolutely independent of the states of the body. One can achieve this,
however, only is one can remove the stupefaction of consciousness by directing his energies away
from the project of material satisfaction that centers on sex. This is only logical.

The difficulty, of course, is that sex is the source of the strongest sensual and emotional
stimulation, and to restrict it-what to speak of giving it up all together-appraise impossible. To put
aside any enjoyment is certainly difficult. But if we find something more enjoyable, then i becomes
equally natural to give up our previous enjoyment-especially if that enjoyment, like unrestricted
sex, has detrimental side effects.

In Bhagavad-gita (2.59) Lord Krishna explains. "Although one may artificially repress the
desires of the senses, the taste for sense enjoyment remains. But by getting a higher taste, one
becomes fixed in consciousness."

In the Krishna consciousness movement we practice bhakti-yoga, or devotional service to the

Supreme Lord, Krishna, the reservoir of all pleasure. The central point of bhakti-yoga is chanting
the holy names of Krishna. Because Krishna is absolute, he is nondifferent from His names, and we
can associate with Him through such sound vibration. Associating with the reservoir of pleasure
makes sex pleasure look pale by comparison.
 We therefore find no unwanted children in the Hare Krishna movement, nor do we find
abortion of contraception. We indulge in sex on only in marriage, and then only to have children.
And we raise the children in Krishna consciousness. This is the original purpose of sex. and when
one uses sex. only for this purpose, nature does not retaliate-no herpes, no AIDS.

In fact, when sex is used only for this purpose - to raise children in Krishna consciousness-it
becomes an asset. Indeed, it then becomes a vital service to the Supreme. As Krishna says in
Bhagavad-gita:

dharmaviruddho bhutesu

Kamo'smi bharatarsabha

"I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles, O Arjuna." (B.G. 7.ll) The function
of populating the universe with God conscious individuals is so important to the Lord that He
identifies that activity with his own Self.

Unconditional love of God is manifested in unconditional engagement in His service, in

service that has no desire for reward and no interruption. Such love is pure, and asks for noting in
return. This is the characteristic that distinguishes love for its perverted material counterpart, lust,
in which personal gain is the essential motive. Thus, even the sexual union of man and woman can
be used in the service of God. It is extremely good fortune for a child to be born from parents
engaged in self-realization, for from his earliest moments he lives in an atmosphere uncontaminated
by lust and greed and he takes in the principles of spiritual life with his mother's milk. Such
children can be conceived only when the parents unite specifically for that purpose and insure the
good qualities of their offspring through their own purification of consciousness. The first duty of
parents is to be able to deliver their children from ignorance, from the bodily concept of life. And
family life dedicated to that purpose is conducive to sel frealization and as such need not be
renounced by one who is serious about the ultimate goal of life.

But sex for any other purpose-sex to exploit the body for enjoyment, to fuel the delusions of
the ego-is the cause of bondage, and will ultimately lead to disease and unwanted progeny. Sex
more than anything else fixes our false identification of ourselves with the body, rivets us into the
flesh, and addicts us to mundane forms of aggrandizement. Sexual desire can never be satisfied, for
it grows by what it feeds on. This perpetually frustrated desire causes a deep and abiding (if also
subtle) rage, which deepens our illusion. The twin delusions of desire and hate drive us on through
interminable bodily incarcerations, hurtling us over and over into forms that fill us with fear, suffer
the unending onslaughts of injury and disease, disintegrate while we still occupy them, and are
inevitably destroyed. In reality, none of this happens to us, but we have erroneously identified
ourselves with the body and have thereby taken these torments upon us. Material existence is an
illusory affair which we have imposed upon ourselves by our desire to enjoy separately from God.
Sex is the essence of that enjoyment. Sex, therefore, is at the heart of our illusion.

And yet this desire for sexual enjoyment can be purified. Once purified, lust turns to love.
Gradually, by the process of Krshna consciousness, we begin to experience our eternal nature and
to taste the remarkable flavor of our natural love for God, of which sex is a perverted reflection.
And as we experience our constitutional nature, we lose interest in the material substitutes that used
to attract us. We don't become insensitive to our previous objects of attraction, but we begin to see
them in their proper perspective-we love them as part and parcel of God, because they are part and
parcel of God. Our lust is gradually transformed back into love again. Thus, the revival of pure
consciousness is based not on the repression or suppression of desire, but on its respiritualization.

This was the original reason for the restrictions on sex that one would generally find in the
various religions. They were meant to enable us to experience the higher pleasure of spiritual love.
Unfortunately, now only the restrictions and the negations survive, while the real reason for them
has been largely forgotten. But the viable path of self-realization is open once again. It may seem,
at this point, that the sex drive is easy to talk about overcoming, but not so easy to actually
overcome. This is only true if one artificially represses the desire for sex. But if one simply takes up
the positive practise of bhakti-yoga, especially reciting the name of the Lord in the company of
devotees, you will find it not only easy-but relishable. Don't belive us just because we say so. Try it
and see.

NO INTOXICATION

Intoxication refers to the taking into the body of various substances that are not required for
bodily maintenance and have stimulating or depressive effects on the mind and body. Under this
heading, the Vedic Scriptures include everything from tea, coffee and tobacco, with their caffeine
and nicotine, to liquor and other more powerful drugs. Countless people in this age depend on some
such intoxicants for stimulation or relief from anxiety, but any objective observer will consoled that
such enjoyment or relief is only transitory and therefore has real substance. Instead, there are
many detrimental results coming from such intoxicating habits. They cause dependency on
material, worldly supports, and this dependency can increase with the strength of the intoxicant, up
to the point of addiction. These habits generally cause loss of bodily or mental health, resulting
eventually in disease, premature aging, and inability to fix the mind intelligently and steadily on
any subject or problem. In this way, such habits impede spiritual advancement by binding a person
with material attachments and at the same time agitating the mind so that it cannot be fixed in
meditation on the self and God Beyond this, with the use of stronger and cleanliness are gradually
destroyed-witness the usual living conditions of addicts, alcoholics and drug-dependent youths. Of
course, the stronger the intoxicant, the more pronounced the effects, but we can easily observe in
these days how the use of m intoxicants gradually leads towards dependence on stronger ones ( all
current statistics bear this point out).

With a yearly cash income exceeding $60 billion, the illegal drug industry is America's leading
business, ranking ahead of even Exxon, says Senator Sam Nunn of Georgian. Drug abuse has
penetrated all levels of society, from grade schools to the elite circles of politics, industry, and
entertainment. Perhaps most chocking of all is the widespread use of drugs in the nation's armed
forces.

On May 26,1981, an EA-6B electronic warfare plane crashed on the flight deck of the nuclear
carrier Nimitz. Medical tests showed that 6 of the 14 Navy men killed in the accident had been
users of marijuana. Congressional investigators learned that three of the were probably high when
they died.
 "Sure a lot of people on this boat smoke grass. So do I, but look around you, friend, look
around. Who the hell don't?" wrote one Nimitz crewman to the Los Angeles Times.

A department of Defense drug study released earlier this year reveals that 47% of young
enlisted men had used marijuana with the previous month. 58% admitted they had used pot during
past year. A survey of Sixth Fleet sailors stationed in the Mediterranean Sea showed that 50% had
used drugs or alcohol on duty. But what about the officers? The statistics on the young lieutenants
and captains would probably be even more shocking considering that the officers have more money
to spend.

The military has removed 3,300 soldiers from duty at nuclear weapons installations because of
drug and alcohol abuse. General Richard Ellis, the head of the Strategic Air Command, revealed
that the Air Force conducts surprise busts at nuclear missile and bomber bases. In one raid at a B-
52 base, 40 people were arrested. Most of the men worked in support and maintenance areas, but an
undisclosed number were also members of bomber crews! Just imagine what would happen if a
stoned bomber crew went crazy.

In 1973, investigators found that 10% of the U.S. troops on the lines of freedom in west
Germany were using heroin monthly, or more often.

What's being done about it? Every Navy ship is now required to carry portable urine analysis
kits so commanders can run spot checks on their crews. Drug education and enforcement programs
will be strenghened. But W.Donald Steward, the Pentagon investigator who first documented the
drug problem in the armed forces warns, "The military does a great job of putting out brush fires
here and there, but they never attack the heart of the problem." The heart of the problem lies
deep within the person who feels a need for drugs. This is an internal problem that cannot be solved
by any amount of external coercion. The government has already spent hundreds of millions of
dollars to control the drug problem, but the number of drug users keeps expanding. As long as the
desire for intoxication remains within a person's heart, he will find a way to satisfy that desire.

And as if illegal intoxication in our armed forces isn't enough, the regular fellow with a 9 to 5
routine is also implicated-heavily.

The use of drugs by factory workers, white collar workers and executives on the job costs the
American economy an estimated $26 billion a year - including $16.6 billion in lost productivity,
Newsweek magazine reported recently.

DRUG ABUSE: THE COST TO THE Economy

A government-sponsored study by the Research Triangle Institute the staggering economic toll of
drug use, Its 1977 findings have been adjusted for inflation to reflect the costs in 1983 dollars.

LOST PRODUCTIVITY- Absenteeism, slowdown, mistakes and sick leave

$4.9 billion- Drug-related deaths

 1.3 "- Imprisonment

2.1 "- Leaving jobs for criminal careers to support habits

8,3 "

MEDICAL EXPENSES- Treatment in rehabilitation centers, in hospitals and by doctors

$1,9 "- Administration of treatment programs, research and training 367
million

CRENE- Federal, state and local expenditures for courts, police and prisons
$5,2 billion- Alarm systems, locks and other preventive steps for businesses and individuals
1,6 "- Property destroyed during criminal acts 113 million

TOTAL $25.8 billion

The magazine said the loss to the economy could be much larger, since the figure is based on 1977
government-sponsored survey. The magazine adjusted the figures to 1983 dollars taking inflation
into account.

"A ton of cocaine a year is consumed in the silicon Valley," said a California drug consultant
quoted by the magazine. "Some of the small electronics companies are going under because of
drugs."

As another example of the g rowing problem, Newsweek pointed to a recent arrest of 21 guards
at the San Onofre, Calif., nuclear plant for suspected drug use.

The widespread desire for intoxication indicates that the average person's daily experience is
devoid of the drug wears off, and users must return to their original unsatisfactory condition of
consciousness.

According to the sages of ancient India, However, this dull consciousness is not the original
condition of the living being. The inner self is actually meant to naturally experience ever
increasing transcendental pleasure. This pleasure is experienced when he inner self establishes a
link with the Supreme Self. The spiritual science of India is based on the principle of spiritual
pleasure, and God is recognized as the reservoir of all such pleasure. By practicing techniques of
meditation, the inner self can gradually be brought into contact with the Supreme Self. Great
mystics have described the experience as like diving into a great ocean of pleasure. This pleasure is
so vital and intense that it surpasses every known type of pleasure in the world. For most people,
the sexual orgasm is the highest type of pleasure imaginable, even more pleasurable than drugs. But
sages who have experienced the supercharged ecstasies of spiritual realization consider the ocean
of spiritual pleasure. This spiritual pleasure is not simply some impersonal explosion of energy. It
is experienced as a highly controlled reciprocal exchange of pleasurable sensations between the
individual self and the Supreme Personality of Godhead in modes resembling, for instance, the
pleasurable sensations between the individual self and the Supreme Personality of Godhead in
modes resembling, for instance, the pleasurable exchanges between friends or lovers. The
principle technique for awakening the inner source of pleasure is mantra for awakening the inner
source of pleasure is mantra meditation. It works. The mantras revealed in the Vedic literatures are
the most powerful weapons for destroying the desire for drugs.

There are an estimated eight million known alcoholics in America.Dr. Andre Ivy, former head
of the Clinical Science Department of the University of Illinois, notes that the number of alcoholics
is increasing by four hundred and fifty thousand each year. A recent survey has disclosed that 75
percent of all crimes and 60 percent of all divorces have drinking in their background. Meanwhile,
the National Safety council revealed that 50 percent of all traffic deaths are caused by drivers who
had been drinking. Twenty thousand persons die and four hundred thousand are injured annually in
accidents caused by drinking drivers. To say that drinking is one of America's most serious
problems is certainly an understatement.

Just what kind of people become alcoholics? Dr. Robert fleming, one of the leaders in the
world Health Organization, says, "Most alcoholics are not psychiatric cases; they are normal
people." The conclusion reached in a fifty-six-page report issued by the World Health Organization
is: First, nobody is immune to alcoholism. Second, total abstinence is the only solution."

The same report opened with this statement:"Alcohol is a poison to the nervous system. The
double solubility of alcohol in water and fat enables it to invade the nerve cell. A man may become
a chronic alcoholic without every having shown symptoms of drunkenness."

Thus, we see that alcoholism can start with simple social drinking, not with a problem
personality. To understand this we should note that the alcoholic content of beverage as such as
beer, wine, and whiskey, is made up of ethyl alcohol, a habit forming drug.

So why don't people give it up? For one thing, people are gullible. Through subliminal
advertising and peer pressure, the average man can be made to do anything. After a sufficiently
extensive campaign, the deluded public could be induced to fill ice-cream cones with feces and
exclaim to each other how delightful the taste is.

We are sometimes told that great saints the emblems of sobriety, have endorsed the taking of
alcoholic beverages. But there is no foundation for such claims. It is just a rationale to drink and
then pat oneself on one's back that he is following in the footsteps of some great religious
personality. This is especially the habit of adherents to the Western religious traditions. Take Jesus
and the Bible for example. In Biblical times, all fruit of the vine was called wine, whether it was
fermented or not. There are thirteen different words used in Hebrew and Chalde, and four in Greek.
The common word in Greek was oinos. This Greek word corresponds to yain in Herberw, vinum,
in Latin, and wine in English. However, in classical Biblical usage-these words simply to grape
juice.

In the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Bible, the Hebrew word for grape juice is
translated thirty-three times as the Greek word oinos. It is also used to denote other kinds of drinks,
such as lotus fruit and dates.

According to Professor Samuel Lee of Cambridge University, the root of this word in Hebrew
is yain or wine. The word does not generally refer to intoxicating liquor made by fermentation, but
more so to a thick, unintocicating syrup produced by boiling to make it storable. The grape
syrup was stored in new wineskins to prevent fermentation. It was referred to as"new wine," even
though it was only grape juice. The thick syrup was similar to our grape jellies and would be
squeegeed onto bread or dissolved in water, to be reconstituted as a very desirable grape drink. This
process is <...?>

Indeed, why would we assume that a teacher of God consciousness, of the highest level or reality,
would endorse intoxication, an escape from reality? It is absurd! And a close look at the Biblical
literature confirms this again and again. We learn from the Bible that intoxicating beverages are
habit-forming (Proverbs 23.35), result in violence (Proverbs 4.17), and distract its imbibers from
(God (Amos 6.6). Thus, intoxication is detrimental both materially and spiritually. Drugs and
strong drink should be avoided at all costs.

At this point, many will become impatient,thinking themselves moderate in their behavior and
thus not in need of some sermon on drug-taking. But, aside form the fact that the drug problem
does involve Everyman (as we have indicated earlier), the casual reader should be aware of the
devastating effects of the "lighter" drugs, such as coffee, tea and cigarettes.

The next time you remember that what you are drinking symbolizes the plantation system in
their subject lands. The plantation's sole purpose was to produce wealth for the colonizers-tobacco,
rubber, cotton, tea, coffee, cocoa, atc.- all of which had little or no nutritional value. The name
subsequently given to them, "cash crops," is quite an appropriate label.

Cash crops became established n world trade, so that even their emancipation from formal
colonial control. Third World countries were "economically hooked" on these crops as their only
means of survival. Coffee, for example, the second most valuable commodity in world trade, is the
economic lifeblood of fourteen developing countries.

Obviously, cash crops usurp land-often unnecessarily-that could be growing food for an
undernourished local population. Instead, people starve so others in richer countries can have their
coffee and cigarettes. And the ironic thing is that the same coffee and cigarettes are killing the
people in richer countries.

The ingestion of drugs, irrespective of what form or for what reason, predisposes one towards
an almost limitless variety of physical and mental illinois. With so many qualified experts
consistently affirming the dangers of drug ingestion (indeed, the cigarette packages themselves
issue a clear warning....), it is amazing to realize that the consumption of drugs continues to
accelerate. Is it that drugs impair one's reading ability, or one's mental faculties?

Apart from widely recognized dangers associated with the harder drugs, how many people
recognize their commitment to the lighter ones? Well known to the former category are the
hallucinatory drugs of addiction which we have already mentioned. But in the letter category are
also dangerous drugs which, by their nonrecognition, can inflict serious damage upon the organism
without any suspicion to provide protection. And the classic examples are mentioned above:coffee,
tea, and cigarettes.

The U.S. Surgeon General's 1982 Report on smoking says that 130.000 deaths will occur
during the year as a result of cancer (from smoking). Of these, 85 percent could have been avoided
if the victims had not smoked. The Surgeon General's Report added that "smoking is also the major
cause of laryngeal, oral and esophageal cancers and is a 'contributory factor' to bladder, kidney and
pancreatic cancers." And everybody pays for the smoker's selfish habit. If you stand next to
someone who is smoking, you are forced to inhale the fumes-you run the risk of getting cancer.
Further, every year, smoking-related disease costs about $13 billion in health-care expanses
nationwide in the USA. About a third of that is spent by the government through Medicare and
Medicaid programs. Also, it is estimated that about 584,000 wage earners and their families are
being put on the Social Security disability rolls every year for the same reason. These programs, of
course, are supported by taxpayers,money-you are paying for them.Because of this self-centered
habit, everyone suffers.

And as far as the coffee problem goes, the renowned David A. Phllips, Ph.D., has this to say,
"Whether tea, coffee, cocoa, and meat are consumed, the gradual accumulation of oxalic acid,
inherent in each of these, will actively degenerate the kidneys, developing integrative' crystals and
kidney stones."

Today, Americans drink at least 450 million cups of coffee every day. New Yorkers alone
drink 2 million cups every twenty minutes, while seven cups produce acute toxic effects.

It's interesting how people will look upon an amphetamine user with dismay, but not think
twice about a coffee user. Coffee has been called 'liquid speed'and is commonly acknowledged to
be a form of amphetamine. Two cups of coffee raise the metabolism ten to twenty-five percent the
equivalent of ten milligrams of amphetamine sulfate, which explains why amphetamine abusers are
invariably heavy users of coffee and caffeine pills.

But the lift doesn't last. Caffeine saps energy. Aft er a fleeting elation, one comes crashing
down, developing dependence and depression. This is the problem with intoxication in general-you
will not stay high forever. It is temporary, illusory. And once you come down, you're in the same
situation that you were in before-generally you're in a worse situation-and you wasted your money
and your time.

We only have so much time in this human form of life, and if we squander it on stop-gap
solutions, what kind of foolishness is that? An intelligent person does not spend his life chasing
shadows. If one wants the pleasure that intoxication promises, he will obviously have to search for
is elsewhere. One will not find genuine, lasting pleasure from intoxication any more than one will
find that he is becoming physically fit by exercising in his dreams.

We do not give much credence to what goes on in our dreams because they are temporary.
When we wake up, they are finished. Lord Krishna elaborates on this in Bhagavad-gita:

nasat vidyat bhavo

nabhavo vidyate satah

ubhayor api drsto'ntas

tv anayos tattva-darsibhih
 "Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent there is no endurance,
and of the existent there is no cessation. This the seers have concluded by studying the nature of
both." (B.G. 2.16)

Thus, Lord Krishna confirms that things of a temporary nature-such as dreams and the
pleasure derived from taking drugs-actually nonexistent; they have no substance. They don't last.
And, when we think about it carefully we are ready to admit that temporary pleasures are
insubstantial. They simply distract us from pursuing real pleasure, which exists only on the spiritual
platform. But the problem arises in our day-today life:"temporary pleasure sure seems real!" So
does a good dream. However, seeming real does not qualify something as being real. Refraining
from drugs helps one to deal with reality. The highest reality is God; so when one is fixed in God
consciousness, he learns how to stay high forever.

NO GAMBLING

For many, it has been tough-luck economy, but you wouldn't know i from the piles of money
being gambled away in every corner of the United States. Never before have so many people used
so many ways to bet.

Legal poker and black-jack dens are burgeoning in the North Dakota Wheat fields and the
paved-over orchards of Southern California.For the benefit of bettors at tracks from Seattle to
Hialeah,Thoroughbreds dash, dogs chase mechanical rabbits and humans slam jai-alai balls.
Regardless of fixes and other scandals, armchair experts shove billions of dollars in sports wagers
through bookies'windows from "glitter gulch" in down-town Las Vegas to the dingy glass cage
behind a phony lingerie store in New York City. Parimutuel operations are bidding jackpots so high
that a Florida jai-alai hall recently paid nearly 1 million dollars to a syndicate that made a cinch bet
by paying half a million dollars to play every possible combination of winners in a "pick six"
parlay.

In what some social critics describe as a craze that reflects basic changes in public attitudes
towards work and money, gambling has been multiplying so rapidly that experts measure it in
fractions of the national economy.

Consultatn and author John Scarne, described as the world's foremost authority on gambling,
has used surveys of nearly 100,000 gamblers to peg the total volume of bets -most of then illegal
and half of them bet privately between individuals-at about one third of the gross national product.
That would represent more than 1 trillion dollars annually - nearly $4,500 for every man, woman
and child. Some experts doubt the figure is that high. But federal research have cited estimates as
high as 32 billion dollars a year for the amount wagered with professional bet takers such as
bookmakers and numbers racketeers alone.

Legal gambling now totals more than 24 billion dollars a year, according to a Maryland-based
trade group called the Public Gambling Research Institute. A stream of recent laws permitting
lotteries, race betting and bingo has left only four states-Mississippi, Indiana, Utah and Hawaii-that
still prohibit all forms of gambling.
 On the horizon a re technical innovations designed to boost gambling even more: Flashy, coin-
operated lottery machines, cable television links and telephone banks permitting instant
transmission of wagers all over the nation.

The prospect of an unchecked gambling spree alarms some observers, but the evidence clear
shows that Americans see nothing wrong with games of chance. Studies by federal researchers ,
and 80 percent surveyed in a 1982 gallup Poll endorsed legal gambling.

***

Nowhere is the gambling rage more prevalent than in Atlantic City, where the gross winnings
of all nine casinos, before expenses and taxes, soared 36 percent to 1,5 billion dollars last year.
Visitors, defying the recession, numbered more than 27 million, up from 19 million in 1981.

With the action this year just as brisk, Harrah's casino is upping its ante with another 200-
million-dollar hotel and gambling hall under construction on the Boardwik. Resorts International in
October will begin a 1,000-room addition to its 721-room hotel, and other structures are planned by
the Golden Nugget casino, the Hilton hotel chain and Holiday Inns, Inc., the world' biggest owner
of casinos.

A day among Atlantic City bettors shows how thoroughly qualms have receded among
middle-class families who used to be uncomfortable with gambling. Harrah's child-care center for
gambling parents is a few steps from the dice tables and whirling slot machines. Big bettors with
$1,000 in cash and credit lines of $5,))) or more enjoy free rooms, food and drinks at some of the
casinos. Resorts International charters a 48-seat plane for 12 free round trips weekly for
freewheeling players from New York City.

Those who want to wager without leaving home are putting up with legal gambling's worst
odds and buying 3,8 billion dollars worth of state lottery tickets annually, up more than 30 percent
in just one year. In the last 10 months, new drawings have begun in Washington State, Colorado
and the district of Columbia. Even though lotteries return less than half of the money wagered in
prizes-compared with payoffs of 75 to 88 percent in horse-race bets and casino games-public
response to them has been overwhelming. In Washington State and Colorado, more tickets had to
be hurried into circulation after bettors snapped up nearly 80 million in the first few weeks.
States with longer experience with lotteries are spurring heavier betting by offering new games and
bigger prizes. New York's lottery, already huge, boosted revenue 80 percent to 646 million dollars
last by adding a three-digit daily numbers.

***

As excited as legal operators are about America's apparent love affair with gambling, criminal
organizations are even more enthusiastic.Despite predictions that legal betting would cut into
gambling rackets, Law-enforcement agencies estimate that illegal wagers still outweigh their lawful
competition by at least 7 to 1. In Washington, D.C., police estimate that the numbers gross about
250 million dollars a year-several times the amount spent on the capital's new lottery. Since the
advent of lotteries, police say, numbers racketeers have been able to keep most of their customers
by increasing payoffs, offering door-to-door service, extending credit and allowing people to play
for as little as 25 cents a day. Backroom operators take advantage of the legal lotteries by using the
state's number for their own games, thereby hitching a free ride on televised drawings and publicity
paid for by the state. "Our biggest problem right now is the illegal booking of the state lottery" says
Capt. Dennis Deneen, vic-control commander for the Chicago police.

The boom in televised athletics is pushing sports betting, estimated at 60 to 75 billion dollars a
year, to new highs among the nation's biggest illegal pastimes, exceeded only by traffic in illicit
drugs, estimated at 79 billion dollars a year. Two states, Montana and Washington, allow taverns
and other small businesses to run non-profit pools in which customers try to guess combined scores
in football and state agency to take conventional bets on which team will win, a business tried but
abandoned as unprofitable by Delaware a few years ago. Sports bookies often are cited as the
main source of bribes to police, prosecutors, and local politicians. In his New Complete Guide to
gambling, John Scarne reports: "No other form of illegal gambling .. enjoys such effective police
and political protection as illegal bookmaking."

Police prosecutors reply that gambling has low priority because the public doesn't consider it a
serious offense and as few as 2 percent of police officer's cases result in prosecution.

Still, reminders of the painful consequences of illegal betting crop up again and again. Four
former Boston College basketball players last year were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for
taking bribes to reduce their team's score so that gamblers could beat the point spreads. In March,
Baltimore Colts quarterback Art Schilchter went to the FBI after losing $389,000 to illegal
bookmakers by betting on games.

WHO WINS? WHO LOSES?

One fact that helps explain declining opposition to gambling: Previously wary governments and
religious groups are now among the biggest profit makers, promoters and proprietors of legal
games. Gambling authorized by state law includes 18 government lotteries and 42 states where
churches and other nonprofit organizations usually have sole right to sponsor bingo for cash prizes.
On the average, according to the Public Gambling Research Institute, the government share of
gambling grosses is about 40 percent for lotteries, 5 percent for racing and jai alai, 5.5 percent for
Nevada cassinos and 8 to 12 percent for Atlantic City casinos. For states that go into gambling in a
big way, the infusion of money can be enormous. In Nevada, gambling pays more than half of the
state budget through direct taxes and an additional 35 percent through taxes on related business and
employees. But most of the money, because it was acquired in a dubious way, is generally used
toward a dubious end. And everyone involved suffers. Among those most clearly hurt by
gambling are an estimated 1 million compulsive gamblers, plus their families and business
associates. Connecticut and Maryland have tried to meet the problem by committing part of betting
revenue to psychological treatment for gambling addicts,. So far, t he treatment center in
Bridgeport, Conn., has tried to help 75 compulsive gamblers, some of them"on the verge of
suicide," says director Patricia Nere.
 Critics also say that gambling preys on those who can afford it least-persons with low incomes.
A study of Michigan players confirmed that people with less money spent a bigger percentage of
their small incomes on the lottery-although less in absolute terms than was spent by those with
higher incomes. Other complaints focus on the crime and cheating that are sometimes linked to
gambling's lure of easy money. Since the advent of gambling, per capital crime in the Atlantic City
area has tripled. A police check of records at various casinos there revealed that 1,2 million dollars
was lent to 25 underwoods figures, including some who are said to have cashed borrowed chips to
finance drugs and prostitution. The report prompted the New York Times to editorialize that the
casinos "are providing easy credit to gangsters and letting compulsive gamblers destroy
themselves." Other scandals support the old contention that no contest is too prominent or too
sophisticated to be ragged. Two officials of the Pennsyilvania lottery were convicted of perjury and
theft by injecting liquid weight into numbered table tennis balls so that only two of the 10 could be
blown up to a plastic tube by a machine that selected the winning number. Three jockeys were
accused last February of taking $500 bribes from an undercover policeman to pull back horses at
New Jerseys'Meadowland track. In April, the police chief and public-safety manager in Denver
were suspended pending an investigation of alleged wrong-doing in bingo for police charities.
Scandals aside, experts see several forces behind the current gambling binge, starting with growing
frustration caused by years of economic troubles. "Historically, people are more willing to gamble
when times are hard," says vice Santopietro, deputy executive director to the California Horse
Racing Board. Others blame the gambling rage on a decline of moral values and the work ethic.
In a study of legalized betting, the Twentieth Century Fund, a New York research group,
concluded: "Gambling's get-rich-quick appeal appears to mock capitalism's core values:
Disciplined work habits, thrift, prudence, adherence to routine and the relationship between effort
and reward." For many gamblers, the lure can be as simple as a desire for fun and "We come back
for excitement, the entertainment," says a Kansas farmer on a recent trip to Las Vegas." It is like a
fantasy land, really, so different from what we're used to." Adds a retired businessman from
California who has come to Las Vegas for 30 years,"I like the atmosphere and the action. It's a
great place to relax." For whatever reason, so many Americans enjoy wagering that the gambling
binge is expected to continue. With states loosing federal aid and wage earners rebelling against
taxes, "I'd say that by the end of the decade the number of states with lotteries will probably
double," says Colorado lottery director Owen W. Hickey. Even in Biblebelt states, such as
Alabama and south Carolina, bills for horse betting and lotteries are gaining ground.

It all points to more boom times ahead for gambling operators as Americans give in to their urge
to buck odds and take a chance-on anything.

And yet it should be obvious that gambling is synonymous with cheating, with dishonesty.
Everyone gambles to win, whether we admit it or not. And to win, we will go to great lengths -
even farther than most of us know.

Five thousand years ago, when the personality of Kali requested Maharaja Pariksit to designate
his place of residence, the King gave Kali four places to live-where there was gambling, drinking,
prostitution and meat-eating. Where there is gambling, the other prominent symptoms of this age of
cheating and hypocrisy automatically appear. The hotel casinos in Las Vegas are, without a daub,
the last word in the degeneration of the soul. Crap tables, twitching show girls, cocktails and
medium rares, vie for the attention of the endless chain of suckers that flock there each day. Yet our
culture has become so corrupt that even the restigious American Medical Association (the guardian
of America's health and well-being)have no second thoughts about holding a convention there.
 Further, gambling breeds an attitude of contempt for human life. Last year a scandal emerged
from the intensive care unit of Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas. The employees were making bets on
how long critically ill patients would live. Some of the employees were overly anxious about their
bets, and would tamper with the oxygen supplies or other life support systems of heavily wagered
patients. One nurse in particular, who styled herself, 'the angel of Death,' allegedly turned off
equipment on at least six critically ill patients.

They used to build treatment centers for heroin addicts. Now they are building them for the
compulsive gamblers. This actually meant as a sop for those who protest the increase in
government-sanctioned gambling. The first one opened last year outside Baltimore, Maryland. The
National Commission of Gambling estimates that there are over a million haricot compulsive
gamblers, and predict with the rise of legal gambling that the total will shortly rise over three
million. One survey of police enforcement of gambling laws found that 80% of the police belive
that profits from illegal gambling are used to finance other illegal activities such as loan-sharking
and drug distribution. In half of the sample cities, local independent criminal organizations were
said to control gambling operations. Very few gambling cases result in trials of fact; usually the
case is dismissed or the operator pleads guilty and is given a low fine, often under two hundred
dollars, which only amounts to a day or two's profit. Perheps most disturbingly, a growing body of
citizens are beginning to regard gambling as another "plaintifless" crime on the same level as
prostitution, marijuana, and homosexuality, all of which though largely illegal, illegal, are
considered the exclusive domain of so-called private morality. But they cannot say activity. The
hellish mentality of the compulsive gambler has been described by one expert as follows:"They run
into enormous financial difficulties-borrowing or even stealing from others, including their
families. Heavy debt is a constant fact of life for compulsive gamblers. They sleep poorly, and are
indifferent towards eating and affection. They may drink a good deal, and they're tense and
irritable. They consider suicide. But they always think about the next bet."The gambler is simply
being driven by the mode of passion as described in the Bhagavad-gita:"That worker who is
attached to the fruits of his labor and who passionately wants to enjoy them, who is greedy, envious
and impure and moved by happiness and distress, is a worker who is greedy, envious and impure
and who passionately wants to enjoy them, who is greedy, envious and impure and moved by
happiness and distress, is a worker in the mode of passion." (9b.G.8.270 But a gambler (everyone
gambles to one degree or another) thinks that with his manipulative ways he can acquire more and
more wealth, and thus enjoy more and more sense gratification. But certain laws defy his dreams.
The laws of nature, which are controlled by the Supreme Lord Krishna, aren't subject to the
gambling man's bets. In fact, these laws control him at every throw of the dice, at every game of
black-jack, at every flick of the queen of hearts. How can we bet against the stringent laws of this
world? What are these laws? Take, for example, fire. Suppose you were to make a bet that fire will
not burn. Will you win? Is there any possibility to win the bet? No. Because the law of fire will
dictate: burn! the best gambler in the world would lose the bet; he would be burned. This material
creation that we live in is composed of innumerable such laws that control us at every action, there
is an equal and opposite reaction. Life after life we travel, transmigrating from one species of life to
another according to our work, or Karma. This karma determines our next situation in life; by good
works, or works against the sanction of God, I suffer in the form of poverty, or disease or similar
afflictions. Karma, therefor, is the law of punishments and rewards. In that way our pleasure and
pains, our bodily beauty and our degree of wealth, are all predestined. But what we do with them is
not takes control of our life, not chance or even karma. Of course, it may appear that when one
works very hard, he is amply rewarded. But what about that man who works hard and achieves
nothing? Someone may walk into a casino and with his first throw of dice, or his first fling at a
slog machine, hit the jackpot. While others,despite playing the games for years, win little or
nothing. Just luck?-hardly. This is the law of Karma. And it is also the result of not submitting to
the laws of God. In conclusion, then,the term "chance" in gambling is a denial of the laws of God.
One thinks that there is a loop-hole somewhere in the system-there's a place to beat the odds-there's
chance to win. In other words, one comes under the conception that he's independent and he thinks
that there are no laws governing pleasure. "I can shagged the odds (he thinks) and win some new
pleasure. I just have to hit the right number, pull the right card, spin the right digit!" He thinks he
can abrogate the will of the Supreme. But, what about the law of old age? Is is possible to find the
loop-hole of eternal youth? And what about the law of death? Is there a possible"chance" that death
won't come and take us away? Thus, chance is the materialist's mentality, epitomized in the games
of gambling which lead to the complete degradation of the soul. The soul is not independent-he is
a servant of God. But a gambler is saying: I am independent, I am a controller, I can change the
odds, and win more pleasure for myself. In this way everyone caught in the material world is a
gambler, to one degree or another. Actually, our real destiny (if we so choose) is to live eternally,
full of pleasure, with Krishna. So why waste this human form of life which is a unique facility to
attain that eternal realm, Krishna's abode? Why gamble?

In gambling casino, if you play, you undoubtedly lose. Why? Obviously all the games and tables
are under the control of the house-the casino ewer. In the same way, if while in this human form of
life we decide to gamble with the laws of nature, then we will be cheated, by the owner and
controller of this larger house, the Supreme Lord.

The Lord is described as the greatest of cheats. But his cheating is different it is simply an act of
mercy - He cheats us out of our illusion of being enjoyed. In the game of Russin roulette, one
never knows when the loaded chamber will call his number and blow his brains out. The game is
dangerous-yet men play it. Actually, as Russians, Americans, or whatever, we are all playing
Russian roulette, by denying the supremacy of the Supreme Lord, and our existence as His eternal
servants. Again, at some unknown time we'll be blown away by death-once again cheated by the
laws of nature. And who knows when our number of human existence will come up again simply
because.. we decided to gamble our lives away.

The Krishna Consciousness Movement is inviting all the spirit souls of this world to engage in
acts of devotional service, to get off the wheel of Karma and repeated birth and death. If one wants
to multiply his earnings (not only double it or triple it, but actually increase it millionfold) then he
should immediately take to the service of Lord Sri Krishna. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada describes the offering of service to Krishna as one's eternal bank account.
Whatever one puts into this bank is never lost-even after death. The soul continues his service to
the Lord (at the point) soul gains the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Who alone promises to take
the surrendered soul back home, back to Godhead.

AFTERWORD

The conditioned soul in this world mistakes happiness for what is actually only a temporary
forgetfulness of misery. For instance, in colonial America, the dunking stool was used as a form of
punishment in which the criminal was tied to a platform that was repeatedly lowered beneath the
water with the victim periodically raised gasping for breath. Just imagine the relief upon breathing
in air before again being dunked. Breathing would appear to such a person as a great luxury,
although in actuality it is a rather mechanical part of life which ordinarily we take for granted; and
while taking breathing for granted, we pursue "real" pleasure. Thus, in conditions that are
miserable, we take relief to be a great pleasure.

The same logic may be applied to taking intoxication, eating meat, having illicit sex, and
gambling - as well as all other forms of mundane pleasure. The so-called "pleasure" is not pleasure
at all, but it is simply a forgetfulness, a temporary relief from the suffering and misery of material
existence.

Here we may object and say that writer is being willfully obtuse. "He can't possibly belive that
material existence is all suffering and no happiness. Maybe all of his pleasure has simply been a
cessation of misery, I've experienced genuine joy in my time!"

But let us analyze our endeavors for material happiness, which fall into three basic categories.
First, we endeavor for something and we don't get it; we get it, but doesn't live up to our
expectations; we are thus also miserable. Third, we endeavor for something, we get it, it lives up to
our expectations, but we lose it aft er some time; we are ultimately defeated-if we simply try to
enjoy materially. Everything in the material world will fall into one of the above three categories.
Material existence leads to misery. Even the temporary cessation of misery, which we take for
enjoyment, must come to an end, even though we don't want it to.

We search for unending happiness. This is natural, for the soul is eternal and spiritual happiness
is essentially dynamic-a constant in a place where everything is that we search for this unending
happiness in a place where everything must came to an end. The physical law known as Entropy
will have everything crash down around us, nothing escaping impermanent,. We are like travellers
in a desert who see an apparition of an oasis, with blue waters sparkling under date plums. Althogh
the oasis is not there when we arrive, we continue to see it further away. And in this way we spend
our lives in a grand illusion. Spiritual pleasure is hard to understand unless one experiences it
through realization. Even the so-called pleasure of the material world is like that - just try to explain
to someone who never tasted sugar what sweetness is. He simply would not understand. And a
vicarious experience just doesn't do the trick.

The last several generations of man, especially in Western countries, have proven that material
sense gratification ( which is embodied in meat-eating, intoxication, illicit-sex, and gambling)
cannot give real satisfaction. For the generation of atomic technology also brought forth
generations of frustrated youth-from hippies to punk rockers. Offered the fruits of the most
materially advanced nation on Earth, its own children reject them as inadequate and ccc. This
phenomenon lays bare the failure of our society to recognize its wrong direction, its failure to
recognize the spiritual nature of man. Many talk of material happiness but real joy is conspicuous
in this world by its absence. And everyone fights for pleasure in desperation.

Spiritual advancement, not material sense gratification, is the real necessity of our civilization.
The ether evolutionary pattern of life itself culminates in the spiritual emancipation of man.
Atheists will try to dissuade us with their grandiose schemes for exploiting and thus enjoying the
material world. But it should be realized that all their plans are doomed to failure. This small
pamphlet has dealt with four of the materialist's most cherished enjoyments. But we have seen the
stark truth behind these heinous activities. The very thing they embrace as the cure is the cause of
their disease. Materialistic persons, unable to recognize the importance of the regulative
principles outlined in this work, will lead a hellish life. Not only in some future life, but in this
one as well. We ask the reader to carfully consider the facts presented in this pamphlet, and
then to fully embrace the four principles of freedom.