Guglielmo Marconi

[suchandra]

At Wikipedia it still says that, Marchese Guglielmo Marconi [guʎ'ʎe:lmo mar'ko:ni] (25 April 1874 - 20 July 1937) was an Italian inventor, best known for his development of a radiotelegraph system, which served as the foundation for the establishment of numerous affiliated companies worldwide. Prabhupada points out below, wrong, it was Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose.

 

Harikeśa: It shocked a lot of people when they made the test of bringing a scissor to a plant, and they put some electrodes on it and they found that the plant was reacting with fear.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. That machine has been discovered by Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose. He discovered this wireless telegram, radio. But Marconi took from him, and British government helped him.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The British again.

Prabhupāda: Britishers were advertising outside India that “Indians are uncivilized. Therefore we are making them civilized. Therefore we should stay there. Don’t object.” Because United Nations, they were asking, “Why you are occupying India?” So they used to forward this argument, that “These people are uncivilized. We are making them civilized.” Now, how there should be Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose? Therefore they used to suppress always. Everything Indian wanted to do, they would suppress: big businesses, this mining… They would suppress. This Morarji, Sumati Morarji, her father-in-law started that… He had to face so many impediments from the Britishers to start the shipping company. Formerly there was no shipping company, Indian. Now, before that, there was shipping, not shipping company, but navigation was there from India to Rome, Greece, Turkey, there was regular business of spices and fine cloth. Later on, this large-scale shipping industry, that was done by the Europeans. So when Indian wanted to start, they would supress. The Tata iron industry, he had to face so many difficulties. Formerly, even if you wanted to bring some iron frame, it would come from Sheffield.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: From where?

Prabhupāda: Sheffield.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, England.

Prabhupāda: England. So everything Indian required, they would supply, and they would govern and they would exploit. Therefore they became so rich—simply by exploiting India. And Indian soldiers, they expanded empire—Africa, Burma. That’s all, all Indian exploitation, Indian men, money, and exploitation. As soon as they lost India, they lost whole empire.

Cyavana: Now they are also suffering.

Prabhupāda: Eh? That… That must be. They will be suffering more and more. They will be beggars. They have done so much sinful activities for expanding their empire. Now they will have to become beggars. And within two hundred years, everything finished. They started their exploitation from seventeenth, eighteenth century. And in the twentieth century, everything finished. The French people and the English people… This is also one of the examples. Both the nations came here to exploit. That was the competition in… The French people and the English people, they would go for colonization, fight, and establi… America was also that, Canada, everywhere. But because they were their own men, they were given dominion status. Almost free.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Greedy. Very greedy.

Brahmānanda: At one time all of Africa was controlled by the European nations. Completely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mainly these French and…

Brahmānanda: French, British, Germans, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In South Africa, the British also tried to take over South Africa. There was a war called the Boer War.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So during World War I and World War II many of the South Africans, they actually sided with the Germans because they were against the English so much.

Prabhupāda: African means black Africans. No?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No. South Africans, they were Europeans. The British started the first concentration camp. They took these “Afrikaners” as they call them, Europeans. They put them on an island called St. Helena. That was actually the first concentration camp, by the British.

Prabhupāda: This is going on. Still, even the opposite party, they are not disgusted—“This material life is not very peaceful.” They are not disgusted.

Brahmānanda: Now they are thinking, “We’ll be independent…”

Prabhupāda: Yes. That… They are trying to be independent. And India… Just like India has got independent, and now the position is “emergency.” They do not think in this way, that “Independence or dependence, we are actually dependent under the laws of nature.” That they do not think. They are thinking… The same example as I gave, that “This boil is here. Why not here? It is very painful,” like that. They have no sense that so-called dependence or independence, he has to suffer. That he does not know. Mūḍha nābhijānāti.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa explains, vāsudeva sarvam iti, that He is everything and that He is everywhere.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So this verse, mūḍho ’ya nābhijānāti, that the mūḍhas, they can’t perceive Kṛṣṇa. So actually it’s simply that we’re covered, isn’t it? But Kṛṣṇa is always there.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is always there, but yogamāyā-samāvṛtaḥ. He does not know Kṛṣṇa on account of being covered by the curtain of yogamāyā. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yogamāyā-samāvṛtaḥ [Bg. 7.25]. But we can make them all happy by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if they follow our instruction, even in this material world. Pūrṇaṁ sukhāyate. Full happiness we can give them if they follow our principle.

 

 

 

Morning Walk Conversation

with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

October 3, 1975, Mauritius

full conversation: http://causelessmercy.com/t/t/751003mw.mau.htm