1. Stealing from Krsna

    Just like I give some carpenter some wood, some implement, and salary. And he makes a very nice, beautiful closet. To whom this closet will belong. To the carpenter, or the man who has supplied the ingredients? To whom it will belong? The carpenter cannot say that: ‘Because I have transformed this wood into such nice closet, it is mine.’ No. It is not yours. Similarly, who is supplying the ingredients, rascal? That is Krsna’s. Krsna says: bhumir apo ‘nalo vayuh kham mano buddhir eva…, prakrtir me astadha [Bg. 7.4]. ‘This is My property.’ You have not created this sea, the land, the sky, the fire, the air. It is not your creation. You can transform these material things, tejo-vari-mrdam vinimayah, by mixing and transforming. You take earth from the land, you take water from the sea and mix it and put it in the fire. It becomes a brick. And then you pile up all this brick and make a skyscraper building. But wherefrom you got this ingredient, rascal, that you are claiming this skyscraper yours? This is intelligent question. You have stolen the property of God, and you are claiming that it is your property. This is knowledge. This is knowledge… So those who are intoxicated, they cannot understand. They think: ‘It is my property. I have stolen, I have stolen this land of America from the Red Indians. Now it is my property.’ But he does not know that he’s a thief. He’s a thief. Stena eva sa ucyate [Bg. 3.12]. In the Bhagavad-gita. One who takes the property of God, and claims his own, he’s a thief.

    Srila Prabhupada, Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.26 – Los Angeles, April 18, 1973