(HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, 17th Sept, 2012, Cape Town, South Africa) Lecture: Evening Talk
As we were waiting in the airport in Johannesburg, there was a book store so I looked inside. They were advertising some book which was about the art of thinking fast and thinking slow. It’s interesting, thinking fast – we do in service to Krsna. Book distributors think very fast. They are out on the street and they think very fast, especially when people come up with objections.
Srila Prabhupada also thought very fast – he would have amazing answers.
’Swamiji, do you have a concept of hell in your religion?’
‘Yes, London is hell!’
That was classic, and we know that one very well. We’ve heard that so many times but it’s brilliant! He came up with that so quickly, out of nowhere – very good and quite amazing. Who would come up with that? It was true in a sense because Prabhupada was seeing with a transcendental vision, and he could see that London is a place which is under sinful reactions, and that is why it is cold and damp, cloudy, foggy and windy.
So it wasn’t just a quick witty remark. No, it was his vision. He was seeing: ’Yes, this is hell.’ It was completely clear, since he didn’t have to think about it. He could just see it as it was, not becoming bewildered by the glitter of Soho Street. No, Prabhupada was not caught up in the illusion of things, and saw it for what it was, a sinful place, a place under sinful reaction … hell.
So in that way we can be very quick and think fast. When we know things as they are, then in any given situation, we can give the right answer. You cannot find in Prabhupada’s life, a time when a question was asked and Prabhupada would say: ’Well, uumm…aaahhh.’ Nothing like that, since he gave strong answers every time – answers that would really touch people!