Dumbed Down, Doped Up, and Distracted
This article’s title is also the name of a compelling video recently added to our website. Just who is dumbed down, doped up, and distracted? I guess lots of people on this planet, but specifically our fellow Americans. Illegal drugs, sex and its industry, the movie and entertainment industry, electronic gadgets, cars, cheap pop music and its celebrities, uncontrolable eating (Srila Prabhupada would say, “Like pigs.”), physical beauty, the ever expanding casino scene, car races, mood stabilizers and other “prescription” drugs, so called progress in the field of science for advancement of material comfort; these make up but a partial list of things that make the modern man dumbed down, doped up, and distracted. People are so distracted that they even forget the reason for which they have started on the path of materialism, happiness! Is it not amazing to see how the people of earth can be so distracted that even while being unhappy, and at times even miserable, one is not able to think of alternative ways for going about happiness? Instead the modern man keeps pursuing the path of materialism, that path which always starts off with a bunch of flashy promises, but at the end never delivers the desired product, happiness!
Krishna consciousness connects with people on the level of the soul and makes them genuinelly happy. After all, wasn’t appiness the goal which we sought to begin with?
The heart of a Vaishnava or a devotee of Sri Krishna can not bare to see people unhappy. Sri Prahlad therefore said that as far as he was concerned he was always happy thinking of and serving God. His only concern was for the dumed down, doped up, and distracted people, whom cannot conceive of the real path to happiness, Krishna consciousness.
Because people are now so heavily distracted it takes much more to grab their attention. What to speak of keeping it. If you walk down a street in any city you will see materialism being propagated and advertised at every step. It is hard to cast your glance anywhere without being exposed to some materialistic advertisement. TV, Billboards, flags, banners, radio, internet, buses, cars, advetizing trucks, trees, signs….ahhhhhhhhhhh! you can not run away from these greedy people who are trying to brainwash you into fortifying their bank balance with your hard earned cash via their stupid products. The causes of distraction are too many. There is seemingly unlimited volumes of work to be done by the devotees of God.
It appears that money and resources are mainly in the hands of insane materialists, but we should not be discouraged. Every great movement started small, with a few inspired individuals. We are calling out to all the Vaishnavas to unite their energy, time, and resources in the propagation of Krishna consciousness. Ideally, our books and publications should permiate the world. We should own all the billboards. All this useless nonsense injected into people’s minds and brains through the media of TV should be replaced with the transcendental vibration of Krishna’s names. This is our primary goal, to make everyone happy, once and for all.
We’ve been very fortunate to come into contact with some devotees that are inspired and are tirelessly working towards this goal of respiritualizatiing the society. Advaita Candra Prabhu and his good wife, Sita Thakurani Mataji, are two such personalities. They have placed their eighth rack in a medical facility of one Dr. Subash Gharmalkar, an initiated devotee by the name Sri Vallabha Dasa. Dr. Subash has been distributing books to his patients for several years and now the book rack will surely increase his distribution. Which brings us to our job, to make it easy for people to come into contact with Krishna consciousness.
Dr. Subash Gharmalkar next to the Sastra Dana book rack in his medical office in Costa Mesa, CA. Dr. Subash, or Sri Vallabha Dasa, his initiated name, has been for years distributing books to his patients. Now his patients can freely take a book from the rack and leave a donation in the donation box attached to the rack. The small black box is the donation box.
The rack’s sign says, “Free, donations are welcome.” This sign collect enough money to pay for all the books distributed.
