Life is dreary, dull, joyless. Those who count for anything in society—the employees of the State—live under constant surveillance. A careless remark, a few sentences of despair can cost a citizen his sanity in the dungeons of the Thought Police.
All conceptions of happiness have two basic elements in common: enjoyment and freedom. We can’t be happy unless we can enjoy undisturbed and freely expand our enjoyment without opposition.
General Jaruzelski had just clamped down martial law on Poland, at the instigation and with the undercover help of his Soviet bosses. (There were even reports that some of the “Polish” troops we’re actually Russians in Polish uniforms.) Solidarity was virtually crushed.
“Time I am, destroyer of worlds.” These were Lord Krsna’s words to His personal friend and devotee Arjuna, who had been filled with awe upon seeing the Lord’s visva-rupa, His all-powerful universal form.
In West Germany, devotees have evolved a preaching strategy adapted from the nama-hatta program established by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in India during the last century.