“Suffering without knowledge, without remedy, is animal life. One who cannot understand that he is suffering and who thinks that he is very well off is in animal consciousness, not human consciousness. The human being should be cognizant of suffering the threefold miseries of this planet. One should know that he is suffering in birth, suffering in death, suffering in old age and suffering in disease, and one should be inquisitive as to how he may avoid the suffering. That is real research work.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Easy Journey To Other Planets, Chapter 2)

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Friend1: All these years. All these people, talking and talking. All this propaganda, flying back and forth. If you ever raise concerns about the safety of a toy for children, no one accuses you of being against toys. If you think that the restaurant should use a different kind of oil for cooking, no one says that you are anti-food. But oh no, once you touch these medications administered up to seventy times for children, they will not tolerate any dissent.

Friend2: I know what you are talking about and I am not even going to go there. I will not take the bait.

Friend1: Why not? Are you afraid?

Friend2: Listen, this is practically a religion for people. Indeed, it is likely the most popular religion in the world, in terms of numbers.

Friend1: Why do you say that?

Friend2: Because it doesn’t matter what your beliefs are, otherwise. Say, for instance, your religion that is checked on an official government form prohibits you from eating the flesh of cows. Okay, at the same time you are an ardent supporter of these medications administered to children and adults alike, through injection. These medications exist, thrive, and persist because of the use of fetal bovine serum. I won’t get into the particulars, but in taking these medications, you might as well be ordering a steak or a hamburger.

Friend1: See, this is what I mean! We can’t even talk about it. I find the whole thing fascinating, though, based on the mechanism. I only recently came to learn how these medications work, at least in the purported sense.

Friend2: What did you learn?

Friend1: Well, for starters, everything is based on antibodies.

Friend2: What are those?

Friend1: It is like a layer of protection developed within the body.

Friend2: How are they developed?

Friend1: By the immune system. That’s just the thing. Either way, whether you take these medications or not, it is always the immune system that ends up protecting people. Per my understanding, the antibodies are like a memory code that tell the immune system that this foreign invader, the virus, has been encountered before and successfully repelled.

Friend2: I see. How does the immune system know to create the antibodies?

Friend1: It is a response. Sort of like calling the fire department to put out a fire.

Friend2: And so that’s what these medications do? It is like calling the fire department inside the body?

Friend1: That is just the thing. If only the virus was injected, in isolation, it wouldn’t do anything. There would be no effect.

Friend2: What do you mean?

Friend1: The body would reject it. It would spit it out.

Friend2: But I thought viruses were deadly? They are the danger being targeted, are they not?

Friend1: This is the entire reason for the discussion today. Remember those antibodies we mentioned? Those are only created if the body needs them. In other words, only if you get sick does the immune system rely on that part of the defense. This is based on my understanding, anyway.

Friend2: You mean that sometimes it might not even reach that point, where antibodies are necessary?

Friend1: Not sometimes. Try, practically all of the time! It is only when you get sick, when your immune system is otherwise compromised, that the next layer of defense gets triggered. That is why these injections contain so many other ingredients, like aluminum and formaldehyde. When they say an injection is effective, they are referring to the creation of antibodies.

Friend2: So, it is like you are intentionally causing injury to someone, for the express purpose of triggering the next layer of the defense? Like cutting someone’s arm in order to have it bleed and then heal. In this case, it would be the immune system.

Friend1: Exactly! That is why there have to be associated risks with the medication. That is why there are potential side effects. Anyway, to me the whole thing seems useless. You are only getting antibodies to protect against that specific virus. If you later encounter a mutation, a variant, of sorts, you are out of luck.

Friend2: Oh, so that is why there is a never-ending assembly line of booster injections?

Friend1: You nailed it! Plus, you have the potentially weakened immune system from all of those previous injections. Not to mention the mysterious situation that the baffled scientists refer to as ‘antibody-dependent enhancement.’ You don’t even want to know what that is.

Friend2: Seems like a silly proposal, then. If you need the immune system either way, why would you risk continuously weakening it with these foreign substances?

Friend1: Like you said, it is a kind of religion. You will have a difficult time explaining it to people, though. Anyway, don’t you find the whole thing fascinating? In how the body has these different layers of protection. In how there is a natural battle against pathogens that takes place every single day. How there is this memory coded within the body, that we have no control over. Just imagine the intelligence necessary to discover this.

Friend2: Hold on. Let me stop you there. That is the whole problem. You are giving praise to the discovery, while ignoring the creator. Isn’t it more amazing to have created this system, to propagate throughout the species since the beginning of time?

Friend1: Are you referring to God?

Friend2: Take your name of choice. I am not insisting upon a specific religion. Just think of the disparity in terms of research. This is the point of emphasis from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Friend1: What is?

Friend2: That your scientific research work always misses the mark. You are studying the body alone. You give no time to the animating spark, the spirit soul. Without the spirit, there would be no body. There would be no immune system. There would be no system of which to speak.

Friend1: Okay, but how is studying the soul going to help matters?

Friend2: Because you will understand the purpose for the machine in the first place. We are all seated as if we are on a machine. This is confirmed by Shri Krishna in Bhagavad-gita:

ईश्वरः सर्व-भूतानां
हृद्-देशे ऽर्जुन तिष्ठति
भ्रामयन् सर्व-भूतानि
यन्त्रारूढानि मायया

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
hṛd-deśe ‘rjuna tiṣṭhati
bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 18.61)

Research the soul, the presence of the Supreme Soul, and discover the best use of the machine that is the body. That is the ideal research work. The results to that research will benefit the entire human society, no matter where they stand on a particular issue or what religion they currently claim to follow.

“There are many research scholars and philosophers who study sex life or some other subject, but according to Bhagavad-gita, such research work and philosophical speculation have no value. That is more or less nonsensical. According to Bhagavad-gita, one should make research by philosophical discretion into the nature of the soul. One should make research to understand with what the self is concerned.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, 13.8-12 Purport)

In Closing:

On immune system to rely,
Multiple defense layers to apply.

The inquisitive fascinated so,
But why not the cause to know?

The purpose for this machine created,
And how to proper use reinstated.

The acharya pressing the challenge now,
To make best of human birth how.

Categories: conversations

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