BERLUSCONI AMID SCANDAL: ‘I LOVE WOMEN’

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, DEFIANT AMID
NEW SCANDAL, DECLARES ‘I LOVE WOMEN’

ROME - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said last week he loved life and women and would not apologize for enjoying himself after new reports of girls and parties at his home were splashed across the front pages. Berlusconi issued an unapologetic defense of his lifestyle Friday amid the latest scandal involving his personal life, admitting that he intervened to secure the release from police custody of a 17-year-old Moroccan girl who had previously been at his villa. Berlusconi, 74, denied that he had done anything inappropriate in securing the release of the Moroccan runaway nicknamed Ruby, and scoffed at press reports that portrayed their interaction as improper. Saying “I love life, I love women,” the Italian leader insisted he was proud of his lifestyle, which has come under scrutiny for his purported dalliances with young women and an encounter with a prostitute unveiled last year. While some in the opposition are raising questions over the lifestyle of a public figure, Berlusconi has dismissed the scandal as “media trash.” Last year, Berlusconi’s estranged wife Veronica accused him of “consorting with minors” after he was filmed at the 18th birthday party of an aspiring model. “I am very proud of my ability to be a host, a rather rare, perhaps unique host,” he told reporters after a meeting with European leaders in Brussels. “I am a playful person, full of life. I love life, I love women.”
The disclosure comes at a difficult time for Berlusconi, who is grappling with street protests in Naples over his failure to stop a trash crisis there, a weakened government coalition and his declining popularity in the polls.


“I’ve got nothing to clarify,” Berlusconi said. “I’m a playful person, full of life. I love life, I love women.” “Nobody can make me, at my age, change my lifestyle, of which I am absolutely proud,” the 74-year-old politician told reporters in Brussels. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, a pure devotee does not follow the path of the foolish deer, which is seduced by the hunter's horn and killed. The material body and mind are subject to illusion, lust, greed, etc., however, the vital energy, senses, mind and intelligence can be purified when they are engaged in the devotional service of Lord Krishna.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Ordinary persons see all material things as objects for their personal gratification and thus try to acquire or control them. Ultimately a man wants to possess a woman and enjoy sex gratification with her. The Supreme Lord supplies the desired fuel that causes the fire of lust to burn painfully in one’s heart, but the Lord does not give self-realization to such a misguided person. Lord Krishna is transcendental and neutral, but if one is eager to exploit the Lord’s creation, the Lord gives one facility through māyā, and one becomes cheated of real happiness by entangling himself in the false role of a great and lusty enjoyer of the world. ... A devotee is never attracted by the sensuous entreaties of a beautiful woman, and he avoids hearing from bewildered karmīs about the so-called glories of material acquisition.

Purports to the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Canto 11: “General History”
Chapter 11: “The Symptoms of Conditioned
and Liberated Living Entities” - Verses 29-31
by the humble servants of HDG A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
New Gokula - South American pilgrimage site,
State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, March, 1982.
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase - http://srimadbhagavatam.com/sb/11/en