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7-Up

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Yes. India... Formerly your country was part of India, and you belong to the same culture. So far I understand, Iran means Āryan? So Āryan culture was practically all over the world. Āryan culture is based on God consciousness. So amongst the Āryans there is some conception of religion, either Christian religion or Mohammedan religion, Buddhist religion, Vedic religion, based on conception of God. So according to time, country, the ways of understanding may be little different, but the aim is God consciousness. That is Āryan civilization. So God is one; God cannot be two. So the features of God or angle of vision of God may be different. So they have been summarized in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. (Aside:) You can come forward. One feature of God is impersonal. Just like the sunshine. Sunshine is spreading all over the universe. It is impersonal. But the quality of the sunshine is heat and light. The heat and light means energy. So as in the material calculation, the heat and light is the cause of all creation. Just like at the present moment there is not sufficient heat; therefore the trees have no leaves. And as soon as there will be little more heat they will be all green. So you can take it that the creation of the foliage is due to the heat. Similarly light. So heat and light is the cause of all this material creation. And heat and light is coming from the sunshine, er, sun. Therefore heat becomes the origin of creation even in this material world. Similarly, there is another light. That is the original light. This is reflection. That is called brahma-jyotir, spiritual light. So in this way one conception of God is like that. Another conception of God is: God is situated everywhere. Aṇḍāntara-sthaṁ paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. Because God is situated within the universe, within the atom, therefore they are existing. Just like the ātmā, or spirit soul, is situated in you, in me, in everyone. This is called Paramātmā feature. And at the ultimate end there is the person, God as person, the Supreme Person, the Supreme Being, a person like you and me—we are person—but He is almighty, all-powerful. This is the conception of Absolute Truth: God, Paramātmā, and Brahmājyoti. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). This is the Sanskrit word. He is realized as Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān. Bhagavān is person; Paramātmā is all-pervading, means localized, situated; and Brahman means all-pervading. All together-God. This is the idea. What is your idea of God?

Young man: I find it very difficult to know the difference between truth and illusion.

Prabhupāda: God is truth; what is forgetfulness of God, that is illusion. God is truth. Just like the sun is present all the time, twenty-four hours. But we say now there is no sun, at night. But that's not the fact. The fact is the sun is there; I cannot see. That is illusion. Not that God is not there. God is there. As exactly, same example, the sun is there at night, but I cannot see under certain condition. Therefore it is illusion. Our senses are imperfect; therefore sometimes we cannot understand or see God. If our senses are purified, then we can see God every moment. So, what is your idea of God?

Young man: I, I... Something that I see sometimes in everything, the sameness in everything.

Prabhupāda: No clear concept.

Young man: I have no clear...

Prabhupāda: Yes. The clear conception of God is that originally He is person. Just like the same example, the sun. We can see every day the sun. (aside:) Can you give me that 7-Up? The sun is there always, but at night we cannot see. At night we cannot see. That does not mean the sun is not there.

Young man: But sharpening the senses, how does one sharpen one's senses?

Prabhupāda: Senses are imperfect. Just like we are very proud of our eyes to see, but you cannot see what is beyond the wall. Therefore it is conditioned. You cannot see without light. That, how you can be sure that your eyes are perfectly seeing? That is not possible, because the eyes can see under certain condition. So if it is conditioned, then it is not perfect. But the conditioned sight can be purified. Just like one is suffering from cataract. By surgical operation the cataract can be removed and he can see. Similarly, our senses are imperfect. If we purify the senses, then it will be possible to see God twenty-four hours. That purification process is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But in speaking spiritual understanding we cannot make any compromise. What to speak of in Mauritius, in Chicago I told. There was great agitation in papers.

Harikeśa: In the TV, on television.

Indian man: Same thing?

Devotee (2): In France also.

Prabhupāda: They were very upset. And when I was coming, I think, in Chicago, in the airplane, one of the host girl, she was seeing... (laughter) I asked her to supply one 7-up. And, "I have no key." She was so angry. But all the captains and others, they gathered around me. (laughter)

Harikeśa: I think that was the same stewardess who came in the back and asked us, "Why the Swamiji doesn't like women?"

Prabhupāda: No, no, I don't say that I don't like women, but I cannot say that equal rights. How can I say? First of all show that you equal rights—your husband becomes sometimes pregnant and then you become pregnant, alternately.

Akṣayānanda: That doesn't mean you don't like them.

Prabhupāda: No, it is truth. I am speaking the truth, that "If you have equal right, then let your husband become pregnant. Make some arrangement."

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Hari-śauri: 7-UP? We'll have to send someone out for it.

Prabhupāda: So, so far I was there, it was successful. What was the next?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were selling prasādam. I think we must have made somewhere between five and ten thousand dollars so far from prasādam sales. That's in addition to the free feast. We served a free feast to five thousand people when I left.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you did not stay there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, still, it's so big. I estimated that through three to four hours there were thirty to forty thousand people that went in and out of that park.

Prabhupāda: Still they are eating?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're still eating. Every piece of burfi we sold cost one dollar.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just a piece of burfi...

Prabhupāda: Burfi?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, they were charging one dollar for one square.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) That is good.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: And that cannot be expected from any other group, only in this group. Such a huge crowd, and there was not a single instance of violence.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Except that one tie. One boy was punched out.

Hari-śauri: (referring to 7-UP) I sent someone out.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The procession was very well attended.

Prabhupāda: Television.

Bali-mardana: Oh, yes, ABC, CBS, and Channel Five.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All of the GBC men said it was the biggest single festival ever held in ISKCON's history. They all admitted that there was no festival ever held anywhere, even in India, no single festival in India. There was not any one day at any pandal where there was that many people who took prasādam and who attended such a long procession for two hours.

Prabhupāda: I think in the beginning... (microphone rattling) You were there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was there. Yeah, that was pretty big. In 1969, that was gigantic.

Prabhupāda: That was also very big. And there was also a crazy man.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: Especially New York, the people are ready for it. Like today, they have taken part very nicely. Even the policemen.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, they're so favorable. Rāmeśvara was commenting. He said he never saw... The climate of the people of New York is unique in America. They are very favorable.

Prabhupāda: So where is that man? Where he has gone? 7-UP can be had anywhere.

Hari-śauri: Well, it's Sunday evening. It's a bit difficult. He has to drive around in a car till he finds somewhere.

Bali-mardana: 7-UP? You want 7-UP? I can get it.

Hari-śauri: I sent Śravaṇānanda out to get it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At the Bloopie's they can get it. Rādhāvallabha got it.

Bali-mardana: Not a can, though, just in a cup.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But how do they get it into the cup? Buy the whole bottle.

Prabhupāda: Bottle or... Bottle or can.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: So if there is more milk, you can sell more, get money.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we're getting nearly two thousand dollars a month.

Hari-śauri: (7-Up has been brought) Is there ice? He was supposed to get some ice from the kitchen downstairs.

Bali-mardana: It's cold.

Prabhupāda: Who will open? You open it.

Bali-mardana: I have just opened it. Is it cold enough?

Prabhupāda: We call it in India, lemonade.

Hari-śauri: That was the original name, lemonade. Then all these new things, they changed all the names.

Bali-mardana: It's good for bringing up gas.

Prabhupāda: From my childhood I liked this lemonade. I think it was cost, in our childhood, three paisa.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I condemn everyone, that "You are all dogs and hogs." And United Nations a pack of dogs barking. That's a fact. And in Chicago I said, all women, "You cannot have freedom. You have got only thirty-four-ounce brain, and man has got sixty-four-ounce." I told them. So I became a subject of very great criticism.

Trivikrama: Women's liberation.

Prabhupāda: I denied, "No, you cannot have." I told them. One girl in the airship, she was seeing like (makes some gesture-laughter). I asked her, "Give me 7-Up." "It is locked now." So I frankly said that "No, no. You cannot have equal rights because your brain is thirty-four ounce." Actually that's a fact. Where is woman philosopher, mathematician, scientist? Not a single.

Dr. Patel: Apart from that, I mean, they are made for a particular mission.

Prabhupāda: How they can have equal rights? Up to date in the history there is not a single woman who is a great scientist or great philosopher or great...

Dr. Patel: Madame Curie was a...

Prabhupāda: All bogus. (laughter)

Page Title:7-Up
Compiler:MadhuGopaldas, Serene
Created:07 of Jan, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=7, Let=0
No. of Quotes:7