A devotee sometimes... (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"devotee is sometimes" |"devotee may sometimes" |"devotee sometimes" |"devotees are sometimes" |"devotees sometimes" |"sometimes devotees" |"sometimes our devotees" |"sometimes the devotee" |"sometimes the devotees" |"sometimes the weak devotees"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: Other translations means?

Satsvarūpa: Well, sometimes I see Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Śilavatī even wrote a book about Deity worship, and there's a long quote from Caitanya-caritāmṛta. I don't know if that's bona fide. I know that the literature is bona fide, but I don't know of any translation that's bona...

Prabhupāda: Caitanya-caritāmṛta? He has written a book? I have not seen it.

Satsvarūpa: No. I just mean that devotees, sometimes they write an article and they say, "As it says in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta," and they quote a book that they read by some scholar, very good Vaiṣṇava literature, but translated by somebody that may not be good.

Prabhupāda: No. Somebody... So far Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that Navina-candra Rāya... You, mean to say that...

Brahmānanda: That six volume set? That is all right?

Prabhupāda: That is all right. That is translation. That is all right.

Brahmānanda: That is the one which is in use, I believe. It's not anything, you know...

Prabhupāda: That is simply translation. But Caitanya-caritāmṛta is now presented in our TLC. Actually that is our conclusion. And Navina Rāya's translation, there are sometimes little defects, but not very dangerous, not very dangerous.

Hayagrīva: Should your... In the content, should we put in... How many articles can we put in by you? These are the most important contributions we have, and, say, would it be too much material to put in, say, an essay by you and maybe a lecture or...

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: After.

Devotee: Is it all right for the Deities' hair to show?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: Sometimes, at some temples, the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities, sometimes Their hair shows.

Prabhupāda: Shows?

Devotee: Yes. Like Rādhārāṇī's hair is down in front. Is that all right?

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter. That is for beauty, as it is possible. Better keep it that side. Just like Rādhārāṇī's hair... There is picture. That gopīs, they have got their hair that side. Rādhārāṇī is also one of the gopīs, but she is the dearmost gopī. That's all. Otherwise, she is also gopī. Then? What else?

Sudāmā: Bhānu had a question about something.

Bhānu: Does evening ārati vary according to the sunset? Or it is just...

Prabhupāda: No. Sunset.

Sudāmā: And how many full āratis should we perform, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1973, London:

Revatīnandana: Another related question that also arose... These come in Bhāgavata class with the devotees because they think about the questions and sometimes they come up with nice ones. When Kṛṣṇa is incarnating in His plenary incarnations like Varāha, Nṛsiṁha, like that...

Prabhupāda: That is in this material world.

Revatīnandana: Yes. And sometimes devotees become devoted to those forms. Are there corresponding planets in Vaikuṇṭha for those forms of incarnation? Is there a planet of Nṛsiṁha or Nṛsiṁha-loka in the Vaikuṇṭha sphere?

Prabhupāda: So far (I) know, those planets are here within this material world.

Revatīnandana: Wherever He is appearing.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Even Rāmacandra's. So far I have...

Revatīnandana: On all the Vaikuṇṭhas, Kṛṣṇa is in His catur-bhuja, four-armed form?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Revatīnandana: But those devotees will eventually go there. Those kind of devotees like devotees of Sītā-Rāma, they will also attain the spiritual sky in their various positions.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Revatīnandana: All right. Thank you very much. (offers obeisances)

Prabhupāda: What is this?

Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:

Acyutānanda: Well, like sometimes the devotees are preaching, but they get feelings of getting entangled, so they want to...

Prabhupāda: That means it is not yet perfect preacher. He requires perfection.

Acyutānanda: So they argue with me or some other...

Prabhupāda: It is not the question of arguing.

Acyutānanda: No, they say, "Well, I want to fix myself up," and we want them to preach.

Prabhupāda: Preaching is our only business, preaching. Whatever we do, it is aimed at preaching. Namaskāra. (break) That is our business. Whatever we are doing, it is for preaching. (break) In, in the practice, or in the engagement of preaching, their position is better than those who are worshiping the Lord in a secluded place, bhajanānandī.

Acyutānanda: What about those who are preaching, but imperfectly, and those who are...?

Prabhupāda: Even it is imperfect...

Acyutānanda: It's better than just sitting.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) If he's sincere, it cannot be imperfect. Because... We are always imperfect, but Kṛṣṇa will help us. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam (BG 10.10). How he can be imperfect? Kṛṣṇa will give him intelligence. Imperfect means whose intelligence is not perfect. But when Kṛṣṇa is giving intelligence, how he can be imperfect? He may be imperfect, but he's being helped by Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he's not imperfect.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Forgetfulness means māyā.

Sudāmā: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Māyā is nothing. It is a forgetfulness. That's all. It has no existence. Forgetfulness, it does not stand. But so long it is there, it is very troublesome.

Sudāmā: I've been asked a question by some devotees sometimes that they don't feel happy. So even if they are unhappy, mentally, should, they still should continue in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I tell them, even if one is unhappy...

Prabhupāda: But you should show example. If you show example different way, how they will follow you?

Sudāmā: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Example is better than precept. Why you are living outside?

Sudāmā: Well, I...

Prabhupāda: (break) ...last time I was so much deteriorated in health, I had to leave this place. That does not mean I'll leave the Society. I went to India and recuperated. Or came to London. That's all right. So health may be sometimes... But that does not mean we shall give up the Society. If my health is unsuitable here, I go... I have a hundred centers. And you'll not go out of this universe for your health recouping. You have to remain within the universe. Then why do you go out of the Society? (break) ...Śrī Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. We have to live with devotees. Why I left my family? Because they were not devotees. Therefore I come... Otherwise, in old age, I would have been comfortable. No. We should not live with the nondevotees, may be family men or anyone. Just like Mahārāja Vibhīṣaṇa. Because his brother was not devotee, he left him, left him. He came to Rāmacandra. Vibhīṣaṇa. You know that?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: That is fine. That is wanted. You are expert mṛdaṅga player? I have seen. He is very, very nice.

Tripurāri: Sometimes when we go to the temples they ask us to give class, saṅkīrtana class on book distribution techniques. We tell them that before you can take any techniques, first you must follow the principles and study the books.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is real technique. Our only technique is to be very devout followers of the rules and regulation.

Tripurāri: Sometimes the devotees, in their preaching, they will defeat someone.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Tripurāri: Sometimes we defeat someone by our preaching, and we show them they should take the book, but still they don't take. But if we call them a fool and point out to them how they are foolish, they become offended. So rather that we just very humbly say...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Our... We know that he is a fool, but we have to present in a different way. We shall say that "There is nobody as learned as you are." In this way just make him puffed up, and then you say humbly, "My only humble request is that whatever you have learned, please forget. Now you try to understand Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That's all." This is the different way of calling him, that "Whatever you have learned, this is all rubbish." We simply say, "Kindly forget them. Now you turn your attention to Caitanya Mahāprabhu." This is the way Prabhodānanda Sarasvatī taught us. You flatter him, "Sir, I have got one request." Flatter him like anything, falling down on his leg and becoming humble and... "Sir, I have got one request." "What is that?" "You are very learned scholar. But kindly forget them, and you try to turn your attention to Caitanya Mahāprabhu." He will not be angry. Then, if he turns his attention to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, then naturally he will forget all rubbish things.

Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Then?

Tripurāri: Now he does not harass us so much now.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) So we have to do like that. Here everyone is demon, everyone. Demon means they are busy for sense gratification. That is demon. And devotee means he has no sense gratification. He is only busy how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is the devotee. Anyway, if you serve Kṛṣṇa sincerely, Kṛṣṇa is with you. You will never fall in danger.

Tripurāri: Sometimes the devotees question, "What is the best book to distribute, Caitanya-caritāmṛta or Bhagavad-gītā?" We're thinking all of them are absolute. It does not matter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is just like sugar doll. Anywhere touch—it is sweet. That's all. When I read books, I open anywhere. Any book I take, and anywhere I open, and I read.

Devotee (3): Sometimes we feel like... I know myself personally, if I'm distributing, like, Second Volumes of Caitanya-caritāmṛtas I have this doubt, this feeling that it's sometimes hard for me to understand Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and I feel like the karmī, he will open the book, and he will look into it, and he will become offended because he won't be able to understand hardly a word of it.

Prabhupāda: No, Caitanya-caritāmṛta is not meant for ordinary person. Bhagavad-gītā, Īśopaniṣad and other thing...

Tripurāri: Kṛṣṇa book?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa. They will read as story book. The Kṛṣṇa trilogy is selling very nice?

Tripurāri: Yes. Nectar of Devotion also.

Prabhupāda: Nectar of Devotion is very nice.

Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: No, we are dealing generally with the masses. But if we can convert one leader, then it is equal to turning many people in the mass. That is the idea. Some way or other, we are doing Kṛṣṇa's service. Either you serve the mass or the leader, it doesn't matter. Your service is recognized.

Tripurāri: Sometimes the devotees question, if they were pure, then they could get everyone to take a big book. It's simply our fault that we're not pure enough that we can't get everyone to take a big book. Or is it just that we can't engage everyone, we can't get everyone to surrender completely?

Prabhupāda: Well, that is also a devotional attitude. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that "I do not love Kṛṣṇa. So that's... And if I would have loved, then I would have died without His presence. But I am living now. Therefore I have no love for Kṛṣṇa." This is another thing. One who is too much addicted to the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is very good sign. So your headquarter is now Pittsburg?

Tripurāri: No, now Philadelphia.

Prabhupāda: Philadelphia, oh.

Tripurāri: It's in Rūpānuga's zone.

Prabhupāda: In the Philadelphia University, I think, there was one Mr. Norman Brown.

Rūpānuga: The Temple University.

Prabhupāda: Not Temple, Philadelphia.

Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: You are already self-realized. Otherwise how you can push on the books? You love Kṛṣṇa. Therefore you are taking so much labor for pushing on. And that is self-realization. If anyone tries to establish that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, that is self-realization.

Tripurāri: Sometimes the devotees ask if they can take birth again distributing books for you.

Prabhupāda: Very good. That is real devotion. A devotee does not want to go to Vaikuṇṭha or any liberation. They are satisfied with the service. That is pure devotion. And distributing books for the benefit of going to Kṛṣṇa, that is selfishness. But "I want to simply distribute the books without any remuneration, without any my personal..." that is pure devotee. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja says that "I do not wish to go to Vaikuṇṭha unless I take all of these rascals with me." That is pure devotee. Pure devotion does not mean to... He is always under the protection of Kṛṣṇa. What is the use of going Vaikuṇṭha or...? Wherever he stays, that is Vaikuṇṭha. That is pure devotional service. Mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī: (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4) "Life after life I may go on with this business. I don't want anything." That is pure devotion. (About cake:) So distribute.

Devotee (5): When a new book comes we're very happy. We read it, and then, when we read it, we become enlivened to distribute it. And sometimes we read one like the Bhagavad-gītā or one new Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and then we'll concentrate on that book because it has made us so happy.

Prabhupāda: You have read Caitanya-caritāmṛta?

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: You belong to the cheaters' association. You are cheated, and you cheat others. So the whole world is the association of cheaters and cheated. Because you are cheated, you want to cheat others.

Devotee: Sometimes, Śrīla Prabhupāda, they say well, if there is no God, then it doesn't matter what I do. But there is God, and He knows what I am going to do at every moment, then it doesn't matter what I do either. He knows what I am going to do, so what does it matter? I can do anything.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but why do you suffer? Why do you suffer? You do anything, that's all right, but why do you suffer?

Devotee: Well, it's all God's plan. I suffer according to God's plan, I enjoy according to God's plan.

Prabhupāda: Then there is God?

Devotee: Yes, there may be God, but what does it matter what I do? He is controlling everything. What do I have to say?

Prabhupāda: You are so senseless that you do not understand that you are suffering. That is required, just like cats and dogs, they are suffering, they cannot understand. Your position is like that. So our point is that you are suffering, but if you become obedient to God, you will not suffer, that is our propaganda. But you are so fool, rascal, that you do not know that you are suffering. And still you are denying. God is the master, so if you do something wrong, you must suffer. That you are suffering. And we are preaching, that don't do wrong, be very nice, you will not suffer. This is our propaganda.

Devotee: But the devotees, they seem to be suffering too, from...

Room Conversation with Two Lawyers and Guest -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: There was a great devotee in South India. He was a treasury officer. So he took money from the treasury and constructed very nice temple. (laughter) Yes. Later on, he was caught, and he was put into jail by the Nawab. At that time the Mohammedan king, Nawab, he saw in dream that two boys, very beautiful, they have come to the Nawab: "Sir, what money he has taken, you can take from me and release him." So the Nawab said, "If I get my money, I can release him." Then, when his dream broke, he saw the money on the floor, and nobody was there. Then he could understand that he is great devotee. He called him immediately, that "You are released, and you take this money also. Whatever you have already taken, that's all right. And now this money also you take. You spend as you like." So devotees sometimes do like that. Actually nothing is private property. That is our philosophy. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam: (ISO 1) "Everything belongs to God." That's a fact. Under the influence of māyā we are thinking that "This is my property."

Just like suppose this cushion. Wherefrom the wood has come? Has anybody produced wood? Who has produced? It is God's property. Rather, we have stolen God's property and claiming, "My property." Then Australia. The Englishmen came here, but is that the property of the Englishmen? It was there. America, it was there. And when everything will be finished, it will be there. In the middle we come and claim, "It is my property," and fight. Is it not? You are a barrister, you can judge better.

Guest 2: That was the argument he used.

Guest 1: No, It (indistinct). (laughter)

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Harikeśa: But actually, that's not true because some...

Prabhupāda: That transcendental meditation, that is a bogus humbug. So they are making experiment. So in that way it is good for us, that they're better than transcendental meditation.

Harikeśa: But sometimes the devotees become very excited, you see, when we chant and the test goes up.

Upendra: No, but this is... Dharmādhyakṣa was... He did it. The same result, they have to act the same way. They have to chant their japa nicely. And then the transcendental meditationist will meditate his way. But the results are coming out better in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Dharmādhyakṣa, at least, and Guru dāsa said so I'm not sure. It hasn't been working yet.

Prabhupāda: In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that beyond the senses, the mind is there. Beyond the mind, the intelligence is there. Beyond the intelligence, the soul is there. So they are studying the mind. They are not even on the intelligence platform, and what to speak of spiritual platform? Mano-rathena asato dhavato, bahiḥ. These rascals, those who are on the mental plane, they will remain materialists. That's all. They will not know, understand anything spiritual.

Harikeśa: So even if someone were to read the results of such a test, it would not convince them.

Prabhupāda: What...? What you...?

Siddha-svarūpa: They're testing after a material thing. Try to understand it. They're testing the mental plane and they're thinking that that's the spiritual plane.

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Fire is better than smoke. Smoke is better than wood. Wood means tamo-guṇa. And smoke means rajo-guṇa, "Now it is coming." And fire means sattva-guṇa. So you have to go still above. That is called śuddha-sattva-guṇa. Here, simply blazing fire, it may also extinguish, but the platform where it is never extinguished, that is spiritual platform. That is spiritual. That is not material. Not only fire, but ever-blazing fire. That is spiritual platform. You cannot stop even, "Oh, here is now fire." It must be ever-blazing fire. Then it will act. But that is said when there is no chance of extinction. Nitya-yukta upāsate. That is stated in the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, nitya-yukta, ever-existing, eternal. That is wanted. Sometimes our devotees fall down because he has not come to that platform, ever-existing. Therefore the fire extinguished. That is possible, but everyone should be very, very careful that the fire may not be extinguished. Then again māyā. There are two things: Kṛṣṇa and māyā. If Kṛṣṇa fire is extinguished, then māyā, ignorance, darkness. Two things.

kṛṣṇa-bhuliyā-jīva bhoga-vāñchā kare

pāśate māyāra tare jāpaṭiyā dhare

As soon as you forget Kṛṣṇa, then māyā is there, "Yes, please come here." Finished. There is no two, er, three. māyā, Kṛṣṇa. If you are not in Kṛṣṇa, then you are in māyā. And if you are in Kṛṣṇa, there is no māyā. Yāhān kṛṣṇa, sūrya-tāhān, nāhi māyāra adhikāra. That is our Back to Godhead motto, "Where there is Kṛṣṇa, there is no nescience."

kṛṣṇa sūrya-sama, māyā andhakāra,

yāhān kṛṣṇa tāhān nāhi māyāra adhikāra

(CC Madhya 22.31)

You understand Bengali?

Harikeśa: I know that verse.

Prabhupāda: That's... You know it eternally?

Morning Walk -- July 1, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: No.

Satsvarūpa: And yet he composed the Brahma-saṁhitā.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he is devotee, not to the topmost extent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes we hear that Lord Brahmā incarnated as Ṭhākura Haridāsa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Satsvarūpa: Sometimes devotees say, "Then how come he's the head of our sampradāya if he's not a pure devotee?"

Prabhupāda: It doesn't require. He is a devotee. That's all right. There are grades of devotee, but on the whole, a devotee is very exalted person. Just like gopīs. Nobody can be compared with the gopīs. There are so many grades of devotees, but they are ultimate. And amongst the gopīs, Rādhārāṇī. So there is no comparison, no more... Even Kṛṣṇa is defeated there. Kṛṣṇa became Caitanya Mahāprabhu to understand the devotion of Rādhārāṇī. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. (break) (About something by the path:) ...queen. Elizabeth? No. Queen or king?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there a plaque there?

Brahmānanda: It's a symbol for something.

Harikeśa: They usually make justice to be like that. (break)

Satsvarūpa: Allegorical.

Prabhupāda: Allegorical?

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: No, that is lust. That is not love. And as soon as my lusty desire is not fulfilled, then you are my enemy. (break) If we take shelter of any materialistic person, that is like to take the..., capture the tail of a dog and try to swim over the Pacific Ocean. It is like that. (break)

Nalinī-kaṇṭha: ...ing that we should not give people anything other than Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: And what you have to give? First of all you consider what you have to give. What you have got to give?

Nalinī-kaṇṭha: I was thinking that sometimes the devotees engage in business, selling so many things to help the temples, and you were saying that we should not do that?

Prabhupāda: If you are business-minded, you can do that. Do business and give the result to Kṛṣṇa. (break)

Brahmānanda: ...planting a tree. And here are the animals. The tiger and the lizard, fish.

Prabhupāda: So what is the meaning?

Bahulāśva: This is zoology. They study all the animals.

Prabhupāda: Not himself?

Bahulāśva: Well, they think they get an idea of man by studying the animals.

Brahmānanda: Catching the tail of the dog.

Bahulāśva: Of the crab. Then they come to conclude that since all the animals do is eat, sleep, mate and defend, man should also just do that.

Morning Walk -- November 2, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Nobody is advanced. Everyone is student. He must follow. There is no question of advanced.

Devotee (7): I mean, they call śūdras...

Prabhupāda: Śūdras? Śūdra, how he can be devotee? Śūdras are never devotee.

Indian man (4): No, he says sometimes the devotees, they call the other devotee that "You are śūdra."

Prabhupāda: That is jokingly. (laughter)

Indian man (4): Prabhupāda, sometimes you have said that this Gāyatrī was first spoken by the Lord, and this is a sound vibration of the Kṛṣṇa's flute, and it was heard by Brahma. Right? And these brāhmaṇas, so-called brāhmaṇas...

Prabhupāda: There is no question of "so-called." We want real brāhmaṇa. That's all. It was heard by the real brāhmaṇa, Brahma. Brahma, Brahma.

Indian man (4): So they worship Gāyatrī. They say it like as a...

Prabhupāda: They... Whatever they say, you forget that. You do your own duty. You follow the rules and regulation and do the needful. Why you...?

Indian man (4): But we have to make them understand very clearly.

Prabhupāda: But they will never understand. You don't waste your time. Go on with your duty. When they will see that you are actually acting as brāhmaṇa, they will appreciate.

Indian woman: Time will come. They will notice.

Morning Walk -- December 23, 1975, Bombay:

Lokanātha: You explained yesterday.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes Kṛṣṇa is chastised by mother Yaśodā. So how is that? The Supreme Personality of Godhead is being chastised by mother Yaśodā?

Girirāja: He likes to be chastised. It's part of the relationship.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, He likes to worship His devotee. Sometimes the father takes the child on his shoulder. Does it mean the child is more important than the father? They say the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, there is no such incidence as Rāmacandra worships Śiva. It is later on, interpretation. But even if He does so, what is the wrong here?

Harikeśa: That later-on Rāmāyaṇa has caused some havoc.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Harikeśa: That later-on interpretation?

Prabhupāda: Yes, the Śaivaites, they want to make Lord Śiva the exalted Supreme Person. In South India there is good propaganda. That is always going on.

Lokanātha: When Lord Śiva says in Purāṇas that mukti-pradapaḥ sarveṣāṁ viṣṇu... (sic)

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Lokanātha: Purāṇa, the same Lord Śiva says there is no other liberated besides Viṣṇu.

Devotee: ...engagement, one devotee commented that the reason that Lord Rāma worshiped Lord Śiva was because He wanted to kill Rāvaṇa and Rāvaṇa was a devotee of Śiva, so Lord Rāma worshiped Śiva in that respect.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Who will do that? That can be possible if you spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement very widely and they become convinced that "We shall not vote anyone to these rascals. We must have a Vaiṣṇava." Then everything will be changed. That is the only opportunity, that if people become Vaiṣṇava and they decide that "We are not going to vote anyone who is not a Vaiṣṇava," then everything will be all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes the devotees question that the Kali-yuga is advancing, and in that sense the standards are deteriorating. Yet you are preaching that "Get everyone to the position where everyone is Kṛṣṇa conscious." How in the Kali-yuga advancing can everyone become Kṛṣṇa conscious?

Prabhupāda: They do not understand. If I say, "The epidemic is increasing. You take this injection, then you can be saved. If you don't take vaccination, then you'll suffer." This is our propaganda. "You take this vaccination; you'll be saved. The epidemic is very strong." But if you think, "Now, because there is epidemic there is no other way. What is the use of taking vaccination?" This is no argument. The epidemic is there; the vaccination is there. (aside:) This is tulasī? Tell them. The disease is there; the medicine is there. So intelligent man should take the medicine, precaution, and then he'll be saved. Two things are there. Kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā. In Kali-yuga, if you don't take this, then there is no means of your save, safety. The two things are there. Why you are taking one thing? You take this thing or... (break) Everywhere two things are there: do's and don't's. So in order to make the process of do's you have to accept the process of don't's. That Nectar of Instruction, Rūpa Gosvāmī? He's instructing both the do's and the don't's. Huh? You have read it?

Harikeśa: Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca... (NOI 2).

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayapatākā: Service and reading are nondifferent?

Prabhupāda: Yes, if one is actually reading. Just like Rūpa Gosvāmī. He was reading. Nānā-śāstra-vicāraṇaika-nipuṇau. But he must be expertly reading, not as a book worm, expert.

Jayapatākā: And on the other hand, sometimes devotees are only engaged in service, and then, without reading, and they...

Prabhupāda: But every, everyone... You cannot expect everyone is capable for reading.

Jayapatākā: They have desire to read, but they have no opportunity. And then in their service, they become... They lose sight sometimes, where they, because of fallen condition, they cannot remember Kṛṣṇa in their service. But while reading, one can easily..., cannot help but remember Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: If he cannot remember Kṛṣṇa, he will sleep. That is the test. When you have seen so many reading but sleeping, that means there is no Kṛṣṇa. Yāhāṅ kṛṣṇa tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra. Sleeping is māyā, so if he's thinking of Kṛṣṇa, there cannot be sleeping.

Jayapatākā: No, I'm talking not about the reading half, but the service half.

Prabhupāda: Service also... Everything depends on advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If Kṛṣṇa is there, either you read or work as a coolie, the same thing.

Jayapatākā: You instructed that service is as good as reading, but only... We see that devotees only doing service without reading, then they become agitated in their mind.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I've read some of your old Back to Godhead magazines, and actually you've been saying the same thing all along, with the same force also. Some of your critiques of Dr. Radhakrishna's Bhagavad-gītā and modern science...

Prabhupāda: You have read?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: "Scholars Deluded."

Hari-śauri: Sometimes the devotees say that "Now Prabhupāda is preaching much more strongly than ever before." But then, when we read the old Back to Godheads, it's exactly the same.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even if we read the First Canto of Bhāgavatam... You translated that in India before you came. It's so powerful. (end)

Room Conversation -- May 5, 1976, Honolulu:

Bhūrijana: How about just collecting without giving any literature? Just collecting. Three months ago I saw it in Australia, with a lying line too. Not telling the truth. And that wasn't very long ago.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (indistinct)

Hari-sauri: Sometimes the devotees are just distributing incense.

Bhūrijana: Nothing.

Hari-sauri: They collect and distribute incense. Sometimes they don't distribute books.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Maybe they have to pay off a loan on the temple. All the devotees are well aware that Prabhupāda's books have first priority. Everyone knows it. The consciousness is very (indistinct) It's not a consciousness of giving.

Hari-sauri: Prabhupāda's point is that if you see fault with the method of implementing the spiritual master's instructions, you'll fail to follow the instructions.

Prabhupāda: No the point is not that they have not done any wrong. Don't think like that. But my point, that is, my instruction is sell books.

Bhūrijana: I understand. In other words if you think they're doing it wrong, you do it better. If you see the wrong thing... But do it. Make sure you do it, but do it without the wrong thing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Revolution.

Prabhupāda: It is very nice.

Devotee: Sometimes he said when he's speaking, the translator will not say what he is saying because it's...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes he forgets-usually he speaks very carefully-guarded words. But once or twice he says, he starts speaking direct Krishna consciousness and the translator looks at him and won't translate it into the local language. Sometimes he forgets himself and starts speaking about Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the translator suddenly looks at him. Usually he covers everything.

Prabhupāda: He has done a good job.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is a fit person, very intelligent.

Prabhupāda: So in this way... You are all intelligent, you can plan. The aim is how to distribute books. That is first consideration. (break) In Bhāgavata it is very figuratively described that we have got this body and the different parts. Just like Arjuna is sitting on the chariot. There is chariot driver, there are horses, reins. There is field, and the arrow, and the bow. They have been figuratively. So this can be used for killing the enemies of our Kṛṣṇa Consciousness and then give up all this paraphernalia, chariot, we... Just like after fighting, only victory, then you kill them. And similarly this body is there, the mind is there, the senses are there. So utilize it for conquering over this material existence. And then give up this body and go back to home.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Bharadvāja: So every man has his own world that he's living in?

Prabhupāda: Eh? He creates his own world. Nothing is own—temporary—he creates, and Kṛṣṇa gives him the opportunity, "All right, you enjoy." Hare nāma, hare nāma.

Govardhana-dhārī: While doing books we create an atmosphere sometimes, the devotees..., Kṛṣṇa gives us the intelligence to give the spiritual world to these living entities. How can we always stay on that transcendental platform, to make them see this? (break) (in car:)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: If the soul is the living force, if the soul actually leaves the body, how the body will be..., work.

Rāmeśvara: There's some connection still. When the soul is..., when the body..., when you are dreaming, and the soul leaves the body, but still there must be some connection between the soul...

Prabhupāda: Connection is there, just like you leave your car, you keep the engine going on—gug gug gug gug gug gug—but you are not there. The engine, you keep it started.

Rāmeśvara: Somehow the soul's influence is still there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You make that engine keeping—gug gug gug gug. If you like you can stop.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is it actually Kṛṣṇa who's maintaining the life in the body then? The life of the body is maintained by Kṛṣṇa or by the individual jīva?

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But they prefer to read about all the ecstatic symptoms on Caitanya Mahāprabhu's body

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That.... Be, first of all bona fide. That is good ambition. But how this good ambition can fulfill when you are a potter, poor man? Actually be rich, and then kick your wife. And without being rich, if you think all this nonsense, you're spoiling time. (japa)

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, some devotees, sometimes they feel that in ISKCON we're talking so much about the business of how to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but we're not talking enough about Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, kṛṣṇa-kathā, they say. So that's another reason why they want to read all these pastimes.

Prabhupāda: Then let them read. What kind of kṛṣṇa-kathā? The kṛṣṇa-kathā test is as soon as he'll get the taste, he'll lose this taste. That is the.... What is this nonsense?

Rāmeśvara: Won't it purify them? That's what they say, "It will purify me."

Prabhupāda: What you are purified? You have become a, what is called, putrefied, not purified.

Devotees: Jaya, Prabhupāda.

Rāmeśvara: You can become purified, and sometimes you can increase your...

Prabhupāda: No, no. You can read. Be purified. You can read. But where is your purification?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Putrefaction.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: If you are not liberated, why you are talking nonsense? Then you are a nonsense. You are not liberated, you cannot talk correct things. Don't talk. If you are not liberated, whatever you are talking, you are nonsense. So why you are misleading people? First of all, be liberated, then talk.

Bharadvāja: What is the position of Dhruva Mahārāja, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hmm? He was a devotee, that's all. He never said that "I am God."

Rāmeśvara: Sometimes devotees argue that "Dhruva Mahārāja, he had a material desire, and still he became perfect. So I can keep my material desires."

Prabhupāda: No, when he gave up material desires, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varān na yāce, "I don't want anything," then he became liberated. So long he had material desires, he was not liberated. When he refused to possess anything material, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varān na yāce, then he became liberated.

Hari-śauri: But say, like Dakṣa, he saw Lord Viṣṇu and he had a desire for sex.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Hari-śauri: Dakṣa. So he was still having sex desire, but he saw Lord Viṣṇu.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Hari-śauri: So then someone could argue, use that as an argument for returning.

Prabhupāda: Seeing Viṣṇu is not liberation. Just like when Kṛṣṇa was present, so many people saw Him. Does it mean that everyone became liberated?

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Devotee (2): ...of devotional service in the modes of material nature, there's no such thing.

Prabhupāda: No. Means if you do not follow the regulative principles, then it is mixed.

Satsvarūpa: Sometimes devotees think that in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, when Lord Kapila teaches there is devotional service in ignorance and in passion and in goodness, that that may mean your own disciples too. But then some devotees say "No, we're above that designation. It's not mixed devotional service, even though we're neophytes."

Prabhupāda: If you voluntarily do not follow, then you fall down. That is in ignorance.

Devotee (2): So where that is described in the Third Canto, Part Four, where it is described about devotional service in ignorance, passion, and goodness, and so forth, that has nothing to do with your disciples then?

Prabhupāda: Who is my disciple? First of all let him follow strictly the disciplined rules.

Devotee (2): As long as one is following, then he is...

Prabhupāda: Then he is all right.

Devotee (2): ...above those lower levels.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Otherwise, why there is need of regulative principles? He is immediately liberated. If he thinks that "Because I have taken to, I am liberated," then why the rules and regulations?

Devotee (2): But as long as he follows the rules and regulations.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: That cannot be. Maybe in the beginning due to past habits, but that must be nil very soon. Otherwise he's not following. Just like fan switched off may move for a little, but not that it will go on moving. Must stop. Switch is off. And if it is going on, then the switch is not yet off. (break)

Devotee (2): A devotee is sometimes subject to hankering or lamentation. That is material though, isn't it?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (2): In other words, if, at that moment, if he desires something other than Kṛṣṇa, that's a material desire.

Prabhupāda: Then he has to learn it. So long one is not competent in that position, he's subjected, he may fall down. What is that temple light?

Devotee (2): That's a fountain.

Prabhupāda: It is just like Jagannātha temple.

Hari-śauri: That, right in the distance there with the light on the top. Yeah, same design. (break)

Devotee (2): ...after us anymore because they don't have the money.

Prabhupāda: Detroit has got no money? Such a big industrial city. Neglected. They have got money.

Hari-śauri: They're not keeping this park up very well.

Prabhupāda: No. Because nobody comes here.

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: You realize or not realize, if you remain on the platform, that is same. (break) ...in Kṛṣṇa's service, that is brahma-bhūtaḥ stage. (break)

Makhanlāl: ...says that such a person never laments nor desires anything. So...

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you realize that you are servant of Kṛṣṇa, where is lamentation?

Makhanlāl: Due to māyā's influence, a devotee may sometimes materially lament.

Prabhupāda: That you have to struggle. Tapasā brahmacāryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). That is called tapasya. But if you stick to devotional service, māyā will not be able to touch you.

Makhanlāl: The māyā that harasses the devotee is just mental concoction, then? He should concentrate on just serving?

Prabhupāda: Māyā's harassing, that means you are not in devotional service. It is not concoction; it is fact.

Devotee (1): (indistinct) We're having a lot of trouble distributing books in the airports now.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What is the difficulty?

Devotee (1): It just seems legal problems. People don't like us there.

Mādhavānanda: People are opposing more. As our movement grows more and more, people want to check.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (1): ...trying to get it open in the terminals, and there's a possibility of maybe getting forty devotees inside the airport to distribute your books.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: No, why hopeless? There is hope—Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Hopeless for them.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This very much describes modern civilization also. They are such aśuci-vratāḥ, they are given much respect in modern-day society. And the devotees, sometimes we go preaching and put into jail.

Prabhupāda: It is very fortunate they are not crucifying you. Putting into jail, but they crucified Lord Jesus Christ, they were so intelligent. Because he was preaching God consciousness, he was crucified. What was his fault? He was talking of God, therefore he was crucified.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Now they only take our saṅkīrtana collection.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Now they are just taking our collection. Today two of my boys, they were arrested just north of here. So as a fine they have taken their saṅkīrtana collection.

Prabhupāda: Robbing. In the name of law, robbing.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Right, the court has taken it.

Devotee (1): Did this happen in court or the police...?

Dhrtadyumna: In court.

Prabhupāda: And then they let go?

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Now, how they heard that we are believing in this way?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: From Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: From Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And sometimes devotees go around the colleges and sometimes they say, "What you are doing is all wrong, the moon is far away." So I think this is spread all over.

Prabhupāda: But that is a fact.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But we had one explanation saying that now, the way we percept knowledge, though we understand things, there is also a conditioning behind it. So actually this is a fact, but in Mathematics, if we change the axiom, then we have a whole new understanding, it's almost completely upside down, but still we can interpret the result. It is just like a simple jumble(?), while Nils Bohr, studying the structure of the atom. Now he had a mathematical equation to fit the phenomena of this atom, and actually you can perfectly describe this phenomena by this equation, but, now, at morning times, this quantum mechanics, it turns out whatever he did was completely wrong, but it can be described completely, perfectly well as his model, as is our present understanding. But now his theories (indistinct), he could explain things on his own, but still it's completely wrong. So similarly...

Prabhupāda: They are right. They may present the wrong thing, but still they are right.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Rūpānuga: We were speaking about that the other day. It's changed from the original dancing that you showed us to something else. Too much like the modern dancing.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. I think this is not good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Shall I read on? "The service has become..." What way should we dance, Śrīla Prabhupāda? With our hands outstretched? Sometimes the devotees like to jump around. Is that all right?

Prabhupāda: In ecstasy one can do anything, that is another... But artificially to do something is not good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But if one feels like jumping, it is all right?

Prabhupāda: Anything artificial is not required.

Rūpānuga: So running back and forth is not...

Prabhupāda: No, no, that should not be an artificial.

Hari-śauri: We don't dance for show, we dance for the pleasure of the Deities.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we're not professional dancers. "The service has become so frenetic that the almost folksy, matter of fact preaching of the Swami makes a stark contrast. 'Some people are against us because they say we teach children to smile. Well isn't that too bad. We make children smile—we are bad. We try to teach them that life should be a joyful thing, we're evil. Well that's too bad, isn't it? ' "

Devotees: Who's that? That's crazy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is theory.(?) (laughter)

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Some of the modern-day cults in America, different philosophies, they say that all of the suffering is experienced within the mind. So they try by meditation to ignore the suffering.

Prabhupāda: Or... That's all right. When there is fire you meditate, why do you call fire brigade? If you are so great meditator, then you go on meditating, why you call for fire brigade? Nonsense, all rascals. (laughter) Simply rascals. Mūḍha. They have been described as mūḍha. Rascals, that's all.

Devotee: Sometimes they say it's just a dream and they say if you are bothering me, and you are just my dream; I don't have to worry about it, I'll have another dream and you'll go away.

Prabhupāda: No but dream is... It may be, but when there is fire, you call it dream, but why do you call fire brigade? When you are diseased why you go to physician? Dream it. (laughter) The major problem is birth, death, and old age, and disease. You do not want that. You must seek the measures. That is human life. Whether birth, death, old age, disease can be stopped? If there is any such life that there is no more birth, death, that is human life. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. That is the Vedānta philosophy: "Now the human life is meant for enquiring about these things." If you don't enquire, then you remain animal. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to save the human society from this animal life. To bring him to the real human life. Animal life means there is suffering—go on suffering. Human life means there is suffering—how to get, how to counteract. That is human life. Suffering—so long you have got this body, there must be suffering.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. These rooms were broken. So they told me that "You can repair these, and whatever you like, you can give." So I thought, "Don't need much space." "Pay me if..." I know, before me there was a tenant in that other room. He was paying three rupees. So I thought, "Two rooms, but I have spent money. So I'll give him five." Now I am giving them ten rupees.

Hari-śauri: To retain it.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Sometimes the devotees go down there and clean out the rooms, and they have kīrtana there sometimes. I think this is the first book that someone included this photo.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It was very calm and quiet. And people used to offer obeisances from outside because they knew. Practically everyone knew me. So they used to offer...

Hari-śauri: You were very well known in Vṛndāvana before you came?

Prabhupāda: Not very well known, but people knew me.

Hari-śauri: Because you were writing or...?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Or because of your ambition to come to the West?

Prabhupāda: No, at that time there was no such thing. I was living there, retired man.

Hari-śauri: So when you went to Vṛndāvana, you'd given up the idea of coming to the West or...?

Prabhupāda: No, coming to the West, the idea was there, but I was planning how to go.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Here also you can do, but Atreya Ṛṣi thinks separate building. He thinks like that.

Nandarāṇī: He wants a separate place. Because it is difficult for all of us to do two things. It's very..., it's just very difficult. So having two places would mean we could have one run like a temple and one run like a home. If many devotees come here and wear old clothes and live... Devotees, sometimes they want to dress in old clothes, they want to be very strict, they want to be very austere, but when the businessmen come and they see a devotee with shaved head and old rags on, then they think...

Prabhupāda: Shocked...

Nandarāṇī: Yes. "What is this?" you know. So, but at the same time we don't want to always dress very nicely, we want to be devotees.

Prabhupāda: We must be clean.

Nandarāṇī: Clean, yes.

Prabhupāda: The dress is not important-cleanliness.

Hari-śauri: You can dress in karmī clothes and still be very strict Vaiṣṇava.

Nandarāṇī: Here we wear mostly street clothes, like the Iranians, suits and dresses.

Prabhupāda: Just like he is not well dressed, but anyone who will see, he'll immediately find he's cleansed. That is wanted. Cleansed dress. Dress is not important.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is sādhu. The first qualification is titikṣava. very tolerant. And Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has said kṣamā-rūpaṁ tapasvinām. Those who are tapasvīs, their first duty is how much he is forgiving. How much he has learned to forgive. Kṣamā-rūpaṁ tapasvinām. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena (SB 6.1.13). So what is the explanation?

Harikeśa: Purport? A sādhu, as described above, is a devotee of the Lord. His concern, therefore, is to enlighten people in devotional service to the Lord. That is his mercy. He knows that without devotional service to the Lord, human life is spoiled. A devotee travels all over the country, from door to door, preaching, "Be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Be a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Don't spoil your life in simply fulfilling your animal propensities. Human life is meant for self-realization, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness." These are the preachings of a sādhu. He is not satisfied with his own liberation. He always thinks about others. He is the most compassionate personality towards all the fallen souls. One of his qualifications, therefore, is kāruṇika, great mercy to the fallen souls. While engaged in preaching work, he has to meet with so many opposing elements, and therefore the sādhu, or devotee of the Lord, has to be very tolerant. Someone may ill-treat him because the conditioned souls are not prepared to receive the transcendental knowledge of devotional service. They do not like it; that is their disease. The sādhu has the thankless task of impressing upon them the importance of devotional service. Sometimes devotees are personally attacked with violence. Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, Haridāsa Ṭhākura was caned in twenty-two marketplaces, and Lord Caitanya's principal assistant, Nityānanda, was violently attacked by Jagāi and Mādhāi. But still they were tolerant because their mission was to deliver the fallen souls. One of the qualifications of a sādhu is that he is very tolerant and is merciful to all fallen souls.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything was... Pralaya-payodhi-jale dhṛtavān asi vedam **. (break)

Mr. Malhotra: (Hindi) ...for quite some time at a particular spot. This spot was shown to us. And people have very great reverence for that spot. So now, at one time we accept Lord Rāma the supreme master of a particular yuga, and then He had to worship Lord Śiva. So who is supreme, Lord Śiva or Lord Rāma?

Prabhupāda: Lord Rāma is the Lord. Śiva is devotee. Sometimes you wash the feet of your son. That does not mean you are a servant of the son. Kṛṣṇa, why Rāma? Kṛṣṇa, when Sudāmā Vipra came to His house, He washed his feet.

Mr. Malhotra: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa immediately got down from his siṁhāsana and took his lotus, touch his feet. And Nārada Muni was smiling, nara-līlā.

Mr. Malhotra: Nārada Muni was smiling. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Nārada Muni knew it that He is Supreme Lord, but he did not check it.

Mr. Malhotra: He let Lord Kṛṣṇa bow. This is the biggest paradox.

Prabhupāda: Mad-bhakta-pūjābhyadhika (SB 11.19.21). Kṛṣṇa is pleased when His devotee is worshiped. (Hindi)

Mr. Malhotra: When I went to Dvārakā Purī, so there is Bheda Dvārakā in the sea. One is Dvārakā Purī, then about I think 10, 12 miles away there is Bheda Dvārakā. At Bheda Dvārakā, that is the residential palace of Lord Kṛṣṇa. And seven rāṇīs of Lord Kṛṣṇa. They show each building, their whole building. So what was that?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: And there are so many fathers, mothers; they very much appreciate. And the... Our... None of our disciple is disrespectful to father and mother. Why? I never said that "You become disrespectful to your father and mother."

Hari-śauri: The only time there's any argument is if...

Prabhupāda: But if the father is demon...

Rāmeśvara: The devotees sometimes are disrespectful out of immaturity.

Prabhupāda: That is a individual fact. But...

Rāmeśvara: But they cannot condemn the movement because of that.

Prabhupāda: We never said that "You be..." I never said. And when Brahmānanda was initiated, his mother was standing. I asked Brahmānanda, "Take the dust of your mother's feet first. Then you offer me obeisances." Ask Brahmānanda. So he first of all offered his obeisances to his mother. I told him like that, "You have got good mother." I told him like that, "Otherwise how she has got a son like you?" I always say like that. I never said, "Disrespect." But in particular case, if the father and mother is demon, he must give up their... It is not our business to...

Rāmeśvara: The whole controversy centers around this point of breaking up the family.

Prabhupāda: We never said. Breaking up the family... So many ways they are breaking up, the hippies are also breaking.

Jagadīśa: The fathers and mothers are also breaking. Divorce.

Prabhupāda: Father and mother, yes. Why they divorce?

Hari-śauri: Seven out of ten marriages.

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In Bhāgavata there are many instances, very old man married. Anyway, this gentleman was such a nice devotee. Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What was particularly nice about his devotional quality?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which devotional qualities particularly did he...?

Prabhupāda: Because later on he retired—he was a pleader—so whole day and night, simply devotee. Sometimes he would offer obeisances to the Deity. Actually he was old man. He'll fall asleep by... And he would remain in that two, three hours.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two or three hours? Wow. Wow. Completely devoted.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. And daily he would go to the Ganges.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What was his name, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: His name was Nanda Dulal Phaini(?). So yesterday I was thinking of him, and I said it in my... I am being purified by thinking of him. All of a sudden.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, the whole atmosphere... Because we were children, we were going here and there, the neighboring hoods (neighborhoods), all houses... Everyone devotee.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Must have been a wonderful atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: Wonderful. We do not find such atmosphere now. Even maidservant, servant. Their character was not very good—still devotee(?). And this was the opportunity.

Room Conversation about Mayapura Attack Talk with Vrindavan De -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I do not care to read this nonsense, never. What I hear from you, that's all. I tell them, "Mūḍhas, narādhamas." That's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You don't spend any time studying their philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Why shall I waste my time? I never read all these.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes devotees say, in order to defeat... This is their philosophy.

Prabhupāda: They are defeated, already dead. Few days they can quack. That's all. Who asks for Marx now? Gandhi, Marx, Tolstoy, who cares for them? Vivekananda? Now Kṛṣṇa's Bhagavad-gītā is taken.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even in the law court it's quoted.

Prabhupāda: So what is the Marx philosophy?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says that the people are suffering at the hands of the capitalists. One or two people...

Prabhupāda: That's a fact. That we admit, but not to adjust in that way.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said everything should be taken out of the hands of the few and given to the many.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: By violent revolution.

Prabhupāda: Why violent revolution?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says the few will not give up without forcefully taking it from them.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why not? Use it... You can...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But that we are using for the export order.

Prabhupāda: If they take money, that, and use it. Then...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, as we get money. Like the first shipment has just gone and we... Till it comes back, we are... But one point is clear. There's no book that we're printing in India that is out of stock. There's no book out of stock. Sometimes devotees misinform you for selfish reasons that we are out of stock, but there's no book out of stock that we are printing in India.

Prabhupāda: This paper is nice.

Yaśomatīnandana: We will have a few at least a few books ready in a few months.

Prabhupāda: No, the manuscript you take. I want to see at least manuscript is not left idle. That is...

Yaśomatīnandana: Now, with your blessings, we'll go very fast.

Prabhupāda: Now we have got some position, Hindi books.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Gujarati books also should be same standard.

Prabhupāda: Yes, same standard. Very nice, Hindi books. All right.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I wanted to know whether... The person who's singing is Śveta-varāha from Māyāpura. In Māyāpura they use a small microphone, not for the drums but for his voice, and he has a very sweet voice. So normally we don't use mic at all, but sometimes the devotees don't know how to sing very sweetly. Whether we should use a small microphone for his voice?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can try it, and if it's not nice we can stop it.

Prabhupāda: It is going on without microphone?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The drums are... Right now the drumming is very loud.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But the voice is hard to hear. Should I try a little microphone? I can take it off immediately if it's not good. I think you'll...

Bhavānanda: Last year in Māyāpura, Śrīla Prabhupāda, during the festival and before, when you were there, they would, this kīrtana group of your disciples, they would be chanting over microphone so that Your Divine Grace could hear it in your room. I remember you commented many times on how sweet and nice it sounded.

Prabhupāda: It is already very loud.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That will be nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. But I was just speaking to Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja that the GBCs, we should devise a policy so that this advantage is not misused. Because sometimes devotees just come over here, stay here for some time, do some nonsense and go back.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then they may take away this permission.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should be very careful to choose the right people to come.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not just that anybody goes to an Embassy and they immediately get three years and they come here, they move around India, then in two weeks or two months they leave and go back. Then the government will not like it.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And if some Americans find out that ISKCON had this special status, then someone can also pose as an ISKCON devotee and get this visa.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: So we should require that they have GBC authorization and..., with the Embassy.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No. What we will do I think...

Prabhupāda: Our GBC should select. Not...

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhavānanda: Subhaga always faints.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes devotees faint just from fasting one day. You have fasted for six months, Śrīla Prabhupāda. If you faint a little bit, it's not a sign of death.

Prabhupāda: No, no. I am welcoming death.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I know. That's the... That's why we're talk...

Bhavānanda: But we are not. We are not welcoming the idea of your death, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You say, "What is the harm?" There is no harm for you. Your return to Kṛṣṇa has been assured from your very birth.

Prabhupāda: So why not allow me to do that?

Bhavānanda: We are thinking of the harm for us and the rest of the world.

Prabhupāda: That depends on Kṛṣṇa. But for me, if you give me this facility—one parikrama, and then leave me to my fate—you'll give me... Because I am not eating, so keep me whole day as I am. But if you think that I have become burden, then... (whispering) Hm?

Bhavānanda: I was just saying, Śrīla Prabhupāda, something must have happened that you're feeling somehow that we think that you have become a burden. But we don't feel that way at all, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Jayādvaita: You've given the example in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that when a capitalist has money, that's also a burden. And when the woman has a child, that child is a burden. So in the same way... But that burden is a burden of love. So you're that kind of burden, the kind of burden that's wanted.

Prabhupāda: Where is kavirāja?