Absolute (Conversations 1968 - 1974)

Expressions researched:
"absolute"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "absolute" not "absolute truth" not "absolute world" not "absolute knowledge"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Caller: Is this Swami?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Caller: What is God?

Prabhupāda: What is God? That's your question?

Caller: Yes.

Prabhupāda: God means the controller. Everywhere we have got some controller. So... But you will find there is another controller over the controller. So if you go on searching one after another, controller and the supercontroller, and, or the next controller, next controller, in this way, when you come to a place when the controller is absolute, there is no other controller, He is God.

Comment on Painting -- May 9, 1968, Boston:

Prabhupāda: I have to thank Jadurāṇī for nice pictures. She is giving us light about spiritual understanding. So Kṛṣṇa will bless her with greater energy for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Thank you. So this picture, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, with His associates just joined into the picture... Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmād ekātmānāv api bhuvi purā deha-bhedaṁ gatau tau (CC Adi 1.5). It is a very great science. The Absolute is one, but in order to enjoy transcendental bliss... (end)

Room Conversation -- October 20, 1968, Seattle:

Jāhnavā: I've heard an analogy to that before.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So this material world is perverted reflection of the original energy. So this "Hare" means we are directly approaching the original energy of the Supreme Lord. "Please accept me, under You. Now I am under reflection. I am trying to get substance from the reflection." Suppose a tree is reflected by the bank of a river, the exact. So if somebody dives into the river and tries to take fruit from that tree, it will not be possible because that is reflection. One has to go to the real tree. So we are hankering after life, we are hankering after pleasure, but we are seeking pleasure in the reflection, māyā. Therefore we are frustrated, confused. Therefore this prayer is to the original energy. Without energy, without energy the Lord is not without energy. Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa, Sītā-Rāma. So God is always with energy. Without energy, he is incomplete. Sun without sunshine is incomplete. Is it possible? Can one think of sun without sunshine? Similarly, the Māyāvāda theory that the absolute is without energy, there is no energy, absolute is... They have misunderstood. The energy is not different from the energetic. Just like sunshine is not different from the sun, neither the sunshine has got any existence without the sun, nor the sun can exist without sunshine. They are so intimately related. Similarly, the Lord and the energies are so intimately related, they cannot be separated, but they are not one. This is the whole philosophy.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: What was the first sound, traditionally?

Prabhupāda: Vedic states, Oṁ. So at least we can understand from your Bible, that God said, "Let there be creation." So this is sound, and there is creation. God and His sound is non-different, absolute. I say, "Mr. Ginsberg," this sound and I, a little difference, but God is non-different from His energy, nitya... How it is called? Śakti śaktimator abhedhaḥ. Śakti, energy and śakti-mat, the energetic. They are non-different. Just like fire and heat, they are non-different, but heat is not fire. You can not differentiate heat from fire, or fire from heat. But fire is not heat.

Allen Ginsberg: Well the sounds, the sound kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: Yes, is non-different from Kṛṣṇa.

Allen Ginsberg: ...is not different from Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No. Therefore, this sound kṛṣṇa...

Allen Ginsberg: Under all circumstances?

Prabhupāda: Yes, all, all circumstances, but it is the question of my appreciation, or my realization. That will depend on my purity. Otherwise this Kṛṣṇa sound and Kṛṣṇa, non-different. Therefore if we vibrate sound Kṛṣṇa, then I am immediately in contact with Kṛṣṇa, and if Kṛṣṇa is whole spirit, then immediately I become spiritualized. Just like if you touch electricity, immediately you're electrified. And the more you become electrified, more you become Kṛṣṇized. Kṛṣṇized. So when you are fully Kṛṣṇized, then you are in the Kṛṣṇa platform. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9), then fully Kṛṣṇized, no more comes back to this material existence. He remains with Kṛṣṇa. The impersonalists shall say merging. That is less intelligence. Merging does not mean losing individuality. Just like a green bird enters a green tree; it appears merging, but the bird has not lost his individuality. There is individuality.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Jehovah.

Allen Ginsberg: They had Jehovah, but they had a prohibition of pronouncing the highest names. 'Cause they felt that God was imageless, and therefore should not be pronounced or painted. My background is I guess what would be impersonalist.

Hayagrīva: The Jews are personalist.

Allen Ginsberg: Well, what are they? Impersonalists or personalists?

Lady: Impersonalists. They believe in just the Absolute. That's all.

Prabhupāda: That was the difference in Jesus Christ. He was a personalist.

Devotee: Hasidics are personal.

Allen Ginsberg: Yes. They put their devotion into the rabbi or the guru. The ancient Hebrew... I guess you must know about that. The ancient Hebrew teaching was that the name of God should never be pronounced.

Prabhupāda: Now we come to know...

Allen Ginsberg: J-H-V-H.

Prabhupāda: Anyway why God's name...

Allen Ginsberg: Pictures should not be made. Pictures should not be made. Because it would limit God to human conception.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. That is in Muhammadan. That means God is not material. That is the idea. Because here the idea is when I make something image or picture, that is material. So there is a prohibition of accepting God as material. But if you go to a higher stage, then you'll understand that if God is everything then there is no material. That is Vaiṣṇava philosophy. If God is everything, then where is material? He is spiritual. Material means when you cannot understand God. That is material. Everything is sky. When it is covered by cloud we call it is cloudy. Similarly, cloud has no existence. It comes only to cover sometimes, but the sky is eternal. Similarly, God is eternal. When you are covered by some māyā, you cannot see, you cannot understand God, that is material. So any philosophy which does not help understanding God, that is material. That is material. Otherwise, there is no material. Where is material if God is everything? Sarvam khalv idam brahma. You see?

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 14, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: The hand wasn't bringing food to the mouth.

Prabhupāda: Then they come to their senses. "Oh, we have to feed this rascal belly. Otherwise we become weak." Similarly... What is this position? These hands and legs are parts anbd parcels of the whole. Similarly, the whole Brahman, Absolute, we are all parts and parcels. So we shall cooperate in satisfying Him. Then automatically we become satisfied. If we noncooperate, then we suffer.

Allen Ginsberg: Well, if you call Brahmā the Absolute, how do you make a distinction between Brahmā and Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: That I explained the other day, that the sunshine, the sun globe, and the sun-god.

Allen Ginsberg: Ah, yes.

Prabhupāda: Apparently the sunshine appears to be very, very big, but it is concentrated in sun globe. And when you enter the sun globe, it is concentrated in sun-god.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

John Lennon: If all mantras are... All mantras just the name of God. Whether it's a secret mantra or an open mantra, it's all the name of God. So it doesn't really make much difference, does it, which one you sing?

Prabhupāda: No. Just like in drug shop they sell all medicine for disease, curing disease. But still, you have to take doctor's prescription to take a particular type of medicine. They will not supply you. If you go to a drug shop and you say, "I am diseased. You give me any medicine," that is not... He'll ask you, "Where is your prescription?" So similarly, in this age, in Kali-yuga age, this mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, is recommended in the śāstras, and great stalwart—we consider Him the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He preached this. Therefore our principle is everyone should follow. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). We should follow the footprints of great authorities. That is our business. The Vedic mantra says, tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ. If you simply try to argue and try to approach the Absolute, it is very difficult, simply by argument and reasoning, because our arguments and reason are limited because our senses are imperfect. (break) So tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. And scriptures, there are different kinds of scriptures. Nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. Philosophers, every philosopher has got a different opinion, and unless a philosopher defeats other philosopher, he cannot become a big philosopher. So therefore philosophical speculation also will not make a solution. Dharmasya tattvaṁ nihitaṁ guhāyām. So it is very secret.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Prabhupāda: So a mantra should be captured from the disciplic succession. According to Vedic injunction, sampradāya-vihīnā ye mantrās te nisphala mataḥ: "If the mantra does not come through disciplic succession, then it will not be active." Viphala. Mantrās te viphalāḥ. Viphala means "will not produce result." Mantrās te viphalāḥ mataḥ. So mantra has to be received through the channel; then it will act. Mantra cannot be manufactured. Mantra must be from the original Supreme Absolute, coming down through disciplic succession, channel. It has to be captured in that way, and then it will act. Sampradāya-vihīnā ye mantrās te nisphala mataḥ. So according to our Vaiṣṇava sampradāya, the mantra is coming down through four channels. One is coming through Lord Śiva, one is coming through goddess Lakṣmī. Not one, different. One thing is coming in different channel. One through the channel of Brahmā, one through the channel of Lord Śiva, one through the channel of Lakṣmī, and one through the channel of Kumaras. So they are called four sampradāyas. So one has to take mantra, either of these four sampradāyas. Then that mantra is active, and if we perform that mantra in that way, it will act. Sampradāya-vihīnā ye. And if one does not receive this mantra in either of these sampradāya, channels, then viphala, it will not act. It will not give fruit.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Yoko Ono: Is that flower that has flavor better than...

Prabhupāda: So therefore attraction for any flower is not the solution of the question. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). Kṛṣṇa is Supreme Absolute. Anyone wants Him in any way, He also presents Himself in that way. Just like the same example. If you want a yellow flower, never mind whether there is any scent or any flavor or not, so that flower is there. It is for you. That's all. But if anyone wants rose flower, Kṛṣṇa gives him rose flower. But when you make a comparative study which one is better, then rose will be considered better. (chuckling) So ye yathā māṁ prapadyante. That means the Absolute is realized... Of course, varieties there are, but the original division of the Absolute is three: Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān. Now, Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān is the same Absolute. Different names. The jñānis, or the empiric philosophers, they reach or they aim at Brahman, impersonal Brahman. The yogis, they, I mean to say, focus on the Supersoul, Paramātmā. And the devotees, they aim at Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now, this Kṛṣṇa and the Supersoul and the impersonal Brahman, they are not different. They are light. They are not darkness. But in the light also, there is difference The example is given: just like sunlight, sun globe and the sun-god. Everywhere you find light. In the sunshine there is light. In sun globe there is light. And what to speak of the predominating deity in the sun-globe? He also must be light; otherwise wherefrom this light comes? So so far light is concerned, everywhere there. But you cannot say because sunshine has come through your window in your room, you cannot say the sun has come. That will be mistake. Sun is many, many miles away. But so far light is concerned, now there is question of degrees of light, intensity of light. So the degrees of spiritual realization in Brahman, degrees of spiritual realization in Paramātmā, and degrees of spiritual realization in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they are different.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Yoko Ono: But not always the knowledgeable one are the ones who...

Prabhupāda: Yes. You cannot know completely. That is because our knowledge is very imperfect. But still, so far our knowledge is concerned, as far as possible, we should try to understand. Avāṅ mānasa gocaraḥ. This Absolute is so great and unlimited that it is not possible for us to know Him completely. That is not possible. Our senses does not allow. But as far as it is possible, because, after all, we are part and parcel of the Absolute, so all the qualities of the Absolute are there in us, but it is in minute quantity. So that minute quantity is also very great in comparison to material knowledge. Material knowledge is practically no knowledge. It is covered. But when one is liberated, liberated knowledge is certainly very, very great than material knowledge. So Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān. These are the statements of Bhāgavata. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). It is... Śabdyate means sounded as Bhagavān, Paramātmā, and Brahman. Now, what are the difference or degrees of knowledge? Brahman knowledge, Paramātmā knowledge, and Bhagavān knowledge. The same thing. The knowledge of sunshine, the knowledge of sun globe, and the knowledge of this predominating deity in the sun globe. So knowledge of sunshine is not knowledge of the predominating deity of the sun globe. There is another example in this connection. Just like if you see one hill from a long-distant place, first of all you see just like it is a cloud. Then, if you proceed further, you'll see something green. And if you enter into that hill you'll see, oh, there are so many varieties. There are animals, there are men, there are trees. But from the distant, you'll see just like a cloud. So although the same thing... Similarly, Absolute, when visioned from the Brahman point of view, it is just like cloud. Absolute when visioned as Paramātmā, it is just like something green. And Absolute when realized as the Supreme Person, it is just like you enter into the hill and see everything in detail. So although the focus is the same, the Brahmavādī and the Paramātmāvadī and the devotee's focus is the same, but due to their respective position the realization is different. These things are very nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Prabhupāda: "I am the origin. I am the source of everything. Everything emanates from Me. One who knows this science perfectly, he is budhā, he is intelligent, and he becomes engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." And the Vedānta-sūtra also, the first aphorism is athāto brahma jijñāsā: "Now it is the time for inquiry about the Absolute, Brahman." So what is Brahman? The next aphorism is janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) "Brahman, the Absolute, is that from whom everything is coming, emanating." That Absolute is personally saying, mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate: "Everything is emanating from Me." So if you study Vedic literature very scrutinizingly, then you come to this conclusion, that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness will include all other knowledge. Just like if you have got million dollar, ten dollar is included, five hundred dollar is included, thousand dollar is included. But one who has got ten dollar or five hundred dollar, he cannot claim that he has got million dollar. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa science means full spiritual knowledge. That is accepted by the ācāryas. And even you are speaking of Maharsi. He has written some book on Bhagavad-gītā?

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

Prabhupāda: Glossary should be short as possible.

Satsvarūpa: Short as possible.

Prabhupāda: Yes. At the same time carrying the meaning.

Satsvarūpa: The conclusion of Vaiṣṇava philosophy. That's the absolute meaning.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It should not be describing the definition. That is not glossary. Glossary should be explained in gist, but the meaning should be carried.

Hayagrīva: Well, can we use, for instance, the glossary to your Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam printed in India, can we use that as a model for...? Is that...?

Prabhupāda: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?

Hayagrīva: You have a glossary at the end of the first volume. Is that the type of glossary...?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have given glossary. You can follow that principle. Yes. And at the end of each book, glossary, index, will carry weight.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 21, 1970, Surat:

Girirāja: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes. When you say, "O my Lord, You have no leg, You have no hand, You have no eyes," that means, "You are blind, You are lame, You are headless," (laughter) "You have no sense"—"You are nonsense." So this is prayer. This is their prayer. So we have to fight vigorously with these rascal impersonalists and voidists. When I was talking, somebody left the meeting in the morning. Yes. That means he could not tolerate (laughs) all these designations-rascal, miscreants, lowest of the mankind. Yes.

Devotee (2): In this mantra of Śrī Upaniṣad, Mantra Twelve,

andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti

ye 'sambhūtim upāsate

tato bhūya iva te tamo

ya u sambhūtyāṁ ratāḥ

It says, "Those engaged in worship of the demigods enter the darkest region of ignorance, and still more do the worshipers of the Absolute." But this means that the impersonalists, "those who are worshiping Absolute"?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (2): Then why is it seen that they are making spiritual advancement?

Prabhupāda: No, they don't make any spiritual advancement. They come down. Don't you see this impersonalist, Vivekananda? He took sannyāsa; he came to hospital-making, came back. They are not advancing. They are coming back, falling down. While they have no engagement in devotional service, they say, "Oh, why you are finding God anywhere? Here is God, daridra-nārāyaṇa, these poor men." That's it. That is not advancement. They are coming down. Now, they come down and they defame Nārāyaṇa, that "Nārāyaṇa has become daridra." He has found Nārāyaṇa is daridra.

Room Conversation -- December 21, 1970, Surat:

Guest (3): Chanting is mental concentration, is it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Chanting and hearing, locked up. Mind is locked up. And because the Kṛṣṇa vibration is locked up, then Kṛṣṇa is locked up, because there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His name, absolute. Kṛṣṇa is absolute. Therefore there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His name, His form, His pastimes.

nāma-cintāmaṇi-kṛṣṇaś

caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ

purnaḥ śuddho nitya-mūkto

'bhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ

Because nāma and the nāminaḥ, being inseparable, therefore nāma is also purna, nitya, śuddha, mukta.

Guest (3): What is the trance that... The meditation, trance enters. It is called...

Prabhupāda: Trance is... The actual meditation means concentrate one's mind on Viṣṇu form. That is real meditation. But now they have, the impersonalists and voidists, they have manufactured so many things, but actual meditation means...

Guest (3): Transcendental meditation. Trans...?

Prabhupāda: Transcendental meditation. The transcendental meditation means to think of Lord Viṣṇu.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Not upon that. You spread separately. You have no bed sheet? Bed sheet you can spread. The human demand is happiness.

Guest (1): Happiness, yes. But happiness means increase in which is already happy. It is...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now, the thing is, what is that happiness? That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam: (BG 6.21) "The absolute happiness or the perpetual happiness or the greatest happiness is that which is enjoyed by supernatural senses."

Guest (1): Would that be by all the senses—mind, intelligence...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything but in their supernatural, not in this condition.

Guest (1): Not in this?

Prabhupāda: Condition.

Guest (1): You see, otherwise it is said that when a person is happy with the self, happy with others...

Prabhupāda: No, no. No, no. Try to understand. He has got his senses. These senses are now covered with the coating of material conception of life. Therefore this sense pleasure is not complete or perfect. Just like everyone has got... Now, you have got your tongue. Now, the tongue, when it is coated you cannot taste the things. So the coating is māyā.

Discussion with Indians -- January 18, 1971, Allahabad:

Guest (3): Gītā jñāna itself is given by Lord incorporeal, not to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, it is told, at the time the jñāna was given had a body which became divya Vedānta(?).

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is your interpretation.

Guest (3): That is exactly what...

Prabhupāda: No, you say. Anyone who... Anyone... Whatever he says, he thinks like that, exact. That is another thing. But we know that Kṛṣṇa had no difference between His body and soul. He is absolute. Now, you are talking from the point of view that Kṛṣṇa's body and Kṛṣṇa's soul is different.

Guest (3): Ah, no... In every body...

Prabhupāda: That is not the fact. That is not the fact.

Guest (1): Sir, Kṛṣṇa could not the two...

Prabhupāda: No, no, you say, "could not," but we do not say like that. Now who will settle up this thing? You say, but I do not say.

Discussion with Indians -- January 18, 1971, Allahabad:

Haṁsadūta: There is no other way. It is not possible. Every śloka in the Bhagavad-gītā is as good as any other śloka because it is absolute.

Guest (6): Let me say, tell you what submissive word means in relation of Gītā.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, the perfect example given by Arjuna, the perfect disciple, is "Now I am confused about duty..."

Guest (7): ...more than you or I.

Haṁsadūta: Arjuna says to Kṛṣṇa... Arjuna says to Kṛṣṇa... What does he say?

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. First let me know whether you want to submit or not?

Guest (8): I do!

Prabhupāda: First of all answer this question, whether you want to submit or not.

Guest (6): We want to submit after understanding.

Haṁsadūta: Try to understand. The teaching of Bhagavad-gītā, teaching of Bhagavad-gītā begins when Arjuna admits, when he admits that "Oh, now I see. Now I am confused about my duty. Now I am a soul surrendered unto You. You please instruct me."

Guest (6): We don't want... We have not come here... (many Indians talking at once)

Haṁsadūta: If you are not prepared to follow the example of Arjuna and submit yourself...

Guest (2): Swami Bhaktivedanta has said...

Haṁsadūta: No, no, no.

Guest (2): When we are all... (several talking at once)

Haṁsadūta: One at a time. One at a time. Let me make my point, that Gītā begins... The reason Gītā has value is because Arjuna, he admits his ignorance. He says, "Now I am confused about my duty and I am a soul surrendered unto You. You please instruct me." That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā. And if, if we want to take, or if we want to get the benefit of Gītā, then we must follow the example of Arjuna, who is the perfect disciple, and Kṛṣṇa is the perfect master. And the first point is you must become submissive.

Guest (2): We understand now what you mean, submissiveness.

Haṁsadūta: So that same thing is there if you want to learn from a spiritual master, that you come with an attitude of submission and prepared to follow the instructions. But if you think, "Well, if I like the instruction, I may follow. And if I don't like, then let him go to hell," then what is the use of inquiry?

Guest (2): No, no, no. We don't want Prabhupāda...

Guest (1): That is not the idea. Submissiveness is the only lesson of Gītā

Haṁsadūta: That is the only lesson. "You just give up all..."

Prabhupāda: No, we cannot hear any more. That is the only lesson. That is the only example.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1971, Gorakhpur:

Prabhupāda: There is no then. Don't talk nonsense. If you are so much addicted to sleeping, you simply chant sixteen rounds and whole day sleep. But don't take food also. (laughter) Don't get up taking prasādam. "Now I have to honor prasādam. Let me eat sumptuous, then again sleep more."

Devotee: Is there some order of priority in service then? I mean, sixteen rounds is more important than anything else. And then following that, there's something else.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. If you cannot do anything else, you simply chant sixteen rounds, take prasādam, and sleep. (laughter) It is special prerogative for you. There is no then. This is, this is order for you.

Devotee: In a situation where there's a choice between say chanting and reading. Is chanting a better activity than reading?

Prabhupāda: Yes, chanting and reading is the same thing.

Devotee: But is one better than the other?

Prabhupāda: No better. That I explained. It is absolute. Either you chant or read, the same thing. But you have to fulfill the sixteen rounds. That's it. All right. Let us... (end)

Room Conversation -- April 6, 1971, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Well, when there is war, that thing happens everywhere. But the persons who create war, they are responsible for it. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya. First of all we have to understand.

yadā yadā hi dharmasya

glanīr bhavati bhārata

abhyutthānam adharmasya

tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham

(BG 4.7)

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ

vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām

(BG 4.8)

So Kṛṣṇa says, paritrāṇāya sādhunam vināśāya ca duskrtam, yuge yuge sambhavāmi. So first of all we have to know who is a sādhu. He specifically meant paritrāṇāya sādhūnām. Sādhūnām. Who is a sādhu? That sādhu is also described. Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ: (BG 9.30) "Those who are constantly engaged in my devotional service, they are sādhus." So Kṛṣṇa comes to save the sādhus. But Kṛṣṇa, being Absolute, either he saves the sādhus or kills the duṣkṛtas, it is the same. It is the same because when Kṛṣṇa kills somebody, he is also liberated immediately. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ. Dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya. And he comes to reestablish the principles of religion. What is that principle of religion? That is stated by Kṛṣṇa in the last paragraph of Bhagavad-gītā, not last, in the last chapter. Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Anything which... Dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya: "I come to reestablish the religious principles." But again He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya, parityajya that any religion which does not teach how to surrender to God, that is not religion. Therefore He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is only religion. Now tell me if I am right or wrong?

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Guest: To get rid of extra evil.

Prabhupāda: It was necessary. So nothing is avoided, but everything is utilized for proper purpose. Nothing is rejected. Nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. This is fact, that Kṛṣṇa never advocated that "Let there be stop of war." No. When there is necessity, absolute necessity, there may be war but for their good purpose, not by the whims of the politicians, no.

Prof. Kotovsky: Hm hm. That's right. So...

Prabhupāda: So if you can arrange some program, it is all right. There are... It is all right.

Śyāmasundara: Is there any possibility Swamiji could lecture at the institute itself in the next day or two?

Prof. Kotovsky: I don't think because, you know, now it is vacation time. (break)

Prabhupāda: "...Vedic Concept of Communism," "Knowledge by Authorized Tradition," and what was the other?

Śyāmasundara: "Scientific Values of..."

Prabhupāda: "Scientific Classless Society." This subject matter I wanted...

Prof. Kotovsky: Have you put into writing these three subjects somewhere?

Prabhupāda: I asked... Because I could not contact him, therefore I asked the ambassador. But unfortunately they said that "We did not receive any letter like that." So you can note down if you like.

Temple Press Conference -- August 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: It's Kṛṣṇa's mission to awaken man's original consciousness. At the present moment we have got designated consciousness. I am thinking "I am Indian," you are thinking Englishman, another is thinking American. But actually we are neither American nor Indian nor any that sort of designation. We are part and parcel of God. That is our real identification. If we come to that consciousness, then all the problems of the world will be solved. Now, due to our designated consciousness, we are thinking, "You are different from me, I am different from you," but if we come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then we shall know that we are one, the same spirit soul, maybe in different dress. That is the explanation given in Bhagavad-gītā. Just like we are all human beings, gentlemen, ladies. Maybe in different dress, but our aims and objects are the one and the same. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is purificatory process. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). To make people free from all designations. Tat-paratvena nirmalam. And in Kṛṣṇa consciousness they become purified. And when they're purified their activities by purified senses make them perfect. That is the ideal perfection of human life. And our process is also very simple. There is no need of becoming a great philosopher, scientist, or thoughtful man. Simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord we can immediately contact with the Lord, because the Lord as the person and His name and His quality are all absolute. So this is a great science. Unfortunately, there is no department of education for this science in any one of the so many universities. So we invite, therefore, all kinds of serious men for the welfare of the human society to understand this great movement and if possible take part in it and cooperate with us. That will solve all the problems of the world. That is the verdict of Bhagavad-gītā. Very authoritative book of knowledge. Most of you may know the name Bhagavad-gītā. So our movement is based on this Bhagavad-gītā, the authorized book of knowledge, and approved by big ācāryas in India, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Lord Caitanya. So you are all responsible representatives of papers. Try to understand this movement and ventilate it as far as possible for the good of the whole human society. That's all.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Dr. Weir: Or I say there are some things that have those dichotomies and others don't.

Prabhupāda: So actually the cause is one. But in different position, one side is light, one side is darkness. Therefore the cause cannot be different. The cause is one. But under different position it appears, "This is light." "This is darkness." So bad, which you consider bad, that is also caused by the Supreme Cause. In the Supreme there is no good or bad. Everything is absolute. Just like the sun is always light, but, in relationship with sun, the planet, one side is dark, one side is light. So black means that is also caused by the light, absence of light, that is black, dark.

Dr. Weir: With respect, it's not caused by the light. It's the absence of light.

Prabhupāda: Absence, that I'm saying. It is also indirectly, the cause is the light.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Śyāmasundara: But by verbalizing this philosophy of the Absolute, it trains the student in accepting the inexperience, that which is only experienced, by leading them to that point. But certainly we have to have some verbal confirmation of this truth.

Dr. Weir: Some people, oddly enough, don't need it. Some very simple people can have a very truly spiritual life without ever needing to verbalize it usually because they had, this is where I think it's perfectly correct, they have followed some father figure or mother figure and you know, absorbed...

Śyāmasundara: Just like my child.

Dr. Weir: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: She's to that point without having any rational knowledge.

Mensa Member: There's some (indistinct) simple people also (indistinct) people like Blake, for example, or Buddha (indistinct) simple person. It's not this sort of faith, only child-like faith (indistinct) simple people.

Dr. Weir: It's is easier for them though. It's easier for the simple person because he doesn't have all these mental, complicated doubts and, you know, arguments with himself.

Mensa Member: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: It's said that as one progresses more in spiritual life he becomes simpler and more innocent, but in the beginning he may have had to comprehend it on some verbal level in order to (indistinct)

Dr. Weir: I often used say to my students that I've got to remember that if anything in life to realize the difference between simple and complicated, which is objective, and easy and difficult, which is subjective. In other words sometimes a simple thing may be terribly difficult for a person to get hold of. Whereas complicated things he may find quite easy.

Prabhupāda: So your student has to follow your instruction. That means accepts authority.

Dr. Weir: But even so, even if he's working something out for himself, it has that same..., to some people it comes terribly easily.

Prabhupāda: No. No. To accept authority does not mean one should be blind. But the real source of knowledge comes from authority.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: In Geometry they say the point has no length nor breadth. But that is not fact. The point has length and breadth but you cannot measure it.

Dr. Weir: Ah, but the mathematician would say that that isn't the definition of a point is something that has no breadth or depth, but his purpose is working out his philosophy.

Mensa Member: (indistinct) he'd say something entirely different... absolute (indistinct) point.

Prabhupāda: But if you magnify the point you'll find there is...

Dr. Weir: But, coming back to...

Prabhupāda: It is a question of vision. With your present imperfect vision you do not see. When you take a magnifying glass you see, "Oh, there is length and breadth."

Dr. Weir: Ah, but that brings you, Swami, straight away into the problem of the infinite regress. It (indistinct) get smaller and smaller. But you know you might just as well stop at the beginning...

Śyāmasundara: ...I am the smallest of the small.

Prabhupāda: That is stated in the Veda. (Sanskrit verse) God is greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: There is no light, no heat without fire. That's a fact.

Mensa Member: Everybody (indistinct) I think.

Dr. Weir: Yeah, you see, that's the trouble. You can say really that there's no light or heat without an electrical movement that's as far as you need. You needn't go any farther.

Mensa Member: No, the point you were making is that the absolute source of everything is the sun. Was that...?

Prabhupāda: That is heat. That is fire.

Mensa Member: Even if it's not there now, it was there a thousand years ago.

Śyāmasundara: It's gone through about the different transformations.

Dr. Weir: Well, this is a form of scientific atavism. It's rather outmoded with the usual concepts of long ago. But one's rather got beyond that now.

Śyāmasundara: No, it then takes...

Prabhupāda: So we have to go down there now...

Mensa Member: (indistinct) great argument.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: By nature every Indian born is Kṛṣṇa conscious, but at the present moment they are trying to forget Him. That is the problem, going on.

Reporter: What part of Kṛṣṇa? Or just part of His life?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa, there is no part. Kṛṣṇa is absolute.

Reporter: He doesn't have form. For me, and for my child, Kṛṣṇa's here child life is very better.

Prabhupāda: For child, and for me or for you, simply try to understand that there is a person Kṛṣṇa. That's all.

Reporter: So, sir, are we rightly understanding that by "Kṛṣṇa" you mean some eternal principle, not as...

Prabhupāda: Not principle. A person, like you, like me.

Reporter: A person?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just so you are talking with me, I am talking with you, you are person, I am person, similarly Kṛṣṇa is a person.

Reporter: Person in the ordinary sense of the word, or...?

Prabhupāda: No. He is Supreme Person.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 12, 1972, Madras:

Prabhupāda: After getting good attachment, one gives up the inferior attachment.

Guest: Right. That will better right. The attachment should be to God.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa.

Guest: Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, es I will call Him.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Guest: Attachment should be to Govinda, not to an organization.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No. Govinda is absolute. Govinda and Govinda's organization the same. Govinda is absolute.

Guest: I don't want to discuss it, I told you. I'm not competent to discuss. I'm just telling you what I think.

Prabhupāda: No. I'm also answering this point. Just like Kṛṣṇa, His name, His form, His pastimes, His entourage, they are all the same. Otherwise, what is the benefit of chanting Kṛṣṇa's name? Suppose I am thirsty just now. If I simply chant the name of water, "water," I'll not be satisfied. Water is required, actual substance. But when you chant "Kṛṣṇa," if Kṛṣṇa name is different from Kṛṣṇa, then you... (end)

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bob: What about...

Prabhupāda: No, rascaldom is not nice. But Kṛṣṇa is absolute God, therefore rascaldom is also good. Kṛṣṇa is all-good. God is good.

Bob: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, when He becomes a rascal, that is also good. That is Kṛṣṇa. Rascaldom is not good, but when it is practiced by Kṛṣṇa, because He's absolute good, that rascaldom is also good. That one has to understand.

Bob: Are there some people who do not find Kṛṣṇa attractive?

Prabhupāda: It is not the..., no question of some people. Kṛṣṇa cannot be compared with some people. He's God.

Bob: No, do some people find Him not attractive?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bob: Do some people find Kṛṣṇa not attractive?

Prabhupāda: No. Anyone will find Him... Some people must be of some kind. You cite any kind of people, he'll be attracted. Who's not attracted? Just place a man, example, that "This man or this living entity is not attracted to Kṛṣṇa." Just find out.

Room Conversation with John Griesser (later initiated as Yadubara Dasa) -- March 10, 1972, Vrndavana:

Yadubara: Many other societies make compromises. Many other religious groups make compromises in their doctrine.

Prabhupāda: Yes, because they have no clear idea. They cannot push forward their concept. Just like the other day (indistinct) lady, she asked if Kṛṣṇa was a naughty boy. Yes, because He is God He must be naughty boy. Otherwise, wherefrom this idea of naughty boy comes if that quality is not in God? God is the origin of everything, creator of everything. So if He hasn't got this naughtiness in His person, then how this thing comes to be? That is the Vedānta version, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). The Supreme Absolute Truth is that from which or from whom everything emanates. So wherefrom this naughtiness comes if it is not in the person of God? Wherefrom this stealing propensity comes if it is not in God? But because He is absolute, His stealing is also as good as his blessing. Mākhan-cora. Kṛṣṇa is stealing butter, that is worshiped, mākhana, by the very name. Just like in another temple, Kṣīra-cora-gopīnātha. Gopīnātha is known as condensed milk thief, Kṣīra-cora. He is famous by the name cora, thief. But that cora and this cora, you cannot compare. He is famous as cora, or thief, but thousands of people go every day to worship that cora, that thief. And in the material, if one is known as thief, then thousands of people will beat him with shoes. (laughter) That is the difference. If you say, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa was a thief, then I can become a thief," then your will be beating of shoes on your head, and Kṛṣṇa will be eternally worshiped because He is thief. That is the difference. That is Absolute. He will be worshiped as thief, and He will be worshiped as very honest. That is Absolute. (aside:) No, no, this (indistinct) is not good. I will take little fruit.

Kṛṣṇa is a woman-hunter. That is the highest pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, rāsa-līlā. But here if a man becomes woman-hunter, he will be most abominable person. That is the mistake of the people: they consider Kṛṣṇa as ordinary man. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā (BG 9.11). They are rascals, fools, mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam. This sense has to be learned-Kṛṣṇa, how He is Absolute in all circumstance. Kṛṣṇa is teaching, "Just go and tell little lie to Droṇācārya." People will be surprised, how God is teaching somebody that "You go and tell this lie"? So they become bewildered. So one has to understand actually what is Kṛṣṇa's position in all circumstances. That requires intelligence.

Room Conversation with John Griesser (later initiated as Yadubara Dasa) -- March 10, 1972, Vrndavana:

Yadubara: But if somebody is stepping on you, then you should take action to remove those people.

Prabhupāda: Yes, our position is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, not for personal self. Ordinary world activities. Serving Kṛṣṇa and the result of such service is the same. In the material world, doing something and result of the doing is different. Our means and end is the same. Just like Kṛṣṇa advises Yudhiṣṭhira to speak lie to Droṇācārya. It is a means. The means is also Kṛṣṇa, and the end is also Kṛṣṇa. That is Absolute. Absolute... We must have clear conception of what is the Absolute. In any circumstances, the quality of the Absolute remains the same. What was the question in Surat?

Devotee: Whether the British should have been forcibly removed from India.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is ordinary duty. If you encroach upon my freedom, I have the right to kill you. That is recommended. That is clearly stated in the śāstras. If anyone sets fire in another's house, if anyone kidnaps his wife, if anyone takes his money—so many list—he is to be killed. There is no question. He can be killed immediately. That action-reaction is going on in the material world, that is a different thing. That is karma-bandha. But in devotion, there is no karma-bandha. As Kṛṣṇa is free from all reaction, similarly Kṛṣṇa's devotee who wants to satisfy Kṛṣṇa only, he is also free from all reaction.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: Nobody knows that God can be person, there can be dealings like this, there are dealings actually, and they are described. That is wonderful.

Śyāmasundara: They don't know that life can be so joyful and endlessly...

Prabhupāda: That I wrote in my poetry. "The Absolute is sentient thou hast proved." That was striking to me. Not impersonal, "sentient thou hast proved, impersonal calamity thou hast moved." "Absolute is sentient thou hast proved." That was my acceptance. So even the many judges came in Allahabad, do you remember?

Śyāmasundara: Yes. In Madras?

Prabhupāda: No, Allahabad during Kumbha-melā. They said, "Swamiji, God is person, you are the first man speaking." Why first man? It is already there. They cannot believe that God is person.

Śyāmasundara: As long as there is imperson, there is doubt, there is unclear, unclear.

Prabhupāda: Unclear.

Interview with the New York Times -- September 2, 1972, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That is because their purpose is not strong. That is due to māyā, forgetfulness. Just like darkness and light; if your light is strong, there is no darkness. But if you have no light, or if your light is not very strong, there is darkness. This is the principle: If you want to drive away darkness, you must bring light. That is the only medicine. You don't have to make a separate endeavor to drive away darkness. As soon as you bring light, darkness will go. The motto of our magazine Back To Godhead is: "Godhead is light, nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience." This is also the Vedic

injunction: Don't remain in darkness; come to the light. How is this possible? When I flew to London from Los Angeles, there was no darkness, for we did not allow the sun to set, you remain always in light. This means that if you don't forget Kṛṣṇa, your life will be successful. If you aim your plane westward and don't stop, you will remain in sunlight all the time. Similarly, if you remain in Kṛṣṇa consciousness by the simple method of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, you will never see the darkness. This is because Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name are absolute; Kṛṣṇa is not different from His name. Kṛṣṇa is light, and if we associate with the name of Kṛṣṇa, we remain in light. Remaining in light is a very simple method; therefore you see all these boys with their beads chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. In this way māyā cannot touch them. No intoxication, no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling. How can these boys, who have been trained to practice these four items from the beginning of their lives, give them all up? Everything is possible, provided we make the choice. Therefore according to Vedic civilization in the beginning of life you become a brahmacārī. Then you are allowed to marry and become a householder, and after a number of years you remain a husband but abandon sexuality, and that is called vānaprastha.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:

Prabhupāda: So Lord Kṛṣṇa's instruction is there. That is Lord Kṛṣṇa. There is no difference between Lord Kṛṣṇa and His instruction. He is absolute. Just like these boys. They are serving Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa is not present. Lord Kṛṣṇa is present but you do not know how He is present. Lord Kṛṣṇa is present by His name, Hare Kṛṣṇa. This Kṛṣṇa and the person Kṛṣṇa is not different. That you do not know. You are thinking Kṛṣṇa is gone, but Kṛṣṇa is present by His instruction, by His name, by His form, by His quality, by His pastime, because He is absolute. Kṛṣṇa is never absent. Simply we have to see, we have to make our eyes to see Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is always present. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Those who are saintly person, they are seeing twenty-four hours, every minute, Kṛṣṇa. Hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. How? Premāñjana-cchurita. When there is love of Kṛṣṇa. Just like ordinarily, if you love somebody, you will find him everywhere. So you have to develop your love for Kṛṣṇa; then Kṛṣṇa will be seen. Svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Just like sun. You cannot see sun at night, but when sun becomes revealed before you you can see sun and yourself and the whole world. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa will reveal, being pleased with your service and love, you will see Kṛṣṇa, you will see yourself, you will see the whole world. So simply you have to... Just like one man is suffering from cataract. So by surgical operation make the eyes free from the cataract disease—he will see everything. Similarly, the cataract of your present eyes, material eyes, can be, I mean to say, relieved by Kṛṣṇa prema. Then you will see Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommended, premā pum-artho mahān. If anything has to be achieved within this world, that is Kṛṣṇa prema. That we should engage our life, how to achieve Kṛṣṇa prema. But we are not interested in Kṛṣṇa prema. So that is illusion. Human life is meant for achieving that stage, Kṛṣṇa prema, love of Kṛṣṇa. Then life is successful.

Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: We are chanting always the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. These have got special significance because Kṛṣṇa is absolute. There is no difference between Him and His name. Here, just like this milk substance and the milk name is different. If I want to take milk, simply if I go on chanting "milk" and "milk," that will not satisfy. I must have the substance milk. But in the spiritual world the Absolute has no differentiation between His name, ...between His name, between His quality, form, entourage. They are the same. So this chanting of holy name means that directly associating with Kṛṣṇa. Directly associating with Kṛṣṇa.

Ambassador: It's a constant reminder to yourselves of the...

Prabhupāda: ...of my relationship with Kṛṣṇa.

Ambassador: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is it.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Devotee: "Unless one understands these bare facts it is not possible to achieve peace in the world, either individually or collectively. This is the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Predominator and all living entities, including the great demigods, are His subordinates. One can attain perfect peace only in complete Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In the Fifth Chapter is the practical explanation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, generally known as karma-yoga. The question of mental speculation as to how karma-yoga can bring liberation is answered herewith. To work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is to work with the complete knowledge that the Lord is the predominator. Such work is not different from transcendental knowledge. Direct Kṛṣṇa consciousness is bhakti-yoga. and jñāna-yoga is the path leading to bhakti-yoga. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means to work in full knowledge of one's relationship with the Supreme Absolute and the perfection of this consciousness is full knowledge of Kṛṣṇa or Supreme Personality of Godhead. A pure soul is the eternal servant of God as His fragmental part and parcel. He comes into contact with māyā, illusion, due to the desire to lord it over māyā. And that is the cause of his many sufferings. As long as he is in contact with matter he has to execute work in terms of material necessities. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, however, brings one into spiritual life even while he is in the jurisdiction of matter, for it is an arousing of spiritual existence by practice in the material world. The more one is advanced, the more he is free from the clutches of matter. The Lord is not partial toward anyone. Everything depends on ones practical performance of duties in an effort to control the senses and conquer the influence of desire and anger. And attaining Kṛṣṇa consciousness by controlling the above mentioned passions, one remains factually in the transcendental stage of brahma-nirvāṇa. The eight-fold yoga mysticism is automatically practiced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness because the ultimate purpose is served. There's a gradual process of elevation in the practice of yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi. But these only preface perfection by devotional service which alone can award peace to the human being. It is the highest perfection of life."

Prabhupāda: Therefore in another place, it is stated, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19), "After many, many births, when actually becomes wise, jñānavān māṁ prapadyate, he surrenders unto Me." That is the perfection of knowledge. So this is... The Bhagavad-gītā is the only source of scientific knowledge of God and our relationship with God. I am very glad that you are already very serious about understanding Bhagavad-gītā. But I request you only that try to... and understand Bhagavad-gītā without any, our man-made interpretation. That will be my request.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No.

Prabhupāda: No. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). He is so complete that one minus one equal to one. That is Absolute. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is expanding Himself by so many energies, but Kṛṣṇa is the same. There is no loss in His energy. Even in a human being or animal, he produces so many children. Just like hog—he produces at least one dozen children every year, but the hog is the same. If a hog can have so much power... And formerly one man used to produce hundreds of children. Wherefrom the potency comes? If a man is giving birth to hundreds of children, but still, he is the same man, wherefrom the potency comes? Why man? Even the fish, thousands of eggs they produce, and thousands of fishes are again produced. Wherefrom the potency comes?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: From the supreme controller.

Prabhupāda: Not supreme... He has got. From the supreme control..., yes, but directly we see that He has got so much potency. Everything is coming from Supreme; that's a fact. But you can see hundreds and thousands of children produced by one single living entity. The snakes, they produce hundreds and thousands of children at a time. Fortunately, they eat their own children. Otherwise, the whole world would have been full of snakes only.

Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Maybe. I do not know. But Nelson, Lord Nelson, was famous man, soldier.

Śyāmasundara: Now the pigeons are sitting on his head.

David Wynne: I have just come from Morocco. I've been with the King of Morocco, who is... It's very strange because he is an absolute ruler, and when an ordinary man is an absolute ruler, it's rather dangerous.

Prabhupāda: No. If the man is really Kṛṣṇa's representative, then it is all right.

David Wynne: Yeah.

Śyāmasundara: Is he a pious man?

David Wynne: Yes, he prays five times a day. He's a Moslem.

Prabhupāda: That king should be a representative of God. That is ideal king. But if he thinks that "This kingdom is my property, and let me enjoy for my sense enjoyment," then it is all gone. If he thinks himself as representative of God... Just like we think. Therefore we are after our disciples: "Do this, do that, do that, do that." We want to see that my disciples also become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Similarly, it is the king's duty to see that every citizen becomes God conscious. Then he is representative of God. That is the first duty. The division must be there, and the, it is the duty of the king to see that everyone is discharging according to his responsibility. That is king's duty. A brāhmaṇa is acting exactly like brāhmaṇa. The kṣatriya is acting exactly like kṣatriya.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Mr. Wadell: Oh, I see. You mean just as you distinguish from white, black because it is different...

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is relative world.

Mr. Wadell: I agree, but I am using this in, as an example, not as an absolute description. I think my view—may I explain this—of the whole of which I am, as I say, I think, an imperfect part, a part which is trying to learn something which I am not even quite sure what it is that I am trying to learn...

Prabhupāda: No, no, this is... You are perfect gentleman, means that you say that "I am imperfect." That is nice. But our point is that from imperfect man, imperfect knowledge is received. We cannot expect perfect knowledge from imperfect man.

Mr. Wadell: No. But where does your perfect knowledge come from and how do you recognize it?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is very important point, where to get the perfect knowledge. That is wanted. That is intelligence. Therefore the Vedas says, gurum eva abhigacchet: "You go to a guru." "Guru" means heavy, who knows better than you, or who knows perfect. That is injunction.

Room Conversation With Three College Students -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: False?

Revatīnandana: It's seeing a photograph of your father.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now, but God is Absolute. God and God's photograph, there is no difference. God and God's name, there is no difference. Therefore God is Absolute. He is not relative. You can say, "The photograph is not my father," that because it is relative. But God is Absolute. God's name, God's form, God's pastimes—everything is God. That you have to understand, Absolute nature. Otherwise are these boys and so many thousands and thousands of devotees... They are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa, this name, is different from Kṛṣṇa, are they foolishly simply chanting Kṛṣṇa?

Student (2): I don't know but...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name is the same. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's photograph is the same. That you have to understand. Kṛṣṇa is Absolute.

Student (3): Do you mean Kṛṣṇa is Absolute, and Kṛṣṇa is everything?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Father Tanner: So it is the action, rather than the, no, the exterior rather than the interior.

Prabhupāda: No, interior... Well, of course, everyone has got interior tendency, but by practicing actually, exteriorally, that interior also is reformed. It is, by external behavior, the interior behavior also becomes fixed up. By practice. Therefore there is regular class so that he may be purified internally and externally. Sa bāhyābhyantara-śuciḥ. Yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bāhyābhyantara-śuciḥ. If you constantly remember the Supreme Lord, so you become automatically purified, internally and externally. Because the Lord is absolute, so if we chant the Lord's holy name, the name is also Lord. He has no difference between His name and Himself.

Father Tanner: Well, you see, we make a difference between the law and the spirit of the law, or the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. And we can say a man can keep the letter of the law without in any way keeping the spirit of the law.

Prabhupāda: No, that is materially difference. But spiritually...

Father Tanner: Spiritually, that is different.

Prabhupāda: No. Spiritually, the Lord and His name, the Lord and His form, the Lord and His quality, They are all identical.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Father Tanner: Yes. You can have the letter of the law...

Prabhupāda: No, I'm not speaking of law. I'm talking of Lord.

Father Tanner: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So Lord and Lord's name, They're the same, identical. Just like we are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. So this Kṛṣṇa name and the Kṛṣṇa person, identical. Because the Lord is absolute. In the material world, the world of duality, the name is not the substance. If you require water, simply by chanting "Water, water," your thirst will not be quenched. You require the substance water. But in the spiritual world, the Lord and His name, the same thing. If you chant the Lord's name, Kṛṣṇa, or any name of Lord, that is identical with the Lord. Therefore by chanting the holy name of the Lord, you are associating with the Lord. And as soon as you associate with the Lord, you become purified. Because Lord is all-pure. Just like if you associate with fire, you become warm. Similarly, if you constantly associate with the Lord, you remain purified. Therefore our principle is they are always chanting... Just like we are... I am chanting also. (Holds up beads) Or reading some book. Or talking with you about Kṛṣṇa. So we are always connected with Kṛṣṇa, or God. In all our activities... The whole house, you'll see, they are engaged in some sort of work which has connection with Kṛṣṇa. There is no other work. So nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. Anything attached with God, that is also godly.

Room Conversation with Malcolm -- July 18, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Crack. The long wick, you just set fire: (makes sound:) tille, tille, tille, tille, tille, and when it comes: tung! (laughter) It is like that. You just set up the fire and then one day he'll become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Śyāmasundara: So the knowledge is absolute, it works with anyone.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Even if he does not complete, whatever he has done, that is complete. Because it is spiritual, it is not material. In material world suppose if you want to do something, you have to make the background. And while doing the background if you could not make further progress, everything is finished. But spiritual work is not like that. From the very beginning, whatever you are doing, that is asset. Nothing is lost. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. Even a little done in spiritual consciousness, that can save you from the greatest danger. (pause) Hare Kṛṣṇa. So you are going?

Indian guest: It'll take me about two hours to reach there.

Prabhupāda: I see, I see.

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Reporter: Yeah. So jñānīs are third class.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Jñānīs are...

Reporter: Why?

Prabhupāda: Because they simply approach the impersonal manifestation of the Absolute.

Reporter: I see. They're intellectual.

Prabhupāda: Brahman. Brahman. Brahman realization.

Reporter: Ah.

Prabhupāda: Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). They get relief from material conception of life so much. But that is not full understanding of the Absolute Truth. Therefore they're third class, or in the third grade. The second grade, yogis. They realize Paramātmā, Viṣṇu, within the heart. But the first class are the bhaktas. They talk, personally, just like Arjuna is talking. Arjuna is directly talking with Kṛṣṇa. This is the result of bhakti.

Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:

Haṁsadūta: Well, whoever they may be, they've gone there with some interest about communism. Otherwise, they would not go there. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness... Actually, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is perfect communism, Prabhupāda always explained, because communism, so-called communism, they give advantage only to the human being, but not to the animals or the other living beings. But Kṛṣṇa consciousness is pure, genuine, absolute communism because we recognize that the Supreme... Everyone should work for Kṛṣṇa. Everything should be utilized for Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa is the supreme head of state, and everything is utilized for His purpose, His service. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, "Whatever you do as work, whatever you eat, whatever you give away, you do it for Me." The same philosophy... Communist philosophy is "Everyone works for the state; the state will distribute." Right? But it's imperfect. But here is the perfect thing. Kṛṣṇa, He is the supreme creator, He's the proprietor. Therefore everything must be used for His pleasure. Then it becomes perfect communism.

Prabhupāda: Instead of making the state center, make God center.

Popworth: Do you think that the Christian monasteries practiced this in the past, or perhaps even today?

Haṁsadūta: Well, today, no one is practicing it. Otherwise why people are leaving the church? No one is in the monastery, no one is in the church. They are abandoning it. Because there is no center. As soon as there is a center, it will carry weight. Just like a wheel. If there's a hub, if there's a hub, that it will carry weight.

Popworth: I have not abandoned the church. I have embraced it.

Haṁsadūta: Anyway, our point is... We're speaking in general. In general, because the center, factually the center, God, is missing, somehow or other, He's missing, therefore people are also giving it up. They can't take it. Because it's not practical. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is practical. It's not a sentiment or a dry philosophy. It's a practical philosophy of life, absolute philosophy of life, how to do everything without any pollution, without any contamination. Just like we are experiencing by our so-called advancement that we have created so many modern facilities for comfort, but the result is, alongside, simultaneously, there's an equal disadvantage. Just like we create a motor car. But we create air pollution. Or you create a highway. But you have to create snowplow to clear the highway. You have to create police. You have to create so many other things.

Prabhupāda: And there is list of accidents, injuries.

Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:

Schumacher: It's a very long question, isn't it. I mean...

Prabhupāda: No, it is a simple question. Killing, do you think killing is very good business? Then why it is forbidden, "Thou shall not kill."

Schumacher: No, but sometimes protection is necessary.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. Generally, you should not kill. But when there is absolute necessity, that is another thing. But generally, this killing process you cannot support, and at the same time, you want to make the society purified. You commit sinful activities; at the same time, you want to purify. How it is possible?

Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Cardinal Danielou: Yes. Yes. But it is not the majority of the young men and this revolutionary spirit is amongst many youths, some research, research of the Absolute. Some young men are communist and Marxist, surely. But many youths, today have a spirit of research factually. In, insatisfied with actual religious forms, but receives any religious experience, a spiritual experience...

Prabhupāda: That is the latest thing. They are now disgusted with these religious rituals without philosophy.

Yogeśvara: (translates)

Cardinal Danielou: Oui, oui, it is so, it is so. They have accepted some formalism, ritualism. They do not like this. But receives a personal and internal experience.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Cardinal Danielou: But you have a great interest in France amongst (about) the yoga, monk, Indian method of prayer, a great interest. And we, we think that the method of prayer are the same in the various religions. We have in Christian faith method of meditation of interior, interiorite, of silence.

Bhagavān: What is the, what is the program that Christianity has for giving people in general this experience that they're missing?

Yogeśvara: (translates)

Cardinal Danielou: Oui. Bien. Cest, nous avons... We have today many community of prayers where young men go together and in the monastery or in the... N'est ce pas? And pray together with alternative of silence and of lectures, of some text of the Bible and of the gospel, you know. Because we, we think that the life of Jesus is the model or the shape, and we like that Jesus is the manifestation of God. He is the way, the way. Because it is necessary to find God, who is hidden, to have a way, to have a way. And for ourself, Jesus is the way to go to the hidden God. You know, you know. The imitation of Jesus is, for a Christian, the ideal, imitation of his poverty, of his goodness, of his love of God.

Yogeśvara: He says the ideal of Christianity is to imitate these various qualities of Lord Jesus Christ.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with German and Hamsaduta dasa -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Haṁsadūta: Topmost Yoga.

Guest: That is the... Yeah, the source of the Absolute. That is the best. But I read it twenty times, always with, in every day I find new things.

Prabhupāda: That is...

Guest: When I read other book, I read it one times, even not one time. But these books, I must read twenty times, and more even. It is, sometimes, it is, if I never read this book, it is so astonishing...

Prabhupāda: Get new light.

Guest: I would say another thing what I was. When I met the knowledge of Omkarananda, yes, I went back quite a long, five kilometers, a farm, I retired in a farm. And then I made this meditation. And then I read the book and I read fifty pages in five minutes without reading that. And then when that was finished, I was in other worlds. I could speak about high, other fields, which never I had seen, but when, when I came back I didn't know what it was what I saw. In other words, it was not dream. Absolutely awake. Other worlds, and then other sciences, higher, and higher and higher. I don't know what it was, but it is no of signification, I believe.

Haṁsadūta: It was not significant he says. He doesn't think, even though he experienced it, he doesn't think it's significant.

Guest: (German) I would ask if in the Christian conscience if it gives anything which resembles to this, which is of some worth. Because in your books sometimes you speak of Jesus Christ. He also said: "What have we to do? We have to love God with all our heart and to serve Him." If it gives any movement in your knowledge in Western Europe or in the world in the Christian side one can read what is what.

Haṁsadūta: He wants to know if Christian, Christian teachings also bring the same consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Yes. One has to become...

Guest: (German)

Prabhupāda: ...purified.

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1973, Paris:

Bhagavān: Just like Kṛṣṇa showed Arjuna His universal form. So He established that He was the origin of everything, and He had no cause.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Cause of all causes. Sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1). Everything has some cause, but when you finally come to a thing who has no cause, then He's God.

Bhagavān: The rascals...

Prabhupāda: Vedānta-sūtra: janmādyasya yataḥ. The origin of everything. But He's not originated from something else. And that is God. Therefore He's called Absolute. Everything here is relative. And God is Absolute. That is the difference between Absolute and relative.

Bhagavān: They are like children. They want to see that... They are like children. They want to see that original cause immediately. And if they do not see the original cause immediately, they say there is no original cause.

Prabhupāda: That is childish. That is childish.

Yogeśvara: So let's say someone proposes that God has created everyone equal...

Prabhupāda: Hmmm?

Yogeśvara: God has created everyone equal. God has created all His children as equal spiritual beings. So why is it that, that one person is fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, and I have no interest in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That means we're not equal, there's some flaw in God's creation.

Prabhupāda: No, that is your flaw. That is your flaw. God says that: "You simply surrender unto Me." But does it mean that everyone is surrendering to God?

Yogeśvara: No. Then they're not equal.

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1973, Paris:

Guru-gaurāṅga: So real independence means to surrender then.

Prabhupāda: Yes. To authority. Because you have to surrender. If you don't surrender to God, then you have to surrender to māyā. Just like you don't surrender to government, then you have to surrender to the superintendent of jail. That's all. If you misuse your independence, you'll not be happy. This is the fact. But you have got the independence. You can misuse it. That is your prerogative. That is your freedom. Freedom means you must have independence. But because you are not absolutely independent, so you suffer. The Absolute Independent is God, Kṛṣṇa. Just like government. The government orders: let this crowd be shot. Let there be bullet shot. Hundreds of men die. But government is not responsible for such death. But if you kill one man, you'll be responsible. So your independence is subordinate independence. Similarly, all living entities, they have been given independence by God, but his independence is subordinate to the independence of God. This is our position, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109).

Yogeśvara: There are so many young people who, when we try to preach to them Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we explain that it means to accept the position of service, service position, they reject it because they have no experience of service that is satisfying.

Prabhupāda: Hm? They have rejected so many things. Why not your proposal? Just like the hippies. They have rejected so many things. Why shall he accept your proposal? Why you think that your proposal is so nice, he'll accept immediately?

Yogeśvara: That doesn't mean we don't preach to them.

Room Conversation with Rosicrucians -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: So what is the ideal of that perfection of consciousness?

Yogeśvara: He says it is love.

Prabhupāda: Love, that's nice. Very good. So the supreme consciousness and our individual consciousness, when they are in exchange of love, that is perfection. Is that...?

Yogeśvara: (break) ...that this ultimate consciousness is one of union with the Absolute, that it is one of light, of samādhi, of total love. This is the highest.

Prabhupāda: So love, love. When we speak of love, there must be two persons. (Yogeśvara translates) So what is their philosophy?

Yogeśvara: The love of which they are speaking is a love that binds everything together, that bathes everything in light and love.

Prabhupāda: So there is no action? No action?

Yogeśvara: No, he says there is action.

Prabhupāda: What are those activities?

Yogeśvara: Giving.

Room Conversation with Rosicrucians -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Yogeśvara: (break) He says it is an entering into something that is alive and real.

Prabhupāda: Nirvāṇa, this word is Sanskrit word. Nirvāṇa means finish. (break)

Yogeśvara: For them the word nirvāṇa means an end but an end to this material existence and an entrance into the silence of the Absolute, onto a level that is real, whereas this one is false. This one is rejected.

Prabhupāda: Why silence?

Yogeśvara: He says the term "entering into silence" is a mystic term that means...

Prabhupāda: He cannot explain. (break)

Yogeśvara: ...it is undescribable because it's something that's arrived at inside through meditation. You can't really describe it in words?

Prabhupāda: Why? You are describing so many thing in words and the ultimate goal you cannot describe.

Yogeśvara: He says that many great masters like you from the East tend to smile at their explanations, but he...

Guru-gaurāṅga: They tend to smile when this question is asked, "Who am I?" So what can I say compared to these masters?

Prabhupāda: That means his knowledge is not perfect.

Room Conversation with British Man -- August 31, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So this Kalki, this incarnation of Kṛṣṇa which comes at the end of this age, He's described, He will come and ride on a white horse all over the world, and He will...,

Prabhupāda: Kill.

Haṁsadūta: Kill. Because at that time the people will be so degraded, they will not be able to accept any instructions. So the only mercy He can bestow on them is just to finish the whole business. And by that killing in the presence of the Lord they also achieve salvation. This is the mercy of God. Absolute.

Guest (1): Yes. That, in some way, to me at this moment, it seems to be an echo of the Old Testament prophetic promises of the end of the last age and also the revelation in the New Testament. Can this be the son of God revealing Himself to the East and the West in different forms but the same personality? I'm presuming that...

Haṁsadūta: God is meant for everybody. Doesn't matter East or West. Just like Kṛṣṇa appeared in India, but we are not Indians. We are all Americans and Europeans, so... Just like the sun. The sun may appear over London or England, but it's not English sun. Everyone's sun. Similarly, when God appears or God's representative appears, it's meant for everyone.

Guest (1): Yes. So, forgive me if I talk across you, please, won't you.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, yes.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, Dr. Suneson -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: Prakṣepātmikā.

Pradyumna: "...śakti, the power to throw the living entity in the ocean of material existence, and āvaraṇātmikā-śakti, the power to cover the knowledge of the living entity. The function of the āvaraṇātmikā-śakti is explained the Bhagavad-gītā by the word: māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. Why the daivī-māyā, or illusory energy of Kṛṣṇa takes away the knowledge of the Māyāvādī philosophers is also explained in Bhagavad-gītā by the use of the words āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ, which refer to a person who does not agree to the existence of the Lord. The Māyāvādīs, who are not in agreement with the existence of the Lord, can be classed in two groups, exemplified by the impersonalists Śaṅkarites of Vārāṇasī and the Buddhists of Saranātha. Both of them are Māyāvādīs, and Kṛṣṇa takes away their knowledge due to their atheistic philosophies. Neither of them agree to accept the existence of a personal God. The Buddhist philosophers clearly deny, clearly deny both the soul and God, and although the Śaṅkarites do not openly deny God, they say that the Absolute is nirākāra, or formless. Thus both of them are aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ (SB 10.2.32), or imperfect and unclean in their knowledge and intelligence."

Prabhupāda: What do you think?

Professor: That's... Of course, in the introduction to Śaṅkara's commentary to Bhagavad-gītā, he does, it seems, if it is for him, which is that...

Prabhupāda: He accepts Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Professor: Yes, Kṛṣṇa, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, Dr. Suneson -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: Purport.

Pradyumna: "In the Brahma-saṁhitā we have information of many, many incarnations of the Lord. It is stated there:

advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam

ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca

vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Bs. 5.33)

'I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead Govinda, or Kṛṣṇa, who is the original person, absolute, infallible, without beginning...' "

Prabhupāda: Infallible. Infallible. This word is used. Acyuta. Hm.

Pradyumna: "...without beginning, although expanded into unlimited forms, still, the same original, the oldest and the person always appearing as a fresh youth... (Pradyumna goes on reading the purport until:) ...in the following verse." Then the next verse.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Pradyumna: Then the next verse.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Pradyumna:

ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā

bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san

prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya

sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā

(BG 4.6)

Prabhupāda: That's all. So this Bhagavad-gītā, at least, should be introduced in all colleges. And Professor Dimock has recommended.

Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: ...spiritual process.

Reporter (3): ...continuous flow?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is a spiritual process because Kṛṣṇa and the name Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa the person and Kṛṣṇa the name, They are nondifferent, Absolute. That is the God's special power. Just like in the material world, if you want water, simply by chanting the name "water," you'll not be benefited.

Reporter (3): No.

Prabhupāda: But in the spiritual world, the name, "water," and the substance water, is the same. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name is the same. So if you chant Kṛṣṇa, you immediately directly contact with Kṛṣṇa.

Reporter (3): What do you see as being the future of the world? What will happen? Will there be an end?

Prabhupāda: Future, future of the world, because the people are trained up in the bodily consciousness of life, "I am this body." So so long people will remain in bodily consciousness of life, that is animal life. That is not human life. So they have to be educated to spiritual consciousness of life, that "I am not this body, I am spirit soul." Then they'll be benefited. Otherwise, they'll degrade more and more.

Morning Walk -- December 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Hṛdayānanda: Where is...?

Yaśomatīnandana: Prabhupāda, actually this knowledge is so absolute, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyam. You can actually experience...

Prabhupāda: Yeah.

Yaśomatīnandana: ...just by taking bhakti you can see that your purification comes...

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Yaśomatīnandana: ...and actually intelligence comes from Kṛṣṇa. So if actually one is sincere, then Kṛṣṇa will give him intelligence that "Yes, actually there is a soul, and actually I'm the Supersoul."

Karandhara: That intelligence is defective

Prabhupāda: No, no, my senses are defective. But the source from which I know, that is not defective. I cannot experimentally know who is my father. But the source from whom I understand, that is perfection.

Yaśomatīnandana: In other words they'll get confirmation within their heart. They'll be satisfied, that "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is God," if they are sincere.

Prabhupāda: Yeah. If they are sincere. That is the budha. Budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ (BG 10.8). Others, rascals cannot (indistinct). Mūḍha narādhama. They cannot.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Nature is controlled by whom?

Bali Mardana: Who is controlling the moon?

Prabhupāda: That is answered in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: (BG 9.10) "Nature is controlled by Me." Therefore He is absolute controller. But He is not controlled by anyone. Therefore He is absolute controller. Just like a, what is called? Magnetic stone?

Hṛdayānanda: Magnet?

Prabhupāda: Magnet, it attracts.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Iron filings.

Prabhupāda: Iron filings. But who has given this power to this magnetic stone? You cannot give.

Karandhara: They say, "It's just there by nature's arrangement."

Prabhupāda: That is answered: "Nature is controlled by God."

Karandhara: Well, they prefer to leave nature as nondescript. When they say or designate as "nature," they prefer to leave that nondescript, nonspecific.

Prabhupāda: Why? That means insufficient knowledge. They do not wish to describe it because your foolishness will be discovered.

Morning Walk -- December 8, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: Their conception.

Prabhupāda: No, he had no power to do that, neither you have the power. That is the difference between you and God.

Yaśomatīnandana: In other words, "If God is like me, then I'll accept him as God, but if he's not like me, then he is not God."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is... Means...

Karandhara: No, they say, "If God is absolute, then he has to be obvious to everyone." Just like the sun comes up. The sun is obvious to everyone whether they believe in it or not.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but who is in the room, closing the room, how he can see?

Prajāpati: If they're asleep.

Prabhupāda: If somebody's sleeping just like owl, he cannot see the sun. The sun is a fact, but the owl cannot see.

Karandhara: The owl can see if it looks at it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but... Therefore if you look, then you'll see.

Karandhara: Well, they think they are looking.

Prabhupāda: No, they are not looking, not in the process.

Morning Walk -- December 8, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So the difference is one is working on the illusory platform...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...and one is working on the absolute platform.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the difference. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. Therefore a little, if you act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it will never be lost and it will save you from the greatest danger. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. Kartum avyayam. Susukhaṁ kartum avyayam (BG 9.2). And whatever you have done, that is your permanent asset. It will never be lost. So nowadays the theologicians do not talk of God?

Prajāpati: Not so much, no.

Prabhupāda: That means they are failure.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are interested in politics now.

Prabhupāda: Just like nowadays they are not talking of going to the moon planet. There is no newspaper news.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have a bigger plan.

Prabhupāda: That is another bluff. Now the small plan they could not make successful. Now they are thinking of bigger plan. You see?

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: No one equal to or greater than.

Prabhupāda: No, that you cannot find here in this material world. Anyone has relative position. Everyone will find somebody is greater than him, somebody is lower than him. He's not absolute, nobody. A rough estimate of supremacy: if one man has got, is very rich, he's considered great. If he has got influence, if he has got bodily strength, bodily beauty, wisdom, or renunciation... These are the six items for calculating a man's greatness. Therefore when you speak, "God, the Supreme," He must possess all these things. That is the definition given by Parāśara Muni. The other day we were discussing. Somebody said, "This is all imagination." Why imagination? Who was telling?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Scientist.

Prabhupāda: Scientist! (laughs) So how, why it is imagination? Your idea of supremacy, you must define. How do you accept here in this material world a person as supreme? Why? Why you accept Nixon as supreme person within your state? What is the cause?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Because he has some power.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Eh?

Karandhara: He's elected.

Prabhupāda: No, no, he's elected, that is same. But his position is supreme. Why he's supreme? As government servant, he gets the highest salary, he has the, all the best facilities, amenities, and his order is final.

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: In some Western theological literature, Śrīla Prabhupāda, it refers to that "God is love." In what sense...

Prabhupāda: No, I have already explained. What is not God? That is already explained. Anything you bring, He is, God is there. Without God, nothing can exist. So why this or that? Anything, that is God. But He's absolute. His love and His enmity, that is the same thing. We distinguish, here in this material world, "This is love and this is animosity." But God's animosity and God's love—the same thing. That is acintya. Here in the relative world we cannot adjust how animosity and love can be the same, one and the same. That is acintya, inconceivable by us. But God's love... Just like God's love for the gopīs and God's enmity for Kaṁsa, they're reaching the same result. Both of them are going to the spiritual world. Just like Pūtanā and Mother Yaśodā. Pūtanā came to poison Kṛṣṇa, and Mother Yaśodā is always anxious to save Kṛṣṇa, naughty child. He may not be hurt. So two opposite things. But both of them got the same result. Kṛṣṇa thought that "I have sucked her breast, so she is My mother. She must go to the same destination as Yaśodā Mā." Just see. That is His enmity. And that is absolute. In our relative world, we can see so many differences in the dealings of God, but He is absolute, one. That is conception of God. Advaita. Advaita. Advaita means absolute. And... Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam (SB 1.2.11). Again advayam. You may conceive God as impersonal or localized Paramātmā or Bhagavān—the same thing. But due to our, I mean to say, meager knowledge, we are thinking, somebody's thinking that His personality is greater than impersonality and somebody's thinking impersonality's greater than personality. This is our conception. He's the same. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam (SB 1.2.11). Not different. Not different. But one who has reached to the conception of personality, he has got all the others. That is the difference. So you write. You are theologician. You write about God so that people may understand how our students are enlightened. Other so-called foolish theologicians may learn from you. You take the ideas and explain.

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: They will say that such talk may be of use in a religious sphere, but it has no use ultimately in terms of science.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere it is useful because in scientific world also, you follow leader, Sir Isaac Newton, Professor Einstein. Why do you follow? There must be a leader.

Karandhara: Well, they just use the leaders as springboards. They don't accept them as absolute authorities.

Prabhupāda: No, it may be springboard, but you have to take their help. Because it is springboard, you cannot neglect. What do you think?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you have to take help.

Prajāpati: They feel great accomplishment when they can disprove something that these leaders are proposing.

Prabhupāda: No, if the leader is rascal, then it is accepted. But a leader required, that's a fact. But if you select a wrong leader, then you are misguided. But leader is required. Just like to get birth, there must be a father.

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They want things by experimental knowledge, and when they fail it, they say it is nothing.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is voidism. First of all they try to enjoy. When they fail... The jackal in the orchard first of all tried to get the grapes, jumping, jumping, jumping. When he could not get, then he said, "Oh it is sour. Don't require..." (laughter) They will say, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: "This is all false. Let us go to Brahman." This is their philosophy. First of all they try as karmī, brmmmmmmm. (Prabhupāda makes loud car sound) (laughter) When all these brm brm brm, life after life, when he finds that there is nothing, "Oh, it is all false. Grapes are sour." Jackal jumping. There is need of God. You can write article.

Prajāpati: Need of God.

Prabhupāda: Yes, there is need, absolute need.

Prajāpati: And need to trust in God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Exactly like that. A child needs parents and absolute surrender to parents. That is natural.

Prajāpati: He needs parents to be born at all, he need parents that he can rely on.

Prabhupāda: Yes, so that he may grow. That Upendra's wife and child. The child is so restless, not for a single moment. And the mother has to take care, "No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no." She requires a mother to take care.

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: Well, there is a counter-law called buoyancy.

Prabhupāda: So anyway, there are so many laws. If the laws are fulfilled, then your so-called gravitation works. So who made the laws? That is the point. Under certain law, condition, it will not act, and under certain condition it will act. So who made the condition? That is the question. You cannot make finalize the laws of gravitation. It is also under condition. Who makes this condition? That is the point. (break) ...Lord Rāmacandra constructed the bridge with stone on the ocean, it began to float. So He is the condition-maker. He made the condition. He changed the condition, "Now these stones will float." That's all. Therefore God is supreme. (break) Law of gravitation did not work when Kṛṣṇa lifted the Govardhana Hill. (break) So that is nice. The scientific discoveries act under relative condition. That is not absolute, final. If such and such conditions are there, then the so-called scientific laws will act. Otherwise it will not act. (break) ...see. But you cannot see even so many things. Now you cannot see there, what is there. So what is that seeing power?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's limited.

Prabhupāda: Therefore everything is limited. Under condition you can see. So what is your seeing? Imperfect seeing. If the sun rises, then you can see. That also not correctly. So what is the value of your seeing. You say, "We want to see God." And what is the value of your seeing?

Karandhara: Well, they think they can make machines.

Prabhupāda: That is also imperfect.

Morning Walk -- December 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Anyway, close or open...

Devotee: Inner light.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Inner light, not outward light. Then he is not absolute. He is relative. He is relative. He is not absolute. So God is absolute. But you are relative. Therefore you are not God.

Hṛdayānanda: Kṛṣṇa illuminated the house of the gopīs.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa, he does not accept Kṛṣṇa. That is rejected. Now we are talking about him. If he is light, why does he use electric light? If he says, "The inner light," then you are relative. You see only inner side, not outside. Therefore you are relative. Therefore you are not God. God is absolute. Antar-bahiḥ. One has to see light inside and outside. That is real light. If the light is checked by some material condition, that is not absolute light. That is electric light. As soon as you come to the condition, then it is relative. It is not absolute. (break) A man can be changed from barking to chanting, but dog cannot be. (break) ...is so powerful that as soon as there is sunrise, immediately darkness gone. Similarly, if the absolute light is there, if there is need of electricity, what kind of light it is? Even the relative light is so powerful that immediately darkness gone. So you are not as powerful as the relative light. So what kind of light you are? This should be the argument. You are cheating. You are not light. You are darkness. Our, that slogan is "Where there is God, there is no darkness." "Kṛṣṇa is like the sun, and nescience is like darkness. Where there is Kṛṣṇa, there is no darkness." Don't waste time with these rascals. Go on with your own business. You sold Bhagavad-gītā. (laughs) That is our profit. That's all.

Morning Walk -- December 31, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So why don't you answer them, "Yes, you become a dog, but you become a dog of a good master." What is the use of becoming dog of another dog? Then what profit will be there? Is it not? We are... Actually every one of us is dog. And we are trying to satisfy so many masters. The masters are our senses. We are already dog, everyone, because everyone is servant of the senses, kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mātsarya. So everyone is dog. Now he has to remain a dog, but by becoming dog of these senses, he is not happy. Find out a good master, and become a dog. You become happy. This is our philosophy. And the best master is Kṛṣṇa. We are also trying to be dog, but not of another dog, but real master. That is our philosophy. What is the use of becoming a dog of another dog? That is not proper. Here the material world is that "I am dog, I have got a master, and the master has got another master. He has got another master, he has got another master." Nobody can say that "I am Absolute." Nobody can say. That is not possible. You must have a master. Therefore everyone is a dog. So why don't you find out the Absolute master, the biggest master? And that is God. "God is great." Capture Him, master. Then you will be happy. That is intelligence. When one comes to his senses, that "I have served so many masters. Neither the master has become happy, neither I have become happy." That is frustration. Everyone. The master is not happy. You serve any master. Ask him, "Are you satisfied?" And, "What you have done, that I will be satisfied? You have to do so many things." So he is not satisfied, and you are not satisfied. Then to become dog of this ordinary master will never give us satisfaction. Always frustration. Just become the dog of the supreme master. You will be happy. Supreme master is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Mahāprabhu. Prabhu means master. That Caitanya Mahāprabhu's name, Mahāprabhu, "the supreme master."

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 5, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: The Māyāvādīs, they not only misunderstand the nature of the Absolute, they misunderstand the function of the jīva.

Prabhupāda: Yes. When one misunderstands, he misunderstands everything. One who commits mistake, he can commit mistakes in so many ways. They want to merge into the Absolute. They think that there is no variety, to avoid this variety. Ah? Just like sometimes one is suffering from some disease, they commit suicide. He thinks, "I'm suffering. If I commit suicide, then everything will be stopped." But he does not know that by committing suicide he'll increase another set of varieties of miserable conditions of life. He'll become ghost. And becoming ghost, you cannot enjoy anything grossly. The subtle body will create disturbance. Therefore ghost creates disturbance. He hasn't got gross body to enjoy. They're ghostly haunted; therefore a male ghost haunts over woman, woman ghost haunts over man. You know that? It so happens. Ghostly haunted.

Morning Walk -- January 11, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: ...therefore they see that this, their conception of Kṛṣṇa, there is mother, there is father, there is friend—"So what is this? Here also we see the mother, father, friend. So how they become free?" They cannot understand. Their brain is so poor they cannot understand. Therefore they: "It is also māyā. To think of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme, having father, mother, friends, playing pastimes, this is also māyā." Therefore they are called Māyāvādīs. They cannot conceive that in the spiritual world exactly the same things there are, but the position is different. That is absolute, without any designation.

Candanācārya: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Candanācārya: Also this morning you said that we should try to only love Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Candanācārya: And nothing else.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Candanācārya: But if we love our godbrothers, is that also loving Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Because they are of, of Kṛṣṇa. What are your godbrothers? They are Kṛṣṇa's servant. So if you do not love your godbrothers, that means you reject your part of Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They cannot understand the Absolute. God and God's word are not different. Otherwise, why we are after Bhagavad-gītā? Because Bhagavad-gītā is the words of God. So as good as God.

Umāpati: Absolute?

Prabhupāda: Absolute, yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We also say that. We say that the beginning the sound vibration oṁ was there. Oṁ.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Śabdād anāvṛtti. In Vedānta-sūtra, śabdād anāvṛtti. Śabdāt. By vibration.

Prajāpati: But it goes on to say, "Then the word then came down to earth and dwelt with man as Jesus Christ." They say Lord Jesus Christ was the word incarnate.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Umāpati: Incarnate means flesh, having come down in flesh.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Prajāpati: From our Kṛṣṇa conscious standpoint, this means a person who is jagad-guru, who is fully living śāstra, and therefore non-different from the word of God?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Because he is following the words of God, therefore he is not different from the words of God. It is practical. Just like a lawyer is not different from the law. Therefore he is called lawyer.

Morning Walk -- January 23, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: They cannot.

Bali Mardana: It's not possible.

Prabhupāda: They cannot. It is not possible.

Bali Mardana: They have no Absolute.

Prabhupāda: No. They have no idea. Mental speculators, they are no good. (wind noise) Mental speculator means harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathena (SB 5.18.12), manorathena by the mental plane, airship, he's simply hovering. They have no standard.

Bali Mardana: So a devotee does not have to cogitate too much. Whatever satisfies Kṛṣṇa, that is best.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Kṛṣṇa is best. That's all. And whatever is done for Kṛṣṇa, that is best. That's all. We have got a standard; therefore we are satisfied. "Even in distressed condition, because Kṛṣṇa has given me distress, so-called distress, it is not distress. So this is all right." Because here, distress or happiness, they are simply mental concoction. Dvaite bhadra... I am in the material existence—that is my distress. That distress has to be removed, not this temporary distress or happiness. (japa)

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So, what is your philosophy?

Guest (1): My philosophy?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): The body is not the self. The self, or the ātmān, is the one absolute existence, but is has a delusive power whereby...

Prabhupāda: Who is that God? Delusive power?

Guest (1): God, or...

Devotee: God?

Guest (1): ...the māyā, the māyā of God makes, makes a man identify himself with his body, but it is, that's an illusion, and it's God's play that sometimes..., it's God's play that sometimes a man ignorantly identifies himself with the body, and through God's grace the bonds of ignorance are..., he is released from the bonds of ignorance through God's grace.

Prabhupāda: By God's grace, what happens?

Guest (1): One cannot... One achieves, one attains love for God, pure love. And, uh, by loving God, one, one, uh, one's..., one no longer identifies himself with his body.

Prabhupāda: So result of loving God, what it is?

Guest (1): Without loving God?

Prabhupāda: No.

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You said. You said purity of the soul. That means there must be the contradictory: impurity of soul. Then now we have to distinguish which is impure, which is pure.

Devotee: How can we distinguish?

Guest (1): In the absolute sense the soul is always pure, there is no impurity. But when man is in ignorance, as māyā... Śrī Kṛṣṇa's yogamāyā, His power of delusion, He can...., He makes you think, He makes you see impurity. You see suffering in the world.

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom the māyā comes?

Guest (1): From... I don't know, I can't answer that. It's, it's, it's God's nature, it's His līlā.

Guru dāsa: You stated that Kṛṣṇa makes us see impurity. Is this correct Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Guru dāsa: That Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa makes us see impurity. He mentioned...

Guest (1): When a man is in ignorance.

Guru dāsa: Well which is first?

Guest (1): Which is first? Which, ignorance or what?

Guru dāsa: Does Kṛṣṇa make us in ignorance?

Guest (1): Well, He creates the whole universe and everything in it.

Guru dāsa: Yes. Śrīla Prabhupāda maybe you can explain that.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Guru dāsa: Does Kṛṣṇa makes us ignorant or are we ignorant?

Prabhupāda: We are.

Morning Walk -- February 17, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Love is there.

Prabhupāda: Yes, love is there.

Dr. Patel: But there is more close love.

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. More developed. Yes. In the śānta-rasa, simply this appreciation of the greatness of the Absolute. That is śānta-rasa.

Dr. Patel: Once upon a time the scientists of the world had considered this religion, belief in God to be bosh. Now the scientists have started thinking, and thinking very rightly that there is nothing else but God as you have said. That is the greatest thing that they are doing today.

Prabhupāda: Yes, so that I am explaining. The sound is there. God consciousness is there, sound as the God consciousness, but in different phases the development is there differently. That is the principle. Everyone has got God consciousness. There is no doubt about it.

Dr. Patel: We come to you, sir, to serve your disciples in the best way we can do because to serve a disciple is to serve God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then, that means it is being developed. That śānta-rasa is being developed to dāsya-rasa.

Dr. Patel: But sometimes disciples don't like our service.

Prabhupāda: They are children. They are children. You see, they are coming from foreign countries. They are being trained up. There may be some deficiencies, but this is the scientific progress. When from śānta-rasa, one develops dāsya-rasa, wants to give some service, there is further development. Then further service, not as ordinary service, but as intimate friend. Then, as paternal, then conjugal. These are the different developments. The principle is there, śānta-rasa, but they are manifested in different stages of development.

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

Bhagavān: So there's so much to do in Kṛṣṇa's service, everyone can be engaged in some...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that everyone should know... Suppose one is engaged in cooking prasādam. You should see that nice prasādam is served to the worker, quickly, so they can take prasādam, be healthy and go on preaching. So he is helping preaching by cooking. Just like you are working and the brain is also working, "Go this side, go that side, the car is coming." Brain says, the... "Leg, come this side." Everyone is working. The leg is working, the brain is working, the hand is working, the tongue is working. But the business of the tongue and business of the leg is different. The aim being, the central point being Kṛṣṇa, to help, to serve Him, then everything is work, absolute. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they cannot understand it. They think that "Kṛṣṇa is working like ordinary man. How He can become God? It is māyā. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is also māyā." Therefore we called them Māyāvādī.

Bhagavān: A leader must be very expert so that people would be happy in their engagement.

Prabhupāda: Everyone should be expert. The leaders must be expert and the worker must be expert so that they may follow the instruction of the leader. If the leader says something and the workers, "Hm, I shall consider it, later on," then how the leader will execute his leadership? Both of them should be cooperating and know that "We are all working for Kṛṣṇa." Somebody was coming back and going... Coming this side or... Our men? No.

Devotees: No. (break)

Ātreya Ṛṣi: ...woman.

Prabhupāda: Ah?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: There are so many... So few compared to other religions, but we make so big propaganda always...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That you have to explain.

Guest: Yes.

Prabhupāda: We say...

Guest: The Absolute.

Prabhupāda: We say approaching Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute. We have got Kṛṣṇa's form, we have Kṛṣṇa's name, we have personal address, His pastime. Just like you know me, I know you, means I have got form, you have got form, I know your qualities, you know my qualities; therefore we know each other. But if the approach is void, then how the approach is the same? There must be something tangible; then the approach is the same.

Guest: Well, I know your philosophy, cause I was very intimately involved with it, but I still believe that if, uh, your uh, you may have a different style, and you may call it Kṛṣṇa consciousness or you may call it nirvāṇa, but I think that ultimately it's, uh...

Prabhupāda: I can, I can explain Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but you cannot explain nirvāṇa. That is the difficulty. I can explain my position but you cannot explain your position.

Morning Walk -- March 31, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But they... Now it is clear. That antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ. That is intelligence, that "If I have to ask something, and it is to be ended, why shall I be interested with such thing?" So devān deva-yājo yānti...

Mr. Sar: Mad-bhakta yānti mām api.

Prabhupāda: Mām api. So why not go to Kṛṣṇa? Why to these... (break) The Māyāvādīs, they think that Kṛṣṇa has got His māyā body. His body's māyā. Because the origin, Absolute, is impersonal, so when the Absolute comes in form, He accepts the material elements just like we do. We do. So they are abuddhayaḥ. Their intelligence is abu...

Mr. Sar: Avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ (BG 7.24).

Prabhupāda: Vyaktim āpannaṁ.

Dr. Patel: They consider body of Kṛṣṇa as Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Avyaktam, avyaktam, the Absolute Truth is avyaktam. And when Absolute Truth comes, incarnation, He accepts this mayic body.

Morning Walk -- March 31, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like government knows. Suppose government is creating one city, but he's creating at the same time the jail house. Although there is no criminal at that time. But government knows there are some criminals who will fulfill this jail house. Because you are independent. Everyone is independent. Not absolute independent, but slight independent. So therefore you have the option either to serve God or serve māyā. That's all.

Dr. Patel: Serve God or serve Mammon.

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Dr. Patel: You can't serve two masters at the same time. (break)

Prabhupāda: That is not possible.

Dr. Patel: As a matter of fact... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...minute quantity. (break)

Guest (5): Why does God permit all these sins and offenses?

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Dr. Patel: That is the eternal... That a madman created all this. (break)

Prabhupāda: Why do you not understand? God does not create. But you create. Just like you infect some disease. So you create your disease. Nobody's creating your disease. The simple thing, why don't you understand? If you... Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya. Guṇa-saṅga. If you associate with the different qualities of this material nature, then you inf..., you become infected. You, if you associate with the tamo-guṇa, then you become lower class man, animals. That is your fault. It is not Kṛṣṇa's fault.

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Italian Man (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: If you have got any doubt, you can still ask.

Italian Man (1): Maybe... May I emphasize... (break)

Prabhupāda: We have got your photo. So... but the difference is that your photograph and you are different. Because the photograph is of the temporary body, therefore it is not absolute. But Kṛṣṇa, being everything, Kṛṣṇa's photograph is also Kṛṣṇa.

Italian Man (1): Yes, okay, thank you. Thank you.

Prabhupāda: Is it all right?

Italian Man (1): Yes, thank you.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is everything. So His photograph is also Kṛṣṇa. It is not that foolish people, they worship a photograph. No. It is reality. It is reality. Yes. (break) Kṛṣṇa is everything. Can you explain? That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Who can explain? Explain, yes.

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, then you are God.

Indian Man (1): This body is supposed to die.

Prabhupāda: Why supposed? Why supposed? That is ignorance, "supposed." Because he cannot do anything, he suppose... Why?

Indian Man (1): Of course, we say this body is not say absolute or permanent.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Permanent, but who has made it this? You have not made. You make a permanent body. Then you are God.

Indian Man (1): That nobody can do.

Prabhupāda: Therefore he is not God. That is existence of God. You cannot do because there is higher power controlling you. God means controller. He is controlling you. You cannot do that. Therefore you are not God. There is superior controller, who does not allow to do this. You have to abide by the laws. This is common sense reasoning. If you are being controlled, how you become God? God means the supreme controller. Is it all right? So long you will be controlled, you are not God. But where is the position that you are no more controlled? That position is never.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 1, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm? Yes. What is your question?

Yadubara: Well, I thought it was the external potency.

Prabhupāda: For Him there is no external, internal. For Kṛṣṇa there is no external, internal. You cannot understand this. Kṛṣṇa is absolute. For me there is external, internal, but for Kṛṣṇa there is no external, internal because His energy... The external energy is also His energy, and internal is His energy. Therefore He's everything. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (Hindi) For electrician there is no difference between refrigerator and heater. He knows how to adjust it. For me, this is heater; this is refrigerator. Like that.

Yadubara: "You have taken your birth in the Yadu dynasty..." (break)

Prabhupāda: ...says, ātma-māyayā. Ātma-māyayā, His own energy. So the material energy and the spiritual, both of them, are His energy. So even if He appears in a material body, it does not act as material body. It act as spiritual body. Just like same example: The expert electrician, he can turn the refrigerator into heater. Is it not? That is the way. Hare Kṛṣṇa. For Him there is nothing, no distinction, because He is absolute. Similarly, to take the side of the devotee and to kill the enemy of Kṛṣṇa, they are all the same.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 1, 1974, Bombay:

Brahmānanda: Inside of the devotee?

Prabhupāda: Or to kill the demon, that is His mercy. Both of them. It is not that materially, as we think, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is taking side of this man and killing this man." No. Still, He is neutral, absolute.

Brahmānanda: The sahajiyās, they don't know that.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Brahmānanda: Sahajiyās, they just go towards like the rasa-līlā, and they avoid the demon killing.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Brahmānanda: The sahajiyās.

Prabhupāda: Oh, they are rascals. Kick them out. They think everything is easy.

Dr. Patel: What is sahajiyā?

Prabhupāda: Sahajiyā... Sahaj means easy. Easy-going. They will smoke cigarette at the same time they will play rasa-līlā. This is sahajiyā. This is sahajiyā. They will do all nonsense; still, they will become God, imitation of God.

Yadubara: "Nārada Muni wanted to impress upon people in general that Kṛṣṇa is fully independent. His activities such as His appearance..." (break)

Prabhupāda: He played also. (Hindi) We used to say chor chor kela: "Catch up the feet." (Hindi) (break) ...and wonderful things, as they are mentioned, they were all manufactured by the demons.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 2, 1974, Bombay:

Girirāja: But the sentiment of anxiety or fear for Kṛṣṇa, is that sentiment in Goloka?

Prabhupāda: No. There is no such thing. That is separation. Just like gopīs, they are full of anxiety: "Oh, Kṛṣṇa has gone to the pasturing ground." Their anxiety is there. Just like Rukmiṇī, she was thinking, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa may not give me up. He is talking in this way." She fainted. So anxiety is there. So the anxiety is that one may not be separated from Kṛṣṇa. That is the anxiety. And actually there is no separation, but the feeling of separation out of ecstatic love. Just like one who has got love for the other person, beloved, he always thinks like that, "My beloved may not be separated from me." This is ecstasy of love. Just like a miser man who has got much wealth, he always thinks, "My money may not be lost. My money may not be lost." Out of his too much attachment for the money, he thinks like that. Is it not? "How shall I protect this money? How shall I protect this?" To earn money is also troublesome. To keep money also troublesome. And when it is lost, that is also troublesome. This is the position. But there is no such thing, loss, but the anxiety is there. We shall return from here? (break) ...vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām. So both the sādhu and the duṣkṛtina, by Kṛṣṇa's two activities, act differently to the devotees and to the demons. They realize. That is their achievement. By punishment, this Kāliya realized, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord." And devotees, by out of love, they realize. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is Absolute. In either process He is realized. Mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ. If one is sincere, then they gradually make progress. Yes. (break) ...vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: He gets equality, attains equality position. Yes, purport?

Nitāi: To the impersonalist, achieving the brahma-bhūta stage, becoming one with the Absolute, is the last word. But for the personalist, or pure devotee, one has to go still further to become engaged in pure devotional service. This means that one who is engaged in pure devotional service to the Supreme Lord is already in a state of liberation, called brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20), oneness with the Absolute. Without being one with the Supreme, the Absolute, one cannot render service unto Him. In the absolute conception, there is no difference between the served and the servitor; yet the distinction is there, in a higher spiritual sense.

In the material concept of life, when one works for sense gratification, there is misery, but in the absolute world, when one is engaged in pure devotional service, there is no misery. The devotee in Kṛṣṇa consciousness has nothing to lament or desire. Since God is full, a living entity who is engaged in God's service, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, becomes also full in himself. He is just like a river cleansed of all dirty water. Because a pure devotee has no thought other than Kṛṣṇa, he is naturally always joyful. He does not lament for any material loss or gain because he is full in service of the Lord. He has no desire for material enjoyment because he knows that every living entity is the fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and therefore eternally a servant. He does not see, in the material world, someone as higher and someone as lower; higher and lower positions are ephemeral, and a devotee has nothing to do with ephemeral appearances or disappearances. For him stone and gold are of equal value. This is the brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20) stage, and this stage is attained very easily by the pure devotee. In that stage of existence, the idea of becoming one with the Supreme Brahman and annihilating one's individuality becomes hellish, and the idea of attaining the heavenly kingdom becomes phantasmagoria, and the senses are like broken serpents' teeth. As there is no fear of a serpent with broken teeth, so there is no fear from the senses when they are automatically controlled. The world is miserable for the materially infected person, but for a devotee the entire world is as good as Vaikuṇṭha, or the spiritual sky. The highest personality in this material universe is no more significant than an ant for a devotee. Such a stage can be achieved by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, who preached pure devotional service in this age.

O'Grady: Could you read the opening little bit again?

Nitāi: In the purport?

O'Grady: Yeah.

Nitāi: "To the impersonalist, achieving the brahma-bhūta stage, becoming one with the Absolute, is the last word."

O'Grady: O.K. Now, is the Absolute internal or external?

Prabhupāda: Absolute has no internal or external. That is Absolute. If there is internal and external, it is not Absolute.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

O'Grady: I don't mean in time, and I don't mean in space. I mean in time in the sense that one is born and one dies, etc., that is, in one's own time, one's own Absolute, ultimately the Absolute that one finds for oneself.

Prabhupāda: No, we are not absolute. We, when we are situated in the absolute platform, then we are absolute. Now we are in the relative world. Here there is absolutism, but the sense is not so elevated to understand the absolutism. So so long we are under the control of time, there is no question of becoming absolute.

O'Grady: So therefore there is a life beyond time.

Prabhupāda: That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.

janma karma me divyaṁ

yo jānāti tattvataḥ

tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma

naiti mām eti kaunteya

(BG 4.9)

Find out this verse.

Nitāi: Chapter Four, text nine:

janma karma ca me divyam

evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ

tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma

naiti mam eti so 'rjuna

(BG 4.9)

"One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna."

Prabhupāda: And that is absolute. When he goes back to home, back to Godhead, that is absolute. So long he is in the material world, changing body, transmigrating from one body to another, that is not absolute plane. That is the duality plane, dualism. When we go back to home, back to..., in the spiritual world, that is absolute.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

O'Grady: When he goes back to his original.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Thank you very much. That is the position. That is absolute.

O'Grady: So you don't find it possible to achieve any absolute condition in our time?

Prabhupāda: No. In the material world it is not possible. This is the world of duality. Therefore so many different varieties of unity is suggested, but they are all failure. Just like when we were students in 1917, so there was League of Nations. And after that again there was war. (chuckles)

O'Grady: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: And then, now they have manufactured United Nations. But for the last twenty years or more than that, they are endeavoring to be united, but when I go New York, I see flags are increasing, no united, disunity. You see? And war is going on. Therefore, on this material platform this so-called unity is impossible. Unity is possible only on the spiritual platform.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: That is some conception, mortality. Mortal? Mortality is not absolutism. So long you are mortal, you are not on the absolute platform because you are actually immortal. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. Find out. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit.

O'Grady: But is there anything wrong with accepting the fact that you are mortal, you die, you rot and you become nothing?

Prabhupāda: No. That is the polluted conception. Actually you are immortal; you do not die. That is your position. Read this verse.

Nitāi:

na jāyate mriyate va kadācin

nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ

ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo

na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

(BG 2.20)

"For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain."

Prabhupāda: That is it. That is the position of the soul. So when there is mortality, that is not perfect stage. And when he attains the stage of again immortality... Because actually he is immortal.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: So when one is free from the designations, then he becomes purified.

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ

tat-paratvena nirmalam

hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa

sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate

(CC Madhya 19.170)

So when we become purified, our senses are purified, and when the purified senses are engaged in the service of the master of the senses, that is perfect life. That is nonduality, absolute.

Bhagavān: That can be experienced in the present.

Prabhupāda: Yes, by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And practically, you are coming from different groups-Americans, Indians, Africans—but you don't think yourself as American or Indian or African.

O'Grady: But the system insists that you do.

Bhagavān: The world as it is, the society, the materialistic society, puts these bodily demands...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. The materialistic society means duality.

O'Grady: But that's unavoidable.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

O'Grady: Oh, very... Yes, I accept the strong word.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no question of... Because we have defined God, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). God is He wherefrom everything emanates. That is God. So love, love or even fight. The fighting propensity is also there in God. And loving propensity is also there in God. But His fighting propensity and loving propensity—absolute. Just like in the material world we have got experience, fighting propensity is just opposite the loving propensity. But in God, either fighting propensity or loving propensity, they are one and the same, therefore He is absolute. That is the meaning of absolute. Just like we get from śāstras. The so-called enemies of God who is killed by God, he also attains perfection.

O'Grady: Yes, the vengeful... Yes, that I understand, the avenging God of Biblical imagination as against... Is it possible to do it all on your own, alone?

Prabhupāda: No. Therefore the Vedas say, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Abhigacchet means "he must." It is not possible alone. This word, this abhigacchet, this verb, is used in Sanskrit grammar... This is called vidhiliñ form of verb. So vidhiliñ form of verb is used when there is a..., matter is a must. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet, samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyam. And that is the Vedic version. Therefore... You have read Bhagavad-gītā. You will find Arjuna was talking with Kṛṣṇa. Then, when the things were not solved, perplexed, Arjuna surrendered himself, śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam.

Room Conversation with Biochemist, Dr. Sallaz -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: This is material energy. Bhūmir āpo 'nalaḥ, explain that.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: That the material energies—earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—these energies, they come from Kṛṣṇa. In other words, we are speaking of energy. There is an origin to the energy. We always have an experience. Just like there is sunshine here, but the sun, origin, is millions of miles away. So in the same way these energies also have origin. It's not that they are just existing without some source. And Kṛṣṇa is describing here in the Seventh Chapter—this is called Knowledge of the Absolute—how these energies are related to Him. Now, in the material world it's described that there are two energies. This is called bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā, inferior energy. This will be described in the next verse. Apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām (BG 7.5). Now, this is describing the superior energy or the parām, the parāṁ prakṛti. And this is described, "Besides this inferior nature," which is this earth, air, water, fire, ether, "O Mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine which are all the living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe." So this earth, air, water, fire and ether... Just like your body, it is being sustained by the soul. And as soon as the soul leaves the body, then, of course, the earth, air, water, fire and ether, it is no longer sustained in this fashion. It merges into the various elements or energies. And in this way, we can understand that the material world is made up of two energies, as my spiritual master said: the inferior energy, or this aparā-prakṛti, earth, air, water, fire, ether, etc., and the superior energy, or the living force. So the point is that the life force does not come from a combination of earth, air, water, fire, ether. It is separate. That is a superior energy. And on this point we agree. Now, we have to find out what is the source of both the superior and inferior material energies, or what is God.

Prabhupāda: And that is spiritual energy. That is spiritual energy. When we find out the source of these two energies, that the beginning of spiritual life, or spiritual understanding.

Room Conversation with Prof. Regamay, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Lausanne -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Prof. Regamay: Yes, of course.

Prabhupāda: That's it. But there is higher mathematics. Not one plus two or two plus three, no. There is still higher mathematics. So that is not meant for them. That will be explained, explained in the Bhagavad..., ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). Those who are expert, or sufficient, insufficient knowledge, they cannot understand the Supreme Absolute. That is also confirmed, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate: (BG 7.19) "After many, many births, when one is actually in full knowledge, he can understand Kṛṣṇa and surrenders unto Him." Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). So Vedas and scriptures are there, differently, according to different conditions. Now, what Jesus Christ was teaching the people? You can understand. The first injunction is "Thou shalt not kill." So what class of men they were, just you can understand. Otherwise, why he is first of all telling "Thou shalt not kill"? The Mohammed also said, "From this day, there is no sex with your mother." So just see what class of men. So according to class of men, there should be teaching. Similarly, Buddha also, Lord Buddha said, "No, no, there is no God. Just try to understand me. You obey Me." "Yes, sir." It has to be done like that.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Robert Gouiran: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Is it not?

Robert Gouiran: In order to get freedom.

Prabhupāda: So...

Robert Gouiran: Absolute, absolute freedom.

Prabhupāda: So by renouncing you get freedom?

Robert Gouiran: Absolute freedom.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Absolute freedom, that's all right. Take your meaning. But do you think by renouncing... Suppose you are sitting here. You renounce this place. You get freedom?

Robert Gouiran: Uh...

Prabhupāda: Does it mean that you get freedom?

Robert Gouiran: No.

Prabhupāda: Or you are acting as a scientist. You give up that business. Does it mean your freedom?

Robert Gouiran: Well, renunciation doesn't mean giving up.

Prabhupāda: No, renunciation means giving up.

Robert Gouiran: No, no.

Prabhupāda: Just find out. So what is the meaning of giving up? Why you should give up? You are occupying some business... Suppose you are working as a scientist. So why should you give it up?

Robert Gouiran: Why?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1974, Geneva:

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: In the Bhagavad-gītā it says that those who are different modes of nature, they have different types of charity and different types of religion. So does this mean religions that are already established in the Vedas or...

Prabhupāda: That is means conditional religion. That is not absolute religion. In order to, what is called, summarize all types of religion... Just like Kṛṣṇa says, mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ, "Everyone is trying to come to Me." So they are coming by different paths. So that is accepted. Now, when he says that "I am here. You're coming to Me, now you just surrender. Then everything is all right." Why don't you accept that? Why do you insist, "No, I shall come in a different way, different path"? What is this nonsense? God is saying "All right, you have got different paths, but give up that. Now simply surrender to Me." Where I am objection? If I am a really lover of God, God is saying like that, why not accept that? Why shall I pay for different paths? Eh? Suppose in this jungle you are scattered and you are searching "Where is Prabhupāda? Where is Prabhupāda?" And somebody says, "Come this way. Come this way." And if I say, "Not this way, that way. Come here. Come here." What is your objection? Eh? Either you don't want me... (laughs) Eh? You don't want me. You want to play some whimsical way. You are not serious about me? If you're actually serious about God, God says here, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām e... (BG 18.66). "Give up all this nonsense. Just surrender un..." Why they do not accept it. Eh? What is your answer, Satsvarūpa?

Satsvarūpa: I think your answer's that they want to play a kind of hide and seek. They don't really want to go.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is their foolishness. They don't want to go.

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu says... Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis.

nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis

tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ

etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi

durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ

Bahudhā: God has many names. If you are missing, so you can take one of the name. Kṛṣṇa is one of the names, so what is the objection? And Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "In this name, all the potencies of God is there." Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śakti tatrārpitā. That name is as powerful as God Himself. There is no difference between the name and God, because He is absolute. Here in the material world there is the difference between name and the person or the thing. If I am thirsty, if I simply chant "water, water, water," that will not appease my thirstiness. But the spiritual world, absolute, the name and the person is the same. Abhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ (CC Madhya 17.133). Under the circumstances, if you are missing some name, so take this name. Why it should not be taken?

Jyotirmayī: (French)

Priest: Yeah, but you can take "Rāma," you can take "Paraśurāma," you can take (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, any name, any name.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Paramahaṁsa: My question is: A pure devotee, when he comments Bhagavad-gītā, someone who never sees him physically, but he just comes in contact with his commentary, explanation, is this the same thing?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can associate with Kṛṣṇa by reading Bhagavad-gītā. And these saintly persons, they have given their explanations, comments. So where is the difficulty? Everyone is helping you.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: You've said that the Bhagavad-gītā is Kṛṣṇa's mind.

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not different from His mind. Why do you say like that? This is material conception, the soul is different from body, the mind is different from soul. But Kṛṣṇa has no such difference. Therefore He's called absolute. Advaya-jñāna. His mind and Kṛṣṇa are the same. Kṛṣṇa and His name is the same. Kṛṣṇa and His words are the same. This is Kṛṣṇa understanding. Jesus Christ simply said that "Hallowed be Thy name." That means there is name. Now the question is why he did not say or utter the name? Now, there is already name. Why should he utter?

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Right.

Prabhupāda: There is already name, Kṛṣṇa. So why should he utter?

Paramahaṁsa: Is that why Christ didn't utter the name of Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: No, he said, "Hallowed be Thy name. Hallowed be Thy name." So there is name already. That means he gave you chance to find out the name. And as he came to India, so you come to India and you'll get the name.

Room Conversation with Russian Orthodox Church Representative -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore we accept Absolute Truth from the Absolute.

Karandhara: And according to the Vedic system, in different times and different places, according to the mentality and the culture of the people, the Absolute has made Himself known on different levels, higher and lower levels. But that... The Absolute as revealed through the Vedas, specifically the Bhagavad-gītā, is the most advanced level. It is the standard by which all other levels are judged. It is the most advanced, complete knowledge.

Church Representative: Yes, I know this. I know. I know this.

Karandhara: But it's not just an opinion. It's not just a secular idea. By scientific principle, if we consider the logic of all the propositions of Bhagavad-gītā in relation to the Bible and Koran, if we're actually impartial and open, then we'll understand that truth. It's not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of superior logic, extending the same basic truths to their highest perfection. So in discussing the merits of Bhagavad-gītā versus another scripture, it's not that we're trying to argue just for the sake of polemics but to establish the real standard, what is the most elevated or advanced standard of the knowledge.

Bhagavān: But people are suffering due to lack of that accurate knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Na hanyate, does not die, hanyamāne śarīre, apparently, the body being dead, the soul is never dead. (French)

Yogeśvara: So... Shall I explain that one? What the good Pastor—are they called Pastor?—describes is that in order for there to be a dialogue, we have to respect each others' positions, not that we will try to convert the other. He says just as we respect you have an absolute faith in the Vedic philosophy, so also there must be respect that the Christian interpretation of the life of Lord Jesus and his death...

Prabhupāda: Oh, I think I have better respect than him to Jesus Christ. I say he does not die. He says he dies. (French) So far respect is concerned, I have more respect than them. They want to see Jesus Christ dead. I don't want to see him dead.

French Woman: No. Death and resurrection after, Jesus.

Yogeśvara: There's a resurrection.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yogeśvara: Excuse me. Perhaps at this time we can introduce Madame, Madame Devi?

Jyotirmayī: So we'd like to introduce Mrs. Devi, who came here also to meet you. She's a very wonderful lady. She's writing a dictionary of mysticism, and she did the whole first part on Western religions, and now she wants to do the following part on the Eastern religions. So she would like very much to talk in this book about ourselves, about the movement of Hare Kṛṣṇa which is a big part of the Oriental religions.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Recently, there was a historical excavation that Jesus Christ did not die, and he, after crucification, he was taken to Kashmir.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Just like you say, "Hallowed be Thy name." President. President. Now the president has a name but you do not know. But the president must have a name. (German)

Dr. P. J. Saher: Has the name a special esoteric meaning? And is the technique of chanting the name, has this a special hidden purpose that the unenlightened...

Prabhupāda: No, not hidden but open because Absolute is not different from His name. Therefore when you chant the name of the Absolute that means you associate with the Absolute. And as soon as you associate with the Absolute you become purified.

Dr. P. J. Saher: Like iron in fire.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's right. (German) (break) ...Vedic injunction:

harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā

(CC Adi 17.21)

For your perfection you simply chant the name of the Lord harer nāma, harer. Harer means of the Lord and nāma means name. Thrice. Just like we give stress three times, "You do it. You do it. You do it." This is a good stress. Similarly, the śāstra says harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma, nāma eva kevalam, simply chant the Lord's name. Kalau, in this age of Kali. Nāsty eva, nāsty eva, nāsty eva gatir anyathā. There is no other alternative for self-realization, no other alternative for self-realization, therefore stress should be given for everyone to chant the holy name of the Lord. (German) Kali means the age of quarrel, the age of quarrel. This age is simply for fighting and quarrel. They're not interested to understand the Absolute Truth. But they're interested in fighting and quarreling. Therefore this age called Kali. Kali means fighting.

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Pater Emmanuel: That's very good.

Prabhupāda: And His being Absolute, His name is not different from Him. The name and the form and the quality of God, they are all Absolute. Therefore chanting His name means associating with God. So when one associates with God, gradually He becomes godly. And when he is fully purified, then he becomes associate of God. (German)

Pater Emmanuel: (German)

German devotee: (translating for Pater Emmanuel) But we can understand the name of God only in a negative way.

Prabhupāda: No. God has unlimited potencies, and therefore He has got unlimited names.

Pater Emmanuel: Yes, but we are limited.

Prabhupāda: We are limited, but God is not limited. Unlimited. And because He is unlimited, therefore He has got unlimited names, not one or two but unlimited names. There is a Sanskrit book, Aṣṭottara-sahasra. There are 1,008 names of God. So 1,008 is also limited, but because we are limited, the God's names are given to us as far as we can understand. Otherwise He has got unlimited potencies, unlimited names. And each and every name is God because He is absolute.

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne:

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: I say it is very nice, immediately. Because he was embracing tree also. So that is God consciousness, advanced God consciousness. Because everywhere there is part and parcel of God. Any way, either materially or spiritually. In our childhood, actually what I am doing, it was all taught in our childhood by our parents, my family. We were taught, "There is a grain of rice on the ground, and if it is touched by your feet, you should pick up the grain and touch on your head." This was our training. The idea behind—that the grain of rice is not man-made. It is sent by God. "O God, give us our daily bread." So here is the bread. It is God's mercy. Just see how idea, great idea. What is given by God, that is also God. This is God consciousness. You are asking God's mercy. So God's mercy is also God, the Absolute. So how can you disrespect a thing which is given by God? You cannot produce rice. You cannot produce bread. It is given by God. Everything... Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya (BG 7.8). Just try to understand Kṛṣṇa from the beginning of drinking water. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said that "The taste of the water, I am." So water, or any liquid thing you are drinking, if you are feeling some pleasure, ānanda... Ānandamaya. That God is ānanda. So there is the sample of ānanda. So if we simply practice this, that wherever I derive some pleasure, that is God, then you become God conscious. To become God conscious is not difficult. Simply one has to learn how to practice it. That's all. Everything stated. Find out that verse. Raso 'ham apsu kaunteya prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ. (pause) Who will not respect Jesus Christ? He sacrificed everything for God, even his life. So who is that rascal that he'll not respect to Jesus Christ. What did he do wrong to the human society? He did everything for the good of the human society. Oh, I have got very, very, great respect for Lord Jesus Christ. Not only... Every, I mean to say, God conscious man, he must have respect for Jesus Christ. There is no doubt about it. My Guru Mahārāja had very great respect for Muhammad, Jesus Christ... We pray Lord Buddha. Although he preached atheistic philosophy, but we know that he's incarnation of God. Keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare. So a Vaiṣṇava is godly. He is qualified with all good qualities. That is Vaiṣṇava. That is Vaiṣṇava. He knows the value of each and everything. Therefore he's godly. And therefore to offer respect to Vaiṣṇava is also a great qualification. Even to offer respect to the Vaiṣṇavas is greater qualification than one who simply offers respect to God.

Reporters Interview -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Guest (2): Your Divine Grace, do you think that chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is the only way to achieve liberation?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra means Kṛṣṇa, the Lord, and Hare, or Harā, means Kṛṣṇa's energy. Just like you are there, the heater is there and the heating energy is there, similarly, Kṛṣṇa is there and Kṛṣṇa's energies are there. Just like the sun is there, and the sun's energy is there, the sunshine, heat and light. Is it not? There is heat and light. That is from the sun. But still, the heat and light is different from the sun. Suppose you are in the sunshine. In one sense you are in the sun, and in other sense you are not in the sun because sun's temperature is so high, had you been in the sun, you would have been immediately blown up, burned into ashes. But you are in the sunshine, the energy of sun. So, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, is situated as the supreme fire, and whatever we are experiencing, that is His energy. Although sun is... The example, sun is 93,000,000 miles away, but (on) account of the sun's energy spread, we are feeling the presence of sun. Similarly, we have to associate with God, Kṛṣṇa, by chanting His holy name because Kṛṣṇa, being Absolute, He is not different from His name, and therefore, if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra without any offense, then you directly associate with Kṛṣṇa.

Reporters Interview -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, similarly, it is Kṛṣṇa's painting. But the difference is that you cannot talk with your photograph, but we can talk with Kṛṣṇa's photograph. That is the difference.

Guest (2): But some of these pictures are slightly different. They show different...

Prabhupāda: No, no, on principle it is, as Kṛṣṇa's color is there, Kṛṣṇa's flute is there, Kṛṣṇa's peacock feather is there, these things... These are described in the śāstra. Veṇuṁ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ barhāvataṁ samasitāmbuda-sun... (Bs. 5.30). So Kṛṣṇa's... Suppose even a painting of yourself. One man paints a little different from your face. Another man paints. But on the whole, it is the same. In that way Kṛṣṇa is not depending on the painting but on the features of His description as it is in the śāstra. Kṛṣṇa's color is described there. Kṛṣṇa's peacock feather is described there. Kṛṣṇa's flute is there. Kṛṣṇa's ever eternal consort... Praṇaya-keli. In loving mood always, Kṛṣṇa... Praṇaya-keli-kalā-vilāsam. He's always in enjoying spirit. So we get idea. Idea of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa being Absolute, the idea of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa is nondifferent.