Absolutely (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"absolutely"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Interviewer: So many of the people are going to him for meditation. Is meditation part of your philosophy?

Prabhupāda: Yes. But meditation as this Maharshi or any other swami or..., are professing, that is not exactly the process of meditation. The standard meditation is described in Bhagavad-gītā. That is very difficult job. You have to select a solitary place, you have to sit in a certain posture, you have to regulate your life, complete celibacy, eating, sleeping... There are so many rules and regulations that that sort of meditation is absolutely impossible for the present way of life. For the present generation, the chanting, vibration of holy name of God, is recommended in the scriptures. It is said that meditation was possible in the Satya-yuga, when people were cent percent pure. And they are... For the present, mostly, people are impure. So they cannot execute meditation as it is described in the standard scriptures.

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

Prabhupāda: We don't eat anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. We first of all prepare foodstuff as recommended in the scripture. They are mostly from vegetable, grains, fruits, milk. So we have got enough food.

Interviewer: No meat of any kind.

Prabhupāda: No. No meat, no onion, no garlic, no intoxication, no liquor, we don't smoke even, we don't take tea, coffee. We simply take what is absolutely necessary for keeping the body fit to execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We don't indulge in luxury..., or for the satisfaction of the tongue.

Morning Walk at Stow Lake -- March 27, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: So you have to convince people like that, that it is not a sentimental institution. We are teaching the thing which is very absolutely needed for the human society. As soon as one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, his personal questions and problems are solved. And if others adopt the same principle, then social-political questions are also solved. So we have to teach.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The spiritual master does not say such nonsense things. Man can achieve in a suitable body. Why don't you say that? But that suitable body is not...

Reporter: Yeah, well that's... When I talk to you, I find that the way you say it, if after the events are achieved, there could be explanations for it and there would be no crisis in faith.

Hayagrīva: He never came out and said that it's absolutely impossible.

Reporter: Right. Okay. Well thank you very much. I appreciate your tolerance of all my questions and everything.

Prabhupāda: You take this orange.

Hayagrīva: Do you want to take this, read these booklets? This one's just a running history of the Society and this is the magazine. So if you'd like, you can take it.

Reporter: Okay. Fine.

Prabhupāda: Our Kṛṣṇa... You should kindly note it that our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has nothing to do with this moon planet. But we are not aiming to go to the moon planet.

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: But these people, rascals, will accept him as God because they do not know what is God. That is the defect. We know what is God, therefore we cannot accept any rascal declaring that he's God. That is the difference.

Journalist: Well it's just absolutely absurd that somebody comes out and tells you he's God.

Prabhupāda: But how much rascal he is who accepts him as God. He's rascal number one. He is a cheater and the man who is cheated he is also another rascal. He does not know what is God. Anybody comes as God, as God has become so cheap it can be available in the market, everywhere.

Journalist: Well of course the western concept that man is created in the image of God, consequently God must look like man kind of thing, therefore any man can be God.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. You have got so many scientists. Just find out what is the image of God, whether his form is not... Where is that department? You have no such department. You have got so many department, technology department, this department. Where is that department, what is God to know? Is there any department of knowledge?

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Allen Ginsberg: So that many of us will say, "Is it possible to find an American mantra?"

Prabhupāda: Mantra means the transcendental sound. You see. Just like oṁkāra.

Allen Ginsberg: So you think the very nature of the sound... Okay, but now, oṁ is an absolutely natural sound from the throat to the mouth. And yet even oṁ, natural as it is, sounds foreign.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore it is a praṇāma. It is accepted.

Allen Ginsberg: That also sounds foreign here. It's hard to get people to say auṁ even. 'Cause I tried in Chicago with auṁ and with Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: But there is no other alternative.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: The illicit connection with man and woman will certainly make him abominable, fallen down to this abominable life. I... When I was... In my younger days, when I was in business, so I was to take agency one of big company, Smith's Transit Company. So they had to... I had to give some guarantee of my honesty. So in that program the question was whether married or unmarried. Because unmarried man mostly become dishonest. So that inquiry was there, "Whether he is married?" Married man cannot be dishonest because he has got responsibility. If he is arrested he will be insulted in his family. His family members will be in difficulty. Therefore he does not commit dishonesty very easily unless it is absolutely... But that should not be done. But unmarried man, because he has got no responsibility, he commits all kinds of sinful activity. That's a fact. Therefore in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we do not allow such illicit sex life, no. You must get yourself married. And practically, we are seeing, that is very effective and that is going on nicely. All right.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- London, August 10, 1971:

Mr. Arnold: This is the first thing. You see, when we're talking of Kingsway Hall, you know, the big one, before, well here you had a bank on the site, and they were rather anxious to keep their premises, and consequently they would have loaned us money to retain their site. Any of these four that we're dealing with at the moment, there are no other banks or building societies on the site. This is what I think is, is absolutely imperative, that within the...

Prabhupāda: The bank will not be prepared to advance in such property?

Mr. Arnold: Well, they may well do, but it would only be... One couldn't guarantee that they would be expected to. But the bank manager, where the account of this temple is kept, they may be tempted to loan a half or three quarters of it, if they think that the thing is a good... I mean, this site at Kings Street, Hammersmith, for instance, if we don't buy it, then the suggestion is that within the very foreseeable future the place will be pulled down to build a large hotel, which means to say that the site is very valuable. On this score, the bank may well be tempted to loan you some money, just on the site alone, (indistinct) the premises. They would be interested.

Prabhupāda: Then means that a church turned out a new building. So that is a big stake.

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

Mensa Member: Well, is that absolutely (indistinct)

Śyāmasundara: The Buddhist thinks that everyone is God.

Prabhupāda: In Buddhist theory there is no acceptance of God. There is simply to diminish, or to nullify the sense of pains and pleasures. That is called nirvāṇa.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: No, earth... Earth has no separate existence without Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, "It's my energy." You cannot separate the energy and the energetic. It is not possible. You cannot separate heat from fire. But fire is different from the heat. And heat is different from the fire. You are taking heat, that does not mean you are touching fire. Fire, in spite of expanding heat, it keeps its identity. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa by His different energies creating everything, He remains Kṛṣṇa. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they think, "If Kṛṣṇa is everything, then Kṛṣṇa's separate identity is not there." That is material thinking. Just like drinking this milk, so little, little, when I finish, there is no more milk. It has gone to my belly. Kṛṣṇa is not like that. Because He's omnipotent, we are utilizing His energy continually, but still He's there, present. Just like a man begetting children unlimitedly, but the man is there. Crude example. But not that because he has produced hundreds of children, therefore he is finished. So similarly, God or Kṛṣṇa, in spite of His unlimited number of children, He's there. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa is never finished. (break) ...so powerful, therefore He is attractive. This is one side of the display of Kṛṣṇa's energies. Similarly, He has got unlimited energies. This study of Kṛṣṇa's energy is only one side, one portion only. So in this way if you go on studying Kṛṣṇa, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is not a bogus thing, that "maybe," "perhaps not." Absolutely. It is.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: By engaging. That is our school. It is a school. If a student does not learn nicely, you cannot say, "Get out." As far as possible. But when it is absolutely impossible to correct him, then you have to ask. And if there is money, equal you have to manage some money, what can be done? But I don't think if we try our best to correct him, this ultimate punishment will be required. Human being, after all human being, and our business is to teach and become ideal ourself. Āpani ācari prabhu jīvere śikhāya. We have to teach by our personal behavior. If you rise early in the morning, if you take your bath, if you sit down regularly and keep them (indistinct), how he can deny? How one can deny? It is not possible. But if I smoke, I ask others not to smoke, that will never be possible. Āpani ācari prabhu jīvere, first of all you have to be. If one is not cleansing, you shall tell me (indistinct) this way. We have to do like that. Not that I (order), "Come on, you do this. Oh, you cannot do, get out." Not that. We show him. After all, our life is sacrificed for preaching and that preaching means one should behave himself, nicely. He cannot say that "You do not do this."

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: That means you don't accept any authority.

Krishna Tiwari: No, I don't, because once you accept an authority, you are just blindly following something which may be right, which may be absolutely wrong. But you will never find it out, whether it was right or wrong. So blind faith in authority is the most mistaken path a person can ever take.

Prabhupāda: Not blind faith. We don't say authority blind faith. Authority, that's not blind faith.

Krishna Tiwari: And just...

Prabhupāda: Now, just... Suppose, to know your father, the authority is your mother. The mother says, "Here is your father." You follow blindly?

Krishna Tiwari: No.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Educationists -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are giving the right information, how human being can be really happy. This is end. It is not a religious sentiment. Religion means kind of faith. Today I am Hindu; tomorrow I am Christian; next day I am Mohammedan. What benefit I may get by changing so-called faith? Unless I understand what is my constitutional position, why I am suffering, how to get out of it? That is real life. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that. It is not a sentimental religious faith. It is not like that. It is absolutely necessary for the human being. We are talking of human being because without being a human being, nobody will be able... The cats and dogs, they will not be able to understand the problem. In the human form of life, you can make solution of all the problems of life. It is a science, how to make that solution. That we are teaching. We are not talking of religion. Religion... Somebody will say, "I believe," "We believe..." Another will, "We believe..." You believe, if it is not a fact, what is the use of such believing? We are dealing with facts, not the question of believing and not believing. Facts are facts. If you don't take facts, then you are missing the opportunity.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests and Devotees -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: ...accepted in that group.

Guest (1): Suppose if somebody is absolutely ignorant about...

Prabhupāda: So therefore there should be education. Why the śāstras are there? Why guru is there? Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). You must accept guru and learn. Why should you remain ignorant?

Guest (1): How one should start when he's completely ignorant of all these things?

Prabhupāda: He should go... Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet.

Guest (1): Tad viddhi praṇipātena... (BG 4.34).

Prabhupāda: Paripraśnena sevayā. He should become a disciple of a bona fide guru. Otherwise how he can learn. If you are uneducated, you should go to school.

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1973, Paris:

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).

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: What do they know? They do not know anything.

David Lawrence: No, no. I was absolutely amazed to read an article...

Prabhupāda: This is Vedic knowledge. So you'll get everything perfect. Therefore, how there can be any history? That is the difficulty. We are speaking everything, of the spiritual. Therefore, it is sometimes very difficult for the gross materialist. They are so dull-headed, they cannot understand.

Room Conversation with Officer Harry Edwards, the Village Policeman -- August 30, 1973, Bhaktivedanta Manor, London:

Harry: No, no, no. Not if, unless it's absolutely necessary, but I doubt that... I would have to say that you want a firearm to kill vermin.

Prabhupāda: We (laughs) are not interested in killing.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 17, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Christianity is Vaiṣṇavism.

Dr. Patel: Vaiṣṇavism? Absolutely Vaiṣṇavism.

Prabhupāda: Anyone who... Mohammedan is also Vaiṣṇavism.

Dr. Patel: Mohammedanism is not Vaiṣṇavism.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Caitanya Mahāprabhu had talk with the Pāṭhānas. He proved that "Your religion is Vaiṣṇavism."

Dr. Patel: Christianity is Vaiṣṇavism 100%.

Prabhupāda: Therefore in Caitanya-caritāmṛta there is. I have already explained that.

Dr. Patel: No, Christianity is 100% Vaiṣṇavism. I have studied Christianity very well.

Prabhupāda: Not hundred percent, but...

Dr. Patel: More or less.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- February 17, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They have got real knowledge. They have got real knowledge. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). When they have surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, they are really jñānī.

Dr. Patel: But some of the absolutely ignorant people, they have become, but...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. We don't say, we don't speak of "some." This is the, yes, there are many...

Dr. Patel: Extremely scholastic they have become afterwards. Even though they have not gone to the school.

Prabhupāda: Just like Jīva Gosvāmī. Jīva Gosvāmī, there is no comparison of learned scholarship with him throughout the whole world. He's such a jñānī. Even great, great paṇḍitas said that "There will be no more such learned philosopher, neither there was, like Jīva Gosvāmī." Yes. We are also referring to Jīva Gosvāmī.

Morning Walk -- March 30, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Mad-bhakta. Not rascals. The mad-bhakta can explain these things, not others.

Dr. Patel: Yes. Now, now conclusion.

Prabhupāda: Is it clear?

Dr. Patel: Yes. Absolutely. I am a rascal. (Prabhupāda laughs) That is, I am reading.

Prabhupāda: You are a bhakta. How you can be rascal?

Dr. Patel: But sometimes I become. Prakṛtiṁ ca,

prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva

viddhy anādī ubhāv api

vikārāṁś ca guṇaṁś caiva

viddhi prakṛti-sambhavān

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, that is another thing. I know these people, this Nehru family. They were completely Europeanized. Outwardly for them... Even up to the last point of his life, if some European would come, he would immediately receive him. And if an Indian wants to see him, "Oh, it will be..." You will have to wait at least one. Everything London-made is very good. That was Jawaharlal Nehru's idea.

Indian: That was absolutely opposing the Sardar Patel. Anything he wrote to another white skin, "All right, let him be." Lenin, we see, after all. Lenin.

Prabhupāda: That is also not good. But these people, they are svadeśi, for country, but I know them very well.

Dr. Patel: No, he was right up to the end very conscious about this. Because of his Oxfordian education. I think he was in eternal hell, one of these things.(?) (break)

Prabhupāda: England. He was educated in England, but who can become...

Dr. Patel: Absolutely. It was a miracle, the greatest miracle.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He was... From very beginning of his birth, he is Englishman.

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: In your country people will like it? They would like these ideas?

Italian Man (1): Oh, yes. Absolutely, absolutely. I have such a keen interest in going to see what the situation is because I... (break) ...for Venice.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Venice.

Italian Man (1): Yes. So it would be so fantastic to present them a platform of religion so...

Prabhupāda: It is not religion. Of course it is religion. But the religion, as it is misunderstood in European countries that religion is a kind of faith, but it is not like that. It is science. It is fact. Religion, you have got some faith. That may not be right. It may be wrong. Just like the Christian religion, they have got faith in this way, that animal has no soul. Do you know that?

Italian Man (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's not a fact. Do you agree or not?

Italian Man (1): I do.

Prabhupāda: Animal also has soul.

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

Prabhupāda: Not same thing. When you describe... Music, when you compose music about God, that is your perfection.

O'Grady: Absolutely. That is your purpose of life. And when you work in the land, that is your purpose. Yes, that's understood. (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Richard Webster, chairman, Societa Filosofica Italiana -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Richard Webster: Absolutely. It's the same everywhere.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everywhere.

Richard Webster: Except Germany, I suppose. I suppose everybody works in Germany still.

Prabhupāda: So there are so many problems. On the whole, the material world is full of problems. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā by the Supreme Being, Kṛṣṇa, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). "It is a place of miseries." You cannot make things very rightly going on. It is not possible. Therefore the best purpose will be served-leave this place, material world, and go to the spiritual world. That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are advising people to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and that way, he will be able to leave this place of miseries and enter the eternal life in the spiritual world. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9).

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: No, you make the best use of a bad bargain. We shall depend more... Just like in New Vrindaban. They are coming to the city for preaching. So not absolutely we can abstain immediately because we have been dependent so long, many, many lives. You cannot. But the ideal should be introduced gradually. And make it perfect more and more and more and more. But there is possibility. Possibility if you live locally and make your arrangement, you get your foods... The real necessity is, bodily necessity is, eating, sleeping, mating and defending. This is necessity. So if you can eat locally, you can sleep locally, you can have your sex life also locally and you can defend locally, then what is the wrong? These are the necessities. We are not stopping this. We are not stopping, "No more sex life." That is nonsense, another nonsense. You must have. Marry. That's all. So you can marry locally and live. Where is the difficulty? Defend. If somebody comes to attack, there must be men to defend. And eating and sleeping. Where is your difficulty? Manage locally, as far as possible. After all, these are the necessities of body. So it can be solved locally. Is it impossible? To solve the bodily necessities? What do you think? Is it impossible?

Satsvarūpa: No, it's very simple.

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is giving you everything in right way so that you can save your time, you do not waste your time, and you can advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is required. We don't say that you stop eating. You eat. Take little Kṛṣṇa prasādam. We don't say that "Don't sleep." No, you sleep, but must rise early in the morning for maṅgala-ārati. This is our philo... Eating, sleeping, and sex. No, we don't say no sex life. Yes, you have sex life. Get your bona fide wife, live peacefully. And defense also, we have. We never say that you forego all these things. No, this is not our philosophy. But similarly, as much as you absolutely require, not more than that. The balance time, save for advancement. These people are simply engaged for eating, sleeping, mating. They have no time for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This condemned civilization must be stopped. Killing, killing civilization. The human being got the opportunity of getting out of this punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), repeatedly, and they are not being given the chance. They are being engaged more and more for sense gratification, viṣaya. Killing civilization. Jñāna-tapasā. Bahavo jñāna-tapasā pūtā mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ. By this process, bahavaḥ, many, by knowledge and tapasya. Pūtāḥ, purified, came back, back to home. Bahavo jñāna-tapasā pūtā mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ. Vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ, bahavo jñāna-tapasā pūtā mām... (BG 4.10). What is that, last word?

Nitāi: Mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ.

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

Robert Gouiran: Exactly, that the, that the... I was telling the definition of the energy. And if we start from pure energy, absolutely immaterial, pure energy, this pure energy can transform itself in two parts. One is called matter and the other I call anti-matter. And these two parts, they can annihilate together, and then you have back the pure energy. That is definition, our definition, of anti-matter. The anti-matter is what is produced with the matter from pure energy, and what is annihilated by matter to produce again pure energy. You can't, you can't produce our matter, ordinary matter, from pure energy. It's impossible.

Prabhupāda: That I have already explained. That pure energy is spiritual energy, and from that spiritual energy the material energy comes out. That I have already said: From the soul the matter grows. So that is spiritual energy. The basic energy is spiritual. And because the spiritual energy is the cause and the material energy is the effect, therefore in one sense we can say there is no difference between material energy and spiritual energy. Because spiritual energy is the cause, and material energy effect. Effect may be presented in different forms. Just like cotton is the cause of thread. And the thread is transformed into cloth. But you cannot take cotton for cloth. The cotton is there in the cloth in a different, transformed, transform, but you cannot accept, when you require a cloth, you cannot take cotton.

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: So he has got his opinion. I have got my own opinion. How we'll agree? We say that you remain in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everything will be solved. Does he agree? (French)

Yogeśvara: He says, "No, absolutely not. Just like I don't accept the existence..."

Prabhupāda: Then why shall I agree to his point? (French) So...

Yogeśvara: So he says, "So I have to leave now. But the last thing I'd like to say is that I reject that conclusion just like I reject also the Christian conclusion that the truth is in the Evangel. But," he says, "that doesn't impede me, that doesn't stop me from working very nicely with some of my best friends who are Christians when it comes down to practical work."

Prabhupāda: No, what is his opinion? That he never disclosed.

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

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Professor Durckheim: Absolutely, that's it. But I realize that since about twenty, thirty years there is a big awakening in the western part of the world. Science and the technique coming out of science, which was invented to liberate the human being, right do exactly the contrary. People become more and more slaves of that organization which they created for their freedom.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Yes.

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

Professor Durckheim: We cut it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, cutting is not allowed unless it is absolutely necessary.

Professor Durckheim: For eating vegetables, for instance, you need it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, that is the law of nature, that every living being is eating another living being. That is stated in the Vedic śāstra.

ahastāni sahastānām

apadāni catuṣ-padām

phalgūni tatra mahatāṁ

jīvo jīvasya jīvanam

That "Those who have no hands—that means animals—they are food for the animal who has got hands. And those who have no legs, they are food for the four-legged." Just like grass has no legs, but it is a food fo the cows and the goats. Apadāni catuṣ-padām, phalgūni tatra mahatām: "Then one who is powerful, very powerful..." Just like tiger, he jumps over another animal.

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

Prabhupāda: So long they do not come to the standard platform, they will accept this sometimes and that sometimes. This will go on, changing.

Prof. Pater Porsch: No, but I meant it differently. Can it not be that average man in the street... I don't mean... Yes, it was, of course, in Germany. Man in the street now is infected from the...

Professor Durckheim: Absolutely, yes.

Prof. Pater Porsch: And he thinks that in order to give a rational presentment, (German) (break)

Professor Durckheim: ...I realize that the closer members engaged, really, in this work of distributing books and chanting, wearing the white robes and shaving the heads, they are the closer participants I suppose. And then have you also members of your movement which are simply in their work, in the community, in the world? Or is...

Prabhupāda: No, we invite everyone.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Bhakti means to offer service to the Lord. Does it mean?

Yoga student: Absolutely.

Prabhupāda: So then if the Lord is to be served, then He must be a person; otherwise where is the question of service?

Yoga student: Well, the Sufis do see that, the personal aspect of the Lord...

Prabhupāda: Unless one is person, how can I serve him? I cannot serve the air or the sky. I must serve a person. Love does not exist in the sky or in the air. It must be a person. Man or woman, it doesn't matter. Otherwise where there is love? Whom to love?

Yoga student: The Sufis find love in these figures... For example, the Sufi Ib'n Araby(?), through of the face of a beautiful woman...

Prabhupāda: Through the face of beautiful woman?

Yoga student: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So there the materialists also find.

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

Yoga student: That is the material aspect, absolutely.

Prabhupāda: Therefore in Islam religion the form is rejected because it will come to that. As soon as they think of form, they think of this material form, beautiful face of woman. That is degradation. Therefore we are strict not to conceive material form. That is Vedic conception. Apāni-pādaḥ javano grahītā: "He has no legs and no hands." This is... means denying the form. And next he says, the Vedas say, javano grahītā: "He can accept whatever you offer to Him." That means God has no material form, but He has form; otherwise how He can accept? How He can understand my love? So therefore in the original Islamism the form is not accepted. So that is Vedic description, form and formless. Formless means no material form, and form means spiritual form, simultaneous. Just like I am, you are. I am within the body, but I am not this body. This form not I am. But wherefrom the form of the body came into existence? Because I have got form. The sweater has got hand because I have got hand. The sweater is the covering. If I haven't got form, then how the sweater has got hand, the pant has got leg? So the pant practically is not the leg. The real leg is within the pant. Similarly, this is not my form; this is like pant, leg of the pant or hand of the coat.

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1975, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Bhakti means to offer service to God. Does it mean?

Guest: Oh, absolutely!

Prabhupāda: Then if God is to be served, then He must be a person, otherwise where is the question of serving?

Guest: Well, the Sufis do see that, the personal aspect of the Lord.

Prabhupāda: Unless one is person, how can I serve him? I cannot serve the air or the sky. I must serve a person. Love does not exist in the sky or in the air. There must be a person, man or woman, it doesn't matter. Otherwise, where there is love? Whom to love?

Guest: The Sufis find love in these figures. For example, the Sufis in (indistinct) through the face of a beautiful woman.

Prabhupāda: Face of beautiful woman, then the materialists also find.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: No. There is absolute happiness. You do not know that. We are meant for that, because we are living beings. But on account of your ass quality you do not like to understand. Mūḍhā nābhijānāti.

Amogha: My parents used to tell me that nothing can be absolutely true, because everything is really finer shades of grey.

Prabhupāda: He has no idea what is absolute truth. He is in darkness. He does not know there is absolute world. This is the relative worlds.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Without cooking.

Justin Murphy: No cooking. No cooking. Immediately, wiggling. The fresher the better. They used to eat small furry animals, bandicoots, wombats. There were no rabbits, of course, in those days. Rabbit has been a disaster introduced by man, by European man. But they used to occasionally pound the grass seeds from a few species of arid sand grasses and make a kind of an unleavened bread, which they would then bake. But generally the aborigines were nomadic, they were shifting, and they didn't cultivate. They didn't till the soil ever. But we must, whilst attempting to provide for the inevitable Australian people and the growth of population, we must also try to do that within the confines and the dictates of nature and the natural resources which we have. Australia is very rich in a lot of natural resources; it's very, very poor in others. It is quite poor in water, and, of course, water is absolutely basic to the growth process. Australia has abundant sunlight, solar energy, which is the basis of photosynthesis. Prabhupāda: Vegetable.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Justin Murphy: Absolutely. Yes. At every moment.

Prabhupāda: So changing. So you are changing your body. That's a fact. But because you are seeing all in one spool, you are thinking, "It is growing; it is moving." That's all. But it is changing. This is the science. So body is changing. And you remember that you had such-and-such body. Therefore you are different from the body. This is the science. So unless we understand that "I am not this body. I am different from the body. I am changing bodies. Therefore I will have to change this body and accept another body..." This is the science, beginning of scientific knowledge. Without understanding this fact his advancement of knowledge is simply for eating, sleeping, sex, and defense. That's all. There is no advancement. According to Vedic literature, he remains animal.

Room Conversation with Journalist -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Everything. Suppose this boy is sitting down. Now I am sitting in a very nice couch. So it is not absolutely necessary that couch is required. But for getting this couch, we had to spend so much energy. So similarly, unnecessarily we have created so many things and going on. That I was going to say, that we come to the human form of life by nature's way. Now what is our duty? Our duty is to make further progress. But instead of going further progressively we are again going to become monkeys and dogs. This is our position.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: ...it is absolutely necessary. (break) ...develop.

Siddha-svarūpa: Hawaii.

Prabhupāda: Hawaii, yes.

Siddha-svarūpa: The Hawaiians could never develop. They didn't want development.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Now they are still here or they have left?

Siddha-svarūpa: They are here, but they've mixed up with other races. There's many mixture in races. And most of the local people who live here, they're a mixture of Hawaiian, Japanese... (break)

Prabhupāda: Then everything will go on nice.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dr. Gerson: Yes, absolutely, yes.

Prabhupāda: Research. So by searching, searching, searching, if you do not come to Kṛṣṇa, then your searching is incomplete. That is the defect. And when you come to Kṛṣṇa understanding, then it is perfect. Then your research work is complete. That is... Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15). Research work means... Actually, that is science, to find out the original source. Just like they are claiming, "The original source of life is chemical." That is not knowledge, imperfect knowledge. The perfect knowledge is as Kṛṣṇa says. What is that? Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). "I am the origin of everything." So when they come to Kṛṣṇa, then he finds out the original source. So that is possible by this research worker after many, many births, not many, many years, but many, many births. And bahūnāṁ janmanām ante: (BG 7.19) "After many, many births," bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān, "one who is actually advanced in knowledge, he surrenders unto Me."

Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is... Just like the heat, the question of energy, the heat 93,000,000's miles away from the sun, heat may be different, and in the sun-globe the heat may be different. But the heat is there; and light is there. The same thing: heat and light is the same, but the degree of presentation of heat and light may be different.

Dr. Pore: Is chanting absolutely necessary in the knowing...

Prabhupāda: That is the easiest way of being directly in touch with God. Because God and God's name, they are absolute, so your chanting the name of God means that directly in touch with God.

Dr. Crossley: Why is that better than loving your fellow man in the traditional bhakti-mārga?

Prabhupāda: But you love your fellow man, but you don't love your fellow animal. You love man, but you send the animals to the slaughter-house. That is your love.

Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The only specific thing is you chant. Then other things will automatically be revealed.

Dr. Crossley: So chanting is necessary.

Prabhupāda: Yes, absolutely.

Dr. Crossley: Nothing else will do as well.

Prabhupāda: No, because at the present moment they are not practical. Suppose the meditation. It is not practical.

Dr. Crossley: Meditation is not practical?

Prabhupāda: No.

Dr. Wolfe: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in our age, that is, in the Kali-yuga, it is not.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like this thing. That is not practical. And it is practical. Even a small child can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. We see every day. A small child is chanting and dancing without any training.

Room Conversation -- June 26, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: I have got my advanced students. They can answer. If they are unable, answer, if you do not find answer from my books, then it is hopeless.

Devotee (1): Ah! But your advanced students are saying if they give an answer that because they have been appointed by you, therefore their answer is perfectly correct, because, absolutely correct on all things in the relative world because, they have been appointed by you, and because you know...

Prabhupāda: You may... That's all right. If you don't believe them, you can finish business.

Devotee (2): But are they correct? That's what we want to know.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are correct.

Room Conversation -- June 26, 1975, Los Angeles:

Jayatīrtha: So you have to see whether it is according to our principles.

Devotee (2): I'm asking you on a very practical... No. That is not what he said. He didn't say that. He said absolutely, and this is...

Upendra: Then you should listen to everything he said.

Devotee (2): I am. Because if I can judge then, if I can say, "Oh, at this point he is wrong," then that is what we are talking about, Śrīla Prabhupāda. That is the issue. If they are absolutely right all the time and they can make no error, they wield absolute power over our lives.

Prabhupāda: Where is (name witheld)? Where is (he)?

Satsvarūpa: He is across the street.

Prabhupāda: Has he said like that?

Devotee (2): Yes. I have witnesses.

Room Conversation -- June 26, 1975, Los Angeles:

Devotee (2): Wait. I am not speaking with you. He said he did that and he did it in the name of his authority as a sannyāsa. So if you say, Prabhupāda, that everything that they say is absolutely true, then they will have absolute power and can do anything that they want, and anything that they say and any opinion they express is taken to be the same as yours, then it becomes implied that you agree with and condone such things, because they do them with absolute license. And we don't believe that to be true. So we think it is some kind of mistake.

Prabhupāda: They say like that?

Devotee (1): Everyone says like that.

Morning Walk -- July 1, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Revatinandana is becoming less and less spiritually. He had good potency, but he is losing that.

Devotee (1): You said that if we fast and we can't do our work and we become weak, than this is not so good.

Prabhupāda: This is not good, "not so" not, absolutely bad.

Devotee (1): So, our devotional service comes first?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with the Mayor of Evanston -- July 4, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: The vānaprastha life is accepted, generally, after fiftieth year, not earlier. Then the husband and wife travels all over, I mean to say, spiritual sanctified places. In India there are so many places. So in this way, there is no sex in the vānaprastha. Simply the wife remains as assistant. And she also practices austerities. And then the husband, when he is fully mature, he sends wife back to his elderly children to take care of her and he takes sannyāsa. So this is spiritual advancement, and in sannyāsa life, one is absolutely dedicated for the service of God. So in this way his life becomes perfect. And according to his perfection, he gets next birth in higher planetary system. In the upper planets, planetary system, there is Svargaloka up to the third-class man. And then, above that, there are Janaloka, Maharloka, Tapaloka, Satyaloka, Brahmaloka. And beyond that, there is spiritual world.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: You see how they are standing there for five thousand years. You cannot do it. You cannot do it even for five minutes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Actually the trees are absolutely necessary for the survival of animals.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. We say nothing is necessary, simply Kṛṣṇa is necessary. That is material conception: "This is necessary. This is necessary." But Kṛṣṇa says, "Nothing is necessary." Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). You are simply planning and becoming entangled with so-called "necessary."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But that is on the spiritual platform.

Prabhupāda: You can create spiritual platform immediately. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān (BG 14.26). If you fully engage yourself in devotional service, immediately you are above this material conception.

Morning Walk -- September 26, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Prabhupāda: You want to save yourself.

Indian man (2): His definition is different, absolutely. According to his...

Prabhupāda: No, God cannot be defined differently. God is one.

Indian man (2): But can God be defined? We haven't got a definition of God. I challenge you.

Indian man (3): (Hindi)

Indian man (2): You cannot. Intellectually, you cannot analyse things.

Prabhupāda: No, intellectual level you can. That is definition of God. Ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇa. Aiśvaryasya samāgrasya... Parāśara Muni has given. That is God just like you try to understand one thing. We have got some experience that there is a rich man, but that rich man cannot say that "I am the richest man in the world." That he cannot say. So this richness is one opulence, but you cannot find anyone who can say that "I am the richest man." That is not possible. But if you find somebody who can say like that, and if he proves, then he is God. Aiśvaryasya samāgrasya. That Kṛṣṇa says, bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram: (BG 5.29) "I am the proprietor of everything," that Kṛṣṇa says. And He proved when He was present. He proved it. So therefore He is God.

Morning Walk -- September 30, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, Mohammed also has got... Caitanya Mahāprabhu argued in Koran. He proved there is kṛṣṇa-bhakti. He proved with the Pathans. Yes.

Dr. Patel: Otherwise the Christianity is just our way, I mean, absolutely Vaisnavism. It has been wrongly preached and wrongly initiated in India. That is why it has fallen to disrepute. Otherwise Christianity is just Vaiṣṇava-dharma. Nothing else, to my mind, the way I have studied, I mean the New Testament and all the Christian, all the things. Now, the sermon of Christ is nothing but the preaching of Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: I never criticized. I simply said that positive side, God consciousness.

Morning Walk -- September 30, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Now the village program of Gandhi is lost.

Dr. Patel: Absolutely. But whatever he has got, he had a lot of vidhi-niṣedha...

Prabhupāda: And it is lost because it was not God-centered. It is lost.

Dr. Patel: But he was God conscious. I mean, I have been brought up in that camp. Gandhi was a saint. But these people could not follow him. They have not understood him well. Those people who understood him, they died out. They died out.

Prabhupāda: Now, now, Gandhi's āśrama, was there any temple for worshiping Kṛṣṇa? No.

Dr. Patel: They had a temple. My wife was brought up there in the āśrama.

Prabhupāda: There was a temple?

Dr. Patel: In the morning they had to say prayer to Deva. (?) Gītā-mandir they had. They had all the characteristics of a good saint.

Prabhupāda: Why not from the beginning? No, no, no. Gandhi did not believe in Kṛṣṇa. No, yes, he has written, that "I know..."

Dr. Patel: Not that the way we believe, but he did believe.

Prabhupāda: No. That means he is right and we are wrong.

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: No. You should be diplomatic. You should give positive information of our philosophy. Where need be, absolutely necessary, you can criticize others. (break) ...preaching is successful.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Only because you've sent us here. Otherwise we would have never come to this place in a million years. I think in America the devotees think that Africa is simply a bunch of jungles. No one wants to come here to preach.

Prabhupāda: (break)...very broad. (break) ...ask him about swimming, why they cannot swim all through like the fish. They are defeated.

Morning Walk -- October 28, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because this is necessary. You must have some shelter; you must eat; you must cover. That is necessary. So you do it. Grow food first of all to feed yourself sumptuously. You must get strength, and that is needed. But not for trade. The policy should be that you should be self-sufficient and save time for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is wanted. Yavad-ārtha prayojanam. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya yogo bhavati siddhi-daḥ. You shall eat whatever you require for proper upkeep of the body, not eating too much and sleeping whole day. Don't do that. Eat only what is absolutely necessary. Then you'll never be in want. People are engaged in material civilization means they are increasing the bodily demands, unnecessary. Just like this park. Why we have come to this park? We like this atmosphere. So similarly, in villages, everyone, if he has got some land, he can live simply without any gorgeous building. What is the use? Just have a cottage and have garden. You'll live very peacefully. But they're constructing big, big skyscraper building in the downtown, and they will have to come here by car for some peace of mind, and in the meantime, accident, police. This is the civilization, nonsense civilization. At weekend they will go to the village, country, and during the week-time they will work hard. This is their civilization, with the risk of life, running motor car eighty miles' speed. Every moment there is risk. What is this civilization? Most ludicrous civilization. So farming means if you live in a farm... Just like in New Vrindaban they are doing. Produce your own food, live peacefully, fresh vegetable, fresh grains, fresh milk, and prepare so many nice milk preparation, kachori, halavā with ghee. Offer to the Deity. Eat sufficiently. What is the use of going outside? Simple life and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. If you can organize that, that will be very nice.

Morning Walk -- November 3, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścid me priya-kṛttamaḥ. (Hindi) If we want to be recognized by Kṛṣṇa, this is the simple process: go and flatter persons, "Please hear some words from Bhāgavata," that's all. And actually we are doing that. We are not learned, very scholarly.

Dr. Patel: Sir, I read your commentary on Bhagavad-gītā and Rāmānujācārya's. They are absolutely parallel.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: I think you have taken out of it... (laughter)

Prabhupāda: How can I...

Dr. Patel: I am just joking.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Our process is to take from the ācāryas. We are not manufacturing. We are not so fools and rascals that we have to manufacture. We have to take the remnants of foodstuff given by the ācārya and explain in the modern way so that people may... That is our business.

Morning Walk -- November 8, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Jaya. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...explained in Bhagavad-gītā. Unfortunately the rascals will not take it. That is the difficulty.

Dr. Patel: In my time, when, your time, I mean our time, in the school there was a compulsion of learning the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. Now these modern principals,(?) they don't know anything about it. Absolutely there is no knowledge. My daughter said, "What is Rāmāyaṇa?" I had to look at a English edition of Rāmāyaṇa and give her Mahābhārata. That is what they are teaching now in the schools. So this race is going bankrupt. What about knowing about Bhagavad-gītā and Bhāgavata? They don't know simple Mahābhārata.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...city one house with twenty rooms on the riverside.

Dr. Patel: I was told that Lasteri's house, you know, sir, Charpak Lasteri.(?)

Prabhupāda: What do you think will be the price?

Dr. Patel: I don't know about price, sir. But their prices are as high as in Bombay. Whose is this house? Who is the owner? (break)

Prabhupāda: ...jīvanti. The trees, they live many, many hundreds of thousands of years more than men.

Morning Walk -- November 17, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...poverty.

Dr. Patel: They have nothing to eat all the time. Ninety percent of the peasantry absolutely, completely wiped out during the Britishers' time. They never looked after them.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Poverty is the cause of nonretirement?

Dr. Patel: They have nothing to eat. They hardly get, I mean, two meals. Not square but even triangle. (laughs) They don't get any food in the mofices(?).

Prabhupāda: What is the question of mofices?(?) I am talking of...

Dr. Patel: India is made up of all villages and mofices(?). Cities are few.

Prabhupāda: So that is the cause of nonretirement.

Morning Walk -- November 19, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no. One has to go beyond the mind, but one, those who are stuck up with the mind, they are useless. So the Western philosophers, they are stuck up with the mind. That is the defect. (break) ...bhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ. Manorathena, mental concoction, asataḥ. Western philosophers, they take the mind as the soul. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Hm?

Dr. Patel: Yes. And the Communists think even the matter is more important than the mind. What do you call? Dialectical materialism, that the matter produces consciousness. It is not the consciousness which, I mean, collects matter around it. That is their philosophy. That is this dialectical materialism. They are absolutely wrong. They are even further down than the Western philosophers, mental philosophers.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...is already mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā.

indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur

indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ

manasas tu parā buddhir...

(BG 3.42)

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And this "Christ" has come from Kristo, Kṛṣṇa. Yes.

Dr. Patel: The cow from... Gao from cow, and cow from gao. No? It is absolutely not..., so very easy.

Prabhupāda: We are Kṛṣṇian, and they are Christian. There is similarity.

Dr. Patel: Nomenclature. Christ was really a bhāgavata, I mean, in a true sense.

Prabhupāda: Anyone who accepts God, he is bhāgavata.

Dr. Patel: Christ, sir, really taught absolutely bhāgavata-dharma. The way... All his sayings, the New Testament and his Sermon on Mount, all is absolutely Bhāgavata. I have studied it very, in great detail and compared the two myself. So Christ was the greatest Hindu, to tell the truth. But as those people in the Middle East were heathens and absolutely junglis, they crucified him. Had he been here he would have been a big saint and avatāra.

Prabhupāda: Recent history is that he did not die. He came to Kashmir.

Morning Walk -- November 21, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No. That is another side of bodily conception. Soul is without... Asaṅgo 'yaṁ puruṣaḥ. "The soul has nothing to do with this material world."

Dr. Patel: That's right. You are absolutely right, sir. But if there is no soul in the body, what will happen to the body?

Prabhupāda: No, no. If there is no soul in the body, then body is useless.

Dr. Patel: It dies.

Prabhupāda: That's all. That we are pointing out, that without soul, this body has no meaning. It is a lump of matter. But you are saying that without this lump of matter, the soul cannot...

Dr. Patel: No, no. I don't say that. But so far as the body is living, soul has got to be there.

Prabhupāda: No.

Morning Walk -- November 24, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The whole world is suffering on this misconception. The horse also. As soon as it gets on somebody on his back he become jubilant immediately. This is the nature. Jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Jaya. (break) ...vantam eva caran nirāntara prasanta-niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntaram, kadāham aikāntika-nitya-kiṅkara praharsayiśyāmi sanātha jīvitam. This is Vaiṣṇava aspiration. Bhavantam eva caran nirāntaram: "Twenty-four hours simply carrying Your orders." And you can do it. But it is not possible. The mind is checking. Prasanta-niḥśeṣa mano-rathāntaram. Unless one's mind is fixed up, he cannot become servant of God. Kadāham aikāntika-nitya-kiṅkara. "In this way, when I shall be absolutely Your servant and live very joyfully, that 'I have got my master.'?" This is Yamunacārya's verse.

bhavantam eva caran nirāntaraṁ

prasanta-niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntaram

kadāham aikāntika-nitya-kiṅkaraḥ

praharsayīśyāmi sanātha-jīvitam

Dr. Patel: Sanātha-jīva.

Prabhupāda: They are all anātha-jīvita. Yes. Everyone is independence and anātha. There is nātha, but he'll not recognize. Anātha-jīvita. Bhavantam eva caran nirāntaraṁ prasanta... So we are educating people how to become sanātha-jīvitam. Live on your master's... Everyone is living at the cost of master, but foolishly. Ahāṅkara-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). They are living at the cost of the master, but they will not accept. This is the disease. (break) ...natural life, sanātha-jīvitam. From the birth the child is sanātha, parents. Where is the possibility of living independently? That is not possible.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. On the other land. Make a shed immediately and keep some cows. And Viśvambhara, he is experienced. He will help. (break) ...necessary vairāgya, there is no need. We don't approve that. Yuktāhāra-vihāras ca. What you require for keeping health but not to eat too much. But what is absolutely required must be done.

Aksayānanda: I heard that if you pass stool more than once a day you become a bhogī? You are called a bhogī?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no. This is not education. This jara avidya, material education, is no education. It doesn't require any education. This education for eating, sleeping, education, that is not education, that is cats and dogs they also know how to do it without education. Real education is brahma-vidyā. Athāto brahma jijñāsā—this is education. So that is now given up throughout the whole world. Nobody is interested in Brahman; they are simply interested in sense gratification.

Dr. Patel: Because I think, sir, the method of education the world over is absolutely different...

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is not education. The education for eating, sleeping, that is not education.

Dr. Patel: The way we were educating, our forefathers are educating their children, by this method of sending them to a guru in an āśrama...

Prabhupāda: That is real education.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is brahmacārī. Where is that education?

Dr. Patel: This education are given to the Vaiṣṇavas in their homes. They are Vaiṣṇavas. But then so-called Vaiṣṇavas, many of them they are ruthless. Ruthless, absolutely ruthless...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct), kṣatriyas, there is no (indistinct) kṣatriya...

Dr. Patel: No, what I mean to say...

Prabhupāda: ...everyone is śūdra.

Dr. Patel: No, no, really sir, but they are in business. They don't consider that they are this soul; they consider the body comforts and body...

Prabhupāda: That is śūdra. One has to become a brāhmaṇa, jñānam. But they have no knowledge; therefore they are śūdra. Brahmana means jñānam, vijñānam and āstikya: "Yes, there is God, and He is the original cause of everything." That is brahma-jña. Brahma jñānārthī brāhmaṇa. So where is brāhmaṇa? All śūdras. Kalau śūdra sambhava—especially in this age of Kali, everyone is śūdra, or less than śūdra. But still Kṛṣṇa gives the opportunity striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te'pi yānti parāṁ gatim. How? Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya (BG 9.32), he may take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Even the śūdras, they also.

Morning Walk -- December 19, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā. Why?

Dr. Patel: And look at him. He's so, I mean, so absolutely healthy. I mean it is, we should not laugh about it, but there is something right in it.

Prabhupāda: No, no. I don't laugh; I am surprised! (devotees laugh)

Dr. Patel: No, we are surprised. I also, I also was surprised first, but then it is not so.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Thank you very much (to passerby) Who is your devotee daughter?

Dr. Patel: Janice. Jani! (calling to passing man) His mother was so much great devotee, she died only at the age of ninety-eight years. When she was...

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dr. Patel: His mother. She was dying, and she said, "I don't want to see anybody; bring only Kṛṣṇa's photo before me." (Hindi to other man) No, no. His mother-Mr. Jani's. And then looking at the photograph of Kṛṣṇa, she breathed her last.

Prabhupāda: I saw in Delhi one old man, just a few minutes before his death he asked his son to bring Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa picture, and it was put before him, and he died.

Morning Walk -- December 24, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...if there is truth, where is the scope of experiment?

Dr. Patel: I mean, that you want to, you want to pick up that point, then you are absolutely right, there is no experiment.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is contradiction. If you say "truth," there is no question of experiment. That I..., try to understand. It is contradiction.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: (break) So if you are not independent, what is the value of your thinking independently?

Keśavalāl Trivedi: Absolutely none. None.

Prabhupāda: But everyone is thinking independently.

Keśavalāl Trivedi: Yes. That is māyā. That is the māyā, that which is not.

Prabhupāda: They are making plans, theories, "ism." What is the value of this?

Keśavalāl Trivedi: Absolutely none.

Prabhupāda: Therefore everything is becoming failure. So preach this truth to the world, that "You are all rascals. Why you are thinking independently?" Huh? "Why I am rascal?" "Because you are thinking independently. That is the proof that you are a rascal." Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ (SB 7.5.31). Īśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhaḥ. And they are thinking independently.

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no, listen...

Dr. Patel: I will argue with you instead of.... Mahārāja, you see, I have.... Again we had a very great altercation within myself. I was a.... (break) I may tell you, I have studied the Vaiṣṇava's philosophy from various angles. The last two years I have been making a very deep study of it, and I am a student of this theologian philosophy. I think he is absolutely right, that complete surrendering to God by bhakti...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: ...you get complete jñāna.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's it.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: No. It is there. (?) They have absolutely no shame. They will again come back.

Devotee (1): Actually, they are all doing it; he just got caught. So he doesn't feel so bad. It's like a game.

Prabhupāda: So how, if the state has condemned him as dishonest man, how he's being appointed as ambassador?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He's not being appointed so far.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: So many examples are there. Freedom is there, but you are not absolutely free to do whatever you like.

Guru dāsa: Because of the stringent laws of nature.

Prabhupāda: Because you are small. Just like children. He has got freedom, playing. But when he is doing something wrong, father, "You don't do this. Don't do this. Don't do this." But if he does it, even he is children, even he's child, he'll suffer. He cannot say, "I am child. I did not know, father." Then that does not matter. You must suffer. You must suffer, even though you are child.

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: There is.... The brāhmaṇa... This is brāhmaṇa. This formula is there. Satya śamo damas titikṣā ārjava. So you have to see whether he is possessing this quality. Or train them. Have brahminical school, what I am willing to do. That is required absolutely. There must be a class of men, perfect brāhmaṇa. Otherwise society will be ruined. In the Western countries there is no brāhmaṇa. There may be some kṣatriyas and vaiśyas only, and śūdras. Brāhmaṇa there is none. So the same thing is here also now. Therefore the whole society is going down. There is no brāhmaṇa. What is this? This is brahminical culture. We are asking them not to be sinful, become devotee. This is brahminical culture. Namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca, for the benefit of brahminical culture and cow protection. That is brahminical culture.

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why? If you don't require anything, why should you purchase? Don't create artificial demand. If you require to purchase something, then purchase. That is material civilization. "I don't require it; still I want it." Atyāhāra.

atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca

prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ

jana-saṅgaś ca laulyaṁ ca

ṣaḍbhir bhaktir vinaśyati

(NOI 2)

Finish. We should not possess anything which is not absolutely necessary. We are keeping these cars for preaching facility, not for sense gratification. We are keeping this dictaphone for preaching facility. Otherwise why it should be required?

Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Thank you.

Dr. Patel: He is such a man. He has all the characteristics of a sannyāsī in the home. He is a multi-millionaire's son. But absolutely untouched by wealth, and very fine man, extremely fine.

Prabhupāda: If our gurukula children comes here they can have very good sporting. And this idea I have given you?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Remain healthy.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Twice a day.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Twice a day can come, take bath and enjoy sporting life and then chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, take good prasādam. That's all. Why they should waste their time in technology to become a coolie?

Girirāja: Actually there was once a case. A newspaper once wrote that Henry Ford was ignorant. So Henry Ford filed a case against the newspaper. So in the hearing, the defense asked so many questions about science and history to Henry Ford. So Henry Ford said to the judge that "In my office I have a panel of buttons, and I can press any button and someone will come running to answer any of these questions. So am I ignorant?" (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Stena eva sa ucyate (BG 3.12). In Bhāgavata it is written that everything belongs to God. You take whatever is your necessity. You take more, then you'll be punished. This is Bhāgavata's statement. So now the business is to become capitalist. He's taking more, holding the whole stock, at least in India. It is not coming to the market, and people are starving. So they will be punished. (break) ...also. The excess grain they are throwing it into the sea. So they'll be punished. They are also waiting, (Sanskrit). (break) ...spiritual communism. Don't take more. Just like the natural birds, if you keep one bag of rice here, he'll come, but they will take three, four grains, and they'll go away. And if you ask a man, "Here is some stack of rice." "Ah, I'll take." Immediately finished. One man will take it the whole stack, everything. "Oh, I've got it free. Let me take it." But the birds, they're under natural law. They know, "Ah, I have finished. I have got my belly filled up. I don't require any more." So God has given everything sufficiently. If every man takes whatever he wants absolutely, then there is no difficulty. That is your complication. But why there should be fight? Father's property of every son. He take as much as he requires. Accept father, his property, and take as much as you require. Don't take more. That is real communism. So where is that communism? Who has it? The material nature, the mother, and God is the father. And we are all children. That's all. Plain truth. (break) ...accept this philosophy?

Devotee (2): The sane people, the sane persons, they will accept.

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

Rāmeśvara: Yes, he'd rather be a machine and be in Kṛṣṇa's service.

Prabhupāda: No, no, machine we are, but still there is independence. That means you are not absolutely independently, relatively. The state, you say we are American-independent. But that does not mean you can do whatever you like. As soon as you misuse, you are arrested, punished. Even the president is not independent. As soon as he misused his power, drag him, "Come out." What to speak of you.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, all over the world, they accept Sunday first.

Mahendra: All of their successes are accidental. Just like they discovered the planet called Pluto. The way it was discovered was one man recognized that there was a fluctuation in the orbit of the planet Neptune, and so he made some calculations and figured that the fluctuations were caused by another planet that must be further away than Neptune that no one has discovered yet. So he made many calculations and figured out where the planet should be, how big it should be, how much it should weigh, how far away it was. So then he told other scientists about it, and they looked in their telescopes, and sure enough, there it was. But it wasn't as big as he said, nor was it as heavy as he said, nor was it as far away as he said, and when they rechecked the data they found that the orbit of the original planet wasn't really wrong either. So all of his calculations were wrong, but still the planet was there. So somehow or other he stumbled upon it, but all of his calculations to find it were absolutely wrong. That's the planet called Pluto.

Prabhupāda: Recently there was an propaganda. That comet?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it would come and destroy,

Prabhupāda: There was no comet.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I won't even, for New York, I won't even take a loan.

Prabhupāda: No, we can forward loan if it is absolutely necessary.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I won't need it. We have the money.

Prabhupāda: Oh, this side also road is becoming...

Rāmeśvara: All the way down from the beach to downtown Los Angeles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fixing it.

Rāmeśvara: This is going to be one of the main streets in Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Hmm? No, I do not wish to interfere. You manage now. I want to see that you are managing without my interference. Now practically I want to concentrate more, or absolutely I want to do that. But sometimes this mismanagement gives me too much anxiety. I do not wish to see that somehow or other we have built up a nice institution, on account of lack of management it may be hampered. That is my only anxiety. Now what is the position of the Gurukula in Texas? Our Gurukula, I have repeatedly said that we want simply to know English nicely—English is international language—and Sanskrit just to read and understand our literature. But we don't find any progress in that way.

Morning Walk -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: They use flesh for curing diseases?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Animal-killing is only allowed when it is absolutely necessary, for medicine. Suppose by killing one animal hundreds of lives are saved, so that is allowed. One preparation is chagalaka-ghṛta. It is prepared... A live goat is put into the ghee with other ingredients, and that is a good medicine for tisis(?).

Hari-śauri: For?

Prabhupāda: Tisis(?) Tuberculosis.

Hari-śauri: Oh.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They actually cook the live goat in the ghee? Maybe we should withhold this science from the Western world for a while.

Prabhupāda: No, you are expert already. (laughter)

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Not outside. Not like England, they have to import from... This is a very good example. Just like salt, we require. A little salt will increase the taste. But because it is absolutely necessary for eating, salt—everyone eats salt, nobody can avoid salt—it does not mean I shall eat too much. If I take this whole salt pot and put into..., "It is very good," that is foolishness. Similarly, sense gratification, so long we have got this material body, we require little. But because it is tasty, let us take it, whole pot, that is mistake. This is going on. This foolishness is going on. Sex life is good; simply take sex life, go on and spoil your whole life. That is going on. If everything is accepted in regulative principle, little salt, that's all, that's very nice. But as soon as you think "It is very nice. Let me take simply this," then it is spoiled. That is wanted. We don't reject anything but accept in a regular way. Flesh eaters? All right, you want flesh? "No, I want flesh, but I want this big cow." Why not less important animals? There are so many other animals. The goats are there, the lambs are there, the hogs are there. Take them. Why Kṛṣṇa says go-rakṣya? It is a very important animal. It will give you brain substance, this rasagullā. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says go-rakṣya. But this rascal has no knowledge. The cows give us milk, very nutritious. "Oh, eat the whole cow. Then all nutrition will come." This is their intelligence. Rubbish civilization. Why Kṛṣṇa has recommended go-rakṣya? He never said that other animal. If you are fond of eating flesh, you take other animals, not the cow. Give protection, take milk from it, and prepare nice preparations, that will be good for brain, for your mind. Apart from... There is no question of religious sentiment. From practical.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Why you bring Kṛṣṇa? First of all, try to understand the analogy. There is car and there is the driver. That car is always different from the driver and the driver is always different from the car. Is it not?

Interviewer: Absolutely. The car can't drive itself.

Prabhupāda: So, if you take attention of the car and you do not know anything about the driver, then what is your knowledge?

Interviewer: I didn't quite get the question.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Drinking is prohibited.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: No, absolutely not. The modern Muslims drink.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say drinking is prohibited.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Prohibited. Yes. It is not permitted, prohibited.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I say prohibited.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, our preaching should be sensible, then people will accept. After all, they are human being. There is sense, but by force they are covering the sense. So we have to awaken them by handling carefully, that's all. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo gauracānda bole. Who are... Uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varan nibodhata. They are sleeping. We have awaken them, that's it. That is preaching. Even the animal-killing, where it is absolutely necessary... So according to any religious principle, there is God. Just like who was telling me? You were telling me about the lamb killing? The injunction is the mouth(?) should be toward Mecca. Is it like that?

Nava-yauvana: Yes, Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So many men. We don't want so many men. Now we are going to minimize. We don't want so many men. That if, now we have to estimate how many men absolutely required. So many men we shall keep. Others, they must go for the preaching. They must go to the preaching.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They can all go on the buses, the extra men.

Prabhupāda: No, they should be distributed. They may go to other centers.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The servant should be kept only when it is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, everything should be done by us.

Haṁsadūta: I understand that, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: They are paying two thousand rupees.

Haṁsadūta: Till now, as far as possible, I've let a number of people go already. But until I can get the devotees to do these engagements, I can't let the servant go.

Prabhupāda: No, that's all right, but devotees why they shall not do?

Haṁsadūta: Well, that is the...

Prabhupāda: If they are unwilling to do then they must remain in the guesthouse as a respectable guest.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Stop now. Don't divert attention.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is a letter from Śrī Ambarish Sarkar, General Secretary of the Nadia District Congress Committee. "I had an opportunity to visit the Śrī Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir on the 12th August, 1975. It is absolutely a religious institution. Jayapātāka Swami has devoted all of his efforts and endeavors to organize and propound the sacred name of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. I'm impressed by his charming manner and strength. Although it is a religious institution, this organization has performed many social services. Many poor and destitute families have had an opportunity to work and at the same time they have become worshipers of Lord Śrī Caitanya. To engage these workers, so many industrial centers have already been started, such as handloom cloth, printing, etc. I wish this organization, with its help of the local people, all success."

Prabhupāda: We're not only chanting, we are giving them work. We are trying to become self-sufficient, the same idea of Gandhi's village organization, so they may not come out from the village. They'll be satisfied, village economics. That we are doing.

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Not different ways. Different explanation. (break) So any question, any problem, it is solved not by the whims of the student, but it is solved by the expert master by explaining it very elaborately.

Indian man: So the little knowledge I possess. In a classroom there are different types of students. One are sharp, certain are dull. Certain are absolutely dull. The degrees of understanding are different from student to student.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that's alright. That is explanation. That is not different way.

Indian man: A particular student, master has to teach him in that way.

Prabhupāda: The answer is one.

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) No, America... The purpose of going to America for... This was one of the cause, that "When I bring Americans here, these rascals will take some lesson."

Guest (1): I think you are absolutely right. (laughing) Psychologically, somehow or other, anything that is...

Prabhupāda: And long, long ago, in the beginning, one friend wrote. I replied in that letter, that "You have finished your cows. You are importing powdered milk. Now you have to import brāhmaṇas also from America. (laughter)

Guest (1): True, absolutely true.

Prabhupāda: Now, you see that we are establishing so many temples. They are being maintained by imported American brāhmaṇas. You cannot get.

Guest (1): Same thing in Aurobindo. I went to Pondicherry also this...

Prabhupāda: You cannot get here now brāhmaṇas. They have learned how to eat meat, how to drink, how to have illicit sex. They are finished.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with C.I.D. Chief -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: In this old age-eighty-one years I am—I am working day and night just to preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness and...

CID Chief: This is absolutely a service to God and humanity. Whatever tendency you have... Whatever comes out of your mouth, word, becomes a religious... It is written, out of which you write books. Out of the produce... From the proceeds of that book, you constructed a... It is wholeheartedly towards the God. Whole life is devoted to God.

Prabhupāda: And for these books, as author, if I would have taken royalty, my daily income would have been one lakh, fifty thousand. I don't take a single farthing. Whatever two cāpāṭis they give, that's all.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: But these coconuts, there would be more coconuts if they are looked after, all these, putting fertilizer on and watering them. All these houses behind here, they should be very planned out. This is all filthy. Behind it is very filthy. All these tenants will be segregated on one side, this side. And those living, they will be taking possession and...

Prabhupāda: No, instead of taking one building, we are in possession of the all the buildings. Then that is my policy, that we must remain on the head of every building. Therefore I constructed. They cannot say absolutely it is tenant, no. Mixed. We are therefore occupying the head of every building, fixed building.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Ah. For Kṛṣṇa you have to give up sense gratification. No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling—you have to adopt so many things, tyāga. Anartha-nivṛtti. These are anartha, unnecessary things. Do you think if you do not smoke, you die? Unnecessary. What is absolutely necessary, you accept. So bhogādi-tyāgaḥ kṛṣṇārthe. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya: (BG 18.66) "You have created so many unnecessary things. Give up." So that is not possible immediately, but it is possible. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). The sādhu-saṅga means associate with sādhu, guru. If we have śraddhā that "I shall now become Kṛṣṇa conscious"—this is śraddhā, "It is very nice"—then sādhu-saṅga: (CC Madhya 22.83) those who are actually Kṛṣṇa conscious, you associate with him. Then bhajana-kriyā. Then bhajana-kriyā... The bhajana, that rise early in the morning, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, take your bath, and so many things, bhajana-kriyā... Then anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Then all these unwanted things will be finished automatically. And if you do not do these first three, the fourth will not come, fourth stage, anartha... And after anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt, then niṣṭhā, firm faith. Then anartha, tato ruciḥ. Then taste. Then you get taste. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ..., anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt, tato niṣṭhā tato ruciḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). Taste. Just like you have got a taste for a food. You cannot give it up. "I want this." Ruci. Athāsaktiḥ. Then you become attached. Tato bhāvaḥ. Sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ. This is the subject there.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Why you come to pose your authority? If authority is not good, then why do you come to instruct your authority? Hm? The same thing, eh, change from one authority to another authority.

Satsvarūpa: But I don't say you have to accept me absolutely as...

Prabhupāda: Then why do you speak nonsense then, if I haven't got to accept you? What is the use of speaking all nonsense? If nobody accepts you, then why do you talk nonsense? Somebody's selling something, and if he says, "Don't purchase it," then what is the use of... (laughs) All contradiction. After all, they are nonsense.

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Then how he can go against it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually they can't. I mean they have absolutely no case, but still they're pushing onwards just to make some, create some dirt.

Prabhupāda: The thing is... Real thing is that... That was spoken by one politician, that "It is spreading like epidemic?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That danger they are fighting.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh. "Unfortunately, after seven-hour stopover in Tokyo, they lost my reservations on my connecting flight. That, coupled with the fact that after arriving last night I find they've sent my belongings to Bombay, so I am waiting until the evening for the flight from Bombay when I get my trunk. I shall try to hire a taxi directly to Māyāpur. I would come now but I have absolutely no personal clothes or anything. Please tell Prabhupāda that I am due this evening. If not, then I shall ask the Calcutta devotees to care for my luggage and I'll proceed immediately."

Prabhupāda: No, there is no need of coming. We are going.

Conversation: Vairagya, Salaries, and Political Etiquette -- April 28, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So that should be stopped. So to live with wife, together as a gṛhastha, and enjoy gṛhastha life, at the same time to live in temple, this should be discouraged. Temple is meant for brahmacārī and sannyāsī, our, mainly, not for gṛhastha, because they have got inclination to enjoy. To live with wife means enjoyment. They'll have sex. This should be discouraged. But one who is absolutely required, they also cannot be allowed to live together. It is badly done(?). Suppose if one is gṛhastha, he is in devotional service, but he has no money to look after his wife. In that case the wife can live in the temple but separately with women, not together. Together living is very disturbing. It is not at all recommended. Give this point. At least, this should not be encouraged.

Conversation: Vairagya, Salaries, and Political Etiquette -- April 28, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Because his service is essential.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But that has to be determined very strictly.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Whether his service is absolutely required? So you give him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is the factor. That point must be clearly acknowledged.

Prabhupāda: Hm hm. So he's trying to practice... Because sevonmukhe, if he gives service, then gradually he'll renounce. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234). God realization means service. The more you give service to the Lord, the more you become advanced in devotional... So one who is giving service, dedicated life, so maybe... But no salary. They may live in the temple, woman separate, man separate.

Conversation: Vairagya, Salaries, and Political Etiquette -- April 28, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Vairāgya... Caitanya Mahāprabhu says clearly that niṣkiñcanasya bhagavad-bhajanonmukhasya. The bhagavad-bhajana, to become devotee of the Lord, means he's disgusted with this material world. For him, bhagavad-bhajana. Just like if I become disgusted with something, I require some change, similarly, bhagavad-bhajana is for him who is absolutely disgusted with this material world. And anyone who has got little interest in material enjoyment, he's not fit for bhagavad-bhajana. He'll have to accept again this material body, either he becomes Brahmā or becomes an ant in the stool, according to his karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha-upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). He'll have to develop certain type of body according to his desire of enjoyment. This is nature's law. Then where is the question of going back to home, back to Godhead? Why so many varieties of life? There is Brahmā, and there is ant in the stool. So vairāgya-vidyā-nija... Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ (SB 1.2.7), janayaty āśu vairāgyam. And vairāgyam means jñānam ca. When one is in full knowledge that "To remain in this material world is useless for me"—jñānam—"I am simply wasting my time by repetition of birth and death," then he can have vairāgya. "Stop this!" If this sense is not awakened, there is no bhakti. It is not so easy.

Conversation with Vedic Astronomer -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

only I can do. I give the translation to them and all do the work. Simply we can show to them.

Prabhupāda: I have tried to translate it as far as possible, but I am not satisfied.

Indian Astronomer: A deep study of the text is absolutely necessary.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Indian Astronomer: Deep study of text and also with a mind of preparing diagram, study of the..., that is... We ask Padma-bhūṣaṇa(?). How is Padma-bhūṣaṇa...

Prabhupāda: What is your idea of the seven planets, sun...?

Indian Astronomer: You see, planets, in our system planets comes in the history very late.

Evening Darsana -- May 12, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: So become authority. That is... We said that. You become guru, authority. But you learn first of all as celā from the guru. And then you become guru. And without any learning, without any..., how become a guru? That is going on. Everyone is self-made guru. That has to be stopped.

Indian man (5): I feel, in this country at least, the young generation, the present generation, absolutely has got no base, religious base. And...

Prabhupāda: Religious base is there. There is scriptures. But they are not being trained up.

Indian man (5): They are trained, but after some time they...

Prabhupāda: They do not like to be trained up.

GBC Meets with Srila Prabhupada -- May 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Girirāja: Then, for the BBT, the idea would be that the principle amount should not be touched, but it can be given, you know, for loan if absolutely necessary, just as you have been doing. But the idea is that that amount should always be repaid.

Prabhupāda: On principle.

Girirāja: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Even by chance it is not paid, don't mind. Business should not suffer. That's all.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So time is up? Not yet.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, any time... (break) Did you get a little rest? The sun wasn't disturbing? (break) Always you came out victorious. Always. I have never seen you ever defeated. In Bombay it was absolutely impossible. It seemed to be impossible.

Prabhupāda: Nobody encouraged.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: Nobody, not a single man. Who could see that a big project would come out?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Only you could see that, you and Rādhā-Rāsa-vihārī. I was...

Prabhupāda: Nobody... Still, I was determined: "No, this place is very nice."

Conversation with Surendra Kumar and O.B.L. Kapoor -- June 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: She'll leave in material... Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo: (BG 18.66) "I shall deliver you." God gives you that. God is protecting actually. And without God's protection, you cannot live. But still more if you absolutely depend on Him. This is our organization. Here also duty, depending on Kṛṣṇa. At least ten to fifteen thousand men we are feeding daily. So how it is being done throughout the whole world? And everywhere opulence like this. We are not poverty-stricken. (Hindi) So simply depending... (Hindi)

Surendra Kumar: (Hindi) Unless we don't want to stay in the...

Prabhupāda: No, no, this is not same. This is apara, para. (laughter) This is para. Yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. Ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati. If you want real peace and happiness, then you have to come to this platform, paro dharma. Material means it has no limit. "I have got so much opulence. I want more. I want more. I want more. I want more." And paro dharma? Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42). "All right, I don't want anything."

Conversations -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Tathā vinoda(?). I have done on reality. I want to establish reality, not imagination. What is the use of giving some imaginative idea, just like this rascal Darwin? Everything rascal. No practical value. And he has written volumes of books, and people are accepting: "From monkey, man has come. That's all." But monkey is there; man is there. Where monkey is extinct? The whole theory is absolutely bogus, and people have accepted it. I never believed that. Anthropo... Anthropomor... No? The...?

Upendra: Anthropomorphism.

Prabhupāda: And... What do you call, this science?

Śatadhanya: Anthropology.

Prabhupāda: Anthropology. Anthropology we believe; as it is stated in the Vedas, we believe, one after another. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarāḥ... That is the... The soul is changing. So there is no question of... "Survival of the fittest." Nonsense. Who is fit?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No one except the devotee is fit.

Prabhupāda: Everyone is dying. Who is the fittest?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The devotee is alone eternal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore the devotees, they do not know. They are all rascals, animals. But here, this statement, "fittest," who is fittest?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really no one.

Prabhupāda: Still the theory is going on, "Survival of the fittest."

Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is the difficulty here. I say. You say. Another rascal, he says. Another rascal, another... Ultimately it is done by grace. Rather, what can I do? It is very difficult. He did not hear what I am saying. "Will o' the wisp." Without understanding, "garagara," run off. Bas. Foolishness. What is written there, in the bottle?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Absolutely nothing. It's just a bottle with water in it.

Prabhupāda: And where is that eye washing?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Eye wash? It's behind you.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We brought the eye wash.

Prabhupāda: You have got it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Upendra didn't show you?

Prabhupāda: No.

Room Conversation with Vrindavan De -- July 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is the duty. But not that you can get happiness. Happiness is in your hand, in your fortunate... That is a different thing. Don't think that "My father left so much property. Let me eat and drink and go to hell." That is not happiness. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam (BG 6.21). Everything explained. Read books. Be devotee. That will bring happiness. And economically you may not be disturbed that you're poverty-stricken, you have to beg something or... No. Whatever is absolutely... More than that. More than that. One man does not require 2,500. Nowadays, even it is very expensive, one thousand is sufficient. Although everything is expensive, one thousand rupees sufficient for a person. You are each getting that. So the plan is all right. Now you try to become devotee. That will bring happiness. Otherwise there is no happiness.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam (BG 9.26). No cooking. Tulasī and jala. You can offer little fruits, nuts, milk. No need of cooking. Takes much time. I want here no hired... But for the Deities and the devotees it is false.(?) Their association is bad. Make some arrangement so that you can avoid hired cooks unless it is absolutely necessary. The hired cook, they are most wretched people.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Āpni, immediately come. Immediately come. (Bengali)

Dr. Ghosh: Ācchā. All right. Consider me as your servant. I'm always ready to serve you. (Bengali) I've never been confined to bed in these long years. (Bengali) I have given medicine to lakhs and lakhs of people, but I myself have never taken any. (Bengali) I am always ready. I am free now, absolutely free, with full energy.

Prabhupāda: Āpnāra life full successful. (Bengali) Āpnāra family life, successful. Āmāra family life, failure

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your spiritual family life...

Dr. Ghosh: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: We started life together. His life, family life, is very successful, and my family life is...

Jayapatākā: So better to have an unsuccessful family life, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and be successful in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: And done big, big business. Eh? Whatever Kṛṣṇa wanted to bring me, so this is work. Anyway... So I was sleeping?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You slept many, many, many hours. How do you feel?

Prabhupāda: Yes, feel good. In the morning part there is sleep. At night there is... Never mind.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I'll treat myself. Let the kavirājas come. And makara-dhvaja... One after another, they will make the things complicated. What is your opinion? Hm?

Bhavānanda: We all feel, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that your direction is absolutely perfect. It is coming directly from the spiritual platform. Therefore anything which you tell us to do, we want to do, and we have full faith and confidence that it is absolutely correct. But we don't have full faith and confidence in people who are materially conditioned. Therefore we have taken you as our spiritual master. You have perfect knowledge of everything spiritual and you have perfect knowledge of everything material.

Prabhupāda: So, all of you agree to this?

Bhavānanda: Do we all agree?

Devotees: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Then I will give direction. Simply I want to know about the makara-dhvaja, consulting both the kavirājas.

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is not absolutely necessary.

Prabhupāda: Those who are engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, they have no necessity for all this. Sarvātmanā yaḥ śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ parihṛtya kartam.

devarṣi-bhūtāpta-nṛṇāṁ pitṟṇāṁ

na kiṅkaro nāyam ṛṇī ca rājan

sarvātmanā yaḥ śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ

gato mukundaṁ parihṛtya kartam

(SB 11.5.41)

Anyone who is fully engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, he has no other duty. He has finished all other duties. Tepus tapas te (SB 3.33.7). This is the injunction of the śāstra. He's no more anyone's servant, or he has got any duty to do-śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyam—because he has taken the shelter of the ultimate Supreme Person. This is the injunction of the śāstra. So this śrāddha ceremony is not required for a devotee fully surrendered to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Gato mukundaṁ śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyam. Śaraṇyam: He is the only shelter. And who has taken shelter of Kṛṣṇa, he has no other duty. This is the śāstra.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At the latest absolutely. I mean, to me, for them to arrive by tomorrow noon is not... From the very beginning I would not have felt it was out of the ordinary.

Prabhupāda: They said they have left!

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Still, whatever the reason is.

Prabhupāda: You are not talking... Everything is being done by the same Śatadhanya. (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: By the same what?

Prabhupāda: Śatadhanya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughter) Yeah, that's maybe what the problem is.

Prabhupāda: And people are bluffing him, and he says...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's bluffing us. (laughs) He seems very sincere, though. It's hard not to believe him.

Prabhupāda: That was my impression.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Adri-dhāraṇa Prabhu says that today the kavirāja is going to Mathurā, and he will sit six hours watching the medicine being distilled. He's personally going to watch to see so that there's absolutely no mistake made. This is required.

Bhavānanda: This man is competent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I may not be an expert judge, but I have never seen, in my opinion, anyone who seemed to be this good.

Prabhupāda: No, if we have program to go to Māyāpur, he has got that distilled medicine in his dispensary.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I mean in case I do not increase.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right. Okay. In case you don't increase. Because I don't think we can say... Unless we want to say that this kavirāja is absolutely wrong. But if we accept...

Prabhupāda: You cannot say wrong or right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I agree with that. So we have to say, "in case." So what is your point, Śrīla Prabhupāda? That in case you don't gain strength...

Prabhupāda: Than what I will do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, why don't we decide that when the time comes.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why don't we cross that hurdle when the time comes.

Prabhupāda: It is already come.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And you can fast. That's... But why should we suggest that at this point? It is not proper for us to suggest that. Obviously we could say that, but that's not very... That means hopeless. So we cannot become hopeless. As your disciples, we can't become hopeless. And putting you in the hospital means hopeless. That's sure. Hospital is absolutely useless.

Śatadhanya: Neither we would ever go against your instruction.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, it's not within our... Śrīla Prabhupāda, we only took you to the hospital in London because Your Divine Grace said we should take you there. Otherwise we were not going to do that on our own. We did not go there on our decision.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that starving and chanting and little gaṅgā-jala or... In this way let me pass away peacefully.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What does he say? They will kill?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I said supposing someone threatens us with our life, that "We will kill you if you don't let us take your Guru Mahārāja to the hospital," still, we will not let them take you. Your order is our business to follow, even at the risk of our life. So we are not going to take you to the hospital under any condition. Neither... Not only is it your order, but we also see absolutely no benefit from these hospitals. Your order is sufficient, but apart from that, also, from our own limited intelligence, we also see that the hospitals are condemned. These doctors are blind, these allopathic doctors. Prabhupāda: That is my only request, that at the last stage don't torture me and put to death. So I am not eating anything, and if we chant, by batches chant, I'll hear. (Bengali) Kṛṣṇa dāsa Bābājī: (Bengali) Hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. That is the medicine. (break) Prabhupāda: This is the decision, that in case it does not improve, let me die here. If it improves, I shall be very glad.