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Argument (Conversations 1977)

Expressions researched:
"Argumentum baculam" |"Argumentum baculum" |"Argumentum vaculam" |"Argumentum vaculum" |"argument" |"argument's" |"argumentative" |"argumentativeness" |"arguments" |"argumentum ad baculum"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, you argue with weapon. Beat them. We shall see. Go to the police that "This is nonsense."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, we've done that.

Prabhupāda: So how is that?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: At the present moment he's okay; he's quiet.

Prabhupāda: No, we should beat them. If somebody, atatayi...(?) You unnecessarily attack me; I must first kill you. That is my duty. Just like you have done here, Setterji. "I'll bring my revolver." So that is argumentum baculum. Here they wanted to put us into trouble, and he was in great trouble. So he came, he stood: "All right, come on. We shall fight. Bring my revolver." He did that. So we have to do like that. Why shall I tolerate unnecessary injustice. Take that spirit. And in meantime apply. That is the solution. Why shall I spend for them? And unless they arrange for the sewer lines, we're not going to pay tax.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, that's our position.

Prabhupāda: Let us go on, one court after another, one court after... If there is fight, we must be prepared to fight. (Hindi) If required, take Setterji. He'll help.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Mm. So whatever you sanction, it will not be good.

Girirāja: Well, we had a confrontation that they want to break the condition that we have to hand over these ten feet. So I said that this is a separate issue and one thing had nothing to do with the other. So, actually they have accepted all of our arguments, what is boils down is that Mantrey is pressing them and they must, you know, why they are letting this slide by. So they say they want something to reply to him so we have to write a letter explaining our case. And...

Prabhupāda: Mantrey is an all-in-all.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Guest (2): I'm a little bit of that.

Prabhupāda: So this starvation point, we take it as blessing. People generally question that "How God is unfavorable to somebody and favorable to...?" That is foolishness. God is good, but that we do not know. Because we are less intelligent, we think that "One man is in starvation; therefore God is not good." That is our fault. We are not good. We do not understand God. But a Vaiṣṇava says, "Oh, it is blessing." And if he takes like that, then the result is mukti-pade sa dayā-bhāk. His mukti is guaranteed. In any circumstances, if somebody takes God as good, then his mukti is guaranteed. And if he blames God—"Oh, He has put me into starvation"—then he has to suffer. This is the common argument sometimes we meet, "Oh, why God has made somebody so rich and somebody some poor? He is unjust." That is foolishness. God cannot be... He's just, always just. That is God. So unless we have got that firm conviction, then we cannot become devotee.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: The difficulty actually is increasing our thinking of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The papers are publishing, "Kṛṣṇas, they are bad. They are so on, so on, so on." That's all right. Kṛṣṇa is center.

Hari-śauri: Yes, what you said this afternoon... Actually, I found out, one of the arguments that they're using... These deprogrammers, they're very clever. They've done a lot of research, because they're using that statement of Dr. Radhakrishnan's in the Bhagavad-gītā, where he says that man-manā bhava mad-bhakto, "Kṛṣṇa does not mean think of Him," they're using that against us to say that "This man Radhakrishnan was the president of India, and he says that the Bhagavad-gītā is not meant for thinking of Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: Just see how much great harm he has done.

Hari-śauri: Yes. So now they're trying to use that to say that we are misinterpreting the Bhagavad-gītā..

Prabhupāda: But we don't say Radhakrishnan is authority. We take Caitanya Mahāprabhu as authority.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: Now we have to prove now that Radhakrishnan was not an authority on the Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He is not in the paramparā system. You talk with Rāmeśvara like this.

Hari-śauri: Actually, by using the Bhagavad-gītā, we can defeat their argument very easily anyway.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That I've defended in every page, that "These rascals have used this." Where is Rāmeśvara?

Jagadīśa: Coming. Śrīla Prabhupāda, we've been talking about... (break)

Haṁsadūta: I shave once a month.

Hari-śauri: Once a month on pūrṇimā.

Rāmeśvara: And our Ādi-keśava, he has also grown out his hair for the court case and all the people. He's meeting the politicians.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But we are famous as shaven-headed. That is already advertised. Shaven-headed means Kṛṣṇas. So why should we relinquish this...

Haṁsadūta: Trademark.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So if one has the right to have a free mind, why he cannot chant Hare Kṛṣṇa?

Rāmeśvara: Well, their argument is that we do not allow him to consider alternatives.

Prabhupāda: Then where is the question of a free mind? That means you brainwash.

Rāmeśvara: Exactly.

Prabhupāda: Free mind means everyone has the right. That is free mind. If you force something, then where is the free mind?

Rāmeśvara: So actually they are understanding that once you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you will stop thinking about māyā.

Prabhupāda: They're admitting.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Becoming more interested. So let us go on fighting with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no disappointment. Yudhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). We shall fight and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then everything is all right. We cannot stop fighting.

Rāmeśvara: Actually, one argument that they use... They have found an old Back to Godhead article that I think you wrote, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It was about Arjuna's position during the battle of Kurukṣetra, where he had to fight against his relatives. You were commenting that "So sometimes you may have to even kill your family members for Kṛṣṇa." So they take this magazine article, and they say that "Hare Kṛṣṇa leaders are teaching all the devotees to kill their parents." So this is an example of how they will distort everything.

Prabhupāda: That... You can distort anything. If there is expert distortion, it is...

Trivikrama: We can kill our parents even, like Prahlāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is actually required. Prahlāda did not protest. It is a great sin, if your father is being killed before you, if you do not protest even, "Why you are killing?" not to give protection. But even if you do not, then you are not worthy son. So in that way Prahlāda Mahārāja was accused that in his presence his father was being killed. He did not protest, neither he... Rather, he was ready with the garland: (laughter) "As soon as my father is killed, immediately garland the Lord." So that is not the fact.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes! It is trick by the men, yes.

Dr. Patel: How... Could you explain that?

Prabhupāda: Because if they remain free, they get young women free. That's rascal's man brain. That "You take freedom."

Dr. Patel: This is a third-class argument.

Prabhupāda: This is argument! This is argument. This is fact. These rascals keep these women unmarried to enjoy daily new, new young women, these karmīs, these rascals. There is club. There is club. These young women are paid for that topless, bottomless. You do not know.

Dr. Patel: No. I have never seen a girl naked. I refuse to...

Prabhupāda: I have... I know everything.

Haṁsadūta: Prabhupāda, you gave the example that what is the use of keeping a cow if you can get milk in the marketplace.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Cow-keeping is expensive.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: That is our argument.

Dr. Patel: It would be the brainwash. To have washed it against...

Prabhupāda: I am thinking of Kṛṣṇa, and if you stop me to think of Kṛṣṇa, is it not going against my thought? Bhagavad-gītā, it is recommended, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto. So this is a standard thing. So I thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Why you should stop me? Is it not infringement my freedom?

Rāmeśvara: They argue that they are not stopping you from thinking about Kṛṣṇa. They want to stop you from being a member of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

Prabhupāda: Why? If I have to think of Kṛṣṇa, I must be member of the society. Otherwise how can I think of? Suppose if I have to do business, share business, I have to become a member of the share market.

Rāmeśvara: They say that the way the society is managed...

Prabhupāda: You can say. But this is the system. If you have got some thought, you must mix with such similar thoughtful men. That is everywhere. The scholars, they associate; the medical men, they associate. How can you stop it?

Rāmeśvara: They don't think it's healthy.

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But you are... By deprogramming... They are thinking of Kṛṣṇa. You are checking. Where is the freedom of thought? Then you are illegal. They want to think of Kṛṣṇa, and you are checking. Then who is illegal? We have to put in that way, in their word, that "Then you have no right to check him about thinking of Kṛṣṇa." This will be our argument. Yes. How you can check? Let him think of Kṛṣṇa freely, because Kṛṣṇa wants. Then you have to take Bhagavad-gītā as illegal.

Hari-śauri: Yeah, if they condemn the whole thing, they have to condemn the whole, entire Hindu religion.

Prabhupāda: That's it. We have to fight in that way.

Hari-śauri: This is really separating us from these other cults because most of these other cults, they have no defense because their whole thing is a concoction. But for ourselves, we're actually practicing a standard way of worship, and we have so many testimonials from actual Hindus themselves.

Prabhupāda: No, outside scholars...

Hari-śauri: And from all the scholars and professors and everything.

Prabhupāda: "It is bona fide thinking and you are checking."

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Guest (2): No. Is there special significance during this period? That is all the time.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is... The significance is sādhu-saṅga, purification. Our Vedic principle is: whatever is enjoined in the Vedas, we should accept it without any argument. That is Vedic injunction. This example we give generally: just like śaṅkha. Śaṅkha is the bone of an animal. So according to Vedic system, if you touch the bone of an animal, dead body animal, then you have to take bath immediately. But the śaṅkha is pure. Now, you cannot argue that "It is the bone of an animal. You say one place that 'Bone of animal is impure. You have to take bath; you have touched it,' and this śaṅkha is in their Deity worship? It is contradictory." But because it is stated in the Vedas, you have to accept. This is Vedic injunction. You cannot argue. There is no question of arguing. Just like cow dung is the stool of an animal. Even if we touch my own stool, I take bath. But cow dung, it is said, it is pure. If there is anywhere impure, you smear the cow dung; it will be pure. Now, you can argue that "It is stool of an animal. How it becomes pure?" This argument will not... So Vedic knowledge means don't argue. You have to accept it. Acintyaḥ khalu ye bhava na tas tarkena yojayet. Things... There are many things which is beyond your perception, so you have to accept the Vedic injunction. Then you are right. So if the Vedic injunction is: "In such and such moment you take a bath in the Ganges; you become purified," you take it. There is no question of argument. That is faith. Now faith must be there. Vedo-praṇihito dharmaḥ. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Everything is there. Can you find out this verse from the Sixth Canto?

Jagadīśa: I know the verse.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's it. Sthito 'smi gata-sandehaḥ. Kariṣye vacanam. This is liberation: "Now I am fixed up," sthito 'smi, "All doubts gone." This is real study of Bhagavad-gītā. And promises, kariṣye vacanam: "All right, I shall fight. I shall kill Bhiṣmadeva. Never mind he's my grandfather. No question of nonviolence. I shall commit violence." This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Because naṣṭo mohaḥ... "It was my mohaḥ. I was thinking in that way, that 'He's my grandfather. He's my brother. He's my nephew.' These are all nonsense. I have to satisfy You." Kariṣye vacanaṁ tava (BG 18.73). That is ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167). Bhakti means to act to satisfy to Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakti. Without any argument, what Kṛṣṇa says, that's all right.

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

Rāmeśvara: His argument was that when Kṛṣṇa was here, He was having friendship with the gopīs, who were married to other men.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: This is immoral.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: God never acts in an immoral way.

Prabhupāda: So that you have made, immoral. Because if He is the proprietor, then He is the proprietor of everything. You have accepted one woman who belongs to Kṛṣṇa. You are immoral. He is the original proprietor of everything, and everything belongs to Him, but He has given you one woman. Tena tyaktena. But no woman belongs to you. So you should stop connection with women. It is immoral. Otherwise every woman belongs to Kṛṣṇa. How you can use Kṛṣṇa's property? That is the disease, that we are trying to enjoy Kṛṣṇa's property. Kṛṣṇa's the proprietor. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva... (BG 5.29). He's the bhokta, He's the enjoyer. How you can enjoy Kṛṣṇa's property? That is immoral. And therefore you shall be punished. You are being punished. Because we are encroaching upon Kṛṣṇa's property illegally, therefore we are suffering. Kṛṣṇa is moral, you are utilizing unauthorized, using this material...

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

Rāmeśvara: His argument was that if God comes to this world and displays activities with women, it is natural that the followers of that religion will also want to have affairs with women.

Prabhupāda: No. Because they have not studied Kṛṣṇa, they misunderstand in that way. You are fond of woman. Kṛṣṇa comes to show you that in the Vaikuṇṭha, Goloka Vṛndāvana, there is woman, but not in this way. Originally there is. That is pure. So it requires education. You are not educated; you cannot talk. Now sex..., even in our material experience we find that by sex many great men has been found. So how you can accuse sex? You are talking. We should say, "You are a product of sex. So how do you say that sex is bad?"

Rāmeśvara: They say that when one man has many different women, then that is immoral.

Prabhupāda: No, first of all answer. Suppose you are a big man, but you are product of sex. Are you born differently or through sex? What is the answer?

Rāmeśvara: Sex.

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

Prabhupāda: You tell them like that: "You are so poor that you are afraid to maintain even one wife. So how you can be equal with God?"

Hari-śauri: His argument was that...

Prabhupāda: No argument! This is fact!

Rāmeśvara: Yes, this is fact.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There is no question of argument.

Rāmeśvara: No. He's not arguing that.

Prabhupāda: You cannot do. You are so poor that you are afraid to marry because you have to take so much responsibility.

Rāmeśvara: He wants to know, then, why didn't Jesus Christ say all these things about Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Jesus may be fool. That doesn't mean everyone should be fool.

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

Rāmeśvara: They believe Jesus came to this world to teach people about God.

Prabhupāda: "Jesus... Jesus had to speak to rascals and fools like you. Therefore he did not speak." This is the argument. "Because you are such a fool that Jesus said, 'Thou shall not kill'—your first business was to kill him. So you are so nice, advanced men. Now, what he'll speak to you? He knew that you are all rascals. Even the one word you cannot understand, 'Thou shall not kill.' So what you will understand? Therefore Jesus Christ did not say." Give them this answer. Jesus Christ was perfect, but because you are rascals, he did not say, because you could not understand even his one word. You are so intelligent. His commandment is "Thou shall not kill," but your business is to kill him first. How far you are advanced and civilized, just imagine. And you want perfect instruction. You cannot follow even one instruction. That is your position. In this way try to understand. "Jesus had to deal with rascals like you. Therefore he... Even ordinary moral principles, you could not, what to speak of other things." Actually that is the fact. Actually that is the fact. He had to deal with rascals and fools. Is that civilization, that first of all argue, "Thou shall not kill"? That means you were all rascals engaged in killing business. Is that civilized men? Why he said like that? Is that very good philosophy? Mean they were so low class that they had to be stopped first of all, these sinful activities. That also, they could not. This is their position. And for the last two thousand years they could not. Such nice brain. They could not understand even one instruction of Jesus Christ. And you are proud of becoming Christian, rascals. "You do not know what is Christianity, what is Jesus Christ. You are all rascals." Tell them like that. What do you think?

Rāmeśvara: That's indefeatable, undefeatable argument.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You could not understand.

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

Prabhupāda: Christ is described as son of God, but where is the father? That means you are so rascal, you do not care to understand the father. And we are presenting the father, the father of Christ. And you are condemning. You do not know who is the father of Christ.

Rāmeśvara: His argument was that if God wanted Himself to be known as Kṛṣṇa, He would have...

Prabhupāda: But you do not know the meaning of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means "all-attractive." That is God. That is God.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. I tried to explain. But he said Kṛṣṇa means that person who appeared in India five thousand years ago. That is Kṛṣṇa. So he said if God is Kṛṣṇa, then there would be some evidence in the Bible, but there is no evidence.

Prabhupāda: There is ev... There is evidence. Because... But you are so fool that you do not inquire, "If the Christ is son of God, who is God?" They never inquires. Why did you not inquire?

Rāmeśvara: He said that God spoke to Moses. God did not tell Moses that He was Kṛṣṇa. He told Moses that He is Jehovah.

Prabhupāda: Did Christ say that "Jehovah is my father"?

Rāmeśvara: That makes it very clear.

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

Prabhupāda: But he accepted that?

Rāmeśvara: No, we defeated that argument.

Prabhupāda: No, no... (break) The man who says that, so ask him that "You accept this, that Viṣṇu, there is, Supreme, and Viṣṇu's incarnation is Kṛṣṇa?"

Rāmeśvara: He accepted it.

Prabhupāda: Then I accept you. Then you accept Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa, or this Veda.(?) Then I accept you. So there is no fight. You accept Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa. We accept. That's all.

Hari-śauri: Another one was that even the president of India, Dr. Radhakrishnan, he commented in the Bhagavad-gītā that you should not worship Kṛṣṇa, that the Bhagavad-gītā is not for worshiping Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: That is..., that rascal, Radhakrishnan says. Vyāsadeva does not say. Arjuna does not say.

Hari-śauri: But he was the president of India.

Prabhupāda: President was therefore kicked out. māyā has kicked out on his face. (laughter) Who cares for Radhakrishnan? In India, who cares for Radhakrishnan? They worship Kṛṣṇa. So therefore they have urinated on the face of Radhakrishnan. Say like that, (laughter) that "Indian people have passed urine on his head, and they are worshiping Kṛṣṇa. This is Radhakrishnan." Tell him like that. "Who cares for Radhakrishnan?" Do you mean to say they have stopped worshiping Kṛṣṇa in so many millions of temples? That is the proof: they have passed urine on the face of Radhakrishnan. Is that all right?

Hari-śauri: (laughing) Yes.

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

Hari-śauri: If President Nixon had written a commentary on the Bible, no one in America would accept it. Then why should they accept Radhakrishnan's?

Prabhupāda: No, Radhakrishnan may say so, but who has accepted? You are, because you are a fool. Same argument, that people have passed urine on his face, and they are worshiping. They have not stopped Kṛṣṇa worshiping because Radhakrishnan has said, restriction. (?) Who cares for him? Vṛndāvana, there are five thousand temples. Every day thousands of people are coming. We have started Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple very recently, and thousands of men are coming. Who cares for Radhakrishnan? Daye mane nāpa ni more (?) "Nobody cares for him; he becomes leader." What is the value of such leader? If somebody cares for that person, then he's leader. Nobody cares for him? He's leader for you because you are a rascal. You do not know anything. So he may be leader for men like you, but India... Nobody cares for him. Is it not? Who cares for Radhakrishnan?

Hari-śauri: Nobody mentions Radhakrishnan.

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

Prabhupāda: That is not culture. That is not culture. As soon as you change, that means it is not culture. It is mano-dharma, mental concoction. Culture is never changed, Renaissance and (sic:) Fennaissance.

Rāmeśvara: This is something that has been constant for many hundreds of years, the idea that a man is learned when he is well-learned, when he is educated in many different fields-literature, art, music.

Prabhupāda: That does not mean the original culture will be lost. That is not culture.

Rāmeśvara: No. But this is their argument, that the standard in America is that you become learned in different fields: science, music, art, literature. But in our Hare Kṛṣṇa movement we are isolating all these things and simply reading one set of literature-Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: And therefore our people cannot speak about art, music.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We want to stop your nonsense. That is our mission. Those who are intelligent, they have taken. And you also take. It will take some time.

Rāmeśvara: Another big argument is regarding the children. They say that "You believe in free choice. So suppose the children grow up and they want to go to college. But you have not sent them to a public school. Therefore they are not eligible for going to college."

Prabhupāda: No, it is... They are saved from becoming like you or hippies. You'll become hippie after going to the college, so they are saved. You'll become naked and you'll have, like cats and dogs, sex on the street. But these children are saved.

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

Rāmeśvara: No.

Prabhupāda: Then why do the rascals say like that? Because we say God, Kṛṣṇa, therefore He's not. Why is... This is nonsense. I can say in my language, you can say in yours, but God is one. That you have to accept.

Rāmeśvara: One of their standard arguments is...

Prabhupāda: Now, this is... First of all defeat that, that "Why do you stress on name? In different countries, in different societies, the same thing may be called by different names."

Rāmeśvara: Well, they're saying that the substance is different. Kṛṣṇa is one...

Prabhupāda: The substance is different; then God... There is no God. Either Kṛṣṇa is not God, Jehovah is not God. Just like gold...

Rāmeśvara: They say that because Kṛṣṇa displayed His activities when He was here...

Prabhupāda: Yes. God will play. That is God. God is not dead. Your God is dead. Our God is alive. That is the difference. God must be alive. Why God should be dead? (break) So you are under God's control. Then you say whether Jehovah is God or Kṛṣṇa is God. First of all you must know. You must let us know what do you mean by God. If you describe, "I mean God... by the word God, I mean this," then see whether it is applicable to Jehovah or to Kṛṣṇa. It is not the name. It is the person and the symptom. Just like water is liquid. So you say water, I say jal. But the liquidity of water is the same. So first of all you know what is the nature of God. Then you may say "Jehovah," I may say "Kṛṣṇa," another may say something else. It doesn't matter. Water is water. That is liquid. That's all. So first of all ascertain what is the symptom of God. Can we challenge them that "What is the symptom? How do you know that here is God?" Just like we understand here is water.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm. (break) Therefore it is mentioned.

Rāmeśvara: Now, one of their arguments is... Their main thing is to try to pretend that it is not a question of religion.

Prabhupāda: So, one thing is that if you have proved a swine, what is the value of your arguments? You have proved that you are a swine. So better stop arguing. What I say, you accept. That is good for you. Because you are descendants of swine, and actually you are doing that.

Rāmeśvara: Actually, on one television show they directly accused Your Divine Grace. They said that you have got us going out every day collecting money, and we have to send all this money to India, to Māyāpur, to build one temple so that you will become famous. And ultimately we will worship you as God.

Prabhupāda: Well, already famous. What is that famous?

Rāmeśvara: That was their argument.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. A famous man must be famous. He cannot be famous, famous. What you have done that you'll be famous? You are swine. You cannot be famous.

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

Jagadīśa: We are voluntarily doing all this.

Rāmeśvara: We're voluntarily. But one of their main arguments is that before someone joins the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement he has great affection for his father, his mother, his brothers, his relatives. And after he joins the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement he has nothing to do with them anymore, and sometimes he even calls them demon.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the fact.

Rāmeśvara: So they say this is the proof that we have brainwashed them. Because it is natural to have affection for your family.

Prabhupāda: Before that, he was accepting a false father. And now they understood that "He is not my father. He's my enemy." Therefore he's going... According to Bhāgavata it is said, "One should not become father if he cannot save his son from the imminent danger of birth, death, old age and disease." So the so-called father, they are not father. So after enter into Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, one understands that "He's my false father." So if he gives up the relationship, that means he's successful.

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: But if the father is demon...

Rāmeśvara: The devotees sometimes are disrespectful out of immaturity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: But do you say like that?

Rāmeśvara: No, they are distorting. But that is their ar... And just like they use your Back to Godhead article about Arjuna on the battlefield, that sometimes we may even have to kill our relatives for Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: So, suppose if God said that "You kill," what you will do?

Rāmeśvara: Our argument is just that, that in the Bible, God told Abraham, "You must kill your son Isaac." This is a famous story in the Bible. So Abraham took his son and was ready to chop off his head. And God felt sorry and He stopped him. But that story is there in the Bible, that God told Abraham to kill his son, and Abraham was ready to do it. It does not mean that the Jewish religion is based on killing your son.

Jagadīśa: It was a test of his faith.

Rāmeśvara: It was a test of his faith. The same story of Arjuna, he had to kill for Kṛṣṇa. It's actually a good argument when they say that.

Prabhupāda: You have got sugar candy?

Hari-śauri: I don't think she packed any. Oh, sugar? She must have packed it. I'll have to find Pālikā, 'cause she has everything.

Rāmeśvara: They think that if our devotees are willing to do whatever you say, it must mean that they are brainwashed. They have given up their independence, so therefore they are brainwashed. If they are willing to follow anyone blindly, like a slave...

Prabhupāda: That is your instruction also. Jehovah says that you shall not worship any other God. So, Jesus Christ says also that you shall not worship. So that is the way of preaching. That is required.

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

Jagadīśa: There are grapes also.

Prabhupāda: Grape candy?

Jagadīśa: No. Fruit.

Rāmeśvara: So, actually, their arguments are not very... So therefore it is simply a plan of Kṛṣṇa to help give us some prominence, make us more well known.

Jagadīśa: Give us a chance to preach.

Rāmeśvara: Because their arguments have no substance.

Prabhupāda: Defeat them. "God cannot came as fish." "Why? What kind of God He is? He likes, He can do. That is God."

Jagadīśa: When I heard the tape of this priest, this minister, and he was trying to cut down our religion, our movement, he was saying that "You believe that God came as a fish, as a tortoise, as a half lion, half man," it reminded me that whenever in the scriptures demons try to blaspheme-like Hiraṇyakṣa-tries to blaspheme against Lord Viṣṇu, Viśvanātha Cakravartī turns it around and makes it seem as if he's actually glorifying Him. You can't blaspheme Kṛṣṇa because whatever you say about Him is simply another glorification. They try to criticize, "Your God had sixteen thousand wives." Actually that's something wonderful. They just take it in the wrong way.

Hari-śauri: (in background) Is Pālikā in there? Listen, Prabhupāda wants some... Have you got any of that mango candy? Can you cut some fruit for Prabhupāda?

Jagadīśa: They're helping us to spread Kṛṣṇa's glories.

Rāmeśvara: Now, they say... Just like in Los Angeles we have sued the family for two million dollars, two and a half million dollars, because they kidnapped their girl. So they say that the girl, she would not have done this, but because we told her to do it, therefore she did it. Therefore there is control. We are controlling her.

Prabhupāda: We must because you checked her freedom.

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

Prabhupāda: Why did you kidnap? Therefore we must teach him some lesson.

Jagadīśa: Everyone acts in such a way to please his friends, anyway.

Rāmeśvara: Their argument is that this girl who was kidnapped, she still likes her family, but now we have told her, "You must sue them." So therefore she is doing it. So therefore she is not free. She is... We are controlling her.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now you want to control her. We are controlling, but you want to control her. So if you can control, why shall I not control? Why you are poking your nose? We shall cut your nose. (laughter)

Jagadīśa: That's what we're going to do too. (Hari-śauri returns with candy)

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Rāmeśvara: I think we've used up all their arguments. They say...

Prabhupāda: First of all, our challenge is "What is your definition of God?"

Rāmeśvara: They will answer, "Let us first discuss the definition of brainwashing. Do not talk of God. We are not trying to talk of God. We want to talk about brainwashing."

Prabhupāda: So first of all you define.

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

Prabhupāda: You first of all said that we are depriving with food. Where is this?

Rāmeśvara: This is their argument...

Prabhupāda: This is their argument...

Rāmeśvara: ...that we only let them eat twice a day, and even then, not only is there no meat, but there is very little protein.

Prabhupāda: That depends on him. If he likes to eat that kind of food, you have no right to enforce upon him. Then you are going to enforce upon him. There are different persons; they like different types of food. And food must be according to his own taste. Aguru ohikhanna.(?)

Rāmeśvara: Only twice a day.

Prabhupāda: But if he likes twice a day, why you give thrice? That is his choice.

Rāmeśvara: And sleeping only four, five hours.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: Just like Prabhupāda gave the argument... Because this one man was challenging that "This Kṛṣṇa is simply sex symbol, dancing with so many women, having so many queens," so Prabhupāda's challenge was: "But where is the pregnancy? Where is the abortion when He was dancing with the gopīs? Therefore this is not ordinary. This is beyond the material. It's spiritual." That's a big challenge they make.

Gargamuni: How can any materialist manage more than a few wives without divorce?

Prabhupāda: No, apart from that, apart from that, where is the...? If you believe Bhāgavatam, that Kṛṣṇa danced with so many thousands of gopīs and He has so many wives, so why there was pregnancy? Why the gopīs were not pregnant?

Hari-śauri: Yes. The gopīs never had any children by Kṛṣṇa. But His wives had ten each.

Prabhupāda: Ten children each. You cannot say that "He was impotent; therefore He could not make the gopīs pregnant." That you cannot say, because when He married, He begot ten children, each wife, sixteen thousand wives, and sixteen thousand, ten.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Loko mām ajam avyayam.

Hari-śauri: "I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency, yoga-māyā, and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible."

Prabhupāda: This is the answer—just to delude them, cheat them. They want to remain atheist—"All right, remain atheist. Suffer," janmani janmani, "life after life." This is the real explanation. Is that correct answer? But still, there is some argument. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya (BG 7.25). This is the idea. "Why shall I reveal Myself to this atheist class?" Mūḍha janmani janmani (BG 16.20). "Let them remain asuras."

Hari-śauri: Should I read the purport?

Prabhupāda: Hm? What is that?

Hari-śauri: "It may be argued that since Kṛṣṇa was present on this earth and was visible to everyone, then why isn't He manifest to everyone now? But actually He was not manifest to everyone. When Kṛṣṇa was present there were only a few people who could understand Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead." (break)

Prabhupāda: If one understands, then he becomes immediately liberated. And the atheists, they cannot understand, so they remain always conditioned. If actually one understands Kṛṣṇa's, he's liberated immediately. He's simply waiting for changing this body. That's all. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). One who has understood Kṛṣṇa is liberated. Jīvan muktaḥ sa ucyate: "Even in this life he is mukta." Find out that, janma karma ca divyaṁ me yo jānāti tattvataḥ. "You rascal, if you could understand Kṛṣṇa, then immediately you would have been liberated. And if you were liberated, then you would not ask this question. You do not know Kṛṣṇa, neither it is possible for you to understand Kṛṣṇa. You remain in darkness."

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Just see. Such... They have created this Vivekananda and Cinmayanandas, rascals, so many rascals. They have created such situation that Indian people are mostly in darkness, although God appears here in India. They have executed such thankless task, this Vivekananda, Cinmayananda and so many Māyāvādīs. "Ramakrishna is Bhagavān." And what is his certificate that he is Bhagavān? "He said." No. He said "I am the same Rāma. I am the same Kṛṣṇa." So he is taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa to prove his Godhead. So why not go to original Godhead? Why shall I take the imitation? He is maintaining his position that "I am the same Kṛṣṇa." "So then same Kṛṣṇa is authority. So why shall I not go to same Kṛṣṇa? Why shall I go to you? Your authority is also Kṛṣṇa. So why shall I give up original Kṛṣṇa and take to an imitation Kṛṣṇa? You may be the same, but I am not a very intelligent man. Why shall I go to the imitation? I shall go to the original." Hm? Is it not? "I am not so expert to understand whether you are actual or not. You are saying. There is no proof in the śāstra. So let me go to the original." Is that all right, argument? "Why shall I take you? You are supporting, trying to maintain yourself." Everyone says that "I am Kṛṣṇa. I am God." So India, we have to fight little. There are so many atheists. But mass of people, they are all right.

Room Conversation with Film Producer about Krsna Lila -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our propaganda.

Guest (2): The surrender to... So similarly, suppose I am a drunkard.

Prabhupāda: No, it is no disqualification.

Guest (2): Guruji, my argument is this.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Caitanya Mahāprabhu...

Guest (2): We are associated with the sādhus.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (2): All associate with the sādhu. That will clean us. As you have told us in this book, that becomes more cleaner.

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu... Caitanya Mahāprabhu... No. We are prepared to take you also. Why not? It is not difficult. That Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when accepted Jagāi-Mādhāi, so Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura sings, pāpī tāpī jata chilo, hari-nāme uddharilo tāra sākṣī jagāi mādhāi. So the evidence is not that, by words. But evidence... So how? How He accepted? When Jagāi-Mādhāi, after injuring Nityānanda, so Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very angry that "I shall kill them!" So at that time Nityānanda begged, "Sir, You have promised not to take weapon in this avatāra. So excuse them." So as soon Nityānanda Prabhu said like that, both the brothers fell down on the feet of Caitanya Mahāprabhu: "Sir. Excuse us. We have done wrong. So please deliver us. We are most sinful." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that "You are sinful. That is not disqualification. But if you want My āśraya, then you stop this sinful life. No more. Whatever you have done, that's all right. I excuse you. But no more." So they said, āra nare bāp: "Bas, whatever we have done." So this is wanted. But if we continue to take shelter of Caitanya Mahāprabhu or His representative, at the same time continue our sinful activities, that is not desirable.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Then why do you go to school? Huh?

Satsvarūpa: Well, nowadays school also, they don't think that the professor is like their guru.

Prabhupāda: After all, the parents send the children to school to learn. Why not freedom?

Satsvarūpa: Yes. That's a good argument.

Prabhupāda: When you go in your childhood on the street, why the father does not give you freedom? You'll... You get freedom to die, and the parents takes your freedom to save. So which is better, to die or to be saved?

Satsvarūpa: To be saved.

Prabhupāda: So then?

Satsvarūpa: But I need their help when I'm a child. But when I'm sixteen years old, then I...

Prabhupāda: But after all, you had no freedom. Similarly, you are still child because you are speaking like a child.

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: This is the real answer. They want to see.

Nanda-kumāra: Would you like this pillow, Śrīla Prabhupāda, behind your back?

Satsvarūpa: It is very weak argument to say, "Something doesn't exist because I don't see it."

Prabhupāda: It is childish.

Satsvarūpa: But they can say, "Neither is it a proof that it does exist."

Prabhupāda: How you can prove? You can hear only. There are many things which is beyond your sense perception. The example which I often give, that "Who is your father?" What is proof? The proof is the hearing from mother. That's all. You cannot have any other proof.

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: He is bringing life. What is the answer of these rascal scientists?

Satsvarūpa: No good answer. Bluff.

Prabhupāda: Challenge them like this, that "First of all do it. You are less than the chicken. Why you are claiming so much honor? We treat you, you are fig. You are less important than the chicken. Prove that you have got some power; then claim that you are scientist." Hm? Is that argument all right? What will be the counterargument?

Gurukṛpā: A sane man would accept.

Prabhupāda: They're all rascals. They do not know anything; still, they are claiming very high position.

Gurukṛpā: I heard one scientist on the airplane. There were three scientists sitting behind me, and they were speaking that they hope they are living in the year 2000. One man said, "I become so excited when I think how advanced we will be in the year 2000 that I just hope I do not die before then 'cause I want to see how everything will be then."

Satsvarūpa: By then they think they will be doing this, creating life.

Prabhupāda: That any insane man can say. Any crazy man can say. "Trust no future, however pleasant." "You are rascal. You are believing in the future. You have not show us, because in the past you could not do. There is no history. In the present you cannot do. So how shall I believe that in future you'll do?" So any rascal promises like that, so we take him as a rascal. That's all.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be. All charges are replied in these books. So you read these books and argue on this. Finish this. Then give judgment. Make this. Make a firm. Bring all these eighty-four books. That is legal! From law point, it is legal. What I have to say, you have to hear. So we have said everything there.

Gargamuni: Instead of spending for these lawyers, let us bring your books.

Prabhupāda: Yes!

Gargamuni: That is the testimony.

Prabhupāda: And read them and argue on them. "Finish this argument; then give the judgment." Why don't you do it? Make an experiment?

Gurukṛpā: We've done that.

Hari-śauri: They're going to do that.

Gurukṛpā: We did that Śrīla Prabhupāda, just recently.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Gurukṛpā: They must take a lawyer, but they don't let you in court.

Prabhupāda: No, lawyer can say. Lawyer will say. We pay them: "Say this."

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: According to... Oh, the statement must be read, argued, then judgment. Point to point.

Hari-śauri: No, we can defeat them on every point.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Now the question "Why he shall give up?" "Yes, you must give up." Then argument. Go on for three years. Then whole thing will come—what is God, what is creation, what is your position, why you should you surrender, and so on, so on, so on.

Hari-śauri: Everything. All the arguments you've been giving us, now this is a good opportunity to use them all.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like the judgment was given Shylock, the Jew. When he was persistent that "I shall take one pound flesh from the chest," no, he said, "No, I cannot touch that." Then the judgment was, "Yes, you can take, only one pound. If it is one hundredth part of an ounce, it is more, then you'll be hanged. Or even it is less, you'll be hanged. Exactly one pound you have."

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Hari-śauri: And only flesh. No blood.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then he was trapped. So we have to do like that. Sate sārtham samācaret.(?) If the other party is tricky, you should be also tricky. Why you should be so plain? And this is quite legal, that "This is our statement, these eighty-four books. We have got others also, but some of them are here. So, my lord, you read this statement. Let us argue." Then it will be read. They have to. They cannot say, "No, I am not going to take any..." That is illegal. Whatever I say, he has to take. Then there is argument. First of all statement. The court procedure is: I have charged you with something. Court will ask you, "What you have got to say against these charges?" So you'll submit your statement. Then both the statements, the court's duty is to study and give the judgment. This is the law. So they have charged us with something. We give our statement. "Now you study and argue, and then give your judgment." Hm? What do you think?

Satsvarūpa: We should introduce the books as much as possible.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Bring all these books in the court. Sometimes in Calcutta, high-court judge was a big lawyer. In those days he was earning not less than one thousand rupees per day, say sixty, seventy years ago. That one thousand means thirty times nowadays. Thirty thousand a day. He was very big lawyer. He was offered a judgeship in the... "No, no, no. I don't call for it." He was earning. The judges were getting at that time four thousand per month, and he was earning one thousand daily. So why should he give...? (coughs) So all the judges were friends. So in one case he brought so many books for argument. So the judges were friends, so he very mildly criticized, "Oh, Mr. Ghosh, you have brought the whole library?" "Yes, my lord, just to teach you law." (laughs) This was the... He addressed, "Yes, my lord, just to teach you law. No, no, you do not know what is law. I'll teach you today good lesson." He criticized him, "Mr. Ghosh, you have brought the whole library?" "Yes, my lord, just to teach you law." This is a famous argument. So they cannot deny that "Why you have brought so many books to bother me?" No. "You have to hear. It may take twelve years to hear, but you have to hear. This is law."

Gargamuni: Yes, the court, before the case can decide, they must read all the books.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And argue line by line.

Hari-śauri: Yes. We can show them that they're actually the criminals.

Prabhupāda: Take this. Immediately write. Then it will be our preaching. In the court the books will be read, and we shall put our argument to support it. Let all the scientists, philosopher, come there. Make like that. So we have to go there now? No. Not yet.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, we have to say, "We have never tried to brainwash. We have done exactly according to śāstra, authority. Here is the evidence. We have not manufactured anything. The evidence is here." They must read all the books. They cannot reject. The Hare Kṛṣṇas... That is their charge. They'll find in every page Kṛṣṇa at least ten times, that "This is Hare Kṛṣṇa." All the books, there must be Kṛṣṇa's name: "This is Hare Kṛṣṇa." I think you should take defense, in that way.

Gurukṛpā: Should depend on Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: The same argument, "Yes my lord, just to teach you law."

Satsvarūpa: Today is the day that Ādi-keśava Swami is supposed to meet with this Jimmy Carter, the twenty-seventh. We'll get some report.

Prabhupāda: Apart from that, you defend your position like this.

Hari-śauri: It's actually a religious issue, but they're trying to make it out something else to distract because they can't defeat us on a religious point.

Prabhupāda: No. Our religion is not faith, our religion. It is on science. So we have got more defense. We don't accept such religion—"Two plus two equal to five." It is science—"Two plus two equal to four." It cannot be three, cannot be five. This is our religion.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Lead a gentle life. We don't allow divorce. Is that not good? Where is that check?

Hari-śauri: Two checks. There were two checks for a hundred and ten. That went to Calcutta with Abhirāma.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that check. And another check?

Hari-śauri: And that other check went with Rāmeśvara to Bombay.

Satsvarūpa: One of their arguments is that they'll get some member and deprogram him, some weak devotee, and then he will go to court or he will write and say, "Yes. I did not want to join this movement, but they did something to me, and I lost my free will, and then..."

Prabhupāda: They have said like that?

Satsvarūpa: Yes. They tell so many lies. They say that the devotee looked into his eyes and suddenly he couldn't think anymore.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Satsvarūpa: That's what Ādi-keśava is being charged with-mind control.

Pradyumna: Like asi-kāraṇa.(?) Like mind control, hypnotism.

Prabhupāda: So why not let me control your mind? I'll control your mind—the judge. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hm? No, no. No, no. Let him come. Why? Call him.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: The Absolute Truth is also chance?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In order to write down in the form of mathematical formulas or equations in quantum mechanics this—they call probability—the theory of probability or chance should be introduced. But Einstein was against that. That's what he's saying. It says, "The Heisenberg all-tranquilizing philosophy or religion is so delicately contrived that for the time being it provides a gentle pillow for the true believer from which he cannot very easily be aroused. So let him lie there." In other words, those who believe in chance... The main concept in quantum mechanics or quantum physics is mainly from this Heisenberg and Borg. They are well-known physicists. There is a chapter called "Copenhagen Interpretation." There was a great meeting in Copenhagen about this concept of quantum mechanics, and so they call it "Copenhagen Interpretation." And there the names which were..., this Heisenberg and Borg(?). And they were saying that "Yes, we must accept that there must be chance." So the argument was put forward by these people, but Einstein is against, to that idea. So he's saying that "Those who believe, let them lie there, because the philosophy made by these people serves as a very gentle pillow, very soft. So once people lie there, they cannot be very easily aroused." That's the idea. "But," he said, "that is not a fact."

Hari-śauri: That's like... He means it's an easy way out for them to say "chance."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. "Those who don't understand, those who want to be just satisfied with that concept, let them lie there for the time being. But," he said, "that is not a truth."

Prabhupāda: So why the scientists die?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Why scientists die?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why do not make some arrangement so they'll not die?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Well, they are making, today they are making an attempt. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Same thing. All the scientists, past, present—everyone is dying.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So you are scientist, devotee, and kṣatriya. As kṣatriya you'll force: (laughing) "You must believe this, or I will kill you." (laughter) And as scientist, the convincing argument... And as devotee, Kṛṣṇa will help you. That's all Yuddhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). That is Kṛṣṇa's word, "Fight! And remember Me." That's all. Combination kṣatriya, devotee, and scientist. Very good combination. Kṣatriya does not know beyond two things—victory or death. No third thing. That is kṣatriya. In a fighting, if I do not gain victory, then I must die. Two things. That is kṣatriya spirit. Whenever there is fight between the two kṣatriya, one must die. That is last word. No compromise. Jarāsandha and Bhīma, fighting for twenty-eight days, in the evening they were friends, but the fighting went on until one is dead. That is kṣatriya's fighting. Where is that spirit now? I think in Europe also there was the knights.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: ...and the other said, "No, it was a scissor that was used." And they began arguing back and forth, and finally one man who held that it was a knife, he threw the other man in the river...

Prabhupāda: That "You accept that it is done by scissor." So he said, "No, I won't tolerate." Then he pushed him in the water. Then he was doing like this. (laughter) Scissor logic.

Bhāgavata: Argumentum vaculam.

Prabhupāda: That was used. He was put in the water. "Either you accept or I shall push you in the water." "No, I'll not accept." (laughter) So these rascals are like that. They are failure. They cannot. Still, they'll do, (laughter) the so-called scientists.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have an international society for doing that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They must combine. Otherwise there is no place for them. As soon as they accept that there is something beyond physical, then they'll have to accept God.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like when we say life is nonphysical and nonchemical, then they're very amused.

Prabhupāda: That is...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: "What is it? If it is nonphysical nonchemical, then what it is?" They inquire.

Prabhupāda: Spiritual.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Spiritual.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, but...

Prabhupāda: That means they have to accept two things—material and spiritual. (break) ...little difficult. Therefore we have to understand from the authority. The same argument, that you have to understand who is your father from the mother. There is no other... (break) ...Kṛṣṇa says in the beginning, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) "The real living being is within this body, and he's changing." We have to accept. There is no experimental... (break) Because they are not sober... A sober man does not hesitate. Accept. Dhīras tatra... Therefore this word has been used. Rascal cannot understand. So indirectly one who does not understand, he's a rascal number one. That's all.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have the demoniac mentality.

Prabhupāda: Just like mother says, "He is your father." Still, he'll not accept. Rascal number one. There is no other way. Huh? He is searching after his father. Mother says, "My dear boy, here is your father." "No, I don't believe. No." He's a rascal number one.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Anyway, then it is not science. You cannot prove; then why do you say it can be made by chemical combination.

Satsvarūpa: He's saying that they say our position is we can't prove. We can't prove our...

Prabhupāda: No, we can prove. Just that... Our argument is that this is beyond our experimental. Therefore you have to hear from the authority. That is our proof. Just like you cannot make an experiment who is your father, but you have to hear from your mother. That is the only way. There is no second alternative.

Satsvarūpa: Śabda-pramāṇa.

Prabhupāda: Śabda-pramāṇa. Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There is another very strange statement in this regard saying that though we cannot prove something by experiment, but sometimes it is convenient to assume that way.

Prabhupāda: No, that is foolishness. How you assume?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is logical positivism, saying that... How, there's a house. Let's say there is a temple there, but since I don't see the temple there, but I don't know that the temple is existing or not, but it is convenient to assume that there is a temple.

Prabhupāda: No, no. When there is a possibility of getting proof, why shall I assume?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Because they say they cannot see.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Now, just the same example: You cannot see. You cannot see your father because the father was before your birth. Only mother can see. How you can refute this argument? Therefore she is the only proof.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We have a small chapter on this in the book this logical positivism.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Very interesting and very strange.

Prabhupāda: It is quite logical that without father, nobody is born. So I do not know who is my father, but the mother is the evidence. That's all. You cannot make this theory that "I was born without father." That is not possible. That is not the laws of nature. But there must be father. You can say, "I have not him." And that is not proof that there is no father. One who has seen, go. Tattva-darśinaḥ. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says,

tad viddhi praṇipātena
paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
(BG 4.34)

Go to mother who has seen your father. That is only proof. Tattva-darśinaḥ. She has seen your father. So you submit, praṇipātena, to mother. "Mother, tell me who is my father." And she'll say, "Yes, he is." Tattva... She has seen. Tattva-darśinaḥ. It is not that mother is blindly indicating somebody as father. She has seen, and you have to learn from your mother by submission. That's all. There is no other way.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So why...? Therefore?

Devotee (1): Therefore we should not accept.

Prabhupāda: We should not accept.

Devotee (1): An intelligent man will not accept

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is another argument, yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Actually we can utilize these theories...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...to disprove their own theories.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's very convenient. Like this logical positivism...

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is very good argument, that these rascals have never produced life, and why do they say like that? It's good argument because they say that "We have not seen; therefore we don't believe." They're experimental. But you have not experimented. Why you push? Why you brainwash my brain?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: According to this logical positivism, you can say that it is convenient to say that man has arisen from apes, but that is not the truth.

Prabhupāda: There is no experiment.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Well, at the moment they're the majority. So majority carries the vote. That's the slogan. But if they're open-minded, if they are honest... We say, "Be honest, be frank, and be open-minded. Why you confine your small theory?"

Prabhupāda: No, they are not open-minded. They have to be pushed within the water. (laughs)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's our first remark, "Please let's be open-minded. We are not dogmatic. We're not presenting something religious, fanatic. But let's discuss in open platform, see which one is..."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is our argument. Just like this plant is coming out of the womb of mother. Everything comes from the mother. So there must be father. Anything you see, it is coming from earth. Earth is the mother. Dhenu-dhātrī. So where is the father? "I cannot see." You cannot see? That does not mean there is no father. There must be father. And the father says, "Yes!" Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām (Bg 7.10). The answer is there.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's a very subtle subject. We try to present this bhakti-yoga among scientists...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...and these physicists and biologists. We are thinking how to do it.

Prabhupāda: No, here is argument. Here is... A plant is coming. So yoni... The source of birth is called yoni. So yoni is there, the earth. But who begotten this? There must be father. Because we, our experience, without father and mother there is no generation. You prove that, that here is the mother; there is the child. And where is the father? And the father says, "Yes, I am father." Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām. That's all. There must be father. "You do not see." This is not logic. There must be father. So there must be God; otherwise how they are coming? By whose arrangement? Now, the exact fruit and flower will come from this. You bring another tree. Not it will resemble like. Varieties of life. You cannot say it is accident. Huh? Why not accident—the red flower comes here and the white flower comes there? Accident? They're standing for years. Why there is not a single accident? And accident. You say, "accident."

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This professor of mine, he was very much against at the beginning of the theory. Then, when I gave this lecture, he invited me for home, in his home, and his wife supported our theory, so he came around, saying that "Yes, science says earth is only 4.5 billion years old, and there are so many defects. So they have to accept that "No, we cannot be correct." So people are coming around slowly.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) Kavirāja Gosvāmī says, śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-dayā karaha vicāra, vicāra karile citte pābe camatkāra; (CC Adi 8.15) "Just see what kind of merciful is Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and if you consider it perfectly, you'll see it it wonderful." Vicāra karile citte pābe camatkāra. "Oh, here is Caitanya." Caitanya. Caitanya means living force. He says, vicāra, "Just try to understand by logic, by philosophy, by argument." That is vicāra. We are not following Caitanya Mahāprabhu blindly. That is not our position. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna argued with Kṛṣṇa in so many ways. At last, he accepted, "Yes." Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitram: (BG 10.12) "You are the Supreme Person. The rascals, they do not understand Your personality, but Vyāsadeva, Nārada, Asita, Devala, they have accepted, and I also see. Therefore, whatever you say, I agree. That's all" This is experiment. Arjuna did not accept Kṛṣṇa blindly. He knew, but for our sake he gave so many arguments. At last, he accepted. We have to follow Arjuna. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Satsvarūpa: I've given that argument, and people have said back, "Oh, he didn't say he was God." They say... He said that...

Prabhupāda: No, you are advertising, "Ramakrishna Avatara." "Bhagavan Ramakrishna." "Bhagavan Ramakrishna." Everyone is God—then why you are after God? You remain. You are servant of your wife, your prostitute. Then you are also devotee because everyone is God. A prostitute-hunter is also devotee because he's devoted to the prostitute and prostitute is God. Then why you search out another God? Hm? Everyone is God. Why you search out another God? Why you bring Ramakrishna God? Better remain satisfied with your prostitute, your dog. (pause-talking in background) That Dr. Sharma has given very good (indistinct)?

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Pradyumna: But ultimately our intelligence comes from scripture and Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, that... Apart from scripture, logic, argument come. Scripture we take. That is our business. But you answer on common ground. Where is the difference why there is dead man and alive? What is your answer? Set aside scripture.

Ādi-keśava: That, they say, is beyond our intelligence.

Prabhupāda: That means you are not intelligent. That is the proof. "Beyond your intelligence"—that means your intelligence is not yet perfect. You're lacking in brain. (aside:) I see so many workers simply loitering. They are doing nothing. What can be done? So many. Simply they are taking money. Doing nothing. I see. There is nobody to see. They take advantage. Seventy-five percent of the workers, they are doing nothing. But the Gītā explains that within this body there is something. Not body itself is moving, but dehinaḥ asmin dehe. Within this body there is the real power, dehī, who has got this body. That is there. And because he is there, the body is changing. They cannot understand. No brain, exactly like the dogs and cats. The dog cannot understand that "Within my body, I am." They cannot. Therefore you are no better than dogs. And actual fact is you are not this body. You are within this body. It is a dress. In so many ways Bhagavad-gītā teaches, but you have no brain. Then where is brainwashing? You have no brain to understand your real position.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: How...? What does he say about our books?

Satsvarūpa: One time I heard he challenged a devotee, "Where is your Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva now to save you?" And also, "We have heard that if the Lord is blasphemed, you're supposed to either give up your life or leave the place, so why don't you do? Or cut out the..., cut out your tongue. So why don't you do that now?"

Ādi-keśava: They used that as one legal argument. They said that one of our devotees should be put in the mental hospital for his own protection, because otherwise he would go and kill himself. And the court said, "Why is that?" They said, "Well, because in their books it says that if a devotee hears someone blaspheming the spiritual master or Kṛṣṇa, then they have to commit suicide."

Prabhupāda: No, they will argue on so many things.

Ādi-keśava: "Or cut their tongue out." They said, "Either they will cut my tongue out or they will kill themself. So either way, they should be put in a mental hospital."

Prabhupāda: No, or you go away from that place.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: They say that it a family matter. They say, "We don't want to interfere in a family matter. It's a family argument. Just like a husband and wife quarreling, we wouldn't interfere, or the father and son fighting, we wouldn't interfere. So this is a family matter."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One recent case in Texas, I think I may have told Your Divine Grace, how the father killed his son while his son was sleeping, and the court said, "It is all right, because the father has so many feelings this boy was going bad, we should not interfere," even to the point of murdering the son. The court let him go. So this tendency is there now in the legal system. It's very lenient towards the parents, not towards the children.

Brahmānanda: Generally when the child is kidnapped, the parent is always present. And when they have the deprogramming torture session, the parent is also present.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And in fact, the persons who do a lot of the torturing are relatives.

Ādi-keśava: Just like in the case of Vasu-gopāla. When he was held in his house, he managed to get to the phone and call me. So we went out to his house with some of the brahmacārīs from the temple and starting breaking all the windows in the house and smacking down the doors. And as he was running around the house, his brothers and friends were grabbing him and throwing him down against the walls and locked him in a room to try to get him away from us, and they were fighting. Finally, they say in Ted Patrick's book, they thought there were twenty-five of us. There were only four of us or five of us. So finally, in the end, they were so terrified that all of them began to fight. Even this Ted Patrick came at me with a straight razor. In those cases, generally, they use the family members for the fighting.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This clouds the issue in the courtroom, because everyone naturally feels very sympathetic towards the fathers and mothers. So always... These deprogrammers are very intelligent. They personally try to avoid the physical part, so they get the parents to do it.

Ādi-keśava: And then, if the person strikes out at the parent, they say, "Just see how crazy he's become!" Just like with Vasu-gopāla, he took a stick and hit his mother across the head and ran out shouting the name of Nṛsiṁha-deva as they were holding him captive, so he could run away. And so they said, "Just see how crazy he's become that he hit his own mother." Of course, the fact is they didn't mention they locked him in the bathroom for thirty hours just before. They kept him in a little bathroom. They locked the door, put him in there for thirty hours. All they mentioned is that he come out and hit her on the head with some stick. So then they say, "Just see! He's acting against his parents." So then the judge says, "Oh, what can I do? Naturally the father loves the son."

Prabhupāda: So why don't you quote from our śāstra that "He is not father." Pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Pradyumna: "There are many spiritual masters, but Ṛṣabhadeva..." (break)

Prabhupāda: And who is father according to that definition? This is our formula.

Ādi-keśava: They argue sometimes. They say, "You are saying that you guru..."

Prabhupāda: You are argue your point, but our argument is here. You are arguing from your point of view, and we shall argue from our point of view. Unless the father releases the son from the cycle of birth and death, he's not father. This is our formula.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In order to accept this, they will have to rewrite the laws.

Prabhupāda: This is the actual... Now, apart from the scriptural injunction, if one comes to the argument, then such kind of father is there in the animal society also. Cats and dogs, they also beget children, but they cannot relieve the child from the cycle of birth and death. And Bhagavad-gītā says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). First of all you have to see what is the actual distress in this material life. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So in this life you are my father, and next time I become a cat or dog, so who cares for this father? I get another father. So who knows this law? Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā (BG 3.27). The laws of nature is going on, and everything is happening. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). We are getting a type of body according to karma.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They'll take that as an insult.

Prabhupāda: Yes, insult. The animals should be kicked with shoes and stick. Argumentum baculum. There is no argument for animals. Kick and stick. Beat him. That is the way of dealing with animal. You cannot request an animal very... "My dear dog, please do not bark. Sit down." Simply kick and give him stick. That is good. They're animals. Gentle behavior with gentleman, not with the animal. "You are so big, big animal, you are simply to be kicked and whipped. Then you'll come to your senses." Religion. Religion is farce. First of all explain why you cannot do this machine. You are very proud of machine-making, artificial. "Why artificial intelligence? Why not real intelligence?" Intelligence also material. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhiḥ (BG 7.4). The buddhi. It is material, subtle form of material energy.

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So that is foolish action of that...? Some witness, drunkard witness for the liquor men. This is their own philosophy. Anyway, they'll produce some, what is called? Aeronauts. But still I have not gone. You are still hearing from a third person.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hearsay.

Prabhupāda: Hearsay. You cannot say that he has gone, because you have not seen. The argument is to see. You have not seen.

Hari-śauri: Neither have you seen Brahmaloka.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that we hearsay, and you also hearsay. Then were is the difference? I hearsay from Bhāgavata, you hearsay from astronaut. The position is, your position and my..., the same. If you don't believe me, why shall I believe you? You are not in better position. It has been proved that many cheater scientists and many doctors, cheaters. Why shall I believe you?

Hari-śauri: But there are thousands of men working on the space program. There are thousands of men working on the space program.

Prabhupāda: So thousands of men reading our Bhāgavata. No, many.

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So thousands of men reading our Bhāgavata. No, many.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If numbers is proof, we have more.

Prabhupāda: This is no argument.

Hari-śauri: But they'll argue that "We're building the rocket ships, and we're sending... We watch them go off..."

Prabhupāda: What you have done? You could not go and live there. You say the atmosphere is different. We deny this. Atmosphere cannot be different. It is within this material world. We can see. Why atmosphere should be different? If the atmosphere is different, how you can see a solid, very bright thing? I can see. Why there is a bright thing? Why it should be different?

Hari-śauri: Well, it's just got no atmosphere, that's all.

Prabhupāda: That is your statement. I don't believe it. I don't accept your statement. I use my common sense. Why the atmosphere? I can see the bright thing, light. If I see this light, I can see that light. Why they should differ?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They'll say that just like when you go up on top of the mountain, the oxygen is rarified, the atmosphere is more rarified.

Prabhupāda: That may be. But that does not mean on the top of the hill there is no life.

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śāstra-cakṣus.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no argument.

Hari-śauri: But you used the argument on me that practically we see there's life everywhere—in the water, in the air...

Prabhupāda: So why not in the fire?

Hari-śauri: So why not show me where it is?

Prabhupāda: Again the same argument. I say you are rascal. You cannot see. That is not possible.

Hari-śauri: But if I can see it in the water and I can see it in the air...

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: ...and I can see it in the earth...

Prabhupāda: You cannot see in the water. You cannot see in the air.

Hari-śauri: We go down in submarines and we see...

Prabhupāda: So go down in the fire. You'll see. Why you cannot go to the fire?

Hari-śauri: We light a fire. We don't see any life.

Prabhupāda: But you go and it will... Go in the fire. This is the defect, that he is imperfect in every way and he claims to be God. That is the defect. The same way. I want to see who is my actual father. How you can see? You have to accept the mother. That's all. Veda. Veda is mother. Accept mother and Vedic information. Otherwise there is no possibility. Kṛṣṇa says. Then you don't believe Kṛṣṇa. Why you have taken to this? So many things are there. You should take it. Just like the soul.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: They are afraid of their own status. They are worried that... Because they work in those courts every day, and this is an unpopular issue, so they are afraid because their position is not so secure, so they will not help us in that way. They will come and talk to me and give some advice, but they don't want their name in the courtroom. So sometimes this is difficult, because we need expert lawyers, but these lawyers are atheists, so sometimes they argue with me. They say, "Why are you always trying to preach in the court when we are trying to present your case?" I said, "That is my business, and I am paying you." So sometimes they are arguing, "No, if you want to win this case, then we have to argue in this way." Just like when we were... They were questioning on the stand, and our one devotee was reading Bhagavad-gītā for the answers, and they were objecting, our lawyers, saying, "No, we shouldn't do this." But I was saying, "No, this is the way that they will see that we are genuine." In the end it proved it was right. The judge respected that.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we must argue from our books. Therefore I say without any lawyer. Keep one lawyer to present, but our arguments should be from the books.

Ādi-keśava: Right. Another thing is that this group, they are very organized.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They have got money.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: They're hired men. This is the case of one of their men who was later held for murder of another man. He was used in a deprogramming, and then later on, some months later, he murdered some man and went to jail for it. So they're very serious. It's not just philosophical arguments. There's a list here in this book we've made of the devotees in our movement who've been taken. This list is very recent, by temple. You can see in practically every temple they have taken some devotees, some who are..., most of them are back in our movement, but some who are not. But now their tactic is this legal thing. Now they get this legal conservatorship, and then even we go and save the devotee, we take them back, the police can come and arrest us. So in these cases we are finding that the only thing to do is sometimes to go and physically drag them away and hide them until the term of this thing is up. Another thing is we are giving, as we said yesterday, some asylum in other countries, like with Canada. And one thing is that the Indian government told me that they would give me asylum. The Ambassador told me that if I were to be held, the Indian government would give me asylum.

Prabhupāda: That is very good.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: We are preaching. It does not mean that we are forcing. We are saying that "Your brain is in stool. Wash it like this. If one agrees, he does it. Not that in our movement all world has joined. One who is intelligent, he has agreed, 'Yes.' I am not forcing. If I would have possessed that forcive power, what right you have got to bring me in the court? You are forcing me to stop this. You are forcing. Nobody can force, but you are forcing." You should take this argument and expose them at least in the court, licking of the vagina civilization, like dog. Yes animals do that.

Ādi-keśava: I think the more strongly we preach in this way, that we don't try to give in and compromise...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no.

Ādi-keśava: The more that everyone will hear about this issue...

Prabhupāda: We must expose them, that's all. This is our business. This is a good opportunity in the court, so that it will be published. People will know what is our philosophy. Licking of vagina civilization, this. Publish.

Ādi-keśava: All right.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: All, let us sit down here.

Hari-śauri: In the room?

Prabhupāda: Yes, Gaura-Nitāi. Is that argument all right, licking the vagina civilization?

Pṛthu-putra: Great.

Ādi-keśava(?): Very bold.

Hari-śauri: No one's ever talked to them like that.

Prabhupāda: But this is a fact. The old man, seventy-five years old, he's going to lick up another vagina in the club. This is your Western civilization.

Ādi-keśava: Sometimes in New York... You know we live right next to Broadway. The temple is right next to Broadway. Sometimes in New York we see old, old men...

Prabhupāda: And in France it is very... In France you have got.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They cannot prove. But they say, "You also cannot prove anything."

Prabhupāda: No, we say that this place is suffering. Therefore we have to leave this, our total exi... We don't say "This place is for suffering, and by material advancement of science we shall improve." We don't say. We totally reject it, that "It is a place of suffering. Why shall I remain here?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Their argument will be that "By illusion, you are thinking there is an alternative world."

Prabhupāda: It may be illusion to you. It is fact to us.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "But so it is fact to a lunatic," they'll say, "that he also has his mind thinking something. You are simply dreaming."

Prabhupāda: But we may be dreaming, but factually what you have done? Ours may be dreaming, but yours, factually what you have done? You could not stop birth, death, old age, and disease. But I am suffering from this disease. You cannot stop it. I'll die. You cannot stop it.

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They will not allow.

Jayatīrtha: No. I don't think so. It's a safety thing, they say. The street is such... And they won't stop the traffic, so the traffic is still going on.

Brahmānanda: Has there been any accident on the previous ones?

Jayatīrtha: Well, that argument won't work on the British bureaucracy. There hasn't been any accident in the past, nor in the future there will be any accident. They... Simply they don't want a big cart.

Prabhupāda: But Wembley quarter is not good.

Jayatīrtha: No, that quarter is not so good. There may be other quarters where they'd do it, but...

Hṛdayānanda: New Dvārakā comes down to(?) San Francisco.

Prabhupāda: We can make another Ratha-yātrā from Bhaktivedanta Manor to Wembley and other places.

Jayatīrtha: Hm. Actually we were thinking to have... If we kept a small cart and had Ratha-yātrās, one in London, one in around Birmingham area, there's a lot of Hindus in that area that will come. One in the north around...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: Niyamāgraha.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Don't make it cheap. It has got a science. It has got a form.

Rāmeśvara: I've seen in some articles they have written to defend our society from the attack of deprogrammers, sometimes one argument they give is that meditation and chanting are being studied by scientists, and they are finding the effects to be good. Now...

Prabhupāda: Effect will be good. And if we do it properly it will be first class.

Rāmeśvara: Now, these scientists, they are studying Hare Kṛṣṇa meditation, but they're also studying some other processes which are not authorized. And they are...

Prabhupāda: That is the defect.

Rāmeśvara: And they're stating that in general, to meditate, to chant mantra, this is good, this is healthy for the mind.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. The thing is that some way or other, if you are near the fire, you'll get some heat, but there is a process how to take heat.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is not very good argument.

Rāmeśvara: He says the people are offended by Americans in Latin America.

Prabhupāda: They have got that tendency.

Rāmeśvara: Jayatīrtha used the same argument in England. He said that the people do not like the idea that this is coming from America.

Prabhupāda: That you discuss. What I can say?

Brahmānanda: Should we have karmī photographs in our magazines?

Rāmeśvara: What do you mean?

Brahmānanda: Like in the English issue they have three photographs of torture.

Prabhupāda: That is not good.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: To kill "demon-crazy," LSD. (laughs) Yes, that is my mission. That is Kṛṣṇa's mission, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8), to kill all these demons, crazy demons. I have no such power; otherwise I would have killed them. Either establish Kṛṣṇa conscious government or kill them-bas, finish. I would have done that, violence.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, when good argument fails...

Prabhupāda: Kill them. Finish. Just like Paraśurāma did. Kill all them, twenty-one times.

Bali-mardana: Oh, Paraśurāma. I was just reading in that...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bali-mardana: ...8.3. Very nice.

Prabhupāda: No consideration. Kill them. Due to Paraśurāma, the kṣatriyas went to European side, fled away. From India either they were driven away or killed when they become inconsistent with Vedic rules. So these kṣatriyas and associates... These parts of the world were resided by aborigines, mean uncivilized class. So for so many years associated with them, they have learned killing the an... Otherwise they're Aryans.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: To Mr. Francois Pierre. "My dear Francois." He's in France. "Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated March 17th. Try to understand our mission of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The world is all going to hell. They do not know what is the value of life. Like blind sheep following a blind leader, they are all going to the slaughterhouse. Human life is meant for saving, but instead the leaders are keeping the people in darkness. This is suicidal. Let us try to save them. Christian, Hindu, or Muslim, it doesn't matter. One must have faith in God. But if one does not know what is God, then what is the question of religion? This sectarian view has caused havoc in the world. Our real business is to know God and one's relationship with God. Do you know what is God? The answers to your questions are as follows: 1) Yes, the message of Jesus is universally applicable. Why not? Jesus says, 'Thou shalt not kill.' This is applicable to all. But all Christians are violating this law. So where is a Christian? In my opinion there is not a single Christian. Do they follow all ten commandments? 2) We accept Jesus Christ as śaktyāveśa-avatāra, an empowered incarnation of God. 3) The Bible should be accepted literally and not symbolically. There is no symbolical meaning of the sacrifice on the cross. The people were so rascal. They attempted to kill him because he was speaking of God. We can understand the position of that society. He had to deal with such rascals. He preached 'Thou shalt not kill,' and they killed him. The argument that Jesus died to redeem us of sins is simply another sinful argument. That Jesus has taken contract to redeem your sins is simply a plea of the sinners. They continue sinning and expect Christ to take the contract to freedom. It is most sinful. Instead of actually stopping sins, they contract with Jesus Christ. These people should be immediately hanged. That way our..., they say, 'That way our religion is very good. We cannot stop sinning, but it is okay because Christ has taken contract to save us.' It is the same as saying 'I am chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa now. I can do any nonsense.' That is known as nāma-aparādha, offenses to the holy name of the Lord. 4) Regarding Christ coming again, for the time being, you follow his instructions. Then if he comes it will be all right. Regarding the position of our movement if Christ were to come again, that we shall see when he comes. 'The end of the world' means that the world will be devastated. Just like you have a body and it will be finished, similarly the whole world body will be devastated. Creation, maintenance and annihilation. Naśa in Sanskrit means devastated. 5) There is no difference between a pure Christian and a sincere devotee of Kṛṣṇa. 6) Everything is accurately described in the Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa. Love of God means God's mercy. If God is pleased, He will do anything. The pleasure of God can be awarded by God. In Sanskrit it is described kṛpā-siddhi, perfection out of mercy. One must follow the four regulative principles—no eating meat, fish or eggs; no intoxication; no gambling; and no illicit sex life. Repent of all sinful activities and depend on Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Hoping this meets you well, your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami."

Girirāja: Very nice. Actually, about two years ago there was a propaganda in the West that if you are afraid of sinning, then it means that you don't have full faith in Jesus Christ. Because he has promised to accept your sinful reactions. So therefore if you sin, then it means that you have full faith that he will accept the reaction.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda said those people should be hanged immediately.

Prabhupāda: When the Bible has said, that after death one goes to hell or heaven? If Jesus Christ has taken a contract, then where is the question of going to hell?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, that is for people who don't sign the contract with him. That is what they say. As long as you say that you accept Jesus, then you are going to heaven for sure.

Prabhupāda: So then Jesus Christ accepted sinful reaction of a certain class of men. He is not universal.

Morning Talk -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: We are not... We have no interest in politics. What interest do we have in this phantasmagoria? We are not so fools. And there are so many people, they are taking part in politics. Is this sane?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's the argument I always use when we are preaching to get someone to join. They say "Well, we want to be a doctor or we want to be..." I say there are already so many millions of doctors, so many, but there is only...

Prabhupāda: And doctor is canvassing, "You become my patient."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yesterday that man was canvassing you. That Āyur-veda man.

Prabhupāda: As soon as he wanted history I rejected him. He is not Ayurvedic. And Karttikeya was sorry that I did not give him for one and a half hour.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, Karttikeya, the whole time he was very agitated.

Prabhupāda: So everyone who will come I will have to give one and a half hour?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He wanted you to stop talking to the reporter and begin talking to the doctor. What good the doctor will do, but the reporter can do so much good.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (break) When I say do this, he can do that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He listens.

Prabhupāda: So one must be cooking expert.

Room Conversation -- April 13, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: First of all hear. Then tomorrow they... Kṛṣṇa is helping. He'll help more, more. We are not going to be misled by their leadership.

Girirāja: No. They have nothing to say. Actually, the way you've trained us is very good, that you always present their arguments and then how to defeat them or what is the defect, so when we go out for preaching, we're not baffled by their arguments.

Prabhupāda: That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's policy. Let the rascal Sarvabhauma speak first of all. Let his talk be finished. Hear silently. And then reply. He'll hear.

Girirāja: I found, at least in the business community, there are many mūḍhas.

Prabhupāda: Mood? Ah, mūḍhas, yes.

Girirāja: Their philosophy is to work hard and die.

Prabhupāda: That hog philosophy, which is forbidden. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān (SB 5.5.1). Why? Why you should work so hard? That I said, that Daily Messenger, in the pandal, hanging...

Girirāja: They say that by opening factories they are giving work to so many people. So they cannot also lead the same...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (reading letter) "The Chief Minister's Secretariat, Government of Maharastra, Saciwalya."

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The rascals also argue that... The materialists argue that we're being cheated.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The materialists' argument is that we are being cheated by being promised something imaginary.

Prabhupāda: We are not discussing that, but you are cheating—that is practical. You are cheating. Your government is cheating, giving a piece of paper, cheating me that "You get hundred rupees."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And their cheating in so many... Just like they were paying ninety rupees for a vasectomy, to make someone impotent, to make them sterile, they're giving ninety rupees. They're saying "This ninety rupees is worth... It's worth it to become sterile if you take this ninety rupees."

Prabhupāda: That is paper.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now, that's cheating. A man can produce a son. A son has got real value in so many ways, but instead they'll give that paper worth...

Prabhupāda: Cheated with ninety rupees, and he's no more...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like the foreigners bought the island of Manhattan for twenty-four dollars from the Indians, the native Indians in New York, twenty-four dollars' worth of trinkets. And they purchased.

Prabhupāda: No, the land was there. Just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura purchased Māyāpur at eight annas a bighā.

Room Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Girirāja: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: You put this question and answer amongst the scientists. "How can you deny the existence of God?" "I am not seeing." "And you see or not see; there must be father." I think this commonsense argument nobody can refute.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No. (laughs) It is little... Common sense, a little intelligence, and everything can be solved. They are obstinate.

Prabhupāda: That means rascal. Obstinate means rascal. Obstinate is not a sane person.

Girirāja: Actually they're animals.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So these animals, they are passing on as big scientists, philosophers, theologician, and so on, so on. We have to stop them. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). This is the qualification of a person who does not accept God: duṣkṛtina, narādhama, mūḍha, māyayāpahṛta-jñāna-although highly educated, no knowledge-āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ, simply atheist. So as Kṛṣṇa conscious leaders, we have to punish them, chastise these rascals. They are demons.

Girirāja: Actually, it's... It's actually relishable to chastise them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs) It is a pleasure sport. So you come here. What is the news? What the, all these rascals saying? Newspaper means all the statement of rascals.

Morning Talk -- June 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why gradually? That means the background is foolish civilization, that's all. It is simple thing, very simple. Child is becoming boy. The body has changed. Where is the difficulty? How you can defy this argument? (break) ...means disciple. Still if it is so, that means a dog's obstinate rascal. Immediately. Or animal. Animal cannot be convinced.

Upendra: They... The karmīs, they made one movie where the whole world was monkeys, "Planet of the Apes," and one human being came...

Prabhupāda: Rascal, they were monkeys. Now they have become human being, that change of position.

Upendra: They wouldn't...

Prabhupāda: You have to accept a change of body. Change of bodies you have to accept from your argument. You were monkeys; now you are human being. This is change of body.

Śatadhanya: Evolution means change of body.

Prabhupāda: That is real evolution. What do they know of change of body? Therefore I say that, that you people, your brain is filled up with stool. You require thorough washing. You are not civilized. What is meaning of civilization? Improve animal life to civilized life. A dog can walk on the street naked; a man cannot. That is civilization. Otherwise dog is eating; you are eating. He's sleeping; you are sleeping. This is civilization. (indistinct) Culture. You have no knowledge of culture. Real knowledge is this: the body is there and changing; the soul is there, eternal. Then you become on the platform of God. If you remain in the same ignorance, then where is your advancement of civilization? If you cannot understand the simple truth, then where is your civilization?

Śatadhanya: They have no civilization.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Unconsciousness means absence of consciousness.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Unconsciousness also means no life?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Originally conscious. When there is forgetfulness, that is not. So unconsciousness is a covering of life. You develop this argument. There is no such thing as unconsciousness, but when the consciousness is covered, that is unconsciousness, negation.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That becomes matter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That we say, "matter." Absence of consciousness is matter, jaḍa.

Satadhanya: We say "covered consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Bhakti-cāru: But, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the body is matter, but still it is conscious as long as I am alive. So that means the life is consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They should learn the real meaning of Bhaktivedanta. They take it wrongly, but we should teach them what is the real meaning, that it is scientific. You always point out that sometimes people say that bhakti is sentimental, but where is there more scientific person than Jīva Gosvāmī, more philosophical?

Prabhupāda: Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate param. It is the last stage of knowledge. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). When you surpass all the stages... Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate param. It is the last word of knowledge. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti. So unless you understand the supreme cause, Kṛṣṇa, there is no knowledge. And if you understand Kṛṣṇa, then you understand everything. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti. Kṛṣṇa also says, aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2), ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). If you understand Kṛṣṇa, then everything.... And how Kṛṣṇa can be understood? Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). No other way. You cannot understand by any other way. Therefore bhakti-vedanta is last knowledge. There is.... Argument there is.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It also makes difficult for others to argue.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) When there is argument? Nonsense, how you can argue? And therefore you are rascal. And that is also forbidden. Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet: "Things which are beyond your conception, don't foolishly argue, rascal." That will prove your rascaldom. Better accept what the authority says. It is beyond your conception, rascal. Why you are wasting time? That we want to say, that all of them are rascals, and they are simply wasting time by false idea. Cheating. You know, there are companies. They'll... They have got photographic studio. So they adjust their moon hoax. They'll help you. If you have got particular idea... They are going to the moon planet, Mars. Nowhere the rascals go. There is no knowledge. How they can go? Teeny, imperfect. So if we can prove that they have no knowledge of the universe, neither of the position of their...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Actually if these two things, that life comes from life and this concept of the universe, two points are clear, then everything is taken care of.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Their false propaganda... (pause) (break) Scientists, they should seriously charge for the prestige of their Vedic knowledge. "Yes, my... Yes, sir, you are stating." What is this nonsense? "You are creating some rascals? Yes, my lord." In the name of education.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They might argue that...

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning of argue? I'll beat you with shoes. You have to accept. What is the use of argument?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Like a madman.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Nature will beat you with shoes. You have to accept.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They'll say, "We have seen old men, but we have never seen anyone change their body."

Prabhupāda: This is not change? You are a young man; now you have become old. Then you have no eyes. You are blind. I was not a young man?

Devotee (3): But they will argue, "What is the necessary..."

Prabhupāda: What is the use of argument? You have to change. You are going to be hanged. There is no argument. You must be hanged.

Devotee (3): But why a dog's body?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, why a dog's body? We have seen that you became an old man from a young man, but we never saw a man become a dog.

Prabhupāda: So you do not... You live. You go along with him. You'll see. Change means that... That is their defect. The change... Change means you have to accept any change. You see or not see. Tathā dehāntaram. Deha, the body, will change. You have got eight millions bodies. It can change to any one. There is no question of seeing. The suggestion is that you have to change. Now, in which body you are going to change, that you cannot see. So how you claim that "I cannot see"? That you cannot... There will be change. So how the change will take? Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1), by superior administration and by your karma.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They must know that every knowledge-acquiring process requires certain conditions to be fulfilled in order to understand it, that those conditions have to be acquired. Otherwise it's not possible.

Prabhupāda: So that is the difficulty at the present... A rascal is arguing. What is the meaning of his argument? He's a rascal. It has no meaning.

Devotee (3): All procrastination.

Prabhupāda: So read Bhāgavatam very seriously. Then your rascaldom will go. Lokasyājānato vidvāṁś cakre sātvata... All rascals, for their knowledge the Bhāgavata was written. Mūḍho nābhijānāti, mohito nābhijānāti. The difficulty is a rascal is thinking himself as very advanced in knowledge. That is the difficulty.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is the trouble with the scientists.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they are creating greatest trouble.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They think that the destiny of man lies in their hands. Sometimes they say like that.

Prabhupāda: That is yes. A rascal can become intelligent man. That's good. But without becoming intelligent, remaining rascal, they are living. Otherwise there is no hindrance. I may be rascal, but in future, I may be intelligent by education, by... That is not checked. But the difficulty is that he remains a rascal and claims to be intelligent. That is the difficulty. That is the difficulty.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodā-nandana: One argument Your Divine Grace gave in 1971 was that if they went to the moon and they found it was rock, how do they explain the moon is so shiny and gives such a cooling effect? They cannot explain that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Look at the earth. Now, this is a real question that we still have to answer. They picture the earth round, and we say, no. Bhū-maṇḍala is like a lotus, like this, and the earth is only one part of one island in Bhū-maṇḍala, and it's not, you know, it's not round(?). It doesn't look like that. And all the pictures they take of the earth when they go up in their satellites show round. And we're going to tell them that it's not. This is a very tricky question. In other words, if this is the picture of the world, like this, and we say that... If we take an airplane from here, from Los Angeles. Now, supposing we go to India, which is here. So there's two ways to go. One way, you can go like this, and the other way, you can go like that. But if the earth is not a round globe, then how is it sometimes people go from Los Angeles via Hawaii to Japan and then India? So we can't figure this out. We have experience, those of us who have flown, that actually the plane went from Los Angeles to Hawaii to Tokyo to Hong Kong and then to India. So it doesn't work out in our maps so far, right? We can't figure it out. This thing has to be very complete in its answers. Otherwise everyone will laugh at us. We can't leave any loopholes.

Prabhupāda: So are you thinking on this?

Bhakti-prema: In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam... According to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Find out from our side, according to Bhāgavatam.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Both are saying the same thing. Obvious.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now who is correct? Who will decide? I accuse you, you accuse me. But who is correct? Who will decide? That is śāstra. There is no question of argument. That is called pratiṣṭhā. You will never come to any conclusion by arguing. I think you are wrong, you think I am wrong. Somebody must decide. Judge. And that is śāstra.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Supposing they say...

Prabhupāda: They say, we are saying so many things. In the court there are two parties. I say something, another party says. The judge is there. He has now decision.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then they'll ask for the verse to prove it, and we must quote the correct śloka to substantiate our claim.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That the judge gives. Judges according to lawbook. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). So we have to approach the right person who can give the judgment. What is their answer about this, that by chemical combination they cannot produce life? Still why they are insisting?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are rascals.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why if one is settled up that he's a rascal, we should not hear anything. And why not? He has not gone to the moon. They are insisting, "Yes, we have gone," by false propaganda. Why the one who makes false propaganda and one who says nonsense, we have to believe? Immediately, whatever he says, reject. There's no argument. You have proved yourself rascal so we don't accept any statement. What do you think?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well I'm just trying to think of the description of Jambūdvīpa.

Prabhupāda: Whatever you say. But be aware you are rascal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But we have the practical task of...

Prabhupāda: No test.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No-task.

Prabhupāda: No test. Mother says here is your father. That's all. Finish. You cannot test. Then you are rascal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not test. I said...

Prabhupāda: No, these things cannot be tested.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is this? First of all answer this. Everything proposition is wrong. So how we can trust? What is the answer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We cannot trust them.

Prabhupāda: Then? But if you cannot trust them, they're rejected immediately. This is one argument. Another argument, (Bengali). The frog in the well, he's estimating, "This is the limit of water." What he'll understand about Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean? There is so many things. On the whole we are imperfect, and although imperfect, they want to be perfect. That is cheating. Now for argument's sake, if they put some argument, we have to reply. We have to prepare for them. Otherwise they're useless. We know they're useless, but sometimes they put some argument. We have to give answer. This is the position. And our duty is to present picture of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam correct. So what do you have to say? At least some answer you should give.

Yaśodā-nandana: The biggest problem we are discussing... We were thinking that the first question they will ask, this is their conception of the world.

Prabhupāda: We reject them.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Huh... Insignificant.

Bhakti-prema: According to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, if we start from London...

Prabhupāda: That argument also I have refuted. Just like animal, he is bound up. He is rotating around the log, and within that there may be Japan, there may be Calcutta, there may be Los Angeles. You can think this is there. But that is not all. Within that rounding circle, whatever is there, you may think this is all. But that is not all. He's limited condition. So within his limitation (Bengali). Within that limitation he's speaking. But Himalaya and other things, far beyond their limitation. That I have already explained. He's speaking within his limitation. Our position should be, correctly represent what is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But if there is some question, we should ask. Just like I am answering to the reasonable point. That if you are conditioned, within your condition you can see, you can experience, but beyond that you have no right to see. What is Los Angeles, Calcutta, Japan, this is very insignificant space. And they're talking of that. We are talking that Himalaya mountain, we have crossed over Himalaya, we conquered the outer space. How they can think of it?

Bhakti-prema: How to take them to (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: There is no question of take them. If you take, he's all right. If you don't take, we cannot change.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-prema: That has already been proved.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You're simply insisting on things by "probably." "Probably beyond the Himalaya there is something." That is one thing. We say "Definitely, here is. Beyond the Himalayas like this, that." That is the difference. You say "probably," I say "definitely." Father, mother said, "Here is your father." You can say "probably," and mother is saying "definitely." She knows perfectly. You may say probably he may be your father, but mother knows that definitely. Therefore we take Vedas as mother, Purāṇas as sister. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is explaining it. Iti śuśruma. But śuśruma, why he should waste his valuable time? He knows it is definite. So unless you come to this standpoint that whatever is spoken in the Vedic literature, that is definite, you cannot be convinced by argument. Tarko 'pratiṣṭhaḥ śrutayo vibhinnā nāsāv ṛṣir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam, mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Śukadeva Gosvāmī said—that's all. Mahājano yena. Vaiyāsakiḥ.

svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ
kumāraḥ kapilo manuḥ
prahlādo janako bhīṣmo
balir vaiyāsakir vayam
(SB 6.3.20)

These mahājanas. This is our argument. And for common-sense argument, the Himalaya is very, very high. Very, very broad. You have never crossed and you have met with so many accidents. They avoid that portion, flying plane. And I have seen how high has it gone, then it will be in the clouds. Still they say twenty-eight thousand. Huh? Twenty-eight thousand?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twenty-nine thousand.

Prabhupāda: So I conclude like that. When you show this book, accept this authority.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Our question was mostly coming out of how to draw what the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is saying. We're not supporting any kind of mundane argument, nor do we have any doubt in Bhāgavatam. We're simply trying to understand the Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: And that is your credit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's why we were meeting.

Prabhupāda: Where is the difficulty?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, I think that one of the difficulties arose from my seeing this map originally, because in this map it shows the continents that we today speak of as various continents. So when we all looked at this map, our immediate question was, as I said the other day, how do we go from one place to the next? It's not such an unreasonable question. So we're just trying to answer it from the Bhāgavatam—not to give our own speculations, because they're imperfect.

Prabhupāda: That is already answered. You are limited within certain area. So you can conclude in so many ways. Sara bhuri kara, kara bhuri sara.(?) There is a vegetable prepared, the following vegetables are taken: sara, bhuri, and kara. And again you say kara bhuri sara. This way or that way. Sara bhuri kara, kara bhuri sara. That three things, either you take this way consecutively or that way consecutively. But you have got only that kara bhuri sara. You have no experience. There is potato, there is (indistinct), there is (indistinct-Sanskrit). You know these three things. Sara bhuri kara. Kara bhuri sara. Just like they are making arrangement in the laboratory. Companies are there. They present in such a way, that he was flying in the sky, and big sputnik and very small town. Do you know that man came?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Man came and said he could do anything. Make any trick or illusion. (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: And they have done so in the matter of moon planet. They've never gone there by laboratory arrangement. Arizona?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Arizona.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is very difficult. Acintya.

Yaśodā-nandana: If such a thing as going from one place to the other on earth, this is cintya, this is conceivable.

Prabhupāda: Argument is there when it is conceivable. It is inconceivable. Kṛṣṇa lifted Govardhana. Seven years old, six years old. How it is conceivable? But devotees, they are crying, "Oh, Giri-vara-dhārī." And the Māyāvādīs they say kalpanāyā. The Akhandananda was saying. And Śukadeva Gosvāmī is narrating something kalpanāyā and wasting his time?

Bhakti-prema: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: This is acintya for the Māyāvādīs. They say kalpanāyā. These Akhandananda and other Māyāvādīs, they explain Bhāgavata-kalpanāyā. They are making some imagination that "I am God," but they are alleging us, that "You are in illusion." God, as soon as there is some toothache, he goes to the doctor. He's such a rascal hypocrite. There was some heart attack going on, so Akhandananda, immediately he called one of his chief disciples, that Mishra, Jasri, and he was taken to Bombay hospital. And he's God.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The professors challenge him... What...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. There was a challenge?

Mr. Myer: Yes, one of his disciples was recently caught. He had lot of vibhūti inside, hidden inside his body. So when he lay down they say that lot of vibhūti was coming out. So when they opened the shirt it was just filled with whole thing inside. That is one of his very close disciples, they are... But he is still managing to get away. His argument is that there are two types of people who come to him. One who is spiritually advanced, for them he does not show any miracles. But there are some poor people who do not believe in God unless you show the miracle, so therefore he gives all these mūrtis and... I told, once (indistinct) with him last year. So I was sitting there and suddenly, you see, he just did something and...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Let's see him save himself from death. Let's see him make the miracle that he can save himself from dying. That he cannot do.

Mr. Myer: Whole thing is, in the last four, five years. Once they tried to buy my chairman's car, they want to buy. It is big Chevrolet car he has got.

Prabhupāda: I have heard that he's a big drunkard.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So Haṁsadūta has become famous now.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All the people there will support Haṁsadūta. Naturally they won't support such a rascal. (pause) (whispering in background)

Prabhupāda: This argument is called Pretitio Principial logic. You can see the dictionary, what is the meaning, pretitio.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is it called, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Prititio Principial. So what the public said?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Should I just finish reading his article, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: He's giving very strong argument.

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just writing some notes. I was remembering the discussion we had, all of your disciples and you, when we were considering whether we should go to Vṛndāvana or not, how we were all giving different arguments, one side or the other. So I was remembering how... I was just writing down some of the different arguments. Then we all concluded that the best program was to come to Vṛndāvana. And now I can see that it was the right conclusion, because I feel that we are at home. Here it is home. Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma are here.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did you have a nice rest? I think so. I think you rested for about three hours in a row just now.

Prabhupāda: Three hours?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. It's a nearly quarter to one. You were very tired from the trip. (break) I've heard it said that when great personalities arrive, everything is always cleansed. So I see that upon your coming, everything is cleansed by Kṛṣṇa sending all of this rain. The atmosphere becomes cool, and the sound of the rain is also very pleasing.

Prabhupāda: And there is sun? Sun also was there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The sunshine? There was sunshine when we arrived, but now it is cloudy and rain. I was wondering, Śrīla Prabhupāda, whether you would like for the kavirāja to be called. I was thinking he might be called tomorrow. Today no need for him to come. Better that you mostly relax today. I was thinking that as you said, better or worse, some husband must be there. (Prabhupāda laughs) So we should have some doctor. Is that all right? It's so nice to be with you when you are in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: So you can do the needful.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is wanted.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good. And then our sannyāsīs look so nice. There's Akṣayānanda Mahārāja and Bhakti-prema Swami. They were both there, very nicely dressed, with daṇḍas. It's really... The whole thing is complete. They get to stay in a nice guesthouse. Then there will be building of Bhaktivedanta Institute Hall. All of these things are a complete arrangement. I think these men are surprised to see that how such a thing has sprung up, and they have not been aware of it before. And when they see these books, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that the scientists have written, I think that will floor these men. They will be completely amazed to see it. Normally, if anyone else dared to do such a thing as this, to prove by science that life comes from life, it would be a very immature attempt by some religious person, and it would not have very much weight. But here they are coming face to face with people who are actually scientists, and they will not be able to deny our arguments. I think that your Guru Mahārāja is very pleased with this program, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I have given the ideas. Now you give the shape.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhagavān: He just spoke right before the thing closed. Svarūpa Dāmodara tried to point out how there is a difference between matter and spirit in that one can definitely see the difference between a living body and a dead body. But he didn't actually go in too much detail to defeat his arguments. But I was very surprised that he would come up with such a Māyāvādī statement, that brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā philosophy. There are not so many scientists there today, maybe twenty. (kīrtana) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...let me pass. (pause)

Hari-śauri: If you're here with us, then that's all we need. Then we can go out and do anything.

Prabhupāda: Tomorrow shall I take the risk of taking little milk?

Hari-śauri: Generally when you take milk it causes lot of difficulty with mucus. This sweet lime juice, that seems to be doing some good, though. Perhaps it might be better not to take the milk for a little while until your system becomes more healthy.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Is there any difficulty from the solid food?

Prabhupāda: No taste.

Hari-śauri: No taste. But at least it may give some strength back.

Prabhupāda: How it can if it cannot enter into the system?

Hari-śauri: It's not being digested? If you were to take something like soup, that may be more easily digestible, just the liquids. But that would have much of the goodness...

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hari-śauri: Things like soup and vegetable juices?

Prabhupāda: Cannot take. No taste.

Room Conversation -- October 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I mean we have to go on some basis, Śrīla Prabhupāda. And from the... What we can see, we can see. Whatever you ate turned into stool. Now, that is a good sign. That's a good sign. If it didn't come out of its own accord, that's due to less strength. And by drinking a lot yesterday, this morning the urine becomes clear, and by taking those medicines. These are actual, factual things we can observe. One thing is, you don't feel able to sleep. That's a bad thing. And the other thing is your being so weak condition that your willpower is weakened. Your determination is weakened. So so far as those two problems go, for sleeping I know that something can be given to help you to sleep. So far willpower, if you allow us to take care of you, then I think that should be the willpower. Of course, I mean we're not going to let them do anything bad. I mean I'm not going to let anybody take you to the hospital. I wouldn't have done it in London, except that you yourself said we should do it. Otherwise your instructions told to everybody, "Don't let them take me to a hospital." So we're not thinking like that. Neither I'm going to let anybody put any, take any blood specimen or any of those things. It's not required. These things which they're giving you are not... The only harmful effect is that you cannot sleep. But that can be given. To help you sleep can be helped. Otherwise this kavirāja's medicine, it may be less agitating to take, but does it actually work? Now for nearly half a day you have drank only one time a little bit. But you want us to take care of you and help you, then I think you should accept these... I mean they're very reasonable arguments.

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the Gītā, in one purport you say in the beginning when you undergo treatment, even when you're jaundiced the sugar candy is very bitter. These slight side effects are bitter for you, but if you keep taking the treatment, we know that that will eventually clear up.

Prabhupāda: This light massage he is doing...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: ...it is giving me comfort.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Light massage.

Bhakti-caru: You want it now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This massage you were doing is good.

Prabhupāda: Dr. Ghosh said no massage. The other doctor says, "No, what is the harm?"

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Don't bother to come here, then.

Brahmānanda: But they treated you with much respect, though. They said that they had wanted Your Divine Grace to come because you are also a member of their steering committee. (indistinct) They also had a proposal to produce a series of different books, small books, pamphlets, forty, fifty pages, comprising selections from the Bhagavad-gītā. And these would be for specific types of persons. The books would be Bhagavad-gītā for students, Bhagavad-gītā for businessmen, Bhagavad-gītā for scientists, like that. So they want us to produce the book for the scientists, taking various quotes from Bhagavad-gītā with a short explanation of the verse. So I said one problem is that all the different groups who are assembled here will all have different interpretations of the verses. What about this? And they said, "No, no, we shouldn't interpret." I said, "Well, one reason that the young people are not taking up this Bhagavad-gītā is because they see that everyone is giving a different interpretation. Nobody is presenting it as it is, so they're confused." I was in Kashmir, I was speaking with some young boys. They were telling me they're confused by religion. They don't respect the paṇḍitas in the temples—they're all simply after money. They have no respect for religion, Hindu religion. So I mentioned this to all of them. They are all Māyāvādīs. And they argued with me. I presented arguments. They would not accept it.

Prabhupāda: They want to avoid criticism.

Brahmānanda: I argued right back with them. I said, "You..." They were saying that we shouldn't interpret Bhagavad-gītā. I said, "Then why are you saying that Kṛṣṇa means 'divine consciousness'? Where does Kṛṣṇa say 'divine consciousness'? He says, mām, aham. He doesn't say 'divine consciousness.' He says 'to Me.' "

Prabhupāda: And all the ācāryas say. We have to follow the ācāryas. Very good. They do not answer. And they... Is it not?

Brahmānanda: But they don't listen to you. We tell them the truth, but they don't want to hear it. They just want to come and become important by their attending this meeting, become puffed up and speak their own ideas and think that they're accomplishing some real...

Prabhupāda: That may be (indistinct).

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Then make this arrangement, one week or ten days.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are doing that. We have already agreed to that. Actually I could see from the very beginning that that's what we're going to do, but sometimes I feel it is my duty to give good arguments for some opposite opinion just to see both sides. Ultimately we are prepared to be with you wherever you want to be. To us that is home. That is our great pleasure, to be with you. So we're making that arrangement, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break) (offers obeisances) Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Do you think that without finishing this business we shall go?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Without finishing the business of these, this legal business? Oh, yes, this legal business is not what would keep us here.

Prabhupāda: Then how it will... How it will be done?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I mean it can be executed in Māyāpur as well.

Prabhupāda: How?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mr. Das, our friend from Calcutta, can come. It's pretty much now... It's already drafted, and... It would just have to be redrafted again on new stamp paper or the words would have to be changed. It would have to be retyped on stamp paper from Bengal side. The basic writing is...

Prabhupāda: That means unfinished despite unfinished.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And who was presiding?

Akṣayānanda: The Aurobindo.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That guy's a pakka Māyāvādī. That Aurobindo man?

Prabhupāda: Aurobind.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. He had a big argument with Brahmānanda. Not a big argument, but he was challenging Brahmānanda that "Kṛṣṇa means the divine consciousness. Kṛṣṇa is not a person. He is the... It is divine consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Māyāvāda.

Akṣayānanda: I have a plan, Prabhupāda. Myself and Bhakti-prema Swami can go there and sit, and if we hear any discrepancies, if we are given a chance afterwards, which we can arrange, to speak something, then we can rectify—in a gentlemanly way, of course. We can rectify. If we sit there, at least we know that they'll be careful what they say. And he can catch any finer points that I would miss, 'cause it's all in Hindi.

Prabhupāda: They are speaking in Hindi.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So, that legal business?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Girirāja has gone into Mathurā to meet with Mr. Garg to just see that all of the drafts are in order, if everything is in order. Then hopefully tomorrow we can finish it all.

Prabhupāda: So it was argument, not that we have rejected. Upāyān cintayet prajñāḥ...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You mean the treatment? Yes, I have learned to take everything very philosophically, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I mean I took it that you were presenting the..., you know, presenting the whole picture to be considered.

Prabhupāda: I am now puzzled. Still, I am thinking.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I thought it was very good what you said in the sense that it... It actually makes everything... It presents a more real picture. We should not be overly optimistic, neither should we be completely fatalistic.

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And above all, our whole program here is completely transcendental. It's just like Kṛṣṇa dāsa Bābājī said. Your consciousness is so sublime that it's just wonderful at every moment to be with you. I mean, although I wish that you were... We all wish that you were completely healthy, yet at the same time we have never experienced so much nice exchanges with you. I mean we all... Every moment is so relishable to be with you. So I mean, even this puzzlement is very transcendental. None of us see any of this in any kind of a mundane view. It's all due to your consciousness being so Kṛṣṇa conscious, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I mean to me this puzzlement is simply another proof of the existence of Kṛṣṇa, 'cause Kṛṣṇa certainly is not puzzled. It seems like everything is happening according to His plan.

Prabhupāda: Kīrtana may be stopped now.

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So consult him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. I think this is the time to do that. This is a side effect of taking the medicine. Just giving up taking medicine may solve one problem, but it's not going to solve the main problem. This is to say that we're putting some hope on this kavirāja from Calcutta. If eventually he is shown that his medicine didn't work, then I won't..., I wouldn't say anything. But I'm going on the argument that his medicine is doing some good. So I don't want to see it stopped. So you have no objection if we consult the other kavirāja, do you?

Prabhupāda: What can be done?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. I think this is the purpose for which he was chosen, at such a time like this that he should be consulted. I'll tell Bhakti-caru to consult him. (break)

Bhakti-caru: (Hindi)

Kavirāja assistant: (Hindi)

Śatadhanya: Finished with urine, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhakti-caru, Prabhupāda is talking to you.

Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda wants him to come every day, once a day, and check him out. (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hundred cc's, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Your urine was 100 cc's.

Prabhupāda: No, urine is all right. Urine, it is all right. I am lying here. He can come conveniently.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: If Prabhupāda says that by going on parikrama he feels he'll be cured, then how can we continue to place arguments against him?

Kavirāja: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Kuvera?

Bhakti-caru: Shastriji is telling Prabhupāda to ask the Kuvera's puṣpaka-ratha. That is airplane of Kuvera. And do the parikrama in that. Then there won't be any pumping in that way. And he's saying that if Prabhupāda asks for that, he will sure get it. (devotees chuckle)

Kavirāja: (Hindi)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ultimately what Prabhupāda decides, we will do.

Haṁsadūta: Well, it just...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, but it goes on. As Prabhupāda goes on, his disciples also go on.

Kavirāja: (Hindi)

Bhakti-caru: Shastriji's saying, Mahārāja... Shastriji's saying that Prabhupāda shouldn't talk too much. It's bad for his heart.

Kavirāja: (Hindi)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we can have kīrtana until Kṛṣṇa dāsa comes. Okay. (kīrtana) Lokanātha is here, over there, Śrīla...

Prabhupāda: So? Where did you go?

Lokanātha: I went to Mathurā.

Page Title:Argument (Conversations 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:10 of Feb, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=99, Let=0
No. of Quotes:99