Whatever you act. Never mind. Whatever you do. But you have to act for Kṛṣṇa. Yajñārthe karma anyatra. Otherwise, karma-bandhanaḥ, you'll be bound up by the reaction. The same example: just a person acting on behalf of some superior authority, government, personally he has no responsibility because he is acting on behalf of the supreme authority. Just like a manager or agent, attorney. Just like we signed one lease agreement. That Mr. Brown, he is acting as attorney on behalf of the landlord. So he has no responsibility. He is acting in landlord capacity or landlord consciousness. He is trying to save the interest of the landlord as far as possible. But if there is any mistake, the landlord will suffer or gain. He has nothing to do. Similarly, if we work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if there is something wrong... Because we can act two ways, wrongly or rightly. That's all. If we do rightly, it is all right. Even if we don't do it rightly, wrongly, still, it is right because the cause is the Supreme.
Attorney
Expressions researched:
"attorney"
|"attorney's"
|"attorneys"
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So sometimes we say that you take part in politics. Our business is not to take part in politics for acquiring big post like president or secretary or attorney general. What you will do that? We have no meaning for this post. Because for a devotee what are these posts? Even the post of Lord Brahmā or Indra, the heavenly king, it has no meaning. Vidhi-mahendrādiś ca kīṭāyate. That is stated by Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī. He says that kaivalyaṁ narakāyate. Kaivalyam, the monism, to merge into the effulgence, the Absolute Truth, to become one, that is called kaivalyam, only spirit, that's all. So for a devotee this kaivalya perfection, monism, is as good as hellish condition of life. Kaivalyaṁ narakāyate. And tridaśa-pūr ākāśa-puṣpāyate. Tri-daśa-pūr means the higher heavenly planets where big, big demigods live.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Śyāmasundara: And the father of one of our Godbrothers from America, Mr. Teton, he's from Chicago, he was there with Girirāja, and she was saying to him, his sister was saying to him, "You're so fortunate that your son is a devotee." He's a very wealthy attorney in Chicago, and his only son is a devotee, but he is somewhat, from material point of view, he was somewhat confused. So she said, "You should be very happy that your son is a devotee. I have eight sons, and they are not like your son."
Guru dāsa: You met Girirāja. He came last time to the city.
Ambassador: Oh, yes. I remember. Yes, yes.
Guru dāsa: He's from Chicago.
Ambassador: That's right. Now he, uh, he has a wife here? No? He's not married?
Prabhupāda: No, he's not.
Ambassador: Oh!
Mrs. Keating: Oh, that's marvellous. It's a very good...
Ambassador: I used to be the attorney for the Macmillan Company.
Prabhupāda: Yes, here is, here is my headquarters address.
Ambassador: I see. In Los Angeles.
Mrs. Keating: Oh, good. Fine.
Prabhupāda: That is my Press address.
Śyāmasundara: This was received today.
Prabhupāda: Yes, fine.
Mrs. Keating: It's very good.
Śyāmasundara: Ambassador Keating was the attorney for Macmillan.
Prabhupāda: Oh!
Ambassador: Yes.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Ambassador: So I... Very nice to see you.
Prabhupāda: Thank you.
Ambassador: And I appreciate your calling.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So the rebellion broke out immediately after his passing away. And then fight in the high-court. And Kunja Babu, he is very intelligent man. So from the very beginning he knew that "There will be fight after the demise of Guru Mahārāja. So fight will be in the high-court. So at the expense of Guru Mahārāja, let my brother and sons become attorneys and barrister so I will have not to pay all these things." It was a planned thing. And that is being done. He was a clerk, it was not in his power to make his brother and sons attorneys and barristers. They were all made at the cost of Gauḍīya Maṭha to fight with (indistinct) in favor of Tīrtha Mahārāja. These were the planned things. But I was a rotten gṛhastha. I did not join any one of them. (Prabhupāda laughs) I was rotting in my household life. That's all. But I was planning how to make, how to make this. That was my desire from the very beginning, since I heard it. But I was never with them, either this party or that party. And Guru Mahārāja also recommended, apnader tasturi tublia thaki bhavan.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That Chaganlal this, I pay him extra eighty-five thousand. That is also black. No more white. So the black money was paid in this way, that the money was counted and it was put in a handbag, and it was locked by him. So the key was with him, and the bag was with me. As soon as court accepted the agreement, then I handed over, "Take this bag." Then again this Ratna Parik, he first of all proposed twenty thousand to sell that house. Then when I went there, he knew that he's settling at any cost, he said, "Now that twenty thousand was cost formerly. Now things have gone very high, I cannot sell." So he knows that we are eager to purchase. Then I said, "Then what do you want to do?" "Now I want thirty thousand." "All right, yes. Take it." I did not argue. In this way I settled up. And our Girirāja's father appreciated that "It is better a bad settlement than to prolong the case." So I took this policy. It is bad settlement, from twenty thousand to thirty thousand. But settled out. "I give you 85,000 black." But one thing I gain—that by cancelling the agreement, their proposal was that increase the price, twenty lakhs from fourteen lakhs. That was the arrangement between the attorneys. They cancelled the agreement and take twenty lakhs from him, and the balance should be divided by..., amongst us. That was the agreement. So that addition of twenty lakhs I satisfied Mrs. Nair by fourteen lakhs fifty thousand.
Bali Mardana: Saves 500,000, lakhs.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The attorneys were settling at seventeen lakhs, but by Kṛṣṇa's grace I was able to settle up fourteen lakhs fifty thousand.
Bali Mardana: You were able to convince her to settle up for less.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Gurukṛpā: This was white?
Prabhupāda: Ah? Yes, fourteen lakhs fifty thousand white.
Bali Mardana: She must've been very surprised to receive the money, such a large payment.
Devotee: In Australia?
Prabhupāda: Yes. The Attorney, in the... Attorney-General of the Federal Government. You saw that?
Satsvarūpa: I didn't see the paper.
Prabhupāda: They have recognized, bona fide religious sect. (pause) So the priestly order this morning, they liked it very much.
Devotee: I think so, yes.
Prabhupāda: This gentleman, he's also a priestly...
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Sit down straight. Otherwise feel sleepy.
Jayapatāka: Myself and Gopāla Kṛṣṇa were just going to Krishnanagara to see that attorney for that...
Prabhupāda: Oh, all right.
Śrutakīrti: Others will be coming.
Jayapatāka: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa and...
Acyutānanda: Theology or Theosophy?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Acyutānanda: Theosophy?
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29).
Yogi Bhajan: (Hindi) We have the best attorney here in this area, and you are having a trouble with this temple. If you... Somebody if you can call, because in this area he is the best law attorney.
Prabhupāda: You can take the address.
Devotee: We have their phone number.
Yogi Bhajan: We won that... Recently he won a very big case. This is our daily fight, but it comes on you sometimes. We fight it daily. We fight before it happens to us. If I was to buy this temple I would have insured the title in a suit case, and I would have filed the suit myself, but on the neighborhood.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. Worse, because animal has got some limit, but a human being who has developed consciousness, it is unlimited. Just like a thief is thief, but when an attorney-at-law is a thief, he's a very big thief. Huh?
Hari-śauri: When a man's educated to know the difference...
Prabhupāda: Ordinary thief and educated thief. In your country there are many lawyers. Their only business is how to cheat.
Hari-śauri: Every lawyer. Because they're trying to make money as well, only they're in a better position.
Prabhupāda: You are welcome to sit down here.
Hari-śauri: You can sit on the couch.
Vṛṣākapi: This is Eugene Thoreau, Prabhupāda. He's an attorney in Washington, D.C. He's helped us very much opening up saṅkīrtana places. Very good.
Vipina: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is a professor from Catholic University, a physicist.
Vṛṣākapi: I told him already.
Vipina: Oh, did you?
Hari-śauri: Bring one or two chairs.
Prabhupāda: So how do you like our movement, Hare Kṛṣṇa movement?
Prabhupāda: Yes, you have to believe me, that's all.
Haṁsadūta: I noticed in several of the articles though, they mentioned that this District Attorney is now going to expand his investigation to see where the money goes. This is what they're really interested in. And when they see... What will happen is, when they see that some of the devotees collecting three, four hundred dollars on the street, then they will print this in the newspaper and in this way...
Prabhupāda: But they collect money by selling book.
Prabhupāda: Bihar. Deoghar.
Guest (5): Yes. One we have got in Hardwar itself. We have got a nice āśrama at Sapta Sarovara. I'll just show you one of his... Because Juhu, whenever he was in Bombay he was at Juhu always. (break) He was residing at M.C. Satwar, you know our Attorney General.
Prabhupāda: He's Sindhi?
Guest (5): Punjabi.
Dr. Patel: He lived for 130 years.
Prabhupāda: He's still living?
Dr. Patel: No, he died only five years back.
Prabhupāda: Very good.
Jagadīśa: All these... Kīrtanānanda Swami was there and a boy who was kidnapped, Vasu Gopāla, as well as Dr. Harvey Cox, the Civil Liberties Attorney who is defending us, and Dr. Stephen Corover, a psychologist, Jack Colley, who's a renowned religious scholar, and Dr. Eck, a lecturer in Sanskrit and India studies at Harvard. The public was invited and they had questions from the floor and all of the members of the panel, important people, were all in our support. It's very long...
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: They're chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. (laughter) They're chanting Kṛṣṇa. Yes.
Rāmeśvara: They say, "As of this date, Hare Kṛṣṇa has been able to flood both the media and the District Attorney's offices with support for their side..."
Prabhupāda: They're admitting. That's good.
Rāmeśvara: "...and they are way ahead of those on our side who believe that it is not a religious issue. Sun Yung Moon"—this is that Reverend Moon—"has been largely exposed in the Press. But not the Kṛṣṇas."
Trivikrama: Haribol.
Prabhupāda: So the more they expose, the more implicated. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: This we can bring a charge against them: "Prove that we wanted money."
Rāmeśvara: Yes, we are counter... We are fighting them. "...by writing to the District Attorney's"—those are the Justice Department Offices—"or contacting your local media." Then they give the addresses of people in New York and two addresses in Los Angeles who you should write to telling them about all the knowledge you have about all the abuses of Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then it says, "You should commence action for a legal deprogramming. If other families of Hare Kṛṣṇa victims would go to court to get a legal conservatorship or guardianship with an intended writ of habeas corpus..." Now, what this means is you go to the court, and you say "My dear judge, my son is in Hare Kṛṣṇa. He has been brainwashed."
Prabhupāda: Yes. Describe in letter. You have got fourth-class, tenth-class culture. How you'll understand the culture of becoming meek and humble?
Satsvarūpa: The District Attorney who was trying to prosecute us, Ādi-keśava, he reveals his strategy here because many lawyers say that we have a right to practice our religion. This is freedom of religion. He says...
Prabhupāda: Free... It is bona fide religion.
Satsvarūpa: He said "But it's not a question of religion." He said, "What we're..." He said, "Mind control has nothing to do with religion. It's a question of individual free will. I don't think an individual in his right state of mind would allow someone else to control his mind. Just think of it in terms of hypnosis."
Prabhupāda: Yes. He has written. Not only that. Nowadays somebody has accused that even in his old age he was having sex with young girls. I do not know. But it is a fact, when he was coming in the meeting he would touch two young girls, granddaughter and granddaughter-in-law, and then come in the meeting. I have seen. One gentleman in our, the Mullick's Thakur Badhi, when we were there. He was attorney. So when there was some function, so all neighboring men were invited. So he was also invited. He would come with at least three, four prostitutes. And he was old man, blind. Asutosh Bhan. He became very rich man by cunning lawyer. He was a lawyer. So he would take a credit that "When I go to a friend's house to keep my invitation, I take some three, four prostitute and flatterer. Then..." And he'd be received very nicely.
Prabhupāda: Gandhi is a Gujarati.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But he went to South Africa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. South Af... He had no practice here. One attorney, he told me in Bombay that "Your Gandhi was waiting for cases here, sitting in this chair." He was not even successful lawyer. Then he got a case in Africa. He thought it wise, "Let me go there." And there, instead of becoming a lawyer, he became a political agitator. So to take equal status for the Indians he fought there. And that was failure. Still it is going on. They are very determined not to give any advantage to anyone except these whites.
Prabhupāda: Why we appoint lawyer?
Ādi-keśava: Well, in the court there are certain things that only the lawyer may argue. We're not allowed to argue ourselves. Now, one thing is that Hari-śauri has just told me that Guru-kṛpā Mahārāja has one man on his party who was a lawyer, a member of the bar in Australia. So I'm thinking to ask Guru-kṛpā Mahārāja if he can come with us to New York and get admitted to the bar in New York and become our attorney.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. It will be very nice.
Ādi-keśava: Because otherwise it is costing so much money.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Immediately.
Ādi-keśava: Sometimes... This is a book that is documenting all of their activity. One other thing is that sometimes when they are attacking us there is a good opportunity for us to differentiate ourselves, distinguish ourselves from other religions. For instance, this World Fellowship of Religions held a press conference at the United Nations. Now when they backed us, they would not back the Unification Church or the, you know, these Christians groups, because they don't like them. In general, the scholars, they favor our group. They don't favor the other groups. They don't like them. They think they are cheaters, and there has been some proof in the press. One problem is, for instance, this Mr. Moon, his...The tax commission in New York investigated him, and they took away his tax exempt status. And the Attorney General removed all of his privileges in the state of New York. So he has been made to look very bad. So rather than... There are some devotees who are saying we should stand together in an alliance with them. But every time I am asked in the press or anything, I say the same thing again, "No. We have nothing to do with them. We have nothing..." Because I am afraid that we will be dragged down with them.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (reading) "Handicapped though, these foursome make a cheerful group as they paddle along on three wheelers every day from their homes in the King George Memorial Infirmary on Jagtap Marga, Maha-Lakshmi." Some invalids. "Mr. Jaya Prakash Narayan in a statement on Sunday came out strongly against the attempts of some people to lobby through him for personal favors and advancements from the Janata party government center." He doesn't like it. Everyone is going to him now. (pause) "The aim and object of the 42nd constitutional amendment was stated to be to establish the supremacy of the legislature, but in fact it was designed to establish the absolute authority of the executive as personified by the Prime Minister, according to Mr. C. K. Dapteri, former attorney general of India. Mr. Dapteri said, 'Everyone knows that misuse to which the power of preventative detention has been put in the last eighteen months. It is not necessary to recall or relay instances. But the power itself is so easily capable of being put to wrong use that it is unsafe to leave it in the hands of the executive government.' "
Prabhupāda: This will be amended now.
Correspondence
1971 Correspondence
That is not our business, so you should withdraw immediately. Prisoners are dependent on the government. So you should not interfere; it will only complicate things. Also, there is no need of studying Manu. Don't divert your attention in that way. We have got so many books. Those you should study. You may write of our principles to the U.S. Attorney General. Of that I have no objection.
Your newspaper and magazine clippings are very nice. They arrived on a day when our life members were meeting and they were appreciated by all. Your ideas for new dramas sound nice, so you can put them into action. And Princeton sounds like an ideal place for our temple, so why not open it immediately?
1972 Correspondence
Here is a copy of a letter received from Ambubhai & Diwanji that they are no longer acting as our attorneys. So please let me know who is acting as our attorney and what is the situation. Please reply to both Manila and Vrndavana addresses. Manila address is ISKCON Manila, 179 Ortega St., San Juan Rizl, Manila, Republic of the Philippines.
I thank you very much for your letter dated October 4, 1972, with enclosure from Ambubhai & Diwanji. I am surprised to learn how he has ceased to become my attorney without my advice, nor do I have any information as to who is acting as my attorney. Will you kindly inquire from him to enlighten when and how he has ceased to become my attorney.
We have sent a telegram today reading as follows: "Anxious to know progress with Nair. Call urgent 83260".
So my definite order is as follows: if the conveyance is not yet signed or there is difficulty, then immediately take back the money from the attorneys (3 lakhs), and make a fixed deposit with the bank for six months.
1973 Correspondence
On transferring the above amount they will have to guarantee either to the vendor Mrs. Nair or to the court, assurance of payment, because Mrs. Nair's attorney may plead that we have no money. In that case we can reply that we can supply Bank's guarantee of payment.
Things in Bombay are very much complicated. Tamala Krishna Goswami is already there but he is more or less engaged in preaching work. If you think so, I can send Brahmananda Swami to go to India to help you.
So I am very much anxious to hear the reports of these transactions. So at least once in a week, you send me a report with all the details.
1974 Correspondence
Don't sign this agreement. We do not recognize Harrisongs. Any agreement must be between George himself or whomever he says. We have taken this house from George not from Harrisongs. Why did Mukunda approach Denis O'Brien? George has his own attorney. What is the position of Denis O'Brien?
Some time ago there was an agreement made regarding the grazing land on the Bhaktivedanta Manor property. So far I know it was done through George's attorney. I want the name of George's attorney and a copy of the agreement papers regarding the settlement. Also I want George's personal address where I can write him one letter.
| Page Title: | Attorney |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 06 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=2, Con=22, Let=6 |
| No. of Quotes: | 30 |