Bangkok

Expressions researched:
"Bangkok"

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 9, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In USA.... (break)

Guru dāsa: Even car, the roads are so big.

Prabhupāda: Ah, bus service is all right? So transportation for the USA. Take Greyhound. (Hindi) (break)

Guest (1) (Indian man): I don't think these people have seen the car here, have you?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Guest: Have you seen the car?

Prabhupāda: I think it is now obsolete.

Guest (1): Obsolete now. I don't see it now.

Guru dāsa: Train?

Guest (1): No. (indistinct) (laughter) Just like (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: With car, there is a platform like this. It moves on the roof of the house. (laughter) (Hindi) Helicopter.

Guest (1): Helicopter.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (break) ...New York, goes to Los Angeles and then to Honolulu, then Tokyo, then Hong Kong, then New Delhi... No. Hong Kong to Bangkok, Bangkok to New Delhi, New Delhi to Karachi, Karachi to Beirut, then, I think, London, then again New York. One, one round. (Hindi) One round.

Guest (1): (Hindi) (break) (laughter)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (laughing) (break) Fifty crores.

Guest (1): Huh? More than that. (laughter) Why not?

Prabhupāda: Not fifty crores. Fifty-five lakhs.

Guest (1): Fifty-five lakhs. Oh.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: We want to preach. Here also, if you give us facility, we can preach. That is after your interest.

Devotee (1): This one gentleman has already offered one house in Bangkok. He's put at our disposal, in the middle of the city. A very beautiful house.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is very nice.

Devotee (1): But now I'm wondering how this should be managed, who should take charge of this project.

Prabhupāda: No, we can send some men from India. Bangkok is not far away from India. If we get a living place, then we can find out. When there are rice thrown, the crows will come. If there is no rice, how the crows will come? This is the philosophy. (laughter) If there is living place, then many crows will come.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Devotee (1): So we can first go and see the situation and then contact our men in India.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Men will be supplied from India. What is his name? Send him some thanks.

Devotee (1): Yes, Mr. Bulson(?). I'll give it to you. Jaya, very nice.

Prabhupāda: He's a Hong Kong man?

Devotee (1): No, he is from Thailand.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, Bangkok.

Devotee (1): And he's a multimillionaire. He owns approximately one third of all the land in Thailand.

Prabhupāda: Oh!

Devotee (1): Chairman of many big businesses.

Prabhupāda: You have given some books?

Devotee (1): He has received books.

Prabhupāda: Where you will meet him?

Devotee (1): His former secretary is now a devotee in this temple, she is from Thailand. And when he came to visit her in Paris, she introduced me to him, and since then he has spoken about us to his family, to businessmen. Many big people in Thailand.

Evening Darsana -- August 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Your mind, his business is to think something. But ordinarily the thinking is we accept something and reject something. Or accept the same thing and again reject the same thing. This business is going on. But if you think of question, there is no question of rejecting. Simply accepting. Then it is fixed up. Other things you accept and reject. Something we accept as "Oh, it is very good." Again, "No, no, it is not good." Accepting childish. Child is playing, one type of playing, "No, no, another one." That is material. And when you fix up, no rejection, simply accept it, that is Kṛṣṇa... So if you think of Kṛṣṇa... Just like here is temple. If you come and, as other devotees are doing, if you do, if you attend maṅgala-ārati, if you attend bhoga-ārati, always see, then offer obeisances, then naturally you will think of Kṛṣṇa. Then as you think of Kṛṣṇa, you become purified. Just like if you touch with fire you remain always warm. Similarly man-manā, if you always think of Kṛṣṇa, you gradually become fully Kṛṣṇized, Kṛṣṇa's devotee, Kṛṣṇa's servant. That is perfection. There is no difficulty. People will not do that. That is the difficulty. "Why shall I think of Kṛṣṇa? I shall think of this, I shall think of that." This is difficulty. Otherwise not difficulty. You have to think something, think of Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Finished. (Hindi with guest) Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). Duṣkṛtinaḥ (Hindi) Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). (Hindi) Beating with shoes by māyā, that's all. (Hindi) "Come here, māyā, kick on me."(?) (Hindi) (someone enters) Oh, when you have come?

Woman: This morning.

Prabhupāda: I was thinking of you.

Woman: Oh, yes?

Prabhupāda: Did you go to Bangkok?

Woman: No, I'm going very soon.

Prabhupāda: (converses in Hindi) Indian Māyāvādīs are more dangerous. (Hindi) Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). Anyone who is influenced by Māyāvādī, he's doomed. He's finished. No more spiritual knowledge. He's doomed.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: What is the prospect, Hong Kong? I don't think there is any.

Hari-śauri: Bangkok.

Prabhupāda: Er, Bangkok, yes.

Yogeśvara: No, my personal conclusion after a few weeks there is that either there should be a traveling party doing that part of the subcontinent... Otherwise, if there is a gṛhastha couple with some experience, we could have an information center in this one house. Because it's not expensive. Living there is very cheap. There is good foodstuffs and rent is not expensive.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: How many standing orders?

Gargamuni: Well in Rangoon I went to the head of the Oriental Studies. They ordered all of Bhāgavatam. Then there's the National Library. They want. Then the National Trading Corporation wants to import our books and sell to the various libraries there. We met... We were only there four or five days, but we met so many people of different types of departments who want the books. Then in Bangkok I met the head of the Department of Philosophy. He ordered the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then I met the head of Eastern Languages...

Prabhupāda: Did you go to our center, Bangkok?

Gargamuni: No. I didn't have the address. And I heard they were giving up the house because it is not... They have to...

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Gargamuni: There was very good response. And they're all writing reviews on our books. They have never seen such a translation of Bhāgavatam, they said. They said, "We have only seen the summary study, but we have never seen such word-for-word study." So I'm planning a tour of all the Southeast Asian countries, in Hong Kong and all these areas, to do standing orders.

1967 Correspondence

Letter to Brahmananda -- Calcutta 18 November, 1967:

Regarding BTG, it is understood that Rayarama is in some difficulty financially. The recent editions of BTG is very much encouraging to me. The standard should be maintained and improved so that one day it may come on the level of such magazines as Life, Time etc. If he is in difficulty financially I think you can give him loan of $500.00 to be paid in monthly installments of $100.00. As he is now engaged in finishing Gita Upanisad, it is understood that he cannot work. The editing of Gita Upanisad is already much delayed. I think it was in this month of November last year my compilation of Gita Upanisad was finished. The editing work was first entrusted with Rayarama, but as he could not finish it the work was transferred to Hayagriva. In this way even within one year the editing work could not be finished. This is not very encouraging. Now it must be finished within three weeks and hand it over to MacMillan Co. Today I shall go to the travel agent's office for booking my seat and may start by next Monday or Tuesday. In my next letter I shall let you and Mukunda know of my journey from Calcutta to San Francisco, via Bangkok, Hong Kong etc. Hope you are well.

Letter to Brahmananda -- Calcutta 12 December, 1967:

I am so glad to learn that we are receiving orders for our records from far distant places. It is all Krishna's mercy. You will be pleased to know that I have purchased my ticket for New York via Tokyo and San Francisco. I am starting tomorrow morning at nine-thirty. By evening reaching Tokyo via Bangkok and Hong Kong. I shall rest 24 hours in Tokyo and on the 14th at night, I am starting for San Francisco. By local time I am reaching San Francisco on the same day, the 14th at 12:45 p.m. by P.A.A. 846. Yesterday I have sent one telegram to this effect, and I hope I shall reach there safely as scheduled. I am so glad to learn that Satyavrata and yourself are trying to get the teachings of Lord Caitanya published. You do not know how pleased I am to hear this news. When one book is published I think I have conquered an empire. So try to publish as many books as possible and that will enhance the beauty and prestige of our society. The Ramakrishna mission has nothing to say substantial but because they have money and have published so many rubbish literatures they have become very cheaply popular. You can just imagine how much powerful our society will become when we have as many substantial literatures published. We should not only publish in English but also in other important languages such as French and German.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Gaurasundara -- Seattle 16 October, 1968:

I am very much glad to receive your letter dated the 11th Oct., and it is good news that you have got a nice room for residential purpose. And you have got now good assistant, Mahapurusa, so combined together, try to establish a very nice center in Hawaii. You organize the center in such a way that we can in future open centers in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Fiji, Bangkok, Sydney, and New Zealand, and all neighboring Pacific islands. And Hawaii will be our center for spreading Krishna Consciousness in the Pacific.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Pancadravida -- Bombay 24 November, 1974:

Try your best to establish a center in Bangkok, and the men here who have to leave India for visa difficulty, they can go to Bangkok and remain there and get the visas from there. Here now there is visa difficulty, so a center in Bangkok will be good. Manasvi can go to Bangkok to assist you. He speaks Hindi and can be valuable. He has already told Brahmananda that he will go.

Letter to People of Bangkok -- Bombay 14 December, 1974:

To the People of Bangkok, Thailand

Please accept my best wishes. I am sorry I am not able to come but I must remain here in Bombay for some pressing matters. So I am sending my secretary His Holiness Brahmananda Maharaja who will represent me.

The Krishna Consciousness mission is not sectarian. We want to do what the United Nations has failed to do. The human form of body is an opportunity for solving all the problems of life. Through evolution we come to the human life for solving this problem. The real problem is the repetition of birth, death, disease, and old age.

But there is another status of life where there is no birth, death, disease, and old age. The Krishna Consciousness movement is the means for promoting the human being to that status. This is a great science, and it is elaborately explained in the Bhagavad-gita.

So our mission is to give this benediction to all humanity. Let us cooperate together on this basis so that it will be a more effective United Nations, We shall be united on the basis of the prime need of human society, spiritual life.

I hope this meets you all well.

Letter to Pancadravida -- Bombay 27 December, 1974:

I am very interested to know how the program in Bangkok is going. I have just written Trivikrama Maharaja in Hong Kong that you and he can work cooperatively together and maybe arrange some big programs in Hong Kong, and you can go there, or arrange big programs in Bangkok and he can come there. Anyway you are both very near so this may be beneficial for both of you. Please make sure that you and your assistances are keeping yourselves fit in Krsna Consciousness by chanting 16 rounds daily and following all the principles very strictly, holding classes, rising early etc. Then the program there will be sure to be successful.

Letter to Trivikrama -- Bombay 27 December, 1974:

When I first came to the United States I was seemingly alone for one year. But I never felt alone. I always felt the presence of my Guru Maharaja. Myself, I was cooking, I was printing books, I was selling books, everything seemingly alone. But I did not lose my determination. Actually you should know this, you are never alone. So local men are coming daily. By good association, good preaching, nice prasadam etc., they can all become devotees. This is Lord Caitanya's mission to go to every town and village and create Vaisnava spirit in the local men. I have also sent one letter to Pancadravida Swami in Bangkok that his party can come there sometimes for big programs if you can arrange. Keep in touch with them. Their address is; Pancadravida Swami, c/o D.H. Carturchand, 238 Samteng St. Bangkok, Thailand. Please keep yourself strong and fixed up in Krsna's service by following all of our regulative principles, chanting 16 rounds daily, rising early, attending mangala arati and attending classes. I hope this meets you in good health.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Pancadravida -- Bombay 4 January, 1975:

I am sending this letter via one friend who will be coming to Bangkok tomorrow. He will deliver the letter to a Mr. Panikar who will bring it to you. This Mr. Panikar has been recommended to me by one of our life members here as someone who can sign the registration. Along with him, there is a Mr. Raman and a Mr. Chaisrikyl (Thai citizen). Mr. Panikar should be able to advise you how to get in touch with these men also.

Letter to Pancadravida -- Bombay 4 January, 1975:

Regarding sending men to Bangkok, let us see who is a spare man or is having visa problems. But our policy as you know is not to import devotees, but to make devotees out of the local men there. That is better.

Letter to Pancadravida -- Bombay 6 January, 1975:

As far as sending more men to Bangkok is concerned, we shall see if any of our men are forced to leave India on account of visa difficulties. They can go there. But my policy, as you know, is not to import devotees, but to create devotees out of the local men. That will be better. I did not import any Indian devotees when I first came to your country. Print as much as you can into the Thai language. That will be a great asset.

Letter to Hamsaduta -- Bombay 17 January, 1975:

It is very encouraging. I pray to Krishna that everything may be settled up as described by you. I am going to Hawaii on Jan. 26th via Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. You can report the next incidences to Hawaii. The program is that from Hawaii I may go to Mexico and Caracas as invited by Hrdayananda Gosvami.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Gurudasa -- Vrindaban 18 November, 1976:

If somebody wants to go to Bangkok it will be very good. The address there is: ISKCON CENTER, 17 Amorn Soi 2 Sukumvit 49, Bangkok, Thailand. In charge there now is Rajni dasi.