They had been awaiting the arrival of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma with great anxiety, and in their extreme eagerness to see Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, the ladies did not dress themselves very properly. Some of them placed their clothes in the wrong place. Some anointed their eyes on one side only, and some wore ankle bells only on one leg or wore only one earring. Thus in great haste, not even decorated properly, they went to see Kṛṣṇa from the roofs. Some of them had been taking their lunch, but as soon as they heard that Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were in the city, they left their eating and ran to the roofs. Some of them were in the bathroom taking their baths, but without properly finishing their baths, they went to see Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Some were engaged in feeding their children breast milk, but they put their babies aside and went to see Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Passing by very slowly and smiling, Lord Kṛṣṇa immediately stole their hearts. He who is the husband of the goddess of fortune passed through the street like an elephant.
Bathroom
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
The fortunate King said: Indeed, we are the most grateful of all the kings who are trained to get favors from the great souls. Generally you (sages) consider royalty as refuse to be rejected and left in a distant place.
According to religious principles, stool, urine, wash water, etc., must be left at a long distance. Attached bathrooms, urinals, etc. may be very convenient amenities of modern civilization, but they are ordered to be situated at a distance from residential quarters. That very example is cited herein in relation to the kingly order for those who are progressively marching back to Godhead. Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that to be in intimate touch with dollars-and-cents men, or the kingly order, is worse than suicide for one who desires to go back to Godhead. In other words, the transcendentalists do not generally associate with men who are too enamored by the external beauty of God's creation.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
And the, all the gopīs, in Vṛndāana... Kṛṣṇa at the age of fifteen, sixteenth year, naturally at that time boys are very beautiful, any, any man even. So He was so beautiful that they, all the gopīs prayed to Yogamāyā. Everyone prayed, "My dear mother, please give me Kṛṣṇa as my husband." So this is, but (indistinct) significance is the, that the day they prayed the next day there was... Perhaps you know that Kṛṣṇa's vastraṇaṁ-līlā. Vastraṇaṁ-līlā means... In India still there are places in Punjab when girls and women take bath they keep their clothings in the river, I mean to say, not in the bathroom. In the rivers, they keep their clothings on the shore, on the bank, and they dip into the water completely naked. So that place is completely separate for the women. No man can go there. That is the system still somewhere. They will take bath fully and they will come and again dress. And woman, woman, they are all naked, there was no shame. They, no man and no boy can go there. This vastraṇaṁ-līlā was that Kṛṣṇa stealthily went there and tookup all their clothes, and got up on a tree, (laughter) (laughs) with the clothings. And they cannot come out of the water. "Kṛṣṇa, You are very naughty.
The Mohammedans also, they go the mosque after washing their hands and feet very nicely. So... And Hindu principle also, the same thing is there. They go to the temple after taking bath and purifying. So many things are there, either Hinduism or Mohammedanism or Christianism, according to country and climate and people. Practically, the principles are the same. They may be... Formally, they may appear to be... But the thing is there.
But here, niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ. Here you don't require that you have to take your bath before chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. No. Oh, because you are in the bathroom, therefore you cannot chant Hare Kṛṣṇa? No. You can chant even there. So such a thing. Because if actually Kṛṣṇa, that very name, is Kṛṣṇa, then how I can remain impure? The potency is there. It makes me at once pure. Just like as soon as there is light, there is no question of darkness. Darkness and light cannot stand together. Either it must be darkness or must be light. So as soon as there is light... So Kṛṣṇa is light. Kṛṣṇa name is light. Therefore there cannot be any impurities. Impurity is due to my, this material body. But I am, at that moment, I am in the spiritual platform. So this impurities cannot touch me.
And I am personally... Of course, in your country there is no water supply hydrant on the street, but in India that is a system. On big roads there are supply, water supply hydrant, because there are many poor men who cannot provide water supply pipes in their house. They take from the street. So when I was passing... I do not know why. That is my habit. If I see that the water tap is open, I immediately close it. I do not like that the water is wasted, you see, because I think that "The government is spending so much money for supplying water, and this water is unnecessarily being lost. So why it should be?" That is also advertised in your country. When there is dropping in your bathroom the authorities request you to stop that because that drop of water costs many dollars for the management.
Similarly, when everything we see in connection—nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe—in connection with Kṛṣṇa, when everything we see that.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Everyone is facing the problem of material world, so many problems. But if you take shelter of Lord Caitanya, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness... Lord Caitanya means Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇam (SB 11.5.32). Lord Caitanya means Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then viśvaṁ pūrṇa, you'll find there is no problem. The world is very happy place. A devotee finds a very nice place. Just like here in New Vrindaban, those who are karmīs, oh, they'll find, "Oh, it is a nonsense place. There is no amenities, modern amenities. There is so much trouble. There is no nice bathroom. There is no water supply." But devotees, they are finding, "Oh, it is very nice place." So just you... Similarly, widely you take, all the karmīs, they are faced with so many problems. But a devotee, those who have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they have no problem. Viśvaṁ pūrṇa-sukhāyate. And vidhi-mahendrādiś ca kīṭāyate. And for them, all these big, big men, may be very big to others, but for the devotees they're just like worms and germs and ordinary flies.
"Therefore this atonement, to me, is nothing but waste of time." How it is waste of...? Kuñjara-śaucavat. The example, kuñjara means elephant. The elephant cleanses the body very nicely in the water, in the lake, or some water, reservoir, but as soon as comes on the shore takes some dust and overthrows. Those who have seen, that have got experience—immediately the whole body becomes dirty. Immediately taking... Just like we, human beings, we go to the bathroom and cleanse ourself with soap and water, and then we feel comfortable. We do not again take some dirty things and throw over it. But the elephant, animal, does it. These are our examples. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja said that "You may become cleansed by the atonement process, or you may be relieved from the disease by taking some medicine, but if again you commit, then what is the use of this treatment or use of this atonement?"
The demigods were afraid of, very much afraid. Therefore when he was killed everyone became very pleased. There(fore) Prahlāda Mahārāja said that "Nobody is unhappy on account of death of my father." He said, modeta sādhur api vṛścika-sarpa-hatyā: (SB 7.9.14) "My father was exactly like scorpion and snake, so killing of such animal, living entity, is pleasing to everyone, even sādhu. Even bhaktas, they also become pleased." They do not want anyone is killed or anyone is done something harmful. Bhakta never desires. But they also take pleasure when the vṛścika, the scorpion, and the snake is killed. You have got experience. There was a snake in my bathroom. So you all sādhus became very alert to kill it, (laughter) although you are sādhu. So that is natural. When there is snake, there is no question of sādhu or asādhu. Kill him. Sādhur api, very nice. Modeta sādhur api vṛścika-sarpa-hatyā.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja is Vaiṣṇava. He could understand that "Everything in this material world, even the possession of my father, will be finished. There is no doubt. So what is the use of possessing such thing which will be finished?" Antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ (BG 2.18).
Even if you are coming from the royal family, even if you are coming from the very respectable brāhmaṇa family, when you are under the control of guru you should act like servant. And what kind of servant? Menial servant, nīca. Not that "I am very rich man's son. You are asking me to do this? No, I cannot do it." No. This is called tapasya. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa (SB 6.1.13).
So it is very difficult at the present moment to introduce all these principles because the days are different. If we become very strict, so then... Ordinarily they are not coming. There is no such strict principle, and we are constructing very nice palatial building with attached bathroom and everything complete. Still, people are not coming. This is different days. So it is very difficult to introduce the original way of brahmacarya, vānaprastha, sannyāsa, and gṛhastha. Everything has topsy-turvied.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
How you can comment on Vedānta which was compiled by Vyāsadeva, the most perfect personality, liberated personality? How you can comment on Bhagavad-gītā? It is spoken by Kṛṣṇa. So you have no right. If you at all want to study Vedānta-sūtra, you have to accept it as it is, without any change. That is understanding. Vedānta-sūtra... Just like, several times I have given this example in this class, that it is... Lord Caitanya said to Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya that "In the Vedas, it is stated that if you touch the stool of any animal, you'll be, I mean to say, infected. So you have to take your bath." Just like we go to evacuate in the bathroom and, after evacuating, you have to take bath. This is the system to become cleansed. This is Vedic system. But again the Vedas says that if you touch the cow dung, the stool of cow or another animal, oh, it is pure. Rather, if you are impure, by touching cow dung, you'll be purified. Now here is contradiction, that you... The Vedas says that if you touch the stool of any animal, then you become infected—you have to take bath, cleanse yourself.
General Lectures
Prabhupāda: All right. That's all right. We have chanted. Now we can distribute prasāda. You distribute. I want to go to the bathroom. (break) "Oh, I don't like this. He may come back." He must be seen as beloved child. First of all he gave him work just like ordinary laborer. He became sick. He's also tasting. That is nice. So tomorrow we must find out some store. (Prabhupāda eats)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda? I spoke to Puruṣottama. He is coming here.
Prabhupāda: Coming?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That's nice.
Protection? Cleanliness. Just like if you keep your apartment very cleansed, if you keep your clothes and body very cleansed, you won't find this insect disturbing you. Just like the flies, they go in a nasty place. So you should be cleansed. You should take protection in that way. You cannot kill them. The cockroaches, the modern method of bathroom attached in 600th floor... So (laughs) this is unclean. Therefore the cockroaches are born there, you see? So if you keep yourself clean, there will be no more disturbances. The incense will keep off all insects. You make fresh food, there will be no germs. You take warm, immediately prepared, that is germicide foodstuff. But if you keep for months together in the refrigerator, that will contaminate with germ, disease.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Oh, you have been? It is nice place?
Dayānanda: I think it has a fireplace in there.
Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter. (laughter) So you take that house. It is very nice.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many rooms does it have?
Dayānanda: I think it has two bedrooms and a bathroom and a big living room and a dining room which you can make into a temple. And a kitchen too. There's a back yard with a tree in it.
Prabhupāda: Very nice. (Devotees discuss for some seconds.)
Prabhupāda: And on the broad road. A very important place. Very nice. You immediately take that house.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
I'm doubtful whether they are going to moon planet or some hell planet. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā (SB 5.18.12). Our only formula is anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he has no good qualities—we reject him, whatever he may be. He is rejected from the list of good men, immediately. He may be president or he may be this or that, it doesn't matter. Because he is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is a third-class man, that's all. This is our certification. (break) These skyscraper buildings are no better than caves. They live here, and here is bathroom, here is kitchen, here is (indistinct) room, three inches. (laughter) Is that advanced civilization? Advanced civilization means every man must have sufficient space to live. Why do you create this path? People will recreate, they will feel repressed, so space is required for refreshment. So what is this civilization? Three inches room.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Light. Catch it. But what... Why did you not have tilaka, both of you. You have no time for tilaka?
Devotee (3): Our tilaka was locked in the bathroom. The door got locked.
Prabhupāda: Tilaka, why it is locked in bathroom?
Devotee (3): Somehow the door became locked from inside this morning, I don't know how but we couldn't go inside.
Prabhupāda: You don't get him my tilaka? All right. What is this?
Devotee (3): This is called Jakarta Fair, International Fair for business trade. Once a year they come from all over the world and...
Prabhupāda: This side is better than the other side. (pause)
Prabhupāda: (To Śrutakīrti) Don't make this coming and going always. There is no other way for going down?
Śrutakīrti: No, we just had to find something. We... There was something in your bathroom we needed. This thing here... But we, we won't be using this at all.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Haṁsadūta: You want to know how can you tell...
Guest: (German)
Prabhupāda: The spiritual master is the representative of God.
Haṁsadūta: (translates)
Prabhupāda: So if he speaks what God speaks, then he's spiritual master, otherwise, he's a bogus.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: But why they'll not...
Dr. Patel: If one man does not do it, the bathroom gets infected and all others get infection.
Prabhupāda: ...do not learn?
Devotee: (indistinct) (break)
Dr. Patel: No, diarrhea, bad stomach, they may get vomiting also tomorrow. One man vomited also. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...keeping dogs? Is that hygienic?
Dr. Patel: Dogs?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: Unhygienic. They, they make dogs sleep in their bed.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Prabhupāda: (aside:) Is this one bathroom? Religion means actually relation with God, to know God. They don't think like that. They say religion does not mean search of God. Is it not?
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: They say that there's one place that you cannot see God.
Prabhupāda: That's all right but what do you mean by religion first of all? I cannot see God. That is another thing. But that does not mean there is no God.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: I cannot see the president. That does not mean there is no president.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Jaya.
Prabhupāda: Because I cannot see therefore there's no president. Is that very good logic?
Devotee: No.
Prabhupāda: You may not see. You're unfit to see. You're not qualified to see. But why there shall be no God?
Karandhara: On the heater there's someone's beads.
Prabhupāda: So I see it was lying on the bathroom. Then I brought it here, and it's still lying unused. Whose it is?
Bhagavān: It is mine.
Prabhupāda: You are so forgetful?
Bhagavān: No, I was looking for them.
Prabhupāda: Why? Why did you...?
Bhagavān: I left them on your bathroom door, I think.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause) Hmm. So this kind of leadership will not make any solution, if you do not know what is the real goal. (French)
Prabhupāda: Anyway. So vāsaḥ anna. Food. Vāsaḥ anna. Vāsa means residence. Anna means food. Pāna means drinking, milk or water or whatever. You require something drinking. And śayana, sleeping or lying down on bed. Vāsa, anna, pāna, śayana, and vyavāya, sex. Sex also required. Vyavāya, snāna. I have seen in New York. They have no... In a humbug, they have no place for taking bath. They have to go elsewhere. Sometimes some friends come to take bath. The, our students, they were coming to take bath in my bathroom. So snāna. So these things, nil. "When these things will be nil," vāsa, anna, pāna, śayana, vyavāya, snāna, bhūṣaṇaiḥ, "and dress," hīnāḥ, "being devoid of all these things," piśāca-sandarśā bhaviṣyanti, "they will be just like, what is called, urchins."
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: How do you think like that? Is there anything within this you world which can be learned without guru? Even if you become an ordinary carpenter, you have to learn from an expert carpenter. So how you can imagine to learn the topmost subject matter without guru? This is... The Vedic injunction is, therefore, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12), samit-pāṇiḥ, like that. We must have a bona fide guru to train us in the understanding of spiritual matter. Guru means who knows the thing, who can teach you. That is guru, not a humbug guru, but guru means one who knows. Tattva-darśinaḥ, one who has seen the truth, he can become guru. Find this verse,
- tad viddhi praṇipātena
- paripraśnena sevayā
- upadekṣyanti tad-jñānaṁ
- jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
- (BG 4.34)
Hṛdayānanda: (Spanish) Thank you.
Prabhupāda: So I have to go, bathroom. Give them prasādam.
Prabhupāda: But why, then, the lavatory they have made distinction for woman and for men?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now in the colleges there's no more distinction.
Jayatīrtha: Co-educational bathrooms.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One bathroom. One residence, one bathroom...
Revatīnandana: The boys and girls live in the same residence on the same floors and use the same bathrooms. Practically there is no restriction on the association. They're not married.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Congress just passed a law that the health education, means the gym, gymnastic classes... Every day there's physical education class?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Now? (break) Eucalyptus? No.
Sudāmā: No, Prabhupāda. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...one for the bathroom. (break) Eh? Fifth class. (break) ...fourth-class. (break) class. The same?
Sudāmā: It's the same one.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, When you were... Many years ago you used to have me send you eucalyptus twigs from San Francisco.
Prabhupāda: Hm, yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So now that you're in America we can easily arrange for that to be done. They can be sent. They take only one day by air.
Prabhupāda: So wherefrom?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...stand where there is water then they will manage everything. Water must be there.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...Americans to live like this is totally impossible. They'd have to commit suicide. If they can't find the bathroom they won't know what to do. They have to pass stool. But water won't concern them because they don't bother bathing. They need a toilet, though.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...for taking bath in the junction of Ganges and the sea. Just see how people are enthusiastic, coming from long, long distance, Gaṅgā-sāgara. Gangā means Ganges, and sāgara means the sea. (break) ...it means they keep their lota, you see. (break) ...bathing in this cold water.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...they'd be bothered by the boats being here.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't seem to be bothered by these boats.
Prabhupāda: No. No. (break) ...childhood I was taking bath. I used to come with my mother. She took bath; I also took bath.
Prabhupāda: I know. It has been used for watering.
Ramesvara: Prabhupāda discovered, it came from the bathroom.
Prabhupāda: Who is that rascals? Huh? Who took it from the bathroom, toilet room?
Jayapatākā: That was in the toilet room?
Prabhupāda: Yes. You do not know? You have not used that loṭā?
Jayapatākā: No.
Prabhupāda: You never use that toilet?
Jayapatākā: No, not since you've been using it.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Prabhupāda: No, that's all right. Before that.
Jayapatākā: Before that, loṭā wasn't there. There was another loṭā for the bathroom.
Prabhupāda: Then who kept that loṭā? I used that loṭā. I know. I was acquainted with this loṭā.
Jayapatākā: That was your personal, I think.
Prabhupāda: Personal... Before I used that toilet, the loṭā was there. No, one who has used that, he has no sense how to water tulasī plant. He should be instructed, who has done it, that "You never use that toilet loṭā." (break) ...observing fast day today?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Up to?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Moonrise.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...ist countries they accept a leader.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. What for these marbles?
Kīrtanānanda: That will go on the wall in the bathroom, Italian cremo marble. Here's a picture of how the windows are being done in jāli work. This is being cast out of white cement.
Prabhupāda: Doing here?
Kīrtanānanda: Yes. This is some of the castings they've done. This goes up on the ceiling.
Prabhupāda: Cornice.
Kīrtanānanda: Cornice, yes. Then around the top of the building on the outside, there's a railing with these balusters.
Prabhupāda: This is made of cement?
Kīrtanānanda: No, this one is plaster, this was our first model, but the ones that will be used will be done out of cement. This is very light. Do you have your drawing of the outside?
Prabhupāda: Somebody's staying here?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Stone, marble. With golden work.
Hari-śauri: The bathrooms, even the soap dishes, are gold. The soap dishes, the toilet roll holder, everything is gold.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Gold wall paper.
Prabhupāda: One floor is like this. Very costly house.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They told me that the prasādam room floor alone, three hundred thousand dollars to build. And you have gotten the whole thing.
Prabhupāda: Everywhere it is so beautiful, nice, strong, and quite suitable for our purpose. Everyone is living. Still, big, big three, four rooms, not yet utilized. And climate also is nice, at the present moment, huh?
Hari-śauri: Yes.
Prabhupāda: I think the same climate here.
Prabhupāda: Then you have to study Kṛṣṇa, that where is the great, the only great. Then you'll understand. God is great, there is... No religion will differ in this connection. But if find that "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is the greatest," then you have to accept. There is no other argument. So I'll take a little time go to shower. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (devotees and guests offer obeisances)
Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda is coming back in about five minutes, he's just going to the bathroom. (break) (Prabhupāda returns) ...original Back to Godhead.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: We got it from the Library of Congress.
Prabhupāda: So God is great. Now we have to analyze what is the greatness. A man is supposed to be great when he is very rich. A man is supposed to be great when he is very wise, man of knowledge, strength, reputation. So item by item, you analyze and see, you'll see Kṛṣṇa is the greatest. By reasoning. Therefore He is God. They have been analyzed. You'll find in The Nectar of Devotion, the Gosvāmīs have analyzed the characteristics of Kṛṣṇa, and they found Him the greatest. So if God is great, and He is the greatest, then He is God. How can you deny it? At least, we can see in the Bhagavad-gītā, the little knowledge given by Kṛṣṇa, it is still standing as the greatest. Five thousand years past, nobody could give such a book of knowledge throughout the whole world. The Bhagavad-gītā is studied not only by the Indians and Hindus but by all scholars of the world. Even such persons who think that there is somebody greater than Kṛṣṇa, they also read Bhagavad-gītā and they recite from the Bhagavad-gītā. Even Śaṅkarācārya, the leader of the Māyāvādīs, he says Bhagavad-gītā kiñcid adhītā. Is it not? Does he not say?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. It has a bathroom in it. That's going to accompany the parade in case at any time you require it, that will be right there. So it can go alongside the cart. At four o'clock we'll arrive, and at about four-thirty Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja will give a short introduction for you, and at four forty-five you'll speak. So at four forty-five you're expected to give the lecture. It begins at two o'clock at Fifty-ninth Street for two hours. Then by five or five-fifteen the whole thing will be over. So I wanted to know what time you would like to join the parade.
Prabhupāda: So you suggest.
Prabhupāda: Yesterday evening I was thinking, "Now I am feeling all right. Tomorrow I shall go for morning walk," like that. (laughs) That is due to my practice. So the palace is prepared now?
Bhagavān: First class. I think your quarters are the best. Very comfortable. Your bathroom is all redone. You have a nice separate bedroom, separate bathroom, and a very nice, almost this big. It is very sunny.
Prabhupāda: Sunny.
Bhagavān: Very sunny. All day long the sun.
Prabhupāda: It is alluring. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Vichy water. But I don't like. Bottled water I don't like.
Bhagavān: No, we have fresh water all the time. And you have hot water in bathroom.
Jayatīrtha: I knew Bhagavān would come, and this would happen.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Jayatīrtha: I never thought that you would go to India. I knew that Bhagavān would come and you would go to Paris. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: No, if I improve my health, I shall stay there for some time.
Jayatīrtha: Actually, it's a fact that you...
Prabhupāda: Everywhere is my home. Not that India.... If I am attached to India, then how I am sannyāsī? (laughter)
Bhagavān: Yes. It is going like this. It goes from this room into your room. All day long it is lit. They said it was hot in this room until six o'clock last night, very hot. If you'd like, I can show you how to use some things in the bathroom.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Bhagavān: All the taps, they are the same. The red here, this is hot. All you do is lift up. (break) And the cows are also coming here, you can see later. These are all big oak trees, they are very nice.
Prabhupāda: Harikeśa, have you came here?
Harikeśa: Yes.
Bhagavān: All the marble, I had it made in Italy especially for you. This is all lotus flower carving they have done. And the bookshelves also.
Prabhupāda: This also marble?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Not bad. For me, it was very convenient, come down immediately to my down storefront. And some boys were living in the storefront. There was a sink in the storefront, and for toilet I allowed them sometimes in my bathroom. Not some, only two or one. So he was washing my dishes also. In this way, I was living.
Hari-śauri: That was Mukunda, or...?
Prabhupāda: No, that was another boy. He was drunkard. (laughter)
Harikeśa: Yogeśvara has many pictures of those meetings at 26 Second Avenue, with Hayagrīva with the beard and the long hair hitting this... There's pictures of all those meetings, photographs. Of Hayagrīva with the beard and long hair hitting the gong next to you.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Long hairs almost everyone. This Umāpati was also one of them.
Prabhupāda: Oh. I'll take also little parāṭā. Where is bathroom?
Dayānanda: There's another room for resting. And you can go out this door, this here, and bathroom is on the other side of this resting room.
Prabhupāda: That is all right.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Let me show you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: This is the key to this cabinet, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I put the bag in it. (break)... very expensive.
Prabhupāda: This is a rented house?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: What is the rent?
Prabhupāda: You can bring here. Who is there in the bathroom?
Hari-śauri: They're just cleaning it out. They're giving you the big bathroom because it has a Western toilet and a nice shower and separate everything, it's very nice, and we'll use the small one. They're just cleaning it now, if you want you can use.
Prabhupāda: Lock this door, otherwise if you come there, it will be disturbance.
Harikeśa: Nandarāṇī's making khicuḍi with the peas and okra.
Prabhupāda: Okra could be done separately. Let her do independently.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: She's doing both. She first mixed it, now she's also making separate.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Anyway, let her do it. She was cooking for me in Māyāpur.
Hari-śauri: Bathroom?
Saurabha: That is... That is... Like those things come out here. That is all connected with the room. So your bathroom, you have one toilet here and one shower here, each side.
Prabhupāda: That's good.
Saurabha: This is very nice, quite big. Then on the roof you have practically the whole roof plus a room in the middle. Here is a room on the roof, the next slide, room here, and then you have just a nice terrace and very nice breeze.
Prabhupāda: All sides open.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Girirāja: I thought he was improving. Well, the construction is, you know, going at the same rate. I spoke to the marble... There's two marble contractors. The one who's doing the floor, he's going very quickly. All the guestrooms are finished and half of the bathrooms are finished. The temple room is mostly finished. Main problem is the columns and arches. And it seems that that contractor has a bad reputation for taking money and then wasting time.
Prabhupāda: Oh. He has taken money?
Girirāja: It seems he has taken lot of money.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Girirāja: On the plea that he needed it to get the work going. So, er...
Prabhupāda: The same thing was done in Māyāpur. These cheaters, they take advance money, and then they do...
Gurudāsa: They made a... Abhirama made a bathroom. He put four tanks on the top, and there's running water in that bathroom.
Prabhupāda: In our side?
Gurudāsa: In the one we have.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Gurudāsa: So that's somewhat of an improvement.
Prabhupāda: Yes, why not? Improvement can be done. There is space. Anyway, if we get the down room, it will solve a problem. What is the rent?
Gurudāsa: One thousand.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Jagadīśa: Oh, yes. Free mixing.
Trivikrama: Same showers even. Bathroom the same.
Dr. Patel: Oh, were...
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa gives freedom. Striyo śūdras tathā vaiśyās te 'pi yānti parām. "Never mind. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Come on." Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa (BG 9.32). "Anyone. Come on. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Take prasāda." This is my propaganda.
Dr. Patel: My mind is haunted by those (indistinct). There will be somebody...
Prabhupāda: I know that I sincere to Kṛṣṇa, He'll do the rest.
Prabhupāda: So you can eat. He can take this thing. Hand. Keep that paper and apply it in service. (sweeping noise) Yes. (sounds of door opening, closing, train starts again) The bathroom is free?
Hari-śauri: Yes. (break)
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa consciousness is real religion. Religion cannot be "your religion" and "our religion."
Rāmeśvara: Yes. They were saying in essence that only the Jew or the Christian, he can represent God. Hare Kṛṣṇa, he does not represent God.
Prabhupāda: Now let us talk why he cannot or why you are the only. First of all you have to ascertain what is religion. Then it will be decided who has got the stock. Let the Christian or the Jews answer this question: What is religion?
Rāmeśvara: They cannot answer.
Prabhupāda: Then you have no religion.
Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter.
Gargamuni: Maybe the same size. I think it's the same size. And there's bathroom and porch.
Prabhupāda: Then?
Gargamuni: It's nice. It's peaceful and quiet.
Abhirāma: No trucks going. Prabhupāda was complaining a little bit.
Gargamuni: No. There's no... You're off the main road, very much so. Then you go at least two miles off the highway. Then you make another right turn and you go through a village. And then you come to a big opening, and the temple is there with bathing ghāṭa. There is also tube well where you can get very good water. And the cottage is just on the other side of the mandir.
Prabhupāda: Very nice place.
Prabhupāda: So in the meantime, your, this thing will be finished or not?
Jayapatākā: They all say that it will be finished in about five days, the wiring, and five days the flooring. And the bathrooms are already finished on the first floor. They're putting the fittings, and half of them are put in.
Bhavānanda: The floors will not be polished, but...
Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter.
Bhavānanda: Water will be there, electricity, and clean.
Jayapatākā: So this morning you won't go..., be going on a walk. You're not feeling up to a walk this morning? It affected your kidney or your digestion?
Prabhupāda: That I cannot say. But the foodstuff is not digesting. That can I say. I am not feeling at all appetite.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is aristocratic house. They... Formerly, either Indian or American, Europe, aristocratic was the same—big, big rooms, very decorated, woman's quarter different, men's quarter different. No man can enter into woman's... Lavatory house, different; cooking house, different. This was Calcutta aristocracy. Those houses are now gone. No attached bathroom. The... Because it was service, how it can be attached bathroom? So they... A separate house, big house, only for passing stool. And if possible, a lake within the house. Aristocratic family, they would have lake within the house for using water.
Brahmānanda: Within the courtyard?
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. Find out this verse.
Prabhupāda: And this is for sitting.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: For sitting. And that's for resting, that room. Bathrooms are there.
Prabhupāda: And where to keep the legs? (laughter) For massaging.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: On top of our heads.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Hare Kṛṣṇa. So to finish the whole thing, how long it will take?
Saurabha: For the guesthouse?
Prabhupāda: All temple.
Dr. Sharma: Well, he has stopped after doing nine, but Stanford people, they have done about almost over a hundred, and they can keep somebody alive another six months or a year or at the most two years. But the man, the man's existence is very miserable. He has to take so many drugs, and he is bloated like a balloon, and he cannot even do the simple duties like taking walks or going to bathroom. He has to be very careful. If he just slips, it will develop the fracture of his ventricle, and that's all. It is very, very unnatural, and I don't think they can solve this problem at all. It is just man's struggle (for) life.(?) And I know they are saying they will do only in people with proper insurance because the hospital bill is $70,000 for a heart transplant.
Prabhupāda: All rascals, they...
Prabhupāda: Don't go to the city. That is my determination. The hellish city. In city nobody has got the opportunity for living in such comfortable place. It is all Kṛṣṇa's mercy that we have got. Otherwise if you go to the Bombay city, even here, these pigeon holes, three small rooms... It is not expected that everyone will be able to live in such palatial building. That is not possible. Even they have no bathroom in Bombay. In the room, in the corner, there is a tap, and you have to go to the public well, latrine. This is the system. So whole family will take advantage of the corner tap and then have to go to public latrine. There is no bathroom.
Prabhupāda: ...in Calcutta. That is bathroom, very slippery. Anyway, why shall I take the risk?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we don't want that.
Prabhupāda: So hold meeting daily and chalk out program. Do very diligently everything so I can see that things are going on nicely without my managerial interference. That will make me happy. And I'll go on writing. There is... (pause) You are feeling all right?
Upendra: Yes, Prabhupāda. I was just thinking of... When you were speaking about not eating... We take pleasure in watching you eat. It is our pleasure to see you eat and enjoy the prasādam. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...mentally to keep the brain, little fruit, milk, is sufficient. So I may live only on fruit or milk. There is no difficulty. What is the use of taking cāpāṭis and rice?
Prabhupāda: Without coeducation there is no college.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In American universities they have co-living. The bathrooms are the same bathroom now. They don't even have men's bathroom and women's toilet.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's considered advancement, to come to the point of being animals here.
Prabhupāda: So our gurukula should be ideal. Not all these boys... You should take care of these things from the very beginning—if you want actually spiritual life. If you want to progress like animals, that is different thing, as the whole world is doing. We want to maintain an ideal institution. People may see. In Christian idea also, the nuns were separate.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nowadays the nuns, every... Twice a week they get their hair set. They wear miniskirt now.
Prabhupāda: And so many scandal.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Then why we have to make another tank?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They said that the... If we want water in that bathroom, then we have to have our own water hookup there.
Prabhupāda: Who said?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The electric men who came there, the men from the electricity department. Their point was that there's more parties using the water than just ourselves. So if we do not... There has to be some way of determining who's using what water supply.
Prabhupāda: Talk with the same man.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: Even in the bathroom...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: There's gold on the ceiling.
Prabhupāda: All very aristocratic, very aristocratic. What is aristocracy, that is displayed there.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those people, they always used to look from the outside in, but they were never allowed to come in. The people from that neighborhood, they used to stare within, wondering what is inside there. Now, since we have come, we have opened our gates and doors and said, "Please come." Oh, they're very much happy to come in and see us there.
Prabhupāda: They're grave. They behave very nicely.
Prabhupāda: When I entered the toilet bathroom I was surprised. (laughs)
Vrindavan De: In USA or Detroit?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Detroit, Michigan, USA. Prabhupāda's bathroom is nearly the size of this room, and it's all gold-covered on the ceiling, and the sink is a piece of marble this thick.
Prabhupāda: In London my sitting room is bigger than this, double. My sleeping room is like this. And my toilet room is half this. This is my quarters.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You have so many places that you cannot visit them all in a year.
Prabhupāda: In everywhere. I have got now 120 places, palaces.
Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated Sept. 10, 1968, just after posting my reply to your letter dated Sept. 9. The coincidence that as soon as you received my letter for opening the Berlin center immediately, Krishna has sent you immediately a check for 200 American dollars—this is a good omen that we should immediately open our branch in Berlin. The description of the storefront with 4 rooms and floor, kitchen, and bathroom etc, appears to be very suitable for our purposes. And the rent is not much and I am so glad that you can manage it. So my advice is that you can immediately occupy the storefront for our branch, and let me know the address so that we can enlist our Berlin center immediately in the list of our several other centers.
1969 Correspondence
I beg to thank you very much for your letter pointing out some of the discrepancies of many of the devotees in New York. You are correct regarding the items which you have stated, such as sleeping in front of the deities, eating in front of the deities, taking of unoffered foodstuffs, drinking water from the bathroom, and non-chanting of rounds. But the thing is discipline can not be observed unless there is obedience. As you are obedient to me, you should be similarly obedient to my representative. Your statement about Brahmananda that he is a wonderful devotee is 100% agreed by me. He is in charge of the New York center, and, therefore, if proper obedience is not given to him it will be impossible for him to manage the affairs of the temple. Under the circumstances, the discrepancies you have observed in the temple may be referred to him, and he is quite reasonable, and will handle the matter with the respective devotees. Please don't you take any direct actions because it will cause disruption. You are a very talented boy, and I have every confidence in you, so I hope you will do this and oblige.
1970 Correspondence
Here in L.A. this new temple is being renovated in so many ways. For me they have allotted a completely separate building consisting of four big rooms up and down, with a newly constructed bathroom. So I am feeling very much comfortable here and the boys are taking care of me more carefully than I require. So I hope you will be happy to know this. Similarly, all the boys are very busily engaged in beautifying the temple room. When you come here, you will appreciate everything. All the devotees, male and female are expected to move into these buildings in about 10 to 12 days.
| Page Title: | Bathroom |
| Compiler: | Mangalavati, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 25 of May, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=1, Lec=10, Con=41, Let=3 |
| No. of Quotes: | 56 |