Bengal (Conversations 1975 - 1976)

Expressions researched:
"Bengal" |"Bengal's" |"Bengals"

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Professor: May I ask a personal question?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Professor: I heard that you were a chemist before.

Prabhupāda: I was not chemist, but I was manager in a big chemical factory. Therefore, automatically, I learned something of chemist. And later on I started my own chemical factory.

Professor: You were belonging to Bengal?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Professor: And you were having also a guru there?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, certainly. Without guru how can you...

Professor: Yes, naturally.

Prabhupāda: He is my guru. Show the photo.

Devotee: It's just above you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. He is my guru.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: He has written so many nonsense things. One thing is that he said, "I do not believe that there was anybody as Kṛṣṇa living ever. Kṛṣṇa is of my imagination." These things he has written. And he is Mahatma Gandhi. Mahātmā's definition is there in the Bhagavad-gītā, mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). Mahātmā means devotee, who have understood vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19). But these rascal politicians, they have become mahātmā. For politics, they can do anything, lie like anybody, and so many things. There was a big writer in Bengal. So he is giving evidence in the court... That's a comic. So he says, "Do you think I am editor? I am pleader? I am prostitute?" Means indirectly he is saying that they are prostitutes. As the prostitute can say anything, lies, for their profession, similarly, these people, the editor and the..., pleaders, they are like that.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: No, there...

Indian man: Geological information it was. It was together. And Australia was fitting in the Bay of Bengal. This is the theory. I learned from my lecturer, Dr. Willinghurst. He told me in my class.

Prabhupāda: Because from Bhāgavata we understand that the black man who was born out of the body of King Vena, he was thief. So he was sent to the African jungle. Yes. And they are still thief. (laughter) They cannot give up their... Although they have got independence, they cannot give up this habit. (Dog barking) "Best friend."

Brahmānanda: Mahārāja Pṛthu also came from the body of King Vena.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: He said or the governor said? Anyway, it is... Mr. Casey from Australia—he was governor of Bengal—he said, I think, that thing. His study was like that. He was a politician, that's all.

Ambassador: But God uses whatever material is there and He used him.

Prabhupāda: No, it was God's desire. You see? Without His desire, otherwise how such a vast British power could be driven away by the noncooperation movement? Of course, it was very nicely planned because the Britishers were ruling over India by the cooperation of the Indian.

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: But according to academic order, logic is the preliminary study of philosophy. Our, our professor, Dr. Watt (?), he defined like that. In 1917...-(Aside:) Come on.-There was the governor in Bengal, Lord Ronaldsey (?), Marquis of Zetland. He was a Scottish man. And our college was Scottish Churches College-(aside:) Get the light. So... don't lean. You'll feel sleep. Just like sit my Guru Mahārāja. Show the picture. Be... Become my Guru Mahārāja. Yes. That sitting is the yogāsana. I am gone to hell. (laughter) You are young men. You learn from my Guru Mahārāja.

Morning Walk -- (World War III) -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. You shall die without food. Be(cause) after all, the death. In Bengal, it is called: more bhera ghalne (?): "The most misfortunate thing is death." That will come. Therefore the best intelligence is how to avoid death.

Rūpānuga: Become immortal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is real intelligence, not to be bothered by these trifle temporary things that "I am dying twenty years before. If the situation was better, I would have lived more twenty years." What is this mentality?

Room Conversation -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: No. The Bangladesh, they were Bengalis. Although the whole Pakistan, including Bangladesh and the other part, West Pakistan, East Pakistan, Bangladesh... So actually, Bangladesh is bigger than West Pakistan. They should have taken the government, majority. But the West Pakistan, by force they were ruling. They are not majority. So after all, they are Bengalis, maybe Muslim. They're intelligent than these Punjabis. Punjabis, they have got bodily strength, not brain. So these Bengalis, in Mujjhamat Raman, that was his demands, that: "We are majority. Why they should govern us? We should govern over them." This is the movement. So, but they're already in power. So how to throw them out of power? So he negotiated in India, that: "You help us to separate from..." And India's interest is that Pakistan becomes weak by separation, that is India's interest. So India agreed to help them. How to help? They organized a false, er, soldiers. You know? What is called? Bahini. Mean a freedom soldier. They organized freedom soldier. And India consulted Russia. Russia was friendly, that: "We want to help Bangladesh." So they said: "Yes, you help. If there is fight, then we shall help you." This was the... So these bahini, sanan bahini, sandana bahini, or something like that, they organized, "freedom soldiers." The freedom soldier means Indian soldiers. They entered Bangladesh because East Bengal, West Bengal.

Morning Walk -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the way. If nighttime it rains and daytime there is sunshine, then the land becomes very fertile to produce. Yes. There is a common saying in Bengal, dine jal rātr e tā rā sei janme sukha dhā rā.(?) If it rains heavily during daytime and at night you see the stars, then you should know there will be scarcity of rain. There will be scarcity of rain and scarcity of food grains. Best thing is at night there must be heavy rain, and daytime, there should be sunshine. Then the field will be very fertile.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: I have come from India.

Guest (2): Oh, you came from India? Yeah? Oh. Which part? Ceylon?

Prabhupāda: No. I come from Bengal.

Guest (2): Oh, Bengal, uh huh.

Prabhupāda: You have been in India?

Guest (2): No. I often wanted to go, but I really never had a chance.

Prabhupāda: You can come. We have got very good place. You can stay there. We have got very good, nice building in Bombay in...

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: No, no, I don't wonder you. But the gold has got such infection that if one... That is the whole world, that as soon as one has gold, he is no more interested with God. That is the infection. "Ah!" He will say, "This is meant for the poor class of men who has no gold. I have gold. I am God." You know that Kali-yuga. He was punished, that "You get out." Then he said that "Where shall I go? Everywhere is your kingdom." Then Parīkṣit Mahārāja said that "You go here, in the brothel, in the..., these four things." Striyaḥ śūna-pānā dyutāḥ yatra pāpāś catur-vidhāḥ: "Illicit sex, and slaughterhouse, and liquor shop, and gambling." Then he requested that "Instead of going so many places, you give me some place where one place will be sufficient." Then he said, "You go where there is gold. Then you get everything." Striyaḥ śūna-pānā dyutāḥ yatra pāpāś catur-vidhāḥ. Formerly, especially in Bengal, the gold merchants are taken as—that is artificial, of course—the low class because they are rich, and they indulge in these four kinds of prohibition. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1975, New Orleans:

Prabhupāda: How? How low is the water?

Nityānanda: Ten feet.

Prabhupāda: Ten feet, oh, just like Bengal. As soon as you dig ten feet there is water.

Nityānanda: No, it's ah, when you have a gulley, you build a dam at one end and it fills up with water from the rain, and it stays full.

Prabhupāda: Oh, the rain is sufficient here? How many months it rain?

Nityānanda: There is no definite rainy season, it rains all year round.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's very good. Winter?

Morning Walk -- August 6, 1975, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: What is his mentality? (break) There is tiger. (break) ...interior village in Bengal, there are tigers. Orissa also.

Brahmānanda: In Los Angeles city they have coyotes, like a wolf, and they go around eating the pet cats and dogs.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Brahmānanda: People are very upset.

Prabhupāda: In the city?

Brahmānanda: Yes. In the residential areas especially. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...hiding?

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1975, Bombay:

Lalitā: (Bengali) ...American guru. Yesterday somebody came to me when I am just... (Bengali) ...Central Intelligence... (Bengali) ...whose house that Mr. Badiraja(?) house, and Guru Maharaj-ji is Indian or American. Twice they phoned from the prime minister's office. We are telling them in Bengali. From there, Calcutta, West Bengal. And I know, my grandfather knows him, and I told this. (Bengali) ...this American guru. And again and again they are phoning. I said, "No, no." (Bengali) What she will feel? She has got that power.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) ...she is spiritually inclined, therefore... (Bengali) "I know Mrs. Gandhi is spiritually inclined." (Bengali) By 1928 Jawaharlal Nehru, Congress President... (Bengali) "Dear Panditji, I want to go to Congress as a delegate. Please give me delegate ticket." (Bengali) "You don't require any ticket. You come here. You'll get it." Delegate's seats are... (Bengali)

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: "For me with you. And I have come here, postponing all my engagements. I am preaching this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all over the world on the basis of Kṛṣṇa's instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. Actually this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is called saṅkīrtana movement. Sometimes they call Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, which was inaugurated by Lord Caitanya in Bengal and throughout all India. His mission is that in India everyone should become a guru and preach all over the world the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. So we are doing this very faithfully, and it is becoming effective. I think in India also if some vigorous activity is done for awakening Kṛṣṇa consciousness of the Indian people under your leadership, it will be very, very effective."

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1975, Bombay:

Brahmānanda: "Your Excellency Śrīmatī Indira Devi Gandhi. When I was in Toronto, Canada, Śrīmatī Lalitā Devi, who is just like my daughter, sent me one intimation that she approached you for a meeting for you and myself. And I have come here, postponing all my engagements. I am preaching this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all over the world on the basis of Kṛṣṇa's instructions in the Bhagavad-gītā. Actually this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is called the saṅkīrtana movement and sometimes called the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, which was inaugurated by Lord Caitanya in Bengal and throughout all India. His mission is that in India everyone should become a guru and preach all over the world."

Prabhupāda: Everyone in India.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1975, Bombay:

Brahmānanda: "When I was in Toronto, Canada, Śrīmatī Lalitā Devi, who is just like my daughter, sent me one intimation that she approached you for a meeting with me and you, and I have come here, postponing all my engagements. I am preaching this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all over the world on the basis of Kṛṣṇa's instructions in Bhagavad-gītā. Actually this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is called the saṅkīrtana movement and sometimes called the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, which was inaugurated by Lord Caitanya in Bengal and throughout all India. His mission is that everyone should become a guru and preach all over the world the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. So we are doing this very faithfully, and it is becoming effective. I think in India also, if some vigorous activity is done for awakening the Kṛṣṇa consciousness of the people under your leadership, it will be very effective. So we have already eight branches in India, and all development is being done by foreign exchange. It can be continued if I get encouragement by the government. So I shall be very much pleased to see you in this connection. I have written about fifty books of four hundred pages each, such as Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, and these books are very popular in foreign countries such as Europe and America. By the sales proceeds I am bringing foreign exchange." "Yours sincerely?"

Prabhupāda: "Yours sincerely" all right, or "Your well-wisher"?

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1975, Bombay:

Lalitā: (Bengali) ...prime minister already... (Bengali) This is my experience about Prabhupāda's ISKCON. I am a layman... (Bengali) How you are writing on... (Bengali) ...what you are. I am the life member. (Bengali) The member of the advisory counsel..."Who are you?" "I am a member of that council." "I see. I see." (Bengali) West Bengal Security Force ...is a very good report about Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Bengali) Very good report. "Please ask prime minister, allow them to stay."

Prabhupāda: Governor...

Lalitā: U.P.

Prabhupāda: U.P. (Bengali) They must understand the philosophy. So is that all right? So make it.

Morning Walk -- August 24, 1975, Delhi:

Jayapatāka: ...Śrīla Prabhupāda, the deputy director of tourism of the government of West Bengal came out to visit Māyāpur. He said that many people have been wanting to see Māyāpur and Navadvipa. And the nearest guesthouse they have is Berhampur. They have a guest house at Berhampur. So they wanted to know the possibility if a bus of twenty-four people could use our guesthouse. They offered thirty rupees a night per room and said that normally they pay six rupees per meal. They wouldn't smoke or break any rules while they go in the building.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Let them come. So in one room, one person?

Morning Walk -- August 25, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, immediately.

Jayapatāka: I was investigating in West Bengal. So long as you have your own teachers and you don't take any aid from them, then all they have to do is see that your grounds are up to the..., buildings are up to the standard. They don't have much say.

Prabhupāda: That we want. Jaya. (kīrtana in background)

Brahmānanda: There is still fifteen minutes, Prabhupāda, before the curtains open.

Prabhupāda: So we can begin our... Curtain opens?

Morning Walk -- September 30, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, he was studied by the governor of Bengal that "Either Gandhi is a saintly man amongst the politicians or he is a politician among the saintly persons." (laughter)

Dr. Patel: These people have not been able to understand Gandhi's intentions. It is the misfortune of this country they have not been able to carry out his message. Other people are able to carry out his messages. Other people of the world are able to understand him well, but we people are fools not to understand him. No. His socio-economic condition..., I mean, program. His program for lifting the society... You are religious head. He was a sort of a, another man, but in his own spirit he was doing a good work.

Prabhupāda: Our proposition is that Bhagavad-gītā begins to distinguish the soul...

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: Yes, if you want to make mass communication, you can do anything. (break) Due to industrialization, all intelligent men, they came in the city. In the village it was deserted. So there was no improvement in the village, and people preferred to come to the city, means industry, business. So India's basic principle was village life. Now that is lost. The intelligent class men, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, they left villages for earning more money in the cities, and only the śūdras, less intelligent class of men, less than śūdras, they remained. So what they will do? So village became deserted. Still you’ll go and see in Indian villages, especially in Bengal, so many big, big palatial buildings, they are lying vacant.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: They are making so many wonderful things, but they cannot stop death.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They just make it quicker.

Prabhupāda: After all, they are going to die. In Bengal it is said the topmost ill-naming, what is that? Ill-naming?

Harikeśa: Defamy?

Prabhupāda: Defamy. Gali. Just like I say, "You rascal fool, you...," so many things. I rebuke. What is that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Defamy.

Morning Walk -- October 28, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: In Bengal there is bird. Bengali is also. Every village is a garden like this, and these birds live in such nice garden. Bengal, it is now deserted. Otherwise wherever you go, it is garden. You have seen pukka?

Brahmānanda: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: When we go from Calcutta to Māyāpur, simply garden. All banana trees, all coconut trees, mango trees, nice green field. But they cannot maintain. Formerly they were maintaining. All gentlemen used to live within the village, they used to take care. Now all gentlemen, they have left. They have gone to the city. Only poor men are there. They cannot maintain.

Morning Walk -- October 28, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Tarun.

Brahmānanda: Tarun Kanti Ghosh. Lush gardens, big lake. That was the Bengal system. Big, big lakes, garden. Unless respectable rich men live in the village... Just like this. This is a nice garden because government is maintaining. So unless there are rich men, who will maintain? Poor men cannot maintain. It is cloudy today. But in..., climate is nice, very pleasant.

Jñāna: From day to day it is changing.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Morning Walk -- November 7, 1975, Bombay:

Bhāgavata: So we will make a very nice book display. I will see that there is a very nice book display made with the Caitanya-caritamṛtas and the Bhāgavatams displayed. (break) ...the governor of Bengal, and he was quite congenial. He was friendly. And he agreed that if we contact him and make the proper arrangements he might come and see you there when you come to Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Bhāgavata: I was thinking if we had him for the festival, to come to the festival, that would be a very prestigious...

Morning Walk -- November 16, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This is reasonable. (break) ...no God, it is spoken by pagala, mad, mad. In Bengal it is said, pagale ki na bale, chagale ki na khaya. (Hindi) Chagala, goat.

Brahmānanda: "What the goat does not eat?" Is that?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: "What the goat does not eat?"

Prabhupāda: It eats everything, goat.

Brahmānanda: "And what the fool will not speak?"

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There is one river in India also, Suvarna-rekha, between Orissa and Bengal.

Dr. Patel: The sand is of the...

Prabhupāda: Yes. There you can find gold.

Brahmānanda: The city of Johannesburg is built on a gold reef, a reef of gold. There's so much gold there, and to dig it up they will have to break the city streets. They have deliberately built the city on top of the gold.

Dr. Patel: That South Africa is in the belt of Brazil more or less. And Brazil is very difficult place to search about this because they are all jungle, no? Brazil and south of Brazil. (break)

Morning Walk -- November 29, 1975, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: It does not look bigger than the sun. May be bigger. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...Kalākendra. So many kalākendras. Kalā means cheating, kalā. In Bengal, when it is called kalā, kalā deki dichi means cheating... (Hindi) I think in other countries also somewhere, they do so, that "I cannot do anything." Eh? In your country do they not like showing this thumb?

Haṁsadūta: No.

Devotee (2): what does that mean?

Prabhupāda: In India it is. Means "You are useless. You could not do anything."

Passerby: Good morning, sir.

Morning Walk -- December 4, 1975, Vrndavana:

Bhāvānanda: Someone had mentioned that we should start up in Bihar and come down into Bengal.

Prabhupāda: Do you think if they go to Orissa it will be nice? No? The saṅkīrtana party.

Akṣayānanda: Orissa will be nice?

Prabhupāda: So you talk with him.

Bhāvānanda: Yes. (break)

Morning Walk -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is collection of food. The trees also do that. They are called pāda-pa. Pāda-pa means they drink water by the legs. You drink water by the mouth and they drink water by the legs. Pāda-pa. Just like the, what is called? Bats. They pass stool through the mouth. Is it not? You do not know this? Yes. (laughter) You'll find the bats, they are hanging down the head, and they're passing stool. Sometimes man also does so, when there is strangulation. That is very dangerous disease. What is called? Intestine strangulation. Then passing stool through the mouth. In Bengal sometimes they curse, "You'll pass stool through the mouth!" Yes, sometimes they do. Sometimes they eat through the rectum. Do you know that?

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Well, when I say rascal it includes everything. (laughing) In Bengal it is said, "When I curse somebody, 'You die!' then all everything it is included, finished! You die." (Hindi)

bhārata bhūmite manuṣya haila janma yāra

janma sārthaka kari kara para-upakāra

(CC Adi 9.41)

This is Indian birth. To understand the whole Vedic philosophy and to give this knowledge to everyone. That is para-upakāra.

Dr. Patel: (Sanskrit) Then you become mukta-saṅgaḥ samācara.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation on Roof -- December 26, 1975, Sanand:

Prabhupāda: Ye.... Not dia.... Dialectical means keep spiritualism or materialism. It is dialectic. Two sides there are, the material and the spiritual. These ignorant rascals, cats—and dogslike men, they have no information of the thing which is covered. They're simply dealing with the covering. Therefore their knowledge is imperfect, and they're not successful by so many theses. They do not know the real problem. Who is enjoyer? That they do not know. That enjoyer is covered. And they are talking on the cover. That.... In Bengal, it is a proverb, said, that: Sobraniye tanatan.(?) In the.... I think I was talking on this. In the coconut. The coconut sweet pulp and water is within. And they are struggling with the fibers above the coconut. Coconut.... They have got some information coconut is enjoyable, but where is the enjoyable article is there, that they do not know.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 2, 1976, Madras:

Prabhupāda: Nothing. They are all.... Therefore we say simply "rascals." We have given this title to them everlastingly. All rascals, mūḍha. Mūḍho nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. How Kṛṣṇa is working, they do not know. This is Bay of Bengal. Other side is Burma. (break) ...are so strong, it will never be drowned. Eh? (Hindi) The scientist says there is no life. Just disagree with them.

Acyutānanda: No life?

Prabhupāda: Scientists, yes, they say there is no life in the sun.

Acyutānanda: In the sun.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Mahāmṣa: (break) ...left in Mysore.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But Bengal tiger.

Acyutānanda: That's.... They've all been shot.

Prabhupāda: (break) First of all understand what is meditation. Do you understand what is meditation? Do you understand?

Indian man: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: What is meditation?

Indian man (2): Giving all thoughts.... Coming to pure silence of the mind.

Prabhupāda: So how you can be silent? Is it possible?

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: You say, sir, "The Bengalis have ruined Hinduism; I am salvaging it." Another Bengali is salvaging the ruined Hinduism. Bengalis ruined the.... Whole Bengal, half of Bengal turned Islamic and this because of these brāhmaṇas.

Prabhupāda: That is everywhere, in Punjab also. Punjab also, the same thing.

Dr. Patel: One man was cast out and he was not taken back, so he converted half of the Bengal into Islam.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe that's the one. What is the size of the Caitanya Matha? That's the biggest one here? The biggest in Bengal? The Caitanya Matha temple, a hundred and ten foot, is the biggest temple in Bengal. There's not many big temples here... But that church is bigger in Chowringhee. I think that church that the British built...

Prabhupāda: Chowringhee?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Near Victoria Memorial, that church?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. St. Paul's Cathedral.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think that's higher than...

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. The arch will.... That's all right. Then don't require. Then it is all right. Don't require. (break) It will be colder in Bengal. Māghi, Māgha-māsa. Who has done this mischief, "Māyāpur"?

Jayapatāka: Someone put mud over "Māyāpur." This is our land, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayapatāka: This is our land here.

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: No, it's only from here. "It is more heavenly than heaven itself. It is the sacred Vṛndāvana of Bengal, hallowed by the dancing steps of the Lord, and its air is purified by His noble call to prayer. Whoever pays a visit to her will leave her with regret, and those who have not yet visited the place will carry their regrets unto death."

Prabhupāda: So he is making some propaganda that he is the...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, just like in the woods the jackal is always crying that he is the king, but who cares for him? What is his qualification?

Prabhupāda: So do we require to...? There is no use.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: Yes, little harassment. Then I even... Of course, I don't know. I even question... Just like that Lalitā Bose, that whole incident which Jayapatākā told you about. Who knows? She is so influenced by... She is big, so-called Vaiṣṇava, and known in so many circles in Bengal. Who is influencing her? You know? Anyway, we simply stay on our land and develop our program. He is going mad.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bhavānanda: He is becoming mad.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Bhavānanda: Tīrtha Mahārāja.

Morning Walk -- January 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He had very good wife, young wife, and he became a victim to a prostitute and lost all brahminical culture. So if you create prostitute in the society, where is the hope of brahminical culture? There is a story that a gentleman... Not gentleman, a rascal. He was rich, and he was going to the prostitute. So the wife inquired that "What is wanting in me that you are going to the prostitute?" You know that story? "No, I go there because she dances, sings." So she learned dancing. So in this way, one after another, drinking, dancing, this, that. Still, he was going. The wife learned everything. Then when she said, "Now I have learned whatever you wanted. Still why you are...?" "No, one thing. I cannot express that." "What is that?" "You do not abuse my father and mother. That you cannot do." These prostitutes, they abuse the father and mother. In Bengal it is known, rakta kedara vega.(?) They address like that.

Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The question I've had is that in the pictures they always show her head. She is bareheaded. She doesn't cover her head. And I noticed the thing that when we're sometimes passing in a car in Bengal I notice that the women, very often, they don't... It's more in this state than anywhere else, they don't cover their head. Is that due to her influence?

Prabhupāda: No, no. The system is when the woman is at the care of father she does not cover. But when she is under the care of husband she must cover. By dress you can understand what she is, whether she is widow, whether she has got husband, whether she is prostitute. Everything by dress you'll understand. Nowadays the fashion is the woman has the bakan(?) sīmanta here, not here.

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That was arranged by their parents, or they did it themselves?

Prabhupāda: Yes, by their parents. Except in Bengal, in other provinces they do not take much care of the age. Generally the bridegroom is older. Boy is older than the girl. (break) ...was married, he was eleven years old.

Hṛdayānanda: Eleven years old.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And his wife, my mother-in-law, was seven years. Dr. Rajendra Prasada, the president, he was married when he was eight years old.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughing) How old was his wife?

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I was student, so we were living separately. When she was thirteen years old, after puberty, then she was at... But there are many mothers still—the difference between the child, first child, and mother, twelve years. There are many mothers. At twelve years they gave birth to a child, especially in Bengal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In America that is considered very horrible.

Hṛdayānanda: Why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Catastrophe.

Prabhupāda: All my sisters were married within twelve years. My second sister, she became twelve years, and I heard my mother become so disturbed: "Oh, this girl is not being married. I shall commit suicide."

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: The Indian people are meant for that purpose. They are from the birth, janma... Other, they are janmanā śūdra, but Indians, they are janmanā devotees.

Jayapatākā: I meant to mention that he commented that when they were coming from Andhra, when they, as they're getting closer to Bengal, in Orissa, and then even more so in Bengal, the, both in Ori... so many kīrtana was there. The people were meeting them with kīrtana and everyone was doing kīrtana. But in Andhra and other places, not so much kīrtana is there.

Prabhupāda: No.

Jayapatākā: They say they get much better reception in Orissa and Bengal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because...

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: Lord Caitanya...

Jayapatākā: I think if we concentrated first in Bengal and Orissa, we get some, enough devotees, and then they could help us in the other villages elsewhere.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: All over India. Like Madana already got three devotees when I was there in one week. By now he may also have more. Bengalis like kīrtana very much. (break) ...devotees are Bengalis.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: ...ago Bengali culture was very much adored all over India. Even one big politician, Gandhi's guru, Goke, Gokule, he remarked, "What Bengal thinks today, other provinces will think tomorrow." He said like that. And actually all big, big movements started from Bengal. The national movement also was started from Bengal. Whatever we may criticize Vivekananda, when... He's a Bengali. He went first for preaching Indian religion. Rabindranath Tagore, he's a Bengali. All big, big...

Jayapatākā: Aurobindo.

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo is a Bengali.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Pañca-draviḍa: Two lakhs. Last night was big. Last night...

Prabhupāda: No, the police officer said that "From all different parts of Bengal, they are coming to see your temple."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This never before has happened?

Prabhupāda: No.

Guru-kṛpā: We realized last night our temple is too small.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughter)

Guru-kṛpā: And the road, you could not even walk down it. It took me fifteen minutes to get to the gate.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: I think grain they would allow. So many Christian institutions from America donate butter and ghee and rice and wheat to the Christian churches here. I think they would not object. We have not tried, perhaps.

Prabhupāda: No, we are trying. In Bengal they are trying.

Dr. Patel: Not here. They allow. How we are getting that Australian ghee all the time?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: They allow from Australia.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: They should allow from States also.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...milk is cheaper than the bottle.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There is a story in Bengal. (Bengali) The woman had seven sons. The mother requested first son, "My dear boy, now I am going to die. Take me to the Ganges side." He said, "Why? You have got so many other sons, why you are requesting me?"

Dr. Patel: She was calling every one, and nobody took her.

Prabhupāda: And then second son, third.... Everyone said like that, and she died without Gaṅgā. Agar mā gaṅgā.(?) So this.... And everyone has to work. And he thinks that "Why I shall work? Let him work. No work today."

Guru dāsa: You tell the story about a man beating with a stick, and then the police constable came and said, "You have beaten him." "No, no, no. It was the stick that beat him, not me." (laughter) No responsibility.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So many Ph.D.'s, they are loitering. Therefore they become Communists and this, what is called? Naxalites. Educated young boys, they have no job.

Dr. Patel: These two parts of India... (Hindi) Bengal and Kerala, they're highly educated communities. They are the, I mean, advanced Communists also, both the countries. In Gujarat there is no communism, though we are educated. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: Just like assassin is aside.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And otherwise you will find Caitanya and other, so many big, big men. Rabindranath Tagore, Surendranath Bannerjee, Vivekananda, and so on, so on. (Hindi) Aurobindo was condemned to death.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: That special power, that is said in the śāstras. But people do not want that.

Guru-kṛpā: Just like, for example, in Bengal before, there was that Charan das Babaji. He induced them to chant the wrong mantra, but where is.... He's not specifically paramparā.

Prabhupāda: No. He chanted for some time and, of course, there was chanting of "Nitāi-Gaura." He introduced new system of chanting: nitāi-gaura rādhe-śyāma. So the Nitāi-Gaura chanting will have some effect, Kali-yuga. Although he was presenting pervertedly, the beginning was Nitāi-Gaura, so it would have some effect. He did not know actually Nitāi-Gaura. From his words it appears. He used to preach that Nitāi is Rādhārāṇī, and Gaura is Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Just like a criminal is put into the prison house for being punished, he will say, "Just see, I am living happily. I haven't got to work. I'm getting my food." (laughing) Such shameless. He does not know that "I am put here for suffering." But he's thinking "I'm so living happily.... I haven't got to work. Other men, they're going to the office, to the factory. I'm eating." (laughing) He forgets actually he's put into the prison house to suffer. He doesn't come to his senses. Therefore again when he's released, again he comes. He thinks that it is.... In Bengal they call social beggars (indistinct) Social beggars (indistinct) just like son-in-law goes to father-in-law's, and he's well received. So they think that prison house is social beggar (indistinct), another in-law's house.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, there is a nice story in this connection. There was one Gopal Ban. So he was very cunning fellow. In the Muhammadan period in Bengal. So the Mohammedan Nawab asked him, "Gopal Ban, can you prepare a Mahābhārata in my name?" "Oh, yes!" So, "I'll engage so many paṇḍitas, and they will make a Mahābhārata, your activities, your glories, everything. So give me one hundred thousand rupees, just begin." He was taking money, taking money, "Yes, it is going on, going on." "Then when it will be published?" "Yes, just last few days more. Now, sir, everything is prepared. So the one thing is, you have to give me information how many husbands you have got, your wife, huh?

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you have got enough food grains.... Just like in our headquarter in Bengal, we are giving food daily, at least one thousand men.

Scheverman: So you are feeding the hungry at your headquarters in (sic:) London. You do utilize then the direct approach as well.

Prabhupāda: No, our process is that everyone who is hungry, come and take your food. But our program is going on, but feeding the poor is automatically there. If anyone comes to our temple, even here, anyone comes and take prasāda.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: In India, especially in Bengal, there is a preparation, it is softer than the puffed rice-khoi, fused rice. That is very good. Light, at the same time soft purgative. That milk mixed with is a very good food for old men.

Hari-śauri: In that newspaper article in the Butler Eagle, that very first article when you just arrived that we saw? They showed that copy in Los Angeles. It mentioned, the reporter there, he quoted you as saying that—you were telling him about milk, how good it was—and he quoted you as saying that milk is the miracle food for babies and old men.

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Student.

Indian man: They're all from Bengal.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (converses with woman in Bengali, mentions Gauḍīya Maṭha) So what I was talking just now about this motorcar race?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. This breakneck civilization. Just like dog, they're very, very busy. If you watch a dog, sometimes you'll see he's running here, running there, running here, running there. But no credit. Similarly, the modern scientists, they're running, running, running, very busy, but simply patchwork. They have no conclusion.

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Yes, if they work, they can do that. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In West Bengal they have huge quantities of rice surplus.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hari-śauri: Could that be due to our saṅkīrtana activities?

Prabhupāda: Certainly. Bhavanti parjanyaḥ parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ. There was big valley like this in Tokyo. We walked, and there was a creek like this. Not so dirty. (break)

Indian (1): ...high commissioners, for the passport. They're so demoniac, they're not working at all, they're.... (break) ...politics and they sit there. (break)

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: And they also will be very pleased. India is now so congested. If they get food.... Especially many East Bengalis who migrate in West Bengal for the troublesome condition there, they'll be very happy here. You can write to Gopāla to inquire that we require here some Indians to come to help us.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Mistris for construction?

Prabhupāda: Mistri or anyone, to develop this Kṛṣṇa culture, so the Society will give guarantee. Why not take permission? And they may not come back. They may reside.

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Ah, janmācāra. First of all, janma, the family, heredity, was taken into consideration, but that is now forgotten. Get money. Just like in England the British empire's policy was that you bring money from outside and deposit in the government treasury and you become lord. Is it not? Bring money, some way or other. So that was going on, exploiting, they used to go to the foreign countries and somehow or other accumulate money. Just like Lord Clive. He was a street boy, but he made some policy. In this way, diplomacy, he entered into Bengal and got some money, and Lord Clive, he became Lord Clive. So money is the criterion. Some way or other, bring money. That's all. That's a fact. These are the symptoms. Just try to understand.

Room Conversation After Film -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Court jesters, yes. So there was a man, court jester, in Bengal. So the Muhammadan governor asked one Gopal Bhan, jester... He was jester in the court of Raja Krishna Chandra. So he asked him, Nawab, that "Gopal Bhan, I have heard you are very expert. Can you write a similar book, Mahābhārata, about my kingdom?" (laughter) "Oh, yes. Why not?" That is not... So he took some hundred thousands of rupees and again come: "Give me another ten thousand," "Another ten," in this way. "When the book will be finished? You have taken so much money." "It is just on the verge of being finished." Then, when he saw that no more money can be taken—"I have taken so much money"—then he one day said that "Now, sir, one information is very essential. That is wanted. You give me, and the Mahābhārata will be finished. Everything is there."

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Because the real fact is they do not want to give up meat-eating and fish-eating. Therefore they like Vivekananda. That is the real reason. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement, Vaiṣṇava, they have to give up so many things. That is the disease of the Bengalis. And Vivekananda is recognized only in Bengal. To some part, not all.

Vipina: There is also a small Vedanta Society here in Washington. I had one of our Indian associates, whom I hope you will be able to meet, go there, and he said they could not even discuss the topics of Bhagavad-gītā. They had no conclusions, they were arguing in their own meeting, and no one had any idea what Bhagavad-gītā was, and so many technical points.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So it seems to be that we need some strong preaching in Calcutta, in Bengal. We want to attract some intellectuals.

Prabhupāda: No, there are many intellectuals. Not that...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: My concern here, staying here in Atlanta, there are many Bengali families, but they never come to the temple. There was our life member program, and so many prabhus are going to make life members, and these Bengalis, they don't even have some respect. That is why I was a little, seeing their moto(?) I was a little disappointed.

Prabhupāda: Because you will ask them not to eat meat, and that they cannot do. What are these? Crows?

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No he didn't. That's just propaganda.

Dr. Sukla: That's propaganda, yes, but...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I never heard of Vivekananda until I went to Bengal.

Devotee (1): The Vedanta Society was formed...

Prabhupāda: No, no, the other day we spoke that... Now in Vṛndāvana, you know we have got our temple. So the Ramakrishna Mission, they have got their temple also. In our temple, thousands and thousands of these Americans came, and not a single one went here. If they had preached anything, then why these American boys and girls are not interested, "Let us see where the Ramakrishna Mission stays." They do not know even. There are many present here who went to Vṛndāvana, and none of them were interested to see. Why? lf there was any propaganda... This is practical proof. Why none of them were interested, "Oh, here is also Ramakrishna Mandir, let us go here"? Nobody. Is it practical?

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is India's special...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: (laughs) Quality.

Prabhupāda: ...qualification. It was printed in the best place of Calcutta; still, they committed mistake. Sarasvati Press. That is the best publisher in Bengal.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This is called Tapke?

Prabhupāda: Tata Spingh(?) was the agent for selling.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, the paper quality was good.

Prabhupāda: So it was first published in 1944.

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: New York climate is very nice. Sometimes now it rains a little bit, then shining. So just like Bengal.

Rāmeśvara: I observed that these devotees at New York, they've practically given up sleeping this past week to prepare everything for your arrival.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) They are so kind to me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they worked very hard.

Rāmeśvara: It reminded me that time when the Press devotees stayed up all the time to get those Caitanya-caritāmṛta volumes. The same spirit. They just stopped eating and sleeping.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: They cannot check.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really, they won't stop us.

Prabhupāda: If they want to stop it, it will increase.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, right. Especially in Bengal, as soon as the Bengalis know that something is against the government, then they get very vehement.

Devotee: It's encouraging when they try to resist.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They call us sāhebs. It says "What urges the sāhebs and memasāhebs." That's how they refer to us.

Prabhupāda: Our Māyāpur temple is known as sāheb mandira. In Vṛndāvana, English, iṁrejī.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means I am not accepting you as intimate. And if he accepts, then you cannot deny his friendship. About one hundreds years ago in Bengal in the aristocratic circle, the guests invited and very sumptuously food distributed, and then the gentlemen, guests, they come and see only, they will simply say "Oh, it is very nicely done." They'll not eat, and go away. Then the foodstuff will be distributed among the servants. This was aristocracy. They'll not eat, they will simply see and appreciate, "Oh, you have so many varieties, very nice." Then they'll go. And the household servants and others, they eat it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why didn't they eat it?

Prabhupāda: That was the custom.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: And after few years they will present some stone, "Now we went to Mars. There is no possibility of living there. Take this stone and sand and be satisfied for your millions of dollars that you have spent..." And they will say "Oh, we have made scientific progress. I have got this stone." Yo ko thako bhayargolihiya us ka tek lilaya(?). There is a song in Bengal that formerly anything European, sāheb, that is good. So one person is selling meat, flesh of dog. Flesh of dog nobody takes, at least in India. So he said that "This is not ordinary dog. This is the dog which was killed by Viceroy, that dog. And because Viceroy killed it, therefore it has become nice dog. You can eat it." So, anything these so-called scientists said, that is to be accepted. Without any common sense. This is your intelligence. But I am fool Indian, I don't believe it. (laughter) I immediately capture the point, why this rascal is talking of Arizona? That means the whole business is going on in Arizona.

Interview with Trans-India Magazine -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: So Indian life means para-upakāra. They are in the darkness, others, in the darkness. They have no such culture, spiritual culture. India has got that culture, this Bhagavad-gītā. So one should make his life a practically Bhagavad-gītā life. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious movement. And preach it to the world. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's order. And this order was not only... Because Caitanya Mahāprabhu happened to be a Bengali... He appeared in Nadia district, a district in Bengal. But He does not say the Bengalis; He said the bhāratīs. Bharata-varṣa janma haila yāra. So it is India's mission to become exactly on the line of Bhagavad-gītā. That is also spoken by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that perfection of life means to understand Bhagavad-gītā. He said āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa: (CC Madhya 7.128) "You just become a guru and deliver this country."

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Pṛthu-putra: "And there is also an index and some notes which are giving the work much more easy for the reader, even the profound. This teaching took its root in the teaching of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, that prophet of Kṛṣṇa's. His preaching in Bengal in Orissa in sixteenth century is again appear deeper for the devotion to Bhagavān. Srila Prabhupāda is descending in the disciplic succession, direct vamsa, from Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His first disciples, the famous Gosvāmīs. It is a considerable advantage for the French public to have these volumes where there is a vitality manifested from one of these past pantha, which are the most followed by the followers of the Hinduism. We hope that there is a large distribution of this tradition and commentary of the Bhāgavata-Purāṇa. Anyone who is interested in the life of India can find the authentic teaching, spiritual teaching authorized, and can also have access to one of the most beautiful religious poem from the Hindu tradition." This is the.... It's wonderful.

Prabhupāda: Yes, very good.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Western people, they are not only fool but misbehaved. Paścime loka saba mūḍha anārya.

Hari-śauri: And the further West you go, the worse they become.

Prabhupāda: In India, from Bengal you go Western side. They are very filthy. And go more, more, more Western-filthy, filthy, filthy, filthy.

Harikeśa: Pakistan is the worst. Karachi, I heard, is the worst city in the world almost.

Prabhupāda: Śrīmad-bhāgavatam amalam purāṇam.

Harikeśa: These books are exquisite. The books they make in France are just marvelous.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Harikeśa: There seems to be such an amazing repertoire of stories and analogies in the Bengali language, isn't there? So many.

Prabhupāda: In Bengal the, just like here, so many, black mixed up with white. In Bengal and Madras, so many Dravidian have been mixed up with the Āryan. Therefore in Bengal and Madras you'll find many black.

Hari-śauri: Dravidian?

Prabhupāda: Dravidian culture. Dravida. They are non-Āryans. Just like these Africans, they are not Āryans. Now they are mixing up with Europeans and Americans. In India, it was, one from the higher section, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, they will be fair complexion. Śūdras, black. So if a brāhmaṇa becomes black, then he's not accepted as brāhmaṇa. Kāla bahu (?). And if a śūdra becomes fair, then he's to be know that he's not pure śūdra. Although we do not take very, but, this brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, by birth, but still, we have seen, those who are coming purely from high caste family, their behavior and śūdras behavior is different. The family culture. And the spiritual culture lost, still, the family culture keeps them separate.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: In, actually, in Bengal, Bengal has lost its original culture. In other provinces the brāhmaṇa class, they are keeping very strictly the original culture. Even a brāhmaṇa would not accept foodstuff prepared by his wife, because woman is considered śūdra. The woman, when she becomes the wife of a brāhmaṇa, then she is called brāhmaṇī, but she's not offered brahminical culture. She remains as śūdra. So therefore a strict brāhmaṇa does not accept foodstuff prepared by his wife. Still there are in U.P. The wife will arrange for cooking, and he'll sit down and cook dāl, cāpāṭis. Then he will eat, and whatever remains, that is there, that will be taken by her. But he will not take foodstuff cooked by his even wife. And if there are several brāhmaṇas, so each one of them will cook his own food. In Calcutta, mostly the rich men they used to keep the collector's darwans, they are called darwans.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Yes. What they understand, all rascals? Wasting time. Going to the moon planet, going to the Mars planet. Why? What you will gain? Still they are going. Simply spending money. In Bengal it is called ostādi. Ostādi, in English? One who places himself as very intelligent leader. What is called in one word?

Bhagavān: Presumptuous?

Prabhupāda: Presumptions?

Bhagavān: Presumes he's something that he's...

Prabhupāda: No, it is a very nice word.

Hari-śauri: An imposter?

Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Ah. In East Germany also, they have placed order. So this is joining. Just like for us, if you bring any other literature, we throw it away immediately. We take it as useless. Actually it is. We have nothing to learn from them, anything. All bogus. Either he's scientist or astronomer, or..., we know they are talking all bogus things. There may be some truth. Even that truth is there when a child speaks, there is some truth. When a child speaks to his parents, there is some truth, otherwise where is the question of talking? So little portion truth is there, everywhere. But when they talk of big, big things—they are going to Mars and scratching sand there—that we don't believe. That we don't believe. When they talk of this tape recorder, some electronic machine, joining together and it is working, that much care you can take. But when you speak of so many things, that millions of years there were germs and germination, now they are trying to come out, and it is all vacant—these are all bogus, we don't accept. Talking too much. In Bengal it is called yatap(?)

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

Prabhupāda: And mix with mustard oil and this, what is called, eggplant. Eggplant roasted in the fire and put with little mustard oil, salt and chilis, it becomes very tasteful. So puffed rice and that, they take in Bengal. That is tiffin, for breakfast. Formerly they were happy simply by eating palatable dishes according to...

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Today they have become so rich they cannot eat.

Prabhupāda: That's it. Simply they can eat meat.

(Morning Walk)

Prabhupāda: Drinking is prohibited.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, shameless. Dukankata,(?) in Bengal it is called. So if you want to continue, then continue. The facility is already given there. The material world is there. You go on, continue. But if you want to stop it, if you are conscious of the material position, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), then you have to stop it. Kṛṣṇa has given you freedom, yathecchasi tathā kuru (BG 18.63). Whatever you like, you can do. If you like to suffer, go on suffering. Who can...? It is your business.

Nava-yauvana: But unless one is getting Kṛṣṇa's instruction, he is forced to go on.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: I am not from south, I am from Calcutta. West, west of India, no? Calcutta is east.

Jñānagamya: They say everything good comes from Bengal. The best poets, the best gurus.

Prabhupāda: Not always. (laughter)

Devotee: Ramakrishna.

Prabhupāda: Nowadays Naxalites are coming. It is the time, Kali-yuga.

Guest: No, I'm from far south.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, actually my teeth have gone all bad. It is useless. But on account of this toothpaste it is still working. (laughs) Otherwise, according to dental science, it has to be extracted. It is no other remedy. If you go to a dentist, immediately he will say, "Extract all this and have a new set, artificial." That is, I know that. But I don't want to extract. As far as possible, use them and let them fall out automatically, as they have already fallen out so many. Fifty percent already fallen out, and twenty-five percent are shaking, and still I am eating. Otherwise, according to the dental science, I should not eat any salt. In Bengal there is a word that when teeth is rot, then your eating is gone. You cannot digest, you cannot eat. It is not... If the foodstuff is not properly chewed, it causes digestive disturbance. And digestive disturbance means so many diseases. This coughing is due to digestive disturbance. I know that.

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He introduced so many Indian drugs in the...

Dr. Patel: They have in Bengal this Standard Pharmaceuticals of Bengal, been able to isolate penicillin from cow dung, and they have a big plant in Calcutta producing penicillin from cow dung. It's stated, you know, how cow dung was considered sacred. Perhaps we did not know that, but by experience.

Prabhupāda: Before this, one Monmohan Gosh, Dr. Monmohan Gosh, he was pathologist in medical college. He proved the antiseptic properties of gobara. He was Dr. Gosh's friend. So he was working in his laboratory also. I know. Long ago.

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Don't eat milk." Do they not? And they cannot drink also. In Bengal there is a proverb, kule pete ghiya(?) (indistinct). If you supply preparation made of ghee to the dog, he cannot digest it.

Guest: (quotes proverb in Bengali)

Prabhupāda: Ha! They cannot digest factually. They get, what is called? That disease?

Harikeśa: Jaundice.

Prabhupāda: Jaundice. They cannot eat much milk product.

Evening Darsana (on night of arrival) -- August 16, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa: "New Delhi, August 13th. Mr. Om Mehta, Minister of State for Home, informed the Rājya-sabhā yesterday that government will order an inquiry into the activities of Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Society in Nadia District of West Bengal to find out whether there was something fishy about it."

Hari-śauri: This is the same report Gopāla Kṛṣṇa read you.

Mahāṁśa: You have read this, Prabhupāda?

Indian man (3): It must have come in earlier.

Prabhupāda: But the name is "Kṛṣṇa Caitanya." (laughs)

Mahāṁśa: Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Society.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: He's a very expert... He's one of their chief politicians from India. He used to be Education Minister of Indira Gandhi. He's one of her right hand men.

Gargamuni: Very important for Bengal. Bengal is the most important state, and he has very prominent position to the Prime Minister as advisor.

Jayapatākā: So at that time, I couldn't write him a letter. He had written that..., something which made Mr. Choudhuri very angry. He wrote something which made Mr. Choudhuri very angry. Made also the Chief Secretary angry. He wrote...

Gargamuni: No, who wrote?

Jayapatākā: The Chief Minister wrote. He said, "Because of the impassioned... He said "I would have refused this application except for the impassioned appeal of one of my senior officers, namely Mr. Choudhuri. They are asking for three hundred acres of land but the East India Company, they asked only twenty acres of land and they have conquered the whole of India." (loud kīrtana in background)

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: I went to Haridaspur as soon as I received your letter because Bahusvarūpa was there, making arrangement for the Janmāṣṭamī festival. So I spoke to all those people for two days, Thursday and Friday. And the land is in the name of the zamindar, Mr..., Ghosh family. There's fourteen members who have to sign. So in Haridaspur nine members are living, and they are all agreed for signing. And they say the other five members live in Calcutta. Once they sign the deed, they'll also sign. There's no doubt because that's not even in their possession. That's in the public's possession. And all the public, Anchal-pradhan and all the other leaders of that village they are also all eager to have us start . I think that we can also raise some money in the neighborhood. There's some relatively rich people. So that... I was trying to register that before I came here but because Monday is... That zamindar has one haṭṭa. And that's... His haṭṭa day is Monday, so he was busy. And Tuesday was Janmāṣṭamī by government of West Bengal, and Wednesday was our Janmāṣṭamī and Haridaspur Janmāṣṭamī, and I came here today, Thursday, so we couldn't do it beforehand. But as soon as I go back, I can register that. And... But someone should immediately come, Mūrti or Saurabha or someone and see that land.

Prabhupāda: No, no, we have to... Yes. We have to see, make plans.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: Also all over Bengal people are appreciating. I went... When we go preaching in the small towns...

Prabhupāda: Wait, I am coming. Among the... Amongst these... "Not only for India, but the whole world. You are doing nice work." So push this movement. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura wanted Indians, they can... Prabhupāda also. No we have to plan how to... We are not concerned only with India. All over the world. Make plan. Think over. Kṛṣṇa will give you intelligence.

Akṣayānanda: Prabhupāda would come to Māyāpur.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: I have got a bad impression, Bengal during rainy season.

Gargamuni: Yes, right.

Prabhupāda: Is it not? No, it was not rainy season. This season. Otherwise any season in Bengal, they are very good.

Hari-śauri: Insect season.

Prabhupāda: Not only insect. There are... Insects are there?

Gargamuni: There's no insects now.

Jayapatākā: Rainy season no insects. After rainy season.

Prabhupāda: After rainy season. And insect is not so bad. Indigestion.

Jayapatākā: Indigestion.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: I think Vṛndāvana. Is it not?

Hari-śauri: I was there last year.

Jayapatākā: I only know Bengal.

Prabhupāda: You are now Bengali.

Jayapatākā: (laughs)

Prabhupāda: And they are not giving citizenship?

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: I had vision of (indistinct)... More than going to the hill (indistinct). It is higher than sea level anyway... Therefore the northern portion of India is called upper. It is very higher than the sea level. It is called upper because it is much higher, very high from the ocean. But I was... Vṛndāvana is also that part of (indistinct). Only Bengal is not upper.

Hari-śauri: Yes, it's low.

Prabhupāda: It is near the sea, so... (end)

Room Conversation About Blitz News Clipping -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: We are trying to elevate the demoralized human society to God consciousness.

Pradyumna: Then, "John Erdman, a U.S. citizen who sails under the label of (sic:) Jayapak Swami and is in charge of the flourishing Māyāpur complex of the Society, recently had discussions with his chums to set up an In God We Trust Party in India also." Then, heading: "Bigger Than Defunct British Empire." "In a recent communication with Gargamuni Swami, alias Gregory M. Scharf, who looks after West Bengal, the chief from headquarters says, "Now we have become more than the British Empire"

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is your quote.

Prabhupāda: And what is British Empire? British Empire could not occupy the whole world. We are occupying the whole world.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: It is in West Bengal?

Jayapatākā: West Bengal. That's in Nadia district. Just before Pulasi, south of Pulasi. And when we came there and I saw the police in the afternoon, we told them we were going to have a function. So they said that they would send a few policemen. They said that "We will send some policemen for keeping the order." But that night so many people came the space could only hold four thousand. But another two, three thousand people came, and they were turned away because of insufficient space. So they were standing on the wall and on the rooftops all around, and all you could see were people's heads, just like an ocean. The policemen, after it was over... When I chanted, I chanted, "Everyone please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." And I chanted the full mantra three times. They chanted so loud that even two, three blocks away people thought that the heavens were shouting. It was like a thunder...

Prabhupāda: Thunderbolt.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Out of their own accord they...

Gargamuni: No, they've heard of it. It's becoming famous.

Jayapatākā: That's our inspiration, that if we can make Gītār Gān and Your Divine Grace famous all over Bengal, then we will feel that our mission...

Prabhupāda: Yes, I could not write any... I wrote some Bengali book, that is now... It can be collected from Devānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha. I continually wrote one book, Bhagavāner Kathā.

Jayapatākā: People are begging us for books in Bengali written by Your Divine Grace. We tell them that... There's no time.

Prabhupāda: That Subhaga translated. But his translations are not so...

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Public singing?

Jayapatākā: When the public began to recite Gītār Gān at their functions, like they're doing this Tulasīdāsa Rāmāyaṇa, if they start that in Bengal, Gītār Gān, then it will be a big success.

Prabhupāda: Tulasīdāsa. Tulasīdāsa Rāmāyaṇa is very popular. Because the Hindis, they have no literature. There is no literature.

Jayapatākā: If some Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava could rewrite that according to siddhānta, then it would be very good.

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: In the end I have already explained. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.

Indian man: Mr. Rao Swami, officer from railway state office. He's from Bengal.

Prabhupāda: Oh. You are Bengali? (Where is your home?) Kothāya bāḍi āpnāra? Howalajela (?)(Bengali)

Indian man: The cycle is going on. That's what you were saying.

Indian man: Cycle, as we see it is going on since millions of years. And it is likely to go on like this.

Prabhupāda: No. You can stop it. You are missing the chance because you are not serious about the end of life. You are not disgusted with this repetition of birth and death. That is foolishness. Just like a thief, a criminal. He is constantly put into the jail but he's not disgusted. He's committing again and again and again. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). This is going on. This is foolishness. He does not make any provision how to stop it. That is for want of knowledge. This is going on.

Meeting With Member of Parliament, Mr. Krishna Modi -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: One cooperation is that we can bring immediately a small vans or buses so that we can go village to village, town to town. If I get government permit then... Because here the buses are very costly, and at the same time they are not very good. But foreign buses... India hasn't got to pay anything but simply let us have and work in India. This much facility wanted. Besides that, our men, they are coming, spending ten thousand rupees and after three months or six months, "Get out, get out, get out." And Indians are not joining. Indians are not so sacrificing. But these boys they have sacrificed everything. I am sure if some cooperation is coming from the government I can very soon change the face of India. But I am not getting any facilities. We have experimented in Bengal, and here also, he is also going, saṅkīrtana party. But he could not do it in a large scale for want of facilities. And in foreign countries these boys are so sacrificing spirit, as soon as we give him some program, immediately they make arrangement. Immediately. We are going village to village with books in buses. Hundreds of buses are working.

Morning Walk -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Devotee: Just these young boys who were carrying the bricks every morning, they would prepare their own vegetables and cāpāṭis like this, and I was amazed to see this because you would never get anyone doing this...

Prabhupāda: Jaya. In Bengal there is a ceremony after marriage, bahu-bhāta. (?)The newly married girl, she shall cook, and all the relatives, friends, are invited and they appreciate, "Yes, nice cook." Then she is accepted as member of the whole family. Bahu-bhāta.

Devotee: And if not, Prabhupāda? If her cooking is not...

Prabhupāda: Therefore she is trained up.

Devotee: And if she's not trained up.

Evening Darsana -- September 1, 1976, Delhi:

Indian man (3): I had about 2 acres was available, except that. (talks about land he owns-indistinct)

Prabhupāda: We are trying for another big scheme in Bengal. We have applied to the government to acquire land, 350 acres, a big planetarium. Planetarium. We have described the planetarium in our Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In that planetarium it is said that the moon is above the sun planet. By one million six hundred thousand miles.

Indian man (3): What does astronomy say? The modern astronomy.

Prabhupāda: They say the moon planet is nearer to earth planet and they have gone there.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He's so black, there is no more black required. (laughter) A black snake. (Bengali) In Bengal it is said if a brāhmaṇa is black he is dangerous.

Akṣayānanda: If a brāhmaṇa is black?

Prabhupāda: That means he's not pure brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa cannot be black. Just like a European, if he becomes black, that means he has mixture. European and American, if he's black, that means mixture. So brāhmaṇa family, how it has... Still, family, it must be very fair. Śukla. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya family must be very beautiful. If he's pure. Kāla brāhmaṇa prakāśa śūdra (Bengali) beki poṣya-putro pasaraila.(?) It is a slang language. Kāla brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa should not be black and śūdra should not be white. And a Musselman should not be dwarf. Because formerly real Musselmen were coming from Kabul, Afghanistan. That is called (indistinct).

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: They eat off fat banana leaves in Māyāpur all the time.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Common man in Bengal, Orissa, they'll take on banana leaves all vegetable preparations. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when he was invited by Sarvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, he was taking on banana leaves.

Caraṇāravindam: I have some bitter gourd. I'm going to dry it and we can plant the seeds, karelā.

Prabhupāda: Karelā it is also...

Caraṇāravindam: Wonderful sabji.

Hari-śauri: Paṭola?

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: If you all don't mind, just for five minutes, we would like to read the selected extracts from some leading scholars about this movement. We're not reading the views of Western scholars. These books are being used in five thousand universities, including Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, but some of the leading Indian scholars. So you also get an understanding of the Indian appreciation of Prabhupāda's activities. This for example, is a letter from Mr. Ghosh, District and Summon Judge in West Bengal: "I'm highly impressed at the sincerity and devotion of the disciples of the International Society of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. A visit to the Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir, West Bengal, sublimes the mind from all harsh talk and disturbing influences." Then...

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

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. You go early in the morning and do something. If it is favorable... Just like in Bengal they are doing. (They get) good reception. You have heard it?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, I heard.

Prabhupāda: Very good reception.

Haṁsadūta: Villagers give the best reception.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Haṁsadūta: Because they're...

Prabhupāda: Still.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri: Maybe you could do it from Bengal, from Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri: Do the villages there.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Because...

Haṁsadūta: Here the weather is already getting cold.

Hari-śauri: Yeah.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Bengal seems like the best place, because right now at least the weather is really nice. And Gargamuni's men have a lot of experience there, Satadhanya and Jayapatāka. They know all the villages. Could do some good programs.

Prabhupāda: This blood pressure is troubling. (break) They are chanting, "Say Kṛṣṇa." (laughter) They're taking, "Mind control."

Haṁsadūta: Yeah, mind control.

Prabhupāda: Ordinarily they cannot charge anything, mind control brainwashing, subtle thing. Just like I, "I am sick." "How you are feeling?" "I am feeling some pain." (indistinct) Who is going to see? (laughter) Who can say? It is like that.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He took advice, the Nawab was so serious about Him. A Mohammedan may do something. So he said, "It is not good to stay here. You should go away." They decided that we shall go now with Him but in the meantime let Him go. Because there were parts of India, Mohammedan influence, especially Bengal was Mohammedan kingdom. So this was warning. Then he told the Nawab that, "He is a beggar. Why do you think of him as serious man? He is beggar. Some people follow him, not many." So he said. "Don't try to mislead me. I know. He's not beggar, He's God. Otherwise how so many people are following Him?" The Nawab he said that.

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: The gosvāmīs, they are śrī-caitanya-kṛpā-bharau. Now prove! They are descendants, now prove: come forward. Śrī-caitanya-kṛpā-bharau. Simply sitting at home. And in Bengal there is Nityānanda-vaṁśa. What is Nityānanda-vaṁśa? Nityānanda went forward before Jagāi-Mādhāi and He was hurt. Blood came out. Where is that Nityānanda-vaṁśa? Fight between Jagāi-Mādhāi and Nityānanda. That is Nityānanda-vaṁśa, simply taking advantage of coming from Nityānanda-vaṁśa, "I have become guru, give me your money," and sit down. "Let me enjoy life with my wife and children." That kind of Nityānanda-vaṁśa will not help. Come forward to fight. This fighting is now here. You can show the newspaper clipping. (Hindi) big arrangement to fight this. First of all they thought that so many swamis and yogis come, all rascals, they stay for some time and go away.

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, then he should be sent back. Or he can be sent to Bombay to work ordinarily. Or Hyderabad farm. Like that. Let him work on the ground.

Yaśodānandana: He speaks Bengali. That boy was in Bengal before and he picked up Bengali.

Prabhupāda: So he can go.

Pradyumna: He's very intelligent, but he's just had a bad...

Prabhupāda: So he was in Māyāpur?

Yaśodānandana: Yes, he was in Māyāpur before. He knows Bengali. He can speak Bengali.

Prabhupāda: So he can go with the Māyāpur preaching party as well.

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So he can go with the Māyāpur preaching party as well.

Yaśodānandana: We could send him with Bhavānanda Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that will be nice. He knows Bengali. Let him go to Bengal and keep him under Bhavānanda.

Jagadīśa: I think that he'll be a problem wherever he goes.

Prabhupāda: No, Bhavānanda will correct his problem.

Jagadīśa: I think Bhavānanda won't want to take him because he knows he's a problem.

Rūpa-vilāsa: Bhavānanda told me he did not want to see that boy again.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Bhagatji: In Bengal kāyasthas is the...

Prabhupāda: No, no, Bengal. Mean in U.P.

Bhagatji: In U.P. kāyasthas are śūdras.

Prabhupāda: And originally they are śūdras. The history of Bengali kāyasthas... They went with the brāhmaṇas as servant. That is the history. And in Bengal the system is... (Bengali saying and Hindi explanation) Actually it is... If some low class man, he becomes rich, then he's taken into the kāyastha community. Anyone who cannot stick to the principle of caste system, he becomes a kāyastha.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Naturally they do that.

Mahāṁśa: They do that. They start... Because they have no other engagement. A little thing to excite them, then they want to become excited.

Prabhupāda: In Bengal it is called tilake tāla. Tāla, a palm fruit, it is big, and tila, is the sesame. You know sesame seeds?

Haṁsadūta: Sesame.

Prabhupāda: Sesame, yes. That is very small. So these seeds, sesame seed, is called tila. Tila lava, and they make it tāla. Instead of tila, it becomes tāla, and then big mess. Tilake tāla. The fact was tila, but they called it tāla.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Oh, Taksila.

Mr. Malhotra: No Taksila was in Punjab, that side. In Bengal, Bihar, that...

Prabhupāda: Tarbanga.

Mr. Malhotra: I visited that. So this was the seat of very old temples, oldest temples in this place, this Haya. (?) And they say this is one of the oldest of the oldest towns or cities of the country. Small place, Pasir, with a population of about 10-15,000 people. All the temples are in the Kṛṣṇā River, in the Kṛṣṇā river. (break) Whatever I am today, that is all due to my past karmas, good or bad, I mean.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is false idea that by language, linguistic unity there will be... There are so many different examples. Pakistan, they speak Hindi also. Yes, they speak Hindi. And why there is separation? Bangladesh, they speak Bengali. Why they are separated from West Bengal? The linguistic unity is not... Any material platform, there cannot be unity. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). (break)

Hari-śauri: It's the white one. It's on my bed. (break)

Devotee: Hari-śauri is asking if you can take... (break)

Jagadīśa: Well, that doesn't mean I can. (break)

Indian lady: In our schools and college...

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) She'll understand Bengali. (Bengali) That explains.

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: English people, they, I mean, ruined their whole industry of... Bengal textile industry was ruined by Britishers. They cut away the thumbs. That is... I'm sorry, sir...

Prabhupāda: Therefore why mahātmā? The same business you are doing, why you say mahātmā? If you are doing the same business...

Dr. Patel: He never called himself mahātmā. People called him mahātmā.

Prabhupāda: He liked to enjoy it. He liked to enjoy it. That's all. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). Mahātmā has no business to this... (break) ...fact, the present position of India, it is not very good. But we can do that. We have got the means. If we make propaganda village to village. Still, the villagers, they are unpolluted, they can be recovered.

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, why these boys are attracted ? They have not come here to see your industry for materialism. They have come here for spiritual. They have not come to see your cycle and sewing machine. Actually, they have come, Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur. And they are not poverty stricken. We go to Europe being poverty stricken. That Lady Wellington, he (she) challenged one of my Godbrothers, Bhakti Tīrtha Mahārāja, that "You Indian people..." She was very proud, Lady Wellington. Wellington was Iceland. She said that "You Indian people..." Of course, it was friendly talk. "You come to our country, we give you some stamp, degree, and you earn your livelihood in India. What you have come here to teach?" This was the challenge. Actually, that was happening. We were sending our men to England to become bar-at-law, to become MS, CP, to become this and that, and they became here big men. So why you people come here to teach us? This was the challenge. In those days a little favor of Englishman was considered a great boon. In Bengal there is a word, saheb śubha.

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There are many Parsi families. But they wanted some friends. They were minority. Unless with the cooperation of the Indians, how they could stand? Therefore they introduced the zamindar system in Bengal, Bihar, Orissa. Some aristocratic families should cooperate with them. They knew how to rule over. Now by over-cooperating they have become hoax. That verse I very much like.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Marriage is good. But to keep illicit sex, that's the most sinful activity. Marriage is allowed. Dharmāviruddhaḥ kāmo 'smi. That is not against.

Dr. Patel: Great number of luminaries have been produced by Bengal. Last year we read in Times of India more luminaries were produced in Bengal than any other...

Prabhupāda: No, Bengal... They maintained the culture. But therefore I say that Vivekananda broke that Bengali culture.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, Bengal... They maintained the culture. But therefore I say that Vivekananda broke that Bengali culture.

Dr. Patel: Bengali culture is fish-eating. Even brāhmaṇas eating.

Prabhupāda: No. They are eating fish only. Because Bengal is full of rivers. But not for all. Mass of people, that's a fact. But he introduced, "You can eat anything. It has nothing to do with religion." In Bengal in our childhood we have seen if anyone was habituated to take meat... Common man would not. Rich man. The rich men they have their sahis. Sahis you know, who takes care of the horse. So he would cook in the horse shed.

Dr. Patel: And eat there.

Prabhupāda: No. Then he'll bring the (indistinct) and eat it. It was never brought within the precincts of the house.