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Bombay (Conversations 1969 - 1973)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Lord Caitanya Play Told to Tamala Krsna -- August 4, 1969, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Berlin? Kṛṣṇa dāsa?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is he in Berlin yet? Is Kṛṣṇa dāsa in Berlin? Kṛṣṇa dāsa.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa dāsa and that German boy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Uttamaśloka.

Prabhupāda: Uttamaśloka.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can Uttamaśloka come with saṅkīrtana?

Prabhupāda: When you go there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When we go to Berlin.

Prabhupāda: (pause) Hm. Very good. So if we go, there will be good reception in Bombay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They will pay nice money to hear us?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (reading letter:) "This can be made extensive by your team of followers from America arriving in..." They are greater. So Indian and American combined kīrtana, oh, it will be very nice. Big kīrtana, and every city will receive. And we shall preach that "Here is the common platform for everyone. There is no distinction of nation or religion or anything. Come to the platform." So the Mohammedans also will join. The government will appreciate that here is something secular, real secular; at the same time, God is there. Actually, it is that. All religious people, so-called religious, come here. And religion means this, to love, I mean to say, develop love of God. That is religion. What is this formularies? Simply formula that "I keep this, I copy that." That is not religion, simply by dressing in different way or sitting in a different way. Where is your understanding? You have no understanding of God. You simply formally attend some church or mosque or temple for some material benefit or for some, make some show, but where is your love of God? That is the test of religion, Bhāgavata says. A religious person means he has got complete love of God. Then he is religious. All right. Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). Simply wasting time. Bhāgavata says, without developing this love of Godhead, if somebody is engaged in religious ritualistic performance, he's simply wasting his time. Śrama... That particular word is used, śrama eva hi kevalam. Śrama means labor. Eva. Certainly, it is simply laboring. What is called? Labor of love? What is called?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Labor of love.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You love something and unnecessarily you labor. So religion means... This is religion, how to develop love of God. That is religion.

Lord Caitanya Play Told to Tamala Krsna -- August 4, 1969, Los Angeles:

Govinda dāsī: Ah, yes. I got that. I got that one out. It was from Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Keep that. So then He appeared as... No. As boy He talked with him that "You are asking Me to come and take, and I am taking, and you are... Why you are howling like that? What can I do? You are asking Me." Then He showed him that He is Kṛṣṇa Himself and warned him that "Don't disclose this fact. You are My devotee; therefore I disclose. So you were asking Me, so I came." Then the brāhmaṇa was so satisfied that "Kṛṣṇa is here," and he did not disclose.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe we will show Lord Caitanya's marriage? Is that nice to show?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Marriage. Yes, that is nice. The Indian system, marriage, is that the bridegroom goes to the house of the bride with procession, band, nicely decorated. They'll go... And He'll be married with first Lakṣmīpriyā, the first wife. There will be fireworks in the marriage ceremony. Yes.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1970, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is that sentimentalism?

Haṁsadūta: I didn't read the article. That was in the... Which paper? I think this was in a Bombay paper. What paper is this?

Guest (1): This is Times of India.

Prabhupāda: Bombay.

Guest (1): It is published from Bombay and Delhi both.

Haṁsadūta: Yes. I think in Bombay there was a large article.

Prabhupāda: What about? Favorable or unfavorable?

Haṁsadūta: It was an interview with the devotees, if I remember, with Gurudāsa.

Guest (1): The article, original article, was quite favorable. It was all praiseworthy and all that. That is why these two letters say that author of that article is unnecessarily being sentimental and this and that.

Rebatinandan: That was the Sunday edition of Times of India.

Haṁsadūta: November 8th.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1970, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh, oh, yes, yes. I remember. She is envious, that "Why two page advertisement, publicity has been..." That's all.

Haṁsadūta: There's another letter. It says, "Your leading article on the Kṛṣṇa cult makes interesting reading. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the Indian founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, and his American disciples repeatedly told K.R. Sundarajan, the author of the article in the Times Weekly, November 8th, 1970, during their brief stay in Bombay that theirs was not strictly a Hindu movement. They explained to him that Kṛṣṇa was above all religions, the universal teacher, the supreme man, the purification of the Absolute Truth. If it is so, then why can't they go to Pakistan and China for chanting of Kṛṣṇa's name and ask them to vacate aggression? The soil of this land where the great master was born..."

Prabhupāda: Now, now, we have to serve the political, politicians. Eh? Because they cannot do, so they are asking us.

Haṁsadūta: To do.

Prabhupāda: Such a nonsense. So we have to help these rascal politicians. You write that, that "Do you mean to say that Kṛṣṇa consciousness means business is to serve the rascal politicians? We are going every country and when we find time we shall go to Pakistan."

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Devotee (4): ...national, just like the national...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So we have to organize. First of all let us publish in one city, big city like New York, like London, yes, Bombay, Tokyo. Big cities, world's big cities. In India only two cities are big: Calcutta, and Bombay, important. If you publish simultaneously, Calcutta... Delhi is given importance due to capital; otherwise not important as big city, as Bombay and Calcutta. Delhi, without government offices it is a dead city. Just like Washington. What is the value of Washington? It is nothing. Simply because it is headquarters of the President, it has got importance. Similarly, Delhi is that. Otherwise it is not important. But Calcutta, Bombay, is really important city in India, big business, port, all rich men, every kind of, all cultural, everything—Calcutta, and Bombay. Originally only Calcutta, now Bombay also. Because the Britishers, they made Calcutta capital. And Calcutta was very, very important city. But these Calcutta men, they create sometimes situation, very complicated. So once in 1905 the same situation was there, politically. Sir Surendranath Bannerjee made, Surendranath Bannerjee's movement, partition of Bengal. Lord Collier, he wanted to divide Bengal, made it East Bengal and West Bengal. And Surendranath Bannerjee... He is the practically father of Indian politics. Gandhi's not. He was. He was. And in the beginning, in European circles he was famous. He was called "Surrender-not." The spelling of the name, s-u-r-e-n-d-e-r, Surendranath. In Parliament he was known as "Surrender-not." He was a very powerful politician. So there was trouble in Calcutta; so therefore they transferred, 1911, capital to Delhi. Otherwise, from the very beginning of British occupation Calcutta was the capital. You have seen the government viceroy's house near that Hamilton building where you were trying to purchase.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: So first of all take information from the Pujari(?) in which train they have booked our seats for Delhi, and you write immediately one letter to Dhruva in Bombay and Tamal Kṛṣṇa also, that Dhruva may instruct the Delhi Birla's dharmaśāla to accommodate us immediately. So their dharmaśāla. It is Birla's dharmaśāla. First of all we have to see how they have made our seats.

Revatīnandana: So the residential place belongs to Mrs. Birla?

Prabhupāda: No, it is a temple, very big temple.

Haṁsadūta: So we should book seats for Delhi on which day?

Prabhupāda: Seventeenth.

Haṁsadūta: Seventeenth you want to leave?

Prabhupāda: Yes. What is the day, seventeenth?

Devotee (3): Today is the fourteenth.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Industry, that's all. Industry House. Industry House Dhruva's full name, you know?

Devotee (3): R.C.

Prabhupāda: R.C. Dhruva, Secretary to Mr. R.D. Birla, Industry House, Church Reclamation...

Haṁsadūta: Bombay, West.

Prabhupāda: Bombay.

Yamunā: Is Parliament in session again?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Yamunā: I was thinking that Parliament goes in and out of session, and I wondered if they remembered this if Parliament was in session again.

Giriraja: No.

Yamunā: No.

Prabhupāda: Parliament is in session now?

Yamunā: No. Out of session now. When it's in session then all of the politicians come from their castles and (indistinct) their most of the members of Parliament (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: So when the Parliament begins?

Room Conversation -- December 21, 1970, Surat:

Śyāmasundara: They make such a tremendous sound that they break windows and everything else.

Prabhupāda: Now we are with Sambhu in Bombay. As soon as the aeroplane would come on top of the house it is just like thunderbolt. Yes. At least I was feeling like that. Vajrapa. You see? So this is called illusion. We are creating a civilization which is so much painful, but we are thinking that we are advanced. This is illusion. We are creating simply problems, and still, we are thinking that we are advanced. And Bhāgavata says that there is no problem. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). You simply try for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And then how I shall live? That, the answer, is tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukham. Just like you don't aspire for miseries, but it comes upon you, it is forced upon you, similarly, happiness also will be forced upon you, whatever you are destined to receive. So don't try for happiness or discarding distress. That will go on. You simply try for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which, without your trying, it will never be fulfilled. You have to voluntarily try for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, revive it. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). You do it—because you have to do it. Kṛṣṇa can force you to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. But He doesn't do that. He doesn't interfere with your independence. He says, "Do it." Therefore you have to try for it, not for other things. Other things, already there are. For the birds and beasts there is no problem for eating. Why your problem should be? Just like a prisoner.

Room Conversation -- December 21, 1970, Surat:

Prabhupāda: No, India, we can sell, but as soon as we sell, oh, there are so many impediments, this tax... We cannot trust.(?) That is next. When we see that we have got enough members, so this money which you pay for our membership, this will be utilized for starting press and reprinting books. Yes. But another difficulty is this class of high class printing you cannot have in India. No. You have seen our Kṛṣṇa Book and Teachings of Lord Caitanya? Any books. Eh?

Guest (3): In Bombay you can get.

Prabhupāda: No. We took quotation from Times of India press about our, this Back to Godhead magazine. They quoted, "Two rupees, twelve annas," cost price. Now at what price we shall sell?

Guest (3): This will be very costly.

Prabhupāda: Very costly here. And even if we pay, this nature, this type of book, is very difficult to be printed in India, such nice paper, printing.

Haṁsadūta: Even on U.S. standards, these books, although they retail for eight dollars each, they are worth at least twenty dollars. If you purchase a book of this quality... Generally art books come like this, with many color illustrations, and they charge twenty dollars.

Prabhupāda: Here you have seen that letter? Five?

Guest (4): Yes.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prof. Kotovsky: Calcutta. Ah, Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Yes. My birth place is in Calcutta, yes.

Prof. Kotovsky: I understand. Yes, unfortunately I haven't been to North Bengal. You have just visited Pakistan.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Calcutta, Bombay and several places, Gorakhpur. Gorakhpur.

Prof. Kotovsky: Oh. It's a very difficult situation in...

Prabhupāda: Calcutta.

Prof. Kotovsky: ...Bengal and Calcutta...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prof. Kotovsky: ...because of influx of refugees from Bangladesh.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But we had our saṅkīrtana festival for ten days, and people participated very wonderfully. We... Our gathering was not less than thirty thousand people daily, and they are so much interested in hearing about our... Lecture things, we are lecturing from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā. We are... Our preaching method is on the basis of Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So people are responding from every part of the world, especially the American boys. They are especially interested. And England also, and Germany, and France. From here I shall go to Paris. There we have got center. What is the name of that place? Paris? Recently they have taken.

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prabhupāda: Now one thing... The other day I was speaking to some... Where I was? In Bombay, I think, I was speaking some respectable gentlemen that "Kṛṣṇa says:

māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya
ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ
striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās
te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim
(BG 9.32)

Kṛṣṇa says, 'Even those who are low-born, pāpa-yoni—the striya, vaiśya and śūdra, they are also included—but by accepting Me, accepting my shelter, they are also elevated to the transcendental position.' Now, why the higher class of Hindu society, they neglected this injunction of Bhagavad-gītā? Suppose one is pāpa-yoni. Kṛṣṇa says that 'They can be elevated to the transcendental position if they accept Me.' Why this propaganda was not done by the higher class people so that the so-called pāpa-yoni could be elevated? Why you rejected them? The result was that the Mohammedans... Instead of accepting them, you rejected them, and they have partitioned, and they have gone away, and they have become eternal enemy of India." You see? So this is the first time that we are trying to elevate to the highest position of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even one is in the pāpa-yoni. It doesn't matter because soul is pure. Asaṅgo 'yaṁ puruṣaḥ. The Vedas says, "The soul is untouched by any material contamination." Simply, temporarily, he is covered. This covering should be opened. Then he becomes pure. That is the mission of human life, to uncover ourselves from this material envelopment and come to the spiritual understanding, surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Life is perfect.

Darsana -- June 28, 1971, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: So give one man from each center. It doesn't require that he is very advanced. Advancement will be done by training, by practical application in life. If you send from each center one man to India... If you can send more, that's all right. But at least one man. In India we have got many things to do. Because the business in India is important in this respect, that partly due to their subjugation by foreigners, their original culture has been killed. Just like in India, they did not know drinking tea, drinking wine, meat-eating, illicit sex. They did not know. Even fifty, a hundred years before, they did not know. These Britishers, in order to control them, very silently introduced all these things. I know in our childhood, this drinking of tea was unknown to any family. Meat-eating, there was no question. Just like in my life, I do not know what is meat-eating, do not know womanizing(?) or illicit sex life, because we are trained in that way. So due to foreign domination, they were killed; and after independence, these rascal leaders, they are killing it: "What is the wrong in meat-eating? What is the wrong in drinking?" They are canvassing: "Eat chickens, eat eggs,." This is going on. So at the present moment there is great propaganda from the side of the government and others to kill India's original culture. So when Americans go there and preach and they see, "Oh, so nice Vaiṣṇava, so nice devotee and so pure," they will become attracted, because that is their original culture. At heart they want to do that, but by artificial means they are being forced to accept something else. So when they see these foreigners and Americans so... And government is not very favorable of my movement there, because it is natural when the Americans exhibit a nice, pure Vaiṣṇava, they come attracted. Just like Calcutta and Bombay, what was there? The same Deity was and saṅkīrtana was there and I was speaking say for a half an hour. But why these forty thousand, thirty thousand people were coming? They were coming to see, "Oh, how Americans have taken to this philosophy(?)." That is their surprise. They are giving credit only for that purpose.

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Revatīnandana: In Manchester across the street from the temple there's a big park. Sometimes I would go over there to walk and chant rounds, and there's many little children in the park. They'd follow me, "Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa!" All day. Hundred times.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Everywhere. In Bombay, everywhere we go, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." In Montreal. They joke, they'll clap, but they'll chant. And that is wanted. I want to see that everyone is chanting. And if chanting has effect, then either he's chanting jokingly or seriously it will have the effect. Fire, if you touch either jokingly or seriously or cautiously, it will act. So our request is that you also preach this cult. Let us cooperate. The whole world is suffering for want of God consciousness. So it is the duty of all religious sects to teach this simple art of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa or any other name which you have got. That's all.

Room Conversation -- August 15, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Because opening center means so much responsibility.

Śyāmasundara: So much. Land...

Prabhupāda: So better open. Deity will be there. Just like Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja is doing. Install the deity for one week. You know everything. You have done in Calcutta, Bombay and other. Same thing. You were in Allahabad also?

Devotee: Yes, I was there.

Prabhupāda: Allahabad, Gorakhpur. So same thing. And for persons spiritually inclined, for them this traveling is very good. Traveling means with this occupation. It is very good. You'll be more popular and there will be no difficulty, mind will be steady.

Śyāmasundara: It takes away our attachment for everything materially.

Prabhupāda: The Gosvāmīs, they did not stay underneath a tree for more than one night. So you decide; then you do the needful.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Śyāmasundara: He can come and stay with you in Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Śyāmasundara: He could come and stay in Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can stay with us in Bombay. But here he wants friend, marijuana. That is the difficulty.

Bob: Um, let me ask you about something else. Then maybe I'll come back to this because I'm still... I find that I think of myself too much, and this way you can't think of God so much. One can't think of God. I think of myself in too many places. How can I forget about myself so I can concentrate on other more important things?

Prabhupāda: As they have done.

Bob: (laughs) You are saying to me that my path... I think what you're saying is my path to purity is to become a devotee.

Prabhupāda: Do you hesitate?

Bob: Well, I...

Prabhupāda: It is very difficult to become a devotee?

Room Conversation -- March 12, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He is not here. I inquired.

Dr. Kapoor: Perhaps not. I don't know.

Prabhupāda: He's gone to Delhi?

Dr. Kapoor: He was trying to force me...

Guru dāsa: Bombay, I think.

Dr. Kapoor: ...force the professorship of his college upon me.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Dr. Kapoor: When I came here after my retirement...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. I know that. (break) If you want, you can come sometime to European countries to our different branches.

Dr. Kapoor: Why you make me leave Vṛndāvana now? (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No, because you have got some background, so you can have very good chance to speak in big institution.

Room Conversation with Maharishi Impersonalists -- April 7, 1972, Melbourne:

Upendra: He went to Malaysia. He is going to university here, and he went back home, looking all over for the devotees, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, couldn't find them. He was looking all over for them. Then he came back here for study.

Prabhupāda: They do not issue the visa. The difficulty is. What can be done? Now you... Lalitā-Kṛṣṇa, his name is Lalitā-Kṛṣṇa? He is now initiated. He is pukka devotee. He is chanting, dancing, like anything, in ecstasy. He is a very good boy. Where he is now?

Śyāmasundara: Juhu.

Prabhupāda: Bombay. Oh, he is very intelligent. So if some of you become devotees, then you can start this movement there in Malaysia. It is a very nice movement. It is the movement for the present day, for human peace and love. So if... Every one of you should study the philosophy, try to understand it and spread it. That is good for you and good for others. (end)

Room Conversation -- April 18, 1972, Hong Kong:

Prabhupāda: From?

Guest (1): Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Bombay.

Guest (1): The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement has started in the United States. Why did it start in the United States, rather than India?

Prabhupāda: Because the United States, they are our best customer. A businessman goes to a place... Just like you have come here. Why you have come here? Wherever there is best possibility of doing your business, there you must go. I went to United States because I know these people are not poverty-stricken. And our Indian people, they are now, they have been trained to think like that—they are poverty-stricken. Actually, they are not poverty-stricken, but the leaders have educated them that, "You are all poverty-stricken." This is India's position. So far I knew that it would not be successful in India. The government will not help. The public is educated in a different way. They are after technology. So and "familiarity breeds contempt." They say, "What is this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement? It is known to us since a long time. What effect it will have?" Many Indian students in foreign countries, they say, "Swamiji, what will this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement benefit us? We want technology." So that is the mentality of the Indians at the present moment. They have lost everything and therefore they are beggars. They have lost their own culture and therefore they are beggars. So I thought it wise that I shall go to a country where there is no poverty. They will learn. They have enough. For material enjoyment, they have got enough. The material enjoyment means money and woman. That is, in America, it is lying on the street.

Room Conversation -- April 18, 1972, Hong Kong:

Guest (1): Your home base is in Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Yes. My headquarter is in Los Angeles. Now we have made very big headquarter in Bombay, Juhu. Twenty thousand square yards. We are constructing a very nice temple there. And similarly, we have got another headquarter at, by pīṭha, in Lord Caitanya's birthsite, Navadvīpa. There also we are constructing very big temple. It is eleven bighās. What is a bighā? About four acres.

Guest (1): What about England? London. How is your movement doing?

Prabhupāda: Yes, London is very... There is also. We have got very nice temple near British Museum, 7 Bury Place. And all Europeans, they come to see our temple from Germany, from France. Because we have been advertised in cooperation with the Beatles. The Beatles, Beatles, the George Harrison. You do not know his name? He is very famous man. Yes. So we have produced some records in cooperation with George Harrison's organization. So because the records are produced through George Harrison, we have got a very, very big sale. You see? And that has advertised Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Temple, London. So people come to see what is this Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple, out of... Because London, every day, thousands of visitors come in London. They have got visitors buses also, charge nominal. So London is still important. From all parts of the world people come. So anyone who comes, they come to see our temple.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Śyāmasundara: I have negatives. I have to get some photos made.

Prabhupāda: No, you got some photos made?

Śyāmasundara: That other boy in Sydney, Śyāmalālānanda, he has.

Prabhupāda: Anyone takes, but he sleeps. He doesn't deliver. I wanted to send immediately to Bombay.

Śyāmasundara: Bombay has a set of photos in the temple.

Sudāmā: If you have the negative, we can get them developed while we're at Dai Nippon, thirty minutes. If we take negative today, we can get them developed very quickly at Dai Nippon while we are waiting.

Prabhupāda: All right. That's all right. You take it.

Śyāmasundara: Get several sets.

Prabhupāda: So when we have to go to Dai Nippon?

Sudāmā: The car will come around noon, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So send Nanda Kumāra to give me massage. I will be ready.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: And doing it for unlimited years. When they will be finished, there is no guarantee. Here in your country they do, they have contract, "Yes, within six months." But there is no guarantee. But that show is going on, that "We are doing something." Because it's imitation. There was no need, but they want to make advanced like the Americans.

Śyāmasundara: Huge, open intersection, no traffic, they're building a flyover.

Prabhupāda: Similarly in Bombay also, they made one or two flyovers with great endeavor, and one flyover collapsed. That flyover between that Princesses Street and the Marine(?) Drive, yes, collapsed. Because all the contractors are thieves. Instead of giving cement, they are giving clay.

Śyāmasundara: Now their plan is to tunnel through under Malabar Hill and make a freeway along the..., the West Shore Expressway along Warden Road and Nipensi(?) Road.

Prabhupāda: Freeway.

Śyāmasundara: Yes, and they began the tunnel when we first came there a year-and-a-half ago, and now I don't think it's more than fifty yards into the mountain.

Prabhupāda: The tunnel is there?

Śyāmasundara: Yes.

Morning Walk -- June 29, 1972, San Diego:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: We could have an idea like you have in India on the beach for rich people to come and learn Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: It's a very beautiful spot.

Prabhupāda: Bombay.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Like Bombay. Such an idea, it would be very nice here for all the rich, artists, intelligent people, everybody to come and rest and learn Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Let them learn there and implement the idea here. The whole city, whole country will be glorified.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Jaya. We need to have more cow protection.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: On the West Coast, it would be very nice if we had some cow protection.

Prabhupāda: These people must stop this cow killing, the greatest sin. They should divert their tendency for happiness differently than by killing and drinking.

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bob Cohen: Why is that? Worshiping.... ?

Prabhupāda: Because, because Kṛṣṇa will be pleased. Just like if you have a dog, and some friends come and pats your dog, you become pleased. You become pleased, "Ah, he is my good friend." We see all (indistinct) come on, that some friend comes and friend's dog, the friend's (indistinct) "My, you have got a nice dog," your friend says. (laughter) Come on. (conversation in Hindi with Indian guests from Bombay for some minutes)

Bhakti-devī dāsī: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Devotee: So Prabhupāda, you'll be leaving in about ten minutes. In ten minutes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I am ready. I can go.

Kīrtanānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda's always ready.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: You're always ready.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They have taken that, all bags and baggages, that's all right. I am ready. What is that Cleveland?

Kīrtanānanda: That's, I think, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there's a group in Cleveland, Ohio.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: There is a colored lady who is leading a group, and they're dressing in dhotīs and saris, and uh, they're doing some...

Prabhupāda: So you just train them.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Devotee (2): So Mataji, if some of these books she hasn't got, we can give her. She's a life member.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Sumati Morarjee: Yes, yes, just now I am.

Prabhupāda: She is life, she is life after life. (laughter) She is life after life member.

Sumati Morarjee: No, no, but, I'll talk to this ah, Girirāja in Bombay, about becoming the patron myself.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Sumati Morarjee: I said let us see.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) We, let us form a trustee, and you become president of the trust. (laughter) You become the president of the trustee, and do the needful.

Sumati Morarjee: You know, just now that your...

Prabhupāda: So, whether you agree to this or not?

Sumati Morarjee: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Immediately, make her the president of the trustee, or Girirāja.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: (laughter) No one will pay. So then therefore I thought that to purchase one, two house, so that as Vṛndāvana property, because I am maintaining now the whole institution by begging. But when Vṛndāvana and Navadvīpa deities are there, there is no income.

Sumati Morarjee: No, there won't be any ... both places...

Prabhupāda: In Bombay we can go to you..."Mataji we have no more money, please give me some."

Sumati Morarjee: No, that is different, but these things...

Prabhupāda: Yes, so, but Vṛndāvana and Navadvīpa I want to make some provision. So I'm negotiating for that. This is one business. So Bombay.... (Hindi exchanges) Huh?

Sumati Morarjee: Of course, you won't get so much rent for London properties. They're also very much appreciated.

Prabhupāda: London property is very costly.

Sumati Morarjee: Oh very costly, but they're day by day, appreciating.

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) This boy, he's president of, of my Detroit.

Sumati Morarjee: So what does he want?

Prabhupāda: He wants to give me some car. (Hindi exchanges)

Sumati Morarjee: So ask, you write to me a letter in Bombay, India address. There's such and such car, so when is the ship due in Detroit. And then I will let you know, finding out the whole (indistinct), because UK office doesn't know the movement of the American ships.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Sumati Morarjee: It's only Bombay who, which knows. So you write me in a letter to Bombay.

Prabhupāda: When everything is settled up.

Sumati Morarjee: When you are settled, when is the ship due, and we want to send. So, there won't be any trouble in port?

Prabhupāda: That he'll clear up.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: You get from Hong Kong...

Sumati Morarjee: And take where?

Prabhupāda: Huh? Take to Los Angeles. That is a ...

Sumati Morarjee: No, but one thing, if it is brought to Bombay, via Hong Kong, then we can send it to Los Angeles, by ship.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Sumati Morarjee: By ship we can send it.

Prabhupāda: Your ship does not go to Hong Kong?

Sumati Morarjee: Sometimes it goes.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Sumati Morarjee: So, at that time it is handed over to Hong Kong ship. It will be delivered in Bombay. Then we reship it to Hong Kong, to Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Devotee: Is that on a regular basis, that it goes to Hong Kong?

Sumati Morarjee: Yes, mostly. I'll let you know, because that service is also Bombay. These people, they don't know. So you can write one letter for this car, and another letter for this. So they're not intermixed.

Prabhupāda: Yes, all right. Scindia Steam Navigation meant for carrying Kṛṣṇa conscious.... (laughter)

Sumati Morarjee: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: That was written in the beginning.

Sumati Morarjee: Ah (laughter)

Prabhupāda: I think it was done by, at your expense.

Sumati Morarjee: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: That small pamphlet.

Sumati Morarjee: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: Scindia Steam Navigation Company carries Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement to western countries.

Sumati Morarjee: Yes, I know.

Prabhupāda: Yes. She's a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa. In her office, there is Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Sumati Morarjee: I know. Oh, I know now, I understand. So you can present, tell me. Yes, this is (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Sumati Morarjee: So you, you have started?

Prabhupāda: Yes, we have started.

Devotee: It's printed in Bombay.

Sumati Morarjee: Where.

Devotee: In Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Recently.

Devotee: This is the first one.

Sumati Morarjee: Oh, because I have not seen it.

Devotee: This is the first issue.

Prabhupāda: This is the first issue. They have sent one copy. Yes.

Sumati Morarjee: So, Swamiji, can I take this?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, you can take.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: ...so he said, "Swamiji, you are coming to find out but you are not going back, what is?" (laughter)

Sumati Morarjee: Because you know, there was one old man, now he has died, who used to look after all service in that office. So he wrote to me, that "this Swamiji wants to come, what to do?" I said, "Yes, whenever he wants to..."

Prabhupāda: I got return ticket.

Sumati Morarjee: "Yes, so you send him back, if he wants to come, but see that a good captain is on the ship." Then, uh, then (indistinct) came to Bombay, then Swami doesn't come. I said, "Now he won't come" (Śrīla Prabhupāda laughs) And also give me Swamiji, that Gujarati...

Prabhupāda: Huh? Yes, yes.

Devotee: Remember you were asking me just a few days ago about Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?

Sumati Morarjee: Yes, I (indistinct). I heard Swamiji, you know, came to my house to read. Rāsa-pañca-adhyāya.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Sumati Morarjee: That is supposed to be the...

Prabhupāda: Now, when I shall go to Juhu, I shall regularly begin all Bhāgavata.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: He's from America.

Guest: From California.

Sumati Morarjee: All from California?

Devotee: He travels around England and preaches in all the villages, small towns.

Sumati Morarjee: Where's that?

Devotee: Here, in England, Scotland.

Guest: I also met you in Bombay once.

Sumati Morarjee: Yes, yes, I have seen you in Bombay. And what about you?

Devotee: I'm Scottish.

Sumati Morarjee: Ah, because you look...

Prabhupāda: In Edinborough we have got a temple.

Sumati Morarjee: Is it?

Devotee: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Ah, he is Gujarati?

Sumati Morarjee: Yes, yes, he is Gujarati Muhammedan. He is from Junagar. His father...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) was also.

Sumati Morarjee: Yes, yes, (indistinct) was from Junagar, Bombay, but this Bhutto 'till he went away, he was in Junagar. His father, son was Bhutto, was the (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Sumati Morarjee: (indistinct) brought up in United, he was in Bombay all these, he's educated in Bombay.

Devotee: Juna, Juhu?

Sumati Morarjee: No, no. Junagar.

Prabhupāda: No, no, Junagar is a city.

Sumati Morarjee: You know in Saurastra.

Prabhupāda: Saurastra.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Sumati Morarjee: There, he was born, bred, educated. He is from Bombay and Junagar, Saurastra. Like (indistinct), (indistinct) last time before Pakistan came to my house, we were old friends, so he came to my house, so I...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) was older than you.

Sumati Morarjee: Oh?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, he was a (indistinct)

Sumati Morarjee: I know, and he was a communist member before.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Sumati Morarjee: Home (rule) and all that. He was the man. So I knew him some many years. So he came to see me, and I talked to him, at that time, you know, his position had become very bad. so he said that I started talking to him English, he said why do you talk to me in English? You talk to me in Kachi. We have common language. I thought you forgotten. He said (indistinct) at that time (Śrīla Prabhupāda laughs). And after that, you know, he, this movement of Pakistan, and India became very strong and he went away.

Prabhupāda: He was, he was paid for that running on the League of...

Sumati Morarjee: Ah, I know.

Prabhupāda: Was the Muslim League.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Jaya! Go with, go with, take this, take this, help her. No, he'll help her...

Devotee: Do you know how old she is Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Maybe over sixty.

Devotee: She's very much alive, so much alive.

Prabhupāda: Her father was one the richest men in Bombay, and her husband, her father-in-law also one of the richest men. There're coming from very rich family in Bombay. And she's so intelligent that Scindia Steam Navigation Company, very big company. It is a semi-government, and she's the managing director. All the big, big officers respecting as mother, carries out her order. And she's great devotee of Kṛṣṇa, but she does not take leave with her husband (laughter). Hm? The husband and wife, not very agreement. Yes.

Devotee: Her husband is alive?

Prabhupāda: Yes. They live separate building. That mean, that they live separate building, separate (indistinct), she looks one department of business, and he looks another department. That child, adopted. She has no, own child.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Devotee (2): So, perhaps she's ship the punks, and the vehicle.

Prabhupāda: And the car also. And I've asked her to become the president of the trustee for construction of Bombay. She has agreed.

Devotee: What will the business of the trustees be?

Prabhupāda: Heh?

Devotee: What will their business be as trustees?

Prabhupāda: To raise fund.

Devotee: Hm?

Prabhupāda: Raise fund. We approach these person for raising fund, that's all. Not for taking any lesson from them. ...Now, to have a temple here, we shall hold a meeting on the Indian gentlemen to raise the fund. You find out some place, immediately, so that while I am remaining, by performing Bhāgavata-saptāha, I'm influencing the Indian rich men here, they can purchase.... She will also contribute for.... October, July, August, September, October. So the negotiation will go on for at least three month, in the meantime she will come. She will also contribute. I have already given her hint. She agrees. So let us find out some nice place.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Give her some position, and she's very influential, rich. But everyone wants some post, that is natural. Therefore I told, offered her the presidency of Bombay Trust. To raise the fund. In Bombay we have got very nice place. The best place of anywhere. And it is so nice in summertime, you'll find in paradise. So many coconut trees. You have seen?

Devotee: No.

Prabhupāda: And we are, Nara-nārāyaṇa has been engaged to make it a nice garden. All vacant land, we are getting nice garden, and the owner of the land, he has given me the best facility. First of all, the land is worth minimum 30,000,000 rupees.

Devotee: Thirty lakhs?

Prabhupāda: Thirty lakhs. But he has given me for fourteen lakhs. And that's also by instrument, in three years, or four years, without any interest...

Devotee: Who is that man?

Prabhupāda: Mr. Nair. Mrs. Nair. She is, she is also very nice devotee. So every year four lakhs of rupees, in three years, or four years, fourteen lakhs, without any interest. So we have got good facility. And in Vṛndāvana, some gentleman has given us the land.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Mr. Nair. Mrs. Nair. She is, she is also very nice devotee. So every year four lakhs of rupees, in three years, or four years, fourteen lakhs, without any interest. So we have got good facility. And in Vṛndāvana, some gentleman has given us the land.

Devotee: Is the land in Vṛndāvana, is it in the city? Is it on the outside of Vṛndāvana, or is it in the city?

Prabhupāda: No, it is just in front of Bon Mahārāja's college.

Devotee: It's in Rāman Reti.

Prabhupāda: (laughter) Best place in Vṛndāvana. All (indistinct). And we have got potential. There are so many buildings, they are not being properly utilized. If we want to, you can purchase the whole area.

Devotee: How is the Gauḍīya...

Prabhupāda: Now you have got enough place in Vṛndāvana, in Navadvīpa, in Bombay. There will be no difficulty if you go by thousands to India. You can live very comfortable. So you can go, purchase, you can go and come back. We saw that foreigners, they visit, and gradually, there will be unity between the so-called Hindu, Muslim, all Kṛṣṇa's servant. This is the idea behind Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We don't believe in this skin disease. (end)

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: And she saw?

Revatīnandana: Two months ago she came here for most of the aratik ceremony. The devotees came out to say goodbye to her, and she said, "Go back and do aratik."

Prabhupāda: She can influence the whole Bombay, she's so...

Devotee (2): Oh, she knows everyone.

Dhanañjaya: We need a president like her for the board of trustees for London also.

Devotee: Has she had any assistance?(?)

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. She is doing her best. She is nice.

Devotee (1): When is Mr. (indistinct) going to come?

Dhanañjaya: He's going to drive Prabhupāda to Kensington tomorrow.

Devotee: Tomorrow?

Dhanañjaya: Or Friday.

Devotee (2): He can't come before? He should come...

Revatīnandana: He comes almost every night actually. (more conversation)

Prabhupāda: And the Joshi is the manager here?

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Dhanañjaya: Oh, he may be with Mr. Ravi Patel. I think we saw him at the airport.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Dhanañjaya: He's a printer, and he came in the van with you from the airport. He's a very nice man. He's doing printing for us. He says he has so many thousands of rupees in Bombay and in Madras from his printing. And he also wants to offer his services. I think he will come tomorrow to see you.

Prabhupāda: They can print our books, in Bombay.

Dhanañjaya: He said he wanted to offer his services here for this temple somehow or other by getting money from advertising purposes. He's the director of some company that's just been started. It's called Golden Products. They make all kinds of consumer goods like shampoos and soap powders, so many things like that, for household use. And he wanted to use his symbol, Golden Products, with this society. This is his idea.

Prabhupāda: Golden powder?

Dhanañjaya: Golden Products.

Prabhupāda: In our society? No.

Dhanañjaya: I told him...

Prabhupāda: That is not possible.

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee (2): That's a very nice record. Everyone is appreciating.

Prabhupāda: But I heard that rascal always played my record and hear Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee (1): At least he's benefiting somehow. I saw him in Bombay also one day in the market of Madhubal, Madhubhag(?) temple? He was buying beads for his store in New York.

Prabhupāda: He's selling beads, records, on our account. (laughter)

Devotee (1): He was being cheated himself, in Bombay. He was being cheated like anything. He was paying one rupee for one strand of beads, those poor quality beads. (pause)

Prabhupāda: Now you can arrange for the car?

Devotee: Yes. Ātreya Ṛṣi is going to be working on it, too, to raise funds.

Prabhupāda: So, at least two first-class car must go to India.

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: You will take this car with you wherever you go?

Prabhupāda: As far as possible. People will see, "The spiritual master of USA is going there."

Devotee: Supposing you want to go to Bombay. You can fly to Bombay and someone can drive the car there. And then when you're in Bombay, you can drive it in Bombay.

Prabhupāda: No, you can go from Calcutta to Agra, nice road. And from Agra to Bombay.

Devotee: How many days? Two days?

Prabhupāda: No, no. One day, two days, yes. Even if it runs fifty mile per hour, so from morning, early morning to noon, say six hours if we run, it's three hundred miles in the morning and three hundred miles in the evening, and stay at night. And then the next day three hundred miles, three hundred..., six hundred miles. Twelve hundred miles anywhere you go from Calcutta to Bombay, Calcutta to Madras, Calcutta to Delhi, within twelve hundred miles. Within two days from anywhere to anywhere you can go. India's length and breadth is not so wide as in your country. You have got... That is also not good roads, in your... But in Calcutta, to Calcutta-Bombay, Madras, Delhi, there are good roads.

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: That is the way of taking milk. And this masala, it does not taste good. In India, especially in Northern India, Punjab, they will take at night, milk, (indistinct). No other things. They, all business men, the Marwari society, they'll take food before evening and then again they work. Then after ten they will come home and take little milk and go rest. (pause) So foundation committee is being established in Bombay making her the president of the trust. Then Giriraja will have no difficulty.

Devotee: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: They'll contribute. And if she canvasses, she can collect lakhs.

Devotee: But one thing is, if Giriraja takes advantage and begins preaching in her school daily... She's invited him, open invitation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then it will be pleased.

Devotee: Then when she'll see her students improve, then she'll give us all help.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now we have got land, many people will contribute materials. Materials, we can get materials from many big, big merchants.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:

Guest (3): He has seen the book and from where the centers are listed, that's all. He is...

Prabhupāda: No, we have got center in Bombay. No, I have... My personal centers are not there. But just like Gītā Press. They are also publishing Bhagavad-gītā, millions of copies every month, and that is being distributed in India. So why does he say, "Indians, they do not know"? That is foolishness. Every Indian knows what is Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (2): You're talking about the center, Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (3): Yeah, they look at this point of view because they think if that's the only movement which he associated with Lord Kṛṣṇa, but Lord Kṛṣṇa is almost in every home in India.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Janmāṣṭamī, Kṛṣṇa's birthday, is observed by every Indian still, although artificially they are being checked not to take to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is presented by government in so many bad way. You see? In government there is a paper. It is called "Indian Culture," something. In that paper Kṛṣṇa is depicted as a bil boy. (?)

Guest (3): What?

Prabhupāda: Bil boy means just like black, Negro. And He is worshiped. Such a rascal. Kṛṣṇa is worshiped, and for Kṛṣṇa worship so many Vedic literature, and government is presenting Him as bil boy. Just see what kind of government we have got.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Come here.

Lucille: It was a short trip...

Prabhupāda: You had been in India?

Lucille: Yes, sir. I missed you by one or two days. I went to Bombay, and I was staying at Swami Muktananda's, and it said you would be there. The next two days you were going to be there for about a week. And since you have to have permission to leave, I said, "Well, that's why I had gone to India."

Prabhupāda: The Bombay, you have seen our place?

Lucille: No, sir.

Prabhupāda: We have got our place in Juhu.

Lucille: You know Prajāpati in Boston?

Satsvarūpa: Prajāpati, the president of Boston temple. He's a Dallas boy. He's from Dallas.

Lucille: His name was Chandra but (indistinct)

Guest (2): Is he in Dallas? (several people talking, prasāda being served)

Prabhupāda: What is that? Milk? So many nice preparations given by Kṛṣṇa. Why shall I eat meat? Where is the necessity? Human being must discriminate what he shall eat. If you say, "Everything is food," then stool is also food for the hog. But the food for the human being must be different from the hog.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:

Guest (2): Is it our duty to convince everybody and to argue with people and say, "Now..." Because most of the people would argue for, "Where is your protein?" "Needs his protein," and you know, when they talk in terms of body consciousness rather than Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It's very hard to argue with that.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have argued. All these European boys, I had to argue with them. (laughter)

Lucille: (indistinct) in Bombay and the first thing he did was argue with me.

Prabhupāda: Big, big swamis, they are advocating, "Eat meat."

Guest (2): Is that right?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Ramakrishna Mission, they eat meat.

Guest (2): I don't think so.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Lucille: I don't know about the swamis, but I know a lot of the Vedāntists do.

Guest (2): That's news to me.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Vivekananda says, "What is that, meat-eating?" Kṛṣṇa says, makes division...

Guest (2): Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was the incarnation of Lord Rāma and Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: That is to Vivekananda, not to others.

Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: This is not surrender.

Jayatīrtha: Kṛṣṇa is not attracted by the foodstuff; He's attracted by the devotion.

Prabhupāda: Devotion, yes. For Kṛṣṇa we can offer (indistinct). (break)

Jayatīrtha: You will go from London to Bombay?

Prabhupāda: If need be. (indistinct) (break)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is dark.

Prabhupāda: It's getting darker and darker. (indistinct) So we will have to change our plan. (break) (indistinct) ...and they are also making dog show.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: When I came here, I was walking and I saw big house and the restaurants. So I didn't know what... So I asked somebody, "Oh, this is just (indistinct)." And afterward I found out it was some food made out of...

Devotee (2): Meat.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. But I thought in the other sense that it may be dog's meat(?) (break) neighbour(?) from Poona, he was also from Calcutta, (indistinct) to me, he came little later than I, he thought... One day he came to me and he said he took a hamburger in the restaurant. He said that hamburger is not made out of beef. He said it is made out of ham. So he said he had hamburger. He came to me and he said. I said, "So you have taken beef?" So he said "No, it is not. It is ham."

Prabhupāda: Now many Indians are taking beef. Most. In London, all Indians they take beef. The school children, they take beef.

Morning Walk -- October 15, 1972, Vrndavana:

Śyāmasundara: Is that, is that Mahā-rāsa place on the way?

Gargamuni: It's, yes, it's more or less, Sevakunj.

Śyāmasundara: Is it, is it, er, should we.... (break) When we go to Bombay, I think.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Devotee (2): The place where mahā-rāsa took place?

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Devotee (2): So it is of no significance to us then?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Śyāmasundara: This... Words and films.

Indian man: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) New York, San Francisco, Los Angles, Chicago, Boston, Buffalo, Montreal. Sixty-six all over the world.

Introduction Speech By Dr. Kapoor and Conversation -- October 15, 1972, Vrndavana:

Śāradīyā: Prabhupāda, he just got over jaundice. In Bombay.

Devotee: In Bombay he had jaundice.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So give him sugar candy water. Bring in the morning. You know sugar candy? The sugar candy... Soak sugar candy at night in a glass, and the first business in the morning you should take that glass of water, sugar candy.

Śāradīyā: He is doing all that now.

Prabhupāda: Ah. And he should not take at all ghee. No fatty preparation. And if it is possible, secure papaya, raw papaya, green, and boil it in the... These are the medicine for jaundice. He is inside this room? He has come back?

Devotee: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: So, so you have come to Vṛndāvana, and just go on with bhajana, Rūpa Gosvāmī's place, and we are trying to construct a temple.

Dr. Kapoor: Yes. You are very lucky in almost getting I think that big building on the bank of the Yamunā. (indistinct) Kuṭir. It's a huge thing. A huge thing.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (conversation in Hindi for a few minutes) Rādhārāṇī asked him that he must do. She is also pakka baniya. (laughter) Without the order of Rādhārāṇī,... He has got... But when he says Rādhārāṇī, Rādhārāṇī is asking, then he cannot refuse. Thank you very much. Ācchā? So prasādam. Give them prasādam. Is there any prasādam?

Gurudāsa: Oh yes.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Manager anyone can become, but manpower... We have no Indian members chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gurudāsa: No.

Prabhupāda: So how much men we shall import? And whether it is feasible by importing men to manage this facility?

Gurudāsa: Now, there seems to be a surplus of men in Bombay, from all the reports I've gotten. So some could come.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gurudāsa: But...

Prabhupāda: If we remain here and attract foreigners to come...

Gurudāsa: The manpower will come from them.

Prabhupāda: Not only visitors (indistinct), those who are spiritually inclined. In that way we may get opportunity.

Gurudāsa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: The other point is that when we manage these things, there are many guṇḍās in Vṛndāvana. They will try to create some trouble. Just like yesterday. You were present? This boy was fighting with one man. You were not present?

Gurudāsa: No. What time was it?

Prabhupāda: When the minister came.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What do they say?

Gurudāsa: They think. Then I say, "You can teach all the subjects and also teach the spiritual. "

Prabhupāda: If we organize our Bombay, then we shall regularly teach all the students from the very beginning. And in London also we shall. London, Dallas. So that these students will be transferred. Their parents will be very glad that our students have gone to foreign countries for study. We shall have very, very good sympathy(?). Our only policy will be the students should be taught very nice English for understanding our books.

Gurudāsa: In Bombay rather than Māyāpur?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Gurudāsa: In Bombay rather than...

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Everywhere. But you make higher study, higher study, higher study.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ration means black market. (break)

Devotee (3): ...especially in Bengal. (break) You come to Calcutta, we will keep you forever.

Pañca-draviḍa: But in Bombay we'll make better arrangements.

Prabhupāda: We have published one brochure. (break)

Pañca-draviḍa: ...nicely in the Kṛṣṇa book about the sacrifices of Vasudeva. Where Lord Kṛṣṇa speaks and says to the assembled sages and ascetics that "Seeing you is the perfection of these eyes and perfection of life," and that "Those persons who go to the holy places only to take bath there or to see the Deities in the temple, they are no better than animals like the ass." I've been thinking that how you have presented this ISKCON movement as an assembly of devotees all over the world so they don't even have to go to the holy places. Simply by walking into one of your temples is like walking into Vṛndāvana and having the association of these great ascetics and sages, because your teachings are (indistinct). (break)

Prabhupāda: ...picture?

Indian man: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Similar Deity we'll have in this London Berkshire Palace.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Similar Deity we'll have in this London Berkshire Palace.

Indian man: They don't look like the Deities, they look like boy and girl.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kiśora-Kiśorī. (break)

Indian man: (indistinct) get a closer look at it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is very nice. People come to see the Deities in Bombay.

Indian man: You brought them from Jaipur?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is very nice. And especially at New Vrindaban, oh, Kṛṣṇa is so attractive.

Indian man: But they're all from Jaipur. Jaipur is the place.

Devotee (3): We are just packing for sending one set of Jaipur... (break)

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana also you can get.

Indian man: Bombay will be very expensive. I think...

Prabhupāda: No, we don't pay anything. We work ourself.

Indian man: Oh, I see. Then why not here in Vṛndāvana?

Prabhupāda: Yes, we can also have.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Even ordinary repairing, we do ourself. We cannot pay outsider, it is so expensive.

Indian man: You should have that press here in Vṛndāvana. All this kind of work, reading, writing, printing, composing, it should be done here in Vṛndāvana. Because this is the proper place...

Prabhupāda: We (indistinct) botheration.

Indian man: You don't pay (indistinct) in Bombay?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Indian man: Bombay?

Prabhupāda: No.

Indian man: No (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: No. There the people have a sufficient income. Here the municipality has no income, (indistinct) this all botheration. He cannot stock. Suppose if you want to stock fifty thousand worth paper, unnecessarily you have to pay five percent.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Indian man: You can do that here in..., because the octroi limit is very close to your (indistinct). It's just (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Why the government is still keeping this octroi botheration, I do not know. It is old system. Practically in UP and Punjab, this octroi system. In Bihar there is no octroi, in Bengal there is no octroi. I think in Bombay also, Bombay, I mean Maharastra province, there is no octroi. Only in UP and Punjab. There is so much botheration.

Pañca-draviḍa: In Harayana also.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Pañca-draviḍa: Harayana also.

Prabhupāda: Harayana also. (break)

Gurudāsa: ...Gaurāṅga altar. When he saw that picture, he said, "Why is the door closed in the Guru-Gaurāṅga altar?"

Prabhupāda: There is no closed. No, it is three doors are open. That is not Guru-Gaurāṅga, that is extra.

Gurudāsa: Oh, oh, I see.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1972, Vrndavana:

Gurudāsa: Subala Mahārāja was joking with me that I am wanting to preach, but instead I am thinking about steel and cement and bricks.

Prabhupāda: No. If that steel, cement, and bricks are meant for preaching, then it is all right. But if there is difficulty, then sometimes we become absorbed in steel-cement. Steel-cement is not bad, provided it is meant for preaching. That is also spiritual. Nirbandhe kṛṣṇa sambandhe yukta-vairāgya. But because we are materialistic, sometimes steel and cement attracts us more than Kṛṣṇa. So this Bombay affair is giving me a little depression. Because so highly thought of, now these people they do not want to stay there. Just like this Mahaṁsa, Dinanātha, they do not wish to return. Something has to be done.

Gurudāsa: Actually it is not only one or two isolated cases.

Prabhupāda: There are many. I have studied all of them.

Gurudāsa: If it was one or two isolated cases, one can think maybe it is personal difficulty, but it is many cases.

Prabhupāda: No, this is due to mismanagement. It is due to mismanagement. Proper leader. (end)

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: The last one.

Devotee: The one we made last was a good one.

Guest (1): What bread is that?

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) In Bombay it is very... Somebody told me that he made at his home. They do it at home.

Devotee: I think it's called rice.

Prabhupāda: Rice, yes. In Bengali we call muḍi. It is very popular, staple food for ordinary, everyone. In Bengal village, it is very popular because they're rice eaters. From rice they make this puffed rice. So they taking it in the morning. Puffed rice, mixed with molasses and cheese. It makes very good combination. Similarly... Puffed rice must be there, and fruits, like mango, banana, little molasses, and cheese mixed together. It is very nice. (indistinct) This jackfruit... Puffed rice is the vehicle for eating all this. Or if these things are not available, then mix with ghee, little and salt, pepper and, what is called? Cucumber.

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Khīrā, khīrā. You know khīrā?

Guest (1): No, I have been only once to India.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Guest (1): Puffed rice, what is it called?

Prabhupāda: In Bombay it is called kumula.

Guest (1): Kumula.

Prabhupāda: You are in a different world.

Guest (1): Yes. Is it Bengali food though? In Bombay also?

Prabhupāda: Yes. This puffed rice is used all provinces, all provinces, especially in Bombay and Bengal. I think everywhere, in Madras, U.P. In U.P. it is called bajiya, chaval chana bajiya.

Guest (1): Channa we have.

Prabhupāda: No. Channa. That is called chaval. Puffed rice means chaval. From grains we have got varieties of foods. Grains, fruits, vegetables, milk, sugar, you can make at least four hundred, five hundred varieties.

Morning Walk -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Devotee (3): Chinese, from Hong Kong.

Prabhupāda: This sky(?), they are making like Calcutta Esplanade. (indistinct) Victoria Memorial, you don't remember?

Devotee (2): I've only been three days (indistinct) Śrīla Prabhupāda, before we left India.

Prabhupāda: Oh. You were mostly in Bombay.

Devotee (2): Yes. (break)

Devotee (3): Yes. "Mata" means "eye" and they use "hari" to mean "day". "hari" means "day" here and eye is mata, so they say it's the eye of day.

Prabhupāda: There is Sanskrit words like that. Divākara, divākara, sun's name, divākara. Divā means day and kara means manufacturer. Divākara, manufacturer of day, another name of sun. Cross here?

Devotee (3): Yes. (indistinct) That's all right. We'll watch. No problem. (break)

Prabhupāda: It is our car. (break) (in car:) (indistinct) should be noted, not (indistinct) (end)

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Guest (1): Yes, sir. So you have been already...

Prabhupāda: You become one of the life members of our society and you can go anywhere and stay there.

Guest (1): Like Birla Mandir or āśrama in India, āśrama...

Prabhupāda: In India, Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi have got branches.

Guest (1): Yes. Pondicherry, Rabindranath Ashram, Pondicherry. Nanda's Ashram(?), in Bangalore. Only Delhi I've been to āśrama (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: This is a cap, with this Japanese (indistinct)?

Guest (1): No, sir. National congress, national India. This is a (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Gandhi cap.

Devotee: Indian National Congress.

Guest (1): Indian National Congress Party, independent (indistinct) national pact with Indonesia ... hot.

Devotee: The Muslims wear the black one and he says it is very hot but this is cool.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is that māyā? Songs are māyā?

Acyutānanda: As soon as I left Calcutta, then all the bhajanas, they are all, "Oh that's Gauḍīya Maṭha poison." Then, "Ok, the songs are all right, but the tunes are poison." Now how can I overcome that?

Pañcadraviḍa: I heard something in reference to that. You wrote one of the devotees in Calcutta. You wrote... He came to Bombay, Bhavānanda, and he said, and he had signed a letter something like, "I pray that I may be engaged in the service of my Guru Mahārāja." And you wrote back: "We are personalists to the letter, so that when we say Guru Mahārāja we always say name, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, or Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī. We don't just leave it in, as vague Guru Mahārāja. So we were singing, jaya prabhupāda jaya gurudeva, and he was saying, "Well that is impersonalist."

Acyutānanda: Also he says "Nitāi-gaura haribol! That is also, that's māyā." So, what is that?

Pañcadraviḍa: And so he was saying that all these bhajanas, they are, they are not bonafide, because they are, have...

Prabhupāda: He said: "Gaura haribol! is not bona fide?" He said, bona fide?

Devotee: Oh, not that, he was saying jaya gurudeva, jaya prabhupāda, that is not good.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Pañcadraviḍa: In your lectures you emphasized two aspects must be there, jñāna and renunciation. So some knowledge is there, but that part of the difficulty is that with most of the devotees in every temple in India, is that they have not renounced these dirty things completely. They still are attached to sense gratification even on gross levels. So whether a sannyāsī or anybody interferes with their sense gratification, they tend to not oblige because they are attached to doing things the way they want. And they think because they are in a foreign country here, a long way from America where the standards are very rigid, that they can do any manner of nonsense and nobody will check them. And if you try to correct them, then they will only do it behind your back. We have seen this, with the sweet shops, with rising early, anything that interferes with them doing as, exactly as they please, they don't want to oblige. And this is in Calcutta, this is in Bombay, and it's happening here in Vṛndāvana. It's not something that's isolated here to the palace, but the devotees all over, they are just behaving on the level of sense gratification, and that's why there is so much rajas guṇa in the temples. So much rajas guṇa.

Prabhupāda: This is a fact. So how to correct it. If you do not correct yourself, how you can correct?

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Now, such camps, because you are not established, so, under the circumstances, what is to be done? To reduce our devotees?

Śyāmasundara: We have our base in Calcutta, we have our base in Bombay, those two places.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Śyāmasundara: Those are important cities in the world.

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana, as long as our temple is not constructed, we are minimized. So therefore automatically there is no question of negotiating (indistinct).

Devotees: No, no.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee (2): Because not everyone is going to want to be, uh, you know, it's really, if the temple's not there where the devotees can just come and fall into the schedule and program and activities.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But we are... Śaṅkarācārya was concerned in India. But we are preaching all over the world. Therefore we have divided four, twelve. Twelve zones. My idea is like that, Śaṅkarācārya.

Śyāmasundara: But India itself could be divided even a few parts for preaching purposes.

Prabhupāda: That is already divided. Calcutta, Bombay, Māyāpur, Vṛndāvana.

Pañcadraviḍa: So the men in charge they could say which men they wanted to keep and the rest they could send somewhere else. That way you would have men who were willing to work on the project, and if they were not willing to work, they could also be sent somewhere else.

Prabhupāda: So, make something like that, because I cannot tax my brain with the administration.

Devotee: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: Well, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa will be in Hyderabad and we can ask him to do it.

Prabhupāda: Weak, weak I am. Physically I am weak and besides that, if I have to see to the administration then I cannot think of writing books and how to present our philosophy to be understandable by the people. Therefore the administration is divided. Now you do, little intelligently. We have got still respect. Keep our standard. The people will like us. People wants to give us help, just like this big sannyāsī, one of the biggest sannyāsīs, Gangesvarananda(?), he is attracted. He is a man of immense resource, men and money he has. Immense resource.

Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In the mean time, Bombay. Bombay light.

Prabhupāda: Bombay light, yes. Bombay light, that is during my householder life. I opened an office in Bombay for my business and... The (indistinct) Gauḍīya Maṭha was established by us. I am one of them. Śrīdhara Mahārāja also. And we made two parties for begging, collecting alms. Śrīdhara Mahārāja, myself and Gosvāmī Mahārāja. That time he was Atula, Atulacandra Gosvāmī. So I took them to some of my friends, chemist friends, doctors friends. So I collected about five hundred rupees to this. Śrīdhara Mahārāja would speak, I introduced, and Gosvāmī, at that time Gosvāmī Mahārāja would canvass (laughter). In this way three combined together, in one day or two days we... At that time five hundred rupees was (laughing) big amount.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Big sum.

Prabhupāda: Big sum, yes. So Gosvāmī Mahārāja very much appreciated, and he began to speak highly about me that "Abhay Babu is so expert, he has got so many friends, he has collected so many... So why does he... He should be the Maṭha in-charge." In this way. "Why should he not live with us? Why he's living separately?" In this way. So Prabhupāda, Mahārāja, Śrīdhara may remember it (laughing), he said, "It is better to live separately from you people, and he will do the necessity in due course of time." So I could not understand what Śrīla Prabhupāda meant by that. So his inclination, blessings, were always upon me although (indistinct), but he was so kind.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So many things you will change. (pause) And that is mystic power for me.

Kṛṣṇa-Kāntī: Surfing?

Prabhupāda: Yes, because I do not know how to do it. Therefore it is mystic power. But the boy is going like this. (pause) Just like one of the yogīs, she (he) walked over the river, crossed. So another old man said: "Oh this is only two paisā worth." Why? "I will pay two paisā to this boatman. He will cross me there." But to attain that power, he had to spend so many years for practicing. This is waste of time. If you can do it by paying two paisā or one ānā to a boatman to cross the river, why should you for ten years or fifteen years practice this yoga, just to show a magic?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Prabhupāda, I remember an incident in Bombay. That was when I was in Calcutta about, a few years ago. There was a yogī. There was advertisement that he was going to walk on water.

Prabhupāda: No, that is possible.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So I think it was about five hundred rupees per ticket.

Prabhupāda: Oh, just see. His real aim was to get some money.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: The same thing happened in Kanpur in a hotel. One man was eating meat, and he found a little finger...

Guest (4): Finger of some...

Guest (2): That was in the Bombay, in the Villa Parle, in my place, where I was living.

Guest (4): Newspaper (Hindi)

Guest (2): This gentleman went to the hotel and found a small finger.

Prabhupāda: Small children cut up. And there was another case in Calcutta. The, one Chinaman, he was eating human being. And then... (break) ...some Kancawala (?) (beggar) him called, and then captured and killed him. This was going on. Later on, when police enquiry was made, so many human...

Guest (2): Bones...

Guest (4): Skeletons.

Prabhupāda: ...bones, skeletons was found. In Africa there are still cannibals.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: My main āśrama is in Vṛndāvana.

Professor: Where?

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana.

Professor: Oh, in Vṛndāvana, itself.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Māyāpur. Lord Caitanya. And we have got branch in Calcutta, Bombay, Hyderabad. Māyāpur and Vṛndāvana. Five, six... (break) I, I brought with me forty rupees and books. That's all.

Professor: Forty rupees! That was not enough to live in Boston or in New York.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And now we are spending about eighty thousand dollars per month.

Professor: Per month.

Prabhupāda: Throughout the whole world. But we are selling our books very nicely, about... How many, how much dollars?

Yogeśvara: How many, how many lakhs of rupees of books per month, Pradyumna?

Prabhupāda: No, no, daily...

Professor: Lakhs of...

Prabhupāda: Daily we are collecting about thirty, eight hundred... In, in, in Los Angeles we collect about eight hundred dollars daily.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: They're also thinking that "We are not sumptuously fed," or something. Some demands is there. Some demand. And they are lying down, Amsterdam and here, on the street. And why? But they are coming of rich families, rich nation. Especially America. In London also, I have seen. Regent Park. They're lying down. Police is kicking. Police is kicking: "Get up, get up!" Why? Behind them the British Empire is, British government is there. Why he's lying down there? Who has told him to...? Government is requesting, "If you have no home, come on. I shall give you home." In Bombay also, these, what is called? The huts?

Haṁsadūta: Huts?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: Those tent huts?

Prabhupāda: They are on the... You have seen in Bombay?

Ambassador: Yes.

Prabhupāda: We passed, when we passed while coming from aerodrome to city...

Ambassador: From...

Prabhupāda: So many thatched cottages, small. So Bombay government has given them home, that "You come here, live." But what do they...? they rent to some, another man, and they live in the... In Madras also, I have seen.

Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:

Guest (1): Pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation).

Prabhupāda: Yes. He's associating with Kṛṣṇa. And unless one is confidential devotee of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa does not speak with him. But when he becomes perfect, confidential servitor, Kṛṣṇa speaks with him, "Do like this, do like that," and he'll do that. And therefore in his action, you won't find any fault. (break) If somebody perfect instructs him, "Do like this," then my action is not imperfect. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). If I say, "Yes, you give up everything. Just surrender to Kṛṣṇa," then I am perfect. And if I say, "So 'ham. I am Kṛṣṇa," then you are imperfect. Is that...? (break) "...the same. I am the Lord. I am the Supreme." They're all imperfect. Vimukta-māninaḥ. They have been described as rascals. They are strongly thinking that they are liberated. They're rascals. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). They are talking like nonsense because their intelligence is not..., it is purified. He's therefore wrongly thinking that "I am the Supreme Lord. I am moving the sun." These rascals, they meditate, "I am moving the sun, I am moving the moon. I am this, I am that." This is their meditation. So 'ham. So they are rascals. And how you can become the Supreme? As soon as you have got a toothache, you have to go to the doctor. And he was thinking he was supreme, nonsense. Rascal. (break) ...bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa. These are Māyāvādīs, those who are after, "I am the Supreme." They are Māyāvādīs. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, "Anyone who hears the philosophy of Māyāvāda, he is doomed. He is gone." (break) ...teaching, "Why you are seeking after God?" Just like Vivekananda taught, "Oh, why you are seeking after God? Don't you see so many gods are on the street? They are hungry. They are lame. They are daridra-nārāyaṇa. Why don't you worship them?" This is Māyāvādī. So if we take Vivekananda's version, and be engaged in the service of the daridra-nārāyaṇa, then I am misled. (break) ...preaching this daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā for hundreds of years, at least one hundred years, but still, there are daridras. Even in the city like Bombay, still. Fifty years ago, I came. I saw there are the residents of the footpath, having a small... Eh?

Guest (1): The pipe.

Prabhupāda: And still I find. When the rice is selling at eight rupees kilo, and when the rice was selling three rupees a mound, at that time also they were on the footpath, resident, and now also.

Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have an office, though, in the city where they come to.

Prabhupāda: Office means their business is office. But your business is begging. Your business is not office. Your business is not... They have to direct so many things from there. That we can do. Besides that... Anyway, even they have got office, they come from in Bombay, Calcutta, even from hundred miles away. So if there is no such program, Deity worship, regulative principles, then it will be a joint mess. Hotel. Transcendental hotel. And transcendental fraud. This will go on. The business will be transcendental fraud, and life will be transcendental hotel. (Break) ...twenty, twenty-five. So these women devotees, they are given cāpāṭis by the bābājīs. Kṣurasya dhārā. Actually it is like that. A sharpened razor, A little inattention, immediately blood. Kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā durgaṁ pathas tat kavayo vadanti (?). That is the risk. Nowadays modern civilization, as we are accepting, there is jeep, there is telephone, everything is there. One can conduct his activities from anywhere.

Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Do you want to play it?

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not play it. Bring that record. On New York, Fifth Avenue, our saṅkīrtana party is going on.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They are carrying the gramophone now.

Prabhupāda: And in London, Oxford Street, the most crowded street, just like our Bombay, Harley Road... So in the big, big cities they are now chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, dancing. People are enjoying. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). You can play this record at home and dance in tune and enjoy.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They are bringing it. This is the record, Every Town and Village. They are bringing the machine.

Prabhupāda: We are arrested by the police sometimes. Sometimes there are big cases against us. In Ireland. Ireland?

Pradyumna: Ireland, Scotland, in Edinburgh, too.

Prabhupāda: (laughing) These impediments are always there, even in Caitanya Mahāprabhu's time. The Kazi, the Mohammedan magistrate, he wanted to stop. (pause) Kṛṣṇa tvadīya pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam (MM 33). So you are devotee of Rādhārāṇī. Eh? Yes, that is good. Through Rādhārāṇī, one should approach Kṛṣṇa. And therefore Vṛndāvana, they, everyone says, "Jaya Rādhe," first of all glorifying Rādhārāṇī. We have got many records. This is one of them, kīrtana. (record starts playing) (break) (sounds of people leaving and Śrīla Prabhupāda saying Hare Kṛṣṇa to individual people) (Hindi) (break)

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No. This was the cause of breakdown. This was suppressed by Guru Mahārāja under his influence, but the rebellious was there during his lifetime. And it burst into... Therefore he advised that "You make a governing body and Kunja Babu should be allowed to remain manager." This was directly spoken. He never asked anybody to become ācārya. He asked that "You form a governing body of twelve men and go on preaching, and Kunja Babu may be allowed to remain manager during his lifetime." He never said that Kunja Babu should be ācārya. None, none of them were advised by Guru Mahārāja to become ācārya. His idea was "Let them manage; then whoever will be actual qualified for becoming ācārya, they will elect. Why I should enforce upon them?" That was his plan. "Let them manage by strong governing body, as it is going on. Then ācārya will come by his qualifications." But they wanted that... Because at heart, they were, "After demise of Guru, I shall become ācārya." "I shall become ācārya." So all the ācāryas began fight. One side, that Vāsudeva Ācārya and Sar Kunja Babu Ācārya. And Paramānanda, he thought that "Whoever will be powerful, I shall join them." (laughing) He only thought. But Guru Mahārāja never asked that these three men should be trustees. He wanted governing body. So the rebellion broke out immediately after his passing away. And then fight in the high-court. And Kunja Babu, he is very intelligent man. So from the very beginning he knew that "There will be fight after the demise of Guru Mahārāja. So fight will be in the high-court. So at the expense of Guru Mahārāja, let my brother and sons become attorneys and barrister so I will have not to pay all these things." It was a planned thing. And that is being done. He was a clerk, it was not in his power to make his brother and sons attorneys and barristers. They were all made at the cost of Gauḍīya Maṭha to fight with (indistinct) in favor of Tīrtha Mahārāja. These were the planned things. But I was a rotten gṛhastha. I did not join any one of them. (Prabhupāda laughs) I was rotting in my household life. That's all. But I was planning how to make, how to make this. That was my desire from the very beginning, since I heard it. But I was never with them, either this party or that party. And Guru Mahārāja also recommended, apnader tasturi tublia thaki bhavan. Takhona (?). "When there will be need, he will do himself. There is no need of living with you. It is better to live apart from you." When I was recommended by Goswami Mahārāja to live in the Maṭha, that "He is so nice." Sometimes he recommended. In Bombay, here in this Bombay. That house. Yes. He (Guru Mahārāja) said "Yes, he is very expert. He can do. So it is better to live apart from you. And he will do everything when there is need." He said. I could not understand. Although I was apart from them, a gṛhastha. In this Bombay I was doing business. (people talking outside)

Gargamuni: The man is here.

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So there is great difference between our... We worship Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Lady: Juhu. May people might (indistinct), you are having (indistinct), it is very difficult for people to go there.

Prabhupāda: In Juhu there are many men. Juhu people are not coming here. Similarly, these people will not go there. But at Juhu there are many men. So in Bombay, in any part of Bombay, itself a big city, any part of Bombay. But where we are getting such big land in the city? That is 20,000 square yards. And on the Juhu Beach. For this facility, yes. And a new town is growing here. You have been in Juhu?

Banker: I used to live there. Beach house.

Gargamuni: That big white house, that six story high building right on the beach, he used to live there.

Prabhupāda: How do you like that place?

Banker: Very much. Quiet, peaceful. After a day of work in the bank it's a very nice place to retreat to.

Prabhupāda: Now, they were coming from Juhu to bank. So where is the difficulty? Such responsible officer, bank manager, they are coming and going, and you sannyāsīs cannot come and go? He has got responsible duties, he has to arrive in the office exactly in time.

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You are going to New York?

Banker: Next week. I brought Bhanu, so in the future if you need any help, you just see her in the bank. She's interested and aware.

Prabhupāda: She's going also with you?

Banker: She will be in Bombay. She's at our main branch.

Prabhupāda: You are working in the bank?

Lady: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is your post? Typing? No.

Banker: She's a clerk in my department.

Prabhupāda: I see. So our philosophy is Bhagavad-gītā. You know Bhagavad-gītā?

Lady: Yes, very little.

Prabhupāda: That is standard. All big, big ācāryas of India.

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Bhanu? Gujarati?

Lady: Parsee.

Prabhupāda: Parsee. I see. Parsees are Gujarati also.

Lady: We speak Gujarati and Parsee.

Prabhupāda: Formerly the Parsees were prominent community in Bombay. They are big businessmen, important men.

Banker: Mr. Tata...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Tata, Sarpiosa Mehta. (?) Now from the Parsee community no such big men are coming. What you think? Last big man was Nariman. You do not know? Nariman. He was of our age. I saw him. That Nariman Point. He was a political leader. Come on. So Nariman was a Parsee. I know that.

Lady: I know name like that, but...

Prabhupāda: He was Subhash Bose's contemporary. Yes. Of the same party. (pause) How is your son?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, he is very well.

Prabhupāda: And father?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, he is okay too.

Prabhupāda: Father, son, he's middle.

Room Conversation -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Gargamuni: In Calcutta we're approaching all of the libraries. At least twenty-five libraries have ordered your books, complete sets.

Prabhupāda: So you see, anywhere we can approach. I sold in Bombay all libraries, my previous Bhāgavatam.

Gargamuni: About Ten or twelve books, each bill is about five hundred rupees times twenty-five. That's a lot.

Prabhupāda: No, that is a respect, if the libraries and schools, colleges, they keep our books.

Gargamuni: Some of them are shocked. We went to the National Library in Calcutta. That's the largest library. They saw your books and they said, "Oh, he is doing this work?" They were so impressed. They had never seen Sanskrit or Bengali printed in foreign countries the way you have done in your books. They said, "This is fan..." There's no one else who is doing this in India, no one. Very impressed. And these men themselves are Sanskrit scholars. He immediately started to read. He said, "Oh, very nice." He said, "It is just right." So he was very enthusiastic. There are two boys. They spend the whole day just going to libraries.

Prabhupāda: That has been written by Professor Dayal, Dimock, that "Sanskrit scholars should get good opportunity, and nobody, I think, will deny Swamiji's scholarship." He has said that.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Nobody has intelligence. It will not, it will not stay. It will be spoiled. Joint mess organization. In Los Angeles, they're also doing business. They're going to sell books. But regulative principle is observed. Huge expenditure they have got. No center is so improved as Los Angeles. We have purchased six houses. And I wanted immediately two lakhs, immediately sent. You cannot pay. You simply want to take. In India, nobody can pay. If I want two lakhs, nobody can pay. But all this money have been taken from U.S.A. I asked Bali Mardana, I asked Karandhara. They paid me for this Bombay affair, sixteen, eighteen lakhs. (break) ...and breathing also does not stop. It goes very slow. Therefore he cannot be immortal. And Bhagavad-gītā proposes, that is wonderful thing, if you can stop death. And whole spiritual life means how to stop death. That is Bhāgavata's instruction, "Don't accept guru, don't accept father, don't accept, or don't be father, don't be mother, don't be, if you cannot stop death." Either you don't accept, or don't become. Just like they want guru. So don't accept a guru who cannot stop your death. And from guru's side, it is advised, "Don't become guru if you cannot stop the death of your disciple." This is Bhāgavatam's statement. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to stop death, live eternally with Kṛṣṇa, go back to home, back to Godhead. This is our movement.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: ...all right. The family will live on not forever. They'll live also, say, for few days. Just we go sometimes in... Just like in England, the castles are there, very old castle, thousand years, two thousand... Even this Westminster Abbey and palace, but which king has lived for there permanently? And now, if you know more, if the king has, by his work, become something else. Not necessarily he'll become a king in that house. He may become a dog there. This science they do not know. And they are proud of their education, culture. Suppose we are constructing the Vṛndāvana temple or Bombay temple. It is also certain we shall not live, but our attempt to construct that temple will be recorded in Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Because he has spent his energy for My service." That will be our gain. Others, they, whatever they are working... Ko vārtha āpto 'bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ. Find out this verse. Ko vā. Ko vārtha āpto 'bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ. This is in Bhāgavata.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Śyāmasundara: Oh, I see.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: In Bombay, you were having your own business then?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: Manufacturing?

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, that is small manufacturing. So I got very, very good chance. But Kṛṣṇa did not allow it. He wanted me to come to this point. That is my practical experience. And now I'm seeing that it is Kṛṣṇa's so much favor. You see? Yasyāham, anugṛhnāmi... It is, it is, actually it is His grace. "What he'll do by becoming Birla, rich man like Birla?" That was Kṛṣṇa's plan. "Come here. Do this work." You see. My Guru Mahārāja ordered. Kṛṣṇa wanted. I was resisting Him. That's all. I was actually very expert businessman in chemical line. I did it very creditably in Bose's laboratory as manager and my own business. And everyone knows... Even in manufacturing also.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Smith Stanstreet, an English company. They gave me an agency. So some of my enemy... He was my, he was my employer, but he gave information that I am also manufacturing now, drug and chemical works. So they informed them that "He's pushing his own goods, not your goods." They... He wanted that agency. Yes. In this way, because as soon as you come in the... Even in the spiritual field, my godbrothers are envious. You see? So as soon as you become successful, there will be many enemies. That is natural. That is the sign of success. In your business, if there are many enemies, competitor, that means you are successful. So anyway, Kṛṣṇa has brought me to the right path. So I may not fall down. That's all. (laughter) When I was reading this verse, that yasyāham anugṛhnāmi hariṣye tad dhanaṁ śanaiḥ (SB 10.88.8), Kṛṣṇa said that "When I show somebody My special favor, I take away all his money," I became shuddered, "So Kṛṣṇa will take my all money? If He's..." And actually that happened. He took my all money, all family, all friends and everything. (laughs) And He asked me, "Go to America. You'll get many money, much money, many friends. You go ahead, Come here." Yes. That was His intention. And I was sticking to limited money, limited friends, limited society. This is special favor.

Brahmānanda: So in Bombay you mentioned that Lilavati Munshi... There was one house...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: ...and you were trying to get that house...

Prabhupāda: Yes, and she took away.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1973, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: What is the population? Tell me.

Guest: About ah, four million.

Prabhupāda: Four million. And what is the population of Bombay?

Guest: About six and a half million, seven million.

Prabhupāda: Seven million. And what is Calcutta?

Guest: About seven and a half million.

Prabhupāda: And we say you take.... And what is the population of India?

Guest: Five ah, nearly six hundred million now.

Prabhupāda: Six hundred million.

Guest: Five hundred fifty, six hundred million.

Prabhupāda: So if you take all these city population it will come to three hundred million. They are doing nothing for producing.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Yaśomatīnandana: Is Vallabhācārya, Prabhupāda, in accordance with our philosophy?

Prabhupāda: Yes, he's Vaiṣṇava, ācārya. But that very deviation, that "I have done something better than Śrīdhara," that is not our paramparā system. Then he was thinking himself better than Śrīdhara. That is not allowed. We should always remain servant of the servant (CC Madhya 13.80). Never we shall think that "I am better than my Guru Mahārāja." That is fall down. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare... Our Juhu Beach is very nice.

Yaśomatīnandana: Yes, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: All clean, and you can walk very nicely. In Bombay.

Yaśomatīnandana: And lot of people can see you. And they bow down to you?

Prabhupāda: If they do not, what can I do?

Yaśomatīnandana: Well, no, if they do, then they will go to Vaikuṇṭha. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: That is our śāstric injunction, that as soon as you see a sannyāsī, you must bow down. Otherwise, you should fast one day. It doesn't matter, I or you. This is the injunction of the śāstra, that sannyāsī is supposed to be the guru of the society. So one must bow down.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So people are saying that "See how sincerely he's working. Take his example."

Prabhupāda: Yes. So who is not sincerely working? He's working for some money. That's all. So everyone is working for money. What is the difference? If he's not paid for that, he'll not work. Just like a dog is working for the master, for the bread. That's all. So he's working not for himself, not for others, but for his money. Or some ambition. Prestige. That's right. (break) ...where? On the beach you are seeing?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: About ten miles from here.

Prabhupāda: In Bombay also, therefore it is two miles, three miles from Juhu. (break)

Prajāpati: ...Śrīla Prabhupāda, that's a best seller called, "I'm OK, You're OK," and the purport of this book is that if we simply pat each other on the back and tell each other how nice each other are, everything will be all right.

Prabhupāda: Yes, mutual praising society, mutual praising society.

Karandhara: Mutual admiration society.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1973, Los Angeles:

Devotee: Gentle like a rose, and strong like a thunderstorm. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...India. Just start this movement seriously.

Yaśomatīnandana: Yes, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And Bombay is the best center.

Yaśomatīnandana: I'm being very enthused when you say these things to...

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is great field to conquer, and you are educated and intelligent, capable. You have got qualification, you can do this very good work.

Yaśomatīnandana: We think that it may be impractical to go in the politics or like that. But then when you say so firmly, all the whole..., immediately our eyes get open, you see? "Yes, actually, this is possible."

Prabhupāda: Why not possible?

Yaśomatīnandana: What is impossible for a Kṛṣṇa's devotee?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Anyway, our proposition is that one class of men must lie down like that.

Rūpānuga: That is their business.

Prabhupāda: That is their business. They must.

Karandhara: Just like there they build big buildings for them and let them...

Prabhupāda: But they do not go. In Bombay also, municipality has constructed big buildings, but they do not go. They hire it, yes, they get, to some gentleman. They get some fifty rupees and "All right, you take." And he lives in a hut. Yes. This is practical. They don't like. Just like a worm in the stool. You take it away. He will again, again go. (laughter) Again go there. You are very philanthropist: "Oh, my dear friend, why you are in the stool? Come on, here." "No, no, sir, I will go there again." How can you check it? Nature's law.

Karandhara: Well, they say it can be checked by time and education.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that time, you wait for time. By that time you will die.

Karandhara: Well, just like a hundred years ago in the United States...

Prabhupāda: No. These discrepancies will go on because this whole material world is being conducted by three qualities. You will have three qualitative persons.

Morning Walk -- December 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Śrīla is... just like we say "Śrī" to the ordinary person. And Śrīla to very respectable person.

Guest (1): La.

Prabhupāda: La, yes. Śrī means beauty, and la means līlā. So "one who is invested with both beauty and the power to understand the līlā of Kṛṣṇa." (break) Aśoka's mother came to see me in Bombay.

Guest (2): Yes, I have asked her. First I came, then I told her.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that lady came to see me. Very nice lady.

Guest (1): Aśoka's mother, she has fixed up two or three programs in her school. Girl's school.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That (Hindi)

Girirāja: She showed the series of slides of Prahlāda Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Oh. There in the school?

Girirāja: Yes. The children enjoyed it very much.

Prabhupāda: In Hawaii one seven year old boy... (break)

Page Title:Bombay (Conversations 1969 - 1973)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:23 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=86, Let=0
No. of Quotes:86