Coffee (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"coffee" |"coffee's" |"coffees"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- March 9, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: We do now allow illicit sex life. No, we do not allow these boys or girls sex life without being married. Yes. This is one regulation. We don't allow them to take anything which is not offered to the Deity. So we offer to the Deity foodstuff, grains, fruits, flowers, milk products, in that way, no meat, no egg, nothing of the sort. Simple food. They are nutritious. We prepare very... Perhaps you have participated in our love feast in Sundays. Yes.

Woman: We're going to... We'll come next Sunday.

Prabhupāda: They like it. So many, hundreds of preparations... We can give at least three hundred preparation, many varieties, simply on grains and milk product and fruits. That's all. We don't kill animals, don't kill birds, no. But we make very nice preparations. Everyone likes. So this is one of the restriction, that you cannot take anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa conscious. This is the second restriction. And the third restriction is no intoxication—no smoking, no drinking, even no tea taking, no coffee taking, nothing: These American boys they are accustomed to all these habits very naturally, but they have given up. They don't take. In our temple there is no tea-taking, no coffee-taking, no cigarette smoking, nothing of the sort, you see. This is the third restriction. And the fourth restriction is that you cannot take part in gambling or some unnecessary sporting because you have to utilize your time. Your time is very short.

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: No. No meat, no onion, no garlic, no intoxication, no liquor, we don't smoke even, we don't take tea, coffee. We simply take what is absolutely necessary for keeping the body fit to execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We don't indulge in luxury..., or for the satisfaction of the tongue.

Interviewer: All right. Caller, you're on the air with the Swami on KGO.

Caller: Yes, Swamiji, I'd like to know where in India was your native place.

Interviewer: Where in India did you come from originally?

Prabhupāda: Oh, I was born in Calcutta. But after my acceptance of this renounced order of life, I am inhabitant of Vṛndāvana.

Caller: Of where?

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana. V-r-i-n-d-a-v-a-n. Vṛndāvana is a sacred place. It is about 90 miles south of New Delhi, capital of India.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- February 12, 1969, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, no, we don't... There is no question, because all kinds of intoxication prohibited. We don't allow even smoking and tea-drinking, coffee-taking. You see? Any kind of intoxication we don't allow.

Interviewer: In other words, I guess it would be correct to say that this is in the Western sense of the word, a religious order.

Prabhupāda: It is not religious order. It is cultural because one cannot understand higher philosophical things if he is intoxicated.

Interviewer: No, I meant the whole, the over all picture of your group. You speak of initiates, you speak of certain disciplines. This is almost... I'm trying to translate it into Western terms. Like a religious order.

Prabhupāda: No, it is...

Interviewer: Now, you could say philosophical order, a cultural order. But the people...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Religious... If you say religious orders, there are many religious orders; they allow all these things. It is not exactly religious order. It is training of consciousness, because we are trying to put people in original, pure consciousness, which we call, technically, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like when rain is showered from the cloud, it is pure distilled water, but as soon as it is in touch with the earth, it is salty or so many chemicals are formed, similarly, original consciousness is pure, but when it is contaminated with matter, the consciousness is impure. So we are trying to purify the consciousness. That's all. That is our program. It is not a religious order. Consciousness is there in every living entity, and we are trying to purify his consciousness. When he comes to his original consciousness he becomes completely happy.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Prohibitive. No illicit sex life, no meat-eating, meat or fish or eggs, no, and no gambling, and no intoxication, including cigarette, tea, coffee. These also we take as intoxicants. So these four principle one has to obey, and let him chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. And by this process only, you'll find, how these boys and girls are improving quickly. Process is very simple. Besides that, we have got books, volumes of books, just like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā. I have given them. Throughout all these years I have written so many books. And they have got ample stock for reading, the whole life. We have got four hundred pages', big, big books, about one dozen books: Kṛṣṇa in two parts, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in six parts, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, one part, Nectar of Devotion, one part. In this way I am... And these are... We are publishing every month one chapter, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, with this detailed information, giving a heading like this, "The First Step in God Realization." Here is also. The heading is: "Puruṣa-śukta Continued." Puruṣa-śukta is a Vedic stotram. So we are trying to push this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like in your country there is Lenin consciousness, similarly, it is also a different type of consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa is also historical personality as much as Lenin is also historical personality. So His philosophy... Just like you are trying to understand his philosophy, we are trying to understand Kṛṣṇa's philosophy. In this way this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is going on.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- July 5, 1972, New York:

Prabhupāda: There is possibility. Otherwise why these young men are coming? That I can say. There is good possibility, but we have no facility. Just like government is spending to stop the LSD intoxication, millions of dollars. But our students, as soon as they come, they become my students, I simply order them, "No intoxication." So what to speak of LSD, they do not take tea, they do not take coffee, they do not smoke. But government will not help us. That is the difficulty.

Guest (2): Do you seek government help?

Prabhupāda: Yes. If I get government help, I can give protection to these confused, frustrated youths. I have no proper house to accommodate them, to feed them. With great difficulty I am pushing on this movement. So if the government comes forward, this means a little facility, I can turn the face of your country, immediately. There will be no problem.

Guest (2): What can you cure? What can you make better?

Prabhupāda: This is the cure: I am making good character. Don't you see their face? Some of them were hippies, frustrated, wretched condition. Now they are known as bright faces, serious character. They don't have any illicit sex. They don't eat meat. They don't have any intoxication. They don't engage in gambling. These are the four pillars of sinful life. If you allow people to indulge in sinful life, how you can expect good citizen? That is not possible. Their character must reform. So we have taken from the root. We are making men of character, knowledge, sincerity, God conscious. Don't you appreciate it?

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

Jayatīrtha: She is a 40-years-old lady, her name is Lucille. She is very much actually convinced of our philosophy and is devoted to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but the only thing is, because she comes conditioned from a previous life, can't give up, has a very hard time giving up smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. She's been trying for about nine months to give up these things, (indistinct) but she can't do it. Still she is desirous of initiation. So I don't know what to (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: No. You must at least promise that he gives (break) And if we promise that (indistinct). But after initiation if she smokes, that's not good.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: (Hindi conversation continues for some sentences.) Who is practicing this? Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). He cannot be called a brāhmaṇa unless he acts according to his guṇa. If he's acting in differently, he should be... (break) ...utilized by the liberated person, still we can use it, provided we stop this process of animal killing. Then it will be very easier. This medicine... The doors will be... Vinā paśughnāt (SB 10.1.4). Therefore whoever comes to us to become our student, our first proposition is that "You should give up these four principles, illicit sex, animal-eating, gambling and intoxication, up to drinking tea, coffee, cigarette." This is our condition. So the more you practice to these four prohibitive regulations, then you realize. Śrotramāno 'bhirāmāt. It will be very pleasing to the ear and to the mind. And unless anything is very pleasing, you cannot continue. Artificially, you can chant for few minutes. But if it becomes pleasing to you, then you can chant twenty-four hours, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ.

tṛṇād api sunīcena

taror api sahiṣṇunā

amāninā mānadena

kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

(CC Adi 17.31)

So this is the only remedy, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Therefore you'll find all our students, they have got these beads. We have got these beads. Either we shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa or we shall talk of Kṛṣṇa. That is also chanting. When you talk of Kṛṣṇa, that is also chanting. Kīrtana, kīrtana means kīrtayati, talking, speaking.

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

Guest (3): Swamiji? Tea and coffee's also included?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is also intoxicant. Pāna. Chāi, pāna. Pāna, pāna means intoxication. Dhūmra-pāna.

Guest (7): Dhūmra-pāna.

Guest (2): And what about supāri, Swamiji?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is also ingredient of pāna. Pāna, it is called pāna.

Guest (2): I offered Vaikuṇṭhajī supāri. You see he won't accept it. So I thought, well, it only helps digestion because it only brings the saliva in the mouth.

Prabhupāda: Well, wine is also very digestive. (laughter) An appetizer also. All Europeans, they take first of all wine to eat voraciously. I see in the airplane. And after taking wine, they eat so much.

Guest (8): And then they go for dancing to digest it.

Prabhupāda: Simple life, simple life, innocent life... Because after all, we have to give up this material world. If we become attached, then we'll have to take birth again. Nivṛtta-tarṣair... There is another verse quoted by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It is very difficult, but there is possibility. Niṣkiñcanasya bhagavad-bhajanonmukhasya. Bhagavad-bhajana, those who are eager to go back to home, back to Godhead... Pāraṁ paraṁ jigamiṣor bhava-sāgarasya. On the other side of this material world. For him... Viṣayiṇāṁ sandarśanam atha yoṣitāṁ ca, hā hanta hanta viṣa-bhakṣaṇato 'py asādhu (CC Madhya 11.8). For such person to be attracted by these material things is not good. It is suicidal. So material things, viṣaya, simply increasing the method of eating, sleeping, sex life and defense. This is material activity.

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

Guest (7): I know. I stopped coffee because I don't have it often in my office staff. But tea, still, I'm thinking to leave the tea, you know. I see that Prabhupāda will ask me to give up everything, you know. (laughs)

Revatīnandana: You'll have to replace it with something higher. When you want a cup of tea, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's how I stopped smoking cigarettes.

Guest (7): Oh, my God. You can (indistinct) us (indistinct) stop smoking.

Prabhupāda: No, no. (Hindi) "Where there is a will, there is a way." (Hindi)

Guest (7): So when I shall take the whole promise?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Guest (7): When I shall take the whole, the whole of what everything is to do this...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, at any time, when you are ready.

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

Guest (7): Because it creates some problems to somebody if you go somewhere, you don't want tea. Coffee... "Oh, no, I don't want it." They say, "What sort of drink?" "Oh no, I don't want anything." And about food, "No, only an ounce..."

Prabhupāda: Now, when I was gṛhastha, so they offered tea, I said, "I don't take tea." Then they said "Milk?" "Yes, all right. You can give me milk." I'd take little milk. Or you can take little cold drink, soda water. That sugar and water, little lemon. He wants to offer you something. So there are so many other varieties, varieties. But if he insists, "You must take tea," that is not hospitality.

Guest (7): But what happens is somebody else comes in, you know.

Guest (8): Hospitality means prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Hospitality means first of all, he should ask, "What can I offer you?" This is hospitality.

Guest (8): Naturally, you know...

Prabhupāda: No. Hospitality means the man should ask you, "What can I offer you?" That is hospitality. If he says that "I must give you tea, and you must drink it," that is not hospitality.

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

Guest (9): Another tea and coffee. The people generally want...

Prabhupāda: I want things are nice, but...

Guest (9): If we stop that one, I come to coffee and tea.

Prabhupāda: They might have gone to hell, but I am not... (laughter) I cannot offer him hellish things. Bhagavat-prasāda. We are offering our Bhagavat-prasādam. Nobody is denying. You can offer in the same way. We are not offering tea or coffee. Whatever we have got, take it. So this is artificial. We can avoid all these difficulties. There is no difficulty at all.

Guest (9): No, what I (indistinct) I take but wife takes half, and children, they didn't take it, but they want a cup of coffee. One boy wants cup of coffee, the girl wants a cup of tea and...

Prabhupāda: Well, the...

Guest (9): But the... And when the... That is the... This is the problem...

Prabhupāda: This happened in my life... This happened in my life.

Room Conversation with Guest -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: They are strictly following Vaiṣṇava principles. They... Whenever one comes to become my disciple, the first condition is that no illicit sex; no meat-eating, eggs, fish, nothing of the sort; no intoxication up to smoking cigarette, drinking tea and coffee; and no gambling. So they strictly follow these things. In our society, there is no tea-drinking even. We don't drink tea. So... Intoxication, pāna, chāi pāna, pāna... Pāna is intoxication.

Guest: Tāmbūla...

Prabhupāda: Tāmbūla. Yatra pāpaś catur-vidhā.

Guest: (Sanskrit or Hindi: Kṛṣṇa is offered tāmbūla in the temple.)

Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa can take.

Guest: Yes. And that prasāda of Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest: ...the devotees can take also...

Prabhupāda: No, prasādam, according to our principle... Just like on Ekādaśī day, we do not accept even prasādam. Anna. We keep it. So prasādam... Just like on Ekādaśī anna is prohibited, but not the Deity. Deity's offered anna, but we cannot take the prasādam even. So following strictly the principle, even tāmbūla is offered to Kṛṣṇa, it is not for us. Yes. Strictly following the principle. The same example... Just like on Ekādaśī day, anna is offered to Kṛṣṇa, but we don't take.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: And they are living very happily. You can see from their face. Yes. They are known as bright-faced. Yes. Many, I mean, Christian priests, they came to congratulate me: "Swamiji, how you have made your disciples so jolly and bright-faced?" The government in America, they are surprised, that even after spending millions of dollars, they could not drive away LSD intoxication. And as soon as a intoxicated person comes to our camp, he not only gives up LSD and liquor, he gives up even smoking, drinking tea and coffee. So why not experiment this movement. The greatest socialist movement. If you want to get the socialistic idea, we can give you. Would you like to take?

Reporter: Oh, I don't trust. I could trust. Yeah. But...

Prabhupāda: Our socialistic idea, you can note down...

Reporter: I have nothing to lose but do you think you could manage all society very complex, as our...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reporter: It's more than...

Prabhupāda: We can, we can make the society perfect if they take our advice. Because we are working as the brain.

Bhagavān: He can see Prabhupāda's books. Our philosophy is not small philosophy.

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

Prabhupāda: So we are simply trying to revive people's dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So every sane man, every good government, everyone should come forward to help this movement. It is not a personal affair. We are not presenting that "I am avatāra, I am God." We are presenting science, philosophy. You see? Why we are taking so much trouble to write so many books? If we... We want to convince people through science, philosophy, logic, religious principle, by practical behavior. All these boys are being trained up not to have any illicit sex, not to eat meat, and not to take any intoxication up to tea, coffee, cigarette and not to indulge in gambling. They're doing that. So we are making men of character, men of religion, men of philosophy. Why people should not cooperate with us? We are not presenting any blind, so-called religious faith. No. That is not our business. Our business is śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-dayā karaha vicāra. You understand little Bengali? You understand Hindi.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Devotee: Coffee.

Prabhupāda: Coffee, tea, and so many other things.

Devotee: Oh, toast. Toast.

Prabhupāda: Toast. And they will, the (indistinct) will be stopped. As soon as the belly is loaded... But they are accustomed. After eating they are (indistinct) not easily. (break) ...for sevait say (?) is for the Kanpur wala. (break) ...then there is no question of fighting, otherwise we shall take criminal and civil (indistinct—break) ...seven hundred.

Gurudāsa: Seven hundred. (break)

Devotee: ...renovate these rooms, or just in general?

Prabhupāda: Huh? General.

Devotee: General.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That veranda, that, whatever he likes we shall, we will spend. We'll pay the bills.

Room Conversation with Catholic Cardinal and Secretary to the Pope -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: So we forbid our students to refrain from four sinful activities: No illicit sex life, no meat-eating, and no intoxication, up to drinking tea, coffee or smoking. They are also intoxicants. And no gambling. These four principles, they avoid completely. And as it is recommended in this book, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru: (BG 18.65) "Always think of Me," man-manā. "Just become My devotee. Just offer your obeisances unto Me, and just worship Me." Four principles. If you follow these four principles without any offense, then you go back to home, back to Godhead. So for remembering God, you chant always God's name on these beads.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

(buzzer sounds) And we worship... (pause) (one man is apparently showing pictures) This is also a church?

Reporters Interview -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: The sinful, yes. Four items we prohibit our students. They do not indulge. Illicit sex life, meat, fish, egg-eating, intoxication up to cigarette smoking, drinking tea, coffee, and gambling. These are the four pillars of sinful life. So unless one gives up these four things he cannot understand what is God, what is God's kingdom, what is our business. Nobody can understand.

Guest (2): Drinking tea and coffee also?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. It is also intoxication.

Guest (3): Your Divine Grace, in a lot of scriptures I read there is a lot of references to breath and the breath as being the...

Prabhupāda: Breathing.

Guest (3): Breathing...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (3): ...it's a source of God. And there are some yogas which concentrate on the breath.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are different airs within the body and controlling the airs and putting this soul... Soul is already floating in the air. So the yogi mystic process can bring the soul from different places, and then they bring it here and they ascertain where he has to go, and then, from this hole... What is called, this hole?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Devotees -- April 14, 1975, Hyderabad:

Yaśodānandana: Actually they have run a survey in America and they have found out that the greatest drug takers are housewives. The housewives, they are taking these weight-watching pills and they are addictive amphetamines. They are taking them and it gives them energy and they don't want to eat so much. So they are very skinny. They drink a little coffee and smoke cigarettes and take some pills and that is all during the day. Finished. And they remain very slim. And they think this is nice. So gradually they are replacing foodstuffs with pills.

Prabhupāda: That is nature's way because there will be no food in the future. So nature is training them how to live without food.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The whole civilization is becoming expert in killing and dying. That's all.

Prabhupāda: You have got some agricultural experience?

Devotee: Not at all.

Room Conversation with Director of Research of the Dept. of Social Welfare -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Indian society, the did not know how to drink tea even. In our childhood we have seen that Britishers started tea garden. There was no tea plants before Britishers. The Britishers saw the labor is very cheap, and they want to do business, they started. Just like they are doing in Africa. So many gardens, coffee and tea. So they started, and the tea was transferred to be sold in America. They were after business. So the... Now, so much tea, who will consume? The government started a tea sets committee. All the tea garden holders they would pay government. And road to road, street to street, their business was canvassing, preparing tea, very nice, palatable tea, and they advertising if you drink tea, then you will not feel very much hungry, and your malaria will go away and so on, so on. And people began to drink tea. Nice cup. I have seen it. Now they have got a taste. Now gradually now a sweeper also, early in the morning, is waiting in the tea shop to get a cup of tea.

Tea was taken in our childhood if somebody is coughing, sometimes they used to tea. That was also later. But it was unknown. Drinking tea, drinking wine, smoking, meat-eating—these things were unknown. Prostitution. There was prostitution. Not that everyone is prostitute. Very strict. So these things should be taken care of—at least a class of men must be ideal for people others will see. And the training should go on, just like we are doing. We are inviting people to come to chant with us, to dance with us, take prasādam. And gradually they are becoming. The same (?) addicted to drinking, addicted to prostitution, addicted to meat-eating, he is becoming saintly person. This is practical, you can see, what was their previous history and what they are now.

Morning Walk -- July 8, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...is concerned, "How Kṛṣṇa will keep good health?" And we are concerned, "Kṛṣṇa will go to hell. Please supply me food so that I might keep my health good." That is the difference between materialistic and spiritualist. The foolish man does not understand that Kṛṣṇa is supplying food to the elephant, to the ant, and why I shall go to the church for asking my food? It is already there. And our policy is, "Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, please engage me in Your service." Hare Kṛṣṇa means, "O Kṛṣṇa, O the energy of Kṛṣṇa, please engage me in Your service." We create problem. Otherwise, no problem. Kṛṣṇa has arranged everything. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Just see so many fruits for the birds. They are so sumptuously supplied, they are thrown. Pūrṇam idam (Īśo Invocation). Everything is sufficient. But these rascal blind, they do not know. They are trying to adjust. What adjustment? It is already sufficient. You are misusing that. Sufficient land, sufficient intelligence. Everything is sufficient. They are misusing. In Africa, in Australia, sufficient land, and they are raising cattle to kill them. This is their intelligence. And growing coffee and tea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And tobacco.

Devotee: For money, for profit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And tobacco.

Prabhupāda: Tobacco, by which... They know tobacco is bad, and they are utilizing time for growing tobacco and smoking tobacco. This is their intelligence. So blind men... Give them intelligence, these rascals. We call therefore only rascals. People are dying for want of food grains, and they are growing tobacco, which smoking, they will go to hell. This is their intelligence. Huh? What do you think?

Morning Walk -- July 31, 1975, Dallas:

Brahmānanda: The president. Nixon used to use the CIA to... If he had any enemy, he would have the CIA investigate that man. He was using it for his personal political purposes. (break) ...testing. In the early 1960's they were testing the effects of LSD, and so they gave LSD secretly into this one officer's coffee drink. And he drank it. He did not know it was LSD, and he went crazy and committed suicide. So now this investigation of CIA has uncovered this information. So now the family of this officer, they are suing the CIA for millions of dollars. (break) ... regular business of breaking into foreign embassies. In New York and Washington they did over 1500 break-ins, photographing documents, stealing coding machines. Sometimes when they would break in at night into one embassy, they would meet agents of another country who also were breaking into the same embassy, and they would salute one another. (laughter) It's a regular business.

Prabhupāda: They will not kill each other?

Brahmānanda: No, they respected one another because they were both after the same embassy. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...black government is going on all over the world. What they will think of people's welfare?

Brahmānanda: They are all against us.

Prabhupāda: Simply political gain.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Madhudviṣa: So we shouldn't be so angry at him. Some people are serving coffee because people want coffee. Some people are selling bīḍīs because people want bīḍīs. So if some people want to be cheated, so he is simply performing a function of society.

Prabhupāda: That is the world. Therefore the whole world is the society of cheater and cheated. That is the version of my Guru Mahārāja. The whole so-called human society means a bunch of cheaters and cheated. That's all.

Pañca-draviḍa: Īśopaniṣad says, asuryā nāma te lokāḥ. He is going to hell even though he knows that he is cheating. He is also going to hell even if he is consciously cheating.

Prabhupāda: So don't be cheater; don't be cheated. That is intelligence.

Pañca-draviḍa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is our fortune that we've come in contact with a qualified guru? What have we done to qualify to come in contact with you?

Revatīnandana: In other words, why do some come and others not come?

Prabhupāda: It is the ajñāta-sukṛti, say. Ajñāta-sukṛti.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Reporter (1): Swamiji, why do you prohibit this tea or coffee also?

Prabhupāda: Because it is sinful.

Reporter (1): It is sinful?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why should you eat meat?

Reporter (6): What about onions...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, onions is also very agitating.

Reporter (1): Sir, why are they sinful? Why are they sinful?

Prabhupāda: What sinful?

Reporter (1): Why is it sinful to take tea or coffee?

Prabhupāda: Because you get intoxication. If you are habituated to take tea, as soon as in your time you don't take, you'll become mad.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Reporter (1): How to give up this tea and coffee to which we are so much habituated?

Prabhupāda: That they have given up.

Devotee (2): Join the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

Prabhupāda: Just see the example, how they are.... ask them.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, then you lose your hankering for everything else.

Reporter (1): Really?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The higher taste.

Prabhupāda: That is the taste of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra ca (SB 11.2.42). As soon as you advance in devotion, you become detestful to the all material enjoyment.

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Madhudviṣa: Housewives think like that already. They take some pills, and they become very slim and they don't have to eat so much. They just smoke cigarettes and drink coffee and take pills. And they're saving money, they think. They don't have to buy so much food, and they're able to remain slim and trim. So in Kali-yuga, as the food supply runs out, so people won't notice.

Lokanātha: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says they will be starving.

Prabhupāda: Mm?

Lokanātha: As Kali-yuga advances, they're mentioning one time, there will be durbhikṣā, means not even bhikṣā will be given to sādhus.

Prabhupāda: Yes, not even bhikṣā will be available. I don't think bhikṣā is available in Western countries, eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.

Pañcadraviḍa: Bhikṣā? Meaning begging for food? No, they will arrest you. (Prabhupāda chuckles)

Prabhupāda: Arrest.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No money required. No money required. Simply one is required to work to produce food grain. That's all. No money required. And God has given us so much land that we can produce food grain and we can keep cows' milk, and from milk we derive so many rich, nutritious, full of vitamins foodstuff that the whole economic question solved immediately. But we are producing.... Instead of food grain, we are producing tobacco for smoking cigarette. We are producing coffee for going to hell. So how you can expect social reformation? In Africa I have seen. Instead of producing grain, they are producing coffee, tea, and keeping the cows for killing, making business to sell meat to other countries.

Mr. Dixon: Is incense a form of intoxication?

Prabhupāda: Incense? No. Why intoxication?

Mr. Dixon: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Incense keeps the atmosphere very nice, fresh.

Mr. Dixon: Very sweet-smelling.

Guru-kṛpā: This flower is not intoxicating.

Prabhupāda: It is just like in your country, what is that fragrance? Scent. Scent.

Guru-kṛpā: Perfume?

Prabhupāda: Perfume is very popular.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa: There's only five first initiations. Those ladies, I told them to wait some more time. Those ladies, I told them to wait for some more time because they were still drinking tea and coffee until yesterday.

Prabhupāda: No, if they promise they will give up, then we can give.

Mahāṁśa: I already told them, "You please..." They said they will give up but I said that you...

Prabhupāda: No, if they promise you can give.

Mahāṁśa: But, they are waiting, what shall I tell them now? I just now told them...

Prabhupāda: No, tell them that, "If you promise from today you will give up..."

Mahāṁśa: They promised.

Prabhupāda: Then we shall give it.

Mahāṁśa: All five of them?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. If they have promised, we shall give. Simply you don't break promise. You have promised—do it. That's all.

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

Mr. Malhotra: About two years back, two, three of your devotees came to our house here. Naturally we offered them, "Would you like to have coffee, tea?" They said, "No." Then we said, "Would you like to have Coca-cola." They said, "No." Then I said, "What would you like to have, milk?" "Yes." Lassi, chach?(?) Yes. Fruit. Yes. It happened so that Girirāja came to us twice, and twice it was this ekādaśī. Now ekādaśī day they are not supposed to eat this wheat or flour or anything. So when last we came to Bangleswara (?), so we brought some paraṭās with this gobi(?) in it.

Prabhupāda: Ekādaśī.

Mr. Malhotra: We didn't know about ekādaśī. When we came to Mahabaleswar, we opened. They said "No, we can't eat because it is ekādaśī." So we said that "No you won't eat, so it looks odd that we should eat." But we were very hungry, you know. In the morning we didn't take anything. We said "All right, we eat, now we will go to the bazaar and see if we could get something." Then we went to Mahabaleswar, it was all closed, because it was raining season. And then there was one shop which had bananas, good amount of bananas. So we took one dozen or two dozen bananas, and then...

Prabhupāda: Banana is very good. You can make banana and potato. Potato boil and mixed with banana, and make nice puri. And then.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Yogi Amrit Desai: Right. This is what I'm doing too. Everyone... We have about 180 people who live permanently in the āśrama, and they all practice celibacy. Everyone wakes up at 4:00, and they sleep by 9:00. And they don't touch even each other. They sleep different quarters. They sit even separately in sat-saṅga. Everything strict. No drugs, no alcohol, no meat, no tea, no coffee, no garlic, no onion.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Yes. We are following this. But you have got any Deity?

Yogi Amrit Desai: Yes. Lord Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā is our Deities. My guru is Swami Kripalu-anandi. He is in... Near Baroda he has an āśrama. He practiced his sādhana for twenty-seven years, and twelve years was complete silence. The last few years he is speaking once or twice a year because many people request.

Prabhupāda: He's not chanting?

Yogi Amrit Desai: He chants. During his silence, his chanting is allowed. Because when he says... When you say the name of the Lord, that is not called breaking the silence. So he chants.

Prabhupāda: Silence means we shall not talk nonsense. We shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is silence. Instead of wasting time, talking on this material thing, let us chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is positive. And the silence is negative. Stop nonsense; speak sense.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No. They simply take boiled, little black pepper and salt. That's all. (laughter) And that is also stale meat. That is Western. And then they drink coffee and tea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And liquor.

Brahmānanda: And cigarette.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And cigarette for digestion.

Prabhupāda: And their loaf, that is three hundred years old, (laughter) with little butter like...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually they are eating just like prisoners.

Prabhupāda: So from restaurant you have got good income there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Approximately, I would say, between $7,500 and $10,000 a month. That is not all profit, but that is the gross income. Profit? At least more than half profit. And much milk products are used. We supply the temple and the restaurant from the farm four hundred gallons of milk per week.

Prabhupāda: You get from the farm.

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Mr. Koshi: Uniform. No, but say the avoidance of tea and coffee and all that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mr. Koshi: Is something wrong with tea?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is sinful, pāna.

Mr. Koshi: By itself it is not bad.

Prabhupāda: Itself is bad, sinful.

Mr. Koshi: It's a neutral thing.

Prabhupāda: You say, but śāstra says striya, sūnā, pāna, dyūta (SB 1.17.38), four kinds of sinful activities. Illicit sex; pāna, intoxication. Pāna, pāna, so it is intoxication. Therefore it is sinful.

Mr. Koshi: And what is the fourth?

Prabhupāda: Striya, sūnā and jīva-hiṁsā, unnecessarily killing animals.

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You don't understand, therefore I say you become a student. Understand it. That is our institution. If you don't want to understand, that is another thing.

Mr. Koshi: No. I try to understand, but I drink coffee and tea. I cannot...

Prabhupāda: Because you have not been taught by proper teacher.

Mr. Koshi: That I accept.

Prabhupāda: That is not your fault. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). This is Vedic injunction. So therefore our brahmacārī system. First of all one becomes brahmacārī. Brahmacārī guru-kule vasan dānto guror hitam (SB 7.12.1). These things are there. Everything is there and we don't take advantage of this knowledge. We are after becoming dogs, that's all.

Mr. Koshi: But there are several millions like me.

Prabhupāda: That does not mean... Several zeros does not mean one. Millions of zeros does not mean one. Zero is zero. If several millions of zeros, adding, you cannot make one. That is not possible. One is required. And if you want after zero, you go on. But if you are after one, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, then you are Kṛṣṇa conscious. Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Don't after these zeros. Mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. This is the... If you are after zeros, that is your business. Kṛṣṇa says "Come after one."

Morning Talk -- April 25, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And watch television. That is the great American sport, watching television. When Mr. Dwivedi and his friends were asking, I went over what our... I gave him an idea of what our menu would be. So he was saying, "So four o'clock in the afternoon will be tea or coffee?" I said, "We don't drink tea or coffee. We don't take cigarette. We don't go to the cinema." Actually I should have told him, "No onions or garlic." I didn't tell him, you know. You'll tell him when we go there.

Prabhupāda: You just appoint one local cook. There are good cooks.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah.

Prabhupāda: That ḍāl, ruṭi and purina(?) chutney. If there is no vegetable, you can eat there nicely.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't think there'll be any problem at all for the fooding. Actually it seems to me it'll be a very good arrangement in everywhere. Simple but very nice.

Prabhupāda: If you can eat ḍāl, ruṭi with little Pudina chutney, that is sufficient.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: And at night little milk. Bas, complete food.