Cut off (Conv. and Letters)

Expressions researched:
"cut off" |"cuts off" |"cutting off"

1967 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Hayagrīva: Yes. Does she give Him her blessing finally?

Prabhupāda: No. Of course, mother's blessings are always there. But the scene was that mother was crying and He was falling on the feet and His mother was very sorry that He had very beautiful hair. Now it is all cut off. In this way, the scene is very pathetic. So in this way, after remaining at Advaita's house, His mother was asking Him through Advaita, "Let Him remain for some time." Then He consulted "Mother, now just you think over that I have taken sannyāsa. And if I remain in this way, leaving My own family, and if I leave another family, do you think this is very nice for a sannyāsī? So give Me permission to go away." Then mother agreed and other friends like Advaita and Śrīnivāsa requested His mother that "You give Him permission." Then (s)he said, "Yes, I have to give Him permission because He has already accept sannyāsa.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: ...attachment during the...

Prabhupāda: Well, if you have got attachments for something material, then where is the cut-off attachment. LSD is a material chemical.

Allen Ginsberg: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: So if you have to take shelter of LSD then you take, I mean to say, help from the matters, so that is... How you can... How you are free from matter?

Allen Ginsberg: Well, the subjective experience is, while in the state of intoxication of LSD, also realizing that LSD is a material pill, and that it does not really matter.

Prabhupāda: So that is risky. That is risky.

Allen Ginsberg: Yeah. Now so, if LSD is a material attachment, which it is I think, then is not the sound, śabda, also a material attachment?

Prabhupāda: No, śabda is spiritual. Originally just like in Bible there is, "Let there be creation." This sound, this spiritual sound. Creation. Creation was not there. The sound produced the creation. Therefore, sound is originally spiritual and through the sound; sound—from sound, sky develops; from sky, air develop; from air, fire develop; fire, water develop; from water, land develop.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Some of them.

Allen Ginsberg: Well it's... The chimneysweeper is the little boy who has to go into a chimney to sweep out the soot. And the man who hired the chimneysweeper cut off all his hair, and he had beautiful hair, so his friend told him, "Never mind because when your hair is gone you know that the soot cannot spoil your pretty white hair." So if you have no hair you don't have to worry what will happen to your hair, which is a very Vaiṣṇava doctrine also.

Devotee: Excuse me, Prabhupāda, it's five to eleven now.

Allen Ginsberg: Ok. We'd better let everybody retire.

Kīrtanānanda: Here, there's a little bit of food coming.

Devotee: Ah, prasādam.

Allen Ginsberg: Oh, it's a Gnostic doctrine, if it's not Vaiṣṇava.

Prabhupāda: Come on. You come, Mr. Ginsberg, take. First of all, you take. You take.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Now I do not know what other people give analogy, but my business is that we take it from Bhagavad-gītā that living entities are part and parcel of God. Therefore, just like this part and parcel of my body is active in relationship with this body but if it is cut off from the body, it is no more active. Similarly, those who are not active in rendering service to God, they're as dead as this finger cut off from the body. So they have to be awakened to that consciousness. Just like a tree, you cut it, it has no consciousness to protest. But, even an ant, a small ant, because it has developed consciousness, you try to kill it, it'll protest. Therefore the more consciousness you develop, you become active. That is nature's law. That is nature's law. Developed consciousness does not mean to become dead.

Dr. Weir: This is what I've said earlier on that the whole of the...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore if one comes to God consciousness, he becomes more active.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dai Nippon -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because king—the kṣatriya means royal order-they, sometimes they had to kill somebody. If somebody is criminal, "Cut off his head." So in order to become powerful in cutting head, so they had to practice hunting. Yes. This hunting was allowed to the kṣatriyas. There are four divisions: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, and śūdra. Four divisions means intelligent class, administrative class, mercantile class, and laborer class. So these kṣatriyas, they are royal order, giving protection to the citizens. And the brāhmaṇas giving good advice to the royal order. And the mercantile class, they work under the regulation of the royal order. And the worker class, they give simply service. (Japanese)

Dai Nippon representative: Year and a half ago, Mr. Tajima, he lose his son, twenty-eight years old.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I heard. In some accident?

Dai Nippon representative: By traffic accident.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 1, 1973, Jakarta:

Devotee (1): The night that, the first gathering at the Indian man's home, they all wanted to meet with you then but Amogha didn't know that. They were planning to come in the room and offer their services. But there was some mix-up, and they didn't understand. They thought they had been cut off.

Devotee (2): They told me they wanted you to go in the room for prasādam. But they wanted a meeting and they didn't tell me. I didn't know.

Prabhupāda: I can request them. But if they deny that will be insult for me. Therefore I do not like to request them. That will be not good for them, if I request and then they deny, or they do not do. That is not that will be good for them. It is better not to request. That will be offense, if they deny. Or if they did not carry out my order, then it will be offense. Why should they put themselves in such risk? Generally it is the duty of the householder to offer, "Sir, what can I do for you?" Then I can request. But if, as a beggar, I request them and they deny, then that will be great offense for them. That will not good for them.

Devotee (2): (indistinct)

Devotee (1): We are almost there.

Prabhupāda: So you wanted to secure place here?

Garden Conversation with Mahadeva's Mother and Jesuit Priest -- July 25, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: They are now little children. But we don't wish to send them to college. We have got sufficient books.

Mother: So you'll cut off their education like that?

Prabhupāda: What is this nonsense education?

Revatīnandana: No, no.

Mother: Now, do you think that's not cruel to them?

Prabhupāda: We don't care for this...

Revatīnandana: We cut off your education, and we take education from the Vedas and from our spiritual master. We learn how to read, how to write, how to handle numbers sufficiently, and whatever we need practically for our work. And we learn the science of God from our spiritual master. And we find that sufficient for us. We haven't got to spend extra time and many extra years irrelevant subjects that are never going to relate to our practical life or to our God conscious life.

Jesuit Priest: But you're depending on other people, then, to do the other side of your life for you.

Prabhupāda: We are not depending on anyone.

Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:

Revatīnandana: The distinction between killing a cow and cutting off a cauliflower from a plant. He said, "Both are alive." Yes, both are alive. But what is the psychological state of a cow, and what is the psychological state of a cauliflower plant? Practically speaking, he has no psychology. No senses, no mind, no ability to feel elation or suffering. But a cow is a completely different condition. Cow is very nearly to human consciousness. Practically the next birth after a cow, according to the Vedas, is a human birth. So you're putting so much suffering unnecessarily. But he had no sense, not... An intelligent man who can sense that "If I suffer, I don't like it," then when he sees another living entity put into suffering, he thinks, "How I could avoid that suffering for that living entity, because I don't like to suffer." But this gentleman had no conception. He's...

Prabhupāda: There is one moral instruction by Cāṇakya Paṇḍita. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita was a great minister during the time of Mahārāja Candragupta. So he was honorary Prime Minister in the empire. So he has a book of moral instruction. So he says in that moral instruction, who is a learned man. So he gives the description of a learned man, that: mātṛvat para-dāreṣu. Mātṛvat. "Just treat all other women except your wife as your mother." Mātṛvat para-dāreṣu, para-dravyeṣu loṣṭravat. Loṣṭa means as there are so many pebbles lying on the street, you don't care for it, similarly, others' property, others' money you should treat just like these pebbles lying on the street or the garbage lying on the street.

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

Prabhupāda: No. Just like Dr. Bose's laboratory. So Dr. Bose's laboratory, I was manager. Then I took his agency, very good terms. I was earning money like anything. But the next manager, he became envious. He began to poison Dr. Bose, to cut off our relationship. So it happened. Then, when I was Dr. Bose's agent, I become so much famous that Bengal Chemical, the biggest chemical factory, he, they wanted to give me the agency. If I would have taken that agency, I would have been the richest man in the chemical world. You see. But they made some condition. So I did not accept it. I wanted in my condition. That is the very little... But I was puffed-up, that "I am such a big... And this man is flattering. So I must get my condition fulfilled." So I did not accept it. The Smith Stanstreet gave me agency. Because in my work, in Dr. Bose's laboratory, I did it very creditably. So every other manufacturers, they became attracted to me, how to get me. The Smith Stanstreet Company, Bikepala(?) Company, Bose's, Bengal Chemical Company, they all wanted me. And I thought, "Oh, everyone wants me." So, so I refused. And later on there was a clique between Dr. Bose and me. So I lost everything. Then I started my own laboratory. Somehow or other, there was something, and...

Śyāmasundara: Oh, I see.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 22, 1974, Hawaii:

Satsvarūpa: When the customs authorities tried to stop Kṛṣṇa in Mathurā, He cut off their heads. They said, "Where are you going with that cloth?"

Prabhupāda: No, that is supreme authority. Supreme authority means nobody can check. That is supreme authority. But he is checked in so many ways.

Sudāmā: But the rascals, they say that "This is his līlā."

Prabhupāda: Līlā? Then I kick on your face. that is also my līlā. (laughter)

Bali Mardana: What's that.

Prabhupāda: I kick on your face. (More laughter) That will be my līlā. Where is this rascal now, at the present moment?

Bali Mardana: Perhaps in Colorado. He has a big...

Sudāmā: Yes, in America, mainland.

Bali Mardana: He has a big following among the hippies of Colorado.

Prabhupāda: Somebody said that I am talked in their camp that I am priest. I am priest.

Bali Mardana: In their camp?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Simply he's to carry the order. He's not to make orders. That is devotee. Everyone, in the material world, they worship demigods—why? Because they can order, "Please give me this. Please give me that." Rūpaṁ dehi, bhāryāṁ dehi, yaśo dehi, this dehi, this dehi, dehi... Therefore they go to demigods. But to Kṛṣṇa he cannot demand. And therefore they do not go; they do not become Vaiṣṇavas. You see? You'll see, all the devotees of Lord Śiva, they demanded something. "My dear Lord Śiva, you are so nice. Please give me this." "What do you want?" "Now, I shall touch anyone's head and head will be cut off." "All right, that's all." These things you cannot get from Kṛṣṇa. These things you cannot get from Kṛṣṇa. Therefore people do not go to Kṛṣṇa.

Dr. Patel: Kṛṣṇa is a more hard taskmaster.

Prabhupāda: Because He cannot acc... He is God! He cannot accept anyone's order. That is God. If somebody accepts my order, he's not God. He's my servant. Or I make him my servant. That is surrender. No more ordering. God is not order-supplier. Although He supplies everything, but not... You cannot order. You cannot order.

Morning Walk -- April 17, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...of safety and security. During Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira's reign there was no unnecessary disease and anxiety also. That is mentioned. You have read? (break) Some hundred years ago. When I went to Kashmir, so they said that "Here the law was if a thief was caught and proved he has stolen, his hands would be cut off."

Dr. Patel: That is the law presently in Arabia.

Indian Man: Nepal too. Nepal.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Yes. (break) So at the present moment Indians means non-Mohammedans. What he is, he does not know—but he is not Mohammedan. That's all. (laughter) Otherwise he has to be, go to Pakistan. Therefore he's non-Mohammedan. That's all. (break) In big, big cities you cannot safely walk. Here, India still, we lie down in the open air. That is not possible there. In Dallas, Dallas I wanted to lie down in the open air. "No, no, you cannot do that."

Dr. Patel: In that way England is better. England is far better.

Prabhupāda: No, no, England... England you cannot lie down on the open. No.

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Is the karma.

Pṛthu Putra: The karma. What is still existing when a body is dead and when the soul is gone, the something is still there, still existing, is the karma.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Let's say if your hand is cut off, and it's lying there. Why is it that you are not conscious of that hand? (French)

Pṛthu Putra: Because the nerves are just cut.

Prabhupāda: No, no, if the body and the hand is the same, when it is cut, then it is lying down on the floor. So why there is no consciousness. His question is very intelligent.

Deshimaru: Because the hand is cut.

Prabhupāda: But it is hand. Why there is no consciousness?

Karandhara: It's part of the body. It should have its own consciousness if the body and consciousness is the same.

Prabhupāda: You say the consciousness and body is the same. So when it is cut, why there is no consciousness? Therefore the body is different from consciousness. Therefore body is different from consciousness.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: No, it is natural, just natural. Just like why first-class men required in society? Just like in your body there is first-class part, second-class part, third-class part, and fourth-class part. Just like your head is the first-class part of your body. If your head is cut off, then everything is finished.

Justin Murphy: True.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, if in the society, if we don't create first-class men, that society is dead. That society is dead. So at the present moment there is no first-class men according to this word. Therefore there is chaotic condition, problems, and so on, so on, so on. So unless you create at least a few percentage of the people first-class men according to this standard, there cannot be any progress. This is my last word to you.

Justin Murphy: Thank you. I wish you all well, and maybe I should think along those lines myself. It's been most interesting talking to you.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is necessary to create a class of men first class, ideal. And if you all create fourth-class men, then there cannot be peace. It is not possible.

Justin Murphy: Thank you.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with Two Lawyers and Guest -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, if we try to make an attempt to bring people on the platform of God consciousness, then he is possessing all other qualities: how to take care of the body, how to use the mind, how to use intelligence, everything. But it is not possible that everyone should become God conscious.

That is not possible. Because there are different grades. But at least one class of men should remain in the society as ideal, God conscious. Just like for our usual life we require lawyers, we require engineer, we require medical practitioner, we require so many, similarly, in the society there must be a class of men who are fully God conscious and ideal. That is necessary. Just like in your body you have got hands, legs, belly, but the head must be there. If your head is cut off, then, despite you have got hands, legs, and belly, it is useless. So this attempt, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is an attempt to keep at least one class of men, ideal devotee, ideal character. At least, people will see, "Oh, here is an ideal character." That is required. That is described in the Śrīmad-..., Bhagavad-gītā, how to create a first-class man.

Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, kṣatriyas are meant for sometimes killing. Just like Arjuna, he's a kṣatriya. So Kṛṣṇa is criticizing him that "You are a kṣatriya. You have learned how to kill, and now you are hesitating? What is the nonsense?" So kṣatriyas are taught. So they have to rule over. So if required, the demons and the culprit, should immediately cut off his head, duty of the government. So all of a sudden you cannot do that. Just like in your country a young man, he has never learned how to kill and he is drawn in the draft board, "Come on. Go and kill." What he will do? He will hesitate. This is not perfect system. If you want a kṣatriya, you must train them. You must train a class of men as brāhmaṇas. You must train a class of men as kṣatriya and a class of men as agriculturist and cow protection, and balance are workers. That is cātur-varṇyam: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. But the kṣatriya or the president or the secretary, they are sitting very comfortably at our home and some poor young men—"Come on. Go and fight." What is this? What they will fight? They will die there, that's all. If he does not know how to fight, that energy is lacking, what he will do there?

Morning Walk -- July 2, 1975, Denver:

Nitāi: It's Saturday, the 6th.

Devotee (2): What does the yogi perceive when he cuts off the outer senses, he finally reaches the...

Prabhupāda: Perceive?

Devotee (2): What does he experience when he cuts off the outer senses and is able to...

Prabhupāda: Outer senses, what do you mean by outer senses-dead?

Devotee (2): His bodily senses.

Prabhupāda: There is no question of outer senses. Senses purified. What do you mean by outer senses?

Devotee (2): The senses with which you perceive the outer gross...

Prabhupāda: That always remains. But when it is not purified, you perceive material things. When it is purified, you perceive spiritual things.

Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: It has to be. If you don't, then you must suffer with all these criminals. That is natural. Just like in your body there is head, and there is arm, and there is belly, and there is leg. The head is the most important part. Why? Why not all legs? Why there are different divisions? Similarly, in the human society, if we want to make it perfect, there must be head, there must be arm, there must be belly, there must be legs. So leg can walk, but leg cannot do the work of brain. So at the present moment we have got all walking men, no brain. Therefore the society is in chaotic condition. There is no brain in the society. That is the defect of modern civilization. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). According to quality and work, there are four divisions. (aside:) You can push it back. Four divisions. So similarly, four divisions must be there: a group of men, first-class; a group of men, administrators; a group of men, food producer; and a group of men, general worker. So the brain is the chief. If your body... There are other parts, but if your head is cut off, then what is the use of other parts? If your hand is cut off, you can live. If your leg is cut off, you can live. But if your head is cut off, then finished. So that is lacking in the present society, no brain how to guide, so that whole human... If the brain is there, then it can guide. It can ask the hand to work in a certain way, the leg to work in certain way, to eat in a certain way. Then the health of the whole body will be quite competent. But if there is no brain, then everything... Just like a man becomes mad when the brain is not working.

Morning Walk -- October 6, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They were making finer cloth by hand than the British were making by machines. So in order to discourage, they would cut off the thumb so they couldn't weave.

Prabhupāda: So many things. And to make a show, the Lord Hasting was impeached in the Parliament. Here the black men, they are Africans.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. In this country there's nineteen million Africans and about over five million Europeans, about one million Indian people, and about one million colored people.

Prabhupāda: So these women, what they are carrying on the head?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I don't know. What do they carry, Gokulendra prabhu?

Gokulendra: They carry all sorts of things, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Sometimes they carry their supplies that they...

Prabhupāda: They are local women or...

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: Yes. That "Later on, after the death of husband in some places the wife was forced to go to the fire, so the Britishers stopped it. And they introduced railway for going to the pilgrims and so many, and they constructed bridges to make easy to go from one country to another." And people took it very seriously, that British government is very nice. And they were publishing in outside country that "India is uncivilized. We are making them civilized. And as soon as they are civilized, then we hand over the charge to them. That is our noble mission." And they were exploiting. All raw materials was being taken away and the necessities of India, especially cloth, was being supplied. And the local weavers, their hands cut off. So many thing they, tainting… And everything bad. Just like Jawaharlal Nehru. He became a first-class victim.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: First-class?

Prabhupāda: Victim of European propaganda. He used to take "Anything Indian, bad. Anything Indian, bad." Not only he. Later on, all the so-called educated persons, they took it for granted that "Whatever is done in London, that is first-class, and whatever is Indian original, that is all bad." And they controlled the native princes. So many things. It is a big history, how they killed India's original culture. And then Hindu-Muslim riots, friction, fighting between Hindus and Muslims and dividing them.

Morning Walk -- October 18, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: No, he starts... According to the body he will work. If he enters into the dog's body, he will work as a dog. If he enters in the body of a tree, he will work as the tree: stand up naked without any shame; you cannot protest, your branches will be cut off. So these things are there. What do they know about this science? Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You have to take a different body. He does not say what kind of body. And you can see by practical experience. There are 8,400,000 different forms of body. You have to enter one of them. That's all. So what you can do? The nature will force you, "Enter this body." It may be a better body or it may be an abominable body, but you have to enter another body. Where is that education that "I'll have to enter another body after death, and let me prepare what kind of body I shall have"? Where is that education? They are blind.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Would you like to go back to the temple now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Time is up? Hm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We can walk if you like.

Prabhupāda: No, what time we have to go?

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Ferocious.

Cyavana: Oh yes, very.

Brahmānanda: And it just happened recently, one political opposition leader, he was brought to some place near Nairobi and he was... His genitals were cut off, his eyes were...

Prabhupāda: Plucked out.

Cyavana: Then he was shot.

Brahmānanda: Then he was shot.

Prabhupāda: African?

Brahmānanda: There was a big scandal because the police were implicated.

Prabhupāda: This parking plan are made by them?

Brahmānanda: I don't know.

Cyavana: The park itself?

Prahupada: Yes.

Morning Walk -- November 26, 1975, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Knowledge means received from the superior. Like the child gets knowledge from the father. That kind of faith is required. If the child does not believe the statement of father and mother, he cannot make any progress. If the child does not believe the statement of mother, he does not know who is his father. So there must be faith, faith in the right person. Then it is all right. If you have got faith in the person who has got eyes to lead you, then he will help you to cross the road. And if you put your faith to another blind man like you, then it will cause disaster. Faith is required, but to the right person. Then it will be all right. You know that one barber is honest: then you can make your neck like this and he is with a sharpened razor. But you have faith that "He will not cut my throat; he will shave me." This is faith. And if you do not know him and if you put your neck like this and if he is a rogue, he will cut your throat. That's all. The same faith, if you put it to the right person, you become cleansed, shaved, and the same faith put in the wrong person—your throat is cut off. So you must know where to put the faith. So our Vedic injunction is: "Put your faith to the brahma-nistam, one who is God-realized." Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet samit-paniḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭam: (MU 1.2.12) "One who has full knowledge in the Vedas and firmly fixed up in Brahman, God, you put your faith there." Otherwise there will be disaster. Right faith. (break) ...you call Prabhakara?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 11, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So they are suffering from disaster. Again work hard. Just see how benefit.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. And when the people said to the government, "You should pay us," they said, "No, we cannot pay you, and if you don't work, we will cut off your food."

Prabhupāda: This is Kali-yuga. Durbhikṣa-kārāpīḍita. One side, government disturbance, one side, no food, and they let them live very happily. That's all. This is their conception of happiness. Tactation(?), taxation, and no food, and natural disturbance.

Hṛdayānanda: (break) ...country in my zone. Many times big tidal waves come and many, many towns are simply carried away into the ocean and destroyed. Thousands of people... Every so many years gigantic waves come, and thousands of people are killed and many towns are destroyed. (break)

Prabhupāda: Observe. You have got any pañjikā?

Jayapatākā: Yes. Just now bringing.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So there is mention what to do.

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Natural sequence.... Just like you are infected, some contaminous disease. You'll suffer. There is a story that one fool was sitting on a branch of a tree and he was cutting off. And somebody said, "You'll fall down." "Ha, fall down." But when he fell down he said, "Oh, you are a great astrologer." So who goes to the astrologer? Only fools and rascal. No sane man goes. They know that what is.... Yad bhavyantam tad bhavata.(?) What is to happen, that will happen. Why shall I go to astrologer?

Gurukṛpā: I can prepare myself to make change.

Prabhupāda: Yes. My only business is to serve Kṛṣṇa. I don't mind what will happen next.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, though, that Kṛṣṇa....

Prabhupāda: Don't talk like foolish. That desire everyone has. He is serving. He is serving so many things, but he doesn't want to serve Kṛṣṇa. That is his foolishness. He is serving māyā; still, he denies to serve Kṛṣṇa. That is his misfortune. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). So unless one is very fortunate, he does not agree to serve Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Not developed. But you cannot say there is no soul. Sometimes they say foolishly that the animal, there is no soul. That is foolishness. Everywhere there is soul. It is not developed. So just like a child is as good as animal, but you cannot say in the child there is no soul. The consciousness is not developed. You can say like that. Similarly, there are 8,400,000 species of forms. They are different on account of different development of consciousness. A tree, there is consciousness, but it is very, very covered. If you cut the tree, it does not protest, because the consciousness is not developed. I have seen in children surgical operation. They do not require anesthetics. I remember. My eldest daughter, when she was child, she had some boil here. So the doctor wanted to operate. So I asked him that "Apply anesthetic or do something." "No, no, they don't require." And so the doctor cut the boil, and the child simply, "Ehhh, ehhh," no crying. I have seen it when they did.... No crying. Because the consciousness is not developed. Now, what do you mean by...? When you are unconscious, if your head is cut off, you do not understand.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Where the government will get money?

Mahendra: They'll print it. (break)

Jagannātha-sūta: ...cutting off the head when you have a headache.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...in the age of Kali-yuga, difficulties will increase. That's a fact. Very, very difficult. We have passed only five thousand years, and there is balance of 427,000, hundreds of years, thousands. (break) ...only go back to home, back to Godhead. (break) ...has therefore advised that "Don't be engaged in all this nonsense activities, economic development. Simply become Kṛṣṇa conscious." (break) ...promises that "For such persons who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, I'll take charge for their maintenance directly." Yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham (BG 9.22). (break) ...envious of one another. They see that "These people, they do not do anything, and living so comfortably."

Rāmeśvara: They say that in the future, because of the overpopulation problem, there will not be sufficient foodstuffs, so they will have to develop eating simply by taking pills.

Prabhupāda: Scientists will do that, but we shall take milk preparations.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Factually, these rascals are creating magic jugglery. Even during the time of Kṛṣṇa such rascals were there. Pauṇḍraka. So Kṛṣṇa was present, He immediately cut off his head. (laughs) They should be immediately cut off their head, rascals. Yes. That is the only punishment for them. What another news you told me?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, also they started, they've called the department the Department of Hindu Studies.... There's an all-Indian University in Durban, and when Śrīla Prabhupāda visited South Africa, the president of the university was a European gentleman, he very much appreciated our philosophy and the need for a Department of Hindu Studies. So Śrīla Prabhupāda recommended Svarūpa Dāmodara, and we submitted his application. And they've limited the choices for the Ph.D. in charge of the Department of Hindu Studies to three, and one of them is Svarūpa Dāmodara. So there's a possibility...

Prabhupāda: Svarūpa Dāmodara must be the best candidate. Others, what they'll know about it? All other Ph.D.s, they are simply rubber stamped. Actually they have no knowledge. Svarūpa Dāmodara has solid knowledge. He has learned from us. Therefore he's writing all these books. He has rejected his so-called scientific knowledge. He has completely understood that so-called scientific knowledge is bogus, it has no solid background.

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: So there is poison in the mouth, they cut it?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They cut off the head, flesh.

Prabhupāda: Snake they eat. Even in India there is a class, they eat snake. Chinese, they eat. They are Chinese?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They eat anything.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So many abominable things.

Hari-śauri: Someone was telling me in Mexico they have a sandwich called tortilla. It has live cockroaches. And as they're eating, the cockroaches are running to get out of the sandwich, and they are pushing them back in and eating it.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In Africa also they eat live bugs. Cockroaches, dead or alive, anything. Once when we were in Zambia, there was this one African who was cleaning around the house, his name was David. He was about twenty years old. So we swept up his room because it was so filthy—I was there at the time. And there were all these cockroaches in a pile, and we were about to throw them out and he said, "What, you're throwing them out? You mean you're not going to eat them?" (laughter)

Interview with Mike Darby -- June 30, 1976, Wheeling, W. Virginia:

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are coming from Detroit? There are so many factories for four-wheel vehicles, and there is no factory to educate man to the right path. Perhaps... This is our little attempt, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, how to educate to the right path. We are not getting any help, either from the authority... In our own way, as far as possible, we are doing. When people will be educated they will be able to understand who is guru, who is not guru. We can say, but who is going to accept? We say always that they are all rascals, but who will accept our statement? And the state, (if) there had been a department to see what is the qualification of guru, then immediately they would have taken steps. Just like in Kṛṣṇa's time one man falsely presented himself as God. Immediately his head was cut off. Pauṇḍraka. So the state must be very strong to punish the miscreant. But there is no such state.

Darby: This man, Sun Yung Moon, claims to be the Messiaḥ, the Jesus Christ revived.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: Therefore in Vedic civilization they keep, they have more than one wife. So what is the use of killing? Why one should kill? We find from the history, Dhruva Mahārāja's mother and stepmother, there were some critical words, and Dhruva Mahārāja became very, very angry. So the critical words and wives, different wives, that may be, but why one should cut off the head? Dhruva Mahārāja's mother said when Dhruva Mahārāja began to cry before the mother, mother said "My dear child, what can I do? How can I help you? Your father does not care for me, even as maidservant, what to speak of I am queen, I am the senior queen. So this gentleman does not care of me even as maidservant. How can I help you? If God helps you, then..." That was her statement. So that does not mean because the king did not like, she should be beheaded. What is this nonsense? If he is,(?)... may be... After all, he is king. He may not like first wife. Actually, there was no scarcity of comfort, but liking may not be, but that does not mean that she shouldn't be accepted as wife. Kings were allowed to marry more than one wife. Why to accept another wife means another wife should be killed? What is this? Everything nonsense. King can marry more than one wife. And at the time of marriage they were given so many woman. Because the woman population is greater than the man, always. So when the King is married, along with the queen, many other friends of the queen they would go with the king. They live in the same palace, same palace. Sometimes they had children, dāsī-putra. Just like Vidura. Vidura was not queen's son. One of these women friends. So that was allowed.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: Then the answer is the chicken is better than you. He can give you life within seven days. Dr. Chicken is better... They are shameless. Not ordinary, because ordinary a human being will become shameful to speak something nonsense. But they are shameless. In that Bengali, duḥkhānvita(?) One man, one ear was cut off. So in order to hide his cut-off ear he was keeping this side to the river side and this side to the habitation side. So then again his two ears were cut out. Then there is no question of hiding. Both of them were cut out. So these people are duḥkhānvita. When both the ears cut out, there is no shame. They will go on talking all nonsense. Because they are accepted. So many millions of years have passed in the history, nobody could do that, and they are giving hope that life will come after millions of years. Why million? Here is a chicken, he can give life within five days. What credit you'll get after millions of years? But they are duḥkhānvita.(?)So shameless they can speak such nonsense and still pass on as scientists. Tibocham,(?) I think. Duḥkhānvita. No shame, you do not feel that why you are talking nonsense. Am I right or wrong? Here is a chicken, insignificant animal, he is giving life within five days, and we are talking of millions of years, and still we are scientist, Dr. Frog.

Morning Walk -- July 9, 1976, Washington D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Therefore, you should accept Bhagavad-gītā, the summarized Veda. Or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Or Vedānta-sūtra.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's a mystery, why they don't accept Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Because they cannot poke their nose there. Then it will be cut off. (laughter) But still they are attempting to cheat by reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. (indistinct) (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Although, Śrīla Prabhupāda, it's somewhat easy for us to convince that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the summary study of all the Vedic literatures, how can we take that Bhagavad-gītā is the summary study?

Prabhupāda: It is preliminary study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhagavad-gītā ends, from there Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins. (break) Publish your book gradually in the magazine Sa-vijñānam.

Rūpānuga: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rūpānuga: In the journal, by.... Step by step.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Then publish in a book.

Morning Walk -- July 9, 1976, Washington D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That offspring is mouse. (laughter) There is information the rocks were flying.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Mountains, some mountains are flying.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In the..., cut off their wings. (break)

Devotee (1): ...it's true that people are getting disease and sicknesses as the result of their past activities, pious or sinful. Why is it that it appears that when there is a flu many people are inflicted with that flu? Practically everyone, indiscriminately.

Prabhupāda: All of them? Hm. "Birds of the same feather, flock together, see."

Devotee (1): (laughs) What about when it happens amongst the community of devotees or some, hepatitis, or malaria, or something of that nature?

Prabhupāda: Hm? It is also past sins.

Devotee: Purification?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: Many people say that members of the International Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Society are being cut off from work in the world and therefore their contributions to the world are being lost to the world and I wondered how you felt about that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But they have misunderstood.

Interviewer: That is true?

Prabhupāda: Misunderstood.

Interviewer: Misunderstood.

Prabhupāda: The difficulty is they do not understand on which platform we are working.

Interviewer: How would you describe that platform?

Prabhupāda: Just like you or me or anyone, this living condition is one platform and when I or you, we are dead, that is another platform. So generally people are working on the bodily concept of platform.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: Well, since this dichotomy appears to be the case, I mean that there is, that the movement is sort of cut off from the world in general, does that not deprive the world of the service, of the usefulness of these people?

Prabhupāda: First of all, if you do not understand what is the movement then how you can give your verdict like that? First of all, try to understand what is this movement.

Interviewer: The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Society.

Prabhupāda: Then what is that Kṛṣṇa movement? That Kṛṣṇa movement is, just like to understand the driver.

Bali-mardana: The Kṛṣṇa movement is meant to help people to understand the spiritual knowledge, knowledge of who they actually are. That is what our movement is dedicated to. We are not dedicated for our own...

Interviewer: What is the purpose of the movement, your Grace?

Prabhupāda: Purpose of the movement is to know who is the driver of the car.

Interviewer: To know who is the driver of the car?

Prabhupāda: Of the car.

Interviewer: And who is that?

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Mahāṁśa: They have been neglected in the beginning, so they have become stunted. So it will help a little by manuring, and some places it has to be grafted and cut off. Some of the trees are good. We get... How many nimbus did we get this year?

Prabhupāda: Make nimbu-ācāra (lemon pickle).

Mahāṁśa: Oh yes, we made... Acyutagaja isn't here. One devotee here, he knows how to make it. He made very nice nimbu-ācāra.

Prabhupāda: Simply salt and lemon juice. Cut some pieces into half and soak it in lemon juice and put sufficient salt. In due course it will be very nice, thick. Very digestible. (break) Not yet utilized. So you have to do that. (break)

Mahāṁśa: ...a trench and a hedge, which has been planted here so that people and animals... Animals is the main problem. They come and they eat up the plants which we grow. So by having this trench we avoid animals from getting in and a hedge also. There'll be a lot of... One big problem that the Badrukas faced was that there was tremendous pilferage. These village people, they live on this land. They used to cut all the wood here for fire, they used to take whatever grows here, maize, and they used to steal in the night everything. Many times...

Prabhupāda: So ask them to chant and take prasādam. They will be rectified. Make them friends, family members. Just we organize, everything is there.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They say that "There is a brain. There is a tissue. There is cerebrum. On account of, they are thinking spiritually. Otherwise if it is cut off, there will be no more opportunity." They'll do that, brain operation. And whatever nonsense they will do, we'll accept.

Gurukṛpā: They have electric.

Satsvarūpa: Electric shock.

Prabhupāda: Dangerous community. These scientists, the so-called, they are dangerous community. Now, if five ounce(?) sight(?) is there, "No, it should be operated. Then he will be cured." And actually it is happening. In the hospitals they make all kinds of experiment, and if you say, "No, why you are doing that? A patient is suffering," "We must execute our science. So long the life is there we shall try to save him." They say like that. They will go on with all nonsense activity, and if you want to stop them, they will say, "No, our science has got so..." They take in writing that "Whatever we shall do, you cannot object," hospital. It is a place of demons. And as soon as they get a patient who will not protest, they'll make it, they'll make it and operation. No medicine, simply operate.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Where is your brain? You simply say 'combination of chemical,' but you take the chemicals and combine, then we can understand you have got brain. That you cannot do, falsely taking prestigious position that you have got brain. Actually you have no brain. Cheating people." Write articles on this. They have no brain at all. (Bengali) In India there is a prejudice that you should not lie down putting your head towards northern side. Whatever truth may be, one man was asked that "Don't keep your head toward northern side." So he answered, "Where is my head? The head is already cut off." So these people are like that. They are making propaganda of "brainwash," but where is your brain? Challenge them, "Where is your brain?" Cannot answer this simple thing. "Where is your brain?" Write a strong letter on this point and try to publish it. "If there is brain, there is question of washing or doing something else. But where is your brain? You have no brain." (aside:) What is that?

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Muhammadans also.

Bhavānanda: Yes, he said Muhammadans invited him to speak, and they're very... They don't even know who is Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It's been so long since Partition, and they've been cut off. They don't even... One Muhammadan lawyer bought a Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Wanted to read about Him, he said.

Prabhupāda: Full set? Full set?

Bhavānanda: I think one book.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was just inquiring whether you were drinking fruit juice.

Prabhupāda: Fruit juice is very good.

Bhavānanda: I noticed, Śrīla Prabhupāda, your complexion is yellowish. Liver is...

Prabhupāda: There is no hope of life. Therefore we have called you. This condition is hopeless. We have given our will. Now we can... If I die in Vṛndāvana, there is no harm. But Kṛṣṇa can play anything wonderful. But from physical condition there is no hope.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm, hm, hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says he understood that busts of divine images of guru and Kṛṣṇa are not to be made. He says in New York you explained this point with reference to photographs that were used in Back to Godhead of your divine self that it was impersonal to cut off some portion of the complete worshipable form.

Prabhupāda: No, if it is not worshipable, if it is to be kept in library, that can be done.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. He says, "I beg to be excused for troubling Your Divine Grace on all these questions, which I always hesitate to do, but I took this liberty."

Prabhupāda: You are always allowed. Sad-dharma-pṛcchā. This is one of the duties of devotees. Sad-dharma-pṛcchā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says that they're going to try... As long as they can make busts, he says, "We would like to make them larger than life size, in the monumental style, which would include your lotus feet." Full size for museums and other places. Big size. Anywhere where people want to display. But it won't be worshiped. It will be on display. So that's one letter. If you're feeling tired I can read more later on.

Prabhupāda: No, that's all right.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They have got life now. The Indians, on account of this movement, they have got life. They were forlorn, completely cut off from Indian culture. Now they have got it.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I was in Ahmedabad last week. The farm that Bhogilal Patel gave, it's beautiful.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he has made this.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very beautiful. I think it's even more beautiful than Hyderabad. It's hundred acres compared to six hundred acres, but all hundred acres is cultivable. And secondly, it is not far from the city. It is only like from Juhu to Churchgate. It's even less than that.

Yaśomatīnandana: Eight miles.

Prabhupāda: It is nothing.

1967 Correspondence

Letter to Brahmananda -- Calcutta 14 October, 1967:

I have received a letter from Damodara (dated Oct. 9) in which he writes to say:

"Swami Kirtanananda has returned to the United States and is causing quite a stir among the devotees. Following his suggestions, we have stopped wearing robes and have cut off our flags. He said these appurtenances are too strange-looking to outsiders and only make it more difficult for them to consider chanting Hare Krishna. Swami Kirtanananda has said we must avoid appearing to be Orientalists if we are to have 108 centers in the US."

This is very much disturbing to me & has caused me much pain. Please therefore stop Kirtanananda from making his mental concoctions. Do not be misled by him. I have never advised him to act like that. If he is causing such disturbances he should not be allowed to indulge in such nonsensical activities. I have already written you to inform you that somehow or other he has become crazy; otherwise he would not have disobeyed me to go directly to N.Y.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Radhavallabha -- Bombay 6 January, 1972:

Anyone who comes in touch with the Tulasi tree in the above mentioned ways lives eternally in the Vaikuntha world." So from this verse we can understand how pure is the service which Tulasi offers to Sri Krishna. So we should always endeavor after becoming servant of Tulasi Devi. I do not know who has taught you that part of a Tulasi plant may be cut off and then replanted? From the Tulasi plant you can cut off only leaves for offering them to Krishna, never for cutting and planting. That is an offense. The manjaris (seeds) can be offered in water and it makes the water fragrant and tasteful. And the manjaris can be planted for growing new Tulasi plants. Yes, the prayer you have enclosed is bona fide. Tulasi Devi never goes back to Godhead, she is always with Godhead. She is a pure devotee and thus she has appeared on this planet to render service to Krishna by being offered in all temples throughout the world by being offered up to the lotus feet of Krishna.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Muralidhara, Jadurani, Artists -- Rome 25 May, 1974:

It looks like this. It is a block, like the bottom on a guillotine on which the animal is made to lay his head and then his head is cut off.

When Prthu and Archi appeared they looked about 30 or 40 years old.

They were dressed opulently like King and Queen with crowns.

So I am glad that you are fully absorbed in your work and very concerned that it be executed just to my satisfaction in parampara standard. This is your perfection. I am hopeful we will continue our cooperation as I have many many more books to write if you can only keep up with me in publishing and painting.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Riddha -- Detroit 15 June, 1976:

Actually these rascals are simply creating magic and jugglery. Even during the time of Krishna, Paundraka was there and Krishna immediately cut of his head. That is the only punishment for them, to immediately cut off the head of such rascals who pose themselves as God. They are simply cheating the people.

Concerning the Rathayatra festival, you can hold it in the warm months, just like in Melbourne, the festival is held in January. Pusta Krsna Swami is going to arrange to have Jagannatha Deities sent from Puri if there is no one expert enough to make Jagannatha Deities in South Africa.

Svarupa Damodara is the best candidate for the post at the university. What the other candidates will know? Therefore he is writing so many books. He has rejected the so-called scientific knowledge. It has no basis. So if he is chosen for the post he can go there to Durban and take up the post.