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Danger (Conversations 1967 - 1975)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1967 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: The first scene is that people passing on with saṅkīrtana movement as we have, as we usually do, very nice procession with mṛdaṅga, karatālas and that bugle, all people, just in the ordinary way. We have to make a nice procession. The second scene is that Kali, the personified Kali, a person should be decorated blackish. A blackish man with royal dress and very ugly features. And his queen, another ugly featured girl or lady. So they are disturbed. They'll talk between themselves that "There is saṅkīrtana movement now and how we shall prosecute our business of this Kali-yuga?" There will be, in that scene, in some corner somebody is drinking. Two or three persons drinking. The scene will be like that. They are sitting in the center. In one corner somebody taking part in drinking, and another part somebody is illicitly talking of lust and love with woman. In another section there is slaughtering of a cow, and another section gambling. In this way that scene should be adjusted. And in the middle, the ugly man, black man, and the ugly woman will talk that "We are now in danger. The saṅkīrtana movement has been started. What to do?" In this way you have to finish that scene.

Hayagrīva: Now Kali is depicted as a male. As male?

Prabhupāda: As male, yes.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So we never believed in such statement. We never believed.

Reporter: Right. What I mean is that when Dan Donnelley told me that in some of your lectures you had said that it would be impossible for man to land on the moon and that they would be opposed by beings on the moon, those sounded like very definite statements that if those things did not happen, then there would be a similar potential for a crisis within the Kṛṣṇa movement of people hearing one thing said and it doesn't happen in the future. Then if those things are said that definitely, then there's always a danger that...

Prabhupāda: No. Danger... When the scientists said that 1965 they would go. Did not happen. What danger has happened?

Reporter: The danger to the faith of those who felt, say, in jehovah's Witnesses, those who believed that the jehovah's Witness knew and nothing happens. They say, "Well..."

Prabhupāda: But they're still believing. First of all, they say that 1965 they're going to the moon planet. That has not happened. Now you say 1975. So they are still believing. So a class of men will always be cheated like that. A class of men. So there will be no danger of cheating such persons.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- May 10, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Never, never, never. That is his insanity, another. As soon as he thinks that "I am independent," that is another insanity. He is under control. Just like the same man. He is thinking, "I don't care for state laws." He is insane. He will be forced to accept state laws in the prison house by the police. But he thinks, "Oh, I am free man." Still... He is slapped by the police. He says, "Oh, I am independent. Go on slapping." This is insanity. Is it not insanity? The police slaps him, and he says, "I am independent." Do you think independence? So that sort of independence we are having. We are kicked by māyā always, and we are thinking, "independent." This is insanity. He does not think, "Why I am independent? I am servant of my senses. I cannot remain, enjoying senses, for an hour, and I am thinking I am independent." That means insane. He cannot think properly. Where is his independence? Cannot be independent. He is born dependent because part and parcel of God. His constitutional position is dependent. Just like child. A child declares independence. What is the meaning of that independence? Danger. That's all. Simply inviting dangers. A child wants: "Oh, I don't care for my parents. I shall cross the road. I shall go everywhere." So if he is allowed to do that, that means he is simply inviting dangers. And if he remains under the protection of the parents, he is always safe. So this living entity's declaring independence means he is insane, different kinds of insanity. He cannot be independent. Let him think very deeply that it cannot be independent. He is thinking independent of God, but he is dependent on his sense pleasure. That's all.

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

Prabhupāda: Another incident during Purī... Rāmānanda Rāya, he was a great devotee. So his younger brother, he was engaged in government service, Mahārāja Pratāparudra's service. But he was a karmi and a rich man. So he misappropriated some money for sense gratification from the treasury. So this was... And he had some, what is called, competition, or rivalry, between the king's son and himself. The king's son did not like him, so he was trying to put him in some difficulty. This man... His name is... He's Rāmānanda Rāya's brother. His name is there. I can find out. So he found out some fault with him and informed his father that "Your such and such person has doing like this. He has misappropriated the money. I paid him so much money for purchasing horse, and he has purchased horse less price. He was charged so much." "Oh," the king said, "Oh, how is that? He cannot do that. Realize that money." So he got some clue. So he said that "You must pay. This is not the right price. The state cannot accept at high price this kind of horses." So he said, "All right. I shall sell somewhere and repay the price." Then there was some argument. He said, "Why you have charged so much for this horse? This is not a very good horse." He said, "Yes, it is good horse. My horse does not look like this." That man, that king's son was looking like this. So he criticized him, so he became more angry. Because you know, everyone, that a horse who looks down like this, that is bad(?) horse. Or looking like this, he's not first-class horse. Do you know that? (laughter) Horse, like this, kat, kat, kat, kat, that is first-class horse. And if horse goes like this, that is not good horse. So he criticized him, and he became angry, and he complained to his father that he's not paying. Rather, he's criticizing me. And he said, "All right. Press him. He'll pay." So the... In those days the highest punishment was cange utthanā. Cange utthanā means a platform is made very high and swords are put in the, this way. And one man is thrown on the swords. That is called cange utthanā. So the arrangement was to punish him like that. So when the arrangement was made, everyone became frightened that "This man will be killed." So they presented the fact to Caitanya Mahāprabhu that "He is Your devotee. He has served so much. Now he is in danger. If You kindly send some note to the king, he is also great admirer, then he may save his life." Caitanya Mahāprabhu refused, "Oh, he has misappropriated state's money, and you want Me to approach a pound-shilling man, king."

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1971, Gorakhpur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Or both. You might get both.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have seen, they have spoken like that. Because the patient will think, "Oh, I take injection, I'll be very quickly cured." He will canvass like that. Because if he gives a bottle of medicine, that will not be very costly. But injection in his hand, he'll (have) at least five rupees, that much. So he'll canvass like that, "What kind of treatment you want, injection or ordinary medicine." So he'll say, "Sir, best medicine I want." "Then you take injection." That's all. It is a fact that the whole human civilization is a society of cheaters and cheated. That's all. Any field. mayaiva vyavaharite. The whole world in this Kali-yuga: mayaiva vyavaharite. Vyavaharite means ordinary dealings, there will be cheating. Ordinarily, there will be cheating. Daily affairs. Not to speak of very great things. Ordinary dealings, there will be cheating. That is stated in the Bhāgavata, mayaiva vyavahari. The sooner you get out of this scene is better. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So long you live, you simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and preach Kṛṣṇa's glories, and that's all. Otherwise, you should know that this is a dangerous place. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ (SB 10.14.58). In every step there is danger.

Mālatī: This lecture was recorded in Gorakhpur, U.P., India, on the evening of Feb. 14, 1970 (end)

Room Conversation -- April 6, 1971, Bombay:

Guest: Divine birth is not... There's no known being, super-being, here to... Here you find Vietnam War, you find here Bangladesh, you find all suffering and they'll cry all around to God that "He will come and protect us," and there is no protection anywhere from this.

Prabhupāda: Well, this kind of protection, crying at the time of danger, this is experienced from past history also. Just like in the last war in Germany. One German friend told me that naturally all the women went to the church for praying, "My Lord, save my husband. Save my brother." Because all men were in the front, only women were left. So they were praying that "My husband may come back. My brother may come back," or "My father may come back," but nobody came back, and they thought, "Oh, there is no God. Our all prayers are useless." They became atheist.

Temple Press Conference -- August 5, 1971, London:

Woman Interviewer: Do you feel there's a danger?

Prabhupāda: Of course, to search out guru is very nice. But if you want a cheap guru or if you want to be cheated, then there will be many cheater gurus. But if you are sincere, then you'll have sincere guru. People want to be cheated because they want everything very cheap. But just like we are asking people no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication. So people think it is very difficult, it is botheration. And if somebody says, "No, you do. Whatever nonsense you like do. You simply take my mantra," they will like it. So the thing is that they want to be cheated; therefore cheaters come. They don't want to undergo some austerity. Human life is meant for austerity. But they are not prepared to undergo austerity. Suppose some cheaters come. They say, "Oh, no austerity. Whatever you like you do. You simply pay me and I'll give you some particular mantra, and you become God within six months." (Laughter) And that is going on. So you want to be, if people want to be cheated like that, the cheaters will come.

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

Śyāmasundara: Whether it has a good effect or it has a bad effect.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So similarly, just like this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is coming down from Kṛṣṇa through the chain of disciplic succession. So if it is actually given in the exact definition, that process, it is effective. And it is actually being experienced that it is effective.

Śyāmasundara: Just like this medicine...

Dr. Weir: Which may not, unfortunately... This is the danger of analogy. This medicine may work in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred and the hundredth one could kill the poor chap. Now you can't say that the physician was cheating in prescribing for the hundredth chap because he just didn't know.

Mensa Member: (indistinct) on the other hand the other medicine might have worked.

Dr. Weir: Hmmm.

Mensa Member: It is very dangerous. Analogy's awfully dangerous.

Dr. Weir: But then some people have to have a concrete example or they haven't any (indistinct) It's when you analyze the analogy that you can see it's difficult...

Prabhupāda: No, analogy, of course, is not always the perfect method. Analogy means the greatest number of similar points. That is analogy. Perfection of analogy is there when there is the greatest number of similar points. But we give sometimes the analogy as we understand it, but so far this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, there is no need of analogy. It is accepted as truth and Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and whatever He says is truth. There is no mistake and if we carry that message there is no mistake.

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

Prabhupāda: ...above the illusion, above cheating, above imperfection. This is God.

Śyāmasundara: There's a central premise that everything is simultaneously one and different. Just like flowers—there are many flowers, roses, but within the flowers there is variety.

Mensa Member: But still it raises the danger of another (indistinct), it really does. This is a very (indistinct) you're trying to make but it's impossible to talk about physics in the language of chemistry. It's impossible, so when...

Śyāmasundara: So when he says there's a gradation, that we see gradation, that the soul is higher than the body, this is also (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Soul is higher than the body, mind and intelligence.

Dr. Weir: Yes. But that is only because we've learned, I think, when we were small to look up to higher people...

Mensa Member: (indistinct) on each side of them and in the middle, on the other side, before and after...

Dr. Weir: This is the..., you see, unconsciously you grow up with all these sort of prejudices, which are necessary. You've got to have some sort of time scale, you've got to have some sort of measuring scale and therefore you tend to look up and therefore you think highly of more important (indistinct), you talk about high position, you don't think of chaps sitting on the fence...

Śyāmasundara: Inherently you'll find the rose is better than the daisy.

Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Then you are always in ugly reality. Why do you say this blackout? This is one of the features of that ugly reality. That's all.

Reporter: Yes. At the moment I see, but has it...

Prabhupāda: Huh? (laughs) You are all, you do not realize that, that you are twenty-four hours in ugly reality! (break) ...attended. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). Every step danger. Why taking this?

Reporter: I know, sir, but this is collective, national danger here. Have you anything to offer to us as a, as a...

Prabhupāda: This Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Our only remedy is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You take to this and you will be happy. That's all.

Reporter: We'll..., yes, sir. I think somebody should go to (indistinct), to those who are threatening us. Some, I wish...

Prabhupāda: What benefit you will derive by going to (indistinct)?

Reporter: But, well, he'll go to the... Supposing somebody is out to kill me. That's changing, if you can't tell him...

Prabhupāda: But suppose (indistinct) does not kill you. Will you be safe?

Reporter: No, sir. That I can see, but...

Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of going to (indistinct)? You will die today or tomorrow. That's all. If you want to save yourself, then go to Kṛṣṇa. That is our proposal. (laughter) As soon as you go the (indistinct), he does not fight, do you mean to say you will live forever?

Reporter: No, no, sir.

Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of telling (indistinct)? Trust Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa so that you may perpetually be saved. Why don't you take that?

Reporter: I was only thinking in terms of collective security, not... I can see your point now.

Prabhupāda: You should know that you are always in danger.

Reporter: Yes, sir. We agree.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Reporter: The great Einstein said the same thing when he was actually... He said there was no question...

Prabhupāda: That is our position.

Reporter: I could many times fall from here...

Prabhupāda: And Kṛṣṇa says, "I will save you." Therefore let us go to Kṛṣṇa. Why (indistinct)?

Reporter: Changing, because he is disturbing, that's all.

Prabhupāda: Disturbing... Your mind is also disturbing always.

Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: And Kṛṣṇa says, "I will save you." Therefore let us go to Kṛṣṇa. Why (indistinct)?

Reporter: Changing, because he is disturbing, that's all.

Prabhupāda: Disturbing... Your mind is also disturbing always.

Reporter: Yes, yes. You are...

Prabhupāda: That is always with you. Your body disease always with you. Are you not suffering from bodily pains—"Oh, I'll (indistinct)"? Why don't you go to (indistinct) to cure your (indistinct)? (laughter). So why you do? You are already in danger. If you... Why don't you realize that point?

Reporter: That I... Yes.

Prabhupāda: Therefore...

Reporter: But we are talking of national problems.

Prabhupāda: These are symptoms. Just like one man is diseased and he is saying, "Oh, (indistinct)." Real thing is his disease. These are symptoms. So people are trying to cure patchwork. We are giving the supreme cure. That is the difference. No patchwork, no patchwork disease cure will help you. Complete cure.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 12, 1972, Madras:

Prabhupāda: Girirāja.

Guest: ...Girirāja, whether it is the Gītā that you may stress on or the Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Gītā is the preliminary study of Bhāgavatam.

Guest: True, but in Bhāgavatam there is lots of danger, so far as Sri Kṛṣṇa goes. The Bhāgavatam, so far as it relates to the other incarnations of Mahā-Viṣṇu Himself, different, but so far as Sri Kṛṣṇa goes, it deals with a chapter of His life which can mislead people...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That we are very cautious.

Guest: Huh?

Prabhupāda: That we are very cautious.

Guest: You will have to be very cautious.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was discussing this point...

Guest: Generally, generally people begin to think, "I am Sri Kṛṣṇa..."

Prabhupāda: Ah, that is nonsense.

Room Conversation -- February 12, 1972, Madras:

Prabhupāda: Ah, that is nonsense.

Guest: "...God." That is what happens.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest: That will be danger. But so far as the Gītā Ācārya's teachings, He is a different person. There's no reference to early life in Vyāsa's Bhagavad-gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā is simply about an ācārya. Occasionally He says "I am Īśvara," but He's an ācārya primarily. I need not..., I am not trying to sermonize to you. I'm trying to explain what I feel.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest: Very difficult doctrine of detachment. The Gītā Ācārya says sannyāsa is difficult, and you are likely to become a hypocrite if you, if you...

Prabhupāda: Mithyācāraḥ sa ucyate.

Guest: ...if you prematurely take sannyāsa. Therefore try and compromise the principles of sannyāsa, that is to say of renunciation with worldly action, and, I mean, performance of duty, by performing the duties without caring for the results. That is the renunciation He has preached, I have understood.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- March 12, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana University, Vaiṣṇava (indistinct). It was acquired by the government.

Dr. Kapoor: Acquired by the government. That's how he got it cheap. And then he had to go into litigation.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Much litigation, and he was in danger.

Dr. Kapoor: He was in danger.

Śyāmasundara: Still it's not finished.

Prabhupāda: Not yet finished.

Dr. Kapoor: Not yet finished? That litigation is still going on?

Śyāmasundara: No, I mean the building.

Dr. Kapoor: Building huh. The construction is going on?

Prabhupāda: Now he is getting money.

Dr. Kapoor: Now he is getting money. The institution has been recognized by the government.

Prabhupāda: He is not here. I inquired.

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

Prabhupāda: ...Bangladesh. That is his vision.

rādhā-kṛṣṇa bol bol bolo re sobāi,

(ei) śikhā diyā, sab nadīyā,

phirche nece gaura-nitāi

Gaura-Nitāi, these two brothers, Gaura and Nitāi. There are Pañca-tattva: Śrī Caitanya, Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita, Gadādhara, Śrīvāsa, five tattvas. So rādhā kṛṣṇa bol bol, bolo re sobāi, ei śikhā diyā: "This is the teaching of Lord Caitanya." And he says, jay sakal bipod: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, the composer of this song, he says that "you get out of all kinds of dangers," jay sakal bipod, gāi bhaktivinod, jakhon o nām gāi. "If you simply take to chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra." And at last he says, rādhā kṛṣṇa bolo sañge calo: "Please cooperate with Me," Lord Caitanya says, "and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." Ei mātra bhikhā: "I am asking all this. I am begging." So our mission is like that. The same thing. We are asking people without any argument or political purpose or social or... No. Simply we are asking that you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Wherever we are opening our branches, it is our only business that we are requesting people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa or Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. We don't want anything. We don't want to do any business, but we are simply spreading this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra because people are being washed away. māyār bośe, jāccho bhese. They are being washed away, khāccho hābu, always in trouble. Khāccho hābuḍubu bhāi. Jīv kṛṣṇa dās e biśwās korle to'ār duḥkho nāi: "But if you try to understand that your position is eternal servitude to Kṛṣṇa, then your all troubles are over." This is our mission. So wherever we are preaching this instruction of Lord Caitanya, people are accepting. I saw one nice article published in some paper here?

Conversation with Dai Nippon -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:
Prabhupāda: So why not the old age next life? If we are passing through so many stages of life from birth or from the womb of the mother, then what is the reason that one does not believe there is no life after death? Can you say, any one of you? What is the reason? You remember your boyhood body; I remember my youthhood body. So that body is no longer existing, but I am existing. I remember my childhood body. My babyhood body also, I remember, particularly. When I was about six months old, I still remember very vividly, I was lying down on the lap of my eldest sister, and she was knitting. I remember still. Yes, six months. I remember when I was only about one year old, there was a great saṅkīrtana in our house and I also joined the dancing party. And I was seeing up to their knees, very small. So I remember those days. And then after that, I was a boy. I was very much fond of cycling. So many things. Yes. So many dangers, so many adventures. Now I am old man. So all those different stages of body, I remember. But these bodies are not existing. So similarly, I remember or forget, but I was in different types of body—that's a fact. So similarly, after leaving this body, I will have another body. That is natural conclusion. What is the difficulty? Why I shall conclude that after end of this body? (end)
Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: This is the feeling of separation. Such feeling everyone should... (aside:) Go on.

Devotee (1): "...from the poisonous water of the Yamunā, from the serpent Kāliya, from Bakāsura, from the anger of Indra and his torrents of rain, from forest fire and so many other things. You are the greatest and most powerful of all. It is wonderful that You have protected us from so many dangers. We are surprised You are neglecting us at this moment. Dear Kṛṣṇa, dear friend, we know very well that You are not actually the son of Mother Yaśodā or the cowherd man Nanda Mahārāja. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the Supersoul of all living entities. You have, out of Your own causeless mercy, appeared in this world, requested by Lord Brahma for the protection of the world. It is by Your kindness only that You have appeared in the dynasty of Yadu. O best of the dynasty of Yadu, if anyone afraid of this materialistic way of life takes shelter of Your lotus feet, You never deny him protection. Your movements are sweet, and You are independent, touching the goddess of fortune with one hand and in the other bearing a lotus flower. That is Your extraordinary feature. Please, therefore, come before us and bless us with the lotus flower in Your hand. Dear Kṛṣṇa, You are the killer of all the fears of the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana. You are the supremely powerful hero, and we know that You can kill the unnecessary pride of Your devotees, as well as the pride of women like us, simply by Your beautiful smile."

Prabhupāda: Unnecessary pride is very bad. "Oh, I have become very advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." That we should never think.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's the inborn quality of the living entities.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām. The only special significance of human being is that he has got special intelligence to understand what is Absolute Truth. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. So therefore his first duty is to know the Absolute Truth. Not waste time for eating, sleeping, mating. The modern material civilization is wasting time, so-called advancement of material comforts. Simply wasting time. Nidrayā hriyate naktaṁ vyavāyena ca vā vayaḥ (SB 2.1.3). They are wasting time at night either by sleeping or by sexual intercourse. Divā cārthehayā rājan kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā. And during daytime, simply: "Where is money? Where is money? Where is money?" And as soon as they get money, they spend it for kuṭumba-bharaṇa, for maintaining the family. This is their business. The sum total of modern civilization. And if they can purchase a nice car, that is the success of their life. Kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā. Not only for himself, for his wife, for his children, if he has got three cars. Just like our Mukunda Mahārāja is doing. He's earning one thousand dollars and spending in car. That is his Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Rascal boy is so much captivated with the rascal girl. He's thinking that he's happy. He's spoiling his life. (pause) Divā cārthehayā rājan kuṭumba-bharaṇena vā (SB 2.1.3). Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api, teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanaṁ paśyann api na paśyati (SB 2.1.4). Dehāpatya. Deha means body. Apatya means children. Dehāpatya-kalatra. Kalatra means wife. Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣu. He thinks: "They are my soldiers. I'll fight with nature, struggle for existence. And they'll save me." Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api. Although he knows that they'll not exist, still he's so mad, teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanam, he knows I'll not exist, the soldiers will not be able to help me. paśyann api na paśyati, he sees and still he does not see. Paśyann api na paśyati. He knows by practical experience that "This society, friendship, love, nation, nobody can save me." But still he thinks that "They'll save me." Just like when you, in the aeroplane, there may be thousands of aeroplanes, others, but when your aeroplane is in danger, nobody can save you.

Morning Walk -- April 25, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They don't want to think about it.

Prabhupāda: Because they cannot do anything. Just like some foolish animal. When there is danger, they close the eyes.

Brahmānanda: The rabbit.

Prabhupāda: They think that: "My danger is over. Because I do not see anymore." Yes. So many animals, they die. Monkeys, rabbits, they die. When there is danger, they close the eyes. That's all. So similarly these rascals, they cannot make any solution of these problems, therefore they set aside. Don't trouble. What is this advancement? They are constructing big, big houses with a hope they'll live in this house comfortably. But any day we'll be kicked out: "Get out." What he can do? Why he's laboring so much? Suppose if you are constructing some house, if somebody says that you are going to die tomorrow, will you do it?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I don't (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: No sane man will do it. But death is sure. You are making very nice foundation. But you'll have to leave. You cannot remain there. That, they do not know. Jawaharlal Nehru worked for... Gandhi worked for his country so much. Now where they are? Nobody knows.

Morning Walk -- April 25, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So this suffering is all due to the desire of the individual souls.

Prabhupāda: That... The...suffering is there. Suppose you are in the ocean. It is suffering, but if you have got a good ship, you may think that: "I'm very well situated." That good ship also can sink at any moment. Suffering is always there. You cannot avoid the suffering. Because you are in the ocean. Suppose you are in the air in a very nice plane. Does it mean you are secure? Any moment it can be... There is dangers everywhere. Therefore this place is always dangerous. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58), always dangerous. So the real intelligence means you have to find out where there is no danger. That is the... Where there is real happiness. In the material world, we cannot have happiness.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So without the proper guidance...

Prabhupāda: Hmmm?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Without the proper guidance...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything requires guidance. You are working in the laboratory under guidance. Similarly, everything requires guidance. Just like these small birds. First of all, they learn with the mother. The mother goes and they go. The mother come back, they come back. So guidance. Nature's way, guidance. And when they become little habituated, then without mother, they can do their business. That guidance is there everywhere. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa... (pause—break) ...kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, nāpnuvanti (BG 8.15). "Anyone who reaches Me, he does not come back to this material world full of miseries and temporary life." That means anyone who goes back to home, back to Godhead, there is no misery, there is no temporary life. It must be the opposite. Mām upetya punar janma duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, nāpnuvanti (BG 8.15). Saṁsiddhiṁ paramām... That is highest perfection. Paramām. Saṁsiddhiṁ paramām. Every... all this scientific research is going on for perfection. They say the world is imperfect. That's, that is a fact. Imperfect. Imperfect means here you cannot get happiness and cannot live permanently. This is imperfection. That they do not know. That question they set aside. The problem, if you say to the scientist: "What you have done for the human society to live eternally in perfect happiness?" What is their answer?

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1973, Los Angeles:

Devotee: Any moment.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Brahmānanda: It's a shaky platform.

Prabhupāda: Yes. All platforms shaky. At any moment, there is danger.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The waves are much bigger this morning.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The waves are much bigger.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This morning.

Prabhupāda: Bigger or smaller, it is always dangerous. Big fire or small fire, fire is fire. It will burn. That's all. In a... Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has given this example: this fire, debt and disease. Never think big or small. They are always dangerous.

Morning Walk -- May 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Dangerous, why?

Śrutakīrti: When the water covers them, they can't be seen. Someone can get hurt on them.

Prabhupāda: So many dangers. (break) So there are no more talks in your...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, there is a talk coming next week. There is a lecturer coming next week. He's slightly connected with evolution. He's a Nobel Prize winner. He's from Berkeley. He's coming next week, next Wednesday. He is going to give two lectures in our department. He is going to talk on evolution. The first lecture.

Prabhupāda: Darwin.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, evolution in general. And second lecture is on cancer, the causes of cancer disease.

Brahmānanda: Do they know the cause of cancer?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, there are several theories. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Suppose he knows the cause of cancer. What is the benefit? Neither he can stop cancer, neither a man suffering from cancer, if it is cured, he will live forever. That is not possible. Cancer or no cancer, a man has to die. He cannot check death. The death may be caused, if not cancer, simply by accident you can die. The real scientific research should be how to stop death. That is real scientific. That we are giving. To find out some medicine for some disease, that is not triumph. Real triumph is how to stop disease. That they cannot. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā puts before you the real trouble is this birth, death, old age and disease. That process we are giving. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). After giving up this body, no more acceptance of material body. This is real science. (break) ...suffer from cancer. (laughter) They don't suffer from cancer. So they are in better position than the so-called human society. They are creating causes of cancer disease and then making research and taking Nobel Prize. How foolish society it is, this. Why you create the cause of cancer disease? You accept these four principles of life—no meat-eating, no intoxication, no illicit sex—there will be no cancer. There will be no cancer. You find out, those who are strictly on this line, they never suffer from cancer or any disease. Now take for example, me. I have come here in this country for the last seven years, 1965, and it is 1973, eight years. How many times I have gone to doctor? That once that heart attack. That is serious; that is another thing. Otherwise generally how many times I have gone to? I don't pay any bill of doctors. So if we live very hygienic life, regulated life, there is no question of cancer or any disease.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Direction, yes. That is said, mayādhyakṣena prakṛtiḥ: (BG 9.10) "Under My direction." So if it is possible for a common man like me, how much it is possible for God? That we have to understand. Now I want to go to India, London. Now everything arrangement is made. I can go immediately. So similarly, if God wants to do something, why He has to do something? Everything, as soon as He desires, everything is there. He wants "Let there be material creation." There is, immediately. This is God. We are thinking in my terms. "Oh, such a huge universe! How a person can create? Where he got this tool? Where he's got the hammer? And how he constructed it?" I am thinking like that. Because I am limited, I am thinking in my limited way. So I am denying, "There is no God." Therefore we have to first of all understand acintya, inconceivable power. Then we can understand God. If I think, "God may be..." That kūpa-maṇḍūka, that frog is thinking, "It may be little bigger than this, little bigger than this." So how you can understand Atlantic Ocean within the well? So these rascals are all frogs. So they are thinking in their own terms, God. And because they cannot accommodate, "There is no God, finish." The same example: the rabbit, "Close the eyes, there is no danger." Finish. That's it. They are no better than the rabbits, these so-called scientists. Closing the eyes, there is no God. You have to smash them by their, Tora lati na, tor śilā torna amora tora bāṇi dāntera gora.(?)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Tor śilā?

Prabhupāda: Śilā you know?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Ah, huh.

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

Prabhupāda: He followed the moral principles of this material world. He thought... He expressed that "Duryodhana...," he knew that "Either be on Arjuna's side or not, Arjuna will be victorious. Because Kṛṣṇa is there. So let us fight with..." Because kṣatriya, this fighting is sporting. You see. That is not any difficult task for them. So he showed these moral principles, that "These people are maintaining me, Duryodhana... They are maintaining me. I am old man, and they are taking care of me, and they are expect... So when they are in danger, I shall go to his enemy's side? Oh, this is not good." That he saw. And he knew that, "Even if I do not go to this side, he'll be victorious." So he showed these moral principles. "So one is maintaining me and he is in now danger, I go to his enemy's side, that does not look well."

Guest (8): Morally.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (8): That's the question we were discussing. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Is good?

Guest (8): Oh very well. We discussed this point in Bhāgavatam, and these young boys, they tried to very closely to the point so that if I put the question before you...

Prabhupāda: If somebody is maintaining you, and when he's in danger, you go to his enemy's side, that does not look nice. Yes. Otherwise, everyone was on Arjuna's side. Droṇācārya. But they considered like this, that "They have maintained us so long. And now there is fight, and we shall go to the enemy's side. What is this? What people will say? 'Treacherous.' "

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Buddhist Monk (1): And I told them directly and indirectly, "Your systems, which have transplanted the well, type systems, especially of India, has created a catastrophe. We have made mistakes in the past. But we profited by them, and we want a successful educational system that taught the individual how to give himself peace within himself, mentally and physically. Within his family, within his relations society, nation and the world. And today that system has been overtaken by this materialistic system. One calls himself materialist directly. Another, camouflage, just under the name of religion. That's the only difference I know of in these two systems in the West. That's the only difference." And I told them. I said, "We want peace. Śānti, śānti, śānti. And we know the danger of playing with the fireball of materialism, which is throwing its tentacles into every part of society: divorces, nervous cases, mental cases, cancers, suicides, family life is breaking. And it reminds me of Gibbon's writing about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. And all those symptoms are there in this so-called progressive, civilized culture." I used the word "so-called." And this mind...

Prabhupāda: But what remedy you have suggested?

Buddhist Monk (1): Reduction of greed, and substitution of liberality. There is no other remedy.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Room Conversation with Two Buddhist Monks -- July 12, 1973, London:

Haṁsadūta: Park.

Prabhupāda: All the animals are freely rotating.

Buddhist Monk (1): Or they think their life is in danger.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Buddhist Monk (1): If one radiates love and kindness...

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. Defense is allowed to everyone. You must defend. That is another thing. But ordinarily, not that because a lion has got jaws and teeth, therefore he's simply jumping over. Not like that. Even people have experienced that when the, these ferocious animals, they are not hungry, they don't attack. They don't attack.

Haṁsadūta: They don't bother.

Prabhupāda: No. Or if you keep a pet lion, give him sumptuously to eat, he'll not... That is experienced. I have seen in the World Fair in, in... One man was keeping a lion and a tiger, and playing just like with dog. Just like sometimes dogs, they pounce over the master. Same thing. They were doing like that. I have seen it. They have tamed the lion and tiger like that.

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Ah, na patiḥ. And one should not become husband also. Because husband is supposed to be instructor to the wife. Husband is the guardian of the wife. So he's responsible for her spiritual advancement. As much as the father is responsible for the spiritual advancement of his child, the spiritual master is responsible... Anyone who is claiming to be superior, he should be responsible for the inferior's spiritual advancement of life. So the conclusion is that they should not claim to become such and such unless they are able to save the subordinate from the imminent danger of death. Because death is there so long one is not spiritually advanced. As soon as one is spiritually advanced, he goes to the spiritual world, transferred. Mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām (BG 9.25). Spiritually advancement means to be transferred to the spiritual world. So this is the main business of the father, of the husband, of the spiritual master, of the king, of the guardian, of kinsmen. Everyone should be alert: "Whether I am helping my subordinate in the spiritual advancement of life." Because that will save him from the repetition of birth and death. And otherwise, what benefit you can do? If he's under the laws of karma, if he's going to become a cat or dog in next life, what help you have given to him? If he's under the laws of karma, then your help is no use. Your help is no use.

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So we are teaching this sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), just to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Then everything is all right. And then Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. He's taking charge. Then what is the anxiety? Just surrender, that's all.

Reporter: Yes, yes. But what happens that some people have a social dimension, social political dimension, and have no spiritual consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But then it seems to me—I'm just asking—that we, when we are emphasizing this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we are in danger of forgetting the social political dimension. So how to bring this...

Prabhupāda: You are thinking wrongly that we are not responsible. Why you are thinking like that? You are thinking wrongly. Kṛṣṇa did not take in politics, part? Then why you are thinking?

Reporter: No, no, I'm not saying Kṛṣṇa did not take... I'm just saying that it seems that He sometimes, it seems, that people who emphasize the spiritual consciousness do not clarify enough..., it is not clear enough—and I'm not saying it's not there but it's not clear enough—the social political dimension, social action, political action, how we run our society in its practical terms. So it is not clear.

Prabhupāda: It is clear. If you are actually surrendered soul, then to you it is clear, it is very clear. Kṛṣṇa gives direction, that this is the business of the brāhmaṇa, this is the business of kṣatriya. So politics is the business of the kṣatriya. So if you act according to Kṛṣṇa's direction in politics, then you are surrendered soul. It is not that because we have got this mālā and tilaka we are surrendered soul, and a kṣatriya cannot be surrendered soul, or a vaiśya cannot be surrendered soul. You have to act according to the direction. Kṛṣṇa is giving direction: "This is brāhmaṇa's karma." You do it. That means you are surrendered soul, at the same time you are acting as a brāhmaṇa. But if you act whimsically, then what is your surrender? And why did you become a brāhmaṇa? Then there is chaos. That is the present position of the society. They are not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, they do not abide by the direction of Kṛṣṇa. Still, they have become leaders. Then the whole thing is chaos.

Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is very dangerous. Then you will all fall down. If you make a joint mess, if you go and collect something and then eat and sleep, then everything will be... Therefore I do not want to keep separate. The temple worship means there will be regulative principles, that you will have to rise early in the morning, you have to attend class, kīrtana... These things, as soon as you give up all these things, zero. Then it will be like karmīs, as they are, hard labor, collecting money, and enjoying senses. That's all. So that is the pitfall everywhere. In the church, temple, as soon as they get some nice income, then in the name of "priest," "sādhu," "sannyāsī," they do the same thing. Therefore Gosvāmīs, they left everything. That is the danger of viṣaya, viṣaya touch. Viṣaya chāḍiyā se rase majiyā. As soon as we give up this śravaṇam, kīrtanam, then it becomes viṣaya. Viṣaya means materialism. There is no spiritualism. Kṣurasya dhārā, kṣurasya dhārā. Kṣura means sharpened razor. If you are careful, you cleanse very nicely. If you are not careful, immediately blood. Immediately. So the spiritual life is like that. As soon as you become little inattentive, immediately māyā captures, "Yes, come on." Then everything failure. We have got the tendency to enjoy sense. So senses are strong. As soon as there is opportunity, the senses will take advantage immediately. Then your whole business finished, Choṭa Haridāsa, and rejected by Mahāprabhu, "Get out." Even associate of Caitanya Mahāprabhu failed, personal associate.

Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: A particular animal has been mentioned in the śāstra. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke. This ayaṁ deho nṛloke, in the human society, is not meant for working so hard simply for sense enjoyment because this spirit is visible even in the hogs. Then what it is meant...? Tapaḥ. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). That is the point. Śamena, damena. Satya-śaucābhyām. Everything is there. And there are different types of sense enjoyment: rūpa, rasa, gandha, śabda, sparśa, six kinds. And each sense, there is an object of sense enjoyment. There is eyes, oh, beautiful woman, sense enjoyment. Maithunam, sex life, there are eight kinds of sex. If one thinks within the mind about sex enjoyment, that is also sex. So anyway, that is the danger, keeping a separate department for money collecting. Then it will turn: "Collect money, eat nicely and sleep nicely." And to live in the temple, at least, one is forced to rise early in the morning, take bath, to have darśana. They'll get regulated life. Therefore this temple worship is needed because we are so impure. So at least, in temple, by following the regulative principles, we can keep ourself pure. Otherwise simply chanting is sufficient. There is no need of constructing big, big temples. But we are so impure... That is Jīva Gosvāmī's, recommended that as soon as we give up this temple worship method, regulative principles, then we become, in the dress of so-called, we become victim of māyā. Veśopajīvaka. They are working and doing some business, and then our dress will be a means of business. This will be also another material business. Actually they are doing so. So that is the danger of keeping a separate department. What is the use? We have got jeeps?
Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Still... The danger is very much there, I see that. But there is a use.

Prabhupāda: Well, if the danger is there, why should we accept such use?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can we overcome that danger? We can try to overcome that danger.

Prabhupāda: You cannot ever overcome, because you are all weak. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā (BG 7.14). Unless you are very strong, māyā is very, very stronger than you. How you can avoid it? Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā, mām eva ye prapadyante. Only one is very, very strong in capturing the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, he can avoid. Otherwise it is not possible. All these Villa Parle, Juhu gentlemen, they are daily coming to their city business. And is it very difficult for us?

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 -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: And all the children. So that will not go in vain.

Śyāmasundara: No.

Prabhupāda: Never go in vain. This is her... She had executed devotional service in her past life. Therefore from the very beginning of her life, she's in association of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, very beginning. This is the chance. Now it is the duty of the father and mother, and when she grows up it is her duty to finish this business, go to back to home. This is chance. So where is the loss? Even she failed last life, then where is the loss? She's getting another chance, whereas the ordinary karmīs, they'll not get that chance. That is explained. Read it.

Śrutakīrti: One who has forsaken his material occupation to engage in the devotional service of the Lord may sometimes fall down while in an immature stage, yet there is no danger of his being unsuccessful. On the other hand, a nondevotee, though fully engaged in occupational duties, does not gain anything.

Prabhupāda: That is the translation.

Morning Walk -- December 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Devotee: Is the pure devotee more merciful than Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, yes. Because Viṣṇu could not excuse him, but as soon as he came to Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, fell down, and "You take all my assets of pious activities. You be saved immediately." That is Vaiṣṇava. When he begged, humble, "Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, you save me, I am in danger." "Yes, you take all my pious activities' result. You be saved immediately." That is devotee. Viṣṇu refused, "No, I cannot give you protection." Therefore he is more merciful, although he was attacked, he was harassed. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna was merciful, "Let them enjoy. I don't want to kill them." Kṛṣṇa said, "You must kill. You must kill. Why you are deviating from your path? You must kill." Therefore he taught him Bhagavad-gītā, just to induce him to kill. But he was merciful, "No, they have done so much wrong to me, never mind. They are my relatives. I excuse. I don't want to fight." Yes. This is Bhagavad-gītā. You see? Arjuna is more merciful than Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa wanted to see them all killed because they were, I mean to say, offender to the devotee. Last time, Kṛṣṇa says, "Arjuna, you fight or not fight, it is already settled. They are not going back home. They will be killed here. If you like, you take the credit. That's all. It is already settled." Then Arjuna understood that "My Lord is so persistent. (laughter) Why shall I resist Him? All right, I will do what He says."

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So preaching is always difficult. That I have repeatedly saying. You cannot take preaching very easy-going. Preaching must be fight. Do you mean to say fighting is easy thing? Fighting is not easy thing. Whenever there is fight, there is danger, there is responsibility. So preaching means... What is the preaching? Because people are ignorant, we have to enlighten them. That is preaching.

Nara-nārāyaṇa: When you came to the western world, no one anywhere believed that it would be successful I think. But actually, it has become very successful, by preaching.

Prabhupāda: I myself did not believe I shall be successful, what to speak of others, but because I did in the proper line, so it has become successful.

Yaśomatīnandana: Yes, Kṛṣṇa is so kind that we expect something and He gives us hundred times more.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes.

Morning Walk -- December 20, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Because he was a rascal number one sinner.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is just like Śrīla Prabhupāda's example that the rabbits closing their eyes thinking that the danger is over.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Hṛdayānanda: Shivananda, I gave a lecture at an āśrama where his disciple was teaching, Vishnu Devananda. So he told a story how Shivananda, he would find out the lowest class of people, and he would go and garland them and worship them just like the Deity. And so his argument was that in Bhagavad-gītā it says, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18).

Prabhupāda: Why he is to the lower class? Sama-darśinaḥ means he is equal to higher or lower. Why he is going to the lower? He could not answer this? Sama-darśinaḥ, equal. Then he must be equal to the lower and the higher. So why he is particularly to the lower class? Then he is not sama-darśinaḥ.

Morning Walk -- December 30, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is good for them. That is good for them. Because at the present moment they are missing the aim of life. That is the defect. They do not know what is the goal of life. They are thinking, "We are also cats and dogs." And that is the defect of the modern civilization. Our human life is to achieve the highest perfection. Otherwise this āhāra-nidra-bhaya... Even the small birds they know. Just see how they are protecting themselves. They are also afraid of danger, and they are doing their own way. So if we simply discover atomic weapons for defense, that is not final advancement of civilization. Final civilization is how to save yourself from death. That is civilization. And there is no such program. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). The highest perfection is how to save oneself from these four miserable conditions: birth, death, old age and disease. They do not know. Nobody knows. Here is the process, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If people become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then he can solve these problems. That is real defense. (pause) So defense automatically, the small birds are taking. See. They are so alert that the water cannot overcome them. Immediately, they flee, by nature. This boy, his leg became full of water, but they are not. (laughter) They are so careful. Just see. By nature they are defending. Just see. Such a big wave is coming for him, "Yes, fly away," immediately.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 5, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, how does... They do not know what is next life?

Bali Mardana: They don't know.

Prabhupāda: They make it zero. Therefore, closing the eye. "There is no next life. Finished. There is no next life." In that way they're satisfied. Just like the rabbit. There is danger, enemy, he closes his eyes. He thinks there is no danger. (devotees laugh) So these rascals are like that. Because they cannot accommodate that this life is so troublesome, again, next life... So that they can realize. Next life means again troublesome; that's why they sometimes commit suicide. They think that after suicide it will be zero, so no trouble. These are all ignorance.

Karandhara: In psychology that's called repression.

Prabhupāda: Repression.

Karandhara: Taking something which is a fact, but refusing to believe it, pushing it out of your mind, repressing it.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 5, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What do they say... After destruction, then what is next?

Devotee (2): Oh, they all move to Mexico and Canada, so they wouldn't be in the way of the destruction. They don't know what's going to happen after that.

Prabhupāda: So at the time of danger they'll go away. Very good. (devotees laugh)

Bali Mardana: Lord Jesus came to save the fallen souls...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bali Mardana: ...they are all running away.

Prabhupāda: They are so good Christian that at the time of danger, they're all going away to Canada. Just see-afraid of death, even though they are preaching themselves, priest, they are also the same common man, afraid of death. And if we people keep to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we are not afraid of death. For going from one place to another, that's all. Going home, nobody becomes afraid going back to home. He becomes pleased. (break) You avoid death, there is no death. Viṣaya.(?) If we simply practice this, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma... No more death. Finished death. This is a fact. (break) ...or do something for Kṛṣṇa. Don't waste time, single moment. Then your... No more death. Because this is deathless condition. And the changing of the body, that is momentary, that is all.

Morning Walk -- March 7, 1974, Mayapura:

Śyāmasundara: Something like that. It's called a "think-tank". She's named it. It's presided over by Lord, Lord Goodman.

Prabhupāda: No, no. The thing is, unless the people are Kṛṣṇa conscious, either this board or that board, that will not help. First of all, people should know what is the aim of life, what is culture, how the human activity should be directed. The people should know first of all this. Otherwise, changing from frying pan to the fire, it is useless. That is going on. That change, revolution, is going on. Just like the Russian people, they changed the Czarist government into communist government, revolution, but still, they're unhappy. They're trying to change by another revolution. This is going on. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). This is described in the śāstra as "chewing the chewed." Or the same simple philosophy: "This side of stool is better than that side." So he keeps the whole thing, stool. "This side, the dry side, is better and the moist side, wet side, is bad." This is no philosophy. It, it must not be stool. It must be gold. Then it is all right, this side or that side. That philosophy, that the dry side of stool is better than the wet side, this will not help. So first, first of all, human society must know what is the aim of life. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). We are part and parcel of God, Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu. We are suffering on account of our relationship with God. This is the cause of our suffering. Then we have to make plan how to revive our lost relationship with God. Then the... Everything is there in the Vedic literature. All directions are there. So we have to... Just like when we are in danger, we consult some learned man or physician or a lawyer, similarly we have to consult the Vedic culture, how perfect it is. This way?

Jayapatākā: Yes.

Morning Walk 'Varnasrama College' -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Therefore sleeping is my only business. Sleeping means for the weak. And for the strong, perspiration. This is the sign. When a man sleeps too much, he's weak in his health. And the strong man will perspire. These are very... Balera ghāma, and the durbalera ghuma. Ghāma and ghuma. Ghuma means sleeping, and ghāma means perspiration. (break) ...principle. And human beings means trained up under principle. That is the difference between animal. The animals, they cannot take up any training. But the human being, this human form of body is meant for taking training. So if they are not properly trained up, they remain animals and the whole society in chaos and confusion. That's all. (break) ...moment, the human society's so degraded that even we are walking, this is also risky. This is also... Gradually, it is becoming. Just like in our New York... That Berkeley? Berkeley? No. Brooklyn. It is difficult to walk due to the Negroes. They immediately: "Whatever you have got, give me." There are so many incidents. In such city as New York there is always danger like that. If somebody kills you, nobody will take care of you. The human society has become... And in India still, they are not so degraded. You see. Even at night you can safely walk on the street. But in Europe, America, you cannot with confidence walk alone in the big, big streets. So human being has become so degraded. Less than animals. They can attack you. Just like in the forest any ferocious animal can attack you at any minute. The whole big, big cities have become like that. (break) ...example that they have started that United Nations. What they have done actually? United Nations.

Morning Walk -- March 26, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You must first of all behave yourself. Then you can teach.

Dr. Patel: That is why, I tell you... I cite an example of Gandhi... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...one is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he cannot have any good qualities. And if one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, all the good qualities will automatically come out. So therefore this is the only treatment, to educate people how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then everything will be settled up. One remedy.

Guest (1): For all disease.

Prabhupāda: All disease. That is also... Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate, sa guṇān samatītyaitān... (BG 14.26). These varieties of different qualities due to these material modes of nature, but if you transcend... Just like if you remain in the water, there are so many symptoms of danger. You come out of the water; there is no danger. You cannot expect, even if you have got the best boat, you cannot expect that you are safe in the water. But if you remain one inch above the water, then there is no danger. So this devotional service is like that. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). As soon one is fully engaged in devotional service, then he's above this material atmosphere. (end)

Morning Walk -- April 1, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: They should not talk anything else except Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Vacaṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane. So this is sam... Unless you give engagement to the senses, proper, how you can control it? Your eyes want to see beautiful of man or woman. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. But when you are captivated by seeing the Deity of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, then that eyes being engaged otherwise is stopped. That has been explained by Prabodānanda Sarasvatī. Durdantendriya-kāla-sarpa-paṭalī-protkhāta-daṁstrāyate. Protkhāta-damstrāyate. Protkhāta means extracted, the poison teeth. The poison teeth of the tea, uh, teeth of the snake is dangerous. Now, here is a snake. Everyone is afraid, "Oh, snake! Snake! Snake!" But if everyone knows that his poison teeth have been taken away, then there is no more danger. Similarly, these indriyas have been compared with the kāla-sarpa-paṭalī. Kāla-sarpa-paṭalī. But...

Dr. Patel: What do you call?

Prabhupāda: Kāla, kāla-sarpa means the dead(ly) poisonous snake, kāla-sarpa-paṭalī. Everyone knows. As soon as you use some indriya, there is some dangerous result. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpanā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ (SB 7.9.45). Take for... (break)

Dr. Patel: Oṁ is God.

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Indian Man (1): But these volumes are very short, sir.

Prabhupāda: Yes, no, the lowest. But they have not written even a page about Kṛṣṇa's life. And writing comments on Bhagavad-gītā. Just see how much rascal they are. Not even a page. Rather, they deny, "There was no Kṛṣṇa." Just see how much foolish they are, and they are writing comments on Bhagavad-gītā. That is our regret, that how these rascals dare to write on Bhagavad-gītā? (break)

Girirāja: "...when Vasudeva was born..." (break)

Prabhupāda: ...said, "When there is danger, it is a great opportunity for remembering God." Tat te 'nukampāṁ susamīkṣamānaḥ (SB 10.14.8).

Indian Man (1): And Kuntī.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kuntī said, "I shall pray for the dangerous position so that You could remain with us." (break)

Girirāja: ...open the snake in the original Bhāgavatam?

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa is the kāla-sarpa, kāla. The time is Kṛṣṇa, kāla. Therefore you can compare with snake. Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). Kāla means death. So snake, meeting a snake means death. So therefore He can be called a snake.

Press Conference -- April 18, 1974, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: Therefore the society must be divided into four classes of men, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). There are three guṇas, and the sattva-guṇa, brāhmaṇa, a class of ideal men, must be there in the society so that people can follow them. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ lokas tad anuvartate (BG 3.21). If there is no ideal men in the society, how they can be of good character? Therefore the brahminical class of men, I mean to say, in quality, satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjava, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). There must be an ideal class of men, brāhmaṇa. The next class, kṣatriyas, who can give protection to the society, they should come forward whenever there is danger. They will come forward to give protection to the society. Similarly, next, the vaiśya, they must produce. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). The class of men should be interested, produce foodgrains and give protection to the cows.
Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 1, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, Śukadeva later on came.

Dr. Patel: Yes, after that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So we should be always engaged in Kṛṣṇa-kathā. Oh, danger is always there. This is a place...

Dr. Patel: You must act like Parīkṣit.

Prabhupāda: You don't care for danger. You go on chanting. That's all. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). This is a place where padaṁ padaṁ vipadām: every step there is danger. How much dangerous position you'll save? Better go on chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all.

Passerby: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...and some European, one European was coming. So as soon as we face to face, so I had to get down. They forced me.

Dr. Patel: You know that way they behaved with Gandhiji in South Africa.

Prabhupāda: Beaten him like anything. He would have died. (break) Fisher's, Fisherman's island. "I shall again turn them into fisherman's island."

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: I never went to Greece.

Satsvarūpa: You said you went to the airport and they were chanting.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

O'Grady: Really?

Woman: I would think they would be in danger in Athens.

Bhagavān: It is danger.

Woman: There's no way that this movement could be very successful in Athens or in Greece. Not too many things are successful in Greece.

Prabhupāda: Yes, when I was going to Nairobi from London I got down, transit, on the hall. Some young men, as soon as they saw me, they began to chant, Hare Kṛṣṇa.

O'Grady: No, really? In Greece, this was, in Athens?

Prabhupāda: Athens, yes.

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: ...oba. Mitho 'bhipadyeta gṛha-vratānām. Adānta-gobhir viśatām... (aside:) Not too near. Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām, getting life after life and enjoying sense: the same eating, the same sleeping, the same sexual intercourse, and same defense, either as dog or as man or as bird or beast. This is called punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). These four things are available, either you become a dog or a god. Not God, these demigods. In the material world, everyone is given the facilities for eating, sleeping, sexual intercourse and defense. Now, if some dangers come, so we may be victims, but a bird immediately goes. He has better defense. Is it not? If some dangers come immediately... Suppose all of a sudden a motorcar comes and kills us. We cannot do anything, but the bird, small bird, "Hut!" He can do that. Is it not? So his defensive measure is better than us. Similarly, I want to have sex. I have to arrange for that, find out some... But the female bird is always around him, at any time. This sparrow, the pigeon. You have seen it? Immediately ready for sex life. And eating? Oh, there is some fruit. Immediately he can eat. And sleeping? That is also very comfortable. So these facilities, don't think that it is available on this skyscraper building. They are available for the birds and the beasts. It is not that unless you have got a very nice apartment in the skyscraper building, you cannot have all these facilities of eating, sleeping and sex life. Anywhere. Viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. This is called viṣaya. Viṣaya means the facilities for sense enjoyment. That is called viṣaya. Our process is viṣaya chāḍiyā se rase majiyā. One has to give up this viṣaya and relish the transcendental bliss.

Room Conversation -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Yogeśvara: The first thing is that this gentleman doesn't agree. He doesn't think that the major problem is ignorance. But this gentleman suggests that there is a danger, there's a danger in what he calls "spiritual pride," "spiritual egoism," that is to say, thinking that we have helped someone and actually...

Prabhupāda: But that pride is there. That gentleman is proud that he's helping someone. That prideness is there. But out of these two kinds of prideness, one prideness which is real, that is welcome. If one is falsely proud, that is useless. But if one is actually proud of doing something, then he... That is good. Just like in the Vedic literature it is recommended that you should feel ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am Brahman." This is also ego. This is real ego, that "I am spirit soul." This is not bad. But when one thinks, "I am this body," he's a rascal. If one thinks that "I am servant of God," that is real ego. And if one thinks, "I am servant of Satan," that is not very good.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Providence? Yes. That... When we are in danger, we remember the providence, but when we are happy we forget providence. (laughter)

Robert Gouiran: (French, "I didn't understand.")

Guru-gaurāṅga: (French)

Robert Gouiran: No, because I felt that when we reach this point, we, we are, we get to...

Prabhupāda: Anyway...

Robert Gouiran: (French)

Prabhupāda: At the time of danger, we remember providence or God. That is also good. So that is a Hindi proverb that duhkse sab hari bhaje, sukse bhaje kol, sukse ajar hari bhaje, duhka ase hay(?). Means "When one is in danger, he remembers God, and when he is in happiness he forgets God. Therefore if he remembers God always, then where is danger?" So our business is to become God conscious. Then there will be no anxiety. So we are preaching that, I, here, that you become God conscious. Death is there. You cannot save yourself. Either you are on the land or on the plane, death will be there. You must be prepared for the death. But if by practicing remembering God, even at the time of death you continue to remember God, then your life is successful. Death will be there. You cannot stop that. Ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ (SB 2.1.6). So if at the time of death we can remember God, then our life is successful. Therefore, before death we shall mold our life in such a way that always thinking of God. Man-manā bhava mad... Satataṁ cintayanto mām. Satataṁ kīrtayanto mām (BG 9.14). This is life.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Paramahaṁsa: How can one remain humble in executing his devotional service?

Prabhupāda: Yes. If he thinks himself that "I am non-entity, helpless," then he can remain. If he thinks "I can do something. I have got so much intelligence," then he cannot become humble. Just like... (aside:) Don't come very near. Just like child is humble always because he knows that "I am completely helpless. Unless mother helps me, I am complete..." Therefore, whenever he's in need of something, he cries, "Mother, help me." This is helplessness. Helplessness. Always. Kārpaṇye. This is one of the items of surrender. Unless you think yourself helpless, you cannot surrender. Surrender is complete when you think yourself that you are helpless. "I am helpless, but because I am surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, He'll save me." This faith also must be there, that "Although I am helpless... Not although I am factually helpless but because I am surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, I have no danger. He'll help me, protect me."

Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Can you create petrol?

Bhagavān: No.

Prabhupāda: Then what is the value of your, this horseless carriage? You are dependent on God. What you have created? And what you can do? You can create war only to fight, man to man, and when you are in danger, then you go to church; "God save us. God save us." That you can create. And as far as peacefully living, accepting God as the Supreme, you can create war. That's all. That means... Like dogs, they create war. So this is a nice park. Why do you go so far? It is nice park. Now you create something to enjoy. Just like who created this building? Napoleon?

French Devotee (1): No.

Prabhupāda: Then?

French Devotee (1): It's not by Napoleon. It's just...

Paramahaṁsa: What is it from?

French Devotee (2): It's a new building.

French Devotee (1): It's new. It's not hundred years old. It's called Marine Museum, Museum of the Marines.

Paramahaṁsa: It's a museum for exhibitions.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa. The man who created, he's kicked out. "Get out!" What did he do? "I have created this thing. I must enjoy." Why he's kicked out? Why?

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: If the devotee is fearless, how is it Prahlāda was expressing his fearfulness of the material nature?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Even you are fearless, you should not be fool. Because, if you know that "There is danger, I must be very careful," that is intelligence. That is not fearfulness. Besides that, a devotee like Prahlāda, he's fearless, but he's fearful for others. That is stated. Just like the mother. She knows that she'll not catch fire, she'll not fall down in the water, but she is always anxious to see her child that the child may not fall into the water, may not catch fire. She's working in her own way, but always fearful of the child. Similarly, a Vaiṣṇava, he's not fearless for himself, but because he's sympathetic, because he knows that all these rascals, they are wrongly wasting their time, therefore he's anxious, fearful. Para-duḥkha-duḥkhī. They are unhappy by seeing others unhappy. For themselves, there is no unhappiness. That is their grace. And Vaiṣṇava is fearless, even if he's sent to hell, he's not unhappy. Because wherever he goes, he'll chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So actually he has no fear, fearfulness. He is only unhappy... Just like we are talking. Others may think that we are criticizing, but we are actually talking. Suppose this, one who has manufactured this big park and he has, next life, he has become contaminated, the dog's life, then what is the use? How you can guarantee that you are not going to be a dog? It is under the management of material nature, maram (?), very powerful. Just like even a big man like Napoleon, he's also under the control of material nature. As soon as the time is... "Get out." "No, I want to finish this arch." "No, sir, you get out." Then where is your powerfulness? That they do not know. For the temporary power, they become puffed up and go to hell. That's all. But they have no conception of hell. These are primitive ideas.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Paramahaṁsa: ...and we give them the argument, could you eat if we brought you the cow and let you kill her yourself, and they say, "No, I could not do that." (Prabhupāda chuckles) But yet, when the cow's meat is killed and wrapped up in a nice wrapper, they eat, and they don't have any bad feeling about it.

Prabhupāda: This is called māyā. He cannot face the actual situation, but, covered by some māyā, he accepts. This is another example of māyā. Directly killing the animal he cannot tolerate, but when it is covered by māyā, the same danger, he accepts.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: It is like the people: they say that the air is very polluted. We cannot breathe it now. And they will smoke cigarettes also.

Prabhupāda: (Chuckles) Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: Actually, our preaching work is when we show people how, by avoiding Kṛṣṇa, they actually kill themselves.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Yes. Suicidal. Ātma-han. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura said, jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu. Knowingly, I am drinking poison. Knowingly. Jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu.

Morning Walk -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: So it was going on for some years, then collapsed. The movement was started by some priest or gentleman, and it was supported by President Eisenhower. It was patronized by him. So their principle was that, Christian principle, that "You do whatever you... Simply confess. Simply confess." So that man came to India also with his party, just like I travel. (break) ...substance, no movement will stay. It may go on for some time, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Now, what about our movement? It will stay or it will also go like that?

Satsvarūpa: It will stay. We already have another generation coming up in Gurukula. The big danger, you say, is faction.

Prabhupāda: We shall go straight or right?

Haṁsadūta: Right. (break) He has taken safety place, and from safety place he is killing other poor animals. That is not shooting. The kṣatriyas, they will shoot tiger face to face. Previously Jaipur Mahārāja, he used to go to the forest, and so he would simply fight with the tiger with a sword.

Haṁsadūta: That doesn't happen anymore today.

Prabhupāda: See the tiger has got its nails and teeth and jaw. So there was no firearm. He will challenge the tiger with a..., and he will take a sword and kill him. And then the tiger would be brought in procession, giving all honor, military honor.

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 12, 1974, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, but they don't say it is magic.

Prabhupāda: No, no. It is magic for him because he cannot produce so much water. In the laboratory he can produce water just to fill up a test tube. But wherefrom this water came? That is magic.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is so much beyond their concept that they just, they just don't want to think about it.

Prabhupāda: Means, that is animal propensity. The same thing, example. As a rabbit is going to be killed, he closes the eyes. "There is no danger. (laughter) There is no danger." He's thinking.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, there are thousand things they are taking for granted without...

Prabhupāda: That is not science. Science should not take anything granted.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Something which is beyond their experimental knowledge...

Prabhupāda: Then where is the difference between the scientists and the devotees? The devotees, devotee accepts what Kṛṣṇa says. That's all. Granted. (japa) In the śāstra it is said that acintyā khalu ye bhāvā na tās tarkeṇa yojayet, yojayet. "Things which are beyond your conception or perception, don't bring it in arguments and logic."

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1975, Paris (with French translator):

Prabhupāda: That is false. That I am saying. This is false responsibility. Actually you cannot become responsible. You have no power. Everyone is under the laws of nature. Just like some birds flying in the sky. The father, mother, and children, but nobody is responsible for anyone. When there is danger in the sky, you cannot give protection. Suppose one bird is hit, he is falling. The father, mother, and others, they cannot give any protection. He has to become responsible for himself. Just like the aeroplane. When the one plane is in danger, no other plane come and help it. Even if you see that the other plane is flying a few yards and if it is in fire, you cannot help. There is one nice story that one hunter was hunting birds and he spread his network. So when the children of the parent birds, they become victimized by the network. So when the parents came, they saw, "Oh, my children have been caught up by the net of the hunter." So mother became very overwhelmed. She went to rescue them and she also become victimized. Then the father was intelligent, he saw that "My children, my wife, they all have been victimized, and if I foolishly go to save them, then I will be also victimized. Let me go this way." Take sannyāsa and go. No responsibility. It is not possible when everyone is captured by the laws of nature. How you can help and what is your responsibility? So this is called māyā. The children are thinking that "My father and mother will give me protection," and the father and mother is thinking that "There is my responsibility." This is called māyā. With this false responsibility, they are packed up in a home. But when death comes, nobody can help. Nobody. This is happening every day, every moment, and still we are falsely thinking I am responsible. So what is the value of your responsibility? If you cannot give protection, then what is the value of your responsibility? There is no responsibility. The only responsibility is that I have got this human form of life. Even in this life I do not realize God, then I remain cats and dogs, that's all. This is the only responsibility. If you miss this opportunity, then I do not know what I am going to become in my next life. So gaining or losing this opportunity, that is my responsibility.

Room Conversations -- September 10, 1974, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: But if you remain diseased, then just like I have got this disease, no appetite. First-class things are being made—nothing is giving me any taste. Disease is there. Therefore, if you want to taste what is God, then you first of all try to cure your disease. Our disease, material disease is the lusty desire. Lusty desire is so strong that you will find it is existing amongst the so-called religionists performing religious rituals. But the same disease is there, that "If I execute the rituals, then I shall be promoted to the heavenly kingdom (indistinct)." Similarly, the so-called monist philosophers, meditation, this, that, the disease is there: "I shall become God." Similarly, the yogis, they can perform so many gymnastics, but the disease is there. The disease is cured when he is a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa-bhakta niṣkāma, ataeva 'śānta' (CC Madhya 19.149). By kṛṣṇa-bhakti, you cure the disease. Hṛd-rogaḥ kāmam apahinoty acireṇa dhīraḥ. This is the only... Unless you have cured your material disease, you have to remain in this material world in any form and fulfill your material desire. The ant is also trying and Lord Brahmā is also trying. Hṛd-rogam. (break) He cannot sit down peacefully. At any moment, (indistinct). Padaṁ padaṁ vipadām. The material world means in every step there is danger. Every step. However you step... (end)

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1975, Hawaii:

Jayatīrtha: So the purpose of having the Society is to show the devotees how they can always be twenty-four hours engaged according to your instruction.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is helping one another. If I am deficient, by seeing your example I shall correct myself. This is the idea, not that a fool's paradise: all fools and join together. Not like that. There should be ideal life, at least the leaders, the president, the GBC. They will show the example, and they will follow. Then it is beneficial. And all of them are fools? Then it is fool's paradise. At least, in the blind association, at least if one man has got eyes, then he can lead all the blind men. But if all of them are blind, then it is fool's paradise. So somehow or other, we have got now a position. People likes us. So we should not spoil by personal sense gratification. That is my request. If we can maintain this institution rigidly according to the order, then many people will be benefited. By seeing our behavior, by character, they will become. Apani ācāri prabhu jīveri śikṣāya. The leader should be ideal.

Devotee (1): We should dedicate our lives to preaching this message of Lord Caitanya.

Prabhupāda: Yes, preaching, preaching, you will become perfect preacher. Preach only what you have heard from Kṛṣṇa and guru, that's all. Don't add and subtract. Then you are secure. And if you add some concoction just like somebody says that "I may do whatever I like independently. If I chant, then everything is all right," this is nonsense addition. It is not the fact. That is the danger. Some inexperienced man, he introduces some concoction. Sometimes they say, "Prabhupāda said it." More misleading. Yes. (end)

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1975, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. In Bhāgavata also—gurur na sa syāt. He should not be guru unless he is able to protect his disciple from the imminent danger of death. Na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum. This cycle of birth and death is going on. Guru's business is how to stop this cycle of birth and death. And it is not very difficult. Teach him to understand Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is assuring, "If anyone understands Me nicely, then after giving up this body he comes to Me." Where is the difficulty? Give him Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and he is saved from birth and death. There is nothing wonderful. There is no jugglery. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). (break) ...only institution for mitigating the sufferings of humanity. But they don't know what is the real suffering of humanity. Dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti. That is the real suffering, cycle of birth and death. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). These rascals, they do not know what is the goal of life, svārtha, self-interest. Unless he comes to Viṣṇu, there is no question of svārtha-gati. (break) ...reclaim this portion, eh... (break) ...strong and stout. Not all. (break) Yesterday it was a very nice city, and today it is finished. This is called māyā. (break) And there is no God. Just see how intelligent they are. To pour water whole night thousands of miles, can the scientists arrange? So who is arranging for that? His father? His father, of course, arranges, but he does not agree to offer respect to the father.

Room Conversation -- February 15, 1975, Mexico:

Hṛdayānanda: (translating) If there's a certain criteria of proof or a certain evidence that we can know for certain that there actually is such transmigration of the soul?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like the baby is, the soul is, transmigrated from baby's body to child's body, child's body to boy's body, boy's body to youthful body, so the body vanishes, and because the soul remains, he gets another body. Now I am old man. I remember I had a child's body, I was lying down. I quite remember it. But that body is not existing. So this is the example. Everyone has experience. This is transmigration of the soul from one body to another. And at the time of death, the psychological condition of the mind will carry me to a suitable body, and I shall enter into the womb of my mother through the semina of the father, and the mother will give that a particular type of body, and when it is completely manufactured, then I come out and begin my again. Therefore we find varieties of forms, but in each and every form there is the soul. Now, in the human form of life, we should utilize our intelligence that "This constant change of body, how it can be stopped?" And we should remain in our eternal body because I am eternal, but psychologically I am simply changing different forms of body, and at the time of change of body I have to undergo so many sufferings. To remain within the womb of the mother for ten months in packed up condition, it is a very terrible punishment. But for each new birth, we have to undertake this terrible suffering. Sometimes nowadays they're being killed. So to avoid all these dangers, one should try to remain in his spiritual body so that there will be no more chance of accepting material... Find out this, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9).

Room Conversation with Professors -- February 19, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: Because without this, you are animal.

Professor: What's wrong with being an animal?

Prabhupāda: Animal means you are living a very risky life.

Professor: A very...?

Prabhupāda: Risky life. The animal is always in danger. A dog is running, but at any moment he can be in danger. I have seen in my own eyes in New York. It is little in the off from New York. In I think in the month of December or January, a dog was jumping and he fell in the water pool and immediately died. It was so cold it collapsed immediately. So what is the use of this dog-like jumping? Besides that, in the animal society there is no question of culture, religion, philosophy, science. Animal, they do not require it. And why man requires it? That means human society is searching after the transcendence. But without knowing the way, how to understand, they are now engaged in different way. You find out this verse from Bhāgavatam, jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā na yaś ceha karmabhiḥ. Find out. Kamasya nendriya-pritiḥ.

Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) So we have to do like that. Here everyone is demon, everyone. Demon means they are busy for sense gratification. That is demon. And devotee means he has no sense gratification. He is only busy how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is the devotee. Anyway, if you serve Kṛṣṇa sincerely, Kṛṣṇa is with you. You will never fall in danger.

Tripurāri: Sometimes the devotees question, "What is the best book to distribute, Caitanya-caritāmṛta or Bhagavad-gītā?" We're thinking all of them are absolute. It does not matter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is just like sugar doll. Anywhere touch—it is sweet. That's all. When I read books, I open anywhere. Any book I take, and anywhere I open, and I read.

Devotee (3): Sometimes we feel like... I know myself personally, if I'm distributing, like, Second Volumes of Caitanya-caritāmṛtas I have this doubt, this feeling that it's sometimes hard for me to understand Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and I feel like the karmī, he will open the book, and he will look into it, and he will become offended because he won't be able to understand hardly a word of it.

Prabhupāda: No, Caitanya-caritāmṛta is not meant for ordinary person. Bhagavad-gītā, Īśopaniṣad and other thing...

Tripurāri: Kṛṣṇa book?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa. They will read as story book. The Kṛṣṇa trilogy is selling very nice?

Tripurāri: Yes. Nectar of Devotion also.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- March 13, 1975, Tehran:

Paramahaṁsa: On the table there?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (Child talking and Prabhupāda says something in Hindi) Dr. Ghora (?), you can say. The aim should be saṁsiddhiḥ hari-toṣaṇam. But if we don't care for this proposition... They do not know what is God, neither we don't want to satisfy Him, "He may be satisfied or not satisfied. Let us go on with our business." (Hindu)

Indian man (1): A lot of dangers will be there. We'll be putting ourself into trouble.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are in trouble. Even last war, when the trouble was too much, they began to go to the church. Even Churchill. And one gentleman—he is my Godbrother in Germany—he told me, after this war many German men and women became atheist. Everyone went to the church and prayed. Especially women prayed for return of their husband, brother, father. And nobody returned. So they thought, "There is no God. So forget about all these things." People became atheist. So this risky civilization is going on. They don't want to know what is God, neither they want to satisfy Him. And our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is just the opposite, that "Here is God. You satisfy Him." That's all. "Never mind what you are, but by your occupational duty you satisfy Him. That is perfection." This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And this is taught in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa ultimately said this: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). In the beginning He said, yat karoṣi yat juhoṣi yad aśnāsi yat tapasyasi kuruṣva tad mad arpaṇam: (BG 9.27) "Do it for Me." Yat karoṣi. It doesn't matter what you are doing.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said there was a man who read your Easy Journey, and he was very enthusiastic that he could go to other planets.

Prabhupāda: But you must come back. He said, "Oh, I am not coming back again?" "No." "No, no, then I don't want." Yes, that is the psychology. The Russians, when some aeronaut was flying high in the sky, he was seeing: "Where is my Moscow?" Yes, it was published. That is māyā. The... Another incidence happenned that when the jet was in danger, he was thinking of "How to come back home?" This is māyā. Cannot go. Even though you like to go, still, it will attract you again, back to hell. Otherwise, how people are living in—what is called? That place where is ice?

Haṁsadūta: Alaska.

Brahmānanda: Greenland.

Jagadisa: North Pole?

Prabhupāda: What is the name of those people?

Devotees: Eskimos.

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

Prabhupāda: You have got only business.

Pañcadraviḍa: Will we stay in the cities or will...?

Prabhupāda: We can stay anywhere. We have got our Māyāpur, Vṛndāvana. But the danger is the government will say that "All Americans go away." That is the danger. I am thinking of that position. What shall I do at that time?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Take Indian citizenship?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Indian citizenship?

Prabhupāda: If you take, it is very nice. Then they will ask you to go to war. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Will this war spread to many different countries and continents?

Prabhupāda: The actual war will be between America and Russia.

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

Prabhupāda: Honest people will take to religious way of life. The Communists becoming victorious means they are also ruined. Who is that saintly person, sitting under the tree?

Devotees: Tuṣṭa-kṛṣṇa Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (break) ...too much danger, you all come and sit down here. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all.

Devotees: Jaya. Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Jayādvaita: Then men will be eager to come join our India project.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can go to Africa also. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Oh, anywhere we can go, so many places, yes.

Pañcadraviḍa: Hong Kong also.

Prabhupāda: Hong Kong? (laughter)

Room Conversation -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:

Devotee (1): So everything is the same as it was then. It's just the war, the actual fighting has been postponed for some time.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the...

Bhagavān: Do we have any danger that...? I mean we are building such important establishments in India. Do we have any danger...?

Prabhupāda: There is no danger internationally. Suppose... Just like the Buddhists. They have got their all pilgrimages in India. Because Lord Buddha is Indian. He spread Buddhism all over the world. So all the Buddhist relics and pilgrimages are in India. Gaya Pradesh and other, Benares... So India government allow them free, freedom to come here as pilgrimage. So you are now Vaiṣṇava. Why they should not allow you to come to your pilgrimage in India, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's birthplace? You have adopted Lord Caitanya, Lord Kṛṣṇa's birthplace. Legally, they cannot. They should, rather, make arrangement. But, from political point of view, they're thinking that "These Americans have taken to this religious garb. Actually they are intending something political." That is the general impression. C.I.A. What can be done? Therefore I was stressing this point that you Americans, if you make your country strong, Kṛṣṇa conscious, that will be good for the whole world. Actually you are doing that, but they are misunderstanding, in a different way. They cannot believe that an Indian guru can control so many American young boys on religious prin... Because nobody could do that. Just like all other, Mahesha Yogi and... He, they might have some American followers, but they are not coming here, taking so active part.

Morning Walk -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: First Canto. Yellow. Yellow.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Here, here. Find out this verse: tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ harer bhajann apakvo 'tha patet tato yadi, yatra kva vābhadram abhūd amuṣya kiṁ...

Amogha:

tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ harer
bhajann apakvo 'tha patet tato yadi
yatra kva vābhadram abhūd amuṣya kiṁ
ko vārtha āpto 'bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ
(SB 1.5.17)

"Translation: One who has forsaken his material occupations to engage in the devotional service of the Lord may sometimes fall down while in an immature stage, yet there is no danger of his being unsuccessful. On the other hand, a nondevotee, though fully engaged in occupational duties, does not gain anything."

Prabhupāda: That's it. They are thinking, "I am doing my duty," but they do not gain anything. And a person doesn't care for any responsibility; he comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He gains something. Even if he falls down in immature stage, he gains something. But other man, he is doing his duty very nicely, but he is gaining nothing. You should read the purport.

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Devotee (1): Should the devotees think that "Any moment, I can die"?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is a fact. Why they will think? It is a fact. There is English proverb, "There is many dangers between the cups and the lips." You are going to drink tea. The distance is: here is cup and here is lip. There may be many dangers. So suppose in drinking tea there is some choking within the throat, and coughing, you may die immediately. You are so much under the control of nature. Little mistake will cause your death, little mistake. And conditioned life means we commit mistake, we are illusioned, we cheat, and our knowledge is imperfect. This is conditioned life.

Amogha: I telephoned that geographer yesterday to talk to him, and he said that "What Swamiji said was true, but how can...?" He said, "It will be very difficult to apply because most people, they are not interested." But he says it was very... He could understand that was true, what you were saying. He may also come again to talk more.

Prabhupāda: Yes, let him come. Let him come. People may take or not take, but he is inquisitive gentleman. Let him understand. People... We are preaching. Who is taking? Mass of people, they are not taking it. But still, we are doing that. That is our duty. People may take or not take, but a God's servant must speak the truth. Just like Jesus Christ. He was crucified. Nobody took his words. But he did it. If people would have accepted his philosophy, then why he was crucified by the judges? It was done by the judges, Roman judges. So this is the position of the world. Socrates was killed because he said that there is soul. This is the defect of Western civilization. They want vox populi.

Morning Walk -- May 17, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: If I get insurance policy then they will have some money after I go...

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is natural, that you think of future. But the foolishness is you don't think of your future. That is foolishness. This is natural. Because every living entity is eternal, therefore he has future. But for himself he is thinking, "There is no life, next." And he is thinking of the life which will come as his grandson or son, what will be their future. And he is blind about the own future. This is fourth-class man. Suppose some danger is coming. So shall I take care of you: "How you will be saved? How you will be saved?" How I will be saved—that is my first business. That he does not know. There have been many cases. There is all of a sudden fire. The man has left everything, and his baby was there. He was crying, "Oh, I have left my..." The natural tendency—"First of all save me." Self preservation is the first law of nature. So why did he forget about his baby? Now, when he comes out, he is thinking about baby. This is natural, that he does not think about himself; he is thinking about future generation.

Morning Walk -- May 17, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: But because they are all rascals. Therefore we say all rascals. They may think like that, but our conclusion is anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is a rascal. He may be my teacher or father or anyone. He is a rascal. That is stated in the Bhāgavata. Pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt, gurur na sa syāt, na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum. "One who cannot save me from the impending danger of birth, death, old age, and disease, he is not my father, he is not my teacher, he is not my guru, he is not my kinsman, he is not my wife, he is not my husband." So many list. So who has got this knowledge, how to save one from the cycle of birth, death, and old age? It is only we, Kṛṣṇa conscious people. We are teaching. Stop your this cycle of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. Come to eternal life and blissful life. So we are the only friends. All are enemies even in the shape of friend or father or teacher-enemies. They do not know the art.

Morning Walk -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Madhudviṣa: Some people want to artificially jump to that stage of seeing everything is Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). That stage is attained after many many births. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate. When one is actually wise, he can see, "Oh, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti, everything is Kṛṣṇa. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. That is very rare." Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛ... (BG 9.13). At that time he is under the control of spiritual energy. And what is the sign? Bhajanty ananya-manasaḥ. He has no other business than to render service to Kṛṣṇa. That's all. What is that?

Śrutakīrti: It says this tree is dangerous in a high wind.

Devotee: It will break.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And this path is not dangerous? (laughter) Everything is dangerous in the material world. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). In every step there is danger. That is material life. (break) ...they claim equal rights man and woman. Why in the lavatory they are different?

Madhudviṣa: They also want to have the same there.

Prabhupāda: Why there is difference? Ladies and gents. Why not equal right?

Śrutakīrti: In some of our modern universities they are doing that.

Prabhupāda: Advancing.

Devotee: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

rabhupāda: Well, family men... When you are diseased, you do not say, "My family is there. Don't call for a physician. I am happy." That you do not say. You call for a physician. Your family cannot help you. And what to speak of death? That is another foolishness. When you fly in the sky with your friends and family and when there is danger, nobody can save you. You will drop down. Everyone is flying. Even airplane, if there is some accident in the airplane, what the other airplane can do? If the ship is drowning, what other ship can do? You are drowning; you must drown. There is no question of "my friends and relatives." That is described in the Bhāgavatam. Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣu ātma-śainyeṣu. He is thinking, "They are my soldiers. They will give me protection." Ātma-śainya. Śainya means soldier. Asatsv api. It is false, but he is thinking like that. That is foolishness. When you have to fly, you have to fly on the strength of your wings, own wings, not your son's wings or daughter's wings or... That will not help you. Svakarma-phala, phala-bhuk. You have to enjoy or suffer according to your own activities.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That is your foolishness. Why you should take permission of your father or mother? Your business is your business. Why you are thinking like that, "I have to take permission of mother, my wife, my children"? And who will give you permission? Nobody will give you. You have to take your own permission. That is the way. You have to think that "Now, what is the use of taking their permission? When I am in danger, will they save me?" Hariṁ vinā na mṛtiṁ taranti. "When I will die, they can save me? Then why shall I take their permission?" That is intelligence. Nature does not depend on your wife's or father's and relatives' permission. She does not care. When she will ask you, "Die now," you have to die. No question of permission. "Now your time is up, finished. Get out." No permission. You have to do it. Nature can await permission of Kṛṣṇa. Nobody's permission. Mama māyā. When the police comes to arrest you, it doesn't... the police doesn't care for anyone's permission. Only the government permission. That's all. Unless the government orders, they will arrest you. The police will arrest and take you by force. Mūḍhā nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ paramam: "The rascal does not know, nobody's permission will be accepted except My permission." This mūḍhā does not know. Nābhijānāti: "He does not know it." Therefore he is mūḍhā. It is now looking so peaceful nice, but with the permission of the Lord immediately there will be a heavy cloud and storm and waves and finished everything, within a second. That is permission. (laughs) Who cares for your permission?

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: We shall return now?

Śrutakīrti: Yes.

Gurukṛpa: Then they request everyone to pray to God for help. Outside of that, they will not have any interest.

Prabhupāda: But the Communists will not do. Even they are in danger, at least outwardly they will not do. This is passenger ship, eh?

Śrutakīrti: Yeah, it appears ...

Gurukṛpa: About fifty years ago they made a ship called the Titanic.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gurukṛpa: And they were very proud, but it smashed into an iceberg.

Prabhupāda: We were children at that time. Not children, we were young men. The first voyage, it was finished. And all big men were there. It was assured that "It will never drown."

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: "Thief, thief, cousin brother." Cora cora, pasura bhai. So far our position is that we are not concerned with anything with this universe. We are concerned with Kṛṣṇaloka. So whatever one may say, one other may say, we don't care for that. We are not going to the moon planet, Jupiter(?) planet.

Siddha-svarūpa: There's a danger that we become overly concerned with debating on them.

Harikeśa: So our preaching platform should be is that "You don't know." We can say, "You don't know" or "We don't know. Why shouldn't one accept what we say over what you say?" We should just prove that we...

Prabhupāda: No, accept or not accept, the whatever is description there, in Bhāgavatam, we are accepted.

Harikeśa: So we should not try to meet these scientists on any scientific platform? Rather, on...

Siddha-svarūpa: Why not on the platform of not being the body? Why should you...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Siddha-svarūpa: Why not speak on what we're trying to speak about instead of overly indulge in that which is beyond debate actually?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Jayatīrtha: Ostrich.

Prabhupāda: Ostrich. When there is danger, it closes eyes: "No danger." But that does not mean no danger. The danger is there. You may close your eyes. This is going on. The whole education system is foolish. Because they are thinking independent.

Bahulāśva: Now we can change that, Śrīla Prabhupāda, with this college. We can get our men in all religious departments.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is our duty, to give them knowledge. The knowledge is there. The candidates are there. Only the guardians should be sane, that "Save the children." Otherwise they will produce only hippies. That's all. (break) So long you will work on the mental plane, then the tendency will be that "Let me refute you, and I become prominent." And he will think that "Let me refute him. I become." This business will go on. But there will be no end of philosophy. So what is the use of such philosophy, simply continually go on mentally speculating, no conclusion? Philosophy means, "Here is the conclusion."

Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:

Brahmānanda: ...exposed. And they accuse us of idol worship.

Prabhupāda: Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Very dangerous place. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadam (SB 10.14.58). This is a place—in every step there is danger. We are walking in a very nice park. At any moment there may be revolution, whole thing is changed. Whole thing is, becomes fire. Just like, in India now it has become. So we should remember that here in this material world, padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadam, every step there is danger. Give up this place. That is the real intelligence. And the education misleading them, māyā-sukhāya, making gorgeous plans for temporary happiness. That's all. If in the slaughterhouse the animals are kept very comfortably, so what is the meaning of it?

Brahmānanda: They'll still be slaughtered.

Prabhupāda: Eh? What is the meaning?

Satsvarūpa: No meaning.

Morning Walk -- July 1, 1975, Denver:

Brahmānanda: They were investigating the Watergate.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, he had to present himself.

Brahmānanda: Yes. It's the first time any ex-chief executive has ever testified.

Prabhupāda: So he is not out of danger.

Brahmānanda: Well, they're still investigating the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: But I heard that he made a condition that he will no more be bothered. On this condition, he agreed to resign. (break) ...India the trouble is dissention between Indira Gandhi and Jaya Prakash Nārāyaṇa. So that Jaya Prakash Nārāyaṇa is fasting, I have heard.

Brahmānanda: That gentleman said. The doctor said. He's seventy-nine years of age.

Prabhupāda: Seventy-nine?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Is there any danger to us from her arresting so many people?

Prabhupāda: No.

Morning Walk -- July 2, 1975, Denver:

arikeśa: Some fountain.

Prabhupāda: No, there are some children, symbolic.

Brahmānanda: They're looking at the water. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...written, "Danger." Now they are going to the safety. What is danger, there is that safety. Now, what is danger and what is safety?

Brahmānanda: That means it is relative.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything is relative. Therefore it is called relative world. (break)

Brahmānanda: It's according to the body. Because the duck has a particular body, the water for him is safety, and because we have this particular body, it is dangerous.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (1): (break) ...true that when you become more purified that you will see everything differently with your eyes and hear everything differently with your ears and all this?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- July 2, 1975, Denver:

Brahmānanda: And then it toppled over.

Prabhupāda: No, in bad weather, towers, but simply by touching, such a big machine became in fire. (laughs) Unsafe everywhere. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadam (SB 10.14.58). Every step, there is danger.

Brahmānanda: One of our devotees... I was speaking to him. He was formerly in the air force, an electrician. And he was saying how there are so many wires in an airplane, and actually, when he was electrician, they would put the wires together very hastily in order to get the job done. And he said one of those wires could go wrong and then...

Prabhupāda: Finish everything.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Brahmānanda: He said the tendency is when you have a job is that you try to find some shortcut.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: So everyone is looking for that some shortcut, how to do it quicker, faster.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...working sincerely? Nobody. In the material world they cannot work sincerely. (break) ...experienced when any enterprise goes under government supervision, it immediately spoiled. Nobody work sincerely. When it is a private concern, one is sincere because it is his business. If it goes wrong, he will suffer. But when it is government concern, they become irresponsible. That is the experience. Immediately, "Oh, my service is secure. I cannot be kicked out suddenly. So I may do or not do." This is going on.

Morning Walk -- July 3, 1975, Denver:

Brahmānanda: There'll be no water for their machines.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So they are thinking that "This is improvement." What is this nonsense improvement? You are dependent fully on other elements. What improvement will do? And Kṛṣṇa says, "This is a place for misery." How you will improve? This is folly, this is illusion. Kṛṣṇa says, "This place is for suffering," and you are making improvement. "Yes, we are advancing. In future we shall live. Nobody will die." Therefore they are called rascals. Persons who are trying to do something which is impossible, they are fools. Mūḍha. They do not see, still, they hope, "Yes, we are trying. We shall do in future." This is going on. This is the example by the ass. The ass... Driver is sitting on the back of the ass and showing one bunch of grass, and the ass is thinking, "I will get it." (laughter) And he is going on, and he is sitting safely, that "The ass will go on." So our improvement is like that. "Just little forward, then I shall get the grass." He will never get the grass. That he has no brain, that "I am improving; the grass also improving, going on." That they do not see. Now we invented so many airship. It was thought, "Oh, now it will be very nice. Within two hours we shall reach somewhere." Now there are so many dangers. Now there is problem, how to protect us from these accidents.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Jayatīrtha: In Detroit... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...also, there is threatening of life. Some brāhmaṇa boys who were living with us, so they were threatened, "You are living with these mlecchas. If you don't give up, then your life is in danger." So they have gone to Māyāpur.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who?

Jayatīrtha: The Sastris.

Prabhupāda: Some brāhmaṇa boys, they came and joined.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah, those boys. Oh. And the other brāhmaṇas threatened.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they threatened.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You got a report?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...happy that we're taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...brāhmaṇas. are sensing danger because they see that these Europeans are worshiping Deity, temple. Then gradually there will be no caste brāhmaṇa.

Press Conference -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Reporter (2): The cow?

Prabhupāda: Yes, cow, from where you get milk, that cow. So the exact word is used in Sanskrit, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). Vaiśya, the third-class man, is called vaiśya. So his duty is how to produce food, food grains, for both for the animals and the man. And he gives protection to the cows. As the second-class man, the administrator, he gives protection to the human being from danger, similarly, the third-class man is entrusted to give protection to the cows. Cow is very important animal in the society because it is supplying milk, the most nutritious food. And... Find out. This is the third-class man's duty. And the fourth-class man means general worker. He has no brain, he simply helps the other three classes: first-class, second-class, and the third-class. And below the fourth-class men, they are called fifth-class, sixth-class. So they are called lower class, less than the fourth-class. So the society should be generally divided into four classes. As I have given example, there is head, arm, belly, and leg.

Room Conversation With Yogi Bhajan and Jain Muni -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:

Yogi Bhajan: We have a battle on every step. We wear a kapon (Sikh knife), we have a battle on every step. They say, "It is a knife. You can't carry it." We fight every few steps. Social dangers, we have more social aggressive dangers than you. But if you just channel it on a patterned style, you know, pattern thirteen. Now what we fight is this fight is pattern thirteen, fight it. We go, we go through. (Hindi) (Conversation continues)

Devotee: Is Nanda Kumāra ready?

Devotee: Nanda Kumāra is... Do you want to take here or...?

Prabhupāda: No.

Guest (2): In that room. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: World Fellowship...

Guest (2): World Fellowship of Religion. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) You ready?

Devotee: Just preparing. (Hindi)

Guest (2): Good is two words, two o's. You have to be God first then to be good to anybody. (Hindi) Charity begins from home. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca. (Hindi) (end)

Morning Walk -- August 6, 1975, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: ...hiding?

Brahmānanda: Yes. But they are becoming even more and more bold. Even during the day now they are coming, and they'll go in someone's... On the lawn there will be a dog playing or a cat, and... (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Those animals sometimes kill children also, small children. (break) ...padaṁ yad vipadam: "Every step there is danger." This is place. (break)

Ādi-keśava: Here in this city they are not so much worried about the wild animals.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Ādi-keśava: They are not so much worried in this city about the wild animals, but more about their neighbors, because here more people are killed every day than anywhere else in the country.

Prabhupāda: By the neighbors.

Ādi-keśava: Yes. (break)

Brahmānanda: ...heard one report that the mayor of this city, he prevented a race riot. He personally prevented there being a race riot. Recently one white man killed a black man. So the blacks then were attacking his shop, and the mayor personally came and subdued the crowd. He was able to prevent the riot.

Prabhupāda: Recently?

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- September 13, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: We have no eyes to see. We see through Kṛṣṇa. As Kṛṣṇa sees, we see. This is Kṛṣṇa conscious. We are not perfect. Our position is that we are not perfect. But we are perfect so long we follow Kṛṣṇa, that's all. Just like I am blind man. I am not perfect. But if you have got eyes, if you take me I follow you. Then I am perfect. Kṛṣṇa assures that "You surrender to Me and I will make you free from all dangers," and we accept Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Our method is very easy. The child is walking, unable to walk, falling down. The parents say, father says, "My dear child, just catch my hand." Then he's safe. These Māyāvādīs, they go against the verdict of God. God says that "The living entities are My part and parcel," and they say, "I am God." So that is their foolishness. Part and parcel... Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivaṁso jīva-bhutaḥ (BG 15.7). Otherwise why God says, "Surrender unto Me," if you are equal with Him? Why God is asking, "Surrender unto Me"? You are not equal. You are rascal. You are claiming that "I am equal." Otherwise there is no question of surrender. "You surrender unto Me." And this knowledge of surrender comes, Kṛṣṇa says, bahūnāṁ janmanām: "This rascal is always thinking 'I am God, God, God.' This rascaldom is finished after many, many births, this ignorance." Then he surrenders. How the living entity is equal with God?

Morning Walk -- September 27, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Indian man (7): Should we go back to the bullock cart age?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, certainly. Then you will be sukhī. (Hindi) This is the first instruction: dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). (Hindi) This is the first instruction. (Hindi) This is the first to be given up in order to understand spiritual knowledge. (Hindi) So how you can expect tranquillity and peacefulness if the society is conducted by go-khara? This is the defect. (Hindi) This is the rule, nature's law. And if it is a fact... It is a fact. You believe or not believe; that is a different thing. (Hindi) Professor Kotovsky... (break) "Swamiji, after death, everything is finished." He said like that. And he is a big professor of Indology. (Hindi) ...sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). He is a professor. (Hindi) Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)

harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā
(CC Adi 17.21)

(Hindi) You cannot do anything. You cannot be educated at home. You must go to the teacher. (Hindi) And they are being eulogized. (Hindi)

Kartikeya: Now their own president is not free from danger. Every day shooting is going on. (end)

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Therefore Communism is coming. Go this way?

Cyavana: Is it this way? We can go this way. This way. Or better this way. Now he's coming the other way.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...create another danger. Just like airplane. It is comfortable. You can quickly go from one place to another. But as soon as on the plane, immediately your life is at risk. There is no certainty. So this is the way of material world. You create some comfort and you create some greater danger also. Side by side. It cannot be unhampered comfort. That is not possible. You create a motorcar—the same thing—you drive very speedy and you meet accident. Railway, the accident. There was no need. You produce your food locally and produce your milk. Then eat, drink, and live comfortably. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted. Make your life successful. Yad uttama-śloka-guṇānuvarṇanam (SB 1.5.22). And if you have got education, then describe the glories of the Lord by your scientific and educational qualification. (break) The rain is coming. We can go this way. Yad uttama-śloka-guṇānuvarṇanam (SB 1.5.22).

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: What is the doubt? Doubt means they cannot drink, they cannot continue slaughterhouse, they cannot continue brothels. That's all. This is their doubt, that "How these things will be maintained? This is our life." That is doubt, and that is the difficulty. As soon as we say, "No this," oh, they are in danger. Even Marquis of Zetland, "Oh, it is impossible to give up. This is our life." There is the difficulty. Otherwise, there is no difficulty. They cannot think of, especially the Westerners, that without these things one can live. So many, our disciples, left. Rāyarāma left: "Oh, Swamiji is denying the preliminary necessities of life." This is the preliminary necessities of life: illicit sex, meat-eating, drinking, gambling. They cannot think that a man can live without these things. Therefore people are wonderful, that "How he is turning these Europeans, Americans to this standard?" That is their wonder. Nobody can think of, that these things can be given up and one can avoid it. It is dream. Your government, American government, is also surprised that "We have spent so much money for stopping this LSD, and this man by saying his disciples, they are giving up." Judah has also mentioned that. That is their surprise—"How these things can be given up? It is impossible."

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: Mind is working of the fish. He knows where is his enemy, where to go. They have got better mind. They can understand from two miles that some enemy is coming. They take care.

Devotee (4): Fish.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The mind is so strong. Every fish in the water, although they are expert, they are always in danger. They are always afraid of being eaten by bigger fish. Nūnaṁ mahatāṁ tatra. The world is that the stronger is exploiting the weaker. Nūnaṁ mahatāṁ tatra jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. Still, they are expert.

Indian man: Is it possible to visit other planets?

Prabhupāda: You have to be expert. Not by this machine.

Indian man: No. Astral traveling.

Prabhupāda: You have to prepare yourself.

Room Conversation with Professor Olivier -- October 10, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The essence of Hinduism is Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Prof. Olivier: Yeah. Therefore, one would like to see that the foundation of any course which is given here in Hinduism is a pure foundation, unadulterated. Therefore, based on the Gītā and the Upanisads and the Veda, all the Vedic literature, because that's all that's available. But the trouble is, you see, as it is, whether it is Christianity or whether it is...I don’t want to speak about Islam because I don’t know enough about them, but there is always the danger that you will get intellectual expositions...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Well, this is the idea of presenting...

Prof. Olivier: ...without the faith.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ...presenting as it is. In other words, let them draw their own conclusions. In other words, it's not simply that you’re trying to flatter some people that they know so much if they don’t know. You’re trying to educate, which means uplift. So simply we present the principles that are here and let the people become elevated, educated.

Prof. Olivier: Well, are your book lists in here?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: But death is sure. If you are not thinking, then you are a rascal. That is the point. (laughs) Death is sure. And if you are not thinking, then you are a rascal. That is the proof. Suppose I am sitting here, we are walking here, and some danger is coming. It will immediately kill. So shall I remain here very peacefully? First of all make insurance, just like they make insurance, that no death will come. Your scientific advancement, your so many advancement, make it sure that you will not die. You will live here comfortably forever. Then you make your house nice, decorate it very... Where is that arrangement?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But if death is sure in any case... If death is sure in any case, for the thinking man or for the nonthinking man, then why think about it?

Prabhupāda: No, non... For thinking men, for them there is no death; there is Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference between thinking men and nonthinking men. We are preparing for going... (break) There is... Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). That is intelligence. Now, suppose that here is open field. There is... We are walking very nicely. And the downtown, congested city, that is not very nice. So at least, if I don't spoil my energy to make the place uncomfortable, if I save my energy and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in this open field, that is intelligence or that is intelligent? Which is intelligent? We are also going to die. That's all right. But we are going to die like intelligent person, not like cats and dogs. That is the difference.

Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Indian woman (7): (Hindi) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...say that if he remain forward even in the front of danger, that is his first credit.

Indian woman (7): (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: It was a great service. That was a great service, recognized. (break)

Devotee (8): It's a type of poem.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, so this, like sword. The tree is just like sword, and the sinful man is pushed through that tree.

Jñāna: Prabhupāda, I've heard that even in hell the people think they are enjoying. Is that right?

Prabhupāda: Where you have heard? (laughter)

Morning Walk -- November 7, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Why don't you arrange for that? You have to arrange. Yes. (break) ...king. Their constitution, first word is "the king can do no wrong." Yes, that is the Vedic system. Suppose a king beheads somebody by his own sword, as it was being done. Nobody can charge him that "Without any trial he has killed this man." No. Whatever is done... Just like we take Kṛṣṇa, apāpa viddham. Kṛṣṇa is never touched with any sinful activities. Apāpa-viddham. Tejiyasam na doṣaya (SB 10.33.29). Just as the sun, because it is very, very powerful, nothing can infect it. These are the dangers. (Hindi?) Of course, if you want to keep one in very exalted post, at the same time, if you want to find fault with him, then that is not good. That is not good. That is also stated, that arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhir guruṣu nara-matiḥ. If somebody thinks that the Deity is made of stone and he criticizes, that is not allowed. If one thinks spiritual master as ordinary human being, that is not allowed. Arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhir guruṣu nara-matiḥ. So those who are in highly exalted post of the state, you cannot find out fault with him. That is real Vedic way. Otherwise, if he is taken as ordinary citizen, then he is... What is the meaning of his exalted post?

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He can surrender, and Kṛṣṇa will do everything. You have to act very sincerely under the direction of Kṛṣṇa, and then the war will be successful, as Arjuna did.

Harikeśa: So imperfect activity is a sign of lack of surrender.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...avaśya rakṣibe kṛṣṇa. Rakṣiṣyati iti viśvāsa-pālanam. You work sincerely, devoutly, and have faith that "Kṛṣṇa will save me from all dangers." Rakṣiṣyati iti viśvāsa-pālanam. "I have surrendered to Kṛṣṇa sincerely. Now Kṛṣṇa will give me all protection." This faith, that is the beginning of devotional life. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Faith.

Harikeśa: So this faith, is this śraddhā or niṣṭha?

Prabhupāda: Śraddhā. Beginning, śraddhā. Then, when he is advanced, then he becomes fixed up. "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is protecting me." (break) ...that here is some goddess Kali, and nobody is living here.

Harikeśa: No, and then they worship in that temple. That's a temple there.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. No, the road is, er, gate is closed. (break) People in general, they take that "There is no God, and if there is God, He is now dead." This is general impression.

Morning Walk -- December 23, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: Didn't Lord Śiva try to protect Banasura?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You must try, when your son is in danger, you must try. That is natural. That is not uncommon. You can save or not save, that is a different thing. But it is you duty, if somebody is under your protection, you must try to save him, even at the risk of your life. That is real protector.

Lokanātha: Do you have plans, Śrīla Prabhupāda, to comment on Rāmāyaṇa in future?

Prabhupāda: Hm? First of all finish my Bhāgavatam, then we shall talk of other things.

Indian man: Lord Brahmā took away the cows and the cowherd boys that Kṛṣṇa was playing with. At that time Kṛṣṇa expanded Himself just to (indistinct) about a year or so that these cows are all Kṛṣṇa expansions, but the gopīs were so much (indistinct) to (indistinct) Kṛṣṇa's (indistinct). Now he started, he doubted that gopīs are (indistinct) with Kṛṣṇa because these cowherds and ah, they are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa only, so he was not...

Prabhupāda: Hm. That is called, they were playing the role of human being.

Morning Walk -- December 23, 1975, Bombay:

Kīrtanānanda: How about if a disciple wants to use the help of Viṣṇu for the spiritual master?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: A disciple wants to take the aid of Viṣṇu for serving the spiritual master.

Prabhupāda: Hah. That is nice. That is for curing Viṣṇu's representative. When we were in danger, there was so much obstruction for constructing the temple, and we prayed to Kṛṣṇa that it should stopped. We prayed to Kṛṣṇa, "Please give your protection." That is for Viṣṇu's purpose. (break) ...Bhagavad-gītā, arto 'rthārthī jijñāsur: when one is in distress, he comes to Kṛṣṇa. So that is not pure bhakti. Pure bhakti means, "I shall not take a farthing from Kṛṣṇa; I shall give everything to Kṛṣṇa." That is pure. "I shall not take any return from Kṛṣṇa." Prahlāda Mahārāja says, "I am not a merchant, that for my service I take some return for it." No. But sometimes when, since we are not pure devotees, we have no other alternative than to beg Kṛṣṇa for some material benefit. That is also good. They have said, catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ, sukṛtinaḥ, that pious. Although they are not pure devotee, but they are pious. But the duṣkṛtinaḥ, they do not approach Him. That is the difference.

Page Title:Danger (Conversations 1967 - 1975)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:12 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=99, Let=0
No. of Quotes:99