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Degree (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1976, Nellore:

Indian man: But that is for a discriminating man. Here it is an ignorance, asuya, envy. When Acyutānanda Swami was addressing one man (he) said, "Why always have Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa? We can have Hare Christ also." Same answer as Your Holiness gave, he said, "Yes, yes, you can have it. Whoever says.... We don't say no. It is also possible, but degree, matter of degree," as Your Holiness the other day put it. And some chapters and words were read out to the people. They were convinced that same saṅkīrtana is also sanctioned in the Bible.

Prabhupāda: We have to follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu or you? Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). So we have to follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu. What is this building?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is a tuberculosis hospital.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Harikeṣa: At night. At night.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are accustomed to it. They can tolerate it. The hot part is more intolerable for Americans. It's really a good idea.

Harikeṣa: It's colder than sixty degrees.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The college preaching in the month of April is the very best. (break) Do you think something could be written on this wall?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, advertisement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This prasādam pavilion wall...

Prabhupāda: (break) ...used for fuel. This crust, this, that can be used for burning. Yes.

Jayapatāka: They are the fuel for the...

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But they say it is...

Pañca-draviḍa: Well, they say the earth is on a tilted axis.

Trivikrama: Twenty-three degrees from the north pole.

Pañca-draviḍa: So, as it revolves around the sun...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That's another theory too.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: There's two different theories.

Haṁsadūta: It's simultaneously going around the sun, and also, in itself, it is turning. And then it's sometimes tilting on a particular axis. It's simultaneously moving around the so-called central sun...

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But for six months that, it tilts?

Haṁsadūta: And then it also spins, the globe spins, and then it also...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: It has different tilts. It takes different degrees.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The tilt is always the same.

Haṁsadūta: And when the sun's rays hit the earth at a particular angle, it becomes cooler or hotter. This is their sum and substance.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: While it's spinning, it's not just spinning straight up and down. It's on an axis. So it's spinning like this, not like this. Like this.

Pañca-draviḍa: It's on an angle.

Haṁsadūta: Yeah. And then it is tilting.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So he may say that "I have passed B.A., M.A., Ph.D., D.H.C.," and "Whether you are Kṛṣṇa conscious?" "No, sir." "Then you are a fool, rascal."

Dr. Patel: (laughs) The B.A., M.A., are māyā degrees.

Prabhupāda: This preaching is done by Śyāmasundara's little daughter, five years, six years. She goes to a gentleman, "Do you know Kṛṣṇa?" So he says, "No, I do not know." "The Supreme Personality of Godhead." Just see. This is preaching. A child can do this preaching work. She has learned from us, and she is convinced that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and she goes to anyone, "Do you know who is Kṛṣṇa?" He says, "No, I do not know." "The Supreme Personality." This is preaching. Then he is a good preacher. That's all. The rascal does not know Kṛṣṇa. He gets at least some information, "Here is Kṛṣṇa." And on this basis our Dr. Svarūpa Dāmodara, Ph.D.... You have read that book? It is first class. The scientist, so-called scientist, unless he is insane, he cannot say that there is no God. He has written so nice, from scientific.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: So never went to school, but Oxford University gave him Ph.D. That does not mean that "I shall also receive Ph.D. like Rabindranath Tagore. I shall not go to school." The general method is: one must go to the school. Exceptional cases, that without going to school one can become Ph.D.... But we should not imitate that, that "Rabindranath Tagore got Ph.D. without going to school. I shall sit down." But the fact is that even without going to school one can get Ph.D. That's a fact. But that is not the method. The method is that you must go to the primary school, then secondary school, then enter college, then take your degree. Then you become M.A. and Ph.D. That is the general process, step by step. And if you take the example of Rabindranath Tagore, that "He did not go to school. Then I shall not go to school," then you may be spoiled also, without going to school. That is the, generally the case.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: This is the best education. Our education begins when we learn to see all women as mother. That is the beginning of education.

Mr. Dixon: When we learn...

Prabhupāda: It doesn't require Ph.D. degrees to train him in such a way that a person will see, except his married wife, all women as mother.

Mr. Dixon: Women as?

Prabhupāda: All women.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: As mother.

Mr. Dixon: As mother.

Morning Walk -- April 24, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: If you are asked to stand here for five hours, you'll feel most uncomfortable. But they are standing for five thousand years, no uncomfortable. This is punishment. Punishment is there, but unaware. So everyone is like that. Anyone in the material world, they are being punished in different degree, but unaware. That is māyā's grace, that although he is punished, he cannot understand.

Guru-kṛpā: So they answer that "If you're happy, then what's wrong with that?"

Prabhupāda: Yes, that class you are here. You go on with that happiness. But we are not satisfied with this. You are rascal, you are happy in that way, but we are not. That is the difference between you and me.

Guru-kṛpā: Happiness of the fool.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- April 24, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Just like to an animal, whipping is nothing. And for a man, to show the whip is sufficient. So there are different degrees of consciousness. Even a child, he'll be afraid by seeing the whip, and the animal, actually being whipped, doesn't care. That is the difference.

Guru-kṛpā: So either they take the śāstra or the śastra.

Prabhupāda: There is no question of śāstra; it is śastra only. When there is no śāstra there must be śastra. Argumentum baculum. When there is no logic, give him whip, that's all. So all these, they are awaiting whipping. They are being whipped. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27).

Devotee (2): How can we make them understand they're being punished?

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: You gave the example of trying to get an M.A. degree.

Prabhupāda: Yes. One has to come to that highest stage. It is not forbidden. That may be ideal, but not for the neophytes. You must.... One who does not know ABCD, what he will know about M.A. degrees? That they do not know. They think that they have already passed M.A. degree. That is their fault.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's another statement, I saw them, where it says, it's a quote, that you can treat Kṛṣṇa as your lover and Kṛṣṇa will reciprocate.

Hari-śauri: And they underlined the two words "you can" treat Kṛṣṇa as your lover. In this way they're taking your quotes out of context.

Rāmeśvara: This is one of their main, the main ideas in their philosophy is that the living entity can desire to have any relationship he wants with Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, he can desire. I already explained: first deserve, then desire.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa and Rāmeśvara: Deserve then desire, oh.

Prabhupāda: You are rascal, how you can desire? You have no qualification, you desire to high-court judge. What is this nonsense?

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, there is no need of.... Different stages of body.... Just like you are going up one step, another step, another step. There is no need of going, "What is this?" But you are going up, step by step.

Mahendra: In the Bhagavad-gītā, you explain that one takes a specific birth due to a specific degree of lust.

Prabhupāda: Yes, mental situation.

Candanācārya: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you once said that if someone is not attracted to chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, that he is being punished by Yamarāja.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Āpana karama bhuñjāye śamana kahaye locana dāsa.

Dānavīr: Śrīla Prabhupāda, sometimes when we're preaching to people that we don't eat meat, fish or egg, they say,"Why not eggs? They're not actually living. It's just a, it hasn't been fertilized."

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. In America it has begun, what to speak of other countries.

Hṛdayānanda: Worse in other countries.

Rāmeśvara: Today there are many articles in the papers that college students graduate and cannot find any jobs, so their degree is useless.

Prabhupāda: This.... This was the problem in India, and now it is also in America. (break)

Mahendra: Graduating with Ph.D.'s and then becoming truck drivers.

Candanācārya: Śrīla Prabhupāda said years ago that our colleges are producing beggars. They get a degree and then they beg.

Prabhupāda: Śūdras and beggar.

Rādhāvallabha: (break) ...reporter that he was liberated. Later on, he was asking whether you were joking. (laughter)

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

Prabhupāda: At least those who are above fifty years old. That is Vedic civilization. Pañcasordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. One who is over fifty years of age, vanaṁ vrajet. So vanaṁ vrajet means completely retired from family responsibilities and take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is compulsory according to Vedic civilization.

Pradyumna: "These four items are by far inferior to engagement in the devotional service of the Lord. Śrī Vyāsadeva as the authorized scholar knew very well this difference, and still, instead of giving more importance to the better type of engagement, namely the devotional service of the Lord, he had more or less improperly used his valuable time, and thus he was despondent. From this it is clearly indicated that no one can be pleased substantially without being engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā this fact is clearly mentioned. After liberation, which is the last item in the line of performing religiosity, etc., one is engaged in pure devotional service. This is called the stage of self-realization or brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20) stage. After attainment of this brahma-bhūta stage one is satisfied, but satisfaction is the beginning of transcendental bliss. One should progress by attaining neutrality and equality in the relative world. In passing this stage of equanimity, one is fixed up in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. This is the instruction of the Personality of Godhead in the Bhagavad-gītā. The conclusion is that in order to maintain the status quo of the brahma-bhūta stage, as also to increase the degree of transcendental realization, it is recommended by Nārada to Vyāsadeva that he, Vyāsadeva, should now eagerly and repeatedly describe the path of devotional service. This would cure him from gross despondency."

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That's it. The aim is to please the Supreme through the spiritual master. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo **. This is the idea. Now, who is teaching this tapasya? Where is the school, college? Smoke: this is tapasya. And they are smoking before teacher. No offense. What you'll expect from such student? Animal civilization. This is not civilization. No tapasya, no brahmacārī. Tapo divyaṁ (SB 5.5.1). And tapasya begins from brahmacārī. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena (SB 6.1.13), to control. Brahmacārī guru-gṛhe vasan dantaḥ. How to control senses, that is the beginning of life. Not ABCD learning and maybe your character may be less than an animal's, and you have got a degree of the university. You become a learned man. No. That is not accepted. Even from moral instruction, who is educated? That is described by Canakya Pandit.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Here is paṇḍita. That is learned man. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ. Vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi (BG 5.18). He is learned man. Not this degree holder. A degree holder, he has no tapasya, he has no character and his knowledge is called māyayāpahṛta-jñānā. Although he has learned so many things, but māyā has taken away his knowledge. He's a rascal. He's animal. This is Vedic civilization. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Question number twelve. "What is the role of rituals in religion? Are they to be discouraged as it is being advocated by some reformists or are they to be encouraged? If so, in what form? What is the role of rituals in religion?"

Prabhupāda: Ritual is a practice based on tapasya. Unless one undergoes the ritualistic ceremony, he remains unclean. But in this age, because it is practically impossible to induce people to take all these ritualistic processes, therefore it is recommended that "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra." That is special advantage of this age, that by constant chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra he automatically becomes purified. That is recommendation given by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). The beginning is cleansing the heart, because we are impure on account of dirty things within our heart accumulated life after life in the animalistic way of life. So everything, advancement of spiritual life, culture, tapasya means cleansing the heart.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: One religion is there already, that how to love God. This is one religion. Will the Christian say, "No. We don't want to love God"? Will the Christians say? Will the Mohammedans say, "No, no. We don't want to love God"? So religion means how to love God, and any religion which teaches how to love God, that is perfect. It doesn't matter whether he's Christian or Muslim or Hindu. It doesn't matter. You have to be educated to take your degree. It doesn't matter from which college you take degree. Similarly, religion means you have to learn how to love God. If you have no love for God, it is all useless. That is not religion. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Sākṣād, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender unto Me." You cannot surrender until you love. You are surrendered to me, I am also an Indian. Because you have love for me, therefore there is surrender. If I say that "You die," you'll die. Why?

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: Now they are putting out the same kind of propaganda about Mars that formerly they were putting out about the moon—that there may be life—so that they can use that as an excuse to go. I just read a little bit where they say that due to information sent back by the last spaceship that they sent to Mars, now they think that there's more water vapor in the atmosphere than they at first thought. So that means that there's a good possibility that there may be some bacterial life on Mars. So (laughs) they don't... And then they state that the temperature ranges from-130 to +40 degrees farenheit. So that means that there could be life there in a bacterial form.

Prabhupāda: And why there is no life in moon planet? Some scientists say the temperature is two hundred degrees less than the zero.

Hari-śauri: Yes, at night when they said, because there's no atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: But why these rascals say it is full of dust, and how from the dust so much light is coming, illuminating the whole universe? What is their logic? They have already brought the dust. That dust does not illuminate.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Life survives in fire, water, fire. That is our information.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Also they proved that there are certain bacteria that can survive in about a 170 degrees. High temperature.

Prabhupāda: Why bacteria? Human beings. Otherwise, how Kṛṣṇa is speaking the sun-god? Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). Simply the sun-god is alone living?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No.

Prabhupāda: Then the sun planet there are living entities. Their body is made of fire, that's all.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So it's better to say that when science says, scientists say there is no life in other planets, we can conclude that the senses or the forms that we have, or the elements that we have different...

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That's all. Manorathena. Asati dhāvato bahiḥ. Mental speculation.

Yadubara: It's all based on that. Because if you don't speculate mentally, you don't get a degree.

Prabhupāda: That's another thing. A fool is accepted by another fool. That is another thing. They're getting Nobel Prize and so on and so on. That is different thing. Fool's paradise. All of them are fools. And they have created their own paradise. Do you know that story? That one was drinking, so his friend said, "Oh, you are drinking, you'll go to hell." "No, why? My father drinks." "Well, he'll also go to hell." "Oh, by brother drinks." "So he'll also go to hell." "My brother..." In this way, the whole list was (indistinct). Then he said, everyone will go to hell. Then where is hell? It is paradise! If father is going, then mother is going, then I am going, then brother is going, then where is hell?" It is like that. They're all fools, then where is fool? Everyone is intelligent. That is (indistinct). There's no question of fool. If everyone, all of us are fool, then where is the question of intelligent? "Hey, we are intelligent." (indistinct) This is their conclusion. We can give credit to something, just like I can see up to this wall. But if I say, "Now I am seeing beyond this world, everything, the forest and everything, I know everything." That is going on. Cheating.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: But there is eternal life.

Bill Sauer: But when this planet sits for a billion years at a thousand degrees Fahrenheit, what we know as life will be destroyed.

Prabhupāda: Anything within this material world will be all destroyed. But there is another nature, that is being described. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20).

Bill Sauer: But the spirit is manufactured in the body, is it not, sir?

Prabhupāda: Yes, spirit is, but there is a spiritual world also, where you don't require this material body, you remain in your spiritual body.

Bill Sauer: But if there is no bodies left, they are all burned up, there's no spiritual development.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) No, that is not the fact.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Bill Sauer: In the Western civilization it's opposed. He's saying philosophically, he said "In the mutual reinforcement of these two still-opposed powers and the conjunction of reason and mysticism, the human spirit is destined by the very nature of its development to find the uttermost degree of its penetration and the maximum of its vital force." In other words, spirituality and science already have truth.

Vṛṣākapi: Excuse me, one thing is you should address your questions to the authority. This discussion that you are having will get you nowhere. Unless you apply your questions to the authority, then you will never understand anything. So the authority is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta is teaching on that authority. So if you have come here, then you should try to address your questions to His Divine Grace rather than arguing among yourselves, because you will not find any satisfaction in your argument. If you want information, then you must go to the authority.

Guest: Still, the argument was an aspect of the occasion, and it came out of the wisdom that he's here.

Prabhupāda: Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet. Things which are inconceivable, do not try to understand by argument. Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet. So our process, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is to take knowledge from the authority. Unless we take knowledge from the authority, however we may go on arguing, we cannot come to the conclusion. The modern scientists, philosophers, they are arguing, but they do not come to the conclusion. If you want to take conclusion... Just like two lawyers are arguing in the court, but the conclusion is given by the authority, the judge. That one has to accept.

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like that Dr. Sharma, who came yesterday, he's very much along our thought.

Prabhupāda: Who wrote the book?

Rūpānuga: No, no, an Indian gentleman. He has several degrees in science area, and he has an important post.

Prabhupāda: Dr. Sharma?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Who came yesterday. Sanskrit, he knows Sanskrit well? From Hardwar?

Prabhupāda: Oh. So why don't you take him?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes, he's very willing to help anything along these lines. But he told me that once we have this Bhaktivedanta Institute and we have this done, he told us that he can find some means by which we can get some grant from the government. There are several funding agencies, and he's one of the important men for giving grants, this National Institute of Health, and he has several connections with the top rank...

Prabhupāda: Authorities. So keep connection with him.

Room Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Royal College of... That... What is is called?

Dr. Sharma: Royal Institute of Chemistry, London. And I have a law degree. And I am in computer information and control engineering.

Prabhupāda: (laughing) You are such a big man. Kindly join us and help us.

Dr. Sharma: I would be most honored, and I'm slowing trying to work it out in such a way that I can...

Prabhupāda: No, the formula is all given in this Bhagavad-gītā.

Dr. Sharma: I find your Bhagavad-gītā most illuminating as compared to other Gītās I have read, the translations.

Prabhupāda: We are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, that's all.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He wants to help us. He has many degrees. In chemistry, in pathology, in engineering. He said if we have an institute like this...

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...it would be very easy to defeat Māyāvādīs.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Because they claim that they are Vedantists.

Prabhupāda: They are nonsense.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they have no bhakti, so we are in the line of Bhaktivedanta, so he said, that this is the way to counteract the so-called Māyāvādīs or Vedantists.

Prabhupāda: They're atheist. More than atheist. They have been described by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as more dangerous than the atheist. Vede nāmāniyā bauddha hoila nāstika, vedāśraya nāstikavāda bauddha ke ādi. They take the shelter of Vedas and preach atheism.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Very nice. They should be trained up properly. Special care should be taken. That is the idea of my Guru Mahārāja, a Gurukula. Gurukula, we are not going to make some big, big scholars. We don't require scholars. We require ideal men by character, by behavior, by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not by studying grammar. There are many grammarians. Let them study our books nicely, English, little Sanskrit, that's all. Gurukula organize like that. We don't want big, big scholars. Unnecessarily. There are so many scholars in the universities, drinking and woman-hunting, that's all. In the universities, I know, to get the degree, pass the examination, the girls have to adopt prostitution with the teachers, I know that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. In India?

Rāmeśvara: Especially in America.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In America.

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's an educational process. Someone coming from the street you can't expect that he's given a degree in chemistry. He has to be trained up. So the educational process goes on and on. It expands naturally.

Bali-mardana: Just like in the beginning Prabhupāda was teaching Bhagavad-gītā personally to his disciples. But now in each one of his over a hundred temples throughout the world, his instructions are being taught. So he's expanded himself through his books and his temples. So anyone who enters into them, they are associating with him and becoming purified. So then more temples, more people come and become purified.

Interviewer: Are you prepared to die?

Prabhupāda: What is this question?

Bali-mardana: Are you prepared to die?

Prabhupāda: You are not prepared? Why don't you answer?

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Ah, this is so cold. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Unbearable (break) ...too cold then we can go in our bus to Florida for preaching. In the winter you go to Florida, eighty-five, ninety degrees.

Prabhupāda: Florida. And in summer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Summer it's not very pleasant.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's about the same.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really? Most people though, most tourists don't go to Florida in the summer time.

Prabhupāda: Very hot?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It is a little hot.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: And you think it's more because of your age, I mean you've got used to a colder climate than India, have you?

Prabhupāda: We are accustomed to tropical climate. This.... Heat does not disturb us, but cold disturbs us. We can tolerate extreme heat, 120 degrees, but we cannot tolerate fifty degree cold.

Mike Robinson: That's cold. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mike Robinson: That was very good. Thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Why young men are attracted to, they inquire? Why young men are attracted in this movement?

Mike Robinson: What is the answer?

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Harikeśa: "Some are trying to reach the moon or other planets by some mechanical arrangement, for they are very anxious to get into such planets without doing good work. But it is not to happen. By the law of the Supreme, different places are meant for different grades of living beings according to the work they might have performed. By good work only, as prescribed in the scriptures, can one obtain birth in a good family, opulence, good education and good bodily features. We see also that even in this life one obtains a good education or money or bodily beauty. Similarly, in our next birth we get such desirable positions only by good work. Otherwise it would not so happen that two persons born in the same place at the same time are seen differently placed according to the previous work. But all such material positions are not permanent. The positions in the topmost Brahmaloka and in the lowest Pātāla are also changeable according to our own work. The philosophically inclined person must not be tempted by such changeable positions. He should try to get into the permanent life of bliss and knowledge where he will not be forced to come back again to the miserable material world, either in this or that planet. Miseries and mixed happiness are two features of material life, and they are obtained in Brahmaloka and in other lokas also. They are obtained in a life of the demigods and also in the life of the dogs and hogs. The miseries and mixed happiness of all living beings are only of different degree in quality, but no one is free from the miseries of birth, death, old age and disease. Similarly everyone has his destined happiness also. No one can get more or less of these things simply by personal endeavors. Even if they are obtained, they can be lost again. One should not, therefore, waste time with these flimsy things, but one should only endeavor to go back to Godhead. That should be the mission of everyone's life."

Prabhupāda: That is our position. We should not waste a single moment for so-called material things, happiness. Best save time and utilize it for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's all?

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: It is more or less. Sometimes you have got 110 degree temperature and sometimes you have got seventy degree temperature. But the disturbance is there. Either 110 degree or seventy degree or thirty degree, you'll have to feel the disturbance. You cannot stop it. So either you take the cause this age, or this country, or this atmosphere, we can say so, but it will continue. That is the nature of the material world. If you think that 110 degree is too much, let it be one hundred degree... That you concoct like that. In fact any such temperature will disturb you. That's a fact. You can think that if it would have been 100 degree, it would have been very nice, but that's not the fact. Either 110 degree or 100 degree, it is disturbance. Then how can you stop it? Anyone who wants to stop it, he's intelligent. And that is described here, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mam eti (BG 4.9). One has to understand this fundamentally, that so long I'll get this material body, I'll have to suffer. Maybe differences of degrees, but I will have to suffer. So my endeavor should be how to become independent of this material body. That is wanted. That is intelligence. Not to make a distinction of different degrees. Different degrees—one position, one man's food, another man's poison.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: The same degree. If you think that it is nice, another man will suffer. So suffering will continue. That is not possible (indistinct). It is the nature of material world, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Find out this verse. Mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. This material world is full of miseries. That they do not understand. Miserable condition they are accepting as pleasing. That is called ignorant.

Pradyumna:

mām upetya punar janma
duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ
saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gataḥ
(BG 8.15)

"After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection."

Prabhupāda: The material world is full of miseries. It may be of different degrees, but it is full of miseries. You cannot avoid by adjustment. That is not possible. Therefore the materialists, they are trying. Just like in this country, Iran, now the Iranians are trying to become as opulent as the Americans. They are trying to build up similar cities and industries, but do you think they will be happy then? No. Are the Americans happy by having big, big cities? No. That is not possible. Now they are trying to imitate, but that is a false attempt. That is not the life. They can see that Americans have got big, big cities, they have big, big organizations, but are they happy actually or not?

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So this life should be utilized for purifying ourself from this designation. If you keep the designation then there is no possibility of purification. You'll get another designation. Now we are Indian or Iranian, next a sparrow or a crow or a tree or a demigod. Another designation. Just like the same, the child, a baby, on the lap of the mother, a baby, and another designation, boy, another designation young man, another designation, old man. But the spirit soul is the same. He's simply changing designations. So freedom means freedom from all these designations. I am spirit, ahaṁ brahmāsmi. I am spirit soul, my business is spiritual activity. So long we want to keep designation, you'll have to accept material body and suffer. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to educate people how to become free from designations. Therefore we accept from any group. If I think that he is under designation... But our business is to make him free from the designation. We therefore welcome anyone. He may come with designation, but if he lives with us, he follows our rules and regulations, he becomes free from designation. And this so-called designated religious system will not help us. If we keep ourself on the designated platform—I am American, I am Indian, I am Iranian, I am Hindu, I am Muslim, I am Christian, I am Buddhist—then we have to continue in that designation. There is no question of freedom. That requires tapasya. That designationless status is called brahma-bhūtaḥ. And the opposite of brahma-bhūtaḥ is jīva-bhutaḥ. Jīva-bhutaḥ, there are so many jīvas, living entities. The dog is thinking, "I am dog." And the bird is thinking, "I am bird." The man is thinking, "I am Hindu, I am Muslim." So this designation, you may be a dog designation or Hindu designation, or Muslim, they are the same. There is no difference. Maybe some degrees. But one has to become designationless. That is called brahma-bhūtaḥ. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). Then bhakti.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Assurance is there. Kṛṣṇa says kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhakta... (BG 9.31). If you remain a pure devotee, you'll never fall down. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). These are assurances. If you simply try to understand what is Kṛṣṇa, why does He come, what are His activities. Janma karma ca me divyam (BG 4.9). Simply.... This is cultivation, to understand Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa consciousness cultivation. And Kṛṣṇa assures: tyaktvā dehaṁ, you have to give up this body, but for a devotee giving up this body means no more accepting another body. And nondevotees giving up this body, tathā dehāntara prāptir, another body. That is the difference between devotee and nondevotee. One may say both of them are dying. Yes, they are dying, that's all right. They are not dying, nobody is dying, but changing the body. But a devotee's changing not to accept any more material body. The nondevotee's changing to accept another. That is the difference. And if you accept another body you will suffer, more or less, degrees. And if you don't accept material body then you become spiritually situated. Sac-cid-ānanda vigraha (Bs. 5.1), simply ānanda, eternally blissful. Very easy. So we should be intelligent enough that if by practicing in this one life I can get next eternal blissful life of knowledge, why shall I deviate? Even if there is some difficulty, let me tolerate, what is the difficulty?

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Not yes. First of all understand your rascaldom. You have created such a situation that to go to a place two miles away from my place, I have to wait for three days. And we are taking it as progress. This is rascaldom. But what is inconvenient, we are taking it as progress. To go to a place two miles away, it takes ten minutes or, say, twenty minutes. Now we have to wait two days. And we are taking it as progress. This is called māyā. Māyā means what is not. It is not progress, but we are taking as progress. Degrees we are taking as progress. This is called māyā. Hm? What do you say, Nandarāṇī?

Nandarāṇī: I think her question is, is this God's plan or our plan?

Prabhupāda: It is not God's plan, it is your plan. Whatever you make, it will cause inconvenience. And if you follow God's plan, you'll make progress. Where is in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said by Kṛṣṇa that you make motorcars like this? He has never said.

Hari-śauri: They get a bit confused because God has to... Like that man last night was saying not even a blade of grass can move without God's sanction. So they think because God sanctions...

Arrival Conversation -- August 13, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is the temperature here?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Temperature? What's the temperature about? Twenty-nine degrees centigrade.

Driver: It is about ninety-five. Ninety, ninety-five.

Hari-śauri: Ninety-five!

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: How was it in Iran?

Hari-śauri: Nice.

Prabhupāda: Iran night, very nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I was there a year ago. I've gone to Tehran.

Prabhupāda: In the morning also it is very nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You go on the morning walk now, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I heard?

Prabhupāda: No, not...

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And it details everything. So you purchase some copies. We have to prepare...

Maṇihāra: "...of varying degrees of education and from many walks of life, students, teachers, scientists, servicemen, laborers, and professionals—indeed numerous race, creeds and nationalities—are attached towards it. The unifying characteristics that brings such diverse individuals to Kṛṣṇa consciousness are high ethical standards and a sincere desire to understand spiritual truths. To make a pleasure-loving and easy-going Western youth to shed his fashionable dress and make him give up his dearly cherished beefsteaks, wine and women, cannabis and LSD, and don the saffron robe, shave his head, hold the daṇḍa, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, is no mean achievement. That ISKCON has made thousands of Western youths perform this seemingly impossible task is an eloquent testimony of the impact it has made on the life of the contemporary West. ISKCON does offer to the modern man a haven of refuge from the complexity of anxiety of present-day life. The society has indeed set before itself a noble and laudable ideal..."

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri: He's a graduate from University of Washington, majoring in oriental studies, graduate from University of California with a Ph.D in Sanskrit and Indian Languages, and he received an honorary degree from Chapman College, Southern California. And he has various posts as professor of history of religion. etc....

Prabhupāda: He has written about us, the big book.

Hari-śauri: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Big book. Bring that, bring that book. After 5 years scrutinizingly studying, statistics, graphics, and he has put my picture in it.

Haṁsadūta: Looks like your book.

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Not different ways. Different explanation. (break) So any question, any problem, it is solved not by the whims of the student, but it is solved by the expert master by explaining it very elaborately.

Indian man: So the little knowledge I possess. In a classroom there are different types of students. One are sharp, certain are dull. Certain are absolutely dull. The degrees of understanding are different from student to student.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that's alright. That is explanation. That is not different way.

Indian man: A particular student, master has to teach him in that way.

Prabhupāda: The answer is one.

Indian man: Yes, that is true.

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

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

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So materially wherever I go, there any gentleman I meet, "Oh, you are coming from India, very poor (indistinct)." This is our (indistinct). Not now, fifty years ago in 1930's when one of my godbrothers, one or two they went to London, Lady Willingdon, she was speaking that "You people come here from India and we give you degrees and you earn your livelihood in India. So what you have come to teach us?" That's a fact. We go to England to take the degrees, MRCT, FRCA, barrister or so on, so on, so on.

Indian Lady: (indistinct) with Dr. Khoranna, he has got Nobel prize in America (indistinct). The Indian government (indistinct). And after that...

Prabhupāda: American Nobel prize?

Dr. Patel: (indistinct) ...he was an active friend of mine, Dr. Khoranna who has got (indistinct), a very intelligent fellow, extremely intelligent.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Buffalo and bison different.

Dr. Patel: But they are of the same degree or more wild. These are tame. This, sir, is a (Hindi). We call it (Hindi), the Sanskrit word, more or less. (pause)

Prabhupāda: The coconut trees makes the place paradise, palm trees.

Dr. Patel: I've got the place, sir. When you came to my house my wife immediately planted twenty-two coconuts all round. Now we get coconut, they'd be more than two thousand rupees per year.

Prabhupāda: We are getting eight thousand.

Dr. Patel: Yes, you are very good. Mine is hardly half an acre.

Prabhupāda: The other day Girirāja told me we have got eight thousand.

Hari-śauri: A year.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: This is our duty. That is our duty.

Rāmeśvara: He thinks it is too aggressive.

Prabhupāda: Eh? No, that is your temperament, because everything has got degree according to the man. So we should not worry. This is very nice, that we are imploring.

Rāmeśvara: So his conclusion was that all the people who we are selling books to, they do not like us. That was his conclusion. So I said that if they do not like us, then why is our book sales increasing? We started off selling two hundred thousand magazines a month. Now one million a month. So if you say that people do not like us...

Prabhupāda: Not two hundred thousand.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They must be. Artificial employment. (train re-starts)

Rāmeśvara: People go to college in America; they can no longer get jobs. They spend so many years going to college getting their degree. So now they cannot find any jobs.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the position in America. And what to speak of this country. Therefore, after being educated they go to foreign countries. You'll find so many Indians in educational labs(?) in your country, because they don't get any suitable jobs. (break) ...their so many departments will be closed.

Rāmeśvara: It's possible in India but not in America.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Rāmeśvara: The American people are... They consider it backwards. Prabhupāda: That has to be educated, that backward is real life.

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: You will find in Calcutta especially we have seen. Yes. In the morning they'll purchase a bag of potato. Say, he invests twenty rupees. Nowadays he'll sit down in a corner and make two rupees' profit. He invests twenty rupees, and he gets twenty-two. He's satisfied, poor man. Then in the, say, ten to twelve he'll purchase some dāl. He'll go home to home. He'll make another two rupees' profit. In the evening he'll take some kerosene oil, and he'll sell. Evening everyone requires kerosene oil. He'll make another two rupees. So he's illiterate. He makes six rupees' profit, five rupees' profit, and if he can, ten rupees' profit. And takes some chana cho(?), some peanuts, sit down. In this way he's independently earning five to ten rupees. And educated? He's just like dog—"Give me job"—and unemployed and eating at the cost of father or welfare activities, welfare department, and moving like dog. Just see practically. The uneducated, he's earning because he knows that "If I go with application, what education I have got? Nobody will like me." He's hopeless in that way. "So let me try in my own way." He's earning ten rupees. And the other man, he's starving and taking help from the government, eating at the cost of father. This is education. Otherwise he is becoming hippie. Is that education? And in the Vedic system—education for the brāhmaṇa, how to learn to be truthful, how to control senses, how to become educated in Vedic knowledge. It is for brāhmaṇa. Bas, education, a few men selected. Kṣatriya, he has to learn how to fight: "Go. Fight. Go in the forest and kill animals and lie, try again, learn how to kill." Education. Vaiśya—"Go to the field. See how the plow is moved, how to give protection to the..." Finish education. And śūdra, he has to work under the order of the master. Master says, "Do this": he'll do it. So where is education required, high education, university degrees? And the government is maintaining big, big building, big, big professor, and the professor is... What is that? You told me? Gargamuni was telling.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Any time will be suitable. This is pretty cold at this time.

Prabhupāda: Then it is not so good.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: After Māyāpur I think it will be best, this Māyāpur festival. Then it will be very nice. It's getting warmer. Actually it was seven degrees this morning, but they have very little snow.

Prabhupāda: So...

Hari-śauri: Very little? (laughs)

Gargamuni: We should go after Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: You came directly here by plane?

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That is another imagination, as if by leper colony he'll stop his death. It is not possible. The real solution, real problem, is this, that "Why you are dying?" Stop this.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Science, in principle, is also aiming for two things. One is to understand the nature of the Absolute. Indirectly or to some degree, science is aiming at that, too, plus to solve the problems of life. These two...

Prabhupāda: The problems of life is birth, death, old age, disease. That they cannot... Real problem is this.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like trying to relieve my cold or some sort of physical suffering. That is temporary.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In America they are afraid because the doctors, a huge percentage of the American doctors are Indians.

Brahmānanda: Now they have stopped. No more Indian doctors in America.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They won't give any more doctor degrees to Indians, because they're taking over the whole medical profession.

Prabhupāda: In England also, they prefer Indian medical men.

Hari-śauri: They've done that already. The whole medical profession runs on Indians.

Prabhupāda: They prefer. Public likes Indian medical men because they take more care.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're more intelligent 'cause they know about the soul. They care about the person more.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I know. In England they like Indian doctors. And last time, when I was in London, the Civil Surgeon, he was a Bengali. This Aurobindo's father, he was a medical practitioner. Aurobindo was born in London. He was English-born, yes. His father, Dr. Monmohan Ghosh, he was medical man there. So although he was British-born, he became enemy of the British. (drinks medicine?) Very bad medicine. (laughs)

Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: ...etad anyathā ajñānam. Find out Bhagavad-gītā. This is knowledge. All other things are bogus. Otherwise how could I convince big, big scientists? They are not ordinary men, Doctor, that Svarūpa Dāmodara, one of the first-class scientists. He has got very good degree from Calcutta University, from other university, M.A.C. and other. He is very intelligent boy. He studies science very particularly, means sound knowledge. How he's attached?

Jayapatākā: This is real knowledge.

Prabhupāda: This is real knowledge. Hm.

Pradyumna: Whole thing read or just that, amānitvam adambhitvam?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They have no brain.

Hari-śauri: You said in Washington that they will have to give their doctorates and degrees to the chickens...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: ...because the chickens are better than them.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: They can produce life in a few days.

Pradyumna: And if they say that "Yes, we have a brain. We use it... We make very nice civilization..."

Prabhupāda: What is that civilization?

Pradyumna: Then we say they're animal.

Prabhupāda: Animal civilization—eating, sleeping...

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh. We went a few days ago to Calcutta University to see the vice chancellor. Four of us went, the other two scientists and Ravīndra Svarūpa, and we talked with the inspector of schools, who came to visit here in Māyāpur about two months ago, and we discussed the possibility of getting affiliated in the Calcutta University, of giving some Ph.D. degrees in our philosophy. He indicated some ideas that it is possible, but he suggested that we must have a very good library.

Prabhupāda: That is the difficulty.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. They already said that two years ago.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They want us to buy so many nonsense books.

Prabhupāda: And nobody reads.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But there's no doubt it would be a big help if we could give Ph.D.s.

Prabhupāda: Not...

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Change it.

Bali-mardana: So when you come there the house is waiting. It is very peaceful place for translation, and there's no winter. There is no winter. Seventy-five degrees, wintertime.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bali-mardana: Very nice.

Prabhupāda: And the summer?

Bali-mardana: Summertime, eighty-five. A little hotter.

Prabhupāda: Not...

Bali-mardana: But it rains. Summertime is rainy season, two or three months rainy season, so it is also...

Prabhupāda: Near the sea?

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Apareyam... (break) ...inferior. These rascals, they do not. The superior thing they do not know. They are simply entangled in this material, inferior. Psychologist, psychiatrist. (sound of shenai) Now there is moon. Intelligence. Intelligence, I think, they take it as soul. Therefore they say that the animal has no soul.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But an animal has intelligence. An animal also has some small degree of intelligence.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were saying the cows, when they know there is something there, they stay away.

Prabhupāda: No. They can understand that "These people are going to kill us. These people will not kill us." They can understand. You know that when I was in America some incident took place, that some slaughterhouse livestock, the..., somehow or other, it was open, and they were fleeing away, going away. Something happened. They were going up on the slaughterhouse, and some of them were shooted.

Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:

Girirāja: Yeah, Dr. Sharma. He lives on Hare Kṛṣṇa Land. He's an Indian who took his degree in Alaska and he has two sister-in-laws also who took their doctor's degree in Moscow, and they have great faith in Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Make them come, make them come. Treat them nicely. Give them good place. In this way increase the number of workers. Then people will, "Oh... They are not religious sentiments. They have got books, they have got scientists, they have got doctors." Is it not? And we can challenge them. "Come on, what is our education, let us test. We are prepared to talk with you like scientists." So you are all here now and... Organize in Bombay. Bombay, the center of Bhaktivedanta Institute.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: A few students came day before yesterday from Bombay University.

Prabhupāda: Let them come.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Karttikeya's house?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, today. They came yesterday. He's very learned, and he had a number of degrees.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many degrees did he have?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He said he had, honorary, about some fourteen, fifteen Ph.D. degrees.

Prabhupāda: Ph.D. Genuine?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Some are honorary, but he is from Oxford and Cambridge, very renowned scholar.

Mādhava: He's a chemist.

Prabhupāda: He's a chemist.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Let him come here. Organize all other scientists.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I'm going to request him to become a member of Bhaktivedanta Institute and put his name and degrees...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That will be little impressive.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So he agreed or not?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I'm going to request him today. I made a little preaching in Manipur. I took a Fairchild, our movies, all the Hare Kṛṣṇa movies, from Calcutta. I borrowed for a week.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He took that little Fairchild projector.

Conversation: Vairagya, Salaries, and Political Etiquette -- April 28, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like the original... When Jesus was there and he had twelve disciples, they simply gave up everything and traveled with him and tried to preach. So they were renunciates, living simply whatever they could take, nothing more, and devoting their lives to God. But the followers later on, more and more they added the degree of sense gratification, till now you can't see any renunciation at all within their order.

Prabhupāda: No, they are drinking. They are having homosex. They are encouraging homosex, giving man-to-man marriage. You know that? This is going on. Doing everything nonsense.

Girirāja: Actually their leader...

Prabhupāda: And they are concluding that they cannot stop committing sins and Jesus Christ will take account for them. Therefore it is very good religion, that "We can do whatever nonsense we like, and if we keep our faith in Jesus Christ, then we are saved." Pāpa-buddhiḥ, nāmno balād pāpa-buddhiḥ. Great offenders. So what news?

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

Prabhupāda: I do not know that. But he was a waste of money, that. Still wasting money. What he has done? Has he published any books like that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, he has a big degree now.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Nonsense degree. Who cares for his degree?

Bhavānanda: You've got many nice young staunch Bengali brahmacārīs, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two years old.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They joined?

Prabhupāda: Where?

Bhavānanda: At different times. Now all, they have become very strong. Finally it's happened. We have a brahmacārī core. And they're all anxious... This week they're all going out preaching, everyone.

Prabhupāda: Gītār Gān selling nice?

Srila Prabhupada Vigil -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Bring some fruits.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "I remembered Śrīla Prabhupāda's introduction to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and I began to speak further. 'Although mankind has made great material advancement in so many spheres, we can factually say that there is a fault in the social body at large. People are not happy with their day-to-day activities, and there is an increasing disturbance of drug addiction, prostitution, violence and crime. The root of the problem is lack of God consciousness. People are unaware of the actual purpose of life.' The judge, intrigued by this sound philosophy coming from the witness box, relaxed his judicial appearance, sat back, and took a sip of water from his glass. Encouraged, I asked, 'Your honor, with your permission I would like to read a short passage which appeared in the London Observer in October, 1972. It is an excerpt from an article written by the eminent English historian Sir Arnold Toynbee. "The cause of it, the world's malady, is spiritual. We are suffering from having sold our souls to the pursuit of an objective which is both spiritually wrong and practically unattainable. We have to reconsider our objective and change it, and until we do this, we shall not have peace either amongst ourselves or within each of us." ' Then the devotee continued. " 'As devotees of the Lord, we strictly follow four principles, cultivating the qualities of human life: mercifulness, truthfulness, cleanliness and austerity. The absence of these qualities means the degradation of society. So the spreading of spiritual understanding amongst humanity at large is the highest welfare work, and an essential part of this program is the distribution and the congregational chanting in the street of the holy names of God.' 'Is that all?' inquired the judge. 'Yes, sir,' was the reply. 'Then you may step down,' he instructed. Adjusting his spectacles and regarding the devotees, who were once more assembled in the dock, he said in a very firm yet amicable manner, 'In legal terms you are guilty of obstruction, although it is of a very minor degree.

Conversations with Kirtana Groups -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: How they are living? As soon as you walk, they go within the sand.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Recently they also found out that there are some, called bacteria. They live in a very unusual circumstances. They can survive to 150 degrees. And sometimes they live inside ammonia, ammonia solution, without water. They can survive.

Prabhupāda: Not without water. There is water, but not as much. Just like on the land there is water, but in the sea there are so much water. So there is life; there is life. We don't say that in the land there is no water. Everywhere is there different. So this evolution, jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi, it has developed the same way. The first life comes out... Then everywhere there is life. The transportation from higher planet to lower planet, water.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. Then they became little... They opened up their mouth and then started talking. Then, once they start talking, then we can generate some platform where we can actually discuss. This Amrtabhal Sena is a professor in Bose Institute. Firstof all he asked my qualifications, said what, what do I have. Then I said I studied in the States, and I had this degree, and I was working this line. Actually I told him all the sophisticated experiments that we did when I was studying. And he was very impressed with those ideas or experiments that I did which they don't do here. Then he asked me... First of all he was interested "How you became... How you left those things and become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa?" Then I... At that point I got the opportunity to explain how science is an attempt to see the unknown laws of nature, in other words to find at least the ultimate cause or the Absolute Truth. Vaguely it's an attempt at least amongst those highly thoughtful scientists. They think like that. But we are seeing at this stage of our scientific age that science is not giving those answers. Rather, science is failing. We thought we would do like this, that, and so many experiments and so much knowledge we uncovered, but we do not know anything about life, so there are limitations of this scientific knowledge. So there must be something higher. It cannot be the finishing stage at this moment. So there must be something higher. It cannot be the finishing stage at this moment. So there must be something higher beyond what we know so far. That is why I was interested in knowing more about the principles of life. It cannot be just coming momentarily for some time and staying and getting a family and getting some false prestige. That cannot be the ultimate. There must be something higher. Then he began to understood what I meant and he accepted, "Yes, it's true." That he agreed, "Yes, we are not... The knowledge that we have is not able to give all the answers. In fact, science doesn't know anything about life. But we are leaving this most important knowledge of life and just studying something garbage in the name of scientific knowledge."

Prabhupāda: (laughs) You have fatally...(?)

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Only brains are developed now.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, especially now, this century. Before this, everybody was unintelligent, and now man's brain is developing to a higher and higher degree, and he can finally understand what is what. I don't think that... Your descriptions, especially this planetarium, will at first meet with a lot of heavy reaction. It is not going to be embraced immediately very favorably. It means that everyone who calls himself a Ph.D. is a fool, that students will laugh at their teachers, if what we say is correct. There will be chaos in educational circles. (Prabhupāda chuckles)

Prabhupāda: All right.

Room Conversation Varnasrama -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ha, ha. What is his position now?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I haven't heard about him in the last few years. He's in and out of jail, I think. I saw one time he was just getting out of jail. It just shows... I think he was a big professor at Harvard. So the idle mind, devil's workshop. So he used his big brain for making this LSD. That's the value of this Ph.D. degree.

Prabhupāda: He was Ph.D.?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah. Big personality. And because of the fact that he was an important member of the faculty at Harvard, so even though all he produced was an intoxicant, he gave it so much explanation, that "This is..."

Prabhupāda: Transcendental meditation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, this is transcendental. "This is real psychotherapy," he called it. He made it seem like this is legitimate, this is a bona fide experiment, just like you go to a psychologist or psychiatrist. He tried to explain it as a medical drug for helping the mind. But as a result of it so many people became crazy by using it.

Prabhupāda: Howling.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You can get on light.

Abhirāma: So basically he explained when the difficult times will come, according to the planets. Then he made it very clear that beyond the planetary influence, it would be very difficult for calculations for a person in your position. For an ordinary man he can say very clearly. And he can say for you which planets will disturb, but he cannot say for sure how much they will affect, because being a saintly person, there is naturally some resistance to these influences. So he made that very clear, that you should not think that these are final. So he said, according to your birth, the longevity shows very clearly. And then he gave a date. The longevity is eighty-one years, five months and twenty-nine days, which means February 28, 1978, six months from now. This is according to birth and stars arrangement. But on this point he made it very clear that this was from your birth, this was set, but it can change. Due to pious activities, due to the hand of Kṛṣṇa, this can change. So... And then he described that during the next six months, the first week of September, Saturn will pass over Ketu, and it will agitate the influence of Ketu even more. So the first week of September the resistance will go down, will become weaker. Then he mentioned that there may be some trouble from..., maybe financial or maybe from juniors, from subordinates. Then this period, if you can pass, through 1978, then there is four or five more years clear ahead, if you can pass through '78. This was what he said, that after '78 there would be four or five years which would be more or less clear of difficulties. He said that if you can pass through 1978, there after that there would be four or five years clear, without much difficulty. And he said according to birth arrangement, the fatal date is February 28, 1978, in six months. At that time there's what's called the completion of a Ketu mahā-daśā, which began at your birth. But he stressed several times that we should not take these calculations to be final on account of your position. He said these are for ordinary men. He said it is always the case that a man of spiritual advancement will have the ability to overcome his fate. He quoted the case of his father, who was in the Śrī Sampradāya, and he was apparently very pious and he lived so many years beyond his fatal date. And even so many astrologers had given the calculation, but still, he went on because of... He said he would fast on ekādaśī and so many days and so much japa, like that. So he said for a man of your position he could not even say for sure. He said that definitely the hand of Kṛṣṇa would be involved. So like this, he seemed to have a very sober idea. And he was hopeful that the blue sapphire would have some beneficial effect, at least to relieve you to some degree.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ah!

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ah. He's exposed now. "...whereas these men have actually qualified themselves in bona fide institutions of learning by submitting their theses for Ph.D. degrees. Dr. Kovoor boasts that for over twenty years he has challenged holy men to show him God or the soul, and no one has ever dared to take up his challenge. But now someone has come forward to challenge him. I have rented the Ramakrishna Mission Hall on the 20th of August, Saturday, 6:30 PM, and invite him to accept my challenge on the stage before the public to produce life from chance biochemical combination. All are invited to attend. Admission free. Bring some chemicals if possible." He rented a hall. He's put out a challenge in the newspaper. Now we'll hear what the public is saying. I think he gave a good reply.

Prabhupāda: Very good. This is preaching.

Room Conversation -- October 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The eight house is called the house of death. He says, "Ketu is in the eight house with the sun, which is the lord of the eighth house, and Krusu, the lord of the twelfth and third houses. They are all in the eighth house. Mercury in Ketu started from 16th January." He says, " Budha is the satesa also, disease. Śani has gone to the eighth house, which is the house of death, from the 7th September." That's the day you had your operation. "Śani as lagneśa in the eighth house and the transit over Jupiter and Ketu. The negative effect continues throughout October 1977, November 1977, and from the first of December, 1977, Saturn becomes almost stationary and becomes more malefic." Saturn becomes even worse. "In January 1978 until April 1978 it again traverses the same degrees and becomes stagnant on Jupiter and Ketu in the last week of February. The native has..."

Prabhupāda: January '77 we have passed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: January '78, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It says that you're supposed to have lived for seventy-five years, but everything beyond that was an extension by Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Where is...

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Very warm nowadays?

Rāmeśvara: During the day it is just like here-80, 85 degrees. In the early morning and in the evening sometimes a little chilly.

Prabhupāda: At night snowfall?

Rāmeśvara: No.

Jayatīrtha: Snow there starts around December. It starts to get snow in Tehran.

Rāmeśvara: This is the best time in Tehran, the fall, autumn season. Parivrājakācārya Mahārāja told me that the Indian ambassador to Iran spoke with him and told him, "You are the real ambassador of India."

Prabhupāda: Hm. Why?

Page Title:Degree (Conversations 1976 - 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:27 of Jun, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=66, Let=0
No. of Quotes:66