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Doctor (Conversations 1968 - 1973)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...prescription, doctors never says in plain terms. Just like at the end of the prescription, "add water." This is real purpose. They will write "aqua pureata(?)". Nobody will understand. They will understand. This is also some of the medicine. Aqua means water. Similarly, you can say, "prasādam distribution," and they will have to consult dictionary, what it is. And you can say, "Oh, it is not restaurant; it is prasādam." So at least...

Janārdana: No. "Nobody is allowed to smoke in here, and they have to take off their shoes, so how can you say it's a restaurant?"

Prabhupāda: Yes. These are technical. (break) ...description, what is called restaurant, that "Wherever foodstuff is prepared and sold, that is called restaurant," then it will come to that category. Whenever they make some law, they give definition of each word, what do you mean by restaurant.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: Fever, so what should be the ideal? Fever should decrease. But those who are less intelligent, they think, "Yes, it must increase." (chuckles) There is a drama in Bengali that in a house a doctor came to diagnose. There were two patients, the housewife and the maidservant. So doctor said, "The maidservant's fever is 105, so there is some anxiety.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: I give some medicine. And the, that landlady, she has no fever practically, 99, so there is no anxiety." But the landlady became angry, that "This doctor is useless. I am the landlady. I have got 99, and my maidservant 105. And maidservant should have 98. I should have 110!" (laughter) This is the mentality. The modern civilization is trying to increase the degree of fever to 110 degrees.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: Do you know that? If the fever increases to hundred and... Therefore as soon as the high fever is there, the doctor try to decrease it by icebags and so many things because to come to the fever degree, 107 or 8, means immediate death. So the modern civilization, they are trying to increase the degree of material fever, and they have come to the point, 107 degree-atomic bomb.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: The Supreme Truth, fully independent. We are not fully independent. And just now, if I feel a little toothache, I will have to go to a doctor. So how can I claim that I am God? God's first qualification is fully independent, svarāṭ. Abhijñaḥ. Abhijñaḥ means fully cognizant of everything. What is that?

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

Prabhupāda: That is not actually suffering condition. Just like a patient. A doctor says, "You cannot take it." So he has the desire to take it, but doctor says that "you cannot take it." Therefore he mentally thinks that "Doctor has restricted this. I am suffering." Actually he is curing, but he thinks that "I am suffering." And when he's cured, he sees, "Oh, doctor is good friend. He told me not to indulge in this. Now I have done it. I am now cured." So tapasya means voluntarily one has to accept some so-called suffering.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1970, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: One of our relatives, long, long ago, he happened to be, as my grandmother..., my cousin's, oh, grandfather. He went to England in those old days and he became a parsiyas(?) doctor, very... When he came home the brāhmaṇas prescribed that "You went to England, so you have to make this prāyaścitta and this and so many prescriptions, and unless you follow the prāyaścitta you cannot live at home. Then your family will be extricated."

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1971, Gorakhpur:

Prabhupāda: ...my Guru Mahārāja was in his last days, these rascal doctors injected... Our, this Kuñjabihārī, Tīrtha Mahārāja brought so many big, big doctors. And he protested, "Why are you giving me injection?" He protested. He personally said, "Why are you giving me injection?" And if you bring a doctor, the rascals will not stop. "Oh, that is our treatment. We must try our best." They will plead like that. "To give more trouble to the patient, that is our business." Inventing new medicines means inventing new means of giving trouble.

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1971, Gorakhpur:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) The servant was crying, "Oh! I am dying, I am dying, I am dying." So I immediately called ambulance and took her to the hospital. Then, when I went there, there were so many neophyte doctors. They experimented, and they said, "Immediate operation is required." "Why?" They gave us some technical terms. Then their leader doctor came. He said, "All right. Let us see this night. Then, next morning, we shall operate." So I asked him, "I can go? He may remain in your charge?" "Yes." So I went, came back. And when I was absent, another servant of the neighbor, he told to my wife, that "Babuji..." Babuji means master. "...it is unnecessarily he has taken to hospital. He was drunk, and he was crying like that. (laughter) He drank." So my wife told that he was drunk, and he was therefore crying like that. "No, no. Doctor says that it is a serious case (laughter) and it is to be operated." And the next morning the servant came back. "And why you come back? You were to be operated?" "Oh, thik hai. It is now all right." Just see. The rascals were going to operate. He was drunk. In drunken state he was crying, and they took it a case of operation. That is my practical experience. Everything you take there: "Operation."

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1971, Gorakhpur:

Prabhupāda: That is my opinion. But as soon as you go to a medical man, especially in your country, first of all, you have to give blood, immediately. (laughter) One ounce of blood immediately. First business. And then other injection. Because I underwent so many medical examination, I have got experience. For my immigration. I think, three or four times I was under health examination, and blood-taking, and injection. Of course, it is not very painful. That arrangement is there. But the business is like that, "First of all give your blood; then talk of other things." Better to die without a doctor. (laughter) That's the best principle. Don't call any doctor. Simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and die peacefully.

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1971, Gorakhpur:

Prabhupāda: Sometimes they do business, simply water they inject. Yes. Simply water and take fee. They know there is no necessity of medicine; still, they will inject some water, distilled water, and take the fees. I have seen the doctors and some, I mean to say, ordinary man, illiterate. "What kind of treatment you want? Injection or medicine?" So naturally, he will say, "The best one. I want to..." "Then you have to take injection."

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

Prabhupāda: So that means they are lacking. It may be as you say, or it may be as I say, but there must be a department of knowledge, what is the... Now, recently one cardiologist, a doctor, he has accepted that there is soul, in Montreal and Toronto. I had some correspondence with him. So he is strongly in belief that there is soul. So that is another point of view, but we accept knowledge from authority.

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Revatīnandana: Supposing somebody has got smallpox. Smallpox means sores appear on the body and very high fever also. So one doctor who's less intelligent says, "He's got a fever because he has sores." So he puts medicine on the sores. Sores go away and the man dies. Another doctor says, "He's got sores and a fever. This means he has got smallpox." So he gives him some medicine to cure the disease, and then the sores automatically go away.

Room Conversation -- August 15, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: That is next program. Why not? Now we are having our wives, so many children. Los Angeles full of children. So natural way should be accepted. They require husband. The law is, "No. You cannot have more, you cannot marry one wife." The girls have become prostitute. That's all right. "The girls are becoming prostitute. That's all right. But you cannot marry more than one." What is this?

Śyāmasundara: They have contraceptive pills even for young children.

Kulaśekhara: One barrister, one of the top judges in England, a top man, top doctor, he said children should have sex life at fourteen. He said this in the newspaper two days ago. He said children at fourteen should be allowed to have sex life. He said this should be made legal. He's a top doctor or judge.

Prabhupāda: Children?

Śyāmasundara: Children should be allowed to have sex life at fourteen years old.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like here is the medicine, diabetic. So I have accepted this medicine through a bona fide doctor. Although it is meant for diabetes, I have not accepted this medicine, neither it is advised that this medicine should be accepted by a bona fide physician. So I cannot see properly whether it is good for me. But when the physician, qualified physician, says, "Yes, it is bona fide. You can use it in this way." That is right.

Room Conversation -- December 11, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Otherwise you'll suffer hepatitis or jaundice, this, that. You'll suffer, because you are not clean. If you clear, you remain cleansed, then there will be no disease. If you remain cleansed, you eat properly-don't eat more, don't eat less—there will be no disease, no doctor. That's a fact. But you do not know cleanliness, although you are..., that is because your, your cleanliness is with machine. And without machine, you cannot keep clean. Why not this broomstick is sufficient? If in India machine is not available, you cannot be clean? Keep everything cleansed-utensils, plates, teeth, hands, feet. Use sufficient water.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 15, 1972, Madras:

Prabhupāda: Cure the eyes of the disease, then you will see things right. The Māyāvādī philosophy is pluck out the eyes. Buddha philosophy is make it zero. That is also same thing, plucking out. Our philosophy is "No. Cure it." That is the difference. It is very simple. Which one is better? Just like a man is suffering from disease, fever, and doctor gives him medicine. He dies. Then the patient's guardian says, "Sir, he is dead now. You have given some medicine, he is dead." "That's all right, fever is gone. Fever is gone. Never mind he is dead." (laughter) These rascal philosophy statement is like that. Make zero. Make imperson.

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

Prabhupāda: Well, that is also depends on goodness and passion and ignorance. That example I was giving, that a doctor has forbidden that "This patient should not take any solid food." But if you make charity, "Oh, he..." And he's asking "Give me some solid..." Sometime patient asks. And if you give him solid food, then you are not doing good to him. That is ignorance.

Room Conversation with John Griesser (later initiated as Yadubara Dasa) -- March 10, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And if you say, "Yes, I shall accept the medicine if I like it," then why do you go to that physician? What is the meaning? The physician, one physician doctor friend, long..., forty years ago, he prescribed one of my patent medicines. And the patient little protested because it is Indian-made. He was Eurasian. So as soon as he questioned, "What is this medicine, Indian-made?" "Yes, it is Indian-made. If you have no such faith, don't come to me." He flatly said, "Don't come to me." That should be the position of the physician or ācārya.

Room Conversation -- March 12, 1972, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kapoor: So he was knighted, you see, by the British government.

Prabhupāda: Yes, just see. (guest laughs) Just like Nehru bribed one Mukerjee, Rādhā-kuṇḍa Mukerjee, doctor, to write book where he has supported cow slaughter.

Dr. Kapoor: He supported. Hmm, hmm.

Guru dāsa: If I was the Western government and you handed the most perfect knowledge to me, I would knight you also, in the name of myself. Certainly I would knight you.

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

Prabhupāda: So when he was common man, I went to his house. I saw it is completely Europeanized, although he is in khādi. So his father, he hated Indian medicine. You see? Motilal Nehru. A doctor, his family physician, he told me. I was doing medicine business. So I introduced one preparation, pulti(?). That was in a clay pot, anti-floristan(?) So doctor said personally, "If I prescribe your pul, jagal-pulti(?), that Motilal Nehru says, 'Doctor, in case of medicine, please do not prescribe Indian.' " You see? So this is our mentality. We have got all foreign mentality, but still, we are claiming that we have become independent. Not indepen... We are culturally conquered by the materialistic advancement of foreign countries. We have lost our own culture. This is our position.

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

Prabhupāda: We have got so many nice vegetable preparations. We prepare from milk casein with nice preparations. If you want some of our assistants will teach you. So I think instead of eating meat, if you eat that preparation, it is tasting almost like meat, but it is strictly milk preparation. That is as much nutritious also, full of vitamins. (Japanese)

Dai Nippon representative: Even you catch cold, you don't go to, you don't consult with doctor, medical doctor.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We avoid doctor's bill. Yes. As far as possible. And we, because we are vegetarian, hardly we get sick. If you take strictly vegetarian food, you will avoid so many doctor's bills. Yes. Because our constitution is meant for eating vegetables. Just like this teeth. This is not meant for eating meat. It is meant for eating fruits, vegetables, grains. Our constitution is made like that. In India still 80% population (break) ...grains, milk products, vegetables, fruits, and sugar. You can make hundreds of nice palatable dishes. Sometimes we invite Mr. Tajima. You accept our invitation. You'll see. The other day I invited your assistant.

Room Conversation and Interview with Ian Polsen -- July 31, 1972, London:

Indian: Medical science.

Prabhupāda: What medical science? Can they stop disease? That is the problem. If they can stop disease then I can accept that they know something. What is their...

Devotee: In India the doctors, simply by feeling your pulse they know everything that's wrong with you.

Prabhupāda: No. Even that. No physician can stop disease. He can suggest, "This is very nice medicine," but my problem is, "Why shall I become diseased?" That is my problem.

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

Prabhupāda: Just like we are doing some business, Spiritual Sky. That is small business but they are managing very nicely. This boy, Svarūpa Dāmodara, he is a great scientist, doctor in chemistry. He is trying to explain Kṛṣṇa through chemistry. Similarly, you can try to serve Kṛṣṇa through engineering. You can serve Kṛṣṇa by business administration.

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

Prabhupāda: (Sanskrit) He makes everything, but He is not attached. (break)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...how do you know that guru is qualified, spiritual master is qualified? Then I said everything is written in the śāstras, so we have to follow according to the injunctions written in the śāstras. So all the qualifications of a pure devotee, of a bona fide guru, is written there. Just like you are a professor of physics in the university. Before you came, you had some qualification, degree of doctors. And then there is a committee to decide you whether you are qualified for the post. So it is selected by a committee of members and then they interview and then they find out your qualifications. If they find that you are qualified for the post, so you are selected as a professor. It's like that in the spiritual field also. There are revealed scriptures and there everything is written what will be the qualification of a guru and then how to choose a bona fide one. So everything is written, you should follow the injunctions of the revealed scriptures accordingly.

Prabhupāda: Committee is his spiritual master, he orders that you do this.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:

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

Morning Walk -- April 28, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Even hope, there is no hope.

Brahmānanda: Blind hope.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ask any doctor: "Now this patient is suffering. You are giving medicine, you are very expert. Life is guaranteed?" "No, that we cannot do. That we cannot do." "We are trying." Trying, everyone can try. Then what is your scientific knowledge? (pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So the real knowledge is taken away by ignorance?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The real knowledge...is taken away by ignorance.

Morning Walk -- April 29, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is scientist. But you haven't got that. But why you...? You are punishable. Just like if somebody is not a bona fide medical practitioner, but he gives: "Doctor M.D.," he's punishable. There are so many bogus. They are not detected. But if they are detected, they are punishable. If you say that: "Yes, I am a student, I am not a scientist, I have no full knowledge," that is right. You have no perfect knowledge. Still you say "There is no God." How is that? You have no perfect knowledge. How do you say there is no God. Eh? They say there is no God.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause) Go home. (Apparently aside) Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam... (CC Adi 17.21). (pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: At the moment, scientists are doing so many things. They're having so many hopes. So in about fifty years...

Prabhupāda: There will be so much advancement that there will be no grains, no milk.

Karandhara: Many scientists and doctors now say you shouldn't drink milk anyway.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Karandhara: They say it's unhealthy.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā. What is healthy? Meat?

Karandhara: Meat.

Prabhupāda: Do the scientists say like that?

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So you protest, write in book. You are scientist. Write in book. Prove scientifically. That will be your laurel of taking the doctorate degree. If you also become one of these rascal doctors, then what is the use of your Kṛṣṇa consciousness that whatever they say you silently accept? No. Just become Babhruvāhana, Manipur Babhruvāhana, that the fighting is faced. Take assistance, you have got. Ask Dr. Rao to come, join.

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So why this should be tolerated? Don't be a doctor of chemist like one of them. Be really doctor of chemist. They must accept. This is the basic, I mean, platform of scientific knowledge. Antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ (BG 2.18). That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā. What lesson you have taken from Bhagavad-gītā? Antavanta ime dehā.

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

Prabhupāda: 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 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, frog is conspicuous by absence. There is no frog. Therefore that example is given. They have never seen what is the ocean. (laughs) So all these scientists, they are frogs. They have never seen what is the kingdom of God. Therefore this example, "Doctor Frog." Doctor frog is never visible in the ocean. They are visible only within this circle, well. That's all.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The same example. My nails are coming exactly in the form. Although it is spoiled by disease, again it is coming. I do not know what machinery is going on, and the nail is coming, exactly fitting the position and everything. That is coming from my body. So that is mystic power. Even it is mystic power for me and to the doctors, everyone... They cannot explain.

Kṛṣṇa-kāntī: The doctors are marveling at the complex nature of the human brain. They are amazed.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. But they are rascal. It is not the brain that is working. It is the spirit soul that is working. The same thing: the computer machine. The rascal will think that a computer machine is working. No. The man is working. He pushes the button, then it works. Otherwise, what is the value of this machine? You keep the machine for thousands of years, it will not work.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That lawyer was very big lawyer, an Englishman, Mr. Allston. And one man was condemned to death. He killed his servant very mercilessly. And the case was... He was a doctor, medical practitioner. So he was condemned to death. So after the condemnation, when he was coming out of the courtroom, I saw that he was flattering, "Don't be disappointed. I shall get you out by appeal." This is going on.

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: The Russian professor...

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And the scientific fineness that is also in the jurisdiction of matter. But a more subtle and subtler knowledge is possible.

Prabhupāda: Now we are presenting through two of my scientific students, Doctor of Chemistry, that matter is, the source of matter is spirit. This is our theory. Generally they believe the life, life comes from matter...

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Life comes from matter.

Room Conversation with Malcolm -- July 18, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So we have to approach a person who has seen the truth. It is not difficult. Just like if you are suffering from some disease, you have to go to a doctor who knows how to treat. It is same thing, like that.

Śyāmasundara: How do we know he's a good doctor or not? By his credential or...?

Prabhupāda: No. That also... Therefore it is called sādhu-śāstra-guru-vākya. Three things there are for knowledge. Sādhu, saintly person; śāstra, scripture; and guru. So one statement we have to corroborate with other statement. If you accept somebody as guru, then you have to corroborate it whether śāstra says that he is guru or any saintly person says that he is guru.

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

Reporter: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: So it is the king's duty. Just like the king, it is the government's duty to see that nobody cheats. If a person without any medical qualification, if he writes "Doctor, Medical practitioner," he should be punished. Similarly, if one is claiming to be brāhmaṇa, he must act as brāhmaṇa. If one is claiming to be kṣatriya, he must act as a kṣatriya. Now, what are the qualifications of brāhmaṇa, what are the qualifications of kṣatriya, they are there already in Bhagavad-gītā.

Reporter: Yes, yes, yes.

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

Prabhupāda: You can go on with your industries. You can go on with your university. But side by side, you become competent to know what is God and how to love Him. Then your life is perfect.

Mother: I could mention a lot of names that (are) still very close to God and brilliant men in science... Where would we be without our scientists, without our doctors, medicine? They all have to go to university and get a degree before they...

Prabhupāda: That I say. You get.

Mother: Yes, but we need them.

Prabhupāda: You get.

Mother: Yes, well, the some of your boys could be doctors.

Prabhupāda: But simply to becoming doctor at a medical science will not save me. Unfortunately, they do not believe in the next life.

Mother: Oh, yes they do. I go to... I had a doctor who came to church—and Michael knows him—every Sunday, a very good man.

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

Prabhupāda: Then the next question...

Jesuit Priest: ...is the success in the next, which means union with God for eternity. That's top priority. And following Christ's words, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God," then all the other things are of very minor importance. It's closeness to God and return to be one with the Beatific Vision in heaven. That's the top priority, that's our aim in education, and that's what Michael was taught when he was at Sunnyhurst. And that he does well and gets a degree, yes, very good thing. He could be a doctor or an architect or a leader in commerce, what have you, of which all of which are essential for the well-being of the world. This time last year I was dead. I was picked up as unconscious in the corridor, and the doctors said that I had experienced... I was as near death as makes no difference. Well, if it hadn't been for the skill of the man that...

Prabhupāda: So...

Jesuit Priest: ...looked after me, I wouldn't be here this afternoon.

Prabhupāda: So next life, how it will be ascertained? What kind of body I am going to next life?

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

Prabhupāda: Eh? What is that?

Jesuit Priest: What happens if somebody gets very ill tomorrow morning?

Prabhupāda: So we give them medicine.

Mother: You call the doctor.

Jesuit Priest: No, you call the doctor, don't you?

Prabhupāda: So we pay for that.

Jesuit Priest: I know, but you call him, don't you? You want him to be, you want the doctor in existence.

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

Prabhupāda: They're misunderstanding. Yes. When I can get... Just like here is father. He's trained up how to preach. He's not a medical man. But he doesn't require to learn the medical science.

Mother: No, but I didn't ask you to be a doctor. I said some of your boys.

Prabhupāda: Why... Why you are asking? My boys are the same.

Revatīnandana: Which ones? Which ones of us should become doctors here?

Mother: Well, all, all, all...

Revatīnandana: Supposing they all want to be preachers. Do you go to your seminaries and take one boy from each class to become a doctor?

Mother: Yes, well, if you had an epidemic of smallpox...

Revatīnandana: No. No, no.

Mother: ...or typhoid, you... You know what smallpox is like in India.

Prabhupāda: Presupposing. There must be division.

Revatīnandana: Do you go to your seminary and take one boy from each class to become a doctor?

Mother: It'd be no good at all being priest if you had smallpox, would it?

Revatīnandana: So therefore you do that. You go to your seminary and take one boy from each class to be a doctor. By force. "Now, you come..."

Prabhupāda: We are treating them.

Revatīnandana: "...and be a doctor." They all want to be preachers.

Mother: You've got to have balance, balance otherwise. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Balance, this is balance. Let us... You, you take some students and train them as medical man. But I am training to become preachers. Why you interfere with my business? You do your own business.

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

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But our point is that if we can get the help of technologist by paying little money...

Mother: Well, you'd laugh if you were ill and there was no doctor, wouldn't you?

Prabhupāda: ...why should we waste our time?

Mother: If you had acute appendicitis, what would you do?

Devotee: Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Mother: Well, you wouldn't. You'd die. I mean... You laugh when I say that. Somebody's got to be a doctor. You're being very childish. Father agrees. There must be doctors.

Revatīnandana: Well, it's good that... In the society we observe there are many, many people becoming doctors. But there are not very many people becoming brāhmaṇas, people who live a sinless life and who learn the science of God and distribute it to the people. There're not very many people...

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

Prabhupāda: Just see. And therefore I say, "Cheater and cheated." Yes. Similarly, scientists also. Recently in Los Angeles, California University, one professor, a big scientist came. He's a Nobel Prize owner. He described, gave lecture. He has written one book, on which he has got Nobel Prize, Evolution of Chemicals. He wants to prove by chemical, combination of chemical, life has come into existence. That is his theory, like Darwin's theory, that life is from matter or chemical. So after hearing the lecture, there is a professor also, a student, yes. He is also Doctor of Chemistry. He is my disciple. He inquired that "If I give you all these chemicals, whether you can produce life?" At that time he said, "That I cannot say." Just see. He is proposing that "From these chemicals, life has begun," and when he is questioned whether by supplying these chemicals he can produce a life, he said, "That I cannot say." This is going on. Then what is the... Then, if you cannot say, then why you are saying that from these chemicals life has come? So when they are caught up for practical purposes, they'll deny. And they are passing on as philosopher, as scientist, priest, and these things. Just see. (someone comes in) What is that?

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So much so that it will be rather impossible for him for hundreds of years not to see the light. He'll remain in the womb and being killed. Does not know the nature's law. One cannot violate the nature's law. You can violate the state law. Suppose you kill somebody, you can escape by trick. But you cannot escape nature's law. As many times you have killed, so many times you have to be killed within the womb. This is nature's law.

David Lawrence: I was very interested to talk to a nurse in one of the main London hospitals only last week in fact, and she was saying that they're having an almost impossible time trying to man these abortion wards now because all the nurses and doctors just don't want to do the work. In some cases, she was saying, that they take a baby from its mother's womb and it's sort of put onto a tray and thrown into a litter bin and you can see it moving!

Prabhupāda: Yes.

David Lawrence: And they've had one or two cases at their hospital where they've gone out afterwards and they've seen babies moving! Terrible.

Prabhupāda: It has been seen in Calcutta also, in dust bin found out some child, dust bin.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: ...but spiritual, satisfaction of spiritual starvation. Because we are spiritual beings. That I was trying to explain. That we have bodily necessities, at the same time we have spiritual necessities. This Western civilization, they are simply after the bodily necessities. Just like here is a qualified medical man. He's made... What for, medical man? He knows how to satisfy the medical necessities of the body. He has no information of the spirit soul. Is it not a fact? Have you got any idea what is spirit soul?

Guest (2) (Indian Doctor): Not from the medical knowledge, certainly not.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say that these universities, educational institution, all over the world, they are simply concerned with this body. According to our Vedic culture, to remain satisfied with the bodily necessities of life is the business of animals.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: But that is going on. Recently it happened in Los Angeles, one big professor came to lecture there, and he has got Nobel Prize. I forgot his name. He has written one book, Chemical Evolution. So he was speaking on that Chemical Evolution, and his theory is life begins from four chemicals. So he gave lectures. After that, there is one student. He's also Doctor in Chemistry. He's my disciple. So he asked that professor that: "If I give you the chemicals, will you be able to produce life?" He replied: "That I cannot say." He says that life begins from these four chemicals. And he lectured hours. And when he was asked: "Suppose I give you these four chemicals, will you be able to produce life?" He answered, "That I cannot say." Just see. Is it not cheating? He's, he's saying that life is produced from these chemicals.

Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: These rascals, they meditate, "I am moving the sun, I am moving the moon. I am this, I am that." This is their meditation. So 'ham. So they are rascals. And how you can become the Supreme? As soon as you have got a toothache, you have to go to the doctor. And he was thinking he was supreme, nonsense. Rascal. (break) ...bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa. These are Māyāvādīs, those who are after, "I am the Supreme." They are Māyāvādīs. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, "Anyone who hears the philosophy of Māyāvāda, he is doomed. He is gone." (break) ...teaching, "Why you are seeking after God?" Just like Vivekananda taught, "Oh, why you are seeking after God? Don't you see so many gods are on the street? They are hungry.

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore this economic development, so-called economic development, has become possible. But in spite of all this economic development, because people are śūdras, they cannot be happy. Because śocati, they will lament, strike. Even they are getting thousands of rupees, strike. Even they get five hundred thousands of rupees, still there will be strike. Because they are śūdras.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Even the doctors are going on strike now.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are śūdras. Therefore, because it is the society of śūdras everywhere, there is confusion. No brain. Simply śocati, "want, want, want, want, want." And in brahminical culture, you will find even he is very poor brāhmaṇa, no source of income, no fixation of foodstuff even, but he is happy. He is happy. He is happy by his knowledge.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1973, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If these boys, in their scientific language, they try to convince, that will be more effective. We are generally speaking that "Water has come from Kṛṣṇa," or "The earth has come from Kṛṣṇa." That may be blind. But if it is scientifically presented, how it has come from Kṛṣṇa, then they cannot refute so easily. So that I am engaging this doctor of chemistry, Svarūpa Dāmodara and Rāya Rāmānanda. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's two personal associates, Svarūpa Dāmodara and Rāmānanda.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1973, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: There are many instances but this is the injunction of the śāstra. And practically also. Suppose a man is a medical practitioner. He may be born in a brāhmaṇa family or śūdra family. Nobody wants to know to which family he belongs to. If he sees that he is a medical practitioner, he has passed the MD examination and that he is practicing then people accept him as doctor, medical man. Nobody asks him, "Are you a brāhmaṇa, then I make my treatment with you?" Nobody asks that. So, this is śāstric injunction. Then later on this caste brāhmaṇism, śūdraism made the whole thing, whole Hindu culture, Vedic culture spoiled.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, we have to show them mercy. It is not a question of defeat. Just like a diseased person is talking nonsense, so doctors takes care, "All right, go on talking nonsense. Take this medicine." (devotees laugh) That is hospitalization.

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

Devotee: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, when someone is sick, he willingly goes to the doctor.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (2): So...

Prabhupāda: That is the injunction of the Vedas. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva... (MU 1.2.12). Therefore these rascals should go to a bona fide guru.

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

Karandhara: Mutual admiration society.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Wolfe: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the twenties there was a doctor in Switzerland, Couet(?), who had the same method. "I'm better and better every day," and he had thousands of people who came there and nothing was heard of him ten years later.

Bali Mardana: Till he died.

Room Conversation with Latin Professor -- December 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Then he will understand everything. So far vegetable-eating is concerned, it is actually very scientific to eat vegetables. I think some German doctor proved it, that our teeth are meant for eating vegetables. So as devotee of Kṛṣṇa, we are not after accepting a vegetarian and rejecting a nonvegetarian. That is not our criterion.

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's all. Jugglery of words. That's all. Speculation means jugglery of words. Just like doctors prescribe. They give the medicine, and then water mixed. So they will never say "water" because ordinary people will understand. They'll write "aqua distillata." So ordinary man cannot understand whether it is water or medicine. But that is water. But they'll... So these scientists, they'll manufacture some word which you cannot understand... "Vyāghra mane śārdūla." One student asked the teacher, "What is the meaning of 'vyāghra' ?" He said, "Śārdūla." It is still difficult. You see ? This is going on.

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

Prajāpati: They trust the doctors, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the medical men.

Prabhupāda: Whatever... His fault is that "I can restrict. I will not have sex life unless it is needed for begetting children."

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

Prajāpati: ...told Śrīla Prabhupāda, that it was published in a nationwide magazine. They showed that where people's trust was. They weren't trusting anything very much, but they trusted the medical people number one, and organized religion as such was way, way down, number eight or so. Why are people trusting the doctors so much?

Prabhupāda: Because they are under this impression the doctors are scientifically advanced. But the doctors' science is also imperfect. Because they do not know what is the soul. They do not believe in soul.

Karandhara: They trust the doctors the first, and they trust television the second.

Prabhupāda: Television.

Karandhara: Whatever they see on television, they accept.

Prabhupāda: Why they give so much authority to television?

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

Prabhupāda: (laughing) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Umāpati: It's intoxication also.

Prabhupāda: After all, they accept authority. Either the doctor or the television, is it not?

Yaśomatīnandana: Now they should accept Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They cannot say that they don't want authority. They cannot say. The authority is already there.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...of the same quality, then what is the necessity of another God? It is a conclusion like this, that in the hospital everyone is patient. Therefore doctor is also patient because he's in the hospital. In the prisonhouse they're all prisoners. Therefore the superintendent of police he is also prisoner. Or the governor comes to see, visit, he is also prisoner. It is conclusion like that. God means He has got a special potency that He exists without any cause. Sva-rāṭ. This word is used in Bhāgavatam, sva-rāṭ: "completely independent." Who is that rascal, Bernard Russell? He is a well...

Morning Walk -- December 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is your theory that because the cells were working, the man was living. That is your theory. But our theory is that because he was there, the cells were working. That is our theory. Because the soul was there, therefore the cells were working. But you take... That I have already explained. You take the cause as effect, and effect as... Because you have no sufficient knowledge. Therefore in illusion, you take the cause as effect or effect as cause. You do not know what is the cause and what is the effect.

Prajāpati: But the doctors, they can say, "Oh, this man has disease of the blood. He will die in six months."

Prabhupāda: That is experience. Suppose if I can say that "If you go hundred feet, then you'll fall in the water," is that very good scientific knowledge? It is a question of experience. Why do you take it as wonderful? "Oh, he said that if you go a hundred yards, you'll fall in the water. Now I have fallen in the water." That is your foolishness. Any fool can say like that. He must have little experience, that's all. That is not very wonderful thing. Neither it is creation by him. Experience.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is mercifulness. Just like when doctor says, "You don't take anything today. You fast," that is mercy. That is mercy. It is good for him. By starving, he will be cured. That is mercy. And according to Manu-saṁhitā, when a man is hanged, that is mercy. If he is hanged... He has committed murder. He should be hanged so all his sinful reaction finished. Otherwise next birth, he has to suffer. He has to be killed by somebody else.

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

Prabhupāda: No, that they will complain. Just like when a man is ordered to be hanged, he will complain, "Just see the police, judge. He has ordered me to be hanged." That complaint will go on. Just like a child. When the doctor says, "Don't eat anything." He will complain. He will cry, "Why doctor says like that?" But it has to be done.

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Now you are unable to gratify your senses. I give you some medicine so you become strong and go on your sense gratification." Therefore doctor is very good man.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Even I wanted to become a doctor. When I started...

Prabhupāda: Oh, whatever you want to become, the basic principle is sense gratification. Either you become scientist or doctor or engineer, the main thing is "Bring money." That's all.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Some doctors think that they are doing humanitarian work.

Prabhupāda: Yes, so long he will pay. That's all. "Hospital." In your country especially. "Hospital" means "to receive." But there also you pay, then it is hospital. Otherwise "Get out." It is no longer hospital.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I find doctors are most rascals here. They are greatest demons.

Prabhupāda: Why not the scientists?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think scientists are better than doctors.

Prabhupāda: Better rascals. (laughter) Scientists are better rascals. (laughing)

Karandhara: Well, doctors are simply out for money.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, it is terrible. They don't think about anything else. They just think about money.

Prabhupāda: They have been taught like that.

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere mercenary. Lawyers...

Karandhara: The hospital across the street from our temple, if you go there with an emergency, they say, "First give us money. No money, go away." No matter how serious the injury. "First give us money."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have no human quality, these doctors.

Karandhara: We have brought devotees there sometimes with serious wounds or injuries, and they just say, "First you give us money or else go away. We don't care."

Prabhupāda: Everywhere.

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

Prabhupāda: ...that... We talk in relationship, everything, because this is relative world. Everything we talk, that is in relative consideration. That is Māyāvāda philosophy. They do not accept the relativity. Although when there is some toothache, he will go to the doctor. Why does he not..., "No, it is māyā. Why I shall be troubled with the toothache?" Why does he go to the doctor? That is the defect of Māyāvāda philosophy. They are being affected by the change, but still, they will say, "There is no change. It is all the same."

Karandhara: Well, that is what they say. They say, "If it is all the same, then I can go to the doctor."

Prabhupāda: Yes, but that is foolishness. If they say once that "The suffering and not suffering is all the same," why does he go to the doctor?

Karandhara: Well, when you say, "It's all the same," it doesn't matter what you do. You have encompassed everything.

Girirāja: But they always go.

Page Title:Doctor (Conversations 1968 - 1973)
Compiler:Rishab, JayaNitaiGaura
Created:18 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=66, Let=0
No. of Quotes:66