Drive (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
" drive" |"drives" |"drove"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: Yes, they have to. They've all been here. They all know it. They come with different personalities, different friends... In Krishnanagar, we are like the cinema in terms of entertainment. As soon as any man, any official, government official, his friends come from Calcutta, immediately they get in one of the government jeeps and they drive out here and come to see the ISKCON Maṭha, Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir. Immediately. So many men, they come all the time with their friends from Calcutta. Same thing in Navadvīpa. They come for an evening's...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhavānanda: Fully satisfied. The woman puts on her sari, the man dresses up in his kurta...

Prabhupāda: So our arrangement should be to give them some prasadam, very nice treatment.

Morning Walk -- February 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is the position.

Acyutānanda: And now, in many cases, they forcibly occupy some land, and they create disturbance, and the local people set fire and drive them out. We call a barber...

Prabhupāda: Mūḍha. Anyone who's not a Kṛṣṇa conscious, he's a mūḍha, bās. Narādhama, bās.

Acyutānanda: We call a barber, and he shaves one, and we said, "Now sharpen again," and he does not bring his stone. "Go back and bring your stone." But even in the free society, American society, they have union. And that is caste. To protect the employment, one union man cannot do the work of another union or he'll put another man out of work. So they stay in their place. So that is sva-dharma and para-dharma. So the same principle is natural, svābhāvika, again appears naturally. Hmm? Just like we... In my house we purchased a piano. One union is hired to bring the piano from the shop to the lorry, another set of workers will lift the piano and put it into the lorry, and another union will take the, from the lorry into your house. So you have to hire about nine different men, because they'll say, "No, now our work is finished up to this point."

Prabhupāda: In America?

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1976, Mayapura:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1).

Prabhupāda: No, don't quote. Then they will drive you.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: You talk on reasonable ground, that "You are in favor of giving everyone the same facility. So what do you mean by 'everyone'? Why you are selecting only your countrymen? Why? 'Everyone' means every living being." So what is their answer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we agree to spread communism all over the world, and we'll give everyone equal rights.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. So equal rights, why not to the animals?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, they're not as important, they'll argue. They'll say that they're not as important. They're not so intelligent. They're just animals.

Prabhupāda: Animals, but it appears to me that there are many men like animals, so why you are giving facility to them?

Morning Walk Excerpt -- April 2, 1976, Vrndavana:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Vṛndāvana morning walk, Vṛndāvana, April 2, 1976. Śrīla Prabhupāda is walking in the Vṛndāvana Municipal Park this morning. He drove here by car in his Mercedes. Now he's taking walk here.

Prabhupāda: Car?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, car is locked, and the driver of the other car is watching it.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...small park, they cannot maintain it.

Tripurāri: ...reading in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the cleansing of the Guṇḍicā temple. And towards the end, one Bengali Vaiṣṇava brāhmaṇa washed the feet of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and He became a little angry, outwardly angry, and unhappy within. And in one purport you mention that the spiritual master should not be offered obeisances or have his feet washed before the Deity. But the impression of most of the devotees has been that in the presence of the spiritual master one can stop worshiping the Deity and offer obeisances to the spiritual master. So I was wondering which is correct.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Dilemma.

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The people that live in the cities think that the farmers work so hard.

Prabhupāda: And these rascals rise early in the morning and start their car to go to the office, five hours coming and going, and eight hours working there...

Lokanātha: Again in the evening they have to drive back. (break)

Pañcadraviḍa: ...I saw that these big men, they were taking so many pep pills during the day to do their work, and in the evening they had to take tranquilizers to go to sleep.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have seen so, so many advertisements. One has to take at least five to six types of.

Pañcadraviḍa: No peace of mind.

Madhudviṣa: In this way the Kali-yuga will progress, and they'll eat less and less food and take more pills, and they will think it is advancement.

Morning Walk -- April 17, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No. No. No. There is no need of. You have the car, you can go from this place to that place very quickly, so utilize it for Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Dr. Patel: They must know how to drive it. That is knowledge. Why do you say no?

Prabhupāda: That automatically comes.

Dr. Patel: How can automatically? Nothing can come automatically.

Prabhupāda: You'll see many drivers. They do not know about mechanics, but very first class driver.

Dr. Patel: Well, learning driving is a knowledge of driving.

Prabhupāda: Yes, driving, that is...

Dr. Patel: Svarūpa(?), why don't you say something?

Morning Walk -- April 17, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, driving, that is...

Dr. Patel: Svarūpa(?), why don't you say something?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Many.... Many first-class owner.... You know. You are a physician. You are not a motor mechanics, but you know how to drive. That is not very difficult thing.

Guru dāsa: Isn't it when you drive for Kṛṣṇa, doesn't it become parā-vidyā then?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Guru dāsa: When you drive for Kṛṣṇa, doesn't it becomes parā-vidyā?

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything is done for Kṛṣṇa, that is parā-vidyā.

Dr. Patel: Anything spoken for Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is parā-vāṇī, and this is parā-vidyā.

Prabhupāda: Vāsudeva-parā... There is a verse, vāsudeva-parāḥ karma vāsudeva-parā... Like that.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Neither. Overpopulation, the fish, they lay eggs hundreds and thousands at a time. You know that? There is not..., unlimited number of eggs they lay down. (break) ...say, "Your food is ready. Just little work." Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Just produce food grain. Everyone will be happy. But why they are producing motorcars only?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So they can go to the market and get the food. So they can drive to the market.

Prabhupāda: Why market? You can produce your food at home.

Hari-śauri: They have so much land, and then they grow a crop that they don't need...

Prabhupāda: I have estimated if land lying vacant, if they used for farming, producing food, ten times as many people can be fed. There is no question of scarcity. Your American government, "Oh, don't produce, don't produce, don't produce." If they'll produce more, "I'll throw it in the sea." Produce motorcar. Produce (indistinct), 1967 model. Don't produce foodgrains. This is government's position. Don't produce foodgrains, produce 1967 motorcar, so that there may be more and more accidents.

Garden Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Dr. Wolfe: Last year, I drove with Svarūpa Dāmodara through Texas on the way to Atlanta, and I thought so much.... We watched those thousands and thousands of cattle, only beef cattle, only for slaughtering, not one milk cow anymore. And I was so acutely aware of what I had learned from you.

Prabhupāda: They do not know the civilized way of life. They are still barbars, called?

Devotees: Barbarians.

Prabhupāda: Barbians, ah, barbarians. In the jungle, the barbarians, they do not know how to produce food, how to utilize milk. They can kill animals. That is also not like this, by machine you kill thousands of cows. They did not know this. For their simple eating they might have killed some animals, not particularly cow. Perhaps they were not killing cows because they were getting milk. Other, nonimportant animals. But what is this civilization? I learned that in South Africa, before killing the cows, they take the last drop of milk, and then it is sent to the slaughterhouse. They are so expert that if there is still little milk, take it before her death. Is that civilization, that you are taking milk...? So Vedic civilization is as you are drinking milk from the cow, she's your mother. Actually she's mother. But what is this civilization, killing mother? Hm? Is that civilization?

Garden Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Johannesburg. From the downtown, the Indian quarters about ten miles or fifteen miles away. Indian.... African, black quarters, they are not allowed even to enter the city. They require a pass. If any black man enters the city without that passport, he will immediately be taken to police. The bus for the black man is different from the white man. I think Indians also they have got separate bus. But the bus in which the white men travel, the Indians and the black men are not allowed. Gandhi tried to adjust this injustice, but he failed. Then with determination he went to India, that "I must drive away the Englishmen." These South African white men, mostly they are Englishmen and Dutchmen. Originally, they were Englishmen and Dutchmen.

Dr. Wolfe: Prabhupāda, the strange thing is that the fiercest racists in South Africa are the Boers, the Afrikaners...

Prabhupāda: That is Englishmen, Dutchmen, Dutchmen.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm? Yes. Ugra-karma, ferocious activities. (break)

Rādhāvallabha: ...people also do that. They wake up at two or three in the morning and drive and stand in the water for eight or ten hours, just freezing, waiting to catch a fish.

Candanācārya: For sport.

Rādhāvallabha: Just for fun, not even for eating.

Candanācārya: There are some fishermen that spend six months out of the year far out at sea just fishing. They sleep only three or four hours a day. They don't see any other people. They just live together on a big boat.

Bharadvāja: So the only way to beat that cycle is ajñāta-sukṛti?

Prabhupāda: Why ajñāta? Why not jñāta? You rascal, you take Kṛṣṇa conscious. Why ajñāta? Be informed. This is the only way.

Interview with Jackie Vaughn (Black Congressman) -- July 12, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: It is knowledge. Just like we are moving with this body, but still we know perfectly well that we are not this body. Just like you may move in your car, but you are perfectly aware that you are not the car. When you drive on your car, do you not know that you are not the car, car is different from you? Huh? Don't you know that? Similarly, by cultivation of knowledge one can remain in the car and still he can know that he is not the car. The example is given, just like coconut. Coconut, within the shell, green shell, there is coconut. And when it is dry, if you move you'll understand that the coconut is now separate-(makes sound:) cut-cut-cut-cut—at that time it is taken away for extracting oil. So this is practical. In the beginning, green coconut. And when you can perceive that there is coconut within the shell and it can be separated, but at a time it can be known that the coconut is separated from the shell. And if you move it, it will make-cut-cut-cut. That is the process. It is by action. When after hearing theoretical, that you are separate from this body, if you cultivate that knowledge, then time will come when you'll perceive practically that we are not this body. That means in higher stage of spiritual consciousness the bodily activities, material bodily activities will stop. Only Kṛṣṇa activities will go on.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Endeavor. Yes. So these things are like that. Not sober. Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). They are not sober. Adhīra. Therefore they meet with so many accidents. You also. As soon as we're in the car, he wants to drive at a hundred miles speed.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I think it was token punishment, but I'm sorry if you were in the car.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) What is the use? You are not going to serve anyone that we have to go high speed. We can go comfortably.

Hari-śauri: We can make our own pace.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Śyāmasundara also. He was driving seventy-five. And what you are doing? What is that? This country, Portland.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oregon? From Eugene to Oregon.

Prabhupāda: Oregon, yes.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They all fell asleep. I was chanting. You were sitting, you didn't even go to sleep that night (laughs). Even though it was late at night, it was about eleven, twelve, one o'clock at night, you didn't want to stay at that bhogī yogi house. I remember that. And he drove very, very fast back to Portland. That was a very nice engagement.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. That was Śyāmasundara's father's car. So he's a good driver, (laughter) but very dangerous driver. I do not know, Śyāmasundara, his father is a rich man, lawyer, got good estate and he's the only son. He did not like to stay with father.

Hari-śauri: No one in the West likes to stay with their parents.

Prabhupāda: Two sisters, very beautiful girls. They're unhappy.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're unhappy?

Prabhupāda: Yes. His two sisters.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, I can understand.

Kīrtanānanda: Many people come by every week to see what progress has been made. And everybody who drives by, they stop.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is something wonderful in this quarter.

Kīrtanānanda: You can drive fifty miles away around here and they'll stop and ask you about how's the palace coming.

Devotee: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Changing New Vrindaban. It is already organized, New Vrindaban? (in car:) Little further.

Kīrtanānanda: We're trying to clear all this now too.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: You father is an architect, I see.

Kulaśekhara: No, he's working on the docks.

Prabhupāda: Oh. His father came to see me in London.

Kulaśekhara: He used to chauffeur you in his car. He would drive you in his car from the airport.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Kulaśekhara: He is a good man, but he's not intelligent.

Prabhupāda: No, he'll profit by your activities. Kṛṣṇa will give concession to your family. Because you are Vaiṣṇava, everyone will get the profit.

Kulaśekhara: In London you said thirteen generations.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes, if you like, you can bathe.

Hari-śauri: You can drive a boat in it underneath the house. There's a dock. It's like a garage.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: All the rich people come by in their yachts all day long and wave, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." So Śrīla Prabhupāda said we should put a sign up on the, boat, that they can drive their boat in and take prasādam and read the books.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And invite them, give here signboard: "Please come, read our books and take prasādam." Gradually, they will come. Very big garden.

Hari-śauri: Seven peacocks.

Kīrtanānanda: Is it stone?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: What is it, the building is stone or...?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Stone, marble. With golden work.

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

Prabhupāda: This year's?

Devotee (1): Yes. People would drive by the temple, Prabhupāda, and just look. They would drive by and look once, drive a little further and look twice and three times.

Prabhupāda: But San Francisco we haven't got our temple. We haven't got any temple?

Devotee (1): No. We used the photograph. We made a publicity notice, a news release, and they printed it directly. It was easier for them. The picture is of San Francisco, but the festival was in Cleveland.

Prabhupāda: There is no date? Hmm?

Devotee (1): Maybe not in that one article. Other articles, there are dates.

Prabhupāda: Is this Cleveland?

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

Hari-śauri: Na hi prapaśyāmi mamāpanudyād yac chokam ucchoṣaṇam indriyāṇām, avāpya bhūmāv asapatnam ṛddhaṁ rājyaṁ surāṇām api cādhipatyam (BG 2.8). "I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to destroy it even if I win an unrivalled kingdom on the earth..."

Prabhupāda: No. There is another verse that "Without You I do not find anyone else who can give me real..."

Hari-śauri: You know that one?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.

Devotee: The doubt when... The fallen yogi. "Who else can...? I think so.

Hari-śauri: I'll look it up in the...

Prabhupāda: In the, is the,... There is... What are you finding?

Hari-śauri: I'll look it up in the Sanskrit index.

Prabhupāda: What is the śloka? The śloka I do not remember exactly, but there is continuation. You read the whole thing. What is that chapter?

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

Hari-śauri: "The Supreme Person Bhagavān said: My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man who knows the progressive values of life. They do not lead to higher planets, but to infamy. O son of Pṛthā, do not yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of the enemy. Arjuna said: O killer of Madhu, Kṛṣṇa, how can I counteract with arrows in battle men like Bhīṣma and Droṇa who are worthy of my worship? It is better to live in this world by begging than to live at the cost of the lives of great souls who are my teachers. Even though they are avaricious, they are nonetheless superiors. If they are killed, our spoils will be tainted with blood. Nor do we know which is better, conquering them or being conquered by them. The sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, whom if we killed we should not care to live, are now standing before us on this battlefield. Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me. Now I am your disciple and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me. I can find no means to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses. I will not be able to destroy it even if I win an unrivalled kingdom on the earth with sovereignty like that of the demigods in heaven. Sañjaya said: Having thus spoken, Arjuna the chastiser of the enemies told Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, I shall not fight, and fell silent. O descendant of Bhārata, at that time, Kṛṣṇa, smiling in the midst of both the armies spoke the following words to the griefstricken Arjuna."

Prabhupāda: So he has said already that "I do not find any other means to pacify me, and You are the only..." The purport is that Arjuna is accepting Kṛṣṇa as guru to instruct him how to get relief from the perplexed position. So in this sense the real guru is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is guru. Not only for Arjuna, for everyone. So if we take instruction from Kṛṣṇa and abide by that order, instruction, then our life is successful. That is our mission. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means accept Kṛṣṇa as guru.

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Dhana-māna. Because they have got money, whatever they think, that's all right. And their gurus also will say, "Yes, it is all right." If the guru says that "It is not all right," then nobody will come to him. He has to say "It is all right," because he's also after money and woman. That's all. He does not come here to teach something. This is going on. Therefore they come in so many numbers. They have now taken a good field. And in America you go, you say any nonsense, and they'll accept. And pay money for that. From the very beginning it is going on. Now, because it is going on like that, we are also counted amongst them. "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." This is the difficulty. They are also taking this movement, "Oh, these boys are chanting and dancing. This is also another sentiment, another edition of hippie movement." There is a, I think, Gresham's theory: "Bad money drives away good money." You know this? This is a economic theory. "Bad money drives away good money." Because nowadays bad money, that paper money, is going on, that gold coins no more in existence. Formerly we have seen gold coins in our childhood. You have not seen any. We have seen.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is also Vedic conception, that sex between man and woman is not the cause of life. Unless the living soul comes in the proper situation, the man's secretion, woman's secretion combined together emulsifies, and it creates a proper situation for the rest of the soul. So contraceptive method means that emulsification is disturbed. It does not create the proper situation; therefore pregnancy does not happen. Or imperfect discharge. The main point is that the two discharges, they create a situation wherein the living entity comes and rests. Then it will grow. Not that that is the cause of life. The mixture of two secretions is not the cause of life. That creates a proper situation, and the life comes. And if the situation is not favorable, the soul cannot stay. It has to go to somewhere else. So by the order of Kṛṣṇa, he was to come to take shelter there, but this man and woman checked it, therefore it is sinful; he is to be punished. Just like one apartment is fixed up for me, and if somebody checks, does not allow me to enter, that is criminal. That is criminal, he is to be punished. Unlawful detention. But they do not know the laws of nature, how it is working. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). The law of nature is working very silently, subtle. But they do not know. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). Rascal is so fool that he thinks that "I can do everything, whatever I like." Similarly, killing of animal. "Life is eternal," one can argue, "then what is wrong? Even I kill, the soul is alive." No, the same argument that this soul was to live in a particular type of body under the laws of nature, and you have checked, and he has to take again a similar body to fulfill the duration. Therefore you have done criminality. I have got lease for live in this room for certain period. If prior to the expiry of the lease, if the landlord drives me away, that is illegal. He will be punished.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Goes to another body. Dehāntara. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). If you do not allow him to this body, he goes to another body. Just like if you drive me from this apartment, I must go somewhere. I must find out another apartment. It is not that I am finished. You force me to go out of this apartment. So I go to a friend's house or anywhere, I must go.

Devotee (1): Would that also be due to that soul's karma, that he has gone from being aborted on to another body?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily, but you create a karma. You are responsible for that.

Hari-śauri: So it's not necessarily that he's receiving some sinful reaction from past work that he's not allowed to enter.

Prabhupāda: That may be, but you are responsible for that. Because you are driving me from this apartment by force. Actually, in a higher sense, that is accepted, that he was to be driven away. But because you are driving, you are responsible for that.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Where is the question of independence? Whatever you do not want, it is being forced upon you. So where is your independence? Nobody wants any miseries. So everyone is miserable condition. Struggle for existence means to get out of miserable condition. So where is the independence? Now there is mist. How you can say you are independent? You cannot drive this mist, this fog. Unless sun rises, it cannot be cleared. So where is your independence? There may be so many accidents. Actually, it so happens. But you do not want. But here is an unfortunate. So where is your independence? It is not under your control. If the sun rises, then it can be dissipated. Otherwise, there is no question. Poor thoughts. What is here, this park?

Vṛṣākapi: That's a private community.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Perhaps everyone is hopeful that the sun will rise for them.

Prabhupāda: Yes, sun is not your father's servant. He may not. It is not under your control. That is the point. You may think so.

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

Bill Sauer: Sir, may I read you back the, my version of "Materialism Without Purpose"? May I read you "Materialism Without Purpose"? "Mankind's insatiable appetite for material things stems from instinctive desire to pursue technology, which in turn drives civilization to a frenzy of activity. However, without a cause or a purpose," or spirituality, as you say, "the rush and hurry in uncertain directions to uncertain places creates an excess of technological gimmickery. Perhaps this continuing quest for more material goods would be less anxious if the cause of this obsession of mankind were universally recognized. If we saw the ultimate use of technology as an extension of nature with a purpose for the whole life system, perhaps a new life style would evolve. We would see creative natural instinctive satisfying outlet for energies, and we might all collectively attain more peace of mind. The waste of technological gimmickery would then disappear. Hard reality, however, will extinguish our relentless desire for material things if we do not correct the situation ourselves. We will soon run out of resources and power if our technological explosions continues as blind as a raging torrent of water flowing in any direction gravity takes it."

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are carried away by the laws of nature. However you may improve your technological science, you are under the laws of material nature. That you cannot change. But if you revive your spiritual life, then you can change. Otherwise it is not possible. If you keep yourself under the laws of material nature, then you have to be carried away by the laws of material nature, however expert you may be in technological understanding. Because, after all, you are an instrument in the hands of material nature.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That will be very good.

Devotee: Yes, it will be more interesting. The more fight, the more people like it.

Prabhupāda: So, we shall have to go now?

Rūpānuga: I think it's best if we would drive back now to Washington.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Let us go.

Devotees: Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (offer obeisances)

Prabhupāda: Try your best, Kṛṣṇa will give you intelligence. I started this fight alone, now Kṛṣṇa is... (end)

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They have one slaughterhouse and just beside, I have seen, just beside there is dairy. So at night they bring the cows in to the dairy, milk them to the last drop, and then to the slaughterhouse and all night screaming. I heard because the Indian neighborhood was about five hundred yards from the slaughterhouse. Then in the morning you'd drive by and the carcasses are hanging up.

Prabhupāda: So you are drawing the last drop of milk from the cow and sending her to the slaughterhouse. Is that very good civilization?

Dr. Sharma: Swamiji, the beef industry here is based more on... The argument of mother would be a little weak.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dr. Sharma: The beef industry here is more based on steers, which are not, which are basically bulls given high estrogens and bred in that way.

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: New York climate is very nice?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very nice, like Calcutta.

Hari-śauri: On July Fourth Prabhupāda went and drove into Washington to see the fireworks.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really.

Hari-śauri: In the evening we had traveling kīrtana all around the city.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think this is enough, Prabhupāda? I'll tie it together now.

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Hari-śauri: Kīrtana, the reaction was amazing, people were dancing and chanting and waving, Prabhupāda was in ecstasy.

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because of this rain the atmosphere is actually very clean now. You notice that. It's not very much smog, compared to usual. This is the FDR Drive.

Prabhupāda: These are cooperative buildings?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Prabhupāda. These are lower middle class cooperative buildings. This is the East Side.

Prabhupāda: I selected one cooperative apartment, they wanted five thousand dollars. (laughs) I had no money. Very nice apartment, near city office.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Downtown. This is First Avenue here, at about ll6th Street, where we are now.

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then you put him in charge to sell all the Teachings of Lord Caitanya, I remember. (Prabhupāda laughs)

Jayānanda: (indistinct) Didn't sell too many books, though.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I thought he was the best, most appropriate person to drive you.

Prabhupāda: He was chanting and driving. Very good boy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cyavana has been here also.

Prabhupāda: Just train him, he is good boy. He has fallen down, just take care of him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, actually the work here needs, you'll see, this building, it actually requires four or five big leaders.

Prabhupāda: One may fall down, but you have to take care.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's much better now.

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, this is nice car.

Rāmeśvara: It's their version of Cadillac, Mercury's version of Cadillac. They cannot understand because we say we are not after material opulence for ourselves, they cannot understand that we drive in these cars.

Prabhupāda: They think that we unnecessarily criticize. But we require everything. But just like a man. When he's alive his decoration, his nice dress, everything is very good. But if he's dead, then it is useless. Similarly, without spiritual consciousness we are dead. Because the body is dead. Because the spirit soul is there, therefore it is moving. The important point is the spirit soul. So if you are simply taking care of the body very nicely, that means you are decorating the dead body. What is the value of it? It is clear? The body is important because the soul is there. So long the life is there, if you decorate the body everyone will appreciate. But if you decorate the dead body, people will say "What a fool he is!" Aprāṇasya hi dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam. That is simply a popular applause, "Ah, the dead body is decorated," but what is the value of it? Similarly, without spiritual knowledge, this dead civilization simply on the bodily concept of life, it is ludicrous. That we have to condemn. Take Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then everything is... Just like one, if there is zero, then it is ten. Another zero, hundred. But without one, simply zero; it is only useless.

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Indian man (4): Swamiji, in Bhagavad-gītā we can see that Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna that "I will not fight for you, but I'll only drive your chariot." Why He refused to fight? Why He didn't fight?

Prabhupāda: That is, because it was fight amongst the family members. So He was also related with the Kuru family. His aunt, Kuntī..., Kuntī was married to the Pāṇḍavas. So the family members may not think that He's partial, so He divided Himself into two. His soldiers one side, and He Himself one side. And Arjuna and Duryodhana were present, requesting Him to take their side. So Kṛṣṇa said that "We are all family members, so I divide Myself into two-My soldiers and Myself. So if you want, you take Me or My soldiers, as you like, but if you take Me, I say I'll not fight." So Duryodhana thought that "Kṛṣṇa will not fight and He's prepared to give me soldiers," he took the soldiers, and Arjuna said, "No, I want You." So this was the division. So in the beginning He said that "Even if I go to one side, I'll not fight." So how He could fight? Not that He was not a fighter, but because He promised that "The side which will accept, I'll not fight." But He did not say that "I'll not give you instruction of fighting." That is Kṛṣṇa. (laughter)

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

Prabhupāda: They are trying to drive us away. How to counteract it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, we have to do some positive, very subtle positive preaching. I suggested that—if you recall—I suggested that a cultural center should be opened there on the basis of showing dolls, showing movies, restaurant,

Prabhupāda: Books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Books.

Prabhupāda: Literature.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But very vague.

Rāmeśvara: He's printing Japanese Gītā this year he says.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But very vague, not dressed as devotees, strictly cultural.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Cultural. They should... Deity worship one of the items. Otherwise it is called bhāgavata and pañcarātra.

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

Prabhupāda: Why you bring Kṛṣṇa? First of all, try to understand the analogy. There is car and there is the driver. That car is always different from the driver and the driver is always different from the car. Is it not?

Interviewer: Absolutely. The car can't drive itself.

Prabhupāda: So, if you take attention of the car and you do not know anything about the driver, then what is your knowledge?

Interviewer: I didn't quite get the question.

Bali-mardana: If you pay attention to the car without paying attention to understanding who the driver of the car is, what is the driver, then what is the use of your knowledge? In other words, the driver is the living entity or the soul and the car is this body, the material elements of this material world including the body. So without understanding who you are, who the living entity within the body or the driver within the car, then what is the use of your knowledge of the material elements without understanding who you are?

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

Prabhupāda: Not ideas, that is a fact. Fact that you driver, you must have your food. Otherwise you will die.

Interviewer: I'm looking at you, that's taking in a certain kind of information.

Prabhupāda: You cannot drive the car without food.

Interviewer: You have all kinds of information that you have to have to survive. To get down the sidewalk without running into the building you've got to see the wall.

Prabhupāda: The sum and substance is that if a person thinks that he is the car, the driver, if he thinks wrongly that he is the car, then his life is spoiled.

Bali-mardana: So if someone identifies too closely with the body, then his life is spoiled.

Interviewer: You think, if he identifies with the body too much his life is...

Prabhupāda: Not too much.

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ādi-keśava, can you just go and let us see the carts?

Rāmeśvara: Yes, just drive right up to it, they should wait.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They can wait for a minute. It's not budging, so there's no loss.

Rāmeśvara: No, they announced that this cart was not moving, and they needed fifteen more men. They announced that in the temple room.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Go down there, Ādi-keśava.

Prabhupāda: More fifteen men required?

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Very big. Others have been moved?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, all three are here.

Ādi-keśava: They weigh fourteen thousand pounds each.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How do you like them, Prabhupāda?

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: So where is that man? Where he has gone? 7-UP can be had anywhere.

Hari-śauri: Well, it's Sunday evening. It's a bit difficult. He has to drive around in a car till he finds somewhere.

Bali-mardana: 7-UP? You want 7-UP? I can get it.

Hari-śauri: I sent Śravaṇānanda out to get it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At the Bloopie's they can get it. Rādhāvallabha got it.

Bali-mardana: Not a can, though, just in a cup.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But how do they get it into the cup? Buy the whole bottle.

Prabhupāda: Bottle or... Bottle or can.

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: We are going to the Riverside?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Riverside Park. Would have been faster, wouldn't it, to go down on Westside Drive? (break)

Prabhupāda: I was coming here daily for cooking my food.

Hṛdayānanda: Purchasing food?

Prabhupāda: Cooking.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In the park, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: At one Dr. Mishra's house. In my apartment there was no kitchen. (break) There was some news. Their machine has gone to Mars planet.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: No.

Jayatīrtha: This year, by the time he got to Bury Place, he was completely exhausted, Bhagavān. Half an hour's drive.

Bhagavān: Hm.

Prabhupāda: That due to the staircase.

Jayatīrtha: But by the time you sat on the Vyasasana there you were already looking very tired, what to speak of...

Bhagavān: Paris has elevator.

Prabhupāda: Paris, I know, that I have told.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: That is automatically done.

Mike Robinson: And how would you go about doing that? Would you help the sick people?

Prabhupāda: Just like if you have got a car to drive on. So naturally you take care of the car also. But not that you identify yourself, "I am this car." That is nonsense. They are doing that. They are taking too much care of the car, thinking that the car is one. He forgets that he is different from the car, he has got different business. He cannot eat the petrol and be satisfied. He has got different eating. But these rascals, they are thinking that "Petrol is also my eating." And they are drinking petrol and dying, that's all. Petrol is meant for the car, and for you there are so many fruits, flowers, milk. But if a man thinks that "I am the car, I must drink this petrol," then he is doomed.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: So you keep that.... (break) They are opening hospital for giving medicine to the shirt and coat, and where is the man's medicine? Washing the shirt and coat, laundry work. They do not know that the man within the shirt and coat requires different treatment, different, he has got different necessities, different life. If I simply wash the shirt and coat, does it mean the man is happy? They have no common sense even. "Yes, we are supplying petrol to the car. It must drive." "Well, sir, to give good to the driver who will drive?" "Doesn't require, petrol is there." That's all. This is their intelligence. They are supplying petrol. Will the driver eat, drink petrol? They have no knowledge. He requires spiritual food. And these rascals, they do not know it. They'll say that petrol is sufficient both for the car and the driver. This is their intelligence.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Yogeśvara: This is Professor Francois Chenique and his daughter. They drove from Paris this morning to see you.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. You can come forward. I have read your review of our book. It is very nice. (translation is given) Very nice. Your study about this tradition, Indian tradition, I think he has mentioned. Indian tradition, the whole Vedic literature... He understands English?

Yogeśvara: Yes, but I should translate, he's asked me to translate.

Prabhupāda: ...is to approach God. This is the Indian tradition. But, as you have mentioned Aurobindo's name, Aurobindo's idea was to make a better situation of this world. He wanted by yoga practice, a better situation of the world. But our tradition says that is not possible.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: No. The thing is that religion means to understand God. If one does not understand God, then his religion is still defective. Religion means to understand God. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje ahaituky apratihatā (SB 1.2.6). When you understand God and your relationship with God, then it is perfection of religion.

Bhūgarbha: He said that he feels very thankful that you've given him such a long darśana. He's very happy that you've given so much enlightenment in many subjects. He's just passing through with his daughter. He'd like to stay tomorrow to see the installation of the Deities, but he has to go to a Tibetan temple in the south of France. On Saturday he has to be there, so he has to drive, and he said that he's found the Tibetans are also very good devotees.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Jaya. (end)

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere materialistic. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Spiritualistic means siddhi, perfection. Who cares for perfection? Bring money and enjoy. That's all. Who cares for perfection? They do not know what is perfection. They think that you get money, you live comfortably as far as possible, and after death, everything's finished. Is it not? This is the philosophy. Who cares to know that there is life after death and better life, better planet, better world? This is not at all good, it is full of miseries. They are driving all day, car, but they do not think it is tiresome. They think it is pleasure. To have a car and drive whole day, they do not feel that is tiresome. They think "I have got a car, I'm driving, people are seeing. It is pleasure."

Parivrājakācārya: It is madness, how they can enjoy a city like that.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Otherwise there is no difficulty. Otherwise suffering. Just like this lamb. It has got the Iranian body, but he's kept there for being killed. So what is the benefit of this Iranian body? But people are very much enthusiastic to remain nationalists, "I am Iranian, I am American, I am this, I am that." So, but he has worked in a different way, so he has got attachment for becoming American and Iranian, "All right you become." And according to work you have to become a lamb. And other Iranians eat you. That's all. This is designation. They do not understand, or they are not educated that what he will get by these designations. Big, big movement is going on on this designation platform. In our country, Mahatma Gandhi, he is supposed to be a great personality, but what is his teaching? He remained in designation, that's all. Feel like Indian and drive away the English. And one designation, you drive away another designation. This is going on. And he took Bhagavad-gītā, he never said "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead." This is going on. Karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa sakale viṣera bandha. This is karma-kāṇḍa. Designation movements. And higher than this karma-kāṇḍa, the mental speculators, jñāna-kāṇḍa. So Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura (says) both of them viṣera bandha. Pot of poison. If you waste your time in this way, then they will get another body, that's all. Nana yoni bhraman kare kadārya bhakṣana kare, tara janma adha pate yaya. These are simple words but, it contains very, very grave meaning. This is Vaiṣṇava ācārya. Where is Atreya Ṛṣi?

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Low-class woman. So she was living in a cottage, hut, cottage. So out of love he also preferred that "I shall live with her, and I shall drive a car." So that is independence. He preferred. So that discrimination preference is there always. You can prefer a low-grade life out of your discretion. Nobody can check you. And by cultivation of knowledge, you can become a big man. The two tendencies are there. There is no stereotyped idea. Otherwise, he has no independence. Who was speaking of that owl? There is an animal, owl. He doesn't like to remain in the sunlight. So that is also an animal. He is also eating, sleeping, mating, but he doesn't like the sunlight. What can you do? So God has given him all facility to remain as an owl, in darkness. That is God's kindness.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. If you voluntarily become entangled with māyā, that is your business. (Hindi) Kṛṣṇa is light and māyā is darkness. So when there is light, there is no question of darkness. Darkness automatically will go. When there will be sunrise in the morning, you haven't got to endeavor to drive away the darkness of night. It will automatically go. (Hindi) Knowledge is already there. Why should you remain misfortunate? Kṛṣṇa says sukṛtino 'rjuna. Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtino 'rjuna. Sukṛtino means fortunate. So as soon as you begin Kṛṣṇa bhajana, immediately you become fortunate. Sukṛtino 'rjuna. Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtino 'rjuna. (Hindi) Immediately begin kṛṣṇa-bhajana.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: They see they are suffering, but they have no eyes to see. They are being slapped both ways and kicked with shoes, but they have no eyes to see. Going on. So much trouble, so many problems, that you cannot drive even on the street. We wanted to see some house; because the street is so congested, we had to wait three days. And still I am thinking that I am making progress. This is rascal.

Shahrezad: Yes, that's right, but...

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?

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is so many times explained. Just like a child wants to do something. The father says, "Don't do it," I have said several times. Reluctantly, "All right, do it." I have given this example of my practical experience in 1925 or '26 when my son was two years old. There was a table fan, "I would like to touch it." And I said, "No, no, don't touch." This is child. So but it's a child. He again tried to touch it. So there was a friend, he said, "Just slow the speed and let him touch." So I did it, slowed the speed and he touched-tung! Then he would not touch. You see. So this sanction was given, "Touch it," reluctantly. Now when he gets experience and I ask him, "Touch again?" "No." So this sanction. All of us who have come to this material world, it is like that. Reluctantly. Therefore God comes again to inform these rascals that "Now you have tried so much, better give up this, come to Me again." Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Sanction was given, certainly, and he has experience, very bitter, but still he won't... This is obstinacy. Dog's mentality. The father has come personally. Now we have experimented everything—karma, jñāna, yoga, this, that, all nonsense. "Now I say..." It is said most confidential. Sarva-guhyatamam. "Better give up this job. Surrender to Me, come back to Me." So sanction was there, certainly. Without sanction they cannot do it. God created this. That is sanction. You wanted material world to enjoy. "All right, do it, here is material world. Take as much petrol as you like and drive motorcar and create accident, do, go on. But now I am giving you good advice, that give up this business, come back to Me."

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So Indians did not like that Mohammedans may go away. Rather, when Shri Raj Birla (?) was arrested by flight, the Bengali zamindars, they protested. Rani Bhavani, she protested. Although it is alleged that Shri Raj Birla (?) kidnapped her daughter. But if Shri Raj Birla kidnapped her daughter, how he (she) supported Shri Raj Birla? There are so many falsehoods. On the whole, the Indians never planned to drive away the Mohammedans. They never. That's a fact. They were happy because there was no exploitation. All these Mohammedans, they made their home in India, so whatever lavishly they were spending, that was coming to the Indians. In Taliganj (?) there is a man. Now they are aristocratic family. He was servant of the nawab, and he stolen one shoes, one feet, which was bedecked with jewels. So by selling that jewel he became a rich man. So although they were using jewelled shoe, but it was in India. They were satisfied that "I am nawab. I am using jeweled shoes."

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: It was a very good place. This Prabhākāra helped me. Ninety percent was... But if I did not leave, nobody could drive me, that was a fact. But I thought "Who is going to..., for litigation? She is the governor's wife, and she is pressing through collectors, through..." The manager who was in charge, he had some cinema house. So they had to renew the license, cinema house. And the collector pressed him that "Unless you arrange for this house, we are not going to renew your license." I thought, "Unnecessarily this man will be in trouble. I'll have to pay so many rupees, and she is governor's wife." And that lady came to me in Bombay several times. "You take my press. You have got so many publications." So I said "I can take your press. I have got money. But what shall I do with it? It is letter press. Now printing is done by offset."

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Maṇihāra: Now the Indians are coming from India, setting up big business in England. They're controlling big factories, business, so many mills, everything. In Manchester, where I come from...

Prabhupāda: There is agitation to drive away the Indians.

Maṇihāra: Now they are trying to drive away. Because they know they have money. They are taking over.

Prabhupāda: Money and intelligence also. They can organize the English very nicely. And they're not extravagant. European and American, as soon as they get money they spend it. And Indians know how to save something. I saw in London almost all Indians have got their own house. Maybe small house, it doesn't matter. But they have got their own quarters. Every Indian. And they're living very comfortably. Englishmen, local men, renting.

Room Conversation -- August 25, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: I am sitting in this room and if by force you drive me away, I shall go to another room. Because I'll have another room. But because you have forcibly driven me away you are criminal. Similarly, a living entity is ordained to live in a certain body for a certain period. If you kill, that is the interference with his staying there. You are criminal.

Indian man: Yes, that is true.

Prabhupāda: The soul is never killed. Never killed. But because you have forcibly driven away from that body, you become criminal. That is the philosophy.

Indian man: Yes. Now, assuming...

Prabhupāda: So you cannot do that.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: That's a long drive.

Prabhupāda: Yes, nine hours on the bus. And I took a little chipped rice, and whatever I had with me. So I got down from the ship about one o'clock. Then I had to wait for the bus till five o'clock. Then at five o'clock the bus started. About two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning, I went to Pennsylvania, and just in front of the bus Gopal was standing with his car, that... What is called? Van Car ?

Harikeśa: Stationwagon.

Prabhupāda: Stationwagon. So he took my luggage, and from there thirty miles off, the Butler County. So I went there. Then at night he took my (indistinct). The next day, he had no many rooms in his apartment, he arranged for my stay in the YMCA nearby them.

Hari-śauri: You never actually stayed with him then.

Prabhupāda: I was going. I was taking my meals there.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So one car here in Delhi side, one in Calcutta side, one in (indistinct) for my going. And he is a good driver, he will drive. Eh? I do not know but he said. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: I don't know about in India, different thing altogether.

Prabhupāda: Haṁsadūta is also a good driver.

Haṁsadūta: I am good for nothing.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Driver we'll get, there is no... So I want to preach little in the village. For that purpose in the big bus like that, we shall go with our tents, and we camp in a place where there is water, and begin our preaching. And Hindi book we are getting. In this way let me try in India, in the village, not in the city.

Devotee: Oh yes.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: First of all friendship, and that established them. And then they began to create enmity. Hindus against Muslim, Muslim... They wanted to stay. When they forgot this idea that if they wanted to stay for the benefit of the people, nobody could drive them away. But their policy was for the benefit of the English people. Therefore they failed. Lord Curzon, he says a statement that, "If you want to stay in India, rule India for the benefit of Indian people. You can keep control over India. They are fond of kings, so one member of the royal family can become king here and they'll earn respect and honor (from) these Indian people. But rule for their benefit. Then British Empire will stay." Very good advice, but his advice was not taken. You have seen Lord Curzon's statue near the, in front of the Victoria Memorial Hall?

Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Haṁsadūta: But where is this place?

Mahāṁśa: Kathinagar. It's in Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam near Waisac.

Haṁsadūta: You have to make a program that on the way... Not that we drive one thousand miles to go to one program. That's not practical. Every fifty miles or so there should be some program.

Mahāṁśa: That's what I mean. That whole course is... Andhra course is the richest area in Andhra Pradesh.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, like that.

Mahāṁśa: They give very nicely. We have had programs there, Prabhupāda, since three years. We've collected lakhs of rupees from there and thousands of books have been distributed there.

Prabhupāda: This I have heard even.

Mahāṁśa: You have heard, yeah.

Prabhupāda: So go there. What is the...? Make this.

Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa: They have extra vans here.

Haṁsadūta: It's not practical. I tell you, these vans... It's not practical to take these vans and drive them around the cities. It's very dangerous. It's not practical. It's easier to go by rickshaw.

Mahāṁśa: What about a small one?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, the small ones. I mean, it's easier to go by rickshaw. It's a fact, you know. We had this experience...

Prabhupāda: No, there is local bus. For one, two men van running is not good.

Mahāṁśa: So one bus party goes immediately to Kakinagar with maybe Ātmavidyā or whoever...

Haṁsadūta: Ātmavidyā.

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

Prabhupāda: Wardha. And I saw his cottage and everything. So I said this is the... After all he wanted to live very simple life in a cottage, why he declared war against the Britishers? What was the necessity? (Hindi) Britishers would never tackled you or objected. The villagers were using. Why so much energy was engaged, to drive away the Britishers?

Mr. Malhotra: No, he wanted the country to be free from the foreign rule.

Prabhupāda: No, now what freedom we have got? (laughter)

Mr. Malhotra: That is a different thing.

Prabhupāda: But that means we do not get such information from Bhagavad-gītā, that "Make your country free." Why he took Bhagavad-gītā and did this business, miscreant (?) business. He took Bhagavad-gītā and he was busy declaring war. Because politically, sometimes required. But the thing is that if your ideal is to live very simple life... His, I mean to say, followers, Jawaharlal Nehru, he did not take up this.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: Then they'll advertise that there's a course starting every Monday and finishing every Sunday, like that. And then they'll book in accordance so that they'll arrive on a Monday and they'll drive out on Sunday night or...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all right. But what is the difficulty? He is... On Monday he is hearing in one room, and Tuesday another room, and Thursday another room. So where is the difficulty?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Also, this way we have to reserve seven rooms.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But this way, if we have courses Monday to Sunday, we can have one big hall, just keep one hall for yoga class.

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Gandhi became mahātmā, but his mission was, "Get out, Englishmen, get out." Where is samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu? He declared himself mahātmā, but his business was how to drive away the Englishmen.

Dr. Patel: Sir, he, I mean, I'm sorry to interrupt you. He never hated Englishmen. It's their method he wanted to drive out.

Prabhupāda: I do not hate you, but I beat you with shoes. (laughter)

Dr. Patel: No, you don't beat me with shoes. He never beat them the shoes. He said, "Well we don't like you." If I say, "Do this," and it is not good, I mean, I'm not wrong in that way I suppose. I'm open to correction.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ah, Alexander and the thief. The thief convinced him, "Alexander, what is the difference between you and me? I'm a small thief, you are a big thief, that's all."

Dr. Patel: I will drive the car for today.

Prabhupāda: All right. No, no, why you (indistinct). Young man... (break) ...the world... (break) (laughs) So similarly, if one is giving very important service, then even if there is some faulty thing, excuse. Service is so important. So in the Western country the woman can give very good service. Api cet sudarācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). This, our book distribution is the most important task in our society. Therefore I am giving so much stress and I am working so hard on this. Because this is my life and soul according to the order of my Guru Mahārāja. And by his grace it is to some extent successful. And I took it seriously. I take it seriously still now. That is my life and soul. I never tried in India to construct big temples or even in your country we didn't. I never tried. But I was selling personally books. That is the history. Sometimes they are criticizing, "What kind of sannyāsī? He is doing book business." (laughs) The other day that, what is his name? Bachu Hai came. Bachu Hai Dresswalla. You know him?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So why you can't? We have purchased that land. They have to...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that is... We'll try for that now.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means... We have purchased that land. By force you can drive out? We are trying for that. Go to the court: "We have regularly purchased that land. What can be done? The municipality is not doing anything." We have to fight like that.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we are fighting.

Prabhupāda: Why you should be afraid?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No. I mean the water... We're having all the trouble with the man in the back.

Roof Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Mr. Gupta: Well it's not the consideration of tickets, it's just on the midnight of 31st and 1st. When I was very disturbed, I just got into the train for a drive, being a railway man, and there was just some intuition that I came here and I had your darśana.

Prabhupāda: When you came?

Mr. Gupta: On the 3lst and lst. On the lst morning. And from that I... As happens to be, I've been coming every day.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Mr. Gupta: On the 2nd you were kind enough to autograph the Gītā...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, yes, I remember.

Mr. Gupta: ...which I purchased from here.

Prabhupāda: You are reading Bhagavad-gītā?

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If one is convinced about this favorably, that is success. It doesn't matter what dress. Let him teach his family, and the neighborhood. Let them do their own business. It doesn't matter. That is... Let them understand Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa science. That is wanted. Do that program. Make that program. He is coming, Rāmeśvara. Take to it very seriously. (break) I can cycle even now. In our childhood... I had car, but my nephew was driving. I never drove. In 1925, I purchased one Buick car.

Trivikrama: Buick? It's a good car.

Prabhupāda: At that time in India it was eight thousand rupees only, very strong car.

Trivikrama: From America it came?

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: He lost a lot of his following. The main ones... There are a few small ones. Moon, Reverend Moon, he is a big demon, and they're attacking him, so that's good. But then they try to make us to be just like him. I've heard them say that you have a big penthouse in Los Angeles, and you always drive in Rolls Royces. I've heard these things, but we...

Prabhupāda: Yes, I heard all this. In Germany they accused me. You told me.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, they also say that you're enjoying all this money.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Harikeśa said that if they're successful in their prosecution against Haṁsadūta, then they'll prosecute yourself, one leader to the other. They say that the leaders are manipulating, and the other ones are just robots.

Trivikrama: Yes, we're all robots.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone. Everyone knew their position. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is addressed by Arjuna, "Acyuta, You promised to drive my chariot, therefore I'm asking You. Don't forget. You never deviate from Your promise." Acyuta. Senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me 'cyuta (BG 1.21). "Don't forget that You are Acyuta. Don't think that I am Your servant, I am ordering." He knows that "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa. I am ordering Him."

Haṁsadūta: You were explaining to that reporter in Pennsylvania, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that actually this women's liberation is just a trick by the men.

Prabhupāda: Yes! It is trick by the men, yes.

Dr. Patel: How... Could you explain that?

Prabhupāda: Because if they remain free, they get young women free. That's rascal's man brain. That "You take freedom."

Dr. Patel: This is a third-class argument.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He wants one lakh loan. So if you recommend, I'll give.

Rāmeśvara: Who's going to drive the party?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, this is for book printing. Bhavabhuti's going to handle the party.

Rāmeśvara: The loan is for book printing?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, for book printing. We're printing the Bhagavad-gītā now.

Rāmeśvara: Then who's going to pay for the vehicles? You are, right?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: I think the loan is for the vehicles. Who's taking out the party? (laughter)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no. No, it's not. I'm going to...

Prabhupāda: Now, cool headed, you can study the situation. If you recommend, I'll give.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Thing is, I only wanted you to give...

Room Conversation -- January 15, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gurudāsa: Because you cannot stop anyway. (break)

Prabhupāda: What is Thela?(?)

Gurudāsa: He said that we should drive a little forward. (break) (train whistle, sounds of train starting)

Hari-śauri: (devotees attempting to get luggage on train before it starts) Those two go with the women, actually. Leave them down...

Abhirāma: Where should I leave them?

Hari-śauri: Arundhati. No, leave them in the car.

Abhirāma: Who is this for? Prabhupāda's? (doors opening and closing)

Gurudāsa: No, they won't leave.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No cure. He must die. No cure. These hospitals are there, mental. They keep in the mental hospital. But ultimately there is no cure.

Jayapatākā: I read one... In a purport you said that hari-nāma can even cure insane people.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Hari-nāma can cure anything. You have kept there. All right.

Jayapatākā: Would you like to take a drive to that... (end)

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: ...available plots.

Gargamuni: Yes, there's those two plots on that main... Now, there's many broken buildings there, many. I drove all around. But the plots are too small.

Rāmeśvara: You'd have to buy several of them together.

Gargamuni: Yes. And also they're out of the city. They're more out of reach. They're not in that... That one area is the best area. There's a two-lane road. You know, traffic going one way and traffic going another way with an island in the center.

Rāmeśvara: And all the hotels are there.

Gargamuni: And all the hotels are there, so all the top people are there.

Rāmeśvara: It sounds like Bombay.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: So I have to leave here tomorrow morning at 8:30 and meet with the man at around 9:30, 10:00, and he'll give me all the names and addresses, and he'll show me some other plots. Then, perhaps, if maybe you would like to see it the following day, we can drive there and show you the plot as soon as I get more information.

Rāmeśvara: Would you like to do that, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Hari-śauri: Have you been to Purī for a long time?

Prabhupāda: Oh, several times.

Hari-śauri: I mean in recent years or...

Prabhupāda: No. Recently I'm not going because my disciples are not allowed. I don't wish to go.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Bhāgavata: This way you will see birds, many different types of birds.

Hari-śauri: They turned one of the stately homes in England into a lion reserve. You can drive through, and the lions come and jump on your car.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Jumping on the car?

Hari-śauri: Yeah. Sometimes they do.

Satsvarūpa: The bird isn't powerful, but he can fly away from the lion. He can fly away from the lion, but he's not powerful.

Prabhupāda: Fly away?

Satsvarūpa: Kṛṣṇa has made him that he has some other kind of defense.

Prabhupāda: What kind of defense?

Room Conversation with Two Indian Guests -- January 27, 1977, Jagannatha Puri:

Prabhupāda: No, no, I mean to say, violent. When they were threatened with violence... They are not philosophers, that nonviolence will drive away. They are politicians. "You go on with your nonviolence movement." Gandhi did it for twenty years in Urban. What is that?

Pradyumna: Durban, South Africa?

Prabhupāda: Durban, Durban. No conclusion. The Indians are still segregated. I had been in South Africa. So from... What is that? Johannesburg. Johannesburg city, that Indian quarter, at least ten to fifteen miles away in a jungle. And there they have kept slaughterhouse.

Guest (1): Oh, near the Indian quarters.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And Indians, whole night they are hearing the screaming of the animals. Means, purposefully they have created this disturbance, and Indians have got some sentiment of cow killing. And that screaming is going on whole night.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Tch tch. Just see.

Gurukṛpā: They feel that if you are not... If you are inhibited in your sex life, if you only choose women, then you are not progressive. You must become liberated from these moral or, they call it, "hang-up" feeling. This is not correct. Now they drive their children to the homosex dance, the parents, and let the boy out, and he goes into the homosex dance. Only men allowed. They take them there.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Gurukṛpā: Yes. In Los Angeles. They have only for boys, young men, age seventeen, sixteen, eighteen, nine... Their parents take them, and they let them out of the car, and they pick them up later on in the night.

Prabhupāda: Advancement.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Just see. So you have discovered such thing that any moment you can die, every one. So therefore this is problem.

Hari-śauri: When we just drove down the road just now, when we went past, we saw some people holding a woman, and she was screaming and foaming at the mouth. Just further down the road there was the body of her husband on the road. He'd been squashed flat by a truck, and the body was still there. And the head... Head and arms...

Prabhupāda: Only danger. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadām (SB 10.14.58). Every step, simply danger, and we are proud of our scientific advancement. The aeroplane is scientific advancement, but the danger is also more. As soon as you crash, all are altogether... Without an aeroplane one or two men could die, but because you have made this scientific advancement, you all die.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Freedom.

Brahmānanda: Freedom. So they all allowed the Indian example. So the British, they were very resentful against the Indians.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now British making "Drive away. Drive away the Indians."

Brahmānanda: They became the leaders of the independence.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even now they are still resentful.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even now they're trying to drive them out of England.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Oh, yes. They're offering some compensation, that "Take some money and go away." Indians are prosperous in England.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Still, they're prosperous. They have got car. They have got business. They have got factories. Although they are harassed in so many ways, still they are prosperous. They have got their shops and business house in Johannesburg, and they cannot remain there. They must go back. So that was a failure of Gandhi. Gandhi for twenty years agitated. General Smuts, he was the head at that time. And he was beaten. He was so much troubled. Once upon a time Gandhi was captured and beat so severely that he was going to die immediately. Some English South African friend, he saved him. So Gandhi's life from this side is a failure. He could not achieve any success there. Then he thought that "I shall drive these Englishmen from my country." He came here in 1917.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gandhi was born in...?

Prabhupāda: Gandhi is a Gujarati.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: (looking at photo) Who is this boy?

Ādi-keśava: A karmī. He's from another group. That boy in the front, he is taking the person. They're holding some girl. He is from another group, I think, some Christian group. There was an article in the New York Times where they went and watched one whole deprogramming experiment, and at the end of the experiment they wrote this article showing pictures of them taking the person, dragging him out of the building, throwing him in cars. And then later they held one public deprogramming in Detroit. But our devotees went to that public deprogramming and began to ask them all kinds of questions, and they had to abandon the program because we caused so much trouble for them. All the... A lot of the Indian community went there and began to ask them, "What are you doing to this person?" They were giving a demonstration of their technique, and they had to stop. So this is one picture they took while they were actually abducting the person. Just like in the case of New York, this one girl, Mūrtivandya, she was taken. They pulled up in a van, in a car, and dragged her off the street, threw her in the van and drove away.

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That is near pandal, Kārttikeya's house?

Girirāja: Well, it's about a fifteen or twenty minute drive.

Prabhupāda: That is also good.

Girirāja: Because, I mean, if your health permits and if you could come every day, then we could arrange very leading people for all of those days...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Girirāja: ...and it would enthuse them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bombay is good place for propaganda, for making any movement popular.

Girirāja: Yes. People are very modern and advanced. In Delhi they're all...

Prabhupāda: Servant of.

Room Conversation -- March 24, 1977, Bombay:

Pañcadraviḍa: There's one big sign up that says, "When Mrs. I became All-I, then the people say, 'Goodbye.' " (laughter)

Prabhupāda: There is a sign like that?

Pañcadraviḍa: Yes, a big sign. I think it's on Marine Drive.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's Diamond Point. There's one person, he changes the phrase every week based on the current topics.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Air-India.

Hṛdayānanda: "When Mrs. I became All-I, the people said 'Goodbye.' " Also, on all the posters they put up for the election, I have heard, in one street, every poster, they have ripped down her face on, fifty posters. Everyone ripped the face off.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There may be some investigations now.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Against her son.

Room Conversation -- April 13, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is a dangerous civilization. You... You should... (pause) Dangerous civilization that labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte. After many, many millions of years one gets the chance of becoming a human being, especially civilized and especially in India. They will bring the same. And Kṛṣṇa personally says that if this chance is missed and a person does not become God realized, then he again returns back to the..., to the... Today I am a prime minister. Tomorrow, if I become a dog... What is this civilization? And they will have to become. Nature's law we cannot avoid. And there is no question, "Why you are touching me? I am prime minister." Who cares for you? You have to take account of your activities, karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). So human life is so important, and we are simply wasting this valuable life with this temporary adjustment of so-called happiness or distress, big, big plans. Simply bluffing. Indira Gandhi, one daridrāṇaṁ hata(?): "Poverty drive away." Now she is poverty-stricken. "Oh, you want to drive away poverty? Now drive away your own poverty. Where is your position? How you can drive away? You do not dare to come out." Twelve nights. Within one day. Who has made this? This is possible for everyone.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Kindly help me.

Mr. Rajda: No, no, we will think ourselves duty-bound. Oh, I feel intensely about it. There is no question about it.

Prabhupāda: And I guarantee that if they take any part in politics, you can drive away immediately. They have no.... They have given everything. They are not thinking that they are Americans. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). This is the process of bhakti. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam. Upādhi. This is upādhi. I am living being, but I have got some designation, "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim." These are designation. So then they are M.P... This is designation. You are not M.P... You are living being, part and parcel of God.

Mr. Rajda: Correct.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They are imitating. What Gandhi has done? These things are cheating, spoiled. Then they have now a slogan to drive away poverty. Vivekananda imitated, daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. So Vivekananda started his mission in India hundred years ago. Why there are so many daridras lying on the street at night? Hm? Everywhere. Here you can say, "India is poverty-stricken." That is your imagination. Accepting that, those who are materially opulent, why they are also, they're lying on the street? Why in Bowery Street they are lying on the street? Why in the Bedford Park English boys are lying on street?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know... One verse can be quoted that because of one's connection with the modes of material nature...

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If not equal quality...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At least...

Prabhupāda: So we have to touch all these. Then poverty... And "Drive away poverty. Give them more money." More money means cheating. You are employing; I am employed. Begins from government. More money and printing, they are coming. If I have got power to print paper and distribute it as money, you are dissatisfied, getting hundred rupees, you want two hundred, so what is to me? I print and give you. This is artificial inflation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: More money means printing more bills.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Second Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 24, 1977, Bombay:

Mr. Dwivedi: Not very winding. There are two roads. There are two roads. There is is one road which is little winding. There is another road, but we have to travel eighteen miles more. Not winding, Agra-Bombay road. So there is a straight Agra-Bombay road also. But we have to take an extra eighteen miles more drive.

Kārttikeya: Eighty?

Mr. Dwivedi: Eighteen. One-eight.

Prabhupāda: So that is not...

Mr. Dwivedi: So we can take either. And even this is not so very zig-zaggy and we are... No, not much. Not much.

Prabhupāda: But anyway, we are going to hold session on Sunday.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right.

Evening Darsana -- May 9, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And He says, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām: "I can adjust things." So we are not taking. (Hindi) From all angles of vision, if you study Bhagavad-gītā, everything is perfectly there. And if you take it seriously, you become happy in this life and dehāntare. If you simply take, accept Kṛṣṇa as He says, then what is result? Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Punar janma, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), but one who has understood Kṛṣṇa perfectly—it is not possible to understand Him, but as far as possible, as far as our knowledge is concerned—if we understand Kṛṣṇa, then immediate result is that we are freed from the bondage of janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). So that is the real problem. We are solving problems, this problem, that problem, that... They are not problems. That is natural in this material world. Just like this fly is disturbing. This is not a problem because the fly is made for that purpose. How... You cannot stop him. You can protect yourself. It is not possible to stop him. This is not problem, how to drive away the fly.

Evening Darsana -- May 9, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Why you want nonviolence?

Indian man (7): They are talking so much about nonviolence...

Prabhupāda: Just like here is a monkey. Is it not violence sometimes to drive away them? There will be attack, and you have to protect your... This world is not like that, that there is no... It is not Vaikuṇṭha. It is material world. There will be attack. Even if you are not..., you are nonviolent, the others will be violent. Others will set fire in your house without any fault. They'll kidnap your wife. This is going on all over the world. You must protect yourself. (Hindi) How you can stop him? Thieves and rogues, even if you are nonviolent, they will come, take advantage. It is your duty.

Indian man (7): What is meant by nonviolence?

Prabhupāda: It has no meaning.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayatīrtha: Bury Place we're keeping. They're still trying to get us out, but we are keeping. I don't think that Kṛṣṇa will leave until He wants to leave. (Prabhupāda laughs) We just fixed up His Deity house and generally repaired the place. Now...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is smiling. They are trying to drive Him. Kṛṣṇa's smiling. That's all. Go on with your business.

Jayatīrtha: Therefore you called Him Rādhā-London-Īśvara.

Prabhupāda: Our London, Bury Place, Deity is very beautiful, smiling.

Kīrtanānanda: There's a picture there, Prabhupāda, on your altar.

Prabhupāda: Hm. That is the first installed...

Jayatīrtha: Yes. And the new place also, we're...

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Srila Prabhupada Vigil -- May 28-29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That "Some way or other, we're keeping some position." And if Samvit kicked him out, then where is his position? That is another problem. This Rādhā-Govinda Mahārāja, what he can do if he's driven away? In this age he cannot have his own institution. And in this age where he'll go? They are... "These politicians, these old men, they cannot do now. So give them some false position, that 'You are president, ācārya.' They will not rebel at least." And as soon as they do something against them, "We shall drive away: 'No, you cannot be president. Another president.' " That's all. They had no love for him, neither he has any love for them. It is simply official. This Samvit dāsa one, Samvit, also not very intelligent. Tīrtha Mahārāja's son, he wants to keep the property in his name and utilize it for his personal... That way... Preaching and preaching and..., they don't care for. And you said that there is some, still some strength amongst themselves.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, then we can deliver them. They are, after all, simple. These negroes, they are, after all, simple. We have to claim them. You have got now experience in Detroit. They are very good-behaving negroes. They come to our temple. Nobody could drive there. Therefore we could acquire that house so cheap.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This one on 26 Second Avenue must also be very cheap.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Our Ambarīṣa, he was very much eager. "Oh, don't mind. Take it. We shall arrange."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cash.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Fifty years ago the cost was six million dollars, and we have purchased, only 300,000.

Morning Conversation -- June 23, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, if they had ruled nicely, according to the Indian principles... The Muhammadans did it, and they ruled over eight hundred years. The Britishers could not do it. They could not rule over two hundred years. Within two hundred years finished. And during Muhammadan period there were many, many powerful Sikhs. Staying, they did not like to drive away the Muhammadans. Whole Rajputana was full of big, big kings. They could have thrown away them. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. The Rajput kings.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But they did not do. They cooperated.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That Rajput is Rajasthan?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Akbar appointed this Mansingha, who has made these temples. He was commander-in-chief. Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Mr. Myer: Next week. Wednesday or Thursday.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (break) Any intelligent person can understand this is all Communist propaganda. And the Central Government is seeking an opportunity to drive them away.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: To drive away the Communists.

Prabhupāda: If they can find out the snake behind the earthworm, then they'll be finished. That there is. There is no case. Simply it is maneuver. Communist government wants to drive away the Americans. This is the plan. And the government is anxious to keep good relationship with America. And the Communist wants to drive them away.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. Now the American Consulate is also involved. That makes it very jeopardizing for the Communists. If they act the wrong way, then the Central Government will lose its position with the American Embassy. It will look very bad for the Central Government. They're not going to let the state act in any way that will jeopardize their position. The two acting together, the Central Government and the American Consulate...

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, there is no issue from their side. Upendra Prabhu is saying that they are diverting the issue, means they're bringing attention to how our men got here. Their whole point is that that is actually their intention. They want to create a situation whereby they would force us to be thrown out of the country. That's their intention. They want to drive us away.

Prabhupāda: This is published in?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is published in the Indian Express. Good newspaper.

Prabhupāda: Bombay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bombay. July 12th. There's a lot of touchy items here. One very touchy item is this Hindu-Muslim thing. And this... The Communists are very intelligent. They purposely chose... (break) What about the actual ministers? Cabinet ministers?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Cabinet ministers, there are sober, Morarji Desai and some of them. This Vajpayi.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Vajpayi. That means that they took it that we were a threat. They are feeling the weight of our movement.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And another thing that they probably told them is that we're trying to get their land by acquisition. "But we won't let them ever get your land. Now you do this. Drive them out of here. We won't arrest you."

Prabhupāda: That is a different issue.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They may have used that, though.

Prabhupāda: The real issue is the Communists do not want any religious movement in Bengal. That is real issue.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And we're the only one left. Ramakrishna Mission is not religious.

Prabhupāda: Oh, it is not.

Room Conversation about Grhasthas -- July 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Pagri, yes. To get a place there... Bombay is so important that if you want to get a place you have to pay no less, fifty thousand, lakh of rupees to stand. Then do business. Very important. Anything you do, you must have land first of all to stand. Otherwise what you'll do? To stand in Bombay you have to pay lakh of... Don't you see—we drive away the tenants—how much we recompense. We pay compensation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We have to pay a lot of money...

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...so that they can pay for some other place.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's true. Nowadays it's very difficult.

Prabhupāda: This is system in Bombay. Without paying, you cannot get even inch of land.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. One of the things they raised was they should close this... "This is said to be a temple of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but actually it is the base of the CIA, American CIA in India, and now it should be closed." And in one newspaper we read that they're proposing that if it's closed, they can use it as a hospital and school. Prabhupāda said actually this is their intention, to drive us away and to take the buildings and use it as hospital and school. So they want to kill religion in Bengal. The Janata party is for religion. At least they say so.

Yaśomatīnandana: This Prabhudas Patwaria is just now in Delhi. I can go today. He already told me that he will take me to the Prime Minister, because he has very good relation with Prime Minister. And he was reading your books in the jail. Prabhudas Patwaria was framed by Indira Gandhi in the dynamite case of George Pramanas. And the George Pramanas was also in same room with him, and he was also reading books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow! These men are important men now in the government.

Yaśomatīnandana: George Pramanas is minister of railway. And he was with Prabhudas. Prabhudas Patwaria can be a great help now. He's coming here on 30th.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You'll come with him?

Yaśomatīnandana: Yes. I'll come with him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you won't go back to Ahmedabad till afterwards.

Yaśomatīnandana: No, I won't go back. I think we should move on these matters. We should do something.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? It seems like there's three things that we're... I'm just wondering... Here's Gopāla.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) So I thought that unless he brings some book, he won't come. Because every time I criticize him, "Where is the book? Where is the book?"

Meeting With Governor of Tamil Nadu -- July 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So our movement is on that platform, how to stop. Our whole Vedic culture is based on that process. When Viśvāmitra Mahārāja went to see Daśaratha about..., Daśaratha Mahārāja inquired from Viśvāmitra, aihistaṁ(?) yat punar-janma-jayāya: "You are great saintly person. You are trying to conquer over birth and death. Is your process going on nicely?" Viśvāmitra inquired Daśaratha Mahārāja about royal activities, government, prosperity, because he was kṣatriya and he was brāhmaṇa. So my request... This, our Gītā philosophy, that cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ... (BG 4.13). There must be a class of men, ideal brāhmaṇas; a class of men, ideal kṣatriyas; class of men, ideal vaiśyas; and balance, śūdras, to help. That will make the human society happy. Cooperate. Just like body. There are different departments: head department, then arms department, then the belly department and the leg department. If they are all in good condition, the health is all right. And now, at the present moment, I am suffering because my belly department is not working nicely. So we cannot neglect any department. There must be all the departments, and they must be cooperative and healthy. So this movement is meant for that purpose. It is the duty of government to give us protection. The counter movement is this Communistic movement. They want to drive away God conscious and we want to give God con..., completely opposite. Therefore they do not like it. This Māyāpur affair has been completely...

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Gandhi tried twenty years to get little equal rights. The General Smuts refused. He was failure in South Africa. And then he decided that "I shall drive these Europeans, Englishmen, from India." He came. That also he could not do. Here also, for thirty years he struggled. He was failure, nonviolent. It is Subhash Bose's INA which drove away these Englishmen. You know that? That Indian Army, what is that, INA, Indian National Army? When he organized this National Army, then the Englishmen came to sense that "Now we cannot rule over." This rascal was going on, nonviolence... (laughter) While... "We shall pat them: 'Oh, yes, you are so powerful. Oh, why you are trying to drive away?' " And he'll be... "Oh..." The Baitland(?) Colony in a loincloth, and engaged in the sun chair.(?) He had no practical knowledge. He started the movement from 1917, and actually it was... Independence was given, 1947. Thirty years he failed. Twenty years he failed there. He spoils fifty years for nothing, and distorting Bhagavad-gītā, that in Bhagavad-gītā there is nonviolence. Such a rascal.

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: Also there was air strike. So people who would normally take airplane, they're taking train.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Girirāja made one life member aboard the train, a very nice gentleman living on Marine Drive, quite wealthy. He says he never takes the train, only flies. But he went to the airport at four o'clock, and the airport said, "We have no flights. All flights cancelled." They didn't even give the courtesy to call up the people to tell them the flight was cancelled, although they had the telephone numbers of the ticket purchasers. So the man had to take the train.

Prabhupāda: The strike instrument invented by modern civilization, so dangerous.

Hari-śauri: Means the government becomes completely controlled by the lowest working class.

Prabhupāda: Naturally. Without hands and legs, how one can function? Therefore Vedic civilization, that everyone is engaged.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, they come to Bombay by car.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They drive from Bombay to Hyder... I've also done that driving. Long trip, ten, eleven hours.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ten or eleven hours, I think. Long trip. Maybe even longer.

Prabhupāda: Why kīrtana stopped?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kīrtana?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's just beginning again, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You like the kīrtana? For a few days we weren't having it.

Prabhupāda: Haṁsadūta was chanting.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we're so much attached to you that you practically drive us to madness sometimes. Tonight we were becoming mad.

Prabhupāda: No, no, I shall not do that. Bābājī Mahārāja? (Bengali) So you will take bath in Rādhā-kuṇḍa on my behalf.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We'll get you better, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and you will also be able to take bath personally there. We'll see you get better.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa will make all of our words come true, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali-brings milk for Prabhupāda)

Room Conversation -- November 13-14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is a song by which a devotee is praying and asking his mind, bhajahū re mana. Mana means mind. Because, at the present moment, our mind is the driver, and this body is considered just like a car. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is also stated, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. This body is a car made of material nature. The living entity, what is said, "I," I am now seated in this car prepared by material nature, and the driver is the mind. But the driver is not under my control. The driver is taking me anywhere he likes. Personally, I am not able to drive. I have engaged a driver, which is called the mind, who is carrying me (the soul) anywhere it likes. So therefore the proprietor, I, being helpless, request the driver, "My dear mind," bhajahū re mana, "My dear mind, you kindly worship Lord Kṛṣṇa." Śrī-nanda-nandana. Śrī-nanda-nandana means Lord Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared as the son of Vasudeva, and He was accepted by Nanda Mahārāja as His foster father. "I am requesting that you worship Lord Kṛṣṇa who is abhaya-caraṇa." Abhaya-caraṇa means He's the fearless shelter. If we take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, then we become free from all anxieties. Just like a helpless child, when he's taken care of by his parents, he becomes carefree. "Similarly, I am requesting, my dear mind, you do not drive in this way, dangerously.

Room Conversation -- November 13-14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: There are eighty-four lakhs (8,400,000) species of life, and we had to pass through all of them by gradual evolution. This theory is accepted by Darwin also, evolutionary theory. This human form of body is very valuable. So he requests, "My dear mind, ..." Of course, in lower animal life the mind is there also. Their mind is not developed, but they have got mind. In the very lower animal living condition, the mind is not at all developed, but at least, in animal life there is mind. Now, the devotee is requesting that "This life, this human form of life, is very valuable. Don't waste it. Don't waste it, but you just try to make your life successful in the association of saints and sages." Yes. "So you should not associate with anybody else, but associate only with saints and sages and make this valuable human form of life successful. Don't waste your time. Worship Lord Kṛṣṇa with the help of the saints and sages, and make your life successful." That he is requesting. "Don't drive me into the ocean in this irresponsible way." It is also requested that "We are like in the ocean of birth and death." This material cosmic situation is sometimes compared as the ocean, and these planets, they are compared as islands. But actually, the planets are islands in the air. Just like there are islands in the sea and ocean, similarly, these planets are islands in the air, and there are so many air islands.

Room Conversation -- November 13-14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So this is such a nice movement. Ahaṁ tvaṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā, people's sufferings are due to their sinful activities. Ignorance. Ignorance is the cause of sinful activity. Just like a man does not know. Suppose a foreigner like me comes to America and does not that the car is driven on the right side, in India, and in London also, the car is driven on the left side. So suppose he does not know, he drives the car on the left side and incurs some accident, and he is taken in police custody. If he says, "Sir, I did not know that here the car is driven on the right side," that does not excuse him. The law will punish him. Ignorance is the cause of breaking the law or commiting sinful activities. As soon as you commit some sinful activity, you'll have to suffer the result. The whole world is in ignorance, and due to ignorance he's complicated himself in so many actions and reactions, either good or bad. There is nothing good within this material world; everything is bad. So we have manufactured something good and something bad. Because in the Bhagavad-gītā we understand that this place is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. This place is miserable. So how you can say, in miserable condition, how you can say that "This is good" or "This is bad." Everything is bad. So those persons who do not know-the material, conditional life-they manufacture something, "This is good, this is bad," because they do not know everything here is bad, nothing good.