Drown (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"drown" |"drowned" |"drowning" |"drowns"

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Karan Singh, -- November 25, 1971, Delhi:

Dr. Singh: (still laughing) That is true. Here everybody is brought up with Hare Kṛṣṇa (Hindi). That must be one of the reasons, actually, why (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: They take us very lightly.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are mūḍhas. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). Mūḍha, they are rascals.

Dr. Singh: (Sanskrit) That is the position actually. What is this little story, these two little things standing here? Some time back you called the drowning of the son of our teacher. Is this from the Bhāgavatam?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian woman (Mrs. Singh?): See these two little things standing here.

Malatī: It's Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa's teacher's son was stolen, so He got him back. Guru-dakṣiṇā. The guru asked Kṛṣṇa, "I have lost my son. You can..." "Oh, yes." Guru-dakṣiṇā. That is how to (indistinct) satisfy the spiritual master.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: Lord Caitanya is preaching simply this, that you all chant Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, or Hare Kṛṣṇa, that's all. Ei śikhā diyā, sab nadīyā phirche nece' gaura-nitāi. "By teaching this philosophy, the two brothers, Gaura-Nitāi, are traveling all over Nadia." Māyār bośe, jāccho bhese', Khāccho hābuḍubu bhāi. "Why you are being carried away by the waves of māyā? Why, unnecessarily? And you are being drowned and saved." Jīv kṛṣṇa-dās, e biśwās, korle, "Simply believe that you are eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, then all these troubles immediately gone." Bolbe jabe, pulak ha'be, that "If you chant this, then you will feel ecstasy." Rādhā kṛṣṇa bolo, saṅge calo, ei-mātra bhikhā, "So I don't ask you anything. Simply chant and come with me." Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Have you got puffed rice? No.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And then they say "I will make you perfect man, whatever you like you can... You become my disciple, give me some money."

Devotee (3): And enjoy.

Prabhupāda: There is a proverb, that a drowning man catches even a straw. A man is drowning, he's seeing the straw is floating, he wants to catch it. So in western countries, they are so much fed up with this materialistic way of life that any person from India comes, they think he may give something spiritual.

Devotee (3): Hm.

Prabhupāda: Light. Catch it. But what... Why did you not have tilaka, both of you. You have no time for tilaka?

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, not ava... Yes, avaroha process. Yes, thank you. Here Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). We have to accept that. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). So "There is no more superior authority than Me." Harer nāma harer nāma... (CC Adi 17.21).

Yaśomatīnandana: (loud waves drowns out voice)

Prabhupāda: Ah, na me viduḥ sura-gaṇāḥ... (Bg 10.2).

Yaśomatīnandana: What to speak of these teeny scientists, even the great sages can't know Him.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Aham ādir hi devānām...

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, crazy. This is stated:

piśācī pāile yena mati-cchanna haya

māyā-grasta jīvera haya se bhāva udaya

"Just like when a man becomes crazy, ghostly haunted, he speaks all nonsense, similarly, anyone who is under the influence of this material energy, he's crazy." He's crazy, talks all nonsense. That's all. (break)

māyār bośe jāccho bhese'

Khāccho hābuḍubu bhāi

This is Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's... "Why you are being carried away by the waves of māyā and you are becoming drowned and sometimes up, sometimes down? Why you are wasting your life in that way?"

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1974, Rome:

Dhanañjaya: Yes, I've seen sometimes at the Sunday Feast we make some sweets, like sweetballs, and there's some left over. They'd find the next day so many drowned ants, because they'd been so wild, they'd jump into it and drown themselves.

Prabhupāda: So śāstra says, labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte: "My dear human being, please note. You have got this form of life after many many births, bahu-sambhavānte. You had to undergo the aquatic life, 900,000 species, the birds, trees and plants, two million. How much time it has gone by for this evolution. Now you have come to the human form of life." Labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte mānuṣyam: "This is human form of life." Artha-dam: "Now you can achieve success.

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 14, 1974, Los Angeles:

Jayatīrtha: Oh, Haṁsadūta. Yes. Yes, I spoke to him, we spoke to him yesterday morning. (?) (loud waves drown out voices)

Prabhupāda: Atreya?

Bali Mardana: Atreya Ṛṣi?

Jayatīrtha: Atreya Ṛṣi I have not been able to get through to yet.

Bali Mardana: Do you have his telephone number?

Jayatīrtha: It's his business. (very loud waves in background)

Prabhupāda: You have to take visa for Tehran?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Then all these houses have come in an accident? Everything is created by man. How you can say accident? This is their foolishness. Nothing happens accidentally. If there is accident, then how we are walking this? There is a huge water. By accident, immediately it can drown us. If accident is so prominent, then one should be conscious that by accident the whole Hawaii Island can be... It can be done. Why it is not being happened if it is accident? Then why you are building so many buildings? You should know, by accident the whole water can... If accident is there, why you are confident that "No, it will not do." Then where is accident?

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Well, family men... When you are diseased, you do not say, "My family is there. Don't call for a physician. I am happy." That you do not say. You call for a physician. Your family cannot help you. And what to speak of death? That is another foolishness. When you fly in the sky with your friends and family and when there is danger, nobody can save you. You will drop down. Everyone is flying. Even airplane, if there is some accident in the airplane, what the other airplane can do? If the ship is drowning, what other ship can do? You are drowning; you must drown. There is no question of "my friends and relatives." That is described in the Bhāgavatam. Dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣu ātma-śainyeṣu. He is thinking, "They are my soldiers.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

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

Bali-mardana: They said, "This is the ship that can never sink."

Prabhupāda: Big chunk, ice block... (end)

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No, they are already in anxiety. This material world means anxiety. So many problems there are. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyāṁ asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). Because they accepted this material world as all in all, samudvigna, they are full of anxiety. Just like if you are on a boat and if you know that after some hours the boat will be drowned, then can you remain without anxiety?

Paramahaṁsa: They have some relief, though, because they think that the scientists will be able to protect them.

Prabhupāda: This is their position. This is their position. Just like we are in this car, but we know it, that any moment there can be accident. So how we can be without anxiety? In the material world, on account of this material condition, we are not going to stay here. There must be anxiety. But if we close our eyes, that is different thing. Otherwise it is full of anxiety. (break) "... be free from anxiety, then surrender to Me.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: ...nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam:" You cannot become a philosopher unless you disagree with other philosopher." Nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. (break) ...something drown?

Sudāmā: Yes, they destroyed an amusement park there, and that got stuck in the water.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Why destroy?

Sudāmā: No one was coming any more.

Prabhupāda: All amusement finished.

Morning Walk -- July 3, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: So you remain with bad and good. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. That possibility is here. Sometimes you are going to the higher heavenly planets, a long duration of life, better standard of enjoyment—again coming back. (break) Good and bad is exemplified: just like I catch you and put down the water, and when you are suffocated, I raise you little, and you say, "Oh. (laughter) It is very nice." But you do not know, again you are going to be... You see? "This good, bad" is here like that. He is put into the water and suffocated, and when he is taken out little, he says, "Oh, it is very good. It is very good." The rascal does not know, the next moment he is going to be again drowned in that. That is going on. Daṇḍya-jane rāja-jana... That was the chief punishment formerly. If one has to be punished, instead of putting into the jail and feed him, the officers will take him to a river and put him in the water.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1975, Chicago:

Viṣṇujana: Oh yes. They are used for taking cargo up and down the coast. They don't travel in the ocean, but they travel on the coast. They used them during the Second World War all over the United States.

Prabhupāda: Such boat does not drown?

Viṣṇujana: They keep it up by huge air tanks. By holding so much air they keep the cement up. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...ficial means. Otherwise it will drown.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sink, yeah. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...officially closed. (break) ...water increases? I don't think. It does not.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1975, Philadelphia:

Guru dāsa: If the soul cannot be burnt, why does the desire to be burnt in the material world there? Burnt, drowned...

Svarūpa-damodara: Destroyed.

Prabhupāda: He is not destroyed. When this body cannot work any more... Because this body is a machine. So a machine, if he does not move, then you, have to change to another machine.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The desire is not... Actually it is not burned; it just changed. The desire is changed to for a higher purpose. We have a choice between the subtle desires. Just change is the there from one to another.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Hm, must be.

Brahmānanda: You cannot sink in it, I think.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, it's not possible to drown. If you go into the water there, immediately you come up to the surface.

Sudāmā: So much salt.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (break) ...the ocean of milk, ocean of milk. Ocean of liquor, ocean of oil, ocean of yogurt. (break)

Nalinī-kaṇṭha: ...in the ocean of nectar. The devotees are living in the ocean also. Nectar.

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Bora bora goye gala rasatala, vetta gore bole katha jala(?). There is a river. The horses, they can swim. So the river was so ferocious and many horses drowned. So one vetta gora, means third-class horse, he said, "How was the water? Let me try."

Paramahaṁsa: (laughing) They all drowned.

Prabhupāda: The vetta gora. These are vetta gora, horses with (remedy?).

Satsvarūpa: But they can point to progress, not that they're all drowning.

Prabhupāda: What is that progress?

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Because they are nondevotee. That is the defect. More the nondevotee, more rascal mūḍha, duṣkṛtina, mūḍha... They cannot. Duṣkṛtino mūḍhaḥ, na prapadyante. Māyayāpahṛta-jñāna: "Knowledge has been taken away by māyā." (break) ...more you become atheist, the more you become blind. This is the point. (break) ...given this maxim in our Back to Godhead, "Where there is God there is no nescience." (break) ...preaching, back to God. "If you want to know things are there, then come back to God. Don't go this side; come this side." This side means he will be drowned. There are two sides. If somebody unnecessarily goes this side, he is death, and this side, he is saved. So one who is going this side we are asking back to Godhead, "Come in this side." If one goes this side, he will find the downtown, so many nice buildings, parks and everything. And the boy who goes this side, he will die.

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Therefore you are rascal. You do not know who is doing. That is rascal. You are thinking everyone like you. That is nonsense. Ātmavat manyate jagat: Everyone is think that 'Other party is like me.' " (break) ...so many conditions are fulfilled, then some action takes place, five. There are mainly five causes. (break) ...God throws a stone, big stone, it floats because He is God. When you throw a stone, it will drown. When God makes one big planet floating, that is possible. You cannot do it. Therefore you have to accept

Rādhāvallabha: (break) ...on a small scale we have set up...

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Then it is Kṛṣṇa conscious life and perfect life. And as soon as you do anything whimsically, at your will, then you are responsible. Kṛṣṇa or His representative. Kṛṣṇa is giving instruction, and His representative is explaining. In both ways Kṛṣṇa is helping. So even so much facility being offered to you, if you don't take advantage, then you are committing suicide. Ātmahā. Ātmahā. Just like the sea is now calm and quiet. If you want to go somewhere, take advantage of it. And if you start your boat while it is cyclone, then you'll be drowned. So Kṛṣṇa has left the book of instruction, Bhagavad-gītā. It is favorable condition. And the spiritual master is the captain, and you take advantage. Your, this human body is a good boat. So good boat, favorable condition, good captain—take advantage of crossing this ocean. Otherwise you are committing suicide.

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Let them be drowned. Who can check them? If they do not accept good captain, let them be drowned. There is no regret for them. Let them go to hell. They are going, actually. For their dog's obstinacy they are going to hell. Adānta-gobhir viṣatāṁ tamiśram (SB 7.5.30). This is stated. Because they cannot control their senses they are going to hell.

Indian man (4): Swamijī, is there any hell, or rather this is hell...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Why not? Why not?

Indian man (4): Above the world or in the world?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 2, 1976, Madras:

Prabhupāda: Nothing. They are all.... Therefore we say simply "rascals." We have given this title to them everlastingly. All rascals, mūḍha. Mūḍho nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. How Kṛṣṇa is working, they do not know. This is Bay of Bengal. Other side is Burma. (break) ...are so strong, it will never be drowned. Eh? (Hindi) The scientist says there is no life. Just disagree with them.

Acyutānanda: No life?

Prabhupāda: Scientists, yes, they say there is no life in the sun.

Acyutānanda: In the sun.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1976, Madras:

Prabhupāda: Huh? Not rasābhāsa. But it is not mentioned in anywhere. This is mental.... They should not have done like that. Several times He requested the gopīs, I think, that "You come to Dvārakā," but they refused.

Acyutānanda: The gopī-candana comes from the lake where they say the gopīs drowned themselves, and that is near Dvārakā. Is that a true story?

Prabhupāda: Maybe they might have gone. (break) ...these houses.

Indian man (1): These private houses given by the government. (end)

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: There is a story that two friends talking that, on the point that "How this was cut, separated?" So one friend said, "It is by knife." And the other friend said, "No, it was by scissor." So they went on.... One said, "No! It is knife." He said, "No! It is scissor." So the knife man was very strong. So he took him to the water, that "You say it is knife. Otherwise I shall drown you." (laughter) So he said, "I'll never say." Then he said.... When he was drowning, he was doing like this, (Prabhupāda gesticulates) (laughter) "Scissor, scissor." When he was actually drowned and he had no other means to say, then he was doing like this: "It is scissor. It is scissor." This is their argument. However punished they may be, they'll do this. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Unfortunate that they're taking suffering as enjoyment. This is called māyā. māyā vase yaccho vese kacho haba... Surfer, he is struggling against the waves, and they're thinking it is enjoyment. Chance of being drowned, being attacked by some sea animals. It is always risky and suffering. And still they're thinking enjoyment. But they're coming from far distant place to enjoy this.

Hari-śauri: They get their enjoyment from taking a risk.

Prabhupāda: Yes. What is not suffering, they're taking risk as enjoyment.

Devotee (2): Material life is great suffering. Totally insensitive that they take such suffering to be enjoyment.

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

Prabhupāda: That freedom is danda jane raja jana nadi secu bhau.(?) Drowning the man in the water and, "Now you have independence, so breathe." (laughter) So he breathes in, "Ah! Ah!" "All right, you are now a little relieved, all right, again. Again become drown." "Oh! Save me, save me, save me, save me." "All right," take out, "now breathe, independently." This is independence. Danda jane raj jana nadi secu bhai.(?) The rascal does not know "I am breathing independent, but at any moment I can be drowned again." Very correct example, danda jane raja jana nadi secu bhai.(?) No independence. Independence is only there when you fully surrender to Kṛṣṇa.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is very dangerous. And if there is some force, you become suffocated. So still, people were going slowly. By grace of Kṛṣṇa nothing happened. But same thing happened later years when Jawaharlal Nehru was present. So many people crashed and fallen in the river Yamunā and died.

Hari-śauri: Drowned in the river.

Prabhupāda: The rush came, and there was no protection.

Hari-śauri: We'll have to be very careful if we go to bathe in the river.

Prabhupāda: No, now they make arrangement, section by bamboo, so the rush may not be very pressurable. Section by section. So section they go. Now the arrangement is better. But formerly the arrangement was not... It was open, and people come. As soon as there is little rush, pushing, there is great danger.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: "Whatever remedies they accept, although perhaps temporarily beneficial, are certainly impermanent. For example, a father and mother cannot protect their child, a physician and medicine cannot relieve a suffering patient, and a boat on the ocean cannot protect a drowning man."

Prabhupāda: These are facts.

Gargamuni: That's ultimately, but maybe we could give you some temporary relief so we don't feel... Because when you are ill, we feel...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is... But for that, no severe treatment should be accepted. Better not to take. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Others, those who are less intelligent, simply by hearing, they will be guided. Just be convinced what kind of civilization we are trying to introduce. We should not be carried away. Then finished. In order to check others, if we become carried away, (laughing) then finish all business. To save them from being washed away by māyā, if we become washed away, then where is the hope? Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra (CC Adi 9.41). Be strong so that you may not be rascal, and then you can do; others you can check. Otherwise, it will be impossible. How it is possible? A man is drowning. If you are strong enough, you can save. But if you also become drowned, then how you'll save him? So the everything is there. Save yourself, save others.

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. First of all save yourself; then try to save others. Or both things can go on simultaneously. The same example. If you want to save somebody who's drowning you must know that I may not be washed away. I have to remain strong; then I can save him." Everyone is presenting himself as the saver, savior. These politicians and these philanthropist, humanitarian, they have taken the slogan, "To serve the humanity..." What is that slogan? "Is to serve God?"

Bhavānanda: "Service to man is service to God."

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And that. (gestures)

Hari-śauri: Scissor philosophy.

Prabhupāda: If you drown me in the water, still I'll say.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone else has a point of selling out, but you have never done that. (pause) This Satsvarūpa is an expert typist.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Satsvarūpa and Hayagrīva.

Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The democratic campaign. But from our point of view, these are not the solution. Temporary. Temporary relief. Daṇḍya jane rāja yena nadīte cubāya.(?) You know this? Daṇḍya jane rāja yena nadīte cubāya. I have spoken several times in... Formerly, the criminal was taken in the middle of the river and he was drowned. And when he was suffocating, he's held up. Then he, ahhh (takes deep breath). This relief is like that. That means as soon as he takes little strength, again, put again. Then daṇḍya jane rāja yena nadīte cubāya.(?) These rascals are like that. For the time being there is little relief: "Oh, we are now free from the leaders." And there is another hand is being created. Bābājī or something like that. Then again they shall put his... This is going on.

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There is no information.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. None at all. Everybody thinks that he must have drowned himself in one of the rivers here in India, because the day that he disappeared he asked you a question, out of..., just without any reason he asked you to explain the disappearance of Junior Haridāsa. That was on the roof at Māyāpur. Thereafter, that morning, he was not seen again. And neither, I think... He's not in the West... In America no one has seen him. His parents have searched for him. They cannot find him.

Prabhupāda: Even if he has committed suicide, he'll be saved.