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English (Conversations 1974 - 1975)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 10, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Then why he should not become dog? Become yaṁ yaṁ vāpi... He has great love for dog, and it is said that yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajati (BG 8.6), at the time of death, he will think of dog and he will become dog. This is...

Yaśodānandana: One time I asked one Indian man, "Why is it that people beat the dogs in India?" He says, "Because the English people were ruling for so long. Now they have taken birth as dogs. We beat them."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In America taking care of the dogs and cats is a very big business. It's a very big business.

Karandhara: They even have cemeteries.

Candanācārya: They buy ten thousand dollar necklace for their dog.

Prabhupāda: Just see how much attracted.

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: "...morning," what is the meaning?

Sudāmā: Well, it's just actually become an expression of greeting. Literally, of course, it means that "I am pleased to see you, happy to meet you. Good morning."

Prabhupāda: Anyone else?

Satsvarūpa: In English when we say, "Goodbye," that means "God be with you." Some God consciousness.

Pradyumna: They say, "Good morning. Good morning to you."

Bali-mardana: Like one pig grunting at another pig.

Prabhupāda: "Good morning" means... Because it is English word... In England every morning is bad morning, because it is cloud. When they see one day that cloud is clear, they say, "Good morning." (japa) (break) ...similarly, a good soul means when there is no māyā, then he's good soul.

Bali-mardana: Or cloud.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Cloud. māyā is cloud. So what is that cloud?

Sudāmā: Forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: That cloud is when a soul desires to become the master. That is cloud.

Morning Walk -- February 20, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: But there is a great smuggling racket the whole world, Swamiji.

Prabhupāda: No, no. When they... I know that Allen Ginsberg. He learned this...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, in India.

Prabhupāda: But he's a great poet. He learned this gañjā smoking from India.

Dr. Patel: The English boys, the French boys, the Germans, all of them have started in the... They don't come here as hippies. This is an international disease.

Prabhupāda: They learned from America. That's a fact. The hippie movement started from America.

Dr. Patel: Now, hippie movement started from America. That means they started first. Not after coming to India...

Prabhupāda: But they learned it from India.

Morning Walk -- February 23, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: But you must have read it in English, in those two volumes of Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Dr. Patel: I read it in Sanskrit, in directly. And there, in real, original Sanskrit it is wonderful. You get the real rasa of it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Do you, do you mean to say that I was reading it indirectly?

Dr. Patel: No, no. Indirectly. It is indirect. The real Sanskrit is different. He will tell you. Any other language than Sanskrit...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no, there is no difference.

Dr. Patel: ...will not get that rasa.

Prabhupāda: There is no difference.

Morning Walk -- March 7, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Everyone will understand. Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is proved. We are going to Africa. We are going to Canada, Europe, America. Everyone chants Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is the language. When a young man and young woman loves one another, there is no question of language. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that "Suppose you are in a foreign country. You do not know the language. But when there is fire, you get friends without any language." You see? In the beginning of British rule, there were not very many English-knowing Indians so a clerk in his office was working. So monkey came and he scattered the office papers. So after the monkey was driven away, he was collecting the papers. In the meantime, his English boss came. "What is this, man?" So he could not say. He began to jump. You see. "Monkey, sir. Monkey, sir. (laughter) Monkey, sir." "All right. All right. That's all right." Simply to inform, without any language, you can jump, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa." And he will understand. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa... (Bengali)

Guest: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (break) (Bengali) Hare Kṛṣṇa and dance. Do this. (break) ...and for constructing four buildings like that. (break) Kṛṣṇa took part in politics. So what is His politics? What is His sociology? What is His culture?

Guest: Support the right minority?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guest: Support the right minority?

Prabhupāda: There is no question of minority. Support the right person. Kṛṣṇa supported Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira in place of Duryodhana. So formerly it was monarchy. That is perfect politics. This democracy is useless. It has proved. One man, the king, he should be properly educated how to rule, what is the aim of ruling, how the people will be, I mean to say, culturally elevated, what is that culture. (break) There was a consulting board of learned brāhmaṇas and saintly persons. They would advise the monarch how to rule.

Morning Walk -- March 9, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is very important.

Guest (4): With more translational or a type of...

Prabhupāda: So unfortunately, we haven't got any expert Bengali to do these things.

Guest (4): In my own way, I am ready to prepare a sample of the English translation of the books.

Prabhupāda: Welcome. It is a great service.

Guest (4): But that must be very cheap.

Prabhupāda: Oh, cheap. We can distribute without price. That is not the question.

Guest (4): And also they were asking to be associated more in the facilities for life membership like that with... They feel it's within their reach.

Prabhupāda: No life membership, life membership they're... Just like if somebody joins, he's more than life member. But if he does not join, then he becomes life member by paying the fees.

Morning Walk -- March 24, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) Do you want to throw it up in the sea?

Prabhupāda: No, no. It is, everyone in this material world, serving somebody. Serving somebody. Because he is servant.

Dr. Patel: He's serving somebody or everybody. More or less it is...

Prabhupāda: No, no. No. Everybody or somebody. "Everyone's servant is nobody's servant." That is an English proverb. Anyway, this service is required. You cannot live without serving. That is not possible. Anyone of us, serving somebody. But the result is, this material service... I have given several times the example that Mahatma Gandhi, he gave so much service. But result was he was killed. He was killed. Nobody thought... That person did not think that, "Oh, this gentleman, old man, he has given so much service to us. Suppose I do not agree with him. Oh, how can I kill?" So people are so much ingrateful. You see? That whatever service you may render, they'll never be satisfied.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Never a place. But in school means... I mean, these boys, you miss...

Prabhupāda: Now we are introducing Hindi, Gujarati and Maharati, speaking. Where is Manasvī? He has gone?

Devotee: Yes.

Dr. Patel: No, but they must talk with people in their own language. They, even sometimes they don't understand me talking English. Of course, I... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...one has to study grammar for twelve years.

Dr. Patel: How much?

Prabhupāda: Twelve years.

Dr. Patel: Twelve years.

Prabhupāda: And as soon as one has his mastership on the grammar, he can study all other books.

Dr. Patel: No, he can be a poet then. The Sanskrit language is poetic in a way.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, yes.

Morning Walk -- April 18, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: He wants to study Sanskrit from now, when I read all those books. But his father has put him directly in English medium. It becomes very difficult. I have to take him out and now he can read Sanskrit. You can read.

Prabhupāda: English medium, Sanskrit.

Dr. Patel: English medium, the intelligence gets baffled because it is not a mother language.

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo Ghosh studied English from the very beginning.

Dr. Patel: But he was extremely clever. He studied then Gujarati, not even Bengali. After he came from England...

Prabhupāda: He came to Gujarati. No. He came to Baroda.

Dr. Patel: Then he studied Gujarati, but he did not know Bengali at all. And then he came... (break) What is that? (break)

Prabhupāda: (Sanskrit) From our childhood, if there was a rice grain on the floor, my father, er, my mother would ask me, "Take it and touch it on your head."

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...wood is the strongest of all wood, this. (taps wood with cane or something) Very strong.

Pañcadraviḍa: What kind of wood is that?

Prabhupāda: It is guava tree.

Mahāṁsa: Guava, oh.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You know what is that lattu, we used to play? What is the English?

Mahāṁsa: Spinning?

Prabhupāda: Like a small, and we used to...

Mahāṁsa: Oh, top, a top. Like that. It's top.

Prabhupāda: Top. What is called, top?

Mahāṁsa: That is made of this, Prabhupāda? Oh. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Very strong.

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: I can understand that he is not very favorable. But still, you said that we hate Hindi. You have said like that. Don't say like that because there may be one... Because preaching means we have to preach amongst the rascals but you do not become rascal. He may be... (break) "...Who will read Hindi? You do not... Who will read Hindi? You can read Hindi, that's all. But who will read outside Hindi? Therefore, Guru Mahārāja..." This should have been the reply. "If there is good customers for Hindi reading, then we can write Hindi books. But nobody will read Hindi." That should have been the reply. Therefore we write in English. "Why Jawaharlal Nehru read his books in English? Why Dr. Radhakrishnan writes his books in English? He has not written a single book in Hindi. Why? Why he was president? Why he was prime minister? Why did you not criticize him?" That should have been replied, that "As soon as a book is written in English, it is for world reading. And if it is written in Hindi, who is going to read except a few people like you? Why still Indians, they are sending their children for education through English?" You know that? There are so many English medium school. Is it not? Yes. Why? Why they are anxious? So much agitation was made for studying Hindi, but then why India still, even in families they are talking in English? In Bombay they talk in English amongst family members. And any gentleman meets another gentleman—he talks in English. Why it has not been stopped? So actually Hindi has no effect and if we take international rule, what is the use of Hindi? Nobody will like to... And even here, even here in India, who is reading Hindi? Nobody is reading Hindi. It is compulsory in every province, Hindi? Not compulsory.

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Indian man (1): Not Hindi, also they are developing local languages, they are teaching English letters now. The latest, they send their childrens to the English medium schools.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man (1): But these are also, they are definitely studying in local languages. Don't (indistinct) they are regulated. (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Just see. This is going on everywhere. There are so many private schools for teaching English.

Indian man (1): This is what I call cheating, to keep this.

Prabhupāda: They are cheater.

Indian man (2): (Hindi) ...in English

Prabhupāda: That is their local language.

Indian man (1): Even wordly, everything is in English in world also. But these peoples said, "Why the devotees don't...?"

Prabhupāda: Now, I have earned my practical experience. I am traveling all over the world. Everywhere, if not all, some sections they understand English. Everywhere.

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: No, still, you should not say like that.

Indian Man (3): English, they speak. That's the language (indistinct) And all the people can read it. All the people can read it.

Prabhupāda: We are making all over India members with these English books. Why do they not say, "No, no, no, I cannot accept English book." Why they are accepting English books? It is my fault that I have written in English or it is their fault? Why they are accepting? Everywhere we are making life members but why do they accept these English books? They could have refused, "No, no, no, I cannot accept English book." Why they are accepting? I know one boy. He is about forty-two years. But he was practically my first student. He is a very big scholar in Sanskrit. But because he does not know English, he is useless. He could not make any, prosper in any way. He is taken as half-educated. He was appointed as vice-chancellor of the Darbhana(?) Sanskrit University. Maybe it is only name. Anyway, now his teaching period is over. Now he is useless. He does not get any service. Although he is a very big Sanskrit scholar. The only defect, that he does not know English—he does not get any responsible position.

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Pañcadraviḍa: He does not want to learn?

Prabhupāda: No. He was trying to learn but he could not learn it. If he is serious, he can learn, but he is not serious.

Indian man (1): If we learn English perfectly, the local priests will (indistinct) those others don't speak English anymore.

Prabhupāda: No, local language is required.

Indian man (1): Suppose if we learn English, then we can preach in our local language.

Prabhupāda: Yes, local language is required. No, Hindi also, you should learn, but... We can have publication in Hindi also. But when we speak of international organization, English must be there.

Pañcadraviḍa: (break) ...them into all the schools.

Prabhupāda: Yes. School, college, library, enlightened gentlemen, businessmen, they have all accepted.

Pañcadraviḍa: This is how it would work. This is Akṣayānanda's work. He has been doing this for some months here now. He goes every day to all the different colleges and schools, and he speaks, and he shows them your books for their college libraries. He's been having a lot of programs like this. They always take the Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa Books and Nectar of Devotion, like this.

Prabhupāda: Best thing is that "Why your president, he did not write a single Hindi book? He has got so many. He is a famous philosopher. Indian religion, Indian philosophy, and Bhagavad-gītā. Then... He has written so many books but not a single in Hindi."

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Best thing is that "Why your president, he did not write a single Hindi book? He has got so many. He is a famous philosopher. Indian religion, Indian philosophy, and Bhagavad-gītā. Then... He has written so many books but not a single in Hindi."

Indian man (1): Dr. Radhakrishnan belongs to South India.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he is from Madras.

Indian man (1): Yes, he doesn't know.

Prabhupāda: No, he does not know. Sometimes, before my taking sannyāsa, sometimes I used to see him. So once upon a time he asked me, "Swamiji, you are simply writing in English?" So I asked him, "What you are doing?" So he began to laugh. (end)

Morning Walk -- April 29, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: The quality is third-class.

Tejiyas: Everyone is buying all over India Gita Press.

Prabhupāda: Because the supply is cheap.

Gargamuni: Well, it's in Hindi also. We have to print in Hindi.

Prabhupāda: Well, first of all supply the English then, we... (break) ...tried to sell her place for fifty lakhs of rupees. She thinks that I am so rich man.

Mahāṁsa: Which press?

Devotee: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan?

Prabhupāda: Associated Press, something like that. Bombay's first-class press. (break) ...They are not coming to us.

Satsvarūpa: (break) ...but they would rather be non-devotees than work all day. They can say they are free.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I offered that, that "What is this two thousand, 2,500 per month? Oh we can earn at any moment two thousand. So you become devotee; I excuse you of rent." They are not agreeing. (break) ...like an ass simply for sense gratification. Therefore it is warned in the Bhāgavatam, nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kāṣṭān kāmān arhati (SB 5.5.1). (break) ...to respect the Vaiṣṇava, to water tulasī, and this aśvattha tree. These are bhakti items.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 1, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Germany is the bitterest enemy of Britain.

Dr. Patel: Stalin.

Prabhupāda: No, Germany, whole Germany. They do not like to speak in English also. Yes, I have seen it. Even they know English, they'll not speak. In the bank they could speak a little, little English, but they avoid. Then I took... What is that boy that first went to...?

Bhāgavata: Śivānanda.

Prabhupāda: Śivānanda. Then I... Śivānanda talked in German. (break) ...two wars is due to Germany's hatred to Britain. That's all. There was always competition in colonization between France, Holland...

Dr. Patel: German. All of them.

Prabhupāda: No, not Germany. Not Germany. Germany never tried for colonization.

Dr. Patel: Belgium, such a small thing, they have half of the Central Africa like a pyramid standing on its tip. (break)

Prabhupāda: Britishers were maintaining the British Empire at the cost of India. Soldiers, money...

Dr. Patel: Indian Army was Indian Civil totally. Even today it is so. Indian Army fought... (break)

Prabhupāda: Pathans, Sikhs, they fought so nicely.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 1, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Dr. Patel: That Mr. Nair...

Prabhupāda: Mr. Nair also, in Calcutta, many times. (break)

Dr. Patel: Irish or English?

Prabhupāda: No, Irish. He established the Home Rule, Home Rule Party, in India.

Dr. Patel: And he fell off from Gandhi's movement.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Go on. (break) ...rāga of love. When one goes to see his beloved and thinks so many things, "I'll do this, I'll do this, I'll do this," that is pūrva-rāga. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (break) ...gopīs as krūra, not Akrūra.

Dr. Patel: Yes, because he was taking away Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma from there. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ. Kṛṣṇa recognizes immediately who preaches the gospel of Bhagavad-gītā. Yes.

Dr. Patel: Shall we go back? (break)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi conversation) (break) ...uncle, His father's cousin.

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

O'Grady: This is my friend, Michael Robert (indistinct) We are colleagues together since we teach literature, English literature. And this is another friend of ours who has just come from Greece. Everybody seems to be traveling within the last twenty-four hours. This is a young painter friend of mine, Bob Jackson, also from Ireland, whose first time in Italy, out of Ireland, and he's staying with me at the moment. He came back with me from Ireland just a few weeks ago.

Prabhupāda: We are also writing books, so many. You have seen our books?

O'Grady: I have seen some, yes, because some of the friends have come up and...

Prabhupāda: Some of the books, you can show him. Here is one book, Bhagavad-gītā.

Yogeśvara: You have seen the Bhagavad-gītā, haven't you, in English?

O'Grady: Oh, yes, but not this particular edition.

Yogeśvara: This we just recently published in German, a German edition. (Yogeśvara discusses books with O'Grady for a minute)

Bhagavān: All these books are illustrated by our artists in New York.

O'Grady: They illustrated this?

Bhagavān: Oh, yes, they are beautiful.

Bob Jackson(?): Some fantastic work. When you came to the house...

O'Grady: The text is in...

Bhagavān: There's original text in Bengali. This book is in Bengali.

O'Grady: And Sanskrit.

Bhagavān: Sanskrit, which Prabhupāda translates himself and gives the explanation and purport. Every night Śrīla Prabhupāda dictates into a dictaphone, and his secretaries type and edit. And then we have a press in New York which composes and prints.

O'Grady: It's a very nice edition, that Macmillan edition. Very nicely done.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have fifth edition within two years. Five editions.

O'Grady: Five editions in two years.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And each time they print fifty thousand books.

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

Prabhupāda: I think the fighting is going on still.

O'Grady: Very much so. Very badly, very bad now, very bad. What do you do about that? And that's a serious question. Is it morally correct to be sitting here, for me to be sitting here...

Prabhupāda: You see, so long people will remain under the bodily concept of life, that "I am this body," "I am Irish," "I am English," "I am American," "I am Italian," so long this misconception will go on, fight will go on. You see? Yasyātmā-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātu... There is a verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Just like you cannot stop fighting between the dogs and cats. Why there is fighting? Because the dog is thinking, "I am dog." The cat is thinking, "I am cat." Similarly, if I think as Irishman, "I am Englishman," it is the same thing. As the dog is thinking, "I am dog," so if I think, "I am Irishman," "I am Englishman," I am no better than the dog. So as we cannot stop the fighting between dogs, similarly, so long people will remain in bodily concept of life, the fighting cannot be stopped.

Room Conversation with Richard Webster, chairman, Societa Filosofica Italiana -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Well, Chamberlain may tried, might have tried to stop the war, but he could not stop the cause of the war. So far we know that the two wars started by Germany on account of Britain. So far I have studied. The German people did not like the Britishers to occupy the trade all over the world. And wherever they went to trade, they were restricting. I know this fact. In India the Britishers monopolized all trade, and they would not allow German goods to come in. So that was the cause of the war. The German knew that the Britishers, they are purchasing from Germany and stamping it "Made in London" and selling in India at high price. And when the Germans go there, they are not allowed to enter. This is the cause of the war. The Germans still, they do not like to speak in English. They are so envious. So Chamberlain might have tried to stop war, but his nation created the cause of the war. Why there should be... That was the demand, that free trade. Germans, in the, what is called, peace negotiation, their demand was free trade. Everyone... And that is very good. Why trade should be... This is unnatural. Let there be free trade. General public, they want best thing at good price, at cheap price. So if Japan and Germany can supply goods, necessary goods, at cheaper price, why they should be restricted? Let the people take advantage of it.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1974, Rome:

Dhanañjaya: I noticed this when I took the train from Calcutta to Krishnanagar. Once you get further out, it's so nice, the villages. There is the pond there.

Prabhupāda: And... Why Calcutta? You go to the airport. You will find so nice gardens, still existing. Now it is spoiled also. Because people have changed locally to the city. Nobody has to take care now. Otherwise, in Bengal especially, throughout the whole India, Bengal was so beautiful. The Europeans became attracted by the beauty of Bengal. Therefore they made Calcutta their capital, the Britishers. Yes. Every European liked Bengal. Every European. I met one European German gentleman in Bombay. He was in Calcutta. When I was in Bimha (?). So I asked, "Why you left Calcutta?" "Oh, I am very sorry. Calcutta was so nice." And actually. Where we have got our temple, these quarters were known as "Sahib" quarter. Just like our temple is "Sahib" temple. So these Chowringee and Camac Street, Park, these were all European. They liked very much to live in Bengal. And there is another story. One English officer he became attracted by the beauty of a Bengali woman. There is story by Bankima Candra. Candrashekhara. The man was after that woman, how to get it. That is the subject matter of story. He was attracted by the black eyes and black hair. Bengali beauty.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Roost, Hatha-yogi -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Guru-gaurāṅga: Science and knowledge for man, and it is a manual. And he has an āśrama here. And this is our spiritual master, His Divine Grace Bhaktivedanta Swami. Monsieur Roost does not speak English, so...

M. Roost: I understand a little, but I cannot speak easily.

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter.

M. Roost: But I want to know from...

Prabhupāda: It is a little technical subject, so translation. We... Our Bhagavad-gītā, there is yoga practice also. So we approve this yoga practice. There is no doubt. And in the Vedic literature it is said, dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). The yogis, they also sees the Absolute Truth by meditation within the mind. So this process is approved process, and there are divisions. Sagarbha-yogī, nirgarbha-yogī (?). So what is your special subject matter of yoga?

M. Roost: I try to make a yoga with understanding from occident... I saw that occidental people is more intellectual, and I don't understand very easily the karma-yoga. The dynamics and... I don't understand we must work without, without goal, without intention, without personal intention. And I try to show through the practice of haṭha-yoga that posture and prāṇāyāma and concentration. I try to...

Prabhupāda: Beginning from abdomen?

M. Roost: The kind of meditation I learned in India with Swami Satyananda, it's a few different type meditation.

Prabhupāda: They begin from the abdomen, maṇipūraka, maṇipūraka. And then the intestines. They come to the heart; then ultimately, to the brahma-randhra. This practice?

M. Roost: Yes, it's a practice of kuṇḍalinī-yoga, but very, very temperate, moderate.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Roost, Hatha-yogi -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Nitāi: That's Tenth Canto, Chapter Fourteen.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can find out in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. In the Kṛṣṇa Book we find out when Brahmā is offering prayers to Kṛṣṇa. Brahmā is offered, I think, first part.

Satsvarūpa: This is in English. What would it be?

Nitāi: It would be about the fourteenth paragraph.

Guru-gaurāṅga: We don't know this universe, so there are so many innumerable universes.

Prabhupāda: Fourteenth paragraph, what is written?

Satsvarūpa: Fourteenth is "Lord Brahmā admitted that his birth was from the lotus flower which blossomed from the navel of Nārāyaṇa."

Nitāi: Here it says 10.14.3, the third paragraph.

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām
sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir
ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām

Prabhupāda: Jito 'pi. Jito py asi tais tri-lokyām. Where we have explained in English. What is the...? Madhya-līlā?

Nitāi: This is Madhya-līlā, Eighth Chapter.

Prabhupāda: You have got?

Nitāi: Not here. It's in Bombay.

Room Conversation with Prof. Regamay, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Lausanne -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Gandhi was not a man of spiritual under... He was a politician, that's all.

Prof. Regamay: Yes, but in his personal...

Prabhupāda: Gandhi, actually he did not know anything.

Prof. Regamay: Yes, he read Bhagavad-gītā in English.

Prabhupāda: That is also nonsense. There was no Kṛṣṇa. There was no Mahābhārata or Kurukṣetra. He has written like that.

Prof. Regamay: But he was dead with the words Rāma, pronouncing, "Rāma Rāma."

Prabhupāda: Well, I... That is the process of India to chant the name of Kṛṣṇa. Every Indian has got initial propensity, but actually Gandhi did not know anything about spiritual science. He was politician, that's all. That one Bengal governor, he was from Australia, Mr. Keziar (?). So he, I remember. "Gandhi is a politician amongst the saintly person or a saintly person amongst the politicians." This study was made. His moral principle, character, is very good. That is to be taken by the politicians. But so far his spiritual knowledge is concerned, that is nil.

Room Conversation -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Yogeśvara: No. He asks if our students are Indian. He likes the paintings. He was wondering whether they were done by Indian students.

Prabhupāda: No. American students under my direction.

Yogeśvara: (French)

Prabhupāda: You can inform about our reception in the higher circles. Professors, they have ordered all the sixty volumes of...

Satsvarūpa: The letter, in English.

Yogeśvara: (French)

M. Roche-dieu: Are you in touch with Professor M. Eliade who is in Chicago, department, religious department?

Yogeśvara: What is his name?

M. Roche-dieu: Mssr. Eliade, Eliade.

Yogeśvara: Professor Eliage?

M. Roche-dieu: E-l-i-a-d-e. He's a woman.

Yogeśvara: Eliage, Professor Eliage...

M. Roche-dieu: Eliade. Eliade.

Yogeśvara: Eliade. Chicago University?

Prabhupāda: No, I have never gone to Chicago.

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

Prabhupāda: (aside) Not now.

Yogeśvara: ...then he will know better what your position is on the spiritual platform.

Robert Gouiran: Yes. I should like to do so. Uh, I think, I understood that we could... It is difficult to explain in English.

Prabhupāda: You can speak in French. He'll translate.

Robert Gouiran: (French)

Guru-gaurāṅga: He has learnt how to be taken into things without being taken by things. That is to say that he has just let himself go, and from that letting himself go, he's been able to see things transparently. He's been able to see through things.

Prabhupāda: So what does he see?

Guru-gaurāṅga: (French)

Robert Gouiran: (French)

Guru-gaurāṅga: (translating) "I've seen that there is the need, I have felt that there is the need to become in harmony with things which will take me where I need to go."

Robert Gouiran: (French)

Guru-gaurāṅga: "And to try and work and find out the true path."

Robert Gouiran: I try to work this intuition, to make it stronger, in order to feel where I have to go and to participate...

Prabhupāda: So where is the difficulty...? What is the difficulty in the position you are now, at present?

Robert Gouiran: Good question.

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

Prabhupāda: First of all, why should you give up?

Robert Gouiran: To get... To get, to get free...

Prabhupāda: "To get." The word is "to get."

Robert Gouiran: Well, I'm not English-speaking.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is the meaning. You renounce to get something else. Otherwise, what is the meaning of this renunciation.

Robert Gouiran: Just in order to get rid of the barriers which blocks the access of the spiritual plane.

Yogeśvara: (French)

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is devotion. To work on the spiritual plane means devotion, devotional service. That is spiritual. Otherwise what is the meaning of renunciation? Suppose you are working as scientist. You renounce. What do you gain? Unless you gain something better, then there is meaning of renouncing.

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: When I first came to America, Butler, in Pennsylvania, that is small county, but at least one dozen churches I found. I very much appreciated, that the people are not... And they're going regularly, churches. I was invited in many churches. I was...

Yogeśvara: To lecture?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The, the girl, that, my friend's son's wife... He's Indian. He has married an English girl. So I was guest at his house. So that girl, Sally... Selly or Sally?

Yogeśvara: Sally.

Prabhupāda: She was arranging so many meetings. She was very intelligent girl. So churches, many churches, she... Some of the churches purchased my books.

Yogeśvara: Recently, one of our saṅkīrtana parties went to Butler, Pennsylvania, and one of the devotees met a priest on the street. He said: "Oh, yes, I remember your spiritual master. He was here."

Prabhupāda: So I was giving lectures. They have churches. That means God conscious persons there. I never criticized church, mosque, never. Because whatever it may be, at least there is God consciousness. So they're good. In details... But when they disobey... I criticize only these rascals, disobey the commandments. Otherwise, we have no... We don't criticize.

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Jyotirmayī: Mr. (indistinct) has made very good progress, because before he was always teaching impersonalist Bhagavad-gītā, and now you see he is wearing a dhotī, he's coming to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, he's coming for Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam classes, and he teaches personalist Bhagavad-gītā. But he still thinks a little bit that maybe above there is something impersonalism. But there is good progress. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). Brahman, Paramātmā... He understands English?

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān, last stage. First realization impersonal Brahman, then localized Paramātmā, and then Personality of Godhead.

(Jyotirmayī translates into French)

Yogeśvara: Jyotirmayī, perhaps you can explain what Mr. Priest's qualifications are.

Jyotirmayī: Yeah, Mr. (indistinct) is a priest, and he has been for a long time in India, a Christian priest, and he was very glad to know what you are doing here. Kṛṣṇa consciousness was...

Prabhupāda: In India, where did you stay?

Priest: In Poona.

Prabhupāda: Poona, oh. How long you were there?

Priest: Twenty-five years.

Prabhupāda: Oh, then you are Indian. (laughter)

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: I have not said that you dress like that. You like, you do it. Did I say that you do it?

Priest: It's like the Indian Catholic priest dressing like a (indistinct) priest or like a European priest. I mean, they look as if they had a disguise with them.

Prabhupāda: No, no, just like when the English were ruling, English national. So the Englishmen never said that "You dress like Englishmen," but they automatically dressed. You know very well. They do like that. The Englishmen, they went there to get some money by trade, by politics. But they never went there to change their dress. But they thought that "If I dress myself like Englishman, I will be more honored." That is their point. Similarly, we never preach that "You dress like this." But the student, they like this dress. That's all right. What is the wrong there?

Priest: It's not wrong. It's funny.

Prabhupāda: Rather these girls, when they dress in Indian way, they look more beautiful. That you will have to admit. Yes. The same girl will dress in your...

Priest: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: So the girls, the women, they like to be more beautiful. So if by dressing in other way they look beautiful, why should you ask them not to do it?

Priest: Maybe for ladies and girls certainly, but for the dhotī and...

Prabhupāda: But we are not concerned with the dress, we are concerned with the advancement of spiritual understanding, that's all.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Eleven. That's all. This is the age. Twelve to fifteen years, the boys become, by bad association, they become rotten. This hellish world is like that. They go to school and become demons.

Paramahaṁsa: Yesterday, in your lecture, you mentioned how in this age it's very difficult to remain chaste or free of...

Prabhupāda: Yes, but one who is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he's all right. Teach him Sanskrit and English and let him read our books. Then perfect knowledge. He doesn't require to go to school. And so far mathematics and history concerned, everyone knows. Two plus two equal to four. It doesn't require much education. Even illiterate man who has never gone to school, he can also count. Eh? "How much money you are giving me?" He doesn't want to be cheated. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Rāma... So the fact is God cannot be unknown. If you are actually serious to know God, God can be known. This is no argument, that "God cannot be known."

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: That is putting limitation on Kṛṣṇa, to say that you cannot see.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Eh?

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: That is putting a limitation on Kṛṣṇa if one says that He cannot be seen.

Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa... Of course, you cannot challenge Kṛṣṇa. But Kṛṣṇa, if He likes, He can reveal Himself to you. Therefore, you can know God. Just like Kṛṣṇa reveals. He comes and He... (aside:) Don't... He reveals Himself. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). So when man forgets, so He comes, reveals Himself. And He leaves behind Him the Bhagavad-gītā, knowledge about Him. So where is the difficulty? He comes when you forget Him, and He leaves behind Him the knowledge by which you can understand.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Pṛthu-putra: He asks if we have temple in France or if we do in apartment or if we do in conference, private conferences. How we are doing it?

Prabhupāda: Anyway. We welcome all, all learned men, or leading men, to understand this philosophy. And the book is... You show Bhagavad-gītā. And all other books also show him. (French)

Yogeśvara: He says, unfortunately, he doesn't read English.

Prabhupāda: Here is French. French language. (French)

Bhagavān: We have practical political philosophy.

Yogeśvara: He asks what are our political principles in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Do we have a program?

Prabhupāda: Our... We have not only political program, but we have got political, and economical, intellectual, and ordinary. We think... Just like in your body, there are four divisions: the head, the arms, the belly and the leg. So this is complete. Head is the most important division. If you cut your head, then everything finished. Therefore head must be there. Head means first-class intelligent men. And their qualification is stated... Find out, śamo damas titikṣā.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: It is against capitalism, this idea?

Prabhupāda: No. It is the movement to qualify men to their respective positions. It is an educational system to divide first-class, second-class, third-class, fourth-class. They all required, but at the present moment, the fourth-class man is occupying the first-class man's place. We want to divide the society into real first-class, second-class, third-class... They're all required, but they have got their respective positions, not topsy-turvied. As the, as to keep the body fit, we require the head, the hands, the belly and the legs. If we simply keep legs, it is useless. (French)

Pṛthu-putra: He asks what language we use when we read Bhagavad-gītā and...

Prabhupāda: No. This is in Sanskrit language, but we translate into different languages.

M. Mesman: English?

Prabhupāda: English, French, German, Spanish, and other languages. (French)

Pṛthu-putra: He asks if we have to be disciple, do we have to know Sanskrit or to learn Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. Because it is published in other languages.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: We have got a school in Dallas, America, but we are trying to open a school here, also. (French)

Yogeśvara: This school is for all ages or just for children?

Prabhupāda: No, all ages. Children means they learn Sanskrit and English. And they are taught our books. You show our books, all books. These are... Other books. We have got eighty books like this. So if a student reads all these eighty books, he becomes Doctor of Philosophy. Ph.D. Beginning from A,B,C,D, up to Ph.D., all, everything is there. (French)

Pṛthu-putra: He asks if you wrote all these books.

Yogeśvara: Did you write all these books?

Prabhupāda: That you can say. What can I...?

Yogeśvara: Yes, our spiritual master has translated these books. (French) He asks, "These are the ancient Sanskrit books then?"

Bhagavān: Prabhupāda has not just translated. He's given commentary, purport.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can show the nature, translation, word-meaning. (French) Then I combine with reference to the modern society, how they can be applicable to the modern life.

Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: That means somebody has created. So how you can say that man has created everything? The fallacy, just see. How rascal they are. That I wanted to say.

Paramahaṁsa: You have quoted a great English poet who said...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Paramahaṁsa: You have quoted a great English Poet who says that "Man has created the city..."

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.

Paramahaṁsa: "...and God has created the country."

Prabhupāda: This is the statement of Mr. Cowper. Man has created nothing. Suppose this building, man has created. But wherefrom the ingredient comes. Has man created? This stone, man has created? Eh? What do you think? Is this stone, creation of man?

Paramahaṁsa: No.

Prabhupāda: Then what... You have done the work of a laborer. That's all. You have taken ingredients from God and worked hard and transformed into a step. That's all. Your creation means just like carpenter creates a furniture. That's all. That is his creation. Then that is... The economic law says that man cannot create anything. He can simply transform. These trees, has man created these trees? Why do they claim man has created everything?

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: But they will say that they made the garden.

Room Conversation with M. Lallier, noted French Poet -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: It means so? Because you are staying in this room, you are this room?

M. Lallier: No. But... No, I... I understand that... There is some difficulties for me about the signification of two Sanskrit words which are puruṣa and prakṛti. Is there any relation between those two, those two...?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Puruṣa means the enjoyer, and prakṛti means the enjoyed.

Bhagavān: Can you understand English?

M. Lallier: No. (Devotee translates)

M. Lallier: I learned before that puruṣa means the great man.

Yogeśvara: He says he also learned somewhere that puruṣa can refer to any great man or great person.

Prabhupāda: So in the material world everyone thinks that he's very great person. That is the disease. Everyone thinks that "I am the great." This is called māyā.

M. Lallier: Yes, I... Yes, Yes.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, the living entity is called puruṣa, and that puruṣa wants to enjoy the prakṛti.

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: The Bhagavad-gītā says, Kṛṣṇa, that "I am the enjoyer. I am the proprietor. I am the friend." Bhoktāram... Read out this.

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
(BG 5.29)

This is the process of peacefulness, when one understands that Kṛṣṇa is the enjoyer, Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor of all lokas, all worlds. And Kṛṣṇa is the best friend of everyone. (French) (aside:) Get the light. (French)

Pṛthu Putra: He says that liberation of India from the English was done because of many, various forces, but that amongst the people, the common mass of people who helped to liberate India, there was, of course, a religious people. But there was religious people on both sides. There was religious people amongst those who wanted to liberate India, but also among those who wanted the English to be there, not in imperialism.

Yogeśvara: In other words, his point, essentially, is that religious sentiment was there on both sides. It was there on the imperialists' side as well as on the side of those who were fighting for India's liberation. So there seems to be a kind of dichotomy. Religious sentiments can be expressed by anyone, whatever their motivation is. Whether it be imperialist, whether it be communist... Religious sentiment is found...

Prabhupāda: What is religious sentiment? (French for some time)

Jyotirmayī: He says again that in India, now also there's a big struggle because they are trying to solve the immediate problems of hunger, you know, all these problems, now, and, of course, there is a religious people on the side of those who are struggling, but there's also religious people on the other side, of those who want to keep the situation as it is now... And then he said that...

Prabhupāda: Religious people wants to keep the situation? Starving? Starving situation? (French for some time)

Bhagavān: You don't understand what he's saying now? Because he has a different translation.

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Bhagavān: He's just saying, "Let's get rid of..." (to RM:) You understand a little English? "Let's get rid of this bad situation, let's get rid of this bad situation, and let's not talk about really what the truth is yet because we don't know. Let's be silent about that. Let's just work to get rid of the bad elements." This is how he's trying to practice his philosophy. In other words, if there is this political problem here, let's get rid of this, and let's get rid of this one, but let's not talk about what actually the goal is yet.

Pṛthu Putra: Then he said that... (French)

Yogeśvara: Just for example, he says that Kṛṣṇa was urging Arjuna to fight. He says, well, that fight has two meanings. One is the historic sense, and the other one is that it's a struggle inside ourselves to get freed of all of the bad situations, to get free of our false ego, to get free of our pride.

Bhagavān: The question is "What is he aiming at?"

Prabhupāda: Unless we understand that what is his aim of discussion, then how we can make progress? (Yogeśvara mentions something in French about Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna) No, why you are bringing Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna? First of all, let us know what is the aim of our discussion, the subject matter of discussion.

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Pṛthu Putra: It is difficult word to translate in English. He says at his time, Ramakrishna's was the expression of the mass of the people.

Prabhupāda: No.

Karandhara: What mass?

Prabhupāda: That is false.

Karandhara: Ramakrishna's popular in the West because of his skillful propaganda... (French)

Yogeśvara: He says that "Well, in a sense, we have to accept that Ramakrishna was expressing the sentiments of the public because he lived amongst the public."

Prabhupāda: No, that is his false understanding.

Karandhara: Still, that doesn't make it valid. Hitler, Hitler lived amongst the public too. And he was a...

Prabhupāda: No, I'll give you example that mass of people in Jagannātha Purī, in Vṛndāvana, many thousands, ten thousands, twenty thousands people, every day come, to worship Jagannātha, to worship Kṛṣṇa, but there is a Ramakrishna temple in Belurmath, or somewhere else—nobody goes. So how do you say the mass of people are attracted to Ramakrishna? And similarly, recently, our foreign students went to Vṛndāvana, went to Navadvīpa, by thousands, but nobody goes to Ramakrishna Mission temple. Then other point: Ramakrishna Mission is working in the western world almost one hundred years. Find out their disciples so many we have got. So your statement, "It is meant for the mass of people," it is false. I have given you proof from India and from here also. That means throughout the whole world. In India nobody cares for Ramakrishna. That I have given you proof. You go to Vṛndāvana. There nobody cares for Ramakrishna. You go to Jagannātha Purī, Haridvar, so many holy places. Nobody cares for Ramakrishna. So your idea, that it is for the mass, it is false.

Room Conversation with Russian Orthodox Church Representative -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: So in the Vedic language, one who has taken this body as self, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13), and sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu, and own men, the family, society, community, national, not outside that, sva-dhīḥ, "They are my own men." sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ, and the land of birth worshipable, nationalism, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicit, and holy place, to take bath in the water of Jordan or Ganges, such persons are considered as go-kharaḥ. Go means cow, kharaḥ means ass. That means animals. What is your conception of the soul? Do you believe in the soul? (French)

Yogeśvara: He understands English.

Church Representative: I understand. My conception of soul?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Church Representative: Could you (sic:) precise your question, because what do you mean by this...

Prabhupāda: Soul...

Church Representative: Yes, I know... I cannot say that I know what is soul. I know that there are souls, that I have a soul. But I think that it's very difficult to give adequate... (French)

Yogeśvara: He says he knows that he has a soul, but he thinks it would be hard to give an accurate definition of the soul.

Prabhupāda: But if he knows what is soul, where is the difficulty to give definition? (French)

Yogeśvara: (translating) So he says he can accept that he has a soul...

Church Representative: Certainly, I accept.

Room Conversation with Russian Orthodox Church Representative -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Church Representative: I have nothing to say against. But I cannot say that it is a definition. Do you say in English, definition?

Prabhupāda: Yes, definition.

Church Representative: I cannot say that it is a definition. It is a sort of creed, a profession of faith.

Prabhupāda: No, it is characteristic. Definition means you mention the characteristic. That is definition. Definition, you mention the characteristic. So that can be mentioned directly, or if it is not perceivable, then you can define in opposite way. Just like we have got experience: everything in the material world, it is beginning. There is a beginning. Anything of this—your body, my body, everything—it has got a beginning, and it has got an end. So it is stated, na jāyate na mriyate vā: "It has no beginning, no end." And nityaḥ, eternal, śāśvataḥ, very old, purāṇaḥ. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "It is not destroyed, annihilated, after the destruction of the body." So if we accept this definition, then we can understand the soul is eternal. Our characteristic, if we accept these characteristics, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), after the destruction of body the soul is never destroyed, then you can understand the soul is eternal. And it is clearly stated, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "After the destruction of the body, it is not destroyed." So, it means it takes another body.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: These hippies, they are exactly this. They have no place to sleep, no nothing of the sort and looking like big, big hair. Piśācī. Piśāca. What is the English?

Nitāi: Ghost?

Prabhupāda: Ghost, yes. Ghost, yes. Ghost-like. Hīnāḥ piśāca-sandarśā bhaviṣyanti kalau prajāḥ: "In the Kali-yuga, the prajāḥ, people in general, devoid of residence and proper food, then proper drinking, resting place or sex or bathing and dress, they'll look like ghost." Then?

kalau kākiṇike 'py arthe
vigṛhya ca tyakta-sauhṛdāḥ
tyakṣyanti ca priyān prāṇān
haniṣyanti svakān api

"In the Kali-yuga, for a cent, for the matter of taking a cent only he'll give up his friendship with others. And even his own man, family man, relative, he'll kill him to take that two cent or five cents." Na rakṣiṣyanti manujāḥ sthavirau pitarāv api.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Pṛthu Putra: She'd like to know about the problem of death, what's happening at the time of death.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So as you prepare yourself... Because... Just like in dream we think what we have actually performed, similarly, the mental condition at the time of death will be prepared as we are doing in our usual life. Do you understand English? (French)

American Man: I'm American.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice.

Madame Devi: (French)

Pṛthu Putra: She believes that the thoughts are more important than the acts.

Yogeśvara: Thoughts. She asks, she says, "Perhaps thoughts are more important than actions."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Thoughts are the subtle action.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: May I ask a question? It is quite clear for our rational mind, I can understand there is a dead body, and there must be something in him, enough to make it alive. Now, the conclusion, I say there are two things, that my question was how he becomes aware in himself as an experience, not as conclusion, because I realize that on the inner way it becomes important more and more to feel deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper realities. That's why in my little work I make a distinction between the body you have and the body you are. The English language says, talks about "somebody" and "something." "Somebody" means a person. So the body you are. It's the whole of the gestures wherein you express and you present and you miss or you realize your real self. So the body you are. Usually if you go to a doctor he sees only the body you have. He tackles it like a machine. If somebody with shoulders like this, he says, "Well, you must make exercises." If somebody comes to me with shoulders like this, I say, "The body you are, you have no confidence in life. So get an attitude of confidence." So he gets to know the body he is, not only the body he has, which doesn't at all touch at your wisdom.

Prabhupāda: No, as I say, the active principle, I am also the active principle. As I say, the dead body and the living body, difference is, when the active principle is not there, it is dead body. Similarly, I am also the active principle. So 'ham, so 'ham: "I am the same active principle." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am Brahman. I am not this material body." That is self-realization. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati: (BG 18.54) "When one is self-realized, then he is jolly." Prasannātmā. He is never morose. He is jolly. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati: "He has no lamentation, no hankering." Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu: "He is equal to everyone, man, animal and everything." And mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām: (BG 18.54) "Then devotional life begins." So without self-realization, there is no question of devotional life. Or those who are engaged in devotional service, they are all... Just like these boys, my students, they are trained up how to be always in devotional service. So one who is engaged in devotional service, he is supposed to be already self-realized. Because he has understood "what I am," yes. And then he sticks to devotional service. Otherwise, he cannot. If one thinks, "I am this body," then he cannot be engaged in devotional service, or he cannot stick. He knows that "I am part and parcel of God. So my duty is to serve God." This is self-realization. And then he engages himself in devotional service.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: There is only one way toward peace, through self-realization of those who are responsible.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Self-realization, that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that one should understand that "I am not enjoyer. Nobody is enjoyer." That is false. They are trying, endeavor, for enjoying this world, and that is false. Real enjoyer is the Supreme Lord. We are trying to occupy this land, that land. "This is Germany. This is England. This is France. This is India. This is my land, worshipable. Land is worshipable. It is my land." But he should know that no land belongs to us. Everything belongs to God. And this is a fact. The land is not created by us. The ocean is not created by us. Then why should we claim, "This is German ocean, and this is English ocean"? This is all false imagination. So when it comes to this understanding, that "Nothing belongs to us..." The United Nations, they are fighting for the last twenty years, but they are fighting on the false ground because everyone is thinking, "This land is mine. I must protect it." So they have no self-realization, and there is no peace.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: And from this level the heaven opens to those who didn't understand what the heaven means. They thought it was behind the clouds. You see, there is a natural way to look at God, and this natural way to look at God is lost as soon as people go through the rational mind. And then there is no other way out but to have a personal initiated experience. We talk about initiation. When people are capable to go through a certain death and to discover another level, and only... And so, the great wisdom which you are talking about, I am sure that it also touches people on two levels. There is the ordinary man and he might believe, but there is a deeper level where things start to change yourself, to transform yourself in deeper experiences.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is... That is the beginning of instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. The beginning of knowledge...

German Lady: Excuse me. Would you please explain for some people who don't speak English here in German because we don't know all of your words.

Professor Durckheim: Yes, but I didn't want to interrupt the master.

Prabhupāda: No. I have no objection if somebody translates into German.

Haṁsadūta: Vedavyāsa can translate. (German)

Professor Durckheim: Do you permit me to repeat it in German? For those who are present here?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. (German) (break) So Kṛṣṇa begins the first understanding,

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

Yes. What is the translation?

Satsvarūpa: "As the embodied soul continually passes in this body from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change."

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prof. Pater Porsch: But will this center also be a place of learning for Sanskrit studies and allied topics?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. We are educating our children in Dallas. We have got very good institution, Sanskrit and English, and they are reading these books. That is sufficient. If they read these books, all different department of knowledge will be acquired. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati. Yes. You can play a little record. Last night...

Haṁsadūta: This morning's recording?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prof. Pater Porsch: May I please ask, are there is also room for physical yoga exercises while chanting of the God's names?

Prabhupāda: Yes, but we are exercising by dancing.

Prof. Pater Porsch: Yes, of course. (tape of Prabhupāda singing is played)

Prabhupāda: Make little louder. (tape plays for about five minutes of Prabhupāda singing prayers to the six Gosvāmīs) What are these pictures?

Haṁsadūta: These are pictures of our society's activities in the temples.

Prof. Pater Porsch: Very constructive and very... So much success in a relative very short time, if you began in 1966.

Prabhupāda: '67.

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Pater Emmanuel: Yes, I see.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is said in the Bhagavad-gītā. Find out. Māṁ ca avyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate. Māṁ ca avyabhicāreṇa.

German devotee:

māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
(BG 14.26)

Translation in English?

Prabhupāda: Let him... German translation will help you?

Pater Emmanuel: Yes. French, in Hindi also and English I speak, but... (German)

Prabhupāda: You read the purport. (Devotee reads in German)

Pater Emmanuel: Brahman is not Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Brahman. Yes, He is Para-brahman. Para-brahman. Brahman is realized in three angles of vision: impersonal Brahman and localized Brahman, Paramātmā in the heart, and personal Brahman. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Brahman because ultimately God is person. Yes. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. The exact Sanskrit word is vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam (SB 1.2.11). The Absolute Truth is described by the person who knows the Absolute Truth in three ways: brahmeti, the impersonal Brahman, paramātmeti, the localized Paramātmā, and Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate feature of God, full with all six opulences, the richest, the strongest, the most famous, the most wise, the most renounced and most beautiful. These are the six features of the Personality of Godhead.

Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: I think you missed that verse, jagato ahitāya. Anyway, these are the description of demonic activities. So this is practical. The last two disastrous war was waged only for this industry. This is the cause. German, they are actually in Europe very intelligent and their machine products and other things, they make very nice things. At least, I have got experience, German chemicals are first-class chemical. So they manufacture and British occupied the half of the world in their colonization, whole Africa, and they controlled India and China, Japan, yes, China, Burma, Ceylon, Australia. So these poor people, they manufactured. They have got goods enough; where to sell? As soon as they go to the British territories, "No, you cannot sell. If you want to sell, then hundred percent duty." So price increase. This was the grudge. Everyone knows. This is the cause of two wars. The jagato ahita. Now, why so much? You require a scissor? Go to a blacksmith and pay something. He'll make a scissor. "No. Produce millions of scissor." Then where is market, sir? This is going on. Produce millions of TV machine. Simple they are used for wasting time. One or two or five made for some important business. Now they are producing millions of sets. They must sell. And people are induced to purchase. And as soon as they purchase, they simply see television. Idol worship. And learning vicious things. Some unnecessary picture is produced there. They like to see it. Two train are coming and they are smashed. (laughs) I have seen some television. People are learning how to smash, how to steal, how to harass people. Things are being shown like that. Not that "You are soul. You are spirit soul. If you degrade yourself, you then get this." You make that television, that how transmigration of the soul is taking place. They have manufactured the machine, so utilize for your propaganda. We have got to do so many things. We can utilize everything. So if they are not used for Kṛṣṇa's purpose they'll be used for committing disaster in the world. Just like the atomic bomb. They are meant for creating disaster, that's all. What else they can do? And now everyone is having atomic weapon, just like India has now got. That means they are preparing, by nature's course they are preparing for war, and "I put my atomic bomb on your head, and you put on my head. You die, I die, that's all." They simply die. Now what was the result of the disastrous war twice? The whole European nations ruined. They are not no more rich. I saw in Paris, in Germany. They are not as rich as the Americans. Because American inland, there was no such big war, so their opulence is existing, but on account of these two wars, British completely finished. Yes. British completely. It is now... Hitler wanted that "I shall again make these English people a fisherman's island. They have to take their business to fishing only." (laughter) That was Hitler's declaration.

Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Madhudviṣa: That's finished now. During the petrol shortage they had to cut themselves down to two days a week.

Prabhupāda: Now they have got Australia. Australia is English possession?

Madhudviṣa: No.

Prabhupāda: No, no more.

Cāru: Not any more.

Prabhupāda: But I know, all educated and advanced educated Englishmen, they were coming to Australia for good job. Therefore most of the technical posts, they are occupied by Indians in London. As soon as one is highly qualified medical man, he comes to Australia. So who will take care of them? So therefore they imported some brain from India. Anyway, our time should be saved for self-realization. That is perfect civilization. And not for creating unnecessary necessity of life. That will increase problem. So scientists, they disagreed or agreed with us?

Madhudviṣa: They did not want to get... They did not want to...

Prabhupāda: But they could not answer "Who is the manufacturer of the brain of the scientist?" That they could not.

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

Bhagavān: He said for forty-five years now he has not eaten any meat, he has been vegetarian.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you are forty-five percent advanced. Let them come forward. Oh, they are chanting. Very good.

Bhagavān: Many young people. You speak Italian. You speak French? English? Habla espanol?

Prabhupāda: Which language?

Devotee (1): Italian.

Prabhupāda: Italian. Ah.

Bhagavān: The Hare Kṛṣṇa, that is universal language everyone understands. You are from Rome?

Guest: Yes.

Bhagavān: We have a temple there.

Guest: Yes, I know. Very good.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Come on.

Bhagavān: Umāpati is nicely editing these books also.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bhagavān: He is editing the philosophy, making sure everything is exact.

Prabhupāda: You are doing good service. Now you have got good engagement.

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

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa speaks in all languages, and He speaks so perfectly that everyone thinks that He speaks only in his language. He could speak with the birds even. There is a Sanskrit word, babhudak. This means one who can speak all languages. So it is stated there in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Nectar of Devotion, that on the bank of Yamunā He was one day talking with a bird. Every living being has got a different language.

Yogeśvara (translating): He says but they are a little bit jealous of the Americans who speak English, which is the language that you speak.

Prabhupāda: The America is my fatherland. My motherland is in India, and America is my fatherland.

Bhagavān: We are trying to make one country.

Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda, when scientists and astrologers are looking into the heavens, sometimes they see what they say to be flying saucers, different flying objects, lights in the sky. Do we have any explanation for this?

Prabhupāda: Everything is flying, all these planets, they are flying.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Jayatīrtha: These are the ones that you wanted us to bring for distribution to the Māyāvādīs.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Māyāvādīs.

Rāmeśvara: Just before Christmas this wall was filled up, and now it is practically empty. We have sold so many books just in a few months. All up to the ceiling it was filled up. Now we have to reprint.

Prabhupāda: Now it is only in English language. In every language such big go-down should... Yes. (chuckles) You have taken Spanish, and he is German. Then... Then overflood. No more other literature. (laughter) Ara nāhe bābā. They'll say, "No, no, we don't want any other literature." Yes, George says, "No more singing anything except Kṛṣṇa." Does he not say? He says like that.

Gurudāsa: Yes. Sometimes. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: Sometimes.

Prabhupāda: I don't think... Is he singing any other song, no?

Gurudāsa: Now he is not. He's going to Vṛndāvana next week.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Vṛndāvana. Where he'll stay?

Gurudāsa: I wrote him a letter to stay with us, but he may stay in Mathurā. I'm not sure. I wrote him a letter to stay at our place.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Jayatīrtha: And He chants also his rounds, couple of rounds every day.

Prabhupāda: And another child? Svarūpa-da? Yes...

Paramahaṁsa: Oh, Śiva-jvara.

Prabhupāda: Śiva-jvara. Oh, he's a wonderful child. He is English. He's so busy. He wants to do everything. Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: He was playing karatālas very nicely.

Prabhupāda: Not only that, he's a born devotee. He'll take the ārati lamp and do like this and try to open the door. Anything you... Whatever he has seen others are doing, he'll do.

Paramahaṁsa: He was using the cāmara and the peacock fan.

Prabhupāda: And he chants also. He picks up the words.

Haṁsadūta: He's one of the happiest children I've ever seen.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: He's one of the happiest, jolliest looking children I've ever seen.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Who says nothing to eat? That is also their manufacture.

Guest (4): I mean the figures which are published that half of humanity will starve.

Prabhupāda: It's... Especially, we are Indian. It is advertised that we are poverty-stricken. All over the world this is advertised. Wherever I go, they say, "Oh, you are coming from India?" (laughter) Because they are simply begging, the government. But who is dying? There is... Dying is going on, but that death is going on in other countries also. They are dying, committing suicide. And maybe some persons are dying out of starvation. You cannot stop death. Suppose you have got enough food. That means that everything is solved? In America there is enough food. Why they are coming hippies? There is no shortage of food. Nothing... Everything is abundant, but why they are becoming hippies? They are lying down on the street, on the park and I have seen in London, the St. James Park. They are sleeping, and the police is kicking: "Hey! Get up! Get up!" So why? The English nation is not poor nation. The American nation is not poor nation.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Hanumān: They don't speak English.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, you don't understand English.

Hṛdayānanda: (Spanish)

Hanumān: They're just amazed looking at you.

Guest (6): (Spanish)

Hṛdayānanda: They said they are simply here feeling your presence, and they realize that you're very busy, and so they are simply feeling love for you.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Guest (6): (Spanish)

Hṛdayānanda: They said they have to go now.

Prabhupāda: All right. Give them prasāda. Everyone should be supplied with.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Guest (2): What do you recommend?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. We have translated it-Nectar of Devotion. This in...

Guest (2): This is in Sanskrit or...

Prabhupāda: No, English.

Guest (2): Bengali? No, but original.

Prabhupāda: Original Sanskrit.

Guest (4): Apart from (indistinct) quality of Lord Rāma, are there a few other things which could be included while you are worshiping or devoting or meditating on...?

Prabhupāda: God has all the qualities that you can conceive. It is generally not... Bhaga(?), it is taken as six, six opulences. Bhaga means opulence, and vān means possessing. Bhagavat. Bhagavat-śabda. Bhaga means opulence, and vat means one who possesses. And the first word in bhagavat-śabda is bhagavān. This bhaga means six kinds of opulences: riches, then fame, then bodily strength, influence, knowledge, beauty, and renunciation. These are opulences. If one is very rich, people are attracted. If one is very reputed, people are attracted. If one is very strong, people are attracted. Influential-attracted. If one is very beautiful, man or woman, he is also attractive. If one is very wise, he's attractive. And one who is renounced, he's also attra... So Kṛṣṇa has got all these qualification in full. That is the definition of God. Anyone who possesses all these qualities in fullness, not partially, that is God. This is the definition of God. Not that "I can produce one ounce of gold," but if he can produce all the mines of gold, he is God. Not cheap God. In that way everyone is God. (end)

Room Conversation -- February 15, 1975, Mexico:

Hanumān: This gentleman is the director of the Great Universal Fraternity here in Mexico. They're the biggest, probably the biggest yoga society in South America. They are following one guru, a European, it's called Bhakta (indistinct), and he's very interested to have your darśana.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) We are worshiping Kṛṣṇa, Yogeśvara.

Hṛdayānanda: You speak English?

Director: No.

Hṛdayānanda: (Spanish) (translates throughout)

Prabhupāda: ...master of all mystic yoga. Yatra yogeśvaro hariḥ. What is that verse? Yatra yogeśvara, Bhagavad-gītā. Who will find out? Yes, in the last portion of the Eighteenth Chapter. Yatra dhanur-dharaḥ pārtho yatra yogeśvaro hariḥ. I think it begins with yatra.

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

Prabhupāda: (translated into Spanish by Hṛdayānanda) At the present moment it is required that the leading men should understand the aims of life and introduce it in the society for the general benefit of the human society. In the present chaotic position of the society... Just like we see on the road, cars are running with great speed, this way and that way, but they do not know what is the aim of life. Ask any one of them that "What is the aim of life, and why you are running so speedily, and what is the business?" Everyone will say, "I have got business. I am going hurriedly." And if I ask, "What is that business?" "Business means to earn some money and maintain the family." that's all. So is it a fact that to earn some money and maintain the family or at night sleep or sex indulgence, is that the aim of life? So that is my submission to the heads of the cultural movement. Is that the cultural end, to sleep at night or sex indulgence and at night earn money and maintain the family? I am asking this question.

Professor: (translated into English by Hṛdayānanda) He says that he agrees that the goal of life is not that, but that from his childhood he's been trained in a certain way, and he has not been taught anything else, and how can he achieve a different way of life?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that we are teaching in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, how you can change it. Therefore we asking all leading men to understand this movement and join it. That is our request.

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

Professor (Hṛdayānanda): They want to know: is God the transcendence?

Prabhupāda: What is the transcendence? Find out the meaning.

Hṛdayānanda: I can read it? First I'll read it in English. To transcend... It only has the word transcend. "Go beyond..."

Prabhupāda: Not "to," the verb, I mean to say, transcendence. So find out the noun.

Hṛdayānanda: Noun is not here.

Prabhupāda: Not here?

Hṛdayānanda: But I can change it into the noun. The transcendence: "That which goes beyond, that which exceeds the limits, rises above." And also transcendence means "that which transcends ordinary limits, the supreme, the preeminent." So I'll translate it.

Prabhupāda: This is the meaning is there, that our mind, our bodily activities, our words, they are all limited. They are all limited. Do you accept or not?

Professor: By time.

Room Conversation with Psychiatrist -- February 22, 1975, Caracas:

Hṛdayānanda: (Hṛdayānanda translating Spanish and English) I was explaining to him that a real spiritual master cannot lie to them and tell them they are God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Spiritual master is the servant of God. He is not God. Although he is respected like God. Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ **. Spiritual master is described as good as God in all scriptures. And all advanced spiritualists accept this. But he is the most confidential servant of God. Because he receives respect like God, he does not think at any time that he is God. He always thinks himself as eternal servant of God. (pause) (break) What is the difference between animal and man?

Psychiatrist (Hṛdayānanda): He feels that they are both animals. The difference is that one is rational, and the other is not.

Prabhupāda: What is that rationality?

Psychiatrist (Hṛdayānanda): The ability to think, the ability to encounter different situations and solve different problems, and the ability to plan for the future. And memory.

Prabhupāda: So both of them are life. And what is this body?

Psychiatrist (Hṛdayānanda): He doesn't understand very much the meaning of the question.

Prabhupāda: Just like the animal. He is busy in maintaining the body. He wants to eat, he wants to sleep, and he wants to have sex, and he wants to defend. So man is also in need of these things. The method may be different. So dog's eating and man's eating, the method may be different. That method is also different in different countries also. So because the method may be different, therefore he is distinct from animal?

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: He asked him, that rascal chemist, that "If I give you the chemicals, can you manufacture life?" That time he said, "No, that I cannot say." Why do you say like that? In the beginning, in New York, that store front, the Satsvarūpa is with..., and Hayagrīva and... And you chant simply. You were also there. So this chanting is proving efficient. That is Vedic knowledge. It is not theory. Our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not theory or mental speculation. It is a fact. So therefore it is said,

guru-mukha-padma-vākya, cittete koriyā aikya,

ār nā koriho mane āśā **

So whatever little success I have got, it is only for this reason. My Guru Mahārāja said that "You go and preach whatever you learned in English language." That's all. So I came here with this faith, that "My Guru Mahārāja said. I must be successful." I did not show any jugglery to you, gold-making jugglery. Where is my gold? I came with forty rupees first. (chuckles) So these are Vedic instruction, guru-mukha-padma-vākya **, and:

śrī-guru-caraṇe rati, ei se uttama-gati

That is real progress. So this is Vedic instruction. We have to follow the Vedic injunction. Then you will be successful. Not these rascals' theory. It is useless.

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Oh, you are just like my child. My first child was born 1921. What is your birth date?

Ambassador: That was three years earlier. So there you are.

Prabhupāda: 1918? In that year I was married. I was student at that time. I was student, 1900 up to '20. Then I joined Gandhi's noncooperation movement and gave up my education. His points were to give up English education, English court, English-manufactured goods, in this way.

Ambassador: How did you feel about Gandhiji spiritually?

Prabhupāda: He was a good gentleman, that's all. He had no spiritual asset.

Ambassador: That's what I wondered. I never met him. I don't know. But he said himself, "I may be a saint among politicians, but I'm a politician among saints." (laughs)

Prabhupāda: He said or the governor said? Anyway, it is... Mr. Casey from Australia—he was governor of Bengal—he said, I think, that thing. His study was like that. He was a politician, that's all.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Guest: Yes, but one name in Turkish when you say Tamgri, Tari (?) in Arabic when you say Allah, in French, in English, in Sanskrit. So these are different words.

Prabhupāda: But...

Atreya Ṛṣi: Those are names.

Guest: These different things are created by human beings.

Atreya Ṛṣi: We are talking about one name which is to describe the concept of God. When we are also talking about the name of God. When we are talking about the name of God... In other words, if I don't know who you are, I have to ask somebody, "What is his name?" That is your name.

Guest: But my name is my name in Turkey, in English, in Arabic, in anywhere you go.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, then let the Turkish chant the name of Turkish name.

Room Conversation with Press Representative -- March 21, 1975, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: This is the spiritual platform,

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
na śocati na kāṅkṣati
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
(BG 18.54)

This is spiritual. Unless you come to this platform, there is no question of samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu or samyavāda. Generally, they do not know it. They are talking of samyavāda. They do not know what is the platform of samyavāda. That is also further explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). Bhāgavata, śāstra, all Vedic literatures, they are perfect. So people do not know what is the aim of life. Therefore they have got different views. Actually they are missing what is the aim of life. There is a English proverb, "A man without aim and a ship without rudder," or something like that. So similarly, ask anybody what is the aim of life. He doesn't know, no clear idea.

Interview with a German Girl and Assorted Devotees -- March 30, 1975, Mayapur:

Haṁsadūta: And she says the second aspect of her questioning will be the practical side of it, like feeding the people here, like feeding the people here, what we are actually doing, like building this house, feeding the people in the neighboring towns, or teaching them English or teaching them how to cultivate the land, like that.

Prabhupāda: Our... You take answer one after another.

Haṁsadūta: Yes...

Prabhupāda: Not put all the questions.

Haṁsadūta: So you can begin.

Prabhupāda: Our ideal is that we have got this body, and there are some bodily necessities. That is the prime necessities. So we do not neglect these necessities of the body. But our culture is spiritual culture. Generally, people, being disturbed by the bodily necessities, they do not inquire about the spiritual identity. Actually this is the distinction between human life and animal life. (Hindi) (break) Our real purpose of this mission is to educate people about his spiritual identity. All people, they are misguided by the idea-(aside:) Don't do—that he is this body, everyone, all over the world, especially in the Western countries.

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Viṣṇujana: They will say Yahweh is God.

Prabhupāda: No, Yahweh, what is...? That is the name?

Viṣṇujana: Name. "I am that..." It means in English, "I am that I am."

Prajāpati: Some people translate that as Jehovah.

Viṣṇujana: Jehovah.

Prajāpati: But it's the same word. In fact, everyone agrees they do not know what the real name is. Some say Yahweh; some say Jehovah. The Jewish tradition replaces completely and says Adonai, instead.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. He may not say. But we have to take from the meaning. What is the meaning?

Viṣṇujana: "No one is beyond Me."

Prabhupāda: That's all right. "No one is beyond Me." Then he comes to our conclusion, all-attractive. This is... They come to our conclusion, all-attractive. Because if somebody is beyond Him, then he should be attractive. But if He's final attractive, then all-attractive, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive.

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1975, Mayapur:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They sometimes say that because Bhagavad-gītā was originally in the Sanskrit language...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ...and that because now it's been translated into the English language, there is necessary interpretation.

Prabhupāda: No. Therefore we are giving the original verse, word to word meaning.

Pañcadraviḍa: Some, some man argued that...

Prabhupāda: Where is the interpretation necessary?

Satsvarūpa: They say we interpret even in the word to word.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Satsvarūpa: They claim that we interpret even in word to word.

Prabhupāda: But how do you do? Just like dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre (BG 1.1). Interpret in different way this word, dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre? It cannot be interpreted. And how do you dare to say that "We can interpret word to word." In the beginning, you cannot do it.

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Because your forefathers came from England and taught them like this. That is the real fact. India was satisfied, but the Lord Macauley, they said no, that if you keep Indian as Indian, you'll never be able to rule lower down. Cultural conqueror. So they began to teach Indians England's work in India. "Whatever you have got, that is all nonsense. You learn from us." And the first product is Jawaharlal Nehru. This is the misfortune of foreign rule.

Yaśodānandana: It would seem then that English culture is stronger than Indian culture then.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Yaśodānandana: It seems that the English culture has conquered over the Indian culture then.

Prabhupāda: No, Indian culture is still going on. It is not lost. Otherwise how it is going to your country and bringing you? (laughter)

Ravīndra-svarūpa: A person might argue that the Indians weren't satisfied either; otherwise they wouldn't have taken up the English culture. So what's the difference?

Prabhupāda: No. When you are standing on two boats you'll never be satisfied. It is very dangerous position, you know? Two boats, on the river, and if you put one leg here, one leg here, it is always troublesome. Either you give up this or give up that. Then your position will be safe. But India's position is like that. Two boats, he is standing, and he is troubled.

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1975, Mayapur:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The English taught devotional service to England. The English were teaching devotional service to England.

Prabhupāda: When?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Because the Indian people, they have such a feeling for bhakti and service. Everywhere in the world we go...

Prabhupāda: But the Englishmen never took that line and when...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Did they teach God consciousness?

Prabhupāda: When our godbrother Acyuta Mahārāja and Bon Mahārāja was sent, Lady Willingdon, he derided them that "You Indian people you come here..." (break)

Rāmeśvara: ...say that Western civilization is very good for the world.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but they cannot teach their own children. They are becoming hippies. That is the effect of their education.

Conversation with Devotees -- April 12, 1975, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: ...any language, you should submit, and you should feel that, that "I am worthless. My Guru Mahārāja has given this chance to serve Kṛṣṇa, to offer Kṛṣṇa... My Lord, I am worthless. I have no capacity to serve You. But on the order of my Guru Mahārāja, I am trying to serve You. Please do not take any offense. Accept whatever I can do. That's all. That is my request." That mantra is sufficient. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, yo me bhaktyā prayacchati. Kṛṣṇa never said that "One who offers Me with Sanskrit mantra." Yo me bhaktyā prayacchati. Real thing is bhakti, feeling: "How to serve Kṛṣṇa? How to please Him?" That is wanted. Not to see that you are a very good scholar in speaking in Sanskrit or English or... That is not... Always feel that "I am worthless, but I have been, by the grace of my Guru Mahārāja, I have been given the chance. So kindly accept whatever little service I can give. I am offensive. So kindly excuse me." In this way be humble, meek, and offer your feeling, and Kṛṣṇa will be satisfied. Not that you have to show how you can speak in Sanskrit language.

Conversation with Devotees -- April 14, 1975, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: You have got some agricultural experience?

Devotee: Not at all.

Prabhupāda: Not at all. Anyway, that not very difficult.

Devotee: No. I can take advice from the experts. That man with the white beard there, he's supposed to know very much. He's supposed to be very expert, and he speaks English. He's supposed to have agricultural experience.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Yaśodānandana: Jayapatāka had no agricultural experience.

Prabhupāda: Any city boy (indistinct) (end)

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And now that you are saying, many people are stopping.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Somebody, they act... Just like illicit sex. They did not know that it is sinful. Now they are understanding. There was no good leader. Even the priests. In the Bible it is said, "Thou shalt not kill." The priests never said, because they are meat-eaters. They themselves are meat-eaters. How they can say? "It is our tradition to eat meat." But how the common man will be educated? (break) You can give me the general prasāda today. I will taste. (test?) (break) When one becomes rich, he becomes lazy. What is called? "Leads to poverty"? Luxury. "Luxury leads to poverty." So at one time one become very rich by hard work, and next generation gets the money for nothing, he spends it on luxuries, and the third generation, poor. There are many families, in everywhere. In England, all these English men, in the beginning they worked very hard, expanding their empire and working. Then gradually, when they became Lord family, then luxury. Now they are poverty-stricken.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They are industrious, and they have got resources.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they have developed more recently, I think. They were not colonizing.

Prabhupāda: No, the colonizing propaganda was amongst these three nation. France, English...

Dhanañjaya: Spanish and Portuguese. Spanish also.

Prabhupāda: Ah, that side, is, means Western side.

Guru-kṛpa: Spanish went to South America.

Dhanañjaya: But the British used to say, "The sun never sets in the British empire."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that we knew in our childhood.

Jayādvaita: Now there's no empire for the sun to set on.

Prabhupāda: No. Now they have made it Commonwealth, keeping some scent, flavor of British empire. Commonwealth.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So changing. So you are changing your body. That's a fact. But because you are seeing all in one spool, you are thinking, "It is growing; it is moving." That's all. But it is changing. This is the science. So body is changing. And you remember that you had such-and-such body. Therefore you are different from the body. This is the science. So unless we understand that "I am not this body. I am different from the body. I am changing bodies. Therefore I will have to change this body and accept another body..." This is the science, beginning of scientific knowledge. Without understanding this fact his advancement of knowledge is simply for eating, sleeping, sex, and defense. That's all. There is no advancement. According to Vedic literature, he remains animal. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13).

yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ
yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
(SB 10.84.13)

If we cannot understand ourself... It is very simple, that "I have changed my body so many times, so naturally, when this body will be useless in this life, then I will have to accept another body." This is the version of... (Aside:) You find out.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

Read it.

Paramahaṁsa: English?

Prabhupāda: English and..., yes.

Paramahaṁsa: Sanskrit first?

Prabhupāda: Uh huh.

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is a fact. Why they will think? It is a fact. There is English proverb, "There is many dangers between the cups and the lips." You are going to drink tea. The distance is: here is cup and here is lip. There may be many dangers. So suppose in drinking tea there is some choking within the throat, and coughing, you may die immediately. You are so much under the control of nature. Little mistake will cause your death, little mistake. And conditioned life means we commit mistake, we are illusioned, we cheat, and our knowledge is imperfect. This is conditioned life.
Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Then I began translating from 1968 or '69. And I published my first book in 1962. Then next was in 1964. And then the third volume was published in 1965. And then I came to America. And then I translated all these books, whatever you see, about fifty books. This is about eleven hundred pages. Other books are not less than four hundred pages.

Dr. Copeland: Oh, yes. I have many in my shelf like these. Where and when did you learn English?

Prabhupāda: In Calcutta. I was educated in a college. My professors were all Europeans.

Dr Copeland: Which college?

Prabhupāda: Scottish Churches' College. You know that? In our time Dr. Watt, he was principal. And I was student of philosophy of Dr. W. S. Urquhart. He was my professor. And our English professor was Mr. Cameron,(?) Mr. Scrimgeour, Mr. Warren. And I was student of economics also. One Mr. Keith, he was also... All our professors were Scotsmen, Englishmen.

Dr. Copeland: And after you left the college, were you employed?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was appointed manager of a very big laboratory, Dr. Bose's laboratory.

Morning Walk -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Englishmen were coming.

Madhudviṣa: Yeah, the Englishmen were coming and because Queen Victoria was there..., the king had died, so the order was passed that no one could buy any, I think, jewelry for their wives.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Madhudviṣa: It was something. The English frowned upon buying jewelry and ornaments for the women. So the men were using their money to build big houses.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Madhudviṣa: So therefore during the Victorian area, era you have many elaborate houses that were built by the Britishers. And he...

Prabhupāda: Victoria died in 1903.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: If you don't carry out the order of the government, then you are not a good citizen.

Guest (1): Now, you look like you're either English or...

Prabhupāda: We are neither English nor American. We are servant of God.

Guest (1): I know. You're brotherhood of man. But just my own curiosity... Of course, you have converts of all...

Prabhupāda: No convert. Actually we are. Just like you have got this different dress from me. That does not mean you are convert to the dress. You are a gentleman; I am a gentleman. That's all.

Guest (1): I don't know whether I'm a gentleman or not. I'm just a man, and pretty lowly as far as my own opinion's concerned.

Prabhupāda: So different dress does not mean converts. We are in different dress, American body or Indian body or this body, black body or... This is body. But we are within the body.

Morning Walk -- June 17, 1975, Honolulu:

Śrutakīrti: One of the other valleys here. It's called... I forget the name. He brought a bunch of them back. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...nice. Ask him to bring daily. (break) ...portion is being watered specifically?

Siddha-svarūpa: I think they move them around.

Śrutakīrti: They have little things sticking up and they put these sprinklers on them.

Prabhupāda: The pipe is everywhere.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...it is called horizontal? And this way vertical? Word is ota-prota. Ota means this horizontal, and prota means vertical.

Bali-mardana: In English this is vertical.

Prabhupāda: This is vertical? This is horizontal. (break) (end)

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

Prabhupāda: So I shall take it?

Bahulāśva: Yes, he said that he will sponsor us in this union, and then our devotees can study just your books. Maybe they must take an English course, and that would be all we couldn't offer. Then everything else, they can study from your books.

Prabhupāda: Some way or other, if they read my books, they will be benefited. There is no doubt about it.

Bahulāśva: Yes. Then they can get a degree recognized by the state of California so they can teach in universities all over the whole country.

Prabhupāda: That I want. Do it. We want to give degrees, at least B.A., M.A., and Ph.D., according to the advancement of knowledge. And that will be very much beneficial to your country. Then America will be saved from disaster and it will be the leader. The country will be leader of the whole world. Take this advantage.

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

Brahmānanda: Who gives the class in the evening?

Nitāi: The devotees trade off.

Brahmānanda: In English?

Nitāi: Yes. And beginning at six o'clock in the evening they have Hindi class.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Who gives Hindi?

Nitāi: The Indian devotees there. Sac-cid-ānanda gives, and that one, Jatismara. And one...

Prabhupāda: What Praṇava does?

Nitāi: Sambhunātha Paṇḍita also gives.

Prabhupāda: No, Praṇava?

Nitāi: Praṇava doesn't usually give, no.

Prabhupāda: He stays there?

Nitāi: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: ...Pradyumna is doing?

Nitāi: Pradyumna has gone to Māyāpur to help train the Sastris.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Nitāi: To teach the Sastris English, he has gone to Māyāpur. They have all gone to Māyāpur because they were facing criticism from the residents of Vṛndāvana. Many of their old schoolmates were criticizing that they are coming and joining us. These are... (break) ...are very desirous of taking initiation from you.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Nitāi: Ananta Ram Sastri and one other, I forget his name. He is very, very good in Sanskrit. He reads it fluently, speaks it fluently.

Prabhupāda: He speaks Sanskrit also?

Nitāi: Yes. Speaks it. He lectures in Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's good.

Garden Conversation -- June 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dr. Judah: Yes. And I've been trying to get the particulars up in Berkeley concerning certain possibilities and I, of course, wrote to the...

Prabhupāda: No, it is possibility. Just like you have got this religious section, similarly, we can have Vedic theological section. That's all. It is a section department.

Dr. Judah: The idea of the college that you have in mind, is this going to be an all-around college, in other words teaching not only, you might say, Vaiṣṇavism, but also English and the other subjects?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Dr. Judah: In other words, a liberal arts college with a religious section in it.

Prabhupāda: No. Just like your association is graduate. So you accept graduates to the Union?

Dr. Judah: Well, will this be...

Prabhupāda: Just like law college. Law college, one joins after graduation.

Dr. Judah: Right. There are two types of college programs. One is what we call the undergraduate program which is generally a four-year program leading to a bachelor's degree, and then there is the graduate program, which one finds, particularly here in the United States, if one is interested in religion, in the seminaries, which are...

Prabhupāda: If you have time some other time. We have to go over the particulars. So whenever you like. Day after tomorrow I am going?

Jayatīrtha: He is.

Morning Walk -- June 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Now big, big scholars, they have taken the trouble to write on Bhagavad-gītā. But nobody has taken the trouble to write on other scriptures like Bible or Koran. Nobody has taken. No scholar, no philosopher have tried to comment or study because they know it is not very important. Here is important. This is the proof, wisest. And that is only ABCD of God's knowledge. So people should take advantage. It is accepted indirectly. There are so many editions of Bhagavad-gītā, in your country, English. Why they take trouble to read Bhagavad-gītā so carefully? Big, big scholars, philosophers, why? (break) It is the impersonal, cloth. So Śaṅkarācārya has tried to impress this fact, but the rascals followed in a different way. Just like a cloth, big cloth, that is impersonal. Now, you cut it into coat. It becomes like person. So similarly this whole material world is impersonal, but because we have taken a certain portion of it and make my body, it looks like person. And God is not like that. He is spiritual person. He has nothing to do with material. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). What Śaṅkarācārya impressed, that they are after demigods, so "The demigods, they are not actual person. Real person is Nārāyaṇa." That is Śaṅkarācārya's version. Nārāyaṇa... You will find in his comment on the Bhagavad-gītā. First word he writes, nārāyaṇaḥ paro 'vyaktād: "Nārāyaṇa has nothing to do with this material world." And he accepts in his comment, sa bhagavān svayaṁ kṛṣṇaḥ: "That Nārāyaṇa has appeared as Kṛṣṇa." And he has given specific name of His father as "the son of Devakī and Vasudeva" so that nobody can misidentify. If you have got Śaṅkara's bhāṣya, commentary on Bhagavad-gītā, you bring it I shall show you. (break) Kṛṣṇa also confirms. That verse, which we were reading last evening... Kṛṣṇa says, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā: (BG 9.4) "This jagat, this material world, is impersonal. And that is My energy. Therefore the whole world is resting upon Me, but I am not there. As person, I am not there." This is the statement of Bhagavad-gītā. Just like the sunshine is spreading all over the universe, but the sun is aloof. Take this example. Not that because the sunshine is here, we are now getting, the sun has come here. The sun is shining from the distant place. He is aloof. Similarly, God is person and His shining is all this creation. That is impersonal.

Morning Walk -- June 27, 1975, Los Angeles:

Jagadīśa: Thank you very, very much for asking me. I will go immediately.

Prabhupāda: You are capable. I know that. He is very capable. You know how to do business, yes. In India an educated man and big, big government officers, lawyers, they will purchase. We do not approach them. School, colleges, library, universities. After all, English language is still current in India. It is not stopped. So they will like to read their own literature in English. They made vigorous propaganda to replace English by Hindi. That has failed. That has failed. No gentleman cares to learn Hindi. (chuckles) At least I never cared. I know Hindi, not by diverting my attention, no. That is very important, no. Automatically whatever I learned, that's all. I am not in favor of that Hindi. Especially in South India, they are all... So by appointing some professional men also.

Morning Walk -- July 3, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: So one barrister, Mr. Allston, he was pacifying, "Don't worry, I shall appeal and get you released. Don't worry." (laughter) I heard it. I was passing, and Mr. Allston was advising his client. He was morose. "Don't worry, I shall appeal and get you released." (break) ...condemned person was a medical man, and he killed his servant in the surgical room because the servant was implicated with his wife. This is the story. (break)

Brahmānanda: ...English?

Prabhupāda: No, no, Indian.

Brahmānanda: And the man was also Indian?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: But the barrister, he was English.

Prabhupāda: He was appointed because he was a big barrister. Formerly any European, he is very big. So he appointed a very big barrister.

Car Conversation -- August 3, 1975, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: And he has come to America. So there was no war between Canadian and American? In the history?

Jagadīśa: Before the countries actually took their present names and boundaries there were some wars between the French and English. The French and the English settled in this area of North America. Sometimes they fought.

Brahmānanda: What percentage of the popu...

Prabhupāda: Formerly Canada was also American?

Jagadīśa: No.

Brahmānanda: What percentage is French in Canada?

Jagadīśa: About 15 to 20%. In the province of Quebec it is 100% French.

Satsvarūpa: There's a fawn, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Satsvarūpa: A baby deer.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Morning Walk -- August 29, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Anyone?

Dhanañjaya: We've been told he preaches nicely.

Prabhupāda: I have told him that "You simply read my books and reproduce it. That's all. That will be preaching."

Akṣayānanda: At least when he speaks to me in English, it's always very nice.

Brahmānanda: He can memorize Prabhupāda's books and then just speak it.

Prabhupāda: That is preaching. Our process is anuśṛṇuyāt. We hear from the superior and reproduce it. That is śravaṇaṁ-kīrtanam. Then perfect. If I add something, my own imagination, then it will spoil. No addition-alteration; as it is. As it is you hear from your spiritual master, reproduce. That's all. Yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). This 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa is coming by paramparā, so you reproduce. That's all. Even a child can reproduce what he has heard from his father. It is not at all difficult. (break) ...cheap rate.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: What we can also do is... I think we should have some publication for one rupee twenty-five paisa. We can just print a small ten-page or ten or fifteen-page.

Prabhupāda: What you'll explain in ten or fifteen page?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Otherwise all these books, they cost us about 1.40 for printing.

Brahmānanda: That Hanuman Prasad Poddar, he was producing big books at cheap rates.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They were all subsidized by Rama..., all his books. And he had no profit.

Harikeśa: Also the paper is given free by Samani.

Prabhupāda: No... Yes. They were receiving contribution. Besides that, he possessed agency of Titagara paper mill. So mill rate—immediately 33% less.

Morning Walk -- September 1, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They make analysis—"This is good; this is bad." The whole thing is bad; they do not understand. Dvaite bhadrābhadra sakale samana, ei bhala ei manda saba manodharma. A mental concoction we analyze—"This is good." And because the whole population is such rascal, therefore we see whole world they are creating government, they are making this advancement, taking... Everything is spoiled. That they do not understand, that "We have tried so far, scientifically and this way and that way. Why there are so many things disturbing and miserable?" The whole policy is to give you trouble. That is the material nature. You must be always in trouble. Adhyātmika adhibhautika. "No." They will say, "No, this trouble is better than that trouble." (laughter) This is the... This trouble is better than that trouble. Hare Kṛṣṇa. This Dr. Ghosh, he said... When he was student in Calcutta he was doctor of tropical medicine. So one English doctor was his professor, Colonel Maylow(?). So he was lecturing and... Now the friends have come to greet. He said that "In our country 75%, at least, students are infected with syphilis."

Morning Walk -- September 18, 1975, Vrndavana:

Indian man (1): Yes, some of them are interested.

Prabhupāda: Yes?

Indian man (1): I think they should learn Bengali well to go through the books written in original-Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura's and the six Gosvāmīs. If they learn, then they will be able to understand the siddhānta very well.

Prabhupāda: We are presenting them in English.

Dhṛṣṭaketu: If the Lord's pastimes are..., they are manifested differently, are they manifested the same in each..., in one universe? In this universe are they the same or...? Are they different every time? In other words, is the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam a history of what took place once, and then it will be different next time?

Prabhupāda: That is not different. Each of them are identical.

Dhṛṣṭaketu: But there are new ones also? New pastimes?

Prabhupāda: Everything identical. Now, this grass grown here and this grass grown there, there may be some difference, but they are identical. Harer nāma harer nāma... (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...that professor who has reviewed Caitanya-caritāmṛta?

Brahmānanda: I think it was J. Bruce Long. Cornell University, very respected university.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And what he is there?

Brahmānanda: Professor of Asian Studies. Kirtirāja says that he is considered one of the authorities.

Prabhupāda: Of Indian. Indology.

Morning Walk -- September 27, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Prabhupāda: In Hindi?

Kartikeya: For more than one hour.

Harikeśa: In Hindi?

Kartikeya: Yes. One hour he spoke. About ten percent English words, twenty-five percent Sanskrit, and rest in Hindi.

Devotee (1): He spoke very nice.

Kartikeya: People were very happy, and they could understand.

Prabhupāda: Philosophy was presented nice?

Madhudviṣa: Yes. Very nice.

Prabhupāda: You spoke? No.

Madhudviṣa: I spoke also, ten, fifteen minutes in the beginning. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (break) (Hindi) ...kīrtana viṣṇoḥ, about Viṣṇu, not nonsense. (break) ...speak in Hindi, they will hear more.

Morning Walk -- September 27, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) "Yes, no, very good." You know this story, "Yes, no, very good"? No? There was one kansamar(?). So he was to go home, so he asked his friend that "So long I am not here, you serve European master." So he said, "I do not know English. How can I serve him?" "No, no, no. These three words will do: 'yes, no, very good.' " Then he was engaged. (laughs) Then one day from the master's room something was missing. So he asked the new servant, "You have taken it?" "Yes." (laughter) Then he asked him, "Return it." "No." (laughter) "Oh, then I shall hand you over to the police." "Very good." (laughter) Then when the police came, he was won..., "Sir, what is this? You have...?" "No, I do not know this." Then he was explained, that "I understand these three words only: 'yes, no, very good.' " That's all.

Devotee (2): It's very wet.

Prabhupāda: Let us walk little more. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Oh, yes, it is very wet. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Everything will come out very good. But the rascals will not do that. That is the difficulty. They will make plan. (aside:) Which way? Kṛṣṇa's plan they will not take. That is the difficulty.

Morning Walk -- September 30, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: In the beginning this is the... You can have any yoga, anāsakti or āsakti, but the primary instruction is one has to understand first of all this, that one is not this body. And the national movement is based on this bodily concept of life. "I am Indian."

Dr. Patel: All the national... All the world's on that body.

Prabhupāda: So that is the difference. First of all one has to understand that he is neither Indian nor American nor English. But if you go on pushing on national movement, where is the chance of understanding that you are not this body? Just like our movement, we never say anything national. We simply state that "You are not this body. You are spirit soul."

Dr. Patel: Gandhiji, when he went to one first round table conference in London, and he had to confront those women, I mean the wives of the workers of the Manchester mills, he said that "We are poor." They say, "We are poor. We are suffering for the poor of India." Then he had to give this argument that "Poors of India are much poorer than what you are." So he is trying to..., I mean, take a...

Prabhupāda: So that is bodily concept.

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

Cyavana: Now they are also suffering.

Prabhupāda: Eh? That... That must be. They will be suffering more and more. They will be beggars. They have done so much sinful activities for expanding their empire. Now they will have to become beggars. And within two hundred years, everything finished. They started their exploitation from seventeenth, eighteenth century. And in the twentieth century, everything finished. The French people and the English people... This is also one of the examples. Both the nations came here to exploit. That was the competition in... The French people and the English people, they would go for colonization, fight, and establi... America was also that, Canada, everywhere. But because they were their own men, they were given dominion status. Almost free.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Greedy. Very greedy.

Brahmānanda: At one time all of Africa was controlled by the European nations. Completely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mainly these French and...

Brahmānanda: French, British, Germans, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In South Africa, the British also tried to take over South Africa. There was a war called the Boer War.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: French, British, Germans, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In South Africa, the British also tried to take over South Africa. There was a war called the Boer War.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So during World War I and World War II many of the South Africans, they actually sided with the Germans because they were against the English so much.

Prabhupāda: African means black Africans. No?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No. South Africans, they were Europeans. The British started the first concentration camp. They took these "Afrikaners" as they call them, Europeans. They put them on an island called St. Helena. That was actually the first concentration camp, by the British.

Prabhupāda: This is going on. Still, even the opposite party, they are not disgusted—"This material life is not very peaceful." They are not disgusted.

Brahmānanda: Now they are thinking, "We'll be independent..."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That... They are trying to be independent. And India... Just like India has got independent, and now the position is "emergency." They do not think in this way, that "Independence or dependence, we are actually dependent under the laws of nature." That they do not think. They are thinking... The same example as I gave, that "This boil is here. Why not here? It is very painful," like that. They have no sense that so-called dependence or independence, he has to suffer. That he does not know. Mūḍha nābhijānāti.

Room Conversation -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda will speak in English or Hindi?

Guest (1) (Indian man): ...you know Hindi.

Prabhupāda: Which you...? No, just I want to end this verse. Shall I speak in Hindi or English? That I am...

Guest (1): Hindi.

Prabhupāda: Hindi. (Hindi) You read it thoroughly and you explain it either in English or Hindi, as you think befitting to your friends. So we have got so many literatures in French language. We are also asking some men from Europe. That will create some impression. Yes. White elephant. (laughter) Dancing. Everyone will purchase ticket. Yes. (Hindi) Bring some white elephant. So literature is there. But one thing is that you must be placed in sadācāra, well behaved. So you have to sacrifice, especially your long hair. And if you sacrifice your hair, we can export it and get some money. (laughter) Because in Western countries they want these hairs to make wigs. Yes. So just... (Hindi) As they have been trained up to rise early in the morning, this will give you spiritual strength. If you simply becomes a gramophone speaker, then it will not be effective. Gramophone or tape record speaker, that will not be. You must be live speaker. Your living condition should be spiritually, what is called, surcharged. So that means you must be trained up how to rise early in the morning, take your bath, cleanse yourself, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Then you will be spiritually strong. When you are spiritually strong, if you speak something on spiritual subject matter, then it will be effective. Otherwise it will be just like tape record playing. So this is required. And you should... You are asking something?

Guest (1): No.

Room Conversation -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Good idea. It is very good idea.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The idea was in Hindi. It was in Hindi. We don't understand.

Prabhupāda: In the village... I shall speak in Hindi?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In English so we can understand.

Prabhupāda: I am speaking in... So in the village, if these people go, they cannot do anything because they cannot speak in Hindi.

Guest (1): No, we should be there to organize. We will be there to organize.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you organize, then that will be nice.

Guest (1): For example, I propose that Swamijī, sitting there, please tell me and I will tell the people they are the leader, to organize a Bhagavad-gītā in English, because Swamijī speaks English.

Prabhupāda: They can understand English?

Guest (1): Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: They can understand?

Guest (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Then, English edition we have got. French edition... You can speak in French and explain. He can speak in English.

Guest (1): Yes. We can stay in a village for about seven days or eight days, so that every night, for example, as we do it here, we can do it in a village.

Prabhupāda: So if you can organize like that, then I will come personally. I will go and encourage you.

Guest (1): I can organize it, Swamijī. There are many people who would like to see you, to talk to you, and to... Not especially to you but to all the swamijis.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So if you think so, then I can come back again. I'll come back.

Guest (1): Yes, Swamijī. Do you want me to... I know there is one... Not only one, but if you want me to organize when you come and you would be...

Prabhupāda: Yes. My point is: if necessary, I can also come. I can go into the village. There is no...

Guest (1): If you spent at least one month in these countries, Swamijī, I could...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Whenever you will say. If you say, I can stay just now one month.

Morning Walk -- October 6, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: English, economics, philosophy or..., mostly Scottish... I was educated in Scottish Churches College. The philosophy professor, Dr. W. S. Urquhart, he was very friendly to me, very kind, just like father. (break) ...he became vice chancellor. He was a very learned man, and very nice man, W. S. Urquhart.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Did they teach in English or Bengali?

Prabhupāda: No, no. English. Medium English.

Harikeśa: He was the one who said that the woman's brain is thirty-six ounces?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. (chuckles) Yes. No, not only he, another professor, Dr. Stephen (indistinct), he also said. That's a fact. Artificially they are trying. It has no meaning. But by agitation you can do anything. That is another thing. But that is not the fact. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). These are all Indian quarters? No.

Morning Walk -- October 6, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: This is residential or industrial?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Over here is all residential, European apartment houses. And along the beach there is all hotels. This is a very big resort area in South Africa. There's a... Whole south coast, going down for about eighty miles, is all resorts. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...English-made city?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Durban is English city. Capetown has Dutch influence.

Prabhupāda: It resembles Melbourne. Melbourne. Australian Melbourne, this quarter resembles. (break) ...from Indian Ocean?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Indian Ocean.

Prabhupāda: Africa, one side Atlantic, one side Indian. (break) ...is growing on the sand, and they say there is no life in the sand. (break—windy beach) ...Bhoga. Bhoga means sense gratification, and aiśvarya, opulence. Bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayāpahṛta-cetasām: (BG 2.44) "Those who are lost of consciousness, such persons become attached to sense gratification and material opulence," bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayāpahṛta-cetasām, "and not interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Vyavasāyātmikā-buddhiḥ: "How to become spiritually liberated, they do not care for it." These things do not interest them.

Morning Walk -- October 7, 1975, Durban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Well, they found that certain species of life...

Prabhupāda: But he belongs to some species, English species, but he is gone. Does it mean the English species is gone? These rascals, they are big scientist and we have to accept them. (break) As a person, he is extinct. Does it mean that the English people are extinct?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: Then? Why does he say "extinct"? These cheaters, they cheat themselves and bluff others and mislead the people. This is their position. We want at least that people may not be bluffed by these rascals and waste their time. That we want, that much. They may say that "You are not scientist." Yes, I am not scientist, but I can request you that don't be bluffed by this nonsense. That much I can say. I can prove that he is a nonsense. Why you are wasting time after them? Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)...their folly, European men. Where the American men will go? (laughter) Just see. (break) ...from India they made Indian center, and they conquered both sides—Far East, Middle East, Africa—with Indian soldiers. They organized Indian soldiers and Sikhs and Gurkhas, and they employed them for extending their empire. British soldier does not mean... Maybe two, one or two British commanders, but real soldiers were Indians.

Room Conversation with the Rector, Professor Olivier and Professors of the University of Durban, Westville -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Professor: I include the transmigration of souls and I include everything else, religion and the lot. But when I speak about science in the English language sense, science in this sense, then I have a problem.

Prof. Olivier: Even the German word wissenschaft that we normally use, which covers, as you say, everything—this is not translatable. The word science is...

Prabhupāda: But in Sanskrit there are two words, jñāna and vijñāna. Jñāna means theoretical knowledge, and vijñāna means practical knowledge. So vijñāna is taken as science. Just like you... Theoretically you know that two hydrogen-oxygen mixed together becomes water. And when you do it practically in the laboratory, that is science, vijñāna. So jñāna-vijñāna-sahitam. In the Bhāgavata it is said, jñānaṁ me paramaṁ guhyaṁ yad-vijñāna-samanvitaḥ. Knowledge of God should be practical application in life. That is vijñānam. And according to our philosophy, unless one has got perfect knowledge of his self-identification, he remains an animal.

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

Prabhupāda: He has written one foreword.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So these books are being accepted as the authority, at least in America and England, so far as studies of Indian culture are concerned, philosophy, sociology. And you can see the beautiful presentation. Each Sanskrit is there, transliteration so that anyone can chant, word-for-word Sanskrit to English translation, translation in English, and then the purport, a commentary.

Prof. Olivier: That's right. This is a good edition. Good edition.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Professor Dimmock, he says that there are many, many translations of Bhagavad-gītā, and he says that "By bringing us a new and living interpretation of a text already known to many, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda has increased our understanding manyfold." So although it's been prevalent in America... I know that when I was studying Humanities in college in the University of Florida, Bhagavad-gītā was required. And we read one edition, but it was very much limited. Until we come in contact with Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, the understanding is very much limited. But it's not a sectarian approach. It's purely scientific and realistic. There are many such reviews.

Prof. Olivier: Well, this is a good letter.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: All of our different books, just offhand. These are some of the colleges as of several months ago who placed standing orders for our books. Now, the professors, as we go from college to college in America, in the universities, they are using our books as textbooks, standard textbooks. They are seeing that the cost of the book is not the real criterion. The criterion is the quality of the teaching. Someone may be attracted by the cover... (break) ...transliteration is pronounced, different words, glossary for words which may not be so well understood by the neophyte, references. And for the different pictures, plate numbers and explanation. It's a complete edition. Nothing has ever been seen like this in the Western world. So there's great authority behind it.

Prof. Olivier: Yeah. This... Our university has almost an obligation to make a study in depth of all of these points.

Prabhupāda: And after studying Bhagavad-gītā thoroughly, then begins further, higher study-Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the same principles. Show.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Nectar of Devotion and the Śrī Īśopaniṣad. These books are actually being used in undergraduate courses. These are some of the recommendations, see, offered as an undergraduate course. Mostly... This book is very, very interesting, this, "the complete science of bhakti-yoga." This explains scientifically the science of devotional service to God. That devotional service which is not practiced with reference to the Vedic literatures is simply a disturbance, just as if some chemist walked into an English laboratory or some foreign language laboratory and tried to do something, and he had no knowledge. So the same way, we should try to understand the science of devotional service from the authorities, so that it's not just...it doesn't become simply a disturbance in society. People lose faith in God that way. Śrī Īśopaniṣad also has the same format once again. The Sanskrit, transliteration, word for word. This is a very nice entrance book into Vedic understanding. This is the most important of the Upaniṣads. Many other books we have like that, paperbacks and hardbound. This is being used in many universities in America.

Prabhupāda: Temple University, it is a study book.

Prof. Olivier: Temple University?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. In Philadelphia.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We could always assist in some way in an objective presentation so that the students don't feel that they're being biased in any way. This is the idea of science. Let them draw their own conclusions. Just simply present the facts and let them come to their own conclusion. The main idea, though, is the authenticity. There's no use in studying something if it's simply mental speculation, which, of course, the Vedic scriptures mean that. They've been passed down for so many thousands of years intact, and the most important thing is to get a chance to read the originals in our own language, English, or Afrikaans, whatever it may be. We're also translating into Afrikaans the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Prof. Olivier: Is that so?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Some of the girls are very, very proficient and they're doing this now, and we hope that within a year or so's time we'll have a polished copy to print. We're working in this direction.

Prof. Olivier: I see.

Prabhupāda: If this line of activity is taken seriously, sometimes I may come and teach them. Yes.

Morning Walk -- October 18, 1975, Johannesburg:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: People may argue though that without education we can't even read the knowledge that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is speaking. How to read Bengali or Sanskrit or English or anything like this?

Prabhupāda: That is real education. We want that you learn from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, you learn from Vyāsadeva, you learn from Nārada. But why you are learning from Freud, from Darwin and such rascals? Education means you should learn from a person who is authorized, who is without mistake, without illusion, who does not cheat, just like we are learning from Kṛṣṇa. That is education. And if you learn from rascals and fools, then what is that education? Education means to learn from the learned person. But if you are learning from a rascal and fool, then what is your education? Education required, but we require what is actually education, which is not cheating. But we are being educated, being cheated. We are working for this body, which I am not. Is that education or it is cheating? If you say, "I am taking my interest," I'll say "I am taking water; I wash daily my shirt and coat." And that, is that knowledge? And what about you? Your food? "I don't care for that. I wash my coat and shirt daily." Is that education? You keep yourself starving and you keep your coat and shirt very cleanse. Is that education? This is going on. Therefore people are restless. He is hungry. What he will do, his cars and this shirt and coat and big building? Why they are committing suicide? Because he is not happy. There is no food for the spirit soul, what he is actually. Is that education? That is not education. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is right when he says, jība ke karaye gādhā: "This material education means making people more and more asses." That's all. He is already ass because he's in this material world, and the so-called material education means keeping him in that condition more and more.

Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: (break) ...when she went to London for treatment she became worse.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like vitamin pill—no hand.

Cyavana: Yes. No arms.

Prabhupāda: Simply they are cheating. There was one gentleman, English gentleman, Sir William Temple. He used to say, "I wish to die without a doctor. Don't bring doctor."

Cyavana: Without a doctor.

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Let me die peacefully. Don't bring doctor." I say also. Don't bring doctor when I am diseased. What is this?

Brahmānanda: (break) There's a chair if you would like to sit out here in the sun.

Prabhupāda: No, no. It is not so cold. Jaya. (end)

Morning Walk -- November 3, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: America and Japan. We want wonderful books.

Dr. Patel: Very good.

Indian (5): I saw that printing by (indistinct). Nobody has printed such books. And also the language

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) language (Hindi), Sanskrit into English?

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) māyayā... They are very much puffed up of being educated. But Kṛṣṇa says māyayāpahṛta-jñānā.

Dr. Patel: Vedas also depict about māyā. That is why naistraiguṇyo bhavarjuna. No? Am I right?

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: They are the old sticks?

Prabhupāda: Take it away and leave here.

Dr. Patel: No, I don't want it. (laughter) This has come from South Africa?

Prabhupāda: No, no. It was presented by Visalini in Vṛndāvana. One American girl student, she has given it.

Morning Walk -- November 3, 1975, Bombay:

Indian (8): After all, he is God's creation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is sama-darśinaḥ. Sama-darśinaḥ means that every living being is part and parcel of God. So he is suffering for want of God consciousness, so let us teach something as far as possible. This is our mission. (break) ...dhīras tatra na muhyati. Therefore the human being's first business is how to become dhīra.

Dr. Patel: Dhīra does not exactly mean "sober," but something more than sober.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is only one part of it.

Dr. Patel: So many Sanskrit words cannot have translation into English.

Prabhupāda: Dhīra means one who is not disturbed by this bodily concept of life. He is dhīra because he knows that "I am not this body," even there is some trouble in respect of body. So Kṛṣṇa advised that titikṣasva bhārata.

Dr. Patel: Titikṣasva.

Prabhupāda: "Even there is some disturbance, tolerate it. Don't be disturbed."

Dr. Patel: Mātra-spārśas tu kaunteya, sukha-duḥkha-daḥ (BG 2.14).

Prabhupāda: Yes. So long the body is there, in connection with the skin disease, we shall be suffering in so many ways. Just like there was accident. So it does not mean that because there was accident that...

Dr. Patel: But somehow or other, you have very much improved after accident, your health.

Prabhupāda: No, I was eating nicely in Africa. The climate is nice.

Morning Walk -- November 7, 1975, Bombay:

Bhāgavata: So we should display the real planetary system...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhāgavata: As it really exists.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhāgavata: And then we can put underneath explanations in Bengali and English.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Dr. Patel: In Sanskrit and English because Sanskrit contains Bengali and Gujarati and all.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's a good idea, good idea.

Dr. Patel: I go, sir.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Time is up? Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...many things to be displayed by these models, and we can utilize that.

Morning Walk -- November 8, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Jaya. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...explained in Bhagavad-gītā. Unfortunately the rascals will not take it. That is the difficulty.

Dr. Patel: In my time, when, your time, I mean our time, in the school there was a compulsion of learning the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. Now these modern principals,(?) they don't know anything about it. Absolutely there is no knowledge. My daughter said, "What is Rāmāyaṇa?" I had to look at a English edition of Rāmāyaṇa and give her Mahābhārata. That is what they are teaching now in the schools. So this race is going bankrupt. What about knowing about Bhagavad-gītā and Bhāgavata? They don't know simple Mahābhārata.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...city one house with twenty rooms on the riverside.

Dr. Patel: I was told that Lasteri's house, you know, sir, Charpak Lasteri.(?)

Prabhupāda: What do you think will be the price?

Dr. Patel: I don't know about price, sir. But their prices are as high as in Bombay. Whose is this house? Who is the owner? (break)

Prabhupāda: ...jīvanti. The trees, they live many, many hundreds of thousands of years more than men.

Morning Walk -- November 12, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: And material is, nothing but the transformation of māyā, is it not?

Prabhupāda: No. No. māyā means something false. Nobody makes anything. Everything is made by... Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). Kṛṣṇa is the creator of everything. māyā is also created by Kṛṣṇa. So just like government creates police department. But police department is made for that person who violates the laws of God. The police department is creation of government. Similarly, māyā's business is to capture, arrest the criminal who has gone against God, capture him. Mūḍha janmani janmani (BG 16.20). Mam aprapyaiva. This is the arrangement. Nobody is independent. Everything. Therefore it is called sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. So māyā is also Brahman. māyā is also Brahman. Sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. Why māyā is different from God? It is creation of God. Mama māyā, Kṛṣṇa says. Mama māyā. So how māyā can be... The difference is police cannot arrest the president. Now it has been proved in the law. The president, the prime minister, they cannot be interfered by the police or law. That is good judgment. If the head of the estate is also interfered by police, that does not look well. So this judgment is very nice. Therefore in English constitution the first word is "The king can do no wrong." You cannot accuse king of doing wrong. Whatever he does, it is all right.

Dr. Patel: That is when there was Rāma-rajya, sir. These modern fellows will talk all these things...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. No, no. Rāma-rajya should be there as far as possible.

Dr. Patel: They are roguish fellows. Just like Nixon. What did he do? Was it in the place of king?

Prabhupāda: No, no, he... Nixon, Nixon...

Dr. Patel: Most powerful nation of the world having a leader of the type of Nixon.

Prabhupāda: So that is... Of course, in American constitution the president is also impeached. Is it the law?

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- November 17, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Police, under police they are. I saw in Delhi. One school I went, and the police is there, examination room, but all thieves, rascals. And they are sitting in examination for passing, all rascals.

Dr. Patel: The modern education has become a farce in that dress.

Prabhupāda: Farce, yes. No education. Amongst the Marwaris, the respectable gentlemen, they don't send. They keep private teachers, paṇḍitas, for learning Sanskrit, English. They know that our, "My boy hasn't got to earn money. He has to sit here. That's all. Why he should be spoiled?" They know very well, "We can purchase these technologists."

Indian man (3): (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Everything farce. There is no education.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Sir, I must have read at least, if not more, at least twenty commentaries on Bhagavad-gītā. But I found the best by Ācārya Rāmānujācārya and yours.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: You are parallel, more or less. Your, I read in English, but that was in Sanskrit, the Sanskrit explained to English. Wonderful.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Rāmānujācārya has given Vedic quotation for each and every verse.

Dr. Patel: His Sanskrit is very easy also, Rāmānujācārya's.

Prabhupāda: Amongst the Vaiṣṇavas, he was the greatest ācārya, Rāmānujācārya. And to kill the Māyāvādīs, he was the ablest person, Rāmānujācārya. Still in South India, the Māyāvādīs and the Rāmānujas, they have talks, and the Māyāvādīs are defeated always.

Dr. Patel: These ācāryas, they are all Rāmānujācārya followers that Tithi Kṛṣṇam Ācāri(?) and Rajgopal Ācārya, and they are all these Vaiṣṇavas of Rāmānujācārya.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ācārya means Vaiṣṇava. Ayar. Ayar. And avaiṣṇava, Nayar, yes.

Morning Walk -- November 21, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Why did you not, "Do you know English?" (laughter)

Mahāṁsa: So first of all Acyutānanda... I wasn't there, but Acyutānanda and Yaśodānanda said, "No, we don't know much San... A little bit. We don't..." So he quoted, "Sarva dharmān... Do you know that verse?" So they said, "Yes." So he said, "Explain what is the meaning of that verse." He started the whole conversation. We didn't want to get into any philosophical argument. So they started explaining what is the meaning, one must surrender to Kṛṣṇa. And then it went on, who is Kṛṣṇa. And then finally Acyutānanda and Yaśodānanda were quoting so many ślokas that they were completely baffled, and the whole crowd that was there, they were appreciating, and we were defeating them. By every śloka we were defeating them, and they were completely baffled. Ultimately he said—he could not fight back—so he said, "Swamiji, you are right," and he wanted to close the whole conversation because the people were gaining our side. They were being convinced by our ślokas.

Prabhupāda: This is Kṛṣṇa's mercy.

Mahāṁsa: They were completely shocked that they knew so many Sanskrit ślokas from so many different scriptures.

Prabhupāda: The Western learned circle, they are admitting that the greatest contribution of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is these authentic translation of Vedic literature. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- November 24, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: So Germany is defeated, no?

Prabhupāda: The bulldogs are English?

Dr. Patel: They are English. And Mr. Churchill is the representative of all the bulldogs. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...thinking, "I am English dog," (laughter) and he is thinking, "I am..." And the man is also thinking like that. What is the difference?

Dr. Patel: Both are animals.

Prabhupāda: Yasyātmā buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13).

Dr. Patel: That's right. We have got a dvija, dvija-karma kriya. Dvijā-karma-kriya? What do you call it?

Prabhupāda: Saṁskāra.

Dr. Patel: All are born as animal.

Prabhupāda: Saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ.

Dr. Patel: Saṁskāra, yes. Dvija-saṁskāra. Second birth.

Prabhupāda: That saṁskāra is now stopped; therefore all of them are animals. Yes. (break) The murgis, (chickens) they are in the cowshed?

Dr. Patel: That man who is looking after cows, he must be keeping.

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1975, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: If everything was void, then there would be no hope for living. So might as well die.

Prabhupāda: No. By combination, permutation, you create, and if you don't want it, then avoid this combination. (break) Even in four o'clock time, visiting, if he comes at four o'clock, you let him come in. (break) ...Gurukula we require teachers for teaching the small children. So our, these girls, they cannot take this charge of teaching?

Akṣayānanda: Yes, one is already teaching now. One is already teaching children now, one girl.

Prabhupāda: Who is he?

Akṣayānanda: Her name is Ruth. She's English. Every afternoon she teaches the children.

Prabhupāda: Indian?

Akṣayānanda: No, English.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There's also one in Bombay. She used to be a public school teacher in England. After the school is open she can come over here. And there's one in Māyāpur, but she's teaching in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, other girls, they can take up this.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1975, Vrndavana:

Aksayānanda: ...from Agra came yesterday, Prabhupāda. He wants to live with us. He knows Hindi. He's a teacher. He's a doctor. He's a writer. He's very, very nice. I'll bring him to you today.

Prabhupāda: He knows English also?

Aksayānanda: English very well. Very humble and he wants to teach. If he can stay in Vṛndāvana I think it will be very, very beneficial for us.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Aksayānanda: Wonderful. I'll bring him this morning if it's all right.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Aksayānanda: Jaya. He bows down. He pays dandavats. He said, "You're a sannyāsī, so I must respect. I'm only a gṛhastha."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the duty.

Room Conversation -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Hm. So how to explain, everyone is acting. How he is acting, on the field, that is stated next verse. Field of activities. In English it is called field of activity. That field of activity is this body. According to the body one begins his... Just like one born in the dog's body so the dog care... They, from the very beginning they are searching after a master. You have seen the small?

Hari-śauri: Pup.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They follow, some gentleman. And because at that time it is good living, somebody takes charge, "Alright let me take this pup." And the children also like, so he gets some shelter. So similarly, according to different body the activities begins. Therefore body is the field of activities. A snake, because he has got the field of activity of a snake's body, from the very beginning he is very, very envious. The same, trying to bite others. In this way our activities begin according to the body. And this change of bodies take place in the lower animal life automatically, by nature's law. Prakṛte kriyamānāni guṇai karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. But when comes to the form of a human being, on account of developed consciousness, he has got responsibility. He has to make his choice.

Page Title:English (Conversations 1974 - 1975)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:23 of Feb, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=121, Let=0
No. of Quotes:121