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Explanation (Conversations 1976)

Expressions researched:
"explanation" |"explanations" |"explanatory"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: So that day my explanation was all right?

Keśavalāl Trivedi: Yes, that is how I feel. And that is what will apply also to Acyutānanda Swami's question also, I think.

Acyutānanda: No, I'm just fencing.

Keśavalāl Trivedi: No, no, that's all.... I know.

Acyutānanda: So Durga is higher than Viṣṇu because Viṣṇu required Durga to awaken Him from the yoga-nidrā to kill Madhu and Kaitabha. So she controls Him.

Prabhupāda: Yes, if I ask my servant that "You ask me to get up at seven o'clock," that does not mean.... (laughter)

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: So why they cannot produce sufficient, such a big country?

Gurukeśa: And Eastern Europe, which is also communist, gets all its supplies from...

Prabhupāda: No, what is their explanation. Russia is the biggest country.

Gurukeśa: Land.

Hari-śauri: The reason was that there was no rain.

Prabhupāda: Then? Then you have to depend on rain, and when we say, parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ... Hm? And yajñād bhavati parjanyaḥ (BG 3.14). That means, rascal, you take one side, that ardha-kukuti-nyāya. Cut the chicken half, and separate the mouth—it is expensive—and keep the rear side. You get eggs. (laughter) So this is ardha-kukuṭi-nyāya. The rascal does not know that if you separate the mouth there will be no egg.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: If they cannot reach sun... They are trying to go above the sun. (Someone enters) Bosen. Jaya. (Bengali) (break) It is giving quotation from Vedas. How to act on Vedic principle, that is called smṛti. Sometimes the original law is explained by one lawyer in detail. So that detailed explanation is like smṛti, and the original law is śruti. In that we have to bathe. Smṛti means which is explaining śruti to understand easily.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But we should never think that smṛti is an interpretation.

Prabhupāda: No, no. It is not inter... It is explanation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like sometimes the smārtas, they argue that if you quote smṛti, it is not as good as śruti.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So why explain? If he is great personality, everyone should know. Why he is trying to explain? What is the use of explanation? If a great personality is unknown, and he has to be known by explanatory notes, then how he is great personality?

Bhavānanda: Just like the President of the United States. He doesn't have to say, "I am the President." Everyone knows.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Go on reading.

Bhavānanda: "...Tīrtha Mahārāja, who was then known as guru-preṣṭha, most dear to his guru, and also known to the disciples of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura as Kuñjada, giver of shelter. In all the missionary works and the management of the maṭhas, Śrīla Bhaktivilāsa Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja was the right hand of his Gurudeva. By his constant, unstinted service rendered to Śrīla Prabhupāda, whose most intimate disciple he was, he almost became a counterpart of that great saint."

Morning Walk -- January 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the way of presentation. You have to present in such a way that he will accept that "What you are saying, you are right." That is preaching. (break) ...cepting our books because they are seeing, "Yes, here is practical explanation," not that because it is Bhāgavata. What do they care for Bhāgavata?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They never heard of Bhāgavata.

Prabhupāda: No. And why they should accept Bhāgavata? We are not accepting Bible, so why they should accept Bhāgavata? That is no argument. You must present the Vedic knowledge in such a way that they will be obliged to accept: "Yes, it is right." (break) ...something, Mr. Agarwal, that "Nobody complains about eating," you will do a great service, I tell you. Everyone will come and say, "Oh, such a nice food." They will come here for eating, if not for anything. (break) You were proposing about our Vṛndāvana. So if this thing is done, that the eatables are very nice, then visitors will come. Otherwise this manager, that manager, this manager will not help you. Phalena paricīyate. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- February 5, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's a religious fanatic. I told him, he's a religious fanatic.

Prabhupāda: Not fanatic. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You have no explanation, so you're simply giving it the name God.

Prabhupāda: No, why not explanation? Why not explanation, that "Nature is working"? He said that "God is dormant. God created," and he accepted. And "God is dormant. He is not doing anything." But no, that's not the fact. The nature's work is going on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nature is going on.

Prabhupāda: So the nature is directed by God.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes, certainly. Therefore it is called māyā. Māyā means magician. Māyā means... māyā means affection, māyā means illusion, magician, so many things—strength, potency.

Jagadīśa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is your explanation why the sun changes colors?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jagadīśa: What is your explanation as to why the sun changes colors?

Prabhupāda: Sun is moving. You are seeing through some color. Then it is color.

Jagadīśa: Seeing through some color.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like there are... In your window there is glass, red. So sun is passing; you say sun red. And again it has come; it is white. That is our...

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like there are... In your window there is glass, red. So sun is passing; you say sun red. And again it has come; it is white. That is our...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So the scientists say the same thing except they say that the earth is moving, not the sun. Same explanation you have given for the colors, they give, except that they say that the earth that is moving, not the sun. They wouldn't accept that point as a proof that the sun is moving.

Prabhupāda: No, sun is moving because the earth and the sun... The distance is the same, but you can calculate the distance from the rising up to the... It is millions, millions of miles. So unless the sun is moving, the earth cannot move so swiftly.

Jagadīśa: They are always the same distance apart?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What is that explanation?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So if you're sleeping and I kill you and you weren't conscious that I was killing you, then you're still alive?

Prabhupāda: You are not killed. Then it comes as a... You can go to the court: "It is not killed."

Hṛdayānanda: They will say that... No, I will say. I will take the part of the rascal.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hṛdayānanda: I'll be the rascal. "No, actually I am killed, because even though I may not be conscious of it, someone is conscious of it. As long as someone must be... Just when something... It is necessary that someone be conscious of it."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, supposing in the woods. You're in the woods and I kill you during your sleep. There is no other human being there.

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All over the world. They say that what will happen... One thing that will happen is that if there's any... Of course, this is scientists' explanation. If there is any weakness within the family line—that means bodily weakness, mental weakness, or anything...

Prabhupāda: No, even it is not weakness, it will create weakness, same blood. The different blood will create some incentive, different flow of blood. That is scientific. But who cares for that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nowadays...

Morning Walk -- March 1, 1976, Mayapur:

Yaśodānandana: Yes. The arguments are very convincing, especially this last point about how the plants are growing with the help of sunlight, earth, water and... Scientists only have very shallow explanations of how life comes about.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...such verse. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3). They do not know Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they cannot understand.

Yaśodānandana: In the introduction to The Nectar of Devotion, you have also mentioned nicely that even though there are so many scholars and scientists, they cannot even follow these four principles of no meat-eating, illicit sex life and everything. They may have so much academic knowledge, but they cannot even control their senses. But by your mercy, even though we are very inexperienced in such knowledge, we are able to control the senses.

Morning Walk -- March 7, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: What is their knowledge, nonsense? He has know...? Have they knowledge?

Bhagavān: They're trying to prove that sense gratification is bona fide.

Guru-kṛpā: ...and the explanation of...

Prabhupāda: And where is sense gratification? As soon as nature kicks you out, where is your sense gratification?

Hṛdāyānanda: It's a relative thing. Actually, compared to the ordinary man, he's much more intelligent.

Prabhupāda: What is intelligence?

Hṛdāyānanda: He's thinking that "I know so many things, and these other people, they don't know these things. Therefore I'm better than them."

Morning Walk -- March 7, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: You also cannot explain. What is explaining? All nonsense.

Guru-kṛpā: "Well, I can explain."

Prabhupāda: "Perhaps." "Might be." "It was like this and that..." What is that explanation?

Guru-kṛpā: Well, the common man doesn't challenge that.

Prabhupāda: Mean common men are fool. But why we should accept?

Bhagavān: If they could really explain it, so many things would not be going wrong.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bhagavān: If they could actually explain it, so many things would not be going wrong. The thing is, their explanation causes more problems.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, no. This boy joined us.... (break)

Gurudāsa: ...rather than the chaos.

Pañca-draviḍa: What is the Vedic explanation, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Vedic explanation is that moon is not going round the earthly planet. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is very revolutionary thought.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Because children all over the world in schools, they're taught simply that the moon is going around the earth. They shouldn't question it.

Prabhupāda: Oh, they say, "You should not question"?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, should not question it. It's taken as fact.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But they say sun if fixed up.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they say the earth is tilting back and forth like this.

Prabhupāda: That is always doing, but it takes little time. But the movement of the sun, uttara and dakṣiṇa, what is their explanation?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They say that the earth is tilting like this. The sun is fixed. When the earth tilts like this in the northern hemisphere there is summer, and when it tilts like this, the southern hemisphere, there's summer. It's tilting back and forth as it revolves around the sun.

Prabhupāda: Tilting?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But they say it is...

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Wonderful attraction.

Prabhupāda: World people will come to see the way the planetary systems...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should advertise it very widely that this is the actual, factual explanation of the universe.

Prabhupāda: This will be automatically advertised. As soon as the temple is finished, people will come like anything.

Hari-śauri: They're going to need somebody to...

Prabhupāda: The thing is, on principle, we shall only go against them.

Haṁsadūta: Contrary.

Prabhupāda: On principle. Whatever they say "Yes," we say "No." (laughter)

Pañca-draviḍa: What is the explanation of an eclipse?

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Pañca-draviḍa: So they're predicting five thousand years before the scientists. This is the explanation.

Prabhupāda: No, when there was no civilization.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Eh? They...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There is no civilization five thousand years ago.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Three thousand years...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All cavemen.

Prabhupāda: ...before, there was no civilization.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I just.... I read that recently in an anthropology book, that 3000 B.C. means five thousand years ago, everyone was living in.... Especially in this part of the world, people were simply living in caves.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: English propaganda.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Devotees: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: Is that all right? Explanation?

Devotee (1): Sounds all right.

Haṁsadūta: That's what they say.

Prabhupāda: "They say." What you say?

Haṁsadūta: We don't know anything. After meeting you, we wonder if we know anything, because we thought the moon was going around the earth.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What shadow is that? The moon casts its own shadow.

Haṁsadūta: That's what they say.

Prabhupāda: They, their explanation is...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Half the moon is in darkness.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: The same explanation. On the whole, we have to accept that something wonderful is going on. And that is Kṛṣṇa's arrangement.

Trivikrama: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: You cannot explain. You, you rascal scientists, from so much distant, you have calculated, "This is thi..." This is all wrong. Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ. They are carrying order of Kṛṣṇa, not your order. Yasyājñayā. "By the order of Govinda," not your order. Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ.

Pañca-draviḍa: (break) "There may be a God, but all these stories..."

Prabhupāda: "There may be." That is rascaldom.

Pañca-draviḍa: All these stories about Him...

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: No, translated, but I give my purport. That is.... They like very much. Present the purport in such a way they can understand it. The original verse is there, but they are explained by me.

Reporter (1): Give some critical comments and explanations.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That they like.

Reporter (2): Does that mean, Swamiji, that yours is a cultural and educational movement rather than a personal cult.

Hṛdayānanda: A cultural and educational movement rather than a personal cult.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is cultural movement, educational movement. It is not so-called religious movement. Religious movement is sentiment. Generally religion is taken as a kind of faith, but it is not a kind of faith. In.... I think, in South America that Indian man was asking that "It is the Hindu faith?"

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: That is not possible.

Madhudviṣa: If the Māyāvādīs don't believe in the difference between the soul and the Supersoul, then how can they... What is their explanation of reincarnation?

Prabhupāda: They say that this is not incarnation, it is māyā. Just like the sky is covered in a pot, and as soon as the pot breaks, the sky mixes with the big sky. That's all. That is their theory.

Madhudviṣa: So therefore they say God is covered.

Prabhupāda: Not God. You are covered.

Pañcadraviḍa: But you are God, they say.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: For our personal comfort, we, our students are lying on the floor. They are not using the money for purchasing nice furniture. No personal comfort. But if you say that "You are purchasing big, big car," yes, for going quickly to serve Kṛṣṇa. Our service is main point. If I can go and serve Kṛṣṇa within a minute, why shall I wait for one hour? So we take all advantages. After all, it belongs to Kṛṣṇa. They say that "We have manufactured." That's all.... But we say that Kṛṣṇa has manufactured. So they.... This philosophy, it is little difficult to understand by the dull men, that nothing is without Kṛṣṇa. Everything.... Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Sarvam, when we say sarvam, how we can exclude this and that? Everything is in relationship with Kṛṣṇa, sarvam. Sarvam means everything. So how can you discriminate, "This is material; this is spiritual"? The discrimination is that when it is not used for Kṛṣṇa, that is material, and when it is used for Kṛṣṇa, that is spiritual. That is the explanation of sarvam. Just like a thief has stolen my money. The money will be utilized. He'll spend it. I am spending, and he is.... Then why he's criminal. If you plea.... If you present this plea that "Money's for spending, so either you spend or I spend...," but that is not the idea, that the money.... My money means the money should be spent for my purpose, and because you have taken the money and spending for your purpose, therefore you are criminal.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That is sharpening your weapons. That is also described. By serving the spiritual master, you keep your weapon always sharpened. And then take help from Kṛṣṇa, the words of spiritual master sharpen weapon and yasya prasādad bhagavata..., and the spiritual master is happy, then Kṛṣṇa immediately will help. He gives you strength. Suppose you got a sword, sharpened sword. But if you have no strength, what will you do with the sword? Kṛṣṇa will give you the strength, how to fight and kill the enemies. Everything is described. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu (said) guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya (CC Madhya 19.151), make your weapon sharpened by the instruction of the spiritual master and then Kṛṣṇa will give you strength, you'll be able to conquer. This figurative explanation I think last night I did. Here is a verse, acyuta bala, acyuta bala. Is Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa here?

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Then you are.... As soon as you say "making research," then you are not perfect. Don't say that you are scientist. You are student. Don't say that you are scientist. And you are declaring, "There is no authority, nothing." Why do you speak all this nonsense? Because you are not scientist. You are making research. That's all right. When you complete your research—you come to the conclusion—then call yourself as scientist. Why, as a student, neophyte, you are claiming as "scientist"? Why misleading people? You do not know anything, how things are going on, and you are claiming you are scientist. Our point is, "Don't do this, misleading propaganda. You are not scientist. We protest against this false propaganda. Why you are making.... You do not know anything. You cannot solve any problem, major problem, so why you are claiming scientist? Stop this as a gentleman." (break) And there is the soul within the body, and when the soul is gone, transferred to another body, it is dead. Dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). One who is actually scientist, he is not surprised. He knows the soul has transferred to another body. That's all. That is scientist. (break) ...real scientist, not a rascal like you. We don't give.... (break) You cannot act. We accept Kṛṣṇa as scientist because He explains. You cannot explain. How we can accept you as scientist? You are rascal. Up till now, nobody was able to explain—simply vague. How we can accept these vague explanation as scientist? And daily changing, every year new theories. And I have to accept you scientist?

Morning Walk -- May 15, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No, that is your explanation. That is your concoction. (break) ...take it. As soon as you disobey Ten Commandments, you are not a Christian. You are heathen. (break) And the thing is that religious faith should not be discussed on philosophy because everyone has got some, his own concocted faith. That is not philosophy. Faith is different. "I believe," "You believe," "I do not believe"—that is not philosophy. (break) ...philosophy in Bhagavad-gītā that asmin dehe.... Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13), there is soul. This is philosophy. Religion without philosophy is sentiment, and philosophy without religion is mental concoction. So both of them should be combined. Then it is perfect.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...can be given, though, that man's logic is so tiny, pea brain, and God's logic is so great, so how can actually man discuss the logic of God?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. The planet is.... How it is floating in the air?

Rāmeśvara: They have an explanation for that.

Prabhupāda: No. You do not know the explanation. There are so many other things. Just like we say there is ocean of milk, ocean of liquor, ocean of oil.

Rāmeśvara: No, all of that they take to be...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mythology.

Rāmeśvara:...imagination.

Prabhupāda: But why? Your imagination. You have not gone throughout the whole universe. You cannot say. You are imperfect.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But they say neither you have gone, so how can you know...

Prabhupāda: No, I have got authority, you have got no authority.

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Sometimes the atheists, they say there is no soul-intuition. So we do not accept this proposal. The soul, when he is in particular situation, he remembers immediately what he has to do. Just like the small puppies, they have not even opened the eyes, but still, immediately after birth they're searching after food and goes immediately to the nipples of the mother. So how he goes there? They say it is intuition, but it is not intuition. The soul, being put into that body, immediately remembers all the activities of the body. Just like in Los Angeles. When I am in tour in other places I forget about Los Angeles, but as soon as I come here, I know where is my bedroom, where is my sitting room, where is my garden, immediately. I haven't got to be taught that "Here is your sitting room, here is your sleeping room." Immediately, I remember. Similarly, this living entity is transmigrating from time immemorial in different types of body. So as soon as he comes to a particular type of body he remembers the activities immediately. They are interpreting as intuition—that is not intuition. It is old remembrance. This is the explanation.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No clear conception, scientific idea. Therefore educated persons, they are not interested. "God, give us daily bread." They will say, "Why we shall go to church for begging bread? We can manufacture it, large quantity." (laughs) Why they should go? Formality: "God, give us our daily bread." "Just open a big factory and eat as much bread as we like. Why should we go to God?" (break) ...Jawaharlal Nehru, he took this view, that "For economic development why should you go to the temple, ask this demigod, that demigod, 'Give me this. Give me this'? Develop industry and get money to enjoy." That is his.... (break)...description of God in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins: janmādy asya yato 'nvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ sva-rāṭ (SB 1.1.1). This is God, the origin of everything. Who is there who can challenge this explanation, "The origin of everything"? Now, what is that origin? Whether it is matter or sentient? No. Janmādy asya yato 'nvayād itarataś ca abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). He knows everything. Therefore He's a person.

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

Prabhupāda: You call it any love, the real idea is how to unite man and woman, that's all. That is the idea. Real, basic principle is how to unite a man and woman. It goes on as friend or husband and wife or this or that. The real purpose is they want to unite. And that unity is for sex. And then both of them become entangled. Gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittair janasya moho 'yam (SB 5.5.8). This is moha, illusion. What is that explanation?

Hṛdayānanda: Purport: "How money can be dearer than life is indicated in this verse. Thieves may enter the house of a rich man to steal money at the risk of their lives. Because of trespassing they may be killed by guns or attacked by watchdogs, but still they try to commit burglary. Why do they risk their lives? Only to get some money. Similarly, a professional soldier is recruited into the army, and he accepts such service, with the risk of dying on the battlefield, only for the sake of money. In the same way, merchants go from one country to another on boats at the risk of their lives, or they dive into the water...

Magazine Interview -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: For a common man it is little difficult, but it is very easy. We are talking of the spiritual platform, but common man does not understand what is spiritual, although it is very easy. My body, your body, is moving on account of spiritual spark. That's a fact; everyone can see. As soon as the spiritual spark, soul, is off, the body, it is simply lump of matter. That is a fact; everyone can see. But still they are not serious to understand what is that spiritual spark. There is no education. Mostly they are thinking there is no spiritual spark, the body is moving.... How it is moving? What is their explanation?

Rāmeśvara: Chemical combination and reaction.

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

Prabhupāda: So why you are dreaming? Do it practically.

Rādhāvallabha: We are not saying that we can do it. We are just explaining it.

Prabhupāda: Who cares for your explanation?

Rādhāvallabha: We have so many followers.

Candanācārya: One day we will do it.

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Rāmeśvara: There is one famous movie or a book called Frankenstein, and in that...

Candanācārya: (break) ...correction house, they go and they spend their term, and they come out and they again commit a crime.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: (laughing) All concoction. That is not explanation. This is nice explanation, that in this season the sun goes faster and in this season the sun goes slower. That is quite understandable. Just like you are walking. Sometimes you walk slow, sometimes you walk fast. That is possible. (pause) So you can convert the down room, one of the down room as reception, like this. This should be Deity room.

Hari-śauri: They'd have to section that big room off, though, to make a Deity room there. It would considerably reduce the size of that room.

Prabhupāda: Which room?

Hari-śauri: This big room upstairs? I was just looking because you mentioned it. But then they'd have to put a section for the Deities, so the actual temple space left would be very small.

Prabhupāda: No, it is bigger hall than the down.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: But the modern astronomy, they do not say like that.

Jayādvaita: No. They don't say it is moving around. They don't say that it's moving around the polestar. They have some other explanation.

Prabhupāda: That means they're imperfect.

Mādhavānanda: They say that it's fixed. They say the polestar is fixed, but it doesn't revolve around. They say everything moves, but the polestar is...

Prabhupāda: Polestar is fixed, that is fact. And all.... It is like pivot. Everyone round, round. Ūrdhva-mūlam adhah-śākham (BG 15.1). This tree is spread downwards. The root is upward.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So what is the explanation?

Indian man: Where Lord Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna are there, there the victory.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Then all mystic power is there. That means where there is Kṛṣṇa and His pure devotee, the whole mystic power is there. Tatra śrīḥ?

Jayādvaita: Vijayo bhūtiḥ.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Tatra śrīr vijayo bhūtiḥ. Devotee, he hasn't got to try separately for all these things. It will come automatically. That is mysticism. (laughter) (converses in Hindi) (end)

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Jagadīśa: Hmm. I don't know about that.

Prabhupāda: Some of the life members complained. I received several complaints. The other day I asked, "You collected some money for constructing temple, so where is that money?" So he gave explanation. So thirty, fifty thousand pounds were collected by him.

Jagadīśa: From Ambarīṣa?

Hari-śauri: No, this was in England.

Jagadīśa: Oh, in England, oh.

Prabhupāda: But there is only balance two thousand five hundred.

Hari-śauri: Yes, just two or three thousand.

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Without any doubt. And if you, asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ mām, if you understand Kṛṣṇa, then tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). We are therefore requesting everyone, study Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Don't interpret. Don't screw out your concocted meaning. Then your life is successful. Every politician, every scholar, everyone is trying to screw out some meaning. That is the disease. But we say, we are begging people, that "You read Bhagavad-gītā As It Is and try to understand it." Very simple thing. We haven't got to become very learned scholars. Our business is to go to you and request you, "Please read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Don't try to interpret it." That is our preaching. Very simple. Because Bhagavad-gītā, the instruction is there, and we haven't got to manufacture anything. So as a peon, we carry only: "You please read it as it is." Or you try to explain as it is. And where is the explanation? Everything is clear.

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Then how he has become a doctor in Vaiṣṇava philosophy?

Devotee: He's a sick doctor.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That would mean that the dog is a great lover.

Prabhupāda: No, in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta there is explanation, what is the difference between lust and love.

Satsvarūpa: I told him if you observe the devotees, you'll see they have very affectionate loving dealings with one another, but it's not based on the flesh. We don't have to...

Prabhupāda: That is lust. Sahajiyā. Lust is going on as love. (break) ...reviewed Dr. Judah's book?

Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That is your ignorance. But the beginning is dharma-kṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ (BG 1.1). Yuyutsavaḥ means fighting. Two parties, they, actually, the two parties... Pāṇḍavas māmakaḥ caiva kim akurvata. Every word is significant. Fighting can be executed even in dharma-kṣetre. That they cannot understand. Gandhi misunderstood. If it is dharma-kṣetre, how there can be fighting? He wanted to prove nonviolence artificially. How it is possible? Kṛṣṇa is instigating him to fight, and how can you make it nonviolent? That is artificial. And if you want to explain something artificially, how long you'll do it, it will be failure. So Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence and reading of Bhagavad-gītā went with him. Nobody is interested in that kind of explanation. And we are explaining Bhagavad-gītā as it is, it is increasing. It is increasing. There is no artificial way.

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: No, this is a common sense. If everyone is God, then what is the necessity of finding out a guru? Guru means who explains about God. Everyone is God, then what is the use of explanation? There is no need of guru.

Devotee (2): How can God be controlled by His own energy, illusory energy?

Prabhupāda: So many things. Foolish men can accept that, "Everyone is God, everyone is guru." That is foolish man's proposition and accepted by fools.

Devotee (2): It is explained in Back to Godhead magazine that (indistinct) serve Kṛṣṇa, serve God. If someone tells you that he is guru (indistinct).

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So to accept a spiritual master must mean that one is in ignorance and one is enlightened.

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is stated there yad advaitaṁ brahma upaniṣadi. That means he must understand the Upaniṣads. He must understand what is Brahman. So without understanding this, how he can understand Caitanya-caritāmṛta? It will be explained there, but the fact is this. What is that? Is there any explanation?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, there's no purport to this verse.

Prabhupāda: So further on there is explanation. Find out that.

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda? How does one know when he has the understanding of the Bhagavad-gītā?

Prabhupāda: What does he say? Answer him.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What did you say?

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: No, no, accept God or not, where the accident theory comes?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Well if they don't give some explanation, then they'll be considered fools.

Prabhupāda: Some explanation, they have to give you something foolish explanation? So foolish man will accept that, not a sane man. If you say "By accident," then I'll say why not accident in the history of the world there is a rose plant some other flower has come out? If man has come from monkey, why not coming now? So they give so may foolish propositions, only fools will accept. Anyone who has a little reasoning power they will not, they'll understand that these are all crazy fellows, talking all nonsense. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ. We have got little formula to understand that if one is not Kṛṣṇa conscious he has no good qualifications. He cannot say anything as a qualified person. That is the test. Mūḍha. Immediately take: a mūḍha. Let the mūḍhas speak all nonsense. Why should we waste our time? This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As soon as we find somebody not Kṛṣṇa conscious, not a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, we take, reject, he's a rascal, that's all. And he is rascal. Not only blindly we are rejecting, but with reason. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Smṛti means... The Vedas are considered as, taken as śruti. But simply by hearing one cannot understand. Therefore smṛtis, they have explained. Purayati iti purāṇa. Complete. The Vedic mantra is not always understood. Just like the Vedānta mantra, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). This is very short cut. But Bhāgavata explains, janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ svarāṭ. Explanation. The smṛti is explanation. So either you take śruti or smṛti, subject matter is the same. But these are the evidences. Śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi-pāñcarātriki-vidhiṁ vinā (BRS 1.2.101). You cannot be purified or become actually God conscious without reference to the śruti-smṛti. We are pushing on this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, it is not whimsically. It is based on śruti-smṛti-pāñcarātriki-vidhi. Therefore it is becoming effective.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You started this explanation by saying, "But who will take it?" So is this to say that this religion that you're speaking of is not trying to be made acceptable to the masses, or is it only for those who will take it?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Unless you take it, where is question of religion? So that requires guidance. Just like to make a child educated, there is teacher required. Automatically how he can...? A child, now you give him a rubberstamp, "Now you are MA." Is he MA? He must be guided to pass the MA examination, then he'll be, he's MA. And "Because he is born in a certain family, he cannot be MA," that is not the fact. He can be MA provided the guidance is there, training is there. He can become MA. It doesn't matter that because he is lowborn he cannot become MA. No. He can become. The training is how to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa. Then he goes back to home, back to Godhead.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ. Like that. So actually Vedānta-sūtra is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and if we take Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as the real explanation of Vedānta-sūtra, then we understand what is Vedānta. And if we take the shelter of the so-called bluffers, then that is not Vedānta. People do not know anything and they can be bluffed and cheated by anyone. That is the... And now they should learn from this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement what is Vedānta and what is the explanation of Vedānta. Then they will be benefited. If we take Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as the real commentary on Vedānta-sūtra, then we'll find that in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ. In this Kali-yuga, which is the ocean of all faults, there is one benediction, opportunity. What is that? Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51). One can become liberated simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. This is real Vedānta. And actually it is happening. So they want to be misguided. And there are so many bluffers, they misguide them. What can be done? Otherwise Vyāsadeva has given already what is Vedānta-sūtra explanation. This is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Let them read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. They will understand what is Vedānta.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes. The Vedantists they have come from the impersonal explanation of Śaṅkarācārya. Śārīraka-bhāṣya. But they simply give stress on the Śārīraka-bhāṣya, but there are other bhāṣyas. Bhāṣyas means commentary. And the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the natural commentary by the author himself. Besides that, there are Vedānta-bhāṣyas written by the Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, and all the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas. Unfortunately, they do not care to read all these Vedānta-bhāṣyas. They simply take Śārīraka-bhāṣya and become impersonalist and call themselves as Vedantist.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What is the reason for that?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore guru is necessary. Everyone is perplexed. Nobody can decide himself. Even a physician, a medical man, when he is sick, he does not make his own treatment. He calls for another physician because he is sick, his brain is not in order. How he can prescribe the real medicine for himself? That is natural. So similarly, when we are perplexed, bewildered, we cannot make any solution, at that time the right person, guru, is required. It is essential. You cannot avoid it. So in our present existence we are all perplexed. Arjuna is representating the perplexed position of the materialistic person. And we are actually all perplexed. So under the circumstances, to give us real direction a guru is required. Now, here is the example that Arjuna decided Kṛṣṇa as guru. He did not go to anyone else to accept as guru. The explanation is there. Find out. Na hi prapaśyāmi. "Without you I don't find anybody..."

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

Prabhupāda: This is the result. What is their explanation of the varieties of life?

Rādhāvallabha: They say, due to evolution over many millions of years...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The strongest, somehow they survive, and other, weaker species, they become extinct.

Rādhāvallabha: They say the origin of species is genetic.

Devotee (3): They say "Somehow or other..." Then...

Prabhupāda: Is that science? "Somehow or other." If I say, "Somehow or other, you'll become a dog," (laughter) what is the wrong there? If things are taking place somehow or other, so I say somehow or other you'll become a dog. Our explanation is complete. They accept somehow or other is a means. So somehow or other, you are going to be dog. How can you deny it? If that is your position, that things are taking place somehow or other, so how can you deny, somehow or other you'll become a dog? Hm?

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

Prabhupāda: That is the result of his dullness. "Remain here for ten thousand years, a dull brain. Even one cuts, you cannot protest. You suffer all kinds of natural disturbances." This is very sinful when you become a tree. And they do not make any distinction between life and matter. These things are going on. There is no knowledge, and they are passing as scientist, as philosopher. Why varieties of life? What is the scientific explanation? One life, he is prince; one life, he is tree. Why this difference? Is there any explanation? There must be some explanation. It is also life, it is also life. Why one life has got this prince body, another this tree body? Kāraṇam..., Bhagavad-gītā, kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). The cause is association of different types of material modes of nature. If you keep yourself dull as the tree, without associating with the modes of goodness, without becoming a brāhmaṇa, then you become a tree. That's all. And if you become a brāhmaṇa, then develop your association with goodness and go back to home, back to Godhead. Therefore human life should be fully engaged, athāto brahma jijñāsā, simply for understanding Brahman. And as soon as you understand brahma-jānāti iti brāhmaṇa, then you are brāhmaṇa.

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

Prabhupāda: We'll go on to the next one. This is some mathematical formulas related to that. I don't think we should dwell on that. This slide right here gives an example of the kind of structures you find even in simple organisms. This is a bacterium. When they look at it under a microscope, they can see that this bacterium has a reversible motor built into it, and this motor spins a spiral flagellum, and by spinning it it propels the bacteria through the water, just like a submarine. So this very sophisticated motor is built into the wall of the bacterium. So that shows the kind of structures for which designs would have to be there. Actually, the scientific explanation, the way that they explain how this comes about, is completely impossible, because they would say that either by chance it came about all at once—and the chances are way too small, so that would never happen—or else it would have to come by small stages somehow. But what would be a small stage in the formation of a workable motor? Can't even think of how that would work. So it doesn't make much sense.

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

Prabhupāda: Svarūpa Dāmodara was pointing out, it's not just any old structure, but it performs a very specific function within the cell, just like a little automatic machine of some kind. So we'd like to argue that the chance and molecular forces theory won't explain things like this, but to say that there is an intelligent designer would be a sensible explanation. The next slide, this shows some of the complexities of what goes on inside a cell, and it's only a fraction of what is there. It's hard to read, but each little bit of print refers to some very complicated chemical reaction involving big molecules like the one in the last slide. So there are hundreds of reactions like that on this one page, and this page is one out of four from a chart that we found detailing some of these things. This metabolism goes on even in the most primitive cells like this bacterium, and yet it's only a fraction of the total of what goes on. The scientists will admit they've only made a fractional study of all that's going on in these cells. So that kind of argument is one line of reasoning we'd like to present.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The question is, now we want to argue that how is it possible, now you are claiming that life is coming from molecules? If you claim like that, then how is it possible that in the same species, let's say in the birds, that these qualities are spreading? Some birds we see behave like a little influenced by the modes of goodness, though it is mixed. Like swan, we are taking that example. But some are like eagle, very passionate, wants to kill small birds as their food, and on the other hand, birds like crows, they like just to be completely ignorant, or they like to survive in a dirty environment. Why? Is this possible just from the concept of molecular evolution? It's completely, it's failing. They have no explanation along those terms. So we thought to bring up these points, it will be very clear that this evolution is completely wrong. So we want to use that...

Prabhupāda: There is no question of evolution. It is already there. This is a wrong theory. The monkey is there, the man is there. The soul is going from monkey to man. It is not the evolution. Just like you have got apartment, ten rupees, five rupees, twenty rupees, thirty rupees, like that. Now, as you pay, "Come on, here." There is no question of evolution. It is already there. Jantur dehopapattaye. These dehas, these bodies, are already there. So immediately it develops a particular type of desire, "Yes, come here, sit down."

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

Prabhupāda: So, as far as possible, you can give explanation from Bhāgavatam. Otherwise, how you can...

Devotee: So by giving these examples then they might think this has very good explanatory power, and they will therefore accept it, they will (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: So the general division in the higher planetary system is the devatās, beginning from sun, moon and other planetary systems, they are in modes of goodness prominent. Less, below that, bhūr bhuvaḥ, they are passionate, and below that, they are ignorant.

Devotee: Do the number of demigods have something to do with the number of species, like there are thirty-three million demigods?

Prabhupāda: There are thirty-three million. Thirty crores. There are also divisions, Gandharvas, Apsarās.

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

Prabhupāda: Absolute Truth, there is direction. Scientific explanation is... You were showing the picture that everything is being performed under some direction, not whimsically. Therefore there is somebody dictating.

Sadāpūta: You see the cause of everything?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Vipina: These are the natural falls here, Prabhupāda, not manmade.

Prabhupāda: Ah, where?

Vipina: Not manmade. (break) It is not necessary to take millions of years for life to develop, because within five days an egg is there and life is being manifest. But scientists are saying it took millions of years to come to that stage where in five days it would only take life to become manifest.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is, but we have taken that they are talking all nonsense. And whatever we present, they'll take it as mythology.

Rūpānuga: But like Mādhava Prabhu pointed out, we have to make some explanation. We should explain because they...

Prabhupāda: That you do, but the position is like this. Our conclusion is that whatever they are saying, that is imperfect. That is not possible. And that is a fact. Therefore they change, after fifty years, they change. Because it's speculation. Therefore we say totally they are wrong, and they will take totally "From mythology," like that, this is going on.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Now one aspect in that, now in Christian group also, some are trying to preach that these things are created by God, but they have a problem there.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: You do not know what is Vedānta. (indistinct) In the beginning of Vedānta, athāto brahma jijñāsā. "Now try to inquire about this Supreme, (indistinct) Brahman." The next verse is janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), Brahman is there, from whom everything emanates. So now, what is that thing from which everything emanates? What is the nature of that thing? That is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhāgavatam is the real explanation of Veda. Brahma-sūtra, (indistinct) mahasyam brahma-sūtrānāṁ vedasya parividyatam (?), this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, vedasya parividyatam, (indistinct) avyayam, brahma-sūtrasya (?) uvaca, by Vyāsadeva himself. Vyāsadeva is the writer of Vedānta-sūtra, so he's writing himself under the instruction of Nārada. So to understand Vedānta, you have to study Bhāgavatam. He's explained janmādy asya (SB 1.1.1). Brahman is the original source of everything. Janmādy asya yataḥ. So what is the nature? Janmādy asya yataḥ anvayād itarataś ca... (end)

Evening Darsana -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Mr. Deyani: So many, when we go to our offices, since we come from India, naturally the very intelligent young boys and girls, they ask various questions to us. And just for the sake of their curiosity, naturally they ask the question about the Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we try to explain our ways, whatever we know. What explanation we have got when they put the example of, you know, that sixteen-year-old guru and something like that kind of things? What explanation we have got in that circumstance. In that circumstance, what explanation we have got as an individual for the Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This young boy guru, when they bring up this subject matter to the Indians who have come from India who are working here in America, they feel a little embarrassed, loss for words or explanation what to say, that this is their Indian culture, they feel they don't know how to represent themselves.

Mr. Deyani: How to represent the Kṛṣṇa consciousness? This is my question. How to represent it? What to say to them?

Prabhupāda: What is your question? That means you do not know about him.

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

Prabhupāda: They asked you? They asked you?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So what did you answer?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We said yes, but our explanation was much (indistinct) in the sense that we said you have to study this more carefully, but we tried to remark the concept that now we are conditioned to believe certain things.

Prabhupāda: Now, how they heard that we are believing in this way?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: From Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

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

Prabhupāda: But that is a fact.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But we had one explanation saying that now, the way we percept knowledge, though we understand things, there is also a conditioning behind it. So actually this is a fact, but in Mathematics, if we change the axiom, then we have a whole new understanding, it's almost completely upside down, but still we can interpret the result. It is just like a simple jumble(?), while Nils Bohr, studying the structure of the atom. Now he had a mathematical equation to fit the phenomena of this atom, and actually you can perfectly describe this phenomena by this equation, but, now, at morning times, this quantum mechanics, it turns out whatever he did was completely wrong, but it can be described completely, perfectly well as his model, as is our present understanding. But now his theories (indistinct), he could explain things on his own, but still it's completely wrong. So similarly...

Prabhupāda: They are right. They may present the wrong thing, but still they are right.

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

Prabhupāda: Automobile, automatically the automobile does not develop. When a man, a person, develops the design, that is a question of development. But the automobile as it is, it does not develop. It is matter. When matter is handled by a spirit soul, then there is change. Otherwise there is no change.

Dr. Sharma: Perhaps I can give you a scientific explanation. I'm a scientist. According to science every cell is changed within twelve years. Every single body's cell is changed.

Bill Sauer: It's continuous, yes.

Dr. Sharma: It's a continuing process, by the molecular process, all right? And Gītā says: vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛhṇāti naro 'parāṇi (BG 2.22). Just like you change the old clothes to new clothes-it's an exact word-to-word translation.

Sauer: We're a continually changing image, right.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is by chance.

Prabhupāda: "By chance," just see. Is that explanation? Hmm? If one head is bald-headed, why by chance it does not come again, hair? And these plants and creepers are coming by chance, just see. We have to accept this explanation? (aside:) You sit down. That is for the outsider. So this is explanation by the scientist, "By chance." Just see. How fools they are.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Chance is their instrument of explanation.

Prabhupāda: Just see how they are befooling persons. The law is cause and effect. Nothing is chance. There is cause, and there is effect. It is saying the same thing, that "This girl has produced a child by chance." It is not possible. Any sane man knows that she had connection with man, either legally or illegally. It is not chance. So there can... Nothing can happen as chance. That is imperfect knowledge. Wash out.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And they have several explanations, mostly based on speculation.

Prabhupāda: Everything speculation. The down portion is older, no?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, the.... In these rocks the upper one is older according to their calculation by dating method, geological dating method and the younger one is at the bottom. First I wanted to contact our Prabhu at the, Bob.

Hari-ṣauri: Bob Cohen.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, Bob Cohen our geology.... Sometime Prabhupāda had trouble with this boy?

Devotee: In a Back to Godhead article.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

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

Prabhupāda: So many trees have come. (break) ...from stone there is grass.

Rāmeśvara: They have no explanation for this. No one ever asks these questions, Śrīla Prabhupāda, why the grass is coming out of stone.

Prabhupāda: No. Our point is why even in moon planet there is stone only, and...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No living entities.

Prabhupāda: ...no living entities?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No life.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They say there is no air.

Hari-śauri: It's due to atmosphere, that's their reasoning.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say stone can be in both places but life, living entities cannot.

Bali-mardana: They classify organic and inorganic.

Prabhupāda: They may talk all rubbish, foolish things, we don't believe it.

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

Rāmeśvara: That is the only explanation.

Prabhupāda: That is the only explanation.

Rāmeśvara: They are very bewildered. They cannot imagine how a cell within the body is growing. They cannot imagine that there is a soul within it. Or a plant from a seed. They can never understand these things. Actually it's a fact. When we studied in biology before we became devotees, they never explained how the tree comes from the seed.

Prabhupāda: The seed creates a favorable situation, and the life comes. On account of the life's presence, it grows, it develops. This is right explanation.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayatīrtha: They are similar to the ones in Baltimore. I saw that picture. One boy from Baltimore just came here, Śrutadeva.

Bhagavān: We have done this like in the English, with the explanation on this side.

Jayatīrtha: C'est magnifique. (laughter)

Bhagavān: The color has come out nicely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They like pictures?

Bhagavān: Oh, yes.

Jayatīrtha: The French are much different than the Germans.

Bhagavān: This on the back, this explains the end pages here, so people can see the whole picture, and the explanation is given here.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: It is restriction.

Parivrājakācārya: Yes. So this is what we explain; we say if it is good, then why is it restricted?

Prabhupāda: That is a good explanation. What do they say?

Parivrājakācārya: They say, well, Mohammed did it.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But this is restriction. There is light in the veranda?

Jñānagamya: Yes, there is light. Yes.

Prabhupāda: So let us go so that you can sit comfortably. You can take this (indistinct). That janma-acarana, 12th canto, 3rd chapter. (moving occurs) I shall like to sit down. (indistinct) Now in the beginning...

Pradyumna: The beginning of the third chapter?

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes, so that requires the training and guidance of spiritual master. Therefore called spiritual master. You have to... Just like if you want to be an engineer, you must be trained under some engineer. Similarly, if you want to be trained up spiritually, then you must accept a spiritual master. Tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet: (MU 1.2.12) must, otherwise not possible. Training. So spiritual master trains with these books, and explanation, practical demonstration. In this way the student makes progress spiritually.

Ali: I am a Muslim and I practice dervishism.

Prabhupāda: That, that... This is also a misunderstanding. You are thinking you are a Muslim. Why?

Ali: It's just by normal definition.

Prabhupāda: Yes, because you are born of a Muslim father or a Muslim country.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: That's all. You are trying to unify the so-called human beings, but you are keeping the poor animals for cutting their throat. This is your humanity. Because these poor animals cannot protest, so you are strong. And this is your humanity, you cut their throat and eat. But that is not humanity. Humanity is here mentioned: God is the seed-giving father all living entities. That is the fact. That is humanity. They do not know what is meaning by humanity. Here is the explanation, humanity. That is called brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). Unless you come to that stage, there is no question of humanity. Artificially, you manufacture something and you think humanity. According to your convenience. "Let us combine together and exploit other living entities for our benefit." That is not humanity. They do not know what is humanity. Here is the explanation. How humanity can be established unless there is the understanding of the supreme father, how there is question of, how this question of brotherhood can come in? Here Kṛṣṇa says ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā: (BG 14.4) "I am the seed-giving father."

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: How do they support? In other words, they cannot give explanation, and like a foolish man says "Chance." You cannot give proper explanation how things are happening. Like a foolish rascal: "Chance."

Dayānanda: Because they see according to their intelligence that things are happening according to chance. According to their understanding, sometimes things happen...

Prabhupāda: So what is this understanding? The chance?

Dayānanda: In their experience, or in our experience, we see things are happening...

Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of the scientists? Things take place by chance. What is the use of them?

Dayānanda: By chance there may be an accident, or by chance there may be...

Prabhupāda: Anyway, things will happen by chance, accident. So why they're bothering about things and taking the credit of becoming scientist?

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Astrology... I don't think they believe in astrology. There is no question of astrology. We practically we see that one man ordered to be hanged by the justice, he has to be hanged. That is destiny. One has not seen who has ordered, but he sees that "This man is being hanged." He cannot explain; he says, "By chance." So whose explanation is right? The chance explanation or the destiny explanation—which is right?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Actually, logically, I cannot see how there is any chance, not a single. When I was a child I used to give an argument to my friend, and he used to say, "A chance. Everything is chance. It is like a lottery ticket." I said to him, "If you don't buy the lottery ticket and win $50,000, then that is chance. But if you buy the lottery ticket..."

Prabhupāda: How it is chance?

Morning Walk, House Visit, Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Brahmacārī will be upstairs. Householders live in the other place, and the Deity will be there.

Prabhupāda: Then it is all right. Very good explanation(?). But people in this land, they will come for a restaurant, customer?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, this is very good neighborhood.

Prabhupāda: As soon as they understand, they will come.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes.

Prabhupāda: For restaurant, very nice. (some conversing as lady shows them through)

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Kleśada āsa dehaḥ. Kleśada, as soon as you get a body, kleśada. May have good doctor friend, but I'll have to suffer. We can get some relief, but suffering is there. Therefore na sādhu manye. It is not good. So people are being trained up to become mad, pramattaḥ. And do anything, bring money. This is the modern civilization. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). Things which are forbidden, they are doing that. Why? Indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti, only for sense gratification. They have no other ambition. Bring money and gratify senses. This is modern civilization. This is the exact explanation-nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). Black money, white money, this money, that..., never mind, bring money.

Indian Doctor: (laughter) By any way.

Room Conversation -- August 16, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Liberated for going to hell.

Devotee: In your Kṛṣṇa book, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you've given such clear explanations along with the stories of Kṛṣṇa that it's very difficult to misinterpret, because you use such clear explanation.

Prabhupāda: No, you read all the books first of all. Then you'll be able to understand.

Yaśomatīnandana: Even theoretical understanding that Kṛṣṇa is transcendental will not help unless one...

Prabhupāda: Because Kṛṣṇa will lift, samaste, Kṛṣṇa lifted the hill. Now how you can become equal with Kṛṣṇa?

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is sādhu. The first qualification is titikṣava. very tolerant. And Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has said kṣamā-rūpaṁ tapasvinām. Those who are tapasvīs, their first duty is how much he is forgiving. How much he has learned to forgive. Kṣamā-rūpaṁ tapasvinām. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena (SB 6.1.13). So what is the explanation?

Harikeśa: Purport? A sādhu, as described above, is a devotee of the Lord. His concern, therefore, is to enlighten people in devotional service to the Lord. That is his mercy. He knows that without devotional service to the Lord, human life is spoiled. A devotee travels all over the country, from door to door, preaching, "Be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Be a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Don't spoil your life in simply fulfilling your animal propensities. Human life is meant for self-realization, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness." These are the preachings of a sādhu. He is not satisfied with his own liberation. He always thinks about others.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, I say about Bhāgavata's description. How perfect it is in any subject matter. I have tried to explain what is there in the Bhāgavatam, expand it. That is not my explanation, that is Kṛṣṇa's explanation. I cannot explain now. That moment I could explain. That means Kṛṣṇa's... I can understand that. That the description is very nicely given. Although it is my writing, but I know it is not my writing. It is Kṛṣṇa's writing. So we should read Bhāgavatam always. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). We should not waste our time. So we have to check that closet. You can... (break) How they can say there is no God? Then you are only intelligent. All are fools. That means you are fool number one. If you think like that...

Room Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...forest, naked, renounced, eating fruits. But debauch number one. Markaṭa-vairāgya. There are so many vairāgīs. Markaṭa. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said, ei 'ta kali-celā. Here is a disciple of Kali. Nāke tilaka galāi mālā. But has got a tilaka on the forehead and neckbeads on the neck. But is Kali-celā-number one disciple of Kali. You know this song? Kali-celā. These persons who are committing sinful life—don't say anyone (laughs) or publish—there will be trouble. But that's a fact. Those who are living in Vṛndāvana and acting like monkey, they'll get next life—a monkey. To remain in Vṛndāvana, and then next life they will be liberated. In one life all their sinful activities will be punished. Because as soon as animal life is obtained, there is no more further record of the sinful life. The animals cannot make sinful activities more than what is destined by him. But their sinful activity is not taken into account. For this man who is offered this monkey's body, he suffers the inconvenience of monkey life. So his sinful activities are counteracted, and because he came to Vṛndāvana and lived in Vṛndāvana by the mercy of Rādhārāṇī, next life he will be... That is the glory of Vṛndāvana-dhāma. Otherwise what is the explanation of these dogs and hogs and monkeys in Vṛndāvana? If it is dhāma-aparādha, committing offense in dhāma. Dhāma-aparādha.

Room Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is further from them. Everything is being done by superior arrangement. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). People should learn all these things by practical example instead of becoming irresponsible and without any obedience to the superior law. They should learn it, but they have no intelligence. They think, "We are all free." Wherefrom the monkey is coming, why there are so many varieties of life, how it is...? What do they know? Nothing. All bluff, vague explanation and that is going on in the name of science. This is the position. All rascals. Fortunately we have got this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā. All knowledge. First-class knowledge. (break) ...eternally-enjoyment. For him everything, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Everything ānanda. He has no such thing that this is harmful, that this is useful. That is Kṛṣṇa. Because nobody can do harm to Him and neither in the spiritual world, anyone is harmful. Everyone is advanced devotee. Even the tigers, they are also devotees.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is explanation of that?

Devotee: Hm.

Prabhupāda: I don't think in any other edition such explanation is there. Dr. Radhakrishnan, other this Dada (?) Krishna. Radhakrishnan and Dada Krishna. Tribhir guṇamayair bhāvair ebhiḥ sarvam. Hm. Nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. Therefore they cannot understand what is God, especially the communist countries. Completely in ignorance. (Sanskrit) They're thinking that by external adjustment, by following the Marxist theory or Lenin's theory and killing the capitalists, inventing some bogus ways of happiness... (pause) You have been in Moscow?

Haṁsadūta: Hm, several times.

Prabhupāda: Hm. I think they are poor. Is it not?

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Here they never satisfied. This is the modern mentality. Nobody is satisfied with his income. He wants more money. And for that purpose he can do anything rascal. I have seen it. This peon puts his bag without any responsibility. Letters are strewn and maybe some letters stolen. Who can say? And he came to earn some money. For some time he'll compose and get some labor. And in Calcutta I have seen all the office peons, they are sleeping in Dalhousie Square, the peon book as the pillow, for hours together. And when they, after distributing, when they return to the office it is going to be closed. And if they are asked explanation, "Why you are so late?" "Oh, he was not there. I had to wait three hours," and so on, so on, so on. Everyone is dishonest. Nobody is working honestly. Especially in India, because poverty-stricken. If they can sleep two hours he thinks that he has made some profit. Formerly people were God conscious. They did not like to cheat, that "God will be displeased." Now they don't believe in God, so they can do anything.

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And originally they are śūdras. The history of Bengali kāyasthas... They went with the brāhmaṇas as servant. That is the history. And in Bengal the system is... (Bengali saying and Hindi explanation) Actually it is... If some low class man, he becomes rich, then he's taken into the kāyastha community. Anyone who cannot stick to the principle of caste system, he becomes a kāyastha.

Bhagatji: Varṇa-saṅkara.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (Hindi) Some of them are kṣatriyas and some of them... Like that. But that is not essential. That is all gone. Now, if one cannot take education, he can be used in farm work, a little hard work.

Jagadīśa: (name withheld) is another problem.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation -- November 20, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: People are so misled. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). We have to change this body. There is no preparation. "As sure as death." Death will take place, and you have to accept another body. Who understands this philosophy? Nobody. They are so dull-headed. This body finished, everything finished. All big, big leaders, scholars, they say. One gentleman, his name is... He was Rabindranath Tagore's brother, artist. So in a meeting he was saying, "We are so fool. Thinking of next life, next life, we are spoiling this life." He said like that long, long ago when we were children, young men, about eighteen years, twenty years. So I remember distinctly, he is saying in the meeting that "Simply thinking of next life, we are spoiling this life." He said. That was his explanation. So at that time we were young boys: "Yes, why we should think of, so much of next life?" Of course, I was not very much convinced, but naturally... I think his name Aurobindo Tagore, like that. Rabindranath Tagore. He is good artist. Artist means latest fashion, like this, like that, like that. He was considered to be latest artist. And his view is that. I talked with Professor Kotofsky.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Oh, this is the explanation of the situation? You...?

Haṁsadūta: You experienced.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So how to adjust these things now? Do it.

Mahāṁśa: What I would suggest, Prabhupāda, is that I could stay here, and whatever work we have to do, we sit together in the morning or in the night and we decide, "Tomorrow we have to do so much. We need so much labor for vegetables. We need so much labor for this, this." We make up a whole schedule of work for the next day. And in the morning laborers come and Tejas, who has experience in agriculture, he can show how this has to be done, how that...

Prabhupāda: And he can speak Telegu also.

Mahāṁśa: Yes. And I can be there to see that there is proper communication. And then after ten o'clock, because laborers start work early morning, so at ten o'clock, then I can go to Hyderabad and do official work for the day, see the government people and things like that.

Room Conversation -- December 20, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, that is not interpretation. That is explanation. Interpretation, if I change Kurukṣetra into something else, that is interpretation. That is wisdom. That is wisdom.

Guest: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say instead of collecting so many hundreds and thousands of literature on the Bhagavad-gītā, why not take Bhagavad-gītā as it is? What is the difficulty? Kurukṣetra is this position is fact. Mahābhārata, Mahābhārata means greater India. And that is, it is itihasa. It is called itihāsa. Itihāsa, if you don't believe that there was a battle in the Kurukṣetra... But that is the fact. It is the history. Then how you can finish (?) Bhagavad-Gītā? Every point of Bhagavad-gītā, it is clear. It is clear. There is no need of interpretation. That is the first thing. If you interpret you spoil the whole thing. Because interpretation is required when the things are not clear. If everything is clear, why should you interpret?

Guest: No, it is explanation I think.

Room Conversation -- December 20, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Explanation, you cannot explain that Kurukṣetra means this, dharmakṣetra means this, Pāṇḍava means this. Why?

Guest: No, no.

Prabhupāda: Take Sanskrit. Take Sanskrit. Dharmakṣetre kurukṣetre. do not interpret to any other language. Take Sanskrit. Kurukṣetra is clear, dharmakṣetra is clear, Pāṇḍava is clear. Then why should we interpret? Why not take the particular verse. Everything, when there is a (indistinct), then please do not try to cut, or (indistinct) your (indistinct). If there is... (indistinct) ...but by translating the whole thing you mistake then what is the use of such translation? (indistinct)

Guest: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then you first of all learn Sanskrit, then you (indistinct). If there is (indistinct). This practice should be stopped. If you want to preach Bhagavad-gītā, and if you want to preach your own philosophy through Bhagavad-gītā, don't do this preaching. You preach your philosophy, your (indistinct). You can preach any philosophy you like, but don't take Bhagavad-gītā and (indistinct) on it. (?) That is my (indistinct). That is being done. That is being done.

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

Prabhupāda: But that is not many ways. It is a kind of explanation. This is this. If you do not understand that this, this is this. The point is one, that your brother is not your brother's body. So there cannot be many answers. Answer is one.

Indian man: Answer is one. Ways, as you have mentioned just now. Different ways.

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

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: The answer is one.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, there is no need of speculation. Kṛṣṇa is explaining Himself. You take the advantage of Kṛṣṇa's explanation. You understand Kṛṣṇa. What is the difficulty? There is no difficulty. I am explaining my position. You have to understand as I am explaining. You cannot explain me. That is not possible. There are so many secrets, I do not dis..., if I do not disclose, how you can explain it?

Indian man: Very simple, the way you related mother's. My mind could immediately accept it. But at the point of father's it stopped.

Prabhupāda: Because you are thinking to become father in a particular way. You do not accept...

Indian man: Mother also in particular way...

Prabhupāda: That means you are thinking in your own particular way. But Kṛṣṇa is not subjected to your thinking. You have to give up this bad habit first of all, that Kṛṣṇa will be subordinate to your thinking. That is not God.

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

Prabhupāda: Why? Do you think a grain of gold and a big gold lump is same?

Mr. Malhotra: Gold, I think I am also gold.

Prabhupāda: No, gold that is accepted, quality. That if you say, this is explanation. You must have brain to understand. That a small particle of gold and a big gold, they are gold in quality but the big gold is millions of dollars and a small particle is few dollars. Just see this is accepted. This Māyāvāda theory has made people atheists, that "I am God, I am equal to God." Very bad theory.

Mr. Malhotra: From where these things also come? From where it comes?

Prabhupāda: From the Vedas. Vedas says, na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate, Upaniṣads. Na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svā-bhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport).

Morning Walk -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no, we are speaking... We are speaking... Because it is important, therefore Kṛṣṇa said, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya. Why go-rakṣya required, you do not require any explanation. Kṛṣṇa said, go-rakṣya, "You must protect." That's all. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Because we have no brain why Kṛṣṇa—giving up all other animals—He is giving stress on go. And that is meaning. He never said, animal-rakṣya, paśu-rakṣya, no. Those who want to eat paśu, let them eat nonimportant like hogs and dogs. There are class of men who eat dogs also, hogs also. Or, utmost, goats. But don't touch cow. This is instruction. And modern civilization first of all killed all the cows. And when they are no more available then can you eat other animals. I do not know why our government is now restricting cow slaughter.

Dr. Patel: They have banned the cow slaughter all over India now.

Prabhupāda: I know that. Eh.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Then why...? You become expert. If you cannot find out seven men, then what is this institution? Anyway, one may not be very expert, but he should practice how to explain. The explanation is there. He has to simply do it very nicely, that's all. Everything is there. And the students should sit down in that way here. That's all. It's not at all difficult.

Jagadīśa: Usually the yoga camps begin on a certain date and finish on a certain date.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jagadīśa: Usually the yoga camps advertise to begin lessons on a certain date and finish by a certain date.

Prabhupāda: That is seven days.

Jagadīśa: Yes. But they don't stagger it.

Hari-śauri: They don't stagger the course, yes. See, if he arranges with, say, like...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Courses start every Monday.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: If we explain that the whole purpose of the exercises...

Prabhupāda: That is the explanation required.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Is to concentrate, and by concentration your health will improve.

Hari-śauri: The idea is to tone the body so the senses are subdued.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: So we engage their senses in kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: That is the actual fact. You read that portion.

Jagadīśa: They are coming to India to learn yoga, right? What is the perfection of yoga? Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, but they...

Prabhupāda: They cannot dictate. That is not...

Hari-śauri: If they want exercise, we can stand them up, arms in the air, they can dance and they can chant.

Page Title:Explanation (Conversations 1976)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:07 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=89, Let=0
No. of Quotes:89