Island (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"island" |"islands"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Now, do you think that after so much trouble, so much labor, if you go there and simply come back and be complacent that, "Oh, I went there," is that very great achievement? If you can live there, you can utilize that place, then it is all right. Just like so many Europeans, they came to America and not simply to see and go back. Why they settled here? That is successful. Columbus invented this island and people came and they utilized it. Otherwise, if simply coming and going, why take so much trouble?

Reporter: Well, that's a point.

Prabhupāda: But our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has nothing to do with this moon planet going.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Some devotees are coming. And in Honolulu, two boys, they are also doing. In Hawaii there are two branches now. Yes. One at Honolulu, one at Kauai. Kauai. That island's name is Oahu. Hawaii has five islands' stretch, and this is called Oahu. Oahu island, one side, Honolulu, and one side... This island means hill. And the valley of the hills are utilized for residential purposes. So all sides, Pacific Ocean. And there is ample production of sugar cane and pineapple. I was chewing sugar cane as it is. Yes. And there is so many coconut trees, palm trees, and mango. In mango season they throw away mangos. So I have asked Govinda dāsī that "You make mango pulp and dry it and send it." So they are doing nice, husband and wife, Gaurasundara, yes, trying their best. I do not know whether they are working now.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: That is another thing, but generally.

Devotee: No, they don't. In China, the island of Taiwan, the original inhabitants, they were known as man-eaters.

Prabhupāda: Man-eaters?

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So this Calcutta story is not a story, it is fact. Hm?

Guru dāsa: I was asking Yamunā about the tape.

Prabhupāda: Tape?

Guru dāsa: About this tape recording.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is not the question of "the Chinese are eating, I am not eating." It is a question that how many number of different types of body I got. It is not that I am talking of Chinaman eating man or dog. I may be in this form, next life. So, therefore, the problem is how to stop this transmigration of the soul. That is the problem. Not that because the Chinese man eats something else other than I eat, that does not mean that I am very much... (break) Therefore, we have to prepare ourself what kind of body we are going to have next.

Conversation with the GBC -- May 25, 1972, Los Angeles:

Devotee: Hong Kong, North and South Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, (indistinct), Australia, New Zealand, Fiji Islands, Samoa, and Tahiti.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: Tahiti.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) Make that one zone. Then next zone?

Devotee: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: First of all divide the whole world. It doesn't matter who goes where but...

Devotee: India, Pakistan, (indistinct discussion), Bangladesh, (indistinct) China. Then we have the Mediterranean zone.

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Devotee: Oh. There's some famous islands between England and Holland called the Jersey Islands. There's special milk that comes from Jersey. Jersey milk is best.

Prabhupāda: No. These Europeans, Americans, if they take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they'll be more happy. That is assured. From all angles of vision-their family life, their political life, their social life, their cultural life, their religious life, their philosophical life, their scientific life—everything will be perfect. Now you have to teach them. I can give you the ideas how they'll be happy. The rascals, they do not know why, what is your specialness, and just to teach you this. My only ambition is that you are... (aside:) Oh, there is no water. You are supposed to be the most intelligent persons. (Prabhupāda drinks) So if you take, others will take. That is going on. So I have no distinction between East and West. They're thinking that East is conquering West by culture. That is their enviousness. (laughter) That is, they are afraid. Because the Britishers, they kept Indian culture suppressed so long because... (break) ...the kṣatriya, kings, in special cases. Not for public. Among the kṣatriyas. And among the vaiśyas, one day in a year, when they were allocated(?), to try one's luck. One day they'll bet. Not amongst the brāhmaṇas or the śūdras. Śūdras have no money to gamble, and brāhmaṇas prohibited. The kṣatriyas, they were also allowed in special cases, and the vaiśyas were allowed to engage in gambling one day in a year. That means restricted.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Guest (1): Yes, the same, classic Greek mythology based on modern western civilization. And do you understand Japanese, all character (indistinct) ...logical study based on Shintoism basic of (indistinct) from south island (indistinct) and Mongolian (indistinct) one race (indistinct) one Japanese (indistinct) by Shintoism, world mythology, same as the Greek mythology, gods and (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: What you are doing here?

Guest (1): No program (indistinct) ...pension (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Get pension from Japan?

Room Conversation with Educationists -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Staten Island?

Haṁsadūta: Staten Island.

Prabhupāda: Crossing by ferry, one hour. Then waiting for bus, another hour. Then going to the office. Then after office, they're coming back. Again going. Whole day, they're dependent on everything. That is the condition in New York. It is to be supposed: the most advanced city. The same thing is everywhere. People are becoming dependent, śūdra, just like dogs. A dog, unless he gets a nice master, he's not happy. So at the present moment, all the population, just like the cats and dogs, they're dependent. They are not intelligent. Intelligence means he must be independent. That is intelligence. And people are struggling for independence. That is their motive. Everyone is struggling hard for independence. Because that is the culmination of intelligence. So our problem is that we do not know what we are. Neither we know how to get out of the miserable condition of life. Therefore we have no intelligence. We are like cats and dogs. This is the conclusion.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Father Tanner: Well, for instance, if you take a man shipwrecked on an island alone, he is not in any sense taking part in impure love, or illicit love. But it doesn't mean to say that he is free from all desire for illicit love.

Prabhupāda: No. Nobody's free. But so long he acts nicely, he's nice.

Father Tanner: So it is the action, rather than the, no, the exterior rather than the interior.

Prabhupāda: No, interior... Well, of course, everyone has got interior tendency, but by practicing actually, exteriorally, that interior also is reformed. It is, by external behavior, the interior behavior also becomes fixed up. By practice. Therefore there is regular class so that he may be purified internally and externally. Sa bāhyābhyantara-śuciḥ. Yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bāhyābhyantara-śuciḥ. If you constantly remember the Supreme Lord, so you become automatically purified, internally and externally. Because the Lord is absolute, so if we chant the Lord's holy name, the name is also Lord. He has no difference between His name and Himself.

Morning Walk -- December 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: If the chanter is sincere.

Jagajjīvana: In the Dominican Republic which is an island near us, the chanting is so powerful, it draws so many people, that the government won't let us in to the country because it is so powerful. We have devotees there now, though. We had to send a devotee incognito, in disguise, to get residence there. Now he's...

Prabhupāda: Oh, they will not give place?

Jagajjīvana: They didn't let us in the country, but we have devotees there now.

Morning Walk -- December 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Where it is?

Jagajjīvana: That is on the other side of the island, on Puerto Rico.

Prabhupāda: Rūpānuga Mahārāja went there?

Jagajjīvana: Yes. And...

Prabhupāda: He can speak in Spanish?

Jagajjīvana: No. We have a translator. He speaks and someone translates. And there is a school there with 25,000 students. Scientist students. (break) ...all photographs of the chanting to show how people are taking this.

Prabhupāda: Taking part. That's nice.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 15, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Eh? (break) From any earth you'll find some percentage of salt. (break) ...for increasing population, but we rascals, we have made, "No, you cannot come here. You rot there." This is our civilization. India, China is overpopulated. So if people allow, just like Australia, Africa, and many islands.

Bali Mardana: Russia.

Prabhupāda: Russia is useless.

Bali Mardana: Oh, it's too cold.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is for the Russians. But there are so many other islands like this.

Sudāmā: Tahiti.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Sudāmā: Tahiti. Also is... Below here.

Bali Mardana: There are thousands of islands in the Pacific.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Let them come and live here. Produce foodstuffs, have cows, fruits, flowers, live peacefully, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa; but they won't allow. Americans, yes, they have got so much land. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). Whatever is Kṛṣṇa's property, you can... You are Kṛṣṇa's son; you can utilize it. But one son is prohibiting, "No, no, you cannot enter here." This is the problem. The so-called nationalism is dangerous. Just see how nice flowers, fruits, plant. Everything is there, complete.

Morning Walk -- January 15, 1974, Hawaii:

Sudāmā: They make, they can make a whole at... Just like this island, they can make out of plastic. Plastic coconut trees...

Prabhupāda: How many they can make?

Bali Mardana: They do not reproduce.

Sudāmā: They don't reproduce, though.

Prabhupāda: Simply they're rascals and who are bewildered by rascals, they are also rascals. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). He's an animal, and their work is appreciated by another animal. The so-called scientists' advancement of knowledge is appreciated by another rascal, not any intelligent man. We can appreciate, but when they're godless, we kick him out. Just see. This is the... Now, this is a solid thing. How it grows and how the water comes? Now it will not grow. Because (it is) detached. But if it remains attached, it will grow. So wherefrom the water is coming?

Bali Mardana: From the ground.

Morning Walk -- January 15, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Jayaśrī: On Kauai they have tulasī plants and they have a cow.

Sudāmā: There's some devotees on another island and they have tulasī plants and a cow there.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Morning Walk -- January 16, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: ...in the history there is no such action.

Devotee: There was one time on one of the other islands. It fell on someone, some child.

Bali Mardana: Sometimes during a storm it may be loosened.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing.

Satsvarūpa: Kṛṣṇa lets them fall in such a way that people don't get hurt.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...grow fruit, eh? (break) And if the fruit is green, it will never fall. Therefore when the fruits are grown, green, take it down. But that they do not know.

Morning Walk -- February 25, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: In Indonesia, Jakarta I went. The Java Hindus, they gave me reception.

Dr. Patel: The whole Bali Island is all Hindus.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Hundred percent Hindus.

Prabhupāda: They arranged a reception for me. The Java Hindus. (break)

Dr. Patel: No, no. His wife's name was Gītā. (break)

Prabhupāda: Sanskrit name, Sukarṇa. "One who has got good ears." Sukarṇa.

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

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...and some European, one European was coming. So as soon as we face to face, so I had to get down. They forced me.

Dr. Patel: You know that way they behaved with Gandhiji in South Africa.

Prabhupāda: Beaten him like anything. He would have died. (break) Fisher's, Fisherman's island. "I shall again turn them into fisherman's island."

Dr. Patel: British people is the fisherman's island.

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.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Bombay also is hell. Bombay, nobody inhabited this island till the Britishers came, and they created this spot. The importance of Bombay backward... Otherwise so far hell is concerned they are both place. Best is Bangalore in India. Best.

Prabhupāda: (break) Doctor can manage securing medicine, distributing. That is another thing.

Indian Devotee (5): Actually, from his talk I could understand that he actually doesn't want to do much. He said he will not be able to come and examine the patients even.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Indian Devotee (5): He says, "You try to find some other doctor." He told me, "You find out names and addresses of the local doctors, and we'll pick one of them."

Prabhupāda: No, no, we cannot divert our attention. It is not possible. Say, "No." You can say that "We consulted Prabhupāda. He said, 'At the present moment, unless our building is there, we cannot accept any other extra business.' " Tell him like that.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Why Los Angeles? Everywhere. In New York they are coming from hundred miles. From the other side of the island. First ferry steamer, then bus, then so on, so on. Three hours, four hours, they spend for transport.

Satsvarūpa: Is this an ideal solution or a practical one?

Prabhupāda: This is practical.

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

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: I think... When I was in college I studied chemistry, and I think many of the scientists that I also met, they felt very alienated from their asso..., from their relationship with nature or with God because of their empirical approach to everything, of setting themselves apart from everything. Therefore they felt detached from the complete whole, almost as if an island floating away somewhere with no relationship.

Prabhupāda: They... You became detached from all material activities? No?

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Well, just the observer.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: This is the scientist's point of view. He's just observing, observing, observing, and therefore he feels almost left out of it. So they want to participate. They're very attracted to the...

Prabhupāda: But he's observing himself or not? Or he's simply observing outside himself?

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: In Long Island and those places, if you go, the sea, the sea is so dirty.

Nitāi: In New York, they're anticipating a crisis because for many years, they've been taking all their trash and rubbish and putting it out in the sea. And now that whole part of the sea is coming in towards land, very, very contaminated.

Bhagavān: Yes. The article said that they dump their garbage in a certain area, and nothing can grow there except the most poisonous bacteria. And now that whole business is moving back towards the population.

Prabhupāda: Reaction. Everything... Yajñārthe karmaṇo yatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). Whatever you do, you are bound up by the reaction. That is nature's law. (break) ...and occasionally there will be big war, and they'll kill themselves. That's all. Now they are killing animals. That is a separate from human being. But time will come, the human beings, they will kill themselves, one another. Not only one, two, but wholesale. Daily, millions or thousands will be killed. They want to avoid war. For that reason, they invented the United Nations.

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

Prabhupāda: 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.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Your seeing has no power. This is no argument, "I cannot see." I cannot see the other side. That does not mean there is nothing. This is all rascaldom. He has become authority "I want to see." What you can see? Now this is Indian Ocean. On the other side there is India, and other islands, but you cannot see it. Does it mean there is nothing? So, these are foolish questions. Because they are rascals they put such questions and nonsense. That is the proof that they are rascals. They are simply taking authority his little vision. That's all. What is your vision? Why don't you see what is the other side? But does it mean there is nothing because you cannot see? WHen one says "I cannot see," that means he is a rascal number one. He's believing so much upon his seeing. He does not know that he is a most insignificant person, so there is no value of his seeing. That he does not know. Therefore he is a rascal. Is it not? He's believing his eyes so greatly that "I cannot see." And what is the value of your seeing? What you can see?

Amogha: But there are so many people who come to us and say, "Well, we can see." But we don't believe they can see.

Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Oh. How you came here?

Indian boy: Well, my parents moved to Fiji Islands, and I was with them. And then we all came to Australia.

Prabhupāda: She is also Indian?

Indian boy: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom you are?

Indian girl: My parents were born in India and I was brought up in Fiji.

Prabhupāda: Now they are in Fiji?

Indian girl: No.

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: No.

Śrutakīrti: Africa is about the only place other than some islands.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Africa is black.

Amogha: Aborigines here also.

Paramahaṁsa: They have black natives here also, Australia.

Prabhupāda: They are all descendant of the same.

Amogha: Did the Greek civilization follow the Vedic culture?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. They were worshiping demigods from the Vedas.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Vedic literature. Śruti-pramāṇam. Śruti means Vedas. What is that? That is another island?

Devotee: That's the Kaneohe marine base.

Prabhupāda: Huh? What is that?

Guru kṛpā: A marine base, army base.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Śrutakīrti: They have missiles.

Guru kṛpā: In these mountains, and the mountain opens, the missile comes out. It's ready to be fired, atomic missiles. This whole island is nothing but army bases. The Japanese in the World War II, they first came here and bombed.

Prabhupāda: Pearl Harbor.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

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

Bali-mardana: They are thinking that they can control that accident.

Prabhupāda: You are not controlling. There are so many happenings, that big waves come, and overflood, and there is earthquake, and everything is finished. So you are not controlling accident, even if we accept accident. Accident is not under your control. That Madhudviṣa was telling: in Darwin there was so big, powerful wind, the motor buses were flying.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Why it is not working in all heights? Then what is their theory? If it is working under certain condition, who made this condition? (break) ...the nature, "Now you get down these islands. Get(?) the water," can they do that?

Bali-mardana: No, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Then how they will come to know? (break) ...Kṛṣṇa wants, immediately this land, by earthquake, can go down, immediately, within a second. So in the Vedic literature nature is accepted. But the creation, maintenance, destruction, that is in the hand of God, not nature.

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That is the misfortune. (break)...they are going to the sky for meeting, the Russian scientists and American scientists? (break)

Bali-mardana: On big island, the island that you visited where the farm is...

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bali-mardana: On the island with the farm, the people are, now they are afraid that there will be a volcanic eruption and the whole island will be finished.

Prabhupāda: There is such sign?

Bali-mardana: Yes, because that volcano over there it is still active. It is smoking. It is always smoking.

Śrutakīrti: Siddha-svarūpa had said every twelve years it erupts, and I think it's been ten years since the last one or something. So it's expected that in two years...

Prabhupāda: The last time it devastated? No.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Why it is congested today?

Siddha-svarūpa: Well, we came a little late, it's rush hour. All the people that live on that side of the island work on that side of the island. So they have to drive over every morning. And we happened to get the work hour traffic because we left a little late.

Harikeśa: They are turning Hawaii into New York City.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yeah, they're making it very difficult. They're going to develop this entire side of the island more and more, and so that they're taking agriculture land, and they'll be building subdivisions and people from the mainland will be moving, living in condominiums on this island.

Prabhupāda: That means for one convenience, they create another inconvenience.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: This is the business. In this way they will take three hours to go to the other side.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Siddha-svarūpa: Over the oil on the offshore. There is offshore oil. The oil that the United Stated wanted. Now these two are fighting off some islands that are... There's a wars... Wars are... (break)

Prabhupāda: Simply rogues. (break) There is light engaged. (break) They understood. Because when Kaṁsa was baffled in killing the children of his sister, he regretted that "I have killed so many children of you, my dear sister. I am awaiting the most abominable hellish conditions." He admitted. (break)

Ambarīṣa: ...don't know what good and bad is. They think if you don't kill anybody that you will go to heaven. I mean any human being.

Siddha-svarūpa: But they think that this is only one? They do accept that there's life after this life and that they will live either in heavenly planets...

Prabhupāda: Otherwise what is the meaning of going to God? They believe it.

Morning Walk -- June 30, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: His parents sponsored him.

Brahmānanda: Yes. From Long Island, Rock of..., Far Rockaway, Jewish area? (break)

Prabhupāda: ...did not come? That student?

Brahmānanda: I think he was afraid to come and see his parents and come back to America.

Harikeśa: He told me in Vṛndāvana that sometimes Bon Mahārāja is "a little too far out." His disciple said this.

Prabhupāda: None of his disciples living with him.

Morning Walk -- July 8, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Four... Not four corners. Four sides.

Viśakha: And also with that in the center? Island?

Prabhupāda: No, island is not required. Make a program like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Take photos.

Prabhupāda: And if possible, send them ideas and direction. Bhavānanda has gone. (break) ...convince them that they are doing very nice, to their best capacity, but they are doing it blindly. You are very good driver, but if you are a blind man, then how you will drive? You will create disaster. So we can open their eyes so that their good driving capacity will be properly utilized. A good driver, blind, what he will do? Ajñāna-timirāndhasya. Darkness, it will not help. The western method of seeing things—blind eyes. Actually, they are blind. They are trying to see things with microscope. First of all you are blind. What you will see? Microscope, this machine or that machine, but you are blind. That they do not know.

Morning Walk -- July 28, 1975, San Diego:

Jayatīrtha: It's a bridge that goes to one island. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...explain; therefore they bring this theory of chance. But we don't find any such chance in practical life. "There was a fool and he became high-court judge." Is there any? "There was a fool. He became a high-court judge." Is there any evidence like that? "There was ape. It became human, human being." I am simply surprised how this kind of argument is accepted by other fools.

Car Conversation -- August 3, 1975, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: This is a...? This is a...?

Brahmānanda: This is Detroit there. We are now on an island, and Canada is there.

Prabhupāda: Real Detroit there.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Everything belongs to God, Kṛṣṇa. And we are sons of Kṛṣṇa. (break) I came this side last time when I came. You were there?

Jagadīśa: In Detroit? Yes.

Prabhupāda: This river side, did I not come?

Jagadīśa: We came to this park last time, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I remember. The river is navigable. Big, big ship can go.

Morning Walk -- August 4, 1975, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Grass is coming out. Where is the chemical? How the grass is coming out from the stone side? Harer nāma harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...he will go?

Śrī Govinda: Around the island. Right around the island.

Prabhupāda: Very fast going, but where he will go? (break) ...tory?

Brahmānanda: Admiral Perry.

Satsvarūpa: He defeated the British in 1812.

Brahmānanda: Oh, he's an American.

Prabhupāda: Admiral Perry.

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: Around the island.

Prabhupāda: Just like the dog. He goes fast here and there. "Gow! Gow!" (laughter) It is like that. He is going fast. Doggish mentality. That's all, all dogs and cats, no human being. This civilization means they are creating only dogs and cats, animals, go-kharaḥ, cows and asses. They are... We don't take them as human being. All animals.

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: ...side.

Cyavana: From the hills, from these mountains. There are lakes and reservoirs and it comes down. There's a lot of rainfall on certain parts of the island all year.

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, you were speaking of anarthas and one of the lesser age boys was wondering... He's asking why we shouldn't take tea.

Prabhupāda: Because intoxication. You become addicted. You are asking because you cannot give up tea. Therefore you are asking. Therefore it should be given up. You become servant of tea. Otherwise there is no question of asking. His asking means you want to drink. That means he has become servant of tea. Our original position—we are servant of God. So we are going to be servant of God. So if we remain servant of this material world, we cannot become servant of God. (break) ...unnecessary are advertised and people become victimized.

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

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.

Morning Walk -- October 4, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Hawaii Island is better than this island. Huh? Is it not?

Harikeśa: It never becomes cold there. It never becomes cold.

Prabhupāda: No.

Cyavana: Here they suffer from the cyclone every year. And every fifteen years it is treacherous.

Prabhupāda: Cyclone, typhoon is there in Japan also.

Cyavana: Yes. Only thing, here there is Indian culture.

Prabhupāda: What Indian culture? They are killing cows. (laughter) What is Indian culture?

Cyavana: Remnants. Nothing.

Prabhupāda: Their Indian culture is that some of them speak Hindi, that's all. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: ... Similarly, this planet is also an island in the air. (break) These new boys, they are understanding our philosophy?

Cyavana: Yes, gradually. They are attracted.

Prabhupāda: Hm? You are reading books?

Indian boy (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Cyavana: One boy last night, he said he was ready to move into our āśrama.

Prabhupāda: Let him.

Cyavana: Yes?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Let him move. But he is going to cut his hair?

Cyavana: He said, "Yes." He agreed. (break) Is that one of you who said you were ready? (break)

Prabhupāda: ...nice. Here is... This is the qualification. (break) ...island can be developed in a very nice piece of country if the leaders are intelligent.

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: So why do they not accept it?

Cyavana: Gradually they will. They are attracted. They will accept. (break) ...only here I have seen. All the islands on the Pacific and Indian Ocean are all potential. Philippines, very... The Philippine boys, I saw, very nice. They are not guided. Fiji also.

Prabhupāda: Fiji. Fiji also. Fiji, mostly Indian, but the original Fiji Fijians, they are also very nice.

Cyavana: What about Bali? There are also many...

Prabhupāda: Bali, there are practically Hindus. Yes. Everywhere. The soul is pure. They have been made impure by misleading.

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Hm. (break) All questions are answered or not yet? Make it clear.

Indian: Yes. I am thinking about it.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and educate your men on this island and be happy. There is good potency for this island.

Cyavana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Don't be misled by the misleaders.

Cyavana: There are many of them here also.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...here in the understanding and help your people. That is good service.

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: So we do not say anything about any particular section. We are speaking about God. God does not belong to any section. When Kṛṣṇa said that there should be four divisions, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13), He does not say that these divisions should be in the Hindu society or in India. He never says so. So why they take it as Hindu? Kṛṣṇa does not say that it is meant for the Hindus, for India. If God says that "I have created the sun," does it mean sun is created for India, not for this island? So these are foolishness. Whatever is spoken by God, that is meant for everyone, all over the universe. That is real understanding.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's in the American Constitution that all men are created equally.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is real idea!

Morning Walk -- October 7, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: Hm. They are keeping them in control. That is the way they should be kept in control, śūdras. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ...very anti-Communist. They have an anti-Communist terrorism act. Anyone who is too much leading in their Communist ideas, they put them away. They have an island called Robert's Island. They simply detain them there indefinitely. (break) Very stable. Very stable.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. That is nice.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They don't have a welfare state here.

Prabhupāda: Why? That is not good. People will be lazy. In special cases the government may give some help, not that the bachelor daddies, and getting welfare, all the girls, and going to be prostitutes. In America they have created purposefully prostitutes. They know they will get money, and they have illicit sex. That's all. The social condition is not good.

Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Not fixed up. The Māyāvāda... If you have no fixed name of God, then why don't you chant Kṛṣṇa? What is the harm? But envious. Therefore paramo nirmatśaraṇaṁ (SB 1.1.2). One who has completely eradicated from the envious conception of life, they can take to this way. (Break) ...climate of this island is good.

Cyavana: It's pleasant.

Prabhupāda: (Break) ...right time. I don't think he had many followers.

Cyavana: Very few.

Prabhupāda: Only twelve, and out of them some proved infidel.

Cyavana: Yes.

Brahmānanda: One betrayed him.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- November 15, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Vipramukhya: I heard at the Long Island temple that you did not want to have a temple in every village right now.

Prabhupāda: I did not say anything about Long Island.

Vipramukhya: You'd like many temples, one in every village.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said. (break)

Vipramukhya: ...bring Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the people, they don't have to travel long distances to the temples.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...fast, these birds. Airplane cannot do that.

Morning Walk -- November 21, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Islam is also...

Dr. Patel: History, it has spread. Even Bali Islands today are practicing Hinduism.

Brahmānanda: Aryan means change in consciousness to God consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: This means all over the world there can be an Aryan culture.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is right.

Dr. Patel: Today the world is dominated by Aryans, all over practically. Except in Central Africa.

Prabhupāda: Today the whole world is dominated by demons.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, no, not like that point. (laughs)

Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, are the planets shaped liked balls or more like plates? Because it's, it's hard to understand, 'cause they're called dvīpas, "islands." Their roundness is the roundness of a plate or like a ball?

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Satsvarūpa: The earth planet?

Prabhupāda: If it is like a tree, then these things can be as dvīpa, island.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. You know...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The scientists are getting smashed to bits by your statements, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This destroys their whole theory. Orbs, round spheres. I think that this Māyāpur building, we must build a big planetarium in it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That, that I am going to do, Vedic planetarium.

Room Conversation -- April 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Jagat-guru: We will invite him to come to our Durban festival. And also I've suggested that they also arrange something big, festival, because there are 600,000 Indians there, and that some of our men can go to the island and give them association.

Prabhupāda: So they'll give visa? Me?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: For you? Oh, yes. I think we have to make a chest x-ray again and take several shots for you, (laughter) no problem.

Prabhupāda: So when you are going back? Tomorrow?

Jagat-guru: Yes.

Prabhupāda: When? Early in the morning?

Devotee: Yes. We're making the arrangement tomorrow to go. We're getting tickets and some books. Then Jagat-guru will follow a few days later.

Prabhupāda: Make vigorous propaganda all over the world. From South Africa, Australia, there is direct service.

Room Conversation with Siddha-svarupa -- May 3, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Initiation means to follow instructions of the spiritual master. That is the first (indistinct) And if there is still hesitation to surrender to the rules and regulations, then all other (indistinct).

Siddha-svarūpa: I think it is pretty clear, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's just for clarification, that they're working, they have a store on..., a very nice store, they're distributing foodstuffs to all the other stores on the island, and they're working a lot within the society with the karmīs, I guess. So their thinking is that "If we shave our heads and wear robes, like that, then they'll look at us...

Prabhupāda: That is not... Because imitating. Officially don't chant. Who is prohibiting to chant? You can chant, you can dance, you can take prasādam.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1976, Honolulu:

Hari-śauri: Just like when we were in Fiji, all they grow is sugarcane so they have to sell the sugarcane to get money to buy crops that they could have grown there in the first place.

Prabhupāda: Yes, business. Why so much sugarcane? The islands of Hawaii, they grow more sugarcane. We have seen all the islands. Huge (indistinct). The sugarcane is required for manufacturing wine. (break) ...drink tea. He's much (indistinct) of sugar, and from molasses, they manufacture wine. Unnecessary things. Misadjustment and they're (indistinct).

Hari-śauri: Even when they try to grow the grains, they can't guarantee it.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Hari-śauri: Like in Russia, they projected they would grow so much grains...

Prabhupāda: Nature will punish them. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Nature is Lord's (indistinct) maintainer, he's observing, factually.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That is the difference between rascal and intelligent. Just like in Hawaii Island, when the rascals were living, they did not feel the necessity of skyscraper. When intelligent Americans came, they feel the necessity. That is the difference. (everyone laughs) Is that all right?

Devotee (1): Yes, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Necessity is the mother of invention. That is an English proverb. Is it not? So unless you feel necessity, you are rascal.

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

Prabhupāda: Island separate?

Mahendra: That's an island, Śrīla Prabhupāda, yes. Santa Catalina island. It's a very big tourist resort. We were just discussing how it would be nice to send saṅkīrtana party there for book distribution.

Gopavṛndapāla: We already do that every weekend.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...problems. It seems there are so many social problems in the world today that by patchwork nothing can, er, can't hope to come of anything good.

Prabhupāda: Because they do not know what is the aim of life. (break) ...one center. With center, you can draw so many circles, big or small; they will not overlap. But if you have got different center, it will overlap. Your circle will come upon me; my circle will go upon.... So there is svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum. They do not know the central point is Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Big, big ships, they pass under this bridge?

Ambarīṣa: No, on the other side of this island, there's a channel, a freighter channel. That's Canada over there, and this is a small island, Belle Isle.

Hari-śauri: What is that project up ahead?

Ambarīṣa: I guess.... It's got problems.

Prabhupāda: What is that problem?

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Mādhavānanda: It's a channel, actually. It comes in from Lake St. Clair and then it goes around, and there's a bridge there, and just past, one hundred yards, it goes out again. All of this property is owned by one man. His name is Harris. He owns this whole island and all of the land up here also. And up this way there are also many large mansions. Fisher mansions. The same man who built this house built many other mansions up here. But this is the nicest.

Prabhupāda: Oh. What for he did it?

Mādhavānanda: His family members. And then on this island, at the very end, on the lake there is a very, very large mansion called the Garwood Mansion, but it was completely destroyed.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Mādhavānanda: Ah, this man Harris, he wanted to get all the people off of this land that he owned. So he let the hippies and Hell's Angels move into this Garwood Mansion, and they destroyed it. And they raised commotion and disturbance all along. He was trying to get them all to leave. He's a very strange person. Now he's trying to sell everything. They are thinking to make some housing complex. It's a very big business venture. That is why we want to buy this land in front, to protect this side of the house in case anyone else wants to build there.

Prabhupāda: They drink this water? No.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: What price they want for this island?

Mādhavānanda: Very large amount.

Rakṣaṇa: We can have a Māyāpur complex and a Detroit complex.

Mādhavānanda: I don't know exactly. (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...Sundays ago, one Indian man asked after the Sunday lecture why does Kṛṣṇa like a peacock feather, or why does Kṛṣṇa have a peacock feather? So Mādhavānanda answered, "Because He likes it." And the man said, "This is not an answer. There has to be some reason." So then I said, "You cannot question why Kṛṣṇa likes something. He's a person." But he wasn't satisfied.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is God; whatever He likes, you have to supply. That is God. Why He likes, we cannot question. That is not the business of the servant. So as servant we simply obey the orders. That's all. That is real servant. Is there any instance the servant is asking, "Why you are asking me to supply you this?" Therefore what would be the position of the servant? He would be dismissed. Bhṛtyaś cottara-dāyakaḥ. That is very dangerous.

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: So raw condition and ripe condition is not the same. The mango is the same.

Devotee (1): The captain of that boat must know that you're here on the island today, because those whistles that he just blew were salutes. It's a master salute from the best man to the best man. He must know that you are here.

Devotees: Jaya! Haribol!

Makhanlāl: In the Sixth Canto of the Bhāgavatam you made a statement that if a devotee chants the holy name even once inoffensively, this protects him eternally. Is it possible for a devotee...

Prabhupāda: Why you take advantage of chants one only? Why not sixteen? Opportunist. (laughter) Not devotee.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Their knowledge is "perhaps." It is nonsense. They have no definite knowledge. "Perhaps." Perhaps is not knowledge.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We had one CIA agent. Previously, he was a CIA agent. I was told this story, I don't know. Anyway, might as well relate it. So they were doing an experiment in the Bahama Islands off Florida. They were all very high intellects. They were developing a certain radio beam to measure the beams which are given off from other planets, thinking that maybe these intelligent beings, they are sending some message out. So they developed this way of sensoring the beams which were coming from the North Star. Anyway, he said—and he was serious, I was told this; he's in India now, one of our devotees there—he said that when they focused on the North Star and they got the beam back, when they translated it, it came out to be the mahā-mantra.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda needs a new passport with all the pages filled out. I wanted to get it in Fiji, but the embassy was on the other side of the island. So we'll try again Monday morning. I told him though that we've given our lives to preach the dharma of Bhārata-varṣa, and sometimes we become—I told him in a nice way, not in an angry way—sometimes we become very disenchanted and disenheartened when we see that Indians like yourself, they present unnecessary obstacles to our preaching mission.

Prabhupāda: That is sufficient insult. (laughter) That enraged him. You said Indian-givers. That offended him.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, that was after he said no. Then he changed his mind a little bit, but I don't know. He said come back Monday morning then. I was thinking maybe he wanted to be bribed or something. Maybe Mr. Battra knows.

Prabhupāda: Indian government is nasty, there is no doubt.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Unnecessarily. He said "I have to fill out four pages." Four pages of the passport, that takes four days?

Prabhupāda: Everyone in government service, at least it is to be supposed they are all nasty men. Here also, why not? The other day the custom officer, unnecessary. Unnecessarily. He is opening the snuff box, this box, that box. Unnecessarily. Not a gentleman. It is stated there, "snuff," and he is bringing knife to open.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because they thought, "This is a third-class nation, a small island, fishermen, and they have wealthy (indistinct)?" That is natural. Whole world. In our childhood, we used to see map, almost whole world red-red means British. (laughter) They said that there was no sunset in the British Empire.

Jagadīśa: This Frenchman also says that he...

Prabhupāda: German people still hate England. They do not like to speak in English; that I have seen. In the bank they know English, but they won't speak it. English everyone knows. The Kaiser was against. They said that Kaiser is the grandson of Queen Victoria, from daughter's side. And King George from the son's side—Edward's seventh son. They were cousin brothers. So this Kaiser, when he was young boy, went to paternal uncle's house, when he was a young boy. So there was some playing, cut with a knife. So royal family, so many doctors came. So the boy was saying, "Why you are trying to cure it? Let the English blood go away."

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

Prabhupāda: Gradual process, just like you are here in the sunshine. So if you are intelligent, you'll understand that the temperature in the sunshine and the temperature in the sun globe is different. So Brahman understanding is the lowest stage. Paramātmā understanding little higher. And Bhagavān understanding is complete. That is gradual. And these Māyāvādīs, they do not try to understand Kṛṣṇa. They are satisfied only with understanding Brahman. Therefore they fall down. Arūhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho 'nādṛta (SB 10.2.32). Because there is no standing. The impersonal feature, that the sky... Go very high in the sky, you do not see anymore this planet earth, neither you see anything, you'll be mad. Then you will find out how to go back again. You cannot stay there in that condition. Although they say "so'ham," no, you cannot stay there. Just imagine, if you go very high and you do not see any other thing, only sky. Will you be able to stay in that condition? You go in the sea. When you do not find anything, all water, you become very much anxious, "Where is land? Where is land?" And as soon as you have a glimpse of land, island, you become very, "Oh, there is land." So this is impersonal understanding. It is simply imagination, that simply by Brahman understanding he'll be happy. No, that is not possible.

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

Prabhupāda: That subway that goes to the city office? There are so many bridges.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So many, yes, many, many bridges. Every day about seven million people come into this island of Manhattan from the other boroughs, and they go back. From your room, our building is very close to the Empire State Building, so from your room you have a very nice view of it.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So Los Angeles everything is going nice?

Rāmeśvara: Everything is very nice. We just had a big saṅkīrtana marathon for this Fourth of July, and they distributed up to thirty thousand Back to Godheads in just a few days.

Prabhupāda: (referring to garland) Make it smaller.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think it's all one garland, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: You can just make smaller.

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

Rāmeśvara: Long Island, it includes Long Island.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just as many people are living here now, and many, many more people are living on the outskirts.

Rāmeśvara: And Queens.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Queens and Brooklyn, much more people are living there than before. Queens and Long Island especially.

Prabhupāda: So Bali-mardana is doing all right?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he and I stay together.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: And for manufacturing the paper they are cutting so many trees and committing sinful life.

Rāmeśvara: The scientists report that by throwing all this garbage in the ocean they kill many fish. Here in New York there is one beach called Coney Island, and no fish can live near the shore, they are all dying.

Prabhupāda: Why they are so sympathetic to the fish? Because they will eat it. No? They are thinking that "We shall eat the fish, and they are dying." Is it not?

Hari-śauri: Do you want your hat, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hmm? No. This is ventilation. (laughter) You are feeling cold? Mister? You are feeling cold?

Child: No.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I heard one island had just appeared sometime back from a volcano underneath the ocean in the middle of the Pacific.

Hari-śauri: There's one near Norway as well.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The scientists wanted to find out how long it would take before life appeared on this island in the middle of nowhere. So they were thinking it might take thousands of millions and billions of years, because there had been no life there to begin with. But they found that within one year it was full of so much plants, vegetation.

Prabhupāda: Just see, how rascal they are.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That should disprove all of their theories.

Prabhupāda: They speak all... That the egg will take millions of years and the chicken is bringing within five days. So why these rascals do not transfer their doctorate title to the chicken (laughter) instead of bluffing other rascals that "We are doctorate"? They should be ashamed to keep their doctorate. "Now let us transfer to the chicken; within five days there is life." Huh? What do you think? Am I right or wrong?

Hari-śauri: I am sure you are right.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: It all depends upon the foundation.

Rādhāvallabha: In New York they can build them so high because the entire island of Manhattan is made out of rock, and there's never any earthquakes.

Bali-mardana: Not yet, anyway.

Jayādvaita: As far as I know, they think that they can make them bigger and bigger without any limit.

Devotee: Four hundred stories (break)

Prabhupāda: And fell down later on.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Give him chair. They... Give...

Rāmeśvara: These gentlemen are a reporter and a photographer from a very large newspaper in Long Island called Newsday. This is Mr. Kevin Layhart...

Prabhupāda: So they require chair?

Rāmeśvara: He's asking if you'd like a chair.

Interviewer: No, this is all right.

Rāmeśvara: This is Mr. Bill Semm. He's a photographer from their newspaper.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. Sit down. You have seen our books?

Interviewer: Yes, I have. You translated all of those. (pause) (break) ...I wonder if you could tell me how you came to founding the movement here in the United States.

Prabhupāda: I was ordered by my spiritual master to do this work, so on his order I came in 1965. That is the beginning of this. I came alone with no help, no money. Somehow or other (laughs) I started.

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

Devotee: ...Pacific Ocean one volcano came up and it formed an island and within five years there was grass growing on it. So they tried to say that the seeds of the grass floated in the ocean and reached the island and began to grow. They couldn't explain how it became vegetated so quickly.

Prabhupāda: So why the seeds does not go by air to the other planets?

Rāmeśvara: When they first developed the radio, they set up a system to send out radio messages into outer space. And their idea was that if there was any intelligence on other planets they would answer by sending...

Prabhupāda: So whether your radio message reach there?

Hari-śauri: We should wait, Śrīla Prabhupāda, a minute, because police over there, they may object if we walk. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...only in America (laughter). All intelligence monopolized by America.

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

Prabhupāda: Bali Mahārāja was asked for three feet of land. "Very good. You speak so nicely, such intelligent, but You are boy, You do not know how to ask. I can give You a big island." "No, I must be satisfied as I require. I don't want more. Only three feet, that's all."

Rāmeśvara: That story is in the Eighth Canto, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hmm. I'm going now with that story. (break) "Rascal, if you give like that, where you will stay? He'll take everything!" Smārta brāhmaṇa. Simply considering "How I shall live?" (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Materialist.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Not in the ocean. It is the sinful activities of the populace. That is real problem. They are all engaged in sinful activities. Especially this innocent animal killing. These are the all reaction.

Gurudāsa: In New York they had one island of refuse floated in to shore. For years they were building up island of refuse, and it floated in, and now no one can go to the beaches.

Prabhupāda: Samosa. Where is samosa? There is only one left?

George Harrison: I'm okay, actually.

Devotee (2): There is sour cream.

George Harrison: I've got plenty, thanks.

Prabhupāda: Prasada, we can eat up to the neck. (laughter) There is no harm. You'll never get indigestion. You have got some fruits?

George Harrison: Yes.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: And if you do it very carefully, then you'll never get disease. Take simple food, neat and clean, you'll not get disease. So everything depends on eating to keep the health proper. But these things can be simplified when the life is simple. If I go to work in office at this time, then so many things become topsy-turvied. But if you depend on yourself, either as a brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya, you haven't got to depend on others, then you can do timely. Now we have to go fifty miles at least to attend office. In your country at least, this is the system. They are coming from Long Island, Liberty Island. In New York I have seen. Three, four hours to go to work. And again three, four hours to come to home. And work there eight hours. Then what is value? He's shattered. He has no other solace than wine, and he has no other culture. No family, dog friend (laughter) and television idea, that's all. What his life? Every man has got a dog friend because he has no family. Men, women, and television, engagement, I have seen it, all this, in New York.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Still, that is his home, and he cannot leave home, that "Bābu kanceri jabo nā (?). That is psychology. It may be very worse condition; still, nobody wants to give up "home sweet home." That is natural psychology. So you have to manage. You see then why they, these Delhi passenger clerks... This morning I was telling that son was asking mother, "Who is this man?" His father, and he had never seen. "You have seen father." No, rather, he had no chance to see father because when the father comes back from the office it is night, ten o'clock or more than that. That time the son is sleeping, and again he has to go early in the morning. That time also, son is sleeping. So he did not know. So one Sunday, when he's grown up, he is asking his mother, "Who is this man?" "So this man..." Not only in India, in everywhere. I have seen in New York from the other island? What is that?

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Haṁsadūta: Long Island.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: Long Island.

Prabhupāda: Long Island. They are coming two hours in the ferry, three hours in the bus. They are going to the office. Eight hours there. Then five hours and eight hours, thirteen hours, again five hours. Then thirteen and..., eighteen hours. And for six hours they have got home. "Home sweet home."

Mahāṁśa: I knew people coming from Poona to Bombay to work.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Because the elephantitis, that's very common in the (indistinct). The mosquitoes are infected by elephantitis and they infect you. These mosquitoes are (indistinct) ...carry malaria carry this elephantitis. All these villages on the coastline, right from Ratnagiri up to Dvārakā, whole coast is infected by elephantitis. Everywhere you go you see big, big leg. In fact it is right from Bhuvaneśvara. On Bhuvaneśvara sea water these mosquitoes breed even in (indistinct). I made a special study of malaria, so I have studied all the types of mosquito, and that particular mosquito on that coast is called (indistinct). Because they came right from Sundar Island. (swamps)

Prabhupāda: Sundar island, Sundarban, Bengal.

Dr. Patel: Sundarban has gone in Pakistan side.

Prabhupāda: Still in West Bengal. Sundarban is near Calcutta, about fifty miles.

Dr. Patel: All water-logged country.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are big, big tigers, big, big snakes. That Bengal tiger is famous. That tiger, his tail sometimes ten feet.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Where is the location?

Gurudāsa: It's on what's called Gangadwip. But that's new place. It's an island that just appeared this year, splitting the Ganges in two. You know, Jushi is here, and Gangadwip is here. And the place where we were last year is here. We were here last year, Gangadwip is here, and Jushi is here. And... But I've been sending out and going out on saṅkīrtana, so that will make up for our location. It's not so bad, but I want to paint a true picture. It's not so good, nor is it so bad. And there's thirteen tents. We have three bigas of land, sand. And we've made a tin enclosure all the way around. And we had a Swiss cottage tent for yourself. Swiss cottage means a room about this large from the end of the almirah to the wall and about this wide. And then a middle room about from here to the wall, and then another small room. But I was not satisfied with that, so I took that tent down, and when I left a day and a half ago I told Bhāgavata dāsa and Jagat-guru Mahārāja, who are there, to erect a straw house for you, bigger. So they are, I hope, doing that. The difficulty was that we had no money, and therefore I've come and am going back. I had a few hundred dollars in traveler's checks which I cashed and gave it to them to keep going.

Prabhupāda: Straw house is not good.

Gurudāsa: No? What would you like? Because a straw house retains the heat during the day.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, but if there is fire it will be...

Gurudāsa: I see. We made a separate latrine for you and separate shower, etc. That is all enclosed. So what would you like? A big tent?

Prabhupāda: I do not know, but a straw house... Is there any chance of setting, getting fire?

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Political?

Gurudāsa: Yes. I think that many people were pushing for good positions, and we did not push, and... Last year was good, but, of course, the saṅgam has shifted a little. The saṅgam has shifted to the island where we are. The governor's camp is on the island. And there's some people. Maharishi is on the island. It's just I didn't want to say it's a wonderful location and then you come there and see that it's a little bit far off. I wanted to tell you...

Prabhupāda: Only it is far off.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And where is governor's camp from our?

Gurudāsa: I don't know exactly, but it's in the same island. I'll find out.

Prabhupāda: No, there is... Our governor is Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29).

Dr. Patel: All the Britishers were organizing this Mela, Kumbha.

Prabhupāda: No, in... They were taking... The committee... I said that, "We have committee?" This is British time. One magistrate is the head and assistants, so many.

Room Conversation -- January 20, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: If... The Ganges comes in this way. Then you come to Bengal, Bay of Bengal—this side, Orissa, this side, East Bengal. Is it not?

Gargamuni: Yes. They recently went to Sagar Island, and they did very nice saṅkīrtana there. But this boat is not large enough, and it's also very... It takes so much time.

Prabhupāda: So why not another boat like that?

Gargamuni: But you can't get a larger boat than that, and it's too small. Our temple is too small. We need a longer boat with a larger temple for the...

Prabhupāda: You require a steamer like?

Room Conversation -- January 20, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Bay of Bengal is rough.

Gargamuni: I've been on the Bay of Bengal. No, actually I was not on the Bay of Bengal. I was near the mouth, in Bangladesh. It's rough...

Prabhupāda: Bay of Bengal is very rough.

Gargamuni: But Sagar Island, isn't that in the Bay?

Prabhupāda: Not actually in the bay.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: That's how those islands became the West Indies, because he was looking for India, and he went West, and he hit some islands, and they call them the West Indies. Then later they went to America.

Prabhupāda: West Indies are South America.

Rāmeśvara: The Caribbean. Cuba, Nassau, Puerto Rico.

Prabhupāda: The southern part.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. South of Florida. So his main motive was how to find India, to get the wealth of India.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: They had many, many islands. They took a lot. But gradually the Americans won them all back.

Prabhupāda: Now they are migrating. In Hawaii there are many Japanese. Many Japanese.

Hari-śauri: They're very much wanted in other countries as well. They're technicians.

Prabhupāda: So if you can educate people, they will be united. This is actually united nations movement. Actually see how these Europeans, Americans, and Africans, and others, without any artificial allurement, how we are keeping together. Nobody is dissatisfied with humble eating, humble living, humbly, plain living. So it is possible. There is possibility. We live simple life, high thinking-United Nation. We can possibly... And there will be no scarcity. If we live simple life with Kṛṣṇa conscious thinking, There will be no scarcity.

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I don't remember. He stays in New York? Oh, yes, yes. I remember. Hm.

Brahmānanda: Our devotee stayed with him, this one girl who was kidnapped. The police were looking for her. So they arranged... He lives out on Long Island, he made arrangement for them to stay. The police were looking all over, but they couldn't find.

Prabhupāda: She gave shelter, he gave?

Brahmānanda: He gave shelter, Yes. Mother Śīlavatī and this girl, they stayed with him. He very much admired mother Śīlavatī's austerity, how she was just taking a little milk, little vegetable and nothing else but always engaged. He was impressed.

Prabhupāda: Śīlavatī is in New York?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And on this Kṛṣṇa culture, the India was ruling all over the world. During Parīkṣit Mahārāja time there was only one flag. And now go to the United States organization—simply flag increasing, "United."

Brahmānanda: In Africa they just made a new country. It's the smallest country in the world. It's one little island. Now it's independent country.

Prabhupāda: This is going on. So for the time being let this program. We go to Vṛndāvana and from Vṛndāvana to Bombay, and then we make program there. Is that all right? If possible, invite some ministers.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But if you were to go to Manipur we have to make arrangements.

Prabhupāda: We can go from Bombay. What is the difficulty? From here or Bombay, after all, we have to go by plane, so there is no difficulty. Manipur going, there is no direct plane from Bombay to Manipur?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No. From Bombay to Calcutta, Calcutta to Imphala, Manipur.

Prabhupāda: So that is not difficult. We can come to Calcutta and go to Calcutta, there. But if you organize Bombay center, recruit scientists, hold meeting, that is very nice proposal. There must be some state, ideal state. Just like the Russia is Communist state, and they're making nice propaganda, similarly we must have a Kṛṣṇa conscious state.

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Satsvarūpa: Then Gurukṛpā Mahārāja retained responsibility in Hawaii and Japan and Hong Kong; Bali-mardana, responsibility for Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the South Sea islands, and for book distribution in Southeast Asia.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was the first to go there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He invented Australia.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He invented Australia. (laughter)

Bali-mardana: It was only when your lotus feet touched Australia that it became worthwhile.

Prabhupāda: I was insisting, South Pacific organization.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Upset in Fiji. The Fijian government formed by the National Federation Party, which draws its support mainly from the people of Indian origin, will have to tread warily if it is to avert racial tension in the islands. It was by no means easy, even for the multiracial alliance party which hitherto ruled the South Pacific republic, to maintain harmony between the people of Indian origin who form fifty-one percent of the population, and the indigenous Melanesians. Its leader and the former Prime Minister Ratu Sir Pamish Nara had to strain every nerve to keep the extremist Melanesians in check."

Prabhupāda: The Prime Minister is lightie?

Upendra: Yes. He is very educated. He is half. All the ministers are, those natives are light-skinned. They are from a particular island group, mixed. They are very intelligent and polite. The other natives are darker and more extremists. But this extremist agitation is, they say, is instigated by the Europeans, who keep the Indians and natives apart, because the natives have all the land, and this is what the Europeans are interested in. So they instigate it.

Prabhupāda: These rascals, wherever they go, they create trouble.

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

Prabhupāda: Cheated with ninety rupees, and he's no more...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like the foreigners bought the island of Manhattan for twenty-four dollars from the Indians, the native Indians in New York, twenty-four dollars' worth of trinkets. And they purchased.

Prabhupāda: No, the land was there. Just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura purchased Māyāpur at eight annas a bighā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now...

Prabhupāda: Two thousand rupees.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they want five thousand. Same land.

Prabhupāda: Land value has increased.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The Andaman, Nicobar Islands...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What did you say, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: There are other islands.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Andaman, Nicobar, like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. But we're not... Bhakti-prema Mahārāja said that yesterday he was going to look through the commentaries to try and understand which these referred to in present-day geography. He wasn't certain about. He only knew that one was...

Prabhupāda: There are nearby islands. I don't know whether it is... Andaman, Nicobar Islands. So those islands similarly from India were sent. Now it is inhabited. (break) ...work is stopped on account of your (indistinct)?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So in each ocean there are islands?

Bhakti-prema: No. These are all ocean.

Prabhupāda: Simply ocean.

Yaśodā-nandana: Now, each one of these dvīpas are managed by different sons of Mahārāja Priyavrata. Mahārāja Priyavrata had so many sons, and each one of their sons...

Prabhupāda: No, no, but the son is the king, but he is ruling over the ocean?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, he is ruling over the dvīpa.

Bhakti-prema: Yes, he rotated around the mountain area. Seven times he went. And then to (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Now, oceans, but there is no inhabitant.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Simply ocean.

Bhakti-prema: There are no dvīpas, no islands. Islands are surrounded by oceans rather than(?) oceans are surrounded by islands.

Prabhupāda: So what is his kingdom?

Bhakti-prema: An island... Islands are so big, very big.

Prabhupāda: Where is the island?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There.

Yaśodā-nandana: The islands are surrounding the oceans. It goes in a circle. There's a whole ocean surrounding one island. And each island is divided by seven mountains and seven rivers, and the main sons of Mahārāja Priyavrata, they also have sons, and each one of those seven divisions are being ruled by the seven grandsons of Mahārāja Priyavrata too.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In other words, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Priyavrata had seven children on seven islands, and each one of them had seven children. So each son of Priyavrata divided his island in seven parts, and it was given to one of the grandsons of Priyavrata. We could not show that because it's so small. This is drawn exactly to scale. In order to include all of the Bhū-maṇḍala we had to make everything up very small because, as you'll see, most of Bhū-maṇḍala is made of Loka-varṣa and Lokāloka mountain. Everything else is very small compared to those two.

Yaśodā-nandana: Surrounding the sugarcane ocean, there is Śālmalidvīpa, where again there are seven divisions of land, seven rivers...

Prabhupāda: So island and surrounded by ocean, like that.

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: There was advertisement. So I went to Long Island. That two machines... I asked, "What is the price?" "$150 each." Then he wanted to take away the machines. Machine was all right. And then I told him that "I have got $150 only. If you want to give us, give those two machines." So "All right, you take these all." (laughter) So I gave him $150, whatever I had, and I took the machine. In that machine was printed Back to Godhead. So five hundred copies... How many copies you were selling?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, by the time we were selling, you were printing about three thousand, and we were selling twenty-five hundred.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Then I asked Brahmānanda that "Why not print it nicely?" So he said that "Unless we print twenty thousand, nobody will take this work." And "All right, order twenty thousand." Now, from twenty thousand or five hundred, what is the quantity now we are printing?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not less than five hundred thousand a month.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: Yes, they do actually. Actually the Tamils in Śrī Lanka, they're all demigod worshipers. They worship Durgā and Gaṇeśa and Śiva. There's practically not a single Kṛṣṇa temple on the whole island. I was really surprised. Well, that's the situation. They're all demigod worshipers.

Prabhupāda: Demigod worship means followers of Vedas.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: ...self-independence. But we can see as you explain to us, when they get this education they become just like a dog going from door to door looking for a morsel of food. The island of Shree Lanka is very, very green, because they have a lot of rainfall. Right now it's rainy season and very lush. All fruits, vegetables grow there. But the government has a foolish policy. They produce tea and tobacco and rubber and all useless rubbish things. They could produce food ten times for the population, but they don't...

Prabhupāda: Anywhere, not only Ceylon.

Haṁsadūta: They still have wild elephants in the jungles. Here is Bhagatji, Prabhupāda. Bhagatji has come.

Prabhupāda: In which paper the arrest of Indira Gandhi?