Maintain (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"maintain" |"maintained" |"maintaining" |"maintains"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: maintain not "maint* bod*"@5 not "maint* fam*"@4

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: What is their cult, this Tirupati committee?

Acyutānanda: Hinduism. Hinduism. Very.... No definition of that term now, Hinduism. Just like if we want to get on the radio, they'll say, "Well, there are so many minor sects. So if we give time for one, then everybody will want." But then, when we want some other aid, they say, "No, you're a majority group. We have to help the minority groups." So sometimes we are a minor sect and sometimes we are a majority.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) All fools, rascals, mūḍhas. (break) The Tirupati is a Vaiṣṇava temple, so they should encourage.... Vaisnavism means real religion. All other, bogus, cheating religions. That is.... Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo atra (SB 1.1.2). Kaitava means cheating. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know that. What is this land?

Indian man (1): The police superintendent's house.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Police superintendent. They are using the Deity's money, Prabhupāda, to maintain the universities. And in the universities they are teaching birth control and so many other things.

Prabhupāda: So why don't you take them into court?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Take them to court.

Yaśodānandana: It's like fighting against the government.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are the court.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are the court.

Prabhupāda: They are the court means?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I mean to say, the same persons are the court. They're all one clique.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The court has legalized abortion, for example, now.

Harikeśa: In India?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no. In America. In India also the government's encouraging.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Similarly, the Pāṇḍavas and a few others knew that He was the Supreme, but not everyone. He was not revealed to the nondevotees and the common men. Therefore in the Gītā Kṛṣṇa says that but for His pure devotees, all men consider Him to be like themselves. He was manifest only to His devotees as the reservoir of all pleasure. But to others, to unintelligent nondevotees, He was covered by His eternal potency. In the prayers of Kunti in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.8.18), it is said that the Lord is covered by the curtain of yogamāyā, and thus ordinary people cannot understand Him. Kuntī prays: 'Oh my Lord, You are the maintainer of the entire universe, and devotional service to You is the highest religious principle. Therefore I pray that You will also maintain me. Your transcendental form is covered by the yoga-māyā. The brahma-jyotir is the covering of the internal potency. May You kindly remove this glowing effulgence that impedes my seeing Your sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), Your eternal form of bliss and knowledge.' This yogamāyā curtain is also mentioned in the Fifteenth Chapter of the Gītā. The Supreme Personality of Godhead in His transcendental form of bliss and knowledge is covered by the eternal potency of brahma-jyotir, and the less intelligent impersonalists cannot see the Supreme on this account. Also in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.7) there is this prayer by Brahmā: 'O Supreme Personality of Godhead, O Supersoul, O master of all mystery, who can calculate Your potency and pastimes in this world? You are always expanding Your eternal potency, and therefore no one can understand You. Learned scientists and learned scholars can examine the atomic constitution of the material world or even the planets, but still they are unable to calculate Your energy and potency, although You are present before them.' The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, is not only unborn, but He is avyaya, inexhaustible. His eternal form is bliss and knowledge, and His energies are all inexhaustible."

Prabhupāda: So, go and discuss. (end)

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Jayapatāka: The volume is a million times more than the earth. Don't know the circumference. They say the sun is a million times bigger than the earth, volume.

Prabhupāda: (break) Cleansing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cleaning, pūjārīs, cooking.

Saurabha: Cleaning is very big job to maintain, especially with exhibitions that...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maintenance.

Jayapatāka: We can get a lot of people, village people, to come and live without pay and do the cleaning, but they won't be productive. I mean, they'll have to be supported by the temple. They'll just be cleaning all day.

Prabhupāda: Supporting is no problem. To everyone we can give place and food. There is no problem.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If there is an escalator in the building, simply the proceeds from people going on that escalator, Prabhupāda...

Prabhupāda: Yes, there will be income.

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Indian man: So now everybody will go. When the rich people will take their land they have to go. They will say, "How we can live with the small land," so they will move.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, why they should not try to be rich? If the rich man exploits them, that "You work in our land and take some salary," why they will work for that? They will go to the factory, will get more salary. This way Indira Gandhi cannot solve the poverty problem. They must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like these soldiers, they for twenty years, simply eating and sleeping, and they are not engaged in cultivating-useless waste of time—and government has to maintain in big cantonment, big, big house, big, nice food, nice.... This is going on. Why the soldiers are maintained? It is waste of energy. They should have been engaged in tilling. Formerly the kings would give them free land. "You make your fortune—but on condition: when there is fight, you have to join." That was very easy. He possessed so much land, and he worked hard, and he got riches. Unless.... "Proprietorship turns sand into gold." Unless there is proprietorship, it cannot be. So therefore kṣatriyas, they were given land: "You take land as much as you like and produce but on condition that when there is war you have to join."

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Harikesa: Well, then the other will just send some boats over, and all the men will get out while they're flying in the sky, and they'll just take over the country by manual soldiers.

Prabhupāda: No. As soon as atom bomb is..., everything is finished. There will be no opportunity. That is their thinking, "Who will drop the atom bomb first, he will be winner." That's all. In Russia they are adopting this means. They are releasing all the soldiers for other work. What is the use of keeping so many men idle without any work and maintain them, high salary, occupy big, big cantonment camps?

Harikesa: In America the army builds roads and bridges and things.

Prabhupāda: That's utilization. Why they should be paid for nothing?

Indian man: The small farmers who has a few acres of land, they are selling to a party, and they are getting a money. They knew that "After two or three years we will pose our set-up to the government that 'We are landless,' and the government will give us some money."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we have to do that at this temple.

Prabhupāda: Every fifteen minutes new set, prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You need a whole lot of Shantilals to do that.

Prabhupāda: And these ingredients are supplied by Jagannātha's own field. They grow it, and they... So there is no difficulty. They grow and they sell. They get money so they can maintain the establishment. A long time. There are potters. Daily they will supply for each prasādam a new pot. It cannot be used again. So few people purchase with pot, original pot, and they have got a fixed price. This big pot, say, five rupees; this pot, two rupees; this pot, one rupee. So as you like, you can purchase. Very nice system.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You went there sometimes to take prasādam?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I became a guest. A gentleman was our tenant, and he gave me introduction letter to his brother-in-law. He was a pleader in Jagannātha Purī. So he received me very well. So he offered me a lunch, and I saw there was something, a small ball-like, in the pot, bowl. So I asked, "What is this?" He said, "It is meat." (laughs) He was eating meat, so he thought it is good reception, the guest is offered nice meat. So I said, "No, you... I never took meat. I never expected..." (break) Then "Never mind." Then I stopped eating there. At that time I was a boy. After appearing in my B.A. examination there was holiday, so I went to Jagannātha Purī in 1920 or something like that. So I was married in 1918. So some of the friends of my wife, they said that "Your husband now gone. He is not coming back." So after returning I understood she was crying. (laughs) So anyway, then I used to purchase prasādam in the market. They were bringing, and I was eating. I stayed for three, four days. That's all.

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Written within the last thousand years.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You know that? They say like that. So many rascals are there. And this is the only shelter, these, our centers, to be protected from all these rascals. These ISKCON centers are the only shelter. So you have to maintain it very nicely. There is no other shelter. All bogus more or less, all bogus. But you have to, not to... You quote, but the purpose of the verse you present reasonably. If you simply quote, it will not be simply very appealing. "Oh, they are simply..." Sometimes the Westerner criticize that, my Godbrother, Sadānanda? He was criticizing that "Your presentation..." "Your" means our, this Vaiṣṇava literature. "Simply you quote some Sanskrit verse, that's all." So these Sanskrit verses should be explained for understanding of the modern people. If you simply quote, it is not very appealing. In Durban..., Durban? We went to that university. You remember? That Ārya-samājī? He was speaking that "This is Hindu conception. Hindu conception." And what do you mean by Hindu conception? A child grows to become a boy. Is that Hindu conception? It is science. When Kṛṣṇa said, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13), that's a fact. It is applicable to the Hindus, to the Muslim, to the Christian, everyone. Why do you say it is Hindu conception? So you have to present in that way. They may not think that it is Hindu conception. Because they are all rascals, unless you explain it, that this is meant for everyone, they will misunderstand that Bhāgavata is for the Hindus or for the Indians. It is for everyone. But one must realize. There is no question of Hindu conception or Muslim conception. (rattling sound) So this will go on whole day? "Cut-cut-cut-cut"?

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Sudāmā: They were wanting to talk business for a long time. You were simply preaching to them.

Prabhupāda: Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu went to the Kazi. His first question was that "What kind of religion you are following? You are killing your father and mother?" This was His beginning of the talk. "What kind of religion it is?" "How is that? I am killing my father, mother?" "Yes, cow is your mother and bull is your father. You are killing them. The bull is giving you grains by working in the field, and the mother is giving you milk, and you are killing them." This was his first question. So this is a civilization of killing father and mother. All over the world they are killing bulls and cows. In England there is law that you can maintain a cow but you cannot maintain a bull. It must be killed. Yes. When I was a guest in John Lennon's house the manager in charge, he was telling me. "You cannot keep bull. This is our law." I learned from him.

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Jayapatākā: They want to have..., make tractors popular and then...

Prabhupāda: Kill the bulls. They were criticizing us because in our gośālā we maintain the male calves.

Prabhupāda: No, when our Harikeśa was struck by a bull and he was taken in the hospital, the doctor was criticizing, "If you have killed the bulls, then this condition would not have come to you."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. Karma.

Prabhupāda: No. There will be no accident because this..., the acci...You know that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I heard about the accident.

Prabhupāda: There was some accident, and he was taken to hospital. So he was advised, "Because you do not kill the bulls, therefore this is the accident." As if without killing..., by killing the bulls there is no accident. And they do not cite the accident by motorcar, greater bulls. Accident will be there.

Morning Walk -- February 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: He has not such quandary. (break) ...he'll come with us, work with us.

Acyutānanda: And if they think their maṭha will deteriorate, then Prabhupāda has offered...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Acyutānanda: ...to maintain the temples.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Let their men work. Whatever expenditure is required, we shall give. There is no disturbance. Money is power. That we have got.

Acyutānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: By the grace of...

Acyutānanda: Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja mentioned that before you went to America, Indians were not interested. And now you have come back with money, so they are willing to hear.

Prabhupāda: Money is the strength all over, all over the world. America is prestigious—why? They have got money. So we, I have got American disciples. Why shall I not have money? If America, a guru of the Americans remains poor, it is contradictory.

Morning Walk -- March 2, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: It can be organized. The children should be raised Kṛṣṇa devotees. The woman can be engaged. Everyone can be engaged. I can give you suggestion if you can execute.

Hṛdayānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we were thinking that it would be nice to have the cities, city-centers, for the preachers, and those, for example, women, children, it's much easier to maintain them on our farms. That way they can do a little work and produce their own food and...

Prabhupāda: Yes, in the farms they can live and do some handwork.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes.

Guru-kṛpā: They won't do it, though, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Hṛdayānanda: They must do.

Prabhupāda: Then you don't allow. Don't allow that. Don't allow.

Guru-kṛpā: That's good.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: "If one maintains his faith, then Kṛṣṇa..."

Prabhupāda: Ah! Yes. One should maintain his faith that "Kṛṣṇa will give me protection. And my duty is to serve Him." That's it.

Pañca-draviḍa: When it says in the śāstra that a hundred generations past and future of a devotee, they're liberated, what kind of liberation do they get?

Devotees: Fourteen.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Pañca-draviḍa: What kind of liberation does the family get of a pure devotee?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: One who becomes a devotee, the statement is that fourteen generations of his family, past, present and future, become liberated. So what kind of liberation does the family members of a pure Vaiṣṇava get?

Prabhupāda: Liberation means—that is explained by Caitanya Mahāprabhu—to become devotee. That is liberation. To become.... To become a devotee is itself liberation. (break) ...will come. Prasādam? Is there any such arrangement or not? They are coming. They should be offered some...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You mentioned the pots of halavā.

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Well, secul.... Whatever you name it, you're all set of rascals. That's all. (laughter) You can change the name in different way, but on the whole, you are all set of rascals. This is the whole world's beauty.

Pañca-draviḍa: This modern theory, Prabhupāda, is that if a person wants to.... If he can maintain more than one wife nicely and wants to keep more than one wife, they won't allow. But if he can keep many young girls and spoil every one of them, that is...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Pañca-draviḍa: .... that is praiseworthy.

Prabhupāda: And advertise publicly: "Topless, bottomless women are available here. Come here. School is open at ten o'clock at night. It goes on up to four." I have seen it. This is civilization, nightclub and topless, bottomless shop.

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

Prabhupāda: Car?

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

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

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

Room Conversation -- April 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Devotee: A unique situation in South Africa, because there are many Europeans that are being drafted into the Army, but they will not allow the Indians to be drafted. They don't want them to go into the military forces because they're afraid they're too intelligent.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Some of our brahmacārīs, they've been drafted into the army. We've lost several devotees like that, because it's very hard for them to maintain their Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the army.

Prabhupāda: Conscription.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, conscription. But the Indians are not drafted. There's no army for them. So we're hoping that in Durban, where you first preached at the City Hall, the young people there, if we can get them sufficiently enthused, that they'll also join, and then we'll be able to have a very big movement amongst Indian community as well. We won't lose any devotees like that from the draft.

Prabhupāda: I think our students who are going to be ministers, they are excused from draft.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So he has offered seat.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? In the Bhāgavatam it says that although Lord Viṣṇu is the controller of everything, He is particularly in charge with the mode of goodness, and He is associated with maintenance. So is it that in order to maintain something in this material world also, there has to be the touch of the mode of goodness?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

tadā rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ

kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye

ceta etair anāviddhaṁ

sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati

(SB 1.2.19)

When the heart is cleansed of the dirty things, rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ, the modes of rajaḥ and tamaḥ, ignorance and passion, then he is situated in the sattva-guṇa. There are three guṇas. If you become released from the tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa, naturally you are situated in the sattva-guṇa. Sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati. Tadā rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye, ceta etair anāviddham. When the heart is not attacked by this rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, then it remains fixed up in sattva-guṇa.

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Madhudviṣa: ...already. For our temples. In Toronto, I think, we bought a Catholic church, and Montreal and Australia also, that was Catholic property. They are selling all their property off because they cannot afford to maintain.

Pañcadraviḍa: Still in South America the people are Catholic and pious...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) we wanted to purchase a convent...

Madhudviṣa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: How dilapidated.

Madhudviṣa: How envious they were. We wanted to purchase the convent, and they said they would sell us only if they could tear down the church. They wouldn't sell it to us unless they could tear down the church.

Passers-by: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Madhudviṣa: It would have been a big defeat if they had sold us that church and we moved in.

Devotee (1): (indistinct) ...United States, they have taken eight million Catholics in Philadelphia. Just before the time of our Rathayātrā I think...

Pañcadraviḍa: When they took Rādhā-Dāmodara down to Mexico, all the Catholics thought it was Virgin Mary and Jesus, and they all came to offer their obeisances. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Which way I shall go? This way?

Devotee (2): This way, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Zero, they are śūnyavādī, zero, and nirviśeṣavādī. The same thing. But we are not śūnyavādī. Whole is not zero. The anxiety.... You cannot become anxiety-less. That is artificial. If you artificially become anxiety-less, then artificially you can remain anxiety-less for some time. Again you fall down. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Falls down. But the anxiety should be purified. That is wanted. Not anxiety-less. You are living being. You cannot be anxiety.... That means you are dead. A living being has no anxiety—that means he is dead. That is not the ideal. The anxiety should be purified from material contamination, and it should be only for Kṛṣṇa. Then it is perfect. Here the anxiety with some designation, "I am the father of this family," this is my anxiety, how to maintain them. "I am the leader of this nation." That is my anxiety. So all these anxieties are material, upādhi. I am neither father nor leader. I am servant of Kṛṣṇa. I have created artificial anxieties. So therefore I have to become free from this artificial anxiety. And nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa. And when he is pure servant of Kṛṣṇa, he's always anxious how to serve Kṛṣṇa. This is the.... The anxiety is there, and now it is purified. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170), completely fresh. And then with that senses, hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktiḥ. This is bhakti. Mad-bhaktim labhate.

Room Conversation -- May 5, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, similarly, if somehow or other one can sell one book to a person it is good for him. Don't take how he is selling, but he's giving the book to that person and he's paying something and that is good. But big moralist, they cannot understand. They'll see, "Why the father has spoken lie to his son. He's not a good father." They'll mistake. Father is always friend. Father cannot be enemy. But for the benefit of the rascal child sometimes he has to say like that. That "If you take the medicine I'll give you cake." So those who are mundane moralist, they cannot understand this thing, because they are mundane platform. The another example is that Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja. He was asked by Kṛṣṇa that "You speak lie to Dronācārya that 'Your son is dead.' " Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja refused. For this he had to see hell. He was more moralist than Kṛṣṇa. For this moral activity he had to visit hell. This philosophy cannot be understood by neophyte devotees. Our purpose is why we are pushing so much this sales of books. Because our missionary activities will be very widely known. That we want. Somehow or other let him purchase a book. That is our mission. There is no question of transgressing moral principles. Arjuna. Arjuna was arguing with Kṛṣṇa that this killing of my relatives, it is horrible, abominable. Better I beg and maintain myself than I kill my relatives and become a king. Did he not say? That is ordinary man's argument. But as Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja refused to speak lie, (break) Arjuna in spite of his conviction that it is sinful to kill my relatives, he still agreed to kill.

Morning Walk -- May 26, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Well, whatever they think, we say increase any number of population, but make them Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is our program. We are not afraid of population. They are rascals. They're thinking that they feed people. We don't think that. We know Kṛṣṇa is feeding. But if he's a rascal, we don't want. We don't want to feed the rascals, we want feed the devotees.

Devotee (3): If the population increases at the rate it is now...

Prabhupāda: Let them increase. We don't care for it. We can maintain any number of population. Let them come and become Kṛṣṇa conscious. We're not afraid.

Hari-śauri: It appears from the Kṛṣṇa book that there were many billions of people more on this planet when Kṛṣṇa was here than there is now. And they had no problems then.

Prabhupāda: Not only that, we have got from history. They were begetting hundreds of children. There was no scarcity of food. And who is begetting now one hundred children? Ha? One or two or at utmost.... Utmost eight, ten. Wrong theory, population increasing. Rascal's theory.

Hari-śauri: It's just that they don't know how to manage nicely.

Prabhupāda: Ha?

Hari-śauri: They don't know how to manage nicely.

Prabhupāda: There's so many, so much land vacant all over the world—Australia, Africa, South America.

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That they'll understand as they read our books. That we are all-round reformer.

Rāmeśvara: They have created so many problems, that to manage their government is the biggest headache.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: They've created so many problems to solve. (apparently reading sign) (pause)

Prabhupāda: South Pacific Railway? ISKCON government means this, stop all these four things. No slaughterhouse, close. The meat-eaters may become agitated, they may complain, "No, you are not forbidden to eat, you can eat, but slaughter in your house."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Natural death.

Prabhupāda: The government is not going to maintain slaughterhouse, that's all. We don't forbid you; you can do at your home.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The cows will die one day from old age, then they can eat.

Prabhupāda: Yes, if you like to eat, the dead cow. Just like you are eating...(break) (end)

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

Prabhupāda: Next verse.

Hṛdayānanda:

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke

jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ

manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi

prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

(BG 15.7)

"The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind." Purport. "In this verse the identity of the living being is clearly given. The living entity is a fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord-eternally. It is not that he assumes individuality in his conditional life and in his liberated state becomes one with the Supreme Lord. He is eternally fragmented. It is clearly said, sanātana. According to the Vedic version, the Supreme Lord manifests and expands Himself in innumerable expansions, of which the primary expansions are called Viṣṇu-tattva, and the secondary expansions are called the living entities. In other words, the Viṣṇu-tattva is the personal expansion, and the living entities are separated expansions. By His personal expansion, He is manifested in various forms like Lord Rāma, Nṛsiṁha-deva, Viṣṇumūrti and all the predominating Deities in the Vaikuṇṭha planets. The separated expansions, the living entities, are eternally servitors. The personal expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the individual identities of the Godhead, are always present. Similarly, the separated expansions of living entities have their identities. As fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, the living entities have also fragmental qualities, of which independence is one. Every living entity has an individual soul, his personal individuality and a minute form of independence. By misuse of that independence, one becomes a conditioned soul, and by proper use of independence he is always liberated. In either case, he is qualitatively eternal, as the Supreme Lord is. In his liberated state he is freed from this material condition, and he is under the engagement of transcendental service unto the Lord; in his conditioned life he is dominated by the material modes of nature, and he forgets the transcendental loving service of the Lord. As a result, he has to struggle very hard to maintain his existence in the material world. The living entities, not only the human beings and the cats and dogs, but even the greater controllers of the material world—Brahmā, Lord Śiva, and even Viṣṇu—are all parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. They are all eternal, not temporary manifestations. The word karṣati (struggling or gappling hard) is very significant. The conditioned soul is bound up, as though shackled by iron chains. He is bound up by the false ego, and the mind is the chief agent which is driving him in this material existence. When the mind is in the mode of goodness, his activities are good."

Prabhupāda: Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). The struggle for existence—this word is used also among the philosophers. This is struggle. He is creating something by the mind, manaḥ, and the senses are engaged according to the dictation of the mind. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi. In this way, prakṛti-sthāni, within this material world, he's living a life of struggle for existence. Prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. Karṣati means with hardship he's pulling on. Just like an animal yoked with cart, bull, with hardship he's pulling on, but he cannot get out of it. And if he slacks, immediately there is whip, he has to go. Therefore this word is used, karṣati. He doesn't like this, but he has to do it. Struggle for existence, survival of the fittest. (someone enters) Hare Kṛṣṇa. The man may come.

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

Prabhupāda: (laughter) Huh? That he can send to us. Milk is so nice that it cannot be wasted, even a drop. First of all you get milk, that is the Indian system. So there is a big milk pan, and as soon as the milk is drawn it is put into the pan. The pan is in the fire. So as much as you like, drink milk, children, elderly persons. Then at night, when there is no demand for milk, it is converted into yogurt, not wasted. Whatever balance milk is there is converted into yogurt. Then in daytime also you take yogurt, as much as you like. If it is not all consumed, then it is stored in a pot. Then when that pot is enough stored, then you churn it. Churn it, and you get butter and Buttermilk. So again you take buttermilk with cāpāṭi and everything, not a single drop is lost. Then the butter, you melt it, convert into ghee and store it, it will stay for years. So not a drop of milk can be wasted. And this butter, because in the village they are eating so much milk products, they do not require butter or ghee. Maybe little, so that is stored. They go to the city. The city men they require, especially. Ghee is very important thing in the city. So they purchase. So in exchange of that money, whatever they want, they purchase in the city and come back. But the simply maintaining the cows, their economic problem is solved. Simply maintaining the cows. And to maintain cow there is no difficulty. The boys.... Just like Kṛṣṇa, as boy, was taking the cows, the calves, in the fields. They are grazing here and there, and coming back they're giving milk. Only one attendant required to take them into the pasturing ground and bring them back home. You don't require to give them food even. Simply take care, they give milk, and with milk you make so many preparations.

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

Richard: Okay, what I was leading up to was, her brain is dead, she has no...

Prabhupāda: Not dead, it is not working.

Richard: It's not working, okay. It's not working. She's getting no sensory input. She's not aware of the physical surroundings, and yet you maintain that her soul is still alive and still very active. Now would her state, her physical state, enhance the soul's activity or detract from...?

Prabhupāda: It has nothing to do with it.

Richard: It has nothing to do with it. Okay, would it matter to you whether they did turn off her life supporting apparatus? Would that make any difference?

Rāmeśvara: No, it wouldn't.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: There are machines that are maintaining her life.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: It is finished. In England aristocracy is finished.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They're all selling their property. They cannot maintain. Even the Queen cannot maintain her establishment, but because it's government.... The Buckingham Palace was not repaired for many years. Last time, when I went there, I saw it is repaired now. Before that, three, four times I went. It is blackish. The stone.... It is made of stone. The stone had become black. That means many years it was not repaired.

Hari-śauri: What they do now if they have some big house in the country and they want to keep it, they have to put it on show during the summer months. They allow people to come, and they charge them so much money to come and look around.

Prabhupāda: The Parliament and that.... What is that church?

Hari-śauri: Westminster Abbey?

Prabhupāda: Yes. They charge.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Large or small, whatever; there was. But England had no soldiers. Whatever they did—fight—with the Indian soldiers, Gurkha and Sikh. Indian money, Indian soldiers, everything Indian—they were fighting. So when the Britishers saw that "The nationalism has come amongst the soldiers. It is not possible to maintain the Empire," they voluntarily gave indepen.... "Better give us good relations, and our business.... Make some agreement. But before departing, make them weak and divide Pakistan and India."

Rāmeśvara: That the British arranged.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because they are doing these things all in.... Wales.... What is called? Ireland, Germany. That is their business: divide and rule. Before leaving India, immediately they partitioned. Burma was Indian. Ceylon was Indian. So they had already divided.

Hari-śauri: Made them all into separate states.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (japa) Now England is finished. There are aristocrat type statues now rolling on the ground. Who takes care? Their, their Lennon? Lennon, John Lennon and George Harrison, they are purchasing big, big palaces.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Jayādvaita: In this part of the country, I think the students, generally they admit there is God. They're a little pious in this central portion. There are so many farms and they're not so deteriorated.

Prabhupāda: Polluted.

Jayādvaita: But then they don't accept that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the only process for understanding God. They want to maintain Christian religion, or.... Not Christian religion, but sense gratification and, at the same time, God consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Well we are not denying sense gratification. We want to regulate. That's all.

Mādhavānanda: Actually, we have the best sense gratification.

Prabhupāda: Hmm? Yes.

Mādhavānanda: On the radio program, one lady, she was asking questions. She was very envious. "And you are living in such a palace."

Prabhupāda: Why shall I not? Government servants, they live in the best place. We are Kṛṣṇa's servants, the supreme government. We must have the best car, best house, the best food, (laughter) everything. You are unfortunate, you are wretched, you cannot possess this. We are government's servants. Why the governor is living in the best house of the city?

Mādhavānanda: We said, "You can live here with us." She said, "Thank you."

Prabhupāda: Without any charges. Did you not say? But as soon as you shall say there is no tea, he'll go away. "Oh, horrible." (laughter) Just see. And you have to rise early in the morning. "Oh, it's still horrible." And chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. "Ah, still."

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Hari-śauri: Oh, Śukadeva was saying in Hawaii. They bury the pig, and when it becomes completely rotten they dig it up and eat it.

Prabhupāda: So similarly, when the cow is dead, you dig, or put it within the.... Or take it. No, nobody will object. In India, that is the system. When the cow is dead, there is a class, they are called cobblers, camar(?). They are informed and they'll come. They'll take it. And they'll eat the flesh and take the skin, and tan it in their own method, and then prepare shoes. They sell it in the market. So without any price, they get the skin, they eat the flesh. So nobody is harmed. But there is a class.... (break) ...they are not going to starve. From economic point of view, it is very good. So why you are killing and maintaining so big, big slaughterhouse? Let everyone maintain the cows for taking milk. And when it dies, you take it, you meat-eaters. Make that arrangement.

Rakṣaṇa: They spend so much money on force-feeding the cows (indistinct)

Mādhavānanda: It's actually been proven that the animal's flesh becomes poison. Because of the fear of the animal, he releases adrenalin in his bloodstream, and this adrenalin makes the meat poisonous to the human system, proven scientifically.

Hari-śauri: Causing cancer.

Mādhavānanda: And that is one of the causes of cancer.

Prabhupāda: I think we published some article.

Room Conversation with Ambarisa and Catholic Priest -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Stansky: This is true.

Prabhupāda: You see this black men. They earn sufficient money, but see their home. See their home. You America, you have given them equal rights, they are getting money, but they have no culture. Therefore you may pay them as much as you like, but still poverty-stricken. In Africa also I have seen that they have got their own kingdom, independence, but if we go to the African slums, they are poverty-stricken, wretched. So this civilization will not endure. If there is no culture, simply by money you cannot maintain a standard of civilization. That is not possible. Now the American leaders they are thinking, "Let us have money, then everything..." Of course, by money you are covering all the defects of the social culture. But this will not endure. Day will come and everything will be exposed. Therefore culture required.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda was explaining how in India even the poorest people, they live, husband, wife, family, like this, in very...

Prabhupāda: Happy.

Room Conversation with Ambarisa and Catholic Priest -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: That we wanted to purchase?

Hari-śauri: Oh, that nunnery.

Prabhupāda: Nunnery. So they wanted to maintain themselves by becoming washermen. Still, they could not maintain. They eventually became washerwoman to maintain. Huge establishment. So I wanted, negotiation was there. They persisted that the church should not be broken. No? To be broken.

Hari-śauri: Yes, there were different sections. They had a school there and,...

Prabhupāda: So we thought that we shall use it as temple. That they disagreed. "No, you cannot keep it, you have to break it, then we can sell to you." Then why shall I break it? We shall pay for it and break it? No. Then the negotiation failed. But a huge land, and we are prepared to purchase. In England, in London, I was..., one, two churches I was negotiating, and one church, that man, he said, "I'll burn into ashes. I'll not sell it to Bhaktivedanta." (laughs) Recently we wanted to purchase in St. James Park one nice house. So they did not give us. They..., we offered better price; still they did not give us.

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

Kīrtanānanda: But in Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says that those in the mode of ignorance, they take irreligion to be religion and religion to be irreligion.

Prabhupāda: No, religion, there is no religion for them, but there is no morality. Here we are having so many children, we don't brag that "We cannot maintain these children. Kill them." We never say that. Never mind. Let them be trained up as Kṛṣṇa conscious, live comfortably, take milk. So which is better civilization? Running with motorcar, putputputputputputputput and killing child? Is that civilization?

Kīrtanānanda: Most of these children are not even our own. They have been taken in from...

Prabhupāda: Just see, that means we welcome.

Kīrtanānanda: ...mothers without fathers,

Prabhupāda: That means we welcome and they kill. So why do they not find the distinction between this civilization, that civilization?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They have no arguments against this except that they want to be free. In colleges...

Prabhupāda: But they are not free. That means they are fools. They are not free, still they are thinking free. That is foolishness. If you are actually free, that is another thing, (laughs) but you are not free. You are responsible for even a minute work or misdeed, you are responsible. Where is your freedom? That freedom means ahaṅkāra vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). The rascal, foolish, bewildered, he's thinking that he's free. Where is your freedom? Nature is working. If you are free, then why you are dying? If you are free, then do not die. Nobody wants to die. What is the answer?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They will give some nonsense answer.

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

Kīrtanānanda: But that will get us in trouble.

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is, they can give us, they are in power, they can do that, but legally...

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, you are right. If they want to eat, let them take the dead cow.

Prabhupāda: They take it. Free, they get without any price. They get the skin, they get flesh, let them eat. We are not going to charge for the... You take it. Why maintain slaughterhouse? Take this.

Kīrtanānanda: They even object if you let the animals, wild animals eat the dead cow.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Kīrtanānanda: They even object if you let the wild animals eat. They want it buried.

Prabhupāda: Oh, jackals or fox, if they come, they don't like it.

Kīrtanānanda: The jackals like it.

Prabhupāda: No, jackals like it, (laughter) but government...

Kīrtanānanda: Government doesn't like it.

Prabhupāda: Government will like when the jackal takes your animal. They will eat it, they will not attack somebody else, because if they are not hungry, they don't attack. Even tiger or any ferocious animal, if they are satisfied in hunger, they don't attack. In the jungle, tiger and other animals, they live together. When they are hungry, they attack. So at least you can advertise that here is a cow, available free. Take it, those who are meat-eaters. Take free without any price.

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

Prabhupāda: You can see, come and see with us. Live in our New Vrindaban, you'll see.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Then they say "Well, that is all right for you, but that is not practical for everyone."

Kīrtanānanda: Why not? We are human beings, and you are human being.

Prabhupāda: So what is not practical for you, our system, your system is also not practical for us. We cannot live in this way. Anyway, if you can maintain a perfect community of plain living, high thinking, that is sufficient. We do not canvass, but naturally they will see that this is convenient. After all, they are human beings. They are learning. So that is part of our business to preach, but to practice personally, that is our main business. To practice personally, that is our main business. Not that everyone will be preacher, but at least his own life be perfect. What is this kijariya?

Kulaśekhara: I don't know if it's spelled right, Prabhupāda.

Hari-śauri: Kī jaya.

Kīrtanānanda: Kī jaya

Prabhupāda: Kī jaya. Oh.

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

Pradyumna: "These four items are by far inferior to engagement in the devotional service of the Lord. Śrī Vyāsadeva as the authorized scholar knew very well this difference, and still, instead of giving more importance to the better type of engagement, namely the devotional service of the Lord, he had more or less improperly used his valuable time, and thus he was despondent. From this it is clearly indicated that no one can be pleased substantially without being engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā this fact is clearly mentioned. After liberation, which is the last item in the line of performing religiosity, etc., one is engaged in pure devotional service. This is called the stage of self-realization or brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20) stage. After attainment of this brahma-bhūta stage one is satisfied, but satisfaction is the beginning of transcendental bliss. One should progress by attaining neutrality and equality in the relative world. In passing this stage of equanimity, one is fixed up in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. This is the instruction of the Personality of Godhead in the Bhagavad-gītā. The conclusion is that in order to maintain the status quo of the brahma-bhūta stage, as also to increase the degree of transcendental realization, it is recommended by Nārada to Vyāsadeva that he, Vyāsadeva, should now eagerly and repeatedly describe the path of devotional service. This would cure him from gross despondency."

na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo

jagat-pavitraṁ pragṛṇīta karhicit

tad vāyasaṁ tīrtham uśanti mānasā

na yatra haṁsā niramanty uśikkṣayāḥ

(SB 1.5.10)

"Those words which do not describe the glories of the Lord, who alone can sanctify the atmosphere of the whole universe, are considered by saintly persons to be like unto a place of pilgrimage for crows."

Prabhupāda: Just like the modern newspaper. Huge bundle of newspaper every morning, huh? So it is, as it is said here, the place of enjoyment for the crows. What is that?

Pradyumna: Vāyasaṁ tīrtham.

Prabhupāda: Vāyasaṁ means crows. The crows, they take pleasure in a place where all rubbish and refuses are thrown. They take pleasure. So what is this newspaper? All rubbish things, they are collected together. Nobody likes it to read. They just glance over for a few minutes, and then it is thrown away, rubbish. And even it is thrown, nobody touches. So they are spending huge, so many newspapers. Each newspaper several editions in a day, huge establishment, but there is no substance of life. That is being described. Na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Illegal.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Illegal means.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Purport. "The demoniac accept that the enjoyment of the senses is the ultimate goal of life, and this concept they maintain until death. They do not believe in life after death, and they do not believe that one takes on different types of bodies according to one's karma, or activities in this world. Their plans for life are never finished, and they go on preparing plan after plan, all of which are never finished. We have personal experience of a person of such demoniac mentality, who, even at the point of death, was requesting the physician to prolong his life for four years more because his plans were not yet complete. Such foolish people do not know that a physician cannot prolong life even for a moment. When the notice is there, there is no consideration of the man's desire. The laws of nature do not allow a second beyond what one is destined to enjoy. The demoniac person, who has no faith in God or the Supersoul within himself, performs all kinds of sinful activities simply for sense gratification. He does not know that there is a witness sitting within his heart. The Supersoul is observing the activities of the individual soul. As it is stated in the Vedic literature, the Upaniṣads, there are two birds sitting in one tree; the one is acting and enjoying or suffering the fruits of the branches, and the other is witnessing. But one who is demoniac has no knowledge of Vedic scripture, nor has he any faith; therefore he feels free to do anything for sense enjoyment, regardless of the consequences."

Prabhupāda: Now discuss any points.

Kulādri: One of the richest men in the United States, Howard Hughes, he just recently died, and he had sores all over his body. With all of his money, he died in a very miserable condition. He had so many millions and millions of dollars.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: He said at the time of death, "I think I've made a mistake."

Prabhupāda: What he was?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: He was one of the richest men in the world, Śrīla Prabhupāda. He was owning all the..., like aircraft, they are making, the jet airplanes, and he was a movie star in his youth, and he had many beautiful women, fabulous wealth, he owned hotels all over the world, airplanes, airports, but...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: At the end of his life he didn't even mix with women so much though. He became very despondent and depressed. He was like a hermit.

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

Prabhupāda: One religion is there already, that how to love God. This is one religion. Will the Christian say, "No. We don't want to love God"? Will the Christians say? Will the Mohammedans say, "No, no. We don't want to love God"? So religion means how to love God, and any religion which teaches how to love God, that is perfect. It doesn't matter whether he's Christian or Muslim or Hindu. It doesn't matter. You have to be educated to take your degree. It doesn't matter from which college you take degree. Similarly, religion means you have to learn how to love God. If you have no love for God, it is all useless. That is not religion. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Sākṣād, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender unto Me." You cannot surrender until you love. You are surrendered to me, I am also an Indian. Because you have love for me, therefore there is surrender. If I say that "You die," you'll die. Why? Because you love me. So when there will be surrender? Unless one loves God. Unless that platform is not there, that "I love you, I can sacrifice everything for you." That is on the the basic principle of love. Therefore that religion is perfect which teaches the followers how to love God. This is religious principle. So let everyone come to this platform, how to love God. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are teaching nothing, but training them how to love God, how they can sacrifice everything for God. So that is religion. Otherwise a bogus waste of time, simply following the ritualistic ceremonies. That is not religion. That is superfluous.

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ

viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ

notpādayed yadi ratiṁ

śrama eva hi kevalam

(SB 1.2.8)

You are very good, you are following your religious principle very strictly, adherently. That's all right. But what about your love of God? "Oh, that I do not know." So śāstra says, śrama eva hi... It is simply waste of time, and simply laboring. That's all. If you have not learned to love God, then what is the meaning of your religion? Then, when you're actually on the platform of love of God, you understand your relationship with God, that "I am part and parcel of God. Not only I am part and parcel of God, this dog is also part and parcel of.... Every living entity." Then you'll extend love for animal also. If you actually love God, then your love for insect also is there because you understand that "This insect, it has got a different body only, but he is also part and parcel, or my brother." Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Then you cannot maintain slaughterhouse. If you maintain slaughterhouse and disobey the order of Christ, thou shall not kill, and you proclaim yourself as Christian or Hindu or this.... That is not religion. Then śrama eva hi kevalam. Your going to the temple and church and everything is simply waste of time. Śrama eva hi kevalam. Because you do not understand God. You have no love for God.

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Rūpānuga: Just the medical point of view, it is right.

Prabhupāda: You see. But they are so fools, rascals, they'll not accept it. And they'll give example, "Christ ate fish" somewhere; therefore we have to maintain the slaughterhouse. Because Christ ate fish, therefore we have to maintain slaughterhouse. Give the dog a bad name and hang it. Huh? This is going on. So we have to make vigorous propaganda for all this foolishness. Mūḍho nābhijānāti loko mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. So we are giving the best civilization, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. With little patience and perseverance you work on it, people will take it. Because there is nothing adulteration; it is pure. Rest assured, if you follow the principles and push on according to the prescription I have given, it will be accepted. May take some time.

Rūpānuga: But they will appreciate the purity.

Prabhupāda: It is pure. Actually, these fruits and some milk preparation are sufficient. You don't require any flesh. Is the flesh comparable with this nice fruit? (pause) Come on. Sit down.

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

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda, it's 8:30. Want to finish up?

Prabhupāda: What is your question?

Vipina: I was talking to Dr. Diksha and I was explaining to him that if he was unable to chant or to become a full-time devotee, that your program for a person in that condition of life, was something like Life Membership Program, whereby he could become a member of the Society, maintain his occupational duty, but become a member and take books and read and try to understand gradually that way. Is that satisfactory, if they can do that much, that would be, some way they would be serving Kṛṣṇa to your satisfaction? (Prabhupāda laughs)

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are taking so much labor in writing books. If somebody reads, certainly that is satisfaction. (laughter)

Rūpānuga: It is to their benefit, Śrīla Prabhupāda, if they read.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I am writing for reading by others.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Rūpānuga: They were raised with the real sons.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Rūpānuga: Treated nicely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not that because he is born of a dāsī no care should be taken. No, equal. But he cannot inherit the throne, that's all. There was no question. Even Muhammadans, they used to marry more than one wife. Two hundred years ago, one Muslim Nawab of Lucknow, Wazel Dusayet(?), he had hundred and sixty wives. The palaces are still there, Lucknow, hundred and sixty palaces. Why the Nawab? Our Kṛṣṇa, not hundred sixty but another zero, another, hundred sixty thousand, two zeros. Hundred sixty plus two zeros. They were not neglected. But He is God, He expanded Himself also, sixteen thousand forms, so that no wife would feel separation. So if one husband can maintain properly more than one wife, he's allowed. But the wife must be taken care of properly. Not that because I have got more than one wife, one is neglected, one is... No. She must be taken care of.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Vṛṣākapi: Not in the ISKCON society, though.

Prabhupāda: In the Kali-yuga one cannot maintain even one wife, what to speak of more than one. They are afraid to marry one wife. I first heard this, one elderly lady in New York. At that time, I was newcomer. I asked her, "Why don't you get your son married?" "Yes, he can be married, provided he can maintain wife," she said. So these things were unknown to us. In India, whether he'll be able to maintain... Just like I was married when I was third-year student. Where is the income? There is no income, but still I was married.

Hari-śauri: That was formerly the Western system, that the prospective son-in-law would be checked first to see whether he would be able to maintain the girl.

Prabhupāda: No, that is everywhere. But expectation, he is educated, he'll be able. The first thing is in due time, either the girl or the boy must be married, that is Indian system. In due time. Boy not exceeding twenty years or twenty-five years, at most, and girl not exceeding fifteen years, sixteen years, must be. Saṁskāra, this is one of the saṁskāras. Just like garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, this is also one saṁskāra, and marriage is also saṁskāra. Must be married. Daśa-vidha-saṁskāra, ten kinds of saṁskāras, out of which marriage is one of the saṁskāras. And kanyā-dāya. Kanyā-dāya, dāya means by law the father is bound to get his daughter married, by law. He cannot escape the responsibility. This is father's duty.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (1): The Christians say that Christ ate meat himself, that there's nothing wrong with it.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Christ ate meat? I don't think so.

Hari-śauri: They say fish.

Prabhupāda: Therefore you should maintain slaughterhouse. Very good reasoning. Because Christ ate fish, therefore we should maintain big, big slaughterhouse? Is that good reasoning?

Dr. Sharma: Meat-eating is not useful from three points of view.

Prabhupāda: No, no, apart from that. He said that Christ ate fish, therefore we should maintain big, big slaughterhouse. What do you think? Is that good reasoning?

Devotee (2): No, it's demoniac by common sense if you maintain large slaughterhouses, it's completely irreligious.

Prabhupāda: When Christ said "Thou shalt not kill," does it mean that he wanted to maintain slaughterhouse? What is the answer, hm?

Devotee (1): No.

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

Prabhupāda: That is have already explained, that you serve God in any position, but if you want to know about God more, then you have to come here. Now ask any Christian what is God, who is God, what is His form, what He is doing. Can he answer? Nobody can answer. He knows God is great. How great He is, who is that God, they cannot answer. To some extent it is all right, but if you want to know full extent, then you have come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. "Two plus two is equal to four" is mathematics, but if you want to know higher mathematics, you have to go some higher college. "Two plus two" is also mathematics, is it not? Everyone knows two plus two equal to four. So when you go to higher university, that "two plus two" does not change, but you know more about it. Because one has gone to higher university, the previous education, "two plus two," has changed, it is not that. But as a Christian you understand God is great, "two plus two," but how He is great, that you have to learn in the Vedas. That is real education. Because you do not know how He is great, therefore you do so many sinful activities. Otherwise, how it is possible to maintain slaughterhouse? Christian doctrine says "Thou shall not kill." But he does not understand; therefore his business has become to kill only. This is the defect. Why you are disobeying the orders of Christ, "Thou shall not kill"? Because you do not understand him properly.

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

Prabhupāda: If they know Kṛṣṇa, why they do not come to the Kṛṣṇa's temple?

Indian man (2): Quite a number of them come here. I remember the days when I used to be the only Indian in the temple, seven, eight years ago.

Prabhupāda: Even though they are not coming, they should now come, and we can open many other temples if you come. We can maintain many other temples. You come and take advantage of it. Why you are losing your own culture? That is foolishness. You are Indians and you do not know Kṛṣṇa. That is not a very good credit.

Indian man (2): Remember when we were building our altar? Remember last year when I talked to you? We were building altar, and actually I went to every Indian, and myself and the president of that temple, we begged everything we can do possible... And we wanted to collect almost ten thousand dollars, we couldn't even collect five thousand dollars, and most of them were making between fifteen and thirty thousand dollars. Some of them in fact gave us pennies.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Our men's productive. There must be food production, otherwise how the society will live. That is also a requirement. Good direction required, good government required, good production required, and good worker required. You can explain that there is no understanding of spiritual life. That they are missing the opportunity of human life.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a spiritual culture, and basically speaking the human society begins from dharma, or accepting the principle of God. Dharma begins with this acceptance of the principle of God, that human beings, their activities, have to be regulated. Just like in human society there is marriage. This is according to scripture. Every scripture regulates there must be marriage. This is dharma. It regulates certain activities that should be done, certain activities that should not be done. And basically speaking this is the beginning of human civilization; otherwise, they're simply living in a civilization of gross sense gratification which is in reality no different or no better than the society of animals. So from dharma, human society begins and generally... You can see practically that dharma generally focuses... People are taking that dharma is for the basis of economic development. This is proven practically because in pioneer times in America for example, people they were simple going to churches and synagogues, and temples and all kinds of things, what have you. And economic development was going on very nicely, in fact, economic development could not have gone on unless there was this principle of religion. People were very, practically speaking... In a pioneer situation people are very barbaric, struggle for existence—you know, you're in the country, there is no road, there's no cities—everyone is very, simply interested to maintain themselves. But by churches and things of this nature, people saw the need for a civilized give-and-take way of living—economic development. Then gradually, the ideas developed further and further, but in modern days we can see that people are having economic developments and there's no need for God, they think at least. In other words, people are no longer attending churches, synagogues, things of this nature, because they are making sufficient money without the need of religion. Therefore, the basic principle is being missed that human life is not simply meant for economic development. Human life—we analyze, we can say that...

Prabhupāda: Human life is meant for making a solution of all material problems.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: But how about the electricity board and people like that? I mean, where do you get the money?

Jayatīrtha: Kṛṣṇa gives us the money.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we have no scarcity of money. We are selling our books daily, sixty thousand dollars' worth. So we have got sufficient income to maintain the whole institute.

Jayatīrtha: No one takes any personal benefit. All the money is used for the furtherance of our principles.

Prabhupāda: Besides that, when we require a nice house, somebody gives. Just like George has given us. Similarly, we have got many houses. One boy, his name is Alfred Ford, he's the great-grandson of Mr. Ford, Henry Ford. He has given us two, three very nice properties. So the money, there is no scarcity, and Kṛṣṇa is everywhere. If Kṛṣṇa dictates "Give him this," he'll give, that's all. And that is being happening actually. Within ten years nobody can expect to construct a house like this in a city like London. Is it possible? Even if he is a very big businessman. Not only one, there are so many. It is all Kṛṣṇa's mercy.

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

Hari-śauri: Buick?

Prabhupāda: Buick, yes, very strong car. At that time, Ford, Chevrolet and Buick, these cars were very popular in India. Ford for the poorer class and Buick for the first class.

Hari-śauri: Your nephew was a taxi driver.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Nephew was my sister's son. We had to maintain one sister and her family. She became widow. So this is Hindu family obligation. When the daughter is widow, she comes to the father's shelter with all family. The father has to maintain.

Hari-śauri: You wouldn't get that in the West. (laughs) They don't even maintain their own parents.

Prabhupāda: On the whole, during British time, people were happy, that I can... The thing is that Britishers were little afraid that "If the government is not good, it will go against our credit, that we may agitate." So they were careful to see that people are happy. But here nobody's careful. Everyone thinks "I'm in my own country. Whatever I do, it is all right." They were conscious, that "We are foreigners. If the management is not good, then it will go against our credit and it will be difficult working such a big England empire." So they were little careful. But these rascals are not... Just like the governor, he was friendly, but what is the report? Did he say? Did not behave very nicely?

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: They come here for money, at the sacrifice of...

Nandarāṇī: Yes. We have Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities here, marble, sixteen inch, I think. They've been here for two years. Nava-yauvana got them in India because he thought that soon they would be able to worship them, but we will never have ten brāhmaṇas here, I mean, it will always be just...

Prabhupāda: Not ten brāhmaṇas, at least four, five.

Nandarāṇī: Right. But even so, we could not maintain a standard of six āratiks and six offerings, so we have not installed any Deities.

Prabhupāda: No, not necessary now. Now he is trying to purchase another house?

Nandarāṇī: He's trying.

Prabhupāda: That house can be completely temple, so that Indians may also come.

Hari-śauri: What if they started to worship Gaura-Nitāi? Gaura-Nitāi? Because the worship is not so strict as Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, and I know you've said before...

Prabhupāda: Yes, Gaura-Nitāi can be worshiped twice.

Hari-śauri: Yes, two āratiks a day and kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: Gaura-Nitāi is worshiped simply by kīrtana.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Nandarāṇī: I remember in Delhi when they had only a few devotees, they were having three aratiks a day, a very simple program for Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: They can do that, simple, three.

Nandarāṇī: Can it be three, can it be simple?

Prabhupāda: Maṅgala āratik, bhoga āratika and sundara āratik, that's all.

Nandarāṇī: And changing Their clothes every day?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Every day.

Nandarāṇī: Bathing and changing of Their clothes and three āratiks. Once we have a separate place and we have devotees to maintain Them. We have been eager to worship Deities, so we planted tulasīs, so now we have sixty tulasīs, so we are looking forward to worshiping the Deity and having a good program for bhakti.

Prabhupāda: Here also you can do, but Atreya Ṛṣi thinks separate building. He thinks like that.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Rituals are meant for the neophytes who are given education to begin with. But if he's stuck up with rituals, do not make any further progress, then his progress is checked. You have to go, progress, more progress. Instead of having no sense of God, they, if it is prescribed that "Go to the mosque and pray to God, five times," that is good, ritualistic. At least you're accepting there is God, I must offer. Similarly... This is Muslim process. Hindu process, they say go to the temple and see God. And this Christian, go to the church and offer... The subject matter is the same—accept God. Accept God. But the ultimate, shall we say, goal is not only accept God... They go to God for some material benefit, because they have no other idea. Like the Christians say, "O God, give us our daily bread." I do not know what the Muhammadans say in the prayer. Hindus also, they go to God, "Sir, I am very poor, give me some money," or "I am diseased, please cure me." So these things are the same in different ways according to country and customs. But it is good because they have approached God. That much is good. They are accepting there is God. That much is good. But when he makes further progress, that there is God, what kind of person He is, what is His business, then you make further progress. So these, for the neophyte, these ritualistic formula is good, but he must make further progress. Instead of godlessness, these processes are better. Let him go to the mosque, let him go to the temple, let him go to the church. At least, let him maintain the idea of God. That is the ritualistic. Then there is further progress. One must be interested. But people are losing interest even in the neophyte stage. They're becoming godless.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: If they understand the purpose of life.

Prabhupāda: Yes, otherwise it is dangerous

Ātreya Ṛṣi: They can fool each other.

Prabhupāda: That is generally done. Wife increases the responsibility. Strī-vistāra. But still one has to maintain wife. A brahmacārī has no responsibility. His only responsibility is to serve Kṛṣṇa. But a gṛhastha has many responsibilities. "There is the children, I have to give them education, see that they're well situated."

Ātreya Ṛṣi: A brahmacārī life. A devotee who has not had experience with the responsibility...

Prabhupāda: No, no, responsible... He has no, this material responsibility.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: But he has responsibility towards Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: So he should know about responsibility, he should have experience.

Prabhupāda: Real business of human life is to take responsibility of spiritual advancement. So if one remain brahmacārī, he has no disturbance in that responsibility. But if he becomes a gṛhastha, that disturbance is there. You cannot take wholeheartedly the spiritual responsibility. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: Who said?

Jayapatākā: Rāmeśvara.

Gargamuni: To maintain this food relief from the centers only requires what? Fifteen hundred dollars a month. So little amount and so much service is done.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: So I know Tamāla, he was giving one thousand but he has stopped now. He was giving one thousand a month. And now he has stopped.

Jayapatākā: Rāmeśvara, you wrote him a letter that "Jayapatākā Swami should be sent money for ISKCON Food Relief." And he told me that "I am sending you. I have four thousand dollars, "which he sent. We had already been 36,000 rupees in debt because we had not received money for six months. But he wrote in a newsletter to the temples that "Prabhupāda has wrote me to send money to Jayapatākā Swami; and now we're going to start again ISKCON Food Relief." But that was making it appear that we had stopped. But actually we had never stopped.

Prabhupāda: Rāmeśvara? He did not know?

Jayapatākā: Rāmeśvara had stopped collecting from the temples. But we had never stopped...

Prabhupāda: Anyway, he'll collect. That's all.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have seen.

Gargamuni: And the marble is turning black.

Prabhupāda: Because they don't...

Gargamuni: They don't clean it.

Jayapatākā: How they can afford to maintain such a building?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa will maintain. We can utilize it properly.

Jayapatākā: And we'll have British pūjārīs. For the glory of Queen Victoria.

Prabhupāda: Victoria. Let them send. Tell them that we shall bring. Victoria has... Let them send to worship Victoria with prasādam of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That is real Victoria Memorial.

Jayapatākā: That is putra. (kīrtana in the background throughout this conv.)

Prabhupāda: Yes, great grandson. Putra is great... The putra was that Edward Seventh.

Jayapatākā: No, but to lift from hell. When she gets prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. Pun-nārakāt trāyate iti putra.(?) Victoria died in 1903. There was great function, and this building started in 1903, and it was finished in 1922.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: Nobody reads that.

Jayapatākā: You say she was kicked out from the trusteeship. She's not part of that any more.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The other trustees said that "You are simply spending. What you are doing?" After all, when she was wife of the governor she had some prestige. Otherwise... She invited me in that Juhu, she has got a house in Juhu. So I told her, "Yes, I can purchase your press. Fifty lakhs is not a very big amount for me, but what shall I do? We are printing offset." That is the cause... Because nowadays printing is done by offset press, she lost all business. People got big, big contract, they got cheaper and better quality. Why they should stick to that press? And government contract was taken from them, big, huge business they lost. Tata Press, they have got offset. Government transferred there. And that was her main support. It was a nice, good press. Practically best press in Bombay, Associated Press. But because it is letter press... Now to maintain the letter press is very costly.

Gargamuni: Yes. You have to get new type every year, and that is very costly.

Prabhupāda: Nowadays there is no need of letters, I mean to say...

Jayapatākā: Type.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. Jīvasya jīva... jivo jīvanam. One animal is eating another animal. That is another thing. But that does not mean species finished. That is nonsense.

Harikeśa: No, I didn't mean. So the human being, the animals can't kill off the human being so that the people have to do it.

Prabhupāda: Huh? What is that?

Harikeśa: The people have to do it to maintain the population level. We have to kill some of the children so that it doesn't become out of control, like the animals do it.

Prabhupāda: You are less than animal. You are greatest animal. You want to kill your children.

Vāsu Ghoṣa: But they have no life. There is only you know an amoeba in the womb.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They like military. They want military jobs. Very kṣatriya spirit.

Caraṇāravindam: They collected so much, but they lost it because they didn't give it to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Ah, their bad policy that they wanted India for Britishers' benefit. That is not duty of the government. Government should be for the welfare of the people. Then that government will continue. But they exploited the Indian people for the benefit of their own countrymen. That is the failure. That policy was not good. Therefore they finished within two hundred years. They began their ruling 1775, like that. And 1947... Not even two hundred years.

Caraṇāravindam: And now nothing.

Prabhupāda: Now, after losing India, they have no more British Empire. Because they cannot maintain without Indian soldiers. Therefore they voluntarily left.

Caraṇāravindam: I used to see in my grandmother's house, in her front room she used to keep special...

Prabhupāda: Where? In London?

Caraṇāravindam: That was in Yorkshire, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yorkshire.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Akṣayānanda: A lot of devotees think... They come here... Therefore work is not necessary. Simply chanting and being in Vṛndāvana is nice. That's wrong.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Chanting, but there is expenditure. Who will collect this twenty-five thousand? It is increasing. I can maintain them provided they are actually serious about making progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not that some lazy fellow will come, and because he has come to Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa-candra has become very much obliged to him. Kṛṣṇa-candra had no other friend. He has come from somebody. That mentality should be curtailed.

Harikeśa: What if he comes with money to pay for himself.

Prabhupāda: Is there a guest house? Stay. There is no harm. There is guest house, he can pay and stay. But here we shall keep only minimum number of men without whom we cannot make, manage it. That's all.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, how it is possible? Who will bring twenty-five thousand per month? I'm surprised. Twenty-five... (Hindi)

Akṣayānanda: It's much more. Sometimes thirty.

Prabhupāda: So this must be stopped immediately. We cannot pay more than five thousand. You stop. We cannot pay. (Hindi) My Guru Mahārāja used to say, (Bengali) "Joint mess." This is not possible. That we have to maintain a big bundle of burden. What is this?

Akṣayānanda: But still, we have to welcome anyone who comes.

Prabhupāda: Twenty-five thousand, thirty-thousand per month? What is this? Where is that temple in Vṛndāvana who is spending twenty-five thousand, thirty thousand? Can you say any temple?

Indian man: Not more than five thousand.

Prabhupāda: That's it. So we cannot pay more than five thousand.

Akṣayānanda: For eating?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Okay.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: "This society was formed strictly for the purpose of spreading God consciousness. We briefly submit below the misleading information as reported by Blitz and humbly inform you of the fact." What I've done is I've shown each point that Blitz has incorrectly said and then responded to it. Should I read? Okay. "Point one. Blitz Ungodly Face of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. ISKCON: The International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is a worldwide community of devotees practicing the Vedic teachings, the eternal science of rendering devotional service to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Society was founded by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, a pure devotee of God, who is coming down in paramparā started by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa five thousand years ago. In other words, the roots of this movement trace back to at least five thousand years. It is not a modern concoction. In India our Society is registered under the Society Registration Act #21 of 1860. As we are a registered nonprofit organization, we are required to maintain complete account of all donations received, both within India and from abroad. Thus keep a complete account of all our expenses. Our accounts are audited every year and submitted to the income tax authorities and the charity commissioner. Very briefly, the main object of the Society, as registered with the government is..." I've given them the three main points from your memorandum of the association. "To advance, transmit, and spread the ethical and philosophical principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as revealed in the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And the doctrines and the observances which serve to promote and manifest the said ethical and philosophical principles in the furtherance of the subject. To build or to assist in building temples, schools, colleges, hospitals, and other buildings in connection with or for the advancement of the objects of the Society and to maintain, alter, and improve the same, including existing buildings, and to furnish and equip the same. To print, publish, sell, or cause to be printed, published or sold, or to distribute books, booklets, leaflets, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly newspapers, magazines, or other periodicals for the purpose of giving information for the work of the Society. We refrain from four categories of sinful activities, such as meat-eating, intoxication, gambling, and illicit sex life. Furthermore, our entire life is dedicated to reading, chanting, and preaching about Kṛṣṇa. We rise at 4 a.m. all over the world. So how can Blitz say that we are ungodly when we are following Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa's teachings?" This is my reply to point one. It's okay?

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is nice. Very good.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: I feel perfectly at home there.

Prabhupāda: That is natural. Just like when I go to Calcutta. Therefore a sannyāsī is forbidden to live in his native place. There will be attraction. Caitanya Mahāprabhu never returned to Navadvīpa. (break) ...no striking six o'clock. Did you mark it?

Hari-śauri: I never hear him ring it. At least the one in the daytime. I think evenings he rings it.

Harikeśa: I heard the four o'clock.

Prabhupāda: He is not regular. That means he's another lazy fellow. All lazy fellows.

Harikeśa: He sits out here and he sleeps. He sleeps on the steps. I caught him last night.

Hari-śauri: When I was here before, sometimes I would go up to the caukidāra at night. They used to carry this big spear. A pole with a big sharp point on it. Metal point. And I would take his spear and stick it in his ribs and then he would wake up, "Oh." And then he would smile.

Prabhupāda: We have to maintain some paid...

Harikeśa: We've had so many caukidāras here and not one of them has ever... (end)

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: Abortion.

Prabhupāda: Yes, also. Otherwise, we have seen in our childhood how happy people were. They were. Simple. If one has five rupees income per month he's happy. I've seen it. Husband, wife, a small family. If he has got five rupees income, they can maintain very nicely, happily. Why not? Suppose he has got five rupees income. The rice was selling at four rupees. So two person, say one-fourth kg., one-fourth share each. A gentleman cannot eat more than that. So means half a share. And the whole month, fifteen share. It is about one rupee eight annas. And further, one rupees eight annas add for vegetables and other things. With three rupees they can maintain, the husband and wife. And two rupees still there. He can spend for other purposes. I have seen it. Fresh vegetables, rice, this and... Just like with banana leaf. The pots were of earthen, the wife is cooking and she's utilizing dry foliage as fuel, a little temperature, everything is cooked. The husband takes one banana leaf and spreads, and the wife gives sufficient rice, vegetables. And things were so cheap. I have seen it. And fresh.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: People have got already very respect now for the... (break) You should maintain the temple. They already call it iṁrej (English) temple. But still people come. But if you make a mleccha temple... Actually, (laughs) they can say like that, but still, they come. But their awe and veneration may be disturbed, may not be disturbed. That is management.

Hari-śauri: One of the things they haven't been able to criticize us for is our Deity worship.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Hari-śauri: One of the things they can't criticize is our Deity worship because it's a lot better than anywhere else.

Prabhupāda: But you are not above criticism.

Hari-śauri: Oh no, they criticize us for plenty of other things. That's one point, that was one point in our favor, so we should maintain it.

Prabhupāda: The servant should be kept only when it is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, everything should be done by us.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: And then they require money for medicine. I have spent so much money on medicine. Now I have stopped it. I tell them, "First you fast for three days, and if you don't get better I'll give you some money for medicine." But they are constantly running to this hospital, getting this pill and that pill. All these pills are useless. The real problem is they are just overeating. And of course when they overeat they want to sleep. Because India is hot. And when they sleep then they get dysentery. And when they get dysentery they can't engage. And in this way they run into a cycle which is very difficult to break. Only very few devotees are able to maintain themselves in India for any length of time. I see a nice strong man comes and I look at him and I see him eat and I say, "Within a week this man is going to be sick." And sure enough, he's sick. He's laying down, he's got fever, he's got dysentery, he's going to the hospital. In this way we have so many people like that.

Akṣayānanda: They become so weak that they can't work anyway.

Hari-śauri: So they just become a liability.

Haṁsadūta: I had one devotee, his name was Rad... (break) ...you know and you know. He does nothing at all. He's always sick. But at prasādam he eats more than any other man. I told him, "Prabhu, you're a doctor. You should know that if you eat so much food you can't digest, you're going to be sick." He says, "No, I'm so weak I require food. I have to, I can't get any strength." So I asked him, "At least, sit down in the temple and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." He said "I can't..."

Prabhupāda: I have seen. Some of them eat so much I am surprised.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is, in America it's seven dollars, seven dollars ninety-five cents.

Prabhupāda: And what the home member has said?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The home minister recently said that he wants this movement to be spread all over the world. One of the prominent people said he wants this movement to be spread all over the world.

Interviewer: Now, sir, from your lips, how to attain this Kṛṣṇa consciousness and to maintain it?

Prabhupāda: Once you come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you will maintain. You won't have to...

Interviewer: No, from your own, direct from your lips how to...

Prabhupāda: No, this direction is there in the Bhagavad-gītā that... Find out this verse, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). It is very simple thing.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So he was, "Here is a book of cow protection, cow protection." He has written one book to take care of the cows. So one old man called him, "What you are selling?" Now, "I am selling this book." "What is that book?" "Maintaining the cow." So, "Why you are selling? First of all give this book to your mother because you are no better than cow, so she will learn how to give you protection." That means he wanted to impress upon him that "Cow protection doesn't require any education. You have written a book? So you are such a rascal, cow intelligence. Better give this book to your mother. She will maintain you. Don't sell it. Everyone knows how to give cow protection." So similarly, this sex literature, there is no need of sex literature. Sex literature is there in Sanskrit also. That is how to restrict sex. For what purpose one should indulge in sex, that is called Kāma-śāstra. I have seen this Freud philosophy became so prominent that sometimes in the year... 1940's maybe. So one young woman was traveling, and another young man was traveling. So they began to discuss about sex very openly. And both of them unknown. Still, they engaged themselves in discussing the sex literature, without any shame.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kneupper: Very dark.

Prabhupāda: Very dark, yes. First thing, there will be no rainfall. Due to the sinful activities of the people, from nature the punishment will be, there will be no rainfall. I have seen already in Europe. Everywhere there is scarcity of rainfall. And on account of scarcity of rainfall, food production will be reduced. They will try to eat meat, killing, and maintain themselves. But that is also not very prospective. How long you will...? The animals will also die. Then in Europe they are doing that, that on account of scarcity of rain there is no grass, so they are thinking, "These animals die for want of food. Let us eat them." This is their intelligence.

Dr. Kneupper: Well, do you see that many people will die because there's not... Many people will die.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If there is no rainfall, either animal or men, they will die for want of food.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And this man is coming. He can bring.

Mahāṁśa: Yes, he himself will come. But he will have the habit of smoking and I think we can at the most regulate his smoking. "If you want to smoke, you go somewhere far away and smoke and before you start cooking you must wash yourself, have a bath, and then do the cooking."

Prabhupāda: Yes. What can be done? Ne māmā che kānā māmā (?) "If there is no uncle, one blind uncle is all right." So the matter is now clear. You do it and develop it.

Jagadīśa: There is one confusion in my mind, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Mahāṁśa said that the local villagers will not be inclined to come here and live because they are living just outside. But my impression was, from hearing you speak was, that everyone, whether they're living just outside or a long distance outside, they are suffering from material existence. They're having to struggle for existence. They're being taxed by the government. There's so many problems to maintain themself. And every living being in the material world is struggling to maintain himself. But if we offer them a house here and some work and we give them all food, clothing, and...

Prabhupāda: That is our aim.

Jagadīśa: That's our aim.

Prabhupāda: That is our aim. So you can engage some men to cut the hill for blocks and gradually develop house.

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

Prabhupāda: No, who says, they are rascals. They are rascals. We take them as rascals, that's all. How you can say that you are all-pervading? Can you say that? Even if you are very highly elevated, can you say what I am thinking? Then how do you claim God? God is all-pervading. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata (BG 13.3). You have read Bhagavad-gītā. There are two kṣetras-jñas. One kṣetra-jña, just like I am, you are. They are kṣetra-jña. I know about my pains and pleasures of my body. You know. But I do not know what is pains and pleasure of your body. You do not know what is pains and pleasure of my body. Therefore there is difference. But God knows. That is the difference between you and God. How you claim God? You do not know what is the pains and pleasures of my body. You know the pains and pleasure of your body. I know the pains and pleasure of my body. But either you or me, we do not know the pains and pleasures of all bodies. And Kṛṣṇa says kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. He knows everyone's pains and pleasure. That is the difference between you and Him.

Mr. Malhotra: But this is all right. As long as I maintain my identity...

Prabhupāda: You have to... If you foolishly think that you have become one, that is your foolishness. Yes. That is foolish thinking.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Devotee (1): I have just come from America, and at the universities, lots of times there are many questions concerning evolution and I was curious about what our position is in terms of artifacts. Bones like dinosaur bones and things like that that the scientists say they found.

Prabhupāda: Scientists are rascals. Those who are following Darwin. What is their theory?

Devotee (1): They maintain that from the oceans came one-celled animals. Then from these one-celled animals, they developed into fish and then reptiles. And then these reptiles became very big dinosaurs, and they have put together many big museums. For instance, in Washington the Smithsonian Museum has many, many big bones put together and they date these millions of years ago.

Prabhupāda: So we have got also the same theory. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. (break) ...within water. So where is the difference? We also admit the forms of life begins from the ocean. Then plants. As soon as the water is dried, there are plants, trees. Sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. Sthāvara means "the life which cannot move." So the trees, plants, grass, they cannot move. Then insects, then reptiles, then birds, then beast, then human being. In this way the living entity is changing body. So what is the difficulty?

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Evolution, from beast human body has come. That is the difference? Even there is difference, what is the idea?

Devotee (1): Well, they maintain that therefore man was not created by God, but simply by chemicals.

Prabhupāda: Rascals! Wherefrom the life came first? Wherefrom the life came from? When you find life in the water, wherefrom this life came?

Devotee (1): They say originally it came from chemicals that came together.

Prabhupāda: Rascal! Create from chemicals. Otherwise, beat them with shoes in their mouth. Why you talk nonsense? Create from chemicals, life. (break) What do they say?

Devotee (1): They say they're working on it.

Prabhupāda: Then be beaten with shoes. When you're successful, then say. Otherwise, I shall beat you with shoes. That's all. That is your punishment. You have not come to the experimental stage, and you are talking, "This is science." Science is experiment and observation. Unless the experiment is practical, practical science... It will be accepted as science when the experiment is successful. Not before that. That is scientific method. First of all, observe. It may be happening like this. But that "maybe" should be confirmed by experiment. Then it is science. Even in colleges there is practical examination. Theoretical and practical. So unless... "We are trying." Everyone will say, "I am trying." "I am trying to become millionaire." When you become millionaire, then say that you are millionaire. You are trying for becoming millionaire and you say, "I am millionaire." What is this nonsense?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We're not paying tax. We are fighting it in the court.

Prabhupāda: So in this way we have to fight. We should not be afraid for these rascals. Why you should be afraid? If they take to guṇḍā-ism, we shall engage fifty guṇḍās. "Come on. Let us see." We have to maintain that spirit. Anaye yei kare prabhu anaye yei sahe.(?) The Rabindranath Tagore's one poetry: "One who does wrong and suffers wrong, he is wrong." One should not do anything wrong; one should not suffer anything wrong. That is human. If somebody does harm to me, wrong to me, I cannot suffer it. I shall not do any harm to anyone. That's all right. But if you want to give me suffering, I must fight you. Why shall I suffer it? That is kṣatriya spirit. Yuddhe cāpy apalayanam. "If you are challenging, 'All right, come on,' I accept this challenge." We have to do like that. Now, this bāniyā spirit... Our Bhagatji, he purchased that land, and he's afraid of him. What is this? Bāniyā spirit. But you are kṣatriya.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's it. Kṛṣṇa says "You surrender." And one who has surrendered, does it mean Kṛṣṇa has no responsibility? So why you are bothering to go to this dhana-durmadāndhān?

Mr. Asnani: Unconditional surrender.

Prabhupāda: Huh? You have done already upasannān. So is Kṛṣṇa unable to maintain you? Why should you go to this blind man? So we go not for our maintenance. We want to engage his hard-earned money to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. That is our mission. Not for this belly. For belly we refuse to go anywhere. You'll find in Kumbhamela, still there are sādhus, they are not going anywhere. And they are starving? We go-gṛhināṁ dina-cetasām—"This rascal is absorbed in the thought of comfortable life, and he has taken only these wife and children, everything. Give him some other..." This is our mission. Yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa.' Let him go there and sit down and talk with him and give some instruction of Kṛṣṇa. This is our... We are not going for this belly. (Hindi) They are criticizing that "This man is empty stomach, and he has come to me."

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: All sex. First of all sex.

Mr. Asnani: But among them, the sex is very powerful.

Prabhupāda: Puṁsaḥ striyā mithunī-bhāvam etat. This is the basic principle of... A man and woman is married; the purpose is sex. Now, when he's married, ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittair. "Then where shall I enjoy sex? I must have very nice apartment, gṛha. Then I must maintain myself, kṣetra." Formerly agriculture was the source of maintenance. Ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra. "Then I get some children, suta, then some friends." Ataḥ gṛha-kṣetra-suta apta vitta. "Then money." In this way, janasya moho 'yam ahaṁ mameti: (SB 5.5.8) "He increases this paraphernalia, and he becomes entangled:" Ahaṁ mam... "I am the proprietor; I am the father; I am this; I am that." And one day, nature's law comes, gives him a slap: "Get out!" Finished.

Mr. Asnani: All relationship goes away.

Prabhupāda: Mṛtyuḥ ahaṁ sarva-haraś ca. "I take away."

Mr. Asnani: Prabhupāda, why people are not able to understand this?

Prabhupāda: Fools! Mūḍho nābhijā...

Mr. Asnani: Even we are encircling ourselves in the desires, cage.

Prabhupāda: Mūḍho nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param... They do not know the aim of life. Therefore apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). Cannot see what is the aim of life. Therefore it is the duty of the parents. That is advised by Prahlāda Mahārāja. Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān: (SB 7.6.1) "From the very beginning of life they should be taught about this Bhāgavata-dharma." That is brahmacārī. Brahmacārī, train him to be self-controlled... If I ask you, "Give me your sons. We shall teach him how to become self-controlled," you'll laugh. Because you know, "What will be the benefit by becoming self-controlled? There is struggle for existence. He has to earn money, maintain himself." I have got this experience.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Hari-śauri: They have no idea of actually who is God or what is God. They don't know...

Prabhupāda: Yes. They make God under his condition. That is not God. God cannot be under your condition.

Hari-śauri: God cannot have sixteen thousand wives. God cannot appear at all.

Rāmeśvara: They say that if God had all of these things, then He would have revealed them in the Bible.

Prabhupāda: Because you cannot, rascal, manage that. That is the difference between him and God. Kṛṣṇa had sixteen thousand wives and sixteen thousand palaces. You cannot maintain one apartment.

Rāmeśvara: In the Bible...

Prabhupāda: You tell them like that: "You are so poor that you are afraid to maintain even one wife. So how you can be equal with God?"

Hari-śauri: His argument was that...

Prabhupāda: No argument! This is fact!

Rāmeśvara: Yes, this is fact.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There is no question of argument.

Room Conversation -- January 15, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: The mass of people should be educated. Just like we are educating, "No meat-eating." So automatically the meat-selling, slaughterhouse will be stopped.

Rāmeśvara: There must be some controls. Otherwise...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Control must be there, that... This is very easy. The state cannot support or maintain slaughterhouse. If you want to eat meat, you kill animal at your home. But state cannot. So mass sinful activities, state cannot. So if the legislators and the head of the state are Kṛṣṇa conscious, they will understand the importance of this. So they can stop slaughterhouse. And the public agitation? "You can slaughter animal at your home. You have got the liberty, but state cannot maintain." What is the wrong there?

Rāmeśvara: What about buying books? There are so many books with nonsense ideas. That will have to be controlled also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If the government is Kṛṣṇa conscious, they can control everything.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Anyāyenārtha-sañcayān.

Hari-śauri: "They believe that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no end to their anxiety. Being bound by hundreds and thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification."

Prabhupāda: Is there any purport?

Hari-śauri: "The demoniac accept that the enjoyment of the senses is the ultimate goal of life, and this concept they maintain until death. They do not believe in life after death, and they do not believe that one takes on different types of bodies according to one's karma, or activities in this world. Their plans for life are never finished, and they go on preparing plan after plan, all of which are never finished. We have personal experience of a person of such demoniac mentality..."

Prabhupāda: I am talking of that man. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: On that tape where you are arguing with that man, you asked him, "Did you read Bhagavad-gītā?" He was criticizing, but then he asked him, "Did you read Bhagavad-gītā?" He said, "No."

Prabhupāda: Just see. Such... They have created this Vivekananda and Cinmayanandas, rascals, so many rascals. They have created such situation that Indian people are mostly in darkness, although God appears here in India. They have executed such thankless task, this Vivekananda, Cinmayananda and so many Māyāvādīs. "Ramakrishna is Bhagavān." And what is his certificate that he is Bhagavān? "He said." No. He said "I am the same Rāma. I am the same Kṛṣṇa." So he is taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa to prove his Godhead. So why not go to original Godhead? Why shall I take the imitation? He is maintaining his position that "I am the same Kṛṣṇa." "So then same Kṛṣṇa is authority. So why shall I not go to same Kṛṣṇa? Why shall I go to you? Your authority is also Kṛṣṇa. So why shall I give up original Kṛṣṇa and take to an imitation Kṛṣṇa? You may be the same, but I am not a very intelligent man. Why shall I go to the imitation? I shall go to the original." Hm? Is it not? "I am not so expert to understand whether you are actual or not. You are saying. There is no proof in the śāstra. So let me go to the original." Is that all right, argument? "Why shall I take you? You are supporting, trying to maintain yourself." Everyone says that "I am Kṛṣṇa. I am God." So India, we have to fight little. There are so many atheists. But mass of people, they are all right.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: They're not educating the population in brahmācārya.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: Therefore these beggars are there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is gentlemanly, that "Why shall I take responsibility of family if I cannot maintain them properly?" That is very gentlemanly. That is civilization. "And I accept so-called family for sense gratification; I cannot maintain them and kill them"—what is this? Is that civilization? They should be ashamed to be called civilized men. Here is civilized way. Preach this because the Vedic civilization is real civilization. "You are not civilized. You have killed Jesus Christ who instructed, 'Thou shall not kill.' So you should be ashamed of your present civilization. It is... Brainwash is required."

Gargamuni: (laughs) Say that, yes. We're brainwashing, washing their brain.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And all these rubbish things we are finishing. "Yes, it is brainwashing, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing the core of the heart, all mistaken ideas." Speak in the court like that. "And see how we are being appreciated by scholarly section. Here is our book. Read if you have got time and see the opinion. It is really brainwashing, but for the good. Everything requires cleansing—for good. If bad impression, bad ideas, are washed, why do you protest? Let it be done. Give us freedom. It is brainwashing, but for the good, washing for good. Just like you wash your cloth. Do you think it is bad? Dirty cloth, if it is washed nicely with soap and water, who will protest against that? 'Oh, why you are cleansing your dirty clothes?' That is another foolishness.

Room Conversation -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Brahmānanda: So the only difficulty there is that we cannot make devotees from the local population.

Prabhupāda: Either Indian or African.

Brahmānanda: Yes, either one. So unless we get men from overseas, then for us to expand is very difficult. Just like for this Mombassa. We get this big house. Unless we have men to maintain it, then why should we take it?

Prabhupāda: But overseas, we have got enough men.

Brahmānanda: We only have twelve devotees there and two temples. It's very less.

Prabhupāda: You cannot export from America?

Rāmeśvara: Yes, we have to. We have to.

Prabhupāda: It is your missionary activities, American.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: The thing is the parents are not qualified to give any guidance any more either.

Prabhupāda: Qualified, that is not very difficult. For the girl, find out a boy who is hard worker or a little educated. Bas. That's all. That was the selection. Then fortune. You give a daughter under the care of the boy who can work hard. That's all. They then will earn their livelihood. Even there is no education, a hard worker will do. A boy, as soon as has got the sense that "I have got a wife to maintain," he'll work. That is impetus to give him to work for the family. And if a boy gets wife or woman without any hard working, they why he should marry? And if he has got responsibility that "I have to maintain my wife; then I can enjoy," then he becomes responsible. Wooden bridge?

Gurukṛpa: That is like Australia. That is Australia.

Prabhupāda: Australia?

Gurukṛpa: Yes, the whole country is...

Prabhupāda: Wooden bridge.

Gurukṛpa: Roads like this. Just in Melbourne and Sydney, nice roads. I think I saw better roads in India. I was very surprised.

Prabhupāda: Thing is they do not know engineering. They have no business.

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Gurukṛpā: The poor man, his office is cheating him, and then his wife stays home and spends all his money and he is being cheated by her.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He comes, taking so much trouble for the wife. He will lie down with her from eleven at night up to three o'clock. For that, that is home. This is his home. And to maintain this home, he has to take so much trouble. And this is civilization. He does not think, "For this little happiness why I am here? Better to become a sannyāsī and live independently. Why I'm taking so much...?" No. And after working so hard, in old age if you ask permission from the wife, "I have done so much for you, for family. Now let me retire." "Eh? You'll retire? Then who will look after me?" The home member not satisfied, and you are not satisfied. You are working so hard—how you can be satisfied? And they find still insufficient income. They are not satisfied. But what is this home? To sense gratification. You are not serving this woman. Because this woman, as soon as she is not able to serve you by her sex, then there is divorce. Nobody's serving anybody, but everybody is serving his own senses.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Kīrtana and prasādam distribution. This is our preaching mainly. And if they hear little philosophy, that is very good. Otherwise simply kīrtana and prasādam distribution is sufficient. Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to do that. He was not speaking philosophy to everyone. Kīrtana and prasāda distribution. So our men can perform very nice kīrtana, and if they come to take little prasādam, that is preaching. You have to maintain this standard, that kīrtana must go on and prasādam should be distributed.

Satsvarūpa: And take collection for that, to continue that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. By selling books, by contribution, somehow or other maintain. Everywhere.

Satsvarūpa: Our movement has changed in America in the past six years or so. Now devotees are not much seen on the streets chanting. So there's different feelings. Some say it is all right, because everyone is now distributing books more.

Prabhupāda: That is also nice.

Morning Walk -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So many things going on. Very difficult to lead spiritual life.

sandarśanaṁ viṣayiṇām atha yoṣitāṁ ca

hā hanta hanta viṣa-bhakṣaṇato 'py asādhu

(CC Madhya 11.8)

Actually one who is serious going back to home, back to Godhead—for such person, one should be niṣkiñcana, no connection with these material woman and money. Niṣkiñcanasya. (break) But I am not collecting money for sense gratification. For preaching work. Kṛṣṇa-sambandhe... Kṛṣṇa sabaya yāhā haya anukula, viṣaya boliyā tāhā haya phul.(?) The anything which is favorable to my preaching work, that is not viṣaya. Ta phul.(?) Then that is mistake. Why the air is misty? That... (break) Similarly, you can kill. You have to see it, what for they are killing. Stalin was killing for his own sense gratification. He wanted to maintain himself in the position, and anyone going against him, he would kill. That was not for the citizens' benefit. For his own benefit. Therefore he's a criminal. Just like soldier is killing hundreds of thousands of other soldiers. He is being awarded, "Oh, you are brave." And as soon as he kills one man for his own—he is hanged. So we have to see what is the cause that Arjuna fought for Kṛṣṇa, he became a devotee. Bhakto 'si priyo 'si (BG 4.3). Very dear friend. What is the business? To kill. There are different.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Yogeśvara: We can continue to rent. Rent is only $175 a month, including utilities. So it is not at all expensive.

Prabhupāda: And it is a very nice house.

Yogeśvara: Yes. House is in good shape. There is enough room.

Prabhupāda: So why not maintain that?

Yogeśvara: Then someone has to be delegated to be there.

Prabhupāda: Someone... Find out.

Yogeśvara: Find out some people.

Prabhupāda: Hm. And the girl can speak in the local language. She may also...

Yogeśvara: She can speak in the language. She'll be all right as long as she has some good association.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yogeśvara: That means, perhaps, a gṛhastha couple, so that there's some girl for her to be with. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...not married. Better if she would have been married. So there is no candidate for marrying her?

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Yogeśvara: Not too much French. English there is. Is there a GBC for Thailand?

Prabhupāda: Every GBC is for everywhere. Let it be considered in the next meeting.

Yogeśvara: At Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: You can continue rent for one or two months more and see if there is possibility. Our mission is for every city, every town, every village, and if we can maintain for some utility, that is very good. If you have no men, we cannot linger on there. Otherwise we want to open branches everywhere. That is our mission. (aside:) We have... What is...?

Yogeśvara: We'll be leaving tonight.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Yogeśvara: To France via Bangkok.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Yogeśvara: We just came to make the report to you, and we were in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: So you will not stay here up to...? No.

Hari-śauri: Festival?

Yogeśvara: There is work for us, service waiting in France.

Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Any devotee in literary career, he is to be understood... Just like our Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura. He is described as incarnation of Vyāsadeva because Vyāsadeva wrote Bhāgavatam and he wrote Caitanya-bhāgavata.

Pradyumna: Vyāsa-pūjā.

Prabhupāda: Vyāsa-pūjā. Vyāsa-prasādam. Unless one is blessed by Vyāsadeva, he cannot write transcendental literature. So now you have very good cook. Kīrtana is going on. It is Vaikuṇṭha. Maintain this status very nicely. You can. You are... From the very beginning you are... Do it very nicely. Tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada yatra gāyanti mad-bhaktāḥ. If devotees chant always, that is Kṛṣṇa or Vaikuṇṭha. Tatra tiṣṭhā... Tatra tiṣṭhāmi. Yatra gāyanti mad-bhaktāḥ. They must be pure devotee and always talk about Kṛṣṇa, chant about Kṛṣṇa. Then it is Vaikuṇṭha. What about this generator? Is it going to work or not?

Jayapatākā: I'm not sure. I don't know who was working on that today. I just got back myself. There was some... They're hooking up, I think, the wires.

Prabhupāda: It must work. Otherwise...

Jayapatākā: Oh, it's guaranteed it will work. The electric supply officer was on a three-day leave, I heard. Therefore he couldn't make the...

Prabhupāda: Connection.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: For us it is not joke.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nobody has such a distribution force. So here in India the only problem I can see towards actually doing big-scale book distribution is that we don't have so many devotees. And those who we have, have to maintain...

Prabhupāda: The difficulty is, in your country you are not poverty-stricken.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. We are making devotees.

Prabhupāda: And here they are poverty-stricken. Generally they come, join this institution, those who are poverty-stricken, not willingly, "Oh, here is a good institution. We should join." That is very rarely.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So what I think is that... But their children will be able to. Like these young boys here.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) The father-mother cannot maintain them, so entrust them Gauḍīya Maṭha.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. That's what's happening here. That's how we're getting all these boys.

Prabhupāda: Not that willingly they're coming, "Oh, it is good institution." That they do not. One or two, that way they are coming.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Because that stool and urine is also useful. Cow is so important. They'll eat and they'll pass stool and urine. That is also important. If they supply milk, it is well, very good. Otherwise the stool and urine is also important. From that point of view we should give protection. So they are doing this cow slaughter business. (aside:) For you. Therefore they are suffering so much. So Kṛṣṇa has given you very nice occupation, translation work, and you are earning your livelihood independently. So do it very nicely. And if there is strain to work, then don't work. We shall pay you for the rent, etc... It doesn't matter. But you must maintain your status of translating work. That is very good. If you can work, you can work. Otherwise don't worry.

Bali-mardana: Just like we were paying Hayagrīva something just to maintain to edit, so he could edit. And if he wants to just translate, then we can...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hayagrīva wife has come? No.

Rāmeśvara: No, she has left.

Prabhupāda: Then what is his maintaining? (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: That is... He is deviating a little.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Rāmeśvara: He's enjoying a little bit the senses.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: One can get good appetite?

Bali-mardana: Oh, yes. Tonight very nice fruits.

Prabhupāda: Nowadays I cannot eat.

Bali-mardana: Mango is growing on the property.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, you maintain cows and get ghee.

Bali-mardana: When we were flying over Australia when you first came there, you pointed down and you said...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bali-mardana: "You just get some land here and..."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bali-mardana: "...maintain cows and all..."

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. You remember it.

Bali-mardana: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Cheese. And you produce in the farm milk and utilize and give the cows protection.

Bali-mardana: Yes. I was thinking that we should not increase the cows too many in the beginning...

Prabhupāda: No.

Bali-mardana: ...because I want to make sure they are maintained nicely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Maintain means fodder. Grow fodder. They will eat that leaf.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Got a good cow man there?

Bali-mardana: Yes. A boy's had experience. There is no problem. New Zealand also. We can either export from Australia or New Zealand. New Zealand is also very..., maybe even a little cheaper, but the shipping might be...

Hari-śauri: New Zealand milk products are...

Prabhupāda: Oh, very cheap.

Bali-mardana: Where should we send? To one center?

Prabhupāda: Send in Bombay.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, because he is giving such a big order that they can print the whole printing even for him.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Bali-mardana: Five thousand they can print.

Prabhupāda: And in Hyderabad let us produce grains. The grains, milk, ghee—then we can maintain hundreds and thousands of devotees in any place. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and take nice food.

Bali-mardana: I know that Australia has been shipping some cows to India for increasing milk production, so we can also investigate that. If we have a farm in Hyderabad...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Bali-mardana: ...that might be productive.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They can eat all the grains. There's so much grains produced there.

Prabhupāda: Arrange all this. Our philosophy is "Eat nicely, live nicely, and advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." First problem is eating. That we shall supply, no problem. Eating and clothing we shall give. And shelter. Make this propaganda. They put this logic, "If we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, who shall earn? Who will earn for us?" The Indians, they do that. Rascals, they do that. They do not know Kṛṣṇa provides. So we give them that "You... I give you shelter, food, cloth. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Rādhā-vallabha: He was always wondering how he should think. So I'll tell him that. He thinks, "If I think I see a mistake, what should I think?" I'll tell him what you just said.

Prabhupāda: He cannot see mistake. He is mistake. (laughter) He should... That is being done by this rascal. I don't want. And the Hayagrīva has..., the Easy Journey, he has changed so many things. That... He is now bad character. You should not maintain him.

Rādhā-vallabha: We should stop maintaining him.

Prabhupāda: No. He has no responsibility even on his family.

Rādhā-vallabha: His wife just came to meet him in L.A.

Prabhupāda: What she said?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, she was asking me whether he would want to live with her. I told her that I didn't think so.

Prabhupāda: Why? Why did you advise?

Rādhā-vallabha: He's not very responsible.

Prabhupāda: Responsible or not responsible, they should live together.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So what you are to go? Where you want to go?

Girirāja: So what I was thinking, if you agree, is to go to Delhi for a few days, and he could introduce me to the pious members of Parliament, and then we could organize a whole group, and I could bring them there.

Prabhupāda: Do the needful. Go. At least, in India, there must be this spiritual institution. The whole world may take advantage of it. What is this cats' and dogs' race civilization? Is that civilization? Here is civilization, Bhagavad-gītā. Basic principles of civilization. So India should maintain this. People may... There are so many big universities. A student may go or may not go, but the university must be maintained. Because there is no student, therefore university closed. No. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness institution must be maintained for the benefit of the whole world. Mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani (BG 9.3). They do not know how nature's law is working.

Gargamuni: These breezes are very nice here, better than, I think, in Māyāpur. Many breezes.

Prabhupāda: The sea breeze.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not so cool on the lower floors—where you are staying in the office.

Gargamuni: There no, it is hot. This is very good.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Wonderful Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: Yes. If simply they appreciate that Kṛṣṇa is wonderful, their life will be successful. This very simple thing. A child can do it. Kṛṣṇa is wonderful, there is no doubt. Let them admit only. They will be pushed forward in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I'll request only these big, big men that maintain this institution to attract intelligent persons from all over the world. And you do all nonsense, whatever you like, but maintain this. And if possible, after retirement come and do practical something. What is this nonsense? Andhā yathāndhair upa... What he will do? They are promising so many rascal things. What you will do? What you have got? Indira promised so many things. Bluffed. What she can do? Now she is, herself, Indira Gandhi. Te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ. Īśa-trantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ. They want to do something. What happens? Gandhi, when he started nonviolence, "Within one year" And he dragged for fifty years. Twenty years in Durban and thirty years in India. Could not do anything. If you say that Gandhi could not do anything, people will be angry. But see, study the whole history. What did he do? Did the Britishers care for Gandhi's nonviolent movement? Pat him. "Let this rascal go on with his movement. We'll go on." That was the disagreement with Subhash Bose. Subhash Bose said, "Mahatmaji, they will never go by this nonviolence. You have to take to violence." He said that "I will never have independence, but I will not take it." Therefore he left India. When he organized that INA and when the Britishers felt the (indistinct), "Now the soldiers have joined," all hopes lost. They did not give up India for Gandhi's nonviolence.

Room Conversation -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. And when the brāhmaṇas did not approve, they had the power of brahma-tejaḥ. Just like with Veṇa. Even in our own society, if someone is not doing nicely, then the others may, they come together and they say, "This person is not keeping standard." It is not that because I have power or something, one can maintain his position.

Prabhupāda: Whole thing is spoiled, vitiated. And ultimately this human form of life, it is a chance given by nature. Tathā dehāntara, you become a dog, next. Finished. And you wait millions of years again to come, take the human form. What can I do? These are nature's law. And they are also prepared. "Oh, what is the wrong there, if I become dog?" This civilization. Just imagine how much spoiled it is.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If that's a fact, then let them become a dog now.

Prabhupāda: They are already dogs; otherwise how he is becoming dog? They have been already described. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ. They are already... Therefore they are going to change it, the body. They are already cats and dogs. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante (BG 8.6). A doggish mentality, you will get a dog's body, infections. It is clear, nature's law.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Abnormal. (laughs)

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: Everyone is doing(?). But we have rejected. Our misfortune is that our property, we have rejected.

Mr. Rajda: Instead of rejecting, it would be correct to say that we have locked it up.

Prabhupāda: That means we don't take any importance. But now, if you want to do something, then you maintain this institution rigidly, follow the principles of Bhagavad-gītā. It doesn't matter. It doesn't require many men. Ekaś candras tamo hanti na ca tārā sahasraśaḥ. If there is one moon in the sky, that is sufficient. You don't require millions of stars, twinkling. So let there be an institution, and it is open to everyone. There is no question of "secular" and particular.... Let them learn this art. That is wanted. Not blindly, but apply your consideration and take it after mature judgment. No, what is that? Everything is there. There is no difficulty. Why you are neglecting this important business of India? Do you think it is right?

Mr. Rajda: One should not neglect. And as real it is done, it is better, not only for the world, for India also.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "To Ratansingh Rajda, Member of Parliament, Bombay. Dear Sri Rajda, We thank you very much for visiting us at Hare Krishna Land and for sympathetically hearing our divine master Śrīla Prabhupāda. His Divine Grace mentioned several difficulties which are impeding his great work, and you have been kind enough to promise to remove these obstacles. 1) Our men are regularly being asked to leave India. How can we manage such important projects when our men are forced to leave? Every year we have to send so many men away from India and then again we have to bring them back. For every man who comes and goes like this, we have to spend Rs. 10,000, and in this way we are wasting not less than Rs. five to six lakhs each year. Our men should be given permanent residence in India. The United States Government granted Śrīla Prabhupāda a permanent residency visa so that he could fulfill his mission in the USA. Similarly, Śrīla Prabhupāda's foreign disciples should be given permanent residency in India. Śrīla Prabhupāda requires at least one hundred men to remain in India, and he is prepared to bring Rs. ten lakhs, foreign exchange, per month just to maintain them. They will not have to seek employment, they are not interested in politics, and they will not touch one paisa locally for their maintenance. Rather, they will bring money. Therefore we request that the government of India should grant permission for at least one hundred of our men. 2) Locally we are being troubled by the municipal corporation. The local councilor is trying to take over ten feet..." (break)

Mr. Rajda: ...evening. And we shall see what is in the meeting. And I am meeting the commissioner also on Tuesday. So...

Prabhupāda: Note it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'll do that.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm putting in an envelope.

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Therefore in our Hindu society there is garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, so that everyone knows that "This man is this man's father." That is garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. And especially in brāhmaṇa family, if there is no garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, immediately he becomes a śūdra, because cannot give real identity of the father.

Dr. Sharma: It is most unfortunate that in the West and elsewhere, I have found the people with a great interest and enthusiasm maintain a pedigree chart of the Pomeranian and Alsation dog in their house.

Prabhupāda: This is gotra.

Dr. Sharma: Yes. They maintain a pedigree chart of Alsation dogs and Pomeranian dogs in their houses.

Prabhupāda: Our this gotra...

Guest (2): Not the human being they don't keep it. It is only the dogs they keep in Western countries.

Prabhupāda: Dogs?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is saying that just like with breeding of dogs or any animals, they keep a pedigree chart: "Here is the father, here is the father," pedigree. But with human beings they don't bother to do this. With the animals they are doing. Just like with our cows...

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say animal civilization. It is animal civilization. They are interested with animals.

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Is that civilization? Human being should be calm and quiet, peaceful and advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There must be four divisions, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, everything. Everything is lost. From the very morning, "Where is bread? Where is bread?" We have no fixed income, but we are so pure(?). We are maintaining big establishment. Who has got so big establishment? And what is our asset? Asset is only Kṛṣṇa. For ordinary karmīs to maintain such house and such big establishment...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not possible. No one can do it.

Prabhupāda: He'll have insomnia, cannot sleep at night. What would have been the cost of the establishment? So many men are working.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What to speak of worldwide.

Prabhupāda: This is one only.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One of one hundred.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (laughing) Yes. Yes, according to the area, my representatives are there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now there should be all twelve. (Prabhupāda laughs)

Prabhupāda: Another Godbrother, he asked me fifty thousand rupees to maintain his temple.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How much?

Prabhupāda: Fifty thousand. So I said, "Yes, I can give you fifty thousand, but this is mleccha money. You'll be polluted. Best thing is that give. We can maintain. I'll immediately deposit fifty thousand." He has stopped. (laughs) "We are mlecchas. I am the leader of the mlecchas, so my money will pollute you. But if you are feeling difficulty, you hand over the temple to us, and on condition I immediately deposit fifty thousand in the name of the temple."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he was not interested. Suddenly his problems were solved. He didn't take the money.

Prabhupāda: Money is not mleccha. But when we offer to eat something, we are mleccha.

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

Prabhupāda: But I may interfere. The... In the Bhagavad-gītā is there such statement, that "Service to humanity is service to God"? Is there any statement?

Mr. Dwivedi: Daridrāṇāṁ bhara kaunteya... (?) I think there is somewhere...

Prabhupāda: There is no.

Mr. Dwivedi: But this particular I remember, daridrāṇāṁ bhara kaunteya...

Prabhupāda: This is... This is wrong theory. Don't maintain this. This is a very wrong theory. Just like "Service to the leaves is service to the root." Is it not wrong? What do you think? Like a tree, so where the service should be given, to the root or to the leaf?

Mr. Dwivedi: The root.

Prabhupāda: Then why do you say like that? And Kṛṣṇa says openly, mam ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. He doesn't even recommend to worship demigods. Kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ yajanty anya-devatāḥ (BG 7.20). So these are imagination, concoction. They are not authorized. Vivekananda advocated daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā hundred years ago. So India is full of daridras. What Mothilal can do? What Vivekananda can do? This is all simply concoction. You cannot do anything.

Conversation: Vairagya, Salaries, and Political Etiquette -- April 28, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You take prasādam. But why salary? Where is the question of salary? Where is vairāgya, renouncement? So in all circumstances the salary process should be stopped. One who wants salary, he can work outside.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, even if you don't give a salary, if you give an apartment and you give food and you give all these other things for someone to maintain his household life...

Prabhupāda: Because his service is essential.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But that has to be determined very strictly.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Whether his service is absolutely required? So you give him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is the factor. That point must be clearly acknowledged.

Prabhupāda: Hm hm. So he's trying to practice... Because sevonmukhe, if he gives service, then gradually he'll renounce. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ (Brs. 1.2.234). God realization means service. The more you give service to the Lord, the more you become advanced in devotional... So one who is giving service, dedicated life, so maybe... But no salary. They may live in the temple, woman separate, man separate.

Conversation: Vairagya, Salaries, and Political Etiquette -- April 28, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: All the devotees approached Caitanya Mahāprabhu, thinking that "He must... The king will excuse him." He never agreed. "Oh, I cannot do that. If he has done something wrong, then let him..." Of course, he was saved and protected by Caitanya Mahāprabhu's good wish, but He never agreed. These are some of the examples that... Simply depend on Kṛṣṇa. But if they are actually respectful, we can ask them. There is... But if it is difficult job... Viṣayiṇāṁ sandarśanām atha yoṣit... (CC Madhya 11.8). We cannot keep so strictly, but these are the principles taught by Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Girirāja: So that principle about living together and salary...

Prabhupāda: That is...

Girirāja: That is meant to apply everywhere in the society.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. This is exploitation of the society.

Girirāja: I know. Since I've been preaching more, I've been able to see how much labor and endeavor is going in just to maintain so many idle people. I know you've been saying this for a long time, and now, you know, I feel the strength to actually change that, that only those who are really sincere workers can stay.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise no need. We need their service, but not by being salaried. That is not good. (end)

Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's considered advancement, to come to the point of being animals here.

Prabhupāda: So our gurukula should be ideal. Not all these boys... You should take care of these things from the very beginning—if you want actually spiritual life. If you want to progress like animals, that is different thing, as the whole world is doing. We want to maintain an ideal institution. People may see. In Christian idea also, the nuns were separate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nowadays the nuns, every... Twice a week they get their hair set. They wear miniskirt now.

Prabhupāda: And so many scandal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're not strict anymore. Priests are smoking cigarettes, watching television.

Prabhupāda: If there is no training, naturally it will deteriorate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...and millions of Vaikuṇṭhalokas, planets, and the topmost planet is Goloka Vṛndāvana. This is the spiritual nature. This is material, within this universe, and that is spiritual. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ: (BG 8.20) "another nature, which is indestructible." This is the whole situation. Now, how you show it, that you think over. This is only fragmental part of material creation. And each universe is floating in the..., like a football. Football floats in the water. It is like that. And each universe, half filled up with water, Garbhodakaśāyī. And the planetary system is hanging on that half filled-up water.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Chanting.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But as soon as there is restriction, that means, "Don't do it." Otherwise naturally they have got sex desire. What is the use of giving shastric injunction? That means to control him. The meat-eating... So everyone has got tendency to eat meat, but why śāstra should agree? Restriction means stop. The government's opening liquor shop—so much restriction in a heavy duty. The government charges excise duty. The liquor is produced, utmost, one rupee, eight annas, per gallon. This I know. I know. And government charges excise duty, sixty rupees. So it becomes sixty-one rupees spoiled. Then they have got to make profit. Huge profit government... They haven't got to do anything. The liquor manufacturer, he has to maintain the establishment, and everything he has to do. But when the actual liquor comes, it is there. This is the working system. The excise inspector is there. So unless the... When he takes liquor out of stock, that excise inspector shall come. He has his own key, just like bank, such custody. So in this way... And you have to pay duty first. Suppose stock is there, liquor, hundred gallons, say, thousand gallons. If you want to take ten gallons, so the excise inspector will see whether you have paid duty for hundred gallons. Then you'll be allowed to. So government, for nothing, has... They make huge profit. This is Kali-yuga government. They think that "To condone these are very common practice. Let them be drunk. Let them drink." They encourage them. And government means big ministers, secretaries. They get the profit and divide amongst themselves. So who cares for public? Similarly cloth. What is the cost of one...? One rupee per pound. But if you weigh one cloth, what is the weight? Not even one pound. And they charge twenty rupees.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What they'll see there? (laughter) How Saman(?) Mahārāja is managing?

Jayapatākā: He somehow is trying to maintain. I don't see any improvement.

Prabhupāda: No, he cannot make any improvement, but if he can maintain, that is our question.

Jayapatākā: I didn't go there, so I can't exactly say. I don't go there. (pause) (break)

Prabhupāda: The spread, the... First of all they wanted to give us a cheap rate, "Eh!" And now they are doing: "We shall be taking our leader out." That is not cheap rate. (pause) (kīrtana in background) (break)

Jayapatākā: ...then there will be no permission.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is he still in town?

Jayapatākā: Yeah, she said... The administrator... For one... After the elections they should be safe. But Mr. Choudhury said that so far as for the temple, that little pieces in the center, he said that can easily be arranged. But for the big temple...

Prabhupāda: The center?

Bhavānanda: We might do that in pieces.

Jayapatākā: Yeah, there was some sanction given. That government kash(?) land, that land is supposed to be given to us. It has been recommended to be given to us. That order has come to the local land officer.

Prabhupāda: Where it is?

Jayapatākā: It's scattered all around.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Should we not acquire it, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: If you can maintain it, then it is all right. That, you mean to say, that storefront or the whole building?

Gargamuni: The rear apartment or the storefront?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: The storefront as well as the building, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Both storefront and the building.

Prabhupāda: Oh. I, I know that that building was several times changed hands.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes. I can find out who it belongs to.

Prabhupāda: But the difficulty will be how to maintain the tenants. To purchase the house is not difficult.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Vacate them? To vacate them.

Prabhupāda: Vacate? What you will do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What you will do with that building?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: We will have devotees stay, and it's a regular... It's a holy place.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Jaya. If a scientist thinks very carefully...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...actually he will be the one who will accept there is God, because we see practically every... In every experiment.

Prabhupāda: You are God—limited. Limited God. You cannot maintain. Therefore you are limited. You can become God within your family, within your office, within your kingdom. You are not Supreme God. To a limited extent you are God. Because you have got the quality of God, so according to your capacity, within limited jurisdiction, you may be God. So dictionary is there. Vedic assertion is there. Logic is there. Science is there. Prove. Then your education will be successful. Avicyutaḥ arthaḥ kavibhir nirūpitaḥ. When you can prove this, then the meaning of your education will become... Avicyutaḥ arthaḥ kavibhir nirūpito yad-uttama-śloka-guṇānuvarṇanam (SB 1.5.22). To glorify the exalted position of God, that is... Is it clear?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). That is Kṛṣṇa. That Supreme Being is Kṛṣṇa.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But they are doing without any authority.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think we should make whole survey, all books already printed, before printing the next batch and check any mistakes so that it should be all corrected. Otherwise, if the scholars find out that there are so many mistakes in the books, then the quality and the appreciation will be reduced.

Girirāja(?): (indistinct)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. We find so far that they are appreciating so much within the scholarly circle, and we want to maintain that actually.

Prabhupāda: Very serious feature. It is not possible for me to check, and they are doing all nonsense, freedom. (pause)

Yaśodā-nandana: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: What to do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think Svarūpa Dāmodara's point, that all the books should now be checked before they're reprinted again... And they have to be checked not by some so-called learned Sanskrit man but by a learned devotee. Just like you always favored Jayādvaita because his Kṛṣṇa consciousness...

Prabhupāda: Jayādvaita, Satsvarūpa...

Yaśodā-nandana: Bhakti-prema, Satsvarūpa is there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So Bhakti-prema... That's a good solution.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Conversation -- June 23, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You like it?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: And you did not take?

Akṣayānanda: I take. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...I stressed in other that in India strictly maintain an institution, following Bhagavad-gītā's conclusion. That we are trying to do. It is not a new invention. It is already there. If it is not possible to maintain such an institution, then human civilization will be finished. There is no hope. And it is now being effective worldwide. Why India should not maintain?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Actually he was very praiseworthy of your efforts. He said, "I know what Prabhupāda has done." If in some way Mr. Morarji Desai can be brought to you, that will be very...

Prabhupāda: No, no, he's a very big lion. He will not agree to come. You don't try for.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we're not trying. Just if sometimes we're in Delhi or something, if we... Like he still has a lot of good habits. He's material...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation: 'How to Secure Brahmacaris' -- June 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not?

Yaśodānandana: I was thinking we have many parents.

Prabhupāda: It is for them. It is for them, not for the outsiders.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And what will happen to the gurukula overseas? There are many gurukulas...

Prabhupāda: And if we can maintain, maintain them. But there the government says, "Make this like this. Make this like this. Make this like this."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That's why you made this gurukula.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The Dallas gurukula was lost only for this purpose. They could not manage. Jagadīśa said the government was imposing this, that, this, that. Here you can do without...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There is no restriction, yes.

Prabhupāda: You bring students from all over the world. But according to our own selection. And if you make an ideal institution here, then the local men also will... The management is difficult. It is not so easy, that simply "I open my office here. I keep my bank here. I get my work." That is not management. Management is little difficult. Everyone is thinking, "Where to keep my leg? Where to keep my leg?" Nobody's thinking how to manage. The same thing, (Bengali). "Warning: Don't keep your head on the northern side." He says, "Oh, where is my head?" So I can give you suggestion.

Conversation: 'How to Secure Brahmacaris' -- June 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Means four student and three hundred managers. That is mosquito and gun. (laughter) Student, you have got four. And managers? Three hundred. One manager requires three rooms, another four rooms. This is waste. One manager, first see at least fifty students. Then you can become manager.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Anyone who wants to call themself a manager, they have to maintain fifty...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. So what kind of manager? But I am sure you can get students from outside, if not Indian students.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Indians will come when they see there's sufficient going on. Just like now they are doing...

Prabhupāda: No, they have lost interest. (indistinct) good character, that's all. They have lost all interest. They want this Hiraṇyakaśipu. They'll not want Prahlāda. He wanted son like him. That means fight between the father and the son. Son wants to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, and he wants to be political rākṣasa, and he becomes... Anyhow, we have got place. We have got. Try for. If you don't... Manage. And you are required to. Manage.

Conversation: 'How to Secure Brahmacaris' -- June 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just see how much trouble it was.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: After some time they allowed him to walk. There were snakes in the garden.

Prabhupāda: Just... That is a psychology. I am not going out. But if I am ordered that "You cannot go out," then I become mad. I am not going out of this house, but if I have to maintain this idea that "I cannot go out," then I'll become mad. I know that I can go out whenever I like, but due to my diseased condition, I cannot go. That is another thing. But if I am able to go out and I am ordered not to go out, then I will become mad. This is psychology. So this is the position of the society, very, very bad. And our mission is para-upakāra, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. So if we actually want... This is very good opportunity to train up from the very beginning to create vidvān, bhaktimān, jñānavān. Others also, they may be given opportunity. There is everything in the śāstra. We are presenting Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa has given all direction in every field of activity. So let us carry out the orders of Kṛṣṇa as it is, as far as possible. That is our duty. Now these, my programs, they're also taking the concentrating people in the village, government?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That's it.

Talk About Varnasrama, S.B. 2.1.1-5 -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Not poor man. Kṣatriyas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, not these...

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not these workers.

Prabhupāda: They cannot maintain.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, that's right. They don't have the land to maintain. You have to have land.

Prabhupāda: You can have more than one wife, but maintain them just like wife. She may not have any complaints that "My husband cannot maintain me."

Śatadhanya: (entering) All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Close that door. How are you?

Śatadhanya: Feeling much better. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...man and woman happy, and in happiness, in peace of mind, make progress, spiritual life. That is the Vedic civilization. The guide is there, brāhmaṇa. The protection is there, kṣatriya. The food is there, vaiśya. And labor is there, śūdra. Combine together, live very happily, peacefully, in the society. You'll find still. The aim is how to realize God. Village to village, you'll find temples.

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...at Rādhā-Govinda Temple.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that was the training in the childhood. This Ratha-yātrā, Rādhā-Govinda sevā, prasāda distribution. Only the new thing I am doing-writing of books by the order of Guru Mahārāja. Otherwise, whatever I have introduced, I was trained up in childhood. I simply imitated. I am simply surprised. Now nowadays, even a low class... Formerly all our maidservant and neighborhood maidservant, they had two business, one prostitute and one maidservant. Otherwise they could not maintain. Simply by becoming maidservant, no sufficient income. We were paying them for not whole time three rupees.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow!

Prabhupāda: Per month. So one house, three rupees, another house, three rupees, another house... In this way their income was ten to twelve rupees. Well that was not sufficient.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not much.

Prabhupāda: So they had to allow the prostitution. But they were happy. But in that income in those men, they had a guru. The guru would come.

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The Sikhs, they invariably eat. The Marathis, low class, invariably eat.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about the South Indians?

Prabhupāda: South Indians, low class, they eat.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Christians.

Prabhupāda: Chicken is very cheap food. You haven't got to maintain.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, they find anything to eat on the ground.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they produce egg.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Eggs.

Prabhupāda: Eggs. And the chicken-eater cut throat.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And then he has to become a chicken.

Prabhupāda: Fish. Fish as well. Fish also like that. You haven't got to maintain. They'll grow.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But then, if you cut the chicken's throat, then one day you have to have your throat cut.

Prabhupāda: That is not in the lawbook.

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

Prabhupāda: If I ask, I can get more money.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was just looking today, and I noticed, every month, at least ten thousand rupees.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore I say... It is practical. To earn money is not difficult, at least for me. But to save money is difficult thing, because that is not in my hand. So let us see how much money we save. Increase the income, that we can do. And there is no problem. I think this is a maxim that "To earn money is not difficult. To save money is difficult." Whatever property we have now made, Kṛṣṇa has given us. But now, to maintain this, to save this prestigious position, that is difficult. Little mismanagement, there may be so many difficulties. You are a businessman, so he knows very well.

Mr. Myer: Sir, I'm going to sit down with Mahārāja and give him a very nice progress in the evening, all the time knowing, day-to-day working, each year...

Prabhupāda: No, you can... You can do.

Mr. Myer: I'm sure Mahārāja, if he likes it, I will try to develop.

Prabhupāda: He'll not interfere.

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

Mr. Myer: In twenty years all people have experienced. Poor, poor children, we'll have to give them(?).

Prabhupāda: Why poor children? Bring hundred children, I shall maintain. (break) There are many fathers. They cannot maintain even one child, what to speak of four children.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They can't maintain any, because they don't have Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: They do not marry for being... Or they kill children. They are doing that. Where is the question of "four," "two"? These are all nonsense program. They do not know how to do things. We welcome. Four, nei. Four hundred. Come on. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that "I am a brahmacārī-sannyāsī, but if I can bring Kṛṣṇa conscious child, I can beget hundred children. I have no objection." And that is... There is no question of four or two. Four hundred—if you can make them Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is the criterion. That is required. But that, they do not know. They'll not be able to maintain properly even one children, one child. That's not possible. But that is the difficulty in In... They do not know the laws of nature, the laws of God, how things are going on, although they are being explained. They'll... There are so many things. They are jumping like monkey. That's all. They... They take photograph for "Gītā student," and they do not understand one line, even one line. In the beginning, the Bhagavad-gītā is tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) "This body will change." Do they take it seriously? So what is the use of their reading Bhagavad-gītā? Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara, na hanyate hanyamāne (BG 2.20). Do they take seriously, that "I am eternal. I do not die after the annihilation of the body. And the body will change. What I am going to do?" So this is going on, and still, they are... Gandhi is... "He is great student of Bhagavad-gītā." He is... "Tilak is a great student." "Dr. Radhakrishnan..." All rascals. All rascals. They do not understand even one line.

Room Conversation with Vrindavan De -- July 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He cannot express what is his inconvenience, and he's feeling one inconvenience, and the mother is trying to make him happy in other way. He's crying more, more, more, more. Where is happiness? Within the womb there was unhappiness, packed-up. When he comes down there is unhappiness. Then go to school, take education, appear for examination—that is unhappiness. Then grow up, then engage in some earning money—that is unhappiness. Then maintain your children, and that is unhappiness. Where is happiness, rascals? Rascal. Both are suffering.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Without Kṛṣṇa, there is no question of happiness.

Prabhupāda: This is simply anarthas, unnecessary creating unhappiness. Unnecessary.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But with Kṛṣṇa, all those things you describe become happy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa makes adjustment. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes and He is giving advice that "Do like this. You'll be happy in this life and next."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually we work all day long—no salary, no vacation—and we're...

Prabhupāda: Still, they are happy.

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

Prabhupāda: No, that's a great loss.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because if husband and wife live together in the temple itself, where there are so many brahmacārīs and... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...he makes love with a girl and marries and live at the cost of Society, and that is to be discouraged. If you want to marry, you work independently. Maintain yourself. And whatever you can contribute, do that. That is the... Just like Abhirāma. He's very good. And I don't want to be lost. He constructed that house, I never forbade. And it is in the campus. Let him remain a little separately. It doesn't matter.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think the main reason he can't live there anymore is that because of doing business he'll not always be able to be in Māyāpur, and he doesn't feel that that house is safe for his wife to live there alone.

Prabhupāda: Why alone? Can live with others.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Other householders there also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Many householders can live there together.

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

Prabhupāda: My nose? Not very much.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh.

Prabhupāda: So you can go.

Upendra: Prabhupādajī? I have one question since you are speaking about gṛhastha. If a brahmacārī decides to get married and then enters into married life, should he be encouraged to maintain that responsibility throughout his life?

Prabhupāda: No, no, unless he can maintain family, why should he marry?

Upendra: Well, I'm specifically questioning the fact that some... Of course, our movement is young, but so many women, their husbands leave them, and they are so young and they're left. So these young women I'm thinking may become a disturbance in the future to the movement, because how a woman can remain unmarried for so many years? Her husband has left her after a few years of marriage. Generally...

Prabhupāda: What we can do?

Upendra: I'm saying the emphasis of marriage responsibility, I don't know if it's preached that strongly. Generally it's preached that one should not...

Prabhupāda: No, if he marries, why he should not take responsibility of maintaining? Why he should marry if he has no power of maintaining?

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What does that mean, "power of maintaining," Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: He must maintain his wife, children nicely. Otherwise why he should marry?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He shouldn't expect the temple to maintain him.

Prabhupāda: That is not possible.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Of course, he might be thinking, "Well, I'm a pūjārī, so the temple should pay me money to maintain my family."

Prabhupāda: If we have got brahmacārī pūjārī, why should we maintain a gṛhastha? He is not only one pūjārī. We have got sannyāsī, brahmacārī. Why should we maintain a gṛhastha? And where is the means? After all, these things are to be adjusted. I can give you the ideas. The pūjārīs were given in Vṛndāvana the temple, and they made it a source of income. Just like the gosāis are doing. Their pūjā goes to hell.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who?

Prabhupāda: Mean these gṛhastha pūjārī. Gradually the pūjā will go to hell. They'll gradually glide down how to maintain family by showing the Deity. That is... The gosāis are doing. People have sentiment to give something to the Deity, and they will depend on that income. Bas. This is the position of these Vṛndāvana temple. What is the position of the Rādhā-Ramaṇa? Deterioration. It is not being properly done. They'll sell the property.

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

Prabhupāda: The interest will go to the family, not to the Deity.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's not good.

Prabhupāda: Jīva Gosvāmī was brahmacārī. So he gave to a gṛhastha śiṣya to maintain Rādhā-Dāmodara. But what is the position now? Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī was also a brahmacārī. Everything depends on training and mentality. If the attention is diverted otherwise, then it is lost.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think Mādhavendra Purī, he gave his Deity. Now it's again... You know, who has Govardhana Deity. Vallabhācārya's line now worships.

Prabhupāda: They gave to the Vallabhācārya. But somehow they are maintaining the status quo.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. Still very opulent. They do very elaborate. That Pushti Marg group, they do very elaborate Deity worship.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Of course, they don't preach very vigorously, but at least their Deity worship...

Prabhupāda: That is also preaching. Arcanam. One of the... If they maintain the Deity worship gorgeously, that is also preaching.

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

Prabhupāda: Eh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should never do that.

Prabhupāda: That's... That's my request.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You've always said to us, at least whatever we have, maintain it.

Prabhupāda: And people are recognized I am great. Don't make me small. I'll not give you much trouble, but I am now invalid. What can I do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems like even though you're invalid, it gives us more opportunity to serve you.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. What can I do? (laughs) I have to give, give you that opportunity. I cannot do without it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems that it is your mercy to us.

Prabhupāda: All right, go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. Thank you for all these instructions.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

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

Yaśomatīnandana: How are you feeling?

Prabhupāda: Not very good. Old man's disease. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said, vṛddha kāla āola saba sukha bhāgala:(?) "When a man becomes old, all bodily comforts..." So it is not very good to live like an old man. It is troublesome. Body will be weakened, and all kinds of disease will be strong. Unless one is very strong in body, old age means suffering. So whatever Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma desire. Now it is up to you to maintain the Society very nicely. There is framework. There is idea. There is facility of everything. If you like, you can maintain work.

Yaśomatīnandana: They're having a very nice farm in Ahmedabad.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Yaśomatīnandana: One hundred acres. It's all very nice level land, and we have planted crops in 150 bighās. That is about...

Prabhupāda: So you give some... We are getting many other land. If your becomes ideal, you can teach them. People are coming for chanting?

Yaśomatīnandana: Yes. One gṛhastha is there, and the first week he went there, every night three hundred people were coming.

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nārada Muni?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He converted that hunter, Mṛgāri. He was killing, but then he would not trample even on one ant.

Prabhupāda: So that is being done now. So he has to judge from this intelligence. We do not maintain any political view, what American government or Indian government... We want the whole people of the world, let them become human being. That is our movement. What is this? Simply killing business is going on. All governments should cooperate, pushing on this movement for humanity's sake.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually in Communist countries now, Eastern Europe, in the universities, they are cooperating. But why these Bengali Marxists, they are not? The Communists are cooperating.

Prabhupāda: They know that we are the only enemy against their movement. Let me...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A letter has come from Haridāsa. In Bombay, your disciple, Haridāsa Brahmacārī? (break)

Prabhupāda: ...by good association. This is the result of our movement.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So maintain the branch by local devotee.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "Shree Lanka is definitely a first-class field for preaching, and we are being accepted by Sindhis, Gujaratis, Tamils, and Singhalese, Christians and Buddhists alike. All kinds of people are becoming attracted to the movement. It is very encouraging. Only the government policies are a nuisance. We now have twenty-five life members." Why can't he just go out and get a visa and go back in there? Just like we go out and come right back, why can't he come to..., get a visa and then go right back in?

Gargamuni: He can do it in two days.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If he can do that, is that best?

Prabhupāda: That would be very nice. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. Because if he leaves now, whatever he's done will be lost. Those new men are not ready yet to do on their own.

Prabhupāda: He can come and go.

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: (to a devotee:) "Kindly give me that chance."

Prabhupāda: In this condition, even I cannot move my body on the bed. Only chance you should give me—let me die little peacefully, without any anxiety. I have given in writing everything, whatever you wanted—my will, my executive(?) power, everything. Disaster will happen if you cannot manage it. Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we do not want any disaster to happen. Our only business as your sons and servants is to maintain what you have established. Even if we don't increase it, if we just maintain it...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That'll be... You've done so much. If it's even maintained, it will be a great credit. We shall be proud if people will say that "These young men are fit sons of their Guru Mahārāja." That would be our great pride if people will say that of us, that "They were worthy sons of their Guru Mahārāja." (break)

Prabhupāda: I must thank you that you took me to London and again brought me without any difficulties. That's a great credit for you. That I am thanking you, that in this condition, a bundle of bones, you did it. Kṛṣṇa will... Yesterday I saw that Central Station, Bombay, so much crowded. Unexpectedly. Is it not remarkable?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: Or even if they're farmers, all they do is just graze cows. And they don't do any work. They just have the cows eat, and then they sell them.

Prabhupāda: And maintain slaughterhouse, eh?

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So you have kīrtana now?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Prabhupāda. I'll bring the little... (break) ...that the bells are being rung on time, on the hour and half hour.

Prabhupāda: It is going on?

Akṣayānanda: Oh, yes. Everything's going on nicely, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So the bank has dispatched them, no?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Has the bank dispatched those two deposits? I wrote you one letter. You received that?

Akṣayānanda: I only got that letter. The bank was away, and now you have come, I'll send them.

Room Conversation Arrival of Jayatirtha and Harikesa -- October 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Jayatīrtha: And the community leaders there are giving us plots of land in different Indian areas and money for building temples. It's a very, very good report from South Africa.

Prabhupāda: That's maintain all. So... (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How are you feeling this morning, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Not bad.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not bad. It may be that your pulse is like that because you're resting. After a long sleep the pulse can be weak and slow. (break)

Prabhupāda: But I think I cannot sit down.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I think we can wash you while you're laying down.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You also said.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I personally feel that the prasādam here at lunchtime is some of the nicest prasādam I have eaten ever. Every day it's consistently very nice, served very nicely, and sufficient quantity.

Prabhupāda: So kindly maintain this standard. That is very important item. I am not eating, but I am hearing (laughter) and getting the appetite.

Devotees: Jaya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Another nice feature, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is that we all eat together.

Prabhupāda: Catur-vidha-śrī-bhagavat-prasāda-svādv-anna-tṛptān hari-bhakta-saṅghān, kṛtvaiva tṛptiṁ bhajataḥ sadaiva **. This is also bhajana, to be satisfied that others are taking first-class prasādam.

Room Conversation -- October 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Girirāja?

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: News from Bombay? (break)

Girirāja: ...activities are going on. Haridāsa promised that he would, you know, maintain the collections for maintenance. So he's doing that with the help of one or two other boys. And I asked about the attendance at the morning and evening programs, and they wrote back that the attendance at the morning program is very good, maṅgala-ārati and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And it's fair attendance in the evening. And then the construction is going on. It's in the final stages. And then you probably know we had a meeting to discuss the plans for the opening and the management of the new guesthouse and restaurant and theater. So I think the plans are very good.

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhavānanda: And also, Śrīla Prabhupāda, your suggestion that you wanted to go on parikrama, we also thought, was an indication that you must be feeling a little stronger. In initial stage of taking this medicine it has to take some time before it even can begin to equalize a deteriorating situation, what to speak of making positive gains in strength. The medicine first has to act to stop the deterioration. Even that takes some time. Then, once it's equalized and maintain that, then it will work to build the body. If you're feeling, though, that you're deteriorating condition, then perhaps we shouldn't go on the parikrama this morning.

Prabhupāda: No, parikrama I shall go.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? You expected to immediately get some result by taking this makara-dhvaja?

Prabhupāda: I am already puzzled? Mixed-up.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said you're puzzled, Śrīla Prabhupāda? You said you're puzzled?

Prabhupāda: Ātreya Ṛṣi?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: I am puzzled.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If you continue to desire to live, Śrīla Prabhupāda... If you continue to desire to live, then Kṛṣṇa will fulfill your desire.

Prabhupāda: In this condition I do not wish to live.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Eating only juice.

Bhakti-caru: Milk... (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Juice is for maintaining. It's not for improving the condition. Juice you can maintain one's life, but to actually get strength you have to take something more substantial than juice. Milk is one thing, of course.

Bhakti-caru: Kavirāja is stressing on milk and barley.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The kavirāja said he had some cough medicine to put in the milk.

Bhakti-caru: Yes. Yes. He gave it to me yesterday. But last night I didn't want to give the milk.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So what about now?

Bhakti-caru: Milk hasn't come. Next I will give. Say after about an hour. Now I will feed him the orange juice and...

Bhavānanda: Maybe after parikrama.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (break) How many plane go from Delhi?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a... Delhi, there's two flights. One is in the morning, and the other one is in the evening. Morning flight is at about six-thirty in the morning, six-forty in the morning, and the evening flight is quite late, about eight o'clock at night. We would want to take the morning flight. (end)

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I cannot.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's difficult. This means you will stop practically getting any nourishment at all now. So then we should call the Calcutta kavirāja. Prabhupāda's not being able to maintain his program. So we'll call the kavirāja from Calcutta, Śrīla Prabhupāda, because now you are not able to keep to the program which he fixed up. And this other kavirāja, he can't do anything this difficult. Usually by this time you've drank about 400 cc's of liquid or more. Today you haven't even drank 100 cc's yet. So in this way you will go back to about two or three weeks ago, when you were planning to depart. So that's a little premature, because we agreed that we will first go through with this program which the kavirāja has given. So now it seems like it's too difficult to do that, so we should call him so that he can...

Prabhupāda: What is the use of calling him?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The use of calling is that he... According to him... This is what I understood. The main problem you're feeling is that you have no strength. This is the sum and substance. There's no strength.

Prabhupāda: So how he can give strength?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How can he give strength? Just like makara-dhvaja is for giving strength.

Prabhupāda: Makara-dhvaja was not giving strength.