Noble (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
" noble" |" noblemen" |" nobler" |" nobles" |" noblest" |"nobility" |"nobleman"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

There is a proverb: agriculture is the noblest profession. Is it not said? Agriculture is noblest, and Kṛṣṇa was farmer, His father.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: Yes. We had a big vegetable garden this year, too. I've been doing farming... Peter has been doing a great deal of farming.

Hayagrīva: How are you tilling your land?

Guest: We have a friend who comes out with a plow.

Allen Ginsberg: You're doing it by hand?

Kīrtanānanda: We just got a horse.

Hayagrīva: We just got a horse. We had bad experience with a rotary tiller. We got rid of it.

Kīrtanānanda: West Virginia. We gave it away.

Allen Ginsberg: So we're also going through a coovy(?) āśrama for poets. A little farm for poets.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Farming, agriculture, that is nice. There is a proverb: agriculture is the noblest profession. Is it not said? Agriculture is noblest, and Kṛṣṇa was farmer, His father.

And noblemen?

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: There were instances when the king wouldn't follow the brāhmaṇas, so they were thrown out, weren't they?

Prabhupāda: Yes. There were such instances also. Just like Prthu Mahārāja. His father was dethroned. I think same thing was in England also, the knights. If they liked, they dethroned the king.

Kīrtanānanda: Not exactly the knights. They were more...

Prabhupāda: Noblemen. Yes. The knights are different?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. Knights were fighting men.

Satyabhāmā: They're warriors. Knights were like kṣatriya.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh. And noblemen?

Kīrtanānanda: They were the lords. They were...

Satyabhāmā: There were no brāhmaṇas, though. (laughs)

Śyāma: There were bishops.

Kīrtanānanda: Not exactly brāhmaṇas. They were proprietors of large tracts of land, and they were responsible for giving protection to a certain number of people under them.

Prabhupāda: Aristocrats. The same system the Britishers introduced in India also. They were called zamindari. (break) That is sannyāsī's business.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

He said that, "If people say, 'Oh, you are friend of Motilal Sill. You have no your own house?' what people will say about me? He must have his own house." He purchased house for him. He was very big man. And there are many incidences also like, a very noble story.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Virajā, yes.

Revatīnandana: Is it possible to go there?

Prabhupāda: Why not? Yes.

Devotee (4): Arjuna went there.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: What was Arjuna's purpose?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa took him to show His friend. He did not go alone. That he could not. No. (laughter) It was Kṛṣṇa's chariot.

Revatīnandana: So he went to the spiritual sky?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then what is the use of making friendship with Kṛṣṇa if you cannot do so? There was a rich man in Calcutta, Motilal Sill. He was so rich that... Every man has different circle in younger days. So he would see. If any of his friends did not possess a house in Calcutta, he would purchase house. He said that, "If people say, 'Oh, you are friend of Motilal Sill. You have no your own house?' what people will say about me? He must have his own house." He purchased house for him. He was very big man. And there are many incidences also like, a very noble story. Actually it was not long ago, say about hundred years ago. He would not see that any one of his associates, friends, does not possess a house in Calcutta. Another Kṛṣṇa's friend, Sudama also. (chuckles) He could not recognize his own place, how it had happened, palatial buildings, garden. In Kṛṣṇa, you have not read Sudama?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

This position is at the present moment, no honest man can become a government officer, everywhere. Unless he is a rogue, dishonest person, he cannot maintain his governmental position. Therefore no noble man is going to the government. But what you can do?

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Brahmānanda: Well, they went to put tape recorder devices so they know what the opposite party is doing.

Prabhupāda: Who is that?

Brahmānanda: The Republicans.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Republicans. Who is in power now?

Brahmānanda: Well, Nixon. He is Republican.

Prabhupāda: He is Republican.

Brahmānanda: They haven't traced it to him yet, but all his chief aides, they have all been implicated. It was during the election.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So therefore they are defeated.

Brahmānanda: Yeah. They knew what the Democrats were doing.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This position is at the present moment, no honest man can become a government officer, everywhere. Unless he is a rogue, dishonest person, he cannot maintain his governmental position. Therefore no noble man is going to the government. But what you can do?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Politicians are the greatest cheaters.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Scoundrel. Some philosopher said that "Politics is the last place of the scoundrel. That is their last resort." In India we see same thing. Harer nāma, harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). So design some means how to fight with these...

Yes, she remembers of her last birth. That is quite possible.

Room Conversation with French Nun -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Yogeśvara: She, she asks you for an explanation of an event that happened to her sister. Her sister died at the age of five and a half years. And just before her death she apparently was able to explain some of her past lifetimes to her mother, that she had formerly been a princess or of noble birth and that now she was being called. Is there some explanation for that?

Prabhupāda: Yes, she remembers of her last birth. That is quite possible. Because we are changing body. So one who can remember about his past life, they are called jāta-smaraṇa.

Yogeśvara: Jāta-smaraṇa?

Prabhupāda: One who can remember about his past life.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Yes, everyone should be dedicated, I or you. Does not... That is the success of life. Dedicate your life for Kṛṣṇa. That is the perfection. Even there are some faults, even dedicated life is noble life.

Morning Walk -- March 4, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: The difference between other camps and our: they call these men from their daily, I mean to say, life, householder's life, for this purpose for a week or so, but they are not dedicated. Here, in our camp, all our people are dedicated to the cause. That is the difference. So they cannot surpass your activities.

Jayapatākā: Because you are dedicated, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone should be dedicated, I or you. Does not... That is the success of life. Dedicate your life for Kṛṣṇa. That is the perfection. Even there are some faults, even dedicated life is noble life. Maybe, due to our past habits, we may commit some faulty action, but that dedicated life is sublime. Api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30).

Why do they call him "Sun King"?

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Paramahaṁsa: Yes, this was the palace before they built the big palace in Versailles. Versailles is like a demigod's planet. It's the most wonderful building in all of France. Everything in gold, and wonderful paintings. Very, very big, and wonderful gardens and rivers. The king of France was very intelligent. In order to keep the nobles from revolting against him, he invited them all to his palace to enjoy with him. And he gave them wonderful feasts and a lot of sex life, and wonderful music. And like this, they never revolted during his time. This was Louis the Fourteenth.

French Devotee: He was called the sun king.

Paramahaṁsa: They call him the saintly king.

French Devotee: Sun, sun.

Paramahaṁsa: Oh, the sun king.

Prabhupāda: What is that sun king?

Paramahaṁsa: Why do they call him "Sun King"?

French Devotee: Because he was very opulent.

Paramahaṁsa: Today, the French people collect millions of dollars every year from the Americans to keep Versailles beautiful.

Prabhupāda: American tourists pay.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes, many hundreds and thousands of American tourists come there every year just to see this opulence.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

I think that the scientists do not think like that. They keep the brain of a particular scientist to study. They keep the heart of a particular noble man. Why they try to study the heart and the brain if there is no difference?

Television Interview -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Woman reporter: We have talked to scientists who say that the size of the brain has nothing to do with intelligence. Do you believe that?

Prabhupāda: I think that the scientists do not think like that. They keep the brain of a particular scientist to study. They keep the heart of a particular noble man. Why they try to study the heart and the brain if there is no difference?

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: Nobody would drink tea, no family. We have seen it. And for drinking, for drinking tea, drinking wine, regular propaganda was done. There was a tea assess(?) (tea sets?) committee. Men these foreigners, they began to grow tea in India in the beginning for exporting to Europe and America… Later on, they began to pay some tax to the government. That was known as "tea assess(?) committee." The tea assess(?) committee, in order to popularize drinking tea, they used to hold stall, just like here in park and public places, and they would prepare very tasty tea and distribute free.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Free.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And advertise, "If you drink tea, then you will not feel very much hungry. Your health will be improved," and so on, so on. In this way they distribute pamphlet and giving free. Just like we distribute prasādam, they used to distribute very tasteful tea, and people liked it: "Oh, it is very nice." Then they began to drink. Vigorous propaganda. And culturally, in our school days they wrote… One Mr. N. Ghosh, he, bribed by the Britishers, he wrote one book, England's Work in India. So all the, just like Sati rites…

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sati rite.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That "Later on, after the death of husband in some places the wife was forced to go to the fire, so the Britishers stopped it. And they introduced railway for going to the pilgrims and so many, and they constructed bridges to make easy to go from one country to another." And people took it very seriously, that British government is very nice. And they were publishing in outside country that "India is uncivilized. We are making them civilized. And as soon as they are civilized, then we hand over the charge to them. That is our noble mission." And they were exploiting. All raw materials was being taken away and the necessities of India, especially cloth, was being supplied. And the local weavers, their hands cut off

So now, when he will say, "All right, you can say what you want to say," then, he sādhava: "You are a great personality, nobleman." He may be a loafer class, but give him all honor: "You are so great and so exalted," he sādhava, "and so honest." He sādhava. "My only submission is that whatever you have learned, you forget.

Morning Walk -- October 28, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: So any rogue, rascal, gentleman, big, small, learned—everyone will agree. Is it not, if you submit like that, that with great humbleness and flattering him, "Falling down on your feet, I want to submit something"? Huh? What do you think?

Jñāna: I think it's wonderful. Yes.

Prabhupāda: This is the... This is the process. So this is the process. So now, when he will say, "All right, you can say what you want to say," then, he sādhava: "You are a great personality, nobleman." He may be a loafer class, (laughter) but give him all honor: "You are so great and so exalted," he sādhava, "and so honest." He sādhava. "My only submission is that whatever you have learned, you forget. Whatever nonsense you have learned..." Don't say "nonsense." (laughter) But we must know that he is a pakkā, rascal, nonsense. (laughs) So don't say directly, "nonsense." Say, "You are the great personality. So kindly, whatever you have learned, forget." "Then what shall I do?" He sādhavaḥ sakalam eva vihāya durāt: "Kick out whatever you nonsense learned." "Then what shall I do?" Now, caitanya-candra-caraṇe kurutānurāgam: "Kindly be submissive to Lord Caitanya, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." This is our program. No argument. Because he is a rascal, what is the use of arguing with him? He's a rascal number one. You know that. You cannot expect any good argument from the rascals and fools.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

So he is making some propaganda that he is the...

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We don't hear the chanting from their maṭha all day and night.

Bhavānanda: No, it's only from here. "It is more heavenly than heaven itself. It is the sacred Vṛndāvana of Bengal, hallowed by the dancing steps of the Lord, and its air is purified by His noble call to prayer. Whoever pays a visit to her will leave her with regret, and those who have not yet visited the place will carry their regrets unto death."

Prabhupāda: So he is making some propaganda that he is the...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, just like in the woods the jackal is always crying that he is the king, but who cares for him? What is his qualification?

Prabhupāda: So do we require to...? There is no use.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, our answer is all of these books.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Our answer is twenty-four-hour kīrtana, prasādam distribution...

Prabhupāda: And you keep it very carefully in the file.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should answer him by our preaching, by our vigorous preaching.

Bhavānanda: Many people must be asking him, "What about this ISKCON maṭha?" That's why he is... It's driving him mad.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's speaking against us all the time. He never says anything good about us.

Prabhupāda: No, he is very envious about us.

Agriculture is the noblest profession.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Agriculture is the noblest profession. Give him some land, he cuts the wood, makes cottages. The land is clear, now till it, keep cows and grow foodgrains.

The same story, that some frogs were there, and children was throwing stone. Then the frogs appealed, "Sir, why you are throwing stone upon us?" "No, we are playing." "So what is play for you, it is death to us."

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

Prabhupāda: They have already failed in one speculation. They went to moon planet with some speculation. That has failed. Why they are given chance, another speculation?

Rādhāvallabha: Everyone believes that they went.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Rādhāvallabha: Everyone believes that they went.

Prabhupāda: They went, but what is the benefit? What for they went?

Rādhāvallabha: For scientific exploration. They consider that very noble.

Prabhupāda: Scientific exploration at the expense of these taxpayer?

Rādhāvallabha: They consider it a very noble cause to increase knowledge.

Prabhupāda: That... The same story, that some frogs were there, and children was throwing stone. Then the frogs appealed, "Sir, why you are throwing stone upon us?" "No, we are playing." "So what is play for you, it is death to us." So these rascals are playing, and we have to pay heavy tax for that. This is going on. We are playing, making some scientific research, and who will pay for that? You. You work hard in the factory and pay tax. This is civilization. "You pay tax, and we spend it as we like." Frivolity(?). This is going on. This is the government of Kali-yuga. What can you do?

Devotee (2): "In God We Trust."

Prabhupāda: "What is play to you is death to us." And "Never mind. You die. We play." They have already spent so much money, moon exploration. And that has stopped now, no benefit. They brought some sand and some rock, satisfied. Again the same thing with Mars. But we can say from our poor knowledge that as they have failed in the moon planet, they will fail also in the Mars. Take it down. Note now. Do you know this is all bluff?

When the Englishmen were ruling over this country and Gandhi had to do so much labor, his life sacrificed, some way or other they were gone. Now the same Englishman is working here as book distributor. Who was our ruler. So whose achievement is better? Gandhi's or mine?

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Maṇihāra: "ISKCON does offer to the modern man a haven of refuge from the complexity of anxiety of present-day life. The society has indeed set before itself a noble and laudable ideal..."

Prabhupāda: When the Englishmen were ruling over this country and Gandhi had to do so much labor, his life sacrificed, some way or other they were gone. Now the same Englishman is working here as book distributor. (laughs) Who was our ruler. So whose achievement is better? Gandhi's or mine?

Gargamuni: Yours.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Then?

Maṇihāra: There's just a few more sentences. "The Society has indeed set for itself a noble and laudable ideal, producing men and women of high character, sincerity, and God consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Send this rascal.

Gargamuni: Yes, this shall be sent. And also to Om Mehta.

Prabhupāda: You send. He knows you, Gargamuni. Yes. Say you have mentioned several times my name, so for your benefit, and to open your eyes, I am sending you one article. Please read what ISKCON is doing. Simply write this.

They're very, martial race.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Caraṇāravindam: I have seen many Sikh soldiers. They're very big. They're very noble looking soldiers.

Prabhupāda: They're very, martial race. Practically, the Britishers expanded their empire with these Sikh soldiers and Gurkha soldiers.

Go to village to village. It is very noble attempt.

Room Conversation (Bullock Cart SKP) -- September 12, 1976, Vrndavana:

Lokanātha: So we'll write to you, (indistinct) books.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Go to village to village. It is very noble attempt. And if you sincerely preach Kṛṣṇa will... buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi taṁ yena mām upayānti te. There is no doubt.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Ust see how foolish leaders. In the field there is food. They will not work for the food.

Car Conversation -- February 5, 1977, Calcutta:

Jayapatākā: ...and you do little work and get more money. You can buy radio and tape recorder. And working in the field, that is not noble.

Prabhupāda: Just see how foolish leaders. In the field there is food. They will not work for the food.

Yes, they say at least.

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

Mr. Rajda: And you have already done lot of great, noble work.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they say at least.

The society remains in darkness, misled by blind men. We want to save the human society from this catastrophe. This is our noble mission.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Life cannot come from matter. Never. And the knowledge distribution takes some time. They have distributed ignorance by taking time. We have to distribute knowledge by taking time. False knowledge... Simply promise, future hope... Durāśayā. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum durāśayā bahir-artha-māninaḥ, andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānā... (SB 7.5.31). The society remains in darkness, misled by blind men. We want to save the human society from this catastrophe. This is our noble mission. Why they should remain in darkness? Karmīs, jñānīs, yogis.... That should be. Just like some professor in Bangalore, they are trying to expose this Sai Baba. Why? Because they are scientific men, they are protesting, "Why this rascal should keep so many men in darkness?

Oh, yes. Either in palanquin or make a stretcher, but have parikrama.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: From tomorrow, you sit me down in that palanquin, and, with devotees, let me have parikrama, temple.

Haṁsadūta: Tomorrow.

Prabhupāda: Round the temple.

Haṁsadūta: What time?

Prabhupāda: Any time suitable.

Hari-śauri: Nine to ten, like we did before.

Haṁsadūta: All the devotees, have kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: How do you like this idea?

Haṁsadūta: Very good.

Prabhupāda: Instead of dying-train jerking (laughs) or aeroplane jerking—why not parikrama? Die or live, it doesn't matter.

Haṁsadūta: Parikrama is noble.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Either in palanquin or make a stretcher, but have parikrama.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Do you like this idea?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, I think it's a good idea.

Prabhupāda: So arrange like that with leading men. Let me have parikrama. If I live, that's all right; if I die, that's all right. Both ways.