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Parents (Conversations 1977)

Expressions researched:
"parent" |"parent's" |"parentless" |"parents"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So your wife came... (break) This is Indian attitude. They do not care for the modern, civilized way of life, wasting time reading some nonsense book or going to the bars, the cinema, talking unnecessarily. They do not like. Those who are old style, they do not.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I know many women who are very good cooks, I have tasted...

Prabhupāda: They have no time to waste time in that way. They must be inclined that "I must prepare something nice so that my husband, my children or my, all friends will be very pleased." That is their policy. I wanted that all our girls, they should be expert. And in America they are doing that. They should learn the art of cooking and prepare very nice foodstuffs, daily change of menu. And the children should be so trained up that no more birth. And that is life. They can produce hundreds of children, it doesn't matter, but must be responsible that "The children should be saved. This is the last birth, no more birth. I'll train the child in such a way that next life he's going to Kṛṣṇa, back to home, back to Godhead." That is parent's duty. Otherwise they should not become parent. That is contraceptive: "I am not fit to train my children in that way, so I shall not produce cats and dogs." This is life. Why shall I produce cats and dogs? And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was gṛhastha, he produced Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī.

Roof Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Examination or no examination, if you, they practice the rules, that is sufficient examination. Suppose one of the items, that one has to rise early in the morning... So if one is rising early in the morning, then what is the examination? That is already examined. If one has to rise early in the morning, attend the maṅgala-ārati, sitting in the class and reading Bhagavad-gītā, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa... These are all practical. There is no need of examination. If he is doing, then it is examination passed.

Indian lady: But the parents want certificate.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, if you want to satisfy the parents, the government, then it is not possible. You have to satisfy Kṛṣṇa.

Indian lady: They have to go in colleges.

Prabhupāda: I know that. Therefore I said that if you have to satisfy so many masters, it is not possible.

Dr. Patel: At the most she can give some sort of a cultural education along with those programs.

Prabhupāda: What that cultural...? If he does not practice, what is that culture? It is practice.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

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.

Mr. Asnani: Yes. You told my wife also.

Prabhupāda: Nobody is interested. That is the difficulty in this age. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). They do not know how one can become happy. They are simply hoping against hope. Durāśayā. Aśayā means hope, and dura means which will never be fulfilled. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

rabhupāda: Yes. So whatever thought comes to me, I discuss as far as possible. Why these things are... Therefore I want to organize this farm project. Let there be ideal. And it is becoming ideal in America. People are coming even from the school, college, they are coming to see New Vrindaban. And there was section where our enemies, they are not disturbing. So they are appreciating. Still we are not thoroughly organized, but still they're appreciating. They'll appreciate. One day will come they'll appreciate. And other parents, as they come and thank me, "Swamiji, it is our great fortune that..." Many parents came when I was in Los Angeles.

Hari-śauri: Yes. That's becoming more organized now. They have a Parents for Krishna group now.

Prabhupāda: Any sane man will appreciate. Why this father, mother, came to congratulate me? "Swamiji, you have done so..." It is Kṛṣṇa's desire that everyone be happy. They'll take Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

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

Prabhupāda: These rascals, they invent their theories. Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara prāptir, and these rascals says "Once." Just see.

Dr. Patel: The rascals have also realized now that there is a dehāntara-prāptir because the parapsychology has proved beyond doubt so many examples recently, at present, that there is a rebirth. People who are reborn and know their past births. They have recognized their parents, their places and secret things also. There was a patient in Rajastan. One was in Northwest India. There was one in South America. They were all published in medical bulletins.

Gurudāsa: People accept them?

Dr. Patel: Gradually.

Prabhupāda: Medical science do not accept the soul. Then how it is possible, next birth?

Dr. Patel: They have to accept. In the teaching of physiology, what we call certain vital forces which we don't understand, they are, this is nothing but God there. What is vital force? What is vital force? It's the soul, sir.

Prabhupāda: Vague idea. Not clear.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: We sent this to all the temples in America.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And give me one copy. I shall keep.

Rāmeśvara: This is for you.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Rāmeśvara: This is all based on the information received by various parent groups. "These people usually fear physical harm that may come to them and to their children who are in Hare Kṛṣṇa, as well as forcibly permanent separation from their children in Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: They do not know what is meaning, liberation. This is liberation, forcely separating from māyā. That they do not know. māyām etaṁ taranti te. Yes.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: If the family wants them out, we have a reputation that we will hide them, so the family cannot get them. "One example is in the Queens case." That's Ādi Keśava Mahārāja. The charge of attempted grand larceny stems from an alleged extortion attempt against the Shapiro family by the temple leaders who wanted money from the parents and threatened to harm their son..."

Prabhupāda: This is false.

Rāmeśvara: "...unless the money was given."

Prabhupāda: This is false.

Rāmeśvara: This is false, completely false. "One of the things we can do is give moral support to these families. How better to do it than to show your support by writing to the..."

Prabhupāda: This we can bring a charge against them: "Prove that we wanted money."

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This we can bring a charge against them: "Prove that we wanted money."

Rāmeśvara: Yes, we are counter... We are fighting them. "...by writing to the District Attorney's"—those are the Justice Department Offices—"or contacting your local media." Then they give the addresses of people in New York and two addresses in Los Angeles who you should write to telling them about all the knowledge you have about all the abuses of Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then it says, "You should commence action for a legal deprogramming. If other families of Hare Kṛṣṇa victims would go to court to get a legal conservatorship or guardianship with an intended writ of habeas corpus..." Now, what this means is you go to the court, and you say "My dear judge, my son is in Hare Kṛṣṇa. He has been brainwashed." And you have a paper from a psychiatrist that says, "Yes, he is definitely acting in a robotlike way." Then the court will say, "All right, you're the parent. So we give you legal guardianship over the son."

Prabhupāda: No, we can place a counter psychiatrist and counter... Just like Cox's statement.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: There is one law in America where they don't even give you a chance to defend. They immediately give the parents the guardianship. Now, this law was written to protect old people, and they are cheating and using the law against us. Sometimes old people become senile, and, let's say, they'll do harmful things. They may give away their money. They may do things in a state of...

Prabhupāda: But we have got parents' organization also.

Rāmeśvara: Now we do. Anyway, they're using this law against us.

Prabhupāda: That they will do. They will do their best. We have to do our best. That's all.

Rāmeśvara: They say, "This would enable the court to remove the young person from the temple for medical examination and evaluation by cult-knowledgeable psychiatrists and psychologists." In other words, deprogramming. "This is the best thing to do. The media would report it..."

Prabhupāda: No, no. But one psyciatrist may give one verdict, but other psychiatrist may give another verdict. Then how the court will decide?

Rāmeśvara: Because in these temporary guardianship cases, the court is already against us in many places.

Prabhupāda: But... Against may be, but so far the decision of the psychiatrist, we can present our psychiatrist.

Rāmeśvara: There's no equal time given. It's one-sided only.

Prabhupāda: That means in the name of justice, injustice is going on.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That means there is no money.

Rāmeśvara: But one recent development which will change that is that they have appealed to the government that they are an educational group. Therefore they should be tax exempt like any other educational organization, and the government has agreed. Now they have gotten their tax exemption, so now these parents can donate lots of... Different people will start donating lots of money to them as tax write-offs. So I think that we will see that their activities will be expanded this year, because now they are tax exempt, they'll get a lot of money.

Hari-śauri: That news article said that someone had given them $105,000. Some parents of a cult...

Prabhupāda: No, there are rich parents. They can do that. And every parent is unhappy. (chuckles)

Rāmeśvara: The fighting will increase this year. It's getting very acute, as you said in that letter.

Prabhupāda: So they are feeling the strength of Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: Actually, one argument that they use... They have found an old Back to Godhead article that I think you wrote, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It was about Arjuna's position during the battle of Kurukṣetra, where he had to fight against his relatives. You were commenting that "So sometimes you may have to even kill your family members for Kṛṣṇa." So they take this magazine article, and they say that "Hare Kṛṣṇa leaders are teaching all the devotees to kill their parents." So this is an example of how they will distort everything.

Prabhupāda: That... You can distort anything. If there is expert distortion, it is...

Trivikrama: We can kill our parents even, like Prahlāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is actually required. Prahlāda did not protest. It is a great sin, if your father is being killed before you, if you do not protest even, "Why you are killing?" not to give protection. But even if you do not, then you are not worthy son. So in that way Prahlāda Mahārāja was accused that in his presence his father was being killed. He did not protest, neither he... Rather, he was ready with the garland: (laughter) "As soon as my father is killed, immediately garland the Lord." So that is not the fact. And he is... Later on, he requested that "My father was a great offender.

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda explaining the different philosophies of the world. This was something that just appeared just before I left Los Angeles. This shows how they are fighting back. This a four-page article... (break) ...as if it is a very nice thing. And they say in the article that the parents have to pay these professionals $25,000 just to steal a devotee.

Prabhupāda: Heavy tax.

Haṁsadūta: We don't pay them anything. They come to us.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are getting advertise, publicity, paying nothing. This is our profit.

Rāmeśvara: We still have to work very hard to defeat them.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. That is necessary. You don't sleep. Never Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna that "I am your friend. I am God. You sleep here. (laughter) I'll do everything." No! "You must fight." That is wanted. Yuddhyasva mām anusmara: (BG 8.7) "You fight and remember Me. Then I'll do everything." This is an opportunity of remembering Kṛṣṇa always—"Kṛṣṇa, save us." (break) So what are these pictures? Against us?

Rāmeśvara: Yes. This shows that if they kidnap you and they convince you to give up your belief in God, you will be very happy. You will have nice girlfriend. You will be very happy.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). This material world means this sex. That is happiness. And we are saying, "Don't enjoy this happiness like hogs." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). "This kind of happiness available in the hog's life, dog's life. Why you are anxious for this happiness?" This is our philosophy.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Guest (10): Opposition is natural. Because you are converting their churches into temples.

Prabhupāda: No, there are many... First thing is that my students are advised, "No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication up to the point of smoking cigarette and drinking tea, and no gambling." But this is their life. How they can give up this? That is... It is a shock. Therefore they say, "brainwashing," that "How a gentleman can give up all these things?" Many... No many. A few of my students, they left. They said that "Swamiji is denying the primary necessities of life." They left. They could not tolerate even. So I do not make any compromise. That you want to become my student you have to give up these things. So the responsible parents, they are appreciating that "My son is now purified." But some of them, there are...

Guest (2): They feel that you are kidnapping their children. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: And therefore they are kidnapping. His father, mother came in Calcutta. His mother asked, "Swamiji, please return my son." And "Take your son."

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

Prabhupāda: Many. The Hayagrīva's father, mother.

Rāmeśvara: My parents think like that too.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: I could have no relation with them before, but now that I am a devotee, I actually want to help them, so the relationship...

Prabhupāda: And there are so many fathers, mothers; they very much appreciate. And the... Our... None of our disciple is disrespectful to father and mother. Why? I never said that "You become disrespectful to your father and mother."

Hari-śauri: The only time there's any argument is if...

Prabhupāda: But if the father is demon...

Rāmeśvara: The devotees sometimes are disrespectful out of immaturity.

Prabhupāda: That is a individual fact.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: But they have never used it against us. But now they have started. One devotee, a girl from Berkeley temple who is a very big book distributor... Sometimes she could collect five, six hundred dollars in one day. She was just kidnapped—by order of the court. They have a psychologist who listens to the parents' description, and on the basis of that secondhand report the psychologist...

Prabhupāda: No, kidnapping, that is already law there. If one is minor or without the permission of the parent, with police force she or..., can be kidnapped.

Rāmeśvara: But this is not for minors. This is for adults.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: This is a new thing, that the psychologist will write some report to the court that "Based on the information I have received, this person is not mentally competent. Therefore this person must be put under the guardianship of their parents even if they are an adult. Otherwise they will harm themselves." So in this way the psychologists...

Prabhupāda: But any psychologist will give report or anyone can...

Rāmeśvara: Anyone. You just pay him, and he'll give you a report. They are rascals. And then the court issues an order that "Now this person's freedom is taken away," and she's put under the charge of her family for thirty days. Then they come with the police, and they give the paper, and they take her away by force, and they fly her to one of these camps where they harass her for thirty days.

Gargamuni: Brainwash.

Rāmeśvara: Try to break their faith.

Gargamuni: Actually they are brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: So this can be done by law?

Rāmeśvara: They have some law, and they are misusing it for this purpose.

Prabhupāda: Then what to do?

Rāmeśvara: Well we have... I mentioned we have got these lawyers who want to start a nationwide organization to fight this law for us. So the head of this group is in San Francisco...

Prabhupāda: Now, the... Externally, it appears that anyone can be kidnapped simply by the certificate of the psychologist.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: There are many gentlemen who take insulin twice, at least once.

Rāmeśvara: The diabetics. They have diabetes. Very common. We have a devotee who does that. This boy in New York whose parents have kidnapped him many times. He is actually... That's their charge against us, that "Oh, my son is diabetic, and you are not spending $25,000 on doctors. You are not taking care of him." That is their charge against us. Then Ādi-keśava Mahārāja said, "All right, if you want him to have such excellent medical treatment, you give us the money and we'll spend it on it." So then the parents say, "Just see! Blackmail." That is a big charge in the paper. It's called extortion. Ādi-keśava Mahārāja was indicted for kidnapping and for extortion.

Hari-śauri: He's that Ed Shapiro.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. The parents cheated again. They said, "Just see, blackmail."

Hari-śauri: That's how that charge came up.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. They lie and say, "This president, he said, 'If you do not give us this money, we will let your son die.' "

Prabhupāda: In a different way.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 20, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: We have one mother in Los Angeles of a girl named Līlā-śakti. She's a big book distributor. And her mother, she loves this movement so much that when the deprogrammers start debating us, she stands up and yells at them that "My daughter was on drugs, hippie, before she came to this movement. This movement has saved her. If I had known about this movement when I was a young girl, I would have joined this movement!" On television she's speaking like that, very strongly. "You have no right to criticize! You don't know anything about this movement." She says, "You just come over to my house for lunch and I'll tell you all about this movement, how nice it is." She started this club, "Parents for Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: Oh, she is very sincere. And her daughter, this Līlā...? What is?

Rāmeśvara: Līlā-śakti.

Prabhupāda: She's wonderful girl. She's expert in everything. Hayagrīva's mother, father?

Gargamuni: Yes. They wrote that letter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They personally came. And many fathers came to Los Angeles to give me thanks. "Swamiji, it is our great fortune that you have come." They said like that.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: "You're a drunkard, you're a smoker, and you're doing all these things." We should turn the tide and expose them.

Prabhupāda: There are many opinion that "This movement is... Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will save the human society." There are many opinions like that. That's a fact.

Gargamuni: And many parents have said that "My children have been saved." Hayagrīva's...

Prabhupāda: No, these books especially. There are many opinions—"It will save the human civilization from going to hell."

Gargamuni: One scholar, Asutosh Mukherjee, he said this, "These books will save the world." In that review...

Rāmeśvara: Yeah, right. He said from the... Nice words.

Hari-śauri: Seems only the Indian scholars have got that vision, though. Only the Indian scholars have appreciated that these books have a chance for saving the whole humanity.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And that is our mission. We want to save.

Room Conversation with Film Producer about Krsna Lila -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So if you are serious, you let us combine together, learn Kṛṣṇa consciousness, deliver your country, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised that āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128). The whole country has gone to hell. So many people come, ask me all odd question... (tape distorted—break)

Guest (3): Out of their... This Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Guest (2): Yesterday one of my colleagues asked me, "What is this (Bengali)?" But we, the parents of Mother Earth forget about it. But Swamiji has started it not only Europe, America, he has started universal... Except India (Bengali)... You said that you are educated man, you go and hear lecture.

Prabhupāda: No, we are recognized by all educated circle all over the world. If you read the opinions of scholars.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: They criticize this in ISKCON, that the leaders pick out husband and wife.

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Satsvarūpa: And that they're not allowed to mix freely. They say, "Well how do you know who you want to marry unless you can mix with that person?"

Prabhupāda: There is no question of "how do you want?" You require, and the parents is the best selector. It is not the question, "How do you like?" It is the guardians' duty to find out a suitable husband or a suitable wife. Nowadays the boys and girls, they do not take parents' guidance, and they are not happy.

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.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: But where is your freedom?

Satsvarūpa: That I don't have someone to tell me what to do. I will learn by my own experience.

Prabhupāda: Then why do you go to school? Huh?

Satsvarūpa: Well, nowadays school also, they don't think that the professor is like their guru.

Prabhupāda: After all, the parents send the children to school to learn. Why not freedom?

Satsvarūpa: Yes. That's a good argument.

Prabhupāda: When you go in your childhood on the street, why the father does not give you freedom? You'll... You get freedom to die, and the parents takes your freedom to save. So which is better, to die or to be saved?

Satsvarūpa: To be saved.

Prabhupāda: So then?

Satsvarūpa: But I need their help when I'm a child. But when I'm sixteen years old, then I...

Prabhupāda: But after all, you had no freedom. Similarly, you are still child because you are speaking like a child.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Tch tch. Just see.

Gurukṛpā: They feel that if you are not... If you are inhibited in your sex life, if you only choose women, then you are not progressive. You must become liberated from these moral or, they call it, "hang-up" feeling. This is not correct. Now they drive their children to the homosex dance, the parents, and let the boy out, and he goes into the homosex dance. Only men allowed. They take them there.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Gurukṛpā: Yes. In Los Angeles. They have only for boys, young men, age seventeen, sixteen, eighteen, nine... Their parents take them, and they let them out of the car, and they pick them up later on in the night.

Prabhupāda: Advancement.

Gurukṛpā: Yes. Advancement of the pig.

Prabhupāda: It is horrible to hear even. Therefore para-upakāra. The rascals are less than the asses and dogs. Therefore to give them Kṛṣṇa is the best para-upakāra.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Gurukṛpā: Yesterday, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you were speaking about a man who becomes very educated but he can't get a job. He becomes like a dog. Well, I was reading in the paper that this one man in Sydney, he put an ad in the newspaper saying, "I will become your house dog, because I think a dog's life is better than my life because I cannot get a job. So now I want to have a job as a human dog. Anybody want to hire me?"

Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause) If these people are making against our movement, so we should not be surprised. The parents who are leaving their children, dropping their children—"Yes, go and have homosex dancing"—if such parents protest against our movement it is not at all astonishing. But we should not stop it for that reason. This is apparent. So this thing should be brought in the court, that "This is the parent. The parent also requires this brainwash. Why the sons and daughters only? The father, mother..."

Gargamuni: In the court they also have no standard. They don't know what moral life is. They think this is normal.

Prabhupāda: At least you should take our books, that "This is our statement. Defense is. You first of all read this; then give your judgment."

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Pṛthu-putra: Yes. Cittete koriyā aikya, āra nā koriho mane āśā.

Prabhupāda: This is the instruction. And the child decides it that "Whatever my parent says, that's all I shall do. I shall do nothing," then he's safe.

Satsvarūpa: "My only wish is to have my consciousness purified by the words emanating from his lotus mouth."

Prabhupāda: Then he's safe. And as soon as he manufactures—finished. So don't do this. Yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau, tasyaite kathitā... (ŚU 6.23). This is the secret of spiritual success. Vṛndāvana, there are so many dangerous. All these bābājīs, they are... "Oh, I am not going out of Vṛndāvana." But he has got connection with so many women. So what is the use? Have you experience of this? He's attached to women and doing all sinful activities in Vṛndāvana, and he's a devotee. "He cannot go out of Vṛndāvana." This is going on, manufacturing biḍi, smoking biḍi, in the dress of Rūpa Gosvāmī, loincloth, big tilaka, kaṇṭhi, and what he's doing? Biḍi-making. Have you seen?

Room Conversation -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Pṛthu-putra: For example, for that boy who is chanting now in Egypt, he has his beads, but his chanting is effective even though he's still eating meat sometimes with his family? Or...

Prabhupāda: So let him chant. Gradually he'll get...

Pṛthu-putra: Because I told him, "You should continue your study, your school. Otherwise your parents will be agitated. And just do whatever you were usually doing, but just chant and read." Because he has our books.

Prabhupāda: That is beginning. That's all right.

Pṛthu-putra: Because I've found in these universities, the educated persons, they're very interested about philosophy coming from India.

Prabhupāda: Gradually they'll be more interested. So handle them with little care.

Pṛthu-putra: Yes. Has to be handled with very much care actually. But I went in this dhoti even and they were not so...

Prabhupāda: Happy.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: See to that.

Satsvarūpa: Yes. (break) Mainly it's about the girls who are over ten. They were in Vṛndāvana and discussed this with Jagadīśa, but they couldn't settle up, so they wanted to know what you think. Their idea is that... As of now, there is no plan for a school for the girls over ten, but just that they should return to their parents and not get any more schooling. But they're thinking that there should be, and one reason is that you said in France that the girls could learn these sixty-four arts. So they were thinking that there should be a school for girls over ten, and that it should be situated in India. One reason is that in India our teachers can take help from Indian Life Member ladies who know these arts. Our Western devotees don't know them, the cooking and painting and things like this, but the Indian women do. And also they were saying that this age is very delicate for the girls. They're starting to be attracted to boys, and India is better than being in the West where the material attraction is very strong for the girls as well as the boys. So they're wondering whether this principle is good, that there be a school for girls over ten in India. Right now there are only twelve such girls in the movement, a dozen girls that age, just a little over ten years old. They thought that they should have just one teacher for every three girls so they'd be closely supervised.

Prabhupāda: Every three girls?

Satsvarūpa: Should have one teacher, not just one teacher for all of them.

Prabhupāda: At least ten students one teacher.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, if it is a fact, you can force, if it is a fact. And if it is not fact, then it is obstinacy. If it is reality, you can force, just like the father forces the child, "Go to school." Because he knows without education his life will be frustrated, so he can force. I was forced. I was not going to school. Yes. My mother forced. My father was very lenient. My mother forced me. She kept one man especially to drag me to the school. So force is required.

Gurukṛpā: But that is the authority. Your parents were your authority.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gurukṛpā: But they don't accept us as authority. They say, "I'm equal to you. Actually..."

Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness, another foolishness. Father-mother, natural guardian, they can force.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We have to show that, the higher understanding...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...the higher part of knowledge.

Prabhupāda: The child may be foolish but father-mother cannot see that their child will remain a fool. He can force. Government also, why there is military force? Why there is police force? If you want to be outlaw, then you'll be forced to accept the law. Force is required.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

rabhupāda: Killed him?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Killed his own son because he was smoking marijuana. He couldn't stand that the boy was smoking marijuana. Then after killing him he went to the police and turned himself in. So he came before the judge, woman judge, and he said that "I could not help it. This boy is my son, and look what he was doing. It is abominable. I had to kill him." And the judge said, "Yes, I can understand your feelings. It was intolerable." And she let the man go without one day jail sentence. No reprimand even. So this is the thing that is starting to happen now, that they are lobbying in the Congress in the United States to pass laws that if someone is abnormal, then the parents should have the right to commit him to psychological treatments. Even the child may be fifty years old and the parent may be seventy years old, if the parents think that child is not sane, then they have the right to get the child committed. So this is being passed in a couple of states, and already in California...

Prabhupāda: This is very dangerous.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One of our devotees in California was kidnapped out of the airport. She was distributing books in the airport in San Francisco, and because the court gave an order to the parents that "For thirty days you can take your daughter and commit her," so they have brought her to Arizona, where they have a special center set up for deprogramming, legal psychological tests. So for thirty days they ran these... They did some... We don't know what's going on there, some horrible things. Now the girl has sent a letter, and it showed that she is no longer in a devotional attitude. She said, "I'm very glad that I was rescued. Otherwise I would have been made to collect money all my life for your society, and now I'm saved from this."

Prabhupāda: She had been dictated to write like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. But probably they did some brain thing to her.

Prabhupāda: That is brainwash.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Canada, Australia. The problem is that... Actually it's a fact that many of these groups are bad. They're cheating. Of course, ours is not, but because they're not very intelligent, they cannot see the distinction. Probably as a result of this court case, we will make them aware that now the other groups are bogus but we are not. That they'll have to admit. That will be the effect. But at least up until now we are being lumped in with these other bad groups. Cults, they call them. But it's a very dangerous thing. Therefore the lawyers and all of the scholars and intelligentsia of the United States is very alarmed that this is a great treading on human rights. This is a great danger to human rights because the Fifth Amendment of the... The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the freedom of religion. But according to these laws that they want to pass, a parent can say, "It is not a question of religion. My son has become abnormal." So who is to say what is religion and what is abnormal? They are saying, "This is not religion." So we have to prove, "No, this is... Hare Kṛṣṇa is a religion." Otherwise they are saying this is abnormal. Now, just... Our lawyer has pointed out that if you say that the devotees' preaching is brainwash, then you must say that every single Christian priest who preaches, he is also brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So the people will accept this is choice? By force?

Brahmānanda: Well, they feel that this is what the parents want, so the parents are justified in doing this to their children. The parent has the right to dictate what should be the choice of the child.

Prabhupāda: How long?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Unlimitedly. No age limit. They ask, "Supposing your child is fifty years old." The mother said, "It doesn't matter how old. Even fifty years old. If they have lost their brains from this brainwashing, then..."

Prabhupāda: But is that the law of the country?

Tripurāri: There is a law to protect senile people. Sometimes when a man gets old and becomes senile, he may have a lot of money and not know how to use it. So they have given a law that the parent can take charge of such a person, so that he doesn't misspend his money.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One recent case in Texas, I think I may have told Your Divine Grace, how the father killed his son while his son was sleeping, and the court said, "It is all right, because the father has so many feelings this boy was going bad, we should not interfere," even to the point of murdering the son. The court let him go. So this tendency is there now in the legal system. It's very lenient towards the parents, not towards the children.

Brahmānanda: Generally when the child is kidnapped, the parent is always present. And when they have the deprogramming torture session, the parent is also present.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And in fact, the persons who do a lot of the torturing are relatives.

Ādi-keśava: Just like in the case of Vasu-gopāla. When he was held in his house, he managed to get to the phone and call me. So we went out to his house with some of the brahmacārīs from the temple and starting breaking all the windows in the house and smacking down the doors. And as he was running around the house, his brothers and friends were grabbing him and throwing him down against the walls and locked him in a room to try to get him away from us, and they were fighting. Finally, they say in Ted Patrick's book, they thought there were twenty-five of us. There were only four of us or five of us. So finally, in the end, they were so terrified that all of them began to fight. Even this Ted Patrick came at me with a straight razor. In those cases, generally, they use the family members for the fighting.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This clouds the issue in the courtroom, because everyone naturally feels very sympathetic towards the fathers and mothers. So always... These deprogrammers are very intelligent. They personally try to avoid the physical part, so they get the parents to do it.

Ādi-keśava: And then, if the person strikes out at the parent, they say, "Just see how crazy he's become!" Just like with Vasu-gopāla, he took a stick and hit his mother across the head and ran out shouting the name of Nṛsiṁha-deva as they were holding him captive, so he could run away. And so they said, "Just see how crazy he's become that he hit his own mother." Of course, the fact is they didn't mention they locked him in the bathroom for thirty hours just before. They kept him in a little bathroom. They locked the door, put him in there for thirty hours. All they mentioned is that he come out and hit her on the head with some stick. So then they say, "Just see! He's acting against his parents." So then the judge says, "Oh, what can I do? Naturally the father loves the son."

Prabhupāda: So why don't you quote from our śāstra that "He is not father." Pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt. Find out this verse.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm. So why not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: These two girls, they are very fine. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One of the big points of criticism is that we do not encourage our members to visit and spend time with their parents. In that way they say we are destroying the family.

Prabhupāda: Actually that we want to do.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, we wouldn't mind our members seeing the parents, but the parents are rākṣasas. How can we see them? They are so abominable. They are not actually father and mother, as you described.

Hari-śauri: Not at all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A number of temples have been trying to hold parents' meetings. So in New York... In Los Angeles they held one. That was fairly successful for two reasons. One, when they did it, Mukunda was the chief man there. Mukunda's in Los Angeles now. So he didn't speak any philosophy. He just showed off all of the buildings. And another point was that most of the devotees in Los Angeles are married, and they have children, and they have proper apartments. So the meeting was fairly successful. Now, in New York, Rūpānuga did the speaking and he spoke the philosophy, very strong and straightforward, for one hour. The parents became outraged. In fact, they interrupted him and would not let him finish his lecture. And secondly, in New York, most of the devotees are brahmacārīs, so there's no families. We don't have..., no wife, no children. It means the parents have no grandchildren. They don't like that. So the parents are saying that "My boy came here on a Sunday feast, and the next day he called me from Chicago. He was on a bus, traveling on one of your buses, and I have not seen him since, the last year and a half." In this way they were very angry. Very angry. The only way we calmed them down is that we gave them prasādam in the restaurant and then took them into the theater for a performance. Then they were placated. Otherwise they were very angry. They want us to have the children go to their homes with them.

Hari-śauri: And then they'll influence them away. Actually we have a good reason for not letting them see their parents now, because when the parents call them on the phone and say, "I want to see you for five minutes," it's so they can kidnap them and deprogram them. That's how the kidnap them. The parents call and they say "Oh..." They make some arrangement to meet their child, and it's a trick. They have these gangsters waiting. I can see now my parents weren't so bad after all.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Hm!

Hari-śauri: I was thinking I was very unfortunate to take a birth in a family of nondevotees, but they're not so bad compared to these others.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā's mother is here.

Prabhupāda: Oh. What does she say?

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hari-śauri: They divorced. The lady that came here was his real mother.

Prabhupāda: Real mother.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone is from divorced family. Jayapatākā's mother, my parents, Brahmānanda's parents. Brahmānanda's mother called him. We think that they were trying to deprogram Brahmānanda, because the second day that Brahmānanda arrived in New York, suddenly his mother called. How could she have gotten news that he was coming to New York? We never told her. But as soon as he arrived in New York she called him. So we ascertained they are listening to all of our telephone conversations. And they know. They are writing. The deprogrammers are writing to all of the devotees' parents in the movement, and they are going and talking to the parents, saying, "Do you know what your son..." or "Do you know what your daughter is doing? Are you aware that your daughter has lost all of her free choice? That they're being brainwashed now by this cult? That they are giving her... They have spoiled her whole life?" In this way they try to pollute the minds of the parents who are innocent.

Hari-śauri: They're doing that everywhere, too. In Australia they're doing the same thing there, too.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they know all of the devotees' parents' names. Because the few devotees who do become deprogrammed, they give them all the names they know. And they have some informers within our temple also. All of our parents have told us that the deprogrammers contacted them.

Prabhupāda: They're organized.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, they're highly organized. They have regular newsletters.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Yes, one spoon more. Take. (break) Very strong opposition. (chuckling) This combination in your country is costly.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That law, but is what can I say?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, no, I mean he wasn't asking for any statement. I was just giving it as information.

Prabhupāda: That they have already taken. (converses with man in Bengali) (break) When there is fight, fight is fight. They'll take their tactics; we shall take our tactics.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You can see which groups are alarmed—the parents, the rabbis, and the priests.

Prabhupāda: They should be alarmed. If Hare Kṛṣṇa movement goes on, then their culture will be finished.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There was one newsletter they had where they published, "Now our main enemies..." And they listed who the enemies are. They listed Rāmeśvara's name, Ādi-keśava's name, Kīrtanānanda's name. "These are dangerous enemies," they said.

Prabhupāda: Enemy must be always dangerous. And Cāṇakya Paṇḍita said that "Don't take enemy leniently. Always think of him as dangerous." If you want to deal with enemy, you should always take him as very dangerous. Where is that sweet water? Sweet, that miśri?

Hari-śauri: You want sweet water?

Prabhupāda: Where is that miśri? No, we have to fight. Devise means, ways, how to fight. That's all. But try to prove that they have no brain. Actually that is the fact. Nobody has brain, especially in this age. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ (BG 7.15). Mūḍha means one who has no brain. Mūḍha, this word, applies to the ass, because ass has no brain. He works so hard for little grass, which is available everywhere. But still, he thinks that "This washerman is giving me grass." Therefore mūḍha. He'll stand at the door of the washerman whole day, eating little grass, which he can get anywhere. So that is mūḍha. Mūḍhaḥ nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. Bas. And anyone who is a mūḍha, he does not know Kṛṣṇa. So so long we do not know Kṛṣṇa, we shall remain mūḍha-ass. That's the fact.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If he knows about, anything about Caitanya, why should he say like that? Bogus temple. By attempting to establish a temple like that, he has diminished his value. And therefore it is doubtful whether he actually obtained this. Now, our Bon Mahārāja also writes "Doctor."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Purchased title. These deprogrammers are doing very active campaign work by getting entry into the schools, the public schools, to speak to the children in the age groups of twelve, between twelve and fifteen, junior high school, high school age. And they're making presentations to them about these different groups like ours, to beware of our groups. To beware of our groups. In other words, it's actually very bad because these children are innocent, and from a very young age now they're being told, "Watch out for the Hare Kṛṣṇas. They will brainwash you." Of course, that makes us even more appealing.

Prabhupāda: That is our advertisement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Because when a young man, when a child is told by his... When a child is told by his parents, "Don't do something..."

Prabhupāda: They'll do it.

Ādi-keśava: Plus, as the teachers begin to see all the big scholars are supporting us, then the teachers will not react so favorably to these deprogrammers.

Indian man (3): Like, like that (Bengali).

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Where is Satsvarūpa? You can give him that, yes, that monama.(?) (end)

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Indians not there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they're starting, because the building that we're putting up is a guesthouse. It is very nice facility for Indians to stay there. And during the summer, especially, what they're thinking to do is for two weeks they'll have a program for the Indians to send their children there for school and activities. And the two weeks will end on Janmāṣṭamī. So all the parents of the Indian children can come and spend the weekend at the farm at this guesthouse. Gradually it can develop. Very big population of Indians in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and New York, and they're all within easy reach of this farm, three hours, two hours by car.

Prabhupāda: They have no temple, the Indians?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually they are looking to our society to provide them some spiritual place of worship. They're actually looking to us as priests.

Prabhupāda: American brāhmaṇas. Go-brāhmaṇa. American milk, American brāhmaṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja has organized the life membership program to send the Indian members milk sweets in the mail every week from the farm. Burfi, sandeśa.

Prabhupāda: They also like. And in America, the Indians are there, they are all educated. They're not low-class men.

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, you also help. He's also very young.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's only twenty-two. He's been consulting with me whenever we...

Prabhupāda: He is nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He comes from a good family. His father, grandfather's side, is Barclay from Barclay's bank. He's the grandson, grandnephew of Barclay. Good family. Parents are very well known.

Prabhupāda: Rich family.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Rich. Wealthier than Dhṛṣṭadyumna's parents.

Prabhupāda: He's also good gentleman.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You met...

Prabhupāda: Hm. He came to see me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ādi-keśava's mother is very big in the field of education. Public speaker and intelligent. His father owns a number of industries.

Prabhupāda: You can bring case against them. Just like fight in same position, that brainwashing. Not brainwashing. Whatever they have said.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: And for the parents of these...

Prabhupāda: They... He's also another rascal. Dog's father, dog.

Ādi-keśava: We are washing their brains because they have not washed the brains of their children.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Actually it is brainwashing, educating. (break) "You take this. This is our aim. Remain brahmacārī, no bother. Is that bad? You will have your sex unrestricted and make your wife pregnant and kill him and eat him. You'll be implicated with so many sinful activities, and if I say, if you are so much afraid, 'Don't have sex,' what is the wrong there? And you are thinking, 'Oh? No sex? It is so brainwashing, mind-controlling.' But what is... You want that in a sinful way. We want in a pious way."

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can get this light on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Washington, March 18th. The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement was called a 'bona fide religion' yesterday by the New York high-court justice who threw out two charges against the officials of the movement of 'illegal imprisonment' and 'attempted extortion.' A charge had been preferred by an angry parent that his son, as well as another disciple, had been held by the movement illegally and that they had been brainwashed. 'The entire and basic issue before the court,' said the Justice in dismissing the charges, 'is whether or not the two alleged victims in this case and the defendants will be allowed to practice the religion of their choice, and this must be answered with a resounding affirmative.' Said Mr. Justice John J. Lee, 'The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is a bona fide religion with roots in India that go back thousands of years. It behooved Merrilee Kreshower and Edward Shapiro to follow the tenets of that faith, and their inalienable right to do so will not be trampled upon.' " This is all quote. " 'The separation of Church and State must be maintained. We are and must remain a nation of laws, not of men. The presentment and indictment by the Grand Jury was in direct and blatant violation of the defendants' Constitutional rights.' The Justice said that it appeared to the court that 'The people rest their case on an erroneous minor premise to arrive at a fallacious conclusion. The record is devoid of one specific allegation of a misrepresentation or any act of deception on the part of any defendant.' The Justice said, 'The freedom of religion is not to be abridged because it is unconventional in its beliefs and practices or because it is approved or disapproved by the mainstream of society or more conventional religions. Without this proliferation and freedom to follow the dictates of one's own conscience in this search for the approach to God, the freedom of religion will be a meaningless right as provided for in the Constitution. Any attempt, be it circuitous, direct, well-intentioned or not, presents a clear and present danger to this most fundamental basis and eternally needed right of our citizens-freedom of religion.' "

Prabhupāda: Hm. That is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement has been under pressure from various groups, and this judgment is expected to stop some of the harassment to which it has been subjected in recent months."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Very good.

Prabhupāda: So you purchase some copies.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Rāmeśvara: Now, sometimes in our mantra page in the beginning of the magazine we have photographs of people who are not living in our temples but who have been induced to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa—sometimes parents of devotees...

Prabhupāda: So these things can be discussed. Of course, I could not read. Those who have pointed out the defects, so let them come and then discuss.

Rāmeśvara: No, if there's some defect, it must be corrected.

Prabhupāda: So... No...

Rāmeśvara: But if it can be done without...

Prabhupāda: Whatever is there... They have pointed out some defect, so in the presence of them you discuss. Then I shall give my decision.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So they are husband and wife still or not?

Rādhā-vallabha: I just heard from some women, so I can't trust it.

Prabhupāda: Hm. But she was pregnant?

Rādhā-vallabha: I don't know. She was living with her parents in Colorado, I think. He is from there also.

Prabhupāda: He was polluted by the..., that Puruṣottama.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. That Mr. Dalmia's guru.

Prabhupāda: No, no, not that Puruṣottama. Another, my... He says my Godbrother.

Rādhā-vallabha: The one that was making corrections in your books. Rascal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He has very intimately mixed. I think that he arranged for delivering books, this Nitāi.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He had grants, money coming from the United States to support his research. So he was on opposite side, but we had a very interesting discussion. And he told me later on that he was a keen follower of Śaṅkarācārya. I said, "Why?" because I was speaking, "There are innumerable lives." I was giving examples that we are not as one, but there are innumerable forms of life depending on the level of consciousness, giving examples. scientific examples. So he answered that traditionally his forefathers, his parents, his grandfathers, became followers of Śaṅkarācārya, so he became some sort of addicted to it, but he said he's not one hundred percent follower of Śaṅkarācārya.

Prabhupāda: Individual. Where there is question of mixing? Śaṅkarācārya's mistake is that the spirit is a mixture, and in māyā state, they're divided. Is it not? So when the division is finished, then it is spirit. But Kṛṣṇa does not say that. He says in the past we are individual, at present we are individual, and in future we shall continue to be individual.

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Satsvarūpa: Then we made resolutions concerning the public relations. One is that each temple president will instruct the devotees that as each devotee approaches people in any way he is acting as a public relations representative for Śrīla Prabhupāda. At least one day a week there must be chanting and food distribution in public performed by each temple. Balavanta, who is the minister of public relations in the United States, will be the editor of a monthly newsletter to ISKCON reporting on public relations programs to be executed, including do's and do not's. Every temple will start a program of sending a monthly Back to Godhead and a letter from a devotee to his parents if his parents are at least...

Prabhupāda: This is very good.

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Jayapatākā: Śrīla Prabhupāda? My mother left this morning, and she wrote a letter to you. I'd like you... If I could read it... "Śrīla Prabhupāda: I am sorry to hear of your illness. Jayapatākā tells me swift changes in temperature cause many illnesses in Māyāpur. A place so beautiful must have its thorns. May your recovery be soon. It was auspicious for me to have met you. Not having seen my son for so long, finding him in the midst of God's blessings at ISKCON with a spiritual master of such great repute was humbling in its magnitude. Perhaps in some small measure I can help parents understand what their children are into and weaken their weapons. This visit will be shared with others. It was propitiously enjoyable. As far as fund-raising, there is a seminar on new methods I am trying to get to, but Kṛṣṇa seems to be pulling me back. Perhaps tomorrow I will be able to go to Calcutta and Delhi. I will be corresponding regularly with Jayapatākā. In a few months I plan to move to California. You have taken good care of my son. You have brainwashed the cobwebs of materialism (laughter) and elevated his soul. Your goodness radiates to all who meet you. May God bless your body with good health. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jayapatākā's Ma."

Devotees: Haribol!

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees:Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Pañcadraviḍa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I talked to... What's his name? Pañca-ratna. And he told me that they ordered everything to prepare khicuṛi, vegetable, sweet rice and tomato chutney for tomorrow.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: ...for myself? That boy who was with me from Australia, I've sent him back this morning. He's gone back this morning. There is actually two or three major things going on there, so I have to try to get back as soon as possible. There is a purchase of the farm, eight hundred acre farm, which comes up in about seven or eight days, and then we have to consider whether to buy that building in Sydney. You've seen that picture already. And also there's a big court case coming up in Melbourne. The deprogramming thing is going on there also. But this time the court case is being pressed by... It's a civil case. The police wouldn't take it up. So the girl who was kidnapped, we are pressing charges, but through her against the parents. So this is going to be a big case also. So that's coming up in the end of April. So I have to see what the presentation is like and get more information from Ādi-keśava and make sure that we will press it very strongly, the whole issue. Someone just sent a newspaper clipping about the whole thing. I expect to be going to Delhi in about two days, to try to speed up the process of getting a re-entry permit. Then once I do that, I can go on. (long pause) (break)

Girirāja: This evening, the chief guest is going to arrive at about a quarter to seven.

Prabhupāda: Who is the chief guest?

Girirāja: His name is Dr. Dattrey.

Karttikeya Mahadevia: He's an (indistinct).

Girirāja: Yeah. He is supposed to be one of the leading doctors in India. Especially of heart, cardiology. So I also thought this would be a good night for Svarūpa Dāmodara Prabhu to make his presentation, so that this leading doctor can also attend that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Girirāja: And the television people are also supposed to come tonight, and show you and them the drama.

Prabhupāda: When you have to go?

Akṣayānanda: The boys can leave at 6:15.

Karttikeya Mahadevia: We have enough time one hour. And K. K. Dattrey and I are working together in one association for the psychic surgery. He is the president, I am the vice-president, so I know him very well, personally.

Prabhupāda: Cardiologist.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about to other people around India who we don't have their names? We could have Ādi-keśava do that. He should actually do that.

Girirāja: Yeah. Because Prabhupāda said that it should be sent to all the parents of devotees. We could send one original to Rāmeśvara...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, Ādi-keśava Mahārāja has at least a couple hundred letters from people in groups in India, from Vṛndāvana, all over the country. I think I could send him a copy of this article and he could send a thank—you letter along with this article to each of them, thanking them for their help. They appreciate it, coming from America, that the president of the New York center himself wrote them.

Gargamuni: I just returned from Calcutta, and they are expecting you to arrive tomorrow morning by plane.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Gargamuni: In Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gargamuni: Because they said that when you left Calcutta that you would come back within two weeks, on April 4th, to Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Well, because I was going to Manipur.

Gargamuni: So I told them that as far as I know there was no plan of Your Divine Grace...

Prabhupāda: No, because Manipur has not supplied. Otherwise, it was program that I shall come back, and after I shall go to Manipur.

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Good children means not these rogues and thieves, but one who can understand God. That is good children.

Mr. Koshi: It is the parents' responsibility.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. These are stated. It is not secret matter. When the father goes to beget child, he has to perform ritualistic ceremonies in the presence of relative, brāhmaṇas. They will understand that "He is going now to beget a child." It is not a secret thing. It is garbhādhāna. And if in a brāhmaṇa family the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra is not observed, then immediately he becomes a śūdra.

Mr. Koshi: What is not a secret thing?

Prabhupāda: Secret... Just like when we go and have sex with wife secretly. It is not secret.

Mr. Koshi: There is a ceremony.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is ceremony.

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There is no information.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. None at all. Everybody thinks that he must have drowned himself in one of the rivers here in India, because the day that he disappeared he asked you a question, out of..., just without any reason he asked you to explain the disappearance of Junior Haridāsa. That was on the roof at Māyāpur. Thereafter, that morning, he was not seen again. And neither, I think... He's not in the West... In America no one has seen him. His parents have searched for him. They cannot find him.

Prabhupāda: Even if he has committed suicide, he'll be saved.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If he did that, he'll be...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. He lamented. He was very grave(?). Yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate. He'll get another good opportunity to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness-until finally he reaches to Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. And that seems to be more in fitting with his character, very, very... I don't think he left. I don't think he left and went back to the material world. It doesn't seem to fit his...

Prabhupāda: All right. (end)

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no, why not earlier?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I didn't want to bring them earlier because...

Prabhupāda: All right. That is all right.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...I thought they needed some time to adjust. And these children, they all have graduates. They're all B.A.'s, and their parents approached me to take care of them at some time. Their members from their families were there, about four brothers. So they say they can spare one from their family. So I'm going to make an attempt when I come back and go all the villages in Manipur—it is small place, so I can go with them—and I can take one, one from each family, and...

Prabhupāda: Train him...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: ...to become leader there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This was your program, to ask each family to give one of their sons.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And Manipur is especially... Once I go to the family, and the family and the son, they agree, then I have, we have some authority on them to say that the boy is happening to properly..., and it is better that way, to have the agreement from the parents also, so that where they are fully engaged for lifelong, not just coming for some time and...

Prabhupāda: No. No.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...go away. I don't want to produce like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the opposite of the deprogramming problem in America. In America we have to take them forcibly from their...

Prabhupāda: Not forcibly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, they are coming voluntarily, but, I mean, the parents are resisting. But here the parents are agreeing.

Room Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Seems like everyone is very affectionate to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is Kṛṣṇa's grace. He picked up on the street like this.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That man?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ne, adopted son, that is a practice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In America also, they have the foster home. The children are there, and parents may go and adopt some child.

Prabhupāda: That is everywhere. So that village gentleman, that place I liked.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Would you have agreed to stay with him?

Prabhupāda: I would have been glad. Very nice foodstuff, very nice, clean, and he has got his fresh vegetables, like that.

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

Prabhupāda: ...Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa gave him within—bullet. Yes. "Your nonviolence is within. You take it within. Take this bullet." Such wrong theory. These are wrong theories. "You want to establish nonviolence, and the violence is within. Take it." So don't theorize. Yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ, na siddhiṁ sa avāpnoti (BG 16.23). This is Gītā's word. If you do not follow the śāstra—you manufacture ideas—you'll never get success, na siddhiṁ sa avāpnoti na sukham, no happiness, and what to speak of parāṁ gatim? (Hindi) Tasmāt śāstra-vidhānoktaṁ kāryākārya... What is that verse? Real guidance, śāstra, and Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is very easy. But we have given up all these things. (Hindi) So you have to give up this. Otherwise there is no hope. (break) And to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, it is not at all difficult. Very simple thing. Otherwise how they have become? Ten years before, they did not know who is Kṛṣṇa. So how they have become Kṛṣṇa conscious? And our position is that even a person like Gandhi, he could not become Kṛṣṇa conscious in hundred years. Because the wrong way. And they have become within ten years fully Kṛṣṇa conscious. Now ask him that "Go back to your Christian." Will they go? They have been kidnapped. They have been forced. In so many ways they have been harassed. No. In America it was going on. Their fathers... From parents' side they have been kidnapped, detoured by force that "You eat it, the māṁsa. You eat." What is that girl who was kidnapped and she came to temple and married?

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

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I mean, just this is a Vaiṣṇava institute, so when our students apply abroad for an entry visa, they'll get it right away, and they can get a student visa for four, five years. I don't think the gurukula kids come from abroad and then train them six, you know...

Prabhupāda: No, no, the parents are prepared to pick up the expense. That's all. Government curriculum is useless. They'll enforce kids to take eggs, three eggs...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's right.

Prabhupāda: ...in daytime, and four pounds flesh. Otherwise there will be vitamin, less vitamin. Or "Give them vitamins pills, this..." These... "Don't go to Yamunā. It is polluted."

Yaśodānandana: Even want to follow their textbook, follow their mundane textbook.

Prabhupāda: Keep this institution pure, not that we have to make it impure. Fighting, we want fighting. If we don't get, it will remain vacant, but we don't want to introduce impure. That should be a principle.

Yaśodānandana: Can all the children of the parents in our society send their children here?

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.

Gurukula Inspection -- June 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So that I am seeing, how to... That was the problem. They said, "What will be the benefit, satyavādī?" Satya śamo damo titikṣa, jñāna... (Hindi) So culture is lost. That is the difficulty.

Indian man (4): The other day two parents have come, and they have said, "We will give our two boys and let them be first class, for the school here."

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) That is... (Hindi) This is the defect of modern civilization. And Kṛṣṇa wants to impress in the beginning, na jāyate na mriyate vā. (Hindi) Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). (Hindi) This darkness is going on. People are kept in darkness in the name of so-called university education. This is... (Hindi) It will be successful. It may take time. That's all.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) ...this manager, that manager. But who to manage? Bring that first. (Hindi) In Bengali there is a superstition that "Don't keep your head towards the northern side." So the man said, "I have no head. Where is the question of keeping northern side or southern side?" So you are contemplating all management. First of all bring whom to manage. Simply office manager, this, that and... Bambhārambhe laghu-kriyā. (Hindi) All right.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now you are introducing again to the world. There is good hope. Young girls in our society, they should be promised to some boy just in the same way, by their parents.

Prabhupāda: And if required, one man can take care of more than one wife because woman population is greater.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. And some boys want to remain brahmacārī. So naturally there's fewer men for women.

Prabhupāda: And those who are able, you can keep more than one wife. Just see Kṛṣṇa-sixteen thousand wives. God. That is God. Come on, if there is anyone to compete. Sixteen thousand palaces, sixteen thousands wives, each wife, ten sons. That is God.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No one is equal to or greater than Him.

Prabhupāda: All queens are happy. Whatever she desires from husband... Satyabhāmā... And Kṛṣṇa went to the heaven and brought the pārijāta flower to satisfy. This is husband. Wife has asked for something: "All right."

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. It's being investigated by a Congressional subcommittee in America now, Transcendental Meditation. But there's no individual parents getting angry because it doesn't change anything.

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It doesn't make you change any different. Actually no one even recognizes any difference after following it. They're fools to begin with, and they come out fools at the end. It says here, it quotes Dr. Stillson Judah. Unfortunately it doesn't quote Dr. Stillson Judah right about us. It seems that Stillson Judah has also written a book about Moon. So it's quoting, "Stillson Judah of the Graduate Theological Union shows a small core of membership, three thousand in the case of the Moonies." It says here that "But through persistent evangelic efforts these groups are winning new converts and attain fiscal stability."

Prabhupāda: I think that Maharishi is therefore in Hrishikesh. He's afraid of being arrested or something like that.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. They were all rich men's sons. Where is happiness? They became hippie.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We gave up all of that because we weren't happy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone wants to be happy. Who does not want to be happy? But he does not know how to become happy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I could see my parents. They had so much money, but they weren't happy.

Prabhupāda: Nobody's happy, I have seen. Therefore they drink. Whenever there is unhappiness, they cannot adjust it—"Let me drink." This is Western happiness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Or sex life.

Prabhupāda: That's all. They have no other information. So just try. You are comfortably situated. There is no economic shortage. Now you become devotee. Then you'll be happy. Otherwise it is not possible. Don't think by getting large sum money one becomes happy. That is not the fact. That is mistake.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We've all given our..., that position up. We were all coming from money, but now we don't have any personal money, but we're millions of times happier.

Śatadhanya: And we don't lack any material benefit. We have spiritual and material.

Prabhupāda: Who can live in such house? Royal. Royal palace. We have 102 royal palaces. More than that. So even from economic point of view nobody is happier than us. Nobody is happier.

Room Conversation about Mayapura Attack Talk with Vrindavan De -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Restrict, that instead of myself, he has to restrict: "Do this way."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Including go to the court. This boy writes further. He says, "They claimed I was brainwashed by Śrīla Prabhupāda and the devotees, and they were here to get me to think for myself again. They kept me up for ten hours at a time for so-called deprogramming, just blaspheming Śrīla Prabhupāda and Kṛṣṇa and telling lie after lie. Finally they let me go to sleep, and in the morning it was time for more blaspheming and lies. But by Kṛṣṇa's mercy I was able to escape out the front door of the house," he says, "which was unguarded. I ran down my block barefoot and was able to get to my friend's house. I told him the story. He gave me enough money to get to a nearby temple. There I served Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and had the association of my Godbrothers, who are most dear to me. There I spent the happiest time of my life as a devotee with the association of the Brajabāsīs. Being a devotee of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, there's nothing like it-singing, dancing, taking prasādam, being happy and free from anxiety all the time. It is just a blissful life. All Kṛṣṇa wants is for us to be happy with Him. I called my parents and told them that I was doing fine and that I had even gained seven pounds in weight. They had the police looking for me all over the place in only a minute, and they finally showed up. Mahārāja felt it was best that I go back and clear things up with my parents and with their consent come back. But they refused to let me go, and instead put me through a one-month deprogramming session. This time I was unable to escape. But now Kṛṣṇa has pulled me through, even though I'm forced to live with my parents. They are nice people, but they just don't understand about transcendental life. But they will come around sooner or later. I cannot keep any Vedic literature at home, so a friend lets me keep it at his house, and I read it during my school lunchtime. I am not able to keep japa beads to chant on, so I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa on rosary beads. I'm sixteen years old now and going to school, where I am taught little of any value. It is sometimes difficult to remain Kṛṣṇa conscious out in the material world, but I pray to Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda to help me become strong and desire to serve Kṛṣṇa more and more every day. I will be able to join the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement in person in two years, which isn't very long considering that I have waited to serve Kṛṣṇa for millions of lifetimes. If you have the opportunity to serve Kṛṣṇa, don't waste it, because you may wind up in my shoes in your next life. Hare Kṛṣṇa." This is...

Prabhupāda: If one man is turned by this, the movement is successful. So there is good prospect, good hope. And you all combine together, try. Push this movement more and more.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Jaya Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma!

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then another letter came from... This is becoming more and more prevalent. It's called the "Parents' Newsletter."

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The International Society for Krishna Consciousness Parents' Newsletter-ISKCON New York." Put out by Śravaṇānanda's mother. "Ratha-yātrā '77 is Coming." It tells all the parents that they should come to Ratha-yātrā. Then there's an article, "The Roots of the American Krishna Movement."

Prabhupāda: Who has written?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: By a brahmacārī named Tattvavit dāsa brahmacārī. Because you said just like they have an American Christian movement, now we should be known as the American Krishnas. So he wrote, "The American Krishna Movement." Then the public likes it: "Oh, it's American."

Prabhupāda: American (indistinct) is nice.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja is here also, and his brother is here, Śrīla Prabhupāda. His brother's name is Bill. I think you remember meeting Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja's parents in New York.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So Dhṛṣṭadyumna is, I think, the elder. His brother is here.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: My brother is an architect, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and he's helping us to design the community plan for the small village and the temple. He's working very hard to help set up an ideal Vedic community.

Prabhupāda: Keep always engaged yourself in Kṛṣṇa activity. That is wanted. Jaya. (break) ...yad yad ācarati... (BG 3.21). You can give me two teaspoon glucose.

Brahmānanda: Two teaspoons?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Glucose.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was just... Everything you say is important to us, so I was just explaining to Jayādvaita to make sure that if you speak about these... (microphone moving) What would you like? Turning over? Okay.

Prabhupāda: Turn me over occasionally this way and that way, even I do not say.

Room Conversation -- October 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They were planning, in my... I talked with Girirāja about this. They were thinking "Here is an old sannyāsī, Prabhupāda. He has many foreign disciples, he has money. Let us get the money in fixed deposit. Then if he should pass away, then somehow by trick the money will be kept here and we'll never let them take it out." That was their plan. Therefore whenever Prabhupāda suggested that Gurukṛpā would sign, co-sign, "No, no," they would never allow. Their plan is that Prabhupāda would pass away, and all the foreigners would be there, and they'd never let them take it. When I showed them this power of attorney, they had a great shock. They were shocked how this had happened to them. I think this was their plan. Very deceiving type of people. Because they are here in Vṛndāvana. All their money is from fixed deposits from āśramas. So they know how to do this business of keeping the money. Now everything is clear. The money is there in Delhi. The Delhi office is not like that. They're businesslike. And we can keep dealing them, but on regular accounts. None of these fixed deposits. Not now. They "Now you must gain their confidence again." We told them, "We have nothing against you. But you deal properly, then again we'll deposit. But deal properly in a businesslike way." We have nothing against them. Punjab Bank is a good bank. Anyway, it's settled now, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's finished. I wanted you to know that it's been successfully completed due to Girirāja's good efforts. Girirāja went to Bombay. His parents went with him.

Prabhupāda: You said this Trivedi is worse than him?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Devotee: Prabhupāda, I've seen his treatment. He's the...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says that he is very rough, this Trivedi. He'll be taken away. This is just temporary. Immediately they got rid of Gupta because they knew that we were very much dissatisfied. And Trivedi is just a temporary replacement for Gupta. As soon as the man is sent from Delhi, then this Trivedi will be taken away.

Prabhupāda: So they're going to send a ma...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Oh, yes. They said that they'd be sending him this coming week. I mean they're quite serious about this. The fact that they have transferred Gupta within twenty-four hours shows that they're quite serious in wanting to please us. The man said it: "We want to please you."

Prabhupāda: Huh? Dugal. What about him?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's a rogue.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Who has come with him?

Śatadhanya: This is Adri-dhāraṇa dāsa, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I told you about him, that he's collecting very big in Calcutta, making many members. So he has come with the kavirāja personally.

Prabhupāda: He belongs to which province?

Adri-dhāraṇa: I was born in Bombay, but my parents are from Sindh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But he's born in Bombay.

Bhakti-caru: And he joined in Florida, yes? (Hindi—kavirāja) About six months back we had a report.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Urine specimen report?

Bhakti-caru: Yes. This is the... He's asking about that time, four or five months ago.

Bhakti-caru: This one is from... Yes, this is very recent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's better.

Kavirāja (1): (Hindi)

Bhakti-caru: Pressure is good. When Dr. Ghosh came, that other Dr. Ghosh came... (Hindi) ...pressure, 180 and 80. (Hindi) He's saying that in this condition, Prabhupāda can't take makara-dhvaja. That any medicine that contains mercury and arsenic is poison to him.

Bhavānanda: That's what Prabhupāda said.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is a fact. He found that to be true.

Kavirāja (1): (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi—long conversation with kavirāja)

Bhakti-caru: (Hindi) (end)

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhavānanda: Oh, yes. We're training up those who have children... They're trained in the varṇāśrama system. Some of the children in the school have a scholastic bent of mind, so they're educated in Sanskrit and higher studies. Some of them have a vaiśya bent of mind, and they work in the gośāla helping to develop..., milk the cows. Some are... Their parents are working in the handloom. They also have that desire, so they're trained to be handloomers. In this way we will be able to develop a city of fifty thousand devotees.

Śrī Bajaj: Let us not overstrain him and whatever if... He'll feel tired.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Śrī Nārāyaṇa: (Hindi)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We have our main festival in Māyāpur at the end of March, March 24th.

Śrī Nārāyaṇa: March 24th?

Bhavānanda: This year? Dola-yātrā. Gaura-pūrṇimā.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Our biggest festival. All the devotees from all over the world...

Prabhupāda: Recently there was a scientific meeting here. Where is that Statesman report?

Śrī Nārāyaṇa: The report from, about Māyāpur? Some literature?

Prabhupāda: No, here. We... Just describe.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Courage of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother."

Prabhupāda: This is the word of a great poet.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Girirāja's parents took him there, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and they made another offer to him.

Prabhupāda: What is that? (Tamāla Kṛṣṇa laughs)

Girirāja: Well, no, they... My father has increased the fortune, so he was trying to tempt me again, but I wasn't interested. But I think in the end he may give in to Kṛṣṇa, because we were in... We were helping Prabhaviṣṇu by giving him dollars, and he would give us rupees. So we were in a shop, and my mother was making a check, which she was giving to me to give to Prabhaviṣṇu. So the owner of the shop thought that the check was for him, and he started making some objections. So my father said, "No. In our system the husband gives to the wife, and the wife gives to the son, and the son gives to Kṛṣṇa." (laughter) So everyone laughed.

Prabhupāda: Just try to manage.

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Citsukhānanda: Yes, very much.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: She's also connected with that Parents for Kṛṣṇa? There's one parent's group called Parents for Kṛṣṇa?

Citsukhānanda: Parents for Kṛṣṇa, yes. She assists in that Parents for Kṛṣṇa group.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is your magic touch, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Anyone who contacts you becomes a devotee. You're just like the associates of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Whoever saw them...

Prabhupāda: She's already a good lady. Otherwise how she can have such nice son? (laughter)

Citsukhānanda: I asked her if she had met you, Prabhupāda. I asked Jayapatākā's mother if she had met you, and she said, "Yes..."

Prabhupāda: A fortunate lady. All your mothers, they are all fortu...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I remember some parents used to come, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Los Angeles while you were sitting in the garden in the evening. Once in a while, some parents would come and appreciate you so much that you've trained their sons and daughters to become a human being.

Prabhupāda: Tenants?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The parents used to come in Los Angeles in the evening while you were sitting in the garden.

Prabhupāda: Which garden?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Page Title:Parents (Conversations 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:10 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=67, Let=0
No. of Quotes:67