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Peacock (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"peacock" |"peacock's" |"peacocks"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: Peacock or Peacocks or peacock's not "peacock feather*" not "plumes of the peacock" not "peacock plumes"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Immediately there is "dung, dung, dung, dung," all temples. Immediately. And people are running. Oh, they will gather all to the Deity, temple. Hundreds of people will go automatically. The same man who was living at home, a very degraded condition, as soon as he goes to Vṛndāvana he becomes habituated to all these things automatically. Automatically. Yes. The society, association, is very important.

Yamunā: Those beautiful birds, the peacock birds also at this time, they are flying in trees and waking up now and make that sound. Oh, Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: So the society is very important thing. Any, anything, society... The businessmen, they have got their association, society, to improve. Therefore the standard of this International Society should be kept very carefully. Then who will come in touch with this society will be improved automatically by association. All right. Even in the bird society there are swans and there are crows, by nature, and the crows will never go to the swans, and the swans will never come to the crows. "Birds of the same feather flock together." Yes. Therefore society required. Unless you come to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness society, how you can develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness? The same principle. Satāṁ prasaṅgān... Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathaḥ (SB 3.25.25). Vīrya-saṁvidaḥ. It becomes very palatable, satāṁ prasaṅgāt, in the association of devotees, not otherwise. (end)

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Yamunā: Oh, that's chicken? Oh.

Prabhupāda: No, what is...

Yamunā: Peacock?

Prabhupāda: Peacock, yes. Yak, yak, like that. That sound he makes.

Guru dāsa: And kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guru dāsa: We can hear kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: Kīrtana and bell in the temple, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong. This sound we will hear early in... (sound of rooster crowing in background)

Prabhupāda: In Hawaii, this disturbance is there. Always, ca-caw, caw. (laughter)

Devotee: There's not so much at Advaita Bhavan.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee: There's not chickens at Advaita Bhavan.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 14, 1974, Los Angeles:

Bahulāśva: Pigeon.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, pigeon. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Peacock. Peacock also.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They swallow the...

Prabhupāda: Peacock also, they can digest.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They can swallow the very hard peas.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And they can digest very easily.

Prabhupāda: (loud waves) ...I have seen.

Bali Mardana: According to Vedic culture, is seaweed edible?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Bali Mardana: Seaweed? Is that edible?

Prabhupāda: I don't find. Why they should eat seaweed?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Śiva-jvara. Oh, he's a wonderful child. He is English. He's so busy. He wants to do everything. Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: He was playing karatālas very nicely.

Prabhupāda: Not only that, he's a born devotee. He'll take the ārati lamp and do like this and try to open the door. Anything you... Whatever he has seen others are doing, he'll do.

Paramahaṁsa: He was using the cāmara and the peacock fan.

Prabhupāda: And he chants also. He picks up the words.

Haṁsadūta: He's one of the happiest children I've ever seen.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: He's one of the happiest, jolliest looking children I've ever seen.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: I think he's extraordinary.

Jayatīrtha: New Dvārakā is leading the society in child production.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Oh, there are Philippines here?

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes, there are many.

Bali-mardana: They imported them to work in the plantations.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (break)

Śrutakīrti: That was the sound of peacocks.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Śrutakīrti: Just over here somewhere.

Devotee: That's a zoo over there.

Bali-mardana: There is a zoo. They have many peacocks who roam around. (break)

Prabhupāda: (break) ...on the pathway there was sometimes tree. They do not cut it. (break) ...very rare there. It is dried firmly? It is dried up?

Devotee: Not all of them. Little bit dried and like that. So sometimes one of those, Kanva and other devotees, have been suggesting to put fruit trees instead of this kind of trees. Can we cut them?

Prabhupāda: No.

Devotee: No, we should not. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...it is absolutely necessary. (break) ...develop.

Morning Walks -- June 18-19, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...khalu sarvataḥ syāt. Viṣaya means sense enjoyment. Now, that boy and the girl, they're taking dogs. The dog is also male and female, and the man is male and female. So viṣaya means sense enjoyment. The sex enjoyment is both; the dogs and the man, they will have. But the man can get Kṛṣṇa; the dog cannot get Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference. Viṣaya, that sex enjoyment, is available both for the dogs and the man. But the man can achieve Kṛṣṇa; the dog cannot. That is special. Viṣaya khalu sarvataḥ syāt. (break) ...of eating, sleeping, mating. That is available in every life. (break) ...another passage is there in Prema-vivarta, :janame janame sabe pitā mātā pāya: "In every life, one can get father and mother." Kṛṣṇa guru nahi mile bhajahun re bhāi(?): "But Kṛṣṇa and guru cannot be had in every life." That is only in human life. Otherwise, as soon as there is birth, there is father and mother. Either you become human being or tiger or snake or bird, the father mother is there. But the spiritual father and Kṛṣṇa, that can be obtained in human life, not in every life.

janame janame sabe pitā mātā pāya
kṛṣṇa guru nahi mile bhajahun re bhāi.(?)

So we should take full advantage of the human life. That is civilization. And in sense gratification it is not civilization; it is animal life. (break) ...for sense gratification. This is the modern civilization. (break) ...nice place is made for sense gratification. And as soon as you perform kīrtana, the police will harass you. This is civilization. (break) ...nice place, there should be so many temples. People will come early in the morning, take bath in the sea, go to the temple, have some spiritual inspiration. That program is there. And running. The dog is running and the man is running. (break) This sense does not come that "The dog is running; I am also running. Where is the difference between him and me? She has got a female mate; I have got a female mate. Where is the difference? How I am civilized?" That, this sense, does not come. (break) ...thinking, "I have chained the dog, but I am not chained." But you are chained by māyā, invisible chain. That he does not know. He is also chained. (break) ...māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). Māyā-sukhāya. (break) ...peacock? No, cranes, sarasa. (break) ...football? Football ground.

Car Conversation -- August 3, 1975, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Ambarīṣa: I never expected to see that here.

Jagadīśa: There were two back there.

Prabhupāda: There is peacock also? No.

Jagadīśa: No.

Ambarīṣa: Possibly in the zoo. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...people, just like China or India. The American invite them, "Come here. Grow your food." Immediately world solution. But they won't... "No, we shall keep it jungle. Still, we shall not allow you to come here." (break) ...come here to hunt. No?

Jagadīśa: No.

Ambarīṣa: I think they are protected. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...those who were killing tigers and not that, by making arrangement from behind, no.

Brahmānanda: Ah, they would come face to face.

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1975, Nairobi:

Brahmānanda: He's imitating the birds.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (laughter) Just like this tendency was exhibited by Kṛṣṇa. In the forest the two brothers and other cowherds boys, they were also imitating. They were flying. The bird is flying; they were also flying like this. And coming to the monkey, coming to the peacock and imitating the..., like this. These are description in the Kṛṣṇa book.

Brahmānanda: But his imitating the bird means he will become a bird?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Brahmānanda: This man's imitating the bird means that he will become a bird.

Prabhupāda: Not necess... This is sporting. It will be decided what he is thinking at the time of death. That will become prominent.

Brahmānanda: Is it by chance what you think of at the time of death or is...

Prabhupāda: No.

Brahmānanda: ...it dependent?

Morning Walk -- November 12, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is very difficult. So we are dealing with very, very difficult task. It is not very easy, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Naturally we have got attraction for God. That is spiritual kingdom. Just like Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana means center is Kṛṣṇa. The elderly person like Nanda Mahārāja, Yaśoda, their friends, their..., they are also attracted to Kṛṣṇa. The gopīs are attracted to Kṛṣṇa, the cowherds boys, they are attracted to Kṛṣṇa. The cows, calves, animals and peacock—everyone is attracted to Kṛṣṇa. The water is attracted to Kṛṣṇa. That is Vṛndāvana. And here in the material world nobody is attracted by Kṛṣṇa.

Dr. Patel: Who prevents them, sir? māyā.

Prabhupāda: No. He wanted this; therefore māyā is there.

Dr. Patel: So that their position may go on.

Prabhupāda: Police is not first. First you become a thief; then police is there, not that police comes and arrest you unnecessary. No. As soon as you become criminal, then police comes and arrest you. māyā comes next. If you give up your natural attraction for Kṛṣṇa, if you are attracted by this material enjoyment, then māyā is there. Again if you try to...

Dr. Patel: But material, all material, is made up of māyā.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Nothing is made by māyā. māyā is made by God.

Dr. Patel: And material is, nothing but the transformation of māyā, is it not?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Hari-śauri: One of the peacocks has opened its tail.

Mādhavānanda: Dancing. (pause) Vṛtrāsura, he said the same thing when he was fighting Lord Indra, that a son who is neither a devotee nor a hero is useless.

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu said if there is no Kṛṣṇa, then everything is useless. Śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda-viraheṇa me. (long pause) (break)

Mādhavānanda: ...attach a rope to the back of the boat and they have wooden skis...

Prabhupāda: Plank.

Mādhavānanda: ...and they ski on the water for sport.

Jayādvaita: Satsvarūpa Mahārāja and I were at some place where there was a lake, and on Saturday and Sunday so many speedboats with people playing and enjoying, and on Monday, no boats. Everyone was working again.

Prabhupāda: They do not want to work. Therefore they take advantage of Sunday. Inclination is not to work. But unfortunately that is not possible. If they do not work, they cannot eat. But if we say that "There is a place, without working you can eat, and for example come to us," they will not accept. Then they will say, "You are escaping. You are escaping." (laughs) If you work, that you don't like, and if somebody does not work, he's escaping.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Hari-śauri: Pineapple.

Prabhupāda: Pineapple. And flowers.

Hari-śauri: They have lots of gardenias there. (peacock crying in background)

Prabhupāda: Where you got this?

Mādhavānanda: Ann Arbor, Michigan, a farm. They raise peacocks on different farms. (loud call of peacock)

Hari-śauri: It sounds just like Vṛndāvana in the morning.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...also. The evening begins at eleven, half past twelve. And morning, at four o'clock. A few hours only. That is also not complete dark.

Hari-śauri: Moscow is very far north, very northerly.

Prabhupāda: I think I went there in June, in month of June.

Mādhavānanda: When you went to Moscow, it was the mango season in India.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mādhavānanda: Because I remember when you went, someone said, "You will miss the mango season, Śrīla Prabhupāda." And you said, "Preaching in the snows of Russia is more sweet than any mango." (Prabhupāda laughs)

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: All, they are living in the same tree?

Mādhavānanda: Yes. Seven of them.

Pālikā: These peacocks are very friendly here. They stay together. They lay here altogether in the sun.

Prabhupāda: Birds of the same feather flock together. (laughter)

Jayādvaita: By Ann Arbor temple there is one squirrel who comes to take prasāda from the devotees. He comes right up to them and takes some laḍḍu or something like that. Very fat squirrel.

Prabhupāda: He knows that they'll not harm.

Jayādvaita: Yes.

Mādhavānanda: The neighbors say that every morning the peacocks wake them up.

Passerby on a boat: Ahoy there!

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Mādhavānanda: What does ahoy mean?

Prabhupāda: What they say?

Garden Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Just rub your finger. You'll find so many (indistinct). Nobody can get in the (indistinct), huh? (japa) (pause) (peacocks calling) (break) ...far away the peacock?

Hari-śauri: On the other side.

Prabhupāda: Within our area? No.

Hari-śauri: He said they stopped. This is Chapter Two, Bhagavad-gītā. (reads from Chapter Two, text 1 through 6) You want to go in, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Let the rain fall. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: (continues reading; Prabhupāda says something and devotees laugh) (break)

Jayādvaita:

na caitad vidmaḥ kataran no garīyo
yad vā jayema yadi vā no jayeyuḥ
yān eva hatvā na jijīviṣāmas
te 'vasthitāḥ pramukhe dhārtarāṣṭrāḥ
(BG 2.6)

"Nor do we know which is better-conquering them or being conquered by them. The sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, whom if we killed we should not care to live..."

Prabhupāda: Disturbing? (laughs) They can come here, that side.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They were going to guard you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Guard me? Why?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. And invite them, give here signboard: "Please come, read our books and take prasādam." Gradually, they will come. Very big garden.

Hari-śauri: Seven peacocks.

Kīrtanānanda: Is it stone?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: What is it, the building is stone or...?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Stone, marble. With golden work.

Hari-śauri: The bathrooms, even the soap dishes, are gold. The soap dishes, the toilet roll holder, everything is gold.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Gold wall paper.

Prabhupāda: One floor is like this. Very costly house.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They told me that the prasādam room floor alone, three hundred thousand dollars to build. And you have gotten the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere it is so beautiful, nice, strong, and quite suitable for our purpose. Everyone is living. Still, big, big three, four rooms, not yet utilized. And climate also is nice, at the present moment, huh?

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

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: There was a large swimming pool. Every afternoon all the...

Prabhupāda: Yes, besides that, there is a swimming pool.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: We would go out and have water fights.

Prabhupāda: And they have kept five peacocks.

Hari-śauri: Seven.

Prabhupāda: Seven. They are very free moving, here and there, and chanting.

Kīrtanānanda: They stay on the grounds?

Hari-śauri: They never leave the grounds. They sleep up in one tree.

Prabhupāda: They are free to move from one tree to another, but they don't go outside. Only complaint they are eating flowers.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Yes, they are eating all the flowers.

Prabhupāda: They are also trained, they are not afraid. They are sitting, you go, they are not afraid. They have been trained up that "We are at home." That animals and any birds can be trained. Just like these cows, they know that all of you are friends. Animals can understand. Even if you can make friends with the tigers and lions. Yes. I have seen it. In that New York exhibition, one man was showing me. He was embracing the lion and playing like dog. I've seen it.

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, why these boys are attracted ? They have not come here to see your industry for materialism. They have come here for spiritual. They have not come to see your cycle and sewing machine. Actually, they have come, Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur. And they are not poverty stricken. We go to Europe being poverty stricken. That Lady Wellington, he (she) challenged one of my Godbrothers, Bhakti Tīrtha Mahārāja, that "You Indian people..." She was very proud, Lady Wellington. Wellington was Iceland. She said that "You Indian people..." Of course, it was friendly talk. "You come to our country, we give you some stamp, degree, and you earn your livelihood in India. What you have come here to teach?" This was the challenge. Actually, that was happening. We were sending our men to England to become bar-at-law, to become MS, CP, to become this and that, and they became here big men. So why you people come here to teach us? This was the challenge. In those days a little favor of Englishman was considered a great boon. In Bengal there is a word, saheb śubha. Saheb means European, especially Englishman, and śubha means "auspicious." So if anyone can make friendship with a European, then his life is successful. And that was happening. The Englishmen were opening business houses. If somebody became connected, he gets good business. He becomes a rich man. There is a family in Calcutta, Saubhaga (?) Raj family. So the head of that family, Navinchandra Dev, he was a minor clerk of Lord Clive's. So when Lord Clyde was in Delhi, he was young man, he was sitting on that peacock throne and slept. Young man. So Lord Clyde saw, "Oh, what is this young man?" So the Englishman, then he came to Calcutta. So "You are fortunate, all right I'll make you a king." Britishers they were giving title, king. So he was given the title Raja. So the whole family is Saubhaga (?) Raj family still. This was the Raj. He was a clerk. Why people will not say saheb śubha? He became favorite to Lord Clive, and his whole family became Raj family. Still that family is there, those who are known to Calcutta. One of the oldest aristocratic... So all these aristocratic families, they were made by these Britishers. Except the Tagore family. They were from the Mohammedan time. The people became attached to the Europeans. Saheb śubha. If you meet one Englishman then your fortune is... I think Bombay was there also.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: "I remember well the time when the thought of the eye made..." What is that? "...eye(?) made me cold, when the eye(?) made me cold all over, but I have got over this stage of the complaint, and now a small trifling, particulars of structure, often make me very uncomfortable. The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I (sic?) crease at the neck..."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: "Make me sick."

Prabhupāda: "Make me sick." What does he mean by this?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He says... See, his theory of evolution cannot explain how these eyes are evolved, our eyes. So he felt very uncomfortable just seeing in the beginning these eyes, our eyes. But he says that stage he has overcome to some extent. But still, one particular phenomenon is bothering him very much. That is the eye in the peacock's tail. It is the delicate, nice design with is colorful structure.

Prabhupāda: How it evolved.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, how it evolved. He cannot explain by his theory. So he said whenever he gazed at it, that makes him sick.

Pradyumna: It's the opposite of the devotee.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Rascal. Artificially how long you'll stand?

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: There was avocado tree.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, in your garden house. Oh, boy, that was a nice house you had there.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Big window, picture window looking out to your garden. That Florida property is wonderful. Very, very good property in Florida. They call it New Naimiṣāraṇya. They have about ten peacocks flying free, wild peacocks. They trained them. First them put them in a cage and keep them on the ground and feed them. Then, after they get accustomed to it, then they let them loose. They have some all-white color peacocks, special, and then many colorful peacocks.

Prabhupāda: There are no fox.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. The danger is not from the fox. It is from the other people. They catch the peacock and eat it.

Prabhupāda: Oh, no. (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't know. They think it is a pheasant or something. They have no idea it is a peacock, special bird. I asked Abhirama. Sometimes they fly away and they don't come back. I said, "Does it mean that they got lost?" He said, "We don't know exactly what it means, but we are guessing." The people there are...

Prabhupāda: Rākṣasa.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bharadvāja: It has been made into a museum, complete museum. There is twelve different exhibits. And the first exhibit is exhibit of Your Divine Grace writing books at Rādhā-Dāmodara temple, introduction. The next exhibit is Kṛṣṇa-Arjuna on the battlefield, and Kṛṣṇa begins to explain dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13) to Arjuna. And the third exhibit is showing changing bodies, showing how the body is changing but the soul remains the same. The fourth exhibit shows the chariot of the body—the five horses, the five senses. The driver is the intelligence; the soul is the passenger. Then there is the fifth exhibit. It shows how a man can become degraded and how he can become elevated from a neutral position in life. And the sixth exhibit shows that when a man becomes elevated by Vedic wisdom he becomes sama-darśinaḥ. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). He sees everyone equal-dog, elephant, a cow, even brāhmaṇa—everyone, the same spirit soul. And he also sees Paramātmā in the heart of everyone. Then the seventh exhibit shows how Paramātmā, the original Paramātmā, is Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, and that He comes... Then different incarnations are shown. Then the eighth exhibit shows Kṛṣṇa's viśva-rūpa, explaining how everything is created, maintained and annihilated all within the potency of the Supreme Lord. Then the ninth exhibit shows how Kṛṣṇa personally comes on Garuḍa, to deliver those who are faithful from the ocean of birth and death. It shows a man struggling in the ocean, swimming, but he cannot save himself. And then Kṛṣṇa comes down on Garuḍa. The Lord Himself intervenes. In this way the man is saved. And the tenth exhibit shows the incarnation of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, how He is delivering the whole world by this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa. The eleventh exhibit explains how the soul... It shows Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana surrounded by eight gopīs and different animals and peacocks and birds and flowers. And it explains that the soul has eternal form and that it can enjoy, that the soul enjoys in eternal loving pastimes with Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Eleven.

Page Title:Peacock (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:19 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=19, Let=0
No. of Quotes:19