Prabhupāda: People should come to us to understand. We have got literature. We have got philosophy. Everything we have got. It is not a blind, imposing thing, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So everyone who actually wants to give some service to the society, to the humanity, they must study this philosophy and get prepared to meet anyone, scientists, philosopher, poet, talk with them, and he can give answer to all their questions. But our method is very simple. We call everyone, even to the child, "Come, sit down, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." And then gradually he realizes.
Poet (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Hayagrīva: We just got a horse. We had bad experience with a rotary tiller. We got rid of it.
Kīrtanānanda: West Virginia. We gave it away.
Allen Ginsberg: So we're also going through a coovy(?) āśrama for poets. A little farm for poets.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Farming, agriculture, that is nice. There is a proverb: agriculture is the noblest profession. Is it not said? Agriculture is noblest, and Kṛṣṇa was farmer, His father.
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Allen Ginsberg: Yes. Let's check the pitch of the harmoniums tomorrow. I've been learning to write music. My kavi guru was a poet named William Blake. Do you know Blake?
Prabhupāda: Oh. Yes, yes, I have heard his name.
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Allen Ginsberg: Who wrote this?
Prabhupāda: This is Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, a great poet and devotee.
Allen Ginsberg: Who?
Prabhupāda: Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura.
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Allen Ginsberg: I mean, everything you say is beautiful, but...
Prabhupāda: No. You are very intelligent boy. Why not you are intelligent? You are recognized poet, you are popular poet. Why you... I take you are intelligent. You are first-class intelligent. You are chanting.
Allen Ginsberg: But that's almost a physical body movement, the chanting rather than a...
Prabhupāda: Maybe, but your intelligence is sufficient. That is... If that standard of intelligent men I get, that is my fortune. You see. Now, at least I request you, you try to understand this Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy. It is not sentiment. It is not bluffing. It is not a money-making business that I give you some...
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Allen Ginsberg: Sūradāsa, the poet.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He is known as Sūradāsa.
Allen Ginsberg: Teacher of Tulasī Dāsa, or student of Tulasī Dāsa.
Prabhupāda: He may be different, but Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura, he was also blind. He made himself blind. You know the story of Bilvamaṅgala?
Allen Ginsberg: No.
Prabhupāda: Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura, in his previous life, he elevated himself to the loving stage of Kṛṣṇa.
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Prabhupāda: No. Fourteenth century, not Bilvamaṅgala. Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura, some time before(?).
Guest (1): Bilvamaṅgala.
Allen Ginsberg: Bilvamaṅgala. Bilvamaṅgala. No, I didn't know the name.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There are many poets. He was great poet. If you read this Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta poetry, ah, you'll find...
Guest (1): Vaiṣṇava, (Bengali) ...Vidyāpati, Candidāsa.
Prabhupāda: Vidyāpati, Candidāsa, Jayadeva.
Allen Ginsberg: Jayadeva, I know.
Guest (1): Jayadeva is a great Vaiṣṇava.
Prabhupāda: There are many nice poets.
Allen Ginsberg: I know some of the Baul poetry in English.
Prabhupāda: You just try to read this Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura especially.
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Prabhupāda: That song you were reading last night, Nitāi pada kamala? That is Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura's song. For the Vaiṣṇava, to become poet is another qualification. Vaiṣṇava has twenty-six qualifications. I think it is written there.
Allen Ginsberg: And one of them is to become poet also.
Prabhupāda: Poet. He must be poet. All the Vaiṣṇavas, they are poet.
Guest (1): Because they are so deep in love with God.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Poetry comes out in deep love with something.
Allen Ginsberg: Is that published somewhere?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Prabhupāda: He is impersonalist on the whole. He is impersonalist, whole, and he has got some Vaiṣṇava thought. That's all, perverted thoughts. Perverted thoughts.
Allen Ginsberg: So who is the most perfect of the Vaiṣṇava poets? That would be Mīrā?
Guest (1): Mīrā was a devotee. She was a Vaiṣṇava.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Devotee means...
Guest (1): Vaiṣṇava. She was, Mīrā, Kṛṣṇa devotee. Oh, her songs has called me.
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Allen Ginsberg: Into English. Good translations. Good translations. They were published in the Bhakti-vidya-bhavan series. In that series. They have four or five books.
Prabhupāda: Oh. They have five books they have written?
Allen Ginsberg: One Sufis, Yogis, Saints, poets like Muktesvara. And then another of Mīrā. Two volumes of Mīrā with a life of Mīrā. And then one on the Kumbhamela, a book on the Kumbhamela.
Prabhupāda: They are good scholars.
Allen Ginsberg: Yes. Good scholars. They know Blake also. They know English.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- May 3, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: So all the population without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they have been described as dogs, hogs, camel and ass. So when they vote for another animal, big animal, so this is their position. They are big animal, praised by the dogs, hogs, camel and ass. They are not praised by any intelligent man. That is stated in the Bhāgavata. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ. They are animals. These animals, they do not know the actual fact, and they are passing on as leaders, professors, scientists. Why they should be allowed? There must be some protest against these men. They have no real knowledge. They say, "I do not know," and still, they are passing as poet, er, scientist laureate. Why this should be allowed? Think over this matter seriously. You cannot tolerate this misleading. People are innocent.
Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:
Prabhupāda: So as so far the differences, there is no difference, because just like this body: the body has got different parts—the fingers, the hands, the eyes, the legs, so many different—but the whole purpose is to serve the body. Either with the finger or eyes or hands or legs, the whole purpose is centered on the soul of the complete whole body. Similarly, Bhāgavata says that whatever you may—you may be scientist, you may be philosopher, you may be an engineer, you may be a poet, you may be sociologist, politician, whatever you may be-their purpose should be avicyutaḥ arthaḥ. Avicyutaḥ means infallible purpose. Avicyutaḥ arthaḥ kavibhih nirūpitaḥ. "It has been decided by great learned scholar," says "all of them should be engaged in glorifying the Supreme." Avicyuto 'rthaḥ kavibhir nirūpito yad-uttamaśloka-guṇānuvarṇanam.
Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:
Vicitravīrya: This is Dr. Schumacher.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Thank you very much for your coming. I have read some of your ideas. So from your writing it appears you are nice, thoughtful man. Muni, the Sanskrit word is muni. Just like Nārada Muni. They are very thoughtful. So I have read one description of, "Crisis of Increasing Motor Cars," in this paper. Actually, we are creating a crisis. This advancement of modern civilization is simply creating crisis. One Vaiṣṇava poet, he has sung: sat-saṅga chāḍi kainu asatye vilāsa. Sat-saṅga means spiritual association. So we have given up spiritual association, and asatye vilāsa, we have taken to material enjoyment. So sat-saṅga chāḍi kainu... There are two things, material and spiritual. So sat-saṅga chāḍi kainu asatye... "I have given up spiritual association, and I have taken to material association. Therefore I have become entangled." Sei karaṇe lāgilā mora karma-bandha-phāṅsā. We are becoming more and more entangled in material activities. We are trying to solve one problem, and creating another big problem.
Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:
Prabhupāda: When, when the living entity forgets love of God, he's given this material world.
Cardinal Danielou: Yes yes, I agree. Christianity agrees with this.
Prabhupāda: The exact word, in Bengali, there is a poet,
- kṛṣṇa-bhuliyā-jīva bhoga vāñchā kare
- pāśate māyāra tare jāpaṭiyā dhare
As soon as the living entity forgets his position as eternal servant of God, and he wants to imitate God to enjoy, at that time, māyā, illusion, or Satan captures him, captures him.
Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:
Prabhupāda: No, he came to our temple in Los Angeles and paid three hundred dollars to the Deity.
Devotee: Oh, that's nice.
Prabhupāda: Some jewels.
Yogeśvara: That's nice. He's the most popular young poet in the United States, Bob Dylan. All the young people have his records.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Bhagavān: Tonight there's a meeting scheduled at six-thirty here. There's a big professor of philosophy, it's called the Sorbonne. Have you ever heard of this school? The Sorbonne? It's the big French University. So he called, he requested if you would see him tonight. So we set appointment for six-thirty.
Room Conversation -- August 11, 1973, Paris:
Guru-gaurāṅga: And if he did not have independence, that would be the flaw.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That will be the fault.
Bhagavān: That makes everything complete.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Independence means that you can do or not do. That is independence.
Bhagavān: Their definition of perfect is wrong. Just like this boy's definition of a poet.
Prabhupāda: He's a rascal. He's simply bogus. He's trying to... There are so many parties like that. They're four or five, they make a group and imitate these Beatles. As if... Beatles have made money. They'll also make money. That is the... And speak all nonsense. That's all. These are crazy fellows. So independence means that you can do or not do. Just like you, as a nation, American nation, or English nation, you are all independent. But why you go to the jail? Is it government's fault that you go to the jail? Therefore government has fault? Why this nonsense question. When a man, instead of going to the university, goes to the police custody, is it government's fault? Is it?
Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: We are simply trying to present them, that's all. It is not we have manufactured something, no. There is no question of concoction, manufacturing.
David Lawrence: No. Just passing on what has already been there.
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is already there. When we speak of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is already there. When we speak of Vṛndāvana, Vṛndāvana is already there. It is not that we have manufactured some picture, imagination, no. They take it like that. The rascals take it like that, that it is a kind of imagination of the poet. The Māyāvādī philosophers also take like that. But that's not the fact. It is actually presentation of the spiritual facts and as the spiritual activities are quite different from material activities, they misunderstand. They misunderstand.
Room Conversation -- November 4, 1973, Delhi:
Prabhupāda: So far I am concerned, although people say I am Sanskrit scholar, but we are not educated as Sanskrit scholar. Whatever Sanskrit we have learned from this book only. A Sanskrit scholar is different, he learns grammar 14 years.
Guest: A waste of time, a waste of life.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Then other side, he takes a whole time, you see?
Guest: (indistinct) greatest Romanian poet and he studies Sanskrit and (indistinct) he's worshiped like Shakespeare in Romania. And (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: In Germany there are many Sanskrit scholars.
Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:
Paramahaṁsa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. Thank you very much.
Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Rascal means that... You know the story, that Kālidāsa, a great poet, he was a great rascal. So... It is a long story. So he was sitting on the branch of a tree and cutting. So some gentleman: "Why you are cutting? You'll fall down." "No, no, I'll not fall down." But when he fell down, then he went to that gentleman, "How did you know, sir, that I shall fall down?" Then they concluded, "Here is a rascal number one." (laughter) "Here is a rascal number one." They do not know that they are going to hell. That is rascaldom.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- February 20, 1974, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Marijuana. So they learned this gañjā smoking... They came here for spiritual enlightenment, but they do not know who can give them spiritual enlightenment. They went to these rascals, gañjā-smoker, having long beard...
Dr. Patel: But there is a great smuggling racket the whole world, Swamiji.
Prabhupāda: No, no. When they... I know that Allen Ginsberg. He learned this...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, in India.
Prabhupāda: But he's a great poet. He learned this gañjā smoking from India.
Dr. Patel: The English boys, the French boys, the Germans, all of them have started in the... They don't come here as hippies. This is an international disease.
Prabhupāda: They learned from America. That's a fact. The hippie movement started from America.
Morning Walk -- February 20, 1974, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Eh? In Calcutta there was a big poet, Girish-chandra Ghosh. Perhaps you heard his name.
Dr. Patel: Yes.
Prabhupāda: He started Indian state. He was a first-class gañjā smoker.
Dr. Patel: They get in a trance, and...
Prabhupāda: That, that... You have got appreciation for this trance.
Dr. Patel: They have got a trance. They get a trance...
Prabhupāda: You are, you are smelling.
Dr. Patel: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You never condemn it.
Dr. Patel: I won't condemn it if it is good, and if it is bad, I will condemn it.
Prabhupāda: No, no. It is bad.
Dr. Patel: Every bad thing has good also. Some good quality must be there.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) No, no, no.
Morning Walk -- March 25, 1974, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: And as soon as one has his mastership on the grammar, he can study all other books.
Dr. Patel: No, he can be a poet then. The Sanskrit language is poetic in a way.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, yes.
Dr. Patel: So if you study grammar properly, and then you can, you can just compose poetry. (break)
Prabhupāda: Therefore Lord Brahmā is called Ādi-kavi. Ādi-kavi. Yes.
Dr. Patel: Sanskrit is poetic. You can just compose poetry.
Prabhupāda: Whole Sanskrit language in poetry. Bhagavad-gītā is in poetry. Bhāgavata in poetry. Mahābhārata in poetry.
Dr. Patel: Ninety percent of the Sanskrit literature is in poetry.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Why ninety? It may be ninety-nine.
Dr. Patel: No, but some of the... Kālidāsa, and, you know... They're also composing the ślokas in the... But...
Prabhupāda: Kālidāsa also in poetry.
Morning Walk -- March 25, 1974, Bombay:
Dr. Patel: I am regularly reading these poetry. There also, in English poetry, you'll see so many... (break)
Prabhupāda: One line, two inch, and another line, six inch.
Dr. Patel: And they, they recite poetry in the prosaic way.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: I have actually...
Guest (1): Walt Whitman. Whitman, Whitman. Walt Whitman.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. He's a great poet, American. Our Hayagrīva is very much fond of him. You are also?
Satsvarūpa: Not so much.
Guest (1): Yes, we must have some poets in this, our congregation.
Prabhupāda: Everyone is poet. (laughter) (break) Without being kavi, one cannot become devotee. There are twenty-six qualifications of a devotee. One of them is to become kavi.
Dr. Patel: Kavi means the one who knows present, past and future. Is it not?
Prabhupāda: A man of knowledge.
Dr. Patel: And knowledge means this knowledge.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: Yesterday only you said that in the course, this thing.
Prabhupāda: That is perfect knowledge. Harer nāma harer nāma... (CC Adi 17.21).
Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:
Dhanañjaya: Mr. O'Grady. Desmond O'Grady and some of his friends have just arrived. They'd like to come and see you and speak with you.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Atreya Ṛṣi: This is the Irish poet. (guests enter)
Satsvarūpa: Please sit down.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. How are you?
Woman: Very well, thank you.
O'Grady: We are very well and very tired. We've been traveling a long, long way, a long road from Delhi.
Dhanañjaya: Desmond is a poet. He's written books also, published in London. And tomorrow he goes to Sicily to a convention of poets and writers, international conference for writers and poets. He's representing Ireland, he's coming from Limerick in Southern Ireland.
Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:
Atreya Ṛṣi: Please stay for one minute.
Prabhupāda: Please take prasāda. Stay one minute. So another, I give my request. You are a poet. You describe about God. You are expert in describing. So you just take this occupation, describing God. Then your life will be successful, and one who will hear you, his life will be successful. That is the injunction.
- idaṁ hi puṁsas tapasaḥ śrutasya vā
- (sviṣṭasya) sūktasya ca buddhi-dattayoḥ
- (avicyuto 'rthah) kavibhir nirūpito
- yad-uttamaśloka-guṇānuvarṇanam
- (SB 1.5.22)
There are poets, there are scientists, there are religionists, philosophers, politician, so many other leaders of the society. Avicyuto 'rthaḥ kavibhir nirūpitaḥ. To those who are expert, they are given this decision that the duty of all these men, avicyutaḥ arthaḥ, means the perfection of their occupational duty will be completely done when they are engaged, yad-uttamaśloka-guṇānuvarṇanam, when they are engaged in describing the glories of the Supreme Being.
Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:
Prabhupāda: All of them. Not this brother, that brother. All brothers, all sisters.
O'Grady: Yes, but what I was saying...
Prabhupāda: The God means complete.
Atreya Ṛṣi: You're saying that the spiritual master is chosen?
O'Grady: I'm saying... Yes, a spiritual master the priest, the poet is chosen by, let's say, God, that is, this person is chosen to write poems or to paint pictures or to make music, compose music.
Prabhupāda: No, whatever you do... music also, you can compose...
O'Grady: That's it... Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
O'Grady: O.K., I understand this. But whatever you do, that's it. It's the same thing. End of conversation.
Prabhupāda: Not same thing. When you describe... Music, when you compose music about God, that is your perfection.
Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:
Prabhupāda: That means somebody has created. So how you can say that man has created everything? The fallacy, just see. How rascal they are. That I wanted to say.
Paramahaṁsa: You have quoted a great English poet who said...
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Paramahaṁsa: You have quoted a great English Poet who says that "Man has created the city..."
Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.
Paramahaṁsa: "...and God has created the country."
Prabhupāda: This is the statement of Mr. Cowper. Man has created nothing. Suppose this building, man has created. But wherefrom the ingredient comes. Has man created? This stone, man has created? Eh? What do you think? Is this stone, creation of man?
Room Conversation with M. Lallier, noted French Poet -- June 12, 1974, Paris:
Yogeśvara: ...and Mr. Lallier has a reputation among young literary circles in France as being a very good poet.
Prabhupāda: He's good poet?
M. Lallier: No. (laughs)
Jyotirmayī: (French) Before he came, he already knew a little Bhagavad-gītā, little Vedānta. So he has a lot of questions. There's some points, he likes very much Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and some, he says that maybe in the Vedānta philosophy is different things.
M. Lallier: She says that I knew that entire philosophy, but I knew it very badly, very... I'm not a great philosopher. No, not at all.
Prabhupāda: Which philosophy?
Room Conversations -- September 10, 1974, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Sarajini simply washed the dishes, cleansed the room, set out the bedding. I was cooking. (break)
Devotee (1): Soviet, Soviet Land, I forget the exact title. And this one woman was a poet.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Devotee (1): She was a poet. In one article in the magazine. And she was..., stated in her magazine how much she was sorry about her youth.
Prabhupāda: Youth.
Devotee (1): Yeah, that she was living very poorly, and her father had to work all day very hard as a goldsmith or tinsmith. And how she remembers her mother, that she was kept in such poor conditions that all her life she was very miserable. And she said that she was thinking that her mother might have been a great poet or a great scientist, but because of being oppressed by the higher class of Russia that she could not develop, she simply was forced to live a very poor life. So I was able to understand that actually they are thinking that being oppressed by the higher classes, the lower class cannot properly develop their qualities.
Room Conversations -- September 10, 1974, Vrndavana:
Devotee (1): They have simply taken the sides of the low class against the upper class.
Prabhupāda: That is a sympathy. But you cannot change it. That is not possible. It is very good sympathy.
Devotee (1): This poet, in her poetry, her business was to try to create that sentiment.
Prabhupāda: (Sanskrit) He is not poet. Poet means he must have full knowledge. Then if he writes poetry, that will be beneficial. The rascal's poetry, just like in your country, one line, three lines, one line. This is rascaldom; it is not poetry.
Room Conversations -- September 10, 1974, Vrndavana:
Devotee (2): They'll all be cheated.
Prabhupāda: No, not a single person. Actually he remains slave, artificially he thinks that "I am master." Just like Nixon was thinking. He was actually slave of the nation, but he was thinking, "I am master." When he was pressed too much, he had to admit, "Yes, I am your slave." He was pressed. Rather, oppressed. Nobody is thinking. Idam adya mayā labdham imaṁ prāpsye punar dhanam. Everyone is thinking, "I have got now so much money (indistinct) ...lot of money, so who is better than me?" (indistinct) She has become poet. Nonsense number one, and she is poet. Does not know the human psychology or animal psychology. The human psychology, animal psychology, that you have seen on the road, the sex. The animal does not require any education. The animal knows how to use sex; the man knows how to use sex. Where is the difference? Simply she is animal, she does the sex intercourse in a public street, animal (indistinct) an apartment, very nice apartment (indistinct). It is (indistinct), either you are dog or a human being, the fact is. He also sleeps. He sleeps on the street anywhere, and we sleep in a nice apartment.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:
Prabhupāda: Therefore sometimes ghost is walking in the room. We cannot see. But he takes away something. We see that the thing is going away. (laughter) Because you cannot see his gross body. And because he hasn't got gross body, he can move very swiftly. Now he is here; he can go ten miles away immediately. But there is ghost. And they attack specially woman.
Paramahaṁsa: Is that because the women are weaker? Prabhupāda: No. Woman is attractive for any man, even in ghostly life. The other day, who was telling that a big poet of India, he said that "God's most wonderful creation is woman's body"? Śrutakīrti: I think Brahmānanda Mahārāja mentioned? Acyutānanda.
Morning Walk -- July 12, 1975, Philadelphia:
Prabhupāda: Unnecessarily, we are becoming involved in this material world. Now, those who built up this nation, where they have gone, nobody can say. Because after this body is fallen, where he is being carried, nobody knows. He is carried by his work, fruitive activities. Therefore they do not believe next life. Finished. (break) ...gentleman, he was very well known, brother of Rabindranath Tagore. Rabindranath Tagore was poet, and he was artist, Abanindranath Tagore. In our childhood, in a meeting, he said that "Why should we bother about the next life? Let us enjoy this life." I remember that. Most people think like that. Carvāka Muni advised like that. Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet. "Just enjoy life." "I have no money to enjoy." "Beg, borrow or steal. Bring money. Purchase ghee." "I will have to pay." "Ah! Why do you think like that?" "Then next life I will suffer." "Don't think like that. Your body will be finished. Who is coming here again?"
Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:
Prabhupāda: People know it. Things equal to the same thing are equal to one another.
Prof. Hopkins: What about certain other traditions; Ishnamadeva(?), Tukārāma, some of the poet saints of Maharastra. Where...
Prabhupāda: Yes, Tukārāma accepted Viṣṇu as the Supreme. He accepted the process of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He accepted Caitanya Mahāprabhu as his guru so there is no difference between Tukārāma and Caitanya.
Morning Walk -- October 28, 1975, Nairobi:
Jñāna: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Kenya the great majority of people live in the country rather than the towns.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. "Country is made of God, and city is made by man." That is the remark by poet Cowper.
Jñāna: How may we best expand our movement into the rural areas or into the country areas?
Prabhupāda: So, Brahmānanda, explain our scheme.
Morning Walk -- November 14, 1975, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Gladstone or what, that poet? "Full many flowers' gloss unseen." Therefore there is no flower? "Full many flowers' gloss unseen." This is foolish philosophy. Now this plane is going. After half an hour it will not be seen. Does it mean it is finished? (laughter) There is no more?
Indian man (7): But also in the sky we can see something. I can see many things. I can see something. It is not vacant space. Only thing I don't know what it is.
Prabhupāda: Then you cannot see the stars. Can you see the stars now?
Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: They are so bold that, Shylock?
Brahmānanda: Yeah, yeah, the flesh.
Dr. Patel: There are Shylocks everywhere. One Shylock does not mean a bad race. And that Shylock is the creation of that poet.
Prabhupāda: No, the... In Europe the Jews are treated like that.
Dr. Patel: Are there not Shylocks in...
Prabhupāda: And they are greatest scientist.
Dr. Patel: All the Marwaris, who are they? They are Shylocks. And they give you lot of money and you make them sit first before us, you know.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Morning Walk -- December 16, 1975, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: We are opening gurukula, but who will give? A gentleman will not give. Hare Kṛṣṇa! (man stops and Patel introduces him)
Dr. Patel: He's a great scholar and poet of Gujarati literature, and he comes from the same place where the... Bet, he's from Bet, Dvaraka-bet, where all those temples are.
Prabhupāda: He's a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa.
Dr. Patel: Yes, he's a brāhmaṇa devotee of Kṛṣṇa. And a great teacher, he was at university, a professor of Gujarati literature and a great, well-renowned poet...
Prabhupāda: So you do not come to our temple?
Man: Don't believe what he says! (laughter) I am just a humble servant.
Prabhupāda: That is wanted. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Gopī bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsanudāsa...
Morning Walk -- December 17, 1975, Bombay:
Dr. Patel: So many fools are corrected... (laughing)
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa! (Hindi conversation with passerby)
Dr. Patel: One of the renowned poet of Gujarat. His house is right next to the main temple in Dvārakā.
Prabhupāda: There was one devotee, he, some Queen or somebody, she was approached by somebody, that two poets are come... Ah, Kalidāsa, yes. "Kalidāsa poet has come to see you." So she immediately said, "I know only two poets, Vyāsadeva and Valmikī, and all other poets I kick out!"
Dr. Patel: This is Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata.
Prabhupāda: "I know only two poets." So she refused to see Kalidāsa.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Niyamagrahaḥ is not good. Niyama means regulative principles. And niyama-āgrahaḥ is niyamāgrahaḥ. Āgrahaḥ means not to accept. And niyama-āgraha. Āgraha means only eager to follow the regulative principles, but no advancement spiritually. Both of them are called niyamāgrahaḥ. So the basic principle is that niyamāgrahaḥ is not recommended. The real business is that.... And if we advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, simple method, chanting twenty-four hours, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31), then things will be automatically adjusted. You cannot find in Kali-yuga everything is being done very correctly, to the point. That is very difficult. Just like our poet, Allen Ginsberg. He was always accusing me, "Swamijī, you are very conservative and strict." Actually, I told him that "I am never strict, neither I am conservative. If I become conservative, then I cannot live here for a moment. So I'm not at all conservative."
Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:
Satsvarūpa: That poet from Ireland asked you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, when you were in Rome. He said, "I want to know who told God all that He knows, because..."
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Satsvarūpa: He asked, "Who.... Who has informed God of all knowledge? Everyone has to learn from someone." So he said, "Who informed God?"
Trivikrama: Then Prabhupāda said, "First you have to know what God means."
Satsvarūpa: Yes, that He's svarāṭ.
Prabhupāda: I think that poet was convinced.
Trivikrama: Yes. He admitted that he was confused.
Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:
Prabhupāda: We have got three platforms, generally. Material platform divided into two-gross and subtle, and there is spiritual platform. The body is material platform, divided into two, gross and subtle. And then if you are fortunate enough to come to the spiritual platform, then your life is successful. So the karmīs generally... Just like we see in the city, they are all busy, working very hard. They are on the gross material platform. And then next class, just like scientist, poet, philosopher, they are in the subtle platform. And above them, there are persons who are simply interested in spiritual understanding. They are on the spiritual platform. So according to the platform, there are thoughts and activities also. Your question is what is about these so many things. So first of all you have to understand in which platform he is situated. Then his activities are ascertained.
Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:
Harikeśa: He wants to know if you are from the south.
Prabhupāda: I am not from south, I am from Calcutta. West, west of India, no? Calcutta is east.
Jñānagamya: They say everything good comes from Bengal. The best poets, the best gurus.
Prabhupāda: Not always. (laughter)
Devotee: Ramakrishna.
Prabhupāda: Nowadays Naxalites are coming. It is the time, Kali-yuga.
Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Everyone will suggest. And spend money. Any friend, you bring him, he'll suggest so that you may spend it. And wherefrom money will come? Oh, that is your look after. I am your friend, I am giving you good suggestion. Break it. Do it. I am your friend. You break your head. (laughs) There was a Mohammedan king, Raj Uddin or some... Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin there is a tomb in Delhi. He was poet. So if some friends come he would read some writing, and he will suggest, the friend will suggest, "Why don't you make like this." "Oh, it is good. All right." He'll do it. Whatever he says. And when he goes away, then again makes his own. So the secretary said, "Why you are changing?" "What can I do? Those... That is my friend. And that is nonsense; therefore I am again doing what I wrote." So we have to do that. As soon as you call anybody, he'll give you some suggestion. "Make this alteration, make this alteration." So description of the sādhu is there. It is very nice. Where they will find this description all over the world? Hm?
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Billiard-playing or some exhibition of singing, and hundreds of men will gather. And they were feasting, first-class food. In this way spending, spending, spending... And then prostitute, aristocracy. In this way one property and one property lost, everything. At last I saw him going by rickshaw. One day it was raining, and I saw that he was sitting in a rickshaw, and no friend asked him that, "Haren Babu, why you are...? You come to my car," so many. And he was friendly to so many zamindars, kings, and very intimate with... But they lost of everything, and nobody cares. His sons, they are of our age. I do not know whether living or not. But most probably they are not living. They became professional singers, coming of such aristocratic father. His father, that Mr. R. N. Singh, was a very good singer. That also was another aristocratic that aristocrat family—art, some art: painter, singer, poets. Just like Rabindranath Tagore. They became famous as artist. Avanindranatha Thakur, he became famous as artist, and Rabindranath Tagore became... They also followed the aristocratic family, Calcutta. Similarly, this R. N. Singh became a singer. Because they are rich men, they have nothing to do, so... And nobody instructed them how to become saintly person. Simply debauchery and... (break) On the whole the whole human civilization is..., and all the directors, they are not giving chance to know the value of life and how to conduct life. It is the first time, that we are giving the real idea of life. Otherwise whole world is in darkness. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatim.
Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Yes. His forefathers from Sylhet. Jagannātha Miśra, His father came from Sylhet to Navadvipa for studying. Then Nilambara Cakravartī got him married with his daughter, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mother. And he resided in Nabadwip.
Gurudāsa: There's one temple in Vṛndāvana where they have Deities of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda that look like Manipur. They made His eyes like that.
Prabhupāda: That is not so good. If you make any picture, then you paint according to the people's, local people's feature. Kata catur anana, mani mani yāvat. Vidyāpati. You have heard the name of Vidyāpati? He was a great poet of Darbhanga.
Evening Darsana -- May 12, 1977, Hrishikesh:
Prabhupāda: So karmīs, they are pramattaḥ, mad after enjoying, and jñānīs, being fed up, they say, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: "The world is useless." So this is going on. The karmīs, they want to enjoy this material world, and the jñānīs, they are little advanced. They are... They are fed up, rather. They want to enjoy by becoming one with the Supreme. So there is want. The karmīs want to enjoy this world, and the jñānīs want also. That is demand, mukti. Mukti means to become one with the Supreme Brahman. And the yogis, they want siddhi, aṣṭa-siddhi, aṇimā, laghimā, prāpti, īśitā... They also want. Therefore our Vaiṣṇava poet, Kavirāja Gosvāmī, he says, bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī sakali aśānta: "Those who are after something—either enjoyment of this material world or enjoyment of spiritually becoming one or to have some siddhis—they want something, so they cannot be happy." Because there is demand, "I want this." Maybe I want better thing than you, but I want. I am in need. So therefore those who are in need, they cannot be happy. Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī sakali aśānta, kṛṣṇa-bhakta niṣkāma (CC Madhya 19.149). Kṛṣṇa-bhakta doesn't want anything. Ataeva śānta. So he is... He is satisfied.
Room Conversation -- August 10, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: (Bengali) There is a... There was a great Bengali poet. He was very rich man, Micheal, Madhusūdana Datta. So he went to England, and because he was extravagant, he spent all his money. So he was in difficulty. He begged some money from his countrymen, help him. But nobody gave him. Only there was a big paṇḍita, Isvaracandra Vidyasagar. He gave him the money. He thought that "Such a big man is in need of money. Let me... He may pay or not." So after receiving that money, he thanked Isvaracandra Vidyasagar, that "You have got courage of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother." He was poet, so he gave these two examples: the courage of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother. So you are Englishman. You are famous for your forefathers' courage to expand British Empire. The America is also your creation. But everything in this material world deteriorates. That is not fault.
Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:
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)
| Page Title: | Poet (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Serene |
| Created: | 03 of Feb, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=49, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 49 |