Expressions researched:
"Ravi Sankara"
|"Ravi Sankaraji"
|"Ravi Shankar"
Prabhupāda: No, all the musicians, they're attracted to me. Big, big musicians. Another is, what is his, Dylan?
Guru dāsa: Bob Dylan.
Prabhupāda: Bob Dylan. He is as good as, or more than. He has asked one of my students, "Ask Prabhupāda, what can I do for him." He is reading my books. There is another Indian, Ravi Shankar, he also came. He also attracted.
Paramahaṁsa: So she said instead my other son is God. He is very... Also she was a little angry because Guru Maharaj-ji's wife, that American wife that he got, who used to be his secretary—after they were married, in all the temples, their ashrams all over the world, they used to have that Bal Yogeshwara's picture and then his mother's picture. But now they took the mother's picture down and put the wife's picture up. So the mother was very angry. Therefore she kicked them both out, and now her picture and another son is on the altar.
Prabhupāda: Another son. So they're accepting.
Paramahaṁsa: Oh, yes. He was actually popular anyway, the other son. He was almost as popular as Bal Yogeshwara. He's the older son. He's a jazz musician, so they like it.
Prabhupāda: Jazz? What is that jazz?
Paramahaṁsa: American music. Something like rock and roll. It is modern music.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. So, how he learned? He is Indian.
Paramahaṁsa: Well, I don't know, but he's pretty good. His band was very popular in America.
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Paramahaṁsa: They were very popular. THey would travel around and do performances, and thousands of people would come. He had quite a big group of musicians, and he was the leader. He would lead the whole group. He would play the trumpet and sometimes dance.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. Then, Ravi Shankar is no more popular?
Paramahaṁsa: Most people think he's too puffed up.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Otherwise how they say he's God? Then? You can stop. Those who are tired can take rest. What is the local time?
Amogha: 8:30
Prabhupāda: 8:30?
Paramahaṁsa: Usually people don't have a very clear idea of what spiritual life is. So when they see someone who is a good musician or a good artist or something like that, sometimes they automatically think, "Oh, he must be spiritual, because he is so good at this. No one else can do it. He must be some spiritual power." So therefore someone like Ravi Shankar, a lot of people either they become envious or they worship him as being an incarnation or something like that.
Prabhupāda: You know this Ravi Shankar?
Guru-kṛpā: Umm hmm.
Prabhupāda: His elder brother, Udar Shankar, he became very famous man as a dancer, all over the world. Udar Shankar. And by imitating his brother, the Ravi Shankar also tried to become first-class sitarist. So family.... (break) ...was a little famous for artistic.... So that Udar Shankar was dancing in the Indian way, and there are many sculpture of dancing. Like that. That was his art. So he became famous.
Guru-kṛpā: He's not living? He's dead?
Prabhupāda: No, he's dead means now he's old man. He's about my age or little older than me. Now his skin has become slackened and body is not so strong to dance. It requires exercise. Therefore he's retired, I think, maybe dead. But I don't hear his name. He was more or less known in Europe as Shankar. But he was so popular that one my doctor friend.... He was educated in London, a medical officer of Allahabad. So he told me that "I saw that in Paris, Udar Shankar's dancing was advertised, and hundreds and thousands of people from England going to Paris, crossing the Channel to see him dance." He showed me. He's so popular. And now nobody asks for him. (laughs)
Guru-kṛpā: Another bubble.
Guru-kṛpā: Another bubble. I remember when Ravi Shankar and George Harrison came to see you in Vṛndāvana.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guru-kṛpā: The first thing you asked them was "You are very famous, but what will you be next life? What is your guarantee for the next life?"
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guru-kṛpā: And I don't think any other guru would have asked that.
Prabhupāda: Where is guru? Goru, you say goru. When it is pronounced guru, I say, you say, don't say guru, but you say goru.
Guru-kṛpā: Goru.
Prabhupāda: Goru, no, do you know goru? Goru means cow.
Guru-kṛpā: Cow. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: Goru means cow. Śrī-guru-caraṇa-padma. Śrī-guru. (laughs) So they're all gorus, nobody guru.
Guru-kṛpā: Yes.
Prabhupāda: All rascals. Now that Ravi Shankar has become George guru. Somebody.... You were telling me? That this boy has been taught to take the dust of the feet of Ravi Shankar in the stage, and people did not like it. So he has become unpopular accepting a goru. (end)
Prabhupāda: Wilshire, yes. I remember.... There is a park. Soldiers, there are soldiers in a corner. I used to come to that park. (break) ...this rich.... (break) ...is the costlier quarter in America. (break) ...he's got a house here.
Hari-śauri: George Harrison?
Rāmeśvara: Yes, also Ravi Shankar.
Prabhupāda: He has got a house?
Rāmeśvara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Ravi Shankar has become so rich?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Bombay is just like garden. As good as your place here. No. Not so big. It is seventeen acres, and Bombay is five. Just go on. (prasādam being served) Give him whatever you have got to give. But don't give much. When he wants something more.... Waste not, want not. Give more, that preparation, you should give more. (laughter) That is called (indistinct). You can bring it, prasāda.
George Harrison: I'll just wash my hands.
Prabhupāda: You can wash here. The sink is there. Here is also water. You can put the bowls outside, here, so that there will be sufficient place. Our Indian system is like this. That's all right. Sit down, you also sit down.
George Harrison: I see you've done new books. You've been so busy, there's so many books.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There are already fifty-four, and another at least thirty books I have to finish before my death. (laughs) That I am.... Give him a puri. Where is Ravi Shankar?
George Harrison: He's in.... I think he's in New York. He'll be here the first of August, and then I think he's...
Prabhupāda: He has got his house there? In New York?
George Harrison: No, just a house in Benares. Benares. He doesn't have anything. He just stays in hotels.
Prabhupāda: I thought in Washington somebody told me that George Washing..., George Harrison has got his house here.
George Harrison: Yes, he had a little house here, but he...
Prabhupāda: No, you have got your house in Washington?
George Harrison: No.
Prabhupāda: He is so rich(?) man. He cannot get nice food even, the primary necessity. Getting jaundice.
Jayatīrtha: The main reason why he doesn't.... I think he got jaundice because, he admitted, is that he had Ravi Shankar's brother cooking for him.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Jayatīrtha: He had Kumar Shankar, the brother of Ravi Shankar, cooking for him. So this man is a demon; therefore he is becoming sick.
Prabhupāda: Yes, they are all drunkards, all third-class men, fourth-class men, low-class men. In India, this naṭas, they are third class, fourth class. Naṭas means the artist class, singer, dancers. They are meant for the fourth-class, fifth-class men. It was never taken by the.... They are called, and they will expertly sing, dance, in some festival. The brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, they were not doing. Still in India there is a class, very expert in dancing, singing, low class. Their hereditary business is like that.
We will phone Ravi Sankara and make some arrangements with him as is possible.
Mukunda talked to Ravi Sankara and he said he is too busy with recordings and movies, etc.
Regarding meeting Ravi Sankara or Mr. Harrison, Dayananda is trying his best to contact them, so also Nandarani is also trying, but so far there is no trace about them. I do not know how far this attempt will be successful.
At the present moment, Ravi Sankaraji may be getting huge amount of remuneration in exchange for his nice musical art, but that will be finished with the end of this body. Many men come here and by their talents, earn huge amounts of money, but it remains here, and he goes alone with his works only to accept another different kind of body, forgetting everything behind. But if he acquires some spiritual assets it goes with him, and even it is not perfect in this life, it begins again from that point in next life. So we wish that Sri Ravi Sankaraji may understand this spiritual technology, and utilize his talent for benefit of the human society. We are interested for the highest benediction of the human society, otherwise we do not expect anything from anyone in monetary consideration. Simply that these influential men come along and chant with us.
| Page Title: | Ravi Shankar |
| Compiler: | MadhuGopaldas |
| Created: | 10 of Oct, 2009 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=8, Let=4 |
| No. of Quotes: | 12 |