This is committing offense, committing offense unnecessarily. So the dog's business: one side, he is very faithful, and one side, he is simply committing offense, unnecessarily frightening other people, you see unnecessarily, without any offense. And dog's another business is that he is seeking always master. Unless he finds out a good master, it is a street dog and it has no place. It has no place. It will not get sufficient food, become lean and thin, and loiter in the street. Because dog must find out... Śūdra-like. Śūdra, unless he finds out a master to provide him, his all education is useless.
Thin (Lect., Conv. & Letters)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Lecture on BG 1.31 -- London, July 24, 1973:
But he was a yogi and she was devoted, so became lean and thin, because she could not eat very nicely. A yogi cannot supply nice food. Simply starvation, starvation. (laugh) That is yogi. So he thought that this poor girl came to me, his father is king. She is not accustomed to so much trouble, so she asked her, "What you want?" "No, because I have come to you, I want some children, and a little comfortable life." "All right." So he made an aeroplane by yogic power, a big town. Not this 747. The 747 is the biggest plane, but not like this. A big town with lake, with palatial building, maid-servants, servants, and that big plane went all round the universe. He showed all the planets to his wife. This is yogic power. This is yogic power. So where is that yogi? So here, Yogeśvara. All these mystic powers can be attained by ordinary man if he wants, there is process. But Kṛṣṇa is the master of all yogic power, Yogeśvara.
Lecture on BG 2.1-11 -- Johannesburg, October 17, 1975:
I shall speak some verses from Bhagavad-gītā, Second Chapter, in which the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa instructed. The beginning of instruction is the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. So Arjuna, representing ourself, conditioned soul, covered with the material body and thinking in bodily conception of life... He was to fight with his brothers, nephews, grandfather, Bhīṣmadeva, also teacher the military science, Droṇācārya. In this way the business was not very palatable. Although he was forced to fight by the opposite party who were very near, thick and thin people, and he had to kill them, so it was not very satisfactory to him. Therefore he flatly denied to fight: "Kṛṣṇa, I am not going to fight." He left his weapon, and then Kṛṣṇa was surprised that "My friend, Arjuna, he is denying to fight in My presence."
Lecture on BG 2.13-17 -- Los Angeles, November 29, 1968:
Prabhupāda: Why do you forget that? All right, read Bhagavad-gītā. Where is Bhagavad-gītā? If possible, you can make shirts of flannel so that you keep warm. The same shirt, Punjabi, as it was brought from India? Same pattern shirt.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sudāmā dāsa is making a shirt. Is that the kind?
Harṣarāṇī: We're making kurtās, but they're thin. But we're going to get... We'll make flannel also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So that in cold also you'll...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were going to wear long underwear too.
Prabhupāda: That's all. You must keep yourself well protected. Or you can have some this color pullover. That's also nice. But here I think that one shirt will do. Next.
Lecture on BG 4.1-2 -- Columbus, May 9, 1969:
Sarpocchiṣṭa-payo yathā. Avaiṣṇava-mukhodgirṇaṁ pūtaṁ hari-kathāmṛtam. Hari-kathā, this message of Bhagavad-gītā is hari-kathā. Hari means the Supreme Lord. His word. Therefore it is warned that to "Do not try to hear this message of Hari or the Supreme Lord from rascal nondevotee. Do not try to hear." Why? Sarpocchiṣṭa-payo yathā. Just like milk is very nutritious food, but if a little milk is touched by the tongue of a serpent, whole thing is spoiled. A serpent, a very thin tongue, if he touches the milk, oh, the whole milk is spoiled. So if we take such milk, "Oh, milk is very nice," no. Because it is touched by the serpent's lip, it should not be taken. Similarly, any transcendental message, any Vedic literature, unless it is presented by a self-realized devotee, it is poison. You simply misunderstand the whole thing, and you do not get the benefit. Rather, you become a victim of misunderstanding.
Lecture on BG 4.11 -- New York, July 27, 1966:
Just like if I want to see President Johnson, if I am unknown to him, oh, I will have to take so many formalities. I will have to write to his secretary, and the secretary will give me some time or may not give me some time, so many things. But if you are personally known to President Johnson, you are intimately thick and thin with him, and as soon as you call him, "Mr. Johnson, I want to see you," "Yes, you can come." So it depends on the thick and thin-ship of your relation with Supreme Lord. If you can establish your relationship with the Supreme Lord in love... The Lord does not require our cooperation. He is full in Himself. He does not require my service, but still, if you love Him, then He reciprocates. So our reciprocation with the Lord depends on the proportion of our love, love of Godhead. This love of Godhead can be attained by Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Lecture on BG 4.22 -- Bombay, April 11, 1974:
So long you are in the bodily concept of life, "I am this body," "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am brāhmaṇa." "I am kṣatriya," "I am black," "I am white," "I am fatty." "I am thin..." These are all bodily concept of life. So so long one is in the bodily concept of life, he is sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Go means cows, and kharaḥ means ass.
Lecture on BG 6.32-40 -- New York, September 14, 1966:
So there was a big, overflowing river. So at that time there was no such carrying boats and ships, so everyone had to cross river either by small boats or by swimming. So generally the animals were allowed to swim over, to cross over the other part, other bank, and men, they took small boats and they would... Now, there was very good current, so many horses, they swept away by the current. And one lean and thin horse came. He is asking, "Let me know how much water this is?" You see? So similarly, if what was impossible for Arjuna, such a stalwart, such an advanced and, I mean to say, in every respect, and directly a friend of Kṛṣṇa, he is admitting that "Kṛṣṇa, this process is not possible for me. Oh, I am a military man. I have to look after the administrative affairs. So how can I concentrate my mind in that way which you have prescribed? So it is not possible for me." He flatly denied. He flatly denied.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- London, March 9, 1975:
Similarly, we have our defective senses and we accept something which is not fact. That is called illusion. And we commit mistake, every one of us. There is no man in the world who can say, "I did not commit any mistake in my life." That is not possible. "To err is human," it is said. So we have got four defects. We commit mistake, we are illusioned, bhrama-pramāda... Just like we accept this body as myself. "I am this body." "Who are you?" "I am Mr. such and such," "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am Englishman," "I am white," "I am black," "I am fat," "I am thin." In this way we give description of our body. But we do not know what I am. This is called illusion. And commit mistake, we have got experience. Many times we have committed mistake, blunder, in our life.
Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Durban, October 9, 1975:
So that Kṛṣṇa consciousness achievement, how it can be obtained is being explained by Kṛṣṇa Himself. Therefore it is said, śrī bhagavān uvāca: "The Supreme Personality..." Bhagavān means He does not cheat you. Others, they will give you instruction and cheat you, because anyone who is not liberated, he has got four defects of his life: he commits mistake, he is illusioned, he cheats and his senses are imperfect. This is called conditioned soul, everyone. Even big, big men, big, big leaders, they commit so many mistakes. And so far illusion is concerned, everyone is illusioned because I am not this body, but everyone is thinking, "I am this body." This is called illusion. Dehātma-buddhi. "I am not this body. I am spirit soul." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. But I am thinking, "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am South African," "I am black," "I am white," "I am fat," "I am thin." This is bodily. This is called illusion. And we invent our ideologies by mental speculation, without having perfect knowledge. We are accustomed to say, "I think." But "I think"? What I am? All my senses are imperfect. I commit mistake, I am illusioned, and when I say, "I think," what is the use of my thinking? This is cheating. This is cheating.
Lecture on BG 7.2 -- Nairobi, October 28, 1975:
Anyone who is acting on the bodily concept of life, sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13), they are no better than the cats and dogs. That is going on all over the world. "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am African," "I am this"—bodily, all bodily. "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am black," "I am white," "I am fat," "I am thin." That's all.
Lecture on BG 7.3 -- Vrndavana, October 31, 1973:
Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). First of all, to get out of the entanglement, this bodily conception of life. The bodily conception of life is meant for the animals. Even if he is human being, but if he is under the bodily concept of life... "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am fat," "I am thin," "I am white," "I am black," "I am..." If that is the identification, then he is not even human being. Ātma-tattva. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ. Abodha-jāta. Everyone is born that "I am this body," but if he continues to remain under the impression that "I am this body," then whatever he is doing under the bodily concept of life, he is parābhava. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ. Everything is defeat, because he is doing under the bodily concept of life. So this so-called nationalism, socialism, communism and this ism, that ism—they have manufactured—they are all defeat, defeating. They are being defeated because next life he does not know what he is going to become.
Lecture on BG 12.13-14 -- Bombay, May 12, 1974:
The whole world is going on under this misconception of life, that "I am this body." And under this misconception he is thinking that "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am śūdra," "I am black" and "white," "fat" and "thin," all these things. This is called ignorance. Therefore śāstra says, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13): "Anyone who has got this conception that I am this body, this bag of bones and blood and flesh," sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13), "he is no more than the cows and the asses." That means animal. So whole world at the present moment is going on under this animalistic concept of life, animal civilization. Everyone is busy to take care of the body, but nobody knows how to take care of the proprietor of the body. That he does not know.
Lecture on BG 13.6-7 -- Bombay, September 29, 1973:
Why we have got different types of bodies? Why we haven't got, everyone, the same type of body? Somebody is fat, somebody is very thin, somebody white, somebody black, somebody very beautiful, somebody very ugly. There are so many varieties of bodies. Why? Saṅghāṭa. This is combination, color combination. There are three guṇas. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). As you are associating with the guṇas, you are getting different types of body.
Lecture on BG 13.8-12 -- Bombay, October 5, 1973:
So jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam, what is the highest perfection of life, he requires to approach a guru. It is not a fashion. It is not a fashion that "I have made my guru, such and such Swami." But what you have learned? You cannot learn because you are not at all jijñāsuḥ. You do not know how to inquire, neither the guru you have met, he does know how to reply. Such kind of guru and disciple will not help. The disciple must be also serious to understand about the spiritual subject matter. That is knowledge, brahma-jijñāsā. One who is inquisitive to know about the Absolute Truth, he requires to approach a guru. That is jñāna. Jnana means brahma-jñāna. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is jñāna. And if I am American, that is not jñāna. That is ajñāna. "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am this," "I am that," "I am black," "I am white," "I am fat," "I am thin." These are all ajñāna, ignorance. You are neither fat nor thin nor black nor white nor American, but you are spirit soul. You have to know that. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am spirit soul. I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa." That is knowledge. And for this knowledge you must approach, ācāryopāsanam.
Lecture on BG 13.17 -- Bombay, October 11, 1973:
So entanglement means today I am thinking, "I have got this body"—Indian body or American body or this body or this body or fat body, thin body—tomorrow I may not possess. As soon as I get another body, that means the chapter changes. If I get the body of a dog then I may act like a dog. If I get the body of a hog, then I act like a hog. And if I get the body of a God... God you cannot. Demigod, higher standard of life, then you can act like that. The body is the destiny. With the body everything is destined, your material happiness and distress, everything.
Lecture on BG 13.26 -- Bombay, October 25, 1973:
Go means cow, and kharaḥ means ass. Anyone who is in this bodily concept of life, "I am this," "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am śūdra," "I am fat," "I am thin," "I am white," "I am black," "I am male," "I am female," so many bodily concept of life—the śāstra says all of them are no better than the cows and the asses. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Yasyātma-buddhiḥ. This body is a bag made of tri-dhātus, kapha, pitta, vāyu. Or a bag of flesh and blood and bones. I am not this. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. I am spirit soul. That is knowledge. But people have no such knowledge. Therefore they are called, according to śāstra, go-kharaḥ. Go means cows, animal, and kharaḥ means ass. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape.
Lecture on BG 16.5 -- Hawaii, January 31, 1975:
Somebody is in ignorance. Although he is suffering, he is thinking that he is very well. This is called māyā. Māyā means you are accepting something which is not. This is called māyā. Mā yā: "What you are accepting, that is false." This is called māyā. So we are accepting, "I am this body," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Christian," "I am Hindu," "I am black," "I am white," "I am thin," "I am fat." So this is māyā. So when we give up this māyā conception of life, that is mukti. You may remain in the same body, but if you are not under māyā, bodily concept of life, that is called mukti, liberation.
Lecture on BG 16.10 -- Hawaii, February 6, 1975:
Still, they are very much proud of this body. Why? Alpa-buddhayaḥ, it is said, "less intelligent." Less intelligent. So why he has become less intelligent? That is described in this verse, kāmam āśritya. His basic principle of life is lusty desire, āśritya. He has taken shelter of principally the lusty desire, kāmam āśritya. Our constitutional position is we have to take shelter of somebody. Just like the dog. The dog, if he has no shelter, a good master, he has no position. Street dog. They say, "street dog." He has no food. He has no shelter. He is lean and thin and do not know where to go, in this way. So the constitutional position of the dog is that it must have a good master. Then he is happy. Then he's happy. Otherwise it is not happy. Is it not? Otherwise it is street dog. Sometimes it is killed by the municipality.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Lecture on SB 1.2.12 -- Delhi, November 18, 1973:
Because we do not know. We cannot understand God with these blunt senses. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). The present senses, they are simply after material gratification. So how they can understand Kṛṣṇa? That is not possible. Therefore it is said, jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā (SB 1.2.12). You can understand after jñāna. Jñāna means brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20), one who understands ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am not this material body; I am spirit soul." So brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). Now we are designated by this bodily relationship: "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am black," "I am white," "I am strong," "I am weak," "I am fatty," "I am thin," so many. These are all designation. So one has to become free from the designation. That is jñāna. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). Upādhi. This upādhi. The bodily conception of life is called upādhi.
Lecture on SB 1.5.22 -- Vrndavana, August 3, 1974:
So what is the karma at the present moment? They're seeking service. The so-called education means seeking service, master. Paricaryātmakaṁ karma śūdrasyāpi svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). This is śāstra. Anyone who is attached to give service to others or, without giving service to others, he cannot live, that is, he's śūdra. He has no independent existence. Just like I was showing, the dog. Unemployed. Lean and thin and... Because he has no master. The same dog, when he has got a master, he'll be stout and strong, and he'll, as soon as you... "Owf! Owf! Bow! (laughter) I have got my master." So this is śūdra. Śūdra is compared with the dog. A dog is never happy without a master. Then it is a street dog. That is the difference between household dog and a street dog. So in this age practically you see, unless there is employment, he's a street dog. That is the proof that everyone is a śūdra. That is the proof.
Lecture on SB 1.7.36-37 -- Vrndavana, September 29, 1976:
Do you think that because you are very strong and stout, a big wrestler with muscles, you'll live? No. For Yamarāja there is no consideration that "Here is a weak person, lean and thin, and here is a very strong person; therefore the strong person should be left over and the lean and thin will be taken to Yamarāja." No. When the time will come, the lean and thin may be spared, but the strong man may be immediately taken. So this rascaldom, that by exercise... People are very much attached to the body. We have seen everywhere, especially in European, they are very much attached to make the body stout and strong. And in the morning you'll find... Here also you'll find. They're running to make the body... As if the strong body will save him from death. This is rascaldom. Therefore pramatta. Crazy. We do not say that you remain very weak and lean and thin. No. You should maintain this body properly, but not that that is my only business, how to maintain this body. That is pramatta.
Lecture on SB 1.8.30 -- Los Angeles, April 22, 1973:
Supposing you can manufacture still more bigger. I don't think that the modern age they have manufactured the biggest. We get information from Bhāgavatam. Kardama Muni, the father of Kapiladeva, he manufactured a plane, a big city. A big city, with lakes, with gardens, with big, big houses, street. And the whole city was flying all over the universe. And Kardama Muni showed to his wife all the planets, all the planets. He was a big yogi, and his wife, Devahūti, was Vaivasvata Manu's daughter, very big king's daughter. So Kardama Muni wanted to marry, desired. So immediately Vaivasvata Manu... His daughter, Devahūti, she also said: "My dear father, I want to marry that sage." So he brought the daughter: "Sir, here is my daughter. You accept her as your wife." So she was king's daughter, very opulent, but coming to her husband, she had to serve so much that she became lean and thin, not sufficient food and working day and night.
Lecture on SB 1.15.37 -- Los Angeles, December 15, 1973:
So why they have been described as dog? Dog means he is very faithful to his master. But if you pass through him without any fault, he will bark, "Gow! Gow! Gow! Gow!" That is dog's fault. One qualification is that he is very faithful to the master, but to the others, he is inimical always. In your country we have got experience. They have written, "Beware of dog." And if you pass, you are not entering the house, still, unnecessarily, the dog will bark. Even if he is on the top of veranda corridor, by seeing another unknown person, he will bark. That is offensive. So that is dog's business. And at the present moment the dog is happy only when he has got a good master. Otherwise dog is not happy. A street dog, he cannot eat. He has no eating. He has no place. He is lean and thin. You have seen. But he has got a good master, he is very stout, fatty, and very expert in barking. (laughter) So this is dog's qualification. He is very faithful.
Lecture on SB 1.15.39 -- Los Angeles, December 17, 1973:
Therefore we shall work for God. But we have made our formula, that "God shall work for me." "God, give us our daily bread. We have nothing to do. Simply give us our bread." What is this? But the Vaiṣṇava idea is that "Without giving bread to God, God will die." Yaśodā-māyi is thinking, "If I do not give Kṛṣṇa to eat something nice, Kṛṣṇa will become lean and thin." That is love of Godhead, how to serve Kṛṣṇa, how to serve God. Sevonmukhe. That is real religion. When we are not to take service from God, but we are ready to give service to God, that is real religion. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). Adhokṣaje. God is beyond our senses. Therefore He is Adhokṣaja.
Lecture on SB 1.16.8 -- Los Angeles, January 5, 1974:
But spirit soul is not this body. He is spirit. That quality is one. There is no such distinction, "This is better," "This is lower," "This is black," "This is white," "This is civilized." In the spirit soul platform, everyone is one, one. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Samaḥ. Samatā. Samatā means equality. Where? Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). When one is self-realized, ahaṁ brahmāsmi... "I am not this body. I am not Christian, I am not Hindu, I am not black, I am not white, I am not fat, I am not thin. I am Brahman." Brahmāsmi. That is called Brahman. "I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God. My only business is to serve God, because I am part and parcel of God." Just like I have given several times: the part and parcel of my body is this finger. What is the duty? To serve the whole body. I ask the finger, "Come here immediately. Do this." "Yes." Natural. If I am part and parcel of God, then my only duty is to serve God. That's all. I have no other duty.
Lecture on SB 1.16.20 -- Hawaii, January 16, 1974:
Just like Kardama Muni. Kardama Muni was given the best, beautiful daughter of King Manu. So she was simply serving, not that immediately coming and sexually inclined. She was... So Kardama Muni saw that "This girl came to me, and I have accepted her as my wife, but she is engaged fully, although she is the prince, the daughter of king, very great king. But I'm not giving her any comfort. She has become lean and thin, skinny, but engaged." So he promised that "I am accepting your daughter, but as soon as she will have some children, then I'll leave her. On this condition, I can accept your daughter." The father came with the daughter, that "My daughter has selected you as the proper husband, please accept her." So he accepted, but he made this condition that "As soon as your daughter will have some children, then I'll leave home. Then I'll accept."
Lecture on SB 2.1.1 -- Delhi, November 4, 1973:
Go-kharaḥ. Go means cows and khara means ass. So anyone who has got this concept that "I am this body," "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am black," "I am white," "I am fat," "I am thin," "I am this," "I am that," this is ātma-buddhi, dehātma-buddhi. Yasyātma-buddhi... One should know that "I am not this body." That is real knowledge. That is real knowledge. But nobody knows that. Everyone thinking. The fighting is going on all over the world. Just like Israel and the, what other the party?
Lecture on SB 2.1.1 -- Vrndavana, March 16, 1974:
It is so nice. There is no comparison of this literature, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That we are actually finding in the Western countries, how nicely they are receiving these granthas. We have translated into English, and they're enjoying. Actually that is the fact. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). Now, our problem, what is this problem? Problem is that we have got so many dirty things within the heart. The first dirty thing is that "I am this body." "I am Indian," "I am Englishman," "I am American," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am śūdra," "I am fat," "I am thin," "I am black and white..." These conceptions, these are all dirty things. "I am not this body," that is real knowledge. Therefore Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), to cleanse the dirty things from the heart, that is my first business. And what is that dirty things? To identity myself with this body. That is the dirty things. The whole world is in distressed condition on account of this dirty thing, that "I am this body." This is the conception of the ass.
Lecture on SB 2.1.4 -- Delhi, November 7, 1973:
So just imagine, after five thousand years we have become so much deteriorated, and what will happen even four lakhs of years? The people will reduce to such small stature because they will not be properly fed. Just like at the present moment the stature of the body is reducing. It is reducing. One, my German Godbrother, in 1934, when he came, he was very... That Sadānanda. So he was very lean and thin. So I asked him that "You German people, I understand they are very robust. Why you are lean and thin?" So he told me that "In my childhood, in the First World War, the ration was controlled. Only children, we could get fat, butter." He showed his wristwatch: "This quantity only, once in a week." So unless people can get sufficient food, how the stature will remain? It is reducing. Now there is no rice, there is no ghee, there is no this, there is no... In this way rice will (be) completely finished. No more rice, no more wheat, no more sugar, no more milk. These are stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So if you don't get all these thing, then how your body will be developed? It will reduce just like... At that time, eranḍopi drumāyate, the castor seed trees will be considered as very big tree. Eranḍopi drumāyate.
Lecture on SB 3.28.1 -- Honolulu, June 1, 1975:
So this princess, means daughter of Manu, she began to serve Kardama Muni. And in the yoga āśrama, it was a cottage, and there was no good food, no maidservant, nothing of the sort. So became gradually very lean and thin, and she was very beautiful, king's daughter. So Kardama Muni thought that "Her father gave me, and she is becoming deteriorated in her health, in her beauty. So as husband, I have got to do something for her." So by yoga power he constructed a big city airplane. That is yogic power. Not 747. (laughter) A such a big city, there was lake, there was garden, there was maidservant, big, big palaces, and the whole thing was floating in the sky, and he made her see all the different planets. In this way... That is stated in the Fourth Chapter, you can read it. So as a yogi he satisfied her in every respect. And then she wanted children. So Kardama Muni begot in her nine daughters and one son, with the promise that "As soon as you get your children, then I will go away. I am not going to live forever with you." So she agreed. So after getting the children out of which this Kapiladeva was one, the son, and when He was grown up He also said, "My dear mother, My father has left home. I will also leave home. If you want to take some instruction from Me you can take. Then I shall go away." So before going away He is giving instruction to His mother.
Lecture on SB 5.5.23 -- Vrndavana, November 10, 1976:
Rukmiṇī. He (she) took immediately the camara. He (she) said, "My husband is respecting." But he was dressed very poorly, lean and thin. Brāhmaṇa, because they refuse unnecessary necessities of life, sometimes they look very poor, poverty-stricken. They are not poverty-stricken. They are the richest. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtiṁ śritāḥ, bhajanty ananya-manaso (BG 9.13). Those who are engaged in bhajana never think of their poverty. No. They are not poor. Otherwise, if Sudāmā Vipra, externally he looked very poor, lean and thin, not very nice cloth... Kṛṣṇa is: "My dear friend, sit down here." He brought water, washed the feet, just respectable person, guru, brāhmaṇa. This is etiquette. Kṛṣṇa is showing personally. He is the king. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He also respects a brāhmaṇa. When Nārada used to come to Kṛṣṇa, immediately He would get down from the seat and offer obeisances, and Nārada was smiling, "Just see Kṛṣṇa's līlā."
Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Bombay, November 6, 1970:
Prabhupāda: Bold means they will come and they have no tactic. You are eating and they'll enter. Something he will take away. Therefore there are... Just like here, two sets of doors, one net, the railing door. So one door is closed, wooden; another is railing. So railing door must be closed always. Otherwise you cannot eat, you cannot live very peacefully. They may... Monkey will come.
Devotee: Acyutānanda said he was making capatis one day, and there was a little, a nail this thin especially to keep the monkeys out, holding the door closed. So he heard a sound outside and thought somebody was coming, and, sure enough, the nail was lifted to see, and a monkey popped in, got his capatis and ran.
Prabhupāda: Yes, they are very clever.
Himāvatī: But after all, they're human beings also.
Prabhupāda: Monkey is the last species of life before being promoted to the human being. There are three animals: monkey and cow, and tiger. Lion... Yes.
Haṁsadūta: When that promotion comes, Śrīla Prabhupāda, they are not immediately born into a society like American or...?
Prabhupāda: No, no. Uncivilized, just like aborigine.
Lecture on SB 6.1.8-13 -- New York, July 24, 1971:
Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). The śāstra says one who has accepted this body, which is made of three elements... According to Āyurveda, this body's made of three elements: kapha, pitta, vāyu—mucus, bile and air. Development. There is great machinery within this body. You are taking food; you are transforming into liquid. Whatever you can absorb, that goes to become blood. And what you cannot absorb, that becomes urine. It comes out. Therefore in old age, or those who are diseased, they cannot absorb. They pass more urine. Therefore they become lean and thin, weak. They cannot make blood. So many machinery work is going on. And when that secretion comes to the heart, it turns into blood. Then the blood is distributed by air. It becomes solidified. It becomes flesh, it becomes muscle, it becomes bone. So many things are going on. But what we know? We say that "It is my body." What do you know about your body? Still he says that "I am God." He does not know what is going within his body, and still he's supposed to be God. So yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). The, this bag of stool, urine, blood, bones, if one takes it that intelligence comes out of this stool, urines, and blood, and bone, then he's a fool. Can you create intelligence by taking stool and urine and bones and blood and mix it in laboratory, make some intelligence? Is it possible? But they're thinking like that. "I am this body."
Lecture on SB 6.1.44 -- Los Angeles, July 25, 1975:
So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means they want to educate people, rectifying the basic principle of misconception: "I am body," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am fat," "I am thin," "I am black," "I am white"—all bodily conception. This has to be removed first of all. So the śāstra says that if one is in the bodily concept of life, then he is no more better than an animal. No better than an animal. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). We have discussed many times. This bodily concept of life should be first of all removed. We must be enlightened. Otherwise, if we act on the bodily concept of life, then—not bhadrāṇi, not auspicious—everything is inauspicious, viparītāni. Sambhavanti hi bhadrāṇi viparītāni cānaghaḥ, kāriṇām. Kāriṇām means one who is working. Nobody is... Because dead stone, that is sitting idly, but any..., even a small ant, it is also working. That is the difference between matter and the spirit. So we cannot understand this difference, that what is the difference between matter and spirit. Why the big mountain does not move? Because it is dead matter. And a small ant, it moves. Why it is so? That is the difference between matter and spirit. Why you are misunderstanding that "The spirit is also matter; it is coming from chemical"?
Lecture on SB 6.2.3 -- Vrndavana, September 7, 1975:
hat means there is a balance of 427,000's of years to finish this Kali-yuga. And gradually, with the advancement of Kali-yuga, people's duration of life, memory, mercifulness, religious propensities, in this way eight items—they are described in the Śrīmad Bhagavatam—will reduce. We can see practically at the present moment. People are not very strong in body. They are lean and thin. And not only in India—we are poverty-stricken—but in Europe, America, also I see. The Europeans and Americans are no more as tall men or very stout men, very... So reducing their bodily strength and memory. That is also fact. We cannot memorize very sharply. People are becoming more and more dull. No more very brilliant scholars are coming out, philosophers, mathematicians. And duration of life, everyone knows it is reducing. In India the average duration of life is thirty years. So this will reduce. And dharma, sense of religiosity, that will also reduce and become more and more punishable by the Yamarāja. Yamarāja is there.
Lecture on SB 6.2.11 -- Vrndavana, September 13, 1975:
So this is the special mercy for the unalloyed devotee. So unalloyed devotee means anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (Brs. 1.1.11). Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). Upādhi means artificially. "I am the husband of this wife." "I am the father of these children." "I am the inhabitants of America." "I am American." "I am Hindu." "I am Muslim." "I am Christian." "I am brāhmaṇa." "I am fat." "I am thin." "I am white." "I am black." So many. These are all upādhis. So one has to become free from these upādhi. "I am not this. I am not that. I am not this." Then what you are? Gopī-bhartur pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsa. When one becomes like that... "I am the servant of the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa, gopī-bhartuḥ (CC Madhya 13.80)." This is called paramparā system. This is our real identification. Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). So if you want to be happy, you cannot become happy by your so-called endeavor, by tidbits: "This I will do and I will be happy." No, this is all nonsense. You can be happy only when you fully surrender to Kṛṣṇa without any abhilāṣa.
Lecture on SB 6.2.24-25 -- Gorakhpur, February 13, 1971:
Jāta is hair. Hair. Jāta. So no barber was available. (laughter) Because they knew that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, after arresting, he is suffering from fever. Whole family is lying down in fever. So nobody came forward to cut his jāta. So Bhaktivinoda: "All right, bring one scissor. I shall cut." So he personally cut, and personally cut, and that man became very thin immediately after cutting his jata. He had some power in the jāta. And he ordered six months' imprisonment. And in the prison he managed to take some poison and died. So devotees are so strong. They can know what is what. You see? He was not puzzled that "He is Viṣṇu and this..." No. So we should learn from the Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's treatment that this jugglery or this so-called power is not, no good for advancement in spiritual life. You have to follow the regulative principles as enjoined in the śāstra. Yaḥ śāstra vidhim utsṛjya. If you do not follow the injunction of the śāstra, then there is no possibility of attaining perfection. Na siddhiṁ sāvapnoti. So our business is to accept a bona fide spiritual master, being guided by him, to follow the rules and regulations. Then advancement is sure.
Lecture on SB 7.6.2 -- Vrndavana, December 3, 1975:
Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says that yad esa sarva-bhūtānām. Sarva-bhūtānām. Not that Kṛṣṇa is very dear only to the human beings. No. Sarva-bhūtānām. Because the relationship is very thick and thin, so Kṛṣṇa is also very dear to every living entity. We have forgotten that. Just like the master and the servant, the crude example, the dog: The dog loves the master because he knows, "The master gives me to eat." He feels obliged. The master takes care of the dog, and the dog is very much anxious to serve the master. Similarly, eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. Why our relationship...? Because Kṛṣṇa is supplying all the needs of life. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti. We require so many things but who is supplying? Supplying, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is supplying food to the small ant, and Kṛṣṇa is supplying food to the big elephant. Unless Kṛṣṇa supplies there is no food. If Kṛṣṇa does not supply, if there is no production for your subsistence, then how you will live?
Sri Isopanisad Lectures
Sri Isopanisad Invocation Lecture -- Los Angeles, April 28, 1970:
People are trying to save themselves, and sometimes talking foolishly that by scientific knowledge man will be immortal. You cannot stop the process of the material laws. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). The process of material nature, which is composed of three qualities—sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa... Tri-guṇa. Another meaning of guṇa is rope. Just like you have seen rope, they're twisted in three process. First of all thin rope, then three of them, they are rolled, then again three of them rolled, then again three. It becomes very strong. So these three qualities, sattva, raja, tamo-guṇa, they are mixed up. Again they produce some by-product, again mixed up, again mixed up. In this way eighty-one times they're twisted. So guṇamayī māyā, binding you more and more. So you cannot get out of this binding of this material world. Binding. So therefore it is called apavarga. This process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness means nullifying the pavarga process.
General Lectures
Pandal Speech and Question Session -- Delhi, November 10, 1973:
So people cannot understand. That means the modern civilization is not sober. It is just like cats and dogs. You cannot make a cat and dog sober to understand the philosophy of life. They have degraded so much. That is described in the śāstra. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Ātma-buddhiḥ, thinking "I am this body." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am black," "I am white," "I am fat," "I am thin," "I am this." No, no. You are not this body at all. That is knowledge. That is knowledge. Knowledge begins when you understand that you are not this body. That is the beginning of knowledge. Otherwise, "I am this body," this knowledge is there in the cats and dogs also. The dog also jumping, because he is thinking, "I am very nice dog," or "Nice cat." So śāstra therefore says, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). This body is a bag of three elements—kapha, pitta, vāyu—according to Ayurveda system. This physiological condition, anatomical condition of this body, is made of kapha, pitta, vāyu.
Philosophy Discussions
Philosophy Discussion on John Dewey:
Hayagrīva: He says, "A humanistic religion, if it excludes our relation to nature, is pale and thin, as it is presumptuous when it takes humanity as an object of worship."
Prabhupāda: Humanity is not worship. Every, every... According to God conscious person, everything is worshipable, even an ant, but supreme worshipable is God. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). So that is wanted. Nature, these persons, they are taking as nature as the Supreme. But those who are actually in awareness of God, they know that God is the controller of nature also. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, māyadhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Nature is matter. Matter cannot act independently. In the Bhagavad-gītā, as (indistinct), the difference, what is the difference between matter and the living being. The difference is the matter is being handled, controlled by the living being. Therefore living being is the superior nature, and matter is inferior nature. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). This earth, water, air, fire, etc., everything, these are inferior nature. Just try to understand nature. And above this inferior nature there is superior nature. That, the inferior nature, is a vast ocean, but the superior nature, man, has a big ship.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:
Prabhupāda: But that Aquarian Gospel said that Lord Jesus Christ lived in the temple.
Guest (1): (Bengali) Jesus Christ was there.
Prabhupāda: He was thick and thin with the priest. One priest was very friendly.
Guest (1): Vidyāpati.
Prabhupāda: And he was discussing philosophical talks with them.
Allen Ginsberg: According to the Aquarian Gospel, Christ was in Jagannātha Purī?
Prabhupāda: Yes. And he saw Ratha-yātrā, and there is, name of Kṛṣṇa is there.
Allen Ginsberg: Ratha-yātrā.
Prabhupāda: Ratha-yātrā, as we are performing, San Francisco. So Lord Jesus Christ saw.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- December 21, 1970, Surat:
Haṁsadūta: Here, Bhagavad-gītā.
Prabhupāda: Kiñcid adhīta. (break) ...a thousand pages of this size. This is four hundred pages, but that Gītā will be thousand pages. But we shall use very thin paper. Yes. It is available after some time.
Guest (2): Where?
Prabhupāda: In our center in India.
Guest (2): Is this same?
Prabhupāda: No, it is Nectar of Devotion. Where are our other books?
Haṁsadūta: In my suitcase. Shall I bring them?
Prabhupāda: Yes, bring. (break) Kṛṣṇa, canvassing Himself, says, Kṛṣṇa, Himself canvassing, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). "Give up everything. Just surrender unto Me." How many do it? So we are canvassing on behalf of Kṛṣṇa. He personally said practically. So you don't expect that everyone will be Kṛṣṇa conscious. It is very difficult.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:
Devotee (4): I think if there is so much fear being preached in Christianity originally the Old Testament was the testament of the vengeful God and the New Testament was supposed to be the love of Christ. So if there is so much fear being preached it seems to be a reflection of individual consciousness more than the religion. They are preaching so much fear, it would seem to stem from their own activities, that maybe they do have this fear rather than the true reflection of the religion that Christ was teaching. He was supposedly (indistinct) to take up the sins of his disciples and to help them lead the nice life and lead them back. He said, he referred to them as his flock. So he was taking the role of a protector and yet the Christians you speak to, they talk about hanging you over hell by a thin thread that can be burnt away at any second. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Devotee: He said the Christians... (break)
Prabhupāda: But generally the Christians they are very much confident that all of our sinful actions they have been absorbed by Lord Jesus Christ so we can do anything.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Conversation with the GBC -- May 25, 1972, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: That is the point. Our advancement means the more we meet opposing elements, "Oh, that is alright." Therefore preacher is the best devotee because he is a soldier. Just like government gives all importance to the fighting soldier. When there is war, all comforts for the soldier first, then the civil people. There was no butter in Germany, there was no butter. But the soldiers were profusely supplied with butter. And sometimes when the enemy attacks, they throw it away and go away and go to another shelter and still there is butter. That my Godbrother (indistinct) when he first came to India I asked him that, "I heard that you German people are very robust, stout and strong, why you are so thin and weak?" So he replied me in this way that, "In my childhood when I was eight years old weekly I was getting butter for (indistinct)". Everything was controlled, even for children. But the soldiers, there was no control. So that is, my point is, that those who are soldiers, fighting on behalf of Kṛṣṇa, they are brave soldiers. Na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ (BG 18.69). Kṛṣṇa says, "Nobody is dearer than him who is in the process of preaching this Bhagavad-gītā."
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Yes. In my body, there are millions of living entities. In my intestines, there are so many worms. If they, if they become stronger, then whatever you eat, they eat it. You don't take any benefit out of it. Therefore those who are full with these hookworms, they eat very much, but they do not grow. They become lean and thin. But they are very much hungry because these living entities are eating, and he's feeling hungry. And he's eating, but he cannot take any benefit out of it. He's lean and thin. So already there are thousands and millions of living entities in my body. But they are individual, I am individual. I may be proprietor of this garden, but there are many millions of living entities living in this garden. Similarly I may be proprietor of this body, but many millions of living entities are living in my body. I know that. Otherwise, how hookworms coming out of my intestines? So you cannot say that the chemical is lacking. Chemical is not lacking.
Morning Walk -- April 27, 1973, Los Angeles:
Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is, the food.
Prabhupāda: I think I..., Germany, in the war, they extracted fat from stool because stool is full of fat and hypophosphytes. Stool. So there was scarcity of fat. So they were extracting fat from stool. By scientific method. There was no fat available in wartime. That my Godbrother, Sadānanda, when he came India, so I asked him that: "Your German people, I've heard that German people are very stout and strong. Why you are lean and thin?" So he replied that: "During the war days, there was control. So I was getting fat, butter, simply because we were children." He showed his wrist watch, "to this, this much. Only for children, this much butter, weekly, once." That means under, under-nourished. So therefore they are finding out fat from stool. And in the concentration camp, Kīrtanānanda told me, actually they ate their own stools. And who was telling me...? Śrutakīrti, you were telling me that in the, what is called? Capsule? They turn their stool into food.
Śrutakīrti: Oh, that wasn't me. No.
Morning Walk -- December 8, 1973, Los Angeles:
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are planning to go to Mars now.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is another bluff. Another bluff. The smaller plan, they could not make successful. Now they're attempting bigger plan. Bara bara goragere rasatala, beta gora katha jala.(?) Betagor... There is a story that there was river. You know, horse can swim over. So big, big stalwart horses, they waved, mean, they washed away by the flood. So one lean and thin horse is coming, "Can you tell me how much water is there?" It is like bara bara goragere rasatala, beta gora katha jala. (?) So these rascals could not reach even the moon planet; now they are planning to the Mars planet. Just see. And another rascal will believe him. That, What you have done for the, which is the nearest planet?
Karandhara: Well, they say they've done everything they wanted to do with the moon. They say they've accomplished everything they wanted to on the moon.
Prabhupāda: So you are not successful. That's a fact.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- June 14, 1974, Paris:
Paramahaṁsa: It's also said that if you follow perfectly the rules and regulations, but don't develop love for Kṛṣṇa, then you have wasted your time.
Prabhupāda: Yes, but if you follow the rules and regulations, automatically, you'll love Kṛṣṇa. Sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ. These are the stepping-stones. The devotional service develops by association. So if the associates are pure devotees, anyone who will come to that association will become devotee. (break) ...just like a young man and young woman. The devotion is there, love is there, but in the beginning, they should mix, or some presentation should be given, some, something eatable should be accepted, should be given. In this way, when the association is thick and thin, the love is there. The love is already there. It has to awakened by a certain process. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti bhuṅkte bhojayate guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati ca ṣaḍ-vidhaṁ prīti-lakṣaṇam. These are six types of loving principles, that you give, if you want to love somebody, you give something. And whatever he or she offers, you take from him. Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti. You give him something to eat, and whatever he or she gives, you eat. Bhuṅkte bhojayate ca. And guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati. And you try to understand his heart, and your heart be disclosed to him or her. If you follow these principles, automatically the loving propensity will awaken. It is already there. It is not artificial. It has simply to be awakened by a certain process.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:
Prabhupāda: Because they will not get sufficient food, shelter, bodily necessities. Just like it is already declining, already declining. Just formerly in our childhood we saw the Western people very tall. Now they are not tall. They are decreasing already. (break) In the Western countries, still there are some but in other countries they are very lean, thin and drawn. Stature of the body will decrease. Memory will decrease. It is already taking place. So in this way, you just imagine, in 400,000 years after, what will be the condition. You take mathematical calculation. (laughter) (break)
Hṛdayānanda: He's asking again about geographically, what will it be like as far as temperatures and the different continents. That's what he's interested in.
Prabhupāda: Yes, gradually everything will be barren. At the end of annihilation everything will be barren and by scorching the sunlight will be twelve times higher. So everything will be barren and burned into ashes.
Room Conversation with three Trappist Monks, Psychologists from the University of Georgia, and Atlanta Lawyer, Michael Green -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:
Prabhupāda: Yes. Not spiritual type, it..., material type. He cannot maintain himself independently. Nowadays people are being educated highly, but if there is no service he has no value.
Guest (2): So the tamasi.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He has no value. I have seen one doctor of chemistry—he could not get any service—in Allahabad. His name was Raghunātha Mitri(?), Dr. Raghunātha Mitri. So he was living at the cost of his father-in-law and making some soap and going to the shop for selling, doctor. That means he could not get any service. Now his independence was to manufacture some soap as ordinary man is doing. But he was chemist; he could not do anything. He could manufacture some soap. So in spite of high education, because he could not get a good job, he had no value. Just like the dogs. The dogs, if they do not get a master, nice, then street dog. He is lean and thin and no shelter, no...
Guest (1): That is what is happening...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:
Prabhupāda: The aborigines lived in almost perfect harmony with their environment for thirty thousand years, thirty to forty thousand recorded years—that's how far our research can take us back—whereas in a little over a hundred years, European man in Australia has done in places irreparable damage to not only the vegetation but also the soils of arid Australia. It's damage that will probably never, ever be repaired because the environment is so delicate in central Australia that as soon as our cloven-footed animals, our sheep and our cattle, for example, are brought into the arid areas, they eat, they trample, they remove vegetation. This loosens the soil; the soil is very thin. It's very unfertile, and it blows away. And virtually all you have left is rock. And nothing grows, of course, on rock. That's an over-simplification and perhaps an over-dramatization, but this has happened in Australia. It didn't happen when the aborigines lived here, undisturbed by us. It has happened since European man has come.
Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: We have got about hundred centers. And we are maintained in Eu..., just like European, American standard, not vagabond standard. But still, we have no fixed income. Depend on Kṛṣṇa. If He wants, He will give us food; if He wants, we shall starve. This is brāhmaṇa, practical. And "Now I have got all degrees, and unless I get a good master, then I am street dog." (Dr. Copeland laughs) That is śūdra. Without getting a master... Just like a street dog has no value unless he gets a good master. Then he can bark (Prabhupāda barks), "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! I have got my master." And if he doesn't get a master, nobody cares for it, and he is lean and thin, here going, here going, that's all. This is śūdra. He has no power to live independently. That is śūdra.
Morning Walk -- July 8, 1975, Chicago:
Prabhupāda: Ahaituky apratihatā. Why don't you understand? Preaching cannot be checked by anything—if you want to preach. In any circumstances you can preach. Prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācā. Preaching can be executed by four things: by your life, by your money, by your intelligence, and by your words. You have got so many assets. So you can utilize it for preaching. Dedicate your life. If you think that you are family man, you cannot dedicate twenty-four hours, then earn money and give it to Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement as other family men, they are earning money. Eh? Is it not? You can earn. In America there is good facility for earning money. They want that you work and take money. So earn money as gṛhastha and give it to Kṛṣṇa. Prāṇair arthair. If you cannot earn money, then use your intelligence. There are so many intellectual work: publication, going to this officer, that officer. You, intellectually you try. And vācā, by words. If you cannot do anything, go anyone, anywhere and say that "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, just offer your obeisances." Finished. So where is the scarcity? You can serve Kṛṣṇa in any capacity-provided you want to serve. And if you want to engage Kṛṣṇa for your service, that is blunder. Then it is blunder. You cannot engage Kṛṣṇa to your service. The everyone is trying to engage Kṛṣṇa for his service. They are going to the church, "O Kṛṣṇa, give us our daily bread," that "You serve me. You give us our daily bread and serve me." And our proposition is, Yaśodāmayī, "Kṛṣṇa, You are playing all day. Come on! Take food first of all." This is service. They are going to Kṛṣṇa for asking daily bread. And here Yaśodāmayī is commanding, "Come here! If You don't eat, You will get lean and thin. Come on." This is Vaiṣṇava philosophy.
Morning Walk -- August 12, 1975, Paris:
Prabhupāda: Cameras?
Bhagavān: Everyone has camera. This way we go? (break) Everyone should chant softly.
Prabhupāda: But here we cannot walk in...
Bhagavān: We cannot all walk, I don't think. It is too thin here.
Prabhupāda: There are so many men. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) It is closed?
Bhagavān: They don't like traffic in here so...
Prabhupāda: Oh. That's nice. Good idea. (break)
Bhagavān: They are getting cheated from all sides. The scientists are cheating them...
Prabhupāda: No, they want to be cheated. What can be done? Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). Just like the advertisement, "No faith, no philosophy, no restriction." You want all these things; therefore he has come to cheat you: "Yes. No regulation. You can do whatever you like." And then he will praised, "Oh, he is good, good swamiji. He has no restriction. And here is a most conservative swamiji. 'Don't do this. Don't do this. Don't do this.' " They want to be cheated. As soon as you speak the truth they will not accept. They will argue. What is the wrong in illicit sex? Why he's restricting? This is the... They go to guru to teach the guru, not to take lesson from the guru. What is that?
Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:
Jñāna: If I eat a lot I become fat. If I stop eating I become thin.
Prabhupāda: You stupid, you eat so much, but God is not stupid. He is conscious perfectly. He has nothing to eat. Still, He can grow. That is the difference between me and God. You don't require to eat even. There are many saintly persons they do not eat. How they are working? Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was not eating. He was... Every alternate day he was, little butter, so much. That's all, not daily. Every alternate day. So actually we do not require to eat. Eating, sleeping, sex and defense—this is bodily necessities. But you are not this body. When you come to the spiritual platform there is no necessity of these four principles. So that is your mistake, that you are thinking, "God has got a body like me. He requires eating for nourishing it." That is your foolishness. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. His body is so made that He can perform any limb's work by another limb. Just like we can see with the eyes. As soon as close the eyes, we cannot see. But Kṛṣṇa can see by His ear. As soon as you pray to Kṛṣṇa, immediately He sees you, "Oh, here is My devotee," by hearing the sound of your prayer.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Oh, that's all. (break) How many years it will take?
Jayapatāka: Take another two, three years.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda? Sometime we read that Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in that... There is a mango tree that grew immediately? And it's described: no pit, no skin and no pit. Does that mean very thin skin or no skin at all? Because if there's no... I mean, it seems like for...
Prabhupāda: Even it was skin, it was not the skin as you think.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Edible skin.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...with me in Kurukṣetra?
Harikeṣa: I was there. Caitya-guru also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That Mr. Nanda, he showed his cowshed.
Harikeṣa: Oh, yes.
Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:
Jayapatākā: He always had some French people with him?
Prabhupāda: No, no. That... One French girl entrapped him. That woman spoiled him. He was actually practicing yoga very nice. After his release from political entanglement, actually he became a yogi, but this Frenchwoman, who became later on "Mother," she spoiled her ca..., his career. He became a bhogī then. (laughter) Instead of yogi... Otherwise, he was becoming yogi. You'll find from his photo. In the beginning, he was very lean and thin, and later on, when he died, he was very fatty. Means bhogī. (break) ...yogi bhogī, rogī. There are three.
Devotee (3): Rogī.
Prabhupāda: Rogī means diseased, and bhogī means flourishing, and yogi means transcendentalist.
Hṛdayānanda: Rogī.
Hari-śauri: What is...? A yogi passes stool once a day, a bhogī twice and a rogī more.
Prabhupāda: Who told you. Eh?
Hari-śauri: That's what we were told when we first joined the temple to stop us over-eating.
Jayapatākā: Some devotees were holding their stool for the next day to be a yogi, (laughter) the second time coming. And getting stomachache.
Prabhupāda: Is it a fact?
Jayapatākā: Yes.
Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: Yes, invite them.
Rādhāvallabha: Madhudviṣa Mahārāja, if you can keep everyone from banging into those... They break very easily.
Prabhupāda: So why not make a small booklet of all these, thin paper, so that we can send.
Rādhāvallabha: We need very much also a permanent display building in Māyāpur. This exhibit cost almost four thousand dollars.
Prabhupāda: Yes, have immediately.
Rādhāvallabha: Jaya.
Prabhupāda: Immediately ask them to construct a house.
Ghanaśyāma: Make it like a museum.
Prabhupāda: Who is here from Māyāpur, in-charge? Nobody is here?
Yadubara: Jayapatāka went on parikrama.
Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:
Prabhupāda: Hmm. Still more?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. "After the sermon, more chanting. Now it really becomes frantic, and even compelling. Many curious first-time visitors begin to take up the mahāmantra chant. The hard-core group at the shrine seems to be completely carried away. The terrazo floor literally vibrates. Gradually the crowd begins to thin. Other things are happening in the center. On the third floor there is a traditional Vedic play in costume, acted with enthusiasm." (sound of kīrtana)
Hari-śauri: It's going downstairs somewhere, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Ādi-keśava: They're getting everybody together to go out on saṅkīrtana party.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says here, "On the second floor there is a store which attracts many visitors who want to buy Indian costumes, jewelry and the movement's books. Prasādam is served in the basement restaurant. Visitors eat at tables in the same area where monks had breakfast on the floor. The prasādam features Hindu dishes served in the compartments of plasticized paper mess trays." Then it goes on. Now there's another article about you. Why are they holding a kīrtana now?
Ādi-keśava: They're getting a kīrtana party together to go out on hari-nāma down at Times Square (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: Hmm. What does he say?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Prabhupāda, ācārya-founder, born Abhay Caran De in India in 1895, the founder, future founder-ācārya, spiritual leader of ISKCON, came under the spiritual direction of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, ascetic scholar and preacher who had devoted his life to the spread of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:
Ātreya Ṛṣi: In Koran it is described that there is a very dangerous bridge that one has to pass.
Prabhupāda: This is described in the Vedas, Vaitaraṇī, cross from the material to the spiritual world.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: And it is fire in both sides, and it is like a razor edge, it could be very thin. And the saintly persons close their eyes and pass it. Kṛṣṇa makes them pass.
Prabhupāda: Similar description is there, bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām (SB 10.14.58). Bhavāmbudhiḥ, the great ocean of material nescience, it becomes vatsa-padam, just like the water contained in the hoof impression of a calf. Bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ param. Exactly animal civilization. Animal does not know what is future, what is past, what is going to happen, nothing. The human civilization has become like that. Professor Kotovsky said, "Swamiji, after finishing this body, everything is finished." He's a big professor in Moscow. This is their civilization. What do they explain about the lower animals? Wherefrom they come, the birds, beasts, trees, insects?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Where, in Koran?
Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say the modern scientists.
Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:
Harikeśa: Dinanath Mishra in Calcutta.
Prabhupāda: One man, a case pleader.
Hari-śauri: That very thin man? Oh, I know. Yes. He was very sick actually when we were there.
Prabhupāda: Yes, he was sick. He was half dead.
Hari-śauri: What about those people when we went back to where you used to live? When we came back from Māyāpur and we went out that night to, what they called? Your old friend's house?
Prabhupāda: Oh, Mulliks.
Hari-śauri: Mulliks.
Prabhupāda: They are just like my younger brothers. Their elder brothers were contemporaries. They are all died.
Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: You can give him that paper. Today is very nice report about our activities in the Sunday Chronicle. You can go up to the car. Go up to the car. So, I shall take little khicuḍi at half past one. Khicuḍi as he, as you gave in the first, very thin, but same way. And that lemon chutney.
Maṇihāra: Lemon pickle.
Prabhupāda: Pickle, yes. Khicuḍi with potato and other vegetables, and ghee should be given separately as I... Make it simplified. If I go to rest at two o'clock, then it will be possible to start. So see that it is quickly done. We shall go and come back by half past twelve. In Europe especially, if they do not change their mode of living, reject spiritual life, then gradually the whole situation will be dangerous. Then there will be no water supply.
Prabhā Viṣṇu: Yes. I read in the newspaper just a few days ago that Britain is thinking of importing drinking water.
Prabhupāda: It is impractical. Is it possible to import drinking water for so many people?
Prabhā Viṣṇu: No.
Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: This is their utopian theory.
Prabhā Viṣṇu: They are thinking that man will conquer over nature. That's their ideal, that man will become God.
Maṇihāra: Just before I left England... They have so many cows in the south of England, they were grazing. But because it was so hot, the grass was not growing. It was becoming very dry, and no new grass was growing because there was no rain. So then they had to move all the cows to the north of England. Thousands upon thousands of cows, they have to move in big lorries to the north of England where there was some grass. And now in the north of England there is no grass, so they're going to have to move them to Scotland. It's costing so much money. And then the cows are going to become thin.
Prabhupāda: They are killing immaturely. Because they die, they cannot eat. They want to eat fresh, huh? The want to kill them alive. (pause) You want? So let us go down to the car. (end)
Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Whatever your father and mother has chosen, that's all. He's your worshipable husband. This is the... This point I wanted to bring. And her father was surprised. "How is that? I got you married with an old man? Somehow or other, circumstances I was obliged. How is that you have picked up one young man?" He chastised her like anything. Then when he came to understand that the same old man has become now young man by medical treatment, then he was satisfied. So you cannot change. I have seen it. One, my father's friend, he was very old man. My father was also... He was at that time not less than sixty-five. But his wife died, and he was married with another young girl. But his sister forced him to marry. That "Unless you marry, who will look after you? You have no children." But I have seen that young woman who was married with that gentleman... In our childhood we used to called her didi. Didi means elder sister. So the relationship was very thick and thin. But that old man, not less than sixty-five, and this young woman, utmost twenty to twenty-five. She was serving the husband like anything. We have seen it. There is no question of changing or being dissatisfied.
Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Yes, make a better design. And the hand will be like this.
Dhanañjaya: Not like this. I like this myself. It's Navadvīpa style.
Prabhupāda: This is Navadvīpa style.
Dhanañjaya: Yes, I like this much better. Otherwise the arms are too long and thin.
Prabhupāda: In this way make a nice design Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. And Rādhārāṇī should be like this. This is Vṛndāvana style. Not this. This is Lakṣmī style. This. Make these arrangements. I am hopeful of this business. Very good business we'll have. I want to introduce in every family. They'll do it. If they do not worship, let them keep as dolls. That will also give them inspiration.
Dhanañjaya: Actually so many Indians in their house they're keeping just like dolls. They are not worshiping regularly. They're keeping on the mantlepiece or on the side.
Prabhupāda: In this way be encouraged and in full capacity do business and get others.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:
Prabhupāda: A madman working... Chāgale nā khāya, pāgale ki bale. "A madman, what does he not say, and a goat, what does he not eat?" There is a system like that amongst the Muhammadan aristocracy. They keep one hundred chickens. Each day they kill one chicken, and that flesh, chopped up and given to the ninety-nine. Then, next day another. In this way, when one is left, that the master eats. Concentrating from hundred to one, and then he eats it. This is Muhammadan process.
Rāmeśvara: What is the use?
Prabhupāda: They know. (chuckling) They think the hundred chickens' vitamin comes into one.
Hari-śauri: Māyayāpahṛta-jñānā.
Prabhupāda: And by eating such chicken, you don't require one cloth. That is aristocracy. They, during severe cold, they will have fine panjabi. You know panjabi?
Hari-śauri: Yes, very thin.
Prabhupāda: And if you wear... (end)
Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:
Prabhupāda: Water is there.
Pālikā: Ācchā.
Prabhupāda: Lunchtime you'll make some cāpāṭi, very thin. I think I shall take cāpāṭis, a little rice. I'll give you instruction.
Pālikā: And what?
Prabhupāda: And at the time I shall tell you. Not any of the same thing. (chuckles) Everyone wants to cook for me.
Satsvarūpa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: But this girl, (laughs) she travels all over the world, spending her own money or society money?
Satsvarūpa: Society. She's the only one who's actually regular that is doing it good.
Prabhupāda: No, she is very responsible. Whatever I say, at least she tries to do it best. That is her qualification. Nei, everyone is doing.
Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are very much glorified.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And the government gives them all facilities because they are dear patriots, laying down their life. During war everything is controlled, but they are supplied with immense. One store is destroyed; another one store is ready. Those who have gone to the warfield, they are... Because they have got that store of food and everything, sufficient, whatever they like, want. Now, in one point they have to go away. So how they can take the store? So from one point to another point there is another store. This store is blown, that enemy may not take advantage of it. This is going on, hundreds and thousands of worth of goods-blown, cut. Because they are going to another point and the enemies will take advantage of the store, therefore they blown it. Therefore in war there is store scarcity. And that Sadānanda, you know that, my German Godbrother? So he was lean and thin, tall. So I was asking him that "I have heard that the Germans are very stout and strong, so why you are so lean and thin?" So he gave me, gave me condition that in the first war he was a child. So there was so much control, only weekly he could get a little butter. He showed a, this spot, like that. "Because we were children, we were supplied little butter, weekly this much. There was no nourishment. And we had to eat anything nonsense." Germans, they were given much tribulation, all sides. Still, they fought the French. All sides, enemies. But still, the Germans are well-to-do. I have seen. In other countries they are well-to-do.
Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can't even do it here, but they're going to do it in space.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They said there'll be no pressure, so it will be success... They're just bluffing.
Prabhupāda: No, they are thinking that they are speaking the right thing, but to a person who is in knowledge, just like, they'll take, the child is talking knowledge... They are thin... When the child talks, he talks very seriously. But the father laughs. Child does not know that he is talking nonsense. That is their foolishness. They're all nonsense. They do not know they are nonsense. Because "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss"—the whole world full of nonsense and rascals—if you speak something sensible, they'll laugh. He has stated that, that nobody understands even a line of Bhagavad-gītā, I have said?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, in the article in the current news weekly they quoted Prabhupāda as saying that nobody even understands one line of Bhagavad...
Prabhupāda: No, you also understand now that charge, how it is a fact. The fact is, as it is in the Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You have to change your body. Then, if you have to change your body, then where is the question of nationalism? The first thing is mistake. And the nationalist leader, they are taking Bhagavad-gītā and jumping like dog on nationalism. Where is the question of nationalism? Answer me.
Room Conversation -- July 10, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Oh, directory
Mr. Myer: Whole things is done in one. I'll bring a copy when I come next time. It was done on very special paper made by Triveni Tissues in Calcutta. And whole thing is just so thin, and it covers everything, whatever, all Indian bases, all foreign embassies, banks, newspapers. (indistinct) Bombay this gentleman is. He's got a very big press. But he has a problem in managing it. So my brother is trying to give him some business. They have got very good facilities, offset. People don't believe such good printing can be done in India, five color, six color.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your brother is a printer by trade? No.
Mr. Myer: He is publisher.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's a publisher by trade.
Mr. Myer: He is actually doing agency business and publishing as his hobby. He's trying to bring out a few books.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where does he live?
Mr. Myer: He lives in Bangalore.
Prabhupāda: So why not bring some samples?
Mr. Myer: I'll bring. I'll bring samples. And also I think if you want to print Back to Godhead issue, he can easily do it. He's got a very good mind for it.
Prabhupāda: No, if your brother has got good press, we can print so many books.
Room Conversation -- October 4, 1977, Vrndavana:
Bali-mardana: I think Prabhupāda's... The GBC are coming here, so let them consider. Make a presentation. Gopāla is coming in a day or two. By tomorrow he should be coming. Because Prabhupāda, now it's too much for him to think about it now. Scratch with your nails.
Haṁsadūta: Prabhupāda, you've become so thin. You've become so thin. You have to become better.
Bhagatji: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (pause) (break)
Hari-śauri: Of course, you have so many disciples around the world who are always praying for your health, so ten brāhmaṇas would not achieve very much. He repeated also what he said before, that the period up until next March would be very difficult time.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Hari-śauri: He said that up until next March, that would be a very difficult time. But if Your Divine Grace goes beyond that time, then for three or four years, then health will return.
Prabhupāda: Back side itching.
Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:
Upendra: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I think that just as you gradually decreased your eating and drinking and became very weak, so you should increase gradually, very carefully. Yesterday you drank barley water and grape juice, and you didn't come down with a cough. So if you increase just a little barley water and mung water, then after a few days thin milk, maybe some Complan, and then gradually increase the resistance...
Prabhupāda: So instead of water, barley water.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Take barley water now?
Prabhupāda: In milk. Milk will give some strength.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Milk will give some strength, Prabhupāda says. He's going to make now, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Milk or...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Complan?
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Give her to prepare. I cannot take very thick. Only thin prepara...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everything has to be made very thin.
Śaktimātā: Only liquid, water. I will start one drop, one spoon, then start increase and increase. How much depend to you as you like, you accept, the body accept. That is my duty to do. As you like. I am your servant.
Prabhupāda: Do it.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So Śrīla Prabhupāda, Upendra brought something for you. (break) I also cannot serve. I have no idea. I want you to know that I don't know. I don't know what to say medically what to do. Upendra says giving little at a time is better.
Prabhupāda: So you wanted to change...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Change the bedding?
Prabhupāda: You wanted to do something?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were talking about... Not now. I think a little while later giving you full sponge bath and then changing the sheets. You want to do it now? We can do it now.
Prabhupāda: No. You can do later.
Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:
Kīrtanānanda: So if we just go a little bit slowly, it will get us there faster in the end.
Prabhupāda: I'm very thin and hungry.(?) I'll take a little. And now, in the evening, they'll come about ten to twelve. Arrange for that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Prabhupāda. There's about fifty people going to come for prasādam?
Jayapatākā: Fifteen.
Dr. Kapoor: They will come in afternoon.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twelve to fifteen. Okay. We'll arrange for their taking prasādam. So you'll bathe now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Who can read Hindi?
Hari-śauri: Who can read Hindi?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can you read Hindi? (break)
Prabhupāda: From medical point of view, you cannot give life. The life is finished. Where is medical point? Hm? According to duration of life, that is finished. You cannot give a dead body life.
Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:
Gaura-govinda: No, they left. Third day there was a thin crowd. They all left. That was the only day when all had come. They left. Fifty percent, seventy-five percent crowd left. Only twenty-five percent stayed.
Pañca-draviḍa: Was there any criticism?
Gaura-govinda: Oh, many criticisms. Many criticisms. I also heard. There was one custom that there are some specific persons, pāṇḍās, they would go out all directions to search that wood, specific nim wood from which the new body would be carved. There are some symptoms in the wood, that nim tree. They would find it out. And they go all directions. But this year they never gone anywhere. Last time from where they have pulled up the trees, they went there, and without proper ceremony they cut down the trees and came. This was also criticism. They never followed this thing this year.
Prabhupāda: The pāṇḍās are doing...
Gaura-govinda: Doing all nonsense. These pāṇḍās are so wicked that all were afraid of them. These government people are all afraid of them. The administrator, temple administration, though he's government servant, they are all afraid of them.
Prabhupāda: Why?
Gaura-govinda: Because they are guṇḍās. And these government people, they get vote and come to the power, and these pāṇḍās, they are so powerful that if they will not listen to them, they will topple down their position. They have such apprehension. And publicly also they will create some persecution among them. They have such... That Sadasiva Rath Sharma?(?) That time, Prabhupāda, when you were at Bhuvaneśvara, he came...
Prabhupāda: Ah, ha, ha.
Gaura-govinda: He was telling that when he associated with us, those pāṇḍās told him that "Oh, you have taken some money from these ISKCON people. Therefore you are favoring them." He was criticized, and he was telling me that "Now these pāṇḍās are talking about me like this."
Prabhupāda: He's also a pāṇḍā?
Gaura-govinda: No, he's not a pāṇḍā.
Room Conversation -- November 4, 1977, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Bitter.
Bhakti-caru: Yes. So should I mix it with some sweet? Like... I normally give the powder with glucose so that the glucose will give you some sweet taste. But distilled medicine, the water thin, watery medicine, that is tasteless. It tastes like water.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Let us follow this medicine until its prescribed time, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Give me. (swallows medicine)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This kavirāja feels quite confident, Śrīla Prabhupāda. He is not a fool. He says there's reason to feel quite hopeful. Naturally you are feeling a little hopeless because you've been laying down for so long in bed. Would you like to hear a little bit of one of the books? We'll read some more of the Teachings of Lord Kapila that we were reading yesterday to you? In this way we can pass the time very nicely.
Prabhupāda: Who is...?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're moving the light over to this side for reading.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: This book is wonderful, Prabhupāda, Kapila, Teachings of Lord Kapila. It is a beautiful cover. (Jayādvaita reads from Teachings of Lord Kapila) (end)
Correspondence
1967 Correspondence
Letter to Krsna Devi -- San Francisco 16 December, 1967:
If there is labor cheap you can organize there some incense manufacturing concern. I wish that in every center we shall now manufacture incense very good quality. The only thing you have to assured to get the splinters or the thin sticks. If you think it will be possible to get, then immediately start the work. The ingredients are the splinters, charcoal, starch or gum and essential oils. It will be very lucrative business and the profits will be sufficient to maintain the center once you begin the work. I will give you many business ideas by which you can accumulate nice profits. For business four things are required. Namely place, labor, capital and organization. For incense we have already organization. Little capital you are gathering. The poverty place means you can get cheap labor and the place you have already in your possession. Guidance, I am present. So do it immediately and there will be no scarcity of money. I hope you understand me right.
1968 Correspondence
Letter to Advaita -- Seattle 6 October, 1968:
So by the Grace of Krishna, you have got the talent and you have got the opportunity also to serve Him, and I wish that Krishna may give you more and more such opportunity to make your progress in Krishna Consciousness. I have already written to Uddhava about binding and size of the book, and again I am repeating that all my books shall be printed in the size 6 1/2 x 9, but next printing, I am willing to do it, canto by canto. That is to say, the three volumes already published of Srimad-Bhagavatam maybe printed in one volume. And the paper should be that Indian thin paper. And the pages shall not be less than 1000. Of course, the composition all in Roman type, we shall avoid not the Sanskrit type. Simply we shall put transliteration, translation, and purport. In this way volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. 12 volumes, of Srimad-Bhagavatam will be published. So we can do the needful. And so far Back To Godhead is concerned, it is already known to you how to do it.
Letter to Uddhava -- Seattle 6 October, 1968:
Regarding binding: The cost of binding should not be more than 40 cents. And the best thing will be some of our students learn binding also. The book size of Srimad-Bhagavatam will be exactly as it is, at present, but it may be that the pages may be increased. Because next printing I am thinking three volumes in one. And the papers may be just like Bible paper, thin, and pages will be not less than 1000, and we shall print in one volume; the binding should be very first class, and similarly, part by part, we shall have to print 12 parts, altogether. So if some of our students becomes expert in binding, that will be very nice. I think Devananda, who is in Boston, he has some knowledge in binding. Binding is not very difficult task. Anyone can do it, but I do not know how it will be successfully done. But the cost of binding must not be more than 40 cents.
1969 Correspondence
Letter to Satsvarupa -- Los Angeles 12 February, 1969:
I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 7, 1969, and I have noted the contents. Regarding Jadurani's diet, let her take fruits, vegetables, milk, capatis, and also when she is hungry she may take a little rice and some thin mung dahl. Please keep me informed of her progress.
Regarding your idea of having an installation ceremony for the Deities, it is very good suggestion, and you may also have the sacrificial fire. The Deities should be bathed with milk, and while bathing, They must have covering of thin cotton cloth, and the whole Body and the clothing should be wet by pouring the milk. You can see the picture of this in the new Back To Godhead, and perhaps you saw the ceremony when it was held in New York. The Deities should be decorated with sufficient flowers and nice gorgeous dresses and ornaments.
Letter to Govinda -- Los Angeles 17 August, 1969:
Regarding mango recipe directions, it may be done as follows: first of all collect the juice, then boil it on fire until it is a thick pulp. And while boiling, add a little salt also. That will act as a preservative; but don't make it salty. Then spread the boiled pulp in thin layers on dishes or suitable pots and dry it in the sunshine. I think it will come out successful. Regarding Sadhana Ausadhalaya, you can write to him c/o Kaviraja Rajani Candra Shastri, 227 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Calcutta-7. Let him know the symptoms of your ailment, and ask him to send some good medicines. But the difficulty will be for the vehicles. In the Ayurvedic medicine there are vehicles which are very difficult to obtain in this country. So you should advise them to send medicine and suitable vehicles which can't be obtained in this country. But if the medicine is only mixed with honey, as they usually do, then there is no difficulty. You can refer my name also to this physician. Then he will be more careful.
1970 Correspondence
Letter to Himavati -- Los Angeles 1 April, 1970:
I am very, very glad that you are taking care of the Deities with great attention and enthusiasm. Regarding your questions: the Deities should be polished before Their morning bath. Make a thin paste of fuller's earth and lime juice and rub this mixture on Their bodies and then bathe them and then dry and buff Them with a small towel for the purpose. You can make one very nice bed and place it to the backside of the throne, and you can make night clothes. So after the last Aratrik at night, you can change to Their night clothes for taking rest. Because They are small Deities, They may be lain on the bed with some pillows (because the base may raise Their feet up); if this can be arranged it will be nice.
Yes, Their crowns and jewelry should be removed both at night and while resting at noon, but wigs may stay on and Krsna should always hold His flute. It is nice if you can provide some heating arrangement for cold weather. Also different weight clothes for warmer or colder weather is good. Your idea for a thin curtain around the throne is very good. Regarding Radharani's smiling, that is not imagination—so she must smile. Let this be an impetus to your increased service.
1972 Correspondence
Letter to Damodara -- Honolulu 9 May, 1972:
So far your management of different centers in Eastern Zone, I have already advised Rupanuga to do the needful; if there is waste then you can merge various centres. You can thin milk by adding water and you can make it thick by boiling. Now is the time for us to begin the boiling process. Now you know everything how to be a Vaisnava brahmana, now you must practice these thing or the whole thing will be a show only. Better to develop the small number of devotees we have, make them truly Krishna conscious boys and girls than to go on getting many followers who do not understand and practice the real principles. Better one moon that many stars.
Letter to Stokakrsna -- Los Angeles 20 June, 1972:
Yes, you have got the right idea when you say that your preaching work shall be directed toward the children and the devotees and not so much to the Dallas public. We may thin the milk till it becomes useless, or we may boil it until it becomes thick and sweet, so now we have got enough followers, let us train them up perfectly in the philosophy and activities of Krsna Consciousness way of life. Unless all of my students become very much fixed up in their spiritual progress, what is the use of so many programs for expansion? So you are the leader at Dallas, now it is your task to become very, very responsible for the spiritual well being of all of the students there, so Krsna will give you all intelligence and facilities to serve Him nicely if you are very much sincere to do so. This will please me very much.
Letter to Hamsaduta -- Los Angeles 22 June, 1972:
On this platform you shall be able to carry on the work satisfactorily, but if there is lack of knowledge, or if there is forgetfulness, everything will be spoiled in time. So especially you must encourage the students to read our books throughout the day as much as possible, and give them all good advice how to understand the books, and inspire them to study the things from every point of view. In this way, by constantly engaging our tongues in the service of the Lord, either by discussing His philosophy or by chanting Hare Krishna, the truth is that Krishna Himself will reveal Himself to us and we shall understand how to do everything properly. Now we have got so many students and so many temples but I am fearful that if we expand too much in this way that we shall become weakened and gradually the whole thing will become lost. Just like milk. We may thin it more and more with water for cheating the customer, but in the end it will cease to be any longer milk. Better to boil the milk now very vigorously and make it thick and sweet, that is the best process. So let us concentrate on training our devotees very thoroughly in the knowledge of Krishna Consciousness from our books, from tapes, by discussing always, and in so many ways instruct them in the right propositions.
1975 Correspondence
Letter to P. S. Garg -- Bombay 16 January, 1975:
I am in due receipt of your letter dated Jan. 6th, 1975 and have noted the contents. I thank you for your concern for my disciples' health. Actually, they are getting ghee and other milk products daily along with capatis, dhal, and rice. They are also taking fruits and vegetables daily. Some of them are getting very fatty. Any way the food is there, if they are getting skinny and thin, it might be some other cause.
| Page Title: | Thin (Lect., Conv. & Letters) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Mayapur |
| Created: | 24 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=42, Con=36, Let=10 |
| No. of Quotes: | 88 |