Tin

Expressions researched:
"tin"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.40 -- London, July 28, 1973:

So at the present moment, because these purificatory processes are not accepted, even in India... Accepted, they're unable. Everything has topsy-turvied. Therefore the śāstra says that: "Accept everyone as śūdra." Kalau śūdraḥ sambhava. There is no more brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya or vaiśya. All śūdras. We have to accept. Because no Vedic culture, no Garbhādhāna saṁskāra. They are born like cats and dogs. So where is this division? There cannot be. Therefore, accept them as śūdra. Varṇa-saṅkara is less than śūdra. So at least, śūdra they should be. So there is no Vaidic dīkṣā. For śūdra, there is no dīkṣā, there is no initiation. Initiation is meant for the persons who are born in brāhmaṇa family, kṣatriya family, or vaiśya family. The śūdra has no initiation. So in India there are professional gurus. They initiate śūdras, but do not eat foodstuff touched by the disciple. So there are so many things, that if he's initiated, how he can remain śūdra? But they keep him śūdra; at the same time, they become guru. Sanātana Gosvāmī gives direction in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa that: tathā dīkṣā-vidhānena dvijatvaṁ jāyate nṛṇām. If properly initiated, he becomes immediately brāhmaṇa. Dvijatvam. Dvija means second birth. Yathā kāñcanatāṁ yāti kāṁsyaṁ rasa-vidhānataḥ. There is a chemical process that kāṁsya, bell metal, can be turned into gold by mixing with proportionately mercury. Now here is a hint of chemistry. If anyone can prepare gold... But it is very difficult to mix mercury. As soon as there is little heat, immediately the mercury's finished. So there is a process. Everything has process. Many yogis know how to make gold from copper. Actually, chemically, copper, tin and mercury, if you mix proportionately, it will be gold. So Sanātana Gosvāmī gives this example. As the copper and tin, these two metals, mixed with mercury, there can be production of gold, similarly, by proper initiation, by the proper spiritual master, one śūdra, even though he's a śūdra, less than śūdra, varṇa-saṅkara, or caṇḍāla, he can become dvija, brāhmaṇa. So our process is to make dvija. Pāñcarātrikī vidhi. Pāñcarātrikī vidhi. That is recommended.

śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi-

pāñcarātrikī vidhiṁ vinā

aikāntikī harer bhaktir

utpātayaiva kalpate

(Brs. 1.2.101)

Rūpa Gosvāmī gives this direction that the initiation must be done according to śruti, smṛti or pāñcarātrikī vidhi.

Lecture on BG 2.16 -- London, August 22, 1973:

Now all these jewels have been taken away when British government was there, and they are now protected in the British museum. So far I have heard. But the jewels were taken away. That's a fact. Anyone can see that. So material opulence and... Of course, in India, it was not considered to have a big tin car or plastic plates. Material opulence means jewels, gold, silk, butter, that is material opulence. Not plastic pots or plastic bucket, plastic cloth. It has no value. So anyway, India was concerned material opulence, whatever is gotten from the nature, not by industry, not engaging oneself in industry. Therefore, India, the leaders of India now, they are finding that on account of our negligence to the material side of life, we have become poor.

Lecture on BG 4.26 -- Bombay, April 15, 1974:

Therefore those who are too much engrossed in the bodily concept of life, for them, this yoga system... Dhyāna, dhāraṇa, prāṇāyāma, āsana, ity ādi. Different methods. Yama-niyama. But that yoga process also requires saṁyama. Saṁyamāgni, it is said. Saṁyamāgniṣu juhvati. This yoga practice means you have to control the senses, saṁyamāgni, sacrifice. The spirit of enjoying spirit should be sacrificed tin the fire of saṁyama. That is required. Saṁyamāgniṣu juhvati śabdādīn indriyāgniṣu juhvati. By controlling the senses, indriyāgni...

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.9.2 -- Los Angeles, May 16, 1973:

So this was the system. Therefore Arjuna's another name is Dhanañjaya. Dhanañjaya means "one who can conquer over riches." His brother was in need of money, and he brought money. Therefore, from that day, his name was Dhanañjaya, "one can conquer over riches."

So actually, human opulence means not these tin cars. Once it is dashed with another car, it is finished, no value. Human opulence means the society must have enough gold, enough jewelry, enough silk, enough grains, enough milk, enough vegetables, like that. That is opulent. That is opulence. Formerly a person was considered rich by two things: dhānyena dhanavān. How much grain stock he has got at his home. A big, big barn, filled with grains. Still in India, if I am going to give my daughter to some family, to see the family's opulence, I go to see the house, and if I see there are many, many barns' stock of grains and many cows, then it is very good.

Lecture on SB 1.14.43 -- New York, April 7, 1973 :

This is real knowledge. One should keep in his thought that "My real distress of life are these four things, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi to take birth, to die, to become old and to become diseased. This is my problem." But they do not know this. They are now busy in the petroleum problem. Yes. Yes. They have created this petroleum problem, this horseless tin carriage. (laughter) Yes. They are thinking, "Better than horse. Now I have got this tin carriage." As soon as it is old it has no value. You throw into the street, especially in your country. Nobody takes care of it. And..., but one must have this carriage. And it must run on petrol, and take labor, so hard labor, goes wihin the desert, drill it, and then take out the oil, then bring it in tanks. And it is called ugra-karma. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that these rascals, demons, they have created ugra-karma simply for trouble to the whole people.

Lecture on SB 1.15.38 -- Los Angeles, December 16, 1973:

There... In India, there is a place near Patna where up to ten years before, it was a market, yearly market, for selling cows, horses, elephants, camels, like that. Now there is no customer. At the present moment, that fair of selling big, big horses and... Nobody can purchase horse. They have got this tin car. That also not everyone. So people have become poor. Nobody can maintain now horses or elephants or number of cows. No. That is not possible. So they are condemned now. Formerly they were maintaining. Instead of keeping a big car, they used to keep two, three elephants, number of horses, number of cows. This is domestic animals. They are domestic animals. They used to be maintained. But nowadays they cannot. But during Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira's time or before that, the city was so full of elephants that it is named after elephant, Hastināpura: "Many elephants."

Lecture on SB 2.9.13 -- Melbourne, April 12, 1972:

We stick to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then everything will be all right in due course of time. So the varieties of life there is. That variety is actual variety.

Here it is only perverted reflection. Here the beauty... Just like the beauty is described there, bhrājiṣṇu. Bhrājiṣṇu, all glowing. Lasad-vimāna. Lasat, brilliant. There is also aeroplane, but not this tin aeroplane. You see? There the airplanes are made of jewels and gold, brilliant. And their beauty. There also men, women there are, not that simply men devotees, no. But the men and women, they are creation. The both sexes are there, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. So nothing is different from here, but they are permanent, real. Here everything are temporary and false. This is the difference. Everything, there is also tree, there is also flower, there are also palaces, there are aeroplanes, there are chariots, men, women, but they are real, and here it is unreal.

Lecture on SB 2.9.13 -- Melbourne, April 12, 1972:

The matter independently cannot become this here tape recorder. When the superior energy, living entity, collects them, applies his intelligence and converts into a tape recorder, it works. It is nothing but a lump of matter, only tin and some metal and some paper and something like that. So this superior energy, when it acts on it, then it can work. Therefore, similarly, here this whole material world is made of the inferior energy. Both the energies are of Kṛṣṇa. They are emanating from Kṛṣṇa. But one is inferior energy; the other is superior energy. That's all. This is the difference between material world and the spiritual world.

Lecture on SB 6.1.33 -- San Francisco, July 18, 1975:

Then "You look so gentle and highly exalted. Why you are forbidding us? This is very..." kim arthaṁ dharma-pālasya kiṅkarān no niṣedhatha.

So we get description of the Viṣṇudūtas. Now, at least we can think, if we are transferred to the spiritual world, how much happy we shall be, how much opulent we shall be. Here we are thinking possessing one tin car made of tin, and after one year, it is smashed, and throw it again, and we becoming very opulent. So we do not know what is opulence there in the spiritual world. Not only in the spiritual..., even in this material world. In higher planetary system there are many, many different types, opulence. Svargaloka. This moon planet is also one of the opulent planets within this material world. So that is very, very nice. But these people say they went there and could not find any living entities.

Lecture on SB 6.1.47 -- Detroit, June 13, 1976:

Everywhere, matsarata. Para-utkarṣaṇam asahanam (indistinct). Matsarata means one cannot tolerate other's flourishing condition. Immediately envious. But this system, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is meant for paramo nirmatsarāṇām. One who has learned this art not to become envious. Tolerant. That is the qualification of saintly persons. Kind. Tin... Hm? What is that? Titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikaḥ. Those who are preachers, they should be titikṣava. Titikṣava means titikṣa, tolerance. There will be so much insult, inconveniences, against party, everything. We have to tolerate. Titikṣavaḥ kāruṇa. At the same time, we have to distribute the mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikaḥ. Suhṛdaḥ sarva-bhūtānām, and friend of everyone, there is no distinction. Friend of everyone. Ajāta-śatravaḥ. By their action they'll not create any enemy. Ajāta-śatravaḥ santaḥ, peaceful. Ajāta-śatravaḥ santaḥ sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 27, 1972:

Hydrogeroid. So in Sanskrit it is called rasa. Rasāyana. From mercury, rasa, the chemistry is called rasāyana-śāstra. Actually, rasāyana-śāstra, chemical composition, begins from mercury and sulphur. That is the beginning of chemical composition. So rasa-vidhānena, by chemical interaction of sulphur and mercury, if you can add tin and copper, then it becomes gold. You can manufacture gold, provided you know the process, how to mix up copper, tin and mercury. With via media of sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is the mother of chemicals. Without sulphur, you cannot make any chemical composition. Therefore all chemical composition are called sulphate, sulphite, like that. So Sanātana Gosvāmī gives this idea of chemical composition. It appears that he knew how to work with chemicals.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.337-353 -- New York, December 25, 1966:

That Personality, incarnation of God, who is yellowish color and is accompanied by His associates, confidential associates, He is worshiped by this process of saṅkīrtana in this age of Kali.

āra tin-yuge dhyānādite yei phala haya

kali-yuge kṛṣṇa-nāme sei phala pāya

Āra tina-yuge means this is Kali-yuga, and there are, there were other three yugas: the Satya-yuga, the Tretā-yuga, Dvāpara-yuga. There are different processes of realizing God. So Lord Caitanya says, "In other three yugas, what was achieved by meditation, by sacrifice, by temple worship, now that can be achieved in this age by saṅkīrtana. Kalau..."

Initiation Lectures

Initiation Lecture Excerpt -- London, September 7, 1971:

So even they are born in low-graded family, still, they can be elevated to the highest position by purificatory process. The example is given by Sanātana Gosvāmī: just like bell metal, if one can mix with it mercury, it becomes gold. Anyone can try it. Bell metal. Bell metal means mixture of copper and tin. That makes bell metal. Eighty percent copper, eighty percent tin. And along with it, if some suitable percentage of mercury is mixed, it becomes immediately gold. This chemical suggestion is there in the Vedic śāstras. So it is clear that they were quite aware of all these chemical method. So the example is given, as the base metal or bell metal can be transferred into gold by mixture of mercury under certain process, yathā kāñcanatāṁ yāti kāṁsyaṁ rasa-vidhānataḥ... Rasa, rasa means mercury.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: He says that a proposition is a...

Prabhupāda: It is gold, gold means it is a metal, a combination of metals. There are eight types of metals, and gold is combination of tin, copper and mercury.

Śyāmasundara: There is a basic element-gold.

Prabhupāda: Not basic. It is a combination of different elements, different metals.

Śyāmasundara: According to the chemists, there are 108 basic elements, and gold is one of them.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Prabhupāda: In this sense, how it is, of course it can be explained like that. Ultimately, what it is means just like this gold, I said that how it is—a combination of other metals is gold, that is how it is. But what it is, that we have to research further. Just like how it is—a combination of copper, tin and mercury. Now, then what it is, we will have to make inquiry wherefrom this mercury comes, wherefrom this tin comes, wherefrom the copper comes. That is what it is. Therefore Vedic language it is sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma: "Everything is Brahman." That is what it is.

Śyāmasundara: (laughing) So we can explain how it is molded into different ways.

Prabhupāda: That is how it is, how it has become gold. But ultimately it is Brahman, sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma. Everything is Brahman.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 30, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What for? What for?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Because they produced the synthetic fibers, nylons.

Prabhupāda: Useless. And big, big cars. They are charging thousands and thousands of dollars. But what it is? Tin car. As soon as the machine gone, nobody will pay for the tin even. Especially in this country, they are thrown away to the garbage. No value. (pause) In India, we have seen still, they are going on. People stock metal utensils. You know.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, we use.

Prabhupāda: Never use this china clay. Never. No respectable gentleman will use china clay. Still. So if a poor family is in need of money, immediately he can take one Benarsee sari, or some metal utensils to the pawn maker. He'll immediately offer some money. "Yes." So these are conveniences. Investment was in gold ornaments. Still we have seen that so many jewelry shop, silver dishes shop, ornament shop. Still. Every marriage, the father must give at least fifty tolās. I was not a rich man. Still I had to give to my daughter fifty tolās of gold during marriage. Fifty tolās. Two and a half tolās makes one ounce. So what is the value of fifty tolās?

Morning Walk -- December 31, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The money is to be kept in cattle and grains. That is Indian economy, cattle and grains. If you have got many cows, you get milk. Milk preparation. And if you have got grain, then where is your problem? You prepare your foodstuff at home and eat and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Where is your problem? You want to eat and live peacefully. So if you have got grains and milk, you have got enough food and there is no problem. You haven't got to go fifty miles for your work, and then you require a tin car. So many problems. But if you get your food at home, then eat them and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and go back to home, back to Godhead. Simple thing.

Prajāpati: So many people now employed in sinful activities, jobs that are to do with sinful life. If we get rid of these sinful activities, what will we find for these people to do to replace their jobs?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Biochemist, Dr. Sallaz -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Dr. Sallaz: Result. Result, only with physical heat, eight hundred, and pressure, only this. No laser, no atomic energy, nothing at all. Simply by natural measures.

Prabhupāda: We can give you one information, that metals like bell metal. Bell metal is combination of...? What is called? Tin? Tin? What is another name of tin?

Yogeśvara: Copper.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, tin and copper and mercury; if you can mix, it will become gold.

Dr. Sallaz: I'm sure it is possible, from what we have seen and made. But it is not of great interest to make gold.

Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: What they have created? They are creating... But still dependent. Suppose they have created this horseless carriage. Now they are crying, "Where is the petrol? Where is the petrol?" So if God does not supply petrol, then all these horseless carriage will be pieces of tin. That's all.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Māyā-sukhāya.

Prabhupāda: Can you create petrol?

Bhagavān: No.

Prabhupāda: Then what is the value of your, this horseless carriage? You are dependent on God. What you have created? And what you can do? You can create war only to fight, man to man, and when you are in danger, then you go to church; "God save us. God save us." That you can create. And as far as peacefully living, accepting God as the Supreme, you can create war. That's all. That means... Like dogs, they create war. So this is a nice park. Why do you go so far? It is nice park. Now you create something to enjoy. Just like who created this building? Napoleon?

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Light, food, everything. Dress, bathing, so many things. If you receive me, you must give me something eatable. Simply light, how can I be satisfied? (laughter) If you give me simply light and no food then how can I be satisfied? Kṛṣṇa says, "Give Me this food." Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, tad ahaṁ aṣnāmi (BG 9.26). "I will eat." (break)

Haṁsadūta: Cigarettes. (chuckles)

Prabhupāda: Tin can. You can get also tin can in the slot? What is that? Paying?

Haṁsadūta: Oh yes. Anyone can get it. There's no restriction. Here's the car. (end)

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the first instruction of Kṛṣṇa. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāra... (BG 2.13). Dehinaḥ. There is a living entity, driver, within this body. That is the first instruction. Unless one understands this simple thing, he is an ass. There is no knowledge. Because everything is based on something fictitious. This is the first thing one has to learn, the scientists, that there is the driver which is missing. Or the driver is moving this body. And if the driver is educated, then he can move this body to Kṛṣṇa, back to home, back to Godhead. Then he becomes perfect. So we are educating the driver. We are not painting the tin car. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1975, San Francisco:

Sudāmā: Alchemy is not looked upon as very intelligent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Scientific.

Sudāmā: They've replaced it now with science, higher truth of science.

Prabhupāda: No, it is not legend. If you can mix copper, tin and mercury—this is stated in the śāstra—you can make gold. It is not legend. The particular metals to be combined, that is stated: copper, tin and mercury. You mix, and there will be gold.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why aren't they doing it?

Prabhupāda: Because they do not know the process.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1975, San Francisco:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But why don't they... I'm sure the scientists could figure out an easier way than having to swallow it.

Prabhupāda: But in Kaviraji, they make some medicine which is gold added by this process, makaradhvaja. Makaradhvaja, the medicine which is combination of tin and mercury, and it looks like gold.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we could become rich if we do this, our movement.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone will do, and there will be no rich men.

Paramahaṁsa: Is it tin and copper?

Brahmānanda: Tin, copper and mercury.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you can try. You are...

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1975, San Francisco:

Brahmānanda: Tin, copper and mercury.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you can try. You are...

Paramahaṁsa: That's brass. That's the constituents of brass.

Prabhupāda: Tin and copper?

Paramahaṁsa: Like bell metal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And add mercury.

Paramahaṁsa: Is first the metals mixed together?

Prabhupāda: I do not know that. (laughter)

Paramahaṁsa: I'll give you all the profits.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1975, San Francisco:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We should do it.

Jayatīrtha: Perhaps Svarūpa Dāmodara can do it. Svarūpa Dāmodara is a chemist.

Paramahaṁsa: I have a lot of tin and brass.

Prabhupāda: Brass you have got?

Paramahaṁsa: Would you like?

Prabhupāda: No, you add mercury, then give. The kāvirājī medicines, they mix mercury and sulphur, and then tin, and some other medicine, that make makaradhvaja, and it looks like gold. Svarṇa-sindhura, the name is svarṇa-sindhura, "vermillion of gold." That is a medicine. It looks like gold. The some medicine, they mix mercury and sulphuric acid first of all, and then with some other thing. Mercury cannot be directly heated. It must be mixed with sulphuric acid.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Jayapatāka: We'd have to break the top and then...

Prabhupāda: Break? Why break? Another expenditure. Simply you make two brackets, wooden brackets, like that, and have a tin. That's all.

Jayapatāka: Tin.

Prabhupāda: Tin or steel. Why breaking, again another?

Jayapatāka: There's already a.... I was thinking about the rain, if it's falling straight down, that will be somewhat protected by this arch. Only if the rain is coming from this side, and even then it won't protect...

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Wine and cigarettes, just like here you can purchase by slot. What is called?

Hari-śauri: Machine.

Prabhupāda: Machine. Yes. You pay and get cigarette and tin can. There are many boxes like that on the street, public street. And they pass urine on the road. There is no restriction, standing apart.

Hari-śauri: Like dogs and cats.

Prabhupāda: Every few steps, there is a shop, young girls, wine, and a man is sitting.

Hari-śauri: Germany is very famous for its beer festivals. Germany. It's very famous for it's beer festivals.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Rūpānuga: Now is there an atom for each? Is there a copper atom?

Prabhupāda: That we do not take care of atoms, we take gross estimation. Must be atomic differences. Just like gold and mercury, little atomic difference. And it is suggested that tin, copper, and mercury, proportionately mixed it will become gold.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Once you told me that in Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now you can do that experiment. Then our poverty will be... (laughter) It is fact. There are many yogis, they prepare gold by drinking mercury. They drink mercury, overnight, next morning they pass urine and dip copper coins in it. And then after some time the copper coins put into the fire, it becomes gold.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's alchemist.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, they do that. But it is a fact that copper and tin and mercury proportionately mixed will produce gold.

yathā kāñcanatāṁ yāti

kāṁsyaṁ rasa-vidhānataḥ

tathā dīkṣā-vidhānena

dvijatvaṁ jāyate nṛṇām

This example is given by Sanātana Gosvāmī. As kaṁsya... Kaṁsya is mixture of copper and tin, bell metal. When it is properly treated with mercury, it becomes gold. Similarly, a human being properly treated by initiation, he becomes a brāhmaṇa. This example has been given by Sanātana Gosvāmī. Tathā dīkṣā-vidhānena dvijatvaṁ jāyate nṛṇām. Nṛṇām, he says, "of all human beings." He doesn't say a particular class or particular country. Śuddhyanti prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ. Everyone can be purified by the initiation process, by expert spiritual master. That is accepted in the śāstra.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Ādi-keśava: They're trying to use all kinds of machines and wires to measure consciousness. They have one group that has tin cans attached to wires, and they hold them in their hand, and then they measure it on the machine as they meditate. And when they meditate right, the needle on the machine goes right in the middle, and they think they have achieved perfection.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here is an article called "Travels Beyond the Body: what is it that travels, and what is it that's seen?" They're talking about traveling beyond your body. Here's an advertisement, "Because I have taken the mystery out of transcendental meditation, I will teach you to master transcendental meditation in a single evening." "About the author." Then it says, "Free private mantra based on your own name, selected by the great Norbell, translated by his special Sanskrit system, so that no one else in America has the same mantra twice. No other system of transcendental meditation..."

Prabhupāda: What is this? Maharishi?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi?

Hari-śauri: No, this is competition.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, this isn't...

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Sound chamber may be called. So with that dry squash he made the sound chamber. The bamboo he fixed up and the wire upon it and then it became a "Tin, tin, tin, tin..." (laughs) Our organization is like that. I was loitering in the street. Somebody was over there, somebody was there. Not combined together, International Society String Band. Yes. Separately we are all useless. Eh?

Hari-śauri: No, we were useless. You were never useless.

Prabhupāda: No, your assistance was required. How you can be useless? We're all useless. But combined together, now we have become a stringed instrument. This is very good example. Separately... Just like the same logic, andha-khañja. Separately, andha is useless, and khañja is useless. Blind and lame. They cannot do anything. But combined together, they become useful. Then?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Our family was taking two kilos and a half milk daily. Two annas per kilo. Ghee was selling, first-class ghee, in Calcutta... Just in front of our house there was a grocer shop. We were purchasing in that tin, but if some required, I would go immediately.

Dr. Patel: Fourteen rupees I think it was. Fourteen rupees is twenty kilos.

Prabhupāda: Less than that. Ten seers.

Dr. Patel: That is twenty kilos.

Trivikrama: Cow ghee?

Prabhupāda: No, buffalo's... Cow ghee we were taking with rice. But it was not available in quantity.

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

Prabhupāda: Where is the location?

Gurudāsa: It's on what's called Gangadwip. But that's new place. It's an island that just appeared this year, splitting the Ganges in two. You know, Jushi is here, and Gangadwip is here. And the place where we were last year is here. We were here last year, Gangadwip is here, and Jushi is here. And... But I've been sending out and going out on saṅkīrtana, so that will make up for our location. It's not so bad, but I want to paint a true picture. It's not so good, nor is it so bad. And there's thirteen tents. We have three bigas of land, sand. And we've made a tin enclosure all the way around. And we had a Swiss cottage tent for yourself. Swiss cottage means a room about this large from the end of the almirah to the wall and about this wide. And then a middle room about from here to the wall, and then another small room.

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

Prabhupāda: I do not know, but a straw house... Is there any chance of setting, getting fire?

Gurudāsa: Well, your kitchen is apart, in tin. So that... The kitchen would be safe. Otherwise why would there be any fire? The outside is also tin. There would only be your house. Now, I can make a tin house if you want, but...

Prabhupāda: No, tin house will be...

Gurudāsa: Not so good. Straw is the best.

Prabhupāda: That is best, but fire protection-wise...

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

Prabhupāda: Our visitors, they have got facility to come?

Gurudāsa: Yes. We have Life Member tents, and some visitors have been coming. I have been receiving them. So we have... There's one thing I wanted to ask you. A lot of youths are coming, Western youths, some hippies, but mostly clean. Some hippies. But there are two hippies, and I saw what they were like, and I didn't allow them to stay. But mostly our camp is... Until the devotees come, there are some tents that are empty. So they said, "We need a place to stay. Is it all right?" So I said, "Tonight you can stay. Then I'll let you know later on." And we preached to them. We have a morning program there, and we have an evening program. So they attended. So I thought with your permission I could erect some tents, not in our living area... The chokidhars I put outside, right on the gate, because I didn't think they should live in our area, but they should be there, so the chokidhars have a tent. I thought behind the pandal I could erect some tents, or even behind our tin where people wouldn't see them so much, we could invite some guests, charge them something for living and preach to them.

Prabhupāda: Hm. But they smoke.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: It is closed?

Hari-śauri: Yes. The year before they got kicked out, I was distributing magazines at one political rally. The Prime Minister came to Perth. And when he came there all the farmers came, and they were so angry, they were throwing rotten eggs at him and tin cans and all kinds of things.

Prabhupāda: The farmers.

Hari-śauri: Yeah.

Rāmeśvara: They devalued the Australian dollar very much. The Australian dollar used to be worth maybe...

Prabhupāda: More than American dollar.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Just like in Kṛṣṇa's time there were cities like Mathurā, Dvārakā. They were cities, big, big city. And when Kṛṣṇa came, they were decorating, they were receiving. So that kind of city will continue, but not this hellish city-slaughterhouse, brothel and big, big tin car, and so on, accident.

Hari-śauri: Skyscrapers.

Prabhupāda: We have no objection to this, provided there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Unfortunately these things cover more time for their maintenance, and they forget Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That should be stopped. The main business is development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Rāmeśvara: And you also mentioned not so much these ugra-karmic jobs.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But still, you are forced to take help of this lantern when there is no electricity.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This electricity has enabled so much...

Prabhupāda: What is the price of one tin kerosene?

Bhavānanda: It's sold by liter. I don't know. About 90 paisa per liter, one rupee per liter.

Prabhupāda: And one tin, how many liter?

Bhavānanda: It depends on how many liters the tin holds. Five liters, twenty liter tin.

Prabhupāda: So price has not increased very much.

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Formerly they used to stock huge stock in Calcutta. Burma Sale. And new tin, if you exchange the container, then six annas less. Not very costly. Of course, in those days it was costly, taking consideration of the purchasing power of money. Four rupees, I remember, a few annas. My father did not like to purchase anything retail. For his daily necessity he'll purchase, he would purchase potato, one bag. So one bag means, maybe, one rupee, eight annas. (laughs) One anna per seer, kilo, I have purchased. Rice, fifteen mounds he will purchase. And what is the price? Three rupees, four annas. First-class rice. Coal, this coal, coke. Five annas per mound, purchase one cart load, fifteen mounds. The other day I was calculating. My father's income was, utmost, three hundred rupees per month in those days. And taking gold standard, my mother was purchasing gold from my cousin—he has gold shop-twenty rupees per tolā, first-class gold.

Morning Talk -- April 25, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bengali language has so many...

Prabhupāda: Bengalis are very poetic. That's a fact.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very witty also.

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. Brāhmaṇera tin phuṅ. Phuṅ. Phuṅ means...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Blowing.

Prabhupāda: Three phuṅs.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Three breaths, I think.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So they are... We say, phuṅ. So this phuṅ or this phuṅ or this phuṅ. (laughs) Keep account how much you are taking.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now you are developing that all over the world, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I have thought it over, over. It was very, very nice. What is this nonsense society? Tin car?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they're becoming worse...

Prabhupāda: And rubber tire, that's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cars nowadays...

Prabhupāda: Cannister, tin cannister. In your country these have been all piled up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cars.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda started with forty rupees.

Prabhupāda: I went to... You know. So in what way I went? With a tin box and some literature. And how I have come back? You rascal, you have no eyes to see. You have seen how I went and how I came back. This is practical. I worked for this. I labored for it. It all depends on one's capacity. Otherwise immediately I'll give you charge. You cannot do here anything. So you'll get this letter. That's assurance. (Bengali) Keep it as document. That's all. I'll stamp it. All right, I shall meet again with you. Give him that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda takes his massage now. (break)

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

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom the money is coming unless Kṛṣṇa sends? Did I go to America with some money?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Forty rupees.

Prabhupāda: That's all. And one tin box. (laughs) Give up this mistaken idea that "If we get some large sum of money from our father, then we shall be happy." That is not... That is wrong idea. Happiness depends on Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You can take advantage from your father that you may not live uncomfortably. That's all, that much. That I am making sufficient arrangement. In your present position you'll never be disturbed. Now try to become happy by advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is required.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cow horns were sometimes with gold on the end.

Prabhupāda: That means gold and silver and jewels and cloth sump..., more than... Milk products, grains. This was richness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now all there is is tin and plastic. Tin can. Food is in the tin cans, and you eat it off of plastic.

Prabhupāda: And paper plate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I always use the example that whenever a great personality in the Vedic time, when Kṛṣṇa was there, whenever..., there was shower of flowers from the demigods. Now, when the astronauts went, they throw confetti.

Prabhupāda: Where they went? All bogus.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Ramesvara -- West Bengal 25 October, 1974:

Within our movement Mayapur temple is the first. "Nowhere do we have such a nice temple in such an open place," Prabhupada remarked on one morning walk. In Bombay a shipment of 2,000 kilos of Australian ghee has been sent by Madhudvisa Maharaj. It will be sold to the Indian temples and used for the festival for the opening of the Vrindaban temple to be held after the Gour Purnima festival in April. For the Mayapur festival ghee will be supplied by each and every devotee who comes. Everyone should bring one tin of ghee. It can be brought for personal use.

I mentioned to His Divine Grace that air fares will be increased next year due to the petrol shortage, and this might affect the number of devotees who attend the Gour Purnima festival. Prabhupada asked me, "How much foodstuffs have you eaten in your whole life?"