Trick (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"trick" |"tricked" |"trickery" |"tricking" |"trickings" |"tricks" |"trickster" |"tricksters" |"tricky"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Lord Caitanya Play Told to Tamala Krsna -- August 4, 1969, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What are some of the things that He did when He was a little boy? Some tricks or things?

Prabhupāda: Sometimes He would play with snakes. One day, when He was crawling in the courtyard... Indian house... As, just like here is compound outside. In Indian house there is courtyard inside. So He was crawling in the yard, and a snake came, a snake. And He began to play with the snake. The snake will do like this and crawling, and He would see it, He would strike. In this way the snake was playing and the mother became so much afraid. They cannot touch. If the snake bites... So they simply saw that the child is playing with the snake, and after some time the snake went away. And they took up the child, "Oh, God has saved this child, otherwise He would have been killed. Such a venomous, big snake."

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Prabhupāda: But we have tried to explain how He is person. Just like we try to explain how God is working. So one should have brain to study things. One must have clear idea how God is person, how He is working, how this cosmic manifestation is manifested by God's energy. Kṛṣṇa says, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā (BG 9.4). "In My impersonal feature, everything is manifested there." Tatam idaṁ sarvam. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). So one has to apply his brain—that is intelligence—how it has become person. That is not false, that is fact. You cannot understand; your brain is teeny. That is different thing. Now you make your brain competent to understand this philosophy. (break) ...vijñātaṁ bhavanti. So take this philosophy nicely, understand this philosophy, and preach. You will be victorious everywhere, because we can challenge anyone. If you know the trick, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you can challenge. Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati (SB 6.17.28). One who is nārāyaṇa-parāḥ, he is never afraid of anything.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Śyāmasundara: Whenever someone challenges you, you always know the trick, what their weak point is, the weakness is in their challenge, and you go right there. Every time.

Prabhupāda: That is the trick of wrestling. (laughter)

Śyāmasundara: Find where they are off balance, where their balance is off.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, there was a wrestler, he was not very strong, but he knew the trick how to defeat the strongest man.

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1972, San Diego:

Prabhupāda: You cannot say that I have got a different faith. I do not care for the laws of God. If it is a law... Just like, for example, here in the state, if you kill somebody, then you have to pay for it with your life. So if that is the law in your state, why a similar law in broader sense is not there in the courts of God, law..., law of God? You can avoid the arrest by the police and punishment by the state law by tricks, but you cannot avoid by tricks the law of God. That is not possible. If you violate the law of God, then you will be punished. If you violate the law..., just like if you touch fire your hand will be burned, so this law you cannot violate. Either you are Christian or Hindu or Muslim, if you touch fire, the law of God is that it will burn. So it will not care for you whether you are Hindu, Muslim, Christian.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Just see. So why don't you become a brick layer instead of scientist? (laughter) You get more money. Dr. Bose, he called me... I told you. He asked me, "What you are doing?" "Now, I am going to the share market." So he immediately said, "Then what is the value of your education if you are going to the share market like the Marwaris who are illiterate?" Share market means to have some tricks how to sell and purchase shares. That by practicing anyone can do. It is not very difficult. (break) ... life from life. Make vigorous propaganda. Let them come to argument, scientific discussion. (pause) The man and woman in your country, they have got equal rights. Why not here? (laughter) In the lavatory? Why this discrimination, "woman," "man," why? Equal rights, must be equal rights. (pause) What is the basic philosophy for contraceptive action? Why do they prefer contraceptive method?

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Vidura was neutral. He left home when he understood that "Fighting is now inevitable. They'll fight. Why shall I remain here?" He left home. And Kṛṣṇa also said that "I will not fight. I'll not fight because this is family quarrel. I am known to every one of you. We are related. So I cannot take this side or that side. I may be..." He divided... He, by tricks... His soldiers one side, and He Himself one side. So Duryodhana preferred, Duryodhana preferred His soldiers, that "Why shall I take this one man. I'll take His soldiers." And Arjuna said, "No, I want Kṛṣṇa." So Kṛṣṇa said, "Although I'm going to your side, but I'll not fight. Mind that." And, "Never mind, You don't fight." Mahābhārata is very nice. "Greater India." Mahābhārata means "The History of Greater India." Mahābhārata. Mahā means "greater."

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: By the chain, yes. Horse is very powerful animal than the man. How the man can control the horse? But he knows the trick, that it has to be controlled in the mouth. As soon as there is pain in the mouth, he becomes puzzled. He has to abide by the order. The man knows the tricks. Horse is not controlled by the tai... (break) ...he's controlled.

Bhagavān: Really?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: So every animal can be controlled...

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They're taking lunch, and Brahmā is playing trick.

Yogeśvara: You know the story?

Professor: Of what?

Yogeśvara: Lord Brahmā stole away all of Kṛṣṇa's cows and...

Professor: Yes, yes, yes, yes, I know.

Prabhupāda: And Kṛṣṇa again expanded Himself into so many cows, calves, friends. Then Brahmā thought that he is defeated.

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: This is their rascal's philosophy. They have no idea that by training one can forget sex life. So if you forget sex life, where is the question of abortion? Where is the question of abortion? But they cannot do that. Therefore, it is said adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram (SB 7.5.30). By nonrestricted sense enjoyment they are gradually going to the animal, lower grade of life. They cannot explain why there are so many varieties of life. They cannot explain. So this killer of baby within the womb, so the result will be that this man who is, I mean to say, indulging in abortion, he'll be put into the womb, and somebody will kill him. And as many wombs or babies he has killed, he'll have to take so many lives and being killed. So much so that it will be rather impossible for him for hundreds of years not to see the light. He'll remain in the womb and being killed. Does not know the nature's law. One cannot violate the nature's law. You can violate the state law. Suppose you kill somebody, you can escape by trick. But you cannot escape nature's law. As many times you have killed, so many times you have to be killed within the womb. This is nature's law.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: That is another trick, it may be. Or he did not like. It may be. Because he was so great, what is the presidency? Presidency elected post for five years. But he was recognized all over the world as a great leader. That is greater than any president's post or prime minister's post. So that is not much. But the thing is that if he was actually aware of the importance of Rāma, that he did not. He took it, "Rāma" as some means for his political purpose. But still it effected. At the time of death he said, "Rāma." So...

Guest (1): So you think he has gone to heaven or some, what is his position?

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1973, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: This is one of the businessman's tricks. When there is new harvest they purchase and keep it and they keep the stock.

Lady Guest: Store it.

Prabhupāda: And when the prices are high they sell it. Now the same process suppose if I want to hold stock, say 100 tons of rice, so I have no money, if I have got 25% price the bank will advance me 75% so I hold the stock.

Guest: Now it is an offense to hold the stock.

Morning Walk -- December 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is their (indistinct).

Devotee (2): So we have to trick them to take prasādam.

Prabhupāda: They will (indistinct) as students not to see molecules, but to see how palatable dishes are there. (laughter)

Devotee: Yeah, they will forget it.

Prabhupāda: At that time they forget their laboratory.

Yaśomatīnandana: You forgot your laboratory.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like Govinda Khorana, he got Nobel Prize about two years ago.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- December 6, 1973, Los Angeles:

Bali Mardana: They're tricking the government.

Prabhupāda: Not... I don't accept. We don't accept. Why do they say "all over the country"?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, I mean in schools, in colleges.

Prabhupāda: No.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have departments.

Prabhupāda: They why they are complaining?

Hṛdayānanda: The intelligent students all criticize it. Many, many people criticize it.

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: No. There is one rascal, Prabhupāda, who can do tricks. His name is Sai Baba. He can make jewels appear, give people photographs of himself, give them to people like tricks.

Prabhupāda: But another rascal will be victim of that tricks. Why shall I accept him as God?

Karandhara: Besides, they're insignificant tricks.

Prabhupāda: Insignificant tricks. So if gold is the standard of becoming God, then there is gold mine. So who has created the gold mine, I shall accept Him God. Why shall I you. If gold is the standard, why a little chaṭāka(?) of...? We are not so fools. You can make this trick for other fools, not to us.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Devotee: Yes. He paid so many millions, thousands and thousands of dollars. His party, the republican party, they put microphones and everything in the convention of the democrats and had spies and everything in order that he could find out their tricks. He had paid all these men and there were all fired.

Prabhupāda: So that is not bad because in politics you have to do that. Everyone does so. What is Nixon's fault?

Devotee: But only he got caught. And all of his men quit.

Prabhupāda: No, no, suppose you are my rival. So I wanted to know your secrecies. So I make some mechanical arrangement. That is not fault. That is not... Everyone does so. Why do you expect that he will not do that? He must do that. If you are my rival or enemy, to know your secrecy, I must endeavor to do everything. As you are doing, so I am.

Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: No. When there is political game, everyone does everything to gain his victory. In politics, these things are allowed. Just like killing, fighting, kṣatriya's fighting. That killing is allowed. But killing is not allowed generally. Kṛṣṇa has killed so many. If you take from moral point of view, He's sometimes immoral. He has killed His maternal uncle, Kaṁsa, and Śiśupāla, Śiśupāla, his cousin brother. And Balarāma killed Rukma. Once He saved him, and another time, that Aniruddha's marriage, or something like that... Balarāma killed Rukma, the brother of Rukmiṇī. They were family relatives. But there was some misunderstanding in chess playing that other party, Rukma, he was cheating by tricks. The Balarāma became so angry, they killed him. So in politics amongst the kṣatriyas, these things are not uncommon.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Many life or this life. In this life you understand that "My sufferings are due to this body. Then how to get out of this body?" If you acquire this knowledge, you know the tricks, then you get immediately.

Professor Durckheim: May I say that way, that you say, if you, for instance, or I want to go out of this body, it doesn't mean that I will have to kill my body, but to realize that my spirit is independent from my body.

Prabhupāda: No, no. There is no question of killing. You be killed or not killed, you have to go out of this body and accept another body. That is nature's law. That you cannot avoid. It is not necessarily that first of all you have to be killed. No.

Morning Walk at Marine del Rey -- July 13, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Unless we are very sincere, we cannot cope with māyā. That is not possible. If you remain a servant of māyā, you cannot conquer over māyā. You must be very sincere servant of Kṛṣṇa. Then you can conquer. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. It is clearly said. Otherwise you are subjected to the tricks of māyā.

Bahulāśva: Unless one surrenders to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Then you can get rid of māyā's tricks. Otherwise, you may dress yourself like anything, but you are simply māyā's servant. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung one... Ei ota kalir chelā: "Here is another disciple of Kali." Nake tilaka galai mālā. "He has got tilaka on the nose and mālā, kaṇṭhi, also." Sahaja bhajana kache mamu saṅge lana pare bhalo: "And he's, he has become a Vaiṣṇava by illicit sex."

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

Jayatīrtha: By the same trick, Madhudviṣa Swami once got someone to take all of his clothes off and give it to him. "If everything is all one, then you will not mind giving me your clothes."

Prabhupāda: No. Their philosophy is "We are one. What is mine, that is mine. And your—also mine. (laughter) Therefore we are one." And as soon as you'll say, "No, why not your mine?" that is, that is not agreeable. Harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21).

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That type of philosophy will not last long. (long pause) Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the highly developed consciousness that, in the body, which is highly, consciousness which is highly developed...

Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotee.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Acyutānanda: They have another mish-mosh to delude the people into paying the money. They're simply tricksters. Tricksters.

Prajāpati: Many of the theologians today are influenced by a book called I'm OK, You're OK, which...

Acyutānanda: We're O.K.

Śrutakīrti: (To Prabhupāda) You want to keep this here?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Prajāpati: ...Dr. Harris. And this book's central tenet is that we can be happy in life simply by patting each other on the back and approving of what each other does.

Acyutānanda: No one's saying stabbing... (?)

Morning Walk -- (World War III) -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: People argue that "God has placed us in this world, and that He's left us in darkness, so therefore He's played a trick on us." What is our argument against this?

Prabhupāda: You have come to this world of darkness, and Kṛṣṇa is trying to raise you again to the light. That is the fact. You have willingly come to this nonsense place. Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He comes Himself and tries to again get you out, deliver from this nonsense thing. This is real position.

Room Conversation with Two Lawyers and Guest -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No, first of all... Suppose you are a lawyer, and some man has committed murder, and he wants your help. And suppose by your legal tricks you save him. So that will not please God. (laughter)

Guest 3: You've got a different consideration here.

Guest 2: You've got a lot of places and names for that.

Guest 3: We've got a different consideration here, you see, because the law that we have is very different from God's law. And I think that... (break)

Prabhupāda: You must accept God's law, not the people's law.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1975, Philadelphia:

Ravīndra-svarūpa: I think you really surprised them when you told them that this women's liberation is just a trick by the men just to increase the class of prostitutes, available prostitutes.

Prabhupāda: Free prostitutes. You go to a prostitute; you have to pay. Here they have arranged in such a way that free prostitute loitering on the street, and you can enjoy any one. This is their plan. They are rendered into beggar, and they are thinking equal rights.

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, what does it mean that the soul is immovable?

Prabhupāda: Immovable? Where it is?

Morning Walk -- September 3, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Some way or other, he avoids. Eh? (break) ...therefore forbidden to make one steady in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So if one does not follow this thing, then his mind, he cannot control. It is not possible. Unless one can control the mind and the senses, he cannot be steady. That is māyā's trick, to become guided by the mind. That is māyā's trick. (break)

Trivikrama: ...sixteen rounds.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So let him go to hell. What can be done? (break) So his friend said, "Oh, you are drinking. You will go to hell." "Oh, my father is drinking." "Oh, he will go to hell." "My mother is also drinking." "Oh, she will go." Then brother, sister... "Then where is hell? We are going all there.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1975, Johannesburg:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's very conceivable that they could have tricked everyone. They simply have a video. They go up in a space ship around. They simply show a film from the space ship back to the earth, how they were practicing in the Arizona desert and they collected some rocks and took it with them. It's very easy.

Harikeśa: Sanka dāsa, you know, in Bombay? He was in the CIA. And they..., when he was in Vietnam, they knocked him out one day and they brought him to a dentist and they took out three of his teeth, and they put in these little transistors. And these little transistors were connected to his brain. And they would talk to him and make him do things by speaking into these transistors into his brain. And if he ever said anything wrong..., like he was not supposed to reveal secrets. And if he ever revealed a secret, they would try to kill him by making a signal go to his brain, and they can explode his brain. So conceivably they can trick the astronauts completely like that by putting things and making them think like they went to the moon.

Prabhupāda: Śaṅkara dāsa?

Morning Walk -- October 28, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: So for eating, sleeping, mating and defending, everyone has got full intelligence. This monkey-eating bird also knows how to do his job. So that is not intelligence. Even this lowest-class bird, they... Even small flies, they also know all tricks how to exist, struggle for existence.

Harikeśa: Once in Vṛndāvana you were sitting in your room, and I had some bananas on the right-hand side. Do you remember this?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1975, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: It's Kṛṣṇa's trick just to give us this facility.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Harikeśa: This is Kṛṣṇa's trick just to give us facility.

Prabhupāda: And because I wanted it. Kṛṣṇa doesn't want it. But because you are rascals we wanted it. Kṛṣṇa (says,) "Alright, do it."

Harikeśa: So therefore, in the beginning Kṛṣṇa gives you the big post, Brahmā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- December 19, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Theirs is really culture. Prahlāda Mahārāja says, tam manye' dhitam uttamam, śravanaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇu-smaraṇam pāda-sevanam arcanam. Tam manye' dhityam uttamam, he is first-class educated. This is recommendation by Prahlāda Mahārāja. And Kṛṣṇa says, "If one is not God-conscious: duṣkṛtino, mūḍhā, narādhamā, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā." Where is their qualification? Duṣkṛtina, mūḍha. Where is culture? Suppose you steal by tricks, by, I mean to say, by legal tricks, does it mean it is culture? But that is going on.

Dr. Patel: That means, sir, īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ, yat kiñcid jagatyāṁ jagat, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). That should be the background of all the governments.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: That is called sandhyā. That is accepted. But he forgot that. And Kṛṣṇa is more intelligent. He.... Hiraṇyakaśipu was not killed in daytime or nighttime. He was killed in the sandhyā. And so far land, sky, and water is concerned, that also was played with tricks, that He killed him on the lap. You cannot say it is land; you cannot say it is sky, you cannot say it is water. So Kṛṣṇa is so kind that His devotee, Brahma, has given him this benediction.... Without touching all those points. Hiranyakasipu could not accuse Brahma that "Sir, you have cheated me." "No. Whatever you wanted, I have given you. You have cheated yourself. You do not know that your knowledge is imperfect. You cannot make it perfect. So that is your folly. But so far I am concerned, whatever you wanted, I said, 'Yes. Yes. Yes.' But I said also that 'In spite of all this, you'll never live.'

Room Conversation -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: You are lower and you want to dictate? What is this nonsense? (Bengali) By standard, one who is lower, they want to dictate. (Bengali) (loud conchshell) Bas. (laughter) Hare Kṛṣṇa. They may be very big visioner. (Bengali) A pakkā Vaiṣṇava like you, to find out faults, what is this? Rādhārāṇī is.... (Bengali) They have not united. They have disunited. And here, practically you see all religions, all nations, all persons, all philosophy. Everything is there. (Bengali) They have come with their life. (Bengali) C.I.A. (Bengali) Less common sense they have. They haven't got even common sense. (break) ...on behalf of Kṛṣṇa, so all the money should be given to us. The money actually belongs to Kṛṣṇa. You, by tricks you are holding it. (knock) Yes? Āsana. Open this. Open. (break—to morning walk)

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: (break) ... going to jail, after he was caught, he made a trick that he... There were reports that "Now the president, he has been kicked out. He is so much depressed, he is going insane. The only way he can be saved is you must pardon him." So the new president, he pardoned him to...

Devotee (1): There was also some talk that the arrangement was made before.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (1): In the newspapers, I also read that there was some talk before. Like they're actually friends. So they just feel, "Well, he got caught. We'll give him another try."

Hṛdayānanda: That "If you'll go away and let me be the president, then I'll get you out of jail."

Devotee (1): "We'll make some arrangement."

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: And He is proprietor of your money. Give Him. (laughter) I think our Girirāja played this trick.

Revatīnandana: Yes. I have also played the same trick.

Prabhupāda: And one boy gave his all money.

Revatīnandana: They say it is all one. So I say, "If it is all one, then it doesn't make any difference if you have the money or I have the money, so give it to me." It works. They don't like it very much.

Prabhupāda: And you give it. "Your money is my money; my money is my money."

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That's Guru dāsa's trick.

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda, if one serves the higher devotees and shows compassion to less advanced devotees, then where is the question, say, for a position of an advanced devotee who is feeling himself to be the lowest? So is that distinction still there of higher and lower? If he is feeling himself to be the lowest?

Prabhupāda: He does not feel lowest. He takes sympathy that "Here is a person. He can be a devotee. So let me raise him to the standard." He does not think that he is lowest. Devotee always thinks that he is lower than the worm. But it is the duty. It is the duty. It does not mean that he is thinking, "I am higher." No.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Get them. Let them make good profit. We want to put up, that's all. And let them take money, we don't mind. Śaṭhe śaṭhuṁ samācaret. When there is trickery, you become trickery. Śaṭhe śaṭhuṁ samācaret. Kṛṣṇa's play, those who are plain, Kṛṣṇa is very kind and plain. Those who are tricky, "All right, I am also tricky." We shall adopt all the means of the materialistic persons, simply for Kṛṣṇa. (break) Just like Kṛṣṇa's rāsa dance, any materialistic person at the dead of night will be glad to dance with young girls, what is the difference? (break) But because it was Kṛṣṇa's dancing, so this association of the woman and Kṛṣṇa is taken by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as the first class worship. ramyā kācid upāsanā vraja-vadhū-vargeṇa yā kalpitā. Kṛṣṇa should become a little tricky with the gopīs, "Oh, you have come in dead of night, what your husband, father would think, and there are so many (indistinct) and saintly (indistinct), please get out immediately."

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: In other words, is it, is it that there is deliberate trick? It is deliberate.

Prabhupāda: Ahh, it may not be deliberate, but they are fools. They are talking nonsense. That's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But what about the people, like the men on the ship who say they have jumped on the moon? Are they lying and being paid off, or are they just.... What, I mean what is the actual position? Some men are getting on a television saying, "We landed there, it was like this, it was like that."

Prabhupāda: No, I saw that television, at that time, the whole thing broke wrong. There was a press representative. He protested. I was protesting from the beginning, but they could not show how they jumped, at the last. Going, going, going, but at the time of jumping, melancholy. Ceylon jumping melancholy.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They have another trick. Now they make them very cheap so the cars will break down every year.

Prabhupāda: But if I don't want it, either cheap or dear, who cares for it? If I don't want that. There was a statement by some Pope that "If the crown of England is offered to me at very cheap price, so why shall I accept it? What shall I do with it?" That is the..., that if I don't want a car.... Suppose if we advance our farming program, who will want the car? Theoretically, accept it, that we shall remain in the farm. Then where is the necessity of car?

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: How many scientists?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They are also fallible, they can also make mistakes. "Experts Misled: For instance, investigators in universities in the West were known to be misled by tricksters who claimed para-psychological powers." Like ESP.

Prabhupāda: They invent some big, big words (laughter). Aparkalasvena-vargolas-double-wakundali-gondolais (gibberish). (laughter)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "One of them was Uri Geller, an ordinary street magician who succeeded in hoodwinking two scientists of the Stanford Research Institute. He claimed that he was able to perform miracles with psychic powers obtained from a computerized brain thirteen million light years away in space." Very far away in space there's a computerized brain that he's using.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He's been to South Africa also, this Uri Geller. He was bending keys, bending keys. He's from Israel. "Like Indian-god men who had talented propaganda agents, Geller too had one. Dr. Kavoor in fact claimed that G.K. Swami Nathan, one of the magicians who performed some startling acts at the show, had disguised himself as a swami, replete with saffron robes, and had spent a few months in the āśrama of a highly popular god-man near Bangalore, from whom he had picked up his repertoire of tricks. Exposing fraud was his mission in life, said Dr. Kavoor, and he would continue to write letters to god-men and miracle makers in the hope that they would accept his challenge someday." In the same newspaper there's a nice article about Jagannātha. "Jagannātha Festival (indistinct)."

Prabhupāda: You may read that.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa's trick. Everyone talks of the "We Eastern, we believe in this," and "We Western, we believe in this." You remain peaceful, everyone. Everyone is thinking like this. We have no such thing, Eastern, Western. It is fact. For everyone, it is good. Eastern, Western, we don't take. Several times, this question.... I talk, I spoke in the American Embassy in Calcutta. They gave me the subject matter, "East and West." So I, in the beginning, I began to speak that we have no such dual..., East and West.

Hari-śauri: Hm. It's a higher consciousness.

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

Hari-śauri: That used to be a circus trick as well. They used to put their heads in the lion's mouth.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: As long as the lion is well fed, you can put your head in his mouth, but if you don't feed him, then it is dangerous.

Prabhupāda: Naturally, if he's animal. They can understand that he's giving you food, he's my friend. The love, friendship, everything is there, even in animals.

Devotee: Except God consciousness.

Prabhupāda: That is possible in human life. But animal also can become God conscious by association.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That's it. Here, you are right. Sense gratification. Nobody wants to do anything. Nixon captured the presidential post for his own satisfaction. And when the people found that "Here is a trick," they agitated and got him down. So this is the difficulty, that andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās the 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ (SB 7.5.31). We are blind and we are being guided by blind men. So the result is catastrophe.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Can I ask another question, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Question number nine. Is a guru essential to one to enter the spiritual path and attain the goal, and how does one recognize one's guru?

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Rūpānuga: Their trick is that they say it has already happened. Over the past four and a half billion years the time has taken place for this complex form of life to evolve. So they say it has already happened.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, we differ in the time. You say millions, billions, and we say seven days.

Vipina: But they'll say that it's able to happen in a couple of days because it's taken billions of years.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The basis of their philosophy is that there's no intelligence behind it, therefore everything is chaotically going on, and by possibility it develops. But our philosophy is that there is intelligence, it can immediately happen.

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: When the spiritual master goes there, somewhere, his nearest assistants, they automatically go there to assist him. When Kṛṣṇa comes the demigods also come to help Him. That is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. All these Yadus, Yadu family, they came from heaven. So before Kṛṣṇa's disappearance, by some trick they were all killed and they returned to their original place. It is nicely described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Just see, small house, this yellow. Still, in New York City.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, small little house.

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...this city, this will be a small parade with some hand-pulled floats. Another trick of the Hare Kṛṣṇas.

Prabhupāda: Bali Mahārāja was asked for three feet of land. "Very good. You speak so nicely, such intelligent, but You are boy, You do not know how to ask. I can give You a big island." "No, I must be satisfied as I require. I don't want more. Only three feet, that's all."

Rāmeśvara: That story is in the Eighth Canto, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hmm. I'm going now with that story. (break) "Rascal, if you give like that, where you will stay? He'll take everything!" Smārta brāhmaṇa. Simply considering "How I shall live?" (laughs)

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Maramara, rāma.

Jayatīrtha: Later on, this Valmiki, he wrote the Rāmāyaṇa after having chanting rāma, mara, he became purified.

Hari-śauri: Transcendental trickery.

Jayatīrtha: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (end)

Room Conversation About Blitz News Clipping -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Hari-śauri: He's a scientist. He says he can prove that Sai Baba's making things appear and disappear is just a trick.

Prabhupāda: He is a fraud. What is this paper?

Hari-śauri: This is the same issue.

Pradyumna: But there's something very interesting. When he manifests something, he gives evidence, he says, "This cannot be a creation, because to be a creation, to be God you must be creator. To be creator you must produce something which is uniquely not made by anyone else." So he said he's only making things that are already created by someone else—a watch. So he is...

Morning Walk Conversation About Bombay -- August 29, 1976, Delhi:

Girirāja: Yes. Actually it was good publicity. The headline was that the Andhra government is falling for our tricks. But all the subject was very good.

Prabhupāda: We got very good coverage in Hyderabad by all the papers.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Have you seen it?

Girirāja: Yes, you sent me some clippings. They're very good. In bold type...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: "CM praises ISKCON."

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Indian man: I don't know. He does some kind of trick.

Prabhupāda: Suppose he manufactures a little gold. So far I have heard.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Not gold. He does other magic. Gold also, but other magic.

Prabhupāda: What is that other magic? Generally he...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Generally, it is said he blesses sick people who have diseases and they get cured.

Prabhupāda: So that is done by medical men also, so what is the excellence. Huh?

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If he can do so, can he save him from death? If he's so powerful.

Indian man: That is very easy. I can also do that. (laughter) I know the trick.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the trick?

Indian man: I'll not tell it to you. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: No. These tricky things are... They have no...

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Now what is the result of showing these tricks? What is the ultimate result?

Indian man: B.N. Sarkar shows much better tricks than that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. B.N. Sarkar, he was going on cycle in London, busy street and his eyes bound up. Everyone has seen it. He was going on cycle in busy... Ordinary street he was going, and his eyes were bound up. Everyone has seen.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is that? Acakṣuḥ? Andhasya. Abudho guru. So andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). They are gurus. They are blind, and they are guru for blind men. Abudho guru. These have been described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If we are to accept guru, so the original guru is Kṛṣṇa because He instructed Lord Brahmā, the first living creature within this universe. Tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye (SB 1.1.1). He instructed the ādi-kavi. He is the guru, Kṛṣṇa. And in the Bhagavad-gītā He also says, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). So He is ādi-guru. In Bhagavad-gītā also He is instructing Arjuna. He is ādi-guru. So instead of this tricky, jugglery guru, why not people approach Kṛṣṇa? Therefore acakṣur andha. (Hindi) Read this verse again.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, and around the fire, it is very warm.

Gurudāsa: And it was a trick. And they came around the fire, and then we had saṁsāra prayers, and then I said, "Now stay here and chant." So they chanted. Then I gave class. Pandal is simple. I have not spent elaborately on it.

Prabhupāda: No, why? There is no need.

Gurudāsa: And we're having display, book table, membership table, and cinema is showing at night.

Prabhupāda: So how people come?

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Haṁsadūta: You were explaining to that reporter in Pennsylvania, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that actually this women's liberation is just a trick by the men.

Prabhupāda: Yes! It is trick by the men, yes.

Dr. Patel: How... Could you explain that?

Prabhupāda: Because if they remain free, they get young women free. That's rascal's man brain. That "You take freedom."

Dr. Patel: This is a third-class argument.

Prabhupāda: This is argument! This is argument. This is fact. These rascals keep these women unmarried to enjoy daily new, new young women, these karmīs, these rascals. There is club. There is club. These young women are paid for that topless, bottomless. You do not know.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Hari-śauri: Just like that demon on that radio show, after all his spouting out nonsense, at the end he said, "Well, I suppose we'll just have to read the books and find out." Their trick is to try to distract the attention from the books. Because they know the books are very perfect, so they try to say that that's not the issue, what's in the books. The issue is that we're not following what's in the books.

Prabhupāda: But say we are not following. So prove it.

Hari-śauri: We have to bring them back.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then he was trapped. So we have to do like that. Sate sārtham samācaret.(?) If the other party is tricky, you should be also tricky. Why you should be so plain? And this is quite legal, that "This is our statement, these eighty-four books. We have got others also, but some of them are here. So, my lord, you read this statement. Let us argue." Then it will be read. They have to. They cannot say, "No, I am not going to take any..." That is illegal. Whatever I say, he has to take. Then there is argument. First of all statement. The court procedure is: I have charged you with something. Court will ask you, "What you have got to say against these charges?" So you'll submit your statement. Then both the statements, the court's duty is to study and give the judgment.

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

Prabhupāda: So for selling we can take any trick.

Gargamuni: Yes, they all do it. In Macy's department stores...

Prabhupāda: It is a salesman's trick. That is allowed everywhere. If I can sell more books by some trick, I must take that. That is salesman's trick.

Hari-śauri: All the big department stores, they have Santa Claus.

Gargamuni: They bring their own Santa Claus, and they give away small gifts just to encourage the people to buy big gifts. It's a big racket they have inside the department stores.

Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So Japanese planned that "Kill Subash Bose, and let us enter." Subash Bose wanted Japanese help to enter India. The Japanese took this opportunity that "We shall enter India and kill Subash Bose." That was their trick.

Bhāgavata: So then they killed him. They killed him in that plane crash.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The Japanese had no honesty, dishonest. You see? They thought "This is the opportunity that this Indian leader wants our help. So with his help we enter India. And this is the opportunity to occupy India." Because they are searching after land. They are very poor in land. They have no place, and very little land. Therefore they are now going to Hawaii to settle down. They have no place.

Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No Hitler actually helped him, all the soldiers. And then the Sikh soldiers and Gurkha soldiers voluntarily surrendered to join INA. And this information obliged the Britishers to go away. Then "Now the army is joining national movement, so there is no hope." The Gandhi's noncooperation, the clerks' noncooperation the, some of these teachers' noncooperation what do they care for? But when they saw that "The soldiers are now going to join this non..." Gandhi diagnosed the disease rightly, that "The Britishers are here on account of our cooperation. Without this cooperation, they'll go away." That's a fact. So his noncooperation movement was... It was a good trick, but actually he did not succeed. And this movement succeeded. That "Now he's organizing Indian soldiers for national movement. There is no chance."

Morning Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That must be done. Anyone who comes to see the ārati, at least two puris, little vegetable, halavā should be given. Prasāda distribution should go on everywhere. Who said that that is my trick? Who was...?

Hari-śauri: He was just saying last night.

Prabhupāda: Oh, somebody...

Hari-śauri: Secret weapon.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Secret weapon, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So Jayapatākā has not returned?

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: And then they'll influence them away. Actually we have a good reason for not letting them see their parents now, because when the parents call them on the phone and say, "I want to see you for five minutes," it's so they can kidnap them and deprogram them. That's how the kidnap them. The parents call and they say "Oh..." They make some arrangement to meet their child, and it's a trick. They have these gangsters waiting. I can see now my parents weren't so bad after all.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Hm!

Hari-śauri: I was thinking I was very unfortunate to take a birth in a family of nondevotees, but they're not so bad compared to these others.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā's mother is here.

Prabhupāda: Oh. What does she say?

Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He had already played the trick with one man.

Prabhupāda: Still, I took the risk that "I have no money. If he cheat me, that's all, but let me attempt."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then you installed the Deity as soon as possible.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Immediately Akash Ganga left. All Kṛṣṇa's desire.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone is appreciating how wonderful this project is, all of Bombay.

Conversations -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But how did they get these figures? How does someone manufacture that we will spend seventy crores in three years? (pause) It seems like they have tricked you. You must have made a statement, and they...

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: They fabricated. That's the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: How they can fabricate in their own way? From... (pause) Rather, they have criticized that "This fantastic thing, it is going to be like Aurobindo's city, list of fifty thousand, 404 acres." They are not taking it very seriously. Otherwise why he has remarked? Indirectly he has said, "This man is speaking like lunatic." They are not taking very seriously. That very remark shows that "It is going to be meet the same fate." So many fantastic ideas.

Morning Conversation -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Prabhupāda: They are not old, but they have no intelligence. The hippie life spoiled them. Varṇa-saṅkara. Hippies means varṇa-saṅkara. No father, no mother, some are only children, doing irresponsible everything, making the whole situation hellish. How Bhāgavata predicted long hair? That is very astonishing. This confirms the Bhāgavata authority.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's a very minute detail, prediction.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So it's not that Gauracānda is playing any trick or anything.

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not that Gauracānda is doing any trick.

Prabhupāda: No, that's right. I can understand.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I mean, I spoke with Gauracānda when I was there, and I have to say he had sincere feelings.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Anyway, that's all right. I want that he should not play any trick. That's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, he's not.

Prabhupāda: Then it's all right. No, in the court also there is a trick. There is no name, our.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Within the court?

Indian man: No name.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is worth writing, history book. Māyāpur also. Mādhava Mahārāja will not allow, allow.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So many tricks he played through that...

Prabhupāda: Similarly Tīrtha Mahārāja was no wanted me to... Here also there is one ring.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right.

Prabhupāda: This girl had to introduce line(?).

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No new news about him. Same tricks. He does the same tricks.

Prabhupāda: He is half finished.

Satadhanya: He's a juggler, magician.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Balesvara Yogi is also almost finished.

Prabhupāda: Almost.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Nobody takes seriously now. I saw an article just a few weeks ago about Balesvara Yogi, how he is, you know, he has not been accepted. Rather, it's increasing that many believe him that he's just fake.

Prabhupāda: He's bogus.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Man came and said he could do anything. Make any trick or illusion. (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: And they have done so in the matter of moon planet. They've never gone there by laboratory arrangement. Arizona?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Arizona.

Prabhupāda: That's all. That is their business. They might have presented such devices in a book, a different color. Just like medical science. The preparation is nothing, but they'll employ big, big medical students to write in such a way that it will be presented as very important. They are doing this. We have done in Dr. Bose's laboratory. They employ.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "Since the Communists took power in West Bengal, the police are caring less for religious groups." Before, the police would always give religious groups protection. Now they don't care. I mean just see, they didn't come for two hours, and then they said, "Come down and file a complaint." And when we came down, immediately arrested. This same thing happened in New York. They told Ādi-keśava Mahārāja and the other boy, Trayī dāsa, "You come down to file some statement." As soon as they came down they said, "You're under arrest." Same trick. (break) ...infirmary and they come in and they... I never heard of that. Someone is in the infirmary being treated and they beat him worse. And the newspapers all report it the other way.

Prabhupāda: Because the government is Communist.

Room Conversation With Madhudvisa and others -- August 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is the..., according to calculation of my horoscope. Eighty-one years will be completed, and eighty-second year will begin. It doesn't matter I leave this body. Even in death I'll live. One year before or one year after... Now as far as possible, I have trained you. Try to follow the principles. And go ahead. Don't be set back by māyā's tricks. Go ahead, forward, at any cost. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said... So many obstacles are coming. Māyā is strong. And still, we are going forward. That's all right.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Śrutakīrti: ...started on the beach walk at Pico Blvd. and went down to Venice Beach. That's where you used to walk, on Venice Beach.

Prabhupāda: Oh, it started from the beach.

Room Conversation -- October 9, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's been there now, Parivrājakācārya Swami, he's been there now for, I think, two or three years now. He's worked pretty faithfully there. He tricks them. In the guise of teaching a little haṭha-yoga, then he teaches bhakti.

Prabhupāda: That is preaching.

Brahmānanda: You also tricked us, Śrīla Prabhupāda, when you came to New York. You were just chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and speaking on Bhagavad-gītā, and we came and we listened, and then you took everything. You took our lives, took all of our money... (devotees chuckle) We left our families.

Prabhupāda: There is a Bengali word, "Enter like a needle and come out like a plow." (laughter)

Room Conversation -- October 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: My only interest in Vanamali is if by some chance he has done some trick, that I want to find out. Because then I want back the ingredients or the money. That's my only interest. Because we've given him very valuable ingredients.

Devotee: I myself gave the golden powder.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So this kavirāja said it's not makara-dhvaja.

Devotee: He said it's not.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This Rāmānuja. He looked at it, he said, "This is not makara-dhvaja." Now let us wait. There may be some confusion over the name or something, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I'm not jumping to conclusion yet. But my interest in Vanamali in only that since we gave these valuable ingredients, I want to know that what he gave us is the same thing. I'm not saying that he has played any tricks. Better that we should be patient and check carefully everything. There's no reason to jump to any conclusion yet. It may be that the name he has given is a different name.

Prabhupāda: Then why he did not come?

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Another trick they have is that you have one trouble, so they give you a medicine, but the medicine causes a worse trouble. And eventually such bad trouble is created that they get you depending on them, and then they say, "Now the only thing left, you must come to the hospital for operation." Then they kill you.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, injection, operation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was asking us, "Does your Guruji have any...? Will he take an injection?" So we said, "No." He was hopeless. He was guessing.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, he didn't know the real cause.

Prabhupāda: They do not know. They use machine. Their means of knowing-machine. They do not know.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Transcendental bargaining. (laughs) Śrīla Prabhupāda, I have seen you dealing with the most tricky people in the world. I saw you dealing with that Mr. Nair, and then with that other man, Mr. Ratnaparki? So I can understand that when you say, (laughs) "No medicine at all," that we will then simply say, "Well, please, Śrīla Prabhupāda, just take medicine and then you stay here," and you'll say, "All right." (laughs)

Prabhupāda: I want simply once parikrama.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One mahā-parikrama?

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, one time around. Not many times.

Prabhupāda: No, no. As I am doing, that much. Medicine, no medicine...