Underneath (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"underneath"

1967 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Hayagrīva: Yes, I see. All right. Now the fifth scene...

Prabhupāda: Fifth scene, Lord Caitanya's mother, Śacīdevī, is sitting underneath a tree, a nim tree. It is called nim tree. And the little child on her lap and the visitors, so many visitors are coming, and they are offering some presentation. Somebody is offering gold necklace, somebody offering some bangles, some cloth, some money, and his father, he...what is called...Jagannātha Miśra. Jagannātha Miśra is there? Yes. Jagannātha Miśra, His father. He was, whatever money and clothes and gold and silver, they were coming, he was also distributing to poor men, some dancers. In India there is a system... What you call the eunuchs? Those who are neither male or female. What do you call? What is their name?

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, after taking leave from His mother, left Bengal towards Orissa, and on the entrance of the district of Balasore there is a nice temple called Kṣīra-corā-gopīnātha temple. And He saw the temple. Here the scene is to be arranged that there is nice temple and within the temple there is Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deity, Kṣīra-corā-gopīnātha. The pūjārīs are there, ārati is being taken place, and at that time Caitanya Mahāprabhu entered with His followers chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, and He saw the Deity and danced before Him. And when the ārati was finished, prayer was finished, then He sat down, talked with His associates, Nityānanda and Gadādhara and Murāri. So Nityānanda Prabhu described about the Kṣīra-corā-gopīnātha, the story of Kṣīra-corā-gopīnātha. It was very nice story, that formerly one ācārya, Madhavendra Purī came to this temple, Gopīnatha, and while that condensed milk which is called kṣīra was being offered to the Deity, Madhavendra Purī wanted to taste it so that he would also prepare such condensed milk and offer to his Gopāla. So after that he thought, "Oh, it is being offered to Kṛṣṇa and I wanted to taste it. So I am so greedy." So he left the temple, that "I am not worth to visit this temple." He went outside the temple and sat down underneath a tree and was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then at dead of night, Gopīnatha, the Deity, was awakening His priest by dream, that "You please get up. I have kept one pot of condensed milk behind My..." What is called... That (pid?) vastra, kings, sometimes they have got, very long tail-like.

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

ayagrīva: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: In Sanskrit it is called (pid?) vastra, backside robe. So under the backside robe He kept one pot of condensed milk by stealing. So the pūjārī woke up and opened the door and actually saw that there was a pot of condensed milk. The priests were very much astonished that "Oh, He has stolen (laughs) kṣīra for His devotee." So the order was that "You take this pot and give to Madhavendra Purī. He is sitting underneath a tree." So they, with the pot of the condensed milk, they began to cry, "Oh, who is that Madhavendra Purī? Oh, you are so fortunate. The Deity has stolen condensed milk for you. Take it." So he came forward and he was so pleased that Lord has stolen. "Because I desired to taste so Lord has stolen one pot." So in this way. From that day He became famous, the thief of condensed milk, Kṣīra-corā. Kṣīra means condensed milk and corā means thief. So the temple became famous as the temple of the thief of condensed milk.

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: I'm spelling. V-i-j-a-y N-r-i-s-i-n-g-a G-a-r-h. Vijaya Nṛsiṁha Garh temple. This is near modern Visakhapatnam shipyard. There is a very great Indian shipyard, Visakhapatnam. Formerly it was not Visakhapatnam. So near that, five miles away from that station there is that nice temple on the hill. So I think that the temple scenery may be there and Caitanya Mahāprabhu's visiting that temple. And after that temple He came to the bank of river Godavari. Just like the river Ganges is very sacred river, similarly there are others, four other rivers. Yamuna, Godavari, Kṛṣṇa, Narmada, Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Narmada, and Kṛṣṇa. These five rivers are considered very sacred. So He came to the bank of Godavari and He took His bath and was sitting in a nice place underneath a tree and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa. In the meantime He saw that a great procession was coming, and that should be the scenario of this... In that procession... Formerly the kings and governors, they used to take bath in the Ganges with their paraphernalia, band party and many brāhmaṇas and all kinds of charitable things. In this way they used to come to take bath. So Lord Caitanya saw that somebody is coming in that great procession, and He was told about Rāmānanda Rāya, the governor of Madras province. Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya requested Him that "You are going to South India. You must meet Rāmānanda Rāya. He's a great devotee." So when He was sitting on the bank of the Kaveri and Rāmānanda Rāya was coming in procession, He understood that he is Rāmānanda Rāya. But because He was sannyāsī, He did not address him. But Rāmānanda Rāya, he was a great devotee, and saw a nice sannyāsī, young sannyāsī was sitting and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Generally, the sannyāsīs they do not chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. They, "Oṁ, oṁ..." Simply sound oṁ. Not Hare Kṛṣṇa.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: One scene you have to show that in the Ganges water people are taking bath, and there is on the sky beginning of the moon eclipse, lunar eclipse. And they are all chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and taking bath. And exactly at that time Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared. This is one scene. And the appearance of Caitanya Mahāprabhu should be underneath a tree. Under this scene, this scene, one... Advaita Prabhu's wife, Śrīvāsa's wife, they were elderly, and all other women of the village, they immediately came with presentation. And some of the demigods, they also came, I mean to say, disguising themselves as ordinary men, with presentation. And His father got so many valuable presentations. And then again, some of the professional dancers, they came. So he distributed charity to them. In this way, that function... Try to...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Was Nārada there? Did Nārada Muni come?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Nārada Muni also came. You can show that. Yes. all the devatas, all the demigods came. Nārada Muni, Brahmā, Śiva. They came in disguise, and their wife, Savitri, and then Umā. Umā is the wife of Lord Śiva. In that way you can show so many demigods and their wives coming.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 21, 1970, Surat:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you give us some place, we'll immediately open. Just like in Indore we had been. Somebody has given us a land. Not only land, but they are going to prepare a temple also there. And the residential quarters, we shall arrange to construct. So this land is about 400,000 square feet.

Guest (3): In Surat?

Prabhupāda: No, in Indore. Yes. So if we get place, we can start. Our program is international. And it is not difficult for us. We can start a branch even underneath a tree. We begin... I began in New York like that. I was chanting underneath a tree in a park. Yes.

Guest (4): (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. To the members, not to the public. It is very difficult for import-export, and sales tax, this, that, so many botherations government has created. Therefore our proposal is that... Thank you. We don't sell. No. Simply who becomes a member, we give him. You give us something, and whatever we have got, we give you. Business finished. Not finished, but business established. (laughs) Then if you read our books, if you inquire, then we get opportunity to explain. And our distribution of books means that is indirectly propagating our mission. Yes. So therefore we have adopted this way, that only to the members. That's all. We have printed that "These books are not for sale in India." Yes. Because the government machine is so implicated-sale tax, this tax, that tax...

Guest (3): I want to put in India also.(?) They are for sale there.(?)

Prabhupāda: Because there we have no difficulty.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: We don't keep any statistics, but actually the fact is that I started alone; now we are eight thousand.

Guest (2): I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that...

Haṁsadūta: Five years ago, Prabhupāda, he came to New York with these kartāls, and he began alone by sitting in a park underneath a tree chanting this very same Hare Kṛṣṇa, which you see the boys on Oxford St. chanting. And now there are eight thousand students all over the world, and approximately a hundred centers. At that time, Śrīla Prabhupāda didn't even have a place for himself. But now he has a place in every major city.

Guest (2): You used the word "student" here. You're referring to this as...

Haṁsadūta: Yes, because it's an education. This is a spiritual education.

Guest (2): This doesn't tie up with the figure that I've been given, though, 150. There must be more than that.

Haṁsadūta: No, we're talking about around the world.

Guest (2): But you would accept there's 150?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, in England.

Guest (2): No, five years ago.

Prabhupāda: In 1966.

Room Conversation -- August 15, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Allahabad, Gorakhpur. So same thing. And for persons spiritually inclined, for them this traveling is very good. Traveling means with this occupation. It is very good. You'll be more popular and there will be no difficulty, mind will be steady.

Śyāmasundara: It takes away our attachment for everything materially.

Prabhupāda: The Gosvāmīs, they did not stay underneath a tree for more than one night. So you decide; then you do the needful.

Haṁsadūta: When should we arrange for Śivānanda's fire ceremony?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: We should have initiation too, first initiation.

Haṁsadūta: Do it all the same.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. So we'll consult Pradyumna and find a good time, calendar, on the...

Prabhupāda: Any day. (end)

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dai Nippon -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:

Karandhara: He's asking how can he be relieved from such sadness when his son has died? How do we evaluate death?

Prabhupāda: Oh. Yes. So our program is that, as I have already explained, the success of everything depends how Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. So if you try to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, then whatever you want, He will give you, benedict. I will give you one instance. It is stated in Kṛṣṇa Book. Kṛṣṇa was a student of Sāndīpani Muni. So when Kṛṣṇa finished His education, it is the system that the disciple gives some, I mean to say, reward, presentation to the spiritual master, because he has educated. So the disciple requests his spiritual master, "Now I have finished my education. I am going home." Formerly the student used to live with the spiritual master. "So how can I serve you?" So at that time the spiritual master, whatever he wants, the disciple will supply. So in the case of Kṛṣṇa, the teacher knew that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So when Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma asked his teacher, "How can I satisfy you?" so they requested, "My dear boys, I lost my child very young. If you kindly bring them, then I shall be very much pleased." So Kṛṣṇa went underneath the sea and brought his son back. This incident is there. So my point is that whatever you want, Kṛṣṇa will give you. You try to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That's all.

Interview with the New York Times -- September 2, 1972, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: When we speak of Kṛṣṇa, we mean God. Everyone has some vague idea of God, but no clear idea. Therefore God descends to show what He is. If we speculate on God, someone will think one thing and another person will think another. This is the result of speculation. But if God Himself comes and shows Himself as He is and speaks about Himself, that is perfect knowledge. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is spreading that message. God Himself is speaking about Himself: "I am like this; I am like this; My form is like this; My activities are like this; My address is this and that—if you like you can come back to Me. This is the situation. Everyone can come to Me." All this information is there in Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. In Bhagavad-gītā God speaks about Himself and presents Himself as He is. We have simply to take that information; then we can understand God. As soon as we understand God, we can go home immediately. It is a very simple thing. God says:

janma karma ca me divyam

evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ

tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma

naiti mām eti so 'rjuna

(BG 4.9)

"One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna." So God is there; that's a fact. Anyone can go back to Him and live an eternal life full of bliss and knowledge simply by knowing about it. When God Himself comes, all great ācāryas, stalwart men accept Him: "Yes, He is God." If we simply understand God, we make a solution to all our problems. What is the problem? Because we are part and parcel of God, we are qualitatively equal with Him. God is eternal, and we are eternal. God is blissful, and we are blissful. God is full of knowledge; we are also full of knowledge. Unfortunately we are hampered by this material body. Therefore our problem is how to get out of this material body and come to our spiritual body. The spiritual body is there, just as our real body is present underneath our shirt and coat. I, you, and every one of us is a spiritual spark, part and parcel of God, and we are placed within a gross and subtle body. When this particular body is finished, we are carried by a subtle body into another gross body. That is called transmigration of the soul. And when we finally get free from the subtle body also, we go back home, back to Godhead. It is that easy. Human beings therefore should endeavor to get out of this gross and subtle body, attain the spiritual body and go back home. That should be the aim of human endeavor. Not that we should simply live like animals. Animals cannot get out of the gross and subtle body because to extricate oneself one must know in fact what God is. An animal cannot know what God is, but a human being can. That is the opportunity afforded by this body; nature gives us this human body just to understand God, and if we simply use it for animal propensities, we again go to the animal kingdom. That is a form of punishment.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Originally.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: There's that famous... (break)

Prabhupāda: Pakistan is also now divided.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Also Indonesia, and they're... On the surface they're Muslims but underneath they're Hindu, there's been...

Prabhupāda: I have been in Indonesia.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: You've also... Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Their culture is Hindu culture. But by religion they have accepted Muslim. They still, their names are Hindu names.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: Names are Hindu. There Garuḍa, Garuḍa. The airway is Garuḍa. Garuḍa is the carrier of Viṣṇu.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: I've seen their shadow plays, and all the subjects and the heroes are from the Indian history, the Indian epics, not from Muslim. So...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Reporter from Researchers Magazine -- July 24, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: But we see everything has got Kṛṣṇa connection. Therefore we utilize it for Kṛṣṇa. Just like you're talking about Kṛṣṇa, it is being recorded. So it is useful for Kṛṣṇa's service. Why should I give it up? Because the airplane is there, therefore my preaching has been easier. Every year I'm wandering all over the world, twice, thrice. Because if you use airplane. So why shall I give it up? It is giving me facility to preach my Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, why shall I give it up? It is mithyā. Just like the Jains, they do not ride on car, but if by going in a car I can go and preach, very swiftly, and come back again, why shall I give up this car? So our philosophy is not like that. Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate. It is yukta-vairāgya. We have no attachment for all these things. We are sitting in this palatial building, that's all right. But you can talk things under the tree. But if I sit down underneath a tree nobody will come to me. (everyone laughs) So why shall I do that? This is our philosophy.

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

Prabhupāda: And lots of land is lying in our Letchmore Heath. They won't work for producing food. That land is kept for keeping cows for killing them. And for their food, they are working underneath the ground, and whatever money they get, they import grains. Just see the māyā's influence, that: "We are working, getting money, and importing grains." Why not work and grow grains? Now he's thinking that: "I'll get more money underground, than by cultivating on the surface." This is māyā. He's working very hard. Still, he's thinking it is better happiness. "I haven't to work on the surface. I am working underground. Therefore I am happy." This is māyā. He'll prefer that kind of work. But he won't agree to grow food on the surface of the country.

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

Prabhupāda: Topless, bottomless. That is going on. It is a regular policy that girls may remain unmarried, and the drunkards and the meat-eaters may take advantage of the prostitution. This is the policy. They have no sympathy. So many hundreds and thousands of innocent girls, they're like children. And they're exposed to prostitution. They have no shelter. Now these girls who are with us, they're feeling some shelter, you see? That we are giving some shelter. Everything should be reformed, political, social, and be, you American nation—you're favored nation, that I am always speaking; you should utilize the favor of God and be yourself perfect—and be leader of the whole world. Anyone who is not believer in God, he should be punished. Because he's animal. He is animal, and he is posing himself as human being. Cheater. Human life is meant for tapasya, for understanding God. That is human life. This dog's life, cat's life, this is not human life. If you become a very powerful tiger, is that human life? They're thinking like that. "If I become as strong as a tiger, then there we are perfect nation." Then what is the use of tiger? It is simply kill only. What other intelligence he has got? So in your country there are so many things to be done. I give you the idea, now you take the leaders. (break) Rascal. Sentimental. Be yourself leader. (break) ...you give up all this material advancement. But there must be Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Otherwise it is waste of time. Live very comfortably, gentlemanly. Kṛṣṇa never says that "You live like wretched urchins." Kṛṣṇa never says that. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya yogo bhavati duḥkha-hā. And this was practically introduced by my Guru Mahārāja, that living in palatial building and riding on first-class cars, one can become the best devotee. Not that one has to live underneath a tree, imitating Rūpa Gosvāmī. That is not possible in this age. That is the continuation of my Guru Mahārāja, that if one is sincere he can remain a first-class devotee even in this material opulence. And if he would not have introduced, then it was not possible to come here and preach this gospel. That because the principle was to live underneath a tree, go to Vṛndāvana, and have loincloth, just like the bābājīs are imitating. No. Even in full material opulence we can become a perfect devotee, provided you follow the principles. It doesn't matter.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 9, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is very nice. So it is possible?

Bhavānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Oh, so do it. (break) ...bhakti's, as I explained, apratihatā. Any condition, bhakti can be executed. The example is given: Just like Rūpa Gosvāmī and Rāmānanda Rāya. Rāmānanda Rāya was gṛhastha and governor, and he was very comfortably situated. And Rūpa Gosvāmī was living underneath a tree every night. And both of them were equally... Rather, Rāmānanda Rāya was accepted in greater position than Rūpa Gosvāmī. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was in renounced order of life, but He gave even better position to Rāmānanda Rāya than Rūpa Gosvāmī. And Rāmānanda Rāya was a gṛhastha. He was not even a brāhmaṇa. And governor, very opulent. Very comfortable situation. You know this?

Guest (2): Yes.

Prabhupāda: So how Caitanya Mahāprabhu treated them equally or gave better position to Rāmānanda Rāya than Rūpa Gosvāmī? This question was raised—not only now—when our Guru Mahārāja started Gauḍīya Maṭha. So he was allowing the sannyāsīs to live in palatial building and go in car for preaching work. So many such persons questioned, "How is that, sannyāsīs are going in car, living in palatial building?" So our Guru Mahārāja replied that "A devotee should be offered the best comfort of life. And if he would not have introduced this comfortable life, at the same time, to become pure devotee, then these devotees from Western countries will, would never come. They would never agree to sit down under the tree and, imitating Rūpa Gosvāmī... That is not possible." Do you understand or not?

Guest (2): Yes.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: No, you can start in a cottage.

Mahāṁsa: Yes, small way.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mahāṁsa: And then develop.

Prabhupāda: Building is not very important. Work is important. Activity is important. I started my movement not with buildings, but real activity. So building is opulence. You can do without opulence. You can start anything, even underneath a tree. There is no difficulty. (break) They will allow our men?

Mahāṁsa: I went. They did not ask any questions.

Prabhupāda: No, there is no question of asking, but is there any hint from their side?

Mahāṁsa: I have not heard that they, Tirumali, they refuse foreigners.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's all right. (break) So far reporters, they agree that others have no right to comment on this. (end)

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is their profession, livelihood, but they are devotees. In Calcutta, there is a big temple. It is called Kāca-Kāminī's temple. Kāca-Kāminī means she was a prostitute, but she was kept by a very big businessman who was dealing in glass, mirrors and all... So he has made a temple for her with glass and mirrors. Therefore it is called kāca. Kāca means glass. Kāca-Kāminī. (break) ...have a dispensary. Dr. Ojha. He thinks in this way people can be saved. That is also necessary, but not as necessary as this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Girirāja: Chapter Forty-two. The Killing of the Elephant Kuvala... (break)

Prabhupāda: We are speaking of Kṛṣṇa. No Indians are interested. Just see. (Hindi) Dr. Patel and his company. (Hindi) (break) Hear about the expedition to moon but not about Kṛṣṇa. What is that?

Devotee: It came off.

Prabhupāda: No, it is all right.

Devotee: There's another one underneath. (end)

Morning Walk -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Cranes.

Dhanañjaya: Cranes?

Satsvarūpa: The zoo.

Dhanañjaya: Those are pelicans, with the big bag underneath. And there are some South American animals, llamas. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...fight with tiger and elephants?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Lions.

Dhanañjaya: They would use a trident and a net and they would try to throw the net over the lion and fight the lion like this.

Prabhupāda: And kill?

Dhanañjaya: And kill, yes. They would arm themselves with a helmet and some protection here for their arms and sometimes for their chest, and then they would attack with the trident. (break) Earlier Claudius.

Atreya Ṛṣi: For enjoyment they would even put two gladiators fighting each other, two men killing each other, and they would all watch.

Prabhupāda: Just see. That was in India also, that Kaṁsa's wrestling with Kṛṣṇa. Yes.

Yogeśvara: Was that to the death?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It comes automatically to death. Although it is not meant. Nobody will agree that "I am defeated." Therefore death. There must be death. What is this building?

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: Seventy, eighty.

Prabhupāda: So we are not sorry that minority. Where is the...? Insignificant. Don't talk of minority. But we are not sorry. Minority, majority, all these are foolishness. The whole platform is mistaken. (pause) Rūpa Gosvāmī was a minister. He was in the majority. But voluntarily, he accepted minority. He went to Vṛndāvana and living alone, underneath a tree. He was enjoying so much honor. Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīm. His associates were big, big zamindars, big businessmen, politicians. Because he's minister. But he preferred to resign that post and become a minority, to live alone in Vṛndāvana underneath a tree. Why he preferred this? And remaining there alone, he has given you the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. So we have to see how much service we are going to give Kṛṣṇa. This minority, majority, these are all material conception of life. If you can give major service to Kṛṣṇa, that is your success of life. I started this movement alone, minority. Is it not?

Yogeśvara: Yes, one.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: One only, less than minority. (laughter) The minority, majority, these are material conception. And spiritual is how much you are giving service to Kṛṣṇa. That is considered. That is to be taken into consideration. (pause) Kṛṣṇa says Himself, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye: (BG 7.3) "Out of millions and millions of people, one may understand Me." So if I have turned so many people to understand Kṛṣṇa, so that is service. At least, they are trying to understand Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...in winter in December, when I was going to the park, Regents Park, all the waters, frozen like stone, and with this stick, I was pushing, (makes sound-imitation:) "Tung, tung," like that. But I marked it that underneath the tree, there was no frozening. The water was there. Just like here is a tree. Just below the tree, there was water. And all around, frozen. The swans were walking on the... But on that place, they were floating. Hare Kṛṣṇa... (pause)

Yogeśvara: Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the scientists say that the life, life first came from the water. They say that life first came from water. In the beginning, there were one-celled creatures that were formed from chemicals in the water.

Prabhupāda: That we also say, pralaya-payodhi-jale **. Because the whole planet was submerged in water, so there was life in water, aquatics, fishes. That is not a very new thing. We know it.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: No, he was the emperor of the whole world. But the jungle part... Somebody... The whole world was known as Bhāratavarṣa, this planet, nine varṣas: Bhārata-varṣa, Ketumāla-varṣa, Ilāvṛta-varṣa... the whole universal situation is mentioned, where different lands are there. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ...ages, Śrīla Prabhupāda, did the people, in order to get valuable minerals and gold and things like that, did they mine underneath the ground?

Prabhupāda: No. There was no need of coal. And the jewelries and stones were received from the sea-pearls, valuable stones from the hills.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So they didn't dig deep holes underneath the ground?

Prabhupāda: No. There was no need. The richest persons' property were ivory, gold, marble, valuable jewels, pearls, silk. This was luxury, not plastic. Now they have advanced, they have got plastic, no gold, no silver. Paper money and plastic utensils. This is advancement.

Brahmānanda: Do we consider ivory as something pure or impure?

Prabhupāda: No, pure.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Madhudviṣa: Just like we look at the building over there. From a distance, it is stationary. But if we go inside, we can see there is so much movement.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Madhudviṣa: So similarly, you may walk by this earth every day and see it is stationary, but if you analyze it underneath a microscope, you will see that there is so much movement going on within.

Prabhupāda: But that is due to air. That is due to air. Just like we can see so many atoms are moving in the hole from the wall, but that is due to air. So this is also moving. The whole thing is moving by air.

Viṣṇujana: But not of itself.

Prabhupāda: Not automatically.

Viṣṇujana: Not of itself.

Prabhupāda: Not automatically. You cannot say automatically. No, air is moving. Just like the, in the air, the cloud is moving. The cloud is not moving. The air, moving, and the cloud moving.

Trivikrama: Anyway, the basic proposition is that they, they don't have, they don't want to accept God, so they don't have to be accountable for their activities.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Trivikrama: So that they don't have to be accountable for their activities.

Prabhupāda: Certainly. And they are being accountable. If they become so dull-headed, then God's power will make him a tree: "Stand here. Stand up here for three thousand years. That's all. You are so dull-headed that you have no sense, so become a tree so that even if you are cut, you cannot protest. You have no sense, senses." That is the punishment. "If you don't eat prasādam, then eat stool." This is the arrangement. So they are being punished. But they are so dull-headed, they cannot understand.

Evening Discussion -- May 6, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: That is stated there. In the verse what it is?

Amogha: Adhi-yaj... Well, it depends on whether I pronounce it right. (laughs) But it is spelled, a-d-h-i-y-a-j-n-a-h with a dot underneath. So...

Prabhupāda: Adhi-yajña. When we divide the word, then the first noun form is used. Sanskrit grammar is very difficult. It requires twelve years to learn simply Sanskrit grammar. So, that is not possible. So whatever is there, you understand that. Sanskrit grammar is very, very difficult. At least twelve years it requires. And if you understand Sanskrit grammar, then you can read all the Vedic literature without any translation. Simply by studying. Therefore the Sanskrit scholars are first of all taught grammar. And when one is expert in reading grammar properly, then all Vedic literature becomes very simplified.

Room Conversation with Ganesa dasa's Mother and Sister -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Sister: What about like euthanasia, say. Isn't that nonacceptance of a material body? If by some, for some reason the child isn't allowed to be born?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is said here, that if you understand Kṛṣṇa, then after giving up this body—this is material body, you have to give up—so you are not coming again in the womb of another material mother. You are transferred to the spiritual world by nature's law. They do not know the subtle laws which is going on underneath. They are simply concerned superficially. Because they have no knowledge of the spirit soul—they think the body is everything—so therefore knowledge is imperfect. Body is only the covering. Real person is the spirit soul. So the modern education has no knowledge of this.

Mother: But most people are materialistically minded, aren't they? There's very few that aren't.

Gaṇeśa: Most people are materialistically minded. Not many people are spiritually inclined.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the defect of the modern civilization.

Mother: Yes.

Morning Walk -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is very kind. If you want this kind of food, he'll give you facility.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But the Vedic culture, I don't think they like this. They'll prefer this... Do you think Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Vedic culture means Kṛṣṇa prasāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Kṛṣṇa, you cannot offer this to Kṛṣṇa, can you?

Prabhupāda: No. (break)

Devotee (1): ...seaweed they eat. It grows out further. This isn't edible, they say.

Prabhupāda: Everything is edible but meant for different living entities. Stool is also edible, meant for the hogs. In the last war, stool was also eaten by human beings, you know that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, the Germans. (break)

Devotee (1): ...take the deities on a walk down this way, up to the park and put them underneath this gazebo there.

Prabhupāda: Park, that is a park?

Devotee (1): Yes, it's a park up there. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...anantaya kalpa (?). Ananta. (break) ...different language. (pause) What means go away? (break) ...means you haven't got master. (end)

Morning Walk -- September 18, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: For advertising?

Dhanañjaya: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is the subject matter?

Dhanañjaya: Well, he made a design of the front of the temple, and he put underneath, "Come and stay at the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma āśrama for..."

Prabhupāda: "Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple," not "āśrama."

Dhanañjaya: "Temple." All right. "And become..." Something like, "and become enlightened with transcendental knowledge," something like that. He's explaining briefly.

Prabhupāda: He... What does he know? He'll explain? He is explaining. What does he know. He'll explain?

Dhanañjaya: Tejas has written.

Prabhupāda: No, no. That Rājasabhā.

Dhanañjaya: Oh, Rājasabhā.

Prabhupāda: Rājasabhā, what does he know about our philosophy?

Room Conversation -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Paṇḍāl or no paṇḍāl. You can sit on open place. There is no harm.

Cyavana: We can build a paṇḍāl in one day and put up.

Prabhupāda: In villages we can sit down underneath a tree. That is paṇḍāl. Why should you unnecessarily spend money? Just cleanse the ground and sit down. That's all. Makes everything simplified.

Guest (1): If it's raining there, Swamijī. Rainy days.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā. Rainy day.

Guest (1): For that we need paṇḍāls.

Prabhupāda: So think. Kṛṣṇa is giving you intelligence. Think over, and Kṛṣṇa will give you intelligence.

Guest (1): I don't know whether it is practical, Swamijī. That is another suggestion. Like you are here for about seven days. Don't you think it would be good if you come here and you call people, youngsters, for example, those who are interested in the Vedic culture, would come here, in any place, for about seven days or eight days to stay with you and to learn what you want to say.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Like a camp.

Guest (1): Like a camp, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are welcome.

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: ...plants are within the sea?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Down?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Some plants live underneath the water.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And why these rascals say there is no life? We see underneath the water there is life, and in the moon planet there is no life? We have to believe this?

Indian man: So there is life on the moon, Swamijī?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man: But can you see them? Do they have bodies?

Prabhupāda: First of all you go there. Then see. I don't admit that they have gone to the moon planet.

Indian man: You don't believe.

Prabhupāda: It is 1,600,000 above the sun, the moon.

Indian man: One million six hundred...

Prabhupāda: Thousand miles above the sun.

Room Conversation with Reporter of The Star -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Harikeśa: Just that one book.

Prabhupāda: That is also.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Also, when I read that book, long time ago, he said in the introduction that once he took a vow for two years not to speak anything. I thought it was very strange for a Vaiṣṇava.

Harikeśa: He lived underneath the ground in one cell. You know that?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just make a show.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You've said, "Yes, if someone can only speak nonsense, they shouldn't speak. But if they can speak about Kṛṣṇa to glorify Kṛṣṇa-kathayantaś ca māṁ nityam—then always they can talk about Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: He said?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, you say. He said, "I have taken vow not to speak anything." I thought it was crazy.

Prabhupāda: That is condemned by Prahlāda Mahārāja. You will find in Prahlāda Mahārāja that "This is for professional men to get some prestige." Prahlāda Mahārāja said like that.

Morning Walk -- October 17, 1975, Johannesburg:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Fumigation.

Prabhupāda: Ah, fumigation.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: When the termites get into the wood they eat up the wood and they hide in nests underneath the house. So the way that they try to kill the termites is by gassing them. They cover their house with a tent, and then they gas, and it goes into the nests and kills all the termites. They are perfecting this art of killing. You said that in Calcutta in a very expensive cloth shop... Your father's brother used to have cloth shop?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That when there was rats and they would eat the cloth that he would simply put some prasādam in the room.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: And the rats would come and take. They wouldn't eat the cloth.

Prabhupāda: No. Just like a man also. If he gets food, shelter, then he doesn't commit any criminal act. Man is also dangerous. Even if you give him food, shelter, he will do mischievous activities. That is man. But an animal will not do it. You can tame even a tiger by giving him food. He will never... If he sees that you are giving him food he'll never attack, the tiger also, feeling obliged.

Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: This is fair proposal. You take one egg, analyze. If you are scientist, you find out what are the chemicals. You have got all the chemicals. And mix it up, the color yellow, and dip into what is called, celluloid ? Or...?

Brahmānanda: Cellulose?

Prabhupāda: Cellulose, covering? It is just like cellulose. And put underneath the incubator and get. Then we shall accept you. Why not ask all these rascals all over the world?

Brahmānanda: One thing the egg has, the egg has... It's red because there is blood there for nourishment. And they cannot even produce blood.

Prabhupāda: Take blood from the slaughterhouse and put it. If blood is necessary, the tons of blood available. You take it and put it here. That is also another chemical. That's all. Why don't you do that? Little blood required, there is no question of manufacturing. You can get it from slaughterhouse, tons. Take little drops and put it. It is blood. Where is your science, nonsense? It is practical suggestion. Challenge then in big, big meeting. (break) ...past it was coming this side, and fifteen minutes, it has gone down. How many tons of water has gone down on this beach within fifteen minutes? Is there any scientist who can...?

Morning Walk -- November 7, 1975, Bombay:

Bhāgavata: So we should display the real planetary system...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhāgavata: As it really exists.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhāgavata: And then we can put underneath explanations in Bengali and English.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Dr. Patel: In Sanskrit and English because Sanskrit contains Bengali and Gujarati and all.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's a good idea, good idea.

Dr. Patel: I go, sir.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Time is up? Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...many things to be displayed by these models, and we can utilize that.

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1975, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: No, and then they worship in that temple. That's a temple there.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. No, the road is, er, gate is closed. (break) People in general, they take that "There is no God, and if there is God, He is now dead." This is general impression.

Harikeśa: There is one nice thing I saw on one wall. It says, "God is dead. Nietzche "And then right underneath it somebody wrote, "Nietzche is dead. God."

Prabhupāda: Nietzche? Nietzche means?

Harikeśa: Nietzche, that philosopher. He was the one who first...

Prabhupāda: (Aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Yes.

Harikeśa: Nietzche first brought up the philosophy of "Everything is nothing," for the Western people. "It's all nothing. It all ultimately boils down to nothing. So there is no possibility of God."

Prabhupāda: Śūnyavādī. Śūnyavādī. That is śūnyavādī. Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādī. Śūnyavādī, they say, "There is no God, and there is nothing, fact. Everything is combination of some illusory things." This is śūnyavādī. And the Māyāvādī, they say, "Yes, there is God, but He has no form." Therefore we have to kill both of them. Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavād-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe. The whole Western world are filled up with these śūnyavādi and impersonalists. India is also nowadays, but there are, still there are devotees in the ācārya-sampradāya. They are fighting against śunyavāda and nirviśeṣa.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can you open one of these boards, show Prabhupāda the... (break)

Jayapatāka: All is for storage.

Sudāmā: Underneath. You have to open.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Jayapatāka: They put all rice and everything there.

Prabhupāda: Stock.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Books also?

Madhudviṣa: Doesn't it get wet down there, though, Jayapatāka?

Jayapatāka: There's another floor.

Sudāmā: And also up front, behind Bhavānanda Mahārāja, is also another storage which goes all the way up to the front of the ship.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Morning Walk -- March 1, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: But both of them are coming from me. So this sensation, this consciousness, is perfect when it comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is developing, in every living entity is developing. The consciousness, the sensation, is there in the tree also, but he is not developed. When the same consciousness comes to the complete perfection, then he understands, "Oh, here is Kṛṣṇa." Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). That is perfection. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti: "The real source is Vasudeva." Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Then he glorifies Vasudeva. But to know Vasudeva, you make research. That is one way, going on. But if you accept... Vasudeva says, "I am everything." Then accept immediately. The whole solution is there. Two, two ways: āroha-panthā, avaroha-panthā. You are trying to search out. Go on. It will take many, many births. But if you accept... The same Vasudeva is coming kindly ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo (BG 10.8). You accept it, then the knowledge is perfect. Suppose I am making this sound (makes sound with cane). Underneath they are puzzled: "Wherefrom this sound is coming?" They are making research. And if I say, "I am making this sound," then everything, knowledge, is there. The rascal will not surrender. Ask the man who is making sound. Then the knowledge is perfect. But he'll make research: "Wherefrom the sound came?" This is rascaldom. And one man is suggesting, "It is... The sound may be like this. The sound may be due to this." They are going on, researching. But if I say, "You rascal, why you are contemplating like that? I made this sound like this (make sound with cane). That's all," So that knowledge they'll not take. Mūḍhāḥ. Therefore they are... Nābhijānati. Mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. So if we call them all mūḍhas, what is the wrong? They become angry. But if we call them, all these rascals, mūḍhas, what is the wrong? They say, "Oh, you are using very strong language. You are calling us all mūḍhas." But actually you are all mūḍhas because you do not know Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...ment of atom?

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Oh, Garga, garga means "big jug," and "money," full of money. Big jug full of coins. Formerly they used to...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Keep.

Prabhupāda: Not.... Cheat the government. There was no income tax, but still they used to keep in big, big jugs all gold coins and put into the..., underneath the ground. Nobody could understand where is the money. Very easy thing.

Pañcadravida: Hoarders.

Prabhupāda: And he did not disclose at the time of death; then it remained. And then, after some years, somebody digging, he got.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a nice example given in Nectar of Devotion about the digging for a treasure.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Yes. (break) ...shenai on the gate, that is nice. Jayapatāka?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatāka.

Jayapatāka: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: They should play shenai on the gate, and here kīrtana will go on, not that kīrtana will be stopped to hear their dundubhi.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: (break) .... that we are killing vegetables, but actually we are not killing. They are already dead. Hm?

Gurudāsa: Also there's a verse in the Bhāgavatam that says there may be a fire on the ground, but the seed underneath the ground is still living. The tops may be cut, but the seed is still living. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...painting he has made?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He said he would complete it today.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: And he'd like to show it to you tomorrow.

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Rādhāvallabha: (break) They keep putting their pictures there. I keep taking them off.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Rādhāvallabha: ISKCON Amsterdam keeps putting their pictures up in front of the books. I keep taking them down. They keep putting them up again.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Why you are taking?

Rādhāvallabha: They can't see the books.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is going to some communist European countries.

Devotee: They make their vans with false bottoms and they hide the books underneath so at the border they do not see. Underneath the van is all your books. When they get in the country then they distribute the books to these centers.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Revolution.

Prabhupāda: It is very nice.

Devotee: Sometimes he said when he's speaking, the translator will not say what he is saying because it's...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes he forgets-usually he speaks very carefully-guarded words. But once or twice he says, he starts speaking direct Krishna consciousness and the translator looks at him and won't translate it into the local language. Sometimes he forgets himself and starts speaking about Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the translator suddenly looks at him. Usually he covers everything.

Prabhupāda: He has done a good job.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is a fit person, very intelligent.

Prabhupāda: So in this way... You are all intelligent, you can plan. The aim is how to distribute books. That is first consideration. (break) In Bhāgavata it is very figuratively described that we have got this body and the different parts. Just like Arjuna is sitting on the chariot. There is chariot driver, there are horses, reins. There is field, and the arrow, and the bow. They have been figuratively. So this can be used for killing the enemies of our Kṛṣṇa Consciousness and then give up all this paraphernalia, chariot, we... Just like after fighting, only victory, then you kill them. And similarly this body is there, the mind is there, the senses are there. So utilize it for conquering over this material existence. And then give up this body and go back to home.

Morning Walk -- May 25, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Volcano eruption. Is there any technical term? Varuṇāgni. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Hari-śauri: You mean like when there's an eruption from below? Say when an island's formed, or...

Prabhupāda: It is called varuṇāgni, fire in the water.

Hari-śauri: Would you say some eruptions from below the earth's crust comes up, and then, er, all the gases underneath push the land up above the water?

Prabhupāda: There is fire within the earth, just as there is fire within the stomach-fire. That helps digestion. In the Ayurvedic śāstra, when one does not feel an appetite, it is called agni-māṁdya (indistinct), rest and (indistinct) of the fire.

Devotee: How can the fire within the stomach be increased?

Prabhupāda: You know everything?

Devotee: No.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Hari-śauri: He said that by taking cold milk, that dampens the fire. I thought that was what we said. That's what I was always told.

Devotee: Certain foods are cooling to the stomach.

Prabhupāda: Appetite is increased on account of the fire. The fire creates different secretions: blood. This is a big machine. It is mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā, yantra. How this yantra is working? Electricity, everything, air.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: There is an ocean (inaudible) each planet, and in the Causal Ocean is Garbhodakaśāyī. (break) ...ocean, many planets and (inaudible)

Devotee (1): Where? Underneath the water?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (1): You said that the different living entities in lower forms of life, they became those lower forms of life due to their work in the human form?

Prabhupāda: Yes. A criminal is freed, but if he again commits criminal..., criminality, then again he's put into the jail, like that. (inaudible) ...his freedom, now make your choice. But if you misuse it, then again go.... māyāprāpte nivartante mṛtyuḥ saṁsāra vartmani. (break) ...go home back to Godhead. But if we do not take the chance, and misuse it, like animals, then again we go down. The process is to go back to home, back to Godhead, eternal life, blissful life. And other process is the cycle of birth and death in different species of life. So this human form of body is to make choice whether to continue the cycle of birth and death in different species of life, or you want to go home, back to Godhead. (Sanskrit) He's Kṛṣṇa conscious when he goes back to home, back to Godhead. (inaudible) species of life, according to karma, they're going to be fish. From fish, by nature's way, leads to the plants, then insect. In this way.... Then birds, then beasts, again human being. Again another birth. In this way they are.... bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). Similarly, after many, many births, when he comes to his senses.... "I have enjoyed very nice life. Now let me go back home..." Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti... (BG 7.19). Kṛṣṇa says, sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. Such mahātmā, great soul, who has accepted that Kṛṣṇa is everything, he is very, very rarely found. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu (BG 7.3). After many, many millions.

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. It is saved for you. Go and take it.

Mahendra: They wear the snakes and eat the rats.

Prabhupāda: Snake will die of starvation. It is better. You go and eat.

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Egypt, they have been able to dig underneath the ground and find the remains of ancient cities. So this is proof of the ancient civilization of Egypt. But they have not found ancient ruins of the cities of Dvārakā or Hastināpura. They do not have such...

Rādhāvallabha: There are ruins in Dvārakā.

Rāmeśvara: So they do not accept that the ancient civilization of India is old, very old.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I read one anthropology book, and it said that about 3,500 years ago in India people were only living in all the caves, and they were simply using stones and things like that, very primitive tools. No knowledge at all.

Mahendra: But they cannot explain how it was that these people evolved, these cavemen evolved such a language as Sanskrit, which not even the greatest scholar today can even begin to comprehend. It is a very great language.

Prabhupāda: That is their grudge. When they see such exalted literature, they are envious.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Hari-śauri: They just made up different compositions of bones and then drew some outlines on them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are imagination.

Hari-śauri: But you said in Hawaii though that there are some animals that are as big as skyscrapers?

Prabhupāda: Yes, these are birds. It is far from this earth though. They travel from one planet to another.

Rāmeśvara: So these bones that they have found of these gigantic animals, they were all living underneath the water.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Not on the land.

Prabhupāda: Maybe. But the list is there: jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi. There are 900,000 different forms, and how many we have seen? There is information in the śāstra. Paśavas triṁśal-lakṣāṇi. Three million different types of animals.

Hari-śauri: We've seen a few hundred at most.

Prabhupāda: That's all. (laughs) That is also doubtful.

Rāmeśvara: Kṛṣṇa incarnates into every species of life. He can appear in any form.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Otherwise, why the form came? Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). If we have to accept this sūtra, that everything emanates from Him, so unless Kṛṣṇa has got such similar form...?

Morning Walk Conversation -- June 20, 1976, Toronto:

Hari-śauri: I think this story's in Rāja-vidyā, that small book. The one about the brāhmaṇa and the cobbler?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. Cobbler immediately believed when he was informed by Nārada Muni that "I saw God is pulling one elephant through the hole of a needle, this side and again this side." The brāhmaṇa did not believe it. And as soon as the cobbler, he was also devotee, oh, he began to pray, "Oh, my Lord can do anything." Nārada Muni, "You believed it?" "Yes, why not?" "How do you believe it?" "I am daily seeing. I am underneath the tree, and so many figs are dropping, and each fig has got thousands of seeds, and in each seed there is another tree. Why should I not believe it?" He did not believe it blindly. With reason, and he gave immediately reason: "When I see this fig tree, big fig tree, and there are millions of figs dropping, and in each fig there are millions of seeds, and each seed there is.... Why shall I not believe it?" God, nothing is impossible by God, everything.

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

Prabhupāda: Very nice garden and on the riverside.

Kīrtanānanda: Can you bathe in the river?

Hari-śauri: Sometimes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, if you like, you can bathe.

Hari-śauri: You can drive a boat in it underneath the house. There's a dock. It's like a garage.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: All the rich people come by in their yachts all day long and wave, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." So Śrīla Prabhupāda said we should put a sign up on the, boat, that they can drive their boat in and take prasādam and read the books.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And invite them, give here signboard: "Please come, read our books and take prasādam." Gradually, they will come. Very big garden.

Hari-śauri: Seven peacocks.

Kīrtanānanda: Is it stone?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: What is it, the building is stone or...?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Stone, marble. With golden work.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm. Find that verse. You can quote that "This Kali-yuga it is waning; therefore they are becoming animals." Man without religion means animals. That's all. This is the definition. In the human society, either you become Christian or you become Mohammedan or you become a Hindu or you become Buddhist. It doesn't matter. There must be some system of religion. That is human society. And human society without religion—animal society. This is plain fact. So why people are unhappy now? Because there is no religion. They are neglecting religion. That one gentleman, he has written me that Tolstoy said that "Unless one dynamite is put underneath a church, there cannot be any peace." That means they want... The Russians, the Communists, they are very strict against God consciousness. Because they think so, that this religion has spoiled the whole social atmosphere. It might have been misused, religious system. That does not mean that religion should be avoided. Real religion should be taken. Because religion has not been properly executed by the so-called priest, it does not mean that religion should be rejected. My eye is giving some trouble on account of cataract, but that doesn't mean eye should be plucked out. The cataract should be removed. So that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. They have no conception of God, and they are preaching religion. What is that religion? That will be misused. Religion means dharmaṁ tu sāksād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Religion means God's order. If there is no God, where is religion? This is going on. They have no conception of God. What is God they do not know, and professing some religion. How long it will go on artificially? It will deteriorate. That has become the present condition. They have no idea of God, and how they will know what is the order of God? And religion means order of God. Just like law means order of the state. Law means order of the state. So if there is no state, where is the order? You can manufacture your own order. That is going on. There is no conception of God. We have got clear conception of God. Here is God, Kṛṣṇa. And He's giving orders. We accept it. And it is clear religion. And if there is no God, no conception of God, no order of God, then where is religion? If there if no government, then where is law? Outlaw. Everyone is outlaw. That is going on. Ask any religious system what is the conception of God. Can anyone tell clearly? Nobody can say. We shall immediately say, veṇuṁ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam (Bs. 5.30). Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti... immediately description, "Here is God." Then there is religion. And if there is no God, where is religion? Bogus. Therefore declining. They have no conception of God, and therefore there is no understanding of religion. Therefore it is declining. So this is the cause of declining. And because it is declining, human being becoming more animals. Animal means there will be no memory. A dog comes... Here is some eatables. He comes. I say, "Hut!" He goes away. Again he comes. No memory. So when this memory is reducing that means human quality is reduced. So in the Kali-yuga these eight things will reduce. That means they are becoming like cats and dogs. This is the answer to the first question.

Room Conversation After Film -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya. Without spiritual master there is nothing they can say.

Prabhupāda: This is very simple. You see everything, white and yellow. Produce. Chemicals are white. Some chemicals are yellow also. Just like hydroform(?). It is yellow. And soda bicarb, white, or potash cyanide is white. So you have got so many chemicals, combine and pack it in a cell, and put underneath the incubator. Why rascal do not do this? Beat them with shoes. "Rascal, you are cheating in this way." Beat them with shoes. That's all. That is the only punishment.

Hari-śauri: Yeah, that's too good.

Prabhupāda: Hundreds of men demand them, that "Do it, otherwise don't talk nonsense. If you talk nonsense, then we will beat you with all our shoes." Then they'll stop all this nonsense talk. There is no punishment for their cheating and taking money.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Your Back to Godhead article in this last magazine, "They can make a 747 jet, but not a tiny mosquito." Very thought-provoking.

Prabhupāda: With pilot. 747, you have to pay expert pilot, but here with pilot. Make this. Simply talking. Not only mosquito: at night we see so many, just like full stop, the same mechanical, flying from here, there, from here moving. Airplane, exactly in the form of... Similarly standing and... That is our challenge. Challenge this. Go in public meeting. Bring these so-called scientists, "Why don't you make any...? Why do you talk all this nonsense and cheat people?" Simple. Why first of all Sunday? There is no Monday first. I think never this question's raised, anybody. Fool's paradise. The Western world is fool's paradise. Actually this is the time they are getting enlightenment. Otherwise they are all fool's paradise. No social life, no religious life, simply get money somehow or other and enjoy wine, women, meat. That's all. This is their civilization. Do live comfortably; there is no harm. But why misconception?

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore He is God. He's not dog like you, barking only and doing nothing. (Prabhupāda knocks on table or flooring) What is this stone?

Hari-śauri: Marble. It's a type of Italian marble, I think. They call it terrazzo. Something like that.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's very soft underneath.

Hari-śauri: They often put this on the facings of buildings, big buildings.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Comes off on the fingers, very soft stone.

Hari-śauri: In Detroit temple, that stairway that goes up, this is the same marble, marble steps.

Prabhupāda: Move this.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Would you like this fan on at all, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (end)

(break—next day)

Rūpānuga: Svarūpa Dāmodara Prabhu, You want to ask some questions?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is that? Astronomical chart?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, it was just, Pradyumna was just telling me all this,... Yes, astronomical chart, about the moons, and...

Prabhupāda: Astrological?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, astrological.

Prabhupāda: He has become astrologer. (laughter)

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So it is for you, because you cannot sit down cross-legged, we have arranged this couch for you. (laughter) If it is not lavishly decorated, you'll refuse to come here.

Janice Johnson: Why is it necessary to live in such comfort as this for the spiritual...?

Prabhupāda: No, we can live on the street, but you cannot come and see on the street. For you we have arranged. That is the... We can live underneath a tree. That is a... But that does not make any difference. Our point is that you may live materially comfortably—there is no harm—but if you forget your spiritual identity, then you'll remain like animal. Just like sometimes a cat or dog is also allowed to sit on the couch, but that does not mean he has become a human being. He remains a cat and dog because the consciousness is lacking of a human being. In this seat there may be some bugs. So the bug is also living on this couch, but he has no understanding.

Interviewer: What is your opinion of what this movement should be doing in terms of world activities and world affairs that it isn't doing now? Are there some new areas that you may try to influence?

Prabhupāda: No, we are pushing on this movement all over the world. It is not that this particular place is important, but our interest is that Western people... They are so intelligent. They are very systematically making improvement in material condition of life. They should know also that spiritual life is more important than material life. Because, for example, we are combination of matter and spirit. So long the spirit soul is there, our body is very important. Otherwise, without spirit, the body has no importance. Everyone can understand. Similarly, all this material advancement of civilization is very good, provided there is spiritual understanding also. Otherwise it is decoration of the dead body. A dead body decorated has no value, but when there is life, then the body is valuable. So material advancement of material civilization means decoration of the dead body. But when there is spiritual understanding, then there is importance of everything.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Grand Central Station.

Ādi-keśava: You want to go on the upper level and around?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...underneath there is subway.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: About hundred yards below.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, quite far below. Beautiful church here, St. Bartholomew's Church. This is the Seagram's Building. Yes, this is Dhṛṣṭadyumna's father's building. The whole building, the Seagram's building.

Rāmeśvara: It's a liquor company.

Prabhupāda: Liquor?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His father is the president of the biggest liquor manufacturer in the whole world.

Prabhupāda: And father, and son is no liquor.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Son is sannyāsa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: 375 Park Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Like Prahlāda. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Central Park West, it's called.

Prabhupāda: This is not education. Everything is killing. Therefore we are supposed to deal with all madmen. They are thinking that they are constructing such big, big buildings, they are the most exalted persons, but we take them as mad.

piśācī pāile yena mati-cchanna haya

māyā-grasta jīvera haya se bhāva udaya

Ghostly haunted. A person ghostly haunted, as he does, acts, similarly, anyone who is under the clutches of māyā, he acts like this. (break) ...this church, I came. They purchased one set of books. And one lady, Mrs. McGuire I think, she arranged this meeting. Underneath there is subway. I was sitting there and the subway sound was cut-cut cut-cut cut-cut. So I asked what is this and they said subway. Within this building there is subway. I think they are repairing. What is this building? That museum?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This one? It's the Museum of Natural History.

Hari-śauri: Memorial of Theodore Roosevelt.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This man Theodore Roosevelt, he was one of the presidents. He was a big hunter, he used to kill animals. And in front it says that he was famous for being a natural conservationist, protecting nature.

Prabhupāda: By killing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a big planetarium here also at this museum.

Rāmeśvara: Biggest in the world, I think.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, this planetarium is the most famous one, Heydn Planetarium.

Prabhupāda: So see how the planetarium is done.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: How is this grass evolving?

Rādhāvallabha: They say that the wind blows the seeds. Or animals drop them. They also say that flying animals, like birds, came from the sea in one form.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I heard one island had just appeared sometime back from a volcano underneath the ocean in the middle of the Pacific.

Hari-śauri: There's one near Norway as well.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The scientists wanted to find out how long it would take before life appeared on this island in the middle of nowhere. So they were thinking it might take thousands of millions and billions of years, because there had been no life there to begin with. But they found that within one year it was full of so much plants, vegetation.

Prabhupāda: Just see, how rascal they are.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That should disprove all of their theories.

Prabhupāda: They speak all... That the egg will take millions of years and the chicken is bringing within five days. So why these rascals do not transfer their doctorate title to the chicken (laughter) instead of bluffing other rascals that "We are doctorate"? They should be ashamed to keep their doctorate. "Now let us transfer to the chicken; within five days there is life." Huh? What do you think? Am I right or wrong?

Hari-śauri: I am sure you are right.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: By Thompkins Park I was chanting, and these boys gradually came. First picture was published by the New York Times. Then we started branches in San Francisco, in Montreal, Boston. And then Los Angeles. In this way...

Interviewer: So you just chanted in Thompkins Park, and people came?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was underneath a tree. I think that picture was published by that Voice, very big article, published.

Interviewer: What did you have to offer then. If you were chanting in the park and I said "What are you doing? Why are you chanting? What's your thing here?"

Bali-mardana: He said what did you have to offer.

Rāmeśvara: He said, "If someone had come up to you while you were chanting and said, 'Why are you doing this? What are you offering?' How would you have replied."

Prabhupāda: They came... Naturally they came and joined me and began to dance, that's all. That is the beginning.

Rāmeśvara: But what if they asked you, "What is this all about?"

Prabhupāda: No, this is for spiritual realization. If you chant, then, gradually, you realize yourself that you are a spiritual being; you are not this body. Then his spiritual life begins. Actually human life is meant for spiritual realization, and if one does not spiritually realize his identity, then he remains an animal. That is the difference between animal and man. Man is supposed to be spiritually realized.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: So what happened to their project? Stopped now?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're going to do it on Mars instead.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're going to do it on Mars instead. (break)

Rāmeśvara: ...do it on the moon because they want to have people go there to drill into the surface of the moon to see if there are any valuable minerals or jewels underneath the surface. (pause) (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is a modern sculpture.

Passerby: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Passerby: Jaya! (laughter)

Prabhupāda: He says jaya also.

Devotees: Yes.

Hari-śauri: This is the kind of artwork that they're putting up everywhere now (bangs on the sculpture).

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Hollow. Called the formless form.

Prabhupāda: Hmm? Yes.

Devotee: That's supposed to be pleasing to the eye, it's supposed to bring pleasant thoughts into the mind. (laughter) It simply makes them crazy.

Rāmeśvara: It's like the "emperor's new clothes." Everyone thinks it is pleasing because the leaders or the artists say it is pleasing. Everyone is being fooled. And if they say it is meaningless then they are called a fool.

Prabhupāda: In Bengali it is called pare mukhe jhalma(?). Somebody says "Oh, it is very hot!" "Oh, it is very hot!" (laughter) He did not taste, but the other man says "Oh, it is very hot!" So he says "Oh, it is very hot!" Pare mukhe jhalma.

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

Gurudāsa: Same color as Kṛṣṇa, śyāma. Like a fresh rain cloud color. So when Rādhārāṇī sees the tree, She thinks of Kṛṣṇa. So when we see the tree we think of Kṛṣṇa. And Śrīla Prabhupāda sits underneath the tree and watches.

Prabhupāda: Rādhārāṇī in separation was embracing that tree, tāmala tree. And they say that in Vṛndāvana, only there are four tāmala trees left.

Gurudāsa: Yes, they've said four or six. Very few.

George Harrison: Is this tree still living?

Devotees: Yes, it's alive.

George Harrison: My compliments to the chef. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: What is this water?

Hari-śauri: Lemonade.

Prabhupāda: Is there any more?

Hari-śauri: I just took it out. I can get some.

Prabhupāda: Bring little. So I am very much pleased that you take so much trouble to come here.

George Harrison: It's my pleasure.

Prabhupāda: Yes, give a little for drinking. You want little more?

George Harrison: Are you ever going to stop traveling?

Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa's desire. I don't want, personally, but if Kṛṣṇa wants, that is everything. We have got more hundred and two centers, different parts of the world.

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

George Harrison: No, just, well, that (indistinct) pond. Originally the lakes all were filled just like this as well as flooding the drains, and when it rained off the house everything would go, and we have a big storage tank, and then there's ball cocks, and underneath that big bank of rhododendrons was like a room built there, which was a storage tank. Then any other water he must have used just from the mains. But these days, you know, they have meters on the mains, so you have to pay for every gallon.

Mukunda: What about getting those water diviners to come and find water?

George Harrison: Well, you can find it I think anywhere if you just bore a hole. So what we did was just bore at the end of the lake. But you have to go down to the depth of the riverbed, and there there's not much water because the rain, it's all chalk and limestone, so the rains.... That's the problem with watering in the summer, if you put water...

Prabhupāda: From your house the river is near?

George Harrison: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Thames?

George Harrison: Yes.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: No. That is called māyā. Just like the animal is running after the mirage, water, but there is no water.

Hari-śauri: He simply runs until he dies.

Prabhupāda: That's all. This is going on.

Hari-śauri: Dogs on four wheels. (laughs) It was so nice sitting underneath the tree there, chanting. I was thinking, this is what we could do forever, twenty-four hours. No need to do anything else.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause) Prospective place, this. Very future prospect.

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes. We're buying these big properties now, we don't have so many devotees, but we know just even in five years they're going to be packed.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hari-śauri: Maybe now we don't have so many devotees for all these big places we're buying, but even just in five years or ten years they'll be full. We'll have to expand more and more. Your idea for fifty percent for books, fifty percent for buildings is very wonderful. I remember in Caitanya-caritāmṛta you said that the book distribution and the establishment of temples should go parallel lines, side by side.

Prabhupāda: Going on. Up to date, to my satisfaction, it is going on.

Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Bhagavān: Put the hot sand where?

Prabhupāda: Sand is being heated in fire, so you put the grains in another pot and put the hot sand there.

Hari-śauri: Underneath the pot?

Prabhupāda: Why underneath? I said another pot. You are so dull brain. Here is hot sand. I bring in another pot, the grains, and the hot sand I pour on it.

Hari-śauri: Pour on it, on top of the grains. Oh.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And then agitate and then put the whole thing on a mesh and make it like this, again put the hot sand there. Is it clear? Then you get the puffed-up grains. That is very good food.

Hari-śauri: Devotees make popcorn.

Bhagavān: That's another thing.

Prabhupāda: Popcorn, they fry it in ghee, hot ghee.

Hari-śauri: Not much though, just a little.

Prabhupāda: No, I've seen it. They do it. But that is not very digestive. If you make this sand, hot sand...

Bhagavān: It's light.

Prabhupāda: Very light. In the morning you can give them this puffed grains, then fruits and milk, very good breakfast. I mean to say all self-dependent. Yes. We should save time, as much for this purpose, for chanting, discussing grantha. Not for any personal so-called comforts. We can sit down anywhere on the grass here, and whatever available we make our food. This is the idea. Life will be sublime. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām. That is real business.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: The water, sea, as it becomes solidified, the outer surface, by sunshine, they become, it is called sodium silicate. Salt is sodium chloride. So from sodium chloride, the sodium silicate. So cover(?) of the sea they can solidify by the sodium silicate. But underneath there is water. Just like our, this skin, bone, coming from where? We are eating liquid and or some vegetables or some whatever, they are becoming liquidified. And first transformation is blood. Blood is liquid, and from blood everything is coming. The muscle is coming, the bone is coming. The more the liquid portion becomes solidified by air, gas, then these things coming. The formation of this body beginning the liquid semina, liquid ovum, mix together. From liquid. Then they form pealike solid thing, from that liquid. And then the body forms. Wherefrom the solid body forms? The man injects liquid. Liquid inject, everything is coming. So wherefrom the solid molecules? By chemical composition the body forms, from liquid to solid. So as soon as you see some solid thing, you must know that it has come from liquid.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Dayānanda: They think that the countries that have the materialistic advancement or scientific advancements, that they are very well situated.

Prabhupāda: Well, scientific advancement, all this nonsense you can say. Just like Iran. God has given the oil underneath the ground, you are so proud. But if God would not give you the oil, then you starve in the desert. Then talk of improvement, nonsense. You're dependent on the oil. That is given by God. By God's grace, you have got some stock of oil, and there is good demand of oil. Then you are proud of making advancement. You are depending on the oil. The oil is supplied by God. You're dependent. Where is your independence? When the oil is finished, then your all pride is finished. Where is your independence?

Dayānanda: But we do not believe in God and still...

Prabhupāda: Do or do not believe in God, but you are not independent, that's a fact. You don't believe or do believe, it doesn't matter. But you are dependent. You are not independent.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Ali: It is living in the material world without become attached to it.

Prabhupāda: No, we have no attachment. We can sit down, in this nice building, we can sit down anywhere. We are not attached to this building; we are attached to push on Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is our business. And unconditionally we can push on Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Ahaituky apratihatā. It is not that if we don't get a nice building as Atreya Ṛṣi has supplied, then we cannot push on. No. That is not Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like I began this movement underneath a tree in New York, Tompkinson Square, what is that?

Devotees: Tompkins Square Park.

Prabhupāda: I used to sit down there. There was no mṛdaṅga. A small dundubi. And I was chanting three hours—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. And people used to come.

Nava-yauvana: In a very bad neighborhood. Very low-class neighborhood.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Low-class, high-class, we don't mind. We chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, that's all. That 26 Second Avenue also not very good neighborhood.

Jñānagamya: It's the worst place in the country. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: But I did not know. Mukunda suggested this is good place, all right, live here. And actually happened to be good place. Gradually, all my disciples came. So I had no disturbance. I was living in the Bowery Street, and on my door these bums were lying with urine and wine bottles and everything. Still, they were so respectful. When I'll come, "Yes, you can enter. Please." (laughter) I had no quarrel with them. They were very kind. They welcomed me, they opened the door, "Please go." They also knew that "He's a harmless..." So, platform, if you remain on the spiritual platform, this material condition cannot hamper you. Ahaituky apratihatā. Then yenātmā suprasīdati, in that condition you can execute. First of all, we have to ascertain on which platform we shall stand. And if you want to stand on the spiritual platform, nothing can check it. That is not conditioned. So why not stand directly to the spiritual platform and make you life successful? That is our preaching. People in general, they do not know the importance of the spiritual platform. Therefore they prefer to stay in the material platform. They have no sufficient education.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Sunday? What is the

Mahāṁśa: Sunday Chronicle. Deccan Chronicle. The biggest distributed English paper in this area.

Prabhupāda: What is this, Ratha-yātrā?

Hari-śauri: In New York.

Gargamuni: The Ratha-yātrā conquering.

Prabhupāda: I told you Ratha-yātrā, it is...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Conquer the world.

Prabhupāda: ...the eyesore of the Communist party.

Hari-śauri: It says underneath, "Ratha-yātrā in foreign lands." That's the caption underneath the picture.

Prabhupāda: Where is it?

Gargamuni: Ratha-yātrā in foreign lands.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa swamis. Read it. Read it.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: With picture. The other picture was published in Voice, Village Voice, yes. Yes. Big picture. One page. They felt something; otherwise, why they should publish? Appealed to them, that here is God.

Harikeśa: This is really a historic picture.

Prabhupāda: Underneath a tree I was sitting and speaking. That's all. And when I would come back from the park to my apartment, at least two dozen people will come with me.

Hari-śauri: Like a Pied Piper.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Hari-śauri: There's a story in the West about a man called the Pied Piper. He went to one place and played the flute and all the children followed him away from the village. You're like the Pied Piper who went to the West, took all the children.

Prabhupāda: If you know French language you can read it.

Harikeśa: He knows French.

Prabhupāda: Ah, you know. What is written there?

Hari-śauri: The article is by Hayagrīva, and the heading, it says, "Are you from India?" That was when he met you on the street.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he first of all met me on the street and asked me this question. And I brought him, "Yes, I have taken one apartment here. You come here with me." Then I came back to show him the apartment. And from the next day they began to come, Kīrtanānanda and Hayagrīva.

Garden Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Neophyte means that kaniṣṭha-adhikārī. One worships the Deity very nicely but he does not like to do good to others. Neither he knows who is Vaiṣṇava. He's neophyte. He is, in the arcanā, he's fixed up, he's doing very nicely. Arcāyām eva haraye. Yaḥ śraddhā..., pūjāṁ yaḥ śraddhayehate na tad-bhakteṣu. One does not understand who is bhakta. Na tad-bhakteṣu cānyeṣu. And how to do good to others. But he's doing the Deity worship very nicely. Sa bhaktaḥ prākṛtaḥ smṛtaḥ. He's prākṛta. But he can advance when his, by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, he understands "Here is a Vaiṣṇava. Here is an innocent man. He should be given some enlightenment." That is preacher. When he'll feel for others. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. Śoce tato vimukha-cetasa. "I am thinking of these rascals who are averse to you." Tato vimukha-cetasa. And that is Vaiṣṇava. Advanced devotee. For me I have no anxiety. Naivodvije para duratyaya-vai... There may be so many dangers. I don't care for them. Naiva udvije. "I am not disturbed by all these things." Udvije. Para duratyaya. Even it is very insurmountable, dangerous position, I don't care. How? Tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ (SB 7.9.43)." Because when I think of You, chant of Your glories, I don't care for that." Then you appear to be morose? "Yes." Why? Śoce tato vimukha-cetasa. "I am thinking of these rascals who are averse to You. How to do... They are engaged in false activities, māyā-sukhāya, for temporary happiness of the senses. So I am thinking like them. Therefore I am morose. For me I have no anxiety." And actually, what Prahlāda Mahārāja... He was thrown to the fire, he was thrown from the hill and underneath the... He didn't care. "Whatever you'll do I'll chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So how he'll be unhappy for himself? He has already passed all these examinations. His father! Not other. His own father. He's helpless. He's under father's care, and the father is giving so much trouble. All right, if he likes, go on. Everyone expects affection from the father. He's five years old boy. Where he will go? No, no, no, no. "I'll take shelter of Kṛṣṇa and you can go on with your business. I don't care for your punishment."

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is a question of culture. Culture. She was king's daughter, royal, and married her with a muni, old, rotten. Older than me. All the skin has become slackened. But still she was serving him just like worshipable lord. The age difference is great-grandfather and great-granddaughter. You'll find in Bhāgavatam. Lord Śiva, he could not construct even a house. He was living underneath a tree. And his wife, Durgā, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā (Bs. 5.44). She can create a new world, so powerful, Durgā. She's living with her husband underneath a tree. Never claims, "My dear husband, if you cannot, I can make one." There is a story about that. That, "People criticize us. All right, let us have some house." So Lord Śiva, Durgā, both of them capable to do anything. So they constructed a very nice gold house. "Now we shall live." So there is new house entering ceremony. So one Gargamuni was invited as brāhmaṇa. Many other brāhmaṇas. So they began to eat so much... That story I'm now forgetting. Then whatever stock they have finished, when, after eating, when they wanted, "Give us dakṣiṇā." Because after eating there is... So Lord Śiva, where shall I get everything? I have finished." Then they became puzzled what to do. So Lord Śiva said, "All right, you take this house." Again they became underneath a tree. (laughs) "All right, as dakṣiṇā you take this house. Don't bother." Their house entrance ceremony was there. As a result of that ceremony they became again underneath a tree. (About someone else:) What they're doing? (end)

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I saw in London... Near London there is a village, Chelmsford, and he is Lord Chelmsford. We thought Chelmsford, the big state. (laughter) We were under the impression, Thames River is four times bigger than Ganges and (laughter) it is a canal. When I saw it, it is nothing but a canal. But they advertise this river, very big river. And underneath the water, men are going, and upper and wonderful. Big Ben, that Big Ben advertisement.

Haṁsadūta: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Parliament. All photograph (laughter) actually. Downing Street, 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister's office and so on. And actually it's all (chuckles) no importance. Parliament, big, big advertisement. People are still going, they are paying fees to see.

Hari-śauri: Hm.

Prabhupāda: Now that is their income.

Hari-śauri: Yeah, tourism is their big source of income, now.

Prabhupāda: It is always cloudy; people are going to see the West Minister Abbey and Parliament.

Haṁsadūta: The whole tourist industry runs on propaganda.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So you can get the chance of attracting students.

Devotee: Oh yes, yes of course, this is a main thing there of the location is in being around the student community.

Prabhupāda: San Diego seaside, I went. There are so many swimming clubs.

Devotee: In La Jolla.

Prabhupāda: The underneath, under within water they're swimming.

Devotee: Skin-diving, underneath the water.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: San Diego.

Guest: San Diego. (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: What is this?

Jagadīśa: It's in California. San Diego, California.

Prabhupāda: No, what's...

Devotee: See, at the present moment the San Diego temple, they used to have two buildings and they have been more or less evicted from the main building and they had to move the Deities to the residential quarters and they had to move all the brahmacārīnis out to another building.

Prabhupāda: Oh, they have left that building?

Devotee: Yeah, they left that building, the main building and now the Deities are in the one over, the which used to be the residential quarters and it's just a little small room and it's very...

Prabhupāda: Inconvenient.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Who explains how the stone came like this?

Devotee (4): Yes, I think it's wonderful.

Devotee (5): They will say from the formation of the mud. Mud accumulated over the years and became stone. Or vice versa.

Devotee (4): This one stone is so big. It is just holding on a little stone, it is just in the air, like somebody's underneath and holding it. (break)

Prabhupāda: Cow dung can be collected. At least they can be used as cow dung. Here, you should.

Devotee (6): In the small villages the women and children they make the paddy for burning in cooking.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mahāṁśa: This whole rocky area which we see here used to be like a natural dam, and the land on that side which is now our field used to be a big tank so the soil there is very good. It's like silt. But then, afterwards, somebody had cut through this natural dam and there's a canal that flows through here and goes into that tank over there.

Prabhupāda: The canal is in our land?

Mahāṁśa: Yes, it passes through our land. Plenty of water, and it goes and flows into that land, into that tank.

Prabhupāda: So but you cannot use that?

Mahāṁśa: That tank is not practical to use, to pump so far. But we can dam this again and make a reservoir and let the excess flow. But they won't let us stop all the water because it will ruin their fields but we can stop a part of the water for our field. We can get a good source reservoir of water over here.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is guru. One who says like that, he is guru.

Indian lady: (Bengali) Actually, you must work and achieve bhakti. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: You can live with your son, husband, you can live. I can give you a room like this. So you haven't got to live underneath a tree. We have got up to date. (Hindi—asks if they have seen Vṛndāvana)

Indian lady: You must go to Vṛndāvana, everywhere.

Prabhupāda: We are offering best facility.

Indian lady: No she is saying, she wants to...

Prabhupāda: Similarly, you have seen our Navadvīpa also?

Indian lady: Māyāpur dekhi.

Prabhupāda: Māyāpur, yes. So we are giving, as far as possible, comfortable life. Because modern man, he cannot go to the forest and live underneath a tree. That is not possible. Therefore by begging, begging, spending blood, we are getting money all over the world and spend it like this. For me, I can live anywhere. And I can collect one or two ruṭi anywhere. It is not for me. It is for you. I have invited. Come here, stay and preach this cult, Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. That I want. People are being cheated all over the world shamelessly.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Three miles means one and a half hour? So go one and a half hour and come one and a half hour-three hours.

Guest (5): No, where is our camp then?

Prabhupāda: We have got our camp underneath the bridge.

Guest (5): Railway.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (5): I'll talk to Girirāja. I have four, five, or six people with me. Dr. Misi, Durlab Mehta, he's also coming. He life member is there for last two, three years. He's also coming. His wife is coming. Some friends are coming. You'll be coming back when, sir?

Prabhupāda: I'm going on the 11th.

Guest (5): 11th. And coming back about 17th?

Prabhupāda: Yes, but... Yes.

Guest (5): How is your health?

Prabhupāda: Not good.

Guest (5): No, but you are taking that medicine or...?

Prabhupāda: I stopped that medicine.

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

Prabhupāda: Political?

Gurudāsa: Yes. I think that many people were pushing for good positions, and we did not push, and... Last year was good, but, of course, the saṅgam has shifted a little. The saṅgam has shifted to the island where we are. The governor's camp is on the island. And there's some people. Maharishi is on the island. It's just I didn't want to say it's a wonderful location and then you come there and see that it's a little bit far off. I wanted to tell you...

Prabhupāda: Only it is far off.

Gurudāsa: And there's another slight defect, which is that it's underneath a railway bridge.

Prabhupāda: Railway bridge?

Gurudāsa: But with all the things that are going on, you can't even hear the trains. Now everyone's starting with... And we have the biggest microphones in the whole Mela. Everyone's got microphones this big. And speakers? Speakers? Ours is this big. We've got the biggest ones, six of them, to point in all directions. So that... We thought we would make up for the distance. I thought I would make up by big speakers. We told Kamalapati Tripati that, "Yes, we are living underneath one of your railway bridges," and he laughed.

Prabhupāda: Ah, he's railway member. So railway bridge there is sound.

Room Conversation -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Markaṭa-vairāgya, the renunciation of a monkey.

Bhāgavata: You have explained in Fifth Canto. Verses are there. Renunciation like a monkey.

Gurukṛpa: One man had his arm up for twelve years. He had his arm up with his hands closed, and his fingernails had grown, and his arm was flat for keeping up for twelve years like Hiraṇyakaśipu.

Hari-śauri: We saw one man in the Rāmānuja camp, too. He hadn't sat down for eighteen years. He carried a small swing with him, so wherever he went, he would go underneath a tree and hang the swing and lean on it. And he'd not sat down for eighteen years. (laughter) He had bandages all over his legs.

Bhāgavata: They have concocted this. It is not written in Vedas anywhere.

Prabhupāda: No, there are. Hiraṇyakaśipu did it.

Bhāgavata: That is a Vedic...?

Prabhupāda: Yes. But what did he gain?

Bhāgavata: He got this. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: What did he gain? Became a rākṣasa and was killed.

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

Hari-śauri: Did you read this caption, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for this crocodile? 'Cause it explains how the male crocodile, he takes the egg underneath his tongue and he rolls it backwards and forwards very gently until the young crocodile hatches, and then he leaves his mouth open, and the little crocodile jumps out and swims ashore.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Hari-śauri: So the point they were making was that if it was simply a question of chemical reaction, that tendency...

Prabhupāda: How it is... How would that..., eggs.

Hari-śauri: Yes. How would he have that loving feeling to hatch the baby?

Gargamuni: After all, they are man-eaters. They would immediately eat.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: But he is not eating.

Prabhupāda: No, that the other day we saw, the lions. There was quarrel, baby lions—not baby, very big—but there is no attack. There is no attack. The feelings of affection is there in the animal, ferocious animal. So what is the scientists' reply?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, they are fascinated with this concept, but they cannot explain. They are failing those aspects.

Prabhupāda: So you are attacking them like this. Choke. (laughter) That is good.

Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But you... For me you make good arrangement wherever I live, that's all. But I know how you were living in that nasty hut, full of dirty things, mosquito, rats, dropping of water. And Nyer is attacking, municipality attacking.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You always said that we were so trained that we would even live on the roadside.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. That you are trained. (laughs) You don't care for this palace or underneath a tree.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Formerly we were living like that as hippies, and now we live like that to serve you.

Prabhupāda: I was living in Rādhā-Dāmodara temple. It was not a palace. But before that, I was living in a palace. That is Keśī-ghāṭa. But this Gosāi called me that "You live here?" And "All right." Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī's, er, yes, Jīva Gosvāmī's place. "Let me go there." Now organize. Make very good plan that our Bombay temple will be always crowded with thousands of men and some program must go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You mentioned the other day that five hundred devotees should always be there.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. We have got place.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Bring. I want that at least at the weekend respectable gentlemen come here, live here, try to understand the philosophy, and if possible render some service. That's all. We have got now nice building. Every room is air conditioned. Not that you have to go to the jungle. (laughs)

Mr. Rajda: No, it's a nice atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: For us, we can live underneath a tree. But if I would have lived underneath a tree, you would not have come. (laughter) Therefore this building is required. So give them, one each, this magazine, latest edition. Here is. Mr. Rajda, Mr. Parik. Rajda's copy is in the red binding? That's it. No. Give him. Give him.

Mr. Rajda: So we thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much for your coming. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (Hindi)

Mr. Rajda: Before leaving, I will come again, after 24th, here.

Indian (1): Thereafter, I will come, no? Once in a week or at least a fortnight.

Prabhupāda: And you are Parik.

Indian (1): Yes.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They're grave. They behave very nicely.

Rāmeśvara: Tourists.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's two boat docks underneath for boats to come, underneath the house. They're 80 foot long, two boat docks, to come in their boats right into the house.

Prabhupāda: The boats were sold by cheating our... Who was in charge of that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Er... Govardhana dāsa.

Prabhupāda: No, GBC?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaga...

Rāmeśvara: Jayatīrtha is now.

Prabhupāda: Jagadīśa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jagadīśa.

Prabhupāda: He made some profit. Actually the boat belonged to the house. Anyway, palace is palace. Very big, big rooms. Now it would have cost ten million dollars. And we have paid only three percent of ten million. Is it not? Three hundred thousand?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Conversation: 'How to Secure Brahmacaris' -- June 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nowadays none of those three are available. There is divorce, there is shortage of food, and all rascals are worshiped.

Prabhupāda: That's it. If there is no quarrel between husband and wife, you can be happy underneath a tree. You know Nala-Damayanti?

Indian man (1): Eh?

Prabhupāda: Nala-Damayanti?

Indian man (1): Yeah.

Prabhupāda: They were happily living by covering their one cloth. Still, they were living peacefully. They were so poverty-stricken. Rāja Hariścandra lost everything, but because there was peace between husband and..., they were living. Viśvāmitra saw separately. There are so many instances. That is lost now, to live peacefully, husband and wife. Throughout the whole world became sour. And still in India, "Eh, I have no other..." There is stock of grain. So how many people have got stock of grain nowadays? Dhānyaṁ yatra susañcitam. (laughs) Nobody.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So we are also conditioned. But as far as possible we take description from Bhāgavata, try to. That is our... Suppose here is India, here is Los Angeles. You start from India, Los Angeles..., or India, you'll come to Los Angeles. And again return to India. Similarly you start from this again going.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That's possible if you can fly this way, underneath.

Prabhupāda: But where is the underneath?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: See Prabhupāda, we weren't asking that issue. That's not the question we were asking.

Prabhupāda: What is that issue?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, you've explained, if it's a lotus petal, then you can fly around it. That's all right. Then the answer is there. But if there's no lotus petal and it's simply flat, then it's a problem. That a problem.

Prabhupāda: No, we don't say flat.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We've pictured it like that. There's some defect in our picture. If you recall, there's a picture we drew...

Prabhupāda: So rectify it.

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

Prabhupāda: So that house we are possessing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You should see this house. Fourteen hundred ounces of gold on the ceilings. The ceilings are coated with gold, fourteen hundred ounces. Yes. The floors are heated from underneath.

Vrindavan De: Twenty-two-karat gold.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And the floors are heated underneath. All the floors. Because it's cold climate, they have heating underneath the floors.

Prabhupāda: When I entered the toilet bathroom I was surprised. (laughs)

Vrindavan De: In USA or Detroit?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Detroit, Michigan, USA. Prabhupāda's bathroom is nearly the size of this room, and it's all gold-covered on the ceiling, and the sink is a piece of marble this thick.

Prabhupāda: In London my sitting room is bigger than this, double. My sleeping room is like this. And my toilet room is half this. This is my quarters.

Room Conversation about Mayapura Attack Talk with Vrindavan De -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I'll take.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. I thought it was good to read all these things to you.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. (break) ...underneath a tree.

Devotees: Yes. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...telephone call from Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. He got a call from Māyāpur, and in our Māyāpur temple there was some difficulty there from dacoits.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Three hundred dacoits attacked our temple, and there was fighting, and five of the devotees were in the hospital. Bhavānanda Mahārāja, he was arrested 'cause he fired a gun. He shot two of them and put them in the hospital, so they arrested him. And that's all he told me. Three hundred dacoits attacked. He said Jayapatākā is now there. Jayapatākā wasn't there. He was traveling and preaching. So he's there now. He's sending a report to you, a more detailed report. And they want... Jayapatākā Mahārāja wants Śatadhanya Mahārāja to go immediately there because Bhavānanda is in jail, arrested. And they want Prabhāsa to come, because the gun, the gun that Bhavānanda Mahārāja used is in the name of Prabhāsa. And Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is going there tomorrow. He's also going there.

Prabhupāda: So why attacked?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, the only thing we could guess is that now the government is Communist. So it may be that these were Communist-inspired dacoits. I mean, three hundred, if there was actually... It must have been quite a huge number. That means they were organized. It's not some ordinary village dacoits to have such a huge number of them. So the Communists, maybe they did this. It's hard to understand until we get the report from Jayapatākā. He said he's sending it.

Prabhupāda: And police did not help?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, it was in the middle of the night.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Bullock, you get the cow dung.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cook with it.

Jayapatākā: In this part of India it's very cold now for Your Divine Grace.

Prabhupāda: Underneath the tree it is not cold.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You sound like you are very determined to go, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Daytime we expose in the sunshine, and camp underneath a tree at night. That has to be arranged. (Bengali with Bhakti-caru-Prabhupāda drinks something)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, should the devotees take prasādam now?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's about 1:30 now. After taking prasādam we can meet and chalk out a program for parikrama and tīrtha-yātrā. Is that all right? Okay.

Prabhupāda: I thought you have taken.