Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Wearing (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: As far as rites which you practice and demands upon you which Kṛṣṇa makes, what are any of these rites or demands? That is must you eat special foods, wear special clothing, special..., anything special which you put upon your face, sign, symbols, and also, is there any connection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the meditation of yoga or of Zen, and what of physical fitness? How does Kṛṣṇa consciousness look at this?

Prabhupāda: Our process is to accept everything which conduces to develop Kṛṣṇa's love. So those methods are given by experienced ācāryas, that "You just follow." Just like when a child tries to walk, the mother gives some direction or some help in a wooden plank, that "You try to move in this way. You will learn how to walk," similarly, there are certain principles given by experienced ācāryas. If we follow those principles, then we can work or we can go to the perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. It is not the method that is important. The real important is how to develop your love of Kṛṣṇa. If somebody develops love of Kṛṣṇa, or God, without those methods, there is no objection. We are not limited by the methods or ritualistic methods. But there are certain ritualistic method, which, if one follows, then he can quickly learn the art of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like we restrict our students in four principles: illicit sex life and intoxication, gambling, and meat-eating. So it is not that a gambler or a meat-eater or a man addicted to illicit sex life, he cannot love Kṛṣṇa. It is not that. But that is very rare case. If he follows these principles, then it will be easier for him. Because Kṛṣṇa, or God is pure, so so long one is impure in his habits, it is not possible for him. So these are the purificatory processes. And so far our signals or some marks on the body—just like we take tilaka; we have some beads—this means... Just like it is practical. When I was in Montreal and other cities, when we passed through the road, the children, the persons, they also said, "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" So these marks and this symbolic representation reminds others to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like a policeman, as soon as he appears in his dress, "Oh, here is a policeman," so similarly, these things are also required to remind others. Our process is to raise persons to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So if by our symbolic representation one immediately remembers Kṛṣṇa, that is our success.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: What is the hand attire which you are wearing? What is the meaning of this?

Prabhupāda: I am chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa whenever there is opportunity, and there are beads. So I am chanting on beads. There are 108 beads and each bead we chant sixteen names, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. So my disciples, they chant at least sixteen rounds. Actually...

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Reporter: Do you think that the, say astronauts that would land on the moon, do you think they would encounter any difficulty in going about and doing what they wanted to and then leaving?

Prabhupāda: The first thing is that according to our knowledge from the Vedic literature they cannot go there.

Reporter: But you admitted that it may be possible for them to go there for a short time and leave.

Prabhupāda: That I am taking this example just like we go for a short time on the sea but we cannot make any permanent settlement there.

Reporter: Yeah. But according to the Vedic literature they cannot go there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In this body we cannot go there. With this body we cannot go there. We shall have to change this body. Either you do it scientifically or spiritually or by any other method. With this body you cannot go there. You have to prepare a similar body which is suitable for living condition there.

Reporter: Would a spacesuit substitute for that?

Prabhupāda: Space?

Reporter: In other words, the spacesuits that the astronauts wear...

Prabhupāda: I don't think so. I don't think so. Spacesuits are...

Reporter: You see I'm a little confused because I can't tell whether you feel that based on Vedic literature, that you said it may be possible for them to land and to return for a short visit, yet you say they cannot go with this body.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I say also this, that to land there you must have the specific body suitable for that place.

Reporter: To land there you must have...

Prabhupāda: The specific body.

Reporter: I didn't get that.

Hayagrīva: A specific body.

Prabhupāda: Now that specific body, if you are able to make by your modern science, then it may be possible. But you have to change your body to that specific condition. But the spacedress which is now being used, that is not useful.

Reporter: The space uniform, you don't feel that is adequate?

Prabhupāda: Space uniform, that is not adequate.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Haṁsadūta: Someone has said that the dhotī, the dhotī that the brahmacārīs wear, is the dress that's worn in Vaikuṇṭha. Is that correct?

Prabhupāda: Just see Viṣṇu. He has no coat-pant. Here is Viṣṇu. Or Kṛṣṇa, He has no dress. He is also bare body. Only Rādhārāṇī is covered. In India also, still, the covering of the body is only for woman, but men, this, practically one dhotī is sufficient. Sometimes laṅgota, the underwear. Laṅgota, underwear. What is that?

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. She was wearing a sari at the temple. She looks very nice.

Prabhupāda: No, she is nice. She is talented.

Satsvarūpa: She could be an assistant painter.

Prabhupāda: And why not somebody marry her? If somebody want to marry, then she will be all right.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1970, Bombay:

Haṁsadūta: Do you want to hear the next letter? This is the second letter. "I do not see why you devoted two full pages to the article on 'Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa,' November 8th. Wearing a plain white sari, applying sandal paste on the forehead and wearing nose-rings do not transform one. Churning milk gopī fashion is no way to attain spiritual bliss. The statements made by the devotees of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement reflect an attitude of escapism."

Prabhupāda: Hm. Anyway, we are getting publicity.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1971, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: County jail, Los Angeles County Jail.

Prabhupāda: So we cannot send our prasāda there?

Karandhara: No. They won't let anything in. You can't even send books there. They won't let him wear his beads. They won't let him have his beads or anything, or his sacred thread. They took it all away from him.

Śyāmasundara: Can we go visit him?

Karandhara: We can visit, yes. Visiting hours on Saturdays and Sundays. I went there the Saturday before last, before I came.

Prabhupāda: So how is he here?

Karandhara: Well, he's doing all right. He says he chants and he prays.

Prabhupāda: Well, what can be done?

Karandhara: We're trying to see the minister there and get some books in to him. If the minister will allow it, we can give him books. Otherwise they won't let him have any books.

Prabhupāda: So you see or else why this poor fellow should be given unnecessary trouble.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Author -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Author: Yes. No. I'm not saying that it's meaningless. I'm saying that it appears to be meaningless in the same way that one should wonder why he has his head shaven and why he wears those clothes. If one doesn't understand, these things are...

Prabhupāda: At least, they can take by shaving head means it cleans, cleanses. The head is not overburdened with unnecessary... (laughter) We want clear brain, and that is the system, Vedic system. All learned scholars, they cleanse head. Cleanse head. Yes. And at least we get relief. A little hair growing is also burdensome. We cleanse. So it is personal convenience. So that is not the point of preaching.

Author: No. But, sir, I see... I don't... I think it would be very difficult to explain the meaning of having a bald head, and by saying somebody's got a bald head, the reason for this is, there seems to be some cleanliness and so on, and to explain why people wear clothes like this. It's impossible surely to explain the reasons for these things without describing them in the first place.

Prabhupāda: Explain... Any group of men, they have got a particular type of dress, the military dress, the police dress. So people can understand that "Here is a police." Similarly, by this dress they will chant, "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" immediately. That is our experience. As soon as they will see these people, "Hare Kṛṣṇa," and if they will criticize our, anything, we want that people see us and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That we want. Simply by seeing us they will remember Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is great advancement. Indirectly that is our propaganda, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Conversation with Author -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Author: I must start off from the beginning for the person who reads the book, and the beginning for the person who reads the book is: here are these people wearing these strange clothes and doing these strange things. Now, why? Now, that's what I've got to do in the book. And in order to do this it's necessary to describe some of these physical characteristics. And my reason for doing this is, in order to define what is relevant, it's necessary also to define what is irrelevant. That's pure logic.

Devotee: But Prabhupāda wants that you should have the highest understanding, not just looking at it from their point of view, but if you present it from our point of view, then it can gain the realest, greatest understanding.

Author: Well, with respect, I think that can only, we can only consider that question in practice. When I actually write the material, you'll have to...

Prabhupāda: No. I mean to say, why there is objection if they are dressed in a particular way?

Author: Oh, I'm not objecting to it at all. In fact, it's one of the most reasons why I'm most strongly in favor of the Hare Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: So they are Hare Kṛṣṇa people, they dress in a particular way. That is the answer. That's all.

Room Conversation -- April 18, 1972, Hong Kong:

Prabhupāda: So many Indian swamis, they requested me to dress myself with coat-pants. I never agreed. You see all my pictures. They are all foreign pictures. So I never (indistinct) this dress also. Why shall I take to coat-pant? What is use? Now my students, they are giving up coat-pant. And girls, they are taking to saris. There is now good demand for saris in Europe and America.

Bhūrijana: They were even telling me that here, that I should wear like a diplomat's clothes instead of dhotīs. They don't... They were ashamed.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we shall go now?

Śyāmasundara: It's seven-thirty. (end)

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Cintāmaṇi: I made hair. But I don't know how long it should be.

Prabhupāda: That you can see Kṛṣṇa's picture.

Cintāmaṇi: Picture of Kṛṣṇa? Is His hair curly?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Curling, (indistinct) black.

Cintāmaṇi: Is this too long?

Prabhupāda: Too long. This is also too long.

Cintāmaṇi: Too long. How long should it be?

Prabhupāda: It should not come below, Rādhārāṇī, the waist.

Cintāmaṇi: Oh. And Kṛṣṇa's?

Prabhupāda: And Kṛṣṇa's should be up to the neck.

Cintāmaṇi: Thank you. Kṛṣṇa wears tilaka like we do? Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Rādhārāṇī only red spot.

Conversation in car -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:

Prabhupāda: They stay. (sings softly) The students dress like policemen?

Sudāmā: Yes. They all wear uniform.

Karandhara: Right now there are twelve brahmacārīs in Los Angeles who are getting ready to go to India.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Karandhara: They'll be going on about the 5th of May, the 6th of May. I think also the same number in New York are preparing to go.

Prabhupāda: Now we have got enough place. Yes. Very nice place, Vṛndāvana. And we are expected to get another place at Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's birth place. Oh, that is very nice place also. (end)

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

Devotee (2): They want to be men in women's bodies. They want to control, they want to be the president of the company, they want to wear pants, and they don't want to have children. This is basically their idea.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: But they want to control with their bodies, with their physical attraction. They want to use that too.

Prabhupāda: That is material. It has no spiritual significance.

Devotee (2): Prabhupāda, I've heard that every one of us who are in the movement now has had some association with Lord Caitanya (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (2): Is it so?

Prabhupāda: Yes. He's associating with Lord Caitanya just now.

Devotee (2): Yes, now. But in some other life, this is what is...

Prabhupāda: In other life may not, but he is associating at the present. That's a fact.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: When you first came, Śrīla Prabhupāda, a lot of people probably presented you arguments such as If you call the movement God consciousness you'll be more successful. If you not wear tilaka and do not shave your head and do not wear robes and do not go on saṅkīrtana, you will be more successful. And people still tell us things like this, that You tell us the philosophy, we like the philosophy, but why do you go on saṅkīrtana? So what were some of the arguments you presented to these type of people?

Prabhupāda: This is the same argument, ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya (Cc. Ādi-līlā 5.176). You cut the mouth of the chicken because it eats, it is expensive, and keep the back side because it lays down egg. You see? Intelligent man said, I am getting every day one egg. So that side, the back side, is very good. But this side is expensive, eats. Cut it. So he does not know, he is such a foolish, that if I cut the head, then the egg-giving business will also stop. Similarly, if you accept this philosophy, then you must accept this also.

Room Conversation and Interview with Ian Polsen -- July 31, 1972, London:

Ian Polsen: There is another question, Your Grace. I wear leather shoes, and I know they come from animals...

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Ian Polsen: ...which have been slaughtered for this. Should I stop wearing leather shoes?

Prabhupāda: Well, that also you can continue. That is not... Just like we are using so many things made of skin. But as far as possible, you avoid. There are many shoes without skin, nowadays they are available. First of all try to understand the philosophy. It is very nice attitude that you have. What salary you are getting, government service?

Morning Walk Conversation -- September 28, 1972, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: For example, they will say that in early history people used to live in the caves and they used to wear skins.

Prabhupāda: That is your rascal's conception. They used to live in palaces. You are rascal; you do not know the history.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Devotee: The Muslims wear the black one and he says it is very hot but this is cool.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): ...nearly bald head, I cover with this...

Prabhupāda: Nowadays gradually, everyone is giving up cap. First of all, only the Bengalis were the capless nation. Now gradually, it has spread all over the world. Nobody uses hats or cap.

Room Conversation with Rosicrucians -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Yogeśvara: He says Jesus ate meat and furthermore there is a sect in the Orient that wears gauze over their mouth so as not to kill microbes while they breathe. But we are killing those microbes. We have killed these flowers.

Prabhupāda: So they are to satisfy everyone.

Yogeśvara: Don't you think we are killing other living beings?

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. (break)

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

Devotee: But now he is Kṛṣṇa. And he wears Kṛṣṇa's crown and he plays Kṛṣṇa's flute. He wears Kṛṣṇa's crown. They give him Kṛṣṇa's crown and he wears it, and he plays Kṛṣṇa's flute. Or he says it is Kṛṣṇa's flute, and he plays it.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, he is making his business with Kṛṣṇa's crown and Kṛṣṇa's flute.

Yaśomatīnandana: Like Pauṇḍraka.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So Kṛṣṇa is accepted as authority. So...

Yaśomatīnandana: He is like King Pauṇḍraka.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hṛdayānanda: Imitation is flattery.

Prabhupāda: Best flattery. He is flattering Kṛṣṇa. (break)

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Bahulāśva: Suppose something, well, something like this shoe that I'm wearing...,

Prabhupāda: It is now dead matter. But when you go, the higher understanding, it is a composition of atoms. So we learn from Vedic śāstra that within the atom there is life. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-sthaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi (Bs. 5.35). There is, there. If within the atom there is life, then what to speak of anything else.

Bahulāśva: That's a jīvātmā?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Govinda is there.

Bahulāśva: Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: When Kṛṣṇa is there, then Kṛṣṇa is there with everything. Kṛṣṇa cannot be alone.

Morning Walk -- March 6, 1974, Mayapura:

Siddha-svarūpānanda: (break) ...body when it's old and wears out, and yet they're spending all their energy...

Prabhupāda: No, he desires. He creates his body. Just like the, sometimes the Mohammedans, they think that tiger is the best life. Sera. Sera. Wa (?) sera haya. Means to become a tiger is the perfection of..." You become sera. That's all. Kṛṣṇa gives... He is within the heart. "All right, I'll give you chance. Become a sera." But when he becomes sera, he does not eat for months. You'll never find a sera very fatty. Because he cannot eat. Every animal knows, "There is a tiger." They avoid. By chance, he can hunt out.

Room Conversation -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Guest: Like Mahā-kālī, yes, very fearful, you know. She's, er, her head comes from two serpent's heads.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Guest: You know, two serpent's heads are together like this, making her face, and then she wears a skirt of skulls.

Prabhupāda: Oh, skulls.

Guest: Skulls.

Prabhupāda: They're practicing Mahā-kālī.

Guest: Like Mahā-kālī, yes.

Prabhupāda: That is worship. That is (indistinct)?

Guest: Well before, when the Spanish were there.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Guest: Name is Papinque(?).

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Guest: And she's supposed to represent the earth.

Prabhupāda: Your parents live in Mexico City?

Morning Walk -- March 23, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: I, I... Do you like it? I have to ask you.

Prabhupāda: No. Thank you so much.

Dr. Patel: Do you like it?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: I wear it for you.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: All this... How do you like? (break)

Morning Walk -- April 22, 1974, Hyderabad:

Pañcadraviḍa: (break) ...dressed in shiny saffron. He is dressed in black. He looked like nescience and you look like the sunshine, standing next to him. He is wearing all this black with a little bit of red trimming on it, looked like nightime. (break) ...I met a Christian, and he said "You have got your guru and you are following him. He teaches you by his example. We have got our pope. He is our example of what Christianity is. He is the head of Christian order, and he himself is eating meat. Now how you can say...?"

Prabhupāda: Then how he can be pope?

Pañcadraviḍa: "But how you can say he is not the best Christian? He is the head of all the Christians."

Prabhupāda: But that means you are foolish and pope is also foolish. If he does not follow the orders of Jesus Christ, then how he becomes a pope? Therefore you are foolish. You have elected some foolish, another foolish man as your pope. That should be the right answer, that "If he does not follow Christ, how he becomes pope?"

Pañcadraviḍa: He is not killing.

Prabhupāda: Then why he is appointed as head? He must order. Otherwise if you are not following pope, then you are not Christian. He does not kill, then you should not kill. And why does he not order?

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Jyotirmayī: Mr. (indistinct) has made very good progress, because before he was always teaching impersonalist Bhagavad-gītā, and now you see he is wearing a dhotī, he's coming to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, he's coming for Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam classes, and he teaches personalist Bhagavad-gītā. But he still thinks a little bit that maybe above there is something impersonalism. But there is good progress. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). Brahman, Paramātmā... He understands English?

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān, last stage. First realization impersonal Brahman, then localized Paramātmā, and then Personality of Godhead.

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

Professor Durckheim: ...I realize that the closer members engaged, really, in this work of distributing books and chanting, wearing the white robes and shaving the heads, they are the closer participants I suppose. And then have you also members of your movement which are simply in their work, in the community, in the world? Or is...

Prabhupāda: No, we invite everyone.

Professor Durckheim: You invite. But as far as members are concerned, to become a member of your movement...

Haṁsadūta: Yes, we have people in all walks of life. For example, we have the (German). He is a life member. And all people...

Professor Durckheim: He's simply a member?

Haṁsadūta: Yes. He is a member, he supports the movement, he follows the principles himself, he appreciates the philosophy, but he has his responsibility in the society. He acts as a member of the society and he is a member. But his lifestyle is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (end)

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Satsvarūpa: We get a body according to our desires, and then the body only lasts so long, and when it wears out, we have to take another body, and that is determined by our actions in this body.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But how you transmigrate?

Haṁsadūta: According to the mental condition at the time of leaving this body.

Prabhupāda: But what is the process?

Satsvarūpa: The subtle body carries the soul.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the main point. The subtle body carries the soul. Just like in dream, we are carried by the subtle body and placed in different condition. But so long this body is capable of working, I come to this body. My dream is over, and I come back to this body. And death means that this body, being useless, instead of coming to this body, I go to another body. This is transmigration. Just like when you vacate an apartment, then you do not come back in that apartment, but you enter another apartment. Is it clear?

Room Conversation with Bhurijana dasa and Disciples -- July 1, 1974, Melbourne:

Paramahaṁsa: This was knitted by a devotee who came from Sydney. A scarf for you to wear in the cold.

Prabhupāda: Hm. That's nice.

Paramahaṁsa: And I also brought one from me.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Paramahaṁsa: And some mangoes.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is good.

Paramahaṁsa: From Queensland, very nice mangoes. They are very difficult to get.

Prabhupāda: Very good. The mango I like very much. Mango is the king of all fruit. Do you accept it or not?

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Dr. Muncing: With respect, sir, I notice you wear a watch. This must be obviously a product of science, and this is what it's about. But you are stressing time and again in your writings the need to concentrate on the laws that you set out in order to achieve some standing in the future, in the life hereafter. Isn't this at the risk of neglecting the people who are sharing this life with us here and now?

Prabhupāda: No, it is not the question of neglecting. Just like formerly there was no watch, but still they used to keep time by the movement of the sun on a dial, just making some marks on the stone. Do you know this?

Guests: Yes, yes, I know.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So their work was going on. Their work was not suffering for want of this watch.

Dr. Muncing: I agree.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So we have got good brain. Instead of utilizing the brain to know what is the active principles of this whole universe, if we utilize that brain for manufacturing a watch, that is not very good proposal. You manufacture watch, but at the same time, you try to study the active principle, who is the watchmaker. I am seeing the watch with the eyes, but as soon as the active principle is gone, no more seeing. Where is that science? A watchmaker is making, screw-driving, and doing so many things. All of a sudden his heart fails. No more watch. What is that active principle? Where is that science? That is my proposition.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 4, 1975, Dallas:

Viṣṇujana: Prabhupāda? But they argue that if God wanted us to wear clothes He would have made us with clothes. But He made us without clothes, so...

Prabhupāda: The thing is that here material world means that whatever you want, you have to work for it. That is material world. Things are there, but you have to work for it. In the spiritual world there is no need of working. You get all necessities. That is the difference.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- March 9, 1975, London:

Reporter: But you don't find that the fact that your monks are wearing robes or shaving their heads is a difficulty in the West, where not many people...

Prabhupāda: It is not the question of East and West. It is the question of human life. There is no question... The Western people also have this living force, and Eastern people also have this living force. So where is the difference, West and East? There is no question of West and East. It is the problem for the whole human society.

Room Conversation with Alcohol and Drug Hospital People -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Guest (1): Do they have to wear those clothes and shave their heads and chanting those things...

Prabhupāda: That is optional. That is also optional. That is not compulsory. But in India because the brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs, they dress in a particular way, they do that. But that is not compulsory. But it has got a psychological effect, because whenever we go, people chant "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" So by this dress, we give chance, the other men, to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (1): Well, could you correct me if I'm wrong. We have a society called Ramakrishna Society, a society in Burma. Those people who founded this society and are practicing Kṛṣṇa culture, they don't wear those things, or they don't chant in their temple, but they do all sorts of social welfare type of thing. Is there any difference between...

Prabhupāda: Ramakrishna Mission is not Vedic. It is a creation of Vivekananda's concoction. It is not Vedic. Just like they created a God, Ramakrishna. So that is not a Vedic sanction, that you create any fool rascal, a god.

Guest (1): Isn't yours a product of or derivative of Vedic?

Prabhupāda: Yes, completely.

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Jesuit: What was the meaning of the bag you wear on your hand?

Prabhupāda: These chanting. Beads.

Jesuit: Oh, beads in there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I think in Christian there are beads also.

Jesuit: I saw them in the picture, they had'em, and I didn't know what it was.

Prabhupāda: This is covering of the beads because we put here, there may be some dust. So to show respect to the beads, we keep it covered. We do not touch on the floor. It is awe and veneration.

Room Conversation with Yogi Bhajan -- June 7, 1975, Honolulu:

Yogi Bhajan: No, no, but people do not understand why we are like this, why they wear like this. They don't get a chance to explain. At Interreligious Council, I am a member. They never knew. They think we are the most weird people from the Mars perhaps. They don't understand a bit. And now our legal services are helping them, and all sorts of things have happened, and they are trying to understand. And when the last president left the office, he said, in his words of departure, he said, "I am only limited by the Christ. I never understood anything else. But I do feel from that limit that God is unlimited and it is in everybody." Asking a fanatic Christian to make that statement to the general assembly, it took us about two years.

Prabhupāda: Hm. You find so many fanatics. How you will unite them?

Yogi Bhajan: Gradually, one by one, one by one, they will understand. Love is the winning point. That's why they don't understand. When they find love from you, they will find love from me, they will love from people, they will love from everybody else. You know, you can take a mango stick and beat somebody, but you can take mango off it and eat. Effort has to be made somehow. And now...

Prabhupāda: Effort is being made, but the platform, the world where you are staying, that effort is very difficult to fulfill.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Revatīnandana: At one time they made it legal to be nude here, and then later on, they repealed the law again.

Jayatīrtha: Venice? It is still nude, Venice Beach.

Revatīnandana: Is it still? Really.

Jayatīrtha: You can either come wearing clothes or not wearing clothes to this beach.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Lucky we come early.

Sudāmā: Just like the monkeys.

Revatīnandana: Oh, it was in Laguna that they repealed it.

Prabhupāda: But why, then, the lavatory they have made distinction for woman and for men?

Morning Walk -- June 29, 1975, Denver:

Kuruśreṣṭha: I think that if the karmīs tried to keep up with you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, they would probably wear out.

Prabhupāda: The karmīs, they work hard because they are asses. The ass example is given. Just like the picture you have seen, ass?

Room Conversation after Press Conference -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Brahmānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, there is one lady. She would like to come and see you. She is the mother of one of our devotees. But she is coming wearing tilaka and a bead bag.

Prabhupāda: Very good. (pause) But I am not speaking of my experience. When we speak, we speak from the śāstra. So this woman's dependence is described in Manu-saṁhitā. And there are many instances. Just like Kuntī. Kuntī was not ordinary woman. She was very learned, exalted woman.

Morning Walk -- September 1, 1975, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: Now he is wearing kuntī beads.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Because he was criticized by our students in U.S.A. (sound of bell) See? The bell is ringing nice. There was no such ringing in this quarter. (break)

Morning Walk -- September 4, 1975, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: I know. (laughter) They say it doesn't matter what kind of dress you wear.

Prabhupāda: But "They say..." They are rascals. They can say anything. Chagale ki na khaya pagāle ki na bale: "A madman, what does he not say, and a goat, what does he not eat?" (laughter)

Brahmānanda: That's their philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have to take philosophy from the ācāryas. Ācāryopāsanam. They are not ācāryas, neither they follow the ācāryas. They do not follow any ācāryas, either Śaṅkarācārya or Madhvācārya or Rāmānujācārya. They have their own philosophy. Ācārya, the Ramakrishna, he used to worship Goddess Kali, but even they do not do that. Eh?

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Devotee (6): They all think we are propagating Hindusim because we're wearing dhotī...

Prabhupāda: They are thinking. They are rascals. They are thinking like that. Therefore I say they are imperfect. They are imperfectly thinking. So... So there were many Muslims, and the Christian, that Scotland man, he appreciated.

Cyavana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So we do not say anything about any particular section. We are speaking about God. God does not belong to any section. When Kṛṣṇa said that there should be four divisions, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13), He does not say that these divisions should be in the Hindu society or in India. He never says so. So why they take it as Hindu? Kṛṣṇa does not say that it is meant for the Hindus, for India. If God says that "I have created the sun," does it mean sun is created for India, not for this island? So these are foolishness. Whatever is spoken by God, that is meant for everyone, all over the universe. That is real understanding.

Room Conversation with Bill Faill (reporter) -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Faill: What can an ordinary man do? I mean the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement involves shaving the head and wearing the saffron robe. What can the man who is caught up in family life do?

Prabhupāda: This saffron robe is not very essential, or cut the hair, but it creates some good situation, mental. You see? Just like a military man, when he is dressed properly he gets some energy to feel like a military man. But it does not mean that unless you are dressed, you cannot fight. It does not mean. So God consciousness can be revived in any condition, without any check. But these conditions are helpful, helpful. Therefore it is prescribed that "You live like this," "You dress like this," "You eat like this," "You do like this." These are convenient. These are convenient. So they are not essential. At the same time, if we take to these processes, then it will be helpful.

Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:

Devotee (2): We have so many examples of scientific creations by intelligent brain, personalities on this planet, so many things which we can see, like the clothes we wear and the machines we are using in our everyday lives which require...

Prabhupāda: So how Kṛṣṇa has prepared earth? That I want.

Devotee (2): So we can see by studying the nature of the construction of this earth that it is much more intelligent...

Prabhupāda: So how earth is coming from Kṛṣṇa? Tell me that.

Devotee (3): The scientists say that this earth came from gases, but they cannot explain exactly where those gases have come from. That source, that is Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- November 17, 1975, Bombay:

Brahmānanda: They had a gurukula here at Hare Kṛṣṇa Land. Isn't it? And many of the children of the tenants were coming, and they were wearing tilaka. And then they would go home and tell their parents not to eat meat and so on, and the parents became very angry and took their children back. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...Hiraṇyakaśipu education, then it is filled up immediately. And if you introduce Prahlāda education-vacant. (break)

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1975, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: That girl, I told her she had to wear a sari. And she did for some time, but then again she stopped.

Prabhupāda: That I am speaking, that sa yadi krīyate rāja.

Akṣayānanda: Due to habit.

Prabhupāda: Sakrn nasnuta pahanam (?) That is the difficulty. It will be very bad example. People will think... They already thinking that "These are all hippies." That will minimize the prestige of the temple. (break) Jaipuria House they do not allow any hippies. You know that?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: So this cannot stay in the court. Kṛṣṇa's instruction is not for the Hindus. Nowhere it is mentioned.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The word "Hindu" doesn't appear in the Vedas anywhere.

Acyutānanda: Then why do you use in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness the Hindu caste marks, Hindus caste marks and tilakas? This is all Hinduism.

Prabhupāda: No, this is not Hinduism. Appears like Hindu. Just like you appear like an Indian sannyāsī, but you are not Indian.

Acyutānanda: The judge is wearing a white wig and a British suit. He's not British either.

Prabhupāda: No, we are clearly stating Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Harikeśa: Yes, but Kṛṣṇa is a Hindu god.

Prabhupāda: That is your definition. Kṛṣṇa doesn't say.

Harikeśa: But my definition counts 'cause I'm in charge.

Prabhupāda: You can do any nonsense. That is.... Therefore you have to be taken to the court, that "How you can..."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But they are the court.

Prabhupāda: "...talk like nonsense and do like nonsense? Then anyone can do any nonsense thing? Then who will control you?"

Harikeśa: That's the point.

Mahāṁsa: The chief justice himself was saying like that in Madras. Their opinion will come in their favor.

Prabhupāda: No, they can give opinion, but there is supreme court. There is international court. We shall go...

Mahāṁsa: International court?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That's only for disputes between countries, international court.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is country—"We are American. They are forcing us to become a Hindu." This is between country. You have to tackle with intelligence.

Morning Walk -- January 13, 1976, Calcutta:

Jayapatāka: Many Manipuri people are coming to Māyāpur now. Many. They wear a special type of uniform, the women, one pinkish dress.

Prabhupāda: For seeing our temple?

Jayapatāka: They are going everywhere. The Bengalis are going mainly to our temple. But they've come so far, they see everywhere, naturally. But also our temple without fail. (break) The Nabadwip Commissioner came and he was so impressed. Now he is thinking.... He is trying to.... He is a little bit greedy that so many things are going in Māyāpur. He is trying to think how he can include Māyāpur within Nabadwip municipality.

Prabhupāda: How it can be done?

Morning Walk -- February 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Acyutānanda: "Now opium is the religion of the people because everyone is taking drugs. You say religion is the opiate. Now opium is the religion." They think there should be no private property. There was... They are discussing this in Indian Parliament now. They should abolish private property and abol... Women should not wear ornaments.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Acyutānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Where it is?

Acyutānanda: They're discussing in Parliament.

Prabhupāda: In our?

Acyutānanda: In India, Congress. Ornaments should be banned and private property banned.

Guru-kṛpā: They have already banned with their land-ceiling...

Acyutānanda: They're doing it by taxing...

Guru-kṛpā: With their land-ceiling, they are banning all the..., more than twenty acres.

Acyutānanda: They have a law. If you have the high, dry land, you can have fifty acres per person. And if you have wet land, rice growing, irrigated, you can only have twenty-five acres. So I said, "Suppose you have dry land, and then you irrigate..."

Prabhupāda: The difficulty is that they have no standard idea, their. So they can do anything. And because they are in power, they can pass law whimsically, whatever he likes. (break)

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Don't become paramahaṁsa immediately. Paramahaṁsa is the last stage of sannyāsa. First stage is kuticaka. Second stage is parivrājakācārya. Third stage is.... No, first stage is kuticaka. Then second stage is bahudaka, bahudaka. And third stage is parivrājakācārya, and fourth stage is paramahaṁsa. Therefore paramahaṁsa stage is the topmost.

Lokanātha: They have got white? Do they wear white?

Prabhupāda: They are not under any rule and regulation, paramahaṁsa. Paramahaṁsa means, just like mlecchas and yavanas, they are not under any rules and regulation. Similarly, a paramahaṁsa is also not under any rules and regulation. He can do whatever he likes. Śāstra is not meant for him. Avadhūta. He is not in the material world, mahābhāva. So that is the last stage of sannyāsa. Kuṭicaka means when from family life, vānaprastha, and then one takes sannyāsa, that is kuṭicaka. Kuṭicaka means he does not remain at home but goes outside home, outside the village area and makes a kuti, cottage, and lives there. But because he is not accustomed to beg, from his house some foodstuff is sent. Just like you are sending to that Sharma some food? This is kuṭicaka. But after some time, when he's little experienced, then he goes from door to door: "Give me a piece of bread." Madhukārī. Madhukāra. Madhukāra means the bee, honeybee. What is called?

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...when the ceremony was performed. Here is some of our vans and men, Viṣṇujana and Rādhā-Dāmodara. Here's the grandfather of airport book distribution, Tripurāri Mahārāja, dressed as a karmī to distribute in his distribution.... You can't tell, but he's wearing a wig. That's Tripurāri there. That's how he looks when he's in the airport. He never misses.

Guru-kṛpā: The master of book distribution.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's Tripurāri giving a class. Here's a priest buying a Bhagavad-gītā. Gurudāsa Mahārāja preaching on campus. Dhṛṣṭadyumna leading a kīrtana. Here's a television show. That was that television show.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: I don't know anyone lives by bābājī... He wears dhotī.

Prabhupāda: What is his name?

Jayapatākā: Śacīnandana.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, Śacīnandana. So he.... I have seen several times. He's like bābājī, but what he is?

Jayapatākā: He's a clerk.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayapatākā: He's a clerk.

Prabhupāda: Clerk. And he's the chief man.

Jayapatākā: He's a secretary. They have lawyer also, but he is the treasurer or something. I've only met with Śacīnandana. (break) He does some preaching. He goes to Bangladesh and does kīrtana on village to village sometimes. (break) ...if they give us the place or lease...

Prabhupāda: What is the use of talking?

Jayapatākā: What is the use of talking with Lalitā Prasāda?

Prabhupāda: Eh? No. That was the.... Last talk was like that. I wanted that "You have to consider that whatever portion you can spare, give us on lease. We develop." That's all. Ninety-nine-year lease.

Jayapatākā: I don't think he clearly understood. (break)

Morning Walk -- March 22, 1976, Mayapura:

Pañcadraviḍa: He showed up in Hong Kong. He said that "There are two great influences in my life: one Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who taught me service..., who taught me devotion," and he said, "Ramakrishna, who taught us service to man." He also showed up with one woman sannyāsīni or something.

Devotee: Service to man. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Especially woman. (laughter)

Pañcadraviḍa: And wearing saffron too. You gave him an offer he could travel and become..., and take part in our movement if he was willing to preach Bhagavad-gītā as it is.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pañcadraviḍa: He did not accept.

Prabhupāda: That means he wants to cheat. (loud kīrtana-end)

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: I don't know. It's just like wearing beads. The sacred thread from the Deity, after replacing, they take the old one and they wear it here.

Prabhupāda: Who has told them?

Akṣayānanda: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Then why...

Akṣayānanda: Well, I told one boy to stop it, and because I couldn't quote any authority, he keeps wearing...

Prabhupāda: No, no, there is no author.... Where is his authority?

Akṣayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: This nonsense should be stopped.

Akṣayānanda: Yes, I thought it was wrong. That's why I mentioned it. I wanted to make sure.

Prabhupāda: Stop this.

Akṣayānanda: Okay. Sure.

Hari-śauri: I think their idea is that because it's prasādam, it's from the Deity, that they're able to wear it.

Prabhupāda: That is another concoction. The sacred thread is not used like that, in the hand.

Akṣayānanda: I thought it was wrong. It seems like some kind of fashion or something, concocted fashion.

Hari-śauri: (break) ...small black beads that the devotees are wearing from Rādhā-kuṇḍa. They have a string of beads made of clay from Rādhā-kuṇḍa. Are they...?

Prabhupāda: Rādhā-kuṇḍa clay is not bad.

Hari-śauri: So it's all right to wear them?

Prabhupāda: Not very constantly.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes I think, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that you're worried that one thing will lead to the next. Actually all we have to do is follow your example.

Akṣayānanda: Yes, we don't have to add anything. What can we add?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What is the use of it?

Akṣayānanda: What can we add?

Prabhupāda: There is a proverb in Bengali that the crows, they eat stool. But when the crow is very young, he eats more stool. (break)

Room Conversation with Siddha-svarupa -- May 3, 1976, Honolulu:

Siddha-svarūpa: There are a lot of devotees here who follow the principles but cannot completely... (break) ...shaved up, and they still wear karmī clothes pretty much, but they're clean, they're devotees, and in this way they're attracting many of the local people, because they're able to relate to them.

Prabhupāda: So that...

Siddha-svarūpa: They're not lowering your standard.

Prabhupāda: No, naturally, but when they are initiated they must shave. They must keep to the standard. If one becomes initiated and he still keeps the hippie form, that does not look nice. Do you think that is all right? No, that is not good. So long they are coming as outsider, joining kīrtana, they may have their own dress, it doesn't matter. They are coming to kīrtana, that must be (indistinct). But when they are to be initiated, they must follow the rules and regulations given by the spiritual master.

Siddha-svarūpa: So...

Prabhupāda: Otherwise they should not be initiated. It is simple thing. Let them go on chanting, taking prasādam; we have no (indistinct). But when they are to be initiated, they must follow. This is the clear (indistinct). If you don't want to disturb them, let them come, chant, dance, take prasādam We have no objection. But don't recommend them for initiation unless he agrees to the rules and regulations given by the spiritual master. Where is the wrong? Where is the difficulty? You can talk with him like that.

Room Conversation with Siddha-svarupa -- May 3, 1976, Honolulu:

Siddha-svarūpa: I think it is pretty clear, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's just for clarification, that they're working, they have a store on..., a very nice store, they're distributing foodstuffs to all the other stores on the island, and they're working a lot within the society with the karmīs, I guess. So their thinking is that "If we shave our heads and wear robes, like that, then they'll look at us...

Prabhupāda: That is not... Because imitating. Officially don't chant. Who is prohibiting to chant? You can chant, you can dance, you can take prasādam.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Can they actually say that "His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda is my spiritual master" if they haven't accepted all of the instructions?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Can one actually say that my spiritual master is such-and-such person if I am not following all of the...

Prabhupāda: What is the use of following (indistinct). We have got that simple thing, you can follow. What is the use? False propaganda. Because you think that we could not accept... (indistinct) ...we are trying to follow the (indistinct).

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Antique, antique, antique shop. That means no purchaser. People have no p..., no bank. People have no money, simply bare necessities of life their government supplies. And bus transport, buses standing in one place, best time, and people are running after. Women, men, mostly they walk.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Or bicycles.

Prabhupāda: Bicycle, I did not...

Guru-kṛpā: I think they must all wear the same clothes.

Prabhupāda: I did not study so much. Yes, there is no gorgeousness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In China they all wear the same clothes. Whatever you saw in Russia, China is ten times more oppressive. It is much more oppressive. They say that Russia is a complete failure, because they are allowing so much looseness. The Chinese are accusing the Russians of being very loose and very capitalistic inclined. China is very dissatisfied that Russians have given up the principles of Marx and they have taken after the western ways. Preferring one group above another group.

Prabhupāda: Because Russia was afraid of another revolution. People were preparing. So much pressure, intolerance, after all they are Europeans, so there was a chance of revolution.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Sadaputa. He has said nicely that "They depend on chance. We depend on God." That's all. (break) Some dress? No, bird (indistinct)

Devotee (2): No, they have some bathing trunks on.

Hari-śauri: Sometimes they wear like a rubber suit. Something like the scales of a fish. It keeps them.... (laughing)

Devotee (2): Aldous Huxley liked to think of the idea that there's no controller, so that he could enjoy without the feeling of guilt.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the whole idea. Thieves and rogues, they think "If there's no government, then we can do whatever we like." Who is there of the thieves and rogues?

Hari-śauri: That description's given when after the brāhmaṇas killed King Vena, they saw a great huge dust cloud on the horizon from all the thieves and rogues rushing back into the kingdom (laughing) when there was no ruler.

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have nothing to give. Simply denial, how it will act?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes when I talk with Christians, I tell them that "The reason that you're not feeling any bliss is that you're not following the way Jesus lived. We are living like him. He was wearing robes, he was living simply. But you, you're living in big fancy buildings with so many washing machines and this machine, and that your whole life is complicated."

Prabhupāda: Grievous folly is that they are disobeying the Ten Commandments.

Rāmeśvara: Disobeying.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is the.... "Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not be an adulterer." Those are the big ones.

Rāmeśvara: "Covet thy neighbor's property, steal. Dishonor the mother and father, the cow, the earth, God."

Prabhupāda: Cows?

Rāmeśvara: Well, there's one of the Ten Commandments is "Thou shalt honor thy mother and thy father." But the mother is one of the cows, the earth. I mean the earth is the mother, the cow is the mother.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Ṛṣabhadeva: They said one of the main reasons is because they are killing the snakes for the skin, the snakes that feed on the rats. They kill so many snakes to get the skin, therefore there's no way to control the rat population.

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.

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: I write in the night. I get up at half past twelve. I go to bed at half past ten, and I get up at half past twelve. Then I finish my chanting, if there is any balance, and then I begin dictating. And the morning they take it and type it. So this dictaphone is always with me, wherever I go, so my writing book is not stopped. Maybe few pages, but something is there daily. Little drops of water wears the stone. So in that way we have translated so many books. About fifty-four books are already published, besides the small booklets. And, how many we have published, Bhāgavatam? About twenty-two?

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: In his old age he was very afraid of germs. He didn't want to catch any disease. So he would wear..., he would live in perfectly sealed rooms with all artificial air and light, so no germs could exist, and he would wear these...

Prabhupāda: He did not know that he's creating germs within his body.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: He could not avoid death.

Prabhupāda: If there was no germs, how he died? So at last he said?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: He said something to the effect that "I don't know what this life was about. I think I've made a mistake." Just at the end.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it was mistake.

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

Janice Johnson: Why is it that the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement has in the last couple of years attempted to make itself a little bit more respectable in the public's eyes by having members wear street clothes and wigs and so forth, while they are soliciting?

Prabhupāda: By nature it is very important movement. Therefore those who are intelligent, they are taking serious interest. We have got so many books. Perhaps you have seen. They are being accepted by the learned circle all over the world. University, colleges, professors, they are reading our books, placing standing order, and we have got relationship, especially with educated circle. They are trying to understand the importance of this movement.

Janice Johnson: I don't quite understand that in terms of my question about wearing street clothes and wigs instead of saffron robes and chanting and so forth.

Hari-śauri: She's pointing out that in recent years we've changed our dressing style while we're on the street selling books.

Prabhupāda: Dress? Dress is not important. Practically, as sannyāsī, brahmacārī, we dress with saffron cloth, but sometimes you do not like, but we have to do business with you; therefore we change. What can be done? "Necessity has no law."

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

Bali-mardana: Prabhupāda, you are the only Indian who has taken up this mission, out of six hundred and eighty million.

Woman: Don't touch that dog. He's wearing a muzzle. Just leave him alone, he won't trouble you. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: What she said?

Hari-śauri: She said don't touch the dog, it's wearing a muzzle.

Rādhāvallabha: She should wear a muzzle.

Prabhupāda: (break)

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

eBali-mardana: Prabhupāda, you are the only Indian who has taken up this mission, out of six hundred and eighty million.

Woman: Don't touch that dog. He's wearing a muzzle. Just leave him alone, he won't trouble you. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: What she said?

Hari-śauri: She said don't touch the dog, it's wearing a muzzle.

Rādhāvallabha: She should wear a muzzle.

Prabhupāda: (break)

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Nandarāṇī: He wants a separate place. Because it is difficult for all of us to do two things. It's very..., it's just very difficult. So having two places would mean we could have one run like a temple and one run like a home. If many devotees come here and wear old clothes and live... Devotees, sometimes they want to dress in old clothes, they want to be very strict, they want to be very austere, but when the businessmen come and they see a devotee with shaved head and old rags on, then they think...

Prabhupāda: Shocked...

Nandarāṇī: Yes. "What is this?" you know. So, but at the same time we don't want to always dress very nicely, we want to be devotees.

Prabhupāda: We must be clean.

Nandarāṇī: Clean, yes.

Prabhupāda: The dress is not important-cleanliness.

Hari-śauri: You can dress in karmī clothes and still be very strict Vaiṣṇava.

Nandarāṇī: Here we wear mostly street clothes, like the Iranians, suits and dresses.

Prabhupāda: Just like he is not well dressed, but anyone who will see, he'll immediately find he's cleansed. That is wanted. Cleansed dress. Dress is not important.

Nandarāṇī: I think Atreya Ṛṣi wants two places, one like a home and one like a temple. Those devotees who want to...

Prabhupāda: One can become clean with simply loincloth. It doesn't require dress. (break)

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Jñānagamya: There is a story about a man who made some perfect cloth that would never get dirty, never get torn. So he made a suit out of it and he was trying to market it. So he went to the capitalists and said, "Now I have made some perfect cloth." And they did not like it because they could not sell more cloth after they sold this. No one would want anything else. And the workers, they did not like it either because they would lose their jobs. No one would buy.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Jñānagamya: They tried to kill him.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Devotee: He's telling a story.

Prabhupāda: A story.

Jñānagamya: The story is about perfect cloth.

Prabhupāda: Perfect?

Devotee: Perfect cloth.

Prabhupāda: Cloth.

Jñānagamya: So everyone was trying to kill him because he had this perfect cloth and it would put everybody out of business, because their business was based on exploitation, on things wearing out, getting old, having to be renewed.

Prabhupāda: Hm. (indistinct) Hare Kṛṣṇa. (devotees offer obeisances) (end)

Room Conversation -- August 16, 1976, Bombay:

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what about if some devotees, I know they want to come to Vṛndāvana...

Prabhupāda: Every devotee, they must follow the rules and regulations, that's all.

Devotee: And engage in practical service to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Guru-mukha-padma-vākya cittete kariyā aikya āra nā kariha mane āśā **. Has he taken order from Guru Mahārāja that "I am going to jump over Rādhā-kuṇḍa"? Why does he go? Daily singing, guru-mukha-padma-vākya cittete, āra nā kariha **. Why should he desire like that?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There are some devotees who always want...

Prabhupāda: They are not devotees. Rascals. Don't say "some devotees." Devotees will hear: guru-mukha-padma-vākya cittete kariyā aikya āra nā kariha mane **.

Acyutānanda: They also wear the Rādhā-kuṇḍa māṭi, tilaka.

Prabhupāda: There is no harm, but they should understand what is Rādhā-kuṇḍa and how to deal with Rādhā-kuṇḍa. Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī showed how to live in Rādhā-kuṇḍa. Saṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ kālāvasānī-kṛtau. He was circumambulating Rādhā-kuṇḍa, falling down, making a mark. That is Rādhā-kuṇḍa vāsī. Saṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ. Not only counted holy names, but offering obeisances so many hundred times in... That is Rādhā-kuṇḍa. He, so much vairāgya he showed. He can take bath in the Rādhā-kuṇḍa. First of all, do this like Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī. Saṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ kālāvasānī-kṛtau nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau cātyanta-dīnau ca yau **.

Yaśomatīnandana: In other words, first one should understand Bhagavad-gītā. Then gradually the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then ultimately Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Without that, simply taking Caitanya-caritāmṛta...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bhagavad-gītā is the entrance. Then Bhāgavata is graduate and Caitanya-caritāmṛta... This is the step by step. But if one is sincere everything becomes revealed. He does not commit mistake.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Some devotees, especially in Vṛndāvana, who will always try to run to Hardwar, Jagannātha Purī, always parikrama of holy places.

Prabhupāda: It is good to go to holy places.

Acyutānanda: They go independently.

Yaśomatīnandana: Unauthorized.

Acyutānanda: They go more to avoid service than to become purified.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But there's no harm if they just...

Prabhupāda: You see you can become independent, nobody can check you. Everyone is independent. Yathecchasi tathā kuru (BG 18.63). But one who wants to be regulated, he has to surrender. That is voluntary. Otherwise, everyone is free to do whatever he likes. And those who are surrendered souls, they will wait for the instruction of guru and do accordingly. That is the proper... guru-mukha-padma-vākya cittete kariyā aikya āra nā kariha **. That is wanted. Otherwise, everyone can remain independent. All living beings are independent. Even if I say that you do not do it, you are independent, you can do it. Even Kṛṣṇa gives independence to Arjuna. Yathecchasi tathā kuru. "I have told you everything. Now you do whatever you like." So that depends on the candidate. Everyone is free to do anything, but if he's actually serious then he has to do guru-mukha-padma-vākya cittete āra nā kariha **. This is...

Acyutānanda: What prompts the soul to misuse his independence or improperly use...?

Prabhupāda: Because he has got little independence. Yathecchasi tathā, he has got this.

Acyutānanda: Why do some misuse it and some never misuse it?

Prabhupāda: That depends on him. If one is determined that "I shall only act according to the advice of my Guru Mahārāja," then he's perfect. One has to submit like Arjuna said, śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam (BG 2.7). Otherwise he'll argue.

Devotee: Even nitya-siddha has guru.

Yaśomatīnandana: Even the liberated soul, nitya-siddha.

Prabhupāda: Liberated soul never says that "I am liberated." As soon as he says "liberated," he's a rascal. A liberated soul will never say that "I am liberated." That is liberated. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He is God—guru more mūrkha dekhi' karila śāsan (CC Adi 7.71). "My Guru Mahārāja saw Me a fool number one, and he has chastised Me." He's God. This is the example. If one remains always a servant ever-lastingly of guru, then he is liberated. And as soon as he thinks that he is liberated, he's a rascal.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mahāṁśa Swami is nicely doing (?).

Hari-śauri: He's very sincere.

Prabhupāda: And everyone likes him.

Hari-śauri: Yes. He's very popular with the life members.

Prabhupāda: He has no enemy. Nobody has complained against him.

Hari-śauri: He's very even-tempered.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Neither he has complained against anybody. He does not complain, and nobody complains against him. His mother was very much sorry. Now she is very happy.

Hari-śauri: He joined in the West?

Prabhupāda: He is Parsee.

Hari-śauri: He's not Indian.

Prabhupāda: No, he is Indian. India, there is Parsee community. Indian Parsee means that originally they come from Iran. They are Iranian. But on account of Muhammadans forcibly standing within way... Aurangzeb came. Muhammadans they came, they fled from Iran and took shelter in the western part of India. They took shelter in Gujarat. Persia... I think Iran was known as Persia.

Hari-śauri: Yes. At least that area, anyway.

Prabhupāda: Therefore they are known as Parsee. In their ritualistic ceremonies some (indistinct) do with women... (?)

Hari-śauri: Yes. I saw all the women, they keep themselves covered and everything.

Prabhupāda: Sari?

Hari-śauri: Most of them were wearing trousers.

Prabhupāda: No. Parsees are well known for saris.

Hari-śauri: In Iran, though, I saw most of the women wear... Under those black veils they were actually wearing trousers.

Prabhupāda: Not wearing saris? (pause) We have no problems except this immigration.

Hari-śauri: Yes. That's the main thing.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise we have no problem.

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

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Sai Baba has a very big political following, including the chief minister of Bombay also.

Gargamuni: Home Ministers, Home Ministers wear his ring, Sai Baba ring.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So I think they're doing it just...

Prabhupāda: We don't touch about Sai Baba. We charge him, "What do you know about godly?" Don't bring any other men. Don't try to become that "All are useless, we are important." No. But whatever they are there. But they have directed "ungodly." "What do you know about godly, that you have said as ungodly?" Let him explain. And we are background Bhagavad-gītā, approved. So why you are taking my pad?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, I'm sorry.

Prabhupāda: This is the, our member. Pencil and pad. Either he'll leave his own pencil or take my pencil. (laughter) That I am observing. All right. Go. So you'll take charge of this?

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa: There's only five first initiations. Those ladies, I told them to wait some more time. Those ladies, I told them to wait for some more time because they were still drinking tea and coffee until yesterday.

Prabhupāda: No, if they promise they will give up, then we can give.

Mahāṁśa: I already told them, "You please..." They said they will give up but I said that you...

Prabhupāda: No, if they promise you can give.

Mahāṁśa: But, they are waiting, what shall I tell them now? I just now told them...

Prabhupāda: No, tell them that, "If you promise from today you will give up..."

Mahāṁśa: They promised.

Prabhupāda: Then we shall give it.

Mahāṁśa: All five of them?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. If they have promised, we shall give. Simply you don't break promise. You have promised—do it. That's all.

Mahāṁśa: I'll tell them. Another thing was those, what is, I don't know what is the position of ladies being initiated. They are young girls. They may get married. They may get married to someone outside the society.

Prabhupāda: But she can chant and observe the rules and regulations—what is that.

Mahāṁśa: Even if her husband does not follow?

Prabhupāda: That does not matter. It is individual.

Mahāṁśa: Then there'll be five more.

Prabhupāda: My sister, while she was married, her father-in-law's house, they were all eating fish. So a new girl, ten years, eleven years old. So she was given this foodstuff with fish and everything. So she was crying. So her mother-in-law, "Why you are crying?" "No, we do not touch all these things." She immediately arranged special cooking for her. So her husband and other members they were taking fish, but she never touched. She never touched. She does not know what is fish. If one wants to keep oneself pure, he or she can keep herself pure in any circumstances.

Mahāṁśa: Okay. And there'll be two second initiations, two devotees from here. So I will talk to them again because just now I've told them "You must wait one month more." They were willing to.

Prabhupāda: If they'll promise, that's all right.

Mahāṁśa: So I'll tell them like that. Okay. Then the names and beads will be given downstairs by Your Grace? You'll be coming down?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: They should be wearing their neckbeads before. At least two lines.

Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa will recognize your service. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ (BG 18.69). You are distributing this knowledge, so you become immediately recognized, very dear servant, very confidential servant of Kṛṣṇa. He says personally. Na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu (BG 18.69). "Amongst the human beings those who are doing this preaching, nobody is dearer than these persons to Me—anyone." You have read that?

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁsa: There is no Kṛṣṇa temple. What to speak of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. And their Deity is Kṛṣṇa, most of the Marwaris. So they will now slowly all of them will come. We had a very hard time. This Inani who was wearing the turban. He's the chief of the Marwaris. If he gives five thousand rupees, then all the Marwaris will give five thousand rupees in that Ganj area. Whatever he gives, the others will have to.

Prabhupāda: He is the head.

Mahāṁsa: He's the head. He himself never gave. And we went a hundred times to him.

Prabhupāda: And now he saw the film...

Mahāṁsa: Yes. And today also he was there in the morning. Now he will definitely give. You had also previously said that they are very conservative. But once they take it up, then they will take it up very nicely.

Prabhupāda: And I also explained, "Nā rūpya, nā rūpya." (laughs)

Morning Walk -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Indian man (3): I personally feel that when you buy anything in the market, for example you buy a dress. Sometimes it wears for ten years, sometimes you are cheated and it wears only for two years. So this is also same way, you know. Sometimes early death means...

Prabhupāda: That is for the dress. What about the man who's using the dress? You are identifying the dress with the man. That is foolishness. As soon as you say "dress," you should have to find out the man who has got the dress. Then it is perfect understanding. But if you understand the dress and the man the same, then you are foolish. Dress is not the man.

Indian man (3): No, dress is not the soul, but dress is again the body.

Prabhupāda: Dress is the body. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). That is explained. This body is just like dress. So, but the dress is different from the man who puts on the dress.

Indian man (3): Well, that is different. Man is different.

Prabhupāda: The dress, it becomes old and it will be changed.

Indian man (3): But dress is the body. Dress is the body.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So? Why you are unnecessarily...

Hari-śauri: It's not... Just dripping a little bit. It's not so bad. I'm just wearing the cādara to keep the mosquitos off. I'm getting bitten, so I'm wearing a cādara to keep the insects away.

Prabhupāda: So it is coming again. (fountain starts) (break)

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And a lot of the tourists who come, they are husband, wife and all together. Why don't we let them wear normal dress but have men and women in the same class.

Hari-śauri: We could... It's just a suggestion, but what about if you have...

Prabhupāda: Normal dress, that is standard.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Or yoga pants. They can have pajamas and kurtās.

Hari-śauri: A separate woman's class? But that means, yes. That means you have to have women teachers.

Prabhupāda: These are artificial things.

Hari-śauri: Mixed class, but...

Prabhupāda: For woman there is no...

Jagadīśa: I think we should avoid women altogether. Avoid women altogether?

Prabhupāda: Women, it is only possible in our Vaiṣṇava bhakti-yoga—women and men can be given equal right. There is no other system.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They can wear a normal dress.

Hari-śauri: If they wear those big robes... Sometimes I see... It's a one-piece thing. It comes down to their ankles. If they wear something like that, it's all right.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Because they want to do something different. They want to see different things. If we give them a pajama and kurtā, we'll still make them do bhakti-yoga, but it's...

Prabhupāda: Bhakti-yoga, chanting, dancing there will be. They can join.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, but...

Prabhupāda: But they cannot practice. They cannot sit down like this, the women. They'll be tired. This is real practice.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Plain dress or if they wear dresses, they can have pant-kurtā pajamas.

Prabhupāda: Why pant?

Hari-śauri: They can wear a long robe. That's better, like one of those complete robes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, long robe.

Hari-śauri: Rajneesh people wear them.

Prabhupāda: These Hare Kṛṣṇa nāmāvali robe.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, very good idea. We can make Hare Kṛṣṇa...

Hari-śauri: Out of a nāmāvali, yeah. Nāma cādara. Hari-nāma cādara.

Prabhupāda: You can have some robe...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, we can have...

Prabhupāda: ...some covering.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, this will be very good. This will really make us look different from others. We're giving kuśa grass, linen, and robe, beads...

Prabhupāda: And they will understand that they are actually doing something.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with C.I.D. Chief -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There's one big movie star... Not very big. Sanjaya Khan. He's Muslim, but he wears a pendant of Kṛṣṇa always. He's our member. He's promised us a donation of ten thousand rupees after his picture is released. Many Muslims we have members now.

Prabhupāda: No, he's Indian Muslim. We have got Iranian Muslims. They are our devotees, many there.

CID Chief: Well, sir, I would like to remain here, but now I have to go to my office.

Prabhupāda: So give prasāda. Bring prasāda.

Room Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: I remember my auntie's mother. She was Italian, and she used to wear black all the time. Just like the widows here, they wear white, so she was wearing black. She was a widow. So all the widows, even I saw some young women...

Prabhupāda: Here also, in Gujarat, they wear black, black sari.

Hari-śauri: Yes, right. And they wear black, and they don't dress attractively at all, and there's no question of marrying again.

Prabhupāda: And Russia also, respectable widows, they used to live in widow's home. They would never marry.

Hari-śauri: And they would wear black too.

Prabhupāda: I have seen that house when I was in Moscow. That was one of the... What is called...? They go to see, especially tourists.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Trivikrama: No, but the priests nowadays, they don't always wear the collar, because they want to feel comfortable with the people. They dress...

Rāmeśvara: They say "If people knew you were the Hare Kṛṣṇa, they would not give you so much money."

Haṁsadūta: Even the police, in order to catch a criminal, they sometimes go in disguise. They act as criminals, in order to catch a criminal. So we also have to do that. We have to act like demons sometimes.

Rāmeśvara: (laughing) To catch a demon.

Dr. Patel: These boys are very clever. (laughs)

Jagadīśa: Vāmanadeva also went in disguise. And Kṛṣṇa, Bhīma, and Arjuna went in disguise. They killed Jarāsandha.

Haṁsadūta: In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam you wrote about Prahlāda Mahārāja, they tried to find out "Where are these Vaiṣṇavas? They must be coming in disguise to teach the boys Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: What is the wrong there?

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Rāmeśvara: No, not hippies. So then, rather than growing their hair, they should wear wigs. Just like our book distributors do not grow their hair long, but they wear wigs.

Prabhupāda: But do you mean to say unless you have long hairs, they will not hear your song?

Rāmeśvara: Medium.

Prabhupāda: That's not. If they like your song, it doesn't matter whether you have long hairs or not.

Rāmeśvara: The main thing is they cannot be wearing śikhā and shaved head.

Prabhupāda: That must be there.

Rāmeśvara: But when they make public appearances, they have to be in disguise.

Prabhupāda: Make public to become gentlemen. Formerly they had no long hairs. They dressed like gentlemen. That we cannot do.

Rāmeśvara: So it doesn't have to be very long. But I don't think it will become popular unless they are in disguise, wearing Western clothes and a little bit of hair.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all right. But formerly your father, grandfather, they had no long hair.

Rāmeśvara: No, they will not dress like hippie. They will dress nicely.

Prabhupāda: Then that is allowed. But we cannot imitate the hippies.

Rāmeśvara: No. I'm just saying that it is a little difficult if they wear their dhotī.

Prabhupāda: No, dhotī, I don't say. You have nice coat-pant. I don't say that you have to... I never said that. You have adopted it. (laughs) I never said that "You put on dhotī." But those who are sannyāsīs, brahmacārīs, their dress is different. But it doesn't require that one has to become a sannyāsī.

Hari-śauri: The wigs he's suggesting are just short ones, short hair wigs.

Rāmeśvara: Yeah. As long as it's not hippy, it is all right. It has to be attractive. Gentlemen. I have taken this record, "Change of Heart," to the biggest record companies in America, and they are very encouraging. They think that we have got a very wonderful message.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is a fact.

Rāmeśvara: They are astonished at the..., the words to the songs.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's a fact.

Rāmeśvara: I think if this group is... If this is done...

Prabhupāda: Enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāra lāgi. Our message is to kill the māyā. This is wonderful message, undoubtedly. Enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāra lāgi, hari-nāma mahā-mantra lao tumi māgi: "Take this hari-nāma." It is very important message.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: Yes. But Sai Baba is under fire now because they say that he produces small things which he can hide in his robe. So they ask, "Why can't you make a big thing? Like a big pumpkin or something big? Why only apples and oranges and small things? (laughter) Why don't you make a big thing?" Some scientists at Bangalore University, they have started...

Prabhupāda: He doesn't deny.

Gargamuni: No. He says, "I have come. You can accept me or reject me."

Nanda-kumāra: Some people say they put a picture of him on their altar, and honey drips from the picture, and they collect it, and it gives them health.

Prabhupāda: His bodily feature is just like rākṣasa.

Devotees: Oh, yes!

Rāmeśvara: It's ugly! And in Jagannath Purī I saw one shop which was selling pictures of him. One of the pictures he was wearing cosmetics like a woman. His hair was cropped like a woman. It was the most ugly thing I ever saw.

Hari-śauri: He was called the "Universal Mother." A picture of Sai Baba looking like a woman, and then they put "The Universal Mother."

Gargamuni: This Tarun Kanti Ghosh, he wears a ring, Sai Baba ring. He is wearing. We always make joke with him.

Prabhupāda: Acchā?

Gargamuni: "This is not Mahāprabhu. How you can wear this? This is foreign." So he laughs. We make joke with him, "Why you are wearing this ring? This is not in your custom to follow this..."

Prabhupāda: He is hodge-podge. But he has got love for Caitanya. That will save.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: And at the end he had one crab left for his fifty thousand dollars. (chuckling)

Prabhupāda: A madman working... Chāgale nā khāya, pāgale ki bale. "A madman, what does he not say, and a goat, what does he not eat?" There is a system like that amongst the Muhammadan aristocracy. They keep one hundred chickens. Each day they kill one chicken, and that flesh, chopped up and given to the ninety-nine. Then, next day another. In this way, when one is left, that the master eats. Concentrating from hundred to one, and then he eats it. This is Muhammadan process.

Rāmeśvara: What is the use?

Prabhupāda: They know. (chuckling) They think the hundred chickens' vitamin comes into one.

Hari-śauri: Māyayāpahṛta-jñānā.

Prabhupāda: And by eating such chicken, you don't require one cloth. That is aristocracy. They, during severe cold, they will have fine panjabi. You know panjabi?

Hari-śauri: Yes, very thin.

Prabhupāda: And if you wear... (end)

Room Conversation -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Bhāgavata: It was written in the paper that one naga, he has died from cold. He was wearing nothing. (laughs) He has died.

Prabhupāda: In Māgha Melā, er, Kumbha Melā?

Bhāgavata: Kumbha Melā, yes. One naga. He died due to cold. It became very cold one night after you left, so cold that the naga, he died from having no cloth.

Prabhupāda: He must die. They imitate.

Bhāgavata: Yes. He is a cheater.

Prabhupāda: No sādhana, bhajana, and simply naga.

Hari-śauri: They smoke chillums, so they're so intoxicated that they don't...

Gurukṛpa: I saw one naga. They said he was smoking a cigarette for twelve years. Not a chain smoker, "cable smoker."

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

Morning Walk -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Gargamuni: We can walk on the beach. It's a very smooth beach, the sand. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...I was jumping here. (laughter) 1920 or '21, I came. After my appearing in examination, B.A. test, I came here. By that time I was married. I was married in 1918. (break) Because jubilant, I was jumping. When the waves come, I was jumping, the waves passed. There was one guide, he taught me, Babuji, ei sakava.(?)

Gargamuni: They wear those hats.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...'20, and it is 1977. How many years?

Gurukṛpa: Fifty-seven years.

Prabhupāda: Fifty-seven years after. (laughs) So the body has not changed? Where is that body? Now I am with stick. (laughter) Then I was jumping. Is not that? I am there. I remember. The body has changed. What is the difficulty to understand? I am the same person.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: That man who was here last night. He's invited the devotees there at one o'clock.

Prabhupāda: Village means here.

Pṛthu-putra: Yes, this place.

Prabhupāda: How many men?

Pṛthu-putra: We will be about ten.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. He has agreed to...?

Pṛthu-putra: Yes, he has agreed.

Prabhupāda: Ask him to have tilaka always.

Pṛthu-putra: That, that boy who came.

Prabhupāda: No, that man who came. Ask that...

Pṛthu-putra: To wears always tilaka. He has the kaṇṭhi-mālā, but I don't...

Prabhupāda: No tilaka.

Pṛthu-putra: No tilaka.

Satsvarūpa: He does not wear tilaka.

Prabhupāda: So he must have tilaka. You ask him, "First of all have tilaka." You see. Otherwise we'll not take.

Satsvarūpa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (end)

Room Conversation -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Pṛthu-putra: Because I've found in these universities, the educated persons, they're very interested about philosophy coming from India.

Prabhupāda: Gradually they'll be more interested. So handle them with little care.

Pṛthu-putra: Yes. Has to be handled with very much care actually. But I went in this dhoti even and they were not so...

Prabhupāda: Happy.

Pṛthu-putra: ...surprised. No, no, they were not so surprised. They were wondering how can I wear such a dress. So, but the difficulty is they immediately associate with the idea that I was a religious man, being in such a dress.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, in Muhammadan country also, there is dress like this. They are called peet.(?)

Pṛthu-putra: Yes. They have these big robes. When they go to the mosque, they put on the robes. In Cairo there is ten thousand mosques. It's incredible. Ten thousand mosques.

Prabhupāda: They're religious.

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

Hari-śauri: "Would you believe three Hare Kṛṣṇas dressed in Santa Claus suits?"

Prabhupāda: "...in Santa Claus?"

Gargamuni: I think people were more amused than they were angry.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is amusing.

Gargamuni: At least the newspaper article in the Statesman was very amusing. It did not criticize, because it mentioned that by wearing these suits we are able to distribute many literatures on God consciousness, which is the real meaning of Christmas. They wrote this in the States... So it was favorable.

Nanda-kumāra: In Los Angeles there was some controversy, some trouble. So they had big signs that said "ISKCON," and they had a thing printed up that they put on the bucket that they were collecting with. It said, "Help us put the real spirit of God back into Christmas." And people appreciated that. It stated who we were and stated that...

Hari-śauri: Whenever there's some controversy there's always somebody that was dead against and there's always someone who's for you, but the general public, they just observe.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It makes a better point for them instead of making a better point for ourselves.

Prabhupāda: Against party, they take it.

Morning Walk -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: They never talk about Vivekananda. They don't like him.

Prabhupāda: He was rascal number one. He brought three women with whom he had intimate connection. That is very easy to make intimate connection with woman in America. With money also. He brought. And with their money. Aurobindo also, the same thing. With woman's money they became rich, not like me, with hard labor of writing books and selling. I could also do. There was chance. But this is not my business to make intimate relation with woman and get money. I could do. There was chance. When attempt was failed, the man who introduced that woman to me, he one day said, "I have seen many swamis, but none like you." (laughter)

Gargamuni: They advise you to grow a beard and to wear Western suit, the other swamis. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...in a different style. (break) ...money. These rascals are also after woman and money, in a different style. Asat eka strī-saṅgī. Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately rejects him, that "He's a rascal. He's after women." Immediately. Asat strī-saṅgī. Two kinds of rascals—nondevotee of Kṛṣṇa and woman-hunter—reject immediately. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... The sannyāsa life is... What is that? Cent percent, no connection with woman. That is sannyāsa. What we have renounced? We have renounced... We are using the motorcar, we are using this machine, we are eating, we are sleeping in nice room—what is the renouncement? Only renouncement is no connection with woman. That is the real platform of renouncement. If one can renounce woman's connection, then he's liberated man. That is very, very difficult. (break) Except myself, they go for woman and money, that's all, in foreign countries. This is the position. This Vishnu, Vishnu... Vishnananda, Vishnu-ananda? Now what is that? One yogi is in Montreal?

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

Prabhupāda: Śīlavatī is in New York?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: Where are her sons?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are in māyā. (Prabhupāda chuckles) She now engages in book distribution also.

Prabhupāda: No, she is very nice woman. From the beginning she is devotee. She is about fifty years old? Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, at least fifty years old. Yes, her hair is gray.

Brahmānanda: She wears all white sari. Other women that age, they would be looking for another husband, another husband, another husband.

Prabhupāda: This widow life is also brahmacārī life. This printing is all right? At least for India it is very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The paper quality I saw that Gopāla is using now is getting much better.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The book could be sold anywhere in the world. The most recent publications of his could be sold anywhere.

Brahmānanda: His Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (indistinct) Very good.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there some mention in the Bhāgavatam about this, that the religious men will wear only the clothes to make a profit? That people will wear religious clothing simply for making profit? Now religion is a good business. They take it like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good business.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They exploit the sentiment.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā's mother is here.

Prabhupāda: Oh. What does she say?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, she's very nice. She wears sari. She's attending your lectures in the morning, taking prasādam. She's a very nice woman. He's such a nice son, and it's due... You can see... She's very nice. She could be a devotee easily, in my opinion. I never talked to her, but just from the way she carries herself, immediately putting on sari, quite happy to stay here for the time she's staying. He said he was going to bring..., bring her here one evening to meet you. Acyutānanda's mother came here.

Prabhupāda: Hm. He has returned?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. She was very surprised at how big he is.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She was very surprised to see how huge he is, because the last time was 1967. He was very skinny.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (laughing) Hm.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But I saw in the airport, the policemen, they have this tilaka.

Prabhupāda: Tilaka.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Policemen, they are dressed, but they have tilaka.

Prabhupāda: Manipur? Manipur?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, Manipur. And always give respect. Though I am nobody, but...

Prabhupāda: Tilaka.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. The policemen wear tilaka. There is justice for sure.

Prabhupāda: So immediately do it. I shall go. If there is such possibility... Let us have a small ideal state. If respectable gentlemen take it, oh, it will be a great success, an ideal state throughout the whole world, Vaiṣṇava state.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Example. You can show that example.

Prabhupāda: Show their policemen, all with tilaka, and marching, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Do they chant there?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. They have...

Prabhupāda: We shall train them. Military march, Manipur. Slogan: "Jaya Rādhe! Jaya Kṛṣṇa! Jaya Babhruvāhana! Jaya Arjuna!" And then let us go. We shall organize Bombay headquarter, Manipur Vaiṣṇava state, send missionary all over the world, bona fide, scientific system of religion, ideal character. Ideal character. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ (SB 5.18.12). That we have to show. "Here is the sum total of all good qualities." That we have to show. We haven't got to go anywhere. Knowledge, good quality, happiness, advancement of life, everything complete. So let us go to Manipur. Arrange for that.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Rādhā-vallabha: At the time of the agreement, when they are not yet old enough, they do not associate at all. So not until the actual marriage do they associate or wear white or anything like that.

Prabhupāda: No, even they can be married, but no association.

Rādhā-vallabha: No association. So the boy can be... If the girl has attained puberty say at thirteen, fourteen, even if the boy is only twenty, twenty-one it is all right. All right. I wanted to make sure. I wasn't allowing them to see each other. I wanted to make sure they weren't doing anything un-bona fide. So I'll tell him that. I have the... Jagannātha dāsa has done synonyms for Brahma-saṁhitā. For the Brahma-saṁhitā printing, Jagannātha dāsa has done some synonyms. Would you like to use the book also? I have the book here.

Prabhupāda: No... Yes. (Prabhupāda apparently looks them over) (break)

Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's considered advancement, to come to the point of being animals here.

Prabhupāda: So our gurukula should be ideal. Not all these boys... You should take care of these things from the very beginning—if you want actually spiritual life. If you want to progress like animals, that is different thing, as the whole world is doing. We want to maintain an ideal institution. People may see. In Christian idea also, the nuns were separate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nowadays the nuns, every... Twice a week they get their hair set. They wear miniskirt now.

Prabhupāda: And so many scandal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're not strict anymore. Priests are smoking cigarettes, watching television.

Prabhupāda: If there is no training, naturally it will deteriorate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: On saṅkīrtana all the distributors wear wigs and like that to..., because it's much easier to distribute, to distribute books.

Prabhupāda: I do not know all this. Formerly, shaven-headed, they used to distribute. Now it is not possible.

Hari-śauri: It's increased since they did plainclothes distribution.

Prabhupāda: Encourages?

Hari-śauri: Yeah. The distribution has increased.

Prabhupāda: Then why don't you dress like European, half foreign dress and half hair? Who is that foreign and European and gentleman? What is the use of wig? Keep regular gentleman's hair. There is no need of saffron dress. If by ordinary dress you can sell more book, there is no need of saffron dress. So what is the time now?

Discussions -- June 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: For small books like Perfection of Yoga, it has increased forty-five percent. For medium books like Kṛṣṇa Trilogy and Īśopaniṣad, it has increased forty-five percent, and for the hardbound books like Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it has doubled, two hundred percent increase.

Jayapatākā: In one month.

Prabhupāda: This is very good.

Girirāja: No, that means tripled.

Rāmeśvara: Two hundred percent increase.

Girirāja: One hundred percent increase is doubled, so two hundred percent...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Tripled. Tripled, the book distribution.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Big books.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Simply by your word, Śrīla Prabhupāda, it is happening.

Rāmeśvara: Everyone is now wearing these "Double It" buttons. The whole movement is simply thinking of doubling book distribution, doubling it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is our real mission. Yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). That's all. This is the opportunity of speaking the words given by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana or Kṛṣṇa are the same. So that's all right. No more talking.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In the beginning, when the marriage took place, thousand was common. He was everything. (breaks)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he stopped everyone from wearing saffron.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Somebody said that. He wore... (breaks)

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I've noticed that the people in the villages, when they come to fetch water, they have very nice pots. The ladies are wearing some bracelets. Gold, I think, it must be.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even the village.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You'll find description in Bhāgavata. They were coming to congratulate Kṛṣṇa—so nice dress, so nice ornament, so nice foodstuff made of ghee, grains in our...

Śatadhanya: Sometimes the rich Marwari ladies, when they come to Māyāpur, once in a while they give some ornament to the Deity. They'll give one ring or one bracelet, gold.

Prabhupāda: That was always. They would offer some ornament to the Deity.

Showing of Planetary Sketches -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodānandana: Each mountain is made of a different kind of stone. Some are made of gold; some are made of coral; some of them, stones, are lapis lazuli, that blue stone that Kṛṣṇa wears. Each mountain has different variety.

Prabhupāda: They will be puzzled. These material scientists will be puzzled. (laughter)

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Mr. Myer: And people have got very happy for his personal life. He's gets up in the morning and does the spinning, and he's dedicated... He's not even taking medicines or any type of... Very, very strict. He does not wear any cloth which he is not spinning. I don't know how he finds the time, but he is doing so many things. The people are amazed at his... It is very fortunate that he has come now. I think certainly they will all adopt some special... Because people has to come. Once they see the gurukula and Bhaktivedanta Institute coming up... Whoever's not in the gurukula, we're going to post there also... So you don't work the modern language. It is a university also. Perfectly represent special...

Prabhupāda: No, our books are more than university standard. If they simply can study our book, it is more than the course he was given. Tan manye adhitam uttamam. All right.

Akṣayānanda: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Room Conversation during lunchtime -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If I dress myself in a particular way, who can check it? They cannot check. I like this dress. That's all. That is not violation of law.

Upendra: Do they wear tilaka? Santa Claus? No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They can't do that. They say, "You're misrepresenting yourselves because..."

Prabhupāda: I'm not misrepresenting. I like this dress.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say this dress indicates a Christian...

Prabhupāda: Whatever indication, I like this. You cannot check my liking. Just like an Indian dresses like a European, or a European dresses like Indian. Does it mean that he has become Indian or he's American? He likes it. That's all. Can you object if a girl dresses like Indian with ladies' sari? Can you object? It is something like that. "Oh, why you have become Indian-like? Why you are imitating?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say, "Well, no, you can wear your Santa Claus suit, but you'll have to wear a Hare Kṛṣṇa button."

Prabhupāda: That we can do. Never mind. But that is not under your dictation. If I like.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They actually made us in New York, the court.

Prabhupāda: No, then there is no objection. But you cannot dictate...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What dress.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I may dress myself to your liking; I may not. Rather, you like the Santa Claus dress. You are Christian. I am pleasing you by dressing myself like this. Why you are not pleased? I am trying to please you.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say, "Well, actually you're concealing your identity."

Prabhupāda: That is my liking. You cannot dictate. I'm not pickpocketing you. What is the objection?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say, "Well, why don't you tell people who you actually are? Why don't you say you're a Hare Kṛṣṇa?"

Prabhupāda: No, that is my desire. You cannot dictate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, you're asking me for your money.

Prabhupāda: But unless you know that I'm Hare Kṛṣṇa people, how you are dictating me?

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We're not ready to let you go yet, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We can't resign ourselves to it. All of your disciples are coming. We're not ready yet. Śrīla Prabhupāda, I wanted to show you something.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A very nice statue was made of you, and it's being placed in many libraries and museums. People donate it. Members pay for it to be donated to libraries and schools. It's a bust of Your Divine Grace. It's very heavy. It's made of bronze.

Hari-śauri: Can you see it there, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can you see it? Shall I sit you up?

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a cādara you wear on a cold morning. Very ecstatic pose. It's made of metal. (taps it)

Prabhupāda: Strong?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And this says, "His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Author of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Nectar of Devotion, Nectar of Instruction, Back to Godhead Magazine, Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness." This is placed in prominent museums and libraries. There's four different models. This is solid wood, and this will be a bronze plaque, and this is made of bronze, metal. You can feel it. Nice?

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So this will be... At least this one will be given to Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. So who will take care of?

Kulādri: Yes, should be taken care of. Or it can sit on the altar, Śrīla Prabhupāda? The box is here. It is also jewelry. It can sit on the altar at Their feet?

Upendra: No, "Who takes care that someone...?" They have one safe, almirah, for the jewelry, small.

Kulādri: At least you can wear the ring, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Kulādri: At least you'll wear the ring. Does it fit?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Other ring?

Kulādri: No, this one you're wearing is... Just this. He had one request. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja asked me... He said you asked us to pray to Kṛṣṇa before, he said, but he doesn't feel qualified to pray to Kṛṣṇa. But he asked that you please pray to Kṛṣṇa for us, because we cannot pray to Kṛṣṇa directly. We don't know Kṛṣṇa. But if you ask Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa must be sure to fulfill your desire. So would you please pray to Kṛṣṇa to stay with us? 'Cause you're His pure devotee, Kṛṣṇa will certainly grant what you pray for. So on our behalf... I think He must want you to come to the palace, Śrīla Prabhupāda, if it is possible.

Prabhupāda: I wish...

Kulādri: You wish? Then come at once. I think that will make Him very happy.

Prabhupāda: But unless I become little strong, how can I go?

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really high class. And serving kacuris, hot jalebis, all nice preparations. And our men, they look very, very scientific. They're wearing shirt, coat and pants. Svarūpa Dāmodara looks like a scientist now. He has transformed himself. All of them, Mādhava..., they all look, Sadāpūta and Jñāna dāsa, they all look very ...

Prabhupāda: Elegant.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Girirāja: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I have a present for you from Lord Kṛṣṇa, Śrīnāthajī. This is a coat which was worn by Him. So, He sent it to you.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīnāthajī wore that?

Girirāja: Yes. In Nathadwar.

Prabhupāda: How you got it?

Girirāja: Well you know the Maharaj of Udaipur? President of the Viswa-Hindu Parisad? So he sent it. His cousin came here to stay for about a week.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think it will be very nice when the weather is a little cool, for you to wear it, Śrīla Prabhupāda, on your morning walks. (laughter)

Girirāja: Also he converted one of his palaces into a hotel, and he's ordering 301 copies of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, one for each room in the hotel. And he's also associated with the Taj Hotel. So he's going to try to see about having them take one Gītā for each room.

Prabhupāda: So you have taken your dinner?

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: All right. Then take rest.

Girirāja: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But Kṛṣṇa directed-Rāmānuja Vaiṣṇava.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gopāla Kṛṣṇa told me that Jayapatākā Mahārāja had called him and said that they have arranged for one Rāmānujī kavirāja there in Bengal side, and everything was ready if you can come there. Can you bring him here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. He's not going to come.

Bhavānanda: They have their medicines and everything there.

Prabhupāda: He has?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's arranged for Rāmānuja kavirāja, Jayapatākā Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Bengal side, Calcutta side, Māyāpur. Māyāpur, Calcutta, but he's there.

Bhavānanda: He wears Rāmānuja tilaka, he's got good recommendation from L. M. Bangor.

Trivikrama: But how can Prabhupāda travel?

Devotee: But Prabhupāda cannot travel, because any movement will disturb his kidney.

Prabhupāda: He cannot come?

Page Title:Wearing (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, MadhuGopaldas
Created:17 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=103, Let=0
No. of Quotes:103