Winter (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"winter" |"winter's" |"winters" |"wintertime"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Janārdana: The summer season is very slow in Montreal. The churches cut down their sermon program. The synagogues don't having sermons in the summer very often. So that's why we haven't had so many engagements. But in the month of September things begin to pick up faster. The coldest time of the year is the busiest time of the year here actually. The real busy season is January and February.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was speaking to Gaurasundara that Janārdana speaks, "The winter season is the busiest season," and you said, "It is dull season"? (chuckles)

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: (break) Because in the winter season they don't get tenants?

Janārdana: Well, a few will get easily tenants, but he wants to get a tenant for the whole winter. And September is a month when there is the best chance for getting a tenant because that's when all the student population comes back into town and this is a student district. And so in the month of September he would like to either get a tenant for the whole year or leave the place open. But maybe I can persuade him because it is not very easy to find a suitable apartment for only one month in Montreal.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...pare dhana parke diye nija labha cora: "I borrowed something from you, and I lend him. He does not pay me, and I become thief."

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: You get it. Then I give you direction and make it nicely, and you print it, nice paper. We have to make propaganda.

Hayagrīva: Well, in order to develop the place properly, we're going to need people who are dedicating themselves, not just fly-by-night, people who come and stay for a week and then go.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they will come.

Hayagrīva: But we're going to need people who stay here permanently.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Some people will... At least fifty men should live here permanently. That I shall arrange.

Hayagrīva: Fifty.

Prabhupāda: Fifty at least. Otherwise this big property, how it can be managed? At least fifty men. At least. It may go to two hundred.

Kīrtanānanda: On this property?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: Haribol.

Prabhupāda: This whole property. We have to manage so many temples.

Kīrtanānanda: The conservation people estimate that this land will support eighteen people.

Hayagrīva: Well, that's materialists.

Kīrtanānanda: Thirty people, I think.

Hayagrīva: That's a materialistic calculation.

Kīrtanānanda: So if you want one cow for every person, it would only support eighteen cows.

Prabhupāda: Eighteen cows? The whole property?

Kīrtanānanda: If you want them to be self-sufficient, you have to grow grain for them for the winter.

Prabhupāda: All right. Let eighteen people first of all. Then we shall share, eighteen people. You see?

Hayagrīva: One cow per person. We're all going to end up with the gout.

Prabhupāda: No. They don't calculate one cow, one person. They calculate only cow. And that does not mean eighteen persons will only remain.

Hayagrīva: I think a cow can do four or five people nicely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why not? No... I calculated, one cow per one person means the milk products he can sell, he can get other necessities of life in that way. Yes. And otherwise, one cow's milk, it can be shared by ten people at least.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with John Griesser (later initiated as Yadubara Dasa) -- March 10, 1972, Vrndavana:

Yadubara: Has this happened before, the material wealth that we have now? Has it happened in past ages?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yadubara: Technological advancement, scientific?

Prabhupāda: All scientific. As this is winter season, so there will be a summer season. Anyone can say that after two months there will be summer season. Similarly, these ages are also, what is called, changing. So now it is Kali-yuga. After this Kali-yuga, there will be Satya-yuga. Cycle. So everything is happening. When there is winter season, everyone feels cold. So there is no question of asking. The particular type of age and its reaction of the quality of the nature, it will be there. So as there are many Kali-yugas, so it is to be understood that many times these things happened, and many times again will happen.

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

Prabhupāda: Arjuna put this question to Kṛṣṇa: "This is a catastrophe! I have to kill my own men." Although Arjuna believed this to be a catastrophe, Kṛṣṇa likened it to seasonal changes. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). "O son of Kuntī, the non-permanent appearance of happiness and distress and their disappearance in due course are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons." In the winter season water is not very pleasant, but in the summer it is very pleasing. What then, is the condition of water? Is it pleasing or not? The water is the same, but in touch with our skin it becomes pleasing or not according to the climatic circumstances. Just because the summer is hot, should I give up cooking? Work must be done. Similarly, just because water is cold in the winter, should I give up my bath? No. These things may come and go, but we have to do our duty. Our duty is Kṛṣṇa consciousness; that is our philosophy, and that is an actual fact. These seasonal changes may come and go in life; sometimes they may please us, and sometimes they may pinch us, but our duty in human life is to understand God. We shouldn't care for all these catastrophes that come and go. We should have no concern, for their nature is like that—sometimes pleasing and sometimes not pleasing. Despite all this, we have to do our duty, understand God.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So all the living entities are completely satisfied.

Prabhupāda: Certainly. Because they are in the spiritual life. That is real life. Here it is covered. There is no such season as winter season, as summer season. Always spring. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12), simply ānanda, blissful life of knowledge. What do they know, the scientists, about the spiritual life?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There is no...,

Prabhupāda: No information, no research. That kūpa-maṇḍūka, this frog in the well. That's all. They have no information of the Pacific Ocean. They are researching within the well. That's all. They have no information even of this material world.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: There is a Bengali proverb, jvaranpar ketanadali palab...(?) If you receive one unwanted guest and fever, you don't give him eat. Then it will go away. Unwanted guest, if you do not give him food, he'll go away. Even a fever also, if you don't eat, it will go automatically. So after all, these things come and go. The example is given, śīta-uṣṇa. Śīta means winter and uṣṇa means summer. As the summer comes and go, winter comes and go, so these kinds of sufferings, they come and go. So Kṛṣṇa is advising, tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. Therefore a brāhmaṇa's qualification is titikṣa. Śamo damaḥ śaucaṁ titikṣa, toleration. They're not very much bothered with the bodily pains and pleasure. They come and go. They're engaged in real business, how to realize Brahman. So if one is engaged in the prime business of life, Brahman understanding, athāto brahma jijñāsā, for him these bodily pains and pleasure becomes minor things.

Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Just like a son has got the right to claim the property of father, similarly, one who lives like this, he has the claim to become liberated. Mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk. That is... This is Bhāgavata's statement. And similarly, in the Bhagavad-gītā, also it is stated... Sit down. Yes. Why you are late? We have talked so many things.

Woman: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete puruṣaṁ puruṣarṣabha. That I have already explained.

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya

śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ

āgamāpāyino 'nityās

tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata

(BG 2.14)

Just like one is in winter season, and the winter... Not in this country. In Western countries, it becomes below thirty degrees. In Canada and what other places?

Acyutānanda: New Vrindaban.

Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So we have no experience below zero degrees. But in Europe, America, there is places. In Russia also, below fifty degrees. But they do not stop their business. They know that "Winter season has come. It will go away again." So devotees, even they are in distressed condition, they know, "It has come due to my bad activities in the past. It will go away. Let me suffer and finish it." Just like if you become, all of a sudden, infected with some disease. So what? You'll go mad? No. You know that "I have infected this disease. Let me suffer a few days. It will go away. That's all." This is the mentality of the devotees. They are not disturbed. And if he's not disturbed, then he's fit for becoming liberated.

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Where is more? Now, because the petrol stock is decreasing, they are disturbed, increase it, increase it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So they are trying to make synthetic...

Prabhupāda: Again "trying," the same disease, "trying." (laughter) Same disease. Again "trying." That is called... That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). They are simply struggle, struggling with the mind. That is their business. Prakṛti-sthāni karṣati. Because he is in this prakṛti, under the control of the material nature, prakṛti-sthāni—simply a struggle. And mental concoction: "Now we shall do it. Now we are trying. In future it will be done." Manaḥ. This is mind, mental concoction. Prakṛti is doing their own duty, by nature's law. Now, by nature's law, the winter season is coming. Stop it. Stop it. Make it summer season. What you can do? Why so many cloths are required? Turn it into summer. You cannot do anything. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi... (BG 3.27). The prakṛti is going on, doing its own duty. You cannot check. Now the sun is rising. Now make it dark.

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

Prabhupāda: But these rascals, even though are suffering three kinds of pains, tri-tāpa-yatna. Just like why you are covered? Because there is pain. Severe cold, similarly severe heat. So we are suffering, either summer season or winter season. We are suffering, tri-tāpa-yatna. There is suffering from our mind, from our body—this is natural suffering. There is bodily suffering, mental suffering, then suffering caused by other living entities. So we are always suffering. But still they're thinking that "We are happy." The disease is already there. Ah? Just like the Arabian do not want to give you petrol. That means there's suffering caused by other nations. So this is going on. They're simply trying to settle up. But the suffering is there. But they're not in their knowledge, that in spite of all their endeavors, the sufferings are there. What is the cause? Then whom shall I go to ask why the suffering is there? Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum (MU 1.2.12). Therefore you must approach a person who knows how the suffering should be mitigated.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Hawaii is very pleasant.

Sudāmā: Yes, now it is eighty-five degrees every day.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Sudāmā: It's wintertime now.

Prabhupāda: And summer?

Sudāmā: Summer's very hot. Hundred and five.

Prabhupāda: But there is rainfall.

Sudāmā: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Summer.

Sudāmā: Yes. There's quite a bit now. Sometimes in the winter it rains. So that one devotee brought up the point of the philosophy of "Do your own thing," and that's what the devotees were instructed in Hawaii to do. When they closed the temple, Gaurasundara just said, "Now everyone go and do your own thing for Prabhupāda."

Prabhupāda: If he does Prabhupāda's work, then where is the own thing?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

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

Room Conversation with M. Lallier, noted French Poet -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Karandhara: I think what he's asking, Prabhupāda, isn't the degradation... Because in the Vedas it outlines the ages, succeeding one another, and there're different characteristics, isn't it inevitable that it's going to occur, that the devolution occurs inevitably without anyone's being able to change it.

Prabhupāda: No. It is just like, winter season. The season is winter, but still, you can keep yourself warm. If you like, you can keep yourself in warm. So daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Nature's course is very strong, going on, according to the program, but mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te: "Anyone who surrenders unto Me, he's above this degradation."

Morning Walk -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: So just see how Kṛṣṇa's management, nature's management, there is day and night, day and night, day and night. Otherwise it is horrible. If it is all simply day, it is horrible also. And if it is simply night, that is also horrible. So He is so kind He has given day and night, day and night. So do not be misled by this illusion as others are being. Stick to Kṛṣṇa to save. That is the only... Is Stockholm also like that?

Mādhavānanda: Yes. Who is from Stockholm? This is what I heard.

Prabhupāda: Stockholm also like that?

Haṁsadūta: In the winter months there is only a few hours, a few hours' sunlight. Then it goes down.

Prabhupāda: Three hours.

Haṁsadūta: Yeah, in the winter, it is very, very, long winter.

Devotee (2): The same thing in the summer. Some days the sun is shining all day and night.

Prabhupāda: In Sweden?

Morning Walk -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Four hours. Again daytime. That I have seen.

Haṁsadūta: And in the winter it is just the opposite, always dark and a few hours day.

Prabhupāda: It is winter, at the same time dark. How happy life, just see. Advanced civilization. No light and winter. And still, they are happy.

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

Prabhupāda: So pure devotional service is flame. All other things are smoke. You must get the flame. Otherwise, your business will not get done. So naturally we fan when there is smoke, "Phat, phat, phat." As soon as flame comes, there is no smoke. So again fan it. Let the flame come. Then everything will be all right. Otherwise be satisfied with the smoke. You are cooking with smoke for three hundred years. (laughter) There is a very humorous story that one man... He was a yogi. So he approached. It is not story, it is fact. Approached one big man that... As people are very inquisitive to see some yogic magic, so the rich man asked the yogi, "What you have learned about yogic perfection?" "No, I can in the severe winter season, I can dip myself in the water up to this and practice yoga." "So, how long can you remain? At night?" "Yes. No, I can remain the whole night or as long as you..." "All right, if you remain within severe cold, within water, overnight, then I shall give you such and such presentation." So he agreed, and he did it.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Jayatīrtha: New Dvārakā is leading the society in child production.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. But make them devotees. That is the real father and mother, who begets children and make him devotee. That is real father and mother. Otherwise cats and dogs. A Tulasī dāsa, he has written one poetry that "A son and the urine comes from the same way." Son... Son means it is born out of the semina. That also comes through the genital, and the urine also comes through the genital. So he is giving this example that "Putra and Mutra..." Mutra, means urine, and putra means son, comes from the same passage. So if the son is a devotee, then he's putra; otherwise he's mutra. (laughter) Otherwise he's urine. Very nice. Yes. Putra and mutra come from the same channel. If he's a devotee, then he's putra, otherwise he's mutra. (break) ...miseries are compared with the heat and cold. Mātrā sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). Śīta and uṣṇa. Uṣṇa means hot, and śīta means cold. They are pleasing and miserable in circumstances. Cold is very pleasing in the summer, and heat is very pleasing in winter. But same heat in summer is not pleasing, and same cold in winter, it is not pleasing. So what is the actual position of cold and heat? It is simply transforming as pleasure and pain according to circumstances. Otherwise it is neither painful, neither pleasing. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma iva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...has given me hundreds of such places but His order is "You cannot stay." (laughter) I'll tell you one humorous story in this connection. It is a little long. I don't wish to divert your attention. Very interesting story. That is also mentioned in the Bhagavad..., aniketa. One may have many nice places to live; still, he should think that "I have no place to live." That is one of the spiritual items.

Room Conversation with Metaphysics Society -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: Origin of pain means as soon as you come to the material world, is the origin of pain. Just like the... It can be appreciated very nicely. Just like water. Water is sometimes painful, and sometimes pleasing. Is it not? Do you agree or not? No, I just try to... Water is the same thing, but sometimes it is painful and sometimes it is pleasing, is it not? So how the same thing becomes pleasing and painful? This is circumstantial. The same thing is pleasing and the same thing is painful under different circumstances. Similarly, fire. Fire is sometimes pleasing and sometimes painful. The fire is the same, but circumstantially, it becomes painful and pleasing. Just like in winter season the fire is pleasing. And in summer season the same fire is painful. Now, these feelings of pains and pleasure is due to this material body. Therefore the material body is the cause of pains and pleasure. So if you do not get this material body—you remain in your spiritual body—then there is no more pains and pleasure.

Morning Walk -- March 4, 1975, Dallas:

Prabhupāda: ...and standing naked, that those who are fond of nudie-ism, they can get in next life. "All right, you stand naked for many years." This is the punishment. Human society, naked, that is their punishment.

Jayatīrtha: And during the winter they even lose their leaves...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayatīrtha: During the winter, when it's coldest, they lose their leaves.

Prabhupāda: The trees are taken to be the most tolerant. Tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā. There is an extreme example of tolerance, this tree life.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: In the past there was winter season. In the present there is winter season. Therefore I can say next January will be winter season. That is nice. But if it is not happened in the past or present, how you can say? That proposition is not accepted. In the past there was birth, death, old age, and disease, in the present there is birth, death, old age, and disease, and in the future there will be birth, death, and old age and disease. This conclusion is all right. In the past there was birth, death, old age, and disease. At the present there is birth, death, and old age, disease. How you can say in the future there will be no birth, no death, no old age...? That proposal is not very sound. You can say whimsically; that is another thing. But factually it is not possible.

Room Conversation with Director of Research of the Dept. of Social Welfare -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Just produce food grains. The animals can also take, you can also take. Why should you take animal?" That is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Director: But where the winters are long, people have to kill animals to have something to eat over winter.

Prabhupāda: Well, but you should have... I am not speaking for India or Europe. I am speaking the whole human society. Just try to understand.

Director: People started eating meat because in winter they had nothing else to eat.

Prabhupāda: No, you can eat meat, but you cannot eat meat by killing your father and mother. That is human sense. You are taking milk from the cow, it is your mother. You take milk, that in Australia they produce so much milk, butter, and everything. And after it is finished, cut the throat and make business, send to other countries. What is this nonsense? Is that humanity? Do you think?

Director: Well, say two hundred years ago people to survive the winter had to kill the...

Prabhupāda: No, no. You take your mother's milk. You take your mother's milk, and when the mother cannot supply milk you kill her. What is this? Is that humanity? And nature is so strong, for this injustice, sinful, you must suffer. You must be prepared to suffer.

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

Prabhupāda: What is holiday?

Guest 1: For the school children, yes.

Amogha: Schools are not in session all over Australia.

Prabhupāda: This is winter holiday?

Guest 1: There are three terms. This is the first term holiday.

Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Australian devotee 4: Why, then, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is a person given a human body then, if they...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that means better conscience. He can consider so many things. "Why I am dying? I do not want to die. Why there are so many miserable condition?" We are covering because there is miserable condition of this winter. I don't want to suffer from cold. Therefore I am covered. So this is struggle for existence. The human being can understand that why there is struggle? Why not I am happy naturally? This question must be there. Otherwise he is cat and dog. The dogs do not inquire all these things. Then if you have no such power to inquire and understand, then you are no better than dog. And if you are happy to remain cats and dogs, that is your business. But a real human being, he will never be happy. That is human being. Everyone is trying to improve his material condition.

Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:

Kuruśreṣṭha: Only apples and peaches will grow in this state.

Prabhupāda: Why not mango? The climate is good for mango.

Kuruśreṣṭha: In the winter it's very cold.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Very cold?

Kuruśreṣṭha: Very cold.

Prabhupāda: Oh, what is the temperature?

Kuruśreṣṭha: Zero to twenty, thirty.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Below zero?

Kuruśreṣṭha: Sometimes, at night. Ten below.

Prabhupāda: Like New York? No, New York was never below zero. (break) Winter, how many months is continuing?

Kuruśreṣṭha: Four or five months.

Prabhupāda: Four, five months. Always snow?

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1975, New Orleans:

Prabhupāda: Oh, the rain is sufficient here? How many months it rain?

Nityānanda: There is no definite rainy season, it rains all year round.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's very good. Winter?

Nityānanda: No snow, it's always rain. We can grow vegetables in the summer, and different vegetables in the winter. So the cows they can stay outside all year. They don't have to stay in the barn, it's warm enough.

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: Morning… In the morning the sun rises on the eastern side. That is going on. What change has taken place? This flower, seasonal flower is… Now seasonal changes—winter, summer, spring—everything is going on symmetrically. There is no change. Because it is going on symmetrically, therefore we can say that February, next February will be very nice season here. Why? Because we have got experience last February, so we are certain the same thing will happen in the next February. Therefore we can say. There is no such change. Nature's way. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi. It is very symmetrical. Everything is going on nicely, nature's way.

Morning Walk -- October 17, 1975, Johannesburg:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You don't like the sunshine so much.

Prabhupāda: Only at the time of massage. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ...Vedic statement or is it just preference?

Prabhupāda: No, that is my personal. During winter it is pleasing, of course, sunshine.

Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Harikeśa: So in the warmer climates it seems like a better place for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: In warmer climate you can live inexpensively, and freely. In winter climate, there is no freedom, neither it is inexpensive. Very expensive. (break) ...some Phunsie(?). Phunsie.

Harikeśa: Oh, those potato balls.

Prabhupāda: Hm. With banana.

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is very preliminary knowledge. That is not... Just like you can predict that after two months there will be winter. That does not mean that you are very advanced scientist. (laughter) Any child can say. The rascal predicted that there is some comet, and it never appeared. He did. So therefore they are rascals. What is already scheduled, everyone knows. He can say that. (break) ...story about Kali dāsa. Kali dāsa was such a fool. It is a long story. It will take time. So he was sitting on a branch of a tree and cutting. So some intelligent man came, was passing: "Oh, you rascal, you'll fall down." So he did not care. He would go on. And when he actually fell down, he, "Oh, you are so nice astrologer." What is astrology? It is a common sense. If I say, "At six o'clock in the evening there will be no sun," (laughter) is that astrology? Even it is astrology, this astrology is known to everyone. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, and it will increase. Yes. In December January it will be very cold.

Aksayānanda: Yes. It'll be almost twice as cold. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...middle of January, there will be cloud, rain. You have no experience, last winter, anyone? Huh?

Aksayānanda: Yes, I have. Still, if we're sincere we'll stay in Vṛndāvana even if blood and stool comes from the sky, if you want.

Prabhupāda: Why do you expect that? (break) ...capati, you apply little ghee?

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1975, Vrndavana:

Aksayānanda: Channā?

Prabhupāda: Not cchana but cānā. Cānaka dāhl?

Aksayānanda: Oh, cānā dāhl, yes.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Cānā dāhl is good nowadays.

Aksayānanda: Chick pea dahl for winter.

Prabhupāda: Mixed with little uraḍ dāhl, then it will be very palatable and very beneficial.

Aksayānanda: For at lunchtime?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The Parliament and that.... What is that church?

Hari-śauri: Westminster Abbey?

Prabhupāda: Yes. They charge.

Hari-śauri: Guided tour. They cannot live there themselves. They can only live there in the winter.

Prabhupāda: They collect very sufficiently. I have seen. Again, inside you go, and a particular section, if you want to see, the another payment. Yes. First of all, entrance fee; then, within that, if you want to see another particular section, then another fee. And they are collecting money. I have seen. Śyāmasundara took me there.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: According to our theory.... We don't say theory. According to Bhāgavata statement, in this season, the sun runs slow. In the other season, the sun runs fast. That is understandable. But if the sun is fixed up, why in some season if is going fast and some season it is going slow?

Mādhavānanda: Their theory is because the earth is tilted on an axis, that during the winter season the sun is hitting at a different angle, and therefore it's different time. They say that the earth is rotating also, and the axis is turning from one side to the other, so that north is sometimes...

Prabhupāda: Where is the question of going fast and slow?

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: North. So north is supposed to be cooler.

Hari-śauri: In the winter it's not so good. Winter's very bad.

Prabhupāda: Winter eight months? No. In winter this water becomes solid. You know that?

Satsvarūpa: Sometimes in Detroit there's three foot of snow, and the winter is, it's a very deep winter here, but the summer is nice.

Prabhupāda: You convince your countrymen that "It is a great sinful activity that you are killing your mother. You stop this. If you want to eat meat, you can eat some other, nonimportant animals. There are so many." The Chinese they are eating rats also. Cats, rats, everything.

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: People are coming?

Satsvarūpa: Yes. And their main program is they go every day on the lawn at the university and they set up a pandal tent and chant for about two hours. And they are building a truck for distributing prasāda in the wintertime on campus...

Prabhupāda: You make arrangement.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: One thing though is, July is, like in Melbourne, it's wintertime there. So is it okay if they have the festival in summer months?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: As they do in Melbourne, in the summertime?

Hari-śauri: They have it in January down there, because they get a better attendance and everything. It's a lot nicer.

Prabhupāda: It is now winter there?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, wintertime now. Middle of the winter now. Very cold.

Prabhupāda: So better summer is all right. Then they can make ratha regular.

Conversation in Airport and Car -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Kīrtanānanda: That is your mercy.

Prabhupāda: So this was my dream, that a place should be there where we can get all nice foods, best foods, of milk. Kṛṣṇa is fulfilling our desire. Everything's there. Simply these rascals they do not know how to live or to eat. Everything there. Intelligence is there, everything is there. Simply for want of training they have become rogues. Make them human beings, your countrymen. Everyone should follow the duty. Materially and spiritually. Anyway... Here is very nice. It is a winter season of Kali-yuga. These months, June, July, August, up to September?

Kīrtanānanda: No, actually up to November. The devotees like the winter, though.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Kīrtanānanda: It is even more conducive to think of Kṛṣṇa in the winter.

Prabhupāda: So the neighbors they like it? Neighborhood men?

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: How far to Cleveland? About 130 miles. (break) Our land is on the left side.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So this land, how you are utilizing it?

Kīrtanānanda: We are growing a kind of grass, sudan grass. Then we cut that and put it in the tall silos for the cows to eat in the winter.

Prabhupāda: In the winter this is all covered with snow?

Kīrtanānanda: Most of the winter not. We get maybe six inches during the whole winter. (break) ...a lot of land now that's not our land. We are farming a lot of land now that is not our land. We lease it, or do it on shares.

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: In the heavenly planets the woman is described that during summer they are very warm, the body is very warm, er, during summer the body is very cool of the woman, and during winter the body is very warm. That is the nature of the woman in the heavenly planets. And their breast is very, very tight and strongly built. And their youthfulness never diminishes. These are the description of the heavenly woman. Bhāgavata everything is there. Mohinī-mūrti began to play on the balls, and the description of the breast is there and, what is called this portion?

Hari-śauri: Armpit.

Prabhupāda: Armpit. Yes. So she was playing ball one hand and one hand a bunch of hair would become, immediately she was taking care. So with this beauty Lord Śiva become mad. As soon as one man sees the breast and this armpit of young woman, then he is finished. (laughs)

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he and I stay together. We get up at two-thirty in the morning, chant sixteen rounds before ārati, saying Gāyatrī strictly on time, eating very little, and he reads a great deal of the day, two or three hours he reads, and he's also preaching, giving classes.

Prabhupāda: His wife?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She's engaged in taking care of the life members, Indian life members who come, and the guest rooms.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. She is expert. She's very expert. She can do nicely. During winter here it will be so cold you cannot stand even.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: There are not many termites in New York. We are fortunate. In Hawaii there are many termites. But here you don't usually have to protect wood against termites. Here the wintertime kills them. It gets so cold.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, very cold.

Hari-śauri: That kills them.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: And also we have saved some money, we'll buy a temple also in addition to that.

Prabhupāda: No, this is very nice. Dayānanda, do you like it?

Dayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: It is very nice place, private, everything is so nice. In winter, what is the temperature?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Very cold.

Prabhupāda: Very cold.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Devotees: Jaya, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) In the morning we shall go to take my milk from the goat. I'll go early so that I may take the first. And come back, then take my bath early in the morning. I did not take hot water. Cold water. Even in severe winter. Then?

Harikeśa: And one boy called Rādhā-Dāmodara dāsa from New...

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Little cold countries with little care.

Dr. Patel: England?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. We have got tulasī.

Dr. Patel: You may have to keep it in hothouse during winter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We make that arrangement. And what Vivekananda said, that it is better to water eggplant tree. Why tulasī plant? What you will get? Eggplant tree means you'll get some eggplant, begun. (Hindi) This is his culture. Make your body strong and stout by eating meat, and there is nothing to do with the...

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: One guṇḍā is stabbing the other guṇḍā. I have seen. And they are pickpockets. When you are passing they would... I have seen, he is pickpocketing. (laughter) And they were our neighbor men. So I thought "It must be like that. This is going on." But when I came the crossing of Mahatma Gandhi... At that time Harrison Road it was. Harrison Road and Holi..., Holiday, Halliday Street, yes. So one shop was being plundered. Putamat putamat putamat..." So I was child, a boy. I became... "What is this happening?" In the meantime all, my father, mother, members: "Oh, the child has not come." They became so mad, they came out of home expecting, "Wherefrom the child will come?" So what could I do? When I saw, then I began to run towards our house, and one Muhammadan, he wanted to kill me. He took his lāṭhi and actually... But I passed through some way or other. I was saved. So as soon as I came before our gate they got their life. So without speaking anything I went to the bedroom, and it was in the month of... It is winter. So I... Without saying anything I laid down, wrapping myself with quilt. So that time I was rising: "Is it ended? The riot is ended?" I was asking. I remember. So I would have been killed in that riot. So I have got experience of this riot. That is the first riot in Calcutta, in 1911.

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Even the state says "Religion is your private..."

Prabhupāda: Whatever... The rascal says. A rascal says. It is not private. No private-public. It is laws of nature. You have to abide by that. The nature's law is "Now winter. You have to cover your body." There is no second law. So that is wanting, that we are... The present defect is that every one of us under the laws of God or nature, whatever you say. And still, we are declaring independence. This is the defect.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I never used hot water. In India the Delhi is the coldest part. In my business life, in the hotel I was taking cold water. Everyone was surprised. "How you can?" In Saharanpur, in bitter cold, I was taking cold water early in the morning.

Dr. Patel: This will be extreme cold in river. I have taken bath in the confluence four or five years back. It was not winter, but then it was... It is cold throughout the year because snow melt and keep water very cold.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...gentleman will have a flag in the home.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: Is our goal to actually establish Vedic principles back into society again at large?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Of course.

Prabhupāda: That will be Satya-yuga. Again the Vedic principles will be established after finishing this Kali-yuga. And that is Satya-yuga. That is going on. Just after summer, there is winter. There is... After winter, there is summer.

Rāmeśvara: But this is extraordinary. Lord Caitanya's movement, the ten thousand years of His movement, that is a special exception for the Kali-yuga.

Prabhupāda: Special for this millennium. But the thing is going on like that, rotating.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes, to give them direction. It will be very nice. If Paramānanda comes, we can invest money without any hesitation. He has got experience.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, I'll certainly... When Ādi-keśava comes here, I'll be talking to him about this point. He may be able to come in the winter time.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, we can develop farm here also. Farm development is Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Kṛṣṇa is tending cows, and Balarāma is plowing. Therefore the plow and flute, flute for tending cows and plow for agriculture-Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. In Africa also you have got good opportunity for these farm projects.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Why this light does not work?

Hari-śauri: Bulb's blown.

Prabhupāda: Change it.

Bali-mardana: So when you come there the house is waiting. It is very peaceful place for translation, and there's no winter. There is no winter. Seventy-five degrees, wintertime.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bali-mardana: Very nice.

Prabhupāda: And the summer?

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Bali-mardana: Eastern coast of Australia. And it is twenty-five minutes from the airport. So it is very easy to get to. It is right near all of the resorts where the Australians go for going to the beach and vacation during the winter months.

Prabhupāda: One can get good appetite?

Bali-mardana: Oh, yes. Tonight very nice fruits.

Prabhupāda: Nowadays I cannot eat.

Gurukula Inspection -- June 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Dr. Sharma: This? This is south. This is south, this is north, this is east, this is west.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which is east?

Prabhupāda: All right. In winter it will be very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It'll be warm in the winter.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They'll get warmth from it.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That was the atmosphere I had the opportunity to get.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That gentleman who brought you the oils yesterday? He brought another type. I wanted to bring it to you. He said especially during the wintertime it would be good for you. I'll just bring it. (break)

Prabhupāda: Very pet child.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pet child.

Prabhupāda: Whatever I shall want, they will supply. I was not a unwanted child for killing.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So you think over transferring me to Māyāpura.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, actually it's a great pleasure to take you to different places, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and we certainly never find any difficulty in transporting you. I was wondering that... As Vṛndāvana gets quite cold in the winter, I was just wondering how you would be able to pass the winter here, and I was thinking that Māyāpura was a very natural place to go. Now, just now, it is very nice here in Vṛndāvana. Probably for two or three more weeks it's the topmost time. But shortly it will be getting cold.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Māyāpura is wonderful at the winter season.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You get the benefit of the winter sun, which is tremendously healing in its effect.

Prabhupāda: In November, December, January, February.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think you once said to us that if one sits for some time in the winter sun, he'll never get sick.

Prabhupāda: Yes.