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Wonder (Conv. 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"wonder" |"wondered" |"wondering" |"wonders" |"wonderstruck" |"wondrous"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Acyutānanda: How do we know that Vedavyāsa is not defective like other living beings?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Acyutānanda: How do we know that Vedavyasa is not...

Prabhupāda: He is not defective because he is speaking what he has heard from Nārada. Therefore he is not defective. Just like we are speaking. We are not perfect. We are also ordinary human being, but people are taking that "Bhaktivedanta Swami has done wonder." What is that wonder? I am speaking Bhagavad-gītā as it is, that's all.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: He is not defective because he is speaking what he has heard from Nārada. Therefore he is not defective. Just like we are speaking. We are not perfect. We are also ordinary human being, but people are taking that "Bhaktivedanta Swami has done wonder." What is that wonder? I am speaking Bhagavad-gītā as it is, that's all.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: No, how they can? They cannot feed them.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were speaking this morning, Bhavānanda Mahārāja and myself that, we were wondering if we could make like... You know, so many people come here to eat prasādam. On the weekends, at least two to three thousand people come. So we were wondering whether it would be proper to make some kind of propaganda that "If anyone wants to enroll their children here, their young boys in our gurukula, that they can..."

Prabhupāda: So a similar counterpart leaflet you should, that "International Society for Krishna Consciousness, world organization, established by His Divine Grace, and anyone can come here and take foodstuff. We have got arrangement," like this. In suitable words you write and issue another pamphlet.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: And invite anyone who is interested to become devotee. We shall provide place, food, education to the children. In this way make another statement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm just wondering... I was thinking whether we...

Prabhupāda: Without touching them.

Morning Walk -- February 11, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No. Ekādaśī means that, fasting and chanting.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes I'm wondering, because our men have to go out on book distribution.

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is also preaching work. For that purpose you can stop this, but generally, one who has no preaching work, he can chant.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Extra.

Prabhupāda: Extra.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I see.

Morning Walk -- February 12, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, it is not possible to give up authority. That is not possible.

Hṛdayānanda: Your interview, those articles that you had spoken about, against Communism, are very, very brilliant. Actually we were struck with wonder to see the different arguments. Very, very important for South America because there the Communism is popular among the young students.

Prabhupāda: They read it?

Hṛdayānanda: Yes, we just published it in our magazine.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So they like that argument?

Hṛdayānanda: Yes, the argument was so intelligent that no one has ever thought of such intelligent arguments against Communism. Also the article on Freud, I think that book is very, very important. It will actually satisfy the students. No one else would dare to call these people fools. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- February 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Now you can give still cheaper, when you print here.

Acyutānanda: Yes, that is what we were wondering.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Dayānanda: And then they wonder why their sons become hippies and act like monkeys. Even though they are civilized, their sons are acting like monkeys.

Prabhupāda: Actually we are introducing the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement to make the Western people civilized. Yes. So you should take it very seriously and behave with responsibility. If you also want, become again like that, then how you'll be able to preach? Then what is the use of preaching? What is time?

Indian man (1): Six-thirty.

Jayapatākā: (Break) ...process.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Rāmeśvara: That is the capital city of Canada.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Johannesburg. That is wonderful. (break) Stockholm, yes.

Rādhāvallabha: People will wonder when they see all these pictures. You are in half of them.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Actually, he's in all of them.

Prabhupāda: Virginia. Here I did not go.

Rāmeśvara: It's near Washington, D.C.

Prabhupāda: Baltimore.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: "They say." What you say?

Haṁsadūta: We don't know anything. After meeting you, we wonder if we know anything, because we thought the moon was going around the earth.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What shadow is that? The moon casts its own shadow.

Haṁsadūta: That's what they say.

Prabhupāda: They, their explanation is...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Half the moon is in darkness.

Trivikrama: Yeah, the back side.

Prabhupāda: The back side.

Morning Walk -- March 22, 1976, Mayapura:

Devotee: So we should expose these bogus...

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are exposing, that is our business.

Devotee: Actually, by making such wonders they are exposing themselves.

Prabhupāda: That is fact.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Reporter (1): No, sir, I just wanted to ask you...

Prabhupāda: No, no, why wonder? You just try to understand this common sense, that as soon as you go to the street, if the indication is that you must keep your car on the left side and as soon as you go to the right side, you become a criminal immediately. You can say, "What is the wrong? The right side or wrong side, I am driving my car," but it is criminal. You know or not know. Ignorance of law is no excuse. So just similarly there is law of God. So as soon as you violate, you must suffer. You see?

Morning Walk -- April 10, 1976, Vrndavana:

Nalinī-kānta: I've been reading a lot in the different books about envy. You say that people kill cows only out of envy. I was wondering if you could give a definition of what envy is. I don't understand why they would kill animals out of envy.

Prabhupāda: Envy means the cow has got right to live. He does not allow the cow to live. That is envy. You cannot understand this? Suppose you are walking. You have got right to walk, I have got, and if I kill you, you cannot walk. That is envious. Everyone has got right to live. Just like the camel. God has given their food. They are accustomed to eat these thorny twigs. So Kṛṣṇa has given that. Let them eat and live. Why should you interfere with his living condition? (break) Do not interfere with others' right. Why should you? (break) ...think we shall take the car in Bombay?

Recording of TV Interview -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Carol Jarvis: Do you make a lot of money out of the sales of your books, etc.? There is begging in the street each day.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But there are many beggars. They do not get money. We get money. We are not beggars. We are giving books, knowledge. (inserted kīrtana)

Carol Jarvis: I wonder if I could ask you just finally, then, if you have a message.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is the message, that people are under the impression that one is this body, but that is not the fact. The soul, or the man, he is within the body. Just like you are not your, this shirt and coat.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Carol Jarvis: If I could use the example, perhaps, of your temple, which has a lot of very rich material things in it. I wonder what significance that plays in your spiritual life.

Prabhupāda: So what do you mean by spiritual and material? Do you know the distinction? Then I'll show you spiritual. And do you know?

Carol Jarvis: Well, the material...

Prabhupāda: I say that in the temple there is nothing material, all spiritual, but you have no eyes to see to it.

Carol Jarvis: I wonder if you could lead an equal sort of life without the richness of the temple.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can do. You can live at your home like us. We are giving the example. You can live also like that. That is spiritual life. If you follow the same rules and regulation and live like that, that is spiritual life.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Carol Jarvis: I wonder if I could ask you just finally, then, if you have a message.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is the message, that people are under the impression that one is this body, but that is not the fact. The soul, or the man, he is within the body. Just like you are not your, this shirt and coat. You are within the shirt and coat. Similarly, the living entity, the living being, is within this body, the gross body and the subtle body. The subtle body is composed of mind, intelligence and ego, and the gross body is a composition of these material things, earth, water, air, fire, like that, five elements. Altogether, eight elements. This is inferior energy. And the superior energy is within these eight elements, five gross and three subtle. So we have to study about that thing. Just like I asked that boy that "You can manufacture a huge machine, flying in the sky, 747, but why don't you manufacture the pilot?"

Carol Jarvis: Thank you.

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Kim āścāryam ataḥ param.

ahany ahani lokāni
gacchanti yama-mandiram
śeṣaḥ sthitam icchanti
kim āścāryam ataḥ param
That is the eighth wonder. (break)

Guru-kṛpā: ...yesterday that in India even a simple village man, he has no material affluence, and still he can understand he is not this body. But here they are big, big learned philosophers and they cannot understand the first thing.

Prabhupāda: But how they received, eh? You were present. They came to receive: "Oh, it is our great fortune you have come." And in your country, it is trespassing.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Guest (2): ...interesting. I see Elder Forester(?) in myself. We feel that we're called to God through a living prophet ourselves. And our feeling is in our own hearts we feel that we have a living feeling in what we call a testimony of Christ. And we feel that he is our savior and that he did atone for the sins of the world. And we were wondering what your feelings were about this.

Prabhupāda: Our feeling is direct, carrying the orders of God. The direct orders are there, and we have to carry. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam (CC Madhya 19.167), favorably to carry out the order of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means God.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: That is wanted. We obey the orders of Christ—we think of always—then we are perfect. Either Christ, the son of God, or God, Kṛṣṇa, the same thing. God and son of God, they are not different.

Guest (3): We were wondering if we could give you a personal gift that means a lot to us. We've got a Book of Mormon with us, and I don't know if you have one.

Prabhupāda: No.

Guest (3): But we feel that it's a scripture written by ancient people who lived in the South and Central American continents from the years 600 B.C. to A.D. 400. And we thought that this was kind of a special opportunity, and we didn't know if you had one. And we were wondering if we could leave you one.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can leave.

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti na cejyayā nirvapaṇād...

Guru-kṛpā: That is our wonder, how Your Divine Grace has attained such a perfectional stage.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The conclusion was that only by the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee. (break)

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: They sent (indistinct), Bhagavad-gītā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes I wonder that—of course we want our books to be translated by our own men—but in the absence of sufficient translators...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) ...that thing you see that er, our men means they know the philosophy. Otherwise they do not know, that is the difficulty.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Reporter: I wonder if you can tell me a little bit about your routine. I understand that you only sleep about two or three hours a day. And do you usually sleep during the middle of the daytime as well?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Daytime I sleep two hours, and night also two hours.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Reporter: I'd like to ask one.... Is your role in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in the United States particularly or worldwide? Ten years ago, when you first came to the United States, did you take a very active role in the organization, and I'm wondering whether you do much of that now?

Prabhupāda: No, although the volume of work has.... (break) ...a hundred times, but these American disciples, they are helping me, so I haven't got to work personally so much. I simply give the instruction and they carry out, but the work has increased voluminously, there's no doubt it. I came here alone in 1965 without any help practically. Where to live, where to sleep, there was no destination. Sometimes some friend's house, sometimes some friend's house, practically loitering on the street. And in this way were passed more than one year. I arrived here in 1965 in September, end of September, 17th of September, in Boston. Hm. Is it Boston?

Devotee (1): Yes, Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Reporter: I wonder if you might have any opinions on some of the leaders of cults and groups in the United States, such as the Divine Light Mission, or the T.M. and so forth. I'm wondering if you have any opinions on Guru Maharaj-ji or Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Prabhupāda: There are different groups. I know that. But I do not go in detail to understand them. But our..., we have got a crucial test. That anyone who is..., does not know about Kṛṣṇa, he is put into four different types of categories as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. One category is that he is sinful. Another category is that he is rascal. Another category is that he's lowest of the mankind. Another category is that his so-called knowledge is taken away by illusory energy. So this is our test.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Reporter: When I interviewed you perhaps five or six years ago, it was before there were reports of the astronauts landing on the moon, and I asked you at that time if you thought, what you thought about it, and you said that, as I recall, that they would not be able to land or explore, because spirits or creatures that lived on the moon would not allow it. The reports of course said that indeed people did land and explore and return safely. I understand you have further thoughts about that (laughter) and you've even written a lot about it. I wonder if you could tell me, not at great length perhaps, but what your belief about those events is.

Prabhupāda: Yes. From the.... That question I was discussing the other day. In the common sense, gross sense, that all over the world, they accept Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, in this way Saturday last. So why these arrangement? Sunday first and Monday second, and nobody could reply it. But as a layman I can conclude that Sun planet is first and the moon planet is next. So if you cannot go to the sun planet, which is ninety-three million miles away, how you can go to the moon planet within four days? Nobody could answer me.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Reporter: Well, I don't think it's worth the answer now, but I'm wondering what your response is.

Prabhupāda: But this is the arrangement all over the world. Sunday first, Monday second, then Tuesday. So Sun, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, in this way. Last Saturn. This is the arrangement of the planets. So if this is the arrangement of the planets, moonday next to..., moon next to sun, and if you cannot go to the sun, how can you go to the moon?

Reporter: Do you, in other words, do you believe that astronauts landed somewhere?

Prabhupāda: That is next question. First of all, whether you actually went to the moon, that is the first question. You have to conclude that you did not, because the sun planet is first, the moon planet is second. You cannot go to the sun planet, ninety-three millions of miles, how can you go to the moon planet?

Reporter: Well, except that...

Prabhupāda: According to our śāstra, the moon planet is above the sun planet, and the distance is 1,600,000 miles. So accepting that the sun is 93,000,000 miles away, then you add another 1,600,000, almost 2,000,000, it becomes 15,000,000 miles away. So if you go at the speed of 18,000 miles per hour, it takes more than 6 months. So how you go there in 4 days? And you advertise in the paper: "Now, they have reached." After 4 days.

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

Nalinīkaṇṭha: In the West, people are generally unfamiliar, I think, with the philosophy of Śaṅkara, yet in your books you devote so much argument to defeating Māyāvāda philosophy. I was wondering if it is within every conditioned soul's heart to be an impersonalist. Is it.... Does every conditioned soul have the propensity for impersonalism?

Prabhupāda: No, they cannot understand God; therefore it is impersonalism. It is due to their poor fund of knowledge. So most people are in poor fund of knowledge.

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

Prabhupāda: Apart from me, even one sees Kṛṣṇa.... There were so many. But it is said that in the battlefield, everyone who died seeing Kṛṣṇa, he got liberation.

Candanācārya: You once said if someone sees saṅkīrtana and wonders "Who are those people?" then they are ten times more advanced than the greatest scientist.

Prabhupāda: Yes. What is our test? Just explain. In the morning...

Hari-śauri: Oh. Prabhupāda was explaining to the reporters yesterday, one man was asking what Prabhupāda's opinion was about these other yogis. So he said, he quoted a verse in the Bhagavad-gītā that if someone does not know Kṛṣṇa, then he's either a fool, or he's a rascal or he's the lowest of mankind, or his knowledge is...

Prabhupāda: Most sinful.

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Is there water? Bring it. Hmm, yes?

Arnold Weiss: The mind questions some of these things, and these questions kind of flow naturally, and one wonders why the structure of the universe or of the world has been made in such a fashion that it takes a great deal of misery and difficulty for us to turn towards God.

Prabhupāda: Because he doesn't want to turn towards God.

Arnold Weiss: Because we don't want to?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like God says that "You surrender unto Me." And who is going to surrender? He says clearly, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), and who is doing that? So why he'll not suffer? He must suffer.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Hari-śauri: Yes, that's what he was wondering, whether the spirit soul leaves the atom to take another higher body.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is always.... Transmigration means going on, simply changing.

Rāmeśvara: Is that counted as one of the 8,400,000 species? Is the atom counted among the different species?

Prabhupāda: Atom is not manifested. May be one of the species, but the total is 8,400,000. What is the difference between the small atom and this body? The same thing, material. It's very small; it is a little bigger. That's all. And similarly, the universe is still bigger. After all, it is matter.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: It is written in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that when Lord Caitanya entered this universe, the entire universe was blessed, or benefited. So I'm wondering how Lord Caitanya's movement is going on on other planets other than this planet. Is there some organized saṅkīrtana?

Prabhupāda: Yes. How other planetary system is going on, you do not know, but we can guess it is going on like this. Anumāna. Pratyakṣa anumāna. One thing is direct perception, another by guessing. Pratyakṣa anumāna and śabda and śruti, aitihya. There are so many evidences.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: ...surprised that you have written so many books. They cannot understand how you could write so much. They wonder whether you were a great Sanskrit scholar for many years, so they try to guess. They just can't imagine anyone writing so much.

Prabhupāda: We are exceeding all material authors except Vyāsadeva.

Rāmeśvara: Vyāsadeva.

Prabhupāda: One book, seventeen volumes, Caitanya-caritāmṛta. That is also.... So many, our Godbrothers, attempted.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: They wonder where you have made the time to study so much about ancient Indian culture that you could write so much. They cannot understand that. They read.... There is a biography of Your Divine Grace in the Bhāgavatam, that mentions different things, and they just can't understand how you could know so much. It is beyond material...

Prabhupāda: One young man in Tokyo or some airport, very nice young man. He came. I was sitting. "Swamiji, can I talk with you?" "Yes." So, "I have seen your photograph. Where you have got so much vast knowledge?" (laughs) And I..., "It is not my knowledge; it is Vyāsadeva's knowledge." So his first question was, intelligent boy.

Room Conversation with Mother and Sons -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Mother: I read so much, you know, and I have four children—(indistinct) doesn't live at home—and I read so much that people probably wonder how I get my work done. But it gets done. (Prabhupāda chuckles). And it's like I'm in another world. It's really great. I had a dream about you, Prabhupāda. And I dreamed.... This is a dream that's coming true. But you didn't acknowledge me because I didn't say "Kṛṣṇa." (Prabhupāda laughs) And then when I give in, you did, and you asked me what I knew about Kṛṣṇa, and I didn't answer you because I didn't want to display my ignorance.

Prabhupāda: Very good. You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be one of our members. Your son is also very good. Mother good, son good. According to our Indian estimate, son acquires the quality of mother and the daughter acquires the quality of the father.

Room Conversation with Ambarisa and Catholic Priest -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Ambarīṣa: The temple is only one block away. We were wondering, should we offer the food to the Deities in the temple or should we offer it in the restaurant?

Prabhupāda: Better in the restaurant.

Ambarīṣa: Better in the restaurant. Yes, that is a little easier also.

Prabhupāda: They must know that they're eating prasādam.

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Makhanlāl: In the Upadeśāmṛta, in the eleventh verse, it says that if one takes his bath even once in the Rādhākuṇḍa he immediately awakens his love for Kṛṣṇa. I was wondering, some of those who have had the opportunity to take bath in Rādhākuṇḍa, it seems though it may take some time. I was wondering, is that because we don't see time in the proper perspective?

Prabhupāda: Why do you go to Rādhākuṇḍa? Unless there is some awakening of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Scheverman: I was wondering if you had some plan, some thoughts in the way in which we could mutually cooperate for the...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. There is plan. Now suppose if I say "Let us create some peaceful man," so who will disagree with this? I don't say everyone will be peaceful, but some of them can be trained up. Some of them can be trained up courageous in battle. We have to select by practical psychology what is the tendency.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Kathy Kerr: Umm, I was wondering what brings you to Canada right now. Is it some particular occasion you're...

Prabhupāda: You can answer all these questions.

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, in that story, the cobbler actually was more advanced than the brāhmaṇa, and yet in Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa explains that "Anyone can approach Me, even the strī śūdra dvija bandhu," they can all approach the supreme destination. Then in the next verse he says "How much greater, then, are the brāhmaṇas, the righteous, the devotees, the saintly kings." I was wondering how are they greater?

Prabhupāda: You do not understand it?

Devotee (1): I do not understand how they are greater than the lower person who surrenders.

Prabhupāda: Suppose you have got your spiritual master and you, if somebody says that you can come into the..., any one of you can come in this car. So spiritual master goes, you also go. Does it mean that spiritual master is not greater than you? Do you think like that?

Devotee (1): No.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Viśākhā was wondering who..., if you have any idea or choice who should do the Hindi translation or Bengali translation and speaking for the film like this. Did you have anyone in particular in mind, or inquiry should be made?

Prabhupāda: It requires some professional man. Laymen cannot go with the film.

Interview with Mike Darby -- June 30, 1976, Wheeling, W. Virginia:

Darby: But I have never heard anything of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta, and I wondered if you would tell me a little bit about him, if you would.

Prabhupāda: What shall I say? He was my spiritual master, and whatever he taught, we are speaking, that's all. We don't talk any nonsense.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Pradyumna: They are all wondering what your secret is. They always wonder, they cannot understand.

Prabhupāda: All the yogis, svāmīs are there. How it is possible? The Ramakrishna Mission, they are working here for the last hundred years. What they have done? If they had actually preached something, so so many American boys and gentlemen are coming to our temple, we cannot give them place. We have to find out some other, and who is going to the Ramakrishna temple?

Pradyumna: They have empty house.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But we were wondering whether that is reasonable.

Prabhupāda: Reasonable? Yes. It is given in Upaniṣads and Padma Purāṇa, authorized.

Rūpānuga: It's just that this one ten-thousandth tip of hair has no material quality. It is nonphysical but still can be measured.

Prabhupāda: Nonphysical... Just like axiomatic truth point has no length, no breadth, but it has length and breadth. You cannot measure it.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Vṛṣākapi: To be able to be so fooled, that is the greatest wonder, how it's so obvious that there's a creator, but yet one can say there is no creator.

Prabhupāda: That is foolishness. That we are protesting, that "You rascal, you stop this nonsense talking." There is son and there is mother; there must be father. This is conclusion. And "I do not see father. I do not see that." But without father, how there can be son? This is intelligence.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda, is that example also given in the Bhāgavatam? Frog in the well? Sometimes you use all these different examples, and they are all there in the Bhāgavatam. I was just wondering if this frog in the well was also there.

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: You use very graphic examples; they're very perfect.

Prabhupāda: No, my Guru Mahārāja used to use to place so many examples, (laughs) I do not know all of them. No, there is a book, Nyāya-śāstra, logic. You'll find all these things.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Sadāpūta: We were wondering about those strata. We were wondering if maybe those could be masses of sediment deposited...

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, the side height of the strata is the same for miles together. As if somebody very intelligently laid down.

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Sadāpūta: I was wondering, perhaps these periods that they have here correspond with some of these floods, like this is between two Manus and there is a flood of the whole world, and that might pile up a huge layer of mud and rock. And I was thinking that might correspond with some of these layers here because they are filled with remains of fish that look as though they were buried, things like that.

Prabhupāda: That is also imagination. Again you are bringing imagination, speculation.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So actually it's very subtle and critical.

Prabhupāda: As soon as you bring your imaginations, they'll bring their own imagination.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Dr. Sukla: Therefore you are doing so with tremendous success.

Prabhupāda: Yes, people say that "Swamiji, you have done wonder, you have..." so on, so on, so on. But I do not know what is wonder. I know it is certain that I have not adulterated. That much I know. But I do not know how to play wonders. That I do not know. But I am certain that I have not adulterated what Kṛṣṇa has said. That's all. And I study everything by the crucial test of Kṛṣṇa's teaching. That's all.

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

Sadāpūta: We were wondering then if also it could produce matter, instead of taking from the earth and rearranging it.

Prabhupāda: No, earth is the source of everything. Sarva-kāma-dughā mahī, you get from... Actually you are getting all chemicals from the earth.

Rūpānuga: So they are already there.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Every, always happening. Nature's law is going on.

Sadāpūta: Yes. So what I was wondering, is like earth still being manifested in living bodies from sound and so on, like the chemists...

Prabhupāda: No, no. The process is going on. I've described. That is going on.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Hari-śauri: Is that, cutting the cake, is that a Vedic..., did they used to do that in Vedic times, or is that a Western invention? We were just wondering about it.

Prabhupāda: Prasāda distribution. Either you cut or take with hand, the same thing. It doesn't make any difference.

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

Prabhupāda: Leaders?

Hari-śauri: She's wondering whether you met with any political leaders.

Prabhupāda: No. I have no interest with the political leaders because it is not a political movement. It is spiritual movement.

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

Prabhupāda: Why? Gurukula school? We are training children from the very beginning of life to understand spiritual importance of life.

Hari-śauri: She's wondering why we moved from Texas.

Prabhupāda: We have... No, we have got there.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We have, have got our school there. We have about seven or eight schools now all throughout America. We've actually expanded.

Janice Johnson: But wasn't that school moved to India?

Prabhupāda: No, it is maintained, not in large scale, but in small scale.

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

Rūpānuga: That's what Śrīla Prabhupāda said, "In Scientific Knowledge." I was wondering, if this, is this, sa, mean "in"?

Prabhupāda: No, sa means "with."

Rūpānuga: "With scientific." Would it be improper to say Vijñāna only? Would that be improper? I was thinking in terms of making the title as short as possible. Vijñānam or sa-vijñānam, both nice, but I was thinking...

Prabhupāda: Sa-vijñāna is more important. Vijñānam means theoretical. And sa-vijñāna means practical.

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

Sadāpūta: There was one thing I was wondering a little bit. Is the possibility of..., is it possible of making some experiments which would tend to indicate that life is not material? And this might be appealing to some of the people with scientific education, because they are used to such things, experiments.

Prabhupāda: No, experiment is there. Just like in... Hindus, we burn the body into ashes. How the soul is transmigrating? This is scientific experiment. The Bhagavad-gītā says nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Everyone is seeing the body is burned into ashes, but still, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). He's going to another body. How it is going? So the soul is not burned.

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

Sadāpūta: We were wondering... We knew that, for example, Jagadisha Chandra Bose did some experiments indicating plants having consciousness. We were wondering if some things of that kind might be of some use.

Prabhupāda: So in the Calcutta there is Bose Institute, you can go and see. They have got all machine, how the plants are feeling. Everything is there.

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

Prabhupāda: Our interviewer came.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was telling me that he was planning to make thousands of men, convert thousands of Indians. I was wondering, if thousands of Indians join us, how will the government feel?

Prabhupāda: They cannot check.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really, they won't stop us.

Prabhupāda: If they want to stop it, it will increase.

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Guest (1): May I ask a question, Prabhupāda? Something that I've wondered about, perhaps you could explain it briefly. I believe that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme God, so don't get me wrong, but since you mentioned Christ, was he an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa? Was Jesus Christ sent here by Kṛṣṇa from...

Prabhupāda: He says that he is son of God; that is accepted.

Guest (1): Kṛṣṇa was Christ's father then.

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa is father, and Christ is the son.

Guest (1): I understand it now. I just wondered.

Prabhupāda: He said "I am son of God." Yes.

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Spiritual life is never retired. It is eternal. There is no question of retire.

Interviewer: I was wondering whether perhaps you would personally take a less active role.

Prabhupāda: No, I am not taking any very great active part. They are doing. I am simply reading.

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda is saying that the disciples are working so hard.

Interviewer: Oh, I see.

Rāmeśvara: But I was explaining to her that you are traveling all over the world, visiting your centers, and at the same time writing so many books.

Prabhupāda: That may be lessened. That may be lessened, but that does not mean retirement.

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: I was wondering if he had a successor to do... Do you have a successor to take your place when you die?

Prabhupāda: Not yet settled up. Not yet settled up.

Interviewer: So what process would the Hare Kṛṣṇas...?

Prabhupāda: We have got secretaries. They are managing.

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that translation, the book, will speak how I have translated.

Interviewer: Um hm. I was wondering...

Prabhupāda: You read the books, Then you'll understand. Instead of asking me, you better read the books. That is real understanding.

Interviewer: I was just wondering how he personally got interested or involved, and what his route to his consciousness was.

Rāmeśvara: I see. She's asking about your relationship with your Guru Mahārāja, how you became inspired to start the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and write so many books.

Prabhupāda: These things you can answer. It is not very important things for public.

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

Prabhupāda: Thank you. Sit down. You have seen our books?

Interviewer: Yes, I have. You translated all of those. (pause) (break) ...I wonder if you could tell me how you came to founding the movement here in the United States.

Prabhupāda: I was ordered by my spiritual master to do this work, so on his order I came in 1965. That is the beginning of this. I came alone with no help, no money. Somehow or other (laughs) I started.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: Many people say that members of the International Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Society are being cut off from work in the world and therefore their contributions to the world are being lost to the world and I wondered how you felt about that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But they have misunderstood.

Interviewer: That is true?

Prabhupāda: Misunderstood.

Interviewer: Misunderstood.

Prabhupāda: The difficulty is they do not understand on which platform we are working.

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

Prabhupāda: Anyway, you go on chanting. That will influence. There is a poetry written by, I think in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Rupa Gosvāmī is wondering, "I do not know what sweetness there is in these two words, Kṛṣ-ṇa."

Gurudāsa: The verse starts with priya, "dear."

Prabhupāda: Varna-dvayī. You remember this verse? No jane, "What kind of nectar it is there in these two words, Kṛṣ-ṇa?" You have seen Deity today? No, it was closed.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Devotee (1): But now I'm wondering how this should be managed, who should take charge of this project.

Prabhupāda: No, we can send some men from India. Bangkok is not far away from India. If we get a living place, then we can find out. When there are rice thrown, the crows will come. If there is no rice, how the crows will come? This is the philosophy. (laughter) If there is living place, then many crows will come.

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

Translator: He's wondering, he's convinced about Kṛṣṇa consciousness himself, but he is wondering why in a country or a continent like Africa, which is not so scientifically or technologically developed...

Prabhupāda: There is no need of.

Translator: There is no need. So he is wondering why we only have two temples in Africa. Is it because...

Prabhupāda: Because language difficulty.

Meeting with Italian Printer -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: No, no, I'm not tired

Translator: He says he has very much appreciation for all that we're doing here, for all of our activities, but he's wondering what is the actual freedom we're getting from all these activities, what is the actual goal, and what is the freedom we derive from doing these activities?

Prabhupāda: So, explain what is the goal.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Bhūgarbha: He feels that the French public is very demanding in questions of editing and writing, and he feels that the French that's used in our translations should not, he said, smell of English. Sometimes French translations seem like English written in French. He said those should be in perfect French, and that in the French language there's a need to make things more compact and condensed. He's wondering if we can condense them more than in English.

Prabhupāda: So one of us who knows French nicely, he can do that. But there is no difference. They are taking the ideas from English and translating.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Bhūgarbha: He's asking that since he first read the Gītā when he was very young, since that time he's been trying to compact paths of jñāna and bhakti and follow the teachings of all the great religions. And he's wondering if he should continue on that same path.

Prabhupāda: No, jñāna means that to understand the Absolute Truth. If you do not understand the Absolute Truth, what is the meaning of this jñāna? That means knowledge is imperfect. But if you want to know the Absolute Truth, ultimately, then bhakti is required. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). If you want to know the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Being, then you have to go through bhakti. Jñāna, so-called jñāna, bhakti includes. Just like bhakti includes everything, but jñāna does not include bhakti. It is imperfect.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda was wondering if you had any questions.

Ali: All right. I was thinking about the material platform that you mentioned last night, and I could not figure out how vast this platform is, what does it consist of, how do we define this platform. Is nature materialism? I mean, there are many things which are obvious, such as money, greed, etc. But how about nature, love?

Prabhupāda: We have got three platforms, generally. Material platform divided into two-gross and subtle, and there is spiritual platform. The body is material platform, divided into two, gross and subtle. And then if you are fortunate enough to come to the spiritual platform, then your life is successful. So the karmīs generally... Just like we see in the city, they are all busy, working very hard. They are on the gross material platform. And then next class, just like scientist, poet, philosopher, they are in the subtle platform. And above them, there are persons who are simply interested in spiritual understanding. They are on the spiritual platform.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Per day. So there is no scarcity of money. A business started with forty rupees bringing six lakhs daily, it is not ordinary business.

Indian man: Most extraordinary. Everybody wondering that only, how it has been done.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is giving. I never thought my books will be sold as much. I never... Neither in the history of human society religious books sell six lakhs of rupees daily.

Indian man: It has never happened.

Prabhupāda: And it is selling where? Where they are not Hindus.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Pālikā was just wondering if you wanted anything tonight.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If she can... She can make little vegetable, potato, tomato.

Hari-śauri: Puris?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Or one paraṭā. One paraṭā.

Hari-śauri: Just potatoes and tomato?

Prabhupāda: Yes, tomato, potato, one vegetable.

Room Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, when they come to sense they feel grateful. As dogs they cannot. As dog or monkey they cannot enhance their sinful activities. It is stopped. And whatever they do, that is not taken into account. And to suffer as dog or monkey means counteracting all previous sins. One punishment finished. Then he's fully liberated.

Harikeśa: I was always wondering that if somebody's desire is to commit sinful activities...

Prabhupāda: No, in Kali-yuga if you desire it is not sinful.

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So, everything is all right now?

Dhanañjaya: So I was wondering...

Prabhupāda: Can you come, there... (break) There are, what is called, Deity makers here?

Dhanañjaya: Well, most of the Deities, they are cast in Aligarh.

Prabhupāda: Aligarh? Oh.

Dhanañjaya: Yes. Then they're brought here and there is, craftsmen, they finish. They polish then they add...

Prabhupāda: So who is from Aligarh? You go to we have got a best friend in Aligarh.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...position. It is not a good position.

Hari-śauri: No, it's not very clear. I was just wondering who the other two were.

Prabhupāda: I took sannyāsa from him.

Hari-śauri: Who is that?

Prabhupāda: Sannyāsa has to be taken from a sannyāsī, so I took sannyāsa from him.

Hari-śauri: Yes, I was wondering what his name was.

Prabhupāda: Oh, his name is Keśava Mahārāja. He's one of the Godbrothers. He's also one of my Godbrothers.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: I was just wondering what exactly the League of Devotees was.

Prabhupāda: Oh, League was that, that was... I was trying to collect some devotees. Some of them, they were medical... Yes. Medical students. So they came and used to live with me. But still, I lived there for two years. From 1954 to '56. I had some surgical operation in my testicles there. They were taking care. This Prabhākāra and... They were not full time. They were students. That's all. They were living with me.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Well, It's because of these things, that they're wondering well then, what do we do with the money?

Prabhupāda: We spend for Kṛṣṇa. Just like spending it, lakhs of rupees in Bombay for Kṛṣṇa.

Hari-śauri: Yeah, I agree.

Prabhupāda: Every month.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Therefore I recited also (indistinct). It is the real utilization of every education.

Dr. Kneupper: Right. But the Bhagavad-gītā is very wonder... It's... Since I first read it it's been one of my favorite...

Prabhupāda: You are reading?

Dr. Kneupper: Yes, I... I try to read it frequently, because it gives me some real spiritual...

Prabhupāda: And if you want to know further, you can write to me.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Amogha-līlā: I heard that you had quoted a saying that anyone who goes to Laṅkā becomes a Rāvaṇa, and that similarly, when the devotees come to India, they become Rāvaṇa. I wonder if you would explain that or elaborate or explain how we can avoid this sort of thing happening. (break)

Prabhupāda: Ask the leaders! I was talking that in all our other branches, our men manage the cooking and kitchen and as soon as they come here, they become varalasai. (?) That is Rāvaṇa. Why do they not do here? We have to keep some cook who is neither initiated, nor very clean, a smoker, and we have to keep them. (break) In all other branches, the boys and girls, they manage everything.

Room Conversation with Fate -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No longer spoken? Why?

Rādhā-vallabha: I was just wondering about that myself. No longer spoken on the earth?

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is spoken in India. There are many scholars who speak Sanskrit. In Europe also.

Rādhā-vallabha: So we should just say, "Five thousand years ago in a language called Sanskrit."

Prabhupāda: Which is still continuing, but in a limited circle.

Room Conversation -- December 28, 1976, Bombay:

Rādhā-vallabha: When we reprint the Kṛṣṇa Book trilogy this year, the hardbound, I was wondering, could we put more pictures in the second and third volumes? Not changing, but additional.

Prabhupāda: Why increase cost?

Rādhā-vallabha: I don't think it would be that much. The first volume has over sixty pictures and the second one only has thirty-two and the third only has twenty-four. Anyway, anything we do will increase the cost but not so significant. Few cents. We were thinking that the Kṛṣṇa Books were originally printed many many years ago and since then we have a lot of nice paintings of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes that we could put in.

Prabhupāda: If you can give without increasing price, there is no harm. Or for this cents. Let us.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Without...

Dr. Patel: That is the wonder of biology and science. That is why we wonder how great God has made the creation. That is where we feel the presence of God, or the real scientist. (break)

Prabhupāda: They believe. Some rascals, they say there is no God.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And they are democratic. It can pull down even a President like Nixon. So if they like, if the majority becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, they can make Kṛṣṇa conscious government. There is no, I mean to say, wonder in it. So anyway, because these youngsters in the Western countries, both in Europe and America, are taking... And the recent telegram we have received... Just see how many books we have sold. (aside:) Make it little less.

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

Rāmeśvara: That's what I'm wondering. I was thinking that it wouldn't be. There would be...

Jagadīśa: Otherwise how can we get through? What is the use of having one politician?

Rāmeśvara: Many revolutions have been victorious with a very small minority of people behind them because they're so well organized. Russia, Germany, all these revolutions.

Prabhupāda: That's a fact.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: Now you're not speaking in the evening, so the devotees were wondering if there was a class in the morning.

Prabhupāda: They want? No.

Hari-śauri: Anybody want a class in the morning? (laughter) Yes, everybody wants.

Devotee: But not if it's uncomfortable.

Hari-śauri: But only as far as it's convenient to you.

Prabhupāda: I shall speak in the evening.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa's plan.

Rāmeśvara: ...effect. By just your coming to America, the whole place is transformed. Sometimes we think that when you look at these dates that Lord Caitanya came to the world, it coincides with a period in the Western world called the Renaissance. During this period of the Renaissance there was the highest development of art and literature and so many other cultural things. So we sometimes wonder there must be some...

Prabhupāda: Does it mean that before that, the Europeans were uncivilized?

Rāmeśvara: They were, actually considered themselves to be in the Dark Ages. They call it the Dark Ages. And then, all of a sudden, there was what they call the Renaissance, where man's intelligence became greater, expanded. He became interested in finer things.

Prabhupāda: Not man, but the Westerners.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, Westerners.

Prabhupāda: Intelligent stock was there in India,

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Gurukṛpā: They usually argue that "Well, you see we have made so many big machines and done so many material wonders."

Prabhupāda: What is wonder? This is wonder for you, rascal. We see you are as good as dog. The dog with his four legs is running. He has no looseness. But your machine is now loose. Now you cannot go. This is your progress. A dog with four legs, he will immediately, immediately go, and now you have to wait. This is your progress, less than the dog. When there is dog race... We are going in the car, and dog is running after. We see sometimes. We see, "Oh, dog is running. You cannot have a car." Dog is free to run. You are not free to run, rascal. As soon as there is little looseness, dog will go hundred miles away from you. And you'll sit down here and cry. This is your progress. That race, you know? Tortoise?

Hari-śauri: The tortoise and the hare.

Prabhupāda: Tortoise and?

Satsvarūpa: Rabbit.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Sometimes it may be fact. There is no wonder. But we have to proceed with the figure. If I dream that I am getting one lakh of rupees, so it is better if I get five rupees in figure. Is that all right?

Pṛthu-putra: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Simply dreaming I am getting one lakh of rupees, that is good, or actually, if you get five rupees, that is good? Which is good?

Pṛthu-putra: To get the actual five rupees.

Prabhupāda: So don't depend on the subtle thing. See practically what you are getting.

Room Conversation -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

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 -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: Sometimes, when they are making their statements, we wonder how they can be so unintelligent, how they can be so mistaken as to what is the goal of this movement.

Prabhupāda: So you explain. Then Kṛṣṇa can do.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. They have got duplicate key. They can take.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's wondering about his Deities. I told him that the Deities are supposed to be ready by Gaura Pūrṇimā. You gave that time limit. He wanted to know what the size was and how many. So I knew there was Kāliya-Kṛṣṇa and four nāga-patnīs and Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Lalitā and Viśākhā and, I think I told him Gaura-Nitāi, Guru-Gaurāṅga, Gaura-Nitāi, and your deity and your Guru Mahārāja's deity. That makes thirteen. Prabhupāda: So they are preparing? Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think. Yes, they were told.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Ādi-keśava: So I was wondering if you think this is a good tactic.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, very good tactic.

Ādi-keśava: Because it makes big news.

Prabhupāda: If they give asylum in India, that is very good.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: So I'm wondering what is the best way to influence them in our trial.

Prabhupāda: They will not. Because our all men are coming from middle class, so they are already against us because their sons have joined. How they can be in our favor?

Ādi-keśava: I don't see any way. (Prabhupāda chuckles) We go to the court and the judges always say...

Prabhupāda: But there are many fathers and mothers, they have... Mothers, they have appreciated our... So as far as possible, take... But because they are concerned, they have lost their children—they are against us. So you want that one... Tripurāri is sufficient?

Ādi-keśava: I think so. He is very good.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Ādi-keśava: I was wondering, I've been... While in New York I've been worshiping the Deities, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, but now, because of this case, I'm forced to travel more between some of the temples and because of the legal work. So I was thinking to take some Deities with me to worship wherever I go.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Sannyāsī is not required.

Ādi-keśava: All right.

Bhakti-caru(?): Are there any mūrti, having?

Prabhupāda: No. A sannyāsī's not required. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when he was traveling, He was not carrying any Deity. Deity worship is specially recommended for the gṛhasthas. That is compulsory.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Sometimes people ask whether I have seen anything very powerful in Śrīla Prabhupāda. I sometimes answer, saying that when Śrīla Prabhupāda came to the United States, all the foreign disciples, all the Americans, they all because of their social structure, eating all kinds of things, but they are all now pure Vaiṣṇavas. So it is the greatest wonder that one can expect. So they become very silent, just hearing the answer, seeing that there is something very powerful.

Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all they admitted in that Voice, that "We thought God is dead. Here Swamiji has brought." They admitted like that. (break) ...wife, she is also coming from very respectable family. Her father, grandfather all... Doctor had big...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Allahabad. Dr. Ghosh.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Director of... (break) So arrange for that. (break) ...part of the country where there is vigorous malaria.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Left eye. (about massage?) (some quiet laughter)

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, for this GBC meeting, I understand one of topics will be to discuss some things about Back to Godhead. So I wasn't here when you gave your instructions. So I was wondering if you could give me some idea what you want done, so I can also think about how to improve the magazine. Something is wrong in the magazine?

Prabhupāda: That...

Rāmeśvara: A few things in this last issue.

Prabhupāda: The thing is that you should not change abruptly without any sanction.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Asa-prāya(?) That is ha... He should not become more learned than the authority. That is very bad habit.

Rādhā-vallabha: He was always wondering how he should think. So I'll tell him that. He thinks, "If I think I see a mistake, what should I think?" I'll tell him what you just said.

Prabhupāda: He cannot see mistake. He is mistake. (laughter) He should... That is being done by this rascal. I don't want. And the Hayagrīva has..., the Easy Journey, he has changed so many things. That... He is now bad character. You should not maintain him.

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we were wondering that one time when you were ill in Vṛndāvana you requested that the devotees in our temples around the world could chant kīrtana all the time, twenty-four hours, till you recovered your health. So the GBC was wondering whether we could request again for that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Scientists, Svarupa Damodara, and Dr. Sharma -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) It is better late than never. (Hindi) We are sending our men from village to village. Not only here, also in the European countries.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, one of our basic points is that we are not this body but we are actually soul. So I would wonder how Dr. Sharma, he is a specialist in, I think, cardiology...

Dr. Sharma: Cardiac surgery.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we say that the soul is in the heart. So how can we convince the other doctors, for example, of the presence of the soul within the body and especially within the heart?

Prabhupāda: They do not know that the soul is there. Because they have misunderstood. So when the soul goes away, they think their heart has pain. Material cause. They do not know because the soul has left, the heart is not working. They take it on the other way, that because the heart is not working, therefore he's lying down.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is said in Hong Kong, somewhere. People were astonished. Nobody said like that. And this is the fact.

Guest (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, I have small request. I have a friend who is M.D., and he is doing research in Hyderabad. He is about eighty-three years old. So I was just wondering whether you would like to meet him some time for consultation.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Guest (1): He had done translation of Suśruta-saṁhitā from Sanskrit to English in six volumes, and he has established one Ayurvedic college and other things in Jahmnedabad about thirty years ago. He is a very personal friend of our life member Sanat Bhatai or (indistinct), who are expert in income tax. They are handling our income tax matters. He's a senior partner, about eighty-four years old. So I talked to him today, and he has thought whether you would like to take his advantage of the knowledge of the...

Prabhupāda: Yes, I can take advantage, but no medicine.

Morning Talk -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You just don't hurry(?).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How long Bhavānanda should...? Now Upendra is here, I am wondering...

Prabhupāda: If he is intelligent, he can learn it in one day.

Room Conversation about Harijanas -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I wonder if that's his motive anymore. It's been so long now. The thing is, he was never very able to follow the principles, you know, very strictly. That seems to always be a tell-tale thing. If one cannot follow the principles, then it's only a question of time until he'll...

Prabhupāda: Fall down.

Room Conversation -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So we have got very nice diamond. Try to sell. But if there is a purchaser, he will purchase. Otherwise not. It is our duty to canvass. But we cannot sell iron instead of diamond.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was just wondering about this, that we may be traveling around, and even here Your Divine Grace is not so fit for going to all of the ceremonies. Maybe you would like it if we were to keep a little Deity here.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In your apartment.

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You don't need...

Prabhupāda: Hm. The Deity is there, fixed-up. That's all right. I was keeping Deity with me, but a constant change of this servant.

Conversation with Vedic Astronomer -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa will help. He has no idea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "We never thought to read Bhāgavatam as you are now talking. We have not read Bhāgavatam like this yet, so I will have to begin to read again as..." I mean, what... I'm only wondering what kind of talk Patita Uddhāraṇa must have had with him that he felt that this man was qualified.

Prabhupāda: So how he'll make diagram? He has no idea.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Indian devotee (1): Actually I was wondering that I should go and conduct him, 'cause last time, when he met our devotees, when he mentioned that he was very eager to have your darśana in Bombay, then you were not feeling well. So you were unable to see him.

Prabhupāda: But if he can come to see me... This program he's taking. The whole world will be happy. (break) Land was made wet by milk, not with water. This is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You can find out that verse.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: All very aristocratic, very aristocratic. What is aristocracy, that is displayed there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those people, they always used to look from the outside in, but they were never allowed to come in. The people from that neighborhood, they used to stare within, wondering what is inside there. Now, since we have come, we have opened our gates and doors and said, "Please come." Oh, they're very much happy to come in and see us there.

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

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Actually, when he first went to court, they were wondering why he had hair.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hari-śauri: When Ādi-keśava went to court the first time...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: ...he had suit and hair, and they wondered why he was dressed like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then cheater.

Hari-śauri: Yeah, they accused...

Prabhupāda: That means, of course, indirectly hinted that "Now you are cheating. You are known as shaven-headed. Now you have kept hair. What is the purpose except cheating?"

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodā-nandana: In the Gurukula we were teaching Īśopaniṣad class to the children. So we took... (break) ...Prabhupāda and the words which the recent edition of the Press is wrong. Many changes were brought. They were trying to make better English, but sometimes, to make better English, I think they were making philosophical mistakes also. There is no so much need of making so much better English. Your English is sufficient. It is very clear, very simple. We have caught over 125 changes. They're changing so many things. We are wondering if this is necessary. I will show you today. I have kept the book.

Prabhupāda: I know that these rascals are doing. What can be done? How they can be relied on?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's not the responsibility of the BBT trustee, to see these things don't change without Prabhupāda's sanction?

Prabhupāda: And Rāmeśvara is indulging this. The great rascal is that Jagannātha? He's there in Los Angeles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jagannātha dāsa?

Prabhupāda: Maybe.

Conversation with Surendra Kumar and O.B.L. Kapoor -- June 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Not gives. He exands Him...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Expands Himself. So Balarāma is wondering, "How is it possible that everyone is so attracted?" Then the explanation is, "He's Kṛṣṇa." So these books are there. People are automatically attracted. I don't think they're so attracted to any other books.

Prabhupāda: No, what other books? Rubbish. I say, rubbish. There is no book. Mental speculation is not book. Garbage.

Conversation with Bhakti-caitanya Swami-New GBC -- June 30, 1977, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: No, we do not expect any very gorgeous help from these autocrats. That is not possible. Therefore it is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was wondering whether you thought that when Gopāla went to see Mr. Rajpa, perhaps Mr. Gupta could also accompany them. Do you think it would be profitable?

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Not possible.

Letter from Yugoslavia--'Books!' -- June 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, every night it's packed solid. And all high-class people. There's no low-class people there. And they all listen very attentively. And he's lecturing. He gives lecture seven nights a week. Then there's ārati, and the people flock. Even more people come for the ārati, because they love to see the Westerners jumping up and down, and they love to see the ārati. Both things are big attraction. And then there's an English lecture. Then people leave by then, because by then it's 7:45. Everyone has to go home. So the devotees are there for English class, Bhagavad-gītā class. This temple has a tremendous life already. It's really very successful. I was wondering that isn't there some kind of system where we can give everyone who comes some prasādam?

Prabhupāda: I introduced that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are doing. They give for free.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Alice Coltrane -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She's been invited to chant at Ratha-yātrā because there are so many followers of hers throughout the country, so she wonders if there's anything, any special instruction you have.

Prabhupāda: No, if you go. If your batches(?) chant and dance, that is all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What should she chant especially?

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Why you are asking all these?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I'm...

Alice Coltrane: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: There is no secrecy. Everything is open. Now you have to take advantage. That's all.

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was initiated by that professional guru at the age of twelve years. Later on I rejected him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I wonder if he had any thought that his disciple, Your Divine Grace, would be one day such a devotee all over the world. You always said that's the perfection of a guru, if he has good disciple. So your professional guru had a best disciple.

Prabhupāda: Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī later on, when I was young man, manager in Dr. Bose's laboratory... That my friend, Narend Mullik, he took me. There is direction. For real guru one can give up this professional guru.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was wondering how you were able to chew them.

Prabhupāda: No, I could not.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're pretty hard. These are very good on the long saṅkīrtana days. If someone has to go out for many hours, he takes some of these and puts them in his pocket. Then every hour he can eat one, and it gives him strength. Just like the villagers in India, they put in a little napkin. They put some... What is that? Ḍāl. Chickpeas.

Prabhupāda: The villagers, these grain soaked in water, they... Not cooked.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Apake khana para...(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I'm not so much speaking from the point of view of law. I'm just wondering whether it was... From the point of view of publicity for our society.

Prabhupāda: Publicity, if we find that this dress will attract more, why not? We shall do.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I want to eat, but I cannot. Very good. Very good. Although I cannot eat, simply hearing the names, I am satisfied. Very good. He's doing nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "However, the collections are poor. Only sixty-five rupees. I was wondering if we could also get some of the Food Relief money being sent to India to Śrī Lanka."

Prabhupāda: Why not? Oh, yes. America's money collect and send. So that is my proposal, American money and give this culture. They are squandering so much money. Channelize to spend through this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Their money will be properly utilized and our Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be spread.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? It seems like there's three things that we're... I'm just wondering... Here's Gopāla.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) So I thought that unless he brings some book, he won't come. Because every time I criticize him, "Where is the book? Where is the book?"

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We've got the First Canto, Part Two, this time, in Hindi.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Very nice. So you are being recognized. You are doing good, so he's doing good.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gurukṛpā brought his Deities, little Gaura-Nitāi. He's wondering where will be a good place to keep them while he's here in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: The altar?

Gurukṛpā: No, that's not...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's difficult. He says...

Gurukṛpā: I'd like to bring them in daily for you to have darśana since you cannot go to the Deity.

Prabhupāda: No, I go.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda goes every day. Difficult to put 'em in here?

Prabhupāda: But very carefully it should be done.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Rotten.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a wonder how they take so many of Your Divine Grace's books.

Prabhupāda: No, they have got the capacity. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). It has to be awakened by process. They've lost everything, but it can be revived.

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And there is sun? Sun also was there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The sunshine? There was sunshine when we arrived, but now it is cloudy and rain. I was wondering, Śrīla Prabhupāda, whether you would like for the kavirāja to be called. I was thinking he might be called tomorrow. Today no need for him to come. Better that you mostly relax today. I was thinking that as you said, better or worse, some husband must be there. (Prabhupāda laughs) So we should have some doctor. Is that all right? It's so nice to be with you when you are in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: So you can do the needful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Do the needful?

Prabhupāda: (Prabhupāda's voice is very weak and low now) Yes, you all consider. Is that all right?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In what regard, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: In every regard.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Don't waste time and money in any other way.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes I find that you're sleeping, Śrīla Prabhupāda. So I was just wondering—at night, when you do most of your sleeping, whether we should still do kīrtana. I was thinking that we could do it up until nine o'clock at night and then begin in the morning again.

Prabhupāda: No.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...in addition to the telegram. The reason I hesitated was that we were not using this kavirāja, so I was wondering whether there was need to call him. I mean I have already sent telegram.

Prabhupāda: Second. Second telegram.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right. No. I haven't sent a second one yet. Should I do that? I could do it. It's not very costly. Two or three rupees. Might be a good precaution to take if we feel that he is needed here now.

Prabhupāda: Kavirāja's, his mentality I did not like.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So when he will come?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I am also beginning to wonder. He was supposed to come by at least four or five o'clock. I'm sure he'll have a good reason, but until he comes I cannot speculate on why he's late.

Prabhupāda: It will be late. The other person, whether they will come at night?

Room Conversation -- November 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The knowledge that they propose, chance, is so unscientific. Sometimes I wonder. In the name of science they make the most unscientific remarks.

Prabhupāda: The answer is there: "Here is my father." They'll not accept. Without father, how there can be son? You do not know who is the father. Why the particular tree is giving particular fruit, particular flower, and this is exactly like...? What do they answer?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They actually have no answer.

Room Conversation -- November 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I do not know, but it is said. (Hindi bhajana—Hindi)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? We got some news of some preaching. I was wondering what was a good time to read to you.

Prabhupāda: Here.

Bhakti-cāru: (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Like to hear it, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Page Title:Wonder (Conv. 1976 - 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:09 of Jun, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=125, Let=0
No. of Quotes:125