Workers (Conversations 1976)

Expressions researched:
"worker" |"worker's" |"workers" |"workmanship" |"workmen"

Notes from the compiler:

• VedaBase query: worker or workers or worker's or workmanship or workmen not "fruitive worker*

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Jayapatāka: For this year there is no time to make those.

Prabhupāda: Then as much as possible you can do. What is there? Engage hundred workers and it will be done.

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we don't have the money to do.

Prabhupāda: I will give you money. If money is the only question, I will give you money. You can immediately begin.

Bhavānanda: We will immediately start.

Prabhupāda: Yes, cottage.... But make it little higher.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. If it floods.... There should be a plinth.

Prabhupāda: Plinth should be higher.

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Simply cheating. That's all. What is called? Bhrama-pramāda-vipralipsā. Everyone is trying to cheat others, and that is the criterion of intelligence, "How I can cheat you, how you can cheat me." This is going on. That is the nature of the conditioned souls. (break) ...workers are coming today?

Indian man: He said he will bring twenty, thirty persons today.

Prabhupāda: Hm. So they will follow the instruction. They have made that plan?

Bhavānanda: Yes.

Indian man: He said that if he will get the supply immediately, then he can finish, even before that.

Prabhupāda: So give him supply? Where is the...

Morning Walk -- January 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42). This is the process. If one comes in contact with devotee or God, then he is simply satisfied by the service. No return. Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce. (break) ...guru?

Sudāmā: Śrīla Prabhupāda, these workers are coming.

Prabhupāda: Ghosh wanted to give us land that side for making a path to the Ganges.

Jayapatākā: Sell us.

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. So we have got a plan beginning from this gate up to the Ganges. If we get land we can do that. (break) Foundation stone in Nellore can be transferred to Madras?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that's what I'm going to do.

Morning Walk -- February 5, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What is the time?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Five minutes past seven now.

Prabhupāda: So they have not come, the workers?

Jagadīśa: They are there. (break)

Hari-śauri: ...without birth, death, disease and old age, then we can simply say that "You already were like that before, but you gave it up because of your mentality."

Prabhupāda: Hm? What is that?

Hari-śauri: A person already has the position where he doesn't have to experience birth, death, old age, like that. So if they argue like that, "Why doesn't God give us that position where we can enjoy without God consciousness...?"

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One year's salary for an average man.

Hṛdayānanda: A worker.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Lakhpati. Here they call, lakhpati. Lakhpati means owner of 100,000 rupees.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Lakhpati.

Prabhupāda: So what is this lakhpati there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This fog appears just like an ocean, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It looks just like the ocean.

Morning Walk -- February 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Acyutānanda: We call a barber, and he shaves one, and we said, "Now sharpen again," and he does not bring his stone. "Go back and bring your stone." But even in the free society, American society, they have union. And that is caste. To protect the employment, one union man cannot do the work of another union or he'll put another man out of work. So they stay in their place. So that is sva-dharma and para-dharma. So the same principle is natural, svābhāvika, again appears naturally. Hmm? Just like we... In my house we purchased a piano. One union is hired to bring the piano from the shop to the lorry, another set of workers will lift the piano and put it into the lorry, and another union will take the, from the lorry into your house. So you have to hire about nine different men, because they'll say, "No, now our work is finished up to this point."

Prabhupāda: In America?

Morning Walk -- March 1, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Suppose you, you, if you can make a nice vegetable preparation, but that does not mean you know everything of the vegetable. That does not mean. You are still rascal. Although you can prepare a nice preparation with vegetable. But that does not mean you know everything of the vegetable. That is karu kārya. That is called karu kārya. Just like this mason worker. They know how to set up the bricks and doing nice work. But that does not mean... Wherefrom the brick has come? You can take this flower, make a, what is called, in a vase, can make a beautiful...

Devotee (1): Bouquet.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee (1): Bouquet?

Acyutānanda: Arrangement.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: When this paṇḍal is going to be filled up?

Bhavānanda: The exhibits should be arriving today with the devotees, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Who are these men?

Bhavānanda: They are the paṇḍal workers.

Prabhupāda: Paṇḍal work... (break) Always, what is called...? Communism. They say, whole world, "We are Communists," "We are capitalists," "We are socialists," and "We are nonviolent," "We are violent."

Madhudviṣa: Dualism.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Madhudviṣa: Dualism?

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So the Communists, they are thinking, "By changing the hand, things will improve." But they do not know that very industry is the cause of falldown. They're simply trying to change the hand. The principle should go on, industry, only the proposal is that the capitalists should give up and the workers should take it.

Devotee (2): Which way is India headed towards? The capitalists or the Communists?

Prabhupāda: India has no, had no such ideas. They are borrowing ideas. India's idea is self-realization. Live very simple life—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. The brāhmaṇas, they are living simple life, becoming very learned scholar, pure character, advanced in spiritual life—one class, ideal. And kṣatriyas, they are supposed to be the king. They distribute the land on nominal taxation, and the vaiśyas utilize the land for cultivation and cow-keeping, and the śūdras, they are engaged as weaver, blacksmith, goldsmith, mean other necessities of life. In this way the whole society is simplified, and the central point is how to become advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness by cooperation.

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: There is no question of industry. Ugra-karma. It has been condemned in the Bhagavad-gītā as ugra-karma, laboring very hard for livelihood. This industry means engage the poor worker class to work very hard, and there is huge profit, and some directors of the capitalists, they take it. And they have one dozen motorcars, palatial building, no work, simply wine and woman, that's all. This is going on. And the others, they are seeing: "There is no classification, neither real brāhmaṇa nor kṣatriya nor vaiśya. So he is enjoying like that. He has got so many cars. He has got such a nice apartment. Why not me?" There is struggle. This is actual picture. Our Vedic advice is that make life very simple. You must have some means of livelihood. Keep your body and soul together. So according to quality, guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13), there must be division and then simple life. The real aim is tam abhyarcya, how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Everyone is.... Brāhmaṇa is guiding, kṣatriya is ruling, and vaiśya is producing food, and śūdra, they have no brain; they are helping. In this way the society is very peaceful, and everyone is advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is India's civilization. Now, due to this association of the rākṣasas...

Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Then they will suffer. Then don't, don't complain. Don't complain.

Dr. Patel: I was a political worker myself and a member of the ruling party and a member of the assembly. I know how they collect votes.

Prabhupāda: If you.... For five rupees if you sacrifice your sacred right, then how can you expect good government?

Dr. Patel: But they never desired to have these rights. They should be disenfranchised, those who will not understand their responsibility towards their country.

Prabhupāda: So at least you can make some propaganda that "Don't give votes to these persons." Don't name any. Then he will be envious. No.

Dr. Patel: You will be in the jail.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: I don't mind going to the...

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: So you bring some flesh from slaughterhouse and glorify it.

Guest (2): Could I ask a question? I was told, if I'm not right, that down there in a section of your temple you worship the workmanship of flesh. A man made it.

Prabhupāda: We never do that. Who told you? Who is the rascal?

Guest (2): Well, it was one of your followers.

Guru-kṛpā: He's interpreting that to be the Deity.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guru-kṛpā: That is his interpretation of the Deity.

Prabhupāda: Of Deity?

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Then? That is your.... I do not know what is your point of view, that you expose this to the open air and the birds pass stool on it and you still...

Guest (2): It is simply a workmanship of man to make the building maybe more...

Prabhupāda: I am just talking on the practical point of view. Which is more respectful? Apart from other points, if we actually offer somebody respect, then you must give him proper respect.

Guest (2): But, see, we do not see Moronai in that.... Moronai does not reside...

Prabhupāda: You do not see that the crows passing stool? You do not see it?

Guest (2): He might. He might do something on it. But he's not doing it on Moronai.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That is good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And it was Vedic. They had a brāhmaṇa community. They called them scholars who were advising. And they had administrators, and they had workers. Now the current Communists, they are against that system. They say this system was the worst system of all because it made some big and some small. Because naturally it became...

Prabhupāda: But you are doing the same thing. Otherwise why you are reforming? Who is reforming unless the one class is very intelligent? The same situation. You.... Your, what is that rascal's name?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Mao Tse Tung.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: So anywhere you send, the student and teacher class is there. You change the name, you change the process, it doesn't matter, but the student class and teacher class will always remain. That is your foolishness. You are simply changing different names. But originally, as planned by nature, that is always there.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They say let the factory worker teach the teacher.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, teacher class, rascal, it is teacher class. You make a teacher class.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say everyone should be teachers.

Prabhupāda: That "should be" means not.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, they are making everyone teachers.

Prabhupāda: And this "making" means not.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Oh, it is impossible to engage.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh yeah, very expensive.

Guru-kṛpā: Construction worker, just to build a simple building, they charge construction about nine dollars an hour, every man, minimum, unskilled man, nine dollars an hour.

Prabhupāda: Then, how it will be possible?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were discussing this. The way to do it, is that you get some person... There are many persons all over the country who are knowledgeable, who can do the work, but who are friendly. Just like in many temples that I visited, they have people, professionals who are working, but they are young men and because they are friendly towards our society, they'll do the work for less money. I'm sure that there are people who can be found like that here.

Prabhupāda: American devotee, Asian, and Australian devotee.

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

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Just like this manufacturer of this car, he's not handling this creation by his own hand. He has got money, energy. He pays the mechanical person to create, but ultimately it is Ford. Ford is not creating everything. Ford's money, Ford's employees, workers, they are creating, but the name is Ford. Similarly, everything is being created by God. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). And He has got so many working hands. That is also.... Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Multi-energies, they are doing like that.... But He is supervising, "Have you done this?" "Yes." "That's all. Go on." So how can you go beyond your experience? Everything is created. A child may think, "How this car is created?" But it is, factually it is created. He cannot imagine how this nice car is created. Why child? Even elderly persons in a nondeveloped country, they'll be surprised how this car is created. They cannot do it.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Unless there is division of activity, nothing can be done perfectly well. The natural division is there in the body—the head, the arms, the belly and the legs. Similarly, in the social body also there must be the heads, the intelligent class of men, brāhmaṇa. Then everything will go on smoothly. And, at the present moment, there is no intelligent class of men. All laborer, worker class of men, fourth class. No first class, second class. Therefore society is in chaotic condition. There is no brain.

Jayādvaita: Their only objection, when we present that there's brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa, then they become automatically hostile, because they understand that we're against sense gratification.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So how long can this civilization go on, simply producing automobiles, like this? So the situation is that the people are always in a state of poverty. Just like the black people here in Detroit. Even they are making sufficient money, still they are always in a state of poverty because they don't know how to live. Prabhupāda related one story that the capitalist and the worker, both of them, they went to the goddess of fortune appealing for a benediction. So the capitalist asked, "Give me such money that I will be able to work one day and it will last me for six months." And then the worker, he went and he said, "Give me one thousand dollars I have every day to spend."

Prabhupāda: No, he said that "Give me the same money as the capitalist will spend in six months. I shall spend every day. I shall get that money every day and I shall spend it." So this worker class, there is no culture. You may pay them heavy amount of money, but they will spend it and remain a poor man. Because he has no culture.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (reading) "...who has made it his life's work to debunk the so-called material powers of god-men the world over, and said that he is afraid for his life. Amongst those he has challenged is Satya Sai Baba, a mystic who has thousands of followers in South Africa. The man who is said to expose fraudulent practices amongst miracle workers is Dr. Abraham T. Kavoor, who recently held a spell-binding magic show at the Bangalore Town Hall to debunk the miracles of god-men. He claimed that several of the tricks demonstrated had, in fact, been learned from persons who had duped the public that they could perform miracles and other extraordinary acts. And this, he believed, would lead to an attempt on his life. 'I am not afraid of gods. They don't exist. But I am afraid of god-men, because they are alive. They have thugs as agents. If a good man like Gandhi could be assassinated, what keeps a Kavoor from suffering the same fate?' Addressing a press conference, Dr. Kavoor implied that an attempt might be made on his life if he tried to expose the fraudulent practice by god-men because this would involve a physical search of the persons involved. Hence his insistence that his investigation would have to be preceded by their permission. (The permission of these so-called mystics, registered letters.) To date, he said, he had written six registered letters to Satya Sai Baba issuing his famous challenge, but had no reply from him as yet. Asked how he produced ash and other objects out of nowhere, Dr. Kavoor indicated that one of the methods was by concealing the objects to be materialized inside of his coat. The rest was pure sleight of hand. Photographs of him (Sai Baba) exposing his coat have been published both in the national and international press, he said. Reporting that haṭha-yogī L.S. Lal had confessed to him that his much-vaunted show of walking on water had been pure trick designed to make some money, Dr. Kavoor said, 'How long can the government of India tolerate such hoaxers who claim to have supernatural powers and exploit the ordinary men?' "

Prabhupāda: You keep this. We shall have to show to the Indian government authorities.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Oh! So many (indistinct)

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There is no such building in America. (break) These are our workers?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, these are your builders here. Bhāgavatānanda Prabhu has done the design.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Very nice.

Kīrtanānanda: And Ātmabhū Prabhu is the chief construction man.

Prabhupāda: Oh, all our men.

Kīrtanānanda: All our men.

Prabhupāda: It is very nice.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: But that is good for you, because you are harassed by overpopulation. You cannot feed them even. Why you object? Let them go and live somewhere else peacefully. Just like the Europeans came here. Originally, in America, Europeans came. Because it was overcongested and they got..., Columbus found this land, enough, and they migrated. So still there is so much land. The Indians are hard workers, they will develop very nicely. Just like this quarter; if Indians would be allowed, they'll come and make it very nice. In South America, they have done. Many Indian cultivators, they have come in remote villages. This cooperation should be. Everything belongs to God. Why a class or community should be congested? Just like China, Japan, India, so much congested. What is this nonsense United Nations doing? What they have done for the last thirty years?

Prabhupada Inspects New BTG -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: "Because they are not trained up, they have no common cause. The hand and leg work differently, but the common cause is to maintain the body. So if you find out the common cause for both the capitalists and the workers, then there will be no fighting. But if you do not know the common cause, then there will always be fighting."

Reporter: "Revolution?"

Prabhupāda: "Yes."

Reporter: "Then the most important thing is to find the common cause that people can unite on."

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Then vaiśyas, their business is to produce food. Food production you can do by agriculture, kṛṣi, and by giving protection to the cows. If you get sufficient food grains, like rice, wheat, pulses, and sufficient milk—from milk you get yogurt, butter, ghee—then your all food problem is solved. You must eat. You must eat, you must live properly. So this first, second, third, the intellectual class, the administrative class, and the productive class, these three classes must be there in the society. And those who cannot be grouped either of these three classes, they should generally help as workers. They are called śūdras. So the workers means... Suppose you require a sitting place: the carpenter is there. Suppose you require a knife: so the blacksmith is there. You require clothing: the weaver is there. In this way, four classes of men. First class, second class, third class, or the intellectuals, the administrators, the producers and the general workers.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: So if you are not rascal, you'll not elect another rascal to take charge of the government affairs. But because you are rascal, you'll send another rascal. So how can you expect good government? You do not know whom to select. And besides that, the whole population is rascal, śūdra. So anyone you elect, if he's by qualification he's a śūdra, worker, he's not intelligent person, he's not brāhmaṇa, he's not kṣatriya. Actually, the legislative assembly, or in your country, Senate? They should be all brāhmaṇas. They give advice. Formerly this was the system. Although it was monarchy, even Lord Rāmacandra or similar kings, they were not ruling independently—they were taking advice from learned brāhmaṇas, sages. So the legislative assembly should be composition of intellectual brāhmaṇas. Then the other administrators, the President or the minister, they should be kṣatriyas. In this way, if social organization is made, then there will be perfect peace. If śūdras are allowed to rule over, what they know?

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

Prabhupāda: Generally they are worker class.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. This is Park Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hari-śauri: Some of the billboard signs are even Portuguese also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Spanish.

Prabhupāda: They speak Spanish?

Rāmeśvara: Puerto Ricans speak Spanish.

Prabhupāda: Why don't you sell Spanish books to them?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We do. We distribute here Spanish books from New York.

Rāmeśvara: Today Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja is sending to the printer the last volume of the First Canto in Spanish, another volume of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in Spanish. And before you leave New York he will give you...

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

Prabhupāda: One may fall down, but you have to take care.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's much better now.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he'll do, he's good worker, if you can train him, he's a good worker. He can do very nice. He has fallen in māyā, just take care of him, what can be done? He's good worker, very good worker. He can do intelligent service.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very intelligent, very high-class, nice devotee.

Prabhupāda: He knows accounting. There was no guide, he became alone...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's exactly what he said.

Prabhupāda: ...and became spoiled.

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

Prabhupāda: He's also very good boy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All day long he cooks, and after he cooks, then the people take the prasādam in the restaurant, he goes out and preaches to them.

Prabhupāda: He's an able worker.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he goes out and leads the hari-nāma party on the street. He's very enthusiastic to make this restaurant very successful.

Prabhupāda: But keep watch on him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: For the women.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs)

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Three months. It's very good, because it gives protection for working in the sunshine and because it's so open there's a lot of air blowing, it's very cool for the workers.

Prabhupāda: What is this factory?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayānanda, what kind of factory is this?

Jayānanda: Steel. They make sheet metal. It's owned by the railroad company.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Another thing we're using it for is we're using this for parking garage also. So we save the money for that, too. (break) (in car)

Rāmeśvara: No, they have just reduced to one cart.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They only had one cart. This was their old cart. Then last year they built a new cart. So this was just in storage there, not being used.

Prabhupāda: It is very strongly built.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: I have seen in New Delhi, I was going to sell my Back to Godhead, so they were all sitting and gossiping, and files are piled up. If you want some file it will take six months. Doing nothing. Sixty percent of the employees are simply wasting time.

Hari-śauri: City workers are very famous for not doing anything, taking tea breaks.

Prabhupāda: Why they will do? When they get money without doing?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If we could just introduce to them the chanting, they could be great yogis, sitting chanting, and have so much free time. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Just see, why this wood is dried up? Why?

Hari-śauri: There is no spirit soul in it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It has been severed from the tree.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...reason they cannot keep this park neat and clean? In other cities they keep.

Ādi-keśava: They cannot pay the workers.

Prabhupāda: How is that? In America, city, New York, they cannot pay?

Hari-śauri: New York almost went bankrupt.

Devotee (1): They have mismanaged the whole thing.

Hari-śauri: They had big strikes last year or early this year. They wouldn't clear the garbage away, and the whole city was piled up with garbage everywhere.

Devotee (2): Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says in this Kali-yuga they are all lazy, misguided.

Prabhupāda: So much drinking, they must be lazy.

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Our men's productive. There must be food production, otherwise how the society will live. That is also a requirement. Good direction required, good government required, good production required, and good worker required. You can explain that there is no understanding of spiritual life. That they are missing the opportunity of human life.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a spiritual culture, and basically speaking the human society begins from dharma, or accepting the principle of God. Dharma begins with this acceptance of the principle of God, that human beings, their activities, have to be regulated. Just like in human society there is marriage. This is according to scripture. Every scripture regulates there must be marriage. This is dharma. It regulates certain activities that should be done, certain activities that should not be done. And basically speaking this is the beginning of human civilization; otherwise, they're simply living in a civilization of gross sense gratification which is in reality no different or no better than the society of animals. So from dharma, human society begins and generally... You can see practically that dharma generally focuses... People are taking that dharma is for the basis of economic development.

Conversation at House of Ksirodakasayi dasa -- July 25, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa has spoken about the kṣetrajña. Kṣetrajña means the knower of the body, as He has already explained, that "I know that this is my finger." I never say, "I finger." So this body is kṣetrajña, the field of activities, and the soul is the proprietor or worker within the body. That is called kṣetrajña. This is already explained. He tried to explain... Because there are many ladies, so he tried to explain in Hindi. So here in the next verse Kṛṣṇa says, kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi: "I am also kṣetrajña. I am also one of the knower of the body." So what is the difference between the one kṣetrajña already explained, the soul, and this kṣetrajña, Kṛṣṇa? What is the difference between the two? That is explained here. Kṛṣṇa says that "I am also kṣetrajña."Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata: "But the distinction is that the individual soul is situated in that particular body, but I am situated in every body, all-pervading." Sometimes they commit mistake that ātmā and Paramātmā, they are the same, but that is not the fact. Here Kṛṣṇa explains very distinctly that "I am also ātmā, but I am Paramātmā." That is the distinction between God and ourselves. When Arjuna understood Bhagavad-gītā, he addressed Kṛṣṇa, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12).

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

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hari-śauri: Temples and farms.

Prabhupāda: We want worker. Otherwise, Kṛṣṇa is giving us so many centers. In India I can get so many places, but how to manage? Simply taking from persons, and if I cannot manage nicely, that does not look well. Therefore I say first of all get men, then take donation. There is no harm. How many devotees were living here?

Jayatīrtha: There's about a hundred, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, then it is all right. And if there was no devotees, ten devotees, then how could we manage?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, they do that. They are employing in their factory, big, big chemist, big, big physicist, engineer and so on, but they do not bother. They are paying thirty thousand rupees per month salary, Birla. Expert, imported from foreign country, but their sons are never troubled. They know how to utilize that worker of thirty thousand rupees per month and to earn thirty lakhs from him. Why shall he waste his time? He knows how to they earn. They pay a man thirty thousand and through him earn thirty lakhs. Actually, in order to make a balanced society, the varṇāśrama-dharma is very important, cooperation. So these things are meant for the śūdras, and brāhmaṇas are not meant for this.

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

Prabhupāda: That may be, you may be a teacher, but you'll remain only a worker. That is another thing. Just like Dronācārya, he taught, he remained a teacher. So we can become a teacher of a particular subject matter, but that does not mean you should be worker. Still, there are many professors, they are teacher, they are not worker. But if the teachers are available, why you should become a teacher? Let them teach. We have to save our time for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. After all, this, in the modern world they have invented so many varieties of occupations unnecessarily, to develop economic condition. Is it not? But our philosophy is that you cannot develop your economic condition than you are destined to suffer or enjoy. So one should not waste his time for so-called development of economic condition. He should utilize his time for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which was not possible in any other form of life. When we had cat's and dog's life, tree's life, we could not do that, development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now we have got human form of life, we should fully utilize it for developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

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

Prabhupāda: And still, our landlord in 26 Second Avenue, if there is anything wrong in the apartment, he would personally do it. He could spare money to call a worker. He was alone. I don't think he had any dog, but he was always seeing the television, and when there was some complaint, he would come and work on it. He's landlord. And so many tenant, there is complaint always. Old house. That house was not very good, very old house.

Hari-śauri: There was many stories?

Prabhupāda: I think five, six stories.

Hari-śauri: Oh. You just had the shop at the bottom.

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

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

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Jñānagamya: They tried to kill him.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Devotee: He's telling a story.

Prabhupāda: A story.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Enjoy life means... Even the industrialists, they go to the remote village and have a peaceful house there. That is the anxiety, how I shall live peacefully. The poorer class, the workers, they live in the city, and the capitalist, he goes to a different place.

Jñānagamya: Vṛndāvana, they came to Vṛndāvana, those Indian industrialists. They were so nervous, always like this, "Who is here? Who is also here? Should I talk to him about business." Very nervous.

Hari-śauri: But variety is the spice of life.

Prabhupāda: Variety, there are qualities of varieties. Just like we enjoy varieties prasādam, and there is variety in the brothel also. Two qualities of variety. Variety is good, that's all right.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: ...when you accept this.

Guest: I know. (laughs) And I have accepted long ago. Because I felt, as a sincere worker, medicine doesn't interest me. What interests me is the cure. My profession is to cure, not to study the medicines. That is the cure.

Prabhupāda: Here it is very clearly stated that kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). The biology, infection. Kāraṇam, that is the kāraṇam. Kāraṇam guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Why there are varieties of life? One is very intelligent...

Guest: You know also in (Sanskrit).

Prabhupāda: Same thing.

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

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Work is partial. These things are essential.

Jayapatākā: Maṅgala-ārati and morning class.

Gargamuni: But some of these men are workers. They're not...

Prabhupāda: No, our cloth necessities are supplied by ourselves? The cloth?

Jayapatākā: The difficulty is right now we have twenty thousand rupees worth of cloth in stock. That is all profit. We only are three thousand rupees in debt. But we have all the cloth. We have no customers.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gargamuni: There's no customers. We have a huge stock...

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

Prabhupāda: He's fixed up. That's nice. Let him translate in Orissa and, if possible, in Hindi. And give him few devotees. Then he'll be encouraged.

Jayapatākā: I think he has got two or three devotees now. This man himself is a pretty capable worker. He's somewhat like Prabhu Swarupa, only a little older, little more mature. He's about forty-five or so. He's been able to collect about, what I can see, about fifty thousand rupees for one nātha-mandira. And he has a couple thousand people. I heard from the Gauḍīya Maṭha. They say they have big utsavas there. Every year two three thousand people come.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: So he's a capable...

Prabhupāda: Manager.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, then do that. And we are inviting everyone. We have no distinction. Anyone can come to the park. Convince them. (continued on another tape) "Come on! Take prasādam "sumptuously." They'll be satisfied. They are hungry. Actually they are hungry, poorly paid, capitalist and worker. The trouble is, capitalists, they are taking all the profit, and they are enjoying life in wine and women. Naturally the worker will see that "Why? We are working so hard, and they are making profit, and they are enjoying, and we do not live in a very nice house. It is a slum." Naturally they will be envious. If the capitalists spend the money for Kṛṣṇa consciousness—in each and every factory they hold festivals and give them eatables like anything everything will be successful.

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

Prabhupāda: The industrialists... That is also one of our programs. Let them hold festivals every Sunday, as we hold. And we shall go and have kīrtana and sumptuous feeding give. They'll be very satisfied. And instead of giving the income tax, let them spend in this way. Convince them.

Jayapatākā: At the factories. Weekly foodstuffs. They feed all the workers. We'll prepare the prasāda, offer to the Deity and feed to all the workers.

Prabhupāda: They'll be satisfied.

Gargamuni: Presently the building they're in now is unbearable, as far as living

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gargamuni: Well, it is old building. Water supply is very bad.

Prabhupāda: So you cannot...

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: It is after your design.

Saurabha: Yes. But I haven't been in Hyderabad for at least eight months.

Prabhupāda: They have done nice.

Saurabha: Yes. Mahāṁśa Swami has done very nice. There's many good workers also in the south of India. We have a lot of difficulty in getting those men from Vṛndāvana sent to America for Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Is he anxious to get them?

Saurabha: Well, simply because they didn't speak English they delayed so much.

Prabhupāda: Now, Kīrtanānanda did not show any anxiety for that. He did not show any anxiety like that, he requires that. So why it is?

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is a letter from Śrī Ambarish Sarkar, General Secretary of the Nadia District Congress Committee. "I had an opportunity to visit the Śrī Māyāpura Chandrodaya Mandir on the 12th August, 1975. It is absolutely a religious institution. Jayapātāka Swami has devoted all of his efforts and endeavors to organize and propound the sacred name of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. I'm impressed by his charming manner and strength. Although it is a religious institution, this organization has performed many social services. Many poor and destitute families have had an opportunity to work and at the same time they have become worshipers of Lord Śrī Caitanya. To engage these workers, so many industrial centers have already been started, such as handloom cloth, printing, etc. I wish this organization, with its help of the local people, all success."

Prabhupāda: We're not only chanting, we are giving them work. We are trying to become self-sufficient, the same idea of Gandhi's village organization, so they may not come out from the village. They'll be satisfied, village economics. That we are doing.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Prabhupāda: Huh? It is not caste system. It is division of labor. It is not caste system. A class of men must be intelligent, a class of men must be strong to give protection. And a class of men must be to produce food, and a class of men, general worker. It is not caste system. Bhagavad-gītā never says caste system. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). According to quality and work. You have made it caste system. You have no qualification of a brāhmaṇa, you are calling, "I am brāhmaṇa." That is caste system. But if you have got the quality of a brāhmaṇa and you work as a brāhmaṇa, that is necessary. That is necessary. Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ.

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Surabhi: His mother is... She was working in India.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Surabhi: So she's very favorable towards India. She was some type of social worker.

Prabhupāda: His mother? Oh. Then at least he has got some good thinking.

Surabhi: He said... There's a movie star in Bombay, and he is, he's a friend of this Carter. So Jagat Puruṣa is going to approach him. He's a very good friend of..., because his mother, she was working in India and she knew this family. So they have a lot of friends in India.

Prabhupāda: At least let them understand the philosophy. Balavanta may see and explain the philosophy.

Jagadīśa: Balavanta knows him.

Pradyumna: Did Balavanta meet him?

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Jagadīśa: That's an American organization. It sends out people all over the world to help the...

Hari-śauri: Like a social worker's organization.

Devotee: Like when they have earthquakes and hurricanes in countries, the Peace Corps will go there and they will do all the nursing and doctoring and helping people get homes...

Prabhupāda: So unless there is earthquake, they will not work.

Jagadīśa: No, that's not the Peace Corps.

Room Conversation -- November 24, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Change is no rectification. If somebody is not working he should be trained up. Changing is another... If he is a fool, another fool will come. What will be the difficulty? You see? Change, of course, sometimes required but if you constantly change, the man is not trained up. That practice is not good. If somebody is not doing satisfactorily, then he should be trained up that "You should like this." And if you immediately change another that, that is not actually solution because all our workers, they are not accustomed to certain type of duty. They are devotee, after all. So still, we have to do something, so one man requires little training. But whatever capacity he has got, he is posted, so immediate change, that is not very good management. Let him be reformed and whatever inability he has got, he should be instructed and he should be... And this, all of a sudden change, simply go on changing, nobody... "Rolling stone never gathers moss."

Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Then you are not there; you are not here. Then where you are?

Mahāṁśa: No, all these last, last two weeks I've been working on this house and if I'm not here then... Like yesterday I was not here, and the workers didn't work properly. Then I made them work in the night. When I came back, I saw that they have not...

Prabhupāda: So that means everywhere, if you are not there, then everything is gone to hell. Then what is this management? You cannot be everywhere. That is not... You are not Kṛṣṇa. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 18.61).

Mahāṁśa: I mean, the problem that came up in the temple, it was going on okay before, but then there was suddenly so many more devotees that came. Half of them were here, half of them were there, and they were moving around every day. So the temple managers were confused. They didn't know how much, how many devotees...

Prabhupāda: No, temple... Who is temple manager?

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Haṁsadūta: There's one more point that Tejas made. That's about the outside workers, he was saying, from Kerala.

Tejas: We should also be careful because, about enmity also. Because I've lived in the villagers' houses for two years and I've seen in different cases where if an outsider is there, these Kerala people, they are also considered outsiders, these villagers, they regard them as being different. So they are actually even getting more requisites than the local people. We should try and encourage the local people in working. They may not in the beginning work so hard, but we should encourage them that this is their project.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. So if you can make one thousand person interested, then you'll be successful. So you can engage some worker for cutting the rocks.

Mahāṁśa: Yes. Tomorrow I am arranging.

Tejas: In this Dublipur(?) there's some very good workers. I saw in the village. They have so many places where there are rocks stacked up. And they have many craftsmen in that Dublipur. That's the main village in this area. They have them there, just near...

Prabhupāda: This house, the blocks are prepared, you make huts and engage some men to make that tile.

Room Conversation -- December 20, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You cannot make a mass meeting and pass resolution and you'll understand Kṛṣṇa. It is not like that. Workers must be also very śreṣṭhas, not ordinary workers. He must understand Kṛṣṇa. Then he can... It is not foolish, what kind of (indistinct). So if you want to prove Bhagavad-gītā, find out the śreṣṭhas of the country, sit down. Not that at mass conference—you bring meeting (?) And preaching. Select! If you understand then you can preach. But if you do not understand what is Bhagavad-gītā, how to understand Bhagavad-gītā, what is Kṛṣṇa... And Kṛṣṇa says that

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu

kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ

kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ

(BG 7.3)

So to understand Kṛṣṇa is not so easy job. First of all one has to become siddha. And not only you become siddha, yatatām api siddhānām (BG 7.3), even one is siddha it is very difficult for him to understand-tattvataḥ.