My business (Conv and Letters)

Expressions researched:
"I have done business" |"I was in Allahabad doing business" |"business is there" |"my business" |"my children. I was doing business" |"my own business"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: Would you tell me something of your own background? That is, where you were educated, how you became a disciple of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: I was born and educated in Calcutta. Calcutta is my home place. I was born in 1896, and I was my father's pet child, so my education began a little late, and still, I was educated in higher secondary, high school for eight years. In primary school four years, higher secondary school, eight years, in college, four years. Then I joined Gandhi's movement, national movement. But by good chance I met my Guru Mahārāja, my spiritual master, in 1922. And since then, I was attracted in this line, and gradually I gave up my household life. I was married in 1918 when I was still a third year student. And so I got my children. I was doing business. Then I retired from my family life in 1954. For four years I was alone, without any family. Then I took regularly renounced order of life in 1959. Then I devoted myself in writing books. My first publication came out in 1962, and when there were three books, then I started for your country in 1965 and I reached here in September, 1965. Since then, I am trying to preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness in America, Canada, in European countries. And gradually the centers are developing. The disciples are also increasing. Let me see what is going to be done.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Discussion with Indians -- January 18, 1971, Allahabad:

Guest (5): That means those who are to follow you are not liberated.

Prabhupāda: I am not follow... Er, I don't say, "Follow me." I say, "Follow Kṛṣṇa." Why...? Don't mistake that. I say... My vision is that Kṛṣṇa says, "Surrender unto Me." I say, "You and everyone, surrender to Kṛṣṇa."

Guest (5): That you make wherever you are spreading, not...

Prabhupāda: Well, that is my business. Where I am spreading or not, that is my business. But I am saying this, that Kṛṣṇa says you surrender unto Kṛṣṇa, "Surrender unto Me." I say, "Surrender unto Kṛṣṇa." Is there any difference?

Darsana -- June 28, 1971, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Everyone should have Kṛṣṇa. This is the best service. Go everywhere, every part of the world, and give Kṛṣṇa. That is the best service you can do. And actually, they are now feeling, because they are Indians. Even in India, where there are so many devotees of Kṛṣṇa, but when they saw "These American devotees are so nice," thirty thousand people were coming daily. And what was our magic? This man was asking me, "Swamiji, what magic you have got?" I said, "I have got this magic that I don't tell lie. I don't make 'This rascal is God.' God is Kṛṣṇa. That is my magic. I don't bluff people. Here is God. See God, be with God, serve God. That's my business."

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Dr. Weir: But not in the (indistinct) example. A lot of people try and give an analogy to explain entropy. Now, of course....

Prabhupāda: Now I do not know what other people give analogy, but my business is that we take it from Bhagavad-gītā that living entities are part and parcel of God. Therefore, just like this part and parcel of my body is active in relationship with this body but if it is cut off from the body, it is no more active. Similarly, those who are not active in rendering service to God, they're as dead as this finger cut off from the body. So they have to be awakened to that consciousness.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Lord Buddha is Kṛṣṇa, Lord Jesus Christ was Kṛṣṇa incarnation, but they were preaching to a different type of people. Therefore you'll find difference of Lord Jesus Christ teaching, Buddha's teaching, Kṛṣṇa's teaching. Kṛṣṇa's teaching also is there, which is also Buddha's teaching. But more than that, because the persons amongst whom He was teaching, they were far, far elevated than the thieves and the rogues. That is the difference. Just like I am pushing on this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, I am doing so many things which sometimes my Godbrothers out of envy criticize. But I know what is the circumstances how to do it. They do not know it. I know my business. So that is their fault. Their own buddhi business, then simply criticize "How he is acting." Find out some fault.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Indian man: You don't pay (indistinct) in Bombay?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Indian man: Bombay?

Prabhupāda: No.

Indian man: No (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: No. There the people have a sufficient income. Here the municipality has no income, (indistinct) this all botheration. He cannot stock. Suppose if you want to stock fifty thousand worth paper, unnecessarily you have to pay five percent.

Pañca-draviḍa: Five to ten percent.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Pañca-draviḍa: Five to ten percent.

Prabhupāda: Five to ten percent. Now fifty thousand at five to ten percent, how much? Unnecessarily you have to (indistinct). And to take back that octroi, I have got experience when I was in Allahabad doing business, you know, to take back the octroi, it is hanging. I could not develop my wholesale business due to the octroi. Then I arranged, because I was agent of Dr. Bose's factory. I was disbursing goods direct from Calcutta and sending bill from Allahabad. Octroi botheration I have got experience. You cannot do any large-scale business, the rascal government do not (indistinct) it. Due to this octroi botheration, nobody can do any large-scale business. Either you have to keep your go-down beyond the octroi limit.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So in this way my connection became developed with Gauḍīya Maṭha. Then, gradually the process began, hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ. (chuckles) I wanted to become very big businessman and there was good opportunity. I was very nicely associated with the chemical industry of India. Dr. Bose's laboratory, Bengal Chemical, V.K. Farr (?), and all of them, they liked my business organization. Then I started big laboratory in Lucknow. So that was golden days, but gradually everything becomes (indistinct). And at last, my Allahabad business was lost. It was not lost on account of some, my debts, I had to hand it over to Dr. Kartik Chandra Bose because I was his agent. So I had some debts, so I tell the, "All right, you take this business." In this way, that Prayāg Pharmacy was lost. So I was not going to, I was sitting at home, but this Jaya Raghava (?) Mahārāja, at that time Sarvesva (?) brahmacārī and Atulananda brahmacārī, they used to come to take their subscription, and they were requesting that "Why don't you come to our maṭha? Why don't you come to our maṭha? You are now free." So, I used to visit their temple.

Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So, somehow or other, this intention for preaching the cult of Caitanya Mahāprabhu increased and the other side decreased. Viraktir anyatra syāt. But I was not disinclined, but Kṛṣṇa forced me that you must give up. (chuckles) And these thing is known better to Śrīdhara Mahārāja, how it decreased, decreased, decreased, then almost it become nil, and then I left home in 1950. Whatever was there, "All right, you do whatever you like." In 1954, four years I remained as vānaprastha, (indistinct) four years, from 1950 to 1959.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In the mean time, Bombay. Bombay light.

Prabhupāda: Bombay light, yes. Bombay light, that is during my householder life. I opened an office in Bombay for my business and... The (indistinct) Gauḍīya Maṭha was established by us. I am one of them.

Garden Conversation with Mahadeva's Mother and Jesuit Priest -- July 25, 1973, London:

Mother: It'd be no good at all being priest if you had smallpox, would it?

Revatīnandana: So therefore you do that. You go to your seminary and take one boy from each class to be a doctor. By force. "Now, you come..."

Prabhupāda: We are treating them.

Revatīnandana: "...and be a doctor." They all want to be preachers.

Mother: You've got to have balance, balance otherwise. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Balance, this is balance. Let us... You, you take some students and train them as medical man. But I am training to become preachers. Why you interfere with my business? You do your own business.

Mother: Well, my son is my business.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So your son, your son is not dependent on you. He's independent.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Śyāmasundara: In Bombay, you were having your own business then?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: Manufacturing?

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, that is small manufacturing. So I got very, very good chance. But Kṛṣṇa did not allow it. He wanted me to come to this point. That is my practical experience. And now I'm seeing that it is Kṛṣṇa's so much favor. You see? Yasyāham, anugṛhnāmi... It is, it is, actually it is His grace. "What he'll do by becoming Birla, rich man like Birla?" That was Kṛṣṇa's plan. "Come here. Do this work." You see. My Guru Mahārāja ordered. Kṛṣṇa wanted. I was resisting Him. That's all. I was actually very expert businessman in chemical line. I did it very creditably in Bose's laboratory as manager and my own business. And everyone knows... Even in manufacturing also.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 9, 1974, Vrndavana:

Guru dāsa: I am agitated that you are anxious about it, because yes, I commit many mistakes, no doubt.

Prabhupāda: So, that's all right. Don't commit more, that's all.

Guru dāsa: Yes. But there's also some mistakes I have not committed. There's some very good things that have happened.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Don't commit mistake.

Guru dāsa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Devotee should not commit mistake. He's above it.

Guru dāsa: But I want you to feel...

Prabhupāda: No. It is my business to worry.

Room Conversation -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just like here in Vṛndāvana, I was here, as I am sitting here. I was sitting here in this very place. That was (indistinct). And when I was hungry I could take my food there, same place. So that is one thing. Just like there are many persons, but because my spiritual master wanted, so I, at seventy years old, when I thought, "Now I shall go," I went, to serve the order of my spiritual master. Otherwise I am sitting here in Vṛndāvana. I am old man, I was chanting. Therefore, because that is my first business.

Harikeśa: Were you just waiting to finish your books?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was just creating the situation how I shall serve my spiritual master.

Harikeśa: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Not that I was trying to directly contact Kṛṣṇa. That was not my business. This is required. If anyone wants to contact directly Kṛṣṇa, that is not possible.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: :...-thirty they open. We have to wait.

Dr. Patel: You will have to order them to open early. You have the...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Why shall I? Their duty must be finished. You cannot ask God that "You... God... God! Please open. I want to see you."

Dr. Patel: Yes. You order God... The, the...

Prabhupāda: No, I can order. But that is not my business.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Hanumān: The way you have come is that you have come as though you've not come from a religion or nothing. You've come and everybody fall in love with you, you preach, and, Prabhupāda, we cannot deny you are the authority because you know everything, and your...

Prabhupāda: Any way you take it, then you become happy. That's all. Of course, when you take it out of love... That is a fact. So without love, this transaction, because there is no price for it... All other transaction, there is exchange of price. Here there is no price, so out of love only, one can take it, not by paying any price. It is not possible. To pay the price of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not possible. Yes.

Hanumān: You cannot force anybody to say, "I am the guru. I'm the (indistinct). Fall in love with me."

Prabhupāda: Why shall I force? What is my... That is not my business. I am Kṛṣṇa's servant. I simply say, "Here is good thing. You take it." Now, Kṛṣṇa also says that. He does not force. Kṛṣṇa is God. He can force, but He does not do that.

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

Prabhupāda: Message is already there. I am giving you the message.

Yogi Bhajan: Well, they are coming about lot of people, and they would like to understand and..., what this Kṛṣṇa movement...

Prabhupāda: No. Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ (BG 3.21). If you carry this message... It is not my message; it is the message of Kṛṣṇa. I have not manufactured this message. I am imperfect. But I am presenting the perfect message. That is my business. I don't say I am perfect. I am simply carrier, peon. When a peon delivers a money order, thousand dollars, it is not his money. He simply carries. So my business is to carry Kṛṣṇa's message. That's all.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Siddha-svarūpa: Why not speak on what we're trying to speak about instead of overly indulge in that which is beyond debate actually?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Siddha-svarūpa: Ask them, "Are you the body?" If they say, "Yes," and then ask them to show how...

Prabhupāda: Just like here in America I have come to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I am not interested for sight-seeing. That is not my business. Whatever you say, "It is here like this," "All right, That's all, finished." Why should we try to confirm it? Whatever you say, that's all right. Now, we are seeing the other part; if somebody there, "It is like this," that's all right. I'm not going to test it. So what is the use of arguing? I have no interest.

Siddha-svarūpa: The materialists, they want to argue on the platform of material arrangements, and there's...

Prabhupāda: That is useless.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: So the imperfect person is prone to become a cheater. So we should not take knowledge from the cheaters. What do you think?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We should take knowledge from Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Prabhupāda is giving you the same knowledge, that's all. There is no question of cheating. I have received this knowledge from Kṛṣṇa, and you take this. That's all. My business is finished.

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Guest: I would like to ask, Swami, would you pray for me?

Jayatīrtha: He wants you to pray for him.

Prabhupāda: I am praying for everyone. That is my business. Otherwise why I have come here?

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I don't speak any nonsense except the instruction given in the Bhagavad-gītā. That is my credit. That's all. People say that I have done wonderful, but I do not know any magic. The wonderful thing I have done is that I don't speak any nonsense thing. (Bengali)

Lalitā: What you say, you act according to that.

Prabhupāda: No, what I learn from Kṛṣṇa I say. I don't say independently. That is not my business. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's instruction.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So Indira is in the position of rāja. If she becomes a ṛṣi, then it will be successful. Then it will be successful. (Bengali) ...that "You have got the position of royalty. You become a saintly lady. Then your scheme will be all successful." That is required. That I can help, how to make her a ṛṣi.

Lalitā: No, she is full of humility... (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: Then not only the people of India will be benefited but also the whole world will be benefited. And you have got that sampatti, Bhagavad-gītā guidance. I will not manufacture anything. That is not my business, concoction thing, hodgepodge, without any knowledge, without any experience.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said that when you were very young you always used to calculate what was the cost of a ticket to Purī.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Every day I was seeing how to go to Jagannātha Purī and how to go to Vṛndāvana. At that time a fare was, for Vṛndāvana, four or five rupees, and similarly for Jagannātha Purī. So I was thinking, "When I shall go?" That's all. I took first opportunity to go to Jagannātha Purī after my examination, and in business connection when I went to Agra, then I first of all took the opportunity to go to Vṛndāvana from Agra. This was in 1925, and I visited Jagannātha Purī sometime in 1920. And '25 I went to Vṛndāvana.

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: ...ten direction. Eight direction, corner, and northeast, east-west, and up and down. So everywhere He is present. So Kṛṣṇa has got ten hands. So my father used to say, "When Kṛṣṇa takes your money or possession in ten hands, how you can protect it with two hands? And when He give you in ten hands, how much you can take in two hands?" (laughs) So in my case it has become practical. Everything He has taken in ten hands, and now He is giving in ten hands. (laughter) I am practically experiencing. My Guru Mahārāja ordered me, "You do this." I was trying to save my business, my family, with two hands, and Kṛṣṇa took it in ten hands. And now, after making me beggar, He is giving me, ten hands: "You take as much as you like." Now I am thinking of my father's instruction.

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

Interviewer: Were you a businessman?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was connected with some chemical industry. I was manager in a big chemical industry. Then I started my own business. In this way I was family man.

Rāmeśvara: But at the same time, Śrīla Prabhupāda was always Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Interviewer: ...planning a trip to India soon.

Prabhupāda: I'm planning to India, and from India to Europe, that is my business.

Morning Walk -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: In those days I was spending three hundred rupees per month.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That was a lot.

Prabhupāda: Yes, three hundred rupees, nowadays at least ten times. Three hundred ten times?

Kīrtanānanda: Three thousand.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At least three thousand. I think even perhaps more, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, not less than.

Kīrtanānanda: Say five hundred dollars a month?

Prabhupāda: And I was not getting any return.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How were you getting so much money?

Prabhupāda: My income, poor income, from my business.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: Yes, what I'm asking you, saying, maybe if you could explain to me how you personally, the different feelings...

Prabhupāda: We simply suggest that you follow this method and you'll advance. And if anyone follows, he advances, that's all. Our, I am teacher, my business is to give them direction. So if they follow the direction, their business is successful.

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

Prabhupāda: In Allahabad, there was a brāhmaṇa. I had my business, and he was neighborhood, he was living. So in the morning, the husband and wife would go to take bath in the Ganges. They would very nicely take bath, and while coming they will purchase some ingredients and then come home. The husband will perform pūjā, etc., and the wife will prepare many nice preparations-baḍā, pakori, puskar (?), this, that. Then he'll take his meals, rest awhile, and in the evening he will sit down, he was sitting just in front of my shop, about four or five o'clock. All the preparations his wife had made whole day, and the small shop. And the university students will come up to night, ten o'clock, he'll finish. Nothing will remain. Everything will be... And he'll make at least ten rupees profit, minimum. In those days, 1925, in those days ten rupees means nowadays at least fifty rupees. So, and living very happy. Living humbly as a brāhmaṇa, he was having his pūjā, going to the Ganges, taking bath, husband and wife, in the morning, and the wife's business is to prepare and his business was to sell.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: You surrender, not surrender, that is you business. But my business is that I am requesting you that you surrender to Kṛṣṇa. So where is my difficulty? You surrender, not, that is your business. But my business is to canvass, "Sir, you surrender to Kṛṣṇa." So I am representing. And Kṛṣṇa says, na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ (BG 18.69). I have to be recognized by Kṛṣṇa. That is my business. So if I do agree, then I become recognized by Kṛṣṇa. You do or not do, that is your business. My only business is to request you.

Mr. Sharma: That I should surrender.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But if you accept it, it is good for you; you don't accept it, that is your misfortune. But my business is finished.

Mr. Sharma: So fortune comes very much into it.

Prabhupāda: Fortune you create. Man is the architect of his own fortune. If you don't accept Kṛṣṇa's advice, then unfortunate. But my business is not difficult. We are simply going door to door and asking, "Sir, you become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa."

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Now then, Arjuna was so advised that he should fight out. So in that case, I mean we all consider he was right to follow Kṛṣṇa advice? Then if a man is overtaken by disease and if he fights out that...

Prabhupāda: No, no, I don't say that, that he should not fight. It is my personal... Not that one should not take care of the body or one should not eat medicine, that is not. I like this, let me do without medicine. That is my personal... It is...

Dr. Patel: What is medicine? Any herb is a medicine, even food is a medicine.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, I don't decry medicine. That is not my business.

Press Interview at Muthilal Rao's House -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Interviewer (4): So in relation to your movement, where does Marxism stand?

Prabhupāda: It is not my movement, it is the Vedic culture. Don't think... If you say "my movement," I have manufactured something. Not. This is the Vedic culture.

Interviewer (4): No, from the standpoint of this culture...

Prabhupāda: Standpoint is that I am trying to revive the Vedic culture, that's all. That is my business. I am not manufacturing anything.

Press Interview -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Indian man: So that is done by his disciples and not by him. He never...

Prabhupāda: That means he could not make his disciple correctly.

Indian man: That is true. That is true.

Prabhupāda: Therefore he did not know. Now see how my disciples are working all over the world within ten years. I am sitting here, still going on, my business. So you have to train in such a way. The Deity worship is going on. Bring that recent Denver pictures. They are now opening different branches, establishing Deity exactly in the way I have trained. It is a question of training.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Even as CID officer, you can note. This is my business. I am working hard, producing these books, selling, and the telegram you see, and bringing that money here. So if you thing that I am still faulty, then what can I do?

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: "And Prabhupāda assisted him."

Jagadīśa: Okay. "And Śrīla Prabhupāda assisted him with some money loan. Your father attempted to repay it, but he could not. Now, after his death, you are good sons behind him. You have observed the death ceremony very pompously. Why not repay the debts of your father so that he may live very peacefully in his next life? A line in reply will much oblige us. Yours sincerely, Secretary..."

Prabhupāda: Is that all right? Let us see how worthy sons they are. Everyone knows. They know. That Gauracandra Gosāi, Rādhā-Dāmodara, he knows. And I have got letters and everything... I... If I go to the court... And who is going to the court? I could have gone to the court, long, long ago. I never liked to go to the court. In my business life also, if somebody did not pay, I never go to the court.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There are similarly men also. Unnecessarily they are envious, offensive, unnecessary. They cannot tolerate others' opulence. Just like our Godbrothers. They are envious. What I have done to them? I am doing my business, trying to serve my Guru Mahārāja. But they are envious because I am so opulent. I have got so much fame, so many influence, so much influence all over the world. Everyone is praising me about... That is ignorance. And this is regrettable because they are posing themselves as Vaiṣṇava. Ordinary man can do that, but they are dressing like Vaiṣṇava, and they are so envious. That Tīrtha Mahārāja, unnecessarily he was envious, whole life fighting, fighting, fighting in the court and died. Simply planning.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: All these boys take cold water, required from them.

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

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have told them that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, and they have accepted. This is my magic, and this is their magic. That's all. You ask them if I did any magic with them.

Guest (10): This is magic itself.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, it is magic. It is magic undoubtedly. But I never created any gold or some other... And neither I do know it, how to do it, although there is no scarcity of gold in my pocket. I started this business with forty rupees.

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

Rāmeśvara: But very often they will say, "It is not a question of religion that we are concerned with. It is a question of brainwashing and mind control. Your chanting so many hours a day, it's hypnotizing."

Prabhupāda: So, what is to you? That is my business. Why do you bother yourself?

Rāmeśvara: "But you are imposing it on so many young people."

Prabhupāda: We must impose. You impose they will not chant. That is your business. We must impose. That is my business. If you have power, you stop them.

Rāmeśvara: "But you're not giving them a chance to think when they chant so many hours."

Prabhupāda: Why shall I give you chance? You are thieves. You are coming to kidnap. Why shall I give you chance? You say to them, as we are saying, that "You chant." They are chanting. You make brainwash. You ask them, "Don't chant." That is your business. But that you cannot do.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: You talk of Śaṅkarācārya, Sunātha,(?) this... That is another thing. But if you talk of Bhagavad-gītā, it is stated there. People have misguided people in such a way that we are finding very difficult to reform them. But things are there. We have no difficulty. You do not accept—all right, you do your own business; let me do my business. We cannot make any compromise because some rascal has said something. That is not possible. We have to follow Kṛṣṇa. That's all. This is Kṛṣṇa conscious. What is the wrong there if you strictly follow Kṛṣṇa?

Morning Walk -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

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

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

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They requested me to change the dress. I have... The Ramakrishna Mission, that "Unless you dress yourself..." "I have no money. You give me three dress for public.(?) Then I shall do it. I know how to dress. In my business life I was dressing like that, but now I have no money. You give me money." (laughter) I told them that. (laughs) "I know how to dress like a gentleman. Every day it must be changed, must be nicely ironed. But I have no money. You need not required to teach me. I know how to dress like an European gentleman. And I have no money."

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Guru is not Bhagavān. Guru is the servant of Bhagavān.

Mr. Koshi: Servant of Bhagavān. Are you happy with the way the movement has really spread? The...

Prabhupāda: Why not? Because I am giving the standard movement. I am not manufacturing anything. I am giving what is said by Kṛṣṇa. I am just distributing that. Why shall I not be happy? I am not manufacturing anything. That is not my business.

Morning Conversation -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: For the first time they can see that the foreigners are appreciating India's culture, not trying to squash it.

Prabhupāda: And practically applying their life, not that simply...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Official.

Prabhupāda: ...official.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's no doubt. And it is all due to your credit. Single-handedly, Śrīla Prabhupāda... Even now everything is being done strictly by your instruction and guidance.

Prabhupāda: Now I am getting old, old age, not good health, so try to give me relief. Otherwise it is too much. Brain has to be taxed. But if my foreign(?) business is there, if you tax my brain in this way, that will be suffer. So try to give me relief from this managerial... (pause) Still I can hint like this. But where is the work going on?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, you have to just point it out to me like that.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The Salvation Army Santa Clauses, they became very upset, because their routine is that they stand next to a big chimney, because Santa Claus is supposed to come down a chimney in the myth. So they stand next to the chimney, and they shake their bell. People put money into this chimney. But our Santa Clauses, they go down the street very, you know, moving around, dancing, and they go up to the people all over the place. They don't wait for people to come over to the chimney. So we were taking away a lot of the donations that they would have given to the chimney Santa Clauses. So they were very...

Prabhupāda: That is business, competition. You are doing your business; I am doing my business. That competition is there in every business. When there is business, you cannot dictate me in your favor: "While you are doing this, my business is being hampered." Who will hear you? Hm? If you say it is competition, that "Why you are doing like this? It is hampering my business," I'll say, "Yes, I want that your business may be hampered; my business may prosper." That's it.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And we should ventilate in the papers that this Indian investment of American money is not American money. It is my money. I have written books, laboring whole night. The American boys have cooperated with me by printing, by distributing, and the money was received by selling the books. So the books are mine. I have given to the society. So I have done business, regular, in foreign countries. I have earned money and spending the same money in my country. It is not American money. It is my money. I have done business. That's all. It is a credit for Indian son so to do such tremendous business and bring money for investing in his own country, from the national point of view... Why the...? The Americans are not claiming that this is their money. They are my disciples; they are cooperating with me. Actually it is a business. I have done business, I have earned money and brought it at home to spend. Everyone does. They should not misunderstand that I have stolen money from America and brought it. It is fair business. That's all. Ventilate this. They are under impression that the American government is supplying, the World Bank is supplying. Nobody is supplying. I am earning money by business, by my hard labor.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's out again getting medicine. This man, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Adri-dhāraṇa says he sits up all night worried about you, thinking, taxing his mind how to give you just what you require.

Prabhupāda: No.

Bhakti-caru: Yesterday, when I went to call him at 4:30, I saw him sitting on his bed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All night. He goes in the jungle four, five hours looking for roots, herbs to give you. He's so sincere.

Prabhupāda: So many well-wishers, I cannot refuse. This is not my business.