Sunrise and sunset (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"rise of the sun" |"rising of the sun" |"rising sun" |"setting of the sun" |"setting sun" |"sun rise" |"sun rose" |"sun set" |"sunrise" |"sunrises" |"sunrising" |"sunset" |"sunsetting"

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The editorial board must be very intelligent how to talk about Back to Godhead with current politics. Giriraja, you can do that?

Giriraja: I could try.

Prabhupāda: Try. You just try it immediately. You take one newspaper and comment on the current news. Any one of you... Every one of you can do. And show me how you have given. Then you start immediately. We have got many things to do. We have Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is the bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka maheśvaram (BG 5.29). What these petty politicians and three acres of land? Their stage is three acres of land; our stage is the unlimited. That I have mentioned in the second volume of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So what news they can publish? Three acres of land. We have got the innumerable universes. We can supply so much news, provided people are ready to read it. We have published so many books, they are not even able to read these books. So the other devotees, (laughs) they cannot ri..., come at five o'clock. That is the test. Yes. One who cannot rise early in the morning, he is not spiritually serious. That is test. Brāhma-muhūrta, this hour, one hour before sunrise, is very auspicious moment.

Haṁsadūta: I can tell everyone that wants a program to come at five o'clock.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Haṁsadūta: If somebody wants a program, I can say "Come and see me at five o'clock." Because after they hear you and they have maṅgala-ārati, then they will be more thoughtful about our...

Prabhupāda: Yes, tell them.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is already there but when you see, you see, you see that it is birth. The sunrise is already somewhere, and the sunset is also already somewhere but in your angle of vision there is no sun. That is going on. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa's birth, every moment; Kṛṣṇa's disappearance, every moment; Kṛṣṇa's existence, every moment. You have to learn that. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, janma karma me divyam (BG 4.9), transcendental. Yo janati tattvataḥ. Anyone who knows it perfectly, in truth, he becomes liberated. If you have known Kṛṣṇa, then you are liberated. But Kṛṣṇa knowing is not so easy. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ (BG 7.3). It is very difficult to understand Kṛṣṇa in truth. Then how one can understand? That is also stated: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). Not by speculation of knowledge. Bhaktya. And what is that bhakti? Anyābhilaṣita-śunyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlānaṁ bhaktir uttama (CC Madhya 19.167)(Brs. 1.1.11). So these things you have to learn. Then there is possibility of knowledge, tad-vijñāna. The difficulty is at the present moment the theory that everyone can invent his way of understanding God. He can speculate. Therefore there is chaos. There is chaos. If you want to save yourself from this chaotic condition of life you must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is our proposal. Give me that knife. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Not so many. Begin. Aiye. (break) ...friend of Kṛṣṇa. How much exalted he is, a great warrior, and he has the right to talk with Kṛṣṇa on equal level.

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Oh, you haven't got. You have got? Hare Kṛṣṇa. (birds crying) The sunrise is declared. "Koo koo koo koo koo." Yes. Nature's way. They'll not sleep any more. Therefore anyone who sleeps after sunrise, he is a rascal. He's a rascal. Yes. A child at once, early in the morning, rise. That is nature. But we have created such a life that we have to break all the nature laws and therefore we suffer. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā, mām eva ye prapadyante (BG 7.14). And one who has surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, he is free. He is rising early. He has surpassed the māyā. And those who are in māyā they are sleeping. And those who are not in māyā they are rising early in the morning. Is it not? Mām eva ye prapadyante: "Anyone who surrenders unto Me, he becomes free from the māyā's contamination." Just see. There is maṅgala ārati. In Vṛndāvana just at four o'clock. You have heard?

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: Just one and a half hours before sunrise. If the sunrise varies, then the waking time also should vary.

Sudāmā: So according to season, we should...

Prabhupāda: The rule is that one and a half hours before sunrise. So that you have to make, when the sunrise, then just one and a half hour before, maṅgala-ārati.

Sudāmā: So that's when the ārati begins, when the curtains are opened and we start offering.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Sudāmā: One and a half hours before sunrise is when the ārati begins. Then you wake them up before.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Just waking, ārati begins. And you can offer something.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Bhānu: Does evening ārati vary according to the sunset? Or it is just...

Prabhupāda: No. Sunset.

Sudāmā: And how many full āratis should we perform, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Three main: maṅgala-ārati, bhoga-ārati and sandhya-ārati. These are main. Then you can offer śayana-ārati before going to bed. śayana-ārati. And these four, and dhūpa-ārati just after lighting, or before lighting. Then, after rest in afternoon, dhūpa-ārati. After dressing, dhūpa-ārati. So two, three dhūpa-ārati, and three, four full āratis. Three must be, and four also, four, full āratis. And dhūpa-ārati at least three, four. In this way.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: When the Deities are going to bed. Before going to bed. Yes. śayana-ārati, it is called śayana-ārati. Sundara-ārati, bhoga-ārati, maṅgala-ārati. You write down. Maṅgala-ārati early in the morning, bhoga-ārati at noon, offering prasādam, then sundara-ārati just after half an hour or one hour sunset, then śayana-ārati.

Pradyumna: One hour after sunset?

Prabhupāda: Yes. One hour or half an hour. It must be dark.

Pradyumna: Oh, the śayana-ārati.

Prabhupāda: No. Sundara-ārati. Sundara-ārati must be as soon as it is dark. And then śayana-ārati. Śayana-ārati. Śayana means going to bed.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: ...but one should know the whole duration of change. Just like we know that sunrise, from the morning 'till evening, there are so many changes, but I know what is that changes. That is knowledge.

Krishna Tiwari: That is true, but you...

Prabhupāda: But you cannot say that "I know seventh year. I do not know what is going to happen ninth, eighth year."

Krishna Tiwari: No, that is not the point. Point is that..., point is how to, how long this earth where we all live... Now we're talking about only this earth. How long this earth, we know, existed?

Prabhupāda: I'm not talking of the earth. I'm talking of the whole universe.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: This is the proof. This is the proof. You see. But if you close your eyes... Just like if somebody says, "Now there is sunrise, light." And if he is in darkness, he says, "Where is the proof there is light?" So, "You please come out and see." So you read it and there will be proof.

Karandhara: Even if you don't accept it's five thousand years old, that doesn't diminish the value of the books.

Prabhupāda: Simply read it. There is no question of five thousand, ten thousand, old or new. Just see what is the knowledge there. Lokasyājānato vidvāṁś cakre sātvata-saṁhitām (SB 1.7.6). Because they are fools, for them this literature is made. Lokasyājānato vidvāṁś cakre sātvata-saṁhitām. (break) ...accept Bhāgavata, then their Darwin's theory is finished. Darwin's theory is finished.

Morning Walk -- December 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Therefore you are not God. God is absolute. Antar-bahiḥ. One has to see light inside and outside. That is real light. If the light is checked by some material condition, that is not absolute light. That is electric light. As soon as you come to the condition, then it is relative. It is not absolute. (break) A man can be changed from barking to chanting, but dog cannot be. (break) ...is so powerful that as soon as there is sunrise, immediately darkness gone. Similarly, if the absolute light is there, if there is need of electricity, what kind of light it is? Even the relative light is so powerful that immediately darkness gone. So you are not as powerful as the relative light. So what kind of light you are? This should be the argument. You are cheating. You are not light. You are darkness. Our, that slogan is "Where there is God, there is no darkness." "Kṛṣṇa is like the sun, and nescience is like darkness. Where there is Kṛṣṇa, there is no darkness." Don't waste time with these rascals. Go on with your own business. You sold Bhagavad-gītā. (laughs) That is our profit. That's all.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 23, 1974, Hawaii:

Sudāmā: So then like the sunset; that is also Kṛṣṇa's artistry?

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. (break) ...māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati. That is advancement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness: everywhere one sees Kṛṣṇa, and in Kṛṣṇa he sees everything. Therefore he sees Kṛṣṇa only. He sees nothing. And the atheist will say, "Where is Kṛṣṇa?" And advanced devotee will say, "Everywhere Kṛṣṇa, antar bahiḥ, inside and outside." Nato nāṭya dharo yathā (?).

Sudāmā: Then it is a devotee's misconception if he thinks that Kṛṣṇa is outside everywhere, but He's not in the temple. Because I remember...

Prabhupāda: He's not a devotee, he's a rascal.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now here is one important thing: śaśi-sūrya-netram. The śaśi, the moon, and the sun are the two eyes of God. Now in Brahma-saṁhitā it is also confirmed yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇām. So in the Upaniṣads it is said, "When God sees, then you can see." So this... When the sunrise is there, that means when God sees, you can see. In the darkness you cannot see. And still, you are proud of your eyes. Yes. Without God seeing, you cannot see. And still, these rascals are proud of their eyes. "I can... Can you show me?" How you can see? First of all you have to see through the Supreme. And another significance is that you cannot hide yourself from the seeing of the Supreme. You cannot make anything hiding. Because even in the womb there is sunshine, sunlight. So He is seeing there. Apart from being the Paramātmā, from materially also, His eyes are always there. So you cannot do anything hiding. That is not possible.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ah. So this is our one of the items, to vanquish all these rascals, so-called swamis. They say that "Why you criticize others also?" Because we have to vanquish them. Now these people cannot rise. When there is sunrise, there is no use of these glowworms. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is Kṛṣṇa Himself. Therefore they must be finished, all over the world. So-called religionists, so-called philosophers, so-called avatāras, swamis, yogis—finished. Our program should be like that. (break) ...all these rascals, anymore to flourish. That is one of our program. (Hindi) (break)

Girirāja: Garuḍa put some nectar on the tree to preserve it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, nectar, ambrosia. Amṛta, amṛta.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: But when there is sunrise, what is the value of this?

Guru-gaurāṅga: (French)

Prabhupāda: So your all this physical scientific advancement will be like glowworms in the presence of the scientific arrangement of God.

Robert Gouiran: But the scientists know that science is not complete, but we try to do it as the nearest approach we could do.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no.

Robert Gouiran: Nobody claims to be complete.

Prabhupāda: It is just like the children. The children are trying to build castle on the sea beach of sand, very busy. Two, three hours, so long the father, mother is there, they're busy. But as soon as the father, mother goes, "Hey, come on," everything finished. So this scientific struggle is exactly like that, all childish, children's play.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: From nature's study we can see one tree is producing a particular type of fruit and flower. There is no revolution. It is standard. But these people, because they have no standard, they change every moment, every year. Nature's way—the sun is rising from the eastern side—that is standard. (chuckles) These rascals, they will say, "Let the sun rise from the north." It is childish, simply childish. "Eastern philosophers, Western..." What is this philosophy? Philosophy is philosophy. Why they talk of Eastern, Western?" Eastern sun, Western sun." Sun is always Eastern, never Western. How one can say, "Western sun?" (break) Just see. It is in the water, but the water is not over it. If the water increases, it also increases. See? There is no water on the leaf. Here you see. The water must be always down. (break) ...falling from the top of the Sumeru Hill, a big tree, and the juice, after falling down, turns into a river of mango juice. And the blackberries, they are just like the body of elephant and small seed. They also turn into river, Jambu-nada.

Morning Walk -- May 13, 1975, Perth:

Amogha: I was talking to one Buddhist monk, and I asked him, "What is your actual practice? What is your daily schedule?" And he said, "Well, we get up around sunrise and go out with our begging bowls and fill it up and then come back at about 11:00 to the temple. And then we sit down and eat everything in the begging bowl. And then we take rest." I said, "What about the rest of the day?" And he said, "Well, that's all free, open time."

Amogha: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we are distributing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam you explain that it's best to start from the beginning and go gradually. So...

Prabhupāda: No, anywhere you can see.

Morning Walk -- July 3, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: Just like north of Sweden, there is no sunrise?

Brahmānanda: No.

Prabhupāda: So where is bright side? Where is bright side? Vedic injunction is tamasi mā jyotir gama: "Don't remain in this darkness; go to the bright world." Jyotir gama. (break) ...to create some bright side. He will not be allowed to enjoy it. He will have to die. So where is your bright side? (break) ...for preparing?

Brahmānanda: For the moon? 25 billion dollars.

Prabhupāda: So again I am trying to go another planet. Where is the guarantee that it will be successful?

Morning Walk -- December 24, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is the statement by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Viha hoite sarva siddhe hoi betaman. By practicing this chanting, you'll get all perfection.

Kīrtanānanda: One morning we were out walking in a sunrise, and Hayagrīva pointed out, "Oh, there's a very beautiful sunrise," and you said, "The sunrise is not very wonderful, but He who has made it is wonderful."

Prabhupāda: The point is, they glorify the scientists, another scientist, but they are so fool they do not glorify who has made that brain. You cannot make that brain.

Indian man: (break) ...I told him it might be that (indistinct) they have not done all these things, go to Kṛṣṇa temple, coming back, nine thirty, ten o'clock. Then take all this train...

Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa's favor. Yes. Kṛṣṇa is favoring to finish this job.

Indian man: Now we know that janma is.... I told him they may not be having many other janma, that may be why they are suffering like this now.

Prabhupāda: No. There is no suffering. Their material existence is being reduced on account of serving Kṛṣṇa.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Madhudviṣa: ...Bhāgavatam you say that we should greet the sun with the verse from Gāyatrī mantra. Does that means we should wait for sunrise to say our Gāyatrī? Just as the sun is rising, we should say the Gāyatrī.

Prabhupāda: No. Early in the morning. (Gurukula boys in background)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes we take bath before sunrise and put on tilaka. Should the mantra be said at that time, after putting on tilaka? Or should we wait and then say it...

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...when the sun rises? After tilaka?

Prabhupāda: No, no, tilaka should be done after bathing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And then when should the Gāyatrī be said? Right after...

Prabhupāda: After tilaka. Gāyatrī mantra is description of the sun. (break) ...our land?

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No. That is not... You are making better progress, Western countries. Kṛṣṇa is not limited anywhere. But in India they have got the facilities. But they are becoming rascals, so they are not taking the facility. The facility is there. That is everywhere, especially in India. You see everywhere, every day, the sunrise, so beautiful. In Western country, some places, sometimes. But here you'll find every day. That is the facility. This is Gāyatrī mantra. Oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat savitur vareṇyaṁ bhargo devasya dhīmahi. This facility is in here. You get sufficient sunlight, and in sunlight you keep very healthy and happy. That facility is here.

Bhavānanda: Also, Śrīla Prabhupāda, last night you were saying, "The sun is moving." We can see the sun has just come up and is moving across the sky. So what do they base their statement that the sun is stationary? They have no basis in fact.

Morning Walk -- February 5, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, the same thing is going on. Millions of years there was sunrise. Now sunrise is still going on. Do you think that millions of years there was no sunrise? It is going on. The same thing is going on now here. Because you are foolish, you cannot see. Nothing has changed. The same thing is going on. Millions of years the father-mother combined and there was child, and that is going on still.

Harikeśa: Oh, no. No, no, no. That's only been going on for about three thousand years.

Hṛdayānanda: No, no, even the scientists don't say that.

Harikeśa: Yeah. Four or five thousand years.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: ...absorbed in thinking that, for example, in this material world a sunset is very nice or something is very nice. But if, for example, in Māyāpur is a devotee free to, for example, enjoy the, all the scenery without...

Prabhupāda: Do you think Māyāpur is material world?

Hṛdayānanda: No.

Prabhupāda: Then? Why you are asking?

Hṛdayānanda: That is what I was thinking, that this is...

Prabhupāda: Dhāma. Therefore it is called dhāma. Dhāma means not material world.

Morning Walk -- February 11, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Up till sunset. Lord Rāmacandra.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Also. And Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī?

Prabhupāda: Half.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Half day. (break)

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What kind of fast is that?

Prabhupāda: Balarāma? Half day. It is fifteen days before Janmāṣṭamī.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should always chant twenty-five rounds on ekādaśī if initiated.

Prabhupāda: Initiated? Everyone. Why initiated?

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That means you are suggesting simply. You have no clear idea. Actually the sun is moving. That is my point. Such a huge, gigantic matter, and we see, so quickly.... From the sunrise, now, it is not even fifteen minutes. Just imagine how big speed is there is.

Jayapatākā: But it is not so fast at midday.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayapatākā: It is not so fast at midday.

Prabhupāda: No. Eh? No.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because they thought, "This is a third-class nation, a small island, fishermen, and they have wealthy (indistinct)?" That is natural. Whole world. In our childhood, we used to see map, almost whole world red-red means British. (laughter) They said that there was no sunset in the British Empire.

Jagadīśa: This Frenchman also says that he...

Prabhupāda: German people still hate England. They do not like to speak in English; that I have seen. In the bank they know English, but they won't speak it. English everyone knows. The Kaiser was against. They said that Kaiser is the grandson of Queen Victoria, from daughter's side. And King George from the son's side—Edward's seventh son. They were cousin brothers. So this Kaiser, when he was young boy, went to paternal uncle's house, when he was a young boy.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just like when there is sunrise, immediately the all-pervading fog disappears. Now this Kali-yuga, by bhakti-yoga, especially by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, one can be fully reformed and come to spiritual platform, and that is success of life.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The next question kind of relates a little bit in the same direction. Question thirteen. "There are various saṁskāras prescribed in the life of a Hindu right from his birth to death."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Many of these saṁskāras are not being observed today. Should they be revived?"

Prabhupāda: Saṁskāra... The real aim is to bring the rascal to the platform of knowledge. That is called saṁskāra. Janmana jāyate śūdra. By birth everyone is the same, śūdras, means without any knowledge. But the saṁskāra means śūdra, rascal, without any knowledge of spiritual life, to gradually bring him to the spiritual platform. That is called saṁskāra. And saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ. That is essential. The human life is the opportunity for understanding what he is and what is the aim of his life. The aim of life is back to home, back to Godhead. We are part and parcel of God. Somehow or other we are in this material existence. So aim is again come to our spiritual life, spiritual existence, where there is no struggle for existence, blissful, happy life. Because actually we want happiness, blissful life.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. If you voluntarily become entangled with māyā, that is your business. (Hindi) Kṛṣṇa is light and māyā is darkness. So when there is light, there is no question of darkness. Darkness automatically will go. When there will be sunrise in the morning, you haven't got to endeavor to drive away the darkness of night. It will automatically go. (Hindi) Knowledge is already there. Why should you remain misfortunate? Kṛṣṇa says sukṛtino 'rjuna. Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtino 'rjuna. Sukṛtino means fortunate. So as soon as you begin Kṛṣṇa bhajana, immediately you become fortunate. Sukṛtino 'rjuna. Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtino 'rjuna. (Hindi) Immediately begin kṛṣṇa-bhajana.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: One becomes qualified by one stroke of bhakti to Vāsudeva. Just like the sunrise immediately dissipates the fog. Aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ. In the Kali-yuga, this one item of bhakti can make one perfectly fit candidate to pass the examination. Aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ. What is this nonsense life? There is no tapasya, no spiritual culture, simply like cats and dogs. Last night I was reading. Vāmanadeva created a planet, Sutala, in which Viśvakarmā was ordered to construct big, big houses, palaces, better than in the heavenly planet. And these rascals are going and seeing simply rocks and sand. And what about these palaces and.

Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: And when is your program for coming to Māyāpur? All the devotees are offering their obeisances to you. Bhavānanda Goswami, he is following very strictly the cāturmāsya this year. He doesn't eat anything before sunrise.

Gargamuni: The weather there is very nice because the monsoon is mild. It is very nice, cool weather.

Prabhupāda: I have got a bad impression, Bengal during rainy season.

Gargamuni: Yes, right.

Prabhupāda: Is it not? No, it was not rainy season. This season. Otherwise any season in Bengal, they are very good.

Garden Conversation -- October 9, 1976, Aligarh:

Prabhupāda: He is teaching. Udilo aruṇa pūraba-bhāge dwija-maṇi gorā amani jāge. He was not lazy. He was very busy. From early in the morning. So if we at least pretend to follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we cannot sleep. We must rise early in the morning. If you want to follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu, there is no question of sleeping in the morning. One must get up at least one and a half hours before the sunrise. That is maṅgala-ārati. Maṅgala-ārati means to get up early in the morning, take your bath, and be prepared for the maṅgala-ārati. Then begin your chanting, prayer. This is activity. It is not... Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not a lazy life. It is not lazy life. All Kṛṣṇa conscious, Rāma conscious, they are very busy. To speak, even the Hanumān, Jambavān, Aṅgada, they are monkeys, still how they were busy, from the history we find, to serve Kṛṣṇa, Rāmacandra. Hare Kṛṣṇa. I was questioned by some gentleman sometimes in 1940. He charged that the Vaiṣṇava, "This Vaiṣṇava means a lazy fellow." He said like that.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Just... Only regulation given for timing is that for Deity going to rest at noon. The Deity should take rest at noon, two yāmas after sunrise, and take rest in evening, one yāma after sunset. But it didn't say anything about the other āratis.

Prabhupāda: The ārati, it is called sandhya ārati. Sandhya ārati means just in the evening. So when evening time is there... After sunset it is not evening. What is the time of sunset nowadays? Bring pañjikā.

Akśayananda: Around 5:30, isn't it?

Prabhupāda: What is the time of sunset?

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Then there is no question at all. If one has known it, the sun is always 24 hours on the sky, it never rises, never sets, then where is the question? He knows it.

Indian man: But that present question is dropped. Otherwise, ignorance remains. One says that sun is rising, sun is setting.

Prabhupāda: For him there is question, that what is the process. So therefore the question is by the ignorant, and answer is by the master. The answer is one. Because everyone is coming, student, he is ignorant. So he may question in a whimsical way, but the answer is one. Answer cannot be many.

Indian man: Suppose there is a blind person...

Prabhupāda: Blind person, he should hear. He should hear.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Bhikṣa-mātā. Bhikṣa means giving alms. At least every woman becomes a bhikṣa-mātā, alms-giving mother. This is system. My mother was bhikṣa-mātā to one brāhmaṇa. He is the son of our priest. Family priest, family guru, vipra-mātā, still in Hindu family, the system is still going on, brāhmaṇa visiting daily, informing, "Today is this tithi. The duty is this, the sunrise at this time is..." This is brāhmaṇa's duty, to go to the neighboring householders, and whatever they give, take. That is brāhmaṇa's art. At the same time, they keep some medicine. Every house there is some ailments. They'll give some medicine. Still. Now it is not so... In our childhood every day some brāhmaṇa visitor would come. So I will take massage like yesterday, early.

Hari-śauri: Right here?

Prabhupāda: Hm, hm. I want to show again.

Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Sunset.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sunset, moonrise.

Prabhupāda: Authorized.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Lord Rāmacandra, and Nṛsiṁha-deva also? Those three.

Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda, can I prepare this one? (indistinct) No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sudāmā Mahārāja's troupe will be performing Rāmāyaṇa. They are starting to perform tonight the Rāmāyaṇa. Tonight and continuing or through, as far as I know, till Rāma-navamī.

Prabhupāda: I have taken six cāpāṭis.

Room Conversation about Mayapura Attack Talk with Vrindavan De -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Setting of sunshine is monopolized by London.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a description in the Bhāgavatam about the setting of the sun. It's described that when the day..., that the water is darker by day. The ocean water is darker by day than by night. And the reason given is that the daytime, the daylight goes into the ocean at night. The ocean absorbs the light of the day, and therefore when you look at the water at night, it's lighter than it is during the day. That's a fact. The Bhāgavatam explains why, that there's some power within the ocean to attract the daytime. And in the daytime, the nighttime goes...

Prabhupāda: It is absorbed.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gaura-govinda: There was one baḍa pāṇḍā. I don't know his name. One who does offerings.(?) He is chief of those pāṇḍās. And then, when this pulling of car... That took place just a few minutes before sunset. It was the custom that as soon as the sun set, there will be no pulling. Only Balarāma's car was pulled a few yards, dashed against a (indistinct), and four of the wheels were broken. So then it stopped. For two days there was no pulling unless it is repaired. Then for two days car stopped there. So on the third day it was pulled. The cars were pulled to the Guṇḍicā. Such things happened this year. And we were the only party who chanted before ratha from ten to four.

Prabhupāda: Only party means?