Absolute (Conversations 1975 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"absolute"

Notes from the compiler:

• VedaBase query: "absolute" not "absolute truth" not "absolute world" not "absolute knowledge"

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: You have to understand... I have already said that we have got our imperfect senses. We cannot understand. But we have to understand from a person who has got perfect knowledge.

Professor: But why existence of all these things?

Prabhupāda: So? Why? Then the answer will be: "Why there shall not be existence?" First of all you answer this. If you question like that—"Why there is existence?"—then I shall inquire, "Why there shall not be existence?" Therefore the decision should be taken from the Absolute. Your question, my answer, will not solve. If you say, "Why there is existence?" I can ask you, "Why there shall not be existence?" And who will decide this?

Guest (1): If I may something, this basic question, I suppose, may be asked only on the level of all religion, all philosophy, which does not put a line of division between practice in life...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Professor: No, but the point is the identity between ātmān and...

Prabhupāda: Yes, I am ātmā. You are ātmā. Ātmā.

Professor: ...the ātman of the world, let's say, absolute...

Prabhupāda: Yes. The ātmā and Paramātmā, Paramātmā. As I was speaking, nityo nityānām. We are all nityas, eternal, but there is one chief nitya. Just like leader. Everywhere we go, we have got a leader. Now, this, your Mexico state, there is a president. You cannot avoid it. In your college there is principal. There must be a leader. Similarly, the whole thing taken together, there must be one leader. You have to speak from experience that in your physical department or in your religious department there is a chief, leader, professor. Or you may be. But that is the way. Therefore Vedic information is that we are eternal, but there is another eternal who is chief eternal. That is God. He is eternal; we are also eternal. Then what is difference? The difference is that eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān: "That one eternal, chief eternal, He is maintaining all the subordinate eternals." So both eternals are eternal and... The purpose is pleasure. Just like a small example, a family man. The father is the chief man in the family. The mother is there, the children are there, all together. But the father is the chief man in the family. He is maintaining the family, and there is ānanda, pleasure. Similarly, ānanda is the aim of both, all the eternals, the chief eternal or the subordinate eternal. But the supplier is the chief eternal. So when we come together, the chief eternal and the subordinate eternals, and enjoy together, that is the purpose of life.

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Nature, viṣṇu-māyā, nature. They are bewildered simply by seeing the nature. Then?

Satsvarūpa: Viṣṇu-māyā means sense enjoyment which is transient and miserable. Those who are entrapped by viṣṇu-māyā utilize advancement of knowledge for sense enjoyment. Śrī Nārada Muni has explained that all paraphernalia of the cosmic universe is but an emanation from the Lord out of His different energies because the Lord has set in motion, by His inconceivable energy, the actions and reactions of the created manifestation. They have come to be out of His energy, they rest on His energy, and after annihilation they merge into Him. Nothing is, therefore, different from Him, but at the same time the Lord is always different from them.

When advancement of knowledge is applied in the service of the Lord, the whole process becomes absolute. The Personality of Godhead and His transcendental name, fame, glory, etc., are all nondifferent from Him."

Prabhupāda: Absolute, that is absolute.

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Guest (1): That we believe in.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are not perfect. We can speculate only and that is not perfection. "Maybe," "perhaps," like that. No definite knowledge. The definite knowledge you can get from Kṛṣṇa, the perfect. Therefore all the ācāryas accept Kṛṣṇa. We have to follow the ācāryas, ācāryopāsanam. So in India all these ācāryas, Śaṅkarācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Lord Caitanya, they accept Kṛṣṇa the supreme absolute. Why you should not? Are you more than these ācāryas? Then? That is the defect of modern education, they manufacture education although they're imperfect. They have no the common sense that "I am imperfect, how I am manufacturing education and becoming teacher. My becoming teacher is cheating because I have no perfect knowledge." Knowledge means it must be perfect, not "maybe," "perhaps." This is not knowledge. Definite knowledge.

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Teaching must be orthodox, otherwise what is the value? If the teaching changes, that is not very good.

Professor Fenton: Well, it may be that it changed in the early history of Christianity through Greek influence on its Jewish background.

Prabhupāda: It is changing now also, they are so... Change is of the material world, in the spiritual world there is no change, absolute. In the relative world there is change. So our definition of religion is little different from the worldly definition. Our definition... "Our" means there should be the real definition: religion means the laws which are given by God.

Professor Fenton: Sanātana-dharma.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Sanātana... Yes, religion should be sanātana. Sanātana means there cannot be any change. Just like every living being eats, you cannot change it. You cannot say that this living entity is not eating. Apart from human society, even in animal society, a living being eats. This is his religion. Sleeps, has sex, these are eternal characteristics. Similarly, religion means spiritual characteristics. That spiritual characteristic is also pervertedly reflected in the material world. Just like every one is servant. Anyone, any one of us, we are all servant. You are serving the University.

Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) So we have to do like that. Here everyone is demon, everyone. Demon means they are busy for sense gratification. That is demon. And devotee means he has no sense gratification. He is only busy how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is the devotee. Anyway, if you serve Kṛṣṇa sincerely, Kṛṣṇa is with you. You will never fall in danger.

Tripurāri: Sometimes the devotees question, "What is the best book to distribute, Caitanya-caritāmṛta or Bhagavad-gītā?" We're thinking all of them are absolute. It does not matter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is just like sugar doll. Anywhere touch—it is sweet. That's all. When I read books, I open anywhere. Any book I take, and anywhere I open, and I read.

Devotee (3): Sometimes we feel like... I know myself personally, if I'm distributing, like, Second Volumes of Caitanya-caritāmṛtas I have this doubt, this feeling that it's sometimes hard for me to understand Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and I feel like the karmī, he will open the book, and he will look into it, and he will become offended because he won't be able to understand hardly a word of it.

Prabhupāda: No, Caitanya-caritāmṛta is not meant for ordinary person. Bhagavad-gītā, Īśopaniṣad and other thing...

Room Conversation with Reporter -- March 9, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes, word is God. Kṛṣṇa is God. If you use this word Kṛṣṇa—because God is all-attractive—then immediately you associate with God. And if you associate with God, then you become purified.

Reporter: Can you explain what I read in one of your books, that the sound spoken either in chanting a mantra or when talking about God or Kṛṣṇa is somehow transcendental sound, though it's spoken with the same voice.

Prabhupāda: God is Absolute. His name and His person, not different, because He is Absolute. Here in the material world the name is not the substance. If I want water... I am thirsty, and if I chant "Water, water, water, water," that will not help me. But in the spiritual world, God being Absolute, you chant God's name, you see God's form, you discuss about God's activities, they are all the same.

Reporter: So how, if when we chant "Water, water, water," we don't...

Prabhupāda: That is material word. If you chant "Water, water," the real water will not come. But if you chant "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa," then because it is absolute, then you are associating with Kṛṣṇa.

Reporter: Then we've, we come into the spiritual world.

Prabhupāda: Yes, immediately. Because Kṛṣṇa is on your tongue.

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

Parivrājakācārya: They said they had to go.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So these things has to be learned first, that "I am not this body, I am spirit soul. I am changing my body, and this is botheration." So if there is any way to stop this changing, that is required. That... That is possible to be done in this human form of life.

Young man: Is there any chance to understand how the Absolute think?

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is the chance, human body. If you want to know, you can know. Here is the chance.

Young man: Is there a way of knowing that the body you inhabited before was of a inferior quality than the one you're inhabiting now, or...

Prabhupāda: Inferior quality, just like cats and dog. That is inferior quality.

Young man: Yeah, is there a way of knowing whether you're on the way up or you're falling?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You... Just like you infect some disease. Then it is sure that you are going to grow that disease. And if you don't infect, then you don't grow that disease. Do you know this, infection? Disease infection?

Young man: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: ...indicates God, then it is not bad. That is our point. If we indicates to God... Just like Allah. If this name indicates to God, then it is this Allah word as good as God. There is no difference. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija sarva śakti. The Allah, the conception of Allah means The Great, is it not? So God is Great. So by chanting Allah, I am meaning God, the Supreme Person, so it is as good. And actually in Mosque, they chant Allah-u-akbar, like that, so far I've heard. So that prayer, if it is not God's name, then what is the use of this prayer? That is God's name. Similarly, the Hindus may chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, they're indicating to the same personality. It may be different language; therefore, it is as good as God because God is absolute. But this, this name is authorize because Muhammad said that you chant, "Allah." So it is authorized, because he is God's representative. Therefore my request is, or our request is that you chant the name of Allah. We don't say that you chant Kṛṣṇa. You chant the Holy name of God. If Allah is approved name of God, you chant it. That is our request. We don't force you that you chant the name of Kṛṣṇa. No, we don't say that. If somebody says Jehovah is the name of God, that's all right, you chant Jehovah. Allah is the name of God, that's all right, you do it. We simply request that you chant the holy name of God. That's all. If you have got it, we don't force you that you chant the name of Kṛṣṇa. That is not our way. We accept: if Allah is God's name, it is as good as the name Kṛṣṇa. We are not so sophisticated that you have to chant this Kṛṣṇa's name. No, we say: Harer nāma. That is the śāstra, harer nāma. The name of the Lord. So there are many thousands of names, that's a fact. So you actually chant the name of God. Pick up of the millions of God's name, whatever you like, you pick up and chant. That is our propagation.

Conversation with Devotees -- March 31, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: If you get really assistance, there is no harm. Just like sometimes we go to the court; we pay to the lawyer because we are not expert. In that sense, it can be spent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But cautiously.

Prabhupāda: Yes. For nothing, because you have got money, no. Unless it is urgently or absolute necessary, you should not spend.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And there should be some... There should be some limitation. We should not spend tens of thousands of dollars...

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...in such a way.

Acyutānanda: They shouldn't listen to the decisions of these professional men if they say, "Don't do this and don't do that."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: The president should be restricted that "You cannot spend more than this amount without sanction of GBC."

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: But they... They must explain. Just like in Vedic literature the same idea is there. (aside:) Don't lean. I am begging excuse. I am old man. But you should sit down like that Guru Mahārāja. So we know what was the word, oṁkāra. Praṇavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu. (break) So oṁkāra is the word. So what is the Christian word?

Prajāpati: Again there's no absolute authority. In the vast Christian tradition we have Origen saying one thing and Saint Francis saying another. Widespread... That's why it is not a science that we can go to like we can to Śrīla Prabhupāda for an exact answer, Bhagavad-gītā, exact absolute authority. In the Christian tradition it is simply defined as faithful men understanding themselves in the light of the scripture, in the light of the tradition.

Prabhupāda: No, that is because you are our student. Suppose our preachers meet the theologicians. How to prove that theology is not the means? Theology... Generally, you say it is speculation. So our point is that nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena. The ātmā, Kṛṣṇa, cannot be understood or approached, pravacanena, simply by logical arguments.

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Pañcadraviḍa: But when you came to France, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you spoke at the Theology Club. About four years ago you came for a conference. They arranged a big meeting at the Theology Society in France, a world-wide society. And one thing I was... One thing I was considering. They must be interested because the Christians say that there is soul, and they say that there is God, so then wouldn't our question be: "What is the relationship of the soul to God?" They admit there is a soul. Every human being, they say, has a soul.

Prabhupāda: No. That, that is also beginning of understanding. But first, preliminary understanding should be that God is one. There cannot be Christian God. There cannot be Hindu God. There cannot be Muslim God. That is not complete idea of God. That is imperfect. Just like in Vedic literature, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti: (SB 1.2.11) three phases of understanding of the Absolute. First, beginning, is Brahman, then, further advanced, Paramātmā, then, final advancement, Bhagavān. Similarly, the final realization of God is the Supreme Person. And then we should seek (see?) who is that person. That is real theology.

Pañcadraviḍa: What if they say, "We agree there's one God, but we do not agree that His name is Kṛṣṇa" or "We do not agree..."

Prabhupāda: Then you suggest what is His name. My next challenge will be... You suggest.

Evening Discussion -- May 6, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Amogha: Sometimes they claim that we should not claim that our choice is the true choice, but they don't understand that any of those meanings can be true at the same time.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this body is true. We have got body. We don't say it is false. It is true. Bodily pains and pleasures we feel, so how can I say that the body is false? The body means bodily pains and pleasures, then we are affected, so how you can say it is false? Similarly the mind, and soul is absolute thing. Factually. So any item you take, you can understand by thorough study.

Paramahaṁsa: In some cases, in a more controversial case, the word chosen, or the meaning chosen for a particular Sanskrit word, may change the whole meaning of the verse, but because...

Prabhupāda: Therefore you have to take the paramparā meaning. Because we are foolish, we cannot understand properly. Tad vijñārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet. Therefore, one has to go to guru and understand the meaning by paramparā. You cannot make your own meaning. The meaning is already there. But if you cannot understand, then you should approach guru and understand the meaning by paramparā.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: Isn't it, then, if one is happy, that's all that counts? If his happiness is also relative. So if I am a monkey...

Prabhupāda: No. There is absolute happiness. You do not know that. We are meant for that, because we are living beings. But on account of your ass quality you do not like to understand. Mūḍhā nābhijānāti.

Amogha: My parents used to tell me that nothing can be absolutely true, because everything is really finer shades of grey.

Prabhupāda: He has no idea what is absolute truth. He is in darkness. He does not know there is absolute world. This is the relative worlds.

Amogha: They think that people who say there is Absolute Truth have not observed the other thoughts of other people, so they haven't seen everything.

Prabhupāda: What is that other thought? We know everyone's thought. We know everyone's thought.

Amogha: In the university newspaper I was reading, all their discussion is about things like homosexuality is all right or not all right.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā? They are discussing?

Amogha: Yes.

Room Conversation with Ganesa dasa's Mother and Sister -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is a fact. My self and my picture, is there any difference?

Sister: Yes.

Prabhupāda: If you see my picture, you see me. This is material picture. But God is omnipotent. God's picture is also God. That is God's potency. Otherwise we are worshiping Deity. People may think: "This is the form of Kṛṣṇa." The form of Kṛṣṇa, the name of Kṛṣṇa, the quality of Kṛṣṇa—they are all Kṛṣṇa. That is Absolute. In the material world there is difference. Otherwise, why they are engaged in chanting, "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare..." Have they become mad? Because Kṛṣṇa person and Kṛṣṇa's name, the same thing. That is Absolute. So here it is said, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. So if you chant Kṛṣṇa's name, that means you are directly associating with Kṛṣṇa. Therefore you are becoming purified. Just like if you associate with fire, you will remain always warm. Is it not? If you remain near the fireplace, you remain always warm. Similarly, if you chant Kṛṣṇa-Kṛṣṇa's name and Kṛṣṇa, not different—then you will remain always spiritual.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: ...in Bhāgavata also that after passing one hundred life of first-class karmī one can become Brahmā. And after becoming Brahmā, he goes directly back to home, back to Godhead. (break) ...this dissolution, Brahmā hasn't got to die. By the same body he goes. (break) All the inhabitants of Brahmaloka they also go with Brahmā. (break)

Siddha-svarūpa: ...have sex outside of marriage, any of these activities. And they're not supposed to eat meat unless it's in time of famine or absolute necessity. They have a whole city. It's called Salt Lake City in Utaḥ that's all practically their followers. (break)

Ambarīṣa: In Salt Lake City they don't have bars.

Siddha-svarūpa: There's no bars in the city of Salt Lake. There's no drinking establishments or pornographic movies and these things.

Prabhupāda: So when they started?

Siddha-svarūpa: About 150 years ago or 125 years ago I believe. Isn't it? A hundred years ago.

Ambarīṣa: I don't know when they found those documents. A lot of them are still secret. They won't... A lot of them are like books about what's going to happen in the future, and they keep them somewhere. (break)

Siddha-svarūpa: ...system of having more than one wife, that a holy person or religious man had the duty to take on and give protection to more than one woman because there weren't enough righteous men and there were more women that needed protection than there were righteous men. So if there was a righteous man, it was his duty to protect more than one wife. But nowadays I think they are having some trouble keeping that in the United States. That is one thing the Christians became very... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...preach.

Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dr. Wolfe: And most of them not known to us. If we can say "most" about innumerable.

Prabhupāda: You can... Then you know from us. We can... There is Viṣṇu-sahasra-nāma. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu also. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktiḥ. Nāma... Nāma means the name and the person. There are many hundreds and thousands of names, and each name is as good as the person. Because it is absolute, there is no difference between the person and the person's name.

Dr. Judah: If God is known by many different names, though, is it not possible, then, to know God then in many different ways, in many different traditions?

Prabhupāda: No. Just like you are the same person, either as professor in the university or at home before your wife, you are the same person. Your wife may address you in a different name, and the students may address you in different name, but you are the same person.

Dr. Judah: It's true.

Prabhupāda: If the person is the same, so difference of name does not change the circumstances.

Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dr. Pore: Is chanting absolutely necessary in the knowing...

Prabhupāda: That is the easiest way of being directly in touch with God. Because God and God's name, they are absolute, so your chanting the name of God means that directly in touch with God.

Dr. Crossley: Why is that better than loving your fellow man in the traditional bhakti-mārga?

Prabhupāda: But you love your fellow man, but you don't love your fellow animal. You love man, but you send the animals to the slaughter-house. That is your love.

Dr. Wolfe: And the soldiers into the battle to be killed.

Prabhupāda: No, now, first of all study this man then you go to soldiers. Our love is limited. But if you love... Just like this tree. There are many thousand leaves and flowers. So if you water to each of them, then it will occupy the whole, your life. And if you are intelligent, just put water onto the root. It will go everywhere. And if you are not intelligent, so go on putting water every leaf, every... You see? Your whole body requires food. That does not mean you have to supply food to the ears, to the eyes, to the nails, to the rectum, to the... No. You give food to the stomach; it will be distributed. So Kṛṣṇa says, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam. That we have already studied. So if you love Kṛṣṇa, then your love will be distributed. If you don't love Kṛṣṇa and if you love somebody else, then somebody will cry that "You do not love me."

Room Conversation -- June 26, 1975, Los Angeles:

Devotee (2): I am. Because if I can judge then, if I can say, "Oh, at this point he is wrong," then that is what we are talking about, Śrīla Prabhupāda. That is the issue. If they are absolutely right all the time and they can make no error, they wield absolute power over our lives.

Prabhupāda: Where is (name witheld)? Where is (he)?

Satsvarūpa: He is across the street.

Prabhupāda: Has he said like that?

Devotee (2): Yes. I have witnesses.

Upendra: But he's admitted his error.

Devotee (2): That's beside the point.

Revatīnandana: That's all right. But that's not the point here.

Upendra: The point is that Prabhupāda, that if you come before Prabhupāda for your own spiritual advancement, then it doesn't matter what other people are thinking...

Devotee (2): That's not the...

Devotee (1): That's not the crux of the matter at all.

Revatīnandana: The point here is not to criticize (him).

Devotee (1): No. We did not come for that at all.

Revatīnandana: That wasn't the reason. The point is that anyone, (name witheld) or anybody else, he may be a sannyāsī, but if he's doing all kinds of nonsense, how can we say that he has absolute authority? Because he was in charge of the place, etc., and he is also in an authoritative position, yet he breaks the principles.

Devotee (2): His personal servant, when he came... His name is (name witheld). (He) instigated a homosexual affair with him. This boy came to surrender to Kṛṣṇa and surrendered to (him). But (he) told him to do that.

Upendra: But Prabhupāda...

Devotee (2): Wait. I am not speaking with you. He said he did that and he did it in the name of his authority as a sannyāsa. So if you say, Prabhupāda, that everything that they say is absolutely true, then they will have absolute power and can do anything that they want, and anything that they say and any opinion they express is taken to be the same as yours, then it becomes implied that you agree with and condone such things, because they do them with absolute license. And we don't believe that to be true. So we think it is some kind of mistake.

Prabhupāda: They say like that?

Devotee (1): Everyone says like that.

Press Conference -- July 16, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Well, an education... A highly educated man does not require athletics. He requires good brain. Just like high-court judge, he requires a good brain, not a big gigantic body.

Bhaktadāsa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is the significance of the chant which everyone who has been around the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement has heard? What is the significance of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Chanting means the holy name of the Lord. The Lord is absolute. His name is not different from Him. So if you chant properly or improperly even, then immediately you be in touch with God. And as you become in touch with God, you become purified. So as you become purified, you know, actually you can see perfectly what is the aim of your life, how the human form of life should be utilized. These thing will be revealed. This is the process of chanting. Try to understand. Chanting the holy name of the Lord means the name of the Lord and the Lord, God, is not different. Just like the sun and the sunshine is not different. Wherever there is sun, or wherever... Sun may be 93,000,000 miles away from us, but by the sunshine we can appreciate sun. Similarly, God may be long, long away from us, but if we chant His holy name, immediately we become in contact with Him. This is the purpose of chanting the holy name of the Lord.

Morning Walk -- July 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: "Can happen," that post-dated check again. This is the only shelter, post-dated check.

Hṛdayānanda: So it again comes down to faith on their part.

Prabhupāda: All rascals. Don't waste time. But see their rascaldom.

Satsvarūpa: One claim the scientists make is that they're more humble in their knowledge than we are. They don't say that this is the absolute...

Prabhupāda: Why we should be humble? We are not foolish men, that we shall be humble. We must be proud of our knowledge. You are foolish; you become humble. (laughter) The dog is humble; man is not humble. The dog may bark, and man—"Shut up!" Immediately... So you are like dogs. (laughter)

Rādhā-vallabha: Their claim is that species are not constant like our claim. They say that species constantly change till the original species is gone and a new species is created.

Prabhupāda: What is that original species?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, they say originally chemicals. Originally very complex chemicals, acids...

Prabhupāda: Very complex again. So they cannot understand. So complex that they cannot understand. So what is the use of such theory?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, they say these complex chemicals came from the simplest chemicals.

Morning Walk -- September 30, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I never criticized. I simply said that positive side, God consciousness.

Dr. Patel: Christ himself was drunk with God consciousness totally.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Dr. Patel: Christ himself was drunk with God consciousness in toto, absolute.... There cannot be a higher bhakta than that. It is said that Jesus Christ learned all these things in India. It might be a fact?

Passerby: (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: And he daily bhakta. (?) He came for pūjā, for guru. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...devatā bhaktāḥ, te 'pi mām eva kaunteya yajanty avidhi-purvakam. They give examples, as the gopīs worshiped Kātyāyanī. But that is not avidhi. They went to Kātyāyanī for getting the favor of Kṛṣṇa. They prayed to mother Kātyāyanī, "Please be favorable to us so that Kṛṣṇa may be pleased upon us." Others go to beg from Kātyāyanī some material benefits, but the gopīs, they did not ask for any material benefit. And therefore that is vidhi.

Morning Walk -- October 4, 1975, Mauritius:

Devotee 2: In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam you mentioned that the trees, they also can see, (in a) purport. So I was wondering, do all the various species of life, are they fully equipped in some fashion or another with all the various senses?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Living being means possessing all the senses.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Absolute is sentient thou hast proved, impersonality calamity thou hast moved." (break)

Prabhupāda: ...tree in Hare Krishna Land, they are so beautiful, heḥ? And what is this?

Devotee 2: These are very short. (laughter)

Cyavana: They are also torn by the cyclone. The cyclone has pulled up all the big ones.

Indian man 3: These are different in Durban.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They are not as fortunate.

Prabhupāda: Better place than this?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Very nice weather there. The people very much like us there too, Prabhupāda. Big crowds. Like us. (break)

Cyavana: ...bassa is nicer, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Mombassa.

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This is conviction. He can say that "I cannot see on account of distant place, the planet," but you see the nearest. So you cannot see distant place things and you cannot see nearest. Then what is the value of your eyes? That means you can see only under certain condition. So condition is offered by somebody else. Therefore you are conditioned. Your seeing is conditioned, because it is not absolute. So how do you believe your eyes? Hm?

Devotee (3): The vision of the eyes is imperfect. We have to see by intelligence, from the authority...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is not intelligence; that is fact. Intelligence you should have that "However I can perceive by the senses, the senses being imperfect, all our perceptions are imperfect." That is intelligence.

Devotee (3): Then one may ask, "Well, how do I recognize that this is the bona fide authority?"

Prabhupāda: Who authorized? Another rascal, that's all. He's a rascal. Another rascal... Just like sva-vid-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). A lion is being praised by the rabbit in the jungle. The rabbit is also animal; lion is also. So what is the use of lion being praised by a rabbit? If a lion is praised by a rabbit, does it mean lion is more than animal? So similarly, these so-called scientists, big men, they are being praised by small rascals. That does not mean on account of praising, he has become more than animal. He remains animal.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You do not know this? Baro baro bandolel, baro baro peṭ laṅkā dingate, matakare het.(?) (laughter) This translation was done by one big professor, of President's College, Professor Rowe. He was a big professor in the President's College. So these professors required to learn Bengali, so he translated, "Big, big monkey, big, big belly, Ceylon jumping melancholy." (break)

Alanath: There's some countries in Europe where they have absolute laws against selling books in the street. In these countries do we have to make something secret to sell your books?

Prabhupāda: Secret? Why?

Alanath: Because otherwise they would immediately put you in prison.

Prabhupāda: Where? Here in India?

Alanath: No. In Europe, like in Switzerland. But when we go there for selling books people take them like anything, but you have to hide before the police very carefully.

Prabhupāda: Why? Why don't you take permission from the court?

Alanath: No. It's not possible.

Morning Walk -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Harikeśa: But as soon as a government changes...

Prabhupāda: Anything change means it is the domain of rascals, pandemonium. Just like in Manu-saṁhitā it is said that, nāsyāṁ svatantratām arhati, women should not be given independence. Once said, that is fact. If you want to change, you suffer. That's all.

Hari-śauri: Any deviation from absolute law means immediately suffering.

Prabhupāda: Bas, immediately you have to suffer. (reads sign on building) DTS, what is this?

Haṁsadūta: German Democratic Republic. German diplomat.

Prabhupāda: German Embassy?

Tejas: This is going to be the Punjab Bhavan. For the Punjab state government.

Harikeśa: You're painting a pretty bleak picture.

Prabhupāda: Paint picture?

Harikeśa: The one you're painting of society, and the future.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- December 19, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Why temples? Even your big, big political leaders, they distort. Why do you blame the temples?

Dr. Patel: But Christianity is distorted by the...

Prabhupāda: Everyone. That is going on.

Dr. Patel: ...those popes. However, Christ taught bhāgavata-dharma, absolute bhāgavata-dharma. It is this creation of the church, really to my mind, that the Christ is forgotten by the Western countries.

Prabhupāda: And who is remembering your Kṛṣṇa in this country?

Dr. Patel: There are a few people. I, we are not that...

Prabhupāda: In Bombay, there are so many roads, "Vivekananda road." But there is no Kṛṣṇa Road. Hm? Who is remembering Kṛṣṇa?

Dr. Patel: There is Kṛṣṇa Art Gallery, in market. Kṛṣṇa Art Gallery. (laughing) (Hindi conversation with man about Kṛṣṇa's name) Ajāmila spoke "Nārāyaṇa." You may speak in the name of your father, that his called name. Heḥ?

Prabhupāda: That is a chance; that is not...

Man: Now the Air India's plane, they have kṛṣṇa-līlā pictures.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Man: In Air India plane.

Prabhupāda: That is sense enjoyment. Only Rādhārāṇī and Kṛṣṇa. And when Kṛṣṇa is killing Kaṁsa, that picture is.... Killing Kaṁsa, that picture you won't find. Kṛṣṇa is embracing gopīs, "Ah, that is very nice!" (laughter) Because "We are doing the same thing, we are following Kṛṣṇa." That is their purpose. They are very much fond of Kṛṣṇa's mixing with the gopīs because they get a support, that "What we are doing..."

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: There are so many examples. Why you believe your rascal eyes? Why you are proud of seeing? You cannot see.

Devotee: They may say in relation to that...

Prabhupāda: You have got the same eyes, but when it is dark you cannot see. Then what is the value of your eyes? You see under condition. That is not absolute. (break) ...should be informed that why you have changed? Now, the Russian and Chinese, first of all they began believing Lenin or Marx.

Madhudviṣa: Marx was the original.

Prabhupāda: Now they are not in agreement. Why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They saw practically... It was impractical.

Prabhupāda: That means for advancement of knowledge you have to change. They accept this theory, revolution. So if you get better situation, why you'll not change?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They accept a better theory when it is presented.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is presented. This is the beginning, that "Your knowledge is imperfect. You are believing your eyes, but that is not perfect knowledge. You have to see with knowledge." Paśyati jñāna... Paśyanti jñāna-cakṣuṣā. Śāstra-cakṣuṣāt. That is seeing, not seeing like a child. A child is seeing, a motor car is running, a airplane is running. He thinks a wonderful machine, but it is not the machine. It is the pilot. It is the driver. A child cannot see it. The father knows that it is not the machine. The machine may be however perfectly made; it cannot run. There must be a perfect pilot also. Just like we get on aeroplane. There are hundreds of men. If there is any trouble, then the pilot can stop it, not the hundreds of men.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Individual freedom means.... We should always know our freedom is limited.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Limited. Yes. But...

Prabhupāda: So we are not.... Because the Absolute, so how you can..., your freedom can be absolute?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: So the karmī thinks.... His freedom is limited to thinking "Am I going to eat this meat rare or well done?" That is the sort of freedom he is getting.

Prabhupāda: No, you have to...

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Completely ignorance.

Prabhupāda: Just like a thief. He also has got the conscience, "Why shall I steal?"

Ātreya Ṛṣi: "This or this."

Prabhupāda: "This or this." But he knows that "If I do it, I shall be punished."

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes. But when an individual spirit...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is that actual freedom, though? Is that freedom?

Prabhupāda: No, I have already said that you cannot have absolute freedom.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: And when you carry out that order—you fully surrender—then you enjoy full freedom.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is full freedom.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That is the freedom.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is freedom.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That is absolute freedom.

Prabhupāda: Full freedom means to be under the order of the Supreme. That is full freedom. That is full freedom.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: The cinema or restaurant is not freedom. It's completely conditioning under the laws of material nature. But fully surrendered soul is fully free.

Prabhupāda: No, no, if you simply, even if you want to go to a cinema...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He's still responsible for going.

Prabhupāda: If you ask, "Father, I wish to see cinema," if father says, "All right, we'll go," that is not sinful. But you go in your own whims—that is sinful. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1).

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Guest (2): Well, he's trying to say that the Mormons overeat meat. And all I'm saying is, well, the scripture which was revealed to the modern-day prophet Joseph Smith was that "Whoever.... Who does abstained from meat is not ordained of God." And I have no intentions to get contentious about it. So all I'm saying is I'm honored to be here, and it's good to be here.

Prabhupāda: No, no, the point is that in the Commandment it is clearly said, "Thou shall not kill." So what does it mean? That unless there is absolute necessity, we shall not kill.

Guest (2): I think that's right, and I feel that way.

Prabhupāda: So when.... At least in America or any civilized country, there is ample food for human being. Why they should kill? If you can live without killing cows, if you can utilize cows in a different way.... Just like we are maintaining a farm—not one, many. They are maintaining cows and we are getting enough milk. And from milk we can prepare varieties of palatable, vitaminous, nutritious food. And that is very, very enjoyable. So let the animal live and take the milk, and just like we.... None of us, we take meat, but we are not dying. We are having so many nice preparation from milk, from grains, from fruit. Besides that, our another principle is that we offer to God. So God said that "Give Me vegetables, milk," like that. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). So we offer these things, and we take the leftover. That is our principle. We are not after killing or not killing. We are simply after obeying the orders of Kṛṣṇa. That is our. So Kṛṣṇa says, "Give Me food from the vegetables." So we offer Him very nice, palatable dishes and eat. This is our principle.

Press Conference -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Interviewer: Well, I'm sure many New Zealanders would like to know the very reason why your...

Prabhupāda: Oh, everywhere we are liked.

Interviewer: No, why do your followers chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa chant in the street? What is the reason behind this?

Prabhupāda: Reason is that Hare Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa is the name of God, Kṛṣṇa. So if you... Kṛṣṇa is absolute, God is absolute. God's name and God, there is no difference. That is absolute idea. So if you chant Kṛṣṇa's name, that means you associate with Kṛṣṇa directly, God. And by associating with God, you become purified. Then the dirty things within your mind... You are thinking, "I am this body," as the dog is also thinking, "I belong to America," "I belong to Australia," "I belong to New Zealand," "I... India," and... These wrong conception will go away. Then we'll understand that "I am not this or that; I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God." Then real knowledge begins, and if we act accordingly, our life becomes successful. So this movement is not meant for you and me—for everyone who is intelligent human being.

Interviewer: Thank you, Swami. That wraps it up for me unless anybody's got any more questions? Thank you, thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you very much. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: They are spiritual.

Rāmeśvara: Is this true for the plants and flowers?

Prabhupāda: Everything. Everything. They are spiritual, absolute. There is no condition. Because it is tree, it cannot move. That is condition.

Rāmeśvara: No condition. In the spiritual world, can trees and plants communicate? Here they have no means of communication, no talking.

Prabhupāda: Everything is possible.

Rāmeśvara: The animals can also understand and communicate.

Prabhupāda: You can milk the cows as many times as you like, and as much as you like.

Rāmeśvara: And talk with them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no limit. That is spiritual world.

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

Prabhupāda: This is our disease. When we're talking of spiritual world, we are bringing material thoughts. To bring coal in Sheffield. What is called. Sheffield? There are many coal mines?

Hari-śauri: To bring coals to Newcastle.

Prabhupāda: Yes, like that. Why should you bring your material ideas to the spiritual world? There is no relativity. Everything absolute.

Rāmeśvara: There is no day or night. Everything is self-illuminating.

Prabhupāda: There is, but there is no need. What is this penguin? No, penguin? Literature?

Rāmeśvara: It's a bird found in the South Pole, penguin, lives in the south, bottom of the earth.

Prabhupāda: Bottom of the...?

Rāmeśvara: It's called Antarctica. Are there seasonal changes, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Rain and different seasonal...?

Prabhupāda: Everything is there, but there is no necessity.

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

Rāmeśvara: Kṛṣṇa's incarnation is to attract the living entities to Kṛṣṇa. So let me read about rāsa-līlā, because I'm feeling some attraction.

Prabhupāda: Then why not Kurukṣetra-līlā? What...? Kurukṣetra-līlā... Kṛṣṇa's līlā is the same, absolute. You are attracted to rāsa-līlā means you have got sex desire. That's all.

Rāmeśvara: I may still have sex desire, but this will purify me.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. This will purify. You are not purified.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Putrefied.

Prabhupāda: That is.... The, this rāsa-līlā is for the person who is completely purified. What...? When one is impure, he should not think of. That is stated in the Bhāgavatam.

Rāmeśvara: In this they have misunderstood your Kṛṣṇa book.

Prabhupāda: They must have misunderstood. They are all rascals.

Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: There must be some goal, ultimate goal. That we must know. That is called pursuit. If you do not know what is the ultimate goal of life, then there is no meaning of pursuit.

Richard: Um.

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda is talking about an absolute reality, not a relative reality.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Richard: What is your definition of an absolute reality?

Prabhupāda: That is final.

Richard: A goal.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Richard: Okay, and what is the absolute reality?

Prabhupāda: Relative means it is understood in two ways. Absolute means there are no two ways, final. Final. So what is the final aim of our life? That we must know.

Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Richard: Do you know?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, we know, everyone, all of our students.

Richard: What is that absolute reality that is the absolute goal?

Rāmeśvara: The absolute goal is to understand that within this body there is a living force which is spiritual, and that spiritual force is a servant of God. It has a relationship with God. Apart from how you perceive the world through your senses, beyond that there is a soul which has a relationship with God. That is the absolute reality. You may perceive the world in so many ways through your senses, but beyond that, within your body there is a soul which is yearning for a relationship, a loving relationship with God. And if you neglect that relationship due to your senses...

Prabhupāda: Ignorance.

Rāmeśvara: ...or ignorance, then you're missing the reality of life and you're living in an illusion. Due to your senses you're living, you could live, be living in illusion. The senses are not perfect instruments for understanding reality. There is another process for understanding reality. The senses are not perfect. Therefore one should not depend upon the senses to understand reality. There is a greater process.

Richard: And how is that found?

Prabhupāda: You find out this verse: sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriyaṁ grāhyam.

Rāmeśvara: What's the second word, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Sukham ātyantikam.

Garden Conversation -- June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Here difficulty is that the form is fixed up. That is not.... Just like Kṛṣṇa appears in so many forms, everything is spiritual. So what do you think?

Devotee (2): So the form in the spiritual sky is not absolute either? We can take different forms in the spiritual sky?

Prabhupāda: Yes, there are also many forms, but all of them are spiritual. The Vṛndāvana. There is tree, there is Yamunā water, there is land, there is cow, there is calf, there is gopas, gopīs, they are all spiritual. Just like from earth you make many forms, but they are earth. You make pots, you make dolls, but they are all earth. Similarly, spiritual world, there are many forms, they are all spiritual. What is the difficulty?

Pradyumna: Does that form ever change? That form changes also?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pradyumna: Kṛṣṇa is young and then He's a little older.

Prabhupāda: Generally, it does not change, if one likes this type of form. Śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I don't think that was the question. No? At least, I understand the question to be: Is service to the Supreme Lord the same as realization of the Absolute Truth?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: That is the Absolute Truth.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is service to the Supreme Lord the same as realization of the Absolute Truth?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Absolute means there is no difference. Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's service, same. So discuss it further.

Devotee: Is that to say that if one-brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11)—that if one simply goes on serving, engaging in all sorts of different activities for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, but he never, in this lifetime at least, has realization of Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān...?

Prabhupāda: What is the difficulty? Everything is explained. By seeing the sun one can understand the sunshine, the sun globe and the sun-god. There are three things. Within the sun globe, there is the sun-god. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam: (BG 4.1) "I spoke to Vivasvata." So there is a person Vivasvata, and the globe is there, we see, and the sunshine is there. So what is the difficulty to understand? Three things are there. The person within the sun globe, Vivasvata, is there, otherwise how Kṛṣṇa could speak with him? He says, imaṁ vivasvate yogam, "unto Vivasvata I spoke." So there is a person. And we can see the globe, and we can see the sunshine. Is there any difficulty? So similarly, the Brahman is the sunshine, light, and Paramātmā is the sun globe, and Bhagavān is the sun-god. This is, the sun is one example. From this example, we can understand the Absolute. Where is the difficulty? (aside:) Sit down properly. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). As heat and light, all of them are the same... In the sunshine there is heat and light, in the sun globe there is heat and light, and within the sun globe there is heat and light, but the temperature is different. You can tolerate the heat and light of the sunshine, but if you go to the sun globe you'll be finished. Temperature's so high, it requires a special qualification. Similarly, from heat and light point of view, Brahman, Paramātmā, Bhagavān, the same. Everywhere there is heat and light, but the temperature is different. So one who understands Brahman, he cannot understand Paramātmā. He understands, but not as thoroughly. Similarly, one who understands Paramātmā, he can (not) understand Bhagavān, but if you understand Bhagavān, then you understand Paramātmā, Brahman, everything.

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

Prabhupāda: And that Vedānta-sūtra says, athāto brahma jijñāsaḥ. Now here Arjuna is experienced, "You are the Supreme Brahman." So he has seen the Supreme Brahman. So you make Arjuna guru, Kṛṣṇa guru. Arjuna is representative of Kṛṣṇa, friend of Kṛṣṇa. So why do you go to a bogus guru? You must be cheated. Guru is essential. It is necessary. But take the real guru. But if you go to the bogus guru, you must be disappointed. For your treatment you need to go to a physician. That's all. When you are diseased you cannot say, "No, no, I don't want to..." It is necessary. But go to the real physician. Don't go to a cheater. He has no knowledge in the medical science, and he places himself as "I am physician, MD." Then you'll be cheated. The guru is necessary, that's a fact. But go to the real guru. Who is real guru? Real guru is Kṛṣṇa or one who has seen Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna. Take them. Then you'll be benefitted. And if you go to a bogus man who does not know Kṛṣṇa, who does not know what is Kṛṣṇa's instruction, then you must be cheated. So the answer is guru is absolute necessary. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). This is Vedic injunction, that one must go. But he must go to the real guru. And who is real guru? Who knows Kṛṣṇa. Take, for example, Arjuna, how he studied Kṛṣṇa. And he says, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma (BG 10.12).

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: I have heard that mathematics believes by some imaginary thing, minus, so on, like that.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The absolute numbers?

Prabhupāda: Something minus one, like that. Who is mathematician here?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: (laughs) Here is our mathematician.

Prabhupāda: All right, so is that the beginning of mathematics?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: What is the beginning of mathematics?

Sadāpūta: Well, the beginning of mathematics is counting a number. We have that square root of minus one.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That I heard. The beginning is minus one. That is imaginary; it is not fact. But they imagine something at the beginning.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. In fact it is called imaginary number. Square root of minus one.

Prabhupāda: Yes, if mathematics begins with imaginary something, why not Absolute Truth? That Absolute Truth must be life. As Bhāgavata explains, janmādy asya yato 'nvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ (SB 1.1.1). He must be aware of everything. That means life. That means life. Now the question is how He became experienced? Svarāṭ, independent. Just like we require experience, knowledge, from somebody else. Experienced knowledge is not gained automatically, but the Absolute means that He is full of knowledge. How He got knowledge? Svarāṭ, independently. That is the description. You have to imagine at least like that. It is Vedic injunction, it is the fact, that Absolute Truth independently cognizant of everything. That is Absolute Truth.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is also further described about this Absolute Truth as vadanti tat tattva-vidas... (SB 1.2.11).

Prabhupāda:

vadanti tat tattva-vidas

tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam

brahmeti paramātmeti

bhagavān iti śabdyate

(SB 1.2.11)

That is the Absolute. Go on.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Now these statements are quite scientifically valid and sound. Now this will be verified in our next slide that is called the axioms. This is called structure of a theory. In scientific disciplines, specifically in mathematics, now scientists work with a beginning called axioms. There are two types of axioms. First one is logical axiom, and second one is theoretical axioms. Now from these axioms, by inference, actually one deduces these theorems. That's in the second block. From there, by observation, we have this object of study. Now the basic question is wherefrom these axioms coming from? The starting point, axioms, they take it for granted, and actually there is no proof. It is beyond proof, beyond any scientific proof.

Prabhupāda: Vedānta-sūtra means all axiom. Vedānta-sūtra, that is all axiom. Axiomatic truth.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So the way that science works, also they depend on axioms. But actually, when one analyzes this a little thoughtfully, one should come to the conclusion that actually these axioms are coming from the Absolute. So our first proposition that in order to understand life and matter one must have this, er, some knowledge of the Absolute Truth is scientifically sound.

Prabhupāda: I tried to explain something in the beginning of Īśopaniṣad, my lecture in the Conway Hall, what is that Absolute Truth. "Introduction." I have given the example that the Vedas say cow dung is pure. This is axiomatic truth. Now if you analyze cow dung you'll find all the antiseptic properties are there. This is axiomatic.

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

Dr. Sukla: There are certain hymns in Vedas which are so personal and... And I don't find anything in Vedas impersonal. As a matter of fact...

Prabhupāda: No, no, impersonal there is. Impersonal means negation of this material thing. Neti neti, "Not this." Impersonal means not this material person. That is impersonal. Kṛṣṇa is person, but in order to convince people that He's person but not a material person, the material things have to be negated. That is Upaniṣad. Just to evade the material conception of the Absolute. But ultimately He's person. Brahmaṇo 'ham pratiṣṭhā. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣu (Bs. 5.40). These things are there. So in order to substantiate the Supreme Person as completely spiritual, the material conception of personality is rejected. That is impersonal. Nirguṇa means He has no material qualities. Bhakta-vatsala, Kṛṣṇa is bhakta-vatsala. That is not material quality, that is spiritual quality. So negation of material understanding is impersonal. But when one is fully in awareness of Kṛṣṇa, His spiritual identity, then again He's person.

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

Prabhupāda: So this is his world of duality. You cannot have all support on your side. It isn't...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, we always expect opposition.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. That is...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We must be ready for...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) just like we're opposing their theory. They are not absolute.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Science, science also, Prabhupāda, changing the subject level, science also comes to the conclusion that the stars and this universe have..., they die out and then they produce new ones, just like life cycle of the living body. So...

Prabhupāda: Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So in fact, one of the remarks of a scientist, Nobel laureate actually, in Harvard, Mādhava told me he was in American Association for the Advancement of Science. This professor is a professor in biology in Harvard, Boston. His answer was that, "In order to have man in this planet, the stars have to die." That means we come from the stars. The particles, from the stars, then the main involved from those molecules, that star, that come from the stars.

Prabhupāda: You do something. I can give you the idea. But it is fact. What ideas I am giving, that's a fact. Now it is up to you to put it (into) so-called scientifics. He'll... In future millions of years after it will create one living entity in the laboratory, so he's taking all the credit, and God is creating millions and millions already, He has no credit. You'll see their intelligence. What the people will gain even if you manufacture one life in the laboratory? So what is the gain? Why you are spending so much money?

Yadubara: They want to become God.

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

Prabhupāda: Fifth Chapter?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: "This chapter is chiefly devoted to describing the essential nature and glories of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the absolute Personality of Godhead, and His first expansion in a form for pastimes is Śrī Balarāma. Beyond the limitation of this material world is the spiritual sky, paravyoma, which has many spiritual planets, the supreme of which is called Kṛṣṇaloka. Kṛṣṇaloka, the abode of Kṛṣṇa, has three divisions, which are known as Dvārakā, Mathurā and Gokula. In that abode the Personality of Godhead expands Himself into four plenary portions-Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, Pradyumna (the transcendental Cupid) and Aniruddha. They are known as the original quadruple forms. In Kṛṣṇaloka is a transcendental place known as Śvetadvīpa, or Vṛndāvana. Below Kṛṣṇaloka, in the spiritual sky, are the Vaikuṇṭha planets. On each Vaikuṇṭha planet a four-handed Nārāyaṇa, expanded from the first quadruple manifestation, is present. The Personality of Godhead known as Śrī Balarāma in Kṛṣṇaloka is the original Saṅkarṣaṇa (attracting Deity), and from this Saṅkarṣaṇa expands another Saṅkarṣaṇa, called Mahā-Saṅkarṣaṇa, who resides in one of the Vaikuṇṭha planets. By His internal potency, Mahā-Saṅkarṣaṇa maintains the transcendental existence of all the planets in the spiritual sky, where all the living beings are eternally liberated souls. The influence of the material energy is conspicuous there by its absence. On those planets the second quadruple manifestation is present. Outside of the Vaikuṇṭha planets is the impersonal manifestation of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, which is known as the Brahmaloka. On the other side of the Brahmaloka is the spiritual kāraṇa-samudra, or Causal Ocean. The material energy exists on the other side of the Causal Ocean, without touching it. In the Causal Ocean is Mahā-Viṣṇu, the original puruṣa expansion from Saṅkarṣaṇa. This Mahā-Viṣṇu places His glance over the material energy, and by a reflection of His transcendental body He amalgamates Himself within the material elements. As the source of the material elements, the material energy is known as pradhāna, and as the source of the manifestations of the material energy it is known as māyā. But material nature is inert in that she has no independent power to do anything. She is empowered to make the cosmic manifestation by the glance of Mahā-Viṣṇu. Therefore the material energy is not the original cause of the material manifestation. Rather, the transcendental glance of Mahā-Viṣṇu over material nature produces that cosmic manifestation."

Prabhupāda: So you try to understand this, everything will be clear. Material energy has no power to create. It is this glance that makes material energy energetic. Chemical combination, that alkaline and acid, they create some agitation, effervescence, but it is done by the chemist. He mixes the two liquids and there is effervescence. It is like that. So you read that chapter carefully. You'll solve your problem.

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

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa has already come. What I am speaking? Kṛṣṇa is there. But you have no eyes to see.

Vipina: All right, but we don't have any eyes, someone may not have eyes to see who you are, may not be willing, but when you come...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's word are not different. If you find it different, then you have no eyes to see. Kṛṣṇa is absolute. When I quote Kṛṣṇa's word, that means Kṛṣṇa.

Vipina: But everyone sees it as different.

Prabhupāda: Because he is a rascal. He has to become a sane man, then he will see. It requires tapasya. It is not so easy. That is called sahajiyā. Why you want such exalted things so easily? Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's words, they are the same. Vāco vācaḥ.(?) The same thing. Why you are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? If Kṛṣṇa's name and Kṛṣṇa is not the same, then what is the use of wasting time? Hm? What is that? Abhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ.

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

Prabhupāda: That you say. Or you can write, "Spiritual Science." No. That will not ring for them. They will not understand "Spiritual Science."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: How about "perfect science," "complete science."

Devotee: "Absolute science."

Rūpānuga: "Science of the absolute." So I'll be coming to New York, but first I have to go to Ratha-yātrā in Philadelphia. They are having Ratha-yātrā on the tenth. Then I don't think there will be any GBC meetings earlier than that, so I'll go there first. (to devotees:) Any other scientists have any other questions they'd like to ask Śrīla Prabhupāda while we have this time?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, any question?

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

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

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

Indian man (3): Not blindly.

Prabhupāda: Not blindly. But you must know... Just like if you accept the government, and the government orders, "This man should be hanged," you have to accept it. You cannot protest that "The government has ordered this man should be hanged. It should be protested." And who will care for your protest? Government is government. You cannot criticize. You may criticize on account of your less intelligence, but government order is all. Is it not? If government orders that "This man should be hanged," can you say anything against it? It will not be accepted. Similarly, if you know that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, then as Arjuna said, sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye yan māṁ vadasi keśava (BG 10.14). Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitram (BG 10.12). Unless you understand Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's personality, you will try to weight the strength of His words, the value of His words. But if you understand other statement... Just like Kṛṣṇa says mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7), "I am the supreme authority." So if He is the supreme authority, then whatever He has said, it is all right. But if you have doubt about He's supreme authority, then you will find out His fault. That is the defect. So if Kṛṣṇa says that "I am the supreme authority..."

mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat

kiñcid asti dhanañjaya

mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ

sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva

(BG 7.7)

If you understand that Kṛṣṇa is the supreme authority, then you will understand that whatever He has said, that is absolute. Now if we become doubtful, that is on account of our less intelligence. Why you are questioning this, that Kṛṣṇa... What you are question?

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

Prabhupāda: To delude them. Read the purport.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, appeared in the province of Gayā (Bihar) as the son of Añjanā, and he preached his own conception of nonviolence and deprecated even the animal sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared, the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh to anything else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice, every place was practically turned into a slaughterhouse, and animal killing was indulged in unrestrictedly. Lord Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He preached that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the adverse psychological effects incurred by animal killing. Less intelligent men of the age of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and for the time being they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence, the preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God realization. He deluded the atheists because such atheists who followed his principles did not believe in God, but they kept their absolute faith in Lord Buddha, who himself was the incarnation of God. Thus the faithless people were made to believe in God in the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: he made the faithless faithful to him. Killing of animals before the advent of Lord Buddha was the most prominent feature of the society. They claimed that these were Vedic sacrifices. When the Vedas were not accepted through the authoritative disciplic succession, the casual readers of the Vedas are misled by the flowery language of that system of knowledge. In the Bhagavad-gītā a comment has been made on such foolish scholars. The foolish scholars of Vedic literature who do not care to receive the transcendental message through the transcendental realized sources of disciplic succession are sure to be bewildered. To them, the ritualistic ceremonies are considered to be all in all. They have no depth of knowledge. According to the Bhagavad-gītā, the whole system of the Vedas is to lead one gradually to the path of the Supreme Lord. The whole theme of Vedic literature is to know the Supreme Lord, the individual soul, the cosmic situation and the relations between all these items. When the relation is known, the relative function begins, and as a result of such a function the ultimate goal of life of going back to Godhead takes place in the easiest manner. Unfortunately, unauthorized scholars of the Vedas become captivated by the purificatory ceremonies only, and natural progress is checked thereby. To such bewildered persons of atheistic propensity, Lord Buddha is the emblem of theism. He therefore first of all wanted to check the habit of animal killing. The animal killers are dangerous elements on the path of going back to Godhead. There are two types of animal killers. The soul is also sometimes called the animal, or the living being. Therefore both the slaughterers of animals as well as those who have lost their identity as the soul are animal killers. Mahārāja Parīkṣit said that only the animal killer cannot relish the transcendental message of the Supreme Lord. Therefore if people are to be educated on the path of Godhead, they must be taught first and foremost to stop the process of animal killing as above mentioned. It is nonsensical to say that animal killing has nothing to do with spiritual realization. By this dangerous theory many so-called sannyāsīs have sprung up by the grace of Kali-yuga to preach animal killing under the garb of the Vedas."

Prabhupāda: Now there are so many rascals in this dress of sannyāsī, they are eating meat. That is going on. They say, "What is the wrong of eating meat? Can eat." They eat meat.

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

Prabhupāda: Now you were referring to the Vedic principle, but that does not mean you have to open slaughterhouse. But these rascals are opening slaughterhouse. You think it is Vedic principle? Suppose it is recommended that animals should be sacrificed in the Vedic ritualistic ceremony. Does it mean that you shall open regular slaughterhouse? Just as the Christians say that Jesus Christ ate fish, therefore they are right in opening big, big slaughterhouse? Maybe Lord Jesus Christ ate fish in some awkward circumstance, but that does not mean that he is recommending to open slaughterhouse. In the Ten Commandments he says, "Thou shalt not kill." When there is absolute necessity, there is no other food, that is another thing, but if there is sufficient other foodstuff, why should you kill? They are not even human being, those who are animal killers. Vinā paśughnāt (SB 10.1.4). Those who are animal killers, they are not even human being, what to speak of religious system. Nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt ka uttamaśloka-guṇa (SB 10.1.4). If you are animal killer, your God consciousness is finished. You'll never be able to understand what is God. Then your life is finished. This life is meant for understanding God, and if you are animal killer, then your God understanding is finished.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: She is good saleswoman.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She is very good. And Tripurāri, I watched him in action. One person came up and said "I want a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.2." So he looked and said "We have 2.1.," and he said "I want 2." So he said "This is very close. 2.1 and 2.2 are very close to each other, and it's all absolute." In this way he made the man take one.

Prabhupāda: No, actually that is a fact. There is no difference, 2.2 and 1.

Bali-mardana: And then we had a life membership table with Gajahanta and Śravaṇānanda. The Indians were all coming, and there were chairs for them to sit down, and they were preaching to them life membership.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they had..., you know that little portable movie screen, you may have seen, it comes in an attache case.

Hari-śauri: Like Gargamuni's, he showed you in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Read. What does it say?

Pṛthu-putra: (translating) (sic:) "The classical induries(?) based on sacred scriptures from which the eighteen great Purāṇas has a central place. These vast poems, their character give theologic teaching is giving all the knowledge of the Veda, and in the substance of the Purāṇa there is the face of the Indian populations. While reciting them in the temples and the preacher are giving commentaries in the assembly of devotees, which is called sankīrtana. This teaching read to the chant and dancing on the glories of the Lord Bhagavān. Amongst all these Purāṇas, the most famous is the Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, called Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, because this literary form is achieved the most beautiful, and also because it's the poem which is expressing the best the doctrine of the faith that Sri Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Person, Purusottama, the principle of everything, the absolute unique without second, advaitam-brahman. Like in the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord reveals His majesty in plain. Much more than an avatara of Visnu, He appears in our eyes like the unique God. Towards Him all devotion is due. The French people are honored to have, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, to have the first edition of Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, but from long time already this work of the great Beurnuf"—that's the man who translated Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in nineteenth century in French—"is the reason why we have to thank very much the association, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, to give us that very big text, one of the master book of the humanity. This book is very benefic, and with the translation of the Sanskrit there is a commentary, the majestical commentary, which is given verse after verse by the master, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, founder of the association. As he did it with the Bhagavad-gītā, which was published in French in 1975 with the preface of a Professor Harvi Delacombe, Swami Prabhupāda explains word by word each mantra -stanza or sacred text-before to give a signification. Then the reader can judge every pieces, what is the meaning of the teaching of the master by confrontation with the text itself..."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: May be true to some extent, but they do not know the ultimate truth. That they do not know. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān (BG 7.19). He understands, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). That requires many, many births, to come to that conclusion. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). This Kṛṣṇa says. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya: (BG 7.7) "There is no more superior than Me." Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). He explains to everyone, sarva-dharman parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). That is the.... There is the ultimate person. You call Him Kṛṣṇa or something, but you must know Him. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ, there must be. Father's father's father's father's father's.... Who is the original father? There must be. Where is the wrong in this statement? So you find out the supreme father, but He has no father; He is the Absolute. Sarva-kāraṇa.... Anādir ādiḥ: "He has no beginning, but He is the beginning." Anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam (Bs. 5.1). So, Bhagavān may carry one letter that "I am very sorry. On account of my health failure, I could not go to see you, that professor and all devotees, and I am very, very sorry for this, but, I humbly invite you, come to India, and we shall be very glad to sit together," like that.

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

Bhūgarbha: He asks, What about the opposite, people becoming devotees without knowing anything? He asking...

Prabhupāda: No, devotee cannot be without knowing anything. A devotee means, a devotee means he knows everything. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati. This is Vedic injunction. One who knows the Absolute, he knows everything.

Yogeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda? That verse, does that mean that one who is neophyte...

Prabhupāda: Neophyte is neophyte. Why do you bring him to become a devotee? A devotee is different. A "one plus one equal to two," he's not mathematician. He's learning. There is hope one day he'll be a big mathematician. There are three stages, kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, madhyama-adhikārī, uttama-adhikārī. So when you speak of devotee, that is this uttama-adhikārī. So he knows everything. Rather, the so-called jñānī, he does not know. Because he does not know Kṛṣṇa. The so-called jñānī, he does not know what is Personality of Godhead. He's impersonalist. Therefore he is still unaware of the Absolute Truth. Therefore he's not jñānī. His jñāna, his knowledge, is lacking.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Ali: I believe in this one because when I dream...

Prabhupāda: No, believe or not believe, these are facts, that physical senses are not absolute.

Ali: That's exactly what I mean. It's so obvious.

Prabhupāda: Physical senses not absolute; it is the spiritual senses that acts through the physical instrument and utilize it.

Ali: I feel man has already accepted his physical deficiency. I was just watching Olympic, and it seemed so pathetic, they were just trying to jump higher and higher, and they couldn't do it.

Prabhupāda: No, the physical senses are to be spiritualized. You cannot appreciate God by physical senses. But when your physical senses are purified and it is spiritualized, then you can...

Ali: That's exactly what I meant when I said that whatever we see...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is process, how to... Just like iron rod, it is iron rod, but if you put into the process, that means if you put into the fire, a time will come the iron rod will be red hot and it is fire. Similarly, if you engage your physical senses only—(aside:) here is candle—when you engage your physical senses in the service of the Lord, then the physical quality of the senses will be diminished or gone, your spiritual sense activities will begin. This is practical.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Hari-śauri: It's always very relative.

Prabhupāda: Not absolute. Absolute independence, God. Even if you have got little independence it is relative, under condition.

Nandarāṇī: And the purpose of śāstra is to direct this minute independence so that it is not misused?

Prabhupāda: Just like in your state, you are independent citizen, but you must be guided by the laws. If you violate the laws, immediately you will be prisoner. The śāstra is like that, law. You have little independence, you can utilize it fully, under the laws. As soon as you violate, you are immediately put into suffering. Because you are a citizen of an independent country, America, doesn't mean that you can do whatever you like. But you do according to the laws of the country.

Dayānanda: You were talking the other morning on the walk about dharma and dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2).

Prabhupāda: Dharma means what God says, that is dharma. But you have created your own dharma. You give up that.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Mrs. Sahani: Chanting Kṛṣṇa's name is very essential.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the easiest way. By chanting Kṛṣṇa, you are associating with Kṛṣṇa. Because Kṛṣṇa is absolute, so Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name, no difference. Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's name, Kṛṣṇa's form, Kṛṣṇa's quality, everything, absolute. So chanting of Kṛṣṇa's name means you are associating with Kṛṣṇa. So if you are associating with Kṛṣṇa, then gradually you become Kṛṣṇa-ite.

Mrs. Sahani: Creates the desire to get knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Caitanya Mahāprabhu has recommended, paraṁ vijāyate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. Just like if you remain in touch with the fire, certainly you become warm. So if you remain always in touch with Kṛṣṇa, then you become Kṛṣṇized. Very easy. You haven't gone to the forest or Himalaya or meditate. Simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is recommended in the śāstra: harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva (CC Adi 17.21). You cannot perform any severe austerities, penance. Wherever you remain, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. And you become perfect. If not in one day... But you will become, if you continue chanting. And where is the difficulty? Where is the loss? And if there is some gain, why don't you try it? That is intelligence. I am not losing anything by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. If there is any gain, why not chant? Huh? Why is the argument not to chant? There is no loss, but if there is any profit, why don't you try to take it. Śāstra recommends. Kṛṣṇa recommends, satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). Find out this verse. Satataṁ kīrtayanto mām.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, for argument's sake.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Mental platform.

Prabhupāda: If you want me to do like you, I also want you to do like me. You cannot find fault with me by saying that I am not acting like you, sense gratification. If you are acting in your way, I am acting in my way.

Jñānagamya: It's relative.

Prabhupāda: But if you want philosophy, the aim of life, the destination of life, then we can talk, what is the destination of life, what is required. If you criticize me, then I can criticize you also.

Jñānagamya: Then we must take it to the absolute platform in order to actually have a sincere argument, to make a sincere decision.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no end of such things. Therefore unless one accepts a person guru, there is no need of talking. Tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Unless one accepts somebody as guru, the instruction will not be fruitful. Just like Arjuna is accepting Kṛṣṇa as guru. So long he was talking as friend, it was not effective. Arjuna therefore decided... Find out that verse, kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: These arguments against atheists are very convincing, and only absolute fools can resist it, but those fools we cannot do anything with.

Prabhupāda: No, no, they are, for them the argumentum ad baculum. You know argumentum ad baculum? You know? What is that.

Harikeśa: That's the fourth stage in diplomatic tactics, where you hit them with a stick.

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: For example...

Prabhupāda: For them, argumentum ad baculum. Sanskrit is mūrkhasya laktosadi(?). Just like animal. Animal, if you give argument, no. When you show stick and beat him, then he'll, he'll be... Argumentum ad baculum for them.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: In Iran most people accept all our philosophy fully, but they are not willing to accept authority from Kṛṣṇa because they say, well, why is... They cannot be convinced that Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead, Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Then there is proof: śāstra is there, sādhu is there, ācārya is there, other authorities are there. Just like Arjuna said, that, quoted Vyāsa, Nārada, Asita, Devala, "All of them have accepted You the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and You are explaining Yourself. Therefore I have no doubt." Vyāsadeva is authority, Nārada is authority, and there are many others. Recently, all the ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Caitanya Mahāprabhu... We are following the Caitanya cult, but He's stated yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa. He's accepting. Why does He say "Kṛṣṇa"? Why does He not say others? Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa yāre dekha (CC Madhya 7.128), tāre kaha And Kṛṣṇa also, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7), "There is no more superior person." And Arjuna accepted, "Whatever You are saying, it is all reasonable." Sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye (BG 10.14). "Whatever you have said, I accept in toto." There is no cut short, "I don't like this, I don't accept this." No, everything, sarvam etad.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Law of gravity does not work now also. There is no question of this discovery. You take one small needle and you take one big log. The log will float and the needle will go down. The needle is so less weight, but it goes down. And the log is so heavy, it floats. Where is law of gravity?

Indian man (2): But that is, that is only relative. Both are being acted upon...

Prabhupāda: Therefore relative, it is not absolute, law of gravity.

Indian man (2): The thing is, till now we are thinking that light (indistinct) things, and all our thinking was conditioned by that. At least in the scientific context.

Prabhupāda: Scientific context... In Hawaii they cut all the coconuts because they are very scientist-law of gravity. But we don't care for this. We don't care. We are keeping the coconut on our head. We never think of law of gravity, that it will fall down. And those who are very much advanced in law of gravity, they have lost all the beauty of the trees, they have thrown the... They are afraid they will...

Indian man (2): Fall on the head.

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

Prabhupāda: That means you are not properly trained up. The thing is, the first business of human being is to inquire about the spiritual subject matter. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is the Vedānta philosophy. Now we have got this human form of body, it is your duty to inquire about the spiritual subject matter. But if your guardians, if your parents, if your government does not teach you, then it is our misfortune.

Interviewer (3): Do you want this to become a part of the educational system here?

Prabhupāda: This is the first education. Otherwise it is animal. Animal does not require absolute education. Animal is not able to understand what is self, what is God. But a man can. Therefore the man's first business is to understand this self-realization.

Interviewer (3): Do you think it will come to India via the West now?

Prabhupāda: I don't follow.

Interviewer (3): Will it come to India via the West?

Prabhupāda: India is already there. You are neglecting. Why don't you admit that you are neglecting?

Interviewer (3): Will that neglect go, disappear, through the West?

Prabhupāda: How will that? If you don't like it, how it will go?

Interviewer (4): No, no, my colleague's point is, we have not been accepting, we are not able to understand Bhagavad-gītā on our own. Just because first Western people understand, and because of their...

Prabhupāda: No, no, you have neglected. My charge is that you have neglected. Bhagavad-gītā is there. Bhagavad-gītā is spoken in India. Bhagavad-gītā is there. I think every home has got a Bhagavad-gītā, but if you do not study it, you neglect it, that is your fault.

Meeting With Member of Parliament, Mr. Krishna Modi -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Krishna Modi: There is no difference. In the name of democracy this is the same thing. That's all.

Prabhupāda: No, democracy means the people must have political sense. Then democracy is there. If the people have no political sense, artificially they are giving vote, that democracy... Anyway, we are not political man, but so far whatever it may be, to change the present situation, I am confident if this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is taken seriously in India there will be very, very good thing. That is absolute. So we can take up this work provided there is little cooperation from the government.

Krishna Modi: Correct. So I will come to Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (end)

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...Sannyāsī should go on preaching, preaching, preaching, preaching. Practically, I was sitting here in Vṛndāvana, in Rādhā-Dāmodara temple. So at the age of seventy years, nobody goes out. At least from Vṛndāvana nobody goes at the age of seventy years. But Kṛṣṇa asked me. I thought that I must go, Guru Mahārāja wanted it, Caitanya Mahāprabhu... Let me try. So if I had not gone then this institution would not have developed. So this is practical. Mahataḥ nirvicaraṇam.(?) Mahātmā, they must move. So when there is absolute necessity they may stay. Otherwise, they must move. Move on, move on, move on, move on, move on. No staying. That is principle. No staying. I am this old age, I cannot move... My... I... So many... Still I am traveling all over the world. I am simply interested that whatever I have done, it may not be vanquished in my absence. Let me go and encourage them. Otherwise, I have no capacity to move now. But still I am moving. Only for this purpose. Girinaṁ grhna-cetasam.(?) So a sannyāsī must move. A sannyāsī must not stay anywhere more than three days. That is the principle. So he was moving, but his moving is creating disturbances here. Therefore I have stopped. And besides that, a temple is nirguṇa. A sannyāsī is forbidden to stay anywhere else, but in a temple he can stay for more than three days provided there is business. Otherwise, there is no necessity. So this is the exclusion(?).

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)...their arguments so strong.

Devotee: (indistinct) ...debaters.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: Yeah, and their theories were that because... Because they are, they have accepted your Divine Grace as the absolute authority, that they will do anything that you say and therefore these people are very dangerous. They don't care for anything. They're not interested in the normal standards and goals...

Prabhupāda: Charmistic, charmistic, what is that?

Haṁsadūta: Charismatic.

Hari-śauri: Charismatic.

Haṁsadūta: Charismatic. There is, they usually use this word to describe a person who attracts people, but no one can understand why.

Prabhupāda: Therefore they cannot explain, brainwash, mind control, charismatic, like that they use.

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

Prabhupāda: Not supreme. He says this is of the person, different ways of thinking. But everywhere He is stressing bhakti. Just like generally people are karmī. Karmīs. They are working hard. And he has made his plan. He has made his plan that, "In this way, I shall be happy." So throughout the whole world, the beginning from animals, lower than the man, and then men, different types of men... So manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi, every one of them, he is planning or he is thinking in different ways. So the animals, they cannot understand the master's answer. But in the human being, they are according to the mind, mental concoction and planning, there are four classes of men. One class is called karmī. They are thinking that by working hard and trying to find out my own way of happiness, they will be happy. This is called karmī. Without any knowledge, they are simply working. They are actually like the animals. The animals, the dog, is jumping, a few miles he is jumping. He is thinking that "By jumping I shall be happy." Or for the time being he may happy by jumping. And sometimes thinking otherwise. So karmīs, they do not know what is the actual aim of life. Out of many millions of persons, mostly they are karmīs. They do not know what is the actual aim of life. But they are devising different plans, that I shall be happy in this way." This is called karmī. He does not take the standard way of happiness. Then the next elevated person is jñānī. He thinks, ponders, that "I have worked so hard, but still I could not become happy." The jñānī. He searches out philosophically. Then next class, yogi. Yogi concentrates the mind to think over, "What is my problem? Why I am not happy? How he can become happy?" He is trying to, very soberly, to understand. Yoga means controlling the senses, and the master of the senses is the mind. So he, trying to make the mind concentrated on the fact, he is yogi. And then the next stage is... If he is yogi, then there are different types of yoga system. But when he comes to the point that "I am not master. There is one master, controller. So master, whatever master orders, I have to execute that. That is my real happiness." Bhakta. So karmī, jñānī, yogi, and bhakta. So out of these four classes of men, the three classes means karmī, jñānī and yogi, they are restless. Because they actually did not find out what is the solution. One after another, there are different classes, there are classification. One is better than the other. That is another thing. But none of them... They are still misled. A karmī, he is thinking that "I am poor man. If I become rich man, I will be happy." He is thinking in that way. Jñānī is thinking that "Poor and rich doesn't matter. I am Brahman. I am spirit soul. If I merge into the Supreme Brahman I will be happy." Yogi is thinking that "The Absolute is present everywhere in His personal feature. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). So if I become one with Him, I will be happy." But still there is a demand, "If I become like this." So so long he is not self-realized, he will try to become something and so long he'll try to become something, then there will be restlessness. There cannot be happiness. And when he comes to the realization point that "Why I am trying to become something, I am this and this that is my position," then he becomes happy. That is bhakti. Everyone is trying to become something. And bhakta knows "I am this." There is no question of becoming. And this is my position. Very nice. Therefore Kṛṣṇa ultimately said that "This is the most confidential knowledge, Arjuna. I am teaching you so many things. There is no need of understanding so many things. The real thing is that I am the master, you are My servant. You surrender unto Me, that's all. Then you'll be happy."

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ajñāna. None of them.

Yogi Amrit Desai: Prema-bhakti is sac-cid-ānanda. (?)

Prabhupāda: No, tattva-jñānārtha-darśanam. Tattva. Tattva, what is tattva?

vadanti tat tattva-vidas

tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam

brahmeti paramātmeti

bhagavān iti śabdyate

(SB 1.2.11)

"One who has understood these three features of the Absolute—Bhāgavata—Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān, he knows tattva." That is tattva. Yo jānāti tattvataḥ. So where is that tattva-jñāna? Tattva-jñānārtha-darśanam. That is philosophy, when he is trying to understand the tattva. And Bhagavān says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). That is tattva. So everything is there, Bhagavad-gītā. And they are distorting the meaning of Bhagavad-gītā, explaining in their own way and cheating people. We are presenting, therefore, Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Then it is acting. So he is now in the West Coast?

Yogi Amrit Desai: Who? Yes.

Prabhupāda: What you are doing there? (break) Actually, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. Asat mithyā. (break) ...asat, but we are now situated in this asat situation life after life. That is called mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. Accepting one body after another, another, another, another, it is going on. Therefore, asat-saṅga-tyāga ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra (CC Madhya 22.87). Then what is that asat? That Caitanya Mahāprabhu..., strī-saṅgī eka asādhu kṛṣṇābhakta āra. There are two asats. Two asats. Asat-saṅga-tyāga. And to give up asat association... Then the next question is: "How you will know who is asat, who is sat?" So He said, asat eka strī-saṅgī. Anyone who has association with woman, he is asat.

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

Prabhupāda: This education is lacking throughout the whole world, and we have started this movement to give this education, and people are against. That means they have become so fallen that they cannot even take up right knowledge. The same proverb: "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." So we have to struggle against this darkness, but we have to do it. This is our mission. We cannot stop it. It is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission, para-upakāra. People are kept in darkness, and... That is not Caitanya Mahāprabhu... Kṛṣṇa's mission actually. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). "When people are misguided," tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham, "at that time I come down." So the whole world is misguided on this bodily concept of life, and this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means Kṛṣṇa has come down in the shape of this movement. That is the real fact. Nāma-rūpe kṛṣṇa kali-kāle avatāra. "In the Kali-yuga Kṛṣṇa is incarnated in the form of His name, Hare Kṛṣṇa." Therefore in this age... That... Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51). This is the injunction of the śāstras. Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya. Simply by chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, mukta-saṅga, he becomes free from all this material contamination, and he paraṁ vrajet, he goes back home, back to... So this name is not different. Because Kṛṣṇa is absolute, there is no difference between His name and Himself. And that is confirmed in the śāstra, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends, śāstra recommends. We're just following their footprints, that's all. Kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ. This Kali-yuga is the ocean of faults. So... But there is one great opportunity in this ocean of faults. What is that? Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ param... (SB 12.3.51). That is a great facility to these rascals, that if they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra they become free from all contamination and become fit for going back home, back to Godhead. So this is a authorized movement. It is not a concoction, manufactured idea. So we are doing that.

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

Prabhupāda: If they have no conception, we should give them conception that the body is dead, decomposed, then where is the sex? Where is the inclination? Similarly, the soul originally... As it is said in the Vedānta-sūtra, that "Everything is coming from Brahman." Athāto brahma jijñāsā: "Now let us talk about Brahman." This is the meaning of athāto brahma-jijñāsāh. Then next verse is..., sūtra, code-janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). And Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo (BG 10.8). So unless sex comes from God... It may be perverted in the material world. That is another thing. But originally, pure sex must be there in God. Otherwise how it comes? Everything is emanating from the Supreme. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). So how you can say there is no sex? Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that janmādy asya, ādi-rasa. Ādi. Ādi-rasa means sex enjoyment. So he has explained that sex has come from... Because we have used perverted sex, we have got a very bad idea. But actually sex is there in the original. Otherwise there is no question of mādhurya-rasa. Hlādinī-śakti. There is no question of sex. You do not understand Absolute. The opposition party will inquire you, but sex is originally from Brahman.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: World Health Organization.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Why you are trying for? Simply make a show? You are thinking already, but you do not know. Your world is your father, mother, and two sisters, that's all. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tridhātuke svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu. That is your world. A little family, a little community, that is your world. We do not think in that way. We include even the animals, trees, plants-brothers. That is our philosophy. We feel. When you cut a tree unnecessarily, we feel. This is our feeling. Unless there is absolute necessity, we do not wish to kill even a tree, what to speak of animals. When in our Bombay the coconut trees were being cut, I was feeling actually: "Why unnecessarily the coconut trees...?" You cannot give anyone life, so how, what is living, you can kill? It may be tree or animal or plant. You cannot give him life. So you have to suffer for this.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: And that philosopher of this philosophy, Camus, he said, "Don't try to lead me because I may not want to follow you, and don't follow me because I am not capable of leading you. Just walk beside me and be my friend." So he said by writing his books he was not trying to lead other people but just trying to free them from following falsely any absolute philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Then he has to follow you because by taking your instruction I shall stop following others; that means I'll have to follow you. So what is the benefit? Instead of following others, I have to follow you? My following is there. That is not stopped.

Satsvarūpa: They claim they don't want to be leaders, but actually they do.

Prabhupāda: That means rascal. What he says, that is contradictory. That means rascal.

Pṛthu-putra: But he commit suicide at the end of his life, Camus, yes. He's a philosopher, a French philosopher. He commit suicide at the end of his life. Can you believe that?

Passerby: Jaya!

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: You were asking yesterday what are some of the charges that the opposing party makes against us. That's another one, that we follow absolute authority, your authority and also in the temples, that the temple president or leaders, they have authority, and this is not healthy psychology, that we should...

Prabhupāda: Why you come to pose your authority? If authority is not good, then why do you come to instruct your authority? Hm? The same thing, eh, change from one authority to another authority.

Satsvarūpa: But I don't say you have to accept me absolutely as...

Prabhupāda: Then why do you speak nonsense then, if I haven't got to accept you? What is the use of speaking all nonsense? If nobody accepts you, then why do you talk nonsense? Somebody's selling something, and if he says, "Don't purchase it," then what is the use of... (laughs) All contradiction. After all, they are nonsense.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: They think that by surrendering to the spiritual master, if many people do this, it will be very dangerous because they won't think for themselves.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all right. But you ask to surrender to you, so why shall I not surrender to my spiritual master? What is the use of changing surrendering?

Satsvarūpa: Well, at least if we don't have absolute authority, I may tell you something and if it's not good, you don't have to follow me.

Prabhupāda: So why do you speak nonsense, the same thing, if I haven't got to follow you? Why you waste your time and waste my time?

Hari-śauri: If what he's saying has no value, then why should he speak?

Prabhupāda: Then why do you waste your time?

Satsvarūpa: Relative value.

Prabhupāda: That I have already got.

Satsvarūpa: And that's all there is, they say.

Prabhupāda: Already I have got relative value.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: ...subject matter.

Hari-śauri: It was that article on transcendental science.

Prabhupāda: And no irresponsible article should be published, strictly. It is going to be future evidence. Not whimsical.

Hari-śauri: There's no reason why the BTG should be any different from any of our books. There's no reason why the BTG standard should be different from our books. We take your books as absolute authority.

Prabhupāda: No, it will not be.

Hari-śauri: BTG should not be any different from that.

Prabhupāda: See to that.

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That is another imagination, as if by leper colony he'll stop his death. It is not possible. The real solution, real problem, is this, that "Why you are dying?" Stop this.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Science, in principle, is also aiming for two things. One is to understand the nature of the Absolute. Indirectly or to some degree, science is aiming at that, too, plus to solve the problems of life. These two...

Prabhupāda: The problems of life is birth, death, old age, disease. That they cannot... Real problem is this.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like trying to relieve my cold or some sort of physical suffering. That is temporary.

Prabhupāda: That is temporary. That is temporary. That I can change without your scientific help. Now you have discovered this sweater. I can go to the sunshine, and it will be all right. I don't require. Nature's arrangement is already there.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Bhavānanda: They also say that everything... They accept everything as part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Everything is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa and everyone has same qualities as Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, that is not the fact. That is rascaldom.

Bhavānanda: One drop of the ocean contains all the qualities of the big ocean, the chemical components...

Prabhupāda: Then all the qualities, not the quantity. Then how it can be equal?

Bhavānanda: But absolute means that a part is also equal to the whole.

Prabhupāda: Equal to the whole in quality, not in quantity.

Bhavānanda: Then in quantity means universal form.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Bhavānanda: Not Kṛṣṇa. Not Kṛṣṇa but universal form.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is... Kṛṣṇa is bigger than the universal form. Kṛṣṇa assumed the universal form, not that universal form made Kṛṣṇa.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Wonderful. Thank you very much.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is him, this boy.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Very good. The more you distribute books, the more you are blessed. There is no more or less. Everyone is blessed... (laughter) There is no such discrimination, but still, there is some competition. (laughter) In Vṛndāvana there is no discrimination that gopīs are the highest and others... No. Every one is all right. Still, from neutral point of view, the gopīs are the highest. Caitanya Mahāprabhu..., ramya kaścid upāsanā vraja-vadhu vargabhir ya kalpita,(?) that "There is no standard of worship, what was conceived by the gopīs." Caitanya Mahāprabhu said. There is no distinction between the cowherd boys and the gopīs or the trees and the flowers and the calves and cows. It is the absolute platform. But still, in the spiritual world also there is distinction between living entities. That is variety, spiritual variety, viśeṣavāda.

Hari-śauri: Here's one with good scent...(?)

Prabhupāda: I have seen this.

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What is that objection?

Harikeśa: About the security for these people in the country itself. For example, the reviews that were gotten, somehow or another, the actual names of the professors were circulated, and this can cause them absolute havoc. And the books that were distributed in East Berlin never made it to the shelves. So that means they were censored, that the people know that these books are not very good and they were suppressing it. So in Russia they know even quicker about this, that these books are not very good for them and they censor them. So when they get censored, the people who accept them are in a little bit strange position. And then if we advertise that they wrote the review in the book, then they're in a very strange position.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I took all the books into East Berlin. When I went to East Berlin I took all the books through. Even though they were censored, I convinced them that "I'm a salesman of a book from..."

Harikeśa: But they never made it on the shelves.

Gargamuni: He's Indian, so they are not so... He is an American, so there's nothing much he can do. But as an Indian, there's great friendship between Russian... They came to our stall in Calcutta and bought books. And they bought one poster of rāsa-līlā. So with India they are very friendly.

Harikeśa: It's simply meant that there's a certain amount of prerequisite knowledge one has to know before he goes into a communist country.

Prabhupāda: No, another thing is that BBT you are keeping, a separate organization. So if the BBT representative goes somewhere, so why he should be restricted?

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: We accept him as avatāra, śaktyāveśa-avatāra, empowered incarnation of God. That we accept.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. He says, "Like any other revealed scripture, the Bible's teachings are absolute, but are they to be understood literally or symbolically, and are they applicable for all men?"

Prabhupāda: Literally, not symbolically.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "What is the actual meaning of the sacrifice of the cross, Jesus dying on the cross?"

Prabhupāda: It has no meaning. The people were so rascal that they attempted to kill him. Because he was speaking of God. So we can understand the pollution of the then society, how intelligent they were. He had to deal with such rascals that he was speaking about God and the result is that they wanted to kill him first. He preached, "Thou shalt not kill," and they killed him first. This is their intelligence. Now people are advanced. Those doctrines, they are not (indistinct). That's all. The answer.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is that picture?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (reading) "Handicapped though, these foursome make a cheerful group as they paddle along on three wheelers every day from their homes in the King George Memorial Infirmary on Jagtap Marga, Maha-Lakshmi." Some invalids. "Mr. Jaya Prakash Narayan in a statement on Sunday came out strongly against the attempts of some people to lobby through him for personal favors and advancements from the Janata party government center." He doesn't like it. Everyone is going to him now. (pause) "The aim and object of the 42nd constitutional amendment was stated to be to establish the supremacy of the legislature, but in fact it was designed to establish the absolute authority of the executive as personified by the Prime Minister, according to Mr. C. K. Dapteri, former attorney general of India. Mr. Dapteri said, 'Everyone knows that misuse to which the power of preventative detention has been put in the last eighteen months. It is not necessary to recall or relay instances. But the power itself is so easily capable of being put to wrong use that it is unsafe to leave it in the hands of the executive government.' "

Prabhupāda: This will be amended now.

Evening Darsana -- May 12, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: He has already come—by His name. Kali-kāle kṛṣṇa nāma-rūpe avatāra.

Indian man (5): Oh, that's correct.

Prabhupāda: This Hare Kṛṣṇa is Kṛṣṇa. He's absolute. His name, His form, His attributes, His paraphernalia—they're all one. So He... This Hare Kṛṣṇa name is not different from Kṛṣṇa. The... Nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaḥ...

nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś

caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ

pūrṇaḥ śuddho nitya-mukto

'bhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ

(CC Madhya 17.133)

Nāma is Kṛṣṇa. So He has already come. He's... Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni (CC Antya 20.12). If you simply take harer nāma harer nāma... (CC Adi 17.21). Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51). This is the verdict of Bhāgavata. Kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ. We have got a special concession in this Kali-yuga. We cannot execute all the instruction in the Vedas. We are fallen down. But if we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra-kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet—he becomes liberated from all the faults of this Kali-yuga and paraṁ vrajet, goes back home, back to Godhead. So Kṛṣṇa is already there. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva (CC Adi 17.21). This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Wherever you are staying, it doesn't matter. Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ. There is very simple formula. You can become liberated simply by chanting. And if you think that you are very learned philosopher, read all these books. Two ways there are. Thing is very simple. Even a boy can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Artificial. Cyavanti te. There is one verse. They'll fall down. What is the purport?

Pradyumna: "The group of transcendentalists who follow the path of the inconceivable, unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord engaged in devotional service of the Lord are called (sic:) bhakta-yogīs. Now, here the difference between jñāna-yoga and bhakti-yoga is definitely expressed. The process of jñāna-yoga, although ultimately bringing one to the same goal, is very troublesome, whereas the path of bhakti-yoga, the process of being in direct service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is easier and is natural for the embodied soul. The individual soul is embodied since time immemorial. It is very difficult for him to simply theoretically understand that he is not the body. Therefore the bhakti-yogī accepts the Deity of Kṛṣṇa as worshipable because there is some bodily conception fixed in the mind which can thus be applied. Of course, worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His form within the temple is not idol worship. There is evidence in the Vedic literature that worship may be saguṇa or nirguṇa, of the Supreme possessing or not possessing attributes. Worship of the Deity in the temple is saguṇa worship, for the Lord is represented by material qualities. But the form of the Lord, though represented by material qualities such as stone, wood, or oil paint, is not actually material. That is the absolute nature of the Supreme Lord. A crude example may be given here. We may find some mail boxes on the street, and if we post our letters in those boxes, they will naturally will go to their destination without difficulty. But any old box or an imitation which we may find somewhere, which is not authorized by the post office, will not do the work. Similarly, God has an authorized representation in the Deity form, which is called arcā-vigraha. This arcā-vigraha is an incarnation of the Supreme Lord. God will accept service through that form. The Lord is omnipotent and all-powerful. Therefore, by His incarnation as arcā-vigraha, He can accept the service of the devotee just to make it convenient for the man in conditioned life. So for a devotee, there is no difficulty in approaching the Supreme immediately and directly, but for those who are following the impersonal way to spiritual realization, the path is difficult. They have to understand the unmanifested representation of the Supreme through such Vedic literatures as the Upaniṣads, and they have to learn the language, understand the nonperceptual feeling, and they have to realize all these processes..."

Prabhupāda: Just like in the Upaniṣads it is said, paśyaty acakṣuḥ: "He sees, but He has no eyes." So what is that? How we can think of, one is seeing without eye? Aiye. There are so many. Śṛṇoty akarṇaḥ: "He has no ears..." So both things are there. When it is said, paśyaty acakṣuḥ... Mean cakṣuḥ, eyes, as soon we think of eyes, we think of our eyes, own eyes, and therefore it is forbidden, "Not like your eyes." Paśyati. He can see everywhere. Therefore we have to discuss śāstra. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṁ jaganti (Bs. 5.32). The aṅga, the different parts of the body of Kṛṣṇa, has got all the qualities of other aṅga. Just like we can see with eyes, but Kṛṣṇa can speak also with eyes. He can eat also with eyes. That is difference. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. So paśyaty acakṣuḥ means He has different type of eyes, not like our eyes. When there is nirākāra... Nirākāra means He hasn't got a ākāra, a form, like ours. That is nirākāra. But He has his form. And Kṛṣṇa says... So dehino 'smin yathā dehe: (BG 2.13) "Within this body the owner of the body is there." But if the owner of the body has no form, how the material form has come into existence? Just like this shirt has got hand. Because I am the owner of the shirt—I have got hand-therefore the shirt has got also hand. I have got my leg; therefore the pant has got leg. If you say, "The pant has got leg, the shirt has got hand, but the owner of the shirt has no leg, no...," is it possible? And this external body described as dress... Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Vāsa, dress. Dress cannot show any hand and leg unless the man who is dressed, he has got his hand and leg.

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

Prabhupāda: That's nice. What are those... (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...is flying in an airplane from Los Angeles to India via Hawaii, but in the picture that we have drawn, there is no way you can go from Los Angeles to India via Hawaii. If you go this direction, from Los Angeles, say, this way, you don't come to India. India's over here according to our description. Yet when they take a flight, they say, "We go around the earth." But we say, "You cannot go around the earth." So far, our understanding... So far—unless we have not completely understood yet—it is like a lotus, Jambūdvīpa, and the whole Bhū-maṇḍala is like a lotus. So how do... You cannot fly around Bhāratavarṣa, or earth. Yet every day the whole science of aeronautics, of flying, is based upon the fact that they're flying around different places of the earth. And everyone who sees this, that, our description, is going to ask this question. It's a very important question to answer, and Bhakti-prema has not yet answered it. None of us can. We are avoiding it at this point until we get further information. There must be an answer, but we have not yet been able to give the answer. I have absolute faith in these, the Vedic description. I am completely convin... I just know that I have not understood perfectly yet. Therefore the answer's not apparent. But it's definitely a question that they will raise. (break)

Prabhupāda: Give him this letter with immigration card.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He has sent it to us.

Prabhupāda: No, he has given me personally.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't think I follow. Mr. Bal Subhramanya from Indian Overseas Bank?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. He... (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Virtually half gone. His wife and his father-in-law have...

Prabhupāda: Where is Mr. Nair?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where is Mr. Nair?

Akṣayānanda: Oh, he is (indistinct) just now. He is here.

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

Prabhupāda: What should I do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think you should translate for... (break)

Prabhupāda: Absolute. Paraṁ satyaṁ dhīmahi.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems like for the first few years you were... Our movement was very much engaged in establishing our centers, but now it seems that we can concentrate on actually pushing forward the knowledge we have to give.

Prabhupāda: Centers were meant for that purpose, for giving knowledge, not for show, a church, a show. What is knowledge?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now we have our centers established.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we can concentrate on...

Prabhupāda: Giving knowledge.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They are approaching municipal libraries?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. " 'But for all libraries of the world, wherever people have a sincere interest to go into the depths of Vedic philosophy.' Signed Murali S. Deora, Mayor of Bombay."

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Next, from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay. This is from Dr. Ram Kanstanari(?) Chairman of the Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. " 'Sir: I am pleased to make the following comments concerning your beautiful and learned publications, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta of Gosvāmī Kṛṣṇa Kavirāja and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, both written by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. I feel that these works are the result of Swami Prabhupāda's extraordinary commitment to the bhakti cult in the Indian tradition. Swami Prabhupāda's style and language are full of the flashes of his intuition. They clearly represent his realization that love for God and for mankind should be the foundation of all interpersonal relations. Kṛṣṇa is the symbol of this love. He is the Absolute in an incarnate form. Love for Kṛṣṇa therefore sung in all forms of devotion-laden language asserts man's empathy towards His entire creation. The Central Library of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, has already secured, on my recommendation, the above-mentioned works complete. These works are read by the faculty and students here, not only for their religious message but also for the unique interpretation they embody of the traditional cult of bhakti in India. The poetic and devotionalistic tenor of these works, I am sure, would make one realize the meaning of man's dependence on God. I have no hesitation to state that His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda has done an immortal service to the movement of devotionism and Hinduism in particular and in world religions in general, by so ably bringing out these works in beautiful English. Every library in the world that is engaged in promoting the welfare of the human self by turning it towards the supremacy of the divine spirit...' "

Prabhupāda: Everyone is recommending. All libraries.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Three months?

Surabhī: It will be very...

Prabhupāda: Difficult.

Surabhī: Difficult. Yes. After three months, and he said that you will travel again then. But he said there is no absolute danger.

Prabhupāda: So. There is some sense.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everybody's saying the same thing like this.

Surabhī: And he would like a report of these nine days that are going on now, and then he wants to study again more to give more information. I was there on the fifth.

Prabhupāda: So give him a place to send to...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He works by numbers, not by astrology. He's not an astrologer.

Prabhupāda: Oh, so he knows my birth date and year.

Surabhī: Yes. He knows.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have no objection.

Jayādvaita: You've been speaking so strongly just now that I was sorry that I suggested that we stop. So now I'm glad that you're continuing. Flashlight?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) Aprākṛta, transcendental. Whatever we discuss, that is on the transcendental platform, nothing to do with this material world. The Māyāvādī impersonalist, they cannot understand this. They think this is also material. Then? Read. You are going to read?

Pradyumna: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. There is just one more point on that verse. He says there are some verses that say upaniṣada puruṣaḥ namo vedānta vedyāya kṛṣṇāya.(?) So Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa has raised a question that it says Kṛṣṇa is not seen by the Upaniṣads, but then there's some verses that say He is known by the Vedas, He is known by the Upaniṣads. He says it is proved that the Absolute is able to be known by Vedas, veda-gamyatvam kintu... Then he quotes other verse. It says sakalyena avedatvam, He cannot be known completely through Vedas, only through devotional service

Prabhupāda: Yes. When one is purified by Vedic knowledge, then mad-bhaktir labhate param. Then he is allowed entrance in devotional understanding. Bhaktyā śruta-gṛhītayā. There is a...? Eh? In Bhāgavatam?

Room Conversation -- November 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "My dear Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami and Dhṛṣṭadyumna Swami: Please accept my most humble obeisances unto your feet. All glories to our beloved spiritual master Śrīla Prabhupāda. May Lord Kṛṣṇa, if He so desires, please cure Śrīla Prabhupāda. I'm writing this letter as a brief report on the recent events as a result of my trip to Kwangchow, Canton China. I arrived on October 16th. Business—attended the Trade Fair but signed no contracts as all the prices were far too high. Research on some items may result in future business. Saṅkīrtana—our real business: I gave two Chinese Bhagavad-gītās to the Chungshan University, or Dr. Sun Yatsen University as it is called now, in Canton. They were accepted by the administration with assurance of being delivered to the appropriate departments. I inquired from the liaison office how to visit the university. They said it must be prearranged, but they did not know how. From past experience..." This boy had gone to China once before, Śrīla Prabhupāda. He's a Canadian. He says, "From past experience..." He's one of your disciples. "From past experience, because of limited time, I decided to just go, although warned not to. I walked past the guard's house at the gate of the university, hoping not to be seen. After I got forty to fifty yards, when a woman came running after me yelling in Chinese. I finally turned to her and said, 'No, it is all right,' and smiled and I kept walking on. She retreated, by Kṛṣṇa's grace, and I went on to the first building, where I saw some books through the windows. As I approached the front door, the first person I met was a middle-aged woman who spoke good English. She was a biology teacher, and we discussed the life principle as she took me to the history department and then reception. There, with two other Chinese persons, we discussed Chinese politics, and I explained the natural social body, varṇāśrama." He was discussing varṇāśrama with them. "However, as they began to understand how much sense it made, they said I had better talk to the people of the political philosophy but were unwilling to arrange it, and I was unable to also. They admitted to still having a class society in China, but the goal was to have no classes, with the means of production so arranged that everyone could have what they wanted. Such demons. They accept Marx, Lenin and Mao as absolute authority and plan to spread this perfect social system, as they call it, all over the world. I gave one Gītā to the main public library. They accepted when they found out that I was a Canadian and thanked me very much. Then, on October 25th, with saffron dhotī and Chinese cymbals, I went out on the main street in Kwangchow in the evening, chanting the holy name." This is in China, Śrīla Prabhupāda. "At first there were many suspicious looks, but in a few minutes I had a large crowd following me. Soon the children were running in front, with some of them dancing. I also began to dance, and a loud uproar ensued from the audience. The crowd grew larger and extended out into the road, where the buses began to honk their horns. Just then a cymbal fell from the string to the ground. As I picked it up and repaired it, the crowd came very close all around and tightly crowded. I chanted loudly, 'Hare Kṛṣṇa,' and heard one 'Kṛṣṇa,' in return. I responded with 'Kṛṣ-ṇa' loudly, and three or four answered. Soon I had about twenty responding to the chant, but decided to go on, as the crowd was getting too big. A few minutes later a man broke through the crowd and grabbed my arm and motioned me to stop. I continued, and soon another grabbed the other arm and pulled me into a shop, closed the doors and offered me a seat. The crowd responded with an uproar and banged on the doors for a little while. I had to wait about fifteen minutes until a person came who spoke English. He told me I was causing interference with traffic, and soon after they let me go. I did not go out again as I did not want to agitate them too far. I had previously chanted in a bus and showed the people pictures of Kṛṣṇa. It was very ecstatic. I have been told since then that the incidents would be heard of by nearly everyone in Kwangchow as a conversation topic. Perhaps the name of Kṛṣṇa will also be repeated many times by many people..." (break) Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So China has sacrificed everything. What is their aim?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In China? Their aim... They say that their aim is to establish a classless society where everyone gets everything that they require. Economic aim.

Prabhupāda: What aim? Low-class men.