Herbs (Conv and Letters)

Expressions researched:
"herb" |"herbal" |"herbs"

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:

Devotee (1): Also, in Genesis is says that the fruits and herbs of the land shall be your meat. It's describing how man should live and it says that fruits and herbs of the land shall be your meat.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they were meat-eaters, so Jesus Christ replies that fruit should be your meat

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Richard Webster, chairman, Societa Filosofica Italiana -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: We don't find there is sanction by God to drink. But under certain circumstances, beverages, different types of beverages allowed, not for intoxication but for keeping health. That is different thing. Just like in the moon planet, it is mentioned they drink soma-rasa. Soma-rasa is a kind of beverage made from extract of herbs. So because it is very cold there, so they drink that, but not for intoxication. People drink for intoxication. Just like in medicine, so many drugs are used. Even opium is used. Yes. Morphia is used. But they are not used ordinarily. For a specific purpose. Even snake poison is used, but that does not mean snake poison should be used perpetually. So for benefit of the body under particular circumstances something may be recommended, but that is not for general use or for intoxication. That is condemned. Just like animal killing is sometimes prescribed in the yajña. The purpose is different. But that does not mean unrestricted animal killing in the slaughterhouse should go on, no. That is sinful. So if we violate the laws perpetually, then how we can consider as belonging to a certain group of religious system? There must be principles.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Kim Cornish -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Drugs are meant for medicinal purposes, not for drinking or taking generally. Every herb, every vegetable, is a drug meant for curing a particular disease. This is nature's gift. Just like if you cut your finger, you take little grass and take a little juice and apply it. It will act as tincturizing, immediately. They are meant for this purpose. These vegetable, drugs, are meant for when you are sick or disturbed, you can utilize. Not for intoxication. Just like opium. If you have severe type of dysentery, diarrhea, a little opium it will immediately cure. But opium is not meant for using as an intoxication. There is use of opium. Morphia, opium, they have got use at a certain time, not for using it for intoxication. That is foolish.

Morning Walk -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Harikeśa: Some people were telling me that the herbs had lost all their effectiveness in the Kali-yuga.

Prabhupāda: Then die. (laughter) Do you mean to say this modern medical treatment is guarantee for your living?

Harikeśa: No.

Prabhupāda: Then? That is also not guarantee. If you see the herbs and plants are no more effective, then if there is no guarantee in your modern medical, there is no guarantee. So why should you spend so much money? As soon as I go to a doctor, immediately twenty dollars. As soon as go to purchase some drugs, immediately twenty. If I have no money... And still that is not guarantee, so why shall I spend so much money?

Morning Walk -- October 17, 1975, Johannesburg:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: On one lecture tape you said that man is duracara, very difficult to... When he's misbehaved?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) (out of car) ...by chanting mantra and herb. But a crooked man cannot be controlled any way. Therefore he is more dangerous than the snake. Sarpat krurataraḥ khalaḥ.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Why is it that the man cannot be tamed and the unintelligent animal can be tamed?

Prabhupāda: Because man is more intelligent. He can misuse his independence and intelligence, whereas animal cannot do that. He is not so intelligent. He has... That is the defect of the modern civilization. They have been described as duṣkṛtina. Duṣkṛtina means he has got brain more intelligent than the animal, but the brain is being utilized for mischievous activities.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Are there different prajāpatis for the different species?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Brahmā is the origin. (break) ...a class of men, they are called vaidyas (doctors). They know all these herb, which herb is medicine for certain disease, and they sell in the market. Every one of these is meant for some medicine. They know it.

Hari-śauri: Is that kind of information given in the Vedas?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Āyur Veda. There is a book. Dravya-guṇa. All kinds of herbs, metals, even different kinds of flesh of different animals, they are mentioned. Hundreds of different kinds of animals flesh, how it can be utilized for certain disease, the descriptions are there.

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

Prabhupāda: This is thyme herbs? No. This is the seed.

Hari-śauri: Oh, them. They grow it in the garden. The first, what you got, that was grown here. Those twigs? They were grown here in the garden. Would you like anything tonight? A piece of chavana-prash?

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

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

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

Dr. Patel: No, no, I don't say decry. But you don't want to take advantage of medicine.

Prabhupāda: Medicine. Just like a type of vairāgya, sometimes they do not eat. That does not mean eating is forbidden. It is not. It is my personal, I am trying to avoid, that's all. There was a big friend of W. C. Bannerji. You have heard the name W. C. Bannerji? He was one of the three inaugurators of Congress in the beginning. No, that Bannerji, Surendranatha Bannerji, he came later. Almost contemporary. But the Congress was started by I think, yes, W. C. Bannerji. W. C. Bannerji was a big barrister. So he had his friends, contemporary. So he was also brāhmaṇa. So when... He was taking daily his bath in the Ganges, and if he was diseased, was drinking Ganges water. So he became seriously sick. So this W. C. Bannerji, he was a big man. So he asked his permission to bring some doctor. "You'll die in this way."(?) So he persisted, "No, I shall simply drink this Ganges water." So it is not that medical science is in defeated position.

Evening Darsana -- December 3, 1976, Hyderabad:

Indian man: I talked to radio (?).

Prabhupāda: Eh? Oh, you have taken so much trouble. Prasādam, some give it to... Jaya. A very big block of herbs. What is the name of that...? Eh?

Indian men: Bechel (?).

Prabhupāda: Bechel (?). So we want so many men to live there nicely, to eat sumptuously, and preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I have seen while coming from Vṛndāvana to Delhi, hundreds and thousands of young men. They are going to the factories on cycle, coming from distant place, at least twenty miles, twenty-five miles, and it takes two hours to reach the factory or more than that. And there he works hard eight hours and then again goes back, two hours, three hours, on cycle. I do not know what kind of rest he takes. This is life. And if we request these young men that "You come here. You live here comfortably. You eat here sumptuously and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa," they will not. Just see how unfortunate they are.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Sarpaḥ krūraḥ khalaḥ krūraḥ. The two envious... (break) But this sarpaḥ, snake, can be charmed by herbs and mantra, but the man, envious, cannot be. Therefore he's more dangerous than the snake. Khalaḥ kena nivāryate.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The whole profession is crooked. She told that they have a cure for cancer. There's a cure for cancer. It comes from a natural herb available in South America. But the American Medical Association has forbidden the importation of this herb, because if they import it, then all of their cancer work is finished. And they're making billions of dollars doing cancer research. So they won't allow this herb to be imported. It has no bad effect, but they will not allow its importation. So one of our devotees, Jayānanda, you know he has cancer now.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Oh, he has very severe case of cancer.

Brahmānanda: They say he will die from this.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All over his body these nodule protrusions have come, big lumps growing out, cancerous growths. After Ratha-yātrā this happened. So he went into the hospital, and they nearly killed him in the hospital. Practically they killed him. They put so many tests on him that he was nearly dead. He lost fifty, sixty pounds, he was practically dead. Then when I heard, I got him out of the hospital. There's no purpose. I could understand they didn't know what they were doing. They were just testing. So then he went... He's now in Tijuana, Mexico, and since taking this medicine all of the growths have gone away. Now, how long he will live, that is another matter. But immediately all of these symptoms, outward symptoms, they're gone simply by taking this medical...

Prabhupāda: Herbs.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, this special medicine.

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

Śatadhanya: What is that, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: A kind of herb, creeper, creeper that grows, punar navā. It is known practically to all cultivators. If they can collect punar navā, collect and send immediately. Ask Māyāpura.

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

Prabhupāda: It is a creeper. It is spread on the hill.

Śatadhanya: Navā means birth.

Prabhupāda: No, not that. Don't go "birth" or "death." It is the name only, punar navā. It is a herb, creeper, and this is the medicine for... It is available here also.

Room Conversation With Svarupa Damodara -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja is here. (to Tamāla:) He got that blood in his urine after he drank...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, he was taking tablets. He was taking those tonic things out of those bottles. I remember taking spoons of tonic...

Upendra: Took some natural, herbal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right.

Hari-śauri: It wasn't allopathic.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Hari-śauri: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja was suggesting...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I'm not suggesting. I'm questioning.

Hari-śauri: Yes. Whether it might have been some of these herbal remedies that may have caused the blood to come.

Prabhupāda: Herbal remedy? What is that herbal remedy?

Upendra: He took one spoonful of syrup, natural syrup, vitamin syrup.

Hari-śauri: That was all, though. It was just some syrup that you took before.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Rupanuga -- Montreal 3 July, 1968:

Yes, try to let James hear patiently this Hare Krishna Mahamantra, and he will be tamed without delay. If somebody simply hears very patiently, he will be altogether converted. In India, if a man is bitten by a serpent, it used to be, and still is in some places, that an expert man would chant a mantra, and apply some herbs, and the serpent-bitten man would be saved from death. Similarly, we are bitten by the maya-serpent, and the mantra to save us is Hare Krishna.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Upendra -- Los Angeles 6 January, 1969:

You have expressed the desire to become an Ayurvedic physician but I do not think that this proposal is very good. This science is not so important to us now because in your country there is ample facility for receiving medicines. Besides many of the herbs which are needed for Ayurvedic treatment would have to be sent here from India, and this is not very practical. This homeopathic medicine you have mentioned is not genuine and therefore is a bluff. So the first medicine which you should be concerned with is to chant Hare Krishna and to become increasingly steady in Krishna Consciousness.

Letter to Carl Lange -- Los Angeles 12 July, 1969:

Except for the Krishna Consciousness Movement, any other attempt for spiritual realization, such as drugs, voidness, impersonalism, bodily exercises of Hatha Yoga, etc.—they are all something like unconsciousness under some super-intoxicant. Srila Rupa Goswami has given a very nice example in this connection. He says that a conditioned soul remains in the slumber of unconsciousness just like a patient bitten by a poisonous snake. In India there is a class of snake-charmers and physicians who treat snake-bitten persons with a particular type of jungle herbs. This treatment is to bring the herb near the nostrils of the patient for being smelled, and then the patient comes back to consciousness and finds relief from the snake bite effect. In our conditioned life we are bitten by so many types of Maya snakes, and more and more we are put into unconsciousness of mind without any hope of eternal life. Krishna Consciousness is the only herb for such Maya snake-bite condition. So our duty is very responsible. We have to awaken so many snake-bitten patients under the spell of Maya.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Himavati -- Los Angeles 1 April, 1970:

I am trying to change diets and sometimes fasting. But after all, it is old body, so dizziness is not unnatural. Regarding herb teas for colds and sore throat, up to now I have no such complaint, so they are not necessary.