Expressions researched:
"L.A."
|"LA"
|"Los Angeles"
Interviewer: I think the first question is kind of basic, is why is everything always taped at all the...
Prabhupāda: Because we have got so many branches, they want to hear me, my singing, my speech, therefore they record it and send it to different branches. We have got thirteen, fourteen branches: one in New York, one in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Boston, Montreal, Vancouver, London, Hamburg. We have got so many branches.
Interviewer: How many temples are there now?
Prabhupāda: Now we have got six temples. One in New York, one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles, one in Boston, one in Montreal, and one in Santa Fe. And another one of our students has gone to Buffalo, he's on the professional, for starting another temple.
Interviewer: How many people belong to these six temples?
Prabhupāda: In each temple there are average about fifty people.
Interviewer: Could you describe your temple to me?
Prabhupāda: At the present moment, we have got fourteen temples: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Buffalo, Boston, and Montreal, and Seattle, and one in New Vrindaban. We have purchased about 130 acres of land and developing there, New Vrindaban. And we have got now a temple in London, in Germany, Berlin. And we are in negotiation with Florida friends and we have sent one of our representative in Hawaii. So we have got so many temples. Gradually it is increasing. And boys and girls, especially younger generation... My, amongst my disciples, the oldest disciple is thirty-five years old. Otherwise they are between twenty to twenty-five.
Prabhupāda: When there are fruits in the tree, why do you go and beg? When there is cave, why you are searching after apartment? (laughs) When the old garments are thrown in the street, then why you are searching after clothing? These are the instructions. Completely free. Kasmād bhajanti kavayo dhana-durmadandhān (SB 2.2.5). Why should you go and flatter these monied men? That is complete independence. But those days are now gone. (laughs) It is a different age. Los Angeles, I think it is a good place. Hm? What is your...? Your problem solved?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good news. We went to the Hollywood police station and the man told us that part of the duty of the police station is to... He said he should protect religious people like us.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He mentioned other religious people, and he said if we can just keep the crowd moving, then we have every right to be there. So he has given us right to go to Hollywood. In downtown Los Angeles we don't have that right yet. We'll still go there, but in Hollywood it is all right. So that's good enough.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. It is Kṛṣṇa's grace. I was telling the same thing to Dayānanda, that he should present this case to the higher officer. That's all. We are preaching God consciousness.
Prabhupāda: The same example as I have already given, that if you want to reside in ocean water, is it possible? If you want to construct a city like New York in the ocean, is it possible?
Reporter: No, but what if they had resided in the ocean or on the ocean for a short period...
Prabhupāda: Anywhere. Any, in the ocean or on the ocean, you cannot build up a city like Los Angeles or New York. That is impossible. So even in your presence, in different atmosphere, you cannot go and live. So similarly, the moon planet is completely different atmosphere. How you can live and go?
Journalist: Instant heaven.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is their position. Just like people are trying to go to the moon planet. I have given my opinion. You have seen in the Los Angeles Times? This chance is very remote.
Journalist: How many temples are there?
Prabhupāda: We have got thirteen temples. Thirteen. One in this Los Angeles, one San Francisco, one in New York, one Santa Fe, one Buffalo, one Boston, one Montreal, one Vancouver, and Seattle, Columbus, and then London, Hamburg, in this way... Hawaii.
Interviewer: How many centers are there now?
Prabhupāda: There are six centers. Why six? Seven. Seven centers. One in New York, one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles, and one, Santa Fe, one, Montreal, one, Boston, one, Buffalo.
Haṁsadūta: I'll try in Montreal. We have new devotees now, lot of new boys.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Oh, you will get devotees. You just begin saṅkīrtana party. You will get many devotees. You see? In Los Angeles, daily the devotees, new devotees, are coming, and very nice boys. We are now searching after a bigger place. Yes. That temple is not sufficient, although that is the biggest center of all our centers. It has got compound. It has got parking place. It has got two big halls, one big room, one big kitchen, and three, four, five small rooms. It is a nice situation, you see, just suitable for our purpose. And they decorate Jagannātha very nicely. Yes. So increase centers.
Miss Rose: These are all my sisters and brothers, Swamiji. Right?
Prabhupāda: Yes. certainly. So don't worry. Kṛṣṇa will give you better place.
Satsvarūpa: That was a disappointment because we almost, almost had it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. No question of disappointment. In Los Angeles, we had so many disappointments. At last, we got very nice place. Now we are after bigger place.
Candanācārya: Tell Swamiji about the church we want to get.
Miss Rose: The church...?
Prabhupāda: Then that article has worked adversely?
Allen Ginsberg: Śrīmata Kṛṣṇaji in Vṛndāvana, is a lady in Vṛndāvana who translates Kabir into English, compared him with Blake.
Prabhupāda: No, she is different. I know one Mātājī. She came to see me from Vṛndāvana in Los Angeles. She's in London.
Prabhupāda: And for making outside propaganda, I think he will be the best man. Suppose if he goes to New York, stays for some time, sees respectable foundation and presidents and just to attract their attention this side... Similarly, if he goes Los Angeles, San Francisco, all other cities, Boston, and sees important men, makes propaganda that "We are doing this. Please come and help," that will be very nice.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's all right. You know, we will need a harmonium. Should I wait till we get to India to purchase one?
Prabhupāda: You haven't got in New York?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have one in New York temple. Los Angeles saṅkīrtana needs a harmonium, a good harmonium. Maybe...
Prabhupāda: Can you spare hundred dollars?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right now...
Prabhupāda: You get hundred dollars; then we shall get.
Prabhupāda: So Kazi said, "All right, I am taking steps." So he sent some officers. And they were playing mṛdaṅga, and warned that "You cannot do this. You are disturbing here." That is going on still. Just like our Los Angeles, it is going on. In New York also, they complain to the Kazi, (laughs) police officer. But they could not do anything. So this complaint is going on since the inauguration of the saṅkīrtana movement. So Kazi first of all warned. Then He did not care. Then the police also came and broke the mṛdaṅgas forcibly. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "All right. We shall start thousands of men playing mṛdaṅga, and we shall go to the house of Kazi. Let us see what can he do."
Prof. Kotovsky: Where is your main center, and where are the branches?
Prabhupāda: Main center...
Prof. Kotovsky: Of Kṛṣṇa consciousness society.
Prabhupāda: Of course, I have got about fifty-five branches.
Prof. Kotovsky: Fifty-five.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So I have made my main center in Los Angeles.
Prof. Kotovsky: Los Angeles?
Prabhupāda: Los Angeles.
Prof. Kotovsky: Because I brought a letter from western Germany, so I had an idea that is probably...
Prabhupāda: No, that is a... There is a branch.
Prof. Kotovsky: A branch.
Prabhupāda: Germany branch, Kṛṣṇa dāsa. There is a branch. But my headquarter is in Los Angeles. And now, since I came to India, I am trying to make my headquarter in Māyāpur. That's the place, the birthsite, of Lord Caitanya. We have purchased land there.
Prabhupāda: So anyway, I was very much anxious to hear about Chidananda. So he has written me. He is not very bad.
Karandhara: Well, he was in the hospital, and he got into a fight with the guard, I guess, and they arrested him for fighting and put him in jail for six months.
Prabhupāda: Fighting?
Karandhara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: But he is weak. With whom he'll fight?
Karandhara: Yes. It was actually very... We have a lawyer working on it to get a suspended sentence. We've got a lawyer who is trying to get him a suspended sentence because he was sick and he..., they had him taking drugs and he was weak and he had been in the hospital for four months. Why they should put him in jail? He just got a little irritable.
Śyāmasundara: They mocked him. I think they mocked him for having this and finally he couldn't take any more, and he probably hit the guard, so they threw him in jail for six months.
Karandhara: And in jail they won't give him anything to eat except... They won't give him a special diet, so all he can eat is just a little bit of vegetable. They have... On a plate they give him mostly meat and a little vegetable. They won't give him any extra vegetables.
Prabhupāda: Yes? Where the jail is?
Śyāmasundara: Which jail is it?
Karandhara: County jail, Los Angeles County Jail.
Prabhupāda: So we cannot send our prasāda there?
Karandhara: No. They won't let anything in. You can't even send books there. They won't let him wear his beads. They won't let him have his beads or anything, or his sacred thread. They took it all away from him.
Śyāmasundara: Can we go visit him?
Karandhara: We can visit, yes. Visiting hours on Saturdays and Sundays. I went there the Saturday before last, before I came.
Prabhupāda: So how is he here?
Karandhara: Well, he's doing all right. He says he chants and he prays.
Prabhupāda: Well, what can be done?
Karandhara: We're trying to see the minister there and get some books in to him. If the minister will allow it, we can give him books. Otherwise they won't let him have any books.
Prabhupāda: So you see or else why this poor fellow should be given unnecessary trouble.
Śyāmasundara: Just like Bangladesh. They raised about a million dollars from the concert and nineteen million from the record album and film. So those two don't require any special place. They could be anywhere.
Dhanañjaya: Better here though, because George has never made any public appearances...
Śyāmasundara: Actually I think it would be just as big here.
Dhanañjaya: Yes. If the result, if people knew, if it was...
Śyāmasundara: He's never made a public appearance. Only one in America.
Dhanañjaya: Everyone from all over Europe will be coming to see him, without a doubt... In Europe there's about 350 million people, almost 400 million.
Śyāmasundara: Actually he made two statements that, well, they practically promised to do this. He said in Los Angeles when he saw the Deities: "Oh, we must have a place like this in London." And then in New York, because I said, "Well, we don't want to be on your show here. We volunteer. You promised...," I said, "You promised us to be on the show in New York, and he said, "I know I promised, and I must fulfill my word, I gave you my word, but I'm just asking you if you will not be on this show, and later I'll have another special concert for Hare Kṛṣṇa."
Prabhupāda: So remind him.
Prabhupāda: So far George is concerned, now it is more or less Utopian.
Śyāmasundara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Because...
Śyāmasundara: You can't count on him at all.
Prabhupāda: ...if he was willing, he would have done long ago, but he is not very serious.
Śyāmasundara: Well, I've never asked him for it, to do that.
Prabhupāda: So what is this asking? When he visited our Los Angeles temple, he appreciated and he said, "Why not a temple like this in London?"
Śyāmasundara: Well he's..., I..., He's been waiting for me to come here and talk to him here about it. I haven't...
Prabhupāda: But it is difficult to meet him.
Śyāmasundara: Well, he's just out of station now. As soon as he's in station I'll get him, I'll meet him.
Prabhupāda: Why don't you call him in New York?
Parivrājakācārya: But they don't want to have any children.
Prabhupāda: That is next program. Why not? Now we are having our wives, so many children. Los Angeles full of children. So natural way should be accepted. They require husband. The law is, "No. You cannot have more, you cannot marry one wife." The girls have become prostitute. That's all right. "The girls are becoming prostitute. That's all right. But you cannot marry more than one." What is this?
Prabhupāda: Yes, (Sanskrit)-mukha. And one American lady, when she saw these boys are chanting on the street, she was surprised. She said that "Are you Americans?" She was surprised. One priest, when I was traveling from Los Angeles to Hawaii, one priest in..., gentleman there sitting, out of his own accord he came to me and began to talk with me that "Swamiji, I see in the face of your students brightness. How you have created brightness?" He admitted that. Another priest, Christian priest in New York..., in Boston, he issued a pamphlet that "These boys and girls, they are our boys. But we see they have got this nice qualification, they are mad after God, but we could not give them." So it is a process. The madness after God is there in everywhere, in every heart.
Dr. Singh: Do you come every year, or is this the first time you have come (indistinct)?
Prabhupāda: No. I came last year (indistinct). (indistinct) so I went back again to Los Angeles in (indistinct), in June.
Prabhupāda: And you know our Jagatāriṇī, wife of Bhūrijana, she was a theatrical girl and earning millions of dollars, but she has given up everything. You have seen his wife, you all, Bhūrijana's wife? She is a nice girl, educated, qualified. But she is satisfied. I asked her to go and marry Bhūrijana. She never saw her (him). She never saw her (him), what kind of husband she is going to accept. But simply on my word, she came, and she came from Los Angeles to Japan and got married.
Guest (1): Your home base is in Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Yes. My headquarter is in Los Angeles. Now we have made very big headquarter in Bombay, Juhu. Twenty thousand square yards. We are constructing a very nice temple there. And similarly, we have got another headquarter at, by pīṭha, in Lord Caitanya's birthsite, Navadvīpa. There also we are constructing very big temple. It is eleven bighās. What is a bighā? About four acres.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I retired in Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana you know?
Guest (1): Oh yes.
Prabhupāda: So there I began to write books, and then when three books were finished I started for America. And there also I wrote many books, dozens of books. You have seen our books. Our Kṛṣṇa Book is selling like anything in Europe and America. We are practically maintaining ourself by selling books. We have got our book sale all over the world, about twenty to 25,000 rupees daily and we have to spend seven to eight lakhs of rupees monthly. In Los Angeles alone we spend $20,000 per month. In New York we spend $10,000 per month.
Śyāmasundara: He rented one nice little cottage for Your Divine Grace. And a little cottage next door for the servants.
Karandhara: Here are some gifts from the devotees in L.A.
Prabhupāda: Oh. What is this? Something sweet?
Karandhara: Yes, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: You open it. Open it. What is this?
Karandhara: That is sandalwood pulp.
Prabhupāda: Oh. What is that?
Devotee (1): You're not thirsty? It's water.
Prabhupāda: Keep it. Mrs. Jollet.(?) Oh, so many letters.
Śyāmasundara: Checks. These are checks, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. When you bring checks, I am very glad. (chuckles) So how much you have deposited?
Prabhupāda: Six hundred.
Karandhara: I still owe fifteen thousand.
Prabhupāda: That money is not yet done.
Karandhara: By June.
Prabhupāda: Oh. By June. All right. We shall talk further. What is this? So Los Angeles is... Everything is all right?
Karandhara: Yes Prabhupāda. Those are all... All the different envelopes are from the different departments, Spiritual Sky, Mail Order, Iskcon Media.
Prabhupāda: So you keep it in this envelope. Then I shall see.
Prabhupāda: ...count how you got this.
Sudāmā: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa sent these from Los Angeles three years ago.
Cintāmaṇi: They're staying in closet. (?)
Prabhupāda: So who will paint?
Sudāmā: Cintāmaṇi will paint.
Prabhupāda: So take note. So eyes are all right. Eyes are all right. It is all right. Simply you have to, all the hairs to make black up to the...It is all right?
Cintāmaṇi: Yes.
Bhānu: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Since we are going to have three altars, then we should also have three different plates, a different plate for each altar?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is already known to you. Bhānu knows very well. You have seen in Los Angeles. Why three plates? If you can spare more plates for each, that will be nice. Just like one for Rādhā and for Kṛṣṇa, one for Jagannātha, one for Balarāma, one for Subhadrā, one for guru, one for Gaurāṅga, Pañca-tattva, five. If you can increase, you can manage, that is nice. Otherwise one plate to guru is sufficient. If you cannot spare. If you can spare, you can increase as many plates as you can. Otherwise one plate to guru is sufficient.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is success.
Dai Nippon representative: And Mr. Karandhara give us suggestion that Dai Nippon would open a liaison office in Los Angeles in order to save time and in order to make a good communication.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dai Nippon representative: And our president would like to hear of your opinion or comment on that suggestion.
Prabhupāda: So how do you think, that suggestion. What is your idea?
Dai Nippon representative: (Japanese) He would like to see our liaison office in Los Angeles... (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: So Karandhara, you speak.
Dai Nippon representative: What Mr. Tajima(?) would like to tell you, that he is also businessman. So our talking is getting to be businesslike. So please allow him. But if we send one liaison officer in Los Angeles, we need some expenditure over there. You see? So we, Mr. Tajima(?) expects you to increase the publishing of your books more and more.
Prabhupāda: Oh yes, oh yes. That we shall do, certainly. That is certain. We are very much enthusiastic to see more publication, more publication. We take this publication work as big drum. You know with clay drum? So this is big drum. When we play drum, it is resounded within some quarters. But this drum is going from country to country. So it is bigger drum. (Japanese)
Karandhara: Yes. (indistinct) ...on this point. Is there any...?
Dai Nippon representative: Yes, well, at present also, (indistinct) we are going to open our liaison office in Los Angeles.
Karandhara: Yes. Have you heard from Mr. Oyage yet? (indistinct)
Dai Nippon representative: Yes. I think he has to come in Sunday. So to be...
Karandhara: Yes, he's probably meeting with Jayatīrtha. (indistinct)
Dai Nippon representative: Other ways we are quite satisfied.
Karandhara: Oh. Thank you. We are also very satisfied.
Prabhupāda: You started this business? I am asking your father. (Japanese)
Prabhupāda: They are... This is only starting. Otherwise they'll have enough business.
Karandhara: We've introduced them... Mr. Oyage, he's in Los Angeles now. We've introduced him to a big printing agent. So he may make some more business also.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. They will get. Automatically they will get. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. (sings hari hari biphale) Is it far?
Karandhara: Right now there are twelve brahmacārīs in Los Angeles who are getting ready to go to India.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Karandhara: They'll be going on about the 5th of May, the 6th of May. I think also the same number in New York are preparing to go.
Prabhupāda: Now we have got enough place. Yes. Very nice place, Vṛndāvana. And we are expected to get another place at Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's birth place. Oh, that is very nice place also.
Karandhara: Already the first volume of the Third Canto and the First Volume of the Fourth Canto, they are ready to be printed. I have them in Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So now our Sanskrit editor is there, Pradyumna.
Karandhara: The work will go much faster.
Prabhupāda: Hm. And if Hayagrīva also finishes, then I can give daily one chapter.
Karandhara: Per day?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Karandhara: Should be able to produce a volume at least every month.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And the editors must be very expedient. Besides that, I think this Kṛṣṇa Book, smaller edition, that will have very soon another reprint.
Karandhara: If Dai Nippon opens a liaison office in Los Angeles, then it will be very easy to work. The contract is for all the jobs.
Prabhupāda: The officer who will remain there, he will be final or you have to consult with Mr. Ogata(?) and...?
Prabhupāda: Another thing happened in Los Angeles. I wanted some quotation from a place of this Teachings of Lord Caitanya. So the man came, he said, "Swamiji, first of all I must buy this book. Either you accept or not accept our quotation, what price I shall pay?" I said, "Give me six dollars." Immediately he took this book. "Such a nice book I have never read. So either it is printed or not printed in our press, I must take this book." Actually, these ideas what we have explained in our books, they're unknown to the modern world. Unknown.
Śyāmasundara: There is a science of equilibrium where you can study another person, if he is off equilibrium, you can move his body in such a way to defeat him every time. Japanese art.
Prabhupāda: Train. That Los Angeles, there is one Japanese...
Śyāmasundara: Behind the temple.
Prabhupāda: You know?
Prabhupāda: (to guest) Take more. Come to our temple daily in the morning at seven. Are you coming there?
Guest: Yes. I was staying at the Detroit temple with Bhagavān.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Guest: I was helping the band a little bit. And I came to see you, and I was wondering what I should do to serve you. I should go back to Detroit?
Prabhupāda: Or you can remain here also, anywhere. We have got temple in Los Angeles. Have you been in Los Angeles?
Guest: No.
Prabhupāda: So come to Los Angeles and stay there for some time. I am going to Los Angeles tomorrow, so you can come. Live with us and you will be happy. We can guarantee you will be happy. Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Our Vedic mission is sarve sukhino bhavantu: everyone be happy. This is our mission.
Prabhupāda: Immediately, write one letter to Girirāja that, uh, I suggest some names for becoming trustee, or you can suggest some of the life members you know.
Sumati Morarjee: I know so many, but.... (Hindi exchanges)
Prabhupāda: ...maybe Paris. Maybe Nairobi. Then either Los Angeles or to India.
Sumati Morarjee: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi), because whatever that Māyāpur.... You have been in Nava, Navadvīpa?
Sumati Morarjee: Yes, yes, I have been to Navadvīpa, Māyāpur, Śāntipura, then that Katwa, all those places I have visited.
Prabhupāda: So, Māyāpur we are constructing a big temple. And Vṛndāvana also. So, for maintenance of the temple perpetually, I want to purchase some property in Los Angeles, because here, Los Angeles, property gets nice income.
Sumati Morarjee: Is it?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Sumati Morarjee: How?
Prabhupāda: Los Angeles.
Sumati Morarjee: Good income?
Prabhupāda: Yes, because any ordinary room is about a hundred twenty-five dollars. So a hundred twenty-five dollars in our Indian exchange is about thousand rupees. So, thousand rupees, two rooms, who will pay in India?
Sumati Morarjee: I know, we also use that incense, but uh, I don't know the name of it.
Prabhupāda: So, kindly get them carried from Hong Kong to Los Angeles.
Sumati Morarjee: So let us see.
Devotee: They're punks, without any scent, and then it...
Sumati Morarjee: I know it (indistinct).
Devotee: And when they come here, then they dip them into oil and make a scent.
Prabhupāda: Anyway...
Sumati Morarjee: (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: You get from Hong Kong...
Sumati Morarjee: And take where?
Prabhupāda: Huh? Take to Los Angeles. That is a ...
Sumati Morarjee: No, but one thing, if it is brought to Bombay, via Hong Kong, then we can send it to Los Angeles, by ship.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Sumati Morarjee: By ship we can send it.
Prabhupāda: Your ship does not go to Hong Kong?
Sumati Morarjee: Sometimes it goes.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Sumati Morarjee: So, at that time it is handed over to Hong Kong ship. It will be delivered in Bombay. Then we reship it to Hong Kong, to Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dhanañjaya: Well we could see it from the outside. Actually we went there one day, Mr. Allen(?) and (indistinct) and myself.
Prabhupāda: Well, what is the description?
Dhanañjaya: It's very nice. It's something like, ah, something like the size of this temple but bigger.
Devotee (2): Bigger than Los Angeles?
Dhanañjaya: And also it has a steeple.
Prabhupāda: Bigger, bigger. What is the price?
Dhanañjaya: Oh, more than 250,000 pounds.
Devotee (2): Quarter of a million pounds. Two lakhs of pounds.
Devotee (1): So that's six million dollars?
Dhanañjaya: No, one million. One million dollars.
Prabhupāda: You have got?
Devotee: Meanwhile, he should start utilizing her invitation to teach in the schools sometimes.
Prabhupāda: Yes, and she'll cooperate. And write letter for permission for carrying our motorcar and incense.
Devotee: Yes, and inform Gurudāsa...
Prabhupāda: She has already agreed, that, ah, what is called? Punks? The punks sent to Calcutta, and from there then send to Los Angeles.
John Nordheimer: Many people have tried to change the world, but we see that they have failed. Many people have tried to see God, but they do not succeed.
Prabhupāda: That is because their purpose is not strong. That is due to māyā, forgetfulness. Just like darkness and light; if your light is strong, there is no darkness. But if you have no light, or if your light is not very strong, there is darkness. This is the principle: If you want to drive away darkness, you must bring light. That is the only medicine. You don't have to make a separate endeavor to drive away darkness. As soon as you bring light, darkness will go. The motto of our magazine Back To Godhead is: "Godhead is light, nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience." This is also the Vedic injunction: Don't remain in darkness; come to the light. How is this possible? When I flew to London from Los Angeles, there was no darkness, for we did not allow the sun to set, you remain always in light. This means that if you don't forget Kṛṣṇa, your life will be successful. If you aim your plane westward and don't stop, you will remain in sunlight all the time. Similarly, if you remain in Kṛṣṇa consciousness by the simple method of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, you will never see the darkness.
Prabhupāda: The bubble. It is expanded and popped. It is like that. Kṛṣṇa says (Sanskrit) aśāśvatam, and we are seeing, experiencing every day. So why should we spoil our life by making adjustment in this popped universe? It will be popped, and all arrangement phat. Everyone knows it. Such a nice city of Los Angeles, there is no guarantee. Within a second, it can be inundated, go within the womb of this ocean.
Jayatīrtha: You can get any kind of insurance on a building here in Los Angeles but the only kind, it's so expensive, no one can afford, is earthquake insurance. Hardly anyone will write earthquake insurance because they have such a fear that the earthquake will come at any time, and no one wants to gamble their money on someone else's building, that it will not fall apart in an earthquake. The threefold miseries are always a factor. No one can avoid them. (indistinct) asked one question. Someone sent some dust from the...
Prabhupāda: We go this way?
Prabhupāda: Committee is his spiritual master, he orders that you do this.
Jayatīrtha: The test is to see how much one is actually following the orders of his spiritual master.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: Listening to another so-called guru, everywhere we go, especially in Los Angeles, they always talk of other gurus. They always talk of spiritual knowledge, but they don't find out what the real test is.
Prabhupāda: What is your answer?
Rāmeśvara: So we show them our books and say that these are the real scriptures, real quality. The (indistinct) have to be the quality of the spiritual knowledge.
Prabhupāda: How do you explain? You are realized or not? (indistinct)
Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda, when you say that this is the knowledge that's been realized...
Prabhupāda: What is that? Why don't you explain? (indistinct) That means they do not know.
Śyāmasundara: Today we received a telegram. Macmillan Company has just agreed to print Prabhupāda's Bhagavad-gītā.
Ambassador: Oh, really!
Śyāmasundara: Thirty-five thousand copies.
Ambassador: Oh!
Mrs. Keating: Oh, that's marvellous. It's a very good...
Ambassador: I used to be the attorney for the Macmillan Company.
Prabhupāda: Yes, here is, here is my headquarters address.
Ambassador: I see. In Los Angeles.
Mrs. Keating: Oh, good. Fine.
Prabhupāda: That is my Press address.
Prabhupāda: With great difficulty I was pulling on. And New York is a very expensive city, a great city, a great forest. (laughs) And I am poor man. So then it is a long history. Then I began chanting in the Tompkinson Square, and I think, in the first day this boy, Acyutānanda Mahārāja now, he and another boy, Brahmānanda Mahārāja, he is also preaching in Africa, these two boys danced, and this photograph was published in the New York Times with great details. That was the first encouragement. And after chanting in the park, many young men and girls used to come to my apartment and my meeting place. In this way I started, first in New York, then in San Francisco, then Montreal, then Boston. In this way, now we have got about one hundred branches all over the world, forty branches in America. Big, big cities, Australia, I mean to say, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Boston. What is that? Other cities? San Francisco.
Devotees: Dallas.
Prabhupāda: Dallas. Dallas we have got very nice temple. Detroit. I thought that our temple, Los Angeles temple, is the best. But this year I went to Dallas. Oh, it is better than Los Angeles. (laughter) It is so nice. Now we are trying to purchase the Berkshire palace in England. Yes. That was being occupied by the Duke of Windsor. I don't think whether I have got, received one letter from. No. So the price is 500,000 dollars.
Devotee: Trilogy is not at this place. I think we have it here.
Prabhupāda: Oh, that's all right. So by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, whichever book we are publishing, that is being accepted. And people inquire when they go for saṅkīrtana in big, big cities, they inquire, "Have you got this book? Have you got this book?" Yes. And we are receiving mail orders, at least twenty mail orders. And this time I was surprised. They have taken a godown in Los Angeles. This is bigger than the Rādhā-Dāmodara temple, so big. Only for stocking books and incense. We are manufacturing incense. That I suggested. Sometimes I went to Ramakrishna mission and I saw they are selling incense. So I suggested that "Why don't you..." So I gave them idea how to manufacture. Because I have...
Devotee (3): Also in Los Angeles they are buying press?
Prabhupāda: That is small press. That is not for printing books, some small pamphlets.
Indian man: (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Ah.
Gurudāsa: George is going to make any more records, recordings?
Prabhupāda: He has already made one record about our Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.
Gurudāsa: Really?
Prabhupāda: Yes, recent.
Prabhupāda: When you were in service? (break) They come to see me. The one psychologist and psychiatrist came to see me in Los Angeles. And many scientists come. Some of them are my disciples.
Prabhupāda: The beginning is satyam. Generally the people in pilgrimages like Vṛndāvana, they have taken this religiousness as a profession to earn money, just like other businessmen do. That is cheating. Generally they do so. In Los Angeles they are keeping the standard given by ourself. At every āratik in early morning, at least 150 men. Even though I am not present, by system, by kīrtana, dancing, offering Deity worship nicely (indistinct). So we have to maintain the standard very strictly. Otherwise it will again become Rādhā-Dāmodara temple and Bharatpur Mahārāja (indistinct). You will have to find out some customer to sell it. What is the use of starting temple if you do not do it properly? Why should you waste your energy? Better travel and preach. Don't take the risk of starting big, big temple. As soon as the energy is gone, there will be trouble.
Prabhupāda: Just like the Pacific Ocean at any moment it can overflow at any place. But it does not do so. You walk... I was walking in Los Angeles just about three feet away from the sea. So I was explaining to my students, "Now, I am just three feet away from the sea and the sea is so vast. At any second it can overflood us. But why you are confident the sea will not come here?" Because we know, by God's order, although the sea, the ocean, is so big, it cannot violate the order of God. That you are big, that's all right. But you cannot come beyond this line. So these things are being managed. And there is no God? What a nonsense.
Prabhupāda: Another thing that Keśi-ghāṭa affair. Shall we make further progress? I acquired that property (indistinct). What is your opinion? From the circumstances as that is now, because any temple, it must be nicely, very nicely managed, otherwise you cannot attract. Our Los Angeles temple we want to attract people. So it is so nicely managed, very nicely managed. You have seen. So unless, that means there must be sufficient bank balance. Such a big temple.
Prabhupāda: Unless there is darkness, how you can say: "This is light"? So opposite, you can say opposite. Now this, this knowledge is there. Everyone knows. But where is that absolute where the bad and good, the black and white, everything coincides? That is absolute. Everything is there. That is not distinction. Everything is there. That is called absolute. Brahman. That means, Brahman means the biggest. Now when you speak something big, so everything is included. Big means bad and good, everything is included. Otherwise, how it can be big? Big means... Just like if you, when you speak of Los Angeles, so there are so many things, bad and good, in Los Angeles, all included. Is it not? So Brahman means bṛhattva, being the largest. The largest means it contains everything. Just like the sky. We have got the idea. The sky means it, it, it contains everything universal. This is the idea of greatest.
Prabhupāda: Oh, then what kind of scientist he is? So they know that you are theologist?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: In the department everybody knows. (laughter) There is one theoretical chemist. His name is Max Muster (?). He is from Germany. He is a theoretical chemist. Once I invited him to come to Los Angeles to talk with Prabhupāda. He agreed, and but then he told me that he will think for one day whether he will come or not. Then next day he told me that he is afraid. "I cannot come because I am afraid that I will be put on the walls." (laughter) But he is very philosophical. He believes in God. He has some... That's why if you talk with him, very nice.
Prabhupāda: So that is also nice. We are not afraid of meeting any philosopher or scientist, but they are afraid. That is our credit. All scientists know that they are on the wrong basis, but because they are scientists, they say like that. That is their position. They do not believe in their own statement. Therefore he said, "I do not know."
Prabhupāda: We are taught like this, how to see everything in relationship with Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. We cannot therefore see anything wasted, anything misused. Why you are preaching? Why we are after so many rascals? That his life is being misused. Let us give him some enlightenment. This is our mission. Or let him go to hell. Just like Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, they're engaged in meditation or in the Himalayas, but we have come to Los Angeles. Why? This is our mission. Oh, these things, these people are being misused under māyā, let him gain some enlightenment. This is our mission. We are teaching that, how to utilize everything for Kṛṣṇa. How to understand Kṛṣṇa in everything. That is our mission. See Kṛṣṇa in everything.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Studying at U. C..., University of California at Irvine.
Krishna Tiwari: I don't know how famous, but... (laughs).
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Studying biology and molecular biology. You were in University of Southern California before, right?
Krishna Tiwari: No, University of California to Los Angeles. UCLA.
Prabhupāda: So:
So biology... Biology means the scientist dealing in living entities?
Krishna Tiwari: Right.
Prabhupāda: So I don't think your science has reached to the point to find out the measurement of the living entity.
Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Also you have proved also that capital is on the other world. Capital is also... So it is being supplied.
Prabhupāda: Now, these books suppliers, Dai Nippon, they give us credit up to $200,000. $200,000, in our Indian exchange, it is twenty lakhs of rupees. So they give us credit. We take books from them and distribute and then pay. In this way, it is going on. In Los Angeles alone we are selling... How many books daily?
Prabhupāda: Bali-mardana. Bali-mardana and another, Karandhara dāsa Adhikārī. So actually he's the manager, Karandhara dāsa Adhikārī. He is looking after.
Śrīdhara Mahārāja: At America.
Prabhupāda: In Los Angeles. He's very intelligent boy. He knows everything. He knows accounts, He knows how to construct building. He knows how to manage. He knows how to publish. Everything.
Buddhist Monk (1): And Swamiji, you generally spend more of your time here?
Prabhupāda: Yes, Generally, in America, Los Angeles. And also in Europe.
Buddhist Monk (1): We went to Hare Krishna in Los Angeles, (indistinct) couple of days.
Pradyumna: He is a very nice gentleman. He appreciated Bhagavad-gītā. He said right away, very...
Prabhupāda: Yes...
Pradyumna: My wife's typing up all your lectures. She has finished L.A. lectures. Now she is typing Māyāpura lectures, this lecture, that lecture. She has permanent machine and typewriter and apartment. So she types all during the day and she minds the child. And then it is in the same apartment.
Prabhupāda: Attending class also?
| Page Title: | Los Angeles (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Alakananda |
| Created: | 29 of Jun, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=210, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 210 |