Īśvara (the Supreme Lord), jīva (the living entity), prakṛti (nature), kāla (eternal time) and karma (activity) are all explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Out of these five, the Lord, the living entities, material nature and time are eternal. The manifestation of prakṛti may be temporary, but it is not false. Some philosophers say that the manifestation of material nature is false, but according to the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā or according to the philosophy of the Vaiṣṇavas, this is not so. The manifestation of the world is not accepted as false; it is accepted as real, but temporary. It is likened unto a cloud which moves across the sky, or the coming of the rainy season, which nourishes grains. As soon as the rainy season is over and as soon as the cloud goes away, all the crops which were nourished by the rain dry up. Similarly, this material manifestation takes place at a certain interval, stays for a while and then disappears. Such are the workings of prakṛti. But this cycle is working eternally. Therefore prakṛti is eternal; it is not false. The Lord refers to this as "My prakṛti." This material nature is the separated energy of the Supreme Lord, and similarly the living entities are also the energy of the Supreme Lord, although they are not separated but eternally related. So the Lord, the living entity, material nature and time are all interrelated and are all eternal. However, the other item, karma, is not eternal. The effects of karma may be very old indeed. We are suffering or enjoying the results of our activities from time immemorial, but we can change the results of our karma, or our activity, and this change depends on the perfection of our knowledge. We are engaged in various activities. Undoubtedly we do not know what sort of activities we should adopt to gain relief from the actions and reactions of all these activities, but this is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Across
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Preface and Introduction
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 3
Your lotus feet are the true vessel to take one across the ocean of mundane nescience. Only persons deprived of their intelligence by the spell of the deluding energy will worship those feet with a view to attain the trivial and momentary pleasures of the senses, which even persons rotting in hell can attain. However, O my Lord, You are so kind that You bestow mercy even upon them.
SB Canto 5
By nature the doe was always afraid of being killed by others, and it was always looking about suspiciously. When it heard the lion's tumultuous roar, it became very agitated. Looking here and there with disturbed eyes, the doe, although it had not fully satisfied itself by drinking water, suddenly leaped across the river.
SB Canto 6
We, the conditioned souls, have fallen in the ocean of nescience, but the human body fortunately provides us a good opportunity to cross the ocean because the human body is like a very good boat. When directed by a spiritual master acting as the captain, the boat can very easily cross the ocean. Furthermore, the boat is helped across by favorable winds, which are the instructions of Vedic knowledge. If one does not take advantage of all these facilities to cross the ocean of nescience, he is certainly committing suicide.
SB Canto 7
This human form of body is a most valuable boat, and the spiritual master is the captain, guru-karṇadhāram, to guide the boat in plying across the ocean of nescience. The instruction of Kṛṣṇa is a favorable breeze. One must use all these facilities to cross over the ocean of nescience. Since the spiritual master is the captain, one must serve the spiritual master very sincerely so that by his mercy one will be able to get the mercy of the Supreme Lord.
SB Canto 8
The body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, blackish in complexion, was free from all inebrieties. His lotus face, decorated with earrings resembling sharks, appeared very beautiful, and on His bosom was the mark of Śrīvatsa. He wore bangles on His wrists, armlets on His arms, a helmet on His head, a belt on His waist, a sacred thread across His chest, and ankle bells decorating His lotus feet.
SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)
Bāṇāsura was furious to see his entire military force being torn apart. Leaving his fight with Sātyaki, he charged across the battlefield on his chariot and attacked Lord Kṛṣṇa.
When Śālva, the master of a decimated army, saw Lord Kṛṣṇa approaching, he hurled his spear at the Lord's charioteer. The spear roared frighteningly as it flew across the battlefield.
Although the mighty wind blows clouds and storms across the sky, the sky is never implicated or affected by these activities. Similarly, the spirit soul is not actually changed or affected by contact with the material nature. Although the living entity enters within a body made of earth, water and fire, and although he is impelled by the three modes of nature created by eternal time, his eternal spiritual nature is never actually affected.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
I offer my obeisances to Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by whose mercy even an ignorant child can swim across the ocean of conclusions about the ultimate truth, which is full of the crocodiles of various theories.
Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the spiritual master of the entire world, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by whose mercy even a dog can swim across a great ocean.
Sometimes it is to be seen that a dog can swim in the water for a few yards and then come back to the shore. Here, however, it is stated that if a dog is blessed by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he can swim across an ocean. Similarly, the author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, placing himself in a helpless condition, states that he has no personal power, but by the desire of Lord Caitanya, expressed through the Vaiṣṇavas and the Madana-mohana vigraha, it is possible for him to cross a transcendental ocean to present Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
"The village Ambikā-kālanā, which is situated just across the river Ganges from Śāntipura, is two miles east of the Kālanā-korṭa railway station, on the Eastern Railway. In Ambikā-kālanā there is a temple constructed by the zamindar of Burdwan. In front of the temple there is a big tamarind tree, and it is said that Gaurīdāsa Paṇḍita and Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu met underneath this tree. The place where the temple is situated is known as Ambikā, and because it is in the area of Kālanā, the village is known as Ambikā-kālanā. It is said that a copy of the Bhagavad-gītā written by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu still exists in this temple."
CC Madhya-lila
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu would also run very fast across the sand dunes, mistaking them for Govardhana. As He ran, He would wail and cry loudly.
“When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu stayed at Vidyā-vācaspati's house, many hundreds of thousands of people went to see Him and chant the holy name of Hari. It was so crowded that people could not even find a place to walk; therefore they made room by clearing out the jungles near the village. Many roads were automatically excavated, and many people also came by boat to see the Lord. So many came that it was difficult for the boatmen to get them across the river. When Vidyā-vācaspati suddenly arrived, he made arrangements for many boats to receive these people, but the people would not wait for the boats.
While the Lord was going to Mathurā, He came across the river Yamunā several times, and as soon as He saw the river Yamunā, He would immediately jump in, falling unconscious in the water in the ecstasy of love of Kṛṣṇa.
After reaching Pātaḍā, he met a landholder and submissively requested him to get him across that hilly tract of land.
The landlord said, "I shall get you across that hilly tract at night with my own men. Now just cook for yourself and take your lunch."
“I have these seven gold coins with me. Please accept them, and from a religious point of view please get me across that hilly tract of land.
"I am a prisoner of the government, and I cannot go along the way of the ramparts. It will be very pious of you to take this money and kindly get me across this hilly tract of land."
"I am very satisfied with your behavior. I shall not accept these gold coins, but I shall get you across that hilly tract of land simply to perform a pious activity."
“The sun moves across the zodiac day and night and crosses the oceans between the seven islands one after the other.
Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura elucidates this complicated explanation of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes. Kṛṣṇa's pastimes are always present in the material world in one of the many universes. These pastimes appear in the universes one after the other, just as the sun moves across the sky and measures the time. Kṛṣṇa's appearance may be manifested in this universe at one moment, and immediately after His birth, this pastime is manifested in the next universe. After His killing of Pūtanā is manifested in this universe, it is next manifested in another universe. Thus all the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa are eternally existing both in the original Goloka Vṛndāvana planet and in the material universes. The 125 years calculated in our solar system to be Kṛṣṇa's lifetime equal one moment for Kṛṣṇa. One moment these pastimes are manifested in one universe, and the next moment they are manifested in the next universe. There are unlimited universes, and Kṛṣṇa's pastimes are manifested one moment after the other in all of them. This rotation is explained through the example of the sun's moving across the sky.
CC Antya-lila
Śivānanda Sena, unhappy that the dog had to stay behind, paid the boatman ten paṇa of conchshells to take the dog across the river.
Śivānanda Sena's attachment to the dog was a great boon for that animal. The dog appears to have been a street dog. Since it naturally began to follow Śivānanda Sena while he was going to Jagannātha Purī with his party, he accepted it into his party and maintained it the same way he was maintaining the other devotees. It appears that although on one occasion the dog was not allowed aboard a boat, Śivānanda did not leave the dog behind but paid more money just to induce the boatman to take the dog across the river. Then when the servant forgot to feed the dog and the dog disappeared, Śivānanda, being very anxious, sent ten men to find it. When they could not find it, Śivānanda observed a fast. Thus it appears that somehow or other Śivānanda had become attached to the dog.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Teachings of Lord Caitanya
As each Brahmā saw Kṛṣṇa, each thought that Kṛṣṇa was only within his universe. After this incident, Kṛṣṇa wished all the Brahmās farewell, and after offering respects to Him they returned to their respective universes. Upon seeing this, the four-headed Brahmā at once fell down at the feet of Kṛṣṇa and said, "What I thought about You before was all nonsense. People may say they know You perfectly, but as far as I am concerned, I cannot begin to conceive how great You are. You are beyond my understanding."
Kṛṣṇa then informed him, "This particular universe is only four thousand million miles across, but there are many millions and billions of universes which are far, far greater than this one. Some of these are many trillions of miles across, and all these universes require strong Brahmās with many more than four heads." Kṛṣṇa further informed Brahmā, "This material creation is only one quarter of My creative potency. Three quarters is in the spiritual kingdom."
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
The fact is that those who are always engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and mature, pure devotional service are given the chance, after death, to gain Kṛṣṇa's association in one of the universes within the material world. Kṛṣṇa's pastimes are continuously going on, either in this universe or in another universe. Just as the sun globe is passing over many places across this earthly planet, so kṛṣṇa-līlā, or the transcendental advent and pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, are also going on continuously, either in this or another universe. The mature devotees, who have completely executed Kṛṣṇa consciousness, are immediately transferred to the universe where Kṛṣṇa is appearing. In that universe the devotees get their first opportunity to associate with Kṛṣṇa personally and directly. The training goes on, as we see in the vṛndāvana-līlā of Kṛṣṇa within this planet. Kṛṣṇa therefore revealed the actual features of the Vaikuṇṭha planets so that the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana could know their destination.
There was a nice belt around His waist, and He wore a sacred thread across His broad chest. Bangles were on His hands, and armlets on the upper portion of His arms. He wore bells on His ankles. He possessed dazzling beauty, and His palms were like lotus flowers. He was further beautified by the different emblems of the viṣṇu-mūrti—the conchshell, club, disc and lotus flower—which He held in His four hands. His chest was marked with the particular signs of Viṣṇu, and He wore fresh flower garlands. All in all, He was very beautiful to look at.
Renunciation Through Wisdom
The activities of the day evoke dreams at night and induce emotions appropriate to those activities. Similarly, the activities performed in one's lifetime flash across one's mind at the moment of death and determine one's next life. Therefore, if one's present activities are directed toward chanting, hearing, and remembering the Supreme Lord's transcendental name, along with descriptions of His beauty, qualities, pastimes, associates, and paraphernalia, then one's consciousness at the moment one leaves his body will automatically be attracted to the Lord.
Although a person may call himself a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, if he considers Kṛṣṇa a human being or thinks that He started off as a human being and then evolved into God (as is now in vogue, with so many "incarnations" mushrooming), then such a person is not a devotee but an imposter. One often comes across monists and pseudo-devotees posing as Lord Kṛṣṇa's devotees, but eventually they try to usurp Kṛṣṇa's position. They want to be Lord Kṛṣṇa themselves. Persons with such insidious desires are totally bewildered. If a fruitive worker thinks that Lord Kṛṣṇa is an ordinary mortal, he does not attain the goal of his fruitive work—elevation to the heavenly planets. And if an anthropomorphist happens to be a jñānī, an empirical philosopher, then he also fails to achieve the goal of his pursuit of knowledge—liberation from the material modes.
The energy of the Lord is like a fathomless ocean that remains undisturbed in all circumstances. It is shoreless, without beginning or end; therefore the process which directly manifests from this energy is omnipotent and can transport one to any heights or levels. The necessities for ocean travel are a ship, a navigator, a rudder, and a favorable wind. One must clearly understand that this human body is the most suitable ship to take us across the ocean of nescience, the spiritual master is the best navigator, the scriptures are the rudder, and the Lord's mercy is the perfect wind. If we do not take advantage of this excellent arrangement and cross over the material ocean of nescience, then we are our own worst enemy.
Sri Isopanisad
The atheists and impersonalists lead such foolish pseudo religionists into the darkest regions by preaching the cult of atheism. The atheist directly denies the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the impersonalists support the atheists by stressing the impersonal aspect of the Supreme Lord. Thus far we have not come across any mantra in Śrī Īśopaniṣad in which the Supreme Personality of Godhead is denied. It is said that He can run faster than anyone. Those who are running after other planets are certainly persons, and if the Lord can run faster than all of them, how can He be impersonal? The impersonal conception of the Supreme Lord is another form of ignorance, arising from an imperfect conception of the Absolute Truth.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Then Lord Caitanya was sleeping, and, say, after half and hour, when He got, He saw, "Govinda, you have not taken your prasādam as yet?" "No, sir." "Why?" "I cannot cross You. You are lying down here." "Then how you came?" "I came across." "How you first of all came across, why not again crossing?" "That I came to serve You. And now I cannot cross You to take my prasādam. That is not my duty. That is for myself. And it is for You." So for Kṛṣṇa's pleasure you can become His enemy, you can become His friend, you can become anything. That is bhakti-yoga. Because your aim is how to please Kṛṣṇa. And as soon as the point comes, to please your senses, then you come to material world, immediately.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So here also, Devahūti, the same principle. She says, tasya tvaṁ tamaso 'ndhasya duṣpārasyādya pāragam, sac-cakṣur janmanām ante: "My dear Kapila, You have come as my son. But You are my guru. You are guru because You can give me information how I can cross over the nescience of darkness, of this material life." So one who is feeling the necessity of going across the dark nescience of material existence, he requires a guru. Not for curing some disease or getting a little portion of gold.
Haṁsadūta: Sixteen heads arrived at the Kumbha-melā, January 5, 1971. Śrīla Prabhupāda arrived on the morning of January 13, 1971, and the following lectures were recorded beginning January 15, 1971, at the Kumbha-melā, crossing of Kali and Yamunā roads, just across from the Hanumān Mandira, a temple which is said to be at least one million years old. Prabhupāda said it was standing since the time of Lord Rāmacandra. (break)
Prabhupāda: (recites prema-dhvani prayers, etc.) We have been discussing Ajāmila's upākhyāna after finishing the speeches by the Yamadūta, assistants of Yamarāja, the superintendent of judgment after death. Yamarāja is one of the appointed officers, mahājanas. He's a Vaiṣṇava, but his thankless task is that he has to punish all the sinful activities. That is his position.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
This is called jāta-karma. Just after the child is born, this astrologer will come and he will see the moment, the astronomical situation, and make a horoscope, and then immediately his future activities and everything will be clearly made, that "This child is born at such and such moment. He will be like this and this." And that will be... You will be surprised... Not surprised. This is calculation. In my horoscope it is written there, "At the age of seventy years he will go across the sea." It is written there. Yes. And there are so many things still. So this astrologer was so accurate. I have got that horoscope. Not here. If some day I shall, then will show. It is clearly written there that "This time he will go across the sea." Just see. The circumstances became so that I have come. So astrology is so nice.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Prabhupāda: Where you are here producing parwala?
Jayapatākā: Parwala, oh, across the road we get.
Prabhupāda: How many... (break) One who is sincerely engaged in the service of the Lord, He gives him intelligence, "Now do this, do this." Simply we have to become sincere servant; then all dictation will come from within. Kṛṣṇa is there is everyone's heart. So work sincerely and everything will make progress. Who has painted this picture?
Acyutānanda: Puṣkara.
General Lectures
The so-called Hindu dharma, that is a gift of the Muhammadans. We don't find the word "Hindu" in any Vedic scripture. This "Hindu" word has come from the Muhammadan countries. They used to say the people of this part of the world, means, across the river Indus, they call "Hindas" or "Hindus." So actually, Hindu not..., that is not Hindu dharma. Our... From the Vedic literature, we understand the varṇāśrama-dharma, varṇāśrama: four varṇas and four āśramas. Varnāśramacaravata. In the Viṣṇu-Purāṇa, you'll find this word. In the Bhagavad-gītā, you'll find. In the Bhāgavata you'll find.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: You can change your mind. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says (indistinct). That is explained in the Bhāgavatam... (break) ...progress, why do you talk of these things? What do you think, eh? That is explained in the Bhāgavatam: andhā yathāndair upanīyamānās. Andhā. One blind man is trying to lead another blind man. So what is the use of such leading? You must have eyes, then you can ask other hundreds of blind men, "Please come behind me, I shall get you across." But if you have no eyes, then why you are asking others, philosophizing?
Śyāmasundara: It seems like these two philosophers have two different viewpoints. The first one, Huxley thinks that man can take nature into his own hands and mold his own evolution.
Prabhupāda: That is nonsense.
Devotee: It sounds like to me that what he calls life instinct is what we call logical, and what he calls death instinct is what we call tamoguṇa. If some people... Let's say Freud never came across people who have the urge for mukti. People have the urge to go...
Prabhupāda: Neither death nor life...
Devotee: They haven't touch...
Śyāmasundara: That would be part of the life instinct, self-preservation—if you want to live forever.
Prabhupāda: There are others also: to want to die forever.
Prabhupāda: That is nice. That immortal stage is described in the Bhāgavatam, or the Bhagavad-gītā. Yad gatvā na nivartante (BG 15.6). Progress means you go, go. Gamati iti gatiḥ, or progress. You go, go, go. So when you come to this śloka... (?) Therefore in the Vedas it is said, oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ. Sūrayaḥ, means those who are learned, those who are advanced in knowledge. They are called sūrayaḥ. So they are always looking forward to the lotus feet of Viṣṇu. Just like modern scientists are going, trying to go to the moon planet, so when they start, they are looking forward (to) the moon planet. Similarly, those who are learned, they are simply looking forward to the lotus feet of Viṣṇu: "When I shall reach there?" That goal is there. They are not missing the goal. Oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ. This is the Ṛg Veda mantra. They know their goal. But they have to reach still, yet to go there. Just like our Kṛṣṇa conscious people, they know what is the goal, Kṛṣṇa, Goloka Vṛndāvana. So this is the attempt, how to reach there, how to reach there. That's all. We are not blind, but these people are blind. They do not know what is the goal. By philosophizing, they simply mislead. That is explained in the Bhāgavata: andhā, a blind man is trying to lead other blind men. If you do not know, why you are philosophizing? Unless you have got the ideal goal for evolutionary progress, why you talk of these things? What do you think? Huh? So that is explained in the Bhāgavata. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās (SB 7.5.31). Andhā. One blind man is trying to lead another blind man. So what is the use of such leading? You must have eyes; then you can ask other hundreds of blind men, "Please come behind me. I shall get you across." But if you have no eyes, then why you are asking others? Philosophizing.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Interviewer: Now I just want to read one section here. I think you'll be able to... "The International Society for Krishna Consciousness began when Swami Bhaktivedanta arrived from India with $2 on his person, a metal suitcase full of ancient-looking books and a cotton cloth robe, colored yellow, as a sign of the renounced order of life. In India, men of his order are completely dedicated to propagating the spiritual life of a mendicant wanderer. He had wandered across the sea upon the order issued to him by his guru who told him he should prepare to go to America to teach the principles taught in the Bhagavad-gītā and to translate the sixty volumes of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam into English." Now, are you a guru?
Prabhupāda: Yes, I am the spiritual master of this institution, and all the members of the society, they're supposed to be my disciples. They follow the rules and regulations which I ask them to follow, and they are initiated by me spiritually. So therefore the spiritual master is called guru. That is Sanskrit language.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Practically, three.
Guest (1): Swami, did you come across these Brahma-kumaris? They preach something else.
Prabhupāda: That is something else. Everyone knows it.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So these changes, this surrendering, will go on in different categories. Actually all the surrenders-sum total is surrender to māyā. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, daivī hy eṣā guṇamayi mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). So this surrender is going on, going on. It is the māyā's, māyāra vaibhava, paraphernalia of māyā, either you surrender to this or to that. But final surrender-mām eva ye prapadyante, māyām etāṁ taranti te—the final surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Then he is happy. Surrender will stay. His process of surrender is there, but this surrender keeps him quite satisfied, transcendental.
Prof. Kotovsky: Yes. And haven't you come across some hostile attitude to your teaching from orthodox Hindu, from orthodox brāhmaṇas in India itself.
Prabhupāda: But rather, we have subdued them.
Prabhupāda: What is the whole price?
Pratyatoṣa: Well, the terminal would cost $700 for one that handled upper and lower case. You can get 132 characters across.
Prabhupāda: $700 altogether?
Revatīnandana: In Manchester across the street from the temple there's a big park. Sometimes I would go over there to walk and chant rounds, and there's many little children in the park. They'd follow me, "Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa!" All day. Hundred times.
Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Everywhere. In Bombay, everywhere we go, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." In Montreal. They joke, they'll clap, but they'll chant. And that is wanted. I want to see that everyone is chanting. And if chanting has effect, then either he's chanting jokingly or seriously it will have the effect. Fire, if you touch either jokingly or seriously or cautiously, it will act. So our request is that you also preach this cult. Let us cooperate. The whole world is suffering for want of God consciousness. So it is the duty of all religious sects to teach this simple art of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa or any other name which you have got. That's all.
Dr. Weir: This is where you can't get a feeling across by writing a textbook on it. I think...
Prabhupāda: No. One thing is that somebody's concluding that to solve this problem, birth, death, old age, disease, is impossibility. That is one school. Another school (indistinct) that there is possibility of control over the birth, death, old age and disease. So why not this school, who does not say that is impossible. No, there is possible. Just like we follow Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa says that tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaun... (BG 4.9). that "Anyone who understands Me, follows Me, he, after quitting this body, no more accept this material body but comes to Me." Now, so long I accept this material body these problems are there, birth, death, old age and disease. Then if I don't accept this material body then these problems are solved immediately.
Devotee (7) (lady): Śrīla Prabhupāda, there was a fish on Laksmi's hand yesterday. The Deity in the temple, where Laksmi had her hand up like this, there was a fish here across her hand. What is this?
Prabhupāda: That is a mark, mark.
Devotee (7): Its not a fish.
Prabhupāda: Not actual fish.
Devotee (7): (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Not that Lakṣmījī eats fish. (laughter) There are many other marks also.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: He's Indian?
Bob: Indian, Indian, lives nearby. He speaks English fairly well. When he was young, said he worshiped Kālī every day very vigorously. But then the floods all came, and the floods came, and the people saw hardship. But now he has no religion, and he says he finds his happiness in trying to develop love among people. And I couldn't think of what to say to him to add religion to his life, to add God to his life. He says, "After the hereafter," he says, after he dies, "so maybe I'll become part of God, maybe not," he says, but he can't worry about it now. He says he's tried this religious experience; it didn't work. And one reason I ask this is when I go back to America a lot of people I come across are like this. They see that religion, like his worship of Kālī or other kinds of religion that they've experienced doesn't work. And I don't know what to say to them to convince them that it's worth trying.
Prabhupāda: Hm. You do not try to convince him at the present moment. You try to be convinced yourself.
Prabhupāda: He is very energetic.
Śyāmasundara: And they hitchhiked across Australia, one thousand five hundred miles through the desert.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Śyāmasundara: He said sometimes a car would not come by for many hours, and they would be standing in the hot sun, no trees, anything.
Prabhupāda: Oh, desert, big desert.
Śyāmasundara: A huge desert, they practically made their way across.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Śyāmasundara: The devotees, they don't care. They'll go across the desert hitchhiking, but Kṛṣṇa gives them happiness. They're happy.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is happiness. They are going for Kṛṣṇa, that is happiness. They forget the trouble.
Śyāmasundara: Yes. Today he's gone again. (break)
Prabhupāda: Don't be doubtful about this at least. You may do or not do, but at least you be convinced that this is the nicest thing we have got. And there is no comparison.
Devotee (1): They're all across the country. Kentucky Fried Chicken. Colonel Sanders.
Prabhupāda: Many thousands of chickens are being killed.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Jīva-jātiṣu. Jīva-jātiṣu. That means the evolution means from one form to another. The forms are already... Jātiṣu. Their facilities, they are already there. The living entity is simply transferring himself. The same example: One man is transferring himself from one apartment to another. That apartment is first-class, second-class, third-class. Just a person has come from a lower class apartment to a first-class apartment. The person is the same. Now, according to his karma or according to his capacity of payment, he has got a good apartment. This is... Bhramadbhiḥ. Bhramat means wandering, wandering. Not that they... Evolution means developing. Is it not?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. I understand that part, but I also come across from Śrīla Prabhupāda's commentary on the Bhagavad-gītā that the living entities, all the living entities, 8,400,000 species, they are simultaneously created.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
David Lawrence: Perhaps a parrot's beak would be a very good thing to grow.
Prabhupāda: So give them this... You use your technology.
David Lawrence: Thank you. You know, I think that later on it may well happen, you know. (eating) Our boys don't eat meat, anyway. They eat baked beans the whole time. We have a generation in our country who could eat virtually anything, but they insist on sugar drinks and baked beans. Have you come across these strange English things? Baked beans? Most peculiar.
Prabhupāda: Baked beans?
Śyāmasundara: Baked beans.
Prabhupāda: That's nice.
Pradyumna: They live now across the street, in the temple apartments.
Prabhupāda: In our house?
Pradyumna: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That's nice.
Jesuit Priest: Yes, but all I was saying was, isn't it difficult to get across at times what you can see the meaning in the Sanskrit, but you can't put it into acceptable English? You know what I mean. The idiom isn't the same.
Prabhupāda: We are giving every word, meaning. The book... Have you got any book? Bring it. You can see. Each and every word of Sanskrit we are giving meaning. Our mode of presentation is first of all we put the original Sanskrit language in devanāgarī character. Then we give English, Roman transliteration, pronouncing the same word by diacritic mark. Then each word is translated into English. Then we give translation, the whole. And then we give the purport. This is our way. So we are giving meaning of each and every word means we have got considerable knowledge of that word. Otherwise how we can give? Yes.
Yogeśvara: It is a very big religious movement all around the world. (Yogeśvara speaks in French with Mr. Belfiore and then translates for Śrīla Prabhupāda throughout) He says our movement is very well known in the United States. Have you never come across our society?
Prabhupāda: What is the aim of this movement?
Yogeśvara: The evolution of man.
Prabhupāda: Evolution of man. So man is going to evolve more? What is that ultimate evolution?
Yogeśvara: To a reintegration of man with the cosmos or cosmic consciousness.
Prabhupāda: Cosmic consciousness. We also believe individual consciousness and cosmic consciousness. We are now studying this subject matter in our class. Kṣetra-kṣetra-jña. So kṣetra-jña, the knower... The individual soul is also knower, conscious, and the Supersoul, God, is also conscious. So we also admit, universal consciousness, that is God's consciousness. (break)... consciousness is limited.
Prabhupāda: ...it will be difficult for ordinary persons. Still, as far as possible, I have tried to explain for understanding of the ordinary people. By general reading, it is not difficult.
David Lawrence:. This is the sort of problem one comes across, whether in fact... You see, having grown up in what was really a very liberal, critical attitude...
Prabhupāda: Therefore, this portion of Kṛṣṇa's life is depicted on the Tenth Canto. Nine Cantos are devoted to understand Kṛṣṇa. So without understanding Kṛṣṇa if one tries to read the life and pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, it may be misleading.
Guest (1): Yes. So, forgive me if I talk across you, please, won't you.
Prabhupāda: That's all right, yes.
Prabhupāda: Everywhere mercenary. Lawyers...
Karandhara: The hospital across the street from our temple, if you go there with an emergency, they say, "First give us money. No money, go away." No matter how serious the injury. "First give us money."
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have no human quality, these doctors.
Karandhara: We have brought devotees there sometimes with serious wounds or injuries, and they just say, "First you give us money or else go away. We don't care."
Prabhupāda: Everywhere.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee: Across the sky, shooot, shooot, shooot. Very fast.
Gurukṛpā: About forty-five min..., we..., it was still going but the plane passed it and it stayed behind.
Prabhupāda: Uh, so, this is a bad sign. Constellation. According to astronomical calculations. Therefore we, we follow the astrology according to the constellation. The child born, everything has connection, the constellation of the star has influence on the child. So therefore the horoscope-maker takes the calculation of the constellation and then calculate what is his future. This dhūmaketu is described in Daśāvatāra-stotra, dhūmaketum iva kim api karālam. Dhūmaketum iva. Dhūmaketum iva kim api karālam. As soon as there is comet, there will be some disaster. Very great disaster. In our childhood we saw the comet, not this like. That was small comet. Still, the first world war was there declared. That we have seen in 1914.
Prabhupāda: ...spoil this tree. Everything, their business is spoiling.
Kṛṣṇa-caitanya: The day before yesterday we were driving down the road and we came across all of these coconut trees, and they were trimming them, and all the coconuts were up on the trees, but they were cutting them down, just letting them fall to the ground. And the the coconuts were cracking and just being wasted completely. And then they'd throw them in the garbage. And there's so much energy that Kṛṣṇa has provided here that they're just wasting.
Prabhupāda: As they are wasting, they will be punished. Kṛṣṇa's supply is being wasted. That will be punished (break) ...those coconuts...
Dr. Patel: There is no question of action. It will also act, how much we are religious, only God knows.
Prabhupāda: (japa) (break) ...there is there. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva sanmukharitāṁ bhavadīya.
Dr. Patel: Up to now, I think this is the best part I have run across. One of the best parts. And that, that particular līlā of Kṛṣṇa is the most thrilling one. No?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Indian man (1): But they have provided you with motorcars and aeroplanes to go across the sea, reach America, France, within a few hours. Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is also credit. Because they have done something.
Prabhupāda: Everything is flying, all these planets, they are flying.
Devotee (3): Sometimes they are zig-zagging very fast across the sky (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: Maybe there is (indistinct). Why not?
Yogeśvara (to guests): This is a wonderful opportunity also if you'd like to ask any questions of Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's a rare opportunity that he's here, you can speak with him. (translates)
Prabhupāda: You can read this verse. Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānam.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Your mathematics is also imperfect because you are imperfect. You are imperfect. There is nothing chance. There must be cause. You do not know the cause. You cannot find out. You are taking a loophole, chance. Then why you are making so many scientific research? Chance, let it happen, everything, by chance. Then what is the use of your scientific research? Let everything happen by chance. There is no chance.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Another answer that we come across when we talk with these people...
Prabhupāda: There is nowadays the chance theory.
Guest 1: No, I think that particular situation where he helped the lady across the road...
Prabhupāda: No, particular situation is different. But generally if we do not know what is the ultimate goal, then we misguide. That is the point. So either in society or politics or economics or religion, philosophy, culture—everyone is engaged in some department. But if that leader does not know what is the ultimate goal of life, how he will lead? That is given direction in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in two verses. One verse is: idaṁ hi puṁsas tapasaḥ śrutasya vā (SB 1.5.22). Find out this verse. It is in the First Canto. Who can...? Where is? First of all find out this verse.
Prabhupāda: They did not want to give us?
Guest 1: He didn't want to sell direct, like that. Because that beautiful building across there, I think you saw photos...
Amogha: The convent. Śrīla Prabhupāda went through the convent.
Prabhupāda: Oh yes.
Gurukṛpa: They have this type of gas now that they freeze it, and it shrinks five hundred times. And they put it in these big tanks, and they bring it across the ocean, and then when they get it to port, they again heat it up into the big tanks and it expands. So they freeze it and it becomes smaller and they can export more.
Prabhupāda: Oh, it becomes solid?
Devotee: Just like liquid oxygen, they cool it and yes, it comes to the liquid state.
Prabhupāda: There are so many living entities living within this sand, and on unfortunate moon there is no living entities. And we have to believe it. Hm? What is that?
Gurukṛpa: I was telling them we should come pick these flowers every day, this jasmine. Nobody is picking.
Prabhupāda: Oh. No, no, they will fine.
Prabhupāda: Where is (name witheld)? Where is (he)?
Satsvarūpa: He is across the street.
Prabhupāda: Has he said like that?
Prabhupāda: (laughs) He also said. Yes, they are thinking it is hypnotism. "All young men, their life is for this material enjoyment, and they are giving up everything and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? What is this?"
Brahmānanda: In Māyāpur there is one astrologer and he...
Prabhupāda: Who is that astro...?
Brahmānanda: I don't know his name. He lives in..., across, on the other side there, where the bank is.
Prabhupāda: Oh, Bamanpukur.
Prabhupāda: What is that building?
Śrī Govinda: Merrywood.
Mayor: Oh, we are right across the street from Merrywood, yes, uh huh, which we're going to have as a city hall.
Prabhupāda: Oh. You have decided?
Mayor: Yes, uh huh, about, oh, just two weeks ago actually, the council...
Prabhupāda: So is it not possible to use this house at least for some time for this movement?
Prabhupāda: Vegetables you are growing?
Nityānanda: Yes. We have a garden across the street. All these big trees are pecan trees. We have twenty. All this land across the road here that is cleared is ours, all the way up to the trees.
Prabhupāda: (reading sign?) "Cow protection and God consciousness. Visitors welcome." That's nice. So, which way we shall go now? Cow protection, they are surprised: "What is this nonsense, cow protection?" Huh? Do they say? "Cow is for eating, and you are protecting?" There are falls?
Prabhupāda: So we shall have to go back from this way or there is another way?
Harikeśa: There's a path up here that goes straight across Bon Mahārāja's land.
Prabhupāda: Oh. (break)
Dhanañjaya: ...all this has subsided. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...and did he?
Dhanañjaya: We will find out.
Prabhupāda: So much land is vacant here.
Prabhupāda: Nobody's taking care.
Harikeśa: They make it clear across. (?)
Prabhupāda: In this place it is closed with wall?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, there is fire. Yesterday, few weeks ago, across the street in the field there was a bush fire.
Prabhupāda: That is another thing. But in your country, always fire brigade: "Dung, dung, dung, dung, dung, tunga, tunga, tunga, gara gara gara..."
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, there is always fires in America.
Prabhupāda: Because all wooden house.
Prabhupāda: Eh? No, bhaktas are rare. (break) ...churches here?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is a school, convent school. There is one church here, another church across the street, a third over there and a fourth down the street from where we live. This church has a big food program, but they sell it. They don't distribute freely. They have about twelve vans. Congregational food... All these garages. They have vans, a big truck.
Prabhupāda: But they eat meat.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: "They" not. What I am talking with you. They are all foolish. We call them mūḍhas, duṣkṛtino mūḍhas. So their demand is not legitimate. If a mūḍha... If your small child says, "Father, give me a bidi, cigarette," would you give him? Because he is mūḍha. So the father is intelligent—"No." So similarly, the mūḍhas may demand that "Open this hospital." But we are not going to do that. We know.... Of course, hospital required so far the body is concerned, but there are so many hospitals. The real hospital which is not existing, we are starting. That is our mission, which is not possible for the so-called leaders and politicians. Try to clear this.
Yaśodānandana: Once you mentioned the story that when you were young you saw a mother running across the street in Calcutta beating her child because his brother had typhoid fever and he fed him the paratha.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: So many. So it is good land? No?
Jayapatāka: This is medium land. Across the road is considered good land. Our area here is considered good because of irrigation. This is medium. And the man wants to sell. But it doesn't go as far as our land. It only goes to this point. He's asking three thousand.
Prabhupāda: They are all expecting good price from us.
Bhavānanda: Also, Śrīla Prabhupāda, last night you were saying, "The sun is moving." We can see the sun has just come up and is moving across the sky. So what do they base their statement that the sun is stationary? They have no basis in fact.
Prabhupāda: Therefore rascals. They see one thing and speak another. That is rascal. Yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ rājā samasta... Huh? Yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ rājā samasta-sura-mūrtir aśeṣa-tejāḥ. Aśeṣa-tejāḥ. The... aśeṣa-tejāḥ, unlimited temperature and light. They are studied. This is aśeṣa-tejāḥ. If they have studied the quality of the sun, how they can say something wrong about the movements? That is also right. Yasyājñayā bhramati saṁbhṛta-kāla-cakro govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. This is statement. Bhramati. It is never discussed, sthira. Fixed up means sthira. Bhramati saṁbhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ. And that is also... That movement is also within the time limit fixed up by Kṛṣṇa: "Morning, half past six, you get up." "Yes." You cannot stop it. Kṛṣṇa's ājñā. It is order of Kṛṣṇa. You stop it, you scientists. You make it conveniently. Not half past six, make it eight. Can you do this? You rascal, you are claiming scientist. Yasyājñayā. It is only by His order you can... You ask him to rise from this side. Why from this side? Is there any scientist can change? Then why they are claiming that there is no God? Huh? What is the answer? Hm? Yasyājñayā. There is some arrangement. What is their answer? Hm? Jagadīśa Prabhu? What is the answer?
Prabhupāda: All rascals. How they are risking their own life, karma-bandhana. Just like a thief. He is thinking "I am doing very nice business. Without any..., I am getting so much money." That is risky.
Hari-śauri: Perhaps we cut across this way? This is a dead end here.
Prabhupāda: No, we shall come back.
Prabhupāda: That means foolish, less intelligent.
Guru-kṛpā: We are walking across everyone's field to go the river, and they are saying, "Haribol!"
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Captain Cook?
Guru-kṛpā: Yes. And one day he was walking across the rocks and he hit his foot on a rock and he began to bleed. When they saw the blood, they said, "He is not a God. He is just like us." So they killed him and ate him.
Prabhupāda: Oh, oh. Killed him?
Guru-kṛpā: Yeah, they killed him and ate him.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā?
Prabhupāda: And our Ford, Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, he also...
Hari-śauri: They have some fresh pineapples and a juicing machine just across the road, so someone has gone for some now. It'll be five minutes.
Prabhupāda: You have seen the new publication?
Kīrtanānanda: Which?
Prabhupāda: Of Bhāgavatam.
Prabhupāda: Why, in different season, the day is longer and shorter?
Rakṣaṇa: The time that Lord Vivasvān takes to travel across the sky differs.
Prabhupāda: Who travels? You say.(?) Sun is fixed up, they say.
Devotee: According to their theory, it is fixed up.
Prabhupāda: You can keep record.
Stansky: Yes. Now the reason I would like to keep a log and prepare an outline and start a book, say a year from now, it would show a transition from Roman priesthood to Hare Kṛṣṇa devotee. I think this would open up the door to all of the colleges and universities across the country.
Prabhupāda: Very good idea, yes. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). The nature is if we get better engagement, we give up inferior engagement. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate. So this will be an example. You are a Roman priest. You are educated, learned scholar also. So when you come to this movement, you do not come here by sentiment or by whims. You consider, then you have come.
Lekhaśravantī: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is Father Kern and Father Scheverman. Father Scheverman is from the church across the street from the temple here. He came also tonight.
Prabhupāda: Yes, let him.... Bring one āsana.
Prabhupāda: That's all right; fighting is also required. When there is enemy, we are not discarding fighting. Fighting there will be. So long we are in the material world, there will be disagreement and there will be fight. You cannot stop it; that is not possible. So a class of men, they should be trained up fighting. A class of men, they should be trained up for teaching. A class of men for producing food. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). There are so many things. If you take advantage of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement cooperatively, it will be very, very good for the whole human society. And if your America takes up this call very seriously, others will follow.
Scheverman: Well I would be very interested, as the man who lives across the street right over here, pastor of St. Mark's parish, in talking with your local leadership and discussing whatever programs you are interested in working in this particular community. And I think perhaps...
Prabhupāda: No community—everyone is welcome.
Viśvakarmā: Soon they will be able to sell it to us. (Prabhupāda laughs) Then we'll make a walkway across.
Prabhupāda: Harer nāma, harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21).
Indian (1): Where there'll be cold, it is like a demoniac place, cold. Is it right?
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes.
Pālikā: This house just across.
Prabhupāda: There is water? Well? No.
Pālikā: There are barrels there, filling them daily.
Prabhupāda: Why not well? Have a big well?
Kulādri: They are getting water also, Śrīla Prabhupāda, from this well. Your well is also going to that side.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Have several wells in all places. That is nice. Is it very expensive?
Kulādri: It's expensive.
Prabhupāda: It is more expensive than carrying water and consume petrol? That is laziness. Once you have a well, then you save so much trouble. Get one well in each, our house. It is here very deep, uh? To get well? Tube-well? But there are so many creeks.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Just like a tree. Tree is fixed up, as a whole tree is moving.
Hari-śauri: Because we see practically that the moon also moves, across the sky. Just like the sun does. So the sun has an orbit?
Prabhupāda: Sun is also... Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kennedy, La Guardia, and there's one just across the river, Newark. It's in New Jersey, but it's considered part of the Port Authority.
Prabhupāda: I hear, Māyāpur Project? You have not been sending money?
Rāmeśvara: Not yet.
Prabhupāda: They want money. Gargamuni has written.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayānanda, maybe you should park on the right side. We can walk across the street rather than getting out.
Rāmeśvara: Yes, good idea.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pull over if you can on the right side, then Prabhupāda can see the building from across the street. (break) Yes, at least for the next five or ten years.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Then you'll have to change again.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. The group above are performing a kīrtana, the chanting of the names of Kṛṣṇa, the Vedic Deity they believe to be the supreme personification of Godhead. They are shown before the doorway of one Astor Plaza in Manhattan's Times Square area. Their chant, increasingly familiar on street corners in all large cities across the country, runs, 'Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.' These Kṛṣṇa devotees belong to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, less formally known as the Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement and still less formally to the man in the street as the Harry Kṛṣṇas." (laughter) Actually, Prabhupāda, one...
Prabhupāda: Harry Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: You have got that store?
Mr. Kallman: Well, we're doing well wholesaling now, Prabhupāda. We sell to stores, department stores across the United States. We had to give up the store because we couldn't have, you know, timewise.
Prabhupāda: Hm. You are now making wholesaling.
Prabhupāda: Just see it is so difficult subject matter. I am speaking to you, still you feel difficulty. It is little difficult subject matter. We say the car and driver, if you understand this analogy, the car and the driver, so who is important? The driver is important, the car is important. Both combined together giving a service, the car is moving. But if they are separated, who is important, the car is important or the driver is important?
Interviewer: I don't know how I'm going to get the point you're making there across. If the car and the driver are separated, the car is useless and the driver is a person. The driver is always important.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, driver is always important. Within the car or without the car.
Prabhupāda: That is you. That is you, not Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference between you and Kṛṣṇa.
Rādhāvallabha: (break) Across the river, there was reports from many people that one ship landed from another planet.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Prabhupāda: That is you. That is you, not Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference between you and Kṛṣṇa.
Rādhāvallabha: (break) Across the river, there was reports from many people that one ship landed from another planet.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Rādhāvallabha: Across the river there were reports from many people that a ship from another planet landed and took soil samples and then left. And everyone reported that saw, they were very much afraid.
Prabhupāda: No, only Deity, yes. And Rādhā-Govinda has big property. In front of the Deity house there is a very big building.
Hari-śauri: Just across the road? That one?
Prabhupāda: Yes, just opposite. That is His building. Very good income. Besides that, He has many other lands. They have got very good income.
Prabhupāda: Then why don't you purchase it?
Gargamuni: Which corner one? The one right across?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Left corner.
Prabhupāda: Now their delicacy their own children. (break) ...big stack of bricks, iron. Left over.
Hari-śauri: Sometimes they don't even finish the buildings they're building. That building across the road from our temple in New York, that's been there five years like that, half-completed.
Prabhupāda: Now things are deteriorating. And fire is always... (Siren bell sound:) dungdung dungdungdungdungdung-gawaawaawaa. Saṁsāra-dāvānala. Still they think that they are advanced. In one hour three times fire, still he is advanced. Therefore he is mūḍha. At least, in small city such disturbances are not... It is always gawaagawaagawaa.
Mahāṁśa: So that was happening. Then the other thing is that these people, they are very innocent people and they are very superstitious also. So when they see foreigners, they immediately become a little afraid. And there is some kind of a complex that comes on them and it makes it very difficult for the foreigners to communicate with these people. This is what I have seen happening. It is very difficult to commu... Now this is what I have experienced since last two, three days also. When Tejas was trying to get this garden around here done, but the laborers could not get the message across. They were doing something else and then the blame was coming on me. I never instructed them at all for doing anything. I never took them away from the work at all. I was amazed and I was surprised to hear that I was accused of taking away the laborers from Tejas and put them on some other work which I had no concern at all. So this is what was troubling me today when I was thinking that "How is it that there was this misunderstanding which has caused anxiety in so many devotees?" So this communication gap is going to be a problem which has to be solved. And for that...
Prabhupāda: Oh, this is the explanation of the situation? You...?
Haṁsadūta: You experienced.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So how to adjust these things now? Do it.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Gurudāsa: Electricity, he wanted to know. The thing is there's also sound with bicycles going. Bicycles also go across that bridge. So there's some sound. Not during the high afternoon, because people don't go out. And not during very early morning, but during the day there is. What do you think?
Prabhupāda: How can I think unless I see?
Prabhupāda: Read Bhagavad-gītā.
Rāmeśvara: Unfortunately he has not come across the Vedas. I have already written a letter to some devotees in Los Angeles to meet this man and give him your Third Canto, Volume Four, which describes the movements of the living entity, development in the womb... I think he'll be shocked to read these things.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Bhāgavata: ...from the species, from one species to another in chronological order.
Gurukṛpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, even if they... In all their researches, if they came across this information, I don't think they would reveal it to the world.
Prabhupāda: How they would reveal? They are thieves and rogues. Their idea is: three thousand years ago there was no civilization. This is their poor idea.
Prabhupāda: Hm. Through Atlantic.
Hari-śauri: Yes. We had to go Atlantic and right 'round the tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean, because the Suez Canal was finished then. It was blocked by the war.
Prabhupāda: Suez Canal still not open?
Hari-śauri: No.
Prabhupāda: What they have done, these...? They were getting, minimum, fifty thousand rupees daily.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Nanda-kumāra: Keśava was picking them up over his head and throwing them across cars. Ten men. He took all of them, only himself. Finished all of them. He didn't kill them, but he stopped them. He said he felt Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva helping him. But he was fearless.
Prabhupāda: He is robust also, like kṣatriya, Keśava, Karandhara's brother. All right, you may go. So that...?
Gargamuni: In this letter they have asked for six persons, five including yourself. I think if we send a few more by vehicle, by car, vehicles, then we can bring maybe ten or twenty more, and we can have big programs. Five men are not enough.
Prabhupāda: So do that. He'll do.
Brahmānanda: With loudspeakers and... We were very ambitious. So the people, they'd never seen anything like this, and so they accepted it. But then after a while, they resented. If you become too much... Actually, the governments feel very threatened. That was one of the reasons why you were not permitted to land in Kenya, because it was so much advertised, they put banners across the main avenue and radio, TV announcement, posters. They saw this as a..., something that will eclipse their government, their own president. You were more famous. (Prabhupāda laughs) Therefore they tried to say, "No, I am more famous." So therefore they didn't want you to come.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So it's better in some cases to be a little cautious, low key. Better to go slowly sometimes than very...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Not become aggressive.
Ādi-keśava: And then, if the person strikes out at the parent, they say, "Just see how crazy he's become!" Just like with Vasu-gopāla, he took a stick and hit his mother across the head and ran out shouting the name of Nṛsiṁha-deva as they were holding him captive, so he could run away. And so they said, "Just see how crazy he's become that he hit his own mother." Of course, the fact is they didn't mention they locked him in the bathroom for thirty hours just before. They kept him in a little bathroom. They locked the door, put him in there for thirty hours. All they mentioned is that he come out and hit her on the head with some stick. So then they say, "Just see! He's acting against his parents." So then the judge says, "Oh, what can I do? Naturally the father loves the son."
Prabhupāda: So why don't you quote from our śāstra that "He is not father." Pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt. Find out this verse.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Bali-mardana: It is... And the..., three minutes from the center of the city, and right across the street... (break)
Prabhupāda: ...earning and cow protection. You must do it. The other day I was explaining that not from economic point of view, even the cows do not supply milk, still, they should be protected.
Prabhupāda: That is sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170).
Ram Jethmalani: That is the only way to have a world movement. Must do. Cut across these...
Prabhupāda: Yes. So harijanas, Muslims, these are... And camara-bhangi. These are designations. Or brāhmaṇa, bodily concept of life. So according to our śāstra, so long one continues this bodily concept of life, he is animal. Either you call I am bhangi, or you call I am brāhmaṇa, you are animal. This is the verdict of the śāstra. What is the difference? The conception is the same. "I am dog." "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am Indian," "I am American." That "I am" with the bodily identification is there.
Prabhupāda: No. That you were reading.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, yeah. I don't want to have to make you hear the whole thing because there's not enough about us. But I can read a little bit of it to give an idea. "There are signs here and elsewhere across the country that the youth-oriented religious sects that sprang into existence a few years ago are gaining a foothold for an enduring future. The emergence of a wide assortment of spiritual movements, from Eastern religions to Jesus people..."
Prabhupāda: If we introduce this Ratha-yātrā in every city, all other religions will be finished.
Prabhupāda: Yes, in the center of the city.
Jayatīrtha: There's a big lot available just one block away. I think you lived on that corner at one time, just across from Madame Tusseaud's.
Prabhupāda: I lived there?
Jayatīrtha: When you first went to London, didn't you stay for some time there? Just in that area?
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Correspondence
1947 to 1965 Correspondence
This fact is corroborated by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as the practical demonstrator of Bhagavad-gita and as the most magnanimous incarnation of Sri Krishna—the Personality of Sri Krishna Caitanya has made the path of going "Back to Godhead" so easy for every one that even a boy of the world can swim across the ocean of religiosity, although it is injected with so many dangerous animals ready to devour up a fallen person in that great massive water. I have simply adopted the easy method of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu just suitable to the modern people in general. As such I am feeling as sure of going "Back to Godhead" as I feel without any doubt after taking my dinner that I have eaten to my satisfaction. This feeling is a necessary concomitant factor of the great science of devotional service in the approved line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
1968 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. I offer the same to my daughter, Himavati, and I hope she is doing well. I am very glad that Krishna is already dictating you how to make perfect the SANKIRTANA party. I completely agree with you about the program of our traveling across the country, being booked in several places. And I am glad that our friend, Allen Ginsberg, is helping you. There is no doubt about our success if we can make this Kirtana party successful. The most important point in this connection is that we shall never be professional; that is to say, we shall try to make the Kirtana party perfect from the point of view of Krishna Consciousness.
While thanking you for your letter dated 20th September, 1968 I beg to inform you that our spiritual master Om Viṣnupāda Bhaktivedānta Svāmi Mahārāja is not preaching a type of faith which you have described as yasya kasyapi dharmasya protsāhanaṁ. He is preaching svarupa dharma. He is preaching the svarupa dharma of all living entities. As a great Sanskṛt scholar you must have come across the following famous Sanskṛt passages like sa vai pumsām paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhoksaje, dharman tu sākṣāt bhagavat praṇitaṁ dharmena hīna pasubhiḥ samānāḥ (SB 1.2.6). We practice and preach svabhāva dharma but not that dharma which is taken as a matter of faith. The svabhāva dharma of every living creature is to become a servant.
4. Setting of the scene: Vasudeva saw that all of the doors were opened and that the gate-keepers were asleep so he went outside of the house and came to the bank of the Yamuna. He sees that the river is inflated with rainy season water and he thinks, "How shall I cross?" Then he saw a jackal crossing the river and Vasudeva realized that the river was shallow and only up to his ankles. So Vasudeva, holding little Krishna in his arms follows the jackal across the Yamuna River. So this night scene of walking across the river is the fourth picture.
5. Across the Yamuna River, Vasudeva came upon the house of Nanda Maharaja, where Yasoda was lying asleep with her little girl baby. The fifth picture is where Vasudeva exchanges babies with the sleeping Yasoda.
So please do these pictures very beautifully. I am enclosing a photograph of a painting which is in a very nice style that you should also paint your paintings. When you are almost finished with these five paintings then inform me so we may assign you further.
1969 Correspondence
4. Setting the scene: Vasudeva saw that all of the doors were opened and that the gate-keepers were asleep, so he went outside of the house and came to the bank of the Yamuna. He saw that the river was inflated with rainy season water and he thought, "How shall I cross?" Then he saw a jackal crossing the river and Vasudeva realized that the river was shallow and only up to his ankles. So Vasudeva, holding Little Krishna in his arms, follows the jackal across the Yamuna River. This night scene of walking across the river and following the jackal is the fourth picture.
5. Across the Yamuna River, Vasudeva came upon the house of Nanda Maharaja, where Yasoda was lying asleep with her little girl baby. The fifth picture is of Vasudeva exchanging babies with the sleeping Yasoda.
So when I return to New York, probably sometimes in April, I will be pleased to see these pictures nicely painted. When you have finished with this assignment, please inform me so that I may assign you further. Hope that this finds you in good health.
1971 Correspondence
I am so glad to hear that, because the sales manager of Darigold dairy is sympathetic to our Krishna Consciousness movement, you are being supplied 20 gallons of fresh milk weekly and free of charge. He is a good friend so keep him posted of our activities and encourage him sufficiently. Perhaps he will become our life member also. I have received one letter from Gaura Hari about his travelling sankirtana party across Canada and have given my blessings for such venture. And also I have noted how nicely Tulsi Devi is growing there in Seattle. Already she is three feet tall. That is a true credit to your devotion. Thank you very much.
1972 Correspondence
We shall be celebrating the Appearance Day in Mayapur this year form 25th to 29th February, and then I shall be returning to Bombay for the month of March to initiate construction of our first "Hare Krishna City" on a large plot of land we have purchased there. However, if for some reason I shall return to USA before then, I shall with great pleasure come to your festival at Berkeley. At least I will be present there with you all in spirit, as always, you may know that for certain. I like very much your idea for putting eight banners across the main road with the eight Sikshastak prayers written boldly. If the students and other people study these eight prayers carefully, they will be delivered to the highest perfection of life. Also, I thank Nalinikanta for his enclosure of $15 daksina.
I am very, very pleased with your program to infiltrate the schools and colleges, especially by introducing our books and classes in Krishna Yoga. I say one thing, if you can somehow or other turn all of these students and hippies, or even a portion of them to Krishna Consciousness, then this Movement will sweep across the world and save it from the present-day precarious condition when everything has become so much degraded. If many of their student class take up this Movement, your country's government will help, and if they help, there is immense potency for spreading to all other places. Now you push very cool-headedly and tactfully on this program of reaching and convincing the student-class with our books and philosophy, and that will be your success of life and for that Krishna will very quickly reveal Himself to such sincere worker face-to-face, you may know it for certain.
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 1, 1972, along with plans. The plans are very nice. I have sent already one photo to Giriraja of our skyscraper in Los Angeles, so I want that this square building, whether as one bigger building or two square towers as you have proposed, that this type of square building be added to Govindaji's temple. Then it will be perfect. Otherwise, the round towers are too fanciful, and not so much practical because square building gives us more space to utilize. One other thing is that there should be a facade on top of the temple across the front like an ornamental arch, as below:
(ILLUSTRATION)
Otherwise, it is very nice and I approve completely, now work very nicely to finish it in short time and I shall come there to live.
1976 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. Please let me know how negotiations are going on with acquiring the park across the way, for making "Bhaktivedanta Park." You should concentrate on getting the park. The house is of secondary importance.
Concerning Puri, whether there is potency of vegetation. That we have to examine. If there is no such potency, then we are not interested. And what about transportation across the hot sand? In the summer season, it will be too hot. So, the question is whether in that sand there is possibility of growing trees and plants, whether the sand is fit for that. Otherwise, it is desert and will not be suitable.
| Page Title: | Across |
| Compiler: | Rishab, Mayapur |
| Created: | 24 of Apr, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=1, SB=8, CC=16, OB=7, Lec=9, Con=72, Let=11 |
| No. of Quotes: | 124 |