Atmosphere (Conversations 1968 - 1975)

Expressions researched:
"atmosphere" |"atmosphere's" |"atmospheres" |"atmospheric"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Interviewer: Do you have altars?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Interviewer: Do you have any of the other things you find in the inside of churches?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, we have altars, we have pictures. We offer fruits, flowers, incense, and immediately, by combination of these things, there is some spiritual atmosphere, and there is chanting. So people enjoy it very nicely.

Interviewer: We're talking with Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta, head of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. If you have questions our numbers are 478-3456, in the East Bay 832-9707, in San Jose 272-1233. (break) A.C. Bhaktivedanta, International Society for Krishna Consciousness. What does the word Kṛṣṇa mean?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is, means all-attractive. Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- October 20, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: ...the whole atmosphere, you should come and disturb. You are making... You cannot understand? And the whole attention is diverted to you. So harā, harā is the form of the word... Hare is the form of the word harā when address, when She is addressed. And Kṛṣṇa, when He's addressed, the form does not change. This is grammatical rule. So Hare Kṛṣṇa means, "Oh, the energy of Kṛṣṇa, or energy of the Lord," and Kṛṣṇa, "the Lord." So Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa means I am praying not only to the Lord, but to the energy also. This is natural. Just like a man and woman. In whole world there is combination of male and female, either... Any society, human society, or bird society or dog society or animal society. Why this male and female? Why? Female is the energy, energy of the male. Why a man takes, marries a woman and takes responsibility...? Of course, in your country they marry as a matter of joke, immediately divorce after week or after seven days. But marriage means to take full responsibility of a woman. That is real marriage, Vedic marriage.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Just like why you speak of moon? Suppose in the ocean, in the ocean you can land by some artificial means for some time, but it is not suitable for human being to live on the ocean. Apart from moon planet, you take the ocean, water, ocean.

Hayagrīva: You can't live in the ocean. It's a different atmosphere. You cannot live on the moon because the climate is so different. You can't survive on the moon.

Prabhupāda: Everything is different. You require different type of body to live there, to go there. Just like if you want to live within the water, this body will not be suitable. But the fish, it has got a type of body, they live very peacefully. Similarly, the residents of moon planet, they are meant for living there. You cannot go and live there, abruptly. That is not possible.

Hayagrīva: Swamiji? Are there people living on the moon now or were they in other yugas living there? Are they in this yuga living there?

Prabhupāda: No, they're still living there. Yes. As we are living here, they are living there. Yes.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

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?

Reporter: But, of course, they're not going there to build a city, but they're only going there to take some rock samples, do some experiments, and then leave.

Prabhupāda: That may be possible. Just like you go in the ocean and live for some time and come back, but you cannot make any permanent settlement there. Yes. But that also I am doubtful whether you can land and take some, I mean to say, earth or water from there. That is also very difficult. So far our literature goes, our information goes, it is not possible.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Hayagrīva: They didn't have the mechanism ready.

Prabhupāda: But for sixty miles, fifty miles, if they could stand sixty miles off from the moon planet, they were already on the atmosphere. Suppose if I am sixty miles away from a city, I am in that atmosphere. So if I could stay that atmosphere, how it is possible that, how it is wonderful that they could not go further sixty miles? I don't believe these things, these statements, that they were within sixty miles area. This is simply imagination.

Reporter: Well, they didn't take along the spaceship that they need that they...

Prabhupāda: Anyway, anyway, just like I am inhabitant of Vrndavana. Vrndavana, that is ninety miles off from New Delhi. The atmosphere is almost the same. So, if I could live at Vrndavana, I could live at New Delhi also. So if they stayed sixty miles off from moon planet how is it that they could not go further sixty miles? This is most ludicrous. At least, we cannot believe such things. Sixty miles is no much difference. It is almost in the same atmosphere.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Reporter: Why leave there because the place is more comfortable than this place?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. The duration of life is more, the standard of living is fine, everything is, knowledge advanced.

Hayagrīva: He's saying, if you're going to take the trouble to go to the planet, why not go to the planet that you can live in with your present body, and why go someplace where you have to make so many accommodations with spacesuits because the atmosphere is not conducive to our...

Reporter: But we're not going there with a mind that they themselves won't live there.

Hayagrīva: Then he says it's useless to go there.

Reporter: But obviously, they're going to go there anyway, and, so that's why I'm trying to think to see whether there are any...

Prabhupāda: Now, do you think that after so much trouble, so much labor, if you go there and simply come back and be complacent that, "Oh, I went there," is that very great achievement? If you can live there, you can utilize that place, then it is all right. Just like so many Europeans, they came to America and not simply to see and go back. Why they settled here? That is successful. Columbus invented this island and people came and they utilized it. Otherwise, if simply coming and going, why take so much trouble?

Reporter: Well, that's a point.

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Journalist: But they're demigods.

Prabhupāda: The demigods means they are highly advanced than these human beings. They are also living entities like us, but their duration of life, their standard of life, their civilization, spiritual knowledge, so advanced that they are called demigods. Almost God. They are so advanced. Demigods means almost God. They have got all godly qualities, and they are controller of the atmospheric affairs. Some of them are controlling rainy season, some of them controlling heat. As you have got controller here, some departmental director of this department, director of that department, similarly why don't you think that this cosmic manifestation, there is a great brain behind it and there are different directors and there is management? People do not accept it. Nature. What do you mean by nature? Such nice things, such wonderful things are going on automatically, without any control? You see?

Journalist: Well, I know that's a question that, of course, one asks oneself all the time, I guess. It's part of man's quest to find himself and...

Prabhupāda: But they should have common sense that you are trying to float one sputnik, so many scientific brains are working. And millions of wonderful sputniks which are called planets, they are floating in the air, there is no brain behind it. What is this? Is that very good reasoning?

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- February 12, 1969, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: And do they raise questions or is it a formalized ritual?

Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all we pray to God to help us in the, our, I mean to say, preaching or chanting process. Then we begin chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, conjoinedly, congregationally. And it immediately transfers the atmosphere to a spiritual feeling, and if you sometimes attend our class, you can see practically how the boys and girls, they become ecstatic and chant and dance. So after chanting and dancing for a few minutes, say, fifteen to twenty minutes, then we speak something from Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about theology and philosophy, ethics, morality. Then again we chant and pray to God and then close our class.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Prabhupāda: If life is eternal, if living entity is eternal, where he has gone? What he is doing? Is he happy or he is distressed? Or he's born in America or China? Nobody can say. But it is a fact that as living entity, he's eternal, he's existing. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā philosophy. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). After destruction of this body the living entity is not destroyed. He is there. That we can understand. Just like in your childhood, you had a small body. That body is no more, but you are existing. So it is natural, when this body will not exist, I will exist in another body. It is not very difficult to understand. So this theory that body is eternal..., soul is eternal and body is temporary, that's a fact. Therefore this life, this present life, is meant for manufacturing the next body. That is Vedic knowledge. We are creating... Just like a boy. He is studying very nicely. So he's creating next body, a very educated young body. By education he can get nice job, nice place, nice position. So he's creating his next body. Similarly, we are creating our next body according to our karma. So Kṛṣṇa says that "You create a body so that you can come to Me." Mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām. The whole Vedic philosophy is that if you want to go to some planet—just like people are trying to go to moon planet. So you have to create a body like that. You cannot go in this body. They're attempting to go with this body. That will be failure. It will be not possible. In every planet the atmosphere, the..., everything is different. So you have to create a different body to go to a particular type of planet. There are millions and thousands of planets.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: ...your devatā finished. But your relationship with Kṛṣṇa will never finish-nityo nityānāṁ—because you are nitya, Kṛṣṇa is nitya. That relationship, we have to reestablish that relation. That is the function of the human body. If you are simply busy with this temporary nature, then you are losing time. The temporary relationship will... Just like I came here; now, tomorrow I am going. So, say, for fortnight the relation was there. Now you'll have another relation. Similarly, after this body I do not know what relation, what father, mother, I will get and what relation will be established. What community will be established I do not know. And then I will forget. Now those who are Indian, but suppose in his last birth he was Chinaman. He has forgotten. Now he's fighting for India's cause. If the Chinaman is fighting for China's cause. This is disease. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). We are ready to serve all the dayitas(?), but eternal servitude is Kṛṣṇa. That we have to establish. Then tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Then, after leaving this body, he has no more to accept this material body and create another society, another family, another relationship, another atmosphere. So because we are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, in Kṛṣṇa society, therefore we are dividing. Suppose one animal is born in India or in America. We don't take him as "my brother. He is also born in the same national." No. He kills it. He gives protection only to the animal with hands and legs, not to the animals who are four-legged. Because he is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, therefore his knowledge is imperfect.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Temple Press Conference -- August 5, 1971, London:

Woman Interviewer: Yes, Your Grace, it seems to many people that there is probably more. There are probably more people in the world now who are seeking some kind of spiritual new light than probably ever before, or at least, there's more evidence of it. And I wonder if you agreed with that, and if so can you tell me why it is?

Prabhupāda: Yes, That should be the natural hankering with us. Because we are spirit soul we cannot be happy in material atmosphere. Just like you take out the fish from the water, it cannot be happy on the land, similarly, if we are without spiritual consciousness we can never be happy. So people after advancement of scientific knowledge and economic development, they are not happy. They are becoming hippies. So the cause is that they're in search of spiritual life and this is the proper delivery, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness.

Woman Interviewer: Thank you. So presumably you would encourage this movement of more people to find a spiritual life. You...

Prabhupāda: Yes, unless you take to this movement, you cannot be happy. That's a fact. Therefore we invite everyone to study, to understand this great movement.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Complete surrender.

Nara-Nārāyaṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. But they do not follow and still they say they are Christians. They do not follow. Christ is all right. According to the time, according to the country, according to the atmosphere, he's all right, but the followers, they reject.

Devotee (1): The followers try to make everyone fear God. Their whole aim is to make everyone so much afraid. They always try to instill fear in everyone they speak to. "You are going to hell."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is the principle of eternal hell that is used to make people surrender, fear of eternal hell.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (1): Fear of God.

Prabhupāda: According to time... Deśa-kāla-pātra. That kind of forceful, does not act very nicely. One should know the science, but the class of men to whom Jesus Christ said, they are not very much advanced. Under the circumstances, the fearfulness of hell is quite appropriate for them. Actually, one who does not go back to home, back to Godhead, he is put into the hellish condition of life. That is fearfulness, but we are so blunt that we do not take care. It is fearful. Just like Prahlāda Maharaja said that "Nṛsiṁha-deva, I am not afraid of your this fierce feature of Narasiṁha, but I am very much afraid of this materialistic way of life." Saṁsāra. Saṁsāra means this material world. So, it is actually very fearful. The whole atmosphere is fearful. Padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ (SB 10.14.58). To make adjustment, you have to accept something fearful. Just like this fight, "In future there may be some adjustment so that people may live peacefully. Therefore, we have to fight." This is also, the method is itself fearful. To gain a position where there will be no fear, we have to accept a fearful method. So, in the material world whatever we think, they are not very happy proposition, that's everything is fear. Karma-kāṇḍīya, they have to undergo so many hardship, then they get something profit. People are working so hard to get some profit. In the material world everything is fearful, hard-working.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Author -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Author: I'm sorry, not explain. Describe, I think, is a rather better word.

Prabhupāda: That philosophy, if you want to know more, then we can speak more. But that is the outlines of the philosophy, that people, without knowledge of his identification, they are misled, being misled. And that is very risky. Risky means that you have got this opportunity of understanding your position and get out of the difficulties of birth, death, old age, and disease. If you do not properly use this opportunity and again you become cats and dogs, then are you not misled? So present civilization is misleading. They are concerned with a few years enjoyment, so-called enjoyment. Suppose you are Australian or American. You have got very nice status in your country, good house, good facility, good money, and that's all right. But after your death, when you have to quit this subtle atmosphere, then after your death what is happening to you, you are not concerned to know? If you are eternal, if you are eternal, then suppose you have got this shirt and coat. When it is torn down, when it is old enough, you have to give it up. Then you have to purchase another shirt and coat. So are you not prepared for that, "What kind of shirt and coat I shall have?"

Author: No, I'm not.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Devotee: I'd like to ask what do the scientists explain is the origin of life? Do they have any explanation how life is caused?

Martin: Oh, scientists concern themselves with the process, not the reason. Right now, scientists are spending a tremendous amount of time duplicating this process, trying to be able to produce life in the laboratory. This now, they are saying that thus they will be able to say that this is how life started at the beginning of the world. It does not take... Scientists don't concern themselves with why life started, just how, what method.

Devotee: What do they think, how it started?

Martin: Oh, they think life started by the effect of the atmosphere...

Prabhupāda: Then the atmosphere is the cause. Then next question is, Who created the atmosphere? (break)

Martin: This doesn't... This is why I feel science... I don't feel...

Prabhupāda: They have not found out the ultimate cause. They take a process which is going in the middle way; therefore their science is imperfect. But our science is perfect. We have found out the ultimate cause.

Interview with the New York Times -- September 2, 1972, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Free choice. What is preordained? You are here of your free choice. If you like, you can sit down and talk with me, and if you don't like, then you can go. That is your free choice. Free choice makes destiny; if I act in goodness, then my future is good. And if I act badly, my future is bad. That is destiny. Man is the architect of his own destiny. If you are educated, your future is nice, and if you remain foolish, then your future is bad. Future destiny depends on present action. This life is an opportunity to make the next life, and if we behave like human beings, then in our next life we will go back home, back to Godhead. But if we behave like animals, then in the next life we will take animal bodies. That's all. All this is very nicely described in Bhagavad-gītā. The conclusion is that human beings are meant for understanding God, but if we waste our time understanding dog, and if we become attached to dog, then we will become dogs in our next life. And if we are attached to God, we become like God, in our next life. The choice is ours.

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante

tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham

mama vartmānuvartante

manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ

(BG 4.11)

"All of them—as they surrender unto Me—I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā." God is everything, and we can associate with Him according to our choice. The ability to choose, or our conscience, is given to us in the human form so we can utilize it. All the ingredients are there. The spiritual master is there, the scripture is there, and God is there, within you and within me. The atmosphere is calm and quiet, we have a good boat and a good navigator, and the wind is blowing favorably. We should take our chance and cross the ocean. This human body is a very nice boat, and we have a very good navigator, the spiritual master. We also have a very favorable wind—the instructions of God. If we don't take this opportunity and solve the problems of life, we are cutting our own throat. If you cut your own throat, who can save you? We can say, "Now here is an opportunity. Take it and be saved from birth, old age, disease and death," but if you don't take advantage, what can we do?

Interview with the New York Times -- September 2, 1972, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Therefore according to Vedic civilization in the beginning of life you become a brahmacārī. Then you are allowed to marry and become a householder, and after a number of years you remain a husband but abandon sexuality, and that is called vānaprastha. Finally you take sannyāsa and leave your family to practice and preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is Vedic civilization. Everything is provided to enlighten the people in general. All the knowledge is there, and the method is there; we simply have to take advantage of it. If we do not, how can we expect a peaceful and happy world? If society creates animals, then how can it expect peace and prosperity? In spite of so many big universities and all educational facilities, this society is producing hippies and frustration amongst the youth because we are spirit soul and cannot become happy simply by amassing material comforts. We must have spiritual life. If a fish is taken out of water, it cannot be made happy with all the comforts of land. To be happy, a fish must have all the freedom of water. Similarly, we are all spiritual sparks, and we cannot become happy in matter. We require spiritual food, spiritual atmosphere.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Scholar: I think the principle is the same but by the way to perform...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Your principle is to teach the principles of Bhagavad-gītā, then you have to take the principles of Bhagavad-gītā. If you want to read Bhagavad-gītā but you remain in other atmosphere then it will not help. It is simply waste of time. That is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ janayati (SB 1.2.7), therefore Bhagavad-gītā is also there. I'm talking to the most confidential part of this knowledge. Sarva-guhyatamam. What is that? Find out. The Eighteenth Chapter. I think sixty-three verse. What is that verse sixty-three?

Devotee: Iti te jñānam ākhyātam, "Thus I have explained to you the most confidential of all knowledge."

Prabhupāda: Before that verse. Sarva-guhyatamam. Ah, yes, yes. Sixty-three. Just open to sixty-three.

Scholar: Sixty-three.

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Śyāmasundara: But the whole idea is that if you create a spiritual atmosphere that's so enlivening that everyone will want to participate in it, that's the solution. You can't individually treat each person. You have to get the whole thing generated by, by pouring water on the root.

Prabhupāda: That if you sit down for chanting, they should automatically sit down. If one is left, then you can maybe say, "Why you did not come?" But if there is no chanting, no sitting, simply wake up, wake up, wake up, all right, I'm waking up (indistinct). But one may wake up or not, you begin your work immediately.

Pañcadraviḍa: We go to the āratik.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Pañcadraviḍa: We go to the, up into the temple for the āratik, so he stays in bed and sleeps and we go to the āratik.

Prabhupāda: No, that if he stays in the bed, then ask (him) to leave (?). Yes. Not that fight.

Hayagrīva: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Devotee: I find an overall bad atmosphere in India. Resentment against many of the devotees. Party politics and different things like that are going on. It's not limited, it's going on all over India.

Devotees: That's so. Very heavy.

Śyāmasundara: Just like with, just like with Tamāla Kṛṣṇa. He has the respect of everyone because he is doing such a good job of managing, and he's just, he's doing, he's performing nicely his devotional work, and he's getting some results. That's respect. Then you'll get respect. Bali Mardana Mahārāja, he's built up ISKCON Press till it's just like (snaps finger) that, and everyone touches his feet when they see him. You don't find anyone disrespecting him, because he's performing his duties. You automatically get respect if you perform something nicely. Not just say, "Oh, the atmosphere's bad..."

Prabhupāda: Well, we have got many faults. He can find out. But generally, if I direct nicely, others will follow. That is the principle. I may have some fault, you may have some, that you are not liberated from. We are all trying to preach. So generally we should behave very nicely according to the rules and regulations, chanting sixteen rounds, rising early in the morning. Particularly maybe there is some (indistinct). So generally with our, general rules are (indistinct). First of all rising early in the morning, he cleans and (indistinct) performances. So these things are followed, chants sixteen rounds, then everything is there.

Morning Walk -- May 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Anyway there is change of corpuscles. And with the change of corpuscles there is change of body. That is scientific. Therefore body is changing every moment, so why not after death? Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13).

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So consciousness is also subject to body's changes, change of body.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Body's circumstances association. Saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ. According to association, atmosphere, circumstances, the desires changes. So that is, desire means consciousness. Just like our boys, they had different consciousness before coming to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like you are also scientist, there are other scientists. But your consciousness is different from theirs. Therefore you could challenge him like that. If you can create life by accumulation of these facts. He says that I do not know. He is not confident in his science.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He is not experienced. He has not seen yet.

Prabhupāda: He is not above the defects, four defects of conditioned life. You know these four defects?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Illusion, mistake, cheating, imperfectness. They are aware of the imperfectness of the senses. Still they are proud of their knowledge. This is illusion. (end)

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That one layer, the other layer is ten times bigger than the first layer, and the third are ten times bigger than that, ten times. In this way the whole universe is covered. What your scientists know? (laughs)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Scientists say that there are different layers in the atmosphere. There is ionosphere and all those spheres.

Prabhupāda: So anyway, some ideas are there. But in Bhāgavata it is all written.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they do not say that ten times.

Prabhupāda: What do they know? They do not know anything. Know something. (pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So when we establish the theory of acintya-śakti...

Prabhupāda: Not only acintya-śakti. First of all you have to establish that life is not from matter. Matter is from life. Then they will be under your control. First of all you have to establish. Because their whole scientific advancement is going on on this basis, that life is from matter. But that is not the fact. Matter is from life, just the opposite. First of all you have to establish this. Why don't you write a theory and get Nobel Prize? This is a fact. Now you have to prove only, by their scientific words. That's all. Fact is this is. Are you convinced about this fact, that matter comes from life, not life comes from matter? Are you convinced or not? Otherwise how you can write?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, I am convinced.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They accept one energy. We accept also that. But they, defect is they are beginning from the material. That is their method. Just like this weather is beginning from the light and gradually it is becoming dark. So darkest part or the dark part is called material. But the dark is beginning from light, not the light is beginning from dark. That is their method. They are thinking that from matter, consciousness is coming. Now consciousness is there. When it is covered, degraded, that is unconsciousness. So material means when the consciousness is forgetful of Kṛṣṇa. That is material. Material means gradual development of forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa. That is material. And spiritual means full consciousness of Kṛṣṇa. Is it clear? Try to understand this. Darkness is coming from light. Where the light is not visible that is called darkness. This is not the nature of the sun, this covering, cloudy nature. That is not the... The nature of sun is light, but by the energy of the sun another thing is temporary created which is called mist or darkness. This is temporary. This is not permanent nature. Therefore material nature is temporary and spiritual nature is permanent. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to get out of this temporary nature and go to the spiritual nature, permanent nature. Nobody wants also this temporary nature. Nobody likes this cloudy atmosphere.

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Apparently. This is not appropriate. This is Vedānta. Vedānta...

Prabhupāda: Janmādyasya yataḥ.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I said that just examine the healthy body. This material world is an excema expect(?) in the healthy body.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Material, material atmosphere means diseased condition.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Diseased condition, very negligent or diseased condition, very negligent part, forming very negligent part of the whole, this material world, where creation and dissolution is compulsory.

Prabhupāda: Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19).

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Creation and the dissolution is compulsory. That is a negligent portion of the real universe.

Prabhupāda: ekāṁśena.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Otherwise, if a major portion of a body is bad, then that cannot stand. So the major portion of the universe must be healthy, wholesome. And the negligent part is the diseased portion. That is the world, where the majority lives.

Prabhupāda: One fourth part.

Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:

Śyāmasundara: By his work, I mean.

Prabhupāda: Yes. To glorify God means the glorify the nature also. Just like here is a poem in Brahma-saṁ...

yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-

koṭisv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam

tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Bs. 5.40)

Now, the whole creation is there. Yasya prabhā prabhavataḥ (Bs. 5.40). On account of the bodily rays of Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, which is called brahma-jyotir... Just like on account of the sunshine, the whole universe is existing. So similarly, there is a shine, bodily shining, what is called brahma-jyotir. So when the brahma-jyotir is there, then innumerable universes are created. Yasya prabhā prabhavataḥ (Bs. 5.40). When the effulgence, brahma-jyotir, is there, innumerable universes are created. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi. Jagad-aṇḍa means universe. Koṭi, innumerable. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭisv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam (Bs. 5.40). And in each universe is created with innumerable number of planets. And each planet has got different atmosphere. Now the whole universe is described. Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi **. Yasya prabhā. The beginning: "Whose effulgence has created." That means simultaneously you praise His creation; at the same time, you get the universal knowledge how many universes are there, how they are situated, what is the atmosphere, everything. You get a glimpse of idea at the same time. Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi **. This is the way.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Intelligent, this is intelligent.

Guest (3): "...if there's a greater association." And that really led me to India, and say, "Well, in India I would have more of these spiritual things and more of that atmosphere, environment." And, well, you know, that particular incident really struck me.

Prabhupāda: No, you can attend here. You remain here.

Guest (3): And, you know, it was the first time she saw a sat-saṅga, first time in her life.

Prabhupāda: No, no, the wonderful thing is that this is a method of spiritual realization which attracts even a child. Unless one denies to be attracted, everyone is attracted. Even a child, even a dog. This is the... Therefore it is universal. Unless you deny to accept it, attraction is for everyone. If the child is innocent, he immediately exhibits his attraction.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Guest (8): "Best of the asuras."

Prabhupāda: Yes, "best of the asuras." Asura-varya. Varya means the best. And asura... Because his father was demon. So he was calling his father "demon number one." "My dear father, my dear asura-varya..." Tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehinām. "Anyone who has accepted this material body..." Dehinām, he has said. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām. "They are all full of anxiety." Anyone. Not only human beings, even animals, birds, beasts. You'll see, when a bird is there, he'll always, that, "Some enemy may not come." Even animals. Even tiger is afraid, although he's so powerful. Elephant is afraid. sadā samudvigna-dhiyām. Why? Asad-grahāt. "Because they have accepted this material body." Then what is the remedy? Now, hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpam, hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta (SB 7.5.5). "They should not be satisfied with the society, family and love and this and that. They should take shelter of the lotus feet of Hari. Then they'll be happy." We are trying to be satisfied in this material condition, society, friendship, love and so forth, so on and we are after that. But there, there is no possibility. Unless you take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, harim āśrayeta, there is no possibility. The whole world is trying to adjust things of the society, friendship, love and material atmosphere. That cannot be. That is not possible. Only by taking shelter... Therefore Kṛṣṇa says. Not whimsically. That is the only remedy: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). This is the only remedy. There is no other remedy. But they'll not take. What can be done? This is the only remedy, harim āśrayeta. One should take shelter of Hari, Kṛṣṇa. Then he'll be happy. Otherwise it is not possible.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Father Tanner: I think I'm almost only teaching them to love one another.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No. One another, that is going on in so many ways. You see? That has never become successful. Neither it will become successful. That is a fact. Because here the atmosphere is so surcharged with material ideas that even if I want to love you, you may not like it. That is the position here. So you cannot be successful to teach people to love one another. That will never be successful. That has never been successful. But if you can teach people how to love God...

Mrs. Wells: How about teaching them how to love themselves?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Mrs. Wells: How about teaching them to love themselves.

Prabhupāda: Everyone is loving themselves. That is...

Mrs. Wells: Do you think so?

Prabhupāda: That does not require teaching. How to eat... You love your body, therefore you eat.

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No... Yes, one has to think, one has to consider. But this is the fact, that I have changed so many bodies, I remember them, but the bodies are not existing, I am existing. This is very simple philosophy. And it is stated, confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, and it is accepted by all the ācāryas, learned scholars. So there is change of body or transferring from one body to another. That's a fact. Under the circumstances, we should consider what kind of body will be nice next. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.

yānti deva-vratā devān

pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ

bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā

yānti mad-yājino 'pi mām

(BG 9.25)

Just like people are trying to go to the moon planet. So if you prepare yourself, you haven't got to take a machine and go to the moon planet. You can go to the moon planet. That is stated in the śāstras. You can prepare yourself. That means transfer your, yourself to a body in the moon planet. You transfer yourself for a body in the sun planet. So there are innumerable planets. And there is a planet where Kṛṣṇa lives, or God lives, also. So if you like, you can transfer yourself to a body in Kṛṣṇa's planet. These are explained here. Simply you have to adopt the prescribed method. "By following this method, you transfer to such and such planet." "By following this method, you can transfer..." There is no need of taking this mechanical... That is not possible also. It is futile attempt. You cannot go by force. Because different planets, they have got different atmosphere. So you have to transfer yourself to a suitable body which is suitable in that planet. And for that, you have to prepare. You cannot go with this body into moon planet. Because atmosphere... Some scientists say... I read in the paper that the temperature in moon planet is two hundred degrees below zero. So how you can go and live there? It is not possible. But if you want to go there, you can go there after death by preparing yourself. You transfer yourself to a body there. That you can go. So in the Bhagavad-gītā we learn that you can transfer yourself, your soul, to any planet you like, but... Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). "If you come to that planet from which you'll not have to come back again, that is My abode." So if I have to endeavor for getting another nice body in another planet, why not apply the same energy for going back to home, back to Godhead, unto Him? This is our conclusion.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1973, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Just like your daughter, she is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Even she does not like to live with family because she does not find very congenial atmosphere.

Guest: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: A devotee.... Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura prays, tādera caraṇa-sevi-bhakta-sane vās, bhakta-sane vās. You must live amongst the devotees.

Guest: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: In our society he has come from America, he has come from Canada, I am from India, but we have forgotten all our family relations, we have nothing to do. We are in a different atmosphere. They can die for me, I can die for them, but we have no family relationship. He coming from America, I'm from India, he's from Canada, but the central point is Kṛṣṇa. You see? That is devotee. Tādera caraṇa-sevi-bhakta-sane vās, bhakta-sane vās. Therefore we have made this society, Kṛṣṇa conscious society. Anyone who is Kṛṣṇa conscious let us live together. We are also living together in a house—we are eating, we are sleeping, doing this, but everything in a society of devotees. Just like if you want to do some business if you become a member of the association, stock selling exchange, you can do better business.

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes, yes, That's it. A potter.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This idea Śrīla Prabhupāda, about the chemical evolution, this idea came from, I think, in 1920 by a Russian scientist. He is a biologist. His name is Oparin. So he demonstrated that before biological evolution the atmosphere of the earth should be, he called, very much reducing. Reducing, that means it must be mostly full of hydrogens, no oxygen, very little oxygen, but mostly hydrogen. Then in due course because of the reaction in these hydrogen compounds and the radiation from the sunlight, then these compounds form into different chemicals which are...

Prabhupāda: That is a side study. But there was hydrogen. Wherefrom the hydrogen came? The scientists, simply they study in the middle. But they do not know what is the origin. Just like here is one aeroplane is coming, and you can say, "All of a sudden a light came out of the sea." Is that the study of this aeroplane? If we... the foolish person will see, "All of a sudden, in the sea there was a light." Is that scientific study? So your study is like that. "There was this, and all of a sudden, by chance..." That's it. That is not scientific study. We have to find out the original cause.

Morning Walk -- December 8, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: The public interest is flagging, and they're not interested in the moon anymore. They want something more exciting. So to get the...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that is bluffing. That is bluffing. The scientists want to be engaged and get money from the government, so they must go on bluffing. Otherwise how they'll get money?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There was a seminar yesterday.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The seminar was, the title was "The Atmosphere of Mars." The atmosphere in the Mars they are studying now very carefully.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they're saying it is carbon dioxide and water.

Prabhupāda: So the same "carbon dioxide" and big, big words, jugglery of words, that's all.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So they are hopeful that there may be some life there.

Prabhupāda: That, they are hopeful of doing everything but never successful, never. That they'll never become. Unless they are hopeful, how... Just like a physician. The man is going to die, still, he's thinking, "Yes, I am hopeful." I have seen in Allahabad high-court. One man was condemned to death, and his lawyer solacing him. "Don't be sorry. I'll appeal, I'll appeal. I'll get you out." You see? This is their business.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So who is supplying the gas? (laughter) The Arabians?

Jayatīrtha: There's no shortage.

Gurukṛpā: When it comes to doing the kīrtana, there's no energy shortage for us. We have unlimited stock.

Prabhupāda: By presence of the comet, the atmosphere is also polluted. Last time, what I saw, it was like this. Round and then tail. It is like that?

Gurukṛpā: No.

Prabhupāda: No.

Gurukṛpā: A long streak. It was behind the clouds. There were many clouds, and you could see it through the clouds.

Prabhupāda: What is the speed? If it is 83 million miles, very heavy thing, then the speed must be also.

Karandhara: Well, the speed is very great. I don't know exactly what it is, but it's millions of miles per hour. Perhaps not millions of miles. Hundreds of thousands of miles per hour.

Prajāpati: There must be living entities then on the comet. Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Everywhere there are living entities.

Morning Walk -- January 5, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) This is material life. We are rounding sometimes this way, sometimes that way, and we are thinking "new." (devotees laugh) Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona (CC Madhya 19.151). In this way you are wandering all over the universe. Find out something new. But there is nothing new. Everything is old. (break) ...a living entity is offered change of the body. You see? When he becomes fatigued of this life, "It's so troublesome"—old men generally think like that. So he has to change another, another new body, child. Since born he is taken care, he thinks "Now, I have got so comfortable life." And again becomes old, disgusted, so he cannot live disgusting, therefore Kṛṣṇa is so kind: "All right, change body again." Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). Chewing the chewed. The business is the same, but changing body gives some relief. Just like these men, the business is they're wasting time by changing, wasting time at home, come to the golf club. That's all. The business is the same—wasting time, either here or there. Kṛṣṇa is giving so much facilities. Sometimes, "All right, you become tree." "All right, some, become a serpent," "All right, you become a demigod," "All right, you become a human being," "All right, you become king," "You become a cobbler," "You go to the heavenly planets," "Go to the hellish planets." Varieties is there. Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He's changing varieties, atmosphere of life. But he's packed up in this material world. That freedom... He's asking for freedom, but he does not know the freedom is the shelter of Kṛṣṇa. That he'll not accept. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has arranged so many varieties. In disgust the Māyāvādīs, they want to make the varieties variety-less, nirviśeṣa. And the Buddhists they want to make it zero. But that is also not possible. Remain zero for some time. Again he will want varieties. Big, big Māyāvādī sannyāsī, they preach so much brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, but again they come to the political work, social work. Simply remain as brahma, "I am brahma," you cannot remain for many days. Then he has to accept these material varieties. Variety is the mother of enjoyment, so therefore our proposition is "Come to the real variety, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then your life will be successful."

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Hanumān: So I am half asleep.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is the... Therefore Vedas says, uttiṣṭhata. "Get up, get up, get up!" Jāgṛta. "Become awakened." Prāpya varaṁ nibodhata. "Now you have got the opportunity. Utilize it." This is Vedic injunction. Uttiṣṭhata jāgṛta prāpya varaṁ nibodhata. This is Vedic in... Tamasi mā jyotir gama. These are Vedic injunctions. So we are preaching the same thing, that "Reality is here, Kṛṣṇa. Don't remain in this darkness. Come to this consciousness." That is our preaching. Tamasi mā jyotir gama. (break) ...experienced the sunshine, bright day, and this gloomy day. So when you are in darkness, we must have to admit, "There is light." Because darkness means absence of light. So as we are in the darkness of this material existence, there must be something life of light. That is spiritual world. That is reality. (break) ...ahaṁ brahmāsmi. "Oh, I don't belong to this darkness, darkness atmosphere. I belong to the light atmosphere." That is self-realization.

Morning Walk -- February 17, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This is "against" or "for," this so-called "against" or "for," it has no meaning. Just like children fight, sometimes against, sometimes for. So it has no meaning. Unless one is raised in the spiritual consciousness, this so-called goodness and badness has no meaning. Caitanya-caritāmṛta kara says, dvaite bhadrābhadra sakali samāna: "In the material atmosphere, the so-called goodness and so-called badness, they're all the same, simply a different type of mental concoction. That's all."

Dr. Patel: If nothing but God exists, then bad thing is also God and good thing is also God. That that...

Prabhupāda: Therefore God realization is real good thing.

Dr. Patel: Real good thing.

Prabhupāda: Not this, "This is good, this is bad." That is relative world. You'll find everywhere something good.

Dr. Patel: Good and bad are the bhukti-yoga citta (?).

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- March 9, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What is your answer?

Guest (2): I answered that...

Prabhupāda: No, no. You answer me. I am talking with you.

Guest (2): Actually, I didn't know...

Prabhupāda: Now, in our building we have got the most comfortable situation. There is no such sanitary arrangement in any of the temples. But we are trying to give them. Because we deal, dealing in a different atmosphere.

Guest (1): People of the different countries can...

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they are...

Guest (1): They are not habituated...

Prabhupāda: They are not habituated...

Guest (1): ...with this...

Prabhupāda: ...to go on the field and pass, evacuate.

Guest (1): ...to pass their obnoxious and

Prabhupāda: Then it will be a great difficulty for them.

Guest (1): ...great difficulties for them. And to...

Prabhupāda: They must be given, as far as possible, their western type of comforts and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (1): And they're born and brought up in this...

Prabhupāda: They have sacrificed so much for me. They are ready to lie down under the tree. But it is my duty to see they are, as far as possible, they're comfortably situated. That is my duty. They can agree to live in any condition.

Room Conversation -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Not that I was trying to directly contact Kṛṣṇa. That was not my business. This is required. If anyone wants to contact directly Kṛṣṇa, that is not possible. (break)

Guru dāsa: If there is a devotees who are not yet purified, if the devotee is not yet purified, why is the temple president a representative of you? If we are not at the purified stage, then why is the temple president a representative of yourself?

Prabhupāda: To carry his order. That is purification. If you create your own atmosphere, then you become impure. If you simply carry out the order of your spiritual master, then you will be benefited. If you do your own business, that is not good. You can not do anything which is not ordered by your spiritual master. Of course, everyone should have sense. It is not that we are dull, stone. Unless it is moved, it cannot... You have got moving power. But the basic issue should be to carry out the orders of his spiritual master. That is your president. Otherwise you are not.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No. The same view. Eh?

Devotee: Yeah. (break)

Prabhupāda: One man's walking, Letchmore Heath.

Devotee: Like this.

Prabhupāda: It is like this. Atmosphere is little different. It was cold out. The sky is not so clear. Otherwise, land view is the same. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Remembering that Kṛṣṇa's here.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: There's always the memory that Kṛṣṇa's here.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa is everywhere.

Satsvarūpa: When Prabhupāda was walking in Letchmore Health, he said, "This looks like Govardhana Hill."

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Bicyclist: (ringing bell) Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- March 26, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...one is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he cannot have any good qualities. And if one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, all the good qualities will automatically come out. So therefore this is the only treatment, to educate people how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then everything will be settled up. One remedy.

Guest (1): For all disease.

Prabhupāda: All disease. That is also... Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate, sa guṇān samatītyaitān... (BG 14.26). These varieties of different qualities due to these material modes of nature, but if you transcend... Just like if you remain in the water, there are so many symptoms of danger. You come out of the water; there is no danger. You cannot expect, even if you have got the best boat, you cannot expect that you are safe in the water. But if you remain one inch above the water, then there is no danger. So this devotional service is like that. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). As soon one is fully engaged in devotional service, then he's above this material atmosphere. (end)

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Oh yes.

Prabhupāda: Without understanding, if you follow like a storm, that is no use. That is no use. Slow, but sure. Go slow... And that is the defect in the modern. If somebody can recite Bhagavad-gītā like storm, it is to be understood he has perfected himself. No. Let him explain at least one word of Bhagavad-gītā. That is wanted. Slow, but sure. That is going on. The professional Bhāgavata reciters, they jump over Kṛṣṇa's rāsa-līlā. The rascal does not explain the first line of Bhāgavatam, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). It requires many years to understand that one word, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), and he jumps over, "Bhāgavata recitation means rāsa-līlā." That is going on. That has spoiled the whole atmosphere. Therefore that rascal has been able to challenge that Kṛṣṇa, that, what is that, rural?

Satsvarūpa: "Popular rural god with sixteen thousand wives."

Prabhupāda: That's it. He does not know what is Kṛṣṇa. And he is writing about Kṛṣṇa, "rural boy with sixteen thousand..." First of all, he does not know that when Kṛṣṇa was rural boy in Vṛndāvana he had no sixteen thousand wives. You see. Still, these rascals say, "rural boy with sixteen thousand wives."

Room Conversation with Prof. Regamay, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Lausanne -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Guru-gaurāṅga: Geneva Lake.

Prabhupāda: Geneva Lake. And few step after French lake.

Yogeśvara: Because French is a border of Geneva lake also. Therefore sometimes it's considered French.

Prabhupāda: So the sky is one. Sky is one. So in the sky, in the atmosphere, where God is forgotten, that is called material sky. And the sky where God is not forgotten, that is spiritual sky. Just like the sky is one, and the sun is one. But when your eyes are covered by cloud, you say the cloudy sky. The sky is not cloudy. The sky is one, it is always clear. But some portion of the sky there is cloud, and you say, "This is cloudy." (break) Similarly, materialism means when you forget Kṛṣṇa, that is material. And when you know Kṛṣṇa and act for Kṛṣṇa, that is spiritual.

Prof. Regamay: Now, one question still. Why in the Ṛg Veda there is not even the name of Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, Viṣṇu, there is. Viṣṇu and Kṛṣṇa, I have already. There is no difference.

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

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Guru-gaurāṅga: Coming back now into the West, he feels so much difficulty to still be sensitive, to have this intuition of the spiritual plane.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: He says that there are like criss-crosses, like swords blocking...

Prabhupāda: So one thing is that he's feeling difficulty in the material atmosphere of the West. Is it the fact?

Robert Gouiran: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is good.

Robert Gouiran: And the...

Guru-gaurāṅga: (French)

Robert Gouiran: (French)

Guru-gaurāṅga: (Translating) "Too much thinking, I do too much thinking."

Prabhupāda: Anxiety.

Robert Gouiran: Too much information.

Prabhupāda: Not thinking, but anxiety.

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

Prabhupāda: Not thinking, but anxiety.

Yogeśvara: (French)

Robert Gouiran: Exact. Yes. It's hard because if there is no anxiety these sword does not stay in the mind. They just pass.

Prabhupāda: This anxiety there must be when we are in a different atmosphere. Just like we heard there was a plane crash. So we are travelling by plane. So as soon as we get on the plane, that anxiety is there. So the anxiety is caused on my boarding airplane. So if I do not board airplane, then that anxiety is nowhere. So anyone who is existing in this material world, there must be anxieties. There must be anxieties. Exactly, the same example, that as soon as I... It may be very nice plane; it doesn't matter. But I know that it is unsafe. At any moment it can crash. Therefore there is anxieties. So similarly, we are, so long we are in the material platform, we cannot avoid anxieties.

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is God. Kṛṣṇa is God. God is the idea of greatness. That is Brahman. Or you can say also person, but not the particular person. God means, the Sanskrit word is īśvara, the controller. So everyone is controller to some extent. In his own atmosphere he is a controller, as I am controller of my disciples. So the conception of God is there, but I am not the Supreme God. Therefore, there are two words. We use the word "Godhead," "the Supreme God." That is explained in the Brahma-saṁhitā, īśvara, God. Everyone is God; that is another thing. But īśvaraḥ paramaḥ, the Supreme God, is Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Professor La Combe: Thank you very much. Just a little.

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, during that time of the Naxalites you had mentioned that after that program, you said due to the effects of our program, it stopped all that Naxalite movement. Because very shortly after we had that pandal in the Maidan, the whole Naxalite movement was finished. You said due to that, because we purified the atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: That's a fact.

Devotee: ...with chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. The government could do nothing. The police were helpless.

Professor La Combe: And the festival in Sydney will take a long time?

Yogeśvara: Sydney festival is for how many days?

Prabhupāda: On the 29th.

Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Devotee: It is just the opposite now. Now there is no place where Mahārāja Parīkṣit can go to find out a spiritual atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Some of our men, at least one, left our association. He thought that "This is denying the primary necessities of life." Rāyarāma, Rāyarāma. He left for this reason, that we do not allow the bare necessities of life. Illicit sex, intoxication... He was first-class criminal on this account, but he could not give it up. Therefore he left.

Devotee: Yes, I spoke with him in San Francisco, and he said, "Swamiji will not be successful because he does not allow free love in his movement." He says, "That is why I had to leave because there was no place for me and my boyfriend." Even he was not attracted to having a girl, but he had a boy. That boy used to be also your typist. He was from Harvard University.

Prabhupāda: That Neil.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: Yes, exactly.

Prabhupāda: When we dream, my body is left on the bed and I go somewhere. That we experience, that I am separate from this body. At that time I forget my, this body is lying down on the bed. I am acting in a different atmosphere. So and again, in daytime, I forget that at night I was in a different body, and I went to such and such place or on the sky I was flying. I forget. At night I forget this body and at daytime I forget that body. But I am existing. Therefore I am not this body. I am existing in this body and that body, but that body I have forgotten, and this body I forget. So this is a structure on my mind only. Actually I am different from the mind. And that is self-realization. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42). Find out this verse. Manasas tu parā buddhir buddhes tu yaḥ saḥ. That's it. It is in the Third Chapter, I think.

Room Conversation -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: Cannery.

Prabhupāda: Cannery? Anyway, when they boil this onion, up to ten miles the good smell is (indistinct). (laughter) And the whole atmosphere is (indistinct) Similarly, they are trying to refine oil and the refuse will be thrown in the Yamunā and the River Yamunā will be spoiled, nobody will go there. (indistinct) They think that these so-called spiritual fanaticism of India is the cause of India's material deficiencies.

Guest: I know.

Prabhupāda: This must be killed. (indistinct)

Guest: (indistinct) Even here there are people who think that.

Prabhupāda: Oh, they are thinking like that? (indistinct)

Guest: One of the big people here, I said to him after I argued like this for hours, I said, "You are Western and I am Eastern, not the other way around." Thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Give him the whole plate. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Guest (1) (German man): But the other planets has a more spiritual form than our planet.

Prabhupāda: No. Material forms. Just like in the water, the fish is there. That is also material form. But you cannot live within the water. Neither the fish cannot live on the land. So in different planets there are different types of atmosphere and different types of body also. You cannot go to the sun planet. You cannot go to the moon planet because that is a different atmosphere. But there are living entities. They have got their suitable body.

Guest (1): But I think for the people it is difficult to understand.

Prabhupāda: Because they are fools. How they can understand? (laughter) Simply fools eating meat and becoming like a tiger and dog. That's all. What...? Tiger may be very strong, but what brain he has got? No brain. (laughs) For brain, there must be a brāhmaṇa. Satya śama dama titikṣa (BG 18.42). He must be qualified. A tiger may attack me and kill me. He is very strong. But that does not mean he has got better brain than me.

Guest (1): Yes, yes, I see.

Prabhupāda: So the modern civilization is making tigers, how he can be bodily strong and kill others, and discover atomic bomb. They are busy only on these things. The dog's business, how to attack another dog. That's all.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Guest (1): And then it will be finished. And later it will be finished.

Prabhupāda: The animals, they are living in their own atmosphere, and these people, they come to kill them. Killing business has become very prominent at the present moment, and therefore they are being killed in the womb of the mother, abortion and killing child. That they do not know. Nature will not excuse you. You are killing; you'll be killed within your mothers' womb. You'll never see the light of the sun. You go on being killed, one after another, as many animals you have killed. They do not know. And time will come in this age when there will be no food and man will kill man and eat. That time is coming. Yes. They are now killing animal, but animal lives on this grass and grains. When there will be no grass, no grains, where they will get animal? They'll kill their own son and eat. That time is coming. Nature's law is that you grow your own food. But they are not interested in growing food. They are interested in manufacturing bolts and nuts.

Garden Conversation Excerpt -- July 11, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: ...atomic bomb there. Huh? (laughter) It is a burning mass of... Suppose it is a burning mass. So what atomic bomb will act there?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Atomic bomb normally acts as, ah, what happened is the particles floating in the atmosphere, like chemicals, chemicals, what happened is this explosion offers this, ah, fundamental particles like neutrons, electrons, they bombard further atoms which are already in the atmosphere. So one by one they knock out these smaller particles called electrons. They move very high velocity. There is a very tremendous energy, amount of energy released. So one... So suppose first atomic bomb, ah, the, ah, the energy-bringing substance like electron, neutron, hits another atom, and then it knocks out several of that sort, and then it makes a chain reaction, not stopping because..., and thereby several atoms they will knock each other, one by one, without stopping. Small particles, so much energy has got. But in the sun planet, where it is so hot, it is already probably more powerful that the atomic bomb itself.

Prabhupāda: Therefore this example. (laughs) What it will act, the atomic bomb, in the sun planet? Similarly, Brahmā might have possessed some power, but what is that power in comparison to Kṛṣṇa? Every power is derived from Him; so Brahmā's mystic power cannot act on Kṛṣṇa. (end)

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: Very poor men, still, they gather, sixty lakhs, without any advertisement.

Brahmānanda: Here you have to advertise to get six hundred.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Or six.

Prabhupāda: And it was so nice to live there, spiritual atmosphere, on the bank of the Ganges and Yamunā. Immediately you go, you become spiritualized. Vṛndāvana is also like that. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, bhārata-bhūmite janma haila, manuṣya-janma haila. To get the human form of life born in India, that is a special prerogative. Bhārata-bhumite manuṣya-janma haila yāra (CC Adi 9.41). He is fifty percent-prepared by birth.

Brahmānanda: Just by birth.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And then, by culture, another fifty percent. But they have given up this culture. But the birthright fifty percent is already also there. Prayāga, severest cold, eh, I took bath in the Ganges. It is simply cutting. But still, they are taking bath and smearing over the body the ashes and sit down, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. No care "Wherefrom food will come? Where...?" No. That's in India still. (break) ...it is also like this, cloudy?

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Brahmānanda: Not in proper repair.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We had an engagement last night at a technical school after your lecture, and inside the entrance of the technical school in a big glass case they had a big engine from a car, when you walk into the technical school. Mostly Indians, young boys.

Prabhupāda: Oh, foreigners.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. (break) So they were very disrespectful actually. But when we started kīrtana, the whole atmosphere changed. Do you think that the young Indian boys in the future, they will become anywhere near as pious as their parents?

Prabhupāda: Why do you take India? We are talking of the whole world. There is no question of India, Europe, America. (break)

Brahmānanda: ...Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about the kirātas and so on. That means we can go to any community in the world...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- March 13, 1975, Tehran:

Indian man (2): No, no.

Prabhupāda: So do that. Don't approach the cheater guru, bluffer guru, and be cheated. Stop this business. This has spoiled the whole spiritual atmosphere of the world. Take guru, the supreme guru, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, when in Mahābhārata when Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira performed rājasūya yajña, in the rājasūya yajña one person is elected the chief guest. So in that yajña many big, big demigods were present, and Bhīṣmadeva was present, Vyāsadeva was present, and many, many other saintly person, brāhmaṇa, from the whole universe were present. And Kṛṣṇa was decided to be accepted as the... Everyone agreed to accept Him as the chief guest. And the Śiśupāla, he protested. Then everyone was angry to kill him. So Kṛṣṇa is accepted the guru by everyone. By our ācāryas, recent ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya... I am not speaking of the loafer class, but those who are recognized ācāryas, Śaṅkarācārya... They accepted Kṛṣṇa as the supreme guru. Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So accept Kṛṣṇa as the supreme guru and follow His instruction and try to convince others. "Others" means even your family members. That is success of life. Saṁsiddhiḥ hari-toṣaṇam. Why should you lead your life blindly? This human life is meant for enlightenment, supreme enlightenment, and this is supreme enlightenment, to understand the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā and preach it as far as you can. If not, you can preach amongst your family members. This is perfection of life. What is that verse? Ya imaṁ paramaṁ guhyaṁ mad-bhakteṣv abhidhāsyati. That is the desire of Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They have already opened some factory. One factory is there in Mathurā, in... What is? Who preserve the fruits in cans, what they are called?

Parivrājakācārya: Cannery.

Prabhupāda: Cannery? Anyway, so when they boil this onion, up to ten miles the good smell spread. (laughter) You see? And the whole atmosphere of Vṛndāvana is spoiled. Similarly, they are trying to refine oil, and the refuse will be thrown in the Yamunā. So the river Yamunā will be spoiled. Nobody will go to take bath. This is Indian government's policy. They think that this so-called spiritual fanaticism of India is the cause of India's material degradation. So this must be killed. Like the Russians.

Ambassador: Um hm. I know they think that sometimes. Even here there are people who think that.

Prabhupāda: Oh, they are thinking like that? But I heard that the king is very pious.

Ambassador: One of the big people here, I said to him—after I argued about this for hours—I said, "You are Western and I am Eastern, not the other way around." (laughs) Thank you very much. I shall take your leave?

Prabhupāda: So, give him prasāda. Give him the whole plate. (laughs) You can take whole plate. So I am very glad to see you.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: That is their foolishness. You shall be under the jurisdiction of God. God is not under your jurisdiction. Then how He is God?

Rāmeśvara: They can't understand how it is that matter... They accept that matter always existed. They can't understand our point...

Prabhupāda: Matter existed...?

Rāmeśvara: Always. That in the beg..., that eternally there is gas in the atmosphere, in the universe.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom the gas came?

Rāmeśvara: Well, they say... They believe that it always existed.

Prabhupāda: Always existing.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, that's their idea.

Satsvarūpa: Just like we say God is svarāṭ, they say that the matter is svarāṭ.

Prabhupāda: Yes, in... Not svarāṭ. We never find a gas is svarāṭ, matter is svarāṭ. They... Just this body. Has this body come out itself? Because the soul is there, the body has developed. Therefore the cause of this body is the soul. The body is not independent. And the soul goes away. Then body's no more independent. It cannot move. It becomes just like dust. "Dust thou art; dust thou be-est." (break) ...like this body is moving now, but it is not independent. It is dependent on the soul. The soul goes away; it does not move. So how it is independent? And everyone knows that because the soul takes shelter within the womb of the mother, the body develops. If the child comes out dead, it does not develop. Therefore matter is dependent on the soul, living being.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Nalinī-kānta: But it is all managed nicely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...mediately manage. "Stop all these worker illicit sex, intoxication, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." The whole atmosphere will change. The production will be increased. There will be no dissatisfaction among the worker and the capitalists. Immediately everything will be solved. Now the competition is going on that the capitalist is exacting as much money from their labor, and he is spending it for wine and women, and the worker is seeing that "Our money, he's spending. Why not ourself? So let us form a communist party. Let us fight." This is going on. But they do not know how to spend money, śūdras. When a śūdra gets money, he'll spend for wine and women. That's all. He does not know that it should be spent for Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Nalinī-kānta: So intoxication, illicit sex, we will make that illegal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is illegal, but because they are rogues and rascals, they are doing all these illegal things. And because it is democracy, when the majority are acting illegally, it becomes legal. This is democracy. They cannot avoid it. They want to do the same thing by voting "There is no God." So there is no God. Bas. Finish. (end)

Morning Walk -- (World War III) -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:

Rāmeṣvara: ...that if there is a war between Russia and America, there would be a nuclear war and they would pollute the whole atmosphere with radioactive particles which would kill everyone.

Prabhupāda: It is already polluted.

Rāmeṣvara: They say that this radioactive fall-out...

Prabhupāda: The whole material world is polluted. Who will live here? A little, say, twenty years before, dying. After all, you have to die, twenty years after or twenty years before. So it is already polluted. That is humbugism. They will die at the end, but still they are trying to live. (kīrtana in background growing progressively louder as Prabhupāda approaches temple)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Like they're creating their own...

Prabhupāda: This is the difference between man of knowledge and without knowledge. A man of knowledge will think, "After all, I have to die. So what is the difficulty, dying a few days more or before?" That is knowledge. And those who are not in knowledge, they are afraid of death. Best business is before the death comes let us finish our Kṛṣṇa consciousness perfectly. That is wanted. Death will come. You cannot avoid it.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...kīrtana going twenty-four hours a day. In some of our larger temples is it also advisable?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. This is advisable for everywhere. Batches. What is the difficulty?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because the whole atmosphere becomes spiritualized, purified.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The same thing: keep always with fire and you remain high temperature. And if you ignite fire and again pour water and again ignite, again pour, then what is the benefit? If you ignite fire, keep it fire, don't pour water. But generally they do that, that "Now I am chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, I am free from all sinful activities. Now again let me do it, and again I shall chant."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No progress.

Prabhupāda: No progress. Nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ. This is the greatest offense. (break) (switches to room conversation) ...the animals and human beings. Then they can work. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni, then parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ. Now parjanyaḥ, cloud and rain, that is required. Parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ. And yajñād bhavati parjanyaḥ (BG 3.14). Then you have to arrange for sacrifice. So in the Kali-yuga the costly sacrifice is not possible. Therefore from the śāstra we understand, yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ (SB 11.5.32). Sumedhasaḥ, "one who has got good brain substance." There is one word in Bhagavad-gītā, alpa-medhasaḥ: "poor brain substance." So we require some sumedhasaḥ, not alpa-medhasaḥ. Antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasaḥ (BG 7.23). They are making plans by their material concoction that... That is antavat. That will be finished. Antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasaḥ. The things are there already, especially in India. We have got everything ready, and especially this land India. It is specially meant for God realization.

Conversation with Governor -- April 20, 1975, Vrndavana:

Governor: No, birth also was built up by a tradition. They were brought up in that atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It doesn't matter. But if he wants to be elevated, he should be given chance. That is the verdict of all śāstras. Now we are feeling, India, this difficulty. Because they are Europeans, Americans, the so-called big societies, they are not agreeable to accept them. You see? Although śāstra does not say so. Śāstra says, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ. "If one takes shelter of Me, even he is born in pāpa-yoni"... Striyaḥ vaiśyās tathā..., te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim, "they can also be elevated to the highest exalted position." And in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is, many places it is said that a low-born person can be elevated. Caṇḍalo 'pi dvija śreṣṭho hari-bhakti-parāyaṇaḥ.

Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Indian boy: Is it possible that I live on my own and still be a devotee?

Prabhupāda: That will take long time. That, also, if you follow the regulative principles... It is difficult, little. But easier method is to live with the devotees because the situation and atmosphere in your home is different from devotion. So it is not very helpful. You have got other members in the family?

Indian boy: Yes, there is...

Prabhupāda: So if you want to do something, they may not like it. So that is impediment. But if you live with the devotees, then you learn quickly the art. You are Indian?

Indian boy: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom you are coming?

Indian boy: I was born in New Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Oh. How you came here?

Indian boy: Well, my parents moved to Fiji Islands, and I was with them. And then we all came to Australia.

Prabhupāda: She is also Indian?

Indian boy: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Madhudviṣa: In India there is no problem with litter. There is no litter problem. No problem about paper and things thrown around because everything that is thrown in the street is immediately taken up by some form of beggar or some form of animal.

Prabhupāda: Municipal sweeper also. (break) Similarly we can go to the place where there is simply pleasing atmosphere. Simply we have to become purified. That is required. But they don't want to be purified, they want to become more entangled in sinful life, illicit sex, meat-eating. That they do not know that "I am entangling myself. Instead of being purified, I am becoming more and more entangled." This is ignorance. (break) ...criticize us, shaven-headed. They don't criticize long hairs, but shaven-headed. Just see. If you don't criticize the long hairs, why should criticize the shaven-headed? But they criticize us. So regularly they are going out?

Madhudviṣa: Saṅkīrtana?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Madhudviṣa: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. That is wanted. Live here very nicely and go back to home, back to Godhead. Why should you die like cats and dogs? Die like a human being and be freed from all these material anxieties. But their determination is that they must live in this hellish condition. They do not believe in the next life. If they believe in the next life, then it becomes horrible. They want to avoid this question. "No, no there is no life. Enjoy to the best capacity now." Enjoy. We do not say that don't enjoy, but enjoy so that you may not be implicated. There is no harm having big house, comfortable life, but keep Kṛṣṇa, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. What is the wrong there? Hm? Madhudviṣa Mahārāja, if they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in these big, big skyscraper buildings, what is their loss?

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Jesuit: Hm. Transformed, it changes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So actually there is nothing material. When God consciousness is there, it is spiritual. This... In association with God, everything becomes spiritual. Just like there is a church and there is an ordinary house. People say, " This is church, God's place, and this is house." What is the difference? That is also made of bricks; that is also made of bricks. Why people go to the church? Why not to the house? So the conclusion is, when the atmosphere is surcharged with God consciousness, it is spiritual. Immediately. Otherwise, as soon as you forget God, then it is material. Material and spiritual means where there is no forgetfulness of God, that is spiritual. And where there is forgetfulness of God, that is material.

Morning Walk -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda, if the human form is insignificant compared to demigods, but still, it is very much desired, this human form of life, even by the demigods?

Prabhupāda: Yes, because very good chance of realizing God in the human form of life. Just like difference between Western countries and India. India, a very quick chance of realization of God. The atmosphere is so nice. So this planet is good for God realization, and the best place is in India.

Hari-śauri: Our temples, they are considered to have the same atmosphere?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Hari-śauri: To be just as potent as the holy places in India?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. You can create that potency anywhere within this planet.

Morning Walk -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Devotee: So Śrīla Prabhupāda, if the sound is the same, does that mean that when you become fully purified you will also see the sound of an automobile horn as transcendental?

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is transcendental, this microphone, because it is being used for Kṛṣṇa's purpose. The same flower, when you use it for sense gratification, it is material. The same flower when you offer to Kṛṣṇa, it is spiritual. The flower is not different, but by the different use it becomes material and spiritual. I think I have said many times that there is actually no material existence. Therefore it is called māyā. Māyā means it has no actual existence. We create an atmosphere. That is māyā. Atmosphere of forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa, that is māyā. Anartha. Anartha, unnecessary. Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam (SB 1.7.6). If this park is given to us, we can immediately make it Vaikuṇṭha. We know how to do it. But it is not given to us. The same electric energy is creating heater and cooler. For the cooler there is no different electric energy. And for the heater there is no different—the same electric. Similarly, the material and spiritual is coming from Kṛṣṇa's energy.

Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Śrutakīrti: Yeah. Wheat is harvested after it dies, not while it is alive.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Australian devotee 2: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in New Zealand we have a situation where the main industry is killing animals, the biggest industry, yet there is so much rain, so much nice atmosphere over there. Why is this? Why is there such a nice atmosphere but they are killing so many cows? Is that that they are innocent and they do not know and so Kṛṣṇa is not punishing them so much?

Prabhupāda: Yes, they will be punished. (pause) (break) ...so many motor accidents. And there will be war. Then wholesale punishment. Then killing, being killed within the womb of the mother. They are being punished. Nowadays these things have been introduced. Now this child which is being killed by the mother, they are all these sinful men. They cannot come out even, out of the womb of the mother. There they are killed. Nature's law is very strict.

Australian devotee 3: In the western society, Śrīla Prabhupāda, people who are displaying a very bad sinful reaction in their birth are put away in institutions so they cannot be seen by the general mass of people.

Prabhupāda: Hmm? What is that?

Śrutakīrti: He's saying people that are suffering very greatly in this life—they have so many mental disorders or physical disorders—they put them in institutions so that no one can see them.

Prabhupāda: No one can see them. That means they are not suffering? (laughter) Just see how foolish persons.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Four billion. So how they can calculate?

Paramahaṁsa: If they took a photograph of the earth planet from up in space, they would probably also say there is no life.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (3): They say because the atmosphere is not like this planet, others cannot live there.

Prabhupāda: Why not atmosphere? The moon planet, there is a planet. There is space. There is surface. There is dust. So why not atmosphere the same? It is made of the same ingredients, earth, water, fire. Why do you say that is not same atmosphere?

Devotee (3): They are saying that it's too cold or too hot.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is here also. There are many cold places. Do they think that in the cold places there is no life? All nonsense. And only nonsense will believe them. I never believed it. Why? Here we see under this sand there is life. The crabs, what is called? They live within, so many hundreds of thousands. We have seen on the sand.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: We have got our definition.

Harikeśa: What do we call those planets that rotate around Jupiter and Saturn and... They will say those are also moons.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Different planets, different position. Just like this sun planet is fiery. There is fire. Similarly, in moon planet there is fire, but it is surrounded by cold atmosphere. Therefore it is cooling.

Harikeśa: So that's the specific characteristic of this moon?

Prabhupāda: Which moon? Yes, this is...

Harikeśa: Our moon.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: So the other moons that rotate around Saturn and Jupiter...

Prabhupāda: Other moon? There is no other moon.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Harikeśa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, do we say that they've gone to Rahu simply to placate them?

Prabhupāda: No, accidentally they went to Rahu. Maybe. That is also not...

Indian man: (break)...gone at all outside this atmosphere of earth.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...haven't gone to moon planet, that is my... (break) ...why they will give it up? That is the proof. America was found by Columbus. So many people came from Europe and utilized it. So if they would have gone to moon planet, they would have utilized it. But they have not gone. That is the fact.

Paramahaṁsa: That was their original proposal, that they can utilize it, make colonies there.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Yes.

Devotee (3): The moon exploration, because they thought that we cannot use the moon like Columbus, they used America.

Prabhupāda: That is your excuse.

Room Conversation with Dr. John Mize -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Bahulāśva: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in our material contaminated state when we act in a foolishly or mad, then we call that tamas, or our ignorance, but in the spiritual sky when the living entity is in his pure state of consciousness, what acts..., Does something act upon him to make him illusioned at that point also?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like Jaya-Vijaya. They committed offense. They did not allow the four Kumāras to enter. That was their fault. And the Kumāras became very sorry. Then they cursed him that "You are not fit to remain in this place." So we sometimes commit mistake. That is also misuse of independence. Or we are prone to fall down because we are small. Just like small fragment of fire. Although it is fire, it is prone to be extinguished. The big fire does not extinguish. So Kṛṣṇa is the big fire, and we are part and parcel, sparks, very small. So within the fire there are sparks, "Fut, Fut!" There are so many. But if the sparks fall down, then it is extinguished. It is like that. The fall down means material world, there are three different grades: the tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, and sattva-guṇa. If the... Just like the spark falls down. If it falls down on dry grass, the grass becomes ablazed. So the fiery quality is still maintained, although it is fall down. On account of the atmosphere of the dry grass, it again makes another fire, and the fiery quality maintains. That is sattva-guṇa. And if the spark falls down on the green grass, then it is extinguished. And the dry grass, if, when the green grass becomes dry, there is chance of again coming to the blazing, but if the spark falls down in water, then it is very difficult.

Room Conversation with Dr. John Mize -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

John Mize: But he misused that intelligence in his freedom, his independence.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Mind is there also. That is spiritual mind. Everything is spiritual. There is nothing material. Body spiritual, mind spiritual, intelligence spiritual, he is spiritual, the land spiritual, water spiritual—everything is spiritual. That is spiritual world. Here in the material world, except the spirit soul, everything is material. And he is encumbered with this material atmosphere by twenty-seven stratas, layers. The five elements, gross elements, then ten senses, and then three guṇas... In this way there are twenty-seven layers. He is within, and he has to be taken out. That is called liberation. Just like if you are covered with twenty-seven layers of dirty things, so it is very difficult position. But there is process to clear the garbage and take him out. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, to take the soul out of the covering of twenty-seven layers of material atmosphere. That śloka is naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu: "almost cleansed." Abhadra, abhadra means dirty things. So this clearing process going on. When it is almost cleansed the man feels, "Oh..." And that process: nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18), constantly being engaged in the service of Bhāgavata, grantha-Bhāgavata and the person Bhāgavata. Then it will be cleansed. And then, when he comes out, that is brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54), "Oh, I am now free." Na śocati na..., no more lamentation, no more greediness. Everything finished. Then he begins his real business as part and parcel of God. That is perfection.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1975, Chicago:

Viṣṇujana: Kṛṣṇa is so opulent, why did He appear in the form of Lord Caitanya in such a poor village atmosphere?

Prabhupāda: That is His opulence. Here the material man, if he is rich man, he cannot become a poor man. That means he is lacking that opulence. (break) ...opulence. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān. He can become the bigger than the biggest and the smaller than the smallest. That is opulence. You cannot manufacture a mosquito. You can manufacture a 747, but manufacture a mosquito, then we shall know your science. (laughter) ...the same machine. Otherwise how it is flying? (break) ...seen, so imperfect you are, that what are the machine there? And you are proud of seeing, nonsense. See the machine, where it is there, how the mosquito is flying.

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) This is all physiological. And we have seen, studied, that any big man of the world, behind that big man is either a strong mother or a strong wife. That is the general statistics. And Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, mātā yasya gṛhe nāsti bharyā cāpriya-vādinī. If there is no mother at home and the wife is not very suitable, does not speak very nicely with husband, disrespectful, then he is recommended to leave home and go to the forest. Araṇyam tena gantavyaṁ yathāraṇyam tathā gṛham. Such person should immediately leave home and live in the forest because for him the forest and home is the same. Mātā yasya gṛhe nāsti bharyā cāpriya-vādinī. So women should be trained up to be very faithful and chaste. Then the life will be very happy. That is the only education for woman. And man should be educated how to become first-class man, a brāhmaṇa. Then the whole atmosphere will be very happy. The man, first-class man, brāhmaṇa, śamo damaḥ titikṣa, and woman, very faithful to such husband and chaste. Then the home is happy. And Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says another place, dampatyoḥ kalaho nāsti tatra śrīḥ svayam āgataḥ. "If there is no fight and disagreement between husband and wife, in that home the goddess of fortune automatically comes." They haven't got to search out where is goddess of fortune. She will come automatically. So that is now lacking. In most cases the husband and wife does not agree. And the other day I was reading in a paper that one woman in two weeks or three weeks...?

Jayatīrtha: In two weeks.

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Asses?

Rādhāvallabha: Acids, nucleic acids. So their opinion is that this can only occur in an atmosphere of methane. So they have understood from their telescopes that Jupiter has methane in its atmosphere, so therefore they say, "Very soon Jupiter will have life."

Prabhupāda: Very soon? Not now? They have got advance. Yes. (chuckles) Most of the scientists, they think only living beings are on this planet, and all, they are vacant. They say.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes. They say the closest planet that could have life is four light years away. That means the fastest...

Prabhupāda: How there is life within this sand? We can see.

Paramahaṁsa: They do not believe.

Prabhupāda: No, there is no life within the sand?

Paramahaṁsa: In the sun.

Prabhupāda: No, no, in the sand. You'll find so many lives, many millions. How there is life in the water? There is life in the water, there is life on the land, there is life in the air, so where is there no life? How you can say there is no life? That is foolishness. And they say that the dust brought from the moon planet is the same. It can be found here. So why there should not be life?

Paramahaṁsa: If there is life on other planets then they assume it's in a plant form or very, very low, like plants, bushes at the most.

Prabhupāda: That is their opinion.

Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:

Devotee (1): Just like Nanda Mahārāja, he also had land. Nanda Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He was therefore called king. But he was a vaiśya. He engaged his land for agriculture and cow keeping. And Kṛṣṇa took charge of the cows, the calves, although still calf, He, (indistinct) This is the system. He was going with the calves whole day, playing with the boys and taking care of the cows, in the evening come back. Mother then washes and bathes and gives nice food. And immediately goes to sleep. And Kṛṣṇa is clever. At night He goes to the gopīs. (laughter) Then Mother Yaśodā did not know, when she thought, "My good son is sleeping." And the gopīs also would come at a place and they'll dance. This is called life, childhood life. And when He was grown up, then He was brought to, I mean to say, Mathurā and He fought with His maternal uncle, killed him, and then His father Vasudeva, took care, sent Him to, what is that? Sāndīpani Muni. He was educated. He was learning every subject every day. Then He was taken to Dvārakā, married so many queens, and became king. In the Kṛṣṇa's life, He's always busy. Kṛṣṇa... You'll never find from the very beginning of His life He's busy killing Putana, Aghasura, Bakasura, and His friends, they are confident. They'll enter into the mouth of Aghasura. "Oh, Kṛṣṇa is there. He will kill." This is Vṛndāvana. There is no need and I don't find in Bhāgavata big factory and slaughterhouse, no. Nothing. The whole atmosphere is surcharged with sinful life. How people will be happy? Now they are coming to crimes and hippies and so many things, problems, diplomacy, CIA and what other? So many unnecessary waste of energy, time, and money. Vicious condition. Better give up city. Make Vṛndāvana, like this. City life is abominable. If you don't live in the city, you don't require petrol, motor car. It is no use. They may criticize that "You are going to the farm in a car." So for the time being, there is no vehicle. Otherwise bullock cart—where is the difficulty? Suppose you are coming, one hour, and it takes one day. And if you are satisfied, such life, there is no question of moving. Maybe local moving, from this village to that village. That is sufficient, bullock carts. Why motor car? Drive here and park problem. Not only park problem, there are so many things. There are three thousand parts, motor car. You have to produce them, big factory.

Room Conversation with Bill Faill (reporter) -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Faill: Is it vital to follow certain eating habits? I mean...

Prabhupāda: Yes. The whole process is how to purify ourself. So by... according to eating, the purification also... I think Mr. Bernard Shaw, he wrote one book that "You Are What You Eat." And that's a fact. We constitute our bodily atmosphere and mental atmosphere according to eating. So our Kṛṣṇa conscious movement recommends... Not the movement recommends. It is recommended in the śāstra that to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, you eat the remnants of foodstuff left by Kṛṣṇa. Just like opposite way: if a tuberculosis patient eats something and if you eat the remnants, then you will be infected with the tuberculosis bacillus. Is it not? So similarly, if you eat kṛṣṇa-prasādam, then you infect Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is our process. We don't take anything directly. We offer to Kṛṣṇa. Then we take kṛṣṇa-prasādam. That helps us. We do not take anything... We cannot take anything from the restaurant or from the shop. No. We prepare everything, offer to Kṛṣṇa. Then we take.

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The moon that we see in the sky...

Prabhupāda: The same moon.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That same moon.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And there is fire, blazing fire, just like the sun. But it is surrounded by cool atmosphere. Therefore it is pleasing. Heat coming through cool atmosphere, it is pleasing. This is the statement. What do they know? They cannot explain why it is so brilliant. We explain, "There is firelike flames; therefore it is brilliant." They say that every planet looks like that. That's not a fact. Then all the planets together, why they cannot illuminate this earth at night? Only the moon is required.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Well, they give the excuse that all the other stars are so far away that the light doesn't shine bright enough.

Prabhupāda: There are no other, nearer planets?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. There are other planets like Venus and Mars, but they say these planets are much closer than the sun.

Prabhupāda: That means... So why they do not look so bright?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Their philosophy is that the earth, Venus and Mars, these different planets, they don't give off any light.

Prabhupāda: Then why do they say that all the planets look like moon? They say like that.

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They think the moon is just reflecting light from the sun.

Prahupada: So why it is not reflecting to other planets, only to the moon? Why special advantage to the moon? They have no reason. All rascals' philosophy. Why particularly to the moon? Why not others? Simply theories and mental speculation. They have no scientific. And the śāstra definitely gives the distance of the moon from the sun planet-1,600,000 miles. Then similarly (sic:) 1,600 million up, the Mars, then Venus, then..., everything. And moon is specifically mentioned that "It is so brilliant because there is fire, blazing fire. And the blazing fire is so illuminating that even at night it looks white, bright." This is reasonable because... Not that it is being reflected by the sun. The sun can reflect other planets, but it is there, fire. Just like sun there is fire, similarly, moon there is fire. The sun is not covered by cool atmosphere, but the moon is covered by cool atmosphere. Therefore it is pleasing. When there is sunshine and breeze, it is very pleasing. And no sunshine, simply breezing—it is not pleasing. And only sunshine, there is no cool atmo... That is also painful. But sunshine and breezing is very pleasing. So there is, like sunshine, blazing fire and surrounded by cool atmosphere. Therefore the moon is so pleasing.

Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: That is moon.

Indian man: Moon.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They say that every planet gives light. That is not fact.

Indian man: The reflection I think, of the sun...

Prabhupāda: No, there is fire.

Indian man: In the moon too there is fire? But it is cold, as the, our sages say.

Prabhupāda: It is surrounded by cooling atmosphere.

Indian man: It rotates?

Prabhupāda: In a different way, not as they explain.

Indian man: They rotate.

Prabhupāda: Just like my hands is moving... (break) ...like that.

Indian man: And it does not go all around other planets?

Prabhupāda: No.

Cyavana: They all move together?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Cyavana: They move together?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The pivot is the polestar. Fixing, the pole-star, they are moving like this. And there is sun's movement. So we shall go once again?

Cyavana: Yes. We can go back.

Morning Walk -- October 28, 1975, Nairobi:

Indian lady (3): Can we purchase the house for our own staying?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because this is necessary. You must have some shelter; you must eat; you must cover. That is necessary. So you do it. Grow food first of all to feed yourself sumptuously. You must get strength, and that is needed. But not for trade. The policy should be that you should be self-sufficient and save time for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is wanted. Yavad-ārtha prayojanam. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya yogo bhavati siddhi-daḥ. You shall eat whatever you require for proper upkeep of the body, not eating too much and sleeping whole day. Don't do that. Eat only what is absolutely necessary. Then you'll never be in want. People are engaged in material civilization means they are increasing the bodily demands, unnecessary. Just like this park. Why we have come to this park? We like this atmosphere. So similarly, in villages, everyone, if he has got some land, he can live simply without any gorgeous building. What is the use? Just have a cottage and have garden. You'll live very peacefully. But they're constructing big, big skyscraper building in the downtown, and they will have to come here by car for some peace of mind, and in the meantime, accident, police. This is the civilization, nonsense civilization. At weekend they will go to the village, country, and during the week-time they will work hard. This is their civilization, with the risk of life, running motor car eighty miles' speed. Every moment there is risk. What is this civilization? Most ludicrous civilization. So farming means if you live in a farm... Just like in New Vrindaban they are doing. Produce your own food, live peacefully, fresh vegetable, fresh grains, fresh milk, and prepare so many nice milk preparation, kachori, halavā with ghee. Offer to the Deity. Eat sufficiently. What is the use of going outside? Simple life and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. If you can organize that, that will be very nice.

Morning Walk -- December 9, 1975, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: Sometimes I think our big building is too much Westernized. Disturbs the atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Akṣayānanda: Like you wrote in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that when Caitanya Mahāprabhu had many disciples behind him, He was criticized that He should not take them to Vṛndāvana. It might disturb the nice atmosphere. We have to be careful that we don't disturb with our big buildings and things. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...transform into a nice park this space. (break)

Akṣayānanda: Did Giridhārīlal see you last night, from the Mathurā Janmasthān? (break) ...influence Dalmia, but I don't know. We haven't seen any results yet regarding the gośālā. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...sandy. We want to avoid this sandy.

Harikesa: We should go back up, then. (break)

Devotee: The people here say that this is the Raman Reti. This is the place, the most sacred spot where Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma would come.

Prabhupāda: Hm. (break) ...panot. (loud squawking of birds)

Harikesa: (break)...and went back to civilized life. (Hindi) (end)

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Free hotel. (laughs) That's all. And free hotel will not endure.

Akṣayānanda Swami: No.

Prabhupāda: Svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. By service spirit beginning with tongue Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then everything is revealed, Vaikuṇṭha atmosphere... Sethji has not come out.

Akṣayānanda Swami: Of course we accept, ah, when you tell us to chant sixteen rounds, we accept that figure as being, in perfect faith, that you're the ācārya, but ah, what if others we wanted to convince, is there any, any ah, śāstr... Is there any Vedic verse we can refer to to corroborate that at least they must chant sixteen rounds. Or that many number of names?

Prabhupāda: No. In the śāstra it is not said like that...

Akṣayānanda Swami: I see.

Prabhupāda: It is said, śaṅkhy-pūrvakaḥ...

Akṣayānanda Swami: Śaṅkhy-pūrvakaḥ.

Prabhupāda: You must fix up.