Better than (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"better than"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "better than" not "no better than"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 13, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Walking and chanting, sometimes it...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Little bit. It's a good.... A good place to do it is that Victoria Memorial because there's so many...

Prabhupāda: People.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...people there.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...places better than this place, then you shall go there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. (break) Madhudviṣa will be there in the morning. He leads the kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's very lively.

Jayapatāka: (break) ...twenty years, they've never swept the street.

Prabhupāda: Twenty thousand?

Jayapatāka: Something like that. "Are sweeping the street." But only a few thousand of that are actually doing it. There's a big scandal.

Prabhupāda: Dishonest. They are producing only dishonest men. (break) ...get a boat like this? No.

Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, they show that "This is husband and wife. Ramakrishna was so advanced that even his wife, he left her, considering, 'She is my mother.' By worshiping mother Kālī he has become so perfect that sees all women as mother." He does not require to become Bhagavān. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, mātṛvat para-dāreṣu. Para-dāreṣu, not your own wife. Huh? Others' wife should be treated as mother. That is our Indian system. But he wanted to overcome that, that "I call even my wife mother."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That "I am better than..."

Prabhupāda: Ah, better than all others.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The question I've had is that in the pictures they always show her head. She is bareheaded. She doesn't cover her head. And I noticed the thing that when we're sometimes passing in a car in Bengal I notice that the women, very often, they don't... It's more in this state than anywhere else, they don't cover their head. Is that due to her influence?

Prabhupāda: No, no. The system is when the woman is at the care of father she does not cover. But when she is under the care of husband she must cover. By dress you can understand what she is, whether she is widow, whether she has got husband, whether she is prostitute. Everything by dress you'll understand. Nowadays the fashion is the woman has the bakan(?) sīmanta here, not here.

Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Angry... With shoes. We beat them with shoes that "You have created a civilization to work like ass, and ideal is to become a pig. What is this civilization? Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puru... (SB 2.3.19). And for their votes you become a president. What you are better than a pig? A pig votes for another pig, big pig. That's all. How people will be happy?"

Harikeśa: You told them that in South Africa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Did I say?

Harikeśa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: But they clapped.

Harikeśa: Yes. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. They appreciated. Although they do not take Indians very seriously...

Harikeśa: "Third-class citizens."

Prabhupāda: Third class. But they attended my lecture, they purchased my books and they clapped.

Morning Walk -- February 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: He would die when he liked. That was the benediction upon him. And Gandhi will say dharma-kṣetra means this body.

Indian man: Balarāma and Subhadrā month, is that on the same, the next month, He came?

Prabhupāda: He came one sūrya-grahaṇa occasion. (break) ...in America. That is better than calling a government. What is the government? I don't care for them, these politicians. In America I never attempted to see the politicians, secretary and... Never attempted. I was sitting down under the tree and playing my dundubhi.

Dayānanda: Yes. For one year the Marquis of Zetland was interested, and then what is the use? After that, then finished.

Prabhupāda: Finished.

Dayānanda: Just five hundred pounds spent in two years, and then nothing.

Prabhupāda: Then nothing.

Morning Walk -- February 26, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, he's trying. That's all. But active service is more important.

Hṛdayānanda: Hm. That is your example.

Prabhupāda: But something is better than nothing. If he goes, goes away to practice somewhere else, better give him chance to practice this. He's not doing anything bad. That is good. That is... But the better service is to be active servant, servitor.

Hari-śauri: That's your mercy on us.

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu, personally He gives example. He could have done at His home. Why He took sannyāsa and went out of home?

Devotee (3): We have one boy at the temple, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and he doesn't want to do any work. He simply reads, and he says that "I will not do any work now, but when I become realized by reading," he says, "then I will engage in work."

Prabhupāda: No, no, he's reading. That is working. If he's... But he is sleeping, that is another thing. In the name of reading, sometimes we sleep. If that is not done, it is all right. He's reading. That's all right. But if he shows that "I am reading," but he's sleeping secretly, that is bad. To see that he's not sleeping, he's actually reading.

Morning Walk -- March 7, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: And where is sense gratification? As soon as nature kicks you out, where is your sense gratification?

Hṛdāyānanda: It's a relative thing. Actually, compared to the ordinary man, he's much more intelligent.

Prabhupāda: What is intelligence?

Hṛdāyānanda: He's thinking that "I know so many things, and these other people, they don't know these things. Therefore I'm better than them."

Prabhupāda: So the birds and beasts, they know better than you many things. There are many birds and beasts.

Guru-kṛpā: "They can't... They can't explain it."

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guru-kṛpā: "They can't explain it."

Prabhupāda: You also cannot explain. What is explaining? All nonsense.

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: And one boy gave his all money.

Revatīnandana: They say it is all one. So I say, "If it is all one, then it doesn't make any difference if you have the money or I have the money, so give it to me." It works. They don't like it very much.

Prabhupāda: And you give it. "Your money is my money; my money is my money."

Pañca-draviḍa: In your article, though, you said that Dhṛtarāṣṭra said he was better than the sannyāsīs because they were coming to him, begging for money.

Prabhupāda: (break) "...beg. They help you. You are keeping Kṛṣṇa's money; you'll be punished. So return it to Kṛṣṇa; you'll be happy."

Haṁsadūta: Voluntary disclosure.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Voluntary disclosure. (break) ...abhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ paramam...

Pañca-draviḍa: Prabhupāda, why is it that a devotee falls down, that he wants to surrender to Kṛṣṇa and again he falls back to the material world to become a false enjoyer?

Prabhupāda: He's more sinful. Yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpam. He has not yet finished his sinful activities; therefore it takes some time. Neither he surrenders fully. Just like somebody said, "I want to enjoy material world." Just see. That is sinful.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: We do not say that we do not believe in the demigods. No, we believe in. But they are servants. That's all. We cannot make the servant and the master on the equal footing. That is all. We worship Durgā, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibharti durgā (Bs. 5.44). Now, what is the function? Icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā govindam ādi... She is acting by the desire of the Supreme Lord, Govinda.

Guru dāsa: Better than we are and should be worshiped.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guru dāsa: Better devotee than we are and should be worshiped.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: As a devotee.

Prabhupāda: Yes, she's a devotee. Just like we say "prabhu." Prabhu means your master. So "Because you are devotee, we accept you as master." Master means "I am ready to serve you because you are devotee. I am your servant." Dāsa-dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80). "Because you are devotee, I am prepared to serve you. Otherwise not."

Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: The kṣatriya's duty is that everyone is religious. It doesn't matter whether he follows Muslim or.... That is kṣatriya's duty, not that to discriminate, "The Hindu religion is better than the Muslim religion. Muslim..." That is not the way. If everyone is religious, it doesn't matter whether he is Hindu...

Dr. Patel: No religious Muslim would have ever done harm to Hindus.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: These are also ruled, these Mullahs.

Prabhupāda: Therefore one.... The government's duty is to see that everyone is actually religious and moral. It doesn't matter if he follows some type of religion. (break) ...to discriminate that "Hindu religion is good, Muslim religion is..." Then you cannot act as king.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Cows are vegetarian. That's all right. There are many animals, vegetarian. So there is no perfection of life unless we come to the point of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Simply by becoming vegetarian, simply by becoming nonviolent, simply by... These are all theories only. It has no value.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The argument is sometimes put forward that not everyone will be able to embrace Kṛṣṇa consciousness fully. Therefore it may be better for them to accept some portion, like, for example, taking up vegetarianism or even doing haṭha-yoga, or something like this is better than nothing.

Prabhupāda: No, that is not very essential. Essential is how to think of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. He doesn't say that you become vegetarian.

Dr. Patel: That said, tad-arthaṁ karma kaunteya mukta-saṅgaḥ samācara: "You must do everything for Him, even eating."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is the activity which concerns. In the university there is only activity of education, learning. And here, all the criminals are violating the laws, they are put together. But superficially they look the same room, same food, same office, same typewriter. So it is the question of understanding why it is called criminal department and why it is called university. So as soon as it is university department, that is good. The same building, the same dictaphone, the same typewriter, same table, same chair, when they are used for Kṛṣṇa, it is spiritual. The same money, everything, it looks like that. Therefore they cannot understand. The nirviśeṣavādī and the śūnyavādī, they: "Spiritual means these things should be zero." They say it should be zero. "No table, no chair, no house, no, no, no, no..." But that is (laughs) ignorance. Prāpañcikatayā buddhyā hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ. The things which are usable by Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, if we give up them, prapañcikā, as material, that is foolishness. That they do not know. They have yet to learn. It is Rūpa Gosvāmī's injunction. Prāpañcikatayā buddhyā hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ, mumukṣubhiḥ parityāgaḥ. Parityāga means giving up: "Oh, it is material." So we are not such fools, śūnyavādī and nirviśeṣavādī. We are not such fools. Arjuna, he thought that not killing is better than killing, but Kṛṣṇa convinced him, "Yes, killing is better than not killing." Therefore he, after reading Bhagavad-gītā, he took it, "Yes, killing is better than not killing." Generally people understand not killing is better than killing. But Kṛṣṇa explained to Arjuna, "No, if there is My desire, then killing is better than not killing." And that is knowledge. Therefore we have to carry out simply Kṛṣṇa's order or His representative's order. Then it is all good. Either killing or not killing, it doesn't matter because it is coming directly from the Supreme. And that is spiritual.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Material amenities.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: These things are described in Vedic terms as anartha. They are not very important or very valuable to human advancement. What is really essential is advancement in knowledge.

Mr. Dixon: One of the principles upon which I have lived is a question of involvement with the people around me in trying to do things better than they have been done before.

Prabhupāda: But you must know first of all what is the aim of life and what is better. That we must know. So that is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that we are not interested in God; then whole thing is spoiled. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). We are not interested in God. We want to be happy by adjusting the external energy of God. That is blind leadership. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ. This will never be successful, and it is blind leadership because we do not know what is the aim. If you know the aim of life and if we make program according to that aim, then it will be successful. Blindly everyone is manufacturing his objective, different leaders, different isms. The Communists, they have got different aims. The capitalists, they have got different aims. The socialists, they have got different aims.

Morning Walk -- April 24, 1976, Melbourne:

Guru-kṛpā: I think that's mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18).

Prabhupāda: Ah, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayeteta kovidaḥ. That is intelligence. (break) ...intelligence. Why should you stop in one point? Make further progress.

Guru-kṛpā: (break) ...the jñānī, to try to seek out, is better than to be a karmī.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Guru-kṛpā: The jñānīs, they are trying to study Vedānta to find out what is the end. So that is better than being karmī.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guru-kṛpā: Even if they don't know the answer, they are trying to seek out.

Prabhupāda: No, their answer is there, merging with the Supreme.

Guru-kṛpā: But again they must come back. That's not complete liberation.

Prabhupāda: That means not complete knowledge.

Morning Walk -- April 24, 1976, Melbourne:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He cannot gratify his desire.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Real devotee will think, "Oh, so many botheration I have now given up." Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje (SB 1.7.6). Bhakti-yoga means upaśamam: "No more this, all this nonsense." That is bhakti-yoga, anartha-upaśamam, completely given up. Bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje, lokasya ajānato vidvāṁś cakre sātvata-saṁhitām. But they do not know anything. They are increasing anartha. They are to give up cigarette. No, they are manufacturing new brand of cigarette and advertising, "Please come. This cigarette is better than the other." This is going on. This is karmī life. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). He has no sense that "I have smoke this cigarette and why, after another cigarette, the same thing?" But no. "I have enjoyed sex here. Why another sex?" He has no sense.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Available in every species of life also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is ajñāna. Ajñāna-timirāndhasya. This big house, (break) ...so that you will work hard. And he used to do that. You bring money and he'll spend. And if you say, "Sir, we collected this money for this purpose." "Yes, he spent. You again collect." Somebody has paid that constructing temple, and he has spent for other purpose. Then, when the devotee will say, "Oh, what this man will say?" "That's all right. You collect again." (break) ...he'll get some money, he'll make some arrangement for doll exhibition and spend the all money.

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Prabhupāda: And they're taking it, highly civilized way of life. Where you are going? You cannot go beyond this earth. You attempted so much to go to the moon planet, you failed. And where you can go, put-put-put-put? You'll have to stay here. But that rascal does not understand. He thinks, "I am going very fast." Where you are going? You are destined to stay here. That he does not understand. Not only this put-put motorcycle, the put-put airplane also. They're also trying to go to this planet around, round. That sputnik, first sputnik, eighteen thousand miles, and they simply rounded over the world in one hour and twenty-five minutes. And where did you go? And when he's tired, then come down again. They cannot understand, these so-called scientists, that we cannot go in this way. There is higher authority. Why it will allow us to go anywhere? Just like the horse running fast, but within the race course. That's all. It cannot go beyond the race course. And similarly, however heroic expedition we may show, you are, what is called, baddha-jīva, conditioned. You cannot cross the condition, that is not possible. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). A rascal, on account of his false prestige, he is thinking, "Oh, I am independent. I can do whatever I like." Vimūḍhātmā, foolish, rascal. Mūḍha, not. Vimūḍhātmā, "especially the rascal, a special rascal." Ordinary rascal is better than the special rascal. (laughs) So all these scientists, philosophers, and political leaders, they're all special rascal, they are.

Morning Walk -- May 25, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (3): So it's better to be in the mode of passion than the mode of ignorance?

Prabhupāda: Eh? No. We have to come to the mode of goodness. That is wanted. Neither passion nor ignorance. But passion is better than ignorance. That is comparative. But best quality in this material world is goodness. When knowledge is sufficient. And beyond that, śuddha-sattva. Here in this material world even goodness is disturbed sometimes by passion and ignorance. But the platform where no more disturbance by all these three qualities, that is śuddha-sattva. That is spiritual. Devotees are expected to remain on that platform, śuddha-sattva, pure goodness. Then they will not be disturbed by these three qualities.

Devotee (4): In the mode of ignorance, if he wishes to come to the platform of the mode of goodness, does he have to pass through the mode of passion to get to the mode of goodness? Or can you go directly from the mode of ignorance to the mode of goodness?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. You can instantly go to the platform of pure goodness. (end)

Morning Walk -- May 26, 1976, Honolulu:

Hari-śauri: It's like Rāvaṇa's promise of being able to go to the heavenly planets by climbing up the staircase.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...believed in the words of śāstra. Even I am not scientist, still I shall.... It is all childish. And it has proved childish. I do not say that I am better than the scientists. No. But on the words of śāstra, I say this is childish. They'll never be able to go to the moon. (break) The Americans who are here, mostly they are tourists. They're not residents.

Devotee (6): Some of them are retired, I believe.

Prabhupāda: Some, they're some. Otherwise they are tourists.

Devotee (5): Yes. (break) (end)

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: If I have a bigger brain than someone else, and if I give my...

Prabhupāda: Comparatively, you are less crazy. That is another thing.

Hari-śauri: "My idea may not be perfect, but it's better than yours," that's their idea.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is not your secure position. One child is older than the, another child. That does not mean he is a grown-up.

Rāmeśvara: (break) ...means to know who your father is.

Prabhupāda: Yes, certainly.

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I was once told by some devotees that you had said in some previous age of Kali, the dinosaurs, gigantic animals, were on the earth.

Prabhupāda: I said?

Rāmeśvara: They say that you said. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: (laughs) I never said. I never bother with these nonsense things.

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Thank you. So here in the material world happiness means sense gratification, that's all. So Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "The happiness of sense gratification, obtainable in any form of life..." The birds, beasts, human beings or even the demigods, cats, dogs—everyone has got the happiness of sense gratification, namely eating, sleeping, sex and defense. That is obtainable everywhere. But the spiritual happiness, that is obtainable in human form of life. Therefore the human being from childhood... Kaumāra ācaret prajño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). From the very beginning of childhood. Why so early? Durlābhaṁ manusam janma. This human form of life is obtained after many, many births' evolutionary process. And adhruvam. There is no certainty that I shall live so many years. Although it is estimated that one is expected to live for at least hundred years—that is estimation—but at the present moment at least, nobody is living up to that. So even there is such indication, still, there is no guarantee. We can die at any moment. Adhruvam, but arthadam. Although it is adhruvam—there is no guarantee—but whatever period we get, we can utilize it for the best purpose. Arthadam. We can gain the ultimate goal of life, arthadam. That is... He is giving stress. Arthadam means spiritual realization. That is arthadam. Otherwise we remain like animals. The animal has also sense gratification process: how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex and how to defend. So sukham aindriyakaṁ daitya. He is addressing his friends as daitya, "sons of the demons." He is addressing his father as "best of the demons." (laughs) There are two classes of men: deva and asura. Dvau bhūta-sargau loke daiva asura eva ca (BG 16.6). In this material world there are... (aside:) Why not Dr. Wolfe may come here, bring his chair here? You can sit down there. You can bring your chair. So this sense gratification is available. Viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ yat. These are called viṣaya. Viṣaya means sense enjoyment. So viṣayaḥ sarvataḥ syāt. In any form of life these four principles are there. Eating arrangement is there. (aside:) Come on. Sleeping arrangement is there. The bird, he is not anxious about eating, sleeping, mating. It is already there. He has got a nest above the tree. At night he is very safe and sleeping nicely. And in the morning, he knows, somewhere there is some fruit, he'll get his food. He's not anxious. He goes anywhere. And for mating, the male and female bird are always together. The pigeons, they are having every hour, four times, five times, mating. So that arrangement is always there. And defense? They are on the ground. As soon as there is some man, immediately they go up, defense. So they know, everyone knows, how to enjoy this viṣaya-eating, sleeping, mating and defending. So the śāstra says, viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. "These four principles of necessities of the body are available anywhere." Either you are born as a human being or a cat or a dog or a bird or beast or demigod, these are available. So we should not bother about these things. The arrangement is already there. By the grace of God, things are already there. So Nārada Muni said, "Don't bother about these things." Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). So we are wandering within this universe in different forms of life, in different planets, upary adhaḥ, upari, adhaḥ, upper planetary systems, down planetary system. We are having these facilities in different standard. The demigods, they have got their different standard of life, thousands and thousands of times better than ours. We have got better standard of life. Just like the Americans, they have got better standard of life than the Indians.

Room Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Hari-śauri: People become very enamored by this mystic display. You were speaking about mystic power, and peo...

Prabhupāda: Four annas. (laughter) For four annas I'll have to try for four hundred years. Why mystic power? To show some jugglery—"How I can fly in the sky, I can walk on the water"—by this mystic power, they create amazement and become imitation God. Imitation God you can become, but you cannot become real God. That is not possible. That is warned. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). That's all. Asamaurdhva: "Nobody equal to Me; nobody better than Me." So why should you waste your time to become God? You cannot become actually. So why should you waste your time? Remain servant. Then you're actually.... Get this light. No, no that, inside. You can give me little pineapple juice. Is it possible?

Hari-śauri: Right now?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: You can sit down here. Then also for mahārājas. So when you started from New Vrindaban?

Kīrtanānanda: This morning.

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

Prabhupāda: It will be polished?

Bharadvāja: Yes, you can polish very nicely.

Kīrtanānanda: I've never seen bronze polished.

Bharadvāja: It depends on the quality, grade. Generally they don't use a very high percentage of brass.

Kīrtanānanda: You think it's better than brass?

Bharadvāja: It's a little cheaper.

Prabhupāda: Bronze is very good.

Kīrtanānanda: I've never seen it highly polished.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the problem. Why not make brass?

Bharadvāja: Out of brass? Bronze is harder. Bronze is harder.

Prabhupāda: No, why harder? You can make softer. Metal...

Kīrtanānanda: Gold is softer still. It will be much more brilliant in brass than bronze.

Bharadvāja: Generally...

Prabhupāda: Brass, just like our Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities in Māyāpur, how dazzling. Here also, in Boston.

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

Richard: Well, if that's the best that he can do.

Prabhupāda: He can think.

Richard: He can change?

Prabhupāda: Yes, he can change. Change is possible, but if he sticks, that is his selection.

Richard: Ah, but suppose drinking to him is better than what he has to put up with...

Prabhupāda: That is not actual fact. Drinking, nobody can be happy by drinking. That is not possible.

Richard: Okay, okay. You said in the purport that tragedies of life—I'm paraphrasing—tragedies of life such as death of even a close relative are mere incidental occurrences. Is...? But you said earlier that death to you was anything but a mere incidental occurrence, that it was the...

Prabhupāda: No, we are not irresponsible to the death. Death, although we have to meet death, we are making provision that after death we become happy. Happy, of course, for us, even in living condition or dead condition, there is happiness, but it will take time to understand. But taking superficially, death is not very pleasing, so after death, that is mentioned in the Bha.... Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9), we do not get again a material body. This is final. The material body is the cause of pains and pleasure. So if you don't get the material body, if you remain in your spiritual body, that is real enjoyment.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: The prisoners.... Haridāsa Ṭhākura was very well known, so all of them assembled and offered him respect. Haridāsa Ṭhākura blessed them, "Stay in this condition." (laughs) So they were surprised, that "We offered respect, and the blessing is that 'Stay in this....' " Then they were explained, " 'Stay in this condition' means your attitude to offer respect to a Vaiṣṇava." That was the intent, not that "You stay in the prison house." Viṣṇu, Vaiṣṇava, offering respect.... (break) ...ārādhanam. When Pārvatī inquired from Lord Śiva what is the best form of worship, he advised, viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param: "Oh, to worship Lord Viṣṇu is the best form of..." Then he said, tasmāt parataraṁ devi tadīyānāṁ samarcanam: "And greater than viṣṇor ārādhana, Viṣṇu worship, is to worship tadīyānām, anything in connection with Viṣṇu." Anything.... That is Vaiṣṇava. Just like we are worshiping tulasī, tulasī plant. Why tulasī plant? It is a plant only, not even human being. Tadīyānām. Because tulasī is liked by Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, anything in connection with Viṣṇu, to worship, that is better than Viṣṇu worship.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Oh? Police cars very often visit this quarter?

Mādhavānanda: No.

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda? It's nine o'clock.

Prabhupāda: It may be ten o'clock. (laughter) What is the difference when here and there? (Prabhupāda laughs) Just like a blind man, he's sleeping, now his son is getting, "Please rise, it is now morning." So he said, "For me, morning and evening is the same thing. I am blind." Kebā rātra kebā din. "For me, there is no difference between day and night, because I cannot see anything."

Rakṣaṇa: Because you see only Kṛṣṇa all the time, Śrīla Prabhupāda, it doesn't matter whether you're in the room or in the garden.

Prabhupāda: So you want to see something other than, better than Kṛṣṇa? So ārati time is now? No. If you have to go, you can go.

Hari-śauri: No. The main ārati is finished at seven o'clock. (end)

Garden Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: We are not attending any job.

Jayādvaita: No. (laughs) We're living better than them.

Prabhupāda: And still we are living very comfortably.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Another proof is even when there are austerities, we do not mind to accept it because there is a higher pleasure.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have greater pleasure, that this austerity will please Kṛṣṇa. So we must do it. Our aim is how to please Kṛṣṇa. That is our argument. Go on reading.

Jayādvaita: "On the other hand, there is the brāhmaṇa, or he who is intelligent enough to utilize this body to solve all the problems of life. The kṛpaṇas, or miserly persons, waste their time..."

Prabhupāda: The real problem of life is birth, death, old age and disease. They do not understand this. They are so.... Just like animals. Animal does not understand what is birth, death, old age and disease. Real problem is there, but they are so dull-headed that their attention is diverted from the real problem. Temporary problems, they are busy. Just like, one major disease, one is suffering from a major disease. On account of that, he has sometimes headache, sometimes pain here, sometimes so many, minor. So, because we are subjected to meet death, so these minor conditions are there. The real problem is after suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering, when the body is no more able to bear suffering, it dies. Just like one man commits suicide. When he cannot control himself from the suffering, he voluntarily commits suicide. So death is the ultimate suffering. But we do not want suffering. Therefore problem is death. But who is anxious to solve this problem? They are not intelligent even. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). They do not know even what are the problems. Hmm?

Jayādvaita: They say that's life. They say that's what life is.

Prabhupāda: Life is to die?

Jayādvaita: Yes. They say this is natural.

Conversation in Airport and Car -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: The beginning is to understand this transmigration. But actually people do not understand. Cycle of birth and death, if one does not understand what is birth and death, what he'll understand of cycle of birth and death? Mostly because they do not understand what is birth and what is death, they are mostly going on on the bodily concept of life. That is animal life. Ask anybody. Bodily concept. And everything is going on. We pass through Canada to USA. Why Canada? Why USA? This bodily concept. It is meant for the Canadians, it is meant for USA, Americans. Immigration, customs, the same mentality as a dog coming from other neighborhood. The other dogs, they all come together, "Yow, yow, why you have come, why you have come?" In civilized dress only. This is the position. What is the difference between the dog's mentality... When another dog comes to another neighborhood, these neighborhood dogs, you know that? All animals: "Yow, why you have come?" So this department, "Why you have come here?" dogs barking, and this immigration, what is the difference? Is there any difference? This is our policy. Very difficult. (break) ...they will understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Their mentality is not better than the animals.

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

Prabhupāda: Patient is always rascal fool. You cannot expect him to be intelligent. He must agree to the physician's directions. That is intelligence. He must know that he's diseased, he must follow the instruction of the physician. That much will help him. Unless one is rascal, he does not fall sick. As soon as you violate the hygienic principles, you become sick. All commit sinful activities on account of ignorance. So therefore the best advancement of civilization is not to open hospitals, but to give them a lesson that they may not fall sick and go to hospital. That is real...But they do not know. They keep the mass of people in ignorance, they fall sick and they come to hospital and number of hospitals increase, they think it is advancement. This is their idea. So even the Christians, religious persons, they also open hospital to give relief to the patient. So that is not the program. The program is why he should fall sick and come to the hospital? Precaution is better than cure. One comes to the hospital for cure, but why not take the precaution so that he may not have to come to the hospital for cure? That is Vedic civilization. They have different prescribed rules and regulations so that a person may not fall sick. The modern idea is that "Let them fall sick; we have got hospitals and treat them, and they'll be cured." But he is cured, again he falls sick. That is going on. They have no program for precaution. They have program for cure. But actually, precaution is better than cure. We are taking precaution. The other fools, rascals, they are thinking, "What these people are doing? They are (indistinct) to have no this program, that," according to them. Just like our Vivekananda, he prescribed, daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. The same thing—hospital. We kill all animals, and the hospital patient is given the meat for improvement of the health. But he does not know that this is not curing; he is become implicated in his karma. He has to be killed again, and eaten by the other animals. That he does not know.

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

Prabhupāda: Demons.

Kulādri: When your palace is on the other side, they won't disturb. And we will have walls.

Prabhupāda: No, they don't like us.

Kulādri: They are doing better than before, but still they are somewhat envious.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere this world is like that. Even the father will give trouble, Prahlāda Mahārāja, what to speak of others. Demon father is giving trouble to a Vaiṣṇava son. And not grown-up son, five years old, innocent, but he's giving trouble.

Devotee (3): When we had sickness the state police became very interested in us, and today a state policeman stopped me and asked if you were here. So he seems to be paying special attention that you are here now. He's very interested.

Prabhupāda: However demon may be, they can appreciate that these are ideal characters.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: No one works harder than the farmer. The farmer has to work very hard.

Prabhupāda: No, our point is that if you think that electricity improvement is better than farming, we have no objection. But if you forget your real business, is that intelligent?

Kīrtanānanda: No, of course not.

Prabhupāda: That is our proposal. Our real business is how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. So simply for improving the condition of life, the necessities of life, if I forget my real business, is that intelligence? Therefore it is said duṣkṛtinaḥ. Kṛti means merit. But merit is being utilized for sinful activities. Take for example the meat-eaters. When man was... The uncivilized man is still there. In the uncivilized way they are living in the jungle. They require to eat something. So they stone over an animal going, and the animal dies, and then they eat. Now instead of killing the animal by stoning, if you have discovered scientific machine in the slaughterhouse to kill the animal, is that improvement? If you think this is advancement, "Now we have discovered very technical machine. Instead of stoning one animal killing, it takes so much time, hundreds and thousands of animals you can kill in one hour," do you think that is improvement? That is going on. They think this is improvement. When we were uncivilized, we were stoning some animal and killing and eating, now we are, business is the same—animal killing and eating. But we have improved the machine how to kill. This is going on. This is going on as advancement of civilization. Hmm? What is your answer? Is that advancement of civilization? Now you are civilized, instead of killing the animal, you just take milk from it without killing and make so many nice preparations, and that is civilization. But killing is sinful. You have no right to kill any animal, even an ant. Because you cannot give life to anyone. It is nature's law, God's law. So infringement on the laws of nature or God, it is sinful activities. So you are utilizing your merit for this sinful activity. Therefore it is called duṣkṛtinaḥ. Merit is there, but it is utilized for sinful activities. That is defect of the modern civilization.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Niyataḥ. You should read Bhagavad-gītā so thoroughly for everything. That is good lawyer. Good lawyer means in the court, immediately give reference to the judge, "My Lordship, such and such law, under section...this is there." He's a good lawyer. Good lawyer means he immediately gives reference to the section on which he's talking. Immediately judgement is there. If there is previous authority and it is recorded in the lawbook, then he doesn't require to argue anymore, the evidence is there. Even in other court, if some judgement is there, they'll be accepted. This is the law. So a good lawyer means he gives references from different courts, the judgement makes easier. Instead of proceeding for a long time, he gives reference—"Here is the judgement, you see," and immediately...

Dhṛṣṭadyumna:

niyataḥ kuru karma tvaṁ

karma jyāyo hy akarmaṇaḥ

śarīra-yatrāpi ca te

na prasiddhyed akarmaṇaḥ

"Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness does not mean to keep a set of men lazy, who cannot work. That is not Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everyone must work to his capacity. Prescribed duties. They accuse us that we are escaping. Huh? What is that? We do not escape. We are always busy.

Room Conversation -- July 1, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: And people, leaders of India, they are thinking, "Where is this Vedantist?" In foreign countries, what is their position?

Hari-śauri: Somehow or other, they seem to think that the Vedānta is something better than any of the other śāstra. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam doesn't seem to be so popular in India as Vedānta or something like that.

Prabhupāda: It is very popular amongst the Māyāvāda people. You speak also... Now the so-called Vedantists they are speaking on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, distorting. Akhoyananda, Akandananda, Karpatri, the rascals. Because they have no subject matter to speak, they are distorting the meaning of Bhāgavata. This boy appears to be nice, this fat boy.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Kīrtanānanda said he's the only local boy who has taken interest. He's from hereabouts.

Prabhupāda: He said that "I've wanted to see you since a long time." So, keep friendship with... Giving them prasādam?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Kīrtanānanda Swami cut up some watermelon, and we distributed it to the guests.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, shall I lock this up?

Prabhupāda: Hmm. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: There is no question of evolution. It is already there. This is a wrong theory. The monkey is there, the man is there. The soul is going from monkey to man. It is not the evolution. Just like you have got apartment, ten rupees, five rupees, twenty rupees, thirty rupees, like that. Now, as you pay, "Come on, here." There is no question of evolution. It is already there. Jantur dehopapattaye. These dehas, these bodies, are already there. So immediately it develops a particular type of desire, "Yes, come here, sit down." First class, second class, third class, fourth class is already there. As you pay, "Yes, come here." It is not evolving; it is already there. He is transferred from one apartment to another. This has to be convinced. We don't find that monkey's body became a human body. That is not in the experience, anyone. The monkey is there, the human being is there. But the soul is going from monkey's body to human's body, or monkey's body to another body. That is by superior administration. Their theory is the body is evolving and some body is missing. Nothing is missing. Every body is there. The soul is being transferred from one body to another. Asatims caturam caiva laksams jīva jātiṣu.(?) Jāti means the form of the body. So the form of the body is already there, and the living entity is being transferred from one body to another. This is called transmigration. We have come here, not that that room developed. This room is here, that room is there, but I am transferring. Because they have no idea of soul, they are thinking that this nice room, now transform into this room or this room, transform... This is foolishness. A civil man transferred into jail—not that his civil house becomes jail. They are thinking wrongly like that, Darwin's theory. Body becoming changed. No. The different types of bodies are already there. The living entity is being transferred from one body to another. Just try to explain. So evolution you take that this apartment is better than that apartment, that apartment better than, and a living entity's going from one after another. So this is evolution. That you are now getting salary, one thousand dollar, now you get fifteen hundred dollars. So according to your qualification, you are getting.

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

Prabhupāda: According to combination of these modes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's why we want to bring out, that modes of nature, that can explain so many things so nicely, the difference, but science has no background on that.

Prabhupāda: That means you have to analyze different bodies. But that is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which apartment is better than the other apartment, there is description. Just like a dog's body is so made that two furlongs away some newcomer is coming, immediately he will bark, he can immediately understand, perceive. He can smell that "Somebody is coming who is not known to me." Is it not? So he has got that special quality. Even in animals we will find. A fish in the water, two miles away there is some enemy, they can understand by touch.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Science calls those chemical senses.

Prabhupāda: These are described in the Bhāgavata, the different perception of different senses, how one is prominent in one animal body. That is described.

Rūpānuga: That is coming? That is not yet printed? I don't remember that description.

Prabhupāda: No, I think that in the Third Canto. In Third Canto there is. You can consult Third Canto. One sense is prominent.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: So the fall goes that side?

Rūpānuga: Yes. There's another place—I'm not exactly sure; I think it's down much further—where there's much bigger falls. This is just a small place. It's not the main falls. We can go there on another walk, I think, if you want to see the big falls.

Prabhupāda: Chicken is giving life to the egg within five days, and you are scientist, you have to wait for millions of years. So chicken is better than you. (laughter) Why, rascal, you claim as scientist? Better, a chicken is better than you. Chicken is giving just after sitting on the egg. In five days, there is living entity. You rascal, you have to wait. So why you talk? Better don't talk. It is better not to talk than to talk foolish. Where is the scientist?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: If they don't talk, then don't get jobs.

Prabhupāda: That's it. Then they'll say plainly that "I'm hungry; give some food. Then I'll not talk nonsense. Give me some food." That's all. Take it. Tell the truth.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: If they talk these things, they can get money from the government, millions of dollars.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. So instead of talking all nonsense, tell freely that "I am hungry, give me some food."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Actually, that's what happens in principle.

Prabhupāda: They have finished all their talks. So far as I know, these so-called scientists, they have finished their business. Now they have no other means than to bluff. To get their salary.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: You can make, by arrangement, artificial, cross-breeding.

Hari-śauri: But that cannot be counted as one of the 8,400,000 forms. I was thinking last night when we were coming down this road that it's very nice and smooth, but then I thought you were saying the other morning that in the heavenly planets they are made from coral and so many different things. Here we're using tarmac.

Prabhupāda: The more you go higher planetary system, the standard of living is many, many thousand times better than this. Many, many thousand times.

Rūpānuga: We can't even imagine it now.

Hari-śauri: What to speak of the spiritual world.

Prabhupāda: Just suppose here are stones, there are pearls. You cannot imagine.

Hari-śauri: Lying on the roadside. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...Western scientists, philosophers, they are all Dr. Frogs. They simply calculating three feet water, that's all. As soon as you speak to them about Atlantic Ocean, they say, "Oh, it is impossible." Froggish brain. (break) ...word has come, kūpa-māṇḍūkya-nyāya, the frog in the well.

Evening Darsana -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Guest (3): How to...?

Prabhupāda: That we have to test, whether I can surrender to him. That we have to behave with him. Therefore according to system, one has to study that "Whether I can surrender to him?" If you think that "No, I know better than him," don't accept a formal guru. That is mistake. And guru also will see, "He's appealing to me, he is going to accept my discipleship, let me see whether he is qualified." Then there should be guru and śiṣya, not that as a fashion. Like Arjuna, Arjuna accepted Kṛṣṇa as guru after talking with Him. Find out that verse, śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam.

Guest (3): Pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ.

Prabhupāda: When he was convinced that "I do not find anyone else to give me instruction," then he surrendered.

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

Devotee (2): Therefore a chicken, he is greater than you.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Chicken can do. What do you think?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. The very best way to... I want to use that as an example next time when we preach.

Prabhupāda: But a chicken is better than you. Don't talk nonsense. (laughter) Chicken is already doing in his way. You'll see he's laying down, chemical egg, and fermenting, and within week come. So he's better than you.

Yadubara: They'll say that we can also do that, we can also produce child.

Prabhupāda: Hm? You can, but you, rascal, you've never done it, simply speak.

Yadubara: No, I mean, they can produce children also by sex life.

Prabhupāda: But that is not your laboratory children. That is God's children. That is another thing. That is not your laboratory children. You want to produce children in laboratory? Then do that. That is our challenge.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Dr. Sharma: There's something magnetic about it, something creative which comes from inside.

Prabhupāda: Where is our scientist?

Vipina: Svarūpa Dāmodara-could you get him?

Hari-śauri: I already sent somebody for him, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I don't think he's here.

Prabhupāda: He's not here.

Vṛṣākapi: They went to the Library of Congress today, Prabhupāda. They aren't here right now.

Bill Sauer: I think you put it better than I did. We do not destroy matter, we transmute it to energy, that's exactly correct. And it is the..., and in fire you are again transmuting material chemical energy into light.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, once that very concept that they will be able to do all these things, if that is removed, then they come on the platform as...

Prabhupāda: Of sane man. They are talking like insane man.

Ravīndra-svarūpa(?): But that inspiration is that we can always do something bigger and better than we've done before.

Prabhupāda: But still you cannot do in the final. That is not possible. Because you are finite. You are not infinite. Your knowledge is limited. You can do something up to some extent.

Ravīndra-svarūpa: They agree, they all agree,

Prabhupāda: They are giving bluff: "Yes we shall produce life. Wait for millions of years, wait for millions." This is nonsense. Who will wait for millions of years and see your scientific discovery?

Rūpānuga: They say "Yes, we are finite, but we can work together, combinedly together, and make great progress, scientific progress. All working together, every nation."

Prabhupāda: You cannot do anything which is beyond your power. But you are limited, your power is limited, that you must agree. Your power is not unlimited. You are finite. That you must admit.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Very nice. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). This is the movement of ānanda, pleasure only. Kṛṣṇa is ānandamaya, and if you remain with Kṛṣṇa you'll become ānandamaya. A rich man, he's enjoying, and if you remain in association with the rich man, you also enjoy. Where is the difficulty? A very rich man, and his associates, they are also rich men. Is it not? And if you remain with poor man, you are also poor.

Rūpānuga: You've explained that the servant in the house of the king, he is almost as good as the king.

Prabhupāda: No, he is better than king. King, he eats whatever is offered to him, but they can eat whatever they like. Is it not? Who is restricting them? (aside:) You can open that. Just stand towards there. Yes.

Hari-śauri: Is that, cutting the cake, is that a Vedic..., did they used to do that in Vedic times, or is that a Western invention? We were just wondering about it.

Prabhupāda: Prasāda distribution. Either you cut or take with hand, the same thing. It doesn't make any difference.

Rūpānuga: On the cake it was marked on one side 1966, on the other side 1976. Like a coin. They make coins celebrating, commemorating.

Prabhupāda: And the cake is made very nicely. Who has made it?

Vṛṣākapi: This one girl, her name is Lalitā-sakhī. She stayed up all night.

Rūpānuga: And then it was decorated by Ambujākṣa, who is an artist.

Prabhupāda: Woman should be expert in cooking. That is their natural tendency. They should be educated how to cook nicely, how to please the husband, how to take care of the children. This is Vedic civilization. In the beginning a woman, childhood, she's trained up by the mother. Then as soon as she is married, formerly, child-marriage, so she's transferred to the care of mother-in-law. There she is trained up. Then she becomes very good housewife, takes care of household affairs, husband, children, and home becomes happy. What is this nonsense, divorce? There is no such thing in the Vedic civilization, divorce. You must accept whatever God has given you as husband or wife, you must. They had no thinking even, idea of divorce. One may not agree with the husband. That is natural. Sometimes we do not agree. But there is no question of divorce. When this divorce system was introduced?

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's like chemical evolution. Million years it will happen.

Prabhupāda: Billion.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, in a million years.

Prabhupāda: Then the answer is the chicken is better than you. He can give you life within seven days. Dr. Chicken is better... They are shameless. Not ordinary, because ordinary a human being will become shameful to speak something nonsense. But they are shameless. In that Bengali, duḥkhānvita(?) One man, one ear was cut off. So in order to hide his cut-off ear he was keeping this side to the river side and this side to the habitation side. So then again his two ears were cut out. Then there is no question of hiding. Both of them were cut out. So these people are duḥkhānvita. When both the ears cut out, there is no shame. They will go on talking all nonsense. Because they are accepted. So many millions of years have passed in the history, nobody could do that, and they are giving hope that life will come after millions of years. Why million? Here is a chicken, he can give life within five days. What credit you'll get after millions of years? But they are duḥkhānvita.(?)So shameless they can speak such nonsense and still pass on as scientists. Tibocham,(?) I think. Duḥkhānvita. No shame, you do not feel that why you are talking nonsense. Am I right or wrong? Here is a chicken, insignificant animal, he is giving life within five days, and we are talking of millions of years, and still we are scientist, Dr. Frog.

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

Guest (3): But it says that if I follow another person's occupation, even if I do it better than my own occupation, that is not as good as following what I ought to be doing.

Prabhupāda: If you are unfit for that occupation, why should you imitate, waste your time? If you are, you are fit for becoming a carpenter, why should you imitate a brāhmaṇa? Better be expert carpenter and serve Kṛṣṇa with the result of carpentry work. Then there is perfection. Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam.

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā

varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya

saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

(SB 1.2.13)

So suppose you are a carpenter. You earn something. So out of that your income, you offer something to Kṛṣṇa. If, even you are poor man, you can bring some fruit or flower to Kṛṣṇa. "Kṛṣṇa, I am poor man, I can't give You anything more. But I have secured this fruit and flower. Kindly accept it." Kṛṣṇa says, "Yes." Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati tad aham aśnāmi (BG 9.26). So where is the difficulty? Svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya. You remain a carpenter, but you worship Kṛṣṇa. That is not a very difficult job, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam.

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

Dr. Sharma: Surrender He uses many places, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam (BG 9.26), karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but that is not surrender. When you keep yourself in your so-called duty, that recommendation is there. But when you fully surrender, there is no more karma, everything is bhakti. And because you do not surrender, therefore He is recommending that you do your karma like this. But as soon as you surrender, you are above karma. Sa guṇān sama-tītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya, you are brahma-bhūtaḥ. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). So long you do not surrender, He is linking your activities with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, "You do like this." Then one day you'll be able to surrender. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja, he wanted the kingdom better than his father, grandfather. So he had to undergo so much severe austerities. He got Kṛṣṇa. But when he got Kṛṣṇa, he said svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varam, "I don't want any benediction." So this position you can attain any moment, "My Lord, I surrender unto You. I don't want anything from You. Kindly give me shelter at Your lotus feet." This is the result of greatest tapasya. And Kṛṣṇa gives you protection. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31). So that is the highest perfection of life, to surrender to God without any reservations. Then life is perfect.

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Hm. You are now making wholesaling.

Mr. Kallman: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes!

Mr. Kallman: More volume.

Prabhupāda: Wholesale business is better than retail business. My father was a wholesale, cloth seller, cloth merchant. So, he liked wholesale business, not retail.

Mr. Kallman: The wholesale is much better. It's more financial...

Prabhupāda: A little profit, but aggregate is better.

Mr. Kallman: The volume is more.

Prabhupāda: Yes, volume is more. In those days, he was making cloth business, he was making profit one anna or two paise per piece.

Mr. Kallman: Very small profit.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The Marwari business man, they want to sell, for suppose, one lakh of worth goods, if there is customer to pay him immediately one lakh ten rupees, he'll sell, immediately sell. He thinks "I've got that ten rupees," that's all. Again person. That is their way of doing it. They are not calculating that I have invested one lakh of rupees, I must get at least ten percent profit. No. Not at loss. A little profit. "Never mind, give me cash." That is Marwari business. And he, when he goes to purchase from his supplier, he sees that this man is purchasing at the time one lakh, two lakh. So he gives him all credit.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, Chinese...

Interviewer: Now, in terms of your movement, you're bringing out consciousness, which I would analogize...

Prabhupāda: No, I say...

Interviewer: To the ability to speak. Now, how is your path or your way different from (or) better than others?

Prabhupāda: No, but there is no question of "better than others." It is the only thing.

Interviewer: It is the only way?

Prabhupāda: Only thing. It is not the question of better or superior. But Kṛṣṇa consciousness means God consciousness. So either you are Chinese or English or American, there is consciousness. When that consciousness is purified, that is God consciousness.

Interviewer: Yes. But is your way the only way?

Prabhupāda: No, that is only way. Because God is one and God consciousness is one, so when you are Chinese consciousness, that is foreign. Or either American consciousness, it is foreign.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Hari-śauri: Their French Bhagavad-gītā, the French one, when it came out, it's so much better than any other version we've had. Every time they bring a new book out, it seems to be an advancement on everything else.

Harikeśa: Yogeśvara is very...

Prabhupāda: Oh, he is very expert, very enthusiastic. His wife is...

Harikeśa: Very nice.

Hari-śauri: They included a number of photos also. In the picture sections they've headed each section with a photo. There's one of Vṛndāvana temple. They have a photo of your room in Rādhā-Dāmodara.

Prabhupāda: Oh! Where it is?

Hari-śauri: In one of the sections here.

Harikeśa: I have to go in and do some more.... (break)

Prabhupāda: Right in here.

Hari-śauri: Through that window you could see Rūpa Gosvāmī's samadhi. And for those two rooms they were charging five rupees a month?

Prabhupāda: Yes. These rooms were broken. So they told me that "You can repair these, and whatever you like, you can give." So I thought, "Don't need much space." "Pay me if..." I know, before me there was a tenant in that other room. He was paying three rupees. So I thought, "Two rooms, but I have spent money. So I'll give him five." Now I am giving them ten rupees.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Mike Robinson leaves) (break)

Hari-śauri: Actually he was quite intelligent, he was asking good questions because he was following the conversation. He was better than most of the interviewers, anyway. You're very expert. (laughter) You capture them and then you guide what they're going to say. It's perfect.

Harikeśa: I was noticing that, that when you finish speaking with somebody, although he's bewildered, all of a sudden he understands, and he becomes amazed. I mean that happens with me also. It's just, it's the most fantastic technique. You're so patient.

Hari-śauri: Like that man from the Associated Press. You forced him to stay on those two analogies until he understood. For ten minutes you explained that, the car and the driver, until it finally got through to him. Then when he finally had some realization of it, then you again gave him another analogy about breaking the bricks in the prison. And again you forced him to stay on the same subject matter. And he..., you do it in such a way that they think that they're asking very good questions from their own intelligence. Actually, you've already captured them.

Harikeśa: It's like taming wild animals. The perfect animal trainer. (laughing)

Prabhupāda: He said that breaking the bricks is the business. I said the sooner you give up this, then you are happy. Karmīs, the karmīs want this, breaking the bricks. They think this is civilization. Brick, more brick, and bring more bricks and break it. That is civilization.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: But he did not say no. He wanted to do conveniently. Then I thought, it will not be... (coughs). "When he will return, he'll do it." That is not possible.

Bhūgarbha: He gave me some of his books that he wrote, he gave me some to read. And actually the English in your books is much better than his books, so better he's not editing. It's coming out better.

Prabhupāda: No, he's not a good English scholar.

Bhūgarbha: Actually, he speaks perfect French also. And he got his Ph.D. from the University of Paris.

Prabhupāda: Paris or Dutch as well.

Bhūgarbha: He's been every place. He went to, in Paris he got in the Sorbonne and also in Pondicherry they have one French Institute, and there he got his Ph.D. And also in Holland there is one very important... So by his letters we can, many people will take our books.

Prabhupāda: No, he's undoubtedly very great Sanskrit scholar. He had written some book how to make the sacred thread, like that. How many knots should be there, how many... (laughter) Smārta brāhmaṇa.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Yogeśvara: Can the older boys be trained in a particular kind of devotional service? For example, press work?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, everything is devotional. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam (SB 7.5.23), there are varieties. We are not Māyāvādī, impersonalists, finished, all business. It is not like that. So whatever business is going on in our movement, everything should be taught according to the capacity, boys or girls, it doesn't matter. Some department is suitable for the boys, some department are suitable for the girls. In this way, they should be trained up. But everyone should be trained up to give service. That is Gurukula. And brahmacārī, this sex impulse should be controlled. That ruins the whole character. Our big, big sannyāsīs are becoming victimized. So that is the danger. Woman is good, man is good; when they combine together, bad. This is the material world. Both of them are good, but when they combine together, they are bad. This is material world. In the spiritual world, there is no such combination of sense gratification. Therefore it is always good. Everyone is part and parcel of God. So they are good. In the spiritual world, they combine together, it becomes bad, in the material world. In the spiritual world there is no such combination of sense gratification. Therefore they are always good. So you have to train like that. In the spiritual world there are very, very beautiful women, thousand, thousands times. Here, in the heavenly planets, they are calculated the best perfectional body of the woman. But in the spiritual world, still further. But there is no attraction of sex. They are working together, serving together, everything. But the sex attraction, there is no. They are elevated so much in the service of the Lord.... Sex attraction is a kind of pleasure. So there are different types of pleasure. Here, if somebody, good foodstuff is there, and.... That is also another sense pleasure, and by the time one beautiful woman is canvassing, "Now, come and let us enjoy," he will give up this good food. He'll go for sex. Because he will think this is better than that. So one pleasure is rejected if one is engaged in better pleasure. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). So in the spiritual world the service of the Lord is so pleasing, that they can neglect this sex pleasure. That is spiritual world. They have no attachment for sex pleasure. Yadāvadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravinde nava-nava-rasa-dhāmānudyata bata nārī-saṅgame bhavati mukha-vikāraḥ suṣṭu. When one spits on the sex pleasure, that means he is elevated in spiritual life. So in the material world that is not possible. But by training, by knowledge, one can be elevated. That is Gurukula. So these are the general principles. Now arrange.

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

Prabhupāda: Just see how rascal they are. My Guru Mahārāja every step condemned this Ramakrishna Mission and Vivekananda. He said frankly that if there are any impediments for our movement, that is this Gandhi and Vivekananda. He said frankly. Hodge-podge. Gandhi's also hodge-podge. He was a politician, and in politics he mixed some spiritual ideas, hodge-podge. And this Vivekananda was also politician. His name was recorded in the government as "sannyāsī-politician." Because after returning from America, he began to preach to make the poor man rich, and these weak, fatty, and so on, exercise. So the government took it that he's, under the dress of a sannyāsī, he's preaching social and political upliftment. So his name was recorded as "sannyāsī-politician." And his name was also recorded, "political saint," Gandhi. After all, the British government, they were very intelligent. They could understand what is what. Otherwise, how they were managing this big empire? Very intelligent, there is no doubt about it. And actually they were intelligent. When they were managing, we were happy, actually. Nobody can deny it. Although they were exploiting. But nobody could understand. Everyone was feeling happy. And as soon as they left, everyone is unhappy. That distinction I can give evidence, I can, from my personal experience. Things were very, very nice. Calcutta, oh, it was so nice city. Now it is hell. It is same Calcutta. Why it is now hell? Hidden(?) garden, that was a nice garden. So... Everywhere hell, only hell. Calcutta was considered the nicest city in India, better than Bombay, but it has become now hell. The streets, especially those quarters in our temple.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: What they are paying you?

Dayānanda: They are paying, I bring home about one thousand dollars per month.

Prabhupāda: After deducting.

Dayānanda: After deducting taxes.

Prabhupāda: It is better than USA. You were getting six hundred there?

Dayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So you are getting more? Why Gargamuni advised you to give up? I chastised him, "Why you have given him such advice? He's a gṛhastha, he must have some money. He has to take care of the children." Anyway, you have got better job now and better service also. Kṛṣṇa has awarded you for your service. Stick to it. Don't... If you like to serve here, you can be permanently settled. No, what is their rules?

Dayānanda: It is quite easy, because they need foreigners to come and work here.

Prabhupāda: So that is very, very good.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Rituals are meant for the neophytes who are given education to begin with. But if he's stuck up with rituals, do not make any further progress, then his progress is checked. You have to go, progress, more progress. Instead of having no sense of God, they, if it is prescribed that "Go to the mosque and pray to God, five times," that is good, ritualistic. At least you're accepting there is God, I must offer. Similarly... This is Muslim process. Hindu process, they say go to the temple and see God. And this Christian, go to the church and offer... The subject matter is the same—accept God. Accept God. But the ultimate, shall we say, goal is not only accept God... They go to God for some material benefit, because they have no other idea. Like the Christians say, "O God, give us our daily bread." I do not know what the Muhammadans say in the prayer. Hindus also, they go to God, "Sir, I am very poor, give me some money," or "I am diseased, please cure me." So these things are the same in different ways according to country and customs. But it is good because they have approached God. That much is good. They are accepting there is God. That much is good. But when he makes further progress, that there is God, what kind of person He is, what is His business, then you make further progress. So these, for the neophyte, these ritualistic formula is good, but he must make further progress. Instead of godlessness, these processes are better. Let him go to the mosque, let him go to the temple, let him go to the church. At least, let him maintain the idea of God. That is the ritualistic. Then there is further progress. One must be interested. But people are losing interest even in the neophyte stage. They're becoming godless. That is going on. So that is very dangerous. Instead of becoming godless, if somebody approaches God, it doesn't matter in some way, some ritual, it is better than this atheist class of men. At least they are accepting God, and if they offer prayers sincerely, God is there within your heart, He'll gradually reveal.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: To pass the examination, one must follow a strict, austere life.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa, beginning tapasya, austerity. Brahmacarya, celibacy. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena (SB 6.1.13), controlling the senses, controlling the mind. Tyāgena, by renunciation. Satya-śaucābhyām, by following truthfulness and cleanliness. Yamena niyamena vā, by practicing yoga, yama-niyama. These are the different items of being qualified. But all these things can be done by one stroke, kevalayā bhaktyā, by engaging oneself in devotion, vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ.

kecit kevalayā bhaktyā

vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ

aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena

nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ

(SB 6.1.15)

One becomes qualified by one stroke of bhakti to Vāsudeva. Just like the sunrise immediately dissipates the fog. Aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ. In the Kali-yuga, this one item of bhakti can make one perfectly fit candidate to pass the examination. Aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ. What is this nonsense life? There is no tapasya, no spiritual culture, simply like cats and dogs. Last night I was reading. Vāmanadeva created a planet, Sutala, in which Viśvakarmā was ordered to construct big, big houses, palaces, better than in the heavenly planet. And these rascals are going and seeing simply rocks and sand. And what about these palaces and...?

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Mr. Sahani: But being inquisitive, again, and accepting it...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Inquisitive means one who does not accept that "Here is a person giving me gold. He's very good man, he'll not cheat me." Then you accept. But if you have no such faith, then you check it. But real gold, either you take in blind faith or by checking, the result is the same. Now it is up to you. If you believe Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead as He says... He is the Supreme Person. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). That's a fact. But if you don't believe it, then check and consider of our statement, and then accept. Two ways are there. Why people are misled? They do not accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They are taking Bhagavad-gītā in their own way. So why they should take Bhagavad-gītā in their own way? That is not good. If you want to speak something better than Bhagavad-gītā, you speak separately. Why you misinterpret Bhagavad-gītā? Our preaching process is that you take Bhagavad-gītā's instruction, that is perfect, and you'll be happy. This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Don't try to interpret it. Don't try to exact some meaning of your choice. No, that is not good. You take it as it is, you'll be benefited.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, we can supply nim leaves from India, any amount, from Vṛndāvana.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Nim leaves from Vṛndāvana is unique, nobody can imitate us.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Nim leaves we can export from India. In the United Provinces there is ample nim trees. That time I shall give you instruction also.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: We will start, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This is better than..., this is easier than restaurant.

Prabhupāda: Now you consider amongst yourselves. I have no difficulty, I have given direction, "Do like that." Now what you'll do, that is up to you. So far giving help and directions, that you will get perfect, there is no doubt about it. That you will get. How to manage, how to get ingredients, everything you'll get. Because I have to say only, you have to do. That's all. So that will be all right. Now decide. That will be very nice or very effective. Whatever we shall prepare, it will be very effective. So if there is market, why not? Introduce. I think there will be market because this country is undeveloped.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Many things toilet and medicines and... We can give.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: We will like that very much.

Prabhupāda: Let them be engaged in different ways and earn some money. This incense I taught Gargamuni first.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, this is better than incense. You teach us the incense also, everything. We will do it.

Prabhupāda: Incense, I first of all taught Gargamuni, the starting was there in New York. Do you know that? And now it has developed very nice.

Pradyumna: The largest in the world.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, would you like us to... We have, this temple has some dakṣiṇā for you. How would you like me to do it? Today is Thursday. Would you like it in what form? Would you like us to invest it for you here, or give you the cash?

Prabhupāda: If you give me the interest, eighteen percent, I'll utilize it for Māyāpur-Vṛndāvana.

Morning Walk -- August 27, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: ...the tomb? Very big.

Harikeśa: I was just thinking that this was really a case of decoration of the dead body.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, see the Taj Mahal. That's thousand times better than this.

Prabhupāda: In the gate it is said that bicycle prohibited. (break) ...tomb was constructed before Taj Mahal. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...improvement on this park.

Indian man: the last two years the have rebuilt this park.(?) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...there are similar buildings.

Hari-śauri: In Rome?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Old. And hundreds of tourists go to see them.

Hari-śauri: That Coliseum is very famous all over the world. That Coliseum?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- September 2, 1976, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: He gives direct knowledge of Kṛṣṇa; therefore he's as good as Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa... Hmm?

Hari-śauri: I was just telling him to fan just when there's flies just to scatter.

Prabhupāda: You are tired now? No?

Indian man: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: You can climb on the tree? No. Let me see. (children laughing) It is better than that path.

Hari-śauri: This one?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is not so crowded. That path is very crowded. (break)

Lokanātha: ...five thousand years back, until now, there's only thirty ācāryas...

Prabhupāda: Chain is broken when there are false spiritual masters. Otherwise it is not broken. Chain is broken if a so-called spiritual master speaks something manufactured. Then the chain is broken. Otherwise chain is not broken.

Room Conversation with U.N. Doctor -- September 29, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why do you say Kṛṣṇa panthā?

Doctor: No, mantras. I have come to mantra. Klīṁ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopījanavallabhāya namaḥ. Is that not a very powerful Kṛṣṇa mantra?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Doctor: That is better than Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No. Hare Kṛṣṇa is therefore called mahā-mantra.

Doctor: Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare.

Prabhupāda: Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.

Doctor: This you regard as the, higher than any other...

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Therefore it is called mahā-mantra.

Doctor: But I was told that the Sudarśana-cakra words, mahamala parakramāyā maha patanivaya bhakta jane kalpanaya,(?) that is a very powerful mantra.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything in relationship with God is powerful. But the name in this age is the most powerful. Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (SB 12.3.51).

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: One of the things they haven't been able to criticize us for is our Deity worship.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Hari-śauri: One of the things they can't criticize is our Deity worship because it's a lot better than anywhere else.

Prabhupāda: But you are not above criticism.

Hari-śauri: Oh no, they criticize us for plenty of other things. That's one point, that was one point in our favor, so we should maintain it.

Prabhupāda: The servant should be kept only when it is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, everything should be done by us.

Haṁsadūta: I understand that, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: They are paying two thousand rupees.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Devotee (3): Should I read the translation?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (3): "Perform your prescribed duties, for action is better than inaction."

Prabhupāda: But if you have no prescribed duties, then you are animal. Just like monkey. What is his duty? He is jumping simply and creating havoc. Monkey is very busy. Wherever he'll sit down, he'll "Gat, gat, gat, gat," like this. That's all. Very busy. But what is the meaning of his business? Simply creating disturbance Therefore it is said, niyataṁ kuru karma tvam: "Act on your prescribed duties." Don't act like a monkey. That is better. What is that?

Devotee (3): "For action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work."

Prabhupāda: Then? Purport?

Devotee (3): Purport. "There are many pseudo-meditators who misrepresent themselves as belonging to high parentage, and great professional men who falsely pose that they have sacrificed everything for the sake of advancement in spiritual life. Lord Kṛṣṇa did not want Arjuna to become a pretender, but that he perform his prescribed duties as set for kṣatriyas. Arjuna was a householder and a military general, and therefore it was better for him to remain as such and perform his religious duties as prescribed for the householder kṣatriya. Such activities gradually cleanse the heart..."

Prabhupāda: You are following? Go on.

Devotee (3): "...and free him from material contamination. So-called renunciation for the purpose of maintenance is never approved by the Lord, nor by any religious scripture. After all, one has to maintain one's body and soul together by some work. Work should not be given up capriciously, without purification of materialistic propensities. Anyone who is in the material world is certainly possessed of the impure propensity for lording it over material nature, or, in other words, for sense gratification. Such polluted propensities have to be cleared. Without doing so, through prescribed duties, one should never attempt to become a so-called transcendentalist, renouncing work and living at the cost of others."

Prabhupāda: So Bhagavad-gītā is giving you gradual process to the highest point and highest point is to surrender. That is the most confidential part of knowledge. Sarva-guhyatamam. Guhyād guhyataram. Find out this verse, eighteenth chapter. He has given the instruction of karma, yoga, jñāna, everything, but the most confidential instruction is this.

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

Prabhupāda: Not supreme. He says this is of the person, different ways of thinking. But everywhere He is stressing bhakti. Just like generally people are karmī. Karmīs. They are working hard. And he has made his plan. He has made his plan that, "In this way, I shall be happy." So throughout the whole world, the beginning from animals, lower than the man, and then men, different types of men... So manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi, every one of them, he is planning or he is thinking in different ways. So the animals, they cannot understand the master's answer. But in the human being, they are according to the mind, mental concoction and planning, there are four classes of men. One class is called karmī. They are thinking that by working hard and trying to find out my own way of happiness, they will be happy. This is called karmī. Without any knowledge, they are simply working. They are actually like the animals. The animals, the dog, is jumping, a few miles he is jumping. He is thinking that "By jumping I shall be happy." Or for the time being he may happy by jumping. And sometimes thinking otherwise. So karmīs, they do not know what is the actual aim of life. Out of many millions of persons, mostly they are karmīs. They do not know what is the actual aim of life. But they are devising different plans, that I shall be happy in this way." This is called karmī. He does not take the standard way of happiness. Then the next elevated person is jñānī. He thinks, ponders, that "I have worked so hard, but still I could not become happy." The jñānī. He searches out philosophically. Then next class, yogi. Yogi concentrates the mind to think over, "What is my problem? Why I am not happy? How he can become happy?" He is trying to, very soberly, to understand. Yoga means controlling the senses, and the master of the senses is the mind. So he, trying to make the mind concentrated on the fact, he is yogi. And then the next stage is... If he is yogi, then there are different types of yoga system. But when he comes to the point that "I am not master. There is one master, controller. So master, whatever master orders, I have to execute that. That is my real happiness." Bhakta. So karmī, jñānī, yogi, and bhakta. So out of these four classes of men, the three classes means karmī, jñānī and yogi, they are restless. Because they actually did not find out what is the solution. One after another, there are different classes, there are classification. One is better than the other. That is another thing. But none of them... They are still misled. A karmī, he is thinking that "I am poor man. If I become rich man, I will be happy." He is thinking in that way. Jñānī is thinking that "Poor and rich doesn't matter. I am Brahman. I am spirit soul. If I merge into the Supreme Brahman I will be happy." Yogi is thinking that "The Absolute is present everywhere in His personal feature.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Jagadīśa: He said, "Any Westerner they see in Vṛndāvana they say Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rāma."

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Hari-śauri: Yeah, and he points out how the people, they generally ask when they see a Westerner, they ask, "Oh, when is darśana at your temple?" And he says that they're actually interested to come to our temple because the standard there is very much acceptable to them. They're attracted to come not because we're Westerners, but because they can see that our standard of worship is as good as or better than their own standards even.

Jagadīśa: There's one other letter from Guṇārṇava. (end)

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They have learned it.

Indian man: No, no. Fashion. Now one thing is they can hold off the rich people in India. That is not now, but about, put it back to 1944-45, during the war time. British time. That hold has become stronger. If we do not eat West, particularly America, then we are called "uncivilized." So to prove that I am civilized, there are three things. I must speak English, my children must go to missionary or convent schools, we must adopt Western customs and etiquette, and we must adopt their eating habits. Now if I'm not accepted in the American society... Even the British is now called uncivilized comparatively. If I'm not accepted by the Americans, that, "Yes, I know the standards and I live like them or even better than them," then I am supposed to be common. This is the conception of civilization amongst the Marwaris and the Gujaratis of the richer class. Previously it used to be, as they say of ancient India, that if one did not speak Sanskrit he was supposed to be uncivilized. So now that has come out...

Prabhupāda: In our childhood, my father's generation, in Calcutta, if a gentleman does not keep a prostitute extra, he is not a respectable man.

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But you must know it. (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: ...makes the way Western civilized people kill, we simply shudder at the very idea. Others, they're not able to, I mean, bear the sight of meat.

Prabhupāda: Our men, those who are not educated, they are better than the... That people may call superstition, but if they are going by the old superstition they would have... I have seen in, sometimes in 1945 or '46, in a train one village girl was sitting and covering. She's young girl, going to her husband's house. What is that? Kane.

Dr. Patel: Gomath, gangath.(?)

Prabhupāda: No no. Kane. After... Because formerly the girls were married early. So after getting puberty there is one ceremony, it is called diti-abhi-bha.(?) Another ceremony. And then she goes to her husband's house. So she was going there with presentation of father, mother. So she was covered. So another young girl, up-to-date, she was doing like this. They were girls. One can touch another. So once, twice. When it made thrice, that village girl slapped her, "Hut!" I said, "Yes, you have done right." She was thinking, the city girl was thinking, "What is this nonsense?" She wanted to criticize... (laughs)

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is that satavari,(?) you see. If it is medicine, we can have.

Dr. Patel: He will guide you better than me. At six o'clock we have to send somebody to catch him on his consulting. He stays somewhere... His house number is 36.

Guest (2): If they let me know I can bring him.

Dr. Patel: He has already given time, six o'clock. If you can go and bring him at six o'clock...

Guest (2): No, then they will have to come from all the way here.

Dr. Patel: No, no. He will be coming here. (break)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) This is fact. The whole world has become suar. (Hindi) Including India. It is not that India is now human being. No. India has also become suar. So it is a great service. This is the only service to the human society. And to keep them suar and organizing United Nations. What the suar will unite?

Dr. Patel: United Nation of sewers. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Yes. So how it will be successful?

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I said in some public meeting in Melbourne, "The United Nation is the assembly of some dogs. They are barking." And newspapermen added, "The Swami has come to hound you." (laughter) Eh? What is that?

Hari-śauri: "His Divine Grace is here to hound us."

Prabhupāda: Hound. Yes. So I attacked the whole United Nations, and so they attacked me also.

Dr. Patel: No, we have seen the League of Nations was even better than the United Nations. They are all really fighting among themselves very badly.

Prabhupāda: Now how they cannot fight? They are swines and dogs. How they will remain peaceful? It is not possible. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). Unless they are spiritually elevated they cannot be peaceful. It is impossible. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Simply by stamping.

Dr. Patel: And there is another class of...

Prabhupāda: Gandhi became mahātmā, but his mission was, "Get out, Englishmen, get out." Where is samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu? He declared himself mahātmā, but his business was how to drive away the Englishmen.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Right now I don't have much money, so I'm going slow. But when we sell, we'll get the money back, print more.

Prabhupāda: No, I can give you some loan.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We will do that. We may need a small loan because... Also the printer came to see me. I told him to bring down the Bengali Gītār Gān price, and I'll think we'll print only one lakh here because his quality is much better than a small letter press in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: So if you regularly do businesslike, I can give you loan.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We may need a small loan, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I'm not asking till it becomes...

Prabhupāda: No. For printing books I'll give you loan.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually the BBT's turnover now is around four lakhs. A year ago we opened this BBT account with only two thousand rupees in the bank. Now it's gone to four lakhs.

Prabhupāda: Books which are sellable, you can print in quantity. That will be cheaper. These books I think will be...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We're going to sell this for one rupee, fifty paisa.

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Not disciple. Very admirer. But when He criticized strongly on account of his attacking Śrīdhara Svāmī...

Dr. Patel: Caitanya Mahāprabhu differs in philosophy from Vallabhācārya. He did.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But they were friend, Vallabhācārya and Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So he wanted to present his (indistinct) Gītā to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that "You'll find better than Śrīdhara Svāmī."

Dr. Patel: That is the highest

Prabhupāda: So He became very dissatisfied. He... Because friendly, He said that "If you don't accept svāmī, then you are a veśya." These words He recited, svāmī nā māne yei jana veśyāra. These are there, these words.

Dr. Patel: Vallabhācārya's establishment of his own family members as the paramparā is wrong. That is why the whole system has degraded.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not śiṣya-paramparā.

Roof Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This one.

Mr. Gupta: This one is a regular train. This is Varanasi Express.

Dr. Patel: A special must not have first-class. Has it?

Mr. Gupta: Special has first-class.

Dr. Patel: That special will be better than.

Mr. Gupta: No, it won't be because it leaves on 10th night and it will only go to Naini. It won't go to Allahabad.

Dr. Patel: Isn't it faster...

Prabhupāda: And it changes. You have to change again. From Naini you have to change.

Mr. Gupta: You see, the Central Railway, we are taking people only to Naini and back. We are moving about a million passengers from this area.

Prabhupāda: From Naini they are going to the Kumbhamela.

Room Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He's from Benares.

Prabhupāda: Pandiya means paṇḍita. Brāhmaṇa. (Hindi) Illiterate.

Indian man: Actually if a man is literate but if there is no saṁskāra, I can't say he is better than... If saṁskāra is there and no education, then still I call he is better man. The man without saṁskāra is nothing.

Prabhupāda: It is..., that brahmacārī means saṁskāra, to become satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjavaṁ jñāna... Jñāna... You can have knowledge simply by hearing, not by reading books.

Indian man: Yes, by reading and writing all these things. (Hindi) By hearing, knowledge by hearing.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It gave him rāja-vidyā, which that Mrs. Dutt... you know that editor of that government paper? So I just wanted him to have a final look, grammatical... (Hindi)

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda? What are these beads?

Prabhupāda: I do not know. It was lying here, so I have packed.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is the rate?

Gurudāsa: It was 8.78 the other day. It fluctuates from day to day, but 8.78.

Prabhupāda: That is good rate, 8.70...

Gurudāsa: Better than before. That was for traveler's checks. It may be slightly less for cash.

Hari-śauri: Yes. Traveler's checks are always higher.

Gurudāsa: So I'm going back today. As soon as Gopāla Kṛṣṇa gives me the lakṣmī, money, I'll go back. Bhāgavata's doing a very nice job.

Prabhupāda: We have to go to Orissa, Bhuvaneśvara, afterwards.

Gurudāsa: Yes, I heard you were planning to go. Gargamuni says it's good for the health.

Prabhupāda: Acchā?

Gurudāsa: Yes, he has about three or four places he was naming that are very good. He's going because his health, he says, isn't good.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Gurudāsa: They still do.

Dr. Patel: They're better than the horses, don't get tired earlier. From Vṛndāvana to Delhi the camels were running. They used (Hindi). I don't know what they call it in Bengali.

Prabhupāda: My Guru Mahārāja purchased two camels. I did not... I do not know what happened, but he purchased.

Gurudāsa: I think Tīrtha Mahārāja was fighting with someone else over them.

Prabhupāda: No, it is long ago.

Dr. Patel: We have a story in Mahābhārata that all Ataravart, he can do. The Hastināpura in just when Abhimanyu was going for fight. In those days they were using camels.

Gurudāsa: In Rajastan they use widely.

Dr. Patel: Rajastan is a desert.

Prabhupāda: No, Vṛndāvana quarter there are many camels.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So to become devotee means to do the best service to the family. If there is one devotee in the family, all the forefathers, they are delivered. So anyway, don't be disappointed. Go on fighting and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Everything will be right. There is no cause of disappointment.

Rāmeśvara: Actually the field now for preaching in America is better than ever. More people are becoming interested to hear what we are and what our message is than ever before because of all this controversy. Whenever something is making newspapers that is confusing or controversial, they immediately want to hear about it because they have a tendency to look for faults.

Prabhupāda: That is everywhere.

Rāmeśvara: But they're very eager to have us come to the colleges and high schools...

Prabhupāda: Envious.

Rāmeśvara: ...to speak. It's much easier now to get lecturing engagements than ever before. They are after us to give our lectures.

Prabhupāda: So why not engage Brahmānanda in that business?

Rāmeśvara: I think he could do well.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (Sanskrit) Everyone is (Sanskrit). That is according to his position. That does not mean equal. Kṛṣṇa Himself worshiped Sudāmā Vipra. That does not mean Sudāmā Vipra is as good as the Personality of Godhead. When Nārada was coming in Dvārakā, Kṛṣṇa immediately got down and... Nārada was smiling, "Just see the fun." But etiquette. Nārada never said that "I am better than Kṛṣṇa or equal to Kṛṣṇa." Never said.

Trivikrama: Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira the same.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone. Everyone knew their position. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is addressed by Arjuna, "Acyuta, You promised to drive my chariot, therefore I'm asking You. Don't forget. You never deviate from Your promise." Acyuta. Senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me 'cyuta (BG 1.21). "Don't forget that You are Acyuta. Don't think that I am Your servant, I am ordering." He knows that "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa. I am ordering Him."

Haṁsadūta: You were explaining to that reporter in Pennsylvania, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that actually this women's liberation is just a trick by the men.

Prabhupāda: Yes! It is trick by the men, yes.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Some reason anyābhilāṣitā. He has got other purpose, not the purpose of preaching Bhagavad-gītā. That is called anyābhilāṣa. So people are infested with anyābhilāṣa, everyone. Therefore he is living this material life. But that should be zero. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). That you have to... That is sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). If you have got other purposes within yourself, then you'll never understand Bhagavad-gītā. This is bhakti.

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ

jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam

ānukūlyena kṛṣṇanu-

śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttama

(Brs. 1.1.11)

And Kṛṣṇa says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). You cannot understand Kṛṣṇa without bhakti. And this is bhakti, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ (CC Madhya 19.167). So they have got full of anyābhilāṣa, jñāna-karma, so they are not bhaktas; they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. They are talking nonsense. This is the position. Because they are not bhaktas-karmī, jñāni, yogi—they have got some purpose. Karmī is flatly that "We want this enjoyment." And jñānī, he says superficially that brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: "The jagat is mithyā. So we don't want this jagat, but I want mukti, to become one with the Supreme." So that is also anyābhilāṣa. He does not know it. He's thinking that "I'm better than these karmīs. The karmīs have got anyābhilāṣa. So I have rejected that. Brahma-satya. I have taken to Brahman." But that is also anyābhilāṣa because he wants to become one with the Brahman. Subtle. And yogis, they also want mystic power to show magic. So he also anyābhilāṣitā-pūrṇa. So none of them are fit to understand Bhagavad-gītā. So Bhagavad-gītā will be understood by him who is anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ (Brs. 1.1.11). But none of these karmīs, jñānis, yogis, they are anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ (CC Madhya 19.167). They're anyābhilāṣitā-pūrṇam. They cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. It is not possible. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said that "You are My very confidential friend. I am talking to you the most confidential part of knowledge. Give up all this nonsense. You simply surrender." Guhyad guhyata—what is that? Find out. Guhyatamam. Bhakto 'si priyo 'si me (BG 4.3).

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So why not import paper? It will be very nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Because on paper now there's high duty, but if it is for export, the government...

Prabhupāda: Then America can order from you also.

Rāmeśvara: On the Gītā, his price is not better than America.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That is because of the...

Rāmeśvara: America, the printing is better and the price is better on the Gītā, because we are printing so many copies.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: On the Bhāgavatam the prices are better here.

Prabhupāda: It is a quantity. They are giving nice price for large quantity.

Rāmeśvara: Even though the price is better in America, he is getting the market because he is selling it for less.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And we are going to order few small extras. We're going to offer a few small extras like small ribbons with plastic cover.

Rāmeśvara: Has Prabhupāda told you how much profit you should make? Because in America you have always said it should be marked up one hundred percent. If a book costs us one dollar, we should sell to the temple at two dollars. So your book is costing over one dollar, and you are only selling it for $1.45.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no. The Bhāgavatam's costing less. The Gītās we are selling for $1.50.

Rāmeśvara: Oh.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The Bhāgavatams... Also the freight from here is less. That's another feeling that we have. Prabhupāda told me England, Australia, Africa should get books from India, and America, Canada, from America.

Prabhupāda: There is no consideration of big profit. Simply we want big number, distribution. That's all.

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: You cannot expect everyone to be brahminical qualification. We are neither brāhmaṇa nor... We do not belong to any sect, but Kṛṣṇa's satisfaction, we can do anything. That, because we are doing some business, we are not vaiśyas. Just like Nanda Mahārāja was agriculturist. So that does not mean he was a Vaiṣṇava. But professionally, externally, he looked like a vaiśya.

Rāmeśvara: I see that in Los Angeles. Not everyone can follow every program. So I'm always telling them, to encourage them, that even something is better than nothing. Blind uncle is better than no uncle. So do whatever you can.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they should be encouraged. They must give some service to the institution. By earning money, that is hard-earned money. (man chanting on loudspeaker in background) So why our men are not chanting? This is...

Rāmeśvara: They're just starting.

Prabhupāda: He's also stressing on chanting, this man, Punjabi. He is stressing that "Mind is restless. Chant. The mind will be controlled."

Rāmeśvara: Actually, by reading your books millions of Americans are chanting.

Prabhupāda: Chanting?

Rāmeśvara: Just by reading your books it is chanting.

Prabhupāda: No...(?)

Rāmeśvara: Within the mind they are hearing the message of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: There are some cartoons. One old lady is requesting her husband, "Chant! Chant! Chant!" and the husband is saying, "Can't! Can't! Can't!" You did not see that?

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 15, 1977, Allahabad:

Rāmeśvara: Formerly civilization did not have so many technological devices.

Prabhupāda: This is not civilization. They do not know what is civilization. Suppose a mechanic has constructed this car far better than me. That is not civilization. A good craftsmanship. If you do not know what is the aim of life, what is your duty, then what is your civilization? That they do not know. The first defect of the civilization is that they are taking account of these fifty or sixty years of life. Life is continuation. That they do not know. This life, I am getting this facility of this car; next life I become a tree. What is the advantage after fifty years, if you are going to be a tree, stand up for five hundred years? This philosophy they do not know. Tathā dehāntara-praptiḥ (BG 2.13). Here is the defect, that "You will have to change this body." They have become so dullheaded. "Oh, what is there? I change or die? It doesn't matter. Let me enjoy." This is the difficulty.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: No. They're pinkish inside, pink color. Yellow skin but pink inside and very sweet.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Karmuja. (?) And some sweet scent also.

Gargamuni: Yes. They're very nice. We ate so many of them. (Hari-śauri preaching to someone in background:)

Hari-śauri: Because He's the Supreme Person. You're worshiping Indira Gandhi or in America they're worshiping Nixon or Ford. In Britain they're worshiping someone else. Everyone is worshiping someone who is better than he is. You may go to work and worship your boss because he'll give you a better pay check.

Prabhupāda: That is preaching. (chuckling with devotees)

Gargamuni: I read in the paper. They're having elections in March.

Prabhupāda: Karachi?

Gargamuni: No, here, here in India. They're holding election. Because of the emergency, they had banned the election.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Niyata.

Hari-śauri:

niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ

karma jyāyo hy akarmaṇaḥ

śarīra-yātrāpi ca te

na prasiddhyed akarmaṇaḥ

"Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work."

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa never said that "You sit down, lazy." You must work. And that is intelligence, how to engage a person in some work. That requires governing body. That is intelligence. They should be ready to work, and your intelligence will engage them. And there is sufficient. Why you are constructing so many centers? There is enough work to do. Just like here. All people are coming, and each one can be preached, each one can be convinced of the philosophy.

Gargamuni: In India there are 500,000 villages. So we need so many men for going.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And we want that all these village people may come daily and hear and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Conversation During Massage -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: Then if people say, "What is this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement doing?"

Prabhupāda: Don't you see? You have no eyes? Who is publishing these books? If you have education, read it. Simply jumping like monkey is good, do you think? Here is intelligence and appreciation. Do you mean to say...? The monkey is very busy. Who likes that? After all, it is monkey. So your doing something is like jumping of the monkey and dogs. Who likes it? And you are simply creating problem by your so-called busy-ness. Better you stop and read our books and be intelligent. Lazy mischief-maker, it is better than busy mischief maker. Busy mischief maker means he'll commit more mischief. Just like monkey. What is the use of his becoming busy? He'll simply create mischief. So better... An lazy mischief maker is better than the busy mischief maker.

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: ...perception. That is experience. Why do you give on seeing only? By seeing one mango you cannot understand what quality it is, but you have to touch with your tongue. Therefore in chemical laboratory the characteristics are there: "This is the color. This is the taste. This is the reaction." So you have to gather experience like that, not by simply seeing. That... I gave the example. Now you take one egg. What is there? Some white and some yellow substance. So you make one egg with white and yellow and bring life. So what is the power of your seeing? A small egg. Take a small egg. The covering, some celluloid, within, some white substance, some yellow substance. Or make further analysis and give some chemicals of the same taste, same color, same characteristic—now bring life. But the same thing. You put under the feather of the chicken. Within five days it will bring life. So what is the credit of these rascal doctors, D.H.C.? That a small chicken is better than these D.H.C. Why don't you see practically?

Gargamuni: The chicken is simply sitting, and he is...

Prabhupāda: He is bringing life. What is the answer of these rascal scientists?

Satsvarūpa: No good answer. Bluff.

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Why you say, speak India or in England? The human intelligence is the same. There is no change. They have made like this: "East," "West" and "England," and... The psychology is the same. The ass is the same. The camel is the same. The dog is the same. We are talking of these dogs. Do you think that in Europe the dog is different from Indian dog? (laughs) They have created another problem. But we take: "You are all dogs. Either you be Indian or England or German, you are, after all, after dog. Your mentality is dog." They have created that "Indian dog is better than the English dog" or "English dog is better than German." What is better? It is dog. You are doglike and hankering after some job in America and amongst Europeans. The Indians are all doing that, the same education. Recently for a post of five hundred men there were three lakhs of applications. This is education. And you'll find uneducated Indian, still he's independent. You will find in Calcutta especially we have seen. Yes. In the morning they'll purchase a bag of potato. Say, he invests twenty rupees. Nowadays he'll sit down in a corner and make two rupees' profit. He invests twenty rupees, and he gets twenty-two. He's satisfied, poor man. Then in the, say, ten to twelve he'll purchase some dāl. He'll go home to home. He'll make another two rupees' profit. In the evening he'll take some kerosene oil, and he'll sell. Evening everyone requires kerosene oil. He'll make another two rupees. So he's illiterate.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: It is horrible to hear even. Therefore para-upakāra. The rascals are less than the asses and dogs. Therefore to give them Kṛṣṇa is the best para-upakāra.

Gurukṛpā: Yesterday, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you were speaking about a man who becomes very educated but he can't get a job. He becomes like a dog. Well, I was reading in the paper that this one man in Sydney, he put an ad in the newspaper saying, "I will become your house dog, because I think a dog's life is better than my life because I cannot get a job. So now I want to have a job as a human dog. Anybody want to hire me?"

Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause) If these people are making against our movement, so we should not be surprised. The parents who are leaving their children, dropping their children—"Yes, go and have homosex dancing"—if such parents protest against our movement it is not at all astonishing. But we should not stop it for that reason. This is apparent. So this thing should be brought in the court, that "This is the parent. The parent also requires this brainwash. Why the sons and daughters only? The father, mother..."

Gargamuni: In the court they also have no standard. They don't know what moral life is. They think this is normal.

Prabhupāda: At least you should take our books, that "This is our statement. Defense is. You first of all read this; then give your judgment."

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, things like that. In fact, some Indians, they telephoned. In Atlanta there are many Bengalis. They telephone me, and they are saying that "Why do you do that? You are already well known, and you can sell as you are. You don't need to be disguised. People appreciate that way better than going something hidden, sort of cheating propensity idea." There's some truth in it.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: No, but many groups, they are dressing as Santa Claus.

Hari-śauri: It's traditional.

Gargamuni: And people are more inclined to take your book or gift if it is Santa Claus during that time.

Prabhupāda: So for selling we can take any trick.

Gargamuni: Yes, they all do it. In Macy's department stores...

Prabhupāda: It is a salesman's trick. That is allowed everywhere. If I can sell more books by some trick, I must take that. That is salesman's trick.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: See to that.

Satsvarūpa: Yes. (break) Mainly it's about the girls who are over ten. They were in Vṛndāvana and discussed this with Jagadīśa, but they couldn't settle up, so they wanted to know what you think. Their idea is that... As of now, there is no plan for a school for the girls over ten, but just that they should return to their parents and not get any more schooling. But they're thinking that there should be, and one reason is that you said in France that the girls could learn these sixty-four arts. So they were thinking that there should be a school for girls over ten, and that it should be situated in India. One reason is that in India our teachers can take help from Indian Life Member ladies who know these arts. Our Western devotees don't know them, the cooking and painting and things like this, but the Indian women do. And also they were saying that this age is very delicate for the girls. They're starting to be attracted to boys, and India is better than being in the West where the material attraction is very strong for the girls as well as the boys. So they're wondering whether this principle is good, that there be a school for girls over ten in India. Right now there are only twelve such girls in the movement, a dozen girls that age, just a little over ten years old. They thought that they should have just one teacher for every three girls so they'd be closely supervised.

Prabhupāda: Every three girls?

Satsvarūpa: Should have one teacher, not just one teacher for all of them.

Prabhupāda: At least ten students one teacher.

Satsvarūpa: That's to live with them and everything? They think that's a little taxing, that the girl won't get such personal supervision.

Prabhupāda: What is that personal? We had a tutorial class system.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Laws of karma is simply change of body, deha upapatti, the same process, to put the same eatable from iron pot to golden pot or from golden pot to another pot. This is law of karma. But the taste is not changed. The bitter taste is there, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That these rascals, they do not understand. The Einstein, he gave so many improvement of life, but he is dying. He's tasting the same bitterness as a dog is tasting. Therefore we do not give any position better than the dog. Why you are dying? Why you cannot change this taste? Stop this. Then you are scientist.

Hari-śauri: He died in a leper colony, didn't he?

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, he died.

Hari-śauri: He went to help some lepers. He went to do some work in the leper colony at the end of his life, trying to save them.

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

Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Bhāgavata: We are threatening their sense gratification.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So go on with fighting. We are not the Vṛndāvana bābājīs: "No, we are so perfect we do not go out of Vṛndāvana, and chant... Chant or not chant, we have got three dozen widows." This is going on. Sahajiyā. Still they are better because they have accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord, than these demons. Our Guru Mahārāja said that although we condemn these sahajiyās, but they are better than the Māyāvādīs because they accept Kṛṣṇa as Supreme Lord. Their character is not good. But still, because they accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord somehow or other, they are better than these Māyāvādīs.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They have no brain.

Hari-śauri: You said in Washington that they will have to give their doctorates and degrees to the chickens...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: ...because the chickens are better than them.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: They can produce life in a few days.

Pradyumna: And if they say that "Yes, we have a brain. We use it... We make very nice civilization..."

Prabhupāda: What is that civilization?

Pradyumna: Then we say they're animal.

Prabhupāda: Animal civilization—eating, sleeping...

Pradyumna: Eating, sleeping, mating.

Prabhupāda: That's all. This civilization is there in the cats and dogs. Civilization is that when there is something more than the cats and dogs. What you have got? That is brain. How to eat, how to sleep, how to enjoy sex life—the dog has got such brain. Even that... You cannot produce a machine like the dog also. Can you make a machine like the dog? Then where is your brain?

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Loitering in the street. Nobody cared for me. Alone carrying the books. Now organize Bombay as our headquarter, New York as sub-office. Or headquarter in America.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: What about Los Angeles?

Prabhupāda: Anywhere. I told you that it must have been published.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. You can see that the Bombay newspaper is better than these Calcutta papers.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Certainly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because the Calcutta paper has not yet carried it. It may be that Times of India has a relationship with some New York Times.

Prabhupāda: It is as good as The Statesman.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, it's actually more prominent than The Statesman, I think. Yeah. There's no mention. There's no mention in these other papers.

Prabhupāda: So you are also coming to Bombay?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I'm also thinking to go to Delhi to make that inner pass for possible visit to Manipur.

Prabhupāda: That may be suspended for the time.

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm. You have already ordered for printing?

Jayatīrtha: We've already printed Īśopaniṣads, and just now they're preparing Nectar of Instruction and Perfection of Yoga for printing.

Prabhupāda: In London there are very big, big press.

Jayatīrtha: Yes. Quite good prices too, better than American prices. We're having our Swedish Bhagavad-gītā also printed in England. It's going to the press while we're here in Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: How is that vegetable market? There is wholesale vegetable market.

Jayatīrtha: Not a very big one.(?)

Prabhupāda: Near I saw there is very big press.

Jayatīrtha: London's a fantastic city for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Jayatīrtha: Very good.

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Who has done it?

Jayatīrtha: Parīkṣit.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Actual.

Jayatīrtha: People I've shown it to like it much better than this picture. It's more realistic. Has a very classical look.

Prabhupāda: This is a protest against Gandhi's nonviolence, (laughter) bogus nonviolence. So it is a protest against that idea.

Jayatīrtha: Yes, this is not a nonviolent picture.

Prabhupāda: I do not know how he wanted to draw nonviolence from this idea. This is going on, distorting the real fact. Politics without violence is impossible. There is a Bengali proverb, Naste base gun tata:(?) "A girl has come to the stage for dancing, and she is pulling her veil." (laughs) She has to dance freely, and what is the use of...? Nasta base gun tata.(?) In politics nonviolence, there is no history. The Britishers took it an opportunity to continue their ruling.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Russian is last. Yes.

Rāmeśvara: It's the most difficult.

Prabhupāda: But something is better than nothing. Kānā māmā. ("Blind Uncle")

Gargamuni: When we were in Rangoon and Bangkok, they were most interested in those Russian reviews, and we got very good response there. In Rangoon they're doing reviews, and they loved the books. They treated them as gold. They said, "This printing and Sanskrit and word-for-word... We have never seen such a translation!"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: They grabbed the books. I had to leave so many books there. They wanted them immediately. And they will pay us in dollars also.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Good there is undoubtedly. If you eat something, there will be some effect of eating. But if it is properly eaten, properly made, it will be, have better effect. That is the idea.

Rāmeśvara: We were thinking that something is better than nothing.

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: If you advertise the mahā-mantra gives some material benefit, isn't that an offense?

Prabhupāda: Then that is aparādha.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is aparādha.

Hari-śauri: One of the ten offenses.

Rāmeśvara: 'Cause sometimes when we interview these people who are chanting, they speak from their own realization, and it is not exactly the version of Śukadeva Gosvāmī, it is not..., but it is their own realization, whatever little bit they have realized.

Prabhupāda: No, no. They may chant, but they must understand that the chanting process, that will be more effective. That they must know. Chanting is open. Anyone can chant, but they must know it, that "If I chant in the proper process, then it will be effective."

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is a better meditation. Meditation... One is performing meditation silently. But if we chant "Hare Kṛṣṇa," it is forced meditation. He has to meditate. So it is better meditation. Just like they're chanting. I am engaged in different business. Still, I am hearing. (kīrtana in background) This is the... And one is silently meditating, he's getting, maybe he's getting the benefit, but here anyone who is hearing, getting benefit. Therefore chanting is better than... Yes. And it is recommended by Haridāsa Ṭhākura that... This is discussed in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that "Chanting, even the trees, even the insects and the animals, they will hear and they get the benefit." So it is better meditation. Even the trees, plants, animals, birds, beasts, they can take benefit. And if it is done by pure Vaiṣṇava, then they get the full benefit.

Room Conversation First Day in Juhu Quarters -- March 30, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They were asking me whether they are professional men. "No, no, these all my disciples."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They're actually much better than any of the professional men.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. We played caitanya-līlā in our younger days. So we brought one very famous man, Amritlal Bose. He is one of the three chief men who started theatrical performances in Bengal. Amritlal Bose, Girish Candra Ghosh, and one some Pathan. This Amritlal Bose was a big author also, for writing comic books. And very expert lecturer. So somehow or other, we contacted him, and we used to call him, (Bengali:) dādā-mahāśaya. Dādā-mahāśaya means grandfather. He was of our grandfather's age. In the evening he was drinking. Very luxurious. So when he came, he said, "Yes, I will give you direction. You are all aristocratic family. But you must know that what is the difference between this professional and this aristocratic family." So he explained that "Caitanya-līlā, in the public theater, anyone can pay eight annas." That eight annas was third-class ticket. Eight annas, one rupee, two rupees and five rupees. "So they can see Caitanya-līlā. Then where is the difference between your playing and their playing?" So he explained that "There must be some difference, that the public, after seeing your playing, they should appreciate so much that they will agree they will never see.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: All good news?

Guru dāsa: (entering?) Yes. This is very nice place, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Nice place. Better than anywhere?

Guru dāsa: Wherever you are is a tīrtha. When you are there, it is better than any place. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni. Where you are is...

Prabhupāda: Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni. Svāntaḥ-sthena gadābhṛtā. One who keeps Kṛṣṇa always within the heart, wherever he goes, that is tīrtha. Everywhere Kṛṣṇa is there, but one who remembers, he is the yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā (BG 6.47). It is very simple. People will not be... Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī mām. The human life is a boon... One can do this very easily. Māyā is so strong. Very easy thing. Even a child can do. Dehāntara vasthite siddhi.(?) Maintaining this body. All right. What is their business? How to maintain the... Huh? What is their aim in life? How to live comfortably. That's all. They do not know anything. So what is the Rādhā-Dāmodara arrangement?

Guru dāsa: There is no trouble there. I wanted to know if the Rādhā-Dāmodara file is in your almirah?

Prabhupāda: Which one?

Guru dāsa: The Vṛndāvana almirah? Akṣayānanda Swami thinks that it's in that almirah, the file?

Prabhupāda: What is the need of that?

Guru dāsa: Not needed, but...

Prabhupāda: All right. So I have arranged with the bank to pay.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Do the needful. Go. At least, in India, there must be this spiritual institution. The whole world may take advantage of it. What is this cats' and dogs' race civilization? Is that civilization? Here is civilization, Bhagavad-gītā. Basic principles of civilization. So India should maintain this. People may... There are so many big universities. A student may go or may not go, but the university must be maintained. Because there is no student, therefore university closed. No. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness institution must be maintained for the benefit of the whole world. Mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani (BG 9.3). They do not know how nature's law is working.

Gargamuni: These breezes are very nice here, better than, I think, in Māyāpur. Many breezes.

Prabhupāda: The sea breeze.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not so cool on the lower floors—where you are staying in the office.

Gargamuni: There no, it is hot. This is very good.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In those houses where you were formerly staying, it is not so like this at all.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, the Hindi Bhāgavatam has been very appreciated, after the lamination that plastic coating we have put, it looks better. Actually the presentation is even better than the Spanish Bhāgavatams. I got some new, even improved binding, bound books today. I'll send them to you tonight or tomorrow. They look very first class. I am sending Prem Yogi back to Vṛndāvana tomorrow, because First Canto, Part Two, is almost composed. So it requires to be proofread before I bring it to Bombay for printing. So the work is just being delayed. And also there is just one week's work left on First Canto, Part Three. So I told him to go back to Vṛndāvana for two weeks, and if you go to Srinagar, I promised him I would send him to Srinagar, because he wants to go to a cold climate. Then after that...

Prabhupāda: Yes. If I go I will call him.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. So this way he was encouraged because he wants...

Prabhupāda: There was another place, Solen.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One thing looks like the wrong thing.

Prabhupāda: Call Gopīnātha.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But he points out that the final method, which is to hear from one who actually knows, that is the best way.

Prabhupāda: That is our... And who knows better than Kṛṣṇa? That's all. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Satsvarūpa gives the example: Shakespeare is the expert on Shakespeare. Kṛṣṇa is the expert on Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: That is good. Very nice.

Devotee (4): He's coming, Prabhupāda. He was just in the shower.

Prabhupāda: So we have to discuss very thoroughly all these subject matter.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Another form of cheating is done by man and women for sex life. Just like a woman cheats by putting on all this makeup with the idea that "I will attract someone for my sense pleasure." And the man promises so many things: "I will take care of you. I will do this. I will do that."

Prabhupāda: Well, first of all, if you accept that you have got the cheating propensity, then all other things come.

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are very respected. German mark is.

Prabhupāda: No, their position, economic position, is also better than France, England. I have seen it. Even in the villages they are well-to-do. They have recouped all they have lost.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah. Belgium, you go through Belgium, it's still devastated. And Germany is completely built up.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. I think in... For culture, France, and for improvement, economic development, they have done in Germany.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And Britain?

Prabhupāda: Britain is... They are shopkeepers. Hitler gave them this title, "Shopkeepers' Nation." That was his determination: "The shopkeepers' nation, I shall turn them again to be shopkeepers, not the empire holder." That he did. Although he was finished-Germany was finished on account of this—but they executed their determination, British empire finished. That they did. After the second war, British...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Finished.

Morning Conversation -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Complete failure. Kṛṣṇa says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam: (BG 8.15) "It is a place for suffering." This rascal wanted to make it for enjoyment. Everyone is trying. Everyone is trying to make the commode a very nice room.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) That's a pithy saying. Actually you remember that... In your Devasādana, in your Detroit palace, that toilet, the commode there, is better than any man's house in India practically.

Prabhupāda: Very difficult to deal with the people of this world. They are so nasty. They can do anything.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're not at all civilized.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're like animals. You never know what they will do. We were again reading about rāma-rājya, and Lord Rāma decided to go out and to hear what the citizens were saying. So in one home He heard that there was some doubt. Sītādevī was pregnant. There was some doubt about it. Immediately He decided that She had to be sent away. So exemplary, His character. It's described how He was distributing. He distributed everything He had, and He had nothing but the clothes left, and Sītā had nothing but Her nose ring. And the brāhmaṇas were so overwhelmed that they could understand that He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead and yet He was such an ideal king that they gave Him everything back. So there is no such dealings like this nowadays between the government and the citizens. Rather, they elect some leader and then they rebel and try to kill the leader. Just like in Pakistan. Now they're trying to kill this Bhutto.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā? There was attempt to kill?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, I mean they'd like to somehow rid themselves of him.

Prabhupāda: Pakistan is spoiled now.

Morning Talk -- April 25, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Unless he's permitted. That is the etiquette. It is not ordinary talk.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: Everyone should take note of this, and you can privately say, "You never speak like that. The etiquette is: when you are permitted by Guru Mahārāja, you can speak," not that "He is speaking. I know better than him. I shall speak something." That's very licentious. It is not ordinary talk. The system is unless he is ordered that "You explain," then nobody can talk. And outsider, they may do. They should not... They also should not, but that is the system. And Viśvambhara may... If possible, he can come for one or two days.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was thinking that same thing, that instead of writing Akṣayānanda, maybe I should write Viśvambhara. Or both of them could come. Do you think it is all right if they both come?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was thinking the same thing, Śrīla Prabhupāda. So today I have to write a letter. As soon as the ticket is booked, I shall write a letter to Akṣayānanda Mahārāja. One copy we will send in the post, and the other we will give by hand to Nava-yogendra Mahārāja. I think it will be a very nice program.

Prabhupāda: And if the President comes, it will be very, very nice.

Morning Talk -- April 25, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, their climate is very nice. So you could accept it. If such things are available, now you'll get appetite and your health will increase.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually it's a fact. I remember that when I was traveling in Bhopal, and even in Bihar also—Bihar is similar climate; Bihar is similar—that I got a much bigger appetite in the summertime.

Prabhupāda: Bhopal is better than Bihar.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Better. Very dry. He is known to everyone for many hundreds of miles around. He's a very well known man because he's...

Prabhupāda: No, he is a sincere worker. Therefore he approached me. From Vṛndāvana, Gwalior is very near, within hundred miles. So Viśvambhara can transfer, come, come there to..., to see. Let us first of all settle up. My, this farming program, theoretically there is no comparison. But practically people are accustomed in different way. To bring them to the program it will take some time. Otherwise my program is assured happiness, happiness assurance, if they get... Have your own food grown. Keep cows. Have your own crops. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That goes for all over the world.

Conversation: Animals' Expertise -- April 28, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They are expert more than us. You cannot go. Suppose there is one lakh of rupees downstairs. You can get it. You cannot go in one minute. They can do.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So they're better than us?

Prabhupāda: They're expert. Suppose if I, if somebody informs that "In the corner of the temple there is one lakh of rupees. Somebody has left," you cannot go in one minute. It will take at least ten minutes. But here it is kept-immediately. So how much expert they are. Just imagine. So why you are so proud that you are scientist, you are expert? You nothing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here they come again.

Prabhupāda: Everyone is working under nature's law. They are working under nature's law in such a way. You cannot do that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just see. They are already in it again.

Prabhupāda: There are many, many experts from the lower-grade creatures. Ant hill. You are spending so much money for skyscraper building. The ant, they construct big hill as their residential quarters. Where they get their food? Where they get their...? But they are living. This is nature's study. Now you can... So what is this? Āhāra-nidrā. For eating. So for these four principles—eating, sleeping, sex, and defense—everyone knows. But the human society, they have made it a problem. These small ants, they also require those things, but they have no problem. For defense they don't require atomic weapon. They know in their own way how to defend. Cats, dogs, animals—everyone knows. Struggling. Our human society, advanced, means they are perplexed with these problems. The human life was meant for self-realization. That problem left, they have created some problems which the animals can solve in their own way. This is the present society. This political struggle and..., what is their aim, objective? To solve these problems. Nothing more. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4), indriya-prītaye, these four principles, sense gratification. The ant is also struggling. They wanted to enjoy the little sugar in the here. We have driven him. That's a problem. They have to find out somewhere else.

Conversation: Animals' Expertise -- April 28, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You cannot invent means...

Prabhupāda: Therefore mosquito curtain.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prevention.

Prabhupāda: Prevention is better than cure. They are meant for that purpose. God has made. So instead of killing them, you protect your... But if you are in the service of the Lord, you are not responsible.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One great Vaiṣṇava was putting the... There were maggots eating in...

Prabhupāda: And that is also story given. Do not believe.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta there's mention of one great...

Girirāja: Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Oh, yes.

Girirāja: There was a leper, and out of compassion for them...

Prabhupāda: Yes. He thought that "I am meant for suffering. Why shall I stop it?" That is exceptional case.

Morning Conversation -- April 29, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm? So you are young men, American boys.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Still, we want the whole Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: That will be done. Even it is not fulfilled, so there is no harm. But don't send me, in any case, in hospital. Now I am pointing out this. They are useless.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's no doubt that you know your body a lot better than they could ever know it. You've lived with it for so many years. They just take somebody's body and they make so many...

Prabhupāda: Now it is a fact, the Yaso (Israel?) Hospital failure. (break) So many temples. I have given my program how to manage it. Now you see. That is my anxiety, that there may not be any discrepancies or slackness. Am I right or wrong?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So far money is here, scattered, you can take charge and do the needful. I kept some money here, there, just to... But now you can take charge of the all money, one or two or three of you, and let me remain free from all management. And only request is, don't spoil it. I sometimes chastise everyone that may not be spoiled. You are taking care of everything, but still more careful. I can live without any food, simply taking these fruits. There is no difficulty.

Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That means ignorance, rascals. They are busy with something which is not his business. Then next question will be: then what is his business? If they actually read Bhagavad-gītā, his business is that to find out: "If I am going to change my body, what I am going to be?" Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The body, after being finished, this body, I am not dead. I am going to change another body. So is it not my duty? Just like if I go somewhere, you see how that place, how it will be suitable for me, how I shall live there. Is it not duty? Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I am not going to die. That, if I leave this compartment, I'm not going to die. I'll accept another compartment. But shall I not see what kind of compartment will be, whether it is better than this or inferior than this? Is it not my duty? That is my real problem. Or the actual problem is that if I am eternal, why I shall change body now and then? This is my problem. And Kṛṣṇa says that "If anyone does not take up My instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā, then he does not get Me, and the result is that he'll again turn to this change of body, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartma..." So they are not careful about these things, so what do they understand about Bhagavad-gītā? The real problem they do not touch. And the body will change, and he'll live in India or in America, say, for fifty years. He's busy. That is cats, just like these cats and dogs at night. Nobody has given him charge, but he is thinking "I am in charge of the road. Why this put-put motorcar, you have come here? Go on. Go on. Gow! Gow! Gow! Gow!" But who has given him charge? But he's starving, and people are throwing stone upon him, but he's thinking "I am in charge of this business.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Young man (6): Many people are bound by rules.

Prabhupāda: It is not the question of "many people." We are talking of philosophy. (break) And we shall say, "Follow the rules laid down by Kṛṣṇa." That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now, if you like, you do. Or you live to your own rules. Take that. We shall advise to follow the rules of Kṛṣṇa. And practically you see. By following the rules of Kṛṣṇa we have created Vaiṣṇavas in whole world, hundreds and thousands. Ask their past history and now, how they have changed. Example is better than precept, which rule is better. Actually this is the fact. We are under the rules of nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Everything is acting under the rules of material nature. Just like you are young man. Now, you cannot say, "I'll not become old man." Can you? And you are forced by the rules of nature. Can you deny?

Young man (3): No. In one way...

Prabhupāda: So you accept or not accept, you have to follow the rules of material nature.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: Yes. Actually even in Los Angeles, where there is a small settlement, the entire Indian population is supporting us. They have their own societies, Gujarat, Maharastran, but all of them have voted to endorse our Ratha-yātrā and to support it with all their facilities.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they'll do. Indians and Americans, they are well-to-do. In foreign countries, everywhere, I see, Indians, their position is better than in India. In your country also. Indians in foreign countries, they get more facilities. Personally also, I could not do here in India in spite of twenty-three years. And as soon as I went to America, all facilities came to me. Of course, it took some time. That takes some... Indian, the worst government and everything is crippled, crippled. People are hampered. And the government servant, they're simply wasting time and drawing big, big salary. This is India. Very precarious condition. Fighting, party, that party, that party. Because India's original culture is very, very strong, despite all these disadvantages, they are still standing, mass of people. Otherwise India's government is worthless. Hm? What do you think?

Rāmeśvara: It's obvious.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Rāmeśvara: It is obvious, what you are saying.

Prabhupāda: When I left India, I promised "I'll never come here." I was reluctant to do anything here. You know that? No action do there. But still, I thought that "At least in Māyāpur let me have my..." (laughs) At least Māyāpur, that "There is Vaiṣṇava, so many resident, in Māyāpur, Vṛndāvana." I was... I promised that "I'll never come again, back again here." That was my promise. But Kṛṣṇa wanted. That's all right. I was quite disgusted. Still I am disgusted. America giving permanent resident, these rascals will not give. What is wrong? In your country they also get permanent resident, outsiders?

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Deva-sādana, you gave the name.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You gave the name Deva-sādana.

Prabhupāda: Very, very nice. Better than our France palace.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's 1400 ounces gold in the ceilings.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Even in the bathroom...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: There's gold on the ceiling.

Prabhupāda: All very aristocratic, very aristocratic. What is aristocracy, that is displayed there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those people, they always used to look from the outside in, but they were never allowed to come in. The people from that neighborhood, they used to stare within, wondering what is inside there. Now, since we have come, we have opened our gates and doors and said, "Please come." Oh, they're very much happy to come in and see us there.

Prabhupāda: They're grave. They behave very nicely.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But He had this plan.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pretty nice plan.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa wanted that "You left Vṛndāvana. I'll give you better place in Vṛndāvana. (chuckles) You were retired in Vṛndāvana. I obliged you to leave. Now you come back. I'll give you better place." So He has given a temple hundred times better than Los Angeles. Is it not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's nothing comparable in the three worlds.

Prabhupāda: Hm. So it is always by His desire. (break) That conspiracy was... (break) ...also. I did not discuss.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said that to us.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I gave some hint.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I could understand later on how it... Your hint I could understand more fully. Very subtle.

Prabhupāda: Very.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have to also be included in the decisions of the BBT. It can't simply be that managers make decisions.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Without their sanction, there will be... Let them... These all rascals...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: One time in that article they made a change. Saying that, the whole Vaiṣṇava philosophy became Māyāvādī in that scientific article. So I told them that "You are better than..., a better (indistinct)." It all become Māyāvādī, so it became all mad. That is why I strongly told them that "This shouldn't be the way. If you want to change, you have to consult with those who are writers."

Prabhupāda: So they are doing very freely and dangerously. And this rascal is always after change, Rādhā-vallabha. He's a great rascal.

Conversation: 'How to Secure Brahmacaris' -- June 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That land we have got. Now you can make permanent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a saying in English, "Don't put the cart before the horse."

Prabhupāda: Very first-class place.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that building is built better than the Māyāpur building was built.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct-bad tape) Others, that we are purchasing, one. Otherwise, the idea was (indistinct-bad tape).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is four buildings, joined together.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Perfectly utilizes that land. Inside, you want flower gardens.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: What is the special feature of restaurant?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I haven't figured that out. I know what it is though. The special feature is this, Śrīla Prabhupāda. There's a number of things. One thing, there's no other place in Vṛndāvana where you can sit in such a good atmosphere. That room is very large. The tables are first class, marble. There are very nice decorations, and the service is very good. And they serve ice water. And the prasādam is also better than at the Jaipuria guesthouse or most of the other guesthouses. And it's very inexpensive, four rupees for as much as you want to eat, palatable. And it's right in our own guesthouse. The people live here, and then they don't have to go anywhere. They just walk down to the dining room, and they get very good prasādam, good service, inexpensive, good atmosphere. It's become a very popular place. But it's too hot for me. I have difficulty eating the sabji because it's very spicy, but I think it's liked by the Indian people.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I know, in New York, that is one of their complaints, the Indian people, that we don't cook spicy enough. Too bland for their palate. And we're not accustomed to that so much, hot spices. They like.

Prabhupāda: Without spices, Indians should not cook.

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Mr. Myer: They think anything is possible, anything.(?) Do they not preach when they are congressmen? Tomorrow Congress is going to power. Then Janata comes to power. All the time they are changing, everyone. They just want personal gain at any cost.

Prabhupāda: That is why we say the stool, this side and that side... After all, it is stool. Somebody says, "This side is better than that side." Stool is stool when in this side or that side. That is going on. Guer ei pitaro(?). But they are so intelligent, they say, "No, no, this side is better. It has dried up." They are rascals like that. It is stool. It is untouchable. It is... On all side it is bad, but they are thinking, "This side..." This is their intelligence. What can I do? But if they consult us, they'll be benefited. We are not going to be prime minister or this minister, that... We kick out. We want to remain eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. That's all. We have no such ambition. So read books. Do things nicely. Serve Kṛṣṇa. That is perfection of life. The direction is there, Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Mr. Myer: Actually it was available in schools. That is all in first programs. But we changed.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that...

Mr. Myer: See, a lot of here, they made the school(?).

Prabhupāda: Therefore we are opening this gurukula.

Room Conversation Gaurasundara, Dr. Kapoor -- July 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...without any venue. That is something. "And what is this? This is Vedas?"(?) Sarcastically, humorously... Why people have become so rascal?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not better than any cockroach.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Less than a cockroach.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cockroach is born in the toilet.

Prabhupāda: That is it. And when it has got some wings, it flies.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Doesn't have to pay any thousand pounds sterling.

Prabhupāda: Or meditate. It is humorously liked. Handpaper, it was published by the Times. (break) ...for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You've never demanded any money for it.

Prabhupāda: No. And all others, bring the money. And still, they're ludicrous. And here big, big scholars, professors, universities, they are welcoming our books.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, three lakhs we have got.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. Because this will be a professional go-down then. Also New Zealand is ordering books from India, and the second print of the Bhagavad-gītā, which is going to leave on the 10th of October, that has come out even better than the American, the color work. I'm going to show it to Hari-śauri and you. Actually we should print some Bhāgavatams also, because many Bhāgavatams are out of print, and I have been using this mail order company. We are advertising our Gītā, and we've already sold more than thousand Gītās in two months. And this mail order company is paying for the advertisement. So they are very keen to also promote the Bhaktivedanta Encyclopedia. But before I do that, I must have all your Bhāgavatams in stock, because as the order comes, we have to fulfill them right away. This is working out to be very, very big, Śrīla Prabhupāda, this mail order technique. That is, we advertise, and the people write...

Prabhupāda: And print Hindi books, Gujarati books also.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have... Jayatīrtha brought us new boxes of Complan from England. You have fresh supply now. You want Complan instead of milk?

Prabhupāda: What do you think?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, whatever you take, we don't want you to cough. That's a fact. That's too disturbing. So... (break) Why not take barley water instead of milk? I mean is milk better than barley water?

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So yesterday you took barley water and you didn't get mucus. So why not stick with that for a little while and get some more strength? See, if you get mucus now, because you don't have much strength, it will be difficult for you to cough. First of all, better to get more strength. Then we can take up drinking some things like milk which might cause a little mucus, but then you'd have the strength to cough. Now we should not take any risk. Is that a fact? At least that's how I'm thinking. It may be better you drink some barley water. Do you mind drinking it?

Prabhupāda: With little milk mixed up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Little Complan or milk?

Prabhupāda: Milk.

Visit From Allopathic Doctor -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Abhirāma: Are you saying that juice is better than water?

Doctor: Juice is juice, water is water.

Abhirāma: But what about water? He should take water?

Doctor: He has a liking for water, so the water should be given separately.

Abhirāma: But not with glucose.

Doctor: If he likes, with glucose it is all right. But if he has got a feeling of thirsty, thirsty feeling...

Prabhupāda: But I have no.

Doctor: No thirsty feeling?

Prabhupāda: No desire for water.

Room Conversation With Bharadvaja -- October 16, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bharadvāja: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Long time ago, you wanted an exhibit in London. It seemed very important to you.

Prabhupāda: Yes, London there is good place. Many visitors come.

Bharadvāja: We have been considering where is the best place for this next big exhibit.

Prabhupāda: London, it is...

Bharadvāja: That would be better than Washington?

Prabhupāda: No, Washington, it is also... London, there are many hundreds of tourists daily come.

Jayatīrtha: Right now there's a place available, a lot one block from Madame Tusseaud's in London. We thought that to be in the same area might be a good thing, because so many people are coming to that place.

Prabhupāda: Yes, in the center of the city.

Jayatīrtha: There's a big lot available just one block away. I think you lived on that corner at one time, just across from Madame Tusseaud's.

Prabhupāda: I lived there?

Jayatīrtha: When you first went to London, didn't you stay for some time there? Just in that area?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So that bus, they have stopped?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. But that bus is no big... There's no benefit particularly of that Airbus. I mean there's no real benefit. It's not any better than a 707 or 727. It's bigger inside, but the seats are not bigger. It doesn't really affect you. The seats are just as close together as on any other plane.

Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Miśri-jala.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda is saying something, Bhakti-caru.

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Train or plane. But first we should agree on the idea, though. I think the point of that there's no real advantage to waiting here... Our feeling is that there's more advantage to being in Māyāpur at this time. We can certainly go by plane. I think we can arrange some small wheelchair that will go up to the seat. It's possible to arrange.

Brahmānanda: Seat right at the door.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What we'll do is we'll purchase two extra seats so that Prabhupāda can have three seats.

Brahmānanda: And right by the door so they can just bring it in the door and... Take the seats right on the door.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That can be done. We can try to get the front row.

Haṁsadūta: Whatever they do when they have to transport someone in emergency... They must have an arrangement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, they do. They take the seats out and put your stretcher on. But we don't want that. There's no question of that.

Prabhupāda: It goes direct?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. Delhi-Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Then arrange for that.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Under somebody's recommendation. Just like Jalan people.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, the recommendation would be done by that head priest of the temple of Śrī Raṅgam. That's where they would go. They wouldn't just go to look up somebody. They would get the... They would have the...

Prabhupāda: That will be vacant.(?) (very nice?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Better than Jalan. So then let us send him directly from here, Smara-hari, immediately. He can leave today. Is that all right?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And we proceed to Māyāpur, and Smara-hari can come back with the medicine to Māyāpur. All right? So we'll make this plan. So then we'll make the arrangements just now, Śrīla Prabhupāda? All right.

Prabhupāda: By plane. Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: By plane, yes. Three seats for you. (break) Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So all GBC left?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All GBC left? Some of them are here. Haṁsadūta is here, Hari-śauri, Svarūpa Dāmodara.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Did you show them the invoice of what book already we have got?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I told him the amount. I told him this year we have orders for Rs. twenty-five lakhs, and I said, "This is just the first year, and worldwide we print over eight crores. So this is just the beginning." So they liked it. And I also gave him the Hindi Bhāgavatam like you had told me. And he turned out... This man who is handling our case is a Marwari, Mr. Pandy. So Marwaris are very pious. They're better than these others. So he liked the Hindi Bhāgavatam very much. So I gave him the Hindi Bhāgavatam and the English. (break)

Prabhupāda: You are not to be gagged anymore?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Trivikrama: Not to be gagged. (laughter)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That was our biggest problem. The president of India is presently in Hyderabad, so Mahāṁśa Mahārāja was in Delhi, and we have a life member, Panilal Peddy in Hyderabad, Polareddy, who knows the President very well. So I asked Mahāṁśa Mahārāja to go with Polareddy to the President to see if he will come to Bombay to inaugurate our temple. Also we are thinking of inviting some foreign ministers of countries like Nepal, which is a Hindu kingdom, and Mauritius. Because if these foreign ministers or some minister from these countries come, then it will lend more credit, and we'll get better coverage.

Prabhupāda: You can show our South African success.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: I also said that many, many swamis and yogis and sannyāsīs have tried to bring the teachings all over the world. And they have given different versions, just like dhyāna, jñāna, karma, etc. But then I quoted two ślokas, na tad mām abhijānanti, and the other one, yas tas tu aham evaṁ viduḥ.(?) I said, "In this way our spiritual master has taught us. Even though we are foreigners, he has successfully made us come to the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa. So if you are all Indians and you know Lord Kṛṣṇa better than me, so come and stay with us. All over the world my Guru Mahārāja has established our temples. Please stay with us anywhere in the world and help us, join us at the lotus feet of the Lord." So they were very happy with this.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's good that you tell this to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Bombay also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Especially everybody's going to be after us for that air-conditioned hall. It's really good that you're telling us.

Prabhupāda: Be very careful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Your Divine Grace and this movement is the only substantial movement left in India now, in the whole world.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can have signboard: "No Māyāvādīs visit (?) here." (laughter)

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One thing, Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is one of the reasons I wanted the kavirāja to be with you was to be able to answer your doubts, because I felt that he could far better than we can. But factually speaking, it seems to me there's every... I mean if he were here now he would feel your pulse and he would be able to understand that your pulse is not weak. Your heart is good. You're starting to pass more urine, you're getting sufficient rest, you're able to take things like milk, which you couldn't take before, and these are positive signs. And the one thing that we're looking for, strength, he already said will not come immediately, and he's not even giving any medicine for increasing strength yet. The thing is, we're a little impatient because we've waited so many months and had so many failures with so many different doctors, but really, this doctor, so far, has the best record, his medicines. So we think that you should be encouraged. We feel hopeful. Even if you feel hopeless, we are hopeful.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali with Bhakti-caru)

Bhakti-caru: That's 40 grams, stool.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I think you should take the medicine now. Can Bhakti-caru bring it to you?

Prabhupāda: The same medicine?

Bhakti-caru: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This same medicine will continue till kavirāja comes back and gives new medicine. They are all the same medicine, Śrīla Prabhupāda. There are two different types of medicines. One, I'm supposed to give once in the morning, once in the evening. And another one is in the noontime and late in the evening. And there's one medicine, that's sometime in the afternoon.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not very painful to take the medicine, is it?

Bhakti-caru: Does it taste bad, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the medicine? Does it taste very bad?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is not desirable.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not desirable?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) If you all become diseased.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, but you single-handedly can spread this movement better than all of us together.

Prabhupāda: That is the problem. You are all become stationed to me.(?) Who will work?

Jayādvaita: At least this disease of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very infectious. Everyone catches it from you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They can't find any medicine to stop it. It just keeps going on more and more.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They call it epidemic. (break) ...dream last night that you were eating all kinds of nice fruits.

Prabhupāda: What is that sound?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's one of the brahmacārīs shaking out the dust in the rugs. In my office we have some rugs, so he takes them outside and shakes them. He's a nice brahmacārī, young boy from the Gurukula, from Mexico. Is it time to go on, Śrīla Prabhupāda? (break) ...today. So I would meet him last night, and if he was to come this evening I wouldn't think that there would be any harm, that he could come this evening, I think it's not bad in that it sort of sometimes has an effect to encourage the patient if the doctor or kavirāja comes. It's reassuring. So I think it's nice that he comes. There should be someone with a little bit of knowledge who we can consult each day. He may not be as expert as the Calcutta kavirāja. Still, he is more expert than we are. And he was appointed by the Calcutta kavirāja to come and check up on you and see how you are doing, see if there were any side effects. The real question is that your kidney and liver should be getting better. There's no doubt that you're getting weaker now. That I can see. I've never seen you this weak. But according to the...

Prabhupāda: Very weak. I sit up..., oh, everything...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Finished.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That will work.

Bhavānanda: It will work.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Also Śrīla Prabhupāda's resting better than before.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But the idea is that... According to him... I mean, obviously we're all conditioned, and... I mean, he's not claiming not to be a conditioned soul either, but according to him, going on this bullock cart is a suicide. He said within an hour or two hours, the bouncing and jumbling of the bullock cart will cause a heart attack. Just like you were having heart..., a little heart spasm the other day, just laying in bed two days ago. He says this going in a bullock cart, up and down, within one, two hours it can cause heart attack. So as his treatment has been better at least than any other doctor, and certain symptoms have improved, why are we giving up his advice? If you say his advice is wrong, then there's no comment, but all along, his advice seems to have been more accurate than any other doctors that we've had. I mean we who are closely around you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, your servants, secretary, our opinion of him is far superior than our opinion of any of these others. I see that he's able to take care of one symptom after another somewhat successfully. He's able to deal with these problems. He can deal with the problem of not enough urine...

Prabhupāda: That I know.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That...

Pañca-draviḍa: Arrange one bed on the cart. This mattress can go in nice arrangement.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is not the best. There is other mattresses that are as good or better than this. The temple has many gadis. We'll get them.

Pañca-draviḍa: We can make nice arrangement. This will purify Govardhana Hill, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Tīrthas become purified by the presence of...

Lokanātha: Another tīrtha.

Pañca-draviḍa: Yes. Prabhupāda will go to the tīrtha.

Jagadīśa: You're a Vaiṣṇava like Arjuna and Hanumān, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Tomorrow is a great festival.

Lokanātha: Tomorrow is Govardhana-pūjā festival.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are in Vṛndāvana, and we shall not take part? We must take part.