Brainwash

Expressions researched:
"brainwash" |"brainwashed" |"brainwashers" |"brainwashes" |"brainwashing" |"wash another's brain" |"wash brain" |"wash my brain" |"wash the brain" |"wash your brain" |"washing brain" |"washing the brain" |"washing their brain"

SB Canto 9

SB 9.24.59, Purport:

For flickering happiness, people waste their human energy, not understanding the importance of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement but instead accusing the simple devotees of brainwashing. Demons may falsely accuse the preachers of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, but Kṛṣṇa will arrange a fight between the demons in which all their military power will be engaged and both parties of demons will be annihilated.

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.1.13, Purport:

In relation to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we actually see that those who have tasted the nectar of kṛṣṇa-kathā lose all material desires, whereas those who cannot understand Kṛṣṇa or kṛṣṇa-kathā regard the Kṛṣṇa conscious life as "brainwashing" and "mind control." While the devotees enjoy spiritual bliss, the nondevotees are surprised that the devotees have forgotten material hankerings.

SB 10.1.40, Purport:

At the present moment there is great opposition to the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, which is being called a "brainwashing" movement. But actually the so-called scientists, philosophers and other leaders in the Western countries have no brains at all. The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is trying to elevate such foolish persons by enlightening their intelligence so that they will take advantage of the human body. Unfortunately, because of gross ignorance, they regard the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement as a brainwashing movement. They do not know that without God consciousness one is forced to continue transmigrating from one body to another. Because of their devilish brains, they will next be forced to accept an abominable life and practically never be able to liberate themselves from the conditional life of material existence.

SB 10.4.41, Purport:

When Kṛṣṇa comes to establish real perfection in the social order, He personally gives protection to the cows and the brāhmaṇas (go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca). This is His first interest because without protection of the brāhmaṇas and the cows, there can be no human civilization and no question of happy, peaceful life. Asuras, therefore, are always interested in killing the brāhmaṇas and cows. Especially in this age, Kali-yuga, cows are being killed all over the world, and as soon as there is a movement to establish brahminical civilization, people in general rebel. Thus they regard the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement as a form of "brainwashing." How can such envious persons be happy in their godless civilization? The Supreme Personality of Godhead punishes them by keeping them in darkness, birth after birth, and pushing them lower and lower into wretched conditions of hellish life. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has started a brahminical civilization, but especially when it is introduced in the Western countries, the asuras try to impede it in many ways. Nonetheless, we must push forward this movement tolerantly for the benefit of human society.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.32 -- London, September 2, 1973:

Everyone is sinful. The government is sinful, the people are sinful. Then how you can become happy? It is a fool's paradise, sinful paradise. How you can be happy? Therefore despite all sorts of education, scientific improvement, brainwash and so many things, people are unhappy. Diseased, unhappy, dissatisfaction, confusion, this is going on. Because everything is not properly done. The government is not strict.

Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 14, 1976:

Our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is training of nivṛtti-mārga, the basic principles, so many no's. No means nivṛtti. No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication. So this is the no. "No" path. So that they do not know. When we say so many no's they think it is brainwash. Not brainwash. It is actual. If you want to develop your spiritual life, then you have to stop so many nuisance. That is nivṛtti-mārga. The asuras, they do not know. Because they do not know, when nivṛtti-mārga, "no," the path of "no" is recommended, they become angry.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 5.5.15 -- Vrndavana, November 3, 1976:

Unless we go back home, back to Godhead, there is no question of peace or happiness. This place... We are trying to be happy within this material world by material adjustment. That is not possible. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokān punar āvartino 'rjuna. These things they do not... They say it is brainwash, brainwash. We are enforcing something by controlling the mind, some ideas, "There is God, and we have to go to back home, back to Godhead." They are accusing us of brainwash, "mental control." But this is the fact. We are not brainwashing; we are clearing the brain. The rascal brain is full with cow dung. We are clearing. You see? That is our movement.

Lecture on SB 5.5.15 -- Vrndavana, November 3, 1976:

These things should come to our brain. It is not brainwash; it is brain-clearing. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni (CC Antya 20.12). If you want to end this suffering, then you must wash your brain—or heart, the same thing. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. But they are taking it otherwise.

Lecture on SB 5.5.15 -- Vrndavana, November 3, 1976:

Do these four things: "Always think of Me." That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Manmanā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "Become My devotee. Worship Me and offer obeisances to Me," and asaṁśaya, "you'll come." Mal-loka. Very good. Very easy thing. Asaṁśaya. "Without any doubt you'll come to Me." Why do they not accept this proposal of Kṛṣṇa? It is not our manufacture. We are not washing brain. It is Kṛṣṇa's word, that simply by doing four things, manmanā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 18.65), without any doubt. That is required. Kṛṣṇa will be pleased.

Lecture on SB 5.5.24 -- Vrndavana, November 11, 1976:

Nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti śrādhya kabhu naya. Not that by artificial means, as they are making propaganda in Europe and America that we are brainwashing... It is not that by some means or by some artificial, what is called, hypnotism, we are making these European or American boys, girls kṛṣṇa-bhakta.

Lecture on SB 5.5.29 -- Vrndavana, November 16, 1976:

Nobody likes bhagavaj-jana. "These people are always speaking of God. It is brainwash." This is the modern "It is brainwash." In Europe and America they are now combining to oppose this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, that we are brainwashing him, controlling the mind by hypnotism. That is the charge against us. We are placed in the court also in many cases. So this is "What is this nonsense, bhagavaj-jana-parāyaṇam, Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa? This is simply a sophistry," they say.

Lecture on SB 5.5.32 -- Vrndavana, November 19, 1976:

Actually, this instruction has no value." Yata mata tata patha. "You can interpret in your own way; I can interpret..." In this way things are going on. This is the position.

Therefore our movement is being checked in the Western countries that this is a brainwash movement. Brainwash movement, that we are injecting some ideas by psychology, mental control, and our people they are taking to it, and it is spreading like epidemic. How to check it? Therefore they are now taking action how to stop this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement in Europe and America. They are trying.

Lecture on SB 5.5.35 -- Vrndavana, November 22, 1976:

If you think it is material sound, you are rascal. Therefore they are wonderful. The American people have become wonderful, astonished how simply by chanting they becoming brainwashed. That is the actual fact. The rascals, they do not know how these people are giving up illicit sex, meat-eating—their life and soul, all these things. How they are giving up unless they have become mad, hearing?

Lecture on SB 5.5.35 -- Vrndavana, November 22, 1976:

Our Gargamuni, his father is very rich man. He wanted to take back the son from the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. He was unable. Hardly! So many fathers. Our... So many... Not so many, few, they left this movement, but they could not stay outside. Again come. That is brainwash.

Lecture on SB 7.9.4 -- Mayapur, February 18, 1977:

So we should take lesson from Prahlāda Mahārāja that if a child becomes a devotee in the family, he is the best child, the best. He is giving the best service to the family. But the rascals, they are taking otherwise, that "My son has become devotee. Bring him back by deprogramming, by kidnapping." People are so rascal. You see? They do not take it a great benefit that "My fortunate son has become a devotee. My whole family will be delivered." But they have no knowledge. They have no brains. Therefore I say it is not brainwashing, it is braingiving. They have no brain. (laughter) So take it very seriously and do nicely.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Mayapur, February 28, 1977:

So we are trying to preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all over the world, but still, if people do not take to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, then he is drinking poison knowingly. This is the position. He is drinking poison. That's a fact. It is not that we are imagining something, eulogizing.(?) They are charging us, "Brainwash." Yes, it is brainwash. It is... All the dirty things, stools, are there in the brain, and we are trying to wash them.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Mayapur, February 28, 1977:

The vidhunoti, this word, is there. Vidhunoti means washing. Washing. As you are hearing the message of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā, the process is vidhunoti, washing. Actually, it is brainwashing—but for good. Washing is not bad. (laughter) That these rascals, they do not know. They are thinking, "Oh, you are making me purified? Oh, you are very dangerous."

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Mao Tse Tung:

Śyāmasundara: So they need constant ideological brainwashing to maintain this state of activity.

Prabhupāda: That is foolishness. If I know that "This land belongs to me, government has allotted me," so I can develop in my own way. I have got freedom. Wholesale dependence, what is the value of this?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Father Tanner: You see, I really don't know... I don't deny that, but I don't see the difference externally between that and brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: That, that, that, that... Suppose you are washing the floor of the temple. It is not external. Because there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He's washing the floor or washing the dishes for Kṛṣṇa. So the consciousness is there. So actually, our life is consciousness. If your full consciousness is only for God, then you remain always godly.

Morning Walk -- December 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yeah. If they are sincere. That is the budha. Budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ (BG 10.8). Others, rascals cannot (indistinct). Mūḍha narādhama. They cannot.

Devotee (2): They'll say you're sincerely brainwashed.

Prabhupāda: Ah?

Devotee (2): They'll say you're sincerely brainwashed.

Prabhupāda: Brainwashed? Why? These are facts.

Yaśomatīnandana: But we still have some basis...

Prabhupāda: If you cannot reply, you're simply misrepresenting scientists. We say there must be something which is spreading consciousness. Now how can you deny it? It is not brainwash. There must be something. Now if you are scientist, you find out.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: He says, "God is beyond philosophy and words."

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: That is how he brainwashes them.

Paramahaṁsa: The impersonalists have agreed amongst themselves that "As many theories, as many ways to God."

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Jayatīrtha: ...depending on how wealthy they are. He kidnaps them and tries to brainwash them that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not good.

Devotee: He calls it deprogramming. He says... He tries to deprogram the devotees that we have simply been hypnotized by chanting. So he has to snap us out of it by deprogramming. And he uses very severe techniques, very harsh.

Prabhupāda: And the parents are inducing him.

Morning Walk -- July 16, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Charismatic.

Bahulāśva: They say that we're becoming brainwashed.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Why you cannot do? It is brainwash, yes, all dirty things you are...

Bahulāśva: Are being cleansed.

Nara-nārāyaṇa: Brainwashed and also heartwashed.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ceto-darpaṇa-mār... That is our process, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing the mirror of heart. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). This is our process, cleansing. Tato rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ kāma-lobhādayas (SB 1.2.19).

Morning Walk -- September 26, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Indian man (2): You see, he has got the principles of Ārya-samāj. Because he is... "Everybody is God." That is his... They are brainwashed. Brainwash is there.

Prabhupāda: What is God? Let us have, understand.

Morning Walk -- September 27, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Kartikeya: There are many. They fight with us. Over in office, when they come, they speak such ill words about many of our religious leaders and God. They are so much brainwashed, completely brainwashed. They call themselves Hindus, but they do not want to follow any God, only brahma-tattva or Brahman. They believe in the Vedas...

Madhudviṣa: Actually they are atheists.

Prabhupāda: Nāstika.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (2): We're accused that when we take to some religious process, that it's a process of brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: It's not a question of religious process. You must know things are there. Religion is... Religion is that, because religion means to know the real law. That is religion. Not, religion does not mean sentiment. Religion means to know the real law. That is religion. If you do not know the definition of religion, this is it. Religion means to know the real law, how this world is going on, what is the law. That is religion.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This blood pressure is troubling. (break) They are chanting, "Say Kṛṣṇa." (laughter) They're taking, "Mind control."

Haṁsadūta: Yeah, mind control.

Prabhupāda: Ordinarily they cannot charge anything, mind control brainwashing, subtle thing. Just like I, "I am sick." "How you are feeling?" "I am feeling some pain." (indistinct) Who is going to see? (laughter) Who can say? It is like that.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Well, you see the process of chanting, it is not common practice and they think it is a kind of inducement.

Prabhupāda: It is kind of brainwash process.

Haṁsadūta: It is.

Prabhupāda: Brainwash? No, it is heart wash. (laughter) We can send this, "It is not brainwash," that "it is heartwash." Of course brain and heart practically same.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They come back again. But here (chuckles) Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement, one who comes, he'll be lost. (laughs)

Haṁsadūta: Brainwashed.

Prabhupāda: There is no hope of their coming. And Gargamuni's father tried so much to get him back. Then he became hopeless.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No. He tried his best, his father. Then his father (accepted), "This child is lost."

Haṁsadūta: This term brainwash, it comes from the Korean war and the Vietnamese war. They would, if they would capture a prisoner especially if he was an officer, high ranking officer, they had some methods of what they say brainwash to turn his mind so that he would accept the enemy view point. And as this happened to a person it was considered to be very, very...

Hari-śauri: Great victory for the enemy.

Haṁsadūta: Great victory for the enemy. Just like because a high ranking officer in the army was captured by the enemy, then they would brainwash him. They had this, some process...

Prabhupāda: In Pakistani they kill all brain, in Bangladesh. Anyone who worked in high profession like businessman, they caught shut down. It was worse to kill.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Because everywhere the big men they guide the nation.

Haṁsadūta: Yes. People are very much afraid of this idea of being brainwashed.

Hari-śauri: They think that their minds can be changed without them knowing about it, so it scares them.

Prabhupāda: For me it is better to remain in Vṛndāvana or die. (laughter) Hm. Because they may be very envious, "Here is the man who is behind all this." (laughter)

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yasya deve parā bhaktir, yathā deve tathā gurau (ŚU 6.23), this is the Vedic principle of our movement. Yasya deve parā bhaktir, yathā deve tathā gurau.

Haṁsadūta: Have faith.

Prabhupāda: To respect and love the spiritual master as God. Therefore it is brainwash.

Haṁsadūta: This is the strength of our movement, faith in the guru and śāstra.

Prabhupāda: And everyone is writing, let them write that. So they see that, "Why this one man is so respectfully accepted, it is brainwash."

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just like there are so many men now, they are against this Sai Baba.

Haṁsadūta: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Sai Baba is actually doing that brainwash. But they don't think of... (break)

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: "He's not ordinary man. Don't say that He's beggar,' he said. (laughs) Nobody follows a beggar like that, that is it. After all he was king, he had some brain. (laughs) So he wanted to brainwash, "Don't think of Him very seriously. A beggar. Some people, sentimental." "No, don't say like that. A beggar is never followed by so many men.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He has used very nice strong words.

Hari-śauri: Hm. "They effected through devious means to have 2 members of the New York Hare Kṛṣṇa centers to be arrested. Therein lies the infection(?) of the injustice. To compound it, a judge and a grand jury agreed with their charges of unlawful imprisonment and brainwashing, a charge which is unheard of to my knowledge in civil legal proceedings, and ordered the devotees to be jailed. As a citizen I am appalled by the over-reaction, the lack of understanding, and the hate that finds wrongdoing, not only by the people that make the charges but by the court as well."

Haṁsadūta: He says the same thing.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Haṁsadūta: That this charge is unheard of in the legal history, brainwashing, and what was it? Brainwashing what?

Hari-śauri: Brainwashing.

Haṁsadūta: That there was never such a charge in the history of law, someone who's been brainwashed.

Hari-śauri: (continues reading) "As a person who's own people have been persecuted for their own beliefs I can sympathize with any..."

Prabhupāda: You can charge anyone, brainwashing.

Haṁsadūta: Yeah.

Hari-śauri: That means anybody who is doing anything is being brainwashed. (indistinct) brainwashing. (continues reading) "The fault of this religion differs from our..."

Prabhupāda: Mind control.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Charmistic, charmistic, what is that?

Haṁsadūta: Charismatic.

Hari-śauri: Charismatic.

Haṁsadūta: Charismatic. There is, they usually use this word to describe a person who attracts people, but no one can understand why.

Prabhupāda: Therefore they cannot explain, brainwash, mind control, charismatic, like that they use.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And they say, the cow's urine, they are forcing to eat. (laughter) (Bengali) ...that they are forcing the devotees to drink cow's urine. (laughter) These are the charges: brainwash, mind control, forcing cow's urine to drink. (laughter) How clever they are to find out some fictitious faults.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In the lunatic asylum.

Hari-śauri: Yeah, which leaves them in a very shocked condition and then they, what they call reprogram them. That means they brainwash them back into another way, to another style of life, like that.

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: This is our mission. We have come to you to make you civilized. This is our mission. And the best men of your country they are recommending. All the learned circle, they are coming. How can you defy us? If you have got brain.... You are trying to brainwash. Actually you have no brain, (indistinct) how important it is, this movement. You are trying to brainwash. We are not brainwashing. We are giving you good brain. That is our mission. That you are so dull-headed we have come to give you good brain. Su-medhasaḥ. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ (SB 11.5.32). We have come to make you intelligent. Receive us well, for your benefit. Tell them like that. Bring one court case, and I shall sit, go and sleep there. And expose them. Item by item. I know my case is strong.

Hari-śauri: It's the strongest.

Prabhupāda: (laughing) Yes. I will speak. If you cannot speak I shall go and speak.

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: This fighting is now here. You can show the newspaper clipping. (Hindi) big arrangement to fight this. First of all they thought that so many swamis and yogis come, all rascals, they stay for some time and go away. Even Vivekananda. (laughter) So this is not a bogus movement, it is taking stand. So now they are threatened and they are combining together especially the Christian... (Hindi) But in each heading there is Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...bring various charges against our...

Guest: Mind control, brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: You should go to see Visvambhara Gosvāmī also. (Hindi) This is fortunate that you have come in this moment. So I'll give you this inspiration, now combine together all Vṛndāvana gosvāmīs. Kṛṣṇa cult is for everyone, either Gauḍīya or Rāmānuja or everyone. Now all of you should come forward. That you do.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...brainwash.

Hari-śauri: But how can they take it that what we're doing is a bad thing. If we're training people how to avoid intoxication, how to avoid illicit sex, abortion, contraception.

Prabhupāda: They say, "Why you should avoid? This is life. Why you are brainwashing?" One boy was there in the beginning. What was his name? Ranchor, his name, I gave him. So his father argued, "Why you are avoiding illicit sex? This is life! Why you are afraid? I'll give you car. I'll give you girls. You enjoy. What is this philosophy, nonsense philosophy." His father was arguing. I think everyone's father argues like that. Lord Roland said, he said, "Why you are prohibiting this thing? This is our life. It is impossible."

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: There may be very few, one or two. That is insignificant. One million, two person, he is. At least especially in your country.

Hari-śauri: The thing is that they don't claim that they are brainwashed. So we're a society where we're doing all these things, combinedly.

Prabhupāda: "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." If the majority are fools and rascal, if you say something sane, then they'll ask... The man, the sane man, he is insane. He's crazy.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Intelligence is something you possess.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So? (break)

Hari-śauri: "Brainwashing: clearing the mind of established ideas by persistent suggestion and indoctrination."

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) That is... We are doing that. They are under the impression, "Work hard, earn money, and enjoy life." We say, "No. Don't work hard for sense gratification but work hard for self-realization." Indoctrine.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Apart from that, education is required. The child wants to play but we have to educate him that "No, play is not all. You have to be educated." Similarly, this animal life, eating, sleeping, mating, this is already there. No. We say, "Not only this, you have to realize God." This kind of brainwash is required. If we do not understand God, then what is the difference between you and dog? He knows how to eat, how to sleep. He doesn't require any high education how to eat. Everyone knows how to eat, how to use sex. Nobody requires any university education.

Hari-śauri: Simply ignorance.

Prabhupāda: When the animal enjoy sex, they know which part of the body has to be used.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kneupper: We have many of them in our library...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So there is knowledge. If people kindly take it everything will be solved. But they have stubbornly denied, "No God." And I am stubbornly fighting, "Yes, there is God." That is the... Now the whole America is combining to fight against me, opposition, that "This man is brainwashing, controlling the mind, and our children are kidnapped." They are bringing these charges against us. Just like you have come. Have I kidnapped you?

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kneupper: And the solution is very simple.

Prabhupāda: Solution. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etām... And that we are preaching, that "You become God conscious. Everything will be solved." And who is caring for us? Rather, they are giving opposition, that "These rascals are kidnapping our sons, brainwashing, controlling the mind," creating courts case. Just see. This is going on.

Dr. Kneupper: Do you see as a... When you're describing that if the world were going to be God conscious, it would...

Prabhupāda: Everything will be solved.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kneupper: Well, many, many people do...

Prabhupāda: But that means they do not know what is the meaning of Bhagavad-gītā, what is the meaning of Vedas. Unnecessarily they put some outside... Just like they are doing now. They do not know what is knowledge, and they are accusing us that we are brainwashing. We are forbidding our devotees, "Don't eat meat." Oh, they are taking it: "It is revolutionary. Eh? How these men, they are stopping?" Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Knowledge is knowledge. So they should take on this background, but they are thinking that we are spoiling their children, brainwashing, controlling the mind, because against their principle, against their uncivilized way of life: meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication. This is uncivilized life. Why a man, civilized man, shall eat meat?

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: When they are uncivilized—there is no food; they do not know how to grow food—they can eat animal in the jungle. But if after becoming civilized, if you are eating the same thing, then what is the difference between civilization and not civilization? You have learned. And especially in your America you can get all nice foodstuff. You have got sufficient grains, sufficient fruits, sufficient vegetables, sufficient... Everything sufficient. Why you should eat meat? This is uncivilized life. They could not give up the uncivilized way of life. And when you teach that "You become civilized. Give up this all nonsense. Don't eat." "Oh, it is brainwashing." You see? We are teaching them to become civilized, and they are taking it brainwashing.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Foolish fourth-class men. So we are trying to bring them to become first-class men, and they are accusing of brainwash. "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." We are teaching that "These boys, they are becoming first-class." Anyone will worship them. How nice they look, how behavior, how their character. We are creating this, and they are accusing, "Oh, they are kidnapping our children." Why you are going? Eh? Why you are going?

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is cheating. And promise, "In God I Trust." Is that money? So this cheating is begun from the government. Now, how the people will be honest? Everywhere, in all government, they are giving you some papers and you accept it as money. This is not brainwash. Just see. They are educating people that "I promise to pay. This is money," but actually he's receiving some papers. This is not brainwash. And we are talking of God, that is brainwash.

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just see. Father-mother take... Because they think it is civilization. Elderly boys, the father mother tell, "What is the wrong, illicit sex? Take woman, take car. Enjoy life." I have seen it. They know, "This is life. Why...?" Therefore they say, "Brainwash. This Swamiji is controlling their minds and brainwashing." That is their charge. Wash, ne. The brain should be operated, surgical to take out all rubbish things from the... It is called membrane?

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Mā prekṣiṣṭhāstava yadi sakhe bandhu-saṅge 'sti raṅgaḥ. If you want to enjoy the company of your society, friendship, and love, then don't see. It will be finished. For this reason they are now bringing charges against us that we are spoiling these young men by brainwash. There is great opposition in the United States to our movement that we are spoiling these young men by giving some speculation, controlling over their mind, and simply injecting some ideas in their brain, brainwash.

Room Conversation -- November 20, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Sarva-dharmān: Everything give up. That is India's Vedic civilization. They are not concerned with the material advancement. Simple life. That's all. And our present leaders, they are thinking that "brainwashed." They are not deeply thinking, "Why our great sages and ācāryas recommended this life, not the skyscraper life? Why? They were not less intelligent."

Room Conversation -- November 20, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They are not thinking in that way. They are thinking that "Because we neglected the skyscraper thoughts, we are so backward." At least this rascal Nehru was thinking like that. "So finish this." The Russia is... What is called? Opiate, brainwashed. These things are accepted like that. "It has no value, simply some prejudice and superstition, and they are thinking like that and they are spoiling their material side of life." This is their idea. "What is this? No meat-eating?"

Room Conversation -- November 20, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Good reasoning. The body was not in existence. That is the general... And as soon as you finish, there is no more existence. So via media, between the manifestation and nonmanifestation, in the middle there is some manifesta... Why you are so much absorbed in that part? Therefore the Europeans, Americans, they bring in the charges, "brainwash." "A brainwash movement. It has no actual value. Simply an artificial way of pushing the idea in the brain. And they have to give up. These children are spoiled.

Room Conversation -- November 20, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And for Western countries, this is a completely new idea. Therefore they are charging, "brainwash." They are not to be blamed because they are, I mean to say, raised in that ideas. Hm? Is it not? Yes. "So this is simply brainwash movement. It has no factual standing." Even our country, what to speak of Western countries. Where the spiritual civilization has a strong background, they are also not believing. Nobody believes Kṛṣṇa is God.

Room Conversation -- November 24, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: According to the conditions of the mind at the time of death the minute spirit soul enters in the womb of particular mother through the semina of the father. And when the soul develops a particular type of body given by the mother it may be a human being, it may be cat, a dog, or anything." So it is brainwash? Hm?

Room Conversation -- November 24, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Yeah. I told you he was very interested in the philosophy, asking some very good questions.

Prabhupāda: Still he's asking, "Are you saying that we were something else before this life?" I said, "Yes." (laughter) (break) ...issue will help 99% about this controversy, brainwashing.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. I haven't read it completely.

Prabhupāda: And there are pictures of chanting.

Evening Darsana -- December 3, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: And because we are trying to stop this thing in Europe and America there is agitation that "These people are propagating brainwash. How is that a man who will not eat, drink? This is brainwash." They spend ten rupees out of twenty rupees. Eh?

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: One blind leader is leading other blind men. This is going on. And when we present the real solution, they say it is brainwash. Now against our movement there is propaganda in USA, charging that "He has brainwashed them." (aside:) You can come here. (Hindi) "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." This is our position. When we speak all these things, they say it is brainwashing movement. Actually it is brainwashing movement because we are dissipating all kinds of misunderstanding, values of life. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). It is not brainwashing; it is heart-washing. Our heart is stacked with so many dirty things, so we are trying to wash it. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam. And that is our movement. We are trying to cleanse the heart so that he can understand himself. One can understand his real position and then do the needful and life becomes successful.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Mr. Malhotra: Their fathers are charging with that this man knows some mesmerism. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Brainwash.

Mr. Malhotra: Brainwash, ācchā. How you entered in their hearts?

Prabhupāda: Mesmerism, Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Śrutaśrava: Śrīla Prabhupāda, so many, all the big scholars in America, all the big famous scholars, they have put together one petition saying how authorized our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is. And they are willing to come forward now. If any time they want some papers in the court-room to show how bona fide our movement is, how we are actually not brainwashers and mind-controlled, there are these scholars in America, they have pledged their support.

Girirāja: There was a meeting of four big scholars at Harvard University, it's like the Oxford of America. And one famous theologian named Cox...

Prabhupāda: Harvey Cox?

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Jagadīśa: "Dear Dr. Lubin: In our recent telephone conversation you asked me to articulate in a letter those questions concerning the current brainwashing, deprogramming controversy which I feel may be pertinent to psychiatrists interested in religious issues and therefore a potential topic for discussion and or research within the Committee on Psychiatry and Religion of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry. Speaking on my own behalf and informally on behalf of the Hare Kṛṣṇa religious society, I might suggest that this issue raises some very serious questions concerning possible abuses of diagnostic power in psychiatry against religious practitioners and movements for what may be social, political, and legal ends. Within the last ten years a large number of new religious groups, sects, communities and organizations have appeared on the American scene. Some are totally new organizationally as well as theologically. And others are, or allege to be, based upon some already existing spiritual tradition. I myself am a member for six years of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement. The term Kṛṣṇa consciousness is synonymous with the term bhakti-yoga, a theistic form of yoga which finds its scriptural authority in the Bhagavad-gītā and other major Indian devotional texts. The religious tradition represented in the West of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, Vaiṣṇavism, has centered the lives of hundreds of millions of Hindus for many centuries in India. This particular tradition has produced one of the world's largest and richest bodies of religious, philosophical, and mystical literature. The founder and spiritual leader of the movement, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, has within the last ten years, offered more than fifty volumes of translation and commentary on major texts of the tradition: Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, etc. These works are considered significant contributions to scholarship by specialists in the field and are studied in the universities throughout the world. See book reviews in the pamphlet, 'The Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Movement is Authorized.' The members of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, both men and women, single and married, live in strict adherence to Vedic and Vaiṣṇava principles in regards to religious practice, chastity vows, diet, etc. The movement's nearly one hundred centers are mostly urban monasteries from which members in accordance with Vaiṣṇava tradition perform evangelistic and proselytizing activities. The authenticity of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement has formerly been confirmed by numerous Hindu religious academic and cultural bodies both in India and U.S. Of the new religious movements which are prominent, most are allegedly based on either a Western religious tradition: the Children of God and Unification Church are Christian oriented; or an Eastern religious or philosophical tradition: Zen groups, yoga groups, Hare Kṛṣṇa, etc. Of the groups based either on Western or non-Western spiritual traditions, some are seen as not accurately representing that tradition upon which they are ostensibly based. For instance, several Christian church organizations assert that the Unification Church, the Moonies, is not a bona fide Christian organization. Others, such as the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, are accepted as legitimate, both by scholars and adherents of that tradition. As the public tends, however, to indiscriminately lump together whatever appears to be strange or out of the ordinary, the mass media refers to all such groups with the derogatory term, 'cult.' All questions of legitimacy aside, the parents of many members of such groups feel, for one reason or another, that their son or daughter has been brainwashed and they are under the 'mind control' of the cult. Originally denoting the specific technique employed by Chinese Communists to effect ideological persuasion to extreme psychological and often physical coercion, the term brainwashing is defined as a colloquial term applied to any technique designed to manipulate human thought or action against the desired will or knowledge of the individual." That's from the Encyclopedia Britannica. "In popular usage it becomes an imprecise, all-encompassing and pejorative term used to describe any kind of persuasion or behavior with which one may disagree. In psychology it is not generally accepted, I am told, as a legitimate clinical term. How does one wash another's brain? The dynamics of 'conversion' in the case of Kṛṣṇa consciousness are quite informal. Talking with devotees, reading scripture, meditation, etc. and certainly do not include the application of any type of psychological coercion against the desire, will, or knowledge of the potential or novice devotee. Although life in a Hare Kṛṣṇa community is communal and monastic with well-defined guidelines affecting the behavior and religious practice, it is in fact, a good deal more open then many or most types of monastic communities. The Hare Kṛṣṇa member is totally free to increase or decrease his involvement with the Society at any time he or she wishes. Because full commitment, as in any religious tradition, is not easy. A high percentage of those who join eventually leave. If brainwashing is what we're doing, we're not very good at it. Distressed however by an apparent rejection of their own values and lifestyle, and unable to account for what may be radical or abrupt change in the lives of their offspring, some parents of cult members, believing that their sons and daughters have been brainwashed, hire someone like Ted Patrick to forcefully abduct and debrainwash or deprogram them. What is being called deprogramming involves extreme coercive tactics, including rather intense psychological and often physical intimidation aimed at inducing the cult member to renounce his or her religious beliefs and practices. (See affidavit enclosed.) During deprogramming the victim is isolated from his particular religious community and is physically restrained. His religious apparel and paraphernalia, scriptures, prayer beads, sacred pictures etc., may be confiscated and destroyed and his beliefs and religious convictions vilified. In one case a pregnant mother was physically beaten. In another, a Hare Kṛṣṇa devotee who refused to violate his religious vow of reciting names of God, had his mouth filled with ice and gagged. Such deprogramming lasts often for several weeks with deprogrammers working in shifts while the deprogrammee is deprived of sufficient sleep. All this so that the brainwashed youth can be returned to a normal state and once again be able to make free choices. Deprogramming often ends with the victim signing a statement admitting that he had been brainwashed. Perhaps just as the confessions of those accused of being witches during the Holy Inquisitions were proof of the existence of witchcraft, such confessions by members of religious groups are taken as sufficient proof of brainwashing by those committed to the idea of cultic brainwashing. But such tactics are a gross violation of fundamental human and constitutional rights..."

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: The human life is meant for purifying. They have lost this goal of life. Temporarily we are thinking if we make some comfortable arrangement for body, and that is sufficient. That is sufficient. Lost Vedic culture, ideal life, goal of life. (Hindi) At least in India it should... In other places they are... Therefore this movement's against them. Because we are preaching this philosophy just opposite to their views, they are taking it "brainwashed." Is that all right in your country?

Devotee: They accuse them of brainwashing. But actually...

Prabhupāda: They cannot believe that other than this method, there can be civilization. This hoggish civilization is real civilization. To become like hog. That is real civilization. And to give up this process, thinking of soul, elevation of the soul, going back to Godhead, simply imagination, brainwashing. How they can understand? Mām aprāpya nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra vartmani (BG 9.3).

Room Conversation -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Other yogis and swamis go, they give some method. And the son is there at home."All right, a young man is going there." But here, their son is lost. Here their son is lost, and they are now called "American Hindus." So naturally they are very much against me. And counter movement is going on. Hindus... The government...That this is not a religion. The swami knows some mind-controlling power and he's brainwashing. In this way, there is charge. So because America has got freedom of religion, so if they accept my movement as Hindu religion, they cannot do anything. People are free to accept. But they are giving in a different charge, that I have manufactured something, that no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no gambling. How people can accept all these things? They're brainwashed. There are so many charges. But anyone who comes to me, I don't make any compromise.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with C.I.D. Chief -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

CID Chief: That is the truth, eternal truth. What you have said...

Prabhupāda: No, we are speaking about Kṛṣṇa. So if I say that Kṛṣṇa says like this and it is a fact, then what is our fault? But they are taking very serious, just like especially nowadays in Western country they are opposing that "This philosophy is a brainwash." So this is our position.

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

Rāmeśvara: Yes, we are counter... We are fighting them. "...by writing to the District Attorney's"—those are the Justice Department Offices—"or contacting your local media." Then they give the addresses of people in New York and two addresses in Los Angeles who you should write to telling them about all the knowledge you have about all the abuses of Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then it says, "You should commence action for a legal deprogramming. If other families of Hare Kṛṣṇa victims would go to court to get a legal conservatorship or guardianship with an intended writ of habeas corpus..." Now, what this means is you go to the court, and you say "My dear judge, my son is in Hare Kṛṣṇa. He has been brainwashed." And you have a paper from a psychiatrist that says, "Yes, he is definitely acting in a robotlike way." Then the court will say, "All right, you're the parent. So we give you legal guardianship over the son."

Prabhupāda: No, we can place a counter psychiatrist and counter... Just like Cox's statement.

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

Rāmeśvara: Whenever they meet a devotee who appears to be intelligent and not have any symptoms of being brainwashed, they accuse him of being one of the leaders. If I'm debating with one of them, or if any devotee, and they see he's very intelligent, they say, "But you are one of the leaders."

Prabhupāda: Certainly that is a fact. (laughter) All GBC, they are leaders.

Jagadīśa: So you're not brainwashed.

Rāmeśvara: No, the leaders are the ones who are brainwashing everyone else.

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

Rāmeśvara: Sometimes they capture... Very rarely they capture one of our members and they convince him to leave. And after they convince him to leave our movement, then they tell him many lies about us. And then he goes on television and tells the American public that we brainwashed him. So sometimes they get some of our ex-members to speak against us. This is going on. In Los Angeles I have met three ex-devotees who viciously lie about us.

Prabhupāda: Who is he?

Rāmeśvara: Just minor devo... They're never leaders.

Jagadīśa: Initiated?

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

Rāmeśvara: Well, their argument is that we do not allow him to consider alternatives.

Prabhupāda: Then where is the question of a free mind? That means you brainwash.

Rāmeśvara: Exactly.

Prabhupāda: Free mind means everyone has the right. That is free mind. If you force something, then where is the free mind?

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: The more they create turmoil, the more we become famous.

Haṁsadūta: They say mind control and brainwashing, Śrīla Prabhupāda, but actually that is what you are doing. You are cleaning our brain and teaching us how to control our minds.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Our method is ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Yes, actually it is washing.

Dr. Patel: Brainwashing is very bad in India, not only in America but the whole world over.

Prabhupāda: I condemn everyone, that "You are all dogs and hogs." And United Nations a pack of dogs barking. That's a fact. And in Chicago I said, all women, "You cannot have freedom. You have got only thirty-four-ounce brain, and man has got sixty-four-ounce." I told them. So I became a subject of very great criticism.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: These eight elements, those who are dealing with these eight elements, apara, inferior. And they are advertising that "We are superior." "The spiritual consciousness is brainwashed. We are superior." This is the fault. Of the inferior position, they are claiming superior position. Apareyam itas tu... And Kṛṣṇa is giving practical example: "Apareyam: this is inferior. Beyond this there is a superior nature. What is that? Jīva bhūta." Immediately. And still the rascal cannot understand what is superior, inferior.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Immediately. And still the rascal cannot understand what is superior, inferior. (Indian lady converses in Hindi with Prabhupāda) Chase after them, "Get out! Get out! Your visa is finished." (Hindi) Hundred cases. Hundred times hundred. (Hindi) (break)

Rāmeśvara: That is our argument.

Dr. Patel: It would be the brainwash. To have washed it against...

Prabhupāda: I am thinking of Kṛṣṇa, and if you stop me to think of Kṛṣṇa, is it not going against my thought? Bhagavad-gītā, it is recommended, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto. So this is a standard thing. So I thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Why you should stop me? Is it not infringement my freedom?

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Let them say that. This is our advertising. And let this opposition party understand that "If it is brainwash, then your whole country is now washed. (laughter) How you'll protect them? It is already washed." Tell them like that, humorous.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So you can invite this opposition cult to see what we are doing. "Why you are after us," ask, "like the barking dog? There is good use. It is the highest culture." Make some compromise: "Why you are after simply spoiling? Don't you want advancement in culture and knowledge? Why you are so envious?" Just try to bring the leaders, that "What is use? You also join. It is a culture. There is no need of repressing us. We are serious to introduce a new culture for the benefit of the whole nation. Why don't you study this? Do you mean to say we are publishing books only, all sentiment, brainwash, and people are purchasing?"

Rāmeśvara: They cannot accuse us of brainwashing when we have so much artwork and publishing work.

Prabhupāda: Yes. "We are giving culture, art, scientific knowledge. You are accusing. It is good for your nation. Think nationalwise what we are doing. We are not fools. They are also educated. They are coming from respectable family. Why you say that we have become befooled, brainwashed? We are not so fool that I shall be brainwashed by some Indian." Try to make compromise before them. Actually, this is a great culture.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Jagadīśa: Now their children are afraid of sinful life, and they think it's brainwashing.

Rāmeśvara: This is a devotee making part of the armor for Arjuna. Each time they make an outfit, they do a very careful drawing. Then from the drawing, they make the actual equipment or armor.

Prabhupāda: And how devotedly he is working. That is the..., that "I am..." How devotedly he is working. That will elevate him. He's very attentively serving Kṛṣṇa. This is advancement.

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: Yes. I was seeing it. Because now it has become such a controversy that the biggest television and radio programs are begging us, "Come on my show and explain the issue, whether you are brainwashing." So we have been already invited to be on the biggest nationwide television programs, and we're on radio...

Prabhupāda: And you are presenting nicely.

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: We are always saying that "Actually we are not brainwashing; you are brainwashing. You are convincing the people there is no God."

Prabhupāda: We are presenting God, His address, His father's name, His residence, everything. If you are intelligent, you can go back home, back to Godhead. If not, you may suffer. Others will go.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That example you gave of the dead husband... Prabhupāda gave an analogy, it is very good. To indicate who is being brainwashed. The example was a dead husband is calling his wife. That is very good example.

Rāmeśvara: They're actually doing service because they are forcing all these newspapers...

Prabhupāda: That is... Hare Kṛṣṇa—this name has become popular all over the...

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This is our philosophy. Real happiness? Tapo divyam: just undergo some austerity for attaining Kṛṣṇa. This is our.... How they will understand it? Therefore they are thinking, "Unless there is brainwash, how this philosophy is being preached?" Just opposite. They are thinking, "This is happiness," and we are condemning, "This is happiness of the hogs." Actually that is.... Hog is also enjoying that sex without any discrimination whether it is mother or sister or daughter. That is going on. Sex must be there. It doesn't matter who is.

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

Prabhupāda: No, there are many... First thing is that my students are advised, "No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication up to the point of smoking cigarette and drinking tea, and no gambling." But this is their life. How they can give up this? That is... It is a shock. Therefore they say, "brainwashing," that "How a gentleman can give up all these things?" Many... No many. A few of my students, they left. They said that "Swamiji is denying the primary necessities of life." They left. They could not tolerate even. So I do not make any compromise. That you want to become my student you have to give up these things. So the responsible parents, they are appreciating that "My son is now purified." But some of them, there are...

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Jagadīśa: In the Kṛṣṇa book, when Kamsa was being a little lenient with Vasudeva, Nārada Muni thought to speed things up, so he instigated Kamsa to become frightened about Vasudeva and Devaki and their children. So similarly, it appears that in order to speed up Kṛṣṇa consciousness's infiltration and overtaking this materialistic society, that all of these brainwashing charges and...

Prabhupāda: It has got... The chanting has got spiritual power. That will rectify everything. Even there is misunderstanding, it will be rectified. That is spiritual power.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Just see. Now, who cares for all these nonsense?

Rāmeśvara: In regards to brainwashing, they claim that our life-style tends to take the devotee and isolate him from the world.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We hate to mix with you. No gentleman tries to mix with loafers. In England still, the rich quarter is different from the poor quarter. Is it not?

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Rāmeśvara: They have a list of five or six conditions, and they say if all those conditions are there, then it is a suitable atmosphere for brainwashing. And they say we are imposing those conditions on our members.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are brainwashing from bad to good. That is our business. We are washing the brain from all rascaldom. That is our business. You are... Your brain is filled up with all rubbish things: meat-eating and illicit sex, gambling. So we are washing them. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ, hrdy antaḥ-stho abhadrāṇi (SB 1.2.17). Abhadrānī washing. Abhadrāṇi means bad things. The bad things should be washed off. Don't you cleanse your home? Don't you cleanse your room? Is not that brainwashing? So if you wash your room very cleansed, who blames you? But you are so rascal that "Why you are washing this garbage?" you are protesting. You are such an intelligent man. We are washing the garbage; you are protesting, "Why you are washing the garbage?" This is your intelligence. But intelligent men wash the garbage. That is the law of nature, cleanse. That we are doing. According to Vedic civilization, you are actually untouchable. Now we have come to touch you; therefore wash you must first.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Unless one is animal-killer, everyone welcomes God. This very word is used, vinā paśughnāt. Excepting these persons who are animal killers, everyone will welcome Kṛṣṇa. It is so nasty thing, animal-killing. So you require thoroughly to be washed. Then you'll understand. Actually it is brainwashing. Civilized man, in the presence of so many nice grains, fruits, flowers, vegetables, milk, so many things, and you are eating meat like the man in the jungle? Are you civilized?

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Don't claim that you are civilized. Therefore your brain requires to be thoroughly washed to become civilized. Therefore your brain requires to be thoroughly washed to become civilized, Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then talk of civilization. Therefore Jesus Christ first of all requested you "Don't kill." That is also brainwash, cleanse your brain. But you could not take the brainwash. Your brain is congested with so much dirty things that you could not take the instruction of Jesus Christ, and you claim to be Christian. Be ashamed.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Rāmeśvara: But very often they will say, "It is not a question of religion that we are concerned with. It is a question of brainwashing and mind control. Your chanting so many hours a day, it's hypnotizing."

Prabhupāda: So, what is to you? That is my business. Why do you bother yourself?

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Why shall I give you chance? You are thieves. You are coming to kidnap. Why shall I give you chance? You say to them, as we are saying, that "You chant." They are chanting. You make brainwash. You ask them, "Don't chant." That is your business. But that you cannot do.

Rāmeśvara: "But by this chanting, they develop a kind of blind faith, and they stop thinking."

Prabhupāda: So, what is to you and to your father? Let them do that. Everyone has got freedom.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the fact.

Rāmeśvara: So they say this is the proof that we have brainwashed them. Because it is natural to have affection for your family.

Prabhupāda: Before that, he was accepting a false father. And now they understood that "He is not my father. He's my enemy." Therefore he's going... According to Bhāgavata it is said, "One should not become father if he cannot save his son from the imminent danger of birth, death, old age and disease." So the so-called father, they are not father. So after enter into Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, one understands that "He's my false father." So if he gives up the relationship, that means he's successful.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Rāmeśvara: They think that if our devotees are willing to do whatever you say, it must mean that they are brainwashed. They have given up their independence, so therefore they are brainwashed. If they are willing to follow anyone blindly, like a slave...

Prabhupāda: That is your instruction also. Jehovah says that you shall not worship any other God. So, Jesus Christ says also that you shall not worship. So that is the way of preaching. That is required.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: First of all, our challenge is "What is your definition of God?"

Rāmeśvara: They will answer, "Let us first discuss the definition of brainwashing. Do not talk of God. We are not trying to talk of God. We want to talk about brainwashing."

Prabhupāda: So first of all you define.

Rāmeśvara: Brainwashing?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: They say that brainwashing means that when you deprive a person of sleep, of food, you isolate him from the rest of the world, you have him chant something over and over again many times, in this way you can get control of his mind, and then whatever you want, he will do, just like a robot.

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

Prabhupāda: The hog, living in dirty place, eating stool, and if you try to deliver from this, he'll not: "No. No. I am living here happily. Why you are disturbing me?" This is the... "Why you are trying to wash my brain? This is very good life." This is our...

Rāmeśvara: Sometimes we get gṛhasthas to join us, but they are not strong enough to do saṅkīrtana. So then we can encourage them to do some business like a normal gṛhastha in the world, to give some money to...

Prabhupāda: That Kṛṣṇa... Svakarmana: "All right, be engaged in your occupational duty."

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

Rāmeśvara: No, except that there is this controversy that if you chant, you are limiting your brain, washing, brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: That is our treatment. If you want that treatment, this is our treatment.

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

Prabhupāda: Similarly, these diseased person, if they chant, it has got power to bring him in the normal condition. The power is there. It is already proved. You say it is brainwash, but the power is there. Reaction is there. That's a fact. You are admitting. So now, whether this reaction is good or bad, that you cannot judge because you are bad. But impersonally, if you judge, you see how the power is, that we were drunkards, we were woman-hunter, we were meat-eaters—we have given up. You cannot give up even smoking cigarette. So just this is the power.

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

Prabhupāda: We are giving up these nonsense, nasty things. You cannot appreciate. 'Oh, they are giving up meat-eating? It is brainwashing.' You are so low, hog life." Tell them like that. "As the hog cannot appreciate what is the value of nice halavā, similarly you cannot appreciate. Your brain has to be washed. Please come inside. We shall wash it." Is it not?

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

Rāmeśvara: Our movies so far cannot be on television because they are too much Hare Kṛṣṇa propaganda. But if this is done in a way, they will not know that it is the Hare Kṛṣṇa propaganda, but it will be there anyway... It will be like a very scholarly, academic movie. And then they'll show it on television. They're eager. Because it's such a controversy about chanting and meditation, whether it is brainwashing or not, so if we make this movie, they'll put it on nationwide television.

Prabhupāda: And what you can do? You can show some temples or you can show some meeting of Bhāgavata recital. That's it, two things.

Room Conversation on 1976 Book Scores -- January 16, 1977, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the best answer to this opposition. And when the case is there, put all the books before the judge: "Now you read and give your judgment. Don't... You are learned lordship. Please read these books and give your judgment. We have got already judgment from the scholars." Present like that. "But still, because in your court it is presented, so we pray that you give your judgment after understanding our method of brainwash." That will make him flat.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: Brainwash.

Rāmeśvara: Try to break their faith.

Gargamuni: Actually they are brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: So this can be done by law?

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: I never expected. I thought that "Who will hear me if I say all this nonsense to them?" To them it is nonsense. Therefore they say "brainwash." They cannot appreciate.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) No, people have become so dull-headed that they are believing all these nonsense.

Hari-śauri: It is brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: No. The brainwashing... They are making brainwashing that "From garbage, newspapers; scrap, they'll make food."

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: Yes. Especially in India now, that's all they want to read, is anything on technology, any field.

Rāmeśvara: They have been brainwashed.

Prabhupāda: No, in the Western country also. Western country, now this higher English, higher mathematics, higher philosophy is no student admission. Nobody's going. They're going to close.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is gentlemanly, that "Why shall I take responsibility of family if I cannot maintain them properly?" That is very gentlemanly. That is civilization. "And I accept so-called family for sense gratification; I cannot maintain them and kill them"—what is this? Is that civilization? They should be ashamed to be called civilized men. Here is civilized way. Preach this because the Vedic civilization is real civilization. "You are not civilized. You have killed Jesus Christ who instructed, 'Thou shall not kill.' So you should be ashamed of your present civilization. It is... Brainwash is required."

Gargamuni: (laughs) Say that, yes. We're brainwashing, washing their brain.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And all these rubbish things we are finishing. "Yes, it is brainwashing, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing the core of the heart, all mistaken ideas." Speak in the court like that. "And see how we are being appreciated by scholarly section. Here is our book. Read if you have got time and see the opinion. It is really brainwashing, but for the good. Everything requires cleansing—for good. If bad impression, bad ideas, are washed, why do you protest? Let it be done. Give us freedom. It is brainwashing, but for the good, washing for good. Just like you wash your cloth. Do you think it is bad? Dirty cloth, if it is washed nicely with soap and water, who will protest against that? 'Oh, why you are cleansing your dirty clothes?' That is another foolishness. Everyone, every gentleman, every civilized man, washes his clothes with soap and water to become more refreshed. So we are giving this civilization... Actually it is brainwashing, but for the good. And see our example. The boys and girls whom you are charging, 'Brainwash,' just see after brainwashing, how gentleman they have become. They have become moralist. They have become God conscious. They are clean outwardly. Their fooding is so innocent and so nutritious. So why do you check it? Bring your plate and our plate. Now judge. Which is better? You taste. Halavā, puri, samosa, kachori, vegetable—one plate; and boiled meat with salt and black pepper... So taste now which is better."

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: These rascals have no brain, and they are passing as scientist, politician, philosopher, all rascals, tenth-class men. Tell them. Challenge them, "What do you know about the value of life? Your brain must be washed to clear out all the dirty things." Our duty is that. Just like a patient does not know how he will be cured, but the surgeon—"Operation. Clear out these pusses." He may protest, "Oh, you are clearing out my pusses!" But "Yes! It is my business. Clear out the pusses. Then you will be relieved—by force." But he can protest, "Oh, you are clearing out my pusses!" "Pusses, what for you...? Pusses is not to be maintained. It has to be cleared out." This is para upakāra, doing good to others. And the patient will protest, "Oh, this rascal doctor, killing me, killing me, killing me!" "Yes, I am not killing you. I am saving you. You go on accusing me any way, but I must do my duty." This is the point. "Yes, we are washing brain," exactly like the experienced surgeon. He doesn't make any compromise. "Oh, you are suffering from the boil. There is pus. All right, you don't like operation?" Will that cure? ""No, fool! Come one. Bring knife. Cut it. Press. Now?" "Oh, I am so relieved! You are God. You are God." Then he will see. That is our duty: purge out all pusses accumulated due to infection, material infection. This is our duty. We cannot make any compromise. When the pusses are to be purged out, we cannot take your advice, that "Just blow some air from the mouth or some fan. It will be cured." No, it will not be. Take surgical operation. That is only way. Purge out. "No this! No this! No this! No meat-eating, no..." This is purging.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Be brahmacārī, undergo austerities and rectify your, this conditioned life, birth and death. This is human civilization. Why you are under birth and death? One life remain brahmacārī and solve all the question. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). Teach them, these rascals—they are accusing, "brainwashing"—that this is civilization. It is not civilization to work hard like hogs and dogs and have sex enjoyment. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, the so-called president and leader and Gandhi, they are also another animal, big animal. So does it mean an animal big and very powerful, he has got the human intelligence? This is civilization. And when you say the right thing, that human life is meant for understanding God and prepare for the next life—"brainwash." This is life. So remain like hog, dog, camel, and asses and go on, be engaged in politics and election—"Then you are right." And if you speak against this mode of civilization—"brainwash."

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Simply work without any profit of the human form of life. And nobody is interested to correct the procedure. If we try to correct them, they will accuse us that "These people are brainwashed. They deviating these young men from the general procedure of human civilization." Hm? What is this? Illicit sex stopped? Then where is life? This is life, if young boys and young girls mix freely and have sex, and as soon as she is pregnant, you go away, let her suffer, no responsibility. The poor girl, long before, father, mother divorce—no protector.

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: The poor girl, long before, father, mother divorce—no protector. And as soon as she selects somebody husband, and as soon as pregnancy, he goes away. And old age—there is no family, no son. Ninety-nine percent the woman class live like that. How hopelessly the old ladies are sitting down—only one cat, one dog, one television. The old men also like that, hopelessness. Or drinking or seeing the television. And a dog friend. Is that life? And we want to correct it—"brainwash."

Room Conversation with Two Indian Guests -- January 27, 1977, Jagannatha Puri:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Go back, they do everything. They remain the same thing, simply rubberstamp. That's all. (Bengali) ...an actual fact. So they are seeing it is dangerous. They say, "It is epidemic. Brainwash." (Bengali) ...that once gone, this camp, Hare Kṛṣṇa camp, never return. Finished. (Bengali) ...compromise nei... Individually, family-wise, when the boy goes, he's gone forever. (Bengali) Hari-śauri! (Bengali) (Bengali) Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66).

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Therefore we say that... We say, "They are rascals," and they say, "These are rascals, brainwashing." This is the position.

Hari-śauri: The demons and the demigods.

Prabhupāda: I say "These rascal scientists are brainwashing," and they say, "These rascal Kṛṣṇaś, they are brainwashing." (laughs) This is the position. But so far us, we have got some support and we have got authorities, and these rascals, they have no authority. They simply speculate. So even we are rascals, they are... Among these two rascals, we are better rascal, (laughs) not they are better. That's all.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

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..."

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, we have to say, "We have never tried to brainwash. We have done exactly according to śāstra, authority. Here is the evidence. We have not manufactured anything. The evidence is here." They must read all the books. They cannot reject. The Hare Kṛṣṇas... That is their charge. They'll find in every page Kṛṣṇa at least ten times, that "This is Hare Kṛṣṇa." All the books, there must be Kṛṣṇa's name: "This is Hare Kṛṣṇa." I think you should take defense, in that way.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Gurukṛpā: And they will say, "If we read it all, we'll become brainwashed too." They'll say, "You're trying to brainwash us also."

Prabhupāda: That is my duty. You are trying to brain, my brainwash; I am trying yours. That is going on. That is the tussle. You are trying your best. It is a wrestling. You are trying your strength; I am trying my strength. That is... Otherwise where there is fight? There is no question of fight. You don't agree with me; I don't agree with you. You have got right to not agree with me; I have got right not to agree with you. Now let us settle.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Gargamuni: They must be fired immediately.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have brainwashed. They are brainwashed. So they should be dismissed.

Gargamuni: Even Jimmy Carter, he gave one "Thank you for this book."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Satsvarūpa: One man is our favor said, "If they are brainwashed, then all the people of the East..."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Satsvarūpa: "...millions of..."

Prabhupāda: Brainwashed.

Satsvarūpa: "...millions of people, they have to be considered brainwashed."

Gurukṛpā: You should drop the bomb.

Prabhupāda: Stop your Christian propaganda. Why you are doing that?

Morning Walk -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: This is also arrangement by Kṛṣṇa. Vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām. "I will arrange soldiers. Russia will arrange for military power, America will arrange for military power, and they'll be engaged in fighting so that the overburdened earth will be released from these, all these demons. And it will pave the way for Kṛṣṇa consciousness." And so long they're alive, they'll protest against Kṛṣṇa consciousness: "This is brainwash." So Kṛṣṇa will arrange war between them. Then they'll be finished, and it will be easy for us to make progress. So paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8).

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So you take the paddies, rice, eat, and the grass you can utilize in so many ways. Anywhere you can till the ground, you get paddy and the grass. Make your cottage. So shelter is there. And the animals also like this grass. You can make home. Where is the scarcity? Plain living, high thinking, and prepare for next life. Go back home, back to Godhead. Finish this hellish life of repeated birth and death. There is no knowledge. And when we try to give them this knowledge, they say, "You are brainwashed. You have imported some new way of life, style of life. Brainwash." So our European, American devotees, they like rice? No.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: They ignore spirit completely. Although they cannot understand, cannot replace. Just like the body. The body is smashed, but what was the element keeping the body? This simple thing they cannot understand. There are two things, matter and spirit. Unfortunate. When we speak of spirit, they take it as brainwash. So fool. So you can take it so long I am resting. (break) ...correctly. Then the dīkṣā-guru (microphone moving). If you like... Then he is dīkṣā-guru. Then guru. So śikṣā-guru becomes dīkṣā-guru. But guru means one who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa and teaches properly. That's all.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is very good argument, that these rascals have never produced life, and why do they say like that? It's good argument because they say that "We have not seen; therefore we don't believe." They're experimental. But you have not experimented. Why you push? Why you brainwash my brain?

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Satsvarūpa: Dhīra Kṛṣṇa got a statement from the Brain Research Institute and said the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa is very good for the brain.

Hari-śauri: Brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: You have got that?

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Actually it is brainwash, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), but it is for the good. People are suffering with these dirty things within the brain. We are washing them. That is brainwash actually.

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Satsvarūpa: "Indian Brain Research Association, Department of Biochemistry, University of Calcutta. Gentlemen: The Hare Kṛṣṇa kīrtana mantra used in meditation or chanting of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa has been practiced not only by the Vaiṣṇavas of India, but by most of the Hindus as a regular religious and social practice in Hindu families. Millions of Hindus practice with sublime devotion the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. We are not aware of any case where such practice has resulted in any detrimental effect to the health or mind of anyone. We can submit that the worshiping of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, as being practiced in West Bengal, India, does not differ from that of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra chanting of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. And as such, either of them cannot do any harm to the devotee or to the observer. Further we can add that the rhythmic dance and musical (Bengali:) svara in Hare Kṛṣṇa kīrtana mantra may have profound beneficial effect on a distorted human mind. These practices do not have any relation with brainwashing, although the word seems to carry no scientific meaning at all. Statement by Professor Ajit K. Mytee. Yours faithfully, J.J. Ghosh, President on behalf of the Indian Brain Research Association."

Prabhupāda: It is good certificate. And University of Calcutta. So you publish this.

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. There was big lawyer. In those days he was earning not less than thirty-thousand per month. Rajbery Ghosh, Doctor. He was Doctor. So in one case he brought so many books in the court, the judge remarked, "Well, Dr. Ghosh, You have brought the whole library?" "Yes, my lord, just to teach you law." (laughs) No, any statement we give, it has to be considered. They cannot neglect. So you can simply put these books, eighty-four books: "This is our statement. You read them. Then give your judgement." How do you think? Did you consult any lawyer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We're going to do it. It can be done.

Prabhupāda: "It is not brainwash. It is science. You have to know the science." And actually that is the fact. The court case is going on.

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) They want to speak brainwash, and here is the university psychiatrist. He says, "No, it is not brainwash." So handle very carefully.

Brahmānanda: The judge that we have is very ...

Prabhupāda: Sober.

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They must know what is the value of this mission, brainwashed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have a man who is very much eager to fight this case.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is wanted.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And he's a first-class fighter.

Prabhupāda: And give him hint. This is wanted.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: She had been dictated to write like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. But probably they did some brain thing to her.

Prabhupāda: That is brainwash.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That is brainwashing. In fact, they may have given her shock treatments and drugs. They give very heavy drugs with the idea that they will make her forget about Kṛṣṇa, and now they will bring her to court to testify against the Society, that "They did this to me. The Society was making me do this and this, and now I'm much healthier."

Prabhupāda: No, then the authorities are, mean, determined to stop this.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Canada, Australia. The problem is that... Actually it's a fact that many of these groups are bad. They're cheating. Of course, ours is not, but because they're not very intelligent, they cannot see the distinction. Probably as a result of this court case, we will make them aware that now the other groups are bogus but we are not. That they'll have to admit. That will be the effect. But at least up until now we are being lumped in with these other bad groups. Cults, they call them. But it's a very dangerous thing. Therefore the lawyers and all of the scholars and intelligentsia of the United States is very alarmed that this is a great treading on human rights. This is a great danger to human rights because the Fifth Amendment of the... The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the freedom of religion. But according to these laws that they want to pass, a parent can say, "It is not a question of religion. My son has become abnormal." So who is to say what is religion and what is abnormal? They are saying, "This is not religion." So we have to prove, "No, this is... Hare Kṛṣṇa is a religion." Otherwise they are saying this is abnormal. Now, just... Our lawyer has pointed out that if you say that the devotees' preaching is brainwash, then you must say that every single Christian priest who preaches, he is also brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: ...brainwash or brain-giving, that "This movement is not brainwash; we are brain-giving. Where is your brain? First of all you must have brain; then it is a question of washing. But you have no brain; you do not know what is this life. So we are giving, brain-giving movement, not brainwashing movement." On this point. "Where is your brain? You do not... You cannot explain what is the difference between a dead man and a living man. You have got so many big, big scientists, philosophers. You do not know. So where is your brain? First of all put your brain; then it is a question of washing or... So it is not brainwashing; it is brain-giving movement. Unfortunately you have no brain; therefore you misunderstand." On this point the Bhagavad-gītā will explain. What do you think? "Brainwash or brain-giving?" This should be the heading.

Ādi-keśava: Yes, this is good.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: "So whatever the cause, but you have no brain. Cause may be so many things. But you have no brain to understand the simple truth. Where is your brain? So this movement is not brainwashing. Brain-giving. You have no brain." Therefore śāstra says, sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Animal has no brain. They say animal has no soul, but that's not the fact. Animal has no brain. Otherwise, all anatomical, physical, physiological conditions are there. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna. But they have no brain. They cannot understand what is the difference between dead man and living man. That is the distinction between man and animal. But if you cannot understand, then where is your brain? On this point. Actually he has no brain.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That you cannot do, falsely taking prestigious position that you have got brain. Actually you have no brain. Cheating people." Write articles on this. They have no brain at all. (Bengali) In India there is a prejudice that you should not lie down putting your head towards northern side. Whatever truth may be, one man was asked that "Don't keep your head toward northern side." So he answered, "Where is my head? The head is already cut off." So these people are like that. They are making propaganda of "brainwash," but where is your brain? Challenge them, "Where is your brain?" Cannot answer this simple thing. "Where is your brain?" Write a strong letter on this point and try to publish it. "If there is brain, there is question of washing or doing something else. But where is your brain? You have no brain."

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They cannot understand. No brain, exactly like the dogs and cats. The dog cannot understand that "Within my body, I am." They cannot. Therefore you are no better than dogs. And actual fact is you are not this body. You are within this body. It is a dress. In so many ways Bhagavad-gītā teaches, but you have no brain. Then where is brainwashing? You have no brain to understand your real position.

Pradyumna: Ah. They say... When they say brainwashing, they think they're losing their intelligence by our movement. But actually they have no intelligence to begin with.

Prabhupāda: No begin...

Pradyumna: If we prove that...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They have already studied. They can explain.

Ādi-keśava: And perhaps we can include something that they are saying. Right now they are making one article to show that this description they have of brainwashing has nothing to do with chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, that it is not even the same process. We saw one book that the psychiatrist sometimes quotes from, and in the book they had pictures of people at a Christian prayer meeting, and they were falling over and holding snakes, poisonous snakes. And they think that we are doing the same thing. So we're also trying to establish that this has nothing to do with our Kṛṣṇa consciousness or chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Are we... Why this analogy? Are we taking the snake?

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: It is a good chance for explaining our mission. You should very carefully do it. Finish. Lay it... (break) (someone enter and offers obeisances) I was talking with Ādi-keśava that "There is no question of brainwash, but you have no brain." You have to prove. "How I have no brain?" "Because you do not know what is the difference between a dead man and living man. For centuries in the history, you people, you had no brain that whether the body is important or the active principle which is working within the body, that is important. You have no brain." Challenge them. Which one is important? The body's important or the active principle which is moving the body, that is important? What is important? Hm?

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So what information you have got about the active principle?

Tripurāri: They have no information.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No information.

Prabhupāda: Then there is no brain. Where is the question of brainwash? You have no brain at all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They'll say that they have so much science and culture.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, but you do not know what is important. Science... I understand science is very important. And the Professor Einstein, a great scientist, as soon as the active principle is gone, you kick on the face and he is not seeing. So which is important, the face of Mr. Einstein or the active principle within that? Have you got any information? Then where is your brain?

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The different scriptures like the Bible say that there is a soul.

Prabhupāda: Don't bring now scripture. We are talking in common language, common sense, that within... You cannot understand it. Therefore where is your brain? The dog also cannot understand. He's simply identifying with this body, and you also doing that. So where is your brain? Man is rational animal. Where is your rationality? If (you) avoid rationality, you are as good as dog. Where is your brain? Argue on this point. Dog... If one big dog thinking, "I am greyhound " or "this big body I am..." The lion also thinking, "I am so powerful. I am this body." So I am also thinking like that: "I am American, very rich." But both of them—no understanding that how you are powerful, why you are powerful, what is that active principle. Then where is your brain? Why man is important than the animal? It is common sense. So it is not brainwashing, but it is giving brain, this movement. They have no brain at all. So argue on this point. Our challenge is that "You have no brain. Where is the question of brainwash? You cannot understand the simple thing, which is important."

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is the proof. Now, if the real active principle has left, the brain has left, the mind has left—it is only a lump. You cannot understand. If you understand it, then replace it. If you cannot, then you have no brain. You have to prove that, that "You have no brain at all. Where is the question of brainwashing?"

Hari-śauri: But if we operate on a person's brain, actual brain substance, it affects his personality. So therefore the personality in the brain is the same.

Prabhupāda: Whatever you know, you give this man brain, mind, and again let him get up and work. I want this.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: The dog has also brain: "Where there is food? Where there is sex?" He has got brain. Not that brain. That brain, everyone has got. Even a small fly, it has got. So think over like that and place very intelligently in the court. The... Prove that "You have no brain at all. This movement is giving, brain-giving. Not brainwashing." You have to prove. Not brainwashing but brain-giving.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can say it from our own realization.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. Then one who has got brain, he immediately understands. But you have no brain. We have to make you understand in so many ways, still you do not understand. So where is your brain? Anyone has brain, he will understand that when I say that "This man is dead," something has gone out of his body. Anyone can understand.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How will your movement give anybody brains?

Prabhupāda: As other things are giving brain. Just like a dull, a dull child is educated and he passes M.A. examination. He becomes very intelligent person by education. This is their education. Even if you have no brain, I can give you brain. So it is not brainwashing; it is brain-giving. But because you are rascal, you'll not accept.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: But we can say that... Their accusation is that one loses identity. They say we are brainwashing, lose our identity.

Prabhupāda: Then you do not know what is your identity.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So next point will be that where you think beyond your capacity, we begin our education from there, seeing the... Our education begins from that. First of all try to understand what is spirit. Then it will... And our whole process is how to transfer one person from the material platform to the spiritual. Therefore they are thinking "brainwash." The fools, they cannot understand where our education begins. Where they have failed, we begin from there. Where they are disappointed, that "This cannot be answered," so on, we begin from there. So who is intelligent? We are intelligent or they are? We are trying to bring man from this gross misunderstanding, misidentification platform, to come to the spiritual platform.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Different platform, different field.

Ādi-keśava: We can say that, to the common people, "These persons who are saying that you're being brainwashed, 'You are losing your identity,' they are cheating you, because actually you don't know what your identity is. You have no identity, and they're telling you that you already know."

Prabhupāda: And therefore I say "You have no brain. Where is the question of brainwash?"

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: "I force you. You accept this"—your personal choice.

Ādi-keśava: That is them returning someone to personal choice. You see them dragging them off.

Brahmānanda: That's the mother.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the mother, the father and the kidnappers.

Prabhupāda: This is personal choice.

Ādi-keśava: They're saying, "You do not know what is your personal choice. You have forgotten. Now it is brainwashed away. Otherwise you would remember. So we are doing this for your own good." They call it "rescuing." They say that "We are rescuing him from this Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: So everyone can say by force to do something is good.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Brahmānanda: Well, they feel that this is what the parents want, so the parents are justified in doing this to their children. The parent has the right to dictate what should be the choice of the child.

Prabhupāda: How long?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Unlimitedly. No age limit. They ask, "Supposing your child is fifty years old." The mother said, "It doesn't matter how old. Even fifty years old. If they have lost their brains from this brainwashing, then..."

Prabhupāda: But is that the law of the country?

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: We are getting a type of body according to karma.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ

hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati

bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni

yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

(BG 18.61)

This is a yantra. This yantra is, this machine, body, is offered by the material energy under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So actually they do not know the laws of nature, laws of God. Ignorant. So we are trying to deliver people from this gross ignorance. And they do not know the laws. Naturally they'll think "brainwashed."

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Without egg where is chicken? Where is that example? Why you are talking again? Where (laughter) is that chicken made? Rascal. Without egg where is the chicken? So challenge them like that. Prove them that they have no brain. So there is immediately, automatically... "You have no brain. Where is the question of brainwash?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's a good one. This will be... This will astound them. It will put them back twenty foot. They won't know what to reply. They're coming in one way, and you're giving them a whole other...

Brahmānanda: It's not a defense. It's a offense. You're not defending; you're making an attack. You're not apologizing that "We're not brainwashing." We're saying, "You don't have a brain to begin with."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Where is wash? (Bengali) In Bengali there is one word. In Bengal it is (indistinct), to keep the head on the northern side.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Head lying. No. "Keeping the head northern side." (Bengali) So if one man was asked that "Don't keep your head on the northern side," he says, "I have no head. Where is the question of uttara dike?" (Bengali) So first of all prove that you have got brain; then the question of brainwash... You have no brain. You are all dull stone. Where is the question of brainwashing? Prove them. This is very nice. Humorous, at the same time very nice. People will observe. Prove that they have no brain.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: You talk with them again. They're intelligent. You can talk, yes. It is recorded again, again.

Hari-śauri: Yes. I'm making spares of all these tapes, so they can take them back with them and listen to them.

Prabhupāda: All tell, "You have no brain. So where is the question of brainwash?" That you have to prove, that "You have no brain. You are all dull-headed, animals." This is our challenge. "And animals cannot... Their brain cannot be washed, but washed, I have brain, yes... Because a human being, we have tried. At the present you have no brain. All useless."

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Pradyumna: Then we say also ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). We say "washing."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is brainwashing, yes. It is required. But at the present moment you have no brain. You have got stool in your head. So it has to be washed. What is the wrong there? If you give, "machine." You say "machine," we say it, "machine," this body. This body is a machine. You also accept; I also accept. But you, can you produce a machine like that? If the person who has made the machine, He has got brain, you have no brain. And that is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). This is cara, moving machine, and there is standing machine. Just like tree, that is also a machine.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Pradyumna: I was just remembering that verse, sattvaṁ śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam (SB 5.5.1). They will fight to the... They will say, "Yes, you are washing the brain." Sattvaṁ śuddhyet.

Prabhupāda: Washing is required because you have no brain. Instead of brain, you have got some stool. So therefore it requires washing. Washing is required because you have no brain.

Pradyumna: It is covered by ignorance.

Prabhupāda: It is covered by the stool, so it requires washing.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I think the restaurants make a big part of their business from that tiffin business in Bombay. Our... These other religions, just like Christianity, Judaism, they are accepted by the people and by the government because the people who are part of their religions are very normal in terms of doing business and society, etcetera. But we are very exceptional in every way. We don't...

Prabhupāda: Therefore they say "brainwash."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We don't fit into the normal pattern of things—no jobs, no proper dress. Everything's strange to them, because we don't want their culture. It is so abominable.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is brahminical culture. They don't want it.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone is from divorced family. Jayapatākā's mother, my parents, Brahmānanda's parents. Brahmānanda's mother called him. We think that they were trying to deprogram Brahmānanda, because the second day that Brahmānanda arrived in New York, suddenly his mother called. How could she have gotten news that he was coming to New York? We never told her. But as soon as he arrived in New York she called him. So we ascertained they are listening to all of our telephone conversations. And they know. They are writing. The deprogrammers are writing to all of the devotees' parents in the movement, and they are going and talking to the parents, saying, "Do you know what your son..." or "Do you know what your daughter is doing? Are you aware that your daughter has lost all of her free choice? That they're being brainwashed now by this cult? That they are giving her... They have spoiled her whole life?" In this way they try to pollute the minds of the parents who are innocent.

Hari-śauri: They're doing that everywhere, too. In Australia they're doing the same thing there, too.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they know all of the devotees' parents' names. Because the few devotees who do become deprogrammed, they give them all the names they know. And they have some informers within our temple also. All of our parents have told us that the deprogrammers contacted them.

Prabhupāda: They're organized.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Purchased title. These deprogrammers are doing very active campaign work by getting entry into the schools, the public schools, to speak to the children in the age groups of twelve, between twelve and fifteen, junior high school, high school age. And they're making presentations to them about these different groups like ours, to beware of our groups. To beware of our groups. In other words, it's actually very bad because these children are innocent, and from a very young age now they're being told, "Watch out for the Hare Kṛṣṇas. They will brainwash you." Of course, that makes us even more appealing.

Prabhupāda: That is our advertisement.

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: You can bring case against them. Just like fight in same position, that brainwashing. Not brainwashing. Whatever they have said.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bring a case against them?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Back to back.

Evening Darsana -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: You find out that man. (Bengali) ...chai ne, drinking ne, smoking ne. It became too much inconvenience. Wife is separated. This is tapasya. It cannot be accepted by ordinary person. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). Tapasya begins from brahmacarya. And brahmacarya means "no," so many. No "yes." Only "no's." "Not this, not this, not this." It is very difficult. Therefore the Americans are surprised: "How our sons have accepted so many 'no's' unless there is brainwash? And this man knows some mind control, and he's controlling their mind, independence. Bas. Deprogram. Capture them." This is the... "How our sons can accept so many 'no's'? " And important items—no meat-eating, no illicit sex, no intoxication. Everything, life, is no. (laughs) Rāyarāma said, "It is simply 'no's.' " He left. What is their daily necessity, all "no." The same thing is happening now, that "How they have accepted the 'no's'? It is brainwash, mind control." Lord Zetland said, when he was offered these "no's," he said, "Impossible for us. We cannot give up this." And I was also thinking in the beginning, that "As soon as I propose this 'no's,' they will say, 'Go home.' (laughs) No more preaching." And it is Kṛṣṇa's desire, they accepted so many 'no's.' I was not hopeful that these American young boys or gentlemen will accept these 'no's,' because I heard, "Lord Zetland said, 'It is impossible.' " If they go to a, one goes to a restaurant, he must find out one illicit woman. Is it not? It is not the practice, that they should go to a restaurant with one girl? Otherwise he's vagabond. (Bengali) He was ten years in London. He has good experience in villages. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Bengali) Sit down. (Bengali) "...that you cannot become happy without Me. Therefore I advise you, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66), aham tvāṁ sarva-pā-I'll give you..." (break) Kṛṣṇa yei bhaje sei baḍa catura. Therefore only intelligent person is he who is Kṛṣṇa conscious. All fools. Mūḍhaḥ nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. (Bengali) (break) One dayānika,(?) what is that? If he, that time, one paisa, if he could collect two annas, oh, he would encourage him like anything.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: Because they can't think of anything beyond that...

Prabhupāda: Fools. "Therefore you have no brain. It requires to be washed. Your brain is filled up with stools, so we have to wash it. What can be done? Our, this business is washing. We cannot foolishly... We are sweeper on behalf of God, and we are engaged to wash your stool in the brain. That is our business." (laughter) You can say, "Yes, brainwashing, yes. Because you have got so much stool in your brain, we require to wash it." Tell like that. "We are engaged by Kṛṣṇa. Because you are satisfied, instead of having a real brain, you have got stool in the brain. You are so rascal, you are satisfied. But we are seeing, it is so obnoxious, hampering your existence. Therefore it is my thankless duty to wash it. You should have thanked me, but you are so fool, you are condemning."

Ādi-keśava: Because they have stool in their brain...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: ...they can't think that anybody else has anything better.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So we have to wash the stool. "Yes, it is brainwash." Tell them that. This is the truth actually. "You do not know what is the aim of your life. You are claiming, 'human being.' The dog does not know what is the aim of life. The dog is eating, sleeping, having sex and defense. Your whole education system is based on these four principles. Where is that university which is teaching more than this? You have got technological knowledge. Then what is the purpose? The purpose is how you'll get good bread. That's all, eating. What more? Suppose you have become very good technologist, good title. But what is the aim? You get good salary and eating. That's all, nothing more than that. Or sleeping, good apartment. Or sex, very nice girl." (aside:) Come on. "What else you have got by this education? Nothing... Nowhere it is taught that 'You are eternal. You are suffering in this way.' Where is that education?"

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: We are washing their brains because they have not washed the brains of their children.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Actually it is brainwashing, educating. (break) "You take this. This is our aim. Remain brahmacārī, no bother. Is that bad? You will have your sex unrestricted and make your wife pregnant and kill him and eat him. You'll be implicated with so many sinful activities, and if I say, if you are so much afraid, 'Don't have sex,' what is the wrong there? And you are thinking, 'Oh? No sex? It is so brainwashing, mind-controlling.' But what is... You want that in a sinful way. We want in a pious way."

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: Actually they all need brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: Yes, "Every one of you require, because your brain is filled up with stool. You have no brain. Brain is covered with stool." What they will answer?

Satsvarūpa: That "If I want to have a stool brain, it may be lamentable, but don't force me to be washed.

Prabhupāda: It is not force. It is no...

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Actually this is the fact. But they are fools. They still like to lick up new vagina. Exactly dogs. We are restricting that "Give up this business, licking of vagina," and they are seeking up to the point of death another vagina, another vagina, another... Which is better? If we say that "Give up this nonsense business," is that brainwash? And if it is brainwash, it is for good. What is this civilization, who is never satisfied? The same business is going on up to the point of death. Our civilization is: "All right, you are attached to vagina-licking. Do it up to fifty years. Then give it up." This is our civilization. "You are so much accustomed to the vagina-licking business—up to fifty years, so long you are young. Then give it... Don't do it anymore." This is our civilization. And that also, after twenty-five years. For twenty-five years teach him, "It is no good business. Brahmacārī. Remain alone. You have got so much botheration." If he's still unable: "All right, take one wife. Be satisfied. Lick up one. And then, at the age of fifty years, give up." This is our... Is that wrong?

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What they will understand about this Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Hari-śauri: There's not very much hope for them.

Prabhupāda: Help is for everyone, but if they remain stubborn to their own way of life, then it is not possible. They have to wash the brain. Otherwise it is possible.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can get this light on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Washington, March 18th. The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement was called a 'bona fide religion' yesterday by the New York high-court justice who threw out two charges against the officials of the movement of 'illegal imprisonment' and 'attempted extortion.' A charge had been preferred by an angry parent that his son, as well as another disciple, had been held by the movement illegally and that they had been brainwashed. 'The entire and basic issue before the court,' said the Justice in dismissing the charges, 'is whether or not the two alleged victims in this case and the defendants will be allowed to practice the religion of their choice, and this must be answered with a resounding affirmative.' Said Mr. Justice John J. Lee, 'The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is a bona fide religion with roots in India that go back thousands of years. It behooved Merrilee Kreshower and Edward Shapiro to follow the tenets of that faith, and their inalienable right to do so will not be trampled upon.' " This is all quote. " 'The separation of Church and State must be maintained. We are and must remain a nation of laws, not of men. The presentment and indictment by the Grand Jury was in direct and blatant violation of the defendants' Constitutional rights.' The Justice said that it appeared to the court that 'The people rest their case on an erroneous minor premise to arrive at a fallacious conclusion. The record is devoid of one specific allegation of a misrepresentation or any act of deception on the part of any defendant.' The Justice said, 'The freedom of religion is not to be abridged because it is unconventional in its beliefs and practices or because it is approved or disapproved by the mainstream of society or more conventional religions. Without this proliferation and freedom to follow the dictates of one's own conscience in this search for the approach to God, the freedom of religion will be a meaningless right as provided for in the Constitution. Any attempt, be it circuitous, direct, well-intentioned or not, presents a clear and present danger to this most fundamental basis and eternally needed right of our citizens-freedom of religion.' "

Prabhupāda: Hm. That is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement has been under pressure from various groups, and this judgment is expected to stop some of the harassment to which it has been subjected in recent months."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Very good.

Prabhupāda: So you purchase some copies.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many of our enemies in that brainwash case, they are starting to say, "This Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is the greatest threat to our modern civilization."

Prabhupāda: They?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Oh, yes, they said it. In the newspaper it was reported.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they say, "It is spreading like epidemic." What is that?

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

Rāmeśvara: I have also gotten different letters from the state government of California, the mental hospitals that we're visiting. These are official letters on their letterhead. This one... I'll read the best one. "Dear friends, it is a great pleasure to thank you all for the extraordinary party you gave for Residence 32. The clients on 32 loved your chanting and enjoyed clapping along with you. This simple activity allowed them to take part in the fun and warm spirit. Everyone really liked the tempura-like cauliflower," the pakorās, "that you brought. It was a very tasty and special treat. We at Fairview," a very famous state hospital, "we at Fairview were so impressed with the way that you related to the clients on the residence..."

Prabhupāda: So these are the recommendation how we wash brain.

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: Śrīla Prabhupāda? My mother left this morning, and she wrote a letter to you. I'd like you... If I could read it... "Śrīla Prabhupāda: I am sorry to hear of your illness. Jayapatākā tells me swift changes in temperature cause many illnesses in Māyāpura. A place so beautiful must have its thorns. May your recovery be soon. It was auspicious for me to have met you. Not having seen my son for so long, finding him in the midst of God's blessings at ISKCON with a spiritual master of such great repute was humbling in its magnitude. Perhaps in some small measure I can help parents understand what their children are into and weaken their weapons. This visit will be shared with others. It was propitiously enjoyable. As far as fund-raising, there is a seminar on new methods I am trying to get to, but Kṛṣṇa seems to be pulling me back. Perhaps tomorrow I will be able to go to Calcutta and Delhi. I will be corresponding regularly with Jayapatākā. In a few months I plan to move to California. You have taken good care of my son. You have brainwashed the cobwebs of materialism (laughter) and elevated his soul. Your goodness radiates to all who meet you. May God bless your body with good health. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jayapatākā's Ma."

Devotees: Haribol!

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Mr. Koshi: Yes, I saw the review in the Times of India also. But there was a lot of controversy there. It was called brainwashing and all that.

Prabhupāda: There are so many accusations. Now in the court has acknowledged, "It is genuine."

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Girirāja: We have to show that this is scientific fact. Otherwise the demons will make propaganda that this is sectarian.

Prabhupāda: "Brainwashed." They say "brainwashed."

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So if he has already talked with Morarji, and he has agreed, then it is great advance.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The origin of life is Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). From Brahmā we have come. And Brahmā is generated from Kṛṣṇa. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Paraṁ satyaṁ dhīmahi. So let them come forward and discuss. So we have to prove to the world that it is not brainwashing. It is real knowledge. Why you should keep it suppressed and leave the people in ignorance? It is not your duty to bluff and cheat. That is not science. You are cheating people and getting Nobel Prize. That we have to..., in a large scale.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Everyone is prejudiced. But who is rightly prejudiced who is wrongly prejudiced. That is everywhere. Just like materialistic person will think, "Brainwash. These rascals, they have given all up material enjoyment, and after some phantasmagoria they sacrifice everything. Brainwash." And we are thinking, "Oh, these rascals, got this human form of body, he did not understand what is spiritual life." Both of them—he is rascal and he is rascal. This is going on. Yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī. Is it not? They say, "Brainwash. Unnecessarily they've sacrificed everything." And we say that he got the human form and unnecessarily he is working like cats and...

Room Conversation about Mayapura Attack Talk with Vrindavan De -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Restrict, that instead of myself, he has to restrict: "Do this way."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Including go to the court. This boy writes further. He says, "They claimed I was brainwashed by Śrīla Prabhupāda and the devotees, and they were here to get me to think for myself again. They kept me up for ten hours at a time for so-called deprogramming, just blaspheming Śrīla Prabhupāda and Kṛṣṇa and telling lie after lie. Finally they let me go to sleep, and in the morning it was time for more blaspheming and lies. But by Kṛṣṇa's mercy I was able to escape out the front door of the house," he says, "which was unguarded. I ran down my block barefoot and was able to get to my friend's house. I told him the story. He gave me enough money to get to a nearby temple. There I served Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and had the association of my Godbrothers, who are most dear to me. There I spent the happiest time of my life as a devotee with the association of the Brajabāsīs. Being a devotee of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, there's nothing like it-singing, dancing, taking prasādam, being happy and free from anxiety all the time. It is just a blissful life. All Kṛṣṇa wants is for us to be happy with Him. I called my parents and told them that I was doing fine and that I had even gained seven pounds in weight. They had the police looking for me all over the place in only a minute, and they finally showed up. Mahārāja felt it was best that I go back and clear things up with my parents and with their consent come back. But they refused to let me go, and instead put me through a one-month deprogramming session. This time I was unable to escape. But now Kṛṣṇa has pulled me through, even though I'm forced to live with my parents. They are nice people, but they just don't understand about transcendental life. But they will come around sooner or later. I cannot keep any Vedic literature at home, so a friend lets me keep it at his house, and I read it during my school lunchtime. I am not able to keep japa beads to chant on, so I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa on rosary beads. I'm sixteen years old now and going to school, where I am taught little of any value. It is sometimes difficult to remain Kṛṣṇa conscious out in the material world, but I pray to Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda to help me become strong and desire to serve Kṛṣṇa more and more every day. I will be able to join the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement in person in two years, which isn't very long considering that I have waited to serve Kṛṣṇa for millions of lifetimes. If you have the opportunity to serve Kṛṣṇa, don't waste it, because you may wind up in my shoes in your next life. Hare Kṛṣṇa." This is...

Prabhupāda: If one man is turned by this, the movement is successful. So there is good prospect, good hope. And you all combine together, try. Push this movement more and more.

Room Conversation Varnasrama -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, everything he needs to know, he can learn at home.

Prabhupāda: That's what I... Similarly, weaver, that cloth weaving, "kat, kat." The wife is spinning, her husband is weaving, the children is weaving, and combinedly at the end of the day there is a cloth. And people were satisfied with simple necessities. They would not charge very much for the labor. And one nice cloth requires half a pound cotton. Half a pound cotton means maybe one rupee. Another one rupee for the labor. So now they are paying twenty to thirty rupees. Unnecessarily he has to earn this money and pay to the millionaires, and he will keep three dozen motorcars, so another man will be engaged in motorcar industry. In this way time is being wasted without any search after spiritual realization. Time is wasted in such so-called technology advancement. And the real purpose of life, jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā, that is missing. And when you present that "This is the most important business of life," they say, "It is brainwashing." And they fight to check us, Communists and others, that "It is useless, God consciousness." (break) (long pause) So... Jāniyā śuniyā biṣa khāinu. Because they are missing the aim of life, they are committing suicide. And this varṇāśrama-dharma was planned in such a way that everyone would be spiritually advanced. The weaver will get, the potter will get, the blacksmith will get, the brāhmaṇa is already there, kṣatriya will get—everyone. For them, lower-class men, demigod worship. At least they are accepting there is some higher authority. Among the blacksmith there is viśvakarma-pūjā. One day they will wash all the instruments of blacksmith. Somehow or other, all are cleaned. And with the fruit, with flower, candana, they'll worship.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is our answer to that? Our reply?

Prabhupāda: What you can reply if you conclude something like... They have no idea of spiritual life. This is disrupting, na dhanaṁ na janam. We don't want this. And they want it. So how you can reply? Everyone wants this, and we say, "We don't want." How you can make compromise? Therefore they say "emasculated." In your country also. "Why? What is the wrong, illicit sex? What is the wrong, intoxication?" They say, "Brainwash. Why not?" Is it not? It is very difficult to push on this movement. Still, we are going. That is Kṛṣṇa's grace.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, you appreciate, but in the modern world who will appreciate?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say something is wrong with Haridāsa Ṭhākura.

Prabhupāda: Brainwash.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Tamala Krsna -- Vrindaban 30 October, 1976:

There are so many men over 30. Are they brainwashed? It may be a minority in your country, but in other places it is the majority. The diamond seller caters to a minority. Why are they allowed to sell. Always when there is something valuable only a minority will be able to purchase. Our books are not commercial, they are religion and philosophy.

They are now feeling the weight of this movement. Formerly they thought these people come and go, but now they see we are staying. Now we have set fire. It will go on, it cannot be stopped. You can bring big, big fire brigades but the fire will act. The brainwash books are already there. Even if they stop externally, internally it will go on. Our first class campaign is book distribution. Go house to house. The real fighting is now. Krsna will give you all protection. So, chant Hare Krsna and fight. One movie expert has opined there are so many ideas in our movement. Try to get our ideas into movies.

Letter to Ramesvara -- Vrindaban 24 November, 1976:

Everyone is changing bodies. Regardless of his so-called faith, the Christians as well as the Hindus are changing bodies. This is science. There is a Bengali story. A deaf man used to call his wife. She would reply, "I'm coming!" But, he couldn't hear her. He would think, "The women's deaf." Actually he was deaf but he accused her of being deaf. Similarly these people are brainwashed and they are accusing us of being brainwashed. This we have to prove. We have the real science. This should be preached and proven in the courts. Use this article as evidence and with a good lawyer prove that Krishna Consciousness is the real science and that all others are brainwashed.