Burden (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"burden" |"burdened" |"burdening" |"burdenless" |"burdens" |"burdensome"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- September 24, 1969, London:

Prabhupāda: But do you like to do that? Suppose you are making very nice arrangement in this apartment to live. And again, after, say, one hour you are asked, "Now quit this place." So are you not disgusted?

Guest (1): Yes, I am interested.

Prabhupāda: So why this point is not coming? This is ignorance. Just like animals, they do not know why they are laboring so hard. Just an ass. An ass is piled with cloth, you know? In your India. But whose cloth, why he's so much bearing burden? For a little grass only? That he does not know. Therefore he's called ass. Ass is working so hard, but he's not, he does not know if the cloth does not belong to him, but he's piled up with... (Aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. ...tons of cloth and he's bearing. He's bearing. Therefore they have been... These karmīs who do not know for whom he's working, they have been described in the Bhagavad-gītā, mūḍha. Mūḍha means ass. Na māṁ prapadyante mūḍhaḥ duṣkṛtino narādhamāḥ, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā āsuraṁ bhāvam aśritāḥ (BG 7.15). These things are there; in the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find. Wherefore you are coming?

Gurudāsa: Bury Place.

Discussion with Guests -- December 23, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: What proof is that is illusion?

Guest (3): No, no. Wait. The burden of the proof lies on you because I don't claim it is cotton. You claim it is cotton. So...

Prabhupāda: How do you say it is not cotton. First of all prove it.

Guest (3): Initially...

Prabhupāda: No! First of all prove it that it is not cotton.

Guest (3): No, no. One moment. You claim that it is cotton, therefore the burden of the proof lies on you inasmuch as you have to prove...

Prabhupāda: Everyone will say it is cotton. Everyone will say it is cotton. That is proof. Everyone will accept this is cotton, made of cotton. Who will say this is not made of cotton? But if I give you a lump of cotton instead of shirt will you accept it?

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Less than! Cow is supporting the whole society with milk. Every morning, without milk, we cannot live. The child, without milk, cannot live. She should be treated as mother. And they are being sent to the slaughterhouse. And still, they are thinking of becoming free from sinful life. Can anyone kill his own mother? "Oh, mother is old and useless. Let her be killed. Burden." Is that very gratitude for the mother by the son?

Revatīnandana: They do that. As soon as the cow is too old to give milk, immediately slaughterhouse. I was talking to one man, he was a cowherdsman here in England. He said he couldn't stand it. He said a nice cow, she would get old, she couldn't give milk anymore, immediately slaughterhouse. Just like that. The most disgusting thing.

Prabhupāda: (people coming in) Oh. You come forward. Give him seat. Śivānanda, you come... You can sit there. Yes. So the God consciousness can be awakened if you stop sinful activities. Otherwise, it is impossible. You go on preaching for millions of years; there will be no God consciousness. There will be no God consciousness. That is the... in Bhagavad-gītā.

Room Conversation -- December 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: The body is already there, according to your karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). It is already given to you. So people should be satisfied. Just like when I got this body of an ass, so you can test. And the advantage and (indistinct) that ass is meant for becoming beast of burden. He has to do that. Similarly, there is a body, the hog, he has to eat stool. So we should know it, that either we are born in such a country, such society, the body is there, and I can get my happiness and distress according to this body. This is settled up. But they do not know. They're simply trying to, unnecessary wasting time for bodily comforts. "Oh, you are so comfortable. Let me try." Huh? "I shall try also." So Prahlāda Maharaja says, "No, don't waste your time like that. Your time is very valuable."

So that was Vedic civilization. Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, everyone is expert, but every is engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is no bodily barrier.

Room Conversation -- December 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: No, that is not. In any body, any circumstances, you can cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But not material. But people, they do not know. They think that "Kṛṣṇa consciousness there is no need, but let me improve my bodily comfort." This is called illusion. He cannot improve, even by an inch, the burden, but still... But you can improve, or you can purify, your consciousness. That is open to you, oh, irrespective of bodily (indistinct). And that is actually happening. You have got a different body from the before. (indistinct) But everyone, your taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Kṛṣṇa says, "It doesn't matter what kind of body you have got-low born, or high born, or this born or that born. I have no such restriction. If you want Me, te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7), you are all My parts and parcels. Every one of you are equally important to Me." And similarly, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa also sees. He does not see the outward cover. He sees that "Every living entity is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. So he is now forgetful of his real position.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: At least, they can take by shaving head means it cleans, cleanses. The head is not overburdened with unnecessary... (laughter) We want clear brain, and that is the system, Vedic system. All learned scholars, they cleanse head. Cleanse head. Yes. And at least we get relief. A little hair growing is also burdensome. We cleanse. So it is personal convenience. So that is not the point of preaching.

Author: No. But, sir, I see... I don't... I think it would be very difficult to explain the meaning of having a bald head, and by saying somebody's got a bald head, the reason for this is, there seems to be some cleanliness and so on, and to explain why people wear clothes like this. It's impossible surely to explain the reasons for these things without describing them in the first place.

Prabhupāda: Explain... Any group of men, they have got a particular type of dress, the military dress, the police dress. So people can understand that "Here is a police." Similarly, by this dress they will chant, "Hare Kṛṣṇa!" immediately. That is our experience. As soon as they will see these people, "Hare Kṛṣṇa," and if they will criticize our, anything, we want that people see us and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That we want. Simply by seeing us they will remember Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is great advancement. Indirectly that is our propaganda, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Mmm?

Brahmānanda: The future is very bad because of their military burden. Atomic bombs. This is what the scientists have created. They're thinking a bright future, but actually the future is...

Prabhupāda: Very dark.

Brahmānanda: ...seems very dark.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Idle brain is a devil's workshop. If they're not directed, then think like devil. We are thinking rightly because we are taking direction from Kṛṣṇa, the most perfect. Therefore our thinking has meaning. And what is the value of their thinking? It has no value. Now we are thinking... Just like, take the first instruction, that within this body there is the proprietor of the body. You can go on thinking: "Then am I this body?" So you can think on your finger. "I am this finger?" The answer from the within will come: "No, you are not finger. It is your finger. It is your finger. You are not finger." If I am finger, then if I cut my finger, why shall I not die? If I am finger? Therefore it is my finger. Just like I'll never think that I am this stick. It is my stick. That is thinking. That is thinking.

Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: It is very nice. It makes the head cool, not with big bunch of hair, burden. We feel it burden. When there is bunch of hair, we feel it is an extra burden.

Reporter (2): An extra burden on the mind?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reporter (2): Makes it, weighs heavily on the mind?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sometimes you have to take...

Reporter (2): So that's the reason why? It makes the mind lighter?

Prabhupāda: No. Actually if you keep clean yourself, then your mind is also clean.

Reporter (2): But it is... Is it really because hair presses down on the mind? Is that true?

Haṁsadūta: It's a burden, troublesome.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 6, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is the position. "You wanted to become a sera. All right, you become a sera. Jump over some animal and immediately suck his blood." All facility is—the nails, the teeth-given. But is he happy? But everyone thinking that "If I could become like this, I would have been happy." So Kṛṣṇa gives all chance. "All right, you become this." This is transmigration. This is transmigration. (break) ...yathāndhair upa... We are thinking something like that, and Kṛṣṇa is giving us chance, "All right, you take this chance; you become like this." Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). But it will not make you happy. Therefore ultimately says, sarva-dharmān. "You give up all this rascaldom. What I speak, you can accept. That is your dharma." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam... (BG 18.66). That will be beneficial for you, the most confidential instruction. There is that story that one old woman, she was suffering. And she had to collect woods from the forest and sell in the market. So one day, how do you say, she was praying to Kṛṣṇa, or God, that "Kindly help me. I am in very poverty-stricken." So one day, she was carrying that load of fuel. It fell down. So nobody was there to help him. So she began to cry, "Who will help me?" So she began to pray to God "Kindly help me." And God came: "What do you want?" "Who are you, Sir?" "I am God." "Kindly help me to take this burden on my head." Yes. "All right." From God, she's asking, "Please help me to get this burden on my head." That's all. So everyone is going on, "Let family be very happy, my son be married. He may... Let him pass MA examination." But it is the same thing, "Give me the burden on my head." This is the prayer. Mūḍhāḥ. Na māṁ prapadyante mūḍhāḥ (BG 7.15). The life was meant for understanding Kṛṣṇa and worship Him, and he's asking, "Give me the burden on my head."

Morning Walk -- March 6, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone is asking, "Please help me to get this burden on my head." Everyone is asking. (break) Kṛṣṇa mantra means asking nothing from Kṛṣṇa, but only praying, "Please engage me in Your service." This is Hare Kṛṣṇa. Now let him engage, whatever service He likes. I don't dictate that "Give me this service." That is also sense gratification. As soon as I'll say that "Engage me in this type of service," that is also sense gratification. When one surrenders fully that "Engage me in Your service in whatever way You like," that is pure devotion. You cannot dictate Kṛṣṇa. Because He wants, sarva-dharmān... "First of all surrender, then I will give you. I will allot what kind of service you can do." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva... (BG 18.66). But if I dictate, then Kṛṣṇa will be..., "All right, you take this." Then you again become unhappy. Don't dictate Kṛṣṇa. Be dictated. That is happiness. But everyone is dictating, "Please give me this. Give me this. Give me that. Give me that. Give me this." Why should you dictate Kṛṣṇa?

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

Prabhupāda: The mūḍhas: those who are grossly foolish like hard working beasts of burden. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor by themselves and do not want to part with them for the Supreme. The typical example of the beast of burden is the ass. This humble beast is made to work very hard by his master. The ass does not really know for whom he works so hard day and night. He remains satisfied by filling his stomach with a bundle of grass, sleeping for a while under fear of being beaten by the master, and satisfying his sex appetite at the risk of being repeatedly kicked by the opposite party. The ass sings poetry and philosophy sometimes, but this braying only disturbs others. This is the position of the foolish fruitive worker who does not know for whom he should work. He does not know that karma, action, is meant for yajña, sacrifice. Most often, those who work very hard day and night to clear the burden of self-created duties say that they have no time to hear of the immortality of the living being.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Guest (1): Because all over the developing world there are millions of mothers who would not get any great quantities of protein while they are pregnant. In the first instance before they are pregnant, they are not nutritionally prepared for having another burden of a baby inside their body, and without that adequate preparation when they become pregnant, this is a double stress on their physiological systems. And we would like to see how the baby gets affected.

Prabhupāda: So if by chance there is baby, killing. Is that the conclusion?

Guest (1): No, our conclusions just say that there is a critical period in the development of the baby that if it does not get any good nutrition at that time, then he's likely to be retarded in many respects.

Prabhupāda: Therefore?

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Amogha: I saw some asses in the university yesterday. Asses and monkeys. One professor was working so hard he was almost crying, because he had so many exams to mark. So great burden on his mind.

Paramahaṁsa: Isn't it, then, if one is happy, that's all that counts? If his happiness is also relative. So if I am a monkey...

Prabhupāda: No. There is absolute happiness. You do not know that. We are meant for that, because we are living beings. But on account of your ass quality you do not like to understand. Mūḍhā nābhijānāti.

Amogha: My parents used to tell me that nothing can be absolutely true, because everything is really finer shades of grey.

Prabhupāda: He has no idea what is absolute truth. He is in darkness. He does not know there is absolute world. This is the relative worlds.

Television Interview -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: First of all try to understand that you depend. The... After man and woman unite, there is children, and the man goes away, and you are embarrassed. The woman is embarrassed. Why? Why this is, is made possible? A man and woman unites, and the woman becomes pregnant, and the husband goes away. Then the poor woman is embarrassed with the child. She has to beg from the government. So do you think it is very nice thing? The Vedic idea is that woman should be married to a man and the man should take charge of the woman and the children independently so that they do not become a burden to the government or to the public.

Woman reporter: Do you think the social unrest...

Prabhupāda: I am thinking like this. You give me the answer. Simply you go on questioning. I question you, do you think this burden to the government or the public is good?

Television Interview -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: I am thinking like this. You give me the answer. Simply you go on questioning. I question you, do you think this burden to the government or the public is good?

Woman reporter: I don't understand what you're saying.

Nitāi: Do you think that the burden caused when the husband goes away from the wife, that burden to the government is good?

Woman reporter: No.

Prabhupāda: So that has happened. Because the woman does not agree to be subordinate—she wants equal freedom—so the husband goes away and the woman is embarrassed with the children. And it becomes a burden to the government.

Woman reporter: Is there anything wrong when the woman works?

Prabhupāda: There are so many things wrong. But first thing is the wife, the woman, the wife of somebody, and the child born by somebody, they should become burden to the government or to the public. First of all answer this thing. Why she should become burden to the government? What is your answer?

Room Conversation after Press Conference -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: So she is already dependent on nature's law that man is free from becoming pregnant and the woman has to take the burden. Then where is the independence, equal right? Equal right means sometimes man may become pregnant, sometimes woman may become pregnant, but why only woman should become pregnant and the man goes away and she has to take care of the children, beg from government or this and that? Is that independence? Eh?

Satsvarūpa: For them, the independence has become contraception. "I don't have to have the child," they say.

Prabhupāda: That means you commit another sinful activity. Then you become dependent on nature. You'll be punished. The punishment goes to you. In this way... And the whole thing becomes cumbrous. So where is the benefit of equal right, independence? Phalena paricīyate. We have to see the result of every action—whether the result is beneficial. If the result is not beneficial—the action is not beneficial. There is cases of rape cases. The victims are women. Why the victim is not man? Why? In every rape case the sufferer, or the victim, is woman. And why not the man?

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1975, New Orleans:

Prabhupāda: It is zero, because it will not save you, because tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) you have to change your body. So you have earned so much millions and billions of money. That's all right. But you have to go empty-handed. The money will remain here. You cannot take that money within the tomb. That is not possible. Then it is zero. You are going empty-handed. You came empty-handed and going empty-handed. You came with zero and you are going with zero. So whatever you have earned, that is zero. But if you have attempted to serve Kṛṣṇa with all these zeros, then you have taken some value. Then Kṛṣṇa will see: "Oh, he has done so much for Me. Let him come." Otherwise zero. What is the value of your skyscraper building and billions of dollars in the bank? You cannot take it with you. And this is called māyā. You cannot take it with you; still, you are struggling hard day and night. This is called māyā. Not a single farthing you will be able to take with you, and still, you are simply happy. They are called "asses." Just like asses, they have so much big burden, but nothing of the burden belongs to him.

Walk Around Farm -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The animals, bulls, should have helped in spite of that... instead of that machine. Then it is properly utilized. And others, they cannot utilize these animals. Therefore, what they will do? Naturally they will send to slaughterhouse. But we are not going to send to the slaughterhouse. Then what we will do? They must be utilized. Otherwise simply for growing food that the cows and bulls we engage ourself? You are already feeling burden because there are so many bull calves. You were asking me, "What we shall do with so many bulls?"

Nityānanda: Well, when they grow up we will train them as oxen.

Prabhupāda: No, what the oxen will do?

Nityānanda: Plow the fields.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is wanted. Transport, plowing fields. That is wanted. And unless our men are trained up, Kṛṣṇa conscious, they will think, "What is the use of taking care of the plows (cows)? Better go to the city, earn money and eat them." Which one? Huh? That? We shall get on?

Morning Walk -- September 13, 1975, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: If we don't work hard they say, "You are a burden on society.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: If a person doesn't work hard day and night they say, "You are just living on society."

Prabhupāda: That I am explaining. The day and night is that pig is working. That I am explaining. Then what is the difference between the pig and me if I am also working hard like that pig? Huh?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There's no difference.

Prabhupāda: Then why you say you are advanced civilization? That is forbidden. Kaṣṭan kāmān na arhati. It is not desirable; it is not good. You are given this body different from this pig because you will live peacefully and happily. Why should you accept kaṣṭan kāman, so hardship? Actually they do not want to work hard. Otherwise why the proprietor, the capitalist, they leave the factory and go to a solitary place? Why does he go?

Press Conference -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: And keep the head light instead of unnecessarily burdened. In the Kali-yuga there is a symptom. It is stated in the... Lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam: "In the Kali-yuga people will think by keeping long hairs he has become beautiful." This is the mentality of this age. Lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam. You can write this. Lāvaṇyam means luster, and keśa-dhāraṇam means keeping hair.

Guest (3): By preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness would you condemn other people's beliefs?

Prabhupāda: We must condemn anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious. We say... I don't condemn; Kṛṣṇa condemns.

Morning Walk -- October 18, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: The European lady will never take a burden on head like this, but Indians, they do. Even respectable family woman, they also carry on the head. You will find many Gujarati. Simple living is natural.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: How is it that the Europeans especially, they have become the vanguard of rascal culture?

Prabhupāda: Because they are rākṣasas. They are eating meat and drinking wine and illicit sex. Rākṣasa civilization. Hiraṇyakaśipu means... Hiraṇya means gold, and kaśipu means soft bed. To learn, this is rākṣasa civilization. They are searching after soft bed and gold mine, hiraṇya.

Morning Walk -- November 8, 1975, Bombay:

Indian man (3): God has to go to burden this one also?

Prabhupāda: Eh? No, no. This is the difficulty, that whatever I am doing... Therefore I am very much in anxiety when the government says, "Now you go away. Your visa is finished."

Dr. Patel: From here?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Your visa from here?

Prabhupāda: Mine, no. My disciples! Dragging.

Dr. Patel: Well, government... I have heard like this, but government think that in this group there may be some those C.I.A. people. I don't know whether they are right...

Prabhupāda: Let government supplies some men who does not belong to the C.I.A. And where is that? That is all.

Dr. Patel: That is what they say.

Prabhupāda: They may say anything nonsense.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: "...who shouldered the burden of the mighty mission of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. That great personality is President Ācāryadeva, his holiness Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivilāsa..."

Prabhupāda: But you... Jaya morena apne morol.(?) This great personality, why he is not accepted by other disciples? How he became a great personality?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. If one proclaims himself to be the king and no one...

Prabhupāda: No one accepts him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What kind of king?

Prabhupāda: That is called in Bengali, jaya mane apna morol.(?) Morol means the leader of the society, of the village. Here there are morol. So in the village nobody cares for him, and he declares that "I am morol."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That person is insane.

Prabhupāda: Nobody cares for him, and he is thinking that "great personality." Where is his greatness? Who knows him? Just see. So he is making a plan to declare himself a great personality.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: He said, "In proper time he got a great personality who readily shouldered the burden of the mighty mission of Sarasvatī Ṭhākura." That's implying that he is the one responsible.

Prabhupāda: He says... his impression is like that. Then?

Bhavānanda: "In all preaching work, everybody felt the sober but encouraging hand of Śrīla Bhaktivilāsa Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Śrīla Prabhupāda never did anything without consulting him first or without his consent. So all the desires for future work of Prabhupāda Śrīla Sarasvatī..."

Prabhupāda: He does not mention his name. He says... All right, go. His sannyāsī name is... All right. Then?

Bhavānanda: "All the desires for future work of Śrīla Prabhupāda Sarasvatī Ṭhākura used to come to the present ācāryadeva as an impulse first, which he translated into action at once. In spite of a hundred hindrances from so-called religionists with a vision of a future worldwide mission, Śrīla Prabhupāda established Śrī Caitanya Maṭha at Śrī Māyāpur, the birthplace of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, on the Phālguna Pūrṇimā day, the seventh March, 1918, which was a red-letter day in the history of theistic religious revival in this age.

Morning Walk -- March 2, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have seen In Vṛndāvana.

Gargamuni: ...a burden for maintaining our temples because there's so many of these women and children with no husbands.

Guru-kṛpā: Actually, in...

Gargamuni: Because they do not take marriage life seriously in this age.

Guru-kṛpā: In the temples, they engage the brahmacārīs to support the householders.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guru-kṛpā: The brahmacārīs are supporting the householders.

Prabhupāda: How?

Guru-kṛpā: Well, they are doing the saṅkīrtana and collecting the funds, and the householders are spending.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...nature. Uparvata pani.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Bumblebee. He collects little honey here, little honey there, wherever.... And not one place so much honey. So this is called bahudaka. Not to collect lump sum, food, from anywhere. To any gṛhastha a sannyāsī can go: "Please give me a little piece of bread." So that is not difficult. "All right, take." Because many sannyāsī may come, so it is not burden, little piece. So as soon as it is sufficient piece, that's all. It is called bahudaka. Then, when he's further experienced, then preaching country to country, place to place, go on preaching. That is parivrājakācārya. And when he has sufficiently preached, then he can sit down anywhere. That is paramahaṁsa. (break) ...system. In every big temple there is shenai. All through the year, morning, night, not only temple, rich man's house. And they are so nice player that early in the morning, people, the resident, will rise by hearing the shenai. And at night they will go to bed and sleep hearing the shenai.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: He is shaving, and people blindly, closing eyes, and he has got a razor. He can immediately cut. But why do you do this? Because you have faith that "These people are professional barbers. They are shaving so many other people. They will not kill me. All right. Go on." This is faith. And if you have no faith, then you will never have clean shaven. You go away. So beginning is faith, but faith should not be blind. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). You have to take faith from great personalities. That is faith. Just like you American boys and girls. You began with faith. Without faith nothing can be.... Ādau śraddhā. Just like people come, and they get some faith that "So many people are following Swamiji." So he associates for some time. Then he offers himself for initiation. This is the way. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). And bhajana-kriyā, if he agrees with spiritual master and takes his word, then anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Spiritual master says, "You should not do this," and if he follows, then automatically his unnecessary burden is cleansed. This is the way.

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (2): (break) ...very much burdened, because they have some obligation to God. So therefore now they want to.... They consider it an obligation.

Prabhupāda: Obligation we must follow. That I have already said, that you have obligation to the state, you must pay tax. Otherwise you are criminal. So obligation must be there. If somebody is giving you protection, you must be obliged. If you don't feel obliged, then you'll be punished.

Hari-śauri: Gratitude is a sign of intelligence.

Prabhupāda: Stena eva sa ucyate (BG 3.12). In Bhāgavata it is written that everything belongs to God. You take whatever is your necessity. You take more, then you'll be punished. This is Bhāgavata's statement. So now the business is to become capitalist. He's taking more, holding the whole stock, at least in India. It is not coming to the market, and people are starving. So they will be punished. (break) ...also. The excess grain they are throwing it into the sea. So they'll be punished. They are also waiting, (Sanskrit). (break) ...spiritual communism. Don't take more. Just like the natural birds, if you keep one bag of rice here, he'll come, but they will take three, four grains, and they'll go away. And if you ask a man, "Here is some stack of rice." "Ah, I'll take." Immediately finished. One man will take it the whole stack, everything. "Oh, I've got it free. Let me take it."

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Equal rights. The rascal father has left, and poor mother is carrying the burden.

Rāmeśvara: She chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa just by seeing us.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. There is no other way. We are the only shelter for these forlorn women.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have to give them shelter.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, certainly.

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: "The white man's burden," they called it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (pause) Prabhupāda, wherever you walk, the water turns off.

Candanācārya: The entire Golden Gate park was cultivated by men.

Rādhāvallabha: Instead of planting grass by the roads, they are now putting green rocks. They figure it looks the same, and it saves money.

Kīrtirāja: They are also planting plastic grass in the middle of the road.

Hṛdayānanda: No opulence.

Rādhāvallabha: In Russia now they have declared one..., that it is a big crisis. Because their grains did not grow properly, they are not able to produce as much meat, so now one day a week everyone is forced to eat fish. So they are lamenting. They were describing how..., about the good old days were when you could go and buy an entire carcass.

Candanācārya: (break) ...country, build cities and then spend billions of dollars to make the city look like the country.

Prabhupāda: Carvita-carvaṇānām. Chewing the chewed, again and again. This is their position.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Daughter is also son. Son and daughter are the same position. If they are not educated, they become burden. Apaṇḍita, means not educated. Then they become burden, simply eyesore. That is another place he states: varam eko guṇī putro na ca mūrkha-śatair api. Ko 'rthaḥ putreṇa jātena yo na vidvān na bhaktimān. What is the use of such children, of son, who is neither a devotee nor a learned man? So, kāṇena cakṣuṣā kiṁ vā cakṣuḥ pīḍaiva kevalam. Just like blind eyes. What is the use of it? It is simply pains giving. You have got eyes, but if it is diseased, cataract or something, so what is the use of possessing these eyes? Sometimes it becomes so painful that the doctors, they pluck out. You know that? They get out the eyes completely, and decorate with a false eye. This is very delicate place. Even a small grain enters, it gives so much trouble. So if the eye itself is diseased, it is very, very painful. Therefore sometimes he plucks out. Kāṇena cakṣuṣā kiṁ vā cakṣuḥ pīḍaiva kevalam.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. This is printed by the Indian community, one man, Anand Singh, and he included part of an article from the Back to Godhead magazine. There's one article in here also, the front page is a whole.... There's a racket they had going, these people, this man. He went to India and he found one widow, and he said, "I am a personal friend of the Prime Minister of Canada. Give me money, I'll take you to Canada. You can come. I'll make sure you get immigration status." So she came with him to Canada, and then he started blackmailing her, "Give me this much money every day, otherwise I'll reveal that you're an illegal immigrant, and you'll be in trouble with the government." And eventually it became such a burden that he simply killed her, cut her into three pieces and killed her. Then they found parts of different bodies like this, and they finally found the man.

Prabhupāda: The woman was killed?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, this happened in Toronto. Wretched world.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Hari-śauri: They used to call that the "white man's burden."

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. So these English people, they were very expert in making propaganda. They killed Hitler by propaganda. I don't think Hitler was so bad man. What do you think? You are Englishman. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: It's getting.... (laughs) Just from hearing you speak in the last few months I can understand that the whole history that I was ever presented in school is completely warped around to the way that the English saw it, especially the last two centuries, when the British empire was on the move. It's completely...

Prabhupāda: But actually, the war was between Germany and England. Others joined, some interest or something. Actually, the war was to be fought between England and Germany.

Jagadīśa: There's one devotee who joined in Toronto, Frenchman, and he was in France at the time of the war. He's an older man. And he told me also.... His father was French, but he was sympathetic to the Nazis, and that it was actually Maxmillian or one of the Frenchmen who sided with the British, but the majority of the French people didn't mind the German occupation. It was due to one of the political factions siding with the British that there was a French underground and...

Prabhupāda: France, they are always enemy of Englishmen. There is is old history-Hundred Years' War, Seven Years' War. Napoleon also wanted to cut down the Britishers. France is dead enemy of England, and there is always competition.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: German people still hate England. They do not like to speak in English; that I have seen. In the bank they know English, but they won't speak it. English everyone knows. The Kaiser was against. They said that Kaiser is the grandson of Queen Victoria, from daughter's side. And King George from the son's side—Edward's seventh son. They were cousin brothers. So this Kaiser, when he was young boy, went to paternal uncle's house, when he was a young boy. So there was some playing, cut with a knife. So royal family, so many doctors came. So the boy was saying, "Why you are trying to cure it? Let the English blood go away." So from the childhood he was so inimical, that "I have got some English blood in my body, my mother is English, father German, so let the English blood go away." I do not know if that is fact, I heard it. (laughs) Maybe. It is joking also and serious. In our childhood in school, a book was there, "England's Work in India." One Mr. M. Ghosh, he wrote this book just to flatter the Englishmen. This, that "white man's burden." And it was the impression in those days: just to become like Englishmen, that is civilization. The Parsees in Bombay, they were the first-class flatterer, imitation, how to become like English lords, barons. This Tata factory was started by such ambition.

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: He eats too much, they say.

Rāmeśvara: Too much burden.

Bali-mardana: Because he's eating, and he is not able to go and hunt, they send them out to die.

Prabhupāda: The Communists also, they'll do. All old men should be killed. That time is coming. Don't become old. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You are teaching us to remain young forever, Prabhupāda.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: One must become Kṛṣṇa conscious to become young.

Prabhupāda: So many difficulties will come unless there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66), if you want to be happy.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now who is saving India?

Rāmeśvara: They say the "white man's burden." They came to make India civilized.

Hari-śauri: They showed us this...

Prabhupāda: Therefore all the śāstras, they bring it within Christian era. Before that, India was uncivilized. And if they accept all the Vedic literature, so exalted, then they have to accept Indian civilization. That is their propaganda. Simply propaganda, that's all.

Rāmeśvara: That's why you say Darwinism was started by the English...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: ...to discredit the Vedic literature.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's just like a bunch of demons.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems like it's such a concerted effort, a conspiracy of all the leaders of the world.

Rāmeśvara: Greed conspiracy. Leaders, the bankers they say.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's another deep point. Scientists are pointing to the bankers, each group points to the other, and they all cheat together. Just like we used to do... (indistinct)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: These demons, Śrīla Prabhupāda, all of them are dehātma-buddhi?

Prabhupāda: Yes, all they have.

Morning Walk -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Indian man (3): But then you see after the childhood and the young age and when he becomes old and after old also there is end you know, when he becomes helpless to do anything, then what is the use of having this body? Even your own relations, they'll feel that this is a burden. So at that time I think it's very good, that person himself should feel that all right, he must leave this body now. It's useless.

Prabhupāda: No, he doesn't want.

Indian man (3): No, some people don't want. Or many people don't want. There are a few, I think maybe one in thousand.

Devotee: Does this mean Śrīla Prabhupāda, we should not speculate about the future. Like if someone says, "Next year we should do this," and so forth. And "Next month we'll go here and we'll do that." And people are always making arrangements for the future and what they are going to do. With nothing in mind that death will take them within a flash. And they're making all these speculative arrangements.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So this must be stopped immediately. We cannot pay more than five thousand. You stop. We cannot pay. (Hindi) My Guru Mahārāja used to say, (Bengali) "Joint mess." This is not possible. That we have to maintain a big bundle of burden. What is this?

Akṣayānanda: But still, we have to welcome anyone who comes.

Prabhupāda: Twenty-five thousand, thirty-thousand per month? What is this? Where is that temple in Vṛndāvana who is spending twenty-five thousand, thirty thousand? Can you say any temple?

Indian man: Not more than five thousand.

Prabhupāda: That's it. So we cannot pay more than five thousand.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Because once BBT India starts making profit, then the burden on BBT America will also be lessened. BBT India can start giving money for construction and other things. I foresee that if BBT India goes on, next, in 1977 we should make a profit of at least twenty-five lakhs rupees, twenty-five to thirty lakhs.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. And open center village to village, town to town. Pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma. (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) See first printing is very first class and it is distributed very widely. Not shabby thing. No. Just like our Godbrothers, they printed... They have no printing; still, whatever they print, all shabby.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Full of mistakes.

Prabhupāda: Full of mistakes. Full of mistakes, the get-up is not good, but they'll sell. And they print only in Bengali.

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

Prabhupāda: This is civilization, that running, congested, hanging on. These rascals...

Rāmeśvara: Their famous phrase was "The white man's burden."

Prabhupāda: Unless they made such propaganda, how they could stay? They must give some plea that "I am staying for their benefit." That was the propaganda all through. And any Indian who would agree to say in the League of Nations and when there is conference, "Yes, we are so much benefited," he would be made secretary, governor. The flatterer, he would be made governor.

Rāmeśvara: So they kicked the British out, but they still have the British system.

Prabhupāda: They have learned this. They have been accustomed... And by nature they are not, I mean to say, dovetailed to this system of life.

Room Conversation -- January 20, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Then what will happen to this boat?

Gargamuni: No, we can use both. But we want to expand the program.

Prabhupāda: Hm. So I have no objection. Money can be supplied, but it may not be another burden. That's it.

Gargamuni: No, we'll investigate the ship because in Calcutta is a very big center of shipbuilding.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: They build big ships there. And we don't have to limit our traveling simply in the river. We can also go along the coast of Bengal and also Orissa. There's so many villages. And if we have...

Prabhupāda: Orissa... That means you have to go by the sea, Bay of Bengal

Room Conversation -- January 20, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So I have no objection. You consult amongst yourselves. I want expansion, that's all, some way or other. (laughs)

Gargamuni: But you can rest assured that I will investigate and see.

Prabhupāda: Don't make it a burden. If it is properly utilized, do it. All right. Take rest. So you want this...? (break) This is the only camp connected with that unfortunate sunhouse? (somehow?)

Indian man (1): That's... I am wondering

Indian man (2): (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Indian man (3): (Bengali)

Devotee: It is not the first day that it has happened

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Room Conversation -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Oh, oh. So why government? We can take charge.

Gargamuni: Yes. See, whenever the government takes these temples, it's a burden for them.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: So why not we will take and we will take care?

Prabhupāda: Yes. So this is under...

Gargamuni: I think they should be approached.

Prabhupāda: ...Orissa government?

Gargamuni: Yes. I think so.

Prabhupāda: And why not?

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Brahmānanda: Burden of proof.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is your duty, not us. You have to prove it. (break) And now don't go to the court with any other dress. Preach like this. Preach there with this dress. Have they any objection with this dress?

Hari-śauri: In this dress.

Ādi-keśava: I agree. I think it is very good that they see us dressed like this in court.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we should...

Ādi-keśava: They will understand what we are.

Prabhupāda: We shall...

Hari-śauri: We have to represent our religion properly.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Just like our Rādhā-Dāmodara temple, it was established... This temple was established by Jīva Gosvāmī. He was brahmacārī. So how these gosvāmīs, they are worshiping? He had no sons. It was... The temple was established by him, but the worship was transferred to the gṛhasthas bhakta. So they are doing by generation. All these Vṛndāvana temples, Govindajī temple, Rādhā-Ramaṇa temple, Rādhā-Dāmodara. Rādhā-Ramaṇa temple, he was also brahmacārī, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa. He did not marry. Jīva Gosvāmī was brahmacārī. Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmī, they sannyāsīs. So how these gṛhasthas got this sevā? They were disciples, gṛhasthas. So gṛhastha disciples were meant for worshiping Deity. And others, they are meant for preaching. This is the primary principle. So if you are engaged in preaching... Deity worship, it must be done in scheduled time, this time, this time, this time. Then that is very difficult for you. Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not do that. He was traveling alone, preaching, preaching. So it will be great burden to carry Deity.

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1977, Mayapura:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, at the end of the first week of April, or in the middle of April at the latest. Then, in about six months, I have decided to finish the book we have been writing. So by six months' full time, all three of us together can work hard... There's a lot to be studied, studies, studies. So I've made a proposal for the three of us in which we'd work real hard for six months to finish the book. And then, by that time we would have the first volume of the journal plus the book. So we can go out for preaching. We can all have the material for... Just speaking, sometimes it's so difficult for others to understand what's there. They want to really study our work. And then we can also do some saṅkīrtana while we're preaching. Then in the future we might also be self-sufficient, not supplying any money from BBT. It will be a burden to the BBT fund, and so also we wanted to generate so that it can be self-sufficient, rather than donation by BBT.

Prabhupāda: They pay for scientific lecture. When there is some scientific lecture.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (reading:) "Hoxar pleads for healthy land-man relationship. Mr. P. N. Hoxar, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, yesterday pleaded for developing a healthy and rational land-man relationship as the foundation to build the socio-economic superstructure. Unless such relationship is developed through proper land reforms, it is useless to talk about science and technology in employment-oriented planning, he added. Eighty percent of the people live in the villages and till the land which they do not own. The holdings were fragmented and the tenant was uncertain. They were burdened with debt to such an extent that they could not pay them back and fell into bondage of one sort or another."

Prabhupāda: Another rascal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "He said that industry must rest on a secure foundation and a healthy land-man relationship. It cannot rest where man owns thousands of acres of land and villages, but stays in Calcutta or Patna and is only interested in collecting money."

Prabhupāda: That I say always. Hm.

Room Conversation -- April 13, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now you have to do so many things. (laughs) Yes. Another burden. You have to do all these things. So how your preaching?

Girirāja: Very good. Haridāsa had gone to Poona, and in two days he made four life members, and he was getting a chance to meet some big people, so he asked me to come. It was very nice. I met one young man, about thirty years old. He's one of the nicest men I've met in a long time. He really agreed with everything we were saying, and he's...

Prabhupāda: Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ (SB 2.3.19).

Girirāja: Well, he agreed that the modern civilization is a failure and that people are not happy, that people were more happy before.

Prabhupāda: It is a dangerous civilization. You... You should... (pause) Dangerous civilization that labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte. After many, many millions of years one gets the chance of becoming a human being, especially civilized and especially in India. They will bring the same. And Kṛṣṇa personally says that if this chance is missed and a person does not become God realized, then he again returns back to the..., to the... Today I am a prime minister. Tomorrow, if I become a dog... What is this civilization? And they will have to become. Nature's law we cannot avoid. And there is no question, "Why you are touching me?

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

Prabhupāda: Why he should feel? If you have to work, you have to work for Kṛṣṇa.

Bhakti-caitanya: Actually we are taking a burden from his back...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhakti-caitanya: ...just to go here and there. And I am picking up much responsibility between...

Trivikrama: One other point is Raj Kumar Gupta, that man who is so devoted. He's now sitting in Delhi.

Prabhupāda: So you combinedly do. That will be...

Bhakti-caitanya: I am sure that if... With your blessing... Because Gupta is very influential in Delhi, and Delhi, we will also be able to get the men sitting in the rear(?) if we want, because he has so much influence in the ministry now.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They're very strong. It says, "We have maintained, through your never-ending kindness, for two years or more financially in terms of our daily operational requirements and household support. Now I'm looking for ways of relieving Bhaktivedanta Book Trust of the burden at once. Deity making, the saṁsāra trailer, and other such enterprises will provide means for our maintenance and research expenditures..."

Prabhupāda: Oh, very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "...which in this project will inevitably increase constantly as we take on more and more ambitious undertakings."

Prabhupāda: From Bhāgavatam you can make hundreds and thousands of doll exhibits. Each stanza of Bhāgavata will give you ideas of dolls. The karmīs can be exhibited... Dharmasya hy āpavargyasya (SB 1.2.9). This śloka can be explained, what is the meaning of religion, by doll exhibition. When you do it I shall give you ideas how to.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If he cannot stay, let his medicine remain and let him go. But if you think that I am burden now...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, that's not what we think. We will never think that. There will never come that time.

Brahmānanda: We are the burden, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are the cause of your disease, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Brahmānanda: You have to drag us back to Godhead. That is a very big burden.

Prabhupāda: So as you think... But this morning I was fainting.

Bhakti-caru: That is because this parikrama is very strenuous, Śrīla Prabhupāda, this jerking and swinging.

Prabhupāda: So how...? How? How we can?

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. For the time being, if by parikrama, fainting, dying, that is a glorious. That I want. Will it be great burden?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no. That's not the question, of burden. The only thing is that we want you to get better. There's no question of burden.

Prabhupāda: No, no, better...

Jayādvaita: Burden of love.

Prabhupāda: Better... If suppose I am sure to die, then where is better?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, but we don't suppose that. We're not supposing that you're sure to die.

Bhavānanda: We don't feel that at all.

Brahmānanda: I don't think there's any question that you're going to die, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That depends on Kṛṣṇa. But for me, if you give me this facility—one parikrama, and then leave me to my fate—you'll give me... Because I am not eating, so keep me whole day as I am. But if you think that I have become burden, then... (whispering) Hm?

Bhavānanda: I was just saying, Śrīla Prabhupāda, something must have happened that you're feeling somehow that we think that you have become a burden. But we don't feel that way at all, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Jayādvaita: You've given the example in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that when a capitalist has money, that's also a burden. And when the woman has a child, that child is a burden. So in the same way... But that burden is a burden of love. So you're that kind of burden, the kind of burden that's wanted.

Prabhupāda: Where is kavirāja?

Room Conversation -- November 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayapatāka: As much as you have trained us, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that is only how much we are experienced. We don't want that you be burdened any more with material management problems but...

Prabhupāda: No, not from that point of view. What is the use of lying down here?

Jayapatāka: The kavirāja said...

Prabhupāda: Kavirāja may say...

Jayapatāka: ...that even that your body is going to, is got a life of six to ten years but he said even a healthy cow, if it's kept locked up inside of a room, then it will deteriorate.

Prabhupāda: And therefore I say, (laughs) don't keep me locked up. You do your duty as I have trained you and let me be free and if money required, he'll come and take and go back again as he is coming to take book.