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Cheap (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says that he finds it very.... From reading your books it is very clear that Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very careful and strict to only eat prasādam cooked by proper persons.

Prabhupāda: No, purchase from Jagannātha temple. People would come to offer Him prasādam, so what is the cost of the prasādam, that was taken, and He purchased. Formerly, the system was, there was no hotel, but there were temples. You go and you can purchase very cheap price. I went with my father in my childhood in a place. My father would never take food at anyone's house or in the hotel. He will find out some temple and pay them and take prasādam. Still there are many temples. So I was about ten years old at that time, say, seventy years ago. So he paid two annas to the pūjārī and he gave us so much. It can be eaten by five, six men. Kicheri, vegetables, varieties. So much. Two annas.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: That is not good.

Jayapatāka: But now we've got some crops growing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means that land should be very cheap.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He can sell very cheaply. It's very low land.

Prabhupāda: Now you should have sufficient experience. People may not cheat you-low land, high price.

Jayapatāka: I understand. I know those things. That's why... But he was just forcing his way in your room and then saying all those things. That's why when he came I said, "How many crops you took from your land?" I know all the history of these lands.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) You cannot utilize it for different crops. Only one you can.

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: (break) You can get mosaic tiles.

Jayapatāka: It is no cheaper. We make the mosaic ourselves. We manufacture here.

Prabhupāda: So digging must begin today? The men are there for digging? So Saurabha, you give one site plan immediately. Yes. And order bricks, that's all. Cement and sand we have got. (break) ...any living entity having a material body, he has got soul. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Now preach this movement. (break) Begin also building there, like this.

Morning Walk -- February 10, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Not all of them were real Vaiṣṇava. That was my discrimination from the beginning of my life. I never liked these bogus swamis and yogis. I never liked. But my father had no discrimination. "Never mind whatever he is. He is a saintly person. Receive him." He was giving fortnightly... There was one Māyāvādī sannyāsī in Kālīghāṭa. So first of all the father was sannyāsī. Then his son was sannyāsī. So we had very good relationship with him. I also used to... Because father was going... So he would carry gāñjā for him—in those days gāñjā was very cheap—so much gāñjā and so much butter. Whenever he would visit, he'd give some red cloth, gāñjā, and butter.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your father would give him gāñjā?

Prabhupāda: That, to sannyāsī.

Morning Walk -- February 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Now you can give still cheaper, when you print here.

Acyutānanda: Yes, that is what we were wondering.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Acyutānanda: If we have...

Prabhupāda: What price you are selling?

Yaśodānandana: Twelve rupees.

Acyutānanda: Twelve rupees.

Prabhupāda: Twelve rupees. So you can sell, ten rupees, eight rupees.

Morning Walk -- March 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Siddha-svarūpa: You know that they distribute Prabhupāda's books, but they can't give them away as cheaply, that's all.

Madhudviṣa: Back to Godhead is very cheap. It is twelve cents a piece.

Siddha-svarūpa: They give those away. They give those away.

Madhudviṣa: It is twelve cents a piece. You cannot say that.

Siddha-svarūpa: But anyway...

Jayatīrtha: One of Siddha-svarūpa's men bought some Bhagavad-gītās from us in Los Angeles, several cases, so they are distributing Prabhupāda's books at least as well along with others.

Prabhupāda: No, I think...

Siddha-svarūpa: I just bought five thousand dollars' worth of Bhagavad-gītās.

Madhudviṣa: That's very good.

Siddha-svarūpa: What is it for?

Madhudviṣa: And they give them away.

Siddha-svarūpa: Thank you. Thank you, God.

Prabhupāda: No, no, even giving them away, what is the wrong?

Madhudviṣa: Well, you said we should not give the books away. You said we should sell these books.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) No, no, he has purchased. He has purchased. Then if you purchase from me and if you give free to others, so what is my loss?

Madhudviṣa: No, there is no loss.

Morning Walk -- March 9, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The biggest.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was scheming, "Whether I shall go this way, through Tokyo, Japan, or that way? Which way is cheaper?" That was my plan. And I was targeting to New York always. Sometimes I was dreaming that I have come to New York. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Bengali ) (aside:) We cannot accept food from the demons. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...supplied at least nice food. (break) You are the first time here?

Indian man (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: How do you like?

Indian man (1): Very nice.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...purify the whole atmosphere. (break) ...world we are all condemned. Still, Kṛṣṇa has given so many facilities. There is a Bengali proverb. Bondhīr astekur bhaga.(?) Ast kur(?) means the place of garbage. If a aristocrat asks that "You have to live in my garbage place," "Oh, that is also better." Similarly, Kṛṣṇa.... This is garbage. This material world is garbage. Still, we live so comfortably. Now just imagine what is His dhāma. It is the garbage tank. Still so nice. And just think what is His real place, Goloka Vṛndāvana.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Oh. So that is very costly.

Jayapatāka: Computers are very cheap nowadays.

Madhudviṣa: Yeah, it's very expensive. Actually the electricity would be very expensive, the bill, which would probably be paid by Mahatva(?). (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No, if it is very expensive, don't do it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Of course, an escalator is also expensive. If we're going to worry about expense, then... I think we should wait until we get that big building, the temple, because then, if you put it up there, it can be seen...

Madhudviṣa: In Calcutta.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even in Calcutta. But this is not very high. (break)

Devotee (1): ...ignorance, ignorance.

Prabhupāda: No, those who are inclined, they can become.

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Paper towel?

Bhāgavata: Paper towels, yes. And they asked if we wanted to buy. "Very cheap," they said, "cheaper than in the supermarket." So then we could understand where they had gotten...

Prabhupāda: (break) ...deal with such men. This material world is so corrupt. (break) ...we are not going to get that land, eh? That land? I don't think we are going.

Morning Walk -- March 22, 1976, Mayapura:

Devotee: Also that professor from Mexico City, he appreciated.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone who is after truth will accept. If he's a bogus, if you want to be cheated and cheat others, that will not. Ninety-nine percent, they are cheaters and cheated. This is the position. All these cheaters they are cheating, and they accept to be cheated. If I am very clever that I don't want to be cheated, then nobody can cheat me. But these rascals, they want to be cheated. If you say, "No, no, what is the wrong in illicit sex?" That means you want to be cheated. And if you say, "(indistinct) this swami is very conservative." This is the position. We want cheap things because we want to be cheated. And there are so many cheaters, they will take advantage and cheat you. This is going on.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Devotees.... To become devotee is not so cheap thing. You don't think that because you have got a tilaka you have become devotee. Why do you think like that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: That Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, eiṭa eka kalira chelā, nāke tilaka, galaya mālā:(?) "Here is another follower of Kali. He has got tilaka and mālā." Sahaja bhajana kacen māmu, saṅga laiyā pārera wala (?): "He is worshiping, bhajana, taking another's wife." Sahaja bhajana kacen māmu, saṅga laiyā pārera wala, ei ṭa eka kalira chelā: "Here is a servant of Kali. Simply he has changed his dress with tilaka and mālā." Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says. If you take tilaka and mālā and do all nonsense things, then you are not a devotee. You are Kali-chelā. To become a devotee is not so easy thing.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: My father used to do that. He'd go to a vegetable vendor. He has got a big basket, and he'll say, "What do you want for all, the whole basket." So he is ready because he'll sit down so long, so at very cheap rate he'll give it. And it was not required in the family so much. My mother became very angry, that "You are bringing so many, so much vegetable, it is being spoiled." But he would purchase like that. If you give him in those days fifty rupees to go to the market, he will spend all the money and bring at home. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi) We are prepared to spend. (break) ...from saintly person.

Vrajavāsī: Haribol!

Prabhupāda: Haribol. Jaya! Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...milk is cheaper than the bottle.

Dr. Patel: Just as wine is cheaper in Paris than water. I had to pay more for a glass of water. (Hindi) (break) It is not here, but...

Prabhupāda: It is in Delhi.

Dr. Patel: They should come here. So they may arrive some day.

Prabhupāda: So where is? Arrange to bring him. Otherwise they will not believe.

Dr. Patel: No, no, we believe you, sir. But we want a darśana of it. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: So ask. Bring it in the meantime. (break) ...not less than one lakh of devotees, at least, so crowded.

Morning Walk -- April 14, 1976, Bombay:

Abhirāma: I have seen in Miami Beach that one man was found dead in his apartment, and he was living poverty-stricken. His whole place was full of rats and cockroaches. When they investigated his file they found that he had eight million dollars in the bank and in stocks. But all of his friends said he couldn't spend one penny his whole life, because he was too cheap. So even though he was a rich man, actually he was a poor man.

Dr. Patel: But, sir, there are some beggars here in Bombay who have got one and two lakh rupees. You have read the railway(?) story about couple of beggars. They rounded up, and they had money.

Prabhupāda: No, I am also a beggar. I am also beggar.

Dr. Patel: That is not.... You are a rich beggar.

Prabhupāda: Millions of dollars.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: United States are giving also what we call job visa.

Prabhupāda: No, not only. Everywhere I have seen. One who is qualified, he gets very easily job in Europe or America, high salary. They get cheaper. Yes. What the Americans will accept for two thousand dollars, Indians will accept at seven hundred dollars.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: When Indians were asked to leave Uganda, the Canadian government offered free passage, but only to persons who had the material qualifications they wanted.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Qualified man is very much welcome in foreign countries. I have seen. In Canada, in America, in England, in Germany, everywhere. Because they have got so many jobs, they require so many qualified men. And here where is so many jobs?

Dr. Patel: There are so many qualified men, but no jobs.

Prabhupāda: No jobs.

Morning Walk -- April 24, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Very cheap.

Guru-kṛpā: And it is up north. It is just like India, very hot, and you can grow everything. Hot all year round.

Prabhupāda: So grow fruits, flowers, grains. Keep some men. It is very nice. (break) ...stones(?), they can go.

Guru-kṛpā: Yes. They're aren't very attracted to it.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: A little over fifty dollars an acre? Very reasonable.

Prabhupāda: Very cheap. Very cheap.

Guru-kṛpā: Less than that.

Prabhupāda: That New Orleans, our farm? It was nice.

Guru-kṛpā: Māyāpur is the best farm.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And it will be still better when our plan is made.

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

Prabhupāda: Like guru, like celā.

Devotee (2): It's a very cheap thing. Very much they're moving on the group spirit.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee (2): It's just a personality cult with no philosophy.

Devotee (1): Social club.

Guru-kṛpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, for the abhiṣeka, do we require cow urine and cow dung and tail of cow? Is it...

Prabhupāda: If available, not?

Devotee (1): Yes, we can get it.

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

Prabhupāda: Now it will be tested how much money we have got. (Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa laughs)

Guru-kṛpā: Ghee is cheaper in New Zealand than in Australia.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, first of all arrange for selling.

Guru-kṛpā: I've already sent off the letter.

Prabhupāda: And you can disvertise(?) it from New Zealand or from Australia. There can be very peaceful condition of the whole world. Simply mismanaged by the rascal leaders. Otherwise, people can live very peacefully, eat sumptuously, save time, and there is no necessity of stopping the bare necessities of life. There is arrangement for eating, sleeping, sex life also. But not like fools and rascals. Like sane man. But this modern civilization, it is insane, crazy civilization. There is a little pleasure in sex life—simply sex life, increase sex life, spoiling everything. That is crazy. Eating-eat anything, any nonsense thing, and become a hog. Sleeping-oḥ, there is no limit, twenty-four hours sleeping if it is possible. Go on, this is going on.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That's cheap.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All you can eat for two dollars...

Prabhupāda: And for public it is very cheap.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very inexpensive. And if they advertise it, they won't be able to handle all the people who come. It's such a central location.

Prabhupāda: It will be automatically advertised. When people will say, "Oh, there is a nice ISKCON restaurant, and it is so cheap and so nice," people will come. Just like in our Vṛndāvana temple, we don't advertise. Of course, that's.... People are coming by thousands. I thought that so long distance from the city, nobody will come. But Balarāma is so powerful, He's bringing: "Come out here." (laughter) Otherwise, I was.... What is that? Plowing? Yamunā was threatened.

Morning Walk -- May 26, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (5): They limit the supply so they can sell things for higher prices.

Prabhupāda: No, here the American policy, the Western policy, that if the people get easily food, they'll not come to work in the industry. That is their policy. If they get cheap food, then they won't work. That is human nature.

Devotee (5): That is very interesting.

Prabhupāda: Ha?

Devotee (5): That's very interesting.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So they want to keep them starving or in want, so they'll come and produce and make the capitalists rich. This is the system. (break) ...idea, but...

Devotee (5): It's (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: I think in here, in Hawaii, they set fire to the huts. Poor beggars, they are living in cottages, the government set fire so that they may be without home and come to work. Do you know that? Yes? You know that?

Devotee (5): No.

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

Prabhupāda: Well, government means combination of cheaters like you. What do you expect more than that? If you are cheaters, then you go to the government. Someway or other get vote. Bribe or something nefarious you do and get vote, and they become cheap government man. And then do your business. Because you are cheater, you have come to the post of prestige and power. What you will do? You know simply only cheat.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So he'll cheat more.

Prabhupāda: That's all. You have now got the power. You cheat more.

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

Bharadvāja: It's a little cheaper.

Prabhupāda: Bronze is very good.

Kīrtanānanda: I've never seen it highly polished.

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

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

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

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

Bharadvāja: Generally...

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

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

Prabhupāda: But one thing, you can send one copy of this to Vṛndāvana to take casting cost there. They're also doing.

Bharadvāja: Estimate. Perhaps they'll be able to do it cheaper in India.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bharadvāja: They'll definitely be able to do it cheaper in India.

Prabhupāda: Then if they can do cheaper, why not cast there?

Bharadvāja: The transport.

Prabhupāda: Transport is the same. You have to transport from here, they will have to transport from...

Bharadvāja: Hm. Nanda-kiśora, or someone else?

Prabhupāda: You send to Akṣayānanda. (long pause) Prahlāda Mahārāja said there is no necessity for endeavoring for economic development. Very difficult to understand this philosophy.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They have another trick. Now they make them very cheap so the cars will break down every year.

Prabhupāda: But if I don't want it, either cheap or dear, who cares for it? If I don't want that. There was a statement by some Pope that "If the crown of England is offered to me at very cheap price, so why shall I accept it? What shall I do with it?" That is the..., that if I don't want a car.... Suppose if we advance our farming program, who will want the car? Theoretically, accept it, that we shall remain in the farm. Then where is the necessity of car?

Mādhavānanda: Therefore the government will not like.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The government does not like it now because we are not going to eat meat, we are not accepting liquor, no gambling, no prostitution. So the government is already concerned. Theoretically, suppose these things are stopped, then where is the human civilization? Everything is finished. Because they have no other alternative. We have got—Kṛṣṇa consciousness—but they haven't got.

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, in that quarter where we have got our temple, the same position. Therefore we got cheap. (laughs) Otherwise, it is very costly building.

Satsvarūpa: We did not even want to take you down there last year to see it. We thought it is out of the question. And you said, "There's nothing to be afraid of. Just hold kīrtana there."

Prabhupāda: Yes. People are coming. Yesterday many gentlemen. Gradually you purchase that side land.

Mādhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we had so many people yesterday. We had about two hundred people in the temple room and three hundred people outside waiting in line for prasāda.

Satsvarūpa: They were all wandering around the grounds. It was very pleasant. So many people taking here and there, preaching.

Prabhupāda: That house is exactly suitable for our purpose in every way. It was Kṛṣṇa's desire.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: That was the mission of Hitler, that "These people are shopkeepers' nation, fisherman's nation. How they have become so big? This must be finished." Because their business was being hampered by the Britishers. In India we have seen. German and Japan, very cheap and first-class goods they will supply. The Britishers would not allow.

Hari-śauri: Yes, at that time, anything that was made in England automatically was considered first class.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, any rascal thing. They made a good market. And British Empire means to sell their goods. And they, for that purpose, they became rich. Money was drawn from all parts, especially from India. Everything. Later on, gradually we came to understand. In Lucknow, because I was in medical business, so I saw one Japanese salesman was selling one medicine, one or two items, potassiodide. Do you know? No. Potassium iodide. And another, iodine. He was selling at four rupees, eight annas a pound. But we were accustomed to purchase English potassiodide and iodine, thirteen rupees a pound. That Howard's.... Very famous, Howard's chemicals, like that. They were selling. So I doubted that "How so much cheap this Japanese firm can supply?" And they used to advertise that all these Japanese goods are third class. Yes, "German goods are second class. Our goods, first class." So I inquired from the salesman, "How is it that you are supplying so cheap?" "They're supplying.... The price is the real price." "Now why they charge more?" "They purchase from us and pack and sell." There are many big chemical concerns in Germany. Germans are very good manufacturers, especially of chemicals, iron, machine. Still you find, all this Uher and, what is called, Gundsag?

Hari-śauri: Grundig.

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

Hari-śauri: We lost quite a bit of property in Detroit because of that lawyer of Ambarīṣa's. That lawyer of Ambarīṣa's, when they did the Detroit deal, they said they lost quite a bit of movable property because the lawyer did a deal with the real estate agent to take it away for himself. He got that boat very cheap, and other things also.

Prabhupāda: Lawyer is thief, medical man is thief.

Hari-śauri: All thieves. They're all thieves.

Prabhupāda: Then whom to believe? Whom to believe, this is the question.

Hari-śauri: The general public, they are becoming very bitter, very frustrated, because they can't turn to anyone for protection anymore. The government is the biggest thief.

Prabhupāda: Dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. It is stated that all government men will be rogues and thieves. Rājanyair dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. Rājanyaiḥ means government men, and dasyu-dharma means practiced to roguery, thieves.

Marble Shop Visit -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: You have spent so much money. What is the price of this machine?

Kīrtanānanda: Well, there was a man, he was going out of business in Pittsburg, and I got a great deal of marble and all the machinery and everything for nine thousand dollars. It is very cheap.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Do you know how to work? No. (devotees laugh)

Kīrtanānanda: That is a heater, it's burning wood. (break to walking outside, kīrtana going on.) ...growing mung beans in this little field over there.

Prabhupāda: (kīrtana ended, conversation in car now) Jaya. ...horse? What do they do, plowing?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. They do some plowing, they do some pulling wagons. Mostly they are used in the woods for logging.

Prabhupāda: Oh. This land is very nice.

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Why we are opening so many centers all over the world? We are giving opportunity people to come and understand about God. Why do they not come here? Then he can make his judgment that "Here is the genuine party." And if one accepts some cheap God, that means he has no understanding about God. He's a rascal. If I say I'm God and somebody accepts me as God, then he's a foolish man. They do not know what is meaning of God. If one wants God, he must know at least what is meant by God. Every scripture, just like in Bible it is said "God has created this universe." So if you come to me and accept me as God, why don't you test whether I have created another universe like this? Why you accept a cheap God who hasn't done anything? Simply he's bluff, and he says that "I am God." So why do you accept such God? Hmm? Why should we accept a cheap God? Everything requires intelligence. If you are not intelligent, then every transaction you may be cheated. Everyone has heard God is great. So great means there should be nobody equal to Him and nobody greater than Him. That is greatness. So test that man whether he has no competitor, another God. Nowadays there are so many Gods. So God is great, why there is another competitor? This is intelligence.

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: To any rascal. Does any rascal know that God is within? And He's witnessing all criminalities. Does he accept that? Then the yogis should not have illicit connection with their disciples. Do they believe God is...? It is simply business for earning money and getting woman. They have no other... Valueless. Therefore the government has said, "Fake." What is that? Actually that is a fact. So many rascals are coming, especially in America. Government, they are seeing, "What is this?" "Transcendental meditation and do whatever nonsense you like." Guru Maharajaji: "No use of books." Practically we are saving the whole world. What can be done? There are so many rascals. Let us do it sincerely. And if we also become victimized, then it will be stopped. Āpani ācari' jīve śikhāilā bhakti. Anyone who says God is speaking with, immediately take him as rascal. God is so cheap that He will talk with rascals. He wants to talk, but he cannot hear. Lord Jesus advised him, "Don't steal." Why does he steal? If God is not advising from within, then why he's going at night when everyone's asleep. God is not dictating that "Don't steal"? But he will not care for God's instruction. Then it is whose fault? If I say that "You don't do it" and still you do it, then?

Hari-śauri: Rascal.

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Because a class of men will demand to eat the flesh. You cannot stop it. So we are giving free: you eat. And from economic point of view, we require the skin for our mṛdaṅga making. So give us the skin. That's all.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda says the butcher, even, he can sell the meat cheaply, make profit. He's getting it free of charge.

Hari-śauri: Maybe some time in the future this could happen when Kṛṣṇa consciousness becomes very powerful influence in the country, but unless we could actually close the slaughterhouse...

Prabhupāda: No, but now by imploring, we are requesting him that "You can take this cow and sell in your shop, butcher shop, you give us the skin. And you can tell the customer that it is as good, it is cheaper. So whatever money you get, that is your profit. You haven't got to invest anything."

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: And we have got very cheap. One room will cost three hundred thousand, it is so costly. They said they spend about two millions dollars fifty years ago.

Vipina: Fifty years ago. That's ten, twenty million now.

Prabhupāda: But nobody was taking.

Narottama: Hot milk. And there is fruit, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there is fruit also.

Prabhupāda: Come on. Jaya. (pause) You take. That's all. What is this?

Devotee: Kiwi from New Zealand. (Prabhupāda is eating during the conversation)

Vipina: Those are Narottama's rasagullās over there. Narottama's rasagullā.

Hari-śauri: He's learned how to make Indian sweets very expertly. He was making them in Detroit.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Where he is going now?

Hari-śauri: Ready to arrange the luggage.

Vipina: This is real prasādam distribution.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Room Conversation -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Vṛṣākapi: It's cheaper to make the payments than to try and buy.

Prabhupāda: But Rāmeśvara has not agreed to pay?

Rūpānuga: No, we do not have to get money from BBT this way. This way we do not have to take loan. It is good, because BBT does not have that much money.

Prabhupāda: No, we need, we supply money to India. Depend on Kṛṣṇa; Kṛṣṇa will supply.

Vipina: Jaya. That happened just about less than a month ago. Some gentleman who was a Seventh Day Adventist, he became interested and started to call and come by and listened to the philosophy and even listened to your tapes. And then shortly after that he gave a donation of five thousand dollars. We bought with it some chandeliers for Kṛṣṇa's temple for you to see tomorrow.

Prabhupāda: Five thousand dollars?

Vipina: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Don't misspend.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Same height, huh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The rent, this is the middle of Manhattan, only one block from the temple, so we got it for about $3.75 a square foot, very cheap, and on a three year lease, which is also very good.

Prabhupāda: What is this road?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Tenth Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Our temple is between Eighth and Ninth?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Jayānanda has been working very faithfully.

Prabhupāda: They've come to see what they are doing here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Blow the horn. You want to get out, Prabhupāda? (walking)

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Cheaper?

Bhagavān: Very cheap. Very cheap. Including composition, the book cost $1.75.

Prabhupāda: Oh, very cheap.

Bhagavān: Sixty-four color pictures.

Prabhupāda: It is very nice.

Bhagavān: And Upadeśāmṛta, that is coming out in one week, twenty-five thousand copies.

Prabhupāda: Which book selling now?

Bhagavān: Which book are we selling right now? Gītā, and we'll have a quantity of this in about three weeks, and then we'll begin selling Bhāgavatam, and Īśopaniṣad, Easy Journey, Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: French language is understood practically all over Europe, especially France, Switzerland.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Only four percent. How their bank is giving so cheap?

Bhagavān: Because he's a farmer. They're helping...

Prabhupāda: Oh, farmers...

Jayatīrtha: Special concession for farmers to help farm.

Prabhupāda: That means government encouraging farming.

Bhagavān: Yes.

Jayatīrtha: Because no one wants to farm anymore these days. I heard that, especially in France.

Pṛthu-putra: Yes, especially in France.

Bhagavān: We have also paid our loan to Los Angeles. One month ago I paid seventeen thousand dollars.

Prabhupāda: So you, you can take back loan.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

George Harrison: That's quite cheap.

Mukunda: Yes, we were really surprised. But if it hadn't been for that, we'd have had no cow pasture. Cows are out there.

Prabhupāda: We have got one cow, many cows in Philadelphia. The milk bags, she gives hundred and two pounds daily.

George Harrison: Of milk? Who owns this? Who milks the cows?

Gurudāsa: Some of the devotees.

Prabhupāda: We have got tanks for storing milk, tanks.

George Harrison: Yes?

Prabhupāda: Yes. All up-to-date refrigerator and everything. That extra milk they are selling. Similarly, in New Vrindaban we are getting one thousand pounds milk daily. One thousand pounds.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: That house was constructed fifty years ago at the cost of six million dollars, and we have got it very cheap. Three hundred thousand dollars.

George Harrison: Was it a big house?

Hari-śauri: A very big mansion on the riverside.

George Harrison: Colonial house?

Prabhupāda: Not as big-four acres of land—but the building is very costly. One room will cost now three hundred thousand dollars. So nicely made.

Hari-śauri: They estimated it would cost about fifteen million to build such a house now.

George Harrison: Yes, they probably wouldn't even bother or be able to, at least. Is it an old house?

Hari-śauri: Fifty years old. It's very solid, though, very good condition as well.

Prabhupāda: And on the house on bottom, there is river. Not directly, but an offshoot of river. People come, rowing. A very nice situation, and because it is black quarter, nobody was purchasing. So I said that "For us, what is black or white? Purchase it." So we got very cheap. At that time I paid them hundred and fifty thousand, and (indistinct). So we purchased.

Arrival at Farm -- July 29, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: That one. So this side, marble is cheaper?

Bhagavān: Yes, it's very..., it's not expensive.

Prabhupāda: Oh. They have done very nice this furniture. We cannot expect this furniture in India. They may make, but it will be very costly. (coughs) You bring one spittoon.

Prabhupāda: How many devotees are there?

Bhagavān: Hundred and fifty.

Prabhupāda: Very good. They are all happy?

Bhagavān: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: Let them come and work little, grow food, eat and chant. Why should they bother going to the factory, running at five o'clock? Horrible life, horrible civilization? Motor accident, delayed, anxiety, "Oh, I am delayed, I am delayed." What is this civilization?

Bhagavān: He is taking over there, you take here?

Prabhupāda: All right, I shall begin there. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk Around Grounds -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Devotee (3): This is..., we're doing a cheaper line called Scented Garden, and the more expensive, this is for the cheaper customers.

Prabhupāda: This is scent?

Devotee (4): They're different.

Devotee (5): This is the cheaper oil. (laughter)

Devotee (3): This belongs to the previous owner of the chateau. He let us use these machines. He also helps us make very nice stands for displaying. These here are some for putting in the coloring, make them different colors. These come from India also.

Prabhupāda: What is this, sand?

Devotee (3): This belongs to the owner. (break)

Bhagavān: It stays light until quarter to eleven here.

Prabhupāda: Like Moscow also. I was there in June or July(?). Sarasvatī, you like this place?

Hari-śauri: You like this place?

Sarasvatī: Yes.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Twenty years he tried, it was failure.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. It was actually a very frank article, and after I read it...

Prabhupāda: Who wrote it?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Somebody by the name of Mehta. He was obviously a very great scholar, because this magazine is very first-class magazine. It's not a cheap magazine, and it was written very nicely. Somebody by the name of Mehta. He's a Dr. Mehta. In the New Yorker magazine, New Yorker.

Prabhupāda: He has written one book, My Experiment With Truth, that truth is truth, but it is very (indistinct) thing. That means he did not know what is truth. (long pause-child says "haribol") He says "Haribol"?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes.

Child: Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

Prabhupāda: Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! (devotees chant japa)

Child: Haribol! (child makes sounds for some time)

Prabhupāda: Let him play.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Iran at that time was even cheaper, much cheaper. Because you had the British in India, you were...

Prabhupāda: Yes, when India was native state, they were cheaper. In India, this inflation was caused by Mr. Churchill. During the war he wanted men to join the fighting, so people were not coming. So artificially...

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Printed money?

Prabhupāda: No, artificially increased the price. So they were obliged to join.

Hari-śauri: He'd increase the price and then advertise free food in the army.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: One who has become inquisitive of the uttamam, the most exalted subject matter, he requires a guru. Otherwise, who will answer his inquiries? Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ. If he's not jijñāsuḥ, what is the need of guru? And where is the question of advancement? He must be jijñāsuḥ. That is, people are not interested. Officially, go to church, go to mosque, go to temple and do something. Then drop it and go to your own business and do whatever you like. No discrimination. They're not serious. Not very serious. One who is serious, he'll inquire. Otherwise, the formula is all right, "God is great, there is no more greater than Him." But inquire, "How He is great?" (guests enter) Thank you. Jaya. Therefore society is required, association is required, to inquire. Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ (SB 3.25.25). There is need of association for discussing how God is great. That is needed-jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam. Unless one is inquisitive... Sharmaji, you can come here. So, that is the... Simply we should not remain satisfied to understand... That is not proper understanding, officially, "God is great." No. Try to inquire how great He is, why He is great. Then your regard for God, your devotion for God will increase. And because we do not inquire how God is great, therefore cheap gods are coming. Any rascal, he is repre... "I am God." Because we do not know actually what is God.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: We have got idea, breathing period. Within second we are having two, three breathing. So within the breathing period of Mahā-Viṣṇu innumerable universes are coming out. This is greatness. How great is God, it is same idea, that within the breathing period innumerable universes are coming. We cannot conceive of one universe, but we get the information that innumerable universes are coming out during the breathing period. Yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṇḍa-nāthāḥ (Bs. 5.48). That Mahā-Viṣṇu, yasya kalā-viśeṣa, part and plenary portion, govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi **. So when we speak all these things, they'll take it mythology. And a cheap god comes, we'll accept, "Here is God." This is the position. They do not try to understand that actually God is great, how great He is. That is called kūpa-maṇḍūka-nyāya, Dr. Frog's philosophy. Dr. Frog is within the well, three feet length and breadth. He's thinking, "This is the ultimate reservoir of water." And when he's informed there is Atlantic Ocean, he simply calculates, "All right, this is three feet. It may be six feet or it may be seven feet; all right, come on, ten feet." He's going like that. So God is not like that, within our calculation. In the Bhagavad-gītā when Kṛṣṇa was speaking about the vibhūti-yoga, He was speaking "I am this amongst this." Find out this vibhūti-yoga, Twelfth Chapter I think it is.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Harikeśa: They have olive oil here.

Prabhupāda: No olive oil. Vaseline will be very cheap here. And you can, if you want to engage him, if he wants to do something, that Praṇava, let him supply nim leaves, dry, from Vṛndāvana. If he actually wants some money, let him do some business. Let him collect all nim leaves and give him twenty percent profit. Suppose he collects nim, collects and dry, and then packs it and dispatch. The cost of...

Ātreya Ṛṣi: The cost of dispatching, we give him twenty percent for him.

Prabhupāda: Some arrangement he may make some profit. Honest business. Not that by cheating get something. That is not good. If he wants money, let him take.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: India or America.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Because America is cheaper, because if I send it to India, if small amounts go...

Prabhupāda: So you send to America.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: To America is all right? I send it every month to Rāmeśvara.

Prabhupāda: Los Angeles, yes. For deposit in account number I will give you.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: We will go and we will take care of all this this afternoon.

Prabhupāda: All right, keep it now, we are going. We shall come back and then later on. After coming back we shall give him. Yat karoṣi yaj juhoṣi yat dadāsi tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam. (break)

Harikeśa: It took two weeks to make.

Prabhupāda: Two weeks? Why? Because the ingredients were not...?

Harikeśa: No, because your mustard oil, no one liked to taste it, and then you changed it to mustard seeds.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mustard seed also can be exported from India. In the Mathurā district there is sufficient mustard seed.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But as soon as you say "mythology," there is no Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (5): Don't say "mythology," I mean to say, my meaning was that they are distorting all our religious... They are making films, putting something, unusual things and cheap things. We can reform them and bring...

Prabhupāda: No, unless (indistinct) it will not to the art.

Guest (5): You can bring these (indistinct) into the art.

Prabhupāda: No, that you can use your art.

Guest (5): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just to give some incentive but the thing is unless we practice...

Guest (5): That is the most important. Practice is of... That is the essence. Of course, that is the essence but to bring to the essence something should be (indistinct) people to the right path.

Prabhupāda: It can be a part of the propaganda.

Evening Darsana -- August 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You read Bhagavad-gītā. That is the essence of all scriptures. And follow it. It is, from the very beginning to the end, it is simply helping you. You haven't got to read many literatures. Just like those American, European boys, they are with me for the last, at most seven, eight years. Otherwise, three years, four years. So how are they becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious? It is not at all difficult. They are accepting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and becoming perfect. But in India: "Why shall I become Kṛṣṇa conscious? I have got this, I have got that." He'll bring thousands of Kṛṣṇa contributors, and he'll himself he has become Kṛṣṇa: "I am God." You see. He's so shameless that he says that "I am God." God is so cheap. Means shameless. He has no shame even, so how he says that he is God? Māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. So-called jñānī means māyayāpahṛta-jñāna.

Indian: Māyāvādī?

Prabhupāda: Māyayā apahṛta-jñāna. Māyā (Hindi) Who is very, very much under the influence of māyā, he is Māyāvādī. Unless he is too much under the influence of māyā, how he can say that "I'm God"? Which is impossible. (Hindi) So many things which makes one rāja, and if you simply imagine, "I am rāja. "So how much rascal he is. Just see. Mūḍha. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). (Hindi) Māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). If one follow the Māyāvādīs and thinks that "I am God," then he is finished. His future is finished.

Room Conversation -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: And they get cheap money and women and that's all. That is their business. (Bengali)

Gurukṛpā: He has a temple. The whole third floor of his house is a temple. He has Sītā-Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Gopāla. He has big temple. They have saṅkīrtana every night. Every morning and night.

Guest: (Bengali conversation)

Gurukṛpā: That Raṅganātha temple is that temple where they do not allow us in. So Sampat Kumar and all of these paṇḍitas, they will sign one letter trying to request them. Also with the Purī people. To request them to let us in. While they are all here they will do that. Also Sampat Kumar was thinking that in November and December in South India the weather is nice because the rainy season is finished, and it would be a very good time to go and visit many of the temples. He personally knows many people in all the big temples. Shri Rangam, Kañcipuram, Maha Balipuram, Tirupati. They could arrange for receptions and programs.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) South India, Indian culture is still there. Other parts of India, they are not now Indian.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: Up to now we've been making according to the devotee's specification. To make for Indian to make a different type. We can also make Indian sari and other thing. They'll be cheaper one. but previously we were making because we thought that all the foreign branches...

Prabhupāda: So whatever... Now you can make Indian style. You keep great stock?

Jayapatākā: Well, we are hearing that they are buying the cloth elsewhere.

Gargamuni: All right. Come on.

Prabhupāda: Eh? They are buying elsewhere?

Gargamuni: Yes. They are buying sometimes from other. (to JP) All right. Let's go and chant, come back tomorrow.

Jayapatākā: Other thing we can discuss tomorrow. (break)

Gargamuni: ...Birla

Prabhupāda: It is difficult to go there. It is difficult to go there.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Now for residential quarter there is already bungalow.

Saurabha: There is a bungalow with four big... It's a big bungalow. And stone is available there, just like here in Hyderabad. At the back of the land it's like a rocky area. One small portion that is so much stone there available, so you can just build from the stone anything. The land can be used for the cement, instead of cement. So very cheap you can build there.

Prabhupāda: One lakh rupees? No.

Saurabha: Well, it depends how many devotees are going to stay. But for a farm, I think ...

Prabhupāda: Say ten rooms.

Saurabha: Ten rooms.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The gṛhasthas from Bombay could be moved over there.

Prabhupāda: No, gṛhasthas can live, go to the farm.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they can go from Bombay to there. They can cultivate our farm.

Saurabha: For sixty thousand rupees we can build sufficient accommodation, and then the rest we need...

Prabhupāda: So we can spend up to one lakh and make more rooms.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: It was a very good place. This Prabhākāra helped me. Ninety percent was... But if I did not leave, nobody could drive me, that was a fact. But I thought "Who is going to..., for litigation? She is the governor's wife, and she is pressing through collectors, through..." The manager who was in charge, he had some cinema house. So they had to renew the license, cinema house. And the collector pressed him that "Unless you arrange for this house, we are not going to renew your license." I thought, "Unnecessarily this man will be in trouble. I'll have to pay so many rupees, and she is governor's wife." And that lady came to me in Bombay several times. "You take my press. You have got so many publications." So I said "I can take your press. I have got money. But what shall I do with it? It is letter press. Now printing is done by offset." That press, Associated Press, is very good press. It was... They got so many government contracts. The whole telephone guides were printed there. But because it is letterset press, it is costly. The government got offset press, cheaper price. So that contract was cancelled. So for her nefarious activity she is punished. Her husband died. She has no more importance, and she was one of the trustees of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. So she was exempted. Now she's an ordinary woman. Press is not working.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: You say she was kicked out from the trusteeship. She's not part of that any more.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The other trustees said that "You are simply spending. What you are doing?" After all, when she was wife of the governor she had some prestige. Otherwise... She invited me in that Juhu, she has got a house in Juhu. So I told her, "Yes, I can purchase your press. Fifty lakhs is not a very big amount for me, but what shall I do? We are printing offset." That is the cause... Because nowadays printing is done by offset press, she lost all business. People got big, big contract, they got cheaper and better quality. Why they should stick to that press? And government contract was taken from them, big, huge business they lost. Tata Press, they have got offset. Government transferred there. And that was her main support. It was a nice, good press. Practically best press in Bombay, Associated Press. But because it is letter press... Now to maintain the letter press is very costly.

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Harikeśa: We're working on printing them in cheaper editions in India.

Indian man: That would be wonderful.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are trying for that.

Gurukṛpā: Already this Bhāgavatam, First Volume has been printed in Delhi for about three times less cost.

Prabhupāda: So you are not getting that book?

Gurukṛpā: No, in Hyderabad we haven't gotten that.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gurukṛpā: I don't know. I'm not in a management position. Mahāṁsa Mahārāja is ordering.

Prabhupāda: Get this cheap edition. You can order cheap edition. (break. Paṇḍita chants Śrī Īśopaniṣad and Gāyatrī. Prabhupāda speaks in Hindi, quoting Sanskrit ślokas.) (break)

Mahāṁsa: They will not part with even one thousand rupees. They're exactly what you described. And also these were the people who are with Śaṅkarācārya who came the first time when you had come here. They were with Śaṅkarācārya. And Hariprasad and some Marwaris were with our movement and these people were on the other side. So there was some conflict at that time. And Śaṅkarācārya came and you...

Prabhupāda: Śaṅkarācārya, he says that you are bhagavān.

Garden Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: Such stage of Bhakti is very rare, Prabhupāda. To be on such a high platform is very rare. To be fearless.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bhakti itself is rare. Bhakti is not cheap. Don't think it is cheap commodity. There is a verse, I now forget. Kṛṣṇa can give you liberation, but He hesitates to give bhakti.

Harikeśa: Muktiṁ dadāti karhicit sma na bhakti-yogam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mukti, He is prepared, "All right, take mukti." But when there is bhakti, He has to consider twice. Bhakti means he becomes in the grip of bhakta. Vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau (Bs. 5.33).

Caraṇāravindam: Are we doing bhakti, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: That is viddhi-bhakti. And this is rāga-bhakti, spontaneous. Through viddhi-bhakti you have to come to the stage of rāga-bhakti. Without viddhi-bhakti, you'll not... Because you are conditioned. Those who are liberated, they immediately get rāga-bhakti. Not by imitation. That is another thing. Nitya-siddha. (Japa:) Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma... So I have got all encouragement. Go and preach. Don't be afraid. Simply present, yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). Whatever you have learned from Kṛṣṇa, from your guru, just vomit it, that's all. There is no need of becoming very expert. Simply whatever you learned. That's all.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Nobody is honest.

Akṣayānanda: But still old flowers are coming. Still, old flowers are coming. We're getting cheap, but old ones are coming. Brown flowers, old ones are coming. It's just by experience, Prabhupāda...

Prabhupāda: Where they get flower?

Akṣayānanda: Wherefrom? The actual flower men? I don't know.

Prabhupāda: In the market the flowers are not sold?

Akṣayānanda: I don't know. Viśvambhara said that this was the best. Viśvambhara is very expert. He's supremely expert at catching these cheaters. But even he gets cheated sometimes. Even things go by and he doesn't notice. He's very, very expert. If I ever get to be as expert as him, then maybe something good will happen. But even he is also being cheated sometimes.

Prabhupāda: Cheating is one of the qualification of the conditioned soul.

Akṣayānanda: Prabhupāda, Viśvambhara...

Prabhupāda: Vipralipsa, vipralipsa. Bhrama, pramada, vipralipsa, karuṇātmikā.(?) So cheating is a qualification of the conditioned soul. Everyone is expert in cheating more or less. That is qualification. People take pride, "Oh, I have cheated. I am so expert that I have cheated." When the lawyers make some agreement between the two lawyers, simply think "How I can cheat you. How can I cheat you." That's all. The more one lawyer is expert in cheating, he is big lawyer.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They are shopping from Delhi?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He was supposed to go to Delhi, few items. They're better and cheaper sometimes. So now I'll work on the other booklet which the defense minister wanted, "What is ISKCON." A small, like "Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is Authorized," on that form with some reviews.

Prabhupāda: You can start this fan. No, no. Yes.

Hari-śauri: This one?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is stopped.

Caraṇāravindam: The mains has been turned off, Śrīla Prabhupāda. There is no water coming from the mains.

Hari-śauri: They've turned the water off somewhat.

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is dropping.

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Unaware. So God, how he's unaware? Just see.

Hari-śauri: They make God so cheap.

Prabhupāda: The rascal.

Hari-śauri: This is... And then the next part's even worse. "For the doubting or confused minority, to which section I then belonged, Swamiji has this message. "Those who want to secure pearls from the sea have to dive deep to fetch them. It does not help them to dabble among the shallow waves near the shore and say that the sea has no pearls and that all stories about them are false. Likewise, if a person wants to secure the love and grace of the avatāra he must also dive deep and get submerged in Sai Baba. Then only will he become one with me and carry me in his innermost heart."

Prabhupāda: Everyone can say like that. What you have done as God? God is an Indian. Making things very complicated.

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: Abortion.

Prabhupāda: Yes, also. Otherwise, we have seen in our childhood how happy people were. They were. Simple. If one has five rupees income per month he's happy. I've seen it. Husband, wife, a small family. If he has got five rupees income, they can maintain very nicely, happily. Why not? Suppose he has got five rupees income. The rice was selling at four rupees. So two person, say one-fourth kg., one-fourth share each. A gentleman cannot eat more than that. So means half a share. And the whole month, fifteen share. It is about one rupee eight annas. And further, one rupees eight annas add for vegetables and other things. With three rupees they can maintain, the husband and wife. And two rupees still there. He can spend for other purposes. I have seen it. Fresh vegetables, rice, this and... Just like with banana leaf. The pots were of earthen, the wife is cooking and she's utilizing dry foliage as fuel, a little temperature, everything is cooked. The husband takes one banana leaf and spreads, and the wife gives sufficient rice, vegetables. And things were so cheap. I have seen it. And fresh.

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: A local man cannot get. He's starving. And the man in big cities, he's doing nothing, he simply has got paper to sign and paper money he's attracting. All production. And they are starving. This is modern civilization. Everything, milk, vegetables, fish, everything, this chānā. Otherwise, within the village you can get everything. Village economy. Everything very cheap. And as soon as they got these transport facilities, the local men, they could not eat, and these lazy rascals, they are getting everything. Big, big cities like Calcutta, Bombay, they (have) millions of population. They are not producing anything. The producer is different man. They are simply artificially cheating them by paper money and they take. This is modern civilization.

Room Conversation -- September 17, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...one horse within the mouth—that is God. One hill. One Pūtanā, sucking the breast, her life goes. That is God. Why shall I take some cheap God? We are not so foolish. Here is the... So many great saintly persons hearing about God. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). They are fools, hearing about Kṛṣṇa? Such great, great personalities? And Śukadeva Gosvāmī is speaking. Are they fools? All of them fools? One, two may be fool. They were wholesale fool? All the great personalities, they're all fools? Asita, Devala, Vyāsa, Nārada—all big personalities. Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Caitanya Mahāprabhu—they're all fools? I may be fool. They are not fools. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Why shall I accept a rascal God? Varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ (SB 2.1.1). "Oh, you want to hear about Kṛṣṇa?" Varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ. Śukadeva was praising: "Oh, glorious, you have taken... Yes." Here is God. Breathing, and innumerable universes are coming. Here is God.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, hm. (break) ...just in front of our house, attached to our house. That means the house belonged to one of our relatives and her son, stepson, he sold the whole house to a Marwari without the knowledge of this, my, she was in relation grandmother. So when the house was sold in those days, about say about 100 years ago, not 100 years, about 90 years. In Mahatma Gandhi road, most important, that Mullik's house you have seen? That was one of the Mullik's house, for 12,000 rupees. One bighā of land and grand building. So it was unknown to the stepmother, the stepson sold it. Then she appealed to the high-court that, "I belong to a respectable family and this my spoiled stepson has sold the house without my knowledge, then where shall I go?" The high-court considered that, "The drunkard son has sold at a cheap price, and she's belongs to a respectable family, where she'll go?" And the high-court order was, "The half of the house shall be used by this lady. During her lifetime, you cannot take possession," the Marwari who purchased. So under that grandmother, we used to live. Therefore this half portion of the house was a Marwari school. So it is just like our temple and this. So my father first admitted me in that Marwari school. So I learned this devanāgarī there, for a few days I was going. I was the only Bengali student there. Because I was little, my father thought that instead of going outside the house, within the house there is a school, get him admitted. The school name was Visuddhana(?) Marwari Vijnala(?), something like that, and later on they constructed huge building Visuddhana(?). Then the house was vacated. So in the beginning I was admitted in a Marwari school and I learned a little Hindi there, that's all.

Room Conversation -- November 14, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why did you approach the governor without asking me? You cannot make the governor so cheap thing that you will go always and ask something. Unnecessarily spend money and waste time.

Devotee: I met him in Delhi.

Prabhupāda: He was there? But how governor can protest?

Devotee: What he suggested in this case...

Prabhupāda: He will suggest hundreds of things, but he cannot protest personally. That is not... What is the court case? That we have to place before the court that "This is genuine cultural or religious movement." We are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. What Kṛṣṇa has said, we are trying to spread. This is genuine, the simple thing. We have not manufactured anything, "transcendental meditation" or like that. That is not our business. We are presenting simply what is stated there in the Bhagavad-gītā. If somebody said that "Bible is not genuine," will it be accepted? Thousands and thousands are claiming to be Christian on the basis of... Similarly millions and millions of people in India, they know Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavad-gītā. How it is not genuine? That we have to prove, that's all. It's not that... Repeatedly we are speaking that what Kṛṣṇa said, that is perfect. That's all. This is our business. Who will object to that? You could not present to the governor that Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement... Anyone can say, "Yes, it is based on Bhagavad-gītā. It is genuine." Any Indian can say. You have to take that to present in the court. If from official, it is... How the official can deny it? It is genuine. Now, about this sewer line, after all... (end)

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: Well record players are a bit bulky to carry. They have it on cassette.

Prabhupāda: No, this time anyone comes, ask them to bring one record player. Japanese record player is very cheap.

Devotee: Yeah, I think that's a good idea to have because all these albums are coming out now.

Hari-śauri: But you can get them all on cassette...

Prabhupāda: Between fifteen dollars, sixteen dollars.

Hari-śauri: We can't carry it all. We've got so much baggage we couldn't possibly carry all...

Devotee: Actually cassette is more practical.

Hari-śauri: These cassettes we can get, we can have everything on cassette.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He does not know. We have got the definition of God,

aiśvaryasya samāgrasya
vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ
jñāna-vairāgyayoś caiva
ṣaṇṇaṁ bhāga itiṅgaṇa
(Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47)

Aiśvaryasya samāgrasya, that one who is in possession of all the wealth, vīryasya all strength, all faith yaśasaḥ, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation, that is God. Now so far Kṛṣṇa is concerned, He showed all these things. Aiśvaryasya... For example Kṛṣṇa married sixteen thousand wives and for each wife a different palace. And for each wife ten sons. Woman requires very nice accommodation, sons, husband, that is their ambition that He fulfilled, although he married sixteen thousand one hundred and eight wives. This is aiśvaryasya samāgrasya vīryasya. This so-called rascal Bhagavān, who has shown this? Why shall I accept this cheap god? Show me something that you are God. Seven years old Kṛṣṇa, He lifted the Govardhana hill. (Hindi) There is, but they have no knowledge to compare with the idea of God. So far knowledge is concerned, Bhagavad-gītā, left by Kṛṣṇa, it is adored all over the world. Especially nowadays we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, and millions of copies we are selling. Now we are advertising, where is that picture? Million, 1.5 million.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Why this foolishness? We never... Ask my disciples. I have never shown any magic. Why?

Bhāgavata: That is a cheap business.

Prabhupāda: That is cheating business. That is not required. It is meant for the foolish men.

Guest (7): ...Suri Bhavantam (?), he was convinced by him just because of his magical powers.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Guest (7): Suri Bhavantam (?) is a scientist. He was convinced by him just because of his magical powers. Otherwise he could not influence me. One of my friends who was sitting there, he told me, "Satya Sai Baba, he won't come this side," he said. I said, "I'll make him to come this side."

Prabhupāda: No, these are words. He has been challenged also by a group of educated men. So there are some fools, rascals. That is all.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Devotee (4): The devotees staying here, living here, they may make some pottery, set of potter's wheel, make clay pots.

Prabhupāda: What? What you'll use, pots? Here pottery is very cheap. We are not for arts. We are simply bare necessities of life and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee (7): Tirupati, they have these Veṅkateśvarams, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and blowing on the loud speaker every day. One... You can hear for miles. So we can also do some Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra chanting?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But that they will not take.

Guest (2): That they will not take for what reason?

Prabhupāda: Reason is: "This is cheap. The swami is giving something cheap." Nowadays it has become a fashion, "Meditation." What nonsense meditation he will do?" This is going on. He cannot take cheap thing.

Guest (1): Cheap thing may be the right thing, the true thing, but "Because it's cheap, (laughing) so we..., not to be bothered."

Prabhupāda: In Europe, America, the Indian students, they say, "Oh, we have seen all this Hare Kṛṣṇa. We now want technology."

Guest (1): Sir, I got into conversation this young man in Colombo for the simple reason that I have got five sons, and those sons are trying to be Westernized or Americanized to the extent that I couldn't believe that my own children would go to this extent. So I told Girirāja when he came to see me and introduced my children to them, and it has now little impact. Because now that...

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Don't sit down there. Don't sit down there. (Hindi) No, sitting on the...

Guest (1): You move it.

Prabhupāda: She is the daughter of jñānī.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: When they understand that you have got such discrimination, they are dissatisfied.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, what we have done, we have added in various different points like extra bedsheet, one rupee, extra this... We have added in these extra points. So the total does come to fifteen and twenty. I have spoken to all the travel agencies, and they are willing to go along with us. In fact, they think that fifteen and twenty-five is very cheap. But I then explain to them that we can't make it any more because we are in competition with...

Prabhupāda: But you don't get customer even lesser than that. First of all see your position. You may calculate in the mind that "This is cheap, this is not," but cheap or no cheap, you are not getting any customers. (chuckling)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, because we never went after the tourist traffic. We have just started going after this foreign traffic with these brochures, and now we have...

Prabhupāda: And now, in the Sixth Chapter there are forty-seven verses. So divide forty-seven with seven.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

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

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Indian: Yes. Prabhupāda, I am taking two books. (mixed Hindi and English)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, we purposely did not have a spine here. We wanted to keep the cost low. You know you cannot get everything. If you want to keep the cost low, then you have to make some small sacrifice.

Prabhupāda: (yawns) We want first quality.

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

Prabhupāda: Plate is already made.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that's what I'm saying. No, I'm just saying by increased run how much can you save? So I imagine you save about three paisa, four paisa more per book. It's not enough to warrant extra investment. I have analyzed the difference between doing large print runs India and America. In America and Europe labor is very expensive. So to them, to stop the machine in between and start again, it's very expensive, so it makes a lot of difference. But in India labor is cheap. So for them to stop the machine in between and then start again, it's not so expensive. So the ceiling is not as great as the extra investment you have to put in. Therefore I'm not doing large run except where it's absolutely necessary.

Prabhupāda: No. Items which are selling, that we can do because...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Like Bhagavad-gītā we did one lakh.

Prabhupāda: ...to wait means that waste of time.

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

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. But Bhagavad-gītā, we're doing one lakh copies now, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is our first experiment with the paper manufacturer here. He's making paper for us exactly like American, especially for us. So I've given Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Part Two. We are printing ten thousand. Four thousand we'll print on this government paper, softbound, for cheap distribution, and six thousand on expensive American paper, hardbound, for export, because we will be able to export it for a dollar forty, which is two dollars below what Los Angeles charges. Substantial... So as an experiment, I only wanted to... I've ordered paper for six thousand expensive hardbound. Let's see how the paper is. If it's good, then we'll use the same paper for one lakh. Before taking a risk on one lakh, I wanted to experiment on a smaller run.

Trivikrama: So I'm also thinking about printing again. Now we have just enough...

Prabhupāda: We can print here.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We have very good arrangement.

Prabhupāda: At what price you are printing?

Trivikrama: Pretty cheap.

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

Prabhupāda: It's costly. I think here it must be cheaper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There're very few... How many color illustrations in it?

Prabhupāda: Just take quotation. If you can, you print here.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And if it is for export, it will be even cheaper.

Prabhupāda: We can take quotation.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. How many color plates do you have? Hm, 298, 300. Well, we can take a quotation and see.

Prabhupāda: Here it must be cheaper.

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

Trivikrama: Yeah, I know, but that was in Hong Kong. We got it printed in Taiwan for cheaper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. Because he sent me for dollar forty, dollar thirty. I have the prices with me.

Trivikrama: And this was... That was also for the corrections. No, the price is about seventy-five cents.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Only thing I've told Jayatīrtha and Bali-mardana Prabhus to do is to open a letter of credit now because we are going to be exporting these Gītās at export price. And the bank is giving our printer a loan of ten lakhs. So he has to show the bank a letter of credit, so I hope they send it, and then this will start rolling. End of February is our first shipment. We're going to ship ten thousand Gītās.

Prabhupāda: Letter of credit you can get.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I hope they give it.

Prabhupāda: Bank of America will give.

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is everywhere. If you don't mind, your Swami Nārāyaṇa is also like that.

Dr. Patel: All of them. They are. That is why, I mean, liberation is created by God again by incarnation.

Prabhupāda: They create a cheap God. Real God they reject. That is going on.

Dr. Patel: Swami Nārāyaṇa said that (Sanskrit). Only to worship Kṛṣṇa. Nobody else. Unfortunately the disciples... Suppose disciples...

Prabhupāda: That the same thing. If the disciples are rascals, then what is the guru?

Dr. Patel: The disciple is being called guru-Kṛṣṇa again. That is what happens in all the other Vaiṣṇava. They say Vallabhācārya Mahāprabhu in place of Kṛṣṇa. That is wrong. Yathā. Yathā deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā...

Prabhupāda: Gurau.

Dr. Patel: Gurau. That is fact. Then you can get the real, I mean, kṛpā of guru and realize God. But they're...

Prabhupāda: These things happened by Vallabhācārya. That's a long history generally. They call him Mahāprabhu to make competition with real Mahāprabhu, Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, American cars were selling during British days, Ford, Buick, Chevrolet. These cars were selling. Dodge. In 1925 I purchased one Buick car, eight thousand rupees.

Dr. Patel: Small cars were everywhere 1700 rupees in 1936-37.

Prabhupāda: And Ford car was very cheap.

Dr. Patel: Thirty-two hundred rupees. V8 Ford cars were sold in Bombay market for thirty-two hundred rupees, three thousand two hundred. Now you send a car for repairs, the bill will be six thousand, seven thousand rupees.

Prabhupāda: What can be done? Things have gone high, I was calculating the other day, twenty times.

Hari-śauri: Thirty times.

Dr. Patel: More than that. Thirty times, yes.

Prabhupāda: Thirty times, yes. My father's income was from 250 to 300, and we were living very comfortably.

Jagadīśa: A month?

Prabhupāda: Per month.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, buffalo's... Cow ghee we were taking with rice. But it was not available in quantity.

Dr. Patel: Many was so very cheap then. After I graduated myself when I was university scholar, I was given seventy-five rupee scholarship per month and a free bungalow with servants and all these things. It was all right for me till I passed my M.D., seventy-five rupees only.

Prabhupāda: This cow's milk in Bengal, it is compulsory-before beginning your meal, little cow milk, er, ghee mixed with rice and smashed potato. It is very nice.

Dr. Patel: And then we do serve..., after that we take out a part of it for the cow back, and a little for...

Prabhupāda: Ālu bharte bharta. (?) In Bengal it is called ālu bharte bharta. If you don't have anything, just have smashed potato, little ghee and rice. That's it. It is sufficient, very nutritious. And at last, little milk. Very nutritious.

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

Prabhupāda: Puri-śāk will be cheaper, I think.

Gurudāsa: Whatever you like. They said...

Prabhupāda: I don't like, but if you distribute, must be acceptable to everyone.

Gurudāsa: Everyone is serving, that is serving, capati and dahl.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Very cheap. No, we are supplying also very cheap.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. But last year we printed 500,000 copies, this year, one and a half million copies, and the savings was $200,000. We have gotten them to reduce the price so much that now, just because we have ordered so many books, we will save 200,000...

Prabhupāda: Why not spend some money for advertisement? It will be noticed.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We can advertise them in prestigious papers like Reader's Digest or printer's...

Prabhupāda: Nice advertisement. Spend some money.

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So you can supply the paper.

Rāmeśvara: And now, whenever we print books in America, we supply paper. It's much cheaper if we buy it.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We do the printing. I buy all the...

Rāmeśvara: The printer will mark it up if he has to spend his money for paper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. In India also we buy the paper ourselves. We buy the paper and give it...

Prabhupāda: That is good. Supply paper.

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Typeset is Delhi good, but offset-Bombay.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So what I've told them, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is they can get the composing done in Bengal, Calcutta, then send it to me, like I get the Hindi composing done in Vṛndāvana and mail it to Bombay for printing. So it is cheaper and good quality, plus we have the whole department set up. One boy, Pippalai, he just takes care of technical aspects. And we have a shipping department all set up now. Two boys work just on the shipping.

Prabhupāda: So supply department keep in one place.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And we have very good...

Prabhupāda: In other places it is...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't have the men, and we have good...

Prabhupāda: No. They supply all supplies. The orders should be supplied from one place.

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, Australia, from India it is nearer, half-day(?).

Rāmeśvara: What is your printing cost on Bhagavad-gītā?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: About 11.50, eleven rupees, fifty paisa. But the export edition is going to be cheaper because when you export, you get a lot of duties, so...

Prabhupāda: Now, in export and exchange with paper, good paper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We can import paper. The government will let us import paper for exporting without any problem. But I'm just saying that the export edition of Gītā is going to cost us about two rupees less than the Indian edition for Indian market because...

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

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: Especially America.

Prabhupāda: No, Canada also. Canada, I have seen in the university. Almost majority of the professors, they are Indian. Yes. All over the world they like Indians. They take small salary. For them it is high salary, but for Europe, America, it is cheaper. And they're intelligent, so they give service. I was given this permanent residence...

Gargamuni: Yes, in Canada.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Seeing my books. That Consulate General in Montreal, he, when he read my The Teachings of Lord Caitanya, he immediately became attracted.

Gargamuni: You spent only twenty-five dollars, and we spent so much on lawyers.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Twenty-five or thirty-five dollars.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Er, Bangkok, yes.

Yogeśvara: No, my personal conclusion after a few weeks there is that either there should be a traveling party doing that part of the subcontinent... Otherwise, if there is a gṛhastha couple with some experience, we could have an information center in this one house. Because it's not expensive. Living there is very cheap. There is good foodstuffs and rent is not expensive.

Prabhupāda: Now, this house, we can continue to live there?

Yogeśvara: We can continue to rent. Rent is only $175 a month, including utilities. So it is not at all expensive.

Prabhupāda: And it is a very nice house.

Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Sahajiyā means they have taken everything very easy. That's all.

Bhāgavata: Cheaply.

Gargamuni: Would you like to rest a little bit?

Prabhupāda: No. Why rest?

Bhāgavata: 9:20.

Gargamuni: 9:30.

Prabhupāda: So we go at ten?

Hari-śauri: 10:15.

Prabhupāda: 10:15, that's all.

Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes, what can be done?

Hari-śauri: And because it wasn't always easy to get good water, there's a very cheap kind of wine. It's not actually very alcoholic. It's very, very cheap. Then they used to drink that because there's no good water.

Prabhupāda: That is not plea that we shall drink bottle after bottle.

Hari-śauri: Yes. (laughs) Catholic priests, they have a big stock in their cabinets, so much wine.

Prabhupāda: If they want to be reformed, we can reform them. On the basis of Bible, we can reform them. There is no difficulty.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Most of my disciples they are coming from the Christian group. They can reform. Chanting is also recommended in the Bible, the glories of the Lord. I do not know why these rascals, Protestant... That means... The Protestant means last class. Why they should protest against Jesus law? Protestant means that. They protested. Is it not?

Hari-śauri: I'm not sure about... I don't know much about the history of Protestants.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That King John, who started this Protestant movement? Some king in England.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Vaiṣṇava is not so easy. The varṇāśrama-dharma should be established to become a Vaiṣṇava. It is not so easy to become Vaiṣṇava.

Hari-śauri: No, it's not a cheap thing.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore this should be made. Vaiṣṇava, to become Vaiṣṇava, is not so easy. If Vaiṣṇava, to become Vaiṣṇava is so easy, why so many fall down, fall down? It is not easy. The sannyāsa is for the highest qualified brāhmaṇa. And simply by dressing like a Vaiṣṇava, that is... fall down.

Hari-śauri: So the varṇāśrama system is like for the kaniṣṭhas, Kaniṣṭha-adhikārī.

Prabhupāda: Kaniṣṭha?

Hari-śauri: When one is only on the platform of neophyte.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm hm. (break) Cats also do not disturb. But everyone is fully fed and happy. The first problem is eating. So if you produce like tons, this corn alone can feed everyone. It is so nice food. Corn you can smash, and the powder portion you can use as flour, and the portion which is not powder, the hard portion, you can use as rice. And it is more nutritious than flour, wheat flour, and ordinary rice, and very cheap, cheaper than the ordinary rice and cheaper than the ordinary wheat. But you can utilize it—both dāl, bhāta. Vegetable and fat. From milk you get so much fat. Complete food.

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

Prabhupāda: Nobody, no clerk is getting nine hundred rupees. Maybe officers, superintendent, they are getting. So actually people have not increased their income. That means they have become poor. Thirty rupees' clerk is very good position in those days. And sixty rupees' clerk, that is superintendent. The things were cheap. And two hundred rupees, officer, big income. The high-court judges were getting four thousand rupees in those days. What they are getting now? I don't think their salary has increased. Maybe five thousand, six thousand. The governor was getting ten thousand. High-court judges were getting four thousand. And secretaries were getting five hundred to one thousand.

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

Prabhupāda: They were unable. Neither they have got idea of aristocratically, how to live aristocratically. You won't find in any one of my Godbrothers a place like this. This is aristocratic. This is Indian aristocracy. Table-chair is not aristocratic. This is more comfortable. And cheap also.

Hari-śauri: If they saw somewhere like Detroit they'd be... If they saw the Detroit place then they'd really...

Prabhupāda: Detroit?

Hari-śauri: For aristocratic living.

Brahmānanda: Our temple in Detroit is very opulent.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is aristocratic house. You have seen it?

Brahmānanda: Yes. Before purchasing we went to see.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is aristocratic house. They... Formerly, either Indian or American, Europe, aristocratic was the same—big, big rooms, very decorated, woman's quarter different, men's quarter different. No man can enter into woman's... Lavatory house, different; cooking house, different. This was Calcutta aristocracy. Those houses are now gone. No attached bathroom. The... Because it was service, how it can be attached bathroom? So they... A separate house, big house, only for passing stool. And if possible, a lake within the house. Aristocratic family, they would have lake within the house for using water.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh, I think about 1928, long ago, because about twenty years ago there was centenary, hundred years. So the local produce was not exported. Everything was cheap in the village because you have to consume. Whatever is produced in the village you have to consume. And these Britishers, they introduced railway and drew everything in the village to the town. And they would not sell in the village because they would get good price in the city. Otherwise in the village, everything was very cheap, very, very cheap-milk, vegetables, rice, dāl, everything. And the Britishers, they had no food. They have got only the potato. In England what they produce? No food. So everything was exported. Their policy was to supply manufactured goods and take raw materials from India. So they supplied cotton goods. They saw that all Indians are using cotton cloth. Iron they introduced. They introduced railway line, all iron, the carriage, the wheel, the road. Everything was... In this way they became prosperous.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I am wonderful so long I serve Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise useless. No value. If I can serve Kṛṣṇa, then I am wonderful certainly. We don't want to become cheap wonderful. We want to become really wonderful by serving Kṛṣṇa. That is our mission. Kṛṣṇa is wonderful undoubtedly. Who can become more wonderful than Kṛṣṇa? Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). Always remember, Kṛṣṇa is wonderful. Don't take Kṛṣṇa very slightly like one of you. That is foolishness. Kṛṣṇa is wonderful always. He's the most wonderful person, and He can, does... He can do anything wonderful.

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: Also it's cheaper.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's cheaper.

Hṛdayānanda: He's printing twenty-four pages only. So Britain House...

Prabhupāda: No, it is very nicely done, very nice.

Hṛdayānanda: He's got a very low price.

Brahmānanda: He doesn't have the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam included.

Prabhupāda: That he should. That is not American or English. (laughter) Next issue, they can add. Where is Jayatīrtha Prabhu? So your South America, there is some trouble?

Pañcadraviḍa: No. No trouble. Just in Argentina. The trouble is finished now. We're out.

Prabhupāda: Trouble is finished?

Pañcadraviḍa: And we're out. (laughter)

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So about five rupees per kilo. Very cheap.

Bhāgavata: That's forty rupees... No... Kg...

Bali-mardana: Forty per kg.

Bhāgavata: No. It's forty rupees for two kgs.

Bali-mardana: Yes. Twenty.

Bhāgavata: Twenty rupees per kg. If you tried to buy some ghee in India now, butter ghee, you'd have to pay about twenty-five rupees.

Bali-mardana: But this... The export... The Australian ghee in Australia is cheaper. This is export quality, is much higher quality. Higher...

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bali-mardana: ...price.

Prabhupāda: Higher.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No... So actually, even if we give them free, there is no life membership(?) Let them read it. But if you give free, they will not read.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. Yes. They'll take it cheaply.

Prabhupāda: At least, educated Indians can be approached.

Ghanaśyāma: Śrīla Prabhupāda, since the life member program is going on here and England and places like that, maybe it's better to start this individualized standing order program in places where there is not so much of a life member program, as we'll be in some cases asking the same people.

Prabhupāda: Do it conscientiously, as it is suitable.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can discuss this at our GBC meeting.

Prabhupāda: So, it is time now?

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)

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

Hari-śauri: Niyamāgraha.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Don't make it cheap. It has got a science. It has got a form.

Rāmeśvara: I've seen in some articles they have written to defend our society from the attack of deprogrammers, sometimes one argument they give is that meditation and chanting are being studied by scientists, and they are finding the effects to be good. Now...

Prabhupāda: Effect will be good. And if we do it properly it will be first class.

Rāmeśvara: Now, these scientists, they are studying Hare Kṛṣṇa meditation, but they're also studying some other processes which are not authorized. And they are...

Prabhupāda: That is the defect.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Bali-mardana: Yes. A boy's had experience. There is no problem. New Zealand also. We can either export from Australia or New Zealand. New Zealand is also very..., maybe even a little cheaper, but the shipping might be...

Hari-śauri: New Zealand milk products are...

Prabhupāda: Oh, very cheap.

Bali-mardana: Where should we send? To one center?

Prabhupāda: Send in Bombay.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Bali-mardana: We should investigate from Argentina. He said it was very cheap.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But now we're not in Argentina anymore. Amsterdam.

Prabhupāda: We shall regain again.

Bali-mardana: The government there is changing every few months, new government.

Prabhupāda: If you can introduce this system, varṇāśrama, then it will establish. No more change. This is a rascal's government, this democracy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Demoncracy."

Prabhupāda: "Demoncracy."

Hari-śauri: "Demon-crazy."

Prabhupāda: "Demon-crazy." (laughter) Demon and crazy. Not only demon... There are demons whose brain is all right, but they are crazy also.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: You can develop similar places. Land is so cheap.

Bali-mardana: Oh, yes. Australia...

Hari-śauri: There's so much land in Australia.

Bali-mardana: Soon as we have our center...

Prabhupāda: In Africa also, land is cheap. Give this civilization. Then our mission will be... The African people are nice. Everywhere they are nice. These rascal leaders make them bad. In Russia also they have nice people. These, a few rascals, they are controlling the government.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Leaders are bad all over the world.

Prabhupāda: Dangerous.

Room Conversation -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I don't think they have so many books also.

Gargamuni: No, very few books. The stalls are also very small. Our stall is three times as big as theirs. And their books are these cheap paperbacks.

Prabhupāda: Their days are finished.

Gargamuni: Oh, yeah, they're all...

Yaśomatī-nandana: It seems...

Prabhupāda: There is no substance, simply vocabulary jugglery.

Gargamuni: In fact, there are so many people around our stall, the management had to make announcements that people should visit the other stalls also. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Canvassing.

Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And sell something less.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Diamond is diamond. It must be purchased by the suitable customer. Because there is no customer I shall throw it away? So we have got diamond. It is not possible that everyone will purchase it, but there must be diamonds. People must know that "Here is diamond. If I want it, I must pay the proper price." That I want to establish. Why India's culture should be lost in this way, in the wilderness?I am not cheap patriot like Gandhi and... I want to give Indian culture to the whole world. I'm not going to cheat people, taking Bhagavad-gītā and speaking all nonsense. I want to present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. That is my mission. Why shall I cheat you, a gentleman? (Hindi)

Guest (1): We'll try to follow your message properly.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is honest life. Earn your livelihood. Who is the elder?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This pilot. I got a letter from Vrinda De today. He says we are getting very good inquiries from our newspaper advertisement and producing a special catalogue, which we are going to give to everyone who writes and which is going to be cheap, because the American catalogue is very expensive. So he is asking...

Prabhupāda: We wanted some.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And later on, '53 or so, we saw, one rupee, half a dozen.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very cheap.

Prabhupāda: So now they are getting fifty rupees. Time will come: even if you pay five thousand rupees, you won't get one mango. That is coming.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They won't be around anywhere.

Prabhupāda: That is stated in the Bhāgavata. Even you pay five thousand rupees, you won't get. And if you get, it is simply the seed; no pulp.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pit and skin. That means it will be very difficult to execute patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam (BG 9.26). There won't be those things.

Prabhupāda: Last problem(?). Better to go back home as soon as possible. One life, do all penances, all austerities. Simply stick to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and the business is finished.

Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. So I'm not moving the press because it is very cheap for us for six rupees a page, a plate of forty rupees. I just had one other question on the BBT. Sometimes these... Sometimes the temples don't pay the BBT, and their bills climb up to sixty thousand, seventy thousand rupees, and...

Prabhupāda: Don't pay?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. My... I have told the temples that "BBT will give you as many books as you want, but once you sell, the cost must go to BBT and the profit goes to the temple." But sometimes the temples don't pay. So...

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, they take it very easy, like they're doing in America also. So I wanted to stop sending them books or at least threaten them that I won't send them books.

Prabhupāda: No, if you have... Why threatening? You settle up with temples authorities.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: All these yogis... They get cheap food, cheap women. That's all. And debauched women, in Hindu society, they cannot mix with other men, take advantage of these yogis, swamis and cheaters. Just becoming so-called devotees, they have sex attraction.(?) From both sides. Sex... Sex impulse is so strong that in different ways it should be taken, as a yogi, as a swami, as a gṛhastha, as a debauch, as a loafer. All... The central point is sex. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukham (SB 7.9.45). These asses...

Trivikrama: Working so hard.

Prabhupāda: Working so hard and then sex, and the female kicks on the face. They enjoy, "Ah." You have seen this?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Vṛndāvana I used to watch them.

Prabhupāda: "Phat! Phat! Phat! Phat!" But still, he goes. Bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ (SB 7.9.45). It begins with kicking. The cats also, they (makes cat noise:) "Eeeyow!" They have come for sex, but the female cat will show some prestige and... Then sex. If she does not like, why she has come? (laughter) But they show some prestigious position. Then (makes cat noise:) "Eeyenh!" This is the central point of material happiness. Therefore we cannot allow within our temples now such sex. That is not possible. We are condemning the sex life, and we cannot accommodate.

Evening Darsana -- May 11, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Devotee (5): We chant every morning, sākṣād-dharitvena...

Prabhupāda: No bona fide person will say that "I am God." As soon as one says that "I am God," he's a rascal immediately. God is not so cheap. Caitanya Mahāprabhu never said. He said, "I am the servant of the servant of the servant of servant of God." Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80). Hundred times down. And that is real identification. And as soon as a person says, "I am God," then he's a madman. He's part of God. That is all right. But not the Supreme God.

Indian man (4): Can we find the one in ourself? Can we find the one in the basis of ourself?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Indian man (4): The one in the basis of ourself?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "Can we find the one in ourselves?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The Self is there. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). That one Lord is there within your heart. Where is the difficulty? That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 18.61). All living entities—not only you, me-cats, dogs, everyone, even ants... Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. He is within the atom also. So there is no denying, He is everywhere.

Evening Darsana -- May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Indian man (1): Mat-para people are very seldom available.

Prabhupāda: No. How do you know? If you do not know what is the meaning of mat-para, how you can say "seldom"? Do you know what is mat-para? Unless you know who is mat-para, how you can say like that? You have no knowledge. Mat-para means a simple thing, one who has fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. That's all. This is very seldom? There are so many. But you have decided, "seldom." Why seldom? Here you see so many young men, our association. They are fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. They do not know anything else than Kṛṣṇa. So why it is seldom? You won't take. That is your fault. Rather, they are coming to you. They are canvassing. But you are so stubborn, you'll not take it. That is your fault. They are canvassing door to door. Why do you say, "It is seldom"? It is very easily available. But you won't take. That is your fault. Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally came, and He canvassed door to door. He sent His men door to door. We are sending all over the world. But you do not come. Mat-para is not seldom. At least at the present moment, it has become very easily available. But you take. That is your fault. (break) Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). That is... Caitanya Mahāprabhu say. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni..., śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam, ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. Ānandāmbudhi. Ambudhi means sea. You do not find that the sea is increasing. But this transcendental sea of blissful life increases. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ sarvātma-snapanaṁ paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. Very simple thing. You take to śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam and see the result. Why you say it is seldom? It is very easy, but you won't take. Seldom we find the followers. Otherwise it is very cheap.

Evening Darsana -- May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh:
Prabhupāda: It is my dog's obstinacy that is checking. We cannot give up. Kṛṣṇa has..., sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). That you cannot do. You want to keep in the same position, and at the same time, you want to understand Kṛṣṇa. That is not possible. In this Hrishikesh, tīrtha-kṣetra, everyone comes to get some spiritual enlightenment, but who is talking of Kṛṣṇa? Am I right? And there is Gītā-bhavan, Gītā this, Gītā that. What is that "Gītā"? Gītā commentation. Nobody's interested. They don't like to hear even about Kṛṣṇa. This is the position. So mat-para is not seldom. (laughs) The followers are seldom. But Kṛṣṇa says, mat-para. "If you want to practice this yoga..." Mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogam... This is yoga. Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). This is real yoga. So nobody's interested. Then what can be done? My Guru Mahārāja used to say that "If one is selling langlam(?), and he's canvassing, 'Please come here. Take langlam. There is no price for it,' then people will not take. 'Why langlam he's distributing free?' " So that is the position. We are going to door to door: "Take Kṛṣṇa." They think, "It is very cheap thing. What is the use? Let us practice some other yoga." Kṛṣṇa says, yoginām api sarveṣām (BG 6.47). We don't take. So langlam is not seldom, but the person who take langlam is seldom. This is the difficulty.
Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What they'll see there? (laughter) How Saman(?) Mahārāja is managing?

Jayapatākā: He somehow is trying to maintain. I don't see any improvement.

Prabhupāda: No, he cannot make any improvement, but if he can maintain, that is our question.

Jayapatākā: I didn't go there, so I can't exactly say. I don't go there. (pause) (break)

Prabhupāda: The spread, the... First of all they wanted to give us a cheap rate, "Eh!" And now they are doing: "We shall be taking our leader out." That is not cheap rate.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā's saying... He's translating what they were talking, that there's already a meter for electricity. This new meter is proposed simply for water, but the cost of water is so cheap, what is the need of a meter?

Jayapatākā: They're not making any claim for water. They say, "How much water you can use? It's a matter of a few paisa."

Prabhupāda: Last time the (indistinct) Goswami and Gurudāsa, the arrangement was to live without paying anything.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right.

Prabhupāda: To pay the electric charge. So he was paying about sixty-four rupees' electric charges. They were using hugely.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: Everything? It will be more expensive because in India they print on cheap paper. If we use the same cheap paper, they'll still have to pay more because it has to be shipped back to India. But I can check.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause) So?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kīrtana, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm? Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). Without condition, kīrtana should go on. And that is the panacea of all troubles. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has given, jāy sakal bipod, bhaktivinod bole, jakhon o-nām gāi. This is a fact. If you always continue kīrtana, there is no danger. You are above all danger. Our Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja knows very well. He has no danger. He's sticking to that New Vrindaban program, improving, very good example. They eat first-class, nutritious food, and in Philadelphia also.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...make the whole land, people, very happy. You show this example all over the world, this example, in America. Don't spoil money. Show by example. Enough science and enough motorcar, that's all. No more wanted. This is wanted. Kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4). Bring water from the sky. Keep always land moist and green. This is wanted. It is not my desire. It is Kṛṣṇa's. Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā, annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Here Vyāsadeva says, kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4). These rascals, they do not know. They do not consult śāstra, therefore manufacture. In Chandigarh so much land lying vacant. Thirty years already passed. And they are developing the cities. And another four hundred years will be required. The land is lying vacant. And they are making two governors, five commissioners, six ministers and..., drawing fat salary. This is government. Government means to draw fat salary at the expense of poor people. Dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. Rājanya dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. Just like the rogues and thieves, they by force take money from us, these rascal, under some law, they'll take, this government. They will live at any cost. Never mind forty rupees (indistinct) a week. They have got cheap money. Print note and give him forty rupees. What is that? "You want forty rupees? Eh, take forty rupees." This is artificial inflation. They have got power to print notes. "Pay gold forty rupees." "No, that is illegal. Take paper." Means a cheating business from the government. He's giving him piece of paper, and the rascal is thinking, "I am making one thousand rupees." Formerly, in our childhood, we have seen a currency. They will offer, "What you want, gold, silver, or currency?" These three things were offered. If you want gold coins, take gold coins. If you want silver coins, take silver. And if you want currency, you take. We have seen it.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can put Bhaktijana there 'cause he's always very fond of preaching. You know, Bhaktijana. He's always wanted to go to Harlem. So...

Prabhupāda: Yes, then we can deliver them. They are, after all, simple. These negroes, they are, after all, simple. We have to claim them. You have got now experience in Detroit. They are very good-behaving negroes. They come to our temple. Nobody could drive there. Therefore we could acquire that house so cheap.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This one on 26 Second Avenue must also be very cheap.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Our Ambarīṣa, he was very much eager. "Oh, don't mind. Take it. We shall arrange."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cash.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Fifty years ago the cost was six million dollars, and we have purchased, only 300,000.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gargamuni: Well, we only printed two Oriya books. Both were printed in Calcutta so far, because there's one Oriya printer there. Gaura-Govinda Mahārāja is investigating completely the... We went around investigating the presses in Cuttack and Bhuvaneśvara, if we might get some cheaper or easier price. It appears that some things we can do cheaper there, like the inside part, but cover cannot do cheaper there.

Prabhupāda: Cover you can get there, cover.

Gargamuni: In Bombay we might be able to do cover much cheaper and then the inside cheaper in Orissa. That we have...

Prabhupāda: Better quality also.

Gargamuni: It is good quality, similar quality. They agreed, they could get same paper as we had in previous books, but for printing cover that would be very difficult.

Prabhupāda: And tell, we can get from Bombay cover.

Conversations -- May 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (break) Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Begin. If we make Hindi plate, Los Angeles, and send it to...

Rāmeśvara: We could do it in Los Angeles, but it would be more costly. Gopāla says that the main concern with the Hindi books is keeping the cost as low as possible so it can be sold in India.

Prabhupāda: No, plate-making, we have got all machine, so it will be cheaper.

Rāmeśvara: The price that he is getting in India is very cheap. He says that he can do twenty pages a day, composing. He's got one place in Vṛndāvana that he uses and another place in Delhi. So if each place is doing one different book, two books can be done simultaneously at twenty pages every day.

Prabhupāda: Twenty pages and cost?

Rāmeśvara: It costs about a dollar a page.

Prabhupāda: Where? In...?

Rāmeśvara: In India. To compose.

Prabhupāda: And there?

Rāmeśvara: If we did it in America, it would not be less expensive.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Devotees will get one kind of food and the guests will get a different kind.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They can prepare there. What for that separate kitchen?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, there's no reason.

Prabhupāda: Separate cooking may be... (break) ...cannot. Simply they have... Every cheap people goes there. What they have done? Tell me that "This they have done, very beneficial to the human society." What they have done?

Śatadhanya: They say that they are curing disease.

Prabhupāda: Disease? So what is the benefit? One disease after another disease...

Śatadhanya: They say that the life-span is getting more years.

Prabhupāda: That is another bluff. Formerly people used to live very long. Actually in this Kali-yuga the limitation is one hundred years. But who is living one hundred years?

Śatadhanya: Even less.

Prabhupāda: Fifty, sixty... Average India, thirty-five years. In your country a little more. Nobody lives hundred years. That is also another bluff. But even if you live for hundred years, does it mean that you have stopped death? Then what is the benefit? You are eternal. Na jāyate na mriyate vā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). You are eternal, but why you are dying? What the scientists have done? Na jāyate na mriyate. Eternal means one who has no birth, no death.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Pineapple is very sweet. This is another season, but in about three weeks the larger variety will come. This is a little smaller type. The bigger ones, big. And it is green outside, but it's very sweet, full of juice. The hillsides all covered with pineapples, and it's very cheap.

Prabhupāda: So Calcutta, there was rain.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes. The farming is very good this time in our side, Bengal and Assam and Manipur, so much rain from the south. And I saw from the plane that everything is already green.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Why you are breathing? Is it necessary? (break)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But he doesn't want to speak.

Prabhupāda: You have asked him already?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, I said, "We are coming in September," so he's... We'll be giving lectures there. And the Atishah(?) personally told me that he never thought these ideas before. He said this is the first time that he's seeing such things, that science can be utilized in understanding the nature of the self or life from Bhagavad-gītā. Then I also went to Bose Institute. I wanted to talk with the dir...

Prabhupāda: Oh, Bose Institute.

Morning Conversation -- June 23, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Only Negroes. I was going one place to another, underground. Not bad. They used to say "Poor man's transport." Underground?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Subway. But everybody uses it. You'll see even big men use it. Very quick, cheap.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You would ride alone in the subways? You would be alone, riding?

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Who are these men? I was loitering. Yes. "Let me take this train. Let me see where it goes." Like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did you ever go to the Bronx?

Prabhupāda: Hm. I was sitting alone on the New York house.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Park.

Prabhupāda: Then I heard that one crazy man was killed.

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

Prabhupāda: He can give so cheap one lakh. Somebody gives you a black, what is called...? Berries, berries.

Upendra: Black pepper?

Prabhupāda: Black pepper.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you'll take the milk of magnesia.

Prabhupāda: Yes, and little (indistinct).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. (indistinct) Maybe you'll get immediately, I mean, if you take it before going...

Prabhupāda: No, before going, take out.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Maybe after bed, when you sit up. Nice thing about that is that it's easily available, very common.

Prabhupāda: Phillip's? Phillip's?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Phillip's, yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Prabhupāda: I may understand from the village(?) paper, for some vigorous men there is a very good field. You have also come.

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Chicken is very cheap food. You haven't got to maintain.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, they find anything to eat on the ground.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they produce egg.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Eggs.

Prabhupāda: Eggs. And the chicken-eater cut throat.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And then he has to become a chicken.

Prabhupāda: Fish. Fish as well. Fish also like that. You haven't got to maintain. They'll grow.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But then, if you cut the chicken's throat, then one day you have to have your throat cut.

Prabhupāda: That is not in the lawbook.

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I do not know whether it is stopped or not, but formerly. In Bangladesh, fish you can get very cheap. It is... It is water. You can... Rivers.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So many rivers.

Prabhupāda: And especially for (indistinct), the branch of Ganges, it is full of fish, hilsa fish, very famous. You know hilsa fish?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I've heard you talk about it previously.

Prabhupāda: It is full of oil.

Room Conversation with Vrindavan De -- July 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Bas. They simply died by drinking. Got some cheap money from the father, and they habituated. Is it not? Your two uncles, this Barbhavan, Caturbhavan?(?) So what is their happiness?

Vrindavan De: Simply frustrating, they died. That's all. Finish.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually this has always been your program, that you give us a little money to begin, but then you insist that "Now develop it on your own strength."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "I'll give you help to begin it..."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation during lunchtime -- July 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You must be drunkard, you must be woman-hunter, and you must be intoxicated. And that is not... A meat-eater. That is the whole world, going on. Not only in this planet, in upper planets. I have discussed this point in Bhāgavata. The modern economics, earning money very cheaply, has forced men to become drunkard, woman-hunters and meat-eater. But what he'll do with the money? He has no higher idea. You must utilize the money which you have got so cheaply. And in the Western countries, if you have a little business plan, you can sell any damn nonsense things and get money. Is it not? Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes

Upendra: They sell...

Prabhupāda: No, I know that, that... What is that? Spectacle cleaner. It is ordinary tissue paper, and they advertise in such a way, getting money. Make any soda bicarb and advertise it as very good tonic.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśomatīnandana: The only thing is, the people tell me Gita Press was very cheap.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say, third-class printing, fourth-class paper. And if we give first-class paper, first-class printing, there is scope.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, if we give these books for fifteen rupees...

Prabhupāda: Whatever you give, they'll purchase.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. It's very cheap.

Prabhupāda: The Hindi-speaking people, they are not poor. Mass of people may be poor, but we want to approach respectable persons. They are not poor. They will pay. Why third-class printing, fourth-class matter? Our first-class matter, first-class printing. We have got better scope than Gita Press.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. Every month, if we regularly publish, we get some postal (indistinct). That's... If you every month publish some in certain date, you get very cheap rate for posting. That... All right. So a good thing... (break) Very good boy. So Gaurasundara, if he joins there, it will be still more brilliant for both of them. Because you have got the talent. You are not to be taught. You can teach others how to make dolls. And profusely make this doll exhibition from Bhāgavata. Yes. There's no need of reading book. They will see and understand Bhāgavata. Everywhere, in every branch, you see how many tourists you attract. Do all these things. Kṛṣṇa has given all assistance: money, men, endeavor. Now utilize it properly. Just see how nicely they have made. Nobody will understand this is doll. As if actual photograph.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The best thing is that in Bangladesh you get foreign exchange. You print books there. It think it is cheaper there. Never mind for the quality, but you'll get good number of books. The government will be pleased.

Prabhaviṣṇu: Yes. Then we can export the books also into West Bengal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In this way organize these two places with the courage of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother. And we should ventilate in the papers that this Indian investment of American money is not American money. It is my money. I have written books, laboring whole night. The American boys have cooperated with me by printing, by distributing, and the money was received by selling the books. So the books are mine. I have given to the society. So I have done business, regular, in foreign countries. I have earned money and spending the same money in my country. It is not American money. It is my money. I have done business. That's all. It is a credit for Indian son so to do such tremendous business and bring money for investing in his own country, from the national point of view... Why the...? The Americans are not claiming that this is their money. They are my disciples; they are cooperating with me. Actually it is a business. I have done business, I have earned money and brought it at home to spend. Everyone does. They should not misunderstand that I have stolen money from America and brought it. It is fair business. That's all. Ventilate this. They are under impression that the American government is supplying, the World Bank is supplying. Nobody is supplying. I am earning money by business, by my hard labor.

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

Harikeśa: The printer has invited all the BBT trustees from all over the world, and he will pay their fare, and he will say he will beat everybody's price in the whole world for printing.

Prabhupāda: Then why not print there?

Rāmeśvara: He wants us to go to do the research next month in November.

Prabhupāda: So go. If you get cheaper and nicer, why not?

Rāmeśvara: We're planning to go and research it very carefully.

Harikeśa: This is another part. This is also 35,000.

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

Prabhupāda: So here is a intelligent boy. Why he should rot here, typewriting? (break) Whatever deficiency are there, that is excused by Guru Mahārāja. Go on printing, go on printing. Deficiency will be corrected, next, next, next. I printed Bhāgavata in that way, many defects. "All right. Whatever is printed, that's all." But these are first class. There is no defect. German printing is very pure. They have got the first-class machine. So we have got so many centers. Wherever cheaper and better printing can be gotten, we may take from there. That's all right. Thank you.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we have a big box here. It will be sold to everyone for one rupee, which is very cheap.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These were ready in time for the conference, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We have a big box here. So we have this in English and Hindi now.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Little attempt, less success. (Bengali)

Hari-śauri: Harikeśa Swami is here now, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda? The trustees have met, and there is one question to ask you. There are many articles in BTG which are written by you or your lectures and your famous conversations, like Professor Kotovsky, Dr. Stahl. So there is a proposal to take all of these different writings that have been published in BTG and put them together in one hardbound book, so that they will be preserved.

Prabhupāda: Good idea.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So what he recommends?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So he says he can print cheaper anyway in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Then let him print.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That's what I... I mentioned that to him.

Prabhupāda: Why depend on one printer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: Where is Gopāla?

Girirāja: He went to Bombay today.

Prabhupāda: So, you arrange many printers.

Girirāja: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: What I'm saying it's very good. A thousand Gītās in two months is very good. Now I'm expanding this to the Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Unless you have good godown, it will be stolen and sold in the market at cheap price.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. A good godown is very, very necessary, so we're starting work on it right away. And in three to four months it will be completed.

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Can you turn onto your back again so I can do your other leg and your arms?

Prabhupāda: Hm. You can turn me any way. Deal with the Home Minister's letter very carefully.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Deal with the Home Minister's letter very carefully.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Actually the first meeting I had with him was very, very nice, by your grace. He took great interest. He called me for one minute, and he sat down for twenty minutes with me. So... Now, actually, it is his secretary who is handling it. The big thing is getting his approval, which we already have. Now we are dealing with the secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Prabhupāda: A set of book Hindi may be taken there to the secretary.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: To the Home Minister?

Prabhupāda: To the secretary.

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your father used to take that svarṇa-sindhura?

Prabhupāda: No, makara-dhvaja. The svarṇa-sindhura is cheaper.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That svarṇa-sindhura must be for people who do not have very much money.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This makara-dhvaja is the rich man's medicine.

Bharadvāja: Is it the same kind of medicine?

Śatadhanya: Similar.

Bharadvāja: The svarṇa-sindhura is also similar in effect, for medicine, as medicine?

Prabhupāda: That I do not know. (break) If I can continue this parikrama, that is spiritual cure.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And market it will be sold at cheap rate. Then it will reduce its importance.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That was happening in Calcutta many...

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I also got the loan for the godown. So in November we are starting construction of the BBT godown in Bombay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That four lakhs, two lakhs was for the godown and two lakhs for book printing.

Prabhupāda: Money you'll get. There is no scarcity. Ātreya Ṛṣi will give you.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he is very rich.

Prabhupāda: Their country is very rich now.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, in Calcutta we have got many Chinese. They speak fluently.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This Chinese was from Peking, not Indian-born. And also I was thinking we can say that Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is one of the biggest printers in the world, and we are seriously thinking of buying Chinese paper for printing. And we can buy Chinese paper if it's good, because I found out that Chinese paper is as good as Japanese paper and it is cheaper.

Prabhupāda: No, we can print there also in China.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That will be great, (laughing) if we print our books in China.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have got paper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So it's okay to try for a visa. (break)

Prabhupāda: Sleeping means weakness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sleeping means what?

Devotee: Weakness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Weakness.

Prabhupāda: No, too much sleeping means weakness.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You purchase few copies more. It is very important.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. This is a photocopy. I can get photocopies made. That will be easier probably than getting back issue. And cheaper too.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda wants you to read it.

Guest (2): "The nonphysical view on the origin of species." (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Our... Our. O.B.L. Kapoor.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your Godbrother.

Page Title:Cheap (Conversations 1976 - 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:17 of Aug, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=135, Let=0
No. of Quotes:135