Coincidence

Expressions researched:
"coincide" |"coincided" |"coincidence" |"coincidental" |"coincidentally"

SB Canto 6

SB 6.4.32, Purport:

Although the impersonalists and personalists fight with one another, they focus upon the same Para-brahman, the same Absolute Truth. In the yoga-śāstras, Kṛṣṇa is described as follows: kṛṣṇaṁ piśaṅgāmbaram ambujekṣaṇaṁ catur-bhujaṁ śaṅkha-gadādy-udāyudham. Thus the pleasing appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead's bodily features, His limbs and His dress are described. The sāṅkhya-śāstra, however, denies the existence of the Lord's transcendental form. The sāṅkhya-śāstra says that the Supreme Absolute Truth has no hands, no legs and no name: hy anāma-rūpa-guṇa-pāṇi-pādam acakṣur aśrotram ekam advitīyam api nāma-rūpādikaṁ nāsti. The Vedic mantras say, apāṇi-pādo javano grahītā: the Supreme Lord has no legs and hands, but He can accept whatever is offered to Him. Actually such statements accept that the Supreme has hands and legs, but deny that He has material hands and legs. This is why the Absolute is called aprākṛta. Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has a sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), a form of eternity, knowledge and bliss, not a material form. The Sāṅkhyites, or jñānīs, deny the material form, and the devotees also know very well that the Absolute Truth, Bhagavān, has no material form.

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ

sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

(Bs. 5.1)

"Kṛṣṇa, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes." The conception of the Absolute without hands and legs and the conception of the Absolute with hands and legs are apparently contradictory, but they both coincide with the same truth about the Supreme Absolute Person. Therefore the word vastu-niṣṭhayoḥ, which is used herein, indicates that both the yogīs and Sāṅkhyites have faith in the reality, but are arguing about it from the different viewpoints of material and spiritual identities. Para-brahman, or bṛhat, is the common point. The Sāṅkhyites and yogīs are both situated in that same Brahman, but they differ because of different angles of vision.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 13.20, Translation:

On the full-moon evening of the month of Phālguna when the Lord took birth, coincidentally there was also a lunar eclipse.

CC Adi 13.99, Purport:

It is understood that Advaita Prabhu, at that time, was in His own paternal house at Śāntipura. Haridāsa Ṭhākura frequently used to meet Him. Coincidentally, therefore, he was also there, and upon the birth of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu both of them immediately began to dance. But no one in Śāntipura could understand why those two saintly persons were dancing.

CC Adi 15.29, Translation:

When the Lord and Lakṣmīdevī met, their relationship awakened, having already been settled, and coincidentally the marriage-maker Vanamālī came to see Śacīmātā.

CC Adi 16.29, Translation:

Coincidentally, Keśava Kāśmīrī Paṇḍita came there. While offering his prayers to mother Ganges, he met Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- Mexico, February 15, 1975:

Actually we want that. Nobody wants to die. Even a person or living being in the most wretched condition of life, if you propose that "Let me kill you," he'll not agree. Therefore the psychology is that every living being does not want to die. So, but actually we are not subject to death or birth. That will be discussed. We have somehow or other, by chance or by coincidence, we have acquired this material body. Actually it is not by chance, but we wanted to lord it over the material world, therefore we have got this material body.

So everyone in this material world, either human being or animals, or birds and beast, is trying to be the lord of the universe. Therefore, if we actually want relief from this constant change of transmigration, then we must prepare for that. We have already discussed that we can get our next life as we prepare for it. If I like, I can go to the higher planetary system; if I like, I can go to the lower planetary system; if I like, you can go to the beastly life or godly life. As I desire, I'll get.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 3.25.15 -- Bombay, November 15, 1974:

That is now very prominent in Western countries. Svīkāra eva codvāhe. There is no such thing... Just like the father of the girl, they'll find out a suitable boy, and the father of the girl, they will also find out... In this way... The horoscope... Formerly, these things were very current. Without there is, I mean to say, coincidence of the horoscope, that "This boy and this girl would live very happily," by horoscopic calculation, then marriage would not take place. Then the family consideration, whether the boy is coming from suitable family or the girl is coming from su... So many things were there. Then the marriage would ta... But that kind of marriage is practically already stopped. Here, at the present moment, means simply agreement. "I like you. You like me. That's all right. Let us live together." Svīkāra eva codvāhe. Dāmpatye ratim eva hi. Husband and wife relationship means sex. There is no other purpose. As soon as there is some difficulty in sex enjoyment, they will be separated. These are all mentioned. Lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam.

Lecture on SB 7.9.5 -- Mayapur, February 12, 1976:

At the same time, Kṛṣṇa says, mṛtyu ahaṁ sarva-haraś ca, He is death also. So for the non-devotees He is death, and for the devotees He is life. These are the contradictory qualifications of the Supreme Lord. Death and life are two opposite things, viruddha, and Kṛṣṇa is both of them. So He adjusts, viruddha, opposite things coincide into one thing. That is Kṛṣṇa. We cannot adjust opposite things to be one.

So, sva-pāda-mule patitaṁ, Lord Brahmā, as soon as asked Prahlāda Mahārāja to pacify the Lord, he immediately fell down at His lotus feet, sva-pāda-mule patitaṁ tam arbhakaṁ. Just like we are sometime extraordinarily happy, pleased when a small child offers his obedience. So naturally, when Prahlāda Mahārāja, a small boy five years old, and he fell down at the lotus feet of the Lord, He became very much pleased. So, not only for Prahlāda Mahārāja, anyone in this material world who offers his obeisances before the Deity, don't think it is useless.

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, October 31, 1972:

Kṛṣṇa is not impersonal, because He has got so many personal associates. Nityo nityānām. All these personal associates, they're individual persons. We are all person. You are person, I am person. We are all individual. I have got my individual opinion; you have got your individual opinion. Oneness means when these individual opinions are coincided in the matter of surrendering to Kṛṣṇa; that is oneness. Oneness does not mean that all these individuals become one, homogeneous. No. They keep their individuality, but they become one in the service of Kṛṣṇa. That is oneness. Now everyone is working for his sense gratification, personal. When everyone becomes agreed that "We shall satisfy Kṛṣṇa," that is oneness. That is oneness. One nation. We can understand: one family. One family means they're individual persons, but they're working for the interest of the family—all of them combinedly, conjointly, working.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.49-65 -- San Francisco, February 3, 1967:

Now there were two incidences. One incidences, one incident is that His two devotees were very sorry because the other party was criticizing Him. And the meantime, another brāhmaṇa came to invite Him. So it was coincidence. Caitanya Mahāprabhu thought that this is an opportunity to meet the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs and to talk with him, to talk with them, how they criticized the personalists.

prabhu hāsi' nimantraṇa kaila aṅgīkāra

sannyāsīre kṛpā lāgi' e bhaṅgī tāṅhāra

So although previously He did not associate with the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, still, to please His devotees, who were very sorry to hear the criticism, He accepted the invitation so that He could meet them and talk with them.

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.149-171 -- San Francisco, March 18, 1967:

He has already impregnated the seed. Just like Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda. In 1896 he sent the Caitanya Mahāprabhu's message to McGill University. That book you have seen. The letter was there. And these are coincidence. Now, after so many years, a servant of that disciplic succession has come here again to preach. So these things are significant. Caitanya Mahāprabhu practically sown the seed of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and it is spreading, and it is sure it will spread. Now it has come to your country, and I am sure the students who are taking very seriously about this movement, they will spread in the western world.

Festival Lectures

Sri Vyasa-puja -- Hamburg, September 5, 1969:

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is..., nārāyaṇaṁ namāskṛtya naraṁ caiva narottamam, devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsam (SB 1.2.4). So Vyāsa. So this platform is called "the seat of Vyāsa." So spiritual master should be representative of Vyāsa. Then the instruction is complete, and the benefit is assured. So I do not wish to take much of your time. We will now distribute prasādam. And one thing, coincidence, the Vyāsa-pūjā means to observe the birthday of the spiritual master. That is called Vyāsa-pūjā. And so today, this Nandotsava day, fortunately, seventy-three years ago I was born on this date. So this date, Nandotsava, is also a very fortunate occasion, because after Kṛṣṇa's birth, Mahārāja Nanda, the father of Kṛṣṇa, he celebrated a utsava, a ceremony, and this day is called Nandotsava. So a little I shall speak about Nandotsava. Nanda Mahārāja, he was a little elderly when Kṛṣṇa was born, and some of his friends came to congratulate, "My dear friend, you have got a son in your old age," and Nanda Mahārāja said amongst the friends that "How can you say I am old?

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: There was a tal tree, and one crow came, and immediately the fruit fell down. And there were two arguers: one said that the crow sat down on the fruit and it was so light it fell down, and the other said no, the crow was trying to sit down on the fruit but in the meantime the fruit fell and he could not sit. It is like that. It may be coincidence, the crow was just trying to sit on the fruit and the fruit fell. But these people's answer is no, the crow first sat down, then is was fallen. Another says no, the fruit has fallen down; therefore the crow could not sit. So this kind of argument has no value. According (indistinct), the water separated and the stone fell—they are nonsensical. Our argument is strong: that if Kṛṣṇa desires, the stone can float on the water, despite the law of gravitation. The law of gravitation is not working. So many huge planets are floating. How they are floating? The law of gravitation is working here. The stone falls down and (indistinct) goes down in the water. But that is one of the ingredients of the planet.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: Therefore ultimate desire is God's.

Śyāmasundara: Just like the bird—whether the bird caused the fruit to fall, or whether the fruit happened to fall coincidentally. It doesn't matter. Is that the point?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is simply useless talk. Because it is a fact that the fruit has fallen, and the crow has flown away. Now why should we bother? A waste of time. But both can be possible. These argument—one is saying that the bird sat down, which is the cause of falling of the fruit, and the other says the falling down is the cause of the bird's not being able to sit on it—both can be possible. But we say therefore the ultimate desire is of God. If God desired that the fruit would not fall, it would not have fallen. That is our proposition.

Philosophy Discussion on Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz:

Prabhupāda: That is not clear. Once he says there is no cause. There is cause. There is no other cause than God. That is definite. The real cause is God.

Śyāmasundara: His idea is that when the bird landed, the fruit coincidentally fell. There is no cause between the bird and the fruit falling.

Prabhupāda: No. We say if Kṛṣṇa desired, it would not have fallen. Kṛṣṇa desired it. Kṛṣṇa desires "Let it fall down"; therefore it falls. That is the cause. Kṛṣṇa desires that "Let the fruit fall down and the crow fly away."

Śyāmasundara: He says that God is absolute necessity because He is governed by the law of contradiction, and it is impossible to conceive of not God.

Prabhupāda: To God there is no contradiction. That is absolute. Whatever He does, whatever He says, that is absolute. There is no contradiction.

Philosophy Discussion on Hegel:

Prabhupāda: But everything will be coincided in Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: The whole process is eternal and permanent.

Prabhupāda: Just like so many radius, and it, everything middle points. You expand, you go, long, long, long.

Śyāmasundara: Even when the wheel turns the center...

Prabhupāda: The spoke. Spoke, and what it is called? Hub. Hub.

Śyāmasundara: ...remains constant. That's his whole idea of history.

Prabhupāda: That is explained in Bhāgavata. Kṛṣṇa says, aham evāsam evāgre. All expansions take place but He remains the same.

Philosophy Discussion on Jeremy Bentham:

Prabhupāda: Therefore he voluntarily checks himself. And it is possible to check. So unless you give better thing, simply by prohibition you cannot check. That is not possible. The same example again, just like a thief, he knows the prohibitive order that you shall not steal. He knows the prohibitive order even in śāstra, that if a man is a thief he will suffer this kind of hellish condition. So he has heard it from the lawyer and from the śāstra that stealing is not good and he has seen it that a thief is arrested and is punished but still he does it. But a Kṛṣṇa conscious person will not do it. That is the difference. So by law or by pressure you cannot make anyone moral. That's not possible. He has to be given something which is better than morality, then he will stop committing all kinds of sins.

Śyāmasundara: He says that the pleasure of one person will coincide with the pleasure of others, we're all more or less desiring similar pleasures. Prabhupāda: Coincide?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with British Man -- August 31, 1973, London:

Guest (1): Now, because I am only versed in the Western sense of the old and new Testament, I understand that Christ is coming again at the end of this non-believing age in the world. Does that coincide with the son of God that you understand or is that a different sort of coming?

Prabhupāda: No,...

Haṁsadūta: Actually in the Bible there's, someone mentions there the description that the Lord will come and He will ride on a white steed, on a white horse. And at that time he will kill all the nondevotee people. It's also in the Bible.

Guest (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: So this Kalki, this incarnation of Kṛṣṇa which comes at the end of this age, He's described, He will come and ride on a white horse all over the world, and He will.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1973, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If these boys, in their scientific language, they try to convince, that will be more effective. We are generally speaking that "Water has come from Kṛṣṇa," or "The earth has come from Kṛṣṇa." That may be blind. But if it is scientifically presented, how it has come from Kṛṣṇa, then they cannot refute so easily. So that I am engaging this doctor of chemistry, Svarūpa Dāmodara and Rāya Rāmānanda. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's two personal associates, Svarūpa Dāmodara and Rāmānanda.

Guest (1): Yes, and Rāya Rāmānanda. Very, very strange coincidence.

Prabhupāda: What is that verse? Idaṁ hi puṁsas śrutasya vā... You find out this verse. You have to find out the... No, no, from here. You have to take the index. Where is Paṇḍita? Paṇḍita is not here?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kapoor: Śrīji Mandir. (indistinct conversation in background) I was told by responsible person that C. D. Gupta is coming to see the temple at 4 o'clock. I don't know. At any rate I may be wrong. It's (indistinct) you see. They shouldn't make the two programs coincide. (pause) Program is working wonders through you?

Prabhupāda: It is by your blessings.

Guest: (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: I do not know how (indistinct) making plans. I am sometimes myself puzzled. (laughter)

Dr. Kapoor: Yes, because you are just an instrument (laughter).

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Guest: I think it's probably just a coincidence that the name is Maya, more than, you know.... (break)

Guest: How's your health?

Prabhupāda: Health is not very good. I am not (indistinct).

Devotee: It's almost time to go to your.... (break)

Prabhupāda: This we will take more, it will not harm, but the other, if you take little less.... (break) Mexico? No.

Guest: There is good butter.

Prabhupāda: Butter?

Room Conversation with Mr. C. Hennis of the International Labor Organization of the U.N. -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

C. Hennis: I think that there, in your whole philosophy, there must be a very large number of points of coincidence with the more materialist activities that we engage in. But, well, they're just trying to give people a fair share of the material things of life, proper wages, decent houses, decent opportunities for feeling and for leisure.

Yogeśvara: All that must be there, but without proper instructions simultaneously as to what is the goal of life...

C. Hennis: Yes, but I don't think you can properly expect to indoctrinate people. I don't think that... At least, you can't expect an international organization to indoctrinate people on the national level. I'm sure that the...

Prabhupāda: No, it is not national. It should be international. Just like everyone... United Nation, it is meant for international activity. Our only proposition is that as the international organization, United Nations, they should keep a class of men who should act as brain. Then it will be all right. Without brain, simply legs and hands working, no direction, that is not very good.

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

Prof. Regamay: But first I would like to express my thanks that you gave me this honor to receive me. So I have different questions because I'm in such a difficult situation that I have many Indian doctrines, and there was some difficulty because I know them only through the books, without (indistinct). And, for instance, one of the first questions I want to put: Viṣṇu Purāṇa, it's very similar and very coincidental to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, Viṣṇu Purāṇa.

Prof. Regamay: Is that... Practically, can it be considered that it's the same kind of...

Prabhupāda: Yes, Viṣṇu Purāṇa is Vaiṣṇava literature. There are eighteen Purāṇas. Out of eighteen, six are sāttvika, and six are rājasika, and six are tāmasika. The sāttvika Purāṇas, they are Vaiṣṇava literature. Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Padma Purāṇa.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Guest (4) (Indian man): Recently I was reading article in a science magazine and a space scientist, he has calculated that after 67,000 million years the universe contracts. And then I started calculating in terms of the yugas and the division which is mentioned. With the help of an astronomer I reached the conclusion that both figures coincide. So do you mean to say that when it was mentioned that after four yugas they will collide. Then it was a kind of vision, or might have been calculated by this...

Prabhupāda: Means calculation. It is going on, regulated way. Just like everyone knows that this month is February. In the month of June the summer will begin. Everyone knows. It is not conclusion; it is experience. There is no need of calculating. So one who has got better experience, he can say like that. Calculation and experience. Just like if somebody says, "Two plus two plus two plus two," somebody says immediately, "Six." And another calculates, "Two plus two plus..., six." So experience and calculation. Lacks experience, he calculates. One who has better experience, he doesn't calculate. One who knows past, present, and future, he doesn't require to make calculation. He knows everything. So God knows past, present, and future, and others who are favored by God, he also knows by the grace of God.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda? In those early days of colonization they were trying to sail to India by a quick route to get the spices, and it was the same time that Lord Caitanya's movement began. So is that just a coincidence, that they were trying to go to India at the same time?

Prabhupāda: No. What it has got with Caitanya's movement?

Rāmeśvara: I heard... A devotee once told me that they were actually...

Prabhupāda: Oh, again, "heard it from devotee." (laughter) That is very dangerous. What Caitanya's movement has got with politics? Nothing. They drag Caitanya's movement, that. Many rascals do that. It has nothing to do with politics. It is simply spiritual. Rather, even the Mohammedans, they were very much respectful to Caitanya Mahāprabhu. They never took it as, His, the political movement. Now it has become a fashion to take everything from political point of view. Just like in India, they are suspecting you as CIA. "CIA has come to become Vaiṣṇava."

Room Conversation with Yogi Bhajan -- June 7, 1975, Honolulu:

Yogi Bhajan: Five years ago we had a one-paper print. We used to give it away for five cents. That developed into a paper. This is how everything develops. And my basic idea is people must share. And why not come there, participate, share, say what you have to say? It is one of the funny coincidence that we both live in Culver City. We live very adjoining to each other. And I go to your temple, see how it is made and how they are doing and what kind of marble they are using. And I have a lot of things to criticize but... You know. They are messing it up, but they are spending a lot of money. (laughter) So I don't mind what they are doing, but it is really a waste, lot of it is waste. I go and watch and it hurts me. But I just go around see, after all. You must have very wise architects.

Prabhupāda: They are very expert in wasting.

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Whatever he has done, so he could not save him. He cannot save him from death. So what is the use of this scientific knowledge? If the dog is also going to die and he is also going to die, so where is the difference of his scientific knowledge?

Paramahaṁsa: Coincidentally, the original purpose of the hydrogen bomb was to prevent death, to end the Second World War as soon as possible.

Prabhupāda: How they can prevent? That he does not know, how to prevent. He can accelerate. That's all. (break) ...puts before us, "Here is your problem, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). Solve it." Where is that scientist? They avoid the real problem and take some childish problem. (break) ...not any hidden problem. It is the open problem. Kṛṣṇa puts it: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam, The real seer will see to these problems. There is no answer or solution of these problems. Where is the solution of these problems? Where is the biochemist or the psychologist or the atom bombist?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Mahātmā: There was one boy in Berkeley, and he worked for a company that would record facts and figures, and he said every year the Navy would pay this company something like sixty thousand dollars and would give them their theories that they knew were wrong, and this company would supply false facts and figures to coincide with the theories—make up facts that would support their false theories.

Prabhupāda: What is that false theory?

Hṛdayānanda: They want to take money, so they say "We need so many things, you have to give us money from the government to buy new weapons," this, that, so they make up false things for money.

Prabhupāda: Befool.

Rāmeśvara: Child is born dead means defective body.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Rāmeśvara: It just means it is defective.

Prabhupāda: That is, rascal, that his soul is not there, therefore defective. The body is already defective, your body, my body, but it is effective only so long the soul is there.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Indian man: Today it's a matter of greatest coincidence. Yesterday got up early in the morning to go for a walk. I thought of Hare Rāma, Hare Kṛṣṇa, then I met you today. Of course, I have no, myself and my wife are life members. We come sometimes, but morning chanting for me rather, it didn't happen. Today it happened and I met you today.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: Little bit of concoction. But practically no one had every heard of yoga or anything. It was just beginning to get popular when you came to America. It coincided with your visit. So it seems that there must be some...

Hari-śauri: Some kind of a bug there, an ant.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Rāmeśvara: So it seems that there must be some...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa's plan.

Rāmeśvara: ...effect. By just your coming to America, the whole place is transformed. Sometimes we think that when you look at these dates that Lord Caitanya came to the world, it coincides with a period in the Western world called the Renaissance. During this period of the Renaissance there was the highest development of art and literature and so many other cultural things. So we sometimes wonder there must be some...

Prabhupāda: Does it mean that before that, the Europeans were uncivilized?

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: Yes. It's an amazing coincidence. This woman prime minister of Śrī Lanka, she follows everything Indira does. When Indira Gandhi held elections, she also held elections. She lost; she lost. She's coming back; she's coming back. They're very friendly, two ladies running these two countries. Sometimes when preaching I tell the public, "What kind of country is this? The land of the rājarṣis and some lady is running the government."

Prabhupāda: Hm, don't touch politics.

Haṁsadūta: Oh, all right. We should stay clear of the government. They are too dangerous.

Prabhupāda: Cultural... We, our culture and philosophy. To be arrested is not new thing for politicians.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: How you have accepted invitation today?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The time it was fixed for was the lunch time of the conference. Another reason Bhagatji wanted to have it was that he just wanted to have it while everyone was here. But the main thing is that the lunch was supposed to coincide with the lunchtime of the conference. That's the main point. In other words, there was no conflict of the two.

Prabhupāda: Why did you not go there?

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Aniruddha -- Montreal 16 June, 1968:

I am in due receipt of your letter of June 5th, 1968, and I thank you very much for it. Yes, I have noted your questions about the serving of prasadam. The main thing is that whenever prasadam is offered to the Lord, everything should be very respectfully and cleanly presented and prepared. In Jagannatha Puri, the Lord eats 56 times. So the Lord can eat as many times as you can offer. But only thing is whatever is offered must be with respect and devotion. (He is neither hungry nor poor, nor unable to eat, but He accepts everything, when such eatable is within the groups of vegetables, fruits, flours, milk, water, etc. is offered to Him with love and devotion, and faith. He wants our love only, and that makes Him hungry for eating as many times as you may offer. He is absolute, therefore, all contradictory points coincide in Him. He is hungry and satisfied simultaneously. So the purport is that everything should be offered very cleanly and pure things should be given.

Letter to Rupanuga -- Montreal 3 July, 1968:

I am so glad to receive your letter dated June 30, 1968, just when I was thinking of you, that I have not heard from you since you met me at Boston—immediately I got your letter and it was so nice coincidence! At the same time, 3 beloved devotees, namely Brahmananda, Rayarama, and Gargamuni also arrived at the same moment. So just now in Montreal it is very pleasing atmosphere. Last night we had meetings and sankirtana very nicely, and Brahmananda, Rayarama and Janardana, they spoke each 15 to 20 minutes and they spoke very nicely. And as you are also making progress in Buffalo, which I can understand from the description of your letter, so I am getting more and more enthused that my spiritual children are growing to Krishna Consciousness, and I can hope each one of you in future will be able to propagate this transcendental message.

Letter to Sivananda -- San Francisco 15 September, 1968:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated Sept. 10, 1968, just after posting my reply to your letter dated Sept. 9. The coincidence that as soon as you received my letter for opening the Berlin center immediately, Krishna has sent you immediately a check for 200 American dollars—this is a good omen that we should immediately open our branch in Berlin. The description of the storefront with 4 rooms and floor, kitchen, and bathroom etc, appears to be very suitable for our purposes. And the rent is not much and I am so glad that you can manage it. So my advice is that you can immediately occupy the storefront for our branch, and let me know the address so that we can enlist our Berlin center immediately in the list of our several other centers.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Mandali Bhadra -- Los Angeles 28 July, 1969:

Similarly, amongst the disciples of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati there may be some controversy, but the central point is how to preach the mission of His Divine Grace. If the central point is fixed up then there is no harm in such controversy. Every individual being must have his opinion; that is the significance of individuality, but all such differences of opinions must coincide in Krishna. In the battlefield of Kuruksetra were Arjuna and Bhisma who were fighting with one another, and because Krishna was on the side of Arjuna, sometimes Bhisma pierced the body of Krishna also with arrows. But still they remained the greatest devotees of the Lord, and Krishna accepted the friendship of Arjuna just as He accepted the inimical arrows of Bhisma in the same loving spirit. So you do not be disturbed by such controversial points. Better you engage your mind very seriously in the matter of the service entrusted upon you. That will make you progressive in Krishna Consciousness.

Letter to Madhudvisa -- England 30 September, 1969:

If Ekadasi tithi is not in the sunrise and the tithi begins, say after a few minutes after the sunrise, then we accept that day as previous to Ekadasi. All our ceremonies are calculated in that way. This means we must see the tithi during sunrise. Therefore, sometimes our dates of ceremonies do not exactly coincide like the western calculations. Just like Christmas Day they have fixed up on the 25th December, but our Janmastami tithi is not fixed up like that. My birthday is on the 1st September, 1896, but this year the tithi of my birthday was fixed for the 4th September. So it is very difficult to calculate, therefore we have to take help from the Indian expert almanac astronomers.

Regarding Srimad-Bhagavatam, yes you may begin reading it at kirtana lectures. On someday you should read Bhagavad gita As It Is also, however.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Ramesvara -- West Bengal 25 October, 1974:

Prabhupada's translation of Caitanya Caritamrta is almost finished, only two more chapters left in the whole book. Then he will resume S.B. starting with Canto Five. This was Srila Prabhupada's reason for taking up C.C. by working on C.C. the Press was given time to publish all the backlog of S.B. that was piling up. By exact coincidence Prabhupada is finishing C.C. just as they have finished publishing all of S.B. through the Fourth Canto. Now as Srila Prabhupada resumes S.B., they can publish the C.C.

Letter to Sri Govinda -- Bombay 6 December, 1974:

So on the above statements you must make some compromise. Both Tripurari and yourself are intelligent. Sometimes we may differ, but Krishna is the center. Just like in Vrindaban there is Radharani's party and there is Candravali's party. So Krishna is the center of both parties. So even there there is competition between the parties, but they coincide in Krishna.