Collector (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"collector" |"collectors"

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Kṛṣṇa has got varieties of order, and your duty is to carry out the order of Kṛṣṇa, that's all. What kind of order He'll give, you accept, just like you are doing, all my disciples. It is not that you are all doing the same thing. Somebody is pūjārī, somebody is preaching, and somebody is a collector.

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Don't say that Kṛṣṇa has only one purpose, that only purpose is that you surrender. Now, when you surrender, whatever Kṛṣṇa says you do it.

Śyāmasundara: Oh. So His purpose is individual for everyone.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Varieties of purposes. Kṛṣṇa is asking Arjuna to fight with the Kurus, or He's asking me to preach. I am not fighting. So Kṛṣṇa, (indistinct), He has got varieties of order, and your duty is to carry out the order of Kṛṣṇa, that's all. What kind of order He'll give, you accept, just like you are doing, all my disciples. It is not that you are all doing the same thing. Somebody is pūjārī, somebody is preaching, somebody is collector, somebody is (indistinct), somebody is this, somebody is that. So there are different varieties, but your duty is to carry out my order.

The king is the proprietor of all taxes. But he's not a tax collector.

Morning Walk -- March 23, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: "I am enjoyer of all the yajñas to whom, whatever and to whomever you are doing." How would you accept that...

Prabhupāda: No, no. The king. The king is the proprietor of all taxes. But he's not a tax collector.

Dr. Patel: Now, now, Chando Bhai, come here.

Prabhupāda: The king...

Guest (3) (Indian man): What do you want?

Prabhupāda: ...is the proprietor...

Dr. Patel: Ahaṁ hi sarva-bhoktānāṁ bhakto māṁ parameśvaram (?).

Prabhupāda: Just like the king, and there are many tax collectors. So tax goes to the king.

Guest (3): Yes, king, yes.

Prabhupāda: It does not belong to the tax collectors.

Guest (3): Correct.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...nāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ.

The collector, they remain individual, after and before. And while on the beehive. Always individual.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, they keep their individuality.

Guest (1): ...and when the whole mass comes from, each small particle of honey does not know that he's from a particular tree, like that, he becomes... After the whole thing he gets, what do you call? The deluge.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Those, the collector, they remain individual, after and before. And while on the beehive. Always individual. That is the point. When they begin collecting honey, they're individual. And after collecting, when they make a beehive, they're individual. Or when they're sitting on the beehive, they're individual. Eternal. This is eternal. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13).

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

In this world tax collector comes. If you say "Why shall I give you tax? It is already there. It was before my coming. How I was there. And still there. Why you're asking me tax?" Can you say like that? "Oh it was already there." There or there, if you enjoy, you must pay tax.

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (1): Well the next proposition is that if God is there, then let Him stay there, and we are here, let us stay here. Why do we have to be concerned with Him?

Prabhupāda: But you (unclear) you rascal, you'll die. If there is no sun, you'll die. Therefore you must be obliged, feeling every moment that God is giving sun, you're living. God is so kind that you're given sun so that you can live. So you must be obliged to God. (Sanskrit) bhūtāni, bhūtāni jayanti. So saṁsanti, saṁkleśa (indistinct) santi.(?) You are living on mercy of God. You're so ungrateful. You're so rascal, you do not give Him thanks. Even the sun. In this world tax collector comes. If you say "Why shall I give you tax? It is already there. It was before my coming. How I was there. And still there. Why you're asking me tax?" Can you say like that? "Oh it was already there." There or there, if you enjoy, you must pay tax.

Through collector and through all government officials pressure. She wrote me later on, that "Bhaktivedantajī, you wanted to organize, but you could not. But I have got this institution. Why not give it to me?"

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: One man cheated you there? Some land? No.

Prabhupāda: The building belonged to a big zamindar. So Prabhākāra arranged. So it was to be given to me, and I wanted to start the League of Devotees from there. So I spent some money, whatever money I had, and it was going on. But in the meantime, this Lilavati Munshi, Mrs. At that time she was wife of the governor. Her husband, K. M. Munshi. She had some organization of foreign women. So somehow or other she got imagination that "This house is very nice." She was governor's wife. So it was not given to me rightly, but I was using. So she wanted that house. Through collector and through all government officials pressure. She wrote me later on, that "Bhaktivedantajī, you wanted to organize, but you could not. But I have got this institution. Why not give it to me?" So, of course, there were many lawyer friends. They advised me that "You do not give up. You should litigate." So I thought, "Who is going to litigate? Let me go to Vṛndāvana." So I left. So at Mathurā I delivered the Deity to this Keśavajī Gauḍīya Maṭha, and I made my place in Vṛndāvana.

Gargamuni: You had such a hard struggle in the beginning.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Gargamuni: Because that place, I saw in the photo, everything was there. Nice big sign.

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 -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This was in the park, Thompkins Square.

Hari-śauri: That was after Hayagrīva and...

Prabhupāda: No, simultaneous.

Harikeśa: This was the fall of 1966. October maybe.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was going in the park on Sunday and began from three. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, that dundubhi. What is that, in the hand?

Harikeśa: A tom-tom.

Prabhupāda: Tom-tom. Yes.

Saurabha: He's explaining why you came to America and that in three years you spread the mantra all over the Western world.

Harikeśa: Yogeśvara has many pictures of this. I saw all of them once.

Prabhupāda: He is good collector.

So the governor's wife was pressing him through the collector because the license has to be renewed from the collector.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I wanted to start from there. It was very nice, big house. But this K. Munshi's wife tactfully wanted me to... The Governor's wife. That was a very big house.

Hari-śauri: Oh, there were some politics. I didn't know.

Prabhupāda: But he peacefully took it. I could have fought but I did not like. All the pleaders in Jhansi, they said, "Don't leave." She was pressing through the collectors, to the manager. That house belonged to some zamindar. But it was under the management of another man, Reba Shankara(?). So he was proprietor of one cinema hall. So the governor's wife was pressing him through the collector because the license has to be renewed from the collector. Collector was insisting that "You give that house, Lilavati Munshi. Indirectly. Otherwise, your license will not be issued."

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So any third class man, if he's given some land, naturally he will be very much pleased. They created that aristocracy. So he selected some men that you give me four annas per bigha and what ever you can collect that is your... That is the old system in India, zamindari system. So collector, collector, the local collector, he appointed somebody. They used to give one lease, that you give government four annas per bigha, and whatever you can collect, that is your business. So that created an aristocratic society and they all supported Britishers, because they're obliged.