Complex (Conversations and Letters)

Expressions researched:
"complex" |"complexes" |"complexities" |"complexity" |"complexness"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: But I'm wondering what future is there? What's the future of a religious observance so technical as this? So complicated as this? Requires so much sophistication in terms of diet, daily ritual, ārati, ekādaśī, all, the whole thing that you've been teaching, how far can that spread by it's very complexness...

Prabhupāda: Yes. All are complex. The whole idea is to keep the devotees always engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the program. Gradually, we shall introduce more and more so that he has no scope to go outside Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prof. Kotovsky: ...with the history of Asiatic culture. We have a million...(Aside:) Thank you very much. Here is a sample account of our book. You will find here some account of what has been translated and what else is being done in the history of Indian philosophy, and now with this Indian philosophy, history of Indian religion, and now with this Indian..., what is Hinduism now, just now in India also. It is very simple account of...

Prabhupāda: Hinduism is a very complex term. (laughs)

Prof. Kotovsky: Oh, yes, Hinduism. It is not all... It is really... To my understanding it is not religion from European point of view. It is a really a way of life...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Śyāmasundara: It becomes more complex.

Prabhupāda: Just like any ordinary man, how this tape recorder is working? There is a process. But because we have no brain, we think "How it has become? How it has become?"

Śyāmasundara: It's so complex to us.

Prabhupāda: So one who does not know, it is complex. One who is in knowledge, for him it is not complex. Therefore, Bhāgavata says anvayād vitarekabhyam(?). Anvayād itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is completely well versed. Kṛṣṇa just like says, "Yes, I spoke this philosophy millions of years. I remember; you have forgot." There we have to study, how Kṛṣṇa's brain is.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Umāpati: They refer to it as the Don Juan complex.

Prabhupāda: Juan complex, what is that?

Umāpati: It's a character in Spanish history, fictional history. The perfect lover, the image that all men would like to be, the perfect lover.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So who can be perfect lover than Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa, He loves everyone. Where is that man, he loves everyone? The so-called patriot, they love their countrymen, but kill their animals.

Morning Walk -- December 6, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: They would say the psychology of that is that you're suffering from an inferiority complex.

Prabhupāda: Eh. You are inferior. You are being kicked every moment by the laws of nature. How do you claim that you are superior? Why you are covering? Because you are kicked by the laws of material nature.

Umāpati: There's no complex.

Prabhupāda: There is no question... You have to cover yourself.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: There, that the, this grass is coming out of the earth. Wherefrom it is coming? Who has put the chemicals? And the eggs of the birds, they are produced in the womb of the birds, and from there the life is coming, the bird is coming. Where is the chemical?

Pañcadraviḍa: Well, that's just a complex chemical reaction. We can't explain it yet...

Prabhupāda: But "Can't explain"—that means you are fool. You remain fool. Don't try to expose yourself, nonsense. You are a rascal number one; you remain rascal number one. When the neck is caught up, he says, "Yes, it is complex. We shall see in the future." Why "future?" What about now?

Pañcadraviḍa: Well, a hundred years ago we couldn't make this movie camera either. But now they are producing easily.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is... What is the reason they become angry? Somebody has created. They say "Nature." Take nature, somebody, but you have not created.

Śrutakīrti: They want a more complex answer.

Prabhupāda: What is that complex answer? Somebody has created, that's all.

Śrutakīrti: They want to know how he created it.

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

Prabhupāda: That is very good. Students are the future hope, young students.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we should teach them to live very simply, to give up all of this complexity that is causing them so much agitation and depression and just live very simply, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is greatest common factor. Whatever he may be, if he is induced to chant, that is very good, and take prasādam. (break) ...canvas(?) pasted there? Granada? Granada.

Morning Walk -- July 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What is that original species?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, they say originally chemicals. Originally very complex chemicals, acids...

Prabhupāda: Very complex again. So they cannot understand. So complex that they cannot understand. So what is the use of such theory?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, they say these complex chemicals came from the simplest chemicals.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, they say in space there are many, many particles.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Satsvarūpa: Of course, evolutionary theory is that in the beginning, all the different species weren't there. Only simple forms, and then they..., more complex ones came about.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom they came? Dropped from the sky?

Satsvarūpa: Some theories.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) has joined us, about fifty friends, Indians, they have left him.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Hari-śauri: The complexity is there because the spirit soul is complex.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Rūpānuga: The characteristic here, Śrīla Prabhupāda says, is that life has specific complex form and activity by nature. So that this activity, complex activity...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is explained in the Vedānta-sūtra, axiomatic. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). By nature, ānandamaya. And variety is the mother of enjoyment. Unless... Just like these bunch of flowers... When there are varieties of flowers, it becomes a very enjoyable bunches. If you simply bring rose, although it is very valuable, it is not so enjoyable.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: You cannot bring it to any material platform. Everything is denied.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Now to make a simile or comparison, we found from our experience in science that matter itself is rather very simple. It is composed of simple patterns and simple forms and structures. But now when this matter is touched by life or matter in association with life, is actually very complex in terms of molecules. It comes to big molecules, and the molecules not only big. It's very complex, highly complex.

Prabhupāda: You can understand, just the one grain of poison, potassium cyanide. You touch on your tongue, immediately whole body becomes poisoned. How the molecules spread immediately?

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Now my point, coming to this complex form, now matter it is understood easily in terms of science, when matter is associated with life, then comparing this...

Prabhupāda: Then the matter works. Otherwise it has no working capacity. Yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat (BG 7.5). The material world is working on account of the presence of the spirit soul.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: From here, from this experience, we are extending that the spiritual world is, spirit itself is...

Prabhupāda: It's different from material world.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Complex.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is this valid to conclude that spirit, spiritual world, or life is very complex?

Prabhupāda: Not complex, it is simply spirit. In the material world it is complex. In the spiritual world, it is simple.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Is it all right? Is it understood?

Sadāpūta: Spirit means completely different from matter.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Can I ask one question? If life is based on the desires of the living entities, and as you were mentioning that the material energy forms so many complex combinations, the material body is so complex, does that mean that the living entity is very much entangled?

Prabhupāda: If you analyze your body, so many complications. But without life it is all dead matter.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, that is why we are concluding that matter, when it is associated with life, it is very complex.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Without matter, it is complex.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Without life it's more complex, matter?

Prabhupāda: Yes, the same, the matter is the same.

Sadāpūta: Same body.

Rūpānuga: Well in a sense, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: There is no sense, try to understand. The body is complicated. But in spite of all this, it is useless unless there is life.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Hari-śauri: But isn't the complexity of the body due to trying to accommodate the desires of the spirit soul? Such a complicated body is there because the spirit soul desires to do something. So the complexity is a product of the desire.

Prabhupāda: Just like you want to do something, different machine, but the power is the same. You want to, we use a dictaphone or a typewriter, you want to use a, so many, so many... The complication is of the matter, but the electricity is the same. Either this machine or that machine.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is spiritual variety.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Spiritual variety.

Prabhupāda: There is no difference.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That doesn't mean that it is complex, Śrīla Prabhupāda, yes?

Prabhupāda: No, there is no complexity.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Hari-śauri: So if matter is inferior to the spirit soul, then isn't it correct to say that the spirit soul is more complex or sophisticated than matter? If matter is inferior?

Prabhupāda: Spirit soul is living. Naturally he has got desires. That is not complexity. That is a symptom of life.

Rūpānuga: Matter has no desire.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So matter seems, we say, more complex, but still is inferior.

Prabhupāda: It is made complex to serve some purpose.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Rūpānuga: It keeps the living entity forgetful of Kṛṣṇa. It makes māyā for the living entity; he forgets Kṛṣṇa with all the complexities.

Prabhupāda: Physically, everything is being done by heat and light. So fire is heat and light. The fire is not complex, heat and light but with heat and light everything is going on. You have physical subject matter of study, heat and light?

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Hari-śauri: So the living entity's desire has become very complex due to his association with material nature?

Prabhupāda: He does not desire. He desires, and the matter helps. In the material world.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That desire is simple?

Prabhupāda: Desire is simple, that is his... Otherwise, without desire, how he is living? You make minus desire, then how it is living? That is only symptom of his living.

Rūpānuga: You have said on your original record that the living entity is trying to enjoy material nature but is becoming more and more entangled in her complexities.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: What I've heard, what I've heard some Hindu professors say is that Hinduism is such a complex and profound religion and that the Kṛṣṇa consciousness members are very superficial about it. They simply go through these disciplines and really don't involve themselves in the... They take a superficial version of Hinduism.

Prabhupāda: That may be Hindu religion. But we do not belong to any religion. That may be true for the Hindu religion what the professor has said, but we do not identify with any religion. We are different from any religious system.

Room Conversation With French Commander -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Translator: He finds it very admirable that from a small verse you are able to always find something new and wonderful to say about it. And he say you go from verse to verse, and the complexity of what you explain is always new and wonderful to read. So he's very admiring of the book.

Prabhupāda: Thank you.

Bhagavān: How you can go from two lines to three pages.

Prabhupāda: I can go more. (laughter) But I have made shortcut. Kṛṣṇa is unlimited. So He can be described unlimitedly. But we have no unlimited patience.

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

Prabhupāda: That's it. So you'll find everyone of this description, either sinful, or lowest of the mankind, or rascal, or puffed-up with false knowledge, but the basic principle is: no God. So the only solution is let them first of all become God conscious. Then all solution. Otherwise there is no hope.

Dr. Kneupper: The problem is very complex...

Prabhupāda: Yes, it must be complex. They will create complexity.

Dr. Kneupper: And the solution is very simple.

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Guest (1): No, sir, there you are also correct. I would say this, that these American boys and young girls who have come here, because this, our mind is conditioned into inferiority complex or slave-minded person, everything which is adopted there must be...

Prabhupāda: No, we are also slaves, but we are slave of the right person.

Guest (1): Yes, of the Supreme.

Prabhupāda: That is the difference. And they are slaves of their senses. That is the difference. We are not master. We are also slaves. But we are slaves of the person who is perfect, and they are slaves of their senses.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: "But it's very complex situation that has to be dealt with."

Prabhupāda: Then why you are trying United Nation, rascal? It may be complex, but we must try for it in the proper way. That is humanity. Why you are attempting United Nation? You know it is complex. But you do not know how to unite. This is my position. Unite on Kṛṣṇa center. Then you'll be successful. You are already trying for uniting, unity, but you do not know how to unite.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: So if it's complex, at least we have to start with a universal center.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, you can. We... It is already there, United Nation Organization, UNO. So take the ideas. Why you are thinking of... What is that? WHO. World Organization or..., health?

Hari-śauri: World Health Organization.

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

Letter to Sri Munshiji -- Bombay 18 February, 1957:

Some friend asked me to join your institution for preaching the cult of Bhagavad-gita; but if you find it difficult to accept my service, then I shall go on organizing my society separately. And if you advise me to do so separately, then I would request you to become a formal member of the League personally. I hope you will not take my offering in an inferior complex but accept it in a spirit of love for the Bhagavad-gita. Om Tat Sat,

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Tirtha Maharaja -- Los Angeles 7 February, 1969:

Even though we make special arrangements for them, that will not be for many days. Even though you make payment for your students, the other students will feel inferiority complex. You know very well our standard of living, and therefore it will not be possible for us to accommodate your European and American students here in Mayapur. The best suggestion which I can give you is that you better rent one house in Vrindaban and accommodate them there for their education in Sanskrit and Bengali. Srila Prabhupada is so kind upon you that he is causing you to act in such wonderful way, and by seeing your activities I am feeling very much proud of you."

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Damodara -- Los Angeles 24 March, 1970:

Do not feel inferior complexity. When Krsna will give you chance, you will do more than others are doing. But whatever you do, do it nicely in Krsna's service, and Krsna will bless you. Washington is the capitol of the U.S.A., so your center should be just befitting the position of Washington.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Brahmananda -- Nellore 7 January, 1976:

Here we have been given a nice piece of land measuring nine acres. The local people are very enthusiastic and the plan is to construct a Radha Krishna Temple complex.

Letter to Robert -- Mayapur 8 March, 1976:

You mention that the scientists try "to simplify the problem at hand by neglecting any complex factors that may be present." What is that simplification? That there is no God. Their position is "sour grapes." They try by their speculation to understand things, and being unable they say there is no God. So we can use this science to defeat them, just as I have many other disciples, such as Svarupa Damodara. He is Ph.D. in Chemistry and now he is using his scientific background to defeat their atheistic arguments.

Letter to Tusta Krsna -- Vrindaban 18 September, 1976:

N.b.—the Nrsimhadeva Deity should have Hiranyakasipu and Prahlada and should be simple, not very complex.