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Divine (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk -- October 18, 1968, Seattle:

Guest (2): Divine Master, I came to pay my respect and I'm most distressed that I need to leave, but there is series of people who are waiting for me, for a spiritual meeting also. So permit me to bow to you.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Please come again.

Guest (2): Thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Take some prasādam.

Guest (2): Thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: So you did not question anything, if you have got any doubts?

Guest (2): I beg your pardon? (devotees explain Prabhupāda's question) Do I have any doubts? Divine Master, you have made me able to read my heart. I have no pretensions to speak one way or another. There is no doubt.

Devotee: She said there is no doubt.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. (mild laughter) (end)

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Lord Caitanya Play Told to Tamala Krsna -- August 4, 1969, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I noticed that someone in the temple was reading a book, The Divine Name.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And it talks about this. Should I look at that book or not at all?

Prabhupāda: Which book?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's called The Divine Name. It is by one of your Godbrothers.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is it all right to read it?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. There are some discrepancies, but it is, on the whole, it is nice. Yes. There is... Haridāsa Ṭhākura's niryāna is stated there? Yes. Rāghava Caitanya. Yes, he was my Godbrother. You have secured that book?

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 6, 1971, Bombay:

Guest: Divine birth is not... There's no known being, super-being, here to... Here you find Vietnam War, you find here Bangladesh, you find all suffering and they'll cry all around to God that "He will come and protect us," and there is no protection anywhere from this.

Prabhupāda: Well, this kind of protection, crying at the time of danger, this is experienced from past history also. Just like in the last war in Germany. One German friend told me that naturally all the women went to the church for praying, "My Lord, save my husband. Save my brother." Because all men were in the front, only women were left. So they were praying that "My husband may come back. My brother may come back," or "My father may come back," but nobody came back, and they thought, "Oh, there is no God. Our all prayers are useless." They became atheist.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Banyan tree. There is small seed, very small. It contains the potency of a big banyan tree. You cannot create such seed. You create something, just like you are creating vitamin tablets. You are proposing that "No more eating required. You simply take some vitamin tablet." Is it not? Similarly, you create some tablet and sow it in the earth and big banyan tree comes. Then I will accept you. (laughter)

Martin: You, you say that... (break) ...who created this knowledge that this flower and the banyan tree is Kṛṣṇa. What place in the divine scheme do such great names as Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad have?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Buddha, we accept him as incarnation, as expansion of Kṛṣṇa. He's Kṛṣṇa working as Buddha, Lord Buddha. Keśava dhṛta buddha śarīra. He has accepted body of Buddha. That is our conception of Lord Buddha.

Interview -- July 5, 1972, New York:

Guest (1): Yes, I guess it would be hard to define in terms of a search. Man's..., man's search for something divine. I'd..., I'd define it in terms of, of a search for the divine. I've been studying Russian Elders in the Orthodox Church. Perhaps that's a tradition that you're familiar with in some way. They seem to have found the divine. I guess that's religion too. It seems to me both are, but perhaps you have a better definition than that?

Prabhupāda: Yes. When you are searching with some hope, what is that hope? Why you are searching? When you are missing something, then there is a question of searching for that missing point. You said religion means searching after the divine. So that means you are missing the divine. Is it not?

Guest (1): That's right.

Prabhupāda: Now, the next question will be, What do you mean by this "divine"?

Guest (1): Oh, I'm not..., I'm not sure, Your Grace.

Prabhupāda: The other day we were talking with some scientists. We came to this conclusion, that the scientists, big scientists, they are simply concerned with the laws of nature, because the laws of nature are very stringent. For example, there is death. Everyone will die. So nobody can check death. However great scientist he may, he cannot stop death. By laws of nature one is becoming old.

Interview -- July 5, 1972, New York:

Prabhupāda: The other day we were talking with some scientists. We came to this conclusion, that the scientists, big scientists, they are simply concerned with the laws of nature, because the laws of nature are very stringent. For example, there is death. Everyone will die. So nobody can check death. However great scientist he may, he cannot stop death. By laws of nature one is becoming old. By your scientific advancement you can stop first of all. So the science means they are trying to overcome the stringent laws of nature, but so far... Not so far—even in the past in the human history they could not. In the present also they are unable. They say in future they will be able. But how we can believe it? Because in the past they could not; in the present also they are unable. How they can overcome the laws of nature in the future? History repeats. Same failure there is (indistinct). Therefore the divine means, as we define, the divine means the controller of the laws of nature. Laws of nature there is, and everyone is under the laws of nature. Nobody can overcome the laws of nature. Just like state laws. Every citizen is bound to abide by the state law. He cannot overcome it. If..., if he overcomes it then, or violates it, the violation of law, and he becomes punishable. Similarly the laws of nature means laws of God. Just like your president is the giver of your state law. Similarly, as soon as we say laws of nature, there must be giver of them. In our śāstra, the Vedic literature, it is said, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Dharma, religion, means the codes given by God, and we have to abide by those laws. When we do not abide by those laws, then we violate the laws of nature, of God, and we become punishable.

Interview -- July 5, 1972, New York:

Guest (1): If our senses are imperfect, then with what sense do we perceive the Divine that underlies these laws of nature?

Prabhupāda: That our senses are imperfect means, just like I have given the example, I can see the sun, but I do not see the sun perfectly. I have got the power to see the sun, but I do not know how big is the sun. That power I haven't got. In that way my senses are imperfect. So when I see the sun and hear about him from a perfect person who knows about the sun, then my knowledge becomes perfect, although I have got imperfect senses. Just like I cannot understand President Nixon by my speculation, but when President speaks about him I can understand, although I have got imperfect senses. This is the process. Imperfect in this way: that our senses cannot approach to the ultimate point by speculation.

Interview -- July 5, 1972, New York:
Prabhupāda: So if it is accepted that religion means the law of God... Is that accepted? Now we have to study what are the special laws of God and what is the nature of God. That is divine search. So from Bhagavad-gītā we understand the nature of God, that he is the supreme father. Is there any objection? God is the supreme father. I think in Christian religion also they accept. Is it not? Now, the supreme father says that all living entities, not only these human being or the civilized human being but even the animals, the trees, plants, the insects, birds, beasts, fishes or other aquatics—any living entity, even a small insect. Living entity means who has got that vital force of moving. Some of them are not moving also, just like trees. They do not move, but still they are living entity. So from Bhagavad-gītā we understand that all living entities, irrespective of bodily feature, they are sons of God. What do you think of this conception?
Interview with the New York Times -- September 2, 1972, New Vrindaban:

John Nordheimer: (laughing) It's already been suggested that we (the New York Times) are not divinely inspired. At any rate, this book-

Prabhupāda: If one gets a diamond, he possesses something valuable. But in this civilization you are simply making plastic plates and plastic cups. Indeed, in Japan I have seen pasteboard homes. And everyone is thinking that he is advanced. Formerly people used to have golden and silver utensils, but now they have plastic ones, and still they are very proud to be so materially advanced. What is your position? You have a bunch of paper and think, "I am a millionaire." What is the value of that paper? Is that not cheating? However, if we possess gold or diamonds worth a million dollars, that is actual wealth. But we are educated in such a way that we think we are millionaires by paper only. As soon as there is some catastrophe, millions of such dollars could not buy bread. This actually happened in Germany; millions of marks could not purchase one piece of bread. All this is going on in the name of advancement of civilization, and the real purpose of life, God consciousness, is missing. So every thoughtful man should come forward to understand this movement and take it seriously. Why are the people being misled? We just have to try to understand this philosophy, the basic principles of God consciousness.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:

Guest (2): What is this greatness, that, to know the divinity when Lord Kṛṣṇa says that "Those who know that I am divine and..." Janma karma ca me divyam (BG 4.9). How... What is the real meaning of knowing it, I mean. I read it ten times...

Prabhupāda: That is also: tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). You find out somebody who can instruct you. But you find out-praṇipāta. You surrender, not with challenge. And sevā. And then you ask him and you know it. But if you have no praṇipāta, no sevā, simply challenging spirit, you'll never know it. That is not the process. If you want to know, then you must find out somebody where you can surrender. And you must... Surrender means you must render service to him, and then you can ask him and he'll give you. Upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ. That is the process. If you are serious to know, then you find out somebody where you can surrender. Because Kṛṣṇa also wants surrender, so you have to surrender to His representative. Then you will know.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: Only the mango tree I remember...

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Others have grown. At night in the forest pastimes, holding a principal part of the Kṛṣṇa-līlā. And when pasturing the cows, then also, forest is necessary. So it will arouse in your mind the memory of Vṛndāvana and the Gauravana. They have got their part to play. And what Uddhava says? (Sanskrit) "I aspire after the birth of a shrub or creeper or a grass in this land because I may have chance of being, having been tread by Your, those divine damsels. Then their feet dust will be on me." So that is a necessary and important part, this vegetable kingdom.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...of Vṛndāvana and Gauravana. They will arouse in your mind the first real memory of Kṛṣṇa and His pastimes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation With Three College Students -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes, go on.

Pradyumna:

āhus tvām ṛṣayaḥ sarve
devarṣir nāradas tathā
asito devalo vyāsaḥ
svayaṁ caiva bravīṣi me
(BG 10.13)

"Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala..."

Prabhupāda: Now he is referring to great sages, on the authority.

Room Conversation With Three College Students -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: And where is our experience—from void a son is born? Where is your experience? Suppose you are a person. You have dropped from the void?

Student (1): I'm not arguing for Divine Light or anything. I'm just trying to...

Revatīnandana: No, just take it philosophically. Can a person come from a void? Void means zero. But a person is not zero. He has so many personal qualities.

Student (1): I mean, if you stick to strict logic, you can't, no, right. I mean this isn't logical, is it?

Revatīnandana: Sometimes by logic you can find out what is false. What is truth, that we get from authority.

Student (1): You say it is logic because, say, everything in that book fits in with everything else, maybe. So it's a total form of logic in itself.

Student (3): Your logic starts from the assumption that the book is correct.

Prabhupāda: Then why you are arguing? That is logic. Why you are arguing? Why don't you accept what I say? Why you are arguing? That is logic.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Father Tanner: Is there a spirit opposed to the divine spirit?

Prabhupāda: Spirit opp...?

Father Tanner: Opposed. Taking that the, you know, that God is good,...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Father Tanner: ...is there another spirit that is not good?

Prabhupāda: No, we are all another spirit. Just like the father and the son. The father is also a spirit. The son is also another spirit.

Father Tanner: Can there be opposition in the spirit world?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Sir Alistair Hardy -- July 21, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Life came from life; matter also came from matter, er, life. That is explained in the Vedānta-sūtra, janmādyasya yataḥ. And it is explained in Bhagavad-gītā: Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). So there is no difficulty.

Sir Alistair Hardy: But life may have arisen from the inorganic by the breathing in of the Divine into it. And there's no doubt that our bodies are material, but within our bodies is this divine, what I call the "divine flame" in one of my (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Why not the "divine person?" Wherefrom flame comes?

Revatīnandana: He says, now how to find out the Divine Person from whom the flame comes? Just like you were talking about how God is a manifestation of power, in your statement. But the manifestation of power we always find in relation with a source of power. Just like the sunlight is a manifestation of the power, and this great power of the sunlight, they're tapping it for electricity and so many things now, but that sunlight is not an independent entity. It's dependent on the source.

Prabhupāda: And Veda also, points out, yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante. So your New York going is suspended now?

Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Thank you. (pause)

Devotee: These are some of His Divine Grace's books here, Dr. Toynbee.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Hm? Yes?

Devotee: And we'd like to leave them with you in fact.

Prabhupāda: Any one you can take. There are so many.

Mukunda: Give first volume.

Prabhupāda: Give him the first volume.

Devotee: This is First Canto, Part One of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Śyāmasundara: With commentaries, Sanskrit...

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, this is the original text and the translation. Yes.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. This is Śrīla...

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: I have some small editions up here.

Prabhupāda: But this is elaborate. (pause)

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: This boy is American boy, but he has learned Sanskrit very nicely.

Pradyumna:

tejaḥ kṣamā dhṛtiḥ śaucam
adroho nātimānitā
bhavanti sampadaṁ daivīm
abhijātasya bhārata

"Translation: The Blessed Lord said, fearlessness, purification of one's existence, cultivation of spiritual knowledge, charity, self-control, performance of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, austerity and simplicity, nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom from anger, renunciation, tranquility, aversion to faultfinding, compassion and freedom from covetousness, gentleness, modesty and steady determination, vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, freedom from envy and the passion for honor, these transcendental qualities, O son of Bhārata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature."

Prabhupāda: Then the demonic nature?

Pradyumna: Then,

dambho darpo 'bhimānaś ca
krodhaḥ pāruṣyam eva ca
ajñānaṁ cābhijātasya
pārtha sampadam āsurīm

"Arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, harshness and ignorance, these qualities belong to those of demoniac nature, O son of Pṛthā."

Prabhupāda: Then characteristics of demonic people?

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Pradyumna:

daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
(BG 7.14)

"This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome, but those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it."

Prabhupāda: So this thing we are teaching, how to get out of the control of the three modes of material nature, to put him into the transcendental platform. That is the success of life. And this chance is obtainable in the human form of life. If he misses this chance, again he becomes, suppose, a tree, or a cat, or a dog... There is every chance. Because it is under the control of material nature; according to my work and mentality, I'll get another body.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Dr. Inger: Little bit.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa jantor deha upapattaye. A living entity is getting body by, as a result of his karma. And supervised by higher authority. Now when we speak of karma, or result of karma, there must be somebody who will judge. Just like one has stolen something, and the magistrate is judging the karma, the criminal activity, and he's putting him either in the prison house or getting him released. "No, he's not culprit." So as soon as we speak of karma, there must be somebody else to judge. And that judgement is said: daiva netreṇa. Daiva means divine supervision. So what is that divine supervision? Next question immediately comes. As soon as you accept karma, and the resultant action, and it is supervised by the divine authority, then next question will be: what is that divine authority? In this way, we have to go forward. So that sort of education is nowhere in the world.

Room Conversation with Officer Harry Edwards, the Village Policeman -- August 30, 1973, Bhaktivedanta Manor, London:

Harry: That's right, yes. I think that's when it was because the, the, the sound or the echo was going that way. But I didn't hear anything. And Inspector Turner, my instructor, came up. You saw me with an instructor who was in uniform like this, not in uniform, and we were quite satisfied. But, as I say, you can please some people, and others, you can never please. So with those people, I say, you'll just have to get on with it. That's all there is to it. Well, I think, I declare, I've taken up His Divine Grace's time enough.

Prabhupāda: No.

Harry: No?

Prabhupāda: ...you are welcome.

Harry: Well, that's all right, as long as you say so. But I have got to go soon. I've got some writing to do.

Prabhupāda: All right.

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

Prabhupāda: It is already there.

Reporter (3): Yes. What, what... And can I ask one last question?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reporter (3): What do you think of young people who follow the Divine Light Movement.

Haṁsadūta: Guru Maharaji.

Reporter (3): And...

Prabhupāda: That is a bogus.

Reporter (3): It's bogus.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (chuckles)

Reporter (3): What about... How do you know? Have you met him?

Prabhupāda: He says that he's God.

Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Pradyumna:

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam
(BG 9.13)

"O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bhajanti. Bhajanti means "engaged in devotional service." Bhaja sevāyām. Bhaj-dhātu, this verb, is meant for rendering service. Bhaj-dhātu, kti, bhakti. So bhakta. Bhakti, bhakta and Bhagavān. So these are the mahātmās. But these mahātmās, these bhakta-mahātmās... Actually, mahātmā is bhakta-mahātmā. But there are others, mahātmās; they are also called mahātmās, but they are not mentioned in the Bhāgavata. They have been mentioned anye. Anye means others. Is that verse there? Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha (BG 9.13)? No. Anye? Anye means others. The impersonalists, they are also sometimes called mahātmā. But the mahātmā who is kṛṣṇa-bhakta, that is very rare. That is described in the Bhāgavata, sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ.

Room Conversation with Indian Guest -- October 4, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is, that is an expectation. That will never become. As you believe in Aurobindo, "When there will be," we say, "In the material world, there will be no such thing."

Guest (1): The Lord will be minus then, if He cannot create a...

Prabhupāda: No, Lord is not minus.

Guest (1): ...a divine body on the sun.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Lord is not minus. That you have to take information from the Bhagavad-gītā, as the Lord says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). In this material world, it is everything duḥkhālayam aśāś... Because you talked of the Bhagavad-gītā, therefore I am talking on the Bhagavad-gītā. The Bhagavad-gītā states about this material world as duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). It is a place of miseries only.

Guest (1): Provided this is the body.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guest (1): Provided this is the body. When the...

Prabhupāda: But this body you have got. How you can deny?

Guest (1): But next evolution has to be another body only, sir.

Prabhupāda: That is your expectation.

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That everyone is taking chance. A poor man is taking chance to become rich man. So what is the difference between the poor man taking chance and the scientist? (break)

Yaśomatīnandana: ...which into all the characteristics are described in Divine and Demoniac natures. This modern world fits into all the demoniac qualities...

Prabhupāda: Yes, because they are godless. Whole modern world is godless. They don't think of God very seriously. Everyone. They have described it as "Opiate," what is that?

Karandhara: "Opium of the people."

Prabhupāda: Yes. They think, "Those who are religious, they are simply wasting their time." Therefore communist country, they are completely against religion. They cannot allow their people to waste their time. That is their philosophy. This is the condition of the world.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 31, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere, every age.

Mr. Sar: Then you must have seen Kṛṣṇa in the human form.

Prabhupāda: I, uh...

Mr. Sar: That is the divine form.

Prabhupāda: So...

Mr. Sar: Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1).

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ is the real vigrahaḥ of Kṛṣṇa form (Bs. 5.1).

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Kṛṣṇa, when viewed on the earth, He had that form.

Prabhupāda: No, just like...

Dr. Patel: That sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ form (Bs. 5.1).

Prabhupāda: ...a devotee sees the Deity of Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No. One after another.

Girirāja: (reads synonyms) "Translation: The Blessed Lord said: My dear Arjuna, O son of Pṛthā, behold now My opulences, hundreds of thousands of varied divine forms, multi-colored like the sea."

Prabhupāda: This is another instruction. That I explained, that before accepting a so-called incarnation of God, one should ask him to show that "How you are God?" But they do not ask him. A group of persons... Because he is accepted by a group of persons, not by all... There are so many avatāras. But who knows them?

Dr. Patel: Shall I read?

Prabhupāda: Let us understand it. Don't be anxious to go forward. This is the..., that... Suppose a man declares himself that "I am avatāra." So intelligent man should test him, how he is avatāra. We accept Kṛṣṇa or Lord Rāmacandra for their uncommon activities. But what is the uncommon activities, so many avatāras? Simply being praised by a group of persons. That's all. Yes.

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: How one can see? Suppose I am seeing this material sky. I cannot see what are there, not even the stars at the present moment, although we know there are millions and trillions of stars. So this is my power of seeing. So how can I see all the universes in the body of..., unless he gets a special power from Kṛṣṇa to see.

Girirāja: (completes synonyms) "Translation: But you cannot see Me with your present eyes. Therefore I give to you divine eyes by which you can behold My mystic opulence."

Prabhupāda: Now, this is Kṛṣṇa's power. Let us understand. A teeny aeroplane is floating in the air, and it is making so much sound. And millions and trillions of planets are floating, there is no sound. There is no sound. (break) ...if you take it and fix it up... What is that? One thousand or more than, one thousand miles.

Dr. Patel: A second.

Prabhupāda: No, no. This earth, per hour.

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So even in the universal form, there is personality. Divya-mālya, divya-gandha, kirīṭina, dressed, well-dressed. Well-dressed is possible not in the imperson. If you want to dress somebody, he must be a person. You cannot dress in the sky. "Here is helmet, here is garland." Where you put? (laughs) So in the universal form also there is personality.

Girirāja: (reads synonyms to:) "ābharaṇam-ornaments; divya-divine..."

Prabhupāda: You have to understand.

Girirāja: "Aneka-various..."

Prabhupāda: Aneka. So here is the word, aneka. Ana eka, "more than one." So what is that aneka?

Dr. Patel: Everything, aneka.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Dr. Patel: Innumerable you can say.

Chandobhai: I mean (indistinct Sanskrit)

Prabhupāda: Aneka, that is confirmed in the Vedas, eka puruṣam. That is aneka. That is aneka.

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Dress, everything, garment, all varieties.

Girirāja: (continues synonyms to:) "divya-divine..."

Prabhupāda: Divine. That means they are not material. Kṛṣṇa's dress, Kṛṣṇa's helmet, Kṛṣṇa's bedding, Kṛṣṇa's shoes, they are all expansion of Lord Sesa. They are not material.

Girirāja: (continues synonyms to:) "aścaryamayam-wonderful..."

Prabhupāda: Although this is virāṭ-rūpa, still, there are aneka, many varieties. And each one of them is personally described. Yes.

Girirāja: (continues synonyms to end) "Translation: Arjuna saw in that universal form unlimited mouths and unlimited eyes."

Prabhupāda: Unlimited mouths. The unlimited person. As soon as you say, "unlimited mouths," means unlimited person. That is not imperson. Even in His aneka-mūrti He is person. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā in the Second Chapter, that all we remained person in the past, we are persons at present, and we shall continue to become persons in the future. So this impersonal description of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is for the persons who do not understand what is God.

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Girirāja: "It was all wondrous. The form was decorated with divine, dazzling ornaments and arrayed..."

Prabhupāda: Again personality. And where do they get the idea of impersonal, even in the virāṭ-rūpa? How do they get? What is the authority?

Chandobhai: Gopīs are personal.

Prabhupāda: No, no, everything is being described as person. So where is the question of imperson? Even in His aneka mūrti, in the virāṭ form, universal form, there are persons. At least from Bhagavad-gītā, nobody can prove that the Absolute Truth, God, is imperson. That is not possible. But still, they are doing that. That means they do not understand what is Bhagavad-gītā, although they are very much proud of regular scholar of Bhagavad-gītā. So am I right or wrong? Let us discuss.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now, he is beginning from the three deities of creation: Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara.

Girirāja: (reads synonyms) "Arjuna said: My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, I see assembled together in Your body all the demigods and various other living entities. I see Brahmā sitting on the lotus flower as well as Lord Śiva and many sages and divine serpents."

Dr. Patel: Shall I go further, sir?

Prabhupāda: So you are understanding all this? If you have got any question, you can ask. All right, go on.

Dr. Patel: (reads next verse Bg. 11.16, in Sanskrit)

Girirāja: (reads synonyms) "aneka-many..." (pause)

Prabhupāda: "Because one, there is no aneka," that is nonsense. In one, aneka, that is philosophy.

Dr. Patel: Eko asmin bhaviṣyāmi abhutyam. (?)

Prabhupāda: Aneka is one. But "Because there is aneka," therefore, "because there is one, therefore no consideration of the aneka." That is not intelligent. Aneka in one. That is real philosophy.

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

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.

Prof. Regamay: The same... Because I understood through... It is that the problem, that Kṛṣṇa is the original person of divine, but in, by Rāmānuja or Viṣṇu Purāṇa it reverse Viṣṇu is the highest.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is Viṣṇu.

Prof. Regamay: And Kṛṣṇa is the avatāra of Viṣṇu.

Prabhupāda: No. Kṛṣṇa is avatārī. You have read Bhagavad-gītā?

Prof. Regamay: Yes, of course.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ.

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: What is that translation?

Pradyumna: "Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are unborn and the all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me."

Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa says, and He is confirmed by Vyāsadeva, Asita, Nārada. This is the process. We do not accept everyone says "I am avatāra, I am God." We don't accept. But because it is accepted by the ācāryas, therefore we accept. Just like the same example I can give: I do not know who is my father, and many people will come, "I am your father." So we do not accept them. When mother says, "He is your father," then accept. That is final. I have no experience. It is beyond my experience, because father existed before my birth. So beyond my experience. So I am finding out who is my father, and so many people are coming, "I am your father." No. But as soon as the mother says, "No, no, this man is your father," then we accept.

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Jyotirmayī: He said that in the Christian philosophy that the conception of God as the person, the personal God, and God as the divine essence. So he is asking...

Prabhupāda: God is person, then? What did he say?

Jyotirmayī: Then he said that so is it not that God, the person, this divine essence, is a superperson, an evolved person, and not exactly somebody impersonal. Like he said that in Śaṅkarācārya's philosophy there is the conception of tat. So is not this tat conception, this divine essence, this superperson...

Prabhupāda: Yes, He is divine essence. God is divine essence, just like you have volumes of milk and you churn it, then you get so much butter. So the butter is the essence of the milk. Similarly, the spirit is vast, all-pervading. The example, another example, is just like the sunshine universally spread, very big. Then you concentrate the sunshine, it is sun globe. And if you still concentrate, you will see within the sun globe there is sun-god. So he is the essence of this light, the sunshine light, the sun globe light, and the person—sun-god, Vivasvān, he is person—he is the essence among all this light.

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Thank you. That's all right. But thing is that we must know that he has spoken about Ramakrishna and Aurobindo. They also center their propaganda on Kṛṣṇa. Just like I already told. Ramakrishna said, "I am the same Krishna." That means he takes to Kṛṣṇa. Aurobindo, he has written "Life Divine." That is his explanation of Bhagavad-gītā. He takes to Kṛṣṇa. This Maharishi, he has also presented Bhagavad-gītā; he (has) taken to Kṛṣṇa. So their importance is by taking to Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, they are valueless, nobody. (French)

Yogeśvara: He says that for him, that's not really a problem. He says rather than referring to the person Kṛṣṇa, he just goes directly to the teaching of the Gītā, and he profits from that.

Prabhupāda: No, teachings of Bhagavad-gītā means Kṛṣṇa. That is the folly of the so-called scholars. They want to study Bhagavad-gītā without Kṛṣṇa. Just like one wants to play Hamlet without Hamlet. (French, mentions Śaṅkara) Śaṅkara has accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Does he know that, that Śaṅkara has accepted Kṛṣṇa the Supreme Personality?

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

Devotee: Also you told us in India about Aurobindo and Ramakrishna. Aurobindo went also. Aurobindo, when that French woman came, he also fell to her, but just to cover it up he has called her "Mother" because in India, when you call someone "Mother..."

Prabhupāda: No, everyone knows he is mother and he is father.

Devotee: Yeah, right. And they don't think... There is no question of sex. When they think of mother and father, they don't think of these things. Also with Ramakrishna. He also had his divine mother. You told us a story in Calcutta that he was very debauched. In a village he used to chase the young women. And his brother actually made him famous.

Prabhupāda: It is very difficult to, not to be victimized by woman. It is very difficult.

Yogeśvara: Unless you are victimized by Kṛṣṇa first.

Prabhupāda: Yes. One who is, I means, what is called, captivated by the beauty of Kṛṣṇa, then he is not victimized.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: "Is there some, any qualities, in the sense that some people have more receptivity towards the divine than other people?"

Prabhupāda: Yes. That I explained, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Those who are in sattva-guṇa, they can understand easily. Those who are in rajo-guṇa, they have got difficulty. And those who are in tamo-guṇa, they cannot. (French)

Madame Devi: (French)

Yogeśvara: "Is this degree of covering, whether they are in goodness, in passion or in ignorance, is that a question of their physical body? Is it a question of their hormones or chemical state? Is it a chemical state that some people are more covered than others by the modes of nature?"

Prabhupāda: Covered means with some dirty things. That's all.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: I say, master, that when you say he knows, you don't speak about this knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Which knowledge?

Professor Durckheim: You came already... You say "believe and by this know that I am participating in the great divine person." And yet I didn't experience it.

Prabhupāda: Why not experience? He knows that "I am that active principle." Everyone knows that "I am not this body." When I say, "This is my finger," I don't say, "I finger." So "I," what "I"? That realization, self-realization, that "I am part and parcel of God." So that he knows, that "I am part and parcel of God. So therefore my duty is to serve God." So they are engaged in serving God. So this serving God, or devotional service, is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā... Find out that verse, that:

māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
(BG 14.26)
Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Professor Durckheim: And I do believe that at the actual moment still, the treasure in the European peoples, the different peoples, who went through the war, through concentration camps, through battlefields and bombing nights, are hidden in their hearts certain moments when death was near and they were wounded and nearly torn in pieces. Because they had a certain experience they survived. And again and again, when I give a lecture, I have two or three people, waiting, telling me, "Now you just reminded me an experience long ago, ten days ago, two months ago, when I thought I was a little bit crazy, and now I understand it has been the experience, perhaps the most important of my life, on which I should have built my future inner way." And these experiences are still there. And once people understand, they don't need a war and a battleship and a concentration camp and a bombing night to take serious certain inner experiences when they are suddenly are touched by this divine reality, and they suddenly feel that this bodily existence is not lasting at all.

Prabhupāda: That's it. That we can experience every night.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: There is a change today. The other day, a little while ago, I gave a conference. There were about a thousand doctors, physical medical doctors and psychotherapists assembled, and I told them, "Today be careful. There are two sufferings in the world. The one suffering is suffering because of lack of being efficient in the world. And they are going to look for the medical doctor or the psychotherapist in order to repair them, to repair their machine in order to be efficient. But there is another suffering, the suffering of not being one with the divine self in ourselves. And this is something quite different. Then you doctors have to be quiet and to discover in yourself something like a guru who answers this question which has nothing to do with efficiency in the world." Oh, they were very, you see, became nervous about this question.

Prabhupāda: Now, the efficiency, just like medical treatment. If you know what is the end... Āyurvedic treatment it is called nidāna, nidāna, or diagnosis. First of all, before treating a patient you first of all diagnose what is the disease. Then you can give the proper medicine. But these people do not know how to diagnose. The diagnosis is that they must realize the Supreme. That is the disease. Because they have forgotten the Supreme, they are suffering. The symptoms are different. But they are treating only for the symptoms, not for the root cause. And this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to treat the patient from the root cause. They have forgotten God. Let them remember God. Then everything will come into...

Reporters Interview -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore you have to receive the knowledge from the authorities, paramparā.

Guest (2): But supposedly, Kṛṣṇa is eternal or, that is, indestructible. So surely He must be existing today.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa is existing. Just like at night the sun is existing, but you have no eyes to see him. That does not mean sun does not exist. It is your deficiency. You cannot see.

Guest (2): So we need divine sight.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, you require qualification. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is always existing. You require the qualification. That is described in the... Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti: (Bs. 5.38) "Those who are saintly persons and in ecstatic love with Kṛṣṇa, they are seeing twenty-four hours Kṛṣṇa." That is not very difficult to understand. If you love somebody, you are seeing him or her always. Is it not?

Guest (2): That's so.

Prabhupāda: That's it. It requires the qualification of love. Then Kṛṣṇa will be visible twenty-four hours. He'll talk with you. These things are described. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi tam (BG 10.10). That means talks. "I give him intelligence." That means unless He talks, how He can give intelligence. "You do this?" So you have to qualify yourself to hear Kṛṣṇa, to see Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise Kṛṣṇa is always present.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yad-uttama-śloka-guṇānuvarṇanam (SB 1.5.22). This is mission. Uttama-śloka-guṇanāvarṇanam.

Kirtirāja: We're advertising even by subscription. They can send in so much money, and every week they receive one or three tapes of Your Divine Grace's lectures. And there's kīrtanas...

Prabhupāda: American organization.

Rāmeśvara: They want very much to organize a radio show again with lectures and kīrtanas.

Prabhupāda: What is this? Q-tips?

Devotee: Cotton swabs.

Prabhupāda: Oh, I require a packet like this for my...

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda wants it?

Hṛdayānanda: Prabhupāda, do you want these?

Prabhupāda: You can take it, yes. Prasādam. (laughter) Vaiṣṇava's prasādam. Chaḍīyā vaiṣṇava sevā, niṣṭhā payeche keba. You are all Vaiṣṇavas.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Yoga student: Then preaching in Iran should be essentially to those people who are fallen away from their traditional path.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone is fallen. They are simply amending and concoction. That is not good. Why they should amend? (break) ...himself in what relationship with God?

Yoga student: With God? He presented himself as the last expression of the divine revelation in the West.

Prabhupāda: No, what was his relationship? Just like Christ, he presented himself as the son of God. So what is the position of Muhammad?

Yoga student: He presented himself as a man, as considered by Muslims as the perfect man.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Atreya Ṛṣi: The disciple of God.

Yoga student: And he was the perfect expression of the divine manifestation in human terms. He was not a divine figure as Christ or Kṛṣṇa. He was simply a man, and who was the mouthpiece of the divine word.

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning of Allah akbar?

Yoga student: It means God, the greatest.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Separation, how it is possible? Separation is expressed when there is separation between man to man or man to woman, person. Otherwise what is the meaning of separation?

Yoga student: Separation from one's divine...

Prabhupāda: Divine? This means must be person. They do not believe in the Personality of Godhead?

Yoga student: They believe... The Sufis see the personality of Ali...

Prabhupāda: No, I am not talking of the Sufis. I am talking of the original Islam.

Yoga student: Well, the Sufis claim to be the original Muslims.

Prabhupāda: Do the all the Muslims accept them? Then?

Parivrājakācārya: There are about 780 different schools of Islam and different ideas.

Prabhupāda: Then? We have to take the original. Otherwise misled.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: But we are speaking the same thing, Bhagavad-gītā. We are not manufacturing anything. Clear conception of God you can take from Arjuna. Arjuna associated with Kṛṣṇa personally. What he says about Kṛṣṇa and what he understands about God, that you read from the Tenth Chapter. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān, puruṣaṁ śāśvataṁ divyam (BG 10.12).

Nitāi: "Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahmān, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original. You are the unborn and the all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me."

Prabhupāda: Then? Purport? (break) Next verse?

Nitāi: "O Kṛṣṇa, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the gods nor the demons, O Lord, know Thy personality."

Prabhupāda: Now here is the Arjuna's understanding, that "I accept You in total." Now some rascals are proclaiming that all the Bhagavad-gītās, they are, most of them are interpretation. But Arjuna says that "I accept everything what You have said." So whom you will accept, Arjuna or some rascal who is speaking that "There are so many interpolation. They can be rejected"? Whom you will accept as authority? Arjuna says that "I accept whatever You have said in toto." If you accept Arjuna because he has heard from Kṛṣṇa, then you accept Kṛṣṇa or you understand Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Indian man: Rāma or Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that we are chanting.

Indian man: Any God's name, any divine name...

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Indian man: You see? And then why is it we are again getting breaks now and then and we trace back our steps?

Prabhupāda: No, you can... If you are following rigidly, there will be no break.

Indian man: No, but rigidity is again a relative term. Rigidity again... What is rigid?

Prabhupāda: No, no, you said that you begin chanting Rāma.

Indian man: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So follow it.

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1975, Tehran:

Guest: Then preaching in Iran should be essentially to people who have fallen away from their traditional path.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone is fallen. They are simply amending, concoction. That is not good. Why they should amend? Mohammed presented himself in what relationship with God?

Guest: With God? He presented himself as the last expression of the divine revelation in the West.

Prabhupāda: No, what was his relationship? Just like Christ, he presented himself as the son of God. So what is the position of Mohammed?

Guest: He presented himself as a man, was considered by Muslims to be the perfect man.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest: And ah, he was the perfect expression of the divine manifestation in human terms. He was not a divine figure as Christ or Kṛṣṇa. He was a, ah, simply a man, and ah, he was the mouthpiece of the ah, divine word.

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning of Allah?

Guest: It means God, the greatest.

Prabhupāda: Greatest.

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1975, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Separation, how it is possible? Separation is expressed when there is separation between man to man, man to woman. First, otherwise what is the meaning of separation?

Guest: Separation from his divine...

Prabhupāda: Yes, then it must be person. They do not believe in the Personality of Godhead?

Guest: They believe, the Sufis, see the personality of Ali.

Prabhupāda: No, I am not talking of the Sufis, I am talking of the original Islam.

Guest: The Sufis claim to be the original process.

Prabhupāda: Do they, all the Muslims accept them?

Devotee 2: There are about 780 different schools of Islam, different ideas they have.

Prabhupāda: You have to take the original, otherwise mislead.

Interview with a German Girl and Assorted Devotees -- March 30, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Because they do not know how to stop this process. That is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. You can stop this. But these... Again rascals. They'll not take the method. Kṛṣṇa said that "If you simply try to understand Me," janma, "why I appear and why I come here and work," karma..., "they are divine." The divine nature of Kṛṣṇa's appearance, disappearance and activities, if one can understand, then immediately he becomes free from this process. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). But the rascals will not do that. They'll misunderstand Kṛṣṇa. They'll misdescribe Kṛṣṇa. They'll think, "Kṛṣṇa is ordinary man." Gandhi will say that "I don't think there was any person living as Kṛṣṇa." And he is mahātmā. These things are going on. Mahātmā is proving himself as the greatest rascal. This is your mahātmā, and what to speak of the durātmā. So you are being guided by these...

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (break) Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra, janma sārthaka kari (CC Adi 9.41). "First of all, you become perfect." If you are a devil, you cannot do it. The devil and divine. Divine means spiritually advanced, and devil means materially advanced. And because we are manufacturing divine, the devils are afraid of it. The devils do not like this movement. (Someone drives by:) Jaya. So just see, automatically they are offering respect. That means we are infecting them.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was noticing that yesterday on the parade, everyone was offering respects.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Vṛndāvana after all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think that is a benefit spiritually.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: To offer you respects.

Bhagavān: In Bombay, even those poor fisherwomen...

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are offering respects. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we have to create divine because the world is full of devils.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But we have to be divine ourselves.

Prabhupāda: Unless you become divine, how you can convert others to divine? If you are devil, you will convert others to become devil, that's all. (break) ...most beautiful.

Nalinī-kānta:. Presided over by Aryama, the planet of trees.

Prabhupāda: Planet... not planet. Amongst the trees. So who will prepare nice foodstuff for the governor?

Guest (1): Yes, Prabhupāda Mahārāja, very nice prasāda.

Prabhupāda: Who is preparing?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We've given the list to the chief cook.

Guest (1): My wife is there and then Pālikā, Devaśakti, your sister. Everybody is there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Do it very nicely. Now it will be examined who can cook very nice. If they say, "Oh, it is very nice," then good certificate.

Evening Discussion -- May 6, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Where he is now, this Bal Yogeshwara?

Paramahaṁsa: I don't know where he is. There was one article about him recently, but they didn't say where he was. I think he was rejected. Maybe he is trying to start his own movement. But as far as his Divine Light Mission, he is kicked out.

Prabhupāda: Kicked out by whom? By mother.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes, mother.

Prabhupāda: Mother is authority.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: I don't (indistinct) some men here, or the whole universal souls combined together, still they are finite. They're not infinite. Yes, multi-billions of zeroes cannot make one. So I don't say that, but the quality is there very minutely.

Jesuit: Imitation of the divine powers.

Prabhupāda: Not imitation, actually we have got. Just like, another example, gold and a particle of gold, a small fragmentary, that will be called gold, but not the gold equal to the mine.

Jesuit: No.

Prabhupāda: Therefore the philosophy is acintya-bhedābheda, inconceivable one and different simultaneously. One in quality, but different in quantity. God's power... I have got some creative power, and God has got creative power. So the creative power is there. But God has created millions of the planets that floating in the air and we have created a 747 airplane, we want to take more credit than God. That is our foolishness.

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Similarly you can think of Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Sings) Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa... Same thing. Where is the difference? There is no difference.

Jesuit: The third form is where I do not think it, it's just, I'm sort of rapt, absorbed in the divine...

Prabhupāda: Yes. But that attention, ecstasy, comes in Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Otherwise these young boys are chanting and dancing... Unless there is ecstasy... They are not monkeys. They are human beings. They are dancing, with education, with culture. Unless there is spiritual ecstasy, how they can chant and dance for hours together? It is not monkey dancing. It is spiritual. It is spiritual.

Jesuit: Oh, I can see that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that is God's omnipotency. When you offer sincere prayer, the words become spiritual. That is wanted. If you sincerely offer your prayers, God understands. Even though sound appears to be material it is no more material; it is spiritual. Just like... I will give you one example. Just you put one iron rod in the fire. So the iron rod becomes warm, warmer, warmer, and then it becomes red hot. When it is red hot, it is no more iron. It is fire. You touch that red hot anywhere; it will burn.

Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Amogha:

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam
(BG 9.13)

"Translation. O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible."

Prabhupāda: That—because you are student of history-Mahatma Gandhi's photograph with Gītā. Did he speak anything about Gītā or Kṛṣṇa in the history of his life? Then how he is mahātmā?

Dr. Copeland: People called him that.

Prabhupāda: People call, that is another thing. That is the defect of the modern civilization, that vox populi. The people may be asses; still, their votes are accepted. The people are trained up as the fourth-class, fifth-class men, and their votes are appre... This is the defect of the modern... They are not trained up as first-class men, and still, their votes are accepted. Therefore, even a very advanced country, America, there was mistake, Nixon. They elected him president. Then they dragged him down. That is the mistake.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Yes. But one thing is the people in general, they are so rubbish and brainless that they believe. They do not use their common sense. I am also one of the member, but I use my common sense. We have read from the Vedic literature the moon planet is influencing the vegetation in this planet, and there is no vegetation. The moon planet... These are explained that influencing vegetation in this planet.

Bali-mardana: Some big, big scientists, they had a convention about evolution and geology, but they made a rule at the beginning that during the convention no one could bring up the subject of divine creation or God. And then they will discuss.

Prabhupāda: Now they are going to, I mean to say, hold a convention that life is from chemicals. Our Svarūpa Dāmodara told. Japan it is going to be held. And by their resolution, it will be accepted. But they cannot create.

Bali-mardana: But I had one question. Is it possible to create a suitable environment for life to enter?

Prabhupāda: Life enters into the matter. Then it comes out with a particular type of body. The soul enters in the womb of the mother and the mother gives the body. The soul comes through the semina of the father, and then the mother's ovum and father's semina mix together, creates a situation for developing a body. This is the science. Without that living entity there is no question of pregnant. Simply a mixture of matter. No, that is not possible.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1975, Honolulu:

Guest (1): Sure. That's right. I understand that, and, you know, I'm very broad-minded. I always have said... You know, one time in our Methodist church we had a professor that was giving all religions of the world. And this is rather putting it simply and fast, but it was interesting because of all the different religions, even though they all didn't believe in the divine being, Christ being the son of God, in some cases-there's Buddha and so forth—but they all were preaching about going to the same place, so to speak. And it's peculiar. They all had more or less the Ten Commandments. In other words they all believed in doing the same thing. So that was interesting...

Prabhupāda: But I don't think Christians believe.

Guest (1): So I know you people are good, just as good as I am. Bless you all, and I wish I and all of us were better.

Prabhupāda: Do you think Christians believe in the Ten Commandments?

Guest (1): We think we do, I guess, but we don't practice it, you know.

Prabhupāda: Christ says, "Thou shalt not kill." So why they are killing?

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

Prabhupāda: Ecstasy.

Yogi Bhajan: I said, "Why not?" I asked the question. I said, "Why not? What is wrong with them? What do you feel?" "But that's not in America. You know, we don't go and dance everywhere." I said, "You go in ballroom dances and you dance all the time. You drink and you dance, and you do what you want to do. And they just, in their own life, feel that they enjoy dancing right for God and the world. You dance for your own social contact. They dance for their own divine contact. What is wrong with them? Their leader, their prophet, their spiritual guide danced to God, and they dance to God. Why you think, why you go to the church?" "We go to pray." I said, "That's their prayer. Why don't you understand the prayer aspect of it? Why you want to understand how they dress, how they like, how they dislike each other?" And the second question somebody asked me, "But do you think somebody has the right to convert our children?" I said, "But do you think somebody has not the right..."

Prabhupāda: I never asked them to be converted.

Yogi Bhajan: Well, I understand that. My situation is sometimes people ask you a question about me. They think I am another religion, they can ask question of me.

Prabhupāda: ...Dr. Judah has written. Where is that book? That Dr. Judah's book?

Ambarīṣa: We took it to court, and I think (indistinct name)) has it.

Prabhupāda: One professor, Dr., what is his name?

Paramahaṁsa: Stillson.

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

Prabhupāda: Especially in the Western countries they had misunderstanding with Christ so that they crucified him. You see? So this is the...

Yogi Bhajan: We can do all that, and still, it will be useful.

Prabhupāda: No, no, we can... We can advise.

Yogi Bhajan: Your visit will be useful, and it will be very divine to come with a message, with a conviction. You know, I have come to this conference here.

Prabhupāda: Which conference?

Yogi Bhajan: This, what is happening in Waikiki.

Girl: Rainbow Festival.

Yogi Bhajan: That Rainbow Festival.

Prabhupāda: Oh, what is that?

Yogi Bhajan: There is a huge... There are about two hundred people all around the mainland and the whole thing.

Girl: Metaphysical conference, psychics.

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. He may distill one pound of water. That does not mean that... Why they are unnecessarily proud and denying the authority of God? How foolish they are. Therefore I don't like them, the most heinous type of atheist, not gentlemen. (break) Whenever they hold some conference they say, "Don't talk of God. Then you cannot come to the conference." Do they not? What is that principle?

Bali-mardana: Yes, yes, they do that. There was a conference on biology and evolution, and they made a rule at the beginning of the conference that "Whatever we discuss from now on is all right except that we will not discuss about God or anything, any divine factor of creation.

Prabhupāda: Just see how much atheist they are. Shameless atheist. Other atheists, they have got some shame. But these people are shameless. Shameless.

Bali-mardana: "Because we cannot see God in our laboratory, therefore we will not discuss Him."

Prabhupāda: But why do you teach us? We do not see whatever you say. We do not, so why do you place upon us? If seeing is evidence, then we don't see what nonsense you are talking.

Room Conversation with Dr. John Mize -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is the...

John Mize: He felt that the source of consciousness was divine. James was a religious man.

Bahulāśva: Sometimes also he would have a material view also.

John Mize: That matter can give rise to consciousness.

Bahulāśva: Yes. He would take both sides.

John Mize: His final stand on it was theistic, that the brain simply gives transmission of the consciousness through it. It does not produce it, whereas in the Soviet philosophy, that is, that matter gives rise to consciousness.

Jayatīrtha: Where do they have any example that matter has given rise...

John Mize: This. They point to us. They deny a soul. There is simply matter, the brain, that generates consciousness.

Brahmānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, Rāmeśvara would like to show you some paintings. They are bringing the book to the printer this evening.

Prabhupāda: All right. I am coming.

Morning Walk -- June 26, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is the only. That is the only. There is no other second way. (break) ...conquer over lust, one has to take shelter of Madana-mohana. Madana means lust, Cupid, and Kṛṣṇa is Madana-mohana. He can enchant the Cupid also. (break) ...Ṭhākura, young man. At dead of night the prostitute came. How he restrained? That is... One who has realized Madana-mohana, for him these things are nothing, no enchantment. (break)

Dharmadyaksa: ...impressed with Your Divine Grace's energy and ability to work so much.

Prabhupāda: Why you do not say, "This is spiritual energy"? Yes. (break) ...got so many dogs nonsense. And it is solved. Just see. And he has brought dozens of... (break)

Jayatīrtha: ...life will be empty.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Actually that is a fact. No family, no children, so they must have some. The dog is their children, family. That is the attraction for..., because mostly they do not have family.

Jayatīrtha: They kill the family before they're born.

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.

Morning Walk -- September 26, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Indian man (4): Swamiji, I want to question whether the Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the same type of consciousness which is experienced by the devotees as that divine type of consciousness. Is it a divine consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa consciousness means divine. Kṛṣṇa means divine. Kṛṣṇa means divine.

Indian man (4): So that is the same.

Prabhupāda: But foolish people think Kṛṣṇa as ordinary man. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). Only mūḍhas take Kṛṣṇa as ordinary man. Otherwise Kṛṣṇa is always His complete spirit.

Indian man (4): We like His smiling face too much, Lord Kṛṣṇa's smiling face, always smiling. All forms of God we have seen, but His...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is always smiling because Kṛṣṇa is ānandamayo abhyāsāt. That is the feature of God. He is ānandamaya.

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: How did you know that you'll get some knowledge there?

Indian man: Well, I read a few books of the Divine Life Society, you know. And I wanted to go to Hrishikesh, you know.

Prabhupāda: So what is that Divine Life Society? I want to know from you. What is that divinity? Whether it is nonsense or divinity?

Indian man: Well, at that time I didn't know of anything else. This was in 1966.

Prabhupāda: Then how you decided that it is divine life?

Indian man: Well, you see, I read a few books by Swami Shivananda.

Prabhupāda: So what is that book? Let me know. What does he say?

Indian man: Well, he teaches you the basics, you know.

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: That means you have no idea what is divine life, and still, you are going to Divine Life Society.

Indian man: Well, he should teach... Well, the basics were no meat-eating, no intoxicants, and also no gambling and no...

Prabhupāda: They say? They have? They say so? They have restriction?

Indian man: Well, no cheating, no gambling and no cheating. He's got restrictions of...

Prabhupāda: Do you follow these restrictions?

Indian man: Well, up to a certain extent I do.

Prabhupāda: What is that extent?

Indian man: Well, I don't eat meat, I don't gamble, I don't take any kind of intoxicants, but I drink tea, you know.

Prabhupāda: So that divine life is generally for all the Hindus. That is custom. They may learn here something else, but generally, Hindus, they do not take meat. So, anything else? No. Simply this restriction.

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: Then? Then it is finished. Divine life is finished.

Indian man: But, you see, at that time there was nothing else for us, Swamijī.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man: We had to follow something, and I didn't hear of you that time. This was in 1966, you know. It was quite a long time, and, well, I only came to...

Prabhupāda: They are teaching like that.

Indian man: There was only the Divine Life Society as far as I heard that time, you know. There was nobody else to follow, and our surrender was, surrendered ourselves to him, you see?

Prabhupāda: In the Bhagavad-gītā... You read Bhagavad-gītā?

Indian man: Yes, I have read our...

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: They are fishing?

Indian man: Those people are surfing, you know? Surfboards. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...center of Divine Life here?

Indian man: Yes. It's in Reservoir Hills. Well, it's not far from place where we are living, Reservoir Hills. They've got a big āśrama there. They've got a resident swami there, Swami Sahajananda, and they've got a printing press and quarters, their living quarters and all, and they've got a few devotees living there.

Prabhupāda: How many?

Indian man: Well, they've got about four permanently living and then you get others coming during the day and helping the...

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, they have a very big printing press there.

Prabhupāda: Printing press. Big... More than ours?

Harikeśa: (laughter) Nobody has a press more than yours.

Room Conversation with Reporter of The Star -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

abhupāda: But one spiritual leader is there, Swami Sahajananda.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, the Divine Life Society in Durban, the head of that. He wrote one letter praising Prabhupāda's work, that he is rightfully representing the Vedic literatures.

Reporter: Well, thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. Hare Kṛṣṇa. You have taken lunch? So, it is very important movement. Try to study, understand. And it is the duty of the pressmen, journalists, to propagate. They must know the first science of the living force within the body. That is the most important part.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: His idea.... His question, Prabhupāda, is also, suppose someone wants to buy a farm or wants to do some new project. Do they ask your permission first?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The whole society is going on under my direction. Whatever they do, they take my permission and they put into (indistinct). Nothing is allowed without my permission.

Reporter: I wonder if you might have any opinions on some of the leaders of cults and groups in the United States, such as the Divine Light Mission, or the T.M. and so forth. I'm wondering if you have any opinions on Guru Maharaj-ji or Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Prabhupāda: There are different groups. I know that. But I do not go in detail to understand them. But our..., we have got a crucial test. That anyone who is..., does not know about Kṛṣṇa, he is put into four different types of categories as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. One category is that he is sinful. Another category is that he is rascal. Another category is that he's lowest of the mankind. Another category is that his so-called knowledge is taken away by illusory energy. So this is our test.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Confusing must be. How you can understand the subtle laws of God? You have dull brain, with cow dung. (laughs) You cannot understand.

Arcita: So according to the Christians, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Jesus Christ was born without contact of any material father. He was divinely placed in the womb of Mary.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Divinely placed by the Father is God. That's all. You cannot deny the fact. And he claims: "I am son of God." Then, what is the argument?

Arcita: Is there any such experience in the Vedic literatures, Śrīla Prabhupāda? An example we can cite also?

Prabhupāda: No, no, Vedic literature, apart from. Your argument, that without father, how it is without father? Without father, there is no question of birth; without mother, there is no question of birth. Our point is that without father there is no creation.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Performance of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, austerity and simplicity, nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom from anger, renunciation, tranquillity, aversion to fault-finding, compassion and freedom from covetousness, gentleness, modesty and steady determination, vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, freedom from envy and the passion for honor—these transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature." (purport) "In the beginning of the Fifteenth Chapter the banyan tree of this material world was explained. The extra roots coming out of it were compared to the activities of the living entities, some auspicious, some inauspicious. In the Ninth Chapter also the devas, or godly, and asuras, the ungodly or demons, were explained. Now according to Vedic rites, activities in the mode of goodness are considered auspicious for progress on the path of liberation, and such activities are known as daivī prakṛti, transcendental by nature. Those who are situated in the transcendental nature make progress..."

Prabhupāda: The defect of modern civilization is that they have no idea about liberation. Neither they have any idea about transmigration of the soul. From the very root, they are defective. They are thinking... Just like animals. Dog is thinking, "I am this dog. I am born dog and I'll die, that's finished, everything." He cannot think that "I can become also man." He cannot think that. So the modern civilization, they cannot think even that there is next life and we can go... They have got the tendency to go to the higher planetary system, moon. Artificially, they are trying, but they do not know. Just like they can go to any planet, sarvaga. Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṛn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ (BG 9.25). They do not know this, although they have got the tendency to go. But they do not know how to go, positively what are the position of the different planets or Vaikuṇṭhaloka or liberation or next life, transmigration—nothing of the sort. Simply like dogs. Now consider this point, whether I'm speaking right or wrong. I know I am speaking the right thing, but if you deny, then you talk amongst yourselves.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa, proclaim this of You and now You Yourself are declaring it to me."

Prabhupāda: Arjuna is rectifying this because people may say, "Arjuna was Kṛṣṇa's friend, he is accepting Him as guru." No, Arjuna says, "Not only I, but other authorities, they also accept." So it is..., everything is clear, that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He should be accepted as guru or His representative should be accepted guru. Then it will be... So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that we are presenting Kṛṣṇa as the supreme guru. You take instruction from Him and be benefited. But one who is carrying this message, he is also authorized. Just like one money order, it is coming through the post office, but an ordinary peon is handing over the money. But he is representative of post office. Actually, the money order is being delivered by the post office, general post office.

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

Prabhupāda: Apart from that... That you have to take. Because you are put into difficulty which you do not want, this is your experience. So the intelligent man's question will be that "I did not want this, but who has put me into this condition?" That is intelligent.

Hari-śauri: Well, they say that the suffering, there's no divine cause for that. That's just a material cause.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, you did not want; you have it—against your will. This is your experience. There is no difference. Either you say material cause or spiritual cause, but you are suffering what you did not want. That is the point. You are suffering. And you did not want it. Yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ. Nobody wants distress, but it comes. How it comes? Yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ, Prahlāda Mahārāja... Ayatnataḥ means without any endeavoring. Who is trying that "Let there be fire in my house"? But it takes. Nobody wants that "There may be fire in my house," but there is fire.

Room Conversation -- July 1, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: His last questions are like this. He's asking about proselytizing in the Western countries, preaching. Is there any hope for preaching? He says Hindi dharma, like this. I think everything is arising because of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement and your Divine Grace's preaching work. Otherwise, they were all sleeping.

Hari-śauri: Ten years ago if they'd have asked these questions before you came to the West, they wouldn't even have thought about going to the West. They are only asking that now because they can see in the last ten years we've been so much successful.

Prabhupāda: They do not know what is bhakti, what is Vedānta. They do not know. Simply aspiring, all after women and money, that's all. First-class rogues. I know all of them, all first-class rogues, after money and women. Beginning from Vivekananda. But they are so popular, if you say openly... Satyam bruhet ma bruhet satyam apriyam(?). "You can speak truth, but don't speak which is unpalatable." But we speak in a different way. And directly we don't speak. People will be angry. They're already fools and rascals.

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

Prabhupāda: That is their foolishness.

Hari-śauri: That's due to too much sinful activity? Too much sinful activity that they can't think that there's some divine influence?

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no education, fools. They're childish. A child is playing, he's enjoying, but he does not know that he has to take education, he has to grow up, he'll become a young man. Sometimes, if he's not educated, he'll suffer. He doesn't know. He's playing. That's all. The father says "My dear child, you read." "No, I like playing." Similarly, they are childish, foolish, without any responsibility. The animals are doing like that. Ṛṣabhadeva says "No, no, no. This life is not for this purpose." Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). Simply for sense gratification so much trouble, like hogs and dogs, this is not life. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvam. Just practice austerity to purify your existence. Your existence is not purified. You are put in a position. If you like, that's all right, but because you are not in a purified position, you'll be kicked out at any moment. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni. You are very proud to have your position, but nature will kick you out at any moment, but you cannot do anything. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). He's foolish. He's thinking "I have everything. I can remain in this presidential position as I like." That is not the position.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So he believed actually completely in the divine concept, divine personality. But unfortunately this experiment has been misinterpreted by these demoniac scientists.

Prabhupāda: That is also Vedic conception, that sex between man and woman is not the cause of life. Unless the living soul comes in the proper situation, the man's secretion, woman's secretion combined together emulsifies, and it creates a proper situation for the rest of the soul. So contraceptive method means that emulsification is disturbed. It does not create the proper situation; therefore pregnancy does not happen. Or imperfect discharge. The main point is that the two discharges, they create a situation wherein the living entity comes and rests. Then it will grow. Not that that is the cause of life. The mixture of two secretions is not the cause of life. That creates a proper situation, and the life comes. And if the situation is not favorable, the soul cannot stay. It has to go to somewhere else

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

Prabhupāda: You can bring up. This is the position. Just like there are apartments are already there. Sometimes I am coming here, sometimes going there, but this is the position. I'm not fixed up. Similarly, living entity, as soon as he changes his mind, the apartment is ready. Here is your position. Again he changes, "Here, here is your position." They are already there. Not that for him especially being created. The species are already there. As soon as he fixes himself up particular species, he's transferred, daiva-netreṇa karmaṇā. He gets a similar body, "Come on, here, take this body." Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). These are explained. So he's transmigrating, he's not fixed up. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). He gets, by his desire, he gets a particular body. Then after some time he changes to another body.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That we understand, only your Divine Grace's disciples, but not everyone.

Prabhupāda: Then you try to make understand others that this is the position.

Rūpānuga: One thing is, the modern biologists, they have no...

Prabhupāda: You cannot, you cannot... What is your question?

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1976, Washington D.C.:

Prabhupāda: One...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They have one cultural organization, they want to export yogis and teachers who they approve of, the Indian government approves of as being bona fide. Because the American government, so many people are complaining, about misrepresentation by these Indian swamis and so-called yogis that are coming over. So they put Guru...., the Divine Light Society...

Hari-śauri: They said that once this is established there won't be no room for the Divine Lightists, the Hare Kṛṣṇa cultists and like this.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: TM. (indistinct)

Rūpānuga: Really.

Devotees: Yeah. (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: And they're spending...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: A hundred and sixty nine lakhs.

Prabhupāda: A hundred and sixty nine lakhs per year, inviting foreign countries to lecture.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Bill Sauer: I try to resolve these two views. I believe that materialism has a divine purpose.

Prabhupāda: Everything has got divine purpose. But if you do not understand the divine purpose, then you remain animal.

Bill Sauer: Yes, that's right.

Prabhupāda: Everything has got divine purpose. This human form of life is given to us by laws of nature to understand what is God, what we are, what is our relationship with God, what is this material world, why you have come here, these things we have to know in this human form of life, and, if we like, we can know also. But instead of knowing these different phases of life, if we simply take care of this body like the animals, then we miss the opportunity. The animal is concerned to take the care of the body, that's all. If we simply remain taking care of this body, then we are animal. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13).

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Yogeśvara: Therefore we say Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Head man. There are many men, he is the head man. Godhead word is also there in the dictionary. You find out.

Yogeśvara: "Godhead-being God or a God divine nature, Deity, the Godhead, God." The word is there, but the definition they've given is not very...

Prabhupāda: They do not know. They do not know what is God, what is Godhead. They think all these are fictitious. Throughout the whole world they do not know what is God. Simply they know the word, that's all. What it means they do not know. That we are giving. Here is God. Godhead. Nobody knows, nobody cares to know. That is nescience. They think it is an idea, that's all. Actually there is God, there is kingdom of God, one can go and speak with Him, dance with Him. They cannot believe there are... It is beyond their poor fund of knowledge. Therefore they do not accept Kṛṣṇa as God. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ (BG 9.11). God is the Supreme Person, Supreme Being. Actually there is place where God lives. They do not know. This is first time, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we are giving these ideas; otherwise, who knows it? Nobody knows it. The Christian or Muhammadan is... Nobody knows. And religion means to accept God as the Supreme Person. They do not know God. Then what is meaning of religion? Religion means to accept a Supreme Person as the supreme controller. That is religion. How the Supreme Person is working in manufacturing this flower, let the scientists explain. There is no brain? Just nicely painted, symmetrically, each flower of the same class; another class, another class, another class. (guests enters) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Dayānanda:

śruti vipratipannā te
yadā sthāsyati niścalā
samādhāv acalā buddhis
tadā yogam avāpsyasi

"When your mind is no longer disturbed by the flowery language of the Vedas, and when it remains fixed in the trance of self-realization, then you will have attained the divine consciousness."

Prabhupāda: So ritualistic ceremonies, Vedic ritualistic ceremonies. Everywhere there are some ritualistic ceremony. So when you go above this... Just like Kṛṣṇa says in another place, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo. By performing the Vedic ritualistic ceremony, the ultimate goal is to understand Kṛṣṇa. So if you understand Kṛṣṇa, then you may not perform this ritualistic ceremony. Because you have come to the objective. Not before that. That is sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). Vedic ritualistic ceremony is that if you perform this yajña, then you go to the heavenly planet and there you'll get so long life, ten thousands of years, you get nice woman, and so on, so on. People are after that, karma-kāṇḍa. So this karma-kāṇḍa is required so long one is unaware of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So you make your formula, I mean to say, plan and scheme. So far how to do it, that instruction I give.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Now in this house you will see, this house, the plan is that the house, the first floor will be kitchen, restaurant and a store. A little section for store. Store will have Your Divine Grace's books, records, tapes, japa-mālā and some sweets, prasādam that is made to go, to sell.

Prabhupāda: Who made sandeśa? It was very nice.

Hari-śauri: Nava-yauvana's wife, Mañjarī.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, she can make sandeśa. And some of these products also can be stocked there. Once we start and it is successful, then we can grow.

Prabhupāda: He knows how to make kacuri.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: You like him to stay here, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No, I don't say, but he can give you instruction.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: He has made the ground. (laughter)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's really like an essay.

Gargamuni: We should send this to Blitz, this article. Because they have said "ungodly," and he is saying "divine messenger."

Prabhupāda: Yes. You please send this. Get some copies and send this rascal editor Karanji. He is known to you? He is a Parsee?

Mahāṁśa: No, I don't know him.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Go on.

Maṇihāra: ISKCON, which is a worldwide nonsectarian movement dedicated to propagating the message of the Vedas for the benefit of mankind. The society was founded in 1966 by Swami Prabhupāda, who had come to the United States a year earlier on the order of his spiritual master to teach Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the Western world. Over the years ISKCON has steadily grown in popularity and influence, and today it is widely recognized by theologians, scholars and laymen as a genuine and important spiritual movement."

Prabhupāda: This is "theologians, scholars," and they, he said... Just see.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Indian man: Misery of life is to be like this only. To live like this without the divine knowledge or without...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Miseries of life, real miseries of life that you are soul, eternal. Na jāyate na mriyate vā. There is no birth, there is no death. So therefore the birth and death is real misery. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is knowledge. But they have no brain. It is clearly said that na jāyate na mriyate vā. But these rascals never think "Why I am getting birth? Why I am dying?" So rascal. It is clearly said na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Where is that education? They do not know what is miseries. And they are trying, struggling to get out of misery. But they have no knowledge what is the actual misery. And therefore Kṛṣṇa pointing out, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam. This is knowledge. Simply wasting time. They do not know what is the problem of life and how to solve it. They have no education. So which way? Which way?

Mahāṁsa: Either we can go a little longer and come back, or we can go this way.

Harikeśa: The car is here if you want to go.

Prabhupāda: So, come on. Let us talk. (break) ...problem of life. But they do not care for it. Nobody is serious about this point, that we learn that I am ahaṁ brahmāsmi, I am spirit soul, and na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), I am not finished after finishing this body. Who is caring? Then what is my position? Any gentleman, suppose we have given notice that you have to vacate this house, this apartment. Your term is finished. So he finds out another house. But what these rascals are doing? They are so foolish.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man: What is the mystery in that case of universe or divine bringing up this life?

Prabhupāda: Bringing up this life? What is the mystery to bringing one to the criminal court? What is the mystery?

Indian man: Karma.

Indian man: But we must be some start somewhere. Is it not so?

Prabhupāda: Start means, just like what is the starting point of a criminal? He wants to violate the laws and starting, criminal. You can stop it immediately and you can start immediately. It depends on you. If you violate the law, you become criminal. If you don't violate, remain in your own position. This is the start. As soon as you defy God and you try to become independent, then the starting is there immediately. And again when you surrender, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). Then you stop. So stopping and starting is in your hand. That is karma. It is not that starting is done by somebody else. You start your business. And you stop it.

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: "The Baba personifies heaven." (?) (Him?)

Hari-śauri: Yes. He said, "Baba personifies this philosophy, that God in man and man in God is the basis of religion. As he told me, "God is man and man is God. All of us have something of God, the divine spark, within us. All men are divine like myself, with the spirit embodied in human flesh and bone. The only difference is that they are unaware of this Godhood."

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

Hari-śauri: They make God so cheap.

Prabhupāda: The rascal.

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Āhus tvām, then next, what is next verse.

Pradyumna: Ah,

vaktum arhasy aśeṣeṇa
divyā hy ātma-vibhūtayaḥ
yābhir vibhūtibhir lokān
imāṁs tvaṁ vyāpya tiṣṭhasi

"Please tell me in detail of Your divine..."

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Next.

Pradyumna:

kathaṁ vidyām ahaṁ yogiṁs
tvāṁ sadā paricintayan
keṣu keṣu ca bhāveṣu
cintyo 'si bhagavan mayā

"How should I meditate on You?"

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Then, this is the end of his quote and then the editor, the writer is speaking. "This may appear an extraordinarily controversial claim to those unfamiliar with the spiritual depths of Hindu religio-philosophy. The latter totally accepts the avatāra concept which broadly means the descent of the divine principle into human affairs. In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa intervenes to say..."

Prabhupāda: That is the editor's.

Pradyumna: Yes, this is the editor's. "In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa intervenes to save humanity from evil forces. The Purāṇas personify earth, the mother, as groaning under a similar burden to supplicate God for relief." Then heading, "Solution and cure to world's ills. To Baba's devotees, the avatāra has similarly come to provide both the solution and the cure to a world living in terror of a nuclear holocaust. The false dichotomies created by Western thought between God and man, puruṣa and deva, simply do not exist in the Indian scriptures, which prescribe..."

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Pradyumna: "The dichotomies."

Letter to Sai Baba -- September 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is another rascaldom. God is always distinct from man.

Pradyumna: Sai Baba also quotes later, He is also directly saying, also later.

Prabhupāda: What he says?

Pradyumna: Now here's the quote. "Baba personifies this philosophy. As he told me, 'God is man and man is God. All of us have something of God, the divine spark, within us. All men are divine, like myself, with the spirit embodied in human flesh and bone. The only difference is that they are unaware of this Godhood.' " I'll get it for you.

Prabhupāda: So?

Pradyumna: Here he says, "The mission of the present avatāra is to make everybody realize that since the same God or divinity resides in everyone, people should respect, love, and..."

Prabhupāda: No, no. If he resides in everyone, then why he has special claim?

Pradyumna: Yes, well he says he has remembered.

Prabhupāda: He remembers? How God can forget?

Pradyumna: That he says.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Cidananda.

Mr. Saxena: Cidananda is there.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mr. Saxena: He is a disciple of Swami Sivananda, Divine Life Society.

Prabhupāda: He is dead now?

Mr. Saxena: No, Sivananda is dead.

Prabhupāda: Not.

Mr. Saxena: Cidananda is the in-charge of that institute, Divine Life Society. There is another Yogesvarananda. There is Upaniketan trust. They are having three years' course for regular yoga. And there is some (indistinct) Mahesh Yogi, transcendental meditation (indistinct) samādhi. I lived there for fifteen days, tried to get something out of that. Everywhere I found there is no... We are after peace. There is no peace there.

Devotee: Prabhupāda, you say that religion is the law of God. So that means there can only be one religion.

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is one, (indistinct) for everyone.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore it is cheating. They have no siddhi.

Yogi Amrit Desai: My gurudeva, he reached nirvikalpa-samādhi seven years ago. Now he is going into divine body. The inner changes are happening, he says. And in pure body... The Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He said every five hundred years one yogi achieves that pure body. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Santa-jñānesvara, (?) They are lines who reached that spot.

Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu never said.

Yogi Amrit Desai: Divine body? (break) ...and renewed and young again. This is what he is...

Prabhupāda: So if you become young, do you mean to say that you will not die?

Yogi Amrit Desai: Yes, because then the body will dissolve, like his guru...

Prabhupāda: The body... But you... You may get young body. Does it mean that it is guaranteed that you'll not die?

Yogi Amrit Desai: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Jagadīśa: "Very pompously"?

Prabhupāda: "Pompously. And, why not repay the debts of your father so that he may live very peacefully in his next life? A line in reply will much oblige us. Yours sincerely." You sign, "Secretary to His Divine...," as you... This man (laughs) over there was a pākā thief, and his sons also.

Jagadīśa: He was a pākā thief?

Prabhupāda: He cheated me. Ten years before I gave him about one thousand rupees. He never paid me. And these sons are also number, pākā, and they are observing the death ceremony. What you have written?

Jagadīśa: "Dear Sirs: I am instructed by His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda to thank you for your postcard dated such and such, and we condole for your bereavement in the absence of your father..."

Prabhupāda: Eh? "I am? I am?" What is it?

Jagadīśa: "And we condole for your bereavement in the absence of your father, the late such and such."

Prabhupāda: Principal N. Bannerji.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Guest (1): Sir, from the very beginning, I am attached to the society, and through these...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone is social animal. "Society, friendship, and love." They say "divinely bestowed upon man." So because we are strongly in misunderstanding our identification, we take this society as divinely. But we have got the society that is not on the bodily conception. Otherwise, these European, Americans, Africans, Canadians, they would not have come together. This is a different platform. It is a society, but on the spiritual platform.

Guest (1): Sir, may I know the meaning of the divine name Hare Kṛṣṇa and Hare Rāma? The real meaning of the divine name Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rāma?

Prabhupāda: Meaning is very simple. The Hare, it is addressing, sambodhana. Just like we ask somebody, "Hello, Mr. such and such." It is like that, Hara. Hara is the energy of the Supreme Lord. Supreme Lord is Hari, and Hara is the energy, potency. So we are addressing hara—"Hare." And "Kṛṣṇa," that is also addressing, hara, Kṛṣṇa. So we are praying: "O the energy of the Lord, O Your Lordship, kindly engage us in Your service."

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: The woman sannyāsī, Rāmakrishna Mission has.

Rāmeśvara: He's... What is it? Śivānanda? Divine Light. They advertise, "Come to our summer camp for yoga practice, and our women will teach you." They are swamis.

Gargamuni: His students sued him one time because he preaches brahmācārya.

Prabhupāda: I have seen their sannyāsī kissing woman on the street.

Rāmeśvara: On the street.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He came to see me in London, and I saw in the street there was some woman; he is kissing her. I have seen sannyāsī.

Room Conversation with Film Producer about Krsna Lila -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: On the whole, my point is: it is a very difficult subject matter. So unless we very carefully deal, people will misunderstand.

Guest (2): We have carefully dealt with...

Guest (1): So we have given them images the superpower of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (2): It is not a question of sex. It is super divine power.

Prabhupāda: You say like that.

Guest (2): No, no. We are presenting. I am presenting this way. That is superpower.

Guest (1): When Madhu-maṅgala, when he was thinking that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is a general man and was for these ladies only, then he saw that viśvarūpa of Śrī Kṛṣṇa on the screen, all the universes inside Śrī Kṛṣṇa...

Guest (2): All the universes moving about.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa:

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam
(BG 9.13)

"O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible."

Prabhupāda: This is mahātmā. Is there any purport?

Satsvarūpa: Yes. "In this verse the description of mahātmā is clearly given. The first sign of the mahātmā is that he is already situated in the divine nature. He is not under the control of material nature. And how is this effected? That is explained in the Seventh Chapter. One who surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, at once becomes freed from the control of material nature. That is the qualification."

Prabhupāda: Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti.

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Because it is in the Bhagavad-gītā. Asatyam...

Hari-śauri: Sixteenth Chapter?

Satsvarūpa: Even that Professor O'Connell, he said in his so-called favorable report, "I think you should (indistinct), but don't use that word demon."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't like that word because it makes them think of themselves.

Prabhupāda: No. We say democracy is "demoncracy."

Hari-śauri: The title of the chapter is "The Divine and Demoniac Natures."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They would have you change that.

Prabhupāda: No. It is... āsurī-bhāvam āśritāḥ.

Hari-śauri: Āsuram.

Prabhupāda: The word is āsurī. How can I change? It is said. What is the meaning of āsurī?

Hari-śauri: There's a text four.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm. So Acyutānanda has come. You all sannyāsīs may, one or two, remain here. And kīrtana party-Acyutānanda, he has got minibus.

Bhavānanda: Yes, I was going to fill the bus and Your Divine Grace's car and one, Abhirāma's car. Jayapatākā Mahārāja is in Calcutta, and he's returning tomorrow morning, so he thought that he would stop in Chakdaha.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Bhavānanda: But we're very, very busy, Jayapatākā and I, because the festival is coming up. Would it be all right if I stayed back? I make all the arrangements, but stay behind to supervise it?

Prabhupāda: Yes, as you think best. (break) ...heavy duty, to fight with the demons. So on the whole, our book sale is hampered or not for this propaganda?

Tripurāri: I don't think so.

Prabhupāda: That is... Then it our triumph. You don't mind all this.

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So the real legal thing is: some way or other, introduce books. Therefore... And it will be beneficial in the long time let us see. Read it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "We're very happy to see that by your divine mercy the whole world is flooded with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just by printing and distributing your books the whole world will change. We can see the tremendous effect that your books already caused in the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. The people are mad after your books. Many of them can see that this is the only solution to get out from the miseries that are caused by the materialistic way of life and Communism. Please let me quote from a recent letter sent by a boy in Hungary." The boy's name is Yedi Peta. " 'According to the advices now, I am chanting daily on beads I made at home. I also have purchased the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, although I can only speak Hungarian. Now I do not give any more importance for the evidences from chemistry, physics, mathematics, etc. Rather, I appreciate A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda much more than any scientist or philosopher.' "

Devotees: Jaya!

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Not very good, but as Kṛṣṇa's mercy going on. These are some of our latest publications.

Mr. Rajda: Latest publications. The get-up and all this is wonderfully attractive.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mr. Rajda: Primal faces(?) attracts the eye of the spectator, and contents are... No doubt, they are divine.

Prabhupāda: Śrīmad-bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṇam. This is the regrettable fact, that we have got in India the real knowledge.

Mr. Rajda: Real...?

Prabhupāda: Real knowledge. And we have locked up that knowledge.

Conversations -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It appears just below this article. "ISKCON Branch in City from October, by a staff reporter. A branch of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, the center for advanced learning and research of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, based in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to be opened in October at Hare Krishna Land in Juhu. This was stated by Dr. Thoudam Dāmodara Singh in Bombay on Tuesday. Dr. Singh, who is in charge of the arrangements for the opening, told a press conference that the Institute presents in a modern format the higher sciences of the ancient Vedantic literatures. In Bombay, Dr. Singh said, the Institute will publish scientific articles, monographs, and the journal 'Sa-vijñānam, Scientific Knowledge,' regularly." That's the whole article. Again Your Divine Grace's name is not mentioned. Of course, it says, "Bhaktivedanta Institute," but still, it's not... Yeah, it was a very good opportunity that we could present our program, but somehow it... Where did they get these figures of "three years"and "ten years"? I mean, how could they have just concocted "three years" and "ten years" unless you told them?

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: I...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But how did they get these figures? How does someone manufacture that we will spend seventy crores in three years? (pause) It seems like they have tricked you. You must have made a statement, and they...

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: They fabricated. That's the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: How they can fabricate in their own way? From... (pause) Rather, they have criticized that "This fantastic thing, it is going to be like Aurobindo's city, list of fifty thousand, 404 acres." They are not taking it very seriously. Otherwise why he has remarked? Indirectly he has said, "This man is speaking like lunatic." They are not taking very seriously. That very remark shows that "It is going to be meet the same fate." So many fantastic ideas.

Conversation with Patita-pavana -- April 20, 1977, Bombay:

Patita-pāvana: Even this Arkasomayaji, his iṣṭa-devatā is Kanaka Durgā from the Kabur district of the Godāvarī in Andhra, and he's a Māyāvādī. I told him, "We have some difference, but please shelve your differences and simply follow our point of view." He said, "That's all right, but I think your guru is the Divine walking the earth, and I must serve him." (laughs) So I said, "Very good. Please come and help."

Prabhupāda: So arrange to receive them. Give them very kindly... If Acarya agrees, that will be great success.

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So both you and Mahadevia together supply... This friend of Mahadevia...

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: This facility, the space is the same. Mutual arrangement. And he gets the advantage of the roof.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I think there is already.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There is one. In the room there's a marble plaque with Your Divine Grace's name.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Śrīla Prabhupāda, with your permission I would like to try to get that first building in New York in which you were, you started Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Ācchā?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: On Second Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Twenty-six?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, Prabhupāda said that we could do that.

Prabhupāda: How you can get it?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: I'm going to New York in a week, and I can try to either purchase it...

Ādi-keśava: It's open.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's still available. We checked.

Ādi-keśava: The building's available now.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Should we not acquire it, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: If you can maintain it, then it is all right. That, you mean to say, that storefront or the whole building?

Conversations -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They'll say. That is natural.

Śatadhanya: They say good is bad, and bad is good-completely opposite.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's stated in the Gītā—the divine and demonic.

Śatadhanya: Divine and demonic nature.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did you take that medicine this morning?

Prabhupāda: So he has brought? No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He asked (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: So do you think we should bring the man here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no...

Prabhupāda: First of all...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They never get tired of trying.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They think by changing the body... (microphone moving) ...demigod's... That is called mṛtyu-saṁsāra. The facility is in that you have to die, you have to take again birth and again begin the same tasting, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam. No improvement of taste but improvement of the container. If you go by bullock cart and if you go by motorcar, the transport is the same. But we are thinking, "Now we have improved scientific." That's all. First of all improve that you'll not die. Because you are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So where is that improvement? That improvement is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Today in the class we read a purport of Your Divine Grace's from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, a very beautiful purport in which the verse says that Bhārata-varṣa is karma-kṣetra. It is the place for fruitive activities. And the other varṣas is where you enjoy the results of those activities. So then you explain the verse, that how the living entity is wandering all over the material universe, but actually he has not improved his condition at all. It is... You explain that it's simply a waste of time. He's not using his human form of life. So when you come on this planet, you should use it to get a guru. Otherwise, simply wandering up and down, up and down.

Prabhupāda: Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān (CC Madhya 19.151). This information is obtained by the most fortunate person. What is the use of wandering in this way?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That verse was in the purport. You quoted it there also.

Room Conversations -- July 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And... Five, six men, you divide who is nearest.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who is nearest. So persons wouldn't have to write to Your Divine Grace. They could write directly to that person?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually they are initiating the person on Your Divine Grace's behalf. Those persons who are initiated are still your...

Prabhupāda: Second initiation we shall think over, second initiation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is for first initiation, okay. And for second initiation, for the time being they should...

Prabhupāda: No, they have to wait. Second initiation, that should be given...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Should... Some devotees are writing you now for second initiation, and I'm writing them to wait a while because you're not well. So can I continue to tell them that?

Prabhupāda: They can do second initiation.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: By writing you.

Prabhupāda: No. These men.

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

Prabhupāda: It will be so attractive.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "These trailers could be used to distribute Your Divine Grace's books in many new, inaccessible places. I would like to know if this meets with your kind approval."

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "We have a model of saṁsāra on display in our shop window, and all day long we are getting dozens of curious passersby from the street who inquire submissively and listen attentively to the philosophy. I remember Your Divine Grace telling me emphatically..."

Prabhupāda: Try to sell them Bhagavad-gītā, which explains.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "I remember in Bombay in 1974 that this would make our preaching successful all over the world."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm, hm, hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says he understood that busts of divine images of guru and Kṛṣṇa are not to be made. He says in New York you explained this point with reference to photographs that were used in Back to Godhead of your divine self that it was impersonal to cut off some portion of the complete worshipable form.

Prabhupāda: No, if it is not worshipable, if it is to be kept in library, that can be done.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. He says, "I beg to be excused for troubling Your Divine Grace on all these questions, which I always hesitate to do, but I took this liberty."

Prabhupāda: You are always allowed. Sad-dharma-pṛcchā. This is one of the duties of devotees. Sad-dharma-pṛcchā.

Room Conversation Varnasrama -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She has very good handwriting. "Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga Jāyate. Dearmost and respected Śrīla Prabhupāda, please accept our repeated humble obeisances at your sanctified lotus feet. Although we are certainly unfit to offer you our prayers and offenseless chanting for your well-being, still we beg to become purified to pour the nectar of the holy name of the Lord into your eternal transcendental service by following your divine instructions. From the beginning you have instructed to serve in sincere faith in vapu or vāṇī. That is our life's work, to make each and every moment a fit receptacle for receiving your benedicting rays of mercy. Enclosed is an offering of digestive spice for your pleasure as well as two photos of Śrī Rādhā-Vana-vihārī on Candana-yātrā and Śrī Nṛsiṁha-caturdaśī. Viśākhā devī remained here to photograph for the upcoming Vedic cookery book. The program here is flourishing under your shelter and glories. We beg to remain your servants eternally. Yamunā devī dāsī and Dīnatāriṇī devī dāsī." They sent these preparations. It says, "savory," and "sweet." It looks like they made these. Very expert.

Prabhupāda: So you can give me little bit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they sent photographs. These Deities are superwonderful.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Rotten.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a wonder how they take so many of Your Divine Grace's books.

Prabhupāda: No, they have got the capacity. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). It has to be awakened by process. They've lost everything, but it can be revived.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We shouldn't give them a choice. We should insist that they revive it. Prabhaviṣṇu, according to that letter, it seems like in Bangladesh there's a very good reception.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Prabhaviṣṇu has some Bengali articles. Should I call Bhakti-caru to read them?

Prabhupāda: Oh. Prabhaviṣṇu, you have come?

Prabhaviṣṇu: Yes.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Make that arrangement. Yes. On Sunday?

Abhirāma: Yes, on Sunday, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Today is Thursday. So these were the major points, Śrīla Prabhupāda. For six months there's trouble, especially in first week of September. And if you can pass through '78, then he sees four or five years ahead clear.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means divine intervention, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: The chart is given. The calculation there is finished. That doesn't matter. Rather, if I am finished now, it will be glorious.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It will be what, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Glorious.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Living will also be glorious.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Let us see.... As Kṛṣṇa desires. All right. Thank you. Would you like to send to that Navadvīpa astrologer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I'm going to write to Jayapatākā this evening. I'll give him the information.

Prabhupāda: You have got the janma?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhavānanda: Allopathic. The flowers will be blooming, wintertime flowers, so many nice flowers, so many nice sabjis. But without Your Divine Grace's presence, Śrīla Prabhupāda, it's not complete.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everything we've done there is for you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Actually, everything we've done in this movement is for you. We're so... We don't know Kṛṣṇa at all, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We only know you.

Prabhupāda: But I know you.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And now you have to take a bundle of bones. That is the difficulty. There is nothing... Bundle of bone.

Bhakti-caru: Bone or flesh, your body is divine, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Bone is being separated from life. Here, by example, the matter is different from life. Matter is inferior; life is superior. From my life you can... Why the Persian people love me?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: They respect your philosophy, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They understand the philosophy. They respect the philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Room Conversation -- October 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Simply fresh vegetable. And mung ḍāl also.

Bhavānanda: Everything comes to life when you come to Māyāpur. You are the crown jewel. Māyāpur is such beautiful setting, but without Your Divine Grace's presence, we are always feeling empty-hearted. And as soon as you come, all of us are enlivened.

Prabhupāda: So let us go in a team.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think we may have enough devotees to fill the whole train.

Bhavānanda: By looking at all the devotees assembled here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the looks on their faces indicate that everyone likes this idea.

Prabhupāda: So do it. Do it.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They want to avoid criticism.

Brahmānanda: I argued right back with them. I said, "You..." They were saying that we shouldn't interpret Bhagavad-gītā. I said, "Then why are you saying that Kṛṣṇa means 'divine consciousness'? Where does Kṛṣṇa say 'divine consciousness'? He says, mām, aham. He doesn't say 'divine consciousness.' He says 'to Me.' "

Prabhupāda: And all the ācāryas say. We have to follow the ācāryas. Very good. They do not answer. And they... Is it not?

Brahmānanda: But they don't listen to you. We tell them the truth, but they don't want to hear it. They just want to come and become important by their attending this meeting, become puffed up and speak their own ideas and think that they're accomplishing some real...

Prabhupāda: That may be (indistinct).

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What you are going to say?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What are we going to do? What am I going to say?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, the real factor is Your Divine Grace's desire. I mean it seems like... As your disciples, our duty is to help you fulfill your desire. It seems like your desire is to die in Vṛndāvana. But it's very hard for us to execute that service. It's very hard—because we love you—to assist you in dying. It's a paradox. You want to die in Vṛndāvana, and we want you to live, and yet we have to do whatever you want. I mean, the kavirāja, he is giving some... He feels a little confident. Probably from medical point of view, there's no doubt, he has far superior knowledge than many of us.

Prabhupāda: Viśvambhara has not yet...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Aurobind.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. He had a big argument with Brahmānanda. Not a big argument, but he was challenging Brahmānanda that "Kṛṣṇa means the divine consciousness. Kṛṣṇa is not a person. He is the... It is divine consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Māyāvāda.

Akṣayānanda: I have a plan, Prabhupāda. Myself and Bhakti-prema Swami can go there and sit, and if we hear any discrepancies, if we are given a chance afterwards, which we can arrange, to speak something, then we can rectify—in a gentlemanly way, of course. We can rectify. If we sit there, at least we know that they'll be careful what they say. And he can catch any finer points that I would miss, 'cause it's all in Hindi.

Prabhupāda: They are speaking in Hindi.

Room Conversation -- November 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa is giving us all facility. Utilize it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I especially like that bank, because when you come in, in the center of the wall, instead of seeing some old grumpy-looking bank president, we see Your Divine Grace's effulgent picture, and it says, right under your picture-it's a very big picture—it says "I.O.B. Welcomes You." It's very nicely done. And in each of the teller's counters, each of the cashier's counters, there's a little picture of Rādhā-Rāsabihārī.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it's very nicely done. People who go there bank with confidence.

Prabhupāda: And they are getting benefit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. It was the proper bank to have there. And because it's right on the ground floor and just near the entrance of the gate, people don't mind coming from the outside. And I've noticed people, after they come and do their banking business, they go for darśana.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Page Title:Divine (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:30 of Sep, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=118, Let=0
No. of Quotes:118