Drum (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"drum" |"drumbeats" |"drummers" |"drums"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 12, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Tulasī dāsa's remark. So in many passages of his poetry he has not done very justice to woman. And another poetry, he writes, dhol guṇār śūdra narī. Dhol guṇār śūdra narī ihe sab śaśan ke adhikārī.(?) Dhol guṇār paśu śūdra narī, ihe sab śaśan ke adhikārī. Dhol, dhol means drum, mṛdaṅga. Gunar, guṇār means... What is called English? A fool, fool. Illiterate fool, what is one word?

Brahmānanda: Buffoon?

Prabhupāda: Maybe buffoon. Buffoon is sometimes troublesome. But guṇār means he doesn't understand very nicely.

Brahmānanda: Dullard.

Prabhupāda: Dull, dull. Dhol guṇār, dhol means drum and guṇār means dull. Śūdra, and the laborer class. Three. Dhol, guṇār, śūdra, and paśu, household animals, just like cows, dogs.

Brahmānanda: Pet.

Prabhupāda: Pet, like that. Dhol guṇār śūdra paśu and narī. Nari means woman. (laughs) Just see. He has classified the narī amongst these class, dhol, guṇār, śūdra, paśu, narī. Ihe sab śaśan ke adhikārī. Sasan ke adhikārī means all these are subjected for punishment. And what about the guest?

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation Including Discussion on SB 4.13.48 to SB 4.14.11 -- January 18, 1972, Jaipur:

Prabhupāda: If a demon becomes powerful—just like nowadays it is going on—somehow or other if somebody becomes powerful, he doesn't care for the śāstric injunction or religion or God. They don't care for it. Just like there are many instances, Rāvaṇa, Hiraṇyakaśipu, like that. So he also became like that. Then he began to order

na yaṣṭavyaṁ na dātavyaṁ

na hotavyaṁ dvijāḥ kvacit

iti nyavārayad dharmaṁ

bherī-ghoṣeṇa sarvaśaḥ

(SB 4.14.6)

By bugle announcement. In your country, I do not know, maybe. It is here in India still existing that if some public announcement has to be done, one takes a drum or bugle, he stands in one place and bugles or beats the drum, people when gathered they announce something that "This will be done. This is the order of the king or the state." Is there any such system in England? Śyāmasundara: Formerly there was. Prabhupāda: Huh? Śyāmasundara: Formerly there was. A town crier. Prabhupāda: Trumpeting. Śyāmasundara: They call it town crier. Prabhupāda: Town crier, yes, yes.

Room Conversation with Dai Nippon -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:

Dai Nippon representative: What Mr. Tajima(?) would like to tell you, that he is also businessman. So our talking is getting to be businesslike. So please allow him. But if we send one liaison officer in Los Angeles, we need some expenditure over there. You see? So we, Mr. Tajima(?) expects you to increase the publishing of your books more and more.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, oh yes. That we shall do, certainly. That is certain. We are very much enthusiastic to see more publication, more publication. We take this publication work as big drum. You know with clay drum? So this is big drum. When we play drum, it is resounded within some quarters. But this drum is going from country to country. So it is bigger drum. (Japanese)

Karandhara: Printing of the books is our most, one of our most important activities. And if you will study our, the society, ISKCON society, you will see that it is growing very fast, more and more growing now all over the world. The publishing of our books is growing also. Just like last year we had so many jobs, this year so many jobs. Next year at least twice as many jobs again. Your work will continue to increase more and more. (Japanese)

Prabhupāda: I have explained Kṛṣṇa, as good as Lord Buddha. (Japanese) You don't go to India to see the birth place of Lord Buddha? You do not go? In Kapila-vastu. Kapila-vastu, on the valley of Himalaya. Lord Buddha was prince.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- March 5, 1975, New York:

Reporter: Swamiji, your movement has received a great deal of attention for, at least one reason, because many of your followers dress in what for the West is an odd fashion and relate to the world in what for the West is an odd fashion. Can you respond to that? Why have you asked your followers to dress in this fashion and to play drums on the streets?

Prabhupāda: This is our preaching method, some way or other to draw their attention. (laughter)

Devotees: Jaya! Haribol!

Reporter: I'm sure that you're aware that to many people in the West, in America, in New York City specifically, that your disciples seem strange because of the way they act on the streets. What about that?

Prabhupāda: Yes, they must be strange because they are spiritual. You are all material. (laughter) So, for the material persons, we are surely strange people.

Reporter: Is this manifestation the only way to be spiritual, dressing in this fashion?

Prabhupāda: No, no, you cannot compete with us. Because we don't have any illicit sex, we don't have meat-eating, we have no intoxication, we have no gambling. There's so many no's which you are unable to perform.

Reporter: Swami, that wasn't my question. My question was, is this manifestation, dressing in this fashion, playing drums and dancing in the streets, the only way to be spiritual?

Prabhupāda: No, we have got about sixty books. If you want to learn this movement through science and philosophy, we have got our books. You have not seen our books? (laughter)

Morning Walk -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: If the operator of the powerhouse, he is operating and running the powerhouse, but it's not really necessary that we go and see him. We can simply enjoy the facilities offered by the powerhouse.

Prabhupāda: That's alright, but if you are intelligent enough, if you are a rascal fool, you cannot see, but if you are intelligent, then you'll be eager to: "Who is operating? Let me see?" That is the difference of intelligence. Dull, just like we read one story. One little boy he was beating on a drum. So, he became inquisitive, "Wherefrom the sound is coming? Somebody must be within it." He took a knife and cut it. This is intelligence. Wherefrom the sound is coming? He was beating-dum, dum, dum—he became inquisitive. That is intelligence. A dull student-coming, that's all. And intelligent, he tries to (find out), that is intelligence. Inquisitive. Intelligent boy will always enquire, "What is this, father? What is this father? Wherefrom the sound is coming?" That is intelligence. So, if one is very dull—just like cats and dogs, they cannot enquire. What is this machine? What is this behind? It is the human form of life—these enquiries should come. Otherwise he remains a cat and dog.

Morning Walk -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: But if a person becomes too much inquisitive, just like with the boy and the mṛdaṅga, due to his inquisitiveness he ruined the mṛdaṅga, and then he doesn't have any drum.

Prabhupāda: That's alright. The drum can be purchased again, but he should be given credit because he is inquisitive. You can purchase another drum, it doesn't matter, but he gets the credit because he is inquisitive.

Gaṇeśa: What about the scientists, Śrīla Prabhupāda? They are very inquisitive, they are trying to find out the cause of the material world.

Prabhupāda: That credit we give them. Just like this child. But the childishness is this, that when they are given correct information, they do not take it. (indistinct) If we say to the material scientists that "You are searching after this, here it is, Kṛṣṇa, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo (BG 10.8), I am the original source of everything." they will not accept. That is their foolishness.

Gaṇeśa: They are very inquisitive, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: That credit is already given, but you are inquisitive for a certain thing, if the thing is offered, if you do not accept then you become foolish. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19), Vāsudeva, he'll come to that point, that Kṛṣṇa is everything, but when you inform him before that here is the thing, he will not take. That is the foolishness.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You got a report?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...happy that we're taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...brāhmaṇas. are sensing danger because they see that these Europeans are worshiping Deity, temple. Then gradually there will be no caste brāhmaṇa. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...Mahāprabhu also had difficulty with the caste brāhmaṇas?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. They complained to the magistrate that "What kind of religion He is introducing? It is not our Hindu religion. So chastise Him." (break) ...report of the brāhmaṇas, the police came and broke these drums. It was not the fault of the Mohammedans. The brāhmaṇas lodged complaint against Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So he has to take step. They said, "It is not Hindu religion. They are disturbing God by chanting so loudly. (laughter) Now the God is sleeping and they are disturbing, 'Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa.' So stop this." So what can he do? After all, he is public servant. Therefore he took steps.

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: They say we have just undergone some religious conversion and become fanatical, and therefore we have given up.

Prabhupāda: No, why don't you become fanatical? (laughter)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Although it says in the Bible even that one should praise the Lord's name with cymbals and drums...

Prabhupāda: They have no concern with Bible and God and everything. They are simply after sense gratification. What is the use of quoting about Bible? They don't care for Bible. The Europeans, Americans, they have rejected, thrown away, kicked out Bible because (it is) unscientific. Actually they do not accept. Although they call themselves Christian, they do not accept anything of Bible. That is... Bible is finished. There is no meaning of Bible. Simply for their sectarian prestige, they say "Bible." But actually they have nothing to do with Bible. What do you think?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it's true.

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, book also, you write book and you want to believe, others your book. That is also book. Why do you write scientific book?

Harikeśa: Well they're proven, those other books...

Prabhupāda: What is proven? You cannot say what is the chemical there, wherefrom came. Is that proof? "We cannot say." Is that proof?

Harikeśa: Well we know how they interact. We may not know how they got here but we know what they do once they are here.

Prabhupāda: No... Knowledge means to find out the source. That is knowledge. Where from it comes. There is a good example we studied in our childhood. A child was very intelligent so he was beating on a drum, so he was very much inquisitive, "Where from the sound is coming?" Then he cut the surface... (laughing) That is intelligence. Inquisitive... where from the sound is coming? Although it was childish but that is innate intelligence.

Hari-śauri: Scientists are trying to do that. They are taking...

Prabhupāda: And that is alright. In future!

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Guru-krpa: This boy leads kīrtana for two or three hours nonstop by himself, playing the drum.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So parikrāma party has not come back?

Madhudviṣa: No, they didn't show up yet.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is not good. The class must be attended.

Madhudviṣa: They'll be back by the time class starts, I think, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Then they should not go in the morning. They must attend class. That is very important.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You once gave the example of your spiritual master also, how people were invited on parikrama and you stayed back to hear.

Prabhupāda: I never went. (break) Otherwise they should not go in the morning.

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The gentleman who came yesterday.

Prabhupāda: He is a rascal. He is another rascal. Everyone is like him. Therefore we call everyone rascal.

Gurukṛpā: The common philosophy in America is "If it feels good, do it."

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Gurukṛpā: "If it feels good, do it."

Prabhupāda: (break) ...man is less. He is simply beating drum. (break) ...the reason? Nobody can explain?

Pañca-draviḍa: That they won't surrender?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Jayādvaita: They have no confidence that Kṛṣṇa is there to actually fulfill responsi...

Trivikrama: They say He is imagination.

Mahāṁśa: Asurim bhavam asrita.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is due to sinful activities?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

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

Hayagrīva: Remember the first time you came? You walked up the road. Our car, we tried to take you in the car, but it didn't work, it broke. Power wagon.

Kīrtanānanda: It got stuck.

Prabhupāda: All fresh vegetable, fresh milk, this is celestial. Who has got the opportunity in the city? Automatically. (noise like drums in background)

Devotee: Some kind of parade.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Kīrtanānanda was playing sitar.

Rūpānuga: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And I was playing a broken mṛdaṅga.

Rūpānuga: It was wood. Was it wooden?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I think they had that at the New Vrindaban farm.

Rūpānuga: We had borrowed it from an Indian man.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It was a little one-sided drum?

Rūpānuga: No, it was a big, two-sided wooden drum. That was another drum. (break)

Prabhupāda: That was 1966.

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Sometimes dancing is done here in peculiar method. (laughter). That is not desirable. The dancing, Caitanya Mahāprabhu is showing.

Rūpānuga: You have shown us the feet, changing of the feet with arms upraised, not with the back to the Deity.

Prabhupāda: They do it out of sentiment, but that is not very good.

Rūpānuga: Also they bump one another with the drum or with each other's bodies, they dance and they bump like this. That is not bona fide is it? It is very popular in our movement now.

Prabhupāda: They are inventing. What can I do? If you invent your own way...

Devotee: I have a question, Śrīla Prabhupāda. At what point is a householder to know when he should leave his family or her family?

Prabhupāda: After fifty years of age.

Room Conversation -- July 27, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: That's a fact. If one actually interested in real philosophy, they must come to spiritualism. Ātma-tattvam. That is ātma-tattvam. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. So long they do not come to this platform of understanding ātma-tattva, whatever rascal they are doing, simply defeat, that's all. Parābhava. Simply frustration and defeat. This very word, parābhava, means defeat. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ. Why he's defeated? Abodha-jātaḥ. Because by birth he's a rascal. Abodha-jātaḥ. And this will continue yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. So long he's not enlightened to inquire about spirit and the science of spirit, he'll remain in that, that, what is called, defeat position or conquered position. So we have to now increase our scope. Everything we have got. And if you don't come to this platform, ātma-tattva, then your all attempt will be defeat. You are already defeated, frustrated, simply struggling, that's all. Either take the capitalist or communist, who has conquered? Everyone is defeated. One party may be proud that "We have been victorious." What victory you have got? What is the victory? Not that the communist countries, they are all happy. This is not the fact. Then where is your victory? Simply beating the drum that they have got victory, victory? "We have gone to moon planet. We have gone to Mars." Cheating innocent public. Is that victory?

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Not portrait. That I was beating on my... What is called? That dundubhi we call it. What do you call this. Bango? Bang?

Hari-śauri: Oh, gong?

Prabhupāda: Not gong. It is one side covered with skin.

Caraṇāravindam: Like a tambourine.

Hari-śauri: No, it's... You mean a drum...

Prabhupāda: Drum. Not two-sides. One side.

Hari-śauri: Like a tom-tom drum.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that picture is very nice. If somebody paints it will be...

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: We had this experience when we were traveling with our bus from Calcutta to Vṛndāvana. We would want to buy watermelon from people who were growing right on the bank of the river, and he would have huge piles. And he would say, "No, I'm not selling. I'm transporting these to Delhi, where one cannot get watermelon." He's getting five times the price he would get in his local...

Prabhupāda: And from Vṛndāvana, we have seen, they are exporting that drumbeats? Vṛndāvana?

Hari-śauri: Drumsticks.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Drumstick. So the transport is a dangerous thing.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Follow this policy. Just like govindāya namaḥ. When you see that the puffed rice is flying in the air, "All right, govindāya namaḥ. Govindāya namaḥ."

Girirāja: Offer it to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise I'll not give to Govinda. Income tax officer will take: "Govindāya namaḥ." If you distribute prasādam of Govinda among the poor men... We have got already in Māyāpura. Increase that. There is... They are drum-beating, that "Anyone who is hungry, please come and take prasāda."

Girirāja: That they accept as charitable. They want charitable.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Girirāja: So what could be more charitable than feeding?

Prabhupāda: No, you keep always kitchen, and by drum beating, that, "Anyone hungry within this area, or anywhere, come here. Take capatis, roti," and distribute prasādam. That is in our program.

Mr. Asnani: I shall go what Prabhupāda says, nearest to our village, within ten miles, five miles, two miles.

Prabhupāda: That I ask you. Do that. Why it is stopped, I cannot understand.

Mr. Asnani: And even the Ottomans.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I'll give money...

Room Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And we may be rascal; we do not know who is father. The father Himself says, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā: (BG 14.4) "Here." We accept Kṛṣṇa. This is intelligence. The father is present. He says, ahaṁ bīja... The rascal is searching out: "There is no father." So immediately who denies the existence of God, he is a rascal. He is to slapped only, with shoes. That is the only remedy. Anyone who denies the existence of God. He's a rascal. He should be properly treated with shoes and beaten.

Girirāja: That's true.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Mūrkhasya lakuṭauṣadhi(?). When a person is fool number one, beat him. That's all. Ḍhol gobara...(?) Tulasī dāsa has said, ḍhol gobara śūdra paśu nārī, ei saba śāsana ke adhikārī. Ḍhol, drum, you have to bring it to the tune by beating, "tung, tung." Gobara. Gobara means fool person. Paśu, animal. Ḍhol, gobara, pa..., śūdra, and nārī, woman. They should be punished to bring them into order. Ei saba śāsana ke adhikārī. Otherwise they will spoil. A barking dog, you cannot pacify him, "My dear dog, don't bark." It will disturb him: "No!" Ḍhol gobara śūdra paśu nārī, ei saba śāsana ke... So anyone who is denying the existence of God, he is a rascal number one and beat him with shoes. Bas. He is being beaten with shoes by nature.

Conversation with M.P., Shri Sita Ram Singh -- May 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If my father's income was three hundred rupees, increased by three hundred, it becomes nine thousand. So where is the nine thousand rupees income for a middle-class man?

Sita Ram Singh: Quite.

Prabhupāda: Nine thousand rupees', ten thousand rupees' income is for very, very big man. But comparing, say, sixty-seventy years ago, we were a middle-class man, so a middle-class man has not increased his income from three hundred rupees to ten thousand rupees. That means everybody has become poor. So where is the advancement? Simply beating the drum, will this...? In our childhood we have seen mustard oil, first-class, made in Kanpur. We were purchasing, eight annas per two and a half ser.

Sita Ram Singh: And now it has gone to ten rupees.

Prabhupāda: No, thirteen rupees.

Sita Ram Singh: Thirteen rupees in our time.

Prabhupāda: Ghee, first-class ghee, we were purchasing, one rupee, Vardwa(?) ghee. Now what is the price of ghee?

Indian man (1): Twenty-five.

Sita Ram Singh: Twenty rupees.

Indian man (1): Twenty, twenty-five. Between twenty and twenty-five, depending upon the place.

Prabhupāda: That means between twenty-five to thirty times, the price has increased. But income has not increased.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? This kīrtana that's in the temple, can you hear it?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I wanted to know whether... The person who's singing is Śveta-varāha from Māyāpura. In Māyāpura they use a small microphone, not for the drums but for his voice, and he has a very sweet voice. So normally we don't use mic at all, but sometimes the devotees don't know how to sing very sweetly. Whether we should use a small microphone for his voice?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can try it, and if it's not nice we can stop it.

Prabhupāda: It is going on without microphone?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The drums are... Right now the drumming is very loud.

Prabhupāda: Oh.