Electricity (Conv 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"electric" |"electrical" |"electrically" |"electrician" |"electrician's" |"electricians" |"electricity" |"electricity's" |"electrification" |"electrified" |"electrifies" |"electrify" |"electrifying"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So you like this?

Pīppalāi: Yes, very much so.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Jayapatāka: And also John prabhu... Both of them, they are staying here even though there's no electricity.

Prabhupāda: Electricity is not very important thing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which way, Jayapatāka?

Prabhupāda: So?

Jayapatāka: They wanted to show their land.

Prabhupāda: Where it is? So? What that land will be utilized for?

Jayapatāka: That's only good for cultivation.

Prabhupāda: You have got sufficient arrangement for cultivation?

Jayapatāka: We need... We don't have enough cultivation land for the amount of devotees we have.

Morning Walk -- January 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Neighbor's land?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is not... But this must be habitable. Otherwise what is the use of engaging so many men?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about electricity?

Bhavānanda: Electricity is no problem.

Prabhupāda: Electricity also can be temporarily, immediately fixed up. That is not difficult. (break) ...saying that "Our work will go on." If you cheat us in this way, then I will not engage you."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we have ten years' work to do.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But you must finish everything within that period. Plumbing and electricity we shall see. That is not very important. But it must be habitable. So if he thinks that it is possible, then let him go. Otherwise you engage only fifty men. (break) ...he cannot say, "There was no money." That is not possible. If you pay money, he must give the result.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Oh. So that is very costly.

Jayapatāka: Computers are very cheap nowadays.

Madhudviṣa: Yeah, it's very expensive. Actually the electricity would be very expensive, the bill, which would probably be paid by Mahatva(?). (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No, if it is very expensive, don't do it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Of course, an escalator is also expensive. If we're going to worry about expense, then... I think we should wait until we get that big building, the temple, because then, if you put it up there, it can be seen...

Madhudviṣa: In Calcutta.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even in Calcutta. But this is not very high. (break)

Devotee (1): ...ignorance, ignorance.

Prabhupāda: No, those who are inclined, they can become.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: There are so many. Dṛḍha-vrata. Bhajante mam dṛḍha-vrata. So we should be very strong-minded and continue our devotional service very strongly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gargamuni's doing some transaction.

Prabhupāda: Gargamuni...

Jayatīrtha: I think he went to see about the electricity. He said that he was going to go early this morning to see about the electricity, why it is always going off.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Garga, garga means "big jug," and "money," full of money. Big jug full of coins. Formerly they used to...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Keep.

Prabhupāda: Not.... Cheat the government. There was no income tax, but still they used to keep in big, big jugs all gold coins and put into the..., underneath the ground. Nobody could understand where is the money. Very easy thing.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Within that temple, there will be the tree of planetary system, electric bulb, and they'll move round. And upon that, sun will run. That requires electrical mechanism. (break) ...all side, other, different planets, Vaikuṇṭha-loka.... There will be escalator to go.

Yaśodānandana: I think in some of the Western countries they have these elevators with brass windows all around, so that one can, even though he's going up, he still sees all around. It would be very fascinating for these people.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What to speak of escalators?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What to speak of escalators?

Yaśodānandana: And that light system.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People will pay just to get on that escalator every day. (laughter)

Pañca-draviḍa: In Los Angeles they have installed a speed walk at the airport, an escalator that you can walk on.

Prabhupāda: So you are not going to Calcutta? Calcutta?

Jayapatākā: I was going to go in a day or two.

Talk at Radha-Govinda Mandir -- March 24, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Only two rupees. That's all.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Our young children are very fortunate also.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Our young children.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Yes. Very fortunate. That a small child, he'll take little grain of prasādam. He will not touch the big halavā. As soon as I'll give him a little grain, he'll take. Very nice.

Abhirāma: (break) ...travel on a coach like this, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm? Yes, in our childhood. Not so bad. At that time it was not so bad. In 1925 I purchased one Buick car. In our childhood days there was no electricity, and there was no motorcar. No. The tram car was drawn by horses in Calcutta. (break) ...quarter where our temple is situated.

Morning Walk -- March 26, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Then why do they not do now? What is the wrong now?

Cyavana: Well, they've done it. They can do it by creating certain conditions.

Prabhupāda: But why do they not do?

Cyavana: They use amino acids and water and electricity.

Prabhupāda: Bluffing.

Cyavana: But this gave great strength to their theory that life can come from matter because they created a one-celled amoeba. They say they created it, that life actually came into it.

Prabhupāda: They said everything, but where is the proof?

Cyavana: Well, the scientists saw it.

Prabhupāda: Saw it? Now show us. They saw it at their home.

Room Conversation -- April 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You have kept his address?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Two devotees.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: One is that gentleman, Mr. Narayan. He's an engineer with the city electrical department, and the other is a full-time devotee. I have his address, Mr. Narayan's address.

Prabhupāda: So they are still here?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He's anxious to go back. He's going to London until August; then he's going back to Mauritius with his family.

Jagat-guru: We will invite him to come to our Durban festival. And also I've suggested that they also arrange something big, festival, because there are 600,000 Indians there, and that some of our men can go to the island and give them association.

Prabhupāda: So they'll give visa? Me?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: For you? Oh, yes. I think we have to make a chest x-ray again and take several shots for you, (laughter) no problem.

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Electricity is coming?

Lokanātha: Yes, these poles are meant for that.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I doubt, though, if these people can afford.

Prabhupāda: The government can. (break)

Pañcadraviḍa: ...go to beg rice or something, like we were doing for a food program, all the people slam the door in your face. (break)

Pañcadraviḍa: ...went to America, what was your idea of what would be your program when you got there?

Prabhupāda: This idea: I shall speak to don't eat meat, and they'll immediately kick me out. (laughter) That was my program. And I was going to say that "Don't eat meat. No illicit sex," and immediately they will kick me out. "All right." I never thought that you would accept it. That is the idea of my poetry. That is sung, no? You have got that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 25, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Appetite is increased on account of the fire. The fire creates different secretions: blood. This is a big machine. It is mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā, yantra. How this yantra is working? Electricity, everything, air.

Devotee: Are persons who are trying to cut down appetite, they should eat cool foods?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee: Persons who are trying to eat less and less for spiritual life, they should...

Prabhupāda: No, less is not spiritual. Whatever you want to eat, your food must be.... Machine is going on by the order of God. It is not after your order. But if you violate laws, then it is disturbed. The more that the fire is disturbed, oblations to the fire—svāhā—that is eaten by God. (indistinct) Grains are offered, fruits are offered, in the fire yajña. It is through the fire, so as the part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we have got little fire, we eat through that. In the fire you put tons of grains, tons of ghee—everything will be consumed.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: And they thought that "If I pull out the electrical plug on this machine, then it will be murder." She was already dead, and the doctors fixed this machine to keep her heart.... Now they were afraid of pull out the plug.

Prabhupāda: Not dead. Not dead. Dead cannot be continued by electricity. That is not possible.

Hari-śauri: Spirit soul was still there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The soul was still there, but not in that condition.

Rāmeśvara: So then there was no movement, no thinking, everything was...

Prabhupāda: Unconscious, that may be.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: These foolish things are going on. They think the body, by some chemical and physical combination and electric power.... Although they have not been able to do so, but still they'll theorize like that. In this way the whole human society is going on in a deep, ignorant platform. So, that is the defect of the human society at the present moment, and we are trying to mend this defect by this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. People are trying to understand. Our books are being very nicely received by the educated circle. We have got so many books. About, for the time, we have got over fifty-four books like this. This book is selling very nicely, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. We have printed recent edition, 350,000 copies, that is finished. Again we are going to print 500,000 copies. So it is a great science meant for all human beings, not for the Hindus or the Muslim or the Christian. Science, mathematic, is meant for everyone. So it is spiritual science. Everyone should take advantage of it. Otherwise what was the use of my.... I have not come here to preach Hindu religion. Why you should take Hindu religion? You are already Christian. So what is use of replacing Christian religion to Hindu religion? We have no such distinction. We are not after increasing the number of Hindus; we are after making the human being perfect in knowledge. That is our aim.

Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That is God's greatness. You have to understand God's greatness in that way. If the sinful, number of sinful men are great, God immediately starts one war, and within few years, all finished. Russia finished, America finished, everyone. That is greatness of God. In this way try to understand how God is great in every activity. In mercy He's great, in cruelty He's great. If He wants to show cruelty, He's the greatest cruel. No discrimination, all finished. Never mind women, children or cats, dogs—all finished. That is cruelty, greatness of cruelty. Then there is greatness of mercy. So that is greatness. So you study, in God, the greatness, how great He is. At night you have so many lights for illuminate your city, home, and so many electric powerhouse going on, and God is so great that one sun-immediately, all light. There is no need of powerhouse, there is no need of matches, there is no need of this light, that light. Take sunlight. That is His greatness. And within a second. When night is going on, we have seen.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Now suppose these electric lights. So, crude form of light, we grow some castor seed, everything from the earth. This also you are getting from earth, petroleum, and running on machine, and electricity is generated. But really you are getting the impetus from the earth. As soon as the petroleum supply is stopped, everything stopped. But for this purpose you have to search out petroleum from the middle of ocean, boring. Therefore it is ugra-karma. The purpose is that you grow some castor seed, press it, get oil, put in any pot, and one wick, the light is there. So even understanding that you have improved the lighting system, but that is not the only necessity of my life. But to improve from the castor seed lamp, castor oil lamp, to this electricity, you have to work so hard. You have to go to the middle of ocean and drill it and get out petroleum and... In this way your real business of life is finished. The energy and the intelligence you got for your self-realization or your, this precarious position, constantly dying and taking birth in various species of life, this is your problem, and this was to be solved in human life, you have got advanced intelligence, but that intelligence is utilized from castor seed lamp to the electric lamp. That's all. Just try to understand. What is that improvement? And for this improving from castor seed oil lamp to electricity lamp, you forget your real business. You lost yourself. This civilization is going on. This is called māyā. For some fictitious happiness you lose your whole purpose of life. It is difficult to understand, but the fact is there. But you are under the control of nature, you have to give up this body. All right, you make very nice arrangement to live here, nature will not allow you to live. You must die. And after death you are going to get another body. So in this body, working for high grade electricity lamp, you work so hard, have got your own business, and next life by the laws of nature, if you get the body of a dog, then what is the benefit? That you cannot check.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: No one works harder than the farmer. The farmer has to work very hard.

Prabhupāda: No, our point is that if you think that electricity improvement is better than farming, we have no objection. But if you forget your real business, is that intelligent?

Kīrtanānanda: No, of course not.

Prabhupāda: That is our proposal. Our real business is how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. So simply for improving the condition of life, the necessities of life, if I forget my real business, is that intelligence? Therefore it is said duṣkṛtinaḥ. Kṛti means merit. But merit is being utilized for sinful activities. Take for example the meat-eaters. When man was... The uncivilized man is still there. In the uncivilized way they are living in the jungle. They require to eat something. So they stone over an animal going, and the animal dies, and then they eat. Now instead of killing the animal by stoning, if you have discovered scientific machine in the slaughterhouse to kill the animal, is that improvement? If you think this is advancement, "Now we have discovered very technical machine. Instead of stoning one animal killing, it takes so much time, hundreds and thousands of animals you can kill in one hour," do you think that is improvement? That is going on.

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

Hari-śauri: Fifty years ago they were thinking it was progress to build big skyscrapers; now it's so hellish in the cities, everybody is moving out.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Actually, when there are so many skyscraper buildings, it is hell. The natural air is obstructed. In Bombay you'll see. If you are in the top floor you have got little facility; in the lower floor it is hell. If there are several skyscraper building, in the first floor, second floor, it is simply hell. No air. Simply you have to run on this electric fan. You cannot see the sky. Therefore it is meant skyscraper? What is scraper? What is the meaning?

Hari-śauri: It touches, touching the sky.

Prabhupāda: So you have touched the sky in such a way I cannot see even. (laughs) This is the result. You demon, you have captured the sky, so I have no opportunity to see even. Always electric light. Now we see the sky, the sun, how nice it is. This is life. Green, down and up, clear sky, sun, this is life. We get rejuvenation in this atmosphere. What is this nonsense, all skyscraper building, no air, no light? Jagato 'hitāḥ. The mind becomes crippled, the health becomes deteriorated, children cannot see even the sky, everything is spoiled.

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

Prabhupāda: Kṣayāya, kṣayāya means all for ruination, bringing ruin, ruination. So save them from ruination. Actually I've seen in New York, some quarter so nasty. In London also, so nasty. Disaster. So many storefront, lying vacant houses. I was, when I had no business, I was loitering to see the city. Hellish condition. They said it was risky, but I did not know that it was risky. One electrician, he was my friend, "Oh, Swamiji, you are going in those quarters? It is not for you, don't." "Oh, I do not care. What I have got they will take from me?" So I was loitering in New York City. So many nasty quarters. London also. So many houses vacant.

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

Prabhupāda: My dear friends, pleasure, material pleasure, on account of this material body, particular type of body...": A dog, it has got a body, and I have got a body. So my sex pleasure and dog's sex pleasure, there is no difference, the pleasure derived out of sex pleasure is the same. But a dog is not afraid of having sex pleasure on the street before everyone. We hide it. That's all. In a nice apartment. But the business is the same. There is no difference. But they are taking this sex pleasure in a nice apartment and very decorated, man and woman, and electric light and so on, so on. This pleasure is advanced. But that is not advanced. And they are making dog's race for this advancement. Superficial. The Prahlāda Mahārāja says that this is a question of different types of pleasure on account of different types of body, but the pleasure is the same. But according to the different types of body the pleasure is already fixed up. That is called destiny. A pig has got a certain type of body and his eatable is the stool. It is already fixed up. You cannot change it, that "Let the pig eat halavā." It is not possible. Because he has got a particular type of body, he must eat that. Can anyone, any scientist can improve the standard of living of a pig? Is it possible?

Devotees: (laughing) No.

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

Prabhupāda: Magnetism also another action of the fire. We used to do that. Rubbing, rubbing, rubbing.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Electricity.

Rūpānuga: Friction.

Prabhupāda: And it would, get one fine paper, you'll get.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Hairs will stand on end.

Prabhupāda: So magnetism means another action of the fire. (laughter)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We talk sometimes things very complicated, Śrīla Prabhupāda, but Prabhupāda explains it very simply. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Because I am not scientist. (laughter) Just like I captured immediately, common sense.

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

Rūpānuga: The whole idea is that the matter, where it's not touched by spirit, it's not very complicated. When there's life, then you have such a complication like a body. The human body is very complicated because life is there. Without life...

Prabhupāda: No, just like a machine, it can be complicated. But as soon as you put the plug, gada-gada-gada-gada comes. But the electricity is not complicated, the machine is complicated.

Rūpānuga: So it doesn't work unless there is some....

Prabhupāda: Without electricity it does not work. But the machine is complicated, not the electricity.

Rūpānuga: One thing is that the machine, in this example, gets complicated or it becomes...

Prabhupāda: Complicated means it is made in different parts with matter, that's all. But it cannot work without the electric power.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So the conclusion is that matter, when touched by life or spirit, actually it becomes complicated.

Prabhupāda: Not complicated, it is already complicated. It works.

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

Prabhupāda: Just like electricity. Electricity, when it is connected with the machine, it works. The machine is complicated.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But it could be said that the machine is actually independent of the electricity.

Prabhupāda: No, how it is independent? Without electricity it has no value.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It has no value, but it's still existing.

Prabhupāda: Existing, that is valuable?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But machine is touched by a person. So that makes a...

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is an example, that here is electricity, power, and here is machine. The machine is complicated. The electricity is not complicated.

Hari-śauri: But if there's no electricity, then there's no need for a complicated machine.

Prabhupāda: You can see it is complicated. Even a typewriter machine, it is complicated.

Hari-śauri: Then it's only complicated because it needs to be so so that it can take the energy for running it.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing, without electric, without energy, it cannot work, but the thing itself is complicated.

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

Prabhupāda: This machine is the same without electricity or no electric. But with electricity it works, and without electricity it is useless.

Hari-śauri: But isn't a complicated body...

Prabhupāda: It is complicated already. When it is touched with electric power it works. And when it is not touched with electricity... The electricity is not complicated, this thing itself is complicated.

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: Don't bring mathematics, try to understand. You have got different machine for different purposes. But without electricity they are useless.

Hari-śauri: So the cause is very simple, but the effect is complicated.

Prabhupāda: Not effect. It has nothing to do. If you want to work for a certain purpose, you require such and such machine. So different purposes, different machines. But the power is the same. It is a simple thing. Why don't you understand? You push the electric power for this heater and same electric power for this cooler. This is the difference of the machine. The power is the same. Either it is acting as cooler or heater. The refrigerator is used, the same electric power. And the heater is used, same electric power. It is a question of difference of the machine. Electricity is the same. The matter is complicated. Spirit is not complicated.

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

Prabhupāda: That we already admitted. That I can see ten feet, let me credit, take credit for that. But why shall I say, "I can see the whole universe." What is this nonsense? Speak the truth. "Now we have manufactured machine, and this, I have calculation that..." All talking nonsense. I say it is not possible for you to see beyond ten feet. Why you are claiming that you can see the whole sky? That is our protest. You can see ten feet, take that credit, that much. If somebody manufactures the electric lamp, all right. Take this. But if he says, "I can manufacture the sun." Then he is to be beaten with shoes. Talking nonsense. You take this credit, that you have manufactured light in electric bulb, that's all right. But why you claim that, "I can manufacture the sun"? That is their claim, defying God. Because we are explaining God consciousness, therefore we have protest. Otherwise let them move(?), all nonsense (indistinct). But we cannot tolerate when they challenge God.

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were talking this morning how as soon as you see these murals, you'll say he should go to Māyāpur. He paints very quickly. We could actually send him with that spray gun.

Prabhupāda: Electric spray?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I don't know if they use electricity, or do you use gas? The thing is that he can paint directly, just as fast.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, I had him in L.A. painting by brush.

Prabhupāda: What is this building?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't recognize it. Oh, the Fritt Collection, it's an art museum. This whole street is full of art museums.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's one gentleman named Fritt.

Rāmeśvara: This taxi driver is saying Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Our Jayānanda was driving taxi and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and one day (laughter) he brought to me five thousand dollars.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have rented it from the railroad. This whole area is eight hundred dollars, we have rented. First class-electricity, water, it's first class. We can go around this way, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Oh, very strong.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Jayānanda heard what you said about him. He said, "I will never let it happen again."

Prabhupāda: Yes, now it is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Look at in there, Prabhupāda, this is really strong.

Prabhupāda: Yes, no, if you keep it very nicely...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The other carts are..., this one is not yet finished as much as the others. Jayānanda, did you build this cart?

Jayānanda: No, no.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is Chicago's old cart. Not the last year's one, an old one, we got it from them, they did not want it anymore. This will be Subhadrā's. They only want one cart, the one they have now. So we called them up and we said "Oh, don't throw it away, we'll take it."

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: And I was trying to purchase one house here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which floor did you live on, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: I think third floor. And there was an electrician, he was my friend, one Jewish gentleman.

Devotee (1): You would walk on this street?

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is one building with temperature, a gauge? Here it is. This is Broadway. I was taking bath here in a station. Sometimes I was taking the station(?)... I think this building is new. I was going to Dr. Mishra's apartment for cooking.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What street did he live on?

Prabhupāda: He... Seventy-eighth. The Riverside corner. Yes, I was purchasing my goods from this store.

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it's a picture of the entire creation. It shows many different... Each of these spheres is a planet. And you may notice that on the right hand bottom corner there is a darker area. That darker portion is known as the material world. By world we don't mean just mean this planet; we mean a composite of all of the material universes. But these only make up one small portion of the entire creation. Just for our understanding it's said to be about one fourth of the creation, the entire composite of all the material universes. The other three-fourths are made up of spiritual planets, which are self-illuminating. There's no need of sunshine, or moon, light or electricity. (break) ...and full of knowledge. Whereas here life is very temporary and it's not always blissful and there's a lot of ignorance also.

Interviewer: But you are living in a spiritual planet here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, this planet is part of the material universe, but because our consciousness is Kṛṣṇa conscious, or God conscious, practically we are not affected very much by the conditions of the material world. Just like one of the conditions is fearfulness of death. But because we're...

Prabhupāda: I can give one example. Just like royal throne. The king is there, and a bug is there.

Conversation After Interview with Religious Editor, Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Yes, he's good electrician. So where he is employed?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: He's employed with one of my clients.

Prabhupāda: Oh. What salary?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Sperry, Sperry Univac.

Prabhupāda: What salary he is getting?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Ah, he's getting about twelve, thirteen hundred dollars now.

Prabhupāda: Salary? Yes. He was getting in America six hundred. (laughs) Getting double.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: It was amazing that one little generator was supplying all the power. This one little gasoline generator was supplying the power for all the sound and the various electricity things.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, there was no electrical hook-up; we did that with a gas generator.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And there was no sound, cutcutcutcutcut.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, because we put it very far away. In India that would be a nuisance, the sound of the...

Prabhupāda: So where is Ambarīṣa?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was not in the parade.

Bali-mardana: He is going back to..., I spoke to him for a little while. He's going back to Boston right after the parade, I think, with Aja? I spoke to him; he seemed to be a nice boy. I asked him, because we were meeting with reporters. So they like to ask who is giving you big donations. I wasn't sure whether he wanted his name to be used or not, but he said, "Oh, yes, you can use it without any question. I do not mind at all." (pause)

Prabhupāda: All right, go take rest, you have worked so hard.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Mukunda: You could even do it by hand if you were out of electricity.

George Harrison: The hole is..., the bore is actually only about this wide. You can have a little bucket. (laughter)

Jayatīrtha: You have to apply for permission, actually, to dig a well, but around here at least you have to get permission.

George Harrison: We did too. You have to put your name on the list, public notice in the local papers, and if somebody wants to complain about it, then they have a chance to. And once it's been up there for a few days or a week or something, and if nobody's made any formal complaint for any reason, like maybe they've got one and want to bore a hole, and you may be (indistinct) there, so then you just go ahead. Then it's all approved, and then your names goes on the list someplace in the county surveyor's office. So you do have to go through a, you know, a couple of months of waiting. Just to, say, bore a hole to replenish, and you have to just pay for the cost to bore a hole and the pump. To lay out electricity to where the pump is. The pump is, you know, just in the ground, you can't even see it. You know, by that weeping willow tree?

Prabhupāda: So if you want to take little rest, we can arrange for that. Resting.

George Harrison: Rest?

Prabhupāda: Yes, for you.

George Harrison: No, no.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: But how about the electricity board and people like that? I mean, where do you get the money?

Jayatīrtha: Kṛṣṇa gives us the money.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we have no scarcity of money. We are selling our books daily, sixty thousand dollars' worth. So we have got sufficient income to maintain the whole institute.

Jayatīrtha: No one takes any personal benefit. All the money is used for the furtherance of our principles.

Prabhupāda: Besides that, when we require a nice house, somebody gives. Just like George has given us. Similarly, we have got many houses. One boy, his name is Alfred Ford, he's the great-grandson of Mr. Ford, Henry Ford. He has given us two, three very nice properties. So the money, there is no scarcity, and Kṛṣṇa is everywhere. If Kṛṣṇa dictates "Give him this," he'll give, that's all. And that is being happening actually. Within ten years nobody can expect to construct a house like this in a city like London. Is it possible? Even if he is a very big businessman. Not only one, there are so many. It is all Kṛṣṇa's mercy.

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

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, there is no difficulty. Still, even without language, without talking, if you simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, everyone will follow. And give them prasādam, they will take. And that will be good preaching. It doesn't require language or anything. You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, let them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and give them nice prasāda. They will take. That will be good preaching. But who is chanting, he must be a sincere devotee. Then his chanting will be effective. A gramophone machine will not do. He must be realized, then his chanting will be effective. Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ (SB 3.25.25). He must behave just like a pure Vaiṣṇava. Then if he chants, his chanting will be effective. Just like electricity. If I am surcharged with electricity, I touch, you also become electric. And if he touches, he'll become. But if one is not in touch with electricity, then it will not act. So one must be electrified. Then if he touches somebody, he'll be electrified. If there is no electricity, simply by touching, he'll not do.

Translator: He says that on the Ivory Coast, this country, until he becomes electrified, he knows that the President of the country is very favorable to our movement, he has the Bhagavad-gītā and he thinks that we should open a temple there.

Prabhupāda: Immediately do it. Immediately do it. I am simply explaining the process. But do it immediately, Kṛṣṇa will give you power. If you are sincere, you'll be electrified. There is no doubt.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Dayānanda: I don't think they know actually what they are talking about, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, actually this is fact. It is similar planet like the sun, but it is surrounded by cold atmosphere, therefore it is so pleasing. And because it is far away from the sun, the distance between moon and earth is more than the distance between the sun and the earth. Therefore sun looks bigger and it looks smaller. We are contemplating having a planetarium with electric arrangement. You'll have to work. The whole planetary system is moving from east to west, and the sun, moon and... They are up and down. (to child): Come on, Hare Kṛṣṇa, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. He can speak?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: No, just a few words.

Prabhupāda: Two years.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Almost.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: They have not succeeded in a thing which they proposed as the origin of life. This is going on.

Hari-śauri: I remember they showed the experiment on TV on a science program, and they said "Now we've discovered how to make life." And they showed this chamber, and they put these gases in and an electrical spark.

Prabhupāda: And there was life? No.

Hari-śauri: And they made these amino acids. So they said "We've created life. Now, it won't be long before we can develop..."

Prabhupāda: And you have to wait one million years.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: And if your electricity fails, you'll go to hell. (laughter) This is no argument. That is obstinate rascal's argument. That one, they were eating yogurt. Everyone said, "Oh, very first-class, nice yogurt." Everyone was saying. So there was the obstinate rascal, he has to find out some fault. He said, "Yes, it is very nice, but if we keep it three days it will be bad." He's not thinking of the present, but he has to criticize it, that if you keep it three days it will become bad. That is all right, but what you are tasting now, talking of that. When there will be rain, you'll have to go in the room—this is no argument. This is obstinate rascaldom. We're talking of this. If accident and this and that, then in everywhere that will... That I've already replied, if there is electricity failure, then it is...

Hari-śauri: But we have to plan for the future.

Prabhupāda: Future you cannot plan. That is the foolishness. That is another obstinate rascaldom. Future is not in your hand. You cannot plan. That is going on. They are planning so many things for future, but it is being baffled. So many schemes, so many there are. Our, in India there is a planning commission, after independence. So whatever they did, all failure. All failure.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: And when there will be no electricity, you will be frozen.

Harikeśa: Well, I have my gas heater.

Nava-yauvana: We have experience sometimes the heater breaks and there's even more anxiety.

Hari-śauri: Then there's always a coal fire as well.

Prabhupāda: Such kind of argument can be counteracted by so many other argument.

Harikeśa: We just see practically that we're enjoying life. We can't...

Prabhupāda: Enjoy life means... Even the industrialists, they go to the remote village and have a peaceful house there. That is the anxiety, how I shall live peacefully. The poorer class, the workers, they live in the city, and the capitalist, he goes to a different place.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. Unless one diverts attention to Kṛṣṇa consciousness it is not possible. One must have some business, engagement. Just like in New York as soon as there was electric failure for four hours, so many women became pregnant. Because he has no business in the darkness. But if he was trained up to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, one could utilize the time for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. But they have not such training. Nobody has such training. So how they will utilize the time? Come on, let us have... Although he knows...

Indian devotee: Especially Prabhupāda, when there is a famine, where there is no more food... They had big famine...

Prabhupāda: Food, that is punishment. It is not the... Famine is punishment from the side of nature. She'll not supply to the rākṣasas. That is a punishment. Otherwise, there is no question of population. You may have as many... Just like the birds and beasts. They do not care for... They have got enough food. But they do not violate the laws of the nature.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You can fix up a little fan, then this labor can be saved.

Caraṇāravindam: You would like electric fan or hand pulled. Hand pulled?

Prabhupāda: No no, electric. A small table fan. Just like in the railway carriage. Let them fix up. Small ceiling fan.

Hari-śauri: You can get very small ones that fasten on the front of motor cars on the inside for fanning the driver. Just a small unit.

Caraṇāravindam: I was wanting to, in the future, build you a very beautiful construction here.

Prabhupāda: No, it is all right.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It was all by chance. I was for a few days guest at his father's place in Agra. I did not know that his son is in America. So he was talking about his family. He was little sorry that his eldest son went to America to study electric engineering, and he was entrapped by an English girl, and he married and settled there and did not come back. In this way... So I took the opportunity, that "Why don't you ask your son to sponsor me?" I wanted to go to America. So I did not know how seriously he took it. But I simply told him that "Why don't you ask your son to sponsor me at least for one month. So I am thinking of going to America." Then that was talking, beginning and end, that's all. I did not know that he took it very seriously. Then after two, three months, some documents came. I was receiving my letters in a post box. So when I left Delhi I used to keep my key of post box with some nice bookseller, Atmaram, he was manager. So he opened that, he got that documents. That is No Objection Certificate, Sponsor, and everything. I was out of Delhi. Then when I came back I took it. So everything was there, that sheet (indistinct) from the Indian Consulate, No Objection Certificate. Then I applied for a passport. In this way I had to go. So Gopal was unknown to me, but his father was, his father was known to me. His father was... Then his agent got me on the bus. So on the bus (I) went to Pennsylvania.

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

Prabhupāda: Impersonal Brahman is resting on the personal God, exactly that illumination of light is resting on the bulb. Not that the bulb is resting on the illuminated light.

Pradyumna: Exactly like illumination of light is resting...

Prabhupāda: On the bulb, electric bulb. Not the bulb is resting on the illumination.

Room Conversation -- September 30, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: One boy, he was coming to me. In that hundred, about one hundred seventy-first street, all my things were stolen. My tape recorder, typewriter. Fortunately they did not touch my manuscript that I was typing, typing my books. So some money was stolen. Then one boy, he was coming to me, he told me, "Please come to my place." A loft. Bowery Street. I did not know the Bowery Street was not a good quarter. All bums and drunks. When I see there, one Jewish friend, he had electrical shop, he told me, "Swamiji, you have gone to Bowery Street? Oh, it is not your place." I did not know that it is full of drunkards. But they were lying down in front of my door, but they were very respectful. When I'd go, these drunkards comes and they respectfully give me ways. And they would lie down on urine and something like that, on water. Then the boy who took me there... He was Murray. His last title was Murray. And he was taking LSD.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The electricity is off at the moment so we...

Prabhupāda: So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is purely a spiritual movement. Therefore sometimes it is little difficult to understand the activities of this movement. There are two things, material and spiritual. That is the beginning of instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa begins with this statement: that this body is not the person, the soul is the person. Asmin dehe. Within this body there is the soul. And he has explained in different ways that this body is antavanta ime dehā (BG 2.18). This body is perishable, but the soul is not perishable. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), that even after the destruction of the body the soul is not destroyed. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. The soul never takes birth, never dies. Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yam na hanyate hanyamāne (BG 2.20). There are so many things explained, what is the soul. So without the soul, this body is useless.

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

Dr. Kneupper: I would say that there is a universal intelligence guiding everything.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that means control. How can you deny the control over you?

Dr. Kneupper: What do you understand is man's place in nature? Should he invent, let's say, electricity? Should he invent machines? Do you think these are good or should he just leave those alone?

Prabhupāda: Well, these are good or bad. Suppose if there was no, this comfortable pad. That does not mean that I cannot sit. If there was no electricity, it does not mean we would have died.

Dr. Kneupper: No.

Prabhupāda: There was lamp. We were doing that. So we don't condemn electricity, but it does not mean because we have got electricity, we shall deny the authority of God. That is rascaldom.

Dr. Kneupper: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is rascaldom. You might have improved from the oil lamp to electricity. That does not mean that you have the control over God.

Evening Darsana -- December 3, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Now, here is intelligence. This boy has got intelligence; therefore he can see, behind this flower there is God. He immediately answered. That is intelligence. He is not seeing God, but he's seeing God. God is not present face to face but it doesn't matter. Just like the prime minister of our country, she may not be present here but that does not mean that she is not there. She is there. So these rascals say, "Can you show me God?" How can you see Him? By intelligence. Just like this fan is running. The powerhouse is not here but intelligent man will understand that there is electric powerhouse from where the electricity energy is supplied and therefore the fan is running. By the running of the fan, one can understand that there is a big powerhouse and there is an electric engineer there who is conducting the business. That is sufficient, to see the running of the fan. That is intelligence. And if somebody says, "No, no, the fan is running automatically," that is not possible. You are experiencing every moment. As soon as the electric energy is stopped, the fan is stopped. The room is dark. So there is powerhouse behind this electric energy, and the powerhouse is being managed by one engineer. This is natural conclusion. And Kṛṣṇa says, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: "Under My supervision the material nature is working."

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is Vedānta. Yes. That is Vedānta. Brahma-sūtra. This is Vedānta. So this life is meant for Vedānta. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. And what is Brahman? Janmādy asya yataḥ. Brahman means the Supreme Soul of everything. And Kṛṣṇa replies, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). Then Vedānta study... I'm inquiring what is the ultimate source of everything and here is the answer. If you don't believe, that is another thing. You go on talking like anything. That is another thing. But answer is there. Aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2). Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). So we have to go to such mahātmā who knows vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti. Then it will be all right. If we want to waste time, that is another thing. I am very glad to see you. So I wish that you may spread real Vedānta. That is essence of Vedas. Vedānta means the essence of Vedas. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). Light is, of course there is light in the sunshine and there is light in the sun-globe, but the source of light is coming from the sun-god. Just like electric bulb, thousand power. So the illumination is also light and the source of illumination, the bulb, that is also light.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But in our Māyāpur, that plant, we spent so much, it has not become successful.

Indian man: No that is mechanical fault. Just like electricity now it has failed. Now sir, we should not stop utilizing electricity.

Prabhupāda: No, any machine, that defect will be there.

Indian man: But that we have been working for twenty years in Ahmedabad. Everybody is very happy there, and they're actually making money out of it. The fertilizer that is there is about four times what is normally achieved. So good maintenance are required for any...

Prabhupāda: (sneezes loud) I have no objection, but I've got experience. In Māyāpur it is failure.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So, our point is that if he was not on the platform of mokṣa, liberation, why did he waste his time by spoiling himself and for spoiling others? Now he has come to his senses, it is good, but it is to be understood that he simply spoiled his time and spoiled others' career by misleading them. Thus, without being liberated, nobody can guide anyone. That is useless. That is andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). If you have no eyes, then how can you lead others? If you are blind and they are blind, then what is the use of becoming their leaders? Actually all the so-called leaders and scholars, they are blind themselves and they have become big, big leader. That is the misfortune of the present life. And, therefore, our proposition is you take direction from Kṛṣṇa and His representative. That's all. That will help you. Try to understand this point. Our system, paramparā system, is that I am just like disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī. I don't say that I am liberated. I am conditioned. But because I am following the instruction of Bhaktisiddhānta, I'm liberated. This is the distinction between conditioned and liberated. When one is under the direction of a liberated person... The same thing: Electricity. The copper is not electricity, but when it is charged with electricity, if it is touched, that is electricity. And, similarly, this paramparā system, the electricity is going. If you cut the paramparā system, then there is no electricity. Therefore it is stressed so much. Sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣṭaḥ parantapa. The electricity is lost. These people, they do not know. Now at the fag end of life, they are thinking, if intelligent person, that "What I have done actually?" If one has sense, he should come to this understanding. By cutting some, what is that? Dead trees? The civil disobedience began by cutting dead trees. Is it not? Vinoda Bhave, he began his leadership forty years ago by cutting... Gandhi also, civil disobedience.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But I used to work in New York outside all the time, but I didn't find it so difficult.

Prabhupāda: No one will. It is not at all difficult. The principles, the regulation we have started, it will automatically bring them to that stage.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: When one chants sincerely and attends all the temple programs, then automatically one...

Prabhupāda: (sharp rapping sound: light switch flicking on and off) No electricity. Stop this fan.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Stop the fan? Śrīla Prabhupāda, I may not be going to the Kumbhamela. I'm going to stay in Bombay and later on go to Delhi and Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. There is Gurudāsa and there others.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Because there's lot of work to do, and I'm printing lot of books now, so...

Prabhupāda: No, you stay here.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ah, he's railway member. So railway bridge there is sound.

Gurudāsa: Yes, but... When trains come by there is sound. Yes, there is sound.

Hari-śauri: There is electricity?

Gurudāsa: There will be, yes.

Hari-śauri: Big power points.

Gurudāsa: Yes. There will be two in Prabhupāda's and two on the pandal.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Gurudāsa: Electricity, he wanted to know. The thing is there's also sound with bicycles going. Bicycles also go across that bridge. So there's some sound. Not during the high afternoon, because people don't go out. And not during very early morning, but during the day there is. What do you think?

Prabhupāda: How can I think unless I see? (break)

Hari-śauri: If it's not suitable at the camp, Prabhupāda can go to the house at night and the camp in the day.

Gurudāsa: Yes. Even during the day he doesn't have to go except for darśana.

Prabhupāda: All right. Whatever you say.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is the fact, we know. We know that is a fact, that... My point is that the modern age, they are very much proud of advanced technology. So where is that knowledge? And why people do not tax their brains to get this knowledge? This is very important subject matter. But where is that knowledge? And why they do not try to do it? We get information from the Supreme Personality of Godhead that this jīva, the driver... Not driver. The passenger. We are passenger, and driver is God, and machine made by material energy, māyā... Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. The similarity is there. Just like motorcar is manufactured by somebody and the passenger is there and the driver is there, similarly, this is a machine made by māyā. I am the passenger, and God is driver. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati bhrāmāyan (BG 18.61). Bhrāmāyan, the driver, the passenger of the owner, he is asking, "Mr. Driver, you go this way." So He's driving. Just like the same—Arjuna is asking Kṛṣṇa, senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me 'cyuta: (BG 1.21) "Just between these two parties of soldiers, please keep my chariot." The same thing. The chariot driver, He is the Supersoul. In this body there are two souls. Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. That he's also kṣetrajñā. Kṣetra is this body, and kṣetrajñā one knows, this body.... Just like I know it is my finger. I never say, "I finger." It is my finger. So similarly, the driver also can say, "It is my car," and the proprietor also can say. So two persons, one driver and one passenger, or the proprietor.... And the body is machine. The subjects are there. Why you do not try to understand the subject matter? Then where is your advancement? That is my challenge. Why you are so much proud of your advancement of knowledge. What is this knowledge? Tell me. You are young man. I am giving you the challenge. Either you admit that you are not advanced or make advancement. Why you set aside this difficult subject matter and become proud by making a small machine that you are advanced? Where is your advancement? (Hindi) He is Mr. Bajaj, the proprietor of the Bajaj Electricity.

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Rāmeśvara: ...about chanting.

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Why it is happening? Why we have given everything. Our father, mother, our home, our comforts, our ideas, stereotyped, our religion, culture—everything we have given up. So don't you see the power of chanting? You may think it is bad, but see the power. Similarly, these diseased person, if they chant, it has got power to bring him in the normal condition. The power is there. It is already proved. You say it is brainwash, but the power is there. Reaction is there. That's a fact. You are admitting. So now, whether this reaction is good or bad, that you cannot judge because you are bad. But impersonally, if you judge, you see how the power is, that we were drunkards, we were woman-hunter, we were meat-eaters—we have given up. You cannot give up even smoking cigarette. So just this is the power. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12)." Why don't you take this side? The power is there. The electric power is there, either you use it for heater or for cooler. That is your na... But the power is there. Without this power, it cannot run on, either heater or cooler. Give them this recipe(?). "You have to admit. You are admitting that 'Your Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra working on the brain.' So the power is there. You have admitted."

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: This Doctor Frankenstein, he took dead bodies from the graveyards, and he sewed them together, and then, by electrical energy, it charged...

Prabhupāda: This is imagination.

Rāmeśvara: ...like a battery.

Prabhupāda: "Young Frankenstein." Oh, I have seen that picture. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: But actually people all over the Western world then became convinced that one day science will create life. This popularized the idea.

Prabhupāda: How rascal they have been educated. Mūḍha.

Room Conversation -- January 20, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Indian man (3): (Bengali)

Devotee: It is not the first day that it has happened

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: It is not the first night that it has happened.

Prabhupāda: Daily it is going on? Eh?

Devotee: Last night we had electricity, but the nights before that, we had no electricity.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (end)

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Gargamuni: It makes us serve with great..., more enthusiasm, even the demons.

Prabhupāda: That is the way of electricity. Electricity. Some thunder. That is electricity. The word is used, apratihatā. Pratihata means checking. When your devotional service will make progress in spite of checking, that is pure devotion. Ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati. And that is pure devotion. I was attacked by heart attack thrice. While on the ship, twice.

Gargamuni: On the ship twice? Oh.

Prabhupāda: Consecutively two days, attack. Actually I would have died on the ship before reaching your country. I could not understand that was heart attack. The pain was so severe, I thought, "I am now dying." And it was done two nights. And I was very much afraid whether on the third night, that "If this night also again some pain like that comes, then I'll die." But third night did not pain. It was suspended. It came in New York. And you know it, left side was paralyzed.

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They say that "There is a brain. There is a tissue. There is cerebrum. On account of, they are thinking spiritually. Otherwise if it is cut off, there will be no more opportunity." They'll do that, brain operation. And whatever nonsense they will do, we'll accept.

Gurukṛpā: They have electric.

Satsvarūpa: Electric shock.

Prabhupāda: Dangerous community. These scientists, the so-called, they are dangerous community. Now, if five ounce(?) sight(?) is there, "No, it should be operated. Then he will be cured." And actually it is happening. In the hospitals they make all kinds of experiment, and if you say, "No, why you are doing that? A patient is suffering," "We must execute our science. So long the life is there we shall try to save him." They say like that. They will go on with all nonsense activity, and if you want to stop them, they will say, "No, our science has got so..." They take in writing that "Whatever we shall do, you cannot object," hospital. It is a place of demons. And as soon as they get a patient who will not protest, they'll make it, they'll make it and operation. No medicine, simply operate.

Room Conversation -- February 10, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter.

Bhavānanda: Water will be there, electricity, and clean.

Jayapatākā: So this morning you won't go..., be going on a walk. You're not feeling up to a walk this morning? It affected your kidney or your digestion?

Prabhupāda: That I cannot say. But the foodstuff is not digesting. That can I say. I am not feeling at all appetite.

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda I haven't digested either from yesterday.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā? What is the reason?

Satsvarūpa: I don't know. Eating here was very nice, and now, since yesterday...

Hari-śauri: I digested all mine. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Same digestion. (laughter—break)

Room Conversation -- February 10, 1977, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: It's a very...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just to give them protection. So when we avoid envious persons, that is the injunction of the śāstras. This man wrote to the chief minister or prime minister complaining about them?

Jayapatākā: About his electric connection.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Jayapatākā: That Mahesh Pandit. You're talking about the man of Mahesh Pandit?

Prabhupāda: No, no. This Dāmodara Mahārāja.

Jayapatākā: The chief minister.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Ambitious for Kṛṣṇa, everyone should be ambitious: "How I shall become a great devotee?" That is very good. Yes. Again finger problem. (laughs) So electric is not working? Just see. In the evening, we..., people want light. No light.

Jayapatākā: It works the whole day. Only in the evening it goes off.

Prabhupāda: Whole night also. Only evening, when you require it... (laughter) India's material advancement is artificial. They are not fit for it. In America, so long, no electricity every day? People would become mad. There would have been a revolution. Huh? Is it not?

Hari-śauri: Yes. They had a blackout in New York once for an hour or so.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I know that. I was that time.

Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: Oh, it's guaranteed it will work. The electric supply officer was on a three-day leave, I heard. Therefore he couldn't make the...

Prabhupāda: Connection.

Jayapatākā: ...connection.

Prabhupāda: So be after him. Do it. This is the first business. In Vṛndāvana we have got very good generator. As soon as stops, within a minute we can start generator, very nice.

Jayapatākā: This is the same make.

Prabhupāda: Kirloskar.

Jayapatākā: Yes, only bigger size.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. It is now recognized machine, Kirloskar. Kirloskar, Kirloskar. A Maharathi gentleman. (end)

Morning Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: Steamers and ferries.

Prabhupāda: Yes. At least four steamers always plying from Calcutta to Māyāpur. Therefore I am after that center. It will be middle station. And you can go in this way, Rijay(?), by electricity. Go this side, that side, this side, that side.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone will take those steamers.

Prabhupāda: It will be very nice recreation also, to go by the steamer here, there.

Hari-śauri: Have kīrtana on board...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Hari-śauri: ...lectures...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: The electric cable from the generator, they're putting clamps on the building.

Prabhupāda: Just try to understand how transmigration, that tyaktvā deham. Tathā dehāntara. How dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13) is... He has proposed or desired, "If I could have possessed such body... If I could have gone in heavenly planets... If I could have become tiger..." In this way he's desiring. Hañā māyāra dāsa kari' nānā abhilāṣa. That's all right. Let him work. Otherwise...

Jayapatākā: I can have him do (indistinct), and other system.

Prabhupāda: So māyā means simply you are desiring one after another, one after another, one after another, one after another. Hm? Who will find out this verse? Hañā māyāra dāsa kari' nānā abhilāṣa. Where it is?

Jayapatākā: A song?

Prabhupāda: Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So we're desiring one after, one after, one after, one after... The last desire... Because if you become addicted to certain type of desire, that is prominent at the time of death. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6), sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ. So māyā's machine is immediately prepared. That mind—manaḥ buddhiḥ ahaṅkāra. Subtle. You cannot see. You see the body is burned, finished. Rascal, that is not finished.

Room Conversation -- February 21, 1977, Mayapura:

Bhāgavata: In Satya-yuga or Tretā-yuga they would not drill for petrol to use to make electricity or to make these gas lamps, so by what means did they use to light the palaces and the kingdoms? What was the natural resource utilized for that purpose?

Prabhupāda: This oil. You produce castor seed oil. You grow castor seed by agricultural.

Bhāgavata: Grow cas...?

Prabhupāda: Castor seed.

Bhāgavata: Castor seed.

Prabhupāda: Yes, and you get sufficient oil.

Room Conversation -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Electric? Electricity they supply?

Gargamuni: Yes. They had a loudspeaker next to our stall. So this was hindering the film. And the manager, they wouldn't turn it down, you know, because so many people were being attracted, they wanted to stop us, so I gave some small bribe and made a man climb up and take it down, and now it's all right. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: This is called how to do business, (laughter) natural instinct from his father.

Gargamuni: I had no intelligence till I met you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Yaśomatī-nandana: Even Sanātana Gosvāmī bribed to get out of the...

Prabhupāda: Yes. We can do everything for Kṛṣṇa—for Kṛṣṇa, not for personal sake. So your drama is going on.

Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:

Indian man: Very big family. Karmani Chambers and Karmani. They are making the electrical towers for transmission. All over India, Asia, they are supplying, very big contractor.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Big family. Very wealthy. (break) I was just explaining to Bhavānanda why... (break)

Prabhupāda: Suppose I am a very big business magnate. Next life, if I am going to become a dog—according to my karma, the nature's law will act—then what is benefit? One day before, Indira Gandhi was so important. Next day I'll maybe(?) nowhere, finished. Nobody knows where is Indira Gandhi. Just twenty-four hours she was most prominent woman. And after twenty-four hours nobody cares to look at her. This nature's law, how you can check? This is going on. Any moment, anything can be changed by the laws of nature. So India's importance is there. They know the law. Therefore so long the body, full of intelligence, human body, is there, they'll utilize it very... That is life, not to be carried away by the waves of nature. This is India's duty. So we want to make our institution at least a place for understanding this knowledge.

Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Here is switch for the fan and light.

Indian man: Fan, light, balcony and plug. (discussion by men working on some electrical things)

Prabhupāda: It is settled up now.

Indian man: Yes, sir. He has joined the cabinet.

Prabhupāda: He should be given some position.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: In Manipur also there is rain.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, rained so much. But anyway, the rain stopped in the last few days, so I made a few shows in the village. So they didn't even have electricity, so they hired this generator, and then I showed the white screen, and all the villages, nineteen villages, they came in no time. So I had about nine hundred, nine hundred in two shows. And they wanted to see more, the movies. And then they very appreciated. They wanted to join.

Prabhupāda: So let them join.

Second Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 24, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He's young man. He can work.

Mr. Dwivedi: If tomorrow I'm meeting... Mr. Mondalia(?) is coming tomorrow, and if I can only meet him, then I'm asking him... I think he'll give us a thousand meters of electric wire, another two-three hundred bulbs. So I'll not have to spend anything. Only I have to take it and put things over there.

Prabhupāda: Mondalia knows our movement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which Mondalia are you meeting?

Mr. Dwivedi: D.P. Mondalia, I mean.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: D.P...

Mr. Dwivedi: D.P. Mondalia.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's our good member and everything.

Mr. Dwivedi: Very good man.

Prabhupāda: The son or the father?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All three, the father and S.P., Shanti Praja... He's our member also.

Evening Darsana -- May 14, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: You cannot count how many there are. Now these, some of the jīvas, not all of them... Majority of them, they live in the spiritual world, just like majority of the population of the state, they live outside the prison house. Prison house means some of the citizens who are criminals, they are put into the jail. Similarly, these living entities who are criminals, means who have rebelled against the order of God, they are sent here, in this material world. So they are suffering one term after another. Therefore here is the chance, ayaṁ dehaḥ nṛloke. In the form of human body you can get out of it. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9). This is chance. And therefore Ṛṣabhadeva says, "My dear boys, you don't spoil your life." "I am working and enjoying. I am not spoiling." "No, this kind of working is done by the cats and hogs." Kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye: (SB 5.5.1) "For sense gratification the hogs and dogs, they also work very hard and then enjoy senses. So this body is not meant for that purpose." You are thinking that you are working so hard, karmī, and big, big skyscraper building and nice motorcar, nice roads. Electricity you have discovered.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because there was a wire that was not connected. Then the man came today, and he has connected, and he said, "Now you will have electricity."

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (Hindi conversation)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So then we said, "All right, we also need water." He said, "For that, you will need a separate meter because they, Madana Mohana Goswami, does not want to pay your water costs." Then the man said, "Yes, we can put separate meter. It will take ten days to two weeks."

Guest (3): Oh, yes, you will do it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But it will take some time, they say.

Prabhupāda: So better to arrange.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Better to avoid?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Tap...

Guest (3): For the time being you have water from Kalachand.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gargamuni, Prabhupāda's inquired about Rādhā-Dāmodara. Jayaśacīnandana says he can't work there 'cause there's no electricity.

Rāmeśvara: No, he said he couldn't work there because it was too hot.

Prabhupāda: He could not work there?

Gargamuni: Well, during the day the electricity goes off all over Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So it is not that...

Gargamuni: It is not that he is turning it off.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Once I gave a lecture at Emory University to the scientific community, and I tried to introduce this bhakti-yoga in a scientific language and found it difficult, but I tried to bring the idea by comparing that an electron... In order to study an electron, we actually take advantage of a field where an electric current can be generated. Otherwise the property of electron cannot be studied in a scientific experiment. Similarly, we established that ātmā, being nonphysical and nonchemical, is spiritual and also has personal character. We must take advantage of a personal feature where one can have direct relationship between this individual ātmā, and there should be also a supreme ātmā. And the relationship of the study of this will be the experimental study, and that experiment is bhakti-yoga.

Prabhupāda: I have several times stressed that living being is a sample of God. If you study living being, you understand God.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Actually it's very true and also very scientific to propose this simile because life, being nonmaterial...

Prabhupāda: It is Vedic version. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānṁ. But where is the difference? The difference is that eka is so important that He is the source of everything, and He is maintaining this bahūnām. That is... Both of them, quality, the same. But one is maintaining; others are being maintained. One is predominator; others are predominated. That is the difference. Āśraya, viśaya. So therefore when you come to the āśraya, that is perfection.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Everyone is viśaya, āśraya. Ultimate āśraya is Kṛṣṇa. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). There is no more superior āśraya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can't we say that because the spiritual master is taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa, he is also...

Prabhupāda: Therefore he is āśraya, electrified. Sākṣād-dharitvena samastra-śāstrair uktas tathā bhāvyata eva, kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya. Priya viśaya. Therefore he can act as āśraya. Āśraya laiyā bhaje, kṛṣṇa nāhi tāre tyaje, āra saba more akara. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. Āśraya laiyā bhaje, kṛṣṇa nāhi tāre tyaje, āra saba more akara. Others simply wasting time.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Not vegetable oil.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, no. It's a crude type of oil, brown.

Prabhupāda: Grease.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, it's a grease. It's for burning, though. Eight thousand dollars a month, nine thousand dollars... And that elevator, three thousand dollars.

Prabhupāda: Eleven?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The elevator charge, for the electricity, twenty-five hundred dollars a month. It's not a joke to run a building of that size. That's why in New York to have, own a building in that location they get a very good rent. Every apartment, say, a two and half room apartment, 250, 300 dollars per month.

Prabhupāda: USA.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, so many other things.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who gives them the right to cut the telephone wire? That's criminal. That is against the law of the government. You're cutting government property. That's not our property. Telephone wires, all those things, electric wire.

Prabhupāda: That is purposefully planned.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And how is it that 250 men suddenly were waiting in the bushes?

Prabhupāda: It is all planned.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Bricks and tiles... Local potter can make that round tile. Make a brick that... And you have got bamboo. Take local supply as far as possible.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Only thing is if we put some electricity there. But after this year's crop they're going to do it, because...

Prabhupāda: Government will help you.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Gujarat is very pious.

Prabhupāda: No. It is complete government.(?) Where is that book? Very nicely done.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very nice.

Prabhupāda: Nobody can say it is Indian.

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The Lord's sva-dhāma does not require any sunlight or moonlight or electricity for illumination. That dhāma, or place, is supreme, and whoever goes there never comes back to this material world.

The Vaikuṇṭha planets and the Goloka Vṛndāvana planet are all self-illuminating, and the rays scattered by those sva-dhāma of the Lord constitute the existence of the brahma-jyotir. As further confirmed in the Vedas like the Muṇḍaka (2.2.10), Kaṭha (2.2.15) and Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣads (6.14):

na tatra sūryo bhāti na candra-tārakaṁ

nemā vidyuto bhānti kuto 'yam agniḥ

tam eva bhāntam anu bhāti sarvaṁ

tasya bhāsā sarvam idaṁ vibhāti

In the sva-dhāma of the Lord there is no need of sun, moon or stars for illumination. Nor is there need of electricity, so what to speak of ignited lamps? On the other hand, it is because those planets are self-illuminating that all effulgence has become possible, and whatever there is that is dazzling is due to the reflection of that sva-dhāma.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So the place is cleansed or not?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. Place is... They are still putting the electrical wires. But otherwise, we have decorated the inside with curtains, so everything will be nice also. We're cleaning the other hall for serving the prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And all of the guesthouse rooms, Śrīla Prabhupāda, have been vacated for the scientists. The whole guesthouse is ready to receive them, and all the rooms have been cleansed freshly. It's ready for them. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja is here, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Do you know about the conference?

Kīrtanānanda: About what?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: About the conference.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So cooperate.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Six hundred and fifty?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Half. It's thirteen hundred total. This is for permanent connection of electricity. The flat never has had a permanent connection. The whole building is not permanent. It's a temporary line. So all the...

Prabhupāda: Yearly?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no. Once and for all. It's a permanent installation of a permanent line. The yearly electricity bill he'll pay. That's his business. Then he seems to want to repay this amount that we're giving from the postal receipts. So I have no objection. If he repays, then we'll simply follow the original scheme and divide it up accordingly. Or he can divide it up. I don't know why he wants to pay it back. I don't know. I've explained to him that it's a donation. But anyway, it's better he pays it back, and then we can give it to each of the persons involved. I don't think there's any need of taking any loan agreement or anything, is there? Is there any need?

Prabhupāda: I don't think so.

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayādvaita: These vehicles can supply electricity so that when you stop...

Prabhupāda: Purchase at least four vehicles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Four what, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: At least four vehicles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Purchase at least four vehicles. Right. I think some scientist should also come with us, Śrīla Prabhupāda (laughter), in case we meet anyone very intelligent, we need a scientific mind to defeat them. So Svarūpa Dāmodara can come with us?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Girirāja: And someone to make members (laughter), in case we meet any rich people.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Girirāja is requesting to come, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Is it all right?

Prabhupāda: By managing you can come, everyone.