Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Exactly (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"Exactly"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: exactly not "exactly like" not "not exactly"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Bhavānanda: Engineering. To keep people going in single file.

Jayapatāka: There's no other door like this exactly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In India. It's the only one in India.

Bhavānanda: Otherwise the people come and crowd up at the exit, and then, when we open it up, everyone falls down.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is.... (break) ...place to be utilized?

Bhavānanda: This will be playpen. This will be for the children, the little children to stay.

Prabhupāda: Oh? Why?

Bhavānanda: So many times there are always little babies. Their mothers are working, and they get into trouble, so this will be a nice area for them to play around in.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...abide by these rules?

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning?

Jagadīśa: There is no meaning.

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning?

Jagadīśa: It's just evolution. There's no meaning. What's the meaning?

Prabhupāda: I do not follow what is the meaning. The sun is rising half past six, exactly at the time. So there is no meaning?

Jagadīśa: We can't tell what the meaning is.

Prabhupāda: That is... Because you are rascal, you do not know. You learn it. One who knows the meaning. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). You are fool, rascal. How can you know the meaning? You must have to go to the real person.

Jagadīśa: Who knows?

Prabhupāda: Guru. Therefore we go to guru. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). One who is actually serious about inquiring, he must go. Guruṁ prapadyeta. Must surrender to guru.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Kaniṣṭha-adhikārī. They are not devotees, but they are called bhaktābhāsa. There is some signs of bhakti. Actually they are not bhakta. Bhaktābhāsa. Ābhāsa. Ābhāsa means a simple, a little light.

Hṛdayānanda: So devotee really means one who has love for Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes, unalloyed, without any condition. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11), zero, all other, that "I am this, I am that, I am jñānī, I am yogi, I am karmī, I am minister, I am king"—all these are thinking like that, they're all nonsense. "I am servant of Kṛṣṇa"—that is greatness. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). That is self-realization, ātma-tattvam.

Dayānanda: So because that person is very rare, then, I guess, the only way we can possibly know how to become like that is to find one pure devotee and exactly follow that way of Kṛṣṇa consciousness that he has.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dayānanda: I mean to say that because a pure devotee is so rare, the only way must be to find out a pure devotee and exactly follow.

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At twelve!

Prabhupāda: Twelve years. And she was given to a boy, my brother-in-law, for the second marriage. Means that my brother-in-law lost his first wife, and still, he was twenty-one years old. My sister was twelve years old and brother-in-law was twenty-one. In the śāstra... I do not know exactly what is that śāstra, but they say that if the girl before marriage has menstruation, then the father has to eat that menstrual liquid. Means it is, mean, very strict. And if the father is not living, then the elder brother has to eat. (break) ...ty of getting the girl married rests on the father. In the absence of the father, the eldest brother. The girl must be married. That is it. It is called dāya, kanyā-dāya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dāya.

Prabhupāda: Dāya. Dāya means legally inheritance. That is called dāya. Just like your father's money you get automatically. So similarly, kanyā-dāya means to get the girl married is a dāya. You cannot refuse it. It is incumbent, you must do it.

Morning Walk -- March 1, 1976, Mayapur:

Hṛdayānanda: That's exactly what's happening.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And if you ask, they will say, "That we do not know." So why you are taking money? Exactly they say so. Our Svarūpa Dāmodara challenged that professor who came to lecture in California University. He challenged, "If I give you chemicals, can you produce life?" He said, "That I cannot say."

Kirtirāja: "We are trying," they said.

Prabhupāda: Then why you are, you are bluffing and taking money from us? You do not know. (break) I'll have to go to you, and both of them, I'll have to... The Marwari this... Gujaratis, they use too much oil. Similarly Bengalis, too much oil. Imli, imli water?

Indian devotee (1): Yes, and chili.

Prabhupāda: And chili. That's all.

Indian devotee (1): Actually, Prabhupāda, in Jaipuriya, when they invited us, when we were in Kanpur, all the devotees, for three days we were eating very simple food, but the devotees liked so much. They were eating lots.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Jaipuriya invite them?

Indian devotee (1): Yeah, Jaipuriya, yeah, when we were in Kanpur.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So our Bhāgavata says the whole planetary system is moving like this.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Centering the polestar.

Jayapatākā: They admit that there's some center of the universe. Everything is going around that, including the sun. But they don't know exactly where it is.

Prabhupāda: That is polestar.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, that's admitted, that the polestar, the stars are revolving around, everything. They take photographs.

Pañca-draviḍa: What?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Of the.... Everything revolving around the polestar, the constellations.

Gurudāsa: Are the moon's phases due to the planet Rāhu, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Gurudāsa: Are the moon's phases due to the planet Rāhu?

Prabhupāda: Space?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The phases of the moon-quarter moon, half moon, full moon.

Gurudāsa: Waxing and the waning of the moon.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Reporter (1): Which particular teachings you think can purify a man? Because you said the salvation lies in practical teachings of Gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You have to revive your consciousness that you are part and parcel of God. And the part and parcel of God means to serve God. Just like this finger is part and parcel of my body, but it is meant for serving my body. I ask the finger, "Come here"; it is serving me. "Come here"; it is scratching. "Pick up the food. Give it to me"; he is giving it. This is business of the finger. If the finger cannot carry out my order, then it is diseased. And if he immediately carries out order, then it is healthy. Similarly, we being part and parcel of God, we must be ready to give service immediately. Then it is healthy condition. And if we do not, then it is māyā. We are serving. You are serving. Everyone is serving, because our constitution is to serve. Big, big leaders, they are also serving. Anyone you can see. The sun, he is serving. Exactly in the time it is rising by the order of God. Exactly in time it is setting. So everyone is serving. Ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa āra saba bhṛtya: (CC Adi 5.142) "Only master is God, and everyone is His servant." But the diseased condition is that when we do not serve God, we serve something else, māyā, and that is diseased condition.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Reporter (2): Are these bad conditions or ailments not part and parcel of God?

Prabhupāda: Yes. But you are suffering. You should admit. Just like a prison department is part and parcel of the government. But who is in the prison, he is suffering.

Reporter (2): That's a very good answer. That's a wonderful answer.

Reporter (3): Your Divine Grace, would your message be exactly the same for, say, a starving man in India and a Westerner who's got everything that a person needs?

Prabhupāda: We say that not only in India, everyone, you'll starve, because you are rebellious to God consciousness. You must starve. That is the punishment. Just like anyone who is a criminal, he must be punished. That is the law of nature.

Reporter (3): So by that, I suppose one would presume that people in India have been most rebellious to God.

Prabhupāda: Why India? Everywhere. Why you speak India?

Reporter (3): Because...

Prabhupāda: When you speak of God, don't take India, or America or Europe. Everywhere.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Indian Devotee: May I interrupt? What Swami has described in all the books—as it exists, no further contribution, no amendment, no interpretation. He has described all what has been written in Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, in its truest form. So no imitation, no representation, no interpretation. Swamiji has described exactly as it happened.

Prabhupāda: And that is being appreciated all over the world.

Devotee: All over the world that is being appreciated.

Reporter (1): Swamiji, could you please throw light on your four-point regulation which you suggest to your disciples?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is pious life. No illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, and no gambling.

Reporter (1): No?

Prabhupāda: Gambling. These are the four pillars of sinful life. So if we want to know God, we must be free from sinful life. This is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Morning Walk Excerpt -- April 2, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is distance for you, not for them. Just like a small ant. It goes from here to here. It is a great, three hundred miles, but for you, one step. Why do you study Kṛṣṇa like you? Why do you think that Kṛṣṇa was like you? Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Kṛṣṇa can do anything, so His associates.

Pañca-draviḍa: In the Upadeśāmṛta, in the translation you refer to this, the līlā-aṣṭa...

Tripurāri: Aṣṭakāla-līlā.

Pañca-draviḍa: Aṣṭakāla-līlā. What is that exactly? Eightfold līlā or some...?

Prabhupāda: Eightfold, but..., eight grahas.

Gurudāsa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? So the timings are.... At new Govinda temple the...

Prabhupāda: New Govinda temple?

Gurudāsa: New Govinda and old Govinda, both. Starting at 7:30 is the dhūpa-ārati, and then, nine o'clock, is another ārati, then the rāja-bhoga ārati is at 11:30. Gopīnātha's temple is staggered, a little after 7:30, and the Rādhā-ramaṇa temple is 8:30. So they stagger like that. So the next ārati will be 7:30.

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya, jaya. This is the difference: he is living here nine years, he does not. And here, cultivator, he knows how to offer obeisances. Where he is living?

Jayadvaita: I'm not sure exactly. I met him on Gopīnath Bazaar. He's living with some gentleman. He said that he came to Vṛndāvana nine years ago and he met this gentleman and took up studying with him. And he's reading all Vedic books, Atharva Veda, Yajur Veda, like that, but he doesn't know...

Prabhupāda: What is God.

Madhudviṣa: Has he seen our books?

Prabhupāda: How he is wasting his time.

Jayadvaita: Yes.

Lokanātha: Vedeṣu durlābhaṁ.

Prabhupāda: Adurlabham ātma-bhaktau. If he would have approached a devotee, he'd have known this long ago. That man must be Māyāvādī, with whom he is associating.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Hari-śauri: It would have remained theoretical. But because you came and showed practical example, then everything has become very easy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Āpani ācārī prabhu jīvera śikṣāya. That is the way of teaching. Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to do.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I've read some of your old Back to Godhead magazines, and actually you've been saying the same thing all along, with the same force also. Some of your critiques of Dr. Radhakrishna's Bhagavad-gītā and modern science...

Prabhupāda: You have read?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: "Scholars Deluded."

Hari-śauri: Sometimes the devotees say that "Now Prabhupāda is preaching much more strongly than ever before." But then, when we read the old Back to Godheads, it's exactly the same.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even if we read the First Canto of Bhāgavatam... You translated that in India before you came. It's so powerful. (end)

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Chastity is being followed?

Guest (3): Yes. The church teaches it, and people who do not obey it are bringing condemnation upon themselves.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is my injunct..., that if.... The commandment is that women should be chaste.

Guest (3): Exactly.

Prabhupāda: And you should not kill. But all the Christians are killing.

Guest (3): Well...

Prabhupāda: And it is very hard to find out a woman chaste.

Guest (3): That's true.

Prabhupāda: Then where is Christian?

Guest (3): Well, see, this is the great thing of the atonement. See, when Christ suffered the sins of the world on Gethsemane...

Prabhupāda: So why for your sin Christ should suffer?

Guest (3): Christ suffered for my sins.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: So then where is Christian?

Guest (3): Well, the Christian world that the majority of the people think is...

Prabhupāda: Majority is not the calculation. Minority. If one person carries out the order of Christ, then he is Christian.

Guest (3): Exactly.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise they are not Christians.

Guest (3): That's right. But I just wanted to say one thing...

Prabhupāda: Our principle is that if one person carries out the order of God, he is actually the prophet. If he does not carry out—simply by dress he is prophet—it is useless.

Guest (3): I see. All right. We have a little different feeling about that.

Prabhupāda: Why it should be different?

Guest (3): Well, we would...

Prabhupāda: If you (are) actually the servant of God, you must carry out the orders of God. There cannot be difference. If there is difference, that means you are no longer servant of God.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: That is perfection of life. But if we don't do that, then we are going again to the evolutionary process...

Guest (4): That's right.

Prabhupāda: ...of birth and death. It will depend on my action.

Guest (3): Exactly. Will you agree with this point, that we are not perfect?

Prabhupāda: Well, anyone who follows the order of God, he is perfect. Otherwise all are...

Guest (3): Can you be completely perfect and follow the orders perfectly?

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not? Just like what is the order of God? God wants that "You shall always think of Me, 'The God is my Supreme Father.' " So what is the difficulty? Now, if you think, "God is the Supreme. God is the Supreme Father," if you think like that, where is the difficulty?

Guest (4): We believe that God is Supreme, He is like you say. But we believe we are constantly striving to become perfect, every day.

Prabhupāda: No, why constantly striving? God says that "You think of Me." So where is my difficulty to think of Him unless I am disobedient? I can think of God always. There is no difficulty. There is no expenditure. There is no disadvantage. But if I am rascal, I'll disobey. That is the.... If I am rascal, then I will disobey. I will not think of God. I'll think of something else.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: That is more explicitly explained, as I was explaining, that you feel the presence of God every time, as in the Bhagavad-gītā is said that when you are drinking water you immediately glorify God, "Oh, God has created this water so tasteful. It is quenching my thirst."

Guest (2): Exactly.

Prabhupāda: How it is easy?

Guest (2): Could I read you something out of that?

Prabhupāda: No, no, I can understand. The things are all right. Things are all right.

Guest (2): It's on the other side of the page and it talks about that.

Prabhupāda: But I am giving you the process. You have written, "the glory of God," and I am giving you the process how to glorify God.

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:

Devotee (1): So if we're performing the Deity worship and we get in anxiety, how to make it nice...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is Kṛṣṇa anxiety. That is Kṛṣṇa anxiety. If you become anxious how to worship Deity, how to dress Kṛṣṇa nicely, how to do, if you remain, that will develop your anxiety for Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Deity worship essential. Exactly in time to get up, to offer maṅgala-ārati, to dress, this anxiety is the beginning of Kṛṣṇa anxiety. Then, when you become perfect, you'll always be anxious for Kṛṣṇa. And that is perfectional stage. Therefore, by the injunction of the śāstra, regulative, it is a way of creating that anxiety. So we must follow. Then we'll come to the real anxiety.

Guru-kṛpā: Not artificially.

Devotee (1): So therefore it is good that we have so much Deity worship to do that we're very, very busy and we do not have any time?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee (1): We practically do not have enough time, but that is very good?

Prabhupāda: Enough time?

Devotee (1): To worship the Deity. We have so much to do.

Prabhupāda: So what enough time you want? To go to the cinema? (laughter) Then? Your time has to be occupied by Kṛṣṇa anxiety. That's all. And as soon as you go to other anxiety, then it is māyā.

Room Conversation -- May 1, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: ...The Lord then said, (Hindi:) ...bhagavān diya(?). This.... (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke (BG 15.7). 15.7.

Guru-kṛpā: "The living entities in this conditional world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind."

Prabhupāda: So with this instrument he's manipulating this machine, as exactly the pilot, with so many electronics, machine, he's working the flying of the plane. Where is the difficulty to understand? And this is, body is a machine. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhū.... Bhrāmayan, wandering. The aeroplane is wandering. This machine is wandering. It is also going. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ. Sometimes up, sometimes down. Huh? Find out this. (devotees look for verse) Same aeroplane, going up and down. Two wings, this hand, like this.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: So how nature is working, he does not know. Then his knowledge is imperfect. Nature is working how, that we know. That is very sober understanding. We say that nature is working under the superintendence of Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Nature.... We see nature. Generally we have got idea of the material nature, that the sun is one of the part and parcel of nature's working. The moon is also, the seasonal changes. So many things, nature is working very systematically. The summer season will appear exactly in the month of June and July. The fall begins in September every year. One can foretell that "Next September this will happen," because nature's routine is very fixed up. So this systematic work of nature, how it is possible if there is no supervision?

Guru-kṛpā: What they do is they just take it for granted because it's happening so regularly.

Prabhupāda: So that means you have to accept it—there is superior administration. You may not know what is that administration, but you have to accept it. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says, "Under My supervision." Here those who are in the gross ignorance, not intelligent, they can suggest that there is some brain, just like Professor Einstein used to say. But he has no knowledge who is that brain, and we have that knowledge, who is that brain. That brain is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore our knowledge is perfect. They can simply suggest that "There is a brain," but we can say, "Here is the brain." Then it is.... If one knows whose brain it is, that is perfect knowledge.

Room Conversation -- May 3, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Guru-kṛpā: Polished dogs.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Actual modernized means how far you have advanced in spiritual consciousness. That is wanted. (drinks or eats) It does not taste exactly dahl, I think, due to the new (indistinct) water in it. So is there any engagement? Somebody was to come.

Guru-kṛpā: Was to come, but...

Prabhupāda: He is not coming. Who is not modernized? They will go to the dancing party for their salvation. (laughter) Dog dancing.

Guru-kṛpā: Today is Sunday. Everyone is busy with their family, family, society.

Prabhupāda: You know this Ravi Shankar?

Guru-kṛpā: Umm hmm.

Prabhupāda: His elder brother, Udar Shankar, he became very famous man as a dancer, all over the world. Udar Shankar. And by imitating his brother, the Ravi Shankar also tried to become first-class sitarist. So family.... (break) ...was a little famous for artistic.... So that Udar Shankar was dancing in the Indian way, and there are many sculpture of dancing. Like that. That was his art. So he became famous.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: To remain alone is risky. (pause) Now China wants to control India.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And also Russia.

Prabhupāda: Also Russia. China would have attacked, they once attempted, American equipment. They are thinking, that because the officers are corrupt, the people are dissatisfied and if we go, they will welcome.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Exactly correct. Oh yes, it's a perfect analysis.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They believe that the... Of course it's a fact, the leaders are very corrupt, but the people want the change, that's what they believe. "And if we go, the people will work with us and overthrow this government and establish a true communistic government, a government for all the benefit the people." That's their idea. They feel that way about the whole world, the Chinese. They feel in America also—of course that's nonsense—but they think like that. That in America there is a huge working class and the working class are feeling oppressed. But that's nonsense.

Prabhupāda: I think American working class are paid more than any country.

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But he didn't go to the bar. The way he drank wine was in a sacrifice. You're drinking in a bar. So anyway, we should tell them, if you...

Prabhupāda: Jesus drank wine, but nobody said Jesus is a drunkard.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Drunkard, exactly. And you can also, when you can do all the things that he did, then you can also drink wine.

Prabhupāda: No, Jesus was crucified, I shall crucify you. Come on. You're so pious that now you prepare to be crucified. Come on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And you forgive me for doing it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. You take my sins and be crucified. Then I shall know that you are real (unclear). Take all my sins and I crucify you.

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Trivikrama: The bad way is also the mercy of the Lord to help us realize that...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Bad way, good way, man proposes, God disposes. You want something, bad or good.... Actually, everything is bad. This body or the fish's body or the dog's body, that is all material body. So everything is bad. But I prefer to get the body of a human being or a dog or a fish or a bird. That is my choice. So God gives you that body. Everywhere God's mercy is there, because whatever you want, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). In the material world, you have come to enjoy. You cannot enjoy. You are thinking.... Just like child. He's playing with something for sometime, again taking another thing, again taking another thing, childish. So similarly we want to enjoy this material world. Sometimes I am thinking it will be convenient if I get a man's body, it will be convenient if I get a tiger's body, it will be convenient if I get a fish's body. So God is supplying you: "All right, you take this body." So what is God's fault? He is very kind. You wanted to do something. Do it. Not only that, if he forgets that "I wanted the fish body, now how I have got it?" No, he forgets that he wanted it. So God reminds him that "You wanted this body; you have got this body." Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). So God is very kind in all circumstances. Now we proposing to enjoy this material world under different situations, and God is helping us. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). You want to wander within this material world. That is your proposal. So, in order to enjoy this material world, you require different types of body. Just like they are trying to go to the moon planet. It requires a different body. So yānti deva-vratā devān: (BG 9.25) this life, you aspire of going to the moon planet; next life, automatically you will go there. Why you are trying unnecessarily to go to the moon planet by sputnik? You'll go there. You just always think of the moon and you'll go to the moon. It is simple process. And by this way, you cannot go. Now, exactly in the same way that you get the body of a fish and you very easily, whole day and night, for so many years, you jump over in the sea. So moon planet is one of the heavenly planets. There is process how to go to moon planet. In the Bhāgavata it is stated. Those who are karma-kāṇḍīya, very, discharging the Vedic ritualistic ceremony, karma-kāṇḍa, they can go to the moon planet or sun planet. There are millions and trillions of planets they can go. Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ (BG 9.25). The same thing. Suppose if you want to go to India, you prepare yourself, take the visa, the permit, the passport and necessary money and permission, so many things. You go there.

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What you have done, you are put into prison?

Arnold Weiss: No, but what have we done to make ourselves criminals? What criminal acts have we performed?

Prabhupāda: That you might have forgotten. Because your nature is to forget, you cannot immediately remember what you are doing exactly this time yesterday. That is your... You have forgotten, but suppose you, without any knowledge, you do something criminal. So you must be punished. You may not know. You cannot say in the court that "I did not know by committing this act I'll be punished." So you know or not know. You have done it; you must be punished. You may not know what you have done, but that does not mean you can avoid punishment.

Arnold Weiss: I understand that. It sounds reasonable to me. When we do this act for which we are punished, is it done in this life or done in some prior life?

Prabhupāda: This life or prior life, because you are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). You are eternal.

Arnold Weiss: Would the prior life have to be an animal life?

Prabhupāda: Yes, might be.

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

rabhupāda: You are reading the transcription or original verse?

Hṛdayānanda: Transcription.

Prabhupāda: So this transcription is quite helpful in pronunciation, everything. Exact it is coming. The diacritic marks follow, you can pronounce exactly. Then?

Hṛdayānanda:

nāhaṁ bibhemy ajita te 'tibhayānakāsya-
jihvārka-netra-bhrukuṭī-rabhasogra-daṁṣṭrāt
āntra-srajaḥ-kṣataja-keśara-śaṅku-karṇān
nirhrāda-bhīta-digibhād ari-bhin-nakhāgrāt

"My Lord, who are never conquered by anyone, I am certainly not afraid of Your ferocious mouth and tongue, Your eyes bright like the sun, or Your frowning eyebrows. I do not fear Your sharp, pinching teeth, Your garland of intestines, Your mane soaked with blood, or Your high, wedgelike ears. Nor do I fear Your tumultuous roaring, which makes elephants flee to distant places, or Your nails, which are meant to kill Your enemies."

Prabhupāda: Now he'll come to the point in which he's afraid of.

Interview with Jackie Vaughn (Black Congressman) -- July 12, 1976, Detroit:

Jackie Vaughn: Each year it mounts.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jackie Vaughn: It's getting larger and larger, almost impossible to solve.

Prabhupāda: Exactly, yes.

Jackie Vaughn: Each year we say, "This year is worse than any year in the history."

Prabhupāda: See, this is the experienced government officer's statement. Therefore the word is used, duratyayā. What is the meaning of duratyayā?

Hari-śauri: Very difficult to overcome.

Jackie Vaughn: I submit I contribute to that delinquency. I help them, every day, trying to find answers, always of a temporary nature.

Prabhupāda: So you kindly give little attention to this movement. It will solve all the problems. You have read some of our books? No.

Jackie Vaughn: Yes.

Room Conversation with Mother and Sons -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

rabhupāda: Because they are spiritually enlightened. That is the cause of brightness. And materially involved-moroseness. Because it is ignorance. Material life means life of ignorance. And spiritual life means life of enlightenment. That is the difference. Material life is called tamas. Tamas means darkness. Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya. This is the Vedic mantra. Don't remain in darkness. But people cannot understand. "I am living in the light. Why I'm darkness?" Darkness means without any spiritual enlightenment. That is darkness. So the Vedic injunction is "Don't remain in darkness. Come to the light." The light is my spiritual life, and material life means darkness. Because he does not know what is going to happen next. You are under the laws of material nature. The nature will act according to the association you make, exactly. You do not know that you are infecting some contagious disease. You may not know it, but it will act. In due course of time, you'll develop that disease and suffer. Similarly, without knowledge, in ignorance, imperceptibly we are associating with a certain law of nature, and we shall be victimized.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: What price they want for this island?

Mādhavānanda: Very large amount.

Rakṣaṇa: We can have a Māyāpur complex and a Detroit complex.

Mādhavānanda: I don't know exactly. (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...Sundays ago, one Indian man asked after the Sunday lecture why does Kṛṣṇa like a peacock feather, or why does Kṛṣṇa have a peacock feather? So Mādhavānanda answered, "Because He likes it." And the man said, "This is not an answer. There has to be some reason." So then I said, "You cannot question why Kṛṣṇa likes something. He's a person." But he wasn't satisfied.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is God; whatever He likes, you have to supply. That is God. Why He likes, we cannot question. That is not the business of the servant. So as servant we simply obey the orders. That's all. That is real servant. Is there any instance the servant is asking, "Why you are asking me to supply you this?" Therefore what would be the position of the servant? He would be dismissed. Bhṛtyaś cottara-dāyakaḥ. That is very dangerous.

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Yes. People are coming. Yesterday many gentlemen. Gradually you purchase that side land.

Mādhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we had so many people yesterday. We had about two hundred people in the temple room and three hundred people outside waiting in line for prasāda.

Satsvarūpa: They were all wandering around the grounds. It was very pleasant. So many people taking here and there, preaching.

Prabhupāda: That house is exactly suitable for our purpose in every way. It was Kṛṣṇa's desire.

Hari-śauri: Even the people that passed on the boat stopped. We preached to them as well.

Mādhavānanda: I was thinking, Śrīla Prabhupāda, it would be nice to have dioramas.

Prabhupāda: First of all, give some signboard.

Mādhavānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Then dioramas.

Mādhavānanda: All right. (end)

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is practical training. That is wanted. Simply theoretical knowledge.... That is helpful, but training, that is the greatest need, that we have to create a set of first-class men. Then the world will be all right. That is an attempt of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, to make first class, ideal. Why they'll be attracted? They are seeing that "The priests are doing the same thing as we are doing." So how they will be attracted? Therefore Christianity is failing. They are also having the meat, illicit sex, drunkard, and they're priest.

Hari-śauri: They've watered down so much, there's no value left to what they're doing. They're exactly the same as a man in the street, except he says he believes in God and the man on the street says he doesn't believe. And they have no ability to convince a man that God exists. They have no scientific knowledge or whatever.

Prabhupāda: Simply by the position: "I am Cardinal," "I am Pope," "I am priest," "I am that." How long it will go on?

Hari-śauri: It's not going on very much longer anyway, there's so many, it's falling apart. There's so many branches, just the fact that there's so many divisions now of Christianity, that this man was speaking about this charismatic movement. Now this is the young people. They're feeling a need for God, so they're trying to express it through another concocted form of Christianity. But that will also be a failure.

Prabhupāda: Let us try honestly, that's all.

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: ...who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious. That has been published. (laughter) You have seen it?

Viśvakarmā: Which paper was that?

Devotees: Los Angeles Times. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...question? Tell it.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The reply to..., I don't exactly know the question, the reply was that...

Hari-śauri: The question was what was Prabhupāda's opinion about other gurus, like Guru Maharaj-ji and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So Prabhupāda replied that "We are not interested in so-called other gurus. Simply we know this, that Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that persons who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, they're either foolish, miscreants, sinful, lowest amongst mankind, or their knowledge is stolen by illusion." Unquote.

Prabhupāda: General definition.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The Los Angeles Times has a circulation of one and a half million daily. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...recently I said all these so-called gurus are either rascals, miscreant, lowest of the mankind, or they have no knowledge. Not directly, indirectly.

Conversation in Airport and Car -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: One thing you have missed: how we are preparing all these foodstuffs.

Kīrtanānanda: It was too short. In the movie? It was too short how to prepare it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. How from milk in different stages you get this foodstuff, kacuris, śṛṅgāra,(?) sandeśa, rābṛi. And this chānā, if fried, if you prepare nicely with little hing and ginger, then it will exactly taste like meat. They'll forget. If you give them without telling them, they will think that they're eating meat.

Kīrtanānanda: Hing and what? Prepare with hing and?

Prabhupāda: Ginger.

Kīrtanānanda: Ginger.

Prabhupāda: They prepare the semiliquid meat like that. You give them little piece and they will not understand that it is not meat.

Hari-śauri: When we were in Los Angeles, Pālikā made some baṛā and it tasted... Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja wouldn't eat it. He said it tasted too much like fish.

Prabhupāda: With urad ḍāl, you can prepare fishy taste.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: (break) ...woods around here.

Prabhupāda: Why it is there is no fog here? Due to the trees? It is clear.

Kīrtanānanda: There's a river up that way, and I think there's more fog up that—it's always like that, I don't know exactly why. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...in the jungle?

Kīrtanānanda: Deer.

Prabhupāda: Deer only.

Kīrtanānanda: Few fox.

Prabhupāda: Fox also. And fox, they come to our temple?

Kīrtanānanda: No.

Prabhupāda: No. Fox, they eat men? No.

Kīrtanānanda: Not usually. Only if they get sick, rabies, then they'll attack. They eat rabbits and rodents.

Prabhupāda: Deer also?

Kīrtanānanda: Deer are vegetarian, they eat grain.

Prabhupāda: No.

Prabhupada Inspects New BTG -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

eporter: "So if we don't choose our leaders by popular election, how will society be governed?"

Prabhupāda: "You require brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras. Just as when you want to construct a building you require engineers. You don't want sweepers. Isn't that so? What will the sweeper do? No. There must be engineers. So if you follow the division of varṇāśrama, only kṣatriyas are allowed to govern. And for the legislative assembly, the senators, only qualified brāhmaṇas. Now the butcher is in the legislative assembly. What does he know about making laws? He is a butcher. But by winning votes he becomes a senator. At the present moment, by the principle of vox populi, a butcher goes to the legislature. So everything depends on training. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness society we are actually doing that. But in the case of politics they forget it. There cannot be just one class. That is foolishness. Because we have to engage different classes of men in different activities. If we do not know the art then we will fail, because unless there is a division of work there will be havoc. We have discussed all the responsibilities of the king in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The different classes in society should cooperate exactly as the different parts of the body do. Although each part is meant for a different purpose, they all work for one cause, to maintain the body properly."

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

Prabhupāda: In the, is the,... There is... What are you finding?

Hari-śauri: I'll look it up in the Sanskrit index.

Prabhupāda: What is the śloka? The śloka I do not remember exactly, but there is continuation. You read the whole thing. What is that chapter?

Hari-śauri: This is Chapter Two.

Prabhupāda: Begin it.

Hari-śauri: Start at the beginning of the chapter?

Prabhupāda: Um, hm.

Hari-śauri: "Seeing Arjuna full of compassion and very sorrowful, his eyes brimming with tears, Madhusūdana, Kṛṣṇa, spoke the following words."

Prabhupāda: One translation of every verse, go on, read.

Room Conversation After Film -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Your Back to Godhead article in this last magazine, "They can make a 747 jet, but not a tiny mosquito." Very thought-provoking.

Prabhupāda: With pilot. 747, you have to pay expert pilot, but here with pilot. Make this. Simply talking. Not only mosquito: at night we see so many, just like full stop, the same mechanical, flying from here, there, from here moving. Airplane, exactly in the form of... Similarly standing and... That is our challenge. Challenge this. Go in public meeting. Bring these so-called scientists, "Why don't you make any...? Why do you talk all this nonsense and cheat people?" Simple. Why first of all Sunday? There is no Monday first. I think never this question's raised, anybody. Fool's paradise. The Western world is fool's paradise. Actually this is the time they are getting enlightenment. Otherwise they are all fool's paradise. No social life, no religious life, simply get money somehow or other and enjoy wine, women, meat. That's all. This is their civilization. Do live comfortably; there is no harm. But why misconception?

Hari-śauri: At least be honest.

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

Prabhupāda: It's taking place in this way, that's all. That much you can say. You cannot actually analyze a particular body, what percentage of this or... That's impossible.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Actually, we are not analyzing, but we're just giving this by seeing from practical example.

Prabhupāda: That is already there, one life after another. That is already there by superior arrangement. Very fine arrangement, exactly to the percentage of different qualities, the body is already there. Simply the soul has to be put into that body by superior arrangement. Say, first-class passenger, what does he require? The apartment is already made by expert, what is needed for a first-class passenger?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He needs some more money. He must be rich to get a first-class apartment.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but so far arrangement, just like Western hotels, everything is so complete. They know what a first-class man wants. So expert. They have already made. You don't require to say anything, that "I want..." So complete. But the steps are already mentioned. Aquatics, then plants, vegetation, then insects, reptiles, then birds, then beasts.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Material father is not material. Real father is Kṛṣṇa. He may come in so many ways.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The thing is that the scientists may isolate some cockroaches in a box, and they will watch the cockroaches secrete eggs and this or that or whatever—I don't know exactly how the cockroaches...

Prabhupāda: Not, give up cockroach. There are many other living entities, they come from perspiration. Take for..., bugs. Bugs, they come from perspiration. Many, many come by fermentation.

Hari-śauri: Yes, but it seems that form of the bug must come from the form of another bug.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: So it's very difficult to understand how it comes from perspiration.

Prabhupāda: The form is coming directly. Why from another? The form is, the birth is coming directly.

Hari-śauri: From the perspiration.

Prabhupāda: And those who are coming, they will take that form, buglike form, and drink blood. That is all destined.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: (Sanskrit) Serpent is dangerous, so long he has got the fangs. (indistinct) If the fang is taken away that means he's no more dangerous. So (indistinct). But if I am sure that his fangs are taken away (indistinct). Senses are dangerous, it is compared with the serpent. (Sanskrit) But if you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness that (Sanskrit) the fangs are no more existing therefore it is no more dangerous.

Devotee: Is it true or not true that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta said that failure is the pillar of success and (indistinct)?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I don't know exactly if Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda has used this saying....

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Failure is the pillar of success. But generally speaking, to paraphrase it, it means that we should learn from our mistakes.

Prabhupāda: Hm. That is success. If we learn our failure and try to rectify it, that is (indistinct).

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Devotee: It is explained that the intelligence is the next door neighbor of the soul, can you explain exactly what that means, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: So what is his question?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: His question is that the intelligence, sometimes you've gone like this, I've seen, you say that the soul and the intelligence are like that, that the intelligence is very close to the soul.

Guest: (indistinct) the relationship between the intelligence, working in the soul.

Prabhupāda: Soul is above intelligence. This is the relationship. Intelligence is above the mind, and soul is above the intelligence. Senses, then mind, then intelligence, then the soul.

Devotee: (indistinct) matter.

Prabhupāda: Yeah, subtle (?) matter (indistinct).

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur (BG 3.42).

Prabhupāda: Oh, indriyāṇi parāny āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42).

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Manasas tu parā buddhir yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ.

Prabhupāda: So when you engage yourself in soul's activities, then gradually your intelligence, mind, senses, become spiritualized, or original. Then material activities stop. At the present moment without (indistinct) spiritually (indistinct) we are acting on the platform of gross senses. But if we begin our activities from the opposite side, from soul side, then everything becomes spiritualized. But the question of giving up the senses, no, it has to be purified. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). Senses (indistinct) it should be purified. At the present moment, on account of material conception of life everything is polluted with material ideas. So when it will be spiritualised, that is perfect. But instead of working uselessly, if we use our legs for going to the temple then it is spiritualized work.

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

Prabhupāda: He's not here.

Vṛṣākapi: They went to the Library of Congress today, Prabhupāda. They aren't here right now.

Bill Sauer: I think you put it better than I did. We do not destroy matter, we transmute it to energy, that's exactly correct. And it is the..., and in fire you are again transmuting material chemical energy into light. And when our light source goes out...

Dr. Sharma: And it surprising, I'm a scientist, I publish papers, now it is all coming together. It is after a long search which we are doing, the body systems, how to be coordinated. Endocrine systems and the nervous systems (indistinct) and that is coordinated through prāṇāyāma-yoga and the chanting. Basically indirectly is a straightforward...

Bill Sauer: Well, there, fundamentally, there should not be a difference between science and religion, really should not be.

Dr. Sharma: All scientists, all big scientists are the greatest religious people. I am at Berkeley right now. All Nobel Prize winners, they always say that all of our science, we cannot create a single leaf or a single flower, we feel so helpless.

Bill Sauer: You know Calvin?

Dr. Sharma: I was professor at UCLA.

Bill Sauer: Very good. See, he got his Nobel Laureate in explaining how the chemistry of light turns into life. So I passed my manuscript by him to make sure that he didn't run me out of town. So he agreed. He said it was rather novel. But I believe there is a fundamental truth that runs through the whole system, and I've read some of your comments in the magazines, and I think you are fundamentally in agreement.

Dr. Sharma: Prabhupāda, perhaps you can make commentary on this śloka,

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ
tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī
yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni
sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

Prabhupāda: The material civilization is the jāgrati for the materialistic person. But those who are spiritually enlightened, they think that these persons are sleeping. They got the opportunity of understanding God, and without understanding God, they are simply busy with the material body and its comfort and working hard day and night, and missing the point. And whereas the materialistic persons, they see these Kṛṣṇa conscious people, Hare Kṛṣṇa people, they are wasting their time by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and they are doing nothing. Just the opposite business. These people are seeing the materialistic persons, they are sleeping, not enlightened to the spiritual life; and these materialistic persons, they are seeing that these people, under some fictitious idea, they are spoiling their life without enjoying material facilities. Just the opposite.

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

Bill Sauer: Saying that we're governed by the laws of nature, since we are a biological creature like the rest... (laughs)

Prabhupāda: So you should not remain under the laws of material nature. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). It is very difficult.

Bill Sauer: In one of the cover letters that went out to some of the people in the American Institute of the Aeronautics and Astronautics, I referred to mankind as a biological phenomenon to solve one of nature's big problems. And a man wrote back, "Anyone who calls man a biological phenomenon shouldn't try and talk to me." So I don't know what he thinks we are, but...

Prabhupāda: Biological phenomenon...

Bill Sauer: It is nature, it is governed by the laws of nature, exactly.

Prabhupāda: So you can get out of it as it is advised, daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). It is very difficult. But mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. If you surrender to God, then you can get out of this biological problem. Otherwise it is not possible.

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

Prabhupāda: One may fall down, but you have to take care.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's much better now.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he'll do, he's good worker, if you can train him, he's a good worker. He can do very nice. He has fallen in māyā, just take care of him, what can be done? He's good worker, very good worker. He can do intelligent service.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very intelligent, very high-class, nice devotee.

Prabhupāda: He knows accounting. There was no guide, he became alone...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's exactly what he said.

Prabhupāda: ...and became spoiled.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said there was just too much for himself alone.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the difficulty. As soon as there is lack of good association, one falls a victim. What about that boy, Ṛṣi Kumāra?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, he's doing great. He's taken up joint charge of the restaurant.

Prabhupāda: He's also very good boy.

Room Conversation -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes, you are good boy. Whatever is done is done. Now remain with Vaiṣṇavas and fix up your mind. After all, it is a struggle between māyā and Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes due to our weakness we may fall down, but we should take again strength and stand up. Do that, and combinedly push this movement in America. It is a good field. And if you can establish this movement in America, whole world will take. That is my mission. What is the length and breadth of this house area?

Ādi-keśava: I don't know exactly.

Prabhupāda: This is the..., no? The hall is very big.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: See, it goes around, Prabhupāda.

Rāmeśvara: You can walk around.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can show you.

Rāmeśvara: On each floor it is like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Every floor has about twenty-five to thirty rooms.

Prabhupāda: Not only this portion.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Hari-śauri: They did an experiment, and they tried out..., if one chants... He claims that you have to have a special mantra that comes from him, and that will give you the bliss from transcendental meditation. But they did experiments where they just made up any mantra, just a few words, and concentrated on that, and the effect was exactly the same—sleep. Sleep, they enter into a...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Semiconscious.

Hari-śauri: Yes, a very low conscious level. The metabolism is very much slowed down. The breathing and heart rate and everything goes right down, and they stay like that, completely relaxed, for twenty minutes, and then for a few minutes they come out. That is the...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can also do that; we'll hit them with our shoes. (laughter) For twenty minutes they can go unconsciousness. Free, we don't charge.

Hari-śauri: This opening comment in this magazine is very good, it says, "What is surprising about the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is not its conquest of the West, the USA in particular. The cultural impact of this institution, borne on the shoulders of Westerners in the main, has already reached amazing proportions in India."

Prabhupāda: That is my policy.

Devotee (1): That's nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whew. That's why they are afraid of you in India, Prabhupāda. The government is very much afraid.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, government is alarmed.

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: So later on, he establishes his credit (and) without any payment, he gets supplies. And they keep their credit. On the day of payment, they must pay.

Mr. Kallman: Yes, exactly.

Prabhupāda: Therefore the Marwaris, they become very big businessmen.

Mr. Kallman: Very powerful.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This Birlas, they have become so big, they have so much credit in the market that by telephone they will ask any gold merchant, that you purchase one thousand tolās of gold for me. He'll immediately purchase, because he has a credit.

Mr. Kallman: Sure, many years.

Prabhupāda: And next moment he phones another gold merchant, "What is the price," he says. Say one anna less... I'll sell one hundred tolās. So he'll purchase without any investment and sells immediately and makes one hundred tolās, one anna profit, some (indistinct).

Mr. Kallman: Sure.

Prabhupāda: By telephone.

Interview with Trans-India Magazine -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda:

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
(CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)
bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra
janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
(CC Adi 9.41)

So Indian life means para-upakāra. They are in the darkness, others, in the darkness. They have no such culture, spiritual culture. India has got that culture, this Bhagavad-gītā. So one should make his life a practically Bhagavad-gītā life. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious movement. And preach it to the world. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's order. And this order was not only... Because Caitanya Mahāprabhu happened to be a Bengali... He appeared in Nadia district, a district in Bengal. But He does not say the Bengalis; He said the bhāratīs. Bharata-varṣa janma haila yāra. So it is India's mission to become exactly on the line of Bhagavad-gītā. That is also spoken by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that perfection of life means to understand Bhagavad-gītā. He said āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa: (CC Madhya 7.128) "You just become a guru and deliver this country." "This country" means wherever you are living—it doesn't matter whether in India or America or anywhere else—you just deliver them. So to become guru means to save a person from the conditional life of matter. So long you become a materialistic person, that means you are under condition of material nature. So you have to get your freedom from the laws of material nature. That is your perfect life. But people in the Western countries, they do not know much of this freedom. India knew it, or some of Indians, they know it. But at the present moment they, being conquered or influenced by the Western culture, they are also losing their identity. Therefore my Guru Mahārāja ordered me to do something about the spiritual life in the Western countries. On account of this I came here.

Room Conversation -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Just like Kṛṣṇa is afraid of Mother Yaśodā's rope. But that does not mean He is no longer the Supreme Lord.

Indian man: Exactly, exactly, exactly.

Prabhupāda: He's afraid of "Mother, don't bind Me." So everyone is afraid of Kṛṣṇa, and He is afraid of His mother's rope. So does it mean Kṛṣṇa has become no more the Supreme?

Indian man: In fact, you might have heard of Satya Sai Baba in India.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man: Now there are some people in our community there at Poughkeepsie, they are all followers of Satya Sai Baba, and they were telling me that "Anyone you pray, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, Viṣṇu, it comes to Satya Sai Baba." I said, "Don't tell me that nonsense," I said. (laughter) "Satya Sai Baba is not Kṛṣṇa, and don't tell me that." In fact for Guru Pūrṇimā they invited me to Satya Sai Baba's bhajana. I said, "No, I have my guru. I'm very happy. Don't disturb me. I have Kṛṣṇa, I have my guru, and I have my path. I don't have to go to anybody's gurus, and I don't have to take anyone's teachings." I say, "My Gītā is here, written by Prabhupāda. I follow it, and that's it. I don't have to have extraordinary brains to follow everyone's Gītā or everything else. Here is my path."

Prabhupāda: In South America there was a great criticism?

Hari-śauri: South Africa.

Prabhupāda: South Africa.

Indian man: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Of Satya Sai.

Room Conversation -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, because they say, "Either way, you become impersonal at the end. You Brahma-liṅga;(?) you become one with Brahma. But before you become Brahma-liṅga, you can imagine some form, either Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu or Śiva or Durgā, the same thing." That is their...

Indian man: In fact some of the arguments that I received were... "If you go to heaven, let's say, Vaikuṇṭha, then you become... You join the impersonal Brahman. Then you have nothing else to do." He says, "In material world we have family. We have something to do." I said, "If you believe in impersonalism, you have nothing to do. If you believe in personalism, you will serve the Lord there."

Prabhupāda: Impersonal means if you have nothing to do, then you'll become mad.

Indian man: Exactly.

Prabhupāda: And again you come back to this material world.

Indian man: Now, Prabhupāda, I have taken too much of your time. I want to thank you very much. I humbly offer my obeisances.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Indian man: I wish that I can continue your work.

Prabhupāda: Please do. You'll be happy. Kṛṣṇa will make you happy. Na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu (BG 18.69). (end)

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Hari-śauri: I said for us India is not so healthy, but for yourself it's the best place.

Bhagavān: Prabhupāda also got sick in India. Remember? Two years ago in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana.

Jayatīrtha: Exactly this time, two years ago.

Bhagavān: Anyway, I think the stair problem is not such a big problem.

Jayatīrtha: No, that is not an insurmountable problem.

Bhagavān: There are three hundred devotees who want to carry you. But I mean there you will not have people coming if you want to rest. There are no.... There are only planned people who would come. But there won't be hundreds of Indians coming to see you. And you have.... Right next to your quarters there's your own private kitchen also, so everything's very close at hand. All your servants quarters are.... That whole floor is.... Actually the whole castle is empty, so there's no noise.

Jayatīrtha: It may be very nice for you there.

Bhagavān: Your quarters.

Prabhupāda: We shall go immediately?

Jayatīrtha: I think that, Srila Prabhupāda, you should not feel obliged in any way to go. Only whatever you think is best for your health condition.

Prabhupāda: No, obliged, I am always obliged to you. That's a fact. Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Oh. How many hours?

Harikeśa: About seven.

Prabhupāda: That's nice, that is also nice.

Harikeśa: So we're just going to decide after this which is exactly the best thing to do.

Prabhupāda: That is also nice. Which day the...?

Harikeśa: The airplane is on Friday.

Prabhupāda: Friday, that is also. Harer nāma, harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). Everyone is happy, the children, the woman. They don't demand anything, that "Give us this, give us that." They have simplified, automatically they have simplified their life. And gradually develop, make little cottages, grow little vegetable, little barley or wheat and milk. That is sufficient. We don't require much. We don't want luxury. We want just to subsist. Yavad artha prayojana. We hate the idea of luxury, unnecessary. Do the outsider come to see? Yes?

Bhagavān: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, they couldn't. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). This is the verse. Religion means the words given by God. But they have no idea what is God, whether He can speak or He's a dull, dumb. That is the difficulty. The Māyāvādīs, they say God has no mouth. So how He will speak? He has no eyes, He has no ears. Then who will hear my prayer? That is Māyāvādī definition. But Vedas say apāni-pādo javana gṛhīta.(?) That both things, that He has no leg, but he can walk faster than anyone. He has no ear, but He can hear everything. Just like we have got this ear, but I cannot hear what is going on next room. But God has no ear, but He can hear here, there, everywhere. This is Vedic definition. This is Vedic definition. Śṛṇoti akarṇa. He has no ears, but He hears everything. That means that it is not the fact that He has no ear, but He has no limited ear like me. And therefore described sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). You cannot compare with this body. Because sat means eternal. So this body is not eternal. So when God has no body means He hasn't got a body like this. He is sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). His body is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge. But He has body. You cannot say impersonal. But His body is of different quality. Just like you have got body, but you cannot swim in the..., or you cannot remain within the water. Similarly, he has got body, but not the body like this, perishable. Sac-cid-ānanda, this body is perishable. But He has got imperishable. Avyayātmā. We have to understand in that way. Not that because it is stated He has no body that means He is zero. No, he has got body, but not body not like this.

Bhūgarbha: Professor Chenique's suggesting that in the Middle Ages there were many philosophers who also were researching the same questions of the body of God and how His body is different from ours, and they came to exactly the same conclusions as are mentioned in the Bhāgavatam, so he's suggesting some of our devotees should read some of these books so we'll be able to in our preaching show the French people these conceptions that God has a body are not foreign conceptions, and actually even European philosophers in the Middle Ages were saying the same things.

Prabhupāda: No, you can convince by your words. It is not necessary that you have to read so many other words. If you are yourself convinced, then you can convince others by your words. The fact. The same example, when there is fire actually you can express it by any word.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Pradyumna: But we still call that, when a person first comes and he still has that designation stage, but we still call that bhakti?

Prabhupāda: No, he's on the platform. Just like the same example. The iron rod is put in the fire. So it is fiery condition. Similarly, one who has given to devotional service, he is in the designationless condition, but it requires time to make the iron rod exactly fire.

Pradyumna: Same thing as that pulling the plug out of the fan.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Pradyumna: Same example, pulling the plug out and fan keeps going for some...

Prabhupāda: There are so many examples. There are so many examples. The beginning stage and the perfect stage. Perfect stage, designationless. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, in the beginning api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ: (BG 9.30) even he's not completely a devotee, still, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ. You must accept him as a devotee. Why? Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. He has taken to the process completely. So there may be some designations always on account of past habit, but because he has taken to the process of becoming designationless, he is sādhu. If he sticks to the principles, kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati, very soon he'll become a perfect devotee and he'll get peace-śaśvac-chānti-kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31). These things are there. So one has to take the line of Kṛṣṇa consciousness seriously, then everything automatically will appear. There is no.... That is called utsāhān dhairyāt, dhairyāt, patience. Niścayād; "I have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness exactly as Kṛṣṇa wants, then I'll surely be perfect." That is niścayād. There is no doubt about it. If I am following the direction of Kṛṣṇa under the guidance of spiritual master, be sure that you'll be successful. There is no question of becoming unsuccessful. Niścayād. But if I am deviating, that is my (indistinct). But if you follow, then you'll be sure to be successful.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Ali: I believe in this one because when I dream...

Prabhupāda: No, believe or not believe, these are facts, that physical senses are not absolute.

Ali: That's exactly what I mean. It's so obvious.

Prabhupāda: Physical senses not absolute; it is the spiritual senses that acts through the physical instrument and utilize it.

Ali: I feel man has already accepted his physical deficiency. I was just watching Olympic, and it seemed so pathetic, they were just trying to jump higher and higher, and they couldn't do it.

Prabhupāda: No, the physical senses are to be spiritualized. You cannot appreciate God by physical senses. But when your physical senses are purified and it is spiritualized, then you can...

Ali: That's exactly what I meant when I said that whatever we see...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is process, how to... Just like iron rod, it is iron rod, but if you put into the process, that means if you put into the fire, a time will come the iron rod will be red hot and it is fire. Similarly, if you engage your physical senses only—(aside:) here is candle—when you engage your physical senses in the service of the Lord, then the physical quality of the senses will be diminished or gone, your spiritual sense activities will begin. This is practical.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: He was very sexually inclined. That is written by him. While his father was dying, he was engaged in sex with his wife.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Exactly. That is right. And therefore he felt very guilty toward sex. He was artificially depressing it. Therefore this article was pointing out that in his old age he was getting his satisfaction in a perverted way.

Prabhupāda: By touching their bodies.

Atreya Ṛṣi: That is right, and at night he would sleep with them in the same bed.

Prabhupāda: Acchā?

Atreya Ṛṣi: He would get shivers. He would get shivers, and as a result of the shiver he would be covered with this woman. And her husband would object. Her husband would say, "Gandhiji, why do you have to do this? You know?" He would say, "You can see that I have no sexual inclination. This I want to prove that I have no sexual inclination."

Prabhupāda: To show transcendental.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: And it is fire in both sides, and it is like a razor edge, it could be very thin. And the saintly persons close their eyes and pass it. Kṛṣṇa makes them pass.

Prabhupāda: Similar description is there, bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām (SB 10.14.58). Bhavāmbudhiḥ, the great ocean of material nescience, it becomes vatsa-padam, just like the water contained in the hoof impression of a calf. Bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ param. Exactly animal civilization. Animal does not know what is future, what is past, what is going to happen, nothing. The human civilization has become like that. Professor Kotovsky said, "Swamiji, after finishing this body, everything is finished." He's a big professor in Moscow. This is their civilization. What do they explain about the lower animals? Wherefrom they come, the birds, beasts, trees, insects?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Where, in Koran?

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say the modern scientists.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: You remember it?

Harikeśa: Hm...

Ātreya Ṛṣi: No, exactly?

Prabhupāda: But toothpaste, you require collapsible tube.

Harikeśa: It was better in the bottles. In a tube it just doesn't come out.

Prabhupāda: No, that will come out. The powder must be made very fine. Otherwise, it will not come out.

Hari-śauri: If it's pulverized with a machine it comes out.

Harikeśa: Yes, if there's a machine it would be nice.

Prabhupāda: Very fine powder.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: What about if we served it in a different shape. Tube is common. If we make it a little different it would be more attractive.

Prabhupāda: That you have to think, how it will be attractive here. Otherwise paste, put into the collapsible tube, then it becomes complete. The formula is there and everything. You don't take... Simply it has to be made very fine pulverized.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Nixon?

Jayapatākā: His previous name is Nixton, he initiated name was Krishna Prem.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. He was in Almora.

Jayapatākā: Almora, yes. I don't know exactly where Almora is.

Prabhupāda: Almora is a hilly station, Himalaya. If... Almora, one goes from Lucknow.

Jayapatākā: So this brahmacārī is a disciple of him. Therefore he doesn't have any connection. There's no sampradāya anymore because his guru's disappeared, and somehow he's got this sevā. These are the Deities there of Nitāi-Gaura. There's about twelve śālagrāma-śilās also. And a little Rādhā-Gopīnātha. This is all mentioned in your purport. It's only about four or five hundred yards. I could read from it.

Prabhupāda: Eh? No, that's all right.

Jayapatākā: It's four or five hundred yards from the Palpara Railway Station. It's the next station from Chuktaha, under Chuktaha police station.

Prabhupāda: Chuktaha? Chugda.

Jayapatākā: Chugda: That's where you take your... That mango orchard where you take your lunch? That's just the nearest place go Chugda. So he was very pleased with all the work that you are doing. He's in Vṛndāvana now for Janmāṣṭamī. He hadn't been to Vṛndāvana for about five years, so he went to Vṛndāvana for darśana. He may be there even when you go. I'm not sure if he'll be there.

Prabhupāda: You have advised to see our temple?

Jayapatākā: Yes, he'll definitely visit. I also gave him an introduction that if he goes, he should be received there. He's got... The present place where the Deities are situated is on four cuttas(?) of land. And apart from that, where Maheśa Paṇḍita's samādhi is, he's got three bighās of land. That's right next door to a four-hundred-year-old temple.

Prabhupāda: Chugda is to the... It is from Shrirampuri? No.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Somebody told?

Gargamuni: Yes, at 10:30 they said. Gopāla said he's coming. I don't know, but I will ask.

Maṇihāra: Śrīla Prabhupāda, when we give prasāda to people...

Prabhupāda: Anyone who comes, he must be given prasāda.

Maṇihāra: ...what is the benefit they get exactly? There have been so many concoctions: "Oh, they will take human birth," "they will take this..." What is the actual benefit that a karmī will get when he takes prasāda?

Prabhupāda: Prasāda means the mercy of Kṛṣṇa.

Maṇihāra: Mercy.

Prabhupāda: By eating you are getting mercy. Kṛṣṇa baḍo doyāmoy koribāre jihvā jay swa-prasād-anna dilo bhāi. Swa-prasād-anna dilo bhāi. Sei prasāda anna pāo rādhā-kṛṣṇa-guṇa gāo preme ḍāko caitanya-nitāi.

Maṇihāra: 'Cause some devotees, they are saying...

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa baḍo doyāmoy. Because we want eating, so He is giving His mercy through eating. Eating nobody will refuse. So by eating he is being favored by Kṛṣṇa. This is the process. You understand Bengali? Kṛṣṇa baḍo doyāmoy, He's very merciful. Koribāre jihvā jay. We are accustomed to eat, go to the restaurant, go to the hotel, go to here and there, at home and so on. Simply eating, eating. So this is jihvā lampaṭa. Prostitution of the tongue. Just like a woman prostitute is not satisfied with one man. Similarly, our tongue is like a prostitute. It is not satisfied with simple foods. Sometimes here, sometimes there, sometimes on the street, sometimes on the restaurant, sometimes a hotel. Regular prostitution. It is called tongue prostitution. There are prostitution of three things: prostitution of the tongue, prostitution of the belly, and prostitution of the genital. Three kinds of. Udara-upastha-vegam. Jihvā-udara-upastha-vegam (NOI 1). Straight line. So to stop this prostitution is to control the tongue. The tongue prostitution means he wants to eat varieties of foodstuff. Kṛṣṇa is so merciful, "All right, you eat varieties of prasāda." Then tongue prostitution is controlled and naturally the belly and the genital controlled. Kṛṣṇa baḍo doyāmoy koribāre jihvā jay. To own victory over the tongue, He has given varieties... Therefore all nice things should be offered to Kṛṣṇa and then take prasāda. They will be benefited.

Room Conversation with Endowments Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: There must be some competent man to induce. Everything will be planned.

Commissioner: Therefore our training has to be started perhaps here. Some of those people who could go. These are all the ideas of course. If you could give an impetus, that's exactly what I wanted to... Take advice from you. Now if a center is established. What we lack very badly are those people who can competently take up this work in the whole state. The temples are there, the funds are there, organization is there. Men who are, as you say, the real brāhmaṇa, who could go and preach this, we are lacking. We are lacking. And he has to be trained. And the right training you are giving. Anywhere I see your men are...

Prabhupāda: So we can give men.

Commissioner: Yes. And a training institute has to be started. Very badly we need it. My department also. Having any number of people. It is suffering because we don't have the proper people with that objective to govern...

Prabhupāda: Because the culture is lost. Culture is lost.

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Get this cheap edition. You can order cheap edition. (break. Paṇḍita chants Śrī Īśopaniṣad and Gāyatrī. Prabhupāda speaks in Hindi, quoting Sanskrit ślokas.) (break)

Mahāṁsa: They will not part with even one thousand rupees. They're exactly what you described. And also these were the people who are with Śaṅkarācārya who came the first time when you had come here. They were with Śaṅkarācārya. And Hariprasad and some Marwaris were with our movement and these people were on the other side. So there was some conflict at that time. And Śaṅkarācārya came and you...

Prabhupāda: Śaṅkarācārya, he says that you are bhagavān.

Mahāṁsa: Yes. Also nirākāra. All these things they have been influenced. But practically now they are slowly coming to accept us. There is one Mr. Badanman who was the host of Śaṅkarācārya and for two and a half years he never came here, he never entertained the devotees.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That would be poison.

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: And now he saw the film...

Mahāṁsa: Yes. And today also he was there in the morning. Now he will definitely give. You had also previously said that they are very conservative. But once they take it up, then they will take it up very nicely.

Prabhupāda: And I also explained, "Nā rūpya, nā rūpya." (laughs)

Mahāṁsa: (laughs) Yes, that's exactly what they do.

Prabhupāda: Actually that is the whole world going on. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). (indistinct) Whole world.

Mahāṁsa: Beg, borrow, steal.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Beg, borrow, steal. Bring money and enjoy. They were selected Marwaris. This morning?

Mahāṁsa: Yes, these people are the head of the Marwari community. They don't know how to live. They live in these slums which we saw today. They live all around that area. They are crore-patis. They have crores of rupees.

Prabhupāda: To live very gorgeously is not good.

Room Conversation -- August 25, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: If you take logic, it is stated there in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Indian man: If you take bhakta-vidyā where so many sayings like Chakubhai and Namdev and all these people. If you take it... They had, they observed bhakti-mārga from the beginning, that is, they considered Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: No, they have considered that the bhakti-mārga is a means to become one.

Indian man: Means to become one. That's exactly what I mean.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is their version. But that is not the version of Bhagavad-gītā.

Indian man: Yes, it's the only way. Bhakti-mārga is only mārga. It is only way to become one.

Prabhupāda: No. They never become one. Therefore nitya-yuktā upāsate.

Indian man: Then why should we say in our...?

Prabhupāda: You can say anything, but that is not accepted. We have to accept Kṛṣṇa's statement. You can say anything.

Room Conversation -- August 25, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: And that is always. You cannot become one with Him.

Indian man: Then in what levels the man got to remain in a separate entity? Always in the same bhakta?

Prabhupāda: Nitya-yuktā upāsate. The one is worshipable, another is worshiper. That's all. Nitya-yuktā upāsate. Upāsate means the worshipable is there and the worshiper is there. Then the question of upāsana. If they become one then where is upāsana?

Indian man: Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling. At one stage...

Prabhupāda: But that is not the fact. Here it is said upāsate. Upāsate means he worships. So if he loses his existence, then where is worship?

Indian man: No. Ātman's got to go on practicing and try to become pure and purer and purer.

Prabhupāda: Without being pure you cannot go there. There is no question of upāsana.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Everything is possible by Kṛṣṇa's inconceivable energy. Everything is possible. That is inconceivable. It is called therefore "inconceivable." You, we cannot conceive how it is done. Our intelligence is very little. We cannot conceive. Therefore we say, "Oh, this is all mythology." Because we cannot conceive of it. Whatever we cannot conceive we take it as mythology. Nothing is mythology. Everything is possible. That is inconceivable. But they cannot understand what is inconceivable. Unless it is conceivable by them, they do not accept. That is their foolishness. We can see at night worms or flies so small Just like if you divide one grain of rice into one hundred divisions one division—such a small fly. They are independently walking, flying. Freedom. Now just imagine how their anatomic physiology is manufactured within that small (indistinct) of life. But he's exactly doing everything just like a big fly. How it is doing? Therefore I said in that, my interview.

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What is it?

Hari-śauri: They are making alterations.

Prabhupāda: Alteration? What is that alteration?

Hari-śauri: I don't know exactly what they're doing.

Harikeśa: No, what they're doing is that room, everybody goes there, the guests all go there. So in the past it's just been a big empty wasted room. So now what they're doing is making it a big preaching room with photos all around and book tables set up in such a way that someone can just walk in that room and there's a whole exhibit for him to see...

Prabhupāda: Who has gotten this idea?

Harikeśa: I think Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. It's an exhibition room.

Prabhupāda: Then they are breaking wall or what?

Harikeśa: No, no, they're not breaking. They made a big door so that you can walk straight in from the outside. You saw that door yesterday. Now what they're doing is building shelves and bookcases.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. That sound is disturbing.

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

Pradyumna: Impersonal Brahman is an emanation of the personal God. It is not, it is not that the personal God is an emanation of...from... or it is that impersonal Brahman is an emanation. It is not that the personal God is an emanation of impersonal Brahman.

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. Besides that, we learn from Bhagavad-gītā, Second Chapter... Find out that verse. "It is not that we were..."

Pradyumna: Na tv evāham?

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Room Conversation -- September 17, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...one horse within the mouth—that is God. One hill. One Pūtanā, sucking the breast, her life goes. That is God. Why shall I take some cheap God? We are not so foolish. Here is the... So many great saintly persons hearing about God. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). They are fools, hearing about Kṛṣṇa? Such great, great personalities? And Śukadeva Gosvāmī is speaking. Are they fools? All of them fools? One, two may be fool. They were wholesale fool? All the great personalities, they're all fools? Asita, Devala, Vyāsa, Nārada—all big personalities. Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Caitanya Mahāprabhu—they're all fools? I may be fool. They are not fools. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Why shall I accept a rascal God? Varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ (SB 2.1.1). "Oh, you want to hear about Kṛṣṇa?" Varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ. Śukadeva was praising: "Oh, glorious, you have taken... Yes." Here is God. Breathing, and innumerable universes are coming. Here is God. Sleeping and breathing is not unnatural. He is also. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaḥ-like us. But like not us. He can breathe and... That is the difference. Breathing is common. I breathe, He breathes. That's all right. But His breathing, my breathing is not the same breathing. He eats, I eat. That's all right. But when He eats, Mother Yaśodā sees all the universes are within Him. They cannot understand this. That we are equal, that's all right, but there is difference. So far, I am a living being, He's also a living being, but He's supreme living being. How? Because I breathe, some dust comes and goes out, and when He breathes some universes come out. This is the difference. So because He is breathing and I am breathing, therefore equal. No. Paśyaty acakṣuḥ. He sees, but not like us. Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. He's seeing every particular thing, anywhere. Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu. I can see within my limit, or I can feel pains and pleasure within my... But He knows everything, everywhere. Sarva-kṣetreṣu. And because I cannot become like Him, therefore Māyāvādīs say kalpana, "This is imagination." He wants to make God like himself, and he wants to become like God. Therefore all description about God he thinks imagination, kalpana. Kalpana. Dr. Frog. Huh? More than this water, the...? How it is possible? Atlantic Ocean, very very big. What is that big? Maybe four feet, five, yes. Otherwise kalpana. It it is not within his "feet" estimation, then he's kalpana, imagination. This is their knowledge. (indistinct) I can think of three feet, four feet, five feet, ten feet, hundred feet-like that. And when I'm informed, "No, no, it is unlimited feet." Ah, this is kalpana. This is going on. So what other news? I have to send one letter to the governor. (break) Sūtyām abhijāta-kovidāḥ. Yathā hi sūtyām abhijāta-kovidāḥ samādiśan vipra mahad-guṇas tathā. Where this class of literature is now. Yathā sūtyām, in the maternity home or maternity room, Sūtyām. Abhijāta-kovidāḥ. The astrologers who can estimate the newly born child's destiny. Whatever they predicted, according to them, yathā hi sūtyām abhijāta-kovidāḥ samādiśan. They said that "This child will be like this"—exactly he became. Parīkṣid dvija-varya-śikṣayā, and being trained up by first-class brāhmaṇas, and the child came perfectly the king. Where is that king?

Hari-śauri: There're no kings.

Room Conversation -- September 17, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Where is that President? They're all drunkards, woman-hunters, meat-eaters. Exactly according to prediction, he became a young man and he was entrusted the kingdom, "Now you rule." (chants verse)

tataḥ parīkṣid dvija-varya-śikṣayā
mahīṁ mahā-bhāgavataḥ śaśāsa ha
yathā hi sūtyām abhijāta-kovidāḥ
samādiśan vipra mahad-guṇas tathā
Each verse is a song. I wanted our students should do that.

Hari-śauri: To learn how to sing them nicely. To learn how to sing them?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I can give them the tune. (chants first line of another verse) (break) ...ghnantaṁ go-mithunaṁ padā. This is Kali-yuga's king. Nṛpa-liṅga. Dressed like king. Nṛpa-liṅga-dharam, but śūdra. Nṛpa-liṅga-dharaṁ śūdraṁ ghnantaṁ go-mithunaṁ padā. Very expert in cow-killing.

Hari-śauri: That's a very accurate prediction.

Prabhupāda: Third-class, fourth-class men, dressed like President and king. Business: plunder money from the citizens and kill cow. 1965, 17 September, I landed at Boston.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I lived there for few months. Then I went to another Godbrother, that Imlitala, Delhi. Then I left there. I used to live alone in Delhi. Then I took one house in Keśī-ghāṭa. Then the Rādhā-Dāmodara men they called me that "You can live here. We give you two rooms. We don't charge. We give you the place." I came to Rādhā-Dāmodara. And from Rādhā-Dāmodara temple I went U.S.A.

Hari-śauri: I was just wondering what exactly the League of Devotees was.

Prabhupāda: Oh, League was that, that was... I was trying to collect some devotees. Some of them, they were medical... Yes. Medical students. So they came and used to live with me. But still, I lived there for two years. From 1954 to '56. I had some surgical operation in my testicles there. They were taking care. This Prabhākāra and... They were not full time. They were students. That's all. They were living with me.

Hari-śauri: But your Bhāgavatams, it says they were published by the League of Devotees. Does that just mean yourself or there were others?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) That was... League of Devotees was my organization. Therefore I gave that name.

Hari-śauri: But actually it was just you. Oh.

Prabhupāda: That League of Devotees, I was alone doing. (laughs)

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1976, Vrndavana:

Devotee: Yogānanda asked how many pages, when he heard about the newsletter. He thought that you spoke so long about that. And I just said, "Just two lines." But they never asked me what the letter said.

Prabhupāda: Yes, two lines is sufficient.

Dhanañjaya: Punar muṣaka bhava. Punar muṣaka bhava.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is exactly the same case. Punar muṣaka bhava, you know the whole story? A muṣaka, a mouse, was made a tiger, and the tiger wanted to eat the saintly person who made him. First of all he was mouse. So he came to the saintly person. "Sir, I am troubled. Give me some benediction." "What do you want?" "Now, the cat always chases." "All right, you become cat so that you'll not be attacked." Then after some time he came. "I am being chased by the dog." "All right, you become a dog." From cat to dog, from mouse to... Then again he came. "Still, they are chasing me. Fox." And then in this way, and ultimately he made a tiger. And after becoming a tiger, he began to look, staring on the... "What do you mean by this?" "I shall eat you." "Oh? You become again a mouse." (laughter) Again he became mouse. That's all.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, this is green also.

Devotee: Yeah, this is greenery around here and occasionally there's a big tree and then along the back here's...

Prabhupāda: Big trees are this side.

Devotee: Yeah, exactly, and also in here around this area and around in here. And in the back here we have like a small desert garden with cactus and different things.

Prabhupāda: It is desert?

Devotee: No, it's not a desert but that's the way this rear portion has been landscaped, you know.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Devotee: It's made to look like a desert but it's actually very lush and it looks a lot bigger than two acres.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) ...these things are (indistinct), you can keep cows. Eh?

Devotee: I'm not sure if we can keep cows in there because it's inside of the city and sometimes they don't allow the cow within a certain zoning. And now the only problem we might run into with this is that it's not zoned right now for a church or a temple but...

Prabhupāda: Don't say "temple."

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Devotee: You know with a little thing. And then right in the middle of the dome, we want to put like a big gold, not real gold but you know, gold-colored thing with flags.

Prabhupāda: Flags.

Devotee: Put flags on the top. Right exactly. This was our initial idea.

Prabhupāda: So why don't you make a temple like this? You see?

Devotees: (indistinct-talking together) ...attractive point.

Prabhupāda: But then you cannot deny that it is not a temple.

Devotee: Yeah, that's true. Actually...

Prabhupāda: Best thing is this type temple.

Devotee: Like here. With three domes. Well see, it all depends on the cost. I have some cost estimates here that... We figured out it's somewhere between thirty and forty dollars per square foot to build.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Devotee: Now if we build a temple that's 6,500 square feet, quite a large size, that would come out to $260,000 and on down to 3,600 square feet which would be about $144,000. I've collected about $100,000 on my own and I have another person who promised somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five and by the time that three or four months have... Actually we couldn't build until about six or seven months anyways so by this time...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) ...that Kṛṣṇa will (indistinct) money.

Room Conversation -- November 20, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Last? Maybe 1972.

Hari-śauri: About four years. What about that Keśī-ghāṭa?

Akṣayānanda: I didn't have time to find out.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hari-śauri: Whereabouts, exactly, is that place at Keśī-ghāṭa?

Prabhupāda: Oh. (chuckles) We can go some day.

Akṣayānanda: I think I met somebody from there.

Prabhupāda: Oh, his daughter came there.

Akṣayānanda: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: Daughter or granddaughter.

Akṣayānanda: Something like that, yes. He was talking about...

Prabhupāda: When I first came in Vṛndāvana I stayed in the Keśī-ghāṭa. That is very palatial building. My room was as big as this. Yes, as big. Plus one side room, plus one entrance room. I was paying fifteen rupees. And I could see whole Vṛndāvana, Yamunā, from the top my house. It is very nice, very palatial.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa: Yes. That's how it would be, if we could get permanent laborers. That's another thing I experienced, that when these village laborers come, they come at nine o'clock, nine-thirty, they work at their own speed and then, at five-thirty, they see the sun. I was amazed how they find the exact time but they do it by the sun's movements. Exactly at five-thirty they will stop their work and go. But I have seen our laborers who stay here on our land, they work from five-thirty in the morning and they work all day, all the way to the night.

Tejas: There are some people here from the local village. They are working also nicely.

Mahāṁśa: Yes.

Tejas: I think that Ānandamaya, he is...

Prabhupāda: So this is good idea. In the evening you sit together, make program and execute it.

Tejas: In the morning.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Press Conference -- December 16, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, may I introduce the project over here?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Mahāṁśa: May I introduce the press to the project over here?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mahāṁśa: So by Kṛṣṇa's grace we have been given this plot of land which is 565 acres exactly, in two villages, that is, Dublipur(?) and Kanaipali villages. Lands are situated in the jurisdiction of these...

Guest (5): Dublipur(?) and what is the other?

Mahāṁśa: Kanaipali. And the lands were originally in the Venkateshvara Gorakshini Trust, and they have transferred these lands to ISKCON Venkateshvara Trust under the chairmanship of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. So our interest here is to... This area, the whole area here, is very dry. Although there is potency of..., there is potential for tapping water, it has been left dry and unused just like so much land all over. You can see. There is so much land which is unused, vacant, just like this. So we have been given this piece of land. We want to set an example of how such wasted land can be, with proper management and organization, it can be made usable to grow food, abundant food grains and fruits and to feed unlimited...

Prabhupāda: And offer them to Kṛṣṇa and distribute prasādam.

Room Conversation -- December 20, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now how you have got a different types of... Just like the Bhagavad-gītā begins, dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ (BG 1.1). So dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre, how you can interpret in a different way? Kurukṣetra is already there. But how you can interpret, "Kurukṣetra means this, Kurukṣetra means that?" You cannot interpret.

Guest: Yes, but who is decided what exactly the meaning...

Prabhupāda: Exactly the meaning is there.

Guest: Literal, literally.

Prabhupāda: Literally, yes. The thing is the interpretation is required when you cannot understand. If, if I say, "This is a stick," everyone knows it is a stick. So I say, "Here is a stick." So if you say, "No, I do not accept it is stick." So what is that interpretation? Everyone knows it is stick. Similarly, Kurukṣetra means that the place, still existing. And in the Vedic śāstra it is ordered, kurukṣetre dharma yajayet. You go... From time immemorial it is a place of pilgrimage. Even Kṛṣṇa, during solar eclipse, Kṛṣṇa with His family, He came there, Jagannātha. The ceremony is there, Ratha-yātrā. Because Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and Subhadra came in the same chariot. That is being performed. So Kurukṣetra, dharmakṣetra, at least five thousand years ago the system was that people used to come to Kurukṣetra as a place of pilgrimage, dharmakṣetra. And Kurukṣetra, the place is there. And the the two family members, the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas, they fought. The Battle of Kurukṣetra took place. These things are evident. Then why there is need of interpreting? That is the first point.

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: At least, you do not know where gold is purchased and sold. But others know. Otherwise, how they are transacting business, lakhs and crores in gold. He knows. (Hindi) There are many other persons who are dealing in gold. Therefore it is advised... The first is that I want to purchase gold. Śraddhā, this is called śraddhā. Ādau śraddhā. Then sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83). If you have to deal, you have to associate with persons. (aside:) I do not know exactly. For the present, we can go there. If I require, we can get up. (pause) At least, if you read Bhagavad-gītā to understand, and one is anxious to understand the need of spiritual life all over the world, So one should read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Why he should interpret foolishly, spoiling the whole thing?

Indian man: Still, if (indistinct) of Tilak and...

Prabhupāda: Why, why should you read Tilak and Tilak and Tilak? Straight.

Indian man: I don't know Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: Then one who knows Sanskrit. You do not know.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Yes, and Kṛṣṇa says...

Mr. Malhotra: Ācchā, then I said "What is this?" "This is śikhā." I said, "Well what it is meant for?" So he said "Well, this is the..." What he told me was this exactly, that the aerial of knowledge. He said that this is the aerial of knowledge. I said is it your own interpretation. No, but I think that I feel that way. This is the aerial of knowledge. (break) ...that "You come have prasādam in the morning." So next day we had to leave actually. So in the morning busy going to airport. Then I met in this New York. Then when I came to Europe, then I was sitting in one restaurant in London, and then a big group of about 15, 18, 20 devotees, they were having a good chanting, and they were...

Prabhupāda: Our men regularly go on the Oxford St.

Mr. Malhotra: Yes Oxford. On that street only there was Indian restaurant where this rasagullās and tea and all that is available. So we were sitting having our this thing, and then they passed.

Prabhupāda: Our men, they can prepare rasagullā, samosā, kacuri.

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

Prabhupāda: That's fine. That's your process. You are trying to do something for the disease.

Dr. Patel: You see we must know exactly what is happening. After all, science is the same with the āyurvedic or allopathic or any. Science is... I mean, advancement of man's evolution of the man's understanding about things.

Prabhupāda: I say but somebody says that... What is the medicine? I take some āyurvedic medicine.

Dr. Patel: No, you do take. We don't say no. You don't take any medicine, we know exactly where you stand, as the modern science explains us. (break) Well, he may not (indistinct) truth immediately, but that is his aim.

Prabhupāda: Now I am feeling some dizziness.

Dr. Patel: Sit down, you sit down.

Prabhupāda: Where is that sitting place?

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) Go down. (break)

Prabhupāda: Harer nāma eva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...is a big tank of Calcutta Gas Company. That looks like this.

Press Interview -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That means he could not make his disciple correctly.

Indian man: That is true. That is true.

Prabhupāda: Therefore he did not know. Now see how my disciples are working all over the world within ten years. I am sitting here, still going on, my business. So you have to train in such a way. The Deity worship is going on. Bring that recent Denver pictures. They are now opening different branches, establishing Deity exactly in the way I have trained. It is a question of training.

Indian man: How your preaching differs from various ācāryas? Say, Śaṅkara or Vallabha or Rāmānuja?

Prabhupāda: Just in the line of the ācāryas.

Indian man: But you are just in the line or you...

Prabhupāda: Yes. All the ācāryas established hundreds and thousands of temples. So I am establishing all over the world. What did in India I am doing all over the world. Now just see how they are...

Indian man: Each ācārya differed in interpretation of religion and approach to it. You diff... Śaṅkara and Vallabha say...

Prabhupāda: There are two sections, the impersonalist and the personalist. The personalists are the Vaiṣṇavas, and the impersonalists are the Māyāvādīs. So far the spiritual life is concerned, there is no difference. There is no difference. Just like Śaṅkara. Śaṅkarācārya said that brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. The spiritual life is reality. And this is nonreality. But we say that this is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Kṛṣṇa said. We are follower of Kṛṣṇa.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Yogi Amrit Desai: Right. One who attaches himself to that.

Prabhupāda: He's also going to the hell. Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). So without ācāryopāsanam, without being under the control of ācārya, these are all bogus.

Yogi Amrit Desai: That's exactly what I believe. That's so true.

Jagadīśa: Anahaṅkāra eva ca, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9).

Prabhupāda: They are showing some magic. Just like this child was being treated. So he could not check the process of death. Neither it is possible to stop the process of death. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha... Our real unhappiness is this-janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. So otherwise why there is knowledge? He does not know what is the miserable condition of life. Everyone knows that he is going to die. He has taken birth; he has become old; he has suffered diseases. Then where is the solution? In America this yoga practice is very popular, and they want some solution of the miseries. But here it is said, "Where is the solution?" Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi is there. Where is your solution? You cannot stop death. Then where is the solution? This is cheating, that "I shall make solution of your suffering." But a intelligent man will say, "Can you make a solution of my death, of my old age, of my disease, of my birth?" That is knowledge. But they are poor fellows. They have no knowledge and they cheat. That's all. Where is solution? Solution is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), it is said. Otherwise cheating.

Room Conversation -- January 4, 1977, Bombay:

Jagadīśa: As in Hyderabad.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then our movement is success. Our only motive is how people become interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We have no other motive. No economic problem... Economic problem is... What is economic problem? We produce our own food and cloth, barely, and spiritual life... On the farm it is easier. And if they are dispatched to the city for livelihood, there are big, big roads and big, big cars and big, big anxieties. Then wine, meat, and so on, so on..., suicide, their spiritual life finished. These rascals are protesting. They have no ideas of spiritual life. They think this is life, to be merry, enjoy and drink. "Eat. Drink. Be merry." How they are committing suicide, they do not know. Nature's law is very stringent. They are foolish rascal. There is no education for them. Still, if we try, many men will be saved. So write very elaborately how to do this. Increase. And in your country, we increase this farm project any unlimited number... So much land is lying vacant. We can utilize the wood for constructing residences. And as soon as the jungle is clear, we can utilize it for growing food and keeping cows, as exactly they are doing in New Vrindaban. The cows are very happy. In our original New Vrindaban... What you have named it?

Jagadīśa: The original farm? I think they still call that New Vrindaban.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What he is for them?

Girirāja: He is their municipal councillor. He is the representative for this area in the municipal corporation, elected. So actually this came up before and at that time we met the municipal commissioner that they are trying to put this condition. So he agreed that this should be a, you know, decided by the court or by some third party and not, he will not do anything to change the status quo by forcing us. So we have to put that in the letter. And (break) ...hitch. Not a hitch exactly but there's this urban land ceiling that anyone who has more than 500 square yards property, that comes under the ceiling. So we are exempt because we are a charitable trust and apart from that, in the final plan, most of the land will be built up, it won't be vacant. But in order to get the sanction, we have to get either an N.O.C. (No Objection Certificate) that we are exempt from the ceiling or an exemption to get the N.O.C. So we have to meet some higher official. So I have to finalise it but I'm supposed to contact the architect and we have to go and see about this. Actually the management is so bad there that they have made this requirement that any new building, you have to get N.O.C. regarding the land ceiling. But so far they have not given one N.O.C. for land ceiling because they are not yet decided what is the policy to give the N.O.C. So they simply are piling up the applications until they decide their policy. So first we will try to get exemption that we don't require this N.O.C. Then if we fail in that then I suppose we have to meet the minister and ask him to give us the N.O.C.

Prabhupāda: So why not meet the minister?

Girirāja: Huh?

Prabhupāda: Why not meet the minister?

Girirāja: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (clears throat) So, how business is going there?

Haṁsadūta: Well, there's no money, so not much can be done. The last two days there was no prasādam distribution in the evening, and so the last two days I was there, nobody came. The problem is that since Your Divine Grace left there, the same people would be cooking, these sweeper people. And now they don't want to cook anymore because they work all day, and they say, "We can't work all around the clock, twenty-four hours." So they stopped cooking. And together with no money... So the whole thing has just come to a stalemate. So now another problem is that the saṅkīrtana party which we sent out is also not... It came back yesterday, also not going on properly. I know this causes Your Divine Grace anxiety, but I just think I should speak frankly about how I feel about the situation. I think Mahāṁsa is a very nice devotee, but he does everything himself. He's always jumping over everything, and before it can be discussed, he's already done it. Just like he flew here. He flew here, and it costs a lot of money to fly from Hyderabad and back. It costs, I think, about five hundred rupees. And there's no need for doing things in that way. So I don't know exactly how to work with Mahāṁsa. It's not that I fight with him. I just don't know how to work out things so that it comes out in a practical way.

Prabhupāda: What is the use of investing money there? I have already given fifty thousand.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Who will take it? A philosophical textbook. There's nobody interested. Actually there is no customer for philosophy nowadays.

Hari-śauri: They can't... None of these men, they just don't seem to have any realized knowledge. They write things, but it's so dry that no one wants to read it. It's so distasteful. But when you read one of your books it's so full of life. It's just to the point. It exactly describes how everybody's living, how they're thinking, what the troubles and tribulations they're going through, how...

Prabhupāda: Somehow or other it is interesting.

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's so full of...

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Otherwise why people take it? When I was... I thought that I am giving my imagination, who will take it? It is my imagination. Of course with reference to the modern politics, sociology, everything. Whenever possible I touch.

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

Prabhupāda: There is a Māghmela committee. One magistrate is the head. A regular committee for managing this Mela.

Gurudāsa: We have contact with this committee.

Prabhupāda: And where is governor's camp from our?

Gurudāsa: I don't know exactly, but it's in the same island. I'll find out.

Prabhupāda: No, there is... Our governor is Kṛṣṇa. Sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29).

Dr. Patel: All the Britishers were organizing this Mela, Kumbha.

Prabhupāda: No, in... They were taking... The committee... I said that, "We have committee?" This is British time. One magistrate is the head and assistants, so many.

Dr. Patel: The government officers may not be getting any interest, only the Hindu officials, these British officers.

Prabhupāda: No. Our government, they have to manage so many people. The Nagas... I learned it from Bhāgavatam.

Dr. Patel: Nagas come from Assam, no?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Arjuna married the Naga king's daughter. And he had a son.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So if one has the right to have a free mind, why he cannot chant Hare Kṛṣṇa?

Rāmeśvara: Well, their argument is that we do not allow him to consider alternatives.

Prabhupāda: Then where is the question of a free mind? That means you brainwash.

Rāmeśvara: Exactly.

Prabhupāda: Free mind means everyone has the right. That is free mind. If you force something, then where is the free mind?

Rāmeśvara: So actually they are understanding that once you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you will stop thinking about māyā.

Prabhupāda: They're admitting.

Rāmeśvara: They understand that... Their claim is that this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: Is dangerous. (laughs)

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So where is Jagadīśa?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He's in his room.

Prabhupāda: I called him. Where is that... I made the...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Advertisement.

Prabhupāda: Advertisement, yes. So just exactly to that...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Simply I have not added the name.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And the list of books.

Prabhupāda: List of... Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Just update it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Here are the spaces.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, for the addresses.

Prabhupāda: Addresses. You can write. What is the address of the Vrnda Book Company?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I have it with me in my office.

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No. The general price is higher. What's the U.S. registered price? They're just asking that... It comes about seventy rupees.

Prabhupāda: Don't make duplicity pricing.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Exactly. That is why I'm discussing with you right now, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Our pricing will be consistent. So I think forty-five rupees is reasonable. Above that, in India people will hesitate on buying. I'd like to get everyone to think it is available at...

Prabhupāda: Why forty-five? We can reduce more even, do you think.(?)

Jagadīśa: (indistinct)

Rāmeśvara: He's already charging the libraries forty-five rupees.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So we can't go below that...

Prabhupāda: No.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...because then they...

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: And who is that father? Why did you not...? So here is the father. You should be obliged to us that we are bringing...

Hari-śauri: There are so many names anyway.

Prabhupāda: Then why not Kṛṣṇa?

Hari-śauri: Yes, exactly. Just like Allah means "the great one," so Kṛṣṇa means "the all-attractive one." It's the same God.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa was proved, and still He is proved. Who is reading others' book all over the world? Therefore He is God. Where is that book so respected as Bhagavad-gītā? Who is printing so many books? Not even Bible. They respected Bible. Why the foreigners are reading Bhagavad-gītā? That is the proof that Kṛṣṇa is God. During the Christmas festival we sold our books greatest number in the history. How many copies Bible you have sold? That is the proof. Here is God. Otherwise why Christians should purchase Bhagavad-gītā during Christmas holiday? And because Kṛṣṇa is God, therefore you have come to fight. Who is going to fight with Jehovah? Who is going to fight with Jehovah movement?

Hari-śauri: Well, just like in the Middle East area, if they want to describe God or if they want to glorify God, they refer to Him as the Almighty One. And that word that means "Almighty One" is Allah. So if in India they want to glorify God by calling Him the All-attractive One, and that word is Kṛṣṇa, then what is the wrong?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: And a prostitute. (laughs) He classified them in one category.

Gargamuni: Especially these newspapers. When you give an interview, they always print something else.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: They never print exactly what one says.

Prabhupāda: They're not honest.

Gargamuni: No.

Rāmeśvara: This was printed in the Los Angeles Times on January 21. No, January 2nd.

Prabhupāda: I think this opinion printed you send to all newspapers editors.

Rāmeśvara: That book that he printed?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Our greatness in this country was considered on spiritual advancement.

Guest (2): Exactly. We Indian people, we know what is religion, not politics.

Prabhupāda: No. Politics is there. Politics means formerly the brāhmaṇas were the guide, teacher of the society, guide of the society. Brahminical culture. The brāhmaṇas were not interested in politics. They would give advice to the kṣatriyas, and the kṣatriyas would administer. Brāhmaṇas were not interested to take politics, from time immemorial, even during the time of Mahārāja Pṛthu. Not that the kṣatriyas were irresponsible, no. They were taking guidance from the learned brāhmaṇas, saintly persons, and they were ruling over. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was doing that. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was doing that. Lord Rāmacandra also.

Guest (2): During the present day, sir, to whom we will treat as brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya and śūdra?

Prabhupāda: That I was explaining. According to the symptom.

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: He says anything nonsense. Everything they will immediately explain, "It is this." Why this color? "And this electron and..." What is called? Proton? No? What are the names?

Satsvarūpa: Electron, proton, neutron?

Prabhupāda: No, no. They have got another invention. Die-N-E. What is called?

Gargamuni: DNA?

Prabhupāda: DNA. In explaining, they are very expert. And if you know what is that, then why don't you replace it? What is that DNA nonsense? Put it into use. In the classroom they'll make: "This DNA is going this way, that way..." Now, who has made this arrangement, exactly going in the same way? You cannot manufacture either DNA and the movements also. Actually it is very wonderful things are going.

Satsvarūpa: Any explanation except Kṛṣṇa. They give some alternative explanation than Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: That is their aim: no God.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: So you are also disturbing my books. The same, I can say. What is written in my books, I am doing. You are disturbing. You are harassing me.

Satsvarūpa: But where does it say in your books that you should... I see.

Prabhupāda: Yes, what it says in the... You read the books. You'll see that we are exactly.

Gargamuni: We're selling our book. We have every right to sell religious book.

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And they're being accepted by higher circle.

Gurukṛpā: Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66).

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gurukṛpā: We're just saying the same thing. He says more than buy a book.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Hari-śauri: Everything. All the arguments you've been giving us, now this is a good opportunity to use them all.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like the judgment was given Shylock, the Jew. When he was persistent that "I shall take one pound flesh from the chest," no, he said, "No, I cannot touch that." Then the judgment was, "Yes, you can take, only one pound. If it is one hundredth part of an ounce, it is more, then you'll be hanged. Or even it is less, you'll be hanged. Exactly one pound you have."

Hari-śauri: And only flesh. No blood.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then he was trapped. So we have to do like that. Sate sārtham samācaret.(?) If the other party is tricky, you should be also tricky. Why you should be so plain? And this is quite legal, that "This is our statement, these eighty-four books. We have got others also, but some of them are here. So, my lord, you read this statement. Let us argue." Then it will be read. They have to. They cannot say, "No, I am not going to take any..." That is illegal. Whatever I say, he has to take. Then there is argument. First of all statement. The court procedure is: I have charged you with something. Court will ask you, "What you have got to say against these charges?" So you'll submit your statement. Then both the statements, the court's duty is to study and give the judgment. This is the law. So they have charged us with something. We give our statement. "Now you study and argue, and then give your judgment." Hm? What do you think?

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Hari-śauri: They'll never be able to prove that...

Prabhupāda: Similarly, we have to say, "We have never tried to brainwash. We have done exactly according to śāstra, authority. Here is the evidence. We have not manufactured anything. The evidence is here." They must read all the books. They cannot reject. The Hare Kṛṣṇas... That is their charge. They'll find in every page Kṛṣṇa at least ten times, that "This is Hare Kṛṣṇa." All the books, there must be Kṛṣṇa's name: "This is Hare Kṛṣṇa." I think you should take defense, in that way.

Gurukṛpā: Should depend on Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: The same argument, "Yes my lord, just to teach you law."

Satsvarūpa: Today is the day that Ādi-keśava Swami is supposed to meet with this Jimmy Carter, the twenty-seventh. We'll get some report.

Prabhupāda: Apart from that, you defend your position like this.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: It's a long one. "I have been looking for a spontaneous generation for twenty years without discovering it. Now I do not judge it impossible, but what allows you to make it, 'the origin of life'? You place matter before life, and you decide that matter has existed for all eternity. How do you know that the incessant progress of science will not compel scientists to consider that life has existed during eternity and not matter? You pass from matter to life because your intelligence of today cannot conceive things otherwise. How do you know that in ten thousand years one will not consider it more likely that matter has emerged from life?"

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is exactly what we say, what Prabhupāda says.

Hari-śauri: Louis Pasteur.

Prabhupāda: Yes, matter has come from life.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We conclude our lecture with this. So they are all silent, (laughter) because a famous scientist said that.

Prabhupāda: So we first of all protested that matter comes from life, not life comes from matter. So when you concluded, they were silent.

Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That Christ is Kṛṣṇa.

Hari-śauri: Yeah. Same word.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Krisht, Krisht. Christ means Krisht, Krisht. Krishta is vulgar expression of Kṛṣṇa. No, from his teaching, we can understand he is representative of God.

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes. What he was teaching is exactly in accord with what we're doing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: I was reading some of his instructions, what he was giving to his original disciples. And he gave them examples, that "The birds, they are not worrying about their food. God is supplying. So you should not worry for your food. You should simply go out and preach."

Prabhupāda: He said like that?

Hari-śauri: Yes. He said, "So what should you worry if you go out and preach? Do you think that God will not give to you?"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 12, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayapatākā: This municipal executive we didn't meet. He's just appointed by the government. He might have just suggested something like "Let's see if they'll do the work without us being very firmly obligated," Just testing us. Exactly what... But we can't do anything like that. But maybe that Gargamuni didn't understand their English very well, or they didn't...

Prabhupāda: So tomorrow you'll go to see whom?

Jayapatākā: I was thinking to go Monday because tomorrow is Sunday.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayapatākā: So many times they've come. I don't see that suddenly their story should change so drastically.

Prabhupāda: They came before also?

Jayapatākā: Oh yes. They came even to Māyāpur. They have shown some enthusiasm and now at the last minute, they'll change their story so much.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Hari-śauri: There's no difference between the behavior of a priest and the behavior of a gross atheist...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: ...except he's dressed as a priest.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Dress only.

Hari-śauri: But they have exactly the same mentality.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Business.

Hari-śauri: It's simply a way of making a livelihood.

Prabhupāda: That is everywhere. Here also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there some mention in the Bhāgavatam about this, that the religious men will wear only the clothes to make a profit? That people will wear religious clothing simply for making profit? Now religion is a good business. They take it like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good business.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They exploit the sentiment.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Tripurāri: Exactly what they accuse us of doing, they are doing.

Satsvarūpa: Then also they have testimonies of people who went through this and said, "I am very glad that I was rescued by force, because now I am free." So this is more like damaging...

Brahmānanda: In fact many who were deprogrammed have then joined the deprogrammers. Even there are some of our devotees of Hare Kṛṣṇa. They are now going around and deprogramming. They're working for the deprogrammers.

Ādi-keśava: They have their own guru. This Ted Patrick has become their guru, and then they have a whole organization built around him. They are now getting donations, they're a nonprofit corporation, they have established a $100,000...

Prabhupāda: If he's in jail...?

Ādi-keśava: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So what can we do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think we have to do exactly what what we are doing.

Prabhupāda: That is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: More vigorously.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) That's it. And the Hyderabad report, that English education, they are inclined. There are so many here. That's not very good idea. As soon as they get English education...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They'll leave. So we should not encourage that at all. I think it's different than here.

Prabhupāda: No, their attention should be in chanting. And produce their own food, agriculture. And as soon as they get English education, then... Not "as soon as," but not all of them are fit for being educated. It is not possible. They are śūdra class of men. What he will be educated? Śūdra, vaiśya, they should learn how to plow, how to produce food. They are thinking otherwise, that "Plowing is great labor. If we educate our boys in English, they can go to the city. Immediately they get some..."

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're up against demons. We should not think that these people will become satisfied. They're demons.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're not going to be satisfied.

Prabhupāda: Then description is there in the Sixteenth Chapter, exactly of the Western civilization. Read it.

Hari-śauri:

pravṛttiṁ ca nivṛttiṁ ca
janā na vidur āsurāḥ
na śaucaṁ nāpi cācāro
na satyaṁ teṣu vidyate
(BG 16.7)

"Those who are demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done."

Prabhupāda: This is their first qualification. They do not know what is the aim of life. Ask anyone what is the aim of life. They cannot say, like animal. Animal does not know. Eat, sleep, sex. They do not know. This is the demon's first quality. In which way life should be directed, they do not know. They are missing that.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa has given all knowledge. Actually nobody has tried to present Bhagavad-gītā like this. That's a fact. And it is acting. (laughs) Now it is acting. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante... (BG 7.15). Make your defense measure consulting all these books, everything. Transmigration, in the morning I...?

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Explain.

Satsvarūpa: You explained that whatever a person is thinking, that's his desire. At the time of death the desire is very prominent, so he takes a body according to that desire. And then you described exactly how it happens, that the subtle body carries the soul, just like the air carries the aroma of the flower into the semina of the man to the woman who supplies the ingredients, and the body comes out. In this way he travels from one body to another.

Hari-śauri: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Just see. This is their civilization. In Paris there are so many clubs. The old men, they first of all pay fifty dollars to enter into the club. Then he selects which vagina he will lick up. Then another payment. I know that. (aside:) No, he can be asked to sit down there.

Hari-śauri: To sit in the room.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Actually this is the fact. But they are fools. They still like to lick up new vagina. Exactly dogs. We are restricting that "Give up this business, licking of vagina," and they are seeking up to the point of death another vagina, another vagina, another... Which is better? If we say that "Give up this nonsense business," is that brainwash? And if it is brainwash, it is for good. What is this civilization, who is never satisfied? The same business is going on up to the point of death. Our civilization is: "All right, you are attached to vagina-licking. Do it up to fifty years. Then give it up." This is our civilization. "You are so much accustomed to the vagina-licking business—up to fifty years, so long you are young. Then give it... Don't do it anymore." This is our civilization. And that also, after twenty-five years. For twenty-five years teach him, "It is no good business. Brahmacārī. Remain alone. You have got so much botheration." If he's still unable: "All right, take one wife. Be satisfied. Lick up one. And then, at the age of fifty years, give up." This is our... Is that wrong?

Satsvarūpa: It's good.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Where it is?

Rādhā-vallabha: It's verse twenty-eight, "Then he worshiped Śrī Kṛṣṇa." So Jagannātha said it should be, "Then he worshiped..."

Prabhupāda: No, no. Jagannātha cannot correct. That bad habit he must give up.

Rādhā-vallabha: So we should just leave it exactly.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. You should not be more educated.

Rādhā-vallabha: He wasn't changing any of the words. He was just...

Prabhupāda: Nothing of the... This of should be strictly forbidden.

Rādhā-vallabha: So no corrections. That makes it simple.

Prabhupāda: They can divide the synonyms. That's all.

Rādhā-vallabha: Synonyms. So even...

Prabhupāda: That is his tendency, to correct. That's very bad. He should not do that.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Rādhā-vallabha: In some cases, but in other cases it's not possible to get money unless you... Like with the Laguna Beach people. Unless they know exactly what it's going for, they won't give something. And this is the type of thing that can inspire them to give a little money, especially the ones that don't give anything. Anyway, even if a donation comes, I won't do anything with it until I speak to you.

Prabhupāda: No, donation may come for causes good, many, but investment must be conscientious.

Rādhā-vallabha: So I'll save it until I speak to you.

Prabhupāda: Not that because you are getting donation very easily and you spend it, squander it, like that, anything. No. That should not be.

Rādhā-vallabha: In the book on the... I'll wait till you finish your medicine.

Prabhupāda: So Jagannātha-sūta should be strictly advised not to become very learned to correct authorities. No.

Rādhā-vallabha: Jagannātha dāsa.

Prabhupāda: Jagannātha? He is Jagannātha-sūta or where he is?

Rādhā-vallabha: Jagannātha-sūta is Back to Godhead. Jagannātha dāsa is Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: Oh. That's it. He should not be very learned.

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

Prabhupāda: First of all you depute two or three GBCs to go there and see what is their program, how they'll utilize the money.

Jayatīrtha: A committee was formed to examine the situation in depth and to make a proposal exactly how the money would be utilized, and that committee consisted of... Who were the GBC men, Satsvarūpa?

Rāmeśvara: The Indian GBC.

Jayatīrtha: Indian GBC. They were supposed to make a...

Prabhupāda: No, Indian GBC plus other GBC. Four or five men should study.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda's talking about the agricultural program.

Rāmeśvara: But this ties in.

Gargamuni: Agriculture minister.

Prabhupāda: Not only here, but everywhere. The farm project is sound project. So what other things?

Satsvarūpa: There's quite a list of resolutions, yesterday's and today's. Beginning yesterday morning: We finished the last assignments of GBC men, that Jagadīśa will continue as the education minister and that Svarūpa Dāmodara will execute his GBC duties in connection with the Bhaktivedanta Institute, Eastern headquarters in Bombay, Western headquarters Washington, D.C., with Rūpānuga.

Prabhupāda: And Boston also? No.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That I say.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So the people who gave letters...

Girirāja: I am making a block that will reproduce exactly the article as it appears in the paper that had the...

Gargamuni: Send it as a thank—you note.

Girirāja: Yes, I am going to. I am going to send it to all the members.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about to other people around India who we don't have their names? We could have Ādi-keśava do that. He should actually do that.

Girirāja: Yeah. Because Prabhupāda said that it should be sent to all the parents of devotees. We could send one original to Rāmeśvara...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, Ādi-keśava Mahārāja has at least a couple hundred letters from people in groups in India, from Vṛndāvana, all over the country. I think I could send him a copy of this article and he could send a thank—you letter along with this article to each of them, thanking them for their help. They appreciate it, coming from America, that the president of the New York center himself wrote them.

Gargamuni: I just returned from Calcutta, and they are expecting you to arrive tomorrow morning by plane.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Gargamuni: In Calcutta.

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You can take interest in so many ways. If you are not interested in that way, read books. Are you not interested in reading books? Read. We have got many ways. That is for mass of people. The class of people who wants to understand this movement through science, philosophy, come on, read these books.

Mr. Koshi: One of the conditions is illicit sex.

Prabhupāda: That is sinful. Don't you see, illicit sex, what havoc it has done?

Mr. Koshi: What exactly do you mean?

Prabhupāda: Illicit sex, do you think it is...?

Mr. Koshi: Outside marriage, you mean?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not only outside marriage. Even in marriage, you cannot have sex as you like. You must have sex according to the regulative principle or religious principle.

Mr. Koshi: Could you explain?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like only for begetting nice children.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No. Few copies.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. "6) Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja will settle the Portuguese money through Satsvarūpa Gosvāmī." I don't exactly know the meaning of that. "7) Sa-vijñānam Journal"—that's the Bhaktivedanta Institute Journal, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the scientist journal—"will be printed and paid for by BBT India and exported to the Bhaktivedanta Institute." So that monthly journal or quarter, you know four times a year journal, will be printed here in India, because we felt the printing could be done much less expensively. And it will be sent from here.

Prabhupāda: But he was going to print it at Los Angeles.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: More money means printing more bills.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, but you haven't increased the...

Prabhupāda: And your enemy country, they're actually happy. They print exactly money like this. They come and purchase goods and give you fortune, anybody. I know. Then what is the difficulty? Suppose this American dollar, is it very difficult to print? So the Chinese, they are America's enemy, they can print, bring millions of dollars and purchase from your country and export to his country and give you some paper. You are... What you can do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, we can only hope that we'll catch them. We hope that we'll catch them.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing, "when we catch." Who will catch? "Bell the cat." It is going on. I know. During wartime, one Chinese man was coming from China, and one business friend, he was appointed his purchasing agent. He was giving a list of goods to purchase. And this man, whatever money he'll charge, he'll immediately-Indian currency. He'll not say, "Why so much price?" No. Then he will pack up the goods and through some channel he'll dispatch it. That is also through our way, not in the... The China is in on the border. There also, if you pay money, smuggler's rate... They try to do.

Conversations -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Patita-pāvana: We could also have them write some article. I know the chief reporter there.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say you have done independently, whimsically. This is... This is to be stopped. You are acting too independent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'd just like a point of clarification, 'cause I don't understand. What exactly is your engagement? I see that you're traveling all over India. What exactly are you going...? Has Prabhupāda told you to travel like this continuously, all over...?

Patita-pāvana: No, he told me to go South India and find some paṇḍitas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And now you're planning to go to Delhi.

Patita-pāvana: No, no, Surabhī Mahārāja has asked me to do some press releases for the newspapers.

Prabhupāda: So Surabhī Mahārāja has asked. So you are conducted by Surabhī Mahārāja.

Patita-pāvana: Yes, Prabhupāda. At least I'm trying. If I have acted untimely, I...

Prabhupāda: And this is the result. This is the result, this disastrous article. You do independently when you like under the direction of Surabhī Mahārāja and create disaster.

Conversation with Tamala Krsna about Yadubara -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So you decide.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He wants to show how Kṛṣṇa's teachings were passed down through the ages by the great ācāryas through the different sampradāyas...

Prabhupāda: That is good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Śaṅkarācārya...

Prabhupāda: It is not fictitious, as rascal... I have discussed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. This is exactly what his purpose is. He wants to show there is Kurukṣetra. It's not in someone's mind. "And perhaps even including Lord Buddha's explaining his real identity and role in bringing people to a higher platform."

Prabhupāda: These are good ideas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "And then to include Lord Caitanya, the six Gosvāmīs, and other great ācāryas in our line, up to Your Divine Grace, the foremost preacher of the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the world today."

Prabhupāda: Very good. This is all right.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: If you have got the name, so why not reply to each one, the letter...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, I see.

Prabhupāda: ...that "We are intending to make a huge planetarium. If you can help us?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mentioning the Fifth Canto, Bhāgavatam?

Prabhupāda: Exactly to the description of Fifth Canto, we want.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How will we get their addresses?

Prabhupāda: Hm? Or I can write to Mr. Chandan(?).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's one thing we could do. I haven't seen the article, but he must have spoken at some institution or some meeting. We can write a letter to the secretary of that institution and meeting, telling them what we intend to do and to forward to us a list of the people who attended and their addresses. And that way we can... Should... Of course, I can do it, but do you want us to do it or should Surabhī's office do it?

Prabhupāda: Surabhī?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: What they'll see there? (laughter) How Saman(?) Mahārāja is managing?

Jayapatākā: He somehow is trying to maintain. I don't see any improvement.

Prabhupāda: No, he cannot make any improvement, but if he can maintain, that is our question.

Jayapatākā: I didn't go there, so I can't exactly say. I don't go there. (pause) (break)

Prabhupāda: The spread, the... First of all they wanted to give us a cheap rate, "Eh!" And now they are doing: "We shall be taking our leader out." That is not cheap rate. (pause) (kīrtana in background) (break)

Jayapatākā: ...then there will be no permission.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is he still in town?

Jayapatākā: Yeah, she said... The administrator... For one... After the elections they should be safe. But Mr. Choudhury said that so far as for the temple, that little pieces in the center, he said that can easily be arranged. But for the big temple...

Prabhupāda: The center?

Bhavānanda: We might do that in pieces.

Discussions with Devotees and Conversation with Dr. Ghosh -- June 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodānandana: There was a discussion today that in some time, after this preaching to the scientists starts, if we get exposed, it will be a very, very big world news item, especially with jagat theory of the universe, to explain how all the planets are exactly together, how life comes from life. It will be a very shocking news to the whole scientific world. They have so many misconceptions which are simply due to ignorance.

Prabhupāda: They are simply making false propaganda to keep their prestige. Useless. Now here is a scientist. He'll confirm it. What do you think?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Er... I think it's going to be very interesting. We are prepared for it, and it will be a great challenging, challenging field, if all the scientists and all over...

Prabhupāda: We have got some background. They have no background.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, we have Bhagavad-gītā and Prabhupāda, Kṛṣṇa. We are very prominent.

Prabhupāda: But they have no background. They are simply speculating. In the first place they have no background. Child. Doesn't know what... Do you think they are knowing?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I saw just little hint. I met an Indian physicist in Emory University. He's quite well known physicist, and he actually liked the idea that we wrote on. He said it's very genuine and very scientific. We have developed this the laws of consciousness from trying ātmā and Paramātmā. The Paramātmā, we say, is the source of all these laws of nature.

Prabhupāda: That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). Jaya. (Bengali) Or if you like, you can travel with him, but your translation must be main work. If you like, you can go to the foreign countries along with him. (Bengali) So that program you planned, he can come.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So our map here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, one centimeter equals 2,000 yojanas. So this is fifty centimeters, so it equals 100,000 yojanas. It also... For anyone who is counting, four of these boxes equal one centimeter. So simply by counting this, one can understand how many yojanas each thing... This is exactly to scale. It's done very precisely to scale.

Yaśodānandana: And it describes, "In Jambūdvīpa there are nine divisions of land, each with a length of 9,000 yojanas, 72,000 miles: Bhārata-varṣa, Kimpuruṣa-varṣa, Hari-varṣa, Bhadra-varṣa, Ilāvṛta-varṣa, Ketumāla-varṣa, Ramyaka-varṣa, Hiraṇmaya-varṣa, and Kuru-varṣa. There are eight mountains that mark the boundaries of these divisions and separate them nicely. Starting with the Himalayas"—that's the first mountain—"Hemakūṭa Parvata"—second mountain—"Niṣadha Parvata"—third mountain—it goes... This... "Gandhamādana Parvata, which is the east side of Sumeru, and then Mālyavān Mountain on the west side..."

Bhakti-prema(?): Nīla mountain, north; Śveta mountain, next; and Śṛṅgavān Mountain, north.

Yaśodānandana: Maybe you can explain that Sanskrit purport also?

Bhakti-prema: (Sanskrit) It is bow-shaped. Bhārata-varṣa is bow-shaped, and this Bhadra-varṣa is again bow-shaped, Kuru-varṣa, again bow-shaped, and this Ketumāla-varṣa, again... So they were shaped. (Sanskrit) That means thirty-four yojanas...

Prabhupāda: Thousand yojanas.

Bhakti-prema: ...square. Thirty-four thousand yojanas in..., in this. This is Kimpuruṣa-varṣa. That is between Himalaya and Hemakūṭa mountain. And again Hari-varṣa is between Hemakūṭa Mountain and Niṣadha Mountain. And this Ramyaka...

Prabhupāda: Where is geographical description of this?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't even know they exist.

Prabhupāda: Little description of the Himalayas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's all.

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

Prabhupāda: So this can be given to the Deities, these flowers.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're very nice. Are they scented?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Some... We have another one. It has 108 petals exactly. It's white when full bloomed. Just started, this monsoon. The full season will come sometime in August, August and September. Lotus are everywhere, these flowers, on either side of the road, and all lakes full of lotuses.

Prabhupāda: Pineapple, your country is famous for pineapple.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Pineapple is very sweet. This is another season, but in about three weeks the larger variety will come. This is a little smaller type. The bigger ones, big. And it is green outside, but it's very sweet, full of juice. The hillsides all covered with pineapples, and it's very cheap.

Prabhupāda: So Calcutta, there was rain.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes. The farming is very good this time in our side, Bengal and Assam and Manipur, so much rain from the south. And I saw from the plane that everything is already green.

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Why you are breathing? Is it necessary? (break)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But he doesn't want to speak.

Prabhupāda: You have asked him already?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, I said, "We are coming in September," so he's... We'll be giving lectures there.

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

Prabhupāda: That Frankenstein?

Devotees: Frankenstein.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We gave a lecture in Gainesville, Florida. It was last year. So Amarendra made a nice poster about our lecture. I don't exactly remember, "Frankenstein or Einstein," describing a little about our talk, that life cannot come from matter. And he made a nice poster all over the campuses.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many people came?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, some came in the temple. We also gave university, in the physics class, called "Physics for Skeptics," the title of the class. It was very interesting.

Prabhupāda: Now it is clearing. You can go inside.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Morning Conversation -- June 23, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I took advantage, "Let me stay somewhere." I was loitering in the street, so I thought, "Let me stay somewhere. Then I shall see later on."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's exactly what you had, two hundred dollars. You had saved that money very carefully?

Prabhupāda: Not carefully. Anyway, I got it. I was never careful for anything. Whatever automatically comes... I was never careful. "As the Jew, I have to save..." No, no.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A long way up to 55th Street. It's quite a change from that humble apartment to...

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...big, big buildings.

Prabhupāda: On First Street. The First Street was there. I was in between the First and Second Street.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: So First Street, Second Street, and we went to 55th. And Second Avenue, Fifth.

Conversation with Bhakti-caitanya Swami-New GBC -- June 30, 1977, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: What is the time now?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's about five minutes after nine, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Akṣayānanda: I went to the gate site this morning. They are digging. They have made enormous holes, taking about two days to dig. Now there's some hitch from the P.W.D. about materials list... When our construction man Adbhuta comes at ten o'clock, I will meet with him and find out exactly... They had bogus sculptor working.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Akṣayānanda: Yeah, but our... At ten o'clock I'll find out. After your darśana I'll find out what the details are. But they've already dug two enormous big holes.

Prabhupāda: The municipality has got sanction.

Akṣayānanda: Sanction is there. Some red tape. I'll find out later. Something about materials, iron materials, reinforcement, how much they need. They're always finding some...

Prabhupāda: So the P.W.D. has objected.

Conversation -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Mr. Myer: We need in this country very much, in every city, in every town. For twenty years I was searching for something like this, and I think something exactly what I have dreamt of. And I think there are some very few problems that might come up, because most of the people are sannyāsīs. They are doing lot of preaching work. They aren't necessarily bothered with lot of administrative work. And if their administrative work is done by some other people, then they can concentrate more on preaching, which is very necessary.

Prabhupāda: Yes, sannyāsī, brahmacārī, means preaching. They are not meant for material management. They have dedicated their life for spiritual-although this material service is also spiritual—but they are doing on such a strength. You cannot expect a very expertly management and... But they act. Simply ask them to do the needful.

Mr. Myer: That's right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, out of desire to serve you, they carry out whatever you ask.

Prabhupāda: They cannot be expert, these men, managers. They are not... They are giving up everything. But as soon as there is big establishment, we require a top manager.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In other words, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Priyavrata had seven children on seven islands, and each one of them had seven children. So each son of Priyavrata divided his island in seven parts, and it was given to one of the grandsons of Priyavrata. We could not show that because it's so small. This is drawn exactly to scale. In order to include all of the Bhū-maṇḍala we had to make everything up very small because, as you'll see, most of Bhū-maṇḍala is made of Loka-varṣa and Lokāloka mountain. Everything else is very small compared to those two.

Yaśodā-nandana: Surrounding the sugarcane ocean, there is Śālmalidvīpa, where again there are seven divisions of land, seven rivers...

Prabhupāda: So island and surrounded by ocean, like that.

Bhakti-prema: Yes.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodā-nandana: Not accepting the authority. The problem is the Pacific Ocean, according to Jambūdvīpa, for us it is the salt ocean. So the first question that Mahārāja was raising, that they will ask, how do we go between the west coast of America, which is very tiny, and Japan, as this according to their calculation we go west and we arrive around. And you keep still going further and you arrive back in America. The point about the Himalayas, that we did not raise, because that we could well understood. The Himalayas is much broader and much bigger than they think. We can fully understand it. But that point, from common-sense point of view we couldn't exactly understand. We thought of it all afternoon, and we came up with a few ideas, but we wanted to hear what Your Divine Grace...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Our question was mostly coming out of how to draw what the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is saying. We're not supporting any kind of mundane argument, nor do we have any doubt in Bhāgavatam. We're simply trying to understand the Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: And that is your credit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's why we were meeting.

Prabhupāda: Where is the difficulty?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, I think that one of the difficulties arose from my seeing this map originally, because in this map it shows the continents that we today speak of as various continents.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Never mind.

Mr. Myer: ...know exactly what is happening, once we commonize the kitchen, the office, accounting chain and everything. At present we are slightly under capital, small space, but... Gurukula is coming out very well. In fact we met the contractor yesterday. So we're hoping that by next month this time the whole thing should be shifted and so many more guestrooms will be released for people coming here for the festival. Possibilities are very good.

Prabhupāda: Everything is there by Kṛṣṇa's grace. Simply if it is nicely organized, things will... Tamāla Kṛṣṇa is very much appreciating.

Mr. Myer: Nothing is done by us.(?)

Prabhupāda: So gradually...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There was a letter from Śrīdhara Swami from Hyderabad temple. Would you like to hear it?

Prabhupāda: You have read it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, no. (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't know. They think it is a pheasant or something. They have no idea it is a peacock, special bird. I asked Abhirama. Sometimes they fly away and they don't come back. I said, "Does it mean that they got lost?" He said, "We don't know exactly what it means, but we are guessing." The people there are...

Prabhupāda: Rākṣasa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, rākṣasa. And, of course, there's lots of coconut trees. Coconuts. That is a special feature of Florida especially. Many people... The thing is... Like mangoes, for example. The people, they don't want the mangoes or the coconuts or the avocados. In fact, you can go to people's home and say, "Sir, can I have these?" They say, "Yes, please take them away. They're creating a mess." They want you to take these things.

Prabhupāda: Hawaii also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Same thing. And now in Florida they have developed a tree. It is a coconut tree without the coconuts.

Prabhupāda: Why not make mango industry?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mango industry.

Prabhupāda: Mango is such a fruit, when it is not ripe, the green from that, up to the full ripe you can have.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Pranavdas Gupta: The Samvat comes... Because when the date is 1896 we have to add fifty-seven years, because when we want to get samvat, then we have to add fifty-seven years. So then we add fifty-seven years it comes 1953. Then he took out the very, very old man, (?) and I saw that, that he took out that calendar, and pañcama, and then he calculated. He saw this. And I told him that "We can look at the date. I don't know exactly what the date is, but just following Janmāṣṭamī." No. Day I did not disclose. Then he said... Then he saw after Janmāṣṭamī that's navamī. Then he said, "The day is Tuesday." I knew the day is Tuesday. "That's correct." Then what is the date? And he said, "First September." When we look here if it is 1st September then that must be adit-masa(?) also, because we are getting Janmāṣṭamī 6th September. That year also it must be adit-masa(?). He said yes. Then he saw there were Jyeṣṭha, at that time, Jyeṣṭha or Asadhar. That was adit-masa(?) He saw in your pañcama. Then he prepared all these things. Then he said according to rasi... "Do you know his name?" I said, "No, name I don't remember," because I am not to disclose anything...

Prabhupāda: I'll tell you, therefore, "Let him ask."

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

Prabhupāda: No, no. Your atomic energy, what benefit has done to the people?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A real rākṣasa. Here's Haṁsadūta's reply to him. "Reply to Dr. Kovoor's article: Before going into the main body of my article, which I..., a transcript of a lecture I delivered at Sarasvatī Hall on July 29th before an audience of approximately one thousand respectable gentry of Colombo, and where Dr. Kovoor also happened to be present and was subsequently challenged but failed to defend his position that life is generated by chance chemical combination, I would briefly like to point out the apparent defects in his article. It is not beyond Kovoor's power of observation. First of all, it should be pointed out that Dr. Kovoor has done exactly what I predicted he would do in my last article, namely swamp the reader with a deluge of word jugglery in order to avoid the main point in question, which is, If life is generated by chance biochemical combination, as the scientists claim, then if given the said chemicals, can the scientist Kovoor make the chemicals come to life? Instead of answering this point, he has cleverly written that 'Scientists have created over ten elements, such a fermium, plutonium, serium, einsteinium, etc.' But elements are a far cry from living beings. He says that Dr. Cyril Pannamperuma and Dr. Bal Gobind Khorana, Nobel Prize-winners..." Incidentally, this Mr. Nobel was the inventor of dynamite, and he is giving Peace Prizes. Absurd to say the least. He's famous for inventing dynamite and he's giving the Peace Prize. As you said, drunkards. He says, "Those Nobel Prize-winners have synthesized the building blocks of living protoplasm. So if this is a fact, then why Dr. Kovoor has not met the challenge and created life with the said building blocks of amino acids? My challenge still stands: Create life from chemicals. As for incubating a baby in a test tube..." (break) "...required to produce that baby in the test tube cannot be created by the so-called scientists. So what is their credit if they produce a baby in a test tube? God is already producing millions of babies daily in nature's test tube, the womb of a woman. Kovoor's statement that scientists are objective thinkers and base their thoughts on empirical knowledge only, goes to prove my point that the soul lies beyond the jurisdiction of the limited senses of the scientists, and therefore a completely different process of approach has to be adopted."

Prabhupāda: So Haṁsadūta has become famous now.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All the people there will support Haṁsadūta. Naturally they won't support such a rascal. (pause) (whispering in background)

Prabhupāda: This argument is called Pretitio Principial logic. You can see the dictionary, what is the meaning, pretitio.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: How much?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty-five rupees just for sixteen little packets, doses of medicine. Two days' medicine, fifty-five rupees. Eighty-five rupees for two days' total. No. Seventy-five rupees for two days.

Prabhupāda: We are not hesitating to pay, but this mentality...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, exactly. The point is if that a man has this mentality, then how much can we trust him for medicine? It means he's dishonest man. He's becoming dishonest. Still, some husband must be there, you said. We should have a doctor's help. I still believe that. If possible. After all, we are not doctors.

Prabhupāda: No, we are taking the help of doctor, Āyurveda, by this yogendra-rasa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You are just beginning that now, of course. Tomorrow you might give it up. Then what will be our position?

Prabhupāda: Don't have widow.(?) (laughter) Kṛṣṇa is ultimate husband.

Hari-śauri: Kṛṣṇa is?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The ultimate husband.

Prabhupāda: This here Sac-cid-ānanda, where he is?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is here. You want to speak with him about the kavirāja? We can call him.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes. So that cursian(?) massaging?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The powder massaging? Yes. Should we do it again?

Prabhupāda: Why not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I like it. I think it's good for you. Can we put some just now? I can do? Okay.

Room Conversation Arrival of Jayatirtha and Harikesa -- October 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, let us make some community.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Show the world how to live ideally, go back to Godhead. Raise your own food, make your own clothes, make your own buildings, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Worship Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. They are working so hard, they don't have nice home, they don't have nice clothing, they don't have nice food, and they have no love for Kṛṣṇa. We have to show how to do everything very nicely. And you've given... We just have to understand what you've given us, Prabhupāda, your teachings.

Prabhupāda: Thank you.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have nothing new to find out. We have no research to make. You've given us everything. We only have to carry out exactly how you've trained us up and taught us.

Prabhupāda: Do it nicely. Hm. So you can go with your business.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right. We'll continue chanting here. (kīrtana) Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. If you want me I'm right nearby, Śrīla Prabhupāda, just in another room. (break) Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: (speaking with great difficulty) It is... If I want to survive, of course I'll have to take something. It is not possible to survive without taking any food. But my survival means so many, one after another, as you say... It requires... Therefore I have decided to die peacefully in...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Shall we chant kīrtana? (Haṁsadūta leads kīrtana) (break) Those postal receipts. When they become due, then I'll give them to each of the individual members? Okay. Don't worry. I'll see that each of them is satisfied. They won't feel sorry in any way. You've provided for everyone, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break) They want you to survive.

Prabhupāda: If I want to die, this is the way of peaceful death.

Room Conversation -- October 9, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is not difficult.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You say that you still want to see the world overflooded with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You said you wanted to see that happen.

Prabhupāda: We can do that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: As you instruct us, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we will carry out your orders exactly.

Prabhupāda: Two things. Viṣaya chāṛiyā. Material motive should be given up, and everything should be engaged for Kṛṣṇa's..., whatever favorable. Then it will... (break) ... Ṛṣi is doing nice. Who is that Mahārāja?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Parivrājakācārya Swami.

Prabhupāda: Very nice. Good combination.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's been there now, Parivrājakācārya Swami, he's been there now for, I think, two or three years now. He's worked pretty faithfully there. He tricks them. In the guise of teaching a little haṭha-yoga, then he teaches bhakti.

Prabhupāda: That is preaching.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In Jhaso(?) hospital J. P. Narayan was admitted? Again he was sent to foreign country. This is the difficulty. They want up-to-date scientific treatment, which means taking blood, injection, operation, like that.

Dr. Kapoor: Yes, yes. No. You can't stand all that. (break) I think Raj Vaidya Pandit Lakshmi-Narayan. Let him examine. (Bengali) The doctor wouldn't be able to say anything unless he checks of your blood and everything, you see, which is a very troublesome task. But old vaidya, he can feel the pulse and say what exactly is wrong.

Prabhupāda: He can be brought now?

Dr. Kapoor: I can try.

Prabhupāda: So give him...

Girirāja: I'll arrange a car.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...strength even for sitting.

Dr. Kapoor: Oh. You should keep lying. Don't sit for long.

Prabhupāda: Today is also critical day?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Today is supposed to be not critical. Tomorrow is said to be critical day.

Prabhupāda: Kapoorji is bringing one retired vaidya.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Kapoorji is bringing one retired vaidya. (Bengali)

Dr. Kapoor: Pandit Lakshmi-Narayan. He was principal of Ayur Vedic College in Jaipur. He's retired man, now doing bhajana here. He's a very old and experienced person. So he will just see the pulse

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Kapoor: ...and say what exactly is wrong.

Prabhupāda: So give him car.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we'll give you Prabhupāda's car or we can give... Either way. It may be better... Bhakti-caitanya Swami has his vehicle here, I think.

Prabhupāda: Any car.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right. I'll arrange a car for you.

Dr. Kapoor: So I'll go just now and try.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So I'll arrange, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Okay.

Upendra: And we... We'll wait for the bath?

Prabhupāda: If the vaidya-rāja is coming, we should wait.

Visit From Allopathic Doctor -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhavānanda: ...exactly where he stands. He told us that he's living in the middle of all this. He's completely surrounded by them. He is opportunist. Hṛṣīkeśa Mahārāja from Caitanya Maṭha, they are giving us support. But Saranga Babu is saying that...

Indian man: (Bengali)

Bhavānanda: President, Caitanya Maṭha. (break)

Harikeśa: ...praised Īśopaniṣad. This Yugoslavian professor is very famous.

Prabhupāda: Famous?

Harikeśa: We made it very scholarly, because I remember last time you said it should be very scholarly. We printed ten thousand copies of this.

Prabhupāda: Selling?

Harikeśa: Yes, we can sell these like anything, because in Yugoslavia we can pretend we're going to Greece, and we can bring as many as we like and then we can sell these.

Prabhupāda: So why not print ten million?

Harikeśa: I only had time to print ten thousand, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Matter has no consciousness.

Brahmānanda: But matter has no consciousness.

Dr. Kapoor: Matter has no consciousness, but what exactly it is? And you see, I tell you, matter has no consciousness—this is also an assumption. You see? The analysis of matter has revealed to the scientist, the physicist, that what remains in the ultimate analysis is at least not matter.

Prabhupāda: Matter, when you combine together, reveals some reaction. That's all.

Brahmānanda: When you combine matter together, it just gives some reaction.

Dr. Kapoor: True, but the question remains...

Prabhupāda: Just like soda, acid and soda. Mix together. There will be effervescence. That is matter. And life means gives impetus: "Do this." It is not comparable(?) thing.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What meeting is going on?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We had two meetings today. One meeting was the BBT meeting for the completion of the Bombay project. And then another meeting was about our community Gītā-nagarī. Describing how it will be... Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja has come with his brother, who's the architect. And we're having a meeting for planning this ideal community very exactly, everything. The people present at the meeting are Bhavānanda Mahārāja and Paramānanda, Vāmanadeva, Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja, Tripurāri Mahārāja, Balavanta, Rūpānuga. All these people have experience with..., you know, like Bhavānanda in Māyāpur. Balavanta has two farms, Rūpānuga, all of these people. In other words, we're just trying to plan out... And Surabhī Mahārāja. And Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja's brother is an architect. In fact I've just been told that his architectural firm is the same one that's designing the... What is that? Designing a big thing in Tehran for the Shah of Iran. It's a very big architectural firm. So we're just trying to plan a very ideal community. We don't want to make a hodgepodge of it. I mean it should be so ideal that it becomes one of the most wonderful preaching tools for our movement, to show that "Here is an ideal community based upon Vedic principles, and it's perfect in every respect." So it takes a little cooperative thought and planning. That's why we've invited so many people to sit in the meeting.

Prabhupāda: I was very happy when I heard, respectable gentlemen, out of love, they are washing dishes. You know that? Ātreya Ṛṣi told me.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm. That is real medicine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think that our being here and chanting before you is spreading this movement, because the more we chant, the more love and dependence we develop for you, and that's making us strong in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and therefore our movement is getting stronger. Every day that we stay here, we become stronger in our devotion for you and dependence on you. (pause) I think that I should just tell them to end their meeting now. They're waiting for me, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Then I'll come back in a little while and chant. Actually you have to get better, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja has built this palace. It's only meant for you. We were seeing pictures of it today. It is so beautiful. It is exactly the place that you want to retire in and translate. And this community of Gītā-nagarī will be just proper place to give direction how to establish nice spiritual community. These two places are very close to each other-New Vrindaban and Gītā-nagarī. They're only three hours away from each other. Two very good communities for showing the example how to spread ideal Vedic life. We were discussing that actually it is not anything new that Kṛṣṇa can make His devotee better, because we were reading before in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta how sometimes Lord Caitanya would bring back to life someone who had even expired. And His associates were able to do that. And there is many cases. I think if we are very determined, then Kṛṣṇa will surely fulfill our desire.

Prabhupāda: Without fail.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Without fail.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is that? In the beginning of the coming year?

Pradyumna: Well, sometimes they make varṣa-phala for the birthday. Whatever Prabhupāda's birthday is, on that day this year they make one. On the day it was September 7, he'll make a chart exactly at that time, and then he'll see where the planets are. That will tell what will come till next birthday.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So when did he do it for? On the birthday?

Pradyumna: I don't know which day he's done it for. It's probably done it for the birthday this year. He's given some positions, and he said, "Not good." He said, "Mars is with Saturn in conjunction. Very bad. Hospitalization and ill health intensified in the present year. The days not good when the Moon passes in the 22nd, 23rd nakṣatra."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When is that? Then he gives those days.

Pradyumna: "27th, 28th September."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's past.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The affection was increasing not to māyā, but because Kṛṣṇa expanded Himself as everything... So their whole life was meant for Kṛṣṇa. On account of Kṛṣṇa affection, the affection of the older calves were more than the new calves. What is written in the English Kṛṣṇa?

Jayādvaita: "One day when Kṛṣṇa, along with Balarāma, was maintaining the calves in the forest..." It's just up here. "Balarāma was astonished to see all the residents of Vṛndāvana so affectionate for their own children, exactly as they had been for Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, the cows had grown affectionate for their calves as much as for Kṛṣṇa. Balarāma therefore concluded that the extraordinary show of affection was something mystical, either performed by the demigods or by some powerful man."

Prabhupāda: Is it clear now? Balarāma was surprised to see the action of yogamāyā; therefore He inquired from Kṛṣṇa, "What is happening in this scene? What is that mystery?" Is it clear?

Pradyumna: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Doctor Visit and Conversation -- October 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: We are not worried.

Dr. Gopal: So you should not bother about that diarrhea, because he's really exactly on proper diet. It is only the part. They are obstructing the free passage of stool because of that scab(?), dry feces there. So should it come out easily, either by enema or by manual pushing, then it's all right. So then there will be no problem of this diarrhea. Don't do anything to stop diarrhea.

Bhavānanda: And the restlessness at night, insomnia?

Dr. Gopal: Insomnia. Yes, he had. Because somebody told me yesterday also it is his usual feature that he doesn't want to sleep, or he's not sleeping, but he will... And it were before... As a routine he's not sleeping. So it may be that it is his habit that he doesn't like to sleep in the night. Because how many times he goes for urination in the night also? Does he go? How many times?

Upendra: Once, twice.

Dr. Gopal: Once, twice.

Upendra: Usually twice.

Prabhupāda: I... I'm feeling nicely.

Dr. Gopal: You are feeling?

Prabhupāda: After eating.

Doctor Visit and Conversation -- October 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Dr. Gopal: This will reduce the nausea. You just give this electro powder. How much you are giving exactly?

Bhavānanda: Usually we give 150 milliliters of water with about 1 measure of the electro powder.

Dr. Gopal: In 150 ml? It will cause a little nausea also. If you... Do you have cold water?

Jayapatākā: That's the concentrated.

Dr. Gopal: This is concentrated. You should not give so much concentrated. You just, so to say, about six ounce of water... You just add less than 1 spoon, one measureful, of this electro.

Bhavānanda: Six ounces.

Dr. Gopal: In six ounces. And you give just two... (Hindi) Just give 2 teaspoon. Rest. Again 2 teaspoon. This is just sort of, you can call it as in the form of prasādam, or you can say in the form of rainwater so that his dryness should not be there in the mouth. It should always be wet. You understand my point?

Jayapatākā: He wants some cold water.

Trivikrama: Upendra went.

Upendra: One hundred and fifty urine. (background conversation) What was that, about?

Dr. Gopal: About half. (discussion about medicine)

Prabhupāda: I am ready to leave(?).

Bhavānanda: No, Dr. Gopal was saying for taking some foodstuff, little bit, one, two, spoonfuls. He said he's going to cut the medicine down to half.

Prabhupāda: What is this?

Dr. Gopal: This is glucose water. No taste?

Prabhupāda: Little taste.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: How many khols he has already prepared?

Bharadvāja: I don't know exactly, but I think it was close to about two hundred when I left.

Prabhupāda: Where he is making?

Bharadvāja: Well, they are having most of the part done outside by outside people, professionals, and Īśāna is assembling, and he's working very hard.

Prabhupāda: It is plastic?

Bharadvāja: Yes, Completely, everything. And it can be tuned also on the spot. There is a key, and with this key you can tune it up. The heads never break, but if they happen to break they can be immediately replaced within... They can get extra heads and it takes about two minutes to change, to put a new head on.

Prabhupāda: Hm!

Bharadvāja: So Īśāna has worked very hard to fulfill your order, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Now he's successful.

Bharadvāja: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So you have to search out.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, but I've actually been doing that. And I've also been checking whenever they give interest that it's exactly the right amount. I make sure each year they credit the interest, keeping watch carefully of the fixed deposits to see when they come matured, like that.

Prabhupāda: Only thing is that M. M. De and Sulaksmana. They should not be given more than twelve...(?) (two hundred...?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The only thing is about M. M. De? I've just dictated a letter to the Central Bank of India. I'm going to send this letter to Girirāja that...

Prabhupāda: He has become Communist.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's all right, but this is the point, that this boy is not a replacement for this kavirāja. The fact is that Prabhupāda's condition being the way it is, we can't depend on the fact that Prabhupāda will continue to get exactly better as the kavirāja plans.

Bhakti-caru: Then what do you think the alternative should be?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The alternative is that either the kavirāja should stay here, or if we feel this kavirāja is actually giving beneficial help, then we should go with him. But I don't think that we should put ourselves in the hands of this junior man.

Prabhupāda: That is right conclusion.

Bhakti-caru: None of us... As soon as we saw him, we didn't even like his looks.

Bhakti-caru: But the kavirāja doesn't want that Prabhupāda should move.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he should stay here if he doesn't want it. What will you do if, supposing after three days after the kavirāja leaves, suddenly Prabhupāda's condition changes in such a way that it wasn't counted on. Then what will be done at that time? Then it means that this junior man suddenly has to give diagnosis and treatment?

Bhakti-caru: That's the best. I mean if he stays here, then there is nothing...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If he can't stay here, then he should help to take Prabhupāda to Māyāpur. And actually that will make him very responsible, because then he'll see that Prabhupāda is taking risk simply to be under his care. So that will make him feel even more obligated to take proper care of Śrīla Prabhupāda even after going to Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: This is the right conclusion.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In the guesthouse they can remain. But they cannot hold meeting.

Brahmānanda: They were asking me that we should cooperate with them, but they are envious of us. This one woman, the way she was speaking to me, it was quite... She was attacking me. She was so envious. She was quoting Bhagavad-gītā that Kṛṣṇa recommends the impersonal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So why is she talking? Why talk? Everything is illusion. Then why talk?

Brahmānanda: She said there are two paths. I said, "Yes, but your path is most difficult. So why are you promoting the most difficult path to follow?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But who cares for her path?

Akṣayānanda: (indistinct) a different path.

Prabhupāda: Never mind. You remain strong. Don't be intimidated by this... That is my request.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I think we should go to the next room. We will do just exactly as you say. (break) (end)

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa will protect you. Try.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They're very politically minded.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're not at all interested in the Bhagavad-gītā. And that purport I read was perfect. That purport that I read was all about doing some nonsense interpretation. That's exactly what they do. Unwilling to admit the Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa, but enjoying the property of Kṛṣṇa—that's their business.

Brahmānanda: They do not believe in God.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're atheists. So we'll deal with them very carefully, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Śatadhanya: Jayapatākā Mahārāja is very anxious to purchase that land. It's exactly where the site for the big temple, at that location. Fifteen bighās.

Prabhupāda: Whether he can purchase?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whether he can purchase? If you don't go to Māyāpur, Śrīla Prabhupāda, all of Māyāpur will come here to be with you. Now, if you get a little stronger, we can go.

Śatadhanya: Even the airport officials were disappointed. They were saying, "Where is our Guru Mahārāja?" I was shocked to hear them saying. "Where is our Guru Mahārāja?" They had purchased very nice fruits and vegetables of all different varieties, and Prabhupāda could choose which he liked-portal, jinga, so many things.

Prabhupāda: What other news?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What other news?

Śatadhanya: Everything is very nice there, very organized. Jayapatākā Mahārāja and Bhavānanda Mahārāja have organized it very nicely. Calcutta is very clean. Also Calcutta was prepared in case your Divine Grace was feeling tired. Then you could have stayed at Calcutta for a day or so and then gone on to Māyāpur. Many life members had come to the airport. Sita Ram Daga...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think we have to go soon, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Actually, to take you to different places is the greatest ecstasy, because there's no greater pleasure the devotees have than when you first arrive, they see you. Their feelings know no bounds. Airport arrivals have always been ecstatic over the years, Śrīla Prabhupāda. The newspapers always remark how ecstatic they are.

Prabhupāda: What is the condition of the road?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This road is hopeless. We have to find an alternate way.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, according to this kavirāja, he said that after fifteen days of this treatment, there should be noticeable sign, increased strength. Didn't he say that? So, it's been about one week now, hasn't it? Or maybe not so long. Five days. So for another week or ten days, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we should carry on, and let us see. We're certainly not going to... I think that this is the last kavirāja that we should take the help of. If his medicine works, that's very welcome. And if it doesn't, then I don't think that we should try any more kavirājas or any doctor. We've tried enough. At least for the next week to ten days now we should carry through. At least we've seen that with other kavirājas there were so many negative effects. Remember? Now, with this kavirāja, nothing has even happened badly with the medicine he's prescribed. Rather, exactly as he predicted there would be more urine, more urine is coming. I think the swelling is reducing.

Bhakti-caru: Yes. It has. It's a lot... Another thing is that milk...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Milk you were never able to take. Now you're able to take without producing... I mean there definitely are, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Last night you gave me milk?

Bhakti-caru: Um hm. You started coughing, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The medicine can be given for ten or twelve days and everything will go exactly according to some plan. This was my point from the beginning. It's not a very difficult thing. The kavirāja probably can adjust very easily to stop stool from passing. Naturally, if you stop the medicine, maybe the stool will stop, but that doesn't actually solve the problem. That doesn't cure the disease. The disease is not that you're passing stool. That's a side effect of, perhaps, the medicine or maybe something you're eating. The medicine is required for getting better, but now, if the medicine causes you to pass stool, if that's actually the reason, then it has to be adjusted.

Śatadhanya: Just a couple of days ago, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you were constipated, and you were thinking that it was necessary to take an enema.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But stool-passing this many times is not right either. Passing stool five, six times, that is not right. It's obvious that it's a result of something. It's either the medicine or the diet. Prabhupāda says it's the medicine, just like last time when he took that makara-dhvaja, and he was right. It was the medicine. (break) ...the best thing to do. There may be some good effect by taking the medicine in addition to the causing you to pass stool. So if by giving you some other small medicine at the same time, you can still take this medicine and you don't pass stool, then that's the best thing. This only a kavirāja knows. I don't know this. I have no idea. Maybe we should take the help of that... This doesn't seem like a very difficult thing, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Passing stool is something that any kavirāja should be able to treat, and maybe for this small thing we should call that assistant who was here yesterday. That's why that kavirāja from Calcutta arranged for there to be an assistant here, in case... In other words he came and diagnosed the disease, and he made a very complicated thing, medicine that an expert had to make. And for the fact that there might be some side effect, that you may not sleep properly or you might be passing stool, something of this kind, he found out one assistant for the purpose of helping in these cases. So why not carry through with that and take the help of this assistant, see what he says? This is a common ailment that people have, diarrhea or passing stool too often, loose bowels. That's not a very major problem.

Prabhupāda: No, you have to stop.

Room Conversation -- November 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Kavirāja has no telephone.

Bhakti-caru: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he has one. He has telephone at home and in his chamber also. But when we rang up, he was not at home.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Therefore we thought it best not to lose any more time but to call Adri-dhāraṇa, because he's proved to be very capable person—he was living with the kavirāja when he was here—and we want Adri-dhāraṇa to bring the kavirāja personally anyway. Also, Girirāja and myself were just with the registrar and we made the correction on the name without any difficulty, so now it's correctly given as "Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust." I wanted that because whenever we gave money from the Trust, I wanted to make a plaque with your name on it, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I thought that would be a nice thing to do. This way, now your name will be properly given. So Śrīla Prabhupāda? The kavirāja will be coming quite soon, and I was thinking that you've been a very good patient, taking all of the medicines which he prescribed. So we should not discontinue it until he comes, because that way we can say to him that you have taken everything exactly as he recommended. That way, he'll know certainly how much his medicine has been effective. If we stop the medicine, then he won't be able to tell exactly. And as he'll be here quite soon, I think that we should just finish taking the medicine until he comes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They have got experience Indian, you can go village to village and, arrangement as you may, but it is trouble taken, and I am no longer, you manage. If I live, I can come again. I shall be very glad.

Devotee: Previously it was mentioned that there was some risk in travelling.

Prabhupāda: What is that risk? Nowadays there is no risk. What is the risk? Mm?

Devotee: Well from the medical point of view it's something with the organs or something, I don't know exactly but it's been considered.

Prabhupāda: This is my proposal and...

Jayapatāka: That would be after you gained some strength, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes. If I (have) free air and free movement why sunshine (?) and I can come back again in a year.

Jayapatāka: You will be translating while you're travelling?

Prabhupāda: No, yes and no.

Bhavānanda: I think it's good idea, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Ha.

Page Title:Exactly (Conversations 1976 - 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:25 of Feb, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=153, Let=0
No. of Quotes:153