Prabhupāda: So the order was that "You take this pot and give to Madhavendra Purī. He is sitting underneath a tree." So they, with the pot of the condensed milk, they began to cry, "Oh, who is that Madhavendra Purī? Oh, you are so fortunate. The Deity has stolen condensed milk for you. Take it." So he came forward and he was so pleased that Lord has stolen. "Because I desired to taste so Lord has stolen one pot." So in this way. From that day He became famous, the thief of condensed milk, Kṣīra-corā. Kṣīra means condensed milk and corā means thief. So the temple became famous as the temple of the thief of condensed milk.
Famous (Conversations 1967 - 1975)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1967 Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa means God. So God, this word, does not explain the nomenclature of God. Now this Kṛṣṇa is Sanskrit word, and it conveys the full meaning of God. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. All-attractive means He is full of all opulences. In this world we are attracted by one who is very rich, we are attracted by one who is very famous, we are attracted by one who is very highly educated, we are attracted by someone who is very beautiful. Similarly, these are features of attraction. And when all these attractions are reposed in one place without any rivalry, He is God. That is the conception of God. So Kṛṣṇa means all these six opulences in fullness together. That is the full definition of God.
Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:
Prabhupāda: No. I have heard so much in the paper.
Interviewer: He is the world's most famous guru at the present time.
Prabhupāda: He's not guru. But he's advertised his name like that (laughs). A guru is different thing. But people are, in your country, in the western part of the country, of the world, people are after some spiritual information. So anyone who comes professing as spiritualist, he is welcome, and if he flatters, then it is very convenient to get followers. So we don't follow exactly in that way. We follow exactly the principles of Vedic ways of life. So in that way, sex life for a sannyāsī is strictly prohibited.
Talk in Studio -- March 13, 1968, San Francisco:
Prabhupāda: What is this maker, the trademark?
Gargamuni: Concord.
Prabhupāda: Concord, yes. Concord is famous tape recorder company. (tapping microphone) It is all right?
Yamunā: Oh yes, Swamiji. It can also, it can be an amplification system.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- April 12, 1969, New York:
Prabhupāda: Yes. "She'll go later on. She'll go." So he went back. The father used to..., went back. In this way, several times. Then it was agreed that the girl would go there, father's house, and the father took the girl in the morning, and in the evening Tulasī dāsa went there. (laughs) His wife chastised, "You are so rascal fool that I have come this morning and you have, evening you are here? You have so much attachment for the skin?" Just like husband and wife talking. That struck him very badly, and he immediately left that place and went to... Left home for good. Yes. And that was the initiation that he took up writing about Rāma. That is Tulasī dāsa's life. Just being, I mean to say, hurt by the words of wife, that "I love her,"... Later on he understood, "Yes, she is right. So why should I be so much attached?" She uttered this (indistinct), "If you have got so much attachment for this skin and bone; if you had so much attachment for Rāma then your life would have been different." So he took it seriously. "Why not attachment for Rāma?" So he became a great devotee of Rāma, Tulasī das. His book, Rāma-carita-mānasa. "Thinking always of Rāma," that is his book. It is very famous book, and that is the only important literature in the Hindi language, Rāma-carita-mānasa. It is very popular in India. Village to village.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:
Prabhupāda: Yes. So we have to organize. First of all let us publish in one city, big city like New York, like London, yes, Bombay, Tokyo. Big cities, world's big cities. In India only two cities are big: Calcutta, and Bombay, important. If you publish simultaneously, Calcutta... Delhi is given importance due to capital; otherwise not important as big city, as Bombay and Calcutta. Delhi, without government offices it is a dead city. Just like Washington. What is the value of Washington? It is nothing. Simply because it is headquarters of the President, it has got importance. Similarly, Delhi is that. Otherwise it is not important. But Calcutta, Bombay, is really important city in India, big business, port, all rich men, every kind of, all cultural, everything—Calcutta, and Bombay. Originally only Calcutta, now Bombay also. Because the Britishers, they made Calcutta capital. And Calcutta was very, very important city. But these Calcutta men, they create sometimes situation, very complicated. So once in 1905 the same situation was there, politically. Sir Surendranath Bannerjee made, Surendranath Bannerjee's movement, partition of Bengal. Lord Collier, he wanted to divide Bengal, made it East Bengal and West Bengal. And Surendranath Bannerjee... He is the practically father of Indian politics. Gandhi's not. He was. He was. And in the beginning, in European circles he was famous.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- London, August 10, 1971:
Prabhupāda: So why not open all the accounts there? Or ask the present bank that we are proposing this. Otherwise Midland Bank is a famous bank, it is nice bank.
Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:
Prabhupāda: It is not called solution. It is a fact because it is followed... Then you have come to the original position, to follow the mahājanas. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Our (indistinct) is guided by that, mahājana. We accept the mahājanas, the great personalities who have achieved success. We follow.
Dr. Weir: Let us now praise famous men and our fathers who beget us as they oddly enough seem always to be (indistinct) but I've never been able to understand why.
Śyāmasundara: But the whole idea is that these personalities have to be in a living form, not just in the past. But they live in the form of the spiritual master who's there to guide us personally. Not just praise someone in the past. Unless this process is transmitted in a human form personally, it's not...
Prabhupāda: That is the process in the material world also. You are lawyer because you have studied law under some big lawyer. So the process is coming.
Room Conversation -- December 10, 1971, New Delhi:
Prabhupāda: Oh, Meher..., and Vaibhava. I thought that Meher Baba. (laughter) (break) There was a Hari Baba, there was a Meher Baba. Meher Baba is famous in your country. Is it not?
Devotees: Yes.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- February 12, 1972, Madras:
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest: Great and famous place. Looked after...
Prabhupāda: Where you are governor also.
Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: Yes. Attractive means... Unless you are powerful, how you can be attractive? (laughter)
Acyutānanda: It includes everything.
Prabhupāda: Includes everything. He must be very beautiful, He must be very wise, He must be very powerful, He must be very famous...
Bob: Is Kṛṣṇa attractive to rascals?
Prabhupāda: Oh yes. He was the greatest rascal also.
Room Conversation with John Griesser (later initiated as Yadubara Dasa) -- March 10, 1972, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: The Supreme Absolute Truth is that from which or from whom everything emanates. So wherefrom this naughtiness comes if it is not in the person of God? Wherefrom this stealing propensity comes if it is not in God? But because He is absolute, His stealing is also as good as his blessing. Mākhan-cora. Kṛṣṇa is stealing butter, that is worshiped, mākhana, by the very name. Just like in another temple, Kṣīra-cora-gopīnātha. Gopīnātha is known as condensed milk thief, Kṣīra-cora. He is famous by the name cora, thief. But that cora and this cora, you cannot compare. He is famous as cora, or thief, but thousands of people go every day to worship that cora, that thief.
Room Conversation -- April 18, 1972, Hong Kong:
Prabhupāda: Yes, London is very... There is also. We have got very nice temple near British Museum, 7 Bury Place. And all Europeans, they come to see our temple from Germany, from France. Because we have been advertised in cooperation with the Beatles. The Beatles, Beatles, the George Harrison. You do not know his name? He is very famous man. Yes. So we have produced some records in cooperation with George Harrison's organization. So because the records are produced through George Harrison, we have got a very, very big sale. You see? And that has advertised Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Temple, London. So people come to see what is this Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple, out of... Because London, every day, thousands of visitors come in London. They have got visitors buses also, charge nominal. So London is still important. From all parts of the world people come. So anyone who comes, they come to see our temple.
Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:
Prabhupāda: I think so. It is from Holland.
Devotee: Oh. There's some famous islands between England and Holland called the Jersey Islands. There's special milk that comes from Jersey. Jersey milk is best.
Prabhupāda: No. These Europeans, Americans, if they take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they'll be more happy. That is assured. From all angles of vision-their family life, their political life, their social life, their cultural life, their religious life, their philosophical life, their scientific life—everything will be perfect. Now you have to teach them. I can give you the ideas how they'll be happy. The rascals, they do not know why, what is your specialness, and just to teach you this. My only ambition is that you are... (aside:) Oh, there is no water. You are supposed to be the most intelligent persons. (Prabhupāda drinks) So if you take, others will take. That is going on. So I have no distinction between East and West. They're thinking that East is conquering West by culture. That is their enviousness.
Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:
Prabhupāda: London is still famous. People outside, they have got very high idea about London.
Devotee: Civilized. Very civilized city.
Prabhupāda: Why civilized? Do you think it is especially civilized?
Devotee: Well, a lot more than America anyway. By comparison it seems civilized, in the sense that there is not so much violence. There's not... People are honest, upright, moral, a little more.
Prabhupāda: In America general life is becoming wretched.
Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Yes, they must. The State must be responsible. What the State reply?
Jayatīrtha: Well, they're having to litigate in court over it. The State doesn't want to do it. So this university there is one of the most famous universities in the whole country. They spend so many millions of dollars to maintain it nicely. (break) (dog barking) ...changing their bodies in particular ways to make them look (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: When you do not take care of God, you must take care of dog.
Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:
Prabhupāda: This is the right... Another definition is God, God is all-attractive. Now, if you try to understand what is this attractiveness, just like your American country is very opulent, very attractive. If a man is very rich in the society, he is attractive. Then if a man is very strong, then he is attractive. If a man is very famous, he is attractive. If a man-man or woman—if a man is very beautiful, he is attractive. If a man is in the renounced order, he is attractive. If a man is very wise, he is attractive. These six features are attractive features.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- April 25, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: What is that? Even if you live longer, does it mean that eternal life? That is already there. I'll live for eighty years. Another lives, for, say, sixty years. Another lives for hundred years. That is already there. The trees live for thousands of years. Does it mean it is life? A tree lives for... In your San Francisco there is a tree which is said seven thousand years. Does it mean it is life? To live for so long duration of life? Then the tree is better than you. It is also living. Śaṅkarācārya lived for thirty-two years. Lord Caitanya lived for forty-eight years. So what is the use of living for hundred years? Who is more famous than Śaṅkarācārya and Caitanya Mahāprabhu? So you live for a moment. But live worth. Then it is life. And living for seven thousand years, standing like the tree, is that life?
Morning Walk -- April 30, 1973, Los Angeles:
Svarūpa Dāmodara: How to make chemicals for contraceptive. One is in Stanford. His name is Carl Geraldsey. And one is in Harvard. His name is Corey, E.J. Corey. They are quite famous now.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are very famous now.
Prabhupāda: Because they gave contraceptives?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. They are trying to make compounds, steroids.
Prabhupāda: Sterile. When all the scientists are not famous, notorious. Then this will be called notorious. Somebody has manufactured atomic weapon. Somebody has contraceptive. Somebody has synthetics.
Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: What is that science? That is not science. That is ignorance. Ignorance. Simply ignorance. Ignorance is going as science. Irreligion is going as religion. So how long it will go? People are becoming intelligent.
Paramahaṁsa: In Newsweek Magazine-it's the largest magazine in the United States—there was an article about the degradation of Christianity, and they summarized it with a cartoon, a picture of the devil, you know māyā. This is their image of māyā. And he was causing earthquakes. There was a very large earthquake in South America. It killed many thousands of people. So they attribute this to māyā. And right next to them was a picture of Richard Nixon, because he is a very famous, you know... He presents himself as a follower of Christ. And he's bombing Southeast Asia.
Prabhupāda: "Thou shalt not kill."
Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: For giving them opportunity to kill? And where is the opportunity? The Lord said, "Thou shalt not kill." Where do they get the opportunity of killing? That is another blaspheme. Where do they get this opportunity? They manufacture.
Śukadeva: In Seattle not only do they eat cows, but they run out of cows and they start eating horses. It is very famous now to buy horsemeat. They have horse steaks instead of cow steaks. It has become so degraded now that they are eating horses.
Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:
Prabhupāda: In Kanpur there is a big temple that belongs to the Tiwari family. It is famous temple. Many people go there to visit.
Room Conversation -- July 9, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: External. Adhyaki(?). (indistinct) ...one is interested in the body not in the soul. So he is a fool. This, this sculptor, he is simply interested in the outward body, he has no knowledge of the soul. And he wants to become a very famous man, remaining in the category of asses. Because one who is in the bodily concept of life, he is an ass. Go-khara, khara means ass. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). Anyone who is in the bodily concept of life he is no better than animal. The cats and dogs, they are also in the bodily concept of life. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13).
Room Conversation With David Wynne -- July 9, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: No. Kṛṣṇa says ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. Actually Kṛṣṇa is doing everything. We are thinking, "I'm doing it." We are doing nothing. Just like he has become a famous sculptor. Why you could not? Why, what is the reason? Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭaḥ (BG 15.15). "I am seated in everyone's heart." When He works, Kṛṣṇa says, "Do like this; it will be perfect like this." So Kṛṣṇa is guiding. And everyone is being guided by Kṛṣṇa, even in this condition of life. And when he fully surrenders, how much guidance he will come his way? Even without surrender he's guided. Without His guidance he can not do it.
Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: Maybe. I do not know. But Nelson, Lord Nelson, was famous man, soldier.
Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: Yes. How a human being can kill another human being or another animal unnecessarily? And if you kill, there is law, life for life. But they have made laws for human beings. When an animal is killed, he's not criminal. But in the God laws you cannot avoid that. If you have killed an ant, you must be shot. That is God's law. You can avoid man-made law, but you cannot avoid God-made law. That you cannot do. You must be responsible. If you kill an ant even without knowledge, you are responsible. Such subtle laws are there. So we must know our responsibility. Without knowledge, if we kill, we are responsible. And with knowledge, there is no question. Where is that culture? They advertise, "Live and let live." What is that? Do they do that? Actually? They want to live at the expense of others. Why not let live others? Where is that culture?
Śyāmasundara: Now there is a famous cinema being shown called "Live and Let Die."
Prabhupāda: That is good culture. Yes.
Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: Why you say, "as near"? Why still doubt?
Mr. Wadell: Because it is not quite the same thing as my knowing that I am here. There's a famous French philosopher who began all his philosophy from the phrase "I am conscious; therefore I know that I exist." And he deduced everything, you know, starting from here.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That's a fact. You are conscious, I am conscious, that's a fact. It is not the question of belief. It is not question of belief. Belief may be wrong, but fact is fact.
Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: Originally.
Dr. Arnold Toynbee: There's that famous... (break)
Prabhupāda: Pakistan is also now divided.
Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:
Śyāmasundara: He was a great athlete when he was young, a famous athlete.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Lord Brockway: And I was an athlete when I was a vegetarian. I proved that one could be a vegetarian and one could be an athlete. Swimming, running, everything.
Prabhupāda: Therefore you are keeping your health very nice. In younger days, you were sportsman.
Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. I think he'll not like that.
Śyāmasundara: There was one famous politician from India five hundred years ago, or...?
Prabhupāda: No, no, no. About three thousand years ago.
Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: That is his misfortune. But in spite of his misfortune, because he was practiced to chant the name of Rāma, he was pious. Although he was ignorant. He was absorbed in thought of politics. He should have, if he would have understood that Rāma is a fact, Kṛṣṇa is a fact... That he did not understand. Then he would have preached the glories of Rāma, glories of Kṛṣṇa. He took the chanting of Rāma for his political purposes. He utilized for political purpose. Just like... That is nāma-aparādha. Samaḥ śubha-kriyā mati pramāṇaḥ (?). He was trying to get some material profit by chanting the holy name of Rāma. That he got, material profit. He was the most famous politician, all over the world.
Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:
Prabhupāda: Yes. Not allow. I made correspondence with the government. The last reply was that "You can raise fund locally, but you cannot take money from here." Now who will pay...? Of course, these boys are paying me. We are getting... Now recently, one boy, you know his name, George Harrison. He's a very famous singer.
Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:
Prabhupāda: In Cochin?
Ambassador: In Cochin? Not in Cochin town. There is, but not very famous, but the one about ten miles from Cochin, where I come from, is one of the greatest temples called Pūrṇa-trayeśa (?). This is a very good. The Cochin royal family used to stay...
Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, you come from there?
Ambassador: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Swami Cinmayananda also comes from there?
Ambassador: Yes. Swami Cinmayananda comes from Vernayakulam.(?)
Prabhupāda: Vernayakulam(?), yes.
Interviews with Macmillan and various English Reporters -- September 12, 1973, London:
Prabhupāda: Methodist Church is famous.
Haṁsadūta: Methodist Church.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I've seen many signboards.
Room Conversation -- September 18, 1973, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Although the same thing, but action is different. If you become devotee of Lord Śiva, you'll get opportunity of material opulences. Because Lord Śiva is the husband of Durgā, and Durgā is the superintendent of this material world. So Durgā is under control. If one becomes a devotee of Lord Śiva, then Durgā gives him, eh? Dhanaṁ dehi rūpaṁ dehi rūpavatī-bhāryāṁ dehi yaśo dehi. So you'll get all this, nice position, nice wife, nice power, famous... All this material, not spiritual. So to worship any other demigod than Kṛṣṇa is materialism. That is not spiritualism.
Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:
Prabhupāda: No. Just like Dr. Bose's laboratory. So Dr. Bose's laboratory, I was manager. Then I took his agency, very good terms. I was earning money like anything. But the next manager, he became envious. He began to poison Dr. Bose, to cut off our relationship. So it happened. Then, when I was Dr. Bose's agent, I become so much famous that Bengal Chemical, the biggest chemical factory, he, they wanted to give me the agency. If I would have taken that agency, I would have been the richest man in the chemical world. You see. But they made some condition.
Morning Walk -- December 8, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: No, no. I worked for Dr. Dr. K.C. Bose, under whose name the street is going on, Dr. Karttikacandra Bose. He's also famous man, this Bose. He was the, I mean to say, the starter of this Bengal Chemical Company.
Morning Walk -- December 8, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Acarya Prafullacandra Raya was one of the director and this K.C. Bose was a managing director. Actually the life was given by Dr. Karttikacandra Bose to Bengal Chemical. But because Prafullacandra Raya was a famous chemist and he was attached to it, therefore his name become famous.
Morning Walk -- December 11, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prajāpati: In the last World War there was a very famous German propagandist named Goebbels who wrote that if one controls the communications, the media, the radio and television, newspapers, like this, he actually controls what people think. So we've not put so much emphasis on that so far in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, actually controlling the linkage of communication. In the future should we be more and more concerned with that?
Prabhupāda: What is that future? What do you want to do in future?
Prajāpati: Actually permeate all the media with Kṛṣṇa consciousness propaganda, not simply just writing but actually all aspects of...
Prabhupāda: Yes, you can take advantage of all this media. That we are doing. Just like we are taking advantage of this microphone. We are not rejecting, "Oh, it is material. Why should we take?" Nothing material. Anything used for Kṛṣṇa is spiritual. Material means what is not used for Kṛṣṇa. That is material. You are materialistic when you are not used for Kṛṣṇa. And as soon as you are utilized for Kṛṣṇa, you are spiritualistic. That is the difference. Here we say, "This is material world." This is material world because everyone has forgotten Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it is material world. So if they come into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then it is spiritual. (break) ...conscious people now challenge this rascal that "We are searching after Kṛṣṇa. We are not searching... We are devotee of Kṛṣṇa, and you are posing yourself as Kṛṣṇa. So show us some Kṛṣṇa's power. We immediately come to you."
Morning Walk -- December 15, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: That means madman. Sometimes madman commits suicide. He's a madman, that's all.
Karandhara: Practically, in the last three hundred, or two hundred years, all the most famous writers, and scholars and intellectuals, they all became madmen.
Prabhupāda: Yes, they must be, because they do not know what is to be known. Their knowledge is imperfect.
Morning Walk -- December 15, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: And if the light is little more brilliant, that means finished. If the same light becomes little more brilliant, that means finished, fall down immediately. It is a big aeroplane? (break)
Prajāpati: Several years ago you gave a series of lectures in New York on atonement, that are very famous, and devotees, they relish them very much. Prāyaścitta. And this is also in Christian theology to a large extent, plus another concept called feeling very sorry for one's sinful activities.
Prabhupāda: Repentant. Repentant?
Morning Walk -- December 20, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: (laughs) That's it. Then he has to accept jail. He should not defend himself. "Never mind. I go to jail." Why he appoints a lawyer to defend himself?
Karandhara: Well, that's what the impersonalist philosophers say, that "Go ahead and..." (break)
Prajāpati: ...The most famous theologian of this century named Paul Tillich said that all words are symbols, and God is a religious symbol pointing to our ultimate concern.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that's nice. We say also.
Morning Walk -- December 20, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Sometimes the drunkards say also like that. They get inspiration by drinking.
Karandhara: There is one very famous philosopher named Dubrown(?). He said that he had a saying that "Some men say that you become intoxicated by wine, but I become sobered by wine."
Prabhupāda: That can be accepted. "One man's food, another man's poison." That is going on everywhere. But for that reason one cannot accept poison as food. Is it not? Just like stool is food for the pigs. But that does not mean stool is food. It may be food for a certain class of animals.
Morning Walk -- December 21, 1973, Los Angeles:
Karandhara: Well, another very prominent psychiatrist and theologian, about ten years ago he wrote a very famous book wherein he said that people should give up the idea of evil and sin because it is just an inhibition on the mind. But now he just wrote another book saying that he was wrong, and since people have given up the idea of sin and evil, the whole world has degraded to such a bad state that now, even though there may not be a God, they should still believe in evil just to keep things in order.
Prabhupāda: Then if there is no God, then who will judge what is evil and what is right? If there is no God? People are abiding the law, "Keep to the right, keep to the left," because they know, "Behind this order, there is government." If he does not keep the arrangement, then he will be punished. So as soon as you accept the principles of bad and good, then you have to accept God. Now, this kind of theologician, some years ago his opinion was something, and now his opinion is different.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- January 22, 1974, Hawaii:
Prabhupāda: That is your concoction. We get so many literatures. Huh? The Bhāgavata literature, five thousand years old. You have no history beyond three thousand years. Neither even at the present moment you have got such nice literature. When you say that people are very much advanced, who has produced such literature? Where is a book like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā, whole world? If you say that this book was written, say 1,500 years ago, but where is a similar literature in any other part of the world? Eh? Is there a similar literature? Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa...
Satsvarūpa: When Darwin's theory was first being taught in America, there was opposition from the Christians, and there was a famous court trial called the Scopes case, and the Bible was used to, against this so-called scientific theory. But the Bible is so inadequate that they lost.
Prabhupāda: Yeah, Bible cannot be because it is itself unscientific.
Room Conversation -- February 9, 1974, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Vaijayanti.
Guest (1): Vaijayanti Mala. She's a very famous actress.
Prabhupāda: She's very nice girl, actually. (aside:) Namaskar. (Hindi) (break) (Hindi—break)My eldest son was born in 1921.
Room Conversation -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: And there in Mexico, in Mexico where I saw "Mahātmā Gandhi (Road?)."
Devotee: That was in Mexico.
Guru dāsa: In Mexico City they have many streets named after famous men.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Guru Dāsa: Yeah. Mexico City. Mahātmā Gandhi.
Prabhupāda: There in the city. I saw Mahātmā Gandhi Street.
Morning Walk -- March 27, 1974, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: He married Jagat-tāriṇī. She was a famous artist. So she came to me to surrender, that "I shall become your disciple."
Morning Walk -- April 12, 1974, Bombay:
Girirāja: Do ghosts refer to categories of ghosts or particular famous? These names...
Prabhupāda: Yes, categories. Yes. There are so many. Just like human beings. Human beings. There are Americans, Indians and Africans and so many, so... One knows that human being, and one knows in descriptive way. So whose knowledge is perfect?
Girirāja: Descriptive.
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is descriptive.
Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: Best thing is that "Why your president, he did not write a single Hindi book? He has got so many. He is a famous philosopher. Indian religion, Indian philosophy, and Bhagavad-gītā. Then... He has written so many books but not a single in Hindi."
Morning Walk -- April 29, 1974, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: Mirzapur is rich people. They have got carpet industry. Mirzapur carpet is very famous. They manufacture and sell big, nice carpets. Just like Persian carpets. So similarly, Mirzapur carpet. Besides that, they have got many other businesses. So it is on the Ganges side and the healthy quarter also. (break) ...still, he is the biggest practitioner in Allahabad. He has offered his house. In old days he constructed it for four lakhs.
Room Conversation with Catholic Cardinal and Secretary to the Pope -- May 24, 1974, Rome:
Prabhupāda: Professor Dimock's.
Cardinal Pignedoli: It's very strange and famous. That's the gospel.
Prabhupāda: Read it.
Dhanañjaya: (reading) "Swami Bhaktivedanta comments upon the Gita from this point of view. And that is legitimate."
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is legitimate.
Room Conversation with Catholic Cardinal and Secretary to the Pope -- May 24, 1974, Rome:
Prabhupāda: Read it again.
Cardinal Pignedoli: You are the best interpreter, yes, qualified interpreter.
Dhanañjaya: "In this translation the western reader has the unique opportunity of seeing how a Kṛṣṇa devotee interprets his own texts. It is the Vedic exegetical tradition, justly famous, in action. (reads rest of foreword of MacMillan edition of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is)" This is stated by Professor Edward C. Dimock, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization, University of Chicago. Please take this.
Cardinal Pignedoli: Thank you. It will be a source also for unprofessionals, also to give true interpretation yes, by devotees.
Prabhupāda: The trades manager of Messrs. MacMillan Company, he has reported that this book is selling increasing, and other editions, they are decreasing.
Morning Walk -- May 29, 1974, Rome:
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is going on. There are some philosopher. He has written book—he has got Nobel Prize—that "This Russian government, simply terrorism." He has written a book. He is a famous man. He got Nobel Prize. He has said that "This is simply terrorism; a set of, a group of men, simply under terrorism they are governing."
Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:
Prabhupāda: ...vayasa-tīrtham. And the swan is considered to be the highest of the birds. Therefore it is called paramahaṁsa. Example is given to the haṁsa. Haṁsa means swan. Supreme haṁsa... French artists are famous all over the world. What is that famous artist's name?
Yogeśvara: Claude Monet?
Bhagavān: Picasso.
Room Conversation -- June 11, 1974, Paris:
Prabhupāda: This mayor, mayor...? This mayor?
Yogeśvara: This man was explaining there's a very famous, beautiful actress. Her name is Brigitte Bardot, and she has become very popular now because she is trying to protect the animals. So she lives around here somewhere. He suggested that we contact her.
Bhagavān: What about him?
Yogeśvara: He just wants to...
Prabhupāda: What did he say about himself?
Jyotirmayī: It's when I asked him. I asked him: "So what are you going to do? Can you make a law against cow-killing?" So he said, "Oh... But there is this actress." Just give it, gave it to someone else to do.
Prabhupāda: No, we have to make this propaganda because we are servant of Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa orders, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44). So we must take to agricultural work to produce food and give protection to the cows. And if there is excess product, we trade. This simple thing we must do. Therefore I'm anxious to take outside Paris this center. Our people should live there peacefully, produce food grains, give protection to the cows, and work hard. And if there is excess product, you can make money also. With ghee, you can start so many restaurants. That I have already... I have discussed on this point. We can make good money. We'll not be loser. Kṛṣṇa conscious men, they'll be never loser by following the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. They'll live comfortably without any material want, and tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9), and after leaving this body, go to, directly to God.
Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:
Prabhupāda: No. Practically none. That is the defect of the modern society, that there is no brain. Therefore the whole world is in chaotic condition. In your country also, it is famous for so many revolutions. And whole Europe is..., Russia and other countries, because there is no brain. So there is need of these qualified first-class men, to lead the human society. Then next class... The head is first class, and next class: arms, protector, administrator.
Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:
Yogeśvara: ...on a book. It is accepted as being authentic. All the universities use his texts. And he has a big office in the Sorbonne. The Sorbonne is the most famous French University.
Prabhupāda: He is a big man.
Bhagavān: Actually, it's not famous. It's infamous.
Prabhupāda: No, why infamous. They are famous. Why do you say infamous?
Bhagavān: Well, I thought fame is to be referred to for devotee.
Prabhupāda: That is your sentiment, but practical world, he is a scholar, he is a head man of a department, a university. He must be famous.
Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:
Prabhupāda: No, everyone knows he is mother and he is father.
Devotee: Yeah, right. And they don't think... There is no question of sex. When they think of mother and father, they don't think of these things. Also with Ramakrishna. He also had his divine mother. You told us a story in Calcutta that he was very debauched. In a village he used to chase the young women. And his brother actually made him famous.
Prabhupāda: It is very difficult to, not to be victimized by woman. It is very difficult.
Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:
Prabhupāda: Brahman. Yes, He is Para-brahman. Para-brahman. Brahman is realized in three angles of vision: impersonal Brahman and localized Brahman, Paramātmā in the heart, and personal Brahman. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Brahman because ultimately God is person. Yes. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. The exact Sanskrit word is vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam (SB 1.2.11). The Absolute Truth is described by the person who knows the Absolute Truth in three ways: brahmeti, the impersonal Brahman, paramātmeti, the localized Paramātmā, and Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate feature of God, full with all six opulences, the richest, the strongest, the most famous, the most wise, the most renounced and most beautiful. These are the six features of the Personality of Godhead.
Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:
Prabhupāda: Let him take. Yes.
Guest (2): Oh, thank you.
Madhudviṣa: Give a napkin. It's a sweet preparation called gulab jamin. It is all prepared just from milk which has been made into curd, and then the curd has been fried in ghee, cooking ghee, and then after it has been fried, it has been soaked in sweet water and it is very palatable. It's called a gulab jamin. It is a very famous delicacy of Indian cooking. It requires great skill and art to prepare these. And as our spiritual master said, there is actually hundreds and hundreds of food which can be prepared from this, like the cheese you have there. Even cooking cheese and spicing it with asafoetida and ginger, meat taste can be simulated very, very nicely.
Prabhupāda: This cheese as it is you take, it is as beneficial as meat.
Room Conversations -- September 11, 1974, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Their center is sex—this sex or that sex or that sex, even ordinarily. In Paris, Paris you know it is a city of prostitutes. On the roads there are prostitutes. Where we have got our temple, so many prostitutes are standing. And those who are prostitute-hunter, they go to Paris. From our childhood I know about one family physician. We are at that time boy, 8 or 10 years old. He was talking with his another Muhammadan friend how he toured many countries and how many different types of prostitutes he tasted. This was his talk. So he was talking of Paris, "Though you are boy...," this we could understand." This is the talk. Old men, retired men, they will also talk of the sex (indistinct), and they will enjoy. Now they could not enjoy sex, but by talking... And we have practically seen when we were young, our grandmother-in-law, my mother-in-law's mother, old lady, she would talk freely about sex. She will ask me, "You capture the breast of your wife." She would make a pun and enjoy. "You do like that, you do like that." She teaches like that. We were... I was twenty, twenty-three years, so I was just married, but she will enjoy sex. She had other grandchildren. My father-in-law were two brothers. So my father-in-law, he was younger brother, and his elder brother, her daughter also the same age, she would enjoy (indistinct) son-in-law. (break) Ministers, prime ministers. The minister, famous.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:
Prabhupāda: Animals? No.
Śrutakīrti: Bobcat or something? Mountain lion?
Hṛdayānanda: He asked a question about... In Latin America there's much belief or superstition in this so-called lost city of Atlantis. It's very famous all around the western world that there was a lost civilization called Atlantis. It fell down into the ocean.
Prabhupāda: Maybe.
Hṛdayānanda: You said that by committing sinful activities one has to be punished by the laws of nature. So if one is repentant is he still punished?
Prabhupāda: Yes, provided he is actually repentant.
Morning Walk -- April 2, 1975, Mayapur:
Prabhupāda: And yes, just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Cleanse your mind. All dirty things will go. Because you neglect to chant regularly, therefore the dirty things remain.
Pañcadraviḍa: One devotee was talking with a Māyāvādī sannyāsī, famous sannyāsī. So he said that "Your desire to attain mukti, that is a material desire."
Prabhupāda: No, we don't want mukti.
Evening Discussion -- May 6, 1975, Perth:
Prabhupāda: Why these rascals say, "Can you show me God?" What qualification have you got? He doesn't think like that, that "I have no qualification." He thinks that "I am very advanced." That is foolish. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ. Similarly a third-class man goes to a high-court judge. Foolish rascals has come. "Who is that?" "I don't know." There was an incident. One big philosopher and one big dramatic player. He was also very famous. So he went to see that philosopher and sent his card. He said, "Oh, why shall I see this dancing dog? He may be famous as a dancing dog, but I have no business with him.
Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:
Prabhupāda: Yes. In 1968 I was questioned by the reporters, "What is your opinion about this moon?" "It is simply a waste of time and energy, that's all. It is all false propaganda." I told to the reporter.
Harikeśa: Actually, these scientists and philosophers, they become very famous and popular by coming up with some brand new theories. So why don't we widely publicize our theories?
Devotee (3): (break) ...real information about the moon from the Bhāgavatam?
Prabhupāda: Veda. Veda means knowledge. What is this? Some animal?
Morning Walks -- June 18-19, 1975, Honolulu:
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) Writing advertising, "World famous...?"
Devotee: "World famous steak and lobster." It's a restaurant.
Siddha-svarūpa: It's different advertisement. (break) Here it is not allowed, so the companies are going to use cars.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...the samosa?
Devotee: Lilananda.
Prabhupāda: It is very nice. Why don't you make it in the morning?
Devotee: For breakfast?
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...khalu sarvataḥ syāt. Viṣaya means sense enjoyment. Now, that boy and the girl, they're taking dogs. The dog is also male and female, and the man is male and female.
Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: So what he is?
Revatīnandana: He's famous for inventing the H-bomb. He invented the hydrogen bomb.
Revatīnandana: Hydrogen bomb. He was the main inventor.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Yes, they might. That is also very difficult.
Bahulāśva: I was trying to arrange a meeting between Your Divine Grace and this astronaut, Dr. Mitchell, and also this other famous scientist, Werner von Braun. But they are on the east coast at this time, so they couldn't come. But they both wrote nice letters that they would like to meet you if they could be in California at the same time.
Revatīnandana: This von Braun is a big rocket scientist from the old days. He designed the V-2 missile in Germany during World War II, and then he designed the American missiles during the space program.
Prabhupāda: What benefit he has done?
Revatīnandana: Well, he's recently said... He retired, and he said now he thinks the only purpose of life is to research about God, to find out about God. He's very famous, so...
Prabhupāda: That is good. They have finished already science. Now if they do not come to God, then they are finished. They have nothing to say any more. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. That is Vedānta. Now they have finished all their so-called talent. Now they have to come to brahma-jijñāsā, inquiry about the Supreme. That is their concern now. Now they have cheated public and bluffed them, they are going to this, going to this, but they are all failures. Now they are anxious how to keep their position. That is the problem.
Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:
Satsvarūpa: Killing birds and fox.
Prabhupāda: That is aristocracy. (break) ...cannon, there was fight? Or this man is very famous hero? There was statue of Napoleon also in Paris. And they identify Napoleon and France, the same. But France is there; there is no Napoleon. (laughter) Napoleon finished, Hitler finished, Gandhi finished.
Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:
Prabhupāda: Devahūti? The mother's name is Devahūti. And the son is celebrated as "son of Devahūti." The son is famous with the mother's name. And mother is taking instruction from the son. This is ideal society.
Morning Walk -- July 18, 1975, San Francisco:
Prabhupāda: No.
Paramahaṁsa: He became world famous. So they concluded that anyone who wanted to could get normal information from normal sources and theoretically construct an atom bomb. But they don't have the equipment, but they have the knowledge now. So they're proposing in that sense that any terrorist organization within the next five years will be able to invent their own atom bomb.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that's a fact.
Morning Walk -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:
Prabhupāda: Now they should come to big dictionary. This is Vedic. The Vedic truth is there, but it is not properly explained because the men were fourth-class. Now the people have become advanced. They should take to Vedic literature. Then they will understand how God created. But it was not explained because the people, they were living in the desert and shepherds and all fourth-class, fifth-class men. And now they, these first-class men, all advanced men, they are trying to adjust the tenth-class ideas, and therefore they are becoming rejecting, that "It is all useless." Now they should come to first-class understanding in the Vedas.
Paramahaṁsa: As a matter of fact there's a very famous quote from Christ...
Prabhupāda: I think Christ said that there are many things to be spoken but...
Paramahaṁsa: "My father's house has many rooms, but I cannot tell you of it now."
Prabhupāda: Because they were fourth-class, fifth-class men. They will not understand. Therefore it is taken, "dogmas." The modern students, they are advanced in education, and these things are not explained. And besides that, their education is atheistic. Therefore they are trying to reject religion.
Morning Walk -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:
Prabhupāda: Delhi?
Baradrāj: Yes, in Delhi, there was one cloth merchant there. And he asked me, he said, "Do you know this Yogi Bhajan?" I said, "Yes, he is very famous." He said, "Oh, he is my cousin. We used to be in the cloth business together. And he could not make enough money, so he decided to go to America." But his experience was, he was a train engineer actually, train.
Prabhupāda: Who?
Morning Walk -- July 28, 1975, San Diego:
Jayatīrtha: He was a famous Spanish soldier.
Rāmeśvara: He fought the Muslims when they invaded Spain. He is a famous Spanish man who fought against the Muslims when they invaded. From Africa, they crossed over the sea and invaded Spain.
Brahmānanda: The Moors. (break)
Prabhupāda: This has got some meaning. What is this matchbox? There is earth, there is sands (sense?), there is comfort. So we shall go this way or...? (break) It is all vacant? (break) Big demonstration of cow fighting, bull fighting, and kill them. Such a Christian is trying to convert others as Christians! Just see the fun. Christ said, "Thou shall not kill," and they are sporting with the life of bull, and they are Christian. We have to believe.
Car Conversation -- August 3, 1975, Detroit:
Prabhupāda: That means they are commanding.
Brahmānanda: Recently one famous author came to America. He was a freedom fighter, freedom author.
Satsvarūpa: Prabhupāda knows about him.
Jagadīśa: Solzhenitsyn.
Brahmānanda: Solzhenitsyn. Did you see him when you went to Moscow? Śyāmasundara was saying.
Prabhupāda: No. There was proposal.
Car Conversation -- August 3, 1975, Detroit:
Prabhupāda: So Russian government did not take any step against him?
Brahmānanda: They exiled him. He was too famous to... If they persecuted him, he was too famous. It would have brought a lot of criticism against them, so they exiled.
Prabhupāda: Asked him to go out.
Morning Walk -- September 6, 1975, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Just see. There are books here also, Kāma-śāstra. So sex enjoyment also you cannot enjoy unlimitedly. Then you will become impotent. Then you will have to call your wife as "mother," as some saintly person did. He was indulging in sex in his young age, and when he was married he saw himself impotent, and therefore he invented some way that "I have realized Brahman. I can call my wife also 'mother.' " And he became famous—"Oh, he is so advanced. He has learned how to..." But in the history we will not find this. Even Vyāsadeva had his wife, but he never said his wife, "mother."
Morning Walk -- September 15, 1975, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: They are being frustrated. Who is successful in the material world? Have you got any instance that he is successful? (pause) Then?
Vāsughoṣa: In every field someone is miserable. Just in America there was one lady, very famous etiquette expert, Amy Vanderbilt. So she jumped out of her window. She was sixty-nine years old.
Prabhupāda: There are many. I saw in Detroit, I think. The bridge is covered?
Press Conference -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:
Prabhupāda: The Supreme Personality who possesses all riches, all strength, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation is called Bhagavān. There are many persons who are very rich, very powerful, very beautiful, very famous, very learned, and very much detached, but no one can claim that he possesses all riches, all strength, etc., entirely. Only Kṛṣṇa can claim this because He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No living entity, including Brahmā, Lord Śiva or Nārāyaṇa, can possess opulences as fully as Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it is concluded in the Brahma-saṁhitā by Lord Brahmā himself that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No one is equal to or above Him. He is the primeval Lord, or Bhagavān, known as Govinda, and He is the supreme cause of all causes.
Press Conference -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:
Prabhupāda: The Supreme Personality who possesses all riches, all strength, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation is called Bhagavān. There are many persons who are very rich, very powerful, very beautiful, very famous, very learned, and very much detached, but no one can claim that he possesses all riches, all strength, etc., entirely. Only Kṛṣṇa can claim this because He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No living entity, including Brahmā, Lord Śiva or Nārāyaṇa, can possess opulences as fully as Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it is concluded in the Brahma-saṁhitā by Lord Brahmā himself that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No one is equal to or above Him. He is the primeval Lord, or Bhagavān, known as Govinda, and He is the supreme cause of all causes.
Press Conference -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:
Prabhupāda: Persons who have no knowledge of liberation from material bondage are called non-Aryans. Although Arjuna was a kṣatriya, he was deviating from his prescribed duties by declining to fight. This act of cowardice is described as befitting the non-Aryans. Such deviation from duty does not help one in the progress of spiritual life, nor does it even give one the opportunity to become famous in this world. Lord Kṛṣṇa did not approve of the so-called compassion of Arjuna for his kinsmen."
Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:
Prabhupāda: So why this planet is full of living entities? Why not others? What is that gas? What particular gas was circulating this planet? So take this gas, circulate over here, and get living entities there and live there. Why don't you do that, you scientists? Why you are disappointed? You are going to Venus. Just see. This rascaldom we have to believe.
Harikeśa: That's the next famous theory after the chunk theory.
Prabhupāda: It is simply waste of time even to talk with these fools.
Morning Walk -- November 2, 1975, Nairobi:
Prabhupāda: No. Therefore it is said, "other's wife," not your wife. But Rāmakrishnan, he was saying his wife "mother," and he became famous by this foolishness.
Morning Walk -- November 16, 1975, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: That is very easy. The bomb is also ready. Everyone has got now nuclear weapon, bomb. So the scientists gave the solution. So what is the use of scientific knowledge? This is going to happen.
Brahmānanda: Actually there was one proposal. It was written in the seventeenth century in England by one famous writer, that "Because the population is increasing so much, therefore if we become cannibals, then the population will be maintained."
Morning Walk -- November 26, 1975, New Delhi:
Prabhupāda: Huh? Everyone, but they are so rascal.
Harikeśa: One famous psychologist, psychiatrist, said there is a pleasure and pain principle, that everyone wants as much pleasure as possible and as little pain as possible. So because we have to suffer and enjoy, why not make enjoyment as much as possible and reduce the suffering? (break)
Prabhupāda: They are vacant?
Haṁsadūta: No, they look occupied.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...big building.
| Page Title: | Famous (Conversations 1967 - 1975) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Mayapur |
| Created: | 24 of Dec, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=89, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 89 |