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Foolish men (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"Foolish fourth-class men" |"foolish class men" |"foolish class of men" |"foolish family man" |"foolish family men" |"foolish government men" |"foolish is a fourth-class man" |"foolish living being, especially man" |"foolish man" |"foolish materialistic men" |"foolish materially attached men" |"foolish men" |"foolish old men" |"foolish or less intelligent class men" |"foolish scientific men" |"foolish society of materialistic men" |"foolish, advanced, civilized man" |"foolish, degraded among men" |"foolish, er, sinful man" |"foolish, fourth class men" |"foolish, lowest amongst men" |"foolish, puffed-up man" |"foolish, unintelligent men" |"man foolish" |"man, foolish" |"men foolishly" |"men, foolish"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "foolish men"or"foolish man"or"foolish * men"or"foolish * man"or"foolish * * men"or"foolish * * man"or"foolish * * * * men"or"foolish * * * * man"or"foolish * * * men"or"foolish * * * man"or"men foolishly"or"men foolish"or"man foolish"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 11, 1969, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes. In this universe only Brahmā has got four hands. Nobody within this universe. And Viṣṇu also. In this brahmāṇḍa, in this universe, there is a planet where the ocean is of milk. Here, just like salted water. There are many oceans. Ocean of oil, ocean of ghee, ocean of milk. The ocean of oil, you have got experience in this planet. Within the earth you are getting some... Your civilization depending, your motor car civilization is depending on that ocean of oil. You are getting oil and lavishly spending it. Stock is supplied by God. Your material advancement will be finished if the stock is not supplied by the Lord. So these foolish men, they do not know. They think that "Without God we can live." Who has created the ocean of petroleum within the earth? Is it possible for human being? (laughter)

Haṁsadūta: Someone has said that the dhotī, the dhotī that the brahmacārīs wear, is the dress that's worn in Vaikuṇṭha. Is that correct?

Prabhupāda: Just see Viṣṇu. He has no coat-pant. Here is Viṣṇu. Or Kṛṣṇa, He has no dress. He is also bare body. Only Rādhārāṇī is covered. In India also, still, the covering of the body is only for woman, but men, this, practically one dhotī is sufficient. Sometimes laṅgota, the underwear. Laṅgota, underwear. What is that?

Nanda-kiśora: Swami? What does Nanda-kiśora mean?

Prabhupāda: Nanda-kiśora, kiśora means a boy.

Nanda-kiśora: Boy?

Prabhupāda: The transcendental boy of Nanda Mahārāja.

Conversation Before Lecture -- April 29, 1969, Brandeis University, Boston:

Prabhupāda: You are acquainted with so many people. You are experienced.

Miss Rose: But I mean so that people can read it. So they'll understand it's not hippies.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You go to responsible men and see, that "This is a nice movement. Why don't you patronize it to save your country's from the hippies' falling down, confusion?" We are saving. Practically this society is giving the best service to your country. They should appreciate, but they should not misunderstand us. How we can be hippies? We completely... That is also said. How foolish man he is, that, er... In that article, Satsvarūpa, in that article, it is clearly stated that we are refusing all these things. How they conclude that we are hippies?

Satsvarūpa: It wasn't a bad article.

Prabhupāda: Oh! What a nonsense he is!

Candanācārya: He is worried that hippies come to the ceremonies to see us.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Candanācārya: I think that's why he's worried about hippies.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Candanācārya: Because he saw photographs that audience was hippies.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Śāstra-vākya-pramāṇa. And it should be known through the spiritual master. Just like nowadays Bhagavad-gītā is being interpreted in so many foolish ways because they do not accept explanation from the authority. They become themselves authorities. Therefore misused. That is not explanation. Somebody is explaining that Kurukṣetra means this body, pañca-pāṇḍava means the senses. These are all nonsense. You have to accept Bhagavad-gītā as it is. When you cannot understand, you should get it explained by your spiritual master. Therefore one has to accept a spiritual master to understand. Tad-vijnanārtham. In order to understand that transcendental science one must approach a bona fide spiritual master. That is injunction. So here it is said that kānyakubje dvijaḥ. Dvijaḥ means he was offered the sacred thread. That means he was born in a brāhmaṇa family. Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ. Everyone is born a śūdra, a foolish. Sudra means a foolish man who simply laments. That is the real meaning of śūdra. Anyone who has no intelligence, he is śūdra. We also generally say, gadāh, less intelligent. So brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, they are called higher caste. According to their... Brāhmaṇa, first-class because his intelligence is first-class. Kṣatriya, his intelligence is second-class. Vaiśya, his intelligence is third-class. And śūdra means fourth-class. And less than śūdra, they are called pañcama, caṇḍāla. They are accepted as animals, those who are less than śūdras. This is the Vedic system. Now, here it is said that this Ajamila, dvija... Dvija means he was properly initiated, second birth. First birth by father, mother, is śūdra. Anyone, even if he is born in a brāhmaṇa family, the natural birth is considered as śūdra. But if there is garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, then he's accepted as born brāhmaṇa, born brāhmaṇa.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Reporter: There should be...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because you are (indistinct), it is better to surrender and be peaceful. (break) ...here, there, here, there, here. Kṛṣṇa says, "No. That surrender will not help you. Just surrender to Me, you will be happy." So intelligent person will feel that "If I have to surrender, why not to Kṛṣṇa? Why surrender to some foolish man? Let me surrender to Kṛṣṇa. If my business is to surrender, I cannot do without surrender." That is intelligence. That Kṛṣṇa says,

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ
(BG 7.19)

Therefore who surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, he is mahātmā. It is very rare mahātmā, su-durlabhaḥ. So anyone who has surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, they are mahātmā. They are not ordinary men. So mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ.

Reporter: Sir... (break)

Prabhupāda: We have to surrender, that's a fact. But we refuse to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That is our disease. He is not free, just like in a state, just like in Mahatma Gandhi's time, so many started civil disobedience, but the government brought them all into prison, and they obliged them to obey. Similarly, our position is that... (end)

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: The point is, a perfect devotee does not make any discrimination. Whatever is offered to Kṛṣṇa, it is nectar. That's all. Just like exactly Kṛṣṇa accepts anything from a devotee. "Whatever is offered to Me by My devotee," He accepts. The same thing for a devotee. (break) ...point?

Bob: Yes.

Prabhupāda: The perfect devotee does not make any discrimination. But if I am not a perfect devotee, I have got discrimination, why shall I imitate a perfect devotee? That will not be possible to assimilate or digest. Because I am not a perfect devotee. These things are... A devotee should not be a foolish man. It is said that kṛṣṇa yei bhaje se baḍa catura. So a devotee knows his position and he's intelligent enough to deal with others accordingly. (break) ...it is posted? The... Specifically, it is prescribed that one should perform yajña. Yajña means to act for satisfaction of Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said... So shall I stop this fan? I think you can stop. You got? Otherwise much mosquitoes may disturb.

Bob: I have a sweater here if you like.

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, the central stomach of the whole creation is God, or Kṛṣṇa. He's the enjoyer and He's the friend. He's maintaining everyone. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. Therefore He's friend of everyone. And everywhere... He is maintaining means everywhere He's the proprietor. Just like a king can maintain the whole country, citizens, because he's the proprietor. Without being proprietor, how he can become everyone's friend? So these things have to be understood, that Kṛṣṇa is the enjoyer, Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor, and Kṛṣṇa is friend. If you know these three things, then your knowledge is full. You do not require to understand anything more. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3). If you simply understand Kṛṣṇa by these three formulas, then your knowledge is complete. You don't require any more knowledge. But people will not agree. "Why Kṛṣṇa shall be proprietor? Hitler shall be proprietor. Yayha Khan should be proprietor. (laughter) Nixon shall be proprietor." That is going on. Therefore you are in trouble. But if you understand these three things only, then your knowledge is finished. But he'll not accept, he'll put forward so many impediments for understanding these three things. And that is the cause of our trouble. But Bhagavad-gītā, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is plainly said,

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
(BG 5.29)

But we won't take this. We shall put forward so many false proprietor, false friends, false enjoyer, and they will fight one another. This is the situation of the world. If this education is given and people takes this knowledge, there is peace, śāntim ṛcchati. Immediately there is peace. This is knowledge. And if anyone follows this principle, he's honest. He does not claim "It is mine." He everything knows it is Kṛṣṇa's, so therefore everything should be utilized for Kṛṣṇa's service. That is honesty. If this pencil belongs to me the etiquette is... Just like my students sometimes do: "Can I use this pencil?" "Yes." This is etiquette, I say, "Yes, you can." Similarly, if I know that everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa, without His permission I'll not use. That is honesty. And that is knowledge. And one does not know, he's ignorant, he's foolish, and foolish man commits all criminality. All criminals, they're foolish men.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Śyāmasundara: The whole secret of life has been lost when this civilization was lost. Every knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you try to give them, these foolish men. They are after dharma artha kāma mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, Cc. Ādi 1.90). Therefore, Bhāgavata begins, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra: (SB 1.1.2) all this cheating, rascaldom, is thrown away. Dharma artha kāma mokṣa. Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra. Śrīdhara Swami explains, kaitavaḥ, these are all cheating. The so-called religion, so-called economic development, so-called sense gratification, so-called liberation, they're all cheating.

Śyāmasundara: Because they promise something they don't deliver?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Even if you get it, what do you get? You go to... Supposed you go to church: "God, give us our daily bread." God is giving, then what do you get? Bread is given to the animals also. Why you are going to the church? That is the Communist say, that "We shall give you bread. Why you waste your time with so-called religions?" The politician says that "You want to be happy, there is technology. Why you are going to pray to God? This is all nonsense." They are thinking that. But prayer is not meant for that purpose. Prayer... Just like we are praying, but our prayer is "Kṛṣṇa, kindly engage me in Your service," Hare Kṛṣṇa. "O the energy of Kṛṣṇa, O the Lord Kṛṣṇa, please engage me in Your service." This is our prayer. We are not going to prayer, "O God, give us our daily bread." And if you get bread, then what do you gain?

Śyāmasundara: We've all experienced that. We've had so much bread. What did we get?

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

Guest (3): There is one question which many people have asked. You don't have to answer them but sometimes they say, "Why is it that Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is so popular in this country, has so many centers, and not that many centers in India where Lord Kṛṣṇa...?"

Prabhupāda: He does not know. He is a foolish man. In India there are millions of centers. He does not know that. Simply if you go to Vṛndāvana you'll find five thousand temples. He does not know. He speaks nonsense. He speaks nonsense. The man who has spoken like that, he is a nonsense. He does not know what is the condition of India. Mass India, every person knows Kṛṣṇa. Every person is a temple of Kṛṣṇa. He does not know. He has spoken nonsense.

Guest (3): He has seen the book and from where the centers are listed, that's all. He is...

Prabhupāda: No, we have got center in Bombay. No, I have... My personal centers are not there. But just like Gītā Press. They are also publishing Bhagavad-gītā, millions of copies every month, and that is being distributed in India. So why does he say, "Indians, they do not know"? That is foolishness. Every Indian knows what is Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (2): You're talking about the center, Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (3): Yeah, they look at this point of view because they think if that's the only movement which he associated with Lord Kṛṣṇa, but Lord Kṛṣṇa is almost in every home in India.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Janmāṣṭamī, Kṛṣṇa's birthday, is observed by every Indian still, although artificially they are being checked not to take to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is presented by government in so many bad way. You see? In government there is a paper. It is called "Indian Culture," something. In that paper Kṛṣṇa is depicted as a bil boy. (?)

Morning Walk Conversation -- September 28, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They like us?

Jayatīrtha: Some of them, they recognize (indistinct). Oftentimes they like us (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Any sane man will like us.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are fighting how to stop drugs coming from different countries, the smuggling of gāñjā and all this. (indistinct conversation)

Prabhupāda: (as man passes by) Foolish man (indistinct).

Jayatīrtha: Sunday morning now instead of going to church, they go play golf.

Devotee (2): (break) ...exercise so you can walk around. But now they have those electric cars so they don't have to walk anywhere.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They call that advancement. The search for knowledge is natural.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They search for knowledge, but loosing Kṛṣṇa, searching in the wrong direction.

Prabhupāda: The search for knowledge is natural, but the knowledge should be taken from the person who knows the knowledge. That they do not know. The search is all right, but they are taking knowledge from a rascal. That is the difference. So one rascal is teaching another rascal, so what is the advancement of knowledge? Both of them remains in the ignorance. What is the use of the search? Better to stop this university.

Jayatīrtha: Actually people are seeing that more and more all the big problems are being created at universities, all the university students are rioting and becoming restless, Communists...

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: (chuckling) Yes, this is the explanation. There is no second explanation. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). This is the only explanation. What explanation can you... Who can give another explanation? There is no second explanation. Bhagavad-bhakti-hīnasya jātiḥ śāstraṁ japas tapaḥ, aprāṇasyeva dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam. It's like if you decorate the dead body. It may be pleasing to some relatives of the dead body, otherwise what is the value of it? Others will think, "What a foolish man, he is, that decorating the dea..." Suppose if there is dead body and you're decorating (indistinct) flower. That may be your sentiment because the dead body belongs to your father or mother, like that. It is pleasing to you, but actually what is the value? So similarly, this human civilization is meant for understanding God. If that sense is lacking then it is simply decoration of the dead body. That's all. There is no value.

Guest (1) Indian man: This gentleman doesn't understand English.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (break)

Guest (1): He's nice devotee of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. I remember many years ago, I met him in Surbaya. He used to preach on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but in Sindi language.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Guest (2) Indian man: Of course we do not have good translation in Sindi language as your translation.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Guest (1): He's nice devotee. (Hindi) nice dedication (indistinct).

Room Conversation with David Wynne, Sculptor -- July 9, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: What is the position now? Nixon? He's going to be impeached? Yes.

Śyāmasundara: Practically, he is, without...

Prabhupāda: He's cornered now.

Śyāmasundara: Yeah. He's lost all respect.

Prabhupāda: Prestige. Still if he sticks to his position, that is his foolishness. He should have resigned. If, if... Upright man: "All right, you do not like me. I resign." Then whole thing would have been quashed off. But he's a foolish man. He's sticking to his position.

Śyāmasundara: Prasādam...?

Bhagavān: Prasādam will be here in a few minutes. Our position, I guess, is just to make it an easy choice for people.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: To come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: But choice means, a child cannot be given for choice. He must be forced. Right child is a rascal. So you cannot give him choice. He must do it. That's all.

Revatīnandana: Or like, like our festivals.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: To make it easier.

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: His name was Gopāla Banh. Gopāla Banh ...And there was a king, Kṛṣṇacandra. So the kings would relax by joking words by the jokers. That was system formerly. So Gopāla Banh was constructing a house. So the king advised another friend that: "If you go to his new house and evacuate..." Because the house is not yet opened, not yet established, "Then I'll give you one thousand rupees." So this man said: "Yes, I'll go and do it." So he was, he came to Gopāla Banh's house and began to say: "Gopāla Banh! Oh! I am called by nature. Kindly show me where is your privy. I have to pass." So he could understand that: "Why this man has come here to evacuate?" So he: "Yes, yes. Come in, come in, come in." So he opened the new lavatory and brought a big stick. So he said: "Why you have brought the stick?" So he said: "Yes, you can pass, you can pass stool, but if you urine one drop, I'll kill you." So "How it is possible?" "If it is not possible, I cannot allow." So these, these foolish scientific men, "You can speak, but if you use microphone, then I'll kill you." Yes. The Gopāla Banh's policy. They would not say: "Not allow." But in a different way. (break) For political diplomacy. Not directly: "No." But creating such position, it is not. You are chanting also? Sixteen rounds? Eh?

Girl: (indistinct)

Haṁsadūta: See says she's trying her best to do so.

Prabhupāda: All right. Something is better than nothing.

(break) ...of our morning lecture, you can question if you like. Kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānam.

Devotee: I had one question about the nature of transcendental knowledge. And it said in Bhagavad-gītā that transcendental knowledge is of a nature that it is like fire. It burns to ashes the reactions to sinful activity. But... It may be sort of a nonsense question. But I couldn't understand how it is, what, how it, how, what is the nature of knowledge that it can do this? How does transcendental knowledge burn to ashes the reactions of sinful...

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. No discovery. You do not know, arrangement. This is already there.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Practically they are fighting against the laws of nature, but sometimes they find pleasure in doing this.

Prabhupāda: That is childish. Just like they build with the sand palatial building, the children, and they take pleasure in it. That's all. That is children's pleasure. That is not sane man's pleasure. Māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). Māyā-sukhāya. This pleasure is māyā, and they are making humbug. Therefore they are vimūḍhān, vimūḍhān, all foolish men. Prahlāda Mahārāja said, māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). The materialists, they have created a standard of happiness. That is māyā. That is not happiness. But for that māyā happiness, false happiness, they have beget a gorgeous arrangement. That's all. Therefore they are vimūḍhān. They are so vimūḍhān, so foolish. Now suppose they have created this nice comfortable civilization, but they have not created the situation that they will be able to enjoy it. At any moment they will be kicked out, "Get out! Finished. All finished." So where is that guarantee that you will be able to enjoy this?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is why the scientists are saying that God didn't give us everything so that we can make very happy.

Prabhupāda: Then God is there. Accept. Then why do you say there is no God? Then God is life. Then everything comes from life. You have to accept. That is our proposal. If they accept that "God has not given us the capacity," then they are intelligent. They are accepting God.

Karandhara: Well, they say, "God hasn't given us everything because we are not able to live forever here."

Prabhupāda: Why? That means God is controller. You are controlled. You admit this.

Morning Walk -- December 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, it's inconceivable by them, not by us. Therefore we call them fools. It is not inconceivable by us. But so you know the Truth from the Truth, Absolute Truth. A layman or a foolish boy does not know where..., which side the sun will rise. His father can say, "This side it will rise." That is the difference. Because he knows how to suggest which side, because there is reddish, how do you say? Illumination. He knows that "This side it will rise," by the symptom. Both of them, the foolish man and the intelligent man, just at present do not see that where is the sun. But the intelligent man knows "Here is the sun," although the sun is not visible both to the intelligent and foolish man. That intelligence means he knows how to find out where is sun. That is intelligence. And this is not discovery. I am intelligent speaking "This side is sun." It is not my discovery. I have heard from authority that from the eastern direction the sun rises, so I know it.

Yaśomatīnandana: They're so stupid they name it Absolute Truth, but still they try to make their own theories about the Absolute Truth.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yaśomatīnandana: In the Vedic literatures it is stated dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). They can't even understand a simple thing.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Then? You keep yourself satisfied with your own philosophy. I keep myself satisfied with my philosophy. There is no need of talking.

Hṛdayānanda: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: And that is good. If a foolish man does not talk, it is good for him and good for others. Because he'll talk foolish. Better not to talk. That is good. That... Infectious diseased man... what is called? Quarantine.

Karandhara: Quarantine.

Prabhupāda: He's put separately so that he may not poison others. He may not poison others. So that is the position of the self-sufficient authority.

Yaśomatīnandana: In Gujarati we call it: bhanji moti laksmim.(?) When the palm is closed it is worth lakh rupees, but when it is open, it doesn't mean anything. A foolish person, when he talks, he reveals everything.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Foolish person means busy rascal. There are four kinds of division: lazy intelligent and busy intelligent and lazy rascal and busy rascal. The first-class man is lazy intelligent, and second class, busy intelligent, and third class, lazy rascal, and fourth class, busy rascal. A rascal, if he's busy, then what he will do? He'll simply do harm. That's all.

Karandhara: Create havoc.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Karandhara: Create havoc.

Morning Walk -- December 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: "New frontier of knowledge."

Prabhupāda: Yes, because the new frontier of knowledge for the rascals not for the intelligent men. They're... The same example. If somebody imitates barking of the dog, if he says, "This is new frontier of knowledge," so a foolish man can believe that "How you have learned to bark like dog! Oh, great advancement." But an intelligent man says "What is the use of this barking, imitation barking? There is already dogs who are barking." Just like there is a... It is a fact, not story. One man, he went out of his village, and after ten years, he came back, advertised himself that "I have become successful in yoga practice." So naturally villagers surrounded him. "Oh, you have...? What yoga practice you have learned?" "I can walk on the water." "Oh?" Actually, even at the present moment, if somebody comes and says, "I can walk...," many people will come, thousands of men. So when everything, arrangement was that he'll cross the river, walking on the water, one old man came. He said, "Sir, it is very wonderful, but it is two paise worth. Two paise worth." "Why?" "Now, you will walk and go the other side; I'll take a boat, pay him two paise. I'll do the same thing. So what is your credit?" So those who are actually intelligent men, they will take like that, that "What actual profit you have made? You have spent millions and millions of dollars, and you say, 'Now, we have seen in the moon there is a crack.' " So this bluffing to the public must be stopped. They're squandering money, public money, and we Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we cannot do our activities for want of money. They have become so fools. How they are squandering money simply by bluffing another set of rascals that they are advancing in scientific knowledge. They are rascals, and they're cheating other rascals that they're advancing. And result is they're squandering public money. What do you think, Mr. Scientist?

Morning Walk -- December 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Gap of understanding because the basic principle is wrong, because everyone is fool. And they are trying to understand things with their foolish background. There is the wrong. They are trying to be advanced in knowledge on the foolish background. They do not accept that, that they are foolish rascals. And they are trying to advance in knowledge, active-foolish, fourth class men. Their background is wrong. No scientist, no politician, no philosophers, at the present moment, believe in this, that there is soul, and the soul is transmigrating from one body... Nobody believes it. So their whole background is foolish. So their so-called advancement must be all foolish. They're all fools, rascals, animals. An animal does not know that there is soul and the soul is transmigrating from one body to another. This is animal conception. You cannot teach these pigeons that "You are spirit soul. Your body's different from you." They will, they have no power to understand. So if a human being cannot understand, what is the difference between these pigeons and cats and dogs and him? Then basic principle is wrong. Just like in mathematical calculation, if at one point you have mistaken, then will that be correct ever? It will go on, mistaking, mistaking, mistaking, mistaking. If the, if one point, while adding, you have made two plus two equal to five, then after that, everything wrong, everything wrong. Everything wrong. So that is their position. Their basic principle is like animal. The animal cannot understand that there is soul and there is transmigration of the soul. And if the human society makes progress of their so-called knowledge on this wrong basis understanding, then what will be the result? Everything wrong, everything wrong, everything wrong. Everything foolish. That is stated in the Bhāgavata: parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam: "If somebody does not know what is ātma-tattva, what is the science of soul, then whatever he is making, so-called advancement that is all defeat." Parābhava. That is being done. And defeat they are taking as success. Just like these rascal scientists, they could not go and settle in the moon planet.

Morning Walk -- December 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. But medical man also does not understand what is that thing missing which makes this body dead. And still, he is placing himself as authority, as scientific man, and people are accepting. That is demonism. He cannot explain. A man is dying. He is applying his scientific processes, what is called that gas, oxygen gas, and other injection, and in spite of doing all these things, he finds at a moment that the man is dead. And when you ask him that "In spite of your all scientific appliances, why the man is dead?" And still, he has become authority, such foolish man that this man cannot explain that in spite of all his efforts, scientifically, a man is dead. Now what he will answer? He has seen his all kinds of scientific appliances and applied but the man is dead. Now let him explain why the man is dead. Can he explain?

Prajāpati: Not to our satisfaction.

Prabhupāda: No, no, satisfaction or not satisfaction, what he will answer possibly? Now, you are scientist. You can... What he will say?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He will say that it is above his means.

Prabhupāda: Therefore you are a fool. Why you are becoming authority?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He will say that "I have tried my best, but I cannot do it."

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That means you do not know. A child also tries his best, but he cannot do. That does not mean he becomes authority.

Prajāpati: He will say that there needs to be certain conditions...

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, God is merciful, but this fool does not know because he is ignorant. The same thing, mother says. One child, she is feeding very sumptuously. Other one, "Oh, don't take it. You go away." Does it mean the mother is merciful to one child and not to the other? The child does not know it, he cries, "Why shall I not...? Why I shall not eat? Why I shall not eat?" So these foolish questions will be stopped as soon as one becomes God conscious.

Karandhara: But unless they understand the difference between spirit and matter, they can't accept this logic.

Prabhupāda: Well, foolish men cannot accept any logic. Their logic is stick. "If you don't accept, I shall kick on your face. Accept it." That is the... That is wanted.

Karandhara: Like the example when Hitler killed the Jews. They will say, "Well, what should we do, just let Hitler go on killing the Jews because the Jews were sinful? Or should we try and stop Hitler?"

Prabhupāda: Well, Hitler was imperfect and everything was imperfect. That you cannot compare Hitler's action with God's action. God is all-perfect. That is first proposition. God is all-perfect.

Karandhara: That may be accepted in retrospection, but when it is happening, they don't accept that.

Prabhupāda: No, that is their ignorance, foolishness. Therefore a devotee will not say like that. A devotee will say, tat te 'nukampāṁ susamīkṣamāṇaḥ: (SB 10.14.8) "My dear Lord, I am suffering. It is due to my past mischievous activities, but you are rescuing me by giving little punishment. I would have been punished more, but you have given little punishment. Thank you very much." This is devotion.

Karandhara: Well, what if someone came here now to attack us, should I just sit there and watch him and say that...

Prabhupāda: No. Who said? You must fight.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So the blind man has no right to interpret. That is the point. Blind man... You are blind man. Remain as a blind man. Don't talk nonsense. That is our protest. Why should you interpret? You are blind man.

Indian Man (4): They should not try to, just around, create the meaning of it.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, how can we tell the difference between the blind man and one who can see?

Prabhupāda: Anyone can understand. Any foolish man can understand, "Here is a blind man; here is a man with eyes." It is not very difficult. Why do you question this? One cannot see, that is blind man. Everyone knows it.

Yaśomatīnandana: Their interpretation is just opposing Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says, "I am..."

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Indian Man (1): They have no opposition.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the main point. That is the main point, Kaṁsa, to kill Kṛṣṇa. "Let Kṛṣṇa come out and I shall kill Him immediately." The Kaṁsa philosophy. All these rascals, they don't give any importance to Kṛṣṇa. All this interpretation.

Indian Man (1): Śaṅkarācārya has written the Kṛṣṇa aṣṭakam.

Prabhupāda: Śaṅkarācārya is not blind man. But those who are rascals, blind, why do they interpret? They should not interpret. (break)

Italian Man (4): ...mentioned Kṛṣṇa. This is...

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Indian Man (1): When the people do not find any difference between the God and demigod...

Prabhupāda: Why? That is rascaldom. That is rascaldom. That is rascaldom. If you do not find any difference between me and my disciple, then you are foolish man. If you say, if you say...

Indian Man (1): In the beginning everybody is foolish. We are born foolish.

Prabhupāda: Well, born foolish. That... He has to become intelligent. But when he talks foolishly, he remains foolish.

Indian Man (1): Well, so far he is not enlightened.

Prabhupāda: If he talks foolishly, that means he is still foolish. He has not attained any knowledge.

Indian Man (6): But after getting the knowledge, then knowledge means when we completely know the Supreme Personality is Lord Kṛṣṇa, then he is all right.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Indian Man (6): But those who have got no knowledge about all these things, so they must be worshiping some Devī, Gaṇeśa...

Prabhupāda: But why they take the position of a teacher? They should not take the position of a teacher. They should remain foolish, that "I have still to learn."

Indian Man (1): Ah, that is the significance. They should not say that "I am already perfect." That is the sig... They should not claim like that.

Morning Walk -- April 22, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Then how he can be pope?

Pañcadraviḍa: "But how you can say he is not the best Christian? He is the head of all the Christians."

Prabhupāda: But that means you are foolish and pope is also foolish. If he does not follow the orders of Jesus Christ, then how he becomes a pope? Therefore you are foolish. You have elected some foolish, another foolish man as your pope. That should be the right answer, that "If he does not follow Christ, how he becomes pope?"

Pañcadraviḍa: He is not killing.

Prabhupāda: Then why he is appointed as head? He must order. Otherwise if you are not following pope, then you are not Christian. He does not kill, then you should not kill. And why does he not order?

Pañcadraviḍa: He himself is eating meat. So it must be all right.

Prabhupāda: Then how he is pope?

Pañcadraviḍa: But he is knowing what Christianity is the best. Therefore he is in charge. He says it is all right to eat meat.

Prabhupāda: No, no, how... Then first of all how you can elect him as in charge? Then you are fool.

Pañcadraviḍa: All the popes for hundreds of years have all eaten meat.

Prabhupāda: Then hundreds of years you are fool. Therefore you are intelligent? Does it mean?

Pañcadraviḍa: But when Jesus said, "Thou shalt not kill," he meant humans; he did not mean animals.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Therefore they are rascals. He is controlled in every step, and he is thinking... Therefore rascals. In spite of this big, big house, nice road and good car, they are rascals. But he thinks falsely. He thinks that he is independent; He will not die. Then why does he think like that, like a foolish man? As soon as māyā kicks on his face, he will die. That's all. Immediately. "I have got some business, sir." "No, no, you must die immediately." And still, he thinks that he is not controlled. What is this nonsense? We shall go that side? That is knowledge, that "In spite of my all so-called advancement of civilization, I am controlled." That is knowledge. That is the beginning of knowledge. Then he should think how to get out of it. That is intelligence. And if, like cats and dogs, he thinks that "I am not controlled," then he is no better than cats and dogs. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27). By prakṛti, by nature, he is pulled by the ears, "Come here!" "Yes, sir." "Come there!" "Yes, sir." And he is thinking, not controlled. As soon as he eats little more than he requires, "You must starve three days!" And he is not controlled. Just see. How much foolishness. And they are getting Nobel Prize. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19).

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: One of the Ten Commandments, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is that one should not take the name of God in vain. And they argue that when we chant the holy name, they say, "You are chanting, chanting, chanting all the time, but this is taking the name in vain."

Prabhupāda: Why vain? Don't you find difference between you and me? Why it is vain? Don't you find what is the difference between you and me? So I... Do you think that I am a foolish man, that I am chanting, "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa" without any profit? So you can think because you are a rascal, but I know my business.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: You should reply like that.

Bhagavān: Last night, when you gave him the example that the father is beyond the experience of the child...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhagavān: At that point, he stopped arguing.

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Greatness should be understood, comparing my position. We can understand, "This man is greater than me. He is superior than me." That we can understand. Similarly, we can understand. Just like we human being, we are floating, flying one biggest airplane, 747, and we are thinking we are very wonderful, but that great is floating millions of planets in the air. But the foolish man cannot see the process. He can see that a pilot is floating this airplane, so there must be one big pilot who is floating all these things. But he cannot see. Therefore he says, "Nature." So he cannot see. Just like a child he cannot see that within the plane there is a pilot (pronounces pee-lot, French pronunciation of "pilot") or pilot. He is thinking that the plane is moving automatically. So one who is foolish, he sees the cosmic wonderful work only. He does not know there is a pilot. And in the absence of that knowledge he is thinking that I am also being moved in that way. So so long I do not see the pilot of the cosmic movement, I am fool. Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, na māṁ duṣkṛtinaḥ mūḍhāḥ. (laughs) Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15). His knowledge is lost.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: "Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest amongst men, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me." (French)

Prabhupāda: So narādhama, means lowest of the mankind. In the human form of life one could understand that as there is a pilot in the aeroplane, there is a pilot on this big cosmic manifestation.

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: "But they also come to Me." So what does this "come to Me" mean? They use this to mean that the same result is there, whether you worship...

Prabhupāda: They come to Me after much trouble. That's all. So a foolish man will take much trouble. And intelligent man will take the short-cut, harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). Much trouble means he's a foolish man. And this is also stated, avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ (BG 7.24). It's clearly stated there that the Absolute Truth is impersonal, but when He comes here, He appears as a person. So this conclusion is for the abuddhayaḥ, less intelligent class of men, poor fund of knowledge. Avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ (BG 7.24).

Paramahaṁsa: It seems as if the more one strives to push the movement on, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, the more māyā puts obstacles in the way.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Paramahaṁsa: It seems, the more we strive to push the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement forward, the more māyā puts obstacles in the way to stop us.

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

Prabhupāda: He did not raise any question. And he is simply translator. He has no philosophy. I asked him "Which philosophy you are...?" "So I make comparative study." I think he did not like to enter into philosophical... Is it not?

Devotee: Most of these gentlemen who come here, when they see you and begin talking with you, like you said, they show their ignorance when they begin to speak. So they prefer not to speak. They always make some excuse that they have an appointment because they know that if they speak, they will be in real trouble.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkhaḥ yāvat kiñcin na bhāṣate (?): "A foolish man is very nice as long as he does not speak. As soon as he will speak, his foolishness will be captured." So therefore, sometimes they do not like to talk. Remain as a nice man, (laughs) without being discovered.

Devotee: I think maybe the first gentleman who was here, who said... He was talking about experiencing God... He says, "Actually I experienced God, but actually God is beyond my experience." You gave him such a hard time that I think he must have made phone calls to all these other men, "Be careful of Bhaktivedanta Swami. He is very dangerous." (laughter)

Prabhupāda: I told him that you have no experience.

Devotee: He turned so red when you said, "But how were you saying you are having experience, and you just said God is beyond your experience." And then he says, "I never said that. You put those words into my mouth." I whispered in his ear, "We have it on tape. We will play it back for you." (laughter)

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

Dr. P. J. Saher: Do you mean the Kali-yuga exists all the time?

Prabhupāda: No. This is the period when foolish men have developed so many. Instead of making solution the fighting increasing. Because they have no standard knowledge. Therefore this Brahma-sūtra says that you should be eager to inquire about the Absolute Truth. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. Now the answer, next quote, is that Brahman, or the Absolute Truth is that from which, or from Whom, everything has come. Athāto brahma jijñāsā, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Now you find out where is the... Everyone is trying to find out what is the ultimate cause. That should be the aim. That if you follow these philosophical quotes then your fighting will stop. You'll be sober. This verse also athāto jijñāsā. Athāto jijñāsā means to inquire about the Absolute Truth. Sit down, because there should be a class of men, very intelligent class of men in the society who are discussing about the Absolute Truth and they will inform others, "This is Absolute Truth, my dear friends, my dear..." Should do it like this. That is one thing. But here everyone is absolute truth. That is fighting. (German) (break)

Vedavyāsa: ...was the always the desire of mankind to find (indistinct) he says the kings should be wise and the wise men should be kings.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Vedavyāsa: So he said that this was always the desire but...

Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No... But principle is that you try to understand that you are not this body. That is applicable in all time, all circumstances, all, for everyone. It is not that formerly one had to learn that he's not this body, and now that is not required. The same problem is there still. Arjuna, five thousand years ago he was given lesson about this, that "You are not this body; you are soul." The same problem is now also for the foolish person because the foolish person will always remain in the world, and the intelligent man is to teach him. This is fact always, without any consideration of time, space, and circumstance. There will be certain class of men, foolish, and there will be certain class of men who are intelligent. So the foolish man has to take intelligence from the intelligent man. This is perpetually truth in this material world. It is not, time and circumstances changes this principle. There will be foolish men. Just like now we read, "Two classes of men are there always, the demons and the demigods." So at the present moment more demons. Two classes of men are there always, but at the present moment the demons, number of demons, are more and number of demigods are less because it is Kali-yuga.

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, does this possible anyhow to teach consciousness in Russian and the country who are in the unitary trust in the East? Like here in the west or America and Australia, in the...?

Madhudviṣa: His question is... He is... This boy is Yugoslavian, Yugoslavian, and he has done some translating of your Īśopaniṣad into Yugoslavian. So he is wondering is it possible to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Yugoslavia?

Prabhupāda: Everywhere possible.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: And therefore it is moving.

Rāmeśvara: Within, the atoms, there is movement.

Prabhupāda: Then here, today, this morning, you'll see it is lying there. Tomorrow you'll come. You'll see it is lying there. Where it is moving? What does it mean by moving?

Rāmeśvara: Well, they say that when atoms...

Prabhupāda: They say! You say what it is. Don't say "They say." You use your intelligence. If the foolish man says something, shall I have to accept it? You use your own intelligence. "They say." If they are authority, then we have got authority. If you do not accept my authority, why shall I accept your authority? Come to argument. "They say." Why we will accept "They say"? They... Why? Are they authority?

Rāmeśvara: No.

Prabhupāda: Then? What is the use of "They say"? You say. When you'll say "They say," I'll say "They say," (laughter) my authorities. My authorities. If you defy my authority, why shall I accept your authority? Then come to plain logic.

Madhudviṣa: Well, you look at the earth, and you see it. It is stationary.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Madhudviṣa: Just like we look at the building over there. From a distance, it is stationary. But if we go inside, we can see there is so much movement.

Evening Discussion -- May 6, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So similarly, Kṛṣṇa may enter within anything, but still He is more important than anything. This is simultaneous. Aṇḍāntarasthaṁ paramāṇu-cayāntarastham—Kṛṣṇa is within and without. That is Kṛṣṇa's position. Antaḥ bahiḥ avasthitam—in Kunti's prayers you will find that Kṛṣṇa, "You are within, and you are without, still nobody can understand." That is stated. What is our experience? Within and without. But Kṛṣṇa is both, within and without, and still we do not see. Naṭo nāṭyadharo yathā—just like a person playing on the stage, and his relatives and others they cannot understand that Mr. Such-and-such is playing. They are seeing something else. He is playing before them, he is known to them, but he still cannot understand. This example is given, naṭo nāṭyadharo yathā. So Kuntīdevī explained this. Did you not read Kunti's prayer? Kunti says, antar bahir avasthitaḥ. "You are situated within and without. Everywhere you are." But still the foolish men cannot understand. And why they cannot? Naṭo nāṭyadharo yathā. Just like one's father is playing on the stage, but because he is playing in a different role, or dressing in a different role, even the son cannot understand. So what is the difficulty? Hmm? Difficulty is mind; otherwise there is no difficulty. I am foolish, therefore... Otherwise Kṛṣṇa is visible to everyone. We have got two kinds of experience, within and without. He is present within and without, but still we cannot see Kṛṣṇa. That is my foolishness, that is my imperfection. We have to become perfect, then we will see Kṛṣṇa everywhere. That is morning sādhana, spiritual consciousness, advancement. The more we advance in spiritual consciousness, Kṛṣṇa we'll realize more and more. Svayam eva sphuraty adhaḥ: you cannot see Kṛṣṇa, but as soon as you become purified, He reveals Himself. It is not due to you that you can see. When Kṛṣṇa allows Himself to be seen by you, then you can see. So you have to become qualified to see Him; otherwise He is everywhere present, we can't see Him. And without being qualified, if you want to see Him, that is not possible. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). Find out this verse.

Morning Walk -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. He was a good gentleman. He was very humble, meek. Because you have got some fault, that does not mean you have no qualities. That is another thing. But if you deal wrongly with something, then you must be called a foolish man. You may have very good qualities, but if you do not know how to deal with business, then you are foolish. He was mainly engaged in politics, but he did not know how to deal with politics. He was reading Bhagavad-gītā and he was misleading people that in the Bhagavad-gītā there is nonviolence. Just see. Because Arjuna wanted to become nonviolent the whole Bhagavad-gītā was taught to him, how to become violent, and this rascal said that in the Bhagavad-gītā there is nonviolence. It is not false? So a man preaching falsehood, is he a gentleman? Or he is a right man?

Paramahaṁsa: No.

Prabhupāda: So that is his position. Either he is a foolish rascal or he is not a gentleman, falsely preaching Bhagavad-gītā. That is his position. If you do not know a subject matter, why do you talk about it? Either you mislead or cheat or you are a foolish, you have no science. Similarly, here is a tape recorder, I do not know how the machine is working. If I talk about it authoritatively is it not my foolishness? I can talk about Bhagavad-gītā or something else, but that does mean I know everything about this machine? But he did it like this. He was dealing in politics, and he took up as a mahātmā, a religious man. That was his cheating.

Paramahaṁsa: So because people are so much in darkness about religion, therefore they say...

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

Prabhupāda: Wrong because they do not care for the original father. The father has given so many facilities. We require water. There is oceans and big, big seas and oceans. Father has given. We require light. The father has given the sun. We require heat, everything arrangement is there so that we can live very nicely and thank father. This is our duty. But people are becoming more or less rebellious: "Oh, there is no God. We are God." What is this foolishness?

Journalist: Are people using the wrong things to live too sophisticated?

Prabhupāda: Yes, he must be. Because he is foolish, he will do all nonsense..., wrong things, which will create unhappiness. To deny God means foolishness, and foolish man simply will create trouble. Just like monkey. Monkey is always busy by simply creating trouble, that's all. And they are claiming, the foolish Darwin's theories, they also claim that monkey is our forefather.

Journalist: Is that true? Do you believe that?

Prabhupāda: No, I have told you already, the evolution. The monkey is not our forefather, but in the evolutionary process we came through monkey. That is a fact. Because that is an animal, so we have to pass through three million varieties of animal's body. So monkey is one of them.

Journalist: When did we stop becoming the monkey and start to become a man?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that depends. By nature's course, you automatically come to human body. Now, in the human body it is a junction, whether you want to make further progress and if you want to go back again to the cycle of the birth and death and the evolutionary process. That is to be decided by you. If you want to go to God, you can go. And if you want to become again a monkey, you can do that. That will depend on your work. Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Just like the government has got a circuit house in every big, big cities. Similarly, in every planet there is a replica of Vṛndāvana.

Gurukṛpa: But what about Lord Caitanya? He is a little rare.

Prabhupāda: No. Caitanya, also. All incarnation. (break) ... Difficulty is that these foolish man, they cannot understand that God is a person. Therefore they are puzzled. That is the difficulty. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). The Absolute Truth is manifested in three features: impersonal Brahman, Paramātmā, localized Paramātmā, and Personality of Godhead—that they cannot understand. They take that impersonal Brahman as important.

Bali-mardana: Previously people believed in the personal idea, but now they have become very envious. They have tried to get rid of it.

Prabhupāda: More demons. Because with the progress of so-called civilization, people are becoming more and more demons, so they cannot understand. Mūḍhā nābhijānāti. Mūḍhā, he cannot understand. That is the difficulty. More dull-headed, less intelligent persons are coming. Just see. Formerly there was no skyscraper building. Now they are thinking "So long this body is there, let us enjoy." And the..., in the body, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāra... (BG 2.13). But the soul is within the body—there is no care. And that he is going to become a dog next life, but he is satisfied that "This life I have got this skyscraper building." That's all.

Bali-mardana: Previously the only big building was the church.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: They are already exposed because they have left that expedition. That means they are hopeless. That is exposed. But foolish people will not ask them that "Why you have stopped this expedition?" They will again go on bluffing, and they will accept. That is the position. Now people should ask them, "Why you have stopped moon expedition and Venus expedition? You proposed you were going there, making arrangement. Why you have stopped?" It is failure.

Harikeśa: They might argue...

Prabhupāda: What is the argument? You have stopped. That is your failure, that's all. You can argue to the laymen, foolish men, but we will say you have stopped; therefore it is failure. All bogus propaganda is now stopped.

Devotee (3): They are saying the moon isn't worth develop...

Prabhupāda: Now they cannot say anything because they are failure. Anything they say, that is all foolishness. They cannot say anything. Once you are failure, you have no value, anything you say.

Harikeśa: I've heard the argument that when they are going to the moon, they are always in contact, bouncing off these sonar waves and radar waves off the moon's surface, and when they are coming near, they can even see from their little portholes the moon's surface, the same moon that they see on the earth.

Prabhupāda: They say all nonsense. That's all. (chuckles) Why the earth is not brilliant at night like the moon?

Bali-mardana: It depends on where you are. It depends on where you are looking from.

Prabhupāda: "Where you are" means?

Harikeśa: They have pictures from the moon taken of the earth.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Again foolishness. That irritates me. When they speak like that, rascal, that irritates me. (laughter) Therefore I simply call them rascal. (break) Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇaḥ. They are claiming very, very, big man, but as soon as we see that he is not a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, we reject, "He is a foolish." (break) There is... That is a fact, one case was going on, and the judge was dozing, like that. So his clerk warned, "You are dozing. Big, big lawyers, they are talking." "So let these rascals go on talking. I have already concluded my..., (laughter) what judgment I shall give. Let them..." (laughs) So our is like that. We don't hear these rascals. Our judgment is already there. They are rascals. That's all. Let them talk whole day and night. The judge said to the clerk that "I have already made my judgment, so let these foolish men go on talking." (break) ...minister of Orissa, he has promised a land in Jagannātha Purī. So if we get that land, is it not possible to construct another Jagannātha temple? You'll earn the American money here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If they won't let us into that Jagannātha Purī, we have to make another one.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Jagannātha will come to our temple. Yes. (break) ...selling prasādam, we shall distribute free. (break) ...comes, take prasādam. (end)

Morning Walk -- July 8, 1975, Chicago:

Devotee: Jaya, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...is concerned, "How Kṛṣṇa will keep good health?" And we are concerned, "Kṛṣṇa will go to hell. Please supply me food so that I might keep my health good." That is the difference between materialistic and spiritualist. The foolish man does not understand that Kṛṣṇa is supplying food to the elephant, to the ant, and why I shall go to the church for asking my food? It is already there. And our policy is, "Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, please engage me in Your service." Hare Kṛṣṇa means, "O Kṛṣṇa, O the energy of Kṛṣṇa, please engage me in Your service." We create problem. Otherwise, no problem. Kṛṣṇa has arranged everything. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Just see so many fruits for the birds. They are so sumptuously supplied, they are thrown. Pūrṇam idam (Īśo Invocation). Everything is sufficient. But these rascal blind, they do not know. They are trying to adjust. What adjustment? It is already sufficient. You are misusing that. Sufficient land, sufficient intelligence. Everything is sufficient. They are misusing. In Africa, in Australia, sufficient land, and they are raising cattle to kill them. This is their intelligence. And growing coffee and tea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And tobacco.

Devotee: For money, for profit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And tobacco.

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: Two hundred verses?

Jayatīrtha: Two hundred versions, different interpretations, commentaries, translations...

Father: But my question is that if that is the case...

Prabhupāda: But how can you interpret...? That I have already explained. How can you interpret the government's order, "Keep to the left," and "Keep to the right"? You have no right to interpret. If you interpret, then you become a foolish man because that interpretation will not be accepted. If you say, "What is the wrong there? Both ways there are roads. So if I keep to the left, what is wrong there?" You can interpret like that. But as soon as you interpret like that, you become a criminal. So all these interpretation are unauthorized, criminal. That they do not know because they are foolish men. You cannot interpret.

Jayatīrtha: That's why our Bhagavad-gītā is called Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Prabhupāda: Ah. No interpretation.

Jayatīrtha: Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, "Become My devotee." And He tells Arjuna that "I am speaking this to you because you are My devotee and because you are My friend. Therefore you can understand." So the point is that if Kṛṣṇa says that you have to be a devotee and a friend of Kṛṣṇa to understand what He's saying, then that's the case. So because Śrīla Prabhupāda is the devotee of Kṛṣṇa and a friend of Kṛṣṇa, therefore he can give it to us as it is, whereas most other interpretations are written by scholars, by politicians, by poets...

Father: I wasn't aware of that difference.

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Father: That's the reason for a lot of confusion.

Jayatīrtha: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They must create confusion because he is a foolish man. He is interpreting on the words of God. He is not a devotee. He has got other purposes as a politician or something else. So he wants to push on his views through Bhagavad-gītā. That is a cheating process. If he wants to speak something, he can write separate book. Why he should go through Bhagavad-gītā? That is cheating. But he knows, "Bhagavad-gītā is very popular book. If I push my philosophy through Bhagavad-gītā, it will be very easily accepted." That is going on. That is cheating. Why should you interpret? Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mād-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). And the scholar says, "No, no, it is not to Kṛṣṇa." Just see. Kṛṣṇa says that "You become My devotee." And the scholar says, "No, no, it is not necessary to become devotee of Kṛṣṇa person." This is going on, big scholar.

Father: Thank you very much, Your Grace. If I ask these questions, I'll take all your time.

Sandy Nixon: If you... May I ask one question more? I would like you to tell us that I can put in our article here if you have one sentence, one paragraph, that you would like to say to the world, (laughter) what would you say?

Jayatīrtha: She wants to put a message to the world.

Sandy Nixon: In capsule.

Prabhupāda: So? What I have to do? (laughter)

Morning Walk -- July 17, 1975, San Francisco:

Dharmādhyakṣa: But that is why they are engaged in science in order to master nature. They realize they are dependent.

Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness. That is another foolish-ness, and we fools shall be misled by these rascals. All future. "Yes, in future we shall do this. In future we shall do that." Post-dated check. "I give you millions of dollars by check." It is six months after. "Yes, you take it." So who is the foolish man who will take, accept a post-dated check? A foolish man may be satisfied, "Now I have one million dollars." That is another thing.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Check comes back stamped, "Insufficient Funds."

Prabhupāda: "No funds." (laughter)

Bahulāśva: "Account closed."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: They're always saying that the devotees are parasites. Everyone is always saying that the sādhus...

Prabhupāda: That we have already answered. Just the Rockefeller. He may be also called parasite.

Devotee: He is.

Prabhupāda: But he has got enough money to engage you to work for me. "You work; I enjoy." Devotees are so clever that you collect money... Just like our Kṛṣṇa dāsa collected money by doing hard work and gave me a check. Why shall I work? (laughter) I am so intelligent, I have created an organization-check is coming without my work. So who is intelligent? Why shall I work?

Bahulāśva: Better to just chant and dance.

Morning Walk -- July 25, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: All rascals. Don't waste time. But see their rascaldom.

Satsvarūpa: One claim the scientists make is that they're more humble in their knowledge than we are. They don't say that this is the absolute...

Prabhupāda: Why we should be humble? We are not foolish men, that we shall be humble. We must be proud of our knowledge. You are foolish; you become humble. (laughter) The dog is humble; man is not humble. The dog may bark, and man—"Shut up!" Immediately... So you are like dogs. (laughter)

Rādhā-vallabha: Their claim is that species are not constant like our claim. They say that species constantly change till the original species is gone and a new species is created.

Prabhupāda: What is that original species?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, they say originally chemicals. Originally very complex chemicals, acids...

Prabhupāda: Very complex again. So they cannot understand. So complex that they cannot understand. So what is the use of such theory?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, they say these complex chemicals came from the simplest chemicals.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, they say in space there are many, many particles.

Prabhupāda: How the space came?

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Professor: People in general... Today most people have an idea, but they don't all agree. So you can't say that they all have an idea of God. But they all believe they do.

Prabhupāda: No, believing is different thing. You can believe anything. But God is one. So God is there, you believe or not believe. Just like the president of your state is there. One may say, "I don't believe in him." That does not mean there is no president. Similarly, a foolish man can say that there is no God, but that does not mean there is no God. There is God. Now who is that God?

Professor: Who is God?

Prabhupāda: Just like in your state, everyone knows there is a president. And one can enquire, "Who is now president?" Is it not natural?

Professor: Is it not...? Everyone knows who the president is.

Prabhupāda: No, knows or not knows. Suppose I am a foreigner. I know...

Professor: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: ...that there is a president. Then I can ask, "Who is your president?"

Professor: Right.

Prabhupāda: That is natural. So first of all, the believers, they know that there is God. Now the next question will be "Who is God?" That is advanced knowledge.

Professor: Certainly lots of people have different answers.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1975, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: That was not the fault of the

Prabhupāda: The argument of foolish man—who is caring? Vedic culture when finished?

Yogeśvara: (break) ...five thousand years ago.

Prabhupāda: Five thousand years ago. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu, five hundred years, how He accepted if it is finished? He is more than Caitanya Mahāprabhu, this rascal?

Yogeśvara: Haribol.

Bhagavān: They are willing to take so many material risks, but they are not willing to try spiritual life.

Prabhupāda: That is their fault. That is their foolishness. Mūḍho nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. Therefore they are called mūḍhas.

Yogeśvara: How would we define the word responsibility in Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Responsibility is that you have got this human form of life. Realize God. This is your responsibility. Otherwise you are finished. Three words: "You have got this human form of life. Your only responsibility is to understand God. This is your responsibility." That is Vedic culture. For understanding God, many, many kings, many, many saints, they left everything and went to the forest to realize God. That is Vedic culture. Bhārata Mahārāja, under whose name India is called Bhāratavarṣa, he was the emperor of this planet, and at the age of twenty-four years he left everything to realize God. This is Vedic culture. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, His position was very, very nice, as a gṛhastha—a nice beautiful wife, affectionate mother, good influence, brāhmaṇa family, learned scholar, everything first class. He left everything just to show us. He was God Himself, but to set the example, tyaktvā sudustyaja-surepsita-rajya-lakṣmīm (SB 11.5.34).

Morning Walk -- September 26, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Prabhupāda: Who is that man?

Indian man (4): They may, they may.

Prabhupāda: He has defeated?

Indian man (5): No, if they say that "There was nothing like Mahābhārata," you tell.

Indian man (3): They may say, but...

Prabhupāda: The foolish man can say anything. (Hindi) How he becomes more than all the ācāryas, this rascal?

Indian man (5): My question is...

Prabhupāda: Your question is that he has proved. What he has proved?

Indian man (5): No, no. His point of saying is that...

Prabhupāda: Whatever he says, he is saying nonsense. That's it.

Indian man (5): No, no, the point is that it is a story to teach people the rules and regulations of war. He wrote... It is a hypothesis during which the people are taught the morals of the life. No such war actually existed. There is already...

Prabhupāda: That is his foolishness. He's a rascal.

Indian man (2): But we have seen a person rejecting his own father: "My father was also (unclear)."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore a rascal can say like that. A rascal can say like that.

Morning Walk -- October 6, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Peanuts?

Prabhupāda: Not peas, that green... Yes, green peas.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Fried.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like yesterday. That's nice. Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...things without Kṛṣṇa consciousness is dead body. Aprāṇasya hi dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam. It may be captivating to the foolish men, but it has no value. Because the person who is engaged in these things, he does not know what is the value of life, what is the goal of life. He is wasting time. The house will remain as it is; he will go to hell. That he does not know.

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ
durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ
andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās
te 'pīsa...
(SB 7.5.31)

The nature's law is different. That is acting in a different way, which you do not know. He is forcing you to become old. He is forcing you to die. Still, you do not know how much you are under the grip of the laws of nature. Such a foolish man, and you are engaged in building skyscraper. Just see. He does not take care that "I am being forced to become something against my will, and I am freely doing all this nonsense." Just like the dog. Dog is thinking, "I am free," running here and there. As soon as the master, "Come on." (laughter) Just see. Even dog has no sense that "I was jumping like free, but I am not free." That sense he hasn't got. So if a human being has not so such sense, what is the difference between him and the dog? Hm? This is to be considered. But they have no sense, no brain, no education, and they are still going on as civilized. Just see. Mūḍha. Therefore mūḍho ('yaṁ) nābhijānāti (BG 7.25).

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They are dogmatic.

Prabhupāda: Dogmatic, no. Why we should waste our time talking with such foolish men? "I don't believe." No, what... You believe or not believe; fact is fact. You are going to be old man. If you say "I don't believe," then is that a very good proposition? It does not depend on your believing or not believing. The nature's course will take place. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). That will go on. What is there in your believing and not believing? If you keep yourself in such darkness that "If you believe, then it is fact," then you are a fool, rascal. If you depend only on your belief, then you are a fool. What is the meaning of your belief? "I believe if I touch fire it will not burn." Will this belief protect me? You touch fire; it will burn. You believe or not believe. What is this argument, "We don't believe"? This is going on. If nature's law is that you must die, then if you believe, "No, I'll not die," will that belief protect you? You have to submit to the nature's law. Why don't you understand this? You are talking of "believe and not believe." Whole world is going on in this way: "We think," "I suppose," "Perhaps," "I believe," like this. Where is science? Science does not depend on your "belief, not belief, supposing, perhaps." This is not science. But they are going on like that. Whole Darwin's theory is based on this, "Maybe millions of years past..." We want perfect knowledge, not such, what is called, saṁśayam. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, asaṁśayaṁ, "without any doubt." That is knowledge. And samagram, "complete." So if we have got the chance of knowing complete, without any doubt, so why shall I go to you, rascal? Your knowledge is based on "perhaps, maybe." I will have to go somewhere to take knowledge, so why not go to Kṛṣṇa, where the knowledge is complete and without any doubt? Why shall I go to you, you rascal? You simply say "maybe, perhaps, I think." What is the use of this knowledge? We don't accept. You cannot say that "You are right; I am wrong" because you are also going to somebody to get knowledge, I am also going to somebody to get knowledge. So here it assured, that "complete knowledge without any doubt." But you have no such confidence. Am I right or not?

Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: "There is no God." So you bring hydrogen, oxygen; create another ocean. Simply talking nonsense. Now, our challenge is "You just get one egg." Can they? Ask any scientist. Can he make one seed which will bring such a big tree? And where is that science? They're all nonsense.

Indian man: They were trying to...

Prabhupāda: "Trying." That's it. And therefore they should be kicked on their face. They are trying like foolish man and it will never be successful; therefore they should be kicked. This is our proposition. "Trying," "in future," this is their bluff. We don't accept this. (break) ...one check, million dollars, postdated. Then, if you ask me, "Why you have postdated?" "No, I have no money now. In future it will be deposited." Will you accept that check? This is their bluff.

Harikeśa: Well, why not accept it? It might turn out. It might turn out in the future.

Prabhupāda: So a rascal like you will accept. (laughter) We are not so... (break) ...transaction, even today's date check, they will not accept. Bring cash.

Brahmānanda: 'Cause the cheating tendency is there.

Prabhupāda: That's all. It is cheating. Postdated check means he cheats. What is the guarantee that there will be deposit of money? Will the bank guarantee?

Harikeśa: They've done so many good things in the past, you can understand that...

Morning Walk -- December 20, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, "not in them" for the understanding of these rascals whose takes it that because Nārāyaṇa is everyone, heart, then everyone is Nārāyaṇa, daridra-nārāyaṇa.

Dr. Patel: Not daridra.

Prabhupāda: Or to warn these rascals, He says, "I am not there. I am not there."

Dr. Patel: It is not like that, that He is there...

Prabhupāda: Because he is a foolish man, if you say "Because Nārāyaṇa is there, everyone is Nārāyaṇa," he will misunderstand. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, "No, I am not there." Na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ. This is the...

Dr. Patel: Would it not be considered like this, sir, that He is in the Golok as well as here?

Prabhupāda: Yes, Goloka, position of, goloka eva nivasaty akhilātmā-bhūto (Bs. 5.37), that is Kṛṣṇa.

Dr. Patel: Akhilātmā-bhūto.

Prabhupāda: But don't take that because akhilātmā bhūto, Nārāyaṇa is in the dog, therefore I have to worship dog. This is going on. Daridra-nārāyaṇa. And why not dhanī-nārāyaṇa? What is the.... This foolishness is going on. And Nārāyaṇa is everywhere. If you have such a, I mean to say, advanced vision, that Nārāyaṇa is everywhere—that is also mentioned; therefore you should keep respect—then why do you make discrimination, that only daridra-nārāyaṇa? Why not dhanī-nārāyaṇa?

Indian man: Last time you gave the example of the curd and the milk. That was very good example.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why the..., not dhanī-nārāyaṇa? Or the dog Nārāyaṇa or the goat Nārāyaṇa? Goat Nārāyaṇa cut his throat; fish Nārāyaṇa cut his throat...

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 5, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Was active, He is active, but you, you rascal, you cannot see. You cannot say, "Once He was active. Now He is no more active. He has finished His activity." That you cannot say. Dormant? What do you mean by dormant? Huh? Dormant means potential. He can act. And He is acting. That acting you have to learn, how He is acting. He appears to be not acting, but He is acting. That is knowledge. Just like airplane is running. A intelligent man knows that "The pilot is there. He is acting. Therefore it is running." And a foolish man will say, "The airplane is going automatically." That is the question of observation. A foolish boy... I have given this example many times, that I was thinking that in the fan there is a ghost. But the idea is, there must be somebody. Although I was a child... I could not explain how the fan is running in my childhood. I was thinking there must be some ghost. And in the gramophone box I was thinking there must be one man within this box. So this is foolish thinking, but I was convinced that without somebody, it cannot sing or it cannot run. Even one is very innocent child, he can think like that. So whole thing is going on, prakṛti, the activities of material nature... Just like there was cloud and rain. Now it is not raining. So there is activity already. It is being managed. So you cannot say that God is dormant. He is acting because His creation is acting, and God says that mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: (BG 9.10) "Under My direction the nature is working." How you can say He is dormant? The nature is working?

Morning Walk -- February 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So Cāṇakya is authority. So I am quoting Cāṇakya. What is my fault?

Acyutānanda: No, they cannot... They cannot...

Prabhupāda: Cāṇakya is authority. Otherwise, why you have named "Cāṇakya Purī"? He's as good as Gandhi and other big, big men. So it is said, viśvāso naiva kartavyaṁ strīṣu rāja-kuleṣu ca.(?)I am innocent. I am quoting authority.

Acyutānanda: Yes. Yes, you can say that is the statement of Cāṇakya. One foolish man... I was saying, "Some...," in my lectures, "some foolish scholar has written that because Kṛṣṇa is black, He is a scheduled caste." So there was a scheduled caste man in the audience who became educated. So he took offense. "Well, maybe Kṛṣṇa was the leader of the scheduled caste." So I said then, "that is the statement of some scholar. You cannot criticize me. I am quoting a scholar." The audience shouted him down too. (break) Śūdras and yavanas may become brāhmaṇas, but many of them don't.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Acyutānanda: So many born śūdras are śūdras, many times.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Acyutānanda: But artificially the government process is to give benefits and prestige to the harijanas without being qual...

Prabhupāda: Without training.

Acyutānanda: Training.

Prabhupāda: Without making him harijana...

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Hariśauri: So if Kṛṣṇa has given the dictation, then is He dictating every sinful man to give?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hariśauri: Is he dictating every sinful man to give?

Prabhupāda: Why do you question like that? Kṛṣṇa is so foolish that He will dictate to give to a foolish, er, sinful man? It is odd question.

Hariśauri: This is that point that does one come to..., does one get contact with a pure devotee and advance like that from his own free will, from accepting the mercy of the spiritual master or not?

Prabhupāda: What does he say? Hm?

Hariśauri: The point.... The point...

Prabhupāda: Somebody answer.

Jayādvaita: Not every sinful man is dictated to give money; otherwise they'd all be giving us money. They're all sinful. We'd be getting money from everyone.

Revatīnandana: But then the question is why some and not others also?

Trivikrama: Kṛṣṇa is in everyone's heart.

Gurukṛpā: But some are innocent.

Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa's dictation.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No, they'll be.... Nature's law is so strong that they are also trying to knock their head in the wall. They will themselves break their head. The laws of nature is the same. If you try to break the walls from this side and if they try to break the walls from that side, both of them will lose their head. So if they are so foolish.... They are foolish. Everywhere such foolish men are there. They are trying to overcome the laws of nature. That is the greatest foolishness. That is the greatest foolishness. Just like government has got police force, military force, and if somebody tries to become, violate the laws of government by defying police force and military force—that is futile. Is it possible, that "I shall defy the government laws"? No, there is police force. There is military. "I don't care for that." It is foolishness. It is simply foolishness. Similarly, these laws of nature means the force of the Supreme. So if you want to defy, you may waste your time. It is not possible. And practically, Kṛṣṇa says, "Here I have enforced this miserable condition of material life." Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu (BG 13.9). First of all surpass this, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. Then talk of surpassing the laws of nature. Can the Communists overcome, stopping old age? No Communist will be old man? Then what way you have surpassed the laws of nature? No Communist will die? Then where is your surpassing laws of nature? Ultimately you are under the grip of laws of nature. So what is the meaning of this foolish talking, that "I am going to surpass the laws of nature"? Show us first of all.

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

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bharadraja: This is all kaitava-dharma.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, kaitava. You do not get any more benefit. After practicing yoga for ten years, twenty years, if you learn this art how to walk over water, so you can show the magic to the foolish man. But intelligent man will say, "It is a question of four annas. I can walk. Why shall I waste my time, twenty years, for learning this art?"

Indian lady: Sometimes these mystic powers, they use on human beings...

Prabhupāda: This is one of the mystic powers which amaze people, foolish people.

Indian lady: But they can use on human beings also...

Prabhupāda: What human being?

Indian lady: In their life or...

Prabhupāda: No, no, suppose human being learns how to walk over water. Is that the solution of all problems? So what is the benefit to the human being? Suppose you have this mystic yogic power, you can walk over the water, and you teach the whole human society how to walk over the water. (laughter) What is the benefit there?

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

Prabhupāda: Even if you do in future, what is credit? It is already done by somebody.

Hari-śauri: They're just copying.

Rādhā-vallabha: They can create fragrance: simply the bad smell of their bodies.

Prabhupāda: "In future." They're competing with God, and without being success, still: "I am God." What kind of God you are? And foolish men have no sense; they accept such rascals as God. They do not see what is God. How beautiful flowers, how nice arrangement. You cannot manufacture even one fiber, and still you deny God. Mūḍha. He's speaking, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10), "Under My supervision everything is being done." And you have got experience that unless one supervises, nothing can be done very nicely. So these things are being done under some expert supervision. This part is green and this part it is red. Two colors are being transferred, transmitted. The flavor is not here, but here. What is this arrangement? There is no brain?

Hṛdayānanda: Superintelligence.

Prabhupāda: And still the rascals say there is no God.

Trivikrama: "Just chance."

Prabhupāda: No, what a fool they are. Try to expose these fools. But people have lost their reason, brain, everything. Even if we expose, they cannot understand. Still they will stick.

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Scheverman: Yes, our Saint Paul uses that very imagery in his Epistle to the Corinthians, Tenth Chapter. Yes.

Prabhupāda: So that is mentioned in this book. So head means first-class intelligent. A class of men.

Kern: How about people who aren't first-class intelligence, people, as you mentioned, the foolish. What message...?

Prabhupāda: No, they should be trained up. The foolish man.... Just like a foolish child can be trained up to be very nicely educated to pass M.A. examination. Child is..., all children are foolish. That is accepted. But by training him, we can make him the first-class intelligent man.

Scheverman: Training and discipline is a very important aspect of your asceticism.

Prabhupāda: But that training is wanted at the present moment.

Scheverman: Yes, I think that, I would agree that the willingness of modern...

Prabhupāda: There's no training to qualify a person to become first class. There is no training.

Kern: I'm thinking of the retarded, the Mongoloid, the encephalitis, those who are born with...

Prabhupāda: Nobody's born intelligent; that is not possible.

Kern: No, I understand. You see, it mentions in there that.... I was thinking what message do you have for the parents of a child...

Prabhupāda: How to train them first class.

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

Prabhupāda: Just see how forcefully they are being kept into ignorance, and we want to give knowledge, they don't, won't allow. This is government. So anyway, it is good news that our books are being read in that way. That means people are very eager, but they are being suppressed by the so-called government. What is the wrong there, that they cannot read these books publicly, because there is God? What is the wrong? When I was in Moscow airport, as soon as they found Bhagavad-gītā, they called police, the customs checking. The foolish man was kind enough, he said, "Not serious offense. Don't send him in the concentration camp." They can do. In Russia, even if you are foreigner, they can immediately send you to the concen..., without any knowledge, they don't care for your embassy or your... Such a rascal state, there is no civilized method. They send their own men, such an important man like that Kruschev. He was sent into oblivion; nobody knows where he is. Such a rascal government. Very difficult to live in. People are... Simply under terrorism the government is going on. In that sense your American government is so nice. Everyone has got the liberty. What is that nonsense government-terrorism.

Kuladri: But even in our government the President Kennedy was killed and his brother was killed.

Prabhupāda: That..., in politics, that is going on. Our Bhagavad-gītā begins on the killing ground. Battle of Kurukṣetra. Dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre (BG 1.1). Kurukṣetra was a battlefield, but it is still dharma-kṣetre. Why don't you see that? Now the first word is dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ (BG 1.1). Yuyutsavaḥ means fighting. So why they have gone to the dharma-kṣetre for fighting? So killing, fighting, is not always irreligious. It is religious. Otherwise, why should go to dharma-kṣetre?

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That is, if you want to purchase something, you must know where to purchase. Otherwise, you may be cheated. You, generally, you ask your friend that "I want to purchase some diamond, so can you give me some reliable address where I can go and purchase?" Generally, people do that. So you have to do that. If you want to purchase, you must know the preliminary understanding where diamond can be purchased. And if you are not aware of it, you may be cheated. That preliminary knowledge you must have. That means best thing is, those who are dealing with diamonds, you go there. Just like if anyone is inquisitive to understand God, so best thing is those who are dealing with God only, they have no other business. Then you go there. That is the intelligent. Why should you go to a cheater? This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is especially distributing knowledge about God. So why do they not come here and inquire? First thing is, unless one is inquisitive to understand God, or Absolute Truth, he has no necessity of guru. But if he is actually serious, then he must go to a person where the dealing is only God, that's all. Just like ordinarily, if anyone wants to purchase some share of company, he goes to the share market and he sees the price of different shares, and he selects. So everything requires little intelligence, then it is all right. Otherwise, you may be cheated. Whatever business you do, you must do it intelligently. But if you are foolishly doing something, you may be cheated. Why we are opening so many centers all over the world? We are giving opportunity people to come and understand about God. Why do they not come here? Then he can make his judgment that "Here is the genuine party." And if one accepts some cheap God, that means he has no understanding about God. He's a rascal. If I say I'm God and somebody accepts me as God, then he's a foolish man. They do not know what is meaning of God. If one wants God, he must know at least what is meant by God. Every scripture, just like in Bible it is said "God has created this universe." So if you come to me and accept me as God, why don't you test whether I have created another universe like this? Why you accept a cheap God who hasn't done anything? Simply he's bluff, and he says that "I am God." So why do you accept such God? Hmm? Why should we accept a cheap God? Everything requires intelligence. If you are not intelligent, then every transaction you may be cheated. Everyone has heard God is great. So great means there should be nobody equal to Him and nobody greater than Him. That is greatness. So test that man whether he has no competitor, another God. Nowadays there are so many Gods. So God is great, why there is another competitor? This is intelligence.

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: No, this is a common sense. If everyone is God, then what is the necessity of finding out a guru? Guru means who explains about God. Everyone is God, then what is the use of explanation? There is no need of guru.

Devotee (2): How can God be controlled by His own energy, illusory energy?

Prabhupāda: So many things. Foolish men can accept that, "Everyone is God, everyone is guru." That is foolish man's proposition and accepted by fools.

Devotee (2): It is explained in Back to Godhead magazine that (indistinct) serve Kṛṣṇa, serve God. If someone tells you that he is guru (indistinct).

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So to accept a spiritual master must mean that one is in ignorance and one is enlightened.

Prabhupāda: For ignorance there is no need of guru. An ignorant cannot inquire about God. Intelligent man can inquire about God.

Guest: We have to pick up our children. Thank you. (break)

Prabhupāda: Pick up children from a school? Do you know him?

Devotee (2): They're from Wheeling.

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Because they don't want to accept God.

Prabhupāda: No, no, accept God or not, where the accident theory comes?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Well if they don't give some explanation, then they'll be considered fools.

Prabhupāda: Some explanation, they have to give you something foolish explanation? So foolish man will accept that, not a sane man. If you say "By accident," then I'll say why not accident in the history of the world there is a rose plant some other flower has come out? If man has come from monkey, why not coming now? So they give so may foolish propositions, only fools will accept. Anyone who has a little reasoning power they will not, they'll understand that these are all crazy fellows, talking all nonsense. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ. We have got little formula to understand that if one is not Kṛṣṇa conscious he has no good qualifications. He cannot say anything as a qualified person. That is the test. Mūḍha. Immediately take: a mūḍha. Let the mūḍhas speak all nonsense. Why should we waste our time? This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As soon as we find somebody not Kṛṣṇa conscious, not a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, we take, reject, he's a rascal, that's all. And he is rascal. Not only blindly we are rejecting, but with reason. (end)

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: My spiritual master appointed me that "You do this." Similarly I shall appoint somebody else, this is the way.

Rāmeśvara: It's difficult for people to understand that God can speak to a man. They question, "How can God speak to some man?"

Prabhupāda: That is, anything, that, the radio message is coming, a foolish man cannot understand how it is coming. He'll think "How it is that, speaking?" So any foolish man will be astonished how things are happening. That is foolishness. But God says, find out this verse...

Hari-śauri: Four three? Sa evāyaṁ mayā te 'dya (BG 4.3)?

Prabhupāda: Huh? No no. Buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi taṁ yena mām upayānti te.

Rāmeśvara: Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānām (BG 10.10).

Prabhupāda: Ah, teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam (BG 10.10).

Hari-śauri: Dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te.

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.

Hari-śauri: "To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give them the understanding by which they can come to Me."

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

Prabhupāda: Ah. In East Germany also, they have placed order. So this is joining. Just like for us, if you bring any other literature, we throw it away immediately. We take it as useless. Actually it is. We have nothing to learn from them, anything. All bogus. Either he's scientist or astronomer, or..., we know they are talking all bogus things. There may be some truth. Even that truth is there when a child speaks, there is some truth. When a child speaks to his parents, there is some truth, otherwise where is the question of talking? So little portion truth is there, everywhere. But when they talk of big, big things—they are going to Mars and scratching sand there—that we don't believe. That we don't believe. When they talk of this tape recorder, some electronic machine, joining together and it is working, that much care you can take. But when you speak of so many things, that millions of years there were germs and germination, now they are trying to come out, and it is all vacant—these are all bogus, we don't accept. Talking too much. In Bengal it is called yatap(?) When the same child speaks something too much, "Ah, stop." To the extent of his capacity, that's all right. But if you talk more than that, then you are rascal. So they are doing that now. Because they have got some electronic success, or they have manufactured some jet plane, or these, they are now thinking "Now we have owned over the whole world situation." That is nonsense. They are thinking like that: "Now we have control over the world world." That is yatam,(?) speaking more than their capacity. And so far we are concerned, we don't talk anything, except what is mentioned in the books. That's all. We remain always foolish. And as foolish men, we do not talk. We simply talk what is mentioned by Vyāsadeva, by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. That's all. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu... These things have been discussed in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by Prahlāda Mahārāja, that in the material world, the only pleasure is sex. There is no pleasure. Always working hard like asses, that's all, everyone. Not only in one. Life after life, life after life. This is material. And... (children outside yelling) So why they are here?

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

Prabhupāda: So in the morning you can give. We have got other mung dāl? Soak it, soak it, and raw mung dāl also. Ginger and this cucumber.

Bhagavān: When we installed the Gaura-Nitāi Deity last January, many villagers came, and they all came, they were touching the floor, they have never seen such a nice floor, how smooth it was. (laughing)

Prabhupāda: Such marble floor they never saw. (pause) (break) ...who has paid you more than five thousand dollars and he has joined, that does not mean that he's a foolish man. He's a businessman. So what about his business? Leased to somebody else? He leased out to somebody else?

Bhagavān: He's finished.

Prabhupāda: Oh, stopped that business?

Bhagavān: Yes. He's full time here. He had plumbing business, so he does all the plumbing here. And he meets all the officials, the police, and they like him. He is older man. He has a very nice way of presenting himself.

Hari-śauri: He's been here over a year now.

Bhagavān: Several months ago we had a parents' meeting. Because on account of this man Moon, there was much agitation about groups taking young children away. So we had a very nice meeting with prasādam and slides, and one of the parents was saying that "We want to be angry at you, but the problem is that you are all so nice that we cannot be angry."

Prabhupāda: One gentleman has joined, he has paid five thousand dollars. His whole family has joined.

Harikeśa: Just now? That's nice.

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: That extra. We brought from India seven dollars. At that time the exchange was four rupees, eight annas. And you were not allowed to take more than forty rupees. That is same now. So I wanted to sell one set of books to the captain, Mr. Pandia. So he gave me twenty dollars in exchange, three books. I was confident Kṛṣṇa was there, (indistinct) seven dollars. (Hindi)... (break) ...strongly by chance?

Devotee (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: How do they support? In other words, they cannot give explanation, and like a foolish man says "Chance." You cannot give proper explanation how things are happening. Like a foolish rascal: "Chance."

Dayānanda: Because they see according to their intelligence that things are happening according to chance. According to their understanding, sometimes things happen...

Prabhupāda: So what is this understanding? The chance?

Dayānanda: In their experience, or in our experience, we see things are happening...

Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of the scientists? Things take place by chance. What is the use of them?

Dayānanda: By chance there may be an accident, or by chance there may be...

Prabhupāda: Anyway, things will happen by chance, accident. So why they're bothering about things and taking the credit of becoming scientist?

Conversation with Seven Ministers of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, we shall be responsible. Just like, for example, a military man, what is his business? His business is killing. So by the government order he is killing, and the more number of enemies he kills, he gets medal, reward. But the same man, if he kills one man, he'll be hanged—for his own sense gratification. He cannot argue that "In the military camp I have killed so many men and I was rewarded, and now I have killed one man and I am going to be hanged. Why?" The question may be raised. No foolish man will raise the question. That means that killing is under the superior order, and this killing is for your sense gratification. So if you do anything for our sense gratification then it will be stena eva sa ucyate (BG 3.12). He is punishable. But if we execute the supreme order, then you are rewarded. The same action. We are requesting therefore everywhere, not only in India, all over the world, that act according to the order of the supreme, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And gradually they are accepting the principle. So why not in India? In India, the Bhagavad-gītā was spoken in India. Still, in India there are many devotees, many Kṛṣṇa conscious persons. Especially in this province. You are very great devotees of Bālajī. Bālajī is Kṛṣṇa, Bāla Kṛṣṇa. So I wish that the government may be conducted under the guide of Bālajī, Lord Kṛṣṇa. That is my request. And the codes and the orders and the rules and regulations, they're all stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. So if we follow the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā and accept... We accept, consciously or unconsciously. That is our Indian culture, Vedic culture. Still, hundreds and thousands of people go to see Bālajī, and they contribute their hard-earned money for worshiping the Lord. This is the principle. Yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9).

Morning Walk -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: That is for the dress. What about the man who's using the dress? You are identifying the dress with the man. That is foolishness. As soon as you say "dress," you should have to find out the man who has got the dress. Then it is perfect understanding. But if you understand the dress and the man the same, then you are foolish. Dress is not the man.

Indian man (3): No, dress is not the soul, but dress is again the body.

Prabhupāda: Dress is the body. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). That is explained. This body is just like dress. So, but the dress is different from the man who puts on the dress.

Indian man (3): Well, that is different. Man is different.

Prabhupāda: The dress, it becomes old and it will be changed.

Indian man (3): But dress is the body. Dress is the body.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: We have to put up with so much pain for it. You see, we're not this body and to forget that we're not this body, but still every minute we're given pain to remember that this body is there.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Devotee: You stub your toe and it gives so much pain just for something so small.

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

Prabhupāda: So these foolish rascals, because they have improved little, they are denying, "Oh, now there is no need of God. That is opiate." What is that? Opiate?

Jagadīśa: Opiate of the people.

Prabhupāda: "They make the man foolish, God consciousness," and so on, so on. These scientists, they declare, "What is God? This is all superstition."

Dr. Kneupper: But in the world there seem to be many different religions, many different faiths.

Prabhupāda: Religion you may have. Religion means to try to understand God. Any religion—you take Christian religion or Hindu religion or Mohammedan religion—there is little attempt to understand God. So any religion which gives you knowledge of God and you understand what is relation with God, that is perfect religion. We have no quarrel.

Dr. Kneupper: Do you think if all men, let's say, all the religions could try to come together...

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not... Meat-eating is third-class man's eating. It is not denied. Amedhya. But to give us our life, don't kill cows, because it gives you milk, very substantial food. If you want to eat meat, you can eat the hogs and dogs. But don't kill the cows. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44). This is special. It is not forbidding meat-eating, but don't eat cows' flesh. That is loss. It is a great loss to the human society. If they do not have sufficient milk production, then their brain will be dull. They will not be able to understand subtle things. Therefore it is better to avoid it. But if you cannot avoid, you can eat some inferior, useless animals. But don't touch the cows. This is Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says, go-rakṣya. He never says, "Pig rakṣya." You can eat pig. You can eat the goats, the lambs. There are so many small useless animals. They are eating dogs also. The Chinese people, they eat dogs. So you can eat dogs, hogs, so many other animals. But don't touch the cows. This is God's instruction. And they are advertising that "These Hindus, they are so fool, they are worshiping an animal, a cow." They do not know what is the economic value of this cow. In the beginning of your life you want milk immediately in the morning. And you are killing the mother? You are civilized? Do you think? You take milk up to the point of death. In South Africa, before killing the cows, they drag out milk and then send it. Milk is important, but because they are uncivilized, they do this. You take milk. Instead of killing, you prepare so many nice things from milk which is good for brain, good for intelligence. But they do not know because uncivilized. Foolish fourth-class men. So we are trying to bring them to become first-class men, and they are accusing of brainwash. "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." We are teaching that "These boys, they are becoming first-class." Anyone will worship them. How nice they look, how behavior, how their character. We are creating this, and they are accusing, "Oh, they are kidnapping our children." Why you are going? Eh? Why you are going?

Evening Darsana -- December 3, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: There will be proper rainfall. And if there is proper rainfall, then you get sufficient food grains, not only food grains, other things also. Sarva-dughā mahī, sarva-kāma-dughā mahī. From the earth you can get all the necessities of life. Actually you are getting food grains, minerals, trees, fruits, flowers, everything from the earth. Sarva-dughā, sarva-kāma-dughā mahī. This mahī, when it is soaked with proper rains, it becomes fertile. Therefore we have to depend on the rainfall. There is one verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4). Parjanya means rainfall. Rainfall means it is supplying all the necessities of life. And this rainfall will be easy when there is yajña. And nobody is performing yajña; therefore nowadays rainfall is scarcity. In Europe recently I have seen, there is no rainfall, whole Europe. It is on the verge of drying everything. So this punishment will come in this Kali-yuga. There will be no rainfall, and there will be not sufficient food supply, and the government will simply levy taxes on different pleas and people will be so much embarrassed that they will give up their hearth and home and flee away to the forest. It is stated. So therefore you must perform yajña. And that is very easy in this age. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ (SB 11.5.32). You cannot perform the former yajñas by sacrifice tons of ghee and grains because you have no sufficient food grains even. But still, if you chant this saṅkīrtana, that is yajña. Therefore you must take to saṅkīrtana-yajña. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ. It is very easy. (break) ...the duty of human being, prāṇaiḥ, with life, arthaiḥ, with money, dhiyā, with intelligence, and vācā, by words. If one sacrifices his life for Kṛṣṇa's cause, then it is first-class. If he cannot sacrifice his life for Kṛṣṇa he can contribute his hard-earned money for Kṛṣṇa. If he cannot do so, if he has no money, he can give some intelligence. If he is not intelligent, then he can give some words. Just like we are doing preaching. We are preaching, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). So without any jugglery of words we present to the people that "Here is Bhagavān," kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam. So giving some words, sacrificing some words... Not that every one of us is very highly educated or very rich. Still, if we carry the words of Kṛṣṇa... As Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7), so we have to carry these words, that "The Supreme Personality of Godhead is Kṛṣṇa." Where is the difficulty? It is authorized. Kṛṣṇa says and we simply carry the words. So where is difficulty? So simply by carrying these words that "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He wants that you surrender unto Him." So any child can carry these words. Any foolish man can carry these words. And if you do that, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, then you become guru, simply by carrying these words. Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128).

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ: (BG 15.7) "Every living entity is My part and parcel. Every living entity is begotten by Me. I am the father." So how you can make discrimination from one son to another? That is foolishness. You cannot expect by pleasing one son the father will be happy. But if you bring something to the father and pay him, or some food, "Sir, it is for your sons," then he'll be pleased. He'll distribute the foodstuff to his sons. But if you take care one of the sons and don't take care of the other son, the father will never please. Very... That is not the way of pleasing the father. That is foolishness. You may say that "I am taking care of the best son," but to a father, either the best son or the lowest son, the same. Father does not make any..., "Because this is best son, he should be satisfied and the worst sons should be neglect." Father does not make. Father will like better that "You take care of my worst son first." And besides that, to take care of the human society, it is also bogus. Nobody can take care. There are so many problems in the human society how you can take care? But the real problem is—that is for everyone—janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. Either he is animal or human being or demigod or big man or small man or rich man or poor man, a learned man, foolish man, these problems are there, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. So if you take care of these problems, how to save them, all of them, from these four problems, that is real service. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Otherwise temporary—"I am hungry. You give me some relief"—but that relief is temporary. I'll become again hungry. And if I come to you twice, thrice, you'll be disgusted. Neither you can. There are so many hungry men. But if with a view to solve his all problems of life, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, if you take care of him, that is the best service.

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, also Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā at the end that "One who surrenders to Me, he will be delivered from all material reactions and go to (indistinct)." But it is also said that some persons, they are more inclined to surrender than others.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You should surrender; you should request others to surrender. That is service.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So why? What is the use? We are not using any magical powers.

Guest (7): Just to convince the people.

Prabhupāda: Why this foolishness? We never... Ask my disciples. I have never shown any magic. Why?

Bhāgavata: That is a cheap business.

Prabhupāda: That is cheating business. That is not required. It is meant for the foolish men.

Guest (7): ...Suri Bhavantam (?), he was convinced by him just because of his magical powers.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Guest (7): Suri Bhavantam (?) is a scientist. He was convinced by him just because of his magical powers. Otherwise he could not influence me. One of my friends who was sitting there, he told me, "Satya Sai Baba, he won't come this side," he said. I said, "I'll make him to come this side."

Prabhupāda: No, these are words. He has been challenged also by a group of educated men. So there are some fools, rascals. That is all...

Guest (7): I have got belief in God, and so Narendra, my friend was sitting by my side. "No, if I sit there only, he will go that way. I want to see him this side."

Prabhupāda: Do you accept Sai Baba as God?

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So? You can go to the ārati, kīrtana. Go. You also go. (break)

Devotee: ...the argument that after saying "surrender to Kṛṣṇa," and becoming free from the miseries of material life we remain still going home, still a devotee who comes through the heat, still a devotee who is dying just like an ordinary man.

Prabhupāda: It is an argument like this, that "You have gone to a physician for curing your disease. Why you are not cured?" This is nonsense question. It will take some time to be cured. Do you mean to say as soon as you go to the physician, you become cured? Do you think? Why don't you answer like that? A foolish man will say like that, that "You have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Why you are now suffering?" Yes, suffering will be... Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31). So the assurance is there. You take the treatment. Why do you expect? Immediately you go to the physician. A father gets the daughter married, expecting a child. Does it mean as soon as she's married, immediately child? And if a rascal says, "Oh, she is married, and there is no child?" Because he's a rascal. You must wait. Now she is married, it is sure she'll have child. That's a fact. But if the rascal wants, "Now my daughter is married. There is no child?" What is this nonsense? This question is like that, that "You have come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Why you are suffering?" You cannot answer this?

Devotee: Yes. Also you give the example of the cat catching up the mouse and the cat...

Room Conversation -- December 20, 1976, Bombay:

Guest: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: If you say my idea then I become one of you. (laughter) So I don't want that. I say I am foolish man. I have no idea. Whatever Kṛṣṇa says, that is idea. Just like a child, he speaks the words of the father. If the father... The child asks,"Father, what is this?" The father says, "This is a stick." So if the child says, "That is a stick," so that is correct. He may be a child. Because he repeats the words of the father... (Hindi) If the people are fools and rascals, then other will be fool and rascal. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). (Hindi) If you accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme then where is the question of interpretation? (Hindi conversation) But who accepted? This is a fact. You try to understand that before me for 200 years so many swamis, yogis were there. Not a single man became Kṛṣṇa conscious. (Hindi conversation) He is not teacher he is cheater. Why should you change Kṛṣṇa's words? That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu, yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). Don't manufacture. What Kṛṣṇa has said, you say. Just as a child he can say, "This is a stick." "How you have learned?" "Father said." That's all. (Hindi) I started this business with forty rupees. (laughter) (Hindi) Yes when I went to New York they allowed me only forty rupees. (Hindi to end)

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Evening Darsana -- February 26, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But people are interested with the dress only. That is foolishness. That is foolishness. Suppose you are driving one car. You are driving one car, and the car is also important, but you are not the car. But if you think that you are car, then you are a foolish. You have to take care of the car so far because it is plying, it is giving you service. You must keep in order very cleanse. That's very nice. But if you simply absorb in the service of the car, you don't take care of yourself.

Guest (2): The point is for ordinary men it is very difficult to conceive of a naked soul.

Prabhupāda: So ordinary man is foolish. Learned man is intelligent

Guest (2): But it is very difficult to think of a naked soul.

Prabhupāda: Naked, there is no question of... Naked soul is there, but you have no eyes to see it. Naked soul is there, but it is so small you cannot see it. The dimension of the naked soul is given in the śāstra. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca (CC Madhya 19.140). One ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. So it is not possible to see by your these present eyes. But there is. There is no doubt about it.

Indian man: How is it opened, the eyes?

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

Prabhupāda: Origin, yes. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mat... (BG 10.8). That is the difficulty. You do not read Bhagavad-gītā. You quote Vivekananda. You quote another, another. But Kṛṣṇa is God. That is the cause of misfortune of India. You don't accept Kṛṣṇa as the authority. Everyone accepts, all the great sages formerly, Asita, Devala, Vyāsa. Svayaṁ caiva bravīṣi me. And at the present era, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Nimbārka, Caitanya—all accept, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān (SB 1.3.28). You don't follow the ācāryas, the authorities, Kṛṣṇa. You bring something.

Kārttikeya: Concoction.

Prabhupāda: That is the misfortune. They have left the authority, real authority. They have accepted some foolish man as authority. And that is the misfortune. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, the supreme authority. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). Why don't you take this? Distortion of our śāstra, distortion of authority, and bringing something foolish, and you are following. Not... You cannot follow. That is not possible. It is not possible. But you are making some authorities. You trying to follow. Even if you follow... That, the same example, just like Vivekananda was advocating daridra-nārāyaṇa. First of all this is a concocted word. How Nārāyaṇa can be daridra? People have accepted. Nārāyaṇa is daridra?

Mr. Dwivedi: No.

Prabhupāda: Then how he manufactured this nonsense word? It is insulting. If I say, "Foolish Jetthi, President, rascal," so is it not insult? Similarly, if you say, daridra-nārāyaṇa, it is insult to Nārāyaṇa. But people are accepting daridra-nārāyaṇa. Just see how they are misled.

Indian man: They have not even proper knowledge, sir.

Morning Talk -- April 25, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, hanged. They are not guru. They are not missionaries. They do not know. They have no knowledge. And missionaries? You see? The so-called politicians, philosopher, religionists, rascals, distorting the meaning of Bhagavad-gītā. And yato mata tato patha. And "I like. Whatever I like, I can speak, and that is supported." What is this? Chaotic condition. There is no standard. We are giving the standard, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. And Gandhi said, "Oh, how can I stop cow-killing? It is their religion." Just see. Such a rascal. "My religion is to kill others, and it should be supported by the government." Such a foolish man, they are on the government power. Parīkṣit Mahārāja, did he consider that? "So you are killing cow? You must be killed." That's all. Life for life. "It is my religion, sir." "Then get out here! Get out of my kingdom! Perform your religion outside." This is king. This is government. He said like that, Kali. You know?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: "Yes, all right, I don't interfere with your business, but not... You leave my kingdom. Get out."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Kali said that "You have given me nowhere to live now, 'cause in your kingdom there is no such place."

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Therefore I say, get out from my kingdom. I don't care for your religion or business, but you cannot do within my kingdom." And that is king. If I have to flatter you for vote, "Yes, whatever you like, you can do. Give me vote," is that government?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Kāmo 'smi, that should be. That kāma is not that, that whenever they like, have sex and then go away. That is his kāma . Once you have sex life and the woman first of all debauches like... You have to make it public that "I am going to have garbhādhāna-saṁskāra." It is not a secret thing. It is a ceremony. And then, when she is pregnant, no more sex. No more sex means so long the child is there, ten months, and unless the child is grown up at least six months, no sex. That means once you have sex and then abstain for sixteen months. You know what is that dharma? So who is such a foolish man that for once having sex and then abstaining...? Therefore those who could not abstain, they used to keep many wives.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, I mean, what is the purpose of... A man is foolish because he's attracted by sex life, but even in marriage...

Prabhupāda: It is foolish, undoubtedly, but there is some concession. But this concession is so restriction that he'll become intelligent, that "What is the use of this concession?" Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityā hi jantoḥ. It is not encouragement. The so much restriction means to convince him indirectly that "This is nonsense. Better you give it up." Otherwise why restriction? In other things... Suppose eating bhagavat-prasādam. There is no such restriction...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Once every six...

Prabhupāda: ...that "Once you eat and then do not eat for sixteen months." Is there any such restriction? This is encouraged.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Chanting.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That man who has kept, he's working as assistant, he is plundering.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, I think so.

Prabhupāda: He's a foolish man.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well the thing is Śrīla Prabhupāda, he's not that intelligent. He's going to be plundered, I mean that's the unfortunate part. That's why we just have to help them and at the same time...

Prabhupāda: Try to help but not squander.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, that's the point.

Prabhupāda: I give you full freedom. As you learn. But arrange that they may remain in that house, lifelong and get each two hundred and fifty. Only my wife five hundred, that's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What happens after when they start getting seven hundred fifty rupees after seven years, they may squander a little bit. But we'll be...

Prabhupāda: No, that is already invested. I read government paper.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: OK. Those three things.

Page Title:Foolish men (Conversations)
Compiler:MadhuGopaldas, RupaManjari
Created:25 of Apr, 2013
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=77, Let=0
No. of Quotes:77