France (Conversations 1968 - 1975)

Expressions researched:
"France"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: The Sikhs they are jat class, and the Gurkha, oh, the whole British Empire was extended with the help of the Sikhs and the Gurkhas. The Britishers took these Gurkhas and the Sikhs to Burma, to Messopotamia. They liquidated the Empire because they lost India. The British soldiers were not helping to keep up their Empire. These Indians soldiers. In the first war they gained for these Indian soldiers. They fought in France and everywhere very nicely. They are fighter class. They like to fight. And fighting is not going every day. So the arrangement was... Just like you have to fight for the state. So there is no monthly salary system. You are awarded by the government a certain tract of land free. You produce grains and utilize the land; no tax for you. But when there will be war, you shall fight. Very nice arrangement. Similarly, in temple, the florist has to supply flowers daily. Mr. Khanvar(?), am I right? You know this Indian system?

Mr. Khanvar: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So the florist is given a certain tract of land free, and let him produce flower and make business. But the quantity of flower I require for my temple, he must supply daily. Similarly, the bandsman, he should come and play band. Everything was on land distribution. That was the system. And tax was paid to the government. Not by assessment.

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Pradyumna: I was looking at his philosophy. I was just looking at his technique for his... He was in America first and then he wished also to go to Europe. Anyway, he had one man... He just had a rich benefactor and he went on a six weeks tour, France, England, Germany, Switzerland, all around and then back. That's how he did most of his touring. He had one or two influential people, and then he did everything just like that. And all lectures were arranged in societies.

Prabhupāda: So you can arrange like that. Can you?

Pradyumna: I was thinking if there would be in the Royal Asiatic Society in London. I think Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda was a member of that also? Is that the same one?

Prabhupāda: Where is Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda now?

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prabhupāda: Yes. But we had our saṅkīrtana festival for ten days, and people participated very wonderfully. We... Our gathering was not less than thirty thousand people daily, and they are so much interested in hearing about our... Lecture things, we are lecturing from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā. We are... Our preaching method is on the basis of Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So people are responding from every part of the world, especially the American boys. They are especially interested. And England also, and Germany, and France. From here I shall go to Paris. There we have got center. What is the name of that place? Paris? Recently they have taken.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 18, 1972, Hong Kong:

Prabhupāda: Yes, London is very... There is also. We have got very nice temple near British Museum, 7 Bury Place. And all Europeans, they come to see our temple from Germany, from France. Because we have been advertised in cooperation with the Beatles. The Beatles, Beatles, the George Harrison. You do not know his name? He is very famous man. Yes. So we have produced some records in cooperation with George Harrison's organization. So because the records are produced through George Harrison, we have got a very, very big sale. You see? And that has advertised Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Temple, London. So people come to see what is this Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple, out of... Because London, every day, thousands of visitors come in London. They have got visitors buses also, charge nominal. So London is still important. From all parts of the world people come. So anyone who comes, they come to see our temple.

Interview -- July 20, 1972, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is penetrating. Just like here in France, in your country, how these young men they are taking part unless it is penetrating?

Devotee: He says thank you very, very much. (indistinct) ...very much trouble before meeting you... (indistinct) Thank you very much for the few minutes you've afforded to us. (indistinct) ...for a long journey.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Frenchman: Merci.

Devotees: Jaya! (end)

Room Conversation and Interview with Ian Polsen -- July 31, 1972, London:

Devotee (2) (Kulaśekhara?): Śrīla Prabhupāda, he used to be a shepherd in France.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee (2) (Kulaśekhara?): He used to be a shepherd three years ago. He used to be a shepherd for some years. And, ah, he was with a Muslim man who was telling him about sac-cid-ānanda, explaining to him about the philosophy of sac-cid-ānanda, about the soul and the spirit. So in Spain—that's where I first met him—he said, "I may appear to you to be a businessman, but also I've been known as a shepherd."

Prabhupāda: So you can read our Teachings of Lord Caitanya. You have got?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Indian Guests and Devotees -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No, where is the... In France, everyone is pleased? That is the imagination. You see. Vox populi, peoples' government. People, generally, general people, they are fools and rascals. How a government of fools and rascals can improve? It's not possible. They're ignorant. Abodha-jāta. They have no knowledge. The knowledge of eating, sleeping, mating, defending, that is animal knowledge. Everyone knows it. How to eat, nobody requires any education. How to sleep, nobody requires and any education. How to have sex life, nobody requires any education. How to defend, nobody requires education. They are not subject matter of education. Everyone knows it, how to do it. The modern education means they are on this subject matter. Just like that rascal, Freud?

Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: France? What is the position in France? They don't like also.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: No.

Prabhupāda: In Canada, there is two languages, English and French.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes. And unfortunately, a great feeling between the two.

Prabhupāda: This material world is based on jealousy. And spiritual world is based on friendship. That is the difference. So the, these materialistic persons, United Nations, League of Nations, they are trying to unite, but they, at heart, there is jealousy. So they can never become united. This is only bogus farce.

Garden Conversation with Mahadeva's Mother and Jesuit Priest -- July 25, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: No. Just like English book. We are translating in German, translating in France, in Spanish...

Mother: But there's a lot of Latin that needs translating too. I mean, you must, you must, you must have a full understanding of everything if you're going to translate.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It will be better. If you also join, then we'll have full understanding. (mother laughs)

Mother: You have a sense of humor.

Jesuit Priest: What language, master, was your books originally written in?

Garden Conversation with Mahadeva's Mother and Jesuit Priest -- July 25, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: There was some bombing in Calcutta, nothing more.

Mother: Hm. Ah, but these Indians were fighting in France.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is another thing.

Mother: Dunkirk.

Prabhupāda: Dunkirk.

Mother: And then they came, when Dunkirk was evacuated, they came back in all these little boats that they escaped in, and they got together and they billeted them... And I was living with my godmother in Sholden (?) in Devonshire. And we had eight acres. And the Army put up huts for them. And they lived there for about eight months until more Indians were sent to make them back to strength again, the regiments, big enough.

Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Cardinal Danielou: Yes. It is a... Personally I like very much Hinduism. And I have a brother, (indistinct), it is my brother, who is a specialist on Hinduism...

Bhagavān: Yes, his brother has written a very great book which is known all over France...

Cardinal Danielou: Especially on Indian music, Indian music. He live many years in Benares.

Prabhupāda: Benares.

Cardinal Danielou: Benares. Fifteen years. Fifteen years in Benares.

Prabhupāda: Oh, he was in fifteen years?

Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Cardinal Danielou: No. Not yet, not yet. France. France...

Prabhupāda: I've got invitation from the secretary...

Cardinal Danielou: Yes.

Bhagavān: We are beginning one branch in Italy.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Bhagavān: Your brother, he has acquired a little philosophy from India.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, yes, very acquainted with Indian philosophy and religion. He read very well Sanskrit and...

Prabhupāda: Oh, he knows Sanskrit?

Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: He's a linguist scholar.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, very scholar. It is first time you visit France?

Prabhupāda: This is the third time.

Bhagavān: Third time, trois.

Cardinal Danielou: Trois fois, trois fois, trois fois.

Yogeśvara: Our spiritual master was very interested when I informed him that you have had several meetings with political leaders of France as well, that you have, that your interests extend into government and politics as well as religion.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, yes.

Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Cardinal Danielou: Monastery, yes. With contemplative life and austerity of life. And we have many, many monastery in France. Some Benedict, some Benedict and...

Prabhupāda: Where he has gone to take the water from, Arabian Sea?

Cardinal Danielou: (French)

Yogeśvara: Kṛṣṇa's mercy. I can change the tape. (break)

Cardinal Danielou: ...leader of the Kṛṣṇa community?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Now there are many atheists.

Cardinal Danielou: Many atheists, yes. In France, we have this problem. In France, the greatest parts of the, of, of children are baptized and trained...

Prabhupāda: Give me little more.

Cardinal Danielou: In France, the greatest part of children are baptized and receive a religious education, the religious training, the great part. The atheism is chiefly, amongst intellectuals. Not...

Prabhupāda: Ah! Not in the mass.

Cardinal Danielou: Not in the... No, not in the mass.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Yogeśvara: Mr. Rougemont is a journalist from Combat magazine, newspaper. Combat is the newspaper of the socialists of France. Political newspaper, and Mr. Rougemont had some questions about the political and government programs of the Society.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Reporter: You accept to answer my questions?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: How long you are here?

Dr. Inger: In France, I've been twenty-five years.

Prabhupāda: Oh, I see. And wherefrom you came?

Dr. Inger: Punjab.

Prabhupāda: Punjab.

Dr. Inger: Before it was divided into two.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, yes.

Dr. Inger: Before the...

Prabhupāda: Which district.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: American, they cheated the Red Indians. They got the land. Now they are claiming, "It is my land." But where you got this land? You have cheated the Red Indians, and you claim now it is your land. "Nobody should come here." Everywhere that is there it belongs to... Napoleon, he thought, "France is mine." France is there. Where he has gone, the proprietor? Yes. And with this idea he fought so much. Now nobody knows what he has become, where he is living, either in France or in hell, maybe in heaven. But there are so many places and so many forms of life. And our Bhagavad-gītā says, tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptiḥ. Just like I am now in this body. Child is in this body. So all of us sometimes were in this body, childish. So where is that body? That body is not existing. But I am existing; you are existing. You know that you had such a body.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: A man is thinking according to the man's body. So thinking and everything is changed with the change of the body. Just like this child is. This child, she cannot concentrate because due to the body. Other gentlemen, ladies, they can concentrate. So she has to get a different body to have a different mentality. So in other words, with the change of the body the mentality changes. So in this body I am thinking of France, and if my next body, it is not in France or is not human, I will think otherwise. So the whole duration of my life which I thought in one way, that is simply wasted. Simply wasted. They do not know. This knowledge is lacking. There is no such knowledge in the university, any education, nothing. Simply they are wasting time. Simply. They have no perfect knowledge. They are wasting their time, and doing something just like childish, and going on as advanced in civilization, and so on, so on, so on. Now they should think. Simply on some utopian ideas they should not go.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Professor: In the southern part of France. Yes.

Prabhupāda: So you can show our books, how Sanskrit we have written.

Professor: What?

Yogeśvara: He says we can show you our books. These are some of the publications of our society.

Prabhupāda: Set all the books. Let him read the Sanskrit portion.

Guru-gaurāṅga: This is Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā.

Professor: That's the translation of...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Each word. Just see how we have translated. You are Sanskrit scholar.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Professor: And what about France? Is it...

Prabhupāda: That I do not know. They know.

Professor: They know, yes, better than you.

Prabhupāda: They bring the disciples. I simply initiate. That's all.

Professor: Have you been many times in France or not?

Prabhupāda: This is the third time.

Professor: The third time?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Formerly I was going there... What is that place name?

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Yogeśvara: In France, I believe, the only version of Bhagavad-gītā that people know is Aurobindo's translation.

Professor: No, there are many others.

Yogeśvara: Many?

Professor: There are many others.

Prabhupāda: English?

Professor: No, no. In French.

Prabhupāda: In French.

Professor: Bhagavad-gītā? Yes. I think translated I think something like ten or twelve times.

Yogeśvara: Ten or twelve times in French?

Professor: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, Dr. Suneson -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Haṁsadūta: In Germany, France and England, Holland, everywhere, in all countries.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Of course, this...

Professor: But East, Eastern Europe's impossible, eh?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, as a matter of fact, we, we have a devotee in East Berlin. But, of course, it's very difficult because the government doesn't allow it. But we just... He keeps a shaved head, and he's chanting. He's reading our books.

Professor: But nobody has interfered with him?

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ah. So Napoleon was. But before constructing that arch, he was finished in battle of Waterloo. So all the struggle he made to make France a great country and him to become a great leader was futile. It was not perfectly done. In one statue I saw, "France and Napoleon identical." But France is there; where is Napoleon? Therefore it is called illusion, māyā. Just like our Gandhi, in this country, he struggled so hard, got independence. But just after independence he was killed, finished. He could not enjoy. He simply struggled. You cannot say that he had no desire to enjoy. Then how he was sticking to that politics? And because he was sticking to that politics, he was killed. If he would have retired from politics, he would not have been killed. Therefore because he was sticking to that politics means he wanted to enjoy the fruit. But he could not. Therefore we do not know what is the perfection of life.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They work so hard. Śrīla Prabhupāda, there is a nice incident. There is a scientist from France, Pasteur. When he was about to be married, the same day, he forgot his own marriage day because he was working in his laboratory, doing experiments. So one of his friends reminded him, "Oh, Pasteur, your marriage day is today so you come out from the lab and you have to go there." Then he went out and got married,

Prabhupāda: There is a Bengali proverb, yāṅra loke bie naya, para lokera ghumnaya: (?) "The man who is to be married, he has forgotten, and the neighbors, they are not sleeping, 'Oh, that man will be married. That man will be married.' " But he has forgotten.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Italian Man (4): These important writers who have been read throughout Europe, France and England, who has no importance for the moment, they have never tried to give a (sic:) lifely idea of Kṛṣṇa, the pastimes and the youthfulness, and the liveliness of this is not given. And they will take... Yes, that's it. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Here is a foreign reader. He says.

Indian Man (1): Which book you have read?

Italian Man (4): Well, I have read every book that can be available.

Indian Man (1): Have you read Rādhākrishnan on Bhagavad-gītā?

Prabhupāda: He is first-class impersonalist. He is a first-class blind man. First-class blind man.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1974, Bombay:

Indian man (1): But they have provided you with motorcars and aeroplanes to go across the sea, reach America, France, within a few hours.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is also credit. Because they have done something...

Indian man (1): Something to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: No, yes. That is our mercy, that we take advantage of their creation to bless them. We don't require all these things, but we take the advantage: "Because he has done something, let us take it." Just like we are using the microphone. So we don't require any microphone, but because he has created, that is the proper utilization. Not for sense gratification, cinema song. That is not required.

Press Conference -- April 18, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: No. I will go to Europe and... I'll go to London, then to Paris, then Germany, then Sweden, then Switzerland. I have got temples there. In Germany we have got four temples. In Sweden we have got. In Switzerland we have got. France we have got. In England we have got four, five.

Guest (9): No government is placing obstacles?

Prabhupāda: No, they receive it very nicely. They understand that "Swamiji is doing something nice." Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya, Śrīla Prabhupāda!

Room Conversation -- April 26, 1974, Tirupati:

Indian man: Forty temples, I see.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In England we have got about five. And France, in German, we have got four.

Indian man: In Germany also.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Germany, Sweden, Rome, and Australia.

Indian man: They are also... They are very devoted to our creed, our religion?

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are preaching Bhagavad-gītā. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śa... (BG 18.66). That is the only religion.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 1, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Śivānanda. Then I... Śivānanda talked in German. (break) ...two wars is due to Germany's hatred to Britain. That's all. There was always competition in colonization between France, Holland...

Dr. Patel: German. All of them.

Prabhupāda: No, not Germany. Not Germany. Germany never tried for colonization.

Dr. Patel: Belgium, such a small thing, they have half of the Central Africa like a pyramid standing on its tip. (break)

Prabhupāda: Britishers were maintaining the British Empire at the cost of India. Soldiers, money...

Morning Walk -- June 1, 1974, Geneva:

Bhagavān: So I hope there is still time.

Prabhupāda: He is Prime Minister of France?

Bhagavān: He just became the Prime Minister of France.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Young man?

Bhagavān: Forty? (break) (now they are walking)

Prabhupāda: Still they are doing this. You see? Padaṁ padam means every step. There are some fruits in this tree? No. Oh, here is eucalyptus? No. (break) ...you can by children, their living. There is only one offspring.

Room Conversation with Biochemist, Dr. Sallaz -- June 4, 1974, Geneva:

Dr. Sallaz: And our last official result is, of course, a scandal for the orthodox world. We did transmute matter from one to another. We achieved transmutation like alchemists in the Middle Age, you see. And a single element which is called iron, we make from it chrome which is another single element. And it is so revolutionary that we had the experimentation made completely not from our side but from official organization in France. (French)

Yogeśvara: What he says is that the final conclusion of their research work has been...

Dr. Sallaz: One of them.

Yogeśvara: One of their conclusions has been to be able to make one element to change into another element. They were able to take iron and transform it into chrome by chemical process, almost like alchemy, he says. And this was very startling for the scientific world.

Dr. Sallaz: Result. Result, only with physical heat, eight hundred, and pressure, only this. No laser, no atomic energy, nothing at all. Simply by natural measures.

Prabhupāda: We can give you one information, that metals like bell metal. Bell metal is combination of...? What is called? Tin? Tin? What is another name of tin?

Room Conversation -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: So use this. This is one of the business. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). We don't stop trade. We don't stop food, producing food grains. But we want to stop these killing houses. It is very, very sinful. Therefore in Europe, so many wars. Every ten years, fifteen years, there is a big war and wholesale slaughter of the whole human kind. And these rascals, they do not see it. The reaction must be there. You are killing innocent cows and animals. Nature will take revenge. Wait for that. As soon as the time is ripe, the nature will gather all these rascals, and club, slaughter them. Finished. They will fight amongst themselves, Protestant and Catholic, Russian and France, and France and Germany. This is going on. Why? This is the nature's law. Tit for tat. You have killed. Now you become killed. Amongst yourselves. They are being sent to the slaughterhouse. And here, you'll create slaughterhouse, "Dum! dum!" and killed, be killed. You know. You showed me?

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: He asks, "What are our activities in France?"

Prabhupāda: The same thing: to induce people to become lawful to the laws of God. (French)

Pṛthu-putra: He asks what are we doing for that?

Nitāi: What ways are we doing that?

Pṛthu-putra: In which way, what way, how?

Prabhupāda: This, we are chanting the holy name of Lord so that people may hear and their hearts be cleansed to understand what is God.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Pṛthu-putra: He asks if we have temple in France or if we do in apartment or if we do in conference, private conferences. How we are doing it?

Prabhupāda: Anyway. We welcome all, all learned men, or leading men, to understand this philosophy. And the book is... You show Bhagavad-gītā. And all other books also show him. (French)

Yogeśvara: He says, unfortunately, he doesn't read English.

Prabhupāda: Here is French. French language. (French)

Bhagavān: We have practical political philosophy.

Yogeśvara: He asks what are our political principles in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Do we have a program?

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. Because it is published in other languages. (French)

Pṛthu-putra: He asks how many disciples there is in France?

Bhagavān: Tell him there's hundred devotees, but there's hundreds who come to the temple.

Prabhupāda: Dedicated devotee, hundred. (French)

Yogeśvara: If one is a full-time disciple...

Prabhupāda: He's dedicated disciple.

Yogeśvara: Does that mean he must give up his family, and come and live here?

Prabhupāda: No, he can live with his family. It is to take up the cause, not to give up the family. We don't believe in giving up. We believe in engaging them properly. That is our philosophy.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Bhagavān: No, we're centered in Paris, and they travel all over France. (French)

Pṛthu-putra: He asks if we have a school in France.

Prabhupāda: We have got a school in Dallas, America, but we are trying to open a school here, also. (French)

Yogeśvara: This school is for all ages or just for children?

Prabhupāda: No, all ages. Children means they learn Sanskrit and English. And they are taught our books. You show our books, all books. These are... Other books. We have got eighty books like this. So if a student reads all these eighty books, he becomes Doctor of Philosophy. Ph.D. Beginning from A,B,C,D, up to Ph.D., all, everything is there. (French)

Car Conversation on the way to Chateau -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Bhagavān: No. (more conversation with gas station attendant, etc.) (break) It is very known that the family is very strong, the family attachment is very strong. In America, people separate from the family very early. And in France, the family attachment is so strong. And many people, many families have come and asked us if we will be able to open school here for their children too. The interest is there. Everyone is afraid of this present system of schooling. Because they send their children there, and they come back so crazy.

Prabhupāda: Rogues. Rogues. After education, they are rogues only (pause) (break)

Room Conversation with M. Lallier, noted French Poet -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: ...and Mr. Lallier has a reputation among young literary circles in France as being a very good poet.

Prabhupāda: He's good poet?

M. Lallier: No. (laughs)

Jyotirmayī: (French) Before he came, he already knew a little Bhagavad-gītā, little Vedānta. So he has a lot of questions. There's some points, he likes very much Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and some, he says that maybe in the Vedānta philosophy is different things.

M. Lallier: She says that I knew that entire philosophy, but I knew it very badly, very... I'm not a great philosopher. No, not at all.

Prabhupāda: Which philosophy?

Room Conversation with M. Lallier, noted French Poet -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

M. Lallier: But why? We, in France, for instance, or in occidental world, we are accustomed to think, to think that the phenomena of consciousness is only a characteristic... (break) What is the signification of...?

Yogeśvara: Of that degradation of the human species?

M. Lallier: Yes, of the flow (?) of the four ages.

Yogeśvara: So, so far, to this point, we've been speaking about a gradual evolution of consciousness through the species. So what is the explanation, what is the reason for which there is a degradation of the human consciousness through the four ages?

Prabhupāda: Where there is evolution, there must be degradation. Otherwise, what is the meaning of evolution? Why it should be stagnant? If you go, ascend, then you can descend also. Now, the Mr. Nixon was elected president, and why he's being dragged, "Come down." He is not coming down, but he has already come down, degradation. Nobody likes him.

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Jyotirmayī: ...in France amongst the communist students, the communist Indian students. And I said he is also a literary critic. That means that he is writing a lot of articles in the newspaper and explaining many things in the literary circles in France. He also knows very much about Gandhi philosophy. He has been writing a lot about Gandhi's philosophy. So when he knew that you were with Gandhi, he came very interested.

Prabhupāda: Hm. So we are also communist. As you take the state as the center, we take Kṛṣṇa as the center. Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Where is Karandhara?

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Jyotirmayī: So he said that here in France, the Christians, they are now reviewing their own Christianity, their own philosophy, because they see that the materialistic people, they are giving critiques, and they are right in their critiques. So they are changing their religion.

Yogeśvara: In other words, he's saying that religion has to be defined according to the way the mass of people accept it.

Prabhupāda: That is not religion. That is sentiment. (French)

Devotee: (To Prabhupāda, as Frenchman speaks in French:) They're on the phone speaking with Brahmānanda Mahārāja.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: You don't know Kṛṣṇa, but it belongs to somebody. He may be named as Kṛṣṇa or something else. That doesn't matter. But it is, it does not belong to you. How you can deny it? You have come here... Suppose I have come here, in Paris. I stay here for one week, two. Does it mean Paris is mine? Similarly, you come from the womb of your mother and stay here, say, fifty years. That is mean yours? The same example. Does it mean that the world belongs to you? Why you are claiming, "This is France," "This is Europe," "This is America," "This is mine," "This is mine..."? Before your birth it was there, and when you go, it will remain there. So how you claim that it is yours? So you don't... You must know as it remained, it was there before my birth, and it will remain after my departure. Then how it belongs to you? What is the answer?

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Paramahaṁsa: This used to be the king's palace, of France.

French Devotee: (indistinct)

Paramahaṁsa: Yes, this was the palace before they built the big palace in Versailles. Versailles is like a demigod's planet. It's the most wonderful building in all of France. Everything in gold, and wonderful paintings. Very, very big, and wonderful gardens and rivers. The king of France was very intelligent. In order to keep the nobles from revolting against him, he invited them all to his palace to enjoy with him. And he gave them wonderful feasts and a lot of sex life, and wonderful music. And like this, they never revolted during his time. This was Louis the Fourteenth.

French Devotee: He was called the sun king.

Paramahaṁsa: They call him the saintly king.

French Devotee: Sun, sun.

Paramahaṁsa: Oh, the sun king.

Prabhupāda: What is that sun king?

Room Conversation with Mr. Tran-van-Kha, and President & Members of the Society of Buddhists in France -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Pṛthu Putra: Mrs. Basti (sp?), she is the president of the Society of Buddhists in France. And,...

Guest (1): Thomas Dhu (?).

Prabhupāda: Sit down.

Pṛthu Putra: He's the president, (indistinct) honor of honors. Mr. Tran-Van-Kha was ambassador from Vietnam...

Prabhupāda: Vietnam.

Pṛthu Putra: ...in America twenty years ago, and he's now president of the society of Buddhists in France.

Prabhupāda: If... Vietnam (indistinct)? No?

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Jyotirmayī (translator): So I'd like to introduce you to these gentlemen and these ladies. He is... He's called Pere Canivez. Pere Canivez, here, and he is the Secretary of the Bishops of France, and he would like to come and discuss with you. Here is the Pere Fransad. He's a Christian priest also who, that I knew and so by his help Pere Canivez came. And he'd like to come with this lady who's come, Madame Siaude. She's living in India usually.

Prabhupāda: Oh, you live in India?

Madame Siaude: Yeah, in the French part of, far eastern state, in Pondicherry.

Prabhupāda: Pondicherry?

Morning Walk -- June 17, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Yes. "They do not do any industry. They do not kill cows. They do not go to cinema. They do not have illicit sex. They don't drink. No problems. Simply they're eating very nicely and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa." Show this example. At least, in this fool's paradise. They are thinking it is paradise. And the paradise is lost every ten years or fifteen years by the bombing. German bombs the France, and France bombs the... This is their paradise. So let them understand that "You are all fools. You are fool's paradise. This is life, what we are doing." Teach them so that the fools will understand what is life. They are manufacturing atom bomb. Russia is hiding himself.

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

Prabhupāda: Unless one comes to the spiritual consciousness—he may be a very nice man—he is infected with the impurity of goodness. He is thinking, "I am very big man, I am very..." That is also impurity. And another man does not know what he is, just like animal, all the animals. That is also impurity. When both of them will come to the clear consciousness that "I am part and parcel of God; my duty is to serve God," that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So long he identifies with this material consciousness, he is impure. Just like people are fighting: "I am German," "I am Englishman," "I am this," "I am that," "I am black," "I am white," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am śūdra"—so many, designations. These designations are impurity. Just like sometimes the artists, they manufacture some statue naked. In France I saw, naked. They take it this naked statue is pure art, not dressed. Similarly, when you come to the nakedness of spirit soul without this designation of this body, "I am American," "I am German," "I am this," "I am that," that is purity.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Self-realization, that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that one should understand that "I am not enjoyer. Nobody is enjoyer." That is false. They are trying, endeavor, for enjoying this world, and that is false. Real enjoyer is the Supreme Lord. We are trying to occupy this land, that land. "This is Germany. This is England. This is France. This is India. This is my land, worshipable. Land is worshipable. It is my land." But he should know that no land belongs to us. Everything belongs to God. And this is a fact. The land is not created by us. The ocean is not created by us. Then why should we claim, "This is German ocean, and this is English ocean"? This is all false imagination. So when it comes to this understanding, that "Nothing belongs to us..." The United Nations, they are fighting for the last twenty years, but they are fighting on the false ground because everyone is thinking, "This land is mine. I must protect it." So they have no self-realization, and there is no peace.

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Greek dictionary. (break) ...France.

Haṁsadūta: Germany is bordered by many countries—Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland. So we are right in the center of Germany. So Germany is in the center of Europe.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...even a single stick like this in the laboratory. What do you think? You can?

Satsvarūpa: No.

Prabhupāda: What is scientist? Simply talking. Vikathyante. Vikathyante. This word is used in Bhāgavata. When one is covered by māyā, he talks so many nonsense things, vikathayante. (break)

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1975, Paris (with French translator):

Prabhupāda: You can advertise in paper. You will get good orders.

Bhagavān: They have said that this Aurobindo copy, this is almost out of print now.

Devotee (1): There is no edition of Bhagavad-gītā like your edition ever in France. This is the first time.

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo is hodgepodge. It is simply vocabulary. No concrete contribution. Simply words. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). In order to learn the science, one must go to the bona fide guru. Otherwise it is not possible. In the Bhagavad-gītā, find this verse.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: This is a fact, that intelligent or not intelligent, that doesn't matter. Everyone is seeking pleasure, ānanda. The Sanskrit word is ānanda. So ānanda... Suppose I am constructing a big house to live there, but before the construction is finished I am, by nature, I am taken away. I die. Just like Napoleon. That, in France, that Arc in Paris?

Devotee: Arc de Triumph.

Prabhupāda: He could not finish. You see? There are so many things. We are thinking, "By finishing this, we shall be happy," but that is sometimes hampered. So ānanda is checked. So this is the position. So higher means where ānanda is not checked. That is higher position. The purpose is ānanda, but in this material world we are experiencing ānanda being checked. Just like nobody wants to die. That's a fact.

Conversation with the GBC -- March 27, 1975, Mayapur:

Bhagavān: Well, I have the same thing in France. Spiritual Sky is a legal business. That means you have to legally employ people. But I employ the temple people and just take their salary.

Jayatīrtha: Yes. That's all right.

Bhagavān: Do you take Karandhara's salary?

Jayatīrtha: No, that's a different thing. Anyway, let me finish the point. The point is that legal salary has to be paid, and then taxes have to paid from that. So for example, Karandhara's salary is not really a good example because he doesn't give fifty percent. But one thousand dollars is the salary.

Bhagavān: Minimum? Minimum salary?

Prabhupāda: No.

Jayatīrtha: That eight hundred, two hundred goes for taxes...

Prabhupāda: No our, our... That was the... Formerly, who was managing?

Morning Walk -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Pañcadraviḍa: In France they went to the Queen a long time ago, and they said, "The people don't have bread." So she said, "Let them eat cake." And they did not like this. So...

Prabhupāda: These are all stories. Don't indulge in stories. Just try to find out the real fact from śāstra. Therefore śāstra... Yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ (BG 16.23). Leaving aside the śāstra, if one talks nonsense...

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Pañcadraviḍa: But when you came to France, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you spoke at the Theology Club. About four years ago you came for a conference. They arranged a big meeting at the Theology Society in France, a world-wide society. And one thing I was... One thing I was considering. They must be interested because the Christians say that there is soul, and they say that there is God, so then wouldn't our question be: "What is the relationship of the soul to God?" They admit there is a soul. Every human being, they say, has a soul.

Prabhupāda: No. That, that is also beginning of understanding. But first, preliminary understanding should be that God is one. There cannot be Christian God. There cannot be Hindu God. There cannot be Muslim God. That is not complete idea of God. That is imperfect. Just like in Vedic literature, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti: (SB 1.2.11) three phases of understanding of the Absolute.

Conversation with Devotees on Theology -- April 1, 1975, Mayapur:

Brahmānanda: Just when I was in Germany, a big Bishop in France, he was also found in a similar... He had died in a similar circumstance.

Pañcadraviḍa: Worse state.

Brahmānanda: Worse, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, these things are... And in Vṛndāvana, one big Gosvāmī, he died at the house of her (his) one woman disciple, lying there, sleeping with her. There are so many.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Especially Holland and England. Holland and England and France, there was competition for colonization. The same colonization is there in America, Canada. The Frenchmen and—what is that?

Brahmānanda: The Dutchmen, they went to New York first. The Dutch, they first went to New York.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dhanañjaya: Peter Stuyvesant.

Guru-kṛpa: The Scandinavian countries are not so poor. Denmark, Sweden...

Prabhupāda: They are industrious, and they have got resources.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, the colonizing propaganda was amongst these three nation. France, English...

Dhanañjaya: Spanish and Portuguese. Spanish also.

Prabhupāda: Ah, that side, is, means Western side.

Guru-kṛpa: Spanish went to South America.

Dhanañjaya: But the British used to say, "The sun never sets in the British empire."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that we knew in our childhood.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Oh. How far it is from our palace?

Jayatīrtha: About half an hour, I think. It is between several big towns. And it's very centrally located for saṅkīrtana all over France.

Prabhupāda: Oh, we can go here and there.

Jayatīrtha: Yeah. They're going to use that as the saṅkīrtana base for our traveling saṅkīrtana all over France.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Jayatīrtha: Parties will go out for a few weeks and then come back. So it's very good.

Prabhupāda: What is the climate now? It is cold?

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Brahmānanda: France is not as developed. In France the prostitutes...

Prabhupāda: Well, in France you can get prostitute on the street. They are standing.

Brahmānanda: Well, that's a bad system for the prostitutes because...

Jayatīrtha: They've gone on strike, saying that the government is not treating them properly.

Brahmānanda: They're not being protected by the government like they are in Germany. So they have gone on strike by going into the churches and occupying the churches. So it has created a big...

Prabhupāda: Occupying the churches?

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Brahmānanda: Well, actually, in France there is another now, a leading church official, a bishop. He was found. He died in the...

Prabhupāda: Prostitute's house.

Brahmānanda: Prostitutes, yes. And in Germany the newspapers gave this very big publicity, that "Just see how France is..." They took the opportunity of criticizing that "Here is the French church." Another big official, he was found naked.

Prabhupāda: And we say, "No prostitution." (break) ...the problems will come, one after another. This is a bad civilization. It is already a dangerous place, material world, and this bad civilization is creating more dangerous problems.

Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: And Europe, the most aristocratic person means he is keeping so many horses and so many dogs. That is aristocracy. They will ride on the horse, and taking their dogs, they will go to the forest and kill some innocent birds. That is their heroic activities. We went to see one palace in France.

Satsvarūpa: Yes, I remember. In the hall they had all pictures of those activities.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Satsvarūpa: Killing birds and fox.

Morning Walk -- June 28, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: That is aristocracy. (break) ...cannon, there was fight? Or this man is very famous hero? There was statue of Napoleon also in Paris. And they identify Napoleon and France, the same. But France is there; there is no Napoleon. (laughter) Napoleon finished, Hitler finished, Gandhi finished. (break)

Brahmānanda: That statue where Napoleon is, formerly there was another statue there of Louis XIV. So Napoleon, he pulled down that other statue and put his statue there.

Prabhupāda: And somebody will come... Just like in Karachi they have pulled down Gandhi's statue, and I do not know what statue they placed.

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Cyavana: Here it is very prominent. The workers in the fields, they are barely making enough to live from day to day. But the planters who live in France, they are taking millions of rupees and living very comfortably.

Prabhupāda: Therefore Communism is coming. Go this way?

Cyavana: Is it this way? We can go this way. This way. Or better this way. Now he's coming the other way.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...create another danger. Just like airplane. It is comfortable. You can quickly go from one place to another. But as soon as on the plane, immediately your life is at risk. There is no certainty. So this is the way of material world. You create some comfort and you create some greater danger also. Side by side. It cannot be unhampered comfort. That is not possible. You create a motorcar—the same thing—you drive very speedy and you meet accident. Railway, the accident. There was no need. You produce your food locally and produce your milk.

Morning Walk -- October 6, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the fault. Exploitation was their policy. Whole European, the France, Holland—go some other country and exploit. They were doing the same thing in America also. Therefore America rebelled. Washington was Englishman. Still, he rebelled. He separated. Independent. A small country and bring money from the whole world—this is their bad policy.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's actually amazing how they colonized.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It was actually amazing to think how they colonized almost...

Morning Walk -- November 29, 1975, Delhi:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Portugal, there's a struggle going on. Even in France the Communist party is very, very strong.

Prabhupāda: Disappointment. Disappointment. People are becoming more and more poverty-stricken. This is the...

Haṁsadūta: They are forced to accept it.

Prabhupāda: The European economic problem is failure.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually this oil crisis has been of great help to the Communists, because because of this oil crisis the world economy has fallen, and as people become frustrated, more and more people are turning towards communism.

Prabhupāda: But what the Communist has done for the world benefit?

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1975, Vrndavana:

Devotee (2): In France also.

Prabhupāda: They were very upset. And when I was coming, I think, in Chicago, in the airplane, one of the host girl, she was seeing... (laughter) I asked her to supply one 7-up. And, "I have no key." She was so angry. But all the captains and others, they gathered around me. (laughter)

Harikeśa: I think that was the same stewardess who came in the back and asked us, "Why the Swamiji doesn't like women?"

Prabhupāda: No, no, I don't say that I don't like women, but I cannot say that equal rights. How can I say? First of all show that you equal rights—your husband becomes sometimes pregnant and then you become pregnant, alternately.