Gas

Expressions researched:
"gas" |"gaseous" |"gases"

SB Canto 2

SB 2.4.8, Purport:

In a news release from Moscow dated 2/21/60, the following piece of knowledge was relayed:

"Russia's well-known professor of astronomy Boris Vorontsov-Veliaminov said that there must be an infinite number of planets in the universe inhabited by beings endowed with reason.

"It could be that life similar to that on earth flourishes on such planets.

"Doctor of Chemistry Nikolai Zhirov, covering the problem of atmosphere on other planets, pointed out that the organism of a Martian, for instance, could very well adapt itself to normal existence with a low body temperature.

"He said that he felt that the gaseous composition of Martian atmosphere was quite suitable to sustain life of beings which have become adapted to it."

Easy Journey to Other Planets

Easy Journey to Other Planets 1:

The astronomer's view was seconded by Professor Vladimir Alpatov, a biologist, who maintained that some of the above-mentioned planets had reached a state of development corresponding to that of the earth. The report from Moscow continued:

It could be that life, similar to that on Earth, flourishes on such planets. Doctor of Chemistry Nikolai Zhirov, covering the problem of atmosphere on the planets, pointed out that the organism of a Martian, for instance, could very well adapt itself to normal existence with a low body temperature. He said that he felt that the gaseous composition of the atmosphere of Mars was quite suitable to sustain life of beings which have become adapted to it.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 59:

Hearing this complaint by Indra, the King of heaven, Lord Kṛṣṇa, accompanied by His wife Satyabhāmā, immediately started for the abode of Bhaumāsura. The two of them rode on the back of Garuḍa, who flew them to Prāgjyotiṣa-pura, Bhaumāsura's capital city. To enter the city of Prāgjyotiṣa-pura was not a very easy task, because it was very well fortified. First of all, there were four strongholds guarding the four directions of the city, which was well protected on all sides by formidable military strength. The next boundary was a water canal all around the city, and in addition the whole city was surrounded by electric wires. The next fortification was of anila, a gaseous substance. After this, there was a network of barbed wire constructed by a demon of the name Mura. The city appeared well protected even in terms of today's scientific advancements.

When Kṛṣṇa arrived, He broke all the strongholds to pieces by the strokes of His club and scattered the military strength here and there by the constant onslaught of His arrows. With His celebrated Sudarśana cakra He counteracted the electrified boundary, annihilated the canals of water and the gaseous boundary, and cut to pieces the electrified network fabricated by the demon Mura. By the vibration of His conchshell, He broke the hearts of the great fighters and also broke the fighting machines that were there. Similarly, He broke the walls around the city with His invincible club.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.4-5 -- London, July 10, 1973:

Everything has got connection with Kṛṣṇa because ultimately everything is Kṛṣṇa's energy. The material world is also manifestation of Kṛṣṇa's energy. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4). You'll find. Material world means these five elements, gross and subtle. Earth, water, air, fire, sky, these are gross. And mind, intelligence, and ego, these are subtle. These elements, material elements, Kṛṣṇa says, bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā: "These material elements, they are separated, but they are My energy. They are My energy." The same example. Just like cloud. Cloud is created by the sun. It is sun's energy which creates the cloud. You know. By temperature the sea water is evaporated, forms into gas. That is cloud. So cloud is created by the energy of the sun, but when there is cloud you cannot see the sun. Sun is covered. Similarly, material energy is Kṛṣṇa's energy. But when you become covered by this material energy, you do not see Kṛṣṇa. This is the position.

Lecture on BG 1.23 -- London, July 19, 1973:

If you follow these principles, controlling the senses, truthful, clean, full of knowledge, believing in the śāstra and God, and vijñānam, practical application of knowledge in life. Vijñānam... Simply to know is useless. You must practically apply in life. That is called vijñānam. Practical examination. Those who are science students, in BAC, they have to give, pass theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge also. Simply theoretical knowledge, "So much hydrogen, oxygen, makes water," that is theoretical. But when you mix up hydrogen, oxygen gas, and actually prepare water, that is called practical. So that is science. Science means simply theoretical knowledge is not sufficient. Observation and experiment. Experimental knowledge. That is called vijñānam.

Lecture on BG 2.11 -- Rotary Club Address -- Hotel Imperial, Delhi, March 25, 1976:

So actually this is not the fact. The body is not the self. The self is different. If you analyze this body, what you will find? Suppose we are breathing. What is this breathing? It is air only. Now, when the breathing is stopped, a man is dead. Now, you are so much advanced in science. Why don't you replace this breathing? It is nothing but air. So you can manufacture some machine working in electric battery and put some air and fix up, and that same air will come: "Woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh. "Will that give you life? No. Even if you artificially bring breathing, just like nowadays they, with oxygen gas, as if oxygen gas is life... That is not the fact. So if you analyze every part of the body, then you will find that there is no life. This is called education. This is called scientific knowledge. Simply abruptly taking something without any proper understanding, that is not knowledge. Therefore Kṛṣṇa chastised him that "You are talking like very scientific, learned scholar, but you are a fool number one because you are accepting this material body as the self." This is ignorance.

Lecture on BG 2.26 -- Los Angeles, December 6, 1968:

So scientific, I mean to say, proposition is based on observation and experiment. So this is simply observation, that those who are atheistic person... Just like medical science. There are many doctors. They are observing when a man dies, observing, feeling the pulse, taking pulse beating, offering oxygen gas, trying to save him. All of a sudden the man dies, and he is sure to die, but they cannot simply observe the symptoms. They cannot observe what is that thing which is gone now. They cannot say that. Neither it is possible for them to say. But their theory that combination of matter makes symptoms of life possible, they should prove it by experiment. Then it is complete science. Observation and experiment. But there is no such experiment till now. You trace out the history of the human society. Of course, in the modern world they cannot trace out chronological history more than three thousand years. That's all.

Lecture on BG Lecture Excerpts 2.44-45, 2.58 -- New York, March 25, 1966:

Just like we belong to the devotee group of philosophers. Then there are others who are impersonalists. But they, or both of them, they do not deny the presence of the soul, presence of the soul. The Buddha philosophy, they do not recognize the soul. They, according to them, that the combination of matter at a certain stage produces consciousness. But that philosophy, that argument, can be refuted that with matter, you cannot produce consciousness. Because... Take the example of a dead man. The dead man is there. All the elements, material elements, are all there present. But you cannot revise, you cannot revoke that man to consciousness. The elements are there, the ingredients are there. Now, if you think this ingredient has been decomposed or deteriorated, then replace that ingredient. Just like in a machine. In a machine some part is wear and tear. It is not working, stopped. You can replace that part into new part, and the machine will work. But this is not like that. If you think that something has deteriorated in this body, therefore it has become dead. Say, for example, that they say generally, due to heart failure. Now, heart... Medical practitioners they know it that heart is always pumping like this, pumping like this. Now, can you produce heart action by artificial pumping? No. It is not possible. They give respiratory oxygen gas and so many things, but it cannot be revived.

Lecture on BG 4.19-22 -- New York, August 8, 1966:

Say for example, just like animal killing. Animal killing, according to Buddhist philosophy, or even according to Hindu philosophy, animal killing is a sort of sin. Now, suppose I am not inclined to kill animals or I do not kill animals. I avoid it. But intentionally or unintentionally, sometimes we have to kill animals. How is that? Now, suppose we are walking on the street. There are many ants who are being killed by the pressure of our legs unintentionally. Now, suppose... Of course, here you have got gas oven, but in India they have got ordinary country oven and that is worked daily. And sometimes in the oven some small germs and flies they take shelter. But when you fire the oven, they die. So that is unintentional. Sometimes we kill... The jug of water, and underneath the jug of water, there are many, I mean to say, small germs and flies. They take shelter. But when you take the jug, they are killed. In this way there are so many processes, unintentionally or intentionally, we have to kill. But they are taken into account; they are also sin.

Lecture on BG 4.19-25 -- Los Angeles, January 9, 1969:

Now, this is the difference between material and spiritual. Try to understand. Just like in the sunshine there is cloud. That cloudy atmosphere is not very good. But when there is bright sunshine you say, congratulate your friend, "Oh, today is very nice day." The sunshine is always there. The cloud also is an interaction of the sunshine. The cloud is nothing but due to excessive heat it absorbs water from the sea or anywhere else and it becomes gas and it stands in the sunshine. But it does not cover all the sunshine.

Similarly Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the original consciousness. As soon as it is clouded by material consciousness. What is that material consciousness? That "It is mine. It is for my sense gratification. That is material consciousness." And if you keep yourself always intact that everything is for Kṛṣṇa, then there is no cloud. The cloud is material. Actually there is no material existence. Just like cloud appears in the sky. It remains temporary for a few day or few hours and again disappears. We do not know where that cloud has gone.

Lecture on BG 6.4-12 -- New York, September 4, 1966:

So if my mind is always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then these dualities can be practiced very easily. Śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. Jñāna-vijñāna-tṛptātmā kūṭastho vijitendriyaḥ. Why he will be able to understand, to tolerate? Because jñāna-vijñāna-tṛptātmā. Jñāna means knowledge. Theoretical knowledge is called jñāna, and practical knowledge is called vijñāna. Vijñāna. Just like a science student has to study theoretical and appear theoretical examination as well as practical examination. If a science student has to pass his examination, then he has to prac... Simply theoretical knowledge that so much quantity of hydrogen and so much quantity of oxygen will make water will not help him. He has to practically show in the laboratory that so much quantity of oxygen gas and so much quantity of hydrogen gas mixed and water is produced. That is called vijñāna. Vijñāna.

Lecture on BG 7.1 -- San Francisco, September 10, 1968:

Simply knowing that such and such chemical element mixed with such and such chemical element becomes such and such chemical element is theoretical knowledge. Oxygen and hydrogen mixed together produces water. This is theoretical knowledge. But when in the laboratory you actually act—such and such quantity of oxygen gas you mix with such and such quantity of hydrogen gas—at once there is formulation of water. As soon as you mix alkali and acid together, there is at once reaction, soda-bicarbonate. So similarly, theoretical knowledge that we have got a particular type of relationship with God, that you cannot deny. Anything, whatever you have got in your possession, you have got some particular relationship. Suppose you are Americans, we are Indian. So we have got some particular relationship with the state. I am Indian citizen, you are American citizen. So relationship must be there. You are sitting here. There is some relationship. Suppose my students, they have got relationship with me. I am their teacher, they are my disciples. Or if you are not my disciple then you are audience, I am speaker. Must be there some relationship.

Lecture on BG 13.26 -- Bombay, October 25, 1973:

They may know something, but Kṛṣṇa says, kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ yaj jñānaṁ tad mataṁ mama. Unless you know the kṣetra and kṣetra-jña both, then your knowledge is imperfect. The medical man, very experienced medical man, attending a man on the deathbed, oxygen gas, injection, everything is supplied, but the man dies. And when he dies, the medical man says, "We cannot say what has happened. We have tried our best with the modern medical appliances, but we do not know what has happened." Therefore their knowledge is imperfect. They cannot say. They do not know that there is the soul, kṣetra-jña, who has now left this body. Therefore it is nothing but a lump of matter.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.3.10 -- Los Angeles, September 16, 1972:

The scientists, they are very much busy. Just this morning our scientist, Svarūpa Dāmodara, was speaking about an article: the scientists are very much busy that the source of supply is being decreased. Just like petroleum. Petroleum, gas, that is diminishing. Now, whole modern materialistic civilization is depending on the motorcars and aeroplanes, transportation. So if the petroleum supply is stopped, then what will be the condition of the society? Formerly there was no need of going to see a friend thirty miles away, because every friend was within the village. Now, because we have got motorcar, we create friendship with a man who lives fifty miles away. We accept a job fifty miles away. In Hawaii our Gaurasundara was going to attend office fifty miles off. By fifty miles off... In big, big cities like New York, Calcutta, we have seen people are coming to attend their office from hundred miles off. I have seen also in aeroplane there are many people... I have seen in England. Many workers or gentlemen, they are coming from Glasgow to London for working, by aeroplane.

Lecture on SB 1.8.35 -- Los Angeles, April 27, 1973 :

So there is everything arranged. There is no scarcity. We have created scarcity, avidyā, due to ignorance. Otherwise, there is no scarcity. Pūrṇam idam. Therefore Īśopaniṣad says pūrṇam, everything is complete. Just like we want water, we want water very much. Just see how God has created these oceans. You can take the, whatever water we are using, that is from the ocean. The stock is there. It is simply distributed from that stock. By nature's arrangement, God, God's arrangement, it is evaporated by sunshine. It is evaporated, and it becomes gases, cloud. The water is there. By other arrangement this water is distributed all over the surface, and it is thrown on the top of the hill to supply you constantly. The river is coming down. The whole, throughout the whole year the water supply is there. In this way, if you study the whole situation, creation of the Lord, you will find everything is complete, perfect. That is philosophy. Everything is complete. There is no necessity. Our only necessity is... (end)

Lecture on SB 1.10.3 -- Mayapura, June 18, 1973:

He had generals and commander-in-chiefs like Arjuna and Bhīma, indefatigable. Nobody could conquer Arjuna or Bhīma also. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, personally he did not fight. His brothers were sufficient to fight for himself, as in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. He was not fighting, but his brother, Arjuna and Bhīma, was fighting. So well-equipped, Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, completely, scientifically. Vijñāna-vidhūta. Vijñāna means scientifically. Jñāna and vijñāna. Jñāna means ordinary knowledge, and vijñāna means practical knowledge. Just like in science, B.A.C., one has to pass the theoretical examination and practical examination. Without passing practical examination, theoretical you may know: hydrogen and oxygen makes water. No. In the laboratory you have to pass the examination, how to transform into water, two gases, hydrogen and oxygen. This is vijñāna.

Lecture on SB 2.9.11 -- Tokyo, April 27, 1972:

Prabhupāda: So in other planets also there are different types of body. Some of the bodies are prominent in earth, earthly body. Just like we have got here earthly body. Similarly, fiery body, watery body, gaseous body, there are different types of body. What the scientists know about? Maybe in Candraloka they are going, but they cannot see the body. They say that there is no life. Suppose there is gaseous body, so they do not see it. But every planet has got different types of body. And Vaikuṇṭha planets also their bodily features are described herein. Then?

Pradyumna: Next verse? Pravāla... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...valuable jewels. Pravāla is coral. Is that? Yes.

Pradyumna: Pravāla-vaidūrya...( break)

Prabhupāda: ...skin some animal nowadays. Nowadays it has become fashion.

Lecture on SB 3.26.8 -- Bombay, December 20, 1974:

There is a verse in the Bhagavad-gītā, icchā-dveṣa samutthena sarge yānti parantapa (BG 7.27). Sarge means in creation. This is the creation, created world. The spiritual world is not created. That is eternal. How it is created? Just like the sky is eternal, but the cloud is created. That we have got experience. That is in the clear sky, clear sky is always there, but at some time, seasonal changes, the cloud is created. The water is taken from the..., the stock is already there, taken from the sea, ocean, and it is made into gas, and that appears as cloud. And it covers the sun. The sun is the cause of cloud, but the cloud covers the sun and we cannot see the sun. Similarly, everything—creator is the Supreme Lord. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). This material world is also created by God, and the work is going on. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10).

Lecture on SB 3.26.41 -- Bombay, January 16, 1975:

How water is manufactured, that is explained here. The modern scientists, they speak of manufacturing water by combination of two gases: hydrogen, oxygen. May be true to certain extent. But from Vedic literature we understand that by the interaction of form and touch through the agency of fire maybe there is perspiration. Just like when our body becomes too much heated, there is perspiration, the water comes out, similarly, the same process we get the water, ambu. And as soon as there is water there is jihvā, the sense of touch, rasa-graha, which can taste. Jihvā is meant for tasting. So this is the way of physical manifestation of different ways. But on the background there is daiva-codita. Everything is coming into existence on account of superior management or superior impelling. That is the main proposition, that mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ (BG 9.10). These things we..., physical transformation, different ways, we experience. That is the phenomenal world. But these things are taking place not automatically but daiva-coditāt, by superior intervention, impelled by the superior Personality of Godhead.

Lecture on SB 3.26.44 -- Bombay, January 19, 1975:

There was lecture of a big scientist in Delhi, I forgot his name. He gave very good example, that if a man learns how to bark like dog and if he makes a show, many thousands of people will purchase ticket and go and see how he is barking. But by nature's arrangement, so many dogs are barking; nobody takes care. You see? So similarly, in the laboratory, if a scientist can produce a life some way or other, so they will go and see and give him clap. Just like this airplane is flying in the air. Little discrepancy is immediately crash down. So he is getting so much credit, and the scientists also saying, "There is no need of God. Now we have solved all the questions." But nobody is giving credit to Kṛṣṇa who is floating millions and trillions of stars and planets in the air. So by taking Kṛṣṇa's stock, the petroleum or gas, we become scientist and fly the airplane, and Kṛṣṇa has given the petrol, and He has no credit. He has no credit. That is the difference between demons and bhakta. A bhakta sees in everything presence of Kṛṣṇa. "Oh, here is Kṛṣṇa's energy is there. Here is nice taste. Oh, here is Kṛṣṇa." Raso 'ham apsu kaunteya (BG 7.8).

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- Madras, January 2, 1976:

Acyutānanda: Another question. (break—repeating question) This is a world of śakti or energy. There is a worldwide rise in prices of energy resources, like oil, coal, gas, and electricity. This means that there is a depletion of these energy resources. Naturally, there will be worldwide destruction of mankind and other living beings and materials in the near future. What are your views?

Prabhupāda: So yes, these material things, they are energies. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca, bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā (BG 7.4). The petrol is also another form of Kṛṣṇa's energy. Parasya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). Any energy. There are many millions of energies. Na tasya kāryaṁ kāraṇaṁ ca vidyate. Kṛṣṇa has nothing to do because everything is being done by His energy. Although He is the ultimate source of everything, but He is doing everything by His energy. Parasya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svabhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. And it appears that it is being automatically done. Not. It is not automatically done. It is done by Kṛṣṇa's energy. So this material energy is also Kṛṣṇa's energy. It is not a different energy. Kṛṣṇa says, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ. Now, this petrol is liquid thing, so āpa. It is a kind of liquid thing, āpa, so it is Kṛṣṇa's energies.

Lecture on SB 7.9.10 -- Montreal, July 9, 1968:

So śaucam, satyaṁ śaucaṁ śamaṁ damaṁ titikṣā ārjavam. Simplicity. A brāhmaṇa should be very simple, not gorgeous. He wants to live, so he wants to eat something, not for the taste of the tongue but just to keep the body and soul together. He must eat nice things. There are nice things, grains, fruits, milk. Why should he take meat? If there are, by nature's products, so many nice things, why one should kill another animal? Desire(?), of course, serves (?). Titikṣā, ārjavam, and jñānam. Not that simply become qualified, but these qualification are stepping stone to jñānam. Jñānam means knowledge. And vijñānam. Vijñānam means practical application. Just like in the science class there is theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. Theoretical knowledge—if you mix hydrogen and oxygen gas, there is water. But we have to experiment it in the laboratory, mix so many parts of hydrogen and so many parts of oxygen, and actually, when we see there is water, then your knowledge is perfect. So not theoretical knowledge but practical application. Jñānam, vijñānam, and āstikyam. Āstikyam means faith in God, faith in scripture. That is called āstikyam. According to Vedic version, āstikyam means faith in the Vedas. Nobody can refute the Vedas. That is called faith, no argument.

Lecture on SB 7.9.49 -- Vrndavana, April 4, 1976:

The Viṣṇu, Kṣirodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, He is also partial expansion of Kṛṣṇa, and from Kṣirodakaśāyī Viṣṇu the Viṣṇu is all-pervading. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati: (BG 18.61) the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is staying in everyone's core of heart, hṛd-deśe. It is... There is no hide and seek. Hide and seek. It is clearly stated that "This Paramātmā, Viṣṇu, is staying, hṛd, hṛd-deśe, in the heart." Therefore heart is always palpitating. And the jīvātmā is also there and... Then when the jīvātmā leaves this body, that is called heart failure. That is heart failure. Heart is palpulating, but as soon as the jīvātmā goes, heart fails. And these materialist science, they cannot give any cause. They are giving, what is that, oxygen gas and every minute injecting to keep the palpitation of the heart, throbbing of the heart, continuous. But how they can do it? As soon as the living soul departs from the heart there is no more palpitating. It is simply a lump of matter. That requires intelligence, that this matter is never the living soul.

Lecture on SB 7.9.49 -- Vrndavana, April 4, 1976:

We don't give him any credit." This is our challenge. Let anyone come. We shall prove that he's an ass. We shall prove. How? It is very easy. Any intelligent man can analyze this body. Take this breathing. What is this breathing? It is air. Now, you are very much anxious to keep the breathing going on by oxygen gas and injection. What is the use of oxygen gas? If breathing is lost, you can put some air within, just like the bellow, and by machine, by some electric arrangement, the bellow can go on and the breathing will come out. Why don't you do that? It is very easy. Anyone can do it. And not anyone, at least one who has got some mechanical idea. So do you think that the breathing will bring the life? Do you think? It is not possible, sir. It is air only. That is not possible. Then you take the blood. What is this blood? The blood is nothing but red water. You cannot say that injecting some red water, you can bring life. Analyze it very intelligently. Then what is the composition of this body? The air or the water, the same. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4).

Lecture on SB 7.9.54 -- Vrndavana, April 9, 1976:

They are traveling, wandering. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma-yoniṣu (BG 13.22). These rascals who are not dhīra, they are thinking independent, rascals. Not a single moment you are independent. You are controlled. Even if we are dropping our eyelids, there is regulative principles. Some demigod is controlling. Breathing. Breathing, there is control. You can breathe for so many years, that's all, and live. And when the breathing is finished, then you are not controller. The great scientists, they are begin oxygen gas, injection. Can you increase the period breathing for a moment? No. Controlled. Controlled. You cannot increase your breathing even for a moment. So the yogis, they try to save the breathing. That is yogic process.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.10 -- Mayapur, April 3, 1975:

Garbhodakaśāyī means this, within the womb or bottom of this universe, there is a ocean, big ocean, and in that ocean the plenary portion of Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu enters. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, viṣṭabhya aham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat (BG 10.42). By one portion, the Garbho..., er, Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu enters each universe, and within that universe He creates a ocean by His perspiration. Now, there are so many questions: "How these oceans are created?" The scientist says that it is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen gas. So wherefrom this gas came? The answer is here. Of course, from the gas, water comes out. If you cover one boiling pot, the gas, the vapor coming... And you will find spots of water. So from the gas, the water comes, and from the water, gas comes. This is nature's way. But the original water came from the perspiration of this Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Just like you have got perspiration. You can produce, say, one gram or, say, one ounce of water through your bodily heat. That we have got practical experience. So if you can produce one ounce of water from your body, why God cannot produce volumes and millions of tons of water from His body? Where is the difficulty to understand? You are a tiny soul, and you have got a small body. You can produce one ounce of water by your perspiration. Why God, who has got the gigantic body, He cannot produce water, the Garbhodakaśāyī, the Garbhodaka water? There is no reason to disbelieve. This is called acintya-śakti, inconceivable power.

Festival Lectures

Govardhana Puja Lecture -- New York, November 4, 1966:

He says, "My dear boy, water is very essential because without rains we cannot have any produce. Therefore... This rain is controlled by Bhagavān Indra. The heavenly king Indra, he controls the megha." Megha means cloud. He is the master of the cloud. He can send cloud, and he can stop cloud. He is representative of God, so he has got the power. Te 'bhivarṣanti bhūtānāṁ prīṇanam: "So when he allows this raining, people become satisfied. They get their produce."

taṁ tāta vayam anye ca

cārmucāṁ patim īśvaram

dravyais tad-retasā siddhyair

yajante kratubhir narāḥ

"Therefore it is our duty. Because he supplies us water, so it is our duty to show him respect by this sacrifice." This is the Vedic injunction. Just like we pay departmental tax. We pay to the Con Edison bills for the supply of electricity and gas. Similarly, we pay the bills of the telephone. But we have no program to pay the bills of the sun who is supplying us so much light.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on David Hume:

Hayagrīva: This is the conclusion of Hume. He felt that one must first be a philosophical skeptic before accepting the revealed truths of religion. Ultimately Hume maintains that these truths can only be accepted on faith, not experience or reason.

Prabhupāda: No, and why not reason? If we think that everything has some proprietor, owner, so it is quite reasonable to think that this vast land, vast sky, vast water, nature, they must have some proprietor. What is the fault in this logic? Why they conclude that there was a chunk, there was some gas, there was something like that? So why they think like that? Is that very reasonable? Wherefrom the chunk came? Wherefrom the gas came? Wherefrom the fire came? So this is reasonable. So there is a proprietor, as it is described in this Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa (BG 9.10), aham ādir hi sarveṣām. So there must be some proprietor. That is logical. That is, that is philosophy. How one can..., one thing can exist without the owner or proprietor? So this is not like, that there is no proprietor. This is illogical, or without any philosophy. But think that there is a proprietor, this is completely logical.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: Oh, no.

Prabhupāda: So there was a chunk.

Śyāmasundara: "The hierarchy of condensations." There are two theories: one is that everything was originally gas, and the other is that everything was originally turbulence or energy.

Prabhupāda: Originally gas. Now, so far we have got our experience, gas is produced from some liquid, is it not?

Śyāmasundara: They say that the liquid is produced from the gas.

Prabhupāda: That is also taught by us.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. Anything, what was there in the beginning, that was matter.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Karandhara: They say that something came out of nothing, that originally there was nothing, at a point in history there was nothing, and at a point in history something began.

Śyāmasundara: Well, it says that there was a "frozen equilibrium and a spontaneous break-up of primordial nuclear fluid. The original state of matter is assumed to be a hot nuclear gas, ylen, y-l-e-n."

Prabhupāda: So first thing is that whatever he is speaking, what is the evidence for his word is to be accepted by us?

Karandhara: For most people it is just his word. Whatever his contemporary scientists conclude, he offers some insignificant evidence.

Prabhupāda: If words are to be accepted as true, why not accept the words of Kṛṣṇa? Who can be greater authority than Kṛṣṇa? If your word does not require any evidence, you are a renowned scientist, your words are sufficient, then greater scientist, greater personality is Kṛṣṇa. Then why should we not accept His words? We do not know what it is, but you are presenting there in bombastic words and we have to accept your word. Is it not? So I will say that instead of accepting your words, why not accept Kṛṣṇa's word? He's greater personality.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Karandhara: Someone will come along in a year or a few years and refute everything that this scientist says.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. That we say.

Śyāmasundara: There are three different theories, each one different. They all start with an original situation of like a chunk, a hot gas measured in billions of degrees of temperature, and out of that hot gas things condense.

Karandhara: That's not starting from the beginning...

Śyāmasundara: It was called a frozen equilibrium.

Karandhara: If there's an equilibrium, there has to be some principle, or energetic.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think the book is written just so that the (indistinct) looks like, funny things broken down. He himself says whether the universe is finite or infinite (indistinct) modern telescopic experiments can (indistinct) but beyond that he said maybe the universe is finite (indistinct) that is beyond our knowledge, beyond our capacity.

Śyāmasundara: This is a diagram of four different possibilities of what the universe looks like.

Prabhupāda: This is very nice-horse saddle.

Śyāmasundara:The round one?

Prabhupāda: No, no the next.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: It says, "It can be shown that a closed Einsteinian universe can expand only to a certain limit, beyond which the expansion will go over into contraction." So they also agree that the universe expands and contracts.

Prabhupāda: Expand means it was not in its present state. Original state was in seed.

Śyāmasundara: That seed they say was a hot gas.

Prabhupāda: So the seed is so powerful that it has become a universe. So who made that seed, wonderful seed? And wherefrom it came? What is the tree? What is the fruit? Wherefrom seed comes? So many questions are there.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The so-called modern increased living taught by people who have the ideas of these things. The result is they are always led by people who think like that. Because like Śrīla Prabhupāda said on some of the letters, "The blind men leading the blind."

Prabhupāda: They accept blind men leading them.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Prabhupāda: That is another nonsense, because when the body becomes from the lump of matter, why that living potentiality, consciousness, does not come again?

Devānanda: Because the elements are no longer in suitable arrangement for life to be...

Prabhupāda: If you know the elements, you say that "You add this element." Just like when the motorcar stops for want of gas, you take gasoline from the petroleum store and it starts again. Either you do it, otherwise you are rascal, you are putting some wrong theory. If you say that it is a combination of chemicals, and you know that addition, that these living symptoms are there, then bring that chemical and add to it and let the body go out again. If you cannot do that, then you are nonsense. There is no sense of your statement.

Devānanda: So in other words, if a body dies from heart failure, they should immediately be able to remove that heart and put in a fresh heart from somebody who has just died, and it will come back to life. But it doesn't do that.

Prabhupāda: No. There are so many other things, and not only one case of heart failure.

Philosophy Discussion on Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Śyāmasundara: Evidence.

Prabhupāda: Evidence. Similarly, the evidence is the moving capacity. Because the body is moving, there is soul. It doesn't matter if you can see or not see. It doesn't matter. When the motor is moving, there is gas. You may not see the gas. It is foolishness, that "I have not seen the gas. When it is put in?" (break) ...dark, now it is light. How I am saying there is a darkness? It is (indistinct)

Devotee: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: What is past, present, future for a man is not the past, present, future for Brahmā. Therefore this past, present, future is relative. And Kṛṣṇa is eternal. He has no past, present and future.

Devotee: I can understand how the past and future can be...

Prabhupāda: Past, present and future is relative to your body. Because you have got a limited body, therefore you have got past, present, future. Otherwise there is no past, present, future.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Law of gravity... The big, big planets are floating in the air. Now you can explain how it is it's floating. The hint is already there in the Bhagavad-gītā, that He enters. Viṣṭabhyā idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat (BG 10.42), (Sanskrit) that "I enter into this universe, and by My prowess they are floating." These hints are there. Now you are a scientist; if you are actually devotee, then you try to explain from your scientific explanation that this floating is possible because God has entered within it. That is your duty. And because you're scientist, your explanation from the scientific point of view, how God has entered, how He is acting, that will be very well received by the public. So that will be great service. Actually that is the fact. It is already stated there that "I enter." We can understand. Yes, we believe. I'll explain. Just like that balloon. What is that gas? Hydrogen gas?

Martin: Helium.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Martin: Helium gas.

Prabhupāda: Helium gas. So that helium gas has entered within the balloon and it is floating. (laughter) So if the helium gas can float, cannot God float? If helium gas has so much power, God is less than helium gas or He is more than helium gas? So what is the difficulty to understand? God says, "I enter." So similarly, the helium gas enters and it makes possible that it floats. So what is the difficulty to understand? I see in my eyes. So He can become big helium gas. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, raso 'ham apsu kaunteya: (BG 7.8) "I am the taste of the water." Water is important. We are drinking water for the taste. That taste is Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, if you explain this law of gravitation, which we have discovered, is Kṛṣṇa, prove it by your scientific knowledge, that will be your service. Actually that is a fact. That is the fact. But you have to explain, just like I have given you this example. This is scientific. As you can float a balloon by creating helium gas, so there must be some gas like that; Kṛṣṇa enters into each and every planet or universe and it floats, that's all. They, not only the planets are floating, the universes are also floating. So you accept this theory or not? If not, clearly explain.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 1, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say the sunshine is just some... Sun is a... There is a gaseous material, very hot temperature. So the rays are coming from the sun...

Prabhupāda: That's all right, but it can kill you. Is it not? So when did you accept with God? Sunshine, if it increases a little temperature, millions of you will be killed immediately. So why don't you accept sun as God? Therefore, according to Vedic principles, sun in the beginning is accepted as God.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They take it as a material object.

Prabhupāda: Then accept you are under its control. God means controller. Īśvara. Īśvara means controller. God means controller. So He is controlling you. It is material but it is not under your control. You are under its control. So if anything is controlling you, that is God. God means controller. If you cannot see Kṛṣṇa, you can see the sun.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: London is also like this.

Prabhupāda: Yes, London, yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The smell we are getting now from burning the gas or coal is also one of the causes of cancer. The hydro-carbons.

Prabhupāda: Yes, the artificial life is the cause of all diseases. And they won't accept our natural life. That they think primitive, "We must advance." What is your advancement? Primitive life was also subjected to death. You are also subjected to death. So where is your advancement?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Advancement in decorating the dead body.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, yes. Decorating a dead body, yes. So this is another foolishness. (loud sound of a chain-saw in the background) First of all they pin all these logs. Now they are cutting. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), chewing the chewed. And millions of dollars will be spent for this purpose.

Morning Walk -- December 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Devotee: You give the analogy in the Bhagavad-gītā that it's like pouring gas onto a fire you're trying to put out.

Hṛdayānanda: He said like putting gas on the fire.

Prabhupāda: Ah. So increase the fire. Yes. But because we have got this body, we have to utilize it to make the best use of a bad bargain. Therefore marriage is allowed, gṛhastha life is allowed, not for increasing sex life, but to finish it as soon as possible.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But, Śrīla Prabhupāda, even in the very lower forms of life, there are some species, they reproduce without any sex? It's called asexual reproduction.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Oh yes. These bugs, bedbugs, they produce by this blood. You kill...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We cannot check reproduction.

Prabhupāda: No, how can you check? There are so many living entities. They have come to this material world to enjoy. So the reproduction must go on. Just like you cannot stop the jail. You come out, but another is ready to enter it. That is not possible.

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

Prabhupāda: What is that history? We have got history that Brahmā was the first creation, and from Brahmā... Brahmā created this universe.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are saying that before, it was all gaseous dust particles and some gaseous materials which were floating and in due course it condensed and then it formed this...

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom the gas came? That they do not know.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, they say it was just floating.

Prabhupāda: Floating where. Wherefrom the sky came? They are all nonsense. Simply speculating and consuming cheap money from the government. That's all. This is their business. The government is exacting taxes from the hard-working men, and these rascals are devouring this money. That's all. And making theories. That's all.

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

Prabhupāda: It must be they are scandals. They are after money. That's all. Not after knowledge. And what knowledge they have got? Simply speculating and befooling other fools. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). This is their business. One blind man is befooling other blind men. That's all.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are very much convinced that this earth was gaseous. So there was no life at the beginning.

Prabhupāda: That may be. That may be that. But wherefrom the gas came?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It was just existing.

Prabhupāda: Bhinnā prakṛtiḥ. The answer is given. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhiḥ (BG 7.4). Vāyu, vāyu gas, it came from Kṛṣṇa. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Vāyu. Vāyu is gas, is it not?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. Air.

Prabhupāda: And finer than the vāyu is the ether, the sky. Finer than the sky is the mind. Finer than the mind is the intelligence, and finer than the intelligence is the soul. So they do not know this. They capture only middle thing, vāyu. Wherefrom the vāyu came? Wherefrom the gas came?

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

Prabhupāda: And finer than the vāyu is the ether, the sky. Finer than the sky is the mind. Finer than the mind is the intelligence, and finer than the intelligence is the soul. So they do not know this. They capture only middle thing, vāyu. Wherefrom the vāyu came? Wherefrom the gas came?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That part remains unanswered. That part cannot be answered.

Prabhupāda: But we answer, we answer. We have got the knowledge. The gas came from ether, and ether came from mind, and mind came from intelligence, and intelligence came from the soul.

Hṛdayānanda: They will say you cannot prove that.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we can prove that.

Hṛdayānanda: How will you prove it?

Prabhupāda: You see still, gases, I mean to say, cloud is forming in the sky. But you have no eyes to see it.

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

Prajāpati: That's what the people believe. They have more trust in medical men than they do in anything else.

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.

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Rūpānuga: They say that "Life as we know it here does not exist." Human life.

Prabhupāda: No, how you can say so? The condition is the same. Every planet is made of earth, water, air, fire, the five elements. So if under these condition there are living entities in this planet, why not in that condition living entities in other planets? That is their ignorance. That is their bluff. The different condition of the planets is that some planet is fiery, some planet is gaseous, some planet is watery. That may be, but after all, they are made of these five elements. And each element, we find there is living entity. So it may be mixture or pure, there must be living entities. And in Bhagavad-gītā it is said sarva-ga. Even in the fire there is living entities. And why not? If living entities can stay in water, why not in fire?

Rūpānuga: On the sun planet.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. There are also living entities. They are very glowing, fiery. Therefore the whole sun planet is glowing.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1974, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: The tail.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Karandhara: The tail is 83 million miles. It's going fast, very forward, so it's emitting a tail of gases.

Prabhupāda: So who is supplying the gas? (laughter) The Arabians?

Jayatīrtha: There's no shortage.

Gurukṛpā: When it comes to doing the kīrtana, there's no energy shortage for us. We have unlimited stock.

Prabhupāda: By presence of the comet, the atmosphere is also polluted. Last time, what I saw, it was like this. Round and then tail. It is like that?

Gurukṛpā: No.

Prabhupāda: No.

Gurukṛpā: A long streak. It was behind the clouds. There were many clouds, and you could see it through the clouds.

Prabhupāda: What is the speed? If it is 83 million miles, very heavy thing, then the speed must be also.

Morning Walk -- January 23, 1974, Hawaii:

Bali Mardana: He very feels secure.

Sudāmā: Yes, yes. He feels he has freedom. He can go anywhere.

Prabhupāda: Only depend on motorcar.

Sudāmā: Yes. Now everyone is very fearful because there is no gas for the motorcar.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bali Mardana: They say that a man walking in the street does not feel so big, but once he gets behind the wheel of the motorcar he becomes very puffed up.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is natural. He thinks, "I am motorcar." He identifies. (japa)

Satsvarūpa: We say sense gratification is available for everyone, but they don't agree. They think, "If I don't have this nice apartment it's not the same as sleeping in a bad condition."

Prabhupāda: Bad condition, good condition, that is another thing. But you get it. You get it. Bad condition, good condition, that is my consideration, but things are available. Even the best apartment in India, that is not a good apartment for America. This is simply my mental concoction: "This is good; that is bad." I am thinking, "It is the best;" another may think, "Oh, it is lowest." The hog is thinking stool is very nice food, and I am thinking, "What is this nonsense thing?" So "best" and "good", it is simply mental concoction, it has no value. Just like these western people, what is their ultimate standard of best, nobody knows. Nobody knows. Just like hundred years before, there was no skyscraper building, but now even best skyscraper building is not best. So where is the standard of best and... It is all mental concoction.

Morning Walk -- February 22, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They are less than Muslims.

Dr. Patel: (Hindi for few sentences) This is, I tell you. That was a sort of a... We did not know how to act. (two people talking at once) This is how... Some people didn't... Some section of the people. Now Sonara, Sonara... So... They would not have earned. Otherwise they would not have touched anything. (Hindi) I told the people that did not know. They did it unaware. And we got a shock when we learned next morning that temple was demolished. Not only the pillars were cut by gas...

Yaśomatīnandana: For this temple, they raise so much objection, there is so much hassling, hassle.

Dr. Patel: They object because, you see. (Hindi) If you, if your enmity is created, even your good qualities, I would look down at that. That is what these people are doing some how or other. I don't know how.

Prabhupāda: Doṣam icchanti pāmarāḥ.

Dr. Patel: Hm.

Prabhupāda: Guṇam icchanti... (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: These are pāmarāḥ. That, all this thing happened because that man, that... What is his name? Who happened to be now the minister of the neighborhood corporation. Mahaprema. He was supported by this Nair, the owner of this property. And then there was some difficulty in the finalization of the deed(?). So Nair it took a wrong turn, and this man were instigated to do all nonsense, and he went and did his worse, which he should not have done. And he still keeps on doing on that. (break)

Nitai: (chants japa several times) (end)

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1974, Rome:

Devotee: What they do, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is take the petrol out and put salt water, because they know there can be a imbalance. And then they put salt water in the holes.

Prabhupāda: But water cannot produce gas. Petrol produces gas. Maybe due to that gas, it is floating. Because we have got practical experience. When there is gas, you can float anything.

Dhanañjaya: Like a balloon.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhagavān: There is another big problem that now all the opposing countries have built up excess amounts of atomic weapons all pointed at each other. So now they are trying to have big planning conference how to diminish all these weapons.

Prabhupāda: If there is no opposite elements, there is no need of weapons. If I am not your enemy, there is no fear. We are preaching this philosophy, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā: (BG 18.54) "As soon as you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, you become jubilant." So where is your enemy? Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Then where is your enemy? Formerly, a man might have become enemy of another man. But this demonic civilization has created nation to nation, country to country, community to community, all enemies. And on account of this communistic enemy, so many innocent people are killed. I have seen in Calcutta during the partition days. So many innocent Hindus and Muslims were killed. Any (indistinct), very quickly this Communistic feeling is aroused, and they fight, like cats and dogs. "Oh, here is another dog! Here is another dog, coming from another neighborhood." So this is demonic civilization. If you want to go to some country, you have to take visa, permission, this, that, so many. Why? Vedic civilization is "You come to my country. Welcome. You are my guest." Gṛhe śatrum api prāptaṁ viśvastam akutobhayam: "Even one is enemy, when he comes to my house, he is my honorable guest." And here, they are so much afraid that you keep dogs. The dog is kept here.

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

Bhagavān: Objection is that the people have become so impatient for sense gratification, they have no patience anymore. They can't wait... There was some story. In the United States, there has been this trouble with petrol, and... All over the world, there's been this trouble with petrol, gasoline. So there was rationing. That means people could only get a little gas. So the cars would line up for a great distance in the gas station, and they'd wait for a long time. And sometimes the gas station would run out of gas. And the people would get so angry that they killed the gas station attendant. (break) ...does not teach anyone to be austere or patient.

Prabhupāda: But human life is meant for austere and patience. Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). Austerity, penance, that is human life. Otherwise, it is animal life. Simply animal civilization. It is not human civilization. Hare Kṛṣṇa... (car is in gas station, conversation in car about how much gas to get, etc.) (break) ...progressing, they stand their own position, as they are made by nature. Therefore there is no criminality. They are under full control of nature. We are also under full control of nature, but we have been given little concession: to cultivate spiritual knowledge. So that intelligence, extra intelligence, what we have got, instead of cultivating spiritual knowledge, we are using in the same process of sense gratification like the animals. And this, this business, this, means animalistic business in a polished way, is going on as civilization. Actually, it is animalistic. But it is little decorated or polished, and they have accepted, "This is civilization." In other words, they do not know what is human civilization. They do not know. They're animals. They do not know. Hare Kṛṣṇa... (about getting gas:) For this service, they do charge anything? No.

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)

Bhagavān: ...take breakfast a little earlier. Is that O.K? And then this other gentleman can come with us and we can go faster that way. Because their truck is slow. (break) ...human being, those who have system of religion? Is that what makes them civilized? So the society today, even though it seems to be technologically advanced, can that society be called civilized? No.

Prabhupāda: So long technological advancement is meant for bodily comforts, so, so long one remains in the bodily concept of life, he's animal. (pause) (end)

Garden Conversation Excerpt -- July 11, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Scientist, they estimate something that thing is beginning from here, next year that it has changed. (break) ...test atomic bomb on this planet and to test atomic bomb on the sun planet. What is your idea? What is the description of the sun planet according to science?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Scientists say that is burning mass of ah, chemistry, gases. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...atomic bomb there. Huh? (laughter) It is a burning mass of... Suppose it is a burning mass. So what atomic bomb will act there?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Atomic bomb normally acts as, ah, what happened is the particles floating in the atmosphere, like chemicals, chemicals, what happened is this explosion offers this, ah, fundamental particles like neutrons, electrons, they bombard further atoms which are already in the atmosphere. So one by one they knock out these smaller particles called electrons. They move very high velocity. There is a very tremendous energy, amount of energy released. So one... So suppose first atomic bomb, ah, the, ah, the energy-bringing substance like electron, neutron, hits another atom, and then it knocks out several of that sort, and then it makes a chain reaction, not stopping because..., and thereby several atoms they will knock each other, one by one, without stopping. Small particles, so much energy has got. But in the sun planet, where it is so hot, it is already probably more powerful that the atomic bomb itself.

Prabhupāda: Therefore this example. (laughs) What it will act, the atomic bomb, in the sun planet? Similarly, Brahmā might have possessed some power, but what is that power in comparison to Kṛṣṇa? Every power is derived from Him; so Brahmā's mystic power cannot act on Kṛṣṇa. (end)

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Heaps? Some... Huh? Full of gold.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Gold, yes. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: So in Iran there is gold mine? No.

Atreya Ṛṣi: There is some, yes. Iran has the richest copper mines, oil, richest oil, the second in the world, the...

Prabhupāda: Who is the first?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Saudia Arabia. But we have gas, natural gas, the richest. It's so easy to take out this oil and gas. So easy, like..., easier than gold.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And it is more valuable than gold.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. And then they have many, many minerals... (end)

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Matter existed...?

Rāmeśvara: Always. That in the beg..., that eternally there is gas in the atmosphere, in the universe.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom the gas came?

Rāmeśvara: Well, they say... They believe that it always existed.

Prabhupāda: Always existing.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, that's their idea.

Satsvarūpa: Just like we say God is svarāṭ, they say that the matter is svarāṭ.

Prabhupāda: Yes, in... Not svarāṭ. We never find a gas is svarāṭ, matter is svarāṭ. They... Just this body. Has this body come out itself? Because the soul is there, the body has developed. Therefore the cause of this body is the soul. The body is not independent. And the soul goes away. Then body's no more independent. It cannot move. It becomes just like dust. "Dust thou art; dust thou be-est." (break) ...like this body is moving now, but it is not independent. It is dependent on the soul. The soul goes away; it does not move. So how it is independent? And everyone knows that because the soul takes shelter within the womb of the mother, the body develops. If the child comes out dead, it does not develop. Therefore matter is dependent on the soul, living being.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Therefore we are offering this place. Come here. Why do you not come here and live with us? Then this is... The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is... This is the movement, that you come here, live with us, and produce your food, produce your milk, be happy, healthy, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is our movement. Therefore we are creating New Vrindaban and farm, and we are trying to purchase... This is our movement, that we give you sufficient food, shelter, health, philosophy, religion, character, everything, purity. Come here. Why don't you come? They come here on the weekdays, and then fly away, go away. You see? We are giving such nice room, but they will not live here. They will go to the hubble-bubble of the city. They like to come here. Therefore they spend so much money for gas and come here. But because they are not accustomed, they go back again. Return ticket. From hell to heaven, and again hell (laughter) Return ticket-coming back to hell again, not going back to God.

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: About two millions years ago, Tretā-yuga.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, why? Twenty lakhs, ah, two million, yes. Two millions of years ago the Rāvaṇa's civilization was there, and he was so prosperous. He had airplane. The zeplin, zeplin?

Amogha: Jet plane?

Prabhupāda: Not jet, zeplin.

Amogha: Oh, with the air and gas inside.

Prabhupāda: Yes. His son's name was Meghadūta. He was flying above the cloud. Therefore his name was Megha. Megha means cloud. They were so much advanced in civilization.

Paramahaṁsa: What kind of civilization was in South America at that time?

Prabhupāda: The same like. Therefore these Mexicans, South American, they resemble therefore almost Indian body.

Amogha: They also eat food... They eat a food similar to the cāpāṭi.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Gurukṛpa: You told us the story that in New York you walked in one yoga āśrama, and the man who was teaching yoga, and he told you in Hindi, "Don't reveal it. This is my... I am feeding my family by this method."

Prabhupāda: That is tanker? Oil tanker, yes. He is carrying so much oil.

Gurukṛpa: They have this type of gas now that they freeze it, and it shrinks five hundred times. And they put it in these big tanks, and they bring it across the ocean, and then when they get it to port, they again heat it up into the big tanks and it expands. So they freeze it and it becomes smaller and they can export more.

Prabhupāda: Oh, it becomes solid?

Devotee: Just like liquid oxygen, they cool it and yes, it comes to the liquid state.

Prabhupāda: There are so many living entities living within this sand, and on unfortunate moon there is no living entities. And we have to believe it. Hm? What is that?

Gurukṛpa: I was telling them we should come pick these flowers every day, this jasmine. Nobody is picking.

Prabhupāda: Oh. No, no, they will fine.

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Bali-mardana: Sometimes a fire starts in the kitchen or...

Prabhupāda: Kitchen, yes.

Bali-mardana: Because there's gas. And the furniture...

Prabhupāda: Not in the house. Wooden houses, they are just like match box. (break) ...Australia, they like cottage house. They don't like this skyscraper.

Bali-mardana: Yeah, they like brick house, many brick houses, spread out.

Prabhupāda: Small, one storied. They are aristocratic. They do not go to the skyscraper, common man.

Bali-mardana: They like the idea of one house.

Prabhupāda: That is good idea. That is Indian idea. (break)

Devotee (2): ...front of the hedges, all those hedges in the front? They produce this flower.

Prabhupāda: Very nice. Very good. Puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca. As soon as such fragrance, one should remember Kṛṣṇa: "This is Kṛṣṇa." Puṇyo gandhaḥ pṛthivyāṁ ca. (break) Where is that scientist? Just like from the earth we are getting so many varieties of flavor and taste. The fruits are different taste, the flowers different fragrance, but wherefrom it is coming? From the earth. So why the scientists do not take all these things from the earth?

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

Prabhupāda: They used to create fire by mantra. Can you do that?

Brahmānanda: They need natural gas, and the natural gas is running out.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rādhā-vallabha: We don't believe in these mantras because there's no fossils.

Prabhupāda: I don't believe you also. Who believes, you? Some rascals may believe.

Rādhā-vallabha: There's so much evidence, though. We have fossils.

Prabhupāda: No, no, we have also evidence. If you don't believe me, who is going to believe you? (break)

Rādhā-vallabha: ...Śrīla Prabhupāda, where Darwin actually admitted that there was a creator.

Kirtirāja: He admitted?

Rādhā-vallabha: Yes. He said, "So we can see that the creator originally breathed the air of life into living objects, and from there on evolution took place."

Prabhupāda: That is good.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1975, New Orleans:

Satsvarūpa: Not gas-driven engine.

Prabhupāda: Let people be engaged. Machine means one man or two man working... That will mean unemployment. Machine means unemployment. The principle should be that everyone is employed. Either brāhmaṇa, either kṣatriya, either vaiśya or śūdra. Nobody should become idle and gossiping, and sleeping, then utilize... This should be principle. Everyone should be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then life is successful. And self-sufficient. If we have got spoiling living program, these are necessities. Growing, cultivating, producing, there will be not possibility of, and we don't want more than the necessity. If by God's grace we get more then you can make sale, we are not going to work for selling purpose. Then money will be there. How to get money, how to get money? And as soon as you get money, more than necessity, then sense gratification, then this, that, this, that, then you become implicated. Ato gṛha kṣetra sutāpta... ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). As soon as you become implicated with material want, gṛha, kṣetra, vittair, ato gṛha kṣetra sutāpta, children, wife, friendship, then the false ego, "I am this body and this is my property," will increase. For that is material world. People do not know the end of life, or the aim of life. They are misguided, hence the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement to give them an ideal way of life. So this is very nice place. We have got small lakes also.

Morning Walk -- October 17, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Ah, fumigation.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: When the termites get into the wood they eat up the wood and they hide in nests underneath the house. So the way that they try to kill the termites is by gassing them. They cover their house with a tent, and then they gas, and it goes into the nests and kills all the termites. They are perfecting this art of killing. You said that in Calcutta in a very expensive cloth shop... Your father's brother used to have cloth shop?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That when there was rats and they would eat the cloth that he would simply put some prasādam in the room.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: And the rats would come and take. They wouldn't eat the cloth.

Prabhupāda: No. Just like a man also. If he gets food, shelter, then he doesn't commit any criminal act. Man is also dangerous. Even if you give him food, shelter, he will do mischievous activities. That is man. But an animal will not do it. You can tame even a tiger by giving him food. He will never... If he sees that you are giving him food he'll never attack, the tiger also, feeling obliged.

Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: So God is so fool that He made all other planets vacant, and here for the rascals, there is... (laughter) Full of rascals.

Harikeśa: He had to put the dust somewhere. That's one of the theories, that all of the gas... In the beginning all the gas was circulating around and it solidified into different planets.

Prabhupāda: So why this planet is full of living entities? Why not others? What is that gas? What particular gas was circulating this planet? So take this gas, circulate over here, and get living entities there and live there. Why don't you do that, you scientists? Why you are disappointed? You are going to Venus. Just see. This rascaldom we have to believe.

Harikeśa: That's the next famous theory after the chunk theory.

Prabhupāda: It is simply waste of time even to talk with these fools.

Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: So how Kṛṣṇa has prepared earth? That I want.

Devotee (2): So we can see by studying the nature of the construction of this earth that it is much more intelligent...

Prabhupāda: So how earth is coming from Kṛṣṇa? Tell me that.

Devotee (3): The scientists say that this earth came from gases, but they cannot explain exactly where those gases have come from. That source, that is Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, they do not know, but we know. How in your belly gas is formed? How? There was no gas, but automatically the gas is formed. And therefore sometimes, if it is much gas, then you go for treatment. So this is the practical. The gas is also generating from my body. So as I am an individual, insignificant body, if there is possibility of generating little gas, so Kṛṣṇa's gigantic body, why not gigantic volume of gas? This is the explanation.

Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:

Jñāna: The materialistic scientists, they are saying that matter is energy. So we understand if it's energy there must be an energetic.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So how the energetic is producing, this is common. Gas is forming. Just like you perspire, there is water. So one ounce of water may come from your body. So water is coming from your body, so why not from the gigantic body of Kṛṣṇa, the oceans, millions of oceans, come out? This should be the understanding. We see practically that water is coming out from my body. So it may be one ounce or less than that because my body is very small, but Kṛṣṇa's body is unlimited, so why not unlimited supply of water? This should be the common sense. And this body, this body, what it is? It is earth. When the body will be dead it will be earth. So I am spirit soul, a small particle, so much earth is coming from me, why not Kṛṣṇa, the supreme spirit? This is the explanation. God is great, I am small. From me a small quantity of earth is coming, water is coming. Why not from the gigantic body of Kṛṣṇa, so huge, I mean to say, volume of water, gas, and everything as we see it is coming? So therefore Kṛṣṇa is correct. He's correct, but for our understanding we can understand like this, chemicals, the chemicals coming from our body. There are so many salt. And you test the blood or the perspiration. You'll find so many chemicals.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 25, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Volcano eruption. Is there any technical term? Varuṇāgni. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Hari-śauri: You mean like when there's an eruption from below? Say when an island's formed, or...

Prabhupāda: It is called varuṇāgni, fire in the water.

Hari-śauri: Would you say some eruptions from below the earth's crust comes up, and then, er, all the gases underneath push the land up above the water?

Prabhupāda: There is fire within the earth, just as there is fire within the stomach-fire. That helps digestion. In the Ayurvedic śāstra, when one does not feel an appetite, it is called agni-māṁdya (indistinct), rest and (indistinct) of the fire.

Devotee: How can the fire within the stomach be increased?

Prabhupāda: You know everything?

Devotee: No.

Morning Walk -- May 25, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee: They say that this universe was created five to ten billion years ago. Do we agree with that proposition, or...?

Prabhupāda: Where it was before? (indistinct) Or gas?

Devotee: Well, they basically have two theories. Either the "Big Bang" theory...

Prabhupāda: Theories! Don't take theories. Nonsense. Theory is speculation, nonsense. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: I was just reading last night in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, how Lord Brahmā saw Kṛṣṇa produce hundreds and millions of universes and Lord Brahmās and cowherdboys and cows and calves from His body, and then they entered back into His body within a moment. (laughs) It's going to be a little difficult for these scientists to appreciate the actual creative potency.

Prabhupāda: Because he thinks Kṛṣṇa is like him, but He's busier (indistinct). It is said this water is the semina of Kṛṣṇa. So they will say, "How you can...? So much semina?"

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

Prabhupāda: Dog's business. Without any fault, they'll chastise. We have no fault, still they are chastising. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma. You have got this independence. Little independence, more than the animals.

Kīrtanānanda: It's the end of the road, so I think we can turn here.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break).... in the kitchen, this wood or gas?

Kīrtanānanda: Both. Mostly wood.

Prabhupāda: There are so many jungles, we can use wood.

Kīrtanānanda: Actually we like it better.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, it is better, nice.

Kīrtanānanda: But it is a little dirty. Unless you change it to charcoal, there was always some smoke. This is not ours. Our property comes down this way, but not on this corner. (break) ...land, Prabhupāda, and they say overpopulation.

Prabhupāda: In the beginning, I protest against this assertion, there is overpopulation. I never admitted. Perhaps you know.

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

Kīrtanānanda: But most things are not yet fructified. This is early in our season. Peas will be ready just shortly. Lettuce is ready.

Prabhupāda: Vegetables, ghee, milk, wheat, then what do you want more?

Kīrtanānanda: The wheat is just about ready for harvest.

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say we can grow all these things and eat very nicely. Where is economic problem? Yajñād bhavati parjanyo parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ. (break)

Kīrtanānanda: It's full of cow stool and urine.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā, for fertilizer?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, fertilizer. Nothing is wasted.

Prabhupāda: You can make gas also.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. That was originally an oil tank. (end)

Marble Shop Visit -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Kṛṣṇa Balarāma used to practice race with the birds.

Hari-śauri: Now our boys are racing with the cows.

Prabhupāda: This is childish game. This nature is there in Kṛṣṇa. This is their only school building?

Kīrtanānanda: This is not ours. This was an old school building, public school, but that is not our building.

Prabhupāda: This is not our?

Kīrtanānanda: Not ours. (break) ...looks like it might clear today.

Prabhupāda: Oh. How these logs will be used?

Kīrtanānanda: Roof.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And you have to cut into planks? No. Or beams?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Cylinder? Gas?

Kīrtanānanda: Gas. (end)

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

Rūpānuga: Misusing.

Prabhupāda: Misusing the energy. Yesterday, some two and half million the government has spent, and we also, combined together, we have spent ten million by power, gas, going there and coming. So many cars. Another ten million. So all these twelve million, three, thirteen million dollars spent for nothing. Dancing like dogs, independence, māyā. (break) (out of car) Ask him this question.

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda was saying in the car that yesterday the American people were declaring their independence. So he's asking what is the value to it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: What is the value of it? They are enjoying their senses.

Prabhupāda: Now dog dancing. What is that song? Dog dancing? I sang that song?

Hari-śauri: (sings) "We are independent, we are independent."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: (laughs) That is the spirit of patriotism.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, you can say any name, any style or any trademark. Where is the independence? That is the question.

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

Rūpānuga: They think this is so simplistic, you know, mythological-type breakdown, oversimplification. So he used different words, fire he said "radiant energy," water he said "liquidity." What did he say for earth? "Solid matter" he said for earth, and air, "gas." And what did he say for ether? "Space." So we thought, we were wondering if these were acceptable terms to use.

Prabhupāda: That you can do.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I, actually I discussed this point last time, but still I want to make it clear. The difference between life and matter again...

Prabhupāda: Life and matter, is, we already explained very clearly. There is no symptom of matter in life. Everything is detailed. Nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi. Negative way. "It is not this."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But to feel it, to see it...

Prabhupāda: You cannot bring it to any material platform. Everything is denied.

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

Prabhupāda: Electric spray?

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

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

Prabhupāda: What is this building?

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

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's one gentleman named Fritt.

Rāmeśvara: This taxi driver is saying Hare Kṛṣṇa.

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

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: We call it in India, lemonade.

Hari-śauri: That was the original name, lemonade. Then all these new things, they changed all the names.

Bali-mardana: It's good for bringing up gas.

Prabhupāda: From my childhood I liked this lemonade. I think it was cost, in our childhood, three paisa.

Bali-mardana: Now I think in India it costs one rupee.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One rupee, twenty paisa. Of course, you get forty paisa back for the bottle, but it's between sixty-five and eighty paisa after you get your money back. When we were travelling in Bhopal, we traveled there in the months of May and June. It was very hot. We were drinking seven bottle a day, every hour. Every hour.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Lemonade.

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

Prabhupāda: Not only our men, outsiders also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many outsiders were doing that.

Hari-śauri: They like to pull the ropes. It's a big experience for them.

Prabhupāda: (belches loudly) What is this gas, oxygen? No. They put some gas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Carbon dioxide. CO2. You should have seen it. It was literally completely filled. We put on a play. First we did a big kīrtana, after you left, very big, and many, at least a thousand to two thousand people were dancing. Then there was a play, and the people crowded to see that play of Kali, Sudāmā. Oh, they were amazed to see. Sudāmā was moving around, dancing, watching. They like that very much.

Prabhupāda: Sudāmā plays nice.

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

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we had three of these set up, and many people were sitting in chairs watching the different movies.

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

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: So where is Ambarīṣa?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was not in the parade.

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

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

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: He's the Peace Corps devotee from India? He is a scientist in the field of geology, studies the earth and how these formations come, and he's working with the scientists to prove their misunderstandings, their false claims.

Prabhupāda: No, without water there cannot be sand.

Hari-śauri:. So early in the moon's history, when it was first formed, when there was gaseous clouds, then there was the water in the atmosphere...

Prabhupāda: There was water?

Hari-śauri: But then, due to the atmosphere being dry, not being any atmosphere, now it's just rocks and dust.

Prabhupāda: Why the atmosphere changed? There was water? Why the atmosphere changed? (break) ...is water, there must be vegetation. So where those vegetation gone? All false propaganda. Even in the sea you'll find seaweed. Is it not? So as soon as there is water, there must be vegetation. And without water, sand does not come. If there is sand, there is water, there is vegetation.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: That is my word. (laughter)

Jayatīrtha: We always take everything from you, and then we take the credit.

Prabhupāda: Nuts and bolts, tire tube, gas, this, that.... Where is food? (laughter) "So just kill the animals. That's all. You'll get food." And how long you'll go on? The animals will.... And no more animals die? Then what they'll do? Animal, after all, they live on grains and grass, but one set or two set or three set you can kill and eat. The next...? Then you have to eat dry grass. It is a wrong civilization. Duṣkṛtina. There is no water. They are flying to the Mars planet. What is the Mars planet news? Any news?

Jayatīrtha: What is the latest news from the Mars planet, do you know?

Bhagavān: Mars planet. No. They are taking samples of the soil.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Same story.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Why they can see only microbes? Not a fully grown up human being.

Jñānagamya: No, they are detecting through gas. They feed the microbes and then microbes give off evacuation...

Prabhupāda: How they can see? Suppose you see from a distant place, this planet. So how you can see within water? You can take photograph of the water, but how you can take photograph within the water? So what is the value of their taking photograph? Does the photograph takes the picture within the water?

Atreya Ṛṣi: No.

Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of such photograph?

Jñānagamya: But they are not detecting with photographs, they are detecting with chemicals.

Prabhupāda: What class chemical? (indistinct)

Jñānagamya: They say the chemicals are giving off gases when they are feeding(?) the earth. They take the ground from Mars.

Prabhupāda: Just see so many bogus words they manufacture to make believe. Because they are scientist, they'll talk all big, big words which we cannot understand. So you cannot argue. (talks gibberish) Like that. By common sense question, that they are simply finding out rocks and sand, and again they are saying somebody has bombed. The first... (coughing) If there is bomb, then there is fight; so if there is fight, there must be human being.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Hari-śauri: Well, they say originally from gas.

Prabhupāda: Gas?

Hari-śauri: Gas.

Prabhupāda: So gas, without water, there cannot be gas.

Hari-śauri: Gas and then it liquifies and then it solidifies.

Prabhupāda: Liquid means water. So as soon as there is water, there is vegetation. You'll find everywhere. Water dries up, vegetable comes.

Parivrājakācārya: Today they are exploring Mars, and they are saying that they're finding water on Mars.

Prabhupāda: Water's there. Everything must be there. Pañca-bhūta, mahā-bhūta. Ether, then fire, then water, then land. Everything is described in the Bhāgavatam. They cannot speak nonsense. They can speak nonsense through the other literatures, but we cannot speak. Without water, how there is possibility of sand? Sand means it is salt.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: The water, sea, as it becomes solidified, the outer surface, by sunshine, they become, it is called sodium silicate. Salt is sodium chloride. So from sodium chloride, the sodium silicate. So cover(?) of the sea they can solidify by the sodium silicate. But underneath there is water. Just like our, this skin, bone, coming from where? We are eating liquid and or some vegetables or some whatever, they are becoming liquidified. And first transformation is blood. Blood is liquid, and from blood everything is coming. The muscle is coming, the bone is coming. The more the liquid portion becomes solidified by air, gas, then these things coming. The formation of this body beginning the liquid semina, liquid ovum, mix together. From liquid. Then they form pealike solid thing, from that liquid. And then the body forms. Wherefrom the solid body forms? The man injects liquid. Liquid inject, everything is coming. So wherefrom the solid molecules? By chemical composition the body forms, from liquid to solid. So as soon as you see some solid thing, you must know that it has come from liquid.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Hari-śauri: Their argument is that because there's no atmosphere then there's no vegetation.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is... That is another bogus. The atmosphere is the same everywhere. Little more. Just like... (break)... say in the sun planet there is living entity, there is fire. So what do you mean by atmosphere if even in fire there is life? Dahati pāvakaḥ. Bhagavad-gītā. Nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Pāvakaḥ means fire. Does not burn the soul. So where there is fire only, he develops fiery body. Not that by the fire it is finished. Nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Where there is gas, air, nainam... Find out this verse. Acchedyo' yam adāhyo' yam.

Hari-śauri: Gītā?

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā, yes. You do not read even. You should have reference immediately.

Parivrājakācārya: Even here on the earth, even ice in the South Pole of the earth, they find much life inside the ice.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Here inside the ice there are life.

Parivrājakācārya: They are very surprised. They said how is this happening.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Life is everywhere. This bogus theory there is no life, the atmosphere is different, it is bogus, simply bogus. Because spirit soul is never affected by any material atmosphere. That is the distinction between matter and spirit. It has nothing to do with this material atmosphere. They don't have knowledge, they are baffled. And those who have no knowledge, they are accepting.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So wherefrom evolution begins?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: They don't know how it began. Some say it came from water. How does life begin? Nobody really knows.

Hari-śauri: They say there has to be certain combination of gases, ammonia, water, some hydrogen.

Prabhupāda: They cannot make this gas and combine?

Hari-śauri: This is the way they are testing for life on Mars. This is one of the tests.

Prabhupāda: No, why Mars? In their laboratory they can make gas and mix.

Hari-śauri: Well they say that they've made amino acids.

Prabhupāda: They cannot make?

Hari-śauri: They've made that, they say.

Prabhupāda: But they cannot produce life.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

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

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

Prabhupāda: And there was life? No.

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

Prabhupāda: And you have to wait one million years. (japa)

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Is it true, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that Kṛṣṇa is testing us every day? We're having tests, opportunities...

Prabhupāda: No, just like if you want responsible post, then there is question of test. If you want to become a vagabond, remain vagabond. Where is question of test?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: No, for devotees.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Cold you will get both ways, whether you work or not.

Harikeśa: No, no, because when I work I have a nice house and I got a heater, then it's warm. If I didn't work I wouldn't have my heater, and it gets to be zero...

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

Harikeśa: Well, I have my gas heater.

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

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

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

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

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

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So how many kilos it is?

Mahāṁśa: He says there's ten kilos.

Haṁsadūta: We should have bought it.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: We should have bought because when we go we have to spend money for gas, five rupees.

Devotee (4): Of course, paying a Hyderabad price.

Devotee (7): He is going there.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Mahāṁśa: You want him to come, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No, if you offer him little more, if you pay...

Mahāṁśa: Ten rupees less.

Haṁsadūta: He said for ten rupees he will sell it.

Prabhupāda: Not less than that?

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

Prabhupāda: Where is that sitting place?

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

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

Dr. Patel: We have got also tank like this in Bombay. We have also gas company tanks. It's in (indistinct). We have bigger tanks here of the petroleum companies. Huge tanks, petroleum tanks.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guru dāsa: When I was in Northern Ireland preaching, they blew it up. The gas tank, by bombs. They blew the whole gas tank up.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Guru dāsa: In Northern Ireland, Belfast.

Dr. Patel: Those terrorists.

Prabhupāda: It was here. Who has taken?

Guru dāsa: It is coming now. Āsana, āsana. (break)

Prabhupāda: The others, others is not.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Here.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Otherwise, there's no reason. On our side it doesn't go out at all.

Prabhupāda: In Vṛndāvana it takes only two minutes to change. Similarly, we have in Māyāpur also.

Indian man: So can I know the reason why you are restraining the use of gobar gas now. I could not understand actual technical difficulty. Is there any difficulty?

Prabhupāda: No, we can utilize the gobar in different way.

Indian man: No, but gobar gas is not good, that's why...

Prabhupāda: No, no, not good. But we have to arrange for this plant, generate gas. So why not direct?

Indian man: No, but the fuel is achieved, but the fertilizer is lost. Gobar, there are two elements. One is a methane gas and one is fertilizer. If you burn it you are burning the fertilizer which is very, very important, and very, very useful against the fuel that we get.

Prabhupāda: No, that ash is very good.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Ne, one or two will do. Why so many? That's... So what benefit he has got, this Manasvī?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually he is at a great loss. Any position he had here when he was a devotee, he has lost everything. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...with this lantern? Electricity was introduced when we were boy, and that also not every house could provide electricity. Formerly they used to utilize gas, coal gas. If one man has got gaslight in his house, he is considered to be rich man. And gas... Mantle... Formerly electricity was... What is that? Carbon? Two carbon? In the morning it has to be changed. That Mahatma Gandhi Road was Harrison Road. So in our childhood, when the carbon would be changed, they would throw. We shall collect it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What would you do with it?

Prabhupāda: (laughs) No, no, play. "We have collected something." So electricity was introduced in our life when we were ten, twelve years old. Before that, there was no electricity.

Brahmānanda: But still you were able to read.

Prabhupāda: With this lantern. With this.

Brahmānanda: Nowadays they think if there is no electricity then there can be no civilization.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So then we have to accept that the body has got mind in the body. So that is material or something else?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Material.

Prabhupāda: Material. Then why don't you replace it? Replace it. Material things can be replaced. Just like motor stops, so you go to the gas house and repair. You cannot do it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are duplicating. We're duplicating the situation.

Prabhupāda: What is that duplication?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In the test tube. We are beginning to make life.

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. Therefore you have no brain. "In test tube..." Kick aside your test tube. This man is now not working; it is stopped. So bring your test tube and waste test tube. Get him alive, exactly like the motorcar. When there is no petrol, you replace petrol; it starts. So where is that material? Therefore you are comparing something which is not analogous. Therefore you have no brain.

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Why not? If you have got desert, if you have got sand, why not?

Hari-śauri: No, they say it's just old dried-up desert because there's no atmosphere for vegetation to grow in. It just gets dried up by the sun's rays.

Prabhupāda: How it became dried up? Formerly it was.

Hari-śauri: Well, it was just gas.

Prabhupāda: Eh? It is gas. Then you have not gone.

Hari-śauri: No. It was gas. Now it's solidified. Millions of years.

Prabhupāda: What nonsense. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: Then the bang came and all the little chunks flew off...

Prabhupāda: Everything came; only life did not. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: On earth it came, though.

Prabhupāda: This, they are sure.(?) (laughter)

Room Conversation -- February 21, 1977, Mayapura:

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

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

Bhāgavata: Grow cas...?

Prabhupāda: Castor seed.

Bhāgavata: Castor seed.

Prabhupāda: Yes, and you get sufficient oil.

Bhāgavata: And that was used, castor seed.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Instead of one cand..., one lamp, hundred candlepower, if you want more light you just have hundred castor seed lamps. That's all. It will look beautiful, and there'll be light. You'll find it. If you bring one hundred castor seed lamps, it will look very nice and the light is there. (end)

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Rāmeśvara: He comes to the temple once or twice a month.

Prabhupāda: What you have to pay?

Rāmeśvara: Five hundred dollars a month. Pays for rent and gas and food.

Prabhupāda: He pays that five hundred. Hm. But he is very slow nowadays in editing.

Rāmeśvara: He finished editing the Kapila book, and he finished the first volume of the philosophy book since he last saw you.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Do whatever you think is good.

Rāmeśvara: Well, after we finish the second volume of the philosophy book, there will not be any more work for him.

Prabhupāda: Then?

Rāmeśvara: Jayādvaita is editing the Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Simply fighting. They are not peaceful. That's all. Where is peace? You'll be surprised. During gas scarcity the gas was being supplied in Honolulu. This was in our presence. So the gas supply, whatever they had, distributed, and they had one sign board, "No more gas." So next man was so angry that he shot him dead. Just see. He had no more gas; he cannot supply. He became so much infuriated that he shot him dead. This is the result of this modern motorcar civilization. He thought that "Gas will not be supplied. Then I am gone. I am finished. So kill this man." This is education. (Hindi) Provided we train at least some ideal men, everything can be done. Everything is there. There is no scarcity of knowledge in India. We have to simply take it and practically apply it, bas. (Hindi) We are not sentimental (laughs) religious group. Everything practical. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not like that, sentiment. Everything scientific, practical, for the good of the whole human society. Therefore I require that this must be pushed on for the whole human society, and naturally India also. (aside:) The prasādam arrangement is...? You give each item, one each... No, no, give me, give me, give... This is... Each item, you give one. I have got this ambition that Indian culture should be spread, and otherwise what can I do wherever...?

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Ādi-keśava: Kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ (MM 33), prāṇa-prayāṇa... Ordinary dying, kapha-pitta-vāyu: "Ghara ghara ghar," choking and... But in the kīrtana if we die, oh, it is so successfully... Injection, operation... Who needs it? That atmosphere death and kṛṣṇa-kīrtana death? Glorious death. Oxygen gas... (laughs) Dying and so much trouble. Never call. Please accept my request. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, bas, and let me die peacefully. Never be disturbed, call doctor—no. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Go on chanting. Chanting, hearing, chanting. You have got so much material. Read. Read something from this book. Rāmeśvara, you can read. It is your book.

Rāmeśvara: I'm simply your servant, by your grace, Prabhupāda. This Chapter One of this second volume, "Kaṁsa Sends Akrūra for Kṛṣṇa." "Vṛndāvana was..." (break)

Prabhupāda: As soon as this Indira Gandhi and her son disturbed Vṛndāvana people, within a week... Just see. This is practical. The poor, these bābājīs, they were going to beg, and by force, once, twice, injection.

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

Doctor: Rather, it is a protein food, protein without fat. (Bengali) Matta(?) means when you serve the milk, milk or curd, you get whey. And that whey will be very easily digested. It will prevent the gases also and will be a supplement of protein.

Dr. Kapoor: Give in a small quantity first.

Doctor: Small. See what is the response, how does he like it.

Prabhupāda: Deity prasādam.

Bali-mardana: Yes, it's right here, Prabhupāda.

Upendra: Your wife has come? Your wife is here?

Dr. Kapoor: You follow that now?

Upendra: It's the doctor's handwriting.

Dr. Kapoor: Three syrups on the first page. One tablespoon...

Doctor: Santivini. S-a-n-t-i-v-i-n-i. Santivini syrup. A tablespoonful two times after drink.

Dr. Kapoor: Each of these syrups is after meals twice a day.

Upendra: And the other one is?

Doctor: Digiplex. D-i-g-i-p-l-e-x. Digiplex. That is also one tablespoon.

Prabhupāda: They have got it?

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) What happened to the car?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Er, do you know the history?

Bhakti-caru: Yes. First thing they had a flat tire. Then they ran out of gas, and then there was no petrol station. Then they lost the track. They went to some...

Prabhupāda: So he missed the plane.

Śrī Nārāyaṇa: Missed the plane. Coming from Delhi?

Bhakti-caru: Yes. They were supposed to come here at two o'clock.

Prabhupāda: I have got my car, but they arranged for a Mercedes car.

Śrī Nārāyaṇa: Mercedes car, bigger car, yes. Oh, I see. So that means God didn't want you to leave. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: This is Indian culture.

Śrī Nārāyaṇa: Indian culture, Gītā culture. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati (BG 4.7). (Hindi) Whenever there are discrepancies in the human society—tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham—at that time He appears. Paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). This is the program. And when He comes, the time is fixed. So unless one thoroughly studies, they cannot accept. Actually Kṛṣṇa... Imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). This system, Bhagavad-gītā, it is yoga, bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga is the topmost.

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

Letter to Sumati Morarjee -- New York 10 November, 1965:

The house which I have seen for this purpose is just suitable for this great missionary work as if it was built for this purpose only and your simple willingness to do the act will complete everything smoothly. And thinking that you will agree to this I am just giving you an idea of the space etc.

1. Dimensions 18'6" x 102'2". Fully air conditioned by 10 ton central unit.

2. Bronze front approximately 4500 square feet.

3. The house is practically three storied. Ground floor basement and two stories up with all suitable arrangement for gas heat etc.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Candanacarya -- New Vrindaban 5 June, 1969:

I thank you very much for your letter of June 2, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your proposal of working in Columbus with the chance of earning $100 per day, why don't you take it? This will be a great help to this center because there is such great potential for spreading our movement amongst the students there, and if we can either purchase the large church on 16th Avenue, or if they can purchase their present house, along with the nearby lot and gas station, that will be a tremendous asset to the activities there. I have seen in the gas station that there are two rooms, so if one room could be used for kitchen, then the other could be utilized as temple room, and the house would serve as an asrama for devotees. The first choice would be the big church, but if you can finance for purchasing either the church or the present site, that will be very nice service. So if you can actually earn $100 daily, I think you should take this opportunity. Please inform me what you have decided by return of post.