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German (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- February 1, 1968, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: Have you... Did you... Well, you've only been over here about four years. But have there been dropouts, out of the movement, of the hundred that were initiated?

Prabhupāda: They are doing nicely. They are making progress. They are understanding the philosophy. They are working for it. Now I am the only man who came from India, and still, I am one. I have no... There are many Indians, but I have no Indian follower here. Of course, in India we have got. That's a different thing. But these, all these American boys, they are cooperating with me. That means they are taking this movement very seriously. We have got two great papers, magazines, already, Back to Godhead. One is published from New York, and the other is published from Montreal. (break) In French language. Montreal it is published in French language, and they are well received. Recently I have received one letter from my disciple, Janardana. He is Janus Dambergs, M.A., he is the editor of that paper. He is a very good scholar in French language. His wife is also good scholar, Muna. She is also very good scholar in French language. So they are publishing, and the magazine is well received by the French-speaking people there. And we have contemplation to publish the same magazine in German language also from Germany.

Interview -- March 9, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: The basis of this teaching is Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. I have already published my book, this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. This book is not new. It is very old book, at least five thousand years old, and it is very widely read all over the world. In your country I have seen there are about more than twenty-five different editions, English. Similarly, there is in German language, in England, in Japan. Everywhere, all over the country this book is very widely known, Bhagavad-gītā. In other words, this is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The speaker of this book is Lord Kṛṣṇa, and the subject matter of this book is what is our relationship with God. Then, after understanding what is our relationship with God, we can work accordingly. Just like you are citizen of America, you have got a particular relationship with the state, and you are expected to work according to that relationship, and then you are good citizen, you are law-abiding citizen, and state gives your all protection, and you can improve to the highest perfectional stage. Similarly, if we know our relationship with God, whom we call Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive, and that is the perfect name of God. Unless God is all-attractive, he cannot be God.

Questions and Answers -- Montreal, August 26, 1968:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Elephants, there are many in India. Elephants, camels, horses also. Still there are many.

Devotee: Could we film on location, on the battlefield?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. The battlefield is still existing, Kurukṣetra. Yes. It is about hundred..., about within two hundred miles from Delhi. It is not far off. That, my red tape recorder is not replaced. Is it very costly now?

Devotee: I think so. Yeah. About five hundred dollars.

Prabhupāda: Five hundred dollars, that may be Japanese. The original is English.

Devotee: Oh, English? I thought it was German. English?

Prabhupāda: Yes. German or English. That is eight hundred dollars. It was very nice. Yes. I therefore used to keep daily in my compartment. I didn't allow to leave it here. How you are feeling, Jadurāṇī? All right? So I think we shall chant little Hare Kṛṣṇa and close this meeting. (kīrtana) (end)

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Interviewer: What do you offer to Kṛṣṇa? That is, do you offer money in the sense of an offering in a Christian church or do you burn anything, for example, incense or could you explain this?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The flowers, incense, and fruits, the same thing. I have already explained that whatever He has described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says that "Anyone offering Me these things in devotion..." So we follow the same principle. So it is very nice thing. If the students follow, they can follow it individually. Even in his own apartment he can keep a picture of Kṛṣṇa and offer a lamp, a candle, and one, I mean to say, incense. He will feel tremendously spiritually advanced. And if he reads these books, his life will be changed completely. That is a fact. (break) And two boys, Kṛṣṇānanda and one German boy, is going there very soon. So, of course, we do not expect to sell English books in Germany very much, but maybe... (end)

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Lord Caitanya Play Told to Tamala Krsna -- August 4, 1969, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No. We don't hear anything about, from Śivānanda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Berlin? Kṛṣṇa dāsa?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is he in Berlin yet? Is Kṛṣṇa dāsa in Berlin? Kṛṣṇa dāsa.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa dāsa and that German boy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Uttamaśloka.

Prabhupāda: Uttamaśloka.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can Uttamaśloka come with saṅkīrtana?

Prabhupāda: When you go there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When we go to Berlin.

Prabhupāda: (pause) Hm. Very good. So if we go, there will be good reception in Bombay.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1969, Hamburg:

Hayagrīva: Yes. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: You suggest that "Here is another solution. Why we should take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness?" No. There is no other. You have got any suggestion, any other method? No. Then why don't you take to it and preach? What is the difficulty? You don't like? (break) ...especially Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Yes. That is the instruction of Rūpa Gosvāmī. Kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā-matiḥ krīyatāṁ yadi kuto 'pi labhyate tatra laulyam ekalaṁ mūlyam na janma-koṭi sukṛtair labhyate. Very nice verse. He instructs that "If you can purchase Kṛṣṇa consciousness from any market, any store, please immediately buy it." Then next question is "Then what is the price? What shall I have to pay for it?" And Rūpa Gosvāmī says, "Oh, the price is simply eagerness." Tatra laulyam... "Yes, I must have Kṛṣṇa consciousness." That is the price. Laulyam, that eagerness is not achieved even after many, many births. That is the price. Therefore it requires a little intelligence. "Oh, such a valuable thing? I can purchase only by eagerness? Why not become eager immediately?" That is intelligence. You are German or Australian or... (end)

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Simply one has to learn. Just like in arithmetic. There is all mathematical calculation, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, this or that, fraction. One has to learn. So Bhagavad-gītā is so nice book and it is accepted. Not that because we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we are advocating for Bhagavad... No. It is accepted by scholarly section, religious section, not only in India, but all over the world. Perhaps you know. In every country there are thousands of Bhagavad-gītā translation, in every language, in English, in French, in German, all languages. And even Mohammedans... Of course, scholarly Mohammedans, they also read very nicely Bhagavad-gītā. I know one Mohammedan professor in India. He was a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. He did not disclose that he was a devotee, but he was observing Janmāṣṭamī fasting day and he was writing one article on Kṛṣṇa every Janmāṣṭamī day. There are many. They read. And in our childhood... Not childhood, we were young man at that time. So one Englishman was a tenant in Calcutta, my friend's house. So he was vacating the house. We went to take possession of that house, and he had many books, and there was a book, Bhagavad-gītā. So that, my friend, Mr. Mullick, he was a little astonished that "He is Englishman, he's Christian. How is that, he has got Bhagavad-gītā?" So he was touching that book, and that gentleman thought that "He is my landlord. He may like that book." So he immediately said, "Oh, Mr. Mullick, I cannot present that book to you. This is my life and soul." He said like that. So Bhagavad-gītā is accepted by scholarly section, by philosophers. So I think people should have one scripture, one God, one mantra, and one activity. One God, Kṛṣṇa. One scripture, Bhagavad-gītā. And one mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa. And one activity, to serve Kṛṣṇa. That's all. There will be peace. There will be actually peace all over the world. So I request you to, at least to understand this philosophy to your best knowledge. And if you think that is nice, you take up. You are also willing to give something to the world. So you try this. You have read our books, this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is? No.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: So you can explain. (break) ...the footprints of liberated predecessors like Manu and others. So they are conditioned. Therefore their rules and regulations are not perfect. It cannot be perfect.

Haṁsadūta: Here is our monthly magazine, Back to Godhead. These are our... (indistinct) This is in Washington, D.C. This is in Berkeley, California. That magazine is being printed in six languages: Hindi, English, French, German, and Japanese, and Bengali. Bengali is not yet out, but it's coming. Then Prabhupāda started presenting these books while he was still in India. This book was published in 1965. This was printed in India, the First Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The First Canto comprises three volumes like this, the First Canto. And then the following Cantos are being printed by our own press in America in Boston, like this, chapter by chapter, so that people can take advantage of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and read it at their convenience instead of...

Guest (1): (indistinct)

Haṁsadūta: And here, Kṛṣṇa Book, is the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Prabhupāda calls it, "Kṛṣṇa: The Supreme Personality of Godhead." And it's full of illustrations which are done by his American students. Just see how beautiful. There are eighty-four full color illustrations that show the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. So the people in the western world and for the first time in the history of the world will get an idea of who God is, what He looks like, what He does, where He's residing. This is the Kṛṣṇa Book, in two volumes. This is volume number one and this is volume number two. This is just a blueprint. We haven't got a printed copy yet. Then Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, which you must be familiar with, in the Teachings of Lord Caitanya and there are also illustrations although they're not color. They're black and white.

Guest (1): Śrī Tukārāma is disciple of Caitanya.

Prabhupāda: He also went through in Maharastra by His chanting, (indistinct)

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Yamunā: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes, eating flesh sumptuously and get fat. Flesh-eaters get fatty very quickly, flesh-eaters. Māṁsa. The skin becomes increased for flesh-eating. You see in your country, the Russia? Russian beauty-big belly, fat. That...

Yamunā: Germans are like that too. Germans.

Prabhupāda: Germans. If you eat meat, you very quickly can get fat. Also too much ghee also. That is also. But ghee will increase your belly only. Just the Marwaris... (laughter) But by eating flesh you'll get sturdy, good lump of muscles. That is... In Āyur-Veda there is a chapter which is called Dravya-guṇa. There is a book, Dravya-guṇa. So they have analyzed so many different kinds of flesh-birds, beasts, animals. How they have analyzed? That "If you eat this kind flesh you will get this kind of result." Hundreds of fleshes. What do they know? They can eat only cow's flesh or dog's flesh or hog's flesh. Yes. But there are so many, even birds, beasts, animals, and so many, analysis. And Bernard Shaw, I think, he wrote one book, "You Are What You Eat."

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: That you have to learn from the authorized Vedic literature. You cannot imagine. You cannot speculate. You have to learn from authority.

Guest (1): Authority...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Suppose if you want to go to Germany. Now you have no idea how the German people live or their, how they are, what is their culture. So you have to learn. Here is a boy, German. You have to learn from him what kind of life there is. Similarly, there is a life like that. Now, what kind of life that is, we have to ask from a person who has realized that life.

Guest (1): There are two things. I am still, I'm still... that we are raised upon this material life (indistinct) that may be available just like air. Air we do not keep the air under lock and key. There is no dearth of time, no dearth of energy, no dearth of resources. Only dearth is that we have no clear perspective (indistinct) we are under control. (indistinct) in the only because of our other and therefore we have become confused. So from Buddha's time we wanted there should be no sickness, old age, and death, etc. But it is continuing. There is no such country...

Prabhupāda: But how do you respect these words of Lord Buddha, first thing is.

Room Conversation -- April 6, 1971, Bombay:

Guest: Divine birth is not... There's no known being, super-being, here to... Here you find Vietnam War, you find here Bangladesh, you find all suffering and they'll cry all around to God that "He will come and protect us," and there is no protection anywhere from this.

Prabhupāda: Well, this kind of protection, crying at the time of danger, this is experienced from past history also. Just like in the last war in Germany. One German friend told me that naturally all the women went to the church for praying, "My Lord, save my husband. Save my brother." Because all men were in the front, only women were left. So they were praying that "My husband may come back. My brother may come back," or "My father may come back," but nobody came back, and they thought, "Oh, there is no God. Our all prayers are useless." They became atheist.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Class must be. Without hearing, everything will be tainted. (knock on door) Yes?

Haṁsadūta: Prabhupāda, what do you think about the German translation work? I mean...

Prabhupāda: It must go on.

Haṁsadūta: I know it must go on. But isn't there some way to increase it, to make it go more quickly?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything should be done quickly. Because we do not know when we shall die. So everything, Kṛṣṇa consciousness business, should be done as quickly as possible.

Haṁsadūta: I mean in that respect... see, everything must go through Maṇḍalībhadra's hands. Before it can be printed, everything has to go through his hands because he is the chief translator. But at the present moment it's going so slowly that... We haven't even been able to produce the magazine.

Prabhupāda: So find out somebody else.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: He could not finish any one?

Haṁsadūta: No, not even the magazine was finished. The magazine before this recent one, I put it together myself from old magazines.

Prabhupāda: There are so many German students. They cannot do?

Haṁsadūta: They can do, but the thing is that you have said that he is the chief and unless it goes through him, it can't be printed.

Prabhupāda: No. No, no. No, no. No, no.

Haṁsadūta: Everything is bottle-necked around him.

Prabhupāda: Now, the important subject, he may do slowly, but...

Haṁsadūta: Like Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Others may be done by others. You print it. Even there is some mistake, that doesn't matter.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Haṁsadūta: Yes. And another thing I wanted to ask Your Divine Grace is this. This Bhagavad-gītā, I would like to print it as it becomes finished chapter by chapter. Otherwise it will be a long time before we have a book.

Prabhupāda: No, no, you can publish, chapter by chapter.

Haṁsadūta: This is all right?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes.

Haṁsadūta: Because these German people, they have to have books.

Prabhupāda: No, no. You give them chapter by chapter. That's all. We should use our intelligence. You give something, full. So chapter by..., introduction, chapter by chapter, like that. And others may also translate, which is not very intelligent. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa... So do like that.

Haṁsadūta: Yes. (break)

Pradyumna: They have some of our philosophy. (break)

Bhagavān: ...who has finally approved it, to see if it was up to standard.

Haṁsadūta: Well it reminds me of Janārdana. You know Janārdana was a big scholar and he was very intelligent, but he never produced very much. You remember Janārdana? So Maṇḍalībhadra is working full time. He never comes to the temple. Of course, he lives far away, but he never comes to the temple. And I know when a person doesn't come to the temple, it's very difficult for him to maintain, especially if he maintains a full time job. It has an imperceptible effect on your consciousness. And he also, you know, we sometimes, we don't see very much eye to eye. Like for instance, this coming Back to Godhead he wanted to produce, he wanted to put a picture of some of the... Like there's a picture in one of the old Back to Godheads of Vṛndāvana. So I said, "This picture is not good because Kṛṣṇa is not in this picture. There's no Kṛṣṇa. We must have..."

Prabhupāda: Old Vṛndāvana?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, some buildings.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: If you can arrange a meeting amongst the scholars.

Haṁsadūta: Some scholars.

Prabhupāda: But another thing is that I do not know German language.

Pradyumna: They all speak English.

Haṁsadūta: They generally speak English very well. Generally, they all know English.

Prabhupāda: Then if some scholars' and philosophers' meeting is going on that will be nice.

Haṁsadūta: Then I will try to do that. What about a meeting in the biggest hall of Heidelburg? Would you also be interested in that?

Prabhupāda: But I will have to speak in English.

Haṁsadūta: Yes. They know English. This city is especially English. They, practically everyone knows English. Very, very, many people from America are always there. Especially the younger people, they all know English. It's a center for...

Pradyumna: It's the best German university. The most famous German university is there.

Haṁsadūta: And Śivānanda. Shall Śivānanda come here to see you? He wants to know about his taking sannyāsa. He can either go to Paris and meet you there or he can come here.

Prabhupāda: He cannot go to Paris?

Haṁsadūta: He can go to Paris and meet you there.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Dr. Weir: Socrates, Christ, plenty.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So here the love propensity is being misplaced in this material world. That should be placed in God. Then the love will be perfection. Just like if you pour water on the leaves of the tree or branches of the tree it is simply a waste of time. If you pour water on the root then the effect of pouring water is distributed. Similarly, foodstuff, if you place the foodstuff on your nose, on your eyes or your ears, it is simply wasted. But if you put foodstuff to the mouth in the stomach immediately the energy derived from the foodstuff is distributed throughout the whole body. Similarly, if you love God then your, automatically your love is distributed to everyone, every entity. But if you don't love, if you simply love your country... Just like an Englishman, you love your country; German, he loves his country, but there is fight between the English and the Germans because the love is misplaced. But if the Germans or the Englishmen or the Indians they put their love in God there will be no more fighting. Therefore our philosophy is to educate people how to love God. That is real religion. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). That is first-class religion which teaches the follower how to love God. And as soon he becomes a lover of God... Just like I am Indian, but I have come to western countries to teach love of God. It is not that I am satisfied only in myself that I love God, that's all right. But due to my love to God I love others also, because I am trying to teach them to love God, the same philosophy. So if people take seriously this movement, how to love God, then human society will be first-rate.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: This attachment increases. The material attachment. The material attachment means "I am this body, and because I have got this body in a particular place, that is my country." And that is going on. "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am German," "I am this," "I am that," this bodily... "This is my country. I shall sacrifice everything for my country, society." So in this way the illusion becomes increased. So under this illusion, when he dies he gets another body. That may be a superior body or inferior body according to his karma. So if he gets superior body, then that is also entanglement. Even if he goes to the heavenly planet, that is entanglement. And if he becomes cats and dogs, then his life's lost. A tree. There is every chance. So this science is not known in the world, that how the soul is transmigrating from one body to another and how he's being entrapped in different types of body. This science is unknown. Therefore when Arjuna was speaking from the bodily concept of life that "If I kill my brother, if I kill my grandfather, the other side..." So he was simply thinking on the basis of bodily concept of life. But when it was not solved he surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, accepted Him as spiritual master. And when Kṛṣṇa became his spiritual master He chastised him in the beginning. Aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase (BG 2.11), that "You are talking like learned man, but you are a fool number one because you are talking on the bodily concept of life." So this sex life increases the bodily concept of life. Therefore the whole process is to reduce it to nil.

Conversation with Dai Nippon -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:

Prabhupāda: And Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Macmillan Company's. They have taken. And they are also printing yearly fifty thousand or more than that. At least in Western countries there is no such thought of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is completely... That professor, what is his name?

Karandhara: Dimmock?

Prabhupāda: Dimmock. He has given very good appreciation. And gradually it will be printed in other languages. German, French, Spanish, Denmark, Holland...

Karandhara: Danish.

Prabhupāda: Danish, yes. And we are getting also Hindi layout from India. That Hindi magazine also will be printed. Gradually other Indian languages. And Japanese and Chinese also. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa...

Karandhara: If Dai Nippon opens a liaison office in Los Angeles, then it will be very easy to work. The contract is for all the jobs.

Prabhupāda: The officer who will remain there, he will be final or you have to consult with Mr. Ogata(?) and...?

Conversation with the GBC -- May 25, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: He has to manage so many things. So extensively touring means for the mission expanding, that is the point. Simply touring is not required, but doing something substantial to increase the interest of the society. That is the point. So, Karandhara has got many department supervisors(?), so he can be given to work, and sometimes go away (indistinct). So, his position is like that. And similarly Bali-mardana's position is there. He can be also if he has got many engagements, many departments managed there. So he may not tour but our only aim is that one must take multi-responsibilities.

Śyāmasundara: Why not Bali-mardana tour sometimes to check on the foreign literatures, French, German, see how they are going on and inspect the foreign literature field.

Devotee: (indistinct) planning to take speaking engagements in the colleges.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Devotees: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: So we shall increase. You can increase the number. So according to vacant position, how many, it may be fifteen?

Devotee: Thirteen.

Conversation with the GBC -- May 25, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is the point. Our advancement means the more we meet opposing elements, "Oh, that is alright." Therefore preacher is the best devotee because he is a soldier. Just like government gives all importance to the fighting soldier. When there is war, all comforts for the soldier first, then the civil people. There was no butter in Germany, there was no butter. But the soldiers were profusely supplied with butter. And sometimes when the enemy attacks, they throw it away and go away and go to another shelter and still there is butter. That my Godbrother (indistinct) when he first came to India I asked him that, "I heard that you German people are very robust, stout and strong, why you are so thin and weak?" So he replied me in this way that, "In my childhood when I was eight years old weekly I was getting butter for (indistinct)". Everything was controlled, even for children. But the soldiers, there was no control. So that is, my point is, that those who are soldiers, fighting on behalf of Kṛṣṇa, they are brave soldiers. Na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ (BG 18.69). Kṛṣṇa says, "Nobody is dearer than him who is in the process of preaching this Bhagavad-gītā." So, in order to become very dear to Kṛṣṇa... Actually that is the position. So we must preach in that way—by our literature, by our magazine, by our books, by our speech, by our arrangements. Of course, very peacefully, we are not very (indistinct), becoming violent (indistinct). But by argument, by words, by our methods, by our preaching, we have to convince. So selected fifteen men, not twelve (indistinct). It may increase more. Now we have got very many centers, but the duty is very responsible. So as, so far the center is concerned, the local president is (indistinct) man. The GBC can supervise that things are going on.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Brahmānanda: To justify that exploitation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause) They would not allow anyone to enter India to make trade. And that is the cause of two big world wars. This is a... Real cause is India. Because the Germans, they were very intelligent. They were intelligent nation. They wanted to trade with India. So Britishers will not allow them. Actually, Britishers were selling goods, purchasing from Germany and Japan, And when German would go to trade, they will enhance the custom duty very, very large amount. So that was the grudge of the German nation. Two times, they fought with that "Finish these Britishers-shop-keeper's nation." Yes. Hitler, Hitler was... Hitler or the Emperor Wilhelm, some of them, one of them, was calling the Britishers: "shop-keeper's nation."

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That's right. Why the shop-keeper's nation should predominate all over the world? Kill them. That is their (indistinct). And actually it is the German people who killed Britishers, British lion. Apart, after the Second War...

Brahmānanda: British was finished.

Prabhupāda: Finished. Everyone in the United Nations pressed on them: "Why you are colonizing? Why you are occupying so much land? You give up." They were obliged. And there was great national movement of Gandhi. So all United Nations pressed that: "They're wanting to avoid you. Why you are, by force, staying there?" Still, they would not go. But when the soldiers began to join the national movement, they gave it up. "Now we cannot rule it." How very nasty! For their political power, they did so many heinous activities in India. That's a great history. For selling their cotton goods, India's weavers were cut this finger so that they cannot weave. This is there in the history.

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is in Central Calcutta.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There are many foreign scholars from, they're mostly from Japan, and many...

Prabhupāda: I don't find. I do not know much about it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: When I was in Calcutta, I used to go there quite regularly. Because I was studying German. They have got German classes better in that institute.

Prabhupāda: This is the food for the fish?

Karandhara: Yes, bait.

Prabhupāda: Horse dung?

Brahmānanda: No, clams.

Karandhara: Clams.

Prabhupāda: What is that, clam?

Brahmānanda: Shellfish.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (pause) So many...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: There are so many flies.

Prabhupāda: They are not flies. They're insect of the sand. They live within the sand. The scientists will say: "You see? The living entities coming out of sand, from matter."

Morning Walk -- April 27, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is, the food.

Prabhupāda: I think I..., Germany, in the war, they extracted fat from stool because stool is full of fat and hypophosphytes. Stool. So there was scarcity of fat. So they were extracting fat from stool. By scientific method. There was no fat available in wartime. That my Godbrother, Sadānanda, when he came India, so I asked him that: "Your German people, I've heard that German people are very stout and strong. Why you are lean and thin?" So he replied that: "During the war days, there was control. So I was getting fat, butter, simply because we were children." He showed his wrist watch, "to this, this much. Only for children, this much butter, weekly, once." That means under, under-nourished. So therefore they are finding out fat from stool. And in the concentration camp, Kīrtanānanda told me, actually they ate their own stools. And who was telling me...? Śrutakīrti, you were telling me that in the, what is called? Capsule? They turn their stool into food.

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

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So why this should be tolerated? Don't be a doctor of chemist like one of them. Be really doctor of chemist. They must accept. This is the basic, I mean, platform of scientific knowledge. Antavanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ (BG 2.18). That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā. What lesson you have taken from Bhagavad-gītā? Antavanta ime dehā. "This material body is perishable, antavantaḥ." Nityasya uktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ: "But the life within this body, that is nitya, eternal." This whole cosmic manifestation is like that, the big body, gigantic body of Viṣṇu, external energy, display of external energy. Make plan how to meet them, how to defeat them. Catch them on their throat. If they say, "I do not know," then "Why you have become professor? Why do you become professor? Why do you become scientist? If you do not know, you learn from me. You become my disciple. I'll teach you. You learn it scrutinizingly with all your knowledge. We shall teach you. Why you evade?" Just the other professor, he does not like to come. Other scientist, he told?

Brahmānanda: The German scientist, he didn't want to come.

Prabhupāda: Why he avoids?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He was thinking carefully and decided that he cannot defend what he has in his mind.

Prabhupāda: We are not ordinary, the so-called swamis and sādhus. We are going to give to the world something which they forgot. I told this in London airport. Yes. That was published in the papers. They asked me, "Why you have come to London?" And "Because to teach you something which you have forgotten."

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: ...German center, (Bengali) ektā United States.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Three in America.

Prabhupāda: Three in America.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Another three, Another...?

Prabhupāda: Another three in Europe.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Three in Europe. Six.

Prabhupāda: One in India.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: India, one.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (Aside) (Bengali) Why you are keeping there?

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: India, one. Seven.

Prabhupāda: Seven. And Africa, one.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One.

Prabhupāda: Eight.

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: Hotcakes, yes. We are ordering to Dai Nippon, because they are giving us facilities, 100,000 copies each. And distributed all over the world. The whole world, Australia... The whole... Australia is English-speaking. Whole America is English-speaking. England, English-speaking. And Europe also, half, English-speaking. India, more than half, English-speaking. So in this way, English literatures, worldwide circulation we are getting. And besides that, we have published in German language, in Spanish language. Just yesterday I received Spanish Back to Godhead. People are liking it very much. So here is something.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who is in charge of this publication?

Prabhupāda: Publication... I have made one Trust, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who is the leader?

Prabhupāda: I am there, and one, my sannyāsī śiṣya, Bali-mardana.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Where is that Bali-mardana?

Prabhupāda: Bali-mardana. Bali-mardana and another, Karandhara dāsa Adhikārī. So actually he's the manager, Karandhara dāsa Adhikārī. He is looking after.

Conversation with Sridhara Maharaja -- June 27, 1973, Navadvipa:

Prabhupāda: But he hasn't got many books.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. One "Paramo Dharma" in Bengali, and "First year in England," "Second year in England," in this way...

Prabhupāda: That is not a...

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One (indistinct) in German language.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is there, I do not know. "First Year in England." "My First Year in England." "My Second Year in England." And it was very disgusted to Prabhupāda, this...

Prabhupāda: Prabhupāda, yes.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And his servant.

Prabhupāda: And therefore he was called back.

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

Prabhupāda: Actually, English language... Now we see. We have got the facility of speaking in English language all over the world. Yes.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: That is true. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Whole America speaks English language. Australia, New Zealand. In India also, practically all educated men, they speak in English. So in Africa. In Europe also, they understand English language. Not very much, but... (laughs) The Germans, especially, they do not like.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, yes. No.

Prabhupāda: They do not like.

Śyāmasundara: Only at the airport.

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

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: No.

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

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

Prabhupāda: There is no need of... One language sufficient. English language, practical...

Mother: Ah, but then that is one-sided then, isn't it?

Revatīnandana: Most of us don't even study Sanskrit very much.

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

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

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

Mother: You have a sense of humor.

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

Prabhupāda: Sanskrit.

Jesuit Priest: Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: All over the world. From this Sweden to Australia, New Zealand, North and South. And all round the world.

Ambassador: What about Germany also?

Prabhupāda: Yes. He's in charge of this zone.

Ambassador: The Germans are very...

Haṁsadūta: Yes, we have a temple in Berlin, and Munchen, and Hamburg and Heidelberg.

Prabhupāda: No, we are not discouraged. We are not discouraged. But sometimes we are sorry that such a nice movement...

Ambassador: Is not supported. I mean, I... We have this dilemma. I'm being very honest with you. First, we have got the dilemma of choosing the right thing, you know, because so many people claim to speak about reviving Hinduism.

Prabhupāda: But, as, as you find out... Just like you issue license to medical practitioner. Registered medical... Why don't you see that which movement is genuine? That is the duty of the government. But the government is also, they're unaware about which one is actually... (Devotees bring in prasāda.)

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Dr. Hauser: Oh yes. But that's very often a symptom of a, of a psychosis that they feel that they are persecuted by, by foreign powers or by...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Foreign powers, yes. So this is called ghostly haunted. So our material conception of life, this is also ghostly haunted, madness. "I am Christian. I am Hindu. I am Muslim. I am Englishman. I am German." These are all conception of ghostly haunted. Because spirit soul is pure. In the Vedic language it is said: asaṅgo 'yaṁ puruṣaḥ. The spirit soul has no connection with such designations. Just like in dream we see so many things. But it has nothing to do with me. So this is night dream. At night, we forget all these things about the day dream. "I am this, I am that. I am this family-member. I am his father. I am his husband." And so on, so on. At night, when dream, are in a different situation. And we forget everything. And again, in daytime, we forget everything of the night dream. We come another dream. So this is also dream. That is also dream. I am simply observing. In daytime I am seeing some dream, gross dream, and at nighttime I'm seeing some subtle dream. But seer, I am. Under different condition, I am seeing different things. I think you treats this madness. He's sees things in different way, in different positions.

Room Conversation with Latin Professor -- December 9, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: So our method is easy. Instead of intellectual gymnastic, we take it very easily. And that acts. Now, so far our Society is concerned, we accept Kṛṣṇa as God. We're preaching Kṛṣṇa as God. So we have no difficulty. It is acting practically. So we... I may be Indian, Hindu, I may accept Kṛṣṇa as God. Maybe superstition, you may say. But why these European, Americans, Africans, they are accepting? And within very short time. Even Christian priests, they are astonished that "These boys, our boys, they did not care for God, never came to church, never inquired about God. Now they are mad after God?" They have not become mad. They are quite sane, educated. But why they are accepting Kṛṣṇa as God? Ask any one of them, they'll give explanation. And how it has become possible? Because they have accepted the method. So our guru's business is to teach him the method. Then he will understand everything. So far vegetable-eating is concerned, it is actually very scientific to eat vegetables. I think some German doctor proved it, that our teeth are meant for eating vegetables. So as devotee of Kṛṣṇa, we are not after accepting a vegetarian and rejecting a nonvegetarian. That is not our criterion. God is open for vegetarian and nonvegetarian, both. But once he becomes, I mean, a devotee of God, automatically he becomes vegetarian. So we don't make any propaganda to make one vegetarian.
Morning Walk -- December 11, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Anyway, this machine is working to keep this beach very clean. So we can understand that there is some management behind this. Similarly, the nature is working so nicely. How we can deny that behind this there is a system of management? How we can deny it? (break) ...things are going on very nicely. The sun is rising exactly in time, the moon is rising exactly in time, the water is flowing in its own orbit. It does not violate. So if things are going on so nicely, how you can deny that "There is no management behind it"? How you can deny it? It is very natural to understand immediately. And that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that "What you are speaking that nature is doing, yes, nature is doing, but under My direction." Just like the machine. Take it as nature. The machine is working, but the driver is there. Without the driver, how the machine can simply work? (break) ...life is meant. That is Vedic instruction, to know that management, who is the supreme manager. That is human life. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. Otherwise animal life. (break)

Prajāpati: In the last World War there was a very famous German propagandist named Goebbels who wrote that if one controls the communications, the media, the radio and television, newspapers, like this, he actually controls what people think. So we've not put so much emphasis on that so far in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, actually controlling the linkage of communication. In the future should we be more and more concerned with that?

Prabhupāda: What is that future? What do you want to do in future?

Prajāpati: Actually permeate all the media with Kṛṣṇa consciousness propaganda, not simply just writing but actually all aspects of...

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can take advantage of all this media. That we are doing. Just like we are taking advantage of this microphone. We are not rejecting, "Oh, it is material. Why should we take?" Nothing material. Anything used for Kṛṣṇa is spiritual. Material means what is not used for Kṛṣṇa. That is material. You are materialistic when you are not used for Kṛṣṇa. And as soon as you are utilized for Kṛṣṇa, you are spiritualistic. That is the difference. Here we say, "This is material world." This is material world because everyone has forgotten Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it is material world. So if they come into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then it is spiritual. (break) ...conscious people now challenge this rascal that "We are searching after Kṛṣṇa. We are not searching... We are devotee of Kṛṣṇa, and you are posing yourself as Kṛṣṇa. So show us some Kṛṣṇa's power. We immediately come to you."

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 20, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: But there is a great smuggling racket the whole world, Swamiji.

Prabhupāda: No, no. When they... I know that Allen Ginsberg. He learned this...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, in India.

Prabhupāda: But he's a great poet. He learned this gañjā smoking from India.

Dr. Patel: The English boys, the French boys, the Germans, all of them have started in the... They don't come here as hippies. This is an international disease.

Prabhupāda: They learned from America. That's a fact. The hippie movement started from America.

Dr. Patel: Now, hippie movement started from America. That means they started first. Not after coming to India...

Prabhupāda: But they learned it from India.

Dr. Patel: No.

Prabhupāda: They came here... I have got many students. They came here for spiritual enlightenment, but they learned gañjā smoking and keeping high, big beard. You know. There is a sannyāsa-āśrama in Delhi. And people contribute them gañjā. Not only they, I know... My father, he was also attached to so many sannyāsīs. So in Kālī-ghāṭa, there was a sannyāsī...

Dr. Patel: Sannyāsīs, those nāgā-bābās, they smoke.

Prabhupāda: Not nāgā... He was a regular sannyāsī, Māyāvādī sannyāsī. So my father was giving them the saffron cloth and gañjā. People accept it that this is one of the items.

Room Conversation -- April 26, 1974, Tirupati:

Prabhupāda: And we have got about hundred temples.

Indian man: At every America?

Prabhupāda: No, no, all over the world. In America I have got forty temples.

Indian man: Forty temples, I see.

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

Indian man: In Germany also.

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

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

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

Indian man: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: Everything is not religion. It is cheating. Only religion is to surrender to the Lord. That is religion. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmaḥ.

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

Prabhupāda: Germany is the bitterest enemy of Britain.

Dr. Patel: Stalin.

Prabhupāda: No, Germany, whole Germany. They do not like to speak in English also. Yes, I have seen it. Even they know English, they'll not speak. In the bank they could speak a little, little English, but they avoid. Then I took... What is that boy that first went to...?

Bhāgavata: Śivānanda.

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

Dr. Patel: German. All of them.

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

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

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

Dr. Patel: Indian Army was Indian Civil totally. Even today it is so. Indian Army fought... (break)

Prabhupāda: Pathans, Sikhs, they fought so nicely.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Some of the books, you can show him. Here is one book, Bhagavad-gītā.

Yogeśvara: You have seen the Bhagavad-gītā, haven't you, in English?

O'Grady: Oh, yes, but not this particular edition.

Yogeśvara: This we just recently published in German, a German edition. (Yogeśvara discusses books with O'Grady for a minute)

Bhagavān: All these books are illustrated by our artists in New York.

O'Grady: They illustrated this?

Bhagavān: Oh, yes, they are beautiful.

Bob Jackson(?): Some fantastic work. When you came to the house...

O'Grady: The text is in...

Bhagavān: There's original text in Bengali. This book is in Bengali.

O'Grady: And Sanskrit.

Bhagavān: Sanskrit, which Prabhupāda translates himself and gives the explanation and purport. Every night Śrīla Prabhupāda dictates into a dictaphone, and his secretaries type and edit. And then we have a press in New York which composes and prints.

O'Grady: It's a very nice edition, that Macmillan edition. Very nicely done.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have fifth edition within two years. Five editions.

Room Conversation with Richard Webster, chairman, Societa Filosofica Italiana -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Well, Chamberlain may tried, might have tried to stop the war, but he could not stop the cause of the war. So far we know that the two wars started by Germany on account of Britain. So far I have studied. The German people did not like the Britishers to occupy the trade all over the world. And wherever they went to trade, they were restricting. I know this fact. In India the Britishers monopolized all trade, and they would not allow German goods to come in. So that was the cause of the war. The German knew that the Britishers, they are purchasing from Germany and stamping it "Made in London" and selling in India at high price. And when the Germans go there, they are not allowed to enter. This is the cause of the war. The Germans still, they do not like to speak in English. They are so envious. So Chamberlain might have tried to stop war, but his nation created the cause of the war. Why there should be... That was the demand, that free trade. Germans, in the, what is called, peace negotiation, their demand was free trade. Everyone... And that is very good. Why trade should be... This is unnatural. Let there be free trade. General public, they want best thing at good price, at cheap price. So if Japan and Germany can supply goods, necessary goods, at cheaper price, why they should be restricted? Let the people take advantage of it.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: And... Why Calcutta? You go to the airport. You will find so nice gardens, still existing. Now it is spoiled also. Because people have changed locally to the city. Nobody has to take care now. Otherwise, in Bengal especially, throughout the whole India, Bengal was so beautiful. The Europeans became attracted by the beauty of Bengal. Therefore they made Calcutta their capital, the Britishers. Yes. Every European liked Bengal. Every European. I met one European German gentleman in Bombay. He was in Calcutta. When I was in Bimha (?). So I asked, "Why you left Calcutta?" "Oh, I am very sorry. Calcutta was so nice." And actually. Where we have got our temple, these quarters were known as "Sahib" quarter. Just like our temple is "Sahib" temple. So these Chowringee and Camac Street, Park, these were all European. They liked very much to live in Bengal. And there is another story. One English officer he became attracted by the beauty of a Bengali woman. There is story by Bankima Candra. Candrashekhara. The man was after that woman, how to get it. That is the subject matter of story. He was attracted by the black eyes and black hair. Bengali beauty.

Room Conversation -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Then why Christ recommend, "Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not covet. Thou shall not do this. Thou shall not..."? They are all false thing? Now let us talk of knowledge. We have talked so many outside knowledge. What is the real knowledge? The real knowledge is that everything is the property of God. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). No land belongs either to the Americans or to the Swiss people or to the Indian people or to German people. No. Everything belongs to God. And all living entities are the sons of God. So everything produced out of God's land, either on the land or in the sky or anywhere, it is God's property, and all the sons, they have the right to share. So there is no scarcity in the God's kingdom. Simply due to our mismanagement we have created so much trouble. If we accept God as the center and all living entities sons of God, then we can actually live very peacefully in God consciousness. Therefore this is the recommendation, how we can live very peacefully, all of us, both men and animal and everyone. That is said here. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni.

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. That is human civilization. That is Āryan civilization. Vedic civilization means Āryan.

Yogeśvara: Hitler also wanted to produce a pure breed of Āryans, but artificially. He just said anyone who is German-born, they are the pure Āryans.

Prabhupāda: But so much freedom in sex, how the blood can be pure? (break)

Yogeśvara: ...but Kṛṣṇa-prasādam?

Prabhupāda: Then he's neutral always. He's not affected by all these qualities.

Yogeśvara: I guess the blood becomes purified like that. (break)

Prabhupāda: I said that "You scientists, you are simply wasting time." Did I not say that, last night?

Yogeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Childish. Just imitating barking of the dog. That's all. And he wants to take credit by imitating barking the dog. And the real dog is barking—no attention. Actually, that is the position.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1974, Paris:
Paramahaṁsa: So we should be able to see the quality of man we are preaching to.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you have to make him intelligent. Everyone is fool, mūḍha. Everyone within this material world is supposed to be a fool. Because everyone is thinking, "I am this body." So he's fool. "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am German," "I am Frenchman," "I am this," "I am that." What is the difference? A cat is thinking, "I'm cat." A dog is thinking, "I am dog." So if somebody thinks that, in relationship with the body, "I am Frenchman," "I am Englishman," "I am...", then where is the difference between the cat and the dog? He's thinking himself as this body. Therefore everyone is thinking, at least in this modern world, the so-called nationalism, everyone is thinking, "I am Englishman," "I am Frenchman," "I am Indian," "I am this," "black," "white." So everyone is fool. Is it not? Yes. He's thinking in a way what he is not. Therefore he's a fool. All these big, big political leaders, Napoleon, Hitler, Churchill, and in Europe , they fought with this consciousness, "I am Englishman," "I am German," "I am Frenchman." That's all. Even the big, big leaders, they are fools. And what to speak of common men?

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

Pṛthu-putra: He asks what language we use when we read Bhagavad-gītā and...

Prabhupāda: No. This is in Sanskrit language, but we translate into different languages.

M. Mesman: English?

Prabhupāda: English, French, German, Spanish, and other languages. (French)

Pṛthu-putra: He asks if we have to be disciple, do we have to know Sanskrit or to learn Sanskrit.

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: Dedicated devotee, hundred. (French)

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

Prabhupāda: He's dedicated disciple.

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

Pṛthu Putra: He says he agrees. That means to be identified with the appearance.

Prabhupāda: So that is insanity. We are actually the living force, soul, but we are identifying at the present moment with the material body. Everyone is thinking, "I am Japanese, I am Englishman, I am German, I am Indian, I am white, I am black," but that is his insanity. So this insanity should be cured, that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul." And when he understand that he is spirit soul, he should be engaged in the business of the spirit soul. And because he is misidentifying himself with this body he is engaged with the bodily activities. So when he stops his bodily activities and he begins his spiritual activities, then he will be cured. So far bodily, I mean to say, pains and pleasure, that will be automatically cured when he understands that he is not body. Just like I feel heat and cold on account of this body.

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

Professor La Combe: Last year.

Prabhupāda: No, this year they are advertising.

Professor La Combe: Which is to come.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Satsvarūpa: This is a poster that Haṁsadūta sent for Frankfurt for next week.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. This is German language.

Professor La Combe: And all is in the vicinity of Frankfurt.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu predicted. You understand little Bengali? Do you understand...

Professor La Combe: Bengali not... Sanskrit, but not...

Prabhupāda: The Bengali words,

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
(CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)

Pṛthivīte—this is Sanskrit—"all over the world;" āche, "there are;" yata, "as many;" nagarādi grāma, nagara, "towns...,"

Morning Walk -- June 17, 1974, Germany:

Haṁsadūta: Yes.

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

Devotee: Now they've found out, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that India has been, over the past few years, spending crores of rupees to develop the...

Prabhupāda: Hm. And people are starving for want of. There was a cartoon that some public came to some minister: "Sir, we are starving. Give us our food." So the reply was: "Of course, that's a problem, food problem. But I can assure you that from next week you'll have television." (laughter) These rascals are like that. "Next, from next week, you'll have television, atom bomb. Never mind. Starve." (laughter) So that is also becoming fool's paradise. Jaḍa-vidyā jato māyāra vaibhava. In this way, the more we increase sense, sense gratification by advancement of material..., the more we forget Kṛṣṇa. And more we forget Kṛṣṇa, we are more fools. (aside:) Don't come so near.

Morning Walk -- June 17, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: That's all. (break) ...samudvigna, always full of anxiety. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām. Intelligence is always absorbed: "Enemy may not come. Let me discover this, discover this atom bomb. This will save me. This will save me." This is their position. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). Why this anxiety? Because they have accepted something false as truth. Asad-grahāt. They have accepted sense gratification is the truth. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhuḥ. Indriyāṇi means senses. Parā, supreme. This is supreme. And then, if somebody is little advanced, indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ. Then the mental speculators, psychologists, philosophers, another, better class of rascals... This is the third-class rascal, and they are second-class rascal. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ, manasas tu parā buddhiḥ (BG 3.42). Then the intelligent class. They consider, "What is this nonsense? They are all suffering here." In this way, one who becomes actually intelligent, wise, then he understands, "Kṛṣṇa is everything." Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). So that highest position we are giving by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are not training them to be first-class fools, second-class fools, third-class... No. First-class intelligent. Kṛṣṇa yei bhaje sei baḍa catura. Without being first-class, intelligent man, nobody can take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness (break) ...drink everything. And why they fight? What is the cause? Suppose father gives all necessities of life to the children. Why they should fight? Simply ignorance and foolishness. That's all. Where is the cause of fighting? Just like Pāṇḍavas, to settle up their misunderstanding, Kṛṣṇa said, "All right, they are kṣatriyas, They cannot take up the occupation of vaiśya or śūdra. Give them five villages so that they'll be happy. They'll rule over, each one on the village." "No, Sir. Not a piece of land holding the tip of the needle can be spared without fighting." This is the world. The German, German war, First World War, what was the cause? The cause was that the Britishers will not allow the Germans to trade all over the world. They captured everything. And they'll purchase from Germany goods and cheat people...,

Haṁsadūta: And sell...

Prabhupāda: ..."Made in London," and sell it fifteen times higher than the Germans. This was their business. And that was the cause of... Is it not? Those who have studied history... This is the cause. So all this nonsense thing can be solved if we take it: "This is Kṛṣṇa's property." And if you know something, you are manufac..., that's all right. You do it. I do something else. Or even if I do it, where is the cause of fighting? Because they do not know what is Kṛṣṇa. (end)

Morning Walk -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: ...that you leave this body, you accept another body and do something else which you see. If that is illusion, then this is also illusion. Because in daytime you forget that night activities, and at night you forget the day activities. So this is also illusion. So therefore you are in illusion. That's a fact, day and night, day and night. That is called māyā. This is also māyā. But they have accepted this as fact. The gross illusion they have taken as fact. This is also illusion. You are thinking, "I am American," "I am Indian," "German." What is that? By one kick of nature you are out, the cat and dog. This is also illusion. What is not illusion?

Haṁsadūta: So there are also living beings, they accept the subtle material as illusion just as we are accepting this gross.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is going on. Therefore the problem is where is my real life? That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one understands, the rascal, that "This is also illusion. This is also illusion. Then where is my actual life?" that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

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

Professor Durckheim: But as an experience, the pure consciousness as an experience, has to have a background which is not pure consciousness. Otherwise it could become...

Prabhupāda: No. Pure consciousness is actually you are. Just like water. Water is pure. When it is comes from the sky, it is clear crystal water. But as soon as it touches the ground, it becomes muddy. Similarly, we soul, spirit soul, we are pure. As soon as we come in contact with this matter, material existence, we become impure. And there are three stages of impurity: goodness, passion and ignorance. So all of them are impure. Unless one comes to the spiritual consciousness—he may be a very nice man—he is infected with the impurity of goodness. He is thinking, "I am very big man, I am very..." That is also impurity. And another man does not know what he is, just like animal, all the animals. That is also impurity. When both of them will come to the clear consciousness that "I am part and parcel of God; my duty is to serve God," that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So long he identifies with this material consciousness, he is impure. Just like people are fighting: "I am German," "I am Englishman," "I am this," "I am that," "I am black," "I am white," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am śūdra"—so many, designations. These designations are impurity. Just like sometimes the artists, they manufacture some statue naked. In France I saw, naked. They take it this naked statue is pure art, not dressed. Similarly, when you come to the nakedness of spirit soul without this designation of this body, "I am American," "I am German," "I am this," "I am that," that is purity.

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

Prabhupāda: The consciousness is covered by impurity, just like your health is covered by disease, and the symptom is fever. But that is a covering. That is not your healthy state. Similarly, my consciousness, when I think that "I am American," "I am German," "I am this," "I am that," "I am that," that is impurity. And when he thinks that "I am neither German, neither American, nor this nor that. I am part and parcel of God," that is pure consciousness.

Professor Durckheim: But in order to get there, to feel that one is neither this nor that, one must have suffered by first having thought that one is this or that.

Prabhupāda: That suffering is just like you suffer in the dream. You are attacked by a tiger. There is no tiger. Actually there is no suffering. But on account of ignorance, you are thinking, "The tiger is eating me."

Professor Durckheim: Yes, but this is a very good example because the dream of the tiger comes very often. And it always means that you are pursued by some of your inner instincts, yourself. So you discover in the image of the tiger something which is not right in yourself.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that experience is also material. That is not spiritual experience. That experience is going on continually so long we are materially attached. Because in the material world we are constantly changing our body. Your experience in childhood is different from the experience at this time. So as we are changing our body, we are getting different experiences, and all those experiences are photographed within the mind. And they sometimes come out and make an intermixture, and we see dreams and so many contradictory things. This is going on, mental speculation. That is hovering on the mental plane. That is not spiritual plane.

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

Prabhupāda: So our real business is how to become free from all these designations. Yes. Then we come to the real consciousness. That real consciousness is that "I am eternal. God is eternal. I am part and parcel of God. My duty is to serve God. And now I am serving also. I am not free from service, but I am serving under designation." Just like you went to fight, because you designated yourself that "I am German." This is an example, that "I must fight, give service to my country." Somebody is thinking, "Give service to my community" or "to my family." Or if there is nobody else, at least "to my dog." So this is going on. So we have to close all these designations and become pure and serve God. And that is self-realization.

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-
sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate
(CC Madhya 19.170)

Just like the Arjuna. Arjuna was put into the ba... You have read Bhagavad-gītā, I think, this Bhagavad-gītā?

Professor Durckheim: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So he was thinking in terms of designations, that "I am... I belong to the same family. The other side, they are my cousin-brothers. They belong to the same family. So why shall I fight? Let them enjoy." From material point of view it is very good man. But Kṛṣṇa condemned him. Aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajñā-vādān: (BG 2.11) "You are talking very high words, but you are fool number one." That is the first, because he was talking on the platform of this bodily concept of life. But after hearing Bhagavad-gītā, when he understood that "I am not this body; I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. My duty is to obey the orders of Kṛṣṇa," then he fought. Superficially, he remained the same soldier. But in the beginning he was a soldier for his designation of this body, and later on, he became a soldier to carry out the order of the Supreme. That is the difference. So when we act to carry out the orders of the Supreme, that is self-realization, not for this body.

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

Professor Durckheim: There is only one way toward peace, through self-realization of those who are responsible.

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

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

Professor Durckheim: Incredible, incredible. What a thing!

Prabhupāda: You can put this side.

German devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, these gentlemen are professors from the Theological Philosophical University. And this is Doctor Zara (?). He is the leader for the society of yoga and integral philosophical studies in Germany.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is very fortunate to see so many big men at a time. So we were also talking to this doctor about this philosophy, how human civilization should be conducted. I was explaining to Professor that at the present moment, not at the present moment, always in this material world, we do not know what is the goal of life. We have got different philosophies, different mode of life, because we do not know what is the goal of life. If the goal of life is... (break) ...then everything is solved. Now it is very good fortune that you are all present. What is the goal of life? That is my submission. Human life is there, human intelligence is there. So what is the goal of life to achieve? The goal of life cannot be different. That is one. That is, we take from Vedic literature, this goal of life is to understand what is God. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). (aside:) That is one. You serve it out. So we are missing the point, that we do not know what is the goal of life. Different persons, different philosophers, they have got different proposition of the goal of life. Similarly, different politician also. But we think the goal of life is one, to understand God. Then everything is solved. Self-realization. (pause) And we are writing all these books. These books will be finished in eighty volumes. And already we have published fourteen volumes only. And small books also, many, about two dozen. But our only writing is the goal of life, Kṛṣṇa.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Professor Durckheim: And from this level the heaven opens to those who didn't understand what the heaven means. They thought it was behind the clouds. You see, there is a natural way to look at God, and this natural way to look at God is lost as soon as people go through the rational mind. And then there is no other way out but to have a personal initiated experience. We talk about initiation. When people are capable to go through a certain death and to discover another level, and only... And so, the great wisdom which you are talking about, I am sure that it also touches people on two levels. There is the ordinary man and he might believe, but there is a deeper level where things start to change yourself, to transform yourself in deeper experiences.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is... That is the beginning of instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. The beginning of knowledge...

German Lady: Excuse me. Would you please explain for some people who don't speak English here in German because we don't know all of your words.

Professor Durckheim: Yes, but I didn't want to interrupt the master.

Prabhupāda: No. I have no objection if somebody translates into German.

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

Professor Durckheim: But this time is over.

Prof. Pater Porsch: Yes.

Professor Durckheim: The modern times are not modern anymore.

Prof. Pater Porsch: I agree with you but just think how the world was only a few years ago.

Professor Durckheim: Yes. And especially if you talk about the rational (German), the really German tradition is the irrational. So now this is coming back now, rediscovering their own past slowly.

Prabhupāda: So long they do not come to the standard platform, they will accept this sometimes and that sometimes. This will go on, changing.

Prof. Pater Porsch: No, but I meant it differently. Can it not be that average man in the street... I don't mean... Yes, it was, of course, in Germany. Man in the street now is infected from the...

Professor Durckheim: Absolutely, yes.

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: So before that, there was no Christian?

Haṁsadūta: No, before that, there was no Christian.

Prabhupāda: What they were? No religion?

Haṁsadūta: They were like you said. They were just tribes people.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So these Germans were tribe people, uncivilized?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, before Christianity, Europe was completely uncivilized.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Therefore the order is "Thou shalt not kill." Simply their business was killing. Uncivilized persons, they kill animals and eat. So due to past habit they could not forget this killing business. This is the proof that this system of religion was preached among the crude people, not civilized. So why they introduced this beer?

Haṁsadūta: It was a kind of refreshment.

Prabhupāda: But before that, they were not drinking.

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Haṁsadūta: There may have been something like wine. The monks also used to make wine.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they make wine. Uncivilized men, they know how to make wine. In India they do so by rice boiling and keep it for some days. It becomes wine, fermented. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...used to say that "I was drinking beer in barrels." He said. Forty years ago he said me like that. Here I don't see them, but Hamburg I have seen, yes, passing urine on the roadside. There are so many urine coming from the wall. 'Cause the more you drink beer, you will pass urine more. The German language is trinken, trinking. Drinking means trinking. Yes, I have seen it. Trinking or trinken?

Haṁsadūta: Trinken.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...students, they are advancing for the unflinching faith on guru and Kṛṣṇa. This is the secret. (break) ...these devotees, how nice they are. They do not appreciate?

Haṁsadūta: I think most of them cannot understand it, but they sympathize, I think, because the principles are (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: That is appreciation.

Room Conversation -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: If it is religious life. If in the name of religion it is sinful life, that is another thing. Alright Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. samaḥ sarveṣu, mad-bhaktiṁ labhate. That is the stage of making advancement in devotional life. Equality. Equality is possible when we are on the platform of spiritual life. Otherwise the United Nations will never be able to unite. That is not possible. (indistinct) If they unite, if they try to unite on Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then. Otherwise.... We are all part and parcel of God. Somehow or other we are all differently dressed, although we are one. (indistinct) Now just like you are Canadian, I am Indian. (indistinct). There are crows, there are pigeons, there are sparrows (indistinct). Why they are not quarreling? Simply you are designated European, Indian and Canadian, German, so we have to give up this designation. Then they will be united. Otherwise, but they are very much proud of these designations. Therefore, bhakti means sarvopādhi vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). When one is completely free from designation. The designation is (indistinct). And the whole world is being ruled by designation, "I am Indian", (indistinct). Ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8).

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Pater Emmanuel: Thank you very much. I am so too.

Prabhupāda: Recently we have published one booklet. It is written by one scientist, my student, The Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Pater Emmanuel: Thank you very much. It is translated in German too.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. This is just... I received a sample.

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: So bhakti means mukti is included. Without bhakti, there is no mukti. Therefore when one is on the platform of bhakti, he has already attained mukti.

Pater Emmanuel: Yes, I see.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is said in the Bhagavad-gītā. Find out. Māṁ ca avyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate. Māṁ ca avyabhicāreṇa.

German devotee:

māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
(BG 14.26)

Translation in English?

Prabhupāda: Let him... German translation will help you?

Pater Emmanuel: Yes.

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Pater Emmanuel: On my part, I...

Prabhupāda: No, no, we are talking with you. You are a representative of Christian kind. So instead of keeping the churches locked up, why not give it us? We shall chant twenty-four hours. Actually this is fact. Many places we have purchased churches. And before our purchasing, the church was practically locked up. Nobody was going. And because nobody was going, therefore it was available for purchase. In London I have seen. Hundreds and thousands of churches are locked up, or they are being used for different purpose. There are many hundreds and thousands churches, but they are not going on. So this experience... In Los Angeles we purchased one church. So it was sold because people were not coming. Now you go to the same church, and the same men, they are coming by thousands. And one Christian preach in Boston, he issued one leaflet that "These boys are our boys. Before accepting this movement, they were never coming to the church. They never inquired about God. And now they are mad after God. How it has happened?" Yesterday the inquiry was "Why the Americans and the Germans are taking to this path?"

Haṁsadūta: "How come it has expanded so quickly?"

Pater Emmanuel: What was your answer?

Prabhupāda: Answer. What the answer?

Umāpati (?): Prabhupāda didn't understand, accepting him in German.

Prabhupāda: No no. The answer I gave, you do not remember?

Umāpati: Because they are intelligent.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Any intelligent man will understand what is religion, what is God, in five minutes. It doesn't require even five hours. In five minutes.

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

Cāru:

kāmam āśritya duṣpūraṁ
dambha-māna-madānvitāḥ
mohād gṛhītvāsad-grāhān
pravartante 'śuci-vratāḥ
(BG 16.10)

"The demoniac, taking shelter of insatiable lust, pride and false prestige, and being thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent."

Prabhupāda: The big two wars of the world happened only on account of this industry. Do you know that? The cause is the big, big industry. Germany industrial, they produce goods. They must have market. But when they go to sell, there is no market. Britishers will not allow to sell them. The Britisher will take, purchase from them, and stamp it "Made in England" and sell it. And this is the cause of two big war. Therefore German declare twice war. Disaster. Therefore it is said, jagata ahitāya. Then? Go on.

Cāru: Purport?

Prabhupāda: No, the other śloka.

Cāru: Other śloka.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: I think you missed that verse, jagato ahitāya. Anyway, these are the description of demonic activities. So this is practical. The last two disastrous war was waged only for this industry. This is the cause. German, they are actually in Europe very intelligent and their machine products and other things, they make very nice things. At least, I have got experience, German chemicals are first-class chemical. So they manufacture and British occupied the half of the world in their colonization, whole Africa, and they controlled India and China, Japan, yes, China, Burma, Ceylon, Australia. So these poor people, they manufactured. They have got goods enough; where to sell? As soon as they go to the British territories, "No, you cannot sell. If you want to sell, then hundred percent duty." So price increase. This was the grudge. Everyone knows. This is the cause of two wars. The jagato ahita. Now, why so much? You require a scissor? Go to a blacksmith and pay something. He'll make a scissor. "No. Produce millions of scissor." Then where is market, sir? This is going on. Produce millions of TV machine. Simple they are used for wasting time. One or two or five made for some important business. Now they are producing millions of sets. They must sell. And people are induced to purchase. And as soon as they purchase, they simply see television. Idol worship. And learning vicious things. Some unnecessary picture is produced there. They like to see it. Two train are coming and they are smashed. (laughs)

Morning Walk at Marina del Rey -- July 14, 1974, Los Angeles:

Umāpati: Here too, in this country also, they're making butter from stool?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Umāpati: In this country also they're doing that?

Prabhupāda: The... I... No. During wartime the German people did it, at least.

Bahulāśva: Now they're making artificial milk also, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bahulāśva: They're advertising. "It's just like milk without the sour taste, without the bitter taste."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are propagating that milk is not good for the (indistinct) natural milk.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Some scientist came to see me in Melbourne. He was speaking like that.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He was saying that milk is not good.

Jayatīrtha: Stool is good, but milk is not good. (laughter)

Umāpati: That's all right if you're a pig.

Prabhupāda: Stool is good... We see the pigs. They eat stool. They become very fatty.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So they are going or simply stock?

Rāmeśvara: No. It is greatly reduced since they have arrived.

Prabhupāda: So Haṁsadūta, he has to make a go-down like this.

Haṁsadūta: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Then he'll defeat these charges. Eh? When the nation, German nation, will accept these books, then that will be proper reply, charges.

Rāmeśvara: This forklift lifts these pallets high up to the ceiling.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hṛdayānanda: Does Prabhupāda want to see how it work? Śruta-śravā, you can show him how it works? Quickly.

Rāmeśvara: These racks we purchased for storing the books that will be sent to the libraries and colleges. When Satsvarūpa Swami gets the orders, they are reserved over here, five hundred copies of each book, and then, when we run out, another five hundred copies goes in the rack. So that way, we always keep books. Even if we sell out, we always have books reserved for the libraries. Śruta-śravā manages our warehouse. (engine started)

Hṛdayānanda: Make it go up.

Prabhupāda: I first saw this machine in the Commonwealth Pier, Boston.

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, Māyāvādīs.

Rāmeśvara: Just before Christmas this wall was filled up, and now it is practically empty. We have sold so many books just in a few months. All up to the ceiling it was filled up. Now we have to reprint.

Prabhupāda: Now it is only in English language. In every language such big go-down should... Yes. (chuckles) You have taken Spanish, and he is German. Then... Then overflood. No more other literature. (laughter) Ara nāhe bābā. They'll say, "No, no, we don't want any other literature." Yes, George says, "No more singing anything except Kṛṣṇa." Does he not say? He says like that.

Gurudāsa: Yes. Sometimes. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: Sometimes.

Prabhupāda: I don't think... Is he singing any other song, no?

Gurudāsa: Now he is not. He's going to Vṛndāvana next week.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Vṛndāvana. Where he'll stay?

Gurudāsa: I wrote him a letter to stay with us, but he may stay in Mathurā. I'm not sure. I wrote him a letter to stay at our place.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation with three Trappist Monks, Psychologists from the University of Georgia, and Atlanta Lawyer, Michael Green -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: A devotee means, real devotee means, he has no purpose for material gain. That is real devotee. Now we have to see what kind of devotee he is. There are two kinds of devotees: with purpose and without purpose. The "without purpose" devotee is pure devotee, and "with purpose" devotee, they are material devotee. That is distinguished in Bhagavad-gītā,

ārto arthārthī jijñāsur
jñānī ca bharatarṣabha
catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ
(janāḥ) sukṛtinaḥ arjuna
(BG 7.16)

There are pious men and sinful men. Sinful men cannot become devotee. Pious men can become devotee.

yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ
janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā
bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ
(BG 7.28)

These are the definitions. One who is completely free from all sinful activities, they can become pure devotee. So even after becoming free from sinful activities, if one has got some motive, then he is also not pure devotee. Pure devotee means without any material motive: "God is great. I am His subordinate. I must love God. I must render service to God." This is pure devotee. And if I go to God, "Please give me my bread," that is not pure devotee, because he has got some purpose. As soon as his purpose is fulfilled, he may turn nondevotee. Just like one of my German Godbrothers said that in Germany during the last war, Second World War, many women used to go to the church to pray to God to get back their husband, son, or brother. But nobody came back. And they became atheist: "There is no God. We prayed so much, and my father did not come, my brother did not come, my son did not come." So motivated devotion is sometimes frustrated, and they become atheist. Therefore the devotee who has no motive is pure devotee. "In any condition, it is my duty to love God and to serve Him, not for my benefit but God's satisfaction." That is pure devotee.

Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He comes to our Bhāgavatam classes every Sunday.

Bernard Manischewitz: Saturday.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Saturday.

Prabhupāda: Now recently I have got one news from one German scientist. His name...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Von Braun.

Prabhupāda: Von Braun. He is comparing there is God. He is scientist. He is thinking like us exactly. He is a very well known scientist, German scientist, Von Braun. Yes.

Bernard Manischewitz: I have some questions.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bernard Manischewitz: You know I'm in the food business, so my first question deals with my food business. I'm familiar with the Kṛṣṇa cookbook—I've read the recipes—but I do not see any suggested menus or nutritional information, and I'm wondering if there's any thought that's been worked on that. Is there any background of menus or nutritional information?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Nutritional information means that we require for balance food: starch, carbohydrate, protein, fat. What else? Starch, carbohydrate, protein, fat. These are necessary nutrition, but these things are there in vegetable diet. Rice, starch; wheat, protein; dahl, protein; then vegetable, carbohydrate; and milk, fat. So if we take food and test it within these four, five groups... Eat according to our conception, sattvikaḥ. Sattvikaḥ means foodstuff in goodness. There are three qualities in the material world—goodness, passion and ignorance. So they are described: these are goodness foods, these are passion, these are ignorance. So these items: rice, wheat, vegetables, dahl and milk is sufficient for nutrition. Above that, you take little fruit, it is very good. And in India this foodstuff is taken by the learned circle—brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas—and they keep very good health, very good life.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- March 13, 1975, Tehran:

Indian man (1): A lot of dangers will be there. We'll be putting ourself into trouble.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are in trouble. Even last war, when the trouble was too much, they began to go to the church. Even Churchill. And one gentleman—he is my Godbrother in Germany—he told me, after this war many German men and women became atheist. Everyone went to the church and prayed. Especially women prayed for return of their husband, brother, father. And nobody returned. So they thought, "There is no God. So forget about all these things." People became atheist. So this risky civilization is going on. They don't want to know what is God, neither they want to satisfy Him. And our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is just the opposite, that "Here is God. You satisfy Him." That's all. "Never mind what you are, but by your occupational duty you satisfy Him. That is perfection." This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And this is taught in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa ultimately said this: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). In the beginning He said, yat karoṣi yat juhoṣi yad aśnāsi yat tapasyasi kuruṣva tad mad arpaṇam: (BG 9.27) "Do it for Me." Yat karoṣi. It doesn't matter what you are doing. And very good work or bad work or anything, when He says, yat karoṣi, means "Whatever you are doing, do it, but the result give Me." Kuruṣva tad mad-arpaṇam. This is His desire. And at last again He said that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. This is the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, and if somebody would say that "Simply I have to satisfy You? Then I have to satisfy others also. If I do not do, then I will be sinful," that, Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ: (BG 18.66) "Don't worry. If there is any reaction, not doing other duty, simply to surrender to Me, and if there is sinful reaction, then I'll give you protection. Don't worry." This is the conclusion. And we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, that's all, without any malinterpretation. Everyone is interpreting in his own way. But we are not interpreting. We are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. And it is becoming effective. Bhagavad-gītā was studied in the Western countries since a long time, since seventeenth century—but not like this. Before me, many swamis, yogis, they came to the Western countries, and most of them spoke on Bhagavad-gītā, but not a single person was a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. But now they are becoming by hundreds because the Bhagavad-gītā is presented as it is. This is the comparison.

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: So when that cooperation was withdrawn, naturally they could not... They were trying to the last point, but when the Subhas Bose's organization, INA... You have studied that Indian history. Yes. INA. Indian National Army. So this National Army was formed by Subhas Candra Bose outside India with the cooperation of Hitler and Tojo. He's formed that, what is called, Indian government outside India, the INA, the soldiers... The INA soldiers means all the soldiers that were arrested in the battlefield, they were given to Subhas Candra Bose, either by the Japanese or by the Germans. So the soldiers took this opportunity; they voluntarily surrendered to the enemy. So when the Britishers understood that the soldiers, Indian soldiers, are now noncooperating, then they decided, "No, no more. It is not possible." So they voluntarily withdrew, that Sir Sirpiting(?) Lawrence, the secretary of state for India. Then they voluntarily settled up. And they settled up means the last parting kick was partition-Pakistan and India. And they partitioned in such a way that these two people will fight everlong. That is going on. They are very good politicians.

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: That was not...

Ambassador: Even Buddhism had gone. It was revived by foreigners.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Dutch. Dutch people, there were.

Ambassador: Germans especially. But now may I ask you while I have the chance? You have had so much to do with bringing the dharma to the West. What is your idea? What is your mission? It seems to me, in many ways there is a transfer of the essential spirit going West, because the interest is there.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Ambassador: And what is left in the East is so often just the materialism imitated from the West among many young people now.

Prabhupāda: Where, in the East? Yes.

Ambassador: In the East. So there's been a crossover taking place.

Prabhupāda: Hm, yes.

Ambassador: Do you see it like that?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. In Western countries they are now fed up with this materialistic way of life. And I think it will very soon collapse, the Western way of life. And naturally the next enquiry is spiritual.

Ambassador: Yes, it's already beginning.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. The material life means animal life.

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: So there are doves, there are pigeons, there are sparrows, there are crows. Now Iran, the same doves, same... Why they are not called "Iranian sparrow"? Why they are called only sparrow?

Ambassador: (chuckles) It's only people.

Prabhupāda: So simply we have designated, "Iranian," "Indian," and "Canadian," "German," this, that. So we have to give up this designation. Then there will be unity. Otherwise not. But they are very much proud of this designation. Therefore bhakti means sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ (CC Madhya 19.170), when one is completely free from designation. The designation is material. It has nothing to do with spiritual life. And the whole world is being ruled by designation. "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am this," "I am that," "I am that." Ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8), this is.

Ambassador: There is a hierarchy of consciousness, of course. But it's not...

Prabhupāda: So that consciousness should be without designation. If I try to develop my consciousness with designation, it will not be effective. It will not be effective at least in the matter of advancing spiritual consciousness. That we have to give up. Now in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we have got men from all parts of the world, but they are not thinking in terms of their original national designation. They are not thinking. They do not think that they are American or they are Indian or Canadian or African or Hindu, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vai..., nothing of the sort.

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

Prabhupāda: Project will be decided by the GBC.

Jayatīrtha: Say, the Gurukula, for example...

Prabhupāda: Now I have elected this committee in Europe because the German trouble is going on. When the German trouble is over, there is no need of committee. It is only for this particular purpose because there we have to defend court, we have to see... So two, three heads, not one head. One head may be puzzled. Committee means for special purposes. Otherwise, the standing committee, GBC, is already there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just as a question...

Prabhupāda: Just like I appointed the committee to investigate...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bali Mardana.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that committee is not standing. Yet similarly, a committee may be formed for some special circumstances, but otherwise the GBC committee is sufficient.

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

Jayatīrtha: The main point about that is that the GBC, we all meet together once a year...

Prabhupāda: Yes. And form all, what is to be discussed, what you are going to do, future. Just like you can discuss the German affairs, and find out how to defend ourselves. Of course, it is in the hands of the lawyer. Still, we can suggest...

Jayatīrtha: Take, for another example, there's the ISKCON Food Relief Program. Now, last year we discussed this, but no one was given any specific responsibility for it, and nothing really has been... Some money has been collected, but nothing major has been done. My idea would be that if there were a committee, say, of two, three men formed who would conjointly discuss and work on these projects, such as this ISKCON Food Relief, then more would get done.

Haṁsadūta: No, I think it's entirely an individual...

Prabhupāda: I think this Oath of Allegiance should be signed by the presidents also.

Jayatīrtha: That's nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Also.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not only the GBC, but the president.

Morning Walk -- April 6, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Anything nonsense you do, that is scientific, artist.

Pañcadraviḍa: Now the scientists have another plan for changing all the plastic to eatable foodstuffs.

Prabhupāda: No.

Pañcadraviḍa: There's something they put on the plastic so you can now eat it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like the Germans, they extracted fat from stool. And that was used as butter. This is scientific. They'll have to eat stool even. They have eaten. In the last war, concentration camp, they have eaten their own stool. There was no food. So nature will punish them in that way. They'll eat everything. This godless civilization will lead people to such condition of life. Kadharya bhakṣaṇa kare, tara janma adho pate yaya. This life they will eat everything, all nonsense thing, and next life they become pig, cats, dogs. That's all. This will be.

Nalinī-kānta: The scientists are saying that milk is the major cause for heart attack. Milk is a very harmful food. It causes heart attack.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Milk is the miracle food, and they are condemning by a scientific process.

Room Conversation with Kim Cornish -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: ...psychology, metaphysics.

Kim: Yes.

Amogha: He was telling me that the paper he's writing for his master's degree is comparing a German philosopher with Buddhist philosophy.

Kim: Which, as far as I can gather, the self/no-self thing, Buddhism was denying that you're the ātman, I think. Could you perhaps say something about that?

Amogha: He's asking about the conception of denial of the self.

Kim: Of the ātman, yes.

Amogha: Ātman. The finishing of ātman.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. So how can you deny ātman?

Kim: In Hindu philosophy, what is the nature of the ātman?

Prabhupāda: Nature of ātman is eternal. Eternity, knowledge and blissfulness. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt: (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12) ātmā is joy, ānanda, blissful.

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Siddha-svarūpa: The Japanese didn't have any atom bombs to send back, though.

Prabhupāda: No. It was in possession of Hitler. And your American stolen and kept it. Hitler wanted to use it, but, good sense, he did not like. He said that "I can do it immediately, but I will not do it." So three bombs they kept ready, and when Germany was in awkward condition these Americans, they stolen, and they used it in Japan. This was manufactured by the German.

Bali-mardana: Most of the American scientific knowledge for going to space, etc., is all gotten from the Germans.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bali-mardana: They stole the German scientists. And the Russians also, after the war, they took many German scientists.

Prabhupāda: I think the aeroplane was made by the Germans first.

Bali-mardana: Yes, the jet airplane, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they took it, the idea, from Sanskrit literature. Yes. They purchased the book from Benares.

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they took it, the idea, from Sanskrit literature. Yes. They purchased the book from Benares.

Devotee: In India we have, and Hawaii, the firecrackers going up, the idea was from there.

Harikeśa: The Germans also had the idea that this universe is encaged in some hard layers. And they were trying to bounce waves off of the edge of the universe.

Prabhupāda: No, the Germans, they very much praised Indian culture. That my godbrother Soulier, when he came to India he said that "When Indian students come to our country, first of all we inquire how much he has got asset of his own culture. If we find that he has got some knowledge in his own culture, then we receive. Otherwise we reject." As soon as they found that somebody is made of London culture, then immediately they reject. There are many Sanskrit scholars in Germany.

Harikeśa: All of the good dictionaries are from Germany.

Prabhupāda: No, Max Mueller was German.

Harikeśa: A lot of the devotees have been wondering about book production if there is some war.

Prabhupāda: War? The war will be for a few days only.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dr. Gerson: I think here in America that people probably criticize because they're ignorant, and I hope to...

Prabhupāda: That "American" that I have discussed. Those who are in the bodily concept of life, they are not even human being. They are animals. Yasyātmā-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). One who takes this body, "I am, I am American, I am German, I am Englishman, I am Indian," they are animals. They are not even human being. When you deny, that "I am not American, I am not Indian, not Englishman. I am not this body," then he is in the spiritual body. That's all. And so long he will identify that "I am this body, and because my body is American, therefore I am American," that is animal life. That is not even human life. So that is going on all over the world, identifying the body as self. "I am American, I am German, I am Englishman, I am Indian." The whole United Nation is based on this conception. So where is the unity? If you are thinking as "American" or "Indian" or "Pakistani" or "German," so where is the question of unity? But they have manufactured a false method, United Nations, by lecturing. Just like if you bring a dozen of dogs and ask them, "Live peacefully," will they live peacefully? They will bark, "Ow! Ow! Ow!" So this is going on. If you keep them as they are, dogs, how you can expect unity? So they should not remain as dogs. They should come to become human beings, then there is question of... But they want to keep them as dogs, and at the same time, they want to unite. Therefore it is unsuccessful. Is it not? Is it not unsuccessful?

Dr. Gerson: I couldn't hear.

Morning Walk -- June 27, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: ...one man?

Devotee (1): They only take one master usually.

Brahmānanda: It's a German dog.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Don't care for other?

Devotee (1): No. They train them that way.

Brahmānanda: What are those, deer?

Satsvarūpa: This is a zoo.

Kuruśreṣṭha: Those are elk. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...your American Congress Library they placed a standing order, eighteen books, whatever I published each book. So I have tried so many, what is called, GBC. They are not very expert to organize in India. So if you think you can do it... Now we have got sufficient place in Bombay. So if you take charge of this distribution of books not only in India but neighboring countries just like Hong Kong, Singapore, if you think you can do that, that will be nice. You have got experience, how to distribute books. So you think over. Now we have got very nice place in Bombay. We have got place for at least fifty men very comfortably. Is it not?

Brahmānanda: Oh, yes. And there's godowns and (indistinct) space, everything.

Prabhupāda: Everything, we have got enough facility. We are not going to rent anyone, anyway, any room. We shall utilize it for our purpose only, receiving guest, organizing this book sale. That is my idea.

Morning Walk -- July 1, 1975, Denver:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gandhi. I mean, she always turns towards the Muslims more.

Prabhupāda: No, no, she has guru. And she is going occasionally to Anandamayi.

Brahmānanda: Yeah, that guru has spoken highly of our movement. In Germany there was an interview of him in one German magazine, and he was asked about all different types of groups. And most of the groups he criticized, but our group he gave his recommendation, the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

Prabhupāda: What did he say?

Brahmānanda: I don't remember exactly, but he stressed the importance of the chanting of the mahā-mantra. He said "It is an important means for God realization, and by doing this, one can achieve love of God, and they are spreading this all over the world."

Prabhupāda: So what do you think? Shall I write? Hm? I have made a draft of letter this night. So you come and see. Let us take a chance. We want actually good for everyone. And this is the only medicine, Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. For any problem. Para-duḥkha-duḥkhī. People are suffering. If her guru has opined like that, then she may take some attention. Then it appears that guru is to some extent nice.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: She gave interview to our men.

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Then why he has become man? Why not animal? Therefore the śāstra says, "One who is engaged in these animal activities, he is animal. He is not man." Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma idya-dhīḥ (SB 10.84.13). Actually, man is doing like that. In the jungle the similar animals, they flock together. This nationalism is like that. It is nothing better than that. So our defending, that "We are Americans," "We are Indians," "We are Germans"—the same thing. Because they are animals, they have this United Nations. The animals will fight, so they are trying to compromise, "Let us live peacefully." That is not possible because they are animals, all failure. (break)

Paramahaṁsa: Under the threat of nuclear warfare wouldn't Kṛṣṇa consciousness be more easy to spread?

Prabhupāda: No, threat is already there. But they are so fool that they are not afraid of the threat. Threat is already there. Everyone will die. That is the problem. So who is caring for this? They are avoiding this. They cannot take any anti measures.

Morning Walk -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: No. (break)

Devotee (1): ...seaweed they eat. It grows out further. This isn't edible, they say.

Prabhupāda: Everything is edible but meant for different living entities. Stool is also edible, meant for the hogs. In the last war, stool was also eaten by human beings, you know that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, the Germans. (break)

Devotee (1): ...take the deities on a walk down this way, up to the park and put them underneath this gazebo there.

Prabhupāda: Park, that is a park?

Devotee (1): Yes, it's a park up there. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...anantaya kalpa (?). Ananta. (break) ...different language. (pause) What means go away? (break) ...means you haven't got master. (end)

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1975, Paris:

Brahmānanda: To your feet or to your boot.

Prabhupāda: Yes, provided there is boot. Yes. Therefore there is a Vedic injunction, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet: (MU 1.2.12) "Because you are fool, rascal, you must approach a guru." That is the way. Sa gurum eva, eva, "certainly," abhigacchet, "must go." Otherwise there is no possibility. You remain as foolish forever and suffer.

Yogeśvara: There is one German historian named Frederick Engels.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he is another foolish. (laughter) I can...

Yogeśvara: He wrote against Vedic culture by saying that even the brāhmaṇas of Vedic culture were not responsible because the culture failed. It ended at a certain period in history. It was simply exploitation of the workers under the guise of religion. That was his argument.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: That was not the fault of the

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

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

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

Yogeśvara: Haribol.

Morning Walk -- October 3, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: At one time all of Africa was controlled by the European nations. Completely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mainly these French and...

Brahmānanda: French, British, Germans, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In South Africa, the British also tried to take over South Africa. There was a war called the Boer War.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So during World War I and World War II many of the South Africans, they actually sided with the Germans because they were against the English so much.

Prabhupāda: African means black Africans. No?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No. South Africans, they were Europeans. The British started the first concentration camp. They took these "Afrikaners" as they call them, Europeans. They put them on an island called St. Helena. That was actually the first concentration camp, by the British.

Prabhupāda: This is going on. Still, even the opposite party, they are not disgusted—"This material life is not very peaceful." They are not disgusted.

Room Conversation with the Rector, Professor Olivier and Professors of the University of Durban, Westville -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Professor: I include the transmigration of souls and I include everything else, religion and the lot. But when I speak about science in the English language sense, science in this sense, then I have a problem.

Prof. Olivier: Even the German word wissenschaft that we normally use, which covers, as you say, everything—this is not translatable. The word science is...

Prabhupāda: But in Sanskrit there are two words, jñāna and vijñāna. Jñāna means theoretical knowledge, and vijñāna means practical knowledge. So vijñāna is taken as science. Just like you... Theoretically you know that two hydrogen-oxygen mixed together becomes water. And when you do it practically in the laboratory, that is science, vijñāna. So jñāna-vijñāna-sahitam. In the Bhāgavata it is said, jñānaṁ me paramaṁ guhyaṁ yad-vijñāna-samanvitaḥ. Knowledge of God should be practical application in life. That is vijñānam. And according to our philosophy, unless one has got perfect knowledge of his self-identification, he remains an animal.

Prof. Olivier: He is what?

Prabhupāda: He remains an animal. Just like a dog is thinking, "I am dog." So similarly, if I think, "I am Hindu," then what is the difference? Or if I am thinking, "I am this or that," with the bodily conception of life... Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). If one is thinking in terms of bodily conception—"I am this body"—and based on this foundation, sva-dhī kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ, our family, society, national, so many things we are building up on this bodily conception of life... So,

yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ
yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
(SB 10.84.13)

Such person is no better than the cow and the asses because he is giving his identification with this body, which he is not. And Vedic realization is ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am not this body; I am spirit soul."

Room Conversation with Bill Faill (reporter) -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Faill: It's just another way of looking out.

Prabhupāda: No. That means it is simply talking. It has no realization. Unless you understand that you are not this body—you are spirit soul—there is no question of inward. That we have to study first of all, whether I am this body, or I am something within this body. That is inward. But that they do not understand. There is no education in the school, college or university. Everyone is thinking "I am this body." You see? Just like in this country, everywhere: "We are South African. They are Indian. They are this. They are this. They are this." So whole bodily concept, the whole world... "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am German." So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means it starts when one is above the bodily conception of life. Then the starting begins.

Faill: So the recognition of the spark comes first.

Prabhupāda: Ha. Recognition of the spirit soul within this body, that is first education. Unless one understands this simple fact, there is no question of spiritual advancement.

Morning Walk -- October 19, 1975, Johannesburg:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But I think people would... Most people would go crazy if they didn't have any work.

Prabhupāda: No, that means their life is not properly conducted. And therefore the word laziness has come. Laziness is not actually the word. Laziness means minimizing the bodily labor and engaged in spiritual work. If you ask people, "Please come to our temple," who is coming? Because he says, "I have no time." But we are not working hard. So real aim of life is to... In German, I think, or somewhere there is classification: "Lazy intelligent, busy intelligent, lazy fool, and busy fool." So at the present moment (laughs) the whole world is full of busy fools. But the first-class man, he is lazy intelligent. Lazy and intelligent, that is first-class man. And second-class man, busy intelligent. And third class means lazy fool and fourth class means busy fool. When the fools are busy... Just like nowadays they are busy but they are fools. Like monkey, he is very busy. You see? And they prefer to be generation of monkey, busy fool. That's all. Fools, when he is busy, he is simply creating havoc. That's all. Better... Lazy fool is better than him because he will not create so much harm, but this busy fool will simply create harm. And first class-man is lazy intelligent. He knows the value of life, and soberly he is thinking. Just like all our great saintly persons. They were living in the forest, meditation, tapasya, and writing books. All, you will find, lazy intelligent. They are first-class men.

Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Waking tablets and so on, so on. Tranquilization tablet.

Brahmānanda: They had one tablet for pregnant mothers, and that tablet was used very much in Europe, and that tablet proved to be very harmful to the children that were born. They created terrible deformities amongst many, many children. So there was a tremendous lawsuit against the company. I think it was a German company.

Prabhupāda: What for the tablet was used?

Brahmānanda: Some vitamin for the pregnant mothers.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Thalidomide, yes?

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The babies they came out with no arms. Just hands like this coming from their shoulder. Flippers.

Prabhupāda: Just see. This is their cheating. (break) ...everything had been experimented, and they were defeated; still, "science." This is their foolishness. (break) ...telling me that fifty thousand people died by motor accident?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I was telling you that. In America they used to have...

Prabhupāda: One city is finished.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm, yes. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharai saṁstuta puruṣa paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19).

Dr. Patel: How they smuggled away the secret of atom smashing from America, these Russians?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dr. Patel: They smuggled away the secret of atom bomb from America.

Prabhupāda: The Germans.

Dr. Patel: No, the Russians smuggled away. Germans came to America, taking that...

Prabhupāda: They understood from the Germans.

Dr. Patel: Yes, sir, but it is said that the German scientist ran away to America because they were afraid of Hitler. If Hitler gets the secret of atom, he would bomb out the whole world.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Hitler knew it.

Dr. Patel: No. They were not able to be successful to...

Prabhupāda: No, no. He knew it, everything, but he did not like to do it. He said. He said. He was gentleman. But these people are not gentlemen. He knew it perfectly well. He said that "I can smash the whole world, but I do not use that weapon." The Germans already discovered. But out of humanity they did not use it. And all the, your American, other countries, they have stolen from German ideas.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: I think, sir, German scientists ran away during the wartime to America.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Some of them went to Russia, some of them-(aside) Hare Kṛṣṇa—to America.

Brahmānanda: The German scientists, they went to America. But the plans for these things were left in Germany and the Russians came. The Russians got the plans, the Americans got the scientists.

Dr. Patel: I see. So the Russians, I mean, scientists produced from the plan the bomb.

Brahmānanda: That's why the Americans got it first, because they had the scientists.

Dr. Patel: But that man was caught from America giving away secret to the Russians. He was electrocuted, no? The science does not belong to a single race or a nation.

Prabhupāda: No, more scientists were there in Germany.

Dr. Patel: They say Germany could produce more scientists because they had all our, our Vedas and all our secret ancient books with them, the Sanskrit. They had read them.

Prabhupāda: That is also fact.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Indian man (2): This is fact?

Dr. Patel: Yes, it's a fact. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (break) ...ago, there was one Mr. Badhuri in Benares. He was a great astrologer. So he told me that from Benares the Germans have taken three books: one is Akāśa-patola, one is Kapota-vahi and his Khapoda-vahi. Khapoda-vahi, this airplane. Kha means akasa. And there is another science, kapota-vahi, to carry man by the pigeons. That is not yet displayed. Kapota-vahi. And there is another, Akasa-patola. Any, any, even your chairs you sit down; by mantra it will go on.

Dr. Patel: We have in Mahābhārata, that, I mean, Bhima threw away those elephants and rowing in the sky. And when Parīkṣit thought "How could it be?" then that elephants came down in the story. That means they were rowing about just like sputniks of today, perhaps. I don't know how they might have...

Prabhupāda: No, three books they have taken. They paid some eight lakhs of rupees. That Mr. Badhuri told me. (aside) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Dr. Patel: That means this civilization must have felt the pangs of the modern sciences and then they must have lost it. No?

Prabhupāda: Not lost. It is there. You don't take it. That's it. What is there? One who can read... Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Good boy.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Why? Nobody taught them. You are chanting. How you are chanting? Nobody taught them. That is the difficulty.

Jayapataka: Why the Germans are good Sanskrit scholars? Why?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because they had very good tendency for learning Sanskrit to know so many things. That was their research. They knew it that in Sanskrit language there are so many wonderful things.

Dr. Patel: Now, sir, they say that in American universities also, many universities have started teaching Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In every school, every college, every university, there is Sanskrit. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (break)

Dr. Patel: ...was the real man who, when he started studying Vedas, he realized that in Sanskrit language there is a huge literature of great importance. He spread the things in Germany. No, he was staying in England.

Prabhupāda: By international scholars' meeting these diacritic marks were discovered for studying Sanskrit. The diacritic marks which we use, that is international agreement of Sanskrit scholars.

Morning Walk -- November 24, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.

Indian man: (Hindi) (dogs barking) (break)

Dr. Patel: ...dog and the other. That is the bulldog and the Russian...

Prabhupāda: Who is defeated? He is Russian dog?

Brahmānanda: German.

Dr. Patel: They have crossed the dog with the, what you call, the bull.

Brahmānanda: German shepherd.

Dr. Patel: So Germany is defeated, no?

Prabhupāda: The bulldogs are English?

Dr. Patel: They are English. And Mr. Churchill is the representative of all the bulldogs. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...thinking, "I am English dog," (laughter) and he is thinking, "I am..." And the man is also thinking like that. What is the difference?

Dr. Patel: Both are animals.

Prabhupāda: Yasyātmā buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13).

Dr. Patel: That's right. We have got a dvija, dvija-karma kriya. Dvijā-karma-kriya? What do you call it?

Prabhupāda: Saṁskāra.

Morning Walk -- November 26, 1975, New Delhi:

Devotee (4): They're all trying to learn Russian here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for when the Russians come and take over their country. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...the talk amongst the high-court judges. So when there was fierce fighting was going on between the Germans and the Allies, so during their relaxed hours, the judges were sitting. So one, the Chief Justice of Calcutta, he asked one Justice Mukherjee. So Justice Mukherjee was very... He was vice-chancellor. So he asked him, "Mr. Mukherjee, now the Germans are coming. What you will do when they come?" He said, "Yes, as soon as they come, we shall: 'Come on sir, come on sir, come on sir.' We shall receive them." "Why?" "Now, you have taught us like that. You British people, you have taught us. (laughter) Our business is to receive. Anyone comes, we shall receive him. That's all."

Devotee (4): And they will do the same with the Russians.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Harikeśa: It seems like they are preparing now by eating lots of meat and drinking a lot of alcohol.

Prabhupāda: They cannot prepare us. That is the difference. Even they are preparing, but they cannot prepare us. That is the difference between fools and man with knowledge. (break) ...was existing? No. New temple.

Morning Walk -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Anything change means it is the domain of rascals, pandemonium. Just like in Manu-saṁhitā it is said that, nāsyāṁ svatantratām arhati, women should not be given independence. Once said, that is fact. If you want to change, you suffer. That's all.

Hari-śauri: Any deviation from absolute law means immediately suffering.

Prabhupāda: Bas, immediately you have to suffer. (reads sign on building) DTS, what is this?

Haṁsadūta: German Democratic Republic. German diplomat.

Prabhupāda: German Embassy?

Tejas: This is going to be the Punjab Bhavan. For the Punjab state government.

Harikeśa: You're painting a pretty bleak picture.

Prabhupāda: Paint picture?

Harikeśa: The one you're painting of society, and the future.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 9, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, yes, very, very careful.

Jayapatāka: Watching the dangers.

Prabhupāda: We have got good reputation all over the world. The German rascals, they wanted to minimize our value, but he failed, that police officer.

Haṁsadūta: If the government sanctions for acquiring this land, then we won't have any trouble in Hyderabad getting that land either.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: Have to give it.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...take it rightly. Then we'll lay down the foundation. Something, anything.

Madhudviṣa: The subjects that we're going to be discussing today in the GBC meeting is about the role of sannyāsī and brahmacārī and gṛhastha in ISKCON. And in the Eighteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, in one of your purports, you say that a sannyāsī should never discourage a young man from becoming, from getting married. But on the other hand, we have understood that a sannyāsī should encourage young men to remain brahmacārī. So it seems to me like there's some kind of a...

Prabhupāda: According to time, circumstances. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, niyataṁ kuru karma tvam: "Always be engaged in your prescribed work." And, at last, He says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Now we have to adjust. That is not contradiction. That is suitable to the time and circumstance. Karma is also recommended in the Vedas. Karma-kāṇḍa. There are three divisions: karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kaṇḍa and upāsanā-kāṇḍa. Trayi. Therefore Veda is known as, what is called, trio. The trio word has come from "trayi."

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Ekaś candras tamo hanti. Stars, they cannot do anything; they simply glitter, that's all. Glow-worms.

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, one boy joined our temple here, he was attending a very well known college and straight A's in physics, a scientist. So his parents were a little concerned. His father is a very big professor at California Institute of Technology, the biggest technical school in America. His mother is a professor of anthropology, and she is in the family of millionaires from Germany, German industrialists, so they were very concerned. So they came to visit their boy at our temple, and now the mother is coming regularly, giving nice donations and sometimes spending the weekend.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Dānavīr: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So give him nice. He's living with us?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He was given one room? No?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dānavīr, was he given a room?

Dānavīr: We have him a place to study every day.

Trivikrama: He also has a Ph.D., from Heidelberg University in philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Therefore, I say that take care of him, he's a good.

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

Prabhupāda: So instead of becoming devotee, he wants to become God. And that is the problem. But it is the most confidential part of knowledge. Instead of carrying out the orders of God, he wants to order God. You see? Even in the lower stages of devotion, that mentality continues, that "God is order-supplier. If God carries my order, then I accept God. Otherwise I reject Him." In Germany... One of my German Godbrothers, he told me in 1935 that in the last world war, many people became atheists. They went to the church and prayed, especially women, "My husband may come back," "My brother may come back," or "My father may come back." Because all men went to the war field, and the women were there, they prayed in the churches. But nobody came back, and they became atheists. That means they took God as order-supplier. They ordered God, "Return my father. Return my brother. Return my husband," and God did not return. "Ah, there is no God. I don't care." This is going on. God is order-supplier. But our philosophy is God is not order-supplier; we are order-carriers of God. Anukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśilanaṁ bhaktir uttamā (CC Madhya 19.167). Just like Arjuna became. He became carrier of order of Kṛṣṇa. He did not like to fight, to kill the family members, but when he understood that Kṛṣṇa wants it, then he..., "Yes." Kariṣye vacanaṁ tava (BG 18.73). Find out this verse, naṣṭo mohaḥ smṛtir labhdā tvat-prasādān madhusūdanaḥ.

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

Prabhupāda: Where she is, English? English woman?

Dr. Wolfe: She is American, German-American.

Prabhupāda: Oh, she is here in America.

Dr. Wolfe: Yes, she lives here. She has worked in a clinic for many years, and exclusively with dying people.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that.... One has to come to this conclusion undoubtedly. And that is education. Her education is now complete, that he (she) has understood, he (she) is trying to explain scientifically that there is life after death. That is complete education. So everyone should try by his education to establish what is already said in the śāstras. That is a fact. When Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), one gets another body, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre... (BG 2.20). Kṛṣṇa says there cannot be any mistake. So if scientist, philosopher, establishes the statement of Kṛṣṇa by their scientific knowledge, that is real perfect scientific knowledge. And if he wants to defy the statement of Kṛṣṇa, that is māyā. That is not possible. But he's vainlessly trying to do that. But if one by scientific knowledge establishes what Kṛṣṇa says, that is perfection.

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

Prabhupāda: French.

Hṛdayānanda: Mostly English.

Prabhupāda: The Germans were not for colonization.

Dr. Wolfe: They were before World War I. They lost their colonies at the end of World War I. They lost Cameroon and Togo and East Africa. That is where Nairobi is now; Nairobi was German before.

Hṛdayānanda: Not so many colonies like the others.

Dr. Wolfe: Hm, they had quite a few, quite a few.

Prabhupāda: The Englishmen they have lost their colonies, all.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. Even now England they can no longer control.

Prabhupāda: Hm? (laughs)

Hṛdayānanda: They can no longer control England. They are having fights between the labor and management. They cannot control it.

Prabhupāda: Why? What is the difficulty?

Hari-śauri: Communists.

Hṛdayānanda: No, between the laborers and the management. They are having great, always strikes, and the British industry is becoming crippled.

Prabhupāda: And there is another problem, Irish problem. The Irish men, they are dropping bombs in London, in daytime. Creating always disturbance.

Magazine Interview -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: I've shown him the books already. The universities and the scholars are also very appreciative. At least ninety percent of the universities in America have already ordered these books.

Prabhupāda: In India, also.

Guest: They are sold throughout the world.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, and they're published in many different languages. French, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Indian languages. Spanish, very big.

Prabhupāda: Get this light.

Interviewer: Where did you get these paintings?

Prabhupāda: Paintings? Our students did.

Rāmeśvara: Our art studios are here in Los Angeles.

Interviewer: What happens when that inevitable time comes when a successor is needed?

Rāmeśvara: He is asking about the future, who will guide the movement in the future.

Prabhupāda: They will guide. I am training them.

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

Prabhupāda: No, why harder? You can make softer. Metal...

Kīrtanānanda: Gold is softer still. It will be much more brilliant in brass than bronze.

Bharadvāja: Generally...

Prabhupāda: Brass, just like our Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities in Māyāpur, how dazzling. Here also, in Boston.

Bharadvāja: I think Kṛṣṇa is German silver.

Prabhupāda: No. Maybe.

Bharadvāja: Not so much brass casting going on in this country, mostly bronze casting.

Prabhupāda: Bronze, but it will not be polished. We want polished.

Bharadvāja: I have to investigate it.

Prabhupāda: Bright face.

Hari-śauri: There's a boy that was in New York who cast some brass Gaura-Nitāi Deities in Australia. They came out very nice. You could talk to him. He might give you some good information. His name is Bhāskara.

Prabhupāda: Brass is best, next to gold or silver.

Room Conversation with Ambarisa and Catholic Priest -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Therefore we are presenting these books, that we are not a so-called sect of whimsical faith. It is based on science and authorities. Recently we have got report that our books have been taken in Hamburg University. You know Hamburg University?

Stansky: Yes.

Prabhupāda: As their textbook for Sanskrit class. They found it so wonderful. Because for Sanskrit scholar it is good opportunity to learn Sanskrit, because each word we have given in English and German synonyms.

Stansky: I want very much to learn basic Sanskrit, but I have so much to learn right now that ah,...

Prabhupāda: No, it is not necessary, but those who are interested in studying Sanskrit literature, for them it is very good help. And at the same time they get sublime knowledge. They study Sanskrit and get knowledge. So you have kindly come to join us. You study our philosophy very minutely and then try to do something for the suffering humanity.

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Indian?

Devotee (1): Yes. No, he is not Indian, he was German.

Prabhupāda: German. Yes.

Devotee (1): His grandfather was German, he was raised in Germany.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we had two German Godbrothers. One is that Sadānanda. Another was Bon something.

Hari-śauri: He was initiated?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Devotee (1): ...family they live in Houston, they're a big construction company, and they do all kinds of construction work for the government.

Prabhupāda: I think his grandfather was also architect.... That gentleman was Jew.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Hari-śauri: No, someone with a little intelligence, he's not befooled by...

Prabhupāda: No. During British period, high British officers, big, big managers, they liked Indians with original culture. They did not like any Indian with European imitation-pants, coats. They didn't like these imitations. My Godbrother, that German, Sadānanda.... You have heard his name or you have seen him?

Jagadīśa: No.

Prabhupāda: When he came to India, he was my intimate friend. So he was telling me that "In our country, when some Indian student comes, especially while returning home after their education, they stop for some time in Germany, we used to inquire from him how much he is aware of his Indian original culture." Because they have got very good respect. All over the world they have got. Even Russia. They have got good respect for Indian culture. They have liked our books only on account of the..., because the Sanskrit verses are there. They took it, "Oh, it is original." Scholarly people like our book on that account, because we explain original Sanskrit verse. That they have got very good regard, that there is knowledge. They're impressed. And Britishers made propaganda only that India had no culture, almost uncivilized: They push women forcibly in the fire after the death of her husband, and in the temple, the priests, they make all nonsense with women, and so on. This was their.... Just to prove that "India was uncivilized, and we are making them civilized. By our compassion for the uncivilized persons, we are occupying."

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: But actually, the war was between Germany and England. Others joined, some interest or something. Actually, the war was to be fought between England and Germany.

Jagadīśa: There's one devotee who joined in Toronto, Frenchman, and he was in France at the time of the war. He's an older man. And he told me also.... His father was French, but he was sympathetic to the Nazis, and that it was actually Maxmillian or one of the Frenchmen who sided with the British, but the majority of the French people didn't mind the German occupation. It was due to one of the political factions siding with the British that there was a French underground and...

Prabhupāda: France, they are always enemy of Englishmen. There is is old history-Hundred Years' War, Seven Years' War. Napoleon also wanted to cut down the Britishers. France is dead enemy of England, and there is always competition.

Hari-śauri: Even just with De Gaulle also.

Prabhupāda: France is not friendly to India, uh, England.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Hari-śauri: England has always been inimical with the rest of Europe. With Germany, France, Spain, everyone.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because they thought, "This is a third-class nation, a small island, fishermen, and they have wealthy (indistinct)?" That is natural. Whole world. In our childhood, we used to see map, almost whole world red-red means British. (laughter) They said that there was no sunset in the British Empire.

Jagadīśa: This Frenchman also says that he...

Prabhupāda: German people still hate England. They do not like to speak in English; that I have seen. In the bank they know English, but they won't speak it. English everyone knows. The Kaiser was against. They said that Kaiser is the grandson of Queen Victoria, from daughter's side. And King George from the son's side—Edward's seventh son. They were cousin brothers. So this Kaiser, when he was young boy, went to paternal uncle's house, when he was a young boy. So there was some playing, cut with a knife. So royal family, so many doctors came. So the boy was saying, "Why you are trying to cure it? Let the English blood go away." So from the childhood he was so inimical, that "I have got some English blood in my body, my mother is English, father German, so let the English blood go away." I do not know if that is fact, I heard it. (laughs) Maybe. It is joking also and serious. In our childhood in school, a book was there, "England's Work in India." One Mr. M. Ghosh, he wrote this book just to flatter the Englishmen. This, that "white man's burden." And it was the impression in those days: just to become like Englishmen, that is civilization. The Parsees in Bombay, they were the first-class flatterer, imitation, how to become like English lords, barons. This Tata factory was started by such ambition. They wanted to be English baron, lord, industrialist. In Calcutta also. Where our temple is, that is called saheb quarter. In our childhood we used to say saheb quarter. Saheb quarter means European neighborhood. They say our temple is saheb mandira in Māyāpur. And in Vṛndāvana aṇgrejī mandira. The same impression. To become saheb, that was great prestigious. Yes.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: That was the mission of Hitler, that "These people are shopkeepers' nation, fisherman's nation. How they have become so big? This must be finished." Because their business was being hampered by the Britishers. In India we have seen. German and Japan, very cheap and first-class goods they will supply. The Britishers would not allow.

Hari-śauri: Yes, at that time, anything that was made in England automatically was considered first class.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, any rascal thing. They made a good market. And British Empire means to sell their goods. And they, for that purpose, they became rich. Money was drawn from all parts, especially from India. Everything. Later on, gradually we came to understand. In Lucknow, because I was in medical business, so I saw one Japanese salesman was selling one medicine, one or two items, potassiodide. Do you know? No. Potassium iodide. And another, iodine. He was selling at four rupees, eight annas a pound. But we were accustomed to purchase English potassiodide and iodine, thirteen rupees a pound. That Howard's.... Very famous, Howard's chemicals, like that. They were selling. So I doubted that "How so much cheap this Japanese firm can supply?" And they used to advertise that all these Japanese goods are third class. Yes, "German goods are second class. Our goods, first class." So I inquired from the salesman, "How is it that you are supplying so cheap?" "They're supplying.... The price is the real price." "Now why they charge more?" "They purchase from us and pack and sell." There are many big chemical concerns in Germany. Germans are very good manufacturers, especially of chemicals, iron, machine. Still you find, all this Uher and, what is called, Gundsag?

Hari-śauri: Grundig.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: They're all German. All first-class machine you'll find. This Mercedes motorcar, they're all German. They don't manufacture third-class thing. Everything they manufacture first class. Still, the Germans suffered so much, but when I was in Germany I saw they are very prosperous.

Hari-śauri: Now we have to get them interested in your books.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Hari-śauri: Germans.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: I don't think we have any reviews from any big German scholars yet.

Prabhupāda: But if they have ordered for their textbook, that order will be...

Hari-śauri: East Germany, yes.

Prabhupāda: Their order itself will be a testimony. If they order in their own form, "Supply this." Max Mueller was German. So long we are in this material world, this competition, animosity.... Even in the higher planetary system, there is no peaceful condition.

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: East Berlin.

Prabhupāda: They have taken some of our books for textbook.

Prof. O'Connell: There is a German gentleman, Walter Eidlitz, who wrote in German a life of Śrī Caitanya some years ago. Did he ever meet you, by any chance, Walter Eidlitz?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Prof. O'Connell: He spent some time in Vṛndāvana during the Second War, became a Vaiṣṇava, devotee, I believe, and then wrote this lengthy German life of Caitanya. I don't think it's translated yet.

Prabhupāda: There is one, my Godbrothers also, you perhaps know, Sadānanda. He came to India in 1935, Gauḍīya Maṭha. And my Guru Mahārāja first initiated him with hari-nāma. Two gentlemen came: one Ernst Schulze, another Von something. But later on they left. This Schulze was my intimate friend.

Prof. O'Connell: One of your Godbrothers was in Toronto about this time last year, Swami Bhakti-hṛdaya Bon Mahārāja was passing through Toronto. Your devotees came over to the house and were very courteous to him and invited him back to the temple, and he was very pleased.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I wrote him care of your address.

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

Prabhupāda: Like New Vrindaban?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, you'll find so many places in this country named... This probably was originally a settlement of German people. (break) I don't know. It was a chemical plant.

Prabhupāda: These things are not required at all, but they have created. They are called anartha, unnecessarily diverting valuable attention of the human being to waste their time and energy and next life become a dog. That they do not know. This science is unknown to them. They'll believe, "This life finished, everything finished. That's all." (break) ...is working. That they do not know. Life is eternal, and how they are under the cycle of birth and death, nothing. Yāvad jīvet sukhaṁ jīvet.(?) Cārvāka philosophy. So long you live, live happily. But actually they are not living happily. To work in this factory is not happy. They are not happy men. But they are thinking they are happy. Just like the hog eating stool, he is happy. This is gross ignorance. Actually, therefore, there is revolt against these capitalist. There is another unhappiness. Now there is strike. So where is happiness? If there is happiness, why there is strike? Why there is so many strikes? Why there is protest? There is no happiness. But they are thinking... Whole thing is based on ignorance, māyā. Anartha upaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje. And the direct method for subduing these anarthas, unnecessary troubles-bhakti-yoga. There is no other. Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje, lokasya ajānataḥ (SB 1.7.6). People do not know it. Vidvāṁś cakre sātvata-saṁhitām. Therefore Vyāsadeva, most learned scholar, he has made this Bhāgavatam. Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣāt. (break) I was translating the Bhāgavata, Eighth Canto, Twelfth Chapter.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Fresh air? (laughter) Fresh water, also.

Hari-śauri: In Tokyo there are special machines you can get air, clean water.

Prabhupāda: Fresh, by cleaning the urine? Now they are doing that. Fresh water by cleaning urine. Fat derived from stool. Yes, German people did it. Fat extracted from stool. Scientifically. You can use it with butter very nicely on your bread. This is going on.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Some of the materialists may argue that these activities are not all that unbeneficial. For example, they have made a tractor, and in America they can produce so many grains, so much so that practically they could feed the world.

Prabhupāda: Why do they not?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Because their mentality is very abominable.

Prabhupāda: Do that. There are so many overpopulation, and you can do it in America. So much land lying vacant here.

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

Devotee: Sacrifice to Viṣṇu, to Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means to please Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa is pleased He can change destiny. Karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti bhājāṁ (Bs. 5.54). Sacrifice means to please Kṛṣṇa, yajña. Yajña means to please Kṛṣṇa. The whole, our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to please Kṛṣṇa. That is the whole program. In all other business there is no question of pleasing Kṛṣṇa. When they declare war, one nation to another, there is no question of pleasing Kṛṣṇa. They're pleasing their whims. The two, big, big wars began, it was not for pleasing Kṛṣṇa. The Germans wanted that their sense gratification is being hampered by the Britishers, "Declare war." That means it was a war of sense gratification. "The Britishers are satisfying their sense gratification; we cannot do. All right, fight." So, there was no question of pleasing Kṛṣṇa. Hm. Then?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Question number three. It is said that the greatest strength of Hinduism is its catholicity, or breadth of outlook, broadness of vision, but that this is also the greatest weakness in that there is very little common prescribed religious observances which are obligatory for all as in other religions. Is it necessary and possible to outline certain basic minimum observances for all Hindus.

Prabhupāda: So far Vedic religion is concerned, it is not for the Hindus. That is to be understood. The sanātana-dharma. It is for all living entities, all human beings. It is called sanātana-dharma. That I have already explained. The living entity is sanātana, God is sanātana, and there is sanātana-dharma. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). And where Kṛṣṇa is described sanātana in the Eleventh Chapter. Do you remember? He is described as sanātana. Sanātanam. So actually, the Vedic system is called sanātana-dharma. Not Hindu dharma. This is a wrong conception. The sanātana-dharma is meant for all living entities, not the so-called Hindus, Muslims, Christians. For everyone.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Bhagavān: The color has come out nicely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They like pictures?

Bhagavān: Oh, yes.

Jayatīrtha: The French are much different than the Germans.

Bhagavān: This on the back, this explains the end pages here, so people can see the whole picture, and the explanation is given here.

Hari-śauri: Will that be in every canto? Every book....

Bhagavān: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Read what he....

Bhagavān: This is another appreciation here. This is from a doctor in the University of Neuchatel. It's in Switzerland. He's a Swiss doctor.

Pṛthu-putra: (translating) "The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is most known under the name of Bhāgavata-Purāṇa. The Sanskrit word Purāṇa means 'ancient, old work.' It is a commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra by Vyasadeva, its author, from which we also learn about the Mahabharata. From a general way, but particularly the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Purāṇa is a true encyclopedia containing all the aspects of the life of spirit. We have to see that this great work is containing all the predictions, this, of realizing in every detail. Then it is very important to point out that the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam under its poetic form is a very actual by the subject which it's treating about. The truth is one and universal, and the tradition of this work is always valuable. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is an essential development of the Bhagavad-gītā. It's talking about the questions metaphysical, philosophical, religious, psychologic, political and social. The wonderful tradition of Swami Prabhupāda is inspired from the same principles that the one who guided him in his translation of the Bhagavad-gītā. Every Sanskrit verse is written in Latin characters and then a literary version. The commentary, which is referring always from the Veda, Upaniṣad, and other texts, is allowing the reader to make spiritual progress. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a precious work and will be revealed for a lot of people from the Western. And there is a very urgent need to spread this message throughout the world."

Jayatīrtha: Ah! It's a very good decision.

Bhagavān: Doctor of letters.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Fancy.

Harikeśa: Yes.

Hari-śauri: There's big competition now between our French and Spanish and English, between our publishing, French, Spanish and English. They are always competing. And the Germans also.

Harikeśa: I think the French are on top though.

Hari-śauri: Their French Bhagavad-gītā, the French one, when it came out, it's so much better than any other version we've had. Every time they bring a new book out, it seems to be an advancement on everything else.

Harikeśa: Yogeśvara is very...

Prabhupāda: Oh, he is very expert, very enthusiastic. His wife is...

Harikeśa: Very nice.

Hari-śauri: They included a number of photos also. In the picture sections they've headed each section with a photo. There's one of Vṛndāvana temple. They have a photo of your room in Rādhā-Dāmodara.

Prabhupāda: Oh! Where it is?

Hari-śauri: In one of the sections here.

Harikeśa: I have to go in and do some more.... (break)

Prabhupāda: Right in here.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

George Harrison: Oh, this one.

Prabhupāda: One German girl has prepared. We are introducing restaurants like this, and people are liking very much. We have got one restaurant in Hawaii, another restaurant we are organizing in Boston. That is being directly done by Alfred. You have met Alfred?

Gurudāsa: Alfred Ford, the grandson of Henry Ford.

George Harrison: No, I've never met him.

Prabhupāda: Oh. He is also a very nice boy. Of course, younger than you. He's only twenty-four years. What is your age now?

George Harrison: Thirty-three.

Prabhupāda: Thirty-three. That boy is also very nice young boy. Give Jayatīrtha? No?

George Harrison: Do you feed everybody who comes Sunday?

Prabhupāda: Sunday we have about five hundred to one thousand.

George Harrison: So they must cook for days to feed all those people.

Gurudāsa: No, day before, night before.

George Harrison: Do they bring food as well?

Gurudāsa: They bring grains or something like that.

Prabhupāda: We had a very gorgeous Ratha-yātrā ceremony in New York last Sunday.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Oh, give them this garland. (break) ...he begins with surrender. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). So anyone who voluntarily offers obeisances, immediately he becomes fifty percent advanced. Because.... Who is talking? This material world means nobody wants to surrender. Everyone wants to become master: "I am the monarch of all I survey." Everyone is planning how to become a master. Therefore the struggle for existence. Nobody wants to become a servant. You know very well in European history, Napoleon wanted to become the master of all Europe. Hitler wanted also. Similarly, there were so many leaders, sometimes Roman leaders, sometimes Greek leaders, sometimes French leaders, sometimes German leaders, English leader. The whole European history is full of fighting, war. The basic idea is that everyone wanted to become master. That is the material disease. We are now discussing Bali Mahārāja. He also wanted to become master of the whole universe. So that is the material disease. Actually, master is one, Kṛṣṇa. There cannot be two masters. There is only one master, that is Kṛṣṇa, or God. But in the material world, because we have forgotten the real master, every one of us is trying to become master. This is material disease. Not only in one life, but life after life. The cats and dogs, they also want to be master. The dog, if he finds another dog coming, he immediately begins barking very loudly, "Why you are coming here?" So this mastership competition is going on life after life, sometimes as human being, sometimes as animal, sometimes as fish, aquatic, sometimes as demigod, bird. This is the whole material situation. And the difficulty is that we cannot become master, but on account of our false ambition that "I shall become master," we are becoming servants of material nature.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

rabhupāda: What is the disease?

Woman devotee (2): He's looking after roses in his garden. Oh, um...

Prabhupāda: But your father is young man. What is his age?

Woman devotee (2): He's sixty years old.

Prabhupāda: Sixty is just like my son. Yes, twenty years difference, father and son. I am eighty, so anyone who is sixty must be like my son. Of course, my first son was born when I was twenty-four, but twenty years, there are many, father. And mother and son, twelve years, thirteen years difference, there are many. So you have come here. Very nice. Stay here. Where is your husband? Bhūgarbha is here?

Bhagavān: He's in Germany.

Prabhupāda: He has gone German?

Bhagavān: To buy some trucks for traveling.

Prabhupāda: He's good preacher. He's now distributing books very nicely. You are also good distributor books. Huh? In the beginning she was distributing nicely. So preaching is our life. The more we preach, the more we are successful. Yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's preaching.

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

Prabhupāda: The whole world is becoming CIA. (laughter) We can say, that "All right, the Americans have sent their CIA, but why the Germans business there? They are also CIA?" And where is... Soon the Russians also will join, the Polish also will join, everyone will join.

Bhagavān: Africans.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: They can't say the Russians are CIA. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No. We have got potency to force everyone to join. The Russians have already imperceptibly joined—they have praised my books. That is imperceptible, what is called?

Harikeśa: Ajñāta-sukṛti.

Prabhupāda: Ah. In East Germany also, they have placed order. So this is joining. Just like for us, if you bring any other literature, we throw it away immediately. We take it as useless. Actually it is. We have nothing to learn from them, anything. All bogus. Either he's scientist or astronomer, or..., we know they are talking all bogus things. There may be some truth. Even that truth is there when a child speaks, there is some truth. When a child speaks to his parents, there is some truth, otherwise where is the question of talking? So little portion truth is there, everywhere. But when they talk of big, big things—they are going to Mars and scratching sand there—that we don't believe. That we don't believe. When they talk of this tape recorder, some electronic machine, joining together and it is working, that much care you can take. But when you speak of so many things, that millions of years there were germs and germination, now they are trying to come out, and it is all vacant—these are all bogus, we don't accept. Talking too much. In Bengal it is called yatap(?) When the same child speaks something too much, "Ah, stop." To the extent of his capacity, that's all right. But if you talk more than that, then you are rascal.

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

Hari-śauri: Lockers.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is not possible for us. We welcome. But we must be well organized to utilize these poor souls for becoming first-class devotees. That should be done. Otherwise, sex life and the by-product, that is always troublesome, either you take this way or that way, it is troublesome. If it is not troublesome, why they are killing their own children? To avoid trouble. This is psychology. They want to avoid trouble. But our process is, if you want to avoid trouble, then don't marry, remain brahmacārī. If you cannot, then, all right, have legal wife, get children and raise them very nicely, make them Vaiṣṇavas, take the responsibility. So we are organizing this society, we welcome. Some way or other we shall arrange for shelter. But to take care of the children, to educate them, that will depend on their parents. Now our Pradyumna was complaining that in the Gurukula, his child was not educated to count one, two, three, four. So I have told him that "You educate your child. Let the mother educate in English, and you educate him in Sanskrit." Who can take care? So similarly every father, mother should take care that in future they may not be a batch of unwanted children. We can welcome hundreds and thousands of children. There is no question of economic problem. We know that. But the father, mother must take care at least. Properly trained up, they should be always engaged. That is brahmacārī gurukula. Brahmacārī guru-kule vasan dānto guror hitam (SB 7.12.1). From the very beginning they should be trained up. From the body, they should be trained up how to take bath, how to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa or some Vedic mantra, go to the temple, offer obeisances, prayer, then take their lunch... In this way, they should be always engaged. Then they'll be trained up. Simple thing. We don't want to train them as big grammarians. No. That is not wanted. That anyone, if he has got some inclination, he can do it personally. There is no harm. General training is that he must be a devotee, a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa. That should be introduced. Otherwise, the gurukula will be... Otherwise Jyotirmayī was suggesting the biology. What they'll do with biology? Don't introduce unnecessary nonsense things. Simple life. Simply to understand Kṛṣṇa. Simply let them be convinced that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is our duty to serve Him, that's all. Huh? (indistinct) What is that? māyār bośe, jāccho bhese' Khāccho hābuḍubu bhāi jīv kṛṣṇa-dās ei biśwās korle to ār duḥkho nāi. So organize. If you have got sufficient place, sufficient scope, let them be trained up very nicely. If some four, five centers like this there are in Europe, the whole face will be changed. Important places like Germany, France, England. Now we are getting place. I like that place, German, on account of this. It has got scope.

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

Bhagavān: He's a life member from Belgium.

Prabhupāda: Oh. He has come from Belgium? In the last German war, the first attempt of attack was on Belgium. And within few hours, Belgium finished, conquered.

Bhagavān: It's a very nice part of the day. It's warm, nice part of the day.

Prabhupāda: I think this part is better situated than New Vrindaban, eh? What do you think?

Hari-śauri: This is a lot nicer.

Prabhupāda: New Vrindaban is on the rocks and hills, and this is plain. Therefore situation is better. That New Orleans is also plain land. You have been there? And Pennsylvania is also.

Hari-śauri: Pennsylvania is very good.

Prabhupāda: But it doesn't matter. Our purpose will be served anywhere. So, try to concentrate in this village organization life. Full of anxieties, city life. The houses already there, if you repair them nicely then it is a very nice place. They're gradually being repaired.

Bhagavān: Yes. No one is getting any salary here, they are just working and taking...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all. Why salary? Kṛṣṇa's servant. We are eternal servant. That is the beauty of our institution. We have no hired men. Unless one is sincere, why he'll work? What is the time now?

Bhagavān: Eight-thirty.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: In America we have got the facility for selling books. Contribution there is, but our main source of income by selling books. We are selling books to the extent of sixty...?

Harikeśa: Sixty thousand dollars.

Prabhupāda: Sixty thousand dollars daily. Sixty thousand dollars daily. America and Europe. Europe we have got other language publication. Have you got the German?

Jñānagamya: We had French books, Bhagavad-gītā, Prabhupāda, it was sold. We had one German Bhagavad-gītā too.

Prabhupāda: We have published Chinese Bhagavad-gītā. Bring it. It is translated by one Chinese student. Give it to Mr....

Mrs. Patel: I can read Japanese, but not Chinese.

Prabhupāda: You know Japanese?

Mrs. Patel: I was brought up there.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh, that he has done. He promised...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Motaji. He told me to give it to him and he'd print it on his press.

Prabhupāda: Give this light. (break)

Indian man: Chinese, German, French, Italian, English...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Swedish is coming.

Prabhupāda: Dutch. Dutch.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Italian is at the printer. Italian Gītā.

Devotee: French Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: French Bhāgavatam. No, Dutch Bhāgavatam? Dutch also. No, they have printed, I have seen it.

Devotee: Spanish also.

Prabhupāda: They may read and translate. And why in India where there is Bhagavad-gītā? Apart from all other Vedic literatures, set aside, the gist of all Vedic knowledge, Bhagavad-gītā, there is. And still, people are kept into darkness. How much lamentable. Still, big, big leaders, at least, they want to preach Bhagavad-gītā—without Kṛṣṇa. They have set aside lakhs of rupees for preaching Bhagavad-gītā, but condition is if you preach without Kṛṣṇa. Just see. Bhagavad-gītā in every page it is written "śrī-bhagavān uvāca." Not even it is said "kṛṣṇaḥ uvāca." Because some rascal may take Kṛṣṇa as ordinary human being, therefore Vyāsadeva has specifically said... People know it, "kṛṣṇaḥ uvāca," but he says "śrī-bhagavān uvāca." The bhagavān word. People may not mistake that Kṛṣṇa is somebody else. And they want to banish Kṛṣṇa from Bhagavad-gītā. Even Gandhi did it. So you explain Bhagavad-gītā as it is there in Ahmedabad?

Yaśomatīnandana: Yes.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Indian man: So long as they are dogs it is not possible.

Prabhupāda: It is not possible. And so long one is in the bodily concept of life, "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am this, I am that," and all of them go to the United Nation assembly... So what is the difference when a dog thinks that "I am dog, I am this dog." And an American or Indian thinks "I am a..." Where is the difference? So as American, as Indian, as German, as Chinese, if they go there, they remain animal, and how there can be peace? That is not possible. And the peace formula is given by Kṛṣṇa. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 5.29). When one understands Kṛṣṇa is suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati. That is śāntim. So if you keep them as Americans, or Indians, or this or that, how there can be peace?

Hari-śauri: That was front page.

Indian man: (laughs) He's here to hound us. (laughs) (Hindi) (reading from paper) "His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the founder of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is here to save us from a dog's life." (laughter) "He's here to save us from a dog's life. For unless we can get some spiritual knowledge, warns His Divine Grace, we are left with a dog mentality."

Hari-śauri: This was the New York Ratha-yātrā. This was in New York Times.

Indian man: The Ratha-yātrā is held on 7th Avenue... (several talking at once)

Prabhupāda: They admitted: "This is the East and West meeting."

Room Conversation -- September 26, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Last night all visitors came, all respectable gentlemen.

Haṁsadūta: Last night four people came, they were all big businessmen. One man had been working in a big business in Germany. He spoke German perfectly well. He was an Indian man. He lives in Agra. And so many people. Because Vṛndāvana is the heart of India, every Indian comes once in his lifetime to Vṛndāvana...

Prabhupāda: Oh yes.

Haṁsadūta: ...if not more times. And everyone will come to our temple.

Prabhupāda: Due to Vṛndāvana, our temple is advertised all over India. Everyone says.

Haṁsadūta: We haven't even got to go out. We have simply to receive people nicely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...from Vṛndāvana. I was residing here after retirement. That Rādhā-Dāmodara, they are being paid monthly?

Akṣayānanda: Yes.

Garden Conversation -- October 9, 1976, Aligarh:

Indian man: They consider it a delicacy. I had a German priest staying with me last year and he was telling me that he had wonderful soup. And when he found out what was the soup, he said, "Well, didn't you see the puppy that was going about this morning? It is soup of the same puppy."

Prabhupāda: In Hong Kong. Yes. In Hong Kong you won't find street dogs. They'll eat them. So in India also there are dog-eaters. In Assam you'll find. They make kukura-piṭhā. Kukura-piṭhā means that first of all the dog is given to eat some rice preparation with gur (Indian brown sugar). And pushing, pushing. When he dies, then it is roasted. Then that is very good food. (laughter) Kukura-piṭhā. The Assamese, they eat. There are different nations. Śva-paca, this word is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. Vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini śuni caiva śva-pāke ca (BG 5.18). This śva-pāke means this caṇḍāla. One who eats a dog. Śva-pāke ca paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ. So everyone can be raised to the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no difficulty. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement. So from early in the morning He is teaching. Udilo aruṇa pūraba-bhāge dwija-maṇi gorā amani jāge. He was not lazy. He was very busy. From early in the morning. So if we at least pretend to follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we cannot sleep. We must rise early in the morning. If you want to follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu, there is no question of sleeping in the morning. One must get up at least one and a half hours before the sunrise. That is maṅgala-ārati. Maṅgala-ārati means to get up early in the morning, take your bath, and be prepared for the maṅgala-ārati. Then begin your chanting, prayer. This is activity. It is not... Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not a lazy life. It is not lazy life. All Kṛṣṇa conscious, Rāma conscious, they are very busy. To speak, even the Hanumān, Jambavān, Aṅgada, they are monkeys, still how they were busy, from the history we find, to serve Kṛṣṇa, Rāmacandra. Hare Kṛṣṇa. I was questioned by some gentleman sometimes in 1940. He charged that the Vaiṣṇava, "This Vaiṣṇava means a lazy fellow." He said like that. (laughs)

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone should join. Now people are taking this cultural movement so seriously and if our Indian leaders sleep, that is not good.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, I have... One boy in Delhi went to the British Embassy High Commission, and saw a British paper and even in the British paper the American court case was covered. Headline was "Hare Kṛṣṇa..." I have the paper. Even in the British paper it had a prominent display.

Haṁsadūta: Probably be in German papers too...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. In fact you would probably expect that...

Prabhupāda: British paper. What does it say?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They were covering this court case. They had a nice prominent...

Prabhupāda: No, no. They have taken it. Now, they are after intelligent person. They are... That has been expressed by this gentleman that it is going like epidemic. They must (indistinct). That is their feeling. That Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is spreading so fast, like epidemic, we must take some steps. That is already, they have expressed their feeling. And you said that in Australia, there one man said...

Hari-śauri: Yes, psychiatrist...

Prabhupāda: ...that if the people take to this movement, then where you stand? (about Hari-śauri:) He has also expressed. What is that?

Room Conversation on New York court case -- November 2, 1976, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Ha. So (Hindi). He will go with you, immediately. Meeting arrange (Hindi). Thank you very much. (pause) Combine together in Vṛndāvana. Fight! Without fight where is life? If there is no fighting then what is that life? That is dead stone. Fight must be there. Kṛṣṇa's whole life is fighting from the very birth. His father carried Him to Gokula where He (indistinct) and He fell down from the Yamunā and... Just born, fighting began. Just born. And at Yaśodāmayī's house, Nanda Mahārāja's house, so many demons daily coming, Śakaṭāsura, Aghāsura, Bakāsura, Pūtanā, so on, so on, so on. Ultimately Kaṁsa, when He was young boy. Vṛndāvana, so many asuras came. You have seen the pictures? Kṛṣṇa is fighting with the horse demon, with the bull, Dyutiman (?), fighting. If Kṛṣṇa is fighting, why not Kṛṣṇa consciousness the same thing. You cannot expect peaceful life. No, there must be fighting, then think "That is Kṛṣṇa's presence, His fight." So this fighting means they're feeling the presence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Otherwise why they're (indistinct) fight? Had it been an insignificant thing, there was no question of fighting. (Hindi) The gun, howitzer gun, what is that? German, some gun they will go from this part of, this side of English Channel to other. Calais, the other side Calais?

Devotees: Calais.

Prabhupāda: Calais in France. So from France to other side English Channel, London, that's all right.

Guest: Artillery guns?

Prabhupāda: Yes, they... Hitler invented. The gun will be fired from this side.

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

Prabhupāda: God is not Hindu God, Muslim God, Christian. God is God. Now, when I say, "Here is God. His name is Kṛṣṇa. His father's name is Nanda Mahārāja," now they will laugh.

Dr. Kneupper: Do you think if a person is to be a real believer in God he has to also worship Kṛṣṇa or speak of Him?

Prabhupāda: No, God means Kṛṣṇa. He has to understand it. Therefore so many books. God has many names, millions, of which Kṛṣṇa name is the most important. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. Then you have to understand the science of God. How Kṛṣṇa is God, that you have to understand. But for that reason we are publishing so many books. We have already published eighty-four books, simply in English language. And they are being translated in German, French, Portuguese, then Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Bengali, like that.

Dr. Kneupper: It's a very great effort.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And we are getting response. Our books are selling like hotcakes. (laughter) Yes.

Indian man (2): This is about Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, the person.

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

Prabhupāda: Every... There are so many books. There are so many books. The primary book is the Bhagavad-gītā, yes, as it is, if you take it as it is. If you amend it to your whimsical way, then it is gone. Therefore we are presenting. This word we have added, "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is." Don't try to amend it. Then it will be foolishness.

Dr. Kneupper: I wanted to know if Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, you'd have to read Sanskrit, wouldn't you?

Prabhupāda: No, we have this English translation. This is in French translation, in German translation.

Dr. Kneupper: How does one decide... There are so many translations. How does one decide...

Prabhupāda: That depends on your philosophy. You are reading so many books. How do you select, "This is nice." That depends on your philosophy. But if you accept it that it is spoken by God, then there is no argument. But why should you accept it, spoken by God? You read it, whether how much logical, how much full of knowledge. Then you can say. The same thing. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) "Within this body there is the soul, and because the soul is there, therefore body is changing." So anyone can... Any layman can understand. Things are there like that. So there is no difficulty. If we take, "Oh, this description, the transmigration of the soul-Hindu idea." Why Hindu idea? It is science. As soon as we consider it "Hindu," then it becomes sectarian. Then you will say, "I have got my Christian idea. Why shall I take your Hindu idea?"

Dr. Kneupper: What is your view towards Christianity?

Prabhupāda: Christianity is to some extent, but you have got different edition of Christianity. So far I know, as soon as they say, "Christian," immediately the question is, "To which Christian party you belong?" What is that?

Hari-śauri: Christians, yeah, Protestants, Methodists, Catholics...

Prabhupāda: So which is correct Christianity we do not know. But we have no such thing. There is no party. Bhagavad-gītā, there cannot be any party. If anyone makes any party, he is immediately cancelled. But at least we believe in the Ten Commandments. Now, Lord Jesus Christ said, "Thou shall not kill." But why all the Christians are simply busy in killing? That is my first question.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Hm. As far as possible, our men should cook, a professional man who is in good habit, who has promised that they will not do this smoking. We have to manage somehow.

Mahāṁśa: As far as our devotees' cooking, it's practically impossible. We have tried so hard. They just can't do it. Yesterday two of the boys tried to help, and the rice was not cooked because it was not done and he burned his leg. The water fell on his leg, and he couldn't handle the pots properly and he got... Now the poor boy, he is suffering. He's got a wounded leg, one of the German boys, the one with long hair. So our devotees, they are not... This boy, Bengali boy, Divid (?), he's good. He can do it but he needs at least four or five men to help.

Tejas: He was a professional cook but he's not... He can't do it himself. He needs too much...

Mahāṁśa: He needs at least four people to help. It's a big cooking, so it's also very difficult for one man to do and nobody wants to help the cooking because it's so hot, the smoke goes in the eyes and it's very troublesome. So nobody wants to help in the cooking, devotees.

Prabhupāda: Not willing. They are not willing.

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

Prabhupāda: Ācchā. He's your son?

Guest (6): He's my son. He has just come day before from London to...

Prabhupāda: You live in London?

Guest (6): No, he's studying. He's an executive with the German company over there via India this German firm. And she is my daughter.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Everyone be happy and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is our... A good family. (break)

Dr. Patel: So his friend is my friend. (Everyone talking at once.) Swamiji says, he gave a good comparison about the bulbs Some bulbs have forty candles, some have twenty-five, some a thousand.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Jaya. So where is our Guru Mahārāja?

Devotee: Gurudāsa Swami?

Prabhupāda: He went away?

Guest (5): So I'll see them again.

Prabhupāda: All right, thank you. (break)

Guest (5): We'll arrange for, the best that we could.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Thank you very much.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: For thirty paisa it's very good. For the price it's very good.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, it's very good in other ways, full color. We're going to sell it for a rupee, and...

Prabhupāda: Kṛpāmbudhir yas tam ahaṁ prapadye (CC Madhya 6.254). The unhappy for the unhappiness of others. They love them, unhappy without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is a fact. The rascal may agree or not agree. That's a fact. Ghostly haunted.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (break) Where is this temple? London? No.

Hari-śauri: Which one? Oh, that's the German castle. Schloss Rettershof.

Prabhupāda: Oh, France.

Hari-śauri: German.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, yes. I think it is rightly done.

Hari-śauri: For mass distribution it's very good, for mass distribution. How many copies he's...

Prabhupāda: One lakh. (end)

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Sir, I may tell you. Russians are not that intelligent. I have very poor regard for the Russian intelligence. Intelligence is not with Russians that much.

Prabhupāda: No. No, no, all Europeans, they're very intelligent.

Dr. Patel: Especially Germans.

Prabhupāda: They're very intelligent. Germans are extraordinarily...

Indian man: The Aryan races are intelligent, and in Russia there is a mixture...

Prabhupāda: They are Aryans. They are Aryans.

Dr. Patel: Mixture, Aryan as well as the yellow race.

Prabhupāda: Mixture everywhere now.

Dr. Patel: No, here... I mean, so far as the Eastern European countries, they are more or less pure. They are mixed in a way.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, we are not on that platform, we or anyone. We think we are on the... Everyone in the material platform, more or less, they are rascals, here or there. The Bengali is guhyera epi han opi. You know this? Stool, this side or that side, Eastern side or Western side, it is, after all, stool. (laughs) If somebody says, "Eastern side of the stool is very good," that is his foolishness.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They're so afraid they cannot say the truth.

Indian Lady: Their people don't like us. (indistinct-man says something to Prabhupāda in background)

Prabhupāda: Oh, where is he? Good. Everything is bad.

Indian Lady: German people don't like us.

Prabhupāda: Why we are liked? We are poor, who will like us? Poor man is never liked, especially in the western countries. They hate. And not only there, our Canakya Paṇḍita also says, daridra-doṣa guṇarāśī nāśī, if you are poor then all your qualities are gone.

Dr. Patel: What is the disease?

Prabhupāda: So materially wherever I go, there any gentleman I meet, "Oh, you are coming from India, very poor (indistinct)." This is our (indistinct). Not now, fifty years ago in 1930's when one of my godbrothers, one or two they went to London, Lady Willingdon, she was speaking that "You people come here from India and we give you degrees and you earn your livelihood in India. So what you have come to teach us?" That's a fact. We go to England to take the degrees, MRCT, FRCA, barrister or so on, so on, so on.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I have given that picture in my Bhagavad-gītā in so many languages.

Girirāja: Here we have it in all different languages. This is Chinese.

Guest (2): That I wouldn't be able to read. (laughter)

Girirāja: We're just showing that we are placing the Bhagavad-gītā in all languages. This is German. Oh, yes, yes. You're German.

Guest (2): I'm a little bit of that.

Prabhupāda: So this starvation point, we take it as blessing. People generally question that "How God is unfavorable to somebody and favorable to...?" That is foolishness. God is good, but that we do not know. Because we are less intelligent, we think that "One man is in starvation; therefore God is not good." That is our fault. We are not good. We do not understand God. But a Vaiṣṇava says, "Oh, it is blessing." And if he takes like that, then the result is mukti-pade sa dayā-bhāk. His mukti is guaranteed. In any circumstances, if somebody takes God as good, then his mukti is guaranteed. And if he blames God—"Oh, He has put me into starvation"—then he has to suffer. This is the common argument sometimes we meet, "Oh, why God has made somebody so rich and somebody some poor? He is unjust." That is foolishness. God cannot be... He's just, always just. That is God. So unless we have got that firm conviction, then we cannot become devotee.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. They don't believe in Him. They think that "God is my servant, or order-supplier"—"God, why you have not done this. If you don't do this, I don't want You." This is our position.

Guest (2): (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means "God is my servant order-supplier." Actually... This is European mentality. One, my Godbrother, German Godbrother, that Sadananda, he told me, in the last war, when the war was going on, generally women were left. All men were in the battlefield, somebody's husband, somebody's father, somebody's son. So they went to the church. They were going church. Even Churchill also recommended "Go to the church. Pray." Duḥkha se saba hari bhaje sukha se bhaje kaya. So, but nobody returned. So all of them became atheist: "Oh, it is useless to go to church. I prayed so much for my husband coming back, but he did not come. Useless." So this is the position. "I ordered God that 'My husband has gone to the war. Let him come back unharmed.' And God did not bring him back. He did not carry my order. I don't want this God." This is going on. When the war was declared, there was no consultation with God. (laughter) Rascal. That time there was no consultation. And when the husband is going to die, he goes to God. This is our position.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: In 1971 many papers astonished how one Indian is controlling so many white men. There, our paper became surprised. They cannot control even one white man.

Dr. Patel: This type of mental, sort of makeup, has been created after the industrial revolution, because...

Prabhupāda: These German people have accused that "The old man is sitting in Los Angeles and he has engaged all these young boys and getting money from them." The German propaganda. They're thinking that way, that I have some mind control power, I engaged these young men and they're getting money and I am enjoying.

Trivikrama: Everyone judges others from their own standard.

Prabhupāda: They're surprised, the neighboring people around our temple, "How do you live so comfortably? You have got so many cars and so nice house." But they are working hard like hogs and dogs and we are getting money without doing anything. They are envious.

Trivikrama: We invite them to come and join us.

Prabhupāda: That they will not. Why there? Here also. They are envious for this Hare Kṛṣṇa, but when you call, "You come and live here," that they will avoid. They're envious of my opulence, and when I say, invite, "You come also and join," "No. I'll rot as hog. That's all. I prefer this hoggish life."

Room Conversation on 1976 Book Scores -- January 16, 1977, Calcutta:

Gargamuni: It's only English.

Rāmeśvara: This is just English.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) ...French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese. (Bengali) We want. (Bengali) Person to person... (Bengali) Huge organization. (Bengali) ...Bhaktivedanta Book Trust... (Bengali)... stock, distribution, salesmen control. (Bengali) ...Delhi paper... (Bengali) We have got substance. (Bengali) So it is very encouraging, this report. What else?

Rāmeśvara: Now the next two reports. First of all, for the month of December there's the ratings for the whole Society. So in the top ten, number one was New York, Rādhā-Dāmodara, with $170,000. (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Give him some book to read.

Gargamuni: Where's the Bhagavad-gītā?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (Indian man): I should have some basic knowledge about.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Bhagavad-gītā gives basic knowledge.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That is the proof we are gaining ground.

Hari-śauri: The two champion big-book distributors are both German boys.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. They have outdistributed everyone, even in America.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Paraṁ vijāyate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. Just see how small animal it is, and how freely it is going. Let them manufacture a small animal like this with chemicals. It has got all the symptoms of animal. It has got the desire. It has thinking, feeling, willing, then eating, sleeping, mating. Everything is there. And as such, the anatomic physiology is there, within such a full stop. Everything is there. If you check them going here, they'll protest. And wherefrom they are coming? Where they are going? Just see how small it is. You cannot see even with naked eyes, so small. But it has all life symptoms. And they say there is no soul.

Rāmeśvara: No, it is some wonderful chemical mixture that they have not discovered yet, very mysterious chemistry. It is all based on this idea of a study of genes and chromosomes, genetics. They have so many words for describing how it happens.

Prabhupāda: Jugglery, word jugglery.

Rāmeśvara: DNA, RNA.

Hari-śauri: But they still can't explain the power force that activates them. They still can't explain the actual source of power that activates those chemicals.

Prabhupāda: They cannot. It is not possible.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Not lost. It is there.

Hari-śauri: It's hidden.

Rāmeśvara: We can't practice that.

Prabhupāda: No, we can practice what is called ākāśa paṭala. This book is there in Germany. It was purchased by the Germans.

Rāmeśvara: But do you think that the Vedic sciences will be revived as our movement becomes...

Prabhupāda: No, no, our main purpose is to revive Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In favor of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, whatever is available, beneficial, we shall adopt.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's all.

Rāmeśvara: In other words, we want to reorganize all of society so that they develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's it. We do not hate anything. That is not our business. Just like we utilizing this. So it is modern, scientific gift. So we can utilize it for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We do not say... We are not so bigot—"No, no. It is material. We shall not touch it." We are not such fool.

Room Conversation with Sannyasis -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: I don't think

Rāmeśvara: No.

Satsvarūpa: He wrote a long review on the Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Indian?

Satsvarūpa: No. He's Dutch, Schocker, or German. It's a long review, all about the Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Read it. Let us hear.

Satsvarūpa: "The Bhagavad-gītā, the Song of the Exalted God, is a very ancient philosophical, didactic poem on bhakti... (break)

Prabhupāda: Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam (BG 4.2).

Rāmeśvara: It's clear that for the first time these scholars are understanding the difference between the Bhagavad-gītā and the Māyāvādī conception. It's clear that now you have saved them. Previous to this, all they knew about is this impersonal concept.

Prabhupāda: That is the business of ācārya, sampradāya-rakṣana, to save the sampradāya from falling down. Sampradāya. Sampradāya rakṣana.

Rāmeśvara: After centuries of rascaldom you are giving them the first clear choice.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That was the desire of my Guru Mahārāja. I am just trying.

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Why you say, speak India or in England? The human intelligence is the same. There is no change. They have made like this: "East," "West" and "England," and... The psychology is the same. The ass is the same. The camel is the same. The dog is the same. We are talking of these dogs. Do you think that in Europe the dog is different from Indian dog? (laughs) They have created another problem. But we take: "You are all dogs. Either you be Indian or England or German, you are, after all, after dog. Your mentality is dog." They have created that "Indian dog is better than the English dog" or "English dog is better than German." What is better? It is dog. You are doglike and hankering after some job in America and amongst Europeans. The Indians are all doing that, the same education. Recently for a post of five hundred men there were three lakhs of applications. This is education. And you'll find uneducated Indian, still he's independent. You will find in Calcutta especially we have seen. Yes. In the morning they'll purchase a bag of potato. Say, he invests twenty rupees. Nowadays he'll sit down in a corner and make two rupees' profit. He invests twenty rupees, and he gets twenty-two. He's satisfied, poor man. Then in the, say, ten to twelve he'll purchase some dāl. He'll go home to home. He'll make another two rupees' profit. In the evening he'll take some kerosene oil, and he'll sell. Evening everyone requires kerosene oil. He'll make another two rupees. So he's illiterate. He makes six rupees' profit, five rupees' profit, and if he can, ten rupees' profit. And takes some chana cho(?), some peanuts, sit down. In this way he's independently earning five to ten rupees. And educated? He's just like dog—"Give me job"—and unemployed and eating at the cost of father or welfare activities, welfare department, and moving like dog. Just see practically.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: In taxi in the beginning, I saw, "Three hund..., three thousand dollar." So (laughs)... And "Three thousand yen." So I did not know. I have got... They changed. Not dishonest. Honest or dishonest, I did not know. Whatever they took and returned, that's all. But I know they are not dishonest. They are nice people, hard worker, honest. But Japanese... This Tojo attempted that "This is the time for expanding with German help." Bad luck. They could not do. They wanted to keep China under their control. That also failed. They fought with the Russians in the beginning, when we were children, to expand-failed. This time they wanted to occupy Hawaii.

Hari-śauri: They had many, many islands. They took a lot. But gradually the Americans won them all back.

Prabhupāda: Now they are migrating. In Hawaii there are many Japanese. Many Japanese.

Hari-śauri: They're very much wanted in other countries as well. They're technicians.

Prabhupāda: So if you can educate people, they will be united. This is actually united nations movement. Actually see how these Europeans, Americans, and Africans, and others, without any artificial allurement, how we are keeping together. Nobody is dissatisfied with humble eating, humble living, humbly, plain living. So it is possible. There is possibility. We live simple life, high thinking-United Nation. We can possibly... And there will be no scarcity. If we live simple life with Kṛṣṇa conscious thinking, There will be no scarcity.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, Bhagavad-gītā says, nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ (BG 2.23). So what is there within the physical world that is not burned by fire? Where is that thing? But these rascals have no knowledge. It is clearly said indirectly. This is called negative definition: "It is not this." And because he has no brain to understand, so therefore Kṛṣṇa is explaining in the negative way that "You cannot cut by any weapon; you cannot burn it; it is never dried up." Because any physical thing, it can be cut, it can be dried up, it can be burned, it is just opposite. So many ways He has described, but the rascal will not accept. Find out what is that which is never burned. Anything you take, even big, big iron ore, they're burning. And it is clearly said, "It is not burned." Therefore they are thinking there is no living being in the sun planet. Kṛṣṇa says, imaṁ vivasvate yogam. I told... This is nonbeliever class, rascal class.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Then in 1828 this German chemist whose name is Frederick Muller, he synthesized, it is called urea. Urea is a chemical that comes out of urine. It's normally in urine from..., called inorganic compounds. So he announced that there's nothing strange about the organic world that happens in the living system. So from that time onwards they thought that life can be studied in terms of chemistry. But it is already 150 years since that theory but nothing happened. Nothing's understood.

Prabhupāda: That I have already discussed, that from orange tree you can get that acid, citric acid?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Citric acid.

Prabhupāda: But from citric acid, you cannot get orange tree. That is not possible. A living tree can produce citric acid chemical, but citric acid cannot produce a living... Therefore chemical comes from living being, not the living being comes from the chemical. This is the conclusion.

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Brahmānanda: There's also a lot of German influence there. When the Nazis left Nazi Germany they all went to Argentina.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Hṛdayānanda: Now every day they are killing so many people. It's become a very dangerous place. In the streets every day they are shooting so many people.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's Jayatīrtha.

Pañcadraviḍa: Actually, though, we are learning something. We have to work with these kind of people more and more in different countries.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So this is very fine, but there is no Bhāgavata?

Jayatīrtha: Śrīla Prabhupāda, it's only being published quarterly...

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayatīrtha: ...and we thought to publish one section every three months, people would lose the track of the thing. That's why we... The British economy is so bad that we had to give fairly inexpensive literature. So it's either a question of printing sixteen pages color and eight page Bhāgavata, or twenty-four pages color. We couldn't do twenty-four pages color and eight pages Bhāgavata. We thought that since it is quarterly...

Prabhupāda: That's all right. So you have printed one...

Jayatīrtha: One hundred thousand.

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes, there are Indians there.

Jayatīrtha: Lot of scope. They're coming to like our movement very much there now also, respecting. There's no more complaint. Before, there were some complaints.

Pañcadraviḍa: This last Sunday in New York for Śiva-rātri there were so many Indians there. There were thousands of Indians in that temple. It was very exciting just to see so many people come in.

Prabhupāda: This is a good chance of United Nation-Indian, Americans, Englishmen, German, all mixed together.

Jayatīrtha: Our Amsterdam temple has about sixty devotees, and they're from seventeen different countries, seventeen different nationalities are represented in the temple. There's nowhere else where so many different nationalities are living together.

Prabhupāda: No. This is the nucleus of United Nations, real. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1), to understand everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. That is the basic principle of United Nation. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54), samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. In that stage there can be equality. Otherwise not.

Pañcadraviḍa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, the text on the back of this magazine here, the back advertisement for the Gītā...

Prabhupāda: Here?

Pañcadraviḍa: ...is very nice wording. It's referring to India.

Prabhupāda: This. Oh, yes. This is the fact.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Where is such publisher?

Rādhā-vallabha: That's one for every five people in America. And second is Spanish: 2,947,000. Third is German: 2,125,500. Then Japanese, I had to make a guess. I'm not sure, but this is pretty close: 2,125,000. Fifth is French: 1,670,000.

Prabhupāda: There should be... A big board should be hang.

Rāmeśvara: We have a big display of this for the Māyāpur exhibit. We made this up as a...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rādhā-vallabha: In the exhibit there is a framed picture, each language and the books, each title, and then there is one big frame, one showing international.

Prabhupāda: This is the blessing of my Guru Mahārāja. He wanted it. And because we are trying to do this, he is giving us all blessings. He told me personally, "I wanted to sell this marble and publish some books." Calcutta, that Gauḍīya Maṭha is also marble floor. Now, he said that "Since this temple has been given by Mr. Datta, our men are fighting, 'Which room I shall occupy?' So I know there will be blazing fire here. So before that, I wanted to get out this marble and sell it and turn into some books." He told me, like that. So I noted down that, that he wants books. So I tried to do that. That's all.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Gargamuni: We're going to have... At the Calcutta Book Fair we finished decorating our pandal. It promises to be very successful. We're just opposite the Americans, who have spent fifty thousand rupees, the American Embassy. And next door to us is the German Embassy, and on the other side is the British Embassy. So we're in a very good spot, and we'll have all our books. We'll have the displays as well as the movie, the BBT movie, and we have our men there, who will take orders and sell books. It starts tomorrow afternoon. And we'll have a press conference also and release these figures.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Rādhā-vallabha: Want to hear more?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rādhā-vallabha: Sixth is Portuguese, 835,000. Seventh, Dutch, 593,000. Eighth, Italian, 448,000. Ninth, Hindi, 315,000. Tenth, Bengali, 305,000. Eleventh is Telegu, 115,000. Twelfth is Swahili... This is also another estimate, 110,000. Fourteenth is Chinese... Thirteenth is Gujarati, 90,000. Fourteenth is Chinese, 55,000. Fifteenth is Marathi, 25,000. Korean, 20,000. Yugoslavian, 20,000. Oriya, 20,000. Polish 10,000. Hungarian, 10,000. Czechoslovakian, 10,000. Tamil, 10,000. Russian 5,000. And the total is 55,314,000.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Russian is last. Yes.

Rāmeśvara: It's the most difficult.

Prabhupāda: But something is better than nothing. Kānā māmā. ("Blind Uncle")

Gargamuni: When we were in Rangoon and Bangkok, they were most interested in those Russian reviews, and we got very good response there. In Rangoon they're doing reviews, and they loved the books. They treated them as gold. They said, "This printing and Sanskrit and word-for-word... We have never seen such a translation!"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What is that book?

Harikeśa: It's Perfection of Yoga and Beyond Birth and Death in the same cover, because...

Prabhupāda: Oh. Like the German edition.

Harikeśa: Hungarian.

Prabhupāda: No, Germany, they have put three books in a packet. Like that?

Harikeśa: Oh, that. No, no. It's in one little book.

Hari-śauri: It's one book, but it has both books together.

Prabhupāda: Oh, I see. That's nice.

Harikeśa: Because I thought this Easy Journey was a little hard for Hungarians. They're not so intelligent like. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: What about that Russian?

Harikeśa: Ah. The Russian book was Easy Journey and the talk with Professor Kotovsky. And the Īśopaniṣad is now being translated.

Prabhupāda: In Russian?

Harikeśa: Yes. Dvārakeśa, he's now a Swedish citizen. Dvārakeśa. I sent him to Poland. You know Dvārakeśa? He was that boy who was going to go to Hungary? He's a Hungarian. He was going to go back to Hungary and become a Hungarian.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: If there is scarcity of money, you ask me. I shall pay you. You can pay me later.

Harikeśa: Actually there's no scarcity.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Harikeśa: German BBT, I think is...

Prabhupāda: For printing there should not be any delay for money. Whatever money you require, I shall arrange.

Harikeśa: I'm trying to follow your principle of not keeping a bank account by just always printing more books.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, yes. It is very nice. I simply asking them that "Print books. Whatever money I have got in bank, let me spend." I am asking always. Always. So anyway, money is... Bhagavān is giving. Now I have asked them to invest at least five lakhs of rupees for printing these Hindi and Bengali books.

Harikeśa: I just suggested also that Gopāla Kṛṣṇa could...

Prabhupāda: Instead of keeping in the bank, keep books stock. It will save. That principles let us follow. Simply keep the book that it may not be spoiled, it may not be stolen. Otherwise it is our..., as good as government currency notes. Take that. As soon as there is money, convert it into books.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They are delaying.

Harikeśa: No. I mean when we distribute books, it used to be that people would say, "Oh, this is Hare Kṛṣṇa. I want nothing to do with it." Now they say, "Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hm. Let me see what is in this book."

Prabhupāda: Ah. Now they are... They'll, "Hm." That's all right. (laughter) No, if there is substance they will take it. They're intelligent persons. Yes. Simply by propaganda you cannot make them fool. I know German nation. They're intelligent.

Harikeśa: And in Austria the amazing thing is...

Prabhupāda: And by propaganda you can make anyone fool. Dāsa cakre bhagavān bhūta.(?) You know this story?

Harikeśa: No.

Prabhupāda: One man... So he had many friends. So they made a plea that we shall...

Harikeśa: Oh, say he's a ghost.

Prabhupāda: "Here is a..." (laughter) So he began to think, "Maybe I have become ghost. Everyone said that I am ghost, I am ghost." Soi dāsa cakre bhagavān. He not ghost, but by the propaganda, he began to think, "Maybe I have become ghost."

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So by propaganda, it is happened. Although he is not ghost, he began to think that "Maybe I have become ghost."

Harikeśa: In Austria something very, very nice has happened. We were never able before to sell books because whenever Germans went there the Austrian government caught them and charged us thousands of dollars' fine and threw us out of the country. But now I've sent one devotee who was blooped for one year. His name is Cakravartī. He used to be the most important person in Germany.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: And so by your mercy I managed to drag him back by his hair one day, and I sent him and his wife to Austria, and now they are doing something amazing. They never spend even one penny. Everywhere they go, they beg as monks that someone should please give them a place to stay and something to eat, and they're begging gasoline and they're selling so many books, it's inconceivable. The bookstores...

Prabhupāda: German language. German language.

Harikeśa: In German language, yes. To bookstores. Bookstores are buying like anything, and people are buying the books in the bookstores. Because we can't sell in the streets, so they're buying in the bookstores. And he's also training up Austrians to sell books, and gradually it's expanding. One day last week—he called me just before I left—he sold 1,200 marks worth of books in six hours. It's simply fantastic.

Prabhupāda: It is all Kṛṣṇa's grace. Let us try our best sincerely, and Kṛṣṇa will give us. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam (BG 10.10). Otherwise how it is happening? In foreign countries, a system of philosophy which is foreign to them, how they are purchasing? In India, if they purchase one Bhāgavatam, it has got meaning. But in Germany, purchasing Bhāgavatam, it is only Kṛṣṇa's grace. How it is possible? And India, nobody is interested to purchase Bible. So if they purchase Bhāgavatam, that is not surprising, but in Europe and America in Christmas festivities they are purchasing. So it is all Kṛṣṇa's arrangement. We sold more books in Christmas festivals.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This unnecessary expenditures like Sanskrit department and art department, this should be curtailed. We require money for Bhaktivedanta Institute.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "4) Every BBT division must make a monthly BBT report showing the income and expenditure and reviewing Press activity. All forms must be stated in US dollars except the Indian statement, which should also be stated in rupees." One of the reasons for this, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is that the only two, or I should say, the only three BBT divisions, or four, that gave regular reports was English, that was Rāmeśvara; Spanish, Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja; German was Jayatīrtha; and then Harikeśa. But the French were not giving any kind of regular statement. They have never given any statement.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, Bhagavān said he didn't have the necessary accountants. He gave a number of reasons. But the BBT Trustees rejected all the reasons and said that now there has to be a regular statement monthly. Similarly from India, there was no regular monthly statement given out to the other trustees. So now every month all the trustees must send a regular statement." 5) The Deity worship book will be printed by Jayatīrtha dāsa without BBT funds." This is that book. I forget the Sanskrit name, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Devotee: Hari-bhakti-vilāsa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hari-bhakti-vilāsa. So Jayatīrtha wants to print it on his own. Means he doesn't want to take BBT funds. So the trustees felt that that was very good, since funds were scarce; he does a nice printing. He said that he would take responsibility for printing and distributing it. Because it is a very limited edition, it's not going to be sold to the common people, just to devotees.

Prabhupāda: No. Few copies.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One million copies per month.

Mr. Rajda: One million copies.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's in English only. Then it also is published in Spanish and Portuguese, German, French, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Bengali...

Prabhupāda: Gujarati.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gujarati, Telegu. Recently we came out with Hungarian publication. (pause)

Indian (1): Swamiji, your idea is to have some international institution.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is international.

Indian (1): No, we must made to speak your needs of the mankind...

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are following. They are following. I want to make it more speedy, but I have no help. Now, for the time being... Now these boys are helping me, and government is driving them away: "Get out! Get out!" Can you not help me in this?

Mr. Rajda: Correct. Actually ...

Prabhupāda: No Indians are coming. I am bringing men and money from there, and government is driving them: "Get out!" This is my position. And if one boy goes back and again comes—ten thousand rupees. In this way I am losing five to six lakhs of rupees per year—for nothing. This is the co-operation of the government.

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. So I am also. So all these ministers, they invited me. They are in Hyderabad. I was in the house of Mr. Raju, the Endowment Minister. So they were very friendly. In Hyderabad, all the big, big government commissioners, the chief minister, they came in the opening ceremony of our temple. So it is fortunate that you were in Russia. So our humble attempt is to distribute the sublime knowledge of India. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. Actually, outside India, there is no knowledge. Plainly speaking, their knowledge is as good as animals. Because in the śāstra it is said—and it is fact; either you refer to the śāstra or not, it is common sense-

yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ
yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
(SB 10.84.13)

Go means, cow and khara means ass. So yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke. This body, bag of kapha-pitta-vāyu, if one thinks that "I am this body," then he is a go-khara. So this bodily concept of life is going on all over the world. "I am Russian," "I am German," "I am Englishman," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am this," "I am that." But India, especially Bhagavad-gītā, when Kṛṣṇa opens His mouth to speak, His first instruction is that "You are not this body." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). Dehinaḥ asmin dehe. Asmin dehe. This material body... Within this body, there is dehī, the owner of the body. Now, you will find so many scholars, commentators on Bhagavad-gītā, but nobody understands this first line. This is the fact now going on.

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are very much glorified.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And the government gives them all facilities because they are dear patriots, laying down their life. During war everything is controlled, but they are supplied with immense. One store is destroyed; another one store is ready. Those who have gone to the warfield, they are... Because they have got that store of food and everything, sufficient, whatever they like, want. Now, in one point they have to go away. So how they can take the store? So from one point to another point there is another store. This store is blown, that enemy may not take advantage of it. This is going on, hundreds and thousands of worth of goods-blown, cut. Because they are going to another point and the enemies will take advantage of the store, therefore they blown it. Therefore in war there is store scarcity. And that Sadānanda, you know that, my German Godbrother? So he was lean and thin, tall. So I was asking him that "I have heard that the Germans are very stout and strong, so why you are so lean and thin?" So he gave me, gave me condition that in the first war he was a child. So there was so much control, only weekly he could get a little butter. He showed a, this spot, like that. "Because we were children, we were supplied little butter, weekly this much. There was no nourishment. And we had to eat anything nonsense." Germans, they were given much tribulation, all sides. Still, they fought the French. All sides, enemies. But still, the Germans are well-to-do. I have seen. In other countries they are well-to-do.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are very respected. German mark is.

Prabhupāda: No, their position, economic position, is also better than France, England. I have seen it. Even in the villages they are well-to-do. They have recouped all they have lost.

Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I wanted to ask you, should BBT America pay for our expenses in that Book Fair? It will cost about three thousand dollars. It's a very good preaching opportunity. They can pay?

Prabhupāda: No, half and half. You pay.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Half I pay... Half we pay, half they pay? Okay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda said it was all right if you went to Māyāpur with that man, those Germans.

Prabhupāda: I have given the idea. Now how to put it into shape, that I... That I do not know.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a man coming that Patita Uddhāraṇa invited?

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: Yes. Tomorrow this man from Bangalore is coming.

Prabhupāda: So where his place has been fixed up?

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: He can stay in one of the life membership rooms because he's alone. He doesn't have wife and that.

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes people join our movement like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the nature. But they are still pious because they have come to God. And those who are very, very miscreant, they, at any circumstance, they'll never. Dog's obstinacy. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). They are last class.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Few years ago there was a German physicist Schroedinger(?). He wrote a book called What is Life? And he said life could be understood just like physics. Then this Freeman Dyson(?)... He's a very renowned scientist in Princeton University. He gave a lecture in our university at Emory about few months ago. He was speaking about cosmic manifestations of the universe. And I asked a question about this Schroedinger's(?) approach, saying that Schroedinger is a very well known and Nobel Prize-winning physicist. He stated that life could be understood in terms of physics and chemistry. I asked him, "What do you think about this approach?" His answer was "Schroedinger did not know at that time that the physics of modern science, especially quantum physics, cannot be explained without invoking consciousness." That means life is a different entity than normal physics and chemistry. So they are starting to realize, at least to some extent, that life could be completely different process than was planned about few years ago.

Prabhupāda: So on the whole, they have not come to the platform to know about life. That's all right.

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

Prabhupāda: Selling?

Harikeśa: Oh, yes.

Kīrtanānanda: Which language?

Harikeśa: This is German.

Prabhupāda: Finely printed, everything first class.

Harikeśa: This is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Second Canto, Second Part. This is on the cover...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Rādhā-Govindadeva.

Harikeśa: Rādhā-Govindajī from Jaipur. Very nice picture. On the back is this universal form.

Prabhupāda: By seeing the picture they sell.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People will buy just from seeing. (Prabhupāda laughs)

Harikeśa: In Germany pictures like on the back, they're very popular.

Prabhupāda: What price you are selling?

Harikeśa: We sell these for about eight or nine marks or ten marks. That's somewhere between $3.50 and $4.00. Sometimes a little more.

Prabhupāda: They pay that.

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

Prabhupāda: They pay that.

Harikeśa: We've made on the covers the same gold stamp as in the American books, on this cover, and on the side also, for the libraries, because we are selling standing orders in German also. And here's Second Canto, Third Part, with Śrī-Śrī-Rādhā-Madana-mohana from Germany, from the Schloss.

Jayatīrtha: These Deities are superexcellent Deities.

Harikeśa: The pūjārī, he will not leave the temple under any circumstances, Aṣṭaratha dāsa. No matter what, he will not leave the temple. I tried to force him to come to London to see you. He said he cannot do it.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Harikeśa: Each of these is twenty thousand copies. Then we are making these Kṛṣṇa books. Of this book we printed sixty thousand copies.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many?

Harikeśa: Sixty thousand for mass distribution. There's very nice cover.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. Look at Rāmeśvara. He jumped at that.

Prabhupāda: He's defeated. (laughter)

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

Harikeśa: Yes, I understand, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So here is a intelligent boy. Why he should rot here, typewriting? (break) Whatever deficiency are there, that is excused by Guru Mahārāja. Go on printing, go on printing. Deficiency will be corrected, next, next, next. I printed Bhāgavata in that way, many defects. "All right. Whatever is printed, that's all." But these are first class. There is no defect. German printing is very pure. They have got the first-class machine. So we have got so many centers. Wherever cheaper and better printing can be gotten, we may take from there. That's all right. Thank you.

Harikeśa: (choked voice) Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Jayatīrtha: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust ki jaya.

Devotees: Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

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

Brahmānanda: ...some Swahili books Cyavana Swami has produced. This is the Topmost Yoga. We had printed this a couple of years ago. This is a reprint. Ufahamawa(?) Kṛṣṇa. The money for this printing was donated to us by Harikeśa Swami, his German yātrā.

Hari-śauri: You printed in Africa?

Brahmānanda: Yes. This is a magazine, Rudiwawumungu(?) It means "Go back to God." Mungu(?) is "God." That says, "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Upendra: They have letters explaining what each of the..., beads means, tilaka, clothes, explanation down here, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Brahmānanda: To distribute these books Cyavana Swami is having African devotees distribute them. He is organizing them. Cyavana Swami is good at organizing the Africans. But we are not able to distribute them for what it cost to print.

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter.

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

Prabhupāda: Who is he?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This Ikṣvāku? He's a German devotee who has been living in Kodaykanal with Dr. Ghosh. He's a little crazy.

Abhirāma: Independent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very independent. I'm speculating. I'm going to have to investigate, but perhaps after coming here he sent Dr. Ghosh a telegram saying that your condition is very critical and that he should come. Because otherwise there's no possible way I could think of that Dr. Ghosh would have come here, no way. We have no communica... I would never communicate. We already had our business with him four or five months ago. We already rejected him.

Kīrtanānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda? It's Kīrtanānanda. It seems that someone has to be in charge of your care. One day it's this allopath, one day this quack, that quack. That's not good. I'd like to see you ask one of us... I'll be glad to do it. Anyone... Take charge of your care, and we can do the best we can. But just one thing, one thing...

Prabhupāda: But we have already asked Dr. Ghosh of Allahabad, but he has not come.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, he hasn't. We received a letter from him. I think he may have missed our letter, but he said that any correspondence should be sent to Allahabad and would be forwarded to him. But he hasn't come yet.

Prabhupāda: You can see that letter. He is qualified man.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is he bringing his German friends?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No. His German friends are busy touring all over India to make sure that when they get grant, everything goes okay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It sounds like this Bhaktivedanta Institute might get a..., maybe get some grant sometime, eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. Once we get incorporated in Bombay, then we can also get some grants from the government, also in the United States when we get it properly established. And the word bhakti-vedānta is so important that it seems everybody knows what it means, at least in India. When they say bhakti, "Oh," they say, "Oh, that's different from Maharishi Yogi. That's different from anybody else. You have to start with bhakti." So the word is so nice also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And Prabhupāda is very famous also. So people think about Prabhupāda and Hare Kṛṣṇa movement when they hear it also.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: When they hear "Bhaktivedanta," they immediately know that this is Prabhupāda. Many of them told me that "Oh, I have heard Swamiji's lecture in Delhi. It's very nice and very impressive and very convincing." Many of them told me like that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your lectures in Delhi drew the most intelligent class of people, Śrīla Prabhupāda. The other swamis, when they would lecture, they would get just the typical pious Indian people, but yours also drew very intelligent group of people, sophisticated people.

Prabhupāda: They danced. (laughter) With coat-pant. I have seen.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: There is not one bookshelf big enough. And here these are different Bhagavad-gītās: English, Japanese, Portuguese, German, Spanish, French, Swedish, and Italian.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Chinese. Where's Chinese?

Hari-śauri: There's more than that.

Rāmeśvara: There are more.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He wants you to show the pictures. Where are they? Show him. Śrīla Prabhupāda? Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Prabhu brought some new offerings for you.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a Hindi Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Hm! Please come.

Room Conversation With Svarupa Damodara -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

bhirāma: Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, even though you're simply lying in bed, whatever instructions you give, those are being broadcast all over the world. Simply from this bed you can preach all over the world. You have established such expert system for preaching, your BBT... You have so many disciples. So now, even lying in bed in Vṛndāvana, your preaching is going throughout the world. In so many languages even. Whatever you are speaking here, the GBC's and older devotees, they're taking back to so many different countries and translating into so many languages-Spanish, French, German, Italian. The devotees all over the world are just waiting to hear every word that you speak.

Bhāgavata: We had one big book table set up in the conference hall yesterday with all of your books, all of your Śrīmad-Bhāgavatams, all the Caitanya-caritāmṛtas, and that bronze statue of yourself was there. And the books by the scientists, by Sadāpūta dāsa and by Svarūpa Dāmodara, which were explaining the scientific theories in light of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all those books were there, and the scientists were appreciating them very much.

Abhirāma: When news gets out, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that you've started to translate again, all the devotees are going to be ecstatic. They'll feel like their life has come back. It will remind us of... Just like Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. He was in such a condition that he couldn't move practically from his lying position, nor could he see. So many senses were failing. But he spoke or wrote down such an incredible book. (break)

Prabhupāda: Bhagatji?

Bhagatji: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Prabhupāda says by activating his muscles, by massaging, that will generate energy. That will bring appetite. (break)

Abhirāma: ...started translating last night.

Bhagatji(?): Hmm?!!

Abhirāma: Śrīla Prabhupāda started translating Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam last night. Pradyumna was reading, and Śrīla Prabhupāda was giving the explanation of translation.

Prabhupāda: Try... (Bengali)

Bhāgavata: Everyone is eagerly awaiting the new issues of your books all over the world. What to speak of the devotees, the scholars, the professors, the librarians, and just the general reading public who are patronizing your books, literally millions of people all over the world are eagerly awaiting new issues of your volumes. When the news gets out that you are again translating and that the new volumes of Tenth Canto will be available, everyone will be in ecstasy.

Prabhupāda: I have got some letters from New Vrindaban appealing for the books.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (chuckles) (pause) Do you want to hear some of the newsletter? It says here... This newsletter is written by Rāmeśvara. It's especially meant for encouraging book distribution, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It says, "Later on in the morning, Prabhupāda sent for Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Prabhu and explained to him that he wanted to print as many books as possible. 'My point is,' Śrīla Prabhupāda said, 'that I don't wish to keep money in the bank. Invest in printing.' So in this way, although... Then Prabhupāda went on, referring to Harikeśa Swami, after he presented six new hardbound German books to His Divine Grace, 'He is very intelligent boy. My Guru Mahārāja is so pleased. He used to say whatever money is there was to be used for printing books. He was so happy to print books. So you do it all very nicely. I printed my books, and now you do it. These are first class and there is no defect. German printing is very favorable. This is all right. Thank you very much.' It says here, 'Harikeśa Swami told Prabhupāda that now he has to become more healthy to finish the Bhāgavatam. Prabhupāda replied, 'Healthy? I have nothing to do with this body. I have to do with the spiritual world.' Bhagavān prabhu mentioned to Prabhupāda how many books his zone was distributing. They are trying for twenty thousand big books in one week. Prabhupāda was very encouraged and told him, 'Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī will give them all blessings. He wanted this very much.' An hour later Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja was in the room and told Prabhupāda that they had printed 100,000 copies of Kṛṣṇa book in Portuguese. Prabhupāda said, 'Thank you very much. Printing of books is our life force.' Prabhupāda looked through the books and again he asked, 'How many published?' When he heard 100,000, 'Oh, how they are selling, and what is the price? Very good collection? Print more books. This is life. This material body—only bones. So go on and this is life. We are not concerned with bones and stones. Our concern is the living force. The living force is actually sustaining these bones. Bones are not life. Print books as I have shown the way: half again for printing and half spent for propaganda as you like. In this way go on.' Then he turned to Jayapatākā Mahārāja and asked him if he was doing that. He told him, 'Whatever propaganda is needed, you go out and spend, but print books and distribute. Whatever English books we have got, if we translate into Bengali, you have got enough stock.' Jayapatākā Swami replied 'Yes, we have got a treasure house,' and Prabhupāda said, 'In this way, in all languages, distribute. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.' " It says here, "Prabhupāda is translating the Third Volume of the Tenth Canto, and Volume Two is now just being printed and will be available for shipping to all temples on November llth along with a new book written by Śrīla Prabhupāda called the Teachings of Lord Kapiladeva. Fifty thousand copies of each volume have been published."

Prabhupāda: Fifty copies?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty thousand.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Any book.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Any book. You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I was thinking, I'm going to write Rāmeśvara that we should have in Los Angeles a Bhaktivedanta Swami Library with all of your books, many volumes of each book in all the languages. Each different bookshelf will be different languages. Some part of the library will be Spanish publications, German, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, different languages of Europe, Indian languages. And then we'll also have a part of the library for archives. At least one or two copies of every single edition of all of the books. All the previous Back to Godheads, as many as we have even from your original ones published in India. In this way make a Bhaktivedanta Swami Library. People can come and read your books. No matter who they are, what language they speak, there should be at least one library like this. Reading rooms we can have all over the world, and we should have some library also like this.

Brahmānanda: They have that for all... Like great presidents of America, they all have a library, memorial library, where all their letters, all their papers, everything is kept. Truman has it, Kennedy has it, Johnson had it.

Jayādvaita: That microfilm is there also, Yadubara has it. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said that we should always keep you surrounded. We should never leave you alone and always keep you surrounded. So Ātreya Ṛṣi told everyone that, so all the temples, they're going to be sending some devotees to be with you each month. So I think fifty, sixty devotees every month will be with you. So I was wondering if when they come, sometimes they're here, if they chant softly, is it all right if they are in the room? If they chant softly, then even when you feel like resting you'll be able to rest. Because they have come... They'll be coming from five, ten thousand miles to see you. So that'll be very pleasing if they can be with you a few hours each day and chant quietly. Would that be all right? (break)

Prabhupāda: Resting. (Bengali)

Dr. Kapoor: Can hardly speak.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kapoor: Which other languages have you translated Prabhupāda's books in? French?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, there's I think twenty-seven languages. French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish...

Dr. Kapoor: Oh. All the books are translated?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Gradually, one by one. This is Dvārakeśa. He's in charge of the translating department for East Europe. Which languages do you translate?

Dvārakeśa: Russian and Hungarian. And others translate into Yugoslavian and Polish, Czechoslovakian.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He has preached in some of those countries already.

Pañca-draviḍa: Now Bhagavad-gītā in Arabic also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese. Twenty-seven languages altogether. One by one, they're being translated. Some are doing... Of course, the German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, these are the main languages. And Hindi. These books are going quicker in translation. Shall I finish reading this report, Śrīla Prabhupāda? (break)

Dr. Kapoor: It's a miracle what is happening, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Page Title:German (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:17 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=172, Let=0
No. of Quotes:172