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Gold (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Acyutānanda: It's shallow. (break) ...that the Vaiṣṇavas say that the gold ring is smaller in quantity than the gold mine, but the only way in this material world.... That is only a material example, because something can be separated from the general mass because there are many different elements. You can tell the difference between a gold ring and a gold mine because there is air and space. But there is ekaṁ brahma dvitīyaṁ nāsti, there is only Brahman, so you cannot say that there is a big Brahman and a part-and-parcel Brahman. The words "part and parcel" you have only written into the śrutis for your own...

Prabhupāda: So that is not your rascal's imagination. It is spoken by the Lord Himself. Mamaivāṁśaḥ. He is not rascal like you, that He will say something which is mistaken.

Acyutānanda: No, that is only during His avatāra He says that.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. He says like that; we have to accept it. Bhagavad-gītā as it is.

Acyutānanda: In the lower stage.

Prabhupāda: Lower stage not.... That is.... You are in the lower stage. You cannot understand. But what He says, that is right. Mamaivāṁśaḥ, sanātana, "eternally amara." It is not that made aṁśa at the present time. Sanātana. From.... From the very beginning.

Acyutānanda: Then it is contradictory.

Prabhupāda: No contradictory. It is not contradictory. He says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7), that "These jīvas, they are eternally My aṁśa." It is not that because now in the material world it has become fragmented.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Acyutānanda: How can there be any truth separate from the Lord, like a gold ring separate from the mine?

Prabhupāda: Yes, but whatever the Lord says, that is truth. Not your statement is truth.

Acyutānanda: No, just like if I say...

Prabhupāda: You cannot say.

Acyutānanda: ...you should dress warmly. You should dress warmly now.

Prabhupāda: No, no. You cannot say.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: No, it is not separate. You are thinking separate.

Acyutānanda: No, a gold ring is separate from the gold mine. That is your...

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is your material conception. But everything is...

Acyutānanda: Yes, that is a material example. The example came from you Vaiṣṇavas. We do not make...

Prabhupāda: No.

Acyutānanda: We go directly from the śruti, ekaṁ brahma dvitīyaṁ nāsti.

Prabhupāda: Then you don't accept Bhagavad-gītā.

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: (break) So then the chance is lost. Repeatedly Kṛṣṇa is saying, "You give up all this habit. Just become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Sarva-dharmān..." Nobody will hear. "Why shall I not?" There is a Bengali song, cakṣe yadi lāge bhālo keno dekhbo nā: "If it is gratifying to my eyes, why shall I not see a beautiful woman? Why you are forbidding me?" Cakṣe yadi lāge bhālo: "It is pleasing to my eyes. Why you are forbidding me? This is going on. Cakṣe yadi lāge bhālo. If there is little happiness, don't mind it is flickering. It will go on. The Carvaka Muni: ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet: "Some way or other prepare foodstuff with ghee." "I have no money." Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā: "Just take. Beg, borrow, steal, bring ghee and prepare nice foodstuff and eat and enjoy life." This is the material world. But śāstra says, "No, no, no. Don't do this. This is the hog's business. Tapo. Just try to go, follow austerity." Even those who are so-called advanced in knowledge, karmī, jñānī, yogī, they are also after sense gratification. Karmī is openly after sense gratification and jñānī is subtly. "No, no. This kind of..." Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. "Now I shall enjoy Brahman. I shall become God." This is another side, the same sense enjoyment. Because I have failed becoming a minister or becoming a king, becoming a leader, becoming—I have failed, now I shall become God. Same sense grati.... They cannot understand that this is also sense gratification. "I am not no more satisfied by becoming a little minister and king and.... No. I shall become God. Why shall I.... By becoming king or minister I beg to the goddess of fortune, 'Mother, give me a little money.' Why shall I beg? I shall enjoy her. I become Nārāyaṇa." Same disease. A yogi also, after mystic power they want to show magic: "I shall make like this and gold will be there. People will worship me as I am God." Do that. People do that. If you play something wonderful they will accept you: "Oh, you are God." But he does not know that he cannot become God. That is not possible. Although he gets little fractional authority to puzzle others that he has become God.... Because people are fools, if he can produce little gold like this, they will be immediately amazed: "Oh, how powerful he is." They have no capacity to understand. If God is meant for making gold, why not worship the God who has made already millions of gold mines? Unlimited. There is no limit. Why this paltry god? They have no such knowledge. They are amazed.

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Very, very great trouble. You have not seen the yogis? Of course, there are some.... But still, they have to undergo very severe processes for achieving this yogic power. And a devotee, they kick it, that "What is this nonsense?" That is devotee. "What is this nonsense? What shall I do by producing gold?" And I never tried for making gold, but is there any scarcity of gold? I never tried for that, how to make gold. That Sai Baba is showing some magic power. What of the Maharsi? Maha.... He was also after some yogic power.

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Even that is not achievement. To control the senses, that is not very great achievement. The great achievement, how we have become a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa. So that will include everything. You haven't got to prepare gold, but if you want gold, Kṛṣṇa will send you. So why should I try for that and waste my time? Let me become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is required. Kṛṣṇa.... Yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham: (BG 9.22) "I shall give you all protection. I shall supply whatever you want," Kṛṣṇa said. So I shall do such thing when Kṛṣṇa will be my protector and supplier and everything. He is all-powerful, so He will do that—if I require. I don't require anything. I.... Simply I have to become a sincere, pure devotee. But if I require something, it will come from Kṛṣṇa. Why shall I try for it? A rich man's son, he doesn't do anything for earning money. He knows, "My father is rich and as soon as I require money, he will give me. So why shall I become a big, big businessman and become a karmī?" Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upāry adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). You try for that thing which you did not achieve so long, even if you have traveled from different species of life, different planets. For that thing you try, which you have not achieved. Simply you have become implicated.

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, why they should not try to be rich? If the rich man exploits them, that "You work in our land and take some salary," why they will work for that? They will go to the factory, will get more salary. This way Indira Gandhi cannot solve the poverty problem. They must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like these soldiers, they for twenty years, simply eating and sleeping, and they are not engaged in cultivating-useless waste of time—and government has to maintain in big cantonment, big, big house, big, nice food, nice.... This is going on. Why the soldiers are maintained? It is waste of energy. They should have been engaged in tilling. Formerly the kings would give them free land. "You make your fortune—but on condition: when there is fight, you have to join." That was very easy. He possessed so much land, and he worked hard, and he got riches. Unless.... "Proprietorship turns sand into gold." Unless there is proprietorship, it cannot be. So therefore kṣatriyas, they were given land: "You take land as much as you like and produce but on condition that when there is war you have to join."

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But why? Because they have no eyes. Has Satya Sai Baba so many properties all over the world? He is creating gold but has he got so many properties? One property like this? Huh? I started this business with forty rupees; now it is forty crores. Has this rascal has any property like this? (laughter)

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Not.... Cheat the government. There was no income tax, but still they used to keep in big, big jugs all gold coins and put into the..., underneath the ground. Nobody could understand where is the money. Very easy thing.

Pañcadravida: Hoarders.

Prabhupāda: And he did not disclose at the time of death; then it remained. And then, after some years, somebody digging, he got.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Cause of this? One simple cause is they have become unfortunate. They give up the real thing, and they accept the imitation. So that is their misfortune. If there are two shops, everyone knows "Here is real gold, and here is imitation gold." If you go to purchase imitation gold, that is his misfortune.

Reporter (5): What is it in your movement which has appealed to the Western world? I believe you have a sizable following in...

Prabhupāda: Yes, because we are supplying real gold. We are giving real gold. We are not supplying imitation gold. That is the credit. If you supply imitation thing, it may go for some time, but it will not endure. So many swamis and yogis go there, but just these.... Ask these American boys. They don't care for them.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: What is the instruction?

Guest (3): The instructions to Joseph Smith was, well, in a ten-year period of time, from 1820 to 1830 many things happened to Joseph Smith. One thing was that he was visited by an angel called Moronai, who lived fourteen hundred years earlier in the Americas, and he was a prophet, and he wrote a book and sealed it away, and it was written on gold plates. Joseph Smith translated this ancient work of Egyptian hieroglyphics into English, and it was called the Book of Mormon after a great prophet.

Prabhupāda: So what is the message?

Guest (3): Well, the message is that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the kingdom of God.

Prabhupāda: So what is the church of Jesus Christ?

Guest (3): Well, Jesus Christ's church, that's simply it.

Prabhupāda: What is that? What does he say, that "You do this. You do not do this"?

Guest (3): I don't understand what...

Guest (4): You mean the Commandments and...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No, no, anywhere, top of.... Here you are giving a particular picture. That means...

Guru-kṛpā: Gold and silver.

Guest (2): That's right.

Prabhupāda: Stop. That means you have got respect.

Guest (2): We have respect. We do not worship.

Prabhupāda: That means that respect is partial. Our process is whomever we respect, we worship him. That is more perfect.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: That is the difficulty. Everyone sees that "Some way or other, I become guru. Then so many persons will offer me respect. Somehow or other, create some situation. Then I become guru." This is going on. Not bona fide guru. Bona fide guru is indicated by Caitanya, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā: "Become guru." Why ambition? Actually become guru. But how to become guru? Yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa-upadeśa' (CC Madhya 7.128). That's it, otherwise goru. So they will not take this simple method. They will drink, they will hunt after woman and have some attractive singing or dancing and become guru. What is meaning of guru, they do not know. Somehow or other become popular and become guru. This is going on. So with māyā you can attract these foolish rascals very easily. If you can manufacture.... You cannot, but if you can show some jugglery, then you become guru. People are after all these things, material things. They are not after Kṛṣṇa. They are after money and women. So if you give some mantra, then gold will be manufactured, and all women will be attracted, very first class.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: What you are wish? You are also taking the chance, a wish that things must act like this. But that is not happening.

Devotee (3): It is just like a person who wants to turn all the metal in the world into gold. He may be wishing and desiring to turn everything into gold, but actually it is not possible. So therefore they say that we want to be protected against the onslaught of material nature. But actually that will never happen. So therefore they create God in this way. Or some person who wants to turn all the metal into gold, but actually it's not possible.

Prabhupāda: But what you are doing? You are also doing everything hoping that you'll feel happy. Practically you're not doing anything. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: They don't use aluminium much. If they have got excess money, they invest in metal-gold, silver, copper, bell metal.... Immediate loan—you can mortgage the metal pots, the metal ornaments, you get money immediately. (break) ...in a year, that is a metal purchasing ceremony. Every family will purchase, according to his means, some metal pots once in a year. Dhantraivesi(?) (indistinct) means desire some funds. So if there's some extra money—not big, big men; middle class storeman—they invest in metal purchase. If there is a good business day, (unclear) all the utensils (unclear). You know Diwali, Diwali?

Devotee (2): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just one day before Diwali.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Simply faith, blind faith we do not endure. And therefore they are becoming godless. And gradually, if we do not understand factually what is God, then the whole human civilization will be godless. To become godless means again animal. That is the difference between animal and man. In the animal society there is no question of religion, faith, God. These things are not there. The human civilization, if it becomes like that, without any faith in God, without any understanding of God, then where is the difference between cats and dogs and human beings? They must know God scientifically. That is the actual aim of human life. Suppose the dog is sleeping on the street without any care whether a car is coming and smash it. He's also sleeping sound sleep. And we are sleeping in a very nice apartment. So after all, sleeping. And he is also enjoying sleeping, I am also enjoying sleeping. So do you think to change the, I mean to say, circumstances of the sleeping? I am sleeping in a very nice apartment, he's sleeping on the floor. Does it mean this is advancement of civilization? Sleeping is sleeping. Eating is eating. Sex life—the male dog is enjoying with female dog. The sex pleasure is to him, and we are enjoying with a beautiful lover. The sex pleasure is the same. Therefore, you take some eatable, either on gold fork or an iron fork, the taste is the same.

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: So we are wandering within this universe in different forms of life, in different planets, upary adhaḥ, upari, adhaḥ, upper planetary systems, down planetary system. We are having these facilities in different standard. The demigods, they have got their different standard of life, thousands and thousands of times better than ours. We have got better standard of life. Just like the Americans, they have got better standard of life than the Indians. So this higher standard, lower standard, but whatever standard may be, the thing, the taste of material enjoyment, is there. Sex intercourse in the human form of life and the sex intercourse of the dog on the street, the taste is the same. Taste is not changed. You put any eatable either in the gold pot or in the iron pot: the taste is the same. Therefore viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt. The taste of these sense enjoyable things are the same everywhere.
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.

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

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

Bharadvāja: But I think the other Deities we shall just do in concrete, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Lalitā, Viśākhā. Either concrete or hard plaster.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bharadvāja: Hard plaster, tempered plaster, hydrostone.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Inflation problem, I suggested, make gold coins as medium of exchange.

Hari-śauri: That means that there'll be the same..., it'll have the same value all over the world.

Prabhupāda: No question of value. Money has to be paid by real money-gold, silver. No paper.

Hari-śauri: But whether it's gold or paper, isn't it all just representative of...

Prabhupāda: No, medium of exchange.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: If I have to pay you, if you don't accept paper, then I'll have to give you gold or silver, and international exchange is going on. Then there is no inflation, because you'll not accept paper, so what is the use of printing notes? They are printing notes without any gold reserve.

Hari-śauri: Nothing. It's just imaginary wealth.

Prabhupāda: That's it. Bank will give you loan, they are eager to give you loan, and you haven't got to pay anything in gold and silver. One check, that's all. And with that check you can purchase lots of commodities and hoard it, and price will be increased. If I have to pay gold for (indistinct), then I have limited source. The price will not increase. This is the only way. Introduce gold only, gold and silver. In the British period in our childhood there was practically no notes. Silver. If I have to take payment from you, one thousand rupees, you will give me so much silver. For counting, counting, I have to see whether it is.... There were some imitation, counterfeit. So each coin you have to see, they were saying like that, that, "For thousand rupees I have to occupy so much space."

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

Prabhupāda: But you are intelligent. Why you are putting the forefather's words? You avoid it. That means you are cheating people. You do not believe in, but you still write it. That means cheating. Why do you write such things in which you do not believe? That means cheating. Hmm? What do you think? If you write something which you do not believe in, are you not cheating? That means cheating. You take word, you are giving a piece of paper, and it is written there, "one thousand dollars." That means you are cheating, in the name of God, he will accept you, that's all. If you say, "No, I don't want paper. Give me gold dollar," then you are finished. Your currency will be finished. Immediately there will be revolution, that "The government is cheating us."

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Kīrtanānanda: These pictures are rose quartz. This is rose quartz and twenty-four-carat gold.

Prabhupāda: Gold? (laughter)

Kulādri: Twenty-four karat.

Prabhupāda: In that Detroit house, so much gold. That is also like this. What are these?

Kīrtanānanda: This is a sample of the handles.

Prabhupāda: Plumbing?

Kīrtanānanda: Like those on the doors. But we are just śūdras; we don't know how to do anything else.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. What for these marbles?

Kīrtanānanda: That will go on the wall in the bathroom, Italian cremo marble. Here's a picture of how the windows are being done in jāli work. This is being cast out of white cement.

Prabhupāda: Doing here?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. This is some of the castings they've done. This goes up on the ceiling.

Prabhupāda: Cornice.

Garden Conversation -- June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban:

June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban

Prabhupāda: ...production of is external. Bahir-aṅga-śakti. But the śakti, the energy, is coming from the Supreme. Just like here we find this place is shadow and that place is sunshine. Both these places are due to the sun. When there is no sun there is no such distinction that "This is shining, sunny, and this is shadow." So this distinction is there so long we do not know the real source. But if we know the real source, we can understand that this distinction is temporary. Actually the energy is coming from the Supreme. So shadow has come from Supreme, and light has also come from the Supreme. So there is no distinction, ultimately. Just like earring, golden, manufactured from gold, and gold which is not manufactured. So this distinction-manufactured or not manufactured, secondary. But really the earring is also gold, and the lump of gold is also gold. So why should we say that earring is false? It is also gold.

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Stone, marble. With golden work.

Hari-śauri: The bathrooms, even the soap dishes, are gold. The soap dishes, the toilet roll holder, everything is gold.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Gold wall paper.

Prabhupāda: One floor is like this. Very costly house.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: They told me that the prasādam room floor alone, three hundred thousand dollars to build. And you have gotten the whole thing.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere it is so beautiful, nice, strong, and quite suitable for our purpose. Everyone is living. Still, big, big three, four rooms, not yet utilized. And climate also is nice, at the present moment, huh?

Hari-śauri: Yes.

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

As by chemical process the bell metal can be turned into gold by adding with the mercury.... This is a chemical process. If you can add in the bell metal proportionately mercury, then it will turn into gold. Here is the process given in the śāstra. If you are able to do it, you can do it, turn gold some of these bell metals. So the example is given that as the bell metal, base metal, can be turned into gold by chemical process, similarly, by dīkṣā-vidhānena, by proper initiation by the bona fide spiritual master, everyone can be turned into dvija, twice-born. Dvijatvaṁ jāyate nṛṇam. Nṛṇam means all men. It is not there is no discrimination, that only the Hindus, only the Indians, or only the so-called brāhmaṇas can be turned. Everyone can be turned. That is the injunction. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to do that, trying everyone to become a bona fide brāhmaṇa. Without becoming a brāhmaṇa you cannot become Vaiṣṇava. So this reformatory process is recommended in the śāstras.

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

We are maintained and God is the maintainer. We are predominated, we are not independent, and God is predominator. But because the predominated living entities, they are part and parcel of God, therefore in quality they are one. This is acintya-bhedābheda, one and different. The living entity is one in the sense because he is part and parcel of God. So if God is gold, the living entity is also gold. That is one in quality. But god is great and we are minute, small. In that way we are different. Now, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has enunciated acintya-bhedābheda, inconceivable, simultaneously one and different. That is real philosophy. So on this philosophy everyone can come if they are reasonable. If they remain unreasonably stuck up in their own concocted philosophy, then it is difficult. Otherwise this is the fact, that the living entity is eternally part and parcel of God. Sanātana. What is that verse? Find out. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ jīva-loke sanātana (BG 15.7). Fifteenth chapter.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: So unless one comes to the platform of devotional service, one cannot understand. But for general understanding this philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda, simultaneously one and different.... That is explained in this verse. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). The living entities are part and parcel of God. So if God is gold, then living entities are also gold. This is equality in quality. But God is great, and we are always subordinate. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. We are protected, we are maintained, we are predominated. That is our position. We cannot attain the position of predominator. That is not possible.
Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no. It is just like in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement there are so many Christians, so many Jews, so many Mohammedan, and Hindus. Everyone is there. It is a question of understanding. So in the beginning if... But if he's serious to understand what is God, then he will accept Kṛṣṇa the Supreme Lord. If he knows what is God, then he'll understand, "Here is God." If he remains in darkness, he does not know what is God, then how he'll understand Kṛṣṇa? He'll understand Kṛṣṇa as one of us. That's all. But if he knows what is God then he'll understand. Yes, here is God, Just like if a person knows what is gold, then anywhere gold, he'll understand, "Here is gold." It does not mean only gold, in certain shop only gold is available. But if he knows what is God, what is meaning of God, that he will find in Kṛṣṇa in fullness. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). The śāstra says how He is Bhagavān, what is Bhagavān. You should understand and see from the activities of Kṛṣṇa whether He is not Bhagavān. It requires brain to understand. I say, "Here is God." Now it is up to you. If you know what is God, then test it, and then you'll accept God. If you do not know how to test it, then you may refuse. That is another thing. You'll accept iron as gold. That is your ignorance. You do not know what is gold. But if you actually know what is gold, you will accept Kṛṣṇa as God, there is no doubt about it. So this is the only platform, Bhagavad-gītā. Everyone come and take to Kṛṣṇa and understand God and learn how to love Him and your life is perfect.

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Dhana-māna. Because they have got money, whatever they think, that's all right. And their gurus also will say, "Yes, it is all right." If the guru says that "It is not all right," then nobody will come to him. He has to say "It is all right," because he's also after money and woman. That's all. He does not come here to teach something. This is going on. Therefore they come in so many numbers. They have now taken a good field. And in America you go, you say any nonsense, and they'll accept. And pay money for that. From the very beginning it is going on. Now, because it is going on like that, we are also counted amongst them. "It is folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss." This is the difficulty. They are also taking this movement, "Oh, these boys are chanting and dancing. This is also another sentiment, another edition of hippie movement." There is a, I think, Gresham's theory: "Bad money drives away good money." You know this? This is a economic theory. "Bad money drives away good money." Because nowadays bad money, that paper money, is going on, that gold coins no more in existence. Formerly we have seen gold coins in our childhood. You have not seen any. We have seen.

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Formerly in the currency, when you go to take some exchange, it was the etiquette of the teller to ask you, "What you want, silver money, gold money or paper money?" It was their duty. If you say "I want gold money," they will pay in gold money. Not only it is written in the paper, "I promise to pay," but the promise was kept. If he wants, "Give me payment in gold," they will pay. And now, to keep gold, hoarding gold, is illegal. So you cannot ask. This is going on, legalized cheating. You have to accept this paper money. That's all. Don't ask for gold. And there is no honesty at all. I can take paper money for my convenience sake, but how you can force me to take paper money? That is not honesty. So dishonesty begins from the government. You cannot keep gold. If you have kept gold, there will be searching, and if it is found that you have gold, you'll be punished. In India it is now being done. There is no freedom even at your home, in your private life. Formerly, any common man could keep gold according to his desire. There was no such thing. Sometimes he would hide it even within the ground, because there was no bank. At least in India this was the practice. If you have got some gold, you keep it somewhere confidential within the ground so that it may not be stolen. So everyone should have right to keep his money as he likes. Why government should interfere? Therefore you see the Bhāgavatam, rājanya-dasyu-dharmaḥ.(?) The government men will be like rogues and thieves. By law they will take away. It is now going on in India. I think here it is also? You cannot keep gold. Why I cannot keep gold? If I have secured gold, I can keep it. I want gold. You write, "I promise to pay," so there must be gold coins. I must have. So many difficulties will come in the kingdom of māyā gradually. It is already come. The eight items... What are those items?

Room Conversation After Film -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Dhānyena dhanavān. If you have got grain, then you are rich. And if you have got cows, then you are rich. This is the standard of Vedic richness. Dhānyena dhanavān gavayo dhanavān. They don't say, "Keep some papers and you become rich." All rascal, one thousand dollar I promise to pay, a piece of paper. Practical, we have got enough food grains. We have got enough... That is richness. What is use of paper? Even gold you have got, you have to exchange. And if you have grain, immediate food. Just boil with milk, and it is nectarean, param anna, immediately. Take some wood collected from the wood and have fire, put the milk and the grains-oḥ, you'll get so nice food, nutritious, full of vitamin, and so easily made. It is practical. So tasteful, so nutritious, and don't require. If you simply boil little milk and little grain, whole day, so much sweet rice, you take-bas. You don't require any more. And if you add little apples and fruits, oh, it is heavenly. Your whole day free from any food anxiety, and you can work. And you can work. You can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Make this ideal life here. America has got good potency. We have got so much land here. We can have hundreds of New Vrindabans or farms like that. And people will be happy. And invite all the world, "Please come and live with us. Why you are suffering congestion, overpopulation? Welcome here. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." Make that. Indian culture and American strength make the whole world happy.

Room Conversation -- July 1, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That is also bad. How we can make compromise? Here is gold, here is iron, how you can compromise? Can we accept iron as gold? All right, let us accept. (laughs) Where is the possibility?

Hari-śauri: They don't see that clearly. They are looking at their iron and thinking it's gold.

Prabhupāda: They are seeing... They're tested. I don't make any compromise. All my speaking is also no compromise. Here is guru, here is Kṛṣṇa, here is God, here is Vedānta. Real version they neglect, and they stick to the rascal's version, Śaṅkara's version, Śārīraka-bhāṣya. All over India, they are reading Śārīraka-bhāṣya.

Hari-śauri: Rāmānujācārya is very well known in India, so why don't they read his commentary?

Prabhupāda: They hate Rāmānujācārya because he's Vaiṣṇava.

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Rūpānuga: You gave the example of a gold pot and an iron pot and a diamond pot. A diamond pot was a demigod, and the gold pot was a human being, and the iron pot the animal. But they are thinking that the food is more palatable in a different pot. But it is still the same food.

Prabhupāda: But they are simply interested with the pots. External. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye... (SB 7.5.31). They are thinking by changing the pot the advancement of civilization will increase. And that is going on. Just like America. You have got very big, big roads, nice cars, everything. You are changing the pot, but the eatable is the same.

Evening Darsana -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That we have already explained. Because every living entity is part and parcel of God, so just like the particle of gold, the gold is there. There is no doubt about it.

Guest (4): Yes, but sometimes you feel it more than at other times.

Prabhupāda: That may be big particle or small particle. But particle there may be different sizes, that is another thing, but as soon as you get a particle, the gold is already there. Similarly, whenever you find any living entity, God is there.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: From there we want to include the, let's say this table, ninety-two..., what scientists call elements, this gold, silver, copper, all these elements.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is within earth.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But we are thinking that not only earth, but the water, air.

Prabhupāda: In the earth, there is already water, air, ether, fire, everything.

Rūpānuga: From previous.

Prabhupāda: Earth is the reservoir of all elements. As you go from earth to water, one is minus. From water, you go to fire, one is again minus. In this way, when you go up, ether, there is only one. And earth contains all the five.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So actually we can use just from earth all these ninety-two elements, like silver, gold...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is in the earth. So many varieties of mixture.

Rūpānuga: Now is there an atom for each? Is there a copper atom?

Prabhupāda: That we do not take care of atoms, we take gross estimation. Must be atomic differences. Just like gold and mercury, little atomic difference. And it is suggested that tin, copper, and mercury, proportionately mixed it will become gold.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Once you told me that in Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now you can do that experiment. Then our poverty will be... (laughter) It is fact. There are many yogis, they prepare gold by drinking mercury. They drink mercury, overnight, next morning they pass urine and dip copper coins in it. And then after some time the copper coins put into the fire, it becomes gold.

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

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, they do that. But it is a fact that copper and tin and mercury proportionately mixed will produce gold.

yathā kāñcanatāṁ yāti
kāṁsyaṁ rasa-vidhānataḥ
tathā dīkṣā-vidhānena
dvijatvaṁ jāyate nṛṇām

This example is given by Sanātana Gosvāmī. As kaṁsya... Kaṁsya is mixture of copper and tin, bell metal. When it is properly treated with mercury, it becomes gold. Similarly, a human being properly treated by initiation, he becomes a brāhmaṇa. This example has been given by Sanātana Gosvāmī. Tathā dīkṣā-vidhānena dvijatvaṁ jāyate nṛṇām. Nṛṇām, he says, "of all human beings." He doesn't say a particular class or particular country. Śuddhyanti prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ. Everyone can be purified by the initiation process, by expert spiritual master. That is accepted in the śāstra.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: These elements, that science calls elements, gold and mercury, are these several other elements in the Vedic scriptures? Little information how they separate it, the technique they use...

Prabhupāda: Oh, that, that is not given. But they, all these metals, they are different forms of earth. You find in ores.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they are all impure.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, you have to purify, but they are in the group of earth. We have to purify. Gold is also purified. It is taken from the mine, it is not pure gold. You have to treat it, then pure gold comes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But that treatment must involve a lot of process.

Prabhupāda: That may be, but by treating you can get, that's all. The metallurgists, they know.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. So actually the Vedas must have known these techniques, because otherwise they cannot get this gold so easily.

Prabhupāda: No, there are gold mountains also.

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

Prabhupāda: There are gold mountains, silver mountains, iron mountains, copper road, everything is there. What is that?

Devotee (1): This is a new picture of Mars, just came in the Washington Post today. Here is what the scientists say the mountains are on Mars. Big crater they are talking about. This is a recent photo.

Prabhupāda: So? What do they say?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Says it's a Grand Canyon. Just like in Arizona there's a canyon called Grand Canyon.

Prabhupāda: So might be from Arizona? (laughter) Like Arizona, that means Arizona.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mixture of so many things. But actually, that is the fact. Just like iron, gold, everything you find. Just like earth, but you have to purify.

Rūpānuga: So earth is a mixture of all these different elements?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we can call this...

Prabhupāda: Different quality of earth.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:
Prabhupāda: So asuric life is very dangerous, and it is punishable. This is the position. So we should not become asuric. With all material opulences, just like in the Rāmāyaṇa, Rāvaṇa was called asura. He was materially very advanced. He made his capital made of gold, he was so advanced materially. But he did not care for Rāma, therefore he is called asura, rākṣasa. He was son of a brāhmaṇa, but he did not care for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He was a learned scholar, materially very intelligent, there was airplane, everything, but he did not care for Rāma, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore he is described as asura. So asuras are divided into four classes-duṣkṛtina, mūḍha, narādhama, and māyayāpahṛta-jñāna.
Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is fact. We are part and parcel of the supreme spirit, God. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). "All these living entities, they are My part and parcel." Qualitatively, we are one. Just like a small particle of gold is also gold. It is nothing else. Similarly, we being part and parcel of God, we have got that godly qualification. God can create. We can also create. That example I have given in my last magazine, that we have created this big 747 airplane, but we cannot create a mosquito. That is also plane, with pilot. That is God's creation. So the creative power, both of us, we have got, but we are limited, and He is unlimited. That is the difference.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It has gold letters going down the side of it saying Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Hari-śauri: It's the brownish one with the white, little white cabin-type thing on the top of it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're very lucky, we rented a garage one block away which can house four buses and twenty vans. Only one block away from it, its very unusual. Otherwise...

Prabhupāda: You have taken the whole garage?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, otherwise it's not possible to get parking space in New York. See the "Hare Kṛṣṇa" now, Prabhupāda, on the side of the building?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes. This Birlas, they have become so big, they have so much credit in the market that by telephone they will ask any gold merchant, that you purchase one thousand tolās of gold for me. He'll immediately purchase, because he has a credit.

Mr. Kallman: Sure, many years.

Prabhupāda: And next moment he phones another gold merchant, "What is the price," he says. Say one anna less... I'll sell one hundred tolās. So he'll purchase without any investment and sells immediately and makes one hundred tolās, one anna profit, some (indistinct).

Mr. Kallman: Sure.

Prabhupāda: By telephone.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: We have got students from every community. From Jewish community, from Christian community, from Muhammadan community, from Buddhist community, from Hindu community, everywhere. Because the knowledge is for everyone. It doesn't matter whether he's Jewish, Christian or... "Two plus two equal to four" is good for everyone. It is not that "two plus two" is good for the Christians, not for the Jews. Gold is gold.

Interviewer: I didn't get that.

Bali-mardana: The principle of, say, "two plus two equals four," is the same for a person whether he's Christian, Jewish, Muhammadan or whatever. Just as the same way that gold is gold. Gold always has it's value in any situation.

Prabhupāda: You cannot say because gold is in the hand of a Muhammadan it is Muhammadan gold, or if it is in the hand of a Christian it is Christian gold. Gold is gold.

Interviewer: Right.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: Who's got the gold?

Prabhupāda: Huh? Everyone has got the gold.

Interviewer: Who has the gold?

Prabhupāda: No, everyone has got the gold, but they have, they are not in awareness that what is that gold.

Bali-mardana: Everyone has the gold. They are simply unaware that they have it. Everyone is originally Kṛṣṇa conscious or God conscious. What Prabhupāda is doing is making people aware of it, that it's within them, within their heart.

Interviewer: Well, are there other paths to awareness of spirit consciousness other than the Kṛṣṇa consciousness path?

Prabhupāda: That, how can I say? That is your subject matter. You study both of them and see and give your judgement.

Interview with Religion Editor of The Observer -- July 23, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Don't come to Christianity. I'm talking on religion, the science of religion. The religion... When we speak of religion, there is no question of Christianity or Muslim or Hindu. Just like when they speak of gold, gold is gold everywhere. Gold cannot be Muslim gold or Hindu gold or Christian gold. We are concerned with gold, not the country where the gold is produced. That is not very important thing. Whether it is gold, that is our business.

Cline Cross: I mean, would you count Jesus Christ as gold?

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not? He's speaking about the supreme controller, God, so why should we not? Anyone who is speaking about God... (break) Religion without science or philosophy is sentiment. And philosophy without religion is mental speculation. So they must be combined together. So far the controller is concerned, this is scientific understanding. Just like the father... We consider... Why we? Everyone. Either he is Christian or Muhammadan or Hindu, the conception of God is generally accepted as the supreme father.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, not... Just like gold. I'll explain. Gold, either in Iran or in India, gold is gold. You cannot say Iranian gold or Indian gold. That is not. Similarly, when you say Iranian spiritual culture and Indian spiritual culture, the common point is spiritual culture. Spiritual culture is one. It cannot be Iranian, Indian, or anywhere belonging to some sycophant. Just like this moon. This moon is now on Iran. But that does not mean it's Iranian moon. Or the sun, it does not mean Iranian sun. Moon is one. Either in India or in Iran, the moon is moon. You cannot say "Iranian moon" or "Indian moon." So spiritual culture is one. And material culture is one. Therefore I'm asking what do you mean by spiritual culture? That is my question. Then we shall consider whether it is Iranian or Indian or... What is your idea of spiritual culture?

Mr. Hamidi: Of course, I believe that they're all the same, but...

Prabhupāda: No, same. But you must explain at least. I want to know how far you have understood spiritual culture as it is. That is my question.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: That is your choice. Just like when you go to the market there are so many shops. Now it is your choice from which shop you have to purchase. First of all, you must know what is your need. If you want gold and if you go to the cigarette shop, "Give me gold," then what benefit you'll get? He'll give you a cigarette and he'll cheat you, "Here is gold."

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: If when you see that he does not speak anything except Kṛṣṇa, that is tattva-darśi. If you are expert businessman in certain line, you have no other business than to talk with on that line. Suppose if you are to purchase some gold, then you have to go to the gold market for dealing with gold. Why should we go to the ice market? That is your ignorance. If you want to know Kṛṣṇa, then you have to know from the persons who are dealing with Kṛṣṇa. That's all. They have no other business. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means we are dealing with Kṛṣṇa. That's all. We're writing books, so many books for Kṛṣṇa. We are preaching and going country to country. We simple deal with Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the movement is known as "Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Somebody suggested "Why don't you write 'God consciousness'?" No, if I say "God consciousness," they'll bring so many gods. It is very simple. If we take it seriously, then benefit is there. But if we hesitate, it is our misfortune.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Unless he surrenders, how he can say others to surrender? Unless one has fully surrendered, if he says to others, "You surrender," that has no meaning. He must have surrendered. Then he can say to others, "You surrender." Unless he has surrendered, how he can take up this business, go door to door and say, "You surrender to Kṛṣṇa, you surrender to Kṛṣṇa"? That means he has surrendered. He has no other business. And what I am doing? I am doing the same thing. I have not given any bribe to these Europeans, Americans, or the anyone. No bribe, no show of gold manufacture. I simply say this, "You just become devotee of Kṛṣṇa." That's all.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: One of the points, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that you're making, if I understand correctly, is that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is like gold, like diamond. If somebody's sincere, they will come. When they are selling cigarettes or Negroes or cars, they make films. But with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we have the books, which are paramparā. And we have ourselves as examples. If we can be paramparā and we can be good examples...

Prabhupāda: That is my opinion, that instead of spending so much money for films, if you spend some money for propagation of book distribution... Any advertisement is good, it never goes in vain, but the film advertisement is very expensive. Very, very expensive.

Morning Walk -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: For ascertaining real gold, the acid test one has to pass to become real gold.

Nava-yauvana: (break) ...this test depends on one's faith in Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Faith in Kṛṣṇa? What do you mean by faith?

Hari-śauri: If you want to pass the test, he says, does that depend on one's faith?

Prabhupāda: What does that faith mean?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Conviction.

Prabhupāda: What is that conviction? Describe it.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That Kṛṣṇa is the controller.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is controller. You may have faith or no faith, that doesn't matter.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So there is no question of blind faith. Here it is said that "I have explained to you the knowledge, confidential and most confidential. Now you consider about it, and after due consideration, then do whatever you like." But if you actually appreciate that there is God, here is Kṛṣṇa, so whatever He is saying, it is all right. Sarvam etad 'ṛtaṁ manye (BG 10.14). There is no harm even if you accept His word blindly, there is no harm. Otherwise, if you don't like to follow blindly, then consider what is instructed. And then whatever you like, you can do. Both ways are there. But if you have faith in God, "God is saying this, I must do it," that blind faith is as good. Although it is blind faith, it is the fact. Actually it is not blind faith. It is full faith in God. "God is speaking this; I'll accept it." Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. That is the position of mahātmā. Although such mahātmās are very rare, but one who accepts this fact that "God is speaking, so let me accept it without any consideration," that is as good as you accept. If gold is real, something real gold is offered to you, you accept it blindly or by checking it, the result is the same.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Inquisitive means one who does not accept that "Here is a person giving me gold. He's very good man, he'll not cheat me." Then you accept. But if you have no such faith, then you check it. But real gold, either you take in blind faith or by checking, the result is the same. Now it is up to you. If you believe Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead as He says... He is the Supreme Person. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya (BG 7.7). That's a fact. But if you don't believe it, then check and consider of our statement, and then accept. Two ways are there. Why people are misled? They do not accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: What is that higher standard? When there was no industry, in India, there was full of gold, jewelries. And now there is plastic.

Harikeśa: Yes, but now there's TV.

Prabhupāda: TV, yes.

Harikeśa: How can you enjoy without TV?

Prabhupāda: Yes, how can you waste your time?

Nava-yauvana: Their reason, they say, is because we have to work so hard all day, then we have to try to forget, watch the television.

Prabhupāda: Why should you work? If you have to forget, why should you take such nonsense things that you have to forget again? Why not chant Hare Kṛṣṇa? Even the child does not forget. He's chanting. Take such things that you'll enjoy. The more you do not forget, you more enjoy. Why should you take up something that you have to forget? This is rascal.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Kartikeya Mahadevia: Very devoted. Her father is my father's friend, Mr. Pota. He was chairman of the Gold Control Board in India. Handlooms are working very nicely. That side of textile, which are made by hand, they are prospering like anything because...

Prabhupāda: They have to remain naked.

Kartikeya Mahadevia: No, khādi is available. There is no problem.

Prabhupāda: Available is everything. If you pay, everything is available. Therefore they say, "If you pay, I can supply you tiger's blood." If you pay, everything is available. People have lost completely interest in spiritual life. They have lost completely.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So Indians did not like that Mohammedans may go away. Rather, when Shri Raj Birla (?) was arrested by flight, the Bengali zamindars, they protested. Rani Bhavani, she protested. Although it is alleged that Shri Raj Birla (?) kidnapped her daughter. But if Shri Raj Birla kidnapped her daughter, how he (she) supported Shri Raj Birla? There are so many falsehoods. On the whole, the Indians never planned to drive away the Mohammedans. They never. That's a fact. They were happy because there was no exploitation. All these Mohammedans, they made their home in India, so whatever lavishly they were spending, that was coming to the Indians. In Taliganj (?) there is a man. Now they are aristocratic family. He was servant of the nawab, and he stolen one shoes, one feet, which was bedecked with jewels. So by selling that jewel he became a rich man. So although they were using jewelled shoe, but it was in India. They were satisfied that "I am nawab. I am using jeweled shoes." But the jewelled shoes was in India and these Englishmen, they have taken away all the jewels even from the walls and keeping them in their homes, all gold, jewels, everything.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Farmers' policy is if they have got money, they purchase land. Therefore they are making ceiling. The whole policy is not so good (?). Farmers, as soon as they get some money, they want to invest the land but the ceiling..., so they cannot invest money in the land; they give to the bank. And as soon as you keep money in the bank it will decrease the value. This is... Money is decreased, value of all over the world. Because it is not money actually; it is paper, cheating. Real money is gold. But they will now allow to keep the gold. The whole policy is vicious. If I purchase gold with five lakhs of rupees, then it is real money, and after five years I can sell it ten lakhs. That they will not allow. Therefore I... My policy is that whatever money is there, spend. Don't keep. In land and produce food. That is the best use of. All buildings, government (for men?), there is no need of. And instead of keeping money and take interest, you print books. That is also good. You can sell. Or you purchase land for producing food.

Room Conversation About Blitz News Clipping -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That is his...

Hari-śauri: Some U.S. men, though, they gave a report that whilst they were talking to him he made different things appear and disappear. They wanted to examine him, and he wouldn't allow it. But during the course of the conversation he made several things appear and disappear. Like he produced this type of nut that comes from Nepal. It just appeared in his hand. And then he closed his hands and opened them up again and the nut, the same nut was there. But this time with some gold, a gold cross hanging from it.

Pradyumna: A Rudrākṣa. Some rare kind of Rudrākṣa. Then made it appear again with all gold, and then he gave it to the man.

Hari-śauri: And then he produced gold ring and stuff like this.

Prabhupāda: This is magic.

Morning Walk -- August 30, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Free means desire should be purified. That means desires should be to render service to the Lord. That is real purification. The example is given, just like gold. There are impurities. That impurities, you cannot cleanse it simply by washing. You have to put into the fire. When it is melted then automatically all the dirty things are gone. His natural position is part and parcel of God, to render service to God. So unless he takes up that thing, there is no question of desirelessness. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is demanding, "Surrender." And as soon as he surrenders, then material desires become vanquished. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). Otherwise, the... He cannot rectify one desire by another desire. That is not possible. Then it will produce another desire.

Bhavānanda: To purify that desire we also have to be put into the fire?

Prabhupāda: This is an example, that without being put into the fire, there is no purity of the gold or silver. Similarly, without being engaged in the service of the Lord, there is no question of purifying the desire.

Evening Darsana -- September 1, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: ...required to kill somebody, he'll do that. If it is required for his sense gratification. There are many instances that a woman is addicted to another man and she has killed her husband, killed her son. Why? Sense gratification. I have seen one woman, my Godbrother's wife, she killed her son for being implicated with another man. I have seen it. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4). Things which are not to be done, they do it. Why? For the matter of sense gratification. They do it. That's a fact. So therefore simply for sense gratification they are prepared to do anything. That means pāpa. It is the verdict of the court that when a man kills another man he becomes mad. Without becoming mad a man cannot kill another man. So everything is being done which is not sanctioned because for sense gratification. The whole world is (indistinct) is sense gratification. And at the end, when he's little spiritually inclined, he wants to satisfy senses by thinking artificially that "I shall become God." That is the greatest sense gratification. "Because remaining a small living entity I have been hampered in my sense gratification. Now let me become God so that there will be no restriction of my sense gratification." Bhagavān (indistinct). Because he has failed to satisfy his senses remaining non-Bhagavān, now he wants to become Bhagavān. Yogi, that is also another sense gratification. That if I show some magic, if I can create little gold like this, hundreds and thousands of men will be after me and I shall live, very nicely. Gratify my senses. These things are going on practically. The man who is manufacturing gold, and so many rich people are coming to his disciples and he's begging for a motor car. If he can create gold, why he cannot create a motor car? This is going on.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He is... What is called avatāra? He has no, nothing on the śāstra basically. And anyone who has no śāstra basics, he's useless. Yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ na sa siddhim avāpnoti (BG 16.23). He can cheat so many fools and rascals, it has no meaning. That is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about this kind of guru. They have been condemned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I think you'll find out at the end of the Twenty-fourth Chapter, Eighth Canto. They have been condemned. (break) Now what is the benefit? From rational point of view, suppose he can manufacture gold. That is his jugglery. Eh? He can manufacture some gold? So far I have heard. I've not seen.

Indian man: I don't know. He does some kind of trick.

Prabhupāda: Suppose he manufactures a little gold. So far I have heard.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Not gold. He does other magic. Gold also, but other magic.

Prabhupāda: What is that other magic? Generally he...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Generally, it is said he blesses sick people who have diseases and they get cured.

Prabhupāda: So that is done by medical men also, so what is the excellence.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: They were trying to get him to give some examples. So he refused. Then he produced this nut in his hand. Then he closed his fist and opened it again and the nut was there but this time it had a gold cross attached to it like this. And then he...

Prabhupāda: Now what is the result of showing these tricks? What is the ultimate result?

Indian man: B.N. Sarkar shows much better tricks than that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. B.N. Sarkar, he was going on cycle in London, busy street and his eyes bound up. Everyone has seen it. He was going on cycle in busy... Ordinary street he was going, and his eyes were bound up. Everyone has seen.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is a question of culture. Culture. She was king's daughter, royal, and married her with a muni, old, rotten. Older than me. All the skin has become slackened. But still she was serving him just like worshipable lord. The age difference is great-grandfather and great-granddaughter. You'll find in Bhāgavatam. Lord Śiva, he could not construct even a house. He was living underneath a tree. And his wife, Durgā, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā (Bs. 5.44). She can create a new world, so powerful, Durgā. She's living with her husband underneath a tree. Never claims, "My dear husband, if you cannot, I can make one." There is a story about that. That, "People criticize us. All right, let us have some house." So Lord Śiva, Durgā, both of them capable to do anything. So they constructed a very nice gold house. "Now we shall live." So there is new house entering ceremony. So one Gargamuni was invited as brāhmaṇa. Many other brāhmaṇas. So they began to eat so much... That story I'm now forgetting. Then whatever stock they have finished, when, after eating, when they wanted, "Give us dakṣiṇā." Because after eating there is... So Lord Śiva, where shall I get everything? I have finished." Then they became puzzled what to do. So Lord Śiva said, "All right, you take this house." Again they became underneath a tree. (laughs) "All right, as dakṣiṇā you take this house. Don't bother." Their house entrance ceremony was there. As a result of that ceremony they became again underneath a tree.

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

Prabhupāda: The Hindu religion is a vague term. It is a vague term. It is not clear. It is not clear. Real term is, it is called, Vedic principle. Vedic principle. And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said: Vedic knowledge means to understand God. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15). So anyone who tries to understand God, he is in the Vedic line. Veda means knowledge, so as you get the stock of knowledge, that is called Vedas. But as soon as we say Vedas, they think it is Hindu. Mathematics is a science. So any scientific man will accept mathematics. Where is the question of Hindu mathematics? Gold is gold. If it is in the hand of Hindu, it is Hindu gold? Hindu, Muslim gold? Gold is gold. When we give the Vedic knowledge, they think it is Hindu idea.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Devotee: You know with a little thing. And then right in the middle of the dome, we want to put like a big gold, not real gold but you know, gold-colored thing with flags.

Prabhupāda: Flags.

Devotee: Put flags on the top. Right exactly. This was our initial idea.

Prabhupāda: So why don't you make a temple like this? You see?

Devotees: (indistinct-talking together) ...attractive point.

Prabhupāda: But then you cannot deny that it is not a temple.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So why don't you see this magic? If you want to see magic, see Kṛṣṇa's magic. Why the poor magic? Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-loka-maheśvaram: (BG 5.29) "I am the proprietor of all the lokas." And each loka... Suppose this loka, earthly planet. There are hundreds of gold mines. Why you are captivated with the chaṭāka gold? Why don't you be captivated by the person who has millions of gold mines by His wish? So we are poor; therefore we are captivated by poor magician. If we are intelligent, then we should be captivated by Kṛṣṇa's magic. That is intelligence. But we are poor; we are captivated by poor magic. That's all. Don't be poor. Mūḍho nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. Don't remain mūḍhas. Try to understand Kṛṣṇa. Then your life will be successful. That is Kṛṣṇa knowledge. Janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). Anyone who understands Kṛṣṇa's activities, then he becomes liberated. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Why don't you use your valuable time for understand Kṛṣṇa? Why you are captured by the poor rascal magicians? That means we are unfortunate. If we become captivated by tiny magician, that means we are unfortunate. Be captivated by the magic Kṛṣṇa has shown. That is the point.

Press Conference -- December 16, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: No, that, life member... God consciousness... Who will deny God? It is a science. So we are teaching the science, not the bigotry, "my God, your God." God is one. Gold is gold. Gold does not become Hindu gold, Muslim gold, or Christian gold. Anywhere gold is available, it is gold. That is our definition. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmaḥ. That is highest, topmost type of religion, yato bhaktir adhokṣaje, where one can learn how to love God, that's all. That is wanted. We are teaching that. There is no question of "this God, that God." God is one. You just practice how to love Him. Then your religion is first-class.

Press Conference -- December 16, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. But you must know what is meaning of God. That's all. His name... Just like water. You say, "water," he says, pāni, he says, autuk (?). So water is water. Similarly, you must know what is God. Name does not matter. But Kṛṣṇa is the perfect name, Kṛṣṇa, according to Sanskrit, all-attractive. The God must be all-attractive; otherwise how He is God? That is the perfect name. Now, if you want to give another name we have no objection. There are hundreds and thousands of names, whatever you like. But it must be God's name. You must understand what is God. Then it is perfect. (aside:) Get on this light. It is scientific. It is not a religious sentiment. Why they should manufacture God? God is God. Gold is gold. And God definition is there in the Vedic literature.

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: That much intelligence, we must have that intelligence, that who is master. Suppose if you want gold, if you do not know where gold can be purchased, then he is cheated.

Indian man: That is what is happening.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So why should you be cheated? At least you go to a shop where gold is purchased and sold. Why should you go to a pan wala. If you have no such knowledge then you will get. You must know at least that gold has to be purchased from a merchant who is dealing in gold. If you do not know that, then you will be cheated.

Indian man: That becomes a problem, that people say that they are selling gold, but when you go to them, they are not selling gold.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is not problem. Problem is you do not know.

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Indian man: Yes, that is accepted. Disciple doesn't know.

Prabhupāda: At least, you do not know where gold is purchased and sold. But others know. Otherwise, how they are transacting business, lakhs and crores in gold. He knows. (Hindi) There are many other persons who are dealing in gold. Therefore it is advised... The first is that I want to purchase gold. Śraddhā, this is called śraddhā. Ādau śraddhā. Then sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83). If you have to deal, you have to associate with persons. (aside:) I do not know exactly. For the present, we can go there. If I require, we can get up. (pause) At least, if you read Bhagavad-gītā to understand, and one is anxious to understand the need of spiritual life all over the world, So one should read Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Why he should interpret foolishly, spoiling the whole thing?

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: You are different from the body. You are different from the body. You are soul. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The body is temporary, you are eternal. Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). You are nityaḥ śāśvata. You are never killed even after the destruction of the body. That should... That is real understanding, that I am not this body. After annihilation of this body, I shall continue. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). You should know that you are eternal part and parcel of God. God is eternal. Just like gold and a small particle of gold, both of them are gold. A small particle of gold, it is also gold, but not equal to the gold mine. That is real understanding. And because you are little gold...

Mr. Malhotra: But potentiality?

Prabhupāda: Potential different, because a lump of gold and a small particle of gold, the value is not the same. Gold it is quality, but not the value the same. That you cannot say.

Mr. Malhotra: Qualitative it is gold, but...

Prabhupāda: But quantity it is different. God is all-pervading. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). God is all-pervading, He is in everyone's heart. Can you live in everyone's heart? Can you know what I am thinking? Then how you can become God?

Mr. Malhotra: Well there are...

Prabhupāda: There are fools, rascals. There are others. (laughter)

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Brahman (Hindi). You are Brahman. Because you are part and parcel of Para-brahman. That I have already told you. That gold, big gold and small particle, that is gold. Similarly, Bhagavān Para-brahman, and we are part and parcel of Him. Therefore I am Brahman. But I am not Para-brahman. Kṛṣṇa is accepted as Para-brahman by Arjuna: paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12). Para-brahman. So param, this word is used, Paramātmā, Para-brahman, Parameśvara. Why? That is the difference. One is supreme and one is subordinate. Subordinate Brahman. You are Brahman, there is no doubt of it. But not that Para-brahman. If you are Para-brahman, then why you are making sādhana to become Para-brahman? Why? If you are Para-brahman, then you are Para-brahman always. Why you have fallen in this condition that you have to perform sādhana to become Para-brahman? That is foolishness. You are not Para-brahman. You are Brahman. You are gold, a small particle. But you cannot say that "I am gold mine." That you cannot do. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12).

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Why? Do you think a grain of gold and a big gold lump is same?

Mr. Malhotra: Gold, I think I am also gold.

Prabhupāda: No, gold that is accepted, quality. That if you say, this is explanation. You must have brain to understand. That a small particle of gold and a big gold, they are gold in quality but the big gold is millions of dollars and a small particle is few dollars. Just see this is accepted. This Māyāvāda theory has made people atheists, that "I am God, I am equal to God." Very bad theory.

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Very simple thing, "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." I have not given them any bribe. I have not shown them any magic of gold manufacturing. From the very beginning I said, "You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." But that is becoming fruitful.

Guest (1): That gives them peace of mind, because their mind gets attuned to something that is good.

Prabhupāda: But that they will not take.

Morning Walk -- December 30, 1976, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Because they were doing with commodities, even he has no cash money he can immediately sell something and pay. That was the credit. That was the credit. Then people believed them. The village bankers were these grocers, especially the gold merchants. Therefore the gold merchants were bankers and dealers in gold. Suvarṇa-vaṇik. They had position. They have got stock of ornaments, gold ornaments, silver utensils. So you can believe in him, that by putting in his custody one hundred, one thousand rupees he can deliver. At any moment. The bankers. And Rūpa Gosvāmī did it practically. Some money for emergency, some money... Relatives they also expect. That is allowed.
Press Interview -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Begin when one who is Kṛṣṇa bhakta. Begin there.

tad viddhi praṇipātena
paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
jñāninas tattva...
(BG 4.34)

Who has seen actually Kṛṣṇa, go to him. But you are going to somebody who can manufacture gold. Because you are not concerned with Kṛṣṇa. You are concerned with gold. That is your motive. So you must be cheated. You want to be cheated. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know. Life's mission is how to achieve the platform where I can talk with Kṛṣṇa, I can talk with Lord. Where is that? Nobody knows that. They do not believe there is Kṛṣṇa, there is Lord, there is God and you can see Him, you can talk with Him. They do not believe. Mostly impersonalists. And impersonalists, they're all mostly atheists. So what they'll do by jugglery and this magic? This magic will be finished within twenty or thirty years. That will be finished. Show this magic that "No! No more death." That is real magic. What is this magic? In a moment you'll be slapped and go. Then tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You do not know where you are going. Kṛṣṇa says tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. But you do not know what kind of body you are going to get. So what this magic will do? So these are for less intelligent persons. They are not for sane persons.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He is the supreme guru. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). He's the supreme person. So why don't you accept Him as guru? That means you do not want. Then you must be cheated. If gold is available in a gold shop, purchase there. Why do you go to a pan-wala to purchase gold? Will you not be cheated? You do not know where to purchase gold, and still you are..., "Where is guru?" Go there, where gold is sold. And if you do not know even there, then you must be cheated. You do not know where is gold is available. Unfortunately you go to a pan-wala: "Have you got gold?" He'll give you some gold leaf, that's all: "Here is gold." The real thing is that guru is there, Kṛṣṇa is there. And we are presenting. We are not manufacturing. I do not say that I am guru. Our business is to present what Kṛṣṇa has said. That's all. Therefore I'm guru. Guru is he who speaks Kṛṣṇa's word. That is guru. And if he manufactures, then he is a cheater.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have told them that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, and they have accepted. This is my magic, and this is their magic. That's all. You ask them if I did any magic with them.

Guest (10): This is magic itself.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, it is magic. It is magic undoubtedly. But I never created any gold or some other... And neither I do know it, how to do it, although there is no scarcity of gold in my pocket. I started this business with forty rupees. So I'll go to take massage. Thank you very much. (Hindi) ...prasāda. Show. Show the film.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: The substance is different; then God... There is no God. Either Kṛṣṇa is not God, Jehovah is not God. Just like gold...

Rāmeśvara: They say that because Kṛṣṇa displayed His activities when He was here...

Prabhupāda: Yes. God will play. That is God. God is not dead. Your God is dead. Our God is alive. That is the difference. God must be alive. Why God should be dead? (break) So you are under God's control. Then you say whether Jehovah is God or Kṛṣṇa is God. First of all you must know. You must let us know what do you mean by God. If you describe, "I mean God... by the word God, I mean this," then see whether it is applicable to Jehovah or to Kṛṣṇa. It is not the name. It is the person and the symptom. Just like water is liquid. So you say water, I say jal. But the liquidity of water is the same. So first of all you know what is the nature of God. Then you may say "Jehovah," I may say "Kṛṣṇa," another may say something else. It doesn't matter. Water is water. That is liquid. That's all. So first of all ascertain what is the symptom of God. Can we challenge them that "What is the symptom? How do you know that here is God?" Just like we understand here is water.

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Hari-śauri: Price of gold, it was based on.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Hari-śauri: We worked out the price of gold.

Prabhupāda: Yes, gold standard. Gold standard... At that time gold was selling... My mother was purchasing gold for ornament at twenty rupees per tola. Now the gold in India is six hundred rupees.

Rāmeśvara: Thirty times.

Prabhupāda: Thirty times.

Rāmeśvara: So that three hundred rupees is like nine thousand.

Prabhupāda: Nine thousand. And who has got nine thousand rupees' income?

Rāmeśvara: Per month?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That three hundred rupees is equal to nine thousand rupees now. Now, a middle class man, who has got nine thousand rupees' income? Maybe one thousand, two thousand... (break) ...same thing, thirty times. The same ghee is selling not less than twenty-five, up to thirty. Thirty times. Take anything, rice, dahl, wheat, two annas per seer. And now they charge two rupees, three rupees per kilo. So from two annas to two rupees, sixteen times more.

Room Conversation -- January 15, 1977, Allahabad:

Gurudāsa: You told me they wanted to be paid in gold by the Home Bill just to deplete the economy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Home Bill. Because I was student of economics. So Home Bill. Home Bill means all the Englishmen were engaged in India, either government, railway, industry, factory, and so on, so on, so on. Whatever... They have got some charges. So all the bills were sent to London, and they made a Home Bill. Their home is in England, so they won't take payment here. They'll take payment at home. And the government there, they'll present the whole bill to India and debit India's account in gold. That means, other words, all the payments which were to be made to the Englishmen in India, they were paid at home in gold.

Room Conversation -- January 15, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. No Englishmens were allowed to domicile in India. No. Strictly. But if... As soon as they make home, it will be America. The Americans made their home in America, so a war of independence was... They have experienced that, so did not allow the Englishmen to make India home. "You come here, work and take your payment. Can't come down."(?) This was the policy, Home Bill. And India's gold was kept in London. So gradually all the gold finished. Very, very crooked policy they followed. They... They... In Muhammadan period there was no such peaceful exploitation. These Muhammadans, they wanted to become lumma, kukum(?). Bas. That's all. They were satisfied. But their princely expenditure was done in India. When Shah Jahan constructed the Taj Mahal, heavy expenditure, but the payment was received by the Indians. And here a railway, very smart railway bridge is constructed that... The payment was paid in England. This was the policy. Every even screw, iron screw, was imported from England.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: There was one question I had, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You have written in the Third Volume of the First Canto different instructions for the age of Kali, how there'll be compulsory marriage and so on and so on. And you mentioned about the gold standard, that this is very bad, this artificial standard of monetary exchange.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. It is very bad.

Rāmeśvara: In the future this is something that we should try to correct.

Prabhupāda: You should introduce coin, real money.

Hari-śauri: Real gold coins. No paper.

Prabhupāda: Anyone has got money... It is fact. And what is this nonsense, keeping some paper and thinking he has got money? How cheating it is going on, from government's side. And therefore artificial inflation. You can print, so the price is increased. Because you haven't got to pay him real money, you print and pay him, and he will ask, "Give me this money. Then I'll supply." "All right, take." You print and pay.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That barter system. You have got rice; I have got something else. So I give you something; you give me something.

Hari-śauri: But isn't inflation possible even with coins? Even if you have gold coins, isn't inflation still possible?

Prabhupāda: No, gold is acceptable by everyone.

Rāmeśvara: The main point is the barter system.

Hari-śauri: Yes, well its value is recognized by its purchasing power.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: So you can alter... Say, you have one gold coin. You can alter what it...

Prabhupāda: No. If you introduce real metal coin, then there will be no inflation.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: But if I increase price and if you print... If you have got power to print, "All right. Take fifteen coins, er, fifteen rupees." But you print and pay me. But if the gold, the coin, is there, you cannot increase on that.

Hari-śauri: He can't increase the price of the product, and the man who got..., 'cause there's only a certain amount of money there.

Prabhupāda: But I can increase the price provided you pay me. But by printing, it is easier. But if you have to collect coins, that will be difficult, so there will be no artificial increase of...

Hari-śauri: Yes. Coins is a check...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: These are just like we know gold and we know mountain...

Pṛthu-putra: Yes.

Prabhupāda: ...and sometimes we mix together and we see golden mountain. So in dream we see like that. We have got hundreds and thousands of experiences in our this life and past life. They are all stocked there, and they can sometimes get like a bubbles. You have seen the bubbles come out? It is like that. We should not give much importance to these things. But it is a fact that bona fide spiritual master is bona fide representative of Kṛṣṇa. That's a fact. So there is no question of subtle or gross. It is a fact. That's all right.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, suppose you have seen that a gold mountain has come in your possession. Will you be satisfied with that?

Pṛthu-putra: No.

Prabhupāda: So this is like that. This is like that.

Pṛthu-putra: But in the case of Adhikaraṇa, person came as a fact.

Satsvarūpa: But this was... They feel this was more factual. An actual person came... A person...

Prabhupāda: How it is factual? Where is their golden mountain?

Pṛthu-putra: It's... You have seen gold, and you have seen mountain, and then the association means golden mountain in a dream...

Prabhupāda: It is like that.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They should be punished. That is the duty of the king. You follow any bona fide religion; you get all protection. But you don't follow; you must be chastised. That is king's duty. A king has no objection whether you are following Christian method or Hindu method. It doesn't matter. But you must have some religion. If you have no religion, then you are animal. You must be chastised. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). Religion means you believe in God and love Him. That's all, three words, religion. "You believe in God" means know God, what is God. And love Him. That's all. This is religion. So it doesn't matter whether you understand God through Christian method or Hindu method. But you love God and you abide by the orders of God. Then you are religious. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Dharma means, religion means, the words of God. So you must know what is God, and you must know what does He say. Then you are religious. It doesn't matter what it is, Christian and Hindu. Gold is gold. Whether you purchase it from a Muhammadan shop or Hindu shop or Christian shop, it doesn't matter. You must get gold. That's all. So whether you have got God? If you have got some fictitious God, then you must learn what is God. What is that? You do not know God, so you must learn what is God. If you refuse to learn, then you must be punished. And if you know God, then it is all right. If you do not know, then you must learn. If you refuse to learn, must be punished. That's all.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: To know about Kṛṣṇa. It is not also difficult. Science of Kṛṣṇa is there, Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa speaks Himself. So to know the science of Kṛṣṇa is also not difficult. But because we are unfortunate, we go to rascal, and they interpret Bhagavad-gītā in a rascaldom way, and we are missing. So you should be very careful not to go to a rascal. Then your mission will be successful. If you want to purchase gold, you must go to a shop where actually gold is purchased, gold. If you do not know, then you'll be cheated. That is not also very difficult. That I have repeatedly said. Those who are interpreting in their own way, Bhagavad-gītā, he's a rascal; he's not guru. (loud kīrtana in background) As soon as he says an interpretation, "I think like this," you reject that. Why should we think like that? You should preach what Kṛṣṇa says.

Morning Walk -- February 2, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. But you are so rascal that you do not know who should be maintained at your cost. Those who are learned scholars, those who can give you good direction, they should be allowed to live very comfortably, without any want. That is Vedic civilization. Brāhmaṇas... Dātavyam iti yad dānam. Give them charity. All the big, big kings, they used to give charity. Give them cows, give them ornament, give them money, give them gold. Brāhmaṇa-bhojana. Invite the brāhmaṇas, give them sumptuous food. They never said, daridra-bhojana, daridra-nārāyaṇa-bhojana. They never said. And there was no daridra, because the brāhmaṇa was there. There was no question of daridra. Why do you pay the lawyers? Why do you say that "These people are living at our cost"? They're charging big, big fees. Why do you pay?

Gurukṛpā: Thousands of dollars.

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

Prabhupāda: Formerly they used to stock huge stock in Calcutta. Burma Sale. And new tin, if you exchange the container, then six annas less. Not very costly. Of course, in those days it was costly, taking consideration of the purchasing power of money. Four rupees, I remember, a few annas. My father did not like to purchase anything retail. For his daily necessity he'll purchase, he would purchase potato, one bag. So one bag means, maybe, one rupee, eight annas. (laughs) One anna per seer, kilo, I have purchased. Rice, fifteen mounds he will purchase. And what is the price? Three rupees, four annas. First-class rice. Coal, this coal, coke. Five annas per mound, purchase one cart load, fifteen mounds. The other day I was calculating. My father's income was, utmost, three hundred rupees per month in those days. And taking gold standard, my mother was purchasing gold from my cousin—he has gold shop-twenty rupees per tolā, first-class gold. Now it is six hundred rupees per tolā. (break) ...in those days thirty rupees per month. For thirty rupees, clerical staff, if you increase thirty times, how much it comes?

Evening Darsana -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Former paisa, when sixty-four paisa was one rupee. Now hundred equal to one. The purchasing power of money was big. Now thirty percent has gone up, but people's income has not gone up so much. Thirty percent, thirty times. Formerly gold was priced twenty rupees per tolā. Now it is six hundred rupees. So thirty times. But people have not increased their income thirty times. My father was earning two hundred fifty to three hundred per month. So we were middle class. So now thirty times of three hundred means nine thousand. So which middle-class man has increased so much? Middle class man now, if he's earning one thousand rupees he's considered very well-to-do. But what is that one thousand rupees? Nothing. My father had from one business, one hundred rupees, from another business sixty rupees, and we had a house rented, eighty rupees. Eighty rupees, sixty rupees and hundred rupees. How much? Two hundred forty, plus something more. Utmost, three hundred. And in our house four, five guests was always present. It didn't matter. Besides that, he was inviting some Vaiṣṇava, some sādhu. He married four daughters, and we were eating very sumptuously, daily two and half kg milk. Two annas per kg. Very nice milk. This man was coming from outside Calcutta. So we were so many children. We would stand, "Give some phāo:" Two half kg's milk and half kg phāo. He wouldn't mind.

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

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.

Gargamuni: They grabbed the books. I had to leave so many books there. They wanted them immediately. And they will pay us in dollars also.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Gargamuni: They get special grants.

Prabhupāda: How many standing orders?

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: They may not feel. That cannot be.

Rāmeśvara: That is their thing.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Gold must be presented as gold. One may not be able to purchase. You cannot... To sell, you cannot make, adulterate gold with iron.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is not.

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have now blue and white. Bhagavān brought me the rest of it, brought the rest of it here, lot of it. It's very high class with gold letters. Really nice.

Hari-śauri: Envelopes too?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Envelopes also. The whole thing. It's good because we're running short. You want me to start using that new type of letterhead that Bhagavān has brought? Should I start using it?

Prabhupāda: Nei, so long you have got old stock, finish.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Finish. There's a lot of that.

Hari-śauri: There's quite a stock left in Calcutta yet.

Prabhupāda: In special case you can use.

Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What about Sai Baba?

Guest (1): He is doing some, but... He is doing all this gold bangles, and gold rings and all those things, giving it to the people. So people are attracted. Sometimes the biggest families which are blessed by him are also in Karmanis.

Room Conversation -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Recruit two others and make it at least five, and travel all over the world. All institutions, all universities, all scientists. If you have got commodity, deliver. It is not a bluff, gold manufacturing. It is not that. Actual fact. That day, your presentation was very nice. Any scientist will be convinced by such presentation, learned speeches. So now at least five men, and estimate what will be the expenditure. I shall arrange. Don't worry.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (3): "Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, whose enemy was never born, performed his daily morning duties by praying, offering fire sacrifice to the sun-god, and offering obeisances, grains, cows, land and gold to the brāhmaṇas. He then entered the palace to pay respects to the elderly. However, he could not find his uncles or aunt, the daughter of King Subala." Should I read the purport?

Prabhupāda: No. What is the śloka?

Devotee:

ajāta-śatruḥ kṛta-maitro hutāgnir
viprān natvā tila-go-bhūmi-rukmaiḥ...

Prabhupāda: No, the śloka is, beginning is sarva-dughā mahī, like that. Parjanyaḥ... (pause) Ah. Kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ sarva-kāma-dughā mahī (SB 1.10.4). Find out this verse.

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

Prabhupāda: The smugglers get with money, printed money. Who can check it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So printed money should have gold behind it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the theory. What is the rate of economy?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the idea...

Prabhupāda: That is called...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Gold standard.

Prabhupāda: Not gold standard, but there is a technical name. That means if you print notes, currency note, immediately you have to keep stock of gold in the reserve bank. Reserve. Therefore it is called...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The gold reserves.

Prabhupāda: Gold reserve. Gold reserve, yes. At least forty percent.

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

Prabhupāda: Somewhere or other. Things are there. The rice are there, the dāl is there, the cloth is there, but what he purchased at three hundred rupees, now you have to pay ten thousand.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means they've introduced more and more notes without any gold in their banks. Very dangerous.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Because that was his determination. "I shall finish this British nation. Everywhere they have got flag, all over the world, I shall finish." That he did. And Britishers saved because the Americans joined. Otherwise... Churchill, he removed all valuables from London to Canada, all papers, all gold stock, everything. There is a book about this. Just like when there is danger you rush to save some valuables. Is it not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, that's what you take first.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So British Empire, so many things in London, he all removed to Canada.

Conversation with M.P., Shri Sita Ram Singh -- May 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Rather, they are more distressed. Take for example, in our childhood my father's income was, utmost, three hundred rupees. So we were not very rich men. But we had no want. Father was maintaining his family, getting children married, distributing the wealth. Everything very nice. And we never felt any want. In this mango season, because father saw it that "There must be a full basket of mangoes daily for the children," so we were jumping, playing and eating mangoes. And now, taking consideration of gold standard... At that time my mother was purchasing gold, twenty rupees...

Sita Ram Singh: Per tolā.

Prabhupāda: Twenty-two rupees. Now the same gold is six hundred rupees. So three hundred times more?

Sita Ram Singh: Yes.

Prabhupāda: If my father's income was three hundred rupees, increased by three hundred, it becomes nine thousand. So where is the nine thousand rupees income for a middle-class man?

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They don't mind. "We must have mangoes." Money is very insignificant thing. Gold is the... And as soon as there is enough money, there is debauch, debauchery. Still there are Oriental moral principles. Girls who have become modernized... Otherwise they do not mix with any man. Their husband, that's all. And covered body, they are, very beautiful girl. And those who have become modernized, they are just like European girls. There is no difficulty to become modernized. They have got money. And they tour from one country to another extensively. Formerly for Muhammadans, drinking was the greatest sin. Now it has become... Drinking is strictly prohibited amongst the Muhammadans, according to their religious system. And sex? Before Muhammadan religion was introduced, they used to have sex even with mother. And woman could be purchased as slaves. Marketplace, women were standing for being sold. They would like to be sold. Just like animals. The animals, if somebody purchases, it is, if they are well fed, it is a great fortune for the animals. Just like the dogs here.

Short Dissertations -- May 24-25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is plain fact. God is one. Why God should be Muhammadan, Christian, Hindu? That is not God. God is God. Gold is gold. This example I give always. Because a piece of gold is coming from some Muhammadan gentleman, does it mean it is Muhammadan gold? It is gold. It may come from any source, but one must know that it is gold, not imitation. That is wanted. If it is imitation, then it is Muhammadan gold, Hindu gold. And if it is real gold, it is neither Muhammadan nor Hindu.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...make the whole land, people, very happy. You show this example all over the world, this example, in America. Don't spoil money. Show by example. Enough science and enough motorcar, that's all. No more wanted. This is wanted. Kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4). Bring water from the sky. Keep always land moist and green. This is wanted. It is not my desire. It is Kṛṣṇa's. Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā, annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Here Vyāsadeva says, kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4). These rascals, they do not know. They do not consult śāstra, therefore manufacture. In Chandigarh so much land lying vacant. Thirty years already passed. And they are developing the cities. And another four hundred years will be required. The land is lying vacant. And they are making two governors, five commissioners, six ministers and..., drawing fat salary. This is government. Government means to draw fat salary at the expense of poor people. Dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. Rājanya dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. Just like the rogues and thieves, they by force take money from us, these rascal, under some law, they'll take, this government. They will live at any cost. Never mind forty rupees (indistinct) a week. They have got cheap money. Print note and give him forty rupees. What is that? "You want forty rupees? Eh, take forty rupees." This is artificial inflation. They have got power to print notes. "Pay gold forty rupees." "No, that is illegal. Take paper." Means a cheating business from the government. He's giving him piece of paper, and the rascal is thinking, "I am making one thousand rupees." Formerly, in our childhood, we have seen a currency. They will offer, "What you want, gold, silver, or currency?" These three things were offered. If you want gold coins, take gold coins. If you want silver coins, take silver. And if you want currency, you take. We have seen it.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. You could purchase. In our family or every family, they used to purchase gold from the currency and melt it and make ornaments. There was no restriction. "Guinea gold." Gold was purchased and sold as you like. Where is that gold? Refusing gold(?) and taking.(?)

Yaśomatīnandana: You want me to read the purport? "The basic principle of economic development is centered about land and cows. The necessities of human society are food grains, fruits, milk, minerals, clothing, wood, etc...."

Prabhupāda: I am not interested in (indistinct). These I have already written some years ago. This is my idea.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Very, very nice. Better than our France palace.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's 1400 ounces gold in the ceilings.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Even in the bathroom...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: There's gold on the ceiling.

Prabhupāda: All very aristocratic, very aristocratic. What is aristocracy, that is displayed there.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Śatadhanya: All the people think that our Deities are made of gold. They've never seen so shiny and such śṛṅgāra before.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here?

Prabhupāda: In Māyāpur.

Talk About Varnasrama, S.B. 2.1.1-5 -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, with my father.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said that your grandmother would give you one gold coin each year.

Prabhupāda: Not gold coin. This copper coin, looking like gold.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And you'd keep it banked with your mother, and if she ever was angry with you, you threatened.

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Bring my money." The society was so nice, and everyone was happy, everyone. These Marwaris, especially, they are very good community. They... As family people, they know how to earn, how to become happy by family. I like these Marwaris.

Talk About Varnasrama, S.B. 2.1.1-5 -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Because she likes ornament, gold, and they have got molten(?) in the jewelry.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How do you get the money back? Sell it?

Prabhupāda: Hm? There is no question. It is saving. Suppose you want two hundred rupees. After spending, if there is three hundred rupees, invest hundred rupees in ornament.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But how do you save enough money to get the house if you have all ornaments?

Prabhupāda: You keep it. Don't deposit in bank.

Talk About Varnasrama, S.B. 2.1.1-5 -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is golden, gold border. You can... When you want to..., mean an old Benarsi sari..., you can go. There are persons, they'll take it, and they'll burn it, and the borders will take care, either silver or gold. Still in Delhi we find. Any investment were... Not this plastic plate and paper plate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. Whenever they buy something, it must have value.

Prabhupāda: Must have value. That is Indian investment.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's the opposite of the Western.

Prabhupāda: And whatever you manufacture, you can show back. Suppose this tape recorder. If it is working, it has value. What is the use of it? Who cares for you? If it is in working order, it has value. Otherwise, (taps microphone) who cares for it? But if you have got gold, silver, metal... There was a small banker's. You require... I am poor man. I require only two rupees, but I have no money. You take one utensil and go to a small banker. He will keep this pot. "Give me two rupees." The pot is only five rupees' worth, so he'll keep it. He'll give you two rupees. So your immediate necessity is... This way, Indian economics.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I've noticed that the people in the villages, when they come to fetch water, they have very nice pots. The ladies are wearing some bracelets. Gold, I think, it must be.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Talk About Varnasrama, S.B. 2.1.1-5 -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. You'll find description in Bhāgavata. They were coming to congratulate Kṛṣṇa—so nice dress, so nice ornament, so nice foodstuff made of ghee, grains in our...

Śatadhanya: Sometimes the rich Marwari ladies, when they come to Māyāpur, once in a while they give some ornament to the Deity. They'll give one ring or one bracelet, gold.

Prabhupāda: That was always. They would offer some ornament to the Deity.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, there's the example...

Prabhupāda: That Sākṣī-Gopāla. The queen wanted to give her nose pearl. Very happy spiritual society.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now you are developing that all over the world, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I have thought it over, over. It was very, very nice. What is this nonsense society? Tin car?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they're becoming worse...

Prabhupāda: And rubber tire, that's all.

Showing of Planetary Sketches -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśodānandana: Each mountain is made of a different kind of stone. Some are made of gold; some are made of coral; some of them, stones, are lapis lazuli, that blue stone that Kṛṣṇa wears. Each mountain has different variety.

Prabhupāda: They will be puzzled. These material scientists will be puzzled. (laughter)

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Um hm. (aside:) You can go out. (break) ...but still, I have given you chance. So you want simply... Just like a widow. We... But we want that you may not be disturbed. Go ahead. Do business and have big building. Everyone's constructing big, big building, Marwaris. Why you cannot do? You have been given all chance. Yogināṁ puruṣam upaiti lakṣmīm. Unless one is dedicated, a yogi, very endeavoring... So we have showed a yogi endeavoring. Seventy years old, I was here in Vṛndāvana, and I came. For ten years I worked! Now see. All over the world I have got hundreds of buildings like this. I am the same man. At least one hundred temples we have only by working ten years. So there must be capacity, there must be endeavor, there must be good fortune. Then everything will be... It is not that you simply desire and it will drop from the sky. That is not possible. Hm? Arjuna fought the Battle of Kurukṣetra. Kṛṣṇa never advised him, "No, I am your friend. I shall do everything. You sit down and sleep." "You have to fight!" And Kṛṣṇa is merciful. He gives him... The two things required. Utsāhān dhairyāt niścayāt tat-tat-karma-pravart... If you have no capacity, you cannot expect to become very rich or learned, or very... That is not possible. It is not your capacity. Just like within this land there is gold, but you have to dig it. That is mine. And if you smell, "Ah, there is gold here," will you get gold? You are fortunate. You have got a place. Here is gold. But you have to dig it. You have to work. "No, I shall smell, and gold will come." That is not... So don't be worried. You'll be allowed to stay here. But I cannot transfer the property to your mother's name. Then your brother will spoil. And otherwise you are... I am not going to lease them.

Room Conversation with Vrindavan De -- July 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You should see this house. Fourteen hundred ounces of gold on the ceilings. The ceilings are coated with gold, fourteen hundred ounces. Yes. The floors are heated from underneath.

Vrindavan De: Twenty-two-karat gold.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And the floors are heated underneath. All the floors. Because it's cold climate, they have heating underneath the floors.

Prabhupāda: When I entered the toilet bathroom I was surprised. (laughs)

Vrindavan De: In USA or Detroit?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Detroit, Michigan, USA. Prabhupāda's bathroom is nearly the size of this room, and it's all gold-covered on the ceiling, and the sink is a piece of marble this thick.

Prabhupāda: In London my sitting room is bigger than this, double. My sleeping room is like this. And my toilet room is half this. This is my quarters.

Room Conversation Varnasrama -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, brāhmaṇa will do. Similarly, the spice merchants, they'll worship Gaṅgeśvarī. The gold merchant worships Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who would do that?

Prabhupāda: Gold merchant. The student will worship Sarasvatī. The merchant will worship Gaṇeśa, Lakṣmī.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And everywhere, how they were well dressed, well fed, and rich in milk products. When called, people, the brāhmaṇas give in charity cows, not at all poor.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were reading that one king gave fourteen lakhs' elephants covered in gold, and another king was giving something like 21,000 cows to each brāhmaṇa. Who could imagine? Now the only kind of cows anyone will give you is those that don't give milk.

Prabhupāda: The cows were decorated with cloth, gold necklace, and heaps of grains.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The cow horns were sometimes with gold on the end.

Prabhupāda: That means gold and silver and jewels and cloth sump..., more than... Milk products, grains. This was richness.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Silver thread.

Kulādri: Yes. Also there is some jewelry for you. We have taken some of the onyx from your palace and put some precious stones and made a little jewelry box. And here's one ring one of the girls... Sapphire, star sapphire ring on gold.

Upendra: All made by the devotees?

Kulādri: Made by devotees, yes. The box is also made by devotees. This is onyx from your palace with gold trim. This they have also made. This is a medallion made with sapphire and rubies on gold. The devotees have also made this. Here's some rubies and emeralds and opals.

Prabhupāda: So, why don't you find out some bride? (laughter)

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Do it very nicely. (break) ...unique testament.

Kīrtanānanda: All of this detail work, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is being done in gold leaf on white background. This is all marble. This is the main temple room and kīrtana hall. The columns are being covered with marble cut in patterns like this.

Prabhupāda: It will be a very... What is called? Attractive spot? What is called? It will be tourist?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. Tourist attraction. It will. Already it is that. The walls of the temple room, they are all marble. This is your study room. It has a marble floor. This is the marble floor. And the walls are all being done in marble in this pattern. This is the bedroom floor. This is the lower portion of the bedroom walls, and this is the upper portion, all done in these little... These is all onyx, and these are marble. And these are the outside doors. It's all ornamental carved concrete.

Prabhupāda: You have got so many artists.

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.

Room Conversation -- October 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, Vanamali is no use.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No use. Don't even bother calling him. The only question is that we have given him such expensive ingredients to make that medicine. The musk is worth many hundreds of rupees. Gold and pearls. So the real question in our minds is if this medicine is genuine. We want to know whether the medicine he has prepared is genuine or not.

Prabhupāda: He said it is not.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I have got it already.

Bhavānanda: And that kavirāja in Delhi said that no, the gold is absorbed in the medicine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These events are all like a dramatical play, Śrīla Prabhupāda, great drama. It's simply like reading the Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Prabhupāda: Ebe jaśa ghuṣuk tribhuvana. He has contributed seven tolās? Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. So now you will get both things, the makara-dhvaja and Māyāpur. Kṛṣṇa was showing you while he was making it, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Prabhupāda was watching him make it. Kṛṣṇa gave him the vision to see.

Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa, God. He gave me information.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1977, Vrndavana:

Śatadhanya: There's different kinds of makara-dhvaja, six kinds. This is the most potent kind. This is called siddha makara-dhvaja. This contains gold and pearl and musk and mica and many other ingredients.

Bhavānanda: And what are the other ingredients you have to take it with?

Śatadhanya: You can take it with either honey or milk. But he recommended that for Prabhupāda's particular condition he take it with honey.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. What did he charge?

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Bhavānanda: The kavirāja said because the gold is oxidized into gold sulphur... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...preparation, svarṇa-sindhura.

Bhavānanda: Svarṇa-sindhura?

Prabhupāda: Not makara-dhvaja.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What?

Prabhupāda: Svarṇa-sindhura.

Śatadhanya: That is not makara-dhvaja. It is.

Prabhupāda: Makara-dhvaja is also. That is... My father used to take.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Unless one is rogue, he would not like it. (laughs) Kṛṣṇa consciousness...

yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā
sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ
harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā
mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ
(SB 5.18.12)

These are the śāstra... Mano-rathena. Those who are on the speculative platform, they cannot have their spiritual qualities. It is a... To the modern world it is a novel idea. It is not idea; this is original qualification. Part and parcel of God, it must be godlike. Gold is gold, maybe a small particle. Similarly, living entity, part and parcel of God, so it is God undoubtedly—in a small particle. But that is sufficient for his perfection. They are being misled other ways, in the wrong side. So who will not like it unless he's a rogue.

Page Title:Gold (Conversations 1976 - 1977)
Compiler:Rishab, Mayapur
Created:24 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=127, Let=0
No. of Quotes:127