Here and there (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"here and there" |"there and here"

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because our government, India government would not allow to take money to go outside. So somehow or other I got the P-form sanction, and one big shipping company, they allowed me free passage. So I came here with great difficulty. Of course I was very comfortably situated on the sea, but still, because I am not accustomed, I got sea sickness. So the travel was very miserable. Still I came. Then for one year, I was going here and there, there was no fixed-up position, and then in 1...9, I came here in 1965, September, then 1966, July, I incorporated the society and started my preaching in a storefront, and... Second Avenue. And then gradually the students came and it developed, one branch after. Now we have got sixty branches, and our expenditure is very heavy. According to Indian calculation it is about 700,000's of rupees. We are paying every rent, we have got in each center not less than twenty-five devotees, up to hundred, hundred and fifty. So it is going on by Kṛṣṇa's grace.

Mohsin Hassan: Now what do you expect from your disciple, basic thing?

Prabhupāda: They will also preach, just as I am preaching. They'll preach the same thing. As I am preaching according to my spiritual master's instruction, similarly they will preach according to my instruction.

Mohsin Hassan: What if someone deviates from your teaching?

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: The devotee means who is always pleasing Kṛṣṇa. He has no other business. That is devotee.

Bob: Can you tell me some more about chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? I have for quite some time chanted, but never regularly, just a little bit here and there. I just got beads very recently. And once in a while I feel comfortable chanting, and once in a while not comfortable at all. And maybe I don't chant properly. I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything has got process. You have to adopt the process.

Bob: The devotees tell me of the ecstasy they feel when chanting.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is when... More you become purified, you feel ecstasy. But this chanting process is purifying process.

Śyāmasundara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this afternoon we were discussing about austerities.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Śyāmasundara: About austerities. If you don't practice voluntarily austerities, then you must involuntarily practice some austerities.

Prabhupāda: Yes, under the direction of spiritual master. You have no mind to follow austerities, but when you accept a spiritual master you have to carry out the order. That is austerity.

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

Prabhupāda: They will find out.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So they say that this atomic energy, this bombing, was a tremendous mistake on the part of the... They say this mostly responsible by politicians, not on the part of scientists, the scientists say. But on the other hand, the public say, people say, the scientists are responsible because they discovered the...

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are responsible. If you give a sharpened razor in the hands of a child, the child will cut here and there. So who is responsible: the parent or the child?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Parent.

Prabhupāda: So the rascal scientist is responsible for giving such things in the hands of the rascals. Politicians are the most rascal; the most scoundrel, they go to politics. Politician means a tenth-class man. No first-class man goes to politics. Suppose if somebody says to me that "You come and become president." Why shall I go there? What can I do there? I know I shall not be able to do anything, so why shall I take the post?

Jayatīrtha: They just like to lord it over.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I cannot say... Suppose if I become president, and if I want to say that stop this slaughterhouse, immediately I will be removed. So I cannot do anything, even if I become president, so why shall I accept this post? No sane man, no gentleman will go to the post because he knows he will not be able to do anything for the welfare of the public.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Dhruvānanda. Yes. Aiye. Aiye, bache, Aiye bache. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi) You are coming from where?

Guest (3): (Hindi)

Guest (2): His, there's a place here, his.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (Hindi)

Guest (3): (Hindi conversation for some time with English words here and there.)

Guest (3): (Hindi) And I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed, and I have come back. I think the life is more peaceful here than it is in India.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Guest (3): It's more peaceful.

Prabhupāda: Especially in Bengal, all, they have turned to be low...

Guest (3): Due to poverty, Guru Mahārāja?

Prabhupāda: Ne, culture...

Guest (3): Culture nāsti.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Poverty's not question.

Guest (1): It's basically the character, the problem of the character.

Room Conversation With Three College Students -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: First of all... First of all thing is the, what is the aim of practicing yoga? So to achieve that end, that purpose, you have to control the mind because mind is very flickering, going here, there, there, there. So first of all you must know what is the purpose of practicing yoga, why you should practice yoga. So in order to achieve that goal, you have to concentrate your mind, and therefore you have to control the mind going here and there. That is control. Mind business is acceptance and rejecting. This is mind's business. Immediately I accept, "It is very good;" again, next moment, "No, no it is not good. Reject it." This is called flickering mind. So by yoga practice you have to make your mind in such a way that whatever you decide, that is correct, not the state of rejecting and accepting. So first of all, you have to know why you are practicing yoga. As you asked the question, "Why control of mind?" Then the next question will be "Why you are practicing? What is your aim?" You are going to practice yoga. Why? What is the aim?

Student (1): Is it to realize God?

Prabhupāda: That's nice. Therefore you must have to concentrate upon God; therefore you have to control your mind. You have to withdraw your mind from any other engagement, only concentrate on God. Then the... What is God?

Student (1): That's what I'm trying to find out.

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

Prabhupāda: There are two things. One material, one spiritual. Spiritually, India is happy, those who are actually spiritualists. But materially, India is unhappy. Spiritually, even if you still go in the interior of village, poor man, living in a cottage, he is taking bath three times and doing his professional work, a cultivator, having little food, and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. They are happy actually. They have got their family, husband, wife, some children. If one lives spiritual life, he is actually happy. Materially, nobody can be happy. In your country, although there is enough facility for material enjoyment, actually they are not happy. Otherwise why in your country the hippies are coming out? They are coming from respectable, rich parents, nation, but they have given up their home, their father's opulence, mother's opulence. That I have seen practically. Practically all my students... Here, Brahmānanda, his father, at least he was a big industrialist, mother. But he did not like. He joined this movement. Similarly, Girirāja, his father is a big lawyer, rich man. But he did not like that. There are many, many students, their father's are... Śyāmasundara's father is big lawyer, rich man, businessman. He is the only son. But he did not like his father. So there are many... Even though he is not our student, still, I do not know. I have seen in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills. You know? That is a rich quarter. Very nice house. And one boy is coming, he is hippie, and riding on his car and going. Then I saw, although it is such a nice rich quarter, there are also hippies. That I could study. Why these boys are becoming hippies? And New York you know, the hippies are lying here and there in Fifth Avenue, Central Park, and they are worshiping pig. (laughs) You know that?

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

Guest (1): (break) She is also doing that japa. And while this mālā, doing mālā, and doing the japa, the mind doesn't remain fixed in God. You know, it wanders about. So what is the way of fixing the mind?

Prabhupāda: To hear. "Hare Kṛṣṇa." Chant and hear.

Guest (1): Speak loudly.

Guest (2) (Indian lady): Speak loudly but still the mind goes away here and there.

Prabhupāda: Then that is called... abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena cetasā nānya-gāminā (BG 8.8). That you have to practice. (Hindi) We have got a sāṅkhya, that "You must perform so many times." It doesn't matter what is... Then gradually, (Hindi). This is the only...

harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā

(CC Adi 17.21)

(Hindi) So we have to follow, and actually it is becoming effective.

Guest (2): I think it takes many births to have the effect.

Prabhupāda: No, you can have immediately, provided you follow the rules and regulations. That's all. Not many births, immediately. Tat-kṣaṇāt. Śuśrūṣubhis tat-kṣaṇāt. In the Bhāgavata it is said. Īśvaraḥ sadyo hṛdy avarudhyate śuśrūṣubhis tat-kṣaṇāt. The tat-kṣaṇāt means immediately. But one must very eager. That's all. That is the only qualification. Otherwise, Śukadeva Gosvāmī would not... Vyāsadeva would not have used this word, tat-kṣaṇāt, immediately. I think that hill is Hollywood?

Jayatīrtha: Beverly Hills, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: That is Beverly Hills.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 22, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: The other countries, they were never following.

Dr. Patel: Worst are these Muslim countries. They kill each other and come into the power. Still they are following their forefathers. They are faithful to them.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (japa).

Dr. Patel: We should go there. And here.

Prabhupāda: A little more?

Dr. Patel: So I am trying to associate with them because here is a guru who is trying to spread the real religion to the foreign countries.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Dr. Patel: Sometimes I don't, I mean, they don't like me. Because I am a man who talks non..., sometimes like a Patel. But still I love them because they are sādhus, and you know we must love some...

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is a poetry, Cowper: "England, with all thy faults, I love you."

Dr. Patel: No. They may not be liking me because sometimes I am very much opposing them, but...

Prabhupāda: That is also loving.

Morning Walk -- March 31, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They are standing?

Dr. Patel: They have started understanding Kṛṣṇa now. Scientists.

Prabhupāda: Now, here is the... This is very simple. A child can understand. Here is a dead body, and here is a living body. What is the difference? That Kṛṣṇa is not there, and here is Kṛṣṇa. That's all.

Dr. Patel: That is what I say...

Prabhupāda: Yes. But these rascal scientists will not understand this.

Dr. Patel: Einstein?

Prabhupāda: No, yes. They have no... They are, they are... I know one scientist, a rascal scientist. He has written one "Chemical Evolution."

Guest (1): Yes.

Dr. Patel: Litleus. (?)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Article came. I read it.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1974, Bombay:

Girirāja: "O Hṛṣīkeśa, the world becomes joyful upon hearing Your name, and thus everyone becomes attached to You. Although the perfected beings offer You their respectful homage, the demons are afraid, and they flee here and there. All this is rightly done." (break)

Prabhupāda: Siddha, there is a Siddha-loka. So they can fly from one planet to another without any machine, siddha-saṅgāḥ. Means the aṣṭa-siddhi yogas, they have got naturally.

Dr. Patel: All aṣṭa-siddhis, they have got.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are called siddha, Siddha-loka. Just like here if anyone wants to walk over the water, he requires to acquire so much mystic power. You see? Some of the yogis. But you will find one bird, skylark, one swan, he is very easily doing.

Dr. Patel: They have siddhas from the birth.

Prabhupāda: So they are trying to get that siddha, the perfection, by so much yogic process, but another living entity, without understanding any yogic process, can do that. So these things are not very great gains. There are... In different planets there are different living entities. Just like we cannot touch fire, but in the sun globe there are also life, human beings, but their body is made of fire. Just like in the water. I cannot go into the water, but there are so many small fishes, they are living very nicely. So this we do not know. We are trying to gain success in these material activities, but by God's will, there are different living entities. They have already all the successes. So therefore our real business is not to waste our time to get any material success. Our real business is how we shall be successful to become an obedient servant of Kṛṣṇa. That's all. That is real success.

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. If you keep... A man is dead, and keep his body. So it will decompose, but the life will come. So many worms will come. So these are... If you say that chemicals, these material, then the chemicals are there, and life is coming. Now you take this chemical and prepare. You cannot say, "Although these chemicals are there, there is some deficiency. Therefore the life is not coming." No, why do you say like that? Life is coming. That man is not coming, but the life is coming. So these are ingredients for life. You prepare. You bring that man. Still, the rascal will say that life is made from matter. Not even gentlemen, what to speak of becoming scientist? You prepare. "No, in future we shall see." And he is getting Nobel Prize. Just see how the human society has become full of rascals, go-kharaḥ. They cannot prove; still they will insist, "Yes." And so far God is concerned, we learn from śāstra that God's two energies are working like heat and light. So energies are working, we can see. How these mangoes have come unless there is some energy? So therefore the energy is working. Therefore God is there. Just like as soon as light is there, although we are in the room we can understand that sunlight is there. As soon as the darkness is there, we understand that there is no more sun. So in the presence of energy... Just like in the motor car, before starting, you round the key, and it becomes, "Gut, gut, gut, gut." Now your current is there. The energy is there. So there are symptoms. By symptoms we can understand there is God. Where is the difficulty? And Kṛṣṇa is explaining, "Here, just see the symptom. The taste in the water I am." Then why do you say that you have not seen God? You are liar. You create that taste? Now take sea water and make that taste. Why do you take water from here and there? Sea water is there. Now you take it, and by chemical you create the taste. Why don't you? Therefore, unless God is there, you cannot do that, or God's sanction, you cannot do that. This is reasonable understanding of God, apart from seeing God. And because the taste is there—Kṛṣṇa says-therefore God is there. According to your capacity, you have to see God like that. You cannot see immediately Kṛṣṇa, with dvi-bhuja muralī, playing on flute. That you have no capacity. You have to see God like that. So when the rubber stamp is going to be delivered?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Bhajans and Room Conversation -- March 8, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: It is not very good.

Haṁsadūta: But it's nice. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: So kīrtana is going on, here and there.

Haṁsadūta: Oh, yeah, everywhere.

Prabhupāda: Paris also?

Brahmānanda: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: You have seen that house?

Brahmānanda: No, I didn't see it. I was only there just twenty-four hours.

Prabhupāda: I think you change that silk cloth. Ordinary cloth is, because it does not stand, it becomes loose.

Śrutakīrti: Plain cotton.

Prabhupāda: Cotton is better.

Śrutakīrti: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So that land, what is the description of the land here?

Haṁsadūta: That I was telling you about?

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Because the happiness which you are enjoying these are not actually satisfying. You are not actually satisfied, therefore you want transfer of happiness from this field to that field. That means you are not actually happy. Otherwise, why these rascals they are enjoining the same vagina at home and why they go to see vagina in the theater? The vagina is there, but they think that to see vagina at home is not so good, but to see vagina on the stage is better. That is all. Disappointment. You'll see the same vagina, here and there. You'll go there by purchasing ticket. That is your misfortune.

Trivikrama: But the devotee is ātmārāma.

Prabhupāda: Yes. All these Paris big men, they go to see the vagina at night, purchasing ticket fifty dollars. All big, big men. In Paris there are so many clubs.

Devotee: The Lido.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee: Lido is the leading nightclub in Paris.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (All start laughing.) Is it?

Devotee: No, no, I have not been there. I don't know. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Well you know such clubs are there.

Conversation with Indian Guests -- April 12, 1975, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: No, Rādhā... There, Bhāgavata, there is. That is foolish proposition, "In the Bhāgavata there is no Rādhārāṇī." There is. But at least in the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa has never said about His Vṛndāvana-līlā. No. That is very confidential. That is not for common man. The common man, first of all let him understand what is Kṛṣṇa. That is Bhagavad-gītā. That they do not understand. Even big, big leaders, politicians, scholars, they do not understand. Because they do not take to Kṛṣṇa's instruction, therefore they fail to understand. And what they'll understand about Rādhārāṇī? You... If you are my confidential friend, then I can take to my family. And if you are outsider, why should you expect to come into my family life? This is common sense. You do not understand Kṛṣṇa, and you want to understand Kṛṣṇa's dealings with Rādhārāṇī. That is very confidential. Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī-śaktir asmāt. You have to understand Kṛṣṇa, then His pleasure potency, hlādinī-śakti. The difficulty is that we do not want to become a regular student. Haphazardly, here and there, here and there, but I remain the same thing. It is a science. Jñānaṁ me paramaṁ guhyaṁ yad vijñāna-samanvitam. Tad vijñāna samanvitam. Jñānaṁ te 'haṁ sa-vijñānaṁ pravakṣyāmi anasūyave, yaj jñātvā na anyaj jñātavyam avaśiṣyate... (BG 7.2). But the Vedas do not say like that. Vedas say, tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). If you are serious to learn about that, tad vijñāna. Tad vijñānaṁ, gurum evābhigacchet. You must go to a bona fide guru who can teach you. Nobody is serious. That is the difficulty. Everyone is thinking, "I am free," although he is pulled by the ear by nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). You have done like this, come on, here, sit down. This is going on, prakṛti. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). The rascal, befooled by his false ego, he is thinking, "I am everything. I am independent." Those who are thinking like that, they have been described in the Bhagavad-gītā, ahaṅkāra vimūḍhātmā. The false ego is bewildered and thinking, "What I am thinking is all right."

Room Conversation with Carol Cameron -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Amogha: She says doesn't the suffering and pain lead people towards God?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the law, but we are so dull-headed that we do not enquire. That is my statement, that you should enquire "Who is forcing these things?" Then there is enquiry of God. First of all we must be... Just like a dog. He cannot understand. He's under chain. He's leading a life most dependent. And he is jolly. He is jumping here and there. That is dog's life. If the master kills him, he cannot do anything. But he is very jolly. He is jumping. That is dog's life. But not human life. Human life is that I am dependent in every step, still I am declaring independent. What is this nonsense? This enquiry should be there. He is dependent in every step, exactly like the cats and dogs, but he is claiming, "I am independent."

Carol: Is it possible to carry out that enquiry while you're engaged in activities?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the real enquiry. Wherefrom my life has begun? What is the ultimate goal of my life? Why I am put into these conditions which I do not like? Who is enforcing? These things should be asked. That is the proper enquiry of the human being. And we cannot solve the question of birth, death, old age and disease, and you are theorizing something utopian. What is the use of such advancement of knowledge? I live for fifty years and sixty years, and the Darwin's theory they are calculating gap of millions of years. There is a gap of millions of years, and we will live for fifty years. How we are taking calculation of millions of years? Speculation simply. And misleading people. An honest man should not mislead others. He should understand that his knowledge is limited. How can I say something theorizing? That is not very good business. And misleading people. I have no perfect knowledge. I am theorizing. What is the use? I have no actually accurate knowledge, and I am theorizing. I am misleading people. Big bluff. That is going on. An honest man should not take part in big bluffs. First of all you must have accurate knowledge, and I am theorizing. I am misleading people. Big bluffs. First of all you must have accurate knowledge. Then you bring knowledge to others.

Room Coversation with Psychiatrist and Indian Boy -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So, everyone is attracted with the woman's body. In your country I have seen the advertisement: "bottomless," "topless..." That is the material attraction. Everyone is in this material world on account of attachment. And similarly, for woman, the man's body is beautiful. So in this way both of them are attached to one another. That is the basic principle of material life. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham (SB 7.9.45). They become attached. On account of sex life, they become more attached, and therefore both of them remain almost perpetually in this material world, and to satisfy different desires they transmigrate from one body to another. And on account of accepting this material body, there is always miserable condition. Therefore everyone requires the psychiatric treatment so that the mind may be transferred from matter to spirit soul. Then he will be cured. The disease is of the mind. Harāv abhaktasy kuto mahād-guṇa mano-rathena. Everyone is riding on the chariot of mind. And the mind is taking him here and there, here... And the yoga practice is also treatment. This is also yoga, bhakti-yoga, and this ordinary haṭha-yoga, that is also treatment of the mind. Treatment of mind means controlling the senses. Yoga indriya-samyamaḥ. Mind is the leader of the senses. So if the treatment of the mind is done properly, then the senses work properly. The example is the madman. Because the madman's mind is not controlled, he is acting in a way—people say, "Here is a madman." So everyone is more or less a madman in this material world, or, in other words, you can say anyone who is in the material world, he is a madman. He requires treatment. Just like anyone who is in the prison house, it is to be accepted that he is a criminal. Without any study, without any exception we can accept all the prisoners as criminals. (break) ...gradually appreciate. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ (CC Antya 20.12). This treatment is in the beginning just cleansing the mirror of the heart. That is the treatment. Just like a mirror, when it is overcast with dust, it requires cleansing. So the mental mirror is covered with material dust.

Morning Walk -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Who adapted this? Who managed?

Amogha: Well they just... accidentally.

Prabhupāda: Ah, that is nonsense. Nothing happens accidentally. That is nonsense. There must be some arrangement. What is happening accidentally? Why you are taking care of these trees? So many things. Nothing is done accidentally. You do not see the cause. If accidentally one can become rich, why you are struggling so hard to become rich? Why their motorcars are flying whole day and night, here and there? Why you are trying? Let accidentally money come, and sit down. Why do they not do that? "If accident is there, let accident come and I will become rich man." Why they try? Why they go to the college? Let accidentally you become M.A., Ph D. This is all rascaldom, simply poor thought. Poor thought. If things happen accidentally, why you are trying? What is the answer?

Amogha: Well, we try, but—we have to try—but we can't tell what's going to happen. So it's happening accidentally when we try. Just like in school we have to try, but maybe we will become promoted.

Prabhupāda: No, if you believe in accident, then you should not endeavor for anything. Nothing happens accidentally.

Hari-śauri: Well, then could not we say that by man's activity, then, things are happening? I had one letter from a person I used to know and...

Morning Walk -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Because you cannot understand it, you rascals. He said that "Thou shall not kill" and you killed him. You are so intelligent. "And first of all let us kill this man who is advising 'Thou shall not kill.' " Your intelligence is so sharp. Guru-māra-vidyā. First of all kill the guru. That is called guru-māra-vidyā. Guru advised that you take food in goodness, sāttvika. So he first of all advised that don't take fish, just like we are advising, meat, eggs, don't take. Then they thought that "The cow is very pure. Cow is very pure, so let us eat cow, sāttvika."

Śrutakīrti: That is pure, sāttvika.

Devotee: "Every part of the cow is pure, so we can eat every part of it."

Prabhupāda: So when Guru Mahārāja inquired that "You have given up everything bad?" "Yes, now we are eating cow." "What?" "No, it is sāttvika." "No, no, no, no, no. You cannot eat even." Then they thought, "Then what we shall eat? Guru Mahārāja is sāttvika, most sāttvika. So let us eat him." (laughter) So it is called guru-māra-vidyā. "For sāttvika eating, let us eat Guru Mahārāja." This is intelligence. "Why so much botheration seeking here and there? The Guru Mahārāja is there." (end)

Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that means better conscience. He can consider so many things. "Why I am dying? I do not want to die. Why there are so many miserable condition?" We are covering because there is miserable condition of this winter. I don't want to suffer from cold. Therefore I am covered. So this is struggle for existence. The human being can understand that why there is struggle? Why not I am happy naturally? This question must be there. Otherwise he is cat and dog. The dogs do not inquire all these things. Then if you have no such power to inquire and understand, then you are no better than dog. And if you are happy to remain cats and dogs, that is your business. But a real human being, he will never be happy. That is human being. Everyone is trying to improve his material condition. Therefore the motor car is going here and there, here and there. Why they are trying? Let them remain satisfied in any condition. The modern economic law is that create new necessities of life.

That is the way of western civilization. They are creating motor cars every year, and the bank is prepared to give you loan so that you may work day and night. Take loan from the bank and purchase a motor car and repay him by working so their machine will go on. This is the policy, economic policy. Is it not? Yes. Keep them working, busy. But what is the purpose of this working? Now, when death is there, everything is finished. And everything will be finished, for that working? Just see their knowledge. Everything will be finished and for this purpose I have to work so hard?

Australian devotee 6: They think that you might as well enjoy while you can.

Room Conversation with Yogi Bhajan -- June 7, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No, we should... The conference should be made that if there is God and God is one, then who is that God? What is His characteristic? That should be discussed.

Yogi Bhajan: Well, that's what I say. But what we are trying to do is spend all, what we have righteously earned, provide that platform, and invite somebody. My personal feeling is even if somebody comes and tell us there that we are the worst being on the world, but by coming and opening himself up, herself, he at least acknowledges that there is a mutual existence. At this time I have walked away to every corner, here and there, everywhere. Some people are not aware totally. I was asked one day a question, "Why these Hare Kṛṣṇa people dance in the streets?"

Prabhupāda: Ecstasy.

Yogi Bhajan: I said, "Why not?" I asked the question. I said, "Why not? What is wrong with them? What do you feel?" "But that's not in America. You know, we don't go and dance everywhere." I said, "You go in ballroom dances and you dance all the time. You drink and you dance, and you do what you want to do. And they just, in their own life, feel that they enjoy dancing right for God and the world. You dance for your own social contact. They dance for their own divine contact. What is wrong with them? Their leader, their prophet, their spiritual guide danced to God, and they dance to God. Why you think, why you go to the church?" "We go to pray." I said, "That's their prayer. Why don't you understand the prayer aspect of it? Why you want to understand how they dress, how they like, how they dislike each other?" And the second question somebody asked me, "But do you think somebody has the right to convert our children?" I said, "But do you think somebody has not the right..."

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

Prabhupāda: Hm. Two and a half hours? And what is the nearest town?

Jayatīrtha: It's near Lyons, Orleans, Orleans.

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

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, we can go here and there.

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

Prabhupāda: Very good.

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

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

Jayatīrtha: It's nice during the day and a little cold at night.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayatīrtha: Europe is always cold.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Europe is always cold.

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

Prabhupāda: That is my question. (break) Just like in India, for higher technological knowledge, they come to foreign countries. So for knowledge, we can take it from anywhere. There should not be sectarianism, "Oh, why shall I take knowledge from here and there?" Wherever knowledge is available, we should take it. That is the real position of seeker of knowledge. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, nīcād apy uttamā vidyā strī-ratnaṁ duṣkulād api. He says, viṣād apy amṛtaṁ grāhyam. Viṣa, viṣa means poison. "In the pot of poison, if there is little nectar in, take it." Viṣād apy amṛtaṁ grāhyam. Poison is not to be touched, but if there is little nectar in, take it. And amedhyād api kāñcanam: "And in a filthy place there is gold. Take it." Not that gold has been polluted because it is in the filthy place. If there is gold in the filthy place, don't hesitate. Take it. And nīcād apy uttamā vidyā. Generally, people used to take education from brāhmaṇa. So Cāṇakya Paṇḍita advises that "If there is education, actual education, even he is a lower class man, śūdra or caṇḍāla, take it. Accept him as master." And nīcād apy uttamā vidyā. Nīcād apy uttamā vidyā strī-ratnaṁ duṣkulād api. And in India, according to Vedic civilization, the marriage is done after seeing the family tradition very scrutinizingly. So here it is advised that duṣkulād api, "In a abominable family, if there is nice girl, educated, beautiful, accept her. Accept her." Nīcād apy uttamā vidyā strī-ratnam. Ratnam means jewel. Wife, she is like jewel although born of a low family, accept. So anything very good, even it is available from a place which is not desirable, one should accept it. So if you are actually seeking after God, so here is God available from Vedic literature. Why don't you take it? Why you should refuse it? That is not very good sign.

Dr. Judah: No, that is true.

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

Jayatīrtha: What is it, ten years, Brahmānanda? Or nine years?

Brahmānanda: Well, '66. August '66.

Dr. Judah: August '66. You are one of the very earliest.

Prabhupāda: Actually, I began this movement from July '66. I came in '65 but I could not do anything. I was loitering here and there. Actually, I began my preaching work from '66, June, July, I think, yes.

Dr. Judah: You must have been one of the hippies he converted there in Tompkins Park then.

Brahmānanda: Well, I wasn't quite a hippie. (laughter) There weren't hippies at that time. It was just beginning. So I had been to the university. I graduated NYU. But I'd been to India.

Dr. Judah: You had been to India?

Brahmānanda: Yes. I was planning on going back also. I wanted to take a further degree. I was applying for a Fulbright.

Dr. Judah: I see. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...by simply inquiring about Kṛṣṇa, you have become Kṛṣṇaized.

Dr. Judah: Yes, I think, yes.

Prabhupāda: Because several times you had to utter the word Kṛṣṇa.

Dr. Judah: Kṛṣṇa has been certainly a great influence in my life, the chanting and being with the devotees. It has been a transforming thing.

Morning Walk -- June 26, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: "Please close your eyes. (everyone laughs) Let us do something." (break)

Jayatīrtha: (back in car) ...register as a travel agent so that we can get discount on all of our tickets, airplane tickets, and then also we can work on arranging that, that these tours would stop there.

Prabhupāda: The Cox and Kings, they inquired from me, "Whether you can take charge?" Guru dāsa can take charge of this. He is well acquainted with the several places. And he is loitering here and there doing as he likes. (break)

Harikeśa: ...had the plan to perhaps get one bus and leave it at our place and then do tours on our own.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...airport by this way? No, the other way.

Jayatīrtha: You can go this way. We usually go on the freeway. You can go straight up this street. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...freely.

Brahmānanda: Yes. Eating, sleeping, mating, and defending.

Jayatīrtha: Everyone is afraid now, of taking it. The crime rate has become very high.

Prabhupāda: Black and white?

Jayatīrtha: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Negroes are envious of the white men.

Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Guest (Indian man): How do you advise Indians who are here and who have fallen to some extent in the materialistic world? They did not leave... Basically, they left their homes, most of them, to educate themselves. When they came here, they educated themselves, and they don't want to go back. Basically, they have fallen into the materialistic world. What advice you render them so that they get out of these clutches and go back and serve here or in the country but they should be devotional to the Almighty God?

Prabhupāda: So there is no question of here and there. You can become advanced in spiritual life anywhere if you follow the principles. That we are teaching. We are opening centers all over the world. You take the advantage of our teaching, our books, our center. Then it will be all right. They are following, these Europeans and American boys. They are young boys. They are giving up meat-eating. Do you give up meat-eating? Why Indians, you should learn meat-eating? They are giving up, and you are learning to eat meat. This is the lesson, that these foreigners, they were accustomed to eat meat from the childhood, they are giving up, and you are eating meat. This is the instruction. Indians are drinking. They are giving up drinking. The lessons are already there. There is no question why. The lessons are already there, books are already there, the centers are already there. You learn and make your life purified. Where is the difficulty? There is no difficulty. When we say, "No meat-eating," it is meant for everyone. Anyone who wants to become first-class man, it is necessary for him. And there is no question of Indian, European, American. You are committing so many sinful lives, and you want to become hap

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayādvaita: Now, in the modern days, they take it the other way, that "Everything is God, so I can do anything."

Prabhupāda: But you are not God. You are rascal. (laughter) That is Māyāvāda theory, that "Because God is everything, therefore I am God." That is Māyāvāda. Just like Vivekananda said, "Why you are finding out here and there God? Here is God, so many, on this street." That is his theory.

Jayādvaita: There was a book-yesterday someone was showing me—where Meher Baba was saying that everyone is in God and therefore everyone is God.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Everyone is within the space; therefore everyone is space? (laughter) Just see the logic. Such rascals, they are God.

Paramahaṁsa: Last week, Prabhupāda, you may have read that the Russians and the Americans sent up two rockets that met in outer space.

Prabhupāda: Hm, so what is the benefit?

Paramahaṁsa: Well, this is the point, is that... It was called the Soyez flight. In any case, they have announced... They made a joint speech where they said, "Together we can conquer outer space. That is the purpose." So now the Russians and the Americans are trying to get... to combine in their efforts to conquer.

Prabhupāda: Bora bora goye gala rasatala, vetta gore bole katha jala(?). There is a river. The horses, they can swim. So the river was so ferocious and many horses drowned. So one vetta gora, means third-class horse, he said, "How was the water? Let me try."

Paramahaṁsa: (laughing) They all drowned.

Prabhupāda: The vetta gora. These are vetta gora, horses with (remedy?).

Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:

Prabhupāda: No, no, unless our men are trained up, why you should allow to stay here and to wife. We want trained up men, not third-class picked-up. We want men who will follow the rules and regulations and fully trained up. Otherwise we don't want. We don't want ordinary karmīs and... And if he agrees to be trained up, then we'll take. Otherwise what is the use of bringing some useless men? He must agree to produce his own food, and work. Our rules and regulations, he must follow. Then it will be ideal community. Otherwise, if you bring from here and there some men and fill up, that is not good thing. This is a training institution, to become devotee.

Satsvarūpa: Everything we do, we don't hide it. We show the world what we're doing. I don't see how we could hide that one man had many different wives.

Prabhupāda: If you don't call wife, you can have. The law allows you to keep boyfriend, girlfriend. Then the... Instead of calling "husband," call "friend." That's all. But, er, it is risky and the man must be responsible to keep... To keep more than one wife by trained-up man is not disallowed.

Brahmānanda : But I think they thought that he could get it legally established, at least in the state of California.

Prabhupāda: Well then go and marry there. If the state of California allows that, then they all can go to California.

Nityānanda: The general public objects to that... It's very...

Prabhupāda: Public we don't care. We... What is the public? We have got our own public here. So pub... What is the public? All rascals. They are killing cows and drinking and topless dance, bottomless dance. What is the value of this public? All rascals. I don't give any importance to this class of public, only after sense gratification, that's all. They have no ideals of life. They do not know what is God. What is the value of this public? Mūḍhas, they have been described, mūḍhas. You know the meaning of mūḍha?

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Enjoy means another machine will strike, and his enjoyment will stop. There is ship, going fast. Where he will go fast?

Brahmānanda: Around the island.

Prabhupāda: Just like the dog. He goes fast here and there. "Gow! Gow!" (laughter) It is like that. He is going fast. Doggish mentality. That's all, all dogs and cats, no human being. This civilization means they are creating only dogs and cats, animals, go-kharaḥ, cows and asses. They are... We don't take them as human being. All animals.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is that because they don't acknowledge that they're suffering?

Prabhupāda: So many things. So many things. The first ignorance is that accepting this body as self. Everyone.

Cyavana: The capitalists are so anxious for money that they exploit this tendency of the living entity to enjoy by tempting him. Every year they create some new way to entice him.

Prabhupāda: And taxation. And the taxation is divided among them. The tax is meant for public welfare. Instead of public welfare, they divide it amongst themselves and enjoy wine, women, motorcar and flesh. That's all. This is going on. All this income tax-plundering process. This income tax means a plan how to take away everything from the actually earning members of the society. That is income tax. And that is divided amongst administrators. That's all.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. He has given you little freedom. He doesn't want to take your freedom.

Harikeśa: You gave two examples in Los Angeles about the master, big master, like president of DuPont walking his dog. The president of DuPont is walking his dog in Central Park. The dog makes him go this way and this way and this way. And you said we are just passing stool and urine in the material world, and Kṛṣṇa is just letting us run here and there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Anumantā. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, anumantā, upadraṣṭā.

Cyavana: In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta in one of your purports you gave the example of Paramātmā being compared to when there is a circus in a village the government sends one inspector to watch over the activities. Then, when the circus goes, he is no longer there. Could you explain it? (pause)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, if Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of pleasure, then what does He need us for? If Kṛṣṇa is all blissful, then what... We're so, it seems, incapable of pleasing Kṛṣṇa. He is so magnanimous. What does He need us for?

Prabhupāda: He does not ask for Himself. For you. If you come to Kṛṣṇa and enjoy with Him, that is your good. He is self-sufficient. He doesn't require.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes, Prabhupāda, when they see your Bhagavad-gītā, they say, "Oh, it is too big for me to read." They don't know that the purport.... They've never read.

Morning Walk -- October 6, 1975, Durban:

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

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ

durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās

te 'pīsa...

(SB 7.5.31)

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

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. Within this material.

Indian man: On earth, everywhere, everybody.

Prabhupāda: Our real problem is to go there, where there is no death. That is real intelligence. And what is the use of going here and there where death is inevitable?

Indian man: Now, in Brahmaloka there is also.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Brahmā also dies.

Indian man: Brahmā also dies. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...plants are within the sea?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Down?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Some plants live underneath the water.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And why these rascals say there is no life? We see underneath the water there is life, and in the moon planet there is no life? We have to believe this?

Indian man: So there is life on the moon, Swamijī?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man: But can you see them? Do they have bodies?

Prabhupāda: First of all you go there. Then see. I don't admit that they have gone to the moon planet.

Room Conversation with Reporter of The Star -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Yes. But if the basic principle is wrong, then all their plans for becoming happy is also wrong. So he does not know what is the important factor. So when he comes to know that he is not this body, he is spirit soul—he studies what is the nature of the spirit soul, what is the necessity of the spirit soul—then he becomes happy. If he is under misconception... Suppose if I take you, Mr. Singer, as the coat, and I take care of the coat and not of you, person, then is that very good proposal? So that is going on. They are taking care of the shirt and coat, not the person who is putting on the shirt and coat. This is the mistake of the modern civilization. And the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is an attempt to correct it, not theoretically, but by scientifically, by philosophically, economically, religiously, everything. Therefore we have got so many books. We are trying to distribute, enlighten people. This is our business. Then people will be happy. Unless one who knows "what I am, and what is my business, what is my aim of life," then how he can be happy? Just like a dog is jumping here and there, here and there, but he does not know what is the aim of life, so if we do not come to the spiritual platform, that we remain animal like cats and dogs, then what is the civilization of cats and dogs? If you keep the dogs as dog and if you ask some of them to come together and make a peace formula, is it possible the dogs will be able to make any peace formula? Because they are dogs, they will go on barking. That's all. So we are attempting so many peace formula, but we are keeping the consciousness on the body, exactly like the dog. And therefore there is no peace. There cannot be any peace. First of all you must come to the real platform, the living force, what is that spirit soul, what is the necessity, what is the aim. That you do not know.

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1975, Nairobi:

Brahmānanda: The Indians had the experience of the independence in India to draw on for inspiration and also for their strategies and so on, to guide the Africans.

Prabhupāda: And now they are trying to drive away Indians.

Indian: Now they have brought a income tax official all from India here. So the Indian people, they were giving their money to the African and taking money to London and U.K., here and there. So now they have brought out from India. They are very strict. People still take money, but they have more to take than the African. The African people are very poor, and they were giving them so much money and taking money out of it. It is difficult for them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. These people can be brought under control by bribing. There is no problem. They have no moral strength, and poor. They will accept bribe. I think by bribing it is still going on. Otherwise how they can stop this bribing? That is not possible.

Cyavana: No. This is their major problem, the immigration authorities. Once the people come here and start to make their exploitation, they cannot get them out. So they make all kinds of artificial regulations. You have to have so much money. You have to have this, and that, your ticket, so many things, to try to stop people from coming here, because once they're here, they just pay their way, and then they get anything they want.

Prabhupāda: The simple method that everything belongs to God... The king is the representative of God, and he distributes the land amongst the kṣatriyas. Just like knighthood or in Mussulman times, subedat(?), and in Hindu times, the subordinate king. Just like Pāṇḍavas, they were the emperors, and under them there were many hundreds and thousands of kings, states. And everything belongs to God. So why fighting? Take it. It is God's property. We are all sons of God. But there is no culture, Aryan culture. They do not know how to live peacefully and cultivate spiritual culture. They do not know. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśāya ye bahir-artha... (SB 7.5.31). And durāśāya, bad hopes or hopes against hope, they're trying to be happy, bahir-artha, by the external energy, material, most fallen ideas, all foolish theories without any knowledge. Material, that's all. Bahir artha, external energy. Otherwise there is no cause of anxiety or distress. There is enough land. They can produce enough food and live peacefully. They are talking of peace, but they do not know how peace can be achieved. They are hankering after peace, but they do not know how to achieve peace. And that formula is given in the Bhagavad-gītā: Accept God as the proprietor; then there will be peace.

Morning Walk -- November 3, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, you cannot reject. You cannot say that "I have done better than Śrīdhara Svāmī." If you simply following the footprints of Śrīdhara Svāmī, that is vaiśakti(?), not that "I have done better than him."

Dr. Patel: All Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas are more or less parallel. There's a little difference here and there. It is not much...

Prabhupāda: No, there is no difference. Everything. It is, rather, more...

Dr. Patel: In philosophy there is no difference, sir. But in...

Prabhupāda: In presentation, clarify. Yes. That is our business. Just like what I am doing. I am following the Ācāryas, but I am presenting, writing in such a way the modern man can understand. This is our point.

Dr. Patel: Modern man. Modernizing? (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Yes. You know him, this boy? He's a great-grandson of Henry Ford. He has contributed to our society not less than two crores of rupees.

Dr. Patel: He has got money.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: And Chapkhanna(?) cannot be very not good. Not very good. Your printing is wonderful. From where... Where is that place? From Japan?

Prabhupāda: America and Japan. We want wonderful books.

Dr. Patel: Very good.

Indian (5): I saw that printing by (indistinct). Nobody has printed such books. And also the language

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) language (Hindi), Sanskrit into English?

Morning Walk -- November 12, 1975, Bombay:

Girirāja: Gāṇdīva's mother.

Dr. Patel: No, but who said like that for that... Really he got that temple, no? This temple is his forefather's. And they were doing the śraddhā pūjā here. Then I knew that he died. He was a great, sort of a roguish man. His grandfather or somebody had some power to knows things here and there, and people used to come and worship him and give him some money. But this man started fanning him exactly like this, sort of a (Hindi). Parsis are coming very often. Parsis are very simple community.

Nara: He has committed suicide?

Dr. Patel: Yes, he has committed suicide, rightfully.

Nara: He was drinking and...

Dr. Patel: What was he not doing? What was he not doing? He was in all this sort a big debauch, mentally, physically, all sensually.

Prabhupāda: Why he committed suicide?

Dr. Patel: He burned himself by pouring kerosene on his clothes. You Nara, you are here, no?

Nara: Yes.

Dr. Patel: All his sisters are not married excepting one. They are forty, forty-five years.

Nara: (unclear) either man or woman (break)

Prabhupāda: ...worldwide known...

Morning Walk -- November 18, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: A small door?

Saurabha: No, no. This three big space, about seven feet, seven feet, seven feet. There's three openings.

Prabhupāda: (break) Scientists, do they accept this prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni (BG 3.27)?

Dr. Patel: I think many of those wise people do accept. But you have been harsh to all and none, all of them at par. But so many of them are really intelligent people who accept... Because we can't do so many things. Practically nothing we can do. Because we find out something here and there does not mean that we are perfect in knowledge. But the scientists nowadays are different than what the scientists were in those days when you were a student. And you think we are just like that. We are different today. He's a scientist. He will tell you. The scientists do see... Scientists do, does the darśana of God in every part of the science, in every cell of living cell, every atom.

Prabhupāda: No. What was the report?

Brahmānanda: Of the books?

Prabhupāda: No. The report, speak to him, that science...

Brahmānanda: The reporter? Scientist?

Prabhupāda: Scientist.

Girirāja: Oh, yes.

Dr. Patel: Few scientists may be like that. That does not mean all scientists are like that. We are here. Half a dozen of us are scientists, aren't we here?

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: So it went through the air, it went through the space, sounds.

Prabhupāda: The moon (astronaut) says that "There is no life." Then who is speaking? Nonsense. (laughter) They talk in the moon, and they hear from here, and "There is no life." And we have to take these authorities. (laughter)

Akṣayānanda: I remember once you said that we may not live in the water but that doesn't mean there's no such thing as a fish.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Akṣayānanda: So that is also a very good argument. I remember you gave that one.

Harikeśa: So the air is coming from the ether, so...

Prabhupāda: Because in the air there is sound. Therefore ether is there. It is a production of the ether.

Harikeśa: So would it be beneficial to try to understand the process of production? Like the example of the earth coming from the water. Because the water evaporates, there is left over minerals and salts and all these things...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Harikeśa: And the fire producing the water from excess heat. Like in the summer season and then the monsoon comes. And fire from air, from the friction generating electric current. But the air from the ether needs an example.

Morning Walk -- December 19, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, he advised, better water what is called, eggplant tree, than tulasī tree. It will bring some fruit. What is the use of watering tulasī tree?

Dr. Patel: Tulasi has got great medicinal properties.

Prabhupāda: That he is not even prepared to...

Dr. Patel: He must not be knowing. Those rascals.

Prabhupāda: And "Why you are searching out God here and there? There are so many Gods loitering in the street." This is the Vivekananda's statement. And therefore everyone is God. Everyone is thinking, "I am God." This is going on.

Śravaṇānanda: When we went to try to arrange a lecture at their football field for a pandal program, they said all the people coming would ruin the turf for cricket season. So they didn't have time for spiritual training, they said, only for the physical training. It caused too much damage on the field.

Dr. Patel: In my school, sir, where I was educated, in the entrance there is a statue of Sarasvatī, and nearby there is a photograph of Kṛṣṇa. I don't know how it came, that one.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dr. Patel: All are not like that. In my school where I was educated, secondary school, in the entrance there was a statue of Sarasvatī, and near that was Kṛṣṇa's photo. (pause) (someone shouts Hare Kṛṣṇa)

Prabhupāda: In good health.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes, the yogis can do that.

Harikeśa: Wouldn't that be handy? Couldn't a devotee utilize that?

Prabhupāda: What is the use?

Harikeśa: Well, instead of taking airplanes here and there, you could just...

Prabhupāda: No, no. What is the difference? If by practicing severe yogic means you fly, the birds are also flying. They are flying without airplane. Does it mean that it has become very great? There are many birds, garuḍa bird. They can fly from one planet to another. Just like small birds—they fly from one tree to another, take rest again—so they fly from this planet to another. Take rest, again another. What is the value of your airplane? You cannot go to another planet. There are birds; they catch up elephants and take it away for eating. Does it mean he has become, it has become God? There are Siddhaloka planets where the people can go without any airplane from one planet to another, Siddhaloka. They have got all yogic siddhi automatically, by birth. Just like we cannot fly, but a small bird, a small fly, from the birth it can fly. There are so many. So similarly, by birth they have got all yogic siddhis. This is called Siddhaloka. There are different varieties of planets, different varieties of perfection. Just like here also, I cannot dive into the water. A small fish can dive. I cannot fly in the sky but a small sparrow, it can go from here, here, immediately. Does it mean he is very advanced in yogic power because he can fly? You are proposing that. Nothing is any big achievement. The big achievement is how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is wanted. Not these things. These things.... You cannot do; I can do. I cannot do; he can do. What is the greatness?

Harikeśa: It seems harder to control the tongue than to fly.

Prabhupāda: Fly?

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: So what kind of government it is? It is a horrible government. And they are hackney only in literature. These communist country, the people are forced to accept the government regulation. And that is all bad. I have seen in Moscow, generally the people are morose, their face not very happy. They are also Europeans, they want freedom to go here and there (indistinct) and to work. The taxi driver-first of all there is scarcity of taxi, you can not get taxi...

Guru-kṛpā: Even in Moscow, big city.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That Professor Kotofsky, I asked him, "Please arrange for a taxi." (indistinct) "Well, Swamiji, this is Moscow." So he came down to the gate—he was very virtuous—he showed me, "You go this way, actually there was 3 or 4 lane then you find a short lane, then you go this way, this way, then you get to your hotel. He showed me some short cut, personally. They... He could not call a taxi. And somewhere we went, we got a taxi, private taxi, and that man was begging for more than the fare.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means the system...

Prabhupāda: "Can you not give me little more?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means the system is a failure.

Prabhupāda: And then I could understand. And they have got that there is tourist bus, taking here and there, that bus is third class. Even less opulent than in India.

Room Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: I was extending. The immigration officer came in Boston in my boat. He inquired about this. So he asked me, "Sir, Swamiji, how long you want to stay?" So I thought that I have no shelter, I have no money, but I have got the return ticket. So I did not know how long I... (laughs) He asked me, "How long you want to stay?" So I thought, "In these circumstances, I can stay at most two months, because I have no means where to stay, how to eat, and where shall I go? So I may struggle for two months." So I told him: "I may stay at most two months." He immediately, two months, sanctioned immediately. I could not think that I shall be able to... (laughs) That one month were there, sponsoring. So I thought "Another one month, that's all," that "This gentleman has sponsored for one month. So that is guaranteed. Then I can stay another one month. That's all." So after that, so I was staying here and there without any fixity. So I was extending the visa. Each time, I was paying ten dollars. Another three months, another three months, like that. And when one year was finished, they refused: "No extension."

Hari-śauri: But by that time you had some kind of...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: ...organization going?

Prabhupāda: Yes, hmm, at that time I was at Second Avenue. So then Raya Rāma took the help of a lawyer. He took the case, that he'll give me permanent residence. So he was extending only, and each time he was taking hundred and fifty dollars. So in this way, I entered in 1965, September, up to July—no, up to May—and in the May, month of May, there was heart stroke.

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

Prabhupāda: Now, if He is ordering to become His devotee, how can I try to become another God, competitor? This is the folly, and for this we are suffering. He asked him, "You become My devotee." And I want to become another God, competitor. And therefore we are suffering. We cannot become another God. That is not possible. But artificially you are trying. Therefore you are suffering. Anything you try artificially, you'll suffer. If you try for a thing artificially, then what is the result? Result will be suffering and disappointment. Therefore śāstra says, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayeteta kovidaḥ. Don't try for such things... You have tried all through in different forms of life. You have failed. So don't try for that. But try to become servant of God. Then your life will be successful. Because in the material world the endeavor is how to become God in different varieties: how to become president, how to become minister, how to become master, how to become very strong man, very wealthy man, very beautiful man, so on, so on, so on, up to—when everything fails—then how to become God. When everything fails, then, ultimately, "Now I shall become God." The same disease is there, how to become big, now the biggest. And that is the same disease in a different form. Therefore, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, it is said, kṛṣṇa-bhakta-niṣkāma, ataeva śānta, bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī-'aśānta' (CC Madhya 19.149). Bhukti means material enjoyment. Karmīs... Just like ordinary men, they are working so hard day and night. This airplane is running here and there, (loud airplane passing over) day and night, carrying karmīs. So this is bhukti. How to enjoy this material world fully, this is called bhukti. So because they are after bhukti, how there can be peace? He has to work very hard. And mukti, those who are jñānīs, they are trying to become one with God. So that is also very difficult. But still, there are so many sādhanas.

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

Prabhupāda: (laughter) Huh? That he can send to us. Milk is so nice that it cannot be wasted, even a drop. First of all you get milk, that is the Indian system. So there is a big milk pan, and as soon as the milk is drawn it is put into the pan. The pan is in the fire. So as much as you like, drink milk, children, elderly persons. Then at night, when there is no demand for milk, it is converted into yogurt, not wasted. Whatever balance milk is there is converted into yogurt. Then in daytime also you take yogurt, as much as you like. If it is not all consumed, then it is stored in a pot. Then when that pot is enough stored, then you churn it. Churn it, and you get butter and Buttermilk. So again you take buttermilk with cāpāṭi and everything, not a single drop is lost. Then the butter, you melt it, convert into ghee and store it, it will stay for years. So not a drop of milk can be wasted. And this butter, because in the village they are eating so much milk products, they do not require butter or ghee. Maybe little, so that is stored. They go to the city. The city men they require, especially. Ghee is very important thing in the city. So they purchase. So in exchange of that money, whatever they want, they purchase in the city and come back. But the simply maintaining the cows, their economic problem is solved. Simply maintaining the cows. And to maintain cow there is no difficulty. The boys.... Just like Kṛṣṇa, as boy, was taking the cows, the calves, in the fields. They are grazing here and there, and coming back they're giving milk. Only one attendant required to take them into the pasturing ground and bring them back home. You don't require to give them food even. Simply take care, they give milk, and with milk you make so many preparations. Yes?

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say why not make them high class.

Hari-śauri: There's no high-class men to teach them.

Prabhupāda: We are there.

Hari-śauri: Except for you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Just like that congressman yesterday, he was speaking, "I am a lawmaker." But he admitted that they are simply patching up here and there wherever they can. (break)

Devotee (1): Ambarīṣa? Somebody? Know what this building is?

Ambarīṣa: No, I don't know this park very well. It's a casino.

Devotee (1): It's a gambling house, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: (indistinct).

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: I've been visiting your buses, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and managing the book distribution with the buses. It's going very nicely. Ever since Māyāpur all the boys have doubled their collection and distribution. And as soon as all the debts from New York temple are paid, then more and more books can go. We'll try to do everything. (break) The men are just like the army. The van leaders, bus leaders. So everything is very efficient, clean, and very high-powered. (break) ...just two years ago, when we left India, that you wanted an army of sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs always traveling, distributing books.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Mādhavānanda: Police car.

Prabhupāda: Oh? Police cars very often visit this quarter?

Mādhavānanda: No.

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda? It's nine o'clock.

Prabhupāda: It may be ten o'clock. (laughter) What is the difference when here and there? (Prabhupāda laughs) Just like a blind man, he's sleeping, now his son is getting, "Please rise, it is now morning." So he said, "For me, morning and evening is the same thing. I am blind." Kebā rātra kebā din. "For me, there is no difference between day and night, because I cannot see anything."

Rakṣaṇa: Because you see only Kṛṣṇa all the time, Śrīla Prabhupāda, it doesn't matter whether you're in the room or in the garden.

Prabhupāda: So you want to see something other than, better than Kṛṣṇa? So ārati time is now? No. If you have to go, you can go.

Hari-śauri: No. The main ārati is finished at seven o'clock. (end)

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Satsvarūpa: We did not even want to take you down there last year to see it. We thought it is out of the question. And you said, "There's nothing to be afraid of. Just hold kīrtana there."

Prabhupāda: Yes. People are coming. Yesterday many gentlemen. Gradually you purchase that side land.

Mādhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we had so many people yesterday. We had about two hundred people in the temple room and three hundred people outside waiting in line for prasāda.

Satsvarūpa: They were all wandering around the grounds. It was very pleasant. So many people taking here and there, preaching.

Prabhupāda: That house is exactly suitable for our purpose in every way. It was Kṛṣṇa's desire.

Hari-śauri: Even the people that passed on the boat stopped. We preached to them as well.

Mādhavānanda: I was thinking, Śrīla Prabhupāda, it would be nice to have dioramas.

Prabhupāda: First of all, give some signboard.

Mādhavānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Then dioramas.

Mādhavānanda: All right. (end)

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. This breakneck civilization. Just like dog, they're very, very busy. If you watch a dog, sometimes you'll see he's running here, running there, running here, running there. But no credit. Similarly, the modern scientists, they're running, running, running, very busy, but simply patchwork. They have no conclusion.

Prabhupāda: I was talking of these cars. The dog is running on legs, and they are running on cars. So, (laughs) actually what is the difference? This is advancement of civilization, that the dog is running for nothing, here and there on legs, and human being is running on nice car. Does it mean there is advance in civilization? If we keep the human being like cats and dogs, without any advancement of knowledge, the cats and dogs, they cannot accept any advanced knowledge. That is not possible. Similarly, if human society is kept in darkness without any advanced knowledge, without any knowledge of the aim of life and without any knowledge what is the meaning of human life, they'll remain as cats and dogs. So as cats and dogs, if they are practiced to run here and there, either on legs or on cars, is that advancement of civilization?

Indian man: Swami, there was a news item in the paper last year, some research scholars at Jesuit University performed some experiments, and then they said that Kṛṣṇa consciousness people lose initiative for doing things. They don't fight the battle of life. It takes away the initiative from them. It was published in papers.

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

Hari-śauri: Control wheat?

Prabhupāda: Yes. They purchase from here and there all rejected wheat, and they supply it. There is no ghee, no milk, no proper food grain. Everything black market. Any necessary commodity you cannot have in the open market; you have to purchase in black market. Just like for the building purpose, cement. In your country you can purchase any amount of it. You cannot purchase. You have to purchase black market, and that cement also mixed with some... What is that? And unless you give some bribe, it is not possible. (break)

Viśvakarmā: ...for the balcony in the church in the other room? How can we... (announcement being made)

Prabhupāda: ...fit for sitting. That is very nice. And next time when I come the seat should be just Deity altar, so that all balcony can see.

Viśvakarmā: Seat should be?

Prabhupāda: My seat should be near the altar of the Deity.

Hari-śauri: The vyāsāsana. Like in Los Angeles, at the side? On the left-hand side?

Prabhupāda: Not left-hand side. Just like you are facing Deity and there are spaces here.

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

Prabhupāda: Now questions?

Devotee (1): So is there ever, for someone whose determination wavers and slackens here and there, is there ever a point where the neophyte devotee is in danger of just forgetting everything and falling, tumbling completely back?

Prabhupāda: Everyone is neophyte. He should practice determination, that's all. If he cannot practice, then why should he enter into this association? Let him remain aloof. One who has entered with the determination that "I must practice," so if he cannot practice, then why this makeshow that "I belong to Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. I am initiated." Why this farce? He must practice with determination that "By practicing I'll be success." That is wanted. He has no determination, why should he make a show? Dṛḍha-vrata. Bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ. Dṛḍha-vrata, that is wanted, determination. Hmm, go on. When one is determined, his success is assured. If he's not determined, then success or failure.

Devotee (1): Can one develop determination gradually?

Prabhupāda: Why gradually? When you promise before your spiritual master that no illicit sex, no gambling, no meat-eating, why should you fall down? If you have no determination, why should you promise in presence of the Deity, fire, spiritual master, Vaiṣṇava? Why do you make this farce, if you have no determination? If you want to make it a farce, that depends on you. But you should not.

Devotee (1): When we make that promise...

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, besides that, there is a swimming pool.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: We would go out and have water fights.

Prabhupāda: And they have kept five peacocks.

Hari-śauri: Seven.

Prabhupāda: Seven. They are very free moving, here and there, and chanting.

Kīrtanānanda: They stay on the grounds?

Hari-śauri: They never leave the grounds. They sleep up in one tree.

Prabhupāda: They are free to move from one tree to another, but they don't go outside. Only complaint they are eating flowers.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Yes, they are eating all the flowers.

Prabhupāda: They are also trained, they are not afraid. They are sitting, you go, they are not afraid. They have been trained up that "We are at home." That animals and any birds can be trained. Just like these cows, they know that all of you are friends. Animals can understand. Even if you can make friends with the tigers and lions. Yes. I have seen it. In that New York exhibition, one man was showing me. He was embracing the lion and playing like dog. I've seen it.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I have that.

Prabhupāda: So what is his, what is the charge?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He says that people are accusing that Hinduism, it inhibits the progress of mankind.

Prabhupāda: What is that progress? Dog's jumping is progress? (laughter) Is that progress? A dog is running here and there, here and there, and you are running on the four wheels? Is that progress? That is not Vedic system. The Vedic system is that human being has got a certain amount of energy. Better energy than the animals. Better consciousness. That should be utilized for spiritual advancement. So whole Vedic system is meant for spiritual advancement. The energy is employed in another direction, not the energy is employed to compete with the dog. Therefore sometimes those who have no idea of religion, they see that the... "Hindus" is not the proper term. The Indian saintly persons, they are not busy like the dogs. Because they think the dog race is life. But actual life is spiritual progress. Therefore śāstra says,

tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido

na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ

tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ

kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā

(SB 1.5.18)

The human being should exert the energy for that thing which he did not get in many, many lives. Many, many lives he had been in the form of dogs or demigods or cats, birds, beasts, many. There are 8,400,000. So this transmigration is going on, but in everywhere the business is sense gratification. The dog is busy for sense gratification. Where is food, where is shelter, where is woman or man, and where is defense. And the man is also doing the same business in different forms. So this is going on, life after life. Even in small insect, this is also trying for the same thing. Same struggle, ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam. Bird, beast, animal, fish—everywhere the same struggle. Where is food, where is sex, and where is shelter, and how to defend.

Interview with Mike Darby -- June 30, 1976, Wheeling, W. Virginia:

Prabhupāda: So it is the duty of the Christians. But they are also... What can I say? They are passing resolution according to the time, changing the instruction of Bible. How they can be fixed-up? Our standard is Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. We accept guru as representative of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If he speaks what Kṛṣṇa has spoken, then he is guru. Similar in Christianity, if they actually take care that whether one is speaking according to the Ten Commandments, if he is living according to the rules and regulations of the Ten Commandments, then he is guru. Why people accept them? Because they are ignorant, they do not know who is real and who is fake. But the standard is there. Take for example in the Bible, it is said "Thou shalt not kill." But everyone is killing. Killing is the business of the Christians. They are maintaining big, big slaughterhouse. We are maintaining cows here, and there are others, they are maintaining cows for slaughtering. Why? In these Commandments it is clearly said that "Thou shalt not kill." How they will detect? If they are violating themselves the laws, how they will punish the lawbreaker? "Physician, heal thyself." The physician himself is diseased, and he's going to treat other patients.

Darby: So they all just continue in a circle to break their own laws.

Prabhupāda: What can be done?

Darby: Would it help if someone took the Bible and wrote a Vaiṣṇava purport or tried to simplify it so that people could understand it? The language is difficult for the common man now to understand.

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

Prabhupāda: That is foolishness. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This human life is meant for becoming educated about Brahman. They will not take it. They want to remain animals, eating and sleeping, this animal life. Eat nicely, sleep nicely, have sex life nicely, defend nicely, that's all. Nicely, according to the standard of the body. Here in America, to have a conveyance nicely like a car like this, but in Indian village, a bullock cart is nicely. So this nicely and that nicely, according to the body. You have got this American body, this is nicely. He has got Indian body, that is nicely. But the feeling of niceness is there and here. We are having sex in a very nice apartment, decorated and so on, so on, and a dog is having sex on the street. But the pleasure of sex life is both the same. But we are thinking this is nice. But that is not the fact. The niceness, the feelings of niceness, is there and here.

Vipina: And so much suffering.

Prabhupāda: Simply you have to take so much trouble. That is Prahlāda Mahārāja's instruction. Sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām. The sense gratification, the standard of sense gratification, is deha-yogena dehinām, according to the body. The pig is eating very nicely stool because he has got a body like that. A human being will not take that. But the pleasure of eating, either stool or rasagullā, the same.

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.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes. As he desired, so he got a form. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). The form is offered by the Supreme Absolute Truth, as he desires. Just like the cloth has no form, but as the customer desires, the tailor gives a form suitable to his desire. Similarly, material world means we have got varieties. In the spiritual world also we have got varieties. Because we are originally of varieties of form, we are getting these varieties of body, being influenced by the modes of material nature. So I'm desiring that if I get such body, I can eat even stool. So God gives you, "All right, you take this body. Become a pig and eat stool." This is going on. Why? Your desiring. You eat, actually. So īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He's friendly, He's sitting in everyone's heart, and the living entity is desiring. So bhrāmayan. Desiring means he wants to go here and there. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni (BG 18.61). He gives a particular type of yantra, machine. This body is machine. Body is machine, everyone accepts. This is a machine. If we want to go to India, we ride on a machine, airplane, and go there. Similarly, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni. We want varieties of life, and God gives us a particular machine to ride on and travel, go to heaven, go to hell, become a dog, become a cat, become a demigod, become a tree. This is going on. Transmigration of the soul. God gives us a particular type of body, and we change from one machine to another. This is transmigration.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In this connection, one quality that is quite visible is the, that matter in association with life, there is a constant flow of matter that biologists describe as metabolism. Means we eat some food, and then prasādam is digested in specific ways by so many chemical reactions in the body. But that happens only...

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission, that asat-saṅga tyāga vaiṣṇava ācāra. The Vaiṣṇava's behavior is to give up bad company. Who is bad? Next question will be that "I have to give up the bad company. Who is bad?" Then He says, next line: asat stri saṅgī 'kṛṣṇabhakta' āra. Two words. Those who are too much attached to woman and those who are not devotees of Kṛṣṇa, they are bad. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says give up the company of these two bad men, that's all. That is Vaiṣṇava. So everything is there. If you simply follow with sincerity, then Kṛṣṇa is pleased. As Arjuna says, "Yes, kariṣye vacanaṁ tava (BG 18.73)." That's all. He becomes perfect. And Kṛṣṇa immediately accepts, na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ (BG 18.69). He becomes immediately recognized by Kṛṣṇa. Ya idaṁ paramaṁ guhyaṁ mad-bhakteṣv abhidhāsyati (Bg 18.68). Na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ (BG 18.69). Priya-kṛttamaḥ, superlative. Priya-kṛt, priya-kṛtara, priya-kṛttamaḥ. So let us follow the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā as it is, our life will be perfect. That is a fact. Don't divert your attention here and there.

Devotee: Prabhupāda, you were a chemist before, but I think you are the greatest alchemist to have taken so many leaden souls and turned them into golden Vaiṣṇavas. Perhaps you can even transform them (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa is giving us facilities to preach this cult. Everywhere we have got very, very palatial buildings to accommodate devotees. Now we have got here a very nice place, accommodate devotees. Everywhere we have got. In Bombay we are getting the best temple in India. We are spending crores of rupees, Kṛṣṇa is giving us money. So I started the business with forty rupees. That was also not American currency. They allowed me to bring forty rupees. So when I was getting off the ship I asked the captain, "I have brought these forty rupees, which will not be accepted here, so you take." At that time three books I had, the first, second and third volume. So I asked him that "You purchase. Give me some dollars." So he asked, "What is the price?" "Sixteen dollars." So he gave me twenty dollars, and I delivered them. With that twenty dollars I got out down on the land of America, and that forty rupees. So I did not know where to go, where to stay. So Kṛṣṇa is giving us all facilities, and these American boys are helping. I think those who are Indians, they should join this movement sincerely and preach more vigorously. People will be benefited—this is real substance. Otherwise people are being misguided, so many things going on. Transcendental meditation, the, what is called? No, another. So many. Actually, speaking for the last at least two hundred years, many swamis, people came here, but not a single person was converted to become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. That is history. What do you think, Sukla? You have studied. So many swamis, yogis, scholars came, and they spoke on Bhagavad-gītā and other, but not a single person became a devotee of Kṛṣṇa.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: It is a machine manufactured by the material nature under the order of Kṛṣṇa. So actually it is not my body, it is Kṛṣṇa's body. Kṛṣṇa has given us. He has given you a particular type of body, He has given me a particular type of body, so many. Yantra, machine. Just like on a machine, motorcar, we sit down and travel here and there. So we wanted to travel in a certain way so we require some machine, and Kṛṣṇa has given us this machine manufactured by material nature. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ suyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). So Kṛṣṇa is within the core of heart of everyone. He knows what I want. He's giving us facilities. We wanted to enjoy this material world, and He's still giving direction, "All right, you want to get this facility, sit down on it and travel as you like." So we are getting different machines. Sometimes the human body machine, sometimes dog machine, sometimes cat machine, sometimes demigod machine. We are desiring all these things. American machine, Indian machine. When you are in Indian machine you are thinking "I am Indian. My business is to satisfy Indian interests." You Americans are thinking "This is American machine; it should be used for America's benefit." These are upādhi. Upādhi means designation. Neither I am Indian nor American nor cat nor dog. But as soon as I get a particular type of body, I think that I am cat, I am dog, I am Indian, I am America, I am black, I am white, this. This is our position. And people are struggling on this understanding, "I am this body." So long we think like that, "I am this body," we are no better than cats and dogs. He is also thinking "I am this body." Is it not? What do you think, Mr. Sukla? If I think I am this body, the dog is also thinking "I am this body," then where is the difference between the dog and me? What do you think, Mr... How shall I address you?

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

Prabhupāda: Our building is on the Fifty-fourth?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty-fifth Street. Just near Broadway, one block from Broadway.

Prabhupāda: Broadway is important place.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very important. Our building is right in the midst of the theater, restaurant and entertainment section of the city.

Prabhupāda: In New York I feel little homely because first I came here, I was loitering on the street here and there. From 1965 September, to '67 July, continually I stayed in New York.

Rāmeśvara: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja gave one class this morning. So he was explaining that we cannot understand the good fortune of this city that you have come here. We cannot begin to estimate how fortunate this city is.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I, when I decided I shall go to foreign countries, I never thought of going to London, I thought of coming here. Generally they go to London, but I thought, "No, I shall go to New York."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very progressive.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) I do not know. It is Kṛṣṇa's dictation. I could have gone, London was nearer. But I thought, "No I shall go to New York." Sometimes I think I was coming this part. Aimlessly... I think the United Nations building is somewhere here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a little further down. It's on this avenue, it's on Forty-fourth Street, we are on Ninety-sixth Street. We are a little bit uptown.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I don't think human society has been educated to even understand the problem what to speak of a cure.

Prabhupāda: Problem there is, but he's a fool. Who wants to die? Why this fire brigade is running here and there? To save life. He doesn't want to die.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They will say though that everyone has to die.

Prabhupāda: They will say that is... Whatever they... Foolishly whatever they may say, then let them say. Actually he doesn't like to die. Otherwise let there be fire, why you called fire brigade? Let me die peacefully in the fire. (laughter) Nonsense he's suffering, but still he says there is no suffering. That is nonsense. That is ignorance. He's suffering every moment, but he does not know why he's suffering. That is ignorance. Just like an animal, you are taking into the slaughterhouse. He's suffering, he's screaming, but he does not know why you have taken to slaughterhouse (indistinct). And that is animal life. And when there will be question of why I am suffering? I did not want this fire, why there is fire? That is perfection (indistinct). Is there any solution? Then there is human life. And if he remains like animal, and simply try to make some remedial measures... He's suffering undoubtedly, but because he does not take it seriously, therefore he's animal. Animal does not take seriously why he's suffering. That is the distinction between human life and animal life. Suffering is there, but the animal does not take it seriously. But human life must take it seriously otherwise he's an animal. There are so many sufferings. This is adhibhau... adhidaivika. Adhidaivika: by—you say accident—by nature, by superior power. Some miserable condition is enforced upon us. Suppose if there is an earthquake, that is not in your hand, but it may cause some havoc. This is adhidaivika. Similar, adhibhautika: Suffering caused by other living entities. And adhyātmika, suffering caused by this body and mind. So suffering is always there, but we are suffering, we have been accustomed to suffer. But when the question is that why I am suffering, whether there is any remedy? That is human life.

Morning Walk at Niavaran Park -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Nava-yauvana: There is no use.

Prabhupāda: Every one of us, we are attached to the body, and on account of being attached to the body the material activities are going on. These motorcars are running, karmīs are going here and there, what is the purpose? To maintain the road? Divasa śarīra-sāje. Miche nida-baśe gelo re rāti divasa śarīra-sāje. The body is given rest at night to revive, and daytime the activities for the matter of maintaining the body. But despite my all endeavor to maintain this body, it will not stay. It will give up my company and I'll have to accept another. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So Bali Mahārāja says "What is the use of such endeavor?" Therefore big, big saintly persons, they do not care for the body. Lie down anywhere. But they are very serious about spiritual advancement. And people in general, they are interested in maintaining the body. It is not that we should be neglectful to the body. That example is also there. Just like we require fruits and flowers. So if we neglect the tree, there will be no fruits and flower. If we cut the tree, it will dry up and there will be no fruits and flowers. The fruits and flowers, this human body, the fruits and flowers mean self-realization. Bali Mahārāja analyzes the family. He says family means rogues and thieves. Whatever you want, they'll take away. The pickpocket takes from your pocket and he becomes a criminal, and when the wife takes thousand dollars from your pocket, you do not consider her to be criminal. You laugh, "Oh, you have taken the money?" "Yes, I've taken." The business is a pickpocket. But in one case we say "criminal," and one case we say "friend." The business is the same. Svajanākhya-dasyu. Actually thieves and rogues, but we have named them "relatives."

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So enjoy life. "I have no money." Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet. "Beg, borrow, steal, bring ghee, and prepare nice preparation and enjoy." Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet, yāvāj jivet sukhaṁ jivet. So long you live, enjoy. "I'll become a debtor. Then I'll act sinfully." Bhasmi bhūtasya dehasya kutaḥ punar agamano bhavet. Your body will be burnt and everything finished. This philosophy is going on. But Kṛṣṇa says: na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), the body is burned, don't think that you are burned. You are living. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Who is caring for that? Nobody cares. And still they are passing as paṇḍita, philosopher, scientist. This is misfortune of the present civilization. A person who is equal to go-kharaḥ, he is the teacher, he is the philosopher, he is leader.

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ

durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās

te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ

(SB 7.5.31)

People are running like anything in the street, bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They are thinking that this civilization, having nice roads and streets and number of cars and running here and there, this is... Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They do not know what is the goal of life. And if you ask the goal of life, "What is goal of life?" "After death everything is finished," that's all. "Let me enjoy." Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet.(?) Beg borrow, steal, bring money and enjoy. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). If by his activities he's going to be a lower animal next life, then what is the value of his so much business and activities? Therefore they do not believe in next life. Close the eyes. Never mind, where is the danger in front.

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So we see practically in our farm the cows give more milk than other farms.

Dr. Patel: The satisfaction of the animal.

Prabhupāda: They are very satisfied. You have been in New Vrindaban with me? No, you were not. So the cows are so happy that... Just like in India. They are walking here and there.

Dr. Patel: They don't do anything. Now they have, they have (Hindi), brought some crossing and each cow, Jersey cows and Indian cows, they have crossed and they are producing more than thirty, forty liters of milk every day.

Prabhupāda: One liter means?

Dr. Patel: Two pounds.

Prabhupāda: So we have got cows, they are supplying more than hundred pounds.

Indian: This cost is three thousand rupees, one cow. Four thousand. (Hindi) pure cows five thousand rupees.

Dr. Patel: They have brought some Holland bulls and Jersey cows and then Indian bulls, and brought some genetic researchers brought out a new hybrid.

Indian: It is very good cow, very good. Giving thirty to forty liters per day.

Hari-śauri: Those cows we have in the Pennsylvania farm, the two best ones, they're the two best pedigree cows in the whole of America. They have their pedigree traced back two hundred and fifty years to when the first cows came to America. Purebreds.

Prabhupāda: In our Philadelphia farm we are selling fifteen hundred dollars extra milk. Fifteen hundred dollars per month. So if cow is properly protected, it can supply immense milk.

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

Jayapatākā: No, it's not necessary to personally see him. You might write... When you come to Māyāpur we'll write him invitation that he can come and see and visit you there. That was better. Mr. Choudhuri said that "Your Guru Mahārāja, he has got also the Vaiṣṇava pride not to see the politicians." He said, "This is a good stand. I respect this very much." Actually he mentioned once to Abhirāma confidentially that "If this project comes through, then you'll be requiring some liaison officer because there will be so many government things. At that time I can work for you as your permanent advisor and go to Delhi and here and there and do all the work." I think he wants a job.

Prabhupāda: I thought Mr. Choudhuri would do everything, but that is not the position.

Jayapatākā: Almost he is doing everything. Actually he's trying to say that he did everything. But I think that when we saw Tarun Kanti Ghosh that that cleared up that matter with Chief Minister that cleared that up. As far as the other lower secretary men are..., Mr. Choudhuri did everything. The Chief Minister doubt, I think Tarun helped clear that up. That's the only thing that he couldn't change the mind of is the Chief Minister. Otherwise he did everything else, almost, you can say.

Gargamuni: He came on the last ekādaśī. Just last ekādaśī, what, ten days ago? Seven days he came for the ekādaśī to Māyāpur just to see.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Gargamuni: Tarun Kanti Ghosh. He took prasādam, he took the ekādaśī and he liked it very much.

Jayapatākā: I just saw him also just before Janmāṣṭamī, and he was still very favorable then. We talked for about an hour and a half. He introduced me to all the M.L.A's of the twenty-four paraganās.

Prabhupāda: Tarun Kanti?

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

Prabhupāda: That is the purpose of my Bhaktivedanta Trust. Fifty percent must be spent for printing and fifty percent for building. That's all. No money. Don't keep any account.

Gargamuni: Then the government will never get envious because there's nothing there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And we haven't got to keep so many accountant, auditors, and other nonsense, unnecessary things. As soon as there is collection, invest the money in some building or in making some book, book printing. Follow this policy. I am very much eager. I have got money here and there, but I want to spend it in this way. So therefore I am advising take this. We shall invest renovating them and in developing them. Spend money. Don't keep money.

Jayapatākā: Yes. So I'll tell them our policy is changed. We don't keep any more money in fixed deposit because it's a losing bargain?

Prabhupāda: That's it. Actually it is losing. Actually it is losing. Every day the price... Just like the price of rice has increased.

Jayapatākā: It is up and down.

Prabhupāda: Up and down, now... Take it. When it goes up it does not come down, generally. So this is practical example. Two months ago you were purchasing two rupees—now two-eighty. So where is the value of the money?

Gargamuni: If we invest in books... Just like this little pamphlet I printed. It cost me fifty paisa. If we sell it in one month...

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa baḍo doyāmoy. Because we want eating, so He is giving His mercy through eating. Eating nobody will refuse. So by eating he is being favored by Kṛṣṇa. This is the process. You understand Bengali? Kṛṣṇa baḍo doyāmoy, He's very merciful. Koribāre jihvā jay. We are accustomed to eat, go to the restaurant, go to the hotel, go to here and there, at home and so on. Simply eating, eating. So this is jihvā lampaṭa. Prostitution of the tongue. Just like a woman prostitute is not satisfied with one man. Similarly, our tongue is like a prostitute. It is not satisfied with simple foods. Sometimes here, sometimes there, sometimes on the street, sometimes on the restaurant, sometimes a hotel. Regular prostitution. It is called tongue prostitution. There are prostitution of three things: prostitution of the tongue, prostitution of the belly, and prostitution of the genital. Three kinds of. Udara-upastha-vegam. Jihvā-udara-upastha-vegam (NOI 1). Straight line. So to stop this prostitution is to control the tongue. The tongue prostitution means he wants to eat varieties of foodstuff. Kṛṣṇa is so merciful, "All right, you eat varieties of prasāda." Then tongue prostitution is controlled and naturally the belly and the genital controlled. Kṛṣṇa baḍo doyāmoy koribāre jihvā jay. To own victory over the tongue, He has given varieties... Therefore all nice things should be offered to Kṛṣṇa and then take prasāda. They will be benefited.

Maṇihāra: This is Kṛṣṇa's arrangement, special.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: When you originally were speaking about Vṛndāvana, you mentioned that Vṛndāvana would be a place for those people who have become a little disturbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or burned out, we call it, from so much activity, that he comes here and gets rejuvenated. Is that still...

Prabhupāda: That is a fact, but provided he is devotee. If he's not a devotee then he will go away, here and there, here and there. That is the habit. And a devotee is satisfied anywhere. A devotee is not that "I'll go to Vṛndāvana, then I'll be satisfied." Nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati (SB 6.17.28). I did not go to your country taking Vṛndāvana with me. I had to stay in places where in the refrigerator there is meat. And I was cooking. When opened it I saw, "Here is meat. All right, what can be done? Hare Kṛṣṇa." That's all.

Akṣayānanda: But actually you did take Vṛndāvana with you.

Prabhupāda: So if I would have stuck to Vṛndāvana, "No, no, I cannot go anywhere, leaving Vṛndāvana." No, we can go to hell if there is Kṛṣṇa's service.

Harikeśa: So is there some time that maybe somebody could stay here when he comes in that frame of consciousness?

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is... Not that. It should be now restricted. Not that anyone comes and whimsically goes away. This should be restricted.

Garden Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Caraṇāravindam: Should we consider that it's more beneficial for people to hear bhaja śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya...

Prabhupāda: Why? There is already... Why should you go here and there? There is already śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda. Why you are so anxious to go out of it?

Caraṇāravindam: No, I'm saying is it more beneficial for people to hear that mantra than the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Is it more beneficial for people to hear the Pañca-tattva mantra than the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. You are going to Hare Kṛṣṇa through Nitāi-Gaura. Nitāiyer karuṇā habe braje rādhā-kṛṣṇa pābe. The principle is don't try to manufacture. Because you are not experienced. So what nonsense you will manufacture, that will be offensive. Better go on, the simple thing.

Akṣayānanda: I know one devotee that chants Pañca-tattva mantra...

Prabhupāda: Let them chant whatever. We shall chant like this, Pañca-tattva-śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. I've explained that. Five features of Lord Caitanya.

Akṣayānanda: He chants that mantra on his beads.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dhanañjaya: So I was wondering...

Prabhupāda: Can you come, there... (break) There are, what is called, Deity makers here?

Dhanañjaya: Well, most of the Deities, they are cast in Aligarh.

Prabhupāda: Aligarh? Oh.

Dhanañjaya: Yes. Then they're brought here and there is, craftsmen, they finish. They polish then they add...

Prabhupāda: So who is from Aligarh? You go to we have got a best friend in Aligarh.

Dhanañjaya: Surendra Kumar. Surendra Kumar.

Prabhupāda: Ah. He'll get you all those things.

Harikeśa: He should know everything about that because he's making lots.

Prabhupāda: And another... Aligarh is the best place. What is that?

Devotee: It's the gentleman who was with you last night Śrīla Prabhupāda, Prem Yogi. He has come with his luggage.

Prabhupāda: Prem Yogi. So give him that place vacated by the old man.

Hari-śauri: Next to Akṣayānanda's room. Seventeen. Take him up there.

Harikeśa: Actually you can just bring him to Bhakti Pradhāna and tell him. Bhakti Pradhāna is the manager of the guest house, so he should take care of it.

Prabhupāda: No, this old man has gone. So give him that place. Yes.

Devotee: I believe there are two men.

Prabhupāda: Two men that's all right. Yes.

Room Conversation (Bullock Cart SKP) -- September 12, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I have seen, Gandhi wanted to organize a program, village (break) ...in the field, that this program for constructing toilet in the village, they have spent so much. You know that? The first business was toilet. To restrict them to pass stool here and there, they must have. Now in constructing that toilet paraphernalia, (indistinct), they... Therefore it failed, village organization. Not for that purpose. There were many purpose. Because they had no engagement, so why they should remain in the village? There are so many attraction in the city, and they get money. The factory-wallas, they're inviting, "Come here. You shall get twenty rupees per day." Why shall he remain in the village? So if you can organize in the villages, they are interested in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and getting nice prasādam, then... One must have some attachment. In the city there are so many artificial attachments. So on what ground they'll remain in the village? Mind, always remember this. Unless you have got some attachment, there is no possibility. Gandhi's program was very nice, village organize so that they may not come to the city and help the capitalists. Remain satisfied in the village. But where is that satisfaction? That is the failure.

Lokanātha: If they add the holy name to their lives, they will...

Room Conversation (Bullock Cart SKP) -- September 12, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, they're thinking that so many people are coming to the cities, how we shall provide them? That's a problem. After all government has to supply them rations. Where is so much foodstuff? And if they are not supplied, then there will be resentment. That's a fact. What they are doing in the city, so many scooter (makes motor sound), going here and there. Actually no engagement. The girls are loitering in the street by dressing. It will become more and more problems, city life. So this is the solution, that they must go back to the village. But they are trained up to enjoy the facilities, so-called facilities, of the city. They are not going to village. But if we can introduce this hari-saṅkīrtana, and if they have little taste, that is success. It's a great program. And that taste will come-ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). If he simply becomes little sober that "I want to eat, I have to sleep, I want some sense enjoyment and defense. So if I can get easily in the village, why shall I go three hundred miles away? Just keep in mind the psychology. So that simple life will be possible if one is bhakta. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra syāt (SB 11.2.42). Only by devotion. Not by otherwise. Not by artificial means, by manufacturing toilet. Only bhakti. If they get little attachment for Kṛṣṇa the questions will be solved automatically. And they will be happy. Undoubtedly. That is the Caitanya Mahāprabhu's first instruction. Ceto-darpaṇa.

Lokanātha: I come from village, and I'm happy now as I have taken to holy name and prasāda. So more, other villagers... Half of these boys are from villages?

Prabhupāda: Yes, they are villagers.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: For us there is no problem Prabhupāda, but it may be difficult for your Divine Grace.

Prabhupāda: No what is difficult? (laughter) But I want to do something for India in the village. So that I... That, we are getting lands, making one center, we can go here and there, not continually. Suppose here is a center, we go sometimes this side, sometimes this side, sometimes come back again.

Haṁsadūta: Um hm.

Hari-śauri: Find one good camping spot.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You go early in the morning and do something. If it is favorable... Just like in Bengal they are doing. (They get) good reception. You have heard it?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, I heard.

Prabhupāda: Very good reception.

Haṁsadūta: Villagers give the best reception.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Haṁsadūta: Because they're...

Prabhupāda: Still.

Haṁsadūta: They're still faithful to culture.

Hari-śauri: Unless we get the farm, this farming scheme set up within the next...

Prabhupāda: We are getting so many.

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

Prabhupāda: Going on.

Aksayananda: Mm.

Prabhupāda: When they will come back?

Aksayananda: About one week, one and a half weeks.

Prabhupāda: So we can ask them to come back. The car will be required both here and there.

Aksayananda: OK. That's easy enough.

Prabhupāda: Mm. Or any other car available?

Hari-śauri: (indistinct) Krishna Chand.

Aksayananda: No, he doesn't have one.

Prabhupāda: No, Vis... (indistinct).

Hari-śauri: We have the motor-cycle.

Aksayananda: We can arrange elsewhere.

Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mahāṁśa: Because if he comes his cook will also come.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. His cook and servant, yes. So make this arrangement so that everything should be inaugurated tomorrow, not more than that. So You have to purchase vegetable and then make a big, big scheme. Bambharambhe(?) laghu-kriyā. Ārambha, very big, and action, very little. And ask some of our devotees to collect all the gobars and bring here. I want gobar. There so much gobars scattered here and there. Take one basket and two men may go and collect all of them, put it in the sunshine. So nowadays sunshine is so bright. You can have so many things exposed to sunshine. All vitamins. So you immediately make program for vegetable, fruits, flower, surrounding this, immediately. So how Bhogilal will be brought here?

Mahāṁśa: In his car.

Prabhupāda: In his car. So make arrangement. Either we both of us, we may stay there or one here, one there.

Mahāṁśa: And the secretaries can stay here.

Prabhupāda: Secretaries, as they are staying. I think one can manage that. There is no difficulty. (break) So all the devotees here, they are all required there?

Mahāṁśa: No.

Prabhupāda: Then why... So the temple work is not suffering?

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Well why you are going here and there? Why don't you take one Bhagavad-gītā.

Indian lady: Inquisitive mind asks that question.

Prabhupāda: I do not know what is Guru Grantha Saheb, but I know Bhagavad-gītā. That's all. I am not so learned scholar that I have to read this, that, that. I simply know what Kṛṣṇa has said, and I know Caitanya Mahāprabhu advises yāre dekha tāre kaha. That I have done. That's all.

Indian man: You have six o'clock in the morning same thing, six o'clock in the evening same thing. No change. In the morning I was also there. No change. I've brought this gentleman and this lady they want to come here and stay and work for the institution. He's 74 years old and she's also very active and she knows very good cooking.

Prabhupāda: Hm, very good.

Indian man: They cannot speak in English. That's the whole difficulty, they are speaking Hindi and Gujarati. They are very, feeling very shy. And he's very great expert in growing this wheat grass which has become very popular. Everybody likes very much. Your devotees are also liking. He's an expert in this. He's a very good music teacher, he has a very good tape recordist. Puppeteer, also he's making these puppet for last twenty years. He's expert in making puppets. We can make kṛṣṇa-kathā puppets also for our theater. And he can train our young boys for the same thing. Video tape and everything, he knows about this audio-visual communication...

Prabhupāda: Everyone has got some talent. So svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya. That is wanted. Whatever talent you have got you can utilize for Kṛṣṇa.

Indian man: And I want to utilize for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I know him for last 22 years.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) ...this grass.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's all. And if we have to take contribution, take ISKCON. They're free. But for Bhaktivedanta Trust there is no need of contribution. Then there will be exemption certificate required and so on. We don't want any contribution. If anyone wants to contribute, let him contribute to the ISKCON. They're tax free. And here there is no tax, no tax free. That's all. Print book and sell and spend. Follow this policy there and here also, and push these books. That is our main preaching. Somehow or other, it must go, from door to door, hand to hand. Then our preaching is successful. Anyone who will read, he'll get some benefit. That is sure, because such literatures are not available throughout the whole world. It is a new revolution to the people in general. Am I right or not?

Rāmeśvara: Definitely.

Prabhupāda: That's all. (laughs) Then do it now. And I shall spend all this money for advertisement. That's all.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: One of the biggest bookstores in Bombay, International Book House, has arranged a whole window display of your books.

Prabhupāda: That is useless.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Many people were seeing it.

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

Prabhupāda: Śraddhā-śabde viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya. This is basic platform, that "What Kṛṣṇa says, that is truth." Kṛṣṇa bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya: "If I follow Kṛṣṇa, then my business is complete." This is intelligence. Now... We have come to the open field. How it is nice. And so long we were passing through that congested areas-hellish, simply hellish. And now here is open space. How it is nice.

Hari-śauri: To enter into a city is so imposing on your consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Up to that point, simply rubbish, all papers thrown here and there. People are living in... Now see here, how it is open and pleasing. Organize this farm project. Farm. (background talking)

Hari-śauri: He's just saying that in the West one requires a great deal of capital. To start a farm, to get the land, you need a lot of money because land is very expensive. And also we have to use modern farming techniques because we have so few men to run the farms.

Prabhupāda: No, you show example. People will do automatically. When the people find it is very nice, they will take.

Hari-śauri: Should we try to make an effort to have our householders go and live on the farms, a special effort? If it's ready to do that?

Prabhupāda: Why householders? Everyone. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (japa)

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: I was going to purchase ticket, Māgha Melā. He said "No, you don't go. That's it."

Bhāgavata: Then there is a lake over here and there is animals, birds, different types of birds.

Prabhupāda: Oh, zoological.

Bhāgavata: Yes, zoological. All types. And on this side they have the lions, tigers, bears... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...the forest and see actually. (laughter) Hare Kṛṣṇa. In Africa they're open.

Bhāgavata: Yes, in that national park in Nairobi.

Prabhupāda: The dog also knows that he's in the cage.

Bhāgavata: This is an Indian lion, from India. They have captured in India. And they also have African lions in here.

Gurukṛpa: Gujarati. It's a Gujarati.

Bhāgavata: From the forest of Katiwan.(?) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...monkey and cow. Rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa, sattva-guṇa. Lion in the rajo-guṇa, monkey in the tamo-guṇa and cow in the sattva-guṇa.

Hari-śauri: What about the cows that they slaughter? Do they have to continue in a cow birth?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhāgavata: These are African lions.

Prabhupāda: Oh. They are bigger?

Bhāgavata: Little different species. Different color. (lion growls)

Satsvarūpa: Don't tease him.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Dīkṣā means divya-jñānaṁ kṣapayati iti dīkṣā.(?) Which explains the divya-jñāna, transcendental, that is dīkṣā. Di, divya, dīkṣāṇām. Dīkṣā. So divya-jñāna, transcendental knowledge... If you don't accept a spiritual master, how you'll get transcen... You'll be taught here and there, here and there, and waste time. Waste time for the teacher and waste your valuable time. Therefore you have to be guided by an expert spiritual master. Read it.

Pradyumna: Kṛṣṇa-dīkṣādi-śikṣaṇam.

Prabhupāda: Śikṣaṇam. We have to learn. If you don't learn, how you'll make progress? Then?

Pradyumna: Viśrambheṇa guroḥ sevā. "One should serve the guru, viśrambha..."

Prabhupāda: With great respect, with reverence and respect. Then?

Pradyumna: Sādhu-vartmānuvartanam.

Prabhupāda: And you must see that what you are doing, that is according to the principle which all other sādhus and devotees do. They have tilaka, and you say, "I have no tilaka." That is not sādhu-mārgānu. Sādhu-mārgānugamanam. They have kaṇṭhi. You say, "I can avoid it." That is not sādhu-mārgānugamanam. So, from very beginning, if you disobey, then how you'll make progress? Then?

Pradyumna: Sad-dharma-pṛcchā.

Prabhupāda: Sad-dharma-pṛcchā. You have to inquire from guru how to make progress. That is sad-dharma. Asad-dharma and sad-dharma. Sad gamaya, asato mā: "Don't remain in darkness. Make progress." Oṁ tat sat. So sad-dharma-pṛcchā. Then?

Pradyumna: Then bhogādi-tyāgaḥ kṛṣṇasya hetave.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Āsuram. This is the defect. "Why shall I hear Kṛṣṇa? Oh, here is a big politician. He is commenting." Just see. What is this? For the big politicians, you sacrifice Kṛṣṇa? In the beginning you are finished. Then how you'll make progress?

Guest (2): Politician is wrong.

Prabhupāda: They'll prefer, because to hear Kṛṣṇa is difficult. They'll accept some rascal who will make meaning here and there. That is...

Guest (7) (Indian man): Can anything be called religion without devotion? Can anything be called religion...

Prabhupāda: First of all we must understand what do you mean by religion. First of all let me know. What do you mean by religion? Hm? Religion means, according to Vedic śāstra, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). "Religion means the law given by God." It is very simple. But is you do not know what is God and if you do not know what law He has given, then where is religion? This is cheating. Just like law means the principle or the regulation given by the state, by the government. That is law, not that you manufacture some law at your home, as it is going on—yato mata tato patha. You manufacture something, rascal law, and that becomes a religion. That is not religion. Religion means the law given by God, simple law. So if you do not know what is God and if you do not know what law he has given, then where is your religion? There is no religion. Without understanding of God and without understanding of the law as given by God, then there is no religion. That is cheating in the name of religion. Therefore in the Bhāgavata, from the very beginning it is said, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ vedyaṁ vāstavam atra: (SB 1.1.2) "Real religion is to be understood here." Real religion is Bhagavān speaking, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam (BG 18.66). This is real religion. If you do not know God, if you do not know how to surrender to God, then where is your religion? If you do not know government, you do not know the law of the government, then where is the question of becoming... (break) ...therefore we are misguided. Very simple thing. Kṛṣṇa is God, and He's asking, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). What is that śaraṇaṁ vraja? Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). There is no difficulty. Where is the difficulty?

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Already I have got relative value.

Devotee (1): They say that each man has his own life to live so he can take the best from many authorities. He can say, "Well, I like some of what you are saying and some of what someone else is saying, so I can take what's best for me in my life."

Prabhupāda: But if I find in one place the best, why shall I take so much trouble? Why do you induce me to go here and there if I get in one place everything?

Satsvarūpa: That's what we found.

Hari-śauri: If I like everything you're saying, then why shouldn't I accept that?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Satsvarūpa: And why should they object if we decide to surrender to one authority?

Prabhupāda: They are asking surrender.

Hari-śauri: They're actually envious because they want everybody to follow their idea of going here and there.

Satsvarūpa: One person said, "This kind of thing reminds me of Hitler's Germany. If there's too much authority or blind following, it's not healthy."

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: They should not say like that. Ask. (converses in Bengali with Indian man) (break)

Satsvarūpa: They should speak their mind to you about this.

Prabhupāda: No, you talk amongst yourselves everything. And you are all GBC. Tell, "This is not good." They should have kīrtana here. They should go to the city, kīrtana party. People should know that there is... Something is going to be done. Actually they want to enjoy that sea bathing. They're going here and there. That is their business. That is not preaching. That is sense enjoyment. Pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma. (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) That is the order of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Why there should be discrimination, "Not here, not there"? He wants in every village and every town. How you can discriminate? Wherever possible, you should start.

Satsvarūpa: How is all the money for construction for this temple supposed to come? By the local preaching by Gaura-Govinda or...

Prabhupāda: Somehow or other, it must come. He has promised that he will collect half.

Satsvarūpa: That's right. And whatever he collects, you said you would...

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Satsvarūpa: I heard that he was told whatever he collects you would match that or match half of it.

Prabhupāda: Hm, hm, hm. Gargamuni may go and organize in Dacca. That will be a great service. He was speaking of going to Dacca. That will be greater service.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Against party, they take it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. So they take that advantage, that's all, because so many people are trying to find out the defects here and there, just little bit, and they want to amplify if they find little.

Prabhupāda: So on the whole, our temple activities are going nice?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There is no hindrance on account of this counter propaganda?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So far, I know only in Atlanta and Washington.

Prabhupāda: No, what is the position, Atlanta and Washington?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Atlanta also, they have difficulty. Balavanta told me just before I left that...

Prabhupāda: June.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We lost an airport in court, book distribution. That was just before I left. So people are trying to be very critical, especially in these different circles, with the New York problem and all these symptoms, becoming very critical.

Prabhupāda: Critical means they are taking this movement now seriously.

Gargamuni: Yes. It is coming up because their sons and daughters are joining.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Critical means our triumph.

Hari-śauri: Yes. They know we have some substance now.

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

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: It always...

Prabhupāda: I like to sit down in one place. I am not going to...

Hari-śauri: But still, for the programs they always... Every time we go somewhere they want you to come to this temple and then they want you to do this program here and there.

Prabhupāda: No, that I...

Hari-śauri: And they know you're always too merciful to not do it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there a time which is being contemplated for going, a particular time?

Hari-śauri: We have to get visas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's very difficult. It's guarded.

Hari-śauri: Protected area.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I want to make it...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. Should Brahmānanda and I try to get some visas also?

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. So Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja, he is also coming?

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, we... "It is voluntary. In our society we find so many brahmacārīs, so many gṛhasthas. And if you cannot stop this itching sensation, all right, marry one girl and live peacefully like a gentle... What is this nonsense, every three weeks divorce? We are not so rascal. If we accept one girl as my wife, I take full responsibility. Because I require a girl or woman, so this woman, that one... We are not so rascal that at home I have got woman, I am searching after another woman, another naked woman. We are not so madman. The sex pleasure is there at home, and I am seeking after sex pleasure in here, here, in the club, in the... What is that? Is that vagina is different? You are so fool. You require vagina; take one vagina. Be satisfied. And lick it. Why you are going here and there, here and there, here and there? Even old man is going to the nightclub to lick another vagina. Is that civilization? You are proud of your civilization." Tell them like that. "Licking of the vagina, different, obnoxious smell. You are less than the dog. The dog likes to smell the vagina. You are like that. What is business of going another vagina? You require vagina. Take one and be satisfied. That is intelligence. First of all there is no need of vagina. But if you want, take one and be satisfied. Why you are searching after dog vagina, this vagina, that vagina, that vagina? Is that civilization?" Expose them like that. "Your brain is filled with so much stool, so we are washing it. What is the wrong there?"

Ādi-keśava: Actually they all need brainwashing.

Prabhupāda: Yes, "Every one of you require, because your brain is filled up with stool. You have no brain. Brain is covered with stool." What they will answer?

Room Conversation -- February 21, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And the so-called education, they are making devatā demons. We want to check it. The human being, he has got the opportunity. Human being is there to become a devatā. Therefore the Vedic knowledge is there, because he's coming from lower species of life, and they also admit they are coming from monkey. That's all right. But now make him man really. Where is that arrangement? You are keeping him monkey, jumping like monkey. That's all. So your, this so-called educational system, society, is good, or we are making the monkey to become to become devatā, this is good? What they will say? You have come from monkey, and now we are making them devatā. So this is a good process? Or you keep them as monkey, jumping like here and there, that is good? Athāto brahma jijñāsā. That is the way to make a monkey to become a demigod, or devatā. This is the Vedic injunction. "Now you should make him, this monkey, person coming from monkey, or a monkey, make him a devatā." And Caitanya Mahāprabhu has simplified: "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. You become devatā, Bas." What do you want more? Actually that is becoming. Kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and from monkey you become a devatā, demigod. What do you want, more? Therefore He's mahā-vadānyāvatāra, the most munificent incarnation, making monkey to devatā simply by chanting. See practically. Hm? Anyone protesting against this? (devotees laugh) Here is mother of our Jayapatākā Mahārāja. She is attracted, how the situation is nice. Now she wants to take instruction from her son as mother Devahūti took instructions from her son, Kapiladeva. So...

Jayapatākā's mother: I have some questions for him already. I have some questions for him already.

Prabhupāda: Your son could not answer the questions?

Jayapatākā's mother: I will see him this evening.

Room Conversation with Ram Jethmalani (Parliament Member) -- April 16, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I was cooking in my hands. So for one man sitting I was cooking not less than for ten to fifteen men.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What was the idea?

Prabhupāda: The idea is everyone wanted some food prepared by me. They wanted my preparation. All right, do it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All the devotees in the early days.

Prabhupāda: No, not devot... When I was doing here and there. Like Dr. Mishra's place.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was very fond of your cooking.

Prabhupāda: He got a good cook without paying. (laughs) And I had no other alternative. I liked it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Was he paying for the foodstuffs?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. He was giving his place and foodstuff. I was preparing and eating and giving them. I will not pay him, no. Everything he was paying.

Indian man: Before breakfast, medicine (Hindi).

Prabhupāda: (Hindi conversation) I have gone through variety stages of life. So I have got full experience of this material world. I don't want it. That determination is there. Society, family, love, friendship, these nonsense, everything—out! I have tasted. I am no more interested with this material. That is niṣkiñcana. Finished.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Distaste for all worldly things.

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Indian man (1): They will come here.

Prabhupāda: They will come here.

Indian man (1): Dūre.

Prabhupāda: Dūre parjakanam(?) tīrtham. If gaṅgā-jala is pure, it is pure here and there also. So Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, tīrtha-yātrā pariśrama, kevala manera bhrama: "It is simply satisfying the mind." Otherwise, wherever there is Ganges, there is Yamunā, that is sacred place. Delhi also, sacred place. There is Gaṅgā. Anyway, so, we should take advantage of the knowledge of sādhu. And that is real progress. So catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ sukṛtinaḥ. Four kinds of men, they come to God, Kṛṣṇa. God means Kṛṣṇa, not ordinary... Caitanya Mahāprabhu said,

ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva

guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

(CC Madhya 19.151)

Kṛṣṇa also says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). To approach Kṛṣṇa is not so easy thing. After many, many births... We are rotating... (break) ...superintendent of this egglike aṇḍa, universe. It is all Brahmā's. And there are innumerable planets. That we can see. So we are wandering in all these places, sometimes down, sometimes up, sometimes in the middle, according to our karma, in different species of life, in different planets, in different position. So we are rotating. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, "Out of these innumerable living entities who are entrapped with this brahmāṇḍa and janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi... (BG 13.9)." Mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani (BG 9.3). Life after life, life after life, they are... That we do not know. This is called mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. You die, accept another body, another place, another situation, another position. This is going on. Brahmāṇḍa-bhramaṇa. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, "In this way, rotating, and in course of our rotation, if we are fortunate enough, then we come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite. (aside:) Why you are closing that? Eh? Open it. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān. So to come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is meant for persons who are very, very fortunate, kona bhāgyavān. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (CC Madhya 19.151).

Discussions with Devotees and Conversation with Dr. Ghosh -- June 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: As soon as we go out and preach, I think we can get...

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) You are all qualified. I can give you ideas. Now I am doing. So I wanted to see that you are all busy. That I want because now I am becoming invalid. I cannot move very swiftly here and there. But if you move, I take pleasure. There is a Bengali proverb, na pajimane na jamai datta(?). A old lady, so she has lost her husband. She cannot joke. Husband, wife, they exchange some joking word. So with whom she will joke? Then the grandson-in-law, grandson... So in our society, Bengal, the grandson-in-law... I have got experience also. When I was newly married grandson-in-law, so my grandmother-in-law was joking with me like anything, more than husband. (laughter) And granddaughter-in-law. So we sit down and she talks very openly everything. We remember that. Because she was enjoying. By talking like that, free, with granddaughter and grandson-in-law, she was enjoying. And we were also enjoying. So my position is like that. I cannot move now very swiftly here and there, becoming invalid. So if I see that you are doing these things, that will give me pleasure. Yes. Granddaughter-in-law.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I also found that in Boston, the Indian communities, they are very interested.

Prabhupāda: Must be. Everyone should be. This is the genuine program. So (Bengali), talk and make program. (Bengali)

Dr. Sharma: That is disease. It has become now plague.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So both of you are very intelligent boys. I want to see that you are always busy in these affairs. (Bengali) Bhaktivedanta Institute and Gurukula for Higher Studies. (Bengali) I want to see that you are always busy. Busy-ness. That will give me pleasure. Laziness I don't want. Personally I was never lazy. I did not like laziness.

Dr. Sharma: (indistinct) We create in our mind problems.

Prabhupāda: Because sometimes I become morose that I became lazy, so therefore, if I see you busy, this moroseness will reduce. When I see that you are working and the whole thing is busy, oh, that gives me pleasure. Yes

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I'm also thinking of writing some books for children, for Gurukula.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I am ready.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. (break)

Prabhupāda: That is not his cooking. After he takes, his disciple may also take.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: Before leaving home I was loitering here and there, "If there is any shelter, this?" But that time in Harigrama(?), I stayed there for two, three days. Nice temple. He has construction of the workers also. I'll try some of that... That is next.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your Guru Mahārāja had many disciples. Like you, he was very merciful. You have so many disciples, we have lost count.

Prabhupāda: I, I have disciples all over the world. They have got specially in Bengal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Special?

Śatadhanya: In Bengal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Bengal, local. Your Guru Mahārāja knew that you would do this, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm. He foretold.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Time will come he will do."

Prabhupāda: That time I could not understand.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, if they consult us, even with changing, that's all right. But they just edit here and there and cut it out, certain things. They're changing the whole meaning. And that makes sometimes nonsense instead of making sense.

Prabhupāda: So on the whole, these dangerous things are going on. How to check it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There has to be strong philosophical leaders who can check this, like Satsvarūpa and Jayādvaita.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have to also be included in the decisions of the BBT. It can't simply be that managers make decisions.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Without their sanction, there will be... Let them... These all rascals...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: One time in that article they made a change. Saying that, the whole Vaiṣṇava philosophy became Māyāvādī in that scientific article. So I told them that "You are better than..., a better (indistinct)." It all become Māyāvādī, so it became all mad. That is why I strongly told them that "This shouldn't be the way. If you want to change, you have to consult with those who are writers."

Prabhupāda: So they are doing very freely and dangerously. And this rascal is always after change, Rādhā-vallabha. He's a great rascal. (pause) Read.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Translation: Previously all the great sages rendered service unto the Personality of Godhead due to His existence above the three modes of material nature. They worshiped Him to become free from material conditions and thus derive the ultimate benefit. Whoever follows such great authorities is also eligible for liberation from the material world.

Conversation with Bhakti-caitanya Swami-New GBC -- June 30, 1977, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Why he should feel? If you have to work, you have to work for Kṛṣṇa.

Bhakti-caitanya: Actually we are taking a burden from his back...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhakti-caitanya: ...just to go here and there. And I am picking up much responsibility between...

Trivikrama: One other point is Raj Kumar Gupta, that man who is so devoted. He's now sitting in Delhi.

Prabhupāda: So you combinedly do. That will be...

Bhakti-caitanya: I am sure that if... With your blessing... Because Gupta is very influential in Delhi, and Delhi, we will also be able to get the men sitting in the rear(?) if we want, because he has so much influence in the ministry now.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Bhakti-caitanya: That Mr. Raj Kumar Gupta. He is the right man in the ministry now. That Kedaranath Swami, the mayor of Delhi, he always... He is a fast friend. So if we have influential man... Now he has shifted his office from Chandigarh to Delhi, so I have to get the all ordination for Chandigarh from him, through him. So if he will introduce me to his friends in Delhi, and Delhi people mind if I will take our money to Chandigarh, so what I was wondering is collect the money from Delhi from all over, put in Delhi and Chandigarh together, all the north India.

Trivikrama: There will be no shortage of money. There's so much... Just yesterday a man gave five thousand rupees. And he wasn't even a big man. Small man. Big man, we can get. There's so many.

Bhakti-caitanya: (laughs) Yes, practically because we have no small big man.

Prabhupāda: So it is very good premise. So why Gopāla should be sorry that "I go"? Is there any reason?

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: His name was Nanda Dulal Phaini(?). So yesterday I was thinking of him, and I said it in my... I am being purified by thinking of him. All of a sudden.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, the whole atmosphere... Because we were children, we were going here and there, the neighboring hoods (neighborhoods), all houses... Everyone devotee.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Must have been a wonderful atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: Wonderful. We do not find such atmosphere now. Even maidservant, servant. Their character was not very good—still devotee(?). And this was the opportunity.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Each of us is society.

Prabhupāda: Rādhā-Govinda Mandir. And the center was that Mulliks Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. This Mulliks, some of them were capitalist. Capitalist means rich men, they kept prostitute. But are still devotee. In the morning they would, after taking bath and everything, changing clothes, they must go to see Rādhā-Govinda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they liked to see Rādhā-Govinda.

Prabhupāda: They were devotee. Without seeing Rādhā-Govinda, they would not take their...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Was the Deity very nicely worshiped?

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So you show by example. Bring these brahmacārīs. Teach them, and gradually... Just like our organization not all of a sudden has become so big. I was... For more than one year I was simply loitering on the street of New York like a vagabond. Who was hearing me? Still, I am going once in a month to the ship company that "When your next ship is coming to go to India?" So the manager: "Swamiji, you are coming. When you are going away?" I said, "Yes, I have no business practically here. But still, I want to stay and see if things can be pushed." Therefore I am writing. Otherwise I am useless. I am simply loitering and seeing the Fifth Avenue and the... And within the subway station, after taking my lunch I used to go by bus here and there, in the subway, anywhere go, it stops. No shelter. I was cooking, myself, in a friend's house. So he took it as a free cook he has got. And two men, of course, we... Sometimes some guest would... And I would be very glad. And ten, twenty, I'll feed them. And they would like very much ḍāl, cāpāṭi, and one vegetable. First-class... Everyone would like. That was going on, ḍāl, cāpāṭi, and one vegetable. I'll take pleasure. Sometimes somebody would come to assist me. He wanted to eat immediately. And "No, that you cannot. After I have finished, when it is offered to Kṛṣṇa, then I'll give you sumptuous prasādam, not before." So there was no... And little rice. Ḍāl, cāpāṭi, rice, vegetable, bas. Oh, it was so nice. Everyone would praise. The same thing, when I took my own apartment I did the same thing, distributed prasādam. Then, gradually, they came forward to assist me. First came Kīrtanānanda. He is the first cook. Then Acyutānanda. Brahmānanda was washing dish. He could not help the cooking.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was the dishwasher.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He liked that. (laughter) He liked that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What was Gargamuni doing?

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You arrange. In this stage, don't tax me very much. Now I have authorized that will and everything. Follow that. You believe.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We'll discuss it with Tamāla.

Prabhupāda: As far as..., don't tax me. And printing, don't mind for price. Do it quickly and nicely.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: That is... As quickly as possible. No manuscript should be left vacant. That I want. Here and there I have more money invested. Now you don't...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No. We're not leaving anything.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There are four Gujarati books now also coming out.

Prabhupāda: Print.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we have already finalized.

Prabhupāda: Print.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Those Diwali cards, Śrīla Prabhupāda, which I showed you? They're selling very well.

Prabhupāda: That is business, earn money. That's all.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I was very happy when I heard, respectable gentlemen, out of love, they are washing dishes. You know that? Ātreya Ṛṣi told me.

Hari-śauri: Yes. In Iran. Some important people in Iran, just out of some... To do some service, they're even going in the restaurant and assisting by washing the dishes, and they're bringing things here and there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's really devotional.

Prabhupāda: They are so gentle.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's what we're feeling with this community also, that actually people will become so much impressed with this wonderful way of life that they'll want to take part voluntarily. If something is done very nicely, if Kṛṣṇa consciousness is presented very nicely, then any gentleman will want to take part.

Prabhupāda: Hm. That is good. That's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many people will come to this community to see how it is done. I think it will become very, very important in many different respects—for farmers, for people who are interested in designing ideal communities, for so many people who would like to live an ideal life, for people who want to come and see a unique place to visit, because there will be a temple of Kṛṣṇa-Arjuna there, a doll exhibit. I think it can be a wonderful preaching opportunity. And most wonderful of all is if we can exhibit self-sufficiency, that simply by farming the land, we can get enough grains, and taking care of the cows, we can get enough good foods to keep the body healthy. We can produce our own clothing. This is very much needed in this age. It's a positive alternative to artificial civilization. And the center will be Kṛṣṇa. All of the different activities and varṇas will be demonstrated, and all the different āśramas will be ideally being lived by the different devotees. People will see everything that they're doing is here but in its pure form and everyone working happily and cooperatively together. Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in order for it to really work you have to come there, to be very honest. I know it will never be there unless you come and stay with us there and just show us and teach us.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Read it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Read it. From anywhere in particular? "The Killing of the Demon Pūtanā." Should I read the chapter summary? "A summary of the sixth chapter is as follows: When Nanda Mahārāja, following the instructions of Vasudeva, was returning home, he saw a great demoniac woman lying on the road, and then he heard about her death. While Nanda Mahārāja, the king of Vraja, was thinking about Vasudeva's words concerning disturbances in Gokula, he was a little afraid and sought shelter at the lotus feet of Śrī Hari. Meanwhile Kaṁsa sent to the village of Gokula a rākṣasī named Pūtanā who was wandering here and there killing small babies. Of course, wherever there is no Kṛṣṇa consciousness there is the danger of such rākṣasīs. But since the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself was in Gokula, Pūtanā could accept nothing there but her own death." Here's some other books, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Should I show you some more? Teachings of Lord Kapila, the Son of Devahūti. (devotees exclaim)

Brahmānanda: You wanted this book. You gave the lectures in Bombay on Kapiladeva's teachings to Devahūti.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ah, there's nothing like these books.

Upendra: Oh, it's beautiful, green cover.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the form of this book?

Brahmānanda: They're Prabhupāda's lectures on the particular verses from that...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One lecture after..., one verse after another.

Brahmānanda: Plus the purports.