Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why don't we cut over?
Hṛdayānanda: Prabhupāda, we can walk over this way? There's no water.
Prabhupāda: It was all manufactured by the Britishers. To keep their faith with other nations, they were protesting that "Why you are keeping India dependent?" So they were pleading that "We are making India civilized." That was their propaganda.
Rāmeśvara: "The white man's burden," they called it.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (pause) Prabhupāda, wherever you walk, the water turns off.
Candanācārya: The entire Golden Gate park was cultivated by men.
Rādhāvallabha: Instead of planting grass by the roads, they are now putting green rocks. They figure it looks the same, and it saves money.
Kīrtirāja: They are also planting plastic grass in the middle of the road.
Hṛdayānanda: No opulence.
Rādhāvallabha: In Russia now they have declared one..., that it is a big crisis. Because their grains did not grow properly, they are not able to produce as much meat, so now one day a week everyone is forced to eat fish. So they are lamenting. They were describing how..., about the good old days were when you could go and buy an entire carcass.
Candanācārya: (break) ...country, build cities and then spend billions of dollars to make the city look like the country.
Prabhupāda: Carvita-carvaṇānām. Chewing the chewed, again and again. This is their position. (japa) (break)
Rāmeśvara: On the calendar it says it is Bhīma-ekādaśī.
Prabhupāda: Bhīma-ekādaśī, yes.
Rāmeśvara: So I've been told that if one fasts on Bhīma-ekādaśī, that it is like fasting on all the ekādaśīs. Is that true?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Ekādaśī is meant for fasting, either Bhīma or Arjuna. But we cannot fast, therefore we have to take little fruits and.... Otherwise, ekādaśī means fasting.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If it is possible, should we go without eating at all?
Prabhupāda: Yes. But don't lie down and sleep.
Mahendra: Eating mahā-prasādam is also fasting.
Prabhupāda: Who says?
Mahendra: You said that to Paramahaṁsa Swami once.
Prabhupāda: And you heard from Paramahaṁsa.
Mahendra: No, I was in the room. It was when he was trying to observe Caturmāsya.
Prabhupāda: I never said that.
Mahendra: Oh, okay, I must have heard wrong.
Prabhupāda: If there is service and, on my fasting, service will be stopped, then I can take. First consideration, service. Now if somebody feels weak, he can take mahā-prasāda, render service.
Rāmeśvara: That priest that has now become your disciple, he's joining Satsvarūpa Mahārāja's party. He's very interested, and Satsvarūpa Mahārāja has said he would like him to come to travel together and study.
Prabhupāda: Very good.
Nalinīkaṇṭha: In the West, people are generally unfamiliar, I think, with the philosophy of Śaṅkara, yet in your books you devote so much argument to defeating Māyāvāda philosophy. I was wondering if it is within every conditioned soul's heart to be an impersonalist. Is it.... Does every conditioned soul have the propensity for impersonalism?
Prabhupāda: No, they cannot understand God; therefore it is impersonalism. It is due to their poor fund of knowledge. So most people are in poor fund of knowledge.