Image (Conv and Letters)

Expressions researched:
"image" |"imageless" |"imagery" |"images"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Journalist: Well of course the western concept that man is created in the image of God, consequently God must look like man kind of thing, therefore any man can be God.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. You have got so many scientists. Just find out what is the image of God, whether his form is not... Where is that department? You have no such department. You have got so many department, technology department, this department. Where is that department, what is God to know? Is there any department of knowledge?

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: If that śabda, of course, identifies with God, we have no objection. That Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis. God has many names. God is attractive, His name is also attractive, because He's not different from His name. If you have got exactly the same attractive name, we have no objection. We simply say, "You chant God's name, holy name." Then you become purified. That is our program. We don't say that you change your Christianity. No. We don't say. If you have got a nice name, all-attractive name, in your scripture-don't manufacture but authorized—then you chant that. We simply request, "You chant."

Allen Ginsberg: Well, then how would you adapt the Kṛṣṇa chanting to Christianity? By seeing Kṛṣṇa as Christ or Christ as Kṛṣṇa and sounding Christ's image in Kṛṣṇa's name?

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: Then the Jews, which were my background, had a prohibition...

Prabhupāda: Jehovah.

Allen Ginsberg: They had Jehovah, but they had a prohibition of pronouncing the highest names. 'Cause they felt that God was imageless, and therefore should not be pronounced or painted. My background is I guess what would be impersonalist.

Hayagrīva: The Jews are personalist.

Allen Ginsberg: Well, what are they? Impersonalists or personalists?

Lady: Impersonalists. They believe in just the Absolute. That's all.

Prabhupāda: That was the difference in Jesus Christ. He was a personalist.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 12, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. That is in Muhammadan. That means God is not material. That is the idea. Because here the idea is when I make something image or picture, that is material. So there is a prohibition of accepting God as material. But if you go to a higher stage, then you'll understand that if God is everything then there is no material. That is Vaiṣṇava philosophy. If God is everything, then where is material? He is spiritual. Material means when you cannot understand God. That is material. Everything is sky. When it is covered by cloud we call it is cloudy. Similarly, cloud has no existence. It comes only to cover sometimes, but the sky is eternal. Similarly, God is eternal. When you are covered by some māyā, you cannot see, you cannot understand God, that is material. So any philosophy which does not help understanding God, that is material. That is material. Otherwise, there is no material. Where is material if God is everything? Sarvam khalv idam brahma. You see?

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: What is called? Lunatic, compact in thought. (chuckles) So Kṛṣṇa lover is also another kind of lunatic effect.

Allen Ginsberg: Except that it would mean concentrating all my consciousness on the one single image of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Not image.

Allen Ginsberg: Or the one single thought or name or feeling or awareness.

Prabhupāda: That we have got varieties of duties. Just like we are. You have seen all these boys. They are always engaged. Always engaged. Similarly, everywhere they are always engaged in Kṛṣṇa. We want extra time to work for Kṛṣṇa. The twenty-four hours is not sufficient for us. Yes. Then we shall see that we are sleeping, wasting time. Gosvāmīs, they used to sleep for one half-hour only. That also sometimes forgot.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 13, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: What I had understood is that like the Jews and the Muslims, the original first few centuries of Buddhist meditation made use of a wheel for the dharma, or a parasol, or a bo tree as the image of Buddha, as at Sanchi. But no, but no...

Guest (1): So long Buddha was living. After that, when Buddha died, they started making his statue, I think.

Prabhupāda: yes. That is the archeological evidence. Archeological evidence is that Buddha's statues were original.

Allen Ginsberg: The museum at Mathurā, I think, had the earliest human statues of Buddha, which are Greek nature.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 14, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Apparently the sunshine appears to be very, very big, but it is concentrated in sun globe. And when you enter the sun globe, it is concentrated in sun-god.

Allen Ginsberg: Where is the origin of this image of the sun? Where is the origin of this image of the sun? Is this a Vedic śāstric explanation?

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is śāstric information. He is incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, Sūrya-nārāyaṇa. He is powerful. He is driving in four horses. He has got chariot of four horses and very powerful. Yac cakṣur eśa savita. Savita, his name is Savita. The Gāyatrī mantra is oṁ bhur bhuvaḥ svāḥ tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi. That is worshiping the sun-god.

Allen Ginsberg: Do you use Gāyatrī mantra also?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 15, 1972, Madras:

Prabhupāda: (reading:) "...Kṛṣṇa can be described, not (indistinct) Him, his mind becomes totally associated with Him. His Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda in his discourse at the (indistinct) Sunday, said there was no rigid rules and regulations for chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, nor does it require formal education. While uttering the name of Sri Kṛṣṇa one should focus the mind on the image and form of the Lord, His auspicious activities, His delightful sport, and His role as Gītā-ācārya. Lord Caitanya, during His visit to a temple in South India, found a man scanning the pages of the Bhagavad-gītā without seeming to read the verses, and inquiring, the same found that the person was illiterate and yet he was turning the pages of the Gītā at the request of his master because as he did so, he had a vision of Sri Kṛṣṇa expounding spiritual knowledge to Arjuna on the Kurukṣetra battlefield. Thereupon Caitanya embraced him in all admiration for his devotion, sincere faith, and guidance of the spiritual master as necessary for God realization." They give very nice article. You have seen it?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 28, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Image. Yes. Mirage.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Mirage.

Prabhupāda: Yes, mirage.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No mirage is... Mirage is not the real image....

Prabhupāda: No, it is illusory. Just like I see there is water in the desert. There is no water. This is illusion. But actually there is water. Therefore I get the conception that there is water. Water is there, but it is not there. Similarly these varieties is here, what we see, the varieties, enjoyment, that is only like that mirage. We have got the experience of water. But we are illusioned. We are seeing in a false place there is water. Similarly, we living entities, we are meant for enjoyment, but we are seeking enjoyment in a false place. Or illusion. Just like animal runs after that desert water. But the intelligent man knows: "Oh, that, there is no water. It looks like water."

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Paramahaṁsa: In Newsweek Magazine-it's the largest magazine in the United States—there was an article about the degradation of Christianity, and they summarized it with a cartoon, a picture of the devil, you know māyā. This is their image of māyā. And he was causing earthquakes. There was a very large earthquake in South America. It killed many thousands of people. So they attribute this to māyā. And right next to them was a picture of Richard Nixon, because he is a very famous, you know... He presents himself as a follower of Christ. And he's bombing Southeast Asia.

Prabhupāda: "Thou shalt not kill."

Paramahaṁsa: Yeah. And the devil turned to Richard Nixon and said, "It's hell keeping up with Christians."

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, people will criticize like that. People are becoming advanced. How long you can cheat them with so-called science, so-called religion? Now you take up this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement seriously. He will give real thing. Try to understand. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3). If you simply understand Kṛṣṇa, everything will be known to you. This is the process.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Paramahaṁsa: "In the image of God."

Prabhupāda: So man is the sample of God. So why don't you try, study nicely man, and you can know, understand God, what is God. I asked these Christian people, "If man is made after the image of God, you study very scrutinizingly a perfect human being, and you will know what is God."

Umāpati: The most ideal image of a human being is God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the Vedic injunction. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). So you take a perfect man. Just like Kṛṣṇa, you take a perfect man, take him as man, you see that He is God. He has got all the perfections. Even if you take him as a man.

Paramahaṁsa: No competition.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Umāpati: It's a character in Spanish history, fictional history. The perfect lover, the image that all men would like to be, the perfect lover.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So who can be perfect lover than Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa, He loves everyone. Where is that man, he loves everyone? The so-called patriot, they love their countrymen, but kill their animals. Why? Mr. Nixon loves his countrymen. Why not love his country cows? They are also born in the land. They require also. They have right to live, so why they are killed? That is imperfection. And Kṛṣṇa is embracing the calf, come on, and embracing Rādhārāṇī also. That is perfection. That is perfection. Kṛṣṇa talks with birds. These are there. One day on the bank of Yamunā He was talking with a bird. One old lady saw and said, "Oh, He's talking with a bird?" That is perfection.

Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Cardinal Danielou: It is forbidden in Christianity to kill. Surely. But chiefly we think that there is a difference between the life of man and the life the beasts. N'est ce pas? And that the life of man is sacred because man is the image of God. But we have not the same respect relating to the beasts, to the animals, and we think that the animals are at the service of man, and that it is legitime to man. For us, each life is not the same. What is really important is the life of man, and the human person is really sacred and it is forbidden to kill a human person...

Prabhupāda: No, but Jesus does not says "human being". He just said generally: "Thou shalt not kill."

Room Conversation with German and Hamsaduta dasa -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Haṁsadūta: No, no, no. He says that in the Bible it says one should not make an image of God.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Haṁsadūta: In the Christian teachings... (German)

Guest: Neither a picture of Him nor a likeness, likeness

Prabhupāda: So why they have got image of Christ?

Haṁsadūta: (German conversation)

Prabhupāda: Why, why they keep Lord Jesus Christ's picture?

Haṁsadūta: (German conversation)

Prabhupāda: No, what is the philosophy. I am asking. What is the philosophy of keeping...?

Room Conversation with German and Hamsaduta dasa -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Deity, that is image of Kṛṣṇa.

Haṁsadūta: That is (German conversation)

Prabhupāda: It is the same principle. Why they should object having Kṛṣṇa's form.

Haṁsadūta: He says, it looks to him, it appears to him like a doll.

Prabhupāda: Doll?

Haṁsadūta: Doll, the Deities.

Guest: (German)

Haṁsadūta: He says the Deities always have such big eyes. The Deities, have, They are always looking with such big eyes. He cannot understand.

Prabhupāda: Big eyes? Big eyes is very fearful to him?

Room Conversation with Rosicrucians -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Who is Rosin? He is a philosopher?

Yogeśvara: He says that the term Rosicrucian means, it's an image of a cross with a rose in the center. It means that the disciple is aspiring towards the perfection of his consciousness and that this also means the perfection of consciousness.

Prabhupāda: So what is the ideal of that perfection of consciousness?

Yogeśvara: He says it is love.

Prabhupāda: Love, that's nice. Very good. So the supreme consciousness and our individual consciousness, when they are in exchange of love, that is perfection. Is that...?

Yogeśvara: (break) ...that this ultimate consciousness is one of union with the Absolute, that it is one of light, of samādhi, of total love. This is the highest.

Prabhupāda: So love, love. When we speak of love, there must be two persons.

Morning Walk -- December 6, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Yes. "Now we shall create female as God." What power you have got? God is already God. You cannot create God, a female, or dog. You can create anything, as you..., by mental speculation, but that is not a fact.

Umāpati: They say, "Man was made in the image of God," and now women are saying...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Umāpati: They say, "Man was made in the image of God," and now women are saying, "Women are made in the image of God. Therefore God is female." And that is their logic.

Prabhupāda: No, no, man or woman, you cannot create God. That is the first proposal. God is not your creation. You are creation of God. You cannot say, "God should be like this. God should be like that." That is nonsense. God is not under your dictation.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: That means you have no experience. How can I talk with you?

Priest: That the image of God, whether you call it Kṛṣṇa or Rāma or Nṛsiṁha or any of the avatāra... And you know, near our place in Poona in Amenagar(?), there was a swami who called himself an avatāra, and...

Prabhupāda: That anyone can say. I can say third avatāra, he can say fourth avatāra.

Priest: So if anyone can say...

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. That is another thing, because everyone can say "I am avatāra."

Priest: Exactly.

Prabhupāda: So...

Priest: So how can we have faith of anyone who said he was an avatāra?

Prabhupāda: No, no, we don't accept anyone as avatāra. We have got documents who is avatāra.

Room Conversation with Christian Priest -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, another thing that's stated in the Bible, in the Christians' philosophy, they say that God created man out of His own image. It's stated in the Bible. So therefore man has a form, why not God? Because it's stated there in the Bible.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I think Bible is on the personal understanding of God. Christ says that he is son of God. Unless one is person, how he can beget a son?

Devotee: They talk about the trilogy—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It is compared like the Father...

Prabhupāda: Bhagavān, Paramātmā, and Brahman, yes. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11), it is the same idea. Brahman, Holy Ghost, is impersonal, but Son is person and God is also person. I do not know much about, but I have heard from Christians that there is assembly of God, and Lord Christ has got a seat by the side of God. Is not that explained?

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

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

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

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

Professor Durckheim: There is one difficulty in the western part of the world which might not be so great in the eastern part. I realize in Japan, when they talk about father and mother, especially also mother, it was all something to be loved, to be grateful, to submit. In our countries now, the father is generally the one who does not understand anymore his son, and the son has to get rid of his body father in order to be able to realize himself. So very often the main obstacle in our youth is the image of mother and father because they have never understood their children. So the word father for many people in western part of the world...

Prabhupāda: Misunderstood.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Young man: Well, the only thing... It just says that He created man after His own image. So...

Prabhupāda: That is the Christian idea.

Young man: Yeah. And the...

Prabhupāda: The Mohammedan, Islam is also same idea?

Young man: Well, since the Old Testament, part of the Old Testament, is very similar to the Koran, I presume the creation of Adam, that bit, is also taken from the Old Testament. But He is projected as a great judge really, a supreme judge.

Prabhupāda: Yes, He must be the supreme judge because He is Supreme Being. So He is not only... Supreme judge means supreme knowledge.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: No, concept is there as you told me: "The God has made human being after His own image." Then we can get the idea that God is a person like a human being, He has got two hands, two legs, one head, because after His image we have been... Now, if we study ourself and increase that quality... Just like I am. I can eat. I can eat a certain amount of foodstuff, but God can also eat, but He can eat the whole universe. So eating is there. But the difference of eating is there also. I can create one airplane, but God has created very, very big airplanes like these planets, and they are floating in the sky without any power crisis. That is God's creation. Here we are floating the airplane or running the car with the power, petrol, given by God. You cannot manufacture petrol. Just like in your country there is enough stock of petrol. But you have not created it. So who has created? Your creative power is to drill and get the stock. So much creative power you have got. But you cannot create petrol. Then the Americans would not have come here to beg petrol.

Morning Walk -- September 15, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No. Therefore the... That is the qualification. (break) ...qualified, you will see it is spiritual.

Vāsughoṣa: There are some religions that... Especially the one I am born in, they were especially preaching, you know, that "You should never see a graven image of God."

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Vāsughoṣa: "You should never see a graven image of God."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is required, because you are not competent to see God everywhere.

Vāsughoṣa: No, but they...

Brahmānanda: They prohibit.

Morning Walk -- September 15, 1975, Vrndavana:

Vāsughoṣa: They prohibit the worship of this vigraha. They say that "God cannot be made into a graven image."

Brahmānanda: They say it is blasphemy.

Prabhupāda: No. Yes, we also say. Although everything is expansion of the energy of Kṛṣṇa, not that everything is Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference between Māyāvāda philosophy and Vaiṣṇava philosophy. Vaiṣṇava philosophy takes everything as expansion of Kṛṣṇa's energy. Parāsya brāhmaṇa śaktiḥ. (Aside:) Jaya. Sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat. Everything is expansion of the energy of the Supreme Brahman. Kṛṣṇa confirms it, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam. Without Kṛṣṇa, there is no existence. But that does not mean anything existentional is Kṛṣṇa. That is Māyāvāda philosophy.

Brahmānanda: These religions even say that it is offensive to say the name of God.

Prabhupāda: So what can I do? (laughter) If the rascal says something, so what can I do?

Morning Walk -- October 7, 1975, Durban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even when we preach to these Christians... There's one passage in the Bible that says that "Man is created in the image of God." So we show them that "This is God, Kṛṣṇa," and they say, "No, no, no, no, no, can't be." But still, the image is there, that man has an image, a likeness, to God. He has two arms. He has two eyes. But still, they can't accept if we say that Kṛṣṇa is God.

Prabhupāda: That is rascaldom. They'll...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Envious.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is rascaldom. They'll...

Harikeśa: They say He must be a very old man. He must be very old with a big, long beard.

Prabhupāda: So that we shall consider later on. He is a man like. First of all accept that. Then whether He is old or young, we shall consider later on. First of all accept that either old or young, He is a man like, shape, form. Then we shall talk other things. Then what is the use of talking with them, with a rascal? That is the point. There is no use, talking with these rascals. Waste of time.

Morning Walk -- November 30, 1975, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Means children are born by others. He feeds them. That's all. This is going on. (break) It is easily calculated that government will collapse very soon. They have made changes because they cannot manage.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Also they try to change their image. They'll always...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tejās: Every six months they've been changing the ministers.

Prabhupāda: That means mismanagement. (break)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They do this all over the world. They change... Like in America, President Ford just dropped the Defense Secretary just like that. So that created such a big controversy.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (3): Those persons who are atheistic, they say that God is created out of a necessity, that people have a necessity to have their father image, so therefore they create religion. This is their basic philosophy, that man creates his own religion. He creates it out of necessity. He needs a father image, so therefore he creates the idea of God.

Prabhupāda: Created? What is that?

Devotee (3): No. They feel that we have created, man has created the idea of God out of necessity.

Devotee (4): The atheists are saying that man needs God although there is no God. They are insecure in this world.

Prabhupāda: What is God?

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: So, here in this Bhagavad-gītā, it is ordered that the human society must be divided into four divisions, and they should cooperate for understanding God. Just like in our body there is the head, there is the arm, there is the belly and there is the leg. So they are all cooperating for maintaining the body. Although head is very important than the leg, but leg is also required. Simply head will not be able to keep the body in good condition.

Scheverman: Yes, our Saint Paul uses that very imagery in his Epistle to the Corinthians, Tenth Chapter. Yes.

Prabhupāda: So that is mentioned in this book. So head means first-class intelligent. A class of men.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Bill Sauer: Well in our case, our electrons are flowing from one place, the sun, and the imagery in your magazine is just beautiful. It shows the imagery of the man and the sun, and what we are, scientifically, as you know, (devotees laugh) we are images of sun energy, and this is where electrons come from. And when the sun goes out, we go out, unless we go to another star where there is another sun.

Vipina: Bill, could you explain to Śrīla Prabhupāda how you think life is created?

Bill Sauer: How it is created?

Vipina: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Who is the creator?

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: How God can be Indian? Then how he's God? God must be for everyone. An Indian God.

Hari-śauri: He says here that he is the image of Kṛṣṇa incarnate.

Prabhupāda: He says?

Hari-śauri: He says, "They say that he's Śiva and Pārvatī combined together. He certainly embodies both masculinity and femininity. Kṛṣṇa, as we read of Him in the scriptures, must have resembled Swamiji. His walk is that of a dancer floating in a graceful movement."

Prabhupāda: All right. I will take rest.

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

Mr. Malhotra: Aren't we the images of God?

Prabhupāda: Apart from images... That is another thing. That we shall describe later on. First of all you cannot claim that you are God because you are under the control of material nature.

Mr. Malhotra: You said part and parcel of God.

Prabhupāda: Part and parcel, just like the finger is part and parcel of my body, but it is not the whole body.

Mr. Malhotra: It is the body.

Prabhupāda: It is body, you can say that, but part of it.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: And this will be the Universal Form. He will have many heads and many arms. And with the controlling the lighting, His image will appear in mirrors on the ceiling and on the walls, so everywhere you look you'll see Him.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (laughs) All-pervading. It is very, very good improvement, encouraging. People will enjoy this.

Rāmeśvara: And He is lying on Śeṣa. This exhibit is so spectacular, this Universal Form. It is more impressive than anything, I think, in America, because at a certain point there is even a machine which makes different fragrances in the air.

Prabhupāda: So you can invite this opposition cult to see what we are doing. "Why you are after us," ask, "like the barking dog? There is good use. It is the highest culture." Make some compromise: "Why you are after simply spoiling? Don't you want advancement in culture and knowledge? Why you are so envious?" Just try to bring the leaders, that "What is use? You also join. It is a culture.

Room Conversation with Film Producer about Krsna Lila -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: On the whole, my point is: it is a very difficult subject matter. So unless we very carefully deal, people will misunderstand.

Guest (2): We have carefully dealt with...

Guest (1): So we have given them images the superpower of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (2): It is not a question of sex. It is super divine power.

Prabhupāda: You say like that.

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So if it is legal, why shall they be...?

Rāmeśvara: The reason it was decided is that even though it is legal in America, in foreign countries there is bad reaction. The Americans do not mind as much as the foreign countries. So we are concerned for the international image of our movement.

Jayatīrtha: It was published in practically every newspaper in the world, a picture of Santa Claus being arrested by a policeman in America. We got a lot of questions. Also the President of the United States questioned one boy in a Santa Claus outfit.

Rāmeśvara: We felt that it would not seriously decrease the book distribution if we stopped this.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Then it is all right.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm, hm, hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says he understood that busts of divine images of guru and Kṛṣṇa are not to be made. He says in New York you explained this point with reference to photographs that were used in Back to Godhead of your divine self that it was impersonal to cut off some portion of the complete worshipable form.

Prabhupāda: No, if it is not worshipable, if it is to be kept in library, that can be done.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. He says, "I beg to be excused for troubling Your Divine Grace on all these questions, which I always hesitate to do, but I took this liberty."

Prabhupāda: You are always allowed. Sad-dharma-pṛcchā. This is one of the duties of devotees. Sad-dharma-pṛcchā.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Jadurani -- Bombay 1 April, 1971:

Another picture shows the many pictures on the spool of movie film. Although there are actually many, many different pictures, when projected in continuous sequence on the screen the image appears as one. Ordinarily we see a man as localized, but every moment the picture is changing without the notice of the viewer. The soul within the heart does not change however, it remains the same. Again, you may illustrate the verse how the soul takes on new bodies as new dress and when the dress is worn out as at the time of death, he takes on new body. I know you are all intelligent devotees of the Lord and I feel confidence in you that you can all illustrate the philosophical instructions of the Lord and this will be a great boon to the people at large.