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Improve (Conv. 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"improve" |"improved" |"improvement" |"improvements" |"improves"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Why you accuse government? Government is your election.

Dr. Patel: Now she is not going to have any more elections. "Elections are not necessary. People have given me the mandate to rule over them."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's nice. If the dictator, executive officer, is very nice, religious, then there is no need of this election.

Dr. Patel: Oh, she goes to the temples, all right. (laughs) (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: No, no. She has got the tendency of spiritual life and she requires improvement. That's all. She has spoken in Chandigarh that "Now we require spiritualism." Hm?

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) She is shamming, sir. Shamming. Shamming. She is not truthful to any of her words.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dr. Patel: She is not truthful to what she says.

Prabhupāda: (break) Any circumstances, they can adjust. (break) Oh, Gaṅgā-sāgara.

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Harikesa: The soldiers, they start the war. One stands on one side, the other stands on the other side, and there's one shot, one shot, ten shots, ten shots, then mortars, then tanks, then atom bombs.

Prabhupāda: No, why this is? If you have improved scientifically, let two, three scientists keep flying and the handy atom bomb. As soon as war starts, "plum," finished.

Harikesa: They have that also.

Prabhupāda: Then.... Why also? That should be the only. It is waste of time. What kind of scientists they are? If you have actually improved in science for killing others by atom bomb, so keep one atom bomb very carefully. Fly in the sky. And as soon as the war-world, "plum." Finished.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: By association they will be also.

Bhavānanda: Yes, they have also improved.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jagaman has.

Bhavānanda: Jagaman is wonderful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He works very hard. So I think we should try to get as many of these young boys as we can. We should use the facility of this prasādam distribution.

Prabhupāda: The thing is that whether we should... This pamphlet, I don't think it has got any value.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: He said that "We have very little evidence for this theory," but he said that "All of you should not be disturbed because our previous theory, we had no evidence whatsoever. (laughter) So this is an improvement."

Prabhupāda: He admitted. "Previous theory, that was nonsense," and still the nonsense going on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "So don't be disturbed."

Prabhupāda: Yes. "So you are dealing with all nonsense. Don't be disappointed."

Morning Walk -- February 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Acyutānanda: I think the people know that he is bogus, but they just go for some entertainment because he is so... (Prabhupāda laughs) Yes, they just go for some... Some people go just because they want to hear some nice English, to improve their English knowledge.

Prabhupāda: He speaks good English?

Acyutānanda: Very... He's an orator.

Prabhupāda: He's M.A. in English. I know. He's...

Acyutānanda: He used to be, I heard, a journalist.

Prabhupāda: Yes, journalist.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes. Make it more.... Therefore I wanted first of all this house, not the temple, because where they'll stay? They'll come to the temple. Where they will stay? If you get staying place, then you can act your brain and improve. And if you are harassed—no place—then brain will not work. Therefore I wanted first of all the residential place. And they criticize me, "Oh, you did not construct temple first." And a temple of the devotees is first, our temple. Then God. God will come if there are devotees. Tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada yatra gāyantī mad-bhaktāḥ. Unless there is devotee, where is God? God is not a stone. Any stone is God? Unless there is devotees, there's no God. Therefore, without devotee: the idol, this is idol worship. That is not worship. Therefore they cannot understand what is the form, what is the distinction between form of the Lord and idol. They do not know how to worship in devotion. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). They are thinking, "It is stone, and God is remaining here, stone. He will never speak," because they are not devotee. If you become devotee.... Just like Sākṣī Gopāla. For devotee He went to give witness, "Yes, I'll walk." That is God. And if you are not devotee, how you can expect the stone statue is walking? You have read that Sākṣī Gopāla?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, very nice.

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...improved his health. He says still?

Revatīnandana: Yes. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Revatīnandana: Dharma was telling me.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...to rise early in the morning and do whatever is needed. Then, at nine, half-past nine, I will go his apartment and begin cooking. Then, after finishing, I'll take my bathing, and then we shall eat together. And then, after eating, I will go to the Fifth Avenue for loitering.

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Acyutānanda: If someone gives to a person for spiritual..., consciously for spiritual improvement...

Prabhupāda: There is no question of...

Acyutānanda: ...and the person misuses the money, does he benefit?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Acyutānanda: If a man says, "I am giving you this donation because it is a spiritual organization," but if the money is misused, does that man benefit?

Prabhupāda: If money is misused, then both of them become implicated. If it is not used for Kṛṣṇa, then both of them becomes under the laws of karma.

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: ...make a suggestion before they leave, have a little meeting, things that could be improved. Then next year we could even make it better.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Yes. Make that suggestion.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is the earth also spinning?

Prabhupāda: No.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Or is it simply the sun's movements that causes the day and night, everything?

Prabhupāda: No planet is fixed except the sun. All are fixed up. But the whole thing is moving. That is Bhāgavatam. And that you can see at night.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: Oh, no, since then they've improved the road. Oh, that road has been paved now. Pākā road.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayapatākā: (break) ...there, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They've got a mango orchard also. What time will you be leaving here tomorrow?

Prabhupāda: Early in the morning.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Five.

Prabhupāda: Or when...? As you like. I have no.... (break) They.... How we see the sun is fixed up? The sun is moving, we see, so quickly. And the moon is moving, but it does not move. It is fixed up. Mean regarding the time, you can see practically, the sun is moving. And they say it is fixed up. The fixed-up article is moving quickly, and the moving article is fixed up.

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So the Communists, they are thinking, "By changing the hand, things will improve." But they do not know that very industry is the cause of falldown. They're simply trying to change the hand. The principle should go on, industry, only the proposal is that the capitalists should give up and the workers should take it.

Devotee (2): Which way is India headed towards? The capitalists or the Communists?

Prabhupāda: India has no, had no such ideas. They are borrowing ideas. India's idea is self-realization. Live very simple life—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. The brāhmaṇas, they are living simple life, becoming very learned scholar, pure character, advanced in spiritual life—one class, ideal. And kṣatriyas, they are supposed to be the king. They distribute the land on nominal taxation, and the vaiśyas utilize the land for cultivation and cow-keeping, and the śūdras, they are engaged as weaver, blacksmith, goldsmith, mean other necessities of life. In this way the whole society is simplified, and the central point is how to become advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness by cooperation. This is India's civilization.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: I mean Hegel did try to improve upon Karl Marx. Really material is important. When the person dies why the body should rot? They every day see.

Guru dāsa: Prabhupāda pointed out the other day that when someone dies, we have all the bodily fluids there, all the organs. Why can't we put it together and make life again?

Dr. Patel: That's right. So now they have started reading all these, our books. They will now make amendment on it. As you said, they will thesis, synthesis. The present practice of communism in Russia is much more diluted than what it was twenty, thirty years back.

Prabhupāda: It should be.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Stop disease; otherwise where is improvement? (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...poetry, kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare, nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare (Prema-vivarta). As soon as the living entity desires sense gratification, immediately māyā captures.

Dr. Patel: That is what I want. I really meant. Man is producing the desire. You cannot...

Prabhupāda: (break) ...sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi.

Dr. Patel: New (indistinct), do you mean to say?

Prabhupāda: No, old (indistinct), everything. Yes, all, all squared up, all accounts squared up. Begin new chapter of your life. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). As soon as one begins devotional service, he shall be clean of all sinful reactions. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Nobody comes to hear.

Dr. Patel: When you are staying here in Bombay your health does improve very well.

Prabhupāda: No, Bombay I like very well. Because I like Bombay and this beach, I was so much persistent for get this land. That is the history. Every one of my disciples, they declined. I insisted, "I must possess this land." And Nair was thinking that "This man has no money, so just involve him, and whatever money he gives us, I take it."

Dr. Patel: But before he could sell, he died, poor fellow.

Prabhupāda: And now?

Dr. Patel: He died, no?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) And when she decided to kill Kṛṣṇa, she was killed.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So opium is poison undoubtedly, but if it is in the hand of physician, it is nectarine. It can save the life. Whatever God has created, it has got some use. One must know. Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate. That is wanted.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Marx's idea was that instead of trying to improve the condition of life, people would simply go to the church or like this and worship and accept their miserable condition of life without any material progress.

Prabhupāda: No, they do not know.

Dr. Patel: It is abstract materialism, sir.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Devotee (2): One devotee in New Zealand, his father was dying of leukemia. He told his father to stop eating meat and smoking cigarettes, and his health would improve. His father said, "If I can't do these things, what is the use of living?"

Prabhupāda: So somebody should.... (break) ...committed suicide?

Hari-śauri: Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway. When he found out, when the doctor told him he couldn't have sex life anymore, he killed himself.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He was a very big and rich author.

Prabhupāda: This is the important men.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Yes, śraddhā. That faith increase, and when it is increased so much that he fully understands, "By worshiping Kṛṣṇa, everything is done," that is first-class faith. Śraddhā-śabde viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścaya (Cc. Madhya 22.62). If he becomes fixed up, "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality," that is first-class, means fulfillment of faith. In the beginning it might be doubtful, neophyte. But when that is, that faith is fixed up, "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality," that is the fulfillment of faith. Faith also there are different stages, improvement. Devotional service means different grades of faith. Today I am in one stage of faith, next day another stage, next day another stage, next day another stage. And when you come to the stage that vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti (BG 7.19), oh, that is final. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. That takes time. And quickly also, if one is fortunate. If one is intelligent—"The śāstra says, 'Vāsudeva is everything,' so why not take Vāsudeva everything?"—then he gains the result immediately.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1976, Honolulu:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They don't grow. (break) ...say, though, that "We don't want to enter into a religious, philosophical discussion. Simply we are trying to improve the standard of life."

Prabhupāda: What improvement you have done? What improvement you have done? I do not wish to die. Can you help me? Then what improvement?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: What improvement?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But we can make it more comfortable.

Prabhupāda: My father died, his father died, his father died, so I'll die, my son will die. What improvement you have done?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We can make it more comfortable to die.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Peaceful death. This will be accepted by rascals. That's all.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: You don't require it. (break) ...so many materialistic improvements, we require open field like this. We require trees. That is nature's gift. Although we have got this car, we come here to take advantage of nature's gift. Why you have come here? The city was there. I don't like. So actually you enjoy nature's gift. Important persons, they work whole week in the city, and as soon as there is weekend they go to the village. Why? The enjoyment is in the village. They do not like to stay in the factory. It is disgusting.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...provement. Have you improved this, that a dead body can be brought into life by scientific arrangement? And still, they'll say "improvement." What improvement? Simply dry talks, that is science? (break) First subject matter for scientific advancement, that there is soul within the body. On account of the presence of the soul, the body is changing. So the soul is different from the body. So this is the first education of scientist. And they have avoided this major.... They simply bluffing people, "We have discovered this..." What you have discovered? Discover this: What is the principle within the body? Real discovery, they are not interested. They are bluffing. They are fools, making others fools and going on as scientific advancement. First of all answer this.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That is my problem. If anyone can solve this problem, I will call him scientist. That is everyone's problem. The artists, they are trying to remain young, especially the ladies. And still, the scientist cannot stop this, that "No more becoming old, old." Then where is your improvement? You have invented some cosmetic. You apply it, and your, what is called, hollow cheek will be swollen up.

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

Prabhupāda: Then it's all right?

Jagannātha: And he is making many improvements.

Prabhupāda: No. He can, all of you can if you like.

Rāmeśvara: This is, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Allen, who is becoming very enthusiastic to support our movement.

Prabhupāda: Thank you.

Rāmeśvara: His wife is very, very devoted.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: "O my Lord, all the demigods, headed by Lord Brahmā, are sincere servants of Your Lordship, who are situated in a transcendental position. Therefore they are not like us (Prahlāda and his father, the demon Hiraṇyakaśipu). Your appearance in this fearsome form is Your pastime for Your own pleasure. Such an incarnation is always meant for the protection and improvement of the universe."
Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: It bothers. Suppose you have got some plan you have to do—everyone has got some plan, ideas, some improvement—but what is the guarantee that you'll be able to execute that plan? Because you can die at any moment.

Richard: Right, there is none.

Prabhupāda: So it is not obstacle?

Richard: No.

Prabhupāda: How is that, is not obstacle? You are planning something, that "I shall do this..." You may not be very important man, but there are many important men. The leaders of the society, they are planning that "I shall make my nation like this way, my family like this way." Everyone is planning. But where is the guarantee that he'll be able to fulfill the plan? Death may take place any moment.

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

Prabhupāda: That I already said, that animal lives very content within his limitation. He doesn't like to improve. But that is not human life.

Richard: Well, okay, ah, but I know many people who are relatively contented and still growing.

Prabhupāda: What is the contentment? If you have got the problems unsolved, that is ass's contentment. Ass does not know how to check death. He does not think of it. But a human being's intelligence says whether the disease can be checked, whether the death can be checked. That is human being. The ass cannot think. If we remain contented like an ass, so that is animal life.

Richard: Right, but still people carry on, people...

Prabhupāda: Let them carry on. Ass is also carrying on. That is another thing. But distinction between ass's life and human life, the ass cannot estimate the impediments or the obstacles of life. A human being can see, and it is his duty how to overcome it.

Interview with Jackie Vaughn (Black Congressman) -- July 12, 1976, Detroit:

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda is saying that even though the American government is giving so much money to suffering people, still the suffering is there, there's no improvement in the condition. So why, what is the cause? What is the answer?

Jackie Vaughn: I think it's all in the theory. We are not making first things first.

Prabhupāda: That means whatever we do, we do in ignorance. You do not know what is the first thing or what to do first. That we are correcting. Here is the first thing. Pour water in the root.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: That means they cannot improve the condition of the people. Just like at the airport, everyone is checked. There is no gentlemen. Why everyone is checked? That means the whole mass of people, they're all rogues and thieves. Therefore it is necessary to keep an ideal, an ideal class of men brāhmaṇas. Then people will follow. But there is no such.... Everyone is coolie. That's all. Everyone is. They are making everyone coolie. Coolie civilization. One officer came to see me in Perth, Australia. So I told him, this is a civilization of fourth-class men.

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Satsvarūpa: ...the leaf movement. That movement is another watering of the leaf and branches instead of the root, to try to improve the lakes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ paramam avyayam. It has been published in the paper that we consider everyone a rascal, miscreant...

Devotee: Sinful.

Prabhupāda: ...who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious. That has been published. (laughter) You have seen it?

Viśvakarmā: Which paper was that?

Devotees: Los Angeles Times. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...question? Tell it.

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

Prabhupāda: What is this? Another barn?

Kīrtanānanda: This is an oxbarn here.

Prabhupāda: No, this.

Kīrtanānanda: That tank? That tank we are making for grain storage.

Prabhupāda: Oh, much improvement. (end)

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

Prabhupāda: Patient is always rascal fool. You cannot expect him to be intelligent. He must agree to the physician's directions. That is intelligence. He must know that he's diseased, he must follow the instruction of the physician. That much will help him. Unless one is rascal, he does not fall sick. As soon as you violate the hygienic principles, you become sick. All commit sinful activities on account of ignorance. So therefore the best advancement of civilization is not to open hospitals, but to give them a lesson that they may not fall sick and go to hospital. That is real...But they do not know. They keep the mass of people in ignorance, they fall sick and they come to hospital and number of hospitals increase, they think it is advancement. This is their idea. So even the Christians, religious persons, they also open hospital to give relief to the patient. So that is not the program. The program is why he should fall sick and come to the hospital? Precaution is better than cure. One comes to the hospital for cure, but why not take the precaution so that he may not have to come to the hospital for cure? That is Vedic civilization. They have different prescribed rules and regulations so that a person may not fall sick. The modern idea is that "Let them fall sick; we have got hospitals and treat them, and they'll be cured." But he is cured, again he falls sick. That is going on. They have no program for precaution. They have program for cure. But actually, precaution is better than cure. We are taking precaution. The other fools, rascals, they are thinking, "What these people are doing? They are (indistinct) to have no this program, that," according to them. Just like our Vivekananda, he prescribed, daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. The same thing—hospital. We kill all animals, and the hospital patient is given the meat for improvement of the health.

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

Prabhupāda: Now suppose these electric lights. So, crude form of light, we grow some castor seed, everything from the earth. This also you are getting from earth, petroleum, and running on machine, and electricity is generated. But really you are getting the impetus from the earth. As soon as the petroleum supply is stopped, everything stopped. But for this purpose you have to search out petroleum from the middle of ocean, boring. Therefore it is ugra-karma. The purpose is that you grow some castor seed, press it, get oil, put in any pot, and one wick, the light is there. So even understanding that you have improved the lighting system, but that is not the only necessity of my life. But to improve from the castor seed lamp, castor oil lamp, to this electricity, you have to work so hard. You have to go to the middle of ocean and drill it and get out petroleum and... In this way your real business of life is finished. The energy and the intelligence you got for your self-realization or your, this precarious position, constantly dying and taking birth in various species of life, this is your problem, and this was to be solved in human life, you have got advanced intelligence, but that intelligence is utilized from castor seed lamp to the electric lamp. That's all. Just try to understand. What is that improvement? And for this improving from castor seed oil lamp to electricity lamp, you forget your real business. You lost yourself. This civilization is going on.

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

Prabhupāda: No, you enjoy, but by enjoying, if you forget your real business, is that intelligent? Your real business is that you have got this human form of body to improve your next life. You are going to have a next life. Suppose you are going to be a dog. Is that success? So you must know the science that instead of becoming dog, how shall you become God. That is intelligence.

Kīrtanānanda: Why is it any better to grow castor seed than to dig oil?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: Why is it any better to grow castor seed than to...

Prabhupāda: No, you require lamp. So you finish that lamping business as simply as possible. In the balance time you save you improve your self-realization. That is the life. Just like this child, he wants to play. He does not go to school, does not take an education, and he improves type of toys, toys, he's engaged in improved type of football playing, and... Then is that very good intelligence?

Kīrtanānanda: But nobody works longer hours than the farmer.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: No one works harder than the farmer. The farmer has to work very hard.

Prabhupāda: No, our point is that if you think that electricity improvement is better than farming, we have no objection.

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

Prabhupāda: That is our proposal. Our real business is how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. So simply for improving the condition of life, the necessities of life, if I forget my real business, is that intelligence? Therefore it is said duṣkṛtinaḥ. Kṛti means merit. But merit is being utilized for sinful activities. Take for example the meat-eaters. When man was... The uncivilized man is still there. In the uncivilized way they are living in the jungle. They require to eat something. So they stone over an animal going, and the animal dies, and then they eat. Now instead of killing the animal by stoning, if you have discovered scientific machine in the slaughterhouse to kill the animal, is that improvement? If you think this is advancement, "Now we have discovered very technical machine. Instead of stoning one animal killing, it takes so much time, hundreds and thousands of animals you can kill in one hour," do you think that is improvement? That is going on. They think this is improvement. When we were uncivilized, we were stoning some animal and killing and eating, now we are, business is the same—animal killing and eating. But we have improved the machine how to kill. This is going on. This is going on as advancement of civilization. Hmm? What is your answer? Is that advancement of civilization? Now you are civilized, instead of killing the animal, you just take milk from it without killing and make so many nice preparations, and that is civilization. But killing is sinful. You have no right to kill any animal, even an ant. Because you cannot give life to anyone. It is nature's law, God's law. So infringement on the laws of nature or God, it is sinful activities. So you are utilizing your merit for this sinful activity. Therefore it is called duṣkṛtinaḥ. Merit is there, but it is utilized for sinful activities. That is defect of the modern civilization.

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

Kulaśekhara: In London you said they do not know that the butterflies and flowers are painted, but Kṛṣṇa paints them with thought.

Prabhupāda: Yes. How you can expect without painting it has come so beautiful? This is foolishness, "nature"—what is this nature? Everything is being done by the machine of Kṛṣṇa. Parāsya śaktir vividaiva śrūyate. Anyway, improve this mode of life. Live in open place, produce your food grains, produce your milk, save time, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Plain living, high thinking, ideal life. Artificial necessities of life do increase your so-called comforts, but if you forget your real business, that is suicidal. We want to stop this suicidal policy. We don't want to stop the modern advancement of technology, although the so-called advancement technology is suicidal. But we don't talk of this. (laughter) Caitanya Mahāprabhu has therefore given a simple formula-chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Even in your technological factories, you can chant. What is the wrong there? You go on pulling on with your machine and chant, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa.

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

Prabhupāda: Because we are intelligent. I love you. Therefore you'll die and you'll become a dog, so I am taking sympathy on you that "Don't become a dog." Every human being is anxious. The example is given just like a child flying kite and is going this way, this way, on the roof. Now on the edge of the roof, so one gentleman standing, "Hey, you'll fall down." That is his duty. He says, "Why you are checking me?" (laughter) "Why you are checking me?" "Because I am human being. You are foolish boy. Therefore I am checking you." That is natural. Even a child, or the boy is not his son, but because he is a gentleman, he wants to give him some protection. It is the duty of gentleman. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to the Indians, that "You become perfect and go and give this knowledge to the rest of the world. They are all rascals." Bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra (CC Adi 9.41). It is para-upakāra, humanitarian. You may say "Why do you bother?" But as a human being, I bother. Every human being will do that. Kṛṣṇa comes, bothering Himself. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). "When these have become rascals, fools, I come, again advise them." So those who are servants of God, they are also doing the same thing, on behalf of God. Their position is therefore exalted. They should be worshiped as God because they are doing the work of God. They are not cheating public. So improve this farming very nicely.

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

Prabhupāda: The same way we have to go?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, but the road has been improved.

Prabhupāda: So one day we can go.

Kīrtanānanda: When it dries up.

Prabhupāda: You father is an architect, I see.

Kulaśekhara: No, he's working on the docks.

Prabhupāda: Oh. His father came to see me in London.

Kulaśekhara: He used to chauffeur you in his car. He would drive you in his car from the airport.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Lāvaṇyam, now you know very well in the Western country. Beauty increases by having long hair. (laughter) I was just trying to recite this verse only, and now see how it is current. Who expected that this foretelling is there in the Bhāgavatam? To increase beauty, have long hair. Is it not? Now just see. How five thousand years this thing was foretold? That is the proof. There was no hippie movement then. (laughs) But Vyāsadeva foretold that in the Kali-yuga if one keeps long hair he will think himself as very beautiful. There are so many things. Ultimately, with the advancement of Kali-yuga you'll have no food. Food means there will be no food grains, there will be no milk, there will be no sugar, like that. No fruits. If you get fruits, there will be no pulp, it is simply seeds. These things are there. You get a mango, but a mango means simply the big seed, that's all. So how can you check it? If nature's way, things are going to happen like that, what the scientists will do? If there is no rice, no wheat, will the scientists...? They can say replace with a pill, but they cannot produce wheat or rice or dahl or milk, sugar. That is not possible.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Śrīla Prabhupāda? They have fashioned a way for the spacemen that they can drink their own urine and eat their own stool.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the most scientific improvement. (laughter) Yes. That they can do. (laughter) By scientific improvement, they can drink their own urine, very tasty. That is possible.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:
Prabhupāda: Even up to today those who are Hindu follow the Manu-saṁhitā. Laws of inheritance and other legalities are derived from this book. Now, in the Manu-saṁhitā it is clearly stated that a woman should not be given freedom. That does not mean that women are to be kept as slaves, but they are like children. Children are not given freedom, but that does not mean they are kept as slaves. The demons have now neglected such injunctions and they think that women should be given as much freedom as men. However this has not improved the social condition of the world. Actually a woman should be given protection at every stage of life. She should be given protection by her father in her younger days, by the husband in her youth, and by the grown-up sons in her old age. This is proper social behavior according to the Manu-saṁhitā. But modern education has artificially devised a puffed-up concept of womanly life, and therefore marriage is practically now an imagination in human society. Nor is the moral condition of woman very good now. The demons, therefore, do not accept any instruction which is good for society, and because they do not follow the experience of great sages and the rules and regulations laid down by the sages, the social condition of the demoniac people is very miserable."
Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: He's advising that, "My dear friends, pleasure, material pleasure, on account of this material body, particular type of body...": A dog, it has got a body, and I have got a body. So my sex pleasure and dog's sex pleasure, there is no difference, the pleasure derived out of sex pleasure is the same. But a dog is not afraid of having sex pleasure on the street before everyone. We hide it. That's all. In a nice apartment. But the business is the same. There is no difference. But they are taking this sex pleasure in a nice apartment and very decorated, man and woman, and electric light and so on, so on. This pleasure is advanced. But that is not advanced. And they are making dog's race for this advancement. Superficial. The Prahlāda Mahārāja says that this is a question of different types of pleasure on account of different types of body, but the pleasure is the same. But according to the different types of body the pleasure is already fixed up. That is called destiny. A pig has got a certain type of body and his eatable is the stool. It is already fixed up. You cannot change it, that "Let the pig eat halavā." It is not possible. Because he has got a particular type of body, he must eat that. Can anyone, any scientist can improve the standard of living of a pig? Is it possible?
Room Conversation After Film -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: India could not improve on account of poverty, lame. And America? Blind for want of culture. So let the blind man carry the lame man on the head, and the lame man give direction that "Go this way," and he walks. So both men's work is done. There is no hampering because one is blind and one is lame. Combined together, they get the benefit. Andha-paṅgor nyāya.

Rādhāvallabha: The book distributors use that example sometimes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Bill Sauer: I believe the spirit of life lives on totally in this marvelous planet earth, but I feel the spirit has to be carried and nurtured and improved in the body. So I feel we have to carry the bodies, the material bodies, to the other planets to allow the spiritualism to live there also.

Prabhupāda: That is in the material world. If you want to stay in the material, then you change the material body just suitable for a particular place, atmosphere. But we have got our spiritual body. That spiritual body, without any material covering, you can transfer to the spiritual world.

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

Bill Sauer: Well, I believe there is a matrix of creation, a spiritual... Technical people call it an electromagnetic world, where I'm sure a lot goes on that we are unaware of, but I believe the... It's like one product of the fourth kingdom is the automobile. And that has it's spiritual world. Automobiles, if you destroyed all the automobiles, there are still blueprints around, there are still things that can manufacture other automobiles. But the trial, the improvement, the development the automobile has to take place as an automobile... Likewise, I think the spiritual improvement, the improvement of...

Prabhupāda: Automobile, automatically the automobile does not develop. When a man, a person, develops the design, that is a question of development. But the automobile as it is, it does not develop. It is matter. When matter is handled by a spirit soul, then there is change. Otherwise there is no change.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are carried away by the laws of nature. However you may improve your technological science, you are under the laws of material nature. That you cannot change. But if you revive your spiritual life, then you can change. Otherwise it is not possible. If you keep yourself under the laws of material nature, then you have to be carried away by the laws of material nature, however expert you may be in technological understanding. Because, after all, you are an instrument in the hands of material nature.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate
(BG 3.27)

You are falsely thinking "I am everything. I can, by technological understanding, improve the condition." But the real problem is, as it is put forward by Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). We are eternal, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We are put under the laws of material nature, by which we have to accept birth, death, old age and disease. This is our real problem. So unless you make a solution of these problems, there is actually no advancement of education. But the problems remains the same.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: So in the Kali-yuga, this age, so many difficulties, social, political, religious, cultural. So in Kali-yuga the practice of yoga is not possible. It was possible in the Satya-yuga. Kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇum. That is meditation. That was possible in the Satya-yuga. But in Kali-yuga you can do that, the same achievement you can have by hari-kīrtana, by chanting the holy name of the Lord. And factually you'll find our, these disciples, young boys and girls, they are not practicing in a secluded place the yoga system. They are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. And bring any yogi in the world and talk with them and see the comparison. Because that is fashion only; it has no practical value. And here is practical value. Maybe one or two are successful, but mass of people, yoga practice is not recommended. That is not possible to be executed. But if you take to this hari-kīrtana movement, Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, very soon, kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati. You see practically. They are young boys and girls. At least, they have given up the four principles of sinful life and they are practicing, and they will improve. If they stick to the principles, they will improve.

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: This is a spiritual movement, and at the present moment people are more interested with material improvement, but our real interest is... Not only our, every human being's interest should be for spiritual upliftment. Just like our body is there, and within the body I am the spirit soul, also I am there. So we are taking care of the body but not of the spirit soul. So the nature's law is that a spirit soul, changing in different position of the body, as we experience in this life, from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, similarly, after giving up this body, we'll have to accept another body, and there are 8,400,000 different forms of body. We do not know what kind of body we are going to accept according to our activities and mentality. At the time of death the mentality will ascertain what kind of body we are going to get next. So these things are completely not discussed, neither they have any knowledge. So at the present moment the human civilization is a very risky civilization, so in order to save them from this state of ignorance, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is essential. It is not a sectarian religious movement, faith or sentiment. It is actually scientific movement. Here are many scientists present. They are also taking very seriously about this movement. So we invite all important men to contact us and try to understand the basic principle of this movement, how to elevate the human society to the proper standard of life and become peaceful in this life as well as in the next life.

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Interviewer: Do you think mankind is making some improvement?

Prabhupāda: No. Materially they may be doing some improvement, but that is not spiritually important. Just like I give sometimes this example: just like a dog, animal, is jumping with four legs on the street, and we are going fast with four wheels, so that does not make any difference. The difference is the dog cannot understand about his spiritual identity. A man can understand if he's properly trained up. If the man is denied that facility, then he remains in the ignorance of an animal like cats and dogs.

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Interviewer: What is your opinion of what this movement should be doing in terms of world activities and world affairs that it isn't doing now? Are there some new areas that you may try to influence?

Prabhupāda: No, we are pushing on this movement all over the world. It is not that this particular place is important, but our interest is that Western people... They are so intelligent. They are very systematically making improvement in material condition of life. They should know also that spiritual life is more important than material life. Because, for example, we are combination of matter and spirit. So long the spirit soul is there, our body is very important. Otherwise, without spirit, the body has no importance. Everyone can understand. Similarly, all this material advancement of civilization is very good, provided there is spiritual understanding also. Otherwise it is decoration of the dead body. A dead body decorated has no value, but when there is life, then the body is valuable. So material advancement of material civilization means decoration of the dead body. But when there is spiritual understanding, then there is importance of everything.

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

so cold you cannot stand even.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually after I left Hawaii, I went to see you in Hawaii, all of the work that we did in this building began from when I returned here. So it's been a great push for the last month or month and a half, I think. They did not do much improvement on the temple the first five or six months they were here. They were just adjusting, I guess.

Prabhupāda: Not proper leader. What is this building?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the, ah...

Rāmeśvara: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Very famous art museum.

Prabhupāda: Saw fireworks in Washington.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, it's a good advertisement. Quite an improvement from last year to this year.

Prabhupāda: The whole go-down is rented.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, look at the area we get for eight hundred dollars, it's a great deal.

Prabhupāda: Eight hundred dollars per month?

Ādi-keśava: For the whole period, for three months.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Three months. It's very good, because it gives protection for working in the sunshine and because it's so open there's a lot of air blowing, it's very cool for the workers.

Prabhupāda: What is this factory?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayānanda, what kind of factory is this?

Jayānanda: Steel.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Eldest son.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But they admit that his life is, they admit that his character is very much improved. That they admit, but now they'd like him to come back.

Rāmeśvara: And join their business.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These posters are from Reverend Moon, advertising his big Yankee Stadium appearance.

Ādi-keśava: Fiasco.

Hari-śauri: It says "God Bless America."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that's the title of it, "God Bless America." But who is God? He says "I am God."

Prabhupāda: No, he has taken advantage, that "So many rascals are coming from India, God, why not from the Christian league? I become God." He's taking advantage. He's intelligent man.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: In our Gurukula we'll improve. But the parents do not want that their children should be religious, sādhu.

Rāmeśvara: In these schools, the children are given drugs by their schoolmates. Even at an early age, six, twelve years old, ten years old, they are smoking cigarettes.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: All right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Svarūpa Dāmodara is looking.

Hari-śauri: This first paragraph recognizes how in the last two years especially our esteem has improved. It says "One has to see for oneself..."

Prabhupāda: Ah, that Sadajivitlal you know.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, very well.

Prabhupāda: He says about me that "Bhaktivedanta Swami has smeared the black carbon of all other swamis." (laughter)

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: We are interested in eating Kṛṣṇa prasādam. If Kṛṣṇa says "Give Me meat," we shall give Him. But He does not say. He says patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). Meat-eating is sinful, that's a fact, amedha, tāmasika, but if you remain in the darkness of ignorance, you cannot improve your spiritual life. Tāmasika. It is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, rājasika, tāmasika, sāttvika. Therefore we should eat sāttvika, and that is also after offering to Kṛṣṇa. Then we are free from all sinful reactions. And if you want to implicate yourself in sinful activities, then you can eat whatever you like. But either you eat meat or vegetables, if it is eaten for my satisfaction of the tongue, you become implicated in sinful activities, and you have to suffer the reaction. The animal you are killing, he'll kill also you next life. Then you become bound up.

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: That's a good building.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We shouldn't give it up. Very good facility. Especially once we make all improvements on it, why we should give it up? Better to simply open another one.

Prabhupāda: And that is advertised means nobody's purchasing at this quarter, it is not very safe.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: By the improvement in medicine...

Prabhupāda: That's right, accepting increase, but it is not that death is stopped. Just like they have made so many medical improvements, but that does not mean that they have stopped disease.

Hari-śauri: Well, they don't claim they can stop death.

Prabhupāda: Therefore they are rascals. What is the improvement? If you stop disease, then it is improvement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say no one can do that.

Prabhupāda: Then you are subordinate. Do not claim all in all because you are scientist. Then you are controlled. You have to accept.

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: That book is not here? Nowhere?

Interviewer: Let me ask you. If through technological means mankind is somewhat improved, in other words, the average man is much more intelligent, what you would consider now to be an intelligent man...

Prabhupāda: But intelligent man... If one understands that he is not this body—he is within the body... Just like you have got one shirt. You are not the shirt. Anyone can understand. You are within the shirt. Similarly, a person who understands that he is not the body—he is within the body... That anyone can understand because when the body is dead, what is the difference? Because the living force within the body is gone, therefore we call the body dead.

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

Prabhupāda: Ford. So what improvement you have done by having this President or that President? What improvement you'll make unless some false promise? That's all. What is the improvement? You have changed so many hundreds and thousands of Presidents, but what is the improvement about spiritual knowledge?

Bali-mardana: Prabhupāda sees everything spiritually.

Interviewer: How's that?

Bali-mardana: He's seeing everything spiritually. What is the improvement spiritually out of all these Presidents? So therefore we do not care.

Interviewer: You do not care what the President...

Prabhupāda: We take care, but we take care more for the spirit soul than the body. That is our basic principle.

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

Prabhupāda: It is not a good life, and the whole material world is false identification with myself.

Interviewer: Well is it important to try to improve this life so that it won't be a prison?

Prabhupāda: Yes, improve, improve, to understand that I am not a person of the jail. I am a person of freedom. Long living in the jail one who identifies that "Without jail I cannot live."

Interviewer: Well, I hope we all get out of it sometime, somehow, someway, either here or there.(laughs)

Prabhupāda: But we are trying to educate the prisoners that "Your life is not perfect within the jail. Your life is perfect without the jail." This is our education.

Morning Walk -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...pure devotee will also come here and therefore he's (indistinct) bringing for you.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Caitanya Mahāprabhu goes with His associates, He does not go alone. Sa-pārṣadam. Sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam.

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ
(SB 11.5.32)

There is saṅkīrtana-yajña, everything will improve very gradually. (break) Now the government has not given any opposition. That is very good. In India, our own government is giving little opposition.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Bhagavān: Yeah. This is just the press proof. It needs improvement.

Prabhupāda: Fifty thousand?

Bhagavān: Twenty-five thousand. The translators have been working day and night for the last two weeks to get everything ready. They are now in Italy. We are printing this book in Italy.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Cheaper?

Bhagavān: Very cheap. Very cheap. Including composition, the book cost $1.75.

Prabhupāda: Oh, very cheap.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: If the health suits, I can stay there. If the health improves, I can stay.

Pṛthu-putra: Air India is direct from Geneva.

Prabhupāda: I shall not stay...

Pṛthu-putra: I came back from Bombay to Geneva by direct plane.

Prabhupāda: Yes, there is plane.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: No, if I improve my health, I shall stay there for some time.

Jayatīrtha: Actually, it's a fact that you...

Prabhupāda: Everywhere is my home. Not that India.... If I am attached to India, then how I am sannyāsī? (laughter)

Bhagavān: And every other day I will give you a new book. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Where is?

Hari-śauri: You have to keep it, too, when you promise.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Harikeśa: It's his nature.

Prabhupāda: No, he has to live in that way. That is his destiny. You cannot change it by artificial ways. Even if he has got all the facilities, he will have to live like that. That is nature. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa saṅgo 'sya sad-asad janma yoniṣu (BG 13.22). This is... So therefore there is no use of so-called improvement. And you cannot do it. This is a fact. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayeteta kovido. Find out this verse. Na labhyate yad bhramatām upary. Your standard of happiness and distress must be there because you are destined by the laws of nature. You have to suffer although you are born in America. In New York you can get very comfortable life there; still, you have lie down on the bench, lie down. Although you are born of a rich man's family, you have to become hippies, lie down here. Who can check this? What is that law. Do they know it? But there is a law. There will be a first class, second class, third class, fourth class. You cannot check it. Huh? New York City? So cared for? Nasty road, streets. And always, every moment-dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung, gu gu gu gu gu gu gu-fire. Saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka **. Fire is blazing. Despite all arrangement, fire is blazing. How can you stop it? Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura said saṁsāra-biṣānale, dibaniśi hiya jvale. The blazing fire of poison is always going on. Taribāre nā kāinu upāya. And one has to make ways how to get out of this fire. That is intelligence.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: If they understand any book, Īśopaniṣad, if they understand, they will get improvement.

Nandarāṇī: Any book. Some Bhagavad-gītās I do, but it's an exceptional Iranian who can even read the book, what to speak of understand the concepts. Īśopaniṣad is easier for them. We are very eager to translate into Persian.

Prabhupāda: Īśopaniṣad.

Nandarāṇī: Īśopaniṣad, yes. I think that will be our first big attempt. Some essays we will try to do. "Who is Crazy?" is very good for them, they appreciate that article, and...

Prabhupāda: They appreciate?

Nandarāṇī: Yes, we have explained to some of them the concepts in "Who is Crazy?" and Īśopaniṣad is a good book for them.

Prabhupāda: So your daughter is good assistant in the matter of cooking?

Nandarāṇī: Yes, they are both very good in cooking.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Well, scientific advancement, all this nonsense you can say. Just like Iran. God has given the oil underneath the ground, you are so proud. But if God would not give you the oil, then you starve in the desert. Then talk of improvement, nonsense. You're dependent on the oil. That is given by God. By God's grace, you have got some stock of oil, and there is good demand of oil. Then you are proud of making advancement. You are depending on the oil. The oil is supplied by God. You're dependent. Where is your independence? When the oil is finished, then your all pride is finished. Where is your independence?

Dayānanda: But we do not believe in God and still...

Prabhupāda: Do or do not believe in God, but you are not independent, that's a fact. You don't believe or do believe, it doesn't matter. But you are dependent. You are not independent.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: The whites, they do not like the Negroes still. Wherever there are Negroes, in that quarter the whites do not go in. So is it not? They do not go. Although they have been given equal right, but at heart the whites, they do not like it. Is there any improvement? I don't think. Officially, "Yes, yes, you are good, I am good."

Nava-yauvana: Because people are still on the bodily conception of life, so they are...

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the real disease. So long one is situated in the bodily concept of life, he is animal. First of all, you have to educate them. That is the difficulty.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: ...the existence of God. There must be. How can you deny existence of God? It is not possible. Now, if you are convinced that there is God, then the next question will be What is that God? Is He a living being or a stone? What is the nature of God or the features of God? Whether He has... So many things we have to study about. But first of all we have to accept there is God. God, what kind of thing is that God, that is called brahma-jijñāsā. That is the beginning of philosophy. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. What is God, what is His nature, what is His feature, what does He do—these things can be inquired by human beings. A dog cannot inquire. So if a human being is not interested in these things, he's a dog. Do you agree or not? If a human being is not interested to know about God, then he's dog. This is our first charge. Now let the agnostic refute. Hmm? In human life... There are varieties of living entities, so many. The trees are also living entities, but it is standing, it has no other capacity. The birds are there, they're little improved, they're flying, they can move from one tree to another, but they have no capacity to inquire about God. There are so many insects, they are also living entity, but they do not inquire about God. It is only human being, he can inquire. That particular facility is given.

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

Prabhupāda: Our difficulty is this immigration. If we can manage this, then all such places we can take. There is no question. The only thing is that government is gagging. One has to go and it means ten thousand rupees unnecessarily. If that ten thousand rupees was invested in developing that center, much improvement could be done. But they are gagging. They are dreaming, "CIA."

Jayapatākā: When I go back, I'll see this Rāghava Paṇḍita because there the MLA, he himself wants it because that's a very important place and it's going bad.

Prabhupāda: So that MLA can help us to get some citizenship.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt. And prescription is so sweet it pleases the ear and the heart. That is stated in the Bhāgavata. Bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt. It is medicine for this material disease. At the same time it is so pleasing to the ear and the heart. This is the very word. Bhavauṣadhāc chrotra. Śrotra means aural. Śrotra-manaḥ, and mind. Mano 'bhirāmāt. Abhirāma, pleasing.

Jayapatākā: After rainy season you'll be coming to Māyāpur then?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatākā: We'll write when the weather improves. We'll write when the rains cease.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)

Room Conversation with Endowments Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:
Prabhupāda: Don't remain ignorant. But unfortunately people are so absorbed in asat things they do not know what is sat. They cannot go to the sat platform. They cannot go to the light platform. And they are struggling like that. No solution. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). The government may change, but the men are the same, in darkness. What improvement will there be simply by changing government? The persons who are governing, they are in the darkness. So how, by change of government, there will be change of situation? I said in, where? That the United Nations is an assembly of dogs barking. Where did I say it? It was published in the paper. I said that if you keep them as dogs, and if you ask some dogs, "My dear dogs, please do not bark. Live peacefully," is it possible? The dog will bark. That is their business. So we are not enlightening them what is actually we are. We are keeping on this bodily conception. That is the dog's conception. And how there will be peace? There cannot be. Simply by agreement, by treaty, there can be any peaceful? No. Just like children. They agree, "Yes, we shall not fight." Next moment they'll fight. And again they will make agreement. This is going on.
Morning Walk -- August 27, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: In the gate it is said that bicycle prohibited. (break) ...tomb was constructed before Taj Mahal. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...improvement on this park.

Indian man: the last two years the have rebuilt this park.(?) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...there are similar buildings.

Hari-śauri: In Rome?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Old. And hundreds of tourists go to see them.

Hari-śauri: That Coliseum is very famous all over the world. That Coliseum?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Garden? Oh.

Akṣayānanda: Guest house has improved very much. Now we have about twenty paying guests. And during Śrāvaṇa and Janmāṣṭamī it was completely full. Very, very encouraging.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually many of the life members were telling us, we met some in Delhi. They said they couldn't get the whole thing was full.

Akṣayānanda: They were fighting to come.

Prabhupāda: So, they are allowed three days free?

Akṣayānanda: Only. Also book distribution has improved very much.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So how you can take care with nothing? Kṛṣṇa makes you nothing, then how you can take care of your family? Bālasya neha śaraṇaṁ pitarau nārtasya ca... These things I have explained. That we have got so many means against struggle for existence, but that is not final. Tāvat tanu-bhṛtāṁ tvad-upekṣitānām. If there is no sanction from Kṛṣṇa, you cannot do it. It is impossible. If Kṛṣṇa does not like you to be implicated in that way, that is false, then how can you do it? You are thinking that I shall take care of my family. But if Kṛṣṇa wants that you cannot take care of your family then how you'll do it? Can you go against the will of Kṛṣṇa? You can understand at least this, if not very much advanced. You cannot go against the will of Kṛṣṇa. So you have tried for the last one and a half years, you could not improve your material situation.

Room Conversation -- September 30, 1976, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: There was kitchen, there was shower, and two rooms. I think less than this. Two-thirds of this room and everything there. So I shifted there. And there I remained up to May 1967, I think. Then I got heart attack. Then I went to Stinson Beach. Then I could not improve my health. No, first of all, I went to San Francisco. There also I could not sleep at night. There was throbbing in the heart. Kīrtanānanda, he was serving me. So many difficulties. Then I came back to India in 1967 July. Here also not very much improvement. Then again I went to Los Angeles. There also one symptom developed. Always some sound in the ear, gongongongongon. It was so disturbing. Almost half-mad. And then Los Angeles. Then I think I went to Seattle. In this way, in the beginning there were so many difficulties. Montreal. I took Canadian citizenship. America I could not get. So one gentleman in the immigration department, he said, "Swamiji, you go to Canada and from there you try. It will be easier." Actually, it acted. The Canadian consulate general was a black man, American black man. So in the consulate I applied for immigration, and he was sympathetic. He saw my Teachings of Lord Caitanya and he became attracted. So he settled up. "This gentleman must be allowed." So he expedited the matter within three months. And then I became immigrant in the U.S.A. Then again I came back in Los Angeles, and then we took that house, La Cienega.
Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Prabhupāda: Because you have rejected... (faulty recording inaudible) Therefore in Bhagavad-gītā it is said, find out this verse, bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayāpahṛta-cetasām samādhau na vidhīyate (BG 2.44). Vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ. Those who are, whose attention is drawn to the material comforts, they cannot take an interest in spiritual life. (break) Our attention is diverted how to improve materially. Therefore we are disinterested. But they have seen much about material advancement, they are not happy. Material advancement means generally, as we understand from the literature, viśayinaṁ saṅdarśanam atha yoṣitaṁ ca (CC Madhya 11.8). Material comfort means woman and money. So they have tasted all this woman and money enough. Woman, money are available very easily. But they are not interested.

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

Dr. Kneupper: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is rascaldom. You might have improved from the oil lamp to electricity. That does not mean that you have the control over God.

Dr. Kneupper: Yes, certainly not.

Prabhupāda: So these foolish rascals, because they have improved little, they are denying, "Oh, now there is no need of God. That is opiate." What is that? Opiate?

Jagadīśa: Opiate of the people.

Prabhupāda: "They make the man foolish, God consciousness," and so on, so on. These scientists, they declare, "What is God? This is all superstition."

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He was a politician. That you cannot blame. Politics require all these things. A politician cannot be a saintly person. That is not possible. For politics he has to do so many things. That is necessary. Just like Arjuna wanted to be a nonviolent. Immediately it was condemned by Kṛṣṇa, "What is this nonsense? You are a military man. Nonviolent." And similarly, politicians, they require all this. Businessman must deal in black market. It is inevitable. Otherwise he cannot improve. Because the world is bad, you, if you become honest, then you cannot make pros..., cannot become prosperous. Sate sārtham samācaret.(?) Brāhmaṇa's dealing must be very straight and honest. They are not meant for politics or business. They are for transcendental knowledge. Kṛṣṇa conscious person should be all-inclusive. He must be a politician, he must be a brāhmaṇa, he must be a kṣatriya, he must be a śūdra—everything. All-inclusive. Because he is transcendental. In otherwise he is neither a brāhmaṇa, neither a śūdra, neither a... Yes. Nāhaṁ vipro na ca nara-patir na yatir vā. Neither of these. In other side he is everything. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. As Kṛṣṇa is sometimes cowherd boy, politician, sometimes dancing with, artist—He is everything, not one-sided.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is the explanation required.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Is to concentrate, and by concentration your health will improve.

Hari-śauri: The idea is to tone the body so the senses are subdued.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: So we engage their senses in kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: That is the actual fact. You read that portion.

Jagadīśa: They are coming to India to learn yoga, right? What is the perfection of yoga? Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, but they...

Prabhupāda: They cannot dictate.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Gurudāsa: So that's somewhat of an improvement.

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not? Improvement can be done. There is space. Anyway, if we get the down room, it will solve a problem. What is the rent?

Gurudāsa: One thousand.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Gurudāsa: But C. L. said he would pay.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is very kind of him.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Road is nice.

Gurudāsa: It's being improved. In some spots it's nice. But because it's on sand they have to always keep it wet and they put metal plates down. They're trying to do it very well.

Prabhupāda: There is a Māghmela committee. One magistrate is the head. A regular committee for managing this Mela.

Gurudāsa: We have contact with this committee.

Prabhupāda: And where is governor's camp from our?

Gurudāsa: I don't know exactly, but it's in the same island. I'll find out.

Prabhupāda: No, there is... Our governor is Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

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. There is no need of repressing us.

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

Prabhupāda: That's all right. We are ruining the dog's family, cat's family. That's all right. We are entering into Kṛṣṇa's family. That is our improvement. What is the use of keeping with the dog's family, cat's family? The dog has also family. So to remain in the dog's family, it is very prestigious position? We have now constructed our own family, Kṛṣṇa family. We are entering there. What is the use of remaining in the dog's family, cat's family?

Hari-śauri: "But if you're actually followers of God, then why are you breaking up the families? Shouldn't you have love for everyone?"

Rāmeśvara: Because they say that the Ten Commandments says... One of the Ten Commandments, the fourth one, says "Thou shalt honor thy mother and thy father."

Prabhupāda: Yes, we honor.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: But in general, first it gets more and more degraded. Then it's all finished.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Unless there is degradation, there is no question of improvement. So this is going on. This is nature's way, bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19), appearance and disappearance.

Rāmeśvara: Now, this Kṛṣṇa conscious government... Will many of the things that are going on in America, like schools and education, teaching people to read and write...

Prabhupāda: They'll have to reform.

Rāmeśvara: That will all continue, but it will be adjusted so that Kṛṣṇa consciousness...

Prabhupāda: Yes, Gurukula, Gurukula education.

Conversation During Massage -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Gandhi's a rascal. Therefore he is failure. "In politics there is no violence"—that is another rascaldom.

Rāmeśvara: How has India improved by independence? What is the improvement? They are more godless than ever.

Prabhupāda: No, he... He... When the Hindus approached him that "You have got so much influence over the Muhammadans. Stop cow-killing," he replied, "How can I stop their cow-killing? It is their religion." Just see. He accepted something as religion which is killing. He's such a rascal.

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So what improvement you have done, rascal?

Satsvarūpa: Motorcars, roads, buildings.

Prabhupāda: So what is benefit of motorcar?

Satsvarūpa: No benefit.

Prabhupāda: Motorcar benefit means you have to start big, big industries and neglect farming.

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Gurukṛpā: But we saw the television. They showed on the television.

Prabhupāda: No. Television could not show that. You can arrange in the laboratory such television, cheat others. And you have done it. But anyway, television or man or newspaper—you believe on others. You have not personally gone. So you believe some authority. We believe some authority. What is the difference. You take newspaper as authority. We take Vedic literature as authority. Where is the difference? You have personally not gone. How do you believe? The difference is that you believe somebody, we believe somebody. I asked this question to Professor Kotovsky, that "You believe Lenin; we believe Kṛṣṇa. Then where is the difference between philosophy?" Now it is to be judged whether Lenin is all right or Kṛṣṇa is all right. That is another thing. But the principle is there. "You believe in Lenin; we believe in Kṛṣṇa. The process is the same. So where is your improvement?"

Satsvarūpa: They say that theirs can be shown not just to a disciple but to the whole world in general, not just...

Prabhupāda: Nobody believes in Lenin. Then there would have been everyone Communist. You believe, a section. Then why there are two parties? You are not all in all. That is going on everywhere. How you can say that you are correct, I am not correct? The process is the same. Therefore Vivekananda has compromised, "Everyone is correct." Yato mata tato patha. There is no quarrel.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: What is new? History, whole history, is the same. Your forefathers, his forefathers, never have done that? Why it is new?

Satsvarūpa: Well, they say there's been regular improvements, medicines...

Prabhupāda: What is that improvement?

Satsvarūpa: Medicines have done away with so many diseases.

Prabhupāda: What is that? Disease... Does it mean there is no disease? You die by this disease or that disease. What is the improvement?

Gurukṛpā: They say that people used to live much longer, that they live longer now.

Prabhupāda: So what is the use of living longer, a tree is living longer, five thousand years. Does it mean that it is important life? A tree is standing for seven thousand years. There is a tree in San Francisco.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: And from the stoutness and strongness it will live another seven thousand years. Does it...? Is it living, worth living, to stand up very stout and strong in a place for fourteen thousands of years? Is that life? Hm? I have spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness within ten years, and he is standing eight thousand years. So credit goes to him or to me? Better to live for ten years than to live for ten thousand years in that condition. And therefore they are ass, mūḍha. They do not know what is life. What improvement they have made?

Gurukṛpā: Their only improvement now is abortion and homosex. That is the most popular thing.

Prabhupāda: Tch tch. Just see.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: No, I don't know what's wrong with them. They seem to be all right. But the thing is they want to make a book that will be so nice that any teacher, elementary school teacher, would say "This is very good."

Prabhupāda: No, everything is good, and again sometimes, again improvement, again...

Hari-śauri: I think their idea is that if they have a good quality, then they could even be distributed to the schools.

Prabhupāda: That is to be decided by the GBC. How can I know what is good quality, bad quality? But I know there are some books made. Again you translate; again you make another.

Satsvarūpa: In one sense, it's not so good that they come and ask these questions. Better that Jagadīśa...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Jagadīśa also not very intelligent. You GBC...

Satsvarūpa: All the GBC.

Prabhupāda: Hm. (yes.)

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Laws of karma is simply change of body, deha upapatti, the same process, to put the same eatable from iron pot to golden pot or from golden pot to another pot. This is law of karma. But the taste is not changed. The bitter taste is there, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That these rascals, they do not understand. The Einstein, he gave so many improvement of life, but he is dying. He's tasting the same bitterness as a dog is tasting. Therefore we do not give any position better than the dog. Why you are dying? Why you cannot change this taste? Stop this. Then you are scientist.

Hari-śauri: He died in a leper colony, didn't he?

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, he died.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Not that a śūdra man is by force become a brāhmaṇa. You cannot improve. That is not possible. But even if he remains a śūdra and does accordingly, he will get the same position as devotee. Sva-karmaṇā tam abhyarcya sam... (BG 18.46). He'll get the perfection. At the present moment the idea is: if one remains a śūdra, then he cannot get perfection. No. Even a śūdra can get perfection provided he does the work of a śūdra perfectly.

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

Ādi-keśava: They don't have it.

Prabhupāda: No. "But you do not know. We get this information, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu... (BG 13.9). Eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne (BG 2.20). Therefore we are trying for that. But you are so dull, in spite of having so many... Therefore the resultant action is you are producing hippies at the end. And how you can be satisfied anymore? They are disgusted with this eating, sleeping, mating business. Now you'll have only hippies." They're disgusted with this system of education, because it is not education at all. This is keeping them in ignorance. "Dog is lying on the street, and a man is lying on the hundred second floor. What is the result? Result is sleeping. Is that improvement? The dog is sleeping very peacefully; you are sleeping-'Oh, there is tiger! Tiger! Tiger! Save me! Save me.' Will that skyscraper building help you in your mental agitation? Is that education? Everyone is taking pill to sleep. You cannot sleep even peacefully, and you are claiming that you are educated." Give this defense. "Here the dog can sleep very peacefully. You cannot sleep even peacefully. This is the resultant action of your so-called education. You are proud of this education, this life, this civilization. You are so brainless, it requires to be washed. Therefore we say it is full of stool. We have come to wash it. That is our thankless duty.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That is... Then it our triumph. You don't mind all this.

Ādi-keśava: In some way I think it improves it...

Prabhupāda: Improves. (chuckling)

Ādi-keśava: ...because everyone is hearing about Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: That is our gain. I think it will improve our position.

Ādi-keśava: Improve our position.

Prabhupāda: By this agitation our position will be improved. Prahlāda Mahārāja was suppressed in so many means. What was loss on his part? He improved more and more, more and more. If Christ were not crucified, then his cult would not have spread so much all over the world. The Christian cult was spread all over the world after demise of Christ, not during his time. Is it not?

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: ...pāṇḍu-ratha, Lord Viṣṇu is there. (break) And we are speaking, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), completely opposite. So let them prove that this portion who have improved, it is an happy position.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They cannot prove. But they say, "You also cannot prove anything."

Prabhupāda: No, we say that this place is suffering. Therefore we have to leave this, our total exi... We don't say "This place is for suffering, and by material advancement of science we shall improve." We don't say. We totally reject it, that "It is a place of suffering. Why shall I remain here?"

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Their argument will be that "By illusion, you are thinking there is an alternative world."

Prabhupāda: It may be illusion to you. It is fact to us.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm? Always Hare Kṛṣṇa is going on. I am hearing. Where is such place throughout the whole world?

Rāmeśvara: The appearance of our center here has improved at least a thousand times from last year.

Prabhupāda: On account of that building.

Rāmeśvara: And also the gardens and the lawns being kept nicely.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Even big, big men, they are... Tarun Kanti he said, "Vaikuṇṭha."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He said so.

Gargamuni: He landed by helicopter.

Prabhupāda: Everyone likes.

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

Prabhupāda: These two books are very important. (chuckles) Everything improved. (leafing pages)

Gargamuni: Keep showing more.

Rādhā-vallabha: More's coming on the truck.

Prabhupāda: Ramakrishna Mission, in the beginning they asked me, "You be in coat and pant." Otherwise nobody will hear me.

Gargamuni: Ramakrishna suggested Prabhupāda use coats and pants.

Prabhupāda: Their sannyāsīs, they dress in coat-tie.

Brahmānanda: Swami Nikhilananda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you have seen.

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

Prabhupāda: This is very improved.

Rādhā-vallabha: For the next printing of Bhagavad-gītā, so much paper was ordered that it would take seventy-six train cars to carry it. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: They've written us a letter about this. They have never received such a large paper order at one time for one book. We have a letter glorifying the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust from the paper company, and another letter from the printer. This is the largest.

Gargamuni: They said that... I read that letter. Not since 1930 they cannot remember that such an order has ever been placed. Right? It was 1930?

Prabhupāda: These letters should be published.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:
Prabhupāda: Anyway, this is an attempt. It will improve by doing more work. Why there is no light in the veranda? (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...here. And at the end is a full report on Germany. That's the last country. (break) ...who actually began the standing orders in India. That's what... They began the year after festival last year in India and then began Europe. Bhūgarbha: Gargamuni Mahārāja told us that it was not possible to do standing orders in India. So we started it, and now he has taken over. Ghanaśyāma: (laughter) (break) They want to buy the book themself. (break) ...and sell them to individuals. Prabhupāda: That I was proposing.

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

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Left eye. (about massage?) (some quiet laughter)

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, for this GBC meeting, I understand one of topics will be to discuss some things about Back to Godhead. So I wasn't here when you gave your instructions. So I was wondering if you could give me some idea what you want done, so I can also think about how to improve the magazine. Something is wrong in the magazine?

Prabhupāda: That...

Rāmeśvara: A few things in this last issue.

Prabhupāda: The thing is that you should not change abruptly without any sanction.(?)

Rāmeśvara: In the past I have sometimes asked you that we wanted to try to follow your example when you were first writing Back to Godhead, offering solutions to problems that people are currently bothered by, making the magazine contemporary and so on, rather than just giving them philosophy, but making it so that it can relate to their...

Prabhupāda: But we... Based on philosophy. You cannot go beyond the philosophy. Philosophy must be there. It cannot be changed. But we have to... You cannot change the wine. That should be the... So therefore, while changing, you can consult.

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

Rāmeśvara: No one will believe it. Their idea was that... Anyway, I agree. It was a mistake. This issue that's at the printer right now has many pictures of Kṛṣṇa in it. It's a big improvement.

Prabhupāda: So do it very conscientiously.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? It's time for everybody to take lunch prasāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, go.

Brahmānanda: Jaya Prabhupāda.

Rāmeśvara: Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)

Evening Darsana -- February 26, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Society means... Suppose you are taking care of your own dress and if you take care, all the men, sitting here, their dress, you become washerman. That's all. (laughter) This is your improvement. Now you are soaping your own dress, personal, and if you soap the dresses of all these people, then you are elevated to the position of a washerman. If you are satisfied to become a washerman, that is very good. But that is not very important thing. Real important thing is whether you should take care of the dress or the owner of the dress. That is to be... So people are interested to become washerman, but they are not interested that we have to take care of the owner of the dress. That is the... So therefore spiritual knowledge begins when you understand that this body is not important. The owner of the body is important. Then spiritual knowledge begins. Otherwise, simply to take care of one's own dress and to take care of many others' dress, that is not improvement.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: ...the varṇāśrama established, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra-division, scientific division of the society. Ideal state. Just like the legislative assembly. They should be composed of men with complete brahminical culture. And the ministers, president, they should be kṣatriya, and the productive, vaiśyas, and balance śūdra, worker. Unless an ideal class of men is on the top of the state to give advice—just like Britishers, they assemble Parliament—there cannot be any improvement to the human society. All nonsense and rascals, simply by votes go to be member of the Parliament. They assemble. What they know? What they'll do? The whole world is mismanaged because there is no brahminical culture. Namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca, jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya govindā... I am proposing this because Kṛṣṇa consciousness means namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca. That must be... The state must be in favor of brahminical culture and cow protection. Then everything will be all right. So Manipur is small state. If they agree, the leaders of the... It is not politics. It is betterment of the situation. And without brahminical culture, all these third-class, fourth-class, loafer class, simply by votes hooks and crooks and becomes president, Nixon and so on. Where is the betterment? It will never be.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Should be checked. That's nice.

Satsvarūpa: We made a resolution regarding improvement for our GBC meeting that next year all the agenda topics should be submitted by the GBC man to the three GBC officers thirty days previous to the annual meeting. After analyzing the proposals, the officers will present a number of topics to different committees, who will present them at the meeting.

Hṛdayānanda: The purpose of that was to try to discuss things more before the meeting so the meeting can be done more quickly and efficiently.

Prabhupāda: Subject matter. This is for subject matter committee. Subject, committee of subject.

Room Conversation -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If you become nice devotee, everything will be improved. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). The more you increase your devotional service, everything will be increased. Who expected such temple here? You wanted from me fourteen lakhs. I had no fourteen hundred even. With so much difficulty we collected the money. Bali-mardana sent from New York, ten lakhs. Girirāja, you were from the very beginning, no? At that time you were in Calcutta.

Girirāja: I came after about two weeks.

Prabhupāda: Our Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, he refused to take charge, Madhudviṣa. I was little hopeless. And Brahmānanda encouraged me. "I will do." And then silent. "Give him fifty dollars. Give him fifty dollars." And his policy was that where he will get this money? He is beggar. Fourteen lakhs? Whatever one, two lakhs he gives, that's all. I told him friendly that "I have no so much money. Immediately I can collect four lakhs. I shall give you two lakhs against your money, and two lakhs I shall spend for construction. Of course, within three years I shall fill up."

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He formerly offered me that "You deposit in the name of Deity ten thousand," he would give me the Sevā-kuñja. So at that time ten thousand was not..., dream for me. So let him remain as he is doing, but we can do something with. You can improve by repairing and everything.

Guru dāsa: Yes. Also we have been distributing books at Rādhā-Dāmodara.

Prabhupāda: That is main business.

Guru dāsa: We have been distributing a few Gītār Gāns a day, a few magazines. To the pilgrims.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, something is there. And Hindi books?

Guru dāsa: Yes, Hindi magazine.

Prabhupāda: You have got small Hindi books?

Guru dāsa: Yes, yes.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Girirāja: He was asking what happened to her husband. I said he died. He was a Parsee. As Your Divine Grace had said, that due to the saṅkīrtana movement an auspicious atmosphere is being created all over the world. So is it not possible that at least for the time being things will improve?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Improve. Not for the time being. For ten thousand years.

Girirāja: Yes. Out of 427,000 years I was taking that 10,000 as for the time being.

Prabhupāda: It is nothing sport.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, where is the mention of that ten thousand years?

Prabhupāda: That I have heard it. Maybe in the Bhāgavata. Such a nice thing. Alone in this world I am struggling, and the so-called intelligent persons, they will not come. They have business. Why? If it is actually beneficial to the human society, why I should alone try? I will go on trying so long I'll live. There will be no checking of... But what kind of intelligent persons there are? (Govindam record in background) It has been approved by intelligent men like... From our section. Most wretched rogues. They do work. They are not so. They are intelligent. They have rejected all these "Lord" ideas and the... Because they have sinned, all humbug. Especially in the Western countries, in the Christian world, what is there? It is bogus. I have condemned it. You have seen that book? One Christian boy inquired.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, the Hindi Bhāgavatam has been very appreciated, after the lamination that plastic coating we have put, it looks better. Actually the presentation is even better than the Spanish Bhāgavatams. I got some new, even improved binding, bound books today. I'll send them to you tonight or tomorrow. They look very first class. I am sending Prem Yogi back to Vṛndāvana tomorrow, because First Canto, Part Two, is almost composed. So it requires to be proofread before I bring it to Bombay for printing. So the work is just being delayed. And also there is just one week's work left on First Canto, Part Three. So I told him to go back to Vṛndāvana for two weeks, and if you go to Srinagar, I promised him I would send him to Srinagar, because he wants to go to a cold climate. Then after that...

Prabhupāda: Yes. If I go I will call him.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. So this way he was encouraged because he wants...

Prabhupāda: There was another place, Solen.

Room Conversation about Harijanas -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Whoever may be, but they could not do anything. Neither they can do. They do not know how to elevate them. We know that. We can help. And we are actually doing it. The idea is they are feeling frustration for want of leader. We are prepared to guide them. To the highest perfection of life. (pause) The defect was Gandhi started this harijana movement, keeping them where they are, and at the same time, changing by rubber-stamp, "harijana." That must be failure.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. Unless you change the inner make-up of a man, he won't improve. They are thinking that by spending money, by giving a better home, by these things they'll improve. But we have practically seen in Madras on the beach, these harijanas were given some of the better houses, and they immediately did one of two things. Either they rented the house to someone else and kept living on the street, which is by their nature, or else they turned the house into the street.

Prabhupāda: Hell.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...Hayagrīva. But he is doing nothing and taking money.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, they stopped his salary now. "18) The US BBT will experiment with importation of books from India as soon as practical. Gopāla Kṛṣṇa will make further efforts to increase the quality."

Prabhupāda: Yes, quality must be there. It is not yet standard. Unless quality is improved, it cannot be exported and spoil the market.

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

Prabhupāda: He has regretted that "Government has spent so much money and we have tried, but we could not improve our position."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This gentleman that Śrīla Prabhupāda was mentioning is named Professor Parmar. He's written one article.

Prabhupāda: Profess... Professor.

Mr. Rajda: Professor Parmar. Ah, ha, that is...

Prabhupāda: He is the same man?

Mr. Rajda: No, that's a different.

Prabhupāda: So they are hankering after for improving. Everyone is hankering. So let there be a demi-official, a regular institute to teach people the principles of Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Bas. Don't distort it. Don't amend it. As it is.

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

Prabhupāda: So? Now, this nationalism idea, so you have trace out the whole history. By introducing this nationalism, what improvement gave? Nationalism, the leader, it began in Europe, the Romans. They wanted to spread. Where are the Romans now? Carthagian, old history, Egyptian, Grecian, then, later on, Moguls or then British. So where are these groups? "Combined together, exploit others." That was, that means, a gang of rogues. Rogues and thieves, they... And by doing that, what they have actually done? The Romans, now their broken buildings are there. And people go to see the fun, how they used to enjoy.

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

Prabhupāda: Ah, must speak. I have been also in Moscow. In Moscow, I went there. I was walking in that Red Square. Lenin's tomb is there. I was putting on the National Hotel.

Dr. Sharma: National Hotel. That is quite opposite. My brother requested me to see you personally, Mr. K. Gopalan from Hyderabad, the Joint Commissioner for Improvements.

Prabhupāda: Oh. He is in Moscow?

Dr. Sharma: No, no. He was in Hyderabad, Joint Commissioner for Religious Improvements, Mr. K. Gopalan. He asked me. He is my brother. He is my eldest brother. He has asked me to see you personally. I have been sincerely endeavoring to see you for quite some time, but I did not have the fortune to see you. Today I am lucky.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. So I am also. So all these ministers, they invited me. They are in Hyderabad. I was in the house of Mr. Raju, the Endowment Minister. So they were very friendly. In Hyderabad, all the big, big government commissioners, the chief minister, they came in the opening ceremony of our temple. So it is fortunate that you were in Russia. So our humble attempt is to distribute the sublime knowledge of India. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. Actually, outside India, there is no knowledge. Plainly speaking, their knowledge is as good as animals.

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. I think in... For culture, France, and for improvement, economic development, they have done in Germany.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And Britain?

Prabhupāda: Britain is... They are shopkeepers. Hitler gave them this title, "Shopkeepers' Nation." That was his determination: "The shopkeepers' nation, I shall turn them again to be shopkeepers, not the empire holder." That he did. Although he was finished-Germany was finished on account of this—but they executed their determination, British empire finished. That they did. After the second war, British...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Finished.

Prabhupāda: Now they are poverty-stricken.

Room Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Again election, as if election will change their quality. They remain... Let them remain as rascal, and simply by election, in place of one rascal, another rascal will improve it. This is the... Let them remain rascal, but get vote. So that is... That is described in Bhāgavatam, śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19). The population is śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra, and they are giving vote—another big paśu. That's all. This is going on. This is democracy. The voters are paśu, and he is selecting another big paśu. This is going on. The rascals, they do not know, "If instead of a tiger, we select one lion, then what is the difference? Simply name. The tiger was president. Now the lion is the president." And both of them—animals. Where is the man, human being? This is going on. And because they are paśu, śva-viḍ-varāha, they are happy: "Now there is lion. Now the tiger is driven away. Now there is lion." This is going on.

Morning Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So make it improved, and another film you can make. It doesn't matter.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is made is made. You can reject it. Make another, authentic. And I have asked to pay you for your department... What will be the savings?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, Rasara said he could save half.

Prabhupāda: Half. What is that half?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Somewhere between fifteen... Around fifteen, twenty thousand dollars perhaps, like that.

Prabhupāda: Fifteen, twenty thousand dollars per month.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Everyone engaged in some particular department, he must improve and... Then things will go on nice. Upendra is very neat.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is.

Prabhupāda: If required, he can cook also. He knows how. I gave... In the beginning he was cooking. He was from very beginning. Good or bad, he was doing. Gaurasundara and his wife, they were our secretaries, and he was cooking in the San Francisco.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I remember that. Yeah, he ever has to cook, I can give massage if necessary.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) was working as postman. (end)

Second Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 24, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So do that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay.

Prabhupāda: And if I actually feel little healthy, I shall stay there for some time to improve my health.

Mr. Dwivedi: Climate is healthy. That's one thing I could say.

Prabhupāda: That is healthy.

Mr. Dwivedi: Climate is healthy. Water is healthy.

Prabhupāda: Then let us go there.

Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If I improve my health, I shall stay there.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In Madhya Pradesh? It is good for health?

Prabhupāda: I have heard, they say.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good water, they say.

Prabhupāda: But I have got little experience, that side is nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Madhya Pradesh side is good.

Prabhupāda: No, not Madhya Pradesh but especially between Jhansi and Gwalior, the Shivapuri, that is healthy place.

Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This is better composition than the former.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I've improved it now. Seventeen, eighteen, twenty... This is thirty-six lines.

Prabhupāda: So this is good.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So we'll use this print, then.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. Of course, because they are paragraphs, I've also counted this. Otherwise, normally, there would be one line here. So this is better, eh? We're using better art paper, so now, with the reproduction, it will come out better. So this is your decision?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. So I'm not moving the press because it is very cheap for us for six rupees a page, a plate of forty rupees. I just had one other question on the BBT. Sometimes these... Sometimes the temples don't pay the BBT, and their bills climb up to sixty thousand, seventy thousand rupees, and...

Prabhupāda: Don't pay?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Discussions -- May 20-22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was just thinking that... I was remembering in Gorakhpur, Hari Prasad Podhar. So I was thinking that when Kṛṣṇa wants His devotee to come back to Him, then it seems like He gives the devotee notice. But it seems like you're... I mean, when you were in Bombay you were hoping very much to recover. Seems like you're not... You know... That will seems not to be so strong as it was then, maybe because there's been so many... You've made such a effort to get better and it still hasn't improved. So how long one can keep trying like that?

Prabhupāda: Therefore I do not wish to leave Vṛndāvana.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: If by Kṛṣṇa's desire I survive, then we shall see later on.

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

Prabhupāda: What they'll see there? (laughter) How Saman(?) Mahārāja is managing?

Jayapatākā: He somehow is trying to maintain. I don't see any improvement.

Prabhupāda: No, he cannot make any improvement, but if he can maintain, that is our question.

Jayapatākā: I didn't go there, so I can't exactly say. I don't go there. (pause) (break)

Prabhupāda: The spread, the... First of all they wanted to give us a cheap rate, "Eh!" And now they are doing: "We shall be taking our leader out." That is not cheap rate.

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

Prabhupāda: Hm. This is lawyer, judge.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "...rendered and tendered herewith may not be treated as an authoritative, verbatim translation. There is much scope for improvement. For the present it may be used and circulated in a narrow circle."

Prabhupāda: We don't want much improvement. Your translation is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he says...

Prabhupāda: So arrange for...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Printing it.

Prabhupāda: ...pamphlets for huge distribution.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is further improvement. I want to do in New York, everywhere. That Kṛṣṇa's desire...

Jayatīrtha: You've entered into almost every home in the world, Śrīla Prabhupāda, as your books.

Prabhupāda: That is a...

Jayatīrtha: In every home you're staying.

Prabhupāda: The Deity worship and Indian real culture you develop. That is our contribution. Nobody could do before me, in the Western countries, introduction of this Deity worship, śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā **, and large-scale distribution of Indian cultural traditions. This is a new contribution. Not bug-bhak(?). The Indians are realizing.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Mahāṁśa: And this is a very nice thing he said, Prabhupāda. He said that "We want to improve things in the countryside to an extent that people from the cities start running to the villages."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That I want. I... Everywhere I go and say, how these rascals...? So much land is lying, and these rascals are not developing. And they are making... What is that? Coal stone. Coal. They are interested with these bricks and stones, not green vegetables. Such a rascal government. Give them facility. We know how to do it. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ, yajñād bhavati parjanyaḥ (BG 3.14). Let them engage in kīrtana. There will be more water for gardening, and it will be moist, and then produce fodder for the animals and food for you. And animal gives you milk. That is Vṛndāvana life. And they are absorbed in this so-called opulence. Kṛṣṇa has taken birth. They are bringing so many nice, pleasant foodstuff, very well-dressed and ornamented. These are description. In the morning we were reading. How they were happy, the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana with Kṛṣṇa and living and cows. That I want to introduce.

Srila Prabhupada Vigil -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You haven't got to think over, "What shall I do now?" Never forget. So our first business is preaching. You should always remember. This is the education. These rascals, they have no father-mother-orphans. They may think as well-educated how to earn money. We have no... We are rich man's son. Economic problem is already solved. That is already taken. Tal labhyate yad anyataḥ sukham. We don't care for all this so-called improvement. That is already settled up. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Just see how to become a man of character like Nārada, Vyāsa. That is our goal. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. Not for any other. "And what about your material problems?" That is already taken. Tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā. This is kṛṣṇa-bhakta. Don't care for maintaining body. "What Kṛṣṇa will give, I take. If He does not give, don't mind." So discussing all this twenty-four hours and death takes place. Death, if takes place, then where is the wrong? Where is the lamentation? There is nothing... You are not permanent. You have to die. But if you die discussing all these things, that is your glorious death. Death is sure. You cannot avoid it, today or tomorrow or hundred years after. But die a glorious death. Yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). That is wanted. It is not... So I have called you for that purpose. So if death is to take place, let me die in your association and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is no harm. That is glorious. Now it is very important point, Nārada's qualification.

Srila Prabhupada Vigil -- May 28-29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Little improvement there is.

Jayatīrtha: Good medicine.

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, I am very much confident of this medicine because nobody is prepared to die, but I am prepared to die. That much strength I have got. Generally people do not like to die. But I will be very glad to die if Kṛṣṇa wants. This is... And I shall stay with you. I have no objection either way. But I am not afraid of death. That much strength I have got.

Morning Talk -- June 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You say. We don't say. Because you cannot do, you say. We are cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness for this purpose. We are not wasting time. And we are wasting time doing so? We are fools? That is the first instruction, that soul is immortal and unchanging. This very instruction they cannot understand. That is first instruction. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). This simple... A child changes body. That is beginning. There is no... Same child. For a while it may be. Now he's grown up, young man. It is not change of body? Why these rascals cannot understand? What is that improvement of...? Therefore I have said, "You have no brain." It is a fact. My son, he's now young man. He took birth as a small child. Where is that body? Body has changed. Common thing. But these rascals, so fool, they cannot understand. I have become old man, but if some elderly persons, my guardians, were alive, he knew it, "He has become old man, but he was born a small child." That we have given in pictures, change of body. Change of body is going on. Why these rascals cannot understand? What is their intelligence? Therefore the real problem is the change of body should be stopped.

Morning Talk -- June 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is real evolution. What do they know of change of body? Therefore I say that, that you people, your brain is filled up with stool. You require thorough washing. You are not civilized. What is meaning of civilization? Improve animal life to civilized life. A dog can walk on the street naked; a man cannot. That is civilization. Otherwise dog is eating; you are eating. He's sleeping; you are sleeping. This is civilization. (indistinct) Culture. You have no knowledge of culture. Real knowledge is this: the body is there and changing; the soul is there, eternal. Then you become on the platform of God. If you remain in the same ignorance, then where is your advancement of civilization? If you cannot understand the simple truth, then where is your civilization?

Śatadhanya: They have no civilization.

Prabhupāda: No, where is civilization? If you remain like animals, where is that civilization?

Śatadhanya: Just from the daily newspaper one can see that it is all madness, insane. (break)

Prabhupāda: Because whole Vedic knowledge is concentrated on the point how to stop birth and death. Eternal life.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, as we improve material life...

Prabhupāda: No, where is improved? You are going to be a dog, suppose. Where is your improvement?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's an illusion.

Prabhupāda: They lose.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We are thinking that we are improving, but actually we are not solving the problems.

Śatadhanya: You said the other day that if we analyze what the scientists have done, we will see that they have actually done nothing beneficial, no benefit. Whatever they have done has no benefit, simply some comfort of the body. But what benefit it has?

Prabhupāda: Just like they have improved... A man is going to die. By oxygen, by other, other, he may live for a few minutes more. They say, "This is improvement."

Conversation -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You reply that I am progressing little.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Mr. Myer: It's actually not only imagining that if we double the book distribution, then Śrīla Prabhupāda will improve.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere book selling is...

Mr. Myer: Everywhere it's just going on doubling. That's how the whole world people are looking toward your good health and balance(?). Sometime...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're looking forward to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, tenth, eleventh and twelfth cantos. That is what we're all...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: And the cabinet minister... But they are in prestigious position. They do not come here. They want me to go to them. I could have come, but in this position...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, and, you know, if your health improves a little, what we may be able to do is to arrange a program in our center in Delhi simply for the selected persons like cabinet ministers, or maybe at one of their homes, and have them invite just the cabinet members and Mr. Desai, and that would be very nice, very high-level meeting. That could be... You know, just like supposing when you go to Bombay, you'll have to stay in Delhi overnight. So on that evening we can make an arrangement like that.

Prabhupāda: Or we can stay in Delhi. No fault.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One or two days. Probably you wouldn't be able to speak to all of them 'cause they're not all in the station at once, but even if a few of them came, it would be very good.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: So do nicely. And as far as our capacity is there, kṛṣṇārthe akhila-ceṣṭaḥ. Prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācā śreya-ācaraṇaṁ sadā. Janma-sāphalyam... Etāvaj janma-sāphalyam. Do it. Do this. Prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācā śreya-ācaraṇam. This is..., should be... This should be the motto, how we engage our life, our money, our intelligence, our words, to improve Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is success. Varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13). What is that verse, beginning?

Akṣayānanda: Ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhāḥ...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Akṣayānanda: Ataḥ pumbhir dvija...

Prabhupāda: Ah, ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhāḥ...

Akṣayānanda: Varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya...

Prabhupāda: Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13). That is required.

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

Prabhupāda: Human form of body or in the form of this insect. And karmīs, they're trying to improve their... (microphone moving) That is their ignorance.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They never get tired of trying.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They think by changing the body... (microphone moving) ...demigod's... That is called mṛtyu-saṁsāra. The facility is in that you have to die, you have to take again birth and again begin the same tasting, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam. No improvement of taste but improvement of the container. If you go by bullock cart and if you go by motorcar, the transport is the same. But we are thinking, "Now we have improved scientific." That's all. First of all improve that you'll not die. Because you are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So where is that improvement? That improvement is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9).

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Today in the class we read a purport of Your Divine Grace's from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, a very beautiful purport in which the verse says that Bhārata-varṣa is karma-kṣetra. It is the place for fruitive activities. And the other varṣas is where you enjoy the results of those activities. So then you explain the verse, that how the living entity is wandering all over the material universe, but actually he has not improved his condition at all. It is... You explain that it's simply a waste of time. He's not using his human form of life. So when you come on this planet, you should use it to get a guru. Otherwise, simply wandering up and down, up and down.

Prabhupāda: Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān (CC Madhya 19.151). This information is obtained by the most fortunate person. What is the use of wandering in this way?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That verse was in the purport. You quoted it there also.

Prabhupāda: That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's gift. Foolish persons are trying to improve. So what is that improvement? The same struggle for existence.

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

Prabhupāda: (break) ...the modern kīrtana. Kīrtanāt... (break) "We shall improve our economic condition for more and more sense gratification." And that is the mistake. People are trying for that. Kāmasya nendriya-prītir lābho jīveta yāvatā (SB 1.2.10). Yāvad artha-prayojanam. Whatever money is required for maintaining, that's all. And as soon as we increase the so-called standard of happiness by sense gratification, then there is trouble. That is going on all over the world. They want money. They're not satis... "More money. More money. More money." Why more money? If you can live comfortably with certain amount of money, be satisfied in that way.

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

Prabhupāda: Huh? Yes. That is real happiness. You should know what is happiness. Whatever we're getting, that is sufficient if... Simply to keep your status quo nicely. That's all. This is secret of happiness. I must not be poverty-stricken, neither I shall hanker after becoming very, very so-called rich. That is happiness. That arrangement is there. Your present position will never be disturbed, you'll improve, and you get, after seven years, 2,500 rupees per month. What do you want more? This is simply idea, that "My father has got so much property for me." And even if your father leaves so much property for you, if you have no luck to enjoy it, you'll be Harendranatha Singh. That you have seen, that your maternal uncles, what they have done? They're all rich men's son. My father-in-law left sufficient property. But what did they do? Simply drunk and die. Where is happiness? Is that happiness, do you think? Now still they are suffering, his family.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa has sent you to look after this Institution. And they are giving very good report that "Bhaktivedanta is..., is very big organization," and we have got land. Kindly try to improve it. Your wife is here?

Mr. Myer: Yes. She is also with me.

Prabhupāda: So how do you...? Things there are?

Mr. Myer: Things are... I think it will be matter of one month's time before we'll be able to centralize everything. Just now, at this moment, of course, operating slightly in different areas. But next month by this date we should be able to...

Prabhupāda: Never mind.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Have you invented something that man will not die? Then it is approved. They are dying. You have given facilities to die earlier. That is atomic energy. There is no energy which can save him—"No more death." Is that improvement? By nature one dies natural death, and you have accelerated-many millions of people can be killed by this atomic weapon. So what is your achievement? Save millions of people.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "Mentally deranged intellectuals are capable of expatiating on their hallucinations."

Prabhupāda: So who is mentally deranged?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says we are. He says, "And they often become founders and preachers of diverse types of religious cults."

Prabhupāda: No, no. Your atomic energy, what benefit has done to the people?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A real rākṣasa.

Room Conversation With Madhudvisa and others -- August 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Śrutakīrti is also gṛhastha. So jointly you can work and improve this movement. That is our ambition. Gṛhe bā banete thāke, hā gaurāṅga bole ḍāke, narottama māge tāra saṅga. "Either he remains at home or as a sannyāsī, if he is devotee of Lord Gaurāṅga, I want his association." That is Narottama Ṭhākura's... Gṛhe bā banete thāke, hā gaurāṅga bole ḍāke, narottama māge tāra saṅga. So follow the principles, and whichever position is suitable. Don't be carried away by the waves of māyā. Capture Caitanya Mahāprabhu and you'll be saved. Is that all right? Don't leave us. You are quite... At least you made advance. You are one of the important devotees. So don't lose that position now. Manage in the position you want to remain. Now Gaurasundara has also come. So I'm glad to see that you are... Your bunch of hair is long. Yes. Cut it. So give them place to stay nicely.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Scratch. Śrīla Prabhupāda? I think that on behalf of Lord Kṛṣṇa you can take service from the whole world. At least, we all want to serve you so much. Next is a letter, telegram, rather, from... This one is from Berkeley temple, New Jagannātha Purī. It says, "Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, please accept our fallen obeisances. Please excuse our offenses. By your potency, every single magazine is distributed this weekend. This weekend we distributed 4,888 big books and 15,063 magazines. We are praying for your health to improve. Your worthless servants at New Jagannātha Purī." It seems, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that even in your illness you're increasing the preaching.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Paramānanda has come to India.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He'll be coming to Vṛndāvana soon. So you know his wife, mother Satyabhāmā?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Visit From Allopathic Doctor -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Doctor: No improvement. You went with him, no? Bombay, you took. No improvement. But he was better here. Eating something. Does he ask for food?

Upendra: No

Doctor: Never. You are giving nothing except coconut water and these Horlicks.

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Doctor: (Bengali)

Hari-śauri: This is a record of what Prabhupāda's been taking the last few days. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Did you send telegram to this doctor?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Doctor Ghosh?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Doctor Ghosh. I sent him a letter, I think.

Prabhupāda: Because he is in Allahabad. He is coming from Kodaykanal.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That construction is not so important as printing of books.

Jayapatākā: The president of the Bhadrak temple that Lokanātha Swami got donated from the Gauḍīya Maṭha to ISKCON, he has been collecting life members, hoping that he can build and improve a little bit on it. He was hoping to get the same facility of Bhuvaneśvara, of matching fifty-fifty. He's collecting everything locally in Orissa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? We got a telegram from Nṛsiṁha-Caitanya. You know, he's the boy who does library distribution? Should I read it to you?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In this condition, how I can desire to survive?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You have to get some improvement first of all.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There should be some improvement. Then desiring becomes easier. (to Upendra:) No.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Upendra says, "Do you want to first wash your face and teeth before going to the temple?"

Prabhupāda: Wash.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No.

Bhavānanda: We want some positive improvement.

Prabhupāda: If in the meantime I die without medicine, so I am dying. What is wrong? The parikrama may go on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about eating or taking liquids?

Prabhupāda: Liquid, from practical suggestion, I'll take little vegetable juice, that's all.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And fruit juice also.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Now I cannot sit up independently.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Of course, that's a big step to take, but there's things like turning over in bed on one's own. I mean the point is one should not have to force oneself to do this, but those will be the signs of actual improvement.

Bhavānanda: But that will only come from renewal of strength. And renewal of strength will only come from appetite, when you start eating.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, it's not artificial.

Prabhupāda: Eating only juice.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Adri-dharaṇa: He said there will be improvement, in a few days, two or three days there will be improvement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So he's staying for two or three days at least? Or is he going to stay one day and leave?

Adri-dharaṇa: So he is not... His mind is not made up. I'll have to talk to him and ask him to stay longer.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Let him first of all prescribe.

Adri-dharaṇa: Medicine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But he should stay to see what the effect of the medicine is. Supposing he prescribes and it has a reverse reaction, then if he's gone how will he see anything?

Prabhupāda: No, whatever chart he has made, he'll follow.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I see that.

Bhavānanda: We've also seen, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that while you've been here in Vṛndāvana without this kavirāja, your condition has steadily deteriorated. Now he's come, and there's some slight improvement. We can speak to him about staying, but it's highly unlikely that he'll be able to stay away from his practice for any time longer. Then, if your condition turns again, then what do we do? There's also risk.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Risk is there, and risk is here. So better take the risk here.

Bhavānanda: And chance of survival is here and chance of survival is there. But where is the...

Prabhupāda: No. Provided you reach there. There is survival or whatever it may be, but whether there is arrival? The best thing is no medicine and kindly give me some (sic:) circumambulation and leave me to the fate.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Śrī Nārāyaṇa(?): (Hindi) ...improvement?

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) What happened to the car?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Er, do you know the history?

Bhakti-caru: Yes. First thing they had a flat tire. Then they ran out of gas, and then there was no petrol station. Then they lost the track. They went to some...

Prabhupāda: So he missed the plane.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: How is your health?

Girirāja: Oh, I'm better, improved.

Prabhupāda: What is the news of Nepal?

Girirāja: Oh, well, they have a very nice program there. They have a nice house with many rooms, and the Nepalese people...

Prabhupāda: How many rooms?

Girirāja: About nine big rooms. And they do street saṅkīrtana every day in the main street, and they distribute literature. And the Society is not yet registered there, but I went with Prabhaviṣṇu to a lawyer, and we've set up the formalities for getting registered, but the government is presently reviewing the registration law, so it might take a few weeks before they accept our case.

Prabhupāda: On the whole, it is favorable.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just try to manage.

Girirāja: I had a very nice dream last night in which Your Divine Grace appeared. And you were walking around the premises of the Vṛndāvana temple, and there were some doll exhibits. So you were saying that they should improve the quality of the exhibits, because this is their sādhana. So I felt that you were, actually, you were telling me that I should improve the quality of my service and that this was my sādhana, but to be, you know, polite, instead of saying it directly, you were pointing out to their service. And then you started to speak very directly and very boldly, and you were saying... You quoted the verse,

yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa
āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa
(CC Madhya 7.128)

And you were saying, "This is my order, so you do it for me." I mean, I felt that you were saying that since it was your order and we were doing it for you, even though it's very difficult, but it would be successful.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, there is a beginning in Nepal. Try to implement.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "I am a fallen wretch, but I am hoping and praying to the best of my capacity that your health will improve." (break) Would you like Bharadvāja to sing a little?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You can sing now. (break) The kavirāja will be coming back to take us there. Better that we follow his advice and let this medicine work a little while, see if you get some strength, and let him come and take us there as he promised he would do. There is no reason why we should jump ahead. As we have placed ourself under a competent kavirāja, better we take his advice as long as we don't find it to be harmful.

Prabhupāda: When we expect?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We expect him to come the day after Diwali.

Prabhupāda: When there is Diwali?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Diwali is the 10th or 11th.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So far I am thinking, I'm not improving in strength. And how can I improve by drinking little barley and milk and little fruit juice? I have no appetite for anything else. In case I... Most probably, I am diminishing my strength. So...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Most probably diminish your strength?

Prabhupāda: Yes, because...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How? I don't see that you're diminishing in your strength.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I cannot sit.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-caru: Don't you think there has been a slight improvement, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Over last few days there has been a little improvement?

Prabhupāda: What is that improvement?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the improvement?

Bhakti-caru: Your intake has increased. Your voice sounds stronger than before.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) What you will do with the voice?

Bhakti-caru: That's a sign of strength.

Prabhupāda: No, no, why don't you consider. In case it is not successful... Upāyān cintayet prajñā apāyān ca cintayet(?). Two things side by side: success or failure. In case it is failure, then what you'll do? You cannot guarantee anything success. Maybe success, maybe failure. If kavirāja's suggestion, if it becomes success, that's very good.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, suppose if you want to move me from this place. That is the question.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. We're going to move you if we see some positive improvement.

Prabhupāda: That is the point.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That was the whole reason for waiting, is that you're supposed to get stronger by waiting.

Prabhupāda: We shall wait, but from practical point I cannot drink more than one cup of milk and one cup of fruit juice. That is practically happening.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, that certainly is the fact right now.

Prabhupāda: Each... Right now I am... I am thinking it may not improve.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I know you are thinking that there will be no improvement, but we are a little hopeful.

Prabhupāda: Hopeful, hope against hope—that is natural. But I am becoming hopeless.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If you..., what is called, want to move me, so what arrangement will be made?

Bhavānanda: What arrangement we have made?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Moving is no problem. But we say that we're not going to move you unless you show improvement. But we're not going to put you in the hospital. That is not going to happen. We can always take up the program of twenty-four-hour kīrtana.

Bhavānanda: Massage.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And you can fast. That's... But why should we suggest that at this point? It is not proper for us to suggest that. Obviously we could say that, but that's not very... That means hopeless. So we cannot become hopeless. As your disciples, we can't become hopeless. And putting you in the hospital means hopeless. That's sure. Hospital is absolutely useless.

Śatadhanya: Neither we would ever go against your instruction.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, it's not within our... Śrīla Prabhupāda, we only took you to the hospital in London because Your Divine Grace said we should take you there. Otherwise we were not going to do that on our own. We did not go there on our decision.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that starving and chanting and little gaṅgā-jala or... In this way let me pass away peacefully.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm. So in case things deteriorate, don't move me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. We're moving you on the basis that you get strength. That's why we're waiting this time. We're not fanatical that we have to be in Māyāpur. The basis of being in Māyāpur was that if you show sign of improvement, then changes for good...

Prabhupāda: Then I shall also be very glad.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. So that is the basis for moving you, that there should be some positive strength shown.

Prabhupāda: Now there is no strength.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Śrīla Prabhupāda? Kṛṣṇa dāsa Bābājī has come to see you. Shall we have him come in now?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That I'll go on. What is that? If there is any improvement, welcome. Otherwise there is no question of moving me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. (break) There has to be some actual improvement before you should move. Otherwise you are already here in Vṛndāvana, so why move?

Prabhupāda: That is my point.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But if actually you can show signs of improving and recovering, then there is reason to move for health.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is the decision, that in case it does not improve, let me die here. If it improves, I shall be very glad to go... (Bengali)

Kṛṣṇa dāsa Bābājī: (Bengali) (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Improvement hasn't come yet. Simply because you're drinking more, passing more urine, is not the sign of any improvement. (Bengali conversation between Prabhupāda and Kṛṣṇa dāsa Bābājī) (end)

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Now you can go.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. I'm always nearby. I'm in the house all the time. (break) One thing I feel, that while there hasn't been any great improvement, on the other hand, I do not find that there has been any negative reaction or any regression since the time the kavirāja's treatment began. Of course, Your Divine Grace says that you feel weaker now than you did a week ago. If that's a fact, then...

Prabhupāda: Not so very weak.

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Let us see.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I felt very... I thought that was good, that recovery doesn't mean simply laying in bed for the next few years, but recovery means actually being fit. He says it's gradual. He says, "Now, the medicine I've given for the kidneys over the past week, the kidney has not gotten worse. It's improved a little." He said, "So that..." (break)

Prabhupāda: You don't strain for collecting. Then spiritual progress will be hampered.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Don't strain for collecting. Then spiritual progress will be hampered. That's a fact.

Jayapatākā: It seems that the temple could be completed within seven years without straining.

Prabhupāda: That is nice.

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If possible, make some improvement in Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's birthplace.

Jayapatākā: I was just thinking about that, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: At least repair it nicely, without any claim of our...

Jayapatākā: From the Bhaktivedanta Charity Trust.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust will be very popular, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm. You make me flat. (break)

Jayapatākā: We heard that Your Divine Grace had a dream that a kavirāja of the Rāmānuja-sampradāya would treat you and bring you back to strength, and this kavirāja says that in a very short time, following the treatment, you would regain your strength. Although he hasn't got all of the medicines yet, but within a day or two they'll all be prepared, and he says within fifteen days you should be quite improved in strength. So far, he seems to have been quite sincere.

Prabhupāda: No, no, he's sincere. I'll drink milk. Whatever strength is obtainable, there will be.

Jayapatākā: Like to follow the same treatment, only while traveling.

Haṁsadūta: So we should meet and make a program for going around Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But the idea is that... According to him... I mean, obviously we're all conditioned, and... I mean, he's not claiming not to be a conditioned soul either, but according to him, going on this bullock cart is a suicide. He said within an hour or two hours, the bouncing and jumbling of the bullock cart will cause a heart attack. Just like you were having heart..., a little heart spasm the other day, just laying in bed two days ago. He says this going in a bullock cart, up and down, within one, two hours it can cause heart attack. So as his treatment has been better at least than any other doctor, and certain symptoms have improved, why are we giving up his advice? If you say his advice is wrong, then there's no comment, but all along, his advice seems to have been more accurate than any other doctors that we've had. I mean we who are closely around you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, your servants, secretary, our opinion of him is far superior than our opinion of any of these others. I see that he's able to take care of one symptom after another somewhat successfully. He's able to deal with these problems. He can deal with the problem of not enough urine...

Prabhupāda: That I know.

Page Title:Improve (Conv. 1976 - 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:02 of Aug, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=163, Let=0
No. of Quotes:163