Journey (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"journey" |"journeyed" |"journeys"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Reporter: Yes. I told Dan that was what I was interested in. I have background information on the movement, for instance, and yourself.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So far the movement is concerned, it has nothing to do with the moon planetary journey, it has nothing to do. But in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the authoritative Vedic scripture which we generally follow, in that scripture there is statement that for promoting oneself to the moon planet, one has to accustom himself to the different kind of worshiping process. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). Those who are worshiper of the demigods, they are promoted to different planets of the particular demigods. Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ. And those who are worshiper of the pitṛs, or forefathers, they go to that planet. Similarly, one who is engaged in worshiping the Supreme Lord, he also goes to the supreme planet. These informations are there in the Bhagavad-gītā. And so far moon planet is concerned, that is within this material world. Those who are pious actors, those who are engaged in pious activities according to Vedic rituals, they can go to the moon planet.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Prof. Kotovsky -- June 22, 1971, Moscow:

Prabhupāda: No, it is Easy Journey to Other Planets. No? No, what is this? Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the Topmost Yoga System.

Śyāmasundara: See, the Swamiji is only going to be here two more days, so if there's any possibility, people can take advantage to have him speak in public or in groups. Do you think it's possible?

Prof. Kotovsky: It's... It's... I can't help because I am leaving tomorrow very early for the South, and I shall be here only on the 1st of July. Yes. So from this point it will be difficult, yes. Probably... My advice would be through an ambassador you can come in contact with this, our religious organization. That would be very interesting to have some lecture in group, lecture in group, and some discussion of all this. That would be... That would be very possible, a little. So he can come back if... I would say tomorrow, but I can't manage it myself, but..., as I am leaving at six, leaving, plane is leaving at 8:15 tomorrow morning.

Prabhupāda: You mean to say that some ambassador's men should see you.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1971, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: We have got Kṛṣṇa, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Nectar of Devotion, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Easy Journey to Other Planets, Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is the Topmost Yoga System. In this way we have presented so many.

Mohsin Hassan: How about the meaning of the chanting. You are insist on chanting.

Prabhupāda: Chanting is to make the process very easy. Because in this age people are unfortunate, short living, and they are attracted in false things, they are very slow, they do not take it very seriously. Therefore chanting is a common platform. Anyone can chant. Anyone, even the child can chant, the old man can chant, the fool can chant, the intelligent can chant, the rich can chant, the poor can chant. So the chanting is a common; therefore it is becoming successful. And chanting means, Kṛṣṇa being absolute, Kṛṣṇa's name and Kṛṣṇa there is no difference. Absolute means there is no duality. As in this dual world there is difference between the name and the substance, in the absolute world there is no difference between the name and the substance. Both of them are the same. So therefore chanting of Kṛṣṇa's name means associating with Kṛṣṇa directly. And because they are associating with Kṛṣṇa directly, they're quickly becoming purified.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Why not acceptable? No. Yes. Yes. That's all right. Let him take. We are paying Hayagrīva also. What can be done?

Haṁsadūta: And another thing I wanted to ask you about, Prabhupāda, is that Maṇḍalībhadra, he wants to make your literature perfect, which is natural because we want to make the nicest presentation. But the devotees are saying that the translation... For instance, this Easy Journey to Other Planets, has been in the process so long, it has so many times been reworked, that it's no longer palatable to them. They don't even read it. They'd rather have the English version. So I know that Your Divine Grace has said you have full faith in his ability to do the work...

Prabhupāda: No, no. If you... you find out somebody else. He can also do.

Haṁsadūta: Because my opinion is that he's becoming overworked, it's becoming strained, so much so that we're not even able to bring it to the printer because he insists on making every time more and more corrections.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) It never comes to perfection.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) It never comes to perfection.

Haṁsadūta: It never comes to perfection. It can, you know. For instance, this little booklet, Easy Journey to Other Planets, one of the things that has been holding it up is because the diacritic marks, to get the diacritic marks in there perfectly... We took it to a professional composer. Of course, they're not experienced, so they didn't, at first they didn't want to do it and then... At any rate, my opinion was first let us print it without the diacritic marks, and then the second edition make it with diacritic marks. Improve it by editions rather than wait until it's completely perfect before we put it on the market because...

Prabhupāda: But if once it is made perfect, then it will be easier to print more and more.

Haṁsadūta: That's true, but see, what has happened is the entire sum has been lost...

Prabhupāda: He could not finish any one?

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Śyāmasundara: They made a study. They know what's going... They want all of your books. In the contract for Topmost Yoga and Easy Journey they have the option to take your next big book.

Devotee (3): In Harvard Library, your Bhagavad-gītā—they have many, many Bhagavad-gītās, about four hundred, many, and Bhagavad-gītā As It Is was taken out of late, since it's been in there, more than any other ones. They all have dust, and yours has been taken out. And Kṛṣṇa book was never in, I could never see it in, because it was always out, from the very first day it was in. In fact, when it was going into the library, the head of the department, he took it right away.

Prabhupāda: Another thing happened in Los Angeles. I wanted some quotation from a place of this Teachings of Lord Caitanya. So the man came, he said, "Swamiji, first of all I must buy this book. Either you accept or not accept our quotation, what price I shall pay?" I said, "Give me six dollars." Immediately he took this book. "Such a nice book I have never read. So either it is printed or not printed in our press, I must take this book." Actually, these ideas what we have explained in our books, they're unknown to the modern world. Unknown.

Interview -- July 20, 1972, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is penetrating. Just like here in France, in your country, how these young men they are taking part unless it is penetrating?

Devotee: He says thank you very, very much. (indistinct) ...very much trouble before meeting you... (indistinct) Thank you very much for the few minutes you've afforded to us. (indistinct) ...for a long journey.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

Frenchman: Merci.

Devotees: Jaya! (end)

Introduction Speech By Dr. Kapoor and Conversation -- October 15, 1972, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kapoor: I think the journey is so, fast because it is not in time. Time is transcended.

Prabhupāda: Time has nothing to do. That is stated in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that time has no influence there.

Dr. Kapoor: Neither day nor night.

Prabhupāda: No, there is no such thing.

Dr. Kapoor: Modern conception of speed is within the sphere of time. But our journey transcends time. Naturally it has to be faster than any journey you can imagine.

Prabhupāda: No. We speak from the śāstra. There is no question of imagination. We speak from śāstra. So we have explained, tried to explain these things in Easy Journey to Other Planets. And people are taking it very nicely. It is sold very quickly, very quickly. (break) I would like to see you that you are living in palaces.

Yaśodānandana: We want to put Kṛṣṇa in palace.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Devotee (1): In the Theosophical Society, not everyone, but one leader I spoke to, the others too maybe liked it, (indistinct) (pause) Should we go to the same place for the walk? It is too far...?

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) (break)

Devotee (1): (later, on the walk) Yes. Easy Journey, Topmost Yoga, Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa trilogy, you have got?

Devotee (2): I have volume 1 and volume 3, but my volume 2, they are all finished. But I've ordered them from Karandhara. (pause) (end)

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Twenty-five years. So they could not get anything, not a single farthing even. Still, they are doing. Just see, obstinacy. Punaḥ punaś carvita. This is called chewing the chewed. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). They will never be successful. So I am a layman. When I wrote that Easy Journey? In 1950, 67. How many years?

Karandhara: Six years.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Not 67, 57. Sixteen years before. They are all childish. I am a layman. It will never be successful. It is already written there in my Easy Journey to Other Planets. Here also, that, some press reporter asked me in San Francisco, when I landed, "What is your position about this moon planet?" "It is simply a waste of time and energy. That's all. You cannot go there."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have very big plan in the future, going to the surface of the Mars planet.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is future. That is all your statement, future. With future hope you become a big man. That is their foolishness.

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Śyāmasundara: In the oven.

David Lawrence: This is one of the English spiritual journeys. You know, they believe this is one of the greatest things to do, don't they.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes invite them all and give them prasādam. Nice boys.

Śyāmasundara: Have them all out here, yeah. (break)

Prabhupāda: You just work little, produce your food, eat, and save time, and try to understand Kṛṣṇa. This is the nature's arrangement. Anywhere, any part of the world, you can produce your food. Simply you require a little land and some cows. Everything is complete. You take milk from the cows and just till the field and get some food grains. That is sufficient. Whole economic question solved. And save time for developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is the arrangement.

David Lawrence: It was interesting to see a recent television program in this country...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Guest (German Man): (German)

Haṁsadūta: (German) Beyond... Easy Journey to Other planets.

Guest: (German)

Haṁsadūta: Topmost Yoga.

Guest: That is the... Yeah, the source of the Absolute. That is the best. But I read it twenty times, always with, in every day I find new things.

Prabhupāda: That is...

Guest: When I read other book, I read it one times, even not one time. But these books, I must read twenty times, and more even. It is, sometimes, it is, if I never read this book, it is so astonishing...

Prabhupāda: Get new light.

Morning Walk -- December 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: Prabhupāda, you know the scientist you quoted in Easy Journey? You quoted an article from the newspaper in Easy Journey about the two scientists who were studying anti-matter?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Karandhara: Well, about a year ago another scientist came forward, and he charged that those two scientists actually stole the knowledge from him. They were working with him, and they stole it to win Nobel Prize.

Prabhupāda: Yes, there are many scientists like that. Just like this Marconi, he stole the knowledge from Dr. Jagadisha Candra Bose. You know that?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I have heard this.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Jagadisha Candra... I was present. He said that "This man cheated me. I talked with him. Next morning he published the theory."

Karandhara: About radio?

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

Prabhupāda: Īśopaniṣad.

Jagajjīvana: Yeah, we haven't gotten that yet, though. There is the Perfection of Yoga, Topmost Yoga, and the Back to Godhead.

Hṛdayānanda: Easy Journey to Other Planets.

Jagajjīvana: Yeah, but I don't have that. I have some copies but not a lot.

Hṛdayānanda: Also On Chanting.

Jagajjīvana: Yeah, there is a chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Second chapter is done. It hasn't been distributed yet until February. We are two blocks away from a college. It has 32,000 students, and we go there every day and chant and the Communists come and we start preaching to them.

Prabhupāda: Communists? Students are under Communistic? What the Communists preaches? There is no God?

Jagajjīvana: Yes. And that in this life you can become perfect. There can be a perfect man without Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Ah, so who has become that perfect man? Amongst your Communists? The Stalin is considered the greatest criminal in the world, in the history, Stalin. So how he is perfect man? If he is the greatest criminal?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 23, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: How rascals they are, just see. I never believed. How shall I believe? I know it cannot be done. That Easy Journey to Other Planets, I have described the moon-going-plan—a childish. Did I not?

Sudāmā: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: The cloud is not big, as big as the sky. Similarly, the material world is also... It is insignificant in comparison to the spiritual world. Some portion of it is covered by māyā just like this cloud. (japa)

Passer-by: Good morning.

Prabhupāda: Good morning. (japa) (break) ...jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. How one bird or flower should be beautiful, nicely decorated? Kṛṣṇa gives His energy only a little and everything is there. Svā-bhāvikī jñāna... Just as if a very good artist has painted nicely. Svā-bhāvikī-jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. How to do it, that Kṛṣṇa knows. That is His inconceivable energy.

Sudāmā: So then like the sunset; that is also Kṛṣṇa's artistry?

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. (break) ...māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati. That is advancement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness: everywhere one sees Kṛṣṇa, and in Kṛṣṇa he sees everything. Therefore he sees Kṛṣṇa only. He sees nothing.

Morning Walk -- March 6, 1974, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. It is simply waste of time and energy. That's all. And in 1968 I wrote that Easy Journey: "And this is all childish."

Siddha-svarūpānanda: Sputniks.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Have you read that?

Siddha-svarūpānanda: Yes. It is very nice.

Prabhupāda: So we can boldly say on the strength of Vedic literature that all these attempts are childish and those who are attempting, they're all fools and rascals. That's all. Now they're silent about moon expedition. They're trying to go to Venus. What happened to moon, moon planet?

Siddha-svarūpānanda: Yeah right.

Prabhupāda: Another diversion. That's all.

Siddha-svarūpānanda: Just wasting money and time.

Prabhupāda: Another diversion of attention so that they can exploit public money in that way. And the public is also fooled that they believe all this nonsense.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1975, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: No, I liked it. Although I was sick, still, I liked it. Day and night, for thirty-five days.

Haṁsadūta: I came to America in the same way, but I was always sick. I didn't like it.

Prabhupāda: The sea journey is very good provided there is no sea-sickness. Otherwise very bad. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma... (break) ...all of our books in different languages. At least all the European languages. America is one language.

Guru-kṛpa: South America.

Prabhupāda: South America, different languages. Spanish.

Guru-kṛpa: Spanish, Portuguese.

Prabhupāda: Hare Rāma Hare... What about that Japanese translation? Something is done or not?

Guru-kṛpa: Just a magazine.

Prabhupāda: No. His wife was translating Japanese?

Bali Mardana: It has to be checked over.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said there was a man who read your Easy Journey, and he was very enthusiastic that he could go to other planets.

Prabhupāda: But you must come back. He said, "Oh, I am not coming back again?" "No." "No, no, then I don't want." Yes, that is the psychology. The Russians, when some aeronaut was flying high in the sky, he was seeing: "Where is my Moscow?" Yes, it was published. That is māyā. The... Another incidence happenned that when the jet was in danger, he was thinking of "How to come back home?" This is māyā. Cannot go. Even though you like to go, still, it will attract you again, back to hell. Otherwise, how people are living in—what is called? That place where is ice?

Haṁsadūta: Alaska.

Brahmānanda: Greenland.

Jagadisa: North Pole?

Prabhupāda: What is the name of those people?

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is all bogus propaganda. I told it in 1968. No, no, not '68-'58, in my book, Easy Journey to Other Planets. All childish. Then I told in San Francisco in 1968, like that. They asked me, the press reporter, "What is your opinion?" "It is all useless waste of time and energy."

Bali-mardana: Now they will have to agree with you. It's so much trouble. But the thing is that the scientists will lose their jobs if they do not make people want to go to..., useless things.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But one thing is the people in general, they are so rubbish and brainless that they believe. They do not use their common sense. I am also one of the member, but I use my common sense. We have read from the Vedic literature the moon planet is influencing the vegetation in this planet, and there is no vegetation. The moon planet... These are explained that influencing vegetation in this planet.

Bali-mardana: Some big, big scientists, they had a convention about evolution and geology, but they made a rule at the beginning that during the convention no one could bring up the subject of divine creation or God. And then they will discuss.

Prabhupāda: Now they are going to, I mean to say, hold a convention that life is from chemicals. Our Svarūpa Dāmodara told. Japan it is going to be held. And by their resolution, it will be accepted.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: The knowledge is already there. Just like I am speaking. I am not a scientist. On the knowledge of Vedas, that's all.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes. Just like you have said in the Easy Journey to Other Planets, you can go there by the mystic yoga process. You don't have to make some space machine.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Ambarīṣa: The scientists want to go there without performing any kind of austerities.

Prabhupāda: But there is austerities.

Paramahaṁsa: Yeah, actually they end up performing greater austerity.

Prabhupāda: You have to earn money with so much labor and spend it for nothing.

Paramahaṁsa: Billions of dollars. Some of them are working like madmen.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Television Interview -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: No, then we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. We don't make disturbance. But in the Bhagavad-gītā everything is discussed, this varṇa-saṅkara and the first-class man, second-class man. If we have to push on Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, then we have to discuss. But if they do not like, better chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and don't discuss anything. But these things are discussed. If you are not agreeable to hear from Bhagavad-gītā, then let us chant together Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. But these things are discussed in the Bhagavad-gītā about varṇa-saṅkara. If the population, varṇa-saṅkara, is increased, then it becomes hell. So if you want to increase the hellish person, then don't discuss. But if you think it is a problem, then discuss.

Satsvarūpa: As a brāhmaṇa, we have to be truthful. When in Hong Kong they asked you what you thought of Guru Maharaji, you said you could not help yourself.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I said that he is a great cheat. What can I say? And it has been proved now. (laughter) I said in my book, Easy Journey to Other..., that this moon excursion is childish, and it has been proved now. Now they don't talk about the moon excursion because they are failure. So ten years ago or more than that, I said that it is only childish. (end)

Morning Walk -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: That's nice. He is good.

Bahulāśva: So we gave him a copy of Easy Journey to Other Planets and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and he's been reading that. He is friends with that other scientist, Wernher Von Braun, who gave that speech also saying that he feels that there is definitely God by his scientific studies. We also wrote him a letter, but we haven't gotten any response. Svarūpa Dāmodara prabhu wrote him also.

Prabhupāda: What he is?

Bahulāśva: He is a very big scientist for Fairchild. He started the space project.

Harikeśa: He invented those rockets in Germany.

Paramahaṁsa: Yeah, he was actually captured. He used to work for Hitler. He invented the V-2 rockets that bombed London, or was one of them.

Bahulāśva: He gave a very nice talk in San Francisco.

Prabhupāda: Oh. About?

Morning Walk -- December 20, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: The might have gone to some hell, that is, I have no objection.

Indian man: Or the moon or anything.

Prabhupāda: Huh? (laughing) This is a little revolting (revolutionary). But I am speaking from the very beginning. Yes, I wrote that Easy Journey to Other Planets in 1958, and you'll find this statement in my book. It is all childish.

Dr. Patel: You have to be yogi for that.

Prabhupāda: I am yogi because I am taking lessons from the yogis...

Dr. Patel: Yoga dhāraṇā.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yogi, I am taking lesson from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. I may be fool, but I am taking lesson from the yogi. Yes. So yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇaḥ tatra śrīr vijayo bhūtir (BG 18.78). I don't require to be a yogi. I take shelter of the yogeśvara.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1976, Madras:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...saṁhitā we understand, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya. The pralaya is amaṅgala, and sṛṣṭi is maṅgala. Sthiti is also maṅgala. So Gaurī has got three functions, Durgā.

Devotee (3): (break) A devotee who has tasted the nectar of the lotus feet of the Lord can never, if he falls down, can never forget it. Does it mean that his journey in the material world is finished, I mean, is about to finish?

Prabhupāda: Answer, somebody.

Mahāṁśa: What was the question?

Prabhupāda: Answer.

Devotee (3): A person who has tasted the nectar of the lotus feet of the Lord, if he falls down he can never forget anything. He doesn't act like an ordinary karmī. Does that mean that his journey in the material world is about to finish?

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh. That is our concern. If the car is damaged, that is not good.

Jayapatākā: The last journey there was some damage on the car?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No damage on our car.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Last time when I went.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Last time, when Prabhupāda went.

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.

Morning Walk -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Two hundred millions years only for passing through the vegetables. Then you become insects. That is also 1,100,000. In this way you'll get chance again to become a human being. These rascals are wasting, four-wheel dog. (laughter) Dogs are four-legged, and we are four-wheeled. That's all. (laughter)

Indian man: Śrīla Prabhupāda, everyone has to go through all the 84,000,000 journeys(?), or is that to, like, you know, on his pious or impious karma he might go through only the vegetable class or he might go through only the animal life?

Prabhupāda: That will depend on your karma.

Indian man (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, there's one thing in the human nature, that he always thinks that he's the chief and around the world everything is running around him, and most probably he always can show off that "I am the leader of everything." Why is it so? In every person.

Prabhupāda: That is the disease, material disease. That is material disease. Everyone wants to become Kṛṣṇa. Nobody wants to serve Kṛṣṇa. That is material. Kartāham iti manyate. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. Rascal bewildered by false egotism, he's thinking "I am everything." That is material life. And when by cultivation of knowledge, good association, you come to the conclusion that "I am not everything, Kṛṣṇa is everything; I am His servant," then perfection. Otherwise he's in the māyā-cakra.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Which book selling now?

Bhagavān: Which book are we selling right now? Gītā, and we'll have a quantity of this in about three weeks, and then we'll begin selling Bhāgavatam, and Īśopaniṣad, Easy Journey, Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: French language is understood practically all over Europe, especially France, Switzerland.

Bhagavān: Switzerland, Montreal, Belgium...

Pṛthu-putra: Luxembourg and Belgium also, they are French-speaking.

Bhagavān: And Africa. Much countries in Africa are French-speaking.

Prabhupāda: Oh. You can sell in Mauritius.

Bhagavān: Yes. I send books to Mauritius.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone speaks French.

Bhagavān: Did you see the color printing inside? It's also very nice. They have done the same.... This was last year in Paris, when you received Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Very good, but I could not digest them. That is my fault, but, oh, it was so nice palatable. Chick peas, chick peas, grow fresh. Eat very nicely, keep strong, drink milk, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Bas. Don't depend on this outside work and then gradually become debauch, thief, rogues, prostitutes. Is that civilization? They cannot imagine that the modern civilization can go without all these things. Do they not? Slaughterhouse, brothel, cheating, diplomacy, roguery, drinking—without this, no civilization. We are quite opposed. We want to show it is possible, yes. You can stop all this nonsense and still you go on as a perfect civilized man. With character, knowledge, satisfaction, everything. They are trying to gather knowledge by sending so many machines up to date. We have already got. We say you cannot go there, you are simply wasting your time. We have got so much knowledge. No, you can attempt, just like a monkey, that's all right. But our verdict is already there. You cannot go there. Ten years before I said this moon excursion is simply childish and waste of money in my Easy Journey to Other Planets.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: "No, this is not the standard. This is standard." So the same thing is going on. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). It is like chewing the chewed, that's all. Somebody has chewed the sugar cane and it's thrown away. Another man comes, "Let me taste it." And what you'll taste? It is already finished. So all these "isms," they are all finished. All the scientific discoveries, they are all finished. And where is happiness? This is not the way. Mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). You have to attempt in such a way that after giving up this body, you go back home, back to Godhead, never come back again here. This is the way. Otherwise, there is no happiness. You go on struggling, that is your choice. Make new attempts. Just like this moon excursion. Ten years ago in one small book, Easy Journey to Other Planets, we predicted that this moon-going attempt is childish and waste of time. We are not expert scientist, but from the śāstra we can understand. Now such a brilliant planet, pleasing, and they have discovered there rocks and sand. Just see their intelligence. Do you think rocks and sand are so brilliant? What do you think? This bluff is going on. People are feeling under the moonshine is so pleasing, and it is full of rocks and sand. We have to accept that. Rocks and sand, throughout the whole day by scorching heat, they also become heated. So at night it is suffering. So if it is rocks and sand, so whole day it was heated by the sunshine, how it is pleasing?

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Jñānagamya: Prabhupāda, your temples are the real spaceships. We can go to the other planets and to Kṛṣṇaloka from your temples.

Prabhupāda: Yes, therefore I've given you Easy Journey to Other Planets. It is from India?

Nava-yauvana: It is from India.

Prabhupāda: Fresh.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Would you like it fried a little?

Prabhupāda: Little make it hot.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Hot, We can little heat it.

Prabhupāda: That's all. After heating, put little ghee, very little, and mix it with black pepper and salt.

Atreya Ṛṣi: We mix it or you mix it.

Prabhupāda: I can mix.

Arrival Conversation -- August 13, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Everything all right?

Indian man: Very comfortable journey?

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) There was no water. All over Europe there is no cloud. No water.

Girirāja: No water?

Prabhupāda: No water.

Harikeśa: Big drought. They just had to close the factories in Wales because there's no water now.

Girirāja: It's a reaction to their sinful activities.

Prabhupāda: It will be increasing throughout the whole world. Anāvṛṣṭi.

Hari-śauri: They think it's just happening by chance.

Prabhupāda: Godless civilization, sinful activities. The reaction will increase, no rainfall, scarcity of foodgrains, and government taxes. These are written in Bhāgavata. Anāvṛṣṭi-durbhikṣa... Government will exact tax more.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Maṇihāra: "ISKCON has generated many community farms like New Vrindaban, providing the ideal atmosphere of a busy, yet peaceful village, fully devoted to spiritual progress. Swami Prabhupāda has also established the first Kṛṣṇa conscious gurukula in the West, a primary school in Dallas, Texas, for one hundred boys and girls between the ages of five and fifteen. Soon after its success, many such gurukulas have sprung up all over the world. Aside from teaching reading, writing, mathematics, geography, etc., the gurukula teaches the child how to cultivate God consciousness. Once a year members of ISKCON journey to the Society's international headquarters at Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, ninety miles north of Calcutta, and the birthplace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It is the site of a ten crore rupees international Vedic village comprised of community farming projects, high-class gurukula school, free medicinal facilities, and handloom weaving center. An institute of Vedic studies is proposed to be established at this site. Other major ISKCON centers in India are in Vṛndāvana, Bombay, and Kurukṣetra, the site of a three-crore rupee international Sanskrit university. This project will be sponsored by Alfred Ford, a nephew of Henry Ford. This will be the cultural..."

Prabhupāda: Nephew, nephew of Ford, that's a fact. Alfred is from the daughter's side. So the present Mr. Ford, his nephew, certainly, because daughter's side. His mother is the daughter, granddaughter of Henry Ford. Alfred's mother is the granddaughter of Henry Ford. Therefore the present Ford is the maternal uncle of Alfred.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is that book?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Easy Journey to Other Planets. They finished printing it yesterday and they're binding it together. One or two days, it always happens. When I give a date sometimes it gets delayed. So I figured the distribution of Hindi books will be very good. Ludhiana and Mathurā and also not much investment will be required. It's very common, devotees go every year and they are tired of it. So this year we should concentrate on book distribution. If we have a pandal in Mathurā every evening starting at six o'clock. If we can reach Mathurā at five for book distribution it will be nice. Actually I was also thinking of having a three day pandal in Agra.

Prabhupāda: Agra is very good.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Agra is even bigger than Mathurā and our book distribution would be good. I'm going to write and see what the possibilities are.

Prabhupāda: Nearby cities we can...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that is what I'm thinking of. Near Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: Away from Vṛndāvana.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hong Kong.

Trivikrama: People don't take. Even in Taiwan, now we are Republic of China, but we had a nice center, but people just aren't interested very much.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You got a copy, eh, Easy Journey to Other Planets?

Prabhupāda: It is very attractive.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You like it? We only did ten thousand each, but I think we'll sell it out in Kumbhamela. And if we have these two pandals in Ludhiana and Mathurā...

Prabhupāda: So why don't you order more?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Right now I don't have much money, so I'm going slow. But when we sell, we'll get the money back, print more.

Prabhupāda: No, I can give you some loan.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We will do that. We may need a small loan because... Also the printer came to see me. I told him to bring down the Bengali Gītār Gān price, and I'll think we'll print only one lakh here because his quality is much better than a small letter press in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: So if you regularly do businesslike, I can give you loan.

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There are others also?

Indian: I went to the printing press, and I asked him "Why don't you print like the other books you have, Easy Journey to Other Planets?" So he said that "We have done little mistake, and the next printing it will be better."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not a mistake. We perfectly agreed. You told me so, that (Hindi).

Prabhupāda: What will be price for one lakh?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Of this? I think it will go around a velo(?), because the real book cost seventy-eight paisa; paper is about forty paisa. So paper, whether you buy one or one lakh, it's the same. Printing is about thirty-eight paisa. And out of thirty-eight paisa, plate-making and all will come to about ten paisa.

Prabhupāda: Plate is already made.

Letter to Russian -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They have published their photograph in the paper. They take it, whatever... But the things are already there. So "Dear Mr. such and such, I thank you very much for your greetings card received recently. This cultural movement is depending in future on Russian intelligence and Indian culture. On this cultural movement, recently our Stockholm center has published one book..." What it is written here?

Jagadīśa: Easy Journey to Other Planets.

Prabhupāda: In Russian language?

Jagadīśa: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: "Easy Journey to Other Planets. So this is a different culture, how to go to other planetary system, how to transfer the soul from one body to another. In other planets there are also living entities. One can transfer himself, after giving up this body, to anywhere he likes without any help of the sputnik, and without the help of the sputnik or any flying machine. This is the mystic system unknown to the world, but it is authorized in the Vedas, original culture of the human civilization."

Hari-śauri: It's on the tape. I'm recording it too.

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

Prabhupāda: Kata catur anana, mari mari yāvata, nā tuyā ari avasana. You have seen Russian publication? Easy Journey to Other Planets. They have printed.

Gurudāsa: They're going to distribute it on that train that goes into Russia. By the way, Śrīgarbha came to me and said, "I'm sorry for all your difficulty. I wanted to preach in Poland again." That boy? So he's going to deposit his wife and go to Poland.

Prabhupāda: Deposit where?

Gurudāsa: He wants to do it in Florida.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Florida is nice place.

Gurudāsa: Because he feels she's protected there. I said, "You'll feel that she is protected there, and then you'll have a free mind to preach?" And he said, "Yes, rather than in Europe." So I said, "All right." In your letter you wrote, "Let it go for now." Again you saw the future. "Let it go for now." Then he came.

Prabhupāda: So we shall go down? No.

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

Rāmeśvara: "Read worldwide Hare Kṛṣṇa literatures and be happy. Books by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. 1) Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Cantos 1-9, twenty-seven volumes, Rs..." (aside:) Not so many. Per volume. "Bhagavad-gītā As It Is; Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, seventeen volumes; Teachings of Lord Caitanya; The Nectar of Devotion; Śrī Īśopaniṣad; Easy Journey to Other Planets; Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, the Topmost Yoga System; Kṛṣṇa, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, three volumes; Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers; and so on. Recommended by learned scholars and professors all over the world. Available for reading from all university, college and public libraries of the world, and can be purchased."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We can give the name of few leading bookstores in each city.

Prabhupāda: Not through bookstore. Only our...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.

Prabhupāda: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, and you can give that Calcutta agent, Vrnda Book... That's all.

Rāmeśvara: And for the books you have in Hindi you should write "available in Hindi."

Prabhupāda: No, Hindi we shall advertise differently.

Room Conversation on 1976 Book Scores -- January 16, 1977, Calcutta:

Rāmeśvara: 606,000 hardbound volumes, for a total sale of Bhagavad-gītā last year in English, not counting what was printed in India, 622,000 hardbound volumes. Then Kṛṣṇa book, hardbound, 28,000, volume one; 12,000 volume two; 12,000 volume three; making a total of Kṛṣṇa book hardbound sold of 51,000 hardbound volumes. Then Kṛṣṇa trilogies, paper bound: 17,000 volumes one; 19,000 volume two; 24,000 volume three; making a total of 60,000 Kṛṣṇa trilogies. Then 6,000 Teachings of Lord Caitanya, 7,000 Nectar of Devotion, 160,000 Śrī Īśopaniṣad, 100,000 Nectar of Instruction, 253,000 Easy Journey to Other Planets...

Prabhupāda: This is the largest sale. (chuckling)

Rāmeśvara: 487,000 Perfection of Yoga, 263,000 Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Is Authorized, 10,000 cook books, Hare Kṛṣṇa Cook books, 4,000 Gopal coloring books, and just under 7,000..., excuse me, 7,000,000 Back to Godhead magazines. Now, the total magazines, almost, about 7,000,000. Total small books like Perfection of Yoga, Easy Journey, is 740,000. Total medium books like Kṛṣṇa trilogy, Śrī Īśopaniṣad, is 319,000. Total books like cook books, Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Is Authorized, other titles: 280,000. Then total hardbound books: 1,007,000. So the total literatures sold last year is 9,076,280 literatures. Nine million.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Everything bluff. I never believed them. I never believed them. In my Easy Journey to..., I have, ten years before, I have already rejected. Simply bluff.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. You've written many times in your books that we will never accept this, that they have gone to other planets and found them empty.

Prabhupāda: So both Arundhati and Pālikā, they're in period. So this girl...?

Hari-śauri: Abhirama's wife.

Prabhupāda: Wife. She knows?

Hari-śauri: She knows how to cook, yes. She got trained up by Pālikā.

Prabhupāda: In the cooker. And she'll cook today?

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: This was suitable.

Room Conversation -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Brahmānanda: ...here to Allahabad, I was coming from Bombay on the train. I was riding with some respectable people. They saw this button, and they said, "Oh, you are the disciple of Prabhupāda?" And I said, "Yes." And they were very appreciative of your work. And then I had one Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Eighth Canto, the story of Gajendra. And one man wanted to see the book. And he started reading it, and he kept the book throughout the whole journey, and he read the whole book, and he loved it. He said, "Your guru has written very nicely, very simply, very directly, and everything is there." He wouldn't give me back the book until he finished it.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) So our book-selling appreciated all over the world.

Brahmānanda: Yes. And this is an Indian, he's a Hindu, so he knows Vedic culture, but still he liked your books very much. He said, "I've never read something like this."

Prabhupāda: Our presentation is simplified. That is the beauty.

Brahmānanda: Yes. That's what he appreciated.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We do not make the things cumbersome.

Room Conversation -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: So print.

Pṛthu-putra: But it's a very specific work. So my idea was to print something more like Topmost Yoga System for a first try, or Easy Journey to Other Planets for a first try.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Pṛthu-putra: To like approach. Because Śrī Īśopaniṣad is too specific.

Prabhupāda: Specific and little strict.

Pṛthu-putra: So I have one boy in Paris who is translating for me. He is coming regularly to the temple, he chants, and he's coming every Sunday or sometimes three or four times a week.

Prabhupāda: Somebody, some Arabian boy, translated?

Pṛthu-putra: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...people do not know. So we are preaching for them, "It is fortunate that you accept God. You know God." So in this way. And actually that is the fact. Mostly, eighty percent of the population, they are atheists, all. The Muslims, they are not atheists.

Room Conversation -- February 10, 1977, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: Who appointed, that I don't know. But that's his business. And then Dāmodara was telling about his journey on the bus and train, but Madhusūdana Mahārāja didn't seem very interested. He criticized, "Why do you go to Kumbhamela? What is going for bathing? What is special about that bath?" And then he challenged that, "We go for preaching." "But what preaching you did there?" "No, I preached, gave lectures."

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayapatākā: Dāmodara Mahārāja said, "I gave lecture at the mandira, Gauḍīya Maṭha."

Prabhupāda: In Allahabad.

Jayapatākā: One advantage is they don't know any... Of course now, we have so many Bengali devotees. They don't know much English. They can generally speak most only in Bengali, most of these Godbrothers.

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, he's surrounded by these men. I don't think he'll come. I think they will...

Jayapatākā: They'll influence him not to come.

Bhavānanda: Yes. They are always there, around, around, around.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh, I see. That's nice.

Harikeśa: Because I thought this Easy Journey was a little hard for Hungarians. They're not so intelligent like. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: What about that Russian?

Harikeśa: Ah. The Russian book was Easy Journey and the talk with Professor Kotovsky. And the Īśopaniṣad is now being translated.

Prabhupāda: In Russian?

Harikeśa: Yes. Dvārakeśa, he's now a Swedish citizen. Dvārakeśa. I sent him to Poland. You know Dvārakeśa? He was that boy who was going to go to Hungary? He's a Hungarian. He was going to go back to Hungary and become a Hungarian.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, should not be done... Slow...

Harikeśa: It will be ready in one week. That one is Easy Journey.

Prabhupāda: Slowly but surely. And the small book, first of all print.

Harikeśa: And Yugoslavian Īśopaniṣad, that will be ready within, I think, one month, one and a half months.

Prabhupāda: If there is scarcity of money, you ask me. I shall pay you. You can pay me later.

Harikeśa: Actually there's no scarcity.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Harikeśa: German BBT, I think is...

Prabhupāda: For printing there should not be any delay for money. Whatever money you require, I shall arrange.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: He cannot see mistake. He is mistake. (laughter) He should... That is being done by this rascal. I don't want. And the Hayagrīva has..., the Easy Journey, he has changed so many things. That... He is now bad character. You should not maintain him.

Rādhā-vallabha: We should stop maintaining him.

Prabhupāda: No. He has no responsibility even on his family.

Rādhā-vallabha: His wife just came to meet him in L.A.

Prabhupāda: What she said?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, she was asking me whether he would want to live with her. I told her that I didn't think so.

Prabhupāda: Why? Why did you advise?

Room Conversation -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: A small book, Easy Journey.

Gargamuni: Yes. That's all they have. They bought a poster also of Kṛṣṇa, a big poster, the Russians.

Hari-śauri: There's a couple of Hungarian books.

Gargamuni: Yes. If we have any, I can use them.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. There is.

Hṛdayānanda: All around the world now people, by Prabhupāda's work, can at least recognize Kṛṣṇa. In all the Western countries, whenever we show a book with Kṛṣṇa's picture, everyone says, "Well, this is Hare Kṛṣṇa." Now everyone knows Kṛṣṇa's form.

Prabhupāda: When the books fair opened?

Gargamuni: It opened on Friday.

Prabhupāda: No, is there any time, every day?

Room Conversation with Scientists, Svarupa Damodara, and Dr. Sharma -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Only by Prabhupāda's blessings.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you can... Śrīla Prabhupāda, you wanted to ask Dr. Sharma about altitude?

Prabhupāda: Seven thousand feet high altitude, it is good for a person to go there?

Dr. Sharma: I think it will be better if you go with an oxygen cylinder and by helicopter, not by the routine journey. Not by, you know..., gradual. Because suddenly you can get air hunger, you know, when you...

Prabhupāda: It is risky.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Risky. It is risky.

Dr. Sharma: It is risky, yes. It is risky.

Prabhupāda: Then forget this thing. (end)

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Our books for showing, carrying with us. One full set. I think the best way for that would be that maybe we'll have Kṣīra Gopīnātha Prabhu go by train with full whole set of books, because taking on the plane is very difficult. It will be overweight. But he can go by train. It is not very long. It is about one days, one and a half days complete journey. And then he can take easily a lot of baggage.

Prabhupāda: He will take from Delhi?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The train? No, actually he can take from Bombay.

Prabhupāda: From Bombay to Kashmir direct.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Either direct or through Delhi. The Punjab Mail. I think there is a Punjab Mail.

Prabhupāda: Punjab Mail goes up to border of Kashmir.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So something like that. I mean we could fix that up.

Prabhupāda: No, as many books you can carry without any difficulty, you can take.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: On the plane. Okay. Maybe Guru dāsa should wait there for awhile. If Guru dāsa and I go together as a preaching team, we can conquer anywhere.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

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

Prabhupāda: That we have already sent, Easy Journey to Other Planets.

Guest (2): In Russian language?

Prabhupāda: You have got this copy?

Dr. Sharma: The Russians, they are all, they are not a very (indistinct) people. Their government is standing in the way.

Guest (2): The younger generation, as you are presenting, of India and the developing countries it's okay. In some way or another they have known the existence of God, whether they call Him Christ or someone. We can convince them later. But the very fact that they have denied the acceptance, that requires a special treatment. So you should make something different (indistinct). I find it very difficult to go to...

Prabhupāda: And one thing, very commonsense reason...

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Tṛṇād api sunīcena... Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given this slogan, tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā, amāninā mānadena. One should not claim honor for himself, but he should give honor to everyone. Amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). So that book, small book, Easy Journey to..., is it interesting?

Dr. Sharma: It is interesting. It has been very well received.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Dr. Sharma: It's a very well written book.

Prabhupāda: Then that translation you have to...

Dr. Sharma: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: So encourage him to translate more books. (background conversation with Dr. Sharma) In Russia, if they allow us to speak, then we can convert many. There is no doubt about it. But they have restriction for outsider. Now, here is a scientific man. They'll not hear?

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

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Harikeśa: The Russian booklet, Russian Easy Journey, is now being used as a textbook in the Catholic university in Lublin(?) by one professor. They liked the Russian so much and they liked the subject matter so much, they're using it in the school. (Prabhupāda chuckles)

Prabhupāda: And your Kṛṣṇa is... Present now scientifically. They'll not receive?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, well, this is... This should be ready, and this will be ready this month, this third one, so...

Prabhupāda: So...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This one is to prove from mathematics that life cannot come from matter. This one is The Laws of Consciousness and the Laws of Nature, to prove by quantum mechanics that there must be Supersoul, Paramātmā. There must be Kṛṣṇa to direct all the source of knowledge. And there is no way that life can come from matter. This was the basic difference between spirit and matter. From Bhagavad-gītā we use kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānam, from Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter 13.3, "To understand the distinction between matter, physical body, and life, the spirit, or the knower of the field, is called knowledge."

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, he says that "I heard..." This is from ex-president Ford. There was some discussion that perhaps he would be a candidate in the 1980 Presidential election here. Anyway, he's an important man. Then he lists some of the people who have gotten your Bhagavad-gītā as well as other small book in Russian or other languages or prasādam. "Mr. Igor Orligalik, Deputy Director (gives list of many Eastern Bloc professors and directors) You see, he keeps a file on all these people, so if ever we go to these countries, we know which people got our books, and these are all highly placed people, very prominent people. Good work. One of these lunches is very expensive-$7.50 per person. (reads:) "Los Angeles World Affairs Council cordially invites you to attend a special luncheon discussion meeting with the USSR-USA Society Delegation to the Soviet Union." This is one such invitation that's put out by these people. Every one of these people who spoke there, all these delegates, he gave them Bhagavad-gītās, the Russian Easy Journey and a calendar. (break) (kīrtana)

Prabhupāda: ...slaughter, bigger slaughter. This is my practical experience. Father hates. (break) We saw lots of people.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Still...

Prabhupāda: In the beginning, when the marriage took place, thousand was common. He was everything. (breaks)

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

Prabhupāda: To find out some job to fill up the belly. Otherwise he'll starve if he doesn't get any job. And he's finding out guru. Job-guru. Now do the needful. Otherwise everything will be spoiled. These rascal editorial... That Easy Journey, original, this (indistinct) Hayagrīva has changed so many things.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He actually took out the whole part about their going to the moon being childish. He deleted the whole section.

Yaśodā-nandana: Also in the Bhāgavatam, where Prabhupāda was talking about Lord Buddha... You mentioned that if the followers of Lord Buddha do not close the slaughterhouse, there is no meaning to such a caricature. That word was very nice. But in new book that word is not there any more. They have pulled the word. The meaning of the word is not... So many times.

Prabhupāda: It is very serious situation. Rāmeśvara is in direct...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think they're working too independently without consulting properly.

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

Prabhupāda: Skunk, and the hand becomes badly flavored. Hm? (break) Therefore three books, Bhagavad-gītā... All my other small books, they are also on the basis. That Topmost Yoga, it is based on Bhagavad-gītā in a different name. Easy Journey to Other Planets is based on Bhagavad-gītā in a different name. Why shall I waste? I don't want to waste time. In this condition of life I try to write book because I do not try to waste my time. All right, I am not having sleep. Let me try at night. If I can write one, two lines, that's all right. I don't want to read any other book or criticize or play. Waste of time. What is that first verse? Kim anyaiḥ śāstraiḥ. Where it is?

Śatadhanya: That's from Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm. Just see. You do not read. Find. Bring Bhāgavata, the first part. (coughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the verse?

Prabhupāda: Kim anyaiḥ śāstraiḥ. First of all, first chapter. First chapter, second verse.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The second verse of the first chapter.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You're not... By nature you've never been inactive. We can begin the activity by airplane travel and then a little car journey to the temple, and then we can carry you around in certain places. Like at the New York farm. Oh, we can give you wonderful ride in the palanquin. That's very appealing. If you go on the palanquin in the fresh air. No? That'll be, I think...

Prabhupāda: No, activity will give appetite.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, it has to. Change of atmosphere gives appetite also.

Prabhupāda: So let us artificial activity. I think this is a nice arrangement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Upendra and I could see it for the last... (break)

Prabhupāda: And nobody is going to disturb you there. Make your own field and continue to become ṛttvik and act on my charge. People are becoming sympathetic there. The place is very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. He says, "The introduction of Bhagavad-gītā has been translated into Tamil, and I will have the second chapter done next. Then publish a small booklet for immediate distribution."

Prabhupāda: Very good.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How they will believe that man didn't go to the moon? When Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote that in Easy Journey, Hayagrīva took it out of the book, saying that "How will they believe this?"

Prabhupāda: Believe. "I believe." You can say also, "I believe." You can say, "I believe." Where is the standard?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: This is their life. "I believe." Whatever he believes, that's all right. This is going on.

Gurukṛpā: The difficulty is they have no intelligence to understand what they are doing. But if... By mass prasādam distribution they will get intelligence to see the serious sins they are doing.

Prabhupāda: Whole thing is "I believe," "Unless I believe..." Anyone can believe something. Is that knowledge?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, it's not knowledge. Opinion. Opinion of a drunkard, as you said the other day.

Prabhupāda: Drunkard believes

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It would have taken three to four hours to go by car from Delhi in this condition. And bumpy. The train journey was not so bad, I think, not so bad. The weather was nice.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) (break) ...water for drinking?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Upendra Prabhu? Is there a drink for Prabhupāda?

Hari-śauri: Mung jal is ready.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's ready. Yes, we prepared mung water. Praṇava's wife, she was cooking with Kulādri today. She prepared two things, mung jal and the water from spinach. So that's supposed to be very good also. Would you like to try? Praṇava said that the feature of the spinach water is that it's very good for strength and very easily digestible. That's what he said. You might like to try something of both.

Prabhupāda: There is fresh milk? Half water, half milk.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right now would you like to have some mung water?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Harikeśa: And the Polish Easy Journey...

Prabhupāda: He was rotting here, typewriting. I said, "You go." I had ten servants. You feel.(?) They are heavy.(?) He thought that I am degrading him. No. Now you understand?

Harikeśa: Yes, I understand, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So here is a intelligent boy. Why he should rot here, typewriting? (break) Whatever deficiency are there, that is excused by Guru Mahārāja. Go on printing, go on printing. Deficiency will be corrected, next, next, next. I printed Bhāgavata in that way, many defects. "All right. Whatever is printed, that's all." But these are first class. There is no defect. German printing is very pure. They have got the first-class machine. So we have got so many centers. Wherever cheaper and better printing can be gotten, we may take from there. That's all right. Thank you.

Harikeśa: (choked voice) Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your Divine Grace, Bhavānanda Mahārāja, myself, Bhakti-caru Mahārāja, Śatadhanya Mahārāja, Upendra Prabhu, Svarūpa Dāmodara, Bharadvāja. That'll be on the plane. Then in the train, Pradyumna, Arundhatī, some other devotees also. So eight of us will be going on the plane with you, seven plus Your Divine Grace, and you will have three seats. Altogether, we're purchasing ten seats. So I don't think there will be any difficulty. We're going in full team. Scientist is with us. In case of any special knowledge, Svarūpa Dāmodara will be there. Bhavānanda with his gun. (laughter) Full team. I think it will be a nice journey, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I hope.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So now you'll have your bath, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Light? (break)

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And if he has got business, why he should remain here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I also felt that he should expedite his journey. He should go as soon as possible. Actually I have everything that I need to give him I can give him right now—the letter which will be sent to the bank, and I'll be sending...

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Vrindavan De: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: He wants to return as quickly as possible.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I personally felt you could go tomorrow even, 'cause I thought that you could actually... I think the earlier you get back to Calcutta the better. But his idea was to leave Sunday, I think.

Vrindavan De: Sunday, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Today is Friday. So he wanted to leave the day after tomorrow. Otherwise everything is ready for him to go whenever he wants it.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. He... He'll either agree to remain or else we'll make him agree to take you to Māyāpur. Probably by our refusing to accept this assistant, it will induce him to stay here a little bit longer to prepare you for the journey, and then he'll take you to Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Journey, what is the difficulty?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't find any difficulty. I didn't find any difficulty one week ago. I'm prepared to take you anywhere in the world, in any condition. I don't think that there's so much difficulty. I see how we're putting you on the palanquin.

Prabhupāda: Bhavānanda?

Bhavānanda: I also agree with Tamāla, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's ten of us. Bhavānanda Mahārāja, Śatadhanya Mahārāja, Upendra, myself, Svarūpa Dāmodara, Jayādvaita, Yadubara, Adri-dhāraṇa, Bhakti-caru, and one kavirāja. It is a proper entourage for a king.

Prabhupāda: I am prepared also. How many hours it will take altogether?

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no, if after all he wants to go, why not leave earlier?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because the whole idea of going is that the medicine is supposed to be having effect. So the longer we have for the medicine to take effect, the stronger you should become. And the stronger you become, the easier will be the journey. It would only be a question of one or two days extra, because in any case he'll want to leave after a few days. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...some rest, backside, I can sit down.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: With some rest?

Bhavānanda: Something to rest against on his back. Then he can sit.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, and in any case we were going to purchase three seats for Your Divine Grace so that you can lie down conveniently in the plane also. No harm in taking... Because one thing you have to remember: the entire journey will take ten hours, so you should conserve your strength by laying down as far as possible. Here you can sit up for two hours because the bed is stationary, and then you can always be resting. But this will be a ten-hour journey. So we should try to take every possible means to allow you to be comfortable the whole way and to relax as much as possible.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We will have one devotee get on in Agra to reserve a compartment for us, and then we'll board it here in Mathurā, and it arrives in Delhi at about nine-thirty at night, nine forty-five. So then we'll spend the night in Delhi, resting, and then the following morning we'll take the morning flight to Calcutta and Māyāpur. This means also that you won't have to undergo any strenuous journey to Delhi and then immediately take a flight. The train journey is actually much easier than a car journey, and then we get the whole night to rest, which is also good. So basically it just means we take a plane and then the car ride to Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: So I simply go by car from here to Mathurā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Then we take the Taj Express, which is nonstop to Delhi, then stay in the Delhi temple, which is also nice, overnight, and then we proceed on to Calcutta. The next morning we leave on the plane at six-thirty in the morning and we arrive in Calcutta by about eight-thirty, and we should arrive in Māyāpur by noon. Does it sound like a good plan? Now you simply should gain more and more strength, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This time, until the kavirāja comes, from now until then, you should rest as much as possible, take these medicines. I think it's having a positive effect. You mentioned this morning that when you sit up you feel a little stronger now. I think it's good that you're not taxing yourself in any way. That's important. Would you like to do something specific right now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: What shall I do? (laughs)

Room Conversation -- November 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What kind of books?

Jayapatākā: Small books. Beyond Birth and Death, Easy Journey.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Subhaga is doing nicely?

Jayapatākā: Yes. Same as usual.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Is there Bengali boys, Mahārāja?

Jayapatākā: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So how many members are there now, devotees in Māyāpur.

Jayapatākā: I don't know. I didn't take the exact count. Two hundred.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two hundred. Big āśrama, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I'm thinking of bringing some Manipuri boys to Māyāpur next time I go.

Prabhupāda: Do it.