Kanpur (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"Kanpur" |"Kanpura"

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: Proper. Kanpur proper.

Krishna Tiwari: Yes. We were originally from a village, but we're living in Kanpur now.

Prabhupāda: Kanpur. It's a big city.

Krishna Tiwari: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Industrial city.

Krishna Tiwari: My name is Krishna Tiwari.

Prabhupāda: Tiwari.

Krishna Tiwari: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Oh. In Kanpur I had an old friend—he was just like my father-Tiwari. Very rich man. They have got their temple.

Krishna Tiwari: Which place? I probably know it.

Prabhupāda: In Kanpur there is a big temple that belongs to the Tiwari family. It is famous temple. Many people go there to visit.

Krishna Tiwari: I haven't lived there too long. Lucknow, we came to Lucknow, and...

Prabhupāda: The temple is very old temple. So the proprietors of the temple are brāhmaṇas, Tiwari. So the eldest member, old Mr. Tiwari, was a very nice, great devotee. At home he had Deity, Rukmiṇī-Kṛṣṇa. He was worshiping at home Rukmiṇī-Kṛṣṇa, Dvārakā.

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

Guest (4): In Luton, before eighty years... When I was reading the history of Luton, on the page number 176, it was written that there was a great shortage of food before eighty years, and in some place people were cutting their own children and eating.

Prabhupāda: Huh?!

Guest (4): This is written. If you like that book, I can send you. So the non-vegetarians...

Prabhupāda: Cutting their children?!

Guest (4): Cutting their own children, killing them and eat them. In some private places in Luton, where I am residing now. The history of Luton has been published by the County Borough of Luton. The non-vegetarian food leaved them to such an extent that they couldn't stay without the meat. And they had to cut their own children. Now we are vegetarian. I have never tasted any meat. I don't know the taste of it. Still. we all exist on vegetables, all sorts of vegetables.

Prabhupāda: The same thing happened in Kanpur in a hotel. One man was eating meat, and he found a little finger...

Guest (4): Finger of some...

Guest (2): That was in the Bombay, in the Villa Parle, in my place, where I was living.

Guest (4): Newspaper (Hindi)

Guest (2): This gentleman went to the hotel and found a small finger.

Prabhupāda: Small children cut up. And there was another case in Calcutta. The, one Chinaman, he was eating human being. And then... (break) ...some Kancawala (?) (beggar) him called, and then captured and killed him. This was going on. Later on, when police enquiry was made, so many human...

Guest (2): Bones...

Guest (4): Skeletons.

Prabhupāda: ...bones, skeletons was found. In Africa there are still cannibals.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: So practically single-handed I am trying to give this original Indian culture to the world. And nobody's helping me. Neither, if some rich man wants to help me, government will not allow to help me.

Ambassador: Oh, yes, especially...

Prabhupāda: Now just like Sir Padampat Singhania of Kanpur, he promised that, "You just construct a nice temple in New York." He wanted to give the money. The government will not allow.

Ambassador: Oh, foreign exchange.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not allow. I made correspondence with the government. The last reply was that "You can raise fund locally, but you cannot take money from here." Now who will pay...? Of course, these boys are paying me. We are getting... Now recently, one boy, you know his name, George Harrison. He's a very famous singer.

Ambassador: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So he has purchased for me one house, fifty-five lakhs worth. But what, no Indian could help me. At two hundred and twenty thousand pounds. So it is equivalent to fifty-five lakhs.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Inhuman. And then cutting throat of the cows, that is not human. Is that very good reasoning?

Devotee: They don't think that the cows have souls, many of them.

Prabhupāda: That is their rascaldom. Rascals. Why no soul? What is the symptom of having soul?

Devotee: Consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So they have no consciousness? Then children? They treat like animals. They have no soul? Then better send all the children to the slaughterhouse. Their, children's flesh is very sweet and palatable.

Devotee: They made a movie like that, Śrīla Prabhupāda, about people... They give up their lives and they are sent to this place where they are mashed up and made into meat, and the people eat them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They do that in many hotels. They, it was in India done. The childcatcher? What is called?

Girirāja: Kidnapper.

Prabhupāda: Kidnappers. They kidnap and they slaughter, and mix with other meat. It becomes very tasteful. In hotel, one body found a finger of a child. In Kanpur.

Devotee: Some social scientists were saying that in twenty years cannibalism will be as acceptable among the society as illicit sex is now.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They will do that. Because people are degrading. They are not advancing.

Prajāpati: When we tell them to stop their sinful activities, they will say "What do you mean by sinful?"

Prabhupāda: Sinful means, generally, what is against the law of God. That is sinful. Just like what is criminal? Any action which is against the law of the state, that is criminal. Similarly, sinful means what is against the law of God. That is sinful. But you do not know what is God. You do not know what is the law of God. Therefore you do not know what is sin. That you have to learn from us. It is all due to ignorance. Now God says, "I am the father of all living entities." So this is quite reasonable. If there is God... So... And it is stated in the Vedic literature, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). He is the chief eternal. So we are all sons of God. What we are? Simply human being? No. In the Bhagavad, sarva-yoniṣu: "In all species of life, as many forms are there, I am the bīja-pradaḥ-pitā." So everyone is your brother. So suppose if you want to cut throat of your brother, will your father be happy?

Devotee: No.

Prabhupāda: So because you are not God conscious you are doing all this nonsense. You do not know who is father. Therefore you cut throat, your brother. (break) ...that those who are eating vegetables, they are also killing. That's a fact. But God says that "You can eat this." God says... By nature... Just like the animal. They will eat these leaves, the grass. Nature. But they will not eat meat. Tena tyaktena. Whatever God dictates, "Now you eat this," He is eating. But you give him meat. No, he will not take it. So whatever you are allotted, you should eat. That is God's law, that after all, one has to eat. So what you will eat? Everything is living. Therefore allotted. You are allotted, "These things is allotted for you. You eat." We God conscious people therefore eat... Without going into the details, we eat anything what God eats. That's all. There is no question of discriminating what we shall eat. We eat prasādam. That's all. So we are safe.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kapoor: I had just, I think, I was a research student then. I had just taken my MA and I was working as a research scholar. I met Giri Mahārāja in 1931 when he did some (indistinct) at Nainital.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Dr. Kapoor: He first introduced me to Mahāprabhu, you see, or introduced Mahāprabhu to me. You see before that I was a scholar.

Prabhupāda: But your teeth are very strong.

Dr. Kapoor: Teeth (indistinct)?

Prabhupāda: You're having strong teeth.

Dr. Kapoor: They are, so long as you don't know that I have not real ones. (laughter)

Devotee: That is māyā. (more laughing by Dr. Kapoor)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi).

Dr. Kapoor: She was here only a couple of days ago. My youngest son was married on the 20th of this month...

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes, I heard.

Dr. Kapoor: So they came in that connection.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi).

Dr. Kapoor: I have two sons and two daughters. The eldest one is the one you know.

Prabhupāda: Oh, in Kanpur.

Dr. Kapoor: In Kanpur.

Prabhupāda: Dhawan.

Dr. Kapoor: Dhawan, Dhawan. Yes, she also knows you very well.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes, I was Dhawan's guest sometimes.

Dr. Kapoor: You were his guest, yes, yes. My son-in-law was telling me.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Kapoor: He was telling me.

Prabhupāda: I think that gentleman is no longer alive.

Dr. Kapoor: His father is no more.

Prabhupāda: No, yes, I am speaking of the old Dhawan.

Dr. Kapoor: Ah, I see.

Prabhupāda: Even though he was a young man.

Dr. Kapoor: Ah, he was a young man. When did you go to Kanpur?

Prabhupāda: I think I went to Kanpur sometimes in the year 1956.

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Toast. And they will, the (indistinct) will be stopped. As soon as the belly is loaded... But they are accustomed. After eating they are (indistinct) not easily. (break) ...for sevait say (?) is for the Kanpur wala. (break) ...then there is no question of fighting, otherwise we shall take criminal and civil (indistinct—break) ...seven hundred.

Gurudāsa: Seven hundred. (break)

Devotee: ...renovate these rooms, or just in general?

Prabhupāda: Huh? General.

Devotee: General.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That veranda, that, whatever he likes we shall, we will spend. We'll pay the bills (indistinct).

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: Identification. So that identification is there in the animal life also. The animal, dog, also tries to protect his cub. So that sense is not sufficient to be human being. That sense is visible amongst the lower animals. In Kanpur I was sitting within the room, and one monkey came outside the window, and she had her child. So somehow or other, playing, that child entered into my room through the railings, and the mother remained outside. The mother became mad how to get the child. Then I pushed the child out of the room and she immediately embraced, and... The affection is there. You will find everywhere. In the birds, beasts, animals, lower animals, big animals, the same affection is there. If you strike one crow, then thousands of crow will gather: "Caw. Caw. Caw." You have seen? In India it is very... (chuckles) And they will bite you. If you have done any harm to any crow, all the crows will come.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Devotee (1): Three days you are eating reasonable food, that the devotees like so much, they are eating lots.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Jaipuria invited.

Devotee (1): Yes, Jaipuria, when we were in Kanpur.

Prabhupāda: Jaipuria is that old man?

Devotees: (indistinct-microphone noise)

Prabhupāda: Kanpur, which is desert practically, but they're luxurious, they're rich, why... But they're devotees at the same time. In their country (indistinct), they have got many cows. They get sufficient milk. And from that milk they prepare so many, milk, ghee, and that, they get channa. But they know how to prepare so many things, channa, dudh. (break) Yes.

Devotee (2): They are maintaining the rules.

Prabhupāda: All over India, they are not so fallen as the kṣatriyas and brāhmaṇas. (end)

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Hari-śauri: You wanted that description of Vāmanadeva as the dwarf brahmacārī? It says, "Mother earth gave Him a deerskin, and the demigod of the moon, who is the king of the forest, gave Him a brahma-daṇḍa, the rod of a brahmacārī. His mother, Aditi, gave Him a cloth for underwear, and the Deity presiding over the heavenly kingdom offered Him an umbrella. O King, Lord Brahmā offered a waterpot to the inexhaustible Supreme Personality of Godhead. The seven sages offered Him kuśa grass, and mother Sarasvatī gave Him a string of rudrākṣa beads. When Vāmanadeva had thus been given the sacred thread, Kuvera, the king of the Yakṣas, gave Him a pot for begging alms."

Prabhupāda: In Kanpur there is a brahmacārī aśrama. Sometimes gṛhasthas, they invite the brahmacārīs to feed them, and when a brahmacārī is initiated, they give them this pot. So that brahmacārī aśrama, the man who is maintaining, he occasionally collects these pots, so, and he sells all these pots to a brass merchant. People give sacred thread, a pot. As they give in charity to the brāhmaṇas, they give in charity to the brahmacārīs.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: But Japanese are very intelligent, Bengalis are intelligent, by taking fish and rice. In Bengal ninety percent people, they take fish. Here also, Orissa, cent percent, even the Jagannātha pūjārīs. In Bihar also, fifty percent. The more you go towards Western part of India, you get more wealthy province, just like Uttar Pradesh, very wealthy province, enlightened. All the big cities are there: Allahabad, Kanpur, Agra, Lucknow. Every hundred miles you get a very nice city in UP, the best province in India. All the holy places-Vṛndāvana, Prayāga, Hardwar, Ayodhyā, many celebrated holy places. Ganges and Yamunā flowing, two sacred rivers. Both of them through in Uttar Pradesh. And all the cities are either on the bank of the Yamunā or Ganges. And that is the best province, state, in India. It has got fifty districts. And fifty districts means fifty towns. Little more or less important. But the Kanpur is the third important city in India. First Calcutta, Bombay, and next, Kanpur.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: From business point... Now they're making Delhi industrially developed. That is new attempt. But Calcutta, Bombay, Kanpur is old... Calcutta is manufactured by the British. Bombay also manufactured. But Kanpur is older, very old. Kanyakubja. That Ajāmila upākhyāna?(?) Ajāmila?

Hari-śauri: Ajāmila.

Prabhupāda: Ajāmila story, that was in Kanpur. Very, very old city. Kanpur, Mathurā, they are very old cities. Allahabad, Prayāga. Prehistoric. Manipur. (end)

Room Conversation -- March 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You take some dāl. Go to house to house, dāl. They have no scarcity. And after spending so much money, living at the cost of fathers, mothers—unemployed. No job. No food. Then plan something, Naxalite, this party, that party. Join some political movement and help Indira Gandhi. They are paid to make propaganda. They are paid. And they earn money by smuggling.

Guest (1): But that all has vanished now. That plan has failed now completely.

Prabhupāda: Not failed. Another man will come. Because the unemployment is there. Practically, when we were boys, children, we were purchasing mustard oil, eight annas for two-half, two-half only, kilo, first-class. In Calcutta, Kanpur mustard oil. So my father would give me eight annas. I shall go to the shop and purchase. Now that quality, even taking it..., he's now selling thirteen rupees per kilo. Will the change of government bring this thirteen rupees to three annas? Then what is the benefit? The same stool, this side or that side. People are not going to get any relief by this change of government. So we are not concerned about thirteen rupees or three annas or... Some way or other, people are getting their things. That's all right. But the real loss is to remain in animal mentality and forget the aim of life. That is the real loss.

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

Dr. Sharma: Actually, we never had the geographical conception of the nation. Only conception was the religious conception. Wherever Kṛṣṇa is worshiped, that is India. That has been the concept through all the centuries, until 1947, you know, and then we had these boundaries. Otherwise, Kṛṣṇa is worshiped in north, He is worshiped in south, He is worshiped in east, He is worshiped in west, and there are temples marking that plain. And that's what we call India. And that has been throughout the centuries. Not the geographical boundaries they have given now to India. Really you can make out the definition of India, where Kṛṣṇa is worshiped, that is India. And that can be anywhere now, including worship in the United States or in Canada. Because He was the man, He was our Lord, He came here. He gave us the religion, He gave us the life, He gave us this... So now these politicians are taking that concept away, and they are changing the consciousness of the whole nation now. They want to change the consciousness. They want to make them materialistic. They want to make them greedy. They want to...

Prabhupāda: And what materialistic advancement they have done?

Dr. Sharma: No thing.

Prabhupāda: Now in our childhood, when we were ten-years-old boy, my father used to purchase high kilo saraṣera tela, for eight annas. Can these rascals do to that standard? Eight annas, first-class Kanpur mustard oil. Now that oil... Not that quality oil, still, they are being sold thirteen rupees per kilo, instead of three annas.

Conversation with Tamala Krsna about Yadubara -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Śaṅkarācārya...

Prabhupāda: It is not fictitious, as rascal... I have discussed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. This is exactly what his purpose is. He wants to show there is Kurukṣetra. It's not in someone's mind. "And perhaps even including Lord Buddha's explaining his real identity and role in bringing people to a higher platform."

Prabhupāda: These are good ideas.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "And then to include Lord Caitanya, the six Gosvāmīs, and other great ācāryas in our line, up to Your Divine Grace, the foremost preacher of the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the world today."

Prabhupāda: Very good. This is all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Then we would show how Lord Kṛṣṇa's teachings are still manifest in India today by the nine devotional processes and the predominant role Kṛṣṇa plays in the culture and religious life of the people in temple worship, painting, dance, music and lifestyle, including offering and taking prasādam, varṇāśrama-dharma, etc... Then testimonials could be given by prominent supporters of our movement and perhaps a short statement by Your Divine Grace..."

Prabhupāda: There is some big, big temples and their proprietor... In every city there are so many Kṛṣṇa temples. Just like in Kanpur there is very important Dvārakādhīśa temple. Many such big cities they have got Kṛṣṇa's pastimes(?).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, at the end he would like to get "a short statement by Your Divine Grace in the movie on the importance of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in the world today. This film could, hopefully, be distributed to schools and colleges, showing that India is full of transcendental knowledge and that this knowledge is meant for the entire world for the benefit of all humanity."

Prabhupāda: That I am speaking of, that this, that this knowledge should not be kept locked up. That is my mission.

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

Mr. Dwivedi: Is Mr. Sukla there. Because then they'll have to make other arrangements.

Prabhupāda: Sukla?

Mr. Dwivedi: Yes. Camartan(?) Sukla.

Prabhupāda: Oh. He was a Kanpur man?

Mr. Dwivedi: Pardon?

Prabhupāda: He's a Kanpur man?

Mr. Dwivedi: No. Originally they might be coming from Kanpur, but now from Raipur. He's younger brother of this Vidya Charan, who was Broadcasting Minister. And in fact, even I'll... If I get... One of our workers is already there. I got a letter yesterday. So the principal of the college is going to Bhopal, and if I can contact him somewhere if he is available...

Prabhupāda: Bhopal is the capital.

Mr. Dwivedi: Bhopal is the capital.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We had a big function in Bhopal, my party, for about ten days a few years ago.

Mr. Dwivedi: And then I also desire, as Your Holiness is going, that press should be briefed right from Bombay. Why should I wait from Gwalior... Because I expect some people a few hundred miles off from Gwalior will also be traveling up to meet Your Holiness. So if they know beforehand in papers of Bombay it is better. Therefore I have requested my friend, Mr. Goswami, to give me two or three blocks. If it comes out that way, for our purposes also, he'll need it, and here also I shall try to make correspondence to one or two papers there, that they should ready to send their representatives over there, that way.

Conversation with M.P., Shri Sita Ram Singh -- May 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Nine thousand rupees', ten thousand rupees' income is for very, very big man. But comparing, say, sixty-seventy years ago, we were a middle-class man, so a middle-class man has not increased his income from three hundred rupees to ten thousand rupees. That means everybody has become poor. So where is the advancement? Simply beating the drum, will this...? In our childhood we have seen mustard oil, first-class, made in Kanpur. We were purchasing, eight annas per two and a half ser.