Expressions researched:
"L.A"
|"LA"
|"Los Angeles"
Interviewer: I think the first question is kind of basic, is why is everything always taped at all the...
Prabhupāda: Because we have got so many branches, they want to hear me, my singing, my speech, therefore they record it and send it to different branches. We have got thirteen, fourteen branches: one in New York, one in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Boston, Montreal, Vancouver, London, Hamburg. We have got so many branches.
Interviewer: How many temples are there now?
Prabhupāda: Now we have got six temples. One in New York, one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles, one in Boston, one in Montreal, and one in Santa Fe. And another one of our students has gone to Buffalo, he's on the professional, for starting another temple.
Interviewer: How many people belong to these six temples?
Prabhupāda: In each temple there are average about fifty people.
Interviewer: Could you describe your temple to me?
Prabhupāda: At the present moment, we have got fourteen temples: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Buffalo, Boston, and Montreal, and Seattle, and one in New Vrindaban. We have purchased about 130 acres of land and developing there, New Vrindaban. And we have got now a temple in London, in Germany, Berlin. And we are in negotiation with Florida friends and we have sent one of our representative in Hawaii. So we have got so many temples. Gradually it is increasing. And boys and girls, especially younger generation... My, amongst my disciples, the oldest disciple is thirty-five years old. Otherwise they are between twenty to twenty-five.
Prabhupāda: When there are fruits in the tree, why do you go and beg? When there is cave, why you are searching after apartment? (laughs) When the old garments are thrown in the street, then why you are searching after clothing? These are the instructions. Completely free. Kasmād bhajanti kavayo dhana-durmadandhān (SB 2.2.5). Why should you go and flatter these monied men? That is complete independence. But those days are now gone. (laughs) It is a different age. Los Angeles, I think it is a good place. Hm? What is your...? Your problem solved?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good news. We went to the Hollywood police station and the man told us that part of the duty of the police station is to... He said he should protect religious people like us.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He mentioned other religious people, and he said if we can just keep the crowd moving, then we have every right to be there. So he has given us right to go to Hollywood. In downtown Los Angeles we don't have that right yet. We'll still go there, but in Hollywood it is all right. So that's good enough.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. It is Kṛṣṇa's grace. I was telling the same thing to Dayānanda, that he should present this case to the higher officer. That's all. We are preaching God consciousness.
Prabhupāda: The same example as I have already given, that if you want to reside in ocean water, is it possible? If you want to construct a city like New York in the ocean, is it possible?
Reporter: No, but what if they had resided in the ocean or on the ocean for a short period...
Prabhupāda: Anywhere. Any, in the ocean or on the ocean, you cannot build up a city like Los Angeles or New York. That is impossible. So even in your presence, in different atmosphere, you cannot go and live. So similarly, the moon planet is completely different atmosphere. How you can live and go?
Journalist: Instant heaven.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is their position. Just like people are trying to go to the moon planet. I have given my opinion. You have seen in the Los Angeles Times? This chance is very remote.
Journalist: How many temples are there?
Prabhupāda: We have got thirteen temples. Thirteen. One in this Los Angeles, one San Francisco, one in New York, one Santa Fe, one Buffalo, one Boston, one Montreal, one Vancouver, and Seattle, Columbus, and then London, Hamburg, in this way... Hawaii.
Interviewer: How many centers are there now?
Prabhupāda: There are six centers. Why six? Seven. Seven centers. One in New York, one in San Francisco, one in Los Angeles, and one, Santa Fe, one, Montreal, one, Boston, one, Buffalo.
Haṁsadūta: I'll try in Montreal. We have new devotees now, lot of new boys.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Oh, you will get devotees. You just begin saṅkīrtana party. You will get many devotees. You see? In Los Angeles, daily the devotees, new devotees, are coming, and very nice boys. We are now searching after a bigger place. Yes. That temple is not sufficient, although that is the biggest center of all our centers. It has got compound. It has got parking place. It has got two big halls, one big room, one big kitchen, and three, four, five small rooms. It is a nice situation, you see, just suitable for our purpose. And they decorate Jagannātha very nicely. Yes. So increase centers.
Miss Rose: These are all my sisters and brothers, Swamiji. Right?
Prabhupāda: Yes. certainly. So don't worry. Kṛṣṇa will give you better place.
Satsvarūpa: That was a disappointment because we almost, almost had it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. No question of disappointment. In Los Angeles, we had so many disappointments. At last, we got very nice place. Now we are after bigger place.
Candanācārya: Tell Swamiji about the church we want to get.
Miss Rose: The church...?
Prabhupāda: Then that article has worked adversely?
Allen Ginsberg: Śrīmata Kṛṣṇaji in Vṛndāvana, is a lady in Vṛndāvana who translates Kabir into English, compared him with Blake.
Prabhupāda: No, she is different. I know one Mātājī. She came to see me from Vṛndāvana in Los Angeles. She's in London.
Prabhupāda: And for making outside propaganda, I think he will be the best man. Suppose if he goes to New York, stays for some time, sees respectable foundation and presidents and just to attract their attention this side... Similarly, if he goes Los Angeles, San Francisco, all other cities, Boston, and sees important men, makes propaganda that "We are doing this. Please come and help," that will be very nice.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's all right. You know, we will need a harmonium. Should I wait till we get to India to purchase one?
Prabhupāda: You haven't got in New York?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have one in New York temple. Los Angeles saṅkīrtana needs a harmonium, a good harmonium. Maybe...
Prabhupāda: Can you spare hundred dollars?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right now...
Prabhupāda: You get hundred dollars; then we shall get.
Prabhupāda: So Kazi said, "All right, I am taking steps." So he sent some officers. And they were playing mṛdaṅga, and warned that "You cannot do this. You are disturbing here." That is going on still. Just like our Los Angeles, it is going on. In New York also, they complain to the Kazi, (laughs) police officer. But they could not do anything. So this complaint is going on since the inauguration of the saṅkīrtana movement. So Kazi first of all warned. Then He did not care. Then the police also came and broke the mṛdaṅgas forcibly. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "All right. We shall start thousands of men playing mṛdaṅga, and we shall go to the house of Kazi. Let us see what can he do."
Prof. Kotovsky: Where is your main center, and where are the branches?
Prabhupāda: Main center...
Prof. Kotovsky: Of Kṛṣṇa consciousness society.
Prabhupāda: Of course, I have got about fifty-five branches.
Prof. Kotovsky: Fifty-five.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So I have made my main center in Los Angeles.
Prof. Kotovsky: Los Angeles?
Prabhupāda: Los Angeles.
Prof. Kotovsky: Because I brought a letter from western Germany, so I had an idea that is probably...
Prabhupāda: No, that is a... There is a branch.
Prof. Kotovsky: A branch.
Prabhupāda: Germany branch, Kṛṣṇa dāsa. There is a branch. But my headquarter is in Los Angeles. And now, since I came to India, I am trying to make my headquarter in Māyāpur. That's the place, the birthsite, of Lord Caitanya. We have purchased land there.
Prabhupāda: So anyway, I was very much anxious to hear about Chidananda. So he has written me. He is not very bad.
Karandhara: Well, he was in the hospital, and he got into a fight with the guard, I guess, and they arrested him for fighting and put him in jail for six months.
Prabhupāda: Fighting?
Karandhara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: But he is weak. With whom he'll fight?
Karandhara: Yes. It was actually very... We have a lawyer working on it to get a suspended sentence. We've got a lawyer who is trying to get him a suspended sentence because he was sick and he..., they had him taking drugs and he was weak and he had been in the hospital for four months. Why they should put him in jail? He just got a little irritable.
Śyāmasundara: They mocked him. I think they mocked him for having this and finally he couldn't take any more, and he probably hit the guard, so they threw him in jail for six months.
Karandhara: And in jail they won't give him anything to eat except... They won't give him a special diet, so all he can eat is just a little bit of vegetable. They have... On a plate they give him mostly meat and a little vegetable. They won't give him any extra vegetables.
Prabhupāda: Yes? Where the jail is?
Śyāmasundara: Which jail is it?
Karandhara: County jail, Los Angeles County Jail.
Prabhupāda: So we cannot send our prasāda there?
Karandhara: No. They won't let anything in. You can't even send books there. They won't let him wear his beads. They won't let him have his beads or anything, or his sacred thread. They took it all away from him.
Śyāmasundara: Can we go visit him?
Karandhara: We can visit, yes. Visiting hours on Saturdays and Sundays. I went there the Saturday before last, before I came.
Prabhupāda: So how is he here?
Karandhara: Well, he's doing all right. He says he chants and he prays.
Prabhupāda: Well, what can be done?
Karandhara: We're trying to see the minister there and get some books in to him. If the minister will allow it, we can give him books. Otherwise they won't let him have any books.
Prabhupāda: So you see or else why this poor fellow should be given unnecessary trouble.
Śyāmasundara: Just like Bangladesh. They raised about a million dollars from the concert and nineteen million from the record album and film. So those two don't require any special place. They could be anywhere.
Dhanañjaya: Better here though, because George has never made any public appearances...
Śyāmasundara: Actually I think it would be just as big here.
Dhanañjaya: Yes. If the result, if people knew, if it was...
Śyāmasundara: He's never made a public appearance. Only one in America.
Dhanañjaya: Everyone from all over Europe will be coming to see him, without a doubt... In Europe there's about 350 million people, almost 400 million.
Śyāmasundara: Actually he made two statements that, well, they practically promised to do this. He said in Los Angeles when he saw the Deities: "Oh, we must have a place like this in London." And then in New York, because I said, "Well, we don't want to be on your show here. We volunteer. You promised...," I said, "You promised us to be on the show in New York, and he said, "I know I promised, and I must fulfill my word, I gave you my word, but I'm just asking you if you will not be on this show, and later I'll have another special concert for Hare Kṛṣṇa."
Prabhupāda: So remind him.
Prabhupāda: So far George is concerned, now it is more or less Utopian.
Śyāmasundara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Because...
Śyāmasundara: You can't count on him at all.
Prabhupāda: ...if he was willing, he would have done long ago, but he is not very serious.
Śyāmasundara: Well, I've never asked him for it, to do that.
Prabhupāda: So what is this asking? When he visited our Los Angeles temple, he appreciated and he said, "Why not a temple like this in London?"
Śyāmasundara: Well he's..., I..., He's been waiting for me to come here and talk to him here about it. I haven't...
Prabhupāda: But it is difficult to meet him.
Śyāmasundara: Well, he's just out of station now. As soon as he's in station I'll get him, I'll meet him.
Prabhupāda: Why don't you call him in New York?
Parivrājakācārya: But they don't want to have any children.
Prabhupāda: That is next program. Why not? Now we are having our wives, so many children. Los Angeles full of children. So natural way should be accepted. They require husband. The law is, "No. You cannot have more, you cannot marry one wife." The girls have become prostitute. That's all right. "The girls are becoming prostitute. That's all right. But you cannot marry more than one." What is this?
Prabhupāda: Yes, (Sanskrit)-mukha. And one American lady, when she saw these boys are chanting on the street, she was surprised. She said that "Are you Americans?" She was surprised. One priest, when I was traveling from Los Angeles to Hawaii, one priest in..., gentleman there sitting, out of his own accord he came to me and began to talk with me that "Swamiji, I see in the face of your students brightness. How you have created brightness?" He admitted that. Another priest, Christian priest in New York..., in Boston, he issued a pamphlet that "These boys and girls, they are our boys. But we see they have got this nice qualification, they are mad after God, but we could not give them." So it is a process. The madness after God is there in everywhere, in every heart.
Dr. Singh: Do you come every year, or is this the first time you have come (indistinct)?
Prabhupāda: No. I came last year (indistinct). (indistinct) so I went back again to Los Angeles in (indistinct), in June.
Prabhupāda: And you know our Jagatāriṇī, wife of Bhūrijana, she was a theatrical girl and earning millions of dollars, but she has given up everything. You have seen his wife, you all, Bhūrijana's wife? She is a nice girl, educated, qualified. But she is satisfied. I asked her to go and marry Bhūrijana. She never saw her (him). She never saw her (him), what kind of husband she is going to accept. But simply on my word, she came, and she came from Los Angeles to Japan and got married.
Guest (1): Your home base is in Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Yes. My headquarter is in Los Angeles. Now we have made very big headquarter in Bombay, Juhu. Twenty thousand square yards. We are constructing a very nice temple there. And similarly, we have got another headquarter at, by pīṭha, in Lord Caitanya's birthsite, Navadvīpa. There also we are constructing very big temple. It is eleven bighās. What is a bighā? About four acres.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I retired in Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana you know?
Guest (1): Oh yes.
Prabhupāda: So there I began to write books, and then when three books were finished I started for America. And there also I wrote many books, dozens of books. You have seen our books. Our Kṛṣṇa Book is selling like anything in Europe and America. We are practically maintaining ourself by selling books. We have got our book sale all over the world, about twenty to 25,000 rupees daily and we have to spend seven to eight lakhs of rupees monthly. In Los Angeles alone we spend $20,000 per month. In New York we spend $10,000 per month.
Śyāmasundara: He rented one nice little cottage for Your Divine Grace. And a little cottage next door for the servants.
Karandhara: Here are some gifts from the devotees in L.A.
Prabhupāda: Oh. What is this? Something sweet?
Karandhara: Yes, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: You open it. Open it. What is this?
Karandhara: That is sandalwood pulp.
Prabhupāda: Oh. What is that?
Devotee (1): You're not thirsty? It's water.
Prabhupāda: Keep it. Mrs. Jollet.(?) Oh, so many letters.
Śyāmasundara: Checks. These are checks, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. When you bring checks, I am very glad. (chuckles) So how much you have deposited?
Prabhupāda: Six hundred.
Karandhara: I still owe fifteen thousand.
Prabhupāda: That money is not yet done.
Karandhara: By June.
Prabhupāda: Oh. By June. All right. We shall talk further. What is this? So Los Angeles is... Everything is all right?
Karandhara: Yes Prabhupāda. Those are all... All the different envelopes are from the different departments, Spiritual Sky, Mail Order, Iskcon Media.
Prabhupāda: So you keep it in this envelope. Then I shall see.
Prabhupāda: ...count how you got this.
Sudāmā: Tamāla Kṛṣṇa sent these from Los Angeles three years ago.
Cintāmaṇi: They're staying in closet. (?)
Prabhupāda: So who will paint?
Sudāmā: Cintāmaṇi will paint.
Prabhupāda: So take note. So eyes are all right. Eyes are all right. It is all right. Simply you have to, all the hairs to make black up to the...It is all right?
Cintāmaṇi: Yes.
Bhānu: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Since we are going to have three altars, then we should also have three different plates, a different plate for each altar?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is already known to you. Bhānu knows very well. You have seen in Los Angeles. Why three plates? If you can spare more plates for each, that will be nice. Just like one for Rādhā and for Kṛṣṇa, one for Jagannātha, one for Balarāma, one for Subhadrā, one for guru, one for Gaurāṅga, Pañca-tattva, five. If you can increase, you can manage, that is nice. Otherwise one plate to guru is sufficient. If you cannot spare. If you can spare, you can increase as many plates as you can. Otherwise one plate to guru is sufficient.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is success.
Dai Nippon representative: And Mr. Karandhara give us suggestion that Dai Nippon would open a liaison office in Los Angeles in order to save time and in order to make a good communication.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dai Nippon representative: And our president would like to hear of your opinion or comment on that suggestion.
Prabhupāda: So how do you think, that suggestion. What is your idea?
Dai Nippon representative: (Japanese) He would like to see our liaison office in Los Angeles... (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: So Karandhara, you speak.
Dai Nippon representative: What Mr. Tajima(?) would like to tell you, that he is also businessman. So our talking is getting to be businesslike. So please allow him. But if we send one liaison officer in Los Angeles, we need some expenditure over there. You see? So we, Mr. Tajima(?) expects you to increase the publishing of your books more and more.
Prabhupāda: Oh yes, oh yes. That we shall do, certainly. That is certain. We are very much enthusiastic to see more publication, more publication. We take this publication work as big drum. You know with clay drum? So this is big drum. When we play drum, it is resounded within some quarters. But this drum is going from country to country. So it is bigger drum. (Japanese)
Karandhara: Yes. (indistinct) ...on this point. Is there any...?
Dai Nippon representative: Yes, well, at present also, (indistinct) we are going to open our liaison office in Los Angeles.
Karandhara: Yes. Have you heard from Mr. Oyage yet? (indistinct)
Dai Nippon representative: Yes. I think he has to come in Sunday. So to be...
Karandhara: Yes, he's probably meeting with Jayatīrtha. (indistinct)
Dai Nippon representative: Other ways we are quite satisfied.
Karandhara: Oh. Thank you. We are also very satisfied.
Prabhupāda: You started this business? I am asking your father. (Japanese)
Prabhupāda: They are... This is only starting. Otherwise they'll have enough business.
Karandhara: We've introduced them... Mr. Oyage, he's in Los Angeles now. We've introduced him to a big printing agent. So he may make some more business also.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. They will get. Automatically they will get. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. (sings hari hari biphale) Is it far?
Karandhara: Right now there are twelve brahmacārīs in Los Angeles who are getting ready to go to India.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Karandhara: They'll be going on about the 5th of May, the 6th of May. I think also the same number in New York are preparing to go.
Prabhupāda: Now we have got enough place. Yes. Very nice place, Vṛndāvana. And we are expected to get another place at Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's birth place. Oh, that is very nice place also.
Karandhara: Already the first volume of the Third Canto and the First Volume of the Fourth Canto, they are ready to be printed. I have them in Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So now our Sanskrit editor is there, Pradyumna.
Karandhara: The work will go much faster.
Prabhupāda: Hm. And if Hayagrīva also finishes, then I can give daily one chapter.
Karandhara: Per day?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Karandhara: Should be able to produce a volume at least every month.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And the editors must be very expedient. Besides that, I think this Kṛṣṇa Book, smaller edition, that will have very soon another reprint.
Karandhara: If Dai Nippon opens a liaison office in Los Angeles, then it will be very easy to work. The contract is for all the jobs.
Prabhupāda: The officer who will remain there, he will be final or you have to consult with Mr. Ogata(?) and...?
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.
Śyāmasundara: There is a science of equilibrium where you can study another person, if he is off equilibrium, you can move his body in such a way to defeat him every time. Japanese art.
Prabhupāda: Train. That Los Angeles, there is one Japanese...
Śyāmasundara: Behind the temple.
Prabhupāda: You know?
Prabhupāda: (to guest) Take more. Come to our temple daily in the morning at seven. Are you coming there?
Guest: Yes. I was staying at the Detroit temple with Bhagavān.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Guest: I was helping the band a little bit. And I came to see you, and I was wondering what I should do to serve you. I should go back to Detroit?
Prabhupāda: Or you can remain here also, anywhere. We have got temple in Los Angeles. Have you been in Los Angeles?
Guest: No.
Prabhupāda: So come to Los Angeles and stay there for some time. I am going to Los Angeles tomorrow, so you can come. Live with us and you will be happy. We can guarantee you will be happy. Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Our Vedic mission is sarve sukhino bhavantu: everyone be happy. This is our mission.
Prabhupāda: Immediately, write one letter to Girirāja that, uh, I suggest some names for becoming trustee, or you can suggest some of the life members you know.
Sumati Morarjee: I know so many, but.... (Hindi exchanges)
Prabhupāda: ...maybe Paris. Maybe Nairobi. Then either Los Angeles or to India.
Sumati Morarjee: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi), because whatever that Māyāpur.... You have been in Nava, Navadvīpa?
Sumati Morarjee: Yes, yes, I have been to Navadvīpa, Māyāpur, Śāntipura, then that Katwa, all those places I have visited.
Prabhupāda: So, Māyāpur we are constructing a big temple. And Vṛndāvana also. So, for maintenance of the temple perpetually, I want to purchase some property in Los Angeles, because here, Los Angeles, property gets nice income.
Sumati Morarjee: Is it?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Sumati Morarjee: How?
Prabhupāda: Los Angeles.
Sumati Morarjee: Good income?
Prabhupāda: Yes, because any ordinary room is about a hundred twenty-five dollars. So a hundred twenty-five dollars in our Indian exchange is about thousand rupees. So, thousand rupees, two rooms, who will pay in India?
Sumati Morarjee: I know, we also use that incense, but uh, I don't know the name of it.
Prabhupāda: So, kindly get them carried from Hong Kong to Los Angeles.
Sumati Morarjee: So let us see.
Devotee: They're punks, without any scent, and then it...
Sumati Morarjee: I know it (indistinct).
Devotee: And when they come here, then they dip them into oil and make a scent.
Prabhupāda: Anyway...
Sumati Morarjee: (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: You get from Hong Kong...
Sumati Morarjee: And take where?
Prabhupāda: Huh? Take to Los Angeles. That is a ...
Sumati Morarjee: No, but one thing, if it is brought to Bombay, via Hong Kong, then we can send it to Los Angeles, by ship.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Sumati Morarjee: By ship we can send it.
Prabhupāda: Your ship does not go to Hong Kong?
Sumati Morarjee: Sometimes it goes.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Sumati Morarjee: So, at that time it is handed over to Hong Kong ship. It will be delivered in Bombay. Then we reship it to Hong Kong, to Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dhanañjaya: Well we could see it from the outside. Actually we went there one day, Mr. Allen(?) and (indistinct) and myself.
Prabhupāda: Well, what is the description?
Dhanañjaya: It's very nice. It's something like, ah, something like the size of this temple but bigger.
Devotee (2): Bigger than Los Angeles?
Dhanañjaya: And also it has a steeple.
Prabhupāda: Bigger, bigger. What is the price?
Dhanañjaya: Oh, more than 250,000 pounds.
Devotee (2): Quarter of a million pounds. Two lakhs of pounds.
Devotee (1): So that's six million dollars?
Dhanañjaya: No, one million. One million dollars.
Prabhupāda: You have got?
Devotee: Meanwhile, he should start utilizing her invitation to teach in the schools sometimes.
Prabhupāda: Yes, and she'll cooperate. And write letter for permission for carrying our motorcar and incense.
Devotee: Yes, and inform Gurudāsa...
Prabhupāda: She has already agreed, that, ah, what is called? Punks? The punks sent to Calcutta, and from there then send to Los Angeles.
John Nordheimer: Many people have tried to change the world, but we see that they have failed. Many people have tried to see God, but they do not succeed.
Prabhupāda: That is because their purpose is not strong. That is due to māyā, forgetfulness. Just like darkness and light; if your light is strong, there is no darkness. But if you have no light, or if your light is not very strong, there is darkness. This is the principle: If you want to drive away darkness, you must bring light. That is the only medicine. You don't have to make a separate endeavor to drive away darkness. As soon as you bring light, darkness will go. The motto of our magazine Back To Godhead is: "Godhead is light, nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience." This is also the Vedic injunction: Don't remain in darkness; come to the light. How is this possible? When I flew to London from Los Angeles, there was no darkness, for we did not allow the sun to set, you remain always in light. This means that if you don't forget Kṛṣṇa, your life will be successful. If you aim your plane westward and don't stop, you will remain in sunlight all the time. Similarly, if you remain in Kṛṣṇa consciousness by the simple method of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, you will never see the darkness.
Prabhupāda: The bubble. It is expanded and popped. It is like that. Kṛṣṇa says (Sanskrit) aśāśvatam, and we are seeing, experiencing every day. So why should we spoil our life by making adjustment in this popped universe? It will be popped, and all arrangement phat. Everyone knows it. Such a nice city of Los Angeles, there is no guarantee. Within a second, it can be inundated, go within the womb of this ocean.
Jayatīrtha: You can get any kind of insurance on a building here in Los Angeles but the only kind, it's so expensive, no one can afford, is earthquake insurance. Hardly anyone will write earthquake insurance because they have such a fear that the earthquake will come at any time, and no one wants to gamble their money on someone else's building, that it will not fall apart in an earthquake. The threefold miseries are always a factor. No one can avoid them. (indistinct) asked one question. Someone sent some dust from the...
Prabhupāda: We go this way?
Prabhupāda: Committee is his spiritual master, he orders that you do this.
Jayatīrtha: The test is to see how much one is actually following the orders of his spiritual master.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: Listening to another so-called guru, everywhere we go, especially in Los Angeles, they always talk of other gurus. They always talk of spiritual knowledge, but they don't find out what the real test is.
Prabhupāda: What is your answer?
Rāmeśvara: So we show them our books and say that these are the real scriptures, real quality. The (indistinct) have to be the quality of the spiritual knowledge.
Prabhupāda: How do you explain? You are realized or not? (indistinct)
Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda, when you say that this is the knowledge that's been realized...
Prabhupāda: What is that? Why don't you explain? (indistinct) That means they do not know.
Śyāmasundara: Today we received a telegram. Macmillan Company has just agreed to print Prabhupāda's Bhagavad-gītā.
Ambassador: Oh, really!
Śyāmasundara: Thirty-five thousand copies.
Ambassador: Oh!
Mrs. Keating: Oh, that's marvellous. It's a very good...
Ambassador: I used to be the attorney for the Macmillan Company.
Prabhupāda: Yes, here is, here is my headquarters address.
Ambassador: I see. In Los Angeles.
Mrs. Keating: Oh, good. Fine.
Prabhupāda: That is my Press address.
Prabhupāda: With great difficulty I was pulling on. And New York is a very expensive city, a great city, a great forest. (laughs) And I am poor man. So then it is a long history. Then I began chanting in the Tompkinson Square, and I think, in the first day this boy, Acyutānanda Mahārāja now, he and another boy, Brahmānanda Mahārāja, he is also preaching in Africa, these two boys danced, and this photograph was published in the New York Times with great details. That was the first encouragement. And after chanting in the park, many young men and girls used to come to my apartment and my meeting place. In this way I started, first in New York, then in San Francisco, then Montreal, then Boston. In this way, now we have got about one hundred branches all over the world, forty branches in America. Big, big cities, Australia, I mean to say, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Boston. What is that? Other cities? San Francisco.
Devotees: Dallas.
Prabhupāda: Dallas. Dallas we have got very nice temple. Detroit. I thought that our temple, Los Angeles temple, is the best. But this year I went to Dallas. Oh, it is better than Los Angeles. (laughter) It is so nice. Now we are trying to purchase the Berkshire palace in England. Yes. That was being occupied by the Duke of Windsor. I don't think whether I have got, received one letter from. No. So the price is 500,000 dollars.
Devotee: Trilogy is not at this place. I think we have it here.
Prabhupāda: Oh, that's all right. So by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, whichever book we are publishing, that is being accepted. And people inquire when they go for saṅkīrtana in big, big cities, they inquire, "Have you got this book? Have you got this book?" Yes. And we are receiving mail orders, at least twenty mail orders. And this time I was surprised. They have taken a godown in Los Angeles. This is bigger than the Rādhā-Dāmodara temple, so big. Only for stocking books and incense. We are manufacturing incense. That I suggested. Sometimes I went to Ramakrishna mission and I saw they are selling incense. So I suggested that "Why don't you..." So I gave them idea how to manufacture. Because I have...
Devotee (3): Also in Los Angeles they are buying press?
Prabhupāda: That is small press. That is not for printing books, some small pamphlets.
Indian man: (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Ah.
Gurudāsa: George is going to make any more records, recordings?
Prabhupāda: He has already made one record about our Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.
Gurudāsa: Really?
Prabhupāda: Yes, recent.
Prabhupāda: When you were in service? (break) They come to see me. The one psychologist and psychiatrist came to see me in Los Angeles. And many scientists come. Some of them are my disciples.
Prabhupāda: The beginning is satyam. Generally the people in pilgrimages like Vṛndāvana, they have taken this religiousness as a profession to earn money, just like other businessmen do. That is cheating. Generally they do so. In Los Angeles they are keeping the standard given by ourself. At every āratik in early morning, at least 150 men. Even though I am not present, by system, by kīrtana, dancing, offering Deity worship nicely (indistinct). So we have to maintain the standard very strictly. Otherwise it will again become Rādhā-Dāmodara temple and Bharatpur Mahārāja (indistinct). You will have to find out some customer to sell it. What is the use of starting temple if you do not do it properly? Why should you waste your energy? Better travel and preach. Don't take the risk of starting big, big temple. As soon as the energy is gone, there will be trouble.
Prabhupāda: Just like the Pacific Ocean at any moment it can overflow at any place. But it does not do so. You walk... I was walking in Los Angeles just about three feet away from the sea. So I was explaining to my students, "Now, I am just three feet away from the sea and the sea is so vast. At any second it can overflood us. But why you are confident the sea will not come here?" Because we know, by God's order, although the sea, the ocean, is so big, it cannot violate the order of God. That you are big, that's all right. But you cannot come beyond this line. So these things are being managed. And there is no God? What a nonsense.
Prabhupāda: Another thing that Keśi-ghāṭa affair. Shall we make further progress? I acquired that property (indistinct). What is your opinion? From the circumstances as that is now, because any temple, it must be nicely, very nicely managed, otherwise you cannot attract. Our Los Angeles temple we want to attract people. So it is so nicely managed, very nicely managed. You have seen. So unless, that means there must be sufficient bank balance. Such a big temple.
Prabhupāda: Unless there is darkness, how you can say: "This is light"? So opposite, you can say opposite. Now this, this knowledge is there. Everyone knows. But where is that absolute where the bad and good, the black and white, everything coincides? That is absolute. Everything is there. That is not distinction. Everything is there. That is called absolute. Brahman. That means, Brahman means the biggest. Now when you speak something big, so everything is included. Big means bad and good, everything is included. Otherwise, how it can be big? Big means... Just like if you, when you speak of Los Angeles, so there are so many things, bad and good, in Los Angeles, all included. Is it not? So Brahman means bṛhattva, being the largest. The largest means it contains everything. Just like the sky. We have got the idea. The sky means it, it, it contains everything universal. This is the idea of greatest.
Prabhupāda: Oh, then what kind of scientist he is? So they know that you are theologist?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: In the department everybody knows. (laughter) There is one theoretical chemist. His name is Max Muster (?). He is from Germany. He is a theoretical chemist. Once I invited him to come to Los Angeles to talk with Prabhupāda. He agreed, and but then he told me that he will think for one day whether he will come or not. Then next day he told me that he is afraid. "I cannot come because I am afraid that I will be put on the walls." (laughter) But he is very philosophical. He believes in God. He has some... That's why if you talk with him, very nice.
Prabhupāda: So that is also nice. We are not afraid of meeting any philosopher or scientist, but they are afraid. That is our credit. All scientists know that they are on the wrong basis, but because they are scientists, they say like that. That is their position. They do not believe in their own statement. Therefore he said, "I do not know."
Prabhupāda: We are taught like this, how to see everything in relationship with Kṛṣṇa. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. We cannot therefore see anything wasted, anything misused. Why you are preaching? Why we are after so many rascals? That his life is being misused. Let us give him some enlightenment. This is our mission. Or let him go to hell. Just like Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, they're engaged in meditation or in the Himalayas, but we have come to Los Angeles. Why? This is our mission. Oh, these things, these people are being misused under māyā, let him gain some enlightenment. This is our mission. We are teaching that, how to utilize everything for Kṛṣṇa. How to understand Kṛṣṇa in everything. That is our mission. See Kṛṣṇa in everything.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Studying at U. C..., University of California at Irvine.
Krishna Tiwari: I don't know how famous, but... (laughs).
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Studying biology and molecular biology. You were in University of Southern California before, right?
Krishna Tiwari: No, University of California to Los Angeles. UCLA.
Prabhupāda: So:
So biology... Biology means the scientist dealing in living entities?
Krishna Tiwari: Right.
Prabhupāda: So I don't think your science has reached to the point to find out the measurement of the living entity.
Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Also you have proved also that capital is on the other world. Capital is also... So it is being supplied.
Prabhupāda: Now, these books suppliers, Dai Nippon, they give us credit up to $200,000. $200,000, in our Indian exchange, it is twenty lakhs of rupees. So they give us credit. We take books from them and distribute and then pay. In this way, it is going on. In Los Angeles alone we are selling... How many books daily?
Prabhupāda: Bali-mardana. Bali-mardana and another, Karandhara dāsa Adhikārī. So actually he's the manager, Karandhara dāsa Adhikārī. He is looking after.
Śrīdhara Mahārāja: At America.
Prabhupāda: In Los Angeles. He's very intelligent boy. He knows everything. He knows accounts, He knows how to construct building. He knows how to manage. He knows how to publish. Everything.
Buddhist Monk (1): And Swamiji, you generally spend more of your time here?
Prabhupāda: Yes, Generally, in America, Los Angeles. And also in Europe.
Buddhist Monk (1): We went to Hare Krishna in Los Angeles, (indistinct) couple of days.
Pradyumna: He is a very nice gentleman. He appreciated Bhagavad-gītā. He said right away, very...
Prabhupāda: Yes...
Pradyumna: My wife's typing up all your lectures. She has finished L.A. lectures. Now she is typing Māyāpura lectures, this lecture, that lecture. She has permanent machine and typewriter and apartment. So she types all during the day and she minds the child. And then it is in the same apartment.
Prabhupāda: Attending class also?
Revatīnandana: Goldsmith? He's a lawyer or something in Los Angeles?
Prabhupāda: Hm, hm, hm. (Yes) No, not Los Angeles. New York.
Revatīnandana: Oh, this Gold, Martin... Some, his name was, in Los Angeles, Gold, Martin Gold.
Prabhupāda: Now, in each of our centers we have got minimum fifty heads, maximum two hundred, 250. In Los Angeles, you see... Just we have got recent photograph. Bring the photograph from my room. You can bring. So we are giving them place, we are giving them food, we are giving them education.
Jesuit Priest: Most people.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So that is our mission. Now, if you find it difficulty, you can come and join with us. That's all. Practically, in Europe and America, they are all coming from Christian group, Jewish group. So... Yes. This is a recent photograph of our Los Angeles center. They are regularly living in the temple, as they are living in the temple.
Prabhupāda: He's roaming like vagabond. He came, London, to see me. That... He came, also. What is that? Bob...?
Yogeśvara: Bob Dylan?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Yogeśvara: You mean in London, in London.
Prabhupāda: No. He came to Los Angeles.
Śrutakīrti: He was at different temples in the United States, he was travelling by car.
Devotee: And He came to see Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: No, he came to our temple in Los Angeles and paid three hundred dollars to the Deity.
Devotee: Oh, that's nice.
Prabhupāda: Just see. And therefore I say, "Cheater and cheated." Yes. Similarly, scientists also. Recently in Los Angeles, California University, one professor, a big scientist came. He's a Nobel Prize owner. He described, gave lecture. He has written one book, on which he has got Nobel Prize, Evolution of Chemicals. He wants to prove by chemical, combination of chemical, life has come into existence. That is his theory, like Darwin's theory, that life is from matter or chemical.
Yogeśvara: How many, how many lakhs of rupees of books per month, Pradyumna?
Prabhupāda: No, no, daily...
Professor: Lakhs of...
Prabhupāda: Daily we are collecting about thirty, eight hundred... In, in, in Los Angeles we collect about eight hundred dollars daily.
Dr. Hauser: He's also cheating himself.
Haṁsadūta: Yes. Cheating himself and...
Prabhupāda: Cheating others.
Haṁsadūta: ...cheating others.
Prabhupāda: But that is going on. Recently it happened in Los Angeles, one big professor came to lecture there, and he has got Nobel Prize. I forgot his name. He has written one book, Chemical Evolution. So he was speaking on that Chemical Evolution, and his theory is life begins from four chemicals.
Prabhupāda: Similarly, Girirāja, his father is a big lawyer, rich man. But he did not like that. There are many, many students, their father's are... Śyāmasundara's father is big lawyer, rich man, businessman. He is the only son. But he did not like his father. So there are many... Even though he is not our student, still, I do not know. I have seen in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills. You know? That is a rich quarter. Very nice house. And one boy is coming, he is hippie, and riding on his car and going. Then I saw, although it is such a nice rich quarter, there are also hippies. That I could study. Why these boys are becoming hippies? And New York you know, the hippies are lying here and there in Fifth Avenue, Central Park, and they are worshiping pig. (laughs) You know that?
Prabhupāda: Now he is there also in Los Angeles, our Umāpati.
Brahmānanda: Oh Umāpati. In Los Angeles, yes. I saw him when I went there.
Prabhupāda: Yes, he is doing nice there. Now he's gṛhastha. He has got a job in Spiritual Sky. So he is now steady. The Spiritual Sky is doing one thing, that providing so many gṛhastha devotees.
Prabhupāda: When you have got this center, it is not that you should be engaged from morning till you go to bed for sense gratification. That is not life. That is karmī's life. You have no time for sat-saṅga, for association. You cannot make any progress by this sort of karmī's life. We have to work for organization, but not that whole day and night engaged and no sat-saṅga. That is a misguided policy, and it will spoil the whole structure. In Los Angeles, they regularly assemble during ārati and class. If this regulative principle is lost, then you are karmīs. They must come back by six o'clock, suspending all other duties, and assemble by seven o'clock. Joint mess program is not good. "You bring some money, you bring some money and spend us jointly for eating, sleeping." That is called joint mess. You know the joint mess? This word? What is that, meaning?
Brahmānanda: Well, it means... I thought it had something to do with civil servants, where they all live in a dormitory and eat in a large hall.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Guru dāsa: They're preparing some śṛṅgāra for Deity.
Prabhupāda: Why not here? Why go to Babar Road, spend twenty rupees?
Guru dāsa: According to them, that sometimes they have to go in the center of town.
Prabhupāda: Nobody has intelligence. It will not, it will not stay. It will be spoiled. Joint mess organization. In Los Angeles, they're also doing business. They're going to sell books. But regulative principle is observed. Huge expenditure they have got. No center is so improved as Los Angeles. We have purchased six houses. And I wanted immediately two lakhs, immediately sent. You cannot pay. You simply want to take. In India, nobody can pay. If I want two lakhs, nobody can pay. But all this money have been taken from U.S.A. I asked Bali Mardana, I asked Karandhara.
Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. Yesterday I received one letter from Rūpānuga Mahārāja. He's preaching very nice. Yes.
Hṛdayānanda: Rūpānuga?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Umāpati: There have been several people here in Los Angeles...
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Umāpati: ...that have wanted to meet you. A councilman, a councilman here in Los Angeles would like to meet you, a city councilman.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Oh, yes. He's welcome.
Prabhupāda: Sammohitaḥ means bewildered. Jīva, the living entities. Ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam. Everyone is identifying, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this body," "I am that body." This is identification with māyā. Ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam. Tat-kṛtaṁ cābhipadyate. And as soon as he becomes under the clutches of māyā, he'll act according to the dictation of māyā. Tat-kṛtaṁ cābhipadyate. (break) ...to see their Los Angeles Zoo? Why they're advertising?
Sudāmā: The Los Angeles what, Prabhupāda?
Hṛdayānanda: Zoo.
Prabhupāda: Zoo.
Sudāmā: Oh yeah?
Candanācārya: One time, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said, "I will go to hell," but none of your disciples accepted that.
Prajāpati: Actually, coming to this country, this is hell.
Prabhupāda: No, I am not in hell. I am with the devotees, so how can I say I am in hell? (break) Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, tāṅdera caraṇa sevi bhakta-sane vās: "My duty is to serve my guru and live with the devotees." That is Kṛṣṇa's grace. "My mission is to serve my guru, but live with the devotees."
"This is my desire life after life." A guru or bhakta does not aspire that he is going to Vaikuṇṭha, Kṛṣṇa. "Never mind." But their only desire, his only desire, is that to serve the predecessor ācārya and live with devotee. That's all. This is the only ambition. (break) ...says, tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada yatra gāyanti mad-bhaktāḥ. Where, the place where the devotees are glorifying the Lord, Kṛṣṇa is there. So if Kṛṣṇa is there with the devotees, then wherever devotees are there, that is Vaikuṇṭha. That is Vaikuṇṭha. Just like our temple. It is Vaikuṇṭha. Because the devotees are chanting the glories of the Lord, so that is Vaikuṇṭha. Vaikuṇṭha is not limited. Vaikuṇṭha, as Kṛṣṇa can expand Himself, similarly, Vaikuṇṭha can also be expand, Vṛndāvana can expand. So wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, that is Vai... And where is not Kṛṣṇa? And that is to be appreciated. Then if anyone appreciates Kṛṣṇa everywhere, then he is living in the Vaikuṇṭha. He is not living in hell or Los Angeles. (break)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...where pure devotee goes, that place is immediately purified as soon as he is there.
Prabhupāda: Yes, because Kṛṣṇa helps. As soon as the pure devotee sings, Kṛṣṇa immediately comes there. So it becomes Vaikuṇṭha.
Prajāpati: We are more fortunate than gopīs, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Walking with you on the beach is better than dancing rāsa dance in Vṛndāvana.
Prabhupāda: (laughing) It is not like that, but we can say, wherever Kṛṣṇa topics are there, it is as good as Vaikuṇṭha or Vṛndāvana.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And I will go. I will speak and have kīrtana. (break) ...date.
Karandhara: April 30th.
Prabhupāda: April 30th. So on that date arrange a meeting of the senators. And I will go and speak and have kīrtana, what is actually life. Approach them that "We are spreading this. So why not arrange meeting?" Or any day, on 30th or any day. (break) ...office here in Los Angeles?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Here also they go to parties. Where they go here?
Jayatīrtha: To downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood.
Prabhupāda: In New York, everywhere, every town, our men go and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and sells books.
Prabhupāda: Yes... (break) ...and papaya is very good for breakfast. (break) ...better than Los Angeles.
Bali Mardana: Oh yes.
Prabhupāda: With car, there is a platform like this. It moves on the roof of the house. (laughter) (Hindi) Helicopter.
Guest (1): Helicopter.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (break) ...New York, goes to Los Angeles and then to Honolulu, then Tokyo, then Hong Kong, then New Delhi... No. Hong Kong to Bangkok, Bangkok to New Delhi, New Delhi to Karachi, Karachi to Beirut, then, I think, London, then again New York. One, one round. (Hindi) One round.
Prabhupāda: That is also required. Then, I mean, tending the cows. You see. We are getting seven hundred pounds milk daily.
Dr. Patel: This was in Los Angeles?
Prabhupāda: Virginia. Virginia. Different branches in different states. And the school is in Texas, Dallas. There is immense potency of increasing this movement in America. Immense potency.
Girirāja: "Yet even in places where the police get good scores for solving crime and apprehending law-breakers, the crime rate remains high."
Prabhupāda: When we were children, there was a respectable gentleman, Mullick's family. He was agent of taking bribe on behalf of... (break) ...Los Angeles. The same thing I am talking.
Prabhupāda: Temple... Just like these Christian missionaries, they constructed so many churches. But those churches are now being closed. In London, I have got specific knowledge, hundreds of churches are no more being used as church. Some of them are being used as go-down. And some of the churches have been purchased by other religious sect. We have purchased one church in Los Angeles. So opening temple is good but who will maintain the spirit of temple worship?
Prabhupāda: Everyone... Even government... In the parliament the question was raised, "Wherefrom they get money fabulously?" These men, in our country, they may be fools. In your country also, Los Angeles, I mean, neighboring storekeepers, they are wonderful, that "These people do not work and they have got so many cars and live so nicely?"
Prabhupāda: At least ten miles, very easily, very easily. And maximum he can travel fifteen miles, twenty miles. But when we are localized, we don't require to go beyond ten miles, five miles. Because we have created a rubbish civilization, therefore one is required to go fifty miles for earning bread, hundred miles, hanging.
Dhanañjaya: Like in Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Why Los Angeles? Everywhere. In New York they are coming from hundred miles. From the other side of the island. First ferry steamer, then bus, then so on, so on. Three hours, four hours, they spend for transport.
Satsvarūpa: Is this an ideal solution or a practical one?
Prabhupāda: This is practical.
Prabhupāda: Judging from the Ten Commandments, there is not a single Christian, not a single, and still, they are going, the Pope, the cardinal, the priest, the church. All simply show-bottles, that's all. There is no life. And therefore it is dwindling. Practically... Just like our Los Angeles was Christian Church. Nobody was coming. Therefore it was sold. And now there is no place to accommodate devotees. Life is lost in Christian religion. Nobody is interested, no more. And within a few years, it will be lost. It is lost in... I have seen in England. Nobody is going to church. All churches are being closed. How long you will cheat? What is that?
Prabhupāda: The priests and the common gentlemen, they say, and they inquire, "Are you American?" They see it. Come and see in our Los Angeles temple, in every temple, how these younger boys and girls are sitting so peacefully, look so nice. Is it not? A year ago, all hellish. Hellish. The same boys, the same girls. That's a fact. Just the counterpart of our society is the hippies-frustrated, all disappointed, mad. They should come forward now to cooperate with this movement. The other day one somebody came to solve the problems of the hippies.
Prabhupāda: We have got 102 centers, and each center you'll find hundred, two hundred, 250 devotees like that. You see the picture. No, no. First picture. All these young boys and girls, how they are happy, you can see from the picture. They have got husband, they have got wife, they have got children.
Young man: Are you from Los Angeles?
Yogeśvara: No, I'm from New York.
Prabhupāda: This picture is of Los Angeles, our Los Angeles temple. That is Los Angeles Deity, and this is Paris Deity here.
Satsvarūpa: On a morning walk in Los Angeles, Svarūpa Dāmodara said they are now going to produce babies in a test tube, and you said "But that's already being done in the womb. That's a very nice test tube." He said, "But he'll get a Nobel Prize." So that's the example. Nature's already doing it nicely. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...produce even a green grass like this in the laboratory, what to speak of other things.
Nitāi: In Los Angeles, you were saying about the system of monogamy, how in this way most of the women are left unmarried.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is prostitution. If a man... First of all, the problem is... That they do not know, that they should produce sufficient food grains. These, all these contraceptive methods, this and that, monogamy, they are trying for checking population. Is it not?
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: The basic principle is to check population. Now, if they follow the Vedic principles, automatically the population is checked. Just like brahmacārī. So if the, both the boys and girls remain brahmacārī, then where is the unwanted population? Where is the question of this contraceptive method?
Prof. Pater Porsch: I seldom saw so many happy faces as today, this evening, below.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the case. In America also the ladies and gentlemen ask them, "Are you Americans?" Because they do not see Americans with such nice face. One Christian priest—I was going from Los Angeles to Hawaii—so he came to talk with me. He inquired "Swamiji, how is that your disciples look so bright?" He inquired. Yes.
Prof. Pater Porsch: Without drugs.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And one Christian priest he showed one pamphlet that these boys, they're our boys but before this they're not coming to the church. They do not want to ask anything about God. Now they're mad after God. How is it? He admitted, "They're our men." And I give you another example. In our Los Angeles temple—this was a church, big church—but it was not going on. It was being closed. And it was sold to us. And now you go and see there is daily thousands of... the same men, the same place.
Prabhupāda: So, of course the reply was given that we have no information that these people are CIA but we know that they are maintaining themselves by selling their literature and public contribution. That's all. And we have got 102 centers like this. This is not very... If you go to our Los Angeles center, New York center and other, Vṛndāvana center and Navadvīpa center, not less than 200 men are there always. And we are providing with their food, shelter.
Prabhupāda: You are a representative of Christian kind. So instead of keeping the churches locked up, why not give it us? We shall chant twenty-four hours. Actually this is fact. Many places we have purchased churches. And before our purchasing, the church was practically locked up. Nobody was going. And because nobody was going, therefore it was available for purchase. In London I have seen. Hundreds and thousands of churches are locked up, or they are being used for different purpose. There are many hundreds and thousands churches, but they are not going on. So this experience... In Los Angeles we purchased one church. So it was sold because people were not coming. Now you go to the same church, and the same men, they are coming by thousands. And one Christian preach in Boston, he issued one leaflet that "These boys are our boys. Before accepting this movement, they were never coming to the church. They never inquired about God. And now they are mad after God. How it has happened?" Yesterday the inquiry was "Why the Americans and the Germans are taking to this path?"
Prabhupāda: Juhu Beach is very nice. You can go up to one mile, so much water.
Kṛṣṇa-kānti: Up to the knee.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Kṛṣṇa-kānti: Just up to the knee?
Prabhupāda: Yes. And the waves are not so ferocious. It is coming. And the whole thing is clean, whole beach. Yes. And it is ten miles long. Therefore so many foreigners' hotels are there. (japa) (pause) When I was last here, Los Angeles, which chapter I was reading? Who knows? Which chapter of Bhāgavata I was reading?
Guru-kṛpa: Fifth?
Sudāmā: The last time he was here?
Jayatīrtha: In Los Angeles you were reading in the Third Volume of the First Canto. I believe it was about...
Hṛdayānanda: About Arjuna, how Arjuna left the earth, how the Pāṇḍavas retired.
Jayatīrtha: Ah, Pāṇḍavas Retire, yes.
Prabhupāda: So from there we shall begin again.
Rāmeśvara: Immediately reprint.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: I am planning to do that as soon as I go back to Los Angeles. And Jayatīrtha said you want us to send these to the professors.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: We have enough space here to store all the Spanish books, because they are printed in Los Angeles, or in America.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Rāmeśvara: Maybe we should walk around again.
Prabhupāda: I think no religious publisher have seen such big go-down in their life, throughout the whole world. As soon as they will hear about religious book they immediately avoid it, especially the Communist country. And bring some Communist country man to show him that "You are trying to avoid God. Now see how we are preaching God."
Prabhupāda: One body is in need of food; another body is in need of something else. They're needy, everyone, needy. That you have to accept. I have seen in Los Angeles. I was walking in the Beverly Hills quarter. One hippie boy is coming from a very nice house. Beverly Hills, that quarter, is resided by all rich class. And he has got very nice car, but he's hippie. Why? His father is very rich man. He has got nice car. He might be very educated. Then why he is hippie? What is the answer?
Hanumān: He's frustrated.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I have traveled all over the world in eight years. Eight years? From 1967, eight years. So eight years I have traveled around fourteen times or more than that. No, twice in a year, almost.
Professor: (laughs)
Prabhupāda: No, this time, I started from India. Then I went to Hong Kong, from Hong Kong to Tokyo, from Tokyo to Honolulu, from Honolulu to Los Angeles, and from Los Angeles here, Mexico. And then where?
Hṛdayānanda: Caracas.
Prabhupāda: Caracas.
Professor (Hṛdayānanda): That even though it's outside, it shows that there's something special inside.
Prabhupāda: No, this enquiry was made by one priest. I was going from Los Angeles to Hawaii. The priest was in his ordinary dress. He came. He said, "Swamiji, can I talk with you?" "Yes." He first of all he said, "How your disciples look so nice and full of spiritual consciousness?" That was his first question. No, everything has got process. If we adopt the process, the result is there.
Prabhupāda: And the bare necessities should be paid.
Jayatīrtha: Right. Well, generally we have about seventeen, eighteen gṛhasthas employed in Los Angeles, and they get much smaller salary, and they, for the most part, they're giving everything over subsistence to the temple as donation. They take out minimum subsistence...
Prabhupāda: But Karandhara is not giving anything.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Our organization is to give service.
Haṁsadūta: And then another point in this connection is that when I was in Los Angeles last time, all the people that worked for Spiritual Sky, they were, they were starting to fall away because of Karandhara's karmic attitude...
Jayatīrtha: That's...
Prabhupāda: So this point you discuss.
Rūpānuga: Well, in New York, for example, I just recently signed with Gopī-jana-vallabha Prabhu the papers on the farm. I signed conjointly with him on the farm because the officers had to sign, and we just recently had a thing in New York, ISKCON, Los Angeles, New York.
Prabhupāda: No, no, "sign" another thing. That I have signed, many.
Rūpānuga: So that's all right.
Prabhupāda: The one thing is that GBC is wandering. If the checks are to be signed, then where is the GBC?
Haṁsadūta: In Los Angeles, you called it mystic power, that every living creature has some mystic power.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Every living creature.
Trivikrama: You gave the example of a lemon tree.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The mystic power producing tons of citric acid.
Trivikrama: Citric acid.
Prabhupāda: Yes, lemon juice. Acintya-śakti, inconceivable power.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā?
Rāmeśvara: Los Angeles, New York, maybe Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, that's all. Ten lakhs right there.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Every month.
Prabhupāda: So what is the actual expenditure?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, it must be...
Rāmeśvara: Four times that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At least fifty lakhs.
Rāmeśvara: At least fifty lakhs each month.
Prabhupāda: Then how you are getting money? If you are selling only twenty lakhs' worth books, how you are spending forty lakhs?
Rāmeśvara: We are selling more books.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: More than twenty lakhs.
Prabhupāda: So give me, what is called, consensus.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The idea is the Book Fund, if the book is sold, it's sold at a profit. So although you may be getting only twenty or thirty lakhs, much more is being collected. That is the point.
Prabhupāda: So why did you not correct me in the meeting? (laughter)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, I didn't... (laughter) Even ten lakhs is a very impressive figure.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Ten lakhs expenditure but twenty lakhs collection.
Guest: No, ISKCON has done better than any government. In ten years what ISKCON has done, no other government has done.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Even in America they are surprised. In our Los Angeles temple our devotees are inquired by the store men that "How you are maintaining? You do not work. You have got so many cars. You are eating nicely. You live in very nice building. How you are provided?" They are surprised.
Prabhupāda: Nobody can. I have seen in Los Angeles. (pause) The water is not very clean. (ducks quacking) We are afraid of water; they're enjoying. (pause) Here we have got gold, copper, somewhere in the mines, but in the sky there are millions of miles land of copper, gold.
Śrutakīrti: He'll not give us a chance. (break) (speaking to another devotee) Wouldn't it be better if you make his breakfast?
Devotee: Certainly.
Prabhupāda: I've talked with many psychiatric scientists in Los Angeles.
Devotee: Yes.
Prabhupāda: All of them (indistinct). Even our own scientist.
Journalist: You live in New York?
Prabhupāda: No, no, I travel all over the world. My, in America headquarter, Los Angeles. And European headquarter, London.
Dr. Copeland: (laughs) You can't just say that they don't exist. They're there. And surely there were other people...
Prabhupāda: No, that is... That was... About hundred years ago Vivekananda came, and he stayed in New York, but these people... When I came, I asked, "What is...? Do you know Vivekananda?" They said, "No, we do not know." I had to find out, search out, where is Vivekananda's center. It was not very prominent. Nobody was going. So for hundred years they worked, this Ramakrishna Mission. They could not establish even half a dozen centers in America. And I established forty centers within six years. And in each center there is devotees not less than twenty-five, up to 225. In Los Angeles we purchased one church. The church was sold because nobody was coming. And since we have taken... If you sometimes go to Los Angeles, you will see it is packed always. The same people, the same church—why it is packed now? And why it was sold without any attendance? What is the difference? I have not brought these men from India; neither I brought that church from India. The church was there, and these people were there.
Director: But how do we reconcile the fact that our doctors tell us we should eat meat because of the protein?
Prabhupāda: That is a foolishness. They are not eating meat for the last ten years. Do you think they are reduced in their health? Rather people say bright faces. In Boston one priest, I was going from Los Angeles to Hawaii. One gentleman in plain dress, he is a priest, he said, "Swamiji, how your students look so bright?" And sometimes we are advertised as bright faces. In Boston or somewhere the ladies were asking, "Are you American?"
Prabhupāda: Where is your headquarter?
Yogi Bhajan: Los Angeles. We are neighbors.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Los Angeles.
Yogi Bhajan: We are almost neighbors. We are few blocks from each other.
Prabhupāda: Now, when you have started?
Yogi Bhajan: About five years ago. Six years.
Prabhupāda: Six years. We started there in the...
Śrutakīrti: About the same time.
Yogi Bhajan: About you when it came in Illustrated Weekly, I was in India.
Prabhupāda: Oh, oh.
Yogi Bhajan: So I am very recent here. But I go to Hare Kṛṣṇa...
Prabhupāda: Where is your address in Los Angeles?
Harikeśa: Can a material calculation prove...
Prabhupāda: No. Materialists cannot understand spiritual subject matter. It is not for them.
Harikeśa: So there is a project in Los Angeles where some psychologists are examining all the devotees.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Harikeśa: Some psychologists are there. They are doing a laboratory test on all the devotees.
Prabhupāda: Yes, he may study in his own way, but he will not profit.
Harikeśa: He will not profit. So this, the findings, even if they are published will not profit?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Harikeśa: The findings? They are going to...
Prabhupāda: So what is their findings? The devotees are working on the soul platform but he does not know what is soul.
Bahulāśva: Prabhupāda asked what you found out when you tested Dāmodara.
Dr. Gerson: Well, I haven't studied the tests yet. We're trying to test all of the devotees here in the L.A. temple and that in itself is taking all of my time. I haven't looked at his tests.
Dharmādhyakṣa: But can you give some impressions...
Prabhupāda: But that is not the process.
Dr. Gerson: My impressions of the devotees thus far, however, are that those who have been in the movement much longer...
Prabhupāda: Because even if you find somebody diseased, still, spiritual consciousness is not hampered.
Prabhupāda: Those who are devotees, they are not afraid of going to hell. They are prepared going to hell, "All right, I shall go to hell and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Finished. I want to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So I can do it anywhere. I can do it in this corner. I can do in this building. I can do it in the airplane. I can do it in the hell. I can do it India. I can do it in Los Angeles, anywhere. It doesn't matter what I am or what is my position. I may simply go on chanting. That's all." This is devotee. Therefore he's happy. So happiness is meant for the devotees, not, neither for the karmīs, for the jñānīs, or the yogis. It is the property of the devotees. Just like these devotees are chanting very happily. They are not expecting anything. They are happy by chanting. That's all. But Kṛṣṇa is unhappy if his devotees are not properly maintained.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think in Los Angeles it is always...
Prabhupāda: Always.
Dharmādhyakṣa: The month of June, Prabhupāda, in California is very cloudy. (break) It was one of the few days that it was sunny.
Prabhupāda: Hawaii is clear. Hawaii is clear. Every day we used to see sun.
Prabhupāda: (in car:) ...dark?
Jayatīrtha: It seems to be...
Prabhupāda: Cloudy.
Brahmānanda: Very cloudy today.
Jayatīrtha: Yeah, it's cloudy. (break) ...June in the history of Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā?
Jayatīrtha: Yes. It was warmer in January, the paper says, than now. During the day. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...this warm. But it is cold. (break)
Satsvarūpa: You said in your lecture the other day in Los Angeles that when that happens that many people are killed in one place, it means that it's arranged by the Supreme. Just like Kurukṣetra.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is stated by Kṛṣṇa, that "You are thinking very patriotically that you will not kill. But it is already settled. They must be killed here. I have brought them. You kill or not kill, they will be killed.
Prabhupāda: So this mouse, they make hole and want to live there. And they comfortably living. In the meantime, the ajāgara comes. He eats that mouse and lives comfortably. So our is ajāgara vṛtti. You work for the hole to live comfortably, but we take possession of the house and live comfortably. (break) ...Los Angeles the storekeepers, they ask our men that "You do not work. You live so comfortably. And working so hard, we cannot live so comfortably." And as soon as we ask that "You also come and join," they will not. "No, we shall work like this." We are asking everyone, "Come here," but that will not come. And that is, they are envious.
Prabhupāda: Nārada Muni was accused by Prajāpati Dakṣa that "You are traveling in the dress of a sādhu, but you are the most sinful man. You have turned my sons in the renounced order of life to become beggar, without any advancement, without any enjoyment." So that accusation is always there, beginning from Nārada Muni down to us. Some parents came to demonstrate?
Brahmānanda: In Los Angeles, yes. I understand they've demonstrated before, someone was saying? They had placards, and they were marching.
Bhāvānanda: In Laguna Beach they also.
Prabhupāda: Therefore Dr. Judah has said...
Brahmānanda: He has dedicated his book, "To the parents and to the devotees."
Prabhupāda: He has tried to pacify the parents.
Brahmānanda: Yes. Another parent is coming to see you today.
Prabhupāda: Oh, to accuse me? (laughter)
Brahmānanda: No, her son said she is very favorable. She's the mother of Parīkṣit.
Prabhupāda: Your mother was very angry upon us. (laughter) You know that? When she came to see me, I told, "Mrs. Bruce, can you give me some money?" (laughing) (Imitating angry woman's voice:) "I have given you two sons!" (laughter) She was very angry. "Still you want money?" (laughter) "And that's all right."
Prabhupāda: But fasting is good. If one can fast, that is good. That is tapasya.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. But see, they read these books in addition.
Prabhupāda: Fasting is not bad. If one can fast, that is very good.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Total fast, you mean?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Yadubara: I remember in Los Angeles...
Prabhupāda: That is great austerity.
Yadubara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said that we should not fast more than one day.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, I wanted to point out to you that the results...
Prabhupāda: No, artificial... Just like Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, he was fasting, but he was not weak. That fasting. And he who will fast artificially and become weak, "I cannot work," that is not required. That is called markaṭa-vairāgya. If you fast and at the same time you do not become weak, then that is recommended.
Prabhupāda: So you take fruit. Fruit is also offered to the Deity. There are varieties of prasādam. So whichever suits, you can take. Anything artificial is bad.
Yadubara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Los Angeles they are charging money for the prasādam, and we find that it's cheaper to buy our own prasādam and offer it ourself.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Yadubara: They are charging money in Los Angeles for the prasādam each meal, so we find it is cheaper to...
Prabhupāda: Prepare your own?
Yadubara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: So you do that.
Harikeśa: Yes. They will not let a householder take unless they pay money first.
Yadubara: 75c for noon prasādam and 50c for breakfast.
Prabhupāda: So if you can prepare cheaper, you can do that.
Jayatīrtha: There's this one fellow, Mr. Ted Patrick. He goes and he kidnaps the devotees. The parents pay him $1,000 up to $25,000...
Prabhupāda: Ācchā.
Jayatīrtha: ...depending on how wealthy they are. He kidnaps them and tries to brainwash them that this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not good.
Devotee: He calls it deprogramming. He says... He tries to deprogram the devotees that we have simply been hypnotized by chanting. So he has to snap us out of it by deprogramming. And he uses very severe techniques, very harsh.
Prabhupāda: And the parents are inducing him.
Jayatīrtha: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Brahmānanda: All over America.
Jayatīrtha: They tear off the neckbeads and tear up your pictures in front of the devotees, try to force them to eat meat, so many things.
Devotee: Blasphemy.
Jayatīrtha: Recently we got a conviction against him. He got six months in prison. In Los Angeles we got to convict him for this kind of activity. So he is being stopped.
Guest (Indian man): Also he can't come to Canada any more, can't cross the border.
Jayatīrtha: Oh, he's been barred.
Guest: He is barred from coming to Canada.
Brahmānanda: He was put into the Denver county jail also when we were in Denver. He's out on bail now.
Mrs. Wax: Not only kidnapping devotees, Kṛṣṇa devotees, but all religious movements. He can't stand them.
Prabhupāda: And the parents are taking help from him.
Jayatīrtha: Yes.
Prabhupāda: This is the difficulty.
Prabhupāda: Well, to find out first-class man is very difficult. Therefore, our followers, you cannot count a large number. We are training them to become first-class man. Still, we have got about ten thousand followers in the western countries.
Reporter (3): In the western countries.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Reporter (3): Where do you train them in the western countries?
Prabhupāda: We have got our headquarter in Los Angeles and we have got many centers all over the world.
Bahulāśva: ...Los Angeles you told Svarūpa Dāmodara that in twenty-five more years science will be finished.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Science is already finished. He is regretting that no young man is interested. That means it is finished already. That's a fact. (break) ...is finished, so-called religion is finished, so-called politics is finished—everything. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā (SB 5.18.12). Because they have finished God, everything will be finished. Zero, only zero.
Bahulāśva: That is why they become mad because they become envious that we are chanting and dancing. They are working very hard.
Paramahaṁsa: They won't join.
Prabhupāda: Yes, they asked in Los Angeles that "How is that? You do not work and you are living so comfortably?" They are envious. And the greatest economist, Professor Marshall, he has said that if man gets money, automatically he will not work. That is the basic prin... Therefore they are creating daily new invention.
Prabhupāda: You have not come to that perfection, so you are not important. (break) ...Muslim country there is a word, khodaka upar kimvar dhari. (?) Khoda (?) means God. These rascals want to go above God. (break)
Jayādvaita: ...tees have remarked that since you have come to Los Angeles, the Deity has increased in beauty many times, Kṛṣṇa. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...my anxiety, that in my absence you may neglect Deity worship. Then the whole thing will be spoiled. That is my anxiety.
Prabhupāda: So if your food problem is solved and your cloth problems is solved, then where is your economic necessity? Then you save time and cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So real business will be how to cultivate, how to become advanced in God consciousness. That the animal cannot do. You are claiming more intelligence than the animals, so use your intelligence in this way. Don't spoil day and night for your economic development. So-called economic development means as soon as you become stout and strong, then sense gratification. Then you cultivate the culture of nudism. That Los Angeles beach, "Beach for nudies." Is not written there?
Jayatīrtha: Yes. One morning one nude man was running. While we were walking one morning, one nude man was running on the beach.
Prabhupāda: This is...
Devotee (4): They're also trying to establish a beach like that here in Laguna Beach also, Prabhupāda, a nude beach.
Prabhupāda: So without God consciousness, when there is no cloth, then economic development, and when... (break)
Prabhupāda: At least civilized man's forefather. (break) ...bigger than monkey. You remember? We were walking in that park?
Brahmānanda: Yes. Oh, yes. Many were in the trees, jumping. (break)
Prabhupāda: Birds who eat monkey. You know that? I have seen in Los Angeles zoo, monkey-eating bird. They capture the monkey by the neck and drop it. And when it falls down it dies, and meat. And I have seen one statue in the Central Park. They are catching goats-eagle. And there are big eagles. They catch up elephant.
Brahmānanda: In Los Angeles city they have coyotes, like a wolf, and they go around eating the pet cats and dogs.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Brahmānanda: People are very upset.
Prabhupāda: In the city?
Brahmānanda: Yes. In the residential areas especially. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...hiding?
Brahmānanda: Yes. But they are becoming even more and more bold. Even during the day now they are coming, and they'll go in someone's... On the lawn there will be a dog playing or a cat, and... (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Those animals sometimes kill children also, small children. (break) ...padaṁ yad vipadam: "Every step there is danger."
Prabhupāda: No, all these professors. Those who are purchasing our books.
Brahmānanda: Oh, the recommendations?
Prabhupāda: Yes. (Bengali) University professors, learned scholars. (Bengali) We have equipped our composing... We compose and send to the press. You know something about our Los Angeles arrangement?
Harikeśa: Oh, yes.
Prabhupāda: What is the worth of all the machines?
Harikeśa: Oh, the composer itself is worth about seventy-five thousand dollars.
Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Seventy-five thousand dollars.
Harikeśa: That's just one machine.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. He has given you little freedom. He doesn't want to take your freedom.
Harikeśa: You gave two examples in Los Angeles about the master, big master, like president of DuPont walking his dog. The president of DuPont is walking his dog in Central Park. The dog makes him go this way and this way and this way. And you said we are just passing stool and urine in the material world, and Kṛṣṇa is just letting us run here and there.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Anumantā. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, anumantā, upadraṣṭā.
Prabhupāda: We come here not to see how is South Africa. We have come here to preach Kṛṣṇa conscious.... That is our business. We don't come as a tourist to see how South Africa is. What South Africa? The same building, same road, same—everything same. What to see here? Especially, they are also eating, sleeping and struggling. That's all.
Indian man: That's a stink bug there.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Is there any difference between Los Angeles, America or San Francisco and this city? Is there any difference?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.
Prabhupāda: The same thing. Is there any place where people do not die? Then?
Indian man: Besides maybe Kṛṣṇaloka also.
Prabhupāda: That is another thing. Within this material.
Indian man: On earth, everywhere, everybody.
Prabhupāda: Our real problem is to go there, where there is no death. That is real intelligence. And what is the use of going here and there where death is inevitable?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I don't know if I have the one from Oxford. This is from Harvard. We just received this telegram from Los Angeles, Prabhupāda. "Amazing success from your library party—one hundred and fifty-two standing orders sold in just seventeen days of September in New England. Thirteen standing orders at Harvard. These books are very much being appreciated in America."
Prof. Olivier: These are for the sets.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, a standing order of books even which haven't been published yet. Prabhupāda is translating on his dictaphone each night, throughout the hours of the night. And now about fifty books so far, many more to come.
Prabhupāda: The total number of books will be about eighty. Out of that, we have published about fifty. So the balance they are giving standing order, "As soon as published, you give..."
Indian man (3): Yes, I have been to India.
Prabhupāda: So this time you come and see our temple in Vṛndāvana. We have got, India, four, five temples. We have got in London, New York. In London we have got two temples, big, big. One is very big. In New York we have got, Los Angeles. Everywhere we have got. Here also, yesterday's paper, there was some advertisement, one Mr. Desai.
Cyavana: In this area there are monkeys.
Prabhupāda: Very... and they are also chased by another bird, monkey-eating bird. They'll go and capture and take him and throw him in the ground, and he falls down and dies. Then the bird eats. You know the monkey-eating birds? I have seen in Los Angeles zoo. Not very big, but they want to eat monkeys.
Prabhupāda: They are so foolish. I very strongly talk with them. Still, stubborn, doggish. That scientist, I told him in his..., that "You are a demon." I told him, "You are a demon." So he tolerated. (laughs)
Dr. Patel: They are serving the Mammon and not God.
Prabhupāda: So, so many psychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, they come there in Los Angeles.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: (break)...from Hong Kong yesterday, and there's one Chinese producer who's making a Chinese movie and he wants our devotees to be in it for some time.
Prabhupāda: To make some money out of all...
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It shows how a girl is going to different spiritual gurus for guidance. So they are sending the script first for approval.
Prabhupāda: All right.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They're going to show how Vaiṣṇavas live.
Prabhupāda: That's nice.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Devananda feels that will give us a lot of publicity.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayapataka: In Los Angeles they paid good money.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Jayapataka: In Los Angeles they went in some movies. They got two, three thousand dollars.
Prabhupāda: Both ways. I cannot violate. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that you simply speak what Kṛṣṇa has said, and Kṛṣṇa says that anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is a rascal. He is a most sinful man, he is the lowest of mankind. So why shall I not say? It is not firing; it is telling the truth. (laughs with Patel) But I am not loser. I am, I do not make any compromise. All these my students ask, I never made any compromise. But still they understand, and they are with me.
Dr. Patel: But we are also with you.
Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say, those who are outsiders. In Los Angeles, so many scientists used to come, so after talking with them, I used to say, "You are demon, you are rascal." And they tolerated. (everyone laughing) And they remained for two hours talking and then taking prasādam. They were happy that I called them demons and rascals.
Prabhupāda: ..Los Angeles we have got a plant like this next to my window. That land for others, but it comes to my window. What is this?
Bhavānanda: Bougainvillea.
Prabhupāda: No shame. That is animal. No shame. In Western countries they are learning... I have seen. In Los Angeles beach they are having sex open. Just like these birds or beasts. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. They are trying to make birth control. Why? Bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. That illicit or legal sex, the after-result is very miserable.
Hṛdayānanda: Maintenance is much more simple, easier, less expensive for them on a farm.
Prabhupāda: If they do not follow the rules and regulations, then what is the use?
Hṛdayānanda: We were thinking that unless someone is a preacher, he has no real business in the city. Let him go have a peaceful life out on the farm.
Yaśodānandana: It has been seen that when many householders come together in many of our big communities, because there are so many women and children, there is a great atmosphere of laziness a lot of times. I have seen in Los Angeles and also in many other temples. But when there's a lot of brahmacārīs preaching, it's much more enlivening.
Prabhupāda: So now you make some regulation. Otherwise... Attending class? No.
Hṛdayānanda: Excuse me?
Prabhupāda: They attend class?
Gargamuni: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Gargamuni: Yeah, they attend aratikas and class because there's no other activity there.
Prabhupāda: No, that is also good.
Siddha-svarūpa: You know that they distribute Prabhupāda's books, but they can't give them away as cheaply, that's all.
Madhudviṣa: Back to Godhead is very cheap. It is twelve cents a piece.
Siddha-svarūpa: They give those away. They give those away.
Madhudviṣa: It is twelve cents a piece. You cannot say that.
Siddha-svarūpa: But anyway...
Jayatīrtha: One of Siddha-svarūpa's men bought some Bhagavad-gītās from us in Los Angeles, several cases, so they are distributing Prabhupāda's books at least as well along with others.
Prabhupāda: No, I think...
Siddha-svarūpa: I just bought five thousand dollars' worth of Bhagavad-gītās.
Madhudviṣa: That's very good.
Siddha-svarūpa: What is it for?
Madhudviṣa: And they give them away.
Siddha-svarūpa: Thank you. Thank you, God.
Prabhupāda: No, no, even giving them away, what is the wrong?
Madhudviṣa: Well, you said we should not give the books away. You said we should sell these books.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) No, no, he has purchased. He has purchased. Then if you purchase from me and if you give free to others, so what is my loss?
Madhudviṣa: No, there is no loss.
Siddha-svarūpa: I'm not giving away his books.
Prabhupāda: No, no, even if he gives away, this is not a fault, ou see?
Rādhāvallabha: You want the BBT to print, Śrīla Prabhupāda, or Gopāla Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Rādhāvallabha: You want Gopāla Kṛṣṇa to print in India or you want us to print in Los Angeles?
Prabhupāda: No, India.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We can print in India.
Prabhupāda: What is the wrong in India?
Prabhupāda: We do not say that "If you cannot pay, I will hang you." No. "Pay, try to pay." (static) In our Hyderabad scheme, we have taken three, four lakhs loan from you. And he has taken, Jayapatākā has taken, you know? Nobody has paid me. Till now. But there is promise they will pay.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that's good. At least the big temples, Rāmeśvara, in the beginning can certainly afford it.
Rāmeśvara: On a long-term basis.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I won't even, for New York, I won't even take a loan.
Prabhupāda: No, we can forward loan if it is absolutely necessary.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I won't need it. We have the money.
Prabhupāda: Oh, this side also road is becoming...
Rāmeśvara: All the way down from the beach to downtown Los Angeles.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fixing it.
Rāmeśvara: This is going to be one of the main streets in Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's great.
Rāmeśvara: Jagadīśa was telling me that there are some boys who are donating seventy-five acres of farmland about four hours from Los Angeles. It is the best farmland in California. So he wants to develop this, because they have given it to him, specifically to make a farm and eventually to have the children of Gurukula live there. So perhaps we could invite Yamunā.
Prabhupāda: As soon as you make Gurukula, government immediately stops.
Dānavīr: I'm in charge of the New Bhakta program in Los Angeles, and yesterday one boy called up the temple, and he was seventeen years old, and he said, "Five years ago, when I was coming out of a store, I received this Back to Godhead magazine. So I took it home, I was twelve years old, and I began reading it. I read six pages, but my mother, she was a strict Baptist, and she took it away, I couldn't read it. I never saw devotees again until this time." He called up. Yesterday he came and joined the temple and became your disciple. (Prabhupāda chuckles)
Devotees: Jaya.
Rāmeśvara: Just by reading one word of your books.
Prabhupāda: What is that word?
Rāmeśvara: Any word. (laughter) Surrender to Kṛṣṇa! (break) .... making almost ten devotees, new men, every month. And they're all coming from your books, from reading your books, every one of them.
Prabhupāda: Therefore I am insisting, "Spread books."
Prabhupāda: (break) ...avasthiti. When one remains in svarūpa, that is called mukti. (laughter) Svarūpeṇa avasthitiḥ. (break) The best place in Los Angeles for walking.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. This is the best place in Los Angeles for walking.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...still the sea beach is here.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very clean.
Rādhāvallabha: It was Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja's idea to come here.
Rāmeśvara: I was once told that these irregularities in the climate are due to sinful activities. Los Angeles has a very nice climate.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People I speak to, they say, "Yes, even in the last twenty years we can notice a great change in the weather patterns." People say that.
Prabhupāda: Disturbance means sinful atmosphere.
Rāmeśvara: In Bhāgavatam, you wrote that when there is a great storm or hurricane, some demon has taken birth.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That is.... The, this rāsa-līlā is for the person who is completely purified. What...? When one is impure, he should not think of. That is stated in the Bhāgavatam.
Rāmeśvara: In this they have misunderstood your Kṛṣṇa book.
Prabhupāda: They must have misunderstood. They are all rascals.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have not even read carefully the First Canto Bhāgavatam and Second. Prabhupāda says in Second Canto, "Look at the lotus feet of the Lord."
Hari-śauri: I was thinking yesterday that must be one of the problems, that these people have not read your earlier books, the earlier cantos of the Bhāgavatam. Because it says, you express quite clearly to avoid the...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were lucky because when we joined all that we had were your Bhāgavatams from India, those original Bhāgavatams.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...otherwise...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Otherwise, what shall we do?
Prabhupāda: Otherwise, they are finished.
Rāmeśvara: We should try to save them.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, there are so many devotees involved, over a hundred.
Rāmeśvara: I can't understand who they are.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty of them in Los Angeles.
Rāmeśvara: Do you know? Who knows the names?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa.: Pradyumna. Pradyumna is carrying out a single-handed investigation. Pradyumna has become an investigator. He goes around everywhere (laughs) investigating the sahajiyās. I hope he doesn't become won over.
Prabhupāda: He was.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa:. Yes, I know, that's why he's doing it. He was once like that.
Prabhupāda: He was smārta.
Rāmeśvara: Paṇḍita, you used to call him paṇḍita.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes Prabhupāda would tell him he was a smārta.
Rāmeśvara: He's always carrying an armful of books.
Prabhupāda: Smārta is also counted amongst the sahajiyās.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was really.... That's another problem, Prabhupāda. All of these boys that take part in this Sanskrit-Bengali translation department, they all become like this, because they read these other books. As soon as they learn Bengali and Sanskrit, they start reading so many books.
Prabhupāda: Āula bāula, kartābhajā, neḍā, daraveśa, sāṅi sahajiyā, sakhībhekī, smārta, jāta-gosāñi. They are all counted in one group.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One thing I've noticed, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and I see it as a direct link, that most of these people who get involved like this, they're not engaged in active preaching work, and because of it, their mind has time to create these fantasies and get attracted. Someone who's engaged in forcefully preaching...
Rāmeśvara: He has to be more practical.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Practical and purified by the activity. Have you noticed that? That these people who are engaged, they're all in the Press, or all day writing, or something like this.
Rāmeśvara: Sometimes sitting and painting.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sitting and painting. The boy who's going out every day, trying to think of how to get the books out, he won't be.... (conversation in background) You have come to the hellish planets, Śrīla Prabhupāda, to deliver us. That's all there is. It's amazing enough you have made such a gigantic movement, but the fact that you have made it with such mlecchas as us is what is most astounding. It's like building a skyscraper with swabs and straw. Building a big skyscraper with straw and mud.
Rāmeśvara: In the Fifth Canto, you've quoted from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura that the most sacred place in the whole universe is Śrī Māyāpura-dhāma.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: The soul, being put into that body, immediately remembers all the activities of the body. Just like in Los Angeles. When I am in tour in other places I forget about Los Angeles, but as soon as I come here, I know where is my bedroom, where is my sitting room, where is my garden, immediately. I haven't got to be taught that "Here is your sitting room, here is your sleeping room." Immediately, I remember. Similarly, this living entity is transmigrating from time immemorial in different types of body. So as soon as he comes to a particular type of body he remembers the activities immediately. They are interpreting as intuition—that is not intuition. It is old remembrance. This is the explanation.
Rāmeśvara: But then there is an argument, if we were originally in the spiritual world, why don't we remember that and try to go back to the spiritual world?
Prabhupāda: That I have already said, that when I am in tour in Europe and India, I completely forget about Los Angeles. I act according to the circumstances there. And again when I come to Los Angeles, I immediately remember. This is natural. Out of sight, out of mind.
Prabhupāda: I came back in 1968, no '67, December.
Hari-śauri: Oh, you weren't gone long then.
Trivikrama: Six months.
Prabhupāda: Yes, July to December.
Trivikrama: And your health was better?
Prabhupāda: Not very good. So many troubles. When I came back there's always a bad sound going on, gong gong gong, in my brain. Very disturbing, in this Los Angeles. I was staying in some... I forgot.
Trivikrama: La Cienega?
Prabhupāda: Yes, huh?
Trivikrama: In La Cienega?
Prabhupāda: No, no, La Cienega, later on. I was staying near Pico, is that Pico? There was a... I think Washington Boulevard? Near there. I forgot that quarter. It is black quarter. And this boy—who is he now? Aniruddha? What is his name?
Devotee: Gurukṛpa?
Prabhupāda: No, no. Aniruddha.
Devotee: Gaurasundara?
Prabhupāda: No, Aniruddha.
Devotee: Oh, Aniruddha.
Prabhupāda: Yes, he was taking care of me here in Los Angeles. And they used to come from San Francisco. First of all, I came to San Francisco from India. Then I came to Los Angeles, to start a center here. I think Dayānanda took charge of this center.
Hari-śauri: So Los Angeles center was opened on your arrival back from India. And up to that time there was New York and...?
Prabhupāda: San Francisco.
Devotee: And Montreal?
Prabhupāda: No, Montreal later. I think, maybe, Montreal first.
Prabhupāda: Suppose if you learn how to walk, or how to fly in the air. Nowadays they are flying, the big, big airplane flying. They have not learned this mystic power. By machine they are doing that. Suppose if you fly by mystic power from here, Los Angeles, to Bombay or Nairobi, and another man flys over by the plane. Then where is the difference? It is a question of pounds or dollars. So what benefit do we get?
Prabhupāda: And you are coming directly here?
Kīrtanānanda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: By plane?
Kīrtanānanda: Yes. I left New Vrindaban about nine o'clock. The plane left Pittsburgh at 11:30.
Prabhupāda: To Los Angeles.
Kīrtanānanda: Arrived here at 3:15.
Prabhupāda: Pittsburgh.
Kīrtanānanda: We stopped in Chicago for one hour.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Interviewer: Where did you get these paintings?
Prabhupāda: Paintings? Our students did.
Rāmeśvara: Our art studios are here in Los Angeles.
Interviewer: What happens when that inevitable time comes when a successor is needed?
Rāmeśvara: He is asking about the future, who will guide the movement in the future.
Prabhupāda: They will guide. I am training them.
Prabhupāda: In Los Angeles we find so many houses: "Now Renting." (break)
Rādhāvallabha: They told us in school that in India there are so many people, practically you cannot even move. But when we go to India we see there is miles and miles of empty land, simply a few cities where it's crowded.
Prabhupāda: Cities are crowded. Village? Very nice.
Prabhupāda: Very much impressed. He's friendly, you can invite him again. He can introduce a law; he's a law officer. (break) ...charges. They may not think they will charge. And some pictures from our books. Signboard, book and pictures. There are some painters here? No painters? Well, there are so many painters. You can bring from Los Angeles.
Mādhavānanda: Yes, I was thinking.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: How do you like our men, the devotees?
Stansky: Oh, I'm very, very impressed. This impressed me to begin with, their enthusiasm, their joy, and their complete surrender. This is what...
Prabhupāda: This is the qualification.
Stansky: This is the qualification.
Prabhupāda: Yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau (ŚU 6.23). That is the secret of success. If one has got unflinching faith in his spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa, then he's successful. Two things. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpā-pāya bhakti-latā-bīja. So if the guru is false, then how they can keep their faith? That will be broken. Our process is very simple. There is no difficulty. You have seen our Los Angeles temple? When we purchased, it was a church, perhaps you know. Nobody was coming, so that they were obliged to sell.
Prabhupāda: So we thought that we shall use it as temple. That they disagreed. "No, you cannot keep it, you have to break it, then we can sell to you." Then why shall I break it? We shall pay for it and break it? No. Then the negotiation failed. But a huge land, and we are prepared to purchase. In England, in London, I was..., one, two churches I was negotiating, and one church, that man, he said, "I'll burn into ashes. I'll not sell it to Bhaktivedanta." (laughs) Recently we wanted to purchase in St. James Park one nice house. So they did not give us. They..., we offered better price; still they did not give us.
Stansky: Your Grace, the thing that impressed me the very most at the temple in Los Angeles.... Now you must bear in mind that I am very, very steeped in Catholicism, I'm very steeped in the New Testament. So when I observed what was happening at the temple in Los Angeles, I was seeing the Book of Acts coming to life. Something that died three hundred years ago in the Roman church. In 300 A.D. it died. Since then there's been no such example. And I was just amazed wandering around because there I saw the exact, the Book of Acts. And I was impressed.
Scheverman: Oh, you're referring to the young men right here, coming from Boston, that's what you're saying, I see. Right.
Prabhupāda: We have got many places. Los Angeles we purchased one church, a very big church. That church was vacant, nobody was coming. They tried so much to invite men, but nobody was coming. But after we have purchased, the church is the same, and the inhabitants are residents of Los Angeles, but it is always packed up.
Prabhupāda: There are many Christian church we have converted temple. They sell for want of customer. And we purchase, we increase customers. But customer of the same place. That is the beauty. These customers, they are not brought from India. But formerly they were not coming here, now they are coming in crowd. In Los Angeles we purchased.... You have been in Los Angeles? Now we have got a regular colony. About one dozen big, big houses. So that was a church. Nobody was coming, they sold it to us. Now it is always crowded.
Viśvakarmā: ...for the balcony in the church in the other room? How can we... (announcement being made)
Prabhupāda: ...fit for sitting. That is very nice. And next time when I come the seat should be just Deity altar, so that all balcony can see.
Viśvakarmā: Seat should be?
Prabhupāda: My seat should be near the altar of the Deity.
Hari-śauri: The vyāsāsana. Like in Los Angeles, at the side? On the left-hand side?
Prabhupāda: Not left-hand side. Just like you are facing Deity and there are spaces here.
Viśvakarmā: Between the doors.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Viśvakarmā: Which side, Śrīla Prabhupāda? On the left-hand side or the right-hand side of the Deity, facing towards the altar?
Prabhupāda: Any side.
Viśvakarmā: Any side? How far away from the front? In the middle so that they can see from the balcony as well. (child calls out)
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Kīrtanānanda: Hayagrīva's very (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: I know she is a good girl. He has disrupted his family also.
Kīrtanānanda: If a devotee doesn't follow the principles, then he is sure to suffer. Nothing can be gained in his family life.
Prabhupāda: I thought that he is happy in family life. His father and mother came to congratulate him.
Kīrtanānanda: He was better in Los Angeles when I saw him last week than I've seen him in a long time.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Kīrtanānanda: He never lost his sentiment for you.
Prabhupāda: No, that I know. Therefore I like.
Kīrtanānanda: But he's addicted to his bad habits.
Prabhupāda: He'll be corrected. There is no hopelessness.
Kīrtanānanda: I've always felt that, but it makes it difficult to live with him in the meantime. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). Is that railway line? No. (break) There are some roads in Los Angeles (indistinct) That is America. Everywhere.
Kīrtanānanda: Big cars and big roads.
Prabhupāda: Opulence.
Prabhupāda: They prepare the semiliquid meat like that. You give them little piece and they will not understand that it is not meat.
Hari-śauri: When we were in Los Angeles, Pālikā made some baṛā and it tasted... Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja wouldn't eat it. He said it tasted too much like fish.
Prabhupāda: With urad ḍāl, you can prepare fishy taste.
Hari-śauri: Someone told me that your Guru Mahārāja said that.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. Anyone who is not taking urad ḍāl, he must be taking fish silently, secretly.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They can make a big plane, but they can't make a mosquito. It's so thought-provoking. Here's that article by Dharmādhyakṣa that you liked.
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That article about, he wrote from Vancouver. It was in that small pamphlet that they sent to Los Angeles. "Simple Living and High Thinking." It had a picture of a forest, a stream in the background, and your picture in a little square was superimposed over it.
Hari-śauri: We got it in Hawaii. Yes, it was for that Habitat conference.
Prabhupāda: So we are not politicians, but we give some idea. Is it not good?
Prabhupāda: They have already spent so much money, moon exploration. And that has stopped now, no benefit. They brought some sand and some rock, satisfied. Again the same thing with Mars. But we can say from our poor knowledge that as they have failed in the moon planet, they will fail also in the Mars. Take it down. Note now. Do you know this is all bluff?
Rādhāvallabha: In Los Angeles papers they quoted you saying that, that they didn't go to the moon.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Rādhāvallabha: They quoted you as saying this in Los Angeles, in a newspaper. Also your Monday-Tuesday example, Sunday-Monday. They put that in the newspaper.
Prabhupāda: Nobody can answer that. The common sense. Can any one of you answer why Sunday first and Monday next? You are one of the scientists. Why don't you say? It is commonsense question, "Why Sunday first and next...?" All over the world. In the human society, everywhere you go, they will say Sunday first, Monday second.
Prabhupāda: You understand Hindi?
Ṛṣi Kumāra: Not really. A little bit, but I can't follow it. Do you want me to go to India, Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Wherever you find suitable.
Ṛṣi Kumāra: I was thinking about going back to Los Angeles for a while, because there's good preaching to be done in Los Angeles and Laguna Beach too. I know a lot of people there.
Prabhupāda: Los Angeles or New York. New York is your old place. But you don't want to go there?
Ṛṣi Kumāra: New York? I can go there, I guess, but...
Prabhupāda: No, you can remain in Los Angeles for the time being.
Ṛṣi Kumāra: Because I know a lot of people in Laguna Beach who can be preached to. I think they'd be receptive, people who are...
Prabhupāda: Reception is everywhere if we manage nice.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is in the earth. So many varieties of mixture.
Rūpānuga: Now is there an atom for each? Is there a copper atom?
Prabhupāda: That we do not take care of atoms, we take gross estimation. Must be atomic differences. Just like gold and mercury, little atomic difference. And it is suggested that tin, copper, and mercury, proportionately mixed it will become gold.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Once you told me that in Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now you can do that experiment. Then our poverty will be... (laughter) It is fact. There are many yogis, they prepare gold by drinking mercury. They drink mercury, overnight, next morning they pass urine and dip copper coins in it. And then after some time the copper coins put into the fire, it becomes gold.
Dr. Sharma: I'm professor at Berkeley, California. And I was Regents Professor at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā. In Los Angeles we have our mandira, we have... You sometimes go to our temple?
Dr. Sharma: Yes, I go to the temple in Berkeley. I was at Berkeley about a week ago. I'm in London now, at the Royal Institute of Chemistry. I was born in Haridwar.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So many, yes, many, many bridges. Every day about seven million people come into this island of Manhattan from the other boroughs, and they go back. From your room, our building is very close to the Empire State Building, so from your room you have a very nice view of it.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So Los Angeles everything is going nice?
Rāmeśvara: Everything is very nice. We just had a big saṅkīrtana marathon for this Fourth of July, and they distributed up to thirty thousand Back to Godheads in just a few days.
Rāmeśvara: I think one day our art paintings will also be in these museums. Because our artists are becoming as expert as anyone.
Prabhupāda: Must be.
Rāmeśvara: Already people are coming and offering minimum one thousand dollars to buy a painting. In Los Angeles, I have sold some paintings for a thousand dollars each. Originals and some copies (laughter) also.
Prabhupāda: Copy, how do you make copy?
Rāmeśvara: We have some artists practicing. So he makes a copy of the original, and I sell it for five hundred dollars. Half the price of the original.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good business.
Rāmeśvara: But that will increase. You can get ten thousand, twenty thousand dollars for one painting in the future, because they are paying that much now for inferior work.
Prabhupāda: Who is painting nice? Muralī?
Rāmeśvara: Muralīdhara, Jadurāṇī, Parīkṣit.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Parīkṣit is wonderful.
Prabhupāda: Parīkṣit, yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Prabhupāda. Everything has doubled in price. This car is very ordinary, but it is because you are in it, Prabhupāda, that they are looking. Ordinarily it is not such a special car.
Prabhupāda: What is the make of it?
Hari-śauri: LTD. What is it?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's the same, more or less the same car that you had when you were driving in Los Angeles.
Hari-śauri: The same as what you had in Melbourne also.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a Ford.
Prabhupāda: Los Angeles this was Mercedes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, Mercury. Right? Mercury?
Prabhupāda: No, this is nice car.
Rāmeśvara: Ever since we published that article that they wrote in Back to Godhead, many people have been impressed that "Oh, Ph.D's they are accepting this movement." Many Indian guests in Los Angeles, they all comment that they have read this article, and now they are taking our movement...
Prabhupāda: Now I have collected one Indian, four items he is Ph.D. He is Ph.D. in chemistry, Ph.D. in engineering...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Down, the whole downstairs. Ten thousand square foot.
Rāmeśvara: That's the same..., ten thousand square feet is the same size as the book warehouse in Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Oh. The height is less.
Hari-śauri: Stoka Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Stoka, he has left.
Hari-śauri: He's back in Los Angeles now.
Prabhupāda: He does not stick anywhere.
Prabhupāda: If you can manage, very good. In a city like New York you can have ten, twelve centers.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I mean the Christians have so many churches in every part of the city.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Similarly, we can have temples.
Rāmeśvara: You said that once in Los Angeles to me.
Prabhupāda: That Juhu temple, Akasganga, you know? Everyone asked me not to go there, "Nobody will go there." I said "It is Bombay city. Wherever you shall go, people will come."
Prabhupāda: There is a song in Bengal that formerly anything European, sāheb, that is good. So one person is selling meat, flesh of dog. Flesh of dog nobody takes, at least in India. So he said that "This is not ordinary dog. This is the dog which was killed by Viceroy, that dog. And because Viceroy killed it, therefore it has become nice dog. You can eat it." So, anything these so-called scientists said, that is to be accepted. Without any common sense. This is your intelligence. But I am fool Indian, I don't believe it. (laughter) I immediately capture the point, why this rascal is talking of Arizona? That means the whole business is going on in Arizona.
Rāmeśvara: Deliberately cheating. You said that in Los Angeles.
Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda's saying gāyatrī.
Prabhupāda: Brought newspaper, and as soon as they say... Who said?
Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Los Angeles I asked you about this one verse in the Bhāgavatam where it says that in a previous Kali-yuga the materialists were able to travel to other planets. And then it said Lord Buddha appeared to stop them, that they were creating havoc. But you said that was possible in this age also that they may be able to do that.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (devotees offer obeisances) (break) (in car)
Rāmeśvara: ...can't ever go to these other planets.
Prabhupāda: Yes, they can go.
Rāmeśvara: They will be able to land there?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, why not?
Rāmeśvara: Because their body is meant...
Prabhupāda: Even Arjuna even went higher planetary systems. But different way. In Bhagavad-gītā it is yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). And formerly when big, big sacrifices were done, they used to come and attend sacrifice.
Prabhupāda: Such an important country. So nasty everywhere, park, street, what is there? This is not good sign. In other cities, you see so neat and clean. Washington, even that parkway, so neat and clean. Why this city is neglected? Los Angeles also, neat and clean. Which other cities we went?
Prabhupāda: By Thompkins Park I was chanting, and these boys gradually came. First picture was published by the New York Times. Then we started branches in San Francisco, in Montreal, Boston. And then Los Angeles. In this way...
Interviewer: So you just chanted in Thompkins Park, and people came?
Prabhupāda: Yes, I was underneath a tree. I think that picture was published by that Voice, very big article, published.
Prabhupāda: He is intelligent, but Nandarāṇī is still more intelligent. (laughs) I know that. Both of them are intelligent, but this girl appears to be more intelligent. That's all right. What about their daughters?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: They are there. They're very happy.
Prabhupāda: Where?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: In Tehran.
Prabhupāda: They have gone there?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: They have come.
Prabhupāda: Oh, when?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: About two months ago, a month.
Prabhupāda: I saw them in Los Angeles.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, they left.
Hari-śauri: Must have been just after we left there.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: A month ago, five, six weeks ago.
Prabhupāda: They have got two daughters.
Prabhupāda: (break) Just like New Vrindaban they have a dozen brahmacārīs.
Kīrtanānanda: They have an expert teacher, Gopīnātha.
Prabhupāda: Also Los Angeles. (break) ...and big, big city like Calcutta, Bombay, there are many, many more pigeons. Why they are so small?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There were devotees from Miami, Gainesville, Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles, Vancouver, South America—all over South America, I think. A gigantic turnout of devotees. Very international group.
Bali-mardana: This could be like Lord Caitanya used to invite all His devotees to come and see Him at Ratha-yātrā...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Bali-mardana: Similarly, if you come here, we can invite...
Prabhupāda: I'll come.
Prabhupāda: The Christians cannot organize. (laughter)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You saw them. The only thing they were carrying was one sign like this. The sign said "Turn or Burn." It means turn to Jesus or burn. Turn or burn, burn in hell. That's their conception of God. Either God or burn in hell. We could give you a good rest here, also, Prabhupāda, because it's very easy to not... If the devotees could see you on Sunday, just like in the old days in Los Angeles... I mean everything could be nicely done, and you could still visit the European centers when you finally return to India. I mean they are not making such a big thing that you couldn't come later on. Oh, boy.
Prabhupāda: (laughing) Good determination.
Prabhupāda: That is in the middle.
Rāmeśvara: In the middle.
Prabhupāda: Do that(?).
Rāmeśvara: So they can do that? (break) ...Pañcamī, where they carry the goddess of fortune on an opulent palanquin.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, New York doesn't have a name. We have to give it some name. We call Los Angeles as New Dvārakā. Here it's just New York. (break)
Rāmeśvara: (whispering) Rādhāvallabha.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Huh?
Rāmeśvara: Rādhāvallabha.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...monkey.
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Jayatīrtha: Because no one wants to farm anymore these days. I heard that, especially in France.
Pṛthu-putra: Yes, especially in France.
Bhagavān: We have also paid our loan to Los Angeles. One month ago I paid seventeen thousand dollars.
Prabhupāda: So you, you can take back loan.
Bhagavān: I was holding it for him, but then he said he didn't need it right away, so I sent it to Los Angeles.
Jayatīrtha: We hadn't determined what building.
Prabhupāda: So you have.... That building you should purchase.
Prabhupāda: Oh, you don't require. Now you can eat, go on. Prasāda prapti mātrena. Our Jayatīrtha prabhu is a good manager. Management, looking after. Yes, he's a very good manager, experienced.
George Harrison: Hm?
Prabhupāda: He's experienced manager.
Jayatīrtha: Not very good managing this place now.
George Harrison: Well, it seems okay. Seems to be taken over pretty good. Peacefully.
Prabhupāda: He was also managing Los Angeles. Now we have brought him here to see things nicely managed.
George Harrison: It feels good, nice vibrations.
Prabhupāda: Yes. One thing, Jayatīrtha, why don't you sprinkle this water in this ground?
Prabhupāda: Oh. Sometimes you can come and stay here, see the ārati, at least one day, whole program, how they are doing. What is the program whole day?
Jayatīrtha: It starts at four-fifteen, the ārati, then we worship Tulasī-devī, chant japa and have class, and then prasādam eight-fifteen. Then during the day we all work, and in the evening again, seven o'clock, everyone comes together for the ārati, class.
George Harrison: How is that school in Texas, you know, with all the children?
Gurudāsa: Gurukula.
Jayatīrtha: They have six schools now, other than that. This place in France, they have a school there, this farm, and in Dallas, Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, Māyāpur.
Prabhupāda: Grapes? Grapes you have got.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Grapes, apple. Where is your eldest child?
Nandarāṇī: This is Candramukhī.
Prabhupāda: Oh. I saw you in Los Angeles?
Nandarāṇī: Yes.
Prabhupāda: You have got two or three girls?
Nandarāṇī: Just two.
Prabhupāda: Our Los Angeles temple, what we paid? Dayānanda, you know?
Dayānanda: It was 225, I think.
Prabhupāda: Oh, 225, hundred thousand.
Dayānanda: $225,000.
Guest: Two hundred and twenty-five thousand. That must be a gorgeous place. Beautiful, beautiful, huge.
Prabhupāda: So you send to America.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: To America is all right? I send it every month to Rāmeśvara.
Prabhupāda: Los Angeles, yes. For deposit in account number I will give you.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: We will go and we will take care of all this this afternoon.
Prabhupāda: All right, keep it now, we are going. We shall come back and then later on. After coming back we shall give him.
Prabhupāda: Where you have received this?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Ṛṣabhadeva, president of Spiritual Sky Products.
Prabhupāda: President of?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Spiritual Sky in Los Angeles. He has come on a business trip. They were trying to negotiate buying incense sticks from Mysore, sandalwood, and Bangalore. So they are... Did you get those color proofs I sent you of Bhāgavata? Did you like? It's coming out quite nicely.
Prabhupāda: Not as good, not as good as foreign.
Prabhupāda: ...fruits, flowers, also grains, milk sufficient. In one farm, Philadelphia, they are producing so much milk that they are selling $1500 per month. And they've arranged so nice, and big tank. And the pipes regularly as they do in dairy farm. When it is not working, only hot water is passing through the pipes to keep them clean. And one cow, the milk bag is so big. He gives 102 pounds daily. Similarly, in France also we have got farm. New Orleans, Philadelphia, West Virginia, we have got four or five.
Kartikeya Mahadevia: San Diego near Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And all of them are successful. This time I installed Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Deity in France.
Kartikeya Mahadevia: Paris, near Paris.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Near Orleans.
Jayapatākā: This food distribution has been very important.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Jayapatākā: Now the price of rice has gone up by about eighty paisa. From two rupees to two-eighty. So the poor class of people, they are in a very bad situation. So now our attendance has gone up from twelve hundred to two thousand on that Saturday and Sunday, each day. So we have two shifts. So many people are coming that they come from ten o'clock in the morning and wait because otherwise they can't get a boat in time to cross the river. So then we were very surprised to read in a recent newsletter from LA that "They're going to restart the food relief." But we never knew it stopped. We never knew that they had stopped the food relief. We saw then that he said, "They're going to restart." But we never stopped, and we were very surprised to see that. And now they say...
Prabhupāda: Who said?
Jayapatākā: Rāmeśvara.
Gargamuni: To maintain this food relief from the centers only requires what? Fifteen hundred dollars a month. So little amount and so much service is done.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Gargamuni: Also another investigation, we're always asked, "Where is your headquarters?"
Jayapatākā: And then "Our headquarters is in India."
Gargamuni: It must be always stated, "Our headquarters are India." If we say "foreign," that means we are controlled by foreign. We must publish everywhere that our head...
Prabhupāda: No, we have mentioned headquarters Bombay?
Jayapatākā: We just said offices.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayapatākā: They think that Los Angeles is our headquarters.
Prabhupāda: That is for America.
Gargamuni: We explain like that.
Prabhupāda: But real headquarter here.
Gargamuni: I think if one letter is given that "We are purely Indian, that I am ācārya and they are simply helping me, they are not..."
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the fact.
Pradyumna: "They reportedly met also our deputy defense minister, J. B. Patnayak, who hails from Orissa. It is understood that Patnayak has asked the district magistrate of Purī to find land for ISKCON's Sanskrit university there. ISKCON is pursuing not only Kṛṣṇa, it has started taking interest in politics also. It has founded a political party in the United States called "In God We Trust" Party. It has already contested civic elections in Los Angeles and intends to put up candidates for the U.S. Congress." We didn't do anything in Los Angeles. Only in Georgia. All wrong, complete...
Prabhupāda: What is wrong there? In God We Trust, this party. Yes.
Prabhupāda: Brahmānanda was hesitating how 20,000 per month we shall consume.
Gargamuni: Yes, we were all afraid.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) I said, "Yes. You order. We shall consume." Then this Tamāla Kṛṣṇa, he helped.
Hari-śauri: He was in book distribution from the start.
Gargamuni: Yes. From Los Angeles. From their sales they were sending.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He gave impetus for distribution. Then we got encouragement. Other party, another party. Where those mimeograph machine gone?
Harikeśa: Two hundred thousand dollars monthly.
Prabhupāda: Two hundred thousand dollars monthly. (break) Nobody will be able to check it. He'll go on. That is Kṛṣṇa. Here is dictaphone. I work at night. I get up at half past twelve, one, and I write books. And daytime I'm engaged. And daily either ten page, twenty page written, that is sent to Los Angeles. You have seen our press? And they take care. How our books printed, have you got that film?
Prabhupāda: We have got branches in almost all important cities.
Krishna Modi: Ten or fifteen. Let them see so that they may be attracted and they may know each and every thing. Because here we know only by this thing. And then let us advertise about.
Prabhupāda: You take this paper. Make a list of important cities. Now suppose if you go from Delhi. So you can go first to Paris, Geneva, Rome, then London, Amsterdam, Stockholm. Then from London I think New York, Boston, Montreal, Canada. Then you go to the western side, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver. Go further, Honolulu.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Then you could go to the Pacific, Australia.
Prabhupāda: Ah yes.
Indian man (3): And now you will remain here in India for some time?
Prabhupāda: That I do not know. I, actually, now it is little troublesome for me to travel all the year.
Indian man (3): You are just gone from (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: Rest, if I rest then there may be... Because I am dealing with all neophytes. If I don't keep them alive by personal presence... Still they are doing nice. I have appointed twenty secretaries all over the world. I am training them. They are managing. Managing nicely. I have been in New York and Los Angeles and Hawaii, all big, big centers. London, Paris.
Prabhupāda: There are birds who can take away the elephant for eating. Such big birds. They can carry elephant like a small rat.
Caraṇāravindam: Is such a bird the bird that was a servant of Sītā?
Prabhupāda: And monkey-eating birds I have seen in Los Angeles. They go very high on the top of a tree and capture a monkey. And take him high and drop him. As soon as he falls he dies, then again comes down and eats it.
Caraṇāravindam: We need one of those birds here to capture these monkeys.
Prabhupāda: There are so many wonderful creations. That is God's inconceivable energy.
Prabhupāda: 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.
Devotee: La Cienega Blvd.
Interviewer: Can you give us the number how many temples are there in foreign countries?
Prabhupāda: I have established 102 temples. Small and big. Out of them, very big temples are in Los Angeles, in London, in Hawaii, Honolulu, in Detroit... And...
Haṁsadūta: New York, Chicago.
Prabhupāda: New York, Chicago.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So in New York the press is against us. But in Los Angeles it is going in our favor, he said (refers to report by Rāmeśvara). In Los Angeles they had kidnapped the best girl distributor. Now she has come back but ah...
Prabhupāda: So these things will happen.
Prabhupāda: (indistinct) ...that Kṛṣṇa will (indistinct) money.
Devotee: Also another thing, this is... You may remember when you were in Los Angeles last time, Kṛṣṇa-kanti and Mangalananda asked you if they could do this contemporary style music with Kṛṣṇa lyrics. So this is the very first copy. Actually there's not much to see it's just like any other album. This is the first test pressing.
Hari-śauri: He has a cassette which you can listen to some time if you want.
Prabhupāda: Yes, I can listen. Play it.
Devotee: Prabhupāda, this is some honey, this is from my wife. And this is from Viśakha, Yadubara's wife from Los Angeles. She asked us to... And this is from all the devotees in San Diego, this is ghee.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Guest: Cow ghee?
Devotee: Yes. They heard that you were in need of some ghee, so they have... (indistinct) (pause)
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Hari-śauri: Legally we haven't been stopped in any airport, I don't think.
Prabhupāda: Legally we have been stopped?
Jagadīśa: In Los Angeles, in Dallas and Atlanta.
Prabhupāda: Legally?
Hari-śauri: But that's only temporarily, I think.
Prabhupāda: What is the...?
Jagadīśa: It's a constant struggle.
Prabhupāda: Struggle must be there. You cannot stop it.
Prabhupāda: No, no, there is no need. It is simply... That is also mental concoction. Nowadays, if you go with coat-pant shaven headed, nobody will criticize you. It has become a practi... Russians, they used... That Krushchev I have seen. Bald head.
Hari-śauri: Yes, bald head.
Prabhupāda: And so many.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't have a śikhā, that's all.
Prabhupāda: Oh? It is practice only.
Akṣayānanda: No, it's nice. We shouldn't be afraid to do that. Then it will become more and more accepted.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That's so timely. Once we start diverting, like on these records I was thinking after you told me not to do it. We started. Now there's so many. Everyone's into records. Everyone wants to diversify into so many other areas. There's no end to it.
Jagadīśa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, when you were in Los Angeles you heard that new record by Kṛṣṇakānti.
Hari-śauri: This pop music? This tape that you just got of that Western style music.
Jagadīśa: Apparently in a new BBT newsletter which just came yesterday afternoon there's a statement by Rāmeśvara that you were asked whether this record should be played in the temples and you said, "Why not in the temples?" Hari-śauri thought that you said "not in the temples," Rāmeśvara said...
Prabhupāda: No, no. Not in the temple. I... I want... If the wordings are all right, so there is no... If there is no mistake in the set-up of the wording, the change of musical tune, that is not harmful.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This one tape that Alex has made, he gave me a copy in Bombay to listen. I just played it...
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa, this vibration, you can make in different tune. We are already doing that.
Hari-śauri: We're talking about these songs that they are writing.
Jagadīśa: Philosophy songs.
Prabhupāda: And therefore we have to see the words.
Hari-śauri: Like this "caterpillar had a change of heart."
Jagadīśa: If the words are all right, then they can be played in the temple?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Because no one can hear the words. It's the pop music that people hear.
Akṣayānanda: Actually the words are just like modern pop songs. You can't tell really what it means. I suggested to those people. I said, "Why don't you put music to Prabhupāda's books? Take the words straight from your..."
Hari-śauri: No, Prabhupāda's approved this method for attracting karmīs.
Akṣayānanda: Yes, not for devotees.
Hari-śauri: But the thing is once you become a devotee, we don't need...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: We have support from very high circle. Scholar, priest, even father, mother, parent. Many old gentlemen come to congratulate me, "Swamiji, it is our great fortune that you have come to this country." In Los Angeles they have been very nice. Many parents used to come.
Prabhupāda: Private house. This is organized function you ask them a place to show our books. If they deny then we don't go. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)
Rādhā-vallabha: This one parade in Los Angeles, the Rose Bowl, they distribute thousands of books on this one day. What happens is all the karmīs get out there, sometimes the night before, at least very, very early in the morning. They line both sides of the road.
Prabhupāda: To see?
Hari-śauri: In England also they have a woman Prime Minister for the first time.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: She's a leader of the opposition.
Hari-śauri: No, she was the Prime Minister as well. She's the opposition now.
Prabhupāda: Woman is acting as police in England.
Rādhā-vallabha: In Los Angeles there was this one man at the temple that we suspected that he had a gun. So we called the police. It is a difficult job for police when someone has a gun. They always send the best men. So a car pulled up and a woman got out, and she crept up on the man to arrest him and the men stayed in the car.
Prabhupāda: Everything is becoming a farce. (pause) What is that?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: These are just some letters I'm sending with Rādhā-vallabha to Los Angeles.
Rādhā-vallabha: When we reprint the Kṛṣṇa Book trilogy this year, the hardbound, I was wondering, could we put more pictures in the second and third volumes? Not changing, but additional.
Prabhupāda: Why increase cost?
Prabhupāda: ...to wait means that waste of time.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. But Bhagavad-gītā, we're doing one lakh copies now, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is our first experiment with the paper manufacturer here. He's making paper for us exactly like American, especially for us. So I've given Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto, Part Two. We are printing ten thousand. Four thousand we'll print on this government paper, softbound, for cheap distribution, and six thousand on expensive American paper, hardbound, for export, because we will be able to export it for a dollar forty, which is two dollars below what Los Angeles charges. Substantial... So as an experiment, I only wanted to... I've ordered paper for six thousand expensive hardbound. Let's see how the paper is. If it's good, then we'll use the same paper for one lakh. Before taking a risk on one lakh, I wanted to experiment on a smaller run.
Trivikrama: So I'm also thinking about printing again. Now we have just enough...
Prabhupāda: We can print here.
| Page Title: | Los Angeles (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Alakananda |
| Created: | 29 of Jun, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=210, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 210 |