Machine (Conversations 1976)

Expressions researched:
"machine" |"machine's" |"machinery" |"machines"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 2, 1976, Madras:

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning of their radios? Do you think that their radios are perfect? Do you think so? What, Acyutānanda Mahārāja? Radio perfect? It is not perfect.

Acyutānanda: And I think the demigods and higher beings, they can disturb all their radio attempts.

Prabhupāda: No, apart from that...

Acyutānanda: Because they don't want trespassers.

Prabhupāda: ...how you can accept their radio machine are perfect? Because it is made by imperfect person, so how it can be perfect? If the manufacturer is imperfect, how he can make perfect machine? Nothing is perfect.

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: This egotism is the root cause of suffering. Discuss all these things amongst yourselves and preach and inform these rascals, so-called civilized scientists and philosopher. That is preaching. We have to present the truth in such a way that they will be convinced, "Yes." Within fifteen minutes the plane in Arabia, fifty-three men fell. Within fifteen.... It takes fifteen minutes to die. That's all. Where is your independence? You have invented so many nice machine, but when there is order from superior, "You nonsense, your machine.... You die immediately," what you can do? So why don't you accept there is superior? Hm? Why do they not accept? What is the reasoning? You cannot say?

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1976, Nellore:

Indian man: (break) ...Caitanya-caritāmṛta, all these things, Swamijī has brought out very vividly. I have read only introduction and some portion only. But what Caitanya Mahāprabhu had ordered, ordained, is taking place. It is very vividly brought out. (break) ...behind using the machinery, cars, airplanes, other things also, I think very convincing, Swamiji, when you say that they are meant only for Kṛṣṇa's service, and if it is dedicated for that, it is used. Otherwise it is misused, abused.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. That is bhakti. Just like you are walking, some money falls down from your pocket. Then you forgot. And somebody, "Oh, here is some money"; he takes it. And somebody takes it but offers to you. Who is the better man?

Indian man: The person offering.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: No, they do not know what is nature. Nature is an instrument, and there must be an operator. So that they do not know, the operator. Just like a child is thinking the motorcar is going automatically. He does not know there is a driver. The child sees that the airplane is flying. They think it is automatically going. And there is a pilot, he does not know. Similarly, these rascals, they are studying nature, but nature is an instrument only. It is being operated by Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). They have practical experience that without operator a machine cannot work. In the huge machine, how it is working unless there is operator? That they do not know.

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like this earth also. According to them it is going around the sun. But we don't feel anything. According to them. And according to..., it is running at the rate of twenty-five thousand miles, and if you, in airplane, it is going six hundred miles per hour, and still there is so many jerking. That is your creation, tiny machine. And God's creation, it is moving. Even it is moving, you cannot understand. That is perfect creation. Pūrṇam. The word is pūrṇam idam, everything perfect. Pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate (Iso Invocation). Because God is all-perfect, whatever He has created, they are all-perfect, relatively, all perfect. Just like this earth. It is all-perfect.

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And there will be escalator to take them to different planetary system. Mention there.

Bhavānanda: My father... In those planetariums, they use a machine in the center that shoots out light. My father helped to invent that, so we could probably...

Prabhupāda: So bring your father. Father and son, both together. He is... Where he is?

Bhavānanda: In America.

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now, when the breathing is stopped, why don't you manufacture some machine that breathing will come again? Why you cannot do it? Everyone knows it is air. Put some machine within and let there be breathing. Tell me why you cannot do it?

Mahendra: They have some machines like that, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Then you are another rascal. Who is this rascal?

Mahendra: They have some machines.

Prabhupāda: And don't spoil time like that, "They have got a machine." What is that machine?

Mahendra: Machines are not living.

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And don't create unnecessary talks. What is that machine? They have a machine? What is that nonsense machine? Eh? Who knows that machine? Eh?

Guru-kṛpā: It's called an air respirator.

Prabhupāda: But can it bring life?

Guru-kṛpā: No.

Prabhupāda: Then what is the use of that machine? What is the use of that machine? Everyone knows that it is air. Now air is stopped. That is my reject(?). Bring that air again. There is ample air. Bring that machine. Simply... Similarly, if you analyze the whole body, it is confirmed, you will find these five elements, that 's all, earth, water, air, fire, sky. That's all.

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Then what is that life? That is the question. That life is soul. You have to accept. (break) ...car stop. Some machine broken. As soon as the machine is placed, now the motor car is fit for running, but not for the machine, but for the driver. When the driver is not there, you cannot create or purchase a driver. That is not possible. You can repair the machine, but without driver the machine will not run. So why they should be blind about this fact? What is this knowledge, advancement of knowledge? The body is created. If it is accepted-body is created by these material elements—now create another body. Just like dollmakers make a body, you also make a body, very beautiful woman, and give it life. Why they cannot do it?

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is presented. This is the beginning, that "Your knowledge is imperfect. You are believing your eyes, but that is not perfect knowledge. You have to see with knowledge." Paśyati jñāna... Paśyanti jñāna-cakṣuṣā. Śāstra-cakṣuṣāt. That is seeing, not seeing like a child. A child is seeing, a motor car is running, a airplane is running. He thinks a wonderful machine, but it is not the machine. It is the pilot. It is the driver. A child cannot see it. The father knows that it is not the machine. The machine may be however perfectly made; it cannot run. There must be a perfect pilot also. Just like we get on aeroplane. There are hundreds of men. If there is any trouble, then the pilot can stop it, not the hundreds of men.

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes, for the rascals. Otherwise they will pollute the innocent girls. The innocent girls.... That is the policy of the Western civilization, that "Let the karmīs enjoy new, new girls and be energetic to produce machine." This is the European civilization, American civilization. Because the karmīs, unless they have sufficient sex intercourse, they cannot work, so this is the policy: "Let all the girls remain open." They.... "Let them use and produce atomic bomb. Show your brain." The.... Just like the marriage.... According to Vedic civilization, marriage is allowed to the karmīs. It is not that marriage allowed to the sannyāsī or brahmacārī. The karmīs require sex. Therefore.... Why marriage is allowed to the gṛhastha? Why not to the brahmacārī, vānaprastha or sannyāsī? Why it is not recommended? Because the karmīs require that enlivenment. Therefore they are allowed to marry. So in the European civilization it is only karmīs. There is no question of brahmacārī, vānaprastha or sannyāsa. There is no such idea. Therefore they want new, new girls. And that they have kept, this artificial law.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: So if we invite them to see it, that how they are helping efficiently with latest machine.... Therefore it has been possible. Otherwise while in India with great hardship I could publish three books only.

Morning Walk -- April 16, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Anyway, you analyze. Just like you take breathing. Breathing is taken as the life, breathing. When the breathing is stopped, then there is no life. So analyze this breathing. What is this breathing? It is air. So when breathing is stopped, then you can take air. There are so many persons here. And by some machine you can put within the heart or somewhere. Let the air go on passing. But that is not possible. Therefore immediately the air is rejected. Then take the bone, the muscle. Everything will be rejected. There is no life. So this is analytical study. And then what remains? That soul. Very common thing.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Then what is the.... I say they're nonsense, rascals. They say that there is no.... And what is their knowledge? We don't give any value to their knowledge. Kṛṣṇa says clearly, hṛd-deśe 'rjuna. And this body is just like a yantra, machine. So as machine means, moving machine means it must have wheel, it must have sitting place.... Everything is there, machine.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That would mean that even the plants and trees also have a heart.

Prabhupāda: Everything. That is proved scientifically. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose has proved. There is a part(?). What is that? Spi...? Begins the word, the machine, the record?

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No, no, the machine is called some special name.

Hariśauri: The same idea as cardiograph.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Spectograph?

Prabhupāda: Spectograph, yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Has to do with light?

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, it records how it is moving, how it is going up and down. So that has been proved. The machine is hanged in the tree, and the tree is cut, and immediately makes a mark. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose has discovered the machine.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: That is the point. That is the point. We have to understand this point. If we want to become more than the dog, you must find out in which sense we are more than the dog. That sense is understanding.... That is.... In Sanskrit word it is said, ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am Brahman. I am not this matter." That is knowledge. Actually knowledge begins from that point, that "I am not this body." Just like a big 747 plane is running on, but there is the intelligent pilot. If somebody says, "There is no pilot. It is flying automatically. The machine is supported," is it a correct?

Mike Barron: No. Does Kṛṣṇa consciousness make you aware of this, though?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, when one understands that this big machine is useless without the pilot. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Mike Barron: How long.... It's hard to say. How long does it take for...

Prabhupāda: It takes immediately, provided a man is intelligent. Just like the same principle: If a man is intelligent, he can immediately understand that the machine is not important; the pilot is important.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you take this body as everything, then analyze part by part. Just I was talking about breathing. People generally say, "The breathing is stopped; therefore the man is dead." And that can be replaced, breathing. Breathing? What is this breathing? It is simply air. Just like in tire tube, when the air is lost, you can immediately replace it and take it into work. Similarly, if breathing is lost, therefore the man is.... You can replace it. You are big, big scientist. You replace it. Just find out some machine which will "Hans! Phans!" just like bellows. That's not possible.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Carol Jarvis: Ah, yes. Yes, I have read it. (background conversation-about filming? Machine makes whirring sound)

Prabhupāda: It is breathing? (more background conversation, machines whirring, etc.)

Carol Jarvis: Your Divine Grace, what prompted you to start the Kṛṣṇa movement?

Prabhupāda: Well, the scientists make research. One does wrong thing to do that. So our process is to carry out the order of the higher authorities. So my Guru Mahārāja, my spiritual master, asked me to do this. Therefore...

Carol Jarvis: But you led a rather normal life—before this you were married. You were a businessman.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is the message, that people are under the impression that one is this body, but that is not the fact. The soul, or the man, he is within the body. Just like you are not your, this shirt and coat. You are within the shirt and coat. Similarly, the living entity, the living being, is within this body, the gross body and the subtle body. The subtle body is composed of mind, intelligence and ego, and the gross body is a composition of these material things, earth, water, air, fire, like that, five elements. Altogether, eight elements. This is inferior energy. And the superior energy is within these eight elements, five gross and three subtle. So we have to study about that thing. Just like I asked that boy that "You can manufacture a huge machine, flying in the sky, 747, but why don't you manufacture the pilot?"

Carol Jarvis: Thank you. (background conversation about filming, recording)

Prabhupāda: So that is intelligence, that if in spite of your manufacturing such a huge machine, without the help of a pilot you cannot fly it.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No, you note down that we are asking that you are so expert in manufacturing big, big machine. Why not manufacture a pilot? That is my question.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Now, suppose I am old man. If by some medical process, if I am given a young man's body to be more enthusiastic for working, is it not benefit for me? Similarly, in old age, when the body is changed, he gets another new body. That is a profit. There is no loss. The old body, it cannot work nicely. It cannot move nicely. Just old car.... If your old car is changed into new car, will you not accept it? So it is just like machine, car.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The machine, I forgot to turn it..., one knob down. I wanted to tape what you were saying because.... (break) We find actually it's true that when we try to speak philosophy sometimes to unwilling persons, they take that we are trying to convert them.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- April 30, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Read it carefully. As the small soul has entered.... Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). This is also a small universe. The same elements are working, but the soul is the prime factor. Similarly, this gigantic body. Athavā bahunaitena kiṁ jñātena.... Viṣṭabhya aham idaṁ kṛtsnam. "The kṛtsnam, the total material energy, millions of universes like that, that is being maintained by Me because I have entered in it in My fragmental portion." Same principle. As I, the individual soul, I am.... because I have entered this body, the body is working so nicely. It looks beautiful; it looks fresh. It is machine. The machine is working very nicely so long the pilot or the driver is there. Similarly, where is the difficulty to understand this universal affair? If we accept the same principle, that "I am a small fragmental portion of Kṛṣṇa. I have entered this body. This body is working so nicely.... Similarly, because Kṛṣṇa has entered as Mahā-Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, therefore it is working."

Room Conversation -- April 30, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are so many verses. Another verse is mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ (BG 9.10). "The prakṛti is not important. Material energy is not important. My supervision is important." Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakraḥ. The sun is rising and setting by whose order? Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam aham... This is to be understood. And if one understands that because the soul is there within the body, therefore the body is working so wonderfully, then he can very easily understand there must be a soul of this universe. How he can deny it? How he can say that it is working automatically? There is no such experience, working automatically. I have given several times the example: the 747, wonderful aeroplane machine, but that is not important. The important is the pilot who is pushing the button and it is, in such big sky, it will stay balanced; in balance it is flying in six hundred miles speed, onh-onh-onh-onhh. (imitates sound of plane flying). And as soon a little.... Finished. So it is a fact. Why the security checking? Because sometimes these, what is that, hi.... hi...?

Devotee: Highjackers.

Prabhupāda: Highjacks, they attack the pilot. They're not attacking the passengers. (end)

Room Conversation -- May 1, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: So with this instrument he's manipulating this machine, as exactly the pilot, with so many electronics, machine, he's working the flying of the plane. Where is the difficulty to understand? And this is, body is a machine. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhū.... Bhrāmayan, wandering. The aeroplane is wandering. This machine is wandering. It is also going. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ. Sometimes up, sometimes down. Huh? Find out this. (devotees look for verse) Same aeroplane, going up and down. Two wings, this hand, like this.

Room Conversation -- May 1, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: So same thing: if the pilot is not expert, then goes down to the lowest, finished. Adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. If the pilot is third class, instead of going up, he goes down, and everything is spoiled. So everything on the pilot. The machine is not important. The machine can go up if the pilot knows how to do it. And the machine can go down. Actually, it is happening. This landing point is very dangerous. If the pilot cannot handle very nicely, immediately smashed. The crash takes place while going up and coming down, generally. That is due to mismanagement of the pilot. When in the sky it is regular speed and balance, it is going nicely. There is no crisis. All crises take place while coming down and going up. Leaving the land and coming the land. I have seen sometimes, they clap as soon as they.... (Prabhupāda claps his hands. Devotees laugh) "The danger is over." So ūrdhvam and adhaḥ. Madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ. So in this way, you have to place the subject matter, that the living entity, the soul, is the important thing within this body. Because he's struggling. On account of his ignorance, he's struggling. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). This is his position.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That's all right, general. But you know how to make general mass of people happy. That example we give, that the whole body.... You can make the whole body happy simply by supplying food to the stomach. That is the best way. And if you want to make happy every part of the body, individual, that will never be successful. You must know where to touch. Just like the huge machine is going on by the expert manipulation of the pilot. He is pushing one.... Works. Immediately the plane becomes.... It is.... So you must know where to touch.

Morning Walk -- May 25, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Appetite is increased on account of the fire. The fire creates different secretions: blood. This is a big machine. It is mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā, yantra. How this yantra is working? Electricity, everything, air.

Devotee: Are persons who are trying to cut down appetite, they should eat cool foods?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee: Persons who are trying to eat less and less for spiritual life, they should...

Prabhupāda: No, less is not spiritual. Whatever you want to eat, your food must be.... Machine is going on by the order of God. It is not after your order. But if you violate laws, then it is disturbed. The more that the fire is disturbed, oblations to the fire—svāhā—that is eaten by God. (indistinct) Grains are offered, fruits are offered, in the fire yajña. It is through the fire, so as the part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, we have got little fire, we eat through that. In the fire you put tons of grains, tons of ghee—everything will be consumed.

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No. Here, just like something's happening ten thousand miles away. You can record it by modern machine.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: He wants to become a machine.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, he'd rather be a machine and be in Kṛṣṇa's service.

Prabhupāda: No, no, machine we are, but still there is independence. That means you are not absolutely independently, relatively. The state, you say we are American-independent. But that does not mean you can do whatever you like. As soon as you misuse, you are arrested, punished. Even the president is not independent. As soon as he misused his power, drag him, "Come out." What to speak of you.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No. I..., my work is going on. By traveling also, I carry this machine. Dicta..., dictaphone. I dictate, and then my assistants, they write, transcribe, and then it is..., it goes to the Press. In this way my work is.... (noise comes from outside)

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, if you have got suitable machine you can go.

Bhūdhara: Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhūdhara: They now say that they're going to attempt to create a planet that has perfect air, and trees, and they're only charging...

Prabhupāda: Another bogus. Another bluff. So be satisfied with their bluffs. That's all.

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

Rāmeśvara: And they thought that "If I pull out the electrical plug on this machine, then it will be murder." She was already dead, and the doctors fixed this machine to keep her heart.... Now they were afraid of pull out the plug.

Prabhupāda: Not dead. Not dead. Dead cannot be continued by electricity. That is not possible.

Hari-śauri: Spirit soul was still there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The soul was still there, but not in that condition.

Rāmeśvara: So then there was no movement, no thinking, everything was...

Prabhupāda: Unconscious, that may be.

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have nothing to give. Simply denial, how it will act?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes when I talk with Christians, I tell them that "The reason that you're not feeling any bliss is that you're not following the way Jesus lived. We are living like him. He was wearing robes, he was living simply. But you, you're living in big fancy buildings with so many washing machines and this machine, and that your whole life is complicated."

Prabhupāda: Grievous folly is that they are disobeying the Ten Commandments.

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Practically come to the... 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? Why do you give so much importance, who is flying or walking on the water? Better utilize the time to realize God. Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). This is called in the śāstra, that anything you do, if it does not awaken your God consciousness, then it is śrama eva hi kevalam. It is simply working for nothing, waste of time. Śrama eva hi kevalam. (aside:) Hmm, give him some prasāda. And others, what about? No, you can take this... Prasāda. Others, them also.

Room Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: And our Ford, Ambarīṣa Mahārāja, he also...

Hari-śauri: They have some fresh pineapples and a juicing machine just across the road, so someone has gone for some now. It'll be five minutes.

Prabhupāda: You have seen the new publication?

Kīrtanānanda: Which?

Prabhupāda: Of Bhāgavatam.

Kīrtanānanda: I was just looking at it. He was saying that you had two copies, and I said, "Ask for one."

Prabhupāda: Yes, you may take.

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

Prabhupāda: Barbians, ah, barbarians. In the jungle, the barbarians, they do not know how to produce food, how to utilize milk. They can kill animals. That is also not like this, by machine you kill thousands of cows. They did not know this. For their simple eating they might have killed some animals, not particularly cow. Perhaps they were not killing cows because they were getting milk. Other, nonimportant animals. But what is this civilization? I learned that in South Africa, before killing the cows, they take the last drop of milk, and then it is sent to the slaughterhouse. They are so expert that if there is still little milk, take it before her death. Is that civilization, that you are taking milk...? So Vedic civilization is as you are drinking milk from the cow, she's your mother. Actually she's mother. But what is this civilization, killing mother? Hm? Is that civilization? Take from mother whatever she can deliver up to the last drop of milk, and then kill her. Advanced civilization, scientific. Killing scientifically. This is not civilization.

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

Rāmeśvara: No, when the machine, when the conscious, when the body is broken like that, she cannot become self-realized.

Rādhāvallabha: She's active on the mental platform.

Prabhupāda: She's covered with the body, but she's different from the body. Just like you are covered by your dress, but you are different from the dress.

Room Conversation with Mother and Sons -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Both of them are good, mother and son. What happened to that machine? (break) ...say there is no father, there is no God. A man who is speaking nonsense like this, he is born by a father. And where he gets the idea that without father the child is born?

Hari-śauri: Doctor Frog.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: I saw some machine purchased, some, for publishing some...

Jagadīśa: Printing machine.

Prabhupāda: Printing. Why this is going on?

Jagadīśa: Those were purchased before I got involved.

Prabhupāda: That means money was spent unnecessarily, without any tangible result. Now Dayānanda left. He was there.... Without any consideration, he left. So what to do with all these things?

Jagadīśa: I think I have it under control. I have plans...

Prabhupāda: You see these two things especially, that they.... English is their mother tongue, mother language. They can easily become English scholar very easily. And Sanskrit language is no difficulty. Read and write, read and write, then he will learn. Our education in Sanskrit was in college. Of course, I was the best student in my class of Sanskrit. I was standing first. But we are not like the so-called Sanskrit scholars.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Hari-śauri: I used to work on them, same thing. I was working where they pour the metal into ingots, into casings, and then when it solidifies they take a chunk of iron out, it's still white hot, and then they put it in ovens. And then after a while, when they need them, they take them out with big cranes and they put them on a series of rollers, and then it goes through a mill, what they call a mill. It's like a big mangling machine, and it crushes the steel ingot into plates, big plates. Then it goes along and it's cut and sent out. It cools down on big banks and it's sent out. So my job was, I was doing maintenance fitting on all those machines. On the rollers and on the cranes and on the big mills, like that. It was terrible. We used to work from two o'clock in the afternoon until ten o'clock at night, one shift, then from ten until six, and then from six until two.

Prabhupāda: Eight hours. Without any recreation?

Hari-śauri: Well, one break, for lunch. It was just indescribable. There's so much heat and fumes, and always covered in oil and grease, crawling around on your hands and knees to fix some machine.

Jagadīśa: All for the advantage of some wealthy man.

Prabhupāda: And after this hard labor, his only recreation is wine. Did you drink?

Hari-śauri: (laughs) Yes, we used to go straight from the steel works to the pub, public house.

Jagadīśa: I also worked in a factory for a while. Same thing. And people were always getting hurt.

Prabhupāda: You are not meant for that. (laughs)

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, any rascal thing. They made a good market. And British Empire means to sell their goods. And they, for that purpose, they became rich. Money was drawn from all parts, especially from India. Everything. Later on, gradually we came to understand. In Lucknow, because I was in medical business, so I saw one Japanese salesman was selling one medicine, one or two items, potassiodide. Do you know? No. Potassium iodide. And another, iodine. He was selling at four rupees, eight annas a pound. But we were accustomed to purchase English potassiodide and iodine, thirteen rupees a pound. That Howard's.... Very famous, Howard's chemicals, like that. They were selling. So I doubted that "How so much cheap this Japanese firm can supply?" And they used to advertise that all these Japanese goods are third class. Yes, "German goods are second class. Our goods, first class." So I inquired from the salesman, "How is it that you are supplying so cheap?" "They're supplying.... The price is the real price." "Now why they charge more?" "They purchase from us and pack and sell." There are many big chemical concerns in Germany. Germans are very good manufacturers, especially of chemicals, iron, machine. Still you find, all this Uher and, what is called, Gundsag?

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: They're all German. All first-class machine you'll find. This Mercedes motorcar, they're all German. They don't manufacture third-class thing. Everything they manufacture first class. Still, the Germans suffered so much, but when I was in Germany I saw they are very prosperous.

Morning Walk -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Hari-śauri: Machine.

Prabhupāda: Machine. Yes. You pay and get cigarette and tin can. There are many boxes like that on the street, public street. And they pass urine on the road. There is no restriction, standing apart.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: You have got some machine?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That makes solidified.

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

Prabhupāda: Now suppose these electric lights. So, crude form of light, we grow some castor seed, everything from the earth. This also you are getting from earth, petroleum, and running on machine, and electricity is generated. But really you are getting the impetus from the earth. As soon as the petroleum supply is stopped, everything stopped. But for this purpose you have to search out petroleum from the middle of ocean, boring. Therefore it is ugra-karma. The purpose is that you grow some castor seed, press it, get oil, put in any pot, and one wick, the light is there. So even understanding that you have improved the lighting system, but that is not the only necessity of my life. But to improve from the castor seed lamp, castor oil lamp, to this electricity, you have to work so hard.

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

Prabhupāda: That is our proposal. Our real business is how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. So simply for improving the condition of life, the necessities of life, if I forget my real business, is that intelligence? Therefore it is said duṣkṛtinaḥ. Kṛti means merit. But merit is being utilized for sinful activities. Take for example the meat-eaters. When man was... The uncivilized man is still there. In the uncivilized way they are living in the jungle. They require to eat something. So they stone over an animal going, and the animal dies, and then they eat. Now instead of killing the animal by stoning, if you have discovered scientific machine in the slaughterhouse to kill the animal, is that improvement? If you think this is advancement, "Now we have discovered very technical machine. Instead of stoning one animal killing, it takes so much time, hundreds and thousands of animals you can kill in one hour," do you think that is improvement? That is going on. They think this is improvement. When we were uncivilized, we were stoning some animal and killing and eating, now we are, business is the same—animal killing and eating. But we have improved the machine how to kill. This is going on.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. Less disease. Less brain taxing. Everything is less. So balance time, utilize for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And if you have got temple, it is very happy life. Just for your food work little, and balance time engage yourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is ideal life. Just see minute fibers on the flower. Can anyone manufacture this? So small fibers. And how brilliant it is. If you study only one flower, you become God conscious. There is a machine which we call nature. From that machine, everything is coming. But how machine is perfect? And who has discovered this machine?

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

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

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Intelligence. After destroying the wood, you use your intelligence to construct this house. You have intelligence, there is no doubt. Human being must have intelligence. But that intelligence is given to him for getting out of the clutches of birth, death, old age and disease. He's not utilizing that intelligence for that purpose, therefore duṣkṛtina. Intelligence he has got. We don't say that modern world, they are unintelligent, fools. No, they have got intelligence. But the intelligence is being utilized for duṣkarya, which he should not have done. Duṣkarya. Karya and duṣkarya-work and bad work. His intelligence was given so that he could get relief from these clutches of birth, death, old age and disease, but that he's not utilizing. He's opening factory and creating another bad atmosphere. Therefore duṣkṛtina. To open a factory requires intelligence. So many machine is working, that's all right, but how this intelligence being used? To keep man in a hellish condition of life. Therefore duṣkṛtina.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: You wanted to do, Kṛṣṇa gives you intelligence. You want to manufacture a very complicated machine, Kṛṣṇa will give you intelligence, "All right, do like this, manufacture." He'll not hear Kṛṣṇa, sarva dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). That is Kṛṣṇa's intelligence, that "You rascal, give up this all this." But he'll not do it. Want to do it, but Kṛṣṇa is so kind, "All right, do it, see the effect." Without Kṛṣṇa's help we cannot do anything.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: In Tokyo there are special machines you can get air, clean water.

Prabhupāda: Fresh, by cleaning the urine? Now they are doing that. Fresh water by cleaning urine. Fat derived from stool. Yes, German people did it. Fat extracted from stool. Scientifically. You can use it with butter very nicely on your bread. This is going on.

Marble Shop Visit -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: You have spent so much money. What is the price of this machine?

Kīrtanānanda: Well, there was a man, he was going out of business in Pittsburg, and I got a great deal of marble and all the machinery and everything for nine thousand dollars. It is very cheap.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Do you know how to work? No. (devotees laugh)

Kīrtanānanda: That is a heater, it's burning wood. (break to walking outside, kīrtana going on.) ...growing mung beans in this little field over there.

Prabhupāda: (kīrtana ended, conversation in car now) Jaya. ...horse? What do they do, plowing?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes. They do some plowing, they do some pulling wagons. Mostly they are used in the woods for logging.

Prabhupāda: Oh. This land is very nice. For mung beans?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, those are all mung beans up there. (break)

Children: Haribol!

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Kṛṣṇa Balarāma used to practice race with the birds.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Progress... The thing is that if you try progress vainly, what is the use of trying? If it is a fact you cannot change your destiny, so why should you try for that? Better... That is the... Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta. Therefore whatever energy you have got, you utilize it for understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Make it clear. Just like our society. We are, our main business is how to make advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are not very enthusiastic to open big, big factories and big, big money-earning machine. No. We are not interested. We'll be satisfied with the amount of happiness or distress, whatever we are destined. Let us utilize our energy for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is the point. So the Vedic civilization is meant for realization of God. Viṣṇur aradhyate. So they try for that. And now, at the present moment.... Actually, the varṇāśrama-dharmi, they never tried for economic development. You'll find in India still, thousands of men taking bath in the Ganges. In the Kumbhamela... You have been in Kumbhamela?

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: There are so many varieties of life, so we have to accept one of them by Kṛṣṇa's desire, Kṛṣṇa's arrangement. Kṛṣṇa says, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He is situated in everyone's heart. He's observing everything. So He orders that "Give him a body like this." Who can check it? Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). This body is a machine. The machine is given by material nature. Today you may be a very big man, and by your activities, asuric activities, you are so condemned that you have to accept a lower-grade life, a fox, sly fox. "You are very sly to spend others' money in moon excursion.

Interview with Mike Darby -- June 30, 1976, Wheeling, W. Virginia:

Prabhupāda: Not only that: if you are a sane man, you analyze your body. Now find out where is life. Beginning analysis is the breathing. You take... Now a man is dead. Somebody says, "Now, because his breathing is stopped, therefore he is dead." So what is this breathing? It is simply a little air. So put some machine, and the air may come and go and give him life. Take anything, breathing, then you take blood, then you take skin, then you take muscle, then you take bone, then take your stool, urine, find out life. Is it possible? Then why do you say that life is combination of chemicals? You take this blood, urine and stool, what is called, bone and muscle and air, what is combination, and produce another man. So they are talking this nonsense, and nonsense people are accepting. And they are being paid for, high salary, for talking this nonsense at the cost of the taxpayer.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: No? Kīrtanānanda said "It is inhabitable." Ten years ago I said there's no use going there. It is childish, waste of money. But who hears about us? We know moon planet is inhabited by high-class living entities. (laughs) (sarcastically:) And they will allow these rascals to go by their machine.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: Strawberry and mango and this and that. They make it with some kind of ice cream machine.

Prabhupāda: Hmm? This is not from machine?

Hari-śauri: No, this is from machine.

Pradyumna: You first made ice cream in New York, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Someone told me that in 26 Second Avenue, did you make..., you made them ice cream when it was very hot?

Prabhupāda: Hot?

Pradyumna: It was hot, no, the weather was hot, so you made.

Prabhupāda: No, you can make ice cream in this, what is called, refrigerator. You can make.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: They make this money-making machine. They do not know the money will automatically come you are sincere. You haven't got to make it a machine. Money Kṛṣṇa will send. But they have no faith in Kṛṣṇa. They have faith in their own ability. "Yes, we shall earn money in this way, by showing the Deity." They don't recognize Kṛṣṇa's everything. They think "By high-court judgement, if we capture this place, then money will come."

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes. As he desired, so he got a form. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). The form is offered by the Supreme Absolute Truth, as he desires. Just like the cloth has no form, but as the customer desires, the tailor gives a form suitable to his desire. Similarly, material world means we have got varieties. In the spiritual world also we have got varieties. Because we are originally of varieties of form, we are getting these varieties of body, being influenced by the modes of material nature. So I'm desiring that if I get such body, I can eat even stool. So God gives you, "All right, you take this body. Become a pig and eat stool." This is going on. Why? Your desiring. You eat, actually. So īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He's friendly, He's sitting in everyone's heart, and the living entity is desiring. So bhrāmayan. Desiring means he wants to go here and there. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni (BG 18.61). He gives a particular type of yantra, machine. This body is machine. Body is machine, everyone accepts. This is a machine. If we want to go to India, we ride on a machine, airplane, and go there. Similarly, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni. We want varieties of life, and God gives us a particular machine to ride on and travel, go to heaven, go to hell, become a dog, become a cat, become a demigod, become a tree. This is going on. Transmigration of the soul. God gives us a particular type of body, and we change from one machine to another. This is transmigration.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is different thing. Machine..., we have said that the body is the machine. Then all mechanical arrangement may not be the same in many machines. But it is a machine.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: How can we prove that the personality...

Prabhupāda: This is the proof. Consciousness developed and the symptoms are there. Just like we are studying this. Our consciousness is developed. This discussion is not possible by the animals, although it has got the all life symptom. Therefore because our consciousness is developed, we can inquire. Therefore in the human form of life it is the only business to inquire about the Absolute. Now, athāto brahma jijñāsā. The animals, they can inquire where is some food, where is some stool. That much. They have no other power. But when one becomes..., gets this machine of human form of body... The Vedānta axiom is "Now it is the time for inquiring about the Absolute Truth." Athāto brahma jijñāsā. That is real human life, when he inquires about the Absolute Truth.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Now this experiment, another interpretation of these material scientists is that they claim that this experiment disproved the vital theory. But on other hand, actually, the opposite is true, that he proved that there is a vital theory, rather, that spirit must be there. That was actually proved by this experiment also. But the mentality of these scientists are so demoniac that they twist the truth around... (break) RNA is a big molecule and that is actually transferred from this DNA molecule. DNA molecule, they call it the master molecule from which everything comes, all the molecules. Now if we see this carefully, we can see at every step that there is a specific direction and information without which this whole machinery will break down.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). Find out this verse. Vedaiś ca sarvair... So "If you want to acquire knowledge how these molecules are working, so you must know it is coming from Me, the direction is coming from Me." You are waiting, wherefrom this direction is coming. Kṛṣṇa says "This direction is coming from Me." Mattaḥ, "from Me." Then the Absolute Truth, it is recognized.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: So we'd like to argue that this requires a very large amount of information to specify this thing, and so the simple natural laws couldn't account for this. On the other hand, it's very reasonable to suppose that an intelligent designer can account for things like that. These protein structures that Svarūpa Dāmodara was pointing out, it's not just any old structure, but it performs a very specific function within the cell, just like a little automatic machine of some kind. So we'd like to argue that the chance and molecular forces theory won't explain things like this, but to say that there is an intelligent designer would be a sensible explanation.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: It is a machine manufactured by the material nature under the order of Kṛṣṇa. So actually it is not my body, it is Kṛṣṇa's body. Kṛṣṇa has given us. He has given you a particular type of body, He has given me a particular type of body, so many. Yantra, machine. Just like on a machine, motorcar, we sit down and travel here and there. So we wanted to travel in a certain way so we require some machine, and Kṛṣṇa has given us this machine manufactured by material nature. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ suyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). So Kṛṣṇa is within the core of heart of everyone. He knows what I want. He's giving us facilities. We wanted to enjoy this material world, and He's still giving direction, "All right, you want to get this facility, sit down on it and travel as you like." So we are getting different machines. Sometimes the human body machine, sometimes dog machine, sometimes cat machine, sometimes demigod machine. We are desiring all these things. American machine, Indian machine. When you are in Indian machine you are thinking "I am Indian. My business is to satisfy Indian interests." You Americans are thinking "This is American machine; it should be used for America's benefit."

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Mr. Loomis: Is it better to have a human body as a machine to use than a cat's body?

Prabhupāda: Certainly, in the sense that you can utilize for higher purposes. Just like you have got this human form of body. Therefore you are sitting here to hear me. The dog has no such facility. The dog has got the same legs, hands or mouth and tongue, and so on, so on, in a different way. But it has no capacity to hear about spiritual advancement of life. Therefore the human body should be engaged not simply for sense gratification. Kāmasya nendriya-prītir (SB 1.2.10). Find out this verse. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. This is the business, tattva-jijñāsā. Tattva-jijñāsā means to inquire about the Absolute Truth. That is the only business.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Mr. Loomis: For this machine?

Prabhupāda: All other business subordinate. That is only, because you have got this body, material body, it requires little rest, little sense gratification, little eating, little sleeping. We don't say stop it completely. That is not possible. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya, as far as it is required. As little as possible. That is spiritual advancement. If we make our progressive life engaged in understanding Kṛṣṇa instead of devoting in these unnecessary things, that is real life. That is real human life. The Vedic civilization is that. We find Vyāsadeva writing so exalted books, but life was very simple. People are, now in the modern civilization, people are accustomed only to the comforts of the body. Not for spiritual advance. That is the defect of modern civilization.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: No, just like a machine, it can be complicated. But as soon as you put the plug, gada-gada-gada-gada comes. But the electricity is not complicated, the machine is complicated.

Rūpānuga: So it doesn't work unless there is some....

Prabhupāda: Without electricity it does not work. But the machine is complicated, not the electricity.

Rūpānuga: One thing is that the machine, in this example, gets complicated or it becomes...

Prabhupāda: Complicated means it is made in different parts with matter, that's all. But it cannot work without the electric power.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Just like electricity. Electricity, when it is connected with the machine, it works. The machine is complicated.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But it could be said that the machine is actually independent of the electricity.

Prabhupāda: No, how it is independent? Without electricity it has no value.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It has no value, but it's still existing.

Prabhupāda: Existing, that is valuable?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But machine is touched by a person. So that makes a...

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is an example, that here is electricity, power, and here is machine. The machine is complicated. The electricity is not complicated.

Hari-śauri: But if there's no electricity, then there's no need for a complicated machine.

Prabhupāda: You can see it is complicated. Even a typewriter machine, it is complicated.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: This machine is the same without electricity or no electric. But with electricity it works, and without electricity it is useless.

Hari-śauri: But isn't a complicated body...

Prabhupāda: It is complicated already. When it is touched with electric power it works. And when it is not touched with electricity... The electricity is not complicated, this thing itself is complicated.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Just like you want to do something, different machine, but the power is the same. You want to, we use a dictaphone or a typewriter, you want to use a, so many, so many... The complication is of the matter, but the electricity is the same. Either this machine or that machine.

Rūpānuga: In mathematics...

Prabhupāda: Don't bring mathematics, try to understand. You have got different machine for different purposes. But without electricity they are useless.

Hari-śauri: So the cause is very simple, but the effect is complicated.

Prabhupāda: Not effect. It has nothing to do. If you want to work for a certain purpose, you require such and such machine. So different purposes, different machines. But the power is the same. It is a simple thing. Why don't you understand? You push the electric power for this heater and same electric power for this cooler. This is the difference of the machine. The power is the same. Either it is acting as cooler or heater. The refrigerator is used, the same electric power. And the heater is used, same electric power. It is a question of difference of the machine. Electricity is the same. The matter is complicated. Spirit is not complicated.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Becoming entangled in the machine. Because he has forgotten his spiritual identity. He thinks "With this machine I can help myself." That is going on.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Devotee (1): They've convinced us that these machines are accurate.

Prabhupāda: How it is accurate? It is manufactured by you. You are a fool.

Devotee (1): But some things they say, like the rays...

Prabhupāda: They say, they may say, but first of all, what is the position of the conditioned soul? Four defects. You must commit mistakes, you must be illusioned, his senses are imperfect, and he's a cheater. These are the four defects of conditioned souls. So how the conditioned soul can give perfect knowledge?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is our conclusion.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Devotee (1): They've convinced us by their machines.

Prabhupāda: That machine means, their machine. Again you are bringing the same argument. What is value of machine? The machine is made by a cheater. Imperfect senses, how it is perfect?

Devotee (1): But some machines work, though, like the radio, the TV...

Prabhupāda: Work to some extent, that much credit you can take.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Go, you have got... You have seen... Go to all the planets. Where can you go? Why you make attempt for sending... (indistinct). At night we see millions of planet. Go there. This is material, there is no question of spiritual world. Go there. If you've got any machine. Why you attempt? Go, as you go from here to London, go there. We can see there is... Why there is attempt? That means your instrument is also insufficient. And you are very proud of your having instrument. Where is that instrument, go with that instrument. Imperfect. Everything is imperfect.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That we already admitted. That I can see ten feet, let me credit, take credit for that. But why shall I say, "I can see the whole universe." What is this nonsense? Speak the truth. "Now we have manufactured machine, and this, I have calculation that..." All talking nonsense. I say it is not possible for you to see beyond ten feet. Why you are claiming that you can see the whole sky? That is our protest. You can see ten feet, take that credit, that much. If somebody manufactures the electric lamp, all right. Take this. But if he says, "I can manufacture the sun." Then he is to be beaten with shoes. Talking nonsense. You take this credit, that you have manufactured light in electric bulb, that's all right. But why you claim that, "I can manufacture the sun"? That is their claim, defying God. Because we are explaining God consciousness, therefore we have protest. Otherwise let them move(?), all nonsense (indistinct). But we cannot tolerate when they challenge God.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: No. Seed is instrumental. Just like you have to do something, you require an instrument. Actually, according to the desire of the living entity, he's given instrument, bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Yantra. You require something, you require a particular yantra or machine. So seed is practically the machine, and the living entity is using it to satisfy his desires.

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

Prabhupāda: So in the Calcutta there is Bose Institute, you can go and see. They have got all machine, how the plants are feeling. Everything is there.

Room Conversation -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Hari-śauri: (to devotee:) I have to set up for massage. You can do the machine? It's recording now.

Prabhupāda: Very nice sitting place.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Above all the noise in New York City, too.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa;: It's not so noisy up here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pālikā wants to ask you something.

Pālikā: Would you like to take fruit now, or prasādam as regular?

Prabhupāda: No, no, I have taken breakfast. So Bali-mardana Prabhu, doing all right?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those are your servants' quarters, and the kitchen, and there's also a dresser in your bedroom.

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

Rāmeśvara: The argument is that by medicine or by injecting some, inserting some apparatus, some machine, they can keep the heart beating.

Prabhupāda: You rascal, he's another rascal. And one who believes in it, he's also a rascal.

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

Prabhupāda: So in spite of these big, big names and research and everything, man will die. This is bakāṇḍo nyāya. He's thinking it will drop. It will never be possible, but they're thinking that by these big, big names we shall find out the way that man will not die. This is bakāṇḍo nyāya. Hope against hope. So by that method they want to live? No.

Bali-mardana: No. They want to decide when to turn off the machine that is keeping the heart beating, because sometimes the brain stops functioning. The person..., the body is still alive, but there's no consciousness.

Prabhupāda: The coma.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Also they cut out the hearts when they do these heart transplants. They've been accused of taking out the heart of a living person.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda? In this biomedical science, this ethics, there's a problem arising. The person, the family of the person who is suffering, says that "Please don't apply these machines. Let the person die." But the medical doctors say "No, we'll keep him alive as long as we can go on." So this is a problem. So who's right? Is the family right, or...

Prabhupāda: Family right. Family is intelligent, that "You are rascal, why you are trying? Let him die peacefully."

Bali-mardana: They say "Let him die in dignity. Why keep him in the machine?" The family says "Let him die in dignity."

Rāmeśvara: They keep him in coma.

Prabhupāda: After all, you cannot protect. Why you give trouble at the time of death? You cannot protect; your foolish attempt will not help him. This is the same philosophy, that the animal is suffering, to kill him. Mercy of killing, what is called?

Rāmeśvara: Mercy killing.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, as far as possible. There is Siddhaloka, they can go from one planet to another without any machine, without any vehicle. Siddhaloka means, just like the yogis, they can go.

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

Prabhupāda: Why shall I think of other gurus? "Oil your own machine." (laughter)

Devotees: "Oil your own machine."

Interviewer: Could you tell me a little bit about your background, when you were young, what types of things you did...

Prabhupāda: Why shall I tell you?

Interviewer: Pardon me?

Prabhupāda: Why shall I tell you?

Interviewer: If you wish.

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

Prabhupāda: We started with five hundred. What was that machine?

Kīrtanānanda: Mimeograph. Then I think it went to two thousand then to five thousand.

Rāmeśvara: Now for December we are printing two million copies. Last year we printed one million copies, so this year we must double. Two million copies in one month.

Kīrtanānanda: Wonderful.

Prabhupāda: It is all Kṛṣṇa's mercy. You have seen the first copy? They have brought photograph from which library?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Congress Library in Washington.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: This store has it... They have the machine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about Ninth Avenue? There's all those shops. (whispering in background about 7-UP)

Bali-mardana: He already went to get it?

Prabhupāda: If the government is going against our movement, then I'll have to stay. There is no alternative.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: This store has it... They have the machine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about Ninth Avenue? There's all those shops. (whispering in background about 7-UP)

Bali-mardana: He already went to get it?

Prabhupāda: If the government is going against our movement, then I'll have to stay. There is no alternative.

Conversation at House of Ksirodakasayi dasa -- July 25, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: You cannot do that. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Just like their so-called scientific way. They are trying to go to the moon planet or Mars planet. Why they are trying to go? Because they are controlled. They have got their flying machine. They can to go any planet, but they cannot because they are being controlled. So we should come to our senses that we cannot bring the laws of material nature under our control. We are already under the control of the laws of material nature, and that is our conditional life. Actually, we require freedom from conditional life, but that freedom can be achieved when we surrender to Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- July 27, 1976, London:

Hari-śauri: The management in New Vrindaban is a lot more difficult as well, because they've tried to avoid machinery, so the whole concept of farming without any complicated machinery...

Prabhupāda: But they have got so many machine. In New Vrindaban there are so many machinery.

Hari-śauri: Not so much tractors and things though. They've been trying to concentrate with just oxen and things like that, so it's taken a while to develop the whole concept, whereas in Pennsylvania they're using so many machines.

Prabhupāda: No, we are not producing various things(?).

Jayatīrtha: In our Vancouver farm, because we had machinery, we were able to put more land under cultivation in the first year than they had in New Vrindaban after so many years. They were very efficient.

Bhagavān: Thing is, we should not become dependent on machine.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk Around Grounds -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Devotee (3): This belongs to the previous owner of the chateau. He let us use these machines. He also helps us make very nice stands for displaying. These here are some for putting in the coloring, make them different colors. These come from India also.

Prabhupāda: What is this, sand?

Devotee (3): This belongs to the owner. (break)

Bhagavān: It stays light until quarter to eleven here.

Prabhupāda: Like Moscow also. I was there in June or July(?). Sarasvatī, you like this place?

Hari-śauri: You like this place?

Sarasvatī: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Ah. In East Germany also, they have placed order. So this is joining. Just like for us, if you bring any other literature, we throw it away immediately. We take it as useless. Actually it is. We have nothing to learn from them, anything. All bogus. Either he's scientist or astronomer, or..., we know they are talking all bogus things. There may be some truth. Even that truth is there when a child speaks, there is some truth. When a child speaks to his parents, there is some truth, otherwise where is the question of talking? So little portion truth is there, everywhere. But when they talk of big, big things—they are going to Mars and scratching sand there—that we don't believe. That we don't believe. When they talk of this tape recorder, some electronic machine, joining together and it is working, that much care you can take.

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

Prabhupāda: Very good, but I could not digest them. That is my fault, but, oh, it was so nice palatable. Chick peas, chick peas, grow fresh. Eat very nicely, keep strong, drink milk, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Bas. Don't depend on this outside work and then gradually become debauch, thief, rogues, prostitutes. Is that civilization? They cannot imagine that the modern civilization can go without all these things. Do they not? Slaughterhouse, brothel, cheating, diplomacy, roguery, drinking—without this, no civilization. We are quite opposed. We want to show it is possible, yes. You can stop all this nonsense and still you go on as a perfect civilized man. With character, knowledge, satisfaction, everything. They are trying to gather knowledge by sending so many machines up to date.

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

Bhagavān: Like they make puffed rice, I think, like that. I don't think so. They do it by machine.

Prabhupāda: Puffed rice? How? What is that machine?

Bhagavān: When they make a thatcher, they use some kind of machine.

Prabhupāda: But we can do it very easily. Sand should be very hot. You can make hot sand, it is not difficult. Any fire. And then take the grains in some, another pot, and put the hot sands under it and then agitate. And it will puff-puff-puff-puff-puff-puff, they'll be finished.

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

Prabhupāda: That's nice. What is that machine?

Hari-śauri: One of the vans.

Prabhupāda: Vans. (child crying outside) "Prabhupāda?" (laughs)

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

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, there is no difficulty. Still, even without language, without talking, if you simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, everyone will follow. And give them prasādam, they will take. And that will be good preaching. It doesn't require language or anything. You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, let them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and give them nice prasāda. They will take. That will be good preaching. But who is chanting, he must be a sincere devotee. Then his chanting will be effective. A gramophone machine will not do. He must be realized, then his chanting will be effective. Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ (SB 3.25.25). He must behave just like a pure Vaiṣṇava. Then if he chants, his chanting will be effective. Just like electricity. If I am surcharged with electricity, I touch, you also become electric. And if he touches, he'll become. But if one is not in touch with electricity, then it will not act. So one must be electrified. Then if he touches somebody, he'll be electrified. If there is no electricity, simply by touching, he'll not do.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Jñānagamya: They are saying there is life on Mars. They are seeing microbes, small little living entities, they are detecting these with their machines. So they are seeing, there is some life.

Prabhupāda: Microbes?

Jñānagamya: Microbe, you know, like microscopic...

Prabhupāda: Why they can see only microbes? Not a fully grown up human being.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Rascal, working, it is already being done, so what is your credit? We are working. You may work also, but what is your credit? Suppose if you become successful. What is your credit? It is already being done by the chicken. Why should you take the laureate title, Dr. such-and-such. Give it to the chicken. What they can do? Can they produce a seed of this, just like one seed produce so many things? Bījāhaṁ sarva-bhūtānām. Where is your credit? (break) Mines, as soon as it is national, nobody will take. In 1950, twenty-five years, twenty-six years ago, I was in Madras, Gauḍīya Maṭha, and there is a bus stop in front of the temple. So every bus was making some sound, huuuuuung, but when nothing was properly oiled. Machine is going to hell when it is managed by the government. As soon as there is government management, nobody wants. So long there is proprietorship, the proprietor takes care that "My machine will go bad if I don't take care." But who cares for that? That showing that so much oil purchased, who is going to check it? People have become dishonest. On account of godlessness, everyone is dishonest. He's dishonest to himself even.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Atreya Ṛṣi: But if I have good intelligence, I can make many machines and put many eggs in them and have all the supplies of chicken that I want.

Prabhupāda: That also I have already explained, you depend on another chicken's egg. You cannot manufacture the egg. That is my challenge, that you manufacture the egg by chemical combination and put into the machine. That you cannot do. Another living chicken must lay down the egg, then you can reclaim. You're dependent. Where is your independence? Everywhere you are dependent. How you declare independence? Where is your independence?

Dayānanda: They think that the countries that have the materialistic advancement or scientific advancements, that they are very well situated.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, that will come out. The powder must be made very fine. Otherwise, it will not come out.

Hari-śauri: If it's pulverized with a machine it comes out.

Harikeśa: Yes, if there's a machine it would be nice.

Prabhupāda: Very fine powder.

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This machine? It's a water cooler. Someone donated it to us about two, three years ago.

Prabhupāda: It acts?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Hari-śauri: That's where we get all the drinking water from.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Cold water from. We put boiled water into it. Bring boiled water from the kitchen.

Prabhupāda: We have no tap water here?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We have tap water, but it's not drinking water. I mean it needs to be boiled. In Delhi you can drink the tap water, they say it's okay, but in Bombay it's very risky to drink tap water. Especially in monsoon. (break) ...famous actress and singer called Shri Lakshna-pandit. She's one of our devotee's sister-in-law also. She has some devotion. So she is coming to sing bhajanas tomorrow in the pandal. Is that okay? She's very famous.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Evening Darsana (on night of arrival) -- August 16, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: You can give me little puffed rice. (long pause) During wartime some, during noncooperation movement, so one firm, they were supplying printing machine, and, very famous firm, forgot the name. So they had 113 branches all over the world. So somebody questioned that "If you British boycott, if by boycott movement, if your firm is closed..." So the manager replied, "So what is wrong there? If one branch is closed, we'll still have 112 branches all over the world." So if the Communist party in India they want like that, so we have our own branches all over. (slapping sound—for mosquito?) Don't kill.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: They have got marble-polishing machine.

Saurabha: Yes. Last night I spoke with Jayapatākā Mahārāja, and he says that the land requisition will be in about two months or something. So whether we should go ahead with trying to purchase land before we wait till...?

Prabhupāda: Purchase land?

Saurabha: Well, that particular area where the main temple will come, we need about...

Prabhupāda: So let us wait.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: We can produce one book daily, the machines are so expert.

Jayapatākā: They do outside work as well?

Gargamuni: What for? We have unlimited...

Prabhupāda: Why? Botheration. You have to satisfy your customer, waste time. We keep our machine for our own work.

Gargamuni: We have so many books. As soon as we print a new book, the previous book is out of print. We have to print again.

Prabhupāda: The first machine introduced by you, yes.

Gargamuni: Oh, the mimeograph. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Then other machines came. I did not know, but I was thinking that if some typist would hear my tapes and type, I was thinking like that. Expert typist. Formerly, it was being done like that. Here, tape recorder. You hear something and then type. Like that. And this machine, you shall, it is, automatically, you hear and type, hear and type.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He gave impetus for distribution. Then we got encouragement. Other party, another party. Where those mimeograph machine gone?

Gargamuni: I don't know. After I went to San Francisco... They should be preserved. That was beginning. We could still use them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I paid $150 I had collected. They wanted hundred dollars each or $125 each. So I went there, that I want two machines, but I have got $150 dollars only. So he wanted to throw away the machine. "All right, you take two machines." So I gave $150 and took away two machines. I think it is more costly. Eh?

Gargamuni: Yes, oh, yes. Those are heavy-duty machines. They were old, but they were good.

Prabhupāda: They were working nice. And the printer was that boy?

Gargamuni: Ranchor.

Prabhupāda: Ranchor. Spoiling so much paper.

Conversation with Seven Ministers of Andhra Pradesh -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So if you worship the demigods, Indra, Candra, Varuṇa-yānti deva-vratā devān—then you can go to the higher planetary system. They are trying to go to the moon planet. In that way it is not possible. You have to be qualified to go there. Not by machine, by force you can go there. That is not possible. Yānti deva-vratā devān. So... And also you can go, mad-yājino 'pi yānti mām. You can go to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So we have to make choice in this human form of life. Actually, the aim should be to go back home, back to Godhead. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). Ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna (BG 8.16). Otherwise, within this material world, even if you go to the higher planetary system, then punar āvartinaḥ, you have to come back again. Now the human form of life should be properly utilized.

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The Western world is very busy manufacturing this machine. And they are thinking this is advancement of civilization.

Hari-śauri: Technology.

Prabhupāda: That is not advancement.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: While falling down, it opens. This is God's creation. Inconceivable. And that aeroplane, flying machine, is so perfect.

Caraṇāravindam: And it will find its own food.

Prabhupāda: There are birds who can take away the elephant for eating. Such big birds. They can carry elephant like a small rat.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Therefore gurum evābhigacchet. Why do you manufacture yourself? Consult the authority. Then do it. That is intelligence. Why do you think that you are very intelligent? That is materialism. The more you remain that "I am a fool," that is good. And as soon as you become over-intelligent, then, that's finished. So Europeans, Americans, they are over-intelligent. They have intelligence, over-intelligence. Unnecessarily. They manufacture a machine for shaving. Gnowgnowgnow gnowgnow (makes machine sound). (Laughter) And they have wasted so much time. So much time. But people like it.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, that means control. How can you deny the control over you?

Dr. Kneupper: What do you understand is man's place in nature? Should he invent, let's say, electricity? Should he invent machines? Do you think these are good or should he just leave those alone?

Prabhupāda: Well, these are good or bad. Suppose if there was no, this comfortable pad. That does not mean that I cannot sit. If there was no electricity, it does not mean we would have died.

Dr. Kneupper: No.

Prabhupāda: There was lamp. We were doing that. So we don't condemn electricity, but it does not mean because we have got electricity, we shall deny the authority of God. That is rascaldom.

Dr. Kneupper: Yes.

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

Dr. Kneupper: Yes, certainly not.

Morning Walk Excerpt -- December 4, 1976, Hyderabad:

Haṁsadūta: He's collecting to get the bus fixed. (break) Another one, a small one. (break) The day Your Divine Grace... (break) ...so much danger with these machines. Not a... (break)

Devotee (1): It's very old. Many Arabs are here.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Indian man: They come here to get married. They marry local women Muslims and go.

Devotee (1): They have so much money, but they only have a desert, so they have to come to India to try and enjoy. There's nothing to enjoy in Arabia, simply sand.

Prabhupāda: Arabians come here, I know.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Can you see? So soul is within the heart. When the soul goes away you cannot explain what happened. You say, "heart failure." So why the heart failure? The nerves and the bones and the muscle and the blood, everything is there, and still, you say that "It stopped. Heart failure." So just like machine is running but somehow or other stopped, but you do not know what is the cause of stopping. The cause is that the heart, when it goes away, then the machine stops.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, any machine, that defect will be there.

Indian man: But that we have been working for twenty years in Ahmedabad. Everybody is very happy there, and they're actually making money out of it. The fertilizer that is there is about four times what is normally achieved. So good maintenance are required for any...

Prabhupāda: (sneezes loud) I have no objection, but I've got experience. In Māyāpur it is failure.

Indian man (2): Sometimes we get a defective machine. I purchased one for my girl's house. I've got a number of about 30. But one was rejected but...

Indian man: Either defective machine or defective maintenance.

Prabhupāda: Maybe. But the difficulty is there.

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, why these boys are attracted ? They have not come here to see your industry for materialism. They have come here for spiritual. They have not come to see your cycle and sewing machine. Actually, they have come, Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur. And they are not poverty stricken. We go to Europe being poverty stricken. That Lady Wellington, he (she) challenged one of my Godbrothers, Bhakti Tīrtha Mahārāja, that "You Indian people..." She was very proud, Lady Wellington. Wellington was Iceland. She said that "You Indian people..." Of course, it was friendly talk. "You come to our country, we give you some stamp, degree, and you earn your livelihood in India. What you have come here to teach?" This was the challenge.