If everyone is doing his duty nicely as a brāhmaṇa, as a kṣatriya, as a vaiśya or as a śūdra, then no..., there is no question of that you are do... Everyone has to do his work according to his capacity. Just like in ordinary life also, we do not see that everyone is able to do everything. No. There are certain class of men. If you want some help for repairing your electric wiring, you must call for an electrician, not a carpenter. But when you want to repair a door, you require a carpenter. That is Vedic division. Therefore there was caste system. Everyone... I have seen in India still. In you country also you'll find. The potters, during Diwali system, they make small dolls. So I have seen the potter's house. The children, five or ten years old, they are also making small dolls, small dolls. Because by tradition, by family, the father is making doll, the mother is making doll, and the children also learning. Similarly, the weaver, you will find. You supply the... Still there are this system. You supply. Gandhi wanted to introduce this system. You produce your thread and give to the weaver, and waver will give you cloth. Why you are looking after this Manchester cloth? By this movement... (end)
Manchester
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: We worship Kṛṣṇa, God, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. This is our regular routine work." Gandhi replied, "Oh, then I am not going to your temple. My charka is my God." He said that. And actually, for him, charka was God in this sense: by introducing charka the whole Manchester closed. You see? And the British Empire half broken, simply by killing this Manchester industry. So many mills they closed. But later on the, (laughs) Manchester came to Ahmedabad. Now when we are taking supplies from Manchester, we are getting cloth, one rupee 8 annas per pair, now we have to pay twenty-five rupees per pair.
Prabhupāda: Dhotīs, yes. In our childhood we have seen that Manchester made cloth, first class. One dhotī was selling (indistinct), that was selling like hotcake, imported by Rally Brothers. Very nice cloth—one rupee 8 annas per pair, two, two pieces. But the same dhotī you have to purchase at twenty-five. So the consumer's money is now going to Ahmedabad. You may say your money is saved in your country, but my pocket is empty. (laughs) It is saved in my country, that's all right—in the state bank. That's all right. But my pocket is empty.
Śyāmasundara: And Mafatlal's pocket is full.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Revatīnandana: In Manchester across the street from the temple there's a big park. Sometimes I would go over there to walk and chant rounds, and there's many little children in the park. They'd follow me, "Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa!" All day. Hundred times.
Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Everywhere. In Bombay, everywhere we go, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." In Montreal. They joke, they'll clap, but they'll chant. And that is wanted. I want to see that everyone is chanting. And if chanting has effect, then either he's chanting jokingly or seriously it will have the effect. Fire, if you touch either jokingly or seriously or cautiously, it will act. So our request is that you also preach this cult. Let us cooperate. The whole world is suffering for want of God consciousness. So it is the duty of all religious sects to teach this simple art of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa or any other name which you have got. That's all.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Could not (indistinct). That is good. And it is always like that.
Devotee: No.
Devotee (2): Well, like I say, all the devotees are here from all the temples in England, so Edinborough and Manchester, they're all here too, but always it is crowded, and uh, on Sunday's it's no good at all because so many people come, they can't even come in to see the Deities, you know. They can't fit all in the temple, and uh, and we don't advertise the Sunday feast. If we advertise the Sunday feast, we couldn't get them in the whole building. So we can't even advertise. So therefore they don't even mention it, people still come, and we can't fit them all in the building. And we're hoping that it would get so full that Kṛṣṇa will see and he'll give us a place quickly.
Prabhupāda: So why not see earlier? Have you got any description?
Dhanañjaya: Well, we can't see it earlier because it belongs to the Methodist Church, and their committee members are meeting in another city, in Manchester, for a week. They have their..., a big congress meeting there. So they don't come back until the end of this week.
Devotee (1): So we can't see it while they're meeting?
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?
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest (1): Seventy-two. I like the ship, so old man prefers cheaper trip than air, (indistinct) so I take air from Indonesia (indistinct) only and take ship to Alexandria. (indistinct) From Alexandria to Morocco I take (indistinct) bus, big bus like Union Pacific before from east side the west side America, we take big bus (indistinct) four days only I arrive at (indistinct) Morocco. And maybe I cross to Andalusia, Spain, not near Madrid, Castillian (indistinct) again take ship from (indistinct) railway from Manchester to (indistinct) So still seven years I loitering. And this only to see old friend in Edinburgh, and I see old, old man (indistinct) I am also old man, not so long time, within one year I down, I never been South America, only up to Mexico so I go to (indistinct). And stay, I contracted only one contract three years but I want to work, job, one year, highest salary there so and finish I go to Argentina from Santiago Chile I take the ship again to, Sydney, my younger brother, Sydney and go back from (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: In Sydney also we have got temple.
Śyāmasundara: That's right. If ...one boy who stole from us, I told the police. We told them exactly where he was, at the airport, Manchester. "He's going on flight such and such to America tomorrow." Plenty of time to apprehend him. They didn't do anything.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Śyāmasundara: They came... Oh, they sent one inspector to take notes.
Prabhupāda: That's all.
Śyāmasundara: Many notes.
Prabhupāda: Useless, all... And taxation. No security and ninety-nine per cent taxation. Just see the fun. They are very much accurate to take taxation. And there is no guarantee of security. This is the position.
David Wynne: Has it ever been perfect?
Prabhupāda: That's all? Don't get more?
Reporter: (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: They actually, by destroying the Manchester millionaires, Gandhi gave opportunity to the Ahmadabad millionaires. And the consumers, instead of purchasing Manchester cloth at one rupee per pair, now they're purchasing at thirty rupees per pair.
Reporter: Yes, yes.
Prabhupāda: This is advantage. I know. My father had cloth business. The Manchester cloth, very nice cloth—one rupee six annas per pair, retail sale.
Reporter: Hm. Hm. Now same thing for thirty rupees.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Where did you stay in England?
Daughter: Liverpool.
Prabhupāda: Liverpool. I think we have got our branch.
Daughter: Manchester, I have seen, Manchester.
Prabhupāda: Manchester you have seen? Oh. Manchester, Liverpool, and London... London we have got two.
Indian man: London, in London I have got my son. My son is there.
Prabhupāda: Oh. What he is doing?
Indian man: He is employed there. He's an accountant, cost accountant.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So your children are also... (laughs)
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Dr. Patel: Gandhiji, when he went to one first round table conference in London, and he had to confront those women, I mean the wives of the workers of the Manchester mills, he said that "We are poor." They say, "We are poor. We are suffering for the poor of India." Then he had to give this argument that "Poors of India are much poorer than what you are." So he is trying to..., I mean, take a...
Prabhupāda: So that is bodily concept.
Dr. Patel: But he was in politics.
Prabhupāda: Poor or rich, that is due to this body.
Dr. Patel: In politics you have got to be body conscious. Politics or war is the same thing, after all. Your sphere is much different, sir, than those. And we cannot compare them with you or you with them. You are a, I mean, out and out a bhakta and a saint. He was a politician.
Prabhupāda: No. I am talking about the Bhagavad-gītā,...
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Why is that, Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: They committed so many sinful activities, yes, for maintaining their empire. To sell their Manchester-made cloth they ruined the cloth industry of India and cut this finger.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Cut the thumb off.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Thumbs of the weavers so that they cannot manufacture anymore.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Very bad.
Prabhupāda: There are so many other things.
Harikeśa: They cut the thumbs of the weavers?
Prabhupāda: That's all. Formerly the Manchester people were exploiting Indians. Now the Ahmedabad people, they have learned how to exploit. That's all. And government is satisfied because they pay tax. "Never mind. The workers may suffer, go on suffering." This is going on. And they have lost their own culture, and they have been taught how to drink, how to eat meat. This is... (break) ...fact is that Indians cannot work so hard as the Western people can work. The climate does not allow. India's climate is good for peaceful living, less work, and brain engaged in spiritual advancement. That is India's gift. They are not meant for hard work. Hard work is not required for anyone. This is animal civilization, to work very hard. Then what is the difference between animal and man?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: He was so much insulted. Because every European countries were harassed, they had very bad idea about this Napoleon. Unnecessarily expanding the interest of France. "France and Napoleon, one." Now where is that rascal? France is there. This is going on. British Empire means bring money, hook or crook, in London, and you get the title, "lord," "baron," this... This was their policy. "Sir." All hooligans, thieves, rogues, they were made big, big respectable people. A deposit in the government, this lord family means they have to deposit, say, ten million pounds, like that, and the government takes that money as fixed deposit, and the interest the family will maintain the aristocracy. This is the lord's family. Some way or other you deposit ten million pounds and your family becomes lord's family. So people become mad after money, somehow or other bring money. There was no other culture. In order to introduce their Manchester cloth, how they killed the home industry of India, cloth merchant, this weaver... Just like we are trying. It is very long time, this, the handloom. They cut the finger.
Prabhupāda: The British did that so that the weavers could not work, just to introduce their Manchester's cloth. So many things they did. It is in the history.
Rāmeśvara: In America you never hear such history, in school...
Prabhupāda: They simply killed the Red Indians, that is the only.
Rāmeśvara: But in the schools they never tell you these things.
Prabhupāda: How they will tell, shameful.
Hari-śauri: In England it was "How we saved India."
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now who is saving India?
Maṇihāra: Now the Indians are coming from India, setting up big business in England. They're controlling big factories, business, so many mills, everything. In Manchester, where I come from...
Prabhupāda: There is agitation to drive away the Indians.
Maṇihāra: Now they are trying to drive away. Because they know they have money. They are taking over.
Prabhupāda: Money and intelligence also. They can organize the English very nicely. And they're not extravagant. European and American, as soon as they get money they spend it. And Indians know how to save something. I saw in London almost all Indians have got their own house. Maybe small house, it doesn't matter. But they have got their own quarters. Every Indian. And they're living very comfortably. Englishmen, local men, renting.
Prabhupāda: Similarly in business also, they appointed brokers, that I am bringing cloth from Manchester and if you can sell you'll get so much commission. So without any investment...
Haṁsadūta: They were in business.
Prabhupāda: A broker club business. So the businessmen, the zamindars, and gradually they started their factories, railways, in this way they started. And they are big politicians, so it is their management. And they failed when things were mismanaged. First of all they created friendship, and later on when they were in power, they created enmity. Then it is failed.
Prabhupāda: No, no. English civilization is not good. What was the wrong? I say repeatedly again and again, he ruined the Manchester cloth business, he developed Ahmedabad cloth. The result is we poor men, we were paying one rupee six annas per pair, now we are paying thirty rupees. Money is going... Instead of going to the pocket of the Englishmen it is going to the pocket of Mahadevia. (laughter)
Dr. Patel: English people, they, I mean, ruined their whole industry of... Bengal textile industry was ruined by Britishers. They cut away the thumbs. That is... I'm sorry, sir...
Prabhupāda: Therefore why mahātmā? The same business you are doing, why you say mahātmā? If you are doing the same business...
Dr. Patel: He never called himself mahātmā. People called him mahātmā.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayatīrtha: ...Liverpool-Manchester area.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That will be nice. Take the Ratha-yātrā along—we have this bus program—do publicity with the bus program, and then, at the end of the month, have a Ratha-yātrā somewhere in the city. I think if we keep the small cart, do at least three Ratha-yātrās this summer... Our big car is there?
Jayatīrtha: It's still standing.
Prabhupāda: So that we can move? No, that will not be possible.
Jayatīrtha: No.
Correspondence
1969 Correspondence
You have mentioned a very encouraging invitation that my visit there will be the biggest event in London since the time of the Roman Invasion. Actually this will be so. This time there is no question of invasion, but this time, if England is prepared, they will receive something sublime which they cannot produce in their country, neither in Manchester, Glasgow, nor Edinburgh. As I stated in my last letter to you that London is still a leading city of the world, and if Mr. George Harrison cooperates with us, certainly we shall be able to deliver something sublime to the world by joint endeavor.
1970 Correspondence
So it is my desire that in Europe you will kindly occasionally visit the three countries—England, France, and Germany—and see that the things are going very nicely.
In England your suggestion to open a few other Temples in big cities like Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool, is very much welcome. For constructing Temples in England, especially in London, I have got very good support from a very rich man in India. Not only he, but also many others will be ready to pay for our construction such Temples, but I want the Temples should be constructed by the local natives—that is our success. If I bring money from India and construct a Temple here in a Western country, that is not very creditable. Now this Temple of Los Angeles is completely undertaken by your countrymen and that is a good credit for me.
I think each couple of our students may try to open a branch in England. Our first branch of London Yatra was opened by Mukunda, Gurudasa, and Syamasundara and their wives. They tried very hard, and now our London Temple is nicely situated. Similarly many other Temples can be opened in places like Amsterdam, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, etc. I have received report from Tamala that preaching in Paris is going nicely. In one day they recruited about 14 devotees simply by requesting who will join this Krsna Consciousness movement. So you all also recruit members, English boys and girls, in that way. Our Movement is a declaration of war against Maya, that you can understand very well, so we have to recruit many fighting soldiers—so do it vigorously.
If he is serious about it, I can give my suggestions about how it will be done.
As you have listed the prospected cities with the respective couples of householders to go there, these programs are very encouraging. In England there are some very important cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, etc. so these may be gradually incorporated in your program.
Regarding the members comprising the World Sankirtana Party, on the whole I wish that 40 members will go, one half from Europe and one half from America or as it may be suitable, there is no definite restriction.
1975 Correspondence
Finish this life and go back to Godhead, that is the basic idea of Krishna consciousness movement. So you decide.
The Edinburgh temple may be moved. However Hamsaduta Prabhu has suggested that if it is to be moved why not move it to Birmingham or Manchester where there will be more facility to preach and make life members and devotees.
| Page Title: | Manchester |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 08 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=3, Con=16, Let=5 |
| No. of Quotes: | 24 |