Prabhupāda: Therefore we should keep ourself dry from being wet by the association of nondevotees. That is also another process. You see. If you come to our class and go to some other class, some nightclub class, then it is counteracted immediately. You see. So you have to, if you want to ignite fire you must protect it from water. And if you ignite fire and pour water then what is the benefit? Nothing. So to make progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness you have to keep company with devotees. Similarly, you have to avoid the company of nondevotees. So these six principles will develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And then the last question is: "Does Kṛṣṇa consciousness bring in karmic action as part of its belief?" Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness activities apparently seem to be karma. We must understand what is the difference between karma and bhakti. Just like we are using this tape recorder, this microphone. So if you go to your politician you'll find the same paraphernalia. I'm speaking and he's also speaking interview. So apparently we are all the same. But this is bhakti and that is karma. What is the difference between bhakti and karma? Karma means you do something and whatever you do there is result. So you take the result also. Suppose you do some business. So the result is one million dollars profit. So you take it. And the result is one million dollars loss. You take it. This is karma. You act on your own account and you take the result. Is it clear? This is called karma.
Microphone (Conv. and Letters)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Interviewer: Swami, will you get a little closer to that microphone, if you will. You are the head of ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Interviewer: Is it a church?
Prabhupāda: It is not exactly a church, but it is an institution for understanding the science of God.
Interviewer: Could you tell people how you are dressed today, what's the significance of your clothes?
Prabhupāda: About the significance of our institution?
Interviewer: No, about the way your clothes, the way you're dressed today. Uh, the robes.
Prabhupāda: Oh, the robe? Yes, I am a sannyāsī. The sannyāsī is the highest status of human social division. According to Vedic culture there are four divisions of human society. Brahmacārī, student life; then householder, gṛhastha; and then vānaprastha, retired life; and then sannyāsa life, means preaching transcendental knowledge to the society from door to door. So this dress... In Vedic culture, there are different dresses for different persons. So this saffron colored dress means that he is admitted without any introduction anywhere because he's understood to be a man of transcendental knowledge. And the householders receive them and take knowledge from them. That is the system of Vedic culture.
Prabhupāda: Concord, yes. Concord is famous tape recorder company. (tapping microphone) It is all right?
Yamunā: Oh yes, Swamiji. It can also, it can be an amplification system.
Gargamuni: See, if you talk... (feedback)
Yamunā: The thing is they're too close to one another so there's a feedback. You have to be twelve feet away. Then it will amplify. That's what we were using in all of our speaking engagements.
Gargamuni: Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Oh, it acts as amplifier also? So I'll have to speak from here?
Gargamuni: No.
Yamunā: You don't have to... If all, the two microphones weren't so close, then it would be... We wouldn't have this noise, and you could speak as you like to speak.
Prabhupāda: So Gargamuni wants that prayer? Solo, solo?
Gargamuni: Yes.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: If every one of our devotee will respond, naturally the audience also will respond.
Hayagrīva: We'll have a microphone to make it easier for the audience.
Prabhupāda: Then you also one of us.
Allen Ginsberg: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So there is nice microphone?
Hayagrīva: There will be one, two, three, four, five microphones on stage. And I have one for around your neck, one for around your neck, and if you don't like that, there are stands. But the stands can be down here, can be up here.
Allen Ginsberg: Can Peter get near one too? Can Peter get near a microphone?
Kīrtanānanda: Yes.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: There are four microphones?
Pratyatoṣa: Yeah, you can have four microphones at the same time. To make good stereo recordings of music, it's nice to have four channels, because then you can mix them together afterwards and you can make it perfect.
Prabhupāda: It is Sony?
Pratyatoṣa: See, these are really Kṛṣṇa's mercy. They have microphones, these are microphones. They're made in Sweden. They're really about the best line you can get, and they're very inexpensive.
Prabhupāda: Why the sound is not...
Pratyatoṣa: It's on very low now. This is very low.
Prabhupāda: No, it comes one, two.
Prabhupāda: So where is that machine?
Pratyatoṣa: It's in the temple room right now. It's connected to the P.A. system and a microphone.
Prabhupāda: So you bring it and we will see.
Pratyatoṣa: Okay. I have to leave tonight, but I'll instruct Gadādhara and Candanācārya how to use it while I'm gone.
Prabhupāda: Tanberg machine is nice.
Prabhupāda: So first of all you bring this Tanberg, then I shall see.
Pratyatoṣa: I'll just leave all this here. (aside:) Take this, this is with the microphone. These are Kona(?) microphones. They're unbelievable, they're so good. You want to keep that?
Devotee (4): I just want to see... I want to see the computer.
Pratyatoṣa: OK.
Devotee (4): (indistinct)
Pratyatoṣa: OK.
Devotee (4): Śrīla Prabhupāda, actually...
Prabhupāda: What is the price of this machine?
Pratyatoṣa: I'm not too sure, but it'd probably be about two hundred and fifty, something like that. The numbers usually sort of correspond to the price more or less.
Prabhupāda: Tell him, Bhagavān.
Bhagavān: We want everyone to become our students. No one has a good understanding of what is God.
Journalist (2): I can't get this on the microphone.
Prabhupāda: You can take instruction from the students who are actually trying to understand God.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So here is microphone. You did not know? Śrīmatī has brought two microphones.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yours?
Prabhupāda: Yes, just see.
Devotee (2): (unwrapping package) It's not the microphone.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Devotee (2): I don't think it's the microphone. (break)
Prabhupāda: They never reply.
Devotee (2): It's such a big company, they...
Prabhupāda: I do not know what kind of big company, and their publication we do not get in India. Why? (indistinct) We cannot get in Macmillan Company. Sometimes somebody inquires, the reply, "They..., we have not published this book, this, here." They have no information.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: (Referring to microphone) It will not stay. No, if you are serious, you can keep yourself pure anywhere. It doesn't matter whether you stay in America or India. But you must know how to keep yourself purified. That's all.
Bob: You mean by following these principles.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like I went to America. So either in America or in India, I am the same man.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: We Vaiṣṇavas, why should I say jagan mithyā? If God is true, what is created by Him, that is also true. Because Kṛṣṇa says bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca, bhinnā me prakṛtir aṣṭadhā (BG 7.4). Me, "My." So why should I take Kṛṣṇa's things as false? If Kṛṣṇa is true, His things are also true. So we don't take that this material world is false. We don't say. Our philosophy is that this material world may be temporary, but because it has connection with Kṛṣṇa, it can be used for Kṛṣṇa's purpose. That is karma-yoga, bhakti-yoga. Prāpañcikatayā buddhyā hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ. Just like here is a microphone in the tape recorder. Now it is material. And if we say "No, no, we are Kṛṣṇa conscious, we cannot touch this material thing." We don't say that. Prāpañcikatayā buddhyā hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ. Everything has connection with Kṛṣṇa, so why shall I call it as material? Parityāga.
Prabhupāda: His name was Gopāla Banh. Gopāla Banh ...And there was a king, Kṛṣṇacandra. So the kings would relax by joking words by the jokers. That was system formerly. So Gopāla Banh was constructing a house. So the king advised another friend that: "If you go to his new house and evacuate..." Because the house is not yet opened, not yet established, "Then I'll give you one thousand rupees." So this man said: "Yes, I'll go and do it." So he was, he came to Gopāla Banh's house and began to say: "Gopāla Banh! Oh! I am called by nature. Kindly show me where is your privy. I have to pass." So he could understand that: "Why this man has come here to evacuate?" So he: "Yes, yes. Come in, come in, come in." So he opened the new lavatory and brought a big stick. So he said: "Why you have brought the stick?" So he said: "Yes, you can pass, you can pass stool, but if you urine one drop, I'll kill you." So "How it is possible?" "If it is not possible, I cannot allow." So these, these foolish scientific men, "You can speak, but if you use microphone, then I'll kill you." Yes. The Gopāla Banh's policy. They would not say: "Not allow." But in a different way. (break) For political diplomacy. Not directly: "No." But creating such position, it is not.
Prajāpati: ...last hundred and fifty years, one of the major problems of western theologians has been the relationship between reason and faith. They've been seeking to understand faith through reason but they have not been able to come to any terms of the relationship between their reasoning abilities and faith. So there's been like a leap, almost a rejection of any kind of...
Prabhupāda: No. Just like we are walking on this street, so there is relation. This path is made for my walking. This is the relation with this road and myself. This is not made for... For animals also. But at least, we can take it is made for man. So for walking of man this road is made. So this is my relation. So in this way, everything you search out, you'll find out some relation. Is it not? Try to understand this first. Everything you take... Just like here is a microphone. There is my relation: I talk and it is recorded. So where is the difficulty to find out relationship with everything. Is there any difficulty?
Prajāpati: They see one, Śrīla Prabhupāda. The theologians perceive when they see that reason and faith are in two realms...
Prajāpati: Actually permeate all the media with Kṛṣṇa consciousness propaganda, not simply just writing but actually all aspects of...
Prabhupāda: Yes, you can take advantage of all this media. That we are doing. Just like we are taking advantage of this microphone. We are not rejecting, "Oh, it is material. Why should we take?" Nothing material. Anything used for Kṛṣṇa is spiritual. Material means what is not used for Kṛṣṇa. That is material. You are materialistic when you are not used for Kṛṣṇa. And as soon as you are utilized for Kṛṣṇa, you are spiritualistic. That is the difference. Here we say, "This is material world." This is material world because everyone has forgotten Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it is material world. So if they come into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then it is spiritual. (break) ...conscious people now challenge this rascal that "We are searching after Kṛṣṇa. We are not searching... We are devotee of Kṛṣṇa, and you are posing yourself as Kṛṣṇa. So show us some Kṛṣṇa's power. We immediately come to you."
Prabhupāda: (laughing) So just imagine where is light. In our side or their side? They are deprecating, "Bhagavad-gītā is now old. We require new knowledge." Still, we sold thousand copies.
Hṛdayānanda: Finally the Guru Maharaji said over the microphone, "Don't buy more of these Bhagavad-gītās." (laughter) He said it's not bona fide. I told Prabhupāda that when the devotees had a big kīrtana, all the people...
Prabhupāda: So what was the result, stopped?
Hṛdayānanda: Yeah, after that it was more difficult.
Prabhupāda: They did not like it?
Jagajjīvana: No, they did not like it, the officials. So then we started to leave, thinking, "Well, rather than cause any trouble, we better leave." So then the people, they wouldn't let us leave. So then the leaders there, they were forced to put us on stage. And so we chanted on stage with big microphones and thousands of people came to listen, and then we taught them how to chant Nitāi-Gaurāṅga, and they all chanted. Nitāi, Nitāi, Gaurāṅga, Gaurāṅga. It was very amazing. And then we distributed books and we lectured. (break) Their Lordships Gaura-Nitāi have come because of that chanting, Deities. (break)
Prabhupāda: If the chanter is sincere.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That, as it is suitable. It is not that because the kṣatriyas were killing by bows and arrows formerly, you have to continue that. That is another foolishness. If you have got... If you can kill easily by guns, take that gun. Just like formerly, parivrāja, Caitanya Mahāprabhu walked on the street. There was no aeroplane or... Or he did not use it. Does it mean that I shall have to follow that? I must take the jet engine. If it is available. If somebody criticizes, "Oh, Caitanya Mahāprabhu walked on leg and you are travelling in the jet plane?" Shall I have to take that ideal? These are rascaldom. When you have to work, you have to work with the greatest facility. That's all. Now I have got the facility of the talking in microphone, and... So why should I not take it? It will be recorded. It will be heard by so many others. I am speaking to four, five men. It can be heard by a big crowd of four hundred men.
Indian man (1): Something to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
Prabhupāda: No, yes. That is our mercy, that we take advantage of their creation to bless them. We don't require all these things, but we take the advantage: "Because he has done something, let us take it." Just like we are using the microphone. So we don't require any microphone, but because he has created, that is the proper utilization. Not for sense gratification, cinema song. That is not required.
C. Hennis: Well, I think that the International Labor Organization is devoted to the reduction of inequalities between the different classes of men with a view to getting them all a better share of the good things of life, and by that, they may begin to reach a greater degree of human happiness, as they understand it, as the people themselves understand it. It may be that they don't understand it well.
Prabhupāda: No. Nature's way is not better share, but equal share. Just like when you take foodstuff, put it in the stomach, and when it is easily digested and transformed into different secretion and comes to the heart and becomes blood, there is equal distribution. Not that because brain is first-class, therefore the blood transformation to the brain should go more. No. Then it will be blood pressure, high blood pressure. This is nature's way, that... But when the energy goes to the brain, it acts differently. When the energy goes to the hands, it acts differently. The electricity energy is the same, but sometimes by working on the dictaphone, sometimes on the microphone, sometimes in electric heater, sometimes in refrigerator... The different apparatuses are there, but the energy is the same, equal. In that sense, the communistic idea that whatever energy is there, whatever resources are there, they should be equally distributed, that is nature's way. From the body we can understand that when the foodstuff turns into secretion, it goes to the heart and becomes blood. The blood is transfused through different veins to different parts of the body, and you will find everybody is satisfied.
Prabhupāda: He did? And still he is innocent?
Devotee: Yes. He paid so many millions, thousands and thousands of dollars. His party, the republican party, they put microphones and everything in the convention of the democrats and had spies and everything in order that he could find out their tricks. He had paid all these men and there were all fired.
Prabhupāda: So that is not bad because in politics you have to do that. Everyone does so. What is Nixon's fault?
Devotee: But only he got caught. And all of his men quit.
Prabhupāda: No, no, suppose you are my rival. So I wanted to know your secrecies. So I make some mechanical arrangement. That is not fault. That is not... Everyone does so. Why do you expect that he will not do that? He must do that. If you are my rival or enemy, to know your secrecy, I must endeavor to do everything. As you are doing, so I am.
Prabhupāda: Therefore Vedic instruction is tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). In order to get first-class experience of the perfection of life, you must approach guru. That is the Vedic injunction. Samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham. Now, who is guru? Whom shall I approach? So the next line explains that approach such guru, śrotriyam, who has heard from his guru perfectly, that guru. Who had no chance of hearing from perfect guru, he is not guru. This is called guru-paramparā, disciplic succession. I hear from a perfect person, and I distribute the knowledge the same way, without any change. So Kṛṣṇa gives us knowledge in the Bhagavad-gītā. We are distributing the same knowledge. It is not by our... (aside:) Water is not required. Water I don't want. There is water. So I am always inexperienced because my power of understanding is very little. Therefore I must get experience from a person who is perfect. Then my experience is perfect. Just like a child does not know what is this. he asks his father, "What is this, father?" Father says, "My dear child, it is microphone." The child knows it, "microphone?" That knowledge is perfect, although his capacity is imperfect. A child is imperfect, but because he gets the knowledge from the perfect father who knows what it is, when he speaks "a microphone," he speaks rightly.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Professor (Hṛdayānanda): He's saying that just like you give the example of the dictaphone, but it seems like if he just recorded the knowledge within his brain and then repeated it, that he would just be like an instrument, and he might not really be conscious of the knowledge himself. He'd just be transmitting it. It seems like... He thinks that's a defect because he's not really, he might not be conscious.
Prabhupāda: No, he doesn't require. Just like I am working with this dictaphone. I am not a mechanic, but my business is going on. That is required. I have read the instruction paper, that "You use this microphone like this. You put this button," and three, four instruction. So I have learned it and it is giving my business. That's all. Just like this lamp, the instruction is "Push this button," (flicks light button) and it will go, all on. So I know I will get the light. Now I am not electrician. It doesn't require. That much knowledge is sufficient. But I want the light. So the electrician says, "Just put this button in this way. Light will be there." So my business is finished.
Prabhupāda: The others? That is the distinction between matter and spirit. Just like this microphone, it is combination of earth, water, air, fire, like that. But the living being, he has utilized, he has combined this matter into this microphone. Is that admitted? Now, exactly like the microphone, the combination of matter and done by some living entity, similarly, the whole cosmic manifestation is combination of matter, and there is one living being or the Supreme Being who has combined them, and it is working. Is that admitted? So that is the difference between limited and unlimited, that I, you are living being... We can also create something like this microphone or this big aeroplane. We have created. That is limited. But there is another one who has created innumerable planets and that is floating in the air. Is it not? We are taking credit of becoming big scientist by creating one airship, 747, five hundred passengers carrying. How many we have created? Maybe hundred, two hundred. But there are millions and trillions of planets floating in the same way in the air, and those planets containing so many big, big mountains, ocean, and they are floating in the air. We can create limited things, but He can create unlimited things. Therefore we have got our limited brain, and He has got unlimited brain. Is that correct?
Devotee: So Śrīla Prabhupāda, if the sound is the same, does that mean that when you become fully purified you will also see the sound of an automobile horn as transcendental?
Prabhupāda: Yes, this is transcendental, this microphone, because it is being used for Kṛṣṇa's purpose. The same flower, when you use it for sense gratification, it is material. The same flower when you offer to Kṛṣṇa, it is spiritual. The flower is not different, but by the different use it becomes material and spiritual. I think I have said many times that there is actually no material existence. Therefore it is called māyā. Māyā means it has no actual existence. We create an atmosphere. That is māyā. Atmosphere of forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa, that is māyā. Anartha. Anartha, unnecessary. Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam (SB 1.7.6). If this park is given to us, we can immediately make it Vaikuṇṭha. We know how to do it. But it is not given to us. The same electric energy is creating heater and cooler. For the cooler there is no different electric energy. And for the heater there is no different—the same electric. Similarly, the material and spiritual is coming from Kṛṣṇa's energy.
Prabhupāda: Rain is coming?
Devotees: Yes. We've had a lot of rain this last year, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (Heavy wind on microphone) (Sound of heavy rain) (break)
Prabhupāda: It was raining? That's it. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...parikrama?
Dhanañjaya: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. That was to the old Yamunā trail.
Prabhupāda: We can go?
Dhanañjaya: Yes.
British devotee (1): The Yamunā's only five minutes walk from Raman Reti now, Prabhupāda. It's very nice for swimming. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...able to walk with us, why you have brought him? It will be strain for him.
Indian man (2): The energy is there, but it is not spiritual.
Prabhupāda: No, it is spiritual, but because I do not know Kṛṣṇa, therefore I see material. Just like this microphone. It is being used for Kṛṣṇa; therefore it is spiritual. Actually, originally, it is from Kṛṣṇa. So we are not using these material things. Everything, whatever we using, that is spiritual.
Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda, if this is spiritual, spiritual means eternal. But this microphone will fall to pieces.
Prabhupāda: Yes, but scientifically it will keep the energy, conservation of energy. Even it is destroyed, it will remain. The material manifestation means bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). It is sometimes destroyed and sometimes manifest. But the energy is there.
Guṇārṇava: In what way was the microphone stopped? What do you mean?
Praṇava: Yes, it was stopped for some time.
Prabhupāda: That mike stops sometimes.
Prabhupāda: It is not dogmatic. When I say, "Next February will be very nice season," it is not dogmatic. It is by experience. Last February or many other Februarys I have experienced. Therefore I say, "Next February will be like this." That is not cheating, neither dogmatic. That is experience. That example I gave many times, that a child asks from the father, "Father, what is this?" The father says, "My dear son, it is microphone. If you speak, it will be recorded." So I take it from my father this is microphone. So I may be child, but when I say, "It is microphone," that is correct because I have taken from the authority. If a child is asked, "What is this? Do you know?" if I say, "Yes, it is microphone," that is correct. And if he, the man, says, "How do you know it is microphone?" "My father said." Then he is correct. I may be disqualified as a child, but because I have taken the words from my qualified father, it is correct. That is our process. I don't claim that I am very big man, but we repeat only what we have heard from Kṛṣṇa. That's all. You may accept it, not accept. That is your business. Therefore I named it Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are speaking simply what Kṛṣṇa has said, and we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. This is our business. Now, in the market so many things are being sold, not that everything has got all customers. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness may not be accepted by all. That is the case in everything. But what we are presenting, that is standard. We are not cheating.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I had one question about this play by Girish Ghosh. The Girish Ghosh was a debauchee, and wouldn't it be better to take, make dramas from your Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? Then the sound vibration is coming from pure source. Or does that not matter? If the man was...
Prabhupāda: No, no. First of all you see how it can be utilized, whatever translation is there. Then we shall purify it. Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlānam (CC Madhya 19.167). Just like this microphone. It is prepared by the meat-eaters. How we are utilizing it? Everything has got a proper process to purify it.
Satsvarūpa: Sometimes there's a question that I'm asked, that we say we're imperfect so we have to receive perfect knowledge, but they say if you're always imperfect, then how can you know that it's perfect, what you're hearing?
Prabhupāda: Yes, we are receiving knowledge from the perfect. Just like a child does not believe, a boy, he has not seen his father. He does not believe that there is father. But if the mother says, "Yes, my dear child, there is father," so then his knowledge is perfect. With his imperfect knowledge, he was disbelieving that there is father, but when the mother says, he has to accept it. Then his knowledge becomes perfect. He has not seen who is father. That's a fact, maybe. And, but the mother is authority. She says, "Here, my dear child. There is father." Then his knowledge perfect. So we may be imperfect, the child is imperfect, but when he gets the knowledge from the perfect source, mother, then it is perfect. Similarly, we, we never say that we are perfect. If you are perfect, then why you are learning? You are trying to become perfect. So our process is that we are receiving knowledge from the perfect. Therefore whatever we say, it is perfect. A child does not know, "What is this, father?" The father says "My dear child, it is called microphone." So after that, if he takes it and declares to anyone, "This is microphone," that is perfect, although he's a child.
Prabhupāda: This is coming from Vedic literature, which is eternal. That is also eternal. But when there is creation, this creation, material creation, anything, material creation.... Just like this microphone is a material creation. So how to deal with it, there is some literature. Is it not?
Mike Robinson: How to deal with the microphone?
Prabhupāda: Yes. There is some literature.
Hari-śauri: There's some literature explaining.
Mike Robinson: Yes, that's right, there is.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So that literature comes along with the creation of the microphone. So similarly, the Vedic literatures comes immediately with the creation.
Prabhupāda: Any scriptures, any.... Just like the same example. The literature issued along with the manufacturer of this microphone is bona fide. So if anyone follows that bona fide literature, he can deal with it. Otherwise, a bogus.
Mike Robinson: So it's from your scriptures that you've learned that you've got to do this.
Prabhupāda: Yes, we have got so many literatures. We are explaining in English. Guide is.... It is not manufactured. The guide is from the beginning. Simply one has to take that guidance, then everything's all right. And if we manufacture guidance, then it is spoiled. Just like in the literature of this microphone you say that this should be like this, this should be like this, number two should be by the side of number four. You cannot make any change. Then it is spoiled.
Prabhupāda: No, they are not retreated. What do you mean by retreat? I am using this microphone. Where is retreatment?
Mike Robinson: Sorry, maybe retreat was the wrong word. But are you asking them, for instance, if I was to become a member of the movement...
Prabhupāda: No, we are asking that use this microphone for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness, not for sense gratification.
Mike Robinson: Not for?
Prabhupāda: Sense gratification.
Devotees: Sense gratification, pleasing the senses.
Mike Robinson: Oh, thank you.
Prabhupāda: That is the.... The microphone is the same. And the politician can speak all nonsense, and the so-called scientist may speak all nonsense of going to the Mars planet, but we don't talk all nonsense.
Dr. Patel: Sir, Śaṅkarācārya has made so many abstructs (obstructs?) for this bhakti. And I mean to follow it...
Prabhupāda: No, no, I'm talking of Kṛṣṇa. There are many other talkers. We are concerned because we are Kṛṣṇa conscious. Kṛṣṇa conscious means whatever Kṛṣṇa says, we accept. That is our philosophy. We may be fools and rascals, doesn't matter. But we accept what Kṛṣṇa says, that's all. Like a child, he's a child, he may be a fool. But when the father says, "My dear child, this is called microphone," and if the child says, "This is microphone," that is correct. Because he takes the word of the father who knows things. He may be child. So our business is like that.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Railway bridge?
Gurudāsa: But with all the things that are going on, you can't even hear the trains. Now everyone's starting with... And we have the biggest microphones in the whole Mela. Everyone's got microphones this big. And speakers? Speakers? Ours is this big. We've got the biggest ones, six of them, to point in all directions. So that... We thought we would make up for the distance. I thought I would make up by big speakers. We told Kamalapati Tripati that, "Yes, we are living underneath one of your railway bridges," and he laughed.
Prabhupāda: Ah, he's railway member. So railway bridge there is sound.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What would be very nice, I think, is if gradually the local devotees can learn to play these things in Bengali. (kīrtana in background)
Prabhupāda: No. There is another possibility. You can simply play, and by microphone we can explain in Bengali.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Narration. That's best. What would be best, though, is if the local people also learned, so that in every temple there could be this kind of performance.
Prabhupāda: Any local language we can speak. They'll simply show their movement. Speaking somebody, he will show like that. In cinema they do that.
Lokanātha: It has become one of the main attractions of the public, this Vaikuṇṭha Player performance(?). After..., two nights after the program, I inquired from the public on the microphone, "Do you like this drama?" Immediately everybody raised their hands: "Yes!"
Prabhupāda: They were asking me whether they are professional men. "No, no, these all my disciples."
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They're actually much better than any of the professional men.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. We played caitanya-līlā in our younger days. So we brought one very famous man, Amritlal Bose. He is one of the three chief men who started theatrical performances in Bengal. Amritlal Bose, Girish Candra Ghosh, and one some Pathan. This Amritlal Bose was a big author also, for writing comic books. And very expert lecturer. So somehow or other, we contacted him, and we used to call him, (Bengali:) dādā-mahāśaya. Dādā-mahāśaya means grandfather.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all right.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I wanted to know whether... The person who's singing is Śveta-varāha from Māyāpur. In Māyāpur they use a small microphone, not for the drums but for his voice, and he has a very sweet voice. So normally we don't use mic at all, but sometimes the devotees don't know how to sing very sweetly. Whether we should use a small microphone for his voice?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can try it, and if it's not nice we can stop it.
Prabhupāda: It is going on without microphone?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The drums are... Right now the drumming is very loud.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But the voice is hard to hear. Should I try a little microphone? I can take it off immediately if it's not good. I think you'll...
Bhavānanda: Last year in Māyāpur, Śrīla Prabhupāda, during the festival and before, when you were there, they would, this kīrtana group of your disciples, they would be chanting over microphone so that Your Divine Grace could hear it in your room. I remember you commented many times on how sweet and nice it sounded.
Prabhupāda: It is already very loud.
Correspondence
1967 Correspondence
Neal has arrived here yesterday evening and he feels jolly. Please send me all the tapes that are lying there. I hope you will realize the repairing charges for Dictaphone. There is again some defect in the microphone. It is not rewinding by pushing the finger clip. I do not know what to do. I hope you have by this time cleared off the consignments per M.V.Jaladuta from India. And I shall be glad to know how you have received the goods.
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your statement. It appears that you have $5,823.04 in the treasury. You can therefore deposit $5,700.00 to my account by transfer advice. Since Neal is not available here, I am sending the recorded tapes to New York for typing as you have the Dictaphone there. I am also returning the letter of authority to the shipping company duly signed by me. There is some defect in microphone also of the dictaphone. What is to be done. The dictaphone seller does not appear to be very honest. When I inquired they told that it should be taken to some local dealers and when it is repaired they say that they are not going to pay for the labor. So if there is any defect, has it to be sent to New York at their expense?
On Sunday afternoon there was Kirtana in the Golden Gate Park and there was about 3 to 4 hundred audience and most of them danced in ecstasy. It reminded me of our activities in the Tompkins Park. I have asked them to arrange for loudspeakers and microphones so that next week we may have greater audience to join us. It appears to me that people of this country will accept this movement nicely if we do it in accordance with prescribed directions. When we receive the Mrdangas we shall have better chance to perform the Kirtana more nicely.
1968 Correspondence
Today there was a television station interview in my apartment. They came with big cameras and microphones, and I played harmonium and one lady interviewed with a few questions. They took also pictures of my altar with Radha Krishna Deities, and Lord Jagannatha, and the cover pictures of my Bhagavad-gita and Teachings of Lord Caitanya. So it will be on the newscast at 5:00 this evening, in color, and we will go and see how they have done it. They also came to our class last night, and took pictures of our students dancing in ecstasy. So this should help our movement here in Seattle, as so many people will see, and come to our temple. You can try for television appearances there also if possible.
1970 Correspondence
Regarding the Uher tape recorder, it will be very welcome. Our "Dicto-trans" dictaphone is not working and is always giving some difficulty; if the Uher is in good condition, it will be most useful. Also I would like to record permanent tapes at the same time that I am making dictaphone tapes. Can you arrange some device so that one control microphone will stop and start recording on both machines simultaneously?
Salt should be added to the vegetables after they are in masala, it should not be cooked directly in the ghee. Regarding recipes for a cookbook, I think Yamuna devi has made one collection of Prasadam recipies so you may contact her in this connection.
1976 Correspondence
Dramas are alright if you can perform them nicely. Even if you don't speak them in English, they can be rendered into Hindi on the microphone while the drama goes on. But the puppet shows should be stopped. It is nonsense.
| Page Title: | Microphone (Conv. and Letters) |
| Compiler: | Mangalavati, Visnu Murti, Mayapur |
| Created: | 28 of Mar, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=43, Let=6 |
| No. of Quotes: | 49 |