Mleccha (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"mleccha" |"mlecchas"

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- London, August 10, 1971:

Prabhupāda: But he says they're not willing. That is the difference.

Mr. Arnold: I don't think they're willing at this stage, my lord, because there's been so little done for them, and I feel, and I...

Śyāmasundara: Well, we're having Jagannātha parade, Prabhupāda is speaking...

Mr. Arnold: Yes, but in their own communities, we, I suggested a long time ago that in fact there should be an appeal, start off with an appeal in the local papers.

Prabhupāda: The priestly class, they will make propaganda against us: "Oh, they are mlecchas, they are Europeans, they are Americans. What they can do? It is not good." Because India, the caste system is very strong. So I am giving the Europeans and Americans the opportunities to become brāhmaṇa, they are not satisfied.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Professor: That's right. Yes, that's...

Yogeśvara: We were, we were steeped in all kinds of bad habits.

Prabhupāda: No, according to Vedic injunction, the Westerners are mlecchas, yavanas. You know better than me.

Professor: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So pāpa-yoni. And therefore, Kṛṣṇa says... What does He say?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 22, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Actually, they are the relatives of...

Prabhupāda: Mleccha. They have been described in the Bhāgavata: mlecchā rājanya-rūpiṇaḥ. Mlecchas, they will assume as kṣatriya government. Mlecchā rājanya-rūpiṇaḥ. Bhakṣayiṣyanti prajās te mlecchā rājanya-rūpiṇaḥ.

Dr. Patel: These fellows created such a horrible state. They actually broke down the temple.

Prabhupāda: That is a...

Morning Walk -- February 22, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: No, he had not come. These are seven today, but they all went away from here. All were very busy. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...mleccha. Mlecchā rājanya-rūpiṇaḥ. Mlecchas will take the position of government.

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...he is concerned, he has done his duty. And he has promised to phone. Now it is his duty.

Morning Walk 'Varnasrama College' -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, they are little animals with four hand, two legs, two hand, hand animals. That's all. Yes. Rejected them. Vedic civilization rejected them, mlecchas and yavanas. But they can be reformed. The process is the same. Not that because they are rejected, they cannot be reclaimed. They can be reclaimed also. Just like you are being done. Although you are coming from the mlecchas and yavanas, by training, you are becoming more than a brāhmaṇa. So there is no bar for them. Unfortunately, these rascals do not agree to accept. As soon as you say, "No more illicit sex," oh, they become angry. As soon as I say, "There is no meat-eating," they become angry. Mūrkhāyopadeśo hi prakopayati na śamayati (?). The rascals, fools, if you give them good lessons, education, they will be angry.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: King. But not these kings, (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: But they are not kings. They are mlecchas. They are not kings. Asaṁskṛtāḥ kriyā-hīnā mlecchā rājendra-rūpinaḥ. They have assumed the post of king, but otherwise they are mlecchas, asaṁskṛtāḥ. There is no saṁskāra, and kriyā-hīnā, they do not perform the Vedic rituals. So they are all rascals. So how we can be happy?

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Wrong civilization, rascal civilization. And this is due to this rascaldom, nationalism, "This is my land." And at any moment he will be kicked out. Still, he claims, "It is my land." Ahaṁ mameti, janasya moho 'yam ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). This is the illusion. Nothing belongs to him; still he is fighting, "This is mine. This is mine." "I" and "mine." Identifying himself with this body, "I", and wrongly conceiving that "This is mine." This is the basic principle of wrong civilization. Both things are... Nothing belongs to him. Suppose I have come here in Switzerland. If I remain here for one month and I claim, "Oh, this is mine," what is this? So similarly, I come as guest. Everyone comes as guest in the womb of his mother and lives here for fifty years. He is claiming, "It is mine." When, when, when it became yours? The land was long, long time before your birth. How it became yours? But they have no sense. "It is mine." "Fight." "My land, my nation, my family, my society." In this way, wasting time. These things have been introduced by these western mlecchas.

Room Conversation -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes, but we do not keep him śūdra. A devotee is no longer śūdra. We are creating brāhmaṇas. Just like these Europeans and Americans. They, according to Manu-saṁhitā, they are mlecchas, yavanas. But we are not keeping them mlecchas and yavanas. Just like these European and American boys. They are accepting the Vedic regulatives principles: no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling. So they are no more śūdras or caṇḍālas. They are brāhmaṇas.

Yogeśvara: (translates)

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Satsvarūpa: Even if he was mleccha, he can become brāhmaṇa.

Yogeśvara: Actually, the chemists also say that there are four types of blood, A, AB, O, and something like that. They give it four names.

Prabhupāda: And according to Hindu system, the marriage was taking place finding, examining the girl's constitution and the boy's constitution so that there may not be disruption. Everything was there.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 6, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: ...not within the Vedic culture. Vedic culture means this varṇāśrama-dharma: four varṇas, four āśrama. And those who are lower than the śūdras, they are not in the Vedic culture. They are called caṇḍālas. Among these caṇḍālas, the mleccha, yavana, are also there. There are. Kirāta-hūṇāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśā ābhīra-śumbhā yavanāḥ khasādayaḥ (SB 2.4.18). So they are also caṇḍālas, fifth status. Fourth status, up to śūdra, and then all fifth status. So amongst the fifth status, there are all meat-eaters, without any restriction. And there are dog-eaters. So amongst them, the fifth status, one who eats dog, he is considered most abominable.

Morning Walk -- April 6, 1975, Mayapur:

Pañcadraviḍa: Nehru started that slaughterhouse?

Prabhupāda: No, it is British contribution, the mlecchas. Before British period, even in Mohammedan period, there was no slaughterhouse, neither the public used to take cow's flesh. Still in Mohammedan country, Afghanistan, these places, they do not take cow's flesh. Lamb, goats. In the Vedic culture, the cow is recommended to be protected, not other animals. Other animals, the meat-eaters can eat.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even the buffalo.

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Greek history is about three thousand years. (break) ...During the time of Mahārāja Parīkṣit's grandson. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was the grandson of Yudhiṣṭhira, and Yudhiṣṭhira ruled over five thousand years ago. So the Yayāti... Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira's grandson is Parīkṣit. His son is Janamejaya. And his son is Yayāti. And his son started Greek and Roman Empire. So therefore the Greek history is not more than three thousand years. Mahārāja Yayāti banished his two sons to the European quarters. Mleccha-yavana. Later on they became yavana, from Vedic culture deviated. This is the history.

Morning Walk -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes. When the demon is promoted to the Vaikuṇṭha, they also become. Just like you are all now Vaiṣṇava. (laughter) Why don't you compare with yourself? The others are seeing, "What these mlecchas, yavanas, how they can become Vaiṣṇava?" They are seeing like that. Therefore they object. The Vṛndāvana, "How these Europeans can worship Deity?" They are protesting.

Devotee: We can show them this verse.

Morning Walk -- July 1, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: It is Kṛṣṇa's book, we are all servants, engaged. (break) (laughing) Here your parents accusing me, and in India the caste brāhmaṇas accusing me. My standing... I do not know what is my standing. Your parents are accusing me, "This rascal, converting our sons to become mendicant without any material enjoyment." And there, "This rascal is giving sacred thread to the mlecchas and yavanas." (Still laughing)

Viṣṇujana: Is that why you keep traveling, Prabhupāda, so they won't catch you?

Morning Walk -- July 1, 1975, Denver:

Devotee (1): Yes, but the devotees are maintaining the business. And I myself go out and talk to rascals all day long, demons, mlecchas. Am I engaging them in Kṛṣṇa's service by taking lakṣmī?

Prabhupāda: What you are doing with the money?

Devotee (1): I'm giving it to the temple president so that we can buy a farm for you.

Prabhupāda: No, if you are engaging the money for Kṛṣṇa, then it is all right.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: ...also, there is threatening of life. Some brāhmaṇa boys who were living with us, so they were threatened, "You are living with these mlecchas. If you don't give up, then your life is in danger." So they have gone to Māyāpur.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who?

Jayatīrtha: The Sastris.

Prabhupāda: Some brāhmaṇa boys, they came and joined.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah, those boys. Oh. And the other brāhmaṇas threatened.

Morning Walk -- October 19, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: It is training. How they are become brāhmaṇa? According to śāstra, they are coming from mleccha, yavana. How they have become brāhmaṇa? More than brāhmaṇa. But they are abiding by the rules. You see? They are accustomed to eat meat from the very birth. They have given up. And if we request Indians, they will not give up, although their forefathers never ate meat.

Indian man (1): Does it say somewhere in the Bhagavad-gītā that we shouldn't eat meat?

Morning Walk -- November 21, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the Aryan culture.

yasya hi yad lakṣanaṁ

proktaṁ varṇābhivyañjakam

yady anyātrāpi dṛṣyeta

tat tenaiva vinirdiṣet

(SB 7.11.35)

That who is Aryan? These are the symptoms of Aryan. If the symptoms are found in Mexico, they are Aryan. That is verdict of Nārada. Yady anyātrāpi dṛṣyeta tat tenaiva vinirdiṣet (SB 7.11.35). We are doing that. They are coming from mleccha family, but they have practiced to become brāhmaṇa, they are brāhmaṇa. This is Aryan culture.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1976, Nellore:

Indian man: When he was here it happened. And that devotee's grace.... Then I said, "What is the reason why you say?" "No, no. After all, we are qualified. Those mlecchas..."

Prabhupāda: Nobody cares for you. You are so qualified that nobody cares for you.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What did he say?

Yaśodānandana: What did he say about mlecchas?

Indian man: Yes, "Why mlecchas, how can they have, after all?" I said, "You yourself were a married person, and..."

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: And you did not know that they are not.... If they are mlecchas, then you are nārakī. It is said, vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ nārakī. Yes. Ārcye viṣṇau śilā-dhir guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ nārakī. Anyone who considers in terms of caste a Vaiṣṇava, he's a nārakī. Nārakī. Now, just like we go to the temple to see the Deities. Many millions of people are coming, but everyone knows that this is made of stone. But they are going to see the stone?

Indian man: There is God in it.

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: Huh? They are going to see the stone? So arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhiḥ. Anyone who thinks like that.... Similarly, everyone knows that he is European, he is American, but because he is Vaiṣṇava, one should not see like that, "mleccha." If he sees, then he's nārakī.

Yaśodānandana: It also proves that they have no faith in the holy name, because the hari-nāma purifies everything.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: (aside:) Did that swami show that article to Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yaj-jihvāgre nāma tubhyām (sic). Aho bata svapa.

Hariśauri: (aside:) Did he?

Morning Walk -- January 13, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That you are making mlecchas and yavanas brāhmaṇas. I think that that Mongoloid race is also considered like that.

Prabhupāda: I do not follow what you say.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, my point is that they're always feeling that you are creating brāhmaṇas amongst such low-class persons. So I see that they...

Prabhupāda: If I am creating brāhmaṇas, how he is low class?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, we don't agree that he is low class.

Morning Walk -- February 5, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Whatever direction is there, you take that. The medicine is given. Doctor gives direction. "So many drops you can take." Now you say, "Oh, the good medicine. Let me eat the whole thing. I become cured immediately." Then you die. You have to take, enjoy, but according to direction. God does not say that "You don't enjoy." You are, what is called, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). A living entity means ānandamaya, enjoyment. But that ānanda, where it is permanent ānanda, how we have to reach that permanent ānanda, that is being taught. Otherwise, you foolish, you'll eat the whole medicine and die. That's all. Therefore the varṇāśrama-dharma. Varṇāśrama-dharma means that is real human civilization. There is direction that "You enjoy like this." And if you become mlecchas and yavanas, then you'll not enjoy. You simply suffer. You do not know how to enjoy.

Morning Walk -- February 9, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrāḥ (BG 9.32). This striya, generally they take it, "Even she is prostitute," striya. Te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim: "They can also go back to home, back to Godhead." Māṁ hi pārtha... If he takes Kṛṣṇa very seriously, then everything is possible. No impediment. Ahaituky apratihatā. Kṛṣṇa devotional service is so strong that it cannot be checked by any material impediments. The smārtas, they are thinking like that, "How these mlecchas and yavanas can become a brāhmaṇa?" But they do not know that by Kṛṣṇa consciousness one can jump over. Māyām etāṁ taranti te. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14).

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: They are not under any rule and regulation, paramahaṁsa. Paramahaṁsa means, just like mlecchas and yavanas, they are not under any rules and regulation. Similarly, a paramahaṁsa is also not under any rules and regulation. He can do whatever he likes. Śāstra is not meant for him. Avadhūta. He is not in the material world, mahābhāva. So that is the last stage of sannyāsa. Kuṭicaka means when from family life, vānaprastha, and then one takes sannyāsa, that is kuṭicaka. Kuṭicaka means he does not remain at home but goes outside home, outside the village area and makes a kuti, cottage, and lives there. But because he is not accustomed to beg, from his house some foodstuff is sent. Just like you are sending to that Sharma some food?

Morning Walk -- March 16, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: See how aparādhī, offender. They have used that loṭā for watering. Great offender. This is going on, mlecchas and yavanas.

Jayapatākā: I don't know whose loṭā that is.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayapatākā: I don't know whose loṭā that is.

Prabhupāda: I know. It has been used for watering.

Ramesvara: Prabhupāda discovered, it came from the bathroom.

Prabhupāda: Who is that rascals? Huh? Who took it from the bathroom, toilet room?

Morning Walk -- June 7, 1976, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sitting and painting. The boy who's going out every day, trying to think of how to get the books out, he won't be.... (conversation in background) You have come to the hellish planets, Śrīla Prabhupāda, to deliver us. That's all there is. It's amazing enough you have made such a gigantic movement, but the fact that you have made it with such mlecchas as us is what is most astounding. It's like building a skyscraper with swabs and straw. Building a big skyscraper with straw and mud.

Rāmeśvara: In the Fifth Canto, you've quoted from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura that the most sacred place in the whole universe is Śrī Māyāpur-dhāma.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This question here is "In doctrinal content and mode of individual and collective worship..." Is that to say that in your preaching in the Western countries and your preaching in India, you haven't attempted... In the Western countries where there is so many mlecchas, outcastes, so to speak.

Prabhupāda: That is accepted by Kṛṣṇa. Even one is mleccha. Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). So there is no question. That is artificial. One is mleccha or one is brāhmaṇa, but that is artificial. That is skin. But within the skin of the mleccha or the brāhmaṇa the same spirit soul is there.

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

Prabhupāda: That is accepted by Kṛṣṇa. Even one is mleccha. Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). So there is no question. That is artificial. One is mleccha or one is brāhmaṇa, but that is artificial. That is skin. But within the skin of the mleccha or the brāhmaṇa the same spirit soul is there. Therefore those who are paṇḍita, those who are learned,

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne

brāhmaṇe gavi hastini

śuni caiva śva-pāke ca

paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ

(BG 5.18)

One who is actually learned, he sees the same spirit soul within the brāhmaṇa, within the mleccha, within the cat.

Interview with Trans-India Magazine -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: So actually this varṇāśrama system is meant for bringing the man in the lower status of life to the higher status of life. It doesn't matter one is born in a low-grade family. That is also said by Kṛṣṇa: māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). Pāpa-yoni, lower grade. Striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrāḥ (BG 9.32). In the human society, woman, the vaiśya and the śūdra, they are considered in the lower status, not very intelligent. Te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim. They can also become... So in the Western countries, according to Vedic calculation, they are mlecchas, yavanas, low grade. But Kṛṣṇa says ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ, "He can also be elevated, to that extent as he can go back to home, back to Godhead." So this movement is directly giving the opportunity of Kṛṣṇa's service so that they can become immediately bona fide to the position in the highest grade of life, Vaiṣṇava, so that he can go back to home, back to Godhead.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: People have got already very respect now for the... (break) You should maintain the temple. They already call it iṁrej (English) temple. But still people come. But if you make a mleccha temple... Actually, (laughs) they can say like that, but still, they come. But their awe and veneration may be disturbed, may not be disturbed. That is management.

Hari-śauri: One of the things they haven't been able to criticize us for is our Deity worship.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: Because even the yavanas and mlecchas were following the kṣatriya system in Kṛṣṇa's time. Just like Jarāsandha. He had all the chivalrous respect of a kṣatriya even though he was a demon. But nowadays everybody's... No one is...

Prabhupāda: Everybody's śūdra. Nobody's brāhmaṇa, nobody's...

Hari-śauri: No.

Prabhupāda: Śūdra is to be controlled only. They are never given to be freedom. Just like in America. The blacks were slaves. They were under control. And since you have given them equal rights they are disturbing, most disturbing, always creating a fearful situation, uncultured and drunkards. What training they have got? They have got equal right? That is best, to keep them under control as slaves but give them sufficient food, sufficient cloth, not more than that. Then they will be satisfied.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And if you kill, then wholesale will be killed. No... There will be no candidate for learning. You have to kill everyone. That will be at the end, Kalki-avatāra, simply killing, bas, finish. They'll have no capacity to understand. Nowadays there are... They cannot understand this philosophy. But there are some, they are trying to understand. But at the end of Kali-yuga there will be no brain to understand or to hear all these things. Mleccha. That is mleccha. Mleccha means they are so unclean, unstandardized, they have no brain. That is Europe, America. That's ... Mleccha. Kill animals. Eat. Mleccha, they are, according to Vedic, untouchable. If you touch, then you infect.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They are... They are... They are described in the Bhāgavata, pāpinaḥ. Those who are killing other animals for maintaining his own body, they are very, very sinful. Very, very sinful. Therefore untouchable. According to Vedic civilization, the animal-killers, mlecchas, they are untouchable. They are so sinful.

Dr. Sharma: They talk about killing of animals for wants of survival. Darwin's case has been brought in, put in, survival, struggle for existence. I mean to have a talk with Dr. Svarūpa. Even the key of the evolution theory by Darwin, he is not feeling itself. It has lots of...

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Fifty thousand. So I said, "Yes, I can give you fifty thousand, but this is mleccha money. You'll be polluted. Best thing is that give. We can maintain. I'll immediately deposit fifty thousand." He has stopped. (laughs) "We are mlecchas. I am the leader of the mlecchas, so my money will pollute you. But if you are feeling difficulty, you hand over the temple to us, and on condition I immediately deposit fifty thousand in the name of the temple."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he was not interested. Suddenly his problems were solved. He didn't take the money.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Money is not mleccha. But when we offer to eat something, we are mleccha.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No one will take... A lot of the men, people, will not take prasādam at our temples for the same reason.

Prabhupāda: Now they are taking. And some of them are not.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Some swelling in the stomach?

Prabhupāda: Hm? No, I am feeling all right.