Prabhupāda: When there was no car, elephant had some importance. And now they have got so many cars. (break)
Dr. Patel: Camels were used as they are now, for runners.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Gurudāsa: They still do.
Dr. Patel: They're better than the horses, don't get tired earlier. From Vṛndāvana to Delhi the camels were running. They used (Hindi). I don't know what they call it in Bengali.
Prabhupāda: My Guru Mahārāja purchased two camels. I did not . . . I do not know what happened, but he purchased.
Gurudāsa: I think Tīrtha Mahārāja was fighting with someone else over them.
Prabhupāda: No, it is long ago.
Dr. Patel: We heard a story in Mahābhārata that all travellers, they can go all the way to Hastināpura in a . . . (indistinct) . . . Just when Abhimanyu was going for fight. In those days also they were using camels.
Gurudāsa: In Rajastan they use widely.
Dr. Patel: Rajastan is a desert.
Prabhupāda: No, Vṛndāvana quarter there are many camels.
Dr. Patel: Everywhere there is camel.
Gurudāsa: They're using camels at the melā. For carrying things they're using camels now.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: Camels have long legs, you know. They go faster than . . . Don't get tired as the horses do.
Gurudāsa: In the West they are called "ships of the desert."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: They have wild camels in Australia even. They used to use them in the desert.
Prabhupāda: Wherever there is desert, there is thorn twig and camels.
Dr. Patel: Both. I think Australian desert is bigger than Indian desert.
Hari-śauri: Yeah. It's very big.
Dr. Patel: Much bigger, as big as Sahara perhaps.
Gurudāsa: Desert means deserted.
Devotee (1): I went to Makrana, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and I saw they had them hitched for plowing.
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Devotee (1): They had camels for plowing. In Makrana.
Gurudāsa: Makrana.
Prabhupāda: Ah.
Dr. Patel: Camels are used for plowing even in Gujarat, in north Gujarat. They use them on parks(?) also.
Trivikrama: And they eat the thorny twigs.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is their food.
Dr. Patel: Camels can eat everything except for . . . (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Karmīs, they are compared with the camels. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ samstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ (SB 2.3.19).
Dr. Patel: I don't think, sir, there will be camels in Bengal, because all Bengal is rivers, so many rivers.
Prabhupāda: No. No, there is no camel. And unless there is that thorny twig, they cannot live. That is their food.
Dr. Patel: In Gujarat you find these camels right at the Surat, south of the Gujarat. In north Gujarat they are very common now, enfringing on the desert.