Prabhupāda: I was born and educated in Calcutta. Calcutta is my home place. I was born in 1896, and I was my father's pet child, so my education began a little late, and still, I was educated in higher secondary, high school for eight years. In primary school four years, higher secondary school, eight years, in college, four years. Then I joined Gandhi's movement, national movement. But by good chance I met my Guru Mahārāja, my spiritual master, in 1922. And since then, I was attracted in this line, and gradually I gave up my household life. I was married in 1918 when I was still a third year student. And so I got my children. I was doing business. Then I retired from my family life in 1954. For four years I was alone, without any family. Then I took regularly renounced order of life in 1959. Then I devoted myself in writing books. My first publication came out in 1962, and when there were three books, then I started for your country in 1965 and I reached here in September, 1965. Since then, I am trying to preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness in America, Canada, in European countries. And gradually the centers are developing. The disciples are also increasing. Let me see what is going to be done.
My father (Conversations)
Expressions researched:
"my father"
|"my father's"
|"our father"
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Journalist: Now when you... Do you go to this institute for a certain period of time?
Prabhupāda: There is no fixed period. No. But, say, for me, I was trained, my father was of this line...
Journalist: Oh, your father...
Prabhupāda: Oh yes. My father trained me from childhood, yes. And then I met my spiritual master in 1922, and I was initiated in... On the whole there was a background, because as I told you, 80, 90 percent people are Kṛṣṇa conscious by family-wise. You see? So we were trained up from the beginning of our life. Officially, of course, I accepted my spiritual master in 1933. Since then, I had some background, and since I met, I developed this idea. Yes.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Allen Ginsberg: But do you understand your previous lives from the descriptions in authoritative texts, or from any introspective recollection...
Prabhupāda: No, we have to corroborate.
Allen Ginsberg: ...of your own?
Prabhupāda: Corroborate. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is said that śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41). One who could not finish this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he gets birth in two places, either in very rich family, or in a very pure brāhmaṇa family, brahminical cultured family. So from my life I experience, when I was very little child six or seven years old, I was very much fond of Kṛṣṇa. And I got the opportunity of this two things. Although my father was not very rich, but he was pure Vaiṣṇava. He was great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Allen Ginsberg: I assume Calcutta.
Prabhupāda: In Calcutta, and accidentally, I was born in a very rich family. You have seen that picture in my Calcutta, dancing. In that, there is a Kashi Mallik's family.
Indian Woman: (Bengali) Kashi Malliker?
Prabhupāda: They are very aristocratic family. I do, I did not belong to that family, but I was born in that family, you see? And from the very beginning the Kashi Mallik, they have got nice Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple. So I was standing before the deity, and I was seeing, "Oh, He is Kṛṣṇa. Oh, people say He is dead. How he is dead?" Like that I was thinking. And then my, I asked my father, "Oh, I shall worship Kṛṣṇa, give me." So my father gave me Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, so I, whatever I was eating, I was offering them. So the statement of the śāstra and my practical experience corroborates. So we we have to take instance like that, you see? Sādhu śāstra guru vākya. We have to test everything from three positions: the spiritual master, scripture, and holy man.
Prabhupāda: ...six or seven years old, my father was worshiping, so I wanted to imitate. I asked him that "Give me Deity." So he gave me.
Allen Ginsberg: Did you wash them and play with them?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Washed, changed dress.
Allen Ginsberg: Fed them.
Prabhupāda: Yes, everything.
Allen Ginsberg: Do you still? Do you still wash them and feed them and play with them?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now my disciples I have... (laughs) At home I was doing that.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) I was born a Vaiṣṇava family. My father was a great devotee. Naturally, he led me... Oh, I am speaking in Hindi, English. (Hindi) They are not attracted to the Hindu dharma.
Guest (6): Then why they attracted to Hare Rāma, Hare Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: They are attracted to Kṛṣṇa. These people, they are... (Hindi) But you are taking Kṛṣṇa as Hindu. That is your mistake. Kṛṣṇa is... Hindu ne. He is God. He is God. God Hindu ne, Mussulman ne, Christian ne, Parsi ne—God is God.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Journalist (2):.What about yourself? How long have you had this understanding and awareness of God?
Prabhupāda: How long you want? (laughter) I have had this under-standing from my birth. My father was God conscious, he taught me how to become God conscious.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee: He's like to know something about your childhood.
Prabhupāda: I was (indistinct) ...a devotee (indistinct) ...my childhood. My father was a devotee and he trained me....
Ambassador: Now, Your Divine Grace, when did you... Did you from boyhood enter this movement, or...
Prabhupāda: Yes. My father was a great devotee.
Ambassador: I see.
Prabhupāda: So from the very childhood I was trained up.
Ambassador: I see.
Prabhupāda: Then it was very much adjusted after meeting my spiritual master. But the ideas were impregnated and I was trained up from my childhood. That was a great opportunity that I got a very good.... I have dedicated this book to my father.
Ambassador: Oh! Oh, yes.
Guru dāsa: "To my father, Gour Mohan De."
Ambassador: Yeah, it's nice.
Śyāmasundara: We met Prabhupāda's sister in Calcutta. She is also a great devotee.
Ambassador: Oh, really!
Śyāmasundara: And she was lamenting that she has eight sons, eight sons, but none of them are devotees, and her brother has so many hundreds of sons, real sons.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So, my father was Vaiṣṇava, but when I invited these Gauḍīya Maṭha sādhus, my father thought that I have invited some sādhus of the Ramakrishna Mission. So he was not very interested. When Tīrtha Mahārāja is speaking, I call my... My father was that time invalid, I called him that "Please come down, there is a meeting of the Gauḍīya Maṭha sādhus." So, he could not resist my request, he came down, but he did not think that some devotees have come. They thought, these Ramakrishna Mission rascals have come. (laughter) So he was not very happy, but I told, he was sitting. He, so the meeting he just criticized. Then when he heard the speech of our old Tīrtha Mahārāja, our old Godbrother, he understood, "Oh, they are Vaiṣṇavas."
Krishna Tiwari: My name is Krishna Tiwari.
Prabhupāda: Tiwari.
Krishna Tiwari: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Oh. In Kanpur I had an old friend—he was just like my father-Tiwari. Very rich man. They have got their temple.
Krishna Tiwari: Which place? I probably know it.
Prabhupāda: In Kanpur there is a big temple that belongs to the Tiwari family. It is famous temple. Many people go there to visit.
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.
Prabhupāda: Real thing is culture. That education is culture. Simply money-making education for maintaining this body, that education will not satisfy any more. Just like I told you, that despite all arrangements of education, why the young men are turning to be hippies? That is my question.
Mother: Oh, but not your followers. Your followers are not being hippies, people who follow you. Therefore you've got the people who you could help to become cultured like you.
Prabhupāda: So my father educated me in a different way. Therefore I have come to this stage. My father never allowed me even to drink tea.
Yaśomatīnandana: Also you mentioned Mullik family in Calcutta to be your grandparents or someone?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Yaśomatīnandana: That is also mentioned in the Bhāgavatam.
Prabhupāda: Yes. One of the members was our relative. So we are staying with them, these Mulliks. He had no sons. So we were staying, some relatives. Therefore I was born in that family, although they are our distant relations. But when I was, my father was staying there, I was born. These Mulliks they are also De. Their original title is De. This Mullik is their title.
Prabhupāda: There is a road, K.C. Bose, Dr. Karttikacandra Bose Street. He was my father's friend.
Devotee: Did you work for Jagadishacandra Bose too?
Prabhupāda: No, no. I worked for Dr. Dr. K.C. Bose, under whose name the street is going on, Dr. Karttikacandra Bose. He's also famous man, this Bose. He was the, I mean to say, the starter of this Bengal Chemical Company.
Prabhupāda: So one yogi friend was coming to my father. He said that, he said that "I went with my Guru Mahārāja." They simply sit down and touch guru and after few minutes, he's in Dvārakā. This is, this is yogic power. What your aeroplane will do?
Prabhupāda: That, kavirāja can tell. When my father died, the kavirāja said, "Now you can do the rituals because he will die before next morning." He said. And actually it so happened. He said me this about ten, eleven o'clock, and he said exactly, "Before next morning he'll die." So that is experience. If you say, "After twenty days the month of January is coming," the child cannot understand, "How father said that twenty days after, January is coming?" But it is better experience only that one can say, "Today is 10th, and after twenty days, 1st January, will come." Everything is experience but supreme experience is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore if we receive experience from Him, then our experience becomes perfect. This is our proposal.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Dr. Patel: Now, hippie movement started from America. That means they started first. Not after coming to India...
Prabhupāda: But they learned it from India.
Dr. Patel: No.
Prabhupāda: They came here... I have got many students. They came here for spiritual enlightenment, but they learned gañjā smoking and keeping high, big beard. You know. There is a sannyāsa-āśrama in Delhi. And people contribute them gañjā. Not only they, I know... My father, he was also attached to so many sannyāsīs. So in Kālī-ghāṭa, there was a sannyāsī...
Dr. Patel: Sannyāsīs, those nāgā-bābās, they smoke.
Prabhupāda: Not nāgā... He was a regular sannyāsī, Māyāvādī sannyāsī. So my father was giving them the saffron cloth and gañjā. People accept it that this is one of the items.
Dr. Patel: That gañjā should be given.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes, so badly impressed. So this gañjā-smoking has spread all over the world as the hippie movement.
Jayapatākā: Bhavānanda has said that in his previous life he had a pet pig, and he used to offer the pig sweet, but the pig would take the sweet and... He would not eat it. He would roll it in dirt. And when it is filled with dirt, then only he would eat.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Siddha-svarūpānanda: It tasted so bad, he had to have something that tasted good around it so that he could get it down.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) It is not for the hog, but a human being... I had a friend. If you give him rasagullā, he'll want little salt. Rasagullā with little salt, he'll eat. Without salt, he cannot eat. And my father, he was, at the last stage of his taking, some rice mixed with milk. While eating that, he'll take a little curry also. So it is a taste.
Prabhupāda: (break) eat along with my father. Unless I come, father will not...
Dr. Patel: But you were brought up in a big city, but I was brought up in a small village. Actually... (break)
Prabhupāda: The same. It doesn't matter whether it is in the village or town.
Prabhupāda: She became widow at the age of eighteen years. So my father engaged her in worshiping Deity. My father was worshiping, and she was the assistant. Of course, she had two children by that time.
Prabhupāda: (Sanskrit) From our childhood, if there was a rice grain on the floor, my father, er, my mother would ask me, "Take it and touch it on your head."
Dr. Patel: We were advised not to tread on the grains. (break)
Prabhupāda: Because by chance, if the grain is struck with the leg, she asked, "Take it and you touch it on the head."
Dr. Patel: That is the culture. That is real culture.
Prabhupāda: Means from the very beginning he understands anna-brahma.
Prabhupāda: The Āryan people used to keep slaves, but they were treating slaves very nicely. Later on it degraded. Otherwise, slaves were kept just like family members.
Bhagavān: They had no resentment.
Prabhupāda: No, they were very happy. Just like you keep a dog. It is slave but it is very happy under the protection of good master.
Bhagavān: Actually, they like to work hard.
Prabhupāda: Yes, they like to work hard and they want good protection. That is their happiness. Even still in Africa, the servants, domestic servants, Africans, I have seen in Indian family, they are very happy. They are very happy, and the master also takes care of them. They want to eat sumptuously, and that's all. They have no other ambition. They don't want any motorcar or like this, no. And they work very nicely, domestic work, very clean. But sometimes they steal. That is their habit. My father used to say, "If you do not allow the servants to steal, so don't keep." Don't keep servants. "A servant who does not steal, he is not a gentleman. He must steal."
In Bhāgavata also it is recommended, kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāga... (SB 7.6.1). Therefore this Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be taught from the very beginning of life. The more younger, you capture it. Just like we were educated from the very birth by our father. The same thing, what I am doing now in larger scale, I did in my childhood, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa worship and Ratha-yātrā, the same thing.
Bhagavān: You were telling us one time that in India, if a person has a mango orchard, you can come in if you're hungry and eat, but you cannot take any with you.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Still, if you have got a garden, somebody says, "I want to eat some fruits." "Yes, come on. Take as much fruit as you like." But you cannot take it away. Any number of men can come and eat. They even do not prohibit the monkeys. "All right, let him come in. It is God's property." That is the system. That is mentioned in Bhāgavata. If the animals like monkeys, they come to your garden to eat, don't prohibit. Let him. He's also Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel. Where he will eat if you prohibit? It is very practical. I have got another. This is told by my father. My father's elder brother was keeping a cloth shop. My father also was keeping a cloth shop. So it is in the village. So my uncle, what he would do, that before closing the shop, he'll bring one, what is called...?
Bhagavān: A bowl?
Prabhupāda: Bowl, big bowl. Or it is... What do you call, where you keep water?
Bhagavān: Pot.
Prabhupāda: Basin, basin. So one basin full rice he will keep in the middle of the shop. And there are rats. So the rats will take the rice, and not cut even a single cloth. It is practical. Yes. They are also animals. Give them food. They'll not create any disturbance. Give them food.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Thank you. The other day in Caracas two or three psychiatrists came. His question was how to solve the problems. So our statement is that unless you treat the spiritual disease of the human society, then the problems will increase. It will be never be solved. The real disease is spiritual disease.
Guest (7): The young children also? What about young children?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Young children should be educated from the very beginning about God consciousness or the science of God. We had the opportunity in our childhood. My father taught. And then, when I was grown up, my spiritual master taught. So for that reason we have got some sense. Spiritual education should be given...
Prabhupāda: There is no question of age. Realization of God should be educated from the very beginning of life.
Reporter: Oh, I understand that, Swamiji. My question to you was at what age did you yourself in this physical incarnation realize the highest truth?
Prabhupāda: Of course, we were born in a very nice family. My father educated me in this way. So practically from the very beginning of our life we were educated in this way.
Journalist: And what were you in India before that? Did you have a religious background?
Prabhupāda: No, no, from the very childhood we are Kṛṣṇa conscious, our family, the Vaiṣṇava family. My father and my forefathers, they are all belonged to this cult, Kṛṣṇa cult. So naturally from our childhood we were trained up in this cult.
Bali-mardana: You were taking bath in Yamunā.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that I was regularly, when I was in Vṛndāvana. In childhood I was going with my father to take bathing in the Ganges, Calcutta. That I was going regularly.
Dr. Gerson: My impressions of the devotees thus far, however, are that those who have been in the movement much longer...
Prabhupāda: Because even if you find somebody diseased, still, spiritual consciousness is not hampered. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, ahaituky apratihatā. Apratihatā means without any impediment. There is no checking. Just like in the Ganges water you will sometimes find the stool is floating there. But that does not mean the Ganges water has become polluted. It is practical. In Calcutta, in our childhood, I was taking bath in the Ganges with my father. Many gentlemen regularly takes bath in the Ganges. And the modern scientific method is: all the garbage, throw into the river. So we were taking bath, and here is some stool floating. So we used to drive away the stool and take bath. The stool is unable to pollute the Ganges water.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...disagreement between my father and mother. My father would give me all independence, and mother was going that "You are spoiling the child by giving too much independence."
Prabhupāda: I have got practical experience. In my childhood I used to go with my father for some purchasing some bhauma(?) flour in the interior districts. So there was one servant engaged. One day he did not come. So my father asked me, "He is living in there, in that cottage. You can go and ask him." So I went to his cottage. Practically there was no roof, and rain was dropping. So I saw him in a very bad condition. Then I asked him, "Why don't you come to Calcutta with us?" So he replied, "No sir, we cannot go, leaving home. (laughter) This is home." I have got practical experience. "Home sweet home." Janani janma-bhumiś ca svargād api gariyasi: Everyone is thinking that his birthplace and his mother is better than the heaven. That is the psychology. So everyone, however abominable... Everyone is living in abominable condition. That's a fact. But everyone is thinking that "Who is happier than me?" Everyone. This is called māyā.
Prabhupāda: Dr. Karttika Chandra Bose, he was a very big man. I was, under him, manager of Bose's laboratory. So from the very beginning my father was paying him two rupees fees. But when he became very big, still my father was paying two rupees. He was friend. So he refused to take. "No, no, no, you must be paid something." So he used to accept that two rupees.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says that he finds it very.... From reading your books it is very clear that Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very careful and strict to only eat prasādam cooked by proper persons.
Prabhupāda: No, purchase from Jagannātha temple. People would come to offer Him prasādam, so what is the cost of the prasādam, that was taken, and He purchased. Formerly, the system was, there was no hotel, but there were temples. You go and you can purchase very cheap price. I went with my father in my childhood in a place. My father would never take food at anyone's house or in the hotel. He will find out some temple and pay them and take prasādam. Still there are many temples. So I was about ten years old at that time, say, seventy years ago. So he paid two annas to the pūjārī and he gave us so much. It can be eaten by five, six men. Kicheri, vegetables, varieties. So much. Two annas.
Prabhupāda: You know my story? My father's instruction? Yes.
Harikeśa: What was that?
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) My wife was never beautiful to my sight, so I wanted to marry again, and my father advised, "Don't do it. She is your friend, that you don't like her." (laughs) Just see.
Prabhupāda: ...ten direction. Eight direction, corner, and northeast, east-west, and up and down. So everywhere He is present. So Kṛṣṇa has got ten hands. So my father used to say, "When Kṛṣṇa takes your money or possession in ten hands, how you can protect it with two hands? And when He give you in ten hands, how much you can take in two hands?" (laughs) So in my case it has become practical. Everything He has taken in ten hands, and now He is giving in ten hands. (laughter) I am practically experiencing. My Guru Mahārāja ordered me, "You do this." I was trying to save my business, my family, with two hands, and Kṛṣṇa took it in ten hands. And now, after making me beggar, He is giving me, ten hands: "You take as much as you like." Now I am thinking of my father's instruction.
Hṛdayānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said that you were not so much impressed by the saintly persons that were coming.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hṛdayānanda: Why was that?
Prabhupāda: Not all of them were real Vaiṣṇava. That was my discrimination from the beginning of my life. I never liked these bogus swamis and yogis. I never liked. But my father had no discrimination. "Never mind whatever he is. He is a saintly person. Receive him."
Prabhupāda: And as I have shown in coming, our house was just behind the present Govinda Bhavana. And we had the opportunity of seeing this Rādhā-Govinda from very childhood. When I was three or four years old I used to visit this Rādhā-Govinda daily.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Rādhā-Govinda! Jaya Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: And that is the inspiration of my devotional life. Then I asked my father that "Give me Rādhā-Govinda Deity; I shall worship." So my father was also Vaiṣṇava. He gave me small Rādhā-Govinda Deity. I was worshiping in my house. Whatever I was eating, I was offering, and I was following the ceremonies of this Rādhā-Govinda with my small Deity. That Deity is still existing. I have given to my sister. So then I introduced Ratha-yātrā.
Prabhupāda: My Ratha-yātrā was being performed very gloriously. My father used to spend money. In those days ten rupees, twenty rupees was sufficient. I hired one kīrtana party and a small friends, they..., I think the brother of the present generation, and there was another De family here, so we performed this Ratha-yātrā ceremony. According to our children's imagination, it was very gorgeous. So I think our present Manmohan.... His name is? Gabhur Bhavana? (Bengali) Gopishvara Mullik. That Gopishvara Mullik was my father's friend. So he was criticizing my father that "You are performing Ratha-yātrā ceremony and you are not inviting us." So my father said, "That is children's play. What shall I invite you? You are very big man." "Oh, so you are avoiding. In the name of children you are avoiding us." On the whole, this Ratha-yātrā festival was very gorgeously....
Prabhupāda: So anyway, this Thakurbari, Rādhā-Govindajī, is my life. That is the beginning of my, this spiritual life. And after so many years, still Rādhā-Govindajī has dragged me. So it is His kindness. So the beginning was the same thing—worship of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deity and introduction of Ratha-yātrā. That is I am doing in a bigger scale and a wider scale all over the world. So it is nothing new. So in the one sense, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41). So although I was not belonging to this family.... Or perhaps originally we belonged to this family, because they are also De, we are De, but practically I was born in this family, and śucīnāṁ śrīmatām. And my father was a very pure Vaiṣṇava. So these opportunities we got. Now it is developed in a wider scale. It is all Kṛṣṇa's arrangement, maybe from my previous life.
Prabhupāda: From our house to this Thakurbari, Rādhā-Govinda's house, coming and going with procession of children and khola, karatāla and everything. Prasādam distribution, everything was there. My father used to encourage. And in those days if my father would spend twenty-five rupees, it was a great festival. Why not? In those days, fifty, sixty years ago, the money value was at least twenty times. So if my father was spending at that time twenty rupees, now it is at least four hundred rupees. So for a children's play four hundred rupees is not a small amount.
Abhirāma: At least fifty dollars in American.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So my father used to pay.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You hired a saṅkīrtana party?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Only two rupees. That's all.
Guru dāsa: Bargain.
Prabhupāda: My father used to do that. He'd go to a vegetable vendor. He has got a big basket, and he'll say, "What do you want for all, the whole basket." So he is ready because he'll sit down so long, so at very cheap rate he'll give it. And it was not required in the family so much. My mother became very angry, that "You are bringing so many, so much vegetable, it is being spoiled." But he would purchase like that. If you give him in those days fifty rupees to go to the market, he will spend all the money and bring at home.
Prabhupāda: When I was a child my father gave me one red gun, and then I was not more than eight years. Then, after getting one, I said, "I must have another one." Eh? Then father said, "Why another one? You have got already one." So I said, "No, I have got two hands. I must have two guns." Then my father, "No, you are not.... I am not going..." Then I made so much agitation, he was obliged to give me two guns. (laughter) I was very pet child of my father and very pet son-in-law also. And I am very pet guru also. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: I take America as my fatherland. India is motherland, and here is fatherland. (laughs) So many fathers. My father was very affectionate to me. He would do everything for me. I lost one father, I have got so many fathers.
Prabhupāda: So you are taking care. I am very much obliged to you. I sometimes think in my childhood I was very, very pet son of my father. I have admitted that in that book I told. My father was not very rich man, but still, whatever I wanted, he would give me. He never chastised me, but full love. Then of course I got friends and I was married, so by Kṛṣṇa's grace everyone loved me. (laughs) And I came to this foreign country without any acquaintance. So Kṛṣṇa has sent so many fathers to love me. In that way I am fortunate.
Prabhupāda: Hm. You are now making wholesaling.
Mr. Kallman: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes!
Mr. Kallman: More volume.
Prabhupāda: Wholesale business is better than retail business. My father was a wholesale, cloth seller, cloth merchant. So, he liked wholesale business, not retail.
Mr. Kallman: The wholesale is much better. It's more financial...
Prabhupāda: A little profit, but aggregate is better.
Prabhupāda: So in my childhood, when I was one and one-half years old, I suffered from typhoid, and the Dr. Karttika Candra Bose, he said that he, "Please give him chicken juice." So my father refused: "No, no, we cannot." "No, no he has to be given. Now he has become very weak." "No, no, I cannot allow." "Don't mind, I shall prepare in my own house and send. You simply..." So it was sent from his house, and when it was given to me, immediately I began to vomit. And my father threw it away, and when the doctor asked that this was the... "No, no, then don't bother." This story I heard. This allopathetic system of medicine introduced all these things in India. Otherwise they did not know.
Prabhupāda: No, I have got experience. I am Calcutta born. What Calcutta was in our childhood days and what is now, I know everything. How we were happy during British days and what is now position, I can speak from my personal experience. We do not belong to the richest class nor to the poor class-middle class. So we have got practical experience. My father's income was not more than 250 rupees. How opulent we were. At least, there was no question of need. We were receiving daily four, five guests, and my father was functioning so many festivals and he was asking... My father gave in marriage four daughters. There was no difficulty. The income was not more than 250 rupees. Of course, that 250 rupees at least ten times now. But still, there was no needy. Not very opulent, but there was no need. The first necessity is to feed and to clothe. So there was no such scarcity. May not be very luxurious life, but there was no scarcity for food and shelter or cloth. There was no scarcity. Happy. That is wanted. Happiness in whatever circumstance. Not that because we did not possess a motorcar, therefore unhappy. I purchased one motor car in 1925, Buick car. Not for personal use, but for using it as a taxi. My one nephew, he was a good driver, so my father, "Why don't you give him? He can do that, we can use it our own car also taxi." So I took it, Buick car, I think I paid eight thousand rupees.
Prabhupāda: In my childhood I was not willing to go to the schools. My mother forced, by force she used to... My father was lenient and my mother kept a special man, yamadhara(?), that, "Your duty is to take him by force to the school." Yes. My father, my mother would complain that "Your boy did not go to school." "Oh, he did not go to school?" And I was sure he was very affectionate. "Why?" "No, I shall go tomorrow." Then father, "All right, he will go tomorrow, that's all right." But that tomorrow will never come. This is my practical. My mother forced me. So I thought, "It is pleasure. Why shall I go to school? Let me play whole day." But it is the duty of the guardian to see that this is not pleasure, this is spoiling.
Prabhupāda: So they were not crying very loudly, but the grandfather inquired, "So why there is, it appears there is some great suffering?" So my father's eldest brother, he inquired, "Is your mother dead?" I consider like that, no, no. "So I am also dead." He died later on. Next day. He simply inquired, "I think your mother is dead." They said, "No, no." "No, I am also going to," and he died.
Prabhupāda: My father used to carry śālagrāma-śilā if he was going out in the...
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In the neck?
Prabhupāda: His Guru Mahārāja advised him.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's auspicious.
Prabhupāda: No, it is the safest place. In a linen handkerchief, bound up. Yes. So it is safe always, kaṇṭha. My father used to carry. Wherever he would stay, gaṅga-jala, tulasī, decoration. Say, half an hour business. My father was a great devotee. Yes.
Prabhupāda: "The ideas given by my father were solidified by..."
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That's what you said.
Prabhupāda: Read it.
Gargamuni: "To my father, Gour Mohan De, 1849-1930, pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, who raised me as a Kṛṣṇa conscious child from the beginning of my life. In my boyhood ages he instructed me how to play the mṛdaṅga. He gave me Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa vigraha to worship and he gave me Jagannātha Ratha to duly observe the festival as my childhood play. He was kind to me, and I imbibed from him the ideas later on solidified by my spiritual master, the eternal father."
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very beautifully written.
Gargamuni: Yes, very poetic.
Prabhupāda: That is a fact. I got good father and good spiritual master. That's all.
Prabhupāda: My father never chastised me.
Hari-śauri: I think you said your mother was always very strict.
Prabhupāda: Because he was very lenient. So mother had to be little strict for my education.
Prabhupāda: My father was a great devotee. Yes.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You dedicated the Kṛṣṇa book to him.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because he was a pure Vaiṣṇava. And he wanted me to become like this. He was praying Rādhārāṇī. He was praying to Rādhārāṇī. And any saintly person would come, he would simply say, "Give blessings to my son that he may become a Rādhārāṇī's servant." That was my father's prayer. He never prayed that "My son may become very rich man." He never prayed like that. Actually, his ardent desire that his son may become a Vaiṣṇava. And my Guru Mahārāja's training has put me this position. That I have admitted.
Prabhupāda: So you cannot change. I have seen it. One, my father's friend, he was very old man. My father was also... He was at that time not less than sixty-five. But his wife died, and he was married with another young girl. But his sister forced him to marry. That "Unless you marry, who will look after you? You have no children." But I have seen that young woman who was married with that gentleman... In our childhood we used to called her didi. Didi means elder sister. So the relationship was very thick and thin. But that old man, not less than sixty-five, and this young woman, utmost twenty to twenty-five. She was serving the husband like anything. We have seen it. There is no question of changing or being dissatisfied.
Prabhupāda: So my father first admitted me in that Marwari school. So I learned this devanāgarī there, for a few days I was going. I was the only Bengali student there. Because I was little, my father thought that instead of going outside the house, within the house there is a school, get him admitted.
Mr. Malhotra: You have I mean thought of spiritual bending, or spiritual...
Prabhupāda: No, we are trained up, because we belong to Kṛṣṇa family. So this Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa worship is our family tradition. Our forefathers, my father, my maternal uncles, we are Vaiṣṇava family. Belonging to the Caitanya-sampradāya.
Mr. Malhotra: But how you entered in business, I mean.
Prabhupāda: Because we were trained up from the very beginning of our life by our father, mother.
Mr. Malhotra: Grandfather also?
Prabhupāda: Yes, our whole family.
Prabhupāda: Previously it used to be, as they say of ancient India, that if one did not speak Sanskrit he was supposed to be uncivilized. So now that has come out...
Prabhupāda: In our childhood, my father's generation, in Calcutta, if a gentleman does not keep a prostitute extra, he is not a respectable man.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: There is a square, Marker(?) Square. So I did not know the riot has taken place. I was coming home. So one of my class friends said that "You do not go to your house. That side is rioting now." So because we are in the Muhammadan quarter, this fighting between two parties, that was going on. It is usual. So I thought it may be like that, that two guṇḍās are fighting. I have seen. One guṇḍā is stabbing the other guṇḍā. I have seen. And they are pickpockets. When you are passing they would... I have seen, he is pickpocketing. (laughter) And they were our neighbor men. So I thought "It must be like that. This is going on." But when I came the crossing of Mahatma Gandhi... At that time Harrison Road it was. Harrison Road and Holi..., Holiday, Halliday Street, yes. So one shop was being plundered. Putamat putamat putamat..." So I was child, a boy. I became... "What is this happening?" In the meantime all, my father, mother, members: "Oh, the child has not come." They became so mad, they came out of home expecting, "Wherefrom the child will come?" So what could I do? When I saw, then I began to run towards our house, and one Muhammadan, he wanted to kill me. He took his lāṭhi and actually... But I passed through some way or other. I was saved. So as soon as I came before our gate they got their life.
Prabhupāda: What can be done? Things have gone high, I was calculating the other day, twenty times.
Hari-śauri: Thirty times.
Dr. Patel: More than that. Thirty times, yes.
Prabhupāda: Thirty times, yes. My father's income was from 250 to 300, and we were living very comfortably.
Prabhupāda: Gandhi helped to stop the British capitalist in favor of the Indian capitalist. The consumer remained in the same position, rather, worse. The foreigners, they are thinking that "These people are poor. They cannot pay more to me." And these rascals, Indian capitalists, in the name of nationalism, Birlas and others, they exploit. And they give contribution to Gandhi, Gandhi's staff, Jawaharlal Nehru's staff. And they took the opportunity that "I shall pay this rascal one lakh, and I shall utilize the ten lakhs." That's it. So the object of exploitation remained the same. Rather, by artificial inflation of money market put common men in plight, because the other day I was calculating... The things have gone high priced, thirty times, but the income has not increased thirty times. The other day I was calculating. My father's income was, utmost, three hundred rupees. So we had no scarcity. In our standard of life there was no scar... What standard of...? That standard of life is still... Now that three hundred rupees is... He calculated.
Prabhupāda: When the woman is pregnant there are so many ceremonies. When we were children, and I was in the middle, I saw my other, two, three brothers and sisters born. So there was some ceremony. We were eating with mother in that ceremony. That ceremony was because my mother was pregnant. Sad-bhakṣā. Sad-bhakṣā. There are ten kinds of ceremonies, before the birth and after the birth, daśa-vidha-saṁskāra. So many religious ceremonies my mother was observing, and all the expenditure my father was giving. Every month, two, three ceremonies, very nice ceremonies. We were children; we were eating.
Prabhupāda: No, you are rich man's sons, Americans. We are poor Indians. My father was not a rich man, but your father, all are rich man's father, rich man.
Gurukṛpa: You are the father. You are a rich man. We have nothing.
Prabhupāda: No, I may be rich man's father, (laughter) but my father was not rich man. (laughs) I may be called rich man's father.
Bhāgavata: It is due to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that we have... Any opulence that has come, it has come by your grace.
Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, just like that story with the scissors, how can we force the scientists to accept Kṛṣṇa and the Bhagavad-gītā. How can we force the scientists to accept Bhagavad-gītā? The problem seems to be...
Prabhupāda: No, if it is a fact, you can force, if it is a fact. And if it is not fact, then it is obstinacy. If it is reality, you can force, just like the father forces the child, "Go to school." Because he knows without education his life will be frustrated, so he can force. I was forced. I was not going to school. Yes. My mother forced. My father was very lenient. My mother forced me. She kept one man especially to drag me to the school. So force is required.
Prabhupāda: Formerly they used to stock huge stock in Calcutta. Burma Sale. And new tin, if you exchange the container, then six annas less. Not very costly. Of course, in those days it was costly, taking consideration of the purchasing power of money. Four rupees, I remember, a few annas. My father did not like to purchase anything retail. For his daily necessity he'll purchase, he would purchase potato, one bag. So one bag means, maybe, one rupee, eight annas. (laughs) One anna per seer, kilo, I have purchased. Rice, fifteen mounds he will purchase. And what is the price? Three rupees, four annas. First-class rice.
Prabhupāda: My father was doing business, and he was a great devotee.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And you were also doing business during, when you were...
Prabhupāda: Yes, up to one o'clock, two o'clock, he was engaged only with his pūjā, my father. He was going late, at twelve o'clock, to bed. Then he was to... He used to rise little late, at about seven, eight. Then taking bath, sometimes purchasing. Then from ten o'clock to one o'clock he was engaged in pūjā. Then he would take his lunch and go to business. And in the business shop he was taking little rest for one hour. And he'd come from business at ten o'clock at night, and then again pūjā. Regularly. Actually his business was pūjā. For livelihood he was...
Hari-śauri: Just doing some business.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Former paisa, when sixty-four paisa was one rupee. Now hundred equal to one. The purchasing power of money was big. Now thirty percent has gone up, but people's income has not gone up so much. Thirty percent, thirty times. Formerly gold was priced twenty rupees per tolā. Now it is six hundred rupees. So thirty times. But people have not increased their income thirty times. My father was earning two hundred fifty to three hundred per month. So we were middle class. So now thirty times of three hundred means nine thousand. So which middle-class man has increased so much? Middle class man now, if he's earning one thousand rupees he's considered very well-to-do. But what is that one thousand rupees? Nothing. My father had from one business, one hundred rupees, from another business sixty rupees, and we had a house rented, eighty rupees. Eighty rupees, sixty rupees and hundred rupees. How much? Two hundred forty, plus something more. Utmost, three hundred. And in our house four, five guests was always present. It didn't matter. Besides that, he was inviting some Vaiṣṇava, some sādhu. He married four daughters, and we were eating very sumptuously, daily two and half kg milk. Two annas per kg. Very nice milk. This man was coming from outside Calcutta. So we were so many children. We would stand, "Give some phāo:" Two half kg's milk and half kg phāo. He wouldn't mind.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And your wife wasn't so good.
Prabhupāda: Because she was always against Kṛṣṇa... My father said like that, that "You are so fortunate that you don't like your wife. Don't try to marry again."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were thinking like that.
Prabhupāda: "You are fortunate." I took it seriously. "People try to give up the company of wife with great difficulty. You have natural tendency."
Prabhupāda: Three, four men liked me very, very much. One is my father, one is Dr. Bose, Kartik Chandra, one my Guru Mahārāja, and..., who else? One, my maternal uncle. Rakal Chandrardha. He was very rich man
Prabhupāda: Rakal Chandrardha(?). He has got a street. He liked me. He's known to(?) take care of his son very nice.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your mother's brother.
Prabhupāda: Not real, but cousin.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your mother's...
Prabhupāda: My mother is the brother's daughter, and he was the sister daughter. Just like our this nephew, first cousin.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's a close relationship.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So he treated... Although my mother was first cousin, he treated my mother as younger sister. In that way he liked my father also, myself. That gentleman and one Dr. Kartik Chandra Bose, and two-one, my own father and my Guru Mahārāja. I knew that. He liked me. He liked me from the very heart. Guru Mahārāja liked me. I know. By his blessing it is, everything has happened. I was not worth
Prabhupāda: Another man will come. Because the unemployment is there. Practically, when we were boys, children, we were purchasing mustard oil, eight annas for two-half, two-half only, kilo, first-class. In Calcutta, Kanpur mustard oil. So my father would give me eight annas. I shall go to the shop and purchase. Now that quality, even taking it..., he's now selling thirteen rupees per kilo. Will the change of government bring this thirteen rupees to three annas? Then what is the benefit? The same stool, this side or that side. People are not going to get any relief by this change of government. So we are not concerned about thirteen rupees or three annas or... Some way or other, people are getting their things. That's all right. But the real loss is to remain in animal mentality and forget the aim of life. That is the real loss.
Prabhupāda: And what materialistic advancement they have done?
Dr. Sharma: No thing.
Prabhupāda: Now in our childhood, when we were ten-years-old boy, my father used to purchase high kilo saraṣera tela, for eight annas. Can these rascals do to that standard? Eight annas, first-class Kanpur mustard oil. Now that oil... Not that quality oil, still, they are being sold thirteen rupees per kilo, instead of three annas.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. No ordinary man could have ever done it.
Prabhupāda: In the history it is unique. Crores of rupees' property, and all over the world, buildings, temples. It is all Kṛṣṇa's. Nobody can harm them. It is not for me. There is no history. In one, ten years only, books like this, which are being received with so much adoration. They are simply Kṛṣṇa. If I want to take credit personally, this is wrong, sir. So money does not come in that way unless Kṛṣṇa gives. Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrībhiḥ (SB 1.8.26). If Kṛṣṇa wants, He can give the whole world. My father used to say, "God has got ten hands. If He wants to take away from you, with two hands how much you will protest? And when He wants to give you with ten hands, with two hands how much you will take it?" That's a common... But people are after money.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, they say they're paying at the investment rate.
Prabhupāda: That is, mean, their plea. Really, today... Just like in our childhood my father had three hundred rupees, and that three hundred rupees is now ten thousand. So if my father would have deposited three hundred rupees at that time, automatically he has become ten thousand... So if you pay me instead of three hundred, say, six hundred or eight hundred, what is your loss? It has already become ten thousand.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But is it... What I'm asking is this: Supposing you have a cow, and you give to me a cow, so from that cow I get from you...
Prabhupāda: That I understand, that in twenty years you get another..., same money. That is another. But another side is the money is gradually losing its purchasing value.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's a fact. That's a fact.
Prabhupāda: My father with three hundred rupees, he was... What he was doing? If you want to do that thing now, you'll require ten thousand.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means some cheating is going on.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Government, through the government.
Prabhupāda: Somewhere or other. Things are there. The rice are there, the dāl is there, the cloth is there, but what he purchased at three hundred rupees, now you have to pay ten thousand.
Prabhupāda: They are interested to keep the new position of the party. Who is thinking of the public? Public is in the same distressed condition.
Sita Ram Singh: Same distressed condition.
Prabhupāda: Rather, they are more distressed. Take for example, in our childhood my father's income was, utmost, three hundred rupees. So we were not very rich men. But we had no want. Father was maintaining his family, getting children married, distributing the wealth. Everything very nice. And we never felt any want. In this mango season, because father saw it that "There must be a full basket of mangoes daily for the children," so we were jumping, playing and eating mangoes. And now, taking consideration of gold standard... At that time my mother was purchasing gold, twenty rupees...
Prabhupāda: Twenty-two rupees. Now the same gold is six hundred rupees. So three hundred times more?
Sita Ram Singh: Yes.
Prabhupāda: If my father's income was three hundred rupees, increased by three hundred, it becomes nine thousand. So where is the nine thousand rupees income for a middle-class man?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: I told the same thing to this Professor Kundu, that "You know all these things, but you just remain silent. You never speak out. You only accept that whatever quantum theory is coming from that West, that is all knowledge, scientific knowledge. What about this aspect?"
Prabhupāda: Sir Jagadish was influenced.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. That is why we want to have a very strong discussion in Bose Institute.
Prabhupāda: He wanted to give to the Western world that there is life in plants, the same Vedic knowledge. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think you mention in one of your books that he has proved that the plants also have feelings.
Prabhupāda: Hm. That is his contribution. He is the first man.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did you know him, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: No. He was also older than our father. But I have seen him in childhood, when I was ten, twelve years old. Very intelligent man, soft speaker. His... This Marconi's theory is his theory. The wireless... The thief has taken. They have stolen. And the British government gave credit to Marconi. He was very sad.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: That everybody knows.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The wireless, there was a system. That was his discovery. He was very sorry. The British government stole the idea and gave the credit to Marconi. The Britishers, they always wanted to minimize the value of India, that "They are not civilized. We are present there to make them civilized."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very... The English were expert in diplomacy.
Prabhupāda: Therefore they paid.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You said that sometimes you would be walking in the footpath, and you would watch those men cook their...
Prabhupāda: Not cook. Somebody's doing some artistic work. I'll stand. I'll see how they are doing.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Artistic?
Prabhupāda: Just like knitting. So I'll learning knitting by standing before. They're making some flower of wool, so I'll learn it, and it will come out. That was my hobby. And similarly I learned how to worship Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: By watching. You watched your father?
Prabhupāda: Father and the Mullik's Thakurbhari. "I'll do." I'll ask my father, "Give me Deity. I shall worship." "Yes, take Deity."
Prabhupāda: Yes. My father's friends, the Mulliks, they used to criticize my..., "Oh, you are holding Ratha-yātrā festival, and you are not inviting us."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You didn't invite them?
Prabhupāda: It is childish play. Where is invitation? So my father, the children, they were playing. "Oh, by the name of children you are avoiding us." It was like that. But the festival was going on. We called the professional kīrtanīyas. They performed kīrtana. There will be procession of my small children friends.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You must have been dreaming about Purī Ratha-yātrā.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Whenever I would find some time, I would consult timetable, "How to go to Purī and Vṛndāvana? What is the fare?" At that time carriage(?) was three rupees. I think it was four rupees, one anna. And Vṛndāvana was six rupees.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You had some money saved up?
Prabhupāda: Yes, with my father.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It almost seems like Mr. Bose was like a second father to you.
Prabhupāda: Yes. My father's friend.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Was he very close to your father?
Prabhupāda: Very. He appointed me manager for this relationship.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He trusted you personally, like a son.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. We were exactly like son.
Prabhupāda: ...surrounded with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That was my great fortune. My father, mother, my relatives, my neighborhood... I had the opportunity mixing with... (break) Everywhere there was Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And they were all well-to-do, rich. This was the opportunity. Then gradually it developed. My father was a great Vaiṣṇava. He was worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Our family Deity was Dāmodara. So hereditary we are Vaiṣṇavas, followers of Nitāi-Gaura.
Prabhupāda: ...preparation, svarṇa-sindhu.
Bhavānanda: Svarṇa-sindhu?
Prabhupāda: Not makara-dhvaja.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What?
Prabhupāda: Svarṇa-sindhu.
Śatadhanya: That is not makara-dhvaja. It is.
Prabhupāda: Makara-dhvaja is also. That is... My father used to take.
Bhavānanda: Oh. Prabhupāda's father used to take makara-dhvaja.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your father used to take that svarṇa-sindhu?
Prabhupāda: No, makara-dhvaja. The svarṇa-sindhu is cheaper.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That svarṇa-sindhu must be for people who do not have very much money.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
| Page Title: | My father (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Visnu Murti |
| Created: | 26 of Nov, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=83, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 83 |