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Negative (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- March 9, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: We are situated in a platform of misgivings only, misunderstanding, our present conditional life. Just like if my body, this body, I am different from this body, then how can I claim that America is my country? This is also another misgiving. If I do not belong to this body... I call myself an American or Indian... (coughs) (aside:) Water. Because accidentally this body is born on the land of America, therefore I call myself American, but if I am not this body, then how I am American? This is another misgiving. Yes. Then I am calling you as my son. You are calling him as your son, but what he is? He is a product of your body. So if you are not this body, how he is your son? In this way you go on. As soon as you study nicely that you are not this body, you will find that you belong to none of these. You are free. You see? This is called Brahman realization, spiritual realization, this stage, when you understand that "I am not this body. I do not belong to this country. I do not belong to this family. I do not belong to this society." This is negative. Some philosophers are trying to make these things void. But actually I am existing. I am existing in misunderstanding. But that does not mean I am not existing. I am not void. Just like I am existing within this apartment. But instead of knowing myself, I have identified this apartment: "myself." So to simply to understand that "I am not this apartment" is not perfect knowledge. Then what is my position? What I am actually? When we come to that consciousness... At the present moment, I am conscious of this body, of this country, of this society, of the family.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- February 12, 1969, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is austerity.

Interviewer: ...in addition to no alcohol, no drugs?

Prabhupāda: We don't mention any particular thing. Generally we say "No intoxication."

Interviewer: But that's a negative. I'm talking now about... What about the positive aspects of it? Because I have known some very wicked people who never indulged in intoxicants.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes...

Interviewer: I doubt if that is your dividing line.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Simply becoming non-intoxicated does not mean that he is a very good man. That I admit.

Interviewer: Does the method include meditation? What... How do you go about this process?

Prabhupāda: Our process is... It is also meditation. But as you understand by meditation, that concentrating the mind upon some super subject matter, the same thing is there, but we don't try to concentrate the mind artificially. But our, this chanting process immediately attracts the mind. Our process is... Just like Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. We chant it in melodious song. So mind is attracted, and we try to hear the sound. That means my mind and my ear is compact in that thought. Therefore it is practical meditation.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Ah... Yes. It is to be learned, just like the electrician learns how to adjust the positive and negative wire, and as soon as it is rightly adjusted there is light. You cannot say, "No, no, why it shall be adjusted like this? It can be done like this." Oh, that will not give you light. You cannot speculate on the science. One plus... Two plus two equal to four. You cannot speculate, "Oh, can it not be three? Cannot be five?" No, that is not possible. You have to accept this two plus two equal to four. So the same example: so long it was not being adjusted to the right point, there was no light. So this adjustment... Suppose there is failure in my home. For this adjustment I have to call an experienced man. You may be a lawyer, you may be very nice thinker, but so far electricity is concerned, you have to call for a mistrī, who may not be learned like you but he knows the art, how to do it, expert. Similarly, such a vast subject to understand God, you do not require the help of an expert?

Guest (1): I did not take that...

Prabhupāda: No, no, I don't mean you. Anyone. Anyone. If for ordinary things we have to call for an expert, to understand God is it not necessary to approach an expert? What do you think, Manuel?

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Dr. Weir: Well that, with good respect, I think, doesn't really follow because there're some things that don't have opposites or negatives although (in) nature. This is what I say that there are certain categories of things to which if somebody said, "Now what's the opposite of that?" You'd have to say, "There isn't an opposite," because it isn't the sort of thing to have an opposite.

Mensa Member: So you wouldn't accept the prime mover either?

Dr. Weir: Well, it's not an argument, it's a postulate. I don't accept it. I mean, you have to accept it if you're going to... You know the (indistinct), so to speak. You can't have it half way.

Prabhupāda: This word positive and negative. Just like the sun—the backside is the negative and the front side is the positive, light and darkness.

Dr. Weir: Well the sun doesn't have a backside of darkness. It's light all round.

Prabhupāda: I mean to say, in relationship with the sun, the planet, the planet, in the front side there is light. In the backside there is darkness. But the darkness is the effect of the light. Where the light is absent there is darkness.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: That is for the voidist, not for the spiritualist. The spiritual life there is enough activity for even scientists. That they do not know. They mean spiritual life is void. That is negation of the present activities only, negative idea. But actually when you stop material activities your real activity begins. That is spiritual life. The spirit, spirit soul is active. You cannot stop it. You cannot stop it. Now it is acting through the coverings of material, matter, therefore it is imperfect activities. But if the activity is uncovered by material things that is real activity.

Mensa Member: But aren't desires biological in cause?

Dr. Weir: They're necessary.

Mensa Member: Yes, but they're biologically necessary rather than spiritually necessary.

Dr. Weir: Well, may I say, let's go farther, that when you say biologically necessary, is it necessary for you to be alive? What scientific...

Śyāmasundara: Prabhupāda has told us that even in the spiritual world there is desire to have the senses enjoy. Isn't that so?

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But you cannot say that sunshine is not sun. But without sun, where is the sunshine? So you cannot say sunshine is not sun. But at the same time it is not sun. It is sun and not sun, both. That is our philosophy. Acintya-bhedābheda, inconceivable. In the material science you cannot conceive that a thing simultaneously positive and negative. That you cannot think. That is inconceivable energy. And because everything is Kṛṣṇa's energy, Kṛṣṇa can manifest Himself from any energy, and act. Therefore, when we worship Kṛṣṇa made of something of earth, water, or something like that, that is Kṛṣṇa, that is not Kṛṣṇ... You cannot say it is not Kṛṣṇa. When you worship this metal form of Kṛṣṇa, that is Kṛṣṇa. That's a fact. Because metal is energy of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it is non-different from Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa's so powerful that He can present Himself fully in His energy. So this Deity worship is not heathenism. It is actually worshiping God, provided you know the process.

Bob: If you know the process, then the Deity becomes Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not becomes, it (is) Kṛṣṇa.

Bob: The Deity is Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- March 12, 1972, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kapoor: Mahāprabhu's photo, Maha(indistinct)?

Guru dāsa: Kṣīrodakaśāyī has those negatives.

Dr. Kapoor: Huh?

Guru dāsa: I think Kṣīrodakaśāyī has those negatives. I'll inquire. Kṣīrodakaśāyī?

Dr. Kapoor: He has?

Guru dāsa: He has those negatives. I'll inquire where they are.

Dr. Kapoor: If you give me the negatives, I will get them developed.

Devotee: You want to take massage now, Srila Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: So give some prasādam.

Dr. Kapoor: You are observing Ekādaśī today?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: Yes. And in front a temple, high arches, big temple. I will give you the photo. Where is the photo?

Śyāmasundara: I have negatives. I have to get some photos made.

Prabhupāda: No, you got some photos made?

Śyāmasundara: That other boy in Sydney, Śyāmalālānanda, he has.

Prabhupāda: Anyone takes, but he sleeps. He doesn't deliver. I wanted to send immediately to Bombay.

Śyāmasundara: Bombay has a set of photos in the temple.

Sudāmā: If you have the negative, we can get them developed while we're at Dai Nippon, thirty minutes. If we take negative today, we can get them developed very quickly at Dai Nippon while we are waiting.

Prabhupāda: All right. That's all right. You take it.

Śyāmasundara: Get several sets.

Prabhupāda: So when we have to go to Dai Nippon?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Devotee (2): If the temple is constructed, it would have to be more rigidly controlled. It would have to be managed by people that by their preaching and by their Kṛṣṇa consciousness can make it so that the people who come and stay in that temple will want to practice bhakti. It can't be a negative (indistinct) thing. The negative motivation is not going to keep a person.

Prabhupāda: Now, such camps, because you are not established, so, under the circumstances, what is to be done? To reduce our devotees?

Śyāmasundara: We have our base in Calcutta, we have our base in Bombay, those two places.

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Śyāmasundara: Those are important cities in the world.

Prabhupāda: Vṛndāvana, as long as our temple is not constructed, we are minimized. So therefore automatically there is no question of negotiating (indistinct).

Devotees: No, no.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Morning Walk -- April 25, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He's directing you also. But these, how this direction takes place? According to your desire. If you want to be cheated, Kṛṣṇa will direct you how you become cheated.

Brahmānanda: From Him comes forgetfulness as also remembrance.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You don't want to understand Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa will give you such direction you'll never understand Kṛṣṇa, life after life. So Kṛṣṇa has got two kinds of direction, according to my desire, positive and negative. (pause) Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). As, as you want direction, Kṛṣṇa will give you direction.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Insects, flying insects...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Who is giving direction? Who is giving direction that "Some men are coming. Fly away." They have got intelligence, how to protect. (pause) What is this tower?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Tower?

Devotee: Possibly a Coast Guard Tower.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (end of recording.)

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause) Just like somebody says: "I have no faith in God." So he may have faith or no faith. It doesn't matter. God is there. If somebody says: "I have no faith in death." Does it mean that he'll not die? So faith is useless. Faith is created according to one's sense. It is not very essential. If there is something positive, you have faith in the negative, so it doesn't matter.

Brahmānanda: Doesn't negate it.

Prabhupāda: No. Fact is fact. Whether you believe or not believe. It doesn't matter. Hiraṇyakaśipu thought that: "I shall not die on the land, on the water, on the sky." But death was there. Asuric, this is asuric thinking. (pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's called captivation by the illusory energy.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The illusory...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, ignorance. (pause) What is time?

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: One should not become his kinsman. This is negative side, going on. One should not become a spiritual master, one should not pose himself as kinsman... Gurur na sa syāt sva-jano na sa syāt. Then?

Pradyumna: Pitā na sa syāt.

Prabhupāda: One should not become a father. And pitā na sa syāt, jananī na sā syāt. One should not claim to become mother. Then?

Pradyumna: Daivaṁ na tat syān.

Prabhupāda: One should not... Because somebody worships some forms of God. So that gods should also not be worshiped. Then? Go on.

Pradyumna: Na pitaś ca sa syān.

Prabhupāda: Na pitā?

Room Conversation with British Man -- August 31, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all, we have to understand what is that force which is moving this body. Then we come to the spiritual platform. As you understand, the nature of the soul, that is very elaborately explained in different way, negative, positive way, what is the soul. This morning, every morning I speak on this Bhagavad-gītā, if you find time you can come. At quarter past seven, I'm beginning, for one hour.

Guest (1): Now for, that is for Saturday and Sunday?

Prabhupāda: No, every day.

Guest (1): Every day.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): Right, I will do something about it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So... We... This is the first step of spiritual understanding. That one must know that he's not this body. Actually anyone can understand. It is a very simple thing. I'm not this body because I had many types of body, in this life also, a child's body, a baby's body, boy's body, youth's body. Now we have got different body. So the body's changing. That's a fact. The child, you do not possess any more that, your childhood body. It is gone. Your boyhood body—gone, your youth-hood body—gone. Now you have got a different body. So although the bodies are not existing, you are existing. That's a fact.

Morning Walk -- December 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is not explanation.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Atheist means not believing in God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Say like that. Don't say in a negative way. In a positive way. What does it mean? Atheist.

Prajāpati: He says there is no God.

Prabhupāda: There is no God. Then what do you mean by God? Next question. Next question will be what do you mean by God?

Candanācārya: So he'll say the conception which has been presented by the different religions.

Prabhupāda: What is your conception? Why do you go to different religions? You are talking with me. So you say, what do you mean by God? Next question will be this. Don't go to others. Don't fly away. You are atheist. You are posing yourself atheist. Atheist means one who does not believe in God. That's all right. Now what do you mean by God? First of all the thing must be there. Then you believe or not believe next. Just like here is a person. He says, "I believe in him." I say, "I don't believe in him." But the person is there.

Morning Walk -- December 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) Śāśvata means eternally fresh. Therefore ignorance is also eternal. Because knowledge means absence of ignorance. That is knowledge. So side by side, two things are there. Now, if you are in ignorance, there is no knowledge.

Hṛdayānanda: Nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Nāsato vidyate bhāvaḥ. It is the negative. Positive side is knowledge. Darkness. Darkness. Just like, where there is no light, there is darkness. (break)

Prajāpati: ...Prabhupāda, we'll be able to see that comet.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Prajāpati: They say one hour before dawn in the eastern horizon. (break) ...talking a lot about in trusting in God. What is the Sanskrit for trust? What word would be used in the śāstras.

Prabhupāda: Śraddhā, faith.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 11, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Ah! Ataeva śānta. There is śānti. You have to test whether by, by some desire, whether you have become śānta. That is not possible except Kṛṣṇa. When you serve Kṛṣṇa, then you will feel transcendental pleasure. Otherwise you cannot. Sakali aśānta. For mukti they have to do so many things, so many things. So desireless means to desire for Kṛṣṇa. This is the conclusion. That Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching: mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi. This is desire. "My life after life simply My devotion unto You may be fixed up." That's all. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In the beginning He says, na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jaga... (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4). "No, no, no, no," not this." Then there must be some positive. And the positive is: mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi. With simply negative, what you'll do? Simply negative? You must give something positive. Then you'll be satisfied. You are serving somewhere. You don't get sufficient salary. So you desire to give up this, this service. Resignation. But if you don't get any better service, then what will be the result of resignation? You'll starve. Again you'll go, "Master, I did wrong. Please give me that service." So that is... The Māyāvādīs' position is like that.

Morning Walk -- March 30, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Just see. Ahiṁsā means he's envious of Kṛṣṇa. He's envious. Not ahiṁsā. His hiṁsā begins that "Why Kṛṣṇa should alone be God? I am also God."

Dr. Patel: Kṣāntiḥ...

Prabhupāda: So the hiṁsā begins from the Supreme. So all negative. These Māyāvādīs, they are hiṁsā, they are proud, they have no sense of what is amānitvam. This is Māyāvāda philosophy.

Dr. Patel: Kṣāntir ārjavam.

Prabhupāda: And there cannot be śanti. Because... There cannot be. Śanti must be there.

Dr. Patel: Kṣānti.

Prabhupāda: Śanti.

Dr. Patel: Kṣā, Kṣā.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā, kṣānti. Kṣānti means toleration. Toleration. But...

Morning Walk -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Well, then you have to give me definition of God. What is God? If you know God, then you can say that "Kṛṣṇa is not God." Otherwise, how you can say He is not God? I give you a piece of gold: If you say, "It is not gold," then you show me what is gold. Otherwise, you are talking nonsense. If you do not know the things as it is, how you can say, "It is not this"? If you know the positive, then you can say the negative.

Yogeśvara: Well, there are many people who say that they have actually experienced God.

Prabhupāda: What is that God? Tell me.

Yogeśvara: Well, it's like the Guru Maharaji people. They say they've seen Guru Maharaji lifting Govardhana Hill and displaying universal form and so many miracles. They say they have seen Guru Maharaji doing all the miracles that Kṛṣṇa claims to have done.

Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa, when Kṛṣṇa is present, when He lifted the Govardhana Hill, everyone saw. Where is your rascal Guru Mahārāja doing that, everyone can see? When Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, He lifted the Govardhana Hill. All the inhabitants saw it. (break)

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1974, Rome:

Satsvarūpa: Prabhupāda, there was a French philosopher, Voltaire. He said you should not simply criticize negatively, because this is the best of all the possible worlds there is. This is all we have. So they would criticize that our hope in the spiritual world is utopian. Better turn to cultivate the material world as best you can.

Prabhupāda: No, material world we can see that it is useless. Everyone sees. That I am giving, this example. Before, the Romans, they constructed this big, big building. Now what is the value of that? It has no value. Simply it is kept as sentiment, relics. That's all. So this will be also the same thing. So where is the utility? Spiritual, apart from spiritual, what is the value of your material activity? It is practical. Everyone can see. If one comes to Rome, they can see that these big, big buildings, they were very nice building at that time, very wonderful building, but what is the value of it now? Anyone can see. Any sane man can see. So why should we waste our energy in that way? If there is any valuable work, let us see. That is intelligence. To make another heaps of relics, is that very good sense? Nobody will go there even to urine or pass stool.

Dhanañjaya: No facilities.

Prabhupāda: No facility. Nobody is...

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye: (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4) "I don't want this." "Don't want, don't want, don't want" does not mean he becomes negative. "I want Kṛṣṇa. So many things, 'Don't want,' but actually I want Kṛṣṇa. And that is my life." And not that "Don't want, don't want, don't want, then become zero." Not that.

Yogeśvara: No, they also say we know what we want. We want food for everyone, we want...

Prabhupāda: No, no, he does not know. Therefore he is changing from this place to that place. He does not know. If he had known, then he would have surrendered immediately to Kṛṣṇa. That is the defect. He does not know.

Yogeśvara: But the idea is "We can accomplish the same good results even without Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: That he does not know. He is a fool. He does not know what is a good result. He will change again. He is a rascal. He is putting himself in this condition; again he'll desire another condition. That is the change of body. That is his wanting. Sometimes he's taking the body of a dog, sometimes he is taking the body of a demigod. Bhramatam upary adhaḥ (1.5.18). Down, just like, what is that? Merry-go-round.

Room Conversation with Russian Orthodox Church Representative -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: But it would be hard to describe, he thinks, the nature of the soul. The body, which is something tangible, we can describe. But something of a spiritual nature like the soul must be much more difficult to describe.

Prabhupāda: You can describe it by the negative way, that soul is not body. (French)

Yogeśvara: (translating) Then we are still left with the problem: what is the relationship between the two?

Prabhupāda: First of all let us understand what is the soul. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā: na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit, nityaḥ śāśvato 'yam, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Adāhyo 'yam aśoṣyo 'yam akledyo 'yam. Read those paragraphs.

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

German devotee: (translating for Pater Emmanuel) But we can understand the name of God only in a negative way.

Prabhupāda: No. God has unlimited potencies, and therefore He has got unlimited names.

Pater Emmanuel: Yes, but we are limited.

Prabhupāda: We are limited, but God is not limited. Unlimited. And because He is unlimited, therefore He has got unlimited names, not one or two but unlimited names. There is a Sanskrit book, Aṣṭottara-sahasra. There are 1,008 names of God. So 1,008 is also limited, but because we are limited, the God's names are given to us as far as we can understand. Otherwise He has got unlimited potencies, unlimited names. And each and every name is God because He is absolute. (German)

Pater Emmanuel: Allow you a question? You know that we Christians are also preaching the love of God, and we seek to fulfill the love of God and to serve God with all our heart and soul. And what different from your movement who will the same? And why do you send your disciples in these Christian countries to preach the love of God when the gospel of Jesus Christ is also preaching the love of God, God love?

Room Conversation with Reverend Gordon Powell, Head of Scots Church -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: You find out this verse of Bhagavad-gītā.

Reverend Powell: There was a reference to something you said about plants having a feeling. Some years ago I carried out an experiment at the request of one of our magazines in praying for plants and seeds growing and so on, and there seemed to be a relationship between these prayers for the plants and the opposite, in a negative way, against the plants. And I didn't have an opportunity to carry it out too far, much, but in two experiments, there was apparently a clear indication that the plants responded to prayer. And the peas and the beans in particular, (laughs) there was a significant, a very significant increase in the plants that were...

Prabhupāda: Hmmm. Find out. Jarā-maraṇa-mokṣāya.

Room Conversation with Reverend Gordon Powell, Head of Scots Church -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: We are not even vegetarian.

Reverend Powell: You're not.

Prabhupāda: No. We are negative of vegetarian and non-vegetarian. We are not vegetarian, neither non-vegetarian. We eat Kṛṣṇa prasāda. Rather, "prasādarian." We are neither vegetarian, nor non-vegetarian. Because we don't eat which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. Things are prepared according to the order of Kṛṣṇa, and when Kṛṣṇa eats, we take the remnants of foodstuff. Therefore we do not fall in the group of vegetarian or non-vegetarian. We are transcendental.

Reverend Powell: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reverend Powell: Well, thank you, Your Grace. If you'll excuse me, I have another appointment.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. That's... Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: And add "and how to make it perfect." Find out the defects. Don't be, what is called...?

Rūpānuga: Negative.

Prabhupāda: Negative only.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, we want to bring the, our four defects in our sense perception.

Prabhupāda: Sense perception is defective.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, there are four defects.

Prabhupāda: And if you go beyond the sense perception, that is perfection.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That will be Mādhava Prabhu's duty.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Then on the ninth chapter there will be a topic, "The Ultimate Research," (indistinct) research.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Yogi Bhajan -- June 7, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Therefore... So if you assemble some not experienced men, then how there will be unity?

Yogi Bhajan: No, granted. What we are trying to do is we are giving out a call to all learned, the unlearned... But basic fact is: there is a desire somewhere in the ether that everybody wants to feel each other. And they have not done anything good by negating each other or talking negatively. They have not gained anything. They have realized it now. Otherwise...

Prabhupāda: Now, what will be the basic principle of unity? That is the point.

Yogi Bhajan: The point of basic unity is respect for each other.

Prabhupāda: But that is going on. Suppose you have come here. I welcome you. If I go to your place, you welcome me. That respect is going on.

Yogi Bhajan: Yeah, that's right. That is between two individuals.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, whenever we come in a big assembly, we respect each one, gentlemen. There is no harm.

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Bali-mardana: Only negative; nothing positive. (break) ...easier to kill people.

Prabhupāda: That's it. That much they have done, yes. (break) ...diverting the attention of the people from going to the moon planet, they are meeting in the sky. So what will benefit we shall derive by their meeting in the sky?

Siddha-svarūpa: They have scientists now that are proposing and they have grants on how to develop a city in outer space or on the moon. They already have it how they're going to send people, how they're going to get their...

Prabhupāda: This is another bluff. You see? And these rascals are believing them.

Siddha-svarūpa: Especially they're making, trying to make people feel that their problems will be solved, that when it gets too bad they'll just be able to go to the moon. So there's no real problem even if you ruin the earth because you can always escape.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that mean... What about their moon planet going? That is stopped?

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Sandy Nixon: How do you deal with negativity? In the outside world do... The devotees encounter negativity every day, people that are not interested. How, not just on the outside world, but how does one deal with that within, how does one relieve oneself of that negativism?

Prabhupāda: Negativity means... Just like we say, "No illicit sex." We say, we teach our students, "No illicit sex." Do you think it is negative? What does she mean by...?

Jayatīrtha: The situation is that other people think that it's negative, and therefore they feel negatively towards us. So how should we react to that?

Sandy Nixon: Well, how to do, you deal with it within yourself?

Ravīndra-svarūpa: What do you mean negativity within yourself?

Sandy Nixon: No, no, not just criticism but if you get a lot of people that are working against you all the time... Here you're surrounded by people that are positive and that are reinforcing. But when you get yourself in the outside world in a position where there are people that are draining you and taking your energy, how do you replenish that energy?

Room Conversation with Bill Faill (reporter) -- October 8, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: Potency. Just like electricity. There is standard regulation: "This is negative; this is positive. You must act like this. You must fix like..." You cannot do whimsically: "No, why not this way? Why not that way?" Then it is lost. Then there will be no electricity. Similarly, there is standard method how to understand this philosophy, how to get it, I mean to say, what is called, authoritatively. Then it will act.

Faill: Then you could go to a book, read a book...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. That is the book of, what is called, guidance. If you follow the guide and do this according, then it will be effective. And if you don't follow the guide, you do in your whims... That is another dangerous disease of the modern man. Everyone wants to do according to his own whim. Nobody wants to follow any standard way. Therefore they are failure.

Faill: I think that's fine. I'll just take that and do what I can with it. I've spoken to them, and they're quite happy if I can get a feature out of it. You wouldn't know what time the planes leave yet on Monday?

Harikeśa: I can find out.

Faill: I was thinking we might try and get a photographer out and get the group leaving, if that would be all right.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. That can be done.

Room Conversation with Reporter of The Star -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Thank you. Hare Kṛṣṇa. You have taken lunch? So, it is very important movement. Try to study, understand. And it is the duty of the pressmen, journalists, to propagate. They must know the first science of the living force within the body. That is the most important part.

Reporter: I just feel that, in a way, I have enough to write, and I have enough to... Well, I believe in giving a little message of something in those things that I write. I try not to make them negative, and at least, I can present people with what they have and what you are saying. But I feel that within myself, and this concerns myself, that I haven't spoken to you enough, that I haven't heard you enough, and that I have...

Prabhupāda: No, you can ask me more, more, other question. I can reply. There is no harm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You have any questions?

Reporter: Well, I can't stay now, and I feel too that I am imposing because I know that His Grace wants to rest.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Okay. What you could do is write one article introducing, and then come to the Monday and Wednesday night programs and write another article. Because...

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. How the lightning was manufactured, rascal?

Harikeśa: Well, there were some positive charges in the clouds and some negative charges in the ground.

Prabhupāda: That's alright. Who made that positive charge and negative charge?

Akṣayānanda: So let them manufacture lightning bolts in the Tata factory.

Prabhupāda: How the electricity is produced unless there is some arrangement? Just put counter-argument and argument, try to understand. You have to preach. So your argument stopped?

Harikeśa: I don't know anything about this. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: You cannot... Your malador masjid(?). Arguments are there, so whether there is life in the sun globe?

Indian man: (Hindi—discussion with Śrīla Prabhupāda and other Indian men about śāstra, scientists, agni, and the example of the iron factory)

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes, simply negative is useless. These jñānīs, they simply teach negative-brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. But they do not take to Brahman; they simply take the one side, jagan mithyā. They take the.... Brahmā satyam, take to Brahman...

Dr. Patel: Then the second half they are not taking.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They do not know how to remain in Brahman. No, they do not know; therefore we say rascal. You realize that you are Brahman; now your next business is to stay in Brahman. That they do not know.

Dr. Patel: Behave as Brahman. They don't behave.

Prabhupāda: Ah. Either behave or stay, the same thing. Unless you become fire, you cannot stay in fire.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: That is another.... Emptiness mean he is troubled by so many anxieties; therefore he wants to make it empty.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's simply negative.

Prabhupāda: Negative idea. That is material idea. That is not spiritual.

Mahāmṣa: Nowadays people are going in silence, but they write questions and answers by paper. They say, "I am observing silence..."

Prabhupāda: As if there is no sound.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Allahabad we met a man like that. He was moving around so much that he was more active than if he had talked.

Prabhupāda: No, that "ooohh." That is the...

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is explained indirectly. What are those verses? Na chindanti, na dahati. Definition by negation. It is never dried up, it is never cut into pieces, it is never moistened. Why don't you find that verse? Negative way. Physical means this can be cut into particle, pieces, but here, it cannot be cut into pieces. Your physical and chemical, you have got idea. Any physical thing can be cut into pieces. But here the negative description is given. It cannot be cut into pieces. Now we have to see what is that thing which cannot be cut into pieces.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we say nonphysical, nonchemical.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is quite right. Physical, anything physical can be cut into pieces. Read it.

Hari-śauri: This is 2.20. "For the soul there is never birth nor death, nor having once been does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain." (purport) "The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried."

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's nice. Yes, you can close. (door closes) One set to Gargamuni and one set to Saurabha and one set for me, three sets. And if you like, you can keep one set for you. The negative will be with you. What is the height altogether?

Yadubara: Actually, I don't know, I didn't get that. I can get that information also.

Prabhupāda: So, guessing?

Yadubara: Oh, I don't know, two hundred fifty feet? Something like that. Three hundred?

Rūpānuga: That's too big, three hundred. The Washington monument is five hundred fifty feet.

Prabhupāda: Then it is all right.

Yadubara: Maybe two hundred.

Rūpānuga: Maybe a hundred seventy-five. We can check reference book easily. You'll find out today.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we want to make a chart. Now from these gross elements, the five gross elements, we want to extend to...

Prabhupāda: Earth, water, air, fire.

Room Conversation With Scientists -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Life and matter, is, we already explained very clearly. There is no symptom of matter in life. Everything is detailed. Nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi. Negative way. "It is not this."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But to feel it, to see it...

Prabhupāda: You cannot bring it to any material platform. Everything is denied.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Now to make a simile or comparison, we found from our experience in science that matter itself is rather very simple. It is composed of simple patterns and simple forms and structures. But now when this matter is touched by life or matter in association with life, is actually very complex in terms of molecules. It comes to big molecules, and the molecules not only big. It's very complex, highly complex.

Prabhupāda: You can understand, just the one grain of poison, potassium cyanide. You touch on your tongue, immediately whole body becomes poisoned. How the molecules spread immediately?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: How does it react? Potassium cyanide? It blocks the oxygen path? That's what science says?

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, the poison action immediately spreads all over the body.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: At least he must know that "This hammering is my punishment." He knows that "This hammering is not by business, it is my punishment." That is knowledge, that is knowledge. When a prisoner understands that "This hammering business is not my real business, it is my punishment."

Interviewer: Isn't that a rather negative way to look at the work?

Prabhupāda: Why negative? It is the fact. That is the positive understanding. Why do you take negative? If you are suffering and if you say, if I say, "Don't suffer," is that negative or that is positive?

Bali-mardana: In other words, if you are suffering and I tell you "Don't suffer," it may sound negative but actually it's positive.

Prabhupāda: Yes, positive. But they are rascals, they are taking as negative.

Interviewer: Why is work in the world necessarily suffering? It is, it has, a mixture of pain and joy but it's negative to look on it as useless work. Huh?

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Controlling one from coming to the jail life. If you give good instruction to a man, that "Don't become criminal, don't come to the jail, don't be engaged in the hammering business," it appears negative, but that is positive life.

Bali-mardana: If you tell someone not to do something that's bad for him, it's positive for him.

Prabhupāda: That is his positive life. When the physician says to a patient that "Don't eat like this, then you will increase your diabetes. Don't eat this, don't eat starch, don't eat sugar." So people may think he's simply giving negative, but that is his positive life. They misunderstand.

Interviewer: I guess when you started out down here in Greenwich Village in 1965 you didn't have any idea that your movement was going to become the rather large movement it is. Did you?

Prabhupāda: Yes, because my movement is real movement, positive. Any intelligent man will understand and take it. (break)

Interviewer: ...planning a trip to India soon.

Prabhupāda: I'm planning to India, and from India to Europe, that is my business.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Yogeśvara: The English purport that you give very often will repeat one point for a clear understanding to the reader. Stylistically, in French this is difficult. It is not the accepted standard. French is generally more compact, something is said only one time. So Professor Chenique is hoping that he will see in our future translations a better French style in the translation. And Janadradhi, who is the translator, one of our translators, explains that our point is that we wish to keep your intention by repeating the point so that the reader will understand, because it is being said several times.

Prabhupāda: That is the system in Vedic ways. Just like you see Bhagavad-gītā. In different way Kṛṣṇa has explained the immortality of the soul. You take Bhagavad-gītā, that portion. Find out that. What is that verse?

Bhūgarbha: Na jāyate mriyate vā kadācit?

Hari-śauri: Before that. Describes negatively in different ways of understanding the soul.

Prabhupāda: Yes, positively, negatively.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all, you must have spiritual understanding, then spiritual study. If you have no spiritual understanding, then why spiritual study? All these scientists, they are trying to understand the spirit soul by material, on material platform. Therefore they are being misled. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā, to distinguish between matter and spirit it is negatively described: nainaṁ chindanti śāstrāṇi. Find out. The spirit soul is there which cannot be cut into pieces by any instrument.

Hari-śauri: Nainaṁ chindanti śāstrāṇi nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ (BG 2.23).

Prabhupāda: Ah, nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Pāvakaḥ means fire. It is never burned into the fire. It is never cut into pieces with instrument or any weapon. So if you study these two points, anything you take, it can be cut into pieces, within our physical experience. And anything within our physical experience, it can be burned. Even the iron, so hot, it can be burned and liquified by proper temperature. Even stone, it can be burned, it can be liquified. The glass, glass is nothing but liquidified stone, everyone knows it. Purīfied by chemicals, that's all. Then?

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: Myself? What happened was I applied last September. So now it's nearly one year, so they had sent my application from Māyāpur to Calcutta, Writer's Building. Again back. Again Writer's Building, then to Delhi. Then Delhi sent again back. I went, and I asked the secretary, and I found out that they had sent again back from Delhi, again back to Māyāpur and then re-investigated me. At that time they brought in some local people, and one investigator, he said that "This Jayapatākā Swami, we have heard that he is a very bad person. He beats the people." They said, "No, We never heard such thing." "No, no. We have heard that he is very bad." In this way by negative they are testing. They came and told me that for two hours police is drilling three different people from Navadvīpa and Māyāpur. In this way no one said a bad...

Prabhupāda: No, if you are a famous man, then they'll do.

Gargamuni: Him and Bhavānanda.

Jayapatākā: Now Bhavānanda is more famous.

Prabhupāda: He is notorious.

Jayapatākā: But now he is in the papers.

Prabhupāda: (laughing) He... You are famous; he is notorious. It is very difficult to deal with these nonsense. They are devotees and either notorious or famous. Our Godbrothers, they do not like Bhavānanda. Eh?

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: So it goes on, (continues reading) "In Judaism we find the blowing of the shofar, or ram's horn, and in the orthodox synagogue there is separation of men and women. Differences of dress are expressed amongst orthodox Jews and amongst various Christian orders. Our own Pilgrim ancestors differed in dress form the popish gentry of their time. I have studied and tested the Hare Kṛṣṇa people and have not found them to be weird or insane, only different form the mainstream. Like any other evangelical or proselytizing religion, their converts could only become converts if they choose to believe. For example, no one can drag a person to a Baptist Church and brainwash him into taking God into his heart, he has to want to accept willingly. No one is ever held against their will by the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. I have never seen it, nor have my colleagues ever seen it. In examining the various members of this religion, I have not found one who appears to be brainwashed or dopey like. In fact their mental health and normality astounds me. If you cannot accept Kṛṣṇa, God, they will sympathize with you and hope that you will eventually find Him and will wish you well as you go on your way. There have been devotees who have left the movement and have said negative things about it, but the sour grapes syndrome is not unusual for dropouts anyway. I wonder how many West Point dropouts vilify the Army, or how many Seminary drop outs leave and disdain their religion? After a rational person spends time with the Hare Kṛṣṇa people and learns to understand them, he could never believe them to be guilty of the charges which have been made here in New York recently."

Prabhupāda: That's all right, positive.

Room Conversation with Indian Man -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: That the any person, any living entity, he is not this body. That is the answer. So then two things. Suppose you are, I am, that I am thinking of this body, and at the same time I am thinking that this finger, I say, "My finger." Nobody says, "I finger." "My finger." Even a child he will say. So "My finger, my head, my legs." So what is that "my"? That is the question. The answer is negatively that that "I" or "my" is not this body. That is different from the body. Now what is the nature of that "I"? That is explained one after another, one after another, one, one. Because he has no idea. Every one of us... I am speaking, you are speaking. Theoretically we take, accept it that I am not this body. But practically I say, "I am this body." That is wrong. That has to be explained. And that is being explained. The question is one and the answer is one. There cannot be many questions or many answers. Answer is one. That answer is, Kṛṣṇa begins, that "As the body is changing, within our experience..." dehino'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). Very nice example. We are changing bodies. When you were born, there was no beard. Clean shaved or no hair. So that body has changed. It is not the same body. In which body you came out of the womb of your mother, that was a small body. That was a different body. This example given there. This body is changing during your experience of life.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Silence means we shall not talk nonsense. We shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is silence. Instead of wasting time, talking on this material thing, let us chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is positive. And the silence is negative. Stop nonsense; speak sense.

Yogi Amrit Desai: Right! That is right.

Prabhupāda: Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate. If one ceases his nonsense, then param, the Supreme... Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate. When you have got better things, then you give up naturally the rubbish. So anything material, that is rubbish. Karma, jñāna, yoga, they're all material. Karma, jñāna, yoga. Even up to so-called yogas, they're all material.

Yogi Amrit Desai: You consider that as a material. Only bhakti-yoga is more... That's true.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Karma... What is the difference between the karmīs and yogis? Yogis want some siddhis, and karmīs want some material profit. Both of them are in want. They are not free from want. Is it not?

Yogi Amrit Desai: No, it depends on the yogi. My guru is a yogi, but he never demonstrated any power ever.

Prabhupāda: No, no... Yogi, he wants siddhi. Yogis... Of course, nowadays yogis, they have no siddhis.

Roof Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is negative side.

Devotee (1): ...and again keeps on trying...

Prabhupāda: That is negative side. First of all... Just like mauna... (break) Why maunam? There is no need of maunam. You have to chant. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā. So there is negative side and positive side. One who has no information of the positive side, they simply take the negative side. Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. Jagan mithyā is all right, but where is that brahma satyam? That brahma satyam is here, when you are fully engaged in serving. Brahma satyam does not mean I simply make negative this, and there is no engagement. That brahma satyam will not endure. You'll fall down, because you are active. If you have no engagement, then you fall down again. Just like a child, he is engaged in playing always, but engage him in studying. If he gets little interest, then automatically he gives up playing. But if you simply stop playing, then he will become mad, because activity is there. These Māyāvādī philosophers, they do not know this. They simply take the negative thing—this material engagement, zero, Buddha philosophy, nirvāṇa. And that nirvāṇa is another word, nirviśeṣa. That will not help us. There must be varieties and there must be positive life, and that is bhakti. So without bhakti you cannot stop your nonsense activities, neither...

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: He'll give up.

Hari-śauri: (train starts to move again) First thing is to begin the positive process. Then the negative process will follow along.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. If he understands it is very nice to chant, dance, and take prasādam, they'll give up.

Rāmeśvara: Many people think that if you become a Hare Kṛṣṇa you have to shave your head.

Prabhupāda: That is very good.

Rāmeśvara: But it scares them and it keeps them from joining us.

Prabhupāda: No, you save so much barbers' expenses. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: So much inconvenience for washing.

Rāmeśvara: These are misunderstandings that confuse people.

Prabhupāda: The whole life is misunderstanding, material life.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No, Bhagavad-gītā says, nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ (BG 2.23). So what is there within the physical world that is not burned by fire? Where is that thing? But these rascals have no knowledge. It is clearly said indirectly. This is called negative definition: "It is not this." And because he has no brain to understand, so therefore Kṛṣṇa is explaining in the negative way that "You cannot cut by any weapon; you cannot burn it; it is never dried up." Because any physical thing, it can be cut, it can be dried up, it can be burned, it is just opposite. So many ways He has described, but the rascal will not accept. Find out what is that which is never burned. Anything you take, even big, big iron ore, they're burning. And it is clearly said, "It is not burned." Therefore they are thinking there is no living being in the sun planet. Kṛṣṇa says, imaṁ vivasvate yogam. I told... This is nonbeliever class, rascal class.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Then in 1828 this German chemist whose name is Frederick Muller, he synthesized, it is called urea. Urea is a chemical that comes out of urine. It's normally in urine from..., called inorganic compounds. So he announced that there's nothing strange about the organic world that happens in the living system. So from that time onwards they thought that life can be studied in terms of chemistry. But it is already 150 years since that theory but nothing happened. Nothing's understood.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Brahmānanda: This is a group of scholars and intelligent people who want to help Hare Kṛṣṇa, in other words, friends of Hare Kṛṣṇa. So actually it was some of our devotees, they suggested that the name of this group should not say Hare Kṛṣṇa. It should say, "Friends of God conscious people," or something like that, because they thought the word Hare Kṛṣṇa makes some negative...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Reaction.

Prabhupāda: But Hare Kṛṣṇa is religion.

Brahmānanda: So one of the big scholars, he said that "I will not join any organization if Kṛṣṇa's name is not there..."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Because I want to fight..."

Brahmānanda: "I want to fight for Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: That is wanted. (laughs) That is wanted. We want that.

Evening Darsana -- February 26, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Akledyaḥ, that... The wood, if you put into the water, it will be moist. But it is not... Soul never becomes moist. That means the five elements—earth, water, air, fire, ether—all these five elements can be cut, can be moistened, can be burned, can be dried up. But he is giving negative definition that "Soul cannot be done like that." So therefore it is not fallible, material.

Indian (3): Will you preach to your Gītā... (break)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) The people cannot accept... (laughs) Therefore I said, dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're too restless.

Jayatīrtha: Adhīra.

Prabhupāda: And therefore I say that education has been so wrongly given that they are restless like animals due to the modern civilization. The beginning of spiritual education they cannot accept. What they will make, further progress of spiritual life? Beginning, ABCD, they are so restless, they cannot take. This is the position. Therefore I'm speaking that it is meant for the dhīra, for the rājarṣi. Not for the men who are like animals. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Their bodily conception is so strong that they cannot hear even what is said. They are so dull. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyāḥ (SB 1.1.10).

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Then why?

Kīrtanānanda: They're legal.

Hṛdayānanda: There was a great deal of negative publicity.

Kīrtanānanda: They are legal...

Prabhupāda: So if it is legal, why shall they be...?

Rāmeśvara: The reason it was decided is that even though it is legal in America, in foreign countries there is bad reaction. The Americans do not mind as much as the foreign countries. So we are concerned for the international image of our movement.

Jayatīrtha: It was published in practically every newspaper in the world, a picture of Santa Claus being arrested by a policeman in America. We got a lot of questions. Also the President of the United States questioned one boy in a Santa Claus outfit.

Rāmeśvara: We felt that it would not seriously decrease the book distribution if we stopped this.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Then it is all right.

Room Conversation with Scientists, Svarupa Damodara, and Dr. Sharma -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No. The real thing he does not know. We know. We know on the basis of śāstra, authorities, ācāryas, so many. And what is your support? Your support is yourself. Then everyone will do that. His support is himself. Everyone will become authority. "I think, I believe." What is this nonsense, your belief? These things should be stopped now. (Hindi) Misleading, andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ (SB 7.5.31). These conditioned souls, very stringently bound up hands and legs by the laws of nature, they are trying to lead the human society. This rascaldom must be stopped. You do not know. Say you do not know. That's all. Why you mislead others? Giving them false knowledge. If you do not know even the distinction between the living entity and the material elements... You are trying to prove the living entity is also combination of these material elements, chemicals. Such a rascal you are. And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said, apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām, jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedam (BG 7.5). It is very important thing. You do not know anything about it. Kṛṣṇa again says, nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi. Negative definition. Still, you are so rascal, you do not understand, and you are misleading innocent persons. So combine together as many as possible and go and challenge.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But they'll not hear. If you forbid the dogs, "Don't bark," it is like that. Why waste time? He'll go on with all politics. Negative, as soon as you say, they'll neglect.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there some subject matter...?

Prabhupāda: It requires training.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there some subject matter...?

Prabhupāda: Just like so much training we are giving; still, there is falldown. So simply by saying...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you had... There was a newspaper article about a few weeks ago, and you had said that something could be written on this subject. That's the only reason I...

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Hm.

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is there any subject that would be good to write on?

Prabhupāda: Oh, we have got so many subjects, positive. Read our books and present it in a different way. You can write intelligently. That's not bad. Just to induce them...

Room Conversation -- October 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The eight house is called the house of death. He says, "Ketu is in the eight house with the sun, which is the lord of the eighth house, and Krusu, the lord of the twelfth and third houses. They are all in the eighth house. Mercury in Ketu started from 16th January." He says, " Budha is the satesa also, disease. Śani has gone to the eighth house, which is the house of death, from the 7th September." That's the day you had your operation. "Śani as lagneśa in the eighth house and the transit over Jupiter and Ketu. The negative effect continues throughout October 1977, November 1977, and from the first of December, 1977, Saturn becomes almost stationary and becomes more malefic." Saturn becomes even worse. "In January 1978 until April 1978 it again traverses the same degrees and becomes stagnant on Jupiter and Ketu in the last week of February. The native has..."

Prabhupāda: January '77 we have passed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: January '78, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It says that you're supposed to have lived for seventy-five years, but everything beyond that was an extension by Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Where is...

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Oh, I'm sorry. "We have noticed that the periods are all negative until March or April 1978, and main trouble was due to Śani. We have suggested that the blue sapphire be tried, and he should keep it, putting." He should keep it on. "Hospitalization and travels indicated. The only remedy in this case is to do mahā-mṛtyuṁ jaya japa and havana. Previously also, now also, we have recommend: Śiva is the presiding Deity of Śani, and with this the native will be able to overcome disease and life span increases. Astrologically, it is up to eighty-one years, four months, approximately. Japa and havana..."

Kīrtanānanda: What is up to eighty-four years?

Pradyumna: Eighty-one years, four months.

Kīrtanānanda: Is what?

Pradyumna: That is astrologically the length of life approximately.

Prabhupāda: So this japa, mahā-mantra-japa, and Bhāgavata-pāṭha, that I am doing.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Don't depend on one printer.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Actually Jayapatākā is very enthusiastic for printing also. It's pretty easy to print at two different places, because once you have the plates, they can simply be... You know, the photos, offset machines. Once you have the negatives, you can simply send them, and they can be printed anywhere.

Hṛdayānanda: Anywhere in the world.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And especially you can send them from Bombay to Calcutta. There's no hindrance. (Girirāja whispering)

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Girirāja: Well, I wrote a prayer to Lord Kṛṣṇa for your health. So I was... It's in the next room. I was thinking of bringing it and reading it.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Now you can go.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. I'm always nearby. I'm in the house all the time. (break) One thing I feel, that while there hasn't been any great improvement, on the other hand, I do not find that there has been any negative reaction or any regression since the time the kavirāja's treatment began. Of course, Your Divine Grace says that you feel weaker now than you did a week ago. If that's a fact, then...

Prabhupāda: Not so very weak.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I do find that you have more difficulty sitting up now. I notice that when you sit up you always slump over to one side, either as if you have no sufficient strength or as if you lost your balance. I can't tell which it is. You're always leaning. You're not able to sit up straight. Of course, that was there also even a week ago, but it seems a little more noticeable now. Do you think you are weaker now than you were a week ago?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, according to this kavirāja, he said that after fifteen days of this treatment, there should be noticeable sign, increased strength. Didn't he say that? So, it's been about one week now, hasn't it? Or maybe not so long. Five days. So for another week or ten days, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we should carry on, and let us see. We're certainly not going to... I think that this is the last kavirāja that we should take the help of. If his medicine works, that's very welcome. And if it doesn't, then I don't think that we should try any more kavirājas or any doctor. We've tried enough. At least for the next week to ten days now we should carry through. At least we've seen that with other kavirājas there were so many negative effects. Remember? Now, with this kavirāja, nothing has even happened badly with the medicine he's prescribed. Rather, exactly as he predicted there would be more urine, more urine is coming. I think the swelling is reducing.

Bhakti-caru: Yes. It has. It's a lot... Another thing is that milk...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Milk you were never able to take. Now you're able to take without producing... I mean there definitely are, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Last night you gave me milk?

Page Title:Negative (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:29 of Sep, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=57, Let=0
No. of Quotes:57