Now I see here there is not at all any difference. The only difference is that you people are fair complexioned, your bodies are white and they are colored or they are not so white. But there are white men also. In India you'll find varieties of color, beginning from this American, European color down to the black negro color. You find in India. We have so many colors. And actually I give you my frank admission that when I was in India I was thinking the Americans may be of different type of people or they may be thinking in otherwise. They may be... So, so many differences. But here I see there is no difference at all. No difference at all. Only some bodily features. Even I study the pigeons, I see, oh, this same pigeons are here, what, playing just like Indian pigeons. Even I see the sparrow. So there is no difference.
Negro
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 4
"The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy." (BG 18.61) Situated on the vehicle given by material nature and reminded by the Supersoul within the heart, the living entity struggles all over the universe to fulfill his plans, thinking, "I am a brāhmaṇa," "I am a kṣatriya," "I am an American," "I am an Indian," and so on. All these designations are of the same essence. There is no point in becoming a brāhmaṇa in preference to an American or becoming an American in preference to a Negro. After all, these are all bodily conceptions under the modes of material nature.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
They are bigger. That is also natural. You see. Just like in African people. They are taller. They are taller than the Āryan people, even in your, this black negroes, they are taller than American people. So there is little difference of course. That is all right. But on the primary facie, prima facie, there is no difference. Similarly, in the sun planet, in the moon planet, there are also human beings like us, and they are called devas because they are high, intellectual. They are all very powerful than ourself, and they have got different bodies with different power and everything. Otherwise, there is no question... Even great scientists like Dr. Meghanatha Sar(?) in India, he, he said that there is no reason to disbelieve that in other planets there is no life. How can you? Just like because you have not seen India you cannot say, "Oh, there, there is no living being.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Prabhupāda: No, no. Uncivilized, just like aborigine.
Haṁsadūta: Aborigines, negroes...
Prabhupāda: Human species. Then gradually they become born in civilized...
Haṁsadūta: It must be very difficult to get a birth in a civilized society.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Certainly. Therefore it is said, labdhvā sudurlabham. (SB 11.9.29) It is very rare, now, especially to take birth in India in the Vedic society. India means within this planet, the civilized Aryan family. Now Aryan families have degraded. Otherwise Aryan means progressive. So all over the world the Aryan families they have degraded. Otherwise the Vedic civilization was Aryan civilization.
So anybody who is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, even for a moment, it will never go in vain. It will act. It will act, and it will act so nicely that sometimes he'll be saved from the greatest danger. That experience some of our students have already expressed. One girl is present here, she also experienced this. She was attacked by some black Negroes, and she began to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and she was saved. So these things are actual fact. There are many instances. So svalpam apy asya trāyate mahato. So anything, a little flower, a little fruit, a little water, you offer to Kṛṣṇa, or if you chant for a little while Hare Kṛṣṇa, or if you make association with devotees for a moment, this will never go in vain. So the purpose of opening so many centers of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is to give chance to these forgotten men, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is not a business. It is a charitable institution. It is hospital to cure the material disease.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Brahmānanda: It has been alleged that our movement is against women and against Negroes because we do not give them... What is it?
Woman Reporter: Well, not necessarily against them, but defining inferior roles for them by their natural traits.
Brahmānanda: Give inferior roles to women and to Negroes.
Prabhupāda: We give equal roles spiritually. Materially, one man is servant; one man is master. How you can avoid this? Do you think everyone will be master, nobody will be servant, materially? Materially, one is father, one is son, one is master, one is servant, one is man, one is woman. How can you stop this? But spiritually, they are all equal.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: Those who are Aryan, non-Aryan; just like I say, they are all human beings, but why you say one Aryan and another non-Aryan? It is difference of culture, that's all.
Devotee: Say, for example, there is the Caucasian race, the Negroid race, different races like that. If they are all living in the same... Say they all join Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, then they are all the same...
Prabhupāda: But Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not on the basic principle of this body. It is basically on the soul; therefore you will find everyone same.
Śyāmasundara: But otherwise it goes...
Śyāmasundara: But when the scientists say "species," they mean different types of bodies.
Prabhupāda: Yes. We say 400,000 different forms of body, so human body, just like Negroes, they are also human beings, and you are also human beings. So this, scientists will say they are all one species, human being. But we say that Negro culture and the Āryan culture is different.
Śyāmasundara: They also say their bodies are different, Negroid bodies or Caucasian bodies, or Oriental bodies...
Prabhupāda: Then you can say species. Species and the different bodies.
Śyāmasundara: Species means different bodies. too
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You and your brother may be of the same type of body; there may not be a different, same type of consciousness.
Śyāmasundara: But you just said, for instance, the industrialist and farmers are two different species of men, but there could be a Negro industrialist...
Prabhupāda: I already said that. Why don't you listen? Species, definition of the scientists is different from ours. We say class.
Śyāmasundara: I'm trying to understand, because you said class but then you also said bodies. Negro bodies are different from white Caucasian bodies.
Prabhupāda: Maybe difference of bodies. But that does not...; therefore our classification on the basis of soul. The soul is equal. In spite of different types of body, the soul is one. There is no change of the soul. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that he does not see the species or the class or definition. He sees one: paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Paṇḍita, one who sees to the (indistinct), the soul, he does not find any difference of these species or (indistinct). This is our point.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: I think in our apartment also somebody must remain. Here this is... In New York also I lost my typewriter, tape recorder. In 72nd St. at daytime, at nine o'clock. I went to take my meals in Dr. Miṣra's place at about nine, and when I came back I saw the door is broken. That superintendent, he was a Negro. He has done, I know that. This is very common case here. You purchased new machine and new...?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The tape recorder... I mean the sewing machine was Śīlavatī's. She has sent it down here with Dinesh. Two or three hours before I had just gotten it.
Prabhupāda: Your tape recorder also?
Dineśa: No. I had brought the sewing machine from Śīlavatī in San Francisco. Yes. This sewing machine.
Prabhupāda: So we have to take care. What can be done? Now you should be very careful, and somebody must remain there always.
Govinda: We live in a very good quarter though. They live by Watts and that's the... They live by Watts district, and Watts district is very notorious. There were seven-day riots of shooting and Negro revolts there about two years ago, three years ago. We live in a very nice quarter, but where they're living is in a very bad place.
Prabhupāda: So you will continue to live there?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it's in La Palma. It's not directly in the worst area. It's not in Watts county. It's in a different area, but still... Where you live is very good though. I don't think there would be any theft. More safe.
Prabhupāda: Yes. It appears very respectable quarter. All right. Read. (end)
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: (laughter) As you like.
Guest: He holds a big stick, so I'm asking.
Madhudviṣa: Prabhupāda is the chief. He has given me the stick.
Guest: Where is my negro friend? He has not come?
Prabhupāda: Oh, he is not come. There was no place in the car. There were many negroes.
Guest: (aside:) Sit closer. You belong to this place? No. What place you belong to? (Hindi with other guest) It's a pretty long stick. Let me have a look at it first. It's wrapped in cloth. Oh, I see.
Madhudviṣa: It is four bamboos.
Guest (3): What?
Prabhupāda: Bil boy means just like black, Negro. And He is worshiped. Such a rascal. Kṛṣṇa is worshiped, and for Kṛṣṇa worship so many Vedic literature, and government is presenting Him as bil boy. Just see what kind of government we have got.
Guest (2): Is that right? It is surprise to me.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You'll find they have got paper, "Indian Culture," or... Yes. One Mr. Ananda, he has written that nonsense article.
Guest (3): Of course, I have seen before 1963, before I came to this country.
Prabhupāda: So government is presenting Kṛṣṇa like that. Dr. Radhakrishnan has spoken like that. Yes. What he has spoken?
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Therefore sleeping is my only business. Sleeping means for the weak. And for the strong, perspiration. This is the sign. When a man sleeps too much, he's weak in his health. And the strong man will perspire. These are very... Balera ghāma, and the durbalera ghuma. Ghāma and ghuma. Ghuma means sleeping, and ghāma means perspiration. (break) ...principle. And human beings means trained up under principle. That is the difference between animal. The animals, they cannot take up any training. But the human being, this human form of body is meant for taking training. So if they are not properly trained up, they remain animals and the whole society in chaos and confusion. That's all. (break) ...moment, the human society's so degraded that even we are walking, this is also risky. This is also... Gradually, it is becoming. Just like in our New York... That Berkeley? Berkeley? No. Brooklyn. It is difficult to walk due to the Negroes. They immediately: "Whatever you have got, give me." There are so many incidents. In such city as New York there is always danger like that. If somebody kills you, nobody will take care of you.
Prabhupāda: That's all. My things were stolen from my apartment in the beginning, so I went to the police. They simply noted down. That's all. (break) ...you can narrate the incidents when the negro at San Francisco...
Lilavati: Yes, we were...
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) Kṣatriya, this is all finished. Now only śūdras and, little vaiśyas there are.
Dr. Patel: No, here, here you have got also brāhmaṇas.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: But they don't follow them. Nobody follows them.
Prabhupāda: No...
Dr. Patel: I think Abraham Lincoln was the best of the whole presidents. What is your opinion, Abraham Lincoln?
Girirāja: Well, moist stool or dry...
Prabhupāda: He gave the negroes freedom, Abraham Lincoln?
Girirāja: Yes, emancipation.
Dr. Patel: The Americans say he acted with negroes just we have acted with the aboriginals, the Āryans. What have we done with the poor aboriginals of India?
Prabhupāda: We have... (break) "...one sect. Because we are sitting in Haridvar, and people will come here. And A.C. Bhaktivedanta, he is going." So...
Dr. Patel: Bhaktivedanta has formed a canal to take the spiritual India.
Prabhupāda: Similarly, if in the society the brāhmaṇa class and above, post-graduate of brāhmaṇa class, Vaiṣṇava, is not there, then the whole society will spoil . They will indulge in this meat-eating and drinking wine and illicit sex. Then it will be hell, and it has already become. Whole world is full of hellish person. In a civilized country like America you cannot walk alone in the street at night. India is still honest. Any part of India, you can walk. Because the more sinful. Is it not? In New York, especially in Brooklyn or anywhere, you cannot walk alone. Is it not? Yes. Your life is at risk. That Central Park, nobody can walk there. I have heard from many women that they rape. The negroes, they capture and rape. Life is unsafe even in a civilized city like New York. So what is this civilization? Our (name withheld) was... (break) ...Park. (Name withheld) our. Yes, she said.
Mahāṁsa: She said?
Prabhupāda: No, no, she said. She was captured by a group of negroes to rape her. (break) That girl, what is his name? (name withheld) wife?
Satsvarūpa: (Name withheld).
Prabhupāda: She was raped.
Satsvarūpa: Trinidad.
Prabhupāda: Yes. She was raped.
Pañcadraviḍa: How do you teach a varṇāśrama college? In varṇāśrama college if somebody comes in... They say, "I want to be kṣatriya" or "I want to be vaiśya." Is it like that?
Prabhupāda: No, that will be tested by the teachers, what for he is fit. He will be test by the guru.
Prabhupāda: I may say in this connection, in America, the laborer class is very highly paid. Anyone, any labor class man can earn $25, $50, daily, very easily. But because there is no direction of the brain, these labor class of men—I have seen—they—especially these Negroes—51%, they are drunkards. They spend their money in drinking. They do not know how to utilize the money. Because the brain is not giving direction. Or they have no brain. "I have got so money. How I shall utilize it?" As soon as he gets money, he use it, he uses it for drinking. You may think that you are sufficiently paying to the labor class, worker class, but because he is not guided by brain, he is misspending the money.
C. Hennis: We are interested in that, too. We are interested in that, too. We don't want to tell people how to spend their money. We think that this would be...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Yogeśvara: In the United States, there are something called minority groups. Minority group means like the Irish or the Negroes, the Jews...
Prabhupāda: They're also fools. Minority fools. They're minority fools.
Yogeśvara: Minority fools?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because he's thinking, "I am Irishman."
Yogeśvara: Yes, but their point is that "Even if we are spirit soul, we are still being exploited because we are a small number. So we must band together to protect ourselves."
Prabhupāda: All right. So there cannot be... but for particular reason or circumstances we call it, but religion is one. That means to abide by the laws of God. That is religion. If you do not know what is God, what is His law, that is another thing. But the religion means to abide by the laws of God, that's all. It cannot be Hindu, Muslim, Christian. Just like the state law. So there are many persons, citizens of the state. The law is not that it is for the Christians, it is for the Jews, it is for the Negroes, it is for the white man. It is not like that. Law is the same for everyone. You can call it, "This is Negro law, this is white law, this is black law..." No. That is not very scientific. Scientific is that God is there and we are all... God is great, we are all subordinates and we have to obey the orders of God. That is religion. Am I right or wrong?
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Black and white?
Jayatīrtha: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Negroes are envious of the white men.
Jayatīrtha: Yes. In Detroit every year one out of every five hundred people is murdered.
Prabhupāda: White man?
Jayatīrtha: White men and black men. Usually black men are murdering.
Prabhupāda: What is the reason? The same feeling as in India, Hindu Muslim. But it is not so strong.
Brahmānanda: (in car) ...difficult to get visas for Trinidad and Guyana. Especially Trinidad. And once he even got a visa and they rejected it at the border.
Prabhupāda: There is no need of... (break)
Brahmānanda: Oh, Same situation of having a Negro government with a large Indian population. (break) ...will have to be gotten from inside the country and then sent to us here.
Jagatpuruṣa: Well, we would call Śeṣa Nārāyaṇa who is the speaker of the house and he would tell us that we could come.
Prabhupāda: On the whole, we should not take any risk. That is not good. Then we shall postpone everything. (break)
Prabhupāda: But he is animal. That is, if you call a thief a thief, he will feel insulted. But does it mean that I shall say that "You are very honest?" A thief shall be called thief. That is natural. If you call a Negro, "You black," he will be angry. But he is black. So... So that is another thing. When the activities are similar to the animal activities, then he is animal. Why a reasonable man will not accept that, hm? In that case also, he is animal. Because they say, "Man is rational animal." So if you are devoid of rationality then again you are animal. So how he will avoid, that he is not animal?
Satsvarūpa: Many people today are willing to accept that. They say, "Yes, we're animals. We should enjoy our animal nature."
Prabhupāda: No, no.
Jayatīrtha: What's the...
Prabhupāda: That is division. Varṇa, that is called varṇa.
Jayatīrtha: So that has nothing to do with species. Species is like Negro or...
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)
Jayatīrtha: ...gods are also included in this human species.
Prabhupāda: Different types of... Kinnara, 400,000.
Brahmānanda: Also different planets?
Brahmānanda: They come here?
Ambarīṣa: Yes. It's a very dangerous park.
Prabhupāda: No, black?
Brahmānanda: The negroes from Detroit, they are the fierce animals that come here at night.
Prabhupāda: They come?
Brahmānanda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: At night? Why?
Jagadīśa: Drink.
Brahmānanda: Drinking and sex.
Prabhupāda: So why the Americans gave them freedom?
Prabhupāda: They should be trained up, more people. Just like I went alone in Europe and America. So I have trained them. So it will depend on your training power, the more people will be attracted. If you advertise, "Come here," and if you have no power to attract them, then it will not be... You must be attractive to bring them. And that is spiritual attraction. You must behave yourself nicely. Then people will come. If you become purified, then naturally they will come. Just like if you prepare nice preparation with pure ghee, customers will be naturally attracted and they will pay and purchase. And if you prepare rubbish thing, one man may be cheated, but that will not be attraction for the general. Purity is required. That will attract. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12). One must be pure. Then he will be able to attract. So if they see practically that "These people are very happy; they have no anxiety," then they will be attracted. Is it not? What is the difficulty? But if you want brothel and night dancing and wine and meat-eating, then it is spoiled. It becomes impure. To become pure is not at all difficult. Rather, to become impure, it is difficult. But people, with all difficulties, they are becoming impure. Otherwise the idea which I am giving, you can start anywhere, anywhere, any part of the world. It doesn't matter. Locally you produce your own food. You get your own cloth. Have sufficient milk, vegetables. Then what you want more? And chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is Vedic civilization: plain living, high thinking. And poor thinking, poor in thought, poor in behavior, and living with motorcar and this, that, nonsense. It is all nonsense civilization. A first-class Rolls Royce car, and who is sitting there? A third-class negro. This is going on. You'll find these things in Europe and America. This is going on. A first-class car and a third-class negro. That's all. Is it not?
Prabhupāda: So post... (break) ...service is not good?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, it is fairly good. But the Africans, they are so many they have to queue up. I don't think, in America, that the American negroes would be able to queue up and wait as patiently as these people. I think they have a little...
Prabhupāda: They have been trained up.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: British influence. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...appears it is very clean city.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This area is downtown, it's not so clean. Downtown is not so clean. This area is.
Prabhupāda: This is residential or industrial?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. That... One, our Sanskrit professor used to... "My dear boys, even there is beauty amongst the negroes." He used to say. And it is my... It is one's eye that she is very beautiful. It does not recommend others' recommendation. Yar saṅge ye morje man kibari ki vardana(?). It doesn't matter whether she low caste or high caste; if she is attractive, then it is all right. Therefore rūpavatī bhāryā śatruḥ. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita's instruction are very, very nice. 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.
Reporter (2): Do you have a large number of American negroes in your movement, Swamiji?
Prabhupāda: Not large number, but there are.
Reporter (2): Is there any reason why that is so?
Prabhupāda: That is.... There is reason. They are not very much cultured.
Reporter (5): Do you have women followers also in this movement?
Prabhupāda: Yes. America, men and women have got equal rights.
Prabhupāda: Indian system is, the bridegroom... So when the man went to see the girl, the father called his son, bridegroom's father, "My dear Gauracand, please come here." So he came. He was just like a black negro. And gauracānda means fair complexion. So one of the party came to see. So, "This is in your country gauracānda, so where is kālacānda, can you bring him?" So that is the respectable gentleman, and what is debauch?
Harikeśa: Kālacānda means black, very black. Gaura means fair.
Prabhupāda: When Gauracand was called, a black negro came. So if Kalacand is called, who will come then? (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Books are different thing, we are publishing.
Jñānagamya: In America the Negro situation was very bad, and they made many films showing heroic Negroes and now the situation is much better. The people are not so much agitated by seeing Negroes. They think "Oh, now a Negro has some good qualities." Because of these films they have come to appreciate. So like that, if a devotee is a hero they will also appreciate.
Prabhupāda: Do they? I don't appreciate. I don't think the Negro question is solved.
Jñānagamya: No, it's not, but it is making steps to that end.
Prabhupāda: Do they? I don't appreciate. I don't think the Negro question is solved.
Jñānagamya: No, it's not, but it is making steps to that end.
Prabhupāda: The whites, they do not like the Negroes still. Wherever there are Negroes, in that quarter the whites do not go in. So is it not? They do not go. Although they have been given equal right, but at heart the whites, they do not like it. Is there any improvement? I don't think. Officially, "Yes, yes, you are good, I am good."
Nava-yauvana: Because people are still on the bodily conception of life, so they are...
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the real disease. So long one is situated in the bodily concept of life, he is animal. First of all, you have to educate them. That is the difficulty.
Jñānagamya: But we are not Negroes. We are actually devotees and we are very attractive, and we have all good qualities, and people do not have to be afraid to come into our section of town. We will not kill them. That is why they are afraid of the Negroes. So we actually have good things to offer.
Prabhupāda: That is by your behavior, not by showing the film.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: One of the points, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that you're making, if I understand correctly, is that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is like gold, like diamond. If somebody's sincere, they will come. When they are selling cigarettes or Negroes or cars, they make films. But with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we have the books, which are paramparā. And we have ourselves as examples. If we can be paramparā and we can be good examples...
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: I did not know. I occupied. Otherwise nobody was taking.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: We can make a library.
Prabhupāda: And library means these negroes will go to read? They'll go for drinking.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In that area nobody will come to read.
Ādi-keśava: Any decent person would be afraid to come there.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: But...
Ādi-keśava: Only Śrīla Prabhupāda would go there 'cause he's only a courageous man.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Other than that, you won't get outsiders to come in, though.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes. But it's a great... It's an important spot.
Prabhupāda: That is dangerous portion of New York City. Just after my house they were regularly drinking and... Negroes. I didn't care. Never they did any harm to me. Bowery Street. And still, I was there.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We thought about this.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have... We can do that.
Prabhupāda: Then you can do anything.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have men we can put there. Right, Ādi-keśava?
Prabhupāda: Simply the drunken negroes, call them, "Take prasādam and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can put Bhaktijana there 'cause he's always very fond of preaching. You know, Bhaktijana. He's always wanted to go to Harlem. So...
Prabhupāda: Yes, then we can deliver them. They are, after all, simple. These negroes, they are, after all, simple. We have to claim them. You have got now experience in Detroit. They are very good-behaving negroes. They come to our temple. Nobody could drive there. Therefore we could acquire that house so cheap.
Prabhupāda: Dangerous.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, very dangerous. No more young people moving about, no more nice shops. Simply very dangerous.
Prabhupāda: Negroes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many people with drugs, taking...
Prabhupāda: Only Negroes. I was going one place to another, underground. Not bad. They used to say "Poor man's transport." Underground?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Subway. But everybody uses it. You'll see even big men use it. Very quick, cheap.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, it is very interesting, how they are fighting against odds to introduce our movement. There is a written description.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There's one Negro devotee of Prabhupāda. They're distributing books in communist countries. So he has written a report how they are fighting against odds.
Surendra Kumar: Oh, yes, I... Quite right.
Dr. Kumar: Ghanaśyāma came here last year.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That Negro boy.
Surendra Kumar: I told him that "These people will form the hard core, and that, our organization will be organized and then..." He also said that so many temples are dying out.
Prabhupāda: It will develop. (Hindi conversation) Thakur has become a source of income.
Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
Certainly we are not going to say these things about the negro people publicly; we have no distinction between black or white, or demon or demigod, but at the same time, so long as one is demon or demigod, we have to behave in the proper way. Just like Caitanya Mahaprabhu; He had no distinction between a tiger and a man. He was so powerful that He could convert even a tiger to dance. But so far as we are concerned, we should not imitate and go to some tiger and try to make him dance! But still, tiger is equally eligible like a man. So, you can understand that these talks are not for the public, as they have not got the ability to understand. Basically we have not got hatred for anyone, but when one is demoniac or atheistic, we should try to avoid their company. A preacher's business is to love God, to make friendship with devotees, to enlighten the innocent, and to avoid the demons. This principle we shall follow.
1969 Correspondence
After the meeting, many boys and gentlemen came to congratulate me. Out of them, one was an Egyptian gentleman. Similarly, in another meeting in Conway Hall one Chinese boy came and offered his obeisances exactly like my disciples, bowing down to my feet. Negro boys are also taking part. So it is a fact that our movement will appeal to the heart of everyone, and they will join us. If one is not very much sophisticated and overburdened by material contamination, then he must respond to our call. The only thing is that we as preachers must be very, very pure, sincere and serious. The crude example is that when a man is physically very strong, and if he has sex intercourse with a woman, she is sure to become pregnant. When pregnancy fails, it is due to the weakness of the male partner generally.
1970 Correspondence
Regarding Dr. Sen's grandson's theory of species, if they are species—the species horse is a kind of species; it draws a cart. The ass is another kind of species; he carries load. So ass is never engaged for drawing a cart. If brahmanas are a species and vaisya and sudra are other species, why do we see that sometimes a "brahmana" does a sudra's work? We have got many negro disciples and they are worshiping the Deity; so why they should not worship the Deity? Krsna says He accepts the service even from the papayoni, those who have taken impious births.
Actually Krsna does not say that caste is determined according to species, but according to the quality of work the divisions of society are made. Narada says one must be judged according to his qualification, even if he is in a different class or species, still he should be accepted according to the qualities which he exhibits i.e., brahmana, etc. Sridhara Swami says birth is not so much important as quality. (You have very wrongly remembered something about Sridhara Swami's view.)
1974 Correspondence
It is good news that you are now 14 strong at Nairobi. It will be nice if Shakti Mata can take care of the girls in the Temple. She is a very able woman. One thing, though, women should live separately. I know you can do it there because you have ample space.
Train the Negro devotees to speak Swahili and many will join you. They will be very attracted to your program of halava distribution, chanting and dancing and they will join you.
Yes, if we have too much money then unwise spending enters. You have just enough to get by and you are therefore having to spend wisely.
I am in due receipt of your letter dated August 19, 1974, with enclosed clippings and a copy of the Hare Krishna News. Your work there is very much pleasing to me. Take good attention to the negroes and they will come out good devotees. How many copies have you printed of your local newspaper? I think that everyone will be interested in it. Regarding life membership, Brahmananda Swami can instruct you. You say that the money can be sent out; there are no objections from the government to do this? Please give the details how you can send the money here.
One thing, is the Society registered there?
1975 Correspondence
This is karma-bandhana, in Bhagavad-gita, or the bondage of different fruitive activity. It is advised that one should act only for Krsna, otherwise he will be involved in karma-bandhana.
Regarding your second question, whether a person who is a Negro, Chinese, Indian, etc. are they different species of life making up the 400,000 species. Yes, so far their body is concerned. Your question whether woman in each one of these species is another separate species, no, the species means both man and woman of the same type. Of course, strictly speaking the woman is taken differently, otherwise how would Krsna say striyo vaisyas tatha sudras.
| Page Title: | Negro |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 27 of Jun, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=8, Con=30, Let=6 |
| No. of Quotes: | 45 |