Never return (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"cannot return" |"does not return" |"never dream of returning" |"never eager to return" |"never has to return" |"never have to return" |"never need return" |"never return" |"never returned" |"never returning" |"never returns" |"never to return" |"never want to return" |"no more return" |"no one returns" |"no return" |"not return" |"not returning" |"not returning"

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Satsvarūpa: You were supposed to give a lecture today, but because you gave a lecture last night in Buffalo, we cancelled it and I went instead.

Prabhupāda: So you lectured there? That's nice. Now you have to lecture. I will have to retire. (chuckles) I want that all my students now should be prepared. Puruṣottama, you sit down. You are standing. You come here. Sit down. When, at present, when we speak of past, present, future, we refer to this particular creation of my body. Is it not? Similarly, "never return back." "Never return back" means... What is your question? I... missing point. Whose question it...? Yes.

Devotee (1): What is the question? That if we've never been with Kṛṣṇa, if we've never been in Kṛṣṇaloka, then how is it that we start remembering His pastimes and His form?

Prabhupāda: You remember Kṛṣṇa's pastimes by hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You can hear Kṛṣṇa's pastimes. That you can remember.

Devotee (1): But how can we remember if we've never known them before?

Prabhupāda: How you can remember?

Devotee (1): If we haven't known it.

Prabhupāda: You can know it by hearing from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Why we are citing so many scriptures, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā? Just to remember.

Devotee (1): Just to remember?

Prabhupāda: Something you forget, but I tell you repeatedly, you hear; you remember. Is it not? Here something you have forgotten completely, and I remind you constantly. Then don't you remember?

Devotee (1): Yes. But I don't understand how is it that we forgot it... How can we remember...

Prabhupāda: Forgot, you forgot. That is your nature. You forget so many things. You cannot remember what you were doing exactly at this time yesterday. Can you remember immediately? Forgetfulness is our nature. We are very minute; therefore our..., we are subjected to the quality of forgetfulness. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna was asking Kṛṣṇa that "How I can believe that you told this philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā to Vivasvān?" He said that "In... I, first of all, I told to Vivasvān." So in reply to that question, Kṛṣṇa said that "Both you and I had many, many births before, but you have forgotten; I remember." That is the difference between the Supreme Lord and ourself. He does not forget. He remembers everything, past, present, future, all, but we forget. That is the difference between God and living entity. We are subjected to forgetfulness. So we forget; again, if it is reminded, we remind. That is our nature. So at the present moment we are forgetful of our eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa. And then, by good association, by constant chanting, hearing, remembering, we again revoke our old consciousness. That is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So forgetfulness is not wonderful. It is natural. We forget. But if we keep constant touch, we may not forget. Therefore this association of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotees, and constant repetition of the chanting, scripture, that will keep us intact without forgetting.

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: All the rounds? Oh, very nice. He's Mr. Dhari(?). Oh, you did not return?

Indian Lady: (Bengali)

Kīrtanānanda: (introducing:) Mr. Ginsberg.

Allen Ginsberg: I'm saluting you like that. So...

Indian Lady: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe (BG 6.41).

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: Ah.

Sumati Morarjee: We had big property in Karachi.

Prabhupāda: So, so they cannot return.

Sumati Morarjee: They're not returning anything. With great difficulty. I put up a fight with the British to get back my ship with that interned one passenger.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that scrap I saw when I was going.

Sumati Morarjee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: We met on the way.

Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So he is prepared to go to London?

Jayatīrtha: He seems anxious to go, yes.

Prabhupāda: That's good. Why Śyāmasundara does not return?

Jayatīrtha: He's here. He's also asleep. He came in the middle of the night, two or three o'clock in the morning.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, evolution... That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: yānti deva-vratā devān pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ (BG 9.25). Progress is going on. That progress, the ultimate progress is yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). That where you're going, you do not return, that is the supreme progress. Saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ. That is the highest perfection. You read Bhagavad-gītā. Everything is there. Mām upetya kaunteya punar janma na vidyate. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ (BG 8.15). They have no idea what is the highest perfection of human life.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. By mercy of spiritual master, the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, he gets the seed of devotional service, and if he cultivates, then his life becomes successful. Otherwise he has to rotate, sometimes up, sometimes down. Sometimes this grass, sometimes lion.

Paramahaṁsa: But ultimately if we come to Kṛṣṇa, there's no return. But nevertheless, Jagāi, and..., the two gatekeepers, they returned?

Prabhupāda: There is return, that is voluntary. Return there is.

Paramahaṁsa: If we want.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Paramahaṁsa: So we can come to the spiritual world and return?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- London, August 24, 1973 :

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning?

Devotee (2): "After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection."

Prabhupāda: This is the highest perfection. We have to go to Kṛṣṇa.

Woman: So when you have had your suffering in various forms and through various lives, you then reach the...

Prabhupāda: No, not that.

Woman: Not that. Not...

Prabhupāda: Not that.

Room Conversation -- September 19, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Ah, this is saṁsiddhiṁ paramām, highest perfection. What is the translation?

Pradyumna: After attaining Me, the great souls who are yogis in devotion never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.

Prabhupāda: That is the highest perfection. Nāpnuvanti, what is that?

Pradyumna: Nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- July 3, 1975, Denver:

Devotee (3): (break) You had said on a... earlier on a morning walk, on a tape, that if one enters into the spiritual world that—you were asked that he will never have to return—and you said that if it's a desire, he can return to the material world.

Prabhupāda: So what is your objection?

Devotee (3): I was just wondering if the spirit soul being in the spiritual world is eternally liberated, how can he return. By desire?

Prabhupāda: Yes. If he desires, he can come again. That option is always there. Just like I remain in India. I come here. And if I like, I may not come. It is my option.

Morning Walk -- September 29, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...one gentleman, young man, he was very rich man's son. He would come in the evening in the Howrah station nicely dressed and would approach any gentleman, "Sir, I am very sorry. I have lost my purse. Can you give me? Otherwise I cannot return." So he will collect five, ten rupees and go to a restaurant and eat and go home. (break) It is the second nature. Now the door is open? We can go?

Kartikeya: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...enter. Not the cows.

Indian man (4): Physical world, this earth is there. Are there any other earthly planets of this type where human beings or other beings are staying other than spiritual beings?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42). This is the process. If one comes in contact with devotee or God, then he is simply satisfied by the service. No return. Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce. (break) ...guru?

Sudāmā: Śrīla Prabhupāda, these workers are coming.

Prabhupāda: Ghosh wanted to give us land that side for making a path to the Ganges.

Jayapatākā: Sell us.

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. So we have got a plan beginning from this gate up to the Ganges. If we get land we can do that. (break) Foundation stone in Nellore can be transferred to Madras?

Morning Walk -- February 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Acyutānanda: In Andhra, I said, "There's so much land where they're growing tobacco. You could grow food." But in the Gītā, it says, "Once coming there, he never returns."

Prabhupāda: But if he likes, he can return.

Acyutānanda: He can return.

Prabhupāda: That independence has to be accepted, little independence. We can misuse that. Kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare. That misuse is the cause of our falldown.

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhāgavata: In New York one policeman admitted that when the police would capture the thieves with the stolen goods, then they would confiscate the goods and keep it privately in their homes and sell the stolen goods and get the money for themselves. They would not return it to the owner, but they would utilize it for making money. So they are also thieves.

Prabhupāda: So if this is the practice in a country which is so opulent, just imagine what is there in India.

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, it was Kṛṣṇa's arrangement. Kṛṣṇa wanted to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the Western countries, so He gave me the chance to take the credit, that's all. It is Kṛṣṇa's arrangement. But He liked that one of His devotee may take the credit. That's all. Nimitta-mātraṁ bhava savyasācin. Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna that "I have already killed them. They are not returning, either you fight or not fight, but you can take the credit." So it was arrangement of Kṛṣṇa that Western countries should now have this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And He wanted to give the credit to His poor servant. That's all. Kṛṣṇa likes that. He does everything, but He gives credit to His (chuckling) poor servant. That is my..., vairāgya. The whole process is how to achieve vairāgya. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ, janayaty āśu vairāgyam... (SB 1.2.7).

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So instead of becoming devotee, he wants to become God. And that is the problem. But it is the most confidential part of knowledge. Instead of carrying out the orders of God, he wants to order God. You see? Even in the lower stages of devotion, that mentality continues, that "God is order-supplier. If God carries my order, then I accept God. Otherwise I reject Him." In Germany... One of my German Godbrothers, he told me in 1935 that in the last world war, many people became atheists. They went to the church and prayed, especially women, "My husband may come back," "My brother may come back," or "My father may come back." Because all men went to the war field, and the women were there, they prayed in the churches. But nobody came back, and they became atheists. That means they took God as order-supplier. They ordered God, "Return my father. Return my brother. Return my husband," and God did not return. "Ah, there is no God. I don't care.

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Why not to take our work in Māyāpur? (break)

Devotee (1): ...letter, Śrīla Prabhupāda. He never returned it. (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...half of what he says isn't true. I would doubt that all these claims are even true. He says things and then they turn out not to be true.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: He came on my bus for a week.

Satsvarūpa: He's nice, but I don't think he has all that aristocratic background that he claims.

Devotee (1):...by the results. What a man can do?

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda has no fixed home.

Prabhupāda: I want to see that every center, things are going on nicely.

Interviewer: Oh, I see. I thought you were not returning to the United States.

Cyavana: He has traveled the world sixteen times around?

Prabhupāda: Yes, sixteen times.

Cyavana: Sixteen times around in ten years. So this is a common thing for Prabhupāda to do.

Prabhupāda: Just to inspect things, how they are going on.

Rāmeśvara: Just to inspect things.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Pradyumna:

mām upetya punar janma

duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam

nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ

saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gataḥ

(BG 8.15)

"After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection."

Prabhupāda: The material world is full of miseries. It may be of different degrees, but it is full of miseries. You cannot avoid by adjustment. That is not possible. Therefore the materialists, they are trying. Just like in this country, Iran, now the Iranians are trying to become as opulent as the Americans. They are trying to build up similar cities and industries, but do you think they will be happy then? No. Are the Americans happy by having big, big cities? No. That is not possible. Now they are trying to imitate, but that is a false attempt. That is not the life.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is natural. Just like when I go to Calcutta. Therefore a sannyāsī is forbidden to live in his native place. There will be attraction. Caitanya Mahāprabhu never returned to Navadvīpa. (break) ...no striking six o'clock. Did you mark it?

Hari-śauri: I never hear him ring it. At least the one in the daytime. I think evenings he rings it.

Harikeśa: I heard the four o'clock.

Prabhupāda: He is not regular. That means he's another lazy fellow. All lazy fellows.

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So capital required we can give. There is no scarcity of capital. But it must be consulted between three-Gopāla, Viśvambhara, and yourself. And then if capital is required, how capital you will repay. Make them assured. I shall give you. There is no difficulty. Capital you will have, provided you can make profit. Not that we give capital and never return. That will not be possible. Take any amount of capital, but we must be paid interest as bank gives loan. I can say bank will give you. If I order the bank, bank will give you. So capital there is no question. The question is how you shall utilize it. How you shall make profit. Capital, by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, you can take lakhs and lakhs. That I can arrange. The bank, if I say to the bank they will have to give you, or I shall personally give you. There is no question of capital scarcity. So only thing is how will you utilize this capital and how you will make profit.

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dhanañjaya: Utilize means return.

Indian man: Return means to utilize it properly.

Prabhupāda: No return also gradually, not at a time. Because if you take five thousand rupees, pay at the rate of five hundred rupees.

Indian man: (Hindi) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...is concerned, that is our home, Aligarh.

Indian man: Aligarh.

Prabhupāda: Money is concerned, you'll get any amount. Now organize and (indistinct).

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So that I can give, loan. I am giving...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Within two or three...

Prabhupāda: But you never return.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I returned all your loans. In Vṛndāvana loans were all... We haven't taken any loan in Vṛndāvana. The only loan which I didn't return was which was taken from Māyāpur two years ago with Jayapatāka. They're, (I'm?) supposed to pay back. The BBT...

Prabhupāda: So now you... Our big business brain is here, Rāmeśvara. If he recommends, I can do.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I know.

Prabhupāda: So what to do? Rāmeśvara, you are here. You can see. They are not cooperating. And besides that, Mahāṁsa takes loan. He never returns. He has taken about five lakhs for the temple. So I have already told to the auditor and the... They are (indistinct). This is going on.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we are working...

Prabhupāda: So you keep account in such a way that whatever income it is, it is spent for books. Print some... You also do there. Whatever income you get, you spend for promotion. This principle should be followed. All businessmen are doing that. Whatever income is there, it is spent for maintenance establishment. That's all.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: I think he is not returning. He's gone forever. Gargamuni: Who?

Hari-śauri: Devi-dhāma. Oh, no. He's back. He's back.

Gargamuni: Just now.

Prabhupāda: So what did he bring?

Rāmeśvara: So they have become completely dependent on oil.

Prabhupāda: Anything artificial, it will break. You cannot make a scheme of mental concoction. That will not endure. You take standard it will be beneficial. The whole world is in chaotic condition because they have so many artificial way of living.

Room Conversation with Two Indian Guests -- January 27, 1977, Jagannatha Puri:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Go back, they do everything. They remain the same thing, simply rubberstamp. That's all. (Bengali) ...an actual fact. So they are seeing it is dangerous. They say, "It is epidemic. Brainwash." (Bengali) ...that once gone, this camp, Hare Kṛṣṇa camp, never return. Finished. (Bengali) ...compromise nei... Individually, family-wise, when the boy goes, he's gone forever. (Bengali) Hari-śauri! (Bengali) (Bengali) Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66).

Guest (1): But without that, it is just like Hindu question.

Prabhupāda: They go to other temples also.

Guest (1): Many.

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: The thing is, it is guesthouse, and once it is advertised that the food is not good, nobody comes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: First impression is the lasting impression. If one time a man comes and it is not good, he will never return.

Prabhupāda: Then in Bombay we shall be very careful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very careful. Only the best cooks.

Prabhupāda: Not best cook. The best cook is available. Management is not good.

Hari-śauri: We need a very expert manager for that guesthouse.

Prabhupāda: And in Bombay-before we get bad name—then it is lost.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everything has to be set up beforehand perfectly.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that I have heard.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So this Rāmānujī kavirāja was charging five hundred rupees a tolā. And Vanamali, when we gave him gold, he never returned any gold. So... This is the position, cheaters.

Prabhupāda: Vanamali was also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Something. Anyway, before we leave I'm going to speak with Bhagatji. Bhagatji is the one who gave the gold and pearls to Vanamali. So I think Bhagatji will be able to recover it. We'll leave this medicine with Bhagatji, and he can give the medicine to Vanamali and take the money. So Smara-hari will be leaving today, just now.