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Not necessary (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Interviewer: You also have a garland of flowers around your neck.

Prabhupāda: That is offered by the disciples as a matter of respect to the spiritual master. It is not necessary that a sannyāsī have a garland like this, but if it is offered with respect he does not refuse.

Interviewer: Now, one more thing, you have some paint or color down your forehead and your nose and on all your followers who are here in the studio.

Prabhupāda: Yes. These marks are a temple of Kṛṣṇa. We mark these different twelve parts of the body. The idea is that we are being protected by God from all sides.

Interviewer: One other thing, I went to shake hands with everybody and I found that all your right hands were wrapped. What is the significance of that?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That wrapping... It is not exactly wrapped. It is a bag for our beads. We are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. So the beads are supposed to be sacred and therefore we keep it in a bag so that it may not touch the dust or any other impurities. So it is not wrapping, it is covering of the sacred beads.

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Interviewer: Must one renounce his present religion?

Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily. Religion is a kind of faith. So naturally, if you go to the higher standard of life, the stereotype faith does not act there. So this understanding, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is transcendental to all religious faith. Faith you can change. But this you cannot change. Your constitutional position as part and parcel of God is never to be changed. You may accept a faith as Christianity or accept a faith, Mohammedanism. That is a mental situation. But this is your actual constitutional situation that you are part and parcel of the Supreme. That cannot be changed.

Interviewer: What happens in your temples. Do you have services like other religions?

Prabhupāda: Yes, generally we chant this mahāmantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa, and then we deliver speeches from Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and then there are questions, we answer, and in that way the audience and the disciples they become enlightened and they advance.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Hayagrīva: Not every point. We don't often disagree. But I might want this tree to be left here.

Prabhupāda: Or what you decide and he must disagree that? Whatever you decide and Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja must disagree with that point? Is that the situation?

Hayagrīva: That's not necessarily so.

Prabhupāda: But suppose if Kīrtanānanda says, "Then I'll leave this place," then what will be the situation? As you say that "Unless I am in charge, I leave this place," similarly, if he says that "If I am not in charge, then I will leave this place," so would you like that he should leave this place?

Hayagrīva: No.

Prabhupāda: Then both of you are required. Then how you can say that "I'll leave this place," how he can say he'll leave? You must jointly work because both of you, you have started this New Vrindaban, and you have to work jointly. There may be sometimes disagreement, but you should settle up. Otherwise how you can make progress? He's a sannyāsī. He has got the right to travel. That is his business. He can go and preach. That is actually his business. His business is not to stay any place. Just like I am also; in this old age I am traveling, parivrājaka. So if you think that you can do without him, then he can travel and sometimes he may come here.

Meeting with Devotees -- June 9, 1969, New Vrindaban:

Hayagrīva: Well, I think he's necessary here. Definitely we need him.

Prabhupāda: So if his presence is necessary, then he is a sannyāsī; he should be given some responsible post. And if he is not necessary, then his main business is to go. Now, if I... I am getting older. If he travels all over the centers and sees as superintendent what things are going on, that will be also nice. And in my absence he can deliver speech and in that way he can get experience. Now he went to North Carolina. He did nicely. So... I know that both of you are required here to develop this center. Not that if you say, "I go," and if he says he goes, then this place, the advancement which is progressing, this will be stopped. It is now in the nascent stage. You should not neglect now. You should work conjointly.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Haṁsadūta: That means in each city we would we have to have our own local press.

Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily. You can arrange with any newspaper place. You simply supply your matter; they will print. Just like we are getting from Japan, similarly, make your own layout and supply them. Immediately, within two hours, everything is complete.

Haṁsadūta: But a daily newspaper has to turn out daily, so it takes time to transport it from one city to another city.

Prabhupāda: Well, from every city we can publish. Every city there is a newspaper place.

Devotee (4): ...national, just like the national...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So we have to organize. First of all let us publish in one city, big city like New York, like London, yes, Bombay, Tokyo. Big cities, world's big cities. In India only two cities are big: Calcutta, and Bombay, important. If you publish simultaneously, Calcutta... Delhi is given importance due to capital; otherwise not important as big city, as Bombay and Calcutta. Delhi, without government offices it is a dead city. Just like Washington. What is the value of Washington? It is nothing. Simply because it is headquarters of the President, it has got importance. Similarly, Delhi is that. Otherwise it is not important. But Calcutta, Bombay, is really important city in India, big business, port, all rich men, every kind of, all cultural, everything—Calcutta, and Bombay. Originally only Calcutta, now Bombay also. Because the Britishers, they made Calcutta capital.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Well, if that sort of remark is given it is not against the śāstra, but it was not necessarily previously. His direct association... Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,

sādhu saṅga sādhu saṅga sarva śāstra kaya
lava mātra sādhu saṅge sarva siddhi haya
(CC Madhya 22.54)

"Even a moment's association with a pure devotee—all success." Not necessarily that one has to acquire it previous, no. Generally it is so, but sādhu sanga has got its effect. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, lavamatra sādhu sanga sarva siddhi haya. You have not read in the Sanātana-śikṣā in the Teachings of Lord Caitanya?

Revatīnandana: Does that also apply to reading the words of a pure devotee?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Revatīnandana: Even a little association with your books has the same effect?

Prabhupāda: Effect, of course, it requires both the things. One must be very eager to take it. Just like Mahārāja Parīkṣit heard Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and there are so many others. They are also reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So Mahārāja Parīkṣit was very serious. So both things should be serious. Just like the example: the husband and wife must be potent; then there is pregnancy. Otherwise there is no pregnancy. So sewing the seed, the field also must be fertile or receptive, then the seed will fructify. It is reciprocal.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

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?

Manuel: Yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: That is... Therefore the Vedas says, tad-vijñānārthaṁ: "In order to know that transcendental science," sa gurum evābhigacchet, "he must go to a guru. He must approach." A guru means not bogus guru. One who knows expert. But one has to do that. There is no other alternative. That is the injunction of every Vedic śāstra. And this order is from the Kathopaniṣad. Then, on the Bhagavad-gītā the same thing is said, tad viddhi praṇipātena (BG 4.34). Praṇipāta means surrender. Surrender where? Where to surrender? To a coolie? No, to a superior person, guru. Similarly, Bhāgavata says, tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsur śreya uttamam: (SB 11.3.21) "One who is inquisitive to understand the spiritual science," tasmād, "therefore," guruṁ prapadyeta, "must surrender to a guru." Just our, this morning prayer is guru, beginning of life, beginning of day's work, first worshiping guru.

Television Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Interviewer: Yes. That is not necessarily based on the religious principles, of course, what you are talking about.

Prabhupāda: No, that is a philosophical principle. Religion without philosophy is sentiment.

Interviewer: Don't you think there are very good reasons for the existence of these rules and regulations in this respect?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Rules and regulations must be established on philosophy. Otherwise it is sentiment, defective. Religion without philosophy is sentiment, and philosophy without religion is mental speculation. They should be combined, philosophy and religion. Then it will be perfect.

Interviewer: I think that in this part of the world, in the Western world, at least, as much as I am aware of it, we do place a good deal of emphasis on religion and...

Prabhupāda: Based on philosophy.

Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Interviewer: That is not necessarily based on religious principles, of course.

Prabhupāda: That is philosophical principle.

Interviewer: Right.

Prabhupāda: And religion without philosophy is sentiment.

Interviewer: Don't you think there are very good reasons for the existence of these rules and regulations in this respect?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The rules and regulations must be established on philosophy. Otherwise, it is sentiment, defective. Religion without philosophy is sentiment. And philosophy without religion is mental speculation. They should be combined, philosophy and religion. Then it will be perfect.

Interviewer: I think that in this, in this part of the world, in the Western world, at least as much as I am aware of it, we do place a good deal of emphasis on religion and...

Prabhupāda: Based on philosophy.

Temple Press Conference -- August 5, 1971, London:

Woman Interviewer: But I mean supposing I wished to become an initiate. Wouldn't I have to come and live here?

Śyāmasundara: No.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Woman Interviewer: Oh, I could stay at home?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Woman Interviewer: What about work, though? Does one have to give up one's job?

Prabhupāda: You have to give up these bad habits and chant these beads, Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. That's all.

Woman Interviewer: Would I have to give any financial support?

Prabhupāda: No, that's your voluntary wish. If you give us, that's all right. Otherwise, we don't mind.

Woman Interviewer: Sorry, I didn't understand.

Prabhupāda: We do not want, depend on anyone's financial contributions. We depend on God, or Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Guest (2): When you come into this movement, you come in from on the outside, in the material world and so on. Do you, as some monks do in monasteries, do you give all your wealth, all your possessions, everything, as it were, to the movement?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. Why?

Revatīnandana: Not necessarily. But generally yes. Because we're coming here to serve Kṛṣṇa and we understand that everything is Kṛṣṇa's. So whatever we come with is automatically Kṛṣṇa's, so we use it in His service.

Prabhupāda: Actually, we don't possess anything. Everything is Kṛṣṇa's. What we possess, so-called possession, that is illegal. Because I cannot possess your property. I can possess your property by stealing. Not by fair dealings.

Guest (2): So it's a voluntary thing, really?

Sister Mary: I can possess it if you give it to me.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is nice. So that is our philosophy. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). Whatever God has given you, you possess. Don't try to possess other's property. Mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam. Everything belongs to God, so whatever God gives me, you enjoy it. I take it. I don't encroach upon other's property.

Room Conversation -- August 15, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere this class must be there, morning evening class. Either it is festival or temple. If you go on simply festival, you don't require to start many centers.

Śyāmasundara: Yeah. Starting more centers is not necessary.

Prabhupāda: No.

Śyāmasundara: We have the big cities covered. If people want to go and join us they can go to the big city and join.

Prabhupāda: Because opening center means so much responsibility.

Śyāmasundara: So much. Land...

Prabhupāda: So better open. Deity will be there. Just like Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja is doing. Install the deity for one week. You know everything. You have done in Calcutta, Bombay and other. Same thing. You were in Allahabad also?

Devotee: Yes, I was there.

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

Mensa Member: With respect, miners(?), among many other people prove that it's absolutely impossible to establish a rational, umm, a rational grounding for religion. In other words, trying to logically prove axioms is logically impossible.

Dr. Weir: Think so? Not necessary.

Śyāmasundara: But by verbalizing this philosophy of the Absolute, it trains the student in accepting the inexperience, that which is only experienced, by leading them to that point. But certainly we have to have some verbal confirmation of this truth.

Dr. Weir: Some people, oddly enough, don't need it. Some very simple people can have a very truly spiritual life without ever needing to verbalize it usually because they had, this is where I think it's perfectly correct, they have followed some father figure or mother figure and you know, absorbed...

Śyāmasundara: Just like my child.

Dr. Weir: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: She's to that point without having any rational knowledge.

Mensa Member: There's some (indistinct) simple people also (indistinct) people like Blake, for example, or Buddha (indistinct) simple person. It's not this sort of faith, only child-like faith (indistinct) simple people.

Dr. Weir: It's is easier for them though. It's easier for the simple person because he doesn't have all these mental, complicated doubts and, you know, arguments with himself.

Mensa Member: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: It's said that as one progresses more in spiritual life he becomes simpler and more innocent, but in the beginning he may have had to comprehend it on some verbal level in order to (indistinct)

Dr. Weir: I often used say to my students that I've got to remember that if anything in life to realize the difference between simple and complicated, which is objective, and easy and difficult, which is subjective. In other words sometimes a simple thing may be terribly difficult for a person to get hold of. Whereas complicated things he may find quite easy.

Prabhupāda: So your student has to follow your instruction. That means accepts authority.

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

Dr. Weir: You then reject the idea of a fear of God.

Prabhupāda: No, I don't reject. The thing is that perfect knowledge is received from the authority which… beyond the material defects.

Dr. Weir: No, what I mean is, fear is not necessary for learning from an authoritarian source.

Prabhupāda: No, authority must be perfect. Then otherwise the knowledge is not perfect.

Śyāmasundara: He's saying that you don't need to necessarily have to fear the authority before you accept him.

Prabhupāda: There's no question of fearing. There's no question of fearing.

Dr. Weir: That's what I thought. You don't acce... That doesn't come in at all.

Prabhupāda: No. No. It is out of love, out of affection, the reciprocation.

Room Conversation -- November 11, 1971, New Delhi:

Guest: (indistinct) Any worship we first worship Lord Ganeśa, India.

Prabhupāda: That is not necessary. That is not necessary. If we worship other demigods to fulfill our, some particular desire... (Hindi) There are different demigods they worship, but one who knows that "If I approach Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, then everything is obtained..."

Guest: You say a true devotee of Kṛṣṇa, such a person need not go after the demigods?

Prabhupāda: No, no, no.

Guest: Secondly...

Prabhupāda: There is no need.

Guest: But if he goes after demigods...

Prabhupāda: If he wants some material profit. (Hindi conversation) So kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ prapadyante anya-devatāḥ (BG 7.20). (Hindi)

Guest: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: Tulasī Dāsa is different; therefore we don't take Tulasī Dāsa as authority.

Room Conversation with Dr. Karan Singh, -- November 25, 1971, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Caturthaḥ(?) platform. And that is possible by this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa says,

māṁ ca (yo) 'vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate
sa guṇān samatītya etān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
(BG 14.26)

So two sides we are trying, to define the natural division of human society. The intelligent class, the administrator class, the productive class, and the worker class. There is natural division. You cannot say that everywhere simply there are intelligent class of men. No. Because we are infected with the three kinds of the material modes. You cannot expect all men are on the same level. That is not possible. Someone is in the modes of goodness, someone is in the modes of passion, someone is in the modes of ignorance, and someone is in the modes of mixture. That is the natural division—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaisya, śūdra. Those who are purely in goodness, they are brāhmaṇa. Next to that, passion, kṣatriya. And next to that, vaiśya, mixture. And next to that, śūdra. And next to that, caṇḍāla.

Dr. Singh: But is it not necessary today for each person to have..., for example, he's got to have his..., he's got to have knowledge of the dharma. He's got to have the capacity to act...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Singh: ...of the kṣatriya.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Singh: He's got to have the capacity for commerce and trade and (indistinct), for example.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that...

Dr. Singh: Can't we all be combined in a single person rather than dividing them into four, at least in the present age?

Prabhupāda: No. That is not possible. Suppose if you are a kṣatriya, you are ruling, you cannot go to work in the field.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:

Nara-Nārāyaṇa: Or into an intermediate stage where they can gradually go up to heaven. Limbo, I think.

Devotee (2) (lady): The ultimate desire of a Christian is to be with Jesus, is to go to be with him. That is their ultimate desire. Not necessarily to be with the Father, but to be with Jesus.

Devotee (3): What do they do with him?

Devotee (2): By leading the Christian life.

Devotee (3): I mean when they go to him, what do they do?

Devotee (2): (indistinct)

Devotee (3): See the idea is that you could not remember perfectly 'cause the taste is gone, the līlā is death mostly. But it isn't death, the basics are there, but they're teaching death. And so any intelligent person says, "I want to go to Jesus, but then what do I do? If it is everlasting hell, then heaven must be also everlasting, but what do we do?" And if it's void, then it will not keep the people interested, therefore people are leaving religion.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is very good reason. There is no hope, better go to hell. (laughter) At least there is something. Never mind. Yes, hopelessness is not good.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva. Just like you have got pearl necklace, and if it is woven in a thread. So all the pearls, they are resting on that thread. There is no question of good or bad. Everything is resting in God. There is no question of good or bad. Not that all good men simply rest on that thread. Whatever we see within our experience, everything is resting on God. There is another verse in the Bhagavad-gītā, māyā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā: (BG 9.4) "In the impersonal form, I am spread all over the manifestation, cosmic manifestation, and everything is resting on Me, but it is not necessarily I am in everything." That is the statement there. The definition of God, first of all, if you take this definition, as the root of everything, as the source of everything, however you like. It is the definition given by the Vedānta-sūtra, janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) the origin or birth or emanation of everything. Now you take anything and find out where is the original cause, then you come to God. Take anything on this table. Your self, your body. Everything you take, if you go on searching, searching, searching, what is, where is the origin, then you come to God. That is the perfect definition of God, janmādy asya yataḥ: (SB 1.1.1) the origin or source of everything. What do you think?

Ambassador: Oh, I'm very impressed.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Krishna Tiwari: Belief has no foundation.

Prabhupāda: No.

Krishna Tiwari: Not necessarily foundation.

Prabhupāda: Belief, belief is there. Fact is not belief. Fact is fact.

Krishna Tiwari: Well fact has to be established.

Prabhupāda: Established? Is established. I say, I say that this is the distinction between dead man and living man.

Krishna Tiwari: Will that extend to animals also?

Prabhupāda: Anyone. Anyone.

Krishna Tiwari: According to our Hindu philosophy, I understand everything has a soul.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Everything. Everybody has a soul.

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: No, beyond, therefore... No, no. Beyond... You see, as you say that you are within the law of nature.

Krishna Tiwari: Oh, yes, I agree. We all of us are.

Prabhupāda: So, somebody must be above law of nature.

Krishna Tiwari: Not necessarily.

Prabhupāda: No, must be. Otherwise there cannot be law.

Krishna Tiwari: Well, law or not, the ones which we need reading the books or administration, these are not those laws.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no, just like...

Śyāmasundara: He means the word law? What does it mean?

Prabhupāda: Just like, just like we are within the state law.

Krishna Tiwari: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So there is somebody above the state laws; otherwise how the state laws is made?

Krishna Tiwari: Well, I don't know which, somebody, in which sense we try to imagine it.

Prabhupāda: Why not imagine it? As soon as you say law, there must be law-giver.

Room Conversation with Krishna Tiwari -- May 22, 1973, New York:

Prabhupāda: No. Yes, yes. You said that we know artificially; we don't know philosophy.

Krishna Tiwari: I never said that we're not trying to find out.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: All right, then, and you have tried, and you...

Krishna Tiwari: Oh, we are still trying to... You have to try very hard to find out these things. My question is, when I say-wait a minute, let me talk something. When I say I do not know, that does not necessarily mean that others know. And you are taking this (indistinct) point. I am saying in my humbleness that I do not know, and you come up, "Well, I know that." Because I don't know, you are suppose to know. That's not true. I just say you don't know either. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No, no, that... But you cannot say, also, because you do not know, others do not know. You cannot say.

Krishna Tiwari: No. I never said that. I don't..., I didn't say that.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: You did. You just did.

Krishna Tiwari: No, but you'll come back and tell me that "I know." Then I cannot believe you that because I said I don't know, you have to know.

Prabhupāda: "I, I know" means I know from the authority, who knows.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: But when... Just like when we say God, Kṛṣṇa, this word conveys the meaning "all-attractive." So what is the wrong? This Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. So unless God is all-attractive, how He can become God? It is not that God is for me God. God is for you also. God is for him also. Therefore He must be all-attractive. This is perfect...

Mr. Wadell: But not necessarily in the same way. Because....

Prabhupāda: No. Just to understand what is God, if you try to understand in this way that "God is good," "God is all-attractive," is it not perfect?

Mr. Wadell: It is a partial statement.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mr. Wadell: But it doesn't tell me...

Prabhupāda: But then, when you go deep into the matter, you understand more and more. In the beginning...

Mr. Wadell: But you will never, I suspect, here on earth understand...

Prabhupāda: No, no, that suspicion I have already answered...

Mr. Wadell: Not for me, you haven't.

Prabhupāda: ...that you have to go through a process, right process. Then there will be no suspicion. The same example. But if you do not go through the process you will be always suspicious.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: So Lord and Lord's name, They're the same, identical. Just like we are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. So this Kṛṣṇa name and the Kṛṣṇa person, identical. Because the Lord is absolute. In the material world, the world of duality, the name is not the substance. If you require water, simply by chanting "Water, water," your thirst will not be quenched. You require the substance water. But in the spiritual world, the Lord and His name, the same thing. If you chant the Lord's name, Kṛṣṇa, or any name of Lord, that is identical with the Lord. Therefore by chanting the holy name of the Lord, you are associating with the Lord. And as soon as you associate with the Lord, you become purified. Because Lord is all-pure. Just like if you associate with fire, you become warm. Similarly, if you constantly associate with the Lord, you remain purified. Therefore our principle is they are always chanting... Just like we are... I am chanting also. (Holds up beads) Or reading some book. Or talking with you about Kṛṣṇa. So we are always connected with Kṛṣṇa, or God. In all our activities... The whole house, you'll see, they are engaged in some sort of work which has connection with Kṛṣṇa. There is no other work. So nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. Anything attached with God, that is also godly.

Father Tanner: You say...

Mrs. Wells: I can see what Father Tanner means about the spiritual man on the outside not necessarily being pure on the inside.

Prabhupāda: No, he's not spiritual man. He's a hypocrite. He must be inside and outside correct. If one is outside correct, inside wrong, he's not spiritual man. We don't accept him.

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Lord Brockway: Not necessarily to the king. It's a recognition of some service to society, but it doesn't mean any close association with the monarch.

Prabhupāda: Oh, I see. But knight means the associates of the monarch, is it not the meaning?

Śyāmasundara: No. It's more like an award, I think, given to someone who has done service.

Prabhupāda: No, that's all right. This is recognition. But this "knight," this very word, means "associates of the monarch?" Is that...? No.

Lord Brockway: I don't think so. It may have done in its original form...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Lord Brockway: ...when the number of knights were much less than they are today.

Prabhupāda: I see.

Lord Brockway: But there'll be too many today to be associates.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Now it has come to another platform. So anyway, the knights, they are respectable gentlemen of the society, leading men of the society. So our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for enlightening people to the right standard of understanding the goal of life. Because after this life, after this body is annihilated, we do not know what kind of body we are getting next. We must prepare. Just like you are elevated to the position of lordship. So you had to prepare yourself. Not that this lordship is offered to anyone and everyone. One who is qualified, he is offered this position. Similarly, we should know how we are becoming qualified for the next life. But that education is lacking. There is no such education. In the university or anywhere, nobody thinks, "What we are going to become next life?" But we should be prepared. If, after becoming Prime Minister in this life, or President, like Mr. Nixon, and again, by his activities, he's going to be another animal, oh, that is not very successful proposal. But there is such chance. Because after death, after giving up this body, we are completely under the grip of material nature.

Room Conversation with Officer Harry Edwards, the Village Policeman -- August 30, 1973, Bhaktivedanta Manor, London:

Prabhupāda: Well, that is...

Revatīnandana: These kind of things, we want to know. See.

Harry: Do you agree with that, Prabhupāda? Isn't it? Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda? Do you agree with that, though, that it was not necessary to, say chant continually out in a doctor's surgery or...?

Prabhupāda: No.

Harry: No. I don't think so. I mean I wouldn't go around in the road holding up my book which tells me about the law. You know what I mean. I would read my law inside my office if I'm not certain of it. Okay. These are the thing... But there again, if you want to, well, you do it...

Revatīnandana: No. What he means is that if, whenever he hears of some incident, like the doctor's surgery, should he tell us or not? And I'm saying he should tell us so we'll know. And if it's nothing important, we can correct it easily.

Prabhupāda: No, we should generally know that we may take pleasure chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa loudly. Others may not.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Devotees: Rich birth, to be born in a rich family.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. But there is facility. Because people are harassed for getting food and shelter. Everyone is working so hard where to get nice food, where to get nice shelter. Rich man means he has already got. So if he's sane, if he's good, has got good association, direction, then he can think, that "I have no anxiety for my food, shelter and other necessities of life. So how I shall utilize my time?" And if he gets good guru, then he can utilize very nicely, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is a chance. He hasn't got to work. Because people are very much perplexed how to get shelter, how to get food. But he has got the chance. He hasn't got to endeavor for food and shelter and other necessities of the body. Ample he has got. He can save time for spiritual advancement. That is an advantage. It is not necessary. It is almost disadvantage. But actually it is advantage. Unfortunately, those who are born in rich family, they take advantage of it that "I have got so much money, let me enjoy sense gratification." Māyā dictates, "Oh, you have got so much money. Utilize for wine-woman." That's all.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Darwin's nonsense is there. He is changing the apartment. Apartment is becoming a different apartment. That is not a fact. Just try to understand. This room cannot develop into another room. But I, the resident of this room, I can go from this apartment to another apartment. Or I can create another apartment. This is evolution.

Dr. Hauser: And I can create a bigger apartment.

Prabhupāda: Yes, bigger, smaller, as I like. Not necessarily bigger. That is also another nonsense.

Dr. Hauser: And my intelligence might grow also.

Prabhupāda: Intelligence, maybe. But there must be means. You may be very intelligent, but if you have no means to erect another nice apartment, how it will?

Dr. Hauser: Trial and error.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Dr. Hauser: Trial and error.

Prabhupāda: Just like you have got the desire to purchase another dress, garment, nicer, but if you have no money, then how you can purchase? You have to purchase something inferior. So these different species of life is the evolution of the living soul according to his karma. That is Vedic instruction. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). So I am a living entity. If I want to go to better condition of life, then I'll have to pay for it. Better condition is there already. Not this inferior condition changes into that better condition. That is another thing. Just like the condition in moon planet is different from the condition of this earthly planet. That is already there. You have to transfer yourself from this planet to that planet. So that point is missing in Darwin's theory. He says that body is evolving. That is nonsense. The body is evolving, then why the monkey body is not producing a human body at the present moment? Where is the evidence? The monkeys are already there. Where is the evidence in the zoo that a monkey has produced a human being? Do you think it is all right?

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Śyāmasundara: "...children..."

Prabhupāda: ...all right. The family will live on not forever. They'll live also, say, for few days. Just we go sometimes in... Just like in England, the castles are there, very old castle, thousand years, two thousand... Even this Westminster Abbey and palace, but which king has lived for there permanently? And now, if you know more, if the king has, by his work, become something else. Not necessarily he'll become a king in that house. He may become a dog there. This science they do not know. And they are proud of their education, culture. Suppose we are constructing the Vṛndāvana temple or Bombay temple. It is also certain we shall not live, but our attempt to construct that temple will be recorded in Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. "Because he has spent his energy for My service." That will be our gain. Others, they, whatever they are working... Ko vārtha āpto 'bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ. Find out this verse. Ko vā. Ko vārtha āpto 'bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ. This is in Bhāgavata.

Devotee: Bhāgavata.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- December 4, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Ahhh!

Devotee: ...bhakta-gaṇe.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Impersonalist boys... (break) ...who are... (break) Eh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: What is life cannot be proved by experiments. So it is not necessary to talk about life now.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Grapes are sour. (devotees laugh) The jackal's philosophy. The jackal came in the orchard of grapes and tried to take some grapes. He jumped many times, and when he failed, "Oh, there is no necessity, it is sour." It is jackal's philosophy. Sly fox.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They say that ultimately there may be no difference...

Prabhupāda: It is Māyāvāda, Māyāvāda. Māyāvāda says brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. This world is false. (break) ...so what... (break) ...prepared it, so he is the cause of this construction of the bench. How can you say there is no cause?

Hṛdayānanda: Then they would say...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Hṛdayānanda: They would say, "If everything has a cause..."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Latin Professor -- December 9, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: So similarly, when one is God conscious, if he kills animal, that means he has no sense of God consciousness. He has no sense of God. That is the test. So our propaganda is that you make people God conscious. Then all good qualities will come. Instead of trying to qualify man in so many ways—"You don't become thief, you don't become murderer, you don't become this, don't become this, don't become intoxicant"—simply by becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, he becomes everything, by one stroke. That is our propaganda, that if one becomes God conscious, then he is becoming perfect, not necessarily, materially and spiritually, both. And that is happening practically. Now these boys, these girls, they are Europeans, Americans. They were accustomed to so many bad habits and according to our standard, and now they have given up. They have no illicit sex, no gambling, no meat-eating, no intoxication, even up to smoking or drinking tea. Yes. We don't allow our students... Not allow. They become accustomed. Once I say, "Don't do this," they agree. They agree immediately. Intoxication. There were many students, they were habituated to this nowadays intoxican... Immediately gave up. And your government is making so much propaganda to give up this intoxication. They are failure. So a little God consciousness helps so much. And what to speak of when one is perfectly God conscious? Then he's perfect man. Therefore a devotee is not of this material world. He's in the spiritual world. He's above this material world. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26).
Morning Walk -- December 21, 1973, Los Angeles:

Guest (1) (Indian man): But there is one more thing. I don't think God could be so partial that He would...

Prabhupāda: No, God cannot be partial.

Guest (1): ...that he would look only to the poor. But as there is a saying in Hindi that (Hindi) So they say, "When a man is poor, and he is miserable, then he remembers more God."

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Not necessarily. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛtino 'rjuna, ārto arthārthī (BG 7.16). When one is distressed he remembers God, if he is pious. If he is not pious...

Guest (1): Then he won't remember. Then he will curse him. Then he will curse.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): That is correct. But even a pious man in prosperity, he doesn't think of God so much.

Prabhupāda: If he is pious, then in his distress, he will remember God.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Let them talk all nonsense. We say in Bengali, pāgale ki nā bole, chāgale ki nā khāya. The goat can eat everything, and a madman can speak anything. (laughter) Pāgale ki nā khāya..., pāgale ki nā bole, chāgale ki nā khāya.

Prajāpati: Are the living entities on the comet, are they very demoniac or intelligent or...?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily demoniac. Two classes of men are always there: intelligent and demon. (break)

Karandhara: ...comet. They just discovered it one or two years ago. They said that if it ever passed by the earth before, it was the time of the dinosaurs.

Prabhupāda: Dinosaur?

Karandhara: Yes. Over fifty thousand years ago.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) He cannot say what happened yesterday, and he's speaking fifty thousand years. Is there a statement in any śāstra or his own statement?

Karandhara: No, that's by mathematical calculation of the trajectory and speed.

Prabhupāda: Oh, mathematics...

Karandhara: It's going at a certain speed in a certain orbit. So they calculate that it would complete that orbit once every fifty to two hundred thousand years.

Prabhupāda: That is there in astrology, astronomy. That is not discovery.

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The number of śūdras are always bigger. Just like in University education. The, the number of graduates and post-graduates, they're less. Others are big, number bigger.

Bhagavān: The whole idea is that at the end of everyone's life, everyone is required to leave home, perform devotional activities, but not necessarily take sannyāsa.

Prabhupāda: Devotional activities, either he leaves from home or not leaves, that doesn't matter. It must continue from the very beginning. For the management of affairs, we require to divide. Because there are different classes of brain, so those who have very intellectual brain, they should become brāhmaṇas. Those who are fit for management and protection, they should be trained as kṣatriya. And those who are fit for producing food, taking care of the cows, they should be trained as vaiśya. And the balance, they're all śūdras. This is the division. You... Everywhere you'll find this division, natural. One class of men, very intelligent. One class of men, very strong, good brain for management, administration. (aside) Jaya. One class of men, fit for tilling the ground, field, and produce food, take care of the cows. And the balance, śūdra. That's all. So in our society, this division should be there. The most intelligent class of men, they should be engaged in preaching, reading books and instructing, taking care of Deity worship, temple, and another class should be strong managers, that things are going on nicely. Everyone is engaged, not that eating and sleeping. Everyone must be engaged, employed. So, so if one is very much adapted for eating and sleeping, he should be engaged with plows. You see. He must be activity. Otherwise, there must be dysentery, eating and sleeping. He cannot digest. Yes. So in this way, our society should be managed. Not that "Give me second initiation, a sacred thread." And after getting it, business finished: "Now I'm liberated. Let me eat and sleep." This should be stopped. We have got fifty bighās of land, and I have calculated in Māyāpur, setting aside twenty bighās for the temple and grazing ground for the cows, thirty bighās of land. The production should be three hundred mounds of grains. And three hundred mounds of grain, I have calculated. How much you can...?

Bhagavān: Fifteen hundred.

Morning Walk 'Varnasrama College' -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no. Varṇāśrama college especially meant for the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya. Those who are not fit for education, they are śūdras. That's all. Or those who are reluctant to take education-śūdra means. That's all. They should assist the higher class.

Hṛdayānanda: Would the brāhmaṇas learn Sanskrit?

Prabhupāda: Eh? Not necessarily.

Hṛdayānanda: Not necessarily. Just more philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Just like I am translating all the books, similarly, any book of knowledge can be translated into different languages. Not that one has to learn Sanskrit. Why?

Hṛdayānanda: Not necessary. So in this varṇāśrama college there would be two divisions, varṇa and āśr... Learning a materia...

Prabhupāda: First of all varṇa. And āśrama, then, when the varṇa is perfectly in order, then āśrama. Āśrama is specially meant for spiritual advancement, and varṇa is general division. It must be there in the human society, or they're on the animals. If varṇa is not there, then this is a society of animal. And when the varṇa is working perfectly, then we give them āśrama. Varṇāśrama. That is later on.

Room Conversation -- March 20, 1974, Bombay:

Guest: No, but what I say, they may be a strong, but I say I am stronger than them.

Prabhupāda: No, that they will understand that because you are one of them and this is the...

Guest: No, no. I...

Prabhupāda: ...that your idea means our idea, carried.

Guest: Not necessarily. (break)

Prabhupāda: Officially it is not. Officially it is not. But being the family member, this is the family opinion.

Guest: Certainly, it's my honest opinion.

Prabhupāda: But the thing is I want to do something solid.

Guest: No, but what I say is my...

Prabhupāda: Even if you write, they'll not take care very much.

Guest: No, but, uh, I am hopeful.

Prabhupāda: You are hopeful, but I am thinking in otherwise, that...

Guest: Unless they have got some...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guest: From Delhi.

Morning Walk -- March 29, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yajñas for satisfaction of Viṣṇu.

Indian man (3): And that, that is also... Viṣṇu-yajña is there, there is no sacrifice of animals.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, you do not know, there is.

Indian man (4): Yajña is not necessary at all.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man (4): Yajña is only for getting, to gain certain aims.

Prabhupāda: In the Bhāgavatam you'll find the dākṣa-yajña, dākṣa-yajña. Dākṣa-yajña. There was a goat, and that goat was cut and it was added to the head of Dakṣa Mahārāja.

Indian man (4): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is described in the Bhāgavatam.

Indian man (4): Yajñas are only done for certain aims actually, and are not required at all.

Prabhupāda: Our philosophy is yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ (SB 11.5.32). That is our...

Indian man (4): The saṅkīrtana be our yajña.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) It is stated in the śāstra, yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyaiḥ. Kalau, in this age...

Indian man (3): Why discuss these things for others? We are not meat-eaters, nor we do... (laughs)

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1974, Bombay:

Indian man (1): That doesn't need any pūjā then. Just take His śaraṇa and everything will be okay?

Prabhupāda: No. That śaraṇa means... That includes... That is bhakti.

Indian man (1): Even a tulasī dala and a little water is not necessary?

Prabhupāda: No necessary, necessary, necessary because mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. That is the path of bhakti. It is also confirmed, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55).

Indian man (1): Bhakti is in the mind, in the heart.

Prabhupāda: No, not in the mind. No, no. Bhakti is in the heart, but there must be... Just like if you have got love for me in the heart, it must be demonstrated. Just like a husband and wife. The wife is says, "Now we are married and I have got love for you. Let me remain here. You go to your home." The bridegroom comes, "Now we are married and I love you, you love me. You go home, I remain here." Is that very good proposal?

Indian man (1): No, but this...

Prabhupāda: This is nonsense. (laughing) "I have got bhakti, but I don't do anything for You. You go home." So that is not bhakti. Bhakti must be exhibited by activity. That is the definition of bhakti. Śravaṇam kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam (SB 7.5.23). So these are the nine different ways of expressing bhakti. First thing is śravaṇam. Śravaṇam. Śravaṇam kīrtanaṁ, chanting and hearing. Of whom? Of Viṣṇu. Śravaṇam kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. Not of any other one. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they say that "We can chant anyone's name, either I chant of any demigod's name or any name."

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 1, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: The celebration is you have to fast day and night and four times offer worship to the Lord Śiva.

Dr. Patel: And drink bhang also.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is not recommended. But they can do... They do all now...

Bhāgavata: So we should observe this festival, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Bhāgavata: Not necessary.

Prabhupāda: Go on. (break) ...Tirupati. These rascals are getting money and investing for television.

Indian man (2): Industry.

Prabhupāda: You see? They should have given to us for distributing Kṛṣṇa consciousness all..., but these rascals will not do that.

Indian man (3): "In the Vedic scriptures, therefore, one is recommended to give charity to a brāhmaṇa."

Prabhupāda: Because they are not brāhmaṇa. All śūdras, Communist.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Anyone who is living in this material world is a demon. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Where is your mother?

Indian Lady: She is at home.

Bhāgavata: But only certain demons get to fight with Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is special demon.

Bhāgavata: So those special demons, are they are all like Jaya and Vijaya, are they all in that position?

Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily.

Bhāgavata: But to get to fight with Kṛṣṇa, they must have performed many pious activities.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhāgavata: Like Kāliya. So then if they have performed so many pious activities, then obviously they have done something very mischievous in order to take this demon's body? There is some falldown?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Without some mischievous activities... (end)

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1974, Rome:

Yogeśvara: But that's not possible for the mass of people.

Prabhupāda: No, why not possible? We have got so many, just like Śukadeva Gosvāmī. He remained completely brahmacārī, although naked he is. He is. He doesn't require, and neither he is agitated. Just like when he was passing, the girls were taking bath. They did not take care. They knew that he is not at all affected by any woman. And when his father was going, they covered. So father inquired, Vyāsadeva, a personality like Vyāsadeva, said, "Why you covered? I am old man, and my young son he was passing naked." They said that "He is paramahaṁsa. He has no agitation of the mind. But you are gṛhastha. You live with woman. You have got distinction, man and woman." So this is civilization. What is the use of sex life? It is simply entanglement. Therefore, at the last stage, one is supposed to become sannyāsī. What is sannyāsī? Vānaprastha, sannyāsī, brahmacārī—no sex life. Out of the four different status of life, the brahmacārī has no sex life, the vānaprastha has no sex life, the sannyāsī has no sex life. Only the gṛhastha. That means it is prohibitory. It is allowed—it is simply concession to the person who cannot remain without sex life. It is simply a concession. Otherwise, according to Vedic civilization, there is no need of sex life. Because it is entanglement, simply entanglement. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham (SB 7.9.45). The example has been given. There is itching between the two hands. That's all. That means the itching disease is increased. This has been the description of sex life. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. Although behind the sex life there are so many troubles, but still the rascals do not cease. Either illicit sex or legal sex... Legal sex you beget children. There are so many troubles. You have to raise them nicely, you have to give them education, you must be situated nicely. That is the duty of father. Otherwise, he would go on, begetting like cats and dogs, no responsibility. Just like some of our students, immediately married and again, "Give me sannyāsa." What is this? Irresponsible, that's all. Irresponsibility. So these things are not required at all. These things are not required. Bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. After marrying they see it is very great responsibility. "Now let me take sannyāsa." That's all. Why you marry? Because he finds that after marriage there are so many difficulties. So irresponsible man. So after there is difficulties; that's a fact. So why should you go to the difficulty? Therefore the conclusion is the married life is not required. But if you cannot tolerate, all right, get this concession, live very gentlemanly. This is marriage. Otherwise for higher sense, higher elevation... High elevation, of course, one who is actually on the higher elevation, he is married or not married, it doesn't matter. But on the whole, the sex life is not necessary.

Yogeśvara: So these Italian women are complaining now that their husbands are abusing them, so why can they not get divorced?

Prabhupāda: Why do you marry?

Yogeśvara: Obviously, they wanted sex in the beginning, but they didn't know it was going to be so much trouble.

Prabhupāda: That is our point. Then why do you marry? Just begin Kṛṣṇa conscious, and you will find, without sex, you will be happy.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: No, there is no question of extended. You keep yourself in a limited solution. And then, when it is appreciated it will be automatically extended. You don't touch the extended. You become ideal civilized man. Others will follow.

Yogeśvara: Well, for example, ultimately, we want to live locally. These cities are not necessary.

Prabhupāda: No, you make the best use of a bad bargain. We shall depend more... Just like in New Vrindaban. They are coming to the city for preaching. So not absolutely we can abstain immediately because we have been dependent so long, many, many lives. You cannot. But the ideal should be introduced gradually. And make it perfect more and more and more and more. But there is possibility. Possibility if you live locally and make your arrangement, you get your foods... The real necessity is, bodily necessity is, eating, sleeping, mating and defending. This is necessity. So if you can eat locally, you can sleep locally, you can have your sex life also locally and you can defend locally, then what is the wrong? These are the necessities. We are not stopping this. We are not stopping, "No more sex life." That is nonsense, another nonsense. You must have. Marry. That's all. So you can marry locally and live. Where is the difficulty? Defend. If somebody comes to attack, there must be men to defend. And eating and sleeping. Where is your difficulty? Manage locally, as far as possible. After all, these are the necessities of body. So it can be solved locally. Is it impossible? To solve the bodily necessities? What do you think? Is it impossible?

Satsvarūpa: No, it's very simple.

Room Conversation with Mr. C. Hennis of the International Labor Organization of the U.N. -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that is my request to you.

C. Hennis: That's UNESCO. That I can't answer upon very fully. But I would suggest that they are, in that way UNESCO, United Nations through UNESCO, is very active in promoting culture and in stimulating philosophical thought. We are, on our side are more concerned with the place of the worker in society, and our organization is conceived along a peculiar model which we call the tripartite system. The members of our organization are states, not governments, but states, and each state is represented in our conference by two government delegates, one delegate of the employers and one delegate of the workers. And so the decisions that are reached, the same pattern goes down through the other organs of the organization. But the decisions that are reached in the International Labor Organization are thus not decisions which are only those of the government or the governing classes. They are decisions which represent a very broad consensus of opinions between both the employers and the workers as well as governments. And to that extent we do hope to find resolutions that have a very wide basis of ratification. After they are agreed upon by these three different elements of society represented in our International Labor Conference and in the other organs of the International Labor Organization, we endeavor to get the decisions ratified by national governments. Nevertheless the people who are here go back to their countries and try and get the decisions ratified so that a measure of uniformity in social justice and in the treatment of labor and protection of labor and in social security and in occupational safety and health and of all these things which are bound up with work and also payments to professional workers such as architects, nurses, doctors, people who work on a quite independent basis without being employed. It's not necessarily employees. Veterinarians and so on. The conditions of employment...

Prabhupāda: According to Vedic conception, the higher class of men, first-class, second class, third class, they are never to be employed. They remain free. Only the fourth class men, they are employed.

Room Conversation with Mr. C. Hennis of the International Labor Organization of the U.N. -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Yogeśvara: Perhaps to make it clear for you, one of the natural results of this system is that a man that might be considered today impoverished, as you were mentioning for example some of the problems, a poor man, by our standards, is not necessarily poor if he is Kṛṣṇa conscious. For example, in the Vedic culture, we are learning that a man is considered to be wealthy if he simply has a small patch of land and a cow and God consciousness. Because his God consciousness will lead him to be satisfied by growing his own foods, taking milk from the cow. This is wealth, according to Vedic standards.

Prabhupāda: Therefore cow is specially recommended, go-rakṣya, because very important animal to the society. If those who are meat-eaters, they can eat the hogs and dogs, they can eat. The Vedic injunction is not prohibiting them. If you actually... Actually, a human being does not require to eat meat. He has got many other substitutes. But still, if he wants to eat, let him eat the less important animals. Just like dog, hog. From the social point of view it has no utility. But why killing cows? It is delivering such a nice nutritious food, milk. Not only milk. According to Vedic system, the cow is so important, even the urine, even the stool, of cow is important.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Just like we have in our country, "Legislative Assembly".

Yogeśvara: (French)

M. Mesman: (French)

Yogeśvara: Yes, like that. (French)

Prabhupāda: But they're not necessarily lawyers.

M. Mesman: (French)

Prabhupāda: We are also lawyer. Not in the material sense. But we know what is the law of God. (French)

Yogeśvara: He asks, "What are our activities in France?"

Prabhupāda: The same thing: to induce people to become lawful to the laws of God. (French)

Pṛthu-putra: He asks what are we doing for that?

Nitāi: What ways are we doing that?

Pṛthu-putra: In which way, what way, how?

Prabhupāda: This, we are chanting the holy name of Lord so that people may hear and their hearts be cleansed to understand what is God.

Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris -- June 11, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: No. This is in Sanskrit language, but we translate into different languages.

M. Mesman: English?

Prabhupāda: English, French, German, Spanish, and other languages. (French)

Pṛthu-putra: He asks if we have to be disciple, do we have to know Sanskrit or to learn Sanskrit.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. Because it is published in other languages. (French)

Pṛthu-putra: He asks how many disciples there is in France?

Bhagavān: Tell him there's hundred devotees, but there's hundreds who come to the temple.

Prabhupāda: Dedicated devotee, hundred. (French)

Yogeśvara: If one is a full-time disciple...

Prabhupāda: He's dedicated disciple.

Yogeśvara: Does that mean he must give up his family, and come and live here?

Prabhupāda: No, he can live with his family. It is to take up the cause, not to give up the family. We don't believe in giving up. We believe in engaging them properly. That is our philosophy.

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

Prabhupāda: No, it is characteristic. Definition means you mention the characteristic. That is definition. Definition, you mention the characteristic. So that can be mentioned directly, or if it is not perceivable, then you can define in opposite way. Just like we have got experience: everything in the material world, it is beginning. There is a beginning. Anything of this—your body, my body, everything—it has got a beginning, and it has got an end. So it is stated, na jāyate na mriyate vā: "It has no beginning, no end." And nityaḥ, eternal, śāśvataḥ, very old, purāṇaḥ. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "It is not destroyed, annihilated, after the destruction of the body." So if we accept this definition, then we can understand the soul is eternal. Our characteristic, if we accept these characteristics, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), after the destruction of body the soul is never destroyed, then you can understand the soul is eternal. And it is clearly stated, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). "After the destruction of the body, it is not destroyed." So, it means it takes another body. (French)

Yogeśvara: He says that's not necessarily the logical conclusion. He says he's familiar with that theory, but it's more a question of faith. He says it's not actually a logical conclusion that if the soul leaves this body it must take another one. (French)

Prabhupāda: What does he mean by logic?

Yogeśvara: He says that means that it's not something that's very evident to me.

Prabhupāda: It may not be evident to him, but why not others?

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: There is no "all religion." There is only one religion. One who deviates, he creates another religion. Religion means there is God and we should be obedient to God. This is religion.

Madame Devi: (French)

Jyotirmayī: She says, "Therefore is not necessary to go by one's special path?"

Prabhupāda: No, there is no special path. There is only one path, that "God is there, God is great, and we are all subordinate to God." That's all. No, if you... They accept this?

American Man: I think that each man finds his own way, and that some people, because of the blood they have and because of who they have been before, can go...

Prabhupāda: No, no, do you accept this principle, that "God is great, and we are all subordinate to Him"?

American Man: My principle is the light, that there is only the light. If some people wish to call it God, they can call it God.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: May I say that way, that you say, if you, for instance, or I want to go out of this body, it doesn't mean that I will have to kill my body, but to realize that my spirit is independent from my body.

Prabhupāda: No, no. There is no question of killing. You be killed or not killed, you have to go out of this body and accept another body. That is nature's law. That you cannot avoid. It is not necessarily that first of all you have to be killed. No.

Professor Durckheim: No. Certainly not. But I have tried to become independent from my body.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can become. (German)

Lady: Have you got some points in common with the Christians?

Professor Durckheim: Lady says that there are some common points with the Christians who also certainly want to become independent from this body which wants material life only.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It doesn't matter whether it is Christianity or Hinduism or Muslim or... Knowledge is knowledge. Wherever knowledge is available, you must pick up. So knowledge... Now let us explain, that knowledge has no color. Knowledge is knowledge. It doesn't matter whether Christianism or Hinduism or Mohammedan. Now, this is a knowledge, that every living entity is imprisoned within this body. This knowledge is equally good for Hindus, Muslim, Christian or everyone. There is no question of Christianism or Hinduism. The soul is imprisoned within this body, and the problem is birth, death, old age and disease on account of this body. But we want to live eternally, we want full knowledge; we want full blissfulness. To attain that goal of life, we must get out of this body. This is the process.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: No, I saw in Amsterdam—simply full of hippies, lying down on the street, lying down in the park, no food, no shelter. It is going on.

Guest (2): The hippies are not lying in the park because they lack food.

Prabhupāda: They must be wanting something. They are in need of something.

Guest (2): But not necessarily food.

Prabhupāda: One body is in need of food; another body is in need of something else. They're needy, everyone, needy. That you have to accept. I have seen in Los Angeles. I was walking in the Beverly Hills quarter. One hippie boy is coming from a very nice house. Beverly Hills, that quarter, is resided by all rich class. And he has got very nice car, but he's hippie. Why? His father is very rich man. He has got nice car. He might be very educated. Then why he is hippie? What is the answer?

Hanumān: He's frustrated.

Interview -- March 5, 1975, New York:

Female Reporter: Swami, I saw a television program about your movement once, and they said that the men make the decisions and the women follow. Is that true?

Prabhupāda: I do not follow.

Śrutakīrti: She hears that the men make the decisions and that the women follow these decisions.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. We follow the decision of Kṛṣṇa, men and women both. We follow the decision of Kṛṣṇa. That is applicable both men and women.

Reporter: Are men superior in your movement, though?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Reporter: Are men regarded as superior to women?

Prabhupāda: Yes, naturally. Naturally, woman requires protection by the man. In the childhood she is protected by the father, and youth time she is protected by the husband, and old age she is protected by elderly sons. That is natural.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:
Prabhupāda: If you simply speculate, it will never help you. You have to receive the favor of the Supreme Lord by your enthusiasm. Then it will be successful. Simply theorizing, speculation will not... Therefore it is said ciraṁ vicinvan. You can go on speculating for millions and millions of years. It will never be successful. Ciram. Ciram means perpetual. That will not help. This is the process, ādau śraddhā. By śraddhā, "Oh, here is God consciousness, very nice. Let us come and see what they are doing." This is called śraddhā, faith, little faith. Then in order to increase that faith you have to associate with the persons who are executing devotional service. That is called sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83). The devotees are called sādhu. Therefore we are opening centers, why? To give chance people to make association with the devotees. Sādhu-saṅga. And then sādhu-saṅga, after sādhu-saṅga one who has properly made sādhu-saṅga, the next stage is bhajana-kriyā: how they are executing devotional service. Then anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Then this anartha. Anartha means unwanted things. Just like illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication, these are unwanted things. It is not necessary. People have learned them by bad association. When one has got his wife, why he should indulge in illicit sex? This is sinful. When we have got so many things to eat, why shall I go to kill an animal, eat it? So these are anartha. Anartha means "without any meaning." So these things become vanquished. If one is actually engaged in devotional service, the first symptom will be that he is not interested in things which are unwanted, artificial. These are the stages. Then niṣṭhā. Niṣṭhā means firm conviction. Then ruciḥ, taste. Then āsaktiḥ, attachment. Then bhāva, and then prema. So as a student is serious, he gets promotion to next higher class, higher class, higher class, higher class, gradually to the M.A. class. That is natural. But if in the beginning he is not serious, no enthusiasm, then what is the reason that he will be promoted to the higher section? That is not possible.
Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Other things, that is anartha. If you are really enthusiastic, these anarthas will be vanquished automatically. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59). They are all Europeans, Americans, they are from the childhood accustomed to meat-eating. How they have given up? Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate: they have got better things to eat, therefore they have given up meat-eating. So the rules and regulation are there; if we follow them strictly, then everything one after another will come, the stages.

Indian man: Then it is not necessary that one should join the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement for that type of helping.

Prabhupāda: You cannot understand. I have said sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83).

Indian man: That's all.

Prabhupāda: That is... Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement should be associated; otherwise how you can understand Kṛṣṇa?

Indian man: But this is not the only association where one can go in for...

Prabhupāda: This is the only association for understanding Kṛṣṇa throughout the whole world.

Indian man: But can you prove that?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Find out another association like this.

Room Conversation with Yoga Student -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, it's not a religion.

Prabhupāda: No, if you want to study something, and suppose you are sometimes from India, the same subject he's going to study in foreign country, farther enlightenment, it is also not necessary that to study a subject matter more and more, we have to remain in the same jurisdiction. If I am actually anxious to know more and more, it doesn't matter whether I get the knowledge from Mohammedan or Hindu or Christian, it doesn't matter. Knowledge is knowledge. When a student goes from one country to another to get farther enlightenment on a subject matter, he does not think that "I'll have to learn it from here, from my university." For knowledge, progress of knowledge, you can go to any university. Because knowledge must be scientific. It is not restricted within the jurisdiction of a particular university. So, sun we are seeing, everyone, the sun, getting heat and light but if anyone is interested (to) know how the heat is coming, how the light is coming, what is the situation of the sun globe, whether there are living entities or not. They're also subject matter. So if you can get enlightenment of the sun, we should not restrict ourselves that we have to study with this jurisdiction of my university, or my country, or my society. If the knowledge is there, we should be prepared to go forward. Mm.

Conversation with the GBC -- March 27, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Better directly.

Atreya Ṛṣi: No "His books"?

Prabhupāda: No.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Not necessary.

Prabhupāda: Because I may give direction according to the time.

Atreya Ṛṣi: "Or" means both.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Atreya Ṛṣi: "Or" can mean... All right. "Or through his commissioners..."(?)

Prabhupāda: Direct, direct instruction is important. Just like Kṛṣṇa. In the books He has given many instructions, but then He says, sarva-dharmān parityaja. If one says that "You gave me instruction before like this. How can I give up this?" so that is not important. The direct instruction is important.

Conversation with the GBC -- March 27, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Haṁsadūta: So again he's repeating it.

Prabhupāda: Instruction, follow that.

Atreya Ṛṣi: So then it's not necessary about this "only" sort part of...(?)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Madhudviṣa: What if there is no direct instruction?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I don't think that part is anymore important.

Atreya Ṛṣi: "I further state that I am holding monies and movable and immovable..."

Prabhupāda: No, why he's...? He's not holding money, GBC.

Atreya Ṛṣi: So this I'll take out.

Prabhupāda: No, GBC, practically does not hold any money.

Room Conversation with Carol Cameron -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: You have no idea of God.

Carol: No. I don't think...

Prabhupāda: He must be person. As soon as you say "He knows everything," "He creates," and so many other things, then these are all personal. You say "He." "He." These are all personal.

Carol: This in only our idea of God though, not necessarily...

Prabhupāda: That means you have no clear idea of God. You have vague idea. So you have to learn what is God.

Carol: You think you can know the nature of God?

Amogha: She says do you think you can know the nature of God?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can know also.

Carol: In an intellectual way?

Prabhupāda: You can know also.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: The knowledge should be acquired from the beginning of life, from childhood. But if by circumstances I could not get this knowledge from childhood, then we should begin immediately. Because unless we get this knowledge, our life remains imperfect. We remain animal. The animal does not know this. And after evolutionary process, coming to the human form of body, if we keep ourself in the darkness of animal life, then our this opportunity is lost. This is the first problem. Unfortunately, the modern education is... Leaders, they have no education, and they are thinking just like animal that "I am this body." Therefore you are thinking you are Australian, I am thinking I am Indian, he is thinking American, he..., only on this bodily concept of life. But we are not this body. We are different from this body. So unless we understand this point, our aim of life, our standard of civilization, is incorrect.

Justin Murphy: I suppose it's very easy to understand and to credit that so many people will be thinking maybe this way because that's part of the basis of being selfish, and, after all, a lot of people, particularly, I would imagine, a lot of Australians, are basically selfish. They are interested far more in what they can get and do for themselves not necessarily by working hard, by striving or by reading or by thinking or by studying. They, they... The old saying...

Prabhupāda: The human life is meant for acquiring knowledge, real knowledge.

Room Conversation with Ganesa dasa's Mother and Sister -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Therefore God gives him chance, "All right, you enjoy as you like, and make your life risky. What can I do?"

Mother: But people know when they're doing evil, don't they?

Prabhupāda: Just like you have got children. You say, according to your knowledge, every children, "My dear children, you do." But it is not necessarily that they will abide by your order. Similarly, God gives the instruction that "You give up all this. You simply surrender to Me. I shall take charge you." But he does not do that. He wants to live independently. Therefore he is suffering.

Mother: But there's so much evil in the world.

Prabhupāda: Avil?

Gaṇeśa: Evil.

Mother: Evil.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is evil. You don't try to carry out the orders of God, this is evil.

Room Conversation with Alcohol and Drug Hospital People -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Guest (4): I was just wondering, um, do you believe in...

Prabhupāda: Who is there independently existing without having a father? What is that science?

Guest (2): It's not necessarily in the science itself...

Prabhupāda: No, no, this is a sign, that if there is a man, he must have a father. This is science. So what is your opinion about this science?

Guest (1): I see it as a straight, deductive logic. If there is a...

Prabhupāda: ...son, there must be father. That is science.

Guest (1): Don't you think this kind of reasoning is a deductive logic rather than inductive?

Prabhupāda: No, what is the reasoning yours, that you deny father?

Guest (3): The father must have a father too, mustn't he?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Similarly, there must be supreme father.

Guest (3): Well, who is the supreme father's father?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is enquiry, that you have got your father, your father has got father, he has got his father, he has got... Who is the supreme father? He is God.

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: If... Suppose your son, you have got this body, so your father must have body.

Jesuit: Yes, true.

Prabhupāda: Similarly if the son of God has body, the God must have body.

Guest: Not necessarily.

Prabhupāda: Why? Can you show any example, a son is born from without body?

Jesuit: That is on a very human level which...

Prabhupāda: Anyway that your experience is on the human field, you have to give some example that "Here is no body but the sun has body." Show me the example.

Jesuit: You can have a man who has a thing in what we would call super-eminence and he has it on a higher form...

Prabhupāda: Higher form maybe, but there is form.

Jesuit: You take a musician like Beethoven, a musician...

Prabhupāda: We also say that the God has got form but not form like this.

Jesuit: No, he hasn't got form in Aristotle's idea of the word form either, his higher wathic(?) theory of matter and form. In a sense, form there means spirit and so...

Prabhupāda: Yes, spiritual form.

Morning Walk -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Devotee (2): Is it necessary to see the Deity regularly in order to remain strong?

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything necessary as we have prescribed. If you think that it is not necessary, unnecessary, then you under the māyā. Why do you take that, "Is it necessary?" That means you are not strong enough. You cannot follow; therefore you say, "Is it necessary?" You are considering. That means you are becoming prey to māyā. As soon as you ask this, that means you have already fallen a victim of māyā.

Devotee (1): Kṛṣṇa says "without doubting."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: So how to get those people who are immersed in māyā to become serious? When we go out and we preach our saṅkīrtana movement, how to get...

Prabhupāda: They will become gradually. Not all of a sudden. They are purchasing one book. They will read, and gradually they will be elevated. You go to school, but all of a sudden, you cannot say that "I am M.A." You have to wait. That is called dhairya, utsāhād dhairyāt. One should be very enthusiastic, at the same time, patient. If you think that "I am very enthusiastic; still, I am not getting the result," be patient. Niścayāt. Be sure the result will come, but be patient. These are the ways. Utsāhād dhairyāt niścayāt tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt. You have to follow the regulative principles. Sato vṛtteḥ. You should be honest. You are not following, and still, you say "I am devotee." That means you are not honest. Sato vṛtteḥ sādhu-saṅge, and in the association of devotees. Ṣaḍbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati. By following these six principles, you advance. This is the Rūpa Gosvāmī's instruction.

Morning Walk -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Devotee (1):. Just like Arjuna on the battlefield, you simply had to try for Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Arjuna said, kariṣye vacanaṁ tava: (BG 18.73) "Yes, I shall carry out Your order, nothing else. Yes, You are asking me to fight. I will fight. That's all."

Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda, if one goes to the temple, if one attends the temple regularly and inquires from the devotees about the devotional principles, and because of some reason, it's not necessarily... it's not convenient for him to live in the temple at that time, and he is living with people...

Prabhupāda: No, no, you live in temple or without temple, if you follow the instruction, that is wanted. If you live without temple and chant sixteen rounds and observe the regulative principle, that's all right. It doesn't require that you should live in the temple. And if you live in the temple and do all nonsense, then what is the use of living in the temple?

Devotee: Is it wrong to think of initiation then? Or initiated also? (?)

Prabhupāda: Their "thinking" means they are not fixed up. That very word suggest that they are not fixed up. Oh, initiation can take place anywhere.

Morning Walk -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Madhudviṣa: ...cannot become a medical practitioner by simply reading the books. He must study under a medical practitioner. So in the case of your books, is it possible to become a devotee without actually having personal association with you? Just by reading your books?

Prabhupāda: No, it is not that you have to associate with the author. But one who knows, if you cannot understand you have to take lesson from him. Not necessarily that you have to contact with the author always.

Devotee: Just like the textbooks are not written by the teachers; they're written by other professors.

Devotee: Usually you don't even meet the author.

Prabhupāda: Simply one who knows the subject matter, he can explain.

Madhudviṣa: But can your, would your purports, would that serve as explanation besides...

Prabhupāda: No, no, anyone who knows the subject matter, he will be able to explain. Not necessarily the author is required to be present there. (break) ...to study from a medical man, I never said you have to study from the author. Or one who understood the author's purpose. Just like we are explaining Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Not that one has to learn directly from Kṛṣṇa. One who has understood Kṛṣṇa, from him. That is paramparā system.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That is sufficient for an intelligent man. That is sufficient.

Paramahaṁsa: So if a scientist or someone who has some degree in science comes to our movement, should we encourage him to try to prove through science the Kṛṣṇa conscious principle of transmigration and eternal quality of the soul?

Prabhupāda: Not necessary. Not necessary.

Paramahaṁsa: Better if he just...

Prabhupāda: It is not that if we prove scientifically there is soul, if there is scientific proof, not that all the people of the world will become Kṛṣṇa conscious, even if you do that. So it is useless. You simply understand what is stated by Kṛṣṇa.

Harikeśa: Can a material calculation prove a spiritual fact?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Harikeśa: Can a material calculation prove...

Prabhupāda: No. Materialists cannot understand spiritual subject matter. It is not for them.

Room Conversation with Dr. John Mize -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

John Mize: True, but the egg in the mother has been fertilized by the male sperm, whereas the egg laid by a chicken was not fertilized...

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. They have got that potency. There are four kinds of birth: from the egg, from the vegetable, from fermentation, and from embryo. So from any of these four kinds of sources the living entity come out. Aṇḍa-ja, udbij-ja, jaraya-ja, and sveda-ja, the Sanskrit name. Sveda-ja, simply by perspiration. Just like unclean bed they produce bugs. The man gets perspiration, bad perspiration, and in contact with air, with this perspiration, the living entity comes. That is bug. This is called sveda-ja, "out of perspiration." Your coat, shirt, if you don't cleanse, or your body is unclean, you will find so many moths within the shirt. How it is coming? From the perspiration, bad perspiration, bad smell. Not that every time the male female combination required. There are other sources also.

Morning Walk -- June 30, 1975, Denver:

Brahmānanda: Prāyaścitta, is that called?

Prabhupāda: Prāyaścitta, yes.

Brahmānanda: You mention that in your Nectar of Devotion, that if some offense is committed, it's not necessary to perform any rituals but to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and that one will become purified in that way.

Prabhupāda: So nobody knows where he is?

Satsvarūpa: He was staying sometimes in New York City in a place called the Theological Seminary. He was being put up there.

Prabhupāda: Theological Seminary?

Satsvarūpa: I've never heard of the place.

Bhāvānanda: Columbia? New York Theological Seminary

Prabhupāda: He might have started. He might have started.

Television Interview -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Nitāi: Especially great scientists, that they want to see what has made this man so intelligent.

Woman reporter: That's not necessarily true.

Prabhupāda: Then why they study the brain? What is the purpose of studying brain unless there is difference? You study different brains. Unless you feel that there is difference between this brain and that brain, why do you study. What is the meaning of study?

Woman reporter: To find differences among men. It's not necessarily differences between men and woman.

Prabhupāda: I don't say man or woman. But I say you study different brains—why? Unless you think there is some difference?

Woman reporter: There is difference.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So if there is difference, then what is the harm if there is difference between man and woman's brain?

Woman reporter: They say there isn't.

Prabhupāda: They say, but the fact we have to study. As soon as you study the construction of different brain, then you must know that there is difference, different activities.

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

Jayatīrtha: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They must create confusion because he is a foolish man. He is interpreting on the words of God. He is not a devotee. He has got other purposes as a politician or something else. So he wants to push on his views through Bhagavad-gītā. That is a cheating process. If he wants to speak something, he can write separate book. Why he should go through Bhagavad-gītā? That is cheating. But he knows, "Bhagavad-gītā is very popular book. If I push my philosophy through Bhagavad-gītā, it will be very easily accepted." That is going on. That is cheating. Why should you interpret? Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mād-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). And the scholar says, "No, no, it is not to Kṛṣṇa." Just see. Kṛṣṇa says that "You become My devotee." And the scholar says, "No, no, it is not necessary to become devotee of Kṛṣṇa person." This is going on, big scholar.

Father: Thank you very much, Your Grace. If I ask these questions, I'll take all your time.

Sandy Nixon: If you... May I ask one question more? I would like you to tell us that I can put in our article here if you have one sentence, one paragraph, that you would like to say to the world, (laughter) what would you say?

Jayatīrtha: She wants to put a message to the world.

Sandy Nixon: In capsule.

Prabhupāda: So? What I have to do? (laughter)

Morning Walk -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Rahu, yes. Rahu is between earth and sun. Moon is above sun.

Devotee (3): So it is bigger than the sun?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. The size is there in the Bhāgavata.

Paramahaṁsa: In Stockholm, Prabhupāda, in the museum, they have a whole room, and in the room there is all these... There's American flag and Swedish flag, and there's a whole exhibit with one teeny little rock about as big as my finger nail that the Americans gave the Swedes. It's supposed to be a rock from the moon. And they said in it that it's exactly as any kind of rock that you'll find on earth. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: They say? It is simply cheating. They found this in Arizona, somebody... (laughter) And laboratory work.

Bahulāśva: I have been trying to arrange a meeting between Your Divine Grace and that astronaut. He was going to come to Rathayātrā, but he had to go to Florida for some space project.

Prabhupāda: What does he say, astronaut?

Bahulāśva: He says that... His name is Edgar Mitchell, and he was one of the men who went to the moon. But we talked, and he said... He thinks he has gone to the moon. But he said that when he was there, he had a religious experience, and he felt that there was a God. When he went to the moon, he had this experience. So when he came back, he was telling all his scientist friends what his experience was. So they became very afraid, and they kicked him out of the space project. They thought he had become a fanatic, religious sentimentalist, so they kicked him out. So now he has opened up an institute for noetic sciences or... It is some Greek word. It means like spiritual sciences. He wants to prove to the scientific world that there is God.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. He is good.

Morning Walk -- July 21, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: As you become purified, then your faith becomes fixed up with knowledge. Therefore that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpam: (BG 7.28) "One who has finished his sinful life, he can become a devotee." Otherwise one cannot. First of all, beginning in faith. Then, by following the process, he becomes completely sinless. Then he, full knowledge. And so long he will be sinful, the things will be not properly manifested. Yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpam.

Baradrāj: So knowledge is not necessary for faith but faith is necessary for knowledge.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore devotee, without any knowledge he becomes devotee. That faith, only faith. The devotee advances. Jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukī. Later on, they become automatically full of knowledge because they have strong faith. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Teṣām evānukampārtham aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ nāśayāmy: (BG 10.11) "Because he is faithful, therefore I help him how to get knowledge." Again you come to that. Mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca (BG 15.15). Everything is there.

Jayādvaita: Your lecture yesterday was so nice, Śrīla Prabhupāda, everything, so many ideas from Bhagavad-gītā, all explained and put together so nicely.

Paramahaṁsa: Blind faith is the belief that little...

Prabhupāda: Blind faith, without... That I have already explained. Immediately, why do you forget? He shows me, "Prabhupāda, come this way." So I have no faith. Why shall I go? Then I have stop here, finished, movement finished. So you have to keep faith blindly. And if the man who is giving direction, he is perfect, then your faith will make you advanced. But if you go to a rascal cheater and if you have faith, blind faith, then you are lost.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1975, New Orleans:

Devotee (1): Prabhupāda, should everyone move to the temple?

Prabhupāda: Why?

Devotee (1): Live here?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. Invite him. But who is coming here? Nobody is coming.

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, you are seeing Kṛṣṇa at every moment. Does this mean you are seeing Kṛṣṇa in His two-armed form playing the flute at every moment?

Prabhupāda: What do you think?

Devotee (2): I don't know, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Then? Seeing means Kṛṣṇa as He is. That's all. Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. You never read Brahma-saṁhitā? Do you read?

Devotee (2): Yes, Prabhupāda. What you have of the Brahma-saṁhitā in your books.

Prabhupāda: Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. Those who are saintly persons, they always see Kṛṣṇa within his heart. Everyone can see if he tries. Why you and me? Anyone can see. Kṛṣṇa is open to everyone. But He is not open to the rascals. That is Kṛṣṇa's distinguish... Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). He is open to everyone, but not to all others, only to the devotee.

Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:

Brahmānanda: Twenty-five percent of the produce?

Prabhupāda: Whatever you have produced.

Brahmānanda: Not necessarily money.

Prabhupāda: No.

Brahmānanda: But the produce.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: The grains or the milk or whatever.

Prabhupāda: Whatever, yes. "Give me twenty-five percent. You can utilize the land." So that is resource of the land.

Devotee (1): How does the kṣatriya build a palace for himself or something like that?

Prabhupāda: That will be done. To keep a prestigious position, they'll have building, servant, soldiers. Otherwise how they will fear? How they'll have respect?

Room Conversation -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Guest (3) (Indian man): Car is a necessity, Swamijī, don't you think so? Car is a necessity.

Prabhupāda: Not necessary. What is the use of car? If you locate yourself to get everything, your necessity, then where is the use of car? If you require car, you have a bullock cart. That's all. Why should you hanker after petrol, mobile (Mobil?) oil, machine, this, that, so many things. Why?

Guest (3): Yes, but don't you think that it would be impossible for you to come mostly?

Prabhupāda: No, no. So long it is not available, we must take the best advantage. That is another thing. But gradually we shall develop a society that all these unnecessary rubbish things should be rejected. That is the idea. Or those who are interested, let them manufacture car; we take advantage. We don't bother ourself how to manufacture car. Ajāgara-vṛtti. Ajāgara-vṛtti, the idea is... Ajāgara means the snake. So a mouse makes a hole in the field to live very peacefully. So, and he enters the hole, and a snake gets the information and he comes, enters the hole. He eats the snake... The snake eats the mouse and lives peacefully. So let this rascal manufacture motorcar. When we require, we take from them and ride away. We are not going to manufacture. There will be some rascals. Let them do that, mouse. We enter as snake. (laughter) That's all. We are doing that. We are doing that. I did not manufacture this house, but somebody, some mouse, has done. (laughter) And we have entered it, that's all. That's all. This is going on all over the world. You know George Harrison? He has earned money with so great hard labor, and he has given us a house in London, fifty-five lakhs' worth.

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. (break) … karma bandha phasa: one after another. Asate vilāsa: material enjoyment means implicated in unnecessary activities. If people are satisfied, plain living, then these things are not necessary: go into the ocean, find out oil, then bring it in the port, then distribute it, so many, one after another. That, this kind of civilization, they think it is advanced. And to live very plainly, minimizing this unnecessary activity, they think it is not civilization.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Primitive.

Prabhupāda: Primitive, yes. But primitive meat-eating is continued. That is not to be stopped, primitive drinking and meat-eating.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Would you like a tissue, Srila Prabhupada? A tissue?

Prabhupāda: No. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: … it is misdirected and simply based on sense gratification, has no purpose. So people may question us that we are putting forward a civilization which India had practiced for thousands of years.

Prabhupāda: Why you speak of India?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Well, because when we speak of Vedic culture, at least contemporarily speaking, people think of India. Even few hundred years ago, all the ācāryas…

Prabhupāda: All right, India.

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There are sattvic, rājasic, tamasic Purāṇa. And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is mahā-purāṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Indian man (1): (Hindi) (break)

Dr. Patel: Air conditioning is not necessary. (break)

Prabhupāda: That is life. This artificial life is no life. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has described this modern civilization of artificial life. So he says, jaḍā vidyā sab, māyāra vaibhava. He declares all these artificial way of life, advancement of material civilization, means advancement of influence of māyā. Jaḍā vidyā sab, māyāra vaibhava. Expansion of the influence of māyā. Then? What is the result? The result is anitya saṁsāre, moho janmeiya. Jaḍā vidyā sab, māyār vaibhava, tomāra bhajane badha. māyā means forgetfulness of God. This is māyā. māyā means the more you forget Kṛṣṇa, the more you are involved in māyā. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). So māyā's business is to cover you more and more as you forget Kṛṣṇa. This is māyā's business. So therefore, expansion of māyā's influence means forgetting Kṛṣṇa. Tomāra bhajane badha. They're all hindrances only to make spiritual progress and to understand God. So what is the net result? The net result is anitya saṁsāre, moha janmeiyā. We are already attached to this material world, which is temporary. By this expansion of māyā's influence we become more attached. Attachment is already there, but we become more and more attached. In this way, jība ke karaye gadha. So he is already ass; he becomes first-class ass. That's all. (laughter) Is that all right? Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has analyzed.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1975, Vrndavana:

Aksayānanda: For the guests.

Prabhupāda: And not for you?

Aksayānanda: No.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Aksayānanda: Because it's very expensive and not necessary.

Prabhupāda: No.

Aksayānanda: If you say it is necessary, we will do.

Prabhupāda: No, in this season it is necessary.

Aksayānanda: Very nice. We'll do. That is nice. A little more ghee should be there.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Aksayānanda: A little more grain. Even little grain at night is all right, I think.

Prabhupāda: No, you must eat properly.

Morning Walk -- December 23, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Anyone who worships Kṛṣṇa, avyabhicāreṇa, without any change, he becomes nirguṇa.

Indian man (3): So saguṇa is necessary for going to nirguṇa?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Indian man (3): Saguṇa is...

Prabhupāda: No, not necessary. But if you don't worship unflinchingly Kṛṣṇa, then you remain in the saguṇa platform.

Indian man (3): Hm, I see.

Prabhupāda: Here it is clearly said, sa gunān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26). So you have to adopt the means; then you become nirguṇa. And if you don't adopt, then you remain saguṇa.

Indian man (3): Yes, and I can come to you and just, you explain me what is the way...

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān (BG 14.26). Saguṇ.. saguṇa...

Indian man (3): Which śloka from Gītā, it is from Gītā? Bhagavad-gītā?

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is ninth chapter.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 12, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Demoncracy, yes.

Dr. Patel: Demoncracy.

Prabhupāda: Why you accuse government? Government is your election.

Dr. Patel: Now she is not going to have any more elections. "Elections are not necessary. People have given me the mandate to rule over them."

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's nice. If the dictator, executive officer, is very nice, religious, then there is no need of this election.

Dr. Patel: Oh, she goes to the temples, all right. (laughs) (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: No, no. She has got the tendency of spiritual life and she requires improvement. That's all. She has spoken in Chandigarh that "Now we require spiritualism." Hm?

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) She is shamming, sir. Shamming. Shamming. She is not truthful to any of her words.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dr. Patel: She is not truthful to what she says.

Prabhupāda: (break) Any circumstances, they can adjust. (break) Oh, Gaṅgā-sāgara.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Hṛdayānanda: He said that the light rays pass through the clouds, and this diverts the light rays in different ways.

Prabhupāda: So where is the cloud?

Jagadīśa: Not necessarily a cloud.

Dayānanda: Through the atmosphere, the air.

Indian man (1): Atmosphere density is different, so it changes.

Prabhupāda: Density?

Jagadīśa: When it is directly overhead...

Prabhupāda: Oh, it is fixed up. Why it should change?

Jagadīśa: When it's directly overhead, there is...

Prabhupāda: No, no, overhead means it has gone. If it is fixed, why it should change color?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have gone; it has not.

Jagadīśa: It changes color to us. It doesn't change color. To our eyes...

Prabhupāda: Why?

Jagadīśa: ...the color changes.

Prabhupāda: Why?

Jagadīśa: Because our eyes are not so..., are blunt.

Hṛdayānanda: They say because the light rays...

Prabhupāda: No, no. If the sun is fixed, so why our eyes will change? If we see in the beginning, as you see, it is red, and it is fixed, it should remain red.

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Flares.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So you can invent so many means of curing the danger. But as soon as the sun is there, immediately all mist is over. Similarly, we have invented so many medicines and counteractions for so many things. But if one becomes a devotee, all these troubles immediately.... That is the only one medicine. He has no more any inclination. Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce: (CC Madhya 22.42) "No more I want." And that is wanted. (break) ...asmi varaṁ na yāce. One should be fully satisfied: "No more I want this material disease. That's all. Enough of it." That mentality required: "I don't want anything material facility." Sannyāsa means that, that "I shall live with the minimum necessities of life and simply devote..." That is sannyāsa. "I shall become a sannyāsī and enjoy all material facilities"—that is not sannyāsa. (break) ...recommended that "If there is no need, don't take even cloth. Remain naked." That is sannyāsa. But because we have to preach, because we have to go the people, therefore some covering. Otherwise, this is also not necessary for a sannyāsī. Nothing. Lie down on the floor like the Śukadeva Gosvāmī said, and take water in your palm, no dress. Śukadeva was also not dressing, naked. That is the perfection of sannyāsa. (break) Where is Jayapatākā? (break) ...talk with this boy. He wanted to.... (break) ...make. He's offering a land. Did you talk with him?

Jayapatākā: No. I sent.... Śatadhanya talked with him.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: That is diseased condition. Just like diseased.... When you have got fever—you are suffering—that is diseased condition. So long you are suffering, you must be aware of the fact that you are in diseased condition. Because you are part and parcel, there is no question of suffering. Sac-cid-ānanda...

Reporter (1): But suffering may not necessarily be because of sin. It might be because of something else, you know?

Prabhupāda: "Might be something," that is your sinful activities. That "something" is some sinful activity.

Reporter (1): Now a poor man suffers of hunger. This is not sin if he doesn't get proper food or anything.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. But how you can help? You cannot help. Just like a prisoner in the, suffering in the prison house, you cannot help him.

Reporter (1): I may suffer because I have cancer...

Prabhupāda: No, first of all you try to understand.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Just like Nārada Muni.

Prabhupāda: Yes, anyone. Anyone. It is open to everyone. So therefore we are trying to open centers, all parts of the world, to give them chance of sat-saṅga, so that gradually they will become perfect. And that is happening actually. Caitanya Mahāprabhu never said that you find out some first-class men. No. He said, yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa. It is not necessary that you have to find out some qualified person. Anyone. Simply instruct him what Kṛṣṇa has said, that's all. Yāre dekha tāre kaha. There is no question of selecting. Why selection? All are fallen. The so-called gentleman, he is also fallen.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Otherwise you'll not read it. If I give you free, then you'll think, "Ah, this is something nonsense. They are giving free."

Carol Jarvis: Not necessarily give them free, but perhaps sell them for a price that pays for the cost of producing them.

Prabhupāda: So when they pay for it.... When they pay for it, they will try to see "What these books are saying? Let me see." And if you get free, then you may keep it in your rack for hundreds of years. So that is not the.... But after all, we have to print these books, so who will pay for that? We have no money.

Carol Jarvis: Well, what happens to the rest of the money, though, that is collected in the streets?

Prabhupāda: We are increasing our movement. We are opening centers. We are printing more books. This is my books. I have made a Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. That is my will, and I have given my will that fifty percent of the collection should be spent for reprinting the books and fifty percent should be spent for spreading the movement. So there is no question of material profit.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: You cannot expect that everyone should be M.A., Ph.D. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is like that. It is not meant for ordinary persons. Those who are very intelligent, they can understand it. Ordinary men, they cannot understand even that he's not this body. What he will understand about Kṛṣṇa? Therefore the beginning understanding is that "I am not this body." When you are firmly convinced about this science that you are not this body, then Kṛṣṇa consciousness beginning.

Brian Singer: And it's not necessary to live a temple life.

Prabhupāda: No, temple life is a.... Just like if you go to school.... Without school you can be educated. It is not that we..., unless you go to school you can be educated. But if you go to school you get greater facilities. And that is the way. Just like in our country Rabindranath Tagore, he never went to school. You have heard the name of Rabindranath Tagore?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Rabindranath Tagore.

Prabhupāda: Tagore.

Devotee (2): He's a famous Indian poet.

Prabhupāda: So never went to school, but Oxford University gave him Ph.D. That does not mean that "I shall also receive Ph.D. like Rabindranath Tagore. I shall not go to school." The general method is: one must go to the school. Exceptional cases, that without going to school one can become Ph.D.... But we should not imitate that, that "Rabindranath Tagore got Ph.D. without going to school. I shall sit down." But the fact is that even without going to school one can get Ph.D. That's a fact. But that is not the method. The method is that you must go to the primary school, then secondary school, then enter college, then take your degree. Then you become M.A. and Ph.D. That is the general process, step by step. And if you take the example of Rabindranath Tagore, that "He did not go to school. Then I shall not go to school," then you may be spoiled also, without going to school. That is the, generally the case.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So mother nature takes care to bring him again to the grown-up youthful life. Now you make your decision. So, if you don't make your decision, the knowledge is there, the books are there, if you don't make your decision, still you want to remain as cats and dogs, again begin.

Devotee: Do most humans go down to the animal species again after human life?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Do most human beings fall down into the animal species?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. He can become a stool worm. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is the value for the living entity to automatically pass through all these different species? Does he get any knowledge?

Prabhupāda: To, to finish his life of imprisonment.

Rāmeśvara: How is it benefiting him?

Prabhupāda: He's corrected. Benefit is he's corrected. After undergoing so many species of life, he is corrected and again he is brought to the human form of life, civilized form of life. Let him make his choice. If he again makes his choice, go down to become a stool worm. Go! That is nature's.... Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi-guṇa, according to qualities he has taken. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā: (BG 3.27) the rascal, being proud, "Now I have got this life, civilized life. I can do whatever I like to. Ah, there is no God." Then God comes as death and puts you again to become a worm in stool. That's all.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Why they should be extinct?

Hṛdayānanda: No longer on the earth.

Rāmeśvara: No longer on this planet.

Prabhupāda: (too much noise) Not necessarily. They are within the ocean.

Hari-śauri: No, other animals.

Prabhupāda: What other animals?

Rāmeśvara: Those gigantic, they called them...

Hṛdayānanda: Brontasaurus.

Rāmeśvara: Tyrannasaurus. Gigantic animals, they say are meat-eaters.

Hṛdayānanda: Dinosaurus.

Hari-śauri: Tetrasaurus.

Prabhupāda: Another imagination. These are actual facts.(?)

Hari-śauri: They just made up different compositions of bones and then drew some outlines on them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are imagination.

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

Arnold Weiss: Would the prior life have to be an animal life?

Prabhupāda: Yes, might be.

Arnold Weiss: Or could the prior life also be human life?

Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily. There are 8,400,000 different forms of life, and you are one of them now, as you, as soul, you are the same; the body is changed. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said in the Second Chapter that "Arjuna, you, Me and all these persons who are assembled here, they existed in their previous lives, they are now existing, and they'll continue to exist." So our life is eternal. That is the first instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This living entity, soul, is never born, neither he dies. It is simply change of body. Just like you just took this sweater. That means you are there, and you may give up the sweater again. So your body is changing like dress, but you are the same. So your... In previous... Just like now we are elderly gentleman, but we were a child. That's a fact. At that time the body was different. You are a young man; the body was different. And again you'll become old man like me, your body will be different. So in this life also we are experiencing going through different types of body. Similarly, after giving up this body, I'll have another body. Where is the difficulty to understand? Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati.

Magazine Interview -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Interviewer: Is this your last trip to America?

Rāmeśvara: He's asking if this is your last visit.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Interviewer: You feel that you can continue to make those serious travels?

Prabhupāda: Well, I began my traveling in foreign countries at very ripe old age, seventy years. Ten years I'm traveling. This is the fifteenth tour all over the world.

Interviewer: Are you surprised to see the popularity of your teachings in the last few years?

Prabhupāda: I think it is becoming popular.

Rāmeśvara: He was asking if you are surprised that it is being, that your books are selling so much and that so many devotees are coming.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Neither anybody has written so many books within ten years.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: In everywhere, every center.

Hṛdayānanda: Museum, library...

Rāmeśvara: Then, eventually, Bharadvāja wants to have big museum in the city, not necessarily in our building, because the building may not have enough space. Śrīla Prabhupāda, I think it will be more prestigious if we use the art paintings to be displayed in museums or art galleries.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: That way, wealthy, upper-class people will get a chance to appreciate. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...said that beef-eating is the cause of cancer.

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Which is correct?

Hṛdayānanda: Too much addicted. (Prabhupāda laughs)

Rādhāvallabha: This cancer problem seems to be increasing. Previously only old.... We would only hear of old people getting it. Now young people are getting it also. It is becoming very common.

Hṛdayānanda: Young people also.

Rādhāvallabha: Yes, two, one girl here got it. Another girl was suspected of having it.

Prabhupāda: What is the symptom?

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Makhanlāl: In the Bhagavad-gītā, Eighteenth Chapter, 54th verse, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54), it says that the person in brahma-bhūtaḥ realization at once realizes the Supreme Brahman. If the devotee is situated on the platform of the brahma-bhūtaḥ, but he may not necessarily see everything as Brahman, does that mean that his realization is by intelligence, and by his activity, or what does that mean?

Prabhupāda: Realization of spiritual identification.

Makhanlāl: Realization of spiritual life?

Prabhupāda: Identity.

Makhanlāl: Identity? (break) Brahman realization for the devotee in the beginning is just that he realizes his constitutional position as servant of Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is next. First of all, that "I am not this body." That is Brahman realization.

Makhanlāl: So we may only be partially situated in that realization in our present level of devotional service.

Prabhupāda: You realize or not realize, if you remain on the platform, that is same. (break) ...in Kṛṣṇa's service, that is brahma-bhūtaḥ stage. (break)

Makhanlāl: ...says that such a person never laments nor desires anything. So...

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you realize that you are servant of Kṛṣṇa, where is lamentation?

Makhanlāl: Due to māyā's influence, a devotee may sometimes materially lament.

Prabhupāda: That you have to struggle. Tapasā brahmacāryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). That is called tapasya. But if you stick to devotional service, māyā will not be able to touch you.

Room Conversation with Ambarisa and Catholic Priest -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: As their textbook for Sanskrit class. They found it so wonderful. Because for Sanskrit scholar it is good opportunity to learn Sanskrit, because each word we have given in English and German synonyms.

Stansky: I want very much to learn basic Sanskrit, but I have so much to learn right now that ah,...

Prabhupāda: No, it is not necessary, but those who are interested in studying Sanskrit literature, for them it is very good help. And at the same time they get sublime knowledge. They study Sanskrit and get knowledge. So you have kindly come to join us. You study our philosophy very minutely and then try to do something for the suffering humanity.

nānā-śāstra-vicāraṇaika-nipuṇau sad-dharma-saṁsthāpakau
lokānāṁ hita-kāriṇau tri-bhuvane mānyau śaraṇyākarau
rādhā-kṛṣṇa-padāravinda-bhajanānandena mattālikau
vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau

The saintly persons, at least in Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement, they are not meant for idle life. They are always busy for the welfare of the whole human society. This is the sign of saintly person. They are misguided and they are suffering, and it is the duty of the saintly person to give them instruction, education, how they can become really happy and make their life successful. This is saintly person. A saintly person doesn't mean to live at other's expenditure and do all nonsense things. This is not saintly person. Hm. (Hindi) (break) You asked me some question?

Stansky: I wanted to know whether it would be all right to keep the log and to write at the..., work out the outline for the book. You told me to go ahead. So I will do that. Basically, this is what I wanted to do. I would like to continue with the group. I would like to travel with the group and keep an accurate log and start an outline and see possibly within a year's time I will have sufficient material to start the book.

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Why do you go to Rādhākuṇḍa? Unless there is some awakening of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (break)

Devotee (1): ...he's a rich man's son, but he's walking without shoes just like a sādhu. (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...was the president of Ann Arbor temple. I told him what you were thinking. You think you really want to go to Ann Arbor?

Prabhupāda: Not necessary. (indistinct) (break)

Satsvarūpa: ...God, Christ, they believe that Christ is God, some Christians.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Many different understandings.

Satsvarūpa: Some say he's a perfect man. Some say a son of God or he's actually God. (break) ...a spirit within.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: ...Holy Ghost is like Brahman and Paramātmā. All-pervading God and God within the heart speaking.

Satsvarūpa: And Jesus Christ is the only son of the Lord, and he's the Lord also at the same time.

Hari-śauri: And they say he has a material body, and he is God incarnated into flesh.

Prabhupāda: We also say. Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri: All right. So in a few minutes just to set up...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (break) Yes, I'll inform them: "If cart is not possible to be made or (indistinct), then they can do it on the back of a flat truck with a canopy with a nice cloth."

Prabhupāda: Kīrtana party and truck, all Indians will come.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: One thing though is, July is, like in Melbourne, it's wintertime there. So is it okay if they have the festival in summer months?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: As they do in Melbourne, in the summertime?

Hari-śauri: They have it in January down there, because they get a better attendance and everything. It's a lot nicer.

Prabhupāda: It is now winter there?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, wintertime now. Middle of the winter now. Very cold.

Prabhupāda: So better summer is all right. Then they can make ratha regular.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: It is not my idea, it is fact. It is not my idea.

Kathy Kerr: Well not necessarily.... With these truths, with these basic truths, do you think that is helping people realize themselves, or do they have to go into a more...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that you can ask my students. We have not bribed them. I am Indian, poor Indian. So why they are sticking to me? Ask them. They'll describe.

Kathy Kerr: Could you tell us? When was your first contact with the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

Jayādvaita: About nine years ago.

Kathy Kerr: And how did you become a Kṛṣṇa.

Jayādvaita: Meeting the devotees and reading the books. We had fewer books then. But you read. Also you can read these books, they're not just for us. Read a little. You'll understand.

Kathy Kerr: You were saying that you're not necessarily trying to get a large number of devotees, but you think there are a few people who are yet ready to accept?

Prabhupāda: Anyone we can accept. If he is interested to become learned in this subject matter, he's welcome.

Interview with Kathy Kerr Reporter from The Star -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Kathy Kerr: Does it ever end?

Jayādvaita: No, no. In Bhagavad-gītā it's described as avyayam. It means there's no end of it. More and more.

Devotee (1): But living in the temple is not necessary to engage in Kṛṣṇa conscious activities. You can engage outside also, take advantage of reading the books and visiting the temple, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Kathy Kerr: Do you consider that going..., your movement then is basically more of an educational movement than a religious movement.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Educational. It is religious, but it is not a man-made religious. Our idea.... I have already explained that our idea of religion means that like the sugar, it must be sweet. It is not that in Europe sugar is not sweet, in India it is sweet. Sugar, wherever it is, it is sweet. Similarly, the soul, the spirit soul is the same everywhere. So he, the spirit soul, is now embodied within this material body, and he is suffering on account of this material body. So we are teaching everyone how to get out of this material body and stay in his original, spiritual body. This is our real movement. This is another way..., another name is liberation. We are suffering within this body. Our suffering means on account of this body. So if there is such science how to continue our life without changing body, that science we are teaching. It is purely educational.

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Guest (1): Swamiji, would you know whether people who joined the movement in their older years are more likely to stay on than those who join when they are younger?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. Younger, older, there is no restriction.

Guest (1): It doesn't appeal more to the young ones than to the older people?

Prabhupāda: No, any education, if you take young, youthtime, that is easily. For old man it is difficult, but he has to take so many years to forget what he has learned. (laughter) That is the difficulty. Young man, they are easily receptive. Old man thinks, "Why shall I give up my present understanding?" That is the difficulty. But if he gives up and takes to, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66), if he takes to it, then immediately, in a moment. So this is, this plate is for me?

Guest (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: No, no, keep it and I shall.... At least I shall see. It is for you, take it.

Guest (1): No, it's for you.

Prabhupāda: No, no. He'll save this for me.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Pradyumna: Ah, Prabhakara. Hm, hm.

Prabhupāda: He's a big Sanskrit scholar. But what is his position? He got big, big position also, but he could not stay. If one's mind is not fixed up, you learn Sanskrit or no Sanskrit, it will.... (break) To make a good man, it is not necessary that one has to learn Sanskrit. He can be made good provided he fully surrenders to Kṛṣṇa. Sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcana. If one has got unflinching faith and devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ. All good qualities will develop automatically. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad guṇā. If he's not a devotee, he will hover over the mental concoction. Manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). Then he'll remain in the material platform. Never mind he's a Sanskrit scholar or this or that.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Would you like to hear another question, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It is said that while the śrutis embody the eternal truths of Hinduism, the smṛtis, which embody the rules of conduct need to be revised according to the dictates of the changing times.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Devotee (1): Would that also be due to that soul's karma, that he has gone from being aborted on to another body?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily, but you create a karma. You are responsible for that.

Hari-śauri: So it's not necessarily that he's receiving some sinful reaction from past work that he's not allowed to enter.

Prabhupāda: That may be, but you are responsible for that. Because you are driving me from this apartment by force. Actually, in a higher sense, that is accepted, that he was to be driven away. But because you are driving, you are responsible for that.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Vipina: These are the natural falls here, Prabhupāda, not manmade.

Prabhupāda: Ah, where?

Vipina: Not manmade. (break) It is not necessary to take millions of years for life to develop, because within five days an egg is there and life is being manifest. But scientists are saying it took millions of years to come to that stage where in five days it would only take life to become manifest.

Prabhupāda: Then why you are waiting millions of years? Accept that millions of years passed, now let us have it in five days. Why you are again asking to wait for millions of years? If it has passed? Rascal. From the sky, Atlantic, wherefrom... Big, big chunks like mountains constantly coming, cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-cut. In Canada, big, big chunks.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Ice?

Prabhupāda: Ice, flood, every second.

Hari-śauri: Down the fall?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not from Canada, somewhere else, the Atlantic. And it is falling in the Atlantic Ocean. That broke the Titanic.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Devotee (1): When we go to universities, so often we run into very educated people, so-called educated people. Of course, they see us, they think that we are simply sentimentalists, that actually we are not..., don't really have knowledge of the universe. I've explained to these people, it's not necessarily that they are sinful so much as they are just miseducated.

Prabhupāda: No, educated means they have knowledge, but real knowledge is taken away. He does not know God. Just like a man is rich, but he has no food. It is like that. māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. Therefore his knowledge is misused, duṣkṛtina. This knowledge, without any sense of God... Yes, come in. Sit down. (guests entering)

Vṛṣākapi: This is Mr. Davis, Mr. and Mrs. Davis, Prabhupāda. Their daughter is a devotee here, very good devotee.

Hari-śauri: There's chair if you'd like to sit in the chair. We can bring one more. Bring another chair.

Vipina: Used to be a senator.

Prabhupāda: Perfection of knowledge means to understand God. That is perfection of knowledge. Otherwise, it is imperfect knowledge. Therefore it is called Vedānta. Veda means knowledge.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That is soul.

Mr. Davis: And the spirit would not necessarily have the ability to point and say "I used to be in that body or that body or that."

Prabhupāda: No, that he forgets. Death means forgetfulness. Just like accepting that I was existing in previous life, but now I do not remember. This is death. But I am existing, that's a fact. The same example. Everyone knows that he was existing as a child, he was existing as a young man. So because it is short period, I remember, but when the body is completely changed, the atmosphere is completely changed, we forget. But actually I exist continually. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is the authoritative statement, that I am not annihilated on account of my body being annihilated. So they bury the body or giving some name, some tomb, that is the business of my relatives, my friends, my family members. But as I am, I am aloof from this. I have accepted another body. And then begin my life in a different way. So people do not try to understand this science, how it is happening. That is all described in the Bhagavad-gītā. If we study Bhagavad-gītā very carefully, we can understand the philosophy of life correctly.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: I know that. Sometimes they are advised to do business. I know that. When, in our society, in the beginning, I started marriage, the father, mother, did not like it. Nowadays it has become custom, in India also, let the girl have many friends, but don't marry unless you find out a suitable man. Society degrades. Actually the Indian system is that when the girl is utmost twelve years, not more than that, ten to twelve years, she must be married. And the father would see, not necessarily in every case the boy is rich man or educated. If he's healthy and if he can work, he'll "Take charge." Then fortune, faith.

Rūpānuga: That is responsible.

Vṛṣākapi: How should we do this in our ISKCON society with these young girls?

Prabhupāda: Of course, we are not very much concerned with the social affairs, but still, if we can organize society, that will be very good. That will be peaceful.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Might be possible on the farms.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Mr. Boyd: Can I ask a question? Am I to understand that women cannot go back to Godhead without being reincarnated to the male?

Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily. Who says that?

Mr. Boyd: Well, for two and a half years I've been getting this from my daughter, that women cannot be reincarnated, and it didn't make sense to me. But I've asked questions and looked through the books as much as I could, and I haven't been able to find anything that said that.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That verse, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya (BG 9.32).

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa says that even women, he can go back to home, back to Godhead. Striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim. There is no such thing. Anyone who is devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he or she will go back to home, back to Godhead. There is no such discrimination. Ordinarily it is supposed that woman is less intelligent than the man. That's a fact. But that is in bodily understanding. But in the spiritual platform, either woman or man or cat or dog or brāhmaṇa or... Everyone is spirit soul. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). One who is learned, he sees everyone on the same level of spiritual platform.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: You become a devotee. Any material condition does not hamper your devotional life. Ahaituky apratihatā. If any condition of life you remain a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, that is success.

Devotee (4): Must initiation be there, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Initiation must be there. Otherwise, how you'll be guided? But it is not necessary, but if you can cent percent engagement in Kṛṣṇa, that is better. Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī, he was a minister, so he resigned and became cent percent servitor of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. But if it is not possible, it does not hamper.

Guest (2): But I can retire in twenty days, and if that is possible, then I can make one more good step.

Prabhupāda: Yes, oh, yes. So twenty days you are going. That means compulsory retirement?

Guest (2): No, my... I can retire or not retire. I can work until eight more years as a servant of the government. And at the same time...

Prabhupāda: Don't retire sentimentally. Yes, don't retire.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: Yes, try to understand. Suppose my intelligence sees that this person is qualified, that means Kṛṣṇa has told me.

Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily, Kṛṣṇa will tell directly. A devotee always consults Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa tells him, "Do like this." Not figuratively.

Interviewer: Does that apply then to other kinds of decisions and other kinds of activities as well?

Prabhupāda: Everything. Because a devotee does not do anything without consulting Kṛṣṇa.

Bali-mardana: But that applies to a very greatly elevated soul, that is not an ordinary person.

Prabhupāda: That is, therefore the minor devotees, they consult the spiritual master. That is our process. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **.

Rāmeśvara: I see, I was trying to explain the minor devotees.

Interviewer: No, I was talking about...

Rāmeśvara: You're talking about the topmost level.

Interviewer: Yes.

Bali-mardana: He's getting right to the source.(laughter) Right to the top.

Interviewer: That will do it for me, I thank you, kindly.

Bali-mardana: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: Give him prasādam.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So the problem is that Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is saying that he wants all of the devotees to stay there for the opening of the Bombay temple.

Prabhupāda: Not necessary.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not necessary. Because there is at least, there would be still about a hundred, hundred-fifty devotees there anyway.

Prabhupāda: Some of them. They can go sometime later.

Rāmeśvara: Or the next year.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Some batches may go this year, some batches may go...

Rāmeśvara: The following year, Gaura-pūrṇimā festival there can be a pandal program in Bombay. Then they can visit it the next year. The main point is we don't have to be there for the opening.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: As you recall perhaps, in Māyāpur, we discussed that we would like to go in Vṛndāvana first and end the festival in Māyāpur on Gaura-pūrṇimā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That way we'll get the cooler weather and we'll get the best preaching in America.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...so dismantled and constructed this building. When I was ten years before, they were dismantled. Very nice building. Just to change the fashion, they spend so much. (break) ...walking generally this. (break) ...producing company?

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: Thank you very much for reading that. So can you explain to me just a bit more, if the soul is undying, does everybody's soul go to be with God when they die? Do you have a belief in a heaven or a hell?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. If he's qualified, if he qualifies himself in this life to go back home, back to Godhead, then he can go. If he does not qualify himself, he gets another material body, and there are 8,400,000 different forms of body. And according to his desire and karma, activities, the nature, laws of nature, gives him a body. Just like a man infects some disease and he develops that disease. Is it difficult to understand?

Mike Robinson: It's very difficult to understand all of it. Perhaps we can...

Prabhupāda: Now suppose somebody has infected some smallpox disease. After seven days it develops. What is that called, that period?

Mike Robinson: Incubation? Is that the word?

Prabhupāda: Ah, incubation, no, another technical, yes, that after some time, the disease comes. There is a technical name. Anyway, so you cannot avoid it. If you have infected some disease, it will develop by nature's law. It is not possible to avoid it. Similarly, during our this life, we are in association with different modes of material nature, and that will decide what kind of body we are going to get next life. That is strictly under the laws of nature. Everything is under the laws of nature. You have no control over it; you are completely dependent, but people, on account of dull brain, they think that they are free. They are not free. They are imagining they are free. They're completely under the laws of nature. So this next birth will be decided according to my activities this life, sinful or pious, like that.

Arrival at Farm -- July 29, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: All right, she can cook.

Bhagavān: What is bitter melon?

Prabhupāda: Bitter melon, you teach them how to do it.

Bhagavān: Samosa?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily, simple prepare nice dahl, nice rice, vegetables, some bitter melon, and two, three capatis, that's all. Not cumbrous. Must be well cooked, rice. That's all.

Bhagavān: Mung dahl is all right? Mung dahl?

Prabhupāda: Mung dahl, yes.

Bhagavān: Mung dahl.

Prabhupāda: It boils nicely? Any dahl which boils nicely, that's all right. Without being boiled, it is useless. (long pause) Is it working or not? (referring to the bell)

Devotee: We tried it yesterday, it was working.

Prabhupāda: I don't think it is working.

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

Prabhupāda: No, you can convince by your words. It is not necessary that you have to read so many other words. If you are yourself convinced, then you can convince others by your words. The fact. The same example, when there is fire actually you can express it by any word.

Bhūgarbha: He feels that it's because he has read all these books during his youth, now he's able to appreciate Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bhūgarbha: He feels that because he read all of these other books during his youth that now he's come to the point he can appreciate Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Anyone who is after truth, he'll appreciate truth. That's a fact. Satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi (SB 1.1.1). That is the Bhāgavata beginning. Satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi. If one is after truth, he'll appreciate truth wherever it is. Every point, from any angle of vision, those who are searching after truth, everything is explained. Primarily in the Bhagavad-gītā, and elaborately in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So about the Christian religion, what is the conception of God?

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Especially to Americans?

Dayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's very good opportunity. Bring more Americans and start this movement nicely. Not necessarily that we have to establish a temple. We want to preach our philosophy. That is most important. Bhāgavata-mārga. There are two ways, bhāgavata-mārga and pāñcarātriki. The bhāgavata-mārga is more important than pāñcarātriki. Pāñcarātriki is Deity worship. So do you meet many intelligent men here? No. Not very.

Dayānanda: Some intelligent. People are working very hard for money, and they're very materialistic.

Prabhupāda: That is everywhere in the eastern part of the world. They are after money.

Dayānanda: And the foreigners who come here also, they are materialistic also.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere materialistic. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Spiritualistic means siddhi, perfection. Who cares for perfection? Bring money and enjoy. That's all. Who cares for perfection? They do not know what is perfection. They think that you get money, you live comfortably as far as possible, and after death, everything's finished. Is it not? This is the philosophy. Who cares to know that there is life after death and better life, better planet, better world? This is not at all good, it is full of miseries. They are driving all day, car, but they do not think it is tiresome. They think it is pleasure. To have a car and drive whole day, they do not feel that is tiresome. They think "I have got a car, I'm driving, people are seeing. It is pleasure."

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Purport?

Pradyumna: "The Lord's descent from his transcendental abode, is already explained in the sixth verse. One who can understand the truth of the appearance of the Personality of Godhead is already liberated from material bondage and therefore he returns to the kingdom of God immediately after quitting this present material body. Such liberation of the living entity from material bondage is not at all easy. The impersonalists and the yogis attain liberation only after much trouble and many, many births. Even then the liberation they achieve, merging into the impersonal brahma-jyotir of the Lord, is only partial and there's the risk of returning again to this material world. But the devotee, simply by understanding the transcendental nature of the body and activities of the Lord, attains the abode of the Lord after ending this body and does not run the risk of returning again to this material world. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated that the Lord has many, many forms and incarnations: advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Although there are many transcendental forms of the Lord, they are still one and the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. One has to understand this fact with conviction, although it is incomprehensible to mundane scholars and empiric philosophers. As stated in the Vedas:

eko devo nitya-līlānurakto
bhakta-vyāpī hṛdy antar-ātmā

'The one Supreme Personality of Godhead is eternally engaged in many, many transcendental forms in relationships with His unalloyed devotees.' This Vedic version is confirmed in this verse of the Gītā personally by the Lord. He who accepts this truth on the strength of the authority of the Vedas and of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and who does not waste time in philosophical speculations attains the highest perfectional stage of liberation. Simply by accepting this truth on faith, one can, without a doubt, attain liberation. The Vedic version, tat tvam asi, is actually applied in this case. Anyone who understands Lord Kṛṣṇa to be the Supreme, or who says unto the Lord, 'You are the Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead,' is certainly liberated instantly, and consequently his entrance into the transcendental association of the Lord is guaranteed. In other words, such a faithful devotee of the Lord attains perfection, and this is confirmed by the following Vedic assertion:

tam eva viditvāti mṛtyum eti
nānyaḥ panthā vidyate 'yanāya

One can attain the perfect stage of liberation from birth and death simply by knowing the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no alternative because anyone who does not understand Lord Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is surely in the mode of ignorance. Consequently he will not attain salvation, simply, so to speak, by licking the outer surface of the bottle of honey, or by interpreting the Bhagavad-gītā according to mundane scholarship. Such empiric philosophers may assume many important roles in the material world, but they are not necessarily eligible for liberation. Such puffed up mundane scholars have to wait for the causeless mercy of the devotee of the Lord. One should therefore cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness with faith and knowledge, and in this way attain perfection."

Prabhupāda: So if there is some process to become independent of this material body, why should we not accept? What is the objection? If somebody's suffering from some disease and if there is process of curing it, why one should not take it? (long pause) So your friend's questions and answers are not coming?

Atreya Ṛṣi: They just came to listen, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Not ten brāhmaṇas, at least four, five.

Nandarāṇī: Right. But even so, we could not maintain a standard of six āratiks and six offerings, so we have not installed any Deities.

Prabhupāda: No, not necessary now. Now he is trying to purchase another house?

Nandarāṇī: He's trying.

Prabhupāda: That house can be completely temple, so that Indians may also come.

Hari-śauri: What if they started to worship Gaura-Nitāi? Gaura-Nitāi? Because the worship is not so strict as Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, and I know you've said before...

Prabhupāda: Yes, Gaura-Nitāi can be worshiped twice.

Hari-śauri: Yes, two āratiks a day and kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: Gaura-Nitāi is worshiped simply by kīrtana.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Hari-śauri: You say here in the purport, "Before surrendering one is free to deliberate on this subject as far as the intelligence goes."

Prabhupāda: Yes. You have got your intelligence. God has given you intelligence. Now you deliberate. But if you... A devotee, without using my intelligence, I surrender. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā (BG 7.19). Immediately you become the greatest mahātmā. If you simply believe in Kṛṣṇa, "What my nonsense intelligence...? What Kṛṣṇa says, I shall do. Bas." Your life is perfect. And if you think still that "I am more intelligent (than) Kṛṣṇa, let me deliberate and consider," then you remain rascal. You cannot be more intelligent than Kṛṣṇa. He says sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66), you take it. That is real intelligence. That is real intelligence. Just like obedient son, my father says to do it. "All right, I shall take it, although it does not appeal to me." That is good son. Natural guardian, father, if son understands "My father or mother, whatever they will say, it is surely for my good. They cannot be cheater." So intelligent son will take "Yes, my father says, I'll do it. That's all. Never mind it does not appeal to me." That is intelligence, real intelligence. "Because I am immature, my father knows my good, he says 'My dear son, do it. It will be nice.' I'll do it." That's all. Without any objection. That is intelligence. That is real intelligence. But the father gives the freedom, "Now you deliberate." But it is my duty, when father says, what is deliberation? I'll accept. That is intelligence. And if you do not do it, then you come to that karma, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). God offers, but the rascal, duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ, narādhamāḥ, will not do it. They'll suffer. Go on, continue to suffer. He'll not do it, all right, go on, suffer. Next life if he becomes dog, the ear is there, but he'll not be able to hear what Kṛṣṇa says: finished. That chance is finished. This is going on. The dog has ear, big ear, bigger than me. But he cannot hear what is Kṛṣṇa saying. That is not possible. But this life I've got this ear, I can hear. If I don't take chance, then how much foolish I am. Next life, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), I'll get next life, next birth. Now it is not necessarily that I'll get the next life also same ear. No. The ear may be different. The eyes may be different. The eyes are there, ears are there, nose is, but it is different. So long we have got these eyes, these ears, this nose, utilize it properly. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Janame janame sabe pitā mātā pāya, kṛṣṇa guru nāhi mile bhaja...(?) Every birth you'll get a father, mother. Because without father, mother, there is no question of birth. But not in every birth you'll get Kṛṣṇa and guru.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Nava-yauvana: "First we must reach to your standard, then we can become interested in spiritual life." It's an envious position. On the material platform they are thinking, "You have gotten so much, now you can afford to practice this. We cannot afford such practice."

Prabhupāda: Then it is a luxury, it is not necessary. Is it not?

Nava-yauvana: Yes, that's what they are thinking. After the material luxury, then you have this.

Prabhupāda: But why the Indians, they are not like the Americans? You find in India still millions of people will go to the Kumbhamelā with torn cloth. They are not like Americans, riches. Why they take? Indian is well-known poverty-stricken. So why almost ninety-nine percent people, they are after Kṛṣṇa consciousness naturally? Still they'll go, when there is Kumbhamelā, so many saintly persons are coming. They will come by lakhs. Have you seen it? You have seen Kumbhamelā? You have seen? That is the proof. Not only Kumbhamelā. In Vṛndāvana, just like in our temple, recently it was jam-packed. Why they are coming to Vṛndāvana? Mostly they are coming from villages. Especially during this time at least twenty thousand, fifty thousand men are coming, daily. Still. We held Hare Kṛṣṇa festivals in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras. As soon as it is advertised, you'll find fifteen thousand, twenty thousand men come. And if you hold for weeks, for weeks they will come. You have seen? They are not like Americans, rich. They are all poverty-stricken. To the general eyes they are poverty-stricken. Kumbhamelā you'll see, Hardwar, in Vṛndāvana. Or even in big, big cities like Calcutta, Bombay, such festivals are held, people will come by thousands. It is training, culture. And this boy is taking three times bath, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is training and culture. And if he is kept in this culture, in future he'll be great saintly person. Then he'll do everything automatically. He will deliver others. It is training.

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

Jayapatākā: So that time Mr. Choudhuri, he was put down. But he said, "I have not yet lost hope." He said, but he was put down a bit. That might personally talked to the Minister of Nadia, Anandamoy Visvas, who I personally met last year. And he was telling him that for Nadia he should sponsor this. Even the negative political issue with the Chief Minister, he should push it through. In the meantime I wrote an application to Karun Kanti Ghosh, who up to now we hadn't asked. Because it had already passed all the preliminaries. And I went and spoke to him. I told him that "It has already passed all the government stages. Now simply the Chief Minister has to be convinced." He said, "No, no. You are of good integrity. There is not doubt about ISKCON. I will immediately tell him." He called up the Chief Secretary, the Chief Minister was out then. Later on he talked to Chief Minister. The next time I saw Mr. Choudhuri. Before that, he told me... That's when he told me that "Maybe Prabhupāda should see the Chief Minister." Now he said it's not necessary. He liked your reply to them. After that, I saw Mr. Tarun Kanti Ghosh. Then I saw Choudhuri again a week later. At that time he said, "Now everything is changed." He said "Now the Chief Minister, that problem is solved." He has written that "Let Mr. Choudhuri make the decision. Let him make the decision. But I cannot simply take the decision. They'll say I am biased. I must work in the ordinary ways of the government. But there is no trouble now. You have waited so long. You wait another thirty or sixty days." He said, "Wait another sixty days, and then you'll get it."

Prabhupāda: When he wrote? When he wrote this?

Gargamuni: He spoke to me just two weeks ago. Two weeks ago. Then, last week, again I saw him just before Janmāṣṭamī. I asked him... And I gave him invitation to Janmāṣṭamī. At that time he told me that... There was this bad publicity. He told me, "Now this bad publicity, I think it has given us some benefit."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, could you give darśana over here later? They're all been waiting for your darśana.

Gargamuni: Hey, wait a minute. We're talking about Māyāpur. We're talking about Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Is there...? Is there there necessity?

Gargamuni: There's no necessary.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. But we had you down on schedule for a lecture. So I said that you're not lecturing, but they just wanted to have a look at you. Later we can...

Prabhupāda: Tomorrow I shall.

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

Prabhupāda: It requires more rain.

Jayapatākā: It requires more rain and early tide. Right now the river is full, but it is not flooding. It is full. See, Mr. Choudhuri, he was interested. At that time when the Chief Minister wrote that, then he wrote this, that "If you were to see the Chief Minister, then this type of letter could be submitted and he would definitely see you, "although it is not necessary to see him.

Prabhupāda: Do you think it is?

Jayapatākā: No, it's not necessary to personally see him. You might write... When you come to Māyāpur we'll write him invitation that he can come and see and visit you there. That was better. Mr. Choudhuri said that "Your Guru Mahārāja, he has got also the Vaiṣṇava pride not to see the politicians." He said, "This is a good stand. I respect this very much." Actually he mentioned once to Abhirāma confidentially that "If this project comes through, then you'll be requiring some liaison officer because there will be so many government things. At that time I can work for you as your permanent advisor and go to Delhi and here and there and do all the work." I think he wants a job.

Prabhupāda: I thought Mr. Choudhuri would do everything, but that is not the position.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is... Not that. It should be now restricted. Not that anyone comes and whimsically goes away. This should be restricted.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: These devotees just create a disturbance, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They don't want to be engaged and everybody copies them and the whole atmosphere gets...

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Akṣayānanda: A lot of devotees think... They come here... Therefore work is not necessary. Simply chanting and being in Vṛndāvana is nice. That's wrong.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Chanting, but there is expenditure. Who will collect this twenty-five thousand? It is increasing. I can maintain them provided they are actually serious about making progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not that some lazy fellow will come, and because he has come to Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa-candra has become very much obliged to him. Kṛṣṇa-candra had no other friend. He has come from somebody. That mentality should be curtailed.

Harikeśa: What if he comes with money to pay for himself.

Prabhupāda: Is there a guest house? Stay. There is no harm. There is guest house, he can pay and stay. But here we shall keep only minimum number of men without whom we cannot make, manage it. That's all.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Everything is nice. Only to be managed. Only to be managed. So I am prepared, I'll pay you. Even if you have no money I'll pay you five thousand rupees. Keep fifty men.

Akṣayānanda: I don't think it's necessary for you to pay.

Prabhupāda: So if necessary, I'm prepared. That's all right.

Akṣayānanda: No, it's not necessary.

Prabhupāda: Then thank you. That is another thing. But fifty men you can keep. Fifty men you can keep. And there is collection in the box. There is collection by prasāda, so many other things.

Indian man: And the altars.

Prabhupāda: That should be engaged fully in Deity worship. Not extravagant. That I shall see. I shall remain here. How things are going on. I shall manage myself. I shall see how things are going on. So anyway, fifty men, five thousand. No more twenty-five thousand. Forget. No more twenty-five.

Harikeśa: That's three rupees a day.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Haṁsadūta: If it's three rupees, thirty paisa a day for eating, soap, and toothpaste...

Prabhupāda: No soap. Take this Rādhā-kuṇḍa's... Why soap? You are so devotee of Rādhā-kuṇḍa, why you require soap? This is nonsense. You take earth from the Rādhā-kuṇḍa or Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana-dhūli. Why you require soap? (Hindi conversation to the effect that if one has the dust of Vṛndāvana or Rādhā-kuṇḍa, there is no necessity for soap) Nim datun? I was doing nim datun(?) until the teeth fell down. You will know that I was collecting nim. But now it is impossible. That also I have manufactured my own toothpaste. I purchase only the brush and I made my toothpaste at home. I never used any toothpaste. Even in my young days. I never used. You have seen it practically. Not only that now I have become sannyāsī. When I was gṛhastha I never used. When I was gṛhastha I was using that nim datun(?) regularly. And I can give you the paste. So if you cannot use nim datun, you can use this paste. Very simple.

Room Conversation with U.N. Doctor -- September 29, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No. If you keep Kṛṣṇa, that "This praṇava is the sound representation of Kṛṣṇa," then it is all right. If you think it is separately powerful than Kṛṣṇa, that is nāma-aparādha.

Doctor: I understand.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you accept it as Kṛṣṇa says, that "I am praṇava," if you do remember Kṛṣṇa by chanting oṁkāra, then it is all right.

Doctor: Otherwise, om is only given to sannyāsīs?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. It is not mentioned there. Anyone chanting Vedic mantra, he has to begin with oṁkāra.

Doctor: All mantras begin with om.

Prabhupāda: Yes, oṁkāra. So sarva-vedeṣu. Praṇavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu. This is beginning. Just like we take Bhāgavata, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Bhagatji: He is not interested in education, not at all.

Prabhupāda: No, no education... That is waste of... For such boys who are not interested, why they should be enforced, education? They are not meant for that. Education is for higher brain, sober brain. And not that everyone has to become literate. It is not required. He can do other work. Yes.

Bhagatji: Prabhupāda means that according to the nature, you engage them.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. "You can do this? All right, do it. Why you should be forced to learn Sanskrit? Not necessary. Not necessary."

Dhanurdhara: What of a boy who does the chanting nicely and the kīrtana nicely but doesn't do the school work nicely?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dhanurdhara: What of a boy who does the japa very nicely and...

Prabhupāda: Well, japa... Whether his father is doing japa nicely, that is also doubtful. What to speak of children? Japa, children cannot... That should not be taken very seriously. Whatever he can do, that's all right. We should enforce, we should... But not that if he does not immediately, he should be rejected.

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Jagadīśa: You've often said the first-class intelligent men are the brāhmaṇas, second-class intelligent men are the kṣatriyas...

Prabhupāda: So we have to train like that, guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ, not that everyone should be Sanskrit scholar. Why? It is not necessary. There are so many other things.

Jagadīśa: The inclination depends on guṇa-karma.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Although by nature we should not enforce something. We should see for which work he is suitable. You should engage him. And we must have all departments of work—the weaving department, the plowing department, the cow-keeping department, the Sanskrit department, the English department, the trading department. We should have all the departments. Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13).

Jagadīśa: Head, arms, belly, and legs.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Whichever suitable, that... One must be suitable for any of these. It is the guide's intelligence: for which purpose he is suitable engage him, like that. That is required, not that everyone has to become a big scholar in Sanskrit. That is not required. Let him come to gurukula, but if he is not suitable... Gurukula, this... So far character is con..., that is for everyone. Just like early rise in the morning, chanting, and going to the... What is the objection? Anyone can do it. That is practice. And for working, if he is not suitable for higher education, let him go to the farm, take care of the cows and grow food, flowers, fruits, eat, and dance and chant. Chanting, dancing, everyone will take part. There is no doubt.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Indian man: But this body designations are not necessary in this preaching.

Prabhupāda: As far one who is paṇḍita, in the position of Rūpa Gosvāmī, for him, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18).

Indian man: He'll see woman and man equal.

Prabhupāda: There is no difference. And if he makes such distinction, then how he's paṇḍita? Then he's not paṇḍita. But it is etiquette, mātā svasā duhitā vā. One should not very closely sit down even with mother, sister, and daughter. That restriction is there. But that does not mean that one should not see even a woman. So we are following that principle. Never mind, man or woman, she can offer her respect, but not very near. That restriction must be there. (break) We have support from very high circle. Scholar, priest, even father, mother, parent. Many old gentlemen come to congratulate me, "Swamiji, it is our great fortune that you have come to this country." In Los Angeles they have been very nice. Many parents used to come.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Jagadīśa: I don't know. Pradyumna may have taken it.

Prabhupāda: There were two books. Woman... Girls should be taught how to become faithful wife, how to learn nice cooking, cleansing, dressing. Simple method. There is no objection of their becoming scholar, but that is not necessary. They have got natural inclination to give service by cooking, cleansing, dressing. Cleanliness is the first necessity. That is hygienic, spiritual, and calm, quiet. India has got special facility to remain clean. Only in this country you can take thrice bathing. In other countries... Easy there. In your country there is hot water. There is no difficulty if one practices. I think our men have such practice. But this cleanness is this taking bathing at least twice. That keeps a man very clean.

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I think I have got. Yes, 617796

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: 617796. If we give their address, then is postbox address then necessary?

Prabhupāda: Postbox? Why?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It is not necessary. Yes, that's what I'm asking. It's not.

Prabhupāda: What is the address?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: 30 by 1B College Row, Calcutta 70009.

Prabhupāda: Or Calcutta 9 is...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Now they have the Pin code. Zip Code, so...

Prabhupāda: Phone number.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I have that. Telephone 617796. Now one question on pricing. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we are selling it to the libraries for forty-five rupees.

Prabhupāda: No, no. It is not the question of library. What is the general price?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The general price is...

Rāmeśvara: Lower.

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

Rāmeśvara: But they will not give up sex life.

Prabhupāda: No, no. I don't say that you give up sex life.

Rāmeśvara: That means that they want to have nice clothing and cars for sex. As soon as there is sex, then they want so many other things to make it more attractive.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. Not necessarily. Formerly there was sex life. They're thinking like that, "We require," naturally. First of all they'll be... If they advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they will stop sex life. Yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa... If they're really Kṛṣṇa conscious, they'll have no more taste for sex life. That is...

Hari-śauri: But that position is not very easily attainable.

Prabhupāda: No, that is not easy. Therefore we say, "Restrict this." And this will be possible if he follows our program.

Rāmeśvara: You have said many times that if a small percentage of the Americans become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then the whole country can gradually become Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

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

Rāmeśvara: Only then will Kṛṣṇa conscious government...

Prabhupāda: No, no. You can have government when you are in even minority. But the mass of people, on account of this quality, will have to see.

Hari-śauri: The idea is to convince them that what they need is good quality leaders, that not necessarily that they already have to become to that stage themselves.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jagadīśa: Kṛṣṇa consciousness can be appreciated by any man because it's very simple.

Prabhupāda: Simple and it is natural also.

Hari-śauri: The desire for good leadership is there, so if we present good leaders, then they'll naturally take.

Prabhupāda: Our leaders must be very good.

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: That's also a kind of kīrtana. But then the public, they hardly ever see us anymore. They used to say, "Oh, the saffron-robed people chanting on the streets."

Prabhupāda: But they come to the love feast.

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Satsvarūpa: Yes. It's not necessary to emphasize that street chanting.

Prabhupāda: No. Sell books and invite them to come to temple for love feast.

Satsvarūpa: And there is all these men. It's still five more days before the ceremony. If they can do this..., programs locally.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They should go to the... Yes, locally. Kīrtana party. They should go in their bus and have in the city kīrtana party. Try to collect something. (end)

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: That's to live with them and everything? They think that's a little taxing, that the girl won't get such personal supervision.

Prabhupāda: What is that personal? We had a tutorial class system.

Satsvarūpa: So it's not necessary to have it so small, classes. Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, they talked with him, and he likes the idea. He said he can give them rooms in Bombay where they could do this. They think that it's not good that the girls be in the same building as the boys, such as in Vṛndāvana, because then...

Prabhupāda: No, they are on the upstairs.

Satsvarūpa: Well, they were saying that what happens is, if they're both in the same building, that they get to hate each other, he said. The preaching is either the boys should avoid the girls and the girls should avoid the boys, but they get a very... It's better to be out of sight of each other, not even near each other. They could be in Vṛndāvana, but it'd have to be in a different building or location, they said. So maybe better Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Bombay's good. These things should be decided by the GBC.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That is... Everybody is being raised, but they're falling down.

Hari-śauri: So then we should make it more difficult to get...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: ...brahminical initiation. After four or five years.

Prabhupāda: Not necessary. You remain as a kṣatriya. You'll be ha...

Hari-śauri: No need for even any brāhmaṇa initiation, then...

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Hari-śauri: ...unless one is...

Prabhupāda: No, brāhmaṇa must be there. Why do you say, generalize?

Hari-śauri: Unless one is particularly...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So similarly, just to give them idea, we have to play like that.

Hari-śauri: Well, again, that's...

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily that we are going to be śūdra. So that is it. That is the thing. We are servant of Kṛṣṇa. That's all. And as servant of Kṛṣṇa, we have to execute the order of Kṛṣṇa.

Satsvarūpa: So we can ideally organize ourselves and then for the rest of the people all we can do is hope that they'll follow it.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhavānanda: Set the example.

Prabhupāda: Example. Just like Bhavānanda, when there was no commode here. He was taking my stool and urine. Does it mean he is a sweeper? He's a sannyāsī Vaiṣṇava. Similarly, āpani ācari' jīve śikhāilā. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "I am not a sannyāsī." But He took sannyāsa. Actually He is God, so what is the benefit of becoming a sannyāsī, for God? But He became that. (break) In order to serve the mass of people, to bring them to the ideal position, we should try to introduce this varṇāśrama, not that we are going to be candidates of varṇāśrama. It is not our business. But to teach them how the world will be in peaceful position we have to introduce. Now the days of wind will come from March.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Twice. Eight tablets.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Modern medicine, they would combine all those in one pill. When you take your massage, Śrīla Prabhupāda, do you find it more relaxing and beneficial if there's no talking going on, or...?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It doesn't matter. (break)

Prabhupāda: For us it is not joke.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nobody has such a distribution force. So here in India the only problem I can see towards actually doing big-scale book distribution is that we don't have so many devotees. And those who we have, have to maintain...

Prabhupāda: The difficulty is, in your country you are not poverty-stricken.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. We are making devotees.

Prabhupāda: And here they are poverty-stricken. Generally they come, join this institution, those who are poverty-stricken, not willingly, "Oh, here is a good institution. We should join." That is very rarely.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This...

Rāmeśvara: But the question is... This cloth.

Prabhupāda: Cloth should be...

Rāmeśvara: Because he was the spiritual master, would he be living in a very opulent house?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Rāmeśvara: So is this too opulent?

Prabhupāda: No.

Rāmeśvara: They have arches and...

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Rāmeśvara: Now, there is this other question about which hand... What was his question?

Parīkṣit: Would he be cursing with the right or left hand.

Rāmeśvara: What is the point?

Prabhupāda: Right or left hand, what problem?

Muralīdhara: When they curse someone, is there a certain...

Prabhupāda: No. Right hand is all right.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Rāmeśvara: There's another trend that I have noticed recently, that they have... In the past, formerly, many articles were full of quotes in Sanskrit, and recently they have not been using so much Sanskrit, but just the English. The magazine is, they say, is mostly sold...

Prabhupāda: That is not bad. Sanskrit, not necessarily it has to be quoted, but the English is there. It is sufficient. The purport is there.

Rāmeśvara: It's now... Now this magazine that we're printing in Los Angeles, ninety-five percent is sold in Canada and America. We used to ship some of it to England, but now they want to print their own in England. We find that all over the world they don't want to import from America, but they want their own. The public feels, "Why should this be an American import? Why not print it..."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: So therefore it seems like, more and more, this magazine is just for America. It's becoming like that.

Prabhupāda: So that's all right. They're printing in England. That's all right. So why not the same magazine, but different article?

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He told me that he was frustrated. That's why he gave it up. When he was in New York he told me that had become discouraged.

Prabhupāda: So if Bhagavān and he does not agree, then he should be given better place that both husband and wife, they can go on with the translation work. It is not that he has to remain under the control of Bhagavān. That is not necessary. Let him translate independently, and wherever he likes, he can remain. What do you think?

Hṛdayānanda: He is not so much a translator.

Rāmeśvara: His wife.

Prabhupāda: You see, nobody is translator. We have to accept whatever is offered. Kānā māmā (blind uncle). Without māmā, better a blind māmā. That's all. That is our policy. So to remain without māmā is not very good choice. Must have a māmā. Never mind he is blind. That is our policy. So now we are without māmā. Who is translating now?

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is that picture?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (reading) "Handicapped though, these foursome make a cheerful group as they paddle along on three wheelers every day from their homes in the King George Memorial Infirmary on Jagtap Marga, Maha-Lakshmi." Some invalids. "Mr. Jaya Prakash Narayan in a statement on Sunday came out strongly against the attempts of some people to lobby through him for personal favors and advancements from the Janata party government center." He doesn't like it. Everyone is going to him now. (pause) "The aim and object of the 42nd constitutional amendment was stated to be to establish the supremacy of the legislature, but in fact it was designed to establish the absolute authority of the executive as personified by the Prime Minister, according to Mr. C. K. Dapteri, former attorney general of India. Mr. Dapteri said, 'Everyone knows that misuse to which the power of preventative detention has been put in the last eighteen months. It is not necessary to recall or relay instances. But the power itself is so easily capable of being put to wrong use that it is unsafe to leave it in the hands of the executive government.' "

Prabhupāda: This will be amended now.

Conversation with disciples of Chinmayananda and Shivananda Ashram -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is it all right that they are brought in, or should we talk to them?

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not necessary to bring these people.

Prabhupāda: Distorting meaning.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This... The thing is, their guru is nonsense, so he's attracted nonsense disciples. They want to be cheated and they have the cheating guru.

Prabhupāda: They have come from Hawaii?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hawaii. Hawaii.(?)

Prabhupāda: Oh, oh, that Hawaii program(?).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two of them are disciples of Shivananda Ashram in Hrishikesh, and three of them are from Swami Chin... They're Swami Chinmayananda's disciples. Swami Chinmayananda has this program. He advertises for getting young men. Now they're the second batch. They study different Vedas and Upaniṣads. (end)

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: What is that "No, no, no"? You said that your mind is in chaotic condition.

Young man (4): Yes?

Prabhupāda: So you have to treat it.

Young man (4): Yes, but not necessarily through a psychiatrist. I mean, it's a matter of admitting to oneself that there is an impurity...

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Indian man (2): If I know that in my own mind my mind is chaotic...

Prabhupāda: Then if you know, then where is chaotic condition? This is nonsense.

Young man (4): Nonsense?

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you know, then where is chaotic condition?

Indian man (1): If you know that your mind is in a chaotic condition, your mind is not in a chaotic condition.

Young man (4): This is not what I'm saying. I say...

Prabhupāda: So what you say? We don't hear.

GBC Meets with Srila Prabhupada -- May 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Girirāja: So the signers on this account would be Tamāla Kṛṣṇa, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa and myself, two out of three.

Prabhupāda: Don't open many accounts at the bank. The same signer, one or two of them must sign the... The accounts may be in your books, but there is no necessity of opening so many accounts and different signers. That is not necessary.

Girirāja: Right. So these are actually the same signers as the Māyāpur-Vṛndāvana Fund.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Girirāja: And in some cases... I mean, there are different accounts distributed in different places that should be...

Prabhupāda: That you can keep in your books, not in the bank.

Girirāja: So all the funds can be consolidated...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Girirāja: ...in the accounts in Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Yes. To see your accounts...

Jayapatākā: This evening we're going to change the names.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Girirāja: No, no, what he's saying...

Rāmeśvara: We should consolidate the accounts. Just on paper keep it simple.

Girirāja: Yeah. And then for the BBT money the decision to give out loan should be unanimously approved by all three of us, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa, Gopāla and myself.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation with Surendra Kumar and O.B.L. Kapoor -- June 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is....

Surendra Kumar: Whom you want to call...

Prabhupāda: So you make everything complete today. You busy man...

Surendra Kumar: No, it is not necessary to make today. Let him have your full instructions, who are the people...

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we'll prepare a draft and read it to you.

Prabhupāda: Take every step, this inquiry. He's experienced.

Surendra Kumar: And, sir, it is very necessary to mention. I will write what Prabhupāda wants that "These people should be given..."

Prabhupāda: The simple thing is that they are...

Surendra Kumar: "...to get Indian citizenship because they are doing this work. They will be doing this work. And their long-time stay, permanent stay in India, will be beneficial for the great work that you have started."

Prabhupāda: And actually, because they are helping me, I have been able...

Surendra Kumar: They have been giving you help.

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say, these Europeans...

Surendra Kumar: Yes, yes, I know, disciples, they are...

Prabhupāda: Otherwise how could I do?

Letter from Yugoslavia--'Books!' -- June 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, okay. I'll make one for Rāmeśvara for duplication, and the rest, I'll make a few for keeping here. Śrīla Prabhupāda? When the visiting GBC man comes, he can assist me, work with me, and also, can he do what Śatadhanya Mahārāja is doing?

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. Whatever he can do, that's all. You are also doing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, I like to do.

Prabhupāda: So that is not... Nothing is compulsory. The important things...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Your taking care of me, that is your kindness to us.

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They all get fed sumptuously?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, food.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where...? Would you eat with them?

Prabhupāda: No. I was eating also, not necessarily with them. I was seeing that they are...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were in the room, though, while they were...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Acyutānanda was also doing very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cooking.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Acyutānanda, Satsvarūpa, Kīrtanānanda, these three persons would, on my direction, "Do like this. Do like this..."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They were cooking.

Prabhupāda: Hm. And stocked at night.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Surabhī: And if black is not... Bhagatji is looking for a black cow. He's been looking for the last two weeks. And also tulasī, he said. That is very important to take.

Prabhupāda: So you have? You can give me.

Surabhī: Other things are not necessary, he said.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā? No medicine?

Surabhī: No. No medicine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good doctor. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: So meet him again and take particularly everything. So you can go.

Surabhī: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Now I have to go. My train is leaving in about twenty minutes.

Prabhupāda: So you can go.

Surabhī: So I have to go to Mathurā. Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: You arrange. In this stage, don't tax me very much. Now I have authorized that will and everything. Follow that. You believe.

Room Conversation -- October 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Girirāja: I had a very wonderful meeting with the chairman of the bank. And he's ready to do anything to satisfy us and keep our business. So he said that he was going to get rid of the man who is on this counter, Mr. Gupta, and give us some more young, dynamic, cooperative person to be in charge over here. And we completed the formalities for transferring the fixed deposits to the main branch, and he assured me that it was a completely routine transaction and that if the local people tried to do anything to stop it, that he would himself personally see that it went through smoothly. So I gave them the certificates. It was not necessary to sign them. We just gave the certificates, and they gave us a receipt. And they're going to endorse the certificates. So they are payable from New Delhi instead of from Vṛndāvana, and then we can go and collect them. And the chairman also called the assistant general manager. He was also very nice and very sympathetic. So he's going to come on Saturday, and he's going to look into everything, all the difficulties here. And I said that he could bring his family and they could take prasādam. So they're all going to be coming on Saturday at about eleven o'clock. I had submitted a letter with eleven things that we wanted. You know, we want the hours to be regular, we wanted a new person here, we wanted our interest on time—just a list of different things. And he said that there's no problem, and they're just ready to do whatever we want. They gave the impression that they would dismiss any number of people here that were giving us trouble. But I said that I thought that the main person was this Mr. Gupta, and so they said they would replace him. It was very good. But still, even if there are improvements here, I think it's better to keep the fixed deposits in New Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- October 12, 1977, Vrndavana:

Kīrtanānanda: Ultimately, whatever he says we have to do if we're going to accept him. But he's also very understanding, and I think in your condition there may be no need for hospitalization. We need to get some regular care established. There was to be a regimen for recovery.

Prabhupāda: No, that I have already explained. I don't want to go to hospital.

Kīrtanānanda: So that is not necessary. (Prabhupāda coughs heavily) (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā Mahārāja has come from Māyāpur.

Prabhupāda: Come here. (heavy coughing) Mucus is generating, either you take milk or fruit juice. I have given my opinion in that correspondence. And he's a qualified man. If you want him, then somebody may go to him and talk.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, that should be done. We'll do that today.

Prabhupāda: He wanted to retire and start a clinic here.

Kīrtanānanda: So he can come now.

Prabhupāda: So we can help.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I do not know what to say.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know what to say. The devotees should all attend the conference. I think that's the point.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. But where (whether?) the conference is going on or Bhagatji's feast is going on? This is perplexing me.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why it is? Because some of the devotees may leave by next week. So Bhagatji wanted to have a feast when everyone was here. And I told him to arrange then for Thursday, which was yesterday. But he said that that was not sufficient time. Therefore then I told him, "Then if you can't arrange for Thursday, then the best day is Friday, because Saturday and Sunday are the more important days of the conference." I advised him that the feast should not be held simultaneously with the conference, but he said that there was no... (break) In other words, I attended the lecture and the program, but I came out on account of Bhagatji's invitation. The lecture should have been over by one according to their program that they published. But on account of the scientists' arriving late, they did not want to push anyone. This was the whole point, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I think it's just a, what would you call it, a circumstantial mistake. It was not planned that the two would..., one would interfere with the other. And the conference is in no way being interfered with. It's going on.

Prabhupāda: That I want.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhagavān: That Dr. Kapoor got up after Svarūpa Dāmodara's speech today and he said that actually it was very nice that Svarūpa Dāmodara had organized this program, but actually it was not necessary, because the whole problem can be solved very easily when we understand there is no such thing as matter. He was preaching the philosophy that this material world is false. He was getting up there and saying that actually this table does not exist. (laughs) Nothing actually exists. He said the table is made of molecules, and the molecules are invisible. Therefore the table is also invisible.

Abhirāma: What was the scientists' reaction to that?

Bhagavān: He just spoke right before the thing closed. Svarūpa Dāmodara tried to point out how there is a difference between matter and spirit in that one can definitely see the difference between a living body and a dead body. But he didn't actually go in too much detail to defeat his arguments. But I was very surprised that he would come up with such a Māyāvādī statement, that brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā philosophy. There are not so many scientists there today, maybe twenty. (kīrtana) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...let me pass. (pause)

Hari-śauri: If you're here with us, then that's all we need. Then we can go out and do anything.

Prabhupāda: Tomorrow shall I take the risk of taking little milk?

Hari-śauri: Generally when you take milk it causes lot of difficulty with mucus. This sweet lime juice, that seems to be doing some good, though. Perhaps it might be better not to take the milk for a little while until your system becomes more healthy.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...tomorrow probably. (indistinct) ...loan... Actually we're not loaning him that money. That money is being given as a gift to him. He was willing to pay it back. I said, no, this is a gift from you to him for improving his business. I said actually it's meant for each of the family members. I told him, "You use it now for improving your business. Then if business increases, you can eventually pay each one of them the money that they should have gotten." He said, "Very nice." And I explained to him what squandering meant. Now it is very clear. I told him that "You can use the money each month that you get. And all of you can use it for three things: for purchasing property, increasing business or buying government stocks." I said, "Prabhupāda's point is that whatever he's given you, it should increase in its value. He wants to see that it increases." And now it's very definite, so... Again I explained to him how there should be no difficulty with this, getting this... He's a little lazy. He's lazy. I could see that when he thought that the money was a donation, I think it came in his mind that "Even if the business deal doesn't go through, I still get the money." He should be encouraged, but his tendency is to be a little lazy. They should not be given money easily, too easily. Otherwise they won't work hard. He's also getting some money, he told me, from a fixed deposit in Calcutta from the BBT which he uses for travel expenses. He says gradually he will be paying some of that money back. He said that's why he sent you sometimes... He recently sent 870 rupees. He says that he's using it for travel expenses, and he may pay it back. I didn't know if you had arranged anything regarding that. You expect him to pay that money back, or not necessarily? It should be.

Prabhupāda: No, I expect.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, he's staying, but actually you are administering his medicine. It doesn't require...

Bhakti-caru: His presence.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Providing everything goes according to his plan. Yes, his presence is simply an encouragement, not necessarily a necessity so far.

Prabhupāda: If he cannot stay, let his medicine remain and let him go. But if you think that I am burden now...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, that's not what we think. We will never think that. There will never come that time.

Brahmānanda: We are the burden, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are the cause of your disease, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Brahmānanda: You have to drag us back to Godhead. That is a very big burden.

Prabhupāda: So as you think... But this morning I was fainting.

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So Upendra says that the time that you get faint is when you're sitting up. If you lay down you don't get faint. If the issue is that you got faint, then that's only because... I've seen you sitting in this bed and getting fainting sometimes, sitting up, fainting. Laying down... You can't faint when you lay down. Fainting is when you're sitting up. But practically the whole time you'll be sitting up, I mean laying down. And neither fainting is not necessarily... That is not a sign of death, fainting.

Prabhupāda: Fainting means of death.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda? I know myself, I have a history where I have fainted more than twenty-five times in my life, and I did not die. I fainted in so many different places. In the subways in New York...

Prabhupāda: You are young man, and I am already dead.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why don't we see what the kavirāja thinks, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Should we call him?

Prabhupāda: Hm. (whispering) Why "phish-phish"? Why not talk?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Why whispering?" Upendra was saying that not going is all right, but the fact that you are rejecting medicine, that is not good. So I was saying that I don't really think that you're rejecting the medicine, but you're taking that position so that we settle in between. (laughing)

Prabhupada Vigil -- November 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In the morning this symptom...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, you fainted... Although you don't remember sometimes, you have fainted at least a half a dozen times in the last month or two. I know you don't recall it, because we did not say anything. But we have seen you faint at least a half a dozen times, actually faint, falling backwards a little bit in bed when you were sitting up. In extreme weakness, fainting is natural. It is not necessarily a symptom of death. It's due to excessive weakness. The blood does not circulate properly in the head, and one faints. I mean people faint all over the world all the time.

Jayādvaita: On Janmāṣṭamī when they're fainting... When all the devotees fast, everyone faints. All day long they're fainting.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayādvaita: On Janmāṣṭamī, when there's mandatory fasting for all the devotees, half of the devotees are fainting throughout the day.

Brahmānanda: They faint?

Jayādvaita: Yes.

Bhavānanda: Subhaga always faints.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes devotees faint just from fasting one day. You have fasted for six months, Śrīla Prabhupāda. If you faint a little bit, it's not a sign of death.

Prabhupāda: No, no. I am welcoming death.

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, you have to stop.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, that's not necessarily the only solution, to stop. I just explained, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that that is not the only way. Another way may be that they add some other kind of medicine which stops the passing of stool. The medicine you're getting is supposed to be doing good to your kidney and liver. That it causes you to pass stool, that is not good, but at the same time, it may be doing good for the kidney and liver. If you stop taking it, then how will you heal the kidney and liver? Simply by not passing stool, that's not going to heal the kidney and liver. What we want is that you should not pass stool too much and at the same time you can still have your kidney and liver healed. Naturally, if you stop taking medicine, the stool may stop passing.

Prabhupāda: And he is not experienced.

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is warm now. Hm. (break) What Shastriji said?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. I had a nice talk with Shastriji, very detailed talk. He explained that the main... He said we have brought you to him at the very last possible moment. He said had we come six months earlier, so much easier it would have been. He said this time that we have called him just now was just timely that he came back again. He said that the main problem is the kidney. He said the kidney is working, otherwise you could not pass urine. And the medicine which he has given over the past week has had an effect, because the urine is increased. He explains that the whole body, there's very little blood due to not having eaten for so many months, and there's great weakness because of this. He says the muscles are all more or less gone; therefore you have no strength, because the blood is not there. And because you're so weak, he can't give strong medicine, because it will be too strong for you. He has to give it very, very carefully and slowly, in small doses. He says the kidney, urine goes downwards, and blood goes upwards. So the urine is passing. Now he's going to give... He started today already giving medicine which will help to form blood. And automatically... He says that... I asked him, "How will we know if it is working? Will Prabhupāda feel stronger?" He said, "Not immediately. I can't give it very much dose." He said, "I'll be able to tell it from the pulse." I guess that's the kavirāja's ability, that he can tell from the pulse. He said, "I'll be able to tell from the pulse that the medicine for creating more blood is being taken up by the body." Then we asked him... He said that it is better you don't sit up 'cause it puts strain on the heart. He said it's better you don't sit up for the next four days or so. Better that you lay down all the time. And that for feeding you, that we can feed you while you're laying down. He said it's not necessary that you take anything solid unless you want it. Liquids are good, he said, for now. Because the whole point is that he has to treat you very, very slowly. There's no question of rushing anything, because you're too weak. He said, if you want solids, that things should not be cooked in ghee. There should be no dahi. He gave some restrictions—not so many, but some. He said just like mālapuyā would not be good because it's cooked with ghee. I asked him frankly what he thought was your chances. He said that he felt your chances were quite good. He said the whole point is that... He said of course it depends on Kṛṣṇa. He said, "But the chances are very good. But it will be slow." I said, "But even if Prabhupāda recovers, what does that mean, 'recover'?" He said, "Recover means to be fit." I said, "What about like walking?" He said, "Fit means walking, talking, eating, everything." He said, "If this medicine works, then he should live for at least ten more years." He said that the treatment will take at least three or four months. It's a very slow treatment. He felt fairly confident. He feels there's a very good... He says that he treated one patient who had twenty ulcers, and every single physician said that the man had to die within a week to two weeks. And he made this man take 34 kilos of buttermilk per day, and the man survived. He got rid of all the ulcers and survived. He said he takes your case as very, very serious, though. It's most..., at the final point. I said, "Well, Prabhupāda says that he's dead. Now he says he even feels practically dead." The kavirāja said, "He's not dead. I have seen worse cases even than this, and they could survive. But I have to work very, very carefully. And Prabhupāda should keep good spirits," he said.

Prabhupāda: Let us see.

Page Title:Not necessary (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:19 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=152, Let=0
No. of Quotes:152