That is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Anāvṛṣṭyā durbhikṣa-kara-pīḍitāḥ (SB 12.2.9). Now kara-pīḍita, taxation. This is śāstra. Five thousand years ago this Bhāgavata was written, and he has given, Vyāsadeva has given the symptoms of Kali-yuga. One of the symptoms is this, that in the Kali-yuga people will be so much embarrassed by three things. One thing there will be no rain, scarcity of rain. And naturally there will be scarcity of... Durbhikṣa. Durbhikṣa means you will not be able to get anything by begging also. Bhikṣa, bhikṣa means if I have no subsistence, I have no means to eat, I go to... (break) Even if I beg, I become a beggar, there will be no supplies. Especially these things will be no supply: rice, wheat, sugar, and other things, there are mentioned. It is all particularly mentioned. And we are experiencing. You were telling that rice is not available. Where it is? Huh? Poland. I have seen in Moscow, you cannot get any fruit, you cannot get rice, you cannot get wheat. You can get only flesh, meat. And milk is available. These things. So now already it has begun, and ultimately as the Kali-yuga advances and people become very much advanced in denying the existence of God, nirākāra, these things will come. Wait for that punishment. Durbhikṣa, anāvṛṣṭyā durbhikṣa-kara-pīḍitāḥ (SB 12.2.9). And as soon as there will be scarcity of food, the government men will take advantage of it: "Now we have to supply food." "Where is food?" "No, you give me money, we shall purchase from importer." The taxation. One side, I am suffering—no food; another side—whatever money I have got, it will be taken by taxation. Now see what is your position. The position will be people will become mad, so much troubled. Ācchinna-dāra-draviṇā gacchanti giri-kānanam. People will be so much harassed that voluntarily they'll give up their family, home, and go to the forest, hopeless. This will be done. Don't think that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a joke, is a jugglery. It is the only remedy if you want to save yourself. Otherwise, you are doomed. Don't take it, I mean to say, as a joke. It is a fact.
Poland
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Festival Lectures
So recently... I am very pleased to say that our Harikeśa, I ordered him to go immediately to Poland, and he thought that he was being punished. That was... No. I was thinking that "Here is a very very intelligent boy. If he is given chance to preach he'll come out very successful." So I see the glimpses that he has got now post. He's a very good organizer. That's a chance. At that time he might have thought that I was separating him. No. My good will was there that he should be given chance for better opportunity. So I am very much happy that he is doing there very nice. So this should be the attitude. My Guru Mahārāja wanted me to preach in the Western countries, although I was at that time a ordinary manager in a chemical firm. I never thought, but I took it seriously. So from that 1922, in 1965 it was fruitful. How many years?
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: "I am in material world."
Śyāmasundara: We get letters from all over the world addressed to George Harrison care of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Temple London. (laughter) From Poland, from behind the Iron Curtain even. Russia, China, every place, they send.
Prabhupāda: And he has mentioned my Bhagavad-gītā in my name also.
David Lawrence: Yes.
Prabhupāda: In the in...? What is that?
Śyāmasundara: In the insert, in the record insert.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Greek dictionary. (break) ...France.
Haṁsadūta: Germany is bordered by many countries—Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland. So we are right in the center of Germany. So Germany is in the center of Europe.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...even a single stick like this in the laboratory. What do you think? You can?
Satsvarūpa: No.
Prabhupāda: What is scientist? Simply talking. Vikathyante. Vikathyante. This word is used in Bhāgavata. When one is covered by māyā, he talks so many nonsense things, vikathayante. (break)
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No, other countries, they are purchasing.
Indian man (1): Other...
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: East European countries like Poland, and these are all in the Communist block.
Prabhupāda: Anyway, if Moscow buys, purchases, that is...
Jayapatākā: If we translate into Russian then they'll probably take.
Prabhupāda: Yes, we shall consult. First of all, let them take. Then we shall propose them.
Prabhupāda: Nothing to receive.
Kīrtirāja: ...nothing to eat, no flowers. So they are not even distributing it.
Prabhupāda: So in Poland, there is no fruit, flower, eh?
Kīrtirāja: Flowers are almost one dollar for one carnation. Fruit, I... The only fruit I have seen is apples. Oranges are very expensive, and that is all.
Prabhupāda: Apples and that strawberry. In Russia, I have seen only strawberry. That's all. No fruit..., no other fruit. Fruit means strawberry. These rascals do not see that they are being punished by nature.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi)
Dr. Patel: (break) ...a lot of money in America. These boys are all from there. They are very good boys. You can get butter from Poland (Holland?).
Prabhupāda: We can get everything, but the government will not allow. That is the difficulty. We can get grain, food...
Dr. Patel: I think grain they would allow. So many Christian institutions from America donate butter and ghee and rice and wheat to the Christian churches here. I think they would not object. We have not tried, perhaps.
Prabhupāda: No, we are trying. In Bengal they are trying.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Gurudāsa: They're going to distribute it on that train that goes into Russia. By the way, Śrīgarbha came to me and said, "I'm sorry for all your difficulty. I wanted to preach in Poland again." That boy? So he's going to deposit his wife and go to Poland.
Prabhupāda: Deposit where?
Gurudāsa: He wants to do it in Florida.
Prabhupāda: Yes, Florida is nice place.
Gurudāsa: Because he feels she's protected there. I said, "You'll feel that she is protected there, and then you'll have a free mind to preach?" And he said, "Yes, rather than in Europe." So I said, "All right." In your letter you wrote, "Let it go for now." Again you saw the future. "Let it go for now." Then he came.
Prabhupāda: No, no.
Gurudāsa: I think we're stopping the train. We stopped the train.
Hari-śauri: We didn't even move, did we?
Gurudāsa: Well, we started to, but everyone...
Hari-śauri: We started to move.
Gurudāsa: All the devotees pulled these things.
Rāmeśvara: This I'm putting underneath here, Hari-śauri.
Hari-śauri: Where's Abhirāma? He should go see that Mr. Machoris right away.
Bhavānanda: Fulfills all desires. (voices, shuffling)
Gurudāsa: So after the Mela I'm going to Vṛndāvana to the roots. Then after that I'm going to Poland.
Rāmeśvara: These buckets don't need to be in here.
Hari-śauri: No, actually I can handle it. Just let everything sit for now, and I'll get it. (end)
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Satsvarūpa: He's bringing... I have a map of all that they've done very recently. Right now they're in Germany.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. We have received one telegram from where? Poland.
Devotee (1): Poland University.(?)
Satsvarūpa: Harikeśa Mahārāja has programs in all those countries: Poland, Hungary...
Prabhupāda: He is very enthusiastic. (laughs)
Satsvarūpa: Oh, yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore I asked him that "You go there." Rāmeśvara: Gargamuni Mahārāja has sold 550 standing orders in six months.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Brahmānanda: They have no vegetables available. I read in the newspapers here in India now that Poland, they are putting up a vodka factory. Punjab.
Prabhupāda: What is that vodka?
Brahmānanda: It's a liquor made from potato. So now they're making a factory in Punjab.
Prabhupāda: Punjab?
Brahmānanda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: So government has allowed.
Prabhupāda: So government has allowed.
Brahmānanda: Oh, yes. So they will make vodka here for exporting to Poland because the Polish people like vodka very much. So now they will produce in India.
Prabhupāda: The Polish Embassy is there near our Calcutta for seeing this business going on.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Side by side, we are on the opposite business.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Things are deteriorating everywhere.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very quickly.
Prabhupāda: In Russian?
Harikeśa: Yes. Dvārakeśa, he's now a Swedish citizen. Dvārakeśa. I sent him to Poland. You know Dvārakeśa? He was that boy who was going to go to Hungary? He's a Hungarian. He was going to go back to Hungary and become a Hungarian.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Harikeśa: So he's become a Swedish citizen. Now he can come and go as he likes everywhere. So now he's in Poland, and in Poland there are many Russians and it is very easy to get a book translated by them. Otherwise with Dvārakeśa it takes so long.
Hari-śauri: There's a man in New Vrindaban who speaks fluent Russian. He graduated in Russian.
Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes, he wanted to pay me. What is the amount?
Guru dāsa: Four thousand five hundred dollars. He gave it to me because he trusts me. Then Poland, we're very excited about going. Now there are six men, including Umāpati, and in two weeks we are meeting in Germany, and we are going to chalk out our preaching program. I think it will be very good.
Prabhupāda: Now the time is favorable. The Russians are ordering our books. And there is a prediction, the Russians will be first-class theists.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: First-class theists.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That they are realizing. And they have got respect for Indian culture. And because our books are always with reference to the old Sanskrit verse, and we are explaining that, they have got natural attraction. That is possible.
Guru dāsa: There are trade agreements between Poland and India too, now. So we may even be able to open up channels on cultural or trade basis from India from our side with Poland to give us a very established position in those countries.
Prabhupāda: These dollars has to be deposited in Bank of America. Other bank will not take.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Any bank will convert.
Prabhupāda: No.
Prabhupāda: Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, that is saved. So when you are returning?
Guru dāsa: I will be leaving here tomorrow. Then I am going to Delhi to get visa from India side to Poland, because it is better. And then I'll go. So... (offers obeisances to Śrīla Prabhupāda) Thank you very much. (break)
Gargamuni: ...from one very important Hindi scholar, and he is Dr. V. P. Singh, M.A. Hindi, M.A. Sanskrit, Ph.D. literature, and he's the senior professor and head of the department of Hindi, and Dean of Faculty of Arts of Benares Hindi University at Benares. So he writes about your Hindi Bhāgavatam, which has just come out: "It gives me great pleasure to review these publications of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Especially I am appreciating this Hindi edition of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, complete with original Sanskrit text, word-for-word synonyms, and a marvelously lucid Hindi translation.
Prabhupāda: No, whole Vṛndāvana likes him. Nobody speaks against him.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, he always discusses a lot of kṛṣṇa-kathā. He likes to talk about Kṛṣṇa. He is going to Poland.
Prabhupāda: Yeah. He speaks in the university very nicely.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: His wife is also nice, but when they are combined together, they become little spoiled. He becomes little lusty. That is his wife's complaint. I got them married in San Francisco. (pause) So you can give another letter to the manager, Bank, "You take eighty thousand from current account and twenty thousand is coming from Calcutta. Both together, you make one M.M.D., M.M.D.A."
Prabhupāda: Yes, as far as I can see, finished. Yes. Jaya.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now the next group will come, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for kīrtana.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)
Prabhupāda: Now he is introducing in Russian language a textbook. In Russian, is it not?
Harikeśa: Polish.
Prabhupāda: Poland. They have been introduced. This is achievement. I want that. Hm. Go on. (kīrtana) (end)
Prabhupāda: He is very intelligent.
Dr. Sharma: (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: He's organizing this, that Poland, communist country. He has accepted hard knot. And knocking. (Bengali)
Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, would you like to go up to the roof now?
Prabhupāda: I have no objection. (Bengali) You are all able.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: (aside:) Yeah, tomorrow I'll go and see everything.
Prabhupāda: (Bengali) So? No, I shall go. Utsāhād dhairyāt tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt, sato vṛtteḥ sādhu..., ṣaḍbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati. (break)
Correspondence
1973 Correspondence
I am glad to note the work of Cakravarti and Prthu at the Belgrade Book Fair. This is real progress. So from all the literatures you are distributing you spend this money for spreading Krsna consciousness in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and East Germany, and prepare men. Put all of our books into the local languages.
It is good that you are maintaining stocks of our books for being distributed. Can you supply paper to India? If you can send paper from the Book Fund. We can print some books locally. If it is possible, then send paper samples to me. Here there is a scarcity of paper.
1975 Correspondence
Regarding your preaching in Poland, you go there immediately. Take this opportunity. I want that our preaching be pushed in the Eastern European countries. I have recently written to Bhagavan Das and Hamsaduta regarding this. This boy who has written from Poland, can be sent a set of books, Krishna Book, Caitanya Caritamrta, and Bhagavad-gita. If he cannot pay that is all right. You are an intelligent boy, and I know that you will be successful in preaching there.
I am in due receipt of your letter dated October 8, 1975, and I have noted the contents carefully.
As soon as someone is trained then go to preach very nicely in Poland. Try to make some literature in Polish and Russian. Anyone can be trained to execute orders in sending out the books but preaching requires special qualification. So you have this good qualification for preaching and now do it very nicely.
I am in due receipt of your letter dated December 7, 1975. I am very please to note your activities in Warsaw Poland. Yes if you can arrange for the translation of my books in Polish language that will please me very much. We do not have to manufacture anything new. We are getting perfect knowledge from krishna through the disciplic succession, so our position is very firm. Whatever we hear from the bona fide spiritual master should be practiced in life and the same message delivered to whomever we meet. In this way you become spiritual master.
1976 Correspondence
I beg to thank you for your letter dated 3rd January, 1976, giving a report of your preaching in Poland. I also received your letter dated December 7th, 1975 and replied it.
Yes, you should get my books translated into Polish. Wherever our books are being distributed, our movement is established on a firm basis. Therefore I came to your country with books. So try to get the books translated.
As far as your danda goes if it is too troublesome to carry there is no need for it. Lord Caitanya's danda was broken by Nityananda Prabhu and He never carried it again. But if you want you can make another although for preaching purposes it may be dropped.
I am very very pleased with your preaching in Poland and you should continue this program with full enthusiasm. Your coming to Vrndavana is not so important and it may wait. Please expand this program more and more for there is a very good and favorable field there. Try and start a center there, it seems possible. Continue this program of kirtana and prasadam for this will conquer their hearts as they have never experienced anything like it before. I know you are a sincere preacher and they will appreciate your good Vaisnava qualities. Please send me reports of your future successes. Thank you very much.
I am in due receipt of your letter dated 1st inst. and have noted the contents. Harikesa has gone there to Poland to preach as you are doing, so take him with you. I have given him $1,000.00 for immediate expenditure and he has to return this as soon as possible. So he has gone yesterday morning, perhaps by this time he has reached. He likes to work jointly with Sucandra, but if Sucandra is not free then he may join with you.
Harikesa was doing nice preaching work and recently he has received one letter from Sucandra. Both of them can work there very nicely. So, as you know, I am interested very much for preaching work. I have sent him yesterday to Poland etc. I have given him one month's expenditure, also including his fare. I have paid him $950.00. He's enthusiastic to preach in that part of the world in co-operation with Sucandra. Try to encourage him in preaching work. So far this $950.00 it is given to him as loan and is to be returned as soon as possible.
I am in due receipt of your letter dated 2/11/76.
Now you have got good contact in Poland. You must immediately supply the books for the University library. It is a very good order. Yes, encourage them to visit other libraries. It is my earnest desire to have my books translated and published in Russian and Polish. Yes, the translations must be checked. Work with Jayatirtha in that connection. I think Easy Journey to Other Planets will be very much appreciated because it is the scientific basis of our Krishna Consciousness Movement. I approve your plan to relocate to Bhaktivedanta Manor within the next year.
I am in due receipt of your letter dated 14/11/76.
I am very happy to hear that you are going to Poland. Bharadraja also speaks Polish. He may come there sometimes if it can be arranged. Sri Garbha's wife doesn't have to go to Mayapur, she may go to the farm in France. it is very nice there. Or she may go to any of our farms. The preaching in Poland is the first consideration. Vrindaban is being managed somehow by others. Aksayananda has one man who is collecting very well (Rs. 15,000-20,000 per month) Vrindaban is becoming self-dependent. If you can preach vigorously in Poland it will be a great asset. You may come to Vrindaban if you like, but preaching in Poland is my greater interest.
I am in due receipt of your letter dated 6/12/76.
Jagadisa informs me that Sri Garbha came to him saying that he preferred to go to Mayapur, but that due to pressure from you he had agreed to go to Poland. So, for the time being let him go to Mayapur. We require many men there also. When he has to leave India he can then go to Poland. Are you going to Vrindaban?
1977 Correspondence
I beg to thank you for your letter dated 8th March, 1977. It is very encouraging.
I am very grateful to the boy and girl who are distributing our books in Poland. Gradually, it will be alright if they are initiated. In their case some special concession may be made to encourage them, even they cannot follow so strictly. Let them continue still a little longer before initiation.
The program of preaching aboard the Russian ships is very nice. You are very intelligent. As to which way to preach aboard the ship, do you think best.
The best thing will be if you and your family stay in Poland over a long period of time so that you can train the interested persons. At the same time others may come and go visiting for book distribution. You should try to get residency and if you can get property there that is very nice. That is our main business, that by our association we should try to train people up in our philosophy and principles. Yes, I approve your idea to have a sankirtana party in America to support the Polish preaching. You have got good intelligence so utilize it properly and Krishna will help you.
| Page Title: | Poland |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 18 of Dec, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=2, Con=17, Let=13 |
| No. of Quotes: | 32 |