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Powerful (Conversations 1975 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"powerful" |"powerfully" |"powerfulness"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: powerful or powerfully or powerfulness not "very powerful*" not "all powerful" not "most powerful"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Metaphysics Society -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: God is person. That I have already explained, that the government is impersonal, the president is person, but the president is more important than the whole government. Just like a man in the court of the government is condemned to die. So there is no law in the government which can save him. But if the president shows him mercy, he can save him. Therefore, the president is more powerful than all the laws in the government. Therefore he is important. What does he say?

Guest (Hṛdayānanda): He said there are many examples where the laws of the government are superior to the president. For example, in America where Nixon was pulled down by the laws.

Prabhupāda: But one law... When he was president, he was powerful than the government. When he resigned from the presidency, then he became less important. This is a crude example. The another example is that the sunshine is universally spread, and the sun globe is situated in one place. So which is important, the sun globe or the sunshine? And just like this light is situated in one place and the illumination is spread. So what is important, the illumination or the lamp? The fire is one place, and the fire light and heat is expanded, so the fire is localized, and the light and heat is expanded many miles. So which is important, the fire or the heat and light? Therefore, God is person, but He is not a person like you and me. But His personality is expanded just like the heat and light of the fire is expanded. Similarly, whatever we see, that is the expansion of God's energy. Just like there are many big businessman. The man is person, but he is conducting hundreds of factories, big, big area. The factories are important or the man is important? If an ordinary person in this material world becomes so important and personal, you can just imagine how the person of God is important in spite of unlimited expansion of this material world. So what is his idea? The person is ultimately important. The impersonal feature is there, just like the impersonal feature, sunshine, but the sun globe, and within the sun globe there is sun-god. The sunshine is the expansion of the energy of the sun globe and within the sun globe there is sun-god. So which is important, the sun globe, the sun-god or the sunshine? Which is important? The sunshine is important?

Guest: All of them.

Room Conversation with Metaphysics Society -- February 21, 1975, Caracas:

Guest (Hṛdayānanda): He said that you have said that God expands, but this implies that God modifies Himself or changes.

Prabhupāda: No. That is God. He can expand unlimitedly; still, He remains as He is. That is, means, unlimited. Just like if you have got hundred dollars in your pocket, then if it is spent, one dollar, one dollar, one dollar, then ultimately you become zero. But about God it is said, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). That means you take hundred dollars. Still, the hundred dollar is there. Similarly, God as He is, He can expand Himself in millions and millions separately; still, He is the same million. That is called God. If we take God in our conception, that "I have got hundred dollars. I spend hundred dollars. It is zero," but God is not like that. God can expand Himself as God unlimitedly; still, He remains the same. There is another nice example. Just like you take one candle and you lit up another candle, you lit up another candle, another candle and millions of candle, but this candle remains the same powerful, and all the candles lit up, they are also same power. But for our understanding, we take the original candle as first candle, the next as second candle, the third, fourth, fifth, millions. But each candle is equally powerful, and the original candle is still there. So by this expansion, God does not diminishes. That is the meaning of God, and that is the meaning of unlimited.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Brahmānanda: It is difficult to come to that understanding, that actually, those who are the leaders are not to be trusted.

Prabhupāda: Yes, leaders means government men. That is described. They are all thieves and rogues, anywhere. Dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. Dasyu. Dasyu means plunderers, rogues. Unless you become a rogue you cannot go to the government. You cannot... Any honest man cannot stay with these government men. That is not possible at the present age. Any government. Unless... Just like first-class rogue, your Nixon, he became the president. Because he was a first-class rogue, he became the president. So unless you are first-class rogue, you cannot stay within the circle of government men. Rājanya dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. And their business will be to eat up the vital force of the people. Bhakṣayiṣyanti prajā sarve rājanya dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. This is the statement. And people will be harassed. On account of their godlessness, they will be harassed by three things: famine, no rain, and taxation. Taxation by the government, and there will be no rain, there will be famine, no food, and they will be so much embarrassed that they will give up their family and go away, gacchanti giri-kananam, will go, enter into the hills and forest, giving up their hearth and home. This is Kali-yuga. And this is due to their godlessness. On account of this, then the democracy, means anyone, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, anyone who becomes powerful, he will capture the government post. So the śūdras, they are now powerful. Śūdras. Industry means śūdra. So they will capture the governmental power. Just like Communist.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- March 13, 1975, Tehran:

Indian man (1): A lot of dangers will be there. We'll be putting ourself into trouble.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are in trouble. Even last war, when the trouble was too much, they began to go to the church. Even Churchill. And one gentleman—he is my Godbrother in Germany—he told me, after this war many German men and women became atheist. Everyone went to the church and prayed. Especially women prayed for return of their husband, brother, father. And nobody returned. So they thought, "There is no God. So forget about all these things." People became atheist. So this risky civilization is going on. They don't want to know what is God, neither they want to satisfy Him. And our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is just the opposite, that "Here is God. You satisfy Him." That's all. "Never mind what you are, but by your occupational duty you satisfy Him. That is perfection." This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And this is taught in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa ultimately said this: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). In the beginning He said, yat karoṣi yat juhoṣi yad aśnāsi yat tapasyasi kuruṣva tad mad arpaṇam: (BG 9.27) "Do it for Me." Yat karoṣi. It doesn't matter what you are doing. And very good work or bad work or anything, when He says, yat karoṣi, means "Whatever you are doing, do it, but the result give Me." Kuruṣva tad mad-arpaṇam. This is His desire. And at last again He said that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. This is the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, and if somebody would say that "Simply I have to satisfy You? Then I have to satisfy others also. If I do not do, then I will be sinful," that, Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ: (BG 18.66) "Don't worry. If there is any reaction, not doing other duty, simply to surrender to Me, and if there is sinful reaction, then I'll give you protection. Don't worry." This is the conclusion. And we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, that's all, without any malinterpretation. Everyone is interpreting in his own way. But we are not interpreting. We are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. And it is becoming effective. Bhagavad-gītā was studied in the Western countries since a long time, since seventeenth century—but not like this. Before me, many swamis, yogis, they came to the Western countries, and most of them spoke on Bhagavad-gītā, but not a single person was a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. But now they are becoming by hundreds because the Bhagavad-gītā is presented as it is. This is the comparison. We have got Christians, Mohammedans, then Buddhist, Africans. Everyone we have got in our society, all very devout executor of our mission. Now here is Mr. Attar. Now he is Atreya Ṛṣi. Whatever he is earning, he is spending for Kṛṣṇa. Saṁsiddhiḥ hari-toṣaṇam. He is trying to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted. So in the dictionary it is stated, "Kṛṣṇa is a Hindu god." He is not a Hindu god; He is God. But He appeared in India. He remained in the Vedic culture. Lord Buddha was also Hindu. And he was in Vedic culture. Later on he spread his own mission. That is also Hindu culture, ahiṁsā, nonviolence. Lord Buddha... keśava dhṛta-buddha. The same Kṛṣṇa, His powerful avatāra, Lord Buddha. Keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare. We offer our prayers to Lord Buddha. Christ was also for twelve years in India. He... Christ, the word Christ and kristo, there is similarity. He also propagated love of God. That is Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk Excerpt -- March 14, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: ...they assemble together and people are unhappy. They have renounced democracy, eh? Communist?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Well, they have some sort of democracy themselves.

Prabhupāda: No, they are dictatorship. Actually Stalin's dictatorship was going on.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. It's all dictatorship. Democracy is also a dictatorship, but by election. They elect a fool, and then he can be..., do whatever he wants.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Yes.

Atreya Ṛṣi: He will try to be as powerful as he can. (end)

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

Guest: They accept as supreme power.

Prabhupāda: No, supreme power must be that... Behind the power there must be powerful.

Guest: They say powerful but what about...

Prabhupāda: Yes, then we have to know this powerful, not only the power. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). In another place, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā (Bs. 5.44). Durgā is power. Power is in... What kind of power? Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka. She can create, she can maintain and she can destroy, so powerful. But this power, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir eka chāyeva (Bs. 5.44), is working just like shadow. Just like here is shadow. I am moving this hand; the shadow is moving. Shadow is not independently moving. Therefore this gigantic power, material energy, is working under the direction of Kṛṣṇa. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa: (BG 9.10) "under My superintendence." So we are allured with the power, but who is manipulating this power we do not know. That is God.

Morning Walk -- April 3, 1975, Mayapur:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They think that we are limiting God by saying that He's a person, or that He has form.

Prabhupāda: That is their foolishness. That is their foolishness. They are thinking God a person like me, like himself. That is foolishness. They cannot conceive that a person can become so powerful than myself. That is the defect. A person has acintya-śakti, acintya-śakti, inconceivable power. Now, just like you are person. You cut your hair. It is growing. Do you know how it is growing?

Haṁsadūta: No.

Prabhupāda: Then? Even it is beyond your conception, what to speak of others. But it is growing. It is... If there is any scar or if the nail is broken some way or other, it will come out. But... You cannot manufacture it by conceiving. But it is coming out. That means within you there is an inconceivable power. So if you have got, an ordinary human being, so much inconceivable power, how much God has got inconceivable power. That is God.

Morning Walk -- May 7, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Mountains. (pause) ...it is said that sun is the source of everything within this universe. Maintenance of all living entities. The source within the universe is the sun. Therefore this Gāyatrī mantra is worshiping the sun, oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat savitur vareṇyaṁ bhargo devasya dhīmahi.

Gaṇeśa: Does that mean that Vivasvān is more powerful than Lord Brahmā?

Prabhupāda: No. Vivasvān was begotten by Brahmā.

Amogha: Some Kali-yuga swans.

Prabhupāda: Black swans. Bhara nitya bhayamāyā. They are also aware how to protect their interest. Every living being knows how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex, and how to defend from fear. These trees I find in America. Here, they are scented. What is called, these? Canada.

Morning Walk -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Communism means terrorism. That I have seen. I have studied personally. By threat, by pressure, that's all. Nobody is communist in Russia.

Jayadharma: Is the whole world going to become Communist, Prabhupāda? Or is the whole world going to become Kṛṣṇa cons...

Prabhupāda: Nobody is Communist, but if the demons are powerful, they will declare.

Paramahaṁsa: They will introduce it.

Prabhupāda: They will not introduce; they will declare like that, falsely. That's all.

Paramahaṁsa: Even in some countries where Communism has a very light influence, like in Thailand there's a little bit of Communist influence, when they had a student revolt, the government came in with tanks and machine guns and immediately killed about three thousand students.

Prabhupāda: In Thailand?

Paramahaṁsa: Yes. In Bangkok. That was about two years ago.

Prabhupāda: Oh, just see.

Morning Walk -- May 18, 1975, Perth:

Amogha: They are all rascals, so the best rascal they say he is first-class. First-class rascal.

Prabhupāda: That I was explaining, big animal and small animal. Cats and dogs praising one lion.

Amogha: Hm.

Prabhupāda: A lion is also an animal. But they are thinking, "Oh, one lion." But we are thinking that it is also animal. The cats and dogs, they are thinking, "Oh, lion is so big, so powerful." But human being is thinking this is also an animal, big animal. Is it not? (laughs) Tell them. Cats and dogs may praise some another animal, tiger and... But are the tigers other than animal? He is also animal.

Devotee: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)

Prabhupāda: When I was saying that we are creating first-class men. So are you, are you claiming that you are first-class?

Amogha: Yes, he was asking us. Yes, he said, "Have you become?" (laughter)

Prabhupāda: What did you say?

Amogha: I said we are becoming. Yes, we can see. (offers obeisances) (end)

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1975, Honolulu:

Bali-mardana: They are thinking that they can control that accident.

Prabhupāda: You are not controlling. There are so many happenings, that big waves come, and overflood, and there is earthquake, and everything is finished. So you are not controlling accident, even if we accept accident. Accident is not under your control. That Madhudviṣa was telling: in Darwin there was so big, powerful wind, the motor buses were flying.

Bali-mardana: In America, tornadoes, they just destroyed one very big city.

Gurukṛpa: But the thing would be too simple. If they accepted there was God, they would be out of a job, and then there would be nothing more to speculate about.

Bali-mardana: They would lose their jobs.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) That is another poor fellow. If by bluffing like this, they can continue their office, that is another thing. In our childhood we were living in a quarter: there many thieves, pickpockets. So we... After all, they were neighborhood men, so they knew us. Although we had no connection, but we knew that "These are pickpockets, gundas." And they also knew us. So I remember, now, children, one pickpocket was taking, and as soon as he saw me... (laughter) He was afraid that "This boy may tell." We have seen it. He was doing... Similarly, these rascals are pickpockets, and they are asking us, "Don't expose us. Let us do."

Morning Walks -- June 18-19, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: No, it is a fact. This factory working is most demonic. It is not required at all. For the interest of a few persons this device has been invented. Therefore the Communist movement is there. And the China has found the Communistic movement in Russia is defective because although it is Communistic, the whole idea of exploitation by the powerful is there.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes, that is their argument actually.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And that is the fact. And Chinese Communism will be perfect if they take little instruction from us. We are also Communist, Kṛṣṇa Communist. We want that everyone should be happy. The Communistic philosophy is also like that. They want to see everyone happy. But they have made a materialistic center. That will not help. People are attracted to these bad habits of materialistic civilization. The most important is that sex and intoxication and meat-eating and gambling. So their attraction has to be changed. Otherwise, although these Chinese, they are pushing in the village, that village also will be a brothel. They must have some attraction. So where is that attraction? Just like the hippies. They do not like this civilization, but the attraction for the sex and intoxication they could not give up. So they remain the nasty again in a different way. The process should be mayy āsakta-manaḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ. That attraction. Mayy āsakta. "The attraction which you..., should be changed to Me." This yoga should be practiced. Then it will be all right. The same example: if you keep the dogs as dog, there is no possibility of making a peaceful dog society. That is not possible. You have to change their doggish quality. Then there will be peace. How you can expect peaceful society amongst the dogs?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is sattva-guṇa. Good character means sattva-guṇa, to become brāhmaṇa and then love God. This is Vedic civilization.

Jayatīrtha: Does he make any description of God? Any explanation?

John Mize: His thesis is that God is an intelligent moral force. But he avoided anthropomorphism by not projecting such properties as anger onto God. But he recognized personality in God. God is a moral intelligence and powerful.

Prabhupāda: So to become angry, that is also qualification of God, to become angry.

John Mize: Is...?

Prabhupāda: To become angry is also qualification of God.

John Mize: I don't understand what you last said. To be angry is...

Bahulāśva: A quality of God. To become angry is a quality of God.

Prabhupāda: Because unless there is anger in God, how there is anger in me? But we, as we misuse our independence, we misuse our anger. And God does not misuse his independence; He does not misuse His anger. But the anger quality is there. Otherwise, how I have got anger? This is the Vedānta philosophy. Janmādyasya yataḥ: "Everything is emanating from the Supreme." So if the anger is there, it must be there.

Room Conversation with Lt. Mozee, Policeman -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere.

Lt. Mozee: Everywhere.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everywhere. This is the age of forgetting God. We say it is Kali-yuga. Kali-yuga means the age of misunderstanding. And that is, I said, dirty things within the heart. So God is so powerful that if we chant the holy name of God, then we become purified. So our movement is based on this principle, chant the holy name of God. We give all facilities to everyone without any distinction that "You come with us. Come in our temple, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and take little prasādam, refreshment, and gradually you become purified." So if the government authorities give us facilities for this business, that we hold mass saṅkīrtana, Hare Kṛṣṇa, and give them little prasādam, then we are sure the whole place will change.

Lt. Mozee: If I understand you then correctly, sir, you would say that the emphasis should be returned to the religious aspects.

Prabhupāda: Certainly. Without religious aspect what is the difference between dog and man? Man can be turned to be a religious man, the dog cannot be. That is the difference between dog and man. So if you keep the human society to the status of dogs and cats, how you can expect peaceful society? If you bring one dozen of dogs and if you want to keep them peacefully, is it possible? So if we keep human society as dogs, then how you can expect peacefulness?

Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: They are trying to dominate the material nature, the so-called scientists. But they do not know that they are under the domination of material nature. They are forgetting that. If you are more powerful, if you are dominating me, how I can dominate you? That they do not know, that we are under the domination of material nature. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). The domination is manifest by four things: birth, death, old age, and disease. I cannot dominate my birth, death, old age, and disease and I am trying to dominate over nature. Just foolishness. Big, big scientist, did he dominate over death, Professor Einstein? Did not he die? Why he could not find out any means that he will not die? What is the meaning of the science? If you are dominated by the laws of material nature, how you are thinking that you shall dominate over material nature? When death comes can you dominate? "No, no, I am scientist. Just wait." No, you must die immediately. So where is your domination? You are dominated by material nature. That is the mistake of the present society, that everyone is being dominated by the material nature and the so-called scientist is trying to dominate over material nature.

Television Interview -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Woman reporter: Not in the 1900's. Why do you use the technology that you use? You didn't have cars in those days, this television. Things have changed since 1920.

Prabhupāda: So what change has become? Can you give any evidence that woman is more powerful in brain than the man during these years? Can you give any evidence?

Woman reporter: No, what I'm saying is that...

Prabhupāda: Now, can you give any evidence that woman has become more powerful than the man during these fifty years?

Woman reporter: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is that? Give me some tacit example.

Woman reporter: That she and I wouldn't be here if women weren't more powerful than they were fifty years ago.

Harikeśa: Now they are talking louder. (laughter)

Woman reporter: Than you. Thank you. (woman leaves)

Harikeśa: The scientists have the theory that the brain, the intelligence is measured by creases in the brain, creases, not by size.

Prabhupāda: Not size, but what is the proof that the brain of woman has increased? Where is the proof?

Harikeśa: They think because the ego has increased, the brain has also increased.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. (laughter) That's nice. (laughing) So to become angry means defeat. If two persons are in argument the man, the one party, he becomes angry, that means he is defeated. Why one should become angry? It is the argument, logic. They should continue. And to become angry and to go away, that means defeat.

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1975, Chicago:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who was that, Romaharṣaṇa Muni?

Prabhupāda: Romaharṣaṇa. (break) ...basic principle of Vedic civlization. They did not... Vyāsadeva, such a learned scholar, he was sitting in a cottage. Lord Śiva, such a big powerful, and the whole material energy, Parvati, is his wife—he is sitting under a tree.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Therefore a sannyāsī is always moving around, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Vairāgya. That is required. That is civilization. Vairāgya and jñāna. Jñāna-vairāgya, knowledge and renunciation, or detachment, this is the goal of human life. Because he is attached to this material world, he has to take birth after birth, birth after birth. So to save this botheration, one has to be detached. This is the basic principle of Vedic civilization, jñāna-vairāgya. And detachment is possible when one is in full knowledge, jñāna. And this bhakti-yoga process is detachment. Vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam (CC Madhya 6.254). So it is a civilization of detachment, not attachment.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: No, kamam vavarsa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4).

Satsvarūpa: Oh, yes. Purport. "The basic principle of economic development is centered about land and cows. The necessity of human society are food grains, fruits, milk, minerals, clothing, wood, etc. One requires all these items to fulfill the material needs of the body. Certainly one does not require flesh and fish or iron tools and machinery. During the regime of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, all over the world there were regulated rainfalls. Rainfalls are not in the control of the human being. The heavenly King Indradeva is the controller of rains, and he is the servant of the Lord. When the Lord is obeyed by the king and the people under the king's administration, there are regulated rains from the horizon, and these rains are the cause of all varieties of production on the land. Regulated rains not only help ample production of grains and fruits, but when they combine with astronomical influences there is ample production of valuable stones and pearls. Grains and vegetables can sumptuously feed a man and animals, and a fatty cow delivers enough milk to supply a man sumptuously with vigor and vitality. If there is enough milk, enough grains, enough fruit, enough cotton, enough silk and enough jewels, then why do the people need cinemas, houses of prostitution, slaughterhouses, etc.? What is the need of an artificial luxurious life of cinema, cars, radio, flesh and hotels? Has this civilization produced anything but quarreling individually and nationally? Has this civilization enhanced the cause of equality and fraternity by sending thousands of men into a hellish factory and the warfields at the whims of a particular man? It is said here that the cows used to moisten the pasturing land with milk because their milk bags were fatty and the animals were joyful. Do they not require, therefore, proper protection for a joyful life by being fed with a sufficient quantity of grass in the field? Why should men kill cows for their selfish purposes? Why should men not be satisfied with grains, fruits and milk, which, combined together, can produce hundreds and thousands of palatable dishes. Why are there slaughterhouses all over the world to kill innocent animals? Mahārāja Parīkṣit, grandson of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, while touring his vast kingdom, saw a black man attempting to kill a cow. The King at once arrested the butcher and chastised him sufficiently. Should not a king or an executive head protect the lives of the poor animals who are unable to defend themselves? Is this humanity? Are not the animals of a country citizens also? Then why are they allowed to be butchered in organized slaughterhouses? Are these the signs of equality and fraternity and nonviolence? Therefore, in contrast with the modern, advanced, civilized form of government, an autocracy like Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira's is by far superior to so-called democracy in which animals are killed and a man less than an animal is allowed to cast votes for another less than animal man. We are all creatures of material nature. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that the Lord Himself is the seed-giving father and material nature is the mother of all living beings in all shapes. Thus mother material nature has enough foodstuff both for animals and men, by the grace of the father almighty, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The human being is the elder brother of all living beings. He is endowed with intelligence more powerful than the animals for realizing the course of nature and the indications of the almighty father. Human civilizations should depend on the production of material nature without artificially attempting economic development to turn the world into a chaos of artificial greed and power only for the purpose of artificial luxuries and sense gratification. This is but the life of dogs and hogs."

Prabhupāda: Now men are killing their own children. Is it not? Even cats and dogs do not do this. Although they give birth at a time half a dozen children, still they are not anxious to kill them. (pause) So I am coming in one minute. Please sit down. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Why you are there?

Mr. Surface: I must leave. Thank you.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Give him some prasāda.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa is the greatest engineer.

Devotee (4): Yes.

Prabhupāda: We say that. But ask the professor that "You are engineer; you are not so powerful. There is another big engineer who has done it. So God means you try to understand who is that biggest engineer."

Devotee (4): They were saying that all the highways and all the nice buildings...

Prabhupāda: And all the oceans? Here is the highway, and there is the ocean. Which is important? (laughter) You might have created these highways, but another engineer has created that ocean, side by side. So who will get the greater credit?

Devotee (4): They say that there's a limited amount of resources here on this planet, that unless we use these resources wisely, then they will all be used up. They say that there's very limited amounts, so therefore they must be careful.

Prabhupāda: But this... Who supplied the resources of this ocean? They say that water is combination of hydrogen and oxygen, so wherefrom this hydrogen-oxygen supply came?

Devotee (4): There is another group. They call themselves Zero Population Growth. So their idea is that there's too many people on this planet. So therefore either they want... What they want to do is that they want to increase the number of deaths...

Prabhupāda: Death.

Room Conversation -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: And gradually, when you are well behaving, then you shall be initiated to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. That will give you strength, spiritual power. Strictly observe the regulative principles—no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling. It is very simple. Read these literatures, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and observe these regulations. Then you will become gradually powerful. Your speeches will be effective. People will like you.

Guest (2) (Indian man): Now the program in the village, Swamijī, how to...

Prabhupāda: Village... Just like you acquire some land. That you will get. It is not very... Is it difficult?

Guest (2): No, sir.

Prabhupāda: Just we are doing so many places. So you produce your own food grains, not for making money but just for feeding yourself and the animals, cows. Keep cows, as many cows as possible, and produce, till the ground, field, and make water supply arrangement. If the investment is required, we shall do that. You have no worry about investment. We shall bring money from anywhere. But the work must be done very nicely. There must be good arrangement for water supply and for plowing and keeping the cows in order. Then you get sufficient milk, sufficient food grains and produce your own cloth. The girls and ladies, they can spine (spin) thread, and from the thread you make cloth, handlooms. So your first necessities of life, eating, and make little cottage, sleeping... And if you want sex, get yourself married, live peacefully. And when you are there you can defend yourself. So the first necessity is how to eat and how to cover. That you have to provide. That is not difficult. You can do it. And then you become peaceful, no anxiety for your maintenance. And then cultivate this spiritual knowledge the same way. Have a temple there. Have... Go on chanting, offering prasādam. You have got your food grains. Don't be dependent on anyone else. Become self-independent. And don't be after money. Simply produce your bare necessities of life. Keep yourself fit, strong. And chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, read book. Then you'll grow strong. Is there any difficulty?

Guest (1): No, Swamijī.

Room Conversation -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Because they will hear Hare Kṛṣṇa. Not only trees and plants. The insects and everyone, they will have the opportunity of hearing Hare Kṛṣṇa. That will benefit.

Guest (1): If we have got this act, Swamijī, here itself we can organize it. For example, we are getting holidays in November, school holidays, twenty-first November. So we can put it in the newspaper that "Those who are interested, young people from fifteen or twenty to thirty or forty, these people can send their letters and they would come. So we can answer them through newspaper, also radio, through TV, so that they would come...

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you do organize, then I shall stay. It is very good program. Let us give it some shape with your good cooperation. So Kṛṣṇa is giving you intelligence. He is giving so nice program. So do it practically.

Guest (1): And we can conquer out there.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. Śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtana is so powerful that it will conquer. It will be victorious. So I am very glad to meet you. And do this program. And if you like, I shall come back after a week and do. Utilize me in this way, I shall be very glad. That's all right.

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

Prabhupāda: That is also bogus. That is also bogus.

Faill: I didn't like the idea of that. The book was very impressive, but I just thought, "This isn't right." You shouldn't have to lean on drugs.

Prabhupāda: No. That is... Anything... If drugs can help God realization, the drug is better, I mean to say, more powerful than God.

Faill: Which isn't...

Prabhupāda: Then how we can accept that? Drug is a material thing, chemical composition, and how it can help one, God realization? That is not possible. This is a kind of intoxication and hallucination, but it is not God realization.

Faill: Do you think that the great mystics down the ages have actually seen this spark? This is what...

Prabhupāda: What do you mean by mystic?

Faill: Well, there seem to be chaps who've had some very odd experience and always remembered it and found it very difficult to put it down in words.

Prabhupāda: Mystic means something jugglery? What do you mean by mystic?

Faill: Well, it's just the name they seem to give people who've had an experience of another level of reality.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So yes, that... We don't say mystic. Our reality is God realization. There are different stages. I mean to say, direct perception, then receiving knowledge from authority, then personal experience between the two, then above that transcendental, and then, I mean to say, spiritual. In this way we have to go, step by step. We have to come to the point, to the spiritual platform. So, so long we are on the bodily concept of life, our understanding is sense gratification because body means the senses. And then, if we go still up, then we can see that mind is the center of sense activities. We take the mind as the final, and that is mental platform. Then, from mental platform, we come to the intellectual platform. Then, from intellectual platform, we come to the transcendental platform.

Morning Walk -- October 10, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: You are scientist? Ask them. Don't come here. What is the use of scientist? Hm? If they cannot stop. Not only stopping, if the sea likes, it can overflow the whole thing.

Devotee: Haribol.

Prahupada: It came up to here. Like this or...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No. It is very bad weather last few days. A storm must be in the neighborhood.

Dhīrāṅga: There was one powerful king of England, he felt that just by his command he could hold back the tide. So he went and sat on the beach on his throne and he commanded the sea not to come in. But of course the sea came in and washed him away, he was very embarrassed. King Canute. He became so puffed-up.

Devotee: There's some steps here, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It might be very soft.

Prabhupāda: What is this adventure?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is an ice cream advertisement. (break) Very respected person. Unkulunkul means the most respected amongst all respected persons. This is how they address God.

Prabhupāda: Ah. (end)

Morning Walk -- October 17, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: By his action. (break) ...kasipu tried to make Prahlāda atheist. He failed. And Prahlāda tried to make his father theist. He failed. Don't you see?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So unless one agrees you cannot turn him. It is not possible. Five-years'-old boy, staunch devotee, and the powerful Hiraṇyakaśipu, father, who is threatening with his life and so many ways he tried that "You become atheist, godless. Otherwise I shall kill you." He did not agree. And similarly, the son also solicited the father that "You have got so much power by the grace of God. Why you are becoming atheist?" Both of them could not turn to their side. Prahlāda remained Prahlāda, and Hiraṇyakaśipu remained Hiraṇyakaśipu. (break) ...can expect that without agreeing, conceding, one can be reformed. No, that is not possible. Impossible.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Not simply by rubber stamp.

Prabhupāda: No, that is not possible. He must agree, "Yes." Therefore guru is required. Guru means, accept guru means, "Whatever you say, I will accept." That is guru. Otherwise friendly talk. Friendly talk will not do. To accept guru means "Now I accept you, guru, my instructor, without any argument," and that is acceptance. "Whatever you say, I shall do." That is agreement. Then he can be reformed. Śiṣyas te 'ha śādhi mā prapannam: "I surrender unto you. I become your disciple. Now you train me." Then he can be reformed. Otherwise not possible.

Morning Walk -- October 26, 1975, Mauritius:

Brahmānanda: They think it's some lesser, ordinary.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And if you say, "Why, then, Kṛṣṇa? There are many names," so Caitanya: "Yes, any name of God, if it is God's name, it is as powerful." If it is God's name. "Any name" does not mean you manufacture some name. That is not. Any name by which one can understand this is God's name, that is there said. Nāmnam akari bahudha-nija sarva-śaktis tatrarpita niyamitaḥ smarane na kalaḥ. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's preaching. If you do not accept Kṛṣṇa as a God's name, then if you have your own name of Kṛṣṇa, er, God, chant it.

Brahmānanda: But it must be standard.

Prabhupāda: Must be God's name.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is wanted. But if you do not know what is God's name, then what you will chant? What you will chant? Then you chant Kṛṣṇa. We know it is God's name. Take. Take to our principle. If there is no medical college, come to our medical college. You are welcome. Why you are envious? You have no medical college; at the same time, you are envious of my medical college. Why? Why this nonsense? If you want to learn medical science—you have no medical science, college-come here. This is our proposal. Why you are envious? That means rascal. "Our gold." Gold is "our gold," everyone's gold? "Our gold." What do you mean, "our gold"? Gold is always gold, either in your hand or in my hand. In your hand it is not Christian gold and in my hand it is not Hindu gold. Gold is gold.

Morning Walk -- November 21, 1975, Bombay:

Mahāṁsa: And one day one of our regular devotees, he went to see him and said, "What about in America there are so many people, they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa?" So he says, "In America also there are many fools." So he is blaspheming like this, how can we cooperate with such people?

Prabhupāda: No, we cannot cooperate. But if there is meeting we can prove them that they are fools. (laughter) That's all. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Jaya.

Indian devotee: That is required. Actually, that is the potency of your teaching is so powerful. I have seen that every time someone makes this poor excuses in front of people... Just like yesterday I was in the train, and one guy was saying exactly the same thing, that "I believe in the Bhagavad-gītā in my own way." So I opened up Bhagavad-gītā and I showed to four people, "Look here, just see what Kṛṣṇa is saying here." And all of them agreed. They said, "Yes, yes. You are right and he is wrong." All of them. He said that "I believe in Bhagavad-gītā in my own way." I said, "Are you the controller of the sun and the moon and the stars and the planets?"

Mahāṁsa: Oh yes, we all... Just two, three days back we went to see that Śaṅkarācārya of Kamakochi(?), and the old Śaṅkarācārya, he was very nice. He said, "Oh, you are doing very nice work," and he liked us very much. But then the young Śaṅkarācārya, he didn't say anything, but he had one paṇḍita near him who started, who first questioned us that "Do you know Sanskrit?" So...

Prabhupāda: Why did you not, "Do you know English?" (laughter)

Morning Walk -- December 4, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Then how you can? These rascals, these Māyāvādīs, they play rāsa-līlā. (break) ...ācarati śreṣṭhas means that śreṣṭha is ordinary person, but not Bhagavān. Bhagavān can act any way. And still, Bhagavān has never instructed you that "You imitate Me in raising the Govardhana Hill." Has He said like that, that "You also raise the Govardhana Hill like Me"? (break) ...orders man-manā bhava mad-bhakto ṁad-yājī mām. That is for you. Always think of Him. Always become His devotee. Worship Him. Offer your obeisances. That's all. That is for you. Yasodamayi was asking Kṛṣṇa, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, can you bring the slipper of Your father?" He could not. He was a small child. Still, with great difficulty He could raise that. But the person who can raise the Govardhana Hill, He was feeling difficulty to raise the slipper? Why? If at that time He becomes like Govardhana, Giridhārī, then the līlā between father and son will be damaged. He plays just like a child. Although He can raise even in that age, to raise the hill. One should understand Kṛṣṇa. Everyone compares Him with ordinary man: "Kṛṣṇa has done this? Then I shall do." Kṛṣṇa has done so many other things. Why don't you do it? This rascal... Anyone who imitates Kṛṣṇa on the plea that "Kṛṣṇa has played this; therefore we shall do." He can do anything. He can eat meat and He can eat the whole universe. That was shown to His mother: "Mother, you are angry because I have eaten dirt. Now see within My mouth the whole universe is in. So what is the question of dirt and sea and ocean? I can eat everything." (break) ...sam na doṣāya. Just like this sun. It dry up this urine. It is not infected. But you lick up this urine and let us see how powerful you are. Tejasaṁ na doṣāya. Who is powerful, he can do anything and everything, whatever he likes. You cannot do that. (break) ...example. This urine, within an hour it will be dried up. How it is dried up? Due to the sun. But the sun is not polluted. But you try to dry up and see the result.

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That's alright. Make you one sun, if you know! Many suns but you have not made anyone of them. You just try to make one, then I shall see your intelligence. Huh? What do you say? Anybody?

Akṣayānanda Swami: They cannot do.

Devotee (1) (woman): They don't have enough power.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Then why do you say nonsense! If you have not enough power there must be somebody powerful than you—you have to admit that—who has made all these things. But you are rascal you have not... You are simply, ahh, what is called? Speculating. That in future we shall be powerful. But the powerful is already there. What is your credit? More powerful-) you cannot conceive even how powerful He a scientist. Huh? Is that alright? What is your value? The already powerful is there, who has manufactured these things. And you are expecting in future you'll be powerful; therefore you are more powerful. Just see their folly. If you are powerful then make it, another imitation sun.

Harikeśa: (half joking) I'm seriously speaking, if we made another one the whole place would become too hot.

Prabhupāda: Hah. So you are scientist, you protect yourself. (laughter)

Conversation on Roof -- December 26, 1975, Sanand:

Prabhupāda: Well, who made this arrangement?

Harikeśa: So that arrangement is a law.

Prabhupāda: Well, that law. Who made this law?

Harikeśa: Well, it's just a physical combination of matter.

Prabhupāda: Physical combination, then these physical activities are more powerful than your ideas.

Harikeśa: Yes. Therefore the third thing...

Prabhupāda: Then you have no control over the physical activities.

Harikeśa: No, we have control because I have to push this.

Prabhupāda: No, you have no control.

Harikeśa: But I am pushing this. It is my will.

Prabhupāda: No, no. If you will that "Let the sun be cool," will it be cool? You have no control over the physical elements. You have no control. So what is the use of your theorizing? That is foolish.

Conversation on Roof -- December 26, 1975, Sanand:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because...

Harikeśa: It's not possible.

Prabhupāda: ...anything, any ideas made by imperfect man is useless. That is our, our proposition. You are imperfect, and the sun is so perfect, physically, that how you can theorize unless you know the whole expert. If you say "I know everything," then the question will be: "Who made this sun? So powerful, so extraordinarily heated and light. Who made it?" You did..., you have not made it. Where is your, that knowledge?

Harikeśa: As I read on, I find out that it's...

Prabhupāda: These are all speculation. That's all.

Harikeśa: Definitely. Useless book.

Prabhupāda: Useless speculation.

Harikeśa: But this, this argument that's being brought up here, actually people are thinking about a lot, that there's an idea and there's, there's a fact...

Prabhupāda: That argument is.... Just like I told you, in my childhood I was thinking in the gramophone box there is a man. I could not think at that time without a man how this gramophone can sing so nicely. So there is a man, and as soon as the record is..., he gives, he sings. That.... I was thinking like that.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Acyutānanda: But their Gītās are not called Bhagavad-gītā; they are called by their...

Mahāmṣa: But do they have the potency to show the universal form?

Prabhupāda: Who?

Mahāmṣa: These demigods?

Prabhupāda: Yes. What is that universal form? It is nothing. Any powerful living being can do that.

Yaśodānandana: In the other Vaiṣṇava-sampradāyas, such as the Madhva-sampradāya and the Rāmānuja-sampradāya, they do not understand that Kṛṣṇa has His own planet, Goloka Vṛndāvana. They think that there is only Vaikuṇṭha and nothing else.

Prabhupāda: Their knowledge is imperfect. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, goloka-nāmni nija-dhāmni tale ca tasya (Bs. 5.43).

Yaśodānandana: That is why when Caitanya Mahāprabhu came back to Purī, He said, "I have met many Rāmānujas, many Mādhvas, many Buddhists, but I like Rāmānanda Rāya very much because he has this knowledge of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa."

Acyutānanda: In South India there are very few Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa devotees. And what they have is from some Purāṇas, the marriage of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. They perform Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa kalyana, marriage.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is that bona fide, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: (break) So then the chance is lost. Repeatedly Kṛṣṇa is saying, "You give up all this habit. Just become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Sarva-dharmān..." Nobody will hear. "Why shall I not?" There is a Bengali song, cakṣe yadi lāge bhālo keno dekhbo nā: "If it is gratifying to my eyes, why shall I not see a beautiful woman? Why you are forbidding me?" Cakṣe yadi lāge bhālo: "It is pleasing to my eyes. Why you are forbidding me? This is going on. Cakṣe yadi lāge bhālo. If there is little happiness, don't mind it is flickering. It will go on. The Carvaka Muni: ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet: "Some way or other prepare foodstuff with ghee." "I have no money." Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā: "Just take. Beg, borrow, steal, bring ghee and prepare nice foodstuff and eat and enjoy life." This is the material world. But śāstra says, "No, no, no. Don't do this. This is the hog's business. Tapo. Just try to go, follow austerity." Even those who are so-called advanced in knowledge, karmī, jñānī, yogī, they are also after sense gratification. Karmī is openly after sense gratification and jñānī is subtly. "No, no. This kind of..." Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. "Now I shall enjoy Brahman. I shall become God." This is another side, the same sense enjoyment. Because I have failed becoming a minister or becoming a king, becoming a leader, becoming—I have failed, now I shall become God. Same sense grati.... They cannot understand that this is also sense gratification. "I am not no more satisfied by becoming a little minister and king and.... No. I shall become God. Why shall I.... By becoming king or minister I beg to the goddess of fortune, 'Mother, give me a little money.' Why shall I beg? I shall enjoy her. I become Nārāyaṇa." Same disease. A yogi also, after mystic power they want to show magic: "I shall make like this and gold will be there. People will worship me as I am God." Do that. People do that. If you play something wonderful they will accept you: "Oh, you are God." But he does not know that he cannot become God. That is not possible. Although he gets little fractional authority to puzzle others that he has become God.... Because people are fools, if he can produce little gold like this, they will be immediately amazed: "Oh, how powerful he is." They have no capacity to understand. If God is meant for making gold, why not worship the God who has made already millions of gold mines? Unlimited. There is no limit. Why this paltry god? They have no such knowledge. They are amazed.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. (break) Eh? Dhunvanti, aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ.(?) This is Kṛṣṇa. In one second He can make it purified. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ (BG 18.66). Simply surrender.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems like our desire not to surrender is very powerful because Kṛṣṇa is so...

Prabhupāda: Not powerful. Yes, powerful.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa is so powerful and yet our nonsense is so strong that we can resist such a powerful force as Kṛṣṇa's love.

Prabhupāda: Now the whole sky clear, hundreds of miles. (break) ...all right? Where is in-charge? (break) ...and clan spirit. Aborigines, they fight amongst their clans.

Hṛdayānanda: Aborigines?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like Africa.

Hṛdayānanda: Prabhupāda? You wrote in a letter to Bhagavān... You said that originally the Europeans had Aryan-type culture but they have become degraded.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. They are still Aryan. Europeans are Aryan, Indo-Aryan. That is admitted in history.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They'll imitate.

Devotee (1): When the prime minister of Canada, when he was, when he first began running, he was a young bachelor, very good looking, long hair. And he sent around girls in mini-skirts, kissing men on the cheeks, giving them a little candy for his campaign, and he, he almost got all the votes, became the prime minister.

Dayānanda: We were talking yesterday how nice this story of Prahlāda Mahārāja is, because no matter how great a demon becomes, still, he cannot vanquish the devotees, even if the devotee is a very insignificant little boy, only five years old. These demons seem so...

Hari-śauri: Powerful.

Dayānanda: ...horrible. The society is so degraded. (break)

Hari-śauri: 6:20.

Prabhupāda: Eh? The idea of reincarnation. That is horrible for them.

Hari-śauri: If they understood that they would have to pay later for what they're doing now, they wouldn't be able to do it.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So, what is the report?

Jayapatākā: Er... The printing?

Prabhupāda: Eh? Our. (?) Fifty thousand.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We're doing that, printing fifty...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: "Artistry. But the poem is a symphony in which God is seen in all things. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda is, of course, profoundly sympathetic to the theme. He brings to it a special interpretative insight. Here we have a powerful and persuasive presentation in the bhakti tradition of this dearly beloved poem. The Swami's introduction makes clear at once where he stands as a leading exponent of Kṛṣṇa consciousness." That is my actual...

Devotee (1): (break) ...not only have your books there in the New York Public Library, but the head librarian of that Oriental division did the review also.

Prabhupāda: "...government(?) of postgraduate college..." Oh, O.B.L. Kapoor. (break) "It is an exhaustive plan of original Sanskrit text in Devanāgarī, then a translation, English synonym... What practitioner of philosophy cannot but be attracted to this serious student and scholar of Sanskrit language and Hindu religion and philosophy? The viewpoint of a devotee cum scholar has the advantage of making the philosophy meaningful to any practical-minded person."

Room Conversation With Radha-Damodara Sankirtana Party -- March 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, not this verse. What is the meaning?

Devotee (3): Meaning is, "I do not find the strength to carry on alone the saṅkīrtana of the holy name of Hari. Please bless me by giving me just one drop of faith with which one can attain the great treasure of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: So nobody is powerful alone. In Kṛṣṇa's service also, combine together. That is wanted.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think there is no question of being alone anywhere, because the guru is always with one.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the ideal.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Guru is also depending, and combination means I depend on you, you depend on me, that's all. That is combination. That's all. So prasādam? Now, we are fasting.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are fasting.

Prabhupāda: In the evening there will be prasādam. Arrangement is being made for?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You are taking very nice care of us here, Prabhupāda.

Devotees: Jaya! Haribol!

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: ...means ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. The more we get material possession, our false egotism increases. "I have got this. I have got this. Who is more powerful than me?" Āḍhyo 'bhijanavān asmi ko 'nyo 'sti sadṛśo mayā. These are described in the Sixteenth Chapter. What is the meaning of this ahaṅkāra? Because vimūḍhātmā, that "I have got this motorcar. I have got this property," but within a second it can be finished. There is another, superior law. That he forgets. He sees actually, but he forgets. That is called vimūḍhātmā. He is seeing, everyone. Of course, our time and nature's time, little different. So many Hitlers, so many Napoleons, so many Gandhis, so many Jawaharlal came and went. But they do not see. Paśyann api na paśyati. They are seeing actually; still they do not see. Blind. In India the Mohammedans came. They ruled over. Where is the Moghul? The Englishmen came. Where they are? Everything gone. Paśyann api na paśyati. This is called vimūḍhātmā. That is going on. The material civilization means ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. By false egotism they are bewildered and rascals. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has translated this, that jaḍā-bidyā jato, māyāra vaibhava: "All this material advancement of civilization is the paraphernalia of māyā." Because you cannot enjoy it, but you are thinking, "I possess so much. I possess so much." You'll not be allowed to enjoy, but still.... Therefore all these material possessions are the paraphernalia of māyā. So what is the wrong there? Now, wrong is this, jaḍā-bidyā jato, māyāra vaibhava, tomāra bhajane bādhā. They are hindrances for advancement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the aim of human life. That, you forget that. So tomāra bhajane bādhā, anitya saṁsāre, moha janamiyā. The result is that he becomes more attached to this temporary world and remains the rascal. Because without being rascal, nobody comes in this material world to enjoy. As soon as anyone has come to this material world, he's a rascal. Kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare, nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare (Prema-vivarta).

Morning Walk -- March 26, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: ...mana, buddhi, ahaṅkāra. And then false identification, ahaṅkāra, then soul. And the soul is so fine. I have given the definition. How they can see, "There is soul"? Dr. Kapoor: But in the ātmā, you see.... You have given a very beautiful description. The smaller the part—as they call it, potency—more powerful it becomes. So you see, they think that the bigger thing is more powerful, but here science has also proved that greater the potency, the smaller the dose, smaller the size. So similarly, as you describe that what is soul? It's fractional, fractional, fractional, fractional.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Fractional. It is smaller than the atom.

Dr. Kapoor: Final measure, the smallest fraction of anything, is soul.

Prabhupāda: One ten-thousandth part of the top of the hair.

Dr. Kapoor: Sir, even that has been measured by measuring instrument. I think it is.... You can describe it. But it is smaller part, infinite smallest part of an atom.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it has been measured out. How the measurement is stated? It doesn't.... When the statement is there about the measurement of the soul, it was done. Otherwise how it is described in the śāstra? (break—walk)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The last few days, as guests have been coming to greet you, practically everyone who you've had a conversation with has brought up this question, What is good and what is bad, what is sinful activity?

Prabhupāda: Hm? What?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It seems that people have great difficulty discriminating today between good and bad.

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Low tide. Yes. (Hindi to passerby)

Prabhupāda: (break) Garuḍa. He is perfect vegetarian. You know what is his food? Snakes. (Dr. Patel laughs) And he is carrying the Lord. It is a devotee, you see? He is not vegetarian. And how powerful he is that one sparrow, a small bird, lost his egg. The samudra took it away. And he decided, "I shall dry this samudra." So he began to pick up some water. So Nārada Muni was passing. So he asked, "What you are doing?" And "Sir, yes, the samudra has taken my egg, so I shall dry it up." So he said, "But how you can do it? You are so small. You just pray to your head. You are bird, and he is the head of the birds. You just pray to Garuḍa. He can do it." So he prayed Garuḍa, and Garuḍa came and asked samudra, "Immediately deliver; otherwise I shall take step." Immediately it was delivered. Such powerful. Yes. And he was not a vegetarian. (Hindi with Dr. Patel) You become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is the... (Hindi with Dr. Patel) (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Thank you very much. Namaskāra. Jaya. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Real culture is how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. (Hindi)...no illicit sex, no gambling, automatically. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samā... If you simply turn these people to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all good qualities will come automatically. All good qualities. That is wanted. And we are practically seeing that. Simply by becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious, lover of Kṛṣṇa, they are becoming qualified. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). There is no good qualification for a nondevotee. He'll simply act on mental speculation, that's all. It has no value.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Because I don't want to be old man, but I am being forced. Therefore I want to stop this force of the nature. That is my natural inclination.

Carol Jarvis: Isn't it also your natural.... Isn't it natural to...

Prabhupāda: It is struggle. Struggle means.... Struggle for existence means there is something against my will, and I want to stop it. This is called struggle for existence. And that is.... The whole world is going on, that.... They have started that United Nation. Why United Nation? You remain.... But they are trying to stop war. "Let us struggle unitedly." So that is going on. You don't want war, but the war is inevitable. Even the United Nation is there, still war is going on. That is struggle. So, but they are not coming to the point of understanding that "We are trying so much, so hard, to become happy, but nature is not allowing me." This is real intelligence. And that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. If we remain dull—"Let the nature's law act upon me as it likes"—and we go on struggling to stop it, it will never stop, because nature's law is so powerful. You can never stop it.

Morning Walk -- April 21, 1976, Melbourne:

Devotee (1): They have a saying, "Honor among thieves."

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) This has been named by father, kaitava, simply cheating. Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2). The duplicity, hypocrisy, is there completely rejected.

Guru-kṛpā: Kṛṣṇa is a better cheater, though. He will cheat them in the end.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is not cheater. The Kṛṣṇa's energy is so powerful that anyone who is a cheater, he will be cheated, that's all, automatically. (break) If you infect some disease, you'll have to suffer, automatically. It is not that the disease has to be injected. No. Because you have infected, you'll suffer. The same law is there. You have done this sinful. You'll suffer that. That is the cycle of birth and death. You have created mentality. You'll become the same animal, and you suffer. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya (BG 13.22). (break) ...we have. We have seen this cloud, extraordinary.

Devotee (2): They can also...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The horn. The horn.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: They were coming. But I was engaged in writing. I was not visiting many...

Hari-śauri: (break) ...when they begin to write, then they finish up their activities and retire and simply write. But you wrote first and then came out.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I personally, I don't think that even Americans or Westerners would have accepted even your teachings as clear as they are without having your personal association and seeing your example. I think people would have thought that it's totally impossible to do such a thing.

Hari-śauri: It would have remained theoretical. But because you came and showed practical example, then everything has become very easy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Āpani ācārī prabhu jīvera śikṣāya. That is the way of teaching. Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to do.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I've read some of your old Back to Godhead magazines, and actually you've been saying the same thing all along, with the same force also. Some of your critiques of Dr. Radhakrishna's Bhagavad-gītā and modern science...

Prabhupāda: You have read?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: "Scholars Deluded."

Hari-śauri: Sometimes the devotees say that "Now Prabhupāda is preaching much more strongly than ever before." But then, when we read the old Back to Godheads, it's exactly the same.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even if we read the First Canto of Bhāgavatam... You translated that in India before you came. It's so powerful. (end)

Room Conversation with Siddha-svarupa -- May 3, 1976, Honolulu:

Guru-kṛpā: Yeah. At seven. The āratika is at seven. Ten minutes. Now it's tulasī worship.

Prabhupāda: So this movement should be pushed very vigorously. And so far, we have become successful. And enemies will be always, as soon as there is something good. That is the way of material world. Even Kṛṣṇa had enemies, what to speak of us. Eh? So many enemies, but He was powerful; He killed all them. Nobody could kill Him, but there was attempt to kill Him from the very beginning of His birth. He had so many enemies. As soon as Kaṁsa heard that his sister is now newly married, but as soon as there was some foretelling, "Ah, you are taking care of your sister so nicely. The eighth child of this sister will kill you." "Oh, where is your child? Where is pregnancy?" Nothing. He became angry. "So why wait for eighth child? Kill my sister." Long, long before taking birth of Kṛṣṇa, the mother was to be killed. This is the position of this material world. So he became so bad that "My sister..." He did not consider that "She is my sister, and she is just newly married. Where is pregnancy? Where is child? And that is the eighth child, and what will happen after that?" No consideration. Immediately, "Kill him, kill her." This is the position. So we are instructing: no intoxication. So those who are flourishing by selling cigarettes and wine and liquor, they do not... "Immediately kill him." Oh, yes, in this way. "If they, the movement goes and becomes very strong, then our business will be lost. Kill him." So naturally they will be enemies. The same thing, the Kaṁsa saw that "This my sister, now she is married. So although it will take some long time, but here is the cause." So they are thinking like that. No meat-eating, then all slaughterhouses will be closed: "They're enemy." Although there is no such symptom that slaughterhouse is going to be closed, but they'll think like that. They'll think like that, the same way. There is no ex... (break) ...pregnancy, first, second, third, then eighth, and the child will go, take birth and... They are thinking like that. So the modern civilization, we are everyone saying.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very inexpensive. And if they advertise it, they won't be able to handle all the people who come. It's such a central location.

Prabhupāda: It will be automatically advertised. When people will say, "Oh, there is a nice ISKCON restaurant, and it is so cheap and so nice," people will come. Just like in our Vṛndāvana temple, we don't advertise. Of course, that's.... People are coming by thousands. I thought that so long distance from the city, nobody will come. But Balarāma is so powerful, He's bringing: "Come out here." (laughter) Otherwise, I was.... What is that? Plowing? Yamunā was threatened.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, Balarāma.

Prabhupāda: And the whole Kuru dynasty was threatened.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good class of people are coming to the restaurant, businessmen, like that.

Prabhupāda: And there is book display?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. Oh, yes, there's a book display.

Prabhupāda: They are purchasing book also?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They give them a Back to Godhead, complimentary copy...

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Morning Walk -- May 25, 1976, Honolulu:

Devotee (4): Perhaps it's a speculation—I'm not certain. But in the Bhagavad-gītā it describes that lust is also sometimes like a fire. Practically one experiences that the heat in the body, the lusty desires increases heat within the body. So is there any correlation between fire within the body and the mode of passion?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Passion is there. Just like fire, if you fan it, it blazes more. Similarly, with passion, the fire is more powerful.

Devotee (4): Then the passion is like the fuel.

Prabhupāda: Lust is sometimes described as fire, kāmāgni. Heart burns, the lusty desire burns.

Devotee (4): What about tamo-guṇa? Does tamo-guṇa have a relationship with the body?

Prabhupāda: Tamo-guṇa is laziness. It is ass. Neither fire. Ignorance. Civilized man, they're working, making some material arrangement nice. That is mode of passion. But the uncivilized, he doesn't want to work. Just like this Hawaii was under the Hawaiians' control, they could not do anything. Ignorant, lazy. Tamo-guṇa, darkness, is no work, no reason. Simply like animals, sex-life. And rajo-guṇa, there is activity to create material facilities. And sattva-guṇa, "Why you are working? What is the aim of my life?" That is sattva-guṇa.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Rascal, this weakness..., you are already necessity of so many things. Make all the necessities zero. At last we at least feel necessity of a woman. (laughing) That you cannot avoid. And then you'll be punished with shoes. (laughing) When you'll become a servant of woman, then you, "No, what is the necessity?" Become thief, you'll become rascal, rogue, you'll be beaten by shoes, and everything is gone. Now these are your necessities. Hippies, they have left no necessities, but the woman is there. (laughing) They have necessities there. Nature is so powerful you'll have to feel this necessity, and with this necessity you'll require so many necessities. (Sanskrit) They're talking like madmen. What the madman does not talk, and what the goat does not eat? (laughing) Means rascals.

Hari-śauri: It boils down to this question of independence.

Prabhupāda: Ha?

Hari-śauri: They all want to be independent, but there's no chance.

Devotee (4): (break) ...in the kingdom of God, then he can become independent.

Prabhupāda: The idea of God is not for everyone. Only for the brāhmaṇas. Those who are brāhmaṇas at death, brahma-jānāti vibrāhmaṇa. Our process is to give them chance to hear. Then they'll get gradually idea, not immediate. In the beginning let him eat prasādam, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. (break) "My dear friend, please come. Chant with us, dance with us, and take prasādam." There will be no.... (end)

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: (break) ...numbers of men, big temples, it is all due to our books, to your books. So I was thinking that if one day this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement becomes so powerful that even it is giving instruction to governments, that will also be because of...

Prabhupāda: That is very easy. If you increase the number of your devotees, government hears you(?). That is not very difficult thing. Simply you have to increase our supporters; then the government is there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, although the actual number of initiated devotees is still few, there is a growing, ever-growing number of sympathizers.

Prabhupāda: Supporters, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Tremendous number, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So you make good supporter, then government is yours.

Rāmeśvara: Then it's all based on selling your books more and more.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Rāmeśvara: But I have already explained that these senses are not the perfect instruments for experiencing reality. Just like sometimes there may be a cloud, and therefore you cannot see the sun with your senses, but that does not mean the sun is not there. It simply means your senses are not powerful enough to see. The senses are imperfect instruments for perceiving reality. The sun is always there, but sometimes you can see it and sometimes you can't.

Prabhupāda: Just like night, this is night, you don't see the sun. That does not mean there is no sun.

Rāmeśvara: Don't rely on empirical sense perception.

Richard: Okay, right, you're introducing here though, the essence of all religion, and that is faith. Faith...

Prabhupāda: It's not faith, it is fact. If I say that there is sun and you cannot see, if you deny, "No I don't see. There is no sun," so which is fact?

Richard: Well there is no sun now. There's no sun present.

Prabhupāda: Sun is there. You cannot see.

Richard: Right now, the sun, in my life, is not present.

Prabhupāda: It is present, that is ignorance. You just phone immediately to Bombay, "Is there sun?" He'll say, "Yes."

Richard: Is the sun out in Bombay?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Richard: I have faith that it is.

Prabhupāda: No faith, it is fact.

Richard: It is a fact, not to me though.

Prabhupāda: No, then you are not very intelligent. You phone your friend that "Where is the sun?" He'll say "It is above my head."

Room Conversation with Mother and Sons -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Hari-śauri: But even accepting their idea that things are produced from chemical reactions, who is creating the chemical reactions?

Prabhupāda: Yes, put this chemical together and bring life. Where is the life? We ask, prepare one egg. You can analyze the white part and the yellow part of the egg, and you find some chemical properties. You bring them together and put in the same layer and everything. Now produce life. Where is that science? Simply talking. "Yes, we shall do. We are trying." Nonsense, trying. What is the use of trying? It is already there. God sent egg through the chicken; it will produce life. So why you are wasting your time in this way? Rather, try to understand the person who has got such a brain that within this chemical composition there is life. You cannot do it; therefore you inferior. Somebody has done it. Even if you say "Nature has done it," nature is then powerful. You are not even to the level of nature, what to speak of God. Nature is only one of the energies of God. You cannot understand even the energy. How you will understand the energetic?

Hari-śauri: It's difficult to understand how they could possibly say that there's no intelligence.

Prabhupāda: That is their.... Therefore we say these are all rascals. Therefore generally I say this very strong word, but that is the only word to be used for them. Rascals, simply rascals. We have no business with them that we have to flatter. "No, no, sir," you have to be saying "a great scientist." We say you are rascals. That's all. Straight, blunt. Four annas worth.

Morning Walk -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Devotee (1): ...trying to get it open in the terminals, and there's a possibility of maybe getting forty devotees inside the airport to distribute your books.

Prabhupāda: So, that is favorable. (break)

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: ...so powerful, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that all over the country young men are running away from home. We have one fifteen-year-old boy, he left everything after getting a book in a parking lot. Another boy is a sculptor, an artist. He's also runaway, seventeen years old. Just like Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, once he was attracted by Lord Caitanya's movement, nothing could keep him at home. So all the young men of America, as they read your books, will come and join us.

Prabhupāda: Our books are prescribed as textbook in Hamburg University.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Eastern Berlin.

Prabhupāda: East Berlin. As Sanskrit text.

Devotees: Jaya.

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda? When we're distributing on this program, we go to very small towns where people are not very much exposed to the degradedness of the big cities, and we're having great success with the people because they are a little more innocent. But we're having a problem with this other group that goes around, and they do saṅkīrtana just like us, but for māyā. And then when we go in the parking...

Prabhupāda: They chant Hare Kṛṣṇa?

Devotee (1): No.

Conversation in Airport and Car -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa only you are saved. Otherwise, our Bombay construction was rejected by the police constable, that kīrtana is nuisance. Public servant, he can say, blaspheme a religious system, Bhagavad-gītā, in the same country, Bhagavad-gītā. And India is condemning now, government men: "Kīrtana is nuisance."

Hari-śauri: Temporarily, at least, it seems the demons are very powerful.

Prabhupāda: They will become powerful. And people will be less intelligent—means less God conscious. Just like when the king is weak, thieves and rogues, they flourish.

Hari-śauri: So we just have to be very strong and uncompromising.

Prabhupāda: How you can compromise with thieves and rogues? Boarding time?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The flight leaves at 5:05. They'll call. They'll call when it's time. The plane doesn't appear to be here just yet.

Prabhupāda: Although they are poor, still they can understand it easily, very easily, that you are not this body; there is God; if you don't become devotee, you'll remain in this material world. These things they will immediately understand.

Garden Conversation -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That mercy depends on Him. You cannot dictate Him. If I am merciful, that will depend on me, whether I can show you mercy or I can condemn you. That is, depends on me. Simply on the basis of "God is merciful," I can do all unlawful things, this is not practical proposal. Merciful means it depends on me. Whether I shall show mercy or I shall be very strong and strict, that is my will, freedom. I may show you mercy, I may not show. You cannot force me, that "You must become merciful." That is not right. God is really merciful. Otherwise, how He's supplying this... In the morning if a fog, so God mercifully has asked sun, "Now give them some sunlight." So we are enjoying. He is merciful. When there is sunshine you see the sinful man and the pious man, both enjoy. That is His mercy. When he bestows His mercy, it is for all of them, either you are sinner or you are pious. That is God's mercy. Just like the cloud when it pours water, it does not make any discrimination. On the sea, there is also rainfall; on the rocks also, there is rainfall, where there is no necessity of rain. Therefore where is necessity of rainfall on rock? What is the use? There is no use. It is simply waste. So God also wastes: "All right, you take. You don't require; you also take." In the ocean there is no need of water, but when... The cloud pours water on the ocean also. Only on the land we can utilize, but God is so merciful, exactly like the raincloud, He is so merciful, where there is no necessity they are also getting rain, "Take rain." That is merciful. Without any discrimination, whether you want or not want, "Take it." That is mercy. You can show your mercy when there is scarcity water—you can bring some tanks of water from other places and put here—but how long you'll do it? But when the God is merciful, He'll pour rain so in large quantity that everyone will benefit. That is God's greatness. You'll have to spend so much money, labor, to bring a few buckets of water from other place. Beyond that, you cannot do anything. But God is so powerful, so great, that within a twinkling of, within a few minutes only, immediately He can overcast with cloud and overflood the whole tract of land. That is God's greatness. You have to understand God's greatness in that way. If the sinful, number of sinful men are great, God immediately starts one war, and within few years, all finished. Russia finished, America finished, everyone. That is greatness of God. In this way try to understand how God is great in every activity. In mercy He's great, in cruelty He's great. If He wants to show cruelty, He's the greatest cruel. No discrimination, all finished. Never mind women, children or cats, dogs—all finished. That is cruelty, greatness of cruelty. Then there is greatness of mercy. So that is greatness. So you study, in God, the greatness, how great He is. At night you have so many lights for illuminate your city, home, and so many electric powerhouse going on, and God is so great that one sun-immediately, all light. There is no need of powerhouse, there is no need of matches, there is no need of this light, that light. Take sunlight. That is His greatness. And within a second. When night is going on, we have seen.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Next, what is next?

Hari-śauri: Half past eight.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Should we take your leave now, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No, I have no objection to sit down here. If you want to stop, we can stop, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)

Dhṛṣṭadyumna:

idam adya mayā labdham
imaṁ prāpsye manoratham
idam astīdam api me
bhaviṣyati punar dhanam
asau mayā hataḥ śatrur
haniṣye cāparān api
īśvaro 'ham ahaṁ bhogī
siddho 'haṁ balavān sukhī
āḍhyo 'bhijanavān asmi
ko 'nyo 'sti sadṛśo mayā
yakṣye dāsyāmi modiṣya
ity ajñāna-vimohitāḥ

"The demoniac person thinks: 'So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him, and my other enemies will also be killed. I am the lord of everything. I am the enjoyer. I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give some charity, and thus I shall rejoice.' In this way, such persons are deluded by ignorance." These are timeless statements Śrīla Prabhupāda. Kṛṣṇa has spoken for all time by these words.

aneka-citta-vibhrāntā
moha-jāla-samāvṛtāḥ
prasaktāḥ kāma-bhogeṣu
patanti narake 'śucau

Prabhupāda: Our Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, the formula is therefore: as soon as you get money, fifty percent spent for printing and fifty percent for temple. This is the basic principle of our Bhaktivedanta (Book Trust)—no saving. As soon as you have got some money, print books, print books. Don't keep it. If you print books, some day somebody will read. But if we keep money, it creates disturbance. I am therefore always insisting, "Print books, Print books." Or construct temple, this building, that building. There is no need of keeping money.

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "Thinking themselves all in all, not caring for any authority or scripture, the demoniac sometimes perform so-called religious or sacrificial rites. And since they do not believe in authority, they are very impudent. This is due to illusion caused by accumulating some wealth and false prestige. Sometimes such demons take up the role of preacher, mislead the people, and become known as religious reformers or as incarnations of God. They make a show of performing sacrifices and they worship the demigods, or manufacture their own God. Common men advertise them as God and worship them, and by the foolish they are considered advanced in the principles of religion, or in the principles of spiritual knowledge. They take the dress of the renounced order of life and engage in all nonsense in that dress. Actually there are so many restrictions for one who has renounced this world. The demons, however, do not care for such restrictions. They think that whatever path one can create is one's own path; there is no such thing as a standard path one has to follow. The word avidhi-pūrvakam, meaning 'disregard for the rules and regulations,' is especially stressed here. These things are always due to ignorance and illusion." Next verse? Text 18.

ahaṅkāraṁ balaṁ darpaṁ
kāmaṁ krodhaṁ ca saṁśritāḥ
mām ātma-para-deheṣu
pradviṣanto 'bhyasūyakāḥ

Translation: "Bewildered by false ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demon becomes envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in his own body and in the bodies of others, and blasphemes against the real religion." Purport? "A demoniac person, being always against God's supremacy, does not like to believe in the scriptures. He is envious of both the scriptures and of the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is caused by his so-called prestige and his accumulation of wealth and strength. He does not know that the present life is a preparation for the next life. Not knowing this, he is actually envious of his own self, as well as of others. He commits violence on others' bodies and on his own. He does not care for the supreme control of the Personality of Godhead because he has no knowledge. Being envious of the scriptures and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he puts forward false arguments against the existence of God and refutes the scriptural authority. He thinks himself independent and powerful in every action. He thinks that since no one can equal him in strength, power or in wealth, he can act in any way and no one can stop him. If he has an enemy who might check the advancement of his sensual activities, he makes plans to cut him down by his own power." Śrīla Prabhupāda, in this purport you mention that not knowing that this life is a preparation for the next life, that one actually becomes envious of his own self.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If he's going to become a dog next life and if he does not take precaution, then he is not envying himself? In this life you are prime minister, and next life, you are preparing to become a dog, so what is the use of becoming prime minister? You could not save yourself. Nature's law will go on. You may become prime minister or any minister, but the law will act. If you have infected some disease, so the disease will develop. It doesn't matter whether you are prime minister or this minister. So these rascals say they do not know it. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. Find out this verse. This low-grade birth, high-grade birth, why it is happening? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Śruti mahāpure. (indistinct) yasya linde paraṁ brahma. "Let others worship the śrutis and others smṛtis, all these Vedic literature, and others Mahābhārata for liberation. But I shall worship Nanda Mahārāja, because in his courtyard the Param Brahmā is loitering. I shall worship Nanda Mahārāja. He's so powerful that he's made the Param Brahman come here and carry his shoes." Śruti mahāpure (indistinct) yasya linde paraṁ brahma.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That was by a Muslim who became Vaiṣṇava? Once you quoted that, I think that verse, in London.

Prabhupāda: That is another similar verse. Yes, you quoted me. And there is another verse by Bilvamaṅgala, in Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta. The Muslim, he said "I was searching after the Param Brahma, and now I see here He is playing with the gopīs." What they will speculate? Everything is there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Where this picture is given? (Prabhupāda is being massaged)

Pradyumna: Which book is it in?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It was on the cover of one Back to Godhead magazine.

Hari-śauri: But it's in one of the books.

Pradyumna: Lord Caitanya did the same thing. He did the same thing, and it was compared Kṛṣṇa also had done.

Prabhupāda: If there is no such acceptance, where is religion?

Hari-śauri: It just becomes a show. Religion nowadays has degenerated so that people more or less accept it just as some moral code now, because there's no knowledge of God.

Prabhupāda: So where is that morality?

Hari-śauri: (laughs) There's no morality either.

Prabhupāda: While hunting, drinking, meat-eating, is that morality?

Hari-śauri: No. (end)

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Dr. Sukla: And same thing with Bhāgavatam. We all know what a great book that is, and what I really appreciate about the whole thing is, number one, that there are no misprints in the book. So that's a great delight. Especially, for people who do not know Sanskrit, for them, there's no difference between the wheat and the germ that comes with it. The translations are very accurate. So it's real scholarship there. And people who were not aware of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they know that if the intellect is so powerful, the spirit must be powerful too. Our library, of course, has several copies, and our bookstore has almost all the...

Prabhupāda: All over the world they have given standing order. (laughter)

Dr. Sukla: Of course, it's very attractive to look at, another thing, the colors. So it's a beauty sight. But for some people...

Prabhupāda: In India, the list you have got? We have got standing order from all institution, universities, colleges, standing orders, "Send as soon as possible."

Devotee (2): The best thing is to distribute them everywhere.

Prabhupāda: In Germany, in Russia, we have got order. The Russian professors, they have given order.

Dr. Sukla: Your interview with the Russian professor was really sublime.

Prabhupāda: You were in Russia?

Dr. Sukla: No, I read in Bhavan's Journal, quoted from Bombay.

Devotee (1): It was in the journal, your article was in one of the Indian journals.

Prabhupāda: My talk with Professor Kotovsky?

Dr. Sukla: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be... Because yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tad tad evetaro janaḥ (BG 3.21). If a chief man practices something, the followers also practice. So a businessman, professor, scientist, philosopher, they chant the holy name of God, there is no taxation, no income tax, but the income is very good. (laughter) So why people do not do it?

Guest (5): (Sanskrit)....

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is explained by Caitanya,

nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis
tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ
etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavān mamāpi
durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ

The holy name of God is so powerful, as good as God. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā, He has got thousands of names, hundreds of names, and each name is invested with the power of God Himself. So in this age this chanting of holy name of God is recommended, I can take advantage of it, but I am so unfortunate I have no inclination. So easy thing, but still I am so unfortunate I do not wish to take the name of God. This is stated by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. etadṛśi tava kṛpā bhagavān mamāpi. "Bhagavān, my Lord, You are so merciful, I can be direct connection with You simply by chanting Your holy name. You have given this facility in this age, and still I am so unfortunate I am not inclined." Tam abhyarcya. We are not inclined to worship. That is the defect. When there is question of worshiping Him, so many things we bring in, not to worship Him, just to counteract the proposal. Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. So we bring all kinds of argument how to not to become a bhakta. That is our misfortune. He says "You become My devotee." We are putting arguments, how not to become His devotee. That is our misfortune. We bring all arguments. This is misfortune.

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

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

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Otherwise, why is it happening like that?

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is also material. Now how much powerful is spirit soul, you can just imagine. If one grain of matter has got so much potency, how much potency has got the spirit.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But then somebody may ask that why that cyanide..., cyanide is just material. But now in the living body the spirit is there, but how is spirit affected by...

Prabhupāda: Spirit is unable to live. The condition changes. Poison means the condition changes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So cyanide is more powerful than the spirit.

Prabhupāda: No. Powerful, this is different element. Powerful, it is, certainly, because it is moving the whole thing. Powerful, that particular body is destroyed. But the spirit soul, there are so many, otherwise how the germs are coming? It is not powerful.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: When cyanide is introduced the body becomes unsuitable.

Prabhupāda: For a particular soul.

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

Prabhupāda: So how they did fall? They are from Vaikuṇṭha. They are Kṛṣṇa's personal associates, keeping the doorkeepers. How did they fell down? Anyway, there is chance of falling down at any moment.

Devotee (4): Well, in his family they wanted to enjoy the material world.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, the falldown is there. So because we are living entities, we are not as powerful as Kṛṣṇa, therefore we may fall down from Vaikuṇṭha at any moment. Icchā-dveṣa samutthena sarge yānti parantapa. Find out this verse.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:

icchā-dveṣa samutthena
dvandva-mohena bhārata
sarva-bhūtāni sammohaṁ
sarge yānti parantapa
(BG 7.27)

"O scion of Bharata (Arjuna), O conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, overcome by the dualities of desire and hate."

Prabhupāda: Purport.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "The real constitutional position of the living entity is that of subordination to the Supreme Lord, who is pure knowledge. When one is deluded into separation from this pure knowledge, he becomes controlled by illusory energy and cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The illusory energy is manifested in the duality of desire and hate. Due to desire and hate the ignorant person wants to become one with the Supreme Lord and envies Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Pure devotees, who are not so deluded or contaminated by desire and hate, can understand that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa appears by His internal potencies. But those who are deluded by duality and nescience think that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is created by material energies. This is their misfortune. Such deluded persons symptomatically dwell in dualities of dishonor and honor, misery and happiness, woman and man, good and bad, pleasure and pain, etc., thinking 'This is my wife, this is my house; I am the master of this house, I am the husband of this wife.' These are the dualities of delusion. Those who are so deluded by dualities are completely foolish and cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead."

Prabhupāda: So even in the Vaikuṇṭha, if I desire that "Why shall I serve Kṛṣṇa? Why not become Kṛṣṇa?" I immediately fall down. That is natural. A servant is serving the master, sometimes he may think that "If I could become the master." They are thinking like that, they are trying to become God. That is delusion. You cannot become God. That is not possible. But he's wrongly thinking.

Morning Walk -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty foot high. These are the ones that Jayānanda and the men have built from scratch here in New York. You can see the powerful wheels. He heard what you had said, and then he decided to make it.

Prabhupāda: As powerful as the other wheels?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: More powerful. Look at them, Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is steel. This is steel. He built the carts in Australia. What is your opinion?

Hari-śauri: These are fantastic.

Jayānanda: See, these are like this, flat plate on the outside, then there's a piece of chain that goes around the inside.

Hari-śauri: Amazing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Think this is strong enough, Hari-śauri?

Hari-śauri: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he's covered it with canvas. This has rubber tire, and then it's covered by canvas.

Devotee: ...steel.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pretty big carts. These carts have the same mechanism, they go up and down, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is John. He's always helping us with the building. He works very hard. Which cart will Śrīla Prabhupāda ride on? Jayānanda? Which cart will Prabhupāda ride on?

Ādi-keśava: We wanted to know which one. Which one would you like to ride on?

Hari-śauri: Balarāma's cart goes in front?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, Jagannātha's was going in front in San Francisco, then Subhadrā's.

Hari-śauri:...told us Balarāma's is at the front,

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, really.

Hari-śauri: And then Subhadrā's then Jagannātha at the back. That's the way they do it in Purī.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What's that cart, Jayānanda?

Jayānanda: This is a little Ratha-yātrā cart from last year. We use it as an advertisement for the Ratha-yātrā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, it's a good advertisement. Quite an improvement from last year to this year.

Prabhupāda: The whole go-down is rented.

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: When?

Indian man (6): Aśvamedha-yajña, all these things, and before that...

Prabhupāda: That is now prohibited.

aśvamedhaṁ gavālambhaṁ
sannyāsaṁ pala-paitṛkam
devareṇa sutotpattiṁ
kalau pañca vivarjayet
(CC Adi 17.164)

If you refer to śāstra, the śāstra says in Kali-yuga these should be avoided. At that time, when there was aśvamedha-yajña, gomedha-yajña, that was not for eating. That was to prove the strength of Vedic mantra, how the animal was put in the fire and again gave him a new life. So where is that Vedic chanter, Vedic brāhmaṇa, yajñika brāhmaṇa? There is no such things, powerful brāhmaṇa. Therefore it is to be avoided. And that was not for eating purpose. To put one old animal in the fire and again he comes back with new life, that was the purpose. This question was raised by Chand Kazi to Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu challenged him, that "What is this your religion, you are killing your father and mother?" So he referred to this, that in..., "Formerly they were sacrificing cows in Your śāstra." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu explained that sacrifice was not meant for eating. That was meant for renovating new life. That is not for eating.

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Translation.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Then in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Añjanā, in the province of Gayā, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theists."

Prabhupāda: To delude them. Read the purport.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, appeared in the province of Gayā (Bihar) as the son of Añjanā, and he preached his own conception of nonviolence and deprecated even the animal sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared, the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh to anything else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice, every place was practically turned into a slaughterhouse, and animal killing was indulged in unrestrictedly. Lord Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He preached that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the adverse psychological effects incurred by animal killing. Less intelligent men of the age of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and for the time being they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence, the preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God realization. He deluded the atheists because such atheists who followed his principles did not believe in God, but they kept their absolute faith in Lord Buddha, who himself was the incarnation of God. Thus the faithless people were made to believe in God in the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: he made the faithless faithful to him. Killing of animals before the advent of Lord Buddha was the most prominent feature of the society. They claimed that these were Vedic sacrifices. When the Vedas were not accepted through the authoritative disciplic succession, the casual readers of the Vedas are misled by the flowery language of that system of knowledge. In the Bhagavad-gītā a comment has been made on such foolish scholars.

Comments on Bhagavad-gita Play -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: The whole basic principle is this, that people should understand, as I was explaining this morning, the sat and asat. So at the present moment we are living in the way that is asat. But there is another life, sat. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is an educational movement to raise a person from the asat platform to the sat. Under illusion they are, what is called, amock? They (laughs) have gone amock. So it is a humble attempt to stop their, this suicidal policy. They are practically committing suicide. They do not know what is the value of life and how they are spoiling it, this valuable life. Bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They are trying to adjust things by the arrangement of external energy. That is not possible. Whatever adjustment they are making, so many big, big leaders, politicians, they came. Napoleon, Hitler, Gandhi, this, that, by the waves of material nature everything is driven away. In that way there is no possibility of adjustment. It is not... Kathacaturamanam mali mali javanam(?) How many, caturānana. Caturānana means Brahmā. They come and go, come and go. And there is no permanent life, it is all asat. So they should come to the sat platform, that is perfect. The more you remain strong in your spiritual life, then more it will be impressed, it will act. And if it actually is not spiritual life but theatrical performance, then it will not help.

Bali-mardana: Hmm. Very important. In your book you say that when it is acted by pure devotees, then it is powerful.

Prabhupāda: So do your best, try your best. That is very good.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: What is that confusion?

Ali: I'm amazed that... When someone tastes something, a nice fruit, something pleasant, he remembers, appreciates that, even in material world. How could someone see God and come from a source as powerful and lovable as that and then forget? How could he forget so easily and become so badly attached to this materialism? Why is it that we are so far? I know it's in due course to my actions.

Prabhupāda: That tendency is here. Because we are very small fragment of spiritual identity, that tendency is there. The example is given, just like fire and spark of the fire. The fire and the spark, the spark is very small, but it is fire. And the big fire, together they look very beautiful. With the fire, when the sparks come-sput sput—so many sparks, it looks very beautiful. But the sparks sometimes fall down from the original fire. Then it is no more fire. It is fire, but it's extinguished. The illumination is over. So we are small particles of God. God is big fire; we are small particles of God. So we are playing with the big fire very nice, but there is chance of falling down. That chance is there. The big fire does not fall. The big fire is always blazing. But the small fire, although it is possessing the same quality of fire, it may fall down. So we are small particle, very, very small, atomic portion God. Therefore we have got the tendency to be separated from the big fire, and then we begin our material body. Just like another crude example, just like a very rich man's son, he's enjoying life.

Room Conversation -- August 16, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Vairāgya is there.

Dr. Patel: Sir, shall I say, vairāgyaṁ jñeyam akati kṛṣṇa avasyati.(?)

Prabhupāda: Yes, bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra syāt (SB 11.2.42). This is vairāgya. So unless he has attained this stage, virakti, then where is bhakti? Bhakti is so powerful that it brings automatically vairāgya. But if there is no vairāgya, where is bhakti? Understand it now? Yes. It does not depend that you have to practice vairāgya separately. But if you are actually bhakta, then vairāgya is there. If there is no vairāgya, there is no bhakti. It is sahajiyā-bhāva.

Guest: In other words, vairāgya is a by-product of bhakti.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is stated,

kecit kevalayā bhaktyā
vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ
aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena
nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ
(SB 6.1.15)

Vairāgya is to be practiced, but bhakti is so strong, kecit kevalayā bhaktyā, simply by bhakti, vāsudeva-parāyaṇa. Vairāgya immediately comes. Aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ. If actually one is pure bhakta, then everything material finished. That is real bhakta. Now I have got some bhakti and some material desire also. That is not bhakti. That is markaṭa-vairāgya. That does not mean that I shall stop bhakti. No, you take bhakti to the principle, to the regulative principle, then automatically vairāgya will come. The vairāgya is not coming, that means you have not been a pure bhakta. That is adulteration. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11). That is bhakti. And because there is not anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (CC Madhya 19.167), it is adulterated.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: If he can do so, can he save him from death? If he's so powerful.

Indian man: That is very easy. I can also do that. (laughter) I know the trick.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the trick?

Indian man: I'll not tell it to you. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: No. These tricky things are... They have no...

Hari-śauri: Sometimes he conjures up different items in his hand. Like he can conjure up a watch. Or there's a particular type of nut that is found in Nepal. So some American scientist was trying to get him to...

Prabhupāda: You have found out that portion?

Pradyumna: I'm just, I'm getting...

Hari-śauri: They were trying to get him to give some examples. So he refused. Then he produced this nut in his hand. Then he closed his fist and opened it again and the nut was there but this time it had a gold cross attached to it like this. And then he...

Prabhupāda: Now what is the result of showing these tricks? What is the ultimate result?

Indian man: B.N. Sarkar shows much better tricks than that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. B.N. Sarkar, he was going on cycle in London, busy street and his eyes bound up. Everyone has seen it. He was going on cycle in busy... Ordinary street he was going, and his eyes were bound up. Everyone has seen.

Room Conversation -- September 9, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is a question of culture. Culture. She was king's daughter, royal, and married her with a muni, old, rotten. Older than me. All the skin has become slackened. But still she was serving him just like worshipable lord. The age difference is great-grandfather and great-granddaughter. You'll find in Bhāgavatam. Lord Śiva, he could not construct even a house. He was living underneath a tree. And his wife, Durgā, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā (Bs. 5.44). She can create a new world, so powerful, Durgā. She's living with her husband underneath a tree. Never claims, "My dear husband, if you cannot, I can make one." There is a story about that. That, "People criticize us. All right, let us have some house." So Lord Śiva, Durgā, both of them capable to do anything. So they constructed a very nice gold house. "Now we shall live." So there is new house entering ceremony. So one Gargamuni was invited as brāhmaṇa. Many other brāhmaṇas. So they began to eat so much... That story I'm now forgetting. Then whatever stock they have finished, when, after eating, when they wanted, "Give us dakṣiṇā." Because after eating there is... So Lord Śiva, where shall I get everything? I have finished." Then they became puzzled what to do. So Lord Śiva said, "All right, you take this house." Again they became underneath a tree. (laughs) "All right, as dakṣiṇā you take this house. Don't bother." Their house entrance ceremony was there. As a result of that ceremony they became again underneath a tree. (About someone else:) What they're doing? (end)

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

Doctor: Then that one word as a mantra, is it not...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Doctor: ...the highest sort of word?

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 with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: There must be judgment, but people have become so rascal. So I am trying to convince, although single-handed, that "There is God," and they are bringing opposition.

Indian man (2): That is the real philosophy. That is not only Indian philosophy; this is universal philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Yes. God is for everyone.

Indian man (2): God, the almighty powerful.

Prabhupāda: God is not Hindu God, Muslim God, Christian. God is God. Now, when I say, "Here is God. His name is Kṛṣṇa. His father's name is Nanda Mahārāja," now they will laugh.

Dr. Kneupper: Do you think if a person is to be a real believer in God he has to also worship Kṛṣṇa or speak of Him?

Prabhupāda: No, God means Kṛṣṇa. He has to understand it. Therefore so many books. God has many names, millions, of which Kṛṣṇa name is the most important. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. Then you have to understand the science of God. How Kṛṣṇa is God, that you have to understand. But for that reason we are publishing so many books. We have already published eighty-four books, simply in English language. And they are being translated in German, French, Portuguese, then Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Bengali, like that.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Rich man you can become but for how long you shall be rich? The nature is so cruel; at any moment he'll take away everything. Then what is the use of becoming? No, you become rich man. There is no... But you should know that "Although I am rich, powerful, everything can be taken by nature at any moment." Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). That is statement of God, that "Any moment... You try to become rich, powerful, and president or minister, that's all right, but any moment, I can take everything from you." So who will protect himself? They have no brain that "Whatever I have created, it can be taken at any moment." So what is that confidence? They have no inquiry even. That this is a fact. Either you become Napoleon, Hitler or Gandhi, or this or that, any moment everything will be taken away. "Get out." Not only that, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), you have to accept another body. And that is no guarantee what body you are going to get because fully under the control of nature. They therefore don't believe in transmigration of the soul. And that is very great botheration. They try to evade. But Kṛṣṇa says, God says, "You cannot evade. It is nature's law." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). Within your body the soul is there. On account of presence of the soul—you were a child; now you are a grown young man—the body has changed. You were a boy; now you are young man. So on account of presence of the soul, the body is changing. So when this body will be finished, the soul will exist. Therefore, naturally you have to conclude, there will be another body.

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is real noncooperation. (laughter) What this public noncooperation will do. They are simply clerks. Some of them may be high-court judges, but no responsible post was given.

Guest (1): And all these atrocities were committed by Indians upon Indians at the orders of the British.

Prabhupāda: All the big, big secretaries, under-secretaries, governors... There was no minister, all European, only some clerks. So what is the use of clerks' noncooperation? They didn't care. And in order to pat Gandhi, the governor sometimes used to invite him. "Sir, you are so powerful. Kindly stop this movement." And Gandhi became puffed-up that the Britishers are very afraid of him. "No! I shall do." And Subash Bose insisting, "In this way, they'll never go by this nonviolent."

Guest (1): Human nature as it is, you can't... Unless there is some sort of a compulsion, whether in spiritual...

Prabhupāda: And in politics, might is right.

Guest (1): Of course. Survival of the fittest.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In politics you cannot become...

Guest (1): A sādhu. It is absurd. (laughing)

Prabhupāda: That is absurd.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: And commentary, interpretation required when you cannot understand. It is very easy and still these rogues will exploit and mislead people. This is... And perhaps, this is the first time I am pointing out. Before that nobody did.

Dr. Patel: And you wrote I have read your commentary twice and it has become very harsh on those people.

Prabhupāda: I must be. They are doing wrong thing. They are doing great harm to the... They are misleading the... If I become little more powerful, I shall do it more harshly. I did not show because I was non-entity. But I knew it. Now people are taking me little seriously, I am talking. (break) In the beginning I thought, Who will hear me? Better wait for the time. Therefore I wrote Mahatma Gandhi, that "Now you have got your svarāja. Please come, let us preach Bhagavad-gītā. You have..." If he would have given the chance at that time, then long ago this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement would have been started.

Indian man: He had only anāsakti-yoga.

Prabhupāda: He has expanded his āsakti from family to the whole nation. Expanded āsakti is not anāsakti. I'm thinking only of my family, and if I think of the whole nation, that does not mean anāsakti. That means āsakti expanded. I am a pickpocket. If I become a great plunderer, that does not mean I am not a thief. You cannot say pickpocket is thief and a great plunderer is a hero. The quality is there.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Relation is there. Relation is there. Otherwise, how can I address him? Relation is there. So this form Hare, means Hara, is the potency of Hari. (break) Just like you are a gṛhastha. You have got your wife, you have got your maidservant. The maidservant is doing something, wife is doing something, but you have many potencies. The managing director is there, but he has got many assistants. Similarly, the Supreme Person has got multi-assistants, potencies. So they are all accepted as Hara, Hari's potencies. So we have to approach Hari through the potency: "O Hare. O the potency of the Lord. O Lord, be merciful." We cannot jump over the Lord without going through the potency. So those who are impersonalists, they cannot understand. But those who are intelligent, they can understand that God is person, He has got multi-potencies, and through the potencies He's working so nicely. This is Vedic injunction. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport).

na tasya kāryaṁ kāraṇaṁ ca vidyate
na tat samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate
parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate
svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca

God has nothing to do personally. As we see a very big rich man, he hasn't got to do anything personally, but he has got so many assistants. They're doing everything. Similarly, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate. But when the things are done, svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā. The knowledge is so perfect and things are done so nicely that it is automatically being done. And the rascals who cannot see behind there is God, they simply see this nature: "The nature is working automatically." It is not the fact. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛti suyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). There is adhyakṣana. Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro. Even the sun planet, such big illuminative, powerful, it is also rotating by the order of God. So similarly, we are addressing the potencies of the Lord. We cannot jump over God, because potencies are so important. They are actually helping hand to God. So if they are pleased, then God will be pleased automatically. Why we address, "Hara"? "Hare Kṛṣṇa." The Kṛṣṇa's potency, Rādhārāṇī; Rāma's potency, Sītā... Therefore, first of all, Sītā-Rāma; Hare Kṛṣṇa; Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa; Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is giving protection. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarvapāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. But still we are not agreeable. Kṛṣṇa says that "I shall give you protection from all reaction of sinful life." But we are not taking that protection. You simply surrender. It is only process.

Guest (1): I am taking your shelter, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: No, I am not talking of me. I mean to say generally everything is declared. We have to take advantage of this. Then it is everything.

Guest (1): I mean to say, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Lord Kṛṣṇa also has said that "My pure devotees are more powerful than Me."

Prabhupāda: You have all my blessings. You have done so much for Kṛṣṇa.

Guest (1): So, Prabhupāda, I can come here till you are here. I thought that I should not, because medically you are not advised to. You talk less, but at least we will have your darśana.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Five to seven you can come.

Guest (1): That is sufficient for us without much... We will take your leave so that you can have rest.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore they're suffering. Ordinary people, what they'll do? Anarthas. Actually it is anartha. They have created so many things.

Rāmeśvara: They are very much afraid if we close down the gambling houses and the prostitution houses that there will be no more enjoyment. Life will be boring.

Prabhupāda: "What we'll do?" (laughter) So we shall give you opportunity to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and dance here. (train stops) What is this nonsense?

Rāmeśvara: It seems that if one day the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement has actually achieved some powerful position in America...

Prabhupāda: That we want.

Rāmeśvara: ...we will have to tolerate all these things—cinema, nightclubs. How can we close all these things? The people want these things.

Prabhupāda: No. If you educate people, if you give them better enjoyment, they'll give up.

Rāmeśvara: Very gradual.

Prabhupāda: Just like our men. They are not after cinema or brothel house or restaurants. It requires education.

Hari-śauri: We have to make them devotees.

Rāmeśvara: But can all the masses of people become devotees?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, cent percent devotees, by this process: ask them to chant and take prasāda.

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

Jagadīśa: But Kṛṣṇa consciousness knowledge...

Prabhupāda: In Russia, the mass of people aloof from this rascal theory.

Hari-śauri: They are not Communists, the mass of people. The Communist party itself is very small.

Prabhupāda: Yes, very small. By terrorism there will be, by terrorism.

Rāmeśvara: So when the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement becomes so powerful that it is in charge of the government, is it because of a small group of people or because of a mass?

Prabhupāda: It is due to quality of the leaders.

Rāmeśvara: But will it be like Russia where there is only a small group of people who are Kṛṣṇa conscious?

Prabhupāda: No, it is not that. The quality of the people will be changed.

Rāmeśvara: So that means the whole mass population...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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.

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

Rāmeśvara: They think that God has nothing to do. He does everything by His thinking. Just like in the Bible it says...

Prabhupāda: That why do you say nothing to do, rascal? That is doing. He is doing by thinking; that means...

Rāmeśvara: Yes. It is said in the Bible He created the world just by His thoughts.

Prabhupāda: That means—that's all right—that God is so powerful that He can do by His thinking. We also admit. But that does not mean God is not doing. But He is doing in a finer way. You rascal, you do in a grosser way. God does in a finer way. But that does not mean God is inactive.

Rāmeśvara: And he was criticizing our description of God coming as a boar...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is God.

Rāmeśvara: ...and God coming as a tortoise...

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is God.

Rāmeśvara: ...and a fish, half man, half lion.

Prabhupāda: That means God.

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Hari-śauri: Show the nine devotional processes...

Prabhupāda: Yes, the nine devotional process and how, by each process, one becomes perfect, just like Parīkṣit Mahārāja, simply hearing, and Śukadeva Gosvāmī, simply chanting, reciting Bhāgavatam. So both of them got salvation. Lakṣmī, she is simply pāda-sevanam, giving massage to the lotus feet of the Lord. Arjuna simply made friendship with Kṛṣṇa. Hanuman simply worked as a hard servant. He doesn't know what He is... "Lord Rāmacandra wants it." Then it is done. Jump over. He does not know any philosophy. He has got bodily strength, so whatever Rāmacandra says, he'll do. He was asked to bring that medicine for Lakṣmaṇa. He did not know where to find it. "Take this whole mountain." (laughter) He was not intelligent. "Fight! We have to fight with Rāvaṇa. Then block his whole city by throwing stones and trees and dirt." Everything became blocked. They could not move. So in one side he is born of animal life, he had no higher intelligence, but his staunch desire, that "I shall serve Lord Rāmacandra..." By that... Only this desire made him perfect. Dāsyam. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23), so smaraṇam. Prahlāda Mahārāja, five years old boy, how he could protest against such a powerful demon father? He was simply thinking of Kṛṣṇa, "All right, my father is punishing me. What can I do?" Simply absorbed, smaraṇam.

Rāmeśvara: One thing they will like to see in this movie is many different temples, beautiful temples from South India, and also Vaiṣṇava festivals.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 20, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Pāpī tāpī jāta chilo, hari-nāme uddharilo, tāra sākṣī jagāi and mādhāi. You are lawyer. You want evidence how pāpī tāpī has been delivered. So Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, "Here is the evidence," tāra sākṣī jagāi mādhāi. So practically we have to deal with Jagāi and Mādhāi, so many. And by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, hari-nāme uddharilo-hari-nāma is so powerful that everyone can be delivered, especially in this age. And so far one's profession is concerned, Kṛṣṇa said that even in fire, so pure, there is some smoke. So because there is smoke, you cannot give up the fire. You have to utilize it. So in this material world there is always some faulty things in every profession. But that does not mean we shall give up our profession in that way. Sva-karmaṇā tam abhyarcya (BG 18.46). And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung that nāmāśraya kari thākaha āpana kāje: "Take shelter of hari-nāma and remain in your own profession." And Caitanya Mahāprabhu has also recommended, sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiṛ. Bhagavān is ajita, but if one simply hears about Him from the authoritative sources, then Bhagavān, although Ajita—nobody can conquer Him—He becomes jita, He becomes conquered, simply by hearing about Him. So we should take to that. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām. You have to hear from the right source, and then everything will be adjusted. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. So where is there prasādam arranged? Eh? (end)

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Hm? Jumping on the car?

Hari-śauri: Yeah. Sometimes they do.

Satsvarūpa: The bird isn't powerful, but he can fly away from the lion. He can fly away from the lion, but he's not powerful.

Prabhupāda: Fly away?

Satsvarūpa: Kṛṣṇa has made him that he has some other kind of defense.

Prabhupāda: What kind of defense?

Satsvarūpa: He can fly away if a lion comes. You were teaching that each species has some kind of potent..., special...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam. One can protect himself from bhaya, cause of fearfulness. They are given food?

Bhāgavata: Yes, they give the animals food.

Prabhupāda: What does he say?

Bhāgavata: He said we have to... Now the ticket office is open. (laughs) This is an owl. You want to see the lake?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) The lion... What is called? Lance? Lance? They are afraid. If you have got lance, they will not attack you.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: Otherwise why would we distribute so many books?

Satsvarūpa: I went to one professor who refused to help us, and he said the reason is... Although we may be being persecuted now and we're a small movement, by reading our books and talking to the devotees, he thinks that if we ever did become powerful we would also become intolerant and we would not allow people to have any other religion. So he said, "Although you're small, I'm afraid to help you."

Prabhupāda: That means he does not understand us.

Satsvarūpa: Is it a fact that if Kṛṣṇa consciousness was the main power, would people be allowed to...?

Prabhupāda: Which way? Which way? This way?

Satsvarūpa: In the Vedic culture, are people allowed to follow any other belief? In a society where there is Kṛṣṇa conscious king or president, say someone doesn't want to be a devotee. What happens to him?

Prabhupāda: Devotee... Unless one is devotee, he cannot become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Imaṁ rājarṣayo... Means at king, the same time...

Satsvarūpa: No. The king, if the king is a devotee, but one of the subjects says, "I still don't believe in Kṛṣṇa, but I want to live here also."

Prabhupāda: So king has the power to chastise him. Just like if this child says, "I don't believe in education," shall I have to accept? He must be punished. He's a child. He can say, "Father, I don't believe in education. Let me play." Will the father allow? Chastise him. That is king's duty.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: And what they eat?

Hari-śauri: Rodents. Rats and different things.

Pradyumna: London sewers also.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The idea behind this is that the jaws of this crocodile is so big and so powerful that they can crush, they say, the femur of a buffalo, the thigh, a big all at once, they can crush it immediately. But in the case of the egg, he has this loving tendency, tender care, so that the little one is not hurt, the feeling, their conscious feeling.

Prabhupāda: Affectionate.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. How that can come about by this..., those pushes and pulls? That is our question. We inquire how can this be explained just in terms of atoms and molecules? If we assume that life is nothing but a manifestation of these pushes and pulls of these molecular interactions, then science has no explanation. Then we take example from Darwin himself, his own words.

Hari-śauri: Did you read this caption, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for this crocodile? 'Cause it explains how the male crocodile, he takes the egg underneath his tongue and he rolls it backwards and forwards very gently until the young crocodile hatches, and then he leaves his mouth open, and the little crocodile jumps out and swims ashore.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Hari-śauri: So the point they were making was that if it was simply a question of chemical reaction, that tendency...

Prabhupāda: How it is... How would that..., eggs.

Hari-śauri: Yes. How would he have that loving feeling to hatch the baby?

Gargamuni: After all, they are man-eaters. They would immediately eat.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Critical means our triumph.

Hari-śauri: Yes. They know we have some substance now.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But I think we can pretty much convince the academic circles rather easily. Our philosophy is so strong and powerful that I think we can make a good presentation in the educated circles, especially colleges and universities.

Prabhupāda: Hm. That is nice. So that we are trying. We have got already books in the educated circles.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Not only books, but good solid presentation, to make...

Prabhupāda: That is... That you are. In our Institute you lecture.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think our journal, the Sa-Vijñānam, will be...

Prabhupāda: Able to...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: By Prabhupāda's mercy, I think, it will be very useful in making contact with the...

Prabhupāda: Yes. So when you are going to publish?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We wanted to print this in about three months, the first volume.

Prabhupāda: And not yet finished?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I have the draft, the manuscript here. It needs to be revised. And then we have to contact with the...

Prabhupāda: How many pages? How many pages it will be?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, it's going to be big. First... It's little too big for the first volume. I have a draft here. (gets out draft-groans as if it's heavy)

Prabhupāda: Oh! (laughter)

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- January 30, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Girirāja can also write one article.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Satsvarūpa Mahārāja and everybody can contribute articles, some sort of academic article, so we can reach the intellectual class with their format. But I talked about this with several Indians, the Indian scholars. They are... They think that it will be very powerful, especially in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. If we add that, then said it's going to be very much more powerful.

Prabhupāda: Yes. When we bring, present scientific basis, it must be powerful. All right, let us...

Gargamuni: I think in America that we cannot say that the general public is against us, because the book sales are increasing. It is only when the book sales decrease...

Prabhupāda: No... So how many pages these are?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We plan to print up to at least hundred pages each volume. But this is already about two hundred pages. So we are going to reduce it little bit so that we can print it in next volume.

Prabhupāda: Life From Life, we are already advertising in our BBT list.

Hari-śauri: Yes. It's already listed there.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We plan to have our book about five hundred pages. And we should finish it by fall. We feel it's major work. The difficult part is that establish from science, comparative study... And we have finished that. Next stage is... It's not very difficult. It's about, they call, fossil, these bones... We're going to say something about it, but that's not much. Then conclusion...

Prabhupāda: So you are scientist, devotee, and kṣatriya. As kṣatriya you'll force: (laughing) "You must believe this, or I will kill you." (laughter) And as scientist, the convincing argument... And as devotee, Kṛṣṇa will help you. That's all Yuddhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). That is Kṛṣṇa's word, "Fight! And remember Me." That's all. Combination kṣatriya, devotee, and scientist. Very good combination. Kṣatriya does not know beyond two things—victory or death. No third thing. That is kṣatriya. In a fighting, if I do not gain victory, then I must die. Two things. That is kṣatriya spirit. Whenever there is fight between the two kṣatriya, one must die. That is last word. No compromise. Jarāsandha and Bhīma, fighting for twenty-eight days, in the evening they were friends, but the fighting went on until one is dead. That is kṣatriya's fighting. Where is that spirit now? I think in Europe also there was the knights.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We are bringing this law of nature which is a higher order law. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...thousandth part of the top tip of the hair. That is also given. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā (CC Madhya 19.140). In the Upaniṣads there is. The dimension of the ātmā is given. That small particle, atomic, is so powerful. And what about the Supreme?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They ask, "What is the force that combined matter and the ātmā, matter and life, matter and the jīva or ātmā? What is the force behind it?"

Prabhupāda: Force because ātmā is independent. He can live in the spiritual world or in the material world as he likes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But is not correct, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that Paramātmā is the...

Prabhupāda: Paramātmā is...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...is behind.

Prabhupāda: Yes, behind, yes. He's the origin of ātmā. Mamaivāṁśa. Kṛṣṇa said, "This ātmā is my small particle part." He says that. So Paramātmā is the origin, and these are fragmental parts of Paramātmā.

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

Satsvarūpa: It requires powerful influence in the society to...

Prabhupāda: Yes. If the leaders of the society, they agree. They are barking like dogs in the United Nation. They should take rightly the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā. Then everything will be all right. They're simply barking like dogs. What benefit is there? What benefit people have derived from the United Nation? Nothing. So if they want actually world peace, world unity, they must take the formula given by Kṛṣṇa. That is our duty. Because we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so our duty is to convince that "You are uselessly wasting your time for unity, for benefit of the human... You take this. You'll be happy." We are safe. We have taken to Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet shelter. There is no doubt. But... Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. He said that "I am quite happy. I have no problem. But I am thinking of these rascals." Tato vimūḍha-cetasa indriyārtha: "They have made the whole aim of life sense gratification." Indriyārtha. "And for that purpose, a few years, they're making huge arrangement, how we shall become happy?" And next life a dog. It is risky. So as Kṛṣṇa conscious men, we should try to save them. That is the duty. But this civilization as it is going on is very risky. They do not know how nature's law is working, how he's going to be a dog next life. He does not know. Mūḍho nābhijānāti. To save the mass people from falling down to the repetition of birth and death, that is welfare activity. To save them by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we have to keep this ideal at least, varṇāśrama, that "Here is the position."

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Don't bring now scripture. We are talking in common language, common sense, that within... You cannot understand it. Therefore where is your brain? The dog also cannot understand. He's simply identifying with this body, and you also doing that. So where is your brain? Man is rational animal. Where is your rationality? If (you) avoid rationality, you are as good as dog. Where is your brain? Argue on this point. Dog... If one big dog thinking, "I am greyhound " or "this big body I am..." The lion also thinking, "I am so powerful. I am this body." So I am also thinking like that: "I am American, very rich." But both of them—no understanding that how you are powerful, why you are powerful, what is that active principle. Then where is your brain? Why man is important than the animal? It is common sense. So it is not brainwashing, but it is giving brain, this movement. They have no brain at all. So argue on this point. Our challenge is that "You have no brain. Where is the question of brainwash? You cannot understand the simple thing, which is important."

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Shadow. The shadow has no power to move. Chāyeva. How nice example. Although Durgā, the material nature, is so powerful, she is powerful in that way, as much the shadow is powerful. Chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibharti. Again explained, icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate. "Whatever she is doing, she is doing according to the desire of the Supreme..." Govindam ādi-puruṣam. "O Govinda, You are the Supreme." Everything is there. Everything is explained in Brahma-saṁhitā. Ultimately, govindam ādi-puruṣam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Generally in the court cases that we've had against our society, they only question our method of preaching. But this is the first case where they are questioning what we are preaching. It's the first time I have seen it. Usually they're simply arguing over "You should distribute books like this or not like this." But now they are questioning what is in the books.

Prabhupāda: Explain. If you can explain Bhagavad-gītā nicely, then his father will understand. Where is that impediment? Ask them that "You are very proud of manufacturing very subtle machine, but can you prepare a machine like this? It is..." What will be the possible answer? If you challenge, then what will be the possible answer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They avoid the issue. When they don't have an answer, they simply change the subject.

Prabhupāda: So why you allow him to? "Why you change?"

Ādi-keśava: They say you're talking about religion...

Prabhupāda: It is not religion. It is... I'm talking of machine. Religion, you do not know what is religion. That we shall talk later on. First of all come to machine. Religion. What you will know about religion? You are animal. So what you will know? Animal has no religion.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is...

Hari-śauri:

āḍhyo 'bhijanavān asmi
ko 'nyo 'sti sadṛśo mayā
yakṣye dāsyāmi modiṣya
ity ajñāna-vimohitāḥ

"The demoniac person thinks, 'So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him, and my other enemy will also be killed. I am the lord of everything. I am the enjoyer. I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifice, I shall give some charity, and thus I shall rejoice.' In this way such persons are deluded by ignorance."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then he gets a toothache and it's all finished. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Yes. The rascal Sai Baba says, "I am God."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now it seems that they have detected him for sure. He's really becoming publicly denounced now all over the world.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Room Conversation -- March 26, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So you cannot deny, "There is no God." That is not possible. The earth is the mother. They say "mother country," "mother earth." And everything is coming out from the earth. Beginning from the aquatic animals, grass, they are coming from material elements, either from water or from earth. That we can see. And they are coming from fire also, but we cannot see. But they are. It is common sense. If life can come from water, fire... Fire is also one of the elements, five elements. So from fire also... Therefore it is said, nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Because it is coming from fire, therefore fire cannot harm the living entity. So mother is there, children are there. Where is the father? This is the logic. And the father is coming personally, "Yes, I am father." Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Then where is the chance for denying the existence of father? No. There is no chance, there is no logic. And the father is so rich, so powerful, so kind. And you are not taking shelter of your father. Your actual father, so great, so rich, so intelligent, so opulent. He promises, "My dear son, you surrender, I will give you all protection." He is giving protection. Still, He is assuring, and, still you will not take shelter? That is intelligent? That is envy. Everyone can take. Everyone is suffering for misuse of their intelligence, denying the authority of God. And everyone can take advantage. We are giving them knowledge. Without any exception, everyone can take. This is our line. Accept the father, the bona fide father. Take protection from Him. He is able to give you everything. Why you are suffering? What is the logic?

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Mr. Koshi: Interpretation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Spoil their own life and spoil others. This is going on. The meaning is clear, but these rascals are thinking that "Meaning is not clear. Kṛṣṇa left for me to clear the meaning." That's all. Such rascals, they are touching Bhagavad-gītā. As if Kṛṣṇa left for him to clear the meaning. These rubbish things we want to stop. Of course, it is not possible. Many others are. But we are trying little, that's all. We cannot make any compromise. Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness. What Kṛṣṇa says, that is a fact. They are completely under the grip of material nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). They are declaring independence. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). False, ahaṅkāra, egotism. Nature in one slap, crack! Indira Gandhi is so powerful, one slap, "Get out." What can you do? One slap is sufficient. They do not understand. Jump. They do not know. They are completely under the control of prakṛti, and prakṛti is under the control of Kṛṣṇa. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). They do not discuss this. Still they are scholar in Bhagavad-gītā. Simply picking up some words, they become scholar. Is that scholarship? They do not read even the whole Bhagavad-gītā, neither they understand. This is going on.

Room Conversation -- April 13, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But first of all we must know also what is the position. If we also become enamored by the so-called scientists, politicians, philosophers, then we cannot preach. We must definitely be convinced that they're all rascals. As a gentleman, I can give him some respect. That is another thing. But he's a rascal. You must know that "I am talking with a rascal number one." So I... He cannot deviate me from my position. But I can talk in a nice way, gentlemanly. That is another thing. That is courtesy. But I know that these rascals, number fools, number one fools, they have no idea. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore said, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva (CC Madhya 19.151). In this way they are rotting within this universe. Kabhu svarge kabhu martye narake ḍubāya. Sometimes by puṇya they are in the higher planetary system, some powerful lokas(?). Sometimes fish, sometimes demigod, sometimes dog and cat. This is going on. Kṛṣṇa says. Nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani (BG 9.3). Mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani, botheration. Then there is... We have got this... Any intelligent person gets the Bhagavad-gītā. The rascals are reading Bhagavad-gītā, do not understand a line even. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). They do not question even. And after the destruction, body, I am not annihilated. Then where I am going? What is my next life? Na jāyate na mriyate vā. He does not die. The body is changed. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). So everything is clearly said. They do not inquire even that "After changing this body or change dress, what kind of body or dress I am going to have?" Answer is there. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. Everything there. And they are reading Bhagavad-gītā. Gandhi's reading Bhagavad-gītā. Tilak is reading Bhagavad-gītā. Where is their knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā? And misleading all, writing commentary, "Bhagavad-gītā means nationalism, nonviolence," protesting that "If Kṛṣṇa is fighting, I don't want that Kṛṣṇa, even I am extricated from the Hindu society."

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Why they should accept this? And this is one man's attempt.

Mr. Rajda: It has got to be institutionalized.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why not make that? This political change, this political situation change, it will go on. Today you are powerful. Tomorrow I am powerful. That does not make any difference. Indira Gandhi was so powerful. In one day everything finished. So it may be finished, my position. Mohitaṁ nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam (BG 7.13). Tribhir guṇamayair bhāvaiḥ. They do not know, behind these all activities there is a person who can do anything He likes. So what about to know about Him? So these things are there in India. The knowledge is not secret. It is open. So without distorting it, without breaking it and spoiling it, why not give it as it is for the benefit of the whole humanity? You are young man. You can think over.

Indian (1): With a commission.

Prabhupāda: But...

Mr. Rajda: With your blessings... With your blessing I can be sure to be able to do something.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mr. Rajda: Last time we had talked about this, and in Delhi, actually, I was on the verge of arranging the meeting, but never here. But then our Girirāja telephoned me, and in deference to your health we didn't arrange that meeting in Delhi. When Morarji-bhai is coming here, we shall see that...

Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all you can talk. It is not expected that everyone will be able to understand. It is not expected.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: About the land and cows, this is Bhagavad-gītā, mentioned, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). Never recommends factory. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44). So there is no question of giving protection to the cows if it gives milk only. No. Go-rakṣya. There must be protection to the cow. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Even the cows pass urine and stool, that is beneficial. And if it gives milk, then there is no question. Hm. What is that?

Lokanātha: "The necessities of human society are food grains, fruits, milk, minerals, clothing, wood, etc. One requires all these items to fulfill the material needs of the body. Certainly one does not require flesh and fish or iron tools and machinery. During the regime of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, all over the world there were regulated rainfalls. Rainfalls are not in the control of the human being. The heavenly King Indradeva is the controller of rains, and he is the servant of the Lord. When the Lord is obeyed by the king and the people under the king's administration, there are regulated rains from the horizon, and these rains are the causes of all varieties of production on the land. Not only do regulated rains help ample production of grains and fruits, but when they combine with astronomical influences there is ample production of valuable stones and pearls. Grains and vegetables can sumptuously feed a man and animals, and a fatty cow delivers enough milk to supply a man sumptuously with vigor and vitality. If there is enough milk, enough grains, enough fruit, enough cotton, enough silk and enough jewels, then why do the people need cinemas, houses of prostitution, slaughterhouses, etc.? What is the need of an artificial luxurious life of cinema, cars, radio, flesh and hotels? Has this civilization produced anything but quarreling individually and nationally? Has this civilization enhanced the cause of equality and fraternity by sending thousands of men into a hellish factory and the war fields at the whims of a particular man?

It is said here that the cows used to moisten the pasturing land with milk because their milk bags were fatty and the animals were joyful. Do they not require, therefore, proper protection for a joyful life by being fed with a sufficient quantity of grass in the field? Why should men kill cows for their selfish purposes? Why should man not be satisfied with grains, fruits and milk, which, combined together, can produce hundreds and thousands of palatable dishes. Why are there slaughterhouses all over the world to kill innocent animals? Mahārāja Parīkṣit, grandson of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, while touring his vast kingdom, saw a black man attempting to kill a cow. The King at once arrested the butcher and chastised him sufficiently. Should not a king or executive head protect the lives of the poor animals who are unable to defend themselves? Is this humanity? Are not the animals of a country citizens also? Then why are they allowed to be butchered in organized slaughterhouses? Are these the signs of equality, fraternity and nonviolence?

Therefore, in contrast with the modern, advanced, civilized form of government, an autocracy like Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira's is by far superior to a so-called democracy in which animals are killed and a man less than an animal is allowed to cast votes for another less-than-animal man.

We are all creatures of material nature. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that the Lord Himself is the seed-giving father and material nature is the mother of all living beings in all shapes. Thus mother material nature has enough foodstuff both for animals and for men, by the grace of the Father Almighty, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The human being is the elder brother of all other living beings. He is endowed with intelligence more powerful than animals for realizing the course of nature and the indications of the Almighty Father. Human civilizations should depend on the production of material nature without artificially attempting economic development to turn the world into a chaos of artificial greed and power only for the purpose of artificial luxuries and sense gratification. This is but the life of dogs and hogs."

Prabhupāda: Simply fighting. They are not peaceful. That's all. Where is peace? You'll be surprised. During gas scarcity the gas was being supplied in Honolulu. This was in our presence. So the gas supply, whatever they had, distributed, and they had one sign board, "No more gas." So next man was so angry that he shot him dead. Just see. He had no more gas; he cannot supply. He became so much infuriated that he shot him dead. This is the result of this modern motorcar civilization. He thought that "Gas will not be supplied. Then I am gone. I am finished. So kill this man." This is education. (Hindi) Provided we train at least some ideal men, everything can be done. Everything is there. There is no scarcity of knowledge in India. We have to simply take it and practically apply it, bas. (Hindi) We are not sentimental (laughs) religious group. Everything practical. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not like that, sentiment. Everything scientific, practical, for the good of the whole human society. Therefore I require that this must be pushed on for the whole human society, and naturally India also. (aside:) The prasādam arrangement is...? You give each item, one each... No, no, give me, give me, give... This is... Each item, you give one.

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Every one of us messiaḥ. Anyone Kṛṣṇa conscious, he's the messiaḥ. Every one. Why one? All of us. Gaurāṅgera bhakta-gaṇe, jane jane śakti dhari, brahmāṇḍa tari saksi(?): "The devotee of Lord Caitanya, every one has so immense power that every one, they can deliver the whole universe." Gaurāṅgera bhakta-jane, jane jane śakti..., brahmāṇḍa tari... That is Gaurāṅga's men.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Only you are that powerful, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We're like...

Prabhupāda: Why you are not? You are my disciples.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're like the bugs.

Prabhupāda: "Like father, like son." You should be. Gaurāṅgera bhakta..., jane. Everyone. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128). He asked everyone, "Just become guru." Follow His instruction. You become guru. Āmāra ājñāya. Don't manufacture ideas. Āmāra ājñāya. "What I say, you do. You become a guru." Where is the difficulty? "And what is Your ājñā?" Yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). Bas. Everything is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. You simply repeat. That's all. You become guru. To become a guru is not difficult job. Follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu and speak what Kṛṣṇa has said. Bas. You become guru.

Room Conversation with Ram Jethmalani (Parliament Member) -- April 16, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He was a great yogi and so on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You remember in that book you were reading, The Aquarian Gospel. It mentioned how he learned yoga when he came to India.

Prabhupāda: We admit. Guru Mahārāja said śaktyāveśa-avatāra, powerful incarnation. Therefore whenever there was question of Jesus, I never disrespected Jesus. Never criticized him, because I know that he is powerful representative of God. We took it from Guru Mahārāja.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your Guru Mahārāja would sometimes...

Prabhupāda: He said that Christ is śaktyāveśa-avatāra, as Buddha. How he can be otherwise? He sacrificed everything for God. He cannot be ordinary man.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You want (indistinct)?

Prabhupāda: Hm. That Melbourne meeting, it was... You were present?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I heard about it. With the monks, I think.

Prabhupāda: They very much appreciated. Because they saw that I have got full respect for Christ and his real disciples. And actually we have. Why not? He said, "Thou shalt not kill," and they are interpreting killing. This is going on. And they are Christians. Just see how much cheating. It is clearly written, "Thou shalt not kill." And their only business is killing, and still, they are Christians. How much cheating it is. Whatever little success is in our movement, the cause is I have not tried to cheat. Honestly, what I knew, I heard it from Guru Mahārāja and scripture, I took it. There was no cheating.

Second Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 24, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: If you... If you think kuṭumbakam. Suppose some kuṭumba has come to your house. You ask him, "Go out"? This is our system. Gṛhe śatrum api prāptam. This is Indian culture. When you receive somebody at your home, even if he's your enemy-gṛhe śatrum api prāptam—you should treat with him in such a way that he'll forget that he's your enemy. Viśvastam akutobhayam. That was India's culture. Bhīma went to Jarāsandha to fight. Whole day it was fight. It was kṣatriya's fight. Unless one is dead, the fight will continue. So Bhīma and Jarāsandha were equally powerful, so no decision. But still, he was guest at Jarāsandha's house. At night they were eating together, talking together. This is India's culture. They forgot. Arjuna went to see in the battlefield to Duryodhana. And Duryodhana immediately said, "Come here, my brother. You have come. What do you want? How can I help you? You want your kingdom without fight? I can give you." He said, "No, no, that is not my business." This is kṣatriya. He... He thought that "He has come to beg." "No, no, that already... That we shall decide in the battlefield." This is kṣatriya. But when he's at my place, I offer, "All right, if you want without fight, you can take." This is... They... This is India's culture. Ei sab mahābhārata hai, "History of Greater India." (Hindi) Apkara Gandhiji (Hindi) fiction hai.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This movement is so powerful, this message is so pure, that it seems that no matter how big the opposition is, still, it can conquer. We can be victorious. Arjuna was victorious. There's a wonderful statement in the beginning... You make this... It's stated in the Tenth Canto. Parīkṣit Mahārāja is appreciating Arjuna, and he's saying, "How, how could he defeat such gigantic...?" He's comparing to the ocean the battlefield. He says, "Bhīṣma, such a big fish..."

Prabhupāda: Timiṅgila.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: In the ocean there are fishes. You cannot see them. Big fishes: (makes gulping sound). From the skeleton I saw in Calcutta Museum...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whale skeleton?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whales.

Prabhupāda: Whale or some fish skeleton. As big as this room, it was hanging. I think it is there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, in the Museum of Natural History in New York they have a whale that is at least twice the length of this room.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Discussions with Devotees and Conversation with Dr. Ghosh -- June 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Jagadīśa: Here it is clearly mentioned that living entities belong to the superior nature (or energy) of the Supreme Lord. The inferior energy is matter manifested in different elements, namely earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego. Both forms of material nature, namely gross (earth, etc.) and subtle (mind, etc.), are products of the inferior energy. The living entities, who are exploiting these inferior energies for different purposes, are the superior energy of the Supreme Lord, and it is due to this energy that the entire material world functions. The cosmic manifestation has no power to act unless it is moved by the superior energy, the living entity. Energies are always controlled by the energetic, and therefore living entities are always controlled by the Lord—they have no independant existence. They are never equally powerful, as unintelligent men think. The distinction between the living entities and the Lord is described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as follows (10.87.30):

aparimitā dhruvās tanubhṛto yadi sarva-gatās
tarhiṁ na śāsyateti niyamo dhruva netarathā
ajani ca yanmayaṁ tad avimucya niyantṛ
bhavet samam anujānatāṁ yad-amataṁ mata-duṣṭatayā

"O Supreme Eternal! If the embodied living entities were eternal and all-pervading like You, then they would not be under Your control. But if the living entities are accepted as minute energies of Your Lordship, then they are at once subject to Your supreme control. Therefore real liberation entails surrender by the living entities to Your control, and that surrender will make them happy. In that constitutional position only can they be controllers. Therefore, men with limited knowledge who advocate the monistic theory that God and the living entities are equal in all respects are actually misleading themselves and others."

The Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa is the only controller, and all living entities are controlled by Him. These living entities are His superior energy because the quality of their existence is one and the same with the Supreme, but they are never equal to the Lord in quantity of power. While exploiting the gross and subtle inferior energy (matter), the superior energy (the living entity) forgets his real spiritual mind and intelligence. This forgetfulness is due to the influence of matter upon the living entity. But when the living entity becomes free from the influence of the illusory material energy, he attains the stage called mukti, or liberation. The false ego, under the influence of material illusion, thinks, "I am matter, and material acquisitions are mine." His actual position is realized when he is liberated from all material ideas, including the conception of his becoming one in all respects with God. Therefore one may conclude that the Gītā confirms the living entity to be only one of the multi-energies of Kṛṣṇa; and when this energy is freed from material contamination, it becomes fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, or liberated. (break)

Dr. Ghosh: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Begin. (Bengali conversation) (break) What is that?

Bhavānanda: Fruit juice and sabji, so much...

Dr. Ghosh: But you'll get your pomegranates? I'll get it.

Bhakti-caru: (Bengali) (Bengali conversation)

Dr. Ghosh: How you'll take care of him?

Upendra: Massage. He's cooking.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (Bengali conversation) We have got black cows.

Morning Conversation -- June 23, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even had they put in a king in the modern days, the tendency is to kick out the foreigners.

Prabhupāda: No, if they had ruled nicely, according to the Indian principles... The Muhammadans did it, and they ruled over eight hundred years. The Britishers could not do it. They could not rule over two hundred years. Within two hundred years finished. And during Muhammadan period there were many, many powerful Sikhs. Staying, they did not like to drive away the Muhammadans. Whole Rajputana was full of big, big kings. They could have thrown away them. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. The Rajput kings.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But they did not do. They cooperated.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That Rajput is Rajasthan?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Akbar appointed this Mansingha, who has made these temples. He was commander-in-chief. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Of the Moslem army.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The all governmental power was in the hand of Indians. Only the Muslims were there.

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In this age Caitanya Mahāprabhu has made everything very simplified.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Patitānāṁ pāvanebhyaḥ. Pāpī tāpī jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo, tāra sākṣī jagāi-mādhāi, brajendra-nandana jei, śaci-suta hoilo sei. Kṛṣṇa is coming. He has come as Caitanya Mahāprabhu to deliver these pāpīs and tāpīs. Whole process is scientific. It is not (laughs) the Ramakrishna, Vivekananda. It is not that. What do they know? Or Gandhi. They are also trying for the betterment, but they do not accept the standard process. Everyone is trying. That is struggle for existence. So who is fittest? The fittest is the devotee. He'll survive. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9). I have now explained how Kṛṣṇa became subordinate to devotee. (turns on dictaphone, plays back from tape:) "Yamarāja, controller of all living entities, is afraid of the order of Kṛṣṇa. Still, Kṛṣṇa is afraid of mother's stick. This contradictory thing cannot be understood by one who is not devotee. Devotee can understand how much powerful is unalloyed devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, so much so He can be controlled by such devotee. Bhṛtya-vaśyata. That means under the control of the servant, but He is under the control of pure love by the servant. In the Bhagavad-gītā also, we see, Kṛṣṇa became the chariot driver of Arjuna. Arjuna is ordering Him, senayor ubhayor madhye rathaṁ sthāpaya me acyuta (BG 1.21). Here Kṛṣṇa has agreed... (break) '...my chariot...' (break) '...to execute my order. Place my chariot between the two party soldiers.' Kṛṣṇa immediately executed his order. One may argue in this connection that Kṛṣṇa is also not independent. This is ajñāna, ignorance. Kṛṣṇa is fully independent. When He becomes subordinate to the devotees He is ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. Humor of transcendental qualities increases transcendental pleasure. One who worships Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, therefore sometimes desires to be controlled by somebody controller. Nobody else... (break) ...pure devotee." (end of tape playback section) Everyone worships Him as the Supreme, but sometimes He desires, "Somebody will control over."

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I shall remain your personal guidance, physically present or not physically, as I am getting personal guidance from my Guru Mahārāja.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "Arjuna was a great, powerful devotee, and he could overcome the shock. But we are most fallen and cannot endure such a shock of having you leave us. We are already mortified by such a thought. Your movement is just now being accepted, and we want you to remain to lead all your devotees towards successful spiritual life. Despite our offenses, all of us deeply have great love for Your Divine Grace, and our world will become dark without your presence. Materially you have provided all of your devotees with everything: big temples, money, prestige, and honor, nice prasādam." (chuckles) That's not material. "But I would relish more being with you without all of these things..." He says, "But personally I would relish more being with you without all of these things, as we began at 26 Second Avenue. Simply hearing you chant and talk for hours is my only solace. I don't want anything else. We left all these material things to be with you only, so please have mercy with your devotees by allowing us to have your personal appearance as long as..."

Prabhupāda: He was from very beginning. Brahmānanda. He has worked very hard from the beginning.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says "I may also come to cook and clean for you."

Prabhupāda: Yes, you are welcome.

Room Conversation -- July 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just see practically. Indira Gandhi, she came to a point, and then falls again. Is it not? The same golo dhana(?). She was all-in-all powerful, and once again finished.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Finished.

Prabhupāda: Indira Gandhi, finished. President Nixon, finished. They do not see, these big, big stalwart men of the world. They can be finished in one second. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that "I have seen my father, such a powerful man, finished. What benediction I shall ask, this material world? Don't allure me. Better engage me as the servant of Your servant." Anything, any opulence. Now nobody utters the name of Indira Gandhi. Every... Every day the people or newspaper filled up with Indira Gandhi. That the Russian minister, Krushchev? Nobody knows where he is.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's unknown now.

Prabhupāda: They said he is living privately.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why did they depose him?

Prabhupāda: The cause may be many, but we have to see the result. The main cause was that he was appointing his own men in big, big office.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Gandhi tried twenty years to get little equal rights. The General Smuts refused. He was failure in South Africa. And then he decided that "I shall drive these Europeans, Englishmen, from India." He came. That also he could not do. Here also, for thirty years he struggled. He was failure, nonviolent. It is Subhash Bose's INA which drove away these Englishmen. You know that? That Indian Army, what is that, INA, Indian National Army? When he organized this National Army, then the Englishmen came to sense that "Now we cannot rule over." This rascal was going on, nonviolence... (laughter) While... "We shall pat them: 'Oh, yes, you are so powerful. Oh, why you are trying to drive away?' " And he'll be... "Oh..." The Baitland(?) Colony in a loincloth, and engaged in the sun chair.(?) He had no practical knowledge. He started the movement from 1917, and actually it was... Independence was given, 1947. Thirty years he failed. Twenty years he failed there. He spoils fifty years for nothing, and distorting Bhagavad-gītā, that in Bhagavad-gītā there is nonviolence. Such a rascal. Bhagavad-gītā begins with, with this word, dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre yuyutsavaḥ: (BG 1.1) "Two parties desiring to fight." That is the beginning. Yudhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). And Kṛṣṇa's whole life is yuddha, fighting. Before His birth, plan was being made how to kill Him. This is yuddha. Kaṁsa was planning. And after His birth He had to go away, just to make a show, from His father's house to another house incognito to avoid yuddha. And when yuddha began, three months old, He killed Pūtanā.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The affection was increasing not to māyā, but because Kṛṣṇa expanded Himself as everything... So their whole life was meant for Kṛṣṇa. On account of Kṛṣṇa affection, the affection of the older calves were more than the new calves. What is written in the English Kṛṣṇa?

Jayādvaita: "One day when Kṛṣṇa, along with Balarāma, was maintaining the calves in the forest..." It's just up here. "Balarāma was astonished to see all the residents of Vṛndāvana so affectionate for their own children, exactly as they had been for Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, the cows had grown affectionate for their calves as much as for Kṛṣṇa. Balarāma therefore concluded that the extraordinary show of affection was something mystical, either performed by the demigods or by some powerful man."

Prabhupāda: Is it clear now? Balarāma was surprised to see the action of yogamāyā; therefore He inquired from Kṛṣṇa, "What is happening in this scene? What is that mystery?" Is it clear?

Pradyumna: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: In this way go very slow, but the discussion may be complete. So you can go on.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Balarāma was surprised, "This māyā may be some rākṣasī-māyā. But how rākṣasī-māyā can influence upon Balarāma? That is not possible. Therefore it must be the māyā of Kṛṣṇa." Therefore He inquired. What is there in the English?

Jayādvaita: "Balarāma inquired from Kṛṣṇa about the actual situation. He said, 'My dear Kṛṣṇa, in the beginning I thought that all these cows, calves and cowherd boys were either great sages and saintly persons or demigods. But at the present it appears that they are actually Your expansions. They are all You. You Yourself are playing as the calves and cows and boys.' " This is later? Before that, "Balarāma had concluded that the extraordinary show of affection was something mystical, either performed by the demigods or some powerful man. Otherwise how could this wonderful change take place? He concluded that this mystical change must have been caused by Kṛṣṇa, whom Balarāma considered His worshipable Personality of Godhead. He thought, 'It was arranged by Kṛṣṇa, and even I could not check its mystic power.' Thus Balarāma understood that all those boys and calves were only expansions of Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: Is it now clear?

Pradyumna: Yes, Prabhupāda. Next verse. Iti sañcintya dāśārhaḥ...

Prabhupāda: Iti—thus; sañcintya—thinking.

Pradyumna: "Thinking thus," dāśārhaḥ. Dāśārhaḥ (rāmaḥ)— "Balarāma."

Prabhupāda: Dāśārhaḥ.

Room Conversation With Svarupa Damodara -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Possible or impossible (break) It is not very...

Upendra: Prabhupāda wants to know why... Hari-śauri's here. Wanted to know why the urine is not as bad as it was. What action was taken to make it not bad?

Hari-śauri: You're not drinking that orange juice. I was told by Parivrājakācārya... He seems to know something about juices and things like that, and he said that orange juice is much too powerful. It kind of scourges the kidneys. It scours them out.

Prabhupāda: So what I am drinking now?

Hari-śauri: This sweet lime juice. He also thought that might be a little strong, because it's citrus, because actually the urine is still cloudy, and that did not occur until you began to drink this orange and sweet lime. The first night when the blood was there, that day you had drunk two glasses of sweet lemon and one glass of orange. Just like pomegranate juice, this is very good because it's not citrus. Is the sweet lemon juice giving some strength?

Prabhupāda: I don't think so.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The future of this movement? Page 88. "The future of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement can save the world. 'Kirāta, hūṇāndhra, pulinda, pulkaśa, ābhīra, śumbha, yavana (SB 2.4.18) and the khasa races, and even others who are addicted to sinful acts, can be purified by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord, due to His being the supreme power. I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.' Purport: 'The above-mentioned historical names are different nations of the world. Even those who are constantly engaged in sinful acts are all corrigible to the standard of perfect human beings if they take shelter of the devotees of the Lord. Jesus Christ and Hajrat Muhammad, two powerful devotees of the Lord, have done tremendous service on the behalf of the Lord on the surface of the globe. And from the version of Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, it appears that instead of running a godless civilization in the present context of the world situation, if the leadership of world affairs is entrusted to the devotees of the Lord, for which a worldwide organization under the name and style of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has already been started, then by the grace of the Almighty Lord there can be a thorough change of heart in human beings all over the world, because the devotees of the Lord are able authorities to effect such a change by purifying the dust-worn minds of the people in general.' " Then it gives so many other quotes. "Kṛṣṇa consciousness will spread all over the world." Then it quotes from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. " 'The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will inundate the entire world and drown everyone, whether one be a gentleman, a rogue or even lame, invalid or blind. When the five members of the Pañca-tattva saw the entire world drowned in love of Godhead and the seed of material enjoyment in the living entities completely destroyed, they all became exceedingly happy. The more the five members of the Pañca-tattva caused the rains of love of Godhead to fall, the more the inundation increases and spreads all over the world.' " (break)

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Śrī Nārāyaṇa(?): (Hindi) ...improvement?

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) What happened to the car?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Er, do you know the history?

Bhakti-caru: Yes. First thing they had a flat tire. Then they ran out of gas, and then there was no petrol station. Then they lost the track. They went to some...

Prabhupāda: So he missed the plane.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gaura-govinda: Because they are guṇḍās. And these government people, they get vote and come to the power, and these pāṇḍās, they are so powerful that if they will not listen to them, they will topple down their position. They have such apprehension. And publicly also they will create some persecution among them. They have such... That Sadasiva Rath Sharma?(?) That time, Prabhupāda, when you were at Bhuvaneśvara, he came...

Prabhupāda: Ah, ha, ha.

Gaura-govinda: He was telling that when he associated with us, those pāṇḍās told him that "Oh, you have taken some money from these ISKCON people. Therefore you are favoring them." He was criticized, and he was telling me that "Now these pāṇḍās are talking about me like this."

Prabhupāda: He's also a pāṇḍā?

Gaura-govinda: No, he's not a pāṇḍā. He's one of these paṇḍitas of that Mukti-maṇḍapa paṇḍita. He's president. This time, while we were talking with Anantadeva, we said that "Sadasiva Rath Sharma(?) is favoring us, and he gives favorable opinion." Anantadeva said, "No, don't believe him. He's a rascal. He's the most greedy person. He wants much more money." Anantadeva gave this opinion about him.

Bhakti-caru: Śrīla Prabhupāda? (Bengali) (break)

Prabhupāda: The sanctity of Jagannātha Purī-lost.

Bhavānanda: Is there any pain this side, Śrīla Prabhupāda? Any pain this side? (break)

Prabhupāda: Jagannātha Purī's sanctity they are killing. Thousands of years. Hm? Gaura-govinda? The sanctity is being...

Page Title:Powerful (Conversations 1975 - 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:18 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=109, Let=0
No. of Quotes:109