Prabhupada and Himavati devi dasi (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"Himavati"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Devotees -- August 15, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: Oh, it is too little. The plate is not yet full. Give me one spoon. Himāvatī?

Himāvatī: Yes?

Prabhupāda: You can give two rabris (milk sweet).

Haṁsadūta: Can I put some on here?

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not? Halavā is very nice.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: Where is Haṁsadūta? What he's doing there?

Devotee (1): I think he's cooking.

Prabhupāda: Cooking? (laughs) He's very expert cooking. (laughs) And Himavati also, assisting her husband?

Devotee (1): I don't think so.

Prabhupāda: Haṁsadūta likes to cook.

Yamunā: Oh, he loves it.

Prabhupāda: So he wants to open a restaurant.

Janārdana: Here?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Our, I mean to say, ISKCON restaurant. So you wanted to open that restaurant in our temple.

Janārdana: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So why don't you do it? He is a very nice cooker.

Janārdana: If he stays here to cook, that's a very good idea.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he'll stay. And I have told him already.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Girl: Have took, Your Grace?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have taken. You take. You know how to make lugdoo? Himavatī is good. (chuckles) She learned many things about... We have got another nice girl in Buffalo. I have given her name... What is? Sadā?

Pradyumna: Sadānandinī.

Prabhupāda: A very nice girl. Yes. Always chanting and dancing and always jolly. (chuckling) Very nice girl. You know her? No. She has recently joined. She is good devotee, good worker, very nice. So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice. Anyone who comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness immediately becomes beautiful in every respect.

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: So they are doing nice, husband and wife, Gaurasundara, yes, trying their best. I do not know whether they are working now.

Himāvatī: Govinda dāsī is working.

Prabhupāda: Working. She can work. She can earn $400 at least.

Haṁsadūta: Typing?

Prabhupāda: Yes. She is good typist.

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Himāvatī: Did you see Nauvanī?

Prabhupāda: Nauvanī is there. Yes. He is there still. He is also very good. He works very nice in the temple.

Haṁsadūta: Every day.

Prabhupāda: He's a very good man. Everyone who will come to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness will become good man, even he's a bad man. That is the influence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: (car noise outside) You have got car here? No. Nobody has got car amongst our disciples?

Jadurāṇī: No.

Himavatī: Do you need a car, Swamiji?

Prabhupāda: No, because the temple is here, just in front. So what is the use of car?

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Haṁsadūta: I have a letter for you from Gopāla Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is a good boy.

Haṁsadūta: Oh, he's very nice. Oh, he's getting so nice. He wants to come.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Because he is serving.

Himavatī: He lives in our house now.

Haṁsadūta: He lives with us now. You know we have another house, the whole house, and almost everyone now is a devotee there. And they're eating prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is very nice boy. You give him good protection, and he will turn very good help.

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Haṁsadūta: Conchshell.

Prabhupāda: Is it broken?

Haṁsadūta: A little bit. What is this for, Swamiji?

Prabhupāda: This pancapātra.

Haṁsadūta: What do you put in there? Ghee?

Prabhupāda: No. Water. Ācamana. And what is this?

Himāvatī: Look inside.

Prabhupāda: Jagannātha?

Himāvatī: Yes.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) We can have so many connection with Kṛṣṇa, as friend, as servant, as parents, as lover, whatever you like. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). You cultivate that consciousness, how you like Kṛṣṇa. He is prepared to accept you in that capacity. And that makes a solution of all problems. Here nothing is permanent, nothing is blissful, and nothing is full of knowledge. Here... This year we held examination on bhakti-śāstrī, and here is the answer of a girl, Himavati. She has written very nice. I have read it. So we are training these boys and girls to Kṛṣṇa consciousness according to the Kṛṣṇa science. Anyone can take advantage of it. It is a very nice thing. So you also try to understand, and if it is nice, you take it up. You are after something very nice. Is my proposal unreasonable? (chuckles) You are all intelligent boys. Try to understand it.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: You get your degree. That's all right. Finish your education. If I'll be able to open a center, nice center, I shall call so many people, "Come and live with me and be trained up." I am just writing one advertisement. We shall have to publish it. Just read it.

Haṁsadūta: "Wanted: qualified brāhmaṇas for preaching Bhagavad-gītā all over the world. (laughter) Candidates accepted without any discrimination of caste and creed. Apply ISKCON."

Yamunā: Oh, ho, ho, Prabhupāda!

Haṁsadūta: "Life member can send any member of his family for being trained up as a qualified brāhmaṇa who can preach Bhagavad-gītā as it is all over the world." You're going to put this in the newspaper?

Prabhupāda: Huh? Yes.

Haṁsadūta: Oh, that will be nice. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yamunā: Oh, that's a wonderful notice, Prabhupāda. It's so wonderful.

Prabhupāda: We have to preach all over the world. We require so many men, so many boys, girls, men we want.

Haṁsadūta: I should send this to the GBC members...

Haṁsadūta: ...in the West, and they should put ads in the paper.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Let us have application.

Haṁsadūta: Should I copy it down?

Prabhupāda: Yes, you take it. You take it. Type it.

Himāvatī: Prabhupāda, in Calcutta Madhudviṣa advertised like that at one meeting, and the next day a man came...

Prabhupāda: Only one man?

Haṁsadūta: Two men came.

Himāvatī: With his six children and his wife, they were prepared, "Let us live here. We will see."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Himāvatī: And another old man that was so old that he was ready to die. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Then you write, "Young men." No, even old man, there is no question. That we can test, whether he is able, he is a qualified brāhmaṇa. First of all he is qualified brāhmaṇa.

Himāvatī: You were going to Peruda(?) that day, so we said, "When we return, then you come and join us." But when we returned they didn't come. They changed their mind.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They cannot. They cannot. Only young men can join. Old men cannot join.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Himāvatī: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I just have one question about the ending, that Ajāmila, he was calling the name of his youngest son.

Prabhupāda: Nārāyaṇa.

Himāvatī: He was thinking but he was calling out to him, and after calling, he was reminded of his early life, of his worshiping the real Nārāyaṇa.

Prabhupāda: Nārāyaṇa.

Himāvatī: And therefore Nārāyaṇa saved him. Isn't that true?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Himāvatī: Not that he was simply calling and Nārāyaṇa had to save him...

Prabhupāda: But simply calling, "Nārāyaṇa," he reminded, he remembered. Remembered. Yes.

Himāvatī: He remembered the real Nārāyaṇa.

Prabhupāda: Because actually when one chants Lord Kṛṣṇa's name, Lord's name, immediately he remembers Lord's form, activities, pastimes, everything. That is natural.

Himāvatī: Not that he was unconsciously just chanting and the Lord saved him in that way, but he actually remembered the Lord.

Prabhupāda: That is the remark of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. But according to others' opinion, even simply by chanting, that is sufficient. In the Bhāgavata it is stated like that. But Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has remarked that this chanting referred to the context. Immediately he remembered Nārāyaṇa.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Himāvatī: In that same connection, the story of Ṭhākura Haridāsa and the harlot. She began to chant and told him the reason that she was a prostitute, she was no good and simply by that association she began to chant or by previous association...

Prabhupāda: No, by association. By the influence of Haridāsa Ṭhākura. For three days, three days she associated.

Himāvatī: But Professor Sanyal was putting forward his theory that in previous lives she had had association; therefore she began to chant.

Prabhupāda: Why previous lives? That's not very good reason.

Himāvatī: Subconscious, that she had subconsciously remembered.

Prabhupāda: No, no. No, no. That is not.

Himāvatī: In one of the Back to Godhead magazines

Prabhupāda: That is not. He advocates that.(?) Direct association with Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Why previously?

Himāvatī: We want to say that previously she had done some chanting.

Prabhupāda: We don't find any such thing. Professor Sanyal was not very much advanced. He committed so many blunders.

Himāvatī: You heard about that article?

Prabhupāda: No.

Himāvatī: That was the (indistinct)

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

sādhu saṅga sādhu saṅga sarva śāstra kaya

lava mātra sādhu saṅge sarva siddhi haya

(CC Madhya 22.54)

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

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Effect, of course, it requires both the things. One must be very eager to take it.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: We, we want varieties of pleasure. Variety is the mother of...

devotees: "Variety is the spice of life."

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Himāvatī: Spice of life.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Yes. So therefore, we are living entities, life. We want variety. So this is the varietyless, no variety, one kind, sunlight. We require sunlight. We are so much anxious for sunlight. Not only sunlight.

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Devotee (6): They don't take their pleasure in being there in the brahmajyoti?

Prabhupāda: There is no pleasure. Blissfulness is not there, brahmajyoti is simply eternity, that's all. The same example can be given. Just like sunlight. There is only light. But on a planet the effect of the light is there—there are so many trees, so many flowers, fruits. We, we want varieties of pleasure. Variety is the mother of...

devotees: "Variety is the spice of life."

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Himāvatī: Spice of life.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Yes. So therefore, we are living entities, life. We want variety. So this is the varietyless, no variety, one kind, sunlight. We require sunlight. We are so much anxious for sunlight. Not only sunlight.

Revatīnandana: It must get very boring. It is very boring in the brahmajyoti? You get very bored? There is nothing to do? Nowhere to go?

Prabhupāda: Bore?

Haṁsadūta: Boring, dull.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Himāvatī: But at first they are satisfied, aren't they, that they've achieved their goal?

Prabhupāda: Aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). They do not know. They are after brahmaṇanda, transcendental pleasure, but they do not know what is actually transcendental pleasure, impersonalists. Therefore their intelligence is not clean. They go to the spiritual kingdom, transcendental platform, but they do not that know, how real transcendental pleasure can be achieved. Therefore their knowledge is not perfect.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1971, Gorakhpur:

Prabhupāda: ...my Guru Mahārāja was in his last days, these rascal doctors injected... Our, this Kuñjabihārī, Tīrtha Mahārāja brought so many big, big doctors. And he protested, "Why are you giving me injection?" He protested. He personally said, "Why are you giving me injection?" And if you bring a doctor, the rascals will not stop. "Oh, that is our treatment. We must try our best." They will plead like that. "To give more trouble to the patient, that is our business." Inventing new medicines means inventing new means of giving trouble. That's all. As soon as you ask them whether by injection the life is guaranteed, they will say, "No. There is no guarantee. Let us try, make experiment." Yes. In hospital, as soon as you get (microphone moving)... Whatever nonsense knowledge they have got, they make experiment, at the risk of other's life.

Haṁsadūta: When Himāvatī broke her leg they wanted to operate. I said, "Oh, no, no chance. No operation." Then they immediately said, "Then maybe she'll never walk again."

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Haṁsadūta: So I said, "Well, how can we tell?" They said, "Well, there's no way to tell." I said, "Suppose we operate. Then it's guaranteed that everything will be all right?" They said, "No." But they thought they should do that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They canvass, they convince like that and make experiment. That is their business. They have no, I mean to say, assured idea. Simply experiment. All these hospitals, they are meant for making experiment.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: So you can ask Nanda Kumāra to give me milk in that way.

Devotee (2): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Or you can ask Himavatī. What is your formula?

Devotee (Revatīnandana): Ginger powder and a little bit of saffron and sugar. Heat it up for a while, and then after a little while mix thoroughly and serve like that. It's good for digestion.

Prabhupāda: You give to Nanda Kumāra, because he will give.

Room Conversation -- August 1, 1972, London:

Revatīnandana: It's hard for the family, because my mother's brother is Viṣṇujana Mahārāja's father, right? So they also figure they have lost one son. They don't hear from him at all, and now she doesn't hear from me at all. So the whole family is very miserable. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Hm. But they have lost for the better.

Revatīnandana: Yes, but they don't understand that. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Lost not in vain. They will be benefited. They will be benefited. You are giving the best service to the family. What about your mother, Himavatī?

Himavatī: I never hear from her anymore.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Himavatī: I never hear from her anymore.

Prabhupāda: She's also not very happy?

Himavatī: No. I don't think she's very happy with me.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. Anyway, you serve Kṛṣṇa and then your mother will be best served. Kṛṣṇa will favor all the family members of a devotee.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: This child is your daughter's son?

Mr. Boyd: No, that little fellow came from Germany.

Prabhupāda: She has got children? No.

Mr. Boyd: No, she doesn't have children, but Haṁsadūta Mahārāja sent this child for Himāvatī to take care of at the school, and I guess the school was not ready yet, but she's taking care of him now, and he's a handful, too. She came up to New Delhi with us and spent a couple nights while we were getting some passports straightened around and visas cleared up.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Adopted son, he gets money without any earning and spends like... I have seen so many adopted sons.

Hari-śauri: Adopted son, oh.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like our, Haṁsadūta's wife, what is name? She has adopted a son.

Hari-śauri: Oh, Himāvatī.

Prabhupāda: Himāvatī. It is not like that. But generally adopted son means spoiled son.