Renaissance

Expressions researched:
"renaisance" |"renaissance" |"renaissances"

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Who is that statue? You are...?

Paramahaṁsa: It's a decoration.

Bhagavān: Where do we go?

Paramahaṁsa: There's a promenade around the fountain.

Prabhupāda: So they have made this art. Suppose a real man and woman stands here. Will it be considered as art or criminal?

Paramahaṁsa: It would be considered criminal to them.

Prabhupāda: Then? Their art is criminal.

Paramahaṁsa: But their argument is that when you glorify the body of man with...

Prabhupāda: We don't glorify the body of... Who glorifies the body of man? We say it is dead body. Dead body means that does not need glorification. It is condemned. We say dead body, decoration of the dead body. We don't say art.

Paramahaṁsa: Catholic Renaissance Art, they glorified the dead body. Leonardo da Vinci, they glorified the body of man.

Prabhupāda: That is called bhūtejya. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā as worshiping the material elements. That's all. Here in western countries, that is the prominent thing, bhūtejya.

Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Then? Their art is criminal.

Paramahaṁsa: But their argument is that when you glorify the body of man with...

Prabhupāda: We don't glorify the body of... Who glorifies the body of man? We say it is dead body. Dead body means that does not need glorification. It is condemned. We say dead body, decoration of the dead body. We don't say art.

Paramahaṁsa: Catholic Renaissance Art, they glorified the dead body. Leonardo da Vinci, they glorified the body of man.

Prabhupāda: That is called bhūtejya. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā as worshiping the material elements. That's all. Here in western countries, that is the prominent thing, bhūtejya. (pause) What is the other side? Lion? (pause, break) They cover with some cloth, some loose cloth. Is it not?

Bhagavān: Yes.

Prabhupāda: This is French art, to make naked?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Yogi Bhajan -- June 7, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Oh, oh.

Yogi Bhajan: So I am very recent here. But I go to Hare Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: Where is your address in Los Angeles?

Yogi Bhajan: Yeah. They all come Sunday. They come to our Guru Dvara on every Sunday. People participate. We have our magazine, and this was our anniversary renaisance, which we issued... Rather, I was planning if some of your ācārya can come and I can give them a program for Kṛṣṇa consciousness development and authoritative human aspects of Gītā, which I teach in UCLA, they can participate and start courses in that. Because everybody is special in certain areas, and I thought that was a better idea. However...

Prabhupāda: These pictures of...?

Yogi Bhajan: This is Golden Temple, Amritsar.

Prabhupāda: Amritsar.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: What is that problem?

Ambarīṣa: No, he was asking if they are..., big project, Renaissance Center. They are having some problems building it. (short conversation about where to stop)

Devotee (1): Yes, this is where we are going to walk.

Ambarīṣa: You should signal for him to stop then.

Devotee (1): (break) ...attract people back to the cities. It's called the Renaissance Project.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Devotee (1): It's, Ambarīṣa's uncle, Henry Ford II, he is building, along with many different companies, a million dollar project.

Prabhupāda: Why not at Māyāpur? Huh?

Devotee (1): Ambarīṣa? I was explaining the Renaissance Project, and, ah, to try to attract people back to the city, they are building a million dollar project. Prabhupāda said: "Why not Māyāpur?"

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Devotee (2): It's an office building, a big one in Renaissance Center. Those ones to your left are under construction.

Prabhupāda: Oh, templelike.

Devotee (2): Templelike, but it is an office building. Those are the buildings they are building their Renaissance Center. They're going to be very tall.

Prabhupāda: (break) (in car) These people waste money.

Devotee (2): Frivolousness.

Prabhupāda: Childish. They do not know the value of life.

Hari-śauri: These parks are not very regularly attended.

Prabhupāda: Hmm.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Rāmeśvara: Now in the Western countries, the standard of culture and education is coming from the idea of the Renaissance in Europe.

Prabhupāda: That is not culture. That is not culture. As soon as you change, that means it is not culture. It is mano-dharma, mental concoction. Culture is never changed, Renaissance and (sic:) Fennaissance.

Rāmeśvara: This is something that has been constant for many hundreds of years, the idea that a man is learned when he is well-learned, when he is educated in many different fields-literature, art, music.

Prabhupāda: That does not mean the original culture will be lost. That is not culture.

Rāmeśvara: No. But this is their argument, that the standard in America is that you become learned in different fields: science, music, art, literature. But in our Hare Kṛṣṇa movement we are isolating all these things and simply reading one set of literature-Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: ...effect. By just your coming to America, the whole place is transformed. Sometimes we think that when you look at these dates that Lord Caitanya came to the world, it coincides with a period in the Western world called the Renaissance. During this period of the Renaissance there was the highest development of art and literature and so many other cultural things. So we sometimes wonder there must be some...

Prabhupāda: Does it mean that before that, the Europeans were uncivilized?

Rāmeśvara: They were, actually considered themselves to be in the Dark Ages. They call it the Dark Ages. And then, all of a sudden, there was what they call the Renaissance, where man's intelligence became greater, expanded. He became interested in finer things.

Prabhupāda: Not man, but the Westerners.

Rāmeśvara: Yes, Westerners.

Prabhupāda: Intelligent stock was there in India,

Rāmeśvara: Yes. So it's very amazing that the period in Europe called the Renaissance coincides with the appearance of Lord Caitanya.

Prabhupāda: Fifteenth century.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Hanuman Prasad Poddar -- Los Angeles 5 February, 1970:

It is specifically the responsibility of the Indians after realizing the philosophy themselves, and I think if such realized souls go to various parts of the world and preach this Krishna Consciousness Movement in every nook and corner of the world, there will be a great renaissance. I would therefore request you to give your serious attention to this Krishna Consciousness Movement and help me as far as possible.

Letter to Sri Dhruva -- Los Angeles 7 April, 1970:

Enclosed please find two pictures of this temple house, as well as I am enclosing some of the pictures of our Philadelphia activities where one American boy and girl, devotees, were married under the ministerial guidance of the local President. You will understand from the informations that this Krishna Consciousness movement is a major revolutionary renaissance specifically delineating social and religious conception of life based on authorized Vedic culture.