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Roof (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Haṁsadūta: Canakya Pandit... I have see that book, and he says in his book that if a crow sits on a high (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. If you make a crow... The crow generally sits on the roof of the house, but that does not mean he has become a great man. "How great I am, a very beautiful bird."

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- London, August 10, 1971:

Śyāmasundara: Kenny, Kenny Records. Well, there are several record agents. They might know...

Mr. Arnold: The whole building is taken up, and it all comes under the roof of James something or other, or agencies.

Śyāmasundara: Yeah.

Mr. Arnold: Now in New Oxford Street, you can see it very easily. There's a Midland Bank, takes up the ground floor.

Śyāmasundara: It's right over here, isn't it?

Mr. Arnold: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: So, so long I am here, let us try some tangible, not simply proposal.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes, thank you. Yes, at that time...

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We took prasādam on the roof.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, thank you (devotees laugh). Yes. In that auspicious occasion we are connected. Before that, in 1920, ah 22, when I was manager in Dr. Bose's laboratory, young man, and I was nationalist, Congress party. I was a devotee of Mahatma Gandhi and C.R. Dāsa. At that time...

Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When I was (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. He was my intimate friend. So in their house, old Tīrtha Mahārāja went to beg some alms—they are very rich man. So, he informed me that "One nice sannyāsī came to our house," and he was invited, "in Ultadanga there is Gauḍīya Maṭha, so he has invited me. I wish to go there. Why don't you come? Let us go together." He was my very intimate friend. So at that time I was a little pessimistic (?), "I know all these sādhus there, I am not going." So he forced me, "Oh, why not come? Let us go." "All right, let us go." So I went to see His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura in 1922 in that Ultadanga building, and that time Prabhupāda was sitting on the roof.

Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:

Revatīnandana: Oh, it changes everything immediately.

Schumacher: I mean a fellow who builds himself a huge house when we have twenty-thousand actually, actually homeless people without a roof over their head in London... Now I would like those things to be raised into real spiritual problems.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, let them come here. We will...

Schumacher: And not to get satisfaction out of making idealistic...

Haṁsadūta: Yes, we have such a big place, but why they are not coming? We have temples all over the world, but people are not coming.

Prabhupāda: Because there are restriction.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Reporter: All right. So... The purpose for economic plan of all the planet, for the world would be everybody can eat, and I suppose just, just eating and some clothes and some roof to be, if you are in a cold country...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Eating, sleeping... Sleeping requires roof, apartment. So it includes your housing, your eating, your sex urge, and your defence. Everything should be nicely... So arrangement should be made that people are not harassed for these necessities of life.

Reporter: And all the rest is superfluous. Is too much.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 9, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: With car, there is a platform like this. It moves on the roof of the house. (laughter) (Hindi) Helicopter.

Guest (1): Helicopter.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (break) ...New York, goes to Los Angeles and then to Honolulu, then Tokyo, then Hong Kong, then New Delhi... No. Hong Kong to Bangkok, Bangkok to New Delhi, New Delhi to Karachi, Karachi to Beirut, then, I think, London, then again New York. One, one round. (Hindi) One round.

Guest (1): (Hindi) (break) (laughter)

Room Conversation -- February 9, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So they're arranging for roofing?

Guru dāsa: Any for roof? No, this is for scaffolding. Actually, also some wood planks for the roof to be casted with the steel. So that plank wood has also come, and the (Hindi) for casting, uh, for scaffolding has also come. And Guṇārṇava spoke to Tejīyas on the telephone, and he said that within a few days the steel would be ready. So I'm also going to go to Delhi the day after tomorrow and check on the steel, and I think we'll bring it down and start.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Guru dāsa: Yes.

Room Conversation -- February 9, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Next time I, when I come...

Devotee: Come, it, roof should be ready.

Prabhupāda: ...I want to see that it is, roof is complete, and then we begin. So another thing: should I take rates for the marble from others, or we shall accept this?

Guru dāsa: I've already taken rates, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation with Bhurijana dasa and Disciples -- July 1, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: "All right, if you remain within severe cold, within water, overnight, then I shall give you such and such presentation." So he agreed, and he did it. And in the morning, when the man came, so he said, "Oh, you are successful." Then he did not... Either he had no money or he did not want to give. So he had his one advisor, "So what shall I do?" "No, no sir, you cannot give money." "Why?" "Now, there was heat." "So how there was heat?" You know, in India they give ākāśa-pradīpa? During Kārttika month they... This is our Vaiṣṇava principle, I think. The lamp is there on the head of the roof. On the roof there is a bamboo, and in the top of the bamboo there is light. So this man was in the lake. And his advisor said, "You have seen that the lamp was there, and heat was coming." (laughing) That lamp was three miles away and still, he advised, "Yes, there was heat. Therefore he could tolerate." So what can be said? He is poor man. So there was another servant of that big man.

Room Conversation with Bhurijana dasa and Disciples -- July 1, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: "Where you are cooking?" Now, he has three bamboos, and on the top there was a pot, rice pot, and he was giving fire here. So that rich man came and saw. "What kind of cooking this is?" "No, there is heat. It is going on." (laughter) "So how you do this, such a nonsense." "No, if the temperature from the lamp on the roof of the sky could protect that man, why not it will be cooking?" Then he could understand this is the reply. So that man was paid. So this kind of progress, cooking, three miles above, a pot, a little fire, it will not act. There must be proper adjustment of cooking. Then you can cook food and eat. A little smoke or little fire and three miles away the cooking pot, in this way, cooking is useless attempt. One must be serious to cook. There is method how to cook. If you don't adopt that method and if you cook in your whimsical way, you will never be able to eat. If you say, "I shall cook in my way," and if you adopt that process, will it help? Na siddhiṁ sa avāpnoti na sukhaṁ na paraṁ...

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: I first saw this machine in the Commonwealth Pier, Boston. (machine moving around, crashing sound)

Jayatīrtha: What are you doing, Śruta-śravā?

Rāmeśvara: Sometimes because of that roof you can't see what you're doing.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: So usually he's very careful.

Prabhupāda: Sometime they are breaking also. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: So far, no accidents.

Kirtirāja: Just today.

Rāmeśvara: He's a little nervous. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: What is the rent?

Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, time will come; they will kill their father. Now they are killing their children. Now they will kill their father. As soon as the whole world will become Communist they will kill the old man, as the Africans, they do it. Africans kill their grandfather, and it is a festival. Yes. They throw the grandfather on the roof of the cottage, and it, rolling down, it falls down. Twice, thrice it dies. That becomes a great festival of the grandsons. They are eating grandfather. Glorious grandsons.

Australian devotee 6: Then they eat the grandfather's brain.

Prabhupāda: And, you do not know, they like to eat white men. (laughter) Yes. They kidnap or capture, some way or other, one white man, and they eat it very nicely.

Morning Walk -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So I shall remain here.

Nitāi: If you remain here, then we can finish very easily.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. (break) There was some defect in the roof. They are repairing?

Nitāi: The roof there? Yes, the roof has been fixed.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...ārati time about hundred devotee, outsiders come?

Nitāi: At least.

Prabhupāda: Oh, at least.

Nitāi: It's crowded every night. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...perform āratika nicely?

Morning Walk -- June 30, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: What is the use of playing tennis? There is mention that Dvārakā they were playing ball on the roof of the palace, the queens. Maybe tennis also there. (break) ...playing this there, on the roof. Kind of exercise for the woman, queens.

Devotee (1): Only for the women?

Prabhupāda: Yes. No men.

Devotee (2): Kṛṣṇa and His friends would play sometimes, catch with fruits in the forest?

Prabhupāda: Fruits?

Morning Walk -- September 3, 1975, Vrndavana:

Guṇārṇava: And they pack all the cars on top of the roofs of the buildings, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Guṇārṇava: They're using all the roofs of the buildings as car parks to park the cars.

Trivikrama: And they are very much proud of making so many cars. Just like we were in Detroit. Remember, you were there. They had a big sign, "Seven million cars produced this year."

Brahmānanda: Yeah. They have a board with numbers, and each time a car is produced, it is put on the board. And it's a big board displayed in the city.

Morning Walk -- November 8, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I have got practical experience. In my childhood I used to go with my father for some purchasing some bhauma(?) flour in the interior districts. So there was one servant engaged. One day he did not come. So my father asked me, "He is living in there, in that cottage. You can go and ask him." So I went to his cottage. Practically there was no roof, and rain was dropping. So I saw him in a very bad condition. Then I asked him, "Why don't you come to Calcutta with us?" So he replied, "No sir, we cannot go, leaving home. (laughter) This is home." I have got practical experience. "Home sweet home." Janani janma-bhumiś ca svargād api gariyasi: Everyone is thinking that his birthplace and his mother is better than the heaven. That is the psychology. So everyone, however abominable... Everyone is living in abominable condition. That's a fact. But everyone is thinking that "Who is happier than me?" Everyone. This is called māyā. Unless he thinks, he cannot live.

Morning Walk -- November 17, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: He saw the people are coming. And then he was climbing on the top of the roof and shouting, "My boys are not coming?" "They will come. Don't worry."

Prabhupāda: Don't bring Rāmakrishna as authority.

Dr. Patel: No, but that same thing here. I mean, the people will come.

Prabhupāda: They are coming. They are coming. That is another thing. But "People will come; therefore I shall have to sleep," this is not...

Dr. Patel: At least I am coming. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: So at night there was work?

Morning Walk -- November 29, 1975, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Another rascal.

Harikeśa: He used to sit on top of his roof and think.

Prabhupāda: And fell down? (laughter) What is this?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Another (Hindi) kalākendra.

Prabhupāda: Again. All kalākendra, this kendra.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There's so many next to our temple.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Next to our temple there's so many kalākendras.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: Citar?

Harikeśa: Like the roof in the other place in Madras.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is English? Citar it is called?

Harikeśa: No, Hindi.

Prabhupāda: English, what is the English? They do not use it.

Hariśauri: A straw roof, they call that thatching. Thatch.

Prabhupāda: Thatching, yes. That is right. So the windows are thatched. So where is the production? Vivekananda is standing as preacher. So where is the preachers? People should have gone there in hundreds; there should have been some program.

Morning Walk -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: No, you can join some pipeline. Make a water storge, and from pipeline it will be supplied everywhere. Make water storage on the roof, on the roof.

Jayapatāka: We have.... On that corner room there in the kitchen, that's one water storage.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayapatāka: That supplies.

Prabhupāda: So by pump store water and by pipe distribute.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nicely made. Is this going to have a roof on it?

Jayapatāka: Yes, this roof we're just putting up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I notice some of these cows are... Hariprasāda gave us.

Madhudviṣa: They don't give milk?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They've never given any milk. Very charitable. Give it to Govinda.

Jayapatāka: These three cows, we've been doing..., sent to the hospital two, three times. They've given all type of medicine, everything, but they just won't get pregnant. This one, two, three.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He knew it when he gave us these cows. He knew that.

Jayapatāka: I was going to go to Hyderabad, but instead we started our building, so I sent Pūrna-prajña from Calcutta, my man. I sent two farmers. They called up and said, "They're giving bad cows. Don't take the cows." And then Haribhai Paduka got on the phone and said, "Oh, they are insulting me. They're saying I'm giving bad cows, this, that. I am going to..." He gave some complaint. So someone said, "All right. Whatever you give, it's all right." Then he gave these.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One good one and three useless ones.

Prabhupāda: So why did you accept it?

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: And if you can arrange some... What is called, that? This helicopter.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Helicopter.

Prabhupāda: Bringing our men from Dum Dum airport to our roof.

Bhavānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: There are at least four roofs like this.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. The people will see. All the pilgrims will see. Like the demigods flying in.

Prabhupāda: At least we can make a show—it is coming twice in a day and going twice in a day. And they will see that "Oh, so many people are coming."

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Pañca-draviḍa: Because the sun.... Because the earth is not turning in the opposite direction.

Prabhupāda: What he is doing on the roof?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, no.

Hari-śauri: He's taking photographs.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, no. This boy joined us.... (break)

Gurudāsa: ...rather than the chaos.

Pañca-draviḍa: What is the Vedic explanation, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Vedic explanation is that moon is not going round the earthly planet. (break)

Room Conversation -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Because we are intelligent. I love you. Therefore you'll die and you'll become a dog, so I am taking sympathy on you that "Don't become a dog." Every human being is anxious. The example is given just like a child flying kite and is going this way, this way, on the roof. Now on the edge of the roof, so one gentleman standing, "Hey, you'll fall down." That is his duty. He says, "Why you are checking me?" (laughter) "Why you are checking me?" "Because I am human being. You are foolish boy. Therefore I am checking you." That is natural. Even a child, or the boy is not his son, but because he is a gentleman, he wants to give him some protection. It is the duty of gentleman. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to the Indians, that "You become perfect and go and give this knowledge to the rest of the world.

Marble Shop Visit -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: This is not our?

Kīrtanānanda: Not ours. (break) ...looks like it might clear today.

Prabhupāda: Oh. How these logs will be used?

Kīrtanānanda: Roof.

Prabhupāda: Oh. And you have to cut into planks? No. Or beams?

Kīrtanānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Cylinder? Gas?

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is little crack, they are growing.

Devotee: Even on the roof of the building where we were sitting last night, between the cracks of the bricks on the roof, there were little plants coming out.

Prabhupāda: Between the cracks in the stone. (break) (in car)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When Balavanta was running for mayor of Atlanta he met him, so there's a good chance that if he gets elected to be President then that's easy opportunity to see the President.

Prabhupāda: What we'll do, seeing him?

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Devotee (1): Would you like to go up on the roof today, Prabhupāda?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, Prabhupāda said the sun is too much. Toṣaṇa Kṛṣṇa, he's been doing all of our, he's practically done the whole arrangement for the Ratha-yātrā. Jayānanda is building, and he has done all of the permits, advertising, publicity, the poster, working at least fifteen hours a day for the last month very hard, to make it a very successful festival. I was thinking, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that Haṁsadūta was telling me that he is planning to make...

Prabhupāda: I think this article was dictated by Haṁsadūta.

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes, I've heard of that.

Hari-śauri: They throw him on the roof, and then eat him.

Prabhupāda: That is a feast.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Love feast.

Prabhupāda: Grandfather feast. Now great-grandfather feast.

Cyavana: We're preaching to them, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Trying to change them.

Rāmeśvara: Also the Eskimos, when a man gets old, if he is an Eskimo, then he has to go out into the icelands and wait for some animal to kill him. He cannot stay at home and be supported by the family.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: That is right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's why I'm not very eager to...

Prabhupāda: Yes, this is fact. Let me see what Kṛṣṇa desires. The roof is very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: For open air.

Hari-śauri: It's very good for massage.

Prabhupāda: And the view of the river is very healthy. If you can see the river from your house, it is to be understood that quarter is very nice. If you can see sky from your room, then it is understood the room is very nice.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Otherwise from the roof. So it is very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think also that right now there's a lot of devotees here, so it's a little taxing, but once the festival's over, they will all be returning to their respective centers. It will be much calmer. (break) In the night?

Prabhupāda: I do not take anything at night.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Morning, you are drinking milk? Is it...?

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Hari-śauri: I remember when we left Bombay, you'd been giving darśana for four and a half hours on the roof.

Prabhupāda: What is the water there?

Bhagavān: Oh, yes, we have our own water.

Prabhupāda: Creek water?

Bhagavān: Underground. It's very nice. Very tasty and light. It's not heavy water.

Jayatīrtha: It's a fact that on the whole, this farm is a wonderful place. I was there a couple of times. I very much liked it.

Prabhupāda: Spring water?

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

George Harrison: Actually it was half built.

Gurudāsa: Yes. Even the building you went into, there's more, the roof.

Prabhupāda: That courtyard is very beautiful. There is a tāmala tree. That is a very valuable tree. The Bisanchand Seth asked me to cut.

Gurudāsa: Yes, I remember.

Prabhupāda: What a nonsense, such a.... He has no idea. Now, on account of that tree, it looks so beautiful.

Hari-śauri: It is, it's very wonderful. The whole tree has flourished since the temple began.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Within thirty-six years there were two big wars, slaughter. Especially Europe. Nature will create. Pestilence. Somewhere there is pestilence, somewhere there is war, somewhere there is scarcity of food. But you cannot indulge in sinful activities. Then you'll be killed. Then nature's law will act. You may defy, that's your business, but nature will act in her own way. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). You cannot surpass. That is not possible. But they are foolish, they are trying to conquer over nature by their so-called scientific knowledge. They are such a rascal. You change the color of this fruit and flower, conquer over nature. So rascal, they talk rascal, "It will take millions of years." We have to wait million. "Yes, from chemical we shall bring life. Wait million of years." This is going on. And for such thing, big building, laboratory, research, scientific research. Big, big signboard. And the students out of disappointment, going to the roof and falling down, committing suicide. I saw it?

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, I like this life, from my very childhood. And on our roof there were trees, plants, flower plants, and... My grandmother, she... We, all grandchildren used to water it. So downstairs we took water in, what is called? A jhāri?

Bhagavān: Sprinkling can?

Prabhupāda: Ah, sprinkling can. We all grandchildren, we were about half a dozen. So we took very much pleasure in watering. But my special tendency was that along with the plants, I, with the bushes, I'll sit down. My tendency. And I'll sit down for hours. And like that. In my childhood. In my maternal uncle's house also, I was doing that. As soon as I find some bush, I make a sitting place.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Future you cannot plan. That is the foolishness. That is another obstinate rascaldom. Future is not in your hand. You cannot plan. That is going on. They are planning so many things for future, but it is being baffled. So many schemes, so many there are. Our, in India there is a planning commission, after independence. So whatever they did, all failure. All failure. And now it is chaos. That Guljanajana(?) Nanda you know? He was one of the prominent member of the planning commission. He was very important member in the central government, home member, planning commission, president and so on, so on. Nowadays he is loitering on the street, coming me to talk as ordinary man. You have seen? You were giving me massage on the roof and he was sitting?

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That roof is the fifth story?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Sixth.

Prabhupāda: Sixth. So we are finishing fifth only?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We are finished will be six stories. Pardon?

Prabhupāda: Only fifth, up floors?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, you can't go more than that. This is near the airport. Now they've introduced a new law that you can't go even below this. What we did is the new law has just come into effect, and so we did the slabs in the night.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a new law which reduces the height even further. You can't have any big buildings in Bombay now.

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is also complete like this?

Saurabha: Yes. The other side we are making one special room for you on the roof. So...

Prabhupāda: One special room like this? No.

Saurabha: That is the lift room. But next to that, the similar room, the same size. It is not done. Because that we have to do later on. We're not allowed to do that now. There's a new law passed in Bombay that no one can build higher than six stories, nowhere in Bombay. So we had to rush for this, otherwise they would have stopped us.

Prabhupāda: So why you are not rushing?

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That's good.

Saurabha: This is very nice, quite big. Then on the roof you have practically the whole roof plus a room in the middle. Here is a room on the roof, the next slide, room here, and then you have just a nice terrace and very nice breeze.

Prabhupāda: All sides open.

Saurabha: Yes this is open. Well, we have arches here, just arches. Now we are finishing for the temple the second floor slab. That should be finished at the end of the month, and then one more month, the main slab of the darśana-maṇḍapa, and then we start towers, which we already started now precasting. We have rings. We make rings which we put up later, one by one.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: West Bengal. That's in Nadia district. Just before Pulasi, south of Pulasi. And when we came there and I saw the police in the afternoon, we told them we were going to have a function. So they said that they would send a few policemen. They said that "We will send some policemen for keeping the order." But that night so many people came the space could only hold four thousand. But another two, three thousand people came, and they were turned away because of insufficient space. So they were standing on the wall and on the rooftops all around, and all you could see were people's heads, just like an ocean. The policemen, after it was over... When I chanted, I chanted, "Everyone please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." And I chanted the full mantra three times. They chanted so loud that even two, three blocks away people thought that the heavens were shouting. It was like a thunder...

Prabhupāda: Thunderbolt.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is made simple. It is very nice. Rather, you can... No, it is all right. There is no space. In India, on the roof, we allow to grow squash.

Caraṇāravindam: You would like some growing?

Prabhupāda: Very small.

Caraṇāravindam: I plan to grow mālatī up this side.

Prabhupāda: You grow, on the thatched roof they grow squash.

Hari-śauri: I think they were doing that in Māyāpur. There was one big plant growing on the...

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: We haven't got rid of those monkeys.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They've gone?

Hari-śauri: No. There's some on the roof.

Prabhupāda: The (indistinct) is there? In the open?

Hari-śauri: No, it's undercover.

Devotee: Jaya, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Hari-śauri: I was just telling him the monkeys are still there.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They're still there? They've gone.

Caraṇāravindam: I've just seen five minutes ago.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: They'll come gradually, not immediately. Immediately, the psychology is, they have got attachment for their house. It may be worse house, but still, their attachment... That is natural. Long, long ago, when I was child practically, I went with my father in the village. So one man from the village was serving us. So my father: "This boy is nice. So why not take him to Calcutta?" So one day he was absent. It was dropping and... So I went in the interior of the village and I saw that his house was broken, there was no roof, and rain was falling and he was sitting, covering with a cloth. Then I told him that "Why not come with us in Calcutta? We shall give you nice place, nice food."

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jagadīśa: The roof tiles.

Mahāṁśa: Yes, just like the ones which are...

Prabhupāda: Then locally you get everything. You haven't have to got to get from outside. Eh?

Jagadīśa: Clay roof tiles.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is very nice, very strong and very comfortable and simple. So the villagers have come?

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is the thought only. Oh, Doctor comes.

Dr. Patel: I asked him where you were and he said that you are on the roof.

Prabhupāda: Jaya. (Hindi) (break) I do not know. (break)

Dr. Patel: You agreed, huh? (indistinct) is coming.

Prabhupāda: I am going within four days.

Dr. Patel: You go, find out what you... and then communicate with you. Huh?

Prabhupāda: No, you asked me to stay at least a few days.(?)

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: We have to take very little.

Hari-śauri: Wouldn't it be better just to take some fresh leaf?

Prabhupāda: Fresh leaf, how can I chew it?

Hari-śauri: Too bitter. Hm. I'll get some dried. I can dry some on the roof tomorrow.

Prabhupāda: Not dry. You have to take fresh leaf. But you have to make...

Hari-śauri: Just mash it. I can just mash it and make it. That would be all right.

Prabhupāda: Or if you make two or three baras with nim, that is easy to take, and palatable. With chick pea flour, fresh nim leaf paste and equal quantity of chick pea flour. Just fry it.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Gurudāsa: Yes. Whatever is possible. So there's a couple of other points. Number one—because you were speaking about the devotees becoming like Rāvaṇa on the roof, we're doing our own cooking. I have our own men. And one assistant cook I hired for a hundred rupees. This assistant cook is a very nice man.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Gurudāsa: He's so submissive.

Prabhupāda: I can cook my food in fifteen minutes, in so many varieties.

Gurudāsa: You used to do that.

Prabhupāda: Not fifteen, forty-five.

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: No, no, we have to do. Otherwise there is no meaning of preacher. Most thankless task. We want to save them, and they accuse us. My Guru Mahārāja used to give that example: A boy is flying kite, and he's going like this. He's just come on the edge of the roof. He is going to fall down. And somebody says, "Hey! What are you doing this for?" (shouts:) "Why you are checking me? Oh, my kite is gone, gone. I have gone back." This is going on. If you want to save them, they will accuse you that "My kite-flying is disturbed. Don't do this." "And why you are. Why...? You'll fall down." "Never mind. That is my business. Why you are checking me?" This example was given by my Guru Mahārāja. You want to save him. Who is a gentleman who will not save him? He is falling down next moment. That is natural. But he is angry.

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm. He has got good engagement. (break) ...his magazine.

Hari-śauri: Everybody that comes buys a magazine and a Bhagavānera Kathā.

Prabhupāda: Bhagavānera Kathā.

Hari-śauri: I was watching from the roof on Sunday. There were hundreds of visitors coming all through the day. And practically every group that went out, they were all... They had a magazine and a Bhagavānera Kathā and Gītārgāna.

Prabhupāda: Gītārgāna. Good field. And similarly, our Hindi. You have seen our Hindi?

Brahmānanda: Yes. What is that, Bhagavāne...?

Bhavānanda: Bhagavānera Kathā.

Prabhupāda: These are my old articles.

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I can go.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Will you be walking on the roof or down below? Which do you prefer?

Prabhupāda: I can go down very well.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You like it down.

Prabhupāda: On the pond side

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Would you like us to bring that chair over to the pond to carry you up to the pond?

Prabhupāda: No.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So this tablet is effective. Prepare this.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Today we'll get more.

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you'll go on the roof this morning?

Prabhupāda: I have no objection. (break) Nobody likes. In order to taste the sugar, you have to chew so much.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So many different potions also throughout the day. One time that kavirāja...

Prabhupāda: They say that "Why should you bother so much? You have to take the sweet. Take sugar."

Room Conversation -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Walking should be stopped at least for some time. And if I walk, I may walk on the roof.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's very nice on the roof.

Devotee: And there can be a garden on the roof.

Prabhupāda: Yes, some flower tubs, and... You have already done? No.

Girirāja: No.

Prabhupāda: Some flower tubs.

Girirāja: Well, we have potted plants, but actually, we want to make like landscape.

Room Conversation -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Gargamuni: The lift doesn't go up to the roof, though.

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. One...

Girirāja: We can take by palanquin.

Prabhupāda: No, one story I can go. Not now, but I can go. So you are trying so much for my comfort. I do not know whether I shall be able to repay you. Then I shall try my best. It is not possible to repay your debts, that so kind. So I can simply pray to Kṛṣṇa to give His blessings to you so that you may remain very steady in devotional service and preach this cult all over the world. Otherwise, I have no other means. Without your help I could not do anything. So you are very much kind. Kindly continue your cooperation. Paropakāra. This is the movement for paropakāra. I have got report from our other temples all over the world. They are doing very nice, is it not? Other temples outside India, they are doing very nice.

Morning Talk -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. None at all. Everybody thinks that he must have drowned himself in one of the rivers here in India, because the day that he disappeared he asked you a question, out of..., just without any reason he asked you to explain the disappearance of Junior Haridāsa. That was on the roof at Māyāpur. Thereafter, that morning, he was not seen again. And neither, I think... He's not in the West... In America no one has seen him. His parents have searched for him. They cannot find him.

Prabhupāda: Even if he has committed suicide, he'll be saved.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If he did that, he'll be...

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. He lamented. He was very grave(?). Yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate. He'll get another good opportunity to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness-until finally he reaches to Kṛṣṇa.

Conversation with Patita-pavana -- April 20, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: "Same space you can... Everything, that will be..."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We prefer to have the ground.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And he can utilize the roof also.

Girirāja: Yes.

Prabhupāda: To get the... Yes. That is another advantage. If it is possible, do. So they can understand the description in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?

Patita-pāvana: They have assured me that they can.

Prabhupāda: Then it will be all right.

Conversation with Patita-pavana -- April 20, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This facility, the space is the same. Mutual arrangement. And he gets the advantage of the roof.

Girirāja: Mrs. Warrior wants to move up.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Girirāja: Mrs. Warrior wants to shift to a higher...

Prabhupāda: So he is in the downstairs?

Girirāja: She is on the ground floor.

Prabhupāda: Then it is... If she moves, that is also good. But that space is bigger.

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

Prabhupāda: He's organizing this, that Poland, communist country. He has accepted hard knot. And knocking. (Bengali)

Bhavānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, would you like to go up to the roof now?

Prabhupāda: I have no objection. (Bengali) You are all able.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: (aside:) Yeah, tomorrow I'll go and see everything.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) So? No, I shall go. Utsāhād dhairyāt tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt, sato vṛtteḥ sādhu..., ṣaḍbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati. (break)

Ādi-keśava: In your Bhagavad-gītā you explain that to the materialist... He is subject to fear, anger and attachment.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is also not sufficient. In Europe, when we go over the mountain, huge mountainous tract, who knows about it? We are passing just like on a roof, aeroplane. You have seen? Huge. They have no information of what is there. And Switzerland...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Switzerland.

Prabhupāda: I have seen mountain goat. Where it has gone, nobody knows. Still.

Bhakti-prema: In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is described more or less. Himalaya Mountain is 80,000 miles high and 16,000 miles wide. So each of these mountains are 16,000 miles wide and 80,000 miles high. And that means it is start from Badrinath up to Siberia. That is 60,000 miles, er, 16,000.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It goes up to the roof.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And the roof is quite nice. When the viewers see...

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were sitting on it. Prabhupāda would sit up there in the evening, and he even took massage sometimes. The most... Excuse me, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Very nice roof.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Very nice roof.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The special feature of that roof is that for some reason there are no tall buildings around our building. Sometimes people say, "Your movement has come a long way from Second Avenue."

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes people say... There's couple people that even went to your place on 26 Second Avenue. They say, "So this movement has come a long way in ten years, from Second Avenue." They remember you sitting there. On Sundays in New York they have the Love Feast. So the average, they get about seven hundred people come. Six to eight hundred is an average crowd on a Sunday. And they serve the... They have simultaneously activities on the five different floors, four different floors. In the basement they have the restaurant.

Conversations -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, with one palace(?).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were telling me that there was one man who was living in a house. The roof was coming down, and it was raining, and he wouldn't leave. Some worker.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. It is a different type of civilization, to become sanctified and Kṛṣṇa conscious. Other things are not very important. If it is possible to rectify him, don't bother about this. Be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Increase this qualification.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We find that to increase fasting on Ekādaśī day makes that new (indistinct) come like anything.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gaura-govinda: We. Lokanātha Swami's party had arrived, and we are at Bhuvaneśvara, four, five devotees. We were there two days before at Purī, and we went there and we chanted and did kīrtana before the ratha from ten to four. There were much crowd this year, so much crowd that this whole baḍa danda(?) was filled. And above, the top of the roofs, the buildings, were all overfilled. The government people that were broadcasting of radio, they all took photos and also they recorded our kīrtana. They announced in the radio also. This incident took place this year.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We did not have these problems at our Ratha-yātrā, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Pañca-draviḍa: The crowds stayed for the third day, or they all left?

Gaura-govinda: No, they left. Third day there was a thin crowd. They all left. That was the only day when all had come. They left. Fifty percent, seventy-five percent crowd left. Only twenty-five percent stayed.

Pañca-draviḍa: Was there any criticism?

Gaura-govinda: Oh, many criticisms. Many criticisms. I also heard. There was one custom that there are some specific persons, pāṇḍās, they would go out all directions to search that wood, specific nim wood from which the new body would be carved. There are some symptoms in the wood, that nim tree. They would find it out. And they go all directions. But this year they never gone anywhere. Last time from where they have pulled up the trees, they went there, and without proper ceremony they cut down the trees and came. This was also criticism. They never followed this thing this year.

Prabhupāda: The pāṇḍās are doing...

Page Title:Roof (Conversations)
Compiler:Sahadeva, RupaManjari
Created:31 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=62, Let=0
No. of Quotes:62