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Shame (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:

Journalist: Well that's just about it, that I wanted to know. It's a shame that this kind of thing, as I say, has turned off an awful lot of kids, a lot of very disenchanted young people because...

Prabhupāda: So please try to help us. This movement is very nice. It will help the humanity. It will help your country, the whole human society. It is a genuine movement, there is nothing bluff, nothing cheating. It is authorized. So I'll request you because...

Journalist: Authorized by whom?

Prabhupāda: Authorized from Kṛṣṇa.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: But they are not nice men. They are rascals. They're not even gentlemen. A gentleman will have some shyness, some shame. But they're shameless. They cannot answer properly, still, shamelessly, they claim they're scientists.

Brahmānanda: They're expert bluffers.

Prabhupāda: They're not even gentlemen. At least, I take them like that. They're talking that in the past, from matter, living force came, and when I ask them: "Why don't you produce?", "Oh, that we shall do in the future." Why? You have already experienced in the past, and you cannot do it, and you are leaving the matter for future. So they're shameless. Not even ordinary gentlemen. Shameless.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Shameless. Shameless men. We cannot say even gentlemen. A gentleman will be shameful, ashamed to speak something nonsense.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They do not think.

Prabhupāda: That means they are not human being. A human being thinks twice before saying anything. Animals.

Karandhara: And all the innocent, they're all misled.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is, that is our protest. That you remain a rascal at home. Why you are misleading others?

Room Conversation -- November 1, 1973, New Delhi:

Brahmānanda: I think there... That boy, Ranchor, his father said, "You leave Kṛṣṇa consciousness and I will give you a car and women."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Your father also said like that. (laughter) Here father will feel shame to advise the son, or the son will feel shame to talk about sex with father or mother.

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: About sex one can talk with friends, not with father and mother.

Brahmānanda: Not with...

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: That there is relationship with God. Is it not? Religion has got relationship with God.

Professor Fenton: Yes, but sometimes it's simply something that holds a society together. Both are religion. Sometimes religion is shameful, sometimes its man's highest glory.

Prabhupāda: Hm... (aside) You come here, I could not follow him.

Satsvarūpa: He says sometimes religion is shameful.

Prabhupāda: Shame.

Satsvarūpa: Shameful.

Room Conversation -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: What is that shameful?

Satsvarūpa: Shameful, something a... Not good. Uh, disgraceful.

Devotee (2): Ashamed.

Satsvarūpa: There is a false religion and there's... Sometimes religion is the most glorious thing.

Prabhupāda: Then there is no standard definition of religion. Sometimes this, sometimes that, like that. What is the definition...?

Room Conversation with Carol Cameron -- May 9, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So if we do not utilize these special intellectual activities, then we remain animal. We do not make any development. So at the present moment they are improving the method of primary necessities of life—eating, sleeping, mating and defending. They are thinking the dog is eating on the floor; if we can eat on table, chair and nice dish, that is advancement of civilization. They are thinking like that. The dog is sleeping on the floor, and if we sleep in very nice apartment, very decorated, that is advancement of civilization. The dog is having sexual intercourse on the street without any shame, and we are also coming to that point already. And if we have sex intercourse in the name of love and so on, so on, that is advancement. And dog is defending with his jaws and nails and teeth, you are defending with atomic bomb, therefore we are advanced.

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Just see how much atheist they are. Shameless atheist. Other atheists, they have got some shame. But these people are shameless. Shameless.

Bali-mardana: "Because we cannot see God in our laboratory, therefore we will not discuss Him."

Prabhupāda: But why do you teach us? We do not see whatever you say. We do not, so why do you place upon us? If seeing is evidence, then we don't see what nonsense you are talking.

Siddha-svarūpa: We don't see their atoms. We don't see their sputniks flying and landing or anything.

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Then you take our formula. Why do you expect to see God with your eyes? That means they are shameless atheist. Other atheists, they have got little shame, but these people have no shame even. (break) ...ādhamāḥ, lowest of the mankind. māyayāpahṛta-jñānā. (break) Where? The zoo?

Bali-mardana: They roam about freely. It's over there.

Prabhupāda: In Vṛndāvana there are many. (break) ...kokila-haṁsa-sārasa-gaṇākīrṇe mayurākūle nānā-ratna-nibaddha-śrī-yukta-vṛndāvane. (break) ...kṛṣṇam a...

Harikeśa: Ahar-niśam?

Morning Walk -- October 18, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: No, he starts... According to the body he will work. If he enters into the dog's body, he will work as a dog. If he enters in the body of a tree, he will work as the tree: stand up naked without any shame; you cannot protest, your branches will be cut off. So these things are there. What do they know about this science? Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). You have to take a different body. He does not say what kind of body. And you can see by practical experience. There are 8,400,000 different forms of body. You have to enter one of them. That's all. So what you can do? The nature will force you, "Enter this body." It may be a better body or it may be an abominable body, but you have to enter another body. Where is that education that "I'll have to enter another body after death, and let me prepare what kind of body I shall have"? Where is that education? They are blind.

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Why should you interpret? Gopīs prayed Kṛṣṇa and all the Katyāyanī devīs that "Let Kṛṣṇa become our husband." So Kṛṣṇa fulfilled their desire because a woman can become naked only before husband. That is the purport, no other interpretation. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, when that so many gopīs called, "So you wanted Me as your husband? All right, I become your husband." That's all. Because for a woman there is no shame before husband. So this was acceptance of husband. And so far renouncing everything, they had already done that. Therefore we take everything, śāstra, as it is, no interpretation. Then, simply by making oneself naked, he would have gone to Vṛndāvana. They interpret.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And that's all. So you can do your sense gratification process, yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi tuccham, what is condemned by Prahlāda Mahārāja, that "This kind of happiness is most abominable and insignificant." Tuccham. Tuccham means very insignificant. Kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham. It is just like itching between the two hand, and after-result is misery. That's all. Iva duḥkha-duḥkham. Tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ (SB 7.9.45). They know it, that after this enjoyment of itching sensation there will be so much trouble. But neha tṛpyanti: they are not satisfied. Again and again. Bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ. Begetting one child... Just see. It is going on. (children in background) No shame. That is animal. No shame. In Western countries they are learning... I have seen. In Los Angeles beach they are having sex open.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So where is the...? What is the meaning of secular? Does it mean... Secularism means roguism? (break)

Hṛdayānanda: He has no shame. He again wants to be in.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't think he'd be interested.

Hṛdayānanda: No. It is there. (?) They have absolutely no shame. They will again come back.

Devotee (1): Actually, they are all doing it; he just got caught. So he doesn't feel so bad. It's like a game.

Prabhupāda: So how, if the state has condemned him as dishonest man, how he's being appointed as ambassador?

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Otherwise, this John Lennon, how he dares to photograph naked with his lover? How lowest class man he is, that he has no shame even. And he's also big man. Press reporters go to take his opinion on certain subject matters. They do not know where I am going to take opinion. What is the value of this man? But people are after money. Why? "I have got money." That's all.

Devotee: They hold great sway with the general public as well.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: One of the reasons why they did not want John Lennon to be allowed to stay in the United States is because they said that he had too much influence with the young people.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: Then the answer is the chicken is better than you. He can give you life within seven days. Dr. Chicken is better... They are shameless. Not ordinary, because ordinary a human being will become shameful to speak something nonsense. But they are shameless. In that Bengali, duḥkhānvita(?) One man, one ear was cut off. So in order to hide his cut-off ear he was keeping this side to the river side and this side to the habitation side. So then again his two ears were cut out. Then there is no question of hiding. Both of them were cut out. So these people are duḥkhānvita. When both the ears cut out, there is no shame. They will go on talking all nonsense. Because they are accepted.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: Then the answer is the chicken is better than you. He can give you life within seven days. Dr. Chicken is better... They are shameless. Not ordinary, because ordinary a human being will become shameful to speak something nonsense. But they are shameless. In that Bengali, duḥkhānvita(?) One man, one ear was cut off. So in order to hide his cut-off ear he was keeping this side to the river side and this side to the habitation side. So then again his two ears were cut out. Then there is no question of hiding. Both of them were cut out. So these people are duḥkhānvita. When both the ears cut out, there is no shame. They will go on talking all nonsense. Because they are accepted. So many millions of years have passed in the history, nobody could do that, and they are giving hope that life will come after millions of years. Why million? Here is a chicken, he can give life within five days. What credit you'll get after millions of years? But they are duḥkhānvita.(?)So shameless they can speak such nonsense and still pass on as scientists. Tibocham,(?) I think. Duḥkhānvita. No shame, you do not feel that why you are talking nonsense. Am I right or wrong? Here is a chicken, insignificant animal, he is giving life within five days, and we are talking of millions of years, and still we are scientist, Dr. Frog.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: They simply killed the Red Indians, that is the only.

Rāmeśvara: But in the schools they never tell you these things.

Prabhupāda: How they will tell, shameful.

Hari-śauri: In England it was "How we saved India."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now who is saving India?

Rāmeśvara: They say the "white man's burden." They came to make India civilized.

Hari-śauri: They showed us this...

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Nava-yauvana: You say if someone has no shame...

Prabhupāda: Yes, shameless. Dukankata,(?) in Bengal it is called. So if you want to continue, then continue. The facility is already given there. The material world is there. You go on, continue. But if you want to stop it, if you are conscious of the material position, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), then you have to stop it. Kṛṣṇa has given you freedom, yathecchasi tathā kuru (BG 18.63). Whatever you like, you can do. If you like to suffer, go on suffering. Who can...? It is your business.

Evening Darsana -- August 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You read Bhagavad-gītā. That is the essence of all scriptures. And follow it. It is, from the very beginning to the end, it is simply helping you. You haven't got to read many literatures. Just like those American, European boys, they are with me for the last, at most seven, eight years. Otherwise, three years, four years. So how are they becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious? It is not at all difficult. They are accepting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and becoming perfect. But in India: "Why shall I become Kṛṣṇa conscious? I have got this, I have got that." He'll bring thousands of Kṛṣṇa contributors, and he'll himself he has become Kṛṣṇa: "I am God." You see. He's so shameless that he says that "I am God." God is so cheap. Means shameless. He has no shame even, so how he says that he is God? Māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. So-called jñānī means māyayāpahṛta-jñāna.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: This is morality. "You commit immorality as much as you like. You simply admit it. Then it's right" (indistinct) This is their propaganda. They do not want to stop immorality. "You do, and don't hide it—you admit." But persons are so shameless that they will continually do, and they have no shamefulness to hide even. That is the Christian theory, that "Our religion is so... Maybe we are unable to remain without any sin. Christ will excuse us." Is it not? This is going on. This is.

Saurabha: They're also criticized a lot there. They have been criticized a lot there locally. People, they think they are CIA.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Us?

Meeting With Member of Parliament, Mr. Krishna Modi -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Krishna Modi: No. Yesterday. Because yesterday I was to come here. But I was called by Mr. Brahmānanda and he told me that you have come here (indistinct) so that I want to know something (indistinct). One question was put up in Rājya-sabhā and he's (indistinct) there. I told him that he's full of (indistinct). There are some gentlemen of er..., labor minister and from (indistinct) Andhra Pradesh. They were also there. (indistinct) Mr. D. D. Desai is also there. (indistinct) And we have discussed at length. And we have told them and there is no restriction (indistinct) the size and to everybody. And you see then it is in Indian history, it is first time that something has been done. All people are saying that they have done in America, they have done in so many centers all over the world and then we are, something like that, it is shameful.

Prabhupāda: It is Indian culture.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So he was, "Here is a book of cow protection, cow protection." He has written one book to take care of the cows. So one old man called him, "What you are selling?" Now, "I am selling this book." "What is that book?" "Maintaining the cow." So, "Why you are selling? First of all give this book to your mother because you are no better than cow, so she will learn how to give you protection." That means he wanted to impress upon him that "Cow protection doesn't require any education. You have written a book? So you are such a rascal, cow intelligence. Better give this book to your mother. She will maintain you. Don't sell it. Everyone knows how to give cow protection." So similarly, this sex literature, there is no need of sex literature. Sex literature is there in Sanskrit also. That is how to restrict sex. For what purpose one should indulge in sex, that is called Kāma-śāstra. I have seen this Freud philosophy became so prominent that sometimes in the year... 1940's maybe. So one young woman was traveling, and another young man was traveling. So they began to discuss about sex very openly. And both of them unknown. Still, they engaged themselves in discussing the sex literature, without any shame.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Thakur Mullik, Rādhārāṇī. So in their festival some dancing girl would come, vaibi.(?) That was aristocratic, to call a prostitute and dance. So at that time we were children, five, six, seven years old. So persons who were of our father's age, they would sit down round the prostitute exactly like the street dogs surround one female dog, exactly. They had no shame even. This was aristocratic. And talking all nonsense, and if the prostitute smiles, they become very much obliged. She is (laughter) smiling. And amongst our mother's friends, they were talking, "My husband has kept that prostitute." And another lady... We were at that time boys, three, four years, but I remember all these things. Another lady, "My husband has kept that..."

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore your brain requires to be thoroughly washed to become civilized. Therefore your brain requires to be thoroughly washed to become civilized, Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then talk of civilization. Therefore Jesus Christ first of all requested you "Don't kill." That is also brainwash, cleanse your brain. But you could not take the brainwash. Your brain is congested with so much dirty things that you could not take the instruction of Jesus Christ, and you claim to be Christian. Be ashamed. Don't come forward. Be ashamed. You have no shame even. You are so—what is called?—fool that you do not know what is defective. What is that English proverb? "Fools rush in where angels dare not." You are such a fool that you are running in to obstruct Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which is... Even the demigods, they aspire after it.

Room Conversation -- February 4, 1977, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Yes, mostly we do. Don't say about that flower. That may be. That is also not restricted. We can beg. In India still, high scholarly sannyāsīs, they beg. That is allowed. Bhikṣu. They like. Tridaṇḍī-bhikṣu. So begging in Vedic culture is neither illegal nor shameful—by the proper person. Begging is allowed to the brahmacārīs, to the sannyāsīs. And they like openly. Tridaṇḍī-bhikṣu. Bhikṣu means beggar.

Satsvarūpa: Tridaṇḍī-bhikṣu.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Here, the Indian culture, brahmacārī, sannyāsī and brāhmaṇa, they are allowed to beg alms. That is the Vedic culture. And the householders treat them as their own children. This is the relationship.

Room Conversation about Harijanas -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Bhakti-caru: "As the nation observes this week the death anniversary of Dr. Amritsar, it behooves our news research to face a challenge 'for the plight of this downtrodden community.' " (break) "The story of the vast quantity of harijana in this ancient and illustrious land is a miserable story of shame and sorrow. Harassment and humiliation, operation and separation, poverty and pity. The harijana problems is not merely a social or religious or economic or political one. It is a complex problem involving many factors. It is, however, the most baffling national problem, posing a great challenge to the leaders, rulers and people of India."

Prabhupāda: On the whole—you read this article—why not say that "We can lead you to the highest perfection of cultural, social, religion." It will be...

Conversations -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now immediately a vote should be formed. You cannot do independently. That will not be allowed, anything. In Bengali there is a word, pañce mili kare kārya, hari duḥkhi nāhi lasa(?): "If you do something, combined together, five men, then whether you are defeated or you are victorious, there is nothing to be shameful." Hari duḥkhi nāhi lasa. So you are doing everything independent. We do not like to interfere with your business. You become angry. So that should be stopped. You cannot be allowed. You'll be (indistinct). It has no meaning. (pause) What is that?

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Cultural... We, our culture and philosophy. To be arrested is not new thing for politicians.

Haṁsadūta: She also said in that speech that in India it's not a shame to be arrested. In India this is not considered something bad. It's acceptable. And it's a fact.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere.

Brahmānanda: The governor who came to see you in Bombay, practically his only qualification is that he was arrested. He was in jail for nineteen months. Before, he was a very small man. Now he's a big man simply because he was in jail for nineteen months.

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayapatākā: When one of the Communist papers was writing a critical report about us, then they said that "They even have a building that's longer than the Writer's Building. How they have done this, shamed our state building?" (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The gate is bigger than the Governor's gate and the building is longer than the Writer's Building. Kṛṣṇa is first. When we build that temple, it will... (laughter) Then everyone will simply be silent. That will end all comment.

Prabhupāda: They are already silent. (laughter)

Page Title:Shame (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:09 of Dec, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=29, Let=0
No. of Quotes:29