Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


Soil

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 4.7, Purport:

From the Bhāgavatam we understand that Lord Buddha is the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa who appeared when materialism was rampant and materialists were using the pretext of the authority of the Vedas. Although there are certain restrictive rules and regulations regarding animal sacrifice for particular purposes in the Vedas, people of demonic tendency still took to animal sacrifice without reference to the Vedic principles. Lord Buddha appeared to stop this nonsense and to establish the Vedic principles of nonviolence. Therefore each and every avatāra, or incarnation of the Lord, has a particular mission, and they are all described in the revealed scriptures. No one should be accepted as an avatāra unless he is referred to by scriptures. It is not a fact that the Lord appears only on Indian soil. He can manifest Himself anywhere and everywhere, and whenever He desires to appear. In each and every incarnation, He speaks as much about religion as can be understood by the particular people under their particular circumstances. But the mission is the same—to lead people to God consciousness and obedience to the principles of religion. Sometimes He descends personally, and sometimes He sends His bona fide representative in the form of His son, or servant, or Himself in some disguised form.

BG Chapters 7 - 12

BG 7.15, Purport:

Sometimes they spend sleepless days and nights for fruitive gain, and although they may have ulcers or indigestion, they are satisfied with practically no food; they are simply absorbed in working hard day and night for the benefit of illusory masters. Ignorant of their real master, the foolish workers waste their valuable time serving mammon. Unfortunately, they never surrender to the supreme master of all masters, nor do they take time to hear of Him from the proper sources. The swine who eat the night soil do not care to accept sweetmeats made of sugar and ghee. Similarly, the foolish worker will untiringly continue to hear of the sense-enjoyable tidings of the flickering mundane world, but will have very little time to hear about the eternal living force that moves the material world.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.10.34-35, Purport:

The provinces passed over by the Lord in those days were differently named, but the direction given is sufficient to indicate that He traveled through Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Saurastra and Gujarat and at last reached His home province at Dvārakā. We do not gain any profit simply by researching the analogous provinces of those days up to now, but it appears that the desert of Rajasthan and the provinces of scanty water like Madhya Pradesh were present even five thousand years ago. The theory of soil experts that the desert developed in recent years is not supported by the statements of Bhāgavatam. We may leave the matter for expert geologists to research because the changing universe has different phases of historical development. We are satisfied that the Lord has now reached His own province, Dvārakādhāma, from the Kuru provinces. Kurukṣetra continues to exist since the Vedic age, and it is sheer foolishness when interpreters ignore or deny the existence of Kurukṣetra.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.21.45-47, Translation:

Entering that most sacred spot with his daughter and going near the sage, the first monarch, Svāyambhuva Manu, saw the sage sitting in his hermitage, having just propitiated the sacred fire by pouring oblations into it. His body shone most brilliantly; though he had engaged in austere penance for a long time, he was not emaciated, for the Lord had cast His affectionate sidelong glance upon him and he had also heard the nectar flowing from the moonlike words of the Lord. The sage was tall, his eyes were large, like the petals of a lotus, and he had matted locks on his head. He was clad in rags. Svāyambhuva Manu approached and saw him to be somewhat soiled, like an unpolished gem.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.5.23-24, Purport:

In the Varāha Purāṇa the following offenses are mentioned: (a) to eat in the house of a rich man, (b) to enter the Deity's room in the dark, (c) to worship the Deity without following the regulative principles, (d) to enter the temple without vibrating any sound, (e) to collect food that has been seen by a dog, (f) to break silence while offering worship to the Deity, (g) to go to the toilet during the time of worshiping the Deity, (h) to offer incense without offering flowers, (i) to worship the Deity with forbidden flowers, (j) to begin worship without having washed one's teeth, (k) to begin worship after sex, (l) to touch a lamp, dead body or a woman during her menstrual period, or to put on red or bluish clothing, unwashed clothing, the clothing of others or soiled clothing. Other offenses are to worship the Deity after seeing a dead body, to pass air before the Deity, to show anger before the Deity, and to worship the Deity just after returning from a crematorium. After eating, one should not worship the Deity until one has digested his food, nor should one touch the Deity or engage in any Deity worship after eating safflower oil or hing. These are also offenses.

SB 7.7.23, Purport:

As previously stated, svarṇaṁ yathā grāvasu hema-kāraḥ kṣetreṣu yogais tad-abhijña āpnuyāt. An expert in the study of soil can find out where gold is and then dig there. He can then analyze the stone and test the gold with nitric acid. Similarly, one must analyze the whole body to find within the body the spirit soul. In studying one's own body, one must ask himself whether his head is his soul, his fingers are his soul, his hand is his soul, and so on. In this way, one must gradually reject all the material elements and the combinations of material elements in the body. Then, if one is expert and follows the ācārya, he can understand that he is the spiritual soul living within the body.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 11.12.20, Translation:

When many seeds are placed in an agricultural field, innumerable manifestations of trees, bushes, vegetables and so on will arise from a single source, the soil. Similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who gives life to all and is eternal, originally exists beyond the scope of the cosmic manifestation. In the course of time, however, the Lord, who is the resting place of the three modes of nature and the source of the universal lotus flower, in which the cosmic manifestation takes place, divides His material potencies and thus appears to be manifest in innumerable forms, although He is one.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 45:

They also learned how to draw and read pictographic literature. In some countries in the world, pictographic literature is still current. A story is represented by pictures; for instance, a man and house are pictured to represent a man going home. Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma also learned the art of architecture—how to construct residential buildings. They learned to recognize valuable jewels by studying their luster and colors. Then They learned the art of placing jewels in a gold and silver setting so that they look very beautiful. They also learned how to study soil to find minerals. This study of soil is now a greatly specialized science, but formerly it was common knowledge even for the ordinary man. They learned to study herbs and plants to discover how they would act as medicine for different ailments. By studying the different species of plants, They learned how to crossbreed plants and trees and get different types of fruits. They learned how to train and engage rams and cocks in fighting for sport. They then learned how to teach parrots to speak and to answer the questions of human beings.

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 1:

Everyone who happens to take his birth in India is a potential benefactor of others, because it is on Indian soil alone that the culture of transcendental knowledge has been most elaborately presented, from ancient times to the present. The saints and sages of Bhārata-varṣa, as India has long been known, never tried to cultivate or satisfy artificially the needs of the body and the mind exclusively; they always cultured the transcendental spirit soul, which is above the material body and mind. And even now, the saints and sages continue to do so, in spite of all difficulties. But it would be sheer stupidity if Indian people attempted to do good to others without first themselves attaining transcendental knowledge.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 4.7-10 -- Los Angeles, January 6, 1969:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Therefore each and every avatāra, or incarnation of the Lord, has a particular mission, and they are all described in the revealed scriptures. Nobody can be accepted as an avatāra without references to the scriptural indication. It is not a fact that the Lord appears only on Indian soil. He can advent Himself anywhere and everywhere and whenever He desires to appear. In each and every incarnation He speaks as much about religion as can be understood by the particular people under their particular circumstances, but the mission is the same: to lead people to God consciousness and obedience to the principles of religion. Sometimes He descends personally, and sometimes He sends His bona fide representative in the form of His son or servant."

Prabhupāda: So there are some protagonists. They say that God cannot come personally. Why? Why God should be restricted? Is God under your regulation or restriction? Then what kind of God He is? Yes. God can come personally out of His compassion. That is possible. Yes. And He comes. He says here in this verse that "I come." But it is not that somebody will imitate and he will say that "I am God." No. That also not. You have to test actually. That test, if you have got, if you are conversant with the principles of God appearance, disappearance, incarnation, then you can understand who is a pretender and who is actually representative of God, by action.

Lecture on BG 7.1-3 -- Stockholm, September 10, 1973:

So these are eight: earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and "I" consciousness. These are material eight elements. Mind is also material. Intelligence also material. So there is cultivation of knowledge of the gross material. Just like soil expert, there are, trying to understand the earth, where there is mine, where there is something, something. That is analyzing the earth. Similarly, somebody is studying the light or the air—they are all material things. There is no spiritual understanding. So bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ manaḥ. Mind... Psychologists, they are also studying the mind, the activities, thinking, feeling and willing, and their varieties. That is also material. And ethereal understanding. So many things are going on, but they are all material.

Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975:

So Kṛṣṇa says that how you are thinking of the material. Material scientists, they are studying earth. What is called? Soil expert, they are studying soil: "Where is mine? Where is gold? Where is coal? Where is this, that?" So many thing, they are studying. But they do not know wherefrom these things came. Here is... Kṛṣṇa explains that bhinnā me prakṛti: "This is My energy, My energy." How these different chemicals and earthly matters became manifested, everyone is inquisitive, any thoughtful man. Here is the answer. Here is the answer, that

bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ
khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me
bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
(BG 7.4)

Bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā. Just like I am speaking, it is being recorded, recorded. But in my absence, if the record is played, it will exactly vibrate the same sound. So that is my energy or anyone's energy, but bhinnā, separated from me.

Lecture on BG 13.3 -- Bombay, September 26, 1973:

Therefore Bhagavad-gītā says, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). It is not that by some process I become Brahman. I am Brahman, but on account of māyā, my knowledge is covered. I am thinking, "I am product of this material world," "I am American," "I am Indian," in terms of the soil where we have taken birth. Yasyātmā-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ (SB 10.84.13). Bhauma ijya-dhīḥ. The whole world is mad after this process of bhauma ijya-dhīḥ. They are... Instead of worshiping Kṛṣṇa, they are worshiping the land in which one is born. That is called under the name of, going on, so many isms. So this is described as bhauma ijya-dhīḥ.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.8.34 -- Los Angeles, April 26, 1973:

That we can understand very easily. Apart from our knowledge within the womb of the mother, how the body develops, we can see if a child is born, he grows, his body develops. But if the child is born dead, no spirit soul, it will not develop. Everyone knows that. Therefore the spirit is the basis of development of matter. Not that by development of matter spirit grows. No. That's not a fact. This is... Everyone knows. Why a dead child does not grow? Because the spirit is not there. A tree grows so long there is life in it. A small seed of banyan tree, you sow in the soil and pour water favorably, then it grows. Because the spirit soul is there. But if somehow or other... Take for example you take one grain and fry it in the fire. If you sow it, it will not grow. Because the spirit soul is not there. Therefore they are searching after what is the original cause of creation. The original cause of creation is the spirit soul as everything is growing. Matter is growing, developing on account of the spirit soul. Similarly the whole universe is growing on account of presence of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu.

Lecture on SB 1.8.40 -- Mayapura, October 20, 1974:

So dirty due to this rascal industry. Even in our New York, the bays and the seas they're also polluted. All dirty things are there. How long the water will be clear? No. The rivers, at least the rivers, in the city, they should be kept very clean. But they cannot keep clean because they have got so many dirty activities, enterprises, mills and factories. So in Calcutta also, the... There are so many jute mills and factories on the riverside. All the night soil, they are thrown into the Ganges. So still the Ganges is so powerful that it keeps clear. Hundreds and thousands people, still they take bath in the Ganges, and they keep very good health, those who are taking bath regularly in the Ganges. And cities and towns, there must be a river. In India, you'll find, all the important cities in India, they are on the bank of the Ganges, on the bank of the Yamunā, on the bank of the Narmadā, Kṛṣṇā, Kāverī, like that, all the important cities. And Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says that "Don't go to a town and city where there is no river and where there is no friend and there is no temple. Don't go to that city. If there is no river, no friend and no temple, then that is... A great city is a great forest." So that is forbidden.

Lecture on SB 3.26.3 -- Bombay, December 15, 1974:

So this is jñāna. But we are wasting our time—this jñāna, that jñāna. But real jñāna, there is no. We are being educated, so-called scientific education. Just like one is studying the earth, soil expert. One is studying the water. One is, chemical—"What are the chemicals composition of water? What is the chemical composition...?" In this way we are acquiring jñāna; but that is not jñāna. That is called technology, śilpa-naipuṇya. In Sanskrit it is called śilpa-naipuṇya. That is not jñāna. Real jñāna is ātma-darśanam. That is jñāna. So... But we are wasting our time temporary, śilpa-darśanam. But ātma-darśanam we want. That is real jñāna.

Lecture on SB 3.26.11-14 -- Bombay, December 23, 1974:

Because the dog is also thinking like that, that "I am this body." He may not be able to analyze the bodily construction. He may not be a medical man or psychologist. That doesn't matter. But he thinks that "I am this body," and he is working like that. So we human being, if I study all the science, physics, chemistry, psychology, and other material science, soil expert... Soil expert means studying the earth, that's all. There are so many. So in spite of all these things, if we remain in the darkness of my spiritual identity, then I am no better than the cats and dogs. This is conclusion.

Lecture on SB 3.26.45 -- Bombay, January 20, 1975:

These are called bhaga, opulence. So all the opulences... For creating a nice flower, that is being manufactured by Kṛṣṇa. With His brain the seed of the flower is a chemical composition so nicely made. Svābhāvikī jñāna, He knows. Naturally He knows how to make the seed perfect so that from the seed, by sowing in the soil, by watering, the whole varieties will come. Is there any scientist to put in a small seed all the chemicals and it will come automatically, a motorcar? No. That is not possible. That is not possible. You have to create every car. And Kṛṣṇa's energy is so perfect that she has created one male body and one female body, and innumerable cars are coming. This is car, described in the Bhagavad-gītā, this body. Yantra. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). This is yantra, but this yantra is coming by union of two yantras: one male yantra and female yantra. And millions of yantras are coming.

Lecture on SB 7.6.7 -- Vrndavana, December 9, 1975:

Brockway, I think. I asked him, "What you will do? What is the end of your life?" "No, I shall die peacefully." That's all. He does not know that what is going to happen. Because the Christians, they do not believe in the next life; they think this life is finished, everything is finished. But that is not the fact. Because they cannot find out the soul. But that requires expert knowledge. Just like gold mine, apparently it appears that it is a stone. But one who is expert, soil expert, he can understand, "Here is gold." Just like when I was in South Africa, even in the city Johannesburg there are so many gold mines within the city, gold mines. So ordinary man, how it will... How he'll know that there is gold in the soil? He must be expert. To find out the soul within this body, it is not the business of rascals and fools. He must be very expert, exactly like the soil expert. And then, by analysis... This is called neti neti, na iti. It is very easy. If you think, study your body, take this finger, so you'll say, "My finger." Nobody will say, "I finger." Just like we sometimes examine little child, "What is this?" "Finger." "So a finger, which finger?" "My finger." "Head?" "My head." "Leg?" "My leg." Everything, "my, my." And where is "I"? This is intelligence. Everything, he is studying, "my," and who is "I"? This very question will establish the fact, dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13), that "I" is within this body. Therefore I am speaking, "my."

Lecture on SB 7.7.19-20 -- Bombay, March 18, 1971:

As soon as I think I am American, "Why American money should go to India?" Immediately he becomes disqualified to become a member of the (indistinct), immediately. Because the same demoniac principle—"I am this." Mohajaṁ. Mohajaṁ—this is the production of illusion. Prahlāda Mahārāja says tyajet, "You should give up these demonic principles," tyajet. Tyajet, this is (indistinct)—must, must. There are different forms of verbs in Sanskrit. This form of verb means must. There is no argument, you must. Just like in Vedas says tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12)—must, must go. So here also Prahlāda Mahārāja says tyajet. This dehātma-buddhi, this upādhi, this designation is dangerous for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, tyajet.

svarṇaṁ yathā grāvasu hema-kāraḥ
kṣetreṣu yogais tad-abhijña āpnuyāt
kṣetreṣu deheṣu tathātma-yogair
adhyātma-vid brahma-gatiṁ labheta

Now he's giving a very nice example. Just like what, what is called, a technical, soil expert?

Lecture on SB 7.7.19-20 -- Bombay, March 18, 1971:

Prabhupāda: No, no geologist is different.

Devotee: Agronomist.

Prabhupāda: Huh? What was that?

Devotee: Agronomist.

Prabhupāda: What is that exact word used? Soil expert. (laughter) Soil expert means...

Devotee: Conservationist.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Devotee: Conservationist?

Prabhupāda: No.

Devotee: Agronomist.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: Agronomist.

Prabhupāda: Agronomist?

Devotee: Yes. Agra means field, one who studies the earth.

Prabhupāda: And just like one can understand from the characteristics of the particular soil, that there is gold. In this (place) there is possibility of gold. That is agronomist?

Devotee: No, that would be geologist.

Lecture on SB 7.7.19-20 -- Bombay, March 18, 1971:

Prabhupāda: All right, geologist. (laughter) So.... I don't think geologist. (laughter) Geologist is different. You have no dictionary? Where is my dictionary?

Devotee: It is in the next room. Should I get it?

Prabhupāda: All right, we shall see later on. Take it for agronomist, geologist. But soil expert (laughter). Soil expert to... He knows how to find out a particular type of mine. They can find out, "Here there is mica, in this soil there is coal, in this soil there is gold." So Prahlāda Mahārāja is giving very nice example that, svarṇaṁ yathā grāvasu hema-kāraḥ. Hema-kāraḥ means goldsmith, not goldsmith. Goldsmith is manufacturer of gold ornaments. Hema-kāraḥ means gold expert, you can say. He can find out in the soil where there is gold mine. Still there are. I know when I was managing Dr. Bose's laboratory, one chemist, Chandra Bhusan Vadery (?), he was a well known chemist in Calcutta. So, one Marwari gentleman was after him. He said that "I know how to find out gold mine." So, the Marwari gentleman spent after him lakhs of rupees and he said that "Here there is gold," but unfortunately gold was not found. (chuckles) And the gentleman lost so much money. So, but there are experts otherwise how gold mines are found out? There are experts. So here it is said... It is not new thing. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that this art is known millions and millions of years ago. It is not that the modern science has discovered airplane, modern science has discovered how to go to other planet and they have mining industry, no. These are all known. There is no question of modern science. Now, otherwise how Prahlāda Mahārāja gave this example? Vivikta, viviktatma jnana, jnani napi bhavena brahmata praktikasam syat (?).

Lecture on SB 7.7.19-20 -- Bombay, March 18, 1971:

He has feeling. That is (indistinct). Anubhava ananta svarupa, parameśvara. That is the (indistinct). You can feel His presence, that is being explained here. (reads Sanskrit commentary) It is very simple. Prahlāda Mahārāja is saying that as the expert gold miner, when he sees there are gold particles in the field, naturally he concludes.... Still, in India there is a river, in that river gold particles, in the water gold particles can be found. Gold particles. Many poor men they whole day work and strain the water in different way and get some little gold, still. So, by the symptoms, by the symptoms the expert gold miner finds out that here is gold, gold mine. Because within the soil, or with the soil you find some gold particles. That is the way, here it is said. Similarly, one can find out Kṛṣṇa by the symptoms, the characteristics, of this world. That is common sense. Just in everything there is a controller. There is a life. Just like in my body, I am controlling this body, and there is living force, living symptoms. Similarly, this whole world which is going on, there are so many things that is, that requires nice brain.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Prabhupāda: First of all, you are testing his knowledge.

Śyāmasundara: I'm trying to explain. You want to know what he thinks is the origin; so they trace back through geological excavation to the most simplest forms of life, and they see that in the...

Prabhupāda: What is the simplest form of life?

Śyāmasundara: They find at the lowest bottom of the soil layers which have built up through the years, they find small one-celled animal forms, sea shells, like that.

Prabhupāda: So how is it forming?

Śyāmasundara: Gradually, through the ages, they have become more and more complex to this age when...

Prabhupāda: What is the beginning?

Śyāmasundara: In the beginning they have found only the one-celled animals.

Prabhupāda: They found, but beyond that they do not know. They found it. It was already there. So wherefrom it came?

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is limited. It is limited. It is very hard to find about five thousand or six thousand years back.

Karandhara: They don't even agree amongst each other about what the age of things are.

Śyāmasundara: Just like if you go down a hundred feet below the soil, that soil has been down there a long time. But there is no evidences of men, actually civilized creatures.

Prabhupāda: Why he is trying to find out men's bones there? What is the...

Śyāmasundara: I'm just saying that it appears, because layer after layer is deposited in the earth's crust, that the animal forms are evolving toward more complex forms, from simple animals to bigger animals, and then more complex, then to the man, civilized man.

Prabhupāda: From where it began?

Śyāmasundara: It began with the simplest forms.

Prabhupāda: What is that simplest form?

Śyāmasundara: Small one-celled animals, then bivalves, then mollusks, then simple forms of aquatics.

Karandhara: So the one-celled animals must be God.

Śyāmasundara: That isn't what I'm talking about; I'm just saying that this evolution appears to exist, evolution of species, from simplest forms to more complex forms. That's Darwin's idea.

Prabhupāda: But the simplest form is still existing and the complex form is also existing at the present moment. Not that from the simplest form developed, developed, developed. Just like development means, just like I have developed my childhood body. The childhood body is no more there. But it is a fact I have developed from childhood body to this body. There are so many. So similarly, all the species are existing simultaneously, still.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: (indistinct) in question.

Prabhupāda: That is not perfect knowledge.

Śyāmasundara: You must admit, though, being a scientist, that supposing you go down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, you see so many layers of earth going up thousands of feet, that the layers at the bottom are very, very old. You must admit, because the earth takes so many years to deposit soil. Even if it's only one million years, it's still very old. And in that lowest layer we find only evidences of simple...

Prabhupāda: So where is the lowest layer, he has gone? Where is it? Wherefrom it begins?

Śyāmasundara: The Grand Canyon is an example. That's a very deep canyon in the ground in Arizona.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: What happens if there was no human beings in that area so that they don't find any...?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: Human beings aside, we still find...

Prabhupāda: Just like desert. Desert there is no human beings. If you dig the desert, what you will find?

Śyāmasundara: That's all right. It doesn't matter if it was ocean; still we find gradually the forms become more and more complex toward the...

Prabhupāda: But you cannot say where is the beginning and where is the end.

Philosophy Discussion on St. Augustine:

Hayagrīva: Well, this..., thinking in this way Augustine writes, he says, "We do not apply 'Thou shalt not kill' to plants, because they have no sensation, or to irrational animals that fly, swim, walk or creep, because they are linked to us by no association or common bond. By the creator's wise ordinance they are meant for our use, dead or alive. It only remains for us to apply the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' to man alone, oneself and others." So...

Prabhupāda: So that is imagination of Augustine. But Jesus Christ does not say such qualitative killing. He says frankly, "Thou shalt not kill." When he says that, he means, "You should not kill." But when there is absolute necessity, just like he says that "One life is food for the another life..." Does he not say it like that?

Hayagrīva: He says, uh... (break) He says..., this is, this is Augustine writing. He said, "Some people try to stretch the prohibition 'Thou shalt not kill' to cover beasts and cattle and make it unlawful to kill any such animal, but then why not include plants and anything rooted in and feeding on the soil? After all, things like this, though devoid of feeling, are said to have life and therefore can die and so be killed by violent treatment."

Prabhupāda: No, that is not Vedic philosophy. Vedic philosophy admits that one living entity is the food for another living entity. That is natural.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1970, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: One of our relatives, long, long ago, he happened to be, as my grandmother..., my cousin's, oh, grandfather. He went to England in those old days and he became a parsiyas(?) doctor, very... When he came home the brāhmaṇas prescribed that "You went to England, so you have to make this prāyaścitta and this and so many prescriptions, and unless you follow the prāyaścitta you cannot live at home. Then your family will be extricated." So when these things were presented to him he said, "Then I am going out of home." His mother and father, everyone requested that... (Hindi) (break)

Haṁsadūta: "Patel Pola(?) of Chicago had observed that he was a construction worker doing a śūdra's work. It would not become necessary to allot the three lower castes to the foreign converts according to their professions. This will not be an easy task. Talking of profession reminds me of a still graver problem—that of the occupation or profession of the white sādhus. If I am not mistaken, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement would turn out legions of new white sādhus in the West whose only aim in life would be to propitiate their Lord Kṛṣṇa. They would be steeped in the bhakti-rasa and would not soil their hands with doing any work for such a mundane thing as earning a living."

Prabhupāda: They are not doing anything. Actually they are not doing anything. They are preaching only.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1970, Bombay:

Revatīnandan: The magazine section. Two page particle with nice pictures. You liked it very much.

Prabhupāda: Oh, oh, yes, yes. I remember. She is envious, that "Why two page advertisement, publicity has been..." That's all.

Haṁsadūta: There's another letter. It says, "Your leading article on the Kṛṣṇa cult makes interesting reading. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the Indian founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, and his American disciples repeatedly told K.R. Sundarajan, the author of the article in the Times Weekly, November 8th, 1970, during their brief stay in Bombay that theirs was not strictly a Hindu movement. They explained to him that Kṛṣṇa was above all religions, the universal teacher, the supreme man, the purification of the Absolute Truth. If it is so, then why can't they go to Pakistan and China for chanting of Kṛṣṇa's name and ask them to vacate aggression? The soil of this land where the great master was born..."

Prabhupāda: Now, now, we have to serve the political, politicians. Eh? Because they cannot do, so they are asking us.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Śyāmasundara: Oh, I see.

Prabhupāda: Their argument is that physical necessity creates a chance, and we take advantage of the chance. But here there is no necessity. Nobody wants to die, nobody wants disease. Why these chances are coming to us without any necessity?

Śyāmasundara: If, for instance, in nature they saw a tree growing, they would say that by necessity this tree must die in order to replenish the soil so more trees can grow.

Prabhupāda: Then there is plan. As soon as you say that more trees can grow, that means there is plan. You cannot say chance.

Śyāmasundara: Nature can't be chance. If so many plants...

Prabhupāda: That plan is Kṛṣṇa's. That is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram: (BG 9.10) "Under My plan, under My superintendence, the nature is working. The changes of the world is going on for that reason." Hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate: "All these changes are taking place on account of My supervision." So there is no question of chance. It is all planned, planned by the Supreme, daiva netreṇa, by superior arrangement.

Room Conversation -- June 29, 1972, San Diego:

Prabhupāda: So the Indians who are outside India, they have got a special duty. So far our economic condition is concerned, as I explained yesterday, that one is destined to certain material comforts and discomforts, according to his body—already he has got. So either you stay in India or you stay in America, the bodily comforts or sense gratification, that will be achieved either in India or America. What you are destined to achieve, you will have it because as soon as your body is manufactured, your standard of comfort and discomfort is also manufactured. In Bengal there is a proverb that yethā deoyā bhange, kapāla yābe saṅge(?): "Wherever you go, your fortune will go with you." Fortune and misfortune, that will also go with you. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said one thing, that "Any Indian, any man who has taken birth on the soil of Bhāratavarṣa, India, he has got a special duty. And that duty is to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra
janma sārthaka kari kara para-upakāra
(CC Adi 9.41)

To do good to others, para-upakāra. So those Indians who are here, it is all right you are earning for some economic development, but at the same time, you try to make your life perfect by Kṛṣṇa consciousness and spread it to the foreigners as far as possible. That's your duty, not that, that you are getting decent salary than India, and enjoy life and forget your culture. That is suicidal. You have got a culture... So this culture is Vedic culture and Vedic culture means Kṛṣṇa conscious.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Perverted, converted. Just like Nehru. Nehru was western-educated. He was educated in London. But he hated everything Indian.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That was the res... Formerly, in our childhood we saw that any gentleman coming here in London and goes back to India, he no more mixes with the Indian soil. He... They were called "England-returned." So they made their own society. Then our Ram Mohan Raya, he formed a Brahmo Society. And so many things changed. Again, they are now topsy-turvied. So actually, India's position is that they have lost their own culture, and they could not assimilate the western culture. But in the western countries, if they accept this Vedic process of civilization, then they will again take it.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (pause)

Śyāmasundara: "A Rival for Nelson."

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Śyāmasundara: "A Rival for Nelson."

Prabhupāda: Yes. There was newspaper photograph. You have seen that?

Śyāmasundara: Guardian.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk 'Varnasrama College' -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

Hṛdayānanda: So, for example, if I become a teacher at varṇāśrama, say, the first teacher at the varṇāśrama college, then I have to also become expert at how to fight, how to...

Prabhupāda: Not all of you, but some of you must be, must learn the art of fighting also. But in a practical you are not going to fight. If required, you can fight. I say that we are above all these varṇāśrama, but we must train others or ourself also for material activities, everything, under these divisions.

Viṣṇujana: For example, in New Vrindaban we have brāhmaṇas that are very expert at tilling the soil and taking care of cows.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Viṣṇujana: And they could travel around and teach others how to do that as well.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's right. He is brāhmaṇa, but he's teaching how to take care of the cows and ploughing.

Hṛdayānanda: It's not that one teacher has to teach everything.

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

O'Grady: What was Mahatma Gandhi fighting in the House of Commons in England?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is also another dogism. Because there is no difference. Just try to understand. The dog is thinking, "I am dog." Why? Because he has got the body of a dog. Similarly, if I am thinking, "I am Indian" because I have got the body in the Indian soil, where is the difference? There is no difference.

O'Grady: The Englishman thinks there's a difference.

Prabhupāda: No, anyone. The bodily concept of life is animalism. When we think that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul," then there is peace. Otherwise there cannot be any peace. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). In the Vedic literature it is described that persons who is in the bodily concept of life, he is exactly like the cow and the ass. That means animal. So people has to transcend this qualitative conception of existence. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. You will find this verse.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: So that means there is water.

Karandhara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So how you can say there is no water in the moon planet?

Karandhara: Well, they can take samples in the desert and find out if there is certain degree of moisture in the soil. They have taken the same samples on the moon and say that there is no moisture.

Prabhupāda: So why the moon planet is bereft of? Material, anything material, it is combination of earth, water, fire, air, ether. Anything material. It is a combination.

Karandhara: Well, there are probably very minute quantities of moisture on the moon. But they say nothing significant, nothing suitable for agriculture.

Yogeśvara: There are no plants growing on the moon. In the desert we find some plants, but they have not found any vegetation on the moon.

Prabhupāda: That means they have not gone thoroughly. One portion of it.

Room Conversation with Scientists -- July 2, 1974, Melbourne:

Dr. Muncing: I think that the situation which would apply to the Asian area, whilst I don't know it in complete detail, it's my impression that we have used very nearly all of the Australian area that is suitable for tilling the soil and growing food grains. There are vast areas of Australia that have very little rain, or if they have rain it comes intermittently. And it's my impression that the Australian area... The area that's used for growing grains in Australia couldn't be vastly increased. It couldn't be doubled, for instance. On the other hand I accept that it might well be possible to double the amount that comes off the present area. And of course, that's something that C.S.R.O. is working towards.

Dr. Harrap: I think you could add to that, Roy, that an attempt to grow grain in large areas of Australia would significantly damage the ecology, and from reading your writings, I suspect that this would be completely unacceptable to your way of thinking, that one doesn't disturb the natural life cycles of innumerable creatures in order to grow more grain because the terrain is just not suited to the grain growing.

Prabhupāda: The land is not suitable?

Madhudviṣa: Well, in Australia there is vast areas which cannot be cultivated, like deserts and semi-deserts. The gentleman's contention is that if we try to grow grains in a semi-desert area it would throw off the balance of the natural, the natural pulse of the earth, let us say, and it would cause havoc in other fields. One of the basic things that our spiritual master is putting forward is that if we put an emphasis on producing food grains and milk and vegetables to live on, concentrating on those points instead of complicating our lives with great industries for cosmetics and film industries and things that are really not essential to us... There's people that don't have the essentials and other people who have all the trappings of the modern technological science. Our spiritual master's contention is that real happiness lies in simple living and high thinking and this is the education that we're trying to put forward. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...these are all misconceptions because I am not this body. I am spirit soul. When the spirit soul goes away, then where is the distinction? Suppose in hospital some Hindu dies or some Muslim dies, some Christian die, the spirit... They are stacked together as useless matter. Is it not? There is no distinction there now, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, white, black. Now it is dead body, put aside. Eh? So, but when living, when the spirit soul is there, they are dividing, this designation. So this knowledge that so long the spirit soul is there in the body, it is important. As soon as the soul is gone, it is useless. But people are giving more stress on the body than on the active principle, living force, what is there. There is no study. Suppose you are all scientists. What is your studying about that living force that is moving the body?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Because we have heard from authority. As you are asking assurance from me, so I give you the knowledge from where I have heard. You want to hear from me. I have heard from authority. That's all. What is the difficulty? Why you are asking me? You want to hear from me. So I have also heard from authority. This is the statement. You take it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So when... They say that there are some plants that can grow from just branches... We stick the branch in the soil. Then it just grows to another plant.

Prabhupāda: The same thing. The living entity is there, but he is manifested in such a way. The same explanation. Just like there are many living entities within my body, and when this body is stopped, decomposed, they come out in different forms.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Are these living entities constant? They don't change any.

Prabhupāda: Yes, nitya, nitya. Nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Why don't you see these references? It is never created. It is ever-existing, eternal. Only it appears to be temporary on account of accepting different material bodies. Therefore, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). One who knows, he knows that he has changed his body, the same person. Just like father, mother knows. When a son becomes very stout and strong, the mother sees that same child. Others may be bewildered. One who has seen the child very long ago, now he has become robust build. He cannot say. And the mother says, "He is my child, that child." So paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18).

Morning Walk -- May 8, 1975, Perth:

Amogha: No, not from anyone's house.

Paramahaṁsa: From the government.

Prabhupāda: Very, very nice flowers. Such a big rose I have never seen.

Paramahaṁsa: In India they don't grow that big. They are very small.

Prabhupāda: Nobody takes care. The man also grows very small. There is no food, there is no soil. Poverty lives. Daridra-doṣa guṇa-nāśe, when a person becomes poverty-stricken, all his quality goes away. He might have very good qualification but if... (break) Unfortunately, being misguided, this position of opulence, they are misusing it, and therefore becoming hippies. Simply misusing it. Instead of utilizing the position for development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are misusing it. So timely the movement has come to your country. Just try to apply in your practical life, preach all over the world, at least all over your own country. Here also, the Australians, they have got opulence. Try to relieve them. You are American or Australian?

Jayadharma: I'm an Australian, Prabhupāda.

Paramahaṁsa: Australian, he says.

Prabhupāda: Australian, that's nice. Learn this art and preach. There is good potency in your country. You are also not poverty. Kṛṣṇa says, imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). Rājarṣi means very rich, kings. He never said, "All the bungees understood it. All the wretched class understood it." He never taught. It is meant for the leaders of the society, opulent kings and leaders. It is meant for them. Poverty-stricken man cannot under... But there is no bar, there is no hindrance. But this is especially meant for the opulent person. Otherwise why Kṛṣṇa says imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ? And He instructed first to the sun-god. He is not ordinary person. He instructed later on to Arjuna. He is not ordinary person. Because one important person learns the science, he will preach it all over the earth. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has directly said they are not ordinary persons. So unless one is materially not ordinary, he cannot preach. All the Gosvāmīs, they were coming from respectable... And where Gauḍīya Maṭha came? These are third-class men, no position in their past life.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Without cooking.

Justin Murphy: No cooking. No cooking. Immediately, wiggling. The fresher the better. They used to eat small furry animals, bandicoots, wombats. There were no rabbits, of course, in those days. Rabbit has been a disaster introduced by man, by European man. But they used to occasionally pound the grass seeds from a few species of arid sand grasses and make a kind of an unleavened bread, which they would then bake. But generally the aborigines were nomadic, they were shifting, and they didn't cultivate. They didn't till the soil ever. But we must, whilst attempting to provide for the inevitable Australian people and the growth of population, we must also try to do that within the confines and the dictates of nature and the natural resources which we have. Australia is very rich in a lot of natural resources; it's very, very poor in others. It is quite poor in water, and, of course, water is absolutely basic to the growth process. Australia has abundant sunlight, solar energy, which is the basis of photosynthesis.

Prabhupāda: Vegetable.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Gradually...

Justin Murphy: But also... sorry, I don't mean—and perhaps I didn't explain myself well enough. I do not mean to address myself only to a problem which is here with us right now. Perth, for example, right now this city does not have a scarcity. There's plenty of water around. Seventy percent in fact of the water which is delivered to domestic homes every summer is put on gardens to make them green. It's not used for growing vegetables. It's not used for human consumption or human existence, for supporting human life. It's used for making lawns such as outside this house, making lawns and trees green so that houses will be attractive and the property values will go up. Once again it's the money ethic. It's the money situation. It's what our society exists on. It's what makes it all go around. But what I am worried about is the situation in a hundred years' time. There isn't a scarcity now, although the water is getting, is becoming less and less acceptable, where, by taking down the forests, we're letting more water seep into the soil, it's unlocking the salt that's been in the soil for thousands of years, and so on.

That's our problem. It's long term and it's complex. I'm worried about generations to come, not now.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. If there is rainfall sufficiently, that water is distilled water, pure water. So if pure water is distributed all over the country...

Justin Murphy: It's pure when it hits the ground, but it isn't, unfortunately, when it comes out into the streams.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Paramahaṁsa: He says it's pure when the rain comes down, but when it hits the ground it becomes impure and then the salt gets in it.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. It is not... Rain water is pure water.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So when it touches the ground, it may become impure. It doesn't water (matter). But the water is pure. Water is coming. You cannot take water from the sea and moisten the ground with... That is not possible. But if pure water comes down from the rain, it is utilized.

Justin Murphy: But a lot of the water that is in our dams and the water that we use for irrigation south of here, which is the basis for the dairy produce of Perth, is becoming slowly, because of its contact with the ground and its travel through the soil and its seepage out into streams and into underground areas, that water is slowly becoming in many respects almost as salty as the sea.

Prabhupāda: But first of all, you want water. If the water is reserved on the top of the hill, then it gradually comes down. That is nature's, God's, arrangement: Let river fall down, and you can use that water. That is the nature's arrangement. Just like you keep your water on the tank, and by pipe you get down. But there is nature's arrangement. The water is stocked on the top of the hill, and throughout the whole year the pipe is the river. That water must be there. That is the first problem. Therefore here it is said, parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ. You must have sufficient water. Water is already there. But it has to be purified, kept on the top of the hill, water tank, and it will come down in rivers. Then you take and utilize. And when the water falls down and there is sufficient water, the ground becomes cleansed so it is no more polluted.

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

that scientific knowledge?

Jayādvaita: They can pay us, and we'll tell them what's there. (break)

Prabhupāda: Why they are attempting to go there?

Indian guest: They are saying they are trying to learn the universe creation, see the relationship between earth's soil and geology and the geology of the moon, if there is some relationship. If the evolution process came through in some kind of joint relationship, they can establish some kind of hereditary of evolution process. They are trying to... On the top of that, they came out with a lot of electronic and gadgets to go over there. And to do any kind of adventure like this they have to design all kinds of gadgetry. And those gadgetry, they claim, is useful to human being on the earth over here because that came out...

Prabhupāda: The useful is that they have squandered so much money of the human being.

Brahmānanda: It's a big business.

Prabhupāda: And bluffed. That is usefulness.

Indian guest: They have spent hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars in that process, certainly a lot more money than one can imagine.

Bahulāśva: Even by studying the soil on the earth, Prabhupāda, they cannot make food grow without rain.

Prabhupāda: They cannot do anything. Simply they can bluff. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Everything is being done by the nature. What they can do? These foolish rascals.

Indian guest: Certainly, nature got a whole lot of power.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Walk Around Farm -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:

Prabhupāda: They will not be spoiled.

Nityānanda: Yes, if it stays here too long, it will spoil.

Prabhupāda: And it rains.

Devotee (2): We will take it to the garden.

Prabhupāda: Then it will be soil? It will be fertilizer soil? Or no. When it is decomposed? (break) Drinking water?

Nityānanda: Milk.

Prabhupāda: Milk. (laughter) That is meant for calves? Those milk?

Nityānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is this?

Nityānanda: The barn.

Prabhupāda: No, this part.

Morning Walk -- August 25, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So much land is vacant here.

Brahmānanda: What are these plants here? (break)

Jayapatāka: ...much more available here.

Dhanañjaya: And the soil is such good quality. Everything is growing. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...land belongs to somebody because it is barbed wire.

Brahmānanda: Very nice fencing here.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...this janglee. (?)

Jayapatāka: They make oil from this now.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Castor seed?

Jayapatāka: Kusuma or something like that, I think. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...this is?

Dhanañjaya: This is Akaṇḍhānanda Swami. Akaṇḍhānanda Mahārāja. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...just straight or return back?

Brahmānanda: Where is that path, Harikeśa?

Gurṇārṇava: The path is just ahead.

Morning Walk -- October 5, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Just like here, this is māyā influence. These things should be stopped.

Cyavana: The Chinese come and make propaganda. The Russians come and make propaganda. The Americans come and make propaganda. They become confused what to do.

Prabhupāda: The climate is nice. There is good potential for producing food, keeping cows. Everything nice.

Devotee: It is all volcanic. The soil here is all from volcano, volcanic soil, very rich.

Prabhupāda: Oh? Volcanic or not volcanic, pūrṇam idam (Īśopaniṣad, Invocation). When it is created by Lord, it is complete. You are originally from India? No.

Indian boy (2): No, Mauritius.

Indian boy (1): Our father from India.

Prabhupāda: All of you? Bihar? No.

Indian boy (1): Bihar, yes, Bihar.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...is also known as Magadha. Magadha. That is the... Candragupta and others, they were reigning in Bihar, emperor of India. Jarāsandha also belonged to Bihar. (break) ...a great scientist?

Cyavana: Yes, I studied.

Morning Walk -- November 21, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is first business, that they should join this movement and eat prasādam and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...food, they have begun spinning their own cloth.

Devotee (2): Oh, yes.

Mahāṁsa: Most of the land at the farm is black cotton soil, very favorable for growing cotton. So a piece of that we can take, ten acres or so for growing cotton, and spin our own cloth.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is required. Why purchasing cloth, twenty-two rupees per pair? No? What is the charge nowadays?

Mahāṁsa: It's about three, four rupees per meter.

Girirāja: For two dhotīs you'd need fifteen rupees.

Prabhupāda: Fifty?

Girirāja: Fifteen.

Prabhupāda: Fifteen. Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Then he remains the same animal, cats and dogs. There is no advancement. Therefore you see despite so many rascal philosophers in the Western countries, they simply fight and bomb and cheat and politics, diplomacy. The same—on the surface of the coconut, not inside. So you have to prove that "All of you are rascals. You do not know where to get pleasure." They're missing that point. All rascals, they're putting new philosophy, thesis. So what is the value of that thesis? He does not know. It requires expert. Just like somebody has told: "In this land, there is gold." So somebody's digging here, somebody's digging there, somebody's digging there. And they are, do not find gold, and struggling. But one expert, what is called, soil expert?

Harikeśa: Geologist.

Prabhupāda: Geologist. No, geologist and soil ex..., soil expert.

Harikeśa: Minerologist.

Haṁsadūta: Mineralogist.

Prabhupāda: He can say: "Here is gold. You dig here. Here is the gold mine." Then you get gold mine. And one who is not expert, simply he has understood that "In this area, there is gold mine," and they are simply fighting; everyone has come to take the gold. But without expert knowledge, they're simply fighting. They do not find gold. That is the position. So expert knowledge is Kṛṣṇa. He therefore begins: dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). Within this body, the living force, that is the soul. Because that soul is there, it is changing body, different. Try to understand that active principle. And where is that understanding? They simply putting different theses. They do not, neither do they know antithesis or synthesis. So our.... We know the thesis, antithesis and synthesis, that this soul, living entity, is within this body. Now the body is important so long the soul is there. Otherwise, body is a lump of matter. So the soul is suffering. He's seeking after enjoyment, but he's suffering. So therefore.... The most prominent suffering is death. That he cannot avoid. Or he's not.... The so-called materialistic scientists, they have not been able, neither they do know, who is the sufferer or enjoyer. They take this body. The same fiber platform. So actually they are rascals. What is the value of the thesis, antithesis?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...can get?

Mahāṁsa: Yes, as soon as they can... Either one decision is that "Yes, you can keep the whole 600 acres." And the other decision is "No, you have to... We will confiscate. You can only keep 250." As soon as that decision is made, I will get the document for transferring the trust deeds.

Yaśodānandana: One advantage of the land there, of the soil in Andhra Pradesh, that it's very good for the sugarcane, and that fruit called sitaphala(?) grows very nicely in that area.

Mahāṁsa: It grows wild there. And out of the 600 acres, there's about 200 acres which is very fertile, and the other area is kind of dry. So it is fertile. So we would invest lot of money on cultivating all year round. So if we get 250 acres, then we'll get the good area.

Yadubara: We can choose our own land?

Madhudviṣa: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: So that...

Rādhāvallabha: There will be a second rail on this other side, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We will put that up today.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...now the visitors?

Rādhāvallabha: Just a few. Their sign just got up last night, so no one has seen the sign yet. Mostly devotees are coming to see it so far.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Guru-kṛpā: I talked to one lady. She was daily eating one glass of dirt.

Prabhupāda: Who?

Guru-kṛpā: Soil. One lady was eating soil, one glass, saying it was good for health.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think the goat, the animal, the goat, they eat cans. They can eat metal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. The pigeons, they can eat stone.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you once explained how the cow eats grass, and it produces such a rich vitamin food like milk.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So you asked me the question, "Is there vitamins in the grass?" And obviously there's not such vitamins in grass that it produces milk. So the vitamins are coming from Kṛṣṇa? Yes?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because if you eat grass, considering that there is vitamins—"There is indeed"—then you'll die.

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

Prabhupāda: According to his desire he can.

Rūpānuga: Simply by desiring.

Prabhupāda: What is that verse? Icchā dveṣaḥ samutthena sarge yānti.

Rūpānuga: There have been some..., modern scientists have done some experiments showing that in the soil there are organisms, micro-organisms and earthworms that can produce chemicals, increasing just simply by their presence.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have given that example, already he has mentioned.

Rūpānuga: Pasteur?

Prabhupāda: No, no, this lemon.

Rūpānuga: A lemon tree.

Prabhupāda: A lemon tree is producing chemicals.

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

Prabhupāda: No, if we can see practically different seeds are exacting different color, different flavor, different chemicals. Everything is coming from the earth, sarva-kāma-dughā mahī, everything is coming.

Rūpānuga: So the plant...

Prabhupāda: Simply outside arrangement, how to take it.

Rūpānuga: So in other words the tree or the plant in agriculture takes the chemicals from the soil...

Prabhupāda: The seed, as soon as come in touch with the earth, the seed exacts particular chemical and everything from there. This is the arrangement.

Rūpānuga: So that spirit soul in the seed, he is not creating anything; he is taking.

Prabhupāda: Spirit soul, according to his karma, takes shelter of the situation. But the seed, the chemical composition, exacts the desired.

Rūpānuga: All Kṛṣṇa's arrangement.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Utilizer. Bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Extracts.

Rūpānuga: Extracts from.

Prabhupāda: Extracts.

Rūpānuga: Suppose like now, just like this Vedic injunction against artificial fertilizers in the soil, suppose, as modern farmers are doing, they use this artificial fertilizer and the soil becomes depleted in minerals.

Prabhupāda: That means artificial is the same principle. You are living entity; by artificial fertilizer you are exacting something from the earth, the same principle.

Rūpānuga: Now suppose we take so many chemicals from the earth and they may become a little depleted. Can those chemicals be replaced by the earth itself as the ongoing process of nature?

Prabhupāda: Everything is coming from the earth.

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Rādhāvallabha: Across the river there were reports from many people that a ship from another planet landed and took soil samples and then left. And everyone reported that saw, they were very much afraid.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A thief suspects everyone as being a thief. So everybody's afraid because they know that they would attack everybody else. Therefore they think everyone else is in the same mood. They never think of people from other planets as being friendly. They always consider that they will immediately try to kill everyone and conquer, because that's what they would do. That's their business.

Rādhāvallabha: About thirty or forty years ago a man named Orson Welles did a..., he had a radio show, and just as a joke he started giving a news report that the Martians had landed, and people were panicking. They were trying to leave the city in cars in huge numbers.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Bali-mardana: Thousands of people started to leave the city in fear. I think it was on April Fools? It was just a joke.

Hari-śauri: We can go down to the right, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...difference between a śūdra and brāhmaṇa. A śūdra can be misled at any moment. That is stated in... Strī śūdra. Woman and śūdra on the same class. You can mislead them by high talkings: "Oh, I am coming from Indian prince." They come here, marry some European, and go to India and then engage him (her) for collecting water in bucket. One Muhammadan crewman, a vagabond, he bluffed one girl that "I am coming from Muhammadan prince family." Then she married, and she went to Allahabad, and she was given borakhā and she was living in a hut, and then she was bringing water from the street. She wrote a letter to the Viceroy that "This is my position." Then police came and rescued her and sent her.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Jayatīrtha: What is the latest news from the Mars planet, do you know?

Bhagavān: Mars planet. No. They are taking samples of the soil.

Prabhupāda: That's all. Same story.

Bhagavān: In the moon, when they finished, after they concluded there was no life, they dropped a bomb.

Jayatīrtha: Dropped a bomb?

Bhagavān: Yes, they made an explosion, just to see what would happen.

Prabhupāda: You can drop many bombs in the Sahara desert. Who cares? Who cares for that? (laughter)

Jayatīrtha: Prabhupāda said they were actually in Arizona. This Mars capsule has landed in Arizona.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why bomb? "Grapes are sour."

Bhagavān: To measure something.

Prabhupāda: Whatever they measure, they are useless. What they'll gain by dropping a bomb?

Jayatīrtha: Just another foolishness.

Prabhupāda: But nobody is questioning that "Why you are wasting money in this way? You have already failure, the moon planet."

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Parivrājakācārya: Roads in it as well.

Pradyumna: Yes, something with roads in it or something.

Hari-śauri: The way they test for life is they take some soil and mix certain things with it, and then they wait and see if there is some life development from that.

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense.

Hari-śauri: Yes. They mix ammonia and...

Prabhupāda: Chemical theory. Why do they not in the end mix something and see if life is coming? They are all rascals, speaking one after another, rascals.

Hari-śauri: That's their whole thing, that if...

Prabhupāda: If by mixing something they can bring life, why not in the egg?

Hari-śauri: Yes, they can't even do it here.

Prabhupāda: Simply for... But you rascals you cannot understand how they are speaking rascaldom.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Cow dung can be collected. At least they can be used as cow dung. Here, you should.

Devotee (6): In the small villages the women and children they make the paddy for burning in cooking.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mahāṁśa: This whole rocky area which we see here used to be like a natural dam, and the land on that side which is now our field used to be a big tank so the soil there is very good. It's like silt. But then, afterwards, somebody had cut through this natural dam and there's a canal that flows through here and goes into that tank over there.

Prabhupāda: The canal is in our land?

Mahāṁśa: Yes, it passes through our land. Plenty of water, and it goes and flows into that land, into that tank.

Prabhupāda: So but you cannot use that?

Mahāṁśa: That tank is not practical to use, to pump so far. But we can dam this again and make a reservoir and let the excess flow. But they won't let us stop all the water because it will ruin their fields but we can stop a part of the water for our field. We can get a good source reservoir of water over here.

Hari-śauri: Tejas is getting breakfast ready, I think.

Jagadīśa: Yeah, he has to cook.

Devotee: You can see the canal from here. You can see (indistinct).

Hari-śauri: Just down there at the base of that rock.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: It is coming? You can go?

Mahāṁśa: I think the ground becomes muddy.

Jagadīśa: Go and check, Jagadānanda.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Mahāṁśa: It's not very good soil but there is... Right around this rocky area there is this... Research people from the central government, they have brought out a grass called Dinanath, lord of the poor, and they say that you can put this grass in the monsoon time, put the seeds in, just plow it and put the seeds and it's a very sturdy grass. It will grow for the whole year. And the cows can graze there.

Prabhupāda: So do that.

Mahāṁśa: So this whole area could be with that grass and the cows can graze.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) Many temples for kīrtana and around the temple let them live. Yes. All viṣṇumūrti, yes.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Devotee: Not only the small boys. Some of the bigger boys, they also like.

Prabhupāda: No, it is very nice. They'll live.

Mahāṁśa: They surveyed this whole hundred acres around here, and they said anywhere in this hundred acres, you'll get water. You can dig and you'll get water. This hundred acres has good underground water supply.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Mahāṁśa: And the land is very good, this soil here, this black soil, very good for cotton. It is called black cotton soil.

Prabhupāda: So you grow. Cotton requires water?

Mahāṁśa: It requires water. We have to have at least...

Prabhupāda: Paddy and...

Devotee (4): Not as much as paddy.

Mahāṁśa: Not as much as paddy. And sugar cane can grow very well on this also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Immediately grow sugar cane.

Room Conversation on Farm Management -- December 10, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁśa: No one ever swim in here. We took out water to water the fields.

Prabhupāda: So why it is empty? Have it filled up.

Mahāṁśa: How to fill? It has to come by itself. The water comes from the recuperation from the soil, so it is not in our hands to fill it. It just comes by itself slowly. It takes six days. If we empty the well it takes takes 6 days to fill it.

Prabhupāda: No, no. By the... By digging a well or something you cannot...

Mahāṁśa: If we do a boring, then that's, the well can be filled. We have a pump and we can fill it. But now as it is, it's fifty feet deep.

Prabhupāda: Why not make boring?

Mahāṁśa: That is my plan, that is what I was telling...

Prabhupāda: Why plan, why do it now?

Mahāṁśa: Yes. now...

Prabhupāda: Keep it always filled up.

Harikeśa: He's saying he has the money.

Mahāṁśa: Yes, I was thinking before you go, we should get the rigs coming here and putting on the whole...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Press Conference -- December 16, 1976, Hyderabad:

Guest (9): There is something which is difficult to make them understand.

Prabhupāda: Therefore better they do not take it.

Guest (9): It's easy to go in the virgin soil.

Prabhupāda: That means they do not understand what is the meaning of śāstra. They want to interpret śāstra in their own way. That is the difficulty. Big, big person...

Guest (9): Real testing would be only in India in that case.

Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa does not speak for Indians. He is for everyone.

Guest (9): The sections of your movement accept in that sense.

Prabhupāda: No, they have given up. They have purposefully given up, that "This religion and śāstra has killed our nation. Better give it up. Throw it in the water." This is the leaders' plea. Therefore they are changing. They have altogether rejected this.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 12, 1977, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: Even a lot of men are used for making the garden. In the beginning, converting the land to garden land for flowers requires a lot of labor. Because flowers require very...

Prabhupāda: Fertile.

Jayapatākā: ...fertile and particularly fine soil that has to be dug and chopped and cleaned out.

Prabhupāda: Ordinary soil flower does not grow?

Jayapatākā: No, it... Not so well. In our city project we are thinking that those laborers who would be devotees, mostly the labor class, they won't like to live separate from their families. So we were thinking that they could be paid something, and then they would give half of that, as you suggested, back. In this way they would be devotees, And they would eat prasāda with everyone and attend all the programs, but they'd buy their own cloth and things with the other half. But they would have to have separate quarters somewhere.

Prabhupāda: Where? Within our campus or outside?

Jayapatākā: That would be a separate area. Of course, in that vast city project there was enough room for different quarters where one place brahmacārīs could stay, other place, families. Just like now it's actually getting overcrowded for the handlooms. We should have a separate, one big handloom place. That would be more efficient.

Prabhupāda: Where you have?

Jayapatākā: Where... Just the place would have to be... Their place is a bit irregular. Seeing the ultimate plan, we have to find out one place. It would be in this area somewhere. Now they're keeping records of how much is spent on agriculture, and how much is received. So what is the profit or loss, that can be ascertained. And actually that's not such a threat because I know that many of the things he is doing by contract. If at some time we need outside laborer for, say, harvest time, we need to harvest—so we pay them ten rupees or twenty rupees to harvest one bighā. So there is no question of labor. That is the contract.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is full of oil.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. Very palatable for the fish-eaters. Bengalis, they are too much fond of fish-eating. They don't even... Sometimes people say, "Fish-eating is nonvegetarian."

Prabhupāda: Non... Yes, "Fish is a vegetable, water vegetable."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, that's what they say, "water vegetable." I noticed that these banana trees, they don't seem to have any bananas on them. Growing in your garden?

Prabhupāda: Hm, why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: My guess is that in order for bananas to grow... Like I have not seen normally banana trees growing in this side, you know what I mean, Vṛndāvana. I suspect it has something to do with the soil. You can't just take a tree and plant it wherever you want. Soil has to be such that it can give the proper nutrition for bananas to grow. It looks good, but it's not banana.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: You mean like a community, spiritual community like Kīrtanānanda?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, that would be very good there because it's also a very ideal climate. Everything grows there very easily because there's plenty of rain, fertile soil, and there's only one city—that's Colombo. And it's a very small city. People are all agriculturalists. The government is also giving land free to encourage agriculture. Simply that it has to be cleared. It's jungle land; it has to be cleared. Shall we try for something like that?

Prabhupāda: What you can do it easily...

Haṁsadūta: Do.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This Dr. Kovoor affair has given you some position.

Haṁsadūta: Yes.

Prabhupāda: As an atheist... He's an atheist.

Correspondence

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Govinda -- Los Angeles 7 April, 1970:

Please take care of the Tulasi plants in the following way. This is the best season for growing Tulasi plants. From 15th April to 15th June is the best season for growing this plant. Now I understand that the seedlings are coming out, so the whole spot if possible may be covered by some net because the seedling stage creepers being very delicate are sometimes eaten up by the sparrows, so we have to give a little protection from attack of the sparrows. All the devotees should pour water at least once in the morning before taking prasadam. The watering should not be very much large in quantity, but it should be poured just to keep the ground soft and moist. Sunlight also should be allowed. When the creepers are grown at least 7 inches high, then you can take them out from the planting soil and transplant them in a row in a different place. Then go on watering and they will grow like anything. I think this plant cannot grow in cold countries, but if the plants are dispatched from your place and if the devotees take care of the plant with a little care in a flower pot, then it may grow.

Letter to Radharamana Sharanji -- Los Angeles 25 June, 1970:

I wish that if our Vrndavana center is opened you may take charge of this center and thus help advancing this Krsna Consciousness Movement all over the world. There is a great necessity for this movement from all angles of vision. I am experiencing practically that through this movement the entire human society will be happy. And as you write to say that, "the Lord has very, very kindly given me human form in the sacred soil of India—simply to serve the humanity and through that Him alone," so this is the opportunity offered to you by the Lord—take advantage of it and set exemplary activities so that our countrymen may know what is the duty of a bona fide Indian.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Edith -- Bombay, INDIA January 28th, 1971:

We are presently in the age; called Kali yuga, or the age of quarrel and dissention where man is very shortlived and not so very intelligent. But the most regrettable characteristic of this age, is that man has forgotten God. He is claiming God is dead or I am god, etc. Just try to understand how much degraded this age is. One of the anomalies, of this Kali yuga is that our foodstuffs have been grown with so many chemicals, etc. Actually nothing in this Kali yuga is pure. The soil is polluted, the air, so many things as well as man's motives, but by firmly establishing our Krishna Consciousness Movement all over the world, such unfavorable conditions can be terminated.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Giriraja -- Los Angeles 21 June, 1972:

I shall be very glad to see her and bring her in our temple there. Or she can write to me when she is there c/o 7 Bury Place. That is a good proposal to receive her at London Airport. Somehow or other, either she pays for the temple herself or she raises the funds from others, she must be persuaded in this great project, which will bring great benefit to her countryman and which will attract many, many foreign devotees of Krishna to the Indian soil for taking up this spiritual life very seriously. It is a unique temple in the world, and if you show your wonderful abilities as American and European boys and girls to manage everything superbly, she will not hesitate to entrust you in every way. Therefore, there must always be good will and cooperation amongst yourselves for this huge task ahead. I always think of our Juhu place, and I want that it shall be the model for all the world to emulate and respect as the perfect example of a Krishna Conscious community. The temple will cost about 2 lakhs, more or less, so Sumati Morarji can pay easily.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Jayapataka -- Los Angeles 16 April, 1973:

With regard to the Mayapur house I may suggest that you make one roof garden. On the top of the house you can put soil of six inches and then plant so many tulsi plants and nice bushes. I like garden very much. Just like here in Los Angeles Temple they have made one very nice garden for me and I sit there every evening. So you please also make a first class Mayapur garden.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Jayapataka , Bhavananda -- Bombay 3 April, 1974:

As for working with the architects, if you think the soil test is necessary you can consult together, you two and Gargamuni Maharaja and Brahmananda Maharaja and decide yourselves. Tamala Krsna goswami has no extraordinary experience, so you can do it yourselves. Tamala Krsna is sick now, recovering from a hernia operation, and after he has recovered he is going to America.

Letter to Dhananjaya -- Bombay 15 November, 1974:

I am in due receipt of your letter dated November 9, 1974 and have noted the contents. Regarding the land purchase, these soil tests are unnecessary. All the land in that area needs fertilizers, that we know. Anyway, you can give up this. If there is doubt, then there is no need for purchasing this land.

I am glad to note that the Home Minister is looking into the visa problem for our men. The idea is that we are spending so much for constructing these projects but no local Indians are coming forward to join us. So who will manage these projects? We require the foreigners to manage. In Vrindaban we will keep at least 50 foreigners.

Page Title:Soil
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Mayapur
Created:16 of Feb, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=2, SB=5, CC=0, OB=2, Lec=18, Con=36, Let=7
No. of Quotes:70