Surface (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"surface"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Reporter: What would be, when you say impossible for one to land or to reach the moon's surface.

Prabhupāda: Just like why you speak of moon? Suppose in the ocean, in the ocean you can land by some artificial means for some time, but it is not suitable for human being to live on the ocean. Apart from moon planet, you take the ocean, water, ocean.

Hayagrīva: You can't live in the ocean. It's a different atmosphere. You cannot live on the moon because the climate is so different. You can't survive on the moon.

Prabhupāda: Everything is different. You require different type of body to live there, to go there. Just like if you want to live within the water, this body will not be suitable. But the fish, it has got a type of body, they live very peacefully. Similarly, the residents of moon planet, they are meant for living there. You cannot go and live there, abruptly. That is not possible.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Reporter: What would be, when you say impossible for one to land or to reach the moon's surface.

Prabhupāda: Just like why you speak of moon? Suppose in the ocean, in the ocean you can land by some artificial means for some time, but it is not suitable for human being to live on the ocean. Apart from moon planet, you take the ocean, water, ocean.

Hayagrīva: You can't live in the ocean. It's a different atmosphere. You cannot live on the moon because the climate is so different. You can't survive on the moon.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: No. I am not very much optimistic. Almost I say it is impossible.

Reporter: But if the impossible happened and they were able to safely land on the moon's surface do you feel they would have any difficulty or encounter any trouble with the beings that you say live there?

Prabhupāda: The trouble is already there. You are going with great difficulty and if you land there you may die immediately. Everything is finished. You are already encountering the difficulty. It is not very easy. The Russian scientists, the American scientists, they're trying for the last ten years. Still, they have not approached the moon planet. So difficulty is already there.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Reporter: Why wouldn't he like to come back?

Prabhupāda: Why you are trying to go there? First of all, let me know.

Reporter: For science, for getting some samples of the moon's surface for one thing.

Prabhupāda: Do you mean to say simply by knowing the moon planet your scientific research is complete? There are so many millions of other planets of different nature. Is it possible to study all these?

Reporter: No.

Prabhupāda: Then? Why you are taking so much trouble to study the moon planet? What is your idea?

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 15, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Town to town. What do you think this idea Huh? Continue engagement. And as many men may join us, we can accommodate them. Every country. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ (SB 11.5.32). I got this idea, one king, (indistinct), the grandson of Prthuraya, this Mahārāja Prithu, he performed so many yajñas that on the surface of the earth, there were only kuśa grass scattered. Yajña, they require kuśa grass. Kuśa grass. So all over the world it was simply scattered, after yajñas, I have given my comment in this. Similarly, we shall perform this saṅkīrtana yajña all over the world, town to town, town to town. Now we have got GBC all over the world. Let them organize. What they'll do? Organize yajña after yajña, yajña after yajña. So that as at the present moment even if we go somewhere, are known to: "Hare Kṛṣṇa!"

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: The oceans cover how much of the earth?

Martin: Three-fifths.

Devotee: Three-fifths of the earth's surface is ocean water. So that much is required to water two-fifths land?

Prabhupāda: No. The ocean is gradually... Water is required. Water is required. In our India, if somebody spends extravagantly, so it is compared with water: "Oh, you are spending like water." (end)

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is why they were very careful. When the astronauts from the moon, when they come back on the surface of the planet, they thought there might be some germs which they do not know yet. So they put it in quarantine for several days, to make sure that they are...

Prabhupāda: First of all make sure whether he had gone there, and then talk of all these things. (laughing) I am not sure they are going there.

Kṛṣṇa-Kāntī: You know they made another blunder.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. What is that?

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have very big plan in the future, going to the surface of the Mars planet.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is future. That is all your statement, future. With future hope you become a big man. That is their foolishness.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Future, about ten years.

Prabhupāda: Whatever... It may be one year, but we do not accept such proposition. We want to see what you have done now.

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

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, yes.

Śyāmasundara: ...as Prabhupāda was saying about the four rules and so many other activities. We may perform something on the surface, but the renunciation is there in our consciousness because we're giving everything to Kṛṣṇa as a service.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes. What about America? (Sound of glasses of water being poured)

Śyāmasundara: Oh yes.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: That's good. (?)

Devotee: Some water, Dr. Toynbee?

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: No, thank you. And what about Japan? She's an Asian country, but has been very successful in the western way now.

Śyāmasundara: Well, we have two centers there also. Japan also, we have centers.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: I get the impression the Japanese are not very happy. They're very...

Prabhupāda: Nobody can be happy with this materialistic way of life. That is a fact.

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

Prabhupāda: Originally.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: There's that famous... (break)

Prabhupāda: Pakistan is also now divided.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Also Indonesia, and they're... On the surface they're Muslims but underneath they're Hindu, there's been...

Prabhupāda: I have been in Indonesia.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: You've also... Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Their culture is Hindu culture. But by religion they have accepted Muslim. They still, their names are Hindu names.

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

Prabhupāda: It is most scientific program.

Bhagavān: We have also economic position.

Prabhupāda: Everything, I have explained. Now our socialist idea is: God is the father of all living beings. And whatever there is on the surface of the globe, on the sea, on the sky, everything belongs to God. And all the sons of God has equal right to enjoy it. But nobody... (aside:) He is finished? But nobody is allowed to take more than he requires. If one takes more than he requires, he's to be punished. This is our socialist idea. As we think all living entities sons of God, therefore even a lizard in my room should not starve.

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: And lots of land is lying in our Letchmore Heath. They won't work for producing food. That land is kept for keeping cows for killing them. And for their food, they are working underneath the ground, and whatever money they get, they import grains. Just see the māyā's influence, that: "We are working, getting money, and importing grains." Why not work and grow grains? Now he's thinking that: "I'll get more money underground, than by cultivating on the surface." This is māyā. He's working very hard. Still, he's thinking it is better happiness. "I haven't to work on the surface. I am working underground. Therefore I am happy." This is māyā. He'll prefer that kind of work. But he won't agree to grow food on the surface of the country.

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But they are going to make houses on the moon now. On the surface of the moon they'll make houses in a few years.

Prabhupāda: What is the benefit?

Karandhara: There's plenty of space on the earth. Why do they have to go to the moon?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Because it was not done before, so they want to show it to the people. They want to show the power of science.

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Rūpānuga: Third Canto. How the sunlight, you can tell time, that the atom is a subtle form of time, that you can tell time as light passes over the surface of an atom. And the experiment is that you look for atoms in a screen. When the sun comes through the screen, you can see in the sunlight hexatoms or six atoms with your naked eye. That experiment is given in Bhāgavatam. It is very wonderful. Vedic science. We should present that as the real actual science, real atomic science.

Prabhupāda: No, in Bhāgavatam there is regular calculation, what is the distance from one planet to another. Everything is there.

Morning Walk -- December 30, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. But all the planets are surrounding the sun. That everyone knows. So if there is a planet this down the sun, why not up the sun? It is common sense. This water is impersonal, but go down the water. You will find millions of persons, aquatics. Those who are seeing superficially on the surface, they have concluded, "Now finished, all personality finished. It is all vacant." That is poor fund of knowledge. Real knowledge is go deep into the water, you will find millions of creatures. They are living very nicely within the water. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayān... Even within the atom, you will find personality.

Devotee: Is that personality within the atom Paramātmā?

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kṛṣṇa. Govinda.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: So they are going there?

Sudāmā: Yeah, they're making plans to go there.

Nitāi: It's quite a bit further than the moon. They watch through their telescopes and every year they see that the surface of the planet changes, that there's certain dark areas which grow and then they recede.

Prabhupāda: Every day, every year changes? Why?

Nitāi: Well, it appears to be like seasons. First they grow big, and then they grow small, then they grow big.

Prabhupāda: Moon planet?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes. They have several plans to procure food from under the water, under the ocean. So they have all of these different schemes already started. Because the shortage of food on the surface of the earth... They say it's going to be very imminent in the coming future. So they have already started plans to make some food...

Prabhupāda: Another nonsense. (laughter) They are not producing food, they are producing motor tires, and still they will say "shortage." Just see. Now, in this city of Atlanta or any big, big city, who is producing food? Everyone is eating; nobody is producing.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Why not atmosphere? The moon planet, there is a planet. There is space. There is surface. There is dust. So why not atmosphere the same? It is made of the same ingredients, earth, water, fire. Why do you say that is not same atmosphere?

Devotee (3): They are saying that it's too cold or too hot.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. That is here also. There are many cold places. Do they think that in the cold places there is no life? All nonsense. And only nonsense will believe them. I never believed it. Why? Here we see under this sand there is life. The crabs, what is called? They live within, so many hundreds of thousands. We have seen on the sand.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Harikeśa: I've heard the argument that when they are going to the moon, they are always in contact, bouncing off these sonar waves and radar waves off the moon's surface, and when they are coming near, they can even see from their little portholes the moon's surface, the same moon that they see on the earth.

Prabhupāda: They say all nonsense. That's all. (chuckles) Why the earth is not brilliant at night like the moon?

Bali-mardana: It depends on where you are. It depends on where you are looking from.

Prabhupāda: "Where you are" means?

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: There will be petrol. You take it.

Ambarīṣa: How would they get it back here?

Prabhupāda: As they are coming. They are going and coming. So let them go, and if the surface is desert, then find out oil within.

Paramahaṁsa: But their answer would be: "Well, even if we found oil, it would be impossible to bring it to the earth."

Indian man: They can make up tanks.

Prabhupāda: No, you can make devices, fill it up, and throw it. (laughter) (break) ...mad, you should give them mad suggestion.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Hm, must be.

Brahmānanda: You cannot sink in it, I think.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, it's not possible to drown. If you go into the water there, immediately you come up to the surface.

Sudāmā: So much salt.

Prabhupāda: Oh. (break) ...the ocean of milk, ocean of milk. Ocean of liquor, ocean of oil, ocean of yogurt. (break)

Nalinī-kaṇṭha: ...in the ocean of nectar. The devotees are living in the ocean also. Nectar.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: Give him front seat. Give him a pad.

Jayatīrtha: The professors can come up here in the front. (break)

Ṛṣabhadeva: ...and Mr. Surface, professors, of theology and economics respectively.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. I was talking with this boy about freedom. And so I say that there is no freedom for us. We are always dependent. So what is your opinion about it?

Mr. Surface: I agree with that.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. Take Bhagavad-gītā. Find out this verse. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarva... Who can read very distinctly? You will do or he will do? Give to him.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: So this is false ego, to think of oneself as free. You are professor of economics?

Mr. Surface: Yes.

Prabhupāda: I think I may remember. There is economist professor, Marshall? Marshall's economics?

Mr. Surface: Yes.

Prabhupāda: You know him? You must be knowing. I think he gives definition of economic impetus-family affection. I was also a student of economics in my student life, Scottish Churches' College. So we had to read this Marshall economics, I think. That definition, that what is the economic impetus, why people want to earn money? So the reason, he gives-due to some family affection. Am I right?

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Mr. Surface: I didn't understand the last part.

Prabhupāda: Family affection.

Brahmānanda: Family affection is the impetus for economic...

Prabhupāda: Development.

Mr. Surface: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So he is dependent on the family affection. Then economic impetus go on. And I think he has given another proposition that if man can easily live, then he will not work. That is the nature of man. Therefore a rich man's son, he does not work. Because he has father's money, he can spend. In America the boys are rich man's son, and therefore so many boys are not working. They have got easy income, and they are not working. And because there is no proper work, they are becoming hippies. They are manufacturing independence.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Mr. Surface: I'm just enjoying listening.

Prabhupāda: No, you must give your opinion. (laughter) You are learned scholars. Our philosophy is that we cannot possess, cannot renounce. So what do you think about it?

Mr. Surface: I'm not quite sure what that means precisely.

Prabhupāda: Just like this table belongs to somebody else. How can I possess it? And if the table belongs to somebody else, how can I renounce it? Renouncing means if I possess something. But if you have nothing to possess, where is the question of renouncing? And if the things belongs to somebody else, how can I possess it? This is my proposal. You cannot possess other things. And then you will be thief. If I possess other's possession, then I am thief. And if I renounce, then I am false renouncer, but I did not possess anything.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: So this is our mission. We are propagating this. Do you think it is all right?

Mr. Surface: Do I think it's all right? Well, it's a point of view.

Prabhupāda: No, what we are doing... We are teaching people that "Don't bother about your economic condition of life. It will come automatically, what you are destined to obtain. You better utilize your energy how to get out of this condition of life, birth, death, old age and disease."

Mr. Surface: Isn't there room for both?

Prabhupāda: This is our philosophy. We are preaching that.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: This is our philosophy. We are preaching that.

Mr. Surface: There would not be room for both?

Prabhupāda: Both means?

Mr. Surface: For the two.

Jayatīrtha: Both economic development and spiritual advancement.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can... Actually there is no need of economic development. But if you think it is required, you can do that. But don't forget your real business. That is our proposal. We don't condemn, but economic development... Just like in America. When I did not come here... Of course, I know that everywhere everything is there. But I thought that "America is very rich, there is no poverty. There is no crime because they are rich." But when I came here I saw everything is the..., as in India so in America. There is crime; there is poverty; everything is there. At least, they are voluntarily accepting poverty, just like hippies. Most of them are coming from rich family, rich father.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Mr. Surface: Maybe he's had too much.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, but that we see in India. On account of poverty, many men are lying on the footpath. And here also, in Europe, America, we see. Although he is coming from rich family, government is rich, government is endeavoring to take them back to nice place, they will not go. So these three classes of men-rich, middle class and poor—everywhere, either it is rich country or poor country. Then we have to accept: by nature it is so arranged that these three classes of men will exist. Then the question is "Where is the benefit of economic development?" If these three classes of men will exist anywhere, so where is the use of economic development? Even one is placed in developed economic condition, rich family, rich, he is accepting poverty voluntarily. And there is a big park in Amsterdam, that... You have been there?

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Mr. Surface: Were some of the animals destined to survive through the destruction of other animals?

Prabhupāda: Yes. You are also destroying so many cows daily, although you are human being. Do you consider that "Why this cow should be slaughtered?" They are also living beings. So what about the animals? If man can slaughter so many animals daily, then if a tiger kills another one animal, what is the wrong there? That is the distinction between man and animal. Everyone has to eat somebody, and nature's law is one living being is eating another living being. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. So the snake is eating the frog, the frog is eating another small animal or some flies, and the snake is eaten by the mongoose, and the mongoose eaten by somebody else, by cat or by dog. So this is the law of nature. Therefore the human being is suggested that "You should take Kṛṣṇa prasādam.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: Now men are killing their own children. Is it not? Even cats and dogs do not do this. Although they give birth at a time half a dozen children, still they are not anxious to kill them. (pause) So I am coming in one minute. Please sit down. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) Why you are there?

Mr. Surface: I must leave. Thank you.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Give him some prasāda.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Indian man (2): 1959 or '60 the price was ninety-six rupees.

Dr. Patel: Then suddenly it rose. Now, because Americans are buying gold, the gold standard has been left out. They have taken, cornered the gold of the whole world. But I have heard that the Russians have got some gold mountains on the surface. They can take out gold very easily from there. Here you have to dig up deep down.

Prabhupāda: No, in South Africa there is gold. In the city there are so many gold mines in South Africa.

Morning Walk -- November 20, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Yes. South Africa is today supplying more than half of the world gold. Our mines are getting exhausted in Kolar(?) and all this, Mysore State. America, they have not been able to search out gold anywhere. Perhaps in South America they may be having some gold mines, but they have not made any survey. But the Russians, they say there are very huge mountains, gold on the surface.

Yaśomatīnandana: Sumeru is made of gold, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Yaśomatīnandana: Where is that located? (laughter)

Dr. Patel: In your mind.

Prabhupāda: No. Where is the sun located now?

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No... Knowledge means to find out the source. That is knowledge. Where from it comes. There is a good example we studied in our childhood. A child was very intelligent so he was beating on a drum, so he was very much inquisitive, "Where from the sound is coming?" Then he cut the surface... (laughing) That is intelligence. Inquisitive... where from the sound is coming? Although it was childish but that is innate intelligence.

Hari-śauri: Scientists are trying to do that. They are taking...

Prabhupāda: And that is alright. In future! (laughter)

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?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bhavānanda: Why are we not blown off the surface of this planet? Now it's moving so fast. How are we able to remain here and not be blown off?

Prabhupāda: I do not follow.

Bhavānanda: The planet is moving...

Harikeśa: He's saying, "We're moving, so therefore the wind should blow everybody off, the speed."

Hṛdayānanda: Why is everything so peaceful if we're moving so fast?

Prabhupāda: Which is moving so fast?

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Siddha-svarūpa: And the school who is more for self-sufficiency in agriculture, they also have brought out the.... In the last eight years or so they've brought to the surface more spiritual ideas.

Prabhupāda: Hm. So there is a section who'll support.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Who can support our movement.

Siddha-svarūpa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So we have to capture them.

Morning Walk -- March 15, 1976, Mayapura:

Siddha-svarūpa: If their main leader, Mao Tse Tung.... He's more of that school, but there are.... They call them revisionists. They say they're like the Russians, and that they're just.... They're always attacking them for wanting to copy the West. It's their same attack. They attack the Russians for becoming capitalists. They're puritan. They're trying to have pure communism. They have very great ideals, and the other school wants.... They think that they want to get in on the action of the trade and industrialization. But they are actually about equal in power. It's interesting. Right now, actually, it's very hard to get into China because there's a new feud that has come to the surface. There's top leaders that have been taken through the streets, denounced as being materialists, and they've taken their clothes from their wives' closets with mink coats and fancy clothes...

Prabhupāda: No, first of all.... We shall first of all try to sell our books without any discussion. "As trade..., as trade representative, we have come. See our book." Go to the professors, go to the.... "We have got this support," like that.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Of course, we do not go into the details of this. My question is that why Sunday first and Monday second? Nobody can apli..., replies.

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda once also argued that the dust, the dirt that they brought back, it did not reflect any light, but the moon is always reflecting light. So it was a different substance than what must be on the moon surface.

Prabhupāda: Now, according to our Vedic scripture, Moon is one of the heavenly planets.

Reporter: Are there any other Vedic scriptures that you believe speak to a situation that is greatly misunderstood today besides this?

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Jayādvaita: They say that because the smaller portion of the earth..., the earth is spherical, and by the top it's smaller, so when that top side is pointed toward the sun, the sun is, as the earth turns, the sun is hitting each place sooner in each day. So it's going, traveling less distance on that surface. Then when it turns the other way, it has to go more distance. Some..., they have some concocted idea. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: (laughing) All concoction. That is not explanation. This is nice explanation, that in this season the sun goes faster and in this season the sun goes slower. That is quite understandable. Just like you are walking. Sometimes you walk slow, sometimes you walk fast. That is possible. (pause) So you can convert the down room, one of the down room as reception, like this. This should be Deity room.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Hari-śauri: They were speculating about.... They sent this spaceship to Mars, and they were speculating that maybe now the so-called smog that covers the surface of the planet, it could be fog. It could be made of ice and water particles. So now they..., so they were speculating like that. And then they said they were going to land the spaceship in a valley at a certain point that is four miles deep and that may..., it may have been filled with water fifty thousand years ago, and it could have fossils in it from the type of life that existed there, if it existed.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Fifty thousand years ago. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Scientist rascal. How ludicrous. Simply "maybe," "if it was" and "it will be." That's all. Simply "maybe."

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Churning was done in the water. Milk. Milk ocean.

Rādhāvallabha: But they are not standing on the bottom. They are standing actually on the surface.

Prabhupāda: Well, yes, half water.

Rādhāvallabha: Then a thousand-armed Viṣṇu on top of Mandara Hill? They want to know if they should show Him on top of the mountain like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's all...

Rādhāvallabha: When we did Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva, there were some arms that you wanted transparent. You just wanted the four main arms looking regular. So all the other arms should be transparent except for four?

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Why the glow of the surface of the earth does not illuminate? It does not come between illumination?

Hari-śauri: Just like when the sun is here everything is bright.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, when the sun is there.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The moon is actually illuminating.

Prabhupāda: Why it does not illuminate?

Hari-śauri: They only say it reflects the sunlight.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: When they originally started sending sputniks to the moon, they couldn't even land them properly. They would crash, they said that they were crash-landing spaceships into the moon's surface.

Prabhupāda: Crashed?

Hari-śauri: Crash-landing. The spaceship was supposed to just smash into the surface of the moon, like that.

Prabhupāda: They have never gone. Simply propaganda. Even they have gone, what is the result? Simply with big report that it is inhabitable. (Prabhupāda is eating something:) What is this fiber? Finding? What are other things are there in the... Hmm? What is this? (Hari-śauri laughs) Hmm? Do they add anything more? Something reddish there?

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1976, Washington D.C.:

Prabhupāda: One, the origin of life, and the other, planetary system. There is no knowledge. They are simply speculating.

Rākṣana: It is correct that the illumination of the moon is caused by the movement of the vegetation on the surface?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rākṣana: So it should be fairly easy for scientists to prove, Svarūpa Dāmodara and such, that.... I know they can't prove there is illumination caused by the deserts.

Prabhupāda: That is the point. Therefore it is doubtful whether they have gone there.

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

Prabhupāda: Why do they speak about seeing? What is the value of your seeing? I have seen the Atlantic Ocean, that means I have seen everything? This is ludicrous.

Rūpānuga: They may simply speculate from a distance, that "Here is the surface," like here...

Prabhupāda: That's all. Real business is speculation.

Rūpānuga: Here it says, here, this is some great, here...

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is "I am not stealing."

Rūpānuga: Twelve hundred miles above the surface. Now they want to speculate what is there.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very nice point. Then there's a part about the Kṛṣṇa cut. Says here, "Badge. The badge of the monks is the single lock that hangs from a rear of shaven head. As a precisely trimmed śikhā is a matter of pride, monks often cooperate in shaving one another. Hair is buzzed off by clipper (left side), leaving a bristly surface (center)"—shows the bristly surface.

Prabhupāda: He has taken photograph of it?

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: After they claimed they have landed on the moon they announced that they wanted to build a gigantic dome on the moon's surface and within the dome they would have these pumps pumping air and in that way earth people could go to the moon and live there.

Prabhupāda: So what happened to their project? Stopped now?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're going to do it on Mars instead.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're going to do it on Mars instead. (break)

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They're going to do it on Mars instead. (break)

Rāmeśvara: ...do it on the moon because they want to have people go there to drill into the surface of the moon to see if there are any valuable minerals or jewels underneath the surface. (pause) (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is a modern sculpture.

Passerby: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Passerby: Jaya! (laughter)

Prabhupāda: He says jaya also.

Arrival at Farm -- July 29, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. It was the prediction of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu that in every village, in every town on the surface of the globe, there will be preaching of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's name and the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. It is to be translated? (translator translates into French) So by your transcendental endeavor it is being fulfilled, otherwise who expected that in this remote village of France, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra would be chanted? When Caitanya Mahāprabhu said in every village, in every town, he did not mean that every village and every town in India. He specifically says pṛthivīte, means on the surface of the globe. So the purpose is that without spreading of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, nobody can become happy. That's a fact.

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

Prabhupāda: Unnatural, yes. What for smoking? What for drinking? How nicely they sit down on the ground and take prasādam. Why there is need of table, chair and these dishes and fork and knife and so on, so on? Why?

Harikeśa: It's hard to cut the meat. You need a good surface. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Our Bon Mahārāja, once I was eating in his festival and... He's a bara-sahib. So he has given fork and knife. (laughs) So I did not know, I do not remember even which way I took fork. So Bon Mahārāja began to criticize "You are going to foreign country you do not know which hand to take this fork and knife." So I told him, "I am not going to learn all these things. I am going to teach them something else, to forget it. (laughter) You went to learn all these things. But I am not going to learn anything."

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission,

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma

sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

(CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)

He has to preach in every village and every town on the surface of the globe about this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So our business is... Just this example I have given, that there is fire. I do not know the language. Still, I have to call and take help. So I am doing like that. There is a story. In Calcutta when the Britishers were establishing themselves, so one clerk was working in the office and some monkey came and scattered the office files and everything.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So you cannot avoid. Similarly, the disturbances of nature: the severe cold, scorching heat, how you can counteract it? Is it possible? Not possible. Adhyātmic, you may keep your body quite fit to your best knowledge, bit still there will be some trouble, sometimes coughing, sometimes mental equilibrium is lost, you don't feel nice. So these things will go on. Because we have got this material body, the material conditions must work. You cannot make any adjustments. That's not possible. (If) you have come to the spiritual platform independent of this material body, then there will be everything solved. On every surface (?). They can waste their time for making an adjustment, but that is not possible. I have given some example, that everyone is trying to become free from the material disturbances, but it is not possible.

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

Prabhupāda: The water, sea, as it becomes solidified, the outer surface, by sunshine, they become, it is called sodium silicate. Salt is sodium chloride. So from sodium chloride, the sodium silicate. So cover(?) of the sea they can solidify by the sodium silicate. But underneath there is water. Just like our, this skin, bone, coming from where? We are eating liquid and or some vegetables or some whatever, they are becoming liquidified. And first transformation is blood. Blood is liquid, and from blood everything is coming. The muscle is coming, the bone is coming. The more the liquid portion becomes solidified by air, gas, then these things coming. The formation of this body beginning the liquid semina, liquid ovum, mix together.

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: You just told?

Devotee: They are trying to understand the geology of the planet and how the surface of the planet was formed, what...

Prabhupāda: They have different... (break)

Devotee: They are so foolish that they say these experiments are very wonderful. They are very proud of these experiments...

Prabhupāda: Hm? Because they do not know.

Devotee: Yes, the result is...

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: It is announced by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma. (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) As many towns and villages are there on the surface of the globe, this movement will go on. Sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma. This will go on. It is already predicted by Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Mr. Sahani: You've not seen today, the temple building has been taken over.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Mr. Patel has donated over $20,000 for the purchase of that temple, Mr. and Mrs. Patel.

Prabhupāda: Sannimitan bharam tyaga vinasena isati(?). Money will be spent, and if it is spent for good cause, that is the proper utilization.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: "Purport: The cloud of dust covered the entire horizon, but when drops of blood sprayed up as far as the sun, the dust cloud could no longer float in the sky. A point to be observed here is that although the blood is stated to have reached the sun, it is not said to have reached the moon. Apparently, therefore, as stated elsewhere in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the sun, not the moon, is the planet nearest the earth. We have already discussed this point in many places. The sun is first, then the moon, then Mars, Jupiter and so on. The sun is supposed to be 93,000,000 miles above the surface of the earth, and from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we understand that the moon is 1,600,000 miles above the sun. Therefore the distance between the earth and the moon would be about 95,000,000 miles. So if a space capsule were traveling at the speed of 18,000 miles per hour, how could it reach the moon in four days? At that speed, going to the moon would take at least seven months. That a space capsule on a moon excursion has reached the moon in four days is therefore impossible."

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) So my reason is alright?

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: Similarly to go to the Absolute Truth, you begin with impersonal Brahman. Just as sunshine is impersonal, but everyone can see the sunshine is coming from the sun surface. Everyone knows that. Therefore the sunshine is not so important as the sunglobe. Similarly brahma-tattva-nirviśeṣa, nirākāra-brahma is there, but more important than is the localized aspect. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna (BG 18.61), God is all-pervading. The sunshine is all-pervading, and as Paramātmā He is also all-pervading. But if you can enter into the sunglobe, you will meet with the sun god. Just like Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā, imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam (BG 4.1). "I spoke this philosophy to the sun-god." So there is sun-god. Sun-god and the sun globe and the sunshine, they are one.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: Well, he just spoke in Hindi, and he said something in Hindi to Mr. Bajaj that "I want to speak in Hindi," and he continued speaking in Hindi.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All artificial platform, surface. "Hindu, Indian, Hindi."

Brahmānanda: He was very envious, that Auroville, of what is going on.

Jayādvaita: They're nothing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are nothing. No one ever heard of them outside of India.

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo never preached in Hindi.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) He was speaking in English?

Prabhupāda: Um hm.