Sweeper

Expressions researched:
"sweeper" |"sweeper's" |"sweepers"

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 3.7, Purport:

Instead of becoming a pseudo transcendentalist for the sake of wanton living and sense enjoyment, it is far better to remain in one's own business and execute the purpose of life, which is to get free from material bondage and enter into the kingdom of God. The prime svārtha-gati, or goal of self-interest, is to reach Viṣṇu. The whole institution of varṇa and āśrama is designed to help us reach this goal of life. A householder can also reach this destination by regulated service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. For self-realization, one can live a controlled life, as prescribed in the śāstras, and continue carrying out his business without attachment, and in that way make progress. A sincere person who follows this method is far better situated than the false pretender who adopts show—bottle spiritualism to cheat the innocent public. A sincere sweeper in the street is far better than the charlatan meditator who meditates only for the sake of making a living.

SB Canto 1

SB 1.10.16, Purport:

Shyness is a particular extra-natural beauty of the fair sex, and it commands respect from the opposite sex. This custom was observed even during the days of the Mahābhārata, i.e., more than five thousand years ago. It is only the less intelligent persons not well versed in the history of the world who say that observance of separation of female from male is an introduction of the Mohammedan period in India. This incident from the Mahābhārata period proves definitely that the ladies of the palace observed strict pardā (restricted association with men), and instead of coming down in the open air where Lord Kṛṣṇa and others were assembled, the ladies of the palace went up on the top of the palace and from there paid their respects to Lord Kṛṣṇa by showers of flowers. It is definitely stated here that the ladies were smiling there on the top of the palace, checked by shyness. This shyness is a gift of nature to the fair sex, and it enhances their beauty and prestige, even if they are of a less important family or even if they are less attractive. We have practical experience of this fact. A sweeper woman commanded the respect of many respectable gentlemen simply by manifesting a lady's shyness. Half-naked ladies in the street do not command any respect, but a shy sweeper's wife commands respect from all.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.83.11, Translation:

Śrī Kālindī said: The Lord knew I was performing severe austerities and penances with the hope of one day touching His lotus feet. So He came to me in the company of His friend and took my hand in marriage. Now I am engaged as a sweeper in His palace.

SB 11.22.56, Purport:

One may object that if Lord Kṛṣṇa insists that material life is false, then why should one endeavor to stop it? The Lord therefore explains here that although not factual, material life stubbornly continues for one addicted to sense gratification, just as a frightening dream continues for one merged in sleep. The word avidyamāna, "not existing," means that material life is based on mental concoction, in which one thinks, "I am a man," "I am a woman," "I am a doctor," "I am a senator," "I am a street sweeper" and so on. A conditioned soul enthusiastically performs his activities based on the imaginary identification with the body. Thus although the spirit soul exists and the body exists, the false identification with the body does not exist. Material life, based on a false idea, has no factual existence.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 10.83, Translation:

"No one can describe the fortunate position of Kulīna-grāma. It is so sublime that even sweepers who tend their hogs there also chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra."

CC Adi 17.38, Purport:

In Bengal there is perpetual competition between the devotees of goddess Kālī and the devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Generally Bengalis, especially those who are meat-eaters and drunkards, are very much attached to worshiping the goddesses Durgā, Kālī, Śītalā and Caṇḍī. Such devotees, who are known as śāktas, or worshipers of the śakti-tattva, are always envious of Vaiṣṇavas. Since Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura was a well-known and respected Vaiṣṇava in Navadvīpa, Gopāla Cāpāla wanted to reduce his prestige by bringing him down to the platform of the śāktas. Therefore outside Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura's door he placed various paraphernalia for worshiping Bhavānī, the wife of Lord Śiva, such as a red flower, a plantain leaf, a pot of wine, and reddish sandalwood paste. In the morning, when Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura saw all this paraphernalia in front of his door, he called for the respectable gentlemen of the neighborhood and showed them that at night he was worshiping Bhavānī. Very sorry, these gentlemen called for a sweeper to cleanse the place and purify it by sprinkling water and cow dung there. This incident concerning Gopāla Cāpāla is not mentioned in the Caitanya-bhāgavata.

CC Adi 17.44, Translation:

They called for a sweeper (hāḍi), who threw all the items of worship far away and cleansed the place by mopping it with a mixture of water and cow dung.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 5 Summary:

Afterwards, King Puruṣottama-deva of Orissa was insulted by the King of Vidyānagara, who refused to give him his daughter in marriage and called him a sweeper of Lord Jagannātha. With the help of Lord Jagannātha, King Puruṣottama-deva fought the King of Vidyānagara and defeated him. Thus he took charge of both the King's daughter and his kingdom as well. At that time, Gopālajī, being very much obligated by the devotional service of King Puruṣottama-deva, was brought to the town of Kaṭaka.

CC Madhya 13.184, Translation:

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu had already been satisfied by the King's behavior, for the King had accepted the service of a sweeper for Lord Jagannātha. Therefore Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu actually desired to see the King.

CC Madhya 13.187, Purport:

Although outwardly the King was a mundane man interested in money and women, internally he was purified by devotional activities. He showed this by engaging as a street sweeper to please Lord Jagannātha. A person may appear to be a pounds-and-shillings man interested in money and women, but if he is actually very meek and humble and surrendered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is not mundane. Such a judgment can be made only by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His very confidential devotees. As a general principle, however, no devotee should intimately mix with mundane people interested in money and women.

CC Madhya 14.16, Purport:

A student of Kṛṣṇa consciousness must receive Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mercy; then his devotional service will quickly succeed. This was the case with King Pratāparudra. One has to be noticed by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and a little service with sincere efforts will convince the Lord that one is a proper candidate for returning home, back to Godhead. At first Mahārāja Pratāparudra did not have a chance to meet Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but when the Lord saw that the King was serving Lord Jagannātha as a menial sweeper, the Lord's mercy upon the King became a solid fact. When Mahārāja Pratāparudra, in the dress of a Vaiṣṇava, was serving the Lord, the Lord did not even inquire who he was. Rather, He had compassion upon him and embraced him.

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 3.223, Purport:

Śrīla Advaita Ācārya sets the standard for ācāryas in the Vaiṣṇava sampradāya. An ācārya must always be eager to deliver the fallen souls. A person who establishes a temple or maṭha to take advantage of people's sentiments by using for his livelihood what people contribute for the worship of the Deity cannot be called a gosvāmī or ācārya. One who knows the conclusion of the śāstras, follows in the footsteps of his predecessors and endeavors to preach the bhakti cult all over the world is to be considered an ācārya. The role of an ācārya is not to earn his livelihood through the income of the temple. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura used to say that if one earns his livelihood by displaying the Deity in the temple, he is not an ācārya or gosvāmī. It would be better for him to accept service even as a sweeper in the street, for that is a more honorable means of earning one's living.

Nectar of Devotion

Nectar of Devotion 9:

In the Viṣṇu-dharmottara there is a statement about touching the lotus feet of the Lord. It is said, "Only a person who is initiated as a Vaiṣṇava and is executing devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness has the right to touch the body of the Deity." In India there was agitation during Gandhi's political movement because the lowborn classes of men like street-sweepers and caṇḍālas are prohibited, according to the Vedic system, from entering the temple. Due to their unclean habits they are prohibited, but at the same time they are given other facilities so they may be elevated to the highest grade of devotional service by association with pure devotees. A man born in any family is not barred, but he must be cleansed. That cleansing process must be adopted. Gandhi wanted to make them clean simply by stamping them with a fictitious name, harijana ("children of God"), and so there was a great tug-of-war between the temple owners and Gandhi's followers.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Krsna Book 83:

After this, Kālindī said, "My dear Draupadī, I was engaged in great austerities and penances to get Lord Kṛṣṇa as my husband. When He became aware of this fact, He very kindly came to me with His friend Arjuna and accepted me as His wife. Lord Kṛṣṇa then took me away from the bank of the Yamunā, and since then I have been engaged in the house of Lord Kṛṣṇa as a sweeper. And the Lord is treating me as His wife."

After this, Mitravindā said, "My dear Draupadī, there was a great assembly of princes at my svayaṁvara ceremony (the personal selection of a husband). Lord Kṛṣṇa was also present in that meeting, and He accepted me as His maidservant by defeating all the princes there. He immediately took me away to Dvārakā, exactly as a lion takes its prey from a pack of dogs. When I was thus taken away by Lord Kṛṣṇa, my brothers wanted to fight Him, and later they were defeated. Thus my desire to become the maidservant of Kṛṣṇa life after life was fulfilled."

Message of Godhead

Message of Godhead 2:

Work" means the work that is ordered in the scriptures and sacred law books. It means standard, prescribed duties. Such work is far better than laziness under the pretension of being a renunciant or mystic. To earn a living, one can honorably adopt the profession of a street sweeper, but one must not change his dress to the saffron robes of a renunciate simply to fill up his empty stomach. In the present age of quarrel and pretension, one should prefer to do the ordinary, prescribed duties rather than adopt the life of a sannyāsī, a renunciate. Those who are genuinely renounced understand that they must not give up performing their prescribed daily duties in the social order, because otherwise there will be disaster, plain and simple. When we cannot secure our everyday sustenance without doing any work, how is it possible to give up our prescribed duties? And yet one must not forget the difficult position of one's being in the network of action and reaction by which the spirit soul becomes bound up in material existence.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 1.40 -- London, July 28, 1973:

So this arrangement that woman must be married before puberty... Or even after puberty, she must get a husband. So if this dharma... It is called kanyā-dāya, kanyā-dāya. Kanyā-dāya means it is very obligatory that the father must get the daughter married. This is dharma. So if this dharma, or this religious principle is violated, that is... Arjuna is marking: adharma-abhi, abhi-bhava. When people become neglectful of the family tradition and religious principles, adharma abhibhavāt kṛṣṇa praduṣyanti kula-striyaḥ (BG 1.40). Kula-striyaḥ. Kula-striyaḥ means... Kula means family, and striyaḥ means woman. So woman must be belonging to a respectable family. Therefore it is said: kula-striyaḥ. Not society-girls. Kula-striyaḥ. Of the family. We have got experience in our school, college days. I was sitting in a friend's house and one sweeper woman, sweeper, with broomstick and with, what is called, covering?

Lecture on BG 1.40 -- London, July 28, 1973:

She was standing, say, about twenty yards distant from our sitting place. So I asked my friend that: "Your, this sweeper woman wants to come in. She's waiting because we are sitting. She is ashamed to come. So let us come here." So we stood separately. That means although she was a sweeper woman, still we had to honor her to enter. We stood up separately. She was feeling that; "How can I go between two men?" This we have seen in our... So this is Vedic culture. Woman should not be allowed to mix with man. Not allowed. In Japan also, the same system. Before marriage, they can mix. But after marriage they cannot mix. In Japan also I have seen. But in India still the system is there. Woman, without husband, cannot talk with any man. That is also psychological. In the Bhāgavata it is stated that man is like ghee, butterpot, and woman is like fire. Therefore, as they, as soon as there is fire and butter pot, the butter pot must melt. Therefore they should be kept aside. These are the statements. And the śāstra says that in a solitary place you should not remain even with your daughter, even with your sister, even with your mother.

Lecture on BG 3.6-10 -- Los Angeles, December 23, 1968:

Sudāmā: "...or goal of self-interest is to reach Viṣṇu. The whole varṇa and āśrama system is designed to help us reach this goal of life. A householder can also reach this destination by regulated service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. For self-realization one can live a controlled life as prescribed in the śāstras and continue carrying out his business without attachment, and that will lead him gradually to the progressive path. Such a sincere person who follows this method is far better situated than the false pretender who adopts show-bottle spiritualism to cheat the innocent public. A sincere sweeper in the street is far better than the charlatan meditator who works only for the sake of making a living."

Prabhupāda: Yes. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that don't accept spiritual life for living. Just like we are sending the saṅkīrtana party. If we take it, "Oh, it is very easy method for living without working. We are getting money for our livelihood," this is not wanted.

Lecture on BG 4.1 -- Delhi, November 10, 1971:

Devotee means servant—not paid servant—but servant by affection. Just like, these boys, European boys, American boys, and some of the Philippines boys, they are trying to serve me, but they are not paid servant. They are servant by affection. Just like father and mother becomes the servant of the sons. The son, the small child, passing stool, and the mother cleansing. That does not mean the mother has become sweeper. The mother is mother, but out of affection she is giving service. Similarly, when we give service to the Lord in affection, in love, then God reveals, ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ (CC Madhya 17.136). God's name, God's form, God's quality, God's pastimes, activities, are not understandable by our, these blunt material senses. We cannot see God with these eyes. God is present everywhere. God is present within your heart, God is present within this universe, God is present within the atom.

Lecture on BG 9.2 -- Calcutta, March 8, 1972:

That is the test. As soon as he has become Kṛṣṇa conscious, he has fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. Immediately he becomes the greatest mahātmā. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. A mahātmā like me, because, simply by changing dress... That is another thing. Because sometimes this dress gives us good opportunity for easy livelihood. That is another thing. But those who take this dress for begging and for fulfilling the hungry belly, that is..., that mahātmā is different thing. He is not mahātmā; he is durātmā. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that if one is inclined to collect money by showing Deity, it is better to become a sweeper in the street. It is better to become a sweeper in the street, because he's earning his livelihood honestly. And this man who is keeping a temple and doing all nonsense, simply by showing Deity, collecting some money, this class of men, they're most sinful.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- London, August 27, 1971:

Just like a carpenter. He earns his livelihood by his occupation as a carpenter. A lawyer, he lives by his occupation, profession as lawyer. So, so many things. Occupation you cannot give up. You have learned engineering. You cannot give up engineering. That is your livelihood. You cannot say, "No. Today I am engineer. Tomorrow I shall be sweeper." Of course, in the material world sometimes it is done so, but spiritual meaning means that the living entity has got a permanent occupation. The other occupational duties, they are temporary, bodily, in relation to body. When we feel "I am this body," then I manufacture some occupation according to the circumstances. But spiritual occupation, that is eternal. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmaḥ. Para means transcendental. We have got some duties. Just like we go to evacuate, to pass urine, or to take food, take bath. These are the occupations of the body. Similarly, there are occupations of the mind, intelligence. But there is occupation of the soul also. That we do not know.

Lecture on SB 1.2.24 -- Vrndavana, November 4, 1972:

Therefore one should not jump. One should learn Bhāgavata, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as recommended by Caitanya Mahāprabhu's secretary, Svarūpa Dāmodara: bhāgavata giyā paḍa bhāgavata sthāne.(?) One who is practical bhāgavata, one who knows what is Bhāgavata, what is Bhagavān. Not from the professional reciters, who are reading Bhāgavata for belly's sake. Now they are reading Bhāgavatam, and if they get more money, they can become a sweeper. Because their consideration is money. They'll give up immediately reading of Bhāgavatam. But my Guru Mahārāja used to say that it is better to become a sweeper and honestly earn one's livelihood than to become a false Bhāgavata reader for earning livelihood. Yes. Because they'll mislead the whole public. Nobody will improve. And actually we have seen that so many people, they're very much accustomed to attend the Bhāgavata-saptāha, but they remain in the same darkness as they were. No improvement. That is not possible.

Lecture on SB 1.5.23 -- Vrndavana, August 4, 1974:

All the people who are less than the śūdras. They are called pañcamas, fifth grade. First grade, brāhmaṇa, second grade, kṣatriya, third grade, vaiśya, fourth grade, śūdra, and all others—fifth grade. They are called caṇḍālas. The caṇḍālas... The sweeper, the cobbler, and the... Low grade. Still, in India, these fifth-grade persons only, they eat meat, pigs, and sometimes cows. Fifth grade. Now it has become a practice. And he's a first-grade man. So just see. What was the business of the fifth-grade men, that has become the business of the so-called politicians. You see. So if you are ruled by the fifth-grade men, then how you can be happy? That is not possible. How there can be any social tranquillity? That is not possible. But even the fifth-grade man, he can be purified by Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Therefore there is great need of this movement. Because at the present moment there is no first-class men, no first-grade men, no second-grade men. Maybe third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, like that. But they can be purified. That is... The only process is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Anyone can be purified. Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). They are called pāpa-yoni, born in low-grade, sinful family. Pāpa-yoni. Kṛṣṇa says, ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ. Never mind what kind of pāpa-yoni. Māṁ hi pārtha vyapā... "If he takes shelter of Me, then..." That shelter can be taken because Kṛṣṇa's representative is canvassing.

Lecture on SB 1.5.24 -- Vrndavana, August 5, 1975:

There is a verse of Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, na hi harate jyotsnaṁ candraś caṇḍāla-veśmani. Caṇḍāla. Caṇḍāla means the low caste, lower than the śūdras. The meat-eaters. Meat-eaters, in India they are called caṇḍāla. So especially pig, pig-eater. Still you'll find in villages, the sweeper class, they capture one pig. They maintain the pigs. They sell as well as they eat. So the living pig they burn into fire. Still, publicly. And it cries like anything, but they are allowed. Publicly they do that. So caṇḍāla-veśmani. That is very polluted, sinful place, but that does not mean that the moonlight is refused there. Moonlight is not refused. Because it is the house of a caṇḍāla, therefore moon does not consider that he should be refused, or sunlight is refused there. No. Sunlight is equally distributed. Na hi harate jyotsnaṁ candraś caṇḍāla-veśmani. Candra means the moon. Similarly, all devotees, or Kṛṣṇa, He's not reluctant. Either devotee, Kṛṣṇa's devotee, or Kṛṣṇa is reluctant to bestow the mercy to anyone. Tulya... That is called tulya-darśanāḥ. The mercy is open for everyone.

Lecture on SB 1.8.35 -- Mayapura, October 15, 1974:

So people are so rascal, they do not come even to see. They are so fallen down. They do not come. "Oh, what is this, Deity worship? Idol worship. Idol worship." They will worship Gandhi's statue and this statue, that statue, but when they are asked that "Come here and see the Deity worship nicely," "No, this is idol worship." We... I have seen in Calcutta that Sir Asutosh Mukherjee's statue there is in the Chowrangi square. So in the morning, these ordinary sweepers, they'll cleanse the statue with their brush, because the whole year, the crows have passed stool on the face. So it has become a very solid stool, fixed up. So... I have seen it, brushing like this. This is their arcanam. This is allowed. And if you worship the Deity, bathe the Deity, this is idol worship. And that municipal brush, sweeping brush, and on the face of Sir Asutosh Mukharjee, brushing, that is very good. Just see how much rascal they are! In the morning this business is done. And in the evening all big, big men will come and flower him, garland him, full of garlands. And after evening, they'll go away, and again, next morning, the crows will pass stool. That kind of worship is accepted. And if we install Deity of Kṛṣṇa and worship Him nicely—"These are for the fools and rascals, less intelligent." And he's very intelligent. This is going on all over the world. They are worshiping Napoleon. They are worshiping... I have seen in Paris, Napoleon's statue. "France and Napoleon, one." I asked them, "Where is your Napoleon? France is there, but where is your Napoleon?"

Lecture on SB 1.8.39 -- Mayapura, October 19, 1974:

Just like Yadu (?) Ṭhākura. We are discussing this in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. He belonged to the caste bhuṅi-mālī. Bhuṅi-mālī means the sweeper, baṅgi. He became a great Vaiṣṇava. And Kālidāsa, one of the relative, uncle, of Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, he was also very great Vaiṣṇava, mahā-bhāgavata. His business was to eat the remnants of foodstuff left by Vaiṣṇava. He did not care whether he's a brāhmaṇa-vaiṣṇava or śūdra-vaiṣṇava. Vaiṣṇava is not śūdra. But a Vaiṣṇava coming from śūdra family, sometimes they are called śūdra-vaiṣṇava. Just like Haridāsa Ṭhākura. He's sometimes called, Yavana-Haridāsa. He's not yavana. He is hundred times, thousand, million times better than brāhmaṇa. But because he is born in a Muhammadan family, he was, another name... The Vaiṣṇava never says, "Yavana-Haridāsa." He is "Nāmācārya Haridāsa." Vaiṣṇava... Why he should be yavana? Vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ. Nobody should consider a Vaiṣṇava belonging to this caste, that caste, no. Just like here. The Deity is there. Everyone knows that Deity is made of brass metal. But that is not metal. Because we cannot see Kṛṣṇa in any other way at present, therefore Kṛṣṇa has appeared as made of metal. But He is not metal. Or even if He is metal, still He's Kṛṣṇa because everything is Kṛṣṇa. So arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ. We should not consider like that.

Lecture on SB 2.3.19 -- Los Angeles, June 14, 1972:

You see. This is their intelligence. This is their intelligence. And our Indian people are also imitating. I have seen one statue of Sir Asutosh Mukherjee. He was a very respectable man. Or Gandhi. The whole year, the crows passed stool on the face. It becomes covered with stool. And the day of their anniversary the municipal washing brush, street , they brush over the..., in the morning. (laughter) They brush over the... Because the gene..., gentlemen will go, they have to call some sweeper. So he will brush the face of Sir Asutosh Mukherjee and wash, and then in the evening-big garland. In the morning it was washed with municipal brush, and in the evening there is big garland. So people have become so... So therefore they are compared with these dogs, asses, camels. They have no intelligence. We are worshiping Deity. Shall we allow like that? That is worship. But this is a fictitious thing, and they are thinking "We are honoring Sir Asutosh Mukherjee or president Jawaharlal Nehru," like that. Such foolish persons. If I know that "This is Sir Asutosh Mukherjee," how I can allow his mouth to be washed by the municipal brush?

Lecture on SB 3.25.9 -- Bombay, November 9, 1974:

You are the Supreme Person, original person." Now, Brahmā says, govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi **. He says that "I worship the original person, Govinda." Govindam ādi-puruṣam. Everywhere you'll find. And the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa says also, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat... (BG 7.7). "I..." Govindam ādi-puruṣam. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ, anādir ādiḥ (Bs. 5.1). He has no ādi. Somebody will say, "Why not? Kṛṣṇa is born of Vasudeva. Vasudeva is His father." That is His acceptance, a devotee as father. There are dealings of the devotee and the Bhagavān in different ways: śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya. We can have relation... We have that relation. Now it is covered. We can revive it again. Simply appreciation of the Supreme, that is called śānta-rasa. When one appreciates fully, then he wants to give some service. That is called dāsya. And giving service, when he becomes more intimate, then he becomes friend. That is called sākhya. And then, more advanced, the devotee wants to give service to Kṛṣṇa as father. Father-mother means to give service to the son. From the very beginning, even as a sweeper, all taking care.

Lecture on SB 5.6.4 -- Vrndavana, November 26, 1976:

So Bhīṣmadeva also advised that the shyness of woman, lajja, is the control. If you break that shy, what is called, shyness, then there will be disaster. That is the control valve naturally given. And woman's shyness is one beauty, beauty. We have got practical experience. And command also. We have practical experience in our life. You have seen that my friend came, Dinanath Mishra. They were our neighbor. So one day we were sitting on the corridor of the house. One sweeper woman, she wanted to come within, but very shyful, and with a covering of the head, although with broomstick and bucket, she was waiting because we were sitting both side. So she was feeling little shy not to enter the house. So we decided to move so that she may come. This example is given. She is a sweeper, not very respectable, maidservant or sweeper, but on account of her shyness we had to welcome, "Yes, we are moving. You come in." Just see. This is psychology. Therefore Bhīṣmadeva, at his dying stage, he advised that woman's shyness is the valve to control. If their shyness is broken, then it will create disaster. Puṁścalī. This is the psychology. So things are changing nowadays everywhere, not only in India, in other countries also. But this is the psychology. So all these examples are given. Why? Just to control the mind. In Hindi there is a proverb that money and wife you should always keep in control. There are so many examples.

Lecture on SB 6.1.21 -- Chicago, July 5, 1975:

The prostitute class, you will find in the history of India, but they are a class, a low-class woman. Otherwise, in gentleman class or higher class, namely the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, and vaiśya, it is not possible to mix freely. That is not possible. They still, in respectable families, the young girls, they are not allowed to go out, not to mix with any... The first young man, this, her husband, when the father-mother selects, then... This is the process. So prostitution was existent. Now I do not know what is the position. But in the low class, dāsī-pati, maidservant, sweeper, maidservant. One could mix and have the advantage of prostitution in the lower class, not in the higher class. So therefore it is stated that kaścid dāsī-patiḥ, dāsī-pati. Not the married wife, but dāsī-pati, a maidservant. And his name was Ajāmila. Dāsī-patir ajāmilaḥ nāmnā. So what was his condition? Naṣṭa-sadācāraḥ. He had no..., he lost all the sadācāra. Sadācāra, these are the sadācāra: to rise early in the morning, to take bath, attend maṅgala-ārātrika, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, read books, Vedic literature, and then prasādam—always some prescribed duty for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is called sadācāra. So Ajāmila, on account of this association of this prostitute, he lost all good qualities, sadācāra, and then he took all abominable professional for earning money. That will be described next verse.

Lecture on SB 7.12.1 -- Bombay, April 12, 1976:

Therefore brahmacārī means living under direction of guru, guror hitam. And guror hitam... How he can be simply thinking of benefiting the spiritual master? Unless that position comes, nobody can serve guru. It is not an artificial thing. The brahmacārī, the disciple, must have genuine love for guru. Then he can be under his control. Otherwise why one should be under the control of another person? Therefore it is said, ācaran dāsavat. Dāsa. Dāsa means servant. Not only servant, but menial servant. Menial servant means just like the sweeper, the cobbler, like that. They are called menial servants. So in India there is system. The sweeper class is different, the cobbler class is different, and domestic servant is different, and the barber, he is also servant, different. The washerman, he is also servant. So nīca means just like the washerman or the barber or the cobbler. They are less than the domestic servant at home. They are śūdras, and they are considered less than the śūdras, pañcama. So a disciple is expected to live in gurukula or... Gurukula means at the shelter of guru; nicavat, menial servant. Menial servant. Nīcavat. Ācaran dāsavan nīco gurau sudṛdha sauhṛdaḥ. This can be possible when one is very thickly related with the guru. Otherwise ordinary relationship will not do. One who has got actually the conviction, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo... **. One who is convinced that "If I can please my guru, then Kṛṣṇa will be pleased..." This is called sudṛdha, full faith. Yasya prasādān na gatiḥ kuto 'pi. "And if I displease my guru, then I have no place." In this way... Of course, guru cannot be a false guru. False guru has no such thing. If one guru is genuine and the disciple is genuine, then both of them are benefited and they go back to home, back to Godhead.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.330-335 -- New York, December 23, 1966:

So in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is quotation when Kṛṣṇa was born. It is the system of Vedic system. There are ten kinds of saṁskāras, reformation. And how much careful this Vedic civilization is, that a child will be born and he is taken care of since the day of the, I mean to say, joining, conjugation of the father and mother. Garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. How much they were expecting that a good son will come, and he will be so good that the society will be happy, the country will be happy, the world will be happy. Never they prescribed unwanted children like cats and dogs. No. So therefore there was garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Before the father and mother conjugate there is ceremony, garbhādhāna, for the higher caste. The higher caste were made not artificially. They had to follow nine great principles, then they are higher caste, not by rubber stamp, just like Gandhi wanted to do, taking the banghis, the sweepers, and rubber-stamping "harijana." No. This is a process. Everyone is open to become a harijana, but not by rubber stamp but by training. That training is required. People are avoiding the training and simply speculating in the mind, foolishness. How the world can improve? There must be training. Without training, simply by mental speculation, one can make any... Manasā mathurāṁ gacchasi. Oh, you have to work. If you want to go California, you have to go there. Simply I am thinking, "I am going to California, California," will that...? No.

Festival Lectures

Sri Sri Rukmini Dvarakanatha Deity Installation -- Los Angeles, July 16, 1969:

There was agitation in India, perhaps you know, that Gandhi stamped some persons as Harijana. Harijana. They were coming from the bhaṅgīs. Bhaṅgīs means sweepers or the cleaners of the toilet room. So Gandhi accepted them. The government was creating, British government was creating faction between high caste, low caste. So Gandhi thought that, "I shall make these bhaṅgīs and camars as Harijana, as great devotees." But simply by rubberstamping, how one can become devotee? That is not possible. Without going the pāñcarātrikī-vidhī, they remain the same unclean drunkard and the all nonsense habits. And simply by stamping rubberstamping, Harijana? No. Here what we are doing, it is not rubberstamping. It is actually training according to the pāñcarātrikī-vidhī. We are training our boys to become brāhmaṇas, to refrain from four kinds of sinful activities, to take bath, to take this, take that. And above all, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Ceto-darpaṇa-marjanam (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing of all sinful activities. So in this way Harijana can be made, but not that you pick up somebody nonsense and rubberstamp this "Harijana." No. There must be process.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:

Prabhupāda: Who is calling? (indistinct). (indistinct) has said that...

Śyāmasundara: (indistinct) these people were descendents of warrior class, kṣatriya class, so they are naturally inclined to those things, meat-eating.

Prabhupāda: No, the warrior class are not like that, kṣatriya. Not that they are addicted. These are caṇḍālas. They are called caṇḍālas. Caṇḍālas, the dog eaters, the hog-eaters. In India they are sweeper class. Mlecchas (?). (indistinct). She comes from that family. Now (indistinct).

Śyāmasundara: Anyway, all property, all money, capital, communications, transport everything should be brought into central, centralize, centralized in the hands of the state.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So, what profit will be (indistinct), the member in the central, they will exploit, just like Krushchev was doing, and he was (indistinct). So, our diagnosis is that tendency is there. Unless you reform that tendency, these things will be bogus. Now Russia, just according to Marx theory, they are doing that, but (indistinct) utilize it. How you shall stop this mentality? What is that program?

Śyāmasundara: Their program is first you change the social conditions then the mentality will change.

Prabhupāda:Impossible. It will simply react and there will be another revolution.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: You can sit down. So everyone is working. Never mind in whatever occupation one is engaged. That doesn't matter. But one has to test whether he is becoming successful. Because everyone wants success. We are not animals that without any success we shall work hard labor. That is animals' business. Just like several times I have given the example, dophara gadha, the ass of the washerman. That kind of business and work is no use. Dophara gadha, ass of the washerman. Here, of course, you have no experience. In India there is a class who are called washermen. In India there are different castes. Washerman, a class; barber, a class. I mean to say... So many departmental. So each and every one, there is a class who take up that work. Sweeper, a class. All the necessities. The clerk, even clerk, there is a class; priest, there is a class; the fighter, there is a class. That is nice arrangement. In India... And florists, there is a class, florist. Their business is simply to supply flower. Fisherman there is a class; butcher, there is a class. Just like we have got a temple, now we require potter. Potter, there is a class.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Hayagrīva: He died singing something.

Allen Ginsberg: What of Blake's would in fit in, I wonder? "The Lamb?" "The Lamb" would fit. Oh, "The Chimneysweeper," yes, "The Chimneysweeper." (to Peter) Do you want to try that?

Prabhupāda: Chimney sweeper?

Allen Ginsberg: It's a song by Blake: "When my..." (to Peter) Do you need the words or, you can follow it without the words, yeah:

When my mother died I was very young

And my father sold me while yet my tongue

Could scarcely cry, weep, weep, weep, weep.

So your chimneys I sweep and in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dockreb who dark cried when his head

That curled like a lamb's back were shaved, so I said,

"Hush Tom, never mind it for when your head's bare,

You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet and that very night

As Tom was asleeping he has such a sigh

That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack

Were all of them locked in coffins of black

And by came an angel who had a bright key

And he opened the coffins and set them all free,

Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they ran

And wash in a river and shine in the sun.

Then naked and wiped, all their bags left behind

They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind

And the angel told Tom if he be a good boy

He'd have God for his father and never want joy.

And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark

And God with our bags and our brushes to work

Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm

So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

Did you understand the...

Prabhupāda: Some of them.

Allen Ginsberg: Well it's... The chimneysweeper is the little boy who has to go into a chimney to sweep out the soot. And the man who hired the chimneysweeper cut off all his hair, and he had beautiful hair, so his friend told him, "Never mind because when your hair is gone you know that the soot cannot spoil your pretty white hair." So if you have no hair you don't have to worry what will happen to your hair, which is a very Vaiṣṇava doctrine also.

Devotee: Excuse me, Prabhupāda, it's five to eleven now.

Allen Ginsberg: Ok. We'd better let everybody retire.

Kīrtanānanda: Here, there's a little bit of food coming.

Devotee: Ah, prasādam.

Allen Ginsberg: Oh, it's a Gnostic doctrine, if it's not Vaiṣṇava.

Prabhupāda: Come on. You come, Mr. Ginsberg, take. First of all, you take. You take.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: No. Why... the same language, the same language.

Dr. Weir: Well you won't get very far in any form of philosophy...

Mensa Member: (indistinct)

Śyāmasundara: But the consciousness in which something is done denotes it. For instance, I could be sweeping the street. Someone would think, "Ah, I'm just a material street sweeper." But if I'm doing it for Kṛṣṇa it's a transcendental activity, it's a spiritual activity, not a material activity.

Dr. Weir: Ah, yes, but I mean, then you have a, if somebody else who's sweeping faster and better, you say that he's greater spiritually even if he's doing it...

Śyāmasundara: No.

Prabhupāda: No, the purpose must be spiritual, the purpose must be for Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: So if we're speaking about Kṛṣṇa then our words become spiritual.

Dr. Weir: Yes, but I think if you're talking about spiritual things you mustn't try and quantify it.

Prabhupāda: Spiritual means it has no material qualification. Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate.

Room Conversation -- November 11, 1971, New Delhi:

Guest: Some people say that jīva is a, you see, surrounded by (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) False. False ego. He is misidentifying with this matter. He is not matter. So this ahaṅkāra, this identification, has to be purified by understanding himself that "I am brahman. I am not matter." That is purification. And as soon as he is purified, brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20). Now jīva-bhūta, but when he becomes brahma-bhūta, then he becomes jolly. Brahma-bhutaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). That is the symptom. Not that "I am realized Brahman." But the symptom will be there. If he says, "I am very rich man," then I'll see what is the symptom, whether you have got a nice car, you have got many servants and "Oh, yes, you are rich man." And if you are working on the street with a sweeper, how can I accept it?

Guest: If I am that bad balances and (indistinct). (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Subject to your symptom. (laughter) (Hindi)

Guest: (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Guest: We're just asking questions and questions. (indistinct) Endeavor to understand it. (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Bhagavān's rāsa-līla is very confidential. It is not for ordinary man. (Hindi) So, step by step (Hindi). Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa rāsa-līla, Kṛṣṇa with young girls dancing, embracing, kissing, just like ordinary novel and nātha. They like it. So these professional Bhāgavata readers, they take advantage of the people's inferior quality, of their weakness, and make money. That's all.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation Including Discussion on SB 4.13.48 to SB 4.14.11 -- January 18, 1972, Jaipur:

Prabhupāda: This is the problem of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that people are becoming more and more Godless. And one may think that unnecessarily we have taken this responsibility to make them God conscious, Kṛṣṇa conscious. There is no need to make this propaganda all over the world. But actually, the saintly persons have concern. Just like the other day I told you, Prahlāda Maharaja was concerned that these rascals for temporary so-called... (break) ...people are engaged unnecessarily to work very hard day and night, the capitalist, the worker. Big, big factory, iron factory, in so many factories, unnecessarily. So Prahlāda Maharaja was concerned. He was living, his father was a demon, in the demonic state. So this is natural. If one saintly person do not be disturbed by people's unhappiness, he is not saintly person. He is not saintly person. If he is simply satisfied that "I have got a temple, I am getting good income, let me eat and sleep." My Guru Maharaja condemned this process. He said that to earn livelihood by showing some temple and collecting money and eat and sleep, better to become a sweeper in the street and earn his livelihood instead of earning livelihood in this so-called spiritual way. So practically all over the world a class of men, a priestly class of men, they have made it a means of earning livelihood, temple achar(?), taking money from people and enjoying, and then become drunkard. In your country, five thousand drunkard priests were consolidated in a hospital for treatment. They're getting money. So there is possibility, we are opening temples, public is contributing. But if we become easy-goer, "Now money is coming, let us eat sumptuously and eat, eat and sleep, and if possible drink also." But, of course, we are restricting. But naturally when one man becomes idle, idle brain is the devil's workshop.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 9, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: That's all. For earning money.

Revatīnandana: For their pleasure they're going home to drink beer and eat steak. That's all they're really interested in. They're just working to make money. I could see it and I didn't want to follow their footsteps.

Prabhupāda: Just like a śūdra, he cleans in the road for money. They are going as professor but the category is the same. You don't make any distinction between that sweeper and this professor. Or a hog and cat and dog. The hog is also working hard, whole day and night for stool, eating. So this man is also working like that. Beyond that he has no other knowledge.

Revatīnandana: The scientists, they have a term. Psychologists, they call it the idiot savant. The idiot savant means he's an idiot but he has one particular talent and because of that talent he can get along. Just like sometimes you find an idiot, he can look at a column of figures and he can compute the sum in his head very easily but he can't even understand how to tie his shoes. And I think these scholars are like that, they're actually idiots but they have one talent for Sanskrit or for history and because of that they can get along. They can support their body but otherwise they have no qualifications.

Prabhupāda: Śūdra. Unless he gets that post, he'll starve. He has got some talent in some particular subject but he must get some service. By serving others, he'll be able to utilize his talent and get some money, then he'll eat. This is śūdra's business. Dog's business. Just like a dog unless he has got a nice master, his position is very precarious. A street dog. Nobody will care neither it is (indistinct).

Garden Conversation with Mahadeva's Mother and Jesuit Priest -- July 25, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Oh. There you see. Oh.

Mother: And we had all the Indians there after Dunkirk waiting for more Indians to come and join them. And we had the Hindus and the Mohammedans and the sweepers, and they all had their own houses. And they recovered from all the war damage, and they went off within about twelve months. They went off in '41, back to...

Prabhupāda: There was some bombing in Calcutta, nothing more.

Mother: Hm. Ah, but these Indians were fighting in France.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is another thing.

Mother: Dunkirk.

Prabhupāda: Dunkirk.

Mother: And then they came, when Dunkirk was evacuated, they came back in all these little boats that they escaped in, and they got together and they billeted them... And I was living with my godmother in Sholden (?) in Devonshire. And we had eight acres. And the Army put up huts for them. And they lived there for about eight months until more Indians were sent to make them back to strength again, the regiments, big enough. And then they went overseas again. Some went to Burma, some to Italy. I don't know where they went, of course, but they were very good...

Prabhupāda: They went to die, after all.

Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay:

Gargamuni: Yes. We have to preach. (S.P. laughs)

Prabhupāda: Yes. If by the dress of sannyāsī, you take some money and eat and sleep, then it is transcendental fraud. (SP laughs) (Hindi) Just like others are toiling, and we are getting money by some dress. That's all. They are getting money by laboring hard, and we are getting money... In India, mostly the sannyāsīs, they do that. The priests also, they do that. This is our profession, just... My Guru Mahārāja said that ṭhākura dekhiye pāya rasta karache, rastaye 'yandiya jīvika badram karam bhari (?). Instead of earning livelihood by showing the Deity in the temple, it is better to take the profession of a sweeper in the street and live honestly. He said like that. The sweeper is working hard toiling and getting some money and living. This is honest living. But just like in Vṛndāvana, all the Goswamis. They have got their Deity. People are coming, contributing. Typical example, Gauracānda Goswami. Ṭhākura dekhiye paisa rasta. (?) All the sevaites, they are meant for... Our Kunja Babu also planned like that. He thought, "By cheating all the God-brothers, I have got now Caitanya Maṭha. And people will come to see Caitanya Mahāprabhu's birthplace, and I will get good income. And it will be distributed amongst my brothers and sons and myself. That's all." That is his scheme.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Any engagement, any engagement for Kṛṣṇa, he is Vaiṣṇava. If he is under the guidance of his spiritual master and doing the business according to the direction, he is Vaiṣṇava. He is above all these.

Pañcadraviḍa: A śūdra, if he is working, he cannot take brāhmaṇa initiation, but he can take hari-nāma, is that it?

Prabhupāda: Just like sometimes our men, my devotee, they wash the cupboard. Does it mean he is a methar(?)? No. He can go to the Deity room also. He is not a methar(?) or sweeper. But sometimes we do that. So devotee is above all these consideration. But because there is management, they should appear as brāhmaṇa, as śūdra, as kṣatriya, like that.

sa guṇān samatītyaitān

brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

māṁ ca vyabhicariṇi

bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate

(BG 14.26)

A devotee, because he is working as a śūdra, he is not a śūdra; neither he is a brāhmaṇa. He is already in the spiritual platform. But for management we have to do that. One can do the śūdra's work nicely—let him be engaged in that way. Why he should imitate?

Mahāṁsa: Does he get second initiation?

Prabhupāda: Everything he will get.

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Where is equal right?

Haihaya: The same possibilities of education to everyone.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Where is equal right? That is also with the capitalists also. The same thing, we divide. We divide that "This is brāhmaṇa, this is kṣatriya, this is vaiśya, this is śūdra." We also divide, and you also divide. Then where is the advancement in philosophy?

Haihaya: Because they think that capitalists, they don't give the same possibilities to earn...

Prabhupāda: They think, but we see practically: Why there is difference between this manager and the laborer class? Will the dictator, the manager will take the same salary as the sweeper is taking? Why there is difference? Why the manager is given more preference for living condition? Where is equality? First of all show me. Simply talking will not do.

Dhanañjaya: Actually, the only difference is that in the communist countries, religion is not allowed.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. But their philosophy that everyone is equal... Where is equality? There is no equality. Why you are talking nonsense? And in Moscow I have seen. So many people are walking, and others are going on motorcar. Why? why this difference? Why not everyone motorcar? Then what improvement you have made? You are simply talking. Why this difference? Nobody wants to walk. Why thousands of people walking on the street, and some of them are going on motorcar? Why? Where is the equality?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: Generally people don't believe it if someone says he is God.

Prabhupāda: The first thing is: what wonderful thing he has done, that he is God? People have no common sense. We accept Kṛṣṇa as God. There are so many wonderful things done by Kṛṣṇa. Now what has he done that we accept that he is God? He has fallen in love with his secretary; any common sweeper also becomes.

Paramahaṁsa: That is his līlā.

Prabhupāda: The sweeper's līlā. (laughter) (long pause)

Amogha: Śrīla Prabhupāda, sometimes if we go out to preach and we go away from the association of devotees, what can we do to make sure that we...

Prabhupāda: You go at least two. Don't go alone. That is the system. When you go to preach, you must go at least two. If possible, more than two. Don't go alone. That is not the system. (pause) This Guru Mahārāja (Guru Maharaj-ji) cannot go back to India?

Amogha: No, he cannot leave India. He went to India to struggle with his brother and mother.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So now it is...

Amogha: Now the court says, "You cannot leave India until we settle this." They've issued a court order not to leave India.

Prabhupāda: That is good.

Morning Walk -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Madhudviṣa: In India there is no problem with litter. There is no litter problem. No problem about paper and things thrown around because everything that is thrown in the street is immediately taken up by some form of beggar or some form of animal.

Prabhupāda: Municipal sweeper also. (break) Similarly we can go to the place where there is simply pleasing atmosphere. Simply we have to become purified. That is required. But they don't want to be purified, they want to become more entangled in sinful life, illicit sex, meat-eating. That they do not know that "I am entangling myself. Instead of being purified, I am becoming more and more entangled." This is ignorance. (break) ...criticize us, shaven-headed. They don't criticize long hairs, but shaven-headed. Just see. If you don't criticize the long hairs, why should criticize the shaven-headed? But they criticize us. So regularly they are going out?

Madhudviṣa: Saṅkīrtana?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Madhudviṣa: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: That's nice. That is wanted. Live here very nicely and go back to home, back to Godhead. Why should you die like cats and dogs? Die like a human being and be freed from all these material anxieties. But their determination is that they must live in this hellish condition. They do not believe in the next life. If they believe in the next life, then it becomes horrible. They want to avoid this question. "No, no there is no life. Enjoy to the best capacity now." Enjoy. We do not say that don't enjoy, but enjoy so that you may not be implicated. There is no harm having big house, comfortable life, but keep Kṛṣṇa, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. What is the wrong there? Hm? Madhudviṣa Mahārāja, if they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in these big, big skyscraper buildings, what is their loss?

Madhudviṣa: Hm.

Room Conversation with Director of Research of the Dept. of Social Welfare -- May 21, 1975, Melbourne:

Director: But in Indian society, they forbid it.

Prabhupāda: Indian society, the did not know how to drink tea even. In our childhood we have seen that Britishers started tea garden. There was no tea plants before Britishers. The Britishers saw the labor is very cheap, and they want to do business, they started. Just like they are doing in Africa. So many gardens, coffee and tea. So they started, and the tea was transferred to be sold in America. They were after business. So the... Now, so much tea, who will consume? The government started a tea sets committee. All the tea garden holders they would pay government. And road to road, street to street, their business was canvassing, preparing tea, very nice, palatable tea, and they advertising if you drink tea, then you will not feel very much hungry, and your malaria will go away and so on, so on. And people began to drink tea. Nice cup. I have seen it. Now they have got a taste. Now gradually now a sweeper also, early in the morning, is waiting in the tea shop to get a cup of tea.

Room Conversation after Press Conference -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Brahmānanda: I was seeing in one of these Time magazines. On the rear page they're advertising a cigarette that is especially meant for women. It's a slimmer size. The larger size is for the men; the slimmer size is for the women. And the title of the advertisement, they show one picture of a woman cleaner, sweeper. She is cleaning the floors. This picture was taken in the 1920's. It was taken in Washington D.C. because in the background they show the capitol building is there in Washington D.C. So then they have a picture of a modern woman. She's sitting there looking very nice. And they say that "You've come a long way, baby." (laughter) Whereas in the 1920's you were sweeping the floors and now you're sitting on a throne.

Prabhupāda: "So you accept this cigarette."

Brahmānanda: Yes. "This cigarette is meant just for you to show that you're superior."

Prabhupāda: I think there was some objection, woman taking this objection, why woman's idol should be displayed in the shopkeeper's show windows.

Brahmānanda: The mannequins.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There was some protest. Generally, they keep the dolls of woman, beautiful woman. So there was some protest.

Morning Walk -- December 11, 1975, Vrndavana:

Woman Devotee: I'm trying to collect for making vases.

Prabhupāda: Hm? What is that?

Devotee: She's making vases, flower arrangements.

Akṣayānanda Swami: ...only had one sweeper so I wasn't able to engage him, but I got some soda to do it with. Hopefully today this morning he will start.

Prabhupāda: Bicycle was available, forty-five rupees.

Akṣayānanda Swami: Accha. Now they're 250 almost three hundred rupees.

Prabhupāda: And very first class bicycle like Triumph BA. BA? What is that, BS?

Akṣayānanda Swami: BSA.

Prabhupāda: Ha, BSA. Eighty rupees, eighty-five.

Harikeśa: Viśvambhara's cost 500.

Prabhupāda: Now that must be. Everything has risen.

Smarahari: ....material is not so good also, the material.

Prabhupāda: Ha?

Smarahari: The steel is not so good.

Prabhupāda: Now?

Devotee: (indistinct) Now, (degraded?)...

Akṣayānanda Swami: Price has risen and quality has lessened. (pause) Prabhupāda, you know the ISKCON centres you have started they are just like actually Vaikuṇṭha, they are so nice. Even the Gauḍīya Matha centres were not so nice. Just like an installation of Vaikuṇṭha. They're so clean and nice. (indistinct) ...help becoming devotees by visiting your centers. Becomes almost automatic.

Prabhupāda: Follow the regulative principles, it will remain, always Vaikuṇṭha. Otherwise again material world.

Morning Walk -- December 23, 1975, Bombay:

Indian man (3): Then how can you avoid that, because conflict takes place.

Prabhupāda: No, it will be, there will be no more material duty. When you wash the shoes of your son, that is love, that is not a shoe washer; you don't remain a shoe washer. You remain in love with your child. Hm? A mother takes care of the child, washes, when he passes stool, that does not mean she becomes maṭharāṇī (sweeper woman). Maṭharāṇī is material. But when the mother out of love washes the child, she is not maṭharāṇī, she is Rādhārāṇī. (everyone laughs) And if you conclude, "Ah, she is washing the stool of the son. She is maṭharānī," that is your mistake. She remains Rādhārāṇī. Just like Mother Yaśodā is binding Kṛṣṇa, that does not mean that His supremacy is lost. The Mother Yaśodā is binding; He still remains the supreme. Therefore Mother Yaśodā became exhausted to try to bind Him. (laughs) And when Kṛṣṇa saw that "My mother is perspiring now, she is exhausted," "All right, let Me agree to be bound up by her." (pause) That's not a fact, otherwise how Kṛṣṇa says, "Anyone who is engaged in My devotional service, sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26)." So this is a mistake to say that devotional service is saguṇa. (indistinct) Huh? These are one gentleman came to talk with me?

Saurabha: About the apartment?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (end)

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: Thatching, yes. That is right. So the windows are thatched. So where is the production? Vivekananda is standing as preacher. So where is the preachers? People should have gone there in hundreds; there should have been some program. So where is the program? Simply "Vivekananda house." Lick up the house. (break) ...rows of statues on the beach, many statues—for passing stool by the crows. I have seen in Calcutta one statue of Sir Asutosh Mukherjee. So in the morning, on the day of the birth anniversary, in the morning the municipal sweepers with their brush, they will rub it to cleanse the solidly stuck-up crow's stool with water. It will be done for three, four hours. Then in the evening, big, big men will come, gather, and offer him garland one after another, just like they were offering me. In this way the meeting will be held. In the morning it is brushed with the sweeper's street brush, and in the evening it is offered garland. I have seen it. Here also I see that she has kept Kṛṣṇa's mūrti outside. It is aparādha.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are not kṛṣṇa-bhaktas, these people, at all.

Hariśauri: Even that tulasī tree around the corner, they have clipped to shape it, cut all the branches.

Prabhupāda: They have no guidance.

Morning Walk -- February 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Without making him harijana...

Acyutānanda: A harijana may become a brāhmaṇa, but sometimes a harijana is a scheduled caste.

Prabhupāda: Harijana means methara. As soon as he comes, if he says, "I am harijana" then immediately you understand that he is a sweeper.

Acyutānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: This is the position.

Acyutānanda: And now, in many cases, they forcibly occupy some land, and they create disturbance, and the local people set fire and drive them out. We call a barber...

Prabhupāda: Mūḍha. Anyone who's not a Kṛṣṇa conscious, he's a mūḍha, bās. Narādhama, bās.

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Why? Nothing. Let them come and see. That's all.

Yaśodānandana: (break) Our Deity is not beggar.

Prabhupāda: No. He is bestower. He gives everything. If anyone voluntary gives, that's all right. You should not ask. (break) ...instead of doing this. (Bengali) He said like that. "By showing the Deity to earn livelihood is condemned. Better become a sweeper, municipal sweeper, and sweep the road and earn money." He said like that. That is better, honorable. He is working and getting money, instead of making a good show of Deity and earn money. This is not required. If you want to earn money, go, work according to your capacity and earn money. Don't cheat people. That is Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī.

Pañcadraviḍa: There was a big fight or difference of opinion, wasn't there?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Pañcadraviḍa: There was trouble in Nabadwip, wasn't there, when he advised the pilgrims not to pay money to go into the temples?

Prabhupāda: Yes. He was fight against it. All, Nabadwip, Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana is not so... But still, they have got rate. One thing, it is a question of heart, that a man should come and visit the temple—he must give something. Why he is to be asked? Voluntarily he should give that.

Room Conversation -- May 2, 1976, Fiji:

Prabhupāda: The thing is the spirit, real service of preaching, stopped. Formality is going on, but the real business.... Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement means āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128). That is stopped. Do you follow? The formalities is there, but the real life of Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement is preaching. Otherwise why Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa. Tāra means preaching. Yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa-upadeśa' (CC Madhya 7.128). And that is stopped. They are satisfied if they could construct one temple and beg some rice from the neighborhood: "Sir, we have got some temple," that's all. They are satisfied. The spirit of preaching forward-pāpī tāpī jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo—that is stopped. So by hari-nāma, by chanting, by this way, to live little peacefully in the temple and eat and sleep, that much they have got. If that is the success, that success they have got. And this was condemned by my Guru Mahārāja, that "To earn some money by showing Deity in the temple and eat and sleep—better you become a sweeper in the street and earn your honest livelihood and live." This is cheating. This was condemned. To construct a temple.... Just like the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmīs are doing. They thought that "This is our business.

Prabhupada Inspects New BTG -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Reporter: "So if we don't choose our leaders by popular election, how will society be governed?"

Prabhupāda: "You require brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras. Just as when you want to construct a building you require engineers. You don't want sweepers. Isn't that so? What will the sweeper do? No. There must be engineers. So if you follow the division of varṇāśrama, only kṣatriyas are allowed to govern. And for the legislative assembly, the senators, only qualified brāhmaṇas. Now the butcher is in the legislative assembly. What does he know about making laws? He is a butcher. But by winning votes he becomes a senator. At the present moment, by the principle of vox populi, a butcher goes to the legislature. So everything depends on training. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness society we are actually doing that. But in the case of politics they forget it. There cannot be just one class. That is foolishness. Because we have to engage different classes of men in different activities. If we do not know the art then we will fail, because unless there is a division of work there will be havoc. We have discussed all the responsibilities of the king in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The different classes in society should cooperate exactly as the different parts of the body do. Although each part is meant for a different purpose, they all work for one cause, to maintain the body properly."

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: It is not proselytization. Proselytization has no meaning. To bring one to the real understanding. Kṛṣṇa says that mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). All living entities are His part and parcel. He claims, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya (BG 14.4). In all forms of life, as many living entities are there, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ, I am the seed-giving father. So the natural position is that every living entity, not only human being, but also animals, plants, everyone... So why not Indian, American, or Czechoslavakian, everyone is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa? So it not the process of proselytizing to convince the idea. It is actually bringing them to their real position, that they're all part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. It is not artificial proselytization that "You are Christian, now you are Hindu." Or "You are Hindu, now you are Christian." "You are a sweeper, now you are harijana." It is not like that. It is actually bringing him to his own position, part and parcel of God. It is not... Proselytization will not stand. When one comes to the real understanding of his position, then that will continue. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that. Bringing one to the original position. He's in diseased condition, he's thinking otherwise than servant of Kṛṣṇa. Now this movement is trying to bring everyone to the position that he is eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. It is not a rubberstamp proselytization that "You are Hindu, now you are Christian." Or "You are Christian, now are Hindu." So if he does not know what is his position by simply stamping that he is Hindu or Muslim or Christian, what benefit he will derive?

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Mahāṁsa: It should not come on your finger if you touch it. That black thing.

Prabhupāda: Not even you cannot see black, any black spots. Then it is clean. Otherwise not clean. If there's a single black spot, it is not clean. You can see from this poor class of men, how their utensils are cleansed. Before taking water the jug, the waterpot... You'll like to drink water. In our school days there were sweeper, they were a different quarter. So you like to sit down. So clean. The sweeper, cleansing the toilet, bangi. But when you come to his house, living quarter, oh, it is so clean. The bed, the room, the utensils. And they also will take twice, thrice bath, then they will eat. That is a Hindu culture. Even the sweeper class, lowest class. And I have seen one sweeper class who were in Allahabad, regularly worshiping Deity. Very nice worship.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: No food, the women are working like...

Prabhupāda: Sweeper.

Haṁsadūta: Sweeper, all fat...

Prabhupāda: Why they're fat?

Haṁsadūta: Just eating potatoes and and...

Prabhupāda: Meat.

Haṁsadūta: Meat, pork meat, pig's meat.

Prabhupāda: Very miserable condition.

Haṁsadūta: Oh yeah.

Prabhupāda: And advertising, communists are so rich, so happy.

Haṁsadūta: I know, everything, all their literature concerns itself with struggling. Struggling against capitalists, struggling to...

Prabhupāda: And mass of people they are very morose, unhappy.

Haṁsadūta: Yes.

Prabhupāda: In the street you see there is no happiness in their face.

Room Conversation -- November 24, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Equipment? What is that equipment?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Like plates or...

Indian devotee: These bedding materials and these mans for managing these..., sweepers and all. We are running short of mans. Of course we are trying to get short of man...

Akṣayānanda: Short of men. Cleaners.

Indian devotee: Cleaners and these mans...

Prabhupāda: You have got cleaners.

Akṣayānanda: Coming.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Akṣayānanda: Well, we had sufficient but they are unreliable, paid men, so we're getting new men. But I don't think that's the difficulty with the management.

Prabhupāda: So you solve this difficulty. You answer. He has got difficulty. You answer him. So he has got difficulty.

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

Mahāṁśa: Some people I know, they said that yesterday the prasādam was not nice, and there was...

Prabhupāda: Not nice, it is not eatable even by the dogs. But you are less than the dogs if you (prepare) such thing. I was surprised. You allowed a sweeper to cook. I was surprised. We have distribution prasādam, not dog's food. Such rascals as here. You do not know. I do not wish to discuss anymore on this point. You have murdered the whole thing in two days. Now if possible, bring them, bring them first class prasādam, very palatable. Foodstuff means even one has no appetite he'll eat. That is food. Not that even one has got appetite, he'll forget. That is not food. So do like that and for money produce, use cane, sugar cane, rice. We shall spend for that. Don't spoil money, but do like businessman. He invests money, he gets a return. Spend it for Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted. There is no question of becoming a miser. I never did it. When I have got that farthing, I want to spend it. Immediately spend. Oh, what I have made this BBT? Immediately 50% for printing, and 50% for spreading this. (indistinct) and understand what I want to do. So whatever is done is done, now do it very nicely.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (clears throat) So, how business is going there?

Haṁsadūta: Well, there's no money, so not much can be done. The last two days there was no prasādam distribution in the evening, and so the last two days I was there, nobody came. The problem is that since Your Divine Grace left there, the same people would be cooking, these sweeper people. And now they don't want to cook anymore because they work all day, and they say, "We can't work all around the clock, twenty-four hours." So they stopped cooking. And together with no money... So the whole thing has just come to a stalemate. So now another problem is that the saṅkīrtana party which we sent out is also not... It came back yesterday, also not going on properly. I know this causes Your Divine Grace anxiety, but I just think I should speak frankly about how I feel about the situation. I think Mahāṁsa is a very nice devotee, but he does everything himself. He's always jumping over everything, and before it can be discussed, he's already done it. Just like he flew here. He flew here, and it costs a lot of money to fly from Hyderabad and back. It costs, I think, about five hundred rupees. And there's no need for doing things in that way. So I don't know exactly how to work with Mahāṁsa. It's not that I fight with him. I just don't know how to work out things so that it comes out in a practical way.

Prabhupāda: What is the use of investing money there? I have already given fifty thousand.

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

Prabhupāda: So give him something. You have got fruit? Fruit? Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Ek minute. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Bolo Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Child: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Rāmeśvara: They'll remember that Kṛṣṇa fed them. I think we should clean up.

Hari-śauri: There should be a sweeper somewhere.

Prabhupāda: No, we do our own business. Why do you wait for sweeper?

Hari-śauri: Yeah, we need a broom.

Prabhupāda: You take one paper, that black one there.

Jagadīśa: Do you want to take rest, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No.

Hari-śauri: (to child) Finished? It's too hot? He can't eat the samosa. It's too hot. He can't eat the samosa. It's too hot.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So is there any remaining in...?

Hari-śauri: Puffed rice is finished. But he can't eat the samosa.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: These things were not going nicely. Therefore gradually it broke. But if things are going nicely, people will be happy. They will not revolt. You have to keep the citizens satisfied in all respects. You must know the necessity how people are satisfied. You have to arrange the government in that way. Then there will be no revolution. Mass of people, if they are satisfied, they will not revolt. But they do not know the process. The "demoncracy," the common man is allowed to vote. He has no knowledge and he's voting. This is most condemned process. Camara-bhangi, a sweeper, he is voted to become Minister of Defense. His business is to cleanse the street, and now he's voted to become because he has got number of votes. So many bhangis, they vote, "Yes, he is our leader. He should be Defense Minister." You have to do that. This is democracy. His business is to sweep, and he's voted a defense minister.

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Bhavānanda: Set the example.

Prabhupāda: Example. Just like Bhavānanda, when there was no commode here. He was taking my stool and urine. Does it mean he is a sweeper? He's a sannyāsī Vaiṣṇava. Similarly, āpani ācari' jīve śikhāilā. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "I am not a sannyāsī." But He took sannyāsa. Actually He is God, so what is the benefit of becoming a sannyāsī, for God? But He became that. (break) In order to serve the mass of people, to bring them to the ideal position, we should try to introduce this varṇāśrama, not that we are going to be candidates of varṇāśrama. It is not our business. But to teach them how the world will be in peaceful position we have to introduce. Now the days of wind will come from March.

Satsvarūpa: Winds begin?

Prabhupāda: And April this wind is...

Satsvarūpa: Winds begin now?

Bhavānanda: Yes. They'll start to come from the south. Vaikuṇṭha breezes.

Prabhupāda: Now here is a very nice institution for the benefit of the whole society human.

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: Because they can't think of anything beyond that...

Prabhupāda: Fools. "Therefore you have no brain. It requires to be washed. Your brain is filled up with stools, so we have to wash it. What can be done? Our, this business is washing. We cannot foolishly... We are sweeper on behalf of God, and we are engaged to wash your stool in the brain. That is our business." (laughter) You can say, "Yes, brainwashing, yes. Because you have got so much stool in your brain, we require to wash it." Tell like that. "We are engaged by Kṛṣṇa. Because you are satisfied, instead of having a real brain, you have got stool in the brain. You are so rascal, you are satisfied. But we are seeing, it is so obnoxious, hampering your existence. Therefore it is my thankless duty to wash it. You should have thanked me, but you are so fool, you are condemning."

Ādi-keśava: Because they have stool in their brain...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Madhusudana -- Los Angeles 1 February, 1968:

Yes, the analogy concerning the spiritual body of the Sat-Guru is acceptable, but not in the material sense. In the material world, the gold box and the gold plated box may be different in price, but in spiritual world there is no such distinction. There the gold box and the gold plated box are the same. In material world there is difference between a sweeper and a cooker; in the spiritual world a person who sweeps the Temple and a person who worships in the Temple are all the same. That is absolute knowledge.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Karandhara -- Bhaktivedanta Manor 19 July, 1973:

Your victory over the scientist who was saying that life comes from dust is very good. We should not take such nonsense from them. We should speak up against such false theorists and say, "Don't talk such nonsense please. Don't mislead the public. You are taking big salaries and leading the public wrongly. It would be better for you to be a street sweeper and earn an honest livelihood instead of cheating."