Prabhupāda: So He accepted spiritual... Not spiritual master, but a sannyāsa-guru. That is also master, but he's not spiritual master. But he's also considered as sannyāsa-guru, spiritual master who offers him sannyāsa. Just like myself, I took initiation from my Guru Maharaja, but I took sannyāsa from a Godbrother who is a sannyāsī. So my original guru is that spiritual master who initiated me, but he's also a śikṣā guru. Like that. Teacher. Then His renunciation of householder. He became sannyāsa. Now when He was, after taking sannyāsa, when He was going towards Vṛndāvana, He became always almost mad. So Nityānanda, He was with Him. When He saw that Lord Caitanya is in ecstasy, He misled Him just to... His plan was that "I shall take Lord Caitanya to the house of Advaita, and then I shall call His mother to see Him for the last time. If Caitanya goes away from this very point His mother will not be able to see Him." So out of sympathy He said, "Well, Śrīpāda Caitanya, this is not, this side is not Vṛndāvana.
Sympathy (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1967 Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Initiated members, there are about one hundred or little more, but sympathizers, admirers, there are many. Those who come, those who contribute, take sympathy, they help, and in that way there are many followers. But actually initiated members, there are about a little more than one hundred.
Interviewer: What is the significance of... Right after the chanting, everyone bows, and that I don't understand, what they're doing.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is offering respect. The whole, our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is to ask people to surrender to God. They have rebelled against God. Somebody says, "There is no God." Somebody says that "I am God." These nonsense things are to be eradicated from human society.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: But if he remains here, you say, "It must remain," he says, "It must be burned," and then there will be kalaha, quarrel. You see? Better you let him travel, and when he comes, if he gives his suggestion that "This tree should be burned," and now you decide whether it should be burned or should remain. And if he works outside, then we can very quickly develop because we get outside sympathy for developing this center. I think that should be the way. What it is bringing?
Śyāma: Paper.
Prabhupāda: Some paper. (laughs) So inside-outside work must be done. Bahyābhyantaram śuciḥ. You know that verse?
Prabhupāda: Some paper. (laughs) So inside-outside work must be done. Bahyābhyantaram śuciḥ. You know that verse?
- apavitraḥ pavitro vā
- sarvāvasthaṁ gato 'pi vā
- yaḥ smaret puṇḍerīkākṣam
- sa bahyābhyantaram śuciḥ
So we have to develop this center from outside work and inside work. Outside work means to draw sympathy of the people, to draw money for development. This is also required. We have got a very big scheme. It is not possible that by one man's earning we can do that. It is not possible. We require millions of dollars for developing. If we want to construct here temples, at least seven temples, nicely, so that requires huge amount. So outsiders' sympathy must be there. There is no scarcity of money in your country. Simply they have to be educated that "We are doing something very nice. Please come and help." And that will be nice, in my opinion, that let him come, stay here for one month, again go out for two months, again come here. And he sees how things are going on. He suggests.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I think... No... You see, if we actually serious about developing this place, then we must do propaganda work outside also. Not only inside management, but outside also, we should draw the sympathy of the people. Don't you think it is necessary?
Hayagrīva: It's necessary.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hayagrīva: But my question was that I won't get any cooperation from people if they think that my being in charge here is a concession. You see? I won't get any cooperation from anyone.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest (4): Yes. Yes. Mahārāja, I am a teacher of Sanskrit and English in one of the higher secondary schools here and I am very much interested...
Prabhupāda: So you join us. Simply lip sympathy will not do. Just like these boys and girls, they have joined wholeheartedly. So I do not find any Indians.
Guest (4): I am ready to join but for my family liabilities. Is there is some...?
Prabhupāda: So you can join. You are family man, so it is not that we have no family men. We have got many family men. Now, they are all family. These girls, they have got a husband. And some of them, they are living separately. Just like one of my students, Professor Howard Wheeler. He is married man. He is living separately. Not separately. He is also conducting our, one establishment, New Vrindaban. So it is not that one has to live with us. He can live separately also, but his whole life is dedicated to Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. But they're not taking the guidance. Just like the Christians. Jesus guiding him, "Thou shalt not kill," but they're killing. Where is the Jesus guidance? Simply by saying, "I am guided by Jesus Christ," will do? "But I don't care for his words." Is that guidance? So nobody is being guided by Jesus Christ. They're falsely claiming. It is very hard to find out a man who is actually being guided by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ's guidance is open there, but nobody is caring for him. They have taken Jesus Christ as contractor to take up their sins. That is their philosophy. They commit all kinds of sins, and poor Jesus Christ will be responsible. That is their religion. Therefore they say, "We have got very good religion. For all our sinful activities, Jesus Christ will die." Very good religion. They have no sympathy for Jesus Christ. "Once he has died for our sins, why should we commit again sins? Such a great life has been sacrificed for our sins." That is guided by Jesus Christ.
Prabhupāda: If we organize our Bombay, then we shall regularly teach all the students from the very beginning. And in London also we shall. London, Dallas. So that these students will be transferred. Their parents will be very glad that our students have gone to foreign countries for study. We shall have very, very good sympathy(?). Our only policy will be the students should be taught very nice English for understanding our books.
Gurudāsa: In Bombay rather than Māyāpur?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Gurudāsa: In Bombay rather than...
Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Everywhere. But you make higher study, higher study, higher study.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: You, you work very hard. This rascal government takes taxes and spend unnecessarily. That's all. This is their intelligence. A set of asses. That's all. They have no sympathy "that this hard-earned money is coming from the public, and we are spending like anything." But nobody can check. This is going on. And they're giving another bluff. "Don't worry. I am going another planet."
Brahmānanda: Yeah, right. Another one.
Prabhupāda: Yes. "From there, I shall bring more dust."
Brahmānanda: Another future.
Prabhupāda: More dust. Now you have got handful of dust. I'll bring tons of dust. Don't.... And if I... "Oh, yes, now we shall get tons of dust." The rascal does not know, dust is dust, and tons... What is the meaning?
Prabhupāda: That is education. This is not education. This is simply waste of time. Because you cannot change your destiny. Now, take for example, there are so many agricultural improvements. Does it mean that there is no person who is needy? There are so many needy persons. But has the agricultural education improved their lot? No. Starving people are still there. Rather, those who can produce, they're producing and throwing into the sea. They'll not part with it for the poor men who are starving. Then where is the advancement of education? You produce more by advanced agricultural process and then throw it into the ocean. Real purpose was to produce more to see that nobody's hungry. That is not being done. There is no sympathy. This is not civilization. This is a hodge-podge. Simply wasting labor. That's all. Now here, the Parliament, now what is the use of Parliament? They have lost their empire. What is the use of Parliament? Formerly they had to rule all over the world. So representative, Parliament... Now they have got... What they have got? But still they have got the Parliament, the bodyguard, the King, Queen. Show only. Without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, this so-called advancement of civilization has no meaning. Simply waste of time.
Prabhupāda: Topless, bottomless. That is going on. It is a regular policy that girls may remain unmarried, and the drunkards and the meat-eaters may take advantage of the prostitution. This is the policy. They have no sympathy. So many hundreds and thousands of innocent girls, they're like children. And they're exposed to prostitution. They have no shelter. Now these girls who are with us, they're feeling some shelter, you see? That we are giving some shelter. Everything should be reformed, political, social, and be, you American nation—you're favored nation, that I am always speaking; you should utilize the favor of God and be yourself perfect—and be leader of the whole world. Anyone who is not believer in God, he should be punished. Because he's animal. He is animal, and he is posing himself as human being. Cheater. Human life is meant for tapasya, for understanding God. That is human life.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That is a sympathy. But you cannot change it. That is not possible. It is very good sympathy.
Devotee (1): This poet, in her poetry, her business was to try to create that sentiment.
Prabhupāda: (Sanskrit) He is not poet. Poet means he must have full knowledge. Then if he writes poetry, that will be beneficial. The rascal's poetry, just like in your country, one line, three lines, one line. This is rascaldom; it is not poetry. (aside:) You should not show your feet before the Deity. That is possible only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We teach our men to address his fellow man as prabhu: "You are master, I am servant." In the material world, everyone is trying to become master; nobody is trying to become servant. And we are teaching that you try to become servant. Just the opposite. Nobody will agree. Therefore, they say the Vaiṣṇava religion is slave mentality. They say. They do not know that it is success of life to become slave of Kṛṣṇa. They do not know. Who has become happy trying to become master?
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes, people are sinful, they will not do nicely, and now, by nature... Just like this child killing. They did it in his previous life. Now he is suffering. He will be killed. The nature's reaction. We are taking sympathy with the child who is being killed, but we do not know that he did the same business. Now he is being killed. That is nature's law.
Paramahaṁsa: The person who doesn't know, he thinks that the child is innocent...
Prabhupāda: Innocent child. He's not innocent. He is sinful. He is being, what is called, chastised. Svakarma-phala-rūpa-jīva. That is the word, svakarma. One suffers... (aside:) You can sit down here, just like... Everyone suffers the reaction of his own work. Svakarma-phala-rūpa-jīva. Because he is a child, he takes sympathy, "Oh, such a small child is being killed." We take it like that. It is that he is the potent criminal. Now he is being punished.
Prabhupāda: In the civilized human society there is some system of religion. So that system of religion means try to understand God. Religion means the law given by God. So civilized human beings, they are trying to understand God and His laws. That is called religion. Now the difference between dog and me is that I can try to understand what is God, what is my position; the dog cannot understand. Dog means the animals. They cannot understand. So that is the difference between a human being and a dog. If we give up religion or the method to understand God and our relationship with Him, then we will remain dog. Then we remain dog. We are not human being. So at the present moment the so-called human society, civilized human society, is giving up the conception of God, understanding God, especially the Communist party. They are openly declaring that "We don't believe in God." But those who are not Communists, they, lip sympathy, they say that "Yes, we believe in God," but actually they do not believe.
Prabhupāda: But that you do not know, how to do good to the people. Just like a diseased man. The doctor has ordered that he should starve. But if you go in the hospital and you take sympathy with the starving patient, "Oh, you are starving for the last three days," if you give to him some food without the permission of the physician, then you will be punished. So he may think that "Oh, here is a starving man. I must give him some food." But you are liable to be punished. So first of all learn how to do good to others. So that is described here. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido (SB 1.5.18). To bring him to the knowledge of self-realization, that is good. If you can distribute knowledge to bring him back to his consciousness, original consciousness, that is real welfare activity. Otherwise, if you manufacture something that "This man is starving: let me give him some food," it may be wrongly done, and you are liable to be punished.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: What is the...? (reading) "No work in all Indian literature is more quoted. Because none is better loved in the West than the Bhagavad-gītā. Translation of such work demands not only knowledge of Sanskrit but an inward sympathy with the theme and a verbal..." What is called?
Devotees: Artistry.
Prabhupāda: "Artistry. But the poem is a symphony in which God is seen in all things. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda is, of course, profoundly sympathetic to the theme. He brings to it a special interpretative insight. Here we have a powerful and persuasive presentation in the bhakti tradition of this dearly beloved poem. The Swami's introduction makes clear at once where he stands as a leading exponent of Kṛṣṇa consciousness." That is my actual...
Prabhupāda: He does not feel lowest. He takes sympathy that "Here is a person. He can be a devotee. So let me raise him to the standard." He does not think that he is lowest. Devotee always thinks that he is lower than the worm. But it is the duty. It is the duty. It does not mean that he is thinking, "I am higher." No.
Guru dāsa: That's again mercy.
Prabhupāda: Mercy.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In other words, he doesn't consider that he's advanced and that therefore he is showing mercy to lower.
Prabhupāda: They have got good sympathy for Indian culture.
Dr. Patel: And if they read it, then Karl Marx teaching will go away.
Prabhupāda: And we are getting enquiries from Russia of our books, about our books. We are getting enquiries. I am sending Gopāla Kṛṣṇa to make market of our books.
Guru dāsa: They have some of our books already in Russia.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: If they start reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavata and Bhagavad-gītā, then Karl Marx will be lost because the sanātana-dharma is a spiritual communism in fact.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: They said Rāmāyaṇa by Tulasī dāsa, translated in English, and it was finished within a week. They have got little sympathy for Indian culture.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? This idea that he was discussing, how we naturally have a tendency to possess something.... If I don't possess the state, I possess the body. Is this the disease?
Prabhupāda: Yes. We have to nullify this, that "I don't possess anything; God possess everything." Then it is perfection.
Dr. Patel: No, that is why, sir, this communism cannot survive, because they say that afterward the state will vanish. It will evaporate. How can it evaporate without spiritualism there at the back? They have a materialistic ideology and material, I mean, there are changes. There is nothing permanent in material. So the communism, so-called material communism, dialectic materialism of Karl Marx, are not full. (break)
Guru dāsa: Your name is man, and Dr. Patel.... You've been given a title, "Dr. Patel."
Prabhupāda: Yes, they have got all the sense, all the sympathy. For eating, sleeping, mating, they have got all intelligence.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What I mean to say is, physiologically speaking, at least from biological viewpoint, some of these creatures don't even have hearts. They're much easier to manufacture, the parts of their bodies.
Prabhupāda: You say there is no heart just like you say no soul. That is your vers.... I say that "When he is doing everything like a human being he has got everything." It is your insufficient knowledge that you say that.... Just like you say there is no soul. But that is your insufficient knowledge. That's not the fact. Kṛṣṇa says, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna (BG 18.61). When Īśvara is in everyone's heart, how you can.... Hṛd-deśe. How you say there is no heart? That is nonsense, another nonsense.
Prabhupāda: About ten to twelve thousand, directly dedicated. Otherwise millions, they are reading our books. They have sympathy. We are selling books very nicely, daily twenty thousand dollar minimum all over the world. In learned circle, big, big universities, professors, they are appreciating. We have many congratulations.
Mr. Dixon: And the funds that you derive from the books...
Prabhupāda: Book Trust. That is explained.
Mr. Dixon: ...are used within your congre..., within the people that live in...
Prabhupāda: Yes. I make a Book Trust. That is my will, that from all the collection of the books fifty percent for reprinting and fifty percent for expanding these temples, these buildings. In this way.
Prabhupāda: No, we want to, what is called, reject that society. We cannot become sympathetic with everyone. That is not our policy. Asat-saṅga-tyāga vaiṣṇava ācāra. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He was asked what is the general behavior of a Vaiṣṇava, He said that the first thing is that you should give up bad company. So these are bad company. We cannot have any sympathy. We cannot make any compromise with everyone. That is not possible. The modern scientists, they have made quarantine? Quarantine? What is that?
Hari-śauri: Separation.
Prabhupāda: Hah.
Hari-śauri: If someone has a disease, they separate.
Prabhupāda: Those who are infected, they should be separated. You cannot make any compromise.
Prabhupāda: Because we are intelligent. I love you. Therefore you'll die and you'll become a dog, so I am taking sympathy on you that "Don't become a dog." Every human being is anxious. The example is given just like a child flying kite and is going this way, this way, on the roof. Now on the edge of the roof, so one gentleman standing, "Hey, you'll fall down." That is his duty. He says, "Why you are checking me?" (laughter) "Why you are checking me?" "Because I am human being. You are foolish boy. Therefore I am checking you." That is natural. Even a child, or the boy is not his son, but because he is a gentleman, he wants to give him some protection. It is the duty of gentleman. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to the Indians, that "You become perfect and go and give this knowledge to the rest of the world. They are all rascals." Bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra (CC Adi 9.41). It is para-upakāra, humanitarian. You may say "Why do you bother?" But as a human being, I bother. Every human being will do that. Kṛṣṇa comes, bothering Himself. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7).
Devotee (2): He's favorable, but he won't come to the temple.
Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter. But he has got sympathy.
Devotee (2): Yes, he's very nice, sympathetic. But he didn't come to help us at all. And we approached him for life member, he said he would, but then he never did.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Slow... He'll come around.
Prabhupāda: The another medical man, he's also working?
Devotee (2): Medical man, he's very favorable. He comes every day to the temple.
Prabhupāda: So he's a devotee.
Prabhupāda: So that, general food is there, but special, special mercy, is for the devotee. Just like you have got sympathy for all the children, but you have got special sympathy for your own children.
Guest (4): How many āśramas do you have in India?
Prabhupāda: India, I have got about six, seven.
Devotee: Eight. Eight.
Prabhupāda: Eight. Out of 102, in India I have got only eight. In America we have got forty centers.
Hari-śauri: Fifty with the farms.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) Dāśyu-dharma. Their business will be how to plunder. Because at the present moment the so-called democracy means, to tell the truth, all cunning, third-class, fourth-class men, they are doing. They have no sympathy for the general public. Their only aim is, so long he's in the office, gather as much money as possible. Am I right or not?
Mr. Asnani: Yes, sir.
Prabhupāda: That means plunder. So if you remain with no money, who will plunder? Because they are becoming plunderer, you remain without any bhūtīs.
Girirāja: Sanātana Gosvāmī, when he suspected that they were going to steal, he told, "Get rid of it."
Prabhupāda: We don't say; you are saying. We don't say. We say that you must be punished without food. You are dying without food. That is your proper justice. We say that. We are not anxious to this daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. We are not. We give. Whatever we have got, we distribute prasādam. That's all. We are not concerned about their daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. That is not our business. Suppose there are so many persons, they are without food in the hospital. Doctor has prescribed, "No food." What you can do there? Can you show your sympathy? "Oh, so many persons are lying without... Let us give." Then you'll be beaten with shoes.
Yogeśvara: Because you haven't understood the purpose.
Prabhupāda: We don't say; you are saying. We don't say. We say that you must be punished without food. You are dying without food. That is your proper justice. We say that. We are not anxious to this daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. We are not. We give. Whatever we have got, we distribute prasādam. That's all. We are not concerned about their daridra-nārāyaṇa-sevā. That is not our business. Suppose there are so many persons, they are without food in the hospital. Doctor has prescribed, "No food." What you can do there? Can you show your sympathy? "Oh, so many persons are lying without... Let us give." Then you'll be beaten with shoes.
Yogeśvara: Because you haven't understood the purpose.
Prabhupāda: If you go with sympathy that "So many hungry persons are here," then you will be beaten with shoes. That we know, That we should not disturb the arrangement of the hospital. We are saner. But you are disturbed. "Oh, so many people are starving. Let me give him some." You are rascal.
Hari-śauri: But why should we be callous to the sufferings of others?
Prabhupāda: Yes! Because the arrangement is there, hospital, he should not have food. Why shall I disturb him? I must be callous. That is intelligent. I know that when the hospital, the doctor's keeping in starvation, it is good for him. Why shall I disturb?
Prabhupāda: Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, with Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, Home Member will be very glad. He's in sympathy.
Ādi-keśava: I can, perhaps, stop in Delhi...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Ādi-keśava: ...before I go back.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Ādi-keśava: I also have met some men there now.
Prabhupāda: Give me.
Prabhupāda: Less intelligent. Therefore it is our duty to educate them, out of sympathy. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. Paścimera loka saba mūḍha anācāra: "The Western peoples, they are mūḍhas and anācāras." So this mission is paropakāra, to give them knowledge and how to become civilized. This is the mission.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: And men like Dr. Sharma can help us a lot.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: He is medical doctor, medical field. He can write some articles on especially these problems in biochemistry and the medicinal aspects. One can do a lot.
Prabhupāda: You have seen his small booklet?
Sita Ram Singh: No, I belong to Bihar. I come from the... (explains where he is coming from, about his family, political party, etc., difficult to understand) But what I want, I want darśana. And if you have got any sympathy for me, kindly...
Prabhupāda: I have got sympathy for everyone.
Sita Ram Singh: Ah, yes.
Prabhupāda: Unfortunately nobody cares to hear.
Sita Ram Singh: That's right.
Prabhupāda: They have their own program. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). Blind men leading blind men. You realize that your Constitution is defective?
Prabhupāda: That they are already presenting. We want this help. Let us see how the judgment... It is a test. And if there is no sympathy, then who would approve? Because we have to mix with these politicians very carefully. They can do more harm than good.
Bhakti-caitanya: They do that. There was one Indira Gandhi's..., like as a guru, Dhirendra Brahmacari, and now every day news, bad news, are coming in the newspaper, we understand, because he becomes very much close to Indira Gandhi and his son. All his yoga-āśrama in Kashmir... He built up big āśrama, and the government, they were giving him aid, many lakhs rupees, every year. Now this Janata government took over. He had a... They took over the land and everything, and now they are going to send even back here, because he was so much mixed with the politicians.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
| Page Title: | Sympathy (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Mayapur, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 30 of Oct, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=32, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 32 |