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Thatched cottage

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.13.58, Translation:

While outside observing her husband, who will burn in the fire of mystic power along with his thatched cottage, his chaste wife will enter the fire with rapt attention.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.12 Summary:

A person in the vānaprastha order is restricted in eating food grains and forbidden to eat fruits that have not ripened on the tree. Nor should he cook food with fire, although he is allowed to eat caru, grains that have been offered in a sacrificial fire. He may also eat fruits and grains that have grown naturally. Living in a thatched cottage, the vānaprastha should endure all kinds of heat and cold. He should not cut his nails or hair, and he should give up cleaning his body and teeth. He should wear tree bark, accept a daṇḍa, and practice life in the forest, taking a vow to live there for twelve years, eight years, four years, two years or at least one year. At last, when because of old age he can no longer perform the activities of a vānaprastha, he should gradually stop everything and in this way give up his body.

SB 7.12.20, Translation:

A vānaprastha should prepare a thatched cottage or take shelter of a cave in a mountain only to keep the sacred fire, but he should personally practice enduring snowfall, wind, fire, rain and the shining of the sun.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 11.31, Purport:

His former name, according to the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (127), was Vasudāma. Śītala-grāma is situated near the Maṅgalakoṭa police station and Kaicara post office in the district of Burdwan. On the narrow railway from Burdwan to Katwa is a railway station about nine miles from Katwa known as Kaicara. One has to go about a mile northeast of this station to reach Śītala. The temple was a thatched house with walls made of dirt. Some time ago, the zamindars of Bājāravana Kābāśī, the Mulliks, constructed a big house for the purpose of a temple, but for the last sixty-five years the temple has been broken down and abandoned. The foundation of the old temple is still visible. There is a tulasī pillar near the temple, and every year during the month of Kārttika (October-November) the disappearance day of Dhanañjaya is observed. It is said that for some time Paṇḍita Dhanañjaya was in a saṅkīrtana party under the direction of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and then he went to Vṛndāvana.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 1.61, Translation:

After composing this verse, Rūpa Gosvāmī wrote it on a palm leaf and put it on the roof of the thatched house in which he was living.

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 1.80, Translation:

After writing this verse on a palm leaf, Rūpa Gosvāmī put it somewhere in his thatched roof and went to bathe in the sea.

CC Antya 3.168, Translation:

In the village, Haridāsa Ṭhākura was given a solitary thatched cottage, where he performed the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. He accepted prasādam at the house of Balarāma Ācārya.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 16:

The hunter then broke his bow and fell down at the feet of Nārada. Nārada got him to stand up, and he instructed him: "Just go to your home and distribute whatever money and valuables you have to the devotees and the brāhmaṇas. Then come out and follow me wearing only one cloth. Construct a small thatched house on the riverbank and sow a tulasī plant by that house. Just circumambulate the tulasī tree, and every day taste one fallen leaf. Above all, always chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. As far as your livelihood is concerned, I shall send you the grains you need, but you must accept only as much grain as you require for yourself and your wife."

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 7.9.55 -- Vrndavana, April 10, 1976:

In the history of the devotees there was one devotee of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Īśāna. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu wanted to give him some benediction. He was very poor man. Even his roof, thatched roof, that was not properly... There were so many holes. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "My dear Īśāna, if you like, you can take some benediction." "No, why I shall take benediction?" "No, you have no roof even on your thatched house." He said, "Why? There are many birds. They are living on the tree. There is no roof at all. I have got roof with some holes, that's all. And they have no roof at all, so how they are living? For this purpose I shall ask You benediction? No, no, no." In this way he refused. So that is pure devotion, that "I shall not take any benediction from the Lord, but I shall give everything to God." This is. There is competition. The Lord wants to give the devotee all opulences, and the devotee refuses to accept it. He wants to give his life and soul to the Lord. This is perfection. The gopīs, the gopīs, the ideal, the topmost devotee, they gave their everything to Kṛṣṇa, but they did not ask anything from Kṛṣṇa. Their honor, their body, their life—everything, sacrificed everything.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: We passed, when we passed while coming from aerodrome to city...

Ambassador: From...

Prabhupāda: So many thatched cottages, small. So Bombay government has given them home, that "You come here, live." But what do they...? they rent to some, another man, and they live in the... In Madras also, I have seen.

Ambassador: I know. That's true.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They don't like. They don't like. They want to...

Ambassador: They roam, yes. It's what the gypsies did, you know.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Ambassador: When they were given houses in Moscow.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Very small.

Caraṇāravindam: I plan to grow mālatī up this side.

Prabhupāda: You grow, on the thatched roof they grow squash.

Hari-śauri: I think they were doing that in Māyāpur. There was one big plant growing on the...

Prabhupāda: So that the family can get one squash, that is sufficient for family. Vegetable. People used to live formerly without any worries. Everything was so easily available, at least foodstuffs. They had no anxiety.

Caraṇāravindam: Little effort, just basic, a little work and...

Prabhupāda: They got their own paddy from the field, milk, some vegetables. Those who are fish eaters, they have got small lake, fish. Whole family without any... "Where I shall get money?" "How shall I eat?" These things were absent. Even the poor man.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: These poor Japanese, in two, three wars they attempted to expand. They are very poor in their land. Practically they have no place, very poor. Only by some technical knowledge they are maintaining. Otherwise they have no food, no shelter. Very poor country. I have studied. The Dai Nippon directors, they are living in a thatched house. And their system is: big company, they supply everything—food, cloth, medicine, children's education, and little salary. So people do not leave the post.

Hari-śauri: Yes. Because their whole life is there.

Prabhupāda: They are not independent. Fully dependent on the employer. So they give poor salary. Dai Nippon has their own hospital, own education, and everything, big industry. And little salary, that's all. So whatever house they allot, they have to accept. And I have seen the director living in a cottage like this almost. So Japanese actually they are poor. Only the capitalists, they have got... Therefore their yen value... You go to purchase—"Two thousand yen." You'll be surprised, "So much paying!" But it has no value. "One million yen." (laughs) In the beginning I... "What is this nonsense? So much?"

Correspondence

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

Letter to Jawaharlal Nehru -- Bombay 4 August, 1958:

Poverty means poverty of knowledge. Prime minister Canakya Pandit used to live in a thatched house or cottage but he was the dictator of India in the days of Emperor Candra Gupta. Mahatma Gandhi your political Guru voluntarily accepted the ways of the so called poor Indians and still he was the dictator of India's destiny. But was he actually poverty sticken on account of his plain living with the primitive charkha? He was always proud of his spiritual knowledge. Therefore it is the spiritual knowledge which makes a man really rich and not the radio set or the motor car. Please therefore try to understand this position of Indian culture and try to give it to the western brothers in the prescribed standard method of the liberated persons and that will be an exchange of Indian culture with western material advancement and necessarily bring in a happy life in the peaceful world.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Bombay 9 November, 1975:

So in the Western countries they are selling their churches and farms which we require. That is also Krsna's plan. In U.S.A. there is enough land and if we organize we can become very big party—Hare Krsna party. We can occupy America and make them all become Krsna conscious. Regarding the St. Louis farm, yes, we can work and build some small cottages with thatched roofs provided we get men. It is very encouraging; you should get this farm. Ten at least are sufficient to run a farm. Regarding Denver, it is very good that they are regularly having kirtana in the colleges and that three new brahmacaries have joined. Just see the result. And also one new householder couple. Regarding the devotee taking a second wife, it is all right from Vedic culture, but is not right from American law view point. That you have to adjust.

Page Title:Thatched cottage
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:07 of Jul, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=3, CC=4, OB=1, Lec=1, Con=3, Let=2
No. of Quotes:14