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This is a photograph we've received of your Guru Maharaja. Should the painters, should they paint this type of pictures?

Expressions researched:
"And they can distribute to the centers"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Yes. Not all family members.
Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:

Bhakti-devī dāsī: Can we decide what we want to be in our next life?

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can decide. Just like we have decided next life we are going to Kṛṣṇa. This is our decision: back to home, back to Godhead. Just like you become educated, after decision that you are going to be engineer, you are going to be medical practitioner, and in that objective you prepare yourself, educate yourself. Similarly, you can decide what you are going to do next life. If you don't decide, then material nature will decide. Just like a boy who is not nicely educated, without any future objective, the government will decide. If he's a criminal, then government will decide, "Go to jail," and if he's nicely educated, the government will decide, "You take this job." So everything is like that. We have got our future life, and if we don't prepare what is that future life, then we are like animals. The animals, they do not know.

Bhakti-devī dāsī: Well how can I know if I wasn't Kṛṣṇa conscious in my last life...

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bhakti-devī dāsī: If I... How can I know if I wasn't Kṛṣṇa conscious in my last life?

Prabhupāda: Therefore you are given the chance to become Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Bhakti-devī dāsī: Could I have been in my last life?

Prabhupāda: You may not be. It doesn't matter. But you can become, take advantage of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: She's asking if it was possible in her last life she was a Kṛṣṇa's devotee, in her last life, and come back again? If you're a Kṛṣṇa's devotee coming back again. In your last...

Prabhupāda: When one is perfectly Kṛṣṇa's devotee, he may not come, but if there is little deficiency, then there is possibility of coming back. But even though there is deficiency, he comes back to nice family, śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo sañjāyate (BG 6.41). (aside:) What is this? Human intelligence can decide for future. That is human intelligence. The animal cannot decide. We have got that discriminating power developed, "I shall do this, I will be benefited. If I do this, I shall not be benefited." This is there in human life. So we have to use it properly. We should know what is our goal of life and decide in that way. That is human intelligence. What is that?

Bali-mardana: This is a photograph we've received of your Guru Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Bali-mardana: Yadubara, I think he has sent many from the family collection of Lalitā Prasāda. The painters...

Prabhupāda: So keep it and frame it, and keep it in my room.

Bali-mardana: Should the painters, should they paint such uh, this type of pictures?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why not.

Bali-mardana: And they can distribute to the centers?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not all family members.

Bali-mardana: Just...

Prabhupāda: Simply Guru Mahārāja.

Bali-mardana: All right. What about this of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura?

Prabhupāda: Oh, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, but not that all family.

Bali-mardana: Yes.

Bhakti-devī dāsī: Have you ever seen Kṛṣṇa?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhakti-devī dāsī: You have?

Prabhupāda: Daily. Every moment.

Bhakti-devī dāsī: But not in the material..., not in the material body?

Prabhupāda: Huh? No in... He has no material body.

Bhakti-devī dāsī: Well in the temple here they have pictures of Kṛṣṇa...

Prabhupāda: That is not material. You are seeing material...

Bhakti-devī dāsī: Uh huh.

Prabhupāda: ...because you have got material eyes. Because your, you have got your material eyes, you cannot see the spiritual form. Therefore He kindly appears to be in a material body so that you can see. This is the point. Because He has kindly made Himself just fit for your seeing, that does not mean He is..., that He has material body. Just like President Nixon, if he kindly comes to your house, it does not mean that his position and your position is the same. It is his kindness, out of love, he may come to your house, but that does not mean he is on the same level with you. Similarly, because we cannot see with our present eyes what is Kṛṣṇa, therefore Kṛṣṇa appears before us as painting, as made of stone, as made of wood. And Kṛṣṇa is not different from these paintings and wood because everything is Kṛṣṇa.

Page Title:This is a photograph we've received of your Guru Maharaja. Should the painters, should they paint this type of pictures?
Compiler:Marc, Rishab
Created:26 of Jul, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1