Go to Vanipedia | Go to Vanisource | Go to Vanimedia


Vaniquotes - the compiled essence of Vedic knowledge


This is the problem (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: Is there conflict with other Eastern religions, and if so, how far is this spread?

Prabhupāda: There is no conflict at all. The conflict is between persons who are godless, who does not believe in God. Conflict is there. The conflict is not between East and West; the conflict is between the atheists and the theists. We are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, not that we are trying to replace something by Indian method to Christian method or Jewish method. That is not our policy. This is... In one sense, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the post-graduate study of all religions. What is the method of religion? To accept the authority of God. That is the primary principle of every religion, may be Christian religion or Hindu religion or Mohammedan religion. It doesn't matter. But people are becoming godless. That is the problem. They are thinking that "There is no God. Nature is everything." That is their foolishness. They are unhappy for this godlessness. And as a result of this godlessness, the Communist party have sprang up, the hippies have sprang up and so many other things will gradually spring up. So there is no check. It is... The only check is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if people are taught that he can be happy only by reestablishing his eternal relationship with God. So our test of religion is how one has developed his God consciousness or love of God.

Talk During Prasada After Kirtana -- November 8, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Baby was not disturbing. I have received one letter from San Francisco. They are shortage of men. So Dinadayal is going back?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh no. We need more men here. (Prabhupāda laughs) We are so short. That is the problem. We have too few people here. Dīnadayālu is so essential. I was just going to ask you if we could have some more men. Jayarāma...

Prabhupāda: Create men. Bring some men.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- May 10, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Prabhupāda: Just like in dream he is falsely thinking there is a tiger. There is no tiger, but he is actuated by this false impression, "Oh, tiger is eating me. It has attacked me. Save me." So this material existence means because he is insane, he is thinking there are so many problems, "The tiger is there. He is attacking me. This, that, so many enemies, friends...," creating so many things. But they are all false. But he is attacked by that false hallucination. That's all. This is māyā. Everyone is thinking, "Oh, there are so many problems I have to solve. I have to make this, that, this, so many." But he has no problem. He has no problem. His only problem is how to accept Kṛṣṇa. That's all. And Kṛṣṇa is so kind. He says, "Yes, you accept Me. Simply chant Kṛṣṇa. I am yours. That's all." But my, I am so misfortunate that I cannot chant even. All problems solved simply by chanting Kṛṣṇa. Etādṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavān. Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches that "O Kṛṣṇa, You are so kind that You have come to Me in the sound vibration, word, 'Kṛṣṇa.' I can very easily chant, and You remain with Me.

Room Conversation -- September 24, 1969, London:

Prabhupāda: Just like... What to speak of ordinary man. President Kennedy. Oh, how much labor he had to undergo to occupy that post, how much money he spent to become president. But he had to quit his family, his wife, his state, his post. So this is going on. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). For sometimes we are engaged in this way; then again we are annihilated. Again begin another life, enter into another mother's womb, construct another body, then come out, then again begin work, again the same thing, digging and piling, digging and piling, again going away. Is that very good business? This is the karmīs. Karmīs means worker, fruitive worker. They want some result for their work. They are called karmīs. So the karmīs are engaged in this way. (Doorbell rings) In Bhagavad-gītā these karmīs have been described as rascals, mūḍha. Mūḍha. Because they do not know why they are digging, why they are piling and why they are leaving again everything. You can sit here, in the corner. I, I... Ask these boys, yes. This is the problem. The whole world is engaged very busy. Any city you go, they're very busy. The motor car is going this way, that way, and everywhere is constructing and so many things are going on. But if you put this question, "Why you are doing this business, digging somewhere and piling somewhere, again leaving the whole thing?"... (Aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. They have no answer.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 21, 1970, Surat:

Prabhupāda: Other things, already there are. For the birds and beasts there is no problem for eating. Why your problem should be? Just like a prisoner. He has no problem for eating. The government supplies. He has only problem that he should not be criminal. That is his problem. He should try for that: "No more I shall become a criminal." That is the real activity. But he thinks... If in the prisonhouse you say, "What shall I eat?" no, eating is already there. Even you are a prisoner, the government has supplied his eating. Similarly, God has supplied everyone, cats and dogs, for eating. Why not for you? You have created your own problem. Real problem is how to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ (SB 1.5.18). Kṛṣṇa consciousness is that.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Darsana -- June 28, 1971, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: So first there is kuṭīcaka means he gives up the connection of the family life, takes sannyāsa officially, but he is not accustomed to maintain himself independently; therefore, he goes out of the village and makes a cottage and lives there. And the foodstuff, the home supply, that is called kuṭīca. Kuṭī means cottage. Then when he is little practiced, then he says family members that "Don't bring foodstuffs. I shall go to every village man and ask something for my food. I shall depend on them, not on you." That is called bahūdaka. Bahū means many. Not accepting food from one place but from many. Then when he is prac... Because first problem is problem, when he is practiced, "Now Kṛṣṇa is giving us food, so why shall I remain in one place? Let me preach." That is called parivrājakācārya, when he is preaching. Parivrājaka. Parivrājaka means wandering all over. Then when he is experienced, when his preaching is done, he can sit down in one place.

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

Dr. Weir: The problem is that you only have the opportunity of hearing or reading what somebody else has said what they have said. So you're back again on the trouble of diversity of observation and opinion.

Prabhupāda: No. So far we are concerned we are receiving knowledge directly from God. Just like Bhagavad-gītā. It is accepted, spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore if you take conclusion from the speeches delivered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead that is fact. That is very easy authority. Just like the other day I was explaining to Mr. (indistinct) You are searching after who is your father but if you simply ask your mother, "Who is my father?" The truth is immediately disclosed. Immediately.

Interview with Reporters -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: By nature every Indian born is Kṛṣṇa conscious, but at the present moment they are trying to forget Him. That is the problem, going on.

Reporter: What part of Kṛṣṇa? Or just part of His life?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa, there is no part. Kṛṣṇa is absolute.

Reporter: He doesn't have form. For me, and for my child, Kṛṣṇa's here child life is very better.

Prabhupāda: For child, and for me or for you, simply try to understand that there is a person Kṛṣṇa. 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: So all the great sages and saintly persons, brāhmaṇas, they assembled together and began to consider, "Now what to be done? This rascal king has declared like this and making things hellish, what to do?"

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.

Room Conversation with John Griesser (later initiated as Yadubara Dasa) -- March 10, 1972, Vrndavana:

Guru dāsa: About this tape recording.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is not the question of "the Chinese are eating, I am not eating." It is a question that how many number of different types of body I got. It is not that I am talking of Chinaman eating man or dog. I may be in this form, next life. So, therefore, the problem is how to stop this transmigration of the soul. That is the problem. Not that because the Chinese man eats something else other than I eat, that does not mean that I am very much... (break) Therefore, we have to prepare ourself what kind of body we are going to have next. That is human civilization. But they do not believe in the transmigration of the soul. They do not believe in God. They do not believe in anything. Simply just like animals. This life—eating, sleeping, mating—do it to your best capacity. That is Kali-yuga. They have no knowledge, neither they are interested to know. Mandāḥ. And even they become little interested of spiritual..., a hodgepodge, no clear idea. Mandāḥ sumanda matayo (SB 1.1.10). And unfortunate, harassed in every field of life. And hy upadrutāḥ. And over and above everything, they are always disturbed by external enemies. This is the position of Kali-yuga. And this life shortened, duration of life. So how they can advance by following the regular Vedic process? It is not possible.

Room Conversation -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Śyāmasundara: In America now practically everyone has a house and a car. But now the problem is no one wants to work.

Prabhupāda: That's it. (laughs) Just see. And he is satisfied to remain as urchin, the hippies.

Devotees: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They feel pleasure to remain as an urchin.

Room Conversation and Interview with Ian Polsen -- July 31, 1972, London:

Indian: Medical science.

Prabhupāda: What medical science? Can they stop disease? That is the problem. If they can stop disease then I can accept that they know something. What is their...

Devotee: In India the doctors, simply by feeling your pulse they know everything that's wrong with you.

Prabhupāda: No. Even that. No physician can stop disease. He can suggest, "This is very nice medicine," but my problem is, "Why shall I become diseased?" That is my problem.

Ian Polsen: They only treat the symptoms, not the cause.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Well, you can give me some medicine, and for the time being I am cured, then again I fall diseased. You cannot stop disease. Suppose you have got a very nice coat. That's all right. But one who has got not so nice coat, so what is the difference?

Devotee: Coat.

Room Conversation and Interview with Ian Polsen -- July 31, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: British Empire, when there was British Empire, when they were getting money from all over the world, somehow or other they constructed so many big, big buildings. Now they are encouraging not so big, and now it is difficult to maintain it. We can see practically that you have got so nice buildings in London, but it is not being properly maintained. You haven't got sufficient means now to maintain them. Therefore it was..., British Empire was for the time being that prosperity. Now to keep up your prestige you are concerned in so many ways. So anything you do in this material world, that is temporary. So many-Roman Empire, Moghul Empire, British Empire, Hitler Empire—they came and gone. But my real problem is that I am eternal, so what I am doing for my eternal life? That is it. Temporarily I may become very rich or poor, it doesn't matter. But people are being taught, "Oh, you are poor? You become rich." That's all. Just like our India trying to imitate the Western world. But they do not see that in the Western world, in America, in Europe, why these young boys, they are rejecting this materialistic way of life? These boys have come to me because they have rejected, they don't like. Just like you are coming.

Interview with the New York Times -- September 2, 1972, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: "One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna." So God is there; that's a fact. Anyone can go back to Him and live an eternal life full of bliss and knowledge simply by knowing about it. When God Himself comes, all great ācāryas, stalwart men accept Him: "Yes, He is God." If we simply understand God, we make a solution to all our problems. What is the problem? Because we are part and parcel of God, we are qualitatively equal with Him. God is eternal, and we are eternal. God is blissful, and we are blissful. God is full of knowledge; we are also full of knowledge. Unfortunately we are hampered by this material body. Therefore our problem is how to get out of this material body and come to our spiritual body.

Conversation with Bajaj and Bhusan -- September 11, 1972, Arlington, Texas, At Their Home:

Guest (2): The problem is most of the time we spend our life in rajo-guṇa.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Guest (2): The problem is most of the time...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (2): ...life goes in rajo-guṇa.

Prabhupāda: Tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa.

Guest (2): Tamo and rajo-guṇa. (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Śyāmasundara: Do you want us to distribute this? Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is special water from the Ganges if you want to drink some.

Prabhupāda: I have taken it, little. That's all. (pause) Harer nāma, harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). (pause) So tomorrow you are all invited. Please come. You are also invited.

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Indian man: Than demand, yes. That is the problem there: what to do with the stuff that you have got and that you are producing. That's an economic problem.

Pañca-draviḍa: Not just supply, quality. When you buy an orange and you have a glass of orange juice, it's orange, it's not yellow. (laughter)

Devotee (3): But by their lack of demand, we are reaping a harvest.

Prabhupāda: Yes, especially in California, oranges, if you compare orange here available... Dates, first-class dates, first-class orange. There is watermelon. All season you get watermelon, karmuj(?). First-class watermelon. And karmuj. And what is that special karmuj produced in Keśi-ghāṭa? That greenish?

Gurudāsa: Honeydew?

Indian man: There is no special name for it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is special in Vṛndāvana. That greenish.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Then He must be proprietor. But we are falsely claiming that, "I am the proprietor." So how you can be in peace? Suppose you steal something, somebody's property, and falsely claim, "I am proprietor," you'll never be peace because it is not your thing. You have stolen it. So in this way, if you... philosophy can be studied that God is the Supreme Proprietor, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthāḥ (ISO 1). You can simply use what is given to you. You cannot claim other's property. Just like in animal life, animal life, they do not claim that "This is my country." The birds, they do not claim, but they live very peacefully. There are crows, there are spa... What is called? So many birds, they live anywhere, everywhere, but they do not claim, "Oh, this is my country. This is my place." They do not claim. Therefore they are free to move everywhere. So we have created a situation, Godless situation, therefore we are not in peace. So therefore, if you want peace, you must accept God, first of all. Suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati (BG 5.29), this is the way of śānti. You cannot create your śānti in your own way. That is not possible. Just like the citizens, if they create their own way of śānti, there cannot be peace. If they abide by the orders of the government, by the laws of the government, there will be peace. This is crude example. Similarly, if you do not accept God in the center as the Supreme Proprietor and the Supreme Enjoyer and the Supreme Friend, then there is no peace. This is the problem, I have given in the...

Room Conversation -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:

Devotee (1): The only problem is that in his community he's rejected.

Prabhupāda: Rejected?

Devotee (1): Yes, because a few years ago his family left him and his wife and children deserted him, and he... The wife told many stories about him that he was very, doing degraded things, and so everyone rejects him. And when he speaks to Indian people they reject. He irritates them. And also sometimes he is, it can be changed, but he is, he makes them irritated a little too much pride, but he can be changed because he's chanting so much. But he tries very, very hard. Only we have to get him to agree to chant. And now he has another wife and a child.

Prabhupāda: A child?

Devotee (1): A child. One boy was born just before we came here in August and he seems to be a devotee, the baby, because he, whenever you say, "Hare Kṛṣṇa," he smiles.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) Why he's not married man?

Devotee (1): Another wife, second.

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Just like when you, in the aeroplane, there may be thousands of aeroplanes, others, but when your aeroplane is in danger, nobody can save you. You have to save yourself, Otherwise, you go to hell. Similarly, we have to save ourself individually by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. What this material advancement will save me? Will the material advancement of knowledge can save anyone from death? Is it possible? Real problem, duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam, real problem is birth, death, old age and disease. So what this material advancement of science will help in this connection? They'll bluff: "Yes, in the future, we shall do." That's all. Bluffing. Past, present, future, never they'll be able to help. Still they're proud. "Yes, in the future, we shall do it." Dehāpatya kalatrādiṣu. Tasmād ekena manasā bhagavān sātvatāṁ patiḥ śrotavyaḥ kīrtitavyaś ca dhyeyaḥ pūjyaś ca nityadā. (pause) Dehāpatya kalatradiṣv ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api (SB 2.1.4). (pause). They have discovered so many... Can they fly like the birds are flying, all together? There is no collision. They can go with full force. There is no collision. They haven't got even intelligence like the birds. And they're proud. If a small bird, they'll fly together, flock together, with great force, they'll not collapse. Can the scientists arrange flying like that. Immediately, they'll be all smashed. Still, they're proud of intelligence. What intelligence you have got? You are less intelligent than the birds.

Morning Walk -- May 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Sometimes the problem is too serious. They take it just lightly.

Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness. The same thing, that the rabbits close the eyes. Yes. Monkeys. And when the monkeys face a tiger, immediately he closes his eyes and the tiger immediately attacks him. So it is like that. He cannot solve the problem—"All right, let it go on." And that is the position. Because our real problem is death. Nobody wants to die. So the scientist cannot give any relief from death. They are talking simply superficially. They cannot give any relief from death. But my real problem is death. I do not wish to die. I do not wish to become old man. What scientists can help me? I do not wish to become diseased. What the scientist can help me? I do not wish to take birth. These things, they cannot do anything. Major problem they have set aside. And they are, what is called, jackal. Yes. There is a story of the jackal. He became the king of the forest.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Mr. Wadell: Yes. The problem is a very big one. We are, perhaps, sent into this earth to know or to learn how to love.

Prabhupāda: No. I have got some objection. You cannot begin any scientific statement with the word "perhaps." (W. laughs) We don't accept. You must be assured, you must be assured.

Mr. Wadell: I am merely saying... I do not wish to be presumptuous, if you understand me.

Prabhupāda: Well as soon as you say, "perhaps," "maybe," that is not... This has no meaning. Because it is not certain. You have no clear idea.

Mr. Wadell: But are there not things about which in the mortal life one can have no clear idea?

Prabhupāda: But if there is clear idea, why they should not take it? Why they should speculate "perhaps," "maybe"?

Mr. Wadell: But there are many things about which I cannot have any clear idea. I cannot...

Prabhupāda: No, you cannot have but if you get clear idea, why you do not take it.

Conversation with Mr. Wadell -- July 10, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: And death is inevitable. Even if you have sufficient to eat, you cannot avoid death. So death is inevitable. That is the problem of material life. Birth, death, old age and disease. So you cannot avoid it. So long you are materially existing. This can be avoided when you are spiritually elevated. That is our movement.

Mr. Wadell: Yes, you cannot live without... You do not, as we say, live by bread alone. And in that sense—it may be the sense in which you wish me to take—the sense, what you are saying, that God supplies bread, because bread could be both bread for the spirit or soul...

Prabhupāda: No, bread is material. Bread is material. To maintain your material body, you require material bread. But spiritual body does not depend on material bread.

Room Conversation with Indian Guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Well, the...

Guest (9): But the... And when the... That is the... This is the problem...

Prabhupāda: This happened in my life... This happened in my life.

Revatīnandana: Listen. Listen.

Prabhupāda: My wife was taking tea. So I asked her not to take tea, not to take tea. But she didn't care husband. Then I gave her final, that "Either you have to give up your tea or your husband." (laughter) So she agreed to give up husband, not tea. (laughter) So I left my home. That's all. (laughter)

Room Conversation with Educationists -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Crossing by ferry, one hour. Then waiting for bus, another hour. Then going to the office. Then after office, they're coming back. Again going. Whole day, they're dependent on everything. That is the condition in New York. It is to be supposed: the most advanced city. The same thing is everywhere. People are becoming dependent, śūdra, just like dogs. A dog, unless he gets a nice master, he's not happy. So at the present moment, all the population, just like the cats and dogs, they're dependent. They are not intelligent. Intelligence means he must be independent. That is intelligence. And people are struggling for independence. That is their motive. Everyone is struggling hard for independence. Because that is the culmination of intelligence. So our problem is that we do not know what we are. Neither we know how to get out of the miserable condition of life. Therefore we have no intelligence. We are like cats and dogs. This is the conclusion. What do you think? Am I right or wrong?

Guest (1): I couldn't follow you.

Room Conversation with Educationists -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Eh? (laughter) But they get their food and shelter and everything. Even they live with a wife, children. So we,... Kṛṣṇa gives. Not only that we are simply sannyāsī, brahmacārī. There are gṛhasthas, householders, husband, wife, children. They are also living. So that is not our problem. How to eat, how to sleep, that is not our problem. Our only problem is how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is...

Guest (1): Yes. That was the question that was puzzling me. What is...?

Prabhupāda: That you have to learn. Not in a moment you can understand. Then you have to come to the schooling process. Otherwise how you can learn? In a moment? Such a big subject matter?

Guest (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: We are going to solve all the problems of life. Such a nice proposal. Don't you think it requires little patience to understand how to do it?

Guest (1): It requires a little bravery.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Guest (1): It requires bravery too.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because we have got background, Kṛṣṇa, so bravery, personally we haven't got to practice. Just like a child is in the protection of an able father. He's happy. "Whatever happens, father will see." He's happy. He's confident. "My father is there; my mother is there. Who can do any harm to me?" He's confident.

Room Conversation with Father Tanner and other guests -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: If you do not know what you are, then how you can love yourself?

Mrs. Wells: This is the problem.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And what you are. If I ask you what you are, can you answer?

Mrs. Wells: No.

Prabhupāda: Then? What kind of love...?

Father Tanner: But I would say that, that I am so many...

Prabhupāda: But if you do not know what you are...

Father Tanner: No, no. I'm saying I do know.

Prabhupāda: If you know, then tell me what you are.

Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

David Lawrence: This is the problem. If one is at late at night, it's difficult.

Śyāmasundara: No, we'll take you.

David Lawrence: That's great. (pause, Prabhupāda hums) (talking about fruit:)

Prabhupāda: How to cut it?

Śyāmasundara: Pull, pull the two hard...

David Lawrence: Wise man. Hand it on. It's always the stones that are the problem.

Śyāmasundara: Yeah. Clings.

David Lawrence: The carpet is going to be sticking people to it.

Śyāmasundara: It's really stuck on there.

David Lawrence: Yes, try four also. That's it. It's a wonder that technology... I suppose technology has produced a machine that does it.

Prabhupāda: Hm. The technology is here in the teeth. (laughter) God has given.

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: ...so many tossings. That is the problem of life. It is not that it begins and goes. Going to the end, oh, we have to face so many tossings. That is the problem of life.

Lord Brockway: Yes, and I acknowledge I don't know. And I am personally satisfied with trying to do what I can while I'm living in this life for the betterment of mankind. And I believe that's the best preparation for any future life, if there is a future life.

Prabhupāda: Well, there is future life, undoubtedly. It is not the question... Just like you say, you remember your childhood days. You were playing with Indian children in Berampur.

Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:

Revatīnandana: But the problem is that people cannot understand the solution. They cannot understand.

Prabhupāda: But one thing...

Revatīnandana: Why they cannot understand?

Prabhupāda: Mister, yes... I forgot your name.

Popworth: John.

Prabhupāda: John, Mr. John. That we follow strictly the Vedic injunctions, and unless we become God conscious, there cannot be any reformation in this world.

Room Conversation with Mister Popworth and E. F. Schumacher -- July 26, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: That's all. And that God consciousness cannot be achieved without being pure. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān (BG 10.12). God is the supreme pure. You cannot approach God, you cannot understand God, in impure condition. And without God consciousness, there cannot be any purification. You try to understand this simple fact, that without God consciousness, you may prescribe so many things—they will be all failure, all failure. And God consciousness cannot be achieved without being pure. This is the problem. Now you can think over it.

Schumacher: I agree with that.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can defend your theory but that will not help purification of the society. That will not help. Take it for granted. You can make so many theories but if you remain impure, if you are not God conscious, all these theories will be useless. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā mano-rathe... (SB 5.18.12). This is simply mental speculation. Mano-rathena, hovering on the mental plane, you can jump from this to that, but that will not solve the problem. Mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ. So we do not act on mental speculation. It may be our credit or discredit. That is different thing. We simply follow the standard policy. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now, everything is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, how to become a brāhmaṇa, how to become a kṣatriya, how to become a vaiśya, how to become a śūdra, or how to remain less important than the śūdras. The societies must be divided in different divisions.

Room Conversation with Graham Hill Former World Champion Race Car Driver -- London, August 26, 1973:

Prabhupāda: That is ultimate goal. So long we do not go back to home, back to Godhead, we have to, in our material existence, we have to change from one body to another. That is going on. And there are 8,400,000 forms of bodies. The cats and dogs, they are also living entities, but they have got a different type of body. Every one of us, different type body. Even they are children, their body is different from your body. Even the (indistinct). Although their body is obtained, there are some similarities. But if you analyze very scrutinizingly there will be some difference from your body, from your daughter's body, from your boy's body. So every body, every living entity is getting a certain type of body according to his desire. According to his desire. So that desire means material enjoyment. Just like you have got certain desire to become champion in racing. Another body has got desire to become something else. Another body has got desire for something else. So we have got this freedom by the grace of God or Kṛṣṇa. Because we are children. He has given freedom. "All right, if you want this, take it." In this way our life is going on. This is called birth and death. One chapter you are finishing in one life, next chapter begins another life. Next chapter begins another life. So the problem is birth and death.

Room Conversation with Graham Hill Former World Champion Race Car Driver -- London, August 26, 1973:

Prabhupāda: Yes, in the past. You forgot, but in the past you had life. Just like in the past I was young man. That's a fact. Similarly, but that young body is no more existing. Similarly, I had a past life but I have forgotten. That is the... Forgetfulness is our nature. Death means forgetting what was your first, past life. That is by nature you become forgetful because if you remember our past life and compare with this life... Suppose one was very rich man and if he becomes a poor, a cat and dog, then if he remembers, then it is very unbearable for him. Therefore nature helps him to forget. Forget. Otherwise he cannot do it. But the real problem is that we are eternal soul, we are changing our body one after another, birth and death. Apart from worldly happiness and distress, this birth and death, that is not very good process. At death time we have to suffer so much that we give up this body. And then again we enter into the womb of a mother. That is not very good situation. Then when come out there are so many tribulations, disease, then again old age. So people do not understand that he is passing... Especially when we are in other than human life. There are 8,400,000 species of life. Aquatics, then birds, trees, plants, insects, then beasts. In this way we come to human form of life. This is evolution. So in this human form of life there is chance of understanding the problems of life. In other forms of life it is not possible.

Room Conversation -- September 2, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They do not know. Even big, big professors. I talked with Professor Kotofsky in Moscow. He said, "Swamiji, after annihilation of this body, there is nothing."

Guest (2): Well, that has brought this disaster and is causing more and more trouble, I think. More and more in practice of medicine, if we look into the practice of medicine, I think, we are more pressed with the problem of mental illness. I should say in the region of thirty percent of our time is devoted for people suffering from mental anxiety, which we call "anxiety state" and partly depression. I think most of the time, I surmise... Part of the problem is not that they are not well-fed, it is not that they are not well-dressed. Part of the problem is to accept as they are and to think of something which is present, I mean they could believe that there is something beyond this world, and if they can accept that, probably they will be better off and they will accept their present inconveniences more easily and will not be depressed.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: Ah. Physical is my outward dress. Just like your coat, if it becomes old enough, there is no more possibility to use it. You have to throw it away. You have to take another coat. Similarly, physically, I am spirit soul. When my physical body is old enough, useless, then I will have to give it up. I will have to accept another new body. But the question is that I am eternal; why I am forced to accept a body which will be useless after some time? That is the problem. I am eternal, as spirit soul. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). I do not die after the annihilation of this body. But why I am forced to accept another body, which will be annihilated? This technology is unknown all over the world. And still they are proud of becoming very advanced in science. (Aside:) Open this. Let them come. Keep it open. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu... (BG 13.9). Come forward. (break) ...technology, although it is a problem. But we can supply this technology, to solve this problem.

Morning Walk -- December 3, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Even if you reduce or increase, suppose you are to live for hundred years, if you make it hundred and ten, so what is your profit? And if you are to live for hundred years, reduce time ten years, so what is the profit? You cannot live here, that is a fact, reduce or increase. This is all nonsense. What is increase? The trees, they have more longer period, increased the period, of life. Is, that kind of living is very profitable? What for increasing? To suffering? Your life is already suffering. Why you are covering this body? You cannot stand here, open body. That is suffering. You are trying to save yourself from the suffering. This is life, struggle for existence. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). Simply struggle. So if you increase your life for struggling again, then what is the profit? This is... The rascals, they do not understand. Even if you increase, what profit you will get? Your life is all suffering. So the foolish persons, they cannot understand. The real problem is how to stop your suffering, reduce or increase, it doesn't matter. But that you cannot do. You'll have to die. This is your suffering. Nobody wants to die. You have to become old man. Suppose an old man, suffering from so many diseases, and he increases his life. What is the profit there?

Yaśomatīnandana: That is what they do by heart transplant.

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That means western people are all demons.

Umāpati: So the problem is trying to get into office under those circumstances, to make that known that "We stand for this," and to have anybody vote for you.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Nobody may vote but we must go on preaching. That I have already explained, some of the university. The whole country is illiterate. Does it mean university should be stopped? University must be there. One who is fortunate will come and take education. It is not an argument that "People are illiterate. They don't care for it. Therefore let the university be closed." This is no argument.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 15, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Just see. Let them come and live here. Produce foodstuffs, have cows, fruits, flowers, live peacefully, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa; but they won't allow. Americans, yes, they have got so much land. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). Whatever is Kṛṣṇa's property, you can... You are Kṛṣṇa's son; you can utilize it. But one son is prohibiting, "No, no, you cannot enter here." This is the problem. The so-called nationalism is dangerous. Just see how nice flowers, fruits, plant. Everything is there, complete.

pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇam adaḥ
pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya
pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate
(Iso Invocation)

There is no question of overpopulation at all. These rascals have created like that. Hare Kṛṣṇa. They're coming from our temple?

Sudāmā: Yes. Jayaśrī is here also.

Morning Walk -- March 31, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ. Then he engages himself dṛḍha-vratāḥ: "No, I am simply servant of Kṛṣṇa. That's all."

Mr. Sar: Jarā-maraṇa-mokṣāya mām āśritya yatanti ye, te brahma...

Prabhupāda: Now, here, here the real problem is jarā-maraṇa-mokṣāya. But they are, these people, they are engaged in paltry things. The real business is how to become free from the janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). They do not know that. Real, real purpose of life they do not know. Take any big leader. He does not know what is the aim of life. What is the problem of life, he does not know. Mūḍha na abhijānanti, mūḍha māṁ nābhijānanti.

Dr. Patel: Mūḍha mām abhijānanti.

Mr. Sar: Mūḍho 'yaṁ nābhijānāti (BG 7.25).

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Yes, the best friend is the spiritual master because he saves from the blazing fire of confusion. That is best friend.

O'Grady: The problem is to find this friend. The problem is to find this spiritual master.

Prabhupāda: No, there is no problem. The problem is if you are sincere. Yes. That is stated. Because actually you have got problems, but God is within your heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). God is not far away. God is within your heart. So if you are sincere, then God will give you spiritual master. If He knows that now you are sincere, then He will give you a spiritual master.

O'Grady: O.K. Thank you. That I know.

Prabhupāda: Therefore God is called caittya-guru, the spiritual master within the heart. And the physical spiritual master is God's mercy. If God sees that you are sincere, He will give you a spiritual master who can give you protection. He will help you from within and without, without in the physical form of spiritual master, and within as the spiritual master within the heart.

Room Conversation with Richard Webster, chairman, Societa Filosofica Italiana -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, yes. Worse now in these days because people cannot eat even. The facility which is given to the birds and beasts... They have no problem of eating. But you have created such a civilization that people are facing the problem so acutely that they have no means to eat. Do you think it is progress?

Richard Webster: Well, I would tend to doubt it very much.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the problem.

Richard Webster: But some things have improved.

Prabhupāda: Many countries... Especially we are Indian. We have seen in India. Nowadays there is no eatables. The government cannot supply food, failure, the problem which is not even amongst the beasts and birds. The birds and beasts, they have no such problem. They are freely living, jumping from one tree to another, because they know there is no problem of eating. And human society, there is problem of eating. What is the advancement? And there is enough place for producing food. I have seen Africa, Australia. Enough place. If the foodstuff is produced there, ten times of the population can be well fed. But they are: "Don't enter. Don't come here." The Africans will say to the Indians, "Don't come here. Go out." What is this? Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice. We say, "Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. We are all sons of Kṛṣṇa. Let us live peacefully and utilize Kṛṣṇa's property."

Room Conversation -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Yogeśvara: That how can we say that to give people..., that the only real problem is to give knowledge. There are people who are starving; there are people who are sick; there are people who are in so much distress.

Prabhupāda: But you cannot do. You cannot do. There are so many people starving in the hospital. What can you do?

Yogeśvara: (translates)

Swiss Man (1): (French)

Yogeśvara: He says, "Probably not very much." He said, "But maybe we can do something."

Prabhupāda: Then this is simply a false pride, that "I can do something." You cannot do anything. Rather, you can do this service, that "There is God. You are servant of God. Please become servant of God." And if you make this program, "I can give food to so many," what you can do? There are millions and millions. People are starving all over the world. What can you do? It is simply false pride. You cannot do anything. Now, just like I have heard that in your country, because they have got excess milk supply there was recommendation to kill twenty thousand cows. Is it a fact?

Guru-gaurāṅga: Yes.

Room Conversation -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Yogeśvara: Because the real problem is not poverty. That they haven't understood.

Prabhupāda: This is karma. If you have bad karma, then you must suffer by the laws of nature. You may be a rich man's son or king's son.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Christ, he actually also said that. There's one verse in the Bible. Christ said, "The poor you will always have with you, but I will not be with you always." He said that also. They misunderstand.

Prabhupāda: Very good idea. Therefore I said Jesus Christ is son of God, so what he says and what Kṛṣṇa says, there is no difference. This has become a hackneyed slogan, "poor feeding." To do to the humanity—and cut the throat of the animal. What is this philosophy, nonsense philosophy? They have no conception of God. If he has got conception of God, then everyone—paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Oh, why for the benefit of the human being, other animals' throat should be cut? Even they have no common sense. National. National means one who is born in that land. That is national. So why the animals born in that land, they are not national?

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: First of all we should understand this, that we are in, on a platform. That is called material platform. So, so long you'll remain on the material platform—material platform means the bodily concept of life—the anxiety will never be stopped. First of all let us understand why there is anxiety. The example is given: because I am a being of the land, artificially, when I go up on a plane, on the sky, this is the cause of my anxiety. So I am a spirit being, I am a spirit soul. So long I'll live in material conception of life, we cannot avoid anxiety. This is not possible. This is the problem.

Robert Gouiran: Yes. Yes.

Prabhupāda: I am a spirit soul. So my natural abode for living is spiritual world. So so long I am in the material world. It may be... The same example. I may be on the 747 or DC-10 or 10C-10 or this or that nonsense, I must be in anxiety. So that is the problem. And what is that material problem? Material life means you have got this material body and you do not wish to die. The anxiety on the plane is: "Because I may die..." That means you do not wish to die. That is my anxiety. If there is plane crash, then I may die. And therefore my anxiety. If I am assured that I'll not die, then where is that anxiety? The anxiety is that I do not wish to die, but death is there. So that death is there either on the plane or on the ground. You cannot avoid death. Why I cannot avoid death? Because I have got this body which is perishable. Therefore if I want to be anxietyless freely, I must try for that thing by which I do not get again a body like this. Then I'll be anxiety-free. Even a small bird, if he sits here, he'll do like this-anxiety. You give him something to eat, but he'll not dare to come near you because he has anxiety that you may capture him. He knows that. Therefore the material life means four things: We, we require to eat something; we want a place for sleeping; we want to gratify our senses; and we want to defend from anxiety. This is material life.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: That they do not know, that "I am changing this body, and I am getting temporary engagement and wasting my time. And... But my problem, the change of body, death, is there. The death is there. Therefore my real problem is how to stop this death." That we want also. We do not wish to die. That is our propensity.

Robert Gouiran: Are you interested to know how we produce anti-matter in our laboratories from...?

Prabhupāda: Anti-matter, I have explained that, this... So our anti-matter is different. Anti-matter means spirit. But your anti-matter is different.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: There is no healing in the material world. There is disease always. There is no question of healing. Their healing is temporary. I am suffering from some disease. You give me some medicine. Does it mean that there will be no more disease? You heal that temporary disease. Again another disease. So where is the healing? So this is to be thought, that... Healing, that is the problem. There is no healing. There is always disease, this disease or that disease. If you prefer this disease heal, you are cured, and there will be no more disease, then you are profited. Another disease. You heal this, another disease. You heal this, another disease.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1974, Geneva:

Nitāi: In Los Angeles, you were saying about the system of monogamy, how in this way most of the women are left unmarried.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is prostitution. If a man... First of all, the problem is... That they do not know, that they should produce sufficient food grains. These, all these contraceptive methods, this and that, monogamy, they are trying for checking population. Is it not?

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: The basic principle is to check population. Now, if they follow the Vedic principles, automatically the population is checked. Just like brahmacārī. So if the, both the boys and girls remain brahmacārī, then where is the unwanted population? Where is the question of this contraceptive method?

Nitāi: No need.

Car Conversation on the way to Chateau -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Why do they not go outside?

Bhagavān: The problem is in the cities.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Rascals, they want to live in city and drink wine and eat meat. So there must be problems. This civilization is simply to create problems, anartha. Anartha. Anartha means unnecessarily problems. So these rascals, they do not know how to solve it. But the solution is this bhakti-yoga. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:

anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād
bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje
lokasyājānato vidvāṁś
cakre sātvata-saṁhitām
(SB 1.7.6)

These anarthas, problems, they have created under the influence of māyā. So if you want to solve it, you take to bhakti-yoga. Anarthopaśamam. Directly it will be solved, directly. Anarthopaśamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam, lokasya ajānataḥ. The rascals, they do not know. Therefore vidvān, Vyāsadeva, the most learned, vidvāṁś cakre sātvata-saṁhitām, he has done this sātvata, Vaiṣṇava literature, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is the only solution. These rascals, they have created problems. Therefore we have started this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement for their benefit. Let them cooperate, and we shall make solution of all problems-political, social, everything.

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Now, now, what is his problem. That he did never disclose.

Yogeśvara: Well, he says the problem is the art of living, what is the best way to live.

Prabhupāda: So he has got his opinion. I have got my own opinion. How we'll agree? We say that you remain in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everything will be solved. Does he agree? (French)

Yogeśvara: He says, "No, absolutely not. Just like I don't accept the existence..."

Prabhupāda: Then why shall I agree to his point? (French) So...

Yogeśvara: So he says, "So I have to leave now. But the last thing I'd like to say is that I reject that conclusion just like I reject also the Christian conclusion that the truth is in the Evangel. But," he says, "that doesn't impede me, that doesn't stop me from working very nicely with some of my best friends who are Christians when it comes down to practical work."

Prabhupāda: No, what is his opinion? That he never disclosed.

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: That is another thing, why man is suffering. First of all... Just like we have to find out the disease, why he is suffering, and if the disease is cured, the suffering is cured. (French) (aside:) Why the others, they do not come? Why is that? What kind of GBC?

Yogeśvara: Because there's an old Buddhist saying that no matter what kind of body you have, whether it be made of feathers or flesh or whatever kind of body you have, the problem is how to get out of it.

Pṛthu Putra: (correcting Yogeśvara's translation) No, it's not question of body. If you receive an arrows. You have to translate clearly. If you receive an arrows, it doesn't matter if the arrow is made with wood, with iron, with anything. But just to take out the arrows of your body because that's the cause of suffering.

Prabhupāda: Why the GBC men are not interested in these talks?

Satsvarūpa: I'm interested, I was just doing secretary work.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. How you will do secretary work if you do not hear? These are the important philosophy is going on. Where is the other man Bhagavān dāsa? These important talks going on and you do not..., you think that you have learned everything. What is this?

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: No, practice must be there. You cannot avoid practice. We also practice.

Karandhara: What he says is the form of the practice doesn't really matter, but the inspiration or the motivation to practice, to try and become desireless, that is the dynamic thing. It doesn't matter what form it takes.

Bhagavān: The problem is still death, though.

Prabhupāda: No, practice without any aim...

Karandhara: They say the aim is the practice itself. Just like we say the aim of devotional service...

Prabhupāda: No, no, the aim is there. Aim is there. He says that to become desireless. That is the aim. So why does he say that there is no aim?

Pṛthu Putra: When he is talking about practice, he's talking about special practice, the zazen practice. And his concept in zazen, his concept of Buddha, is this disciplic succession, that to practice under the guidance of the spiritual master of this disciplic succession of zazen from Buddha. That is his practice.

Prabhupāda: No, if he says that "There is no aim; you go on practicing," so aim is there, he says, that to become desireless.

Morning Walk -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is going on. Therefore the problem is where is my real life? That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one understands, the rascal, that "This is also illusion. This is also illusion. Then where is my actual life?" that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Haṁsadūta: I was hearing some statement about, from mediumship, of people who had died and they are living on a subtle platform, and they don't actually know that they have died. They are so absorbed that they mentally...

Prabhupāda: That is all... They may think like that, but this is practical thing. Try to understand that in daytime you are illusioned by this gross body, and at night you are illusioned by the subtle body. So both of them are illusion. Therefore if you are intelligent, your inquiry should be "What is my real life?" That is intelligence, "What I am?" That is... Sanātana Gosvāmī placed before... "What I am?" Ke āmi. That "I am simply hovering in illusion, gross and subtle. Then what is my real position? What I am?" That is real philosophy. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. This is called Brahman. When I am Brahman", so that is the beginning: "What I am? What is my position?" That illusion is going on. So the material life means he is in illusion for millions and millions of years. Ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgya... So out of many such millions and millions living entities, one becomes conscious, that "What is my real life?" That is awakening. Guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya (CC Madhya 19.151). Then he begins his devotional life: "My real life is this."

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: So this incarnation means I am spirit soul, I have entered this body. Now I can, next life I can enter into another body. It may be dog's body, it may be cat's body or it may be king's body. So the standard of suffering is there either in the king's body or in the dog's body. And the standard of sufferings is enunciated, birth, death, old age and disease. These are our sufferings. So in order to get out of these four kinds of sufferings—there are many kinds; these are the main kinds—we have to get out of this body. That is the problem.

Professor Durckheim: Through many lives...

Prabhupāda: Many life or this life. In this life you understand that "My sufferings are due to this body. Then how to get out of this body?" If you acquire this knowledge, you know the tricks, then you get immediately.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It doesn't matter whether it is Christianity or Hinduism or Muslim or... Knowledge is knowledge. Wherever knowledge is available, you must pick up. So knowledge... Now let us explain, that knowledge has no color. Knowledge is knowledge. It doesn't matter whether Christianism or Hinduism or Mohammedan. Now, this is a knowledge, that every living entity is imprisoned within this body. This knowledge is equally good for Hindus, Muslim, Christian or everyone. There is no question of Christianism or Hinduism. The soul is imprisoned within this body, and the problem is birth, death, old age and disease on account of this body. But we want to live eternally, we want full knowledge; we want full blissfulness. To attain that goal of life, we must get out of this body. This is the process. (German) (break)

Vedavyāsa: (translating) ...stress on this point that we are existing in a body but we should accept our existence as human being.

Prabhupāda: Existence as human being, you want. So do you think human being is existing in this body is perfect? (German)

Dr. P. J. Saher: No, I don't say it is perfect. (German)

Vedavyāsa: So he says yes, he accepts our life now is not perfect, that we are conditioned. But he says we shouldn't construct an ideal human being, but we should accept our life as it is now.

Prabhupāda: No, no. The thing is that you are not perfect. Therefore the idea should be how to become perfect.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Vedavyāsa: (Vedavyāsa is translating from here on) So he asks, "How to become perfect, as human being or as spirit?" Because he sees now only human beings. So this is the problem how to become perfect as human being, not as spirit.

Prabhupāda: Why you are sticking to human being although it is imperfect? Why you are sticking to human being? (German) You are accepting this human being is not perfect, and still, why you are sticking to this imperfect life? Now, in what way you like this human form of body? What is the purpose? (German)

Vedavyāsa: So he says his body is just an instrument of communication, and through this body he can communicate with other people.

Prabhupāda: So this is also possible by the birds and beasts. They also talk: "Kichu, kichu, kichu, kichu." (German)

Vedavyāsa: He thinks there's a great difference between the talking of birds and bees and our talking.

Prabhupāda: Why difference? They are talking in their community, you are talking in your community.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is called death. You separate from this body; you accept another body. This period is called death. (German) So the body which you occupied previously, that is false now. Now the body which you have occupied now, that is important now. So you are giving stress on the body which I am changing after few years. That is the problem, misunderstanding.

Professor Durckheim: I think it would be important for us all to know what you would say to the question, "How to realize the last truth, and what do you mean by realize the eternal truth?"

Dr. P. J. Saher: (German) (break)

Vedavyāsa: He said that in the Bible it is said that our aim should be to know the father.

Dr. P. J. Saher: Not only the aim but the life consists in this, to know the father, God, by this... (indistinct)

Professor Durckheim: That is exactly what you say, that real life, real eternal life, means nothing but to recognize the father in the son.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is real business. And we have created so many unnecessary, superfluous business. We have set aside the real business, to know the father. And that is the mistake of this civilization.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Professor Durckheim: Your message, I think, will be very much appreciated by the youth of today in the western part of the world who says to the adults, "You have educated us to go to maintain our position in the world, to do something useful for the community and to behave nicely. But you never, but you never asked us who we are and who we should become (indistinct)." This is the problem.

Prabhupāda: That is the beginning of our talk, that you are spirit soul.

Professor Durckheim: I beg your pardon.

Prabhupāda: You are spirit soul, not this body. That is the beginning of our talk.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: My idea is that all our centers should be self-supported. We do not like that idea that for your support you have to go 100 miles to get your bread. That is a very dangerous drawback. You produce your food locally and then support yourself. The main problem is what to eat, where to sleep. So we get some place and support ourself by producing our own food. We have already begun in New Vrindaban, New..., West Virginia, Virginia, and similarly in other centers, we are producing our food, grains, vegetables, fruits and milk. That is sufficient. But we don't kill any animals. That we don't do.

Reporters Interview -- June 29, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Similarly, if you... We living entities, we are spirit soul. We are not this material body. Unfortunately our system of education is so dull that the authorities do not know that we are not this body, we are spirit soul. Still, they are big, big philosopher, big, big politician and big, big leader and social authorities. But real thing is mistaken. He is accepting this body as self, or he is thinking that "The bodily comforts will make me happy." But that cannot be because the body is made of matter and we are spirit soul. The same thing: From water, you catch the fish and put on the land; it will never be happy. So long you'll continue to have this material body, there cannot be any happiness. And so many problems. The main problem is birth, death, old age and disease. So this is due to this material body. Therefore an intelligent man should know that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul; my field of activities are on the spiritual platform; and then I will be happy." So Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means educating people how to be situated on the spiritual platform and be happy. This is the sum and substance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Identity is there. That, therefore, I have already said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānṁ. Both of them are identical so far nitya is concerned or cetana is concerned, but one is dependent, and other is maintainer. That is difference. Both of them are truth. Both of them truth. You are truth; I am truth. You are living; I am living, existing. This is truth. This is truth, but you are professor and I am something else. That is temporary. But so far you are, as living being, and I am, as living being, that is truth. But your dress and my dress, that is temporary. So we have to understand like that. In this material world we are mixed up with temporary and eternal. The living entity is eternal, but his body is temporary. This is the position. So the problem is: why the eternal has got temporary things? That is hampering his ānanda. Just like I am sitting here. Now, if somebody says, "Now you'll have to die and accept another body," this is not very pleasing to me. Or even I am sitting in this apartment, and somebody..., "No, you change your apartment. Come. Come here." Again I change another apartment. So I'll seek after: "Why I am changing this apartment? Is it not possible to get an eternal apartment?" That should be the brahma-jijñāsā. That is... Vedānta-sūtra first says, athāto brahma jijñāsā. "Why I am subjected to this change?" That is intelligence. "Why not eternal apartment if I am eternal?" That is intelligence.

Room Conversation with Professors -- February 19, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: No, that we don't say. Therefore man is advised to associate with perfect so that he can keep his perfectness.

Professor (Hṛdayānanda): He says, "The problem is there are so many millions of people, but there are so few perfect persons."

Prabhupāda: One perfect person is sufficient to teach thousands of imperfect persons.

Professor (Hṛdayānanda): He says he thinks you are right because the example is Buddha and Christ, and so many people follow them.

Prabhupāda: They are perfect, but the followers do not follow the instructions. That does not mean they are imperfect.

Room Conversation with Psychiatrist -- February 22, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: So the driver is not in order—he may create disaster at any moment. So the insanity is not of the car, but the insanity is of the driver. So when we feel problems of the humanity, it means the insanity of the soul, not of the body. And because the driver, or the soul, is not taken care of, therefore so many problems are coming in the body. Just like, if one man takes care of hygienic principle, his bodily ailments are less, similarly, if the driver is kept in proper sanity, then there will be no accidents in the car. Another example: just like the bird in, the cage. If you take care of the cage only and do not supply any food to the bird, it will cry, "Tanh! Tanh! Tanh! Tanh!" (aside to devotee:) This gentleman comes. Give him a seat. So the problem is: if we don't take care of the driver or the bird in the cage, the human problems will not diminish, it will increase. Keeping the car in good order does not mean taking care of the driver. And if you don't take care of the driver, the disasters of the car will increase. So what is the program of taking care of the driver? Factually, they do not know what is the driver. And what to speak of taking care of it? This is the problem, real problem. Do you think it is all right or not?

Psychiatrist (Hṛdayānanda): He's saying that these points are actually common to many different philosophies, and he feels there are many different ways and many different philosophies for passing our time in this temporary life.

Prabhupāda: So he is interested only on the temporary life. Never mind. There may be disaster.

Room Conversation with Psychiatrist -- February 22, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: So that is the defect, that the modern civilization, they are not taking care of the spirit soul; they are simply taking care of the machine, body. Therefore the problems are there. You asked, "How to solve the problems?" The problems are there on account of this, that they are not taking care of the driver; they are simply taking care of the machine body. So if you take care of the driver, then he will remain sane, he will drive nicely, the body will not be disastrous, he will live peacefully. This is the problem. If the driver is careful, then he will not require very frequently the mechanical engineer for the car. He will keep the machine in order. If he keeps himself sane, then he keeps the machine also order.

Psychiatrist (Hṛdayānanda): That's what he said at the beginning.

Prabhupāda: So then what is your program to take care of the driver?

Psychiatrist (Hṛdayānanda): He feels that there are different philosophies and different methods...

Prabhupāda: That's all right. There are different medical men and difficult diagnoses, but the urgent case is: cure the driver, and then car will go on nicely. Unfortunately, modern civilization, they do not know what is the driver. And how he will keep him sane? He does not know what is the driver? He thinks the car is automatically going on. Just like child. A child sees the car is going automatically, but that's not a fact. There is a driver. So if our vision is childish, how we can solve the problems of life? I talked with big, big professor, Kotovsky, in Moscow. He said, "There is no driver." This is a big professor, and he is teaching others. So if the leading men of the world, they think there is no driver, the body is automatically going, then what is the fate of the civilization? (break) No, there are, similarly, capitalists, communists, "this-ists," "that-ists." Full of these rascals.

Room Conversation with Psychiatrist -- February 22, 1975, Caracas:

Prabhupāda: The real problem is that the human being, I am speaking only of human being, not of the animals, because the animals, they do not know what is the problem; neither they can solve it. It is not possible. In the human form of body there is possibility of making a solution of this problem. Therefore in the human society, along with other educational department, there should be an educational department to understand what is soul, what it is (is its) nature, how it is working, what is the future, wherefrom it is coming. So many things there are. But there is no education for this prime factor, the driver. There is no education.

Room Conversation with three Trappist Monks, Psychologists from the University of Georgia, and Atlanta Lawyer, Michael Green -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Our first problem is, because we have got this material body, eating. Everyone must eat. So Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, annād bhavanti bhūtāni: (BG 3.14) "If there is sufficient food grains, then both man and animal, they become happy." Therefore our first religion is to produce food grain sufficiently to feed everyone. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva (BG 18.44). This matter has been entrusted to the vaiśyas. They should produce sufficient food and give protection to the cows for sufficient milk. Then the whole human society, animal society, will be happy. But we are disobeying the orders or the rules given by God. Instead of producing food, we are producing motorcars. And motor tires, motor parts. And so many other things. And therefore people are starving. The manual labor is being misused. We are disobeying the orders of God. Therefore we are unhappy.

Room Conversation with Reporter -- March 9, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: Christian teaching is good. It is giving idea of God. But who is following Christian teaching? That is the problem. Nobody is following. Christ says, "Thou shall not kill," and the Christian people are very expert in killing. Do you admit or not?

Reporter: I admit.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Then who is a Christian? If one does not follow the instruction of Christ, then would you call him a Christian?

Reporter: No.

Prabhupāda: That's it. That is the problem.

Reporte: Is there any reason why you teach your followers the Bhagavad-gītā rather than the Bible?

Prabhupāda: The teaching is the same. The teaching is the same. What Lord Jesus Christ taught and what we are... (aside:) Aiye. The teaching is the same. But who is following? That is the difficulty.

Conversation with the GBC -- March 27, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayatīrtha: This is the problem.

Prabhupāda: The India is membership, and the members, if they are dissatisfied, then? This is not good. So find out the way how this complaint can be solved.

Haṁsadūta: So does it mean that the BBT should take charge of the Life Membership program or to see that they're supplied the books?

Prabhupāda: No. Life Membership... Suppose you make one Life, he has to be supplied books.

Haṁsadūta: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So fifty percent goes to the...

Haṁsadūta: Book Fund.

Prabhupāda: That is stated in the BBT. That is the main purpose, that fifty percent must go...

Haṁsadūta: For printing. Fifty percent for printing, fifty percent for building.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. This is the main purpose.

Conversation with the GBC -- March 27, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rūpānuga: Does that, does that... What about those temples that don't have any children there in Gurukula. Because it seems that the problem is not just that... There are people besides devotees who are not paying...

Prabhupāda: No, they can give.(?)

Jagadīśa: That's part of the proposal. Why not discuss in relationship to the proposal.

Jayatīrtha: Right. We have the whole proposal. Everyone has a copy, I think. So we can discuss that. The main point, I'm just saying now, is to read through the agenda and see if Prabhupāda approves that we're talking about these things, and then..., because these things are so detailed, and we have some proposals in writing. We can discuss them more. Anyway, so one proposal is Gurukula finance. Another proposal is Brahmānanda's made some proposals about Africa, specifically manpower to be sent to Africa. Another proposal... another thing is to discuss the BBT, BBT loans, moving of the Press, several points about BBT, lowering of the prices, these things...

Prabhupāda: So what is the advantage of moving the Press?

Jayatīrtha: That Ramesvara should be here to say.

Prabhupāda: Call (?) Ramesvara. If you be..., all GBC agrees, then you do that.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Not renouncing, not renouncing. Just like our (?) think of future, that is also for present benefit. Future, future... The best intelligence is that just like one is afraid of suffering in old age, future. So there is. That is not ignorance. That is future life. So karmīs are thinking future life should be very comfortable. They want to go to the heavenly planets. They therefore act very piously, perform yajñas. That is all future. So real problem is that we are going to get another body in future. So what kind of body we shall get? That is intelligence. Body you have to get. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So one should be very intelligent—"What kind of body I am going to get?"

Brahmānanda: Why can't we have sense gratification and God also at the same time?

Prabhupāda: That is Bhagavad-gītā, that aviruddho-kāmo 'smi. "Sense gratification which is not against religious principles, that sense gratification I am," Kṛṣṇa says. We do not stop sense gratification, but we want to regulate sense gratification like a gentleman, not like hogs and dogs. That is human civilization. Sense gratification like hogs and dogs, not required. Sense gratification... People are following that. Although they are so degraded, still, they have not sanctioned as yet to have openly sense gratification on the street like hogs and dogs. That is regulated. That's still going on. But because the civilization is gliding down to animalism, they don't want this restriction. That is the hippies' protest, that, "Why this convention required? Let us enjoy like hogs and dogs." That is advancement.

Morning Walk -- May 10, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Modern age means all rascals and fools. So we haven't got to follow the rascals and fools. You have to follow the most perfect, Kṛṣṇa.

Paramahaṁsa: The problem is that everyone is cheating. Everyone is presenting some knowledge of this or that...

Prabhupāda: Therefore we have accepted Kṛṣṇa, who will not cheat. You are cheater, therefore you are believing cheaters. We do not cheat, and we accept a person who does not cheat. That is the difference between you and me.

Gaṇeśa: But we were all cheaters before we came to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. So how is it that we're not accepting a cheater? How is it that we cheaters have accepted some knowledge from you?

Prabhupāda: Yes, because you are speaking what Kṛṣṇa said. He is not cheater. He is God. I am talking to you, but not my own knowledge. I am presenting to you what Kṛṣṇa said. That's all. Therefore I am not cheater. I might have been a cheater, but since I am talking only the words of Kṛṣṇa, since then I am not cheater. Kṛṣṇa says, vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26), "I know past, present and future." Therefore He is not cheater. But so far we are concerned, we do not know what was the past and what is future. And we do not know perfectly the present also. And if we speak something, then we are cheater. That is cheating. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that don't hear the cheaters and don't try to cheat others. Be honest, and hear from the authority. This is Kṛṣṇa. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is, that don't hear the cheaters and don't try to cheat others. Be honest and hear from the authorities. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Room Conversation with Justin Murphy (Geographer) -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore you must have pure water. And that water is manufactured or supplied through God's machine, not your machine.

Justin Murphy: Certainly not. And I wouldn't presume to suggest in any way that that was the case. What our problem is, though, is that because...

Prabhupāda: So that problem solved if you perform sacrifice. That is the verse. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ. And yajñād bhavati parjanyo yajñaḥ karma-samudbhavaḥ (BG 3.14). Very simple formula. If we follow this formula, that first of all, if we want regular water supply... That we want. Not that "if we want." We must have regular water supply. So that is possible by performing yajña.

Room Conversation with Ganesa dasa's Mother and Sister -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: But do you know what is the problem?

Sister: The problems? No. That's why they come to you, really. You know? They're expecting an answer. You can't really give them one, but...

Prabhupāda: The real problem is birth, death, old age, and disease. So we are dealing with that problem. Now... Does anybody like to die?

Sister: No, I don't think so.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But the death is there.

Sister: Yeah, death is there. It's inevitable.

Mother: It's inevitable, isn't it?

Prabhupāda: Inevitable, but you can avoid it. That we are giving. That is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that you can avoid this problem: birth, death, old age, and disease. That is our propaganda.

Room Conversation with Two Lawyers and Guest -- May 22, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: You must accept God's law, not the people's law.

Guest 1: Well, the problem is that we're confined by the state law here just as the boys with the flowers. Now, maybe in Kṛṣṇa's law they did nothing wrong, but they were still subjected to being taken away like that.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but he saved them. He saved them.

Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone. Everyone who... That is the statement. Mūḍha. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). This class of men, they do not recognize God. Who? Those who are sinful, rascals, lowest of the mankind. Such people do not recognize God. Mūḍhas. (indistinct) educated. No, that education means false education. Real education is taken away by māyā. Real education means to understand God. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). If one does not understand what is God, his education is useless. It has no meaning. What is that education? Will that education save him from death? Then what is the value of his education? Your real problem is birth, death, old age, and disease. Can this material education stop it? Is the scientist able to stop one's old age? And does anyone, man, any man, wants to become old? No, nobody wants. Everyone wants to keep himself youthful. But can the science stop this, that he will not become old? He must become old.

Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: ...bahir-artha-māninaḥ. They are thinking by material adjustment they will be happy. That is not possible. But they are so fools, they do not think over it, that "Where is the solution? You have given me the chance to live in a skyscraper building, but is that solution of the problems?" They have no brain to ask this. Is it...? Does it mean that if you live in a skyscraper building there will be no death, no disease, no old age? Then where is the solution? But real problem is going on. Everyone is trying to save himself from disease, from old age, from death. Why do they go to the physician as soon as there is some disease? "That I may not die." The attempt is to save from the death, but ultimately they are dying. They have no brain to think of it. Why do they go to the physician as soon as one is diseased? Why do they go?

Amogha: They want to be well.

Morning Walk -- June 16, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Oh. (break) ...problem is, at the present moment, they have exhausted all their intellect. Now they are finding out how to bluff the people and maintain themselves. That is their problem. Yes.

Bali-mardana: Yes. The people have lost faith in the science because they have not produced anything.

Prabhupāda: That is the problem. Because they have cheated people for so many years and drawn high salaries, now they are finding out: "How to cheat these rascals and continue our business?" This is the problem. Because they have nothing to research. Everything, whatever, are finished. And all failure. Simply big, big words, that's all. Word jugglery, that's all. They could not do anything. What exactly they have done, something which is not done by God? They competition with God, so what they have done? What is their contribution?

Bali-mardana: Only negative; nothing positive. (break) ...easier to kill people.

Prabhupāda: That's it. That much they have done, yes. (break) ...diverting the attention of the people from going to the moon planet, they are meeting in the sky. So what will benefit we shall derive by their meeting in the sky?

Siddha-svarūpa: They have scientists now that are proposing and they have grants on how to develop a city in outer space or on the moon. They already have it how they're going to send people, how they're going to get their...

Prabhupāda: This is another bluff. You see? And these rascals are believing them.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That is good. They have finished already science. Now if they do not come to God, then they are finished. They have nothing to say any more. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. That is Vedānta. Now they have finished all their so-called talent. Now they have to come to brahma-jijñāsā, inquiry about the Supreme. That is their concern now. Now they have cheated public and bluffed them, they are going to this, going to this, but they are all failures. Now they are anxious how to keep their position. That is the problem.

Bahulāśva: They get lots of money for their position, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Because if they are not employed by government with big, big salaries, who will care for them, scientists? Hundreds of scientists may wander or walk in the street. Who will recognize him unless he has got money? I have seen in India. So many scientists are loitering in the street without any employment. Who cares for them?

Dharmādhyakṣa: They will have to go on welfare, Prabhupāda, pretty soon.

Room Conversation with the Mayor of Evanston -- July 4, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: They are self-supported. Suppose there is a blacksmith. If you require some black iron instrument, you go there and he will prepare immediately. Say, an oil crusher, extracting oil. So weaver, self-supported. Now these things have been taken in larger scale. That is called industry. But actually these things are meant for the śūdras, fourth-class men. So the problem is that if we keep men fourth-class or increase only fourth-class men, so these things are automatic, the resultant action. Therefore, in the western countries especially, everywhere, all over the world, the attempt should be how to create first-class, second-class. At least these two classes required: good politicians, administrators, and good advisors. So this program we are placing before the world. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So I would suggest that in your country you are resourceful. You can take up this movement very seriously. And it is not expected that cent percent of the population will become first-class, but there must be ideal groups of first-class, second-class, third-class and the rest, fourth-class. That is required.

Room Conversation with Lt. Mozee, Policeman -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: It is not difficult, very simple task. To ask them "Please come here, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, dance, and take sumptuously prasādam, go home"—where is the difficulty? And they are coming; we are doing that. But we are doing—because we have no money—we are doing on a small scale. But if the government gives us facility we can expand this scale. That's all. We are collecting money... Of course we are doing our business by selling these books. We have got many books. And we are inviting men; they are coming, and gradually increasing. There is no dearth of men or devotees. But the government is faced with these difficulties, "Crime, why and what to do?" So we are suggesting this: because they are unclean in their heart, therefore there is crime and take this process, it will be successful. This is our... They are faced with the problem, "Why crime and what to do?" And we are giving the answer. So you take advantage of it. Why? We are saying, "Because they are godless." And what to do? Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and take prasādam. Now, if you like, you can take. Otherwise, we are doing our own business. Just like a poor medical man. He is also giving medicine. But if he is given facility, he can open a big hospital. So that is our proposition. We are already doing that business. But if we get facility from the authorities then we can open a big place, a big hospital. And the problem is already big. Otherwise, why they are saying, "What to do?"

Lt. Mozee: Well, there are...

Prabhupāda: No civil state wants this criminality. That's a fact. But they do not know how to stop it. That we can suggest. We are good advisor. Now, the government is the executor. So if they take our advice and execute it, then things will be done nicely.

Room Conversation with City Counselor -- July 10, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: So what can I do? What is the difficulty? What do you want from us?

City Counselor: Really nothing. The only problem is that there are certain rules and regulations that all the citizens of Evanston must comply with. And that's all that has been asked to be done. Originally, as I expressed, there were some... This property, the temple, is located in an area which is zoned for business. And there were some originally who wished to maintain that...

Prabhupāda: But there are so many churches...

City Counselor: Yes, there are many churches, yes. And I think...

Prabhupāda: So what is the fault if there is a temple?

City Counselor: Well, I think the... Originally, again I say, some of the no..., not I, but some had some objections to any church, any temple...

Prabhupāda: But already there are churches. I have seen so many churches surrounding our temple.

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: Just convince him.

Jayatīrtha: So do you understand? The idea is that this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is based on authority of the Vedas. And the Vedic literatures are coming directly from Kṛṣṇa. So we only accept it as truth what Kṛṣṇa says and we don't accept anybody's mental concoctions or speculations as being truth. And this is the problem with so many other religious movements today, that they depend on the interpretation or the...

Prabhupāda: Concoction.

Jayatīrtha: ...philosophy of some ordinary man. So this is the primary differential.

Prabhupāda: We don't say anything which is not spoken by God in the Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore it is appealing everywhere. Although it is in Sanskrit language, still, it is appealing. Just like if you go on the street and the signboard is, "Keep to the right," this is law. I cannot say, "What is the wrong if I keep to the left?" Then I am criminal. You cannot dictate. The government has said, "Keep to the right." You have to do that, that is law. If you violate, then you are criminal. Pay fine. But ordinarily, one may think, "What is the wrong there, instead of keeping right, if I keep to the left?" He may think like that, but he doesn't know that is criminal.

Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: Implicated. Our problem is birth and death, old age and disease. (break) ...this birth, death, old age and disease. For them, liberation, the ultimate liberation is to transfer oneself to the spiritual world.

Prof. Hopkins: So you see... You see a clear difference there between those who follow the Vaiṣṇava tradition, which is less worldly, more spiritual...

Prabhupāda: That is the ultimate goal of life. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: na te viduḥ svārtha gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). People do not know what is his self-interest. The self-interest is to approach Viṣṇu.

Prof. Hopkins: What about Christian, Christian.

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is Viṣṇu.

Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: Brahman is everything. Brahman is also māyā Brahman, (indistinct) is Brahman. Śabda idaṁ khalv brahman. Because it is the manifestation of Brahman. Brahman's energy. Just like here in this room. Daytime there is sun, but sun is ninety three miles away; ninety three millions miles. But where there is sunshine we can say, "Here is sun."

Prof. Hopkins: So that the problem is not the identification of everything with Brahman, which is correct, but the failure to realize that there is the Paramātmā or the Puruṣottama.

Prabhupāda: Supreme Person.

Prof. Hopkins: Which is beyond this and includes...

Prabhupāda: Just like I have got so many branches, hundred branches. So everyone knows that I am something, but that does not mean I am present everywhere. My student(?) has got this tape..., hundreds of thousands of tape recorders to record my speech and then you speak the same thing that I am speaking, but I am not there. And that is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Morning Walk -- July 17, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: So what is the problem? Real problem is birth, death. So have you any proposal?

Dharmādhyakṣa: No, he has no proposal for those.

Prabhupāda: Then what is this nonsense problem? So far eating, sleeping, even the birds and beasts, they have no problem. They are eating, sleeping. What is this problem in eating, sleeping and mating? There is no problem. Why you are creating problem? You are creating problem, rascal. There is no problem. Where is the... Out of 8,400,000 species, only men are 400,000. Eight million they are all lower animals. Where is their problem? They have no population problem, they have no food problem, no quarter problem. They do not go to office, they do not start factories. So where is their problem? Eight millions, they have no problem. And out of the 400,000, the so-called rascal civilized men, they have problems. Others they have no problem. They don't require a scientist rascal like you. (laughter) This is the... Tell them like this. If you take vox populi, so out of eight million four hundred, eight millions do not require a rascal like you. And out of the so-called civilized men, a few only, they require your service. So what is the value of your service? Others, they have no problem. Do you think they have problem, the birds and beasts? They are very freely walking from one tree to another and eating. Whatever fruits are there, they are eating. And the for mating, the female bird is always with him. Nature has given, when the birth is taken place, one male, one female, cats, dogs and birds. So there is no problem. Is there any problem?

Brahmānanda: No.

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1975, San Francisco:

Paramahaṁsa: Under the threat of nuclear warfare wouldn't Kṛṣṇa consciousness be more easy to spread?

Prabhupāda: No, threat is already there. But they are so fool that they are not afraid of the threat. Threat is already there. Everyone will die. That is the problem. So who is caring for this? They are avoiding this. They cannot take any anti measures.

Yadubara: So it will take a war to bring them to their senses a bit?

Prabhupāda: No, war is going on. But they are so senseless that they will not come to this, so rascal. Therefore they are described as mūḍha, all rascals.

Morning Walk -- July 18, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Everyone is dying, your father is dying, your mother is dying, your friend is dying, and still if you cannot understand, then how it will be possible to make you understand? Every day you see so many people are dying. Ahāny ahāni lokāni gacchanti yamālayam iha. Every moment, every day, we see so many animals or men are dying. Śeṣaḥ sthitam icchanti kim āścaryam... But those who are living he is thinking, "I will not die." Death is inevitable but still, he is thinking, "I will not die." Therefore that is the problem. Everyone is dying, and everyone is trying not to die. This is the problem. Nobody wants to die, but everyone is dying. That problem this rascal scientist cannot solve. Therefore they are like dogs, and to catch their tail is like that. Yes. And that is the real problem. Everyone is dying, and everyone is trying not to die.

Morning Walk -- September 6, 1975, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: So they are thinking, "Well, then we'll get the sun power. Then we'll get this and we'll get that."

Prabhupāda: Well, that is the problem. It is not that "Theoretically here is a problem. I will solve it like this. I'll..." That is not solution of problem. Problem is there. When you actually make solution, then... This is madness, theorizing, "We shall solve the problem like this." They are wasting public money in so many ways. (break) They do not know what is real problem. The real problem is presented by Kṛṣṇa: janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). That they do not care, although they do not want it. That's a fact. It is a problem because they do not want it. But they do not take it as serious problem. This is foolishness.

Morning Walk -- October 9, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: That is another thing. Within this material.

Indian man: On earth, everywhere, everybody.

Prabhupāda: Our real problem is to go there, where there is no death. That is real intelligence. And what is the use of going here and there where death is inevitable?

Indian man: Now, in Brahmaloka there is also.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Brahmā also dies.

Room Conversation with Professor Olivier -- October 10, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: No.

Prof. Olivier: But our problem is basically, I think, the one that you raised, was how do we make... How do we make a reality, a scientific reality? And I think you were quite right. I think people, very few people, get the point that you were trying to make there.

Prabhupāda: That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā, scientific reality. Therefore I raised that question. But nobody could reply properly. They thought it a kind of Hindu conception. No. That is not Hindu conception. That is the basic principle of living condition. We are changing body, and there are so many varieties of body. We may enter in any one of them after death. That is the real problem. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Nature's work is going on. This body is a machine. This machine, just like a car, has been offered to us by material nature, by the order of God, Kṛṣṇa. And we are moving, transmigration. So the real purpose of life is to stop this migration, transmigration, perpetually from one body to another, one body to another, and revive our original, spiritual position so that we can live eternally, blissful life of knowledge. That is the aim of life. The whole Vedic conception is based on this principle.

Room Conversation with Reporter of The Star -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: No, I am going to every country because everywhere the same mistake is going on, bodily concept of life. So I am trying to bring them to the real life and then make their plan. They will be happy. It is not for South Africa. For any Africa, or any country, South America or South India or anywhere. The problem is the same. Everywhere the same conception: "I am South African." "I am American." "I am Indian." "I am this." "I am that." So all these things are on the bodily concept of life. Nobody says, "No, I am not this body. I am different from body." Nobody says. We are simply preaching that "You are not this body. You are different from this..." That is our unique situation. Perhaps throughout the whole world we are trying to preach that "You are not this body. You are different from body." And we have not manufactured this idea. This is the instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā, the first teaching is,

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)
Morning Walk -- October 25, 1975, Mauritius:

Harikeśa: They've done so many good things in the past, you can understand that...

Prabhupāda: No good things. All bluffs. What good things they have done which has benefited the human society or saved the human society from birth, death, old age and disease? What they have done? Our main problem is this. And when there is no food, what the scientists can do? If there is no rice, no wheat? That will come. The scientists will be taught very nicely. Time is coming when there will be no food. Let them produce. Therefore they are trying chemical food, one, one tablet. This is another cheating. Why tablet? Why not actually produce rice by chemical composition? Why tablet? This is their bluff. The Western people, they take dozen of tablets every day. Still, they are the same condition.

Morning Walk -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Yes, just see. This is capitol of India. This is the position. We can know, understand.

Harikeśa: The problem is in America, it all looks so nice.

Prabhupāda: That means they are not yet so poverty-stricken.

Harikeśa: You ask anyone, tell anyone this in America, they'll go, "Oh well we've had difficult times in the past, but we've always pulled out of it." Like the Depression. They always quote the Depression of the thirties. The Depression and they say then there was the war and everything became better.

Prabhupāda: Then what is the academy? Nonsense. They are spending so much money in this kala-kendra, academy, this, that. And no place for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just see. Such a cultural book of knowledge. There is no such institution, Gītā instruction, institute. No. This kala bhavan, this kendra bhavan this... They have got so many dance bhavan, and when Kṛṣṇa dances with the gopīs, "Ah, that is bad!" The rascals, they do not understand where you have got this tendency for dancing. Because it is there in Kṛṣṇa. That they do not understand. Kṛṣṇa dancing is bad, and my dancing is very good. They will put so many questions, "Why Kṛṣṇa dance with others' wives." "And why your are dancing with others wife, fall-down." Just see. Kṛṣṇa's dancing is mythology and his dancing is fact. Although His life is mythology (indistinct). (laughter) (indistinct) Rabindra Bhavan. What they are doing? Such a big house.

Morning Walk -- December 18, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: ...human society (indistinct) support the devotee.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Support the right man who is after Bhagavān, not to the rascals. That is the problem. Dātavyam iti yad dānam tad sattvikam. Here is the person. Here, one has dedicated his whole life for Bhagavān, give everything to him. That is dānam. Dānam sattvikaṁ rājasi tamasi. One is a rascal, then what is the use of giving him dāna?

Dr. Patel: Even you do not give dāna, he will take away by thievery.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, that is a misuse. Misuse.

Dr. Patel: Dānam, dānam... (quotes Sanskrit)

Prabhupāda: If you make tamasic dāna, then you become implicated with his sinful activities. Suppose you want to kill somebody, and you're asking, "Can you give me a nice knife?" "What you will do?" "I shall kill that man." "All right, take it, dānam. I am giving you in charity." So he will be implicated. In the court, if it is known that that man supplied the knife, "Arrest him. Bring him immediately."

Conversation on Roof -- December 26, 1975, Sanand:

Prabhupāda: That is different thing only.

Harikeśa: O.K.

Prabhupāda: Lat.... First of all, this is the problem.

Harikeśa: First to find out the problem...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Anyway, whatever is done is done. Now let us make some adjustment (chuckles) and work combinedly. That is my proposal.

Siddha-svarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, the problem is that to work combinedly, they think that that means that I surrender to them and I do everything as they say; otherwise I am not surrendering. So as far as I am concerned, I cannot work with them. There is no possibility of that, and yet I don't want to make trouble with them, but I have to try to work as best as I can. But there is no way that I'm going to be able to be organized and controlled by them. People who've tried to control me before are now spiritually dead and gone, and I'm not going to put myself under the protection of any of these boys who consider themselves to be great sannyāsīs or whatever, and it's just not possible for me to do it. I've tried it before. So I have to try to work as best as I can, not get in their way, and follow your instructions as best as possible, getting people to chant, following the principles myself.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: May I ask a question? What is your feeling about the GBC?

Siddha-svarūpa: I don't know anything about it, and I don't really care about organizing it. I don't care about...

Prabhupāda: So why don't you become a GBC and...

Siddha-svarūpa: Because I can't work... There's no way.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Because they have finished their science. They have researched and done so many years now, their scientific knowledge is liquidated. Now they are giving this chance theory, therefore, because they cannot explain anything. That's all. Their vidyā buddhi is finished. That is the problem now. For the scientists, it is a problem now. Now, so far their limited knowledge is concerned, they have done everything, discovered everything. Now there is no scope of working and discovering. That is the position of the scientists.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Only problem is they have Durgā.

Prabhupāda: Durgā, so we can worship, giving Durgā the prasādam of Rāma or Kṛṣṇa. That's it.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, something can be worked out.

Prabhupāda: Not directly. His prasāda. If we can worship ordinary human being, why not Durgā? But we give prasādam. We shall give. So don't tell all these things now.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I didn't tell him anything.

Prabhupāda: We do not say that we do not believe in the demigods. No, we believe in. But they are servants. That's all. We cannot make the servant and the master on the equal footing. That is all. We worship Durgā, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibharti durgā (Bs. 5.44). Now, what is the function? Icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā govindam ādi... She is acting by the desire of the Supreme Lord, Govinda.

Room Conversation -- April 20, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: You do not know. That is I say. Therefore I say you cannot do it. You do not know it. You cannot manufacture even a small germ, what to speak of pilot. That is the problem. The modern education is they do not know it. "Perhaps," "maybe," this is not scientific proposal.

Guru-kṛpā: Perhaps they can keep you young.

Carol Jarvis: That's just what I was going to say. Perhaps they can build something without giving him...

Prabhupāda: Who is.... Who is...

Carol Jarvis: ...giving him command, a free mind.

Prabhupāda: So suppose if you say, "Perhaps I'll be able to keep my young age continually," is it possible?

Carol Jarvis: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Then? You don't know. Then learn it. It is not possible. You must become an old lady. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Madman. (laughing)

Devotee (3): Man has created so many problems in the environment, so they don't think that the problem is man's way of doing things, or its heart. They simply consider if we can make some adjustments in the environment, then everything will go on very nicely.

Prabhupāda: They will try to make adjustments with material nature, everything will be failure. ...hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā. They'll never be able to adjust. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), chewing the chewed. That's all. (break) ...adjustment to lie down in the skyscraper, and now they are coming. Why they have come to the ground? Punaḥ punaś carvita. Sometimes on the ground, sometimes the sky. (break) They reject the stool and urine and then accept it. They do like that. (laughing) (break) It is rejected. It cannot be utilized. In India still the system is they use metal; when it is broken you can sell it. They take half price and supply new.... They use metal pots, and the (inaudible) is that when it is broken and old we can exchange with new plates. And this kind of bowls you have to throw away. You cannot utilize.

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So instead of becoming devotee, he wants to become God. And that is the problem. But it is the most confidential part of knowledge. Instead of carrying out the orders of God, he wants to order God. You see? Even in the lower stages of devotion, that mentality continues, that "God is order-supplier. If God carries my order, then I accept God. Otherwise I reject Him." In Germany... One of my German Godbrothers, he told me in 1935 that in the last world war, many people became atheists. They went to the church and prayed, especially women, "My husband may come back," "My brother may come back," or "My father may come back." Because all men went to the war field, and the women were there, they prayed in the churches. But nobody came back, and they became atheists. That means they took God as order-supplier. They ordered God, "Return my father. Return my brother. Return my husband," and God did not return. "Ah, there is no God. I don't care." This is going on. God is order-supplier. But our philosophy is God is not order-supplier; we are order-carriers of God. Anukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśilanaṁ bhaktir uttamā (CC Madhya 19.167). Just like Arjuna became. He became carrier of order of Kṛṣṇa. He did not like to fight, to kill the family members, but when he understood that Kṛṣṇa wants it, then he..., "Yes." Kariṣye vacanaṁ tava (BG 18.73). Find out this verse, naṣṭo mohaḥ smṛtir labhdā tvat-prasādān madhusūdanaḥ.

Garden Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Hm. This is very difficult to understand for the demonic. Prahlāda Mahārāja was instructing among the demons. So for them it was difficult. Still, Prahlāda Mahārāja was trying. The purport is read, this verse?

Nalinīkaṇṭha: Yes. You say that the problem is that there's a lack of spiritual education in their lives.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the defect always, especially in this age. There is no spiritual education. Hm? Do you think, Dr. Wolfe, there is spiritual education? Is there any in the school, colleges, universities?

Hṛdayānanda: He's saying if there's any real spiritual education in the colleges and schools.

Dr. Wolfe: To produce new sense-gratifiers.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Bronze is very good.

Kīrtanānanda: I've never seen it highly polished.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the problem. Why not make brass?

Bharadvāja: Out of brass? Bronze is harder. Bronze is harder.

Prabhupāda: No, why harder? You can make softer. Metal...

Kīrtanānanda: Gold is softer still. It will be much more brilliant in brass than bronze.

Bharadvāja: Generally...

Prabhupāda: Brass, just like our Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities in Māyāpur, how dazzling. Here also, in Boston.

Room Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Naturally, everyone, that is the problem of life. Otherwise, why there are so many medical colleges, drug shops and medicines, just to avoid disease? Otherwise, there was no need of arrangement. Everyone is afraid of disease, not to suffer from disease. That's a fact. If you say that you are not afraid of disease, that is something new. But unless we are afraid of disease, why there is this Memorial Hospital, this drug shop, this pharmacy? Why these things are required? We don't want it.

Interview with Jackie Vaughn (Black Congressman) -- July 12, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: But we are getting money. We have no money, but still we can sit down in such a nice palace. This is practical. So money is not problem. The problem is godlessness. So as soon as there is godlessness, there will be suffering, different types of suffering. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā:

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
(BG 7.14)

Problem, māyā is problem.

Garden Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: The real problem of life is birth, death, old age and disease. They do not understand this. They are so.... Just like animals. Animal does not understand what is birth, death, old age and disease. Real problem is there, but they are so dull-headed that their attention is diverted from the real problem. Temporary problems, they are busy. Just like, one major disease, one is suffering from a major disease. On account of that, he has sometimes headache, sometimes pain here, sometimes so many, minor. So, because we are subjected to meet death, so these minor conditions are there. The real problem is after suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering, when the body is no more able to bear suffering, it dies. Just like one man commits suicide. When he cannot control himself from the suffering, he voluntarily commits suicide. So death is the ultimate suffering. But we do not want suffering. Therefore problem is death. But who is anxious to solve this problem? They are not intelligent even. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). They do not know even what are the problems. Hmm?

Jayādvaita: They say that's life. They say that's what life is.

Prabhupāda: Life is to die?

Jayādvaita: Yes. They say this is natural.

Prabhupāda: So why you are afraid of death?

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Then they say, "I'm not afraid."

Prabhupāda: So that's mad. (laughter) Yes, they say like that. Everyone is afraid of death.

Morning Walk -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: The problem is that we are suffering in this material world life after life, and our aim is how to again go back to home, back to Godhead. That they do not know. They are showing some mysticism. Stop death. Then I shall see your mysticism. What is this nonsense mysticism? Can you stop death? Is it possible? Then what is the meaning of this mysticism? All bogus. My problem is that I am accepting one body and suffering, because as soon as I get this material body, I have to suffer. Then I am creating another body. I die. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). And again begins another chapter. In this way, from this grass life to the demigods, I am simply changing body and dying and taking birth. This is my problem. So what mysticism will do? But that they do not know, what is the problem. That is clearly stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is your problem. You are repeatedly taking birth and dying, and so long you are living there are so many troubles. Jarā-vyādhi. Especially old age and disease. So this is the problem. What mysticism will help you? Will the mysticism stop your birth, death, old age and disease? Then that is mysticism. Otherwise, what is the use of such nonsense things. (break) ...misleading from the real path. They do not know what is the aim of life, what is the problem of life. They create some mysticism, and some rascal people are after them. That's all. "Here is mystic."

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: They say "What we care for liberation? It is troublesome. You have to sacrifice so many things. We don't want liberation. That is nonsensical. You keep your liberation. We don't want." This is the problem. As you said, liberation means "Whatever I like I will do." But that is, actually, he cannot do that. But he's thinking that he's liberated. Can he do that, whatever he likes? But still he's... Therefore rascal. Dog's life. The dog is jumping, barking, that "I'm free now." But he forgets that as soon as the master will call and chain him, he'll do it. But he's thinking that "I'm liberated." This is the problem. What is his liberation? He does not know what is liberation.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "Either they will have to remain in this material world as human beings or they will descend among the species of the animals or even lower life forms."

Prabhupāda: Ah, they will say, "All bogus. This life, finished. I am free." That is the problem. This is their position.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: We were finding, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that they could not defeat varṇāśrama dharma. They had no society like varṇāśrama. In the colleges, they could not understand this body, but we showed them how the society could be arranged harmoniously, and they had no alternative. Their ideas on how to structure society for everyone's happiness, they have no good ideas. So that preaching platform they could understand, varṇāśrama.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Indian man: Yes, like painting, or music, or literature, poetry, like that. Because the problem is that they, if one devotes oneself to these things, they are full-time things, they take all your energy and time. And so...

Prabhupāda: Devotion means to engage your energy and time for Kṛṣṇa. Anyway you do that, that is utilized. Sarvopādhi-vinir... tat-paratvena. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa sevanam (CC Madhya 19.170). So if you can serve Kṛṣṇa by your hand, by painting about Kṛṣṇa, that is service. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, if you hear the chanting, that is also service. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇu, about Lord Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning. Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of pleasure, ānandamayo 'byāsāt. So these things are producing ānanda. If it is in connection with Kṛṣṇa, then it is service. (aside:) So, Pālikā, you can take these fruits, cut into pieces and distribute it.

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

Prabhupāda: We are giving the solution, let them take it. This is our greatest contribution.

Viśākhā: The problem is they believe what they see.

Prabhupāda: Believe or not believe, we shall have to give the people by books, by knowledge, by film.

Hari-śauri: But if somehow or other that sun-moon thing can be proved, then they'll all be finished, completely.

Prabhupāda: It will not be finished because some rascals, fools will remain to support it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's always like that, just like in Mahābhārata...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are carried away by the laws of nature. However you may improve your technological science, you are under the laws of material nature. That you cannot change. But if you revive your spiritual life, then you can change. Otherwise it is not possible. If you keep yourself under the laws of material nature, then you have to be carried away by the laws of material nature, however expert you may be in technological understanding. Because, after all, you are an instrument in the hands of material nature.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate
(BG 3.27)

You are falsely thinking "I am everything. I can, by technological understanding, improve the condition." But the real problem is, as it is put forward by Bhagavad-gītā, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). We are eternal, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We are put under the laws of material nature, by which we have to accept birth, death, old age and disease. This is our real problem. So unless you make a solution of these problems, there is actually no advancement of education. But the problems remains the same.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Prabhupāda: That is the nature. You cannot solve the problem. You will create problem. If you don't live natural life, then you will create problem. Just like the other than creatures, other than human beings, they have no problems, because they are living naturally. So our human beings should also live natural life. Then his only problem is birth, death, old age, and... That he will be able to solve. That is the difference. The birds and beasts, they are living natural life, but they have no capacity to solve the problems. They are living a natural life. But the human being has the capacity to solve the problems. Real problem is birth, death, old age and disease. But they do not touch the real problem. Hmm? They avoid it because they cannot solve it.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: This opportunity is there. If you want you can go again to the higher planetary system, live there for so many years, and again when your resultant action of pious activities is finished, you again come and become a grass, and again begin... This is going on. But where is the science to understand how the process is going on? Therefore people are kept in ignorance. They have dismissed the idea, that there is no life after death, that's all. (guest leaving) There is no education. They are kept in ignorance. That is the problem, risky civilization, that people are kept in dark ignorance about the problems of the life. They do not know. They are struggling from the beginning of life, but they do not know what is the problem of life. Neither they have any information what are all these different planets, how they are being used, who are using them. They have no information. They are making a show of going to the moon planet, Mars planet, useless attempt. And presenting some photograph from Arizona. That is going on.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Dr. Sharma: The problem is the definition of life. It has not yet been defined, and the definition of life accepted by them is not the real definition of life.

Prabhupāda: The definition of life they have given, resistance. If you want to come to kill me, I resist you. That is life. Everyone knows it.

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda, it's a quarter to nine.

Prabhupāda: That is life. If I want to cut this table it will not resist. But if you want to kill me, I'll resist. That is life. Where is the difficulty?

Dr. Sharma: No, the way we understand, there is no difficulty. The way scientists understand there is a lot of difficulty.

Prabhupāda: What is that scientist? What is their definition? What do they say?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Svarūpa Dāmodara?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Life is a..., they say the question "What is life?" you should not inquire. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is... You keep yourself in darkness. You remain fool. That is scientific. So long you remain a rascal, it is scientific.

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

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So the problem is that Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is saying that he wants all of the devotees to stay there for the opening of the Bombay temple.

Prabhupāda: Not necessary.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not necessary. Because there is at least, there would be still about a hundred, hundred-fifty devotees there anyway.

Prabhupāda: Some of them. They can go sometime later.

Rāmeśvara: Or the next year.

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Some batches may go this year, some batches may go...

Rāmeśvara: The following year, Gaura-pūrṇimā festival there can be a pandal program in Bombay. Then they can visit it the next year. The main point is we don't have to be there for the opening.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: As you recall perhaps, in Māyāpur, we discussed that we would like to go in Vṛndāvana first and end the festival in Māyāpur on Gaura-pūrṇimā.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Hari-śauri: It's not just that. It's the problem that you have to fly from France to somewhere else and then from somewhere else back to India. I said the main problem is that if you do go to France, then it means a great deal more traveling than would be involved in simply flying to India, because you'd have to travel back and forth to the Paris farm. Then you would also have to stay in Tehran, up and down like that in the plane, and then again fly to Bombay.

Bhagavān: But he doesn't have to stay in the farm for just nine days. He can stay there for long time.

Prabhupāda: If the health suits, I can stay there. If the health improves, I can stay.

Pṛthu-putra: Air India is direct from Geneva.

Prabhupāda: I shall not stay...

Pṛthu-putra: I came back from Bombay to Geneva by direct plane.

Prabhupāda: Yes, there is plane.

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

Hari-śauri: The problem is that the calves drink so much milk that they become very sick, so they have to separate.

Prabhupāda: Therefore they should not be allowed always. Once in a day, that's all.

Hari-śauri: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Not too much allowed, but once. At least while milking they should be allowed to drink little milk, and that will encourage the mother to deliver more milk.

Hari-śauri: Oh. At the same time they're milking the cow, the calf can come.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They can bring it milk. And while milking, the calf may be standing before the mother.

Room Conversation -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Bhagavān: Several months ago we had a parents' meeting. Because on account of this man Moon, there was much agitation about groups taking young children away. So we had a very nice meeting with prasādam and slides, and one of the parents was saying that "We want to be angry at you, but the problem is that you are all so nice that we cannot be angry."

Prabhupāda: One gentleman has joined, he has paid five thousand dollars. His whole family has joined.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (japa)

Dayānanda: Prabhupāda, they say that the problem is that, the problem of the world is that humanity should be one, everyone should think of things as belonging to humanity and that religion and different governments have made humanity sectarian and divided up.

Prabhupāda: No, no. We are not such kind of religionist. We say that everything belongs to God and everyone is son of God. We don't say like that.

Dayānanda: But they say we don't believe in God, we believe in humanity.

Prabhupāda: What is the difference?

Dayānanda: The difference is that humanity is tangible, it's something we can understand, but God we cannot understand.

Prabhupāda: So we are also tangible, but we are more advanced. How you can, wherefrom the humanity came, the next question will be. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Wherefrom the human being came, hm? Do little.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: But that is not practical. Everything belongs to the humanity, then why you are making divisions of nations?

Dayānanda: That's what they say, that that is the problem.

Prabhupāda: And the problem will continue because you are taking account a section of living entity. You, because you have no idea of dog and other animals, what they are, they are also sons of God. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Find out. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ. Unless you come to this understanding, there is no question of humanity. This is the humanity understanding. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Education you cannot give. Education means it is practical practice. But to show something, that you can attract even without film. The yatra-party can.

Guest (5): Yatra-party, sir, here again the problem is India's a vast country and for that purpose if you take the whole world as a place, how many yatra-parties can you...

Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say, that even if you attract better crowd, what will be the benefits? Unless, because unless you come to the point of practicing, there is no profit. Who will be attracted to practice Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. Nobody is... We are getting practical experience.

Yaśomatīnandana: In other words just being attracted to philosophy is not sufficient. There has to be... Let them become a devotee. (indistinct remarks)

Prabhupāda: Now just like we are attempting—not only here, everywhere—we have got nice buildings, and (indistinct) and Bombay we have constructed such big, big house so we are asking, at least those who are learned people, that if they retire, come here and practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness. No, nobody's prepared to practice. And this is a thing, without practice you cannot realize.

Press Interview at Muthilal Rao's House -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: We think the real problem is they do not know what they are.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(BG 2.13)

Our modern education, they do not believe that there is spirit soul within the body and the spirit soul transmigrates from one body to another. Where is that education? Is there any education that there is spirit soul within the body and that spirit soul is transmigrating from one body to another? Is there any education, scientific education, all over the world? That is the statement in the Bhagavad-gītā.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Fittest means who does not get next a material body. He is fit. He is fit. Because as soon as you get a material body...

nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma
yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti
na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam
asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ
(SB 5.5.4)

They are mad, working day and night. Pramatta. And acting just adverse to his interest. So Ṛṣabhadeva says this is not good. You should know that he has already got a body for which he is suffering. Pritar yantra.(?) And again he is creating another body. By his karma he is creating another body. So as soon as you get a material body you'll have to suffer. Either you become a king or a dog. Because you have got this material body you have to suffer. Pritar yantra. So asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (SB 5.5.4). This body will not exist. But still so long you'll exist in this body you'll suffer. But they have no brain how to solve this, although there is solution. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). So paropakāra. So as you have become our life member, try to broadcast the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā. That is the meaning of membership. Everything is there. We have got so many books. At least, thoroughly study Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Yes. Understand the philosophy of life. Apply in own life and try to spread among friends. In your bar library you talk so many things. Why not talk about this? Yes. (laughter) Paropakāra. That is paropakāra. Everyone is in darkness. Durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know the goal of life. Simply by some false hope they are accepting this material thing, material life, as everything. Durāśayā bahir-artha-māninaḥ. External energy. This is the problem. Making plans to solve. No plan will solve this problem.

Meeting with Endowments Commissioner -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: You know that? There are so many rascals, they say, "I'm God." You know that? That is the problem. If somebody says, "I am God," is it a fact? But he says like that. He's such a rascal. That is the point.

Devotee: In spite of all falsehood, people accept him as God.

Prabhupāda: They accept.

Devotee: (indistinct)

Vāsughoṣa: This man has come to read the Oriya book. He can read Oriya. So... He wanted someone to translate. They have come.

Prabhupāda: Where is that Oriya book?

Harikeśa: The one Gargamuni...

Vāsughoṣa: Yes. Orissan language, Orissan language.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Indian man: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Do you think that realization is good? If anyone realizes that he is God? Do you think he has actually realized anything?

Indian man: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: What is the proof? Everyone can say, "I am God," but where is the proof? He must act like God. If somebody says, "I am the richest man," simply this statement will do, or we must see how he is rich? (pause) Hm. Give him.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Prabhupāda: No, you have to keep it constantly.

Interviewer: How to do it? That is the problem.

Prabhupāda: That we have see, if you come to our center, live with us, you'll see how we are doing it. You are welcome. You can live with us any time or any period of time. You'll see how we are doing that.

Room Conversation About Gurukula -- November 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They should be engaged in chanting, not sit down and japa. That will not be possible for them.

Jagadīśa: The problem is that some of the boys are fourteen, fifteen, or thirteen. They should chant japa because they are required to chant sixteen rounds a day. Many of them are initia...

Prabhupāda: Sixteen rounds, it requires, utmost two hours, two and a half hours.

Jagadīśa: Well, two hours is on the schedule, two hours and ten minutes.

Prabhupāda: Chela bangiya (laughter). How are you? That's nice.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Well, in your country there is some adjustment because it is very big country and you are all intelligent people. In other countries they... But even though you have got resources, if you not properly utilize it, then the bad time is coming. You should expect. If your energy is all engaged in manufacturing tires and wheels, then who will go to the... Actually I have seen in your country. Now the farmers' son, they do not like to remain in the farm. They go in the city. I have seen it. The farmers' son, they do not like to take up the profession of his father. So gradually farming will be reduced, and the city residents, they are satisfied if they can eat meat. And the farmer means keeping the, raising the cattle and killing them, send to the city, and they will think that "We are eating. What is the use of going to..." But these rascals have no brain that "If there is no food grain or grass, how these cattle will be...?" Actually it is happening. They are eating swiftly. "The cattle will die. Before they die, let us kill and eat." Actually it is happening. In Italy they killed because the problem is twenty thousand cows. This is going on. They do not care that killing is sinful because they don't care for God. This is going on. And sinful, sinful, sinful, everyone will be punished. The nature's law will act. Tag wande gao(?) (Bengali) There is a Bengali proverb, tag wande gao(?), that "One man wanted to take statistics, 'How many thieves are there in this village?' So when he began to take statistics, he saw everyone is thief. Then he said that 'What is the use of making statistics? This is village of thieves, that's all.' " So it is... At the present moment this is the position. If you make a statistics who is sinful and who is not sinful, you will find all sinful. And because they are sinful, they decry the existence of God. Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante... Find out this, seventh... Because they are all sinful, they deny the existence of God. This is the position.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That's it. So you'll find everyone of this description, either sinful, or lowest of the mankind, or rascal, or puffed-up with false knowledge, but the basic principle is: no God. So the only solution is let them first of all become God conscious. Then all solution. Otherwise there is no hope.

Dr. Kneupper: The problem is very complex...

Prabhupāda: Yes, it must be complex. They will create complexity.

Dr. Kneupper: And the solution is very simple.

Prabhupāda: Solution. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etām... And that we are preaching, that "You become God conscious. Everything will be solved." And who is caring for us? Rather, they are giving opposition, that "These rascals are kidnapping our sons, brainwashing, controlling the mind," creating courts case. Just see. This is going on.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But as soon as we say, "Oh, this is Hindu idea"—reject immediately. This is science, and they are taking "Hindu idea."

Indian man (2): The problem is that identification only. Otherwise it is universal philosophy.

Prabhupāda: It is universal, but they are taking it as Indian.

Indian man (2): In order to identify that, Vedic, let's say Indian, actually that is not Indian.

Prabhupāda: No, whatever it may be. Knowledge is knowledge. It may be Indian or American. It doesn't matter. Just like university. Some student from India go to university in America to study higher knowledge. So that means that because he has gone to America, that is American knowledge. Knowledge is knowledge. So they should take on this background, but they are thinking that we are spoiling their children, brainwashing, controlling the mind, because against their principle, against their uncivilized way of life: meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication. This is uncivilized life. Why a man, civilized man, shall eat meat? He can prepare so many nice things. He has learned how to produce food, food grains. When they are uncivilized—there is no food; they do not know how to grow food—they can eat animal in the jungle. But if after becoming civilized, if you are eating the same thing, then what is the difference between civilization and not civilization? You have learned. And especially in your America you can get all nice foodstuff. You have got sufficient grains, sufficient fruits, sufficient vegetables, sufficient... Everything sufficient. Why you should eat meat? This is uncivilized life. They could not give up the uncivilized way of life. And when you teach that "You become civilized. Give up this all nonsense. Don't eat." "Oh, it is brainwashing." You see? We are teaching them to become civilized, and they are taking it brainwashing.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā? So this is our position. Now you are philosophers. You try to understand the whole philosophy and combine together. People have become all fourth-class, tenth-class, uncivilized men. They should be given the idea of God consciousness. I don't say only in Western country. Everywhere this is the problem, all fourth-class men. So there is possibility to bring the fourth-class men to the first-class. That is educational. It can be done. There is no difficulty. So this is the education, how to make fourth-class men or fifth-class men to come to the first-class standard.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That is foolishness. You may say that "I am taking care of the best son," but to a father, either the best son or the lowest son, the same. Father does not make any..., "Because this is best son, he should be satisfied and the worst sons should be neglect." Father does not make. Father will like better that "You take care of my worst son first." And besides that, to take care of the human society, it is also bogus. Nobody can take care. There are so many problems in the human society how you can take care? But the real problem is—that is for everyone—janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. Either he is animal or human being or demigod or big man or small man or rich man or poor man, a learned man, foolish man, these problems are there, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. So if you take care of these problems, how to save them, all of them, from these four problems, that is real service. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Otherwise temporary—"I am hungry. You give me some relief"—but that relief is temporary. I'll become again hungry. And if I come to you twice, thrice, you'll be disgusted. Neither you can. There are so many hungry men. But if with a view to solve his all problems of life, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi, if you take care of him, that is the best service.

Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So?

Mahāṁśa: The problem is that the programs I didn't arrange because the devotees were not regular in coming. I didn't know when they were all coming. So if I arrange a program that means my men...

Prabhupāda: But therefore the meeting is here. Do here now.

Mahāṁśa: Yes, now it can be done. But I couldn't do...

Prabhupāda: So it can be done. Why can you...? What? When it will be done, do then.

Mahāṁśa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Don't make future promise. You do it immediately. Make program. But settle up when it will begin, when it is right. Here work is going on. That Mṛtyu, he cannot... No? Mūrti. So he cannot manage without him?

Mahāṁśa: He can. He has to be a little more acquainted with the people. He has to...

Prabhupāda: He is here from the last June. He is not acquainted?

Mahāṁśa: He's only here since about ten days. He's not here for a long time and he's not very forceful in making them do the work.

Prabhupāda: So who will be forceful?

Mahāṁśa: He can be trained. I'm training him.

Prabhupāda: So that training... Everyone is under training; then who will be head? If in old age you have to be trained up, then when they will be trained up? So what is the..., to sit down silently? That's all?

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They'll not take it: "No! What is this Swamiji...? Mahatma Gandhi says this and this... Tilak says this, this, that." And if we say that they are wrong, then people will criticize, "Oh, he has become more than..." This is the difficulty. We don't say anything except what is said by the great personalities that are Kṛṣṇa conscious. So I am not saying anything of my own manufacture. I am simply saying what Kṛṣṇa has said. But they will reject that. I say that Kṛṣṇa says that you become a Kṛṣṇa's devotee. It is very simple for me. And they will say, "Huh! What is this nonsense Kṛṣṇa? We have seen this Kṛṣṇa. Now we have got this leader." This is the problem. Upadeṣo hi mūrkhāṇāṁ prakopāya na śāntaye. (Hindi)

Guest (2): They reject it because they find it difficult to...

Prabhupāda: No, it is not at all difficulty. What is the difficulty?

Guest (2): So then why do they reject it?

Prabhupāda: If I say that "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa," what is the difficulty? But he thinks that "This is insignificant." He thinks like that. What I am teaching these people?

Guest (1): Very simple thing.

Prabhupāda: Very simple thing, "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." I have not given them any bribe. I have not shown them any magic of gold manufacturing. From the very beginning I said, "You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." But that is becoming fruitful.

Room Conversation -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What is that problem?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: First problem is, we'll have to reserve seven rooms...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...and lose money.

Prabhupāda: No lose money.

Jagadīśa: There are rooms in the gurukula.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, but that cannot be used for tourists at the moment.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Why cannot be used?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: A gurukula room? They are not ready for use. The people who come...

Prabhupāda: Well, it will be finished by the time your customers...

Hari-śauri: Your tourist traffic is not going to come immediately.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: These are the months now, December, January, February...

Prabhupāda: All right, it has to be done like that, that all classes are going on every day. One who comes on Wednesday, it does not mean he has to wait. The class is there. It doesn't matter Wednesday or Friday. Next day he goes there, next class, next day he goes, next class. The difficulty may be that we have to set aside seven rooms. That we have got, room.

Press Interview -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Miracles? Why do you want miracles? What miracle? Can you save a man from death? Can you show this miracle? This miracle means cheating. The real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9).

Indian man: No but can a saint...

Prabhupāda: Why you are after miracles?

Indian man: No, but one thing. Is it possible for a saint at certain stage of sādhana to perform miracles?

Prabhupāda: That is cheating. Here, in the Bhagavad-gītā, you don't find anywhere that you show miracles. He says man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). He never says that you show miracles. These are all rascals. You become His bhakta. That is the greatest miracle. And he guarantees, mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaṁ. That is miracle. What is this miracle, cheating other people by showing some magic or jugglery of words. These are miracles? That is cheating.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Roof Conversation -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Girirāja: I thought he was improving. Well, the construction is, you know, going at the same rate. I spoke to the marble... There's two marble contractors. The one who's doing the floor, he's going very quickly. All the guestrooms are finished and half of the bathrooms are finished. The temple room is mostly finished. Main problem is the columns and arches. And it seems that that contractor has a bad reputation for taking money and then wasting time.

Prabhupāda: Oh. He has taken money?

Girirāja: It seems he has taken lot of money.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Girirāja: On the plea that he needed it to get the work going. So, er...

Prabhupāda: The same thing was done in Māyāpur. These cheaters, they take advance money, and then they do...

Dr. Patel: The contractor of mine also did the same thing in my house. Give them advance... (Hindi) That's it.

Prabhupāda: Then, what to do?

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But one thing is that we are preaching Bhagavad-gītā as it is. In Bhagavad-gītā there is no such statement that you take care of the eyes of the people. There is no such statement. That is your manufactured idea. But we are preaching Bhagavad-gītā as it is. That is the difference. Our preaching is that instead of giving relief to the eyes, give him relief in such a way he hasn't got to accept any more this body with eyes. You cannot make a solution of the problem. Somebody is taking care of the eyes, somebody's taking of the finger, somebody of the hair, somebody of another, genital, and so on, so on. This will not solve the problem. The problem is, as it is said in the Bhagavad..., janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is intelligence. As soon as you take birth, then you'll have eyes, you'll have eye trouble, vyādhi. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. If you accept janma-mṛtyu, then between janma-mṛtyu there is vyādhi and jarā. You have to accept. You may give some relief, but you have to accept. So that is not solution. The solution is how to stop this janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That is solution.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So this movement is for that purpose. It is not for this janma-mṛtyu, I mean, temporary jarā-vyādhi. That is all right, but Kṛṣṇa says—if we take Kṛṣṇa's advice, Bhagavad-gītā—that is not problem. If there is little trouble, tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. Real problem is that janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). Try to stop it. That is intelligence. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). That is culture; that is education, not to be very much bothered with the temporary. That is not very intelligence. Give them this culture, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So we have got this body. So long you have got this body, you may give relief to the eyes, but another trouble will come. It is not guarantee that by giving them relief to the eyes he gets relief from all kinds of disease. That is go... That will go, going on, janma-mṛtyu..., er, mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya (BG 2.14).

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Guest (3) (Indian man): Guruji, just now the problem is of starvation.

Prabhupāda: Well, starvation... Suppose you are diseased, and if your father does not give you to eat, that is your blessing. Guest (1): And what about...? He will die or...? Or this will go away?

Prabhupāda: Why you are complaining? Suppose your father, he gives you everything. But when you are diseased, if he said, "My dear son you cannot eat everything," is that starvation?

Guest (3): But...

Prabhupāda: First of all give me answer this. Is that starvation?

Guest (3): No...

Prabhupāda: That is cure. This is cure. In the Vedas it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. God is giving food to the cats and dogs. Nobody is starving. If you are starving, that is your blessing.

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.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So first of all where is the necessity? I have been talking...

Mr. Asnani: Why create a problem? Today the problem is not before us.

Girirāja: The thing is that the same constitution we've had since the beginning, and we've always got the exemption...

Prabhupāda: Yes. And why you are bothering? He's going Delhi?

Girirāja: Even last time the Assistant Commissioner...

Mr. Asnani: Who is there in Delhi, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: This Gopāla Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No-doctor says like that. I see everyone.

Guest (1): So Gopāla Kṛṣṇa told me... That was the first day with the doctor. You accepted that doctor's decision. So it was first day when I came. So Gopāla Kṛṣṇa told me this is the problem as it is, and I'm not disappointed at all. I am one with Prabhupāda so there is no difficulty. So I took a chance today.

Prabhupāda: So I did not like that idea.

Guest (1): No, but sometimes, Prabhupāda, just to keep... You may not require your body for yourself, but we require your body also for ourselves. So we, all the devotees, always pray to our Lord to give you a long physical body and healthy so that the cause which you have taken up in your hand should be completely fulfilled. This is the way I feel.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I also desire at least let me finish...

Guest (1): I have gone to the Fourth Canto, Fifth Canto.

Prabhupāda: We have finished now Eighth Canto, and Ninth Canto is also at the press. Tenth Canto is already printed, this Kṛṣṇa as the summary of Tenth. Now I have to publish in detail.

Room Conversation -- January 15, 1977, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: No. Why monarchy? You can continue democracy, but the legislators should be first-class men who has knowledge, not these rascals.

Rāmeśvara: But the real problem is the businessmen, because they can influence the mass of people by advertising.

Prabhupāda: The mass of people should be educated. Just like we are educating, "No meat-eating." So automatically the meat-selling, slaughterhouse will be stopped.

Rāmeśvara: There must be some controls. Otherwise...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Control must be there, that... This is very easy. The state cannot support or maintain slaughterhouse. If you want to eat meat, you kill animal at your home. But state cannot. So mass sinful activities, state cannot. So if the legislators and the head of the state are Kṛṣṇa conscious, they will understand the importance of this. So they can stop slaughterhouse. And the public agitation? "You can slaughter animal at your home. You have got the liberty, but state cannot maintain." What is the wrong there?

Rāmeśvara: What about buying books? There are so many books with nonsense ideas. That will have to be controlled also.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: But they are the topmost devotees. These (chuckling) uneducated, without any town life, cow-men, they are Kṛṣṇa's best friend. Unsophisticated, no education, but love intense—that is perfect. That attracted Kṛṣṇa more. Vṛndāvanaṁ parityajya na padam ekaṁ (sic:) na kartavya... Kṛṣṇa is so much attached to Vṛndāvana that He goes nowhere... What is that? They are not educated girls, up-to-date fashion, (indistinct) or nothing. Crude. As soon as there was blowing of the flute, immediately they began to run towards Kṛṣṇa. Somebody is taking care of children, somebody is engaged in boiling milk, and somebody was even lying down with her husband. Still, immediately... Very crude, unsophisticated, but intense love for Kṛṣṇa—that is Vṛndāvana. We want to introduce this farm project means intense love for Kṛṣṇa. And other things—very simple: little milk, little food grain, little vegetable, that's all. And that is very nice. If you get fresh vegetable, fresh milk, and food grain, what do you want more? And from milk you can prepare so many nice preparations, unlimited number, all very palatable, sweet. This civilization we want to introduce, not so-called rascal civilization and become implicated in this cycle of birth and death. This is not civilization. This is killing civilization. Human being got the opportunity to get out of these clutches of birth and death. They do not understand. They're so rascal, they do not understand how they are implicated in this cycle of birth and death, nor they do take it seriously, that this is the problem, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). They are so blind rascals, they do not see that this is real suffering. They do not know it. Simply theorizing, making plan, and they do not know what is the suffering. Such a rascal civilization.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: That is another imagination, as if by leper colony he'll stop his death. It is not possible. The real solution, real problem, is this, that "Why you are dying?" Stop this.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Science, in principle, is also aiming for two things. One is to understand the nature of the Absolute. Indirectly or to some degree, science is aiming at that, too, plus to solve the problems of life. These two...

Prabhupāda: The problems of life is birth, death, old age, disease. That they cannot... Real problem is this.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Just like trying to relieve my cold or some sort of physical suffering. That is temporary.

Prabhupāda: That is temporary. That is temporary. That I can change without your scientific help. Now you have discovered this sweater. I can go to the sunshine, and it will be all right. I don't require. Nature's arrangement is already there.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Obstinate. That scissors philosophy. There is no other way to understand it, but he'll not accept. That is his misfortune. Mūḍha. Bokā. And our problem is that these bokās, rascals, they are leading the society. And they are suffering. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). He's blind. We are also blind. And they're leading us. What will be our consequence? And we are losing the chance of human body to understand what is spirit, what is matter, what is God. We're losing everything. Very precarious condition. These rascals will not allow to understand real thing. That is the position. Otherwise what we have got to do with these rascals? But because they are taking some position, the whole populace is misguided. Means they are losing the chance of this human body. Suicided.

Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: ...duty after all. Everyone is his son. Condemned maybe, but they must be supplied with food. (break) ...supplies food to the prisoners. (break) ...are kept as prisoners of māyā. We want to fight and release them. Who has got such good mission?

Hari-śauri: No one even understands actually what the problem is.

Prabhupāda: One does not understand—that does not mean the fact is not.

Hari-śauri: Yes. You said preaching is a thankless task.

Prabhupāda: Just see Jesus Christ-crucified. What was his fault? He was crucified. Of course, he was not crucified. Nobody can crucify him. But the people are so thankless...

Hari-śauri: That they wanted to do that.

Prabhupāda: Such a great personality, son of God. He wanted to deliver God consciousness. And return, he was crucified. We don't take Jesus Christ very insignificantly. We give him all honor. He's representative of God. He tried to preach according to the time, place, circumstances, country, people. Otherwise he is representative of God.

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm hm. (break) Cats also do not disturb. But everyone is fully fed and happy. The first problem is eating. So if you produce like tons, this corn alone can feed everyone. It is so nice food. Corn you can smash, and the powder portion you can use as flour, and the portion which is not powder, the hard portion, you can use as rice. And it is more nutritious than flour, wheat flour, and ordinary rice, and very cheap, cheaper than the ordinary rice and cheaper than the ordinary wheat. But you can utilize it—both dāl, bhāta. Vegetable and fat. From milk you get so much fat. Complete food.

Bhavānanda: I was very impressed with that farm when I visited it. Nicest. I saw one little kitten in the barn, and there was milk coming out of the cow's milkbag and it was falling into the kitten's mouth.

Prabhupāda: Dropping.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They can eat all the grains. There's so much grains produced there.

Prabhupāda: Arrange all this. Our philosophy is "Eat nicely, live nicely, and advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness." First problem is eating. That we shall supply, no problem. Eating and clothing we shall give. And shelter. Make this propaganda. They put this logic, "If we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, who shall earn? Who will earn for us?" The Indians, they do that. Rascals, they do that. They do not know Kṛṣṇa provides. So we give them that "You... I give you shelter, food, cloth. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Bali-mardana: Full program.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- March 27, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I never agreed to be misguide by these rascals. Perhaps I am the first man who protested against these authorized scientists.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes. Very strongly. Everybody is afraid except Śrīla Prabhupāda. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Frankly speaking, I never knew that the problem is this serious before I met Śrīla Prabhupāda. I never thought about this.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I took it so seriously. Every morning walk, I was, "Where is the scientist?" I thought "Here I have got an opportunity to impress that will fructify in fruition." That was my aim. Therefore I was bothering you in so ways.

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now, you will find so many scholars, commentators on Bhagavad-gītā, but nobody understands this first line. This is the fact now going on. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). If you accept this first principle... You have to accept. Accept or deny, it doesn't matter. You are young man. I say that you will become old man. You accept or deny, it doesn't matter; you must be an old man. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa says, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), there will be change of the body. So you accept or not accept, it doesn't matter. It will take. But if I am going to change my body, and if I am eternal, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), then what is my next body, it should not be my concern. But nobody cares for it. "Never mind what body I am going to get next. It doesn't matter. Let me enjoy this body." This is animal civilization. The dog, at night barking, jumping, he is not able to understand, what is next life, what is rebirth, what is his... He cannot understand. But a human being can understand. So if he is put into the darkness, then what is the difference between animal and human being? So this is the problem. So we are trying (in) our humble way to give this knowledge to the world. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And our request to everyone is that "You try to understand the philosophy and cooperate."

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: As a person ghostly haunted, as he speaks all nonsense, similarly, when a living entity becomes bewildered by māyā, he speaks all nonsense.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate
(BG 3.27)

This is the fact. You cannot deny the existence of God. And God is personally speaking, ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya (BG 14.4). So anyone who denies the existence of God, he is a madman. He requires treatment. That is the problem. There is no institutional asylum for these madmen. And we are trying to establish this asylum. Now it is up to them to come to this asylum and take treatment. Otherwise nobody can deny the existence of God. It is not possible.

Conversation with Patita-pavana -- April 20, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Here there is no difficulty with lift.

Patita-pāvana: With the lift, yes. Fine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, but they're... I mean, there's no problem for getting them here to see you. The problem is whether they can..., where they will live, their residential quarters.

Girirāja: I was thinking of the Chand Society.

Prabhupāda: That's nice, Chand Society. There are three rooms. That is very nice.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Dog is also doing that. Is he householder? Taking care of children, the dog is also doing that. So is he householder? First of all, you do not know what is meant by householder. Taking care of children, that is done by the birds. In the nest the small kiddies are there, and they are bringing food and pushing in the mouth, (makes bird noise:) "Tee, tee, tee, tee, tee." Are they householder? And if you think they are householder, you are also householder like the dogs and birds. You do not know what is householder. Therefore you have to consult śāstra, who is a householder. Śāstra says, pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt, na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum: "You should not become a father and mother unless you take the responsibility for children that no more birth." Because this is the problem, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). If you are so able father and mother that you can stop this miserable condition of your children, then you become householder. That is householder.

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. But you have to follow the rules. That is a fact. Either your own rules or Christian rules or Muslim rules or Hindu rules, you have to follow rules. That's a fact. Now, that I have already told. Now make your own choice. Yathecchasi tathā kuru (BG 18.63). If you think your rules will solve this problem... Real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9). If you think that following your rules will solve this problem, then you follow.

Young man (6): Many people are bound by rules.

Prabhupāda: It is not the question of "many people." We are talking of philosophy. (break) And we shall say, "Follow the rules laid down by Kṛṣṇa." That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now, if you like, you do. Or you live to your own rules. Take that. We shall advise to follow the rules of Kṛṣṇa. And practically you see. By following the rules of Kṛṣṇa we have created Vaiṣṇavas in whole world, hundreds and thousands. Ask their past history and now, how they have changed. Example is better than precept, which rule is better. Actually this is the fact. We are under the rules of nature. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Everything is acting under the rules of material nature. Just like you are young man. Now, you cannot say, "I'll not become old man."

Room Conversation -- May 8, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Young man (3): I'm thinking he's not (indistinct) properly.

Prabhupāda: So the real problem is birth, death, old age and disease, and by following any rules, if you can stop this problem, then you are successful. It doesn't matter what is your brand of rules, but the problem is there. And we are suggesting that mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etām... If you want to avoid the rules of material nature, then you surrender unto Kṛṣṇa. We are suggesting. If you like, you can take it. But you are under the rules of material nature. That you cannot say, "No." (aside:) Now give them prasādam.

Evening Darsana -- May 14, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: You recite that verse, nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti (SB 5.5.4). The instruction of King Ṛṣabhadeva to His sons. He said that "This body, human body..." Ayaṁ dehaḥ. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke. Deha. Everyone has got deha, body. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) "After this body is finished, another body...," because ātmā, na jāyate na mriyate vā, nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Ātmā is eternal. There is no birth, no death. Nitya, eternal; śāśvataḥ purāṇaḥ, the oldest; and na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Therefore this is the problem. The ātmā has no birth, no death, and neither he is dead after the annihilation of this body. But we are put into this condition. We are not put, but we have put ourself. We are putting ourself in this condition of repetition of birth and death. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Once we take birth, and again we annihilate this body.

Conversations -- May 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: People are not coming.

Akṣayānanda: It's up and down, Prabhupāda. Sometimes it's full. One day it's full; one day it's nothing. It's not steady. This is the problem. We always invite them. We go to the people personally and invite them, and they come.

Prabhupāda: Anyway...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The waiters could have been better. They're not very...

Akṣayānanda: I can snap them up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They should be a little more businesslike. (background discussion) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...this Rādhā-Dāmodara temple.

Srila Prabhupada Vigil -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just now everything is going on, but after my demise it may be taken away from your hand.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Phew! You understood that from this discussion here with this man?

Prabhupāda: I understood it long ago. It has been stayed, (?) Bombay, Vṛndāvana. So how you are going to guard yourself? That is the problem.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I... Your order that it be a trust property with lifetime trustees...

Prabhupāda: So now you are all here. Very cautiously and everything agree.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That will protect it. At least the property will be protected.

Prabhupāda: You should be very much determined, strong-minded. Otherwise it will slip. Such huge property...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually these properties are the envy of all of India. They're the best properties in each place.

Prabhupāda: Not only property. Our prestige, our position... Everything is envied. Everywhere we are first class.

Morning Talk -- June 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You say. We don't say. Because you cannot do, you say. We are cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness for this purpose. We are not wasting time. And we are wasting time doing so? We are fools? That is the first instruction, that soul is immortal and unchanging. This very instruction they cannot understand. That is first instruction. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). This simple... A child changes body. That is beginning. There is no... Same child. For a while it may be. Now he's grown up, young man. It is not change of body? Why these rascals cannot understand? What is that improvement of...? Therefore I have said, "You have no brain." It is a fact. My son, he's now young man. He took birth as a small child. Where is that body? Body has changed. Common thing. But these rascals, so fool, they cannot understand. I have become old man, but if some elderly persons, my guardians, were alive, he knew it, "He has become old man, but he was born a small child." That we have given in pictures, change of body. Change of body is going on. Why these rascals cannot understand? What is their intelligence? Therefore the real problem is the change of body should be stopped. And that is real scientific advancement. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Stop change of the body. We are trying to follow this culture. They say, "It is impossible." So what is their knowledge of? Why the scientists cannot at least stop change of body? Young man... When I was young man, sir, stout and strong, then people came here.

Gurukula Inspection -- June 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: We have to preach.

Prabhupāda: That is the problem. Keep place ready, but you have to bring students.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They're not going to come of their own. We have to go out and get them.

Prabhupāda: They will come later on, when they will see: "Yes..."

Yaśodānandana: First we have to get the ISKCON students first.

Prabhupāda: ISKCON or FISKCON, bring students. (laughter)

Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...allowing permanent residence, to suffer for that, that will help us. That will help us. But if they do not do anything, then what is the use of them? What we can expect from them, profit? What we expect? Our real problem is here, that every time, our men has to go out, they kicked out, trained-up men... So if we can at least, as he has asked, submit the names, let us test what they will do. Otherwise what help you expect from them?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Only that, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: What help you expect from them? For money's concerned, we are selling our books, publication, everything. They are also profiting. We cannot expect any money from government.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: So what help we expect?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Simply some allowing our men to be there like that. Simply allowing our men to remain in the country...

Prabhupāda: That is our request for them.

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The government is not helping me even in this way. What they'll do? And...

Mr. Myer: Because Indira Gandhi had very bad relations with America. This is the problem. And she was trying to make very bad propaganda about the ISKCON in India.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Mr. Myer: Now she is gone, so everything is fine.

Prabhupāda: She was making propaganda? I...

Mr. Myer: She was trying to say that this ISKCON is cheat.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So I conclude like that. When you show this book, accept this authority.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When we show this book it means we're accepting the authority?

Yaśodā-nandana: Not accepting the authority. The problem is the Pacific Ocean, according to Jambūdvīpa, for us it is the salt ocean. So the first question that Mahārāja was raising, that they will ask, how do we go between the west coast of America, which is very tiny, and Japan, as this according to their calculation we go west and we arrive around. And you keep still going further and you arrive back in America. The point about the Himalayas, that we did not raise, because that we could well understood. The Himalayas is much broader and much bigger than they think. We can fully understand it. But that point, from common-sense point of view we couldn't exactly understand. We thought of it all afternoon, and we came up with a few ideas, but we wanted to hear what Your Divine Grace...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Our question was mostly coming out of how to draw what the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is saying. We're not supporting any kind of mundane argument, nor do we have any doubt in Bhāgavatam. We're simply trying to understand the Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: And that is your credit.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You have written him?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The real problem is the digestion. There's no digestion. Anything you take forms mucus. Instead of forming blood, it forms mucus. You're not as warm as you were yesterday, but you're still a little warm. The rest of your body is not warm. Your head is not so warm. Your pulse is very fast. I don't know what to say, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It's certainly bewildering. I can only expect somehow Kṛṣṇa has to do something, unless Dr.Gosh with some Western-type medicine can do something.

Prabhupāda: This oil massage is very pleasing.

Room Conversation -- October 9, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So there is no problem. Huh?

Girirāja: Well... The only problem is if the Vṛndāvana people try to hold on to the receipts and make difficulty. In ordinary course of business there is no difficulty. This is the ordinary procedure. So we will try to arrange that the endorsement of the certificates to New Delhi could be done in our presence instead of our giving them the certificates.

Prabhupāda: What is that endorsement?

Girirāja: That this money, instead of being payable from Vṛndāvana, now we can take that money from the New Delhi office.

Prabhupāda: The money is due after some years.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Great amount. You have to appoint two, three more printers.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Gopāla says that the problem is not the printers, because they have offset presses, so to them, to print ten thousand, twenty thousand, fifty thousand doesn't really make much difference. The real issue is that he only had a certain amount of money up until now to work with. Now, if he gets more money available, he can easily print more books.

Prabhupāda: Money is there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That was his point up until now, because once you have an offset press, it's just as easy to print fifty thousand as ten thousand. It doesn't really change their situation so much.

Prabhupāda: Money, there is no scarcity.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Śatadhanya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughter) Yeah, that's maybe what the problem is.

Prabhupāda: And people are bluffing him, and he says...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's bluffing us. (laughs) He seems very sincere, though. It's hard not to believe him.

Prabhupāda: That was my impression. But how is that? If you take leave, something.

Room Conversation -- October 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So arrange to give him that 47,000.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's 43,200. But I mean...

Vrindavan De: No, you'll get the money back by 10th or 15th April.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, that's not the point. The problem is that how we can get... I don't know if this... I mean I'll do it, but I'm thinking that we're jeopardizing our position as a... I mean this money is not a privately owned money.

Prabhupāda: No, no, the Society cannot.

Room Conversation -- November 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is the problem. You are all become stationed to me.(?) Who will work?

Jayādvaita: At least this disease of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very infectious. Everyone catches it from you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They can't find any medicine to stop it. It just keeps going on more and more.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They call it epidemic. (break) ...dream last night that you were eating all kinds of nice fruits.

Prabhupāda: What is that sound?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's one of the brahmacārīs shaking out the dust in the rugs.

Page Title:This is the problem (Conversations)
Compiler:Rishab, Mayapur, Visnu Murti
Created:22 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=168, Let=0
No. of Quotes:168