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Very soon (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk at Stow Lake -- March 23, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means truthfulness is not there, diminished. The same thing. Because truthfulness has diminished, therefore you can bribe anybody and he can tell lie for you. We are in a very precarious condition. Very unfavorable condition. The best thing is to pray Kṛṣṇa, "Please pick me up very soon and let me go back to Your place." If you have to come back again, oh, you do not know how much misery we have to undergo. Because with the advancement of Kali-yuga, everything is becoming more and more miserable. There is no happiness in family life, there is no happiness in social life, there is no happiness in political life, there is no happiness in earning livelihood. Everything is encumbered. All impediment, full of impediments.

Devotee (1): One of my friends said, "(inaudible), you want to tell us everything, so why don't you build a machine to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa for you?"

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: Very soon we shall have our own publication. Macmillan Company. (pause) What is your report?

Devotee: I had a rough day today.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee: I didn't get any new members today. I went all over... I went over to McGill, and not very many teachers, professors there know about the temple, especially the chemistry professors. I don't think chemistry professors go too well with Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: No. Every... You have to convince them that chemistry or philosophy or anything, without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is all useless. Svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya saṁsiddhiṁ labhate param. That verse I was explaining, that

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā
varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ
svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya
saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam
(SB 1.2.13)

Test for... (pause) Oh, so many?

Govinda dasi: Earlier you said you wanted it.

Prabhupāda: Huh? So he is recording there?

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: Yes. The flowers, incense, and fruits, the same thing. I have already explained that whatever He has described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says that "Anyone offering Me these things in devotion..." So we follow the same principle. So it is very nice thing. If the students follow, they can follow it individually. Even in his own apartment he can keep a picture of Kṛṣṇa and offer a lamp, a candle, and one, I mean to say, incense. He will feel tremendously spiritually advanced. And if he reads these books, his life will be changed completely. That is a fact. (break) And two boys, Kṛṣṇānanda and one German boy, is going there very soon. So, of course, we do not expect to sell English books in Germany very much, but maybe... (end)

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1969, Boston:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. All right. Take. Distribute little. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate. Just like Kṛṣṇa. He is the Lord, but He has nothing to do. He is simply enjoying with His friends, with Radharani, with cowherds boy, with gopīs. That is greatness. He has nothing to think, "How to provide?" (chuckles) That is greatness. He is taking the cows as a sporting. You see? And when He was called for killing Kaṁsa, He left everything, renounced everything. Aiśvarya samagrasya yaśasaḥ... Everything in full, so much love, so much everything, but at once, in a moment, He renounced everything, went to..., left Vṛndāvana, and all these devotees, they began to cry for Kṛṣṇa for the rest of life. And whenever Kṛṣṇa was reminded, oh, He will say, "I am very soon coming. Don't worry. I am very soon coming." (chuckles) You see?

Girl: Have took, Your Grace?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have taken. You take. You know how to make lugdoo? Himavatī is good. (chuckles) She learned many things about... We have got another nice girl in Buffalo. I have given her name... What is? Sadā?

Lord Caitanya Play Told to Tamala Krsna -- August 4, 1969, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ṭhākura Haridāsa was living in a cottage which was... Just like I am living here, and the garage site a little far off, Haridāsa was living a little distance. So when Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to go to the sea for taking bath, He every day, every morning He used to go to Haridāsa Ṭhākura and taking his informa..., "Haridāsa, what you are doing?" Because Haridāsa was Mohammedan by birth, so out of his meekness he did not go to the temple. But in those... Especially in those days they were very strict. They do not allow anyone except Hindus to enter the temple. Nowadays, of course, there is law. If somebody is, actually has come to the Hindu way of life, he's allowed. Our Jayagovinda and others were allowed to see Jagannātha temple. But in those days there were no such system and Haridāsa out of his own accord, he did not want to disturb. But Lord Caitanya, God Himself, used to come to see him every day. So one day when Caitanya came, he looked little bit depressed. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked him, "Haridāsa, you do not look very well today. What is the matter?" "Sir, I'm not very feeling well. And because I do not feel well, I could not finished my chanting." He was chanting daily 300,000 times. "So I could not finish my chanting." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "All right. You are growing old. You may not follow the rules now strictly. You can make it later." Haridāsa Ṭhākura said, "No, Sir, so long my life is there I shall try to follow. When the life is over, that is different thing. But I have got one desire if You fulfill." "What is that?" "Now I can understand that You will also leave this world very soon. So I cannot tolerate that. So best thing is that before You'll go, I go. And my another request is that You shall stand before me, and I shall leave this body."

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: Yes, why not? This man... It is to be very carefully tackled. This king is going to die very soon. And as soon as the king dies, the queen's position is very precarious, almost finished. So if she becomes our president, she'll continue to keep her honor and prestige. That's a fact. She's a good lady. We have no objection to make her the president of the local center. And she is American. She will be able to tackle these American boys and girls with motherly affection. And we shall keep her always in good respect so that throughout her life she shall be honored all over as she was, as she was honored with her husband. This is a fact. So you have to convince her. And I think if the other ladies who are..., her daughter-in-law and granddaughters, like that... Because her son is dead. He was the king. This old man being invalid, his son was king. And I think that middle-aged woman was there. You have marked this? She might be her daughter-in-law and the young girls might be grandchildren. One of them, one of the daughters, girl, was very beautiful. So it appears that she comes from the royal family. Rāja-kanyā King's daughters are very beautiful. That is fabulous in India, king's daughter, rāja-kanyā. In India if anybody gets a good dowry and a beautiful wife it is said, arddhe rajatva eka rāja-kanyā(?) Actually we have seen in..., when Devaki was married to Vasudeva, how much dowry. Can anyone imagine now? So many thousands of horses, chariots, elephants, maidservants, all decorated with gold ornaments.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, the town crier. So the town crier began to preach that "No more any sacrifice or yajña. Stop all this nonsense. No more Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra." (chuckles) Yes, they... Just like in Russia we are afraid or China, yes. They will immediately arrest. So this declaration was there, public. Na yaṣṭavyaṁ na, no charity, no more charity. Just like government at the present moment, they are allowing charity still, but most of the portion of the income they take away by income tax so that one may not have any power to give in charity. So at the present moment, the government does not declare that charity is illegal, but that time is coming very soon, very soon. As soon as there will be Communist government... Our Indira Gandhi is cooperating with the Russians, and as soon as she is under the control of the Russians, gradually Communism will be introduced. People are afraid of this attempt by Indira Gandhi.

So anyway, these such things were existing formerly also, but they were not very common affair. Sometimes after many, many years, a bad king would come.

Room Conversation Including Discussion on SB 1.5.11 -- January 19, 1972, Jaipur:

Prabhupāda: That should be tested by life. Caitanya Mahāprabhu speaking āpani ācari prabhu jīvere śikhāya, He behaves Himself perfectly and then teaches how to become a devotee. He is mad after Kṛṣṇa, He is falling down in the sea. You see? So that is wanted. And the Bhāgavata also says, sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir (SB 1.2.6), how one has increased his devotion and love for Kṛṣṇa, that is the test of it. Not these formalities. Another place Kṛṣṇa says, api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. Even sudurācāraḥ, even not well behaved but unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30), he is sādhu. Don't consider about his misbehaviors. That is not consideration. That will be corrected. Because he has taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, gradually those things, those defects will be corrected. kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati, he will become very soon a great religious soul because he has taken to Kṛṣṇa. So in the beginning if there is some defect, we should not consider that. We have to see how much his love for Kṛṣṇa has increased, that is the test. Not the formalities. That is the test, how much he has sacrificed for Kṛṣṇa, how much he is prepared to sacrifice for Kṛṣṇa. If one takes Kṛṣṇa for making business, that is different thing, that is not devotion. Śālagrāma, my Guru Maharaja used to say śālagrām bir badam hoy (?). Just like you have seen śālagrāma. So if somebody takes that and breaks peanuts, so there is no devotion. It is a show during, attracting the visitors, it is nicely decorated, but in their absence, take it and you will have stone.

Conversation with Dai Nippon -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Karandhara: Should be able to produce a volume at least every month.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And the editors must be very expedient. Besides that, I think this Kṛṣṇa Book, smaller edition, that will have very soon another reprint.

Karandhara: At least ten million we will print in the Kṛṣṇa Book pocket size.

Prabhupāda: And Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Macmillan Company's. They have taken. And they are also printing yearly fifty thousand or more than that. At least in Western countries there is no such thought of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is completely... That professor, what is his name?

Karandhara: Dimmock?

Prabhupāda: Dimmock. He has given very good appreciation. And gradually it will be printed in other languages. German, French, Spanish, Denmark, Holland...

Karandhara: Danish.

Prabhupāda: Danish, yes. And we are getting also Hindi layout from India. That Hindi magazine also will be printed. Gradually other Indian languages. And Japanese and Chinese also. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa...

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Śyāmasundara is coming tomorrow.

Sarasvatī: I told her.

Prabhupāda: You have told her?

Sarasvati: I told her that Śyāmasundara is coming very soon.

Prabhupāda: Ohhhh, that's nice. (break) ...men Monday?

Acyutānanda: We can send them but they won't go.

Prabhupāda: So if you can make somebody agree, then he is coming tomorrow or day after tomorrow.

Acyutānanda: But no one will agree to leave you.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Acyutānanda: Letter from the press regarding my songbook.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Acyutānanda: So I don't know what to do. Nobody would like to go, to leave you. We would like to go, but we wouldn't want to miss your classes.

Gurudāsa: That is so.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: Take papad. Not now, at lunchtime. (Hindi) So you can come at night?

Devotee: (offers obeisances to Śrīla Prabhupāda) (break)

(Hindi conversation)

Devotee: Very soon the man from department of religion will be coming.

Guest (1): Minister of religion.

Devotee: Yes.

(Hindi conversation between guests and Śrīla Prabhupāda with occasional English words and phrases interspersed)

Prabhupāda: Shall we go there so that we can sit comfortably.

Devotee: Well there're the same amount of chairs whether we're here or there.

Prabhupāda: No, there are no more chairs. (indistinct)

Devotee: Yes, I guess that's best.

Prabhupāda: People are coming, so will you kindly take the trouble to, inside sitting?

Devotee: Yes.

Room Conversation with British Man -- August 31, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): Is it...? Do you expect Him to come again?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is not very soon.

Guest (1): Not very soon.

Prabhupāda: No. That is mentioned in the scriptures, that at the end of this millennium, this yuga, Kalki avatāra will come. Kalki avatāra.

Guest (1): Now, because I am only versed in the Western sense of the old and new Testament, I understand that Christ is coming again at the end of this non-believing age in the world. Does that coincide with the son of God that you understand or is that a different sort of coming?

Prabhupāda: No,...

Haṁsadūta: Actually in the Bible there's, someone mentions there the description that the Lord will come and He will ride on a white steed, on a white horse. And at that time he will kill all the nondevotee people. It's also in the Bible.

Guest (1): Yes.

Prabhupāda: So this Kalki, this incarnation of Kṛṣṇa which comes at the end of this age, He's described, He will come and ride on a white horse all over the world, and He will...,

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1973, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Guest (1): I suppose you will come now when this thing is constructed.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): We shall try to construct it...

Prabhupāda: Quickly.

Guest (1): Let us expedite this so that Prabhupāda may come again very soon. (Hindi conversation) (end)

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So one must give service. Simply to feel, "I belong to Kṛṣṇa's family," and doing nothing for Kṛṣṇa, that is not...

Sudāmā: That's no good.

Prabhupāda: That's no good. That is not good. That means he'll... Very soon he'll again forget Kṛṣṇa. He'll again forget Kṛṣṇa.

Sudāmā: Actually, the other element is so powerful. These people here, because, even though they are part of Kṛṣṇa's family, but because they have forgotten, then we become influenced by their forgetfulness.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Forgetfulness means māyā.

Sudāmā: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Māyā is nothing. It is a forgetfulness. That's all. It has no existence. Forgetfulness, it does not stand. But so long it is there, it is very troublesome.

Sudāmā: I've been asked a question by some devotees sometimes that they don't feel happy. So even if they are unhappy, mentally, should, they still should continue in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I tell them, even if one is unhappy...

Prabhupāda: But you should show example. If you show example different way, how they will follow you?

Morning Walk -- December 7, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Wolfe: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the twenties there was a doctor in Switzerland, Couet(?), who had the same method. "I'm better and better every day," and he had thousands of people who came there and nothing was heard of him ten years later.

Bali Mardana: Till he died.

Prabhupāda: "Better, better, better, I am going to die better very soon." (laughter) Therefore Kṛṣṇa has shown that "Why you are thinking, 'better,' the death is before you." Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu... (BG 13.9), that is real knowledge. Real knowledge means, "How I am better?" The death is there. (break) That is real knowledge. I am going to die, I cannot stop it. You see. That is real knowledge. And if somebody thinks that I am better, although I am going to die, then he's a foolish. Better means you stop your death. (break) (end)

Morning Walk -- December 10, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore the first thing is that you, this, "You shall not eat meat, you shall not do this, do that, do this..." People are generally sinful, especially in the Western countries, because they are all addicted to these habits. So he can be polluted very soon. Very soon he can be polluted. He's prone to pollutions by nature.

Govardhana: There are many people who come like that to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They seem to experience a taste, and then they go away and everything seems to be lost. What is their...

Prabhupāda: Yes, they...

Govardhana: ...position, if they are not able to stick to it?

Prabhupāda: Just like a disease. Somebody cures very quickly, somebody cures, takes some time, according to the, what is called, acuteness of the disease. Somebody dies, somebody falls down. It is a treatment. Just like some of our students in Hawaii, due to bad association, they've fallen down. But whatever sincere service one has given, that will never be lost. That's a fact. It will again revive. For the time being, as it is said by Arjuna, kala-karma-tamoruddham. (?) Just like the sky is clear. It may be covered immediately by some cloud. And again the cloud is removed, the sky is clear.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 13, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That I am trying, but it has not been decided, but anyway it will be published very soon.

Guru dāsa: Even if they do publish it, they will not distribute it in India.

Prabhupāda: Yes, in that sense we may publish in India.

Dr. Kapoor: You may have an agreement with them, that you have a cheaper Indian edition, which you will sell only in India, you can give them the right to sell it all over the world.

Prabhupāda: I have asked that Shishu Kumar, Shishu Kumar you know?

Guru dāsa: No.

Prabhupāda: The Atmarama & Son's proprietor.

Guru dāsa: Oh yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: He came to see me.

Guru dāsa: Yes, I know.

Prabhupāda: So I asked him the quotation of that small edition of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. He told me that he will inform me. Anyway (Hindi).

Morning Walk -- March 30, 1974, Bombay:

Chandobhai: This thing will go. That is a part of past actions.

Prabhupāda: Very soon. Yes. Very soon.

Chandobhai: Because that wheel has to move and it will stop of its own.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Śaśvad bhavati... What is that verse? Śaśvad bhavati dharmātmā. That?

Chandobhai: Śaśvac chāntiṁ adhigacchati, kaunteya pratijānīhi...

Prabhupāda: Ah. Na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati.

Chandobhai: (quotes Sanskrit in background) (break)

Prabhupāda: ...may be callous. Just like some, somebody was asking me... That rascal Bharati's article. Who? That one Australian sannyāsī. So this rascal may speak something, but we cannot stop our movement. You see? Our movement is increasing, all over the world in, in spite of all criticism. We don't care for that. Because we know that we are following the footsteps of predecessor ācārya, that's all right. We don't mind. And actually, it is happening. Otherwise, within six, seven years, so much progress could not be possible. (break) What is the word, exact?

Chandobhai and Dr. Patel: Ārambha! Ārambha. Ārambha.

Prabhupāda: Ārambha.

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 1, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, no, engineer. Engineer are also demons, but he is no longer demon. Now doctors are demon. (laughter) Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...land only for this beach.

Dr. Patel: But you are going away.

Prabhupāda: No, I am... (Dr. Patel laughs) I am here. (break) Very soon. (break) Living entities are there in the sand. How do they say there is no life in the moon? I cannot understand. What they are eating within the sand?

Dr. Patel: Not that, but our definition of life is, I mean, not really complete. It is not complete. We mean... Life means anything which, I mean, which breathes, which beats. That is all humbug. Everything is life, to tell the truth.

Prabhupāda: No, even distinction, life and matter, here is sand. How these animals are living within the sand? And not only that. Now it is... Because it is wet, they are living. When it is very scorchy hot, then also living.

Dr. Patel: That is māyā. This is all māyā.

Prabhupāda: Living entity can exist in any condition. In the sun globe there is life. Go on.

Morning Walk -- May 27, 1974, Rome:

Bhagavān: There is one United Nations report that very soon venereal disease will reach epidemic proportions all over the world.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is already. Some fifty years ago. You know that Dr. Ghosh?

Bhagavān: Yes.

Prabhupāda: He told me that when he was student, so one professor, Colonel Megar, he described in the classroom—he is Englishman—that "In our country, 75% of the students, they are infected with venereal disease." So Dr. Ghosh as a student, "Oh, it is horrible." So he replied, "Why do you say, 'Horrible'? It is disease. In your country, 90% people are infected with malarial disease. So as a medical practitioner, you should not say that this disease is horrible; that disease is very nice. You cannot say that." That was between them. So this venereal disease, fifty years ago we heard that 75% of students are infected. Now they are advanced; cent percent must be.

Yogeśvara: There was a report in the New York Times that last year alone in the United States there were over 300,000 abortions, and more than two-thirds were performed on girls under twenty years of age.

Room Conversation with Mr. C. Hennis of the International Labor Organization of the U.N. -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: (laughter) But he could not defend that he has got brain, yes. So however these men may declare very, very big, we know that "You have no brain. You are as good as animal." Therefore Bhāgavata says, śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ: (SB 2.3.19) "These classes of men are no better than the dogs, hogs, camels and asses." Bhāgavata school will not approve of these rascals as human being. They are so strict. If one is not on the platform of God consciousness, he is not human being. He is animal. That's a fact. But we should not hate the animals because our mission is to bring them to the human consciousness. You cannot expect that your audience should be all highly brain. No. Preaching is required because they have no brain. Therefore your duty is to tolerate all difficulties and bring them to the sense of brain. Not that "These people are animals; we shall not mix with them." Then you have no missionary activities. Then you sit down in a place and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then don't open centers. That is also dangerous. If we imitate Haridāsa Ṭhākura, "Let us all chant and do nothing," then the māyā, the women, they are very expert. They could not conquer over Haridāsa Ṭhākura, but she'll conquer upon you. And become victim. Therefore we have to be active. We cannot imitate Haridāsa. Anyone who has imitated the Haridāsa Ṭhākura, he has fallen down. He has fallen. He must fall down because imitating the highest personality, for which he is not fit. Therefore he's going to fall down. When by preaching, by chanting, we will be expert, then it is possible. So whether Bhagavān is coming or not?

Guru-gaurāṅga: He missed his airplane.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Missed his airplane?

Guru-gaurāṅga: Now he is supposed to come very, very soon, in about a half an hour. I think there will be many people this evening. (end)

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1974, Geneva:

Guru-gaurāṅga: If the people here are so sinful, how is it that they have so many nice facilities? It will go away soon, very soon.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. As they increase their sinful activities, these facilities will be taken away. Therefore we propose that everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa, and we are all sons of Kṛṣṇa. Just cooperate in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then the whole world will be happy. This is our proposal. Why do you think it is American, it is Swiss, it is Indian? Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. Let us become obedient to Kṛṣṇa, and because we are sons of Kṛṣṇa, let us enjoy the property of Kṛṣṇa. Immediately there will be happiness. I have several times said that the, still the whole world can produce so much grains and foodstuff, ten times of the population can be fed, ten times. In Africa, in Australia, and even in America, so much, I means, prospect of producing food. But they will not cooperate. They will kill the animal. They will throw the grain to the sea, and claim, "It is my land. It is my property."

Bhagavān: Then they complain about scarcity.

Prabhupāda: For money. So rascal civilization is going on. Therefore I challenged that man, "Where is your brain?" There is no brain. You remember that?

Yogeśvara: From the International Labor Organization.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no brain.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1974, Paris:

Yogeśvara: All of these big politicians, they seem to fall very ill afterwards.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Yogeśvara: They seem to become very sick. Nixon is also ill.

Prabhupāda: Not only sick, they die very soon.

Yogeśvara: Radhakrishnan was paralyzed?

Prabhupāda: Yes, brain paralyzed. (end)

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: In Twelfth Canto. (break) ...it is stated.

tasmāt kṣudra-dṛśo martyāḥ
kṣudra-bhāgyā mahāśanāḥ
kāmino vitta-hīnāś ca
svairiṇyaś ca striyo 'satīḥ

"Gradually people will become dwarf, will die very soon, mostly unfortunate, eating too much, and very much sexually agitated, no money, and independent, and the women, all unchaste." Just see. Everything's coming true. Rājan,

rājānaś ca prajā-bhakṣāḥ
śiśnodara-parā dvijāḥ
dasyūtkṛṣṭā janapadā
vedāḥ pāṣaṇḍa-dūṣitāḥ

"The cities will be full of rogues and thieves." Just see.

Yogeśvara: That's Paris.

Prabhupāda: Anywhere. In Calcutta it was dangerous to go out because the next... You do not know whether you'll come back. People are so afraid. He's going to work in the office. It will be God's grace if he returns back. It is such a city. Actually so happened. We were sitting, I was at that time in a... I was guest in our life member's. Sitting in morning, afternoon, o'clock (?). "Oh, that gentleman is killed." He was very important businessman. He went to the temple, a Marwari, and on his coming back, he was killed from the backside. Life is still so, but it is little diminished. (break) ...about so-called saintly persons, they are: tapasvino grāma-vāsāḥ. "The so-called yogis, they'll live in the town." Actually, the yogis have no business in the town.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 3, 1975, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Otherwise why you are opening so many centers and making arrangement that "We shall provide you with shelter, with food. These are the facilities. You live here, do whatever is your capacity. Don't sleep, but work." This is our teaching. Satāṁ prasaṅgāt, this is also, and Rūpa Gosvāmī says, sato vṛtteḥ sādhu-saṅge sadbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati: "If you live with the association of sādhu, devotee, then it will be quickly fruitful." And if you live with these ordinary men, then whatever you have got will be finished very soon. There is another verse. It is said there that it is preferred to live within the cage surrounded by fire than to live with the nondevotees. It is preferred.

Bali Mardana: Or with those who are too much attached to women also.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Nondevotee means too much attached to woman. That is the plain fact.

Yaśodānandana: Also one time in Bombay you told this verse from Caitanya-caritāmṛta, sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83), sādhu-saṅga...

Prabhupāda: Sarva-śāstre kaya, lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya (CC Madhya 22.54). For me, personally, I had the opportunity to talk with my spiritual master not more than ten times in my whole life, not more. It may be less than that. But I tried to follow his instruction, that's all, although I was a gṛhastha.

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Prabhupāda: Hm, yes.

Ambassador: Do you see it like that?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. In Western countries they are now fed up with this materialistic way of life. And I think it will very soon collapse, the Western way of life. And naturally the next enquiry is spiritual.

Ambassador: Yes, it's already beginning.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Athāto brahma jijñāsā. The material life means animal life.

Ambassador: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So when the animal comes to higher consciousness, that is spiritual consciousness. We are combined at the present moment. We are actually spiritual, but some way or other, we have come in contact with matter, and we are covered by the material body, and... But we cannot become happy with this material interest. That's a fact. Just like the fish cannot be happy on the land. The example is: just like the other day we saw one crocodile. One or two... two, three?

Morning Walk -- (World War III) -- April 4, 1975, Mayapur:

Pañcadraviḍa: Psychiatrists.

Prabhupāda: Yes. All Western adventure to keep people in darkness. And that is going on. Now it will be smashed by the next war. Next war will come very soon.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (Surprised) Oh!

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Next war...?

Prabhupāda: Your country, America, is very much eager to kill these Communists. And the Communists are also very eager. So very soon there will be war. And perhaps India will be the greatest sufferer.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Greatest...?

Devotees: Sufferer.

Srutakirti: Sufferer.

Prabhupāda: Because America is aiming to start the war from India.

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. And what is austerity? It is very simple thing. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yoga-prayojitaḥ, janayaty āśu. If you continue devotional service to Lord Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa, then automatically the effect of these austerities will become, janayaty āśu, very soon. Vairāgyam. Austerities means detachment to the material world. That is the result of austerity. So śāstra says janayaty āśu vairāgyam. Simply by executing devotional service to Vasudeva, that vairāgya, detachment, very soon arises. Come. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is very good engagement.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: It says in the Bhagavad-gītā that persons who at least attempt to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, they again, at least they get human form of life.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: So what is the position of tyāgīs, persons who are simply trying to renounce material life? Do they... Are they considered on the devotional path, or do they have to fall down into lower species of life?

Prabhupāda: No.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Is that considered attempting to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, simply to give up, say, material sense enjoyment?

Morning Walk -- April 9, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: ...think that I am going to die very soon. You know that Romaharṣaṇa?

Satsvarūpa: Romaharṣaṇa?

Prabhupāda: Eh? Romaharṣaṇa?

Satsvarūpa: Who Balarāma killed?

Prabhupāda: No, another. Lomarṣa, Lomarṣa Muni. He would die when all the hairs on the body will fall down. And each hair will fall down after the death of one Brahmā. So he was chanting on the sea, and Nārada Muni was passing: "Why don't you make a cottage?" "How long I shall live? What is the use of cottage?" He's also thinking: "I'll die."

Satsvarūpa: There's also the story of that Mahārāja Khāṭvaṅga, who found out that he only had a minute to live. What did he do, that he...? You say that he surrendered at once.

Prabhupāda: He surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Hmmm. Go this...

Devotee: Prabhupāda, if we, if we increase our devotional activities, then we automatically become satisfied, and then detached from material life.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. (end)

Conversation with Indian Guests -- April 12, 1975, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: It is, it... There is no question of "but." Kṛṣṇa says that man-manā bhava mad bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). If you do not do that, then what is the use of your reading Bhagavad-gītā? Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityaja mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. If you do not follow these instructions of Kṛṣṇa, then where do you, why do you waste your time reading Bhagavad-gītā, and mislead others? That is our protest. All these misleaders... Perhaps, throughout the whole world, it is the first time—we are preaching Bhagavad-gītā as it is. We are the only institution in the world that we are preaching Bhagavad-gītā as it is, and people are liking it. Before that, for the last two hundred years, so many swamis, yogis and..., they tried to preach Hindu philosophy, Vaiṣṇavism. Not a single person was a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, not a single person. Now you see so many young men. Why? Why this difference? Because we did not present Bhagavad-gītā adulterated. Presented as it is, that's all. What is the use of preaching adulterated things? Everyone wants... That appeals as it is. Therefore we present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). We are preaching the same thing—"Always think of Kṛṣṇa. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. You remember Kṛṣṇa always." This is the simplest process. You see all these young boys. They are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. And they are becoming purified from the mode of our life. And these swamis and yogis preached so many years, not a single person was purified. They were drinking; they were having sex. How they can be purified? And in India even, these things are going on, the land of Bhagavad-gītā, the land of Kṛṣṇa. If you want to read Bhagavad-gītā, you take it. You follow it. Then everything will be done. Kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati. Api te su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. These things are there. You may be fallen, downtrodden, but if you take to Kṛṣṇa's instructions, then kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā. Very soon you'll become... Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31). These things are there. And nobody is serious to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They'll talk all nonsense, but he'll not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is going on.

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was thinking of just like Kṛṣṇa's pure devotees like Mother Yaśodā. They are always eternally remaining.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...strongly warm, then you do not become cool very soon. You must be strongly warm, fire temperature. Then you will act as fire.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And the process for heating up the fire?

Prabhupāda: You keep yourself with fire.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya. That is you.

Prabhupāda: Don't go outside the fire. Then you keep yourself warm. And temperature increase exactly like fire. That is required. That is the motto of our Back to Godhead: "Godhead is light, nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience." That is the beginning of our movement. Keep Kṛṣṇa always. Satataṁ kīrtayanto mām (BG 9.14). Then you remain Kṛṣṇized. And as soon as you give it up, then think of devils. This is going on. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...kīrtana going twenty-four hours a day. In some of our larger temples is it also advisable?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. This is advisable for everywhere. Batches. What is the difficulty?

Morning Walk -- April 23, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No. Anyone who wants to go very soon to Yamarāja, he can drink buffalo milk. Or it may be that if you drink buffalo milk, the Yamarāja will not touch you. (laughter) The other side may be taken. (break) ...in the morning take water from the river, evacuate, then wash their hands and take nice bath. And one jug water brings at home. Then everything, water problem, is solved.

Guest: But now they've put in Mathurā, refinery at Mathurā to pollute Yamunā River. And again problem will come after four or five years.

Prabhupāda: So if your government wants to kill you, who can save you? That is another thing. Rakṣa bhakṣaka. Government is meant for giving you protection, but if the government wants to kill you, then who will give you protection? Just like nowadays. The mother is meant for giving protection to the child, and the mother is killing now. Then who will protection? There is no other way. Even in the animals, birds, the mother is giving protection. And the small children, they are going after the mother.

Guest: Except the serpent. They eat their children. There are too many of them so they eat at least half or three-fourths, don't allow the serpent population to grow. Because after the child must be hungry, and she must...

Morning Walk -- May 10, 1975, Perth:

Amogha: The sign says parking for botanic gardens. But I'm not acquainted with it. (pause) I don't know. It says, "Cetenniary. August 22, 1947." Perhaps its name is on the other side. (pause) Is there going to be a world war very soon? We heard there would be.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Amogha: Then it will be a very different situation for preaching.

Prabhupāda: Your preaching will not be stopped. It will go on. (pause)

Amogha: He's bringing the car. He went back. He'll bring it around. (reading sign) "The Tree Society originated the idea of placing this kadi log in King's Park. The log, normally destined for milling, was provided and brought by Booning Brothers P.T. Limited from their Darling River sawmilling area. The following transporting and placing in position of this great log from over 200 miles from the depths of the forest, with each of the three sections borne on a 200 horsepower motor truck, was a major engineering feat and a tribute to the spirit of western Australian timber men. With the approval and assistance of the King's Park board, the actual placing of the log in King's Park by 25 June, 1958, was contributed to by Hume Pipe Co., Aaron Brothers B.P. Australia Ltd, the Forests Department and other government departments. The completion of the project was a fine example of community effort."

Paramahaṁsa: It weighs a hundred and ten tons. And it's 363 years old, this log. They say it grew that long. In America we have some redwood trees in California they say are many thousands of years old.

Morning Walk -- May 11, 1975, Perth:

Amogha: Very soon the United States is sending up one rocket and Russia is sending up another rocket and they are joining in space and they think this is progress. They'll join together up there. They hope someday they'll be able to stay in a station like that and then go out to some planet.

Prabhupāda: They could not mix in this planet, they are going to mix in another planet.

Srutakirti: They'll probably have some argument in outer space. The astronauts will get into a fight.

Prabhupāda: The rascal could not compromise here, they're going in the sky. All mental concoction.

Gaṇeśa: They actually have never got to the moon.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Amogha: He says did they actually get to the moon or not?

Prabhupāda: That I am doubtful. Always. (break) ...doubt always. They have... They might have gone... Mostly, most probably they have not gone. Simply propaganda. But even they have gone, not to moon. Maybe the Rahu planet. Or there are so many other planets.

Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Australian devotee 2: They say that the value of their education is that very soon they will be able to overcome birth, death, disease, and old age, that they almost have the solution. They are freezing people's bodies...

Prabhupāda: Therefore younger generation, they are not interested in education. They see that, after all, the life is vacant even after education.

Hari-śauri: The leaders appear to have adopted a stopgap policy so that they can keep the people in ignorance and fool them that they are doing some good when actually they are not, so that they can maintain their position as leader. (break)

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.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is nice. Yes. But I say that even there is something wrong, it is not impediment. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). Even if you find in devotee something bad, and his behavior is not in the standard, but because he is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he has no other business, he is sādhu. Api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). He is sādhu. He is saintly man. Even if you find some defect in his character, because he is sticking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is saintly. Kṛṣṇa says. How is that, a saintly man has got some this bad character? So that answer is next verse.

kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā
śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati
kaunteya pratijānīhi
na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati
(BG 9.31)

"Yes, there are some defects. It is right. But it will be very soon finished." Just like you make the switch off, electric fan. So after the switch is off, still it is moving. But that movement is not real movement because the switch is off. It will stop very soon.

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

Prabhupāda: So ask him that "Find out some bomb that you will not die. Why don't you do that?" (laughter) Yes. "People are dying, and you have invented something to die very soon. So why don't you invent something that you will never die? Can you do that? Therefore we are no more interested in science. It is a waste of time." Tell him. You go your professor. "You are regretting that young men are no more interested. So this is our reason because, after all, we have to die. Everything will be finished. Then what is the use of studying? You have not improved anything. The animals have also two legs, and two, four legs. We have got also four legs and where is the difference? You say, the Darwin's theory, from monkey, man has come, but you never shown us that a monkey has ever given birth to a man. So all this false propaganda, we are no more interested." (break)

Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Asses?

Rādhāvallabha: Acids, nucleic acids. So their opinion is that this can only occur in an atmosphere of methane. So they have understood from their telescopes that Jupiter has methane in its atmosphere, so therefore they say, "Very soon Jupiter will have life."

Prabhupāda: Very soon? Not now? They have got advance. Yes. (chuckles) Most of the scientists, they think only living beings are on this planet, and all, they are vacant. They say.

Paramahaṁsa: Yes. They say the closest planet that could have life is four light years away. That means the fastest...

Prabhupāda: How there is life within this sand? We can see.

Paramahaṁsa: They do not believe.

Prabhupāda: No, there is no life within the sand?

Paramahaṁsa: In the sun.

Prabhupāda: No, no, in the sand. You'll find so many lives, many millions. How there is life in the water? There is life in the water, there is life on the land, there is life in the air, so where is there no life? How you can say there is no life? That is foolishness. And they say that the dust brought from the moon planet is the same. It can be found here. So why there should not be life?

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1975, Paris:

Yogeśvara: All of these big politicians, they seem to fall very ill afterwards. They seem to become very sick. Nixon is also sick.

Prabhupāda: Not only sick, they die very soon.

Yogeśvara: Radhakrishnan was paralyzed.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Brain paralyzed. (break)

Harikeśa: Give this to Yogeśvara. (Prabhupāda and devotees get into car and drive away)

Bhagavān: Actually they are envious. We are doing the same things they are doing, but better, and getting the results. We are working. We are doing so many things like they...

Prabhupāda: We are not lazy. (break) ...Nixon was elected. I saw propaganda, "America needs Nixon." You have seen?

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: People also thought, "Yes." He never said, "Nixon needs money." (laughter) This is cheating. He needs some money; he said, "America needs Nixon." And the rascals were befooled. (break) All these politicians do like that. What is their responsibility?

Morning Walk -- October 7, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: You enjoy, but where is your enjoyment? Why don't you see to this? Therefore this is not the way of enjoyment. We say there is enjoyment. Just like a diseased person, he wants enjoyment. How he can enjoy? He is diseased person. It is not possible for the diseased person to enjoy. First of all he has to cure his disease. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam (SB 5.5.1). First of all, your existence should be purified by tapasya. Be cured of the disease. Then you'll enjoy. Enjoyment is your right. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). That is your right, but you are now diseased. Why don't you see to this? You are dying therefore. You are becoming old therefore. This is your disease. That they will not admit. In the diseased condition they want to enjoy. Then tuberculosis. If a tuberculosis person, suffering from tuberculosis, he wants to enjoy sex, that means he will die very soon. His life is finished. But he wants that, that "I shall suffer from tuberculosis, at the same time enjoy." Then all right, go to hell. What can be done? Enjoyment is the life, but when you are diseased, you must first of all "Heal thyself," then enjoy. That enjoyment will be nice. This is the instruction of śāstra, that you are working so hard day and night like hogs and dogs, but where is your enjoyment? First of all cure your disease. Then you will be happy. Simply working hard like hogs and dogs, you are thinking that you will enjoy. That is not possible. Hogs and dogs, they simply work hard, but there is no enjoyment. Is there any enjoyment in the life of dogs and hogs? They simply work hard, that's all. So human life is also meant for that purpose, that you will blindly work like hogs and dogs and no enjoyment? Still you are hankering after enjoyment. You should know what is enjoyment, how to do it. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Morning Walk -- November 29, 1975, Delhi:

Tejās: ...the milkman tries to bring the cow to the āśrama, they arrest the milkman. They take his cow away from him. They don't even allow that they can bring the cow to the people any more. They seized. He lost one cow. He has to sneak the cow down the back alley so that they can bring some cow fodder in.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...zation will collapse very soon, all over the world. It will collapse. Either you may bring this ism or that ism, this civilization will collapse. People will become mad, being harassed in so many ways. When one is harassed in so many problems, he commits suicide. So that position is coming.

Haṁsadūta: Or he starts a war.

Prabhupāda: Yes. When the government cannot adjust, they start a war. (end)

Morning Walk -- November 30, 1975, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Another madman.

Tejās: All his children are avowed atheists.

Prabhupāda: Means children are born by others. He feeds them. That's all. This is going on. (break) It is easily calculated that government will collapse very soon. They have made changes because they cannot manage.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Also they try to change their image. They'll always...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Tejās: Every six months they've been changing the ministers.

Prabhupāda: That means mismanagement. (break)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They do this all over the world. They change... Like in America, President Ford just dropped the Defense Secretary just like that. So that created such a big controversy.

Haṁsadūta: I read a very interesting article, and the theme was that once a month, every month at least, one government is now collapsing or being overthrown. That was the theme of the article.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Jaya. He's foolish. He knows that he has got some limited stock; it will be finished very soon, so "Let him finish, then I shall capture." That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's policy.

Madhudviṣa: But should we take that example or...?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why not?

Madhudviṣa: We can also listen to the Māyāvādīs and then defeat them like that?

Prabhupāda: If you are so qualified like Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Madhudviṣa: (laughs) Otherwise we should...

Prabhupāda: Otherwise you will be captured.

Madhudviṣa: Otherwise we shouldn't listen.

Prabhupāda: No.

Jayādvaita: In America that's called giving someone enough rope to hang himself.

Prabhupāda: Mm.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...come Sunday easily. Charge them.... You know like in Los Angeles, we used to charge a dollar a...

Prabhupāda: The loan will be clear very soon.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. They have a.... They are very expert at financing now, these, the men who are in charge now. They're claiming that within two or three months all of the debt will be completely cleared. They have a plan, very easy.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) He is the right person.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And the restaurant is very successful. Also they have not advertised that, but every day about fifty people come for the lunch, and at least another seventy, eighty people come in the evening for dinner. For a full meal each person pays an average about $2.50.

Prabhupāda: That's cheap.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All you can eat for two dollars...

Prabhupāda: And for public it is very cheap.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: That cannot be. Maybe in the beginning due to past habits, but that must be nil very soon. Otherwise he's not following. Just like fan switched off may move for a little, but not that it will go on moving. Must stop. Switch is off. And if it is going on, then the switch is not yet off. (break)

Devotee (2): A devotee is sometimes subject to hankering or lamentation. That is material though, isn't it?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (2): In other words, if, at that moment, if he desires something other than Kṛṣṇa, that's a material desire.

Prabhupāda: Then he has to learn it. So long one is not competent in that position, he's subjected, he may fall down. What is that temple light?

Devotee (2): That's a fountain.

Prabhupāda: It is just like Jagannātha temple.

Hari-śauri: That, right in the distance there with the light on the top. Yeah, same design. (break)

Morning Walk -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: That's all right, he's on the line of goodness. But those who are not chanting, they're all bad. Do you understand it or not? Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ. One who is not a devotee of God, he has no good qualification. You may propose that "I am so much good, I am this, I am that," but it is all bogus thing. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). He's simply concocting in the mind. And so far a devotee's concerned, even you find some defect in him, he's sādhu. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). Api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). Now I find some defective state. Kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā. These defects will be out very soon. Don't bother. But because he is devotee, he's sādhu.

Indian man (4): So you mean to say, prabhu, truthfulness and honesty will come after chanting, chanting, chanting.

Prabhupāda: But those who are not devotees, there is no truthfulness at all. Here he has begun truthfulness. But one who is not a devotee, he has no question of truthfulness. He's simply concocting in the mind. Manorathena. And because he's on the mental platform, he'll do all bad things.

Morning Walk -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Devotee becomes automatically. If he sticks to the devotional principles, he'll become good very soon. Just like he has stopped. Devotee means, just like we say, no illicit sex, no drinking or intoxication, no meat-eating. So he has adopted this, and chanting. That is perfect.

Indian man (4): Prabhu, these things (indistinct) we say. Indian women or even men, those who are in the village life. Well, I don't say all, but most of them, they obey these things right from the very childhood itself. So...

Prabhupāda: We are jumping to the village.

Indian: Well village is a little bit pure life you know, but in the cities of course people get involved too much in...

Prabhupāda: Pure life, village—doesn't matter village or city. If you become devotee, then pure life. It is not that because one is living in city, therefore he's polluted, one is living in village, no. Unless one becomes devotee, there is no question of becoming good.

Indian man (1): Prabhupāda, there's a very important question in my mind all the time. How a Godbrother should treat the Godbrother with great (indistinct) to produce more love of Godhead and to (indistinct) in them?

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

Prabhupāda: So in the Kali-yuga, this age, so many difficulties, social, political, religious, cultural. So in Kali-yuga the practice of yoga is not possible. It was possible in the Satya-yuga. Kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇum. That is meditation. That was possible in the Satya-yuga. But in Kali-yuga you can do that, the same achievement you can have by hari-kīrtana, by chanting the holy name of the Lord. And factually you'll find our, these disciples, young boys and girls, they are not practicing in a secluded place the yoga system. They are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. And bring any yogi in the world and talk with them and see the comparison. Because that is fashion only; it has no practical value. And here is practical value. Maybe one or two are successful, but mass of people, yoga practice is not recommended. That is not possible to be executed. But if you take to this hari-kīrtana movement, Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, very soon, kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati. You see practically. They are young boys and girls. At least, they have given up the four principles of sinful life and they are practicing, and they will improve. If they stick to the principles, they will improve.

Room Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Kindly do that.

Dr. Sharma: I'll be doing that. I'll be writing now, and...

Prabhupāda: Your family is also here?

Dr. Sharma: Yes, I will be married very soon, in about a month.

Hari-śauri: They said Svarūpa Dāmodara went down to the prasādam pavilion, so we sent someone down to find him.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Good. Now here is... All right.

Dr. Sharma: Yes, we think that you have done supernatural things. We can do at least just a little bit, just a little bit.

Prabhupāda: Finishing touch.

Dr. Sharma: Well, no, just a little bit. We will not be able finish it, but we will be able to...

Prabhupāda: No, the student does roughly, and the master gives the finishing touch, painting.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Why few years? Rascaldom. Dr. Chicken is doing in five days, so why you enjoy this title? You give up. You be ashamed. You are shameless, therefore you are talking all this nonsense. You have no human sense also.

Bali-mardana: They say that in the laboratory we are working on this, and very soon we will have the answer.

Prabhupāda: That means that you are a rascal. You admit that you are a rascal. We see one sparrow bringing within few days, life. So many birds, they are bringing life within few days.

Rāmeśvara: They say there are certain chemicals in the body.

Prabhupāda: All right, you rascal, big chemist, you combine these chemicals and bring life. Why do you not do that? Simply talking millions and trillions of years just to bluff other rascals. You are a rascal and you are bluffing other rascals. That is your business, and getting high salary, that's all.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even they can take a dead body, there's no need to manufacture the body, and try and put life back into it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, give him some chemicals. So many dead bodies are being wasted. Give some chemical and let them come back in life.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: There are so many examples. There are so many examples. The beginning stage and the perfect stage. Perfect stage, designationless. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, in the beginning api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ: (BG 9.30) even he's not completely a devotee, still, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ. You must accept him as a devotee. Why? Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. He has taken to the process completely. So there may be some designations always on account of past habit, but because he has taken to the process of becoming designationless, he is sādhu. If he sticks to the principles, kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati, very soon he'll become a perfect devotee and he'll get peace-śaśvac-chānti-kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (BG 9.31). These things are there. So one has to take the line of Kṛṣṇa consciousness seriously, then everything automatically will appear. There is no.... That is called utsāhān dhairyāt, dhairyāt, patience. Niścayād; "I have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness exactly as Kṛṣṇa wants, then I'll surely be perfect." That is niścayād. There is no doubt about it. If I am following the direction of Kṛṣṇa under the guidance of spiritual master, be sure that you'll be successful. There is no question of becoming unsuccessful. Niścayād. But if I am deviating, that is my (indistinct). But if you follow, then you'll be sure to be successful.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: A devotee, because a nondevotee has become a devotee, he is practicing how to simply accept Kṛṣṇa's orders. But by his previous habit he's still engaged in "do it" and "don't do it." That is his previous habit. Just like this fan is running. You take out the switch, the current is stopped, but it's still running, at least three, four rounds. So similarly, if you have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, your, that current of "do it" or "do not," is stopped. Because you have agreed to do only what Kṛṣṇa says. If you have actually decided like that, then you are free. There is no more current of "do it" or "not do it." But because you were habituated in your past life to this "do it" or "not do it," sometimes it is found. But that is... Therefore Kṛṣṇa says,

api cet sudurācāro
bhajate mām ananya-bhāk
sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ
samyag vyavasito hi saḥ
(BG 9.30)

He has got little practice of these nonsense things. But if he sticks to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, this will be stopped very soon. That is the only remedy. So a devotee means he has taken vow before the spiritual master, before the fire, before... If he sticks to his principle, then he's free. Even though some bad habits found due to his past behavior. That will be stopped. But he must stick. Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. That must stick. Kṛṣṇa consciousness must continue. Everything will be corrected. And if there is slackness in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then again he'll fall down. That I was telling this morning, that if you have determination, māyā will put forward so many impediments, and with all sufferings, if he remains determined in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then life is success. A man is habituated to smoke.

Evening Darsana -- August 15, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Did you go to Bangkok?

Woman: No, I'm going very soon.

Prabhupāda: (converses in Hindi) Indian Māyāvādīs are more dangerous. (Hindi) Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). Anyone who is influenced by Māyāvādī, he's doomed. He's finished. No more spiritual knowledge. He's doomed.

Indian: How far the study of the scriptures helps us in being Kṛṣṇa conscious?

Prabhupāda: You read Bhagavad-gītā. That is the essence of all scriptures. And follow it. It is, from the very beginning to the end, it is simply helping you. You haven't got to read many literatures. Just like those American, European boys, they are with me for the last, at most seven, eight years. Otherwise, three years, four years. So how are they becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious? It is not at all difficult. They are accepting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and becoming perfect. But in India: "Why shall I become Kṛṣṇa conscious? I have got this, I have got that." He'll bring thousands of Kṛṣṇa contributors, and he'll himself he has become Kṛṣṇa: "I am God." You see. He's so shameless that he says that "I am God." God is so cheap. Means shameless. He has no shame even, so how he says that he is God? Māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. So-called jñānī means māyayāpahṛta-jñāna.

Meeting With Member of Parliament, Mr. Krishna Modi -- August 31, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: One cooperation is that we can bring immediately a small vans or buses so that we can go village to village, town to town. If I get government permit then... Because here the buses are very costly, and at the same time they are not very good. But foreign buses... India hasn't got to pay anything but simply let us have and work in India. This much facility wanted. Besides that, our men, they are coming, spending ten thousand rupees and after three months or six months, "Get out, get out, get out." And Indians are not joining. Indians are not so sacrificing. But these boys they have sacrificed everything. I am sure if some cooperation is coming from the government I can very soon change the face of India. But I am not getting any facilities. We have experimented in Bengal, and here also, he is also going, saṅkīrtana party. But he could not do it in a large scale for want of facilities. And in foreign countries these boys are so sacrificing spirit, as soon as we give him some program, immediately they make arrangement. Immediately. We are going village to village with books in buses. Hundreds of buses are working.

Krishna Modi: In America.

Prabhupāda: In America, in Europe. They have got facilities, full facilities. And government appreciates. Some of the governments they have given public holiday of the Ratha-yātrā.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, you did not know. Canada I had very little problem. U.S., it was always problem. Rather Canada helped me. Canada, I immediately got immigration in Canada. Then I got some standing. That never mind, I have got now immigration in Canada. It will be easier from Canada to go to U.S.A. Then again I tried for U.S.A. And (in Canada) it was obtained within three months and spending only within hundred dollars. And there, in America, they were spending each time $150. The lawyer was taking. He was phoning, "Will you please send $150 for this expense." And how many times he has taken I do not know. They were paying. Rāyarāma was at that time chief man. He immediately... This was going on. Then when I came to Canada... First of all, I made my position secure, that "Let me have Canadian immigration." So Canadian immigration I got very soon. I think within two months. Then I applied for U.S.A. immigration. So U.S. immigration I got within three months. And I paid I think within hundred dollars. So... You know. When I came to Montreal?

Harikeśa: Very easy...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. You went for the interview with the U.S. Consulate in Montreal before you got your green card for America.

Prabhupāda: No, no. In Montreal went...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, you came from Vancouver... From Seattle.

Harikeśa: You came from Vancouver. With one gentleman.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: With Shasti-mai(?).

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: The oxen. And similarly the people. (break) There must be a war very soon. It seems that there must be war very soon. War may happen very soon.

Prabhupāda: There will be reaction.

Akṣayānanda: Such a transgression of the laws, it cannot... How much further can it go, Prabhupāda? There must be a war very soon. Any day.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I think they cannot ask you for sterilization. You are foreigners.

Akṣayānanda: Ask us for sterilization.

Hari-śauri: They can't sterilize us.

Akṣayānanda: Well, nobody's asked us yet.

Prabhupāda: No, legally can they?

Akṣayānanda: By law if you have three children.

Hari-śauri: If you become Indian citizen then.

Akṣayānanda: If you have three children in your family then by law you must have it.

Prabhupāda: So you have no children. "So let me produce first of all three children."

Akṣayānanda: Yes, right. That's what I thought.

Prabhupāda: This argument. "First of all finish my..."

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Stay here. We want some Englishmen. (laughter) No. We want Englishmen, Australian, Canadian, because they have no visa problem.

Dr. Patel: American will have no visa problem very soon.

Guru dāsa: Why?

Dr. Patel: There is no question why. We'll understand it.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that's all right. So the visa problem is a great problem for us because in India for conducting our movement, we have to import the white men. Our Indians, they are not joining. So that is a great problem for me. They have to come, and they have to go again. And each time, coming and going, ten thousand rupees. And that is happening at least for hundred cases every year. Ten thousand, hundred times. Just imagine. This is my economic problem. Therefore I'm asking, "If you are Englishman, please stay." Because here, in India, they will see that "The white man dancing, let us see." They will never join. They are busy with their own affairs. They will advise, "Do this, do that," but they will never come. This is my position. Practical. Therefore I'm begging the Englishmen, the Canadians, the Australians, "Please come and stay." Because huge establishment, who will manage? I am managing with them, but there is economic question. For each person I have to spend ten thousand rupees at least and such hundred case... This is the position. The Indians are not interested. They are not interested.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Rāmeśvara: These are pictures of the inside as we are beginning to fill it up with books.

Prabhupāda: It is not yet filled up.

Rāmeśvara: It will be, very soon. This is part of it. We just moved in as I was leaving for India, so I had them shoot these pictures very quickly.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi)

Rāmeśvara: And the former warehouse... We now need more space for the dioramas. We're going to start manufacturing them for all the temples. So we're going to use the former warehouse, that you once visited, for Bharadrāja. He needs that much space because he's going to be making the dolls, then making a mold. Then once you have the mold, you can mass produce.

Prabhupāda: So that we can show in every center.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. They'll make them out of a different substance so that they can be shipped, without breaking, all over the world.

Prabhupāda: What is the material?

Rāmeśvara: The original doll will be straw and clay. But then for mass production it will be fiberglass.

Prabhupāda: Fiberglass.

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

Prabhupāda: All right, let them not come, but those who are unemployed, let them come.

Rāmeśvara: But what...? For those people who already have their jobs, instead of...

Prabhupāda: That job... They will be very soon jobless. Don't worry. (laughs) They will come. They will be obliged to come. Now they have got job, but as the days are advancing in Kali-yuga, they'll be jobless.

Hari-śauri: So we can expect that material conditions are going to become very much worse than this.

Prabhupāda: They may come or not. We don't care for it. Let us establish an ideal society. That is the...

Jagadīśa: If someone who is well-off wants to become a devotee, shall we encourage him to give up all of his material well-being or shall we ask him to instead put a temple in his house and encourage him how to make his house into a temple and make his whole family Kṛṣṇa conscious?

Prabhupāda: And what is your material well-being? Everyone is going hundred miles for well-being. Is that well-being? Either they may go by motorcar or by train... And as soon as there is—what is called?—bottle-neck, they become very much disturbed: "How to go to the office?" Where is well-being?

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Ask him. Is it fresh?

Hari-śauri: He just said he went out and begged some from somewhere. I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Oh, begged from some house.

Hari-śauri: That's what I made out from him. But this boy should be back very soon. The boy that went out to do the shopping should be back very soon. They took a van.

Rāmeśvara: There was one question I had, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You have written in the Third Volume of the First Canto different instructions for the age of Kali, how there'll be compulsory marriage and so on and so on. And you mentioned about the gold standard, that this is very bad, this artificial standard of monetary exchange.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. It is very bad.

Rāmeśvara: In the future this is something that we should try to correct.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: What is the use of philosophizing? Even that Professor O'Connell? He came to me, that "Why don't you give some students?" Means he's going to be dismissed very soon. But he has no students.

Hari-śauri: He came and asked Prabhupāda why don't we send our men to the university for Ph.D's.

Prabhupāda: I could understand his position. Now he's going to be dismissed.

Rāmeśvara: No, it's a fact that people go to college in America, but they cannot get good jobs when they graduate. If they have not taken specialized training in engineering or something...

Prabhupāda: That is technical, technology.

Rāmeśvara: ...technical. But if they have a general education, they cannot get a good job.

Gargamuni: And this is... māyā's kick in India is that they read these books, they go to school, and when they come out there's no job.

Prabhupāda: No job.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Guru dāsa: Just a kāccha one.

Prabhupāda: So you can keep it.

Guru dāsa: So Śrīla Prabhupāda, I am going to go very soon.

Prabhupāda: So you like this place?

Guru dāsa: Oh, yes. This is fit for you almost. It should even be more greater.

Prabhupāda: I am unfit for anywhere. With great struggle we secured this place.

Guru dāsa: Actually, we have all struggled together for many years for so many things. And it is only by your grace that we were able to do it.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...Vṛndāvana affairs going?

Guru dāsa: Yes. I would just like to submit that I don't know what has been said, but my opinion about Akṣayānanda Swami is that he is a first-class devotee.

Prabhupāda: That I know. Therefore I am keeping him. He is not qualified manager, but he is first-class devotee, and he has no visa problem.

Guru dāsa: And he also is not duplicitous.

Prabhupāda: No. Therefore he has got some special qualification. So managerial, it is not always possible. But these things required. We want one man that he has no visa problem, and at the sane time devotee.

GBC Meets with Srila Prabhupada -- May 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is good answer.

Kīrtanānanda: Therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we think that you cannot leave us very soon.

Prabhupāda: I don't want. But if I am obliged, what can I do?

Kīrtanānanda: If you don't want, Kṛṣṇa will not want.

Prabhupāda: A realized soul, must be. Otherwise, simply by imitating A-B-C-D will not help. My purports are liked by people because it is presented as practical experience. (aside:) It is within the mouth.

Bhavānanda: I'm sorry.

Prabhupāda: Such a nice instrument, (laughter) that it must enter into the mouth. Then it will act. That kind of instrument not required. It must remain three miles off. Our translation must be documents. They are not ordinary... One cannot become unless one is very realized. It is not A-B-C-D translation.

Bhagavān: It's not a matter of scholarship.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Very soon I shall send you good address of printing Bhāgavata in Bombay. So at least three, four, printing printers should go on, continuously printing our books. If you have money, you spend it for reprinting books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says that he has three lakhs' rupees credit so far, and "our accounts receivable still amount to two lakhs." So five lakhs in one year.

Prabhupāda: So invest. Invest in printing books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "No school has defaulted in their payments." None of them. "I am also enclosing a complete list of our standing orders in India. We pray for your guidance and blessings in our march towards successful spiritual life."

Prabhupāda: Yes. All success to your forward march.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Do you want to hear some of the reviews, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You're not feeling tired at all now.

Prabhupāda: No.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No. Very easily.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very what, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Very soon.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means the truth will come out.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You think the Central Government will take action?

Prabhupāda: I think.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Do you think that we should approach them, or will they do it on their own?

Prabhupāda: No. It is already gone there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The Chief Minister has sent...

Prabhupāda: Chief Minister, before catching him as thief, he has submitted that "I am not a thief." Before catching him.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bharadvāja: Officially it is not open yet. The reason is because there's still some minor difficulties in the computer, and so everything is not... When I left everything was not yet functioning smoothly. So many important people have been taken through, but it is not open to the public yet. But it will be open very soon. Actually, when I left, everything had already been... The computer is now working, but there was some lights being checked out, some wiring. And as soon as that is finished, then the programming will be done. I have sent a letter back to Los Angeles, asking them to complete the programming while I'm here in Vṛndāvana, at least a temporary program. So it is not difficult to do. It is complicated to do it. And I've asked them to make a film of the exhibition and send it here so that you could see it.

Prabhupāda: I cannot go there?

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Pañca-draviḍa: The purpose of this medicine is to cure this condition and bring you back to good health. It's not to continue in this bad condition but to bring you to a good condition. That is our hope, that you will regain your strength. There is an English saying that "The night is the most dark right before the dawn." So now you are feeling this way. We are hoping that very soon the medicine will take some effect, and then you'll begin to feel stronger.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was thinking yesterday that... You had wanted to go all over the world once again to strengthen our society. I was just thinking that since you're not going, the society is coming here to be with you. And simply by being with you everybody is becoming stronger. Simply by contacting you, taking care of you, helping to take care of you, they're all advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And I think that anyone who has your association, Śrīla Prabhupāda, will never fall away from Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And you're also instructing and translating every day. For the first time, devotees are allowed to be near you while you're translating and hear you speak. I don't think your existence has no value. There's so much value even now.

Pañca-draviḍa: If the devotees are staying away, it is not because you are poisonous. It is because we are poisonous. I know due to my sinful habits I am so poisonous that when I'm in your presence I feel so contaminated and unworthy of being in the sight of such a person as yourself that I feel that I should be in some corner hiding like some... I am so impure that I cannot stand in front of you. It is not because I feel that you are poisonous, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I am poisonous.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: That's very true, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Pañca-draviḍa: You are a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, and your whole life is simply dedicated to the propagation of Kṛṣṇa's teachings all over the world, whereas my whole life is simply dedicated to sense gratification. So therefore, when I come in front of a person such as yourself, I feel ashamed.

Bhavānanda: It is true, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that if you lose your desire to remain here, then no medicine can be effective. But if you desire to remain, then the medicine can become effective.

Prabhupāda: No, in this way to remain—not desirable. Every day, crisis.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Girirāja: That's because Prabhupāda's patita-pāvana. And the temple atmosphere is nice. It's mainly saṅkīrtana. There are no women there, so very good atmosphere. They have a nice program. They have a love feast program, and many people are coming. I think they can have two or three hundred people coming very soon. And the people are very simple and good natured. Everywhere we went, people would chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They recognized the devotees?

Girirāja: Yes. And they're not envious. It seems that in India many of the people are a little envious of us, but everywhere we went in Nepal, it seemed that the people were very happy to see us.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Have you ever been there, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You'd like to go sometime?

Prabhupāda: Why not?

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I'll tell you, I'm getting so upset sitting in the room upstairs. I mean I just... I was walking around... Two of the devotees told me this road is so bad that if you go on this road, you're going to be jolted back and forth. The road is terrible. I just can't understand, Śrīla Prabhupāda, why it has to be tomorrow that we have to go. If anybody wants you to travel, I do. My whole desire is to take you all over the world. I want to take you on parikrama, but why do we have to go when you're in this condition? I can't understand it. It just... I was standing outside. This kavirāja, he has worked so hard. He's so much disappointed. He can't understand why he... He says that now, today, you've taken half a kilo of milk. No mucus has is being produced. No stool is being passed. He says tomorrow he wants to give you a medicine that will begin to build the milk into muscles. He's going to get you to a point where you can take two kilos of milk a day. And he says very soon you'll be able to have the strength to actually do parikrama. So why are we throwing everything out the window, that we must go tomorrow? I cannot understand.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Bhakti-caru: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Bhavānanda: Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: I cannot refuse all your request.

Page Title:Very soon (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:17 of Nov, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=69, Let=0
No. of Quotes:69