Watermelon

Expressions researched:
"watermelon" |"watermelons"

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 2.9.4-8 -- Tokyo, April 23, 1972:

According to our Vedic instruction, living entity is called sarva-ga. Sarva-ga. The living entity can go anywhere, anywhere. Why not in Candraloka? You are going. And why previous to you nobody was there? So it is very doubtful. What do you think? From reasoning point of view. And we get information from the śāstra that it is one of the heavenly planets. People live there for ten thousands of years. They drink soma-rasa. These are statement in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It is not yet published. We have explained this. It is cold. And that is also admitted by scientists here. It is 200 degrees below zero. Therefore they require some heating beverage. That is called soma-rasa. The Bhagavad-gītā also it is stated. And how we can believe that there is no living entity. One side is dark, and one side is full of dust. These are our doubts. What is your version? You think it is all right?

Sudāmā: No.

Bhūrijana: It's silly to have a prison house if there are no prisoners.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bhūrijana: Why build a prison house if there are no prisoners in it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sarva-ga. We practically see everywhere living entities. Why this planet is made solitary—there is no living entity? How we can conclude like that? Even in the desert here there are living entities. This is... What is called this, cactus?

Sudāmā: Cactus. Yes.

Prabhupāda: They grow in desert. Sometimes watermelon, watermelon. Watermelon is grown in desert very nice. So how you can conclude that there is no life. Cactus is also life.

Sudāmā: Śrīla Prabhupāda? If they are really going there in the moon planet, then the bodies of the living entities are different than our bodies because the...

Prabhupāda: No, you cannot go and live there.

Sudāmā: Right. So perhaps if they are really going there, then if they cannot..., and the living entities are living there as it is stated in the scripture, then perhaps they are doing very much damage or intruding, going against the laws of nature.

Prabhupāda: First of all let us admit that they are going. That is my first objection, whether they are actually going or giving bluff.

Pradyumna: And you suggested before that if on the moon planet there was such intelligent beings, that if someone was aiming to go to the moon, they could just by mystic powers...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Divert them.

Pradyumna: Divert them.

Prabhupāda: To some hellish place. (laughter) Nowadays they are going airplane, sometimes diverted. Yes. So if they are demigods, they have got better brain and... There are so many questionable things, contradictions of the... We cannot take, accept it, that the statement in the Vedic literature, they are not right, but they are right. No, we cannot.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Comparatively, life in foreign countries nice. Because I am seeing, from materialistic point of view. In America, you can get anything without any control. Any amount, anything.

Gurudāsa: There is more supply than demand.

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

Morning Walk -- May 1, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The smaller birds, they are eating something from sand?

Prabhupāda: No, even for man. The cantaloupe, watermelon, they are produced in sand in large quantity. Kharmuja. (Bengali)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Lemons also.

Prabhupāda: Not lemon. Watermelon. These are the products of the desert, as well as dates. Just like these date trees can grow in sand. (pause)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, yesterday's Bhāgavata lecture, the example that the hundred dollar bill, one hundred dollar bill. So if somebody picks up and takes it, he's a thief, and if somebody who just does not care...

Prabhupāda: Does not take it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, he's also not good. And the one who takes up and says, "Whose coin is this?" Then he's good.

Prabhupāda: Yes, his service is better.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1974, Geneva:

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: When one looks up towards Goloka Vṛndāvana. Just as the... There's a description in Brahma-saṁhitā of Goloka Vṛndāvana with the lotus petals, corolla of lotus petals.

Prabhupāda: No. Lotus... These Vaikuṇṭhas are like lotus petals, and the Kṛṣṇaloka is the middle portion, whorl of the lotus. This way? (some talking in background, French) (break)

Prabhupāda: So their body and your body has nothing to do individually. Harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...living entities. As soon as there is opportunity, they are coming up. (break) ...as have got experience within this planet there is water. And the watermelons, they grow very nicely in the desert. And you see, within the watermelon, there is water. So wherefrom this water is coming? Hm? Wherefrom the water is coming.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: The Bhagavad-gītā says that the world is made up of eight energies: earth, air, water, fire, ether...

Prabhupāda: No, no. That Bhagavad-gītā says. I am talking you, you are scientist. Wherefrom the watermelon water comes, and they are grown in the desert?

Karandhara: Well, they say the watermelon has an extensive root system which extracts the water from the...

Prabhupāda: So that means there is water.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: Some of the orthodox hippies have this philosophy, and they reject all machines and things that they cannot make themselves.

Prabhupāda: That is natural. That is natural. It is good. But they are not led by good leader. Otherwise next alternative is this, that you have to give up this artificial way of civilization. Now this land is vacant. We can produce so much food grains if it is utilized. Fruits, flower, vegetables, grains—we can produce. This land is very good land for producing potato, watermelon, this. Very good land. But who is doing that? This is the suitable land for producing watermelon. And watermelon is such a nice thing, and potato. You boil potato and take watermelon, you have full nourishment are supplied. Very innocent and simple food.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Another rascal. That is the difficulty. The world is full of rascals and demons. And they are leaders. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). "A blind man is leading other blind men."

Devotee (1): Instead of using the land to grow potatoes and watermelons, they're simply using it to build more offices for tables and chairs to study the situation.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. (pause) Life will be more more dangerous in this Kali-yuga. People will starve. And they... It is already began. The hippies are going to the forest. This will be the whole world situation. Everything will be chaotic.

Morning Walk -- June 2, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: (break) ...grow so many nice dates, you know that? You cannot say in the desert there is no...

Paramahaṁsa: Oh, yes. Arabia they grow.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. (break) ...desert nice watermelon will grow. Yes. Nice dates. So people go there, take the dates and take the watermelon. Kṛṣṇa has provided food even there. (break)

Harikeśa: Would one see gross form on a subtle planet?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Harikeśa: Like the moon planet is heavenly planet. They're supposed to have subtle bodies there. So would there be any gross forms?

Prabhupāda: Why subtle body? That is material body.

Harikeśa: So we would not be able to see any traces of a civilization?

Prabhupāda: There is civilization. You have not gone there, rascal. You are simply imagining. (Devotees laugh) There is civilization. First thing is, you rascal, you did not go. You are talking only nonsense. That's it.

Walk Around Farm -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:

Nityānanda: Well, the spring crop was already harvested. We have to plant the fall potatoes in a few weeks. We'll put them over there by the fence.

Prabhupāda: So it is nice farm. This is squash?

Nityānanda: That's a cantaloupe plant.

Prabhupāda: Oh, cantaloupe. You can grow cantaloupe here?

Nityānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And also watermelon?

Nityānanda: Yes.

Jagadīśa: There is one big watermelon on the vine up there. Perhaps it's ready to eat.

Prabhupāda: We are getting similar land, 600 acres, in Hyderabad.

Nityānanda: We can go this way, here. This is all our machinery here.

Prabhupāda: Hm. So already some machine idle. You had to spend so much, but they are lying idle. That is not good. That is the defect of machine. If you cannot ply it, then it is dead loss.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Arrival Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Where he is going now?

Hari-śauri: Ready to arrange the luggage.

Vipina: This is real prasādam distribution.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Vipina: Those are melons, Prabhupāda. Watermelons, sweet melons, they are the best.

Prabhupāda: I take America as my fatherland. India is motherland, and here is fatherland. (laughs) So many fathers. My father was very affectionate to me. He would do everything for me. I lost one father, I have got so many fathers.

Vipina: Jaya. We'd like to keep it that way, Prabhupāda. If you'd let us, we'd like to keep it that way.

Vṛṣākapi: We want to take care of you forever, Prabhupāda.

Vipina: What do you say, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: That, everyone appreciated that in India, that the American fathers keeping him. Just like keeping him in cotton. (laughs) They admit that. Where is salt? There are many flies here?

Vipina: Not many, and we have screens also in the windows, so there shouldn't be too much disturbance from them.

Prabhupāda: Fruits are so nice. Kṛṣṇa has given fruit. They are locally grown?

Vṛṣākapi: No, Prabhupāda. Not too many. They all come from other parts of the country.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Burfi?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, they were charging one dollar for one square.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) That is good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they were paying. Watermelon, for one slice, half a dollar.

Prabhupāda: Fifty cents. (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty cents. The whole watermelon only cost one dollar. We got about thirty slices out of it. And books...

Prabhupāda: People, they are simple here. They are not, about money matters, so much attracted. They have got enough money. They don't care. They want it is good taste, that's all. And why they did not give prasādam to that boy who was crazy?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He got. I'm sure he must have gotten. Everybody was given free feast. Feast was very good. I tasted it, nicely prepared.

Prabhupāda: How many preparations were there?

Bali-mardana: Very hard to estimate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many preparations in the feast? There was halavā, sabji, very good sabji by Ṛṣi Kumāra, rice, sweet, lemonade, popper-six preps. And puri, seven preps.

Prabhupāda: Very nice. Very good preps, sumptuous.

Bali-mardana: Oh, yes. Besides that, we had booths with watermelon, lassi and burfi.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: The construction will be like your Washington capital, like that.

George Harrison: A big dome.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Estimated eight crores of rupees. Is there any dahi preparation? Oh, that's all right. Now, there is fruit. You...

George Harrison: Very good. Fantastic. Maybe just a little bit of, but now I'm not.... Thanks. That's fine. No, okay, thanks, fine, that's enough, that's fine.

Prabhupāda: That watermelon, you can give. It is water.

George Harrison: Now let me finish all this.

Prabhupāda: This is that mango preparation.

George Harrison: Okay.

Devotee (2): It's coming.

Prabhupāda: You like that preparation? Yes.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Hari-śauri: We have some grapes. Shall I get them?

Prabhupāda: Grapes, sometimes they are sour. What other?

Hari-śauri: Pears, apples, bananas, watermelon.

Prabhupāda: Banana is very good. And give me apples.

Hari-śauri: Pear also?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: I'll try the grapes. If they are not sour, I'll bring some.

Room Conversation -- July 27, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: We are, rather, inviting, "Come here. Live comfortably. You chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." Then what is the difference between Kṛṣṇa's state and ordinary state? When I see so many young boys are taking prasādam, I become so happy that they are having prasādam and good chance for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, that's all. They are living in the best house.

Bhagavān: Even the churches, they are not feeding people like this. They have so much money.

Prabhupāda: They do not know whose money, how to spend it. Bokāloka. In the evening I took that watermelon juice? That created havoc whole night. I think so. So for breakfast you can prepare that soup, the little. Just put vegetable soup.

Hari-śauri: Nothing else? No fruits?

Prabhupāda: You can keep, if I like I can take. But vegetable soup.

Hari-śauri: What time would you like breakfast?

Prabhupāda: Half past seven, eight. We are publishing one book, Dialectic Spiritualism. What is that?

Jayatīrtha: Harikeśa Mahārāja's book.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: This is salt, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This is watermelon, this is a different kind of melon. You prefer it here?

Prabhupāda: This is local product?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Take some?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, please, please, Śrīla Prabhupāda. If you like little salt on it?

Harikeśa: Can I have the key? To lock up the passports and...

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: This is a drink, Śrīla Prabhupāda, made of some melon, different melon.

Prabhupāda: This is also local?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, that is very local. Is that sweet, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No, it is nice.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: It can become very sweet. Sometimes it is very, very sweet.

Prabhupāda: Very nice. So, very nice. Like bael. In India, like bael. So nice fruits.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No long time, I say a moment. Kṛṣṇa says sarva dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66). You do it. You can do it in a moment, but you'll not do it. That is the difficulty.

Mrs. Sahani: Yes, we are doing that.

Prabhupāda: You can do it immediately, but unfortunately you'll not do it. What can be done? There is a story, I may narrate it. One poor man was begging on the street, and Lord Śiva and Pārvatī was passing as ordinary man. So Pārvatī requested Lord Śiva that this poor man, he's asking, he's begging, so requested him, "Why don't you give him something?" And Lord Śiva replied, "Even if I give, he'll not be able to enjoy it. He's so unfortunate." "Oh, that we shall see. Why don't you give?" So Lord Śiva, in a watermelon, gave him, say, one thousand dollars. "You take this watermelon." So he thanked him, and after that he thought "What I shall do with this watermelon?" So another man came, "Sir, if you take this watermelon and give me one anna." So he gave one anna and he took it. Because he had no good fortune to take that money within the watermelon. Our fortune is like that. Kṛṣṇa is giving us the final benefit, but we are not taking care of. This is our misfortune.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Mr. Sahani: It is knowledge, that we don't have the knowledge, or enlightenment that in that watermelon there is something which is worth, or it is only that we don't want to do it, or we don't want to take the trouble?

Prabhupāda: That chance is there. You can take the watermelon and cut it, but before that doing if you give it to somebody else, that is your misfortune.

Mr. Sahani: No, fortune is something which we say...

Prabhupāda: No, I am talking of misfortune. That the perfect knowledge is being distributed by Kṛṣṇa, but we are so misfortunate we do not take it. That is my fault. Kṛṣṇa...

Mr. Sahani: Misfortune is again, is not in the hands of human being.

Prabhupāda: No, misfortune is your creation. Fortune... Man is the architect of his own fortune. So you can create your fortune and misfortune. That is the world, going on, so many people, they are working, somebody is creating fortune, somebody is creating misfortune. So anyway, when Kṛṣṇa directly is giving you the knowledge, perfect knowledge, why don't you take it? Is it not misfortune?

Mr. Sahani: Well, that probably is ignorance.

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Eggplant. And this banana. So whatever he's grown he takes in a basket, goes to the market, immediately sold. And they're all fresh. Collected in the morning, and it is sold by eight o'clock. All fresh vegetables. There was no export, there was no facility of transport. These rascals introduced transport. Big scale transport, this railway. There was no railway. So transport means this villager, instead of selling locally or one mile away, he will dispatch in Calcutta. The Calcutta people, they are sitting on table and smoking and printing paper money and exploit.

Haṁsadūta: We had this experience when we were traveling with our bus from Calcutta to Vṛndāvana. We would want to buy watermelon from people who were growing right on the bank of the river, and he would have huge piles. And he would say, "No, I'm not selling. I'm transporting these to Delhi, where one cannot get watermelon." He's getting five times the price he would get in his local...

Prabhupāda: And from Vṛndāvana, we have seen, they are exporting that drumbeats? Vṛndāvana?

Hari-śauri: Drumsticks.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Drumstick. So the transport is a dangerous thing.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: By God's grace we can produce everything from the lands, sarva-kāma-dughā mahī, sarva-kāma-dughā mahī? You can get everything. If they are satisfied with this simple life, then they save time for Kṛṣṇa consciousness and happy life. In India they don't require even cottage. One katiya (?) is sufficient. Keeping in one place and lay down. Eight months, at least six months, it is very nice. At night, even in daytime it is very hot, at night it is cool. So you have got very good sleep, soothing, then you become refreshed in the morning. If you have got good sleep at night, then you become refreshed, your health is regained. Hm? If I (indistinct), take morning snāna and cāpāṭi. During very hot season they don't take even cāpāṭi. They take some fruits, guava and this... What is called that? (Hindi)

Devotee (2): That? Melon. Prabhupāda: Melon, yes. During hot season you get watermelon, this other melon. Hari-śauri: Honeydew melon. Prabhupāda: Honeydew melon, oh very nice. In the upcountries still in the village during daytime they don't eat. During daytime they take some fruits and at night when it is cool, the cool ah, refreshing air, they make some cāpāṭi. One time, is it not?

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Mahāṁśa: That... Yes, the advocate said if we go to the higher court, we will get a transfer.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Pay immediately and protest. They'll return immediately. Pay on protest.

Mahāṁśa: Yes, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Very good. Hm.

Mahāṁśa: Actually now, in the monsoons, we're going to take up a lot of cultivation. This is watermelon juice.

Prabhupāda: So give it to the Deity and distribute prasādam.

Mahāṁśa: Yes. It got a little spoiled while traveling. The tomatoes were squashed, but some of them are ripe.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. It doesn't matter. So what is your news?

Indian devotee (1): So we also gained a farm. We have started cultivating now.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa is giving you good chance. Develop farm and have temple. Go on enthusiastically.

Conversations with Kirtana Groups -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That water, that small amount of water, the life has to develop.

Prabhupāda: There is no question of... That small amount is sufficient, according to the circumstance. Just like in the desert they don't require much water, the camels. Once drunk, they can go on the desert for three days. You cannot do that. There is water. Otherwise how watermelon is coming?

Brahmānanda: Even the cactus plants, they're able to grow, and they store the water...

Prabhupāda: Everywhere there are these... These rascals, they do not know. Everything is there, every planet.