Westminster Abbey

Expressions researched:
"Westminster Abbey"

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: We discussed Newton's philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Sir Isaac Newton?

Śyāmasundara: Yes. Long ago, in Africa.

Prabhupāda: No, he was Englishman.

Śyāmasundara: No, but in Africa we discussed his philosophy.

Prabhupāda: He died at the age of twenty-three. His picture is there in Westminster Abbey.

Śyāmasundara: His tomb, his grave. He is buried there.

Prabhupāda: Westminster Abbey has become now a museum.

Śyāmasundara: Graveyard and museum.

Prabhupāda: People go to see, tourist.

Śyāmasundara: I think it cost us sixteen shillings for us to see. Remember we saw King (indistinct). So they're making some money.

Prabhupāda: Yes. For some period, Elizabeth to Queen Victoria, the English nation advanced in so many ways. They wanted to record it that they are the greatest nation in the world. But the basic principle was how to get money from outside in London. That was the basic thing. By advertising there... Actually by nature they are very impoverished. They have no sufficient food, even; their nature. And they wanted to be greatest nation. By nature they are not very much favored. Now they are coming again in the lap of nature.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Śyāmasundara: Sometimes they take refuge in the idea that: "My family will live on," or "My species..." or "my..."

Prabhupāda: That's...

Śyāmasundara: "...children..."

Prabhupāda: ...all right. The family will live on not forever. They'll live also, say, for few days. Just we go sometimes in... Just like in England, the castles are there, very old castle, thousand years, two thousand... Even this Westminster Abbey and palace, but which king has lived for there permanently? And now, if you know more, if the king has, by his work, become something else. Not necessarily he'll become a king in that house. He may become a dog there. This science they do not know. And they are proud of their education, culture. Suppose we are constructing the Vṛndāvana temple or Bombay temple. It is also certain we shall not live, but our attempt to construct that temple will be recorded in Kṛṣṇa.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: That is animalism. Dehātmā-buddhiḥ. "I belong to some particular body, and he belongs to the same body or same nation. Therefore we become..." Instead of "I," we become "we."

Acyutānanda: Recently there was an atomic scientist whose all major education was in America and Europe, and he won a Nobel Prize award...

Prabhupāda: That is the tendency everywhere. The Britishers.... You go to the Parliament and Westminster Abbey. They have kept all the statues of Sir Isaac Newton and this Churchill, this.... Mean, they want to show that "It is only our nation who has produced all these intelligent persons."

Keśavalāl Trivedi: Yes, yes. From "I-ness" to "we-ness."

Prabhupāda: (break) This is basis of Gītā. Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). Learn from the real person, tattva-darśinaḥ, who has seen, who has actual experience of the truth. Learn from him. The Gītā never recommends that you imagine and make your theories. Never said. That is the Vedic culture. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsur śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). This is the way. Take lesson from Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa's representative. Then you will get experience. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. What is the use of imagining?

Harikeśa: I mean, after all, all this talk about God was simply there because of man's desire to explain the unknown. He saw a thunderbolt and...

Prabhupāda: It is unknown to the rascal man. It is known to the sober man. (laughter) He should become sober instead of becoming a rascal. That is required. Vidyā-vinaya-sampanne (BG 5.18). Ācāryavān puruṣo veda: "He knows, who has accepted the ācārya." This is Theosophical Society, I think. Huh? That trademark. Or Rāmakrishna Mission.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Hari-śauri: What they do now if they have some big house in the country and they want to keep it, they have to put it on show during the summer months. They allow people to come, and they charge them so much money to come and look around.

Prabhupāda: The Parliament and that.... What is that church?

Hari-śauri: Westminster Abbey?

Prabhupāda: Yes. They charge.

Hari-śauri: Guided tour. They cannot live there themselves. They can only live there in the winter.

Prabhupāda: They collect very sufficiently. I have seen. Again, inside you go, and a particular section, if you want to see, the another payment. Yes. First of all, entrance fee; then, within that, if you want to see another particular section, then another fee. And they are collecting money. I have seen. Śyāmasundara took me there.

Hari-śauri: To Westminster Abbey or...?

Prabhupāda: Parliament, Westminster, everything.... (japa) They are now statues in Parliament and Westminster. So many statues, you know.

Hari-śauri: Yes. They're very fond of statues there.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...European civilization, coming from the Romans, statues also. (break) ...mean civilization means Roman civilization, is it not?

Hari-śauri: Yes. The Roman Empire extended all over there.

Prabhupāda: England was under Roman Empire. Normandy. Normandy?

Kīrtanānanda: That's France.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Tamala Krsna -- Mombassa, Kenya 16 September, 1971:

We must have a nice center at Mayapur because we are expecting there students from all over the world. Plans of the temple have already been made and you should have received them by now. The buildings should be exactly in the same pattern. The size may be changed according to the engineering technology. I have shown in London the Westminster Abbey to Syamasundara., Bhavananda and Nara Narayana. Perhaps you have also seen it. I want the inside just like the Westminster Abbey. You will understand from the plans what is my desire in this connection.