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Acknowledgement (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Dr. Karan Singh, -- November 25, 1971, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Recently one paper has remarked that "such an important man is going unnoticed." They remarked like that.

Dr. Singh: Here?

Prabhupāda: No. Where it is?

Mālatī: Boston.

Prabhupāda: Boston. Also in Buffalo.

Mālatī: Buffalo, yes.

Śyāmasundara: He was speaking in reference to the Pope. The Pope didn't acknowledge your letter to him.

Dr. Singh: Did he or...

Śyāmasundara: Did not.

Dr. Singh: His loss. When we have Kṛṣṇa, who needs the Pope? (laughs)

Prabhupāda: I may not think... (indistinct) He is the head of a very great religion, so I want (indistinct) cooperation, I offered my cooperation (indistinct). So I have to struggle with so many difficulties, (indistinct) and everything, handicap.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 12, 1972, Madras:

Guest: They were all very good to me. They looked upon me as a, an impartial man, which is a very great compliment in our country. Now you have undertaken a very great task. I am not competent to discuss or comment upon it.

Prabhupāda: No. I think you are the best man to comment upon it.

Guest: True. Still, I am not presumptuous enough to comment on one who has actually taken up the work. That is the difference between thinking and doing. Thinking is easy. Doing requires inspiration, and you have taken it up.

Prabhupāda: I was thinking of taking up this task long, long ago. I wrote one letter to Mahatma Gandhi that "You have got influence all over the world, and you are acknowledged a man of spiritual understanding. Now you have got svarāṭ, you better retire and take up this preaching of Bhagavad-gītā all over the world."

Guest: He was doing if from the beginning, not exclusively that, but applying the Bhagavad-gītā to everything that he was doing. He was doing it really, but you are referring to concentrated, exclusive...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Śyāmasundara: Their answer is that there was a necessity to go to the city, so we would have tried hundreds of different ways to come here, and by chance, eventually we would have found...

Prabhupāda: No. We have not tried hundreds of others. There was a plan.

Sudāmā: But even where does... In my mind, if I hear the word chance, where does chance, how does chance come about, if there is such a thing?

Prabhupāda: No. The rascal says that I am trying in so many ways; one of them by chance becomes... But I am not working in so many ways. We had a plan, to come here, to preach. So according to that plan, we arranged with this man, and it is not chance. It is all prearranged. Where is that I am trying this way or that way? We are going to preach. There is a plan. So our men go before my reaching there and they make nice arrangement, nice apartment. Then they receive me. These are not chances. This is all prearranged plan.

Bhūrijana: They say that... But they don't acknowledge the plan.

Prabhupāda: Why they don't acknowledge? Everything is being done by plan. The rascal who is speaking like that, he is educated by a plan, by his parents. And therefore he is able now to talk nonsense and get the Nobel Prize, for talking all these rascals. His education was planned.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 28, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They will say that: "I have taken from the nature."

Prabhupāda: Eh? Nature? That means you have taken from somebody. You have not created. You have stolen. Thief you are. And we say: "Yes, you have taken from the nature, but every property of nature, that belongs to Kṛṣṇa." Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Īśāvāsyam, it is all God's creation. And that is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Yes... If one does not perform yajña, he's a thief. Yajña means acknowledging that things have been taken from Kṛṣṇa. And we must satisfy Kṛṣṇa. "Kṛṣṇa, You have given so many things for our maintenance." This much acknowledgement Kṛṣṇa wants. That's all. Otherwise, what He can expect from you? What you are in His presence? Prasāda. Prasāda means acknowledging: "Kṛṣṇa, You have given us this foodstuff. So first of all You taste. Then we take." This much. Kṛṣṇa's not eating. He's not hungry. He's eating. Although He's not hungry, He can eat the whole world. Again produce it, as it is. That is Kṛṣṇa's power. Pūrṇāt pūrṇam, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). Kṛṣṇa is so perfect, that you take from Kṛṣṇa, whole Kṛṣṇa's energy, still the original energy's there. That is conservation of energy.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Umāpati: Father, how is it that we can enjoy this energy we are in, Kṛṣṇa's energy now, and we acknowledge it as Kṛṣṇa's in the neophyte stage. A pure devotee realizes it as Kṛṣṇa's energy, but as a neophyte, how do we enjoy material energy in this aspect, the fresh air and the morning walk.

Prabhupāda: A neophyte or anyone who is not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he does not enjoy. He simply suffers. There is no question of enjoyment. Anyone who is not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he does not enjoy. He simply suffers. But he takes the suffering as enjoyment. That is māyā. That is māyā. Just like in your country, they are working day and night. Just like from the morning, gugugugugugugugugu (makes noise of machine that is on nearby) They are suffering, but the people are coming, enjoying golf. That is suffering only. From the morning, going here, is it not suffering? (laughter) But he's thinking, "I am enjoying." This is māyā.

Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course -- May 15, 1973, Los Angeles:

Paramahaṁsa: Pig. Pig and turkey they have.

Kṛṣṇa-kāntī: Actually, they kill the turkey on Thanksgiving, which is the day that they acknowledge and give thanks to the Lord.

Umāpati: For this great country.

Prabhupāda: For giving them opportunity to kill? And where is the opportunity? The Lord said, "Thou shalt not kill." Where do they get the opportunity of killing? That is another blaspheme. Where do they get this opportunity? They manufacture.

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

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

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

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

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: They are not standard. We are following Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, standard, and they have got their own manufactured way. So we don't recognize them. Our process is evaṁ paramparā prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). Paramparā. What Kṛṣṇa said, the disciplic succession will say the same thing. But they are speaking differently. So therefore we don't take them as bona fide. They are not bona fide. And from external point of view, we have got so many literatures, so many branches, so many devotees, within six years. But they haven't got such thing. Even Ramakrishna Mission. They are working for the last eighty years. And I have worked only for six years. And my result is eighty times more than them. They also acknowledge.

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

Guest (1): I have been seeking all my life, and I expect when I was about twenty-two I became a convert from Judaism to the Christian Church. And of recent years, as a result of a very serious illness, a heart attack, I began to get other experiences which took me right away from all this knowledge, but no wisdom. I gathered a lot of knowledge, to the extent that I was, well, I was getting nowhere. I knew all about God, but didn't know what He, who He was. I knew all about Him though. Then I was led to understand a lot of other things which did not come by reading. I couldn't tell you. They just came. Thoughts, from wherever they were, they came. So I am now currently at the stage where I acknowledge that the certainty of this world isn't worth knowing about.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest (1): We've got to live here of course. It seems to me almost daily that the next processes in life are the much more interesting and exciting ones. But when I hear you speak of Bhagavad-gītā and so on, I know nothing about these people. So now where do I start?

Prabhupāda: You have to start from Bhagavad-gītā.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. He is only one. But He is, I mean, fulfilling their... This is so many, all. Because He actually...

Prabhupāda: He is feeding everyone. He is feeding His devotee, as well as nondevotees. The nondevotees are also provided by God. The nondevotees, they are not independent. They are also dependent. But they do not acknowledge.

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

Yogeśvara: He says your lecture yesterday evening was very objectionable to many of the young people who made so much disruption. They found many of the things you were discussing...

Prabhupāda: Because the young people gradually degrading. They do not acknowledge authority.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- February 28, 1975, Atlanta:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, suppose that they acknowledge the fact that they do not know, but they challenge, "How do you know what you believe is right?"

Prabhupāda: Because I have approached the Supreme, the supreme brain, Kṛṣṇa. He is the perfect person in knowledge. Aiśvaryasya, jñāna. Vedāhaṁ samatītāni (BG 7.26). He knows everything. He is conducting nature. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ suyate sa-carācaram (BG 9.10). Yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kālacakro. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). So we know from the perfect. Therefore my knowledge is perfect. I am not perfect; that's a fact. But my knowledge is perfect.

Conversation with Devotees -- April 14, 1975, Hyderabad:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What about our art and literature which just shows that...

Prabhupāda: No. That is different department so far science is concerned. But pure science is useless, simply useless.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If we acknowledge that, suppose we acknowledge that, but we say that still our cultural advancements are very great. The students say that...

Prabhupāda: That's a fact. That's a fact.

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

Prabhupāda: Use, you can use. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthāḥ (ISO 1). That is the Vedic injunction. What is given to you, you use it. Just like one gentleman has got five sons. He gives one son, "This is your property. This is your property. This you can use." But the sons must acknowledge that "This is father's property. He has given us." Similarly, in the Vedic śāstra it is said that "Everything belongs to God, and whatever He has given to you, you can use. Don't encroach upon others."

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is to be united first, that... First thing is that everyone should be convinced or understand clearly that everything belongs to God. But they have no conception of God even. That is the difficulty. The whole human society at the present moment, majority, they are Godless, especially the Communists. They don't acknowledge. The scientist, the philosopher, the scholars—all Godless. Scientists' special business is how to defy God. They say, "Science is everything. We can do everything by science." There is no need of God. Huh?

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

Paramahaṁsa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, another field of study that Werner Von Braun is considering is unidentified flying objects. Now, this previously was not acknowledged by scientists, but he recently stated that when they have sent rockets into outer space they filmed objects that there's no explanation for. They think that they're spaceships from other planets.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that's... There is Siddhaloka—without any aeroplane they can go from one planet to another. They are so perfect.

Morning Walk -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Just like the dog. He goes fast here and there. "Gow! Gow!" (laughter) It is like that. He is going fast. Doggish mentality. That's all, all dogs and cats, no human being. This civilization means they are creating only dogs and cats, animals, go-kharaḥ, cows and asses. They are... We don't take them as human being. All animals.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is that because they don't acknowledge that they're suffering?

Prabhupāda: So many things. So many things. The first ignorance is that accepting this body as self. Everyone.

Press Conference -- October 2, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Because I am representative of God, therefore they must give me godly reception. It is reception to God. Just like if you receive one ambassador from a country, then that means giving honor to that country. It is not my personal reception; it is acknowledging the glories of the Lord. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. It is said, "If you please God's representative, then God is pleased."

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Then why do they talk nonsense? You stress on this point. If they say "Yes, we shall do after millions of years," then he should be challenged that "You give up your title, 'Doctor' let the sparrow take it. He's doing. You give up, nonsense, your title. Don't talk nonsense. The sparrow, without taking any doctorate title, he's doing that. So what is the value of your doctorate title?" Challenge him. Seriously challenge. This point you present, they cannot do it, it is certain. It is not possible to be done like that. Spirit soul is different complete from the matter. They have to acknowledge it.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: They can take at least fifty copies of each.

Bhūgarbha: So he's doing that now.

Prabhupāda: They gave me order, I dispatched by post, and if the acknowledgement received, I submitted my bill, they paid.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And we're going to. All of the intelligent people acknowledge. All the newspapers, everybody who we talked to confidentially, they all say, "You cannot lose this case." Everyone is surprised why that D.A. is pushing this case.

Prabhupāda: He's earning salary. That's all.

Hari-śauri: Trying to make a name for himself. That's all.

Prabhupāda: Money. Unless he makes devices and talks very overintelligently, how he'll get money? Just like the so-called scientist says and doctor says, big, big jugglery of words, and they get money.

Morning Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: George Harrison.

Hari-śauri: ...Introduction from George Harrison.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And I have acknowledged his contribution and blessed him as good boy. And because he served Kṛṣṇa, then later on he became inclined to give us that house.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Has that house been transferred actually yet?

Prabhupāda: Never mind what is the... We are using it. If he says "Go out," we shall go out. What is that? We are not after property.

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Mr. Koshi: Yes, I saw the review in the Times of India also. But there was a lot of controversy there. It was called brainwashing and all that.

Prabhupāda: There are so many accusations. Now in the court has acknowledged, "It is genuine."

Mr. Koshi: But you don't require recognition of any court, do you?

Prabhupāda: You require. (laughter) I don't require. You require.

Room Conversation -- April 13, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not a very long note. It's signed by the Undersecretary. It says, "Dear Sir, I am desired to acknowledge with thanks receipt of your letter dated the 3rd April, 1977. Yours faithfully, Undersecretary." You sent him a very personal letter. I think he should have... He may be a little bit depressed at this time due to having to leave office.

Prabhupāda: That was his dilemma. If he said, "No, we cannot cooperate or join this..." I asked, letter?

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they also acknowledge having received it, having received the two fixed deposit receipts. The bank manager stamped it, dated it, signature. We gave them the receipts signed, so they acknowledged having received it.

Prabhupāda: But they have not issued any letter, "Yes, it will be done"?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, their acknowledgement of the letter should constitute that. I got them to acknowledge that they received the original. The fact that they would take the receipt of the fixed deposits indicates that they have to do the needful, as we have instructed them. And I have no doubt that they will do that. When they came to see you, they accepted that they would have to do that, because the money was sent to them, the four lakhs.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Girirāja: So it's not confirmed that we got the money. But I'm sure that... Anyway, I think I'll be going to Bombay in the next week. Otherwise I can send another letter to the CBI to advise us here in Vṛndāvana confirming that the money has been credited.

Prabhupāda: CBI should have acknowledged. Why...? Hm?

Page Title:Acknowledgement (Conversations)
Compiler:Alakananda, Serene
Created:14 of Sep, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=26, Let=0
No. of Quotes:26