Prabhupāda: Vivekananda has influence here in higher class, among the educated class. They talk about Vivekananda and this and that, nonsense. In your country, fortunately, that opposition was not there. There was no influence of Vivekananda class men. Here amongst the educated class there is influence of all these rascals, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, and... That is one defect. But in the mass there is no influence. In the class, educated class. Because educated class means wine, women, meat, and Vivekananda allows this. That is the point. Vivekananda has no distinction of eating. "Eat any... All Brahman, all Nārāyaṇa. You are Nārāyaṇa. Goat is Nārāyaṇa. So Nārāyaṇa is going in the belly of Nārāyaṇa. What is the wrong? One Nārāyaṇa is going, being absorbed by another Nārāyaṇa." But he is not agreeable to be eaten by a tiger, another tiger Nārāyaṇa.
Agreeable (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Even Kṛṣṇa's words are not accepted. That's a fact. Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender unto Me." So a few persons might have surrendered to Him. Even Kṛṣṇa was present, only the Pāṇḍavas and the inhabitants of the Vṛndāvana and Dvārakā, some of them understood that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. But many did not accept Him. Many insulted Him. Just like Śiśupāla insulted Him. So even Kṛṣṇa could not be accepted.
Guest (1): Accept, I accept everyone. That is no question of accepting or...
Prabhupāda: No, no, your... I have summarized that first of all you have come to inquire from us that our standard of knowledge is Kṛṣṇa. If you accept Kṛṣṇa as the standard of perfection of knowledge, then there is possibility of our talking. Otherwise simply waste of time. Why shall we waste our time? Our standard is Kṛṣṇa. If you are agreeable to accept the standard of Kṛṣṇa, then there is possibility. Just like here is a lawyer. He goes to the lawyer. He speaks, he pleads, on the standard of the lawbooks. If somebody comes, "No, no, I don't accept this," then there is no question of argument. Both the lawyers are arguing. The central point is the lawbook. So you must have a central point on which we shall talk.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That is the difference between man and animal. Animal cannot accept austerity. But man can accept austerity. That is the difference between. Just like there is a nice foodstuff in a confectioner's shop. So a man wants to eat it, but he sees that he has no money. So he can restrain. But an animal, cow comes, immediately he pushes his mouth in that. You can beat him with stick, it will tolerate, but it will do that. Therefore, animal cannot undergo austerity. (Someone else speaks inaudibly about volume of loudspeakers) Yes, yes, reduce. (break) Our austerity is very nice. We chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, dance, and Kṛṣṇa sends nice foodstuff, we eat. That's all. Why your people are not agreeable to such kind of austerities? Chanting, dancing, and eating nicely? (indistinct) I see austerity, call my mother.
Bob: What is that?
Prabhupāda: Suppose we have this nice foodstuff this mother has brought. So those who are not following austerities, they cannot expect. But because we are following austerity, Kṛṣṇa sends us nice thing. So we are not loser. When you become Kṛṣṇized, then you'll get more comfort than at the present moment. That's a fact. I am living alone for the last twenty years, but I have no difficulty. When, before taking sannyāsa, I was living in Delhi, these boys were taking care of me. Yes. So I had no difficulty, although I was living alone.
Prabhupāda: So, fix up the zone.
Śyāmasundara: Well, we pretty much fixed it up, except...
Prabhupāda: So write, write. Take, take some paper. Here is paper. Here.
Śyāmasundara: I think that, that the Southeast Asia...
Prabhupāda: Take this, take this map. First of all find out the zone, what will be the zone.
Śyāmasundara: The Southeast Asia and Australia we'll join in one zone.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Śyāmasundara: The Southeast Asia and Australia if that were one zone, it would be alright.
Prabhupāda: Make it.
Śyāmasundara: It wouldn't be too difficult.
Prabhupāda: So write, write that. What one, two, three. What is the one zone, zone number one?
Śyāmasundara: Eastern U.S.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Śyāmasundara: Oh, you mean before?
Prabhupāda: No before, and now.
Śyāmasundara: Alright, Southeast Asia, Australia.
Prabhupāda: That is one?
Śyāmasundara: That is one yeah, if everyone is agreeable.
Prabhupāda: They agree, everyone will agree. It is not a question. (laughter) First of all make the zone. Whatever I'll say, he'll agree. That is not the problem. First of all make up zone.
Śyāmasundara: Alright.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Let them cooperate, and we shall make solution of all problems-political, social, everything. Let them come and cooperate. (pause) They are not agreeable to close the slaughterhouse? Yesterday, you were not present when that mayor came?
Bhagavān: I was there.
Prabhupāda: I requested that "You are one of the important men. Why don't you agree? Close the slaughterhouse. If you want to eat meat, take it when the cow is dead. We shall supply you?" What is their objection? What is the possible objection?
Yogeśvara: He (the Bishop) says that he finds many things agreeable in this Vedic tradition, but he says that he thinks it might be a mistake to say that the Bible is exactly the same thing as the Vedas. He says there are still distinctions.
Prabhupāda: Then, then, distinction, then it is to be considered which is perfect, the later edition or the original. (French)
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says, God says, "I am the seed-giving father of all living entities in different forms of life."
Professor Durckheim: There is one difficulty in the western part of the world which might not be so great in the eastern part. I realize in Japan, when they talk about father and mother, especially also mother, it was all something to be loved, to be grateful, to submit. In our countries now, the father is generally the one who does not understand anymore his son, and the son has to get rid of his body father in order to be able to realize himself. So very often the main obstacle in our youth is the image of mother and father because they have never understood their children. So the word father for many people in western part of the world...
Prabhupāda: Misunderstood.
Professor Durckheim: Is something not very agreeable. It's all the authority like this, the not understanding, the not loving, the authority. You see? There are so many fathers who say in their family, "I don't know what you are talking about freedom. In my house everybody can do what I like." So they are very much under this spell today. So I just say this because it's very funny also in this trend of development of religion of today...
Prabhupāda: It is not religion. It is fact. It is not... Religion is sometimes explained as sentiment, but this is fact, that father and son... Without father there is no existence of son, and without son there is no meaning of father. This is science. This is not religion. This is science. As soon as you speak of father means he must have a son, or most. And as soon as a son, he must have a father. So this is a question of "must," not sentiment.
Professor Durckheim: ...smell of the baked bread.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Professor Durckheim: Is it very agreeable?
Prabhupāda: What can be done? We have to be accustomed because we have to go all the western countries, the boiling meat. So let us go out now.
Haṁsadūta: You want to go in here, the car.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He said, "Everyone is God." Somebody said. So Girirāja said, "I am God?" "Yes, you are God." "Then I can take your money?" "Yes." And he gave him some money, all the money. (laughter) So out of sentiment, whatever money he had in his pocket, he gave him.
Umāpati: It was ninety dollars.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Umāpati: Ninety dollars it was.
Prabhupāda: Anyway...
Bali Mardana: He was caught in his own philosophy.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayatīrtha: By the same trick, Madhudviṣa Swami once got someone to take all of his clothes off and give it to him. "If everything is all one, then you will not mind giving me your clothes."
Prabhupāda: No. Their philosophy is "We are one. What is mine, that is mine. And your—also mine. (laughter) Therefore we are one." And as soon as you'll say, "No, why not your mine?" that is, that is not agreeable. Harer nāma (CC Adi 17.21).
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Formerly, from Caitanya literature we understand, that if the Musselman will take little water from the badna (?) and sprinkle like this, then you become Mohammedan. In this way all these Indians, they became Mohammedan. And the result is now the Pakistan, and you go on fighting forever. Why these innocent persons who were by sprinkling water became Mohammedan, why they do not claim? Kṛṣṇa and the śāstra, it does not say that if one has fallen, you cannot reclaim him. No, why not reclaim him? Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa... (BG 9.32). This is by birth. And of course, in our country everything was taken by birth. Now it is going on. But even by birth one is low-grade...
Governor: No, birth also was built up by a tradition. They were brought up in that atmosphere.
Prabhupāda: Yes. It doesn't matter. But if he wants to be elevated, he should be given chance. That is the verdict of all śāstras. Now we are feeling, India, this difficulty. Because they are Europeans, Americans, the so-called big societies, they are not agreeable to accept them. You see? Although śāstra does not say so. Śāstra says, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ. "If one takes shelter of Me, even he is born in pāpa-yoni"... Striyaḥ vaiśyās tathā..., te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim, "they can also be elevated to the highest exalted position." And in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is, many places it is said that a low-born person can be elevated. Caṇḍalo 'pi dvija śreṣṭho hari-bhakti-parāyaṇaḥ.
Prabhupāda: The thing is everyone is trying to be united. That United Nation is for the last twenty years. They started in 1947, United Nations? Eh?
Paramahaṁsa: Yeah, '47.
Prabhupāda: And it is seventy...
Paramahaṁsa: Almost thirty years.
Prabhupāda: Thirty years. What they have done? All the best men of the whole world, they are there, but no united, simply disunited. Common platform, they are not agreeable. They do not accept God.
Yogi Bhajan: Um hm.
Prabhupāda: That is the difficulty, no central point. You have got your own philosophy. I have got my own philosophy. He has got his own philosophy. Now, how we will agree?
Yogi Bhajan: No, I may not agree with your philosophy, and you may not agree with my philosophy, but one thing we both have agreed that you are you, and I am I, and both can have respect and love for each other. And there has to be a place where everybody should be given that opportunity.
Prabhupāda: That is going on. When I meet you I say, "Yes sir." You say, "Yes sir." That is all right. That is social etiquette. But real unity is on the platform of spirit soul. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Paṇḍita, he is sama-darśina.
Satsvarūpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, if we speak these things on television and the newspapers and people become angry, if all the people become angry like she does, is it still good propaganda for us?
Prabhupāda: No, then we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. We don't make disturbance. But in the Bhagavad-gītā everything is discussed, this varṇa-saṅkara and the first-class man, second-class man. If we have to push on Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, then we have to discuss. But if they do not like, better chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and don't discuss anything. But these things are discussed. If you are not agreeable to hear from Bhagavad-gītā, then let us chant together Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's all. But these things are discussed in the Bhagavad-gītā about varṇa-saṅkara. If the population, varṇa-saṅkara, is increased, then it becomes hell. So if you want to increase the hellish person, then don't discuss. But if you think it is a problem, then discuss.
Satsvarūpa: As a brāhmaṇa, we have to be truthful. When in Hong Kong they asked you what you thought of Guru Maharaji, you said you could not help yourself.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I said that he is a great cheat. What can I say? And it has been proved now. (laughter) I said in my book, Easy Journey to Other..., that this moon excursion is childish, and it has been proved now. Now they don't talk about the moon excursion because they are failure. So ten years ago or more than that, I said that it is only childish.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the actual disagreement?
Prabhupāda: No, disagreement in the matter of process. You are thinking this way; he is thinking that way. That is the difference. Otherwise he is also eager to push on Kṛṣṇa consciousness; you are also. Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The thing is, both of them are claiming that you are thinking their way.
Siddha-svarūpa: No, I can't...
Prabhupāda: Now that should be adjusted now. I shall give my verdict which is my way. Then you have to accept.
Siddha-svarūpa: My method is...
Prabhupāda: Not your way, not his way. Let me understand what is the way you are trying to follow, what is the way he is trying to follow. Now I shall give my verdict, that "This is the right way."
Yaśodānandana: Jaya Prabhupāda.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's it. That is the best thing.
Siddha-svarūpa: So I am offensive, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: You are agreeable to that?
Siddha-svarūpa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Then thank you, no more talk now. We shall talk later.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Supposing there are many thousands of libraries in Russia and they are agreeable to placing say one of our books of each book in each of the libraries, but they are not willing to purchase all these books, but they are willing to give us some books in exchange, will we make this sacrifice? Because it will represent a loss of money?
Prabhupāda: No, if you can arrange for selling those (books) at any cost.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can arrange to sell our books to them at any cost?
Prabhupāda: No, no, exchange.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can sell, there is some set resale value. Then we can realize some money.
Prabhupāda: Yes, then it is alright.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They'll have value. There will be some money. We can request them to send some samples of the books that they will return to us. Then we can...
Prabhupāda: Find out cost. Some shopkeepers, stores. Some return. If we can get our cost price of the books.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should get cost price.
Prabhupāda: Not should, but must as far as possible.
Prabhupāda: ...Hayagrīva.
Kīrtanānanda: I think he's in Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Kīrtanānanda: I'm trying to get him to bring his boy to New Vrindaban. He's down there with those meat-eaters.
Prabhupāda: She is not agreeable? I think that she is not very well treated by her husband.
Kīrtanānanda: No.
Prabhupāda: Therefore... Otherwise, she is a good girl.
Kīrtanānanda: Hayagrīva's very (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: I know she is a good girl. He has disrupted his family also
Devotee: What if the spouse is very antagonistic toward Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
Prabhupāda: Antagonistic?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Opposed.
Prabhupāda: That is not the remedy, because afterwards he give up and become a sannyāsī, and then again become this gṛhastha. This is not good. Opposition is already there, especially in the Western countries; they will never agree. So why do you marry? That is understood. Huh? Both the boys and girls trained in such a way that there must be opposition. So that is expected, that in your married life there will be opposition. So why do you marry?
Hari-śauri: He's talking about if you're married before you come to the movement and one person wants to join the movement and the other person is not very agreeable.
Prabhupāda: No. Any... It is not because there is opposition, therefore I give up family life. Unless one is mature, there is no need of artificially giving up family life. The best thing is if one can remain without marriage. That is very good. No botheration. Hmm.
Sudāmā: Mixed media. That is also very much appealing to the public. Our future projection plan is to work on the advent of Lord Kṛṣṇa for Janmāṣṭamī, which is about an hour production, to an hour and a half. And then we were planning to work on the Rāmāyaṇa, if it was suiting or agreeable by Your Divine Grace.
Prabhupāda: The whole basic principle is this, that people should understand, as I was explaining this morning, the sat and asat. So at the present moment we are living in the way that is asat. But there is another life, sat. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is an educational movement to raise a person from the asat platform to the sat. Under illusion they are, what is called, amock? They (laughs) have gone amock. So it is a humble attempt to stop their, this suicidal policy. They are practically committing suicide.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I wanted to just finalize when you would join the festival tomorrow. I wanted to fix that up, so I could, you know, just do that. We're leaving Fifty-ninth Street at two o'clock, and we're reaching downtown, the park, at four o'clock. In other words, it takes two hours, the route. At four o'clock we're going to have a Winnebago. Winnebago is like a small bus which has a, it has a lavatory in it.
Hari-śauri: Like Satsvarūpa Mahārāja's traveling bus.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. It has a bathroom in it. That's going to accompany the parade in case at any time you require it, that will be right there. So it can go alongside the cart. At four o'clock we'll arrive, and at about four-thirty Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja will give a short introduction for you, and at four forty-five you'll speak. So at four forty-five you're expected to give the lecture. It begins at two o'clock at Fifty-ninth Street for two hours. Then by five or five-fifteen the whole thing will be over. So I wanted to know what time you would like to join the parade.
Prabhupāda: So you suggest.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, it depends on a number of things. One thing is your rest. After taking massage you take prasādam, and then your resting period. Another thing is how long you want to ride along on the cart. It depends on... I think it should depend on... I can't... No one can make that decision. We're agreeable to anything that you suggest. Devotees are enlivened simply that you're here in New York with us.
Prabhupāda: So at two o'clock you start?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right.
Prabhupāda: You want me at the starting point?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We want you to do simply what you feel would be best.
Prabhupāda: No, no. What is the best? Starting point, my presence required?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, it's not a question of required. I mean that's a very exciting time, you know, but I wouldn't say it's required. We're going to start. One way or the other, we have to start the parade. It's exciting at that time, but you could also join midway. Suppose you could also join at Thirty-fourth Street instead of Fifty-ninth Street. Halfway is about Thirty-fourth Street. So you could join there.
Prabhupāda: That will be better.
Hari-śauri: That would be about three o'clock.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That would be at about three o'clock. It depends upon your resting period also.
Prabhupāda: No, that I will adjust. That is not the thing. I want to know when my joining will be very good. That I want to know. At the beginning or the middle, in the last, that you have to decide. Then I shall adjust. In London, I think... Of course, the whole route I was present, but that was little troublesome because sometimes I am called by nature. But you say there will be a car. So under the circumstances, which time will be good? That you say. Then I shall adjust. That you consult, which time.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, if I can have about five minutes, I'll ask a few people.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Then I'll adjust.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you're agreeable at any time as long as that convenience... That's a good convenience, I think, that we'll have that vehicle.
Prabhupāda: That's all.
Jayapatākā: I think all the children, they could become brahmacārīs. If the parents would be agreeable, they could become brahmacārīs and attend morning some class, then go to school. In this way the whole village could be made Kṛṣṇa conscious at least by chanting and...
Prabhupāda: Chanting is the main thing. Chanting and distributing prasādam.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest (1): We are, Śrīla Prabhupāda, small children. You take us with your fingers to the path.
Prabhupāda: The path is open.
Guest (1): Yes. But sometimes we falter in the path.
Prabhupāda: Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam... (BG 18.66), ahaṁ tvāṁ sarvapāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. It is open for you. It is open secret.
Guest (1): We make mistakes.
Prabhupāda: That is another thing. But path... Mahat sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes (SB 5.5.2). Everything is there. That is the difficulty. Although everything is there...
Guest (1): But I'm sure that with your protection, Prabhupāda, I'll reach the goal which I have contemplated.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is giving protection. Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarvapāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi. But still we are not agreeable. Kṛṣṇa says that "I shall give you protection from all reaction of sinful life." But we are not taking that protection. You simply surrender. It is only process.
Guest (1): I am taking your shelter, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: No, I am not talking of me. I mean to say generally everything is declared. We have to take advantage of this. Then it is everything.
Guest (1): I mean to say, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Lord Kṛṣṇa also has said that "My pure devotees are more powerful than Me."
Prabhupāda: You have all my blessings. You have done so much for Kṛṣṇa.
Satsvarūpa: Then today there was some new selection of assignments. One: That Jayapatākā Mahārāja be made acting GBC along with Gurukṛpā Mahārāja, both be co-GBC managers of Bengal and Orissa. And Gargamuni Mahārāja be GBC of the traveling party going to colleges and libraries for sales in India and Asia and the Mid-East. Gargamuni should first go to countries around Iran and evaluate his work... And his work will be evaluated, and if done nicely, then he can enter Iran also.
Gargamuni: I have to go to Iran in order to sell the vehicles. Where am I supposed to go? That's a stupid proposal. I wasn't here for that. (laughter) It's a stupid proposal.
Jagadīśa: That wasn't the main part of the proposal.
Gargamuni: Well, that clause is stupid.
Rāmeśvara: We can discuss that.
Satsvarūpa: But the general assignments are agreeable, is that Iran...
Gargamuni: Yes. We're going to have to go in.
Hṛdayānanda: So we can arrange it.
Prabhupāda: We have got very good encouragement from Budapest. You have read that letter. That means there is very good potency of our movement being accepted in communistic countries. Just read that letter.
Prabhupāda: So we shall go there.
Mr. Dwivedi: At our place it's quite fine.
Prabhupāda: Building is there.
Mr. Dwivedi: Yes, Swamiji, not one buildings. Lot of buildings.
Prabhupāda: So many. So why not think over it? Let us go there for some time and organize.
Mr. Dwivedi: You wanted me first of all to bring some workers to Your Holiness.
Prabhupāda: No, they may come or not come. There should be kavel(?).
Mr. Dwivedi: No... Or if Your Holiness likes, they may come, as many as Your Holiness..., ten, twenty, fifty, to be gotten with us. And Your Holiness can further talk with those boys, and then at any time, either now or two months later...
Prabhupāda: No... Just like you have come. You can hold meeting amongst yourself. If you are agreeable, then we take immediately. There is no doubt.
Mr. Dwivedi: We have... If... There is no what is it that I can think of disagreeing. Your Holiness has said nothing in which I do not already believe, in which I do not try to live myself.
Prabhupāda: Then we can go immediately and stay there for some time and organize. Immediately. I...
Prabhupāda: Thakur has become a source of income.
Surendra Kumar: I told him, "We are ready to take over the temples and run away from..." But, as Prabhupāda rightly said, everybody now has made it an institution for...
Prabhupāda: For earning money.
Surendra Kumar: ...for material advancement.
Prabhupāda: As we have got...
Dr. Kumar: No, I tell you, there are people... You see, if you tell them that "Come on, we shall spend a lakh or two lakhs of rupees on this temple. Are you agreeable?" they will say, "No." I have that experience. Why? Because if a temple is not in good condition, they go out, meet people and say, "Look here, this is the condition of the temple. Could you not donate something?"
Prabhupāda: No, I tried. Rādhā-Dāmodara Temple, I have tried.
Dr. Kumar: It's a regular source of business for them. And if the temple is renovated, that source will stop. It is in their interest that the temple may never, is never renovated so that...
Surendra Kumar: They can continuously beg over.
Dr. Kumar: Continuously beg.
Prabhupāda: If possible, make some improvement in Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's birthplace.
Jayapatākā: I was just thinking about that, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: At least repair it nicely, without any claim of our...
Jayapatākā: From the Bhaktivedanta Charity Trust.
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust will be very popular, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayapatākā: Amongst the Vaiṣṇavas.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone will glorify your name. It will be a great pleasure to give them funds from this Trust.
Jayapatākā: Sometime in the future we can, if they are ever agreeable, if we can take the sevā of that birthplace, then we should do so.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
| Page Title: | Agreeable (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, MadhuGopaldas |
| Created: | 24 of Sep, 2009 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=24, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 24 |