Amsterdam (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"Amsterdam"

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Anna Conan Doyle, daughter-in-law of famous author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is the... So if we make our living condition very simple, there is enough time, enough time. But we don't say that you go back to the primitive stage of life. That is not possible. We simply request that wherever you are, simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is no difficulty. Then everything will be clear. And we are not charging anything for that, that: "You give me so many pounds. I'll give you a mantra." Not like that. (break) There is no necessity. Unnecessarily they are killing animals, and becoming sinful. So they have created their own field of activities just to become bereft of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Formerly, in the human society, there was no slaughterhouse. If they wanted to kill one animal, they went to the forest or anywhere. Kill one animal and eat it. But here it is now regular business. Somebody's supplying cows regularly by increasing livestock. That has become his business. And somebody's killing. So we have invented so many things like that, simply for sinful activities. How we can become happy? It is not possible. So many big, big factories for producing beer and liquor. But they have become accustomed to this. And the net result is now we increasing the hippie population. This irresponsible life is producing children, most irresponsible, brainless. Yes. But they have no eyes to see, that "How we are degrading. This is our children." I have been to Amsterdam. One park, there is...

Bhagavān: Fondel Park.

Prabhupāda: Bondel Park?

Bhagavān: Fondel.

Prabhupāda: Fondel. So hippies are there. Oh, how wretchedly, voluntarily they are living. They don't require to live in that way, but they are living. Lying down on the ground. No regulated principle. They do not know where to eat, where to sleep. Unnecessarily. Thousands of hippies. And they are thinking they're happy.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: They're also thinking that "We are not sumptuously fed," or something. Some demands is there. Some demand. And they are lying down, Amsterdam and here, on the street. And why? But they are coming of rich families, rich nation. Especially America. In London also, I have seen. Regent Park. They're lying down. Police is kicking. Police is kicking: "Get up, get up!" Why? Behind them the British Empire is, British government is there. Why he's lying down there? Who has told him to...? Government is requesting, "If you have no home, come on. I shall give you home." In Bombay also, these, what is called? The huts?

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Paramahaṁsa: Śrīla Prabhupāda attem... He traveled to Paris, and also, previously, to Amsterdam and Germany, in years previously.

Ambassador: This temple is going to be a permanent situation, this particular building, or...?

Paramahaṁsa: Yes.

Ambassador: Or somewhere.

Paramahaṁsa: In the beginning stage, yes.

Ambassador: Yes, then you'll have to locate something.

Prabhupāda: So practically single-handed I am trying to give this original Indian culture to the world. And nobody's helping me. Neither, if some rich man wants to help me, government will not allow to help me.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Paramahaṁsa: Oh, I see. And he's a very good friend of Gauracandra. He's a devotee from Amsterdam. And he's a professional psychiatrist.

Haṁsadūta: Prabhupāda's just saying his mantra, Gāyatrī.

Paramahaṁsa: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: So very glad to see you. (break)

Dr. Hauser: You see, when I met George, he was a very, what do you call it, person that hadn't found anything very specific in life. He floated about very much and he... Now when I met him yesterday he was very, he seemed very happy and very sure of himself and what he was doing, and that made me very happy. I thought that was something very nice. I liked him very much.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the original status of the living entity. Just like a son is conscious always that "I am the son of such and such person." This consciousness is natural. So living entities, when they come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness... Because we are all parts and parcels of Kṛṣṇa. It cannot be broken.

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Oh, you have not seen Amsterdam. Full, one big park, hundreds and thousands hippies are lying on the ground. Hundreds and thousands. You have been in Amsterdam? I have seen it personally.

Karandhara: Yeah. But not like India where there is millions of people...

Prabhupāda: No, no, India you will not find that in the park hundreds and thousands are lying. You never find.

Karandhara: Well, you'll find them living in sewer pipes.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, our proposition is that one class of men must lie down like that.

Rūpānuga: That is their business.

Prabhupāda: That is their business. They must.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 29, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: No, why the hippies are lying on the street or in the park? Why? You give them relief. The whole Amsterdam city is full of hippies lying on the street and park. What you are doing for them? They are not poor men. They have got enough to eat. Their parents, father, grandfather, they can give. Why they are lying? What you can do? Go and pick them up. Make them nicely living. Why don't you do that? Talking nonsense. What is their answer? Why they have become hippies? They are not... The Indians may be poverty-stricken, but they are not poverty-stricken. In England the whole British empire is there. The whole American government is there. And still, western countries, they have got resources. They have means. They are not poor. Why your sons and grandsons are lying on the street? What is their answer? They are making plan that everyone would live materially very comfortably, but why these people, in spite of possessing material facilities... (break) Yes, this is the real problem.

Room Conversation with Professor Oliver La Combe Director of the Sorbonne University -- June 14, 1974, Paris:

Devotee: Amsterdam is the same way.

Prabhupāda: Amsterdam is a place simply for prostitutes.

Devotee: It is the center.

Prabhupāda: This is very prominent in the western country, which we are asking, that no meat-eating, no intoxication, no illicit sex. These things are only thing enjoyable.

Satsvarūpa: They think if you eliminate those, there is nothing left to live for.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Rāyarāma's statement. Yes. I am denying the bare necessities of life. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Who will try for becoming perfect in this way? Very disappointing. But still, Kṛṣṇa is so kind that helping so many. They are doing actually. All right, keep it.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: No, I saw in Amsterdam—simply full of hippies, lying down on the street, lying down in the park, no food, no shelter. It is going on.

Guest (2): The hippies are not lying in the park because they lack food.

Prabhupāda: They must be wanting something. They are in need of something.

Guest (2): But not necessarily food.

Prabhupāda: One body is in need of food; another body is in need of something else. They're needy, everyone, needy. That you have to accept. I have seen in Los Angeles. I was walking in the Beverly Hills quarter. One hippie boy is coming from a very nice house. Beverly Hills, that quarter, is resided by all rich class. And he has got very nice car, but he's hippie. Why? His father is very rich man. He has got nice car. He might be very educated. Then why he is hippie? What is the answer?

Room Conversation with Woman Sanskrit Professor -- February 13, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: And then, from London, I may go directly to Bombay, or I may visit some other European cities where we have got temple. In Paris, in Geneva, in Rome, in Amsterdam, we have got some temple, like this.

Professor: What you're going to do about...?

Prabhupāda: You have seen all our books? These are our books.

Professor: I saw them.(?) I think I had a talk somewhere with...

Prabhupāda: We have got our small and big book. Fifty books we have got. All about Kṛṣṇa.

Bhajans and Room Conversation -- March 8, 1975, London:

Haṁsadūta: This harmonium was originally made for Nara-nārāyaṇa, and then it was... but it was never delivered to him. It was picked up by Maṇibaṇḍha. And Maṇibaṇḍha left it in Amsterdam, and so they did not like it. So I gave them a harmonium that I had, and I took this one. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Because I think it's very good, huh?

Prabhupāda: It is not very good.

Haṁsadūta: But it's nice. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: So kīrtana is going on, here and there.

Haṁsadūta: Oh, yeah, everywhere.

Prabhupāda: Paris also?

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, but that we see in India. On account of poverty, many men are lying on the footpath. And here also, in Europe, America, we see. Although he is coming from rich family, government is rich, government is endeavoring to take them back to nice place, they will not go. So these three classes of men-rich, middle class and poor—everywhere, either it is rich country or poor country. Then we have to accept: by nature it is so arranged that these three classes of men will exist. Then the question is "Where is the benefit of economic development?" If these three classes of men will exist anywhere, so where is the use of economic development? Even one is placed in developed economic condition, rich family, rich, he is accepting poverty voluntarily. And there is a big park in Amsterdam, that... You have been there?

Brahmānanda: I've heard of it.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Rādhāvallabha: ISKCON Amsterdam keeps putting their pictures up in front of the books. I keep taking them down. They keep putting them up again.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Why you are taking?

Rādhāvallabha: They can't see the books.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Rādhāvallabha: It's not possible to see the books with the pictures up. They can put them down at the end where there is some room. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: What can be done? Price raising, they want all comforts.

Rāmeśvara: So if someone is sick they will not take him to the hospital because there is no one to take care of him there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This school is called Amsterdam School, Prabhupāda, because this is Amsterdam Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's very funny that Ninth Avenue turns into Amsterdam Avenue at this point. Ninth Avenue becomes Amsterdam Avenue on about Sixtieth Street.

Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes, I know.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were going to show us that building.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just on the corner of Amsterdam and Seventy-second.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means next street.

Rāmeśvara: They say when you go to the spiritual kingdom, you keep your same wife and your same children. That is their idea of marriage.

Prabhupāda: This is Amsterdam?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, Columbus Avenue. Next is Amsterdam.

Devotee (1): You walked here, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Car Ride -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: This is the Tenth Street? No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is Amsterdam Avenue.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ninth Avenue turns into Amsterdam Avenue.

Rāmeśvara: Next year at the Ratha-yātrā they are planning to have a press box, so that the newspapermen and television cameras can come and film the activities on stage also. They can film your lecture, they can film the play.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're also thinking to have a press box along the parade route, so that they can stay in an elevated position and take photos. We collected a total of about seven thousand dollars, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: And what you spent?

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Hṛdayānanda: Called New Amsterdam.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Some Indians were living here on this island, and the Dutch people, they bribed them or traded it for about thirty dollars' worth of jewels and trinkets.

Hṛdayānanda: The Dutch were defeated by the British, and the British took New York.

Prabhupāda: Yo bala maluk taya (?): "Might is right."(break) ...right is going on now also, but under some plea, United Nations. Where is unity? (break) Sometimes I stayed in this house. Eighty-seventh Street? No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is not Eighty-seventh, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Tripurāri: Seventy-second and Amsterdam. (break)

Morning Walk -- July 20, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Drunkard? No.

Hṛdayānanda: Crazy.

Prabhupāda: This is Amsterdam? Cross street? No.

Devotee: Seventy-fifth Street.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes, this is Amsterdam.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere I see that poster.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Toṣaṇa Kṛṣṇa, he was doing that for about three weeks in a row.

Ādi-keśava: All night long.

Prabhupāda: He would go out all night long for about three weeks, putting those posters up everywhere.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Oh? You are just now coming? You have got, Mālatī? (speaks Hindi with Indian lady) So what is the news of Amster..., what is it?

Hari-śauri: Amsterdam.

Prabhupāda: Amsterdam.

Woman devotee: It is very nice. They are preparing for installation of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa on September lst, and otherwise the saṅkīrtana is distributing Bhagavad-gītās, about fifteen hundred a week.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Then you are recognized by Kṛṣṇa. Recognition means you become the dearest servant of Kṛṣṇa. Then what do you want more? If Kṛṣṇa recognizes that "You are My most dear servant," then what do you want more? Yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). So this message was to be carried by all Indians. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's desire.

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra

janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra

(CC Adi 9.41)

This is para-upakāra. So all Indians should take up this mission and do welfare activity. That is India's special function. How many devotees are there in Amsterdam?

Woman devotee (1): Fifty.

Prabhupāda: Building is very big?

Bhagavān: Yes. Nice building.

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

Prabhupāda: You take this paper. Make a list of important cities. Now suppose if you go from Delhi. So you can go first to Paris, Geneva, Rome, then London, Amsterdam, Stockholm. Then from London I think New York, Boston, Montreal, Canada. Then you go to the western side, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver. Go further, Honolulu.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Then you could go to the Pacific, Australia.

Prabhupāda: Ah yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: New Zealand, Sydney.

Prabhupāda: Australia, Melbourne.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Either you dream or not dream, I claim.

Pṛthu-putra: Yes. But this thing was just confirming. When I saw you the first time in Amsterdam, you were the same person that I saw in my dream one or two years previously.

Prabhupāda: That... You have read Caitanya-caritāmṛta? Guru-tattva. Guru-tattva. So there it is clearly said that guru is the manifestation of God. So it is confirmed in the śāstra. And all the ācāryas accept it. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **.

Satsvarūpa: But is it possible to also learn spiritual truths from this..., from representatives on the subtle plane?

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is a good chance of United Nation-Indian, Americans, Englishmen, German, all mixed together.

Jayatīrtha: Our Amsterdam temple has about sixty devotees, and they're from seventeen different countries, seventeen different nationalities are represented in the temple. There's nowhere else where so many different nationalities are living together.

Prabhupāda: No. This is the nucleus of United Nations, real. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1), to understand everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. That is the basic principle of United Nation. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54), samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. In that stage there can be equality. Otherwise not.

Room Conversation -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Indian man (1): Very good cows there.

Bali-mardana: We should investigate from Argentina. He said it was very cheap.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But now we're not in Argentina anymore. Amsterdam.

Prabhupāda: We shall regain again.

Bali-mardana: The government there is changing every few months, new government.

Prabhupāda: If you can introduce this system, varṇāśrama, then it will establish. No more change. This is a rascal's government, this democracy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Demoncracy."

Prabhupāda: "Demoncracy."

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So he'll be assistant secretary?

Satsvarūpa: No. What we resolved is that Bhagavān dāsa would stay in his present zone: France and Italy and Sweden and Amsterdam; but that as far as Jayatīrtha, he would visit Paris and New Māyāpur to assist with the financial problems there, and after some time...

Prabhupāda: Jayatīrtha and Ātreya Ṛṣi, both.

Satsvarūpa: Ātreya Ṛṣi would also go visit in June to try and help with the financial problems. And then...

Prabhupāda: What is the actual financial problem?

Room Conversation with Ratan Singh Rajda M.P. 'Nationalism and Cheating' -- April 15, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know... One verse can be quoted that because of one's connection with the modes of material nature...

Prabhupāda: Amsterdam, who they, lying on the street in center of Europe? What have they done about these poor? On the other hand, the poor have learned how to utilize unrestricted sex and indulge in gambling and intoxication.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: For example, in America we find that the less intelligent persons are engaging in illicit sex life, so naturally they have more children, and they're eating meat, so the children are very...

Prabhupāda: And female... And women, girls.