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And where did you sleep? Was there a bed (I was paying seventy-two dollars a month)?

Expressions researched:
"And where did you sleep? Was there a bed" |"I was paying seventy-two dollars a month"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

No, there was bed. There is toilet and water, but no bath and no cooking.
Morning Walk -- July 12, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is Seventy-second Street, Prabhupāda.

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?

Rāmeśvara: Right here is number one hundred.

Prabhupāda: Here is.

Devotee (1): There is one hundred.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's the building, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (1): It says "Watergate." Watergate Hotel.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which floor did you live on?

Prabhupāda: And I was trying to purchase one house here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Which floor did you live on, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: I think third floor. And there was an electrician, he was my friend, one Jewish gentleman.

Devotee (1): You would walk on this street?

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is one building with temperature, a gauge? Here it is. This is Broadway. I was taking bath here in a station. Sometimes I was taking the station(?)... I think this building is new. I was going to Dr. Mishra's apartment for cooking.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What street did he live on?

Prabhupāda: He... Seventy-eighth. The Riverside corner. Yes, I was purchasing my goods from this store.

Devotee (1): Westend Superette.

Prabhupāda: They were charging, a little chili powder, twenty-five cents. In India it may be one anna.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were purchasing here.

Prabhupāda: Yes, because I was going to cook my food there, so whatever I needed, I used to...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How come you didn't cook your food where you were living?

Prabhupāda: Huh? There was no place.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What was it like there?

Prabhupāda: It was an office room. That building is meant for office, not for residences.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You rented a room there?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was paying seventy-two dollars a month.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And where did you sleep? Was there a bed?

Prabhupāda: No, there was bed. There is toilet and water, but no bath and no cooking.

Devotee (1): Did you have to go there to bathe also?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was taking bathing there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where did you... Did you sleep on the floor?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I had little platform. So on that platform...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You are the most bold person in the whole world, Prabhupāda.

Devotee (1): We will never be able to do what you have done.

Prabhupāda: Alone I was doing that. And then gradually one or two boys began to come.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did any of them come up here who are still with you now?

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Only when you went downtown did the permanent men come. No one was visiting you up here? Hayagrīva?

Prabhupāda: No, they came there, Second Avenue.

Hari-śauri: Mukunda?

Prabhupāda: All of them.

Rūpānuga: That's amazing. How long were you there, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Here? About six months. Then when my things were stolen, then one boy was coming, his name was Paul Murray, he invited me that "You come to my loft." He took me to Bowery Street.

Devotee (1): I met that boy in Amherst. He has a boutique; he sells clothing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You must have felt very bad when your things were stolen.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I felt little disappointed. But some friends, they offered me, "Never mind, you take my typewriter," somebody, "You take my tape recorder."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. Things were very easy here.

Hari-śauri: Not easy.

Rādhāvallabha: Kṛṣṇa always provides facilities.

Prabhupāda: So there was no difficulty. I got from other friends.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So when you moved down to the loft...

Prabhupāda: That boy, I gave him, Haridāsa, who was in San Francisco?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So this Paul Murray... Haridāsa left New York, he went to San Francisco. His name was something else. What is this?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a steel factory. This is near the Ratha-yātrā carts.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Steel factory, but very good house?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Hari-śauri: Paul Murray, he was the boy that went crazy?

Prabhupāda: Yes, he was LSD man.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: LSD man. He tried to attack you.

Prabhupāda: Not attack, but he showed some ferocious mood. I thought...

Devotee (1): Very dangerous.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you thought to leave right away.

Prabhupāda: Yes, immediately.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You took all your things and went away.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I kept with Mukunda.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And that boy was keeping meat in his refrigerator?

Prabhupāda: No, that is another boy, Yeargen.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: John Yeargens?

Prabhupāda: He's black.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were staying with him?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. Your Godbrothers could never believe this. (laughter)

Devotee (1): So at that time you did not think that anyone would accept your philosophy.

Prabhupāda: That I was certain. At the beginning I was...

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda was certain that they would accept.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think, Prabhupāda, that your exploits here are no less great than Lord Caitanya going into the Jhārikhaṇḍa forest and making the animals dance.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You are the modern-day representative of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Prabhupāda: This is building construction?

Devotee (1): Appears so. Telephone company.

Prabhupāda: The Bell?

Devotee (1): New York Telephone Company.

Prabhupāda: In Pittsburgh... I was living in Butler, and a girl took me to Pittsburgh. So I saw at that time that she had to pay two dollars for parking.

Hari-śauri: This is why we get so much noise. Every time there's a call, when they come from here, and we're only just on the next block.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But it's good for us also. If there's any trouble in the temple, they come right away, and they are friendly.

Prabhupāda: Give them prasādam?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Jayānanda brings them.

Prabhupāda: Prasādam will conquer everyone.

Rāmeśvara: That is how we get all our men to join.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: By the prasādam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I joined because I had nowhere to eat.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At first I had nowhere to eat, so the devotees in San Francisco, they gave me, then I heard you lecture and I became convinced. These banners are very common. You can see this one flying in the air. Most shops and things keep banners nowadays, but they aren't as nice as ours.

Prabhupāda: What is this street?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Eighth Avenue. There's a restaurant called Asia Restaurant.

Prabhupāda: Asia? It's behind you. It's hard for you to see.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And there's another one, an Indian restaurant two blocks up, but they all serve meat.

Devotee (1): And liquor.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Meat samosās, like that.

Devotee (1): Like the Muslims. (end)

Page Title:And where did you sleep? Was there a bed (I was paying seventy-two dollars a month)?
Compiler:MadhuGopaldas, Rishab
Created:08 of Aug, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1