Atmosphere (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"atmosphere" |"atmosphere's" |"atmospheres" |"atmospheric"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- February 4, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Then, in the morning, it rises reddish. So why it does not look reddish always if it is fixed?

Harikeśa: Well, the material scientists say it's because of the atmospheric condition. It refracts the light in such a way that it becomes reddish. That's what they say. Because it's thicker atmosphere. You have to look through more atmos...

Prabhupāda: Then how it comes so high? After few hours it goes so high.

Harikeśa: Well, there is less atmosphere to look through. Why it goes up there?

Prabhupāda: So that means move?

Harikeśa: No, no. Because we're moving this way. The earth is rotating.

Prabhupāda: You are moving, but why you say sometimes this position and sometimes that position?

Harikeśa: Because the earth also moves like this. It's going around the sun, and then every day it rotates once.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Harikeśa: It rotates on an axis like this. So therefore the sun seems to go around, but actually it's the earth that goes around.

Prabhupāda: Now, if you measure when this sun and when it comes meridian distance, so do you think the earth is moving so quickly? It is... According to their modern science, the earth is moving twenty-five thousand miles only throughout... No, within twenty-four hours.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So where is the cloud?

Jagadīśa: Not necessarily a cloud.

Dayānanda: Through the atmosphere, the air.

Indian man (1): Atmosphere density is different, so it changes.

Prabhupāda: Density?

Jagadīśa: When it is directly overhead...

Prabhupāda: Oh, it is fixed up. Why it should change?

Jagadīśa: When it's directly overhead, there is...

Prabhupāda: No, no, overhead means it has gone. If it is fixed, why it should change color?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have gone; it has not.

Jagadīśa: It changes color to us. It doesn't change color. To our eyes...

Prabhupāda: Why?

Jagadīśa: ...the color changes.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Hṛdayānanda: They say because the light rays...

Prabhupāda: No, no. If the sun is fixed, so why our eyes will change? If we see in the beginning, as you see, it is red, and it is fixed, it should remain red.

Hṛdayānanda: They say the atmosphere changes.

Jagadīśa: The light of the sun filters through the...

Prabhupāda: Atmosphere changes? Where is atmosphere changes? It is the same atmosphere. We saw in red and the atmosphere same.

Jagadīśa: Angle.

Hari-śauri: According to your angle of vision.

Indian man (1): Medium. Medium. Prabhupāda, there is...

Prabhupāda: Yes, you are all scientists I know. Please talk with one body. What is that?

Jagadīśa: There's an angle...

Prabhupāda: (laughter) All rascals. Scientists means all rascals. That I know. You haven't got to explain. I am trying to understand that if the sun is... Suppose a red light is fixed. So red light is always red light. Why it should be white? What is the cause?

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But that's all... But why the color should change? That is point. You may move...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because, he's explaining, that light is seen when it bends... White light when it bends at different angles...

Prabhupāda: That is only applicable when you accept that the sun is moving. Therefore atmosphere is going...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, the earth is moving.

Jagadīśa: They say the earth is turning. Therefore at a certain point the sun is actually below the horizon, but part of the sun's light, the red spectral, the red light of the sun, comes over the horizon and so the sun appears...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Red, but actually it's not reddish; it's white or yellow, whatever.

Prabhupāda: Actually it is white, that's all right, but if you see one fixed thing, a color, practical experience is the color does not change if it is fixed up.

Morning Walk -- February 6, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So where is that screen?

Jagadīśa: That's called the spectrum.

Prabhupāda: Spectrum. So where is that? That is also finished?

Hṛdayānanda: The atmosphere is.

Dayānanda: The atmosphere is the screen.

Jagadīśa: As the spectrum hits the atmosphere, it bends.

Dayānanda: Just like a prism, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Then the speed of the earth changes. Eh? In the morning you see the sun is very slowly rising, either sun's speed or your speed. But now you see it is rising very quickly.

Morning Walk -- March 2, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: If they do not follow the rules and regulations, then what is the use?

Hṛdayānanda: We were thinking that unless someone is a preacher, he has no real business in the city. Let him go have a peaceful life out on the farm.

Yaśodānandana: It has been seen that when many householders come together in many of our big communities, because there are so many women and children, there is a great atmosphere of laziness a lot of times. I have seen in Los Angeles and also in many other temples. But when there's a lot of brahmacārīs preaching, it's much more enlivening.

Prabhupāda: So now you make some regulation. Otherwise... Attending class? No.

Hṛdayānanda: Excuse me?

Prabhupāda: They attend class?

Gargamuni: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Gargamuni: Yeah, they attend aratikas and class because there's no other activity there.

Prabhupāda: No, that is also good.

Morning Walk -- March 9, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: How do you like?

Indian man (1): Very nice.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...purify the whole atmosphere. (break) ...world we are all condemned. Still, Kṛṣṇa has given so many facilities. There is a Bengali proverb. Bondhīr astekur bhaga.(?) Ast kur(?) means the place of garbage. If a aristocrat asks that "You have to live in my garbage place," "Oh, that is also better." Similarly, Kṛṣṇa.... This is garbage. This material world is garbage. Still, we live so comfortably. Now just imagine what is His dhāma. It is the garbage tank. Still so nice. And just think what is His real place, Goloka Vṛndāvana. (break)

Jayapatāka: ...gave us a very good record, very clean.

Prabhupāda: Purest in the world.

Jayapatāka: Officially, he said, the government is very eager to always keep an eye on your activities, but so far, you have not had any bad record. Therefore the government is favorable.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Otherwise, how Indira Gandhi could see me? Even in the midst of crisis she gave me time. She has got very impression. She said that "I have all faith in you, but because I am afraid of the these Americans..."

Morning Walk -- March 18, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: But moon is far away from the sun. That is from Bhāgavatam.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda, there's another question I have. I remember on a walk.... I have read in your books that the moon's glowing is due to reflecting the sun. Then I remember on a walk in Vṛndāvana you said that the moon is fiery just like the sun, but there's a cooling atmosphere around it. So is it actually fiery glow, or is it simply a reflecting glow?

Prabhupāda: That is stated in Bhāgavatam.

Gurudāsa: It says reflection in the Bhāgavata.

Prabhupāda: No, it is also a fiery place. But it is because it is far away from the sun, it is not so glowing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So it's not a question of reflection only.

Prabhupāda: The reflection theory is the modern theory.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because sometimes in the books it's stated...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Sometimes I have said or taken this modern theory.

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They say that you can chant some mantra and go on with your sinful life. But the practical result is that people's lives remain the same. They may simply divert themselves from their suffering temporarily. But in reality their condition of life is the same. They're still in a miserable condition of life, whereas Prabhupāda is actually lifting us out of the well of misery to the atmosphere of blissfulness.

Prabhupāda: That Mahesh Yogi advertises in the paper, "TM: You don't require any religion, don't require to follow any principles," and so on, so on. But I have got so many strictures; still, they do not go to him. They come to me. He has no stricture, but I have got so many stricture. And it is the report of the draft department that "Why the young men come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement? What is the facility?" So they studied. So they reported, "There is no facility, simply rigidity. Still they go there."

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Reporter (2): When you visited the Soviet Union, Swamiji, did you find the atmosphere worse than it is in Western countries, say? Are the people...

Prabhupāda: Everywhere the people are very good, but the leaders are bad.

Reporter (2): Did you meet any of them? No.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I talked with one of the best leaders, Professor Kotovsky. He is the professor of Indology. I talked with him. I have studied. The people are generally very good.

Reporter (2): But did you hold any meetings or anything?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Reporter (2): Were they receptive to what you...

Prabhupāda: Yes. I was invited by Professor Kotovsky to talk. On my way to Europe I stayed there. So I have studied the people. They are very good, as our Indian people, innocent masses, they are also like that. But they are being sophisticated by their new philosophy, communism, artificial thing. But they are not happy. They are being forced to accept a philosophy. People are.... I have seen from their face. They look unhappy. Everything dependent on government. You have to accept. You cannot select your food even. Whatever nonsense things the government will supply, you have to accept, even you don't like it. And for us it was a great difficulty. We could not get rice, could not get flour, neither fruit. Only milk is available and flesh, as much as you like. So on the whole, it was artificial and people are not happy.

Morning Walk -- April 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: They do not know what is civilization, that is there. The difficulty is they have no education about human civilization. Bahir-artha-māninā. They are simply captivated by the external energy, bodily conception of life. They do not know what is the aim of life. This is Western civilization. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). This is not Western, this is the demonic civilization. They do not know what is the aim of life. Our..., the material atmosphere, they're not happy, they're failing always, missing the real point.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The people that live in the cities think that the farmers work so hard.

Prabhupāda: And these rascals rise early in the morning and start their car to go to the office, five hours coming and going, and eight hours working there...

Lokanātha: Again in the evening they have to drive back. (break)

Pañcadraviḍa: ...I saw that these big men, they were taking so many pep pills during the day to do their work, and in the evening they had to take tranquilizers to go to sleep.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have seen so, so many advertisements. One has to take at least five to six types of.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Mr. Dixon: Is incense a form of intoxication?

Prabhupāda: Incense? No. Why intoxication?

Mr. Dixon: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Incense keeps the atmosphere very nice, fresh.

Mr. Dixon: Very sweet-smelling.

Guru-kṛpā: This flower is not intoxicating.

Prabhupāda: It is just like in your country, what is that fragrance? Scent. Scent.

Guru-kṛpā: Perfume?

Prabhupāda: Perfume is very popular.

Mr. Dixon: But I would have thought that in some ways it might have perform the same sort of function for some people as, say, smoking some cigarettes performs for others.

Prabhupāda: No.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: No.

Mr. Dixon: In other words, it...

Prabhupāda: That depends on the particular man, what kind of flavor he wants. That is another thing. But there are different varieties of incense. Generally we use rose flavor, sandalwood flavor. We offer to the Deity room to keep the atmosphere very favorable. Originally in India it was dhūpa. They used to put in the fire some flavored hulls, and it was very nice. That has been transferred into now stick incense.

Mr. Dixon: The stricture on the eating of meat, does that derive from the fact that animals have their lives which are accorded...

Prabhupāda: No, vegetable, vegetable has got life.

Mr. Dixon: Yes. What I'm asking is that because animals have a higher priority in life than vegetables?

Prabhupāda: No question of priority. Our philosophy is that we are servant of God. So God will eat, and whatever remnants of foodstuff He'll left, that we shall take. So in the Bhagavad-gītā... You find out this verse. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). Just like you have come here. So if I want to offer you something for eatable, it is my duty to ask you, "Mr. Nixon, which foodstuff you'll like to eat?" So you dictate, "I like this very much." Then, if I offer you that foodstuff, then you become pleased. So we have called Kṛṣṇa in this temple, so we are waiting, what foodstuff He wants to eat?

Room Conversation -- May 1, 1976, Fiji:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: You mentioned earlier that not only we have to find out who is the speaker, but who is the proper person to hear the subject matter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If somebody is interested to know what is the important thing, then he can understand this. And if he's animal, simply eating, sleeping, mating, what he will understand? Animal is not interested to know how the world is going on. He gets his food and sex. That's all. That is animal propensity. And as soon as he comes to the human platform, then inquisitive. "Ke āmi, kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya." Sanātana Gosvāmī.... He's not interested, "How I shall develop my economic position?" He has left already a very high-grade economic position. He's not interested. He's interested "Ke āmi, kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya. Actually what is my position? Why I am suffering in this material atmosphere?" That is human life.

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Zoology?

Devotee (2): Ecology. They say that man is part of the universe, and that we should take care of the environment because ultimately man will kill himself if he doesn't care for the environment properly.

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning?

Devotee (2): The meaning is that people have exploited the atmosphere and the earth so badly in the last two hundred years especially, that, practically speaking, man is on the verge of self-destruction.

Hari-śauri: They're getting scared because they put so much pollution in the atmosphere, into the water, into the earth, that now they're.... Everything's.... It's reacting against them now.

Morning Walk -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Eh? He creates his own world. Nothing is own—temporary—he creates, and Kṛṣṇa gives him the opportunity, "All right, you enjoy." Hare nāma, hare nāma.

Govardhana-dhārī: While doing books we create an atmosphere sometimes, the devotees..., Kṛṣṇa gives us the intelligence to give the spiritual world to these living entities. How can we always stay on that transcendental platform, to make them see this? (break) (in car:)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: If the soul is the living force, if the soul actually leaves the body, how the body will be..., work.

Rāmeśvara: There's some connection still. When the soul is..., when the body..., when you are dreaming, and the soul leaves the body, but still there must be some connection between the soul...

Prabhupāda: Connection is there, just like you leave your car, you keep the engine going on—gug gug gug gug gug gug—but you are not there. The engine, you keep it started.

Morning Walk -- June 6, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) (continues in car)

Rāmeśvara: I was once told that these irregularities in the climate are due to sinful activities. Los Angeles has a very nice climate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People I speak to, they say, "Yes, even in the last twenty years we can notice a great change in the weather patterns." People say that.

Prabhupāda: Disturbance means sinful atmosphere.

Rāmeśvara: In Bhāgavatam, you wrote that when there is a great storm or hurricane, some demon has taken birth.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And also that it is the king's responsibility to see that there is good weather. If there's good government then automatically...

Prabhupāda: Everything.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These buildings are churches, but they're all closed. But our churches are lively, even at four in the morning.

Prabhupāda: From four o'clock up to ten.

Morning Walk -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, they come. That is called sveda-ja. Just like from perspiration, bugs are coming out. Sveda-ja.

Rādhāvallabha: So isn't that life coming from matter?

Prabhupāda: Not matter. From matter is not coming, but they are taking birth.

Hari-śauri: That's the atmosphere that they get born into.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rādhāvallabha: So are they coming from eggs, or how are they coming? Just the soul enters the dirt?

Prabhupāda: No. Just like it is a suitable circumstance from which the living entity makes his body.

Rādhāvallabha: But how has the cockroach been formed?

Prabhupāda: Just like embryo. The living entity comes of the two secretions of father and mother emulsified. It creates a situation so that he can stay there and develop a body.

Rādhāvallabha: But it requires some emanation from a cockroach body in order to create another cockroach body. So how can a cockroach body be created from vapors without contact of another cockroach?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Vapor does not create. The individual soul comes there according to his karma and, in that condition, he develops his body. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1).

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Scientist rascal. How ludicrous. Simply "maybe," "if it was" and "it will be." That's all. Simply "maybe."

Hari-śauri: Yes. They were speculating about, even they didn't know what the atmosphere was, and yet they know, yet they were stating that they were going to land this spaceship at a certain point just below the Martian equator in a valley which is just at the mouth of the valley, which is four miles deep.

Prabhupāda: And people are taking, "Oh, it is scientific research."

Hari-śauri: They are such rascals.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This cheating has to stop.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This cheating has to be stopped.

Hari-śauri: And actually, on the same page, what was that, the percentage scientists are engaged in warfare?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Forty percent of all the scientists in the world, the estimate is, are engaged in making weapons. And it said that since the end of World War II, six trillion dollars, which is six thousand billion dollars, have been spent on armament in the world.

Hari-śauri: In the West.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The West, did it say?

Prabhupāda: In India, no money. They can't.... (laughs) They have no sufficient money to eat even. Still they are spending more than fifty percent, fifty-four percent.

Garden Conversation -- June 23, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That is māyā. This is meant for Kṛṣṇa's service. As soon as you do anything else, then it is māyā. Māyā is also Kṛṣṇa's māyā. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā (BG 7.14). Māyā is also Kṛṣṇa's. But under māyā we suffer; under Kṛṣṇa we enjoy.

Kulādri: So if we engage everything here in Kṛṣṇa's service, then the atmosphere will change.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Kulādri: They can notice the change in the atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: That is real atmosphere. Sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ. Mukti means to stay in the original form.

Devotee (1): I've heard that you use the example that spirit has form and therefore the body also has similar form, just as a hand has a form in a glove, it's the hand's similar form. So how can we understand that the trees have a certain form? That..., is there spirit in the form of a tree?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: At least those who are above fifty years old. That is Vedic civilization. Pañcasordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. One who is over fifty years of age, vanaṁ vrajet. So vanaṁ vrajet means completely retired from family responsibilities and take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is compulsory according to Vedic civilization.

Pradyumna: "These four items are by far inferior to engagement in the devotional service of the Lord. Śrī Vyāsadeva as the authorized scholar knew very well this difference, and still, instead of giving more importance to the better type of engagement, namely the devotional service of the Lord, he had more or less improperly used his valuable time, and thus he was despondent. From this it is clearly indicated that no one can be pleased substantially without being engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā this fact is clearly mentioned. After liberation, which is the last item in the line of performing religiosity, etc., one is engaged in pure devotional service. This is called the stage of self-realization or brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20) stage. After attainment of this brahma-bhūta stage one is satisfied, but satisfaction is the beginning of transcendental bliss. One should progress by attaining neutrality and equality in the relative world. In passing this stage of equanimity, one is fixed up in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. This is the instruction of the Personality of Godhead in the Bhagavad-gītā. The conclusion is that in order to maintain the status quo of the brahma-bhūta stage, as also to increase the degree of transcendental realization, it is recommended by Nārada to Vyāsadeva that he, Vyāsadeva, should now eagerly and repeatedly describe the path of devotional service. This would cure him from gross despondency."

na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo

jagat-pavitraṁ pragṛṇīta karhicit

tad vāyasaṁ tīrtham uśanti mānasā

na yatra haṁsā niramanty uśikkṣayāḥ

(SB 1.5.10)

"Those words which do not describe the glories of the Lord, who alone can sanctify the atmosphere of the whole universe, are considered by saintly persons to be like unto a place of pilgrimage for crows."

Prabhupāda: Just like the modern newspaper. Huge bundle of newspaper every morning, huh? So it is, as it is said here, the place of enjoyment for the crows. What is that?

Pradyumna: Vāyasaṁ tīrtham.

Prabhupāda: Vāyasaṁ means crows. The crows, they take pleasure in a place where all rubbish and refuses are thrown. They take pleasure. So what is this newspaper? All rubbish things, they are collected together. Nobody likes it to read. They just glance over for a few minutes, and then it is thrown away, rubbish. And even it is thrown, nobody touches. So they are spending huge, so many newspapers. Each newspaper several editions in a day, huge establishment, but there is no substance of life. That is being described. Na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo.

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Vāyasaṁ means crows. The crows, they take pleasure in a place where all rubbish and refuses are thrown. They take pleasure. So what is this newspaper? All rubbish things, they are collected together. Nobody likes it to read. They just glance over for a few minutes, and then it is thrown away, rubbish. And even it is thrown, nobody touches. So they are spending huge, so many newspapers. Each newspaper several editions in a day, huge establishment, but there is no substance of life. That is being described. Na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo. Read it?

Pradyumna:

na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo

jagat-pavitraṁ pragṛṇīta karhicit

tad vāyasaṁ tīrtham uśanti mānasā

na yatra haṁsā niramanty uśikkṣayāḥ

(SB 1.5.10)

"Those words which do not describe the glories of the Lord, who alone can sanctify the atmosphere of the whole universe, are considered by saintly persons to be like unto a place of pilgrimage for crows. Since the all-perfect persons are inhabitants of the transcendental abode, they do not derive any pleasure there." Purport. "Crows and swans are not birds of the same feather because of their different mental attitudes. The fruitive workers or passionate men are compared to the crows, whereas the all-perfect saintly persons are compared to the swans. Crows take pleasure in a place where garbage is thrown out, just as the passionate fruitive workers take pleasure in wine and women and places for gross sense pleasure. The swans do not take pleasure in the places where crows are assembled for conferences and meetings. They are instead seen in the atmosphere of natural scenic beauty, where there are transparent reservoirs of water nicely decorated with stems of lotus flowers in variegated colors of natural beauty. That is the difference between the two classes of birds. Nature has influenced different species of life with different mentalities, and it is not possible to bring them up into the same rank and file. Similarly there are different kinds of literature for different types of men of different mentality. Mostly the market literatures which attract men of the crow's categories are literatures containing refuse remnants of sensuous topics. They are generally known as mundane talks in relation with the gross body and subtle mind. They are full of subject matter described in decorative language full of mundane similies and metaphorical arrangements. Yet with all that, they do not glorify the Lord. Such poetry and prose on any subject matter is considered decoration of a dead body. Spiritually advanced men, who are compared with the swans, do not take pleasure in such dead literatures, which are sources of pleasure for men who are spiritually dead. These literatures in the modes of passion and ignorance are distributed under different labels, but they can hardly help the spiritual urge of the human being, and thus the swanlike spiritually advanced men have nothing to do with them. Such spiritually advanced men are called also mānasa, because they always keep up the standard of transcendental voluntary service to the Lord on the spiritual plane. This completely forbids fruitive activities for gross bodily sense satisfaction or subtle speculation of the material egoistic mind. Social literary men, scientists, mundane poets, theoretical philosophers and politicians who are completely absorbed in the material advancement of sense pleasure are all dolls of the material energy. They take pleasure in a place where rejected subject matters are thrown. According to Śrīdhara Swami this is the pleasure of the prostitute hunters. But literatures which describe the glories of the Lord are enjoyed by the paramahaṁsas who have grasped the essence of human activities." When you said that transcendentally spiritually advanced men are called mānasa, that means "with the mind," because they are always thinking of?

Prabhupāda: Yes, always. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). They are thinking of Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Yes, always. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). They are thinking of Kṛṣṇa.

Pradyumna:

tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavo

yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api

nāmāny anantasya yaśo 'ṅkitāni yat

śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ

(SB 1.5.11)

"On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the pastimes of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc. of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world's misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest." Purport. "It is a qualification of the great thinkers to pick up the best even from the worst. It is said that the intelligent man should pick up nectar from a stock of poison, should accept gold even from a filthy place, should accept a good and qualified wife even from an obscure family, and should accept a good lesson even from a man or from a teacher who comes from the untouchables. These are some of the ethical instructions for everyone in every place without exception. But a saint is far above the level of an ordinary man, and he is always absorbed in glorifying the Supreme Lord, because by broadcasting the holy name and fame of the Supreme Lord the polluted atmosphere of the world will change, and as a result of propagating the transcendental literatures like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, people will become sane in their transactions. While preparing this commentation on this particular stanza of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we have a crisis before us. Our neighboring friend China has attacked the border of India with a militaristic spirit. We have practically no business in the political field, yet we see that previously there were both China and India, and they both lived peacefully for centuries without ill feeling. The reason is that they lived those days in an atmosphere of God consciousness, and every country over the surface of the world was God fearing, pure hearted and simple, and there was no question of political diplomacy. There was no cause of quarrel between the two countries of China and India over land which is not very suitable for habitation, and certainly there was no cause for fighting on this issue. But due to the age of quarrel, Kali, which we have discussed, there is always a chance of quarrel on slight provocation. This is due not to the issue in question but to the polluted atmosphere of this age. Systematically there is propaganda by a section of people to stop glorification of the name and fame of the Supreme Lord. Therefore there is great need for disseminating the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam all over the world. It is the duty of every responsible Indian to broadcast the transcendental message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam throughout the world to do all the supermost good, as well as to bring about the desired peace in the world. Because India has failed in her duty by neglecting this responsible work, there is so much quarrel and trouble all over the world. We are confident that if the transcendental message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is received only by the leading men of the world, certainly there will be a change of heart, and naturally the people in general will follow them. The mass of people in general are tools in the hands of modern politicians and leaders of the people. If there is a change of heart of the leaders only, certainly there will be a radical change in the atmosphere of the world. We know that our honest attempt to present this great literature conveying transcendental messages for reviving the God consciousness of the people in general and respiritualizing the world atmosphere is fraught with many difficulties. Our presenting this matter in adequate language, especially a foreign language, will certainly fail, and there will be so many literary discrepancies despite our honest attempt to present it in the proper way, but we are sure that with all our faults in this connection, the seriousness of the subject matter will be taken into consideration, and the leaders of society will still accept this, due to its being an honest attempt to glorify the almighty God. When there is fire in a house, the inmates of the house go out to get help from the neighbors, who may be foreigners, and yet without knowing the language, the victims of the fire express themselves and the neighbors understand the need, even though not expressed in the same language. The same spirit of cooperation is needed to broadcast this transcendental message of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam throughout the polluted atmosphere of the world. After all, it is a technical science of spiritual values, and thus we are concerned with the techniques and not with the language. If the techniques of this great literature are understood by the people of the world, there will be success. When there are too many materialistic activities by the people in general all over the world, there is no wonder that a person or nation attacks another person or nation on slight provocation. That is the rule of this age of Kali, or quarrel. The atmosphere is already polluted with corruption of all description, and everyone knows it well. There are so many unwanted literatures full of materialistic ideas of sense gratification. The people in general want to read. That is a natural instinct. But because their minds are polluted, they want such literatures. Under the circumstances, transcendental literature like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will not only diminish the activities of the corrupt minds of the people in general, but also it will supply food for their hankering after reading some interesting literature. In the beginning they may not like it, because one suffering from jaundice is reluctant to take sugar candy, but we should know that sugar candy is the only remedy for the jaundice. Similarly, let there be systematic propaganda for popularizing reading of the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which will act like sugar candy for the jaundicelike condition of sense gratification. When men have a taste for this literature, the other literatures, which are catering poison to society, will then automatically cease. We are sure therefore that everyone in the human society will welcome Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, even though it is now presented with so many faults, for it is recommended by Śrī Nārada, who has very kindly appeared in this chapter."

Prabhupāda: So what other literatures say? There is not one. In our society we do not read even newspaper, is it not? Do we? Huh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Only in context to our preaching work.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing, but generally. We do not derive any benefit from those. People read it, especially in the Western counties. If there is no newspaper it is hell. I told you this story? Yes. You can repeat that.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: They'll understand. I'm just pointing out the difficulties of your preaching. You'll have to face all these difficulties. They're like cats and dogs. They are not even human beings. Therefore the business is little hard job. You have to deal with cats and dogs. But still there is hope, because they have got this human form of life. There is hope. It is not hopeless. Don't be disappointed, but this is the job. You have to meet with cats and dogs. That is my point. When you go to preach you must know that "I've come to preach among cats and dogs, and I have to deal with them carefully; otherwise, they will bark." (laughter) Therefore I wrote that poetry in disappointment before entering in your country, that "What they will understand, this philosophy?" Hmm, go on.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: "In this Sixteenth Chapter the Lord explains both the transcendental nature and its attendant qualities as well as the demoniac nature and its qualities. He also explains the advantages and disadvantages of these qualities. The word abhijātasya in reference to one born of transcendental qualities or godly tendencies is very significant. To beget a child in a godly atmosphere is known in the Vedic scriptures as garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. If the parents want a child in the godly qualities they should follow the ten principles of the human being. In Bhagavad-gītā we have studied also before that sex life for begetting a good child is Kṛṣṇa Himself. Sex life is not condemned provided the process is used in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness at least should not beget children like cats and dogs but should beget them so they may become Kṛṣṇa conscious after birth. That should be the advantage of children born of a mother or father absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The social institution known as varṇāśrama dharma, the institution dividing society into four divisions or castes, is not meant to divide human society according to birth. Such divisions are in terms of educational qualifications. They are to keep the society in a state of peace and prosperity. The qualities mentioned herein are explained as transcendental qualities meant for making a person progress in spiritual understanding so he can get liberated from the material world."

Prabhupāda: So where is that institution to train people to acquire these transcendental qualities? There is no such institution. We are attempting to qualify the man in transcendental qualities. This is the only institution. Otherwise, where it is? I don't think, throughout the whole world, there is any institution to train the students in transcendental qualities. Who cares for transcendental qualities?

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes these people are called duṣkṛtina. And you've mentioned that the duṣkṛtina, actually he has some intelligence, misused.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Intelligence. After destroying the wood, you use your intelligence to construct this house. You have intelligence, there is no doubt. Human being must have intelligence. But that intelligence is given to him for getting out of the clutches of birth, death, old age and disease. He's not utilizing that intelligence for that purpose, therefore duṣkṛtina. Intelligence he has got. We don't say that modern world, they are unintelligent, fools. No, they have got intelligence. But the intelligence is being utilized for duṣkarya, which he should not have done. Duṣkarya. Karya and duṣkarya-work and bad work. His intelligence was given so that he could get relief from these clutches of birth, death, old age and disease, but that he's not utilizing. He's opening factory and creating another bad atmosphere. Therefore duṣkṛtina. To open a factory requires intelligence. So many machine is working, that's all right, but how this intelligence being used? To keep man in a hellish condition of life. Therefore duṣkṛtina.

Garden Discussion on Bhagavad-gita Sixteenth Chapter -- June 26, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Hari-śauri: It touches, touching the sky.

Prabhupāda: So you have touched the sky in such a way I cannot see even. (laughs) This is the result. You demon, you have captured the sky, so I have no opportunity to see even. Always electric light. Now we see the sky, the sun, how nice it is. This is life. Green, down and up, clear sky, sun, this is life. We get rejuvenation in this atmosphere. What is this nonsense, all skyscraper building, no air, no light? Jagato 'hitāḥ. The mind becomes crippled, the health becomes deteriorated, children cannot see even the sky, everything is spoiled.

Kulādri: Every day in the city they make a report, pollution report. And they say you should go outside or not go outside. Some days it is not good for your health to leave your home.

Devotee (1): They are also selling fresh air, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Fresh air? (laughter) Fresh water, also.

Hari-śauri: In Tokyo there are special machines you can get air, clean water.

Prabhupāda: Fresh, by cleaning the urine? Now they are doing that. Fresh water by cleaning urine. Fat derived from stool. Yes, German people did it. Fat extracted from stool. Scientifically. You can use it with butter very nicely on your bread. This is going on.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Find that verse. You can quote that "This Kali-yuga it is waning; therefore they are becoming animals." Man without religion means animals. That's all. This is the definition. In the human society, either you become Christian or you become Mohammedan or you become a Hindu or you become Buddhist. It doesn't matter. There must be some system of religion. That is human society. And human society without religion—animal society. This is plain fact. So why people are unhappy now? Because there is no religion. They are neglecting religion. That one gentleman, he has written me that Tolstoy said that "Unless one dynamite is put underneath a church, there cannot be any peace." That means they want... The Russians, the Communists, they are very strict against God consciousness. Because they think so, that this religion has spoiled the whole social atmosphere. It might have been misused, religious system. That does not mean that religion should be avoided. Real religion should be taken. Because religion has not been properly executed by the so-called priest, it does not mean that religion should be rejected. My eye is giving some trouble on account of cataract, but that doesn't mean eye should be plucked out. The cataract should be removed.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Kīrtanānanda: They say the atmosphere is not suitable.

Prabhupāda: Then why rascal, you go there? (laughter) And spend so much money, rascal? You could not understand the atmosphere is not good for us, go there and spend so much money?

Brahmatīrtha: They impress the people.

Prabhupāda: That means they are bluffer and they bluffing the all fools and rascals. That's all. He could not understand before going there, before spending so much money the atmosphere is not good?

Hari-śauri: But without personal, direct experience they...

Prabhupāda: For your direct whims you have to spend so much money? The people are so befooled they do not challenge them. Yes. Everyone knows, suppose one is coming to the western country, Europe and America, we knew it, that it is cold country, we must take proper dress. And we have come and we are staying. So this is knowledge. So if you do not know what is the atmosphere there, what do you spend so much money? And again you are going to the Mars. Are you fixed up what is the position there? Then you'll again bring something, some dust and rock. (laughter) This business will go on at the expense of the... You can do. You have got money. You can do that. But we are Indians, we are coming from poor country. If you spend so much money for nothing, that is very, not very palatable for us. If one tenth of the expenditure you would have given to us for spreading this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement... No. Not a single paisa they will give.

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: But there is no life.

Hari-śauri: They already sold the tickets to the moon. Now they're going to go on to Mars.

Rādhāvallabha: They say there is less advanced life, like plants.

Prabhupāda: Why not more advanced life?

Rādhāvallabha: According to their speculation, they say that the atmosphere is...

Prabhupāda: So that means speculation.

Rādhāvallabha: Well they have a system, so-called system, by using light.

Prabhupāda: No, no, we find there are two kinds of living entities, sthāvara and jaṅgama. One kind of living entity, they cannot move, and one kind of living entity, they move. So just like here there is grass, there are trees and there are... We are also. There are many animals who can move. So why, if there are plants who are not moving, why not the other moving animals? This is commonsense reason. Everywhere we see two kinds of animals, moving and not moving. If the not-moving is there, why not the moving? What is the wrong there? This is our first question.

Garden Conversation -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: That means not yet certain.

Rādhāvallabha: No, they admit they're not certain.

Prabhupāda: This is all... They're misleading.

Hari-śauri: According to that report we read the other day, they had good information now that the atmosphere was water and ice, like that. So they were expecting to find some signs of life, and they were going to land a spaceship in a canyon which was just below the equator, just at the mouth of the canyon. And it's four miles deep, and fifty thousand years ago it was filled with water, so they are expecting to find fossils there now.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They've never been there, though. Speculation.

Rādhāvallabha: They never take into any consideration there can be another form of life other than that which they know.

Prabhupāda: No, they are speculating. But why people are victimized by this speculation? That is the...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That's the amazing thing.

Room Conversation -- July 2, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: This is also inhabitable. Where you are going? Take it in writing.

Hari-śauri: Now they are putting out the same kind of propaganda about Mars that formerly they were putting out about the moon—that there may be life—so that they can use that as an excuse to go. I just read a little bit where they say that due to information sent back by the last spaceship that they sent to Mars, now they think that there's more water vapor in the atmosphere than they at first thought. So that means that there's a good possibility that there may be some bacterial life on Mars. So (laughs) they don't... And then they state that the temperature ranges from-130 to +40 degrees farenheit. So that means that there could be life there in a bacterial form.

Prabhupāda: And why there is no life in moon planet? Some scientists say the temperature is two hundred degrees less than the zero.

Hari-śauri: Yes, at night when they said, because there's no atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: But why these rascals say it is full of dust, and how from the dust so much light is coming, illuminating the whole universe? What is their logic? They have already brought the dust. That dust does not illuminate.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Sterilization.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, sterilization. And then see whether there is any life developed within that broth. Now in the first flask, the neck is still attached to the flask. Now Pasteur found that there was no micro-organisms fermenting the flask, in the solution inside the flask. But after some time he cut the neck of the flask, that is in the second flask, then as soon as the neck is cut, then microorganisms from the air, surrounding air, atmosphere, entered into the flask, and then the solution is fermented. So that was actually the proof that without presence of the micro-organisms from outside, from the atmosphere, then life cannot grow into that matter.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Vedic theory. That is explained in the Bhāgavatam.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And here he has a nice quote, Pasteur. Somebody can read that?

Hari-śauri: Says: "Posterity will one day laugh at the foolishness of the modern materialistic philosophers. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the works of the creator."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Bacteria is produced from fermentation. Sveda-ja. Just like nasty bedding, from your perspiration, if you don't clean, then bugs will come. Sveda-ja. In India, the Europeans they eat meat, and automatically bugs and germs come within their coat and shirt due to bad perspiration.

Hari-śauri: When you say that they're born from perspiration like cockroaches, does that mean that the eggs are laid by the female and then the atmosphere of perspiration enables the eggs to be hatched? Like that?

Prabhupāda: No, from the perspiration automatically it comes.

Sadāpūta: Prabhupāda, we say that everything is situated on desire, and as a person surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11), He rewards accordingly. But people don't understand. Just like if there's a mother and father, and the child is not doing well, they try to mold that child's desire properly, the way that they see as proper.

Prabhupāda: Yes, He's coming, Kṛṣṇa, personally, "Rascal, give up all these ideas. Surrender to Me." But who is accepting it? He's coming for this purpose; He's leaving His instruction, Bhagavad-gītā; He's sending His devotee; but who is caring to accept that? He's very much anxious to do good to you. If you don't accept, what can be done?

Evening Darsana -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Mr. Deyani: Swamiji, he says that whole Vedic religion is in five, yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma-śraddhāya.

Prabhupāda: That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā, yajña-dāna-tapaḥ-karma na tyājyaṁ kāryam eva tat.

Mr. Deyani: Yes, he said that. Now he brought one more point, he says all the world over people have forgotten. Every morning we do..., he says yajña has many meanings, but he says yajña means to burn the cow ghee in the fire, and this fumigation, he gives here certain purifies the atmosphere and thus, if you do it at the right time in the morning, when the sun—there is some time which he gives—and in the evening, he says you will yourself see that your mind changes, your praṇa, it affect your praṇa, and then it affects your mind, and if you are—anyway, you will try to understand yourself by yourself. Once you do, he says it's just a physical aid, it is not any spiritual thing, but this is a physical aid. And that is what our, there are, many Americans are doing there this program. And he gives a very nice scientific background of that thing, which convinces me that what we Hindus, what our Vedic literature, what they have said, it has some scientific meaning behind it, why we did it.

Prabhupāda: But thing is, accepting his statement, first of all, where is ghee?

Mr. Deyani: Well, in this country you can get.

Prabhupāda: In this country, but there are places there is no ghee. Then how you will perform? Your first proposition is ghee, but where is ghee? It is all dalda. Now how you can perform yajña? I am talking as a matter of argument. If ghee is not available, then how yajña will be performed?

Mr. Deyani: That is actually the question when I first met him. (laughter) I asked him, really, I told him...

Prabhupāda: Then his proposal is failure. Now you have to take the instruction in the Vedas, that

kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ

tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ

dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ

kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt

(SB 12.3.52)

In the Kali-yuga, the real yajña is hari-kīrtana. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prayair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ. Sumedhasaḥ, those who have got good brain, they perform this yajña, hari-kīrtana. So there is no condition. God has give you the tongue. Either you are here or there, you can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prayair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ.

Room Conversation -- July 6, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: To investigate more.

Prabhupāda: What is investigation? Simply bluff.

Hari-śauri: Similar rocks are available here, because the same rock was taken from here.

Prabhupāda: If the rock is the same, so why not living beings there?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They claim there is no atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: No, if the atmosphere is different, the rock must be different. The sun must be different. The atmosphere is different, but the rock sand is the same? They have to believe that? Everything should be different.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Some of the rocks can be similar.

Prabhupāda: So similar, then atmosphere cannot be dissimilar. It is common sense. And this is also bogus, that such a brilliant illuminating planet, it is full of rocks and sand.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The moon?

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is so brilliant that it is illuminating the whole universe.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Bill Sauer: I believe the spirit of life lives on totally in this marvelous planet earth, but I feel the spirit has to be carried and nurtured and improved in the body. So I feel we have to carry the bodies, the material bodies, to the other planets to allow the spiritualism to live there also.

Prabhupāda: That is in the material world. If you want to stay in the material, then you change the material body just suitable for a particular place, atmosphere. But we have got our spiritual body. That spiritual body, without any material covering, you can transfer to the spiritual world.

Bill Sauer: You believe you can transmit that to other planets?

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have to transfer, because we are giving up this body. So you must accept another body. So either in this planet or in other planets or as human being or less than human being... There are 8,400,000 types of body. You have to accept one of them according to your karma. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye (SB 3.31.1). How the next body is developed, that is depending on our work. If we work like demigod, then we go and get the body of demigod. And if we work like dog, then we get the body of a dog. Nature's. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (BG 13.22). According to activity and association of the modes of material nature, we get, up and down, different varieties of body. Some of them are low grade, some of them are high grade. That depends on our association with the modes of nature. Nature's work is going on. Just like if we contaminate some particular germs of disease, that disease will develop and we have to suffer. Similarly, by our contamination or association with the guṇa, qualities of nature... There are three qualities, goodness, passion and ignorance. So we have to know how to associate. If we associate with the goodness, then we are elevated to the higher planetary system, deva. And if we associate with passion, then in the middle, just like human being. And if we associate with ignorance, then go down like animal, trees, plants, like that.

Evening Darsana -- July 7, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Mr. Davis: And the spirit would not necessarily have the ability to point and say "I used to be in that body or that body or that."

Prabhupāda: No, that he forgets. Death means forgetfulness. Just like accepting that I was existing in previous life, but now I do not remember. This is death. But I am existing, that's a fact. The same example. Everyone knows that he was existing as a child, he was existing as a young man. So because it is short period, I remember, but when the body is completely changed, the atmosphere is completely changed, we forget. But actually I exist continually. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is the authoritative statement, that I am not annihilated on account of my body being annihilated. So they bury the body or giving some name, some tomb, that is the business of my relatives, my friends, my family members. But as I am, I am aloof from this. I have accepted another body. And then begin my life in a different way. So people do not try to understand this science, how it is happening. That is all described in the Bhagavad-gītā. If we study Bhagavad-gītā very carefully, we can understand the philosophy of life correctly.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: How there can be, because the democracy? You are corrupt, therefore your government is corrupt. You correct yourself, the government will be automatically corrected. If you are rascals, the government will be rascals. The government means elected. So if you are not rascal, you'll not elect another rascal to take charge of the government affairs. But because you are rascal, you'll send another rascal. So how can you expect good government? You do not know whom to select. And besides that, the whole population is rascal, śūdra. So anyone you elect, if he's by qualification he's a śūdra, worker, he's not intelligent person, he's not brāhmaṇa, he's not kṣatriya. Actually, the legislative assembly, or in your country, Senate? They should be all brāhmaṇas. They give advice. Formerly this was the system. Although it was monarchy, even Lord Rāmacandra or similar kings, they were not ruling independently—they were taking advice from learned brāhmaṇas, sages. So the legislative assembly should be composition of intellectual brāhmaṇas. Then the other administrators, the President or the minister, they should be kṣatriyas. In this way, if social organization is made, then there will be perfect peace. If śūdras are allowed to rule over, what they know? Their only aim is that so long he is in the office, "Let me collect some money," that's all. And that will be the latest atmosphere, dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. Rājanyair dasyu-dharmabhiḥ. All the government men will become thieves and rogues. Dasyu, dasyu means thieves and rogues. So as the thieves and rogues capture you on the street and ask "Whatever you have got, give, otherwise I shall kill you," so this will be the position in the Kali-yuga.

Arrival Comments in Car to Temple -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Take prasādam, stay here.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's what he wants, and let him give part of his income.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because of this rain the atmosphere is actually very clean now. You notice that. It's not very much smog, compared to usual. This is the FDR Drive.

Prabhupāda: These are cooperative buildings?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Prabhupāda. These are lower middle class cooperative buildings. This is the East Side.

Prabhupāda: I selected one cooperative apartment, they wanted five thousand dollars. (laughs) I had no money. Very nice apartment, near city office.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Downtown. This is First Avenue here, at about ll6th Street, where we are now.

Prabhupāda: Our building is on the Fifty-fourth?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty-fifth Street. Just near Broadway, one block from Broadway.

Prabhupāda: Broadway is important place.

Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Otherwise, what is the meditation? Think about something seriously, that is meditation. But if you have no important serious thinking, simply some imagination, how it will help you?

Devotee (1): Excuse me, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This evening they are having one convention here, the Democratic National Convention. One of the two big political parties in the city, at one place called Madison Square Garden. And all the television and newspaper people in the whole country will be there. They're beginning at 8 o'clock this evening. So we want to send all the devotees in the temple on saṅkīrtana party there, because we feel that not only will the atmosphere become purified but also all the television cameras and all the newspaper people will interview our devotees and take their pictures, and they will be on television all over the country, simply because...

Prabhupāda: That is good cause.

Devotee (1): So we are requesting if all the devotees can possibly go?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee (1): In that way they can all attend, if we have a big force...

Prabhupāda: At least, let them hear Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Yes.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: But for what purpose and to what end? What's the final end?

Prabhupāda: Yes, so final, that unless you are spiritually realized, you do not know what is the final end. The final end is that we are part and parcel of God. Somehow or other we are in contact with this material atmosphere. So our final aim is to go back to home, back to Godhead. Unless we know this and we practice how to return back again to Godhead, then we have to remain within this material world, transmigrating from one body to another. Therefore the human intelligence is meant for understanding the spiritual identity and the goal of life and act accordingly. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. It is an educational movement to enlighten the people from gross ignorance to the highest enlightenment of spiritual understanding.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: It is internal but externally... Just like externally, behavior makes internal inclinations. If you associate with some bad company, the internally also you develop bad propensities. And if you associate with good company, then internally you develop good propensities. So internally, externally, they are interrelated. By external behavior we influence our internal energy. And by internal atmosphere we get the external body.

Interviewer: I'm trying to find out whether the consciousness lies within us, brought out...

Prabhupāda: Yes, consciousness... Consciousness will be... Because... Just like sunshine and the sun. Similarly, the soul means consciousness. It is just like sunshine. The soul is very small particle, but it is shining as consciousness.

Interviewer: So we can allow it to fulfill itself or not.

Bali-mardana: He wants to know, is this consciousness within us.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So long the soul is there, the consciousness is there.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: ...no living entities?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No life.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They say there is no air.

Hari-śauri: It's due to atmosphere, that's their reasoning.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They say stone can be in both places but life, living entities cannot.

Bali-mardana: They classify organic and inorganic.

Prabhupāda: They may talk all rubbish, foolish things, we don't believe it.

Rāmeśvara: They say that on a planet like Jupiter the atmosphere is full of methane which is poisonous, so no life can live there.

Prabhupāda: Only here.

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes, then there is no need.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I heard people say "We've never seen such a festival, never seen such a parade." I heard these comments. One man said... Someone said, "What's going on?" and he said, "Oh, they have so many things going on here." They were very appreciative. And actually we could not put our full energy into it this year because we were so busy preparing the building simultaneously.

Prabhupāda: And above all, the atmosphere, the weather, was very nice.

Bali-mardana: Oh, yes, Kṛṣṇa has blessed us.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs) The breeze was there. We did not feel any...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No discomfort.

Prabhupāda: ...fatigue.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And there was nearly four hundred to five hundred devotees there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They will stay in the temple?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they've been staying here.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very nicely written. "With everybody pulling together and everybody puffing together, a huge float is tugged down Fifth Avenue yesterday during the first Ratha-yātrā Parade of International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The parade moved south from Central Park to Washington Square Park, where a free feast, music, art, dance and theater festival was held. According to a spokesperson, Ratha-yātrā is a time when people come to dance, sing and feast amidst a sublime atmosphere of bright flags, festoons, banners, garlands, flowers and incense, simply to feel the poetry and blissful nature of life.' "

Prabhupāda: Very good, this is blissful nature.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, you can see the devotees pulling the float.

Bali-mardana: Read the caption in the middle.

Prabhupāda: And they have created a civilization, wine, woman, gambling and meat.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's what it said. "The multicolored floats contrast with Fifth Avenue's concrete canyon as parade passes Thirty-fourth Street yesterday." Here it says, "An idyllic mood in saffron robes."

Prabhupāda: Everything is approved.

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

Prabhupāda: No, without water there cannot be sand.

Hari-śauri:. So early in the moon's history, when it was first formed, when there was gaseous clouds, then there was the water in the atmosphere...

Prabhupāda: There was water?

Hari-śauri: But then, due to the atmosphere being dry, not being any atmosphere, now it's just rocks and dust.

Prabhupāda: Why the atmosphere changed? There was water? Why the atmosphere changed? (break) ...is water, there must be vegetation. So where those vegetation gone? All false propaganda. Even in the sea you'll find seaweed. Is it not? So as soon as there is water, there must be vegetation. And without water, sand does not come. If there is sand, there is water, there is vegetation.

Hari-śauri: So if there was originally an atmosphere, why is it not there now?

Prabhupāda: These are all rascal, "atmosphere." What atmosphere? Whole world is made of these material elements. Why the atmosphere should be different? Maybe more or less; that is another thing. Just like in the Western country it is very cool and the Eastern it is country hot. But that does not mean everything is changed.

Interview with Religion Editor of The Observer -- July 23, 1976, London:

Jayatīrtha: The Observer is one of the most respected newspapers.

Prabhupāda: You can give chair.

Cline Cross: No, I'll sit on the floor. I'll sit this way.

Jayatīrtha: You sure you're comfortable this way? We can bring a chair.

Cline Cross: Yes, I can... No, a chair would give the wrong atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: So you are observing our movement?

Cline Cross: Yes, really for the first time at close quarters.

Prabhupāda: First time? We are here for the last seven years.

Cline Cross: Yes, I know a little about you, but it's only in the last hour that I've really begun to learn.

Jayatīrtha: We showed him the movie,

Prabhupāda: Your paper is Observer. Why did you not observe for the last seven years? (laughter)

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: There is no obstruction.

Bhagavān: No. (laughs) They are very determined.

Jayatīrtha: In France the atmosphere is very nice.

Prabhupāda: So why your cloth is so dirty?

Pṛthu-putra: I just traveled with him.

Prabhupāda: For a sannyāsī it is very nice. So people may not dislike it, but for a sannyāsī this is very nice.

Bhagavān: He's doing very nicely, Pṛthu-putra. He's having many preaching engagements.

Prabhupāda: Very good. That is wanted. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṇam. So when the whole lot will be delivered?

Bhagavān: End of August.

Prabhupāda: End of August? Oh.

Bhagavān: Twenty-five thousand. And same, Kṛṣṇa book also, twenty-five thousand.

Prabhupāda: Yes, this cover is wonderful.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Bhagavān: Hungry? No, you ate good there last year. You ate very well there last year.

Prabhupāda: No, I like it. It is very nice place.

Pṛthu-putra: The air is good too.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Pṛthu-putra: The air, the atmosphere, is good.

Bhagavān: I don't know. I was thinking the trip.... We have that big Mercedes limousine. You rode in it last year. It was very comfortable, and the ride, I don't think you found it so difficult, did you? Last year.

Prabhupāda: No.

Jayatīrtha: This year, by the time he got to Bury Place, he was completely exhausted, Bhagavān. Half an hour's drive.

Bhagavān: Hm.

Prabhupāda: That due to the staircase.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: I shall not stay...

Pṛthu-putra: I came back from Bombay to Geneva by direct plane.

Prabhupāda: Yes, there is plane.

Pṛthu-putra: I didn't have to stop in Tehran, and Geneva is very near.

Bhagavān: I think you can recover there. The atmosphere is so nice.

Pṛthu-putra: From the farm Geneva is the same distance than to Paris.

Bhagavān: I mean, more or less whenever you get sick everyone thinks that India is not really the best place, because you're always obliged to so many people. Whether you are feeling like it or not, they always come in the room.

Jayatīrtha: And they are generally.... I know this, that these.... I like Indian people, but these Indian people are not very conscious of your position. They think that you're just another guru. Many of them do. Of course, some of them appreciate you.

Prabhupāda: Indian mentality is that "If we see one saintly person and offer obeisances, we get some blessing for our material..."

Arrival Speech -- July 28, 1976, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Kṣetra-jñākhya tathā para. Avidyā karma saṅgaḥ anya tṛtiya śaktir iśyate. Viṣṇu-śakti, Viṣṇu, the supreme controller, all-pervading Godhead, Viṣṇu, He and His potency, viṣṇu-śakti parā proktaḥ, both of them are transcendental. (someone translates into French throughout) So the Viṣṇu-śakti potency is one. Another reflection of the Viṣṇu-śakti is karma-saṅga anya, that is, you have to work. That is called tṛtiya, the third, karma-saṅga, where you have to work. The idea is that original Viṣṇu potency, you haven't got to work. Everything is supplied automatically. And the avidyā karma-saṅga anya, and the other reflection or perverted reflection, is this material world. Just like you have recited this verse, cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam (Bs. 5.29). In the spiritual world the trees are desire tree—means whatever we want, we can get—whereas in this material world, trees are not like that, they are limited potency. The cows there, unlimited potency. Surabhī means you can milk out as many times as you like, and as much as you like. So the idea is the spiritual world means there is no need of endeavoring for getting anything; everything is there automatically. And the material world, we have got experience, for everything we have to work so hard, then we can get something. So actually this material world is perverted reflection. Just like this body, without the spirit soul, it is useless; similarly, this material world, even if there is no spiritual touch, it is useless. So the more you spiritualize the whole atmosphere, the more you become sufficient and happy. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is for that purpose. People cannot understand it. They think that "These people are not working, simply chanting and dancing and eating." But that is our business. (laughter) Without working, we can have everything sufficiently.

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

Prabhupāda: Such a pleasing planet, and these rascals say there is no life. The moon is described everywhere, the most pleasing planet. Actually, when there is moon in the sky, how it is pleasing. So that planet is meant for the high-class pious persons, and they get their life for ten thousands of years. They live very comfortably, drink soma-rasa. These are the descriptions we get from śāstra. And these rascals say it is desert. And we have to believe them. And practically we see how pleasing it is. As soon as the moon planet is there, the whole atmosphere becomes pleasing. And it is desert. And we have to believe these rascal scientists and disregard the description of the śāstra. What do you think? Is that very good intelligence?

Devotee: No.

Prabhupāda: We disregard the statement of Vyāsadeva, and we have to accept the statement of a rascal drunkard. (laughter) We are not so unfortunate. The unfortunate, they can believe that, we cannot believe.

Devotee (1): Now they have published pictures of Mars.

Prabhupāda: Let them do that, befool others. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās (SB 7.5.31). Because others, they are blind, this blind man, whatever he says, they believe. They will say "Perhaps ten millions of years ago there was life, perhaps." These things are going on. But we know every planet is full of living entity. There is regular life and there are streets. The streets are paved with pearls, corals, in Svargaloka. We have got information.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Nava-yauvana: Yes, a kind of melon.

Prabhupāda: They are saying that the moon is full of dust. And dust is so brilliant? We have to believe this? The rascals they are making this proposal. So what do you think?

Dayānanda: I don't think they know actually what they are talking about, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, actually this is fact. It is similar planet like the sun, but it is surrounded by cold atmosphere, therefore it is so pleasing. And because it is far away from the sun, the distance between moon and earth is more than the distance between the sun and the earth. Therefore sun looks bigger and it looks smaller. We are contemplating having a planetarium with electric arrangement. You'll have to work. The whole planetary system is moving from east to west, and the sun, moon and... They are up and down. (to child): Come on, Hare Kṛṣṇa, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. He can speak?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: No, just a few words.

Prabhupāda: Two years.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Almost.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. You have got any fruit tree in the garden?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Some pear trees, some apple.

Evening Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: It is more or less. Sometimes you have got 110 degree temperature and sometimes you have got seventy degree temperature. But the disturbance is there. Either 110 degree or seventy degree or thirty degree, you'll have to feel the disturbance. You cannot stop it. So either you take the cause this age, or this country, or this atmosphere, we can say so, but it will continue. That is the nature of the material world. If you think that 110 degree is too much, let it be one hundred degree... That you concoct like that. In fact any such temperature will disturb you. That's a fact. You can think that if it would have been 100 degree, it would have been very nice, but that's not the fact. Either 110 degree or 100 degree, it is disturbance. Then how can you stop it? Anyone who wants to stop it, he's intelligent. And that is described here, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mam eti (BG 4.9). One has to understand this fundamentally, that so long I'll get this material body, I'll have to suffer. Maybe differences of degrees, but I will have to suffer. So my endeavor should be how to become independent of this material body. That is wanted. That is intelligence. Not to make a distinction of different degrees. Different degrees—one position, one man's food, another man's poison. The same degree. If you think that it is nice, another man will suffer. So suffering will continue. That is not possible (indistinct). It is the nature of material world, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Find out this verse. Mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. This material world is full of miseries. That they do not understand. Miserable condition they are accepting as pleasing. That is called ignorant.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Ātreya Ṛṣi: You sit on another bench. There's many benches.

Prabhupāda: The park belongs to government of the king. So you can come, sit down here, enjoy. Why should we claim proprietorship? Then there is trouble. Otherwise, it is kept very nicely. You come, sit down, enjoy the atmosphere. Everyone has got the right. But why shall we claim proprietorship unnecessarily and create trouble? Because you are allowed to sit down here, if you say, "From henceforward, I am the proprietor," then others will say, "Then I am the proprietor. Then why you are coming here?" Then there is trouble.

Nava-yauvana: They say that God has no need to enjoy.

Prabhupāda: Beat him with shoes on his face. Because He has created and He has no need to enjoy. Why He has created? He's your father's servant, that He's created for you? He has created for His enjoyment. That is the tendency everywhere. I create something for my enjoyment. But I can allow others to enjoy also with me, that is another thing. How can you say that God has simply created for your enjoyment? What is his claim? Is there any practical example in the world, that somebody creates something for others? Is there any example? Why do you claim in this way, which is unusual? What is the ground of your this rascal philosophy? Wherefrom you get this idea that I create something for somebody else? I create for myself, for my enjoyment. But I can allow you to enjoy with me. That is another thing. A father creates family for his own enjoyment. Wife, children, he wants enjoyment—society, family. Therefore he takes the risk of maintaining so many people. He feels some enjoyment, therefore he takes the risk. Otherwise he has no business. Why should he create unnecessary trouble to maintain a family, maintain wife, children and society? The principle is if you create something, it is created for your personal enjoyment. But I can allow my sons, my wife, my family members to enjoy with me. But the basic principle is for my enjoyment. This is natural. Where do you get this philosophy that...? What you said? That God cannot enjoy.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be. Yes, liquid. The discharge of semina is liquid. It is not solid. So how this body comes? You cannot bluff that a solid has come all of a sudden. There was liquid, or there is liquid.

Hari-śauri: Well, they'll accept that there was liquid.

Prabhupāda: Yes, then there must have been vegetables. As soon as there is liquid there is vegetation.

Hari-śauri: Their argument is that because there's no atmosphere then there's no vegetation.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is... That is another bogus. The atmosphere is the same everywhere. Little more. Just like... (break)... say in the sun planet there is living entity, there is fire. So what do you mean by atmosphere if even in fire there is life? Dahati pāvakaḥ. Bhagavad-gītā. Nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Pāvakaḥ means fire. Does not burn the soul. So where there is fire only, he develops fiery body. Not that by the fire it is finished. Nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ. Where there is gas, air, nainam... Find out this verse. Acchedyo' yam adāhyo' yam.

Hari-śauri: Gītā?

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā, yes. You do not read even. You should have reference immediately.

Parivrājakācārya: Even here on the earth, even ice in the South Pole of the earth, they find much life inside the ice.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Here inside the ice there are life.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Parivrājakācārya: Even here on the earth, even ice in the South Pole of the earth, they find much life inside the ice.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Here inside the ice there are life.

Parivrājakācārya: They are very surprised. They said how is this happening.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Life is everywhere. This bogus theory there is no life, the atmosphere is different, it is bogus, simply bogus. Because spirit soul is never affected by any material atmosphere. That is the distinction between matter and spirit. It has nothing to do with this material atmosphere. They don't have knowledge, they are baffled. And those who have no knowledge, they are accepting.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: So where is question of atmosphere influence? Suppose there is rock and sand and always hot weather. That does not mean there cannot be any life. The life is never affected by all these things. Make propaganda about this knowledge. People will understand that Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not joking; it is something serious. That boy was saying that these scientist, they know me. What is this boy's name, this boy said about the so-called astronomer, scientist? Who was this boy?

Pradyumna: Who came last night?

Hari-śauri: One of our boys, American boy, that tall boy.

Pradyumna: Here in this temple?

Hari-śauri: Yes. Jñānagamya. He used to do some science research as well.

Parivrājakācārya: The scientists are like all materialists. They think if we have not seen it...

Prabhupāda: You have to see from the book. Seeing from the book is real seeing. What you can see with these blunt eyes? I have seen in these navigators. They see in the different plans and books, and they direct their ship or airplane accordingly. How can he see where we are going?

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Pradyumna: Desert growth. Formerly, that city Carthage used to be there. Carthage was fighting Rome. Carthage was very rich, all farms.

Prabhupāda: Cartharian civilization was very big civilization. The thing is that the more people become sinful, they'll be disturbed by this natural atmosphere. Therefore I'm surprised that moon planet is inhabited by pious inhabitants, how there can be desert?

Pradyumna: But does moon planet have something to do with Pitṛs? Does the Pitṛ..., Pitṛloka is different?

Prabhupāda: Pitṛ?

Pradyumna: Pitā, Pitṛ?

Prabhupāda: No, Pitṛloka is different. That is downwards.

Hari-śauri: Does that Pitṛ, does that refer to the original progenitors?

Pradyumna: No, forefathers.

Prabhupāda: Latest development they are finding water in Mars?

Parivrājakācārya: It is very difficult for them because they are using their eyes and other instruments. They have found places where there were rivers, and they are finding ice, other things. So, I don't know the latest about it. It is obvious to them there is life, different kinds of life.

Hari-śauri: The way of testing for life...

Prabhupāda: Why you are spoiling your nails? It may come to a boil and then you'll understand. It is very dangerous habit. If there is little (indistinct) then it will become a boil.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Guest (4): We can do. I mean that is not a stage by stage... That stage can be reached, sir. They will feel that they will be ashamed to smoke when such a spiritual thing is being shown to them.

Guest (6): Creating an atmosphere.

Guest (4): Gradually it can... It is not a thing of a day. It will take years to come. We will have to go and my point was that...

Prabhupāda: But here there is no question of begin. Hare Kṛṣṇa speculation...

Guest (6): In the midst of film you can some Hare Kṛṣṇa (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Immediately.

Guest (4): But we are... Suppose I am getting, sir as you say...

Prabhupāda: Begins. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (CC Madhya 19.167), if there is any other motive, then immediately there is no (indistinct).

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Then this Mahabaleswar will not be...

Hari-śauri: No. If it's very high, the altitude will not be so good. As soon as we arrived in Iran, immediately the next day the swelling was there. I don't know how high this will be, but New Vrindaban is not so high.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes? (?)

Hari-śauri: I think someone said about 1200 feet, not very much. But that may be because the atmosphere in the hills is a little rarified as well.

Prabhupāda: I had vision of (indistinct)... More than going to the hill (indistinct). It is higher than sea level anyway... Therefore the northern portion of India is called upper. It is very higher than the sea level. It is called upper because it is much higher, very high from the ocean. But I was... Vṛndāvana is also that part of (indistinct). Only Bengal is not upper.

Hari-śauri: Yes, it's low.

Prabhupāda: It is near the sea, so... (end)

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Enclose this quote.

Maṇihāra: "ISKCON has generated many community farms like New Vrindaban, providing the ideal atmosphere of a busy, yet peaceful village, fully devoted to spiritual progress. Swami Prabhupāda has also established the first Kṛṣṇa conscious gurukula in the West, a primary school in Dallas, Texas, for one hundred boys and girls between the ages of five and fifteen. Soon after its success, many such gurukulas have sprung up all over the world. Aside from teaching reading, writing, mathematics, geography, etc., the gurukula teaches the child how to cultivate God consciousness. Once a year members of ISKCON journey to the Society's international headquarters at Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, ninety miles north of Calcutta, and the birthplace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It is the site of a ten crore rupees international Vedic village comprised of community farming projects, high-class gurukula school, free medicinal facilities, and handloom weaving center. An institute of Vedic studies is proposed to be established at this site. Other major ISKCON centers in India are in Vṛndāvana, Bombay, and Kurukṣetra, the site of a three-crore rupee international Sanskrit university. This project will be sponsored by Alfred Ford, a nephew of Henry Ford. This will be the cultural..."

Prabhupāda: Nephew, nephew of Ford, that's a fact. Alfred is from the daughter's side. So the present Mr. Ford, his nephew, certainly, because daughter's side. His mother is the daughter, granddaughter of Henry Ford. Alfred's mother is the granddaughter of Henry Ford. Therefore the present Ford is the maternal uncle of Alfred.

Morning Walk -- August 23, 1976, Hyderabad:

Indian man: But what is the stage at which it is ātmā gets merged with Paramātmā? If ātmā would get merged with Paramātmā then...

Prabhupāda: That I have already explained. You cannot merge. You simply imagine. Merging means you merge in the spiritual atmosphere, but without ānanda you cannot stay there. Therefore you have to come back again to this material world. Suppose you are advocate and you are given some place without any practice. How long you will you remain there? If I say, "Please remain here happily without any practice." How long you'll remain? We want some activities. That is our nature, for ānanda. But here we are trying to get that ānanda, but that is temporary. That is not satisfying us. Therefore being disgusted we want to stop it and merge. But there is also temporary. Unless you go back to home back to Godhead, there is no complete life. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes and shows by His spiritual activities. He's playing with the boys, He's dancing with the girls, He's killing the demons, and so many activities. This is ānanda. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). They are all spiritual. You have read our Kṛṣṇa Book? Yes. There is everything. So as far as possible we are trying to give people the real knowledge from the śāstra. Now it is up to them to accept or take advantage of it.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is... Not that. It should be now restricted. Not that anyone comes and whimsically goes away. This should be restricted.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: These devotees just create a disturbance, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They don't want to be engaged and everybody copies them and the whole atmosphere gets...

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Akṣayānanda: A lot of devotees think... They come here... Therefore work is not necessary. Simply chanting and being in Vṛndāvana is nice. That's wrong.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Chanting, but there is expenditure. Who will collect this twenty-five thousand? It is increasing. I can maintain them provided they are actually serious about making progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not that some lazy fellow will come, and because he has come to Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa-candra has become very much obliged to him. Kṛṣṇa-candra had no other friend. He has come from somebody. That mentality should be curtailed.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Interviewer: But does that not mean because they are rich they can afford religion.

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is the... Because you are... We have already explained. You are a spiritual being. You cannot be satisfied with material atmosphere in any stage. Just like a fish is an animal of the water. If you bring the fish from water and keep on the land very comfortably, it cannot be comfortable. It is impossible. Similarly, we are all spiritual beings. Any amount of material comforts will never satisfy us, unless we come to the spiritual platform. That is the demand. So now they have satisfied their material demands, but the urge is there, "I want something more, to be happy." And that is spiritual.

Interviewer: What is the procedure of the movement? Do you initiate yourself all the disciples or do your other disciples also do that?

Prabhupāda: Well, initiation or no initiation, first thing is knowledge. (break) ...knowledge. Initiation is formality. Just like you go to a school for knowledge, and admission is formality. That is not very important thing. (sound coming on and off, tape recorder faulty.) So our this movement is successful... On account of this movement... (break) ...learned scholars and those who are inquisitive, advanced... (break)... He Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says that this is material. If you perform this meditation, transcendental meditation, you will be materially benefited. That is not spiritual meditation.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In the college, yes.

Dr. Kneupper: Every time I go to that hall I remember the story that you spoke there.

Prabhupāda: Oh, they still say.

Dr. Kneupper: Yes. You must have left some kind of blessing upon it. It has a nice atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: That was in 1965.

About eleven years ago.

Dr. Kneupper: Such a short time and so many changes.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Kneupper: The growth, the temple here, beautiful. On my next trip to India...

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can come and stay here or in Bombay, we have got...

Dr. Kneupper: But I want to see the one, the city when it's constructed. That would be really...

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is... Yes.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Devotee (3): It comes also from the living entities on the moon?

Prabhupāda: No, there are fire, just like there is fire in the sun, but it is covered with ice. Therefore it is cooling.

Devotee (2): You mean ice is covering the fire?

Prabhupāda: Yes, surrounding, cold atmosphere. Something like... But it is fiery. And how they say that sun reflects some dust? Eh? How people believe it? (break) ...to be given in charge some plot of land to develop it.

Mahāṁśa: One problem that could arise by giving them a fixed place, especially giving these labor people, if we give them a fixed place, then tomorrow they may... If they break the principles we may want to remove them.

Prabhupāda: No, you should change every month.

Mahāṁśa: Yes. Because the new phrases by the government is that "Tillers become owners." Whoever tills the land, he becomes...

Prabhupāda: And this society is the society tillers, no individual person.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: That's it. Similarly you will find the so-called sannyāsīs, not bhaktas, they undergo severe austerities, penances, but after some time they come to the worldly atmosphere. Because they could not get any place, therefore they come down. Just like the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs they say that this duniyā, (world) jagat mithyā. If jagat is mithyā, you have left it, then why you come again to give some philanthropic service? If it is mithyā, then why you come again after so much? Is it not nonsense? If jagat is mithyā why you are coming again to this mithyā? That means you could not get place in the satya. Therefore you come down again. That is stated in the śāstra. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padam (SB 10.2.32). Although with severe austerities and penances (he) might go to the paraṁ pada, patanty adhaḥ, anādṛta-yuṣmad, because he could not get shelter at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, he falls down. He must fall down to the material activities. Patanty adhaḥ. That is adho patha. As soon as a person, after undergoing severe austerities, becomes very highly elevated in the sannyāsa stage, but if he cannot get shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then surely he shall fall down for these material activities, material enjoyment. That is the sign that he's fallen down.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: No. It comes in rotation, every four years.

Mr. Malhotra: So there are sort of ardha-kumbhīs and then kumbha.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In Allahabad they actually hold every year. Māgha-mela.

Mr. Malhotra: Māgha-mela. But this is not every year, this time people are...

Prabhupāda: It is very, I mean to say, atmosphere becomes surcharged. Great spiritual advancement. Very nice.

Mr. Malhotra: (Hindi conversation)

Prabhupāda: Iran is like, that but no green, simply sand.

Mr. Malhotra: These are the mountains of Deccan. They say that these all mountains were under sea.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everything was... Pralaya-payodhi-jale dhṛtavān asi vedam **. (break)

Mr. Malhotra: (Hindi) ...for quite some time at a particular spot. This spot was shown to us. And people have very great reverence for that spot. So now, at one time we accept Lord Rāma the supreme master of a particular yuga, and then He had to worship Lord Śiva. So who is supreme, Lord Śiva or Lord Rāma?

Prabhupāda: Lord Rāma is the Lord. Śiva is devotee. Sometimes you wash the feet of your son. That does not mean you are a servant of the son. Kṛṣṇa, why Rāma? Kṛṣṇa, when Sudāmā Vipra came to His house, He washed his feet.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: That is there.

Mr. Malhotra: Always must be there. The ratio may be different.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mr. Malhotra: Bad and good, mātra may be different.

Prabhupāda: But India is especially meant for understanding God. That is India's... Just like this place, such a nice place, automatically you'll remember God.

Mr. Malhotra: You will like this place, this Panchakini, (?) where we are going now. A wonderful peaceful place, very peaceful. The atmosphere... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...live peacefully, save time, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is my mission.

Mr. Malhotra: The requirement of every human being is...

Prabhupāda: Very simple.

Mr. Malhotra: Very simple. But all these, you know these added added, added.

Prabhupāda: That is asurika. To increase artificially necessities of life. And become entangled.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Yogi Amrit Desai: Just darśana. So they won't take too much energy.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Yogi Amrit Desai: I'll call them.

Prabhupāda: So Govinda dāsī, you are feeling all right? Like this atmosphere? So Caitya-guru, your program, that you are going to construct temple there? (break) Aiye (break) You must accept the standard way, then you'll get siddhi, you'll get sukha and parāṁ gati. Unless you follow the standard way, na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim. So if you have interest in bhakti-yoga, then you practice the bhakti-yoga properly. That will make you successful. Otherwise, teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate, simply whatever labor you are doing, that is your profit and no other profit. Kleśala eva. Nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām. The example is tuṣa. Tuṣa you know? The skin of rice? Husk. Yes. So if there is paddy, if you beat it, you'll get rice. But if you beat on the husk, then...

Yogi Amrit Desai: You won't get anything.

Prabhupāda: But your gain is only that labor. So similarly, if you don't know what is the substance, you go on laboring, that laboring is your only achievement and nothing else.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No. Train, first-class is very comfortable.

Dr. Patel: But you see, after all, it takes upon the health, twenty-four hours.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Rather, doctor, your doc..., civil ser..., man, he said that, "Avoid plane." For me he had said.

Trivikrama: Yes, because the atmosphere changes.

Dr. Patel: But pressurized plane, no. On nonpressurized plane, not.

Trivikrama: He is the knower of his body.

Dr. Patel: All right. I had gone to Allahabad by train. (laughs) I had a very bad experience myself.

Prabhupāda: No, first-class is... We reserved whole room, so no outsider there; will be very comfortable. We'll leave at...

Dr. Patel: First-class have got now berths.

Prabhupāda: Four, we reserve four whenever... So two upper berths, two lower berths—we sleep very comfortably-lock the door.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: We have got our own camp. You are coming?

Mr. Asnani: I am not fortunate.

Prabhupāda: I am going because I have to go to Bhuvaneśvara via Calcutta. So it is on the way. And besides that, it is a big function. And because my health is not good, if Allahabad atmosphere or Bhuvaneśvara atmosphere helps me little, it is... Of all foodstuff, I see the kitri is good for me, little kitri.

Mr. Asnani: Easily digested also.

Prabhupāda: So I shall begin again kitri. (Hindi) (break) ...take agriculture, you must keep cows. Both of them are related.

Girirāja: Together.

Prabhupāda: The cow will be subsisting on the grass, and refused things he'll take. And the substance you take. And even if does not give milk, the stool is useful. And you get food grown by the cows and bulls and milk. You subsist. So by mutual cooperation you subsist. You save time. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Why you are bothered?

Girirāja: No bother.

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Guest (3): Swamiji, I wanted to know the importance of Kumbha Mela.

Prabhupāda: This is the assembly of great saintly persons. That's all.

Guest (3): No, if we people go there at Kumbha Mela time, is it good?

Prabhupāda: Is it not good if so many saintly persons will come? The atmosphere is so nice.

Guest (3): So many people accumulate.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not only... Not people, but saintly persons. Yes. They have actually executed bhajana, sādhana. Brahmeti paramātmeti. Maybe somebody is brahmavādī, somebody paramātmavādī, somebody bhaktas, but they're transcendental. They're not materialistic persons. So you get their association sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83). Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). The Sādhu-saṅga is essential. And that is our civilization. Sādhu-saṅga.

Guest (11): So many people come with one wish and the whole atmosphere is charged...

Prabhupāda: Yes, spiritual... Sādhu-saṅga, (Hindi).

Morning Darsana and Room Conversation Ramkrishna Bajaj and friends -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Indian man: Aham.

Prabhupāda: Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā. Not only aham. Aham is good. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. That is good. But ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā, when he becomes rascal by false ahaṅkāra, then it is dangerous. It is dangerous. And that is going on, these dangerous leaders, by ahaṅkāra, spoiling the whole atmosphere. That is dangerous. Our preaching is... We say that "Here is Kṛṣṇa speaking. He says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). So you simply think of Kṛṣṇa, and you chant His name and go to the temple, offer your obeisances. And if you can, offer something for His pūjā." Bas. Our mission is completed. Where is the difficulty? There is no difficulty. The words are there. (break) (Hindi) Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27).

Girirāja: About fifteen more minutes.

Prabhupāda: Hm? So I can go and take my massage now.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ.

Rāmeśvara: They have a list of five or six conditions, and they say if all those conditions are there, then it is a suitable atmosphere for brainwashing. And they say we are imposing those conditions on our members.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We are brainwashing from bad to good. That is our business. We are washing the brain from all rascaldom. That is our business. You are... Your brain is filled up with all rubbish things: meat-eating and illicit sex, gambling. So we are washing them. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ, hrdy antaḥ-stho abhadrāṇi (SB 1.2.17). Abhadrānī washing. Abhadrāṇi means bad things. The bad things should be washed off. Don't you cleanse your home? Don't you cleanse your room? Is not that brainwashing? So if you wash your room very cleansed, who blames you? But you are so rascal that "Why you are washing this garbage?" you are protesting. You are such an intelligent man. We are washing the garbage; you are protesting, "Why you are washing the garbage?" This is your intelligence. But intelligent men wash the garbage. That is the law of nature, cleanse. That we are doing. According to Vedic civilization, you are actually untouchable. Now we have come to touch you; therefore wash you must first. You are untouchable. In Indian civilization, dog is untouchable, and that is your best friend. So you are not touchable. Therefore we have to wash you. And unless your brain is washed, you cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. So it is necessary. Is that all right? Dog is your best friend. In India dog is untouchable. So "Man is known by his company." If your best friend is dog, then what you are? We can understand your position because you sleep with dog, you eat with dog, your best friend is dog, so what you are? You must be washed. It is a fact. Every woman, every man, has some dog.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: As they are reading our literatures.

Hari-śauri: As Kṛṣṇa consciousness spreads... Just like we see these different things happening in the world that are coming nearer to a religious way of life or a spiritual understanding, even though that may not be directly connected with our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, still, is that the cause, because there's an auspicious atmosphere that people are...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: ...able to come nearer to that spiritual goal?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is going on. That purifies.

Hari-śauri: So that's purifying the atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: That will help. That will, help them.

Hari-śauri: Yes. (end)

Room Conversation -- January 22, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Brahmānanda: Well, the small men are leaving, but the big men, they're not leaving. Things are still going on.

Nanda-kumāra: Last year the government said within five years every Asian would be out of Kenya.

Prabhupāda: This government says like that?

Brahmānanda: I don't know if the government has said it, but people talk like that just to create some atmosphere of uncertainty. These unstable governments, they like to create this kind of atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: There are many Indians. Practically Indian.

Brahmānanda: Yes, everything. Tamāla, when he came there, he said that Mombassa was like Bombay...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: ...and Nairobi was like Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And they are living nicely. Why this government disturbing them?

Brahmānanda: Well, that is their policy.

Prabhupāda: They cannot manage nicely. The Africans are not so qualified. The Indians, they are managing business, everything.

Room Conversation -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: What did he gain? Became a rākṣasa and was killed.

Gurukṛpa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I went to Jagannātha Purī today, and I looked at this land that Gargamuni was looking at, and I don't think it's a very good idea because it's too central. It is right with all the hotels, and therefore the atmosphere there is not a very serenic atmosphere. But just maybe one mile down the beach I saw, which is still on the main road... It is within ten minute rickshaw. The atmosphere reminds one of Lord Caitanya, and the water there is much cleaner because it is away from the sewerage of the main city, similar to our Vṛndāvana, not far off, but five or ten minutes. It is the best place in Purī.

Prabhupāda: So put this matter in the GBC meeting.

Hari-śauri: I found the address of one man who offered us some land. You remember in Bombay you wanted someone to look at this land.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes.

Room Conversation -- January 23, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: First of all you see whatever he selects, "This is the best." Then I'll...

Bhāgavata: That area around Puri Hotel there has depreciated due to tourism. Due to the tourists coming, that area around Puri Hotel, everyone walking, and ladies and men together...

Prabhupāda: Eating everything.

Bhāgavata: ...eating everything and taking bath together in the lake. Not a very good atmosphere. The boys and girls are walking hand in hand.

Prabhupāda: They go to enjoy sex.

Bhāgavata: Yes. It is a mahā-tīrtha, but they go there for...

Prabhupāda: Sense gratification.

Bhāgavata: ...sense gratification.

Prabhupāda: No, we can develop here. Here also people...

Bhāgavata: At Bhuvaneśvara.

Prabhupāda: One magistrate came. There were many respected people came.

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Therefore ekādaśī. One day or two days in the month he should practice fasting, and then he'll be able to conquer over these things. These are all practical. So we should practice ourself and teach others. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And if he thinks that he's quite all right in this material atmosphere, then he's doomed. Mūḍhaḥ nābhijānāti. That means aprāpya mām—without achieving Kṛṣṇa—nivartante—again he goes back-mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani (BG 9.3)—the cycle of birth and death. Take one birth, suffer, again take another body, again take another body, another body. There are 400..., eight million four hundred... That's all. Sometimes so-called happiness, he is born as demigod, sometimes as dog, sometimes as insect, sometimes as tree. What is this business? "I am eternal. Why shall I suffer this?" This is sense. They are simply trying how to become a hog, how to become a dog, or how to become a god. God you cannot become. You may have some partial happiness just like the demigods. They have got power. They have got high standard of living. But that does not mean the solution of the problem. Solution of problem means no more birth, no more death. That is solution. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). That is solution. And if he remains in the birth-and-death cycle, that is not solution of material problem. Who can understand this science? They have accepted birth and death. But birth they do not believe. They think accidentally it grows within the womb, a lump of matter, and at a certain stage there is life. This is their... Do they not think like that?

Satsvarūpa: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Yogeśvara: We just came to make the report to you, and we were in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: So you will not stay here up to...? No.

Hari-śauri: Festival?

Yogeśvara: There is work for us, service waiting in France.

Prabhupāda: So what is the report in France? Paris atmosphere is all right?

Yogeśvara: Paris? Paris, there is good enthusiasm because there is saṅkīrtana party. It is more difficult at the farm, because there is no saṅkīrtana.

Prabhupāda: Why? There are so many men. There is no saṅkīrtana?

Yogeśvara: Yes. It is far from the nearest city.

Prabhupāda: But within the farm there is no saṅkīrtana?

Yogeśvara: Regular temple activities are going on.

Prabhupāda: Saṅkīrtana is there.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā.

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke

jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ

manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi

prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

(BG 15.7)

This is our position, that I am part and parcel of God. God is happy, ānanda-maya. So part and parcel should be ānanda-maya. But-manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). I have come to this material world. I am creating so many isms by the mind and acting with the senses, and there is struggle. This is the... Everything is there. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). Prakṛti-sthāni, being placed in this material atmosphere, he simply struggles. Therefore we are giving the solution: "You give up this struggle. Go back to home, back to Godhead." Everything is...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That's the basic point that I was driving that, that we shouldn't be too much entangled in this material...

Prabhupāda: They must be entangled. They are trying in the false way, wrong way. He is suffering on account of being placed in this material atmosphere, and he's trying to adjust things with this material... That means he's becoming more and more entangled. Sometimes we have seen a fly falls down in the bee honey and he becomes entangled. So how it will be possible to become free and again fly unless he's taken and washed all these dirty things for him? Then he can fly. Freedom. And so long he'll try to adjust things in the prakṛti-sthāni, that is nonsense, all nonsense.

Room Conversation -- February 4, 1977, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Therefore there are hippies. This is your culture hippies and murderer in the name of religion. This is their culture. And abortion. Because there is no such culture, therefore the result is the abortion and killing and bombing, making the whole atmosphere abominable. This is your culture. Fighting between Protestant and Catholics, and bombing... People are terrified. They cannot go out in the street. This is your culture. And begging is bad. To keep the people, whole population, in terrified condition, that is very good, and if anyone in a humble way begs, that is bad. This is your culture. Vedic way allows the brahmacārī to beg just to learn humbleness, not beggar. Coming from very big, big family all family, they practice it. This is not begging. This is to learn how to become humble and meek. And Christ said, "To the humble and meek, God is available." It is not begging. You do not know what is this culture. You have your own culture, devil's culture, to kill even one's own child. How you'll understand what is this culture? Am I right or wrong?

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: Alpa-medhasa.

Prabhupāda: Less intelligent. Yānti deva-vratā devān (BG 9.25). You will remain within this material world. That is Mother's kingdom. This external world is controlled by the Mother Durgā. She's in charge of this material world. So if you become a perfect devotee of Mother, you get all good chances in this material world but not eternal life. Within this material world wherever you go everything is limited, either you become Indra or Brahmā, or ant. Just like President Nixon, so long he was President he was doing everything as he liked, and now he's an ordinary man, (indistinct). This is Mother's kingdom. Is that Mr. Nixon the same Nixon when he was President? But same Nixon is he, but the atmosphere and the circumstance is the same? Does he not realize it? "How I was enjoying as President and what is my position. Everyone kicks on my face." Is that very good position? Therefore alpa. Antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām (BG 7.23). Antavat tu phalam. This position ultimately will be ended. Therefore less intelligent class are after this, not very intelligent men. What is time?

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Desert... Wherefrom the desert comes?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Desert means no life, that's all

Prabhupāda: We see in the desert there is life.

Hari-śauri: But the moon's got no atmosphere, so...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...it can't support life.

Prabhupāda: Why not? If you have got desert, if you have got sand, why not?

Hari-śauri: No, they say it's just old dried-up desert because there's no atmosphere for vegetation to grow in. It just gets dried up by the sun's rays.

Prabhupāda: How it became dried up? Formerly it was.

Hari-śauri: Well, it was just gas.

Prabhupāda: Eh? It is gas. Then you have not gone.

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is no argument.

Hari-śauri: But they'll argue that "We're building the rocket ships, and we're sending... We watch them go off..."

Prabhupāda: What you have done? You could not go and live there. You say the atmosphere is different. We deny this. Atmosphere cannot be different. It is within this material world. We can see. Why atmosphere should be different? If the atmosphere is different, how you can see a solid, very bright thing? I can see. Why there is a bright thing? Why it should be different?

Hari-śauri: Well, it's just got no atmosphere, that's all.

Prabhupāda: That is your statement. I don't believe it. I don't accept your statement. I use my common sense. Why the atmosphere? I can see the bright thing, light. If I see this light, I can see that light. Why they should differ?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They'll say that just like when you go up on top of the mountain, the oxygen is rarified, the atmosphere is more rarified.

Prabhupāda: That may be. But that does not mean on the top of the hill there is no life.

Room Conversation about BTG the Moon -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: That may be. But that does not mean on the top of the hill there is no life.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, there's still life.

Prabhupāda: The atmosphere may be different, but that does not mean there is no life. Just the water—the atmosphere different from me, for me. That does not mean there is no life. You cannot live within the water for a minute, but the aquatics are living and enjoying, the aquatics, big, big life.

Hari-śauri: But we don't see any case of life within fire.

Prabhupāda: Hm? That is your experience. Śāstra says there is life, agni-paḥ.

Hari-śauri: But if we go on just practical experience like you were saying...

Prabhupāda: What is your, your practical ex...? You are rascal. You have no practical experience. If there is life in the water, if there is life in the air, if there is life within the earth, why not in the fire? It is also one of the elements. Why you discard only fire? There are five elements: earth, water, air, fire, ether. So if there is life in the earth, in the water, in the air, in the ether, what fire has done there should be no life?

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Ādi-keśava: Sometimes in their propaganda these deprogrammers they complain about our sannyāsīs the most. They say, "Because they are saying everything in the material world is evil, so therefore they are the worst."

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is worst. Because I am spirit soul, I am now imprisoned with this material body. It is my unnatural state, and I am eternal, and because I have accepted this material body I have to undergo birth, death, old age and disease. So that is my effort, how to get out of this material body and remain in my original spiritual identity. That is our whole propaganda. We think material atmosphere is our imprisonment, suffering. Material body means suffering. Otherwise I am eternal, blissful, full with knowledge. That is my position. But because I have been impact... (aside:) Again you have the same disease. Attention, you attend, draw there. Don't do that. Very bad habit. Immediately you sit down, you do it. You cannot check it. So actually this is our punishment. This is māyā.

Room Conversation with Scientists, Svarupa Damodara, and Dr. Sharma -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Not so much. When I was there it was very clear.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You picked a good time of the year. London and Paris at the right time is very good. Say June, May, June, July. But nine months or eight months of the year, it becomes difficult.

Prabhupāda: In Bombay especially, advantages. The whole side, green. Therefore it keeps the atmosphere mild. Simply in Bombay. Not in this Bombay Province, Maharashtra. (break) Up to the end of the day, here is air and light. Up to the end. Good advantage.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very peaceful, too. (long pause)

Prabhupāda: You can keep some āsana like this.

Hari-śauri: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Indian man: (recites Sanskrit ślokas)

Prabhupāda: Bring in the āsana. (Hindi with guest) (break) If you like, you can make this bed this size, not my size.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm? Who?

Girirāja: He was asking what happened to her husband. I said he died. He was a Parsee. As Your Divine Grace had said, that due to the saṅkīrtana movement an auspicious atmosphere is being created all over the world. So is it not possible that at least for the time being things will improve?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Improve. Not for the time being. For ten thousand years.

Girirāja: Yes. Out of 427,000 years I was taking that 10,000 as for the time being.

Prabhupāda: It is nothing sport.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, where is the mention of that ten thousand years?

Prabhupāda: That I have heard it. Maybe in the Bhāgavata. Such a nice thing. Alone in this world I am struggling, and the so-called intelligent persons, they will not come. They have business. Why? If it is actually beneficial to the human society, why I should alone try? I will go on trying so long I'll live. There will be no checking of... But what kind of intelligent persons there are? (Govindam record in background) It has been approved by intelligent men like... From our section. Most wretched rogues. They do work. They are not so. They are intelligent. They have rejected all these "Lord" ideas and the... Because they have sinned, all humbug. Especially in the Western countries, in the Christian world, what is there? It is bogus. I have condemned it. You have seen that book? One Christian boy inquired. Have you got the copy? Bring. (pause) We shall go on playing govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam aham. People may hear or not hear. We don't mind.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Calcutta and Bengal has got a facility. Every evening there is a small shower of rain. That keeps the temperature mild. During this April-May, you will find every evening there is a thunderstorm and little shower. That is in Bengal's special... A good wind will come. Sometimes it is cyclonic. And immediately the whole atmosphere will be reduced temperature. Sometimes in U.P. also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Another advantage of these months is that the mango starts to come into season.

Prabhupāda: Hm. In Bombay mango is the first-class.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But you are leaving Bombay.

Prabhupāda: Doesn't matter. I am not after eating. There is no scarcity of mango, but who will eat?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: From Bombay, mango is sent everywhere in India also.

Prabhupāda: All over the world. Bombay apus.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They are called langar?

Prabhupāda: Apus. Here in the Ratnagiri District, especially in that place, this mango grows. In India it is known as Bombay ām. In India, in Northern India, there is, there are so many mangoes, very nice. One is langara, another is a small. I forget the name. That is also very nice.

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

Prabhupāda: Bring. I want that at least at the weekend respectable gentlemen come here, live here, try to understand the philosophy, and if possible render some service. That's all. We have got now nice building. Every room is air conditioned. Not that you have to go to the jungle. (laughs)

Mr. Rajda: No, it's a nice atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: For us, we can live underneath a tree. But if I would have lived underneath a tree, you would not have come. (laughter) Therefore this building is required. So give them, one each, this magazine, latest edition. Here is. Mr. Rajda, Mr. Parik. Rajda's copy is in the red binding? That's it. No. Give him. Give him.

Mr. Rajda: So we thank you very much.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much for your coming. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (Hindi)

Mr. Rajda: Before leaving, I will come again, after 24th, here.

Indian (1): Thereafter, I will come, no? Once in a week or at least a fortnight.

Prabhupāda: And you are Parik.

Conversation with Yadubara (after seeing film) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Girirāja: Mr. Jethmalani. I said I would come and meet him. I also wanted to show him the movie. So he said that "I would prefer to come back here, because it is so nice." Actually, when he was... After he washed his hands, he looked out of the balcony, and he said that just from this atmosphere, one can feel a sense of ecstasy.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those baṛā, would you like them, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, I have taken two, more than two. I could have taken...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: More. You had a good taste for them.

Prabhupāda: But I did not try it. Very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: As a result of your restricting yourself to only two or three, we each got to taste one. Very palatable.

Prabhupāda: And the nim is very, very good.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hm. Thank you. (Bengali)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I came yesterday from Manipur, er, from Calcutta, came day before yesterday. I stayed one night in Calcutta. The temple is nice. They have a smaller number of devotees in Calcutta now, but it's very conducive, very cooperative, so the atmosphere was very nice. I gave a lecture.

Prabhupāda: That is all right. Small number is all right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śatadhanya Mahārāja is the in-charge there.

Prabhupāda: Simply congestion is no good. So you are going to Karttikeya's house?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Hm?

Prabhupāda: Karttikeya's house?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, today. They came yesterday. He's very learned, and he had a number of degrees.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many degrees did he have?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He said he had, honorary, about some fourteen, fifteen Ph.D. degrees.

Prabhupāda: Ph.D. Genuine?

Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Then we can go immediately and stay there for some time and organize. Immediately. I...

Mr. Dwivedi: And it will be fine, the line Your Holiness has suggested, a temple, although we do not have a temple in our colony itself, but we have a temple roundabout or the temple atmosphere where we are having our own...

Prabhupāda: No, so many buildings... If there is any hall, if there is any big hall for tem...?

Mr. Dwivedi: Yes, sir, very big hall. We have a hall to accommodate at least four hundred people.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is quite good.

Mr. Dwivedi: The second building which I showed to you already, this building (showing Prabhupāda papers), we have a big hall.

Prabhupāda: There we can have.

Mr. Dwivedi: The first hall is a big hall itself. The first hall is a big hall itself.

Prabhupāda: So how do you go from Bombay to Jhansi? By train.

Morning Conversation -- April 23, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, near Goa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The whole thing was conceived by this Aurobindo.

Prabhupāda: He wanted to leave British possessions. No, Pondicherry was French.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, French. So that Pondicherry was Aurobindo's idea? What was the motive?

Prabhupāda: He wanted to become a famous yogi to bring the world atmosphere in order.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Complete failure.

Prabhupāda: Complete failure. Kṛṣṇa says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam: (BG 8.15) "It is a place for suffering." This rascal wanted to make it for enjoyment. Everyone is trying. Everyone is trying to make the commode a very nice room.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (laughs) That's a pithy saying. Actually you remember that... In your Devasādana, in your Detroit palace, that toilet, the commode there, is better than any man's house in India practically.

Prabhupāda: Very difficult to deal with the people of this world. They are so nasty. They can do anything.

Second Meeting with Mr. Dwivedi -- April 24, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: How far it is, waterfall?

Mr. Dwivedi: Waterfall is about four or five miles away from our buildings.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nothing.

Mr. Dwivedi: But this is...

Prabhupāda: Very good atmosphere.

Mr. Dwivedi: This is just a mile or even less than a mile from our colony itself. River there... First of all there is river. Your Holiness may not be... Your Holiness will be able to see it from the riverside. But other people, my friend Gosvāmī, will be able to go up over the mountain. It's not a very...

Prabhupāda: And river, river, how far it is, river?

Mr. Dwivedi: Pardon? River, there are two rivers. One river is a small nada, but it flows throughout the year, where we have a scheme for starting dairy. So that is actually shaving our school boundary. Then there is another river, where I am talking of the Kedāreśvara temple. This is about a mile or about three-fourth of a mile...

Prabhupāda: Good river.

Evening Darsana -- May 9, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: Bhakta means he must be a servant, sakha or father or conjugal lover. They are bhaktas. There are five rasas. So a bhakta is situated in one of them: śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya... That is Vṛndāvana atmosphere. So bhakta means either of them. Arjuna sākhye. By friendship Arjuna became perfect, by making Kṛṣṇa as friend. Hanumān dāsye. Vajrāṅgajī, Hanumān, he, by serving Lord Rāmacandra, the order... He was not even human being, animal, (indistinct), not very intelligent, but by giving service constantly, he worshiped with love. So as soon as you become a bhakta, you must be related with Kṛṣṇa with some rasa, in some particular position. That is bhakta. So the point is that without becoming a bhakta, nobody can understand bhakta. A politician cannot understand. They simply make their artificial attempt to understand. They'll never understand. It is locked. Just like a bottle of honey. I give you, "Here is a bottle of honey," and if you, "Oh, it is honey. Let me lick up the bottle," so will you get the taste? So similarly, they are licking up the bottle, not inside. Rahasyam uttamam. They have no information.

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Indian man (1): (Hindi)

Prabhupāda: This tīrtha-sthāna, this is recommended. General public is recommended to go to the tīrtha-sthāna so that he may have some spiritual atmosphere, saintly person. If somebody thinks that tīrtha-sthāna means—just like this Hrishikesh—to take bath in the Ganges and go away, that is also good, but that is not the purpose. Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile. In every pilgrim, pilgrimage, there is Gaṅgā, there is Yamunā. At least in India we have got so many holy places on the bank of the pious rivers. But if we take simply the advantage of the pious river, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile, but we don't care for the persons who are living there, very experienced, spiritually advanced persons, then we remain animals. "So we have gone to such holy place. I have taken bath in the Ganges and Yamunā. Bas. My business is finished." Then go to the shop, purchase some plate, toys, go back home. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13).

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ (MM 33), prāṇa-prayāṇa... Ordinary dying, kapha-pitta-vāyu: "Ghara ghara ghar," choking and... But in the kīrtana if we die, oh, it is so successfully... Injection, operation... Who needs it? That atmosphere death and kṛṣṇa-kīrtana death? Glorious death. Oxygen gas... (laughs) Dying and so much trouble. Never call. Please accept my request. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, bas, and let me die peacefully. Never be disturbed, call doctor—no. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Go on chanting. Chanting, hearing, chanting. You have got so much material. Read. Read something from this book. Rāmeśvara, you can read. It is your book.

Rāmeśvara: I'm simply your servant, by your grace, Prabhupāda. This Chapter One of this second volume, "Kaṁsa Sends Akrūra for Kṛṣṇa." "Vṛndāvana was..." (break)

Prabhupāda: As soon as this Indira Gandhi and her son disturbed Vṛndāvana people, within a week... Just see. This is practical. The poor, these bābājīs, they were going to beg, and by force, once, twice, injection. So immediately, after one week...

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: England, nonsense number one. Worst false prestige, England. In that respect, other countries are better. They had a British Empire. They are still puffed up. And they will stay there to continue British Empire. Now they are earning money for eating, showing British Parliament House. Now there is no business.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They make money by tour of the Parliament House.

Prabhupāda: "Shopkeepers' nation." The Parliament has become a shop. Artificially they're maintaining an atmosphere of aristocracy. There is not... I talked with some of their Lords. Artificial. The have lost all prestige. Still, "I belong to the Lords' House." The priestly order, the Lord family, I talked with them. Simply artificial.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually you gave it up as useless. To talk with those priestly orders, I remember, you concluded, "This is a waste of time." They're not at all priestly.

Prabhupāda: They have no intelligence. Anyway, do something.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I want to clarify a point. The other day I was discussing with this Professor Kundu...

Prabhupāda: Professor Kundu is a famous man, I think.

Conversation with Svarupa Damodara -- June 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: USA.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And we have three hundred rooms. It would fetch... If it was divided up as an all-apartment building, it would make very..., lot of money. To run a building like that... It's very prestigious. Even though it's not a new building, still, it is prestigious. People are impressed. Many Indian people come there from India at night. A number of officials came, and they were all very... They said, "Oh, we didn't know you had such a building like this." They said like that. They were very impressed. And they liked the... They were very much impressed with the temple room and the restaurant and the general size of the building. Those three features are impressive. The restaurant they're very impressed by, pure vegetarian prasādam served with a restaurant atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: And so palatable.

Conversations -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, there is some practical life.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many devotees like to come to India to serve here in our movement because of that. The general culture still...

Śatadhanya: The atmosphere is conducive for spiritual life.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And here in Vṛndāvana it is fully transcendental.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Especially this Raman Reti. Every place here is an aśrama.

Prabhupāda: So just try to help them, help them, introduce them, and give everything. That is my request. As far as possible, I have such a big plan. Who'll merit the ideas? We never...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura uses the word "revive," that if Kṛṣṇa consciousness is revived, then one pure soul can learn.

Prabhupāda: That is paramparā. Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma is there. Guru Mahārāja is present.

Conversation with Bhakti-caitanya Swami-New GBC -- June 30, 1977, Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: What is the special feature of restaurant?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I haven't figured that out. I know what it is though. The special feature is this, Śrīla Prabhupāda. There's a number of things. One thing, there's no other place in Vṛndāvana where you can sit in such a good atmosphere. That room is very large. The tables are first class, marble. There are very nice decorations, and the service is very good. And they serve ice water. And the prasādam is also better than at the Jaipuria guesthouse or most of the other guesthouses. And it's very inexpensive, four rupees for as much as you want to eat, palatable. And it's right in our own guesthouse. The people live here, and then they don't have to go anywhere. They just walk down to the dining room, and they get very good prasādam, good service, inexpensive, good atmosphere. It's become a very popular place. But it's too hot for me. I have difficulty eating the sabji because it's very spicy, but I think it's liked by the Indian people.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I know, in New York, that is one of their complaints, the Indian people, that we don't cook spicy enough. Too bland for their palate. And we're not accustomed to that so much, hot spices. They like.

Prabhupāda: Without spices, Indians should not cook.

Conversation about Old Days in Calcutta -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: His name was Nanda Dulal Phaini(?). So yesterday I was thinking of him, and I said it in my... I am being purified by thinking of him. All of a sudden.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, the whole atmosphere... Because we were children, we were going here and there, the neighboring hoods (neighborhoods), all houses... Everyone devotee.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Must have been a wonderful atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: Wonderful. We do not find such atmosphere now. Even maidservant, servant. Their character was not very good—still devotee(?). And this was the opportunity.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Each of us is society.

Prabhupāda: Rādhā-Govinda Mandir. And the center was that Mulliks Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. This Mulliks, some of them were capitalist. Capitalist means rich men, they kept prostitute. But are still devotee. In the morning they would, after taking bath and everything, changing clothes, they must go to see Rādhā-Govinda.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And they are going to the moon. (devotees laugh) I... So far I remember, the moon is also like the sun, that it is fire blazing, but it is surrounded by a cool atmosphere. Therefore it is soothing. I think there is such description.

Bhakti-prema: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says the moon is also (indistinct).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How far do they, the scientists, say the moon is from the earth? How long? I have a book which says it, and I'm bringing this book. It's very... You'll see it here.

Bhakti-prema: Twenty-four lakhs miles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twenty-four lakhs miles, the scientists say?

Bhakti-prema: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What do the scientists say? How...?

Prabhupāda: Two lakhs.

Bhu-mandala Diagram Discussion -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: "Probably."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "...half the size..."

Prabhupāda: "Probably."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The orbit of Pluto is extremely elliptical, and the day is some 6,109 hours long. There is probably no atmosphere, and there are no known humans."

Prabhupāda: "Probably." Their science is "probably." Probably it is science; otherwise it is nonsense. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says here, "The moon is 238,860 miles from the earth. It has no atmosphere, no weather and no wind."

Prabhupāda: "Probably." Everything "probably."

Bhu-mandala Discussion -- July 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And you think it is religion.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, and he's an animal. What does he know?

Śatadhanya: And he's limited to a certain atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. He is animal. Know that. What is his idea? And he has not correctly estimated that how high is Himalaya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. A gross underestimation-five miles instead of eighty thousand. Not even close. That means he has no idea.

Prabhupāda: There are... I have seen many places by aeroplane, hilly tract. Perhaps you have also seen. They could never go there. Hundreds and thousands of miles, simply stone.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, that we've seen.

Prabhupāda: Who is going there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah...

Prabhupāda: You have seen from aeroplane?

Śatadhanya: Some. Some mountains.

Discussion about Bhu-mandala -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This is their... Apauruṣeyam. Actually India's culture is going on that way. Mass of people, they are going to Prayāga for taking bath. What do they know? They have received it from authorities that if you take bath in such and such place... Ah, lakhs of people will go. That is India's culture. Without any advertisement, without any means, walking hundreds of miles they are coming, yes, that is their culture. And the government is perturbed that people are so prejudiced. So how to make them forget? This is going on. But they don't listen. They just, "If I take bath I'll..." That is the difference between Western and Eastern. And as soon as there is interpretation, it is Māyāvāda. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu has rejected-māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). You see in the Kumbhamela how peacefully they are sitting. They are accepting Vedic culture. So nice atmosphere. Simply by going there you'll be satisfied. That is the difference between East and West.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, activity will give appetite.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, it has to. Change of atmosphere gives appetite also.

Prabhupāda: So let us artificial activity. I think this is a nice arrangement.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Upendra and I could see it for the last... (break)

Prabhupāda: And nobody is going to disturb you there. Make your own field and continue to become ṛttvik and act on my charge. People are becoming sympathetic there. The place is very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. He says, "The introduction of Bhagavad-gītā has been translated into Tamil, and I will have the second chapter done next. Then publish a small booklet for immediate distribution."

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And I had the opportunity of associating with Rādhā-Govinda of the Mulliks from childhood. We were playing there. I was seeing the Deity... (break) ....and I questioned, "Here is God," like that. Atmosphere was all Kṛṣṇa conscious. (break) He was a retired pleader. He was our neighbor, so nice Vaiṣṇava.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Was he that elderly man who would sleep sometimes when he was offering obeisances?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everywhere... My maternal uncle. They were very... They were not rich. Formerly they were rich, then reduced, but so much devotee. My aunt's house, mother's elder sister, mean this was the society. So all Vaiṣṇavas. Not strictly following the Vaiṣṇava regulation, but still, they were Kṛṣṇa conscious. Even our maidservants, they were Kṛṣṇa conscious. They were inviting their guru. They were trying to satisfy them. Used to keep the guru for learning Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Such was the atmosphere, even maidservant.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The whole society sounds Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Prabhupāda: That was the atmosphere I had the opportunity to get.

Meeting With Governor of Tamil Nadu -- July 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Just see. She is natural Vaiṣṇavī. Natural Vaiṣṇavī. So give them proper education. This is real education. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). That is the Vedic civilization, to understand Kṛṣṇa. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedānta-vid vedānta-kṛt ca aham. So at least this knowledge from India must be spread all over the world. We are making a humble attempt. We have no such thing, these... "You have got money and I'll snatch it." The Communists take it. Just see. They have taken. "Why so big, big buildings? Take them away."

Governor: In Madras I find quite a good atmosphere for this religious character.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, I know that.

Governor: That Kanjarama Śaṅkarācārya, he's doing a lot for spread of Gītā and Vedānta literature. Though he's eighty-four he's doing wonderful work. And another Śaṅkarācārya is also moving. (Hindi) (prasādam offered to guests)

Prabhupāda: This is our homemade.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says here that "These great Nobel Prize-winners have made protoplasm from inert substances simulating the conditions that prevailed in the primitive atmosphere of the earth. Do they know that human egg and sperm cells can be fertilized in test tubes and the fetus developed in an artificial womb or in the womb of a hired woman? Among animals that evolved on this planet..."

Prabhupāda: So what is the benefit? There are millions of wombs. Why you should hire? If there is scarcity of womb, then we can hire. You rascal, you hire. You do not know. We see, without hiring there are millions of wombs, and they are producing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says that they can do it.

Gurukṛpa: They haven't done it yet.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Among animals that evolved on this planet, man is the only animal that has progressed in all his activities. This he achieved through his knowledge in science. While all organisms continue to live even today as their forebears did millions of years ago, man alone has progressed..."

Prabhupāda: No, no. There are uncivilized men. Without any knowledge they can produce children. Do they have any scientific knowledge? How they are producing children? The same man, the same woman, the same child. What is the difference?

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Three hours?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. It's a nearly quarter to one. You were very tired from the trip. (break) I've heard it said that when great personalities arrive, everything is always cleansed. So I see that upon your coming, everything is cleansed by Kṛṣṇa sending all of this rain. The atmosphere becomes cool, and the sound of the rain is also very pleasing.

Prabhupāda: And there is sun? Sun also was there?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The sunshine? There was sunshine when we arrived, but now it is cloudy and rain. I was wondering, Śrīla Prabhupāda, whether you would like for the kavirāja to be called. I was thinking he might be called tomorrow. Today no need for him to come. Better that you mostly relax today. I was thinking that as you said, better or worse, some husband must be there. (Prabhupāda laughs) So we should have some doctor. Is that all right? It's so nice to be with you when you are in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: So you can do the needful.

Room Conversation Arrival of Jayatirtha and Harikesa -- October 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that I wanted.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You wanted that. They give a chit. They pay at the guesthouse. They pay at the guesthouse, and then they take prasādam in the hall with the devotees, same as everybody. I think they pay three rupees, and they get as much as they want to eat. We are an āśrama. We're not trying to run a big business here. Isn't that right, Śrīla Prabhupāda? I haven't heard anybody complain. And all the devotees take together. Very nice atmosphere.

Prabhupāda: Best system. So Jayatīrtha, you liked?

Jayatīrtha: The prasādam?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayatīrtha: Yes, I liked it actually. Yes.

Prabhupāda: Everyone liked?

Devotee: I liked it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everybody likes the lunch?

Devotees: Yes, oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Hm. So everything is prepared by Nandarāṇī?

Bali-mardana: Nandarāṇī is preparing?

Rāmeśvara: Nandarāṇī and some other brāhmaṇas, some men who are there at the temple. She is especially a good cook. And in the evenings they play Hare Kṛṣṇa kīrtana tapes, mostly Your Divine Grace. People very much like the atmosphere because of the music. In Islam there is a tradition of chanting God's name and other mantras or prayers, so they appreciate the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa very much. When you enter the restaurant there is a big book table, so the first thing that one sees are japa beads and your books, and people buy the books from the table.

Prabhupāda: English.

Rāmeśvara: For now they are selling Bhagavad-gītā, Back to Godhead, and Satsvarūpa Mahārāja's book. That is also being sold. They are just now printing the first Persian Back to Godhead, and in three months' time the Bhagavad-gītā in Persian will be... Translation will be completed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who is doing the translation?

Rāmeśvara: One local man that joined us, very intelligent man.

Prabhupāda: So they are looking after a bigger place?

Brahmānanda: They're looking after a bigger place?

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Room Conversation With Svarupa Damodara -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...and we finished the showing of the movies, and they were very appreciative. They expressed that there is an atmosphere of purity here, cleanliness. They highly commended our temple activities. Some of them were in the ārati. They also wanted to see the ārati in the morning today. So it seems to me that most of them are devotees.

Bhāgavata: This is a big success, Śrīla Prabhupāda. The scientists are all stonehearted men, but you have melted their hearts. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice, and you have simply melted their hearts. This is all by your grace, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that even the scientists are now being delivered.

Prabhupāda: Try and vibrate...

Bhāgavata: These scientists never would have come to Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: They hate to come.

Bhāgavata: (laughs) But you have made this wonderful place here in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: Any respectable gentleman, they hate to come to Vṛndāvana.

Room Conversation With Svarupa Damodara -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They hate to come.

Bhāgavata: (laughs) But you have made this wonderful place here in Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: Any respectable gentleman, they hate to come to Vṛndāvana.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But by your mercy, Śrīla Prabhupāda, now I think many will come later. The man who came yesterday is the friend of our chief guest. His name is Dr. Chowdury. He's also a retired architect. He had a strong appreciation of the architectural design of the temple. He said the Gurukula also... They looked all over the Gurukula, and they were very appreciative. So I told him that we are planning to build another auditorium for the Institute and for the ISKCON activities. So they didn't know these things before. This Ghattack, Professor Ghattack, he's the head of the physics department of India Institute of Technology. He told me last night that never expected that such nice things might exist in Vṛndāvana. So he said there is an atmosphere of purity and cleanliness. He was thinking that maybe he could bring his child for the Gurukula.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Make it an ideal institution. Who are you?

Abhirāma: Abhirāma, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Massage.

Abhirāma: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hindi (break) (Hindi with Nava-yogendra Swami)

Upendra: Girirāja is here, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: So, the bank business?

Girirāja: The manager came, I mean, not the manager, the assistant general manager from the head office. He came, and he brought the letter with our eleven-points program which we want to have, and he agreed with all of the points. And he said that probably Tuesday I can go to Delhi and collect the fixed deposit certificates, and they will be endorsed on the New Delhi branch. And he said that after ten days... Within ten days there will be a new manager for the extension counter, and we'll never have to deal with Mr. Gupta again. So many different small points, he instructed the people to comply. And he's going to have the whole extension counter refurnished with carpets and nice chairs and sofas, so that there's a nice atmosphere. So, I mean, I think from now on everything should be very straightforward.

Prabhupāda: So things are satisfactory now?

Girirāja: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: 27th October?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This month, yes, October 27th. It was Indian National Science Academy. There are some very well known scientists, including Kothari, D. S. Kothari and other... They told me there is a group of scientists in Delhi, actually from all over India. It's called "Mind Group." They like to do research on nature of consciousness. And they told me that it would be very good if we have a debate between our group and their group. So I agreed to that. And the Mishra, actually, the one who came last time, he also belongs to that group, and Kothari is the chairman of that group, and there's one Bengali called Lankadas(?) Gupta. He's the secretary. They all belong to that group. So they're going to invite us for a, they call, round-table debate. It will be about twenty people from their side and five from our side. So we're going to have a confrontation. And also Dr. Krana told me that when I come I can fix a television program in Delhi to appear us, and they're going to interview us in the Indian television. But I decided to establish Bombay as a... Since we have everything there ready, I'd like to furnish with office, and also I requested our members to stay here for some time. So they're going to establish the library also. I have plans to contact many leading scientists, personal goal. So we'll all go out with our books, and we'll try to make them members of the Institute. Also in the process we'll speak and make engagements, and also we'll try to request them to help us in pushing this movement, plus we'll request them to review our books on a scientific level. And, so that way we can make friends and they can help us in, I think, various ways. I think that... I'm thinking of charging one hundred rupees only for membership. This is called annual membership. It's like in any other institution we have this membership program. Just like I am a member of American Chemical Society. We have annual membership fees. So just like that, we'll generate, called subscriber members, and they will get our journal, Sa-Vijñānam, free. And they'll renew this every year. I just discussed this morning with my members that we should plan to make many members while we're here, six months in India. Then yesterday we were discussing about our possible permanent place in the United States. And I suggested that, from my experience, that Atlanta was very, very nice place especially to do writing, because the atmosphere is nice and the climate is also nice and it's natural setting. It is very conducive, especially thinking and writing type of work. So I decided that until at least we have a permanent place, I like to stay for a few years in Atlanta. Then they will stay about three, four years to do the, some of our main writing. And then also we can do the preaching, side by side. So instead of going to Europe, we'll go back to the United States after the Māyāpur festival, and then we'll do more writing, and in the process we'll also make several engagements in the United States. We'll start preaching now. Also Amarendra, that I requested... He's in Balavanta's zone. He's the president in Gainesville. He's the one who's good in making engagements for us. He's very enthusiastic. But he cannot come outside United States. So I thought it will also be very practical to be in Atlanta. Then in the process we'll look for a possible permanent place in Washington, DC, so that we can work out slowly, but... At least four or five years we'll be engaged in writing. So... And also we'll request, make many members as possible from the scientific community.

Prabhupāda: Enroll the intelligent men.

Room Conversation -- October 18, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In the meantime I'm thinking of a small office here in Vṛndāvana, because Vṛndāvana I'll come back now and then, often, and I'd like to have a small place also to do some writing here. It's a nice atmosphere, quiet, and also they have all the facilities here to do some writing. So I just went to buy a..., got this almirah for the office in Mathurā, Dr. Sharma. In about a month we'll go to Bombay temple and try to furnish the Institute offices and also try to make some contact with the scholars. I'm thinking of holding a short conference in Bombay. It will be like here in Vṛndāvana. Bombay's already many scholars, and right in the middle of the city, so it will be a lot easier in Bombay also. Big cities like Delhi, I think can get many scholars. In Vṛndāvana not so many came, but those few came, they were quite nice, and we learned something from this conference.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was speaking with Śrīla Prabhupāda the other day that it doesn't seem that Vṛndāvana would be a good place to construct an entire building for Bhaktivedanta Institute.

Prabhupāda: Why? There is already a building.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They spoke with Mr. Bangor, B. N. Bangor. He didn't know anybody. He spoke with Mr. Bajoriya. He also did not know anybody. They had not yet spoken with Mr. Jalan. Our feeling was that to bring a kavirāja, Rāmānuja kavirāja, is not difficult from wherever we are, whether we're here or anywhere. There are many kavirājas. Whether we have to get a local one or whether we have to go somewhere to bring one, they can be brought. Our one consideration was... (break) Just like this morning, it's getting cold in the morning, and we felt that, for example, in this summer, during the rainy season it rained very much—more than usual. So the climate is not completely predictable in this Kali-yuga. So it's getting very cold in the mornings. Now, if suddenly it gets much colder, to travel in the train would be very difficult, because these trains are hard. You can't keep them warm. They don't have heat in them. So we don't feel it's very safe to wait unduly. Our opinion was that so far as your health or strength goes, it's not going to increase significantly in one or two weeks. Even when you take this makara-dhvaja, it will take time to gradually get back your strength. So waiting is not so much for the purpose of gaining back strength. And the climate is working against us because it's getting colder if we wait. One of the main reasons to go that Your Divine Grace had was to get into a nice climate, fresh air, open-air atmosphere. So our feeling is that as far as a kavirāja goes, now we must find a Rāmānuja kavirāja. Now, if we cannot find one in Calcutta, then our feeling is let us find one somewhere else and bring him to Māyāpur. In other words, it doesn't have to be that he's living in Calcutta. Kavirājas are all over India. There is one... Who that person, Bhavānanda?

Bhavānanda: The head pūjārī at Śrī Raṅgam temple in South India. He is coming in the family of Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī. He is very friendly with our society, and Acyutānanda and Yaśodā-nandana Swamis, they stayed with him at his house...

Prabhupāda: Hm!

Bhavānanda: ...in Śrī Raṅganātha temple for five days he was their host.

Prabhupāda: Where? Śrī Raṅgam.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You can provide five hundred students very easily.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Such a nice building. Who would not like to go to school here in Vṛndāvana? Nice, pure atmosphere. (break) (Bengali)

Śatadhanya: ...Vrindavan, he's going to Delhi. From Delhi he'll go to Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, Vrindavan.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Vrindavan De: (Bengali)

Prabhupāda: Where is the money? (Bengali) We cannot put fire in the flesh.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Because it will be a source of income.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, it will be a big source of income. They'll pay a lot of money to use that hall. Not only that, once you let them use the hall, they'll book all the rooms in the hotel at the same time.

Prabhupāda: If you are going to do some business, earn some money, you'll have to allow.

Bhavānanda: But how that will affect the atmosphere and Kṛṣṇa consciousness of the temple? It's not that the theater...

Prabhupāda: Well, atmosphere... Suppose there is temple, and there is the park and other houses, and they are already polluting the atmosphere. You cannot stop it. Is it not?

Jayādvaita: All over our movement we have temples, and then next door there's some nonsense place.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You cannot check the atmosphere all around. That is not possible. (pause) So when you described the number of books, what did they say? Hm?

Akṣayānanda: They said it was very nice. They said they were very impressed with that, and that you are doing the greatest work. They... Superficially they say all these things. They must.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The hippies seem to be still very good customers. (Prabhupāda laughs)

Girirāja: That's because Prabhupāda's patita-pāvana. And the temple atmosphere is nice. It's mainly saṅkīrtana. There are no women there, so very good atmosphere. They have a nice program. They have a love feast program, and many people are coming. I think they can have two or three hundred people coming very soon. And the people are very simple and good natured. Everywhere we went, people would chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They recognized the devotees?

Girirāja: Yes. And they're not envious. It seems that in India many of the people are a little envious of us, but everywhere we went in Nepal, it seemed that the people were very happy to see us.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Have you ever been there, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You'd like to go sometime?

Prabhupāda: Why not?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. We'll include that on our world parikrama.