Prabhupāda: We have got two great papers, magazines, already, Back to Godhead. One is published from New York, and the other is published from Montreal. (break) In French language. Montreal it is published in French language, and they are well received. Recently I have received one letter from my disciple, Janardana. He is Janus Dambergs, M.A., he is the editor of that paper. He is a very good scholar in French language. His wife is also good scholar, Muna. She is also very good scholar in French language. So they are publishing, and the magazine is well received by the French-speaking people there. And we have contemplation to publish the same magazine in German language also from Germany.
BTG (Conversations, 1968 - 1975)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:
Prabhupāda: So if somebody carefully reads these books, Kṛṣṇa consciousness science will be understood very easily by him. Besides these books, we have got our monthly magazine, Back to Godhead. So if the students... It is not very costly. The monthly magazine is only 35 cents per copy and the subscription four dollars yearly. And this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, it is only $2.95. Of course, this Teachings of Lord Caitanya, it is hardbound, it is $5.95. So they will be greatly profited.
Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:
Journalist: I saw your magazine. It's a beautiful magazine.
Prabhupāda: Back to Godhead?
Journalist: Oh yes. A beautiful magazine.
Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Thank you.
Journalist: Beautiful thing. Where is that done?
Prabhupāda: It is published in New York.
Journalist: In New York. I saw the latest issue... Beautiful magazine. Ah, how many people are in the movement approximately?
Prabhupāda: I have got about a little more than one hundred disciples who are strictly following my regulative principles.
Press Interview -- December 30, 1968, Los Angeles:
Journalist: I see, I see. So you have been, in a sense, spreading this word since 1933 on your own.
Prabhupāda: No. I'm spreading as missionary since nineteen hundred..., practically since '59.
Journalist: '59, I see. What did you do from the time...
Prabhupāda: I was a householder. I was doing business in medicine. Formerly, I was manager in a big chemical firm. But I was cultivating this knowledge although I was householder. I was publishing this Back to Godhead...
Journalist: So you were publishing that...
Prabhupāda: In India.
Journalist: Oh, I see.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. I started in 1947 under the order of my spiritual master. So whatever I was earning, I was spending. I was not getting any return, but I was distributing. So I was doing this business since a long time. But actually after giving up all connection with my family, I'm doing this work since 1959.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:
Prabhupāda: Those who are passing on on this illusory condition of life, they are compared with the cows and the asses. So our first business is to wake up the general mass of people from this illusory condition of life. So Back to Godhead is specially meant for that purpose. We are pushing our Back to Godhead to the general mass of people to the first condition, first status of enlightenment. And then those who are becoming enlightened, coming forward, "Swamiji, or the society, please make me a member. Please initiate me," he is coming forward, understanding his position. So that is second stage, to train him how to awaken his, that dormant love of God.
Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:
Prabhupāda: So Back to Godhead generally deals in two stages of understanding, the, to awaken the relationship and to train them. Although our aim is... That is our aim, to come to the highest platform of loving exchange, but generally, we are dealing with the mass of people. Therefore our propaganda should be how to, by reasoning, by philosophy, by science, by argument, how to convince him that he is in illusory stage.
Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:
Prabhupāda: So under the circumstances, our first business is how to awaken people from this illusory condition, that he is thinking, "I am this body," or the most well-being is taking care of this body or bodily relationships. So we have to take out from that illusory condition. So that should be the policy of our Back to Godhead. And the, so far the editors are concerned, they are supposed to know all these conclusions. Now we have got two editors, Hayagrīva and Satsvarūpa. I believe both of you know the conclusion which I am trying to push on within this movement. So you should work cooperatively in such a way that you don't deviate from the policy, and conjointly, consulting together, so that I may be relieved from petty minor things. But if there is some difficulty, I am at your service.
Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:
Hayagrīva: I have thought of doing Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī's Brahma-saṁhitā. Do you think we could serialize it maybe in three or four Back to Godheads? Or could we print it ourselves in a little pamphlet? Or which do you think would be better?
Prabhupāda: No, if you publish in Back to Godhead, then by portion, similarly, three, four pages. That's all, continually, Bhaktisiddhānta's... So when there will be articles sorted, first Guru Mahārāja's, Bhaktisiddhānta's, then mine. Like that. Yes.
Hayagrīva: Yes. Do you think it would be a good...
Prabhupāda: If you write something, quotation, from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, that should be first. Just like guru-paramparā, when we offer our respect, first our own spiritual master, then his spiritual master, then his spiritual master. In this way. But when putting article, that should be the opposite. First Bhaktivinoda, then Bhaktisiddhānta, then my, then my disciples, like that.
Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston:
Prabhupāda: Yes. All small. Simply name. Stick to name.
Hayagrīva: The pronoun, Kṛṣṇa, "who." The pronoun "who," that's not...
Prabhupāda: No, no. Use small.
Hayagrīva: Thank you. There's so many... That causes a headache for everyone.
Prabhupāda: No. It is better to make everything sound but slow. We want to create this position of Back to Godhead as very authorized representation of the science of God. In future people may refer to it, so we should very cautiously and very nicely do it. It is very important thing, Back to Godhead. If our movement is going to be recognized as scientific, God consciousness movement, then this Back to Godhead will be referred as authorized scripture. So therefore we have to prepare in such a way, nothing non-conclusive can be introduced in this. That should be our policy. And actually it is the position of Back to Godhead.
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- November 7, 1970, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: Yes. What is God? What is the conception of God? Oh, they have accepted, therefore: "Yes, here it is right conception." Yes.
Guest (9): Go back to Godhead.
Prabhupāda: Back to Godhead.
Guest (9): Go back to Godhead. (conversation among Indians about BTG's)
Guest (9): I distributed what I got.
Prabhupāda: No, I shall arrange to distribute. I am getting fifty thousand Back to Godheads. Fifty thousand. I shall distribute.
Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:
Prabhupāda: So you can explain. (break) ...the footprints of liberated predecessors like Manu and others. So they are conditioned. Therefore their rules and regulations are not perfect. It cannot be perfect.
Haṁsadūta: Here is our monthly magazine, Back to Godhead. These are our... (indistinct) This is in Washington, D.C. This is in Berkeley, California. That magazine is being printed in six languages: Hindi, English, French, German, and Japanese, and Bengali. Bengali is not yet out, but it's coming.
Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:
Prabhupāda: No, by association. By the influence of Haridāsa Ṭhākura. For three days, three days she associated.
Himāvatī: But Professor Sanyal was putting forward his theory that in previous lives she had had association; therefore she began to chant.
Prabhupāda: Why previous lives? That's not very good reason.
Himāvatī: Subconscious, that she had subconsciously remembered.
Prabhupāda: No, no. No, no. That is not.
Himāvatī: In one of the Back to Godhead magazines
Prabhupāda: That is not. He advocates that.(?) Direct association with Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Why previously?
Himāvatī: We want to say that previously she had done some chanting.
Prabhupāda: We don't find any such thing. Professor Sanyal was not very much advanced. He committed so many blunders.
Room Conversation -- December 21, 1970, Surat:
Prabhupāda: No. We took quotation from Times of India press about our, this Back to Godhead magazine. They quoted, "Two rupees, twelve annas," cost price. Now at what price we shall sell?
Guest (3): This will be very costly.
Prabhupāda: Very costly here. And even if we pay, this nature, this type of book, is very difficult to be printed in India, such nice paper, printing.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Room Conversation -- August 21, 1971, London:
Bhagavān: ...who has finally approved it, to see if it was up to standard.
Haṁsadūta: Well it reminds me of Janārdana. You know Janārdana was a big scholar and he was very intelligent, but he never produced very much. You remember Janārdana? So Maṇḍalībhadra is working full time. He never comes to the temple. Of course, he lives far away, but he never comes to the temple. And I know when a person doesn't come to the temple, it's very difficult for him to maintain, especially if he maintains a full time job. It has an imperceptible effect on your consciousness. And he also, you know, we sometimes, we don't see very much eye to eye. Like for instance, this coming Back to Godhead he wanted to produce, he wanted to put a picture of some of the... Like there's a picture in one of the old Back to Godheads of Vṛndāvana. So I said, "This picture is not good because Kṛṣṇa is not in this picture. There's no Kṛṣṇa. We must have..."
Prabhupāda: Old Vṛndāvana?
Haṁsadūta: Yes, some buildings. Like Jaya Govinda used to write those articles, you remember? He used to write articles...
Prabhupāda: Comic?
Haṁsadūta: No, no, not comics. He would take some pictures of the scenery of Vṛndāvana, like the Yamunā or some of the temples, like Madana-Mohana temple, like that. So I said, "We must have a picture of Kṛṣṇa or a devotee or Prabhupāda. It can't be without some activity, some form, because people will not understand what it is. It may be very nice for us." So I feel that he has to either associate more with the temple or he must be paid some money so that he can work full time and... Some change must be made.
Prabhupāda: No you pay and... You pay him money, and he must come. Both things should be done. He must come.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Conversation with Author -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:
Author: Then sir, I want to ask you about, well... It seems this book is impracticable without the kind of material I want. Now, I don't want to adopt an uncompromising position at all, but I am convinced that you misunderstand my motivations. I don't know how to persuade you that my motivations are good ones, and so therefore I am in a corner, in a cul de sac. Now, the material that I must have in this book is sufficient to be able to persuade people that they are reading about something which is true. That means, for example, that I...
Prabhupāda: So, that books we have already published. To convince people that this is nice movement, we have got dozens of books, and they are selling nicely. Practically we are standing by the sales of our books and literature. How to convince people that this is a nice movement—we are ourselves publishing. You cannot publish better book than what we have done. We know the interest.
Author: Sir, I am not seeking to persuade people that it is a nice movement. I am seeking to describe it as it is.
Prabhupāda: No, no, describe, but you cannot describe better than us. Is it not a fact?
Author: Sir, Back to Godhead and the other books are not...
Prabhupāda: Because we know our business, therefore we are describing our facts very nicely. You are outsider.
Author: That's right.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So you cannot place our, I mean to say, pros and cons so nicely.
Conversation in car -- April 22, 1972, Tokyo:
Prabhupāda: Practically our sales are improving only for their printing. Their printing is very attractive, I think.
Sudāmā: Very much so.
Prabhupāda: Oh. You must admit that.
Sudāmā: Yes. The attracting cover of a Back to Godhead magazine, done so nicely, and the presentation and the devotees there—a man is just inclined, "Yes, let me see. Let me see what it's about."
Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:
Prabhupāda: Māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15), yes. All nonsense. You take it granted that anyone who has no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is a nonsense, whatever he may be. That is I take it, and I challenged him like that. I criticized Dr. Radhakrishnan in my Back to Godhead, "scholar deluded." I was criticizing him like anything.
Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:
Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda? We've got a traveling saṅkīrtana group coming here (indistinct) from Dallas. The boys are stopping to see you. In two days Dvārakādhīśa distributed about one hundred of your Back to Godheads, and so many Kṛṣṇa books. And all the boys took part in saṅkīrtana. It would be very nice...
Prabhupāda: They want to see me? They want to see me?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: No, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Then? What he says?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: He says that when they were on their way to New York City, the students distributed hundred Back to Godhead and went on saṅkīrtana.
Devotee (2): In two days Dvārakādhīśa distributed over a hundred.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: And Dvārakādhīśa did over a hundred in two days.
Prabhupāda: Very good. That's a great service.
Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:
Devotee (9): Śrīla Prabhupāda? You said you want to present more philosophy in Back to Godhead magazine. Does that mean that we should make it more and more sophisticated? Or does that mean that we should try to present the philosophy in the easiest way?
Prabhupāda: You should insert articles. It is reality. It is not speculation. Nothing, our activity, is speculation or imaginary. Everything is fact. We should present in that way. Either picture or philosophy, anything. They are all facts. People may not take it as something imagination. That argument will be there. Just like here there is a picture, Dakṣa is with a goat head. But they may not take it as imagination. That is possible. It is fact.
Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:
Prabhupāda: So, they, they're originally all Vaiṣṇava family. All Vaiṣṇava family, Bāla-Kṛṣṇa. They are worship of Bāla-Kṛṣṇa. Yes.
Devotee: I have that Gujarati Back to Godhead.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now we're printing the Gujarati Back to Godhead.
Sumati Morarjee: What? Let me, what is it?
Prabhupāda: We have got some, giving, give her that.
Interview with the New York Times -- September 2, 1972, New Vrindaban:
John Nordheimer: Many people have tried to change the world, but we see that they have failed. Many people have tried to see God, but they do not succeed.
Prabhupāda: That is because their purpose is not strong. That is due to māyā, forgetfulness. Just like darkness and light; if your light is strong, there is no darkness. But if you have no light, or if your light is not very strong, there is darkness. This is the principle: If you want to drive away darkness, you must bring light. That is the only medicine. You don't have to make a separate endeavor to drive away darkness. As soon as you bring light, darkness will go. The motto of our magazine Back To Godhead is: "Godhead is light, nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience." This is also the Vedic injunction: Don't remain in darkness; come to the light. How is this possible?
Room Conversation -- October 25, 1972, Vrndavana:
Acyutānanda: But I heard that last year we went and it was not a very big function. (break) I wrote that letter to this Lalitānanda about this Jāhnavī...
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Acyutānanda: Jāhnavī sampradāya.
Prabhupāda: Jāhnavī sampradāya? Oh, yes, yes.
Acyutānanda: So they don't want to put it in Back to Godhead because I used the word infantile, naive, undereducated and incompetent and that's considered most ungentlemanly.
Devotee (2): They do not like publishing (indistinct) articles.
Acyutānanda: But Prabhupāda says fools and rascals and...
Devotee (2): I have written so many articles in the past two years and one has been published in two years.
Prabhupāda: For Back to Godhead?
Devotee (2): Back to Godhead, yes. They say no one can understand them.
Acyutānanda: (indistinct) from Subala dāsa Mahārāja that they have received his letter on September 16th and I have requested Karandhara to send him one Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:
Devotee (3): Probably gambling, lottery. (break) That Japanese man who you asked to come today, he reads Mandarin, Chinese. I gave him our Mandarin, Chinese Back to Godhead to read yesterday.
Prabhupāda: Mandarin?
Devotee (3): Yes.
Prabhupāda: How you are Mandarin?
Devotee (3): Chinese, from Hong Kong.
Room Conversation -- February 28, 1973, Jakarta:
Devotee (1): In the Theosophical Society, not everyone, but one leader I spoke to, the others too maybe liked it, (indistinct) (pause) Should we go to the same place for the walk? It is too far...?
Prabhupāda: (indistinct) (break)
Devotee (1): (later, on the walk) Yes. Easy Journey, Topmost Yoga, Back to Godhead.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa trilogy, you have got?
Devotee (2): I have volume 1 and volume 3, but my volume 2, they are all finished. But I've ordered them from Karandhara.
Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur:
Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I had one house in Station Road belonging to Naren Mullik. (indistinct) very small (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, he wanted to rent us only for ninety rupees. I told him, "You just give me the concession. He, at that time he was getting 125, but because I am his friend, "All right, I'll give you, ninety rupees." So that could not happen somehow or other. So I was trying from the very beginning after the disappearance of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī.
Śrīdhara Mahārāja: First appearance of Back to Godhead (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: Yes, 1944. I think you were at that time at my house. Yes. So, somehow or other, this intention for preaching the cult of Caitanya Mahāprabhu increased and the other side decreased. Viraktir anyatra syāt. But I was not disinclined, but Kṛṣṇa forced me that you must give up. (chuckles) And these thing is known better to Śrīdhara Mahārāja, how it decreased, decreased, decreased, then almost it become nil, and then I left home in 1950. Whatever was there, "All right, you do whatever you like." In 1954, four years I remained as vānaprastha, (indistinct) four years, from 1950 to 1959.
Morning Walk -- April 25, 1973, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Similarly these rascals are going to hell and we are trying to save them. That's all. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: I read an article by Śrīla Prabhupāda about sometime in 1935 or 40, early in the Back to Godhead magazine. In the earlier copies, the Prabhupāda writes about the standard of morality in one article.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: There everything is very nicely explained.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I wrote one time, standard of morality.
Room Conversation With David Lawrence -- July 12, 1973, London:
David Lawrence: And I've got an order for Back to Godhead and..., besides this.
Prabhupāda: Hm. And here is a verse, the guidance to the guardians: pitā na sa syāt... What is? Gurur na sa syāt.
Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:
Dr. Inger: I was hoping, many years since I went to London to the Hare Krishna center there...,
Prabhupāda: Oh, you have been in our temple?
Dr. Inger: Many times, yes. And I had followed the booklets that came, Back to Godhead, also read. I didn't get, I didn't have a copy of the Bhāgavatam, but I read your translations...
Prabhupāda: You are Indian?
Dr. Inger: Yes, I'm an Indian.
Room Conversation with Graham Hill Former World Champion Race Car Driver -- London, August 26, 1973:
Graham Hill: And anyone who, I mean, you know the (indictinct) and you are telling your followers.
Prabhupāda: Yes, this is our philosophy. We are spreading this philosophy. That conquer over death and go back to home, back to Godhead. Therefore our name of the paper is Back to Godhead. Winning over the race between life and death and get your eternal life and go back to home, back to Godhead. This is our philosophy.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk -- January 10, 1974, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: That is explained by Prahlāda Mahārāja, that "These rascals who have got this idea that 'By adjustment, we shall be happy in this material world,' they will never understand what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They will never understand because their aim is..." That picture we gave in Back to Godhead, anchor? Yes. Their anchor is to remain here and enjoy. That is their main disease. They do not... Just like the Russian astronaut has gone so high, he was seeing, "Where is Moscow?" The anchor is there in the Moscow. Therefore he has to come down.
Morning Walk -- April 14, 1974, Bombay:
Prabhupāda: ...yamena damena. There are so many. Out of that, there is one, anasana, not eating. Yes. (break)
Girirāja: "...not very turbulent, he cannot become violent." (break)
Prabhupāda: ...yuktāhāra. Not to eat more, not to eat less. That is required. (break) ...when I was alone in Baroda, I was making my customers for Back to Godhead. So I entered one gentleman's house and from the porch he was, "Don't come! Don't come! Don't come!" (laughs) Immediately.
Morning Walk -- April 23, 1974, Hyderabad:
Akṣayānanda: Everyone knows that it should be done.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Akṣayānanda: Everyone knows in their heart that these things are right. Before I came to the movement, when I read the Back to Godhead magazine, they are doing these things, I was not doing them all.
Prabhupāda: No, we are making propaganda in USA. They are attracting attention of the people. Yes. They are saying nice.
Akṣayānanda: Whenever we see those four rules...
Prabhupāda: These rascals, they cannot give up even smoking, ordinary thing. And they become leader.
Room Conversation with Richard Webster, chairman, Societa Filosofica Italiana -- May 24, 1974, Rome:
Prabhupāda: Yes, naturally. If this man is fed up with this industry, he can go back to village and produce his own food. But he is attached to this industrial activity because he is thinking that "We are getting more money for wine and woman and meat. Let me enjoy." That is the perfect, imp... But if he chants Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, his consciousness will be purified and he will be made not interested this kind of work. He will go back to village and produce food. This is French?
Atreya Ṛṣi: No. It is new, 62 the new American. (BTG?)
Yogeśvara: This was your idea, to put the temple buildings on the magazine. Jayādvaita wrote me about that.
Prabhupāda: Very good picture, encouraging, that so many devotees in one center. It is very much pleasing to me. I started single-handed.
Yogeśvara: 1944.
Prabhupāda: No, no, no, not '44, '66. '44, of course, that was idea, plans, Back to Godhead started, '44.
Morning Walk -- June 12, 1974, Paris:
Prabhupāda: So a simple person is more intelligent than the so-called sophisticated citizens. Decorating the dead body. I think in my Back to Godhead I wrote this article.
Bhagavān: One old Back to Godhead.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Bhagavān: One old Back to Godhead.
Prabhupāda: Yes. "Decoration of the dead body."
Satsvarūpa: They might ask why we decorate the Deity if we say that.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Satsvarūpa: Why do we decorate the, a stone Deity?
Prabhupāda: Because it is not dead; it is living. They can put forward this argument. But that you do not know, that we are not decorating... We are, we are decorating the real body.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:
Rāmeśvara: ...admire your books, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Sometimes they sit here and they pull books to examine the quality of the printing, and they always read the Back to Godhead magazine while they wait.
Prabhupāda: Harer nāma harer nāma... (CC Adi 17.21). Ah. Latest publication?
Haṁsadūta: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: The Back to Godhead printer frames these for us. He brings them over after every issue.
Prabhupāda: Oh. They are giving good service.
Rāmeśvara: They are very fond of us. They spend more time on our magazine than anyone else.
Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:
Rāmeśvara: 1,800 dollars each month for all the offices in the warehouse. It's considered a good price in this area. We have a speaker system, so during the day, while they work in the warehouse, they're always hearing your lectures.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā? (chuckles)
Rāmeśvara: This is the other warehouse.
Hṛdayānanda: Back to Godhead.
Prabhupāda: There is arrangement for fire?
Rāmeśvara: Yes. We have fire insurance and fire alarm. We have fire alarm?
Kirtirāja: Yeah.
Rāmeśvara: We have fire alarm? These are Kṛṣṇa Trilogies.
Prabhupāda: All these? All these, stock?
Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: What are these?
Hṛdayānanda: Back to Godhead.
Prabhupāda: Oh, magazine.
Rāmeśvara: These boxes have come from the printer all ready to go to different countries, and they stamp the address on it. These are those newspapers you saw yesterday called "Spiritual Revolution."
Prabhupāda: I think this Revolution is not very important. Make revolution with magazine, this Back to Godhead.
Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:
Prabhupāda: It is closed, this? Drafty.
Śrutakīrti: Yes, it's closed but it's drafty.
Tripurāri: (break) So when we give them big books, we also give them one Back to Godhead magazine to help them understand. We say, "Read the magazine first. Come to one of our centers when you have questions." So that way we are distributing many big books and many Back to Godhead magazines also at the same time.
Devotee (3): Sometimes we also, I know myself, ask them... We open the page, the front cover, and show 'em the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and say, "If you simply chant this mantra, you will be able to understand these books in a much higher way." Actually, it's helped.
Prabhupāda: That is fact. His heart becomes cleansed to take up.
Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:
Prabhupāda: Nikhilānanda was working with Dr. Bose, Bose's laboratory, and before my joining, it was disclosed that I was also... Dr. Bose had one department. He was in charge.
Tripurāri: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you first began to distribute Back to Godhead magazine by yourself, right, in India? You would go to the shops?
Prabhupāda: That was second stage. The first stage I used to publish and distribute as gṛhastha, I did not mind whether one page or not. I was distributing. So spending about four hundred, five hundred rupees, I did not care if one page or not, but I'll distribute. Then, when I retired, left home, I was publishing and distributing myself to get subscription. The subscription was very cheap, two rupees, four annas, I think, for the year. Two copies per month. Just like you published The Harmonist? Like that.
Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:
Prabhupāda: New York is cold.
Tripurāri: Yes. Now in New York they're distributing 100,000 Back to Godheads every month, New York temple. And you saw the lugloo from New York?
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Yes. Which lugloo?
Tripurāri: They are making in New York lugloos and packaging them, distributing them on the streets with Back to Godhead magazine. Many people come back for more. They like the taste.
Prabhupāda: And for each lugloo there is magazine? No.
Tripurāri: Pardon?
Prabhupāda: If anyone wants lugloo, then he have to take one magazine? No. (laughter) One lugloo presentation for one magazine.
Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:
Devotee (5): Maharishi must have read one of your books, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: He has read my books?
Devotee (5): He must have, if he said that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the highest truth. How else could he know but reading your books?
Devotee (3): One time we were in Orlando, Florida, at the Kundalini Yoga festival. And they had Yogi Bhajan there. And he came out and we had a chant, and we had prasādam, and we had BTG's, and we distributed some BTG's. And he took a BTG and gave a dollar donation, and he patted us on the head and said, "You boys keep chanting the holy names of God."
Room Conversation with Press Representative -- March 21, 1975, Calcutta:
Prabhupāda: (Says something in Bengali)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A new Back to Godhead. New issue, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: (Speaks in Bengali)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: 750,000 copies printed. Our party ordered 200,000.
Prabhupāda: (Speaks in Bengali) Caitanya Mahāprabhu ordered,
- bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra
- janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
- (CC Adi 9.41)
This is para-upakāra. So what is this nonsense para-upakāra, creating an atom bomb? Is that para-upakāra? Of course, it has got its utilization, but it is not for para-upakāra.
Room Conversation with Press Representative -- March 21, 1975, Calcutta:
Prabhupāda: All right. (Bengali) You have got any written statement of our mission?
Guest: Mission activities?
Gargamuni: I gave him a Back to Godhead and the BBT about your books.
Prabhupāda: So you have already supplied.
Gargamuni: I gave him one copy of Back to Godhead and that BBT... You have it there? And the BBT catalogue which gives your history and everything.
Prabhupāda: And catalogue? Where is? This is BBT?
Morning Walk -- April 19, 1975, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...strongly warm, then you do not become cool very soon. You must be strongly warm, fire temperature. Then you will act as fire.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And the process for heating up the fire?
Prabhupāda: You keep yourself with fire.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya. That is you.
Prabhupāda: Don't go outside the fire. Then you keep yourself warm. And temperature increase exactly like fire. That is required. That is the motto of our Back to Godhead: "Godhead is light, nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience." That is the beginning of our movement. Keep Kṛṣṇa always. Satataṁ kīrtayanto mām (BG 9.14). Then you remain Kṛṣṇized. And as soon as you give it up, then think of devils. This is going on.
Conversation with Governor -- April 20, 1975, Vrndavana:
Brahmānanda: "This is called charity in goodness. In the śāstras there is no recommendation for giving charity to the unqualified men. In this connection I am enclosing a copy of one chart reproduced in our Back to Godhead, 'Charity in ignorance.' "
Prabhupāda: She has written one article in our Back to Godhead. I am quoting from that.
Morning Walk -- May 9, 1975, Perth:
Amogha: Yes. Here they do. I answer many of the letters when they come. Last week, just before we came over to Perth, one boy wrote a letter, he said, "I cannot come to your temple, but I am a student in Geelong"—that's one city near Melbourne—"And when I come to Melbourne I always get your Back to Godhead magazine." So he said, "How can I become a member of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement?" So I wrote him a letter telling him about getting more books and chanting. And one man wrote us a letter from New Zealand. He said, "I have Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam parts one, two and three. Can you please tell me how many other parts I can get, because I want to have them all."
Prabhupāda: That is very good.
Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:
Dr. Copeland: Does this organization do social work?
Prabhupāda: Yes, this is the best social work. We are giving the best education, best knowledge, best hope of next life. And what they are giving? They do not know what is next life even.
Dr. Copeland: When you do the translations...
Prabhupāda: I have all translated during these ten years. I translated, began translating from 1968, or '9, I was publishing that Back to Godhead paper even from my gṛhastha life, from 1944.
Radio Interview -- May 25, 1975, Fiji:
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is educating people that "Stop your so-called material advancement. You come again, back to home, back to Godhead." Therefore our paper's name is Back to Godhead. Don't make any false advancement. You will never be happy. This is our propaganda. It is called nivṛtti-mārga. Nivṛtti-mārga means stop material way of life; begin spiritual way of life and come to Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, back to home, back to Godhead.
Room Conversation with Yogi Bhajan -- June 7, 1975, Honolulu:
Yogi Bhajan: But there is a lot of mutual love, understanding. And after all, this is a discipline. All can't have this discipline. Those who can have it, they can have it. (Hindi) Understanding is there, pralabha is there, will of God is there. God wants us, we are the pawns of it. But it will be a great joy. So I will ask for your leave. It's my pleasure.
Prabhupāda: Oh, thank you very much for your coming. Give him our literature, Back to Godhead.
Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:
Prabhupāda: Two things.
- kṛṣṇa-bhuliyā-jīva bhoga-vāñchā kare
- pāśate māyāra tare jāpaṭiyā dhare
As soon as you forget Kṛṣṇa, then māyā is there, "Yes, please come here." Finished. There is no two, er, three. māyā, Kṛṣṇa. If you are not in Kṛṣṇa, then you are in māyā. And if you are in Kṛṣṇa, there is no māyā. Yāhān kṛṣṇa, sūrya-tāhān, nāhi māyāra adhikāra. That is our Back to Godhead motto, "Where there is Kṛṣṇa, there is no nescience."
Morning Walk -- June 30, 1975, Denver:
Prabhupāda: Yes. They are playing in so many ways.
Devotee (2): (break) ...zoo our men distributed over four hundred pieces of literature inside the zoo. (break) Back to Godhead magazines?
Devotee (4): Yeah.
Prabhupāda: Four hundred? Very good. (break) ...books, small books also?
Devotee (4): Just magazines. We don't have any small books now. (break) ...coloring books, too, Prabhupāda.
Morning Walk -- July 1, 1975, Denver:
Prabhupāda: So his parties are working more. And book selling is going on?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah. This past month we sold nearly five thousand big books.
Prabhupāda: Oh?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And about 120,000 Back to Godheads.
Prabhupāda: So you are surpassing, what is his name?
Devotees: Tripurāri Mahārāja. (Prabhupāda laughs)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we're just following in his footsteps. (break)
Viṣṇujana: ...a bus now, so he's going to compete by making new devotees and expanding his ranks. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...competition amongst the gopīs, who can satisfy Kṛṣṇa more. In the spiritual world there is also competition. (break) ...two parties, one, Rādhārāṇī's party, and one, Candravāli's party.
Morning Walk -- July 11, 1975, Chicago:
Satsvarūpa: We're going to do some of the chapters in installments in Back to Godhead. We're going to do Darwin as soon as possible, in a month or two. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...philosophy is the ultimate, Vedānta. Vedānta philosophy. And Bhāgavata is the commentary on the Vedānta philosophy. (break) ...Darwin's theory. Wherefrom he begins?
Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:
Woman: At what point was it that he told you to do this? It was very late in your life that you...?
Prabhupāda: Yes. When I was twenty-five years old I met him first. On the first meeting he ordered me to this. So at that time I was married man. I had two children. So I thought, "I shall do it later on." But I was trying to get out of family life. It took some time. But I was trying my best to carry out his order. In 1944 I started magazine, Back to Godhead, when I was gṛhastha. Then I started writing books in 1958 or '59. In this way in 1965 I came to your country.
Morning Walk -- July 24, 1975, Los Angeles:
Satsvarūpa: Why is it that people are so disinclined to listen to our authority—that they all take the scientists' authority—if it's just one authority or another?
Prabhupāda: Because they are nondevotee. That is the defect. More the nondevotee, more rascal mūḍha, duṣkṛtina, mūḍha... They cannot. Duṣkṛtino mūḍhaḥ, na prapadyante. Māyayāpahṛta-jñāna: "Knowledge has been taken away by māyā." (break) ...more you become atheist, the more you become blind. This is the point. (break) ...given this maxim in our Back to Godhead, "Where there is God there is no nescience." (break) ...preaching, back to God. "If you want to know things are there, then come back to God. Don't go this side; come this side." This side means he will be drowned. There are two sides. If somebody unnecessarily goes this side, he is death, and this side, he is saved. So one who is going this side we are asking back to Godhead, "Come in this side." If one goes this side, he will find the downtown, so many nice buildings, parks and everything. And the boy who goes this side, he will die.
Morning Walk -- August 5, 1975, Detroit:
Prabhupāda: Very good news. (aside:) Good morning. (break)
Ādi-keśava: ...and to tell you that he will be distributing over fourteen thousand of your big books every month, 125,000 of your Back to Godheads, and at least ten thousand of your medium size books, like the Kṛṣṇa trilogy book or the Beyond Birth and Death, those books.
Prabhupāda: So he is going over Tripurāri?
Ādi-keśava: Well, Tripurāri is also with us.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Including both.
Room Conversation -- August 21, 1975, Bombay:
Lalitā: Is a biggest seller, I think... (Bengali)
Prabhupāda: There is no record in the whole world. That religious books are selling twenty lakhs now, it is no record.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Back to Godhead alone has done that.
Prabhupāda: So...
Lalitā: You make...
Prabhupāda: That's all right. "And by the sales proceeds I am bringing foreign exchange here." So I came here that she wants to see me, then why you are getting from me write...
Morning Walk -- August 29, 1975, Vrndavana:
Prabhupāda: So if... You can make it cheaper. Instead of three rupees, you can make it two rupees.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Like we can have four or five of your lectures for one small book for one rupees, fifty paisa, or one rupee and... If somebody can't afford two rupees... At the present moment we are selling your Back to Godhead for two rupees. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...educated, he appreciate it.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He wants to become your disciple.
Akṣayānanda: What if the Hindi Back to Godhead was in newspaper form? Would that be lowering the standard?
Brahmānanda: Then they'd throw it away.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You can't have a color picture then.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Akṣayānanda: If it was in newspaper form, that would be lowering the standard too much, the Hindi Back to Godhead. Then they will throw it away?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Like we have those...
Prabhupāda: No. We must have quality. Our Godbrothers, they publish tenth-quality papers. Nobody... Nobody cares.
Morning Walk -- September 9, 1975, Vrndavana:
Indian man (2): They are earning themselves, their son, sufficiently.
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) ...in the Back to Godhead that those who have come to Vṛndāvana for sense gratification, their next birth is monkey and dog in Vṛndāvana; then, next birth, liberated. So they became angry. Vṛndāvana is not for sense gratification.
Room Conversation with Professor Olivier -- October 10, 1975, Durban:
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prof. Olivier: Now, you mustn’t take so many (?) that it will make one egoistic. Good night.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (?) You know, we have our Back to Godhead magazine published (?) copies per month.
Prof. Olivier: What do you call it?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Back to Godhead.
Prof. Olivier: I see.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Back to Godhead.
(voices fade as they walk away down hallway)
Devotee: He was a nice man.
Prabhupāda: Very nice man. Therefore, I called.
Morning Walk -- October 21, 1975, Johannesburg:
Prabhupāda: He is another rascal. He takes so much time to answer. (laughter)
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This idea of the "devil citing scripture," Prabhupāda, is very common.
Prabhupāda: Devils, all devils.
Harikeśa: They wanted to write an article about this for BTG, and everybody was sitting around giving these examples.
Prabhupāda: Yes, think over. Write article. If there was no life who is at a certain stage in the womb, wherefrom the movement comes, if there was no life?
Morning Walk -- December 7, 1975, Vrndavana:
Alanath: We're printing now a book there with all the talks according to the scientists and according to the Christian philosophy what was lately in the Back to Godheads in America.
Prabhupāda: Don't write anything nonsense. It must be very solid. Otherwise, you'll be laughing stock. What you'll say, it must...
Alanath: No, just the talks you make. Just your conversations.
Aksayānanda: Your lectures only.
Prabhupāda: Oh. That's all right. One must be confident before challenging others. Not that theoretical. Challenge is no good. In all stages he must be able to defend himself from the opposing elements. Then such challenge is all right.
Conversation on Roof -- December 26, 1975, Sanand:
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is dialectic. So you can write dialectic spiritualism.
Harikeśa: Dialectic spiritualism. I think they should print this also in Back to Godhead.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Haṁsadūta: It'd make a good article.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Haṁsadūta: It would make a good article, what you've just spoken.
Prabhupāda: So write.
| Page Title: | BTG (Conversations, 1968 - 1975) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti |
| Created: | 17 of May, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=66, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 66 |