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BTG (Conversations, 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"back to godhead" |"back to godheads" |"btg" |"btg's" |"btgs"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Sudāmā: Remember, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Tamāla, he inaugurated in Seattle, Washington, the saṅkīrtana party...

Prabhupāda: No, he inaugurated from San Francisco. We were printing these Back to Godhead, five hundred. And he was most of the... You were selling?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually it was 3,500, and we were selling 2,700 of them.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Then Brahmānanda... I asked Brahmānanda. He was in charge. I asked him that "Why don't you print more?" I understood that he has got the potency to sell more. So print in regular way, in that way we arranged. What is that press?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, mimeograph.

Prabhupāda: Mimeograph. I was printing. Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: Many people ask for bound volume of the whole year, Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: But there is no remnants; we sell everything. Generally when there is some remaining copies, the publisher bound it up for future sale, reference.

Morning Walk -- March 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Madhudviṣa: One of the points, obvious points, that are there is that many of the boys that are working with Siddha-svarūpa feel more allegiance to Siddha-svarūpa than they do to you.

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter.

Madhudviṣa: And they distribute his books instead of your books on the street. Which is a fact.

Siddha-svarūpa: Which is a lie.

Madhudviṣa: Which is a fact.

Siddha-svarūpa: Why do you do like that? Why do you say like that?

Madhudviṣa: Because I have seen it in New Zealand. I have been there myself.

Prabhupāda: No, no, if he denies that...

Siddha-svarūpa: You know that they distribute Prabhupāda's books, but they can't give them away as cheaply, that's all.

Madhudviṣa: Back to Godhead is very cheap. It is twelve cents a piece.

Siddha-svarūpa: They give those away. They give those away.

Madhudviṣa: It is twelve cents a piece. You cannot say that.

Siddha-svarūpa: But anyway...

Jayatīrtha: One of Siddha-svarūpa's men bought some Bhagavad-gītās from us in Los Angeles, several cases, so they are distributing Prabhupāda's books at least as well along with others.

Prabhupāda: No, I think...

Siddha-svarūpa: I just bought five thousand dollars' worth of Bhagavad-gītās.

Madhudviṣa: That's very good.

Siddha-svarūpa: What is it for?

Madhudviṣa: And they give them away.

Siddha-svarūpa: Thank you. Thank you, God.

Prabhupāda: No, no, even giving them away, what is the wrong?

Madhudviṣa: Well, you said we should not give the books away. You said we should sell these books.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) No, no, he has purchased. He has purchased. Then if you purchase from me and if you give free to others, so what is my loss?

Madhudviṣa: No, there is no loss.

Siddha-svarūpa: I'm not giving away his books.

Prabhupāda: No, no, even if he gives away, this is not a fault, ou see? Suppose there are... In South Africa many Indians are purchasing our books and giving to the library. So somebody will read it. So that is not a fault. If I purchase from you and give it, distribute it free to somebody else, that is not wrong thing.

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Rādhāvallabha: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in one BTG article, you listed...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Rādhāvallabha: In one BTG article, you described increase in women population as a natural disaster.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rādhāvallabha: So when one woman read this article, she became very angry. She came back and was very angry.

Prabhupāda: She may be angry. She is woman and man. Actually this is physiological. If a man is too much addicted to sex life, he'll become impotent, and if he begets child, it will be a girl. With no potency to give birth to a male child.... That requires potency.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I've read some of your old Back to Godhead magazines, and actually you've been saying the same thing all along, with the same force also. Some of your critiques of Dr. Radhakrishna's Bhagavad-gītā and modern science...

Prabhupāda: You have read?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: "Scholars Deluded."

Hari-śauri: Sometimes the devotees say that "Now Prabhupāda is preaching much more strongly than ever before." But then, when we read the old Back to Godheads, it's exactly the same.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even if we read the First Canto of Bhāgavatam... You translated that in India before you came. It's so powerful.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good class of people are coming to the restaurant, businessmen, like that.

Prabhupāda: And there is book display?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. Oh, yes, there's a book display.

Prabhupāda: They are purchasing book also?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They give them a Back to Godhead, complimentary copy...

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...with the meal. And then they also purchase books. The buses are going on nicely. All the buses are out. Two more buses are being made now.

Room Conversation -- May 7, 1976, Honolulu:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In your article in Back to Godhead about Marx, you call him a nonsense, you call Marxism nonsense.

Prabhupāda: Yes, what is his philosophy? (sic:) Dialectitude?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dialectic Materialism.

Prabhupāda: So, we have written one Dialectic Spiritualism.

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

Rāmeśvara: We have also won awards for Back to Godhead, the cover design.

Prabhupāda: Cover designs?

Mahendra: They like the cover, but they're afraid to look inside.

Morning Walk -- June 4, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: (break) Freedom.

Hari-śauri: It's just like you said in the BTG.

Prabhupāda: Equal rights. The rascal father has left, and poor mother is carrying the burden.

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Dānavīr: I'm in charge of the New Bhakta program in Los Angeles, and yesterday one boy called up the temple, and he was seventeen years old, and he said, "Five years ago, when I was coming out of a store, I received this Back to Godhead magazine. So I took it home, I was twelve years old, and I began reading it. I read six pages, but my mother, she was a strict Baptist, and she took it away, I couldn't read it. I never saw devotees again until this time." He called up. Yesterday he came and joined the temple and became your disciple. (Prabhupāda chuckles)

Devotees: Jaya.

Rāmeśvara: Just by reading one word of your books.

Prabhupāda: What is that word?

Rāmeśvara: Any word. (laughter) Surrender to Kṛṣṇa! (break)

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa: Now that the Back to Godhead has become so very good in quality, when the people finish reading it they see our ad for membership and they write in for information on membership and they are becoming our members, which means that each month they pledge donations, and they are on our mailing list. They receive newsletters, we even send them prasāda in the mail. And now we've got 250 members each month donating to the Book Trust.... Altogether are donating four thousand dollars each month, and it is increasing.

Prabhupāda: So increase the number of Back to Godhead.

Svarūpa: Yes. As the quantity and quality increases in Back to Godhead, the membership program is increasing, and orders for the literature through Back to Godhead increases.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's our best means of advertising, that magazine.

Mahendra: Every day, the mail order department is delivering to the airport, or to the post office, a big stack of books to be mailed out.

Prabhupāda: So why not ask them to make a post office here, ISKCON post office?

Svarūpa: Each day fifty letters are coming. Some are inquiries, some are orders. (break)

Morning Walk -- June 5, 1976, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa: Now that the Back to Godhead has become so very good in quality, when the people finish reading it they see our ad for membership and they write in for information on membership and they are becoming our members, which means that each month they pledge donations, and they are on our mailing list. They receive newsletters, we even send them prasāda in the mail. And now we've got 250 members each month donating to the Book Trust.... Altogether are donating four thousand dollars each month, and it is increasing.

Prabhupāda: So increase the number of Back to Godhead.

Svarūpa: Yes. As the quantity and quality increases in Back to Godhead, the membership program is increasing, and orders for the literature through Back to Godhead increases.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's our best means of advertising, that magazine.

Mahendra: Every day, the mail order department is delivering to the airport, or to the post office, a big stack of books to be mailed out.

Prabhupāda: So why not ask them to make a post office here, ISKCON post office?

Svarūpa: Each day fifty letters are coming. Some are inquiries, some are orders. (break) ...program Prabhupāda, we continue writing letters to these people, until they become devotees.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Svarūpa: And last year thirty became devotees. They wrote us letters saying that they have moved into a temple and that they are very happy now.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Svarūpa, he does all this writing; he's the secretary. He keeps correspondence with all of these people every month.

Rāmeśvara: In your book, there is an invitation in every book: "For more information, write to the secretary."

Prabhupāda: Yes, I've seen.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is Svarūpa. He does all this.

Morning Walk -- June 11, 1976, Los Angeles:

Hari-śauri: That article in the last BTG.... Sadāputa, he said, "So what it boils down to is they are putting their faith in chance, and we are putting our faith in God."

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is statement of the scientists. Ādau śraddhā: in everything, faith is the beginning. Ādau śraddhā. Without faith you cannot make any progress. (break)

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Mādhavānanda: It's actually been proven that the animal's flesh becomes poison. Because of the fear of the animal, he releases adrenalin in his bloodstream, and this adrenalin makes the meat poisonous to the human system, proven scientifically.

Hari-śauri: Causing cancer.

Mādhavānanda: And that is one of the causes of cancer.

Prabhupāda: I think we published some article.

Jayādvaita: Yes, in Back to Godhead, we gave these arguments.

Mādhavānanda: Mukunda did research.

Prabhupāda: He wrote it nice.

Mādhavānanda: Yes, cancer is the largest killing disease now. (break)

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (showing Prabhupāda newspaper) There was one newspaper at the Indian Embassy printed in Canada, it's called The Indian Calling. On the back page they have one supplement they took from Back to Godhead magazine.

Prabhupāda: It is ours?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. This is printed by the Indian community, one man, Anand Singh, and he included part of an article from the Back to Godhead magazine.

Morning Walk Conversation -- June 20, 1976, Toronto:

Hari-śauri: They're taking a photo today for the BTG, so they'd like if you would pose for five minutes.

Prabhupāda: Why not? (end)

Garden Conversation -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: So many things. Foolish men can accept that, "Everyone is God, everyone is guru." That is foolish man's proposition and accepted by fools.

Devotee (2): It is explained in Back to Godhead magazine that (indistinct) serve Kṛṣṇa, serve God. If someone tells you that he is guru (indistinct).

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So to accept a spiritual master must mean that one is in ignorance and one is enlightened.

Prabhupāda: For ignorance there is no need of guru. An ignorant cannot inquire about God. Intelligent man can inquire about God.

Room Conversation After Film -- June 28, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Your Back to Godhead article in this last magazine, "They can make a 747 jet, but not a tiny mosquito." Very thought-provoking.

Prabhupāda: With pilot. 747, you have to pay expert pilot, but here with pilot. Make this. Simply talking. Not only mosquito: at night we see so many, just like full stop, the same mechanical, flying from here, there, from here moving. Airplane, exactly in the form of... Similarly standing and... That is our challenge. Challenge this. Go in public meeting. Bring these so-called scientists, "Why don't you make any...? Why do you talk all this nonsense and cheat people?" Simple.

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

Prabhupāda: Śruti mahāpure. (indistinct) yasya linde paraṁ brahma. "Let others worship the śrutis and others smṛtis, all these Vedic literature, and others Mahābhārata for liberation. But I shall worship Nanda Mahārāja, because in his courtyard the Param Brahmā is loitering. I shall worship Nanda Mahārāja. He's so powerful that he's made the Param Brahman come here and carry his shoes." Śruti mahāpure (indistinct) yasya linde paraṁ brahma.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That was by a Muslim who became Vaiṣṇava? Once you quoted that, I think that verse, in London.

Prabhupāda: That is another similar verse. Yes, you quoted me. And there is another verse by Bilvamaṅgala, in Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta. The Muslim, he said "I was searching after the Param Brahma, and now I see here He is playing with the gopīs." What they will speculate? Everything is there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Where this picture is given? (Prabhupāda is being massaged)

Pradyumna: Which book is it in?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It was on the cover of one Back to Godhead magazine.

Hari-śauri: But it's in one of the books.

Pradyumna: Lord Caitanya did the same thing. He did the same thing, and it was compared Kṛṣṇa also had done.

Prabhupāda: If there is no such acceptance, where is religion?

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1976, Washington D.C.:

Rūpānuga: We were thinking that just like when you were in Moscow, some pictures were taken that were used for Back to Godhead, very good propaganda. We were thinking maybe when we go on this tour that in front of the White House maybe we could take a picture and use it in Back to Godhead in an article like that. It might be good propaganda.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can do.

Rūpānuga: So we were thinking we would go there to the White House on the first part, then to Capitol, second part, then around to Lincoln Memorial, then Monument for fireworks ceremony.

Prabhupāda: I will go to the fireworks. (end)

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

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda is coming back in about five minutes, he's just going to the bathroom. (break) (Prabhupāda returns) ...original Back to Godhead.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We got it from the Library of Congress.

Prabhupāda: So God is great. Now we have to analyze what is the greatness.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In one of the articles in Back to Godhead, I think Dharmādhyakṣa, he uses different words for these five elements. So we are going to use these elements in our book also, so we wonder, he says for fire "radiant energy" instead of fire. I think it may sound little more...

Rūpānuga: They think this is so simplistic, you know, mythological-type breakdown, oversimplification. So he used different words, fire he said "radiant energy," water he said "liquidity." What did he say for earth? "Solid matter" he said for earth, and air, "gas." And what did he say for ether? "Space." So we thought, we were wondering if these were acceptable terms to use.

Prabhupāda: That you can do.

Room Conversation -- July 7, 1976, Baltimore:

Rūpānuga: So Ravīndra-svarūpa Prabhu is going to be the editor, you approved in Māyāpura. We were thinking if you could give us some idea for a title. Because we were thinking so far is that we would have a subtitle, like we have "Back to Godhead" then we have "the Magazine of the Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement." So we would have the subtitle, "Bhaktivedanta Institute" or "Journal of the Bhaktivedanta Institute," but maybe you would like to have a title of the journal. So we wanted to know if you had some hint.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can title, entitle, Sa-vijñāna.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Sa-vijñāna?

Devotees: Oh.

Prabhupāda: Jñānaṁ me paramaṁ guhyaṁ yad vijñāna-samanvitam. What is that Bhagavad-gītā verse? Jñānaṁ te 'haṁ pravakṣyāmi tad vijñānam...

Pradyumna:

jñānaṁ te 'haṁ sa-vijñānam
idaṁ vakṣyāmy aśeṣataḥ
yaj jñātvā neha bhūyo 'nyaj
jñātavyam avaśiṣyate
(BG 7.2)

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Interview and Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We saw the first Back to Godhead magazine yesterday, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: The first Back to Godhead copy of the magazine that you published from Calcutta in 1944. We found in the library.

Prabhupāda: Oh, '44 edition is here?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, Library of Congress.

Prabhupāda: How they collected?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, it has kept very nicely. Paper was... Quality was very good, printing and everything, from India, thinking... (laughs)

Prabhupāda: There are some mistakes also.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, printing mistakes.

Prabhupāda: That is India's special...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: (laughs) Quality.

Prabhupāda: ...qualification. It was printed in the best place of Calcutta; still, they committed mistake. Sarasvati Press. That is the best publisher in Bengal.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This is called Tapke?

Prabhupāda: Tata Spingh(?) was the agent for selling.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, the paper quality was good.

Prabhupāda: So it was first published in 1944.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, the first appearance in the vyāsa-pūjā day, 1944.

Prabhupāda: It was published in the first-class place, and the first-class bookseller who was selling this, Tata Spingh(?), that was the most important bookseller in Calcutta.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Did you send copies to all the libraries?

Prabhupāda: No, they were doing everything. They might have sent to America like that.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh. So Los Angeles everything is going nice?

Rāmeśvara: Everything is very nice. We just had a big saṅkīrtana marathon for this Fourth of July, and they distributed up to thirty thousand Back to Godheads in just a few days.

Prabhupāda: (referring to garland) Make it smaller.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think it's all one garland, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: You can just make smaller.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right.

Rāmeśvara: We had a good success because we sent out all the householders to the parks. During that holiday everyone goes to the parks. So the householders took their children and they set up a tent, and one of them stayed there babysitting and all the others went out distributing your books. So in that way they went out on traveling saṅkīrtana.

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

Rāmeśvara: Ever since we published that article that they wrote in Back to Godhead, many people have been impressed that "Oh, Ph.D's they are accepting this movement." Many Indian guests in Los Angeles, they all comment that they have read this article, and now they are taking our movement...

Prabhupāda: Now I have collected one Indian, four items he is Ph.D. He is Ph.D. in chemistry, Ph.D. in engineering...

Hari-śauri: Dr. Sharma?

Prabhupāda: Yes. And Ph.D. in pathology. Four, and he's lawyer also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is he going to do?

Prabhupāda: He's going to help our, this... (break)

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

Prabhupāda: There is no spiritual understanding, they are simply after material advancement. Therefore despite all advancement materially, they are not happy. You cannot, now they are trying to bring life by material combination. It is all impossible, childish. Our scientists, they have come, no?

Hari-śauri: Yes, Sadāpūta, yes, they are all here, aren't they?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Svarūpa Dāmodara here?

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ah.

Prabhupāda: Mādhava and Svarūpa.

Hari-śauri: Three of them, Mādhava, Svarūpa and Sadāpūta also.

Rāmeśvara: Ever since we published that article that they wrote in Back to Godhead, many people have been impressed that "Oh, Ph.D's they are accepting this movement." Many Indian guests in Los Angeles, they all comment that they have read this article, and now they are taking our movement...

Prabhupāda: Now I have collected one Indian, four items he is Ph.D. He is Ph.D. in chemistry, Ph.D. in engineering...

Hari-śauri: Dr. Sharma?

Prabhupāda: Yes. And Ph.D. in pathology. Four, and he's lawyer also.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is he going to do?

Prabhupāda: He's going to help our, this... (break)

Morning Walk -- July 9, 1976, Washington D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, the.... In these rocks the upper one is older according to their calculation by dating method, geological dating method and the younger one is at the bottom. First I wanted to contact our Prabhu at the, Bob.

Hari-ṣauri: Bob Cohen.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, Bob Cohen our geology.... Sometime Prabhupāda had trouble with this boy?

Devotee: In a Back to Godhead article.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We are going to contact him. So how do we explain these things?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: How do we explain from our point of view? The upside down of the rocks.

Prabhupāda: I cannot. First of all, we do not bother for all these things.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: He has given advertisement for our books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, very favorable.

Rādhāvallabha: The amazing thing is that he's an impersonalist.

Prabhupāda: Impersonalist?

Rādhāvallabha: The man who wrote all of these articles, he's an impersonalist.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's a picture of him.

Prabhupāda: Oh, he's American?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Tripurāri: He thinks there are different types of meditation that all work, and ours is one type, bona fide, that works. There are also other types.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The article goes on—I don't know if you want to hear it all. You want to hear it? Okay. Here's this thing called "Who is Kṛṣṇa?" "Kṛṣṇa, viewed by ISKCON as the Supreme Personification of Godhead, is said to have many pastimes in which He assumes different appearances. One such is that of Gopālajī, the cowherd boy—see picture, cowherd boy—He can appear in other forms such as four-armed Nārāyaṇa. Most often Kṛṣṇa is portrayed as having light blue skin and, by Western standards, a soft and effeminate physique. He is said to be full in the six opulences: beauty, strength, fame, wealth, knowledge and renunciation. He is said to be all-attractive. Kṛṣṇa incarnates on one planet after another in infinite universes. The last time He appeared on earth as Kṛṣṇa was five thousand years ago. He will not return in that form for another four hundred thousand years, but five hundred years ago He appeared in His incarnation of Lord Caitanya, who taught people of the mahāmantra and started the Kṛṣṇa consciousness in its present state. According to the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa hungers for the devotion of His followers." Very nicely put. "This devotion in its pure sense takes the form of bhakti-yoga, the dedication of one's every action to Kṛṣṇa. Thus to use one's sense for one's own pleasure is to deny Kṛṣṇa devotion and accumulate negative karma. Kṛṣṇa has a consort, Rādhā, but She is considered only as an extension of His own pleasure principle, since He is all things. It is through Her intercession that devotees seek favors from Kṛṣṇa. According to ISKCON, Kṛṣṇa is the same God worshiped as Jehovah, Allah and so on." That is the explanation of who Kṛṣṇa is.

Rādhāvallabha: He could write for Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Rādhāvallabha: He could write for Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is good.

Morning Walk -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: In India the sannyāsīs beg, but I did not beg. I sold my Back to Godhead, books. I got income tax free...

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

Prabhupāda: Well, this is good lake. People are becoming dishonest. They'll take money and do nothing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm seeing down at Dalhousie Square area that the government employees, they are constantly taking tea break. They come late to work...

Prabhupāda: I have seen in New Delhi, I was going to sell my Back to Godhead, so they were all sitting and gossiping, and files are piled up. If you want some file it will take six months. Doing nothing. Sixty percent of the employees are simply wasting time.

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

Prabhupāda: This Back to Godhead was started in 1944, when I was still a family man.

Interviewer: You started that in India.

Prabhupāda: India. The first copy is here, some copy?

Hari-śauri: The first copy is in the Library of Congress in Washington.

Morning Walk -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, a few years ago we couldn't conceive of distributing twenty thousand Back to Godheads a month.

Prabhupāda: We started with five hundred. What was that machine?

Kīrtanānanda: Mimeograph. Then I think it went to two thousand then to five thousand.

Rāmeśvara: Now for December we are printing two million copies. Last year we printed one million copies, so this year we must double. Two million copies in one month.

Kīrtanānanda: Wonderful.

Prabhupāda: It is all Kṛṣṇa's mercy. You have seen the first copy? They have brought photograph from which library?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Congress Library in Washington. They found the original...

Prabhupāda: Yes. I do not know how they got my...

Rāmeśvara: Oh, your original, from India.

Prabhupāda: Yes, 1944, the first copy. I get them from selling. Perhaps they had been, American.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Very thick, it was a thick magazine.

Conversation at House of Ksirodakasayi dasa -- July 25, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: With a letter that "Prabhupāda says like this, that you print in the Hindi edition of Bhāgavata-darśana so that everyone will see, and will judge how it is done nicely."

Harikeśa: Should I make this?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Kṣīrodakaśāyī: I'll send first chapter complete.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Kṣīrodakaśāyī: Duplicate it and keep one copy with me here and one copy send off, and they can publish in the Back to Godhead here.

Prabhupāda: The difficulty is that in India, in different parts of India different standard. Somebody says, "This standard is good"; somebody says, "This standard is good."

Kṣīrodakaśāyī: Well, we are not worried about the criticism.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Kṣīrodakaśāyī: We are not worried about the criticism, anybody say. What you say we'll take that one line, the guide line.

Prabhupāda: No, I am not authority in Hindi, but this Hindi, different parts of India, a different standard.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Which book selling now?

Bhagavān: Which book are we selling right now? Gītā, and we'll have a quantity of this in about three weeks, and then we'll begin selling Bhāgavatam, and Īśopaniṣad, Easy Journey, Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: French language is understood practically all over Europe, especially France, Switzerland.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: There was another caricature, India. So there was some drought, the same. So there was some, what is called, representation: "And there is no water. We are suffering. This is the difficulty." "Yes, we are taking step, but next week you'll have television." Advancement, television. Because there was no television, so this is the advancement. Next week they have television. As if television will solve the problem. All mūḍhas, rascals, are very horrible condition. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is no other.

Jayatīrtha: Tāmala Kṛṣṇa once published an article in the Back to Godhead. The title was "You Cannot Eat Nuts and Bolts."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Jayatīrtha: It was very nice.

Prabhupāda: That is my word. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: My Guru Maharaja is very pleased. As soon as a book comes out, he is pleased.

Jayatīrtha: Especially one so beautiful.

Prabhupāda: He was lamenting that "These men, they did not make, publish any number of books. They are simply after this stone and bricks." He condemned. He was very, very sorry. So I thought that I must take a risk. And he's pleased.

Bhagavān: So now you have books and temples.

Prabhupāda: Yes, temple is automatically.

Jayatīrtha: Without fighting, you've got so many temples.

Prabhupāda: No, I never stressed on temple. I was engaged in publishing the Back to Godhead. Whatever I could do, I did it because I took it very seriously that he is very sorry that these things were not done. He said that "There will be fire in this Gaudiya Math." Āgun jvālbe, he said. Amari taci loka kichui boi kakrayebo (?): "If I can, I shall sell these marbles of this temple and convert them into books." That was his ambition. He started a very nice press and this Tirtha Maharaja sold it.

Jayatīrtha: Sold it?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhagavān: The press.

Prabhupāda: He's not representing Guru.... "Better let's have money for fight in the court."

Jayatīrtha: Sometimes I'm sorry that my name also has this word in it.

Prabhupāda: You are Jaya-tirtha. You are victorious. Now whatever is being done, it is by his blessing. Let us work sincerely. Things will be all.... Otherwise it is humanly impossible. It is by his grace.

Room Conversation -- August 4, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Hari-śauri: (break) But you were preaching before that in India though.

Prabhupāda: Not very much. Oh, yes, that Back to Godhead.

Hari-śauri: In Vṛndāvana you were just translating?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: The library party said that everywhere in Delhi they went, they found that you had already placed your three volumes of Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In American also. The Congress Library purchased nineteen sets.

Hari-śauri: Which library?

Prabhupāda: Congress Library.

Hari-śauri: Oh, Congress. The one in Washington? The Library of Congress?

Prabhupāda: Or there is a branch in India.

Hari-śauri: That is where they have your original Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Maybe.

Hari-śauri: The first copy, they have it in Washington there.

Room Conversation with Professor Francois Chenique -- August 5, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Yogeśvara: Professor's upstairs putting on a dhotī. He brought his daughter. Professor Chenique teaches a course in Bhagavad-gītā at the University, and he is also doing translations of Śaṅkarācārya and teaches for the Federation of Yoga. He considers himself a Christian Advaitist. (break) ...some questions regarding the publications in French. For example, on the front of Back to Godhead magazine, in the English edition and other language editions, they have kept the phrase "Godhead is light, darkness is nescience. Where there is Godhead there is no nescience." Now in French it is difficult to translate that. There is no word Godhead. And if you say "God is light," in French it sounds very impersonalist. In French, Dieux est lumiere, "God is light." Many groups say like that. We use the word Godhead, and that distinguishes us from the other groups. Now is the phrase very important, and do you want us to keep it on the front of the magazine? It should be there.

Prabhupāda: There is a little difference between God and Godhead.

Yogeśvara: So when we will have to try to find...

Prabhupāda: Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ. Īśvara, more or less everyone, but īśvaraḥ paramaḥ, that is Godhead. The Māyāvādīs, they do not distinguish between one īśvara to another īśvara. That may be on the ordinary level, but there is parama īśvara.

Yogeśvara: One possibility would be to say God the Supreme Person is light. That we can translate.

Prabhupāda: God means Supreme Person. But these advaitavādī, Māyāvādīs, they have made God everyone. God means Supreme Person, that is the dictionary word. "Supreme Being." That is the dictionary meaning. God does not mean ordinary, but they have made ordinary, anyone God. "I am God, you are God, he is God." Then what is meaning of God?

Yogeśvara: Therefore we say Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Head man. There are many men, he is the head man. Godhead word is also there in the dictionary. You find out.

Yogeśvara: "Godhead-being God or a God divine nature, Deity, the Godhead, God." The word is there, but the definition they've given is not very...

Prabhupāda: They do not know. They do not know what is God, what is Godhead. They think all these are fictitious. Throughout the whole world they do not know what is God. Simply they know the word, that's all. What it means they do not know. That we are giving. Here is God. Godhead.

Arrival Conversation -- August 13, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The whole thing is being done in one week. I just got the whole text from Nirañjana on Sunday from England. We've got it composed, it is going into printing tomorrow, it will be ready by Vyāsa-Pūjā. It's a Hindi Back to Godhead on Janmāṣṭamī...

Prabhupāda: Nirañjana is helping to translate it?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, and he's the most reliable. The others I find are not reliable. Even with Yaśomatīnandana, I give him a book, it gets stuck for three months. But now we are moving very fast. The first Hindi Back to Godhead we printed up forty-five thousand, it is sold. So I'm reprinting thirty thousand more in Delhi, and in Bombay, we are producing a new Back to Godhead with thirty thousand first print. Forty-five thousand of first printing is almost sold. People can't believe it. Even Hitsharan Sharma couldn't believe it that we distributed forty-five thousand Hindi magazines in two months.

Prabhupāda: We are distributing millions in English.

Arrival Conversation -- August 13, 1976, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We have three small Hindi books in production, plus as I said, Hindi Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: I can also write to the... Previously in 1971-72 at the pandals you used to speak in Bengali some days. I'll write for those tapes. We can...

Gargamuni: Oh, those tapes. I asked for those tapes so long ago. If we can get those Hindi and Bengali tapes we could have them transcribed, and they can make very good essays.

Jayapatākā: All the big English Back to Godhead articles are actually your lectures simply transcribed. So we could transcribe those tapes and we could have originally your words.

Gargamuni: Yes. There were ten days when Prabhupāda spoke in Bengali.

Jayapatākā: Twice. Once in Deshapriya Park and once at Maidan. Even today people talk about both festivals.

Prabhupāda: Bhagavāner Kathā.

Jayapatākā: Bhagavāner Kathā. Devānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha. Paper of Gauḍīya.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Gauḍīya it was published continuous.

Jayapatākā: What years we should look? More or less.

Prabhupāda: 1950 or little before that. They have got their old Gauḍīyas.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: And when he first came to me he expressed that "I was searching this institution. Now I'll join." And he was getting at that time four hundred dollars?

Gargamuni: Yes. A school teacher.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So he was paying everything almost, keeping little money. And then he brought him.

Hari-śauri: I have a picture of you with your hair. I'll show you. I have a picture of Gargamuni Swami when he still had hair and karmī clothes.

Gargamuni: "Shakespearean locks." Prabhupāda used to call me that.

Hari-śauri: Hair in this picture's a bit cropped up, but you had a bead bag then.

Gargamuni: Oh, yeah, then that was later.

Prabhupāda: You were selling Back to Godhead on the street?

Gargamuni: Yes, in the pushcart.

Prabhupāda: That time how many copies we were printing?

Gargamuni: We were printing 500 to 1,000. We started at 500 then to 1,000.

Prabhupāda: Then when Brahmānanda proposed that we can get it printed from Japan, but they want order for 20,000 minimum. So I said yes. Five hundred, 1,000 we were selling, and he proposed 20,000. "Yes. You order." (laughs) Now, two million?

Hari-śauri: The biggest one I think was that centennial, bicentennial issue. What was that? It increases, anyway, every year.

Prabhupāda: Brahmānanda was hesitating how 20,000 per month we shall consume.

Gargamuni: Yes, we were all afraid.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) I said, "Yes. You order. We shall consume." Then this Tamāla Kṛṣṇa, he helped.

Garden Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Caraṇāravindam: One new boy that just came.

Prabhupāda: So I want his service. I want to paint that picture which is published in that French Back to Godhead.

Hari-śauri: Oh. The portrait?

Prabhupāda: Not portrait. That I was beating on my... What is called? That dundubhi we call it. What do you call this. Bango? Bang?

Hari-śauri: Oh, gong?

Prabhupāda: Not gong. It is one side covered with skin.

Caraṇāravindam: Like a tambourine.

Hari-śauri: No, it's... You mean a drum...

Prabhupāda: Drum. Not two-sides. One side.

Hari-śauri: Like a tom-tom drum.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So that picture is very nice. If somebody paints it will be...

Room Conversation -- September 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So we shall follow strictly. Here is God. Take. Because if you are serious after God, here is God, take Kṛṣṇa. This is our philosophy. Hm? What is the answer? If he's serious about God. I think this paper wrote that, that Village? "We thought God is dead."

Hari-śauri: Greenwich Village.

Prabhupāda: East Village? That paper? Long ago.

Harikeśa: Village Voice. The Village Voice.

Prabhupāda: Aha, yes. They told first, that "We thought God is dead." And actually they were dancing in the name of God. Acyutānanda and Brahmānanda. You have seen the picture showing?

Hari-śauri: In this French Back To Godhead.

Harikeśa: Oh, that's Acyutānanda too! Oh!

Prabhupāda: They were the first candidates to dance with my kīrtana.

Room Conversation -- September 5, 1976, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He's in charge of Gurukula. He's here for the last six months. Jagadīśa left him here. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...he has got?

Devotee: What taste does he have?

Rūpa Vilāsa: He seems to have a taste more for studying, but not too much for teaching.

Prabhupāda: Study is not to teach. What is that study?

Rūpa Vilāsa: I mean to say he likes very much studying languages and writing. He's a good scholar. But...

Prabhupāda: Has he written anything?

Rūpa Vilāsa: In the classroom with the children he is not so expert.

Prabhupāda: No, no. Has he written anything? You say that he likes to read and write. So has he written anything?

Rūpa Vilāsa: Just as far as I know, some articles for Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: So why does he not write? If he has got a taste for something particular he can do that but nobody knows where he is.

Room Conversation -- October 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And I took sannyāsa in 1959.

Hari-śauri: That was in Vṛndāvana or Delhi?

Prabhupāda: No, Delhi. Vānaprastha. I was alone. But my paper was going on, Back to Godhead. In Delhi I was alone. I was doing everything. Editing, selling, collecting, cooking.

Hari-śauri: There was no Godbrothers helping at all?

Prabhupāda: I did not take. They wanted. I did not like.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-Sauri: People are being duped now into believing that advancement means simply to research. Not to actually find out anything valuable, but just to do some research. They think that that's the whole thing, education is just to research.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the European, you don't get the result, go on researching and spoil the money.

Devotee (2): Kṛṣṇa has manufactured everything in such a complicated way, that their search is never-ending.

Prabhupāda: That article written by Svarūpa Dāmodara in the recent Back to Godhead.

Hari-Sauri: That was not.... Oh, which one?

Prabhupāda: The recent this.

Hari-Sauri: The newest one? That was not by Svarūpa Dāmodara. That was by...

Prabhupāda: You have got?

Hari-Sauri: Dāmodara Dāsa and Jagjīvana.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Svarūpa Dāmodara is different. Oh.

Hari-śauri: This is more like a commentary than science, as it exists today.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Hari-śauri: This is like a presentation of science.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes, these article. (pause) That's all right. Hm. (end)

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: One complaint is standing, that with our life members and others, subscriber, they always complain they are not getting paper, they are not getting book. That is the general complaint.

Akśayananda: They send regularly. We are sending. But many times the mail is stolen, magazines, Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: That is a fact.

Akśayananda: Yes, it is very difficult.

Prabhupāda: Because there are so many nice picture. I have seen. When I was printing my books in a Delhi press, so one peon was coming there to work part time as compositor. So his mailbag he will put somewhere in the press and he will being composing. And all other compositors, they'll check the mail bag and if something is attractive, they will take. I have seen it. Our magazine is so...

Akśayananda: It's so beautiful.

Prabhupāda: ...full of pictures, so naturally, as soon as they, the picture and..., they take it.

Akśayananda: Yes, that's the trouble. So we have a system in some towns. We find one member who is very much liking us, and we send all the magazines to him, and he goes, sends his, given by hand, to all the other members in that city.

Prabhupāda: That is not possible.

Akśayananda: We are doing that in some cities but we don't have in all cities such a system. That system works.

Prabhupāda: How it is possible? Some are living ten miles from him. It is not possible. No, that is happening in India, not in other countries. In your country the peons are very responsible.

Akśayananda: Yes, the post office is also very good.

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana:

Surabhi: Yes, I got a letter from Dharmādhyakṣa in Surat two months ago. He was invited to the White House after our... He had an exhibition at Vancouver, that habitat. So it was a world conference of solution to life, living. So he was invited. He met some of the officials there. He was invited to Washington, but he had to wait for Carter to become the President because then it would be fifty percent more favorable because they had a relationship. There these people... Then he said there's a great chance they will help us in India. So he is going to go there and speak with the...

Prabhupāda: In India.

Surabhi: No, Washington, D.C. That's in America. They invited one of our devotees there to discuss this Māyāpura and all this social type of... Dharmādhyakṣa. He's writing for that Back to Godhead magazine. He worked with Gurudāsa together.

Prabhupāda: His article, one is there?

Hari-śauri: Yes, "Simple Living High Thinking." You saw that.

Prabhupāda: So he met him.

Surabhi: Not Carter. He met the government officials who were representing the United States Government at that exhibition, and they were very favorable. They were one of the most favorable, he said, the United states.

Prabhupāda: Yes, our "plain living, high thinking" is very nice idea.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh. All right. This brinjal and this jhiṅgā will make very nice vegetable. Simply I'll show you how to do it. You'll like it.

Devotee (4): In the new Back to Godhead the devotees in Florida, they have got one farm and they are calling "New Naimiṣāraṇya."

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (4): They are calling, yes, "New Naimiṣāraṇya," and we are also calling "New Naimiṣāraṇya."

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Śrutaśrava: ...one week ago and in just four days time the devotees there have distributed over one lakh of Back To Godhead magazines in just four days.

Prabhupāda: But you do not do here. Huh? That means Rāvaṇa. (laughter) (break)

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with C.I.D. Chief -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Where is that telegram we have received yesterday?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I was telling him our book sales are eight to ten lakh rupees a day. All by Gurujī, all. Can you imagine, Śrīla Prabhupāda writes one book a month. (break) One lakh seventy thousand big books. 90,737 medium books. 63,322 small books, and 437,420..., that is, four lakhs of Back to Godhead. Total in one week: seven lakhs and 9,236 books. In one week...

CID Chief: There won't be such a big...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda produces one book a month still.

Prabhupāda: Now... I am talking to you as a CID official. Now, here is my dictaphone. I... (clicks dictaphone switch) It is not working. (Prabhupāda plays back section of Bhāgavatam dictation he has made) This is a Sanskrit verse. (synonyms) Tatra(?) saumika. So the whole night I write books, and then this is typed. In the daytime they are typing. And then it is composed, and then it is made into book, and we take so much trouble to sell it, as you got the selling of, and we collect money and they send money, ten lakhs of rupees in India, and I construct the temple, not only here.(?) So is that my fault?

CID Chief: No, no, no. The man who would say it is a fault, either he is mad or it would be mistake.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Guest (2) (Indian man): (reading telegram) "Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, please accept our humble obeisances. Here are the saṅkīrtana marathon results for all of ISKCON worldwide for the week of December 17th to 24th."

Prabhupāda: One week's report.

Guest (2): Yes. And that, too, before Christmas. "One lakh 17,644 big books, 90,777 medium books, 63,322 small books, 4 lakh 37,420 BTG..."

Guest (1): Back to Godhead magazine.

Girirāja: That's our magazine.

Guest (2): Right."And 7 lakh 9,686 total." This has come from...

Guest (1): Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Our headquarters.

Trivikrama: One week.

Guest (2): New York. This is from New York.

Guest (1): It's coming from New York, but it's the same for all over America.

Prabhupāda: All over the world.

Guest (2): "We offer our sincere congratulations. It is, of course, the hand of Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: Seventeen lakhs copies of our literature sold in one week.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Bhavabhūtī: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I just visited also our boat program on the Ganga. Śravanānanda has the boat. They distributed 15,000 Back to Godheads in one month in Bengali. Fifteen thousand. So I have challenged Śravanānanda. I told him we're going to distribute more Hindi books on this side of the country.

Prabhupāda: No, there the Hindi is not...

Bhavabhūtī: But here in this side we're going to start to distribute this Hindi Back to Godhead very profusely, just like in America.

Prabhupāda: And what about Gītār Gān?

Bhavabhūtī: Yes. Also that's included. Fifteen thousand BTG's and Gītār Gāns included. The boys are so enthusiastic now...

Prabhupāda: In the boat?

Bhavabhūtī: Yes. On the boat. But even when we came into Calcutta—it was a two-hour train ride—the boys were not simply sitting. They were going from car to car selling books. One boy he sold fifty BTG's just coming from outside of Calcutta to Calcutta. Just two-hour train ride. He was going from car to car, "Hare Kṛṣṇa," and he would give them Bengali Back to Godhead. And they are taking very nicely now. All along the Ganga...

Prabhupāda: They know how to... (laughs) It is for them that the movement is being pushed on.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: Also, when we tell them, "Our magazine used to sell two hundred thousand copies a month, now it is selling five hundred thousand, seven hundred fifty thousand, some months one million copies. so that means the public is..."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Becoming more interested. So let us go on fighting with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no disappointment. Yudhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). We shall fight and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then everything is all right. We cannot stop fighting.

Rāmeśvara: Actually, one argument that they use... They have found an old Back to Godhead article that I think you wrote, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It was about Arjuna's position during the battle of Kurukṣetra, where he had to fight against his relatives. You were commenting that "So sometimes you may have to even kill your family members for Kṛṣṇa." So they take this magazine article, and they say that "Hare Kṛṣṇa leaders are teaching all the devotees to kill their parents." So this is an example of how they will distort everything.

Prabhupāda: That... You can distort anything. If there is expert distortion, it is...

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Like in the Bengali Back to Godhead they did in Calcutta, they spent eight paisa more per copy printing than Bombay, and quality was much inferior. So now I said, "You compose over there..."

Prabhupāda: Typeset is Delhi good, but offset-Bombay.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So what I've told them, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is they can get the composing done in Bengal, Calcutta, then send it to me, like I get the Hindi composing done in Vṛndāvana and mail it to Bombay for printing. So it is cheaper and good quality, plus we have the whole department set up. One boy, Pippalai, he just takes care of technical aspects. And we have a shipping department all set up now. Two boys work just on the shipping.

Prabhupāda: So supply department keep in one place.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And we have very good...

Prabhupāda: In other places it is...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They don't have the men, and we have good...

Prabhupāda: No. They supply all supplies. The orders should be supplied from one place.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We're getting up to two months' credit on printing books. Everything is nicely set up.

Prabhupāda: But keep your credit.

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

Rāmeśvara: So they say we are making up our own religion because...

Prabhupāda: You cannot make own religion. Then it is not religion.

Rāmeśvara: That is what they accuse us of. They say that we teach our devotees that you can lie for Kṛṣṇa, you can steal for Kṛṣṇa, you can even kill for Kṛṣṇa. So this is immoral.

Prabhupāda: But do you say like that?

Rāmeśvara: No, they are distorting. But that is their ar... And just like they use your Back to Godhead article about Arjuna on the battlefield, that sometimes we may even have to kill our relatives for Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: So, suppose if God said that "You kill," what you will do?

Rāmeśvara: Our argument is just that, that in the Bible, God told Abraham, "You must kill your son Isaac." This is a famous story in the Bible. So Abraham took his son and was ready to chop off his head. And God felt sorry and He stopped him. But that story is there in the Bible, that God told Abraham to kill his son, and Abraham was ready to do it. It does not mean that the Jewish religion is based on killing your son.

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Rāmeśvara: Prabhupāda, in the Back to Godhead magazine, one question has come up. Now that England is printing their own, India is printing their own, so this magazine that we print in America, ninety percent, ninety-five percent is sold in America.

Prabhupāda: But that is English and in India vernacular so there is no question of competition.

Room Conversation on 1976 Book Scores -- January 16, 1977, Calcutta:

Rāmeśvara: 487,000 Perfection of Yoga, 263,000 Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Is Authorized, 10,000 cook books, Hare Kṛṣṇa Cook books, 4,000 Gopal coloring books, and just under 7,000..., excuse me, 7,000,000 Back to Godhead magazines. Now, the total magazines, almost, about 7,000,000. Total small books like Perfection of Yoga, Easy Journey, is 740,000. Total medium books like Kṛṣṇa trilogy, Śrī Īśopaniṣad, is 319,000. Total books like cook books, Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Is Authorized, other titles: 280,000. Then total hardbound books: 1,007,000. So the total literatures sold last year is 9,076,280 literatures. Nine million.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali)

Gargamuni: It's only English.

Rāmeśvara: This is just English.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) ...French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese. (Bengali) We want. (Bengali) Person to person... (Bengali) Huge organization. (Bengali) ...Bhaktivedanta Book Trust... (Bengali)... stock, distribution, salesmen control. (Bengali) ...Delhi paper... (Bengali) We have got substance. (Bengali) So it is very encouraging, this report. What else?

Rāmeśvara: Now the next two reports. First of all, for the month of December there's the ratings for the whole Society. So in the top ten, number one was New York, Rādhā-Dāmodara, with $170,000. (Bengali)

Room Conversation on 1976 Book Scores -- January 16, 1977, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Actually in the beginning, for increasing the sale, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa gave the impetus. He was selling best in San Francisco. Then went from... What is that? We were printing in the beginning? What is the press called?

Rāmeśvara: ISKCON Press?

Prabhupāda: No, no. I purchased some hand press?

Rāmeśvara: Letterpress?

Prabhupāda: So that, it has got special name. I forget now. I purchased two presses, $150.

Hari-śauri: Mimeograph.

Prabhupāda: Mimeograph. Ha ha ha. So we were selling about five hundred copies, and gradually... But still, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa was selling almost major portion. Then I asked Brahmānanda that "Why not print?" So he took quotation from different printers, and Dai Nippon, we gave them, printing, this Teachings of Lord Caitanya. So he took quotation, ten cents per copy. But they want twenty thousand. So we were selling about one thousand, and it is a question of twenty thousand. So I consulted Tamāla in San Francisco. So he gave me some encourage. I asked Brahmānanda, "Yes, print twenty thousand." So from five hundred to twenty thousand, great jump. Somehow or other, it began like that. Now what we are printing per month?

Rāmeśvara: What? Hardbound books?

Prabhupāda: No, no, this Back to Godhead.

Rāmeśvara: 750,000. It is averaging like that.

Prabhupāda: So the first attempt was only 20,000. I calculated. Anyway, Kṛṣṇa is giving us all facility. Let us utilize it to the best of our capacity. We have no other ambition. We want to see that everyone may accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead and be happy. This is our mission. We have no other ambition, not to make any cost-profit. But when we see that so many people are reading Kṛṣṇa book, that gives us very good encouragement. Otherwise what...? Two capatis we can get anywhere.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Nobody should be allowed to keep himself lazy. That is not good. Niyataṁ kuru karma tvam. That is... Find out this verse. Oh, he has taken away?

Hari-śauri: Bhagavad-gītā. Oh, I can get another Gītā.

Gargamuni: And they will be successful.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Why not?

Gargamuni: If they are sincere, they will be successful.

Rāmeśvara: So it is little taxing...

Prabhupāda: Not taxing. I was doing alone this. I was printing Back to Godhead and going to the press. I was writing. I was posting.

Gargamuni: In one room you had many corners for your different projects. (chuckles)

Morning Walk -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: You said in that article in the BTG that women's liberation means that they get more exploited.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The giving them bluff that "You become liberated" means "We shall exploit you, young girls." This is the idea behind. Because the karmīs, they want sex, young girls, and they get energy to work. The Europeans, Americans, they work so hard. They get energy from new, new girls. This is psychology, Therefore they work like hogs and dogs.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: "These are our statements, sir." That... You have piled this book. You have one photograph, like a mountain. You remember that picture?

Hari-śauri: Yes. On the back of the BTG there's a big stack of books.

Prabhupāda: According to... Oh, the statement must be read, argued, then judgment. Point to point.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: ...subject matter.

Hari-śauri: It was that article on transcendental science.

Prabhupāda: And no irresponsible article should be published, strictly. It is going to be future evidence. Not whimsical.

Hari-śauri: There's no reason why the BTG should be any different from any of our books. There's no reason why the BTG standard should be different from our books. We take your books as absolute authority.

Prabhupāda: No, it will not be.

Hari-śauri: BTG should not be any different from that.

Prabhupāda: See to that.

Room Conversation -- January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That lecture that I gave, we made... Sadāpūta made that design so it's very attractive to science. That's from our Back to Godhead photograph. Fixed it up.

Prabhupāda: If they simply understand that all these laws of nature is going on under the direction of God... They are studying the laws of nature, how things are happening. But simply they have to understand that it is under the direction of Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Brahmānanda: In our Back to Godhead magazine now the tendency is that they're not mentioning Kṛṣṇa's name so much. They're not putting the picture of Kṛṣṇa. They're not putting the pictures of the devotees. They're stressing on like simple, natural life in order to please the public.

Prabhupāda: No. Why this is going on?

Satsvarūpa: Probably because of this reasoning, that... They use this phrase, that "We have to make Kṛṣṇa consciousness more conventional, and with the shaved heads and pictures of Kṛṣṇa, people won't like it." So they've taken to this description of simple life, vague talk of spiritual life, reincarnation, meditation.

Tripurāri: Seems like a compromise.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: People are speaking about our movement now. Many people say to us that "You are selling out, compromising your position." And they...

Prabhupāda: This should be stopped, immediately. Why they are doing that without..., concocting?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a great deal of not approval among many of the senior devotees.

Prabhupāda: So, immediately stop it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were looking through a recent issue of the magazine, the most recent issue, and we were...

Prabhupāda: Bhāgavata is coming out.

Brahmānanda: That is there. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That is there. It is fortunate you are... We were all noting that point. They cannot touch that.

Prabhupāda: Bhāgavata is in the middle. (end)

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This machine is made by nature. Do you know how it is made? So where is your brain? This is a machine. And everyone knows this machine is made by nature. So how...? Do you know how it is made? Then where is your brain? You are concerned with the typewriting machine—"cutacutacut." Study this machine. Produce a machine like this. Then where is your brain? What do they answer? What do they answer? They are trying?

Brahmānanda(?): Future.

Prabhupāda: So in our Back to Godhead these things should be demonstrated, not that imitating that tech position, like this. These things should be... If you have got intelligence, this description what I am giving you, that should be explained. This nonsense should be stopped.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I have said in the Bhāgavata verse in the BTG that "You can make 747, but you cannot make a mosquito."

Hari-śauri: And they can't supply the pilot either.

Prabhupāda: Yes. With pilot the body is there. And he knows the art, how to bite you instantly. He immediately injects his, that little fiber within the hole of the hair. Immediately

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Prahlāda Mahārāja said his father, demon. Asura-varya. Tat sādhu manye asura-varya: "Best of the demons. My dear best of the demons." (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I mean that's why... Just like in that Back to Godhead. The thing is that some of our devotees are becoming a little bit...

Prabhupāda: Influenced.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Influenced, and they're a little scared, you know. They're fearful.

Hari-śauri: They don't want to upset people.

Prabhupāda: That you should not be.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. That's why it is that the Back to Godhead magazine is being compromised a little. They are fearful. But actually that magazine is our platform for speaking strongly. In your Back to Godhead that you were publishing, you were very, very strong. (break)

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This article has changed very much from the original Back to Godhead article. This article here is issue number, I think, 14, many years ago, about the anchor in the water. It was very Kṛṣṇa conscious. Now it has been made...

Hari-śauri: No one's going to derive any Kṛṣṇa conscious meaning from that article. It's two whole pages, with picture and a little bit of writing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's practically no Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Bhavānanda: In the whole magazine, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we feel that there's very little Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No Lord Caitanya's picture. Lord Caitanya and Kṛṣṇa's picture never appear in the whole magazine. They've taken it out.

Brahmānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is your magazine.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No picture.

Ādi-keśava: And even the pictures of the devotees, they're not recognizable as devotees.

Hari-śauri: They put a picture of the devotees this big at the bottom of the page.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Just like you asked that there be a picture of the temple... (break) ...you can't even recognize it... (break)

Prabhupāda: Curb down this.

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Jayatīrtha: One more thing. This is the first British BTG.

Prabhupāda: Oh, very nice. I did not see this picture?

Rāmeśvara: It is a new painting for Bhāgavatam 1.2., First Canto, Part Two. Parīkṣit painted it.

Prabhupāda: It is an American printing?

Jayatīrtha: This is British.

Prabhupāda: This is British.

Rāmeśvara: They printed it in England. How many copies?

Jayatīrtha: One hundred thousand copies.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Competition. (laughter)

Rāmeśvara: He's trying.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes. This transcendental competition must go on. Thank you.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Rāmeśvara: Now, also there are many descriptions, or there are several descriptions in this verse, of the Lord's expansion as Paramātmā within the heart of every living entity and also within each atom. Now, a few years ago Bharadvāja drew this picture for Back to Godhead. We were thinking to make a painting similar to this showing that Viṣṇu is within the atom. And this will be used not only in this book, but also we were thinking to use this on the cover of Life Comes From Life.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, for this GBC meeting, I understand one of topics will be to discuss some things about Back to Godhead. So I wasn't here when you gave your instructions. So I was wondering if you could give me some idea what you want done, so I can also think about how to improve the magazine. Something is wrong in the magazine?

Prabhupāda: That...

Rāmeśvara: A few things in this last issue.

Prabhupāda: The thing is that you should not change abruptly without any sanction.(?)

Rāmeśvara: In the past I have sometimes asked you that we wanted to try to follow your example when you were first writing Back to Godhead, offering solutions to problems that people are currently bothered by, making the magazine contemporary and so on, rather than just giving them philosophy, but making it so that it can relate to their...

Prabhupāda: But we... Based on philosophy. You cannot go beyond the philosophy. Philosophy must be there. It cannot be changed. But we have to... You cannot change the wine. That should be the... So therefore, while changing, you can consult.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: In my old Back to Godhead I discussed Gandhi, Churchill, Jhinna, but with reference to the philosophy. I criticized them on the basis of our philosophy.

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

Brahmānanda: Bhagavān claims that the BBT printing is still going on, that next month a Back to Godhead is coming out and also a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: No, book...

Rāmeśvara: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam within three months, in three months.

Prabhupāda: So if you are satisfied that things are going on, that is different thing, but so far... What is his name? Yogeś...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yogeśvara.

Prabhupāda: Yogeśvara and his wife, they were doing very nice. Why they should leave?

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

Prabhupāda: So you have to understand it. How you can, mean, simplify it?

Rāmeśvara: But just like sometimes for Back to Godhead...

Prabhupāda: No, no. First of all come to the practical point. How he'll make it more easily understandable. Dharma-kṣetra is a place. Māyāpura is a place. There is...

Rāmeśvara: That cannot be changed.

Prabhupāda: So everything is like that. Why do you endeavor to make it easier?

Rāmeśvara: I think their point is like this, that sometimes in Back to Godhead...

Prabhupāda: Give me some example that "This is difficult, and if you put it in this way it will be easier."

Rāmeśvara: It's for telling a story, whereas in the Bhāgavatam...

Jagadīśa: We're talking about children's books.

Rāmeśvara: Children's books.

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Satsvarūpa: And we discussed the sannyāsa recommendations. No one who was recommended last year for sannyāsa was approved this year. During the year they did not prove well. No one is here for initiation. And for next year no recommendations were made. Then... One man... And I was accepted as editor in chief of Back to Godhead. The details of the editorial policies that I should follow, I can take in consultation from my other GBC Godbrothers. And further, in an attempt to set a uniform standard so that Back to Godhead is like scripture, I should function as editor for all Back to Godheads published in the various languages. In this I should work in cooperation with the co-editors and BBT trustees of the various foreign language BTGs. There may be various co-editors of those magazines, but I will be responsible to keep a uniform standard.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Satsvarūpa: Then we made resolutions concerning the public relations. One is that each temple president will instruct the devotees that as each devotee approaches people in any way he is acting as a public relations representative for Śrīla Prabhupāda. At least one day a week there must be chanting and food distribution in public performed by each temple. Balavanta, who is the minister of public relations in the United States, will be the editor of a monthly newsletter to ISKCON reporting on public relations programs to be executed, including do's and do not's. Every temple will start a program of sending a monthly Back to Godhead and a letter from a devotee to his parents if his parents are at least...

Prabhupāda: This is very good.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "14) All foreign language editions of BTG will include a section of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam."

Prabhupāda: Hm, that's nice.

Conversations -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says, "The birthplace of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in the district Nadia, prepared under the direction of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and by his disciples, His Holiness Surabhīr Abhipālayantam Swami, ISKCON Māyāpura Project architect and director of construction; His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami, ISKCON Māyāpura project president and Governing Body Commissioner; Śrī Patita Pāvana dāsa Brahmacārī, Bhakti Śāstrī, ISKCON Māyāpura; and the editors of Back to Godhead magazine, ISKCON Press, Los Angeles, California."

Prabhupāda: Perfect article.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Patita Pāvana..." And it says also, "...the editors of Back to Godhead magazine, ISKCON Press, Los Angeles, California."

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These are four articles. "Part One: A Description of the Holiness of Śrīdhāma Māyāpura."

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: It was taken from Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Taken from Back to Godhead. This is an article from Back to Godhead. Who wrote it? Nitāi?

Surabhīr Abhipālayantam: Nitāi did.

Prabhupāda: Who wrote?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Nitāi. This is an article previously published in Back to Godhead, written by Nitāi a couple years ago. "Part Two: A General Description of ISKCON's Spiritual City in Māyāpura. A Short History of ISKCON Māyāpura." It gives a description of their history. "When one of the first American devotees of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, heard in 1970 from the Society's Founder-Ācārya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda..."

Prabhupāda: Everywhere there is founder-ācārya's name, but not a single line...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right.

Prabhupāda: So they have purposefully avoided and given "His Holiness"?

Morning Conversation -- April 19, 1977, Bombay:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We discussed some point before he made movie, but we made very good point, but he didn't include any of those, what we suggested. At the beginning he has started. Then everything was some sort of a popularization of...

Girirāja: I thought it was like the new style of Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation: Bogus Gurus -- April 25, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So the cheaters are there. If our men are cheated, if they agree to be cheated, how can I stop them? In Vṛndāvana also they have done like that, the bābājīs.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Same way.

Prabhupāda: Nitāi is victim.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Rādhā-kuṇḍa. And in Vṛndāvana also. That Jagannātha dāsa was telling you, remember, how he met some bābājī coming on the road.

Prabhupāda: So there are cheaters, and if one wants to be cheated, how we can stop?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually this makes me feel that it's very important that we have our temple in Bhuvaneśvara.

Prabhupāda: So you can publish this in our Back to Godhead. These things are going on. Devotees should be very careful not to be victimized by this cheater.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think I can write a letter to the "Letters to the Editors" column. That'll be the proper place.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Evening Darsana -- May 15, 1977, Hrishikesh:

Prabhupāda: So let Kṛṣṇa rise up. Therefore our, this motto is in the English Back to Godhead, "Kṛṣṇa is light..."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Kṛṣṇa is light..." "Godhead is light. Nescience is darkness. Where there is Godhead, there is no nescience."

Discussions -- June 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I just received a telegram from America about the book selling. It is from our main warehouse in Los Angeles. They report that there has been increase this month over last month. For Back to Godhead the increase has been seventy percent.

Prabhupāda: Hm!

Rāmeśvara: For small books like Perfection of Yoga, it has increased forty-five percent. For medium books like Kṛṣṇa Trilogy and Īśopaniṣad, it has increased forty-five percent, and for the hardbound books like Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it has doubled, two hundred percent increase.

Jayapatākā: In one month.

Prabhupāda: This is very good.

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

Prabhupāda: A small toy sputnik, background, a big picture, and photograph.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did you see that article, "Moon Hoax?"

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Our Back to Godhead?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, there's an article that was published in a paper in America called "Moon Hoax."

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, I didn't see.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'll show you that article.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: In Time Magazine?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, in a weekly newspaper from Pennsylvania.

Prabhupāda: No, there are companies. They came to us. Your theory they'll present in a scientific way, so-called scientific way.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That Dr. Kapoor, your Godbrother? There's an article that was published in Back to Godhead. So he proves that spirit can be brought out of matter, provided that the bhakti, the brāhmaṇa, the person, develops brahminical qualities to the point of purity. And he uses the example of Prahlāda Mahārāja, that because Prahlāda Mahārāja had developed such a pure love for Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa came out of a material element, the pillar, to prove Himself: "Here is God." So spirit came right out of matter. So Dr. Kapoor used the point that if you want to see spirit, qualify yourself. Then you'll be able to see spirit. You can make spirit come right out of matter.

Prabhupāda: That is sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: One time I had a strong talk with Rāmeśvara Mahārāja about our article for printing in the Back to Godhead. I didn't want them to be printed in Back to Godhead because they made so many changes...

Prabhupāda: Oh, he has dared to change yours also?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, yes. They change so many things in our article. And it was on the telephone. I was speaking to him in Atlanta from Los Angeles. And I told him that "This article should not be printed because they have made so many changes." And I didn't like that. Then they answered that "It has already been offset, and BBT policy is always to be rushing. It's always BBT policy." Then I told him that "If you sacrifice quality on the strength of rushing, then it is your business, but that's not my way, so please don't print it." But in any case, they have printed anyway that article. And we all had a bad reaction.

Prabhupāda: So you bring this to Satsvarūpa. They cannot change anything.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (indistinct)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we stopped writing article for Back to Godhead since then because...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now, I think, with Satsvarūpa there, you won't have that problem of changing like that. He wrote a letter saying that one of his first things is that he will not change what is given there unless... He will not make changes.

Room Conversation with Mr. Myer -- July 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Hayagrīva was eating also. (laughter) And he was typing. He's a very good typist. He'll type very swiftly and correctly. Then I started this Back to Godhead, Hayagrīva and Rāyarāma, editors. And I purchased two machines. What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mimeograph machine.

Prabhupāda: There was advertisement. So I went to Long Island. That two machines... I asked, "What is the price?" "$150 each." Then he wanted to take away the machines. Machine was all right. And then I told him that "I have got $150 only. If you want to give us, give those two machines." So "All right, you take these all." (laughter) So I gave him $150, whatever I had, and I took the machine. In that machine was printed Back to Godhead. So five hundred copies... How many copies you were selling?

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Mr. Myer: I'll bring. I'll bring samples. And also I think if you want to print Back to Godhead issue, he can easily do it. He's got a very good mind for it.

Prabhupāda: No, if your brother has got good press, we can print so many books.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says he understood that busts of divine images of guru and Kṛṣṇa are not to be made. He says in New York you explained this point with reference to photographs that were used in Back to Godhead of your divine self that it was impersonal to cut off some portion of the complete worshipable form.

Prabhupāda: No, if it is not worshipable, if it is to be kept in library, that can be done.

Room Conversation Mayapura attack -- July 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think Jayādvaita has called their number in the Back to Godhead article: demons. Right out he calls them demons.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have to describe the demon very nicely.

Room Conversation about Grhasthas -- July 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa conscious ideal gṛhasthas. That we want. Just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. There are many. I was gṛhastha. There was Deity worship, everything nice. I was publishing Back to Godhead from gṛhastha. So aim was there. But I could not leave family life for some circumstances. That is a different thing. Must be in touch with the devotional service as in the temple. If live nearby temple, it is easier, or in the temple. But aloof, that is dangerous.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, you always called Back to Godhead magazine the backbone of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. You have many times said that the Back to Godhead magazine is the backbone of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. So it is my ardent desire that the Hindi Back to Godhead should be made a regular monthly.

Prabhupāda: Why don't you make?

Devotee (1): There are printing and distribution problems.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We had a big stock of our old issue. We had printed seventy thousand of that. There's only few thousand left, and we have a lot of...

Prabhupāda: If you have got distribution problem, then you...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And we have a lot of small books which we have just printed. So I wanted the small books to be cleared out. Like in Germany and France also they don't do Back to Godhead every month. They do it every few months so that they can get the books out.

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. Every month, if we regularly publish, we get some postal (indistinct). That's... If you every month publish some in certain date, you get very cheap rate for posting. That... All right. So a good thing... (break)

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "We are always praying to Kṛṣṇa that He will give us the spiritual strength to help you in your mission of spreading Lord Caitanya's mercy. Now we are also constantly praying, 'Dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, if You desire, please cure Śrīla Prabhupāda.' Śrīla Prabhupāda, we are most grateful for Tamāla Kṛṣṇa's recent letter, in which he reports how much you enjoyed Back To Godhead issue number 7." This is number 8. "This is our only purpose in life, to give you some little amount of pleasure by our service. The devotees are also enjoying the magazine very much, especially your talks with Hayagrīva Prabhu on the bogus philosophers, and the 'Śrīla Prabhupāda Speaks Out' feature." The devotees like that too much, "Prabhupāda Speaks Out." "Please accept this Vyāsa-pūjā issue, Back to Godhead 12.8. We are offering to you this drop of gratitude for the ocean of love you are giving us. Please help us continue to work together in pushing on your great movement to benedict the world with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Your insignificant servants..."

Prabhupāda: How many copies they have published?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think... I got a letter from Satsvarūpa yesterday. I think this issue was 400,000. It varies between 400-and 500,000 copies. Generally about a half a million every month. Pretty good standard.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. (break)

Room Conversation With Madhudvisa and others -- August 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Get a new life all around. No depression, no hopelessness. Is it not? American boys and girls, they became so much depressed out of hopelessness. Now here is a life, future. Your latest Back to Godhead is very nice. (indistinct)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda liked that "Prabhupāda Speaks Out."

Prabhupāda: And now our Haṁsadūta is speaking.

Satsvarūpa: Yes, we're printing that, "Prabhupāda's Disciple Speaks Out." (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Yes, that title I gave you. He has cornered one Dr. Kovoor. You have read that?

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did you get any response?

Satsvarūpa: No. We just have this letter.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dr. Kovoor has responded, and now Haṁsadūta has booked a hall and challenged him in all the newspapers to produce a mosquito. Free admission. They're serving halavā prasādam.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And this says, "His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Author of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Nectar of Devotion, Nectar of Instruction, Back to Godhead Magazine, Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness." This is placed in prominent museums and libraries. There's four different models. This is solid wood, and this will be a bronze plaque, and this is made of bronze, metal. You can feel it. Nice?

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

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.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Very warm nowadays?

Rāmeśvara: During the day it is just like here-80, 85 degrees. In the early morning and in the evening sometimes a little chilly.

Prabhupāda: At night snowfall?

Rāmeśvara: No.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In the beginning, when I was selling Back to Godhead alone, I wrote one practical businessman, Mr. Bande(?) I think. He said, "Swamiji, why you have made Vṛndāvana headquarter? (laughs) It is not a place for..." (break)

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda? The trustees have met, and there is one question to ask you. There are many articles in BTG which are written by you or your lectures and your famous conversations, like Professor Kotovsky, Dr. Stahl. So there is a proposal to take all of these different writings that have been published in BTG and put them together in one hardbound book, so that they will be preserved.

Prabhupāda: Good idea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: For distribution.

Rāmeśvara: And in the future there are so many other lectures that may be preserved in this way too, if you desire. Other books can be printed in the future.

Prabhupāda: Very good idea.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I have a new Hindi Back to Godhead for you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I have met the Home Minister about two months ago regarding permanent residency visas.

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I got a letter from the Home Minister's secretary, saying that they're considering it seriously, and he just asked me for some more information, And actually the answers to all the questions that they have asked are positive. In other words, they have asked questions like "For these foreign students, will ISKCON pay for their boarding and lodging? How many years' course is it?" So it appears... I'm going to see them again next week. We may get our permanent residency visas. This is the first positive sign.

Prabhupāda: They have made some inquiry.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I met the Home Minister two months ago, and I gave him an application. So I've just received a reply.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is it for permanent residency? Not for two or three years. Permanent.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Even if they give for five years, that'd be good. This would be very nice, because you always wanted this.

Prabhupāda: So do it carefully.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We just printed twenty thousand copies of a new Hindi Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: Send to Fiji immediately.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So we have reprinted ten thousand copies each. The reprint is going to be ready tomorrow. And we, just two weeks ago, we reprinted the Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, which I gave you a week ago, and now we just got this Hindi Back to Godhead.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many copies of this?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Twenty thousand. Hindi Back to Godhead we are producing every second month now, twenty thousand copies.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Different issues?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Every second month a new Back to Godhead.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's nice this time.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And the Hindi Gītā is being composed. It will be ready by middle December, the latest. And also the Hindi Kṛṣṇa book is being composed, plus we have eight books in Gujarati which are in various stages of production. And the Tamil Gītā is being composed and printed, and we're doing a Gītā in Kanarese language, and also a Back to Godhead in Kanarese.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is that enough stock? Ten thousand? Doesn't seem like a very big printing. Jayapatākā came there. His men came there, and they couldn't get any books.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, they were out of stock... They didn't have that much when they leave.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It may happen again.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, but now we have reprinted many new titles. In total we have fifty thousand books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's not much. You have so much distribution. (they discuss softly)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Plus we are starting to construct a BBT godown. Surabhī Swami is working on that because now we are printing so many books, and also we have a big shipment of books from America that we definitely need a very huge godown in Bombay. Last time you had approved giving a loan of four lakhs for the godown.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Three lakhs. One lakh for printing, three lakhs for the godown.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: (softly) No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. You said that the godown would only cost three lakhs.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Three to four is the estimate. (to Prabhupāda:) So we are going to start work on the godown in November.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Room Conversation -- October 24, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Kṛṣṇa-aṣṭamī. Lord Kṛṣṇa's celebration." Full center page. "A voyage of discovery." "A Christian tribute to Kṛṣṇa consciousness." There's a picture of Your Divine Grace here. It's an article reprinted from Back to Godhead. It says, "All material in this special feature taken from Back to Godhead, the official magazine of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness." This is all... It seems like what they have done... The same thing they did in Fiji, they have done there in South Africa. Because many of the articles... This is a whole..., also all about our society. All of these pages. "Hare Kṛṣṇa puzzle is unraveled." "Jagannātha car festival is one of the oldest in history." Then it tells about the program, how to get to the farm. Then he sent photographs. It's a very beautiful temple, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I don't know if you can see it. This is the temple. You see the white structure here? You can see it has arched domes? Not domes but arches.

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, no joke. That Bengali Back to Godhead is very good also. This one has come out very nice, the layout and everything. It's very good.

Prabhupāda: He writes nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhakti-caru?

Prabhupāda: No, who has written?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who wrote those articles?

Bhavānanda: Bhakti-caru and... Bhakti-caru, Sarvabhāvana.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayādvaita: That anthology book of different articles written by Your Divine Grace, I think that will come out very nicely. That's what Rāmeśvara was having me send him.

Prabhupāda: Anthology?

Jayādvaita: It's a collection-Rāmeśvara mentioned it while you were here, while he was here—a collection of different articles from Back to Godhead written by yourself. There's your conversation with Professor Kotovsky, and also from the old BTG you were publishing in India there's that article "Relevant Inquiries." That's very wonderful article. Your correspondence with Dr. Stahl, that's also there. And lectures from different places. When you first arrived in London there's a very wonderful lecture. So many wonderful articles that have been published over the years in BTG. But the real thing is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Page Title:BTG (Conversations, 1976 - 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, MadhuGopaldas
Created:17 of May, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=104, Let=0
No. of Quotes:104