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Bag (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Yes. That wrapping... It is not exactly wrapped. It is a bag for our beads. We are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. So the beads are supposed to be sacred and therefore we keep it in a bag so that it may not touch the dust or any other impurities. So it is not wrapping, it is covering of the sacred beads.

Interviewer: Now I just want to read one section here. I think you'll be able to... "The International Society for Krishna Consciousness began when Swami Bhaktivedanta arrived from India with $2 on his person, a metal suitcase full of ancient-looking books and a cotton cloth robe, colored yellow, as a sign of the renounced order of life. In India, men of his order are completely dedicated to propagating the spiritual life of a mendicant wanderer. He had wandered across the sea upon the order issued to him by his guru who told him he should prepare to go to America to teach the principles taught in the Bhagavad-gītā and to translate the sixty volumes of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam into English." Now, are you a guru?

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1968, Montreal, With First Devotees Going to London On Evening of Their Departure:

Prabhupāda: Why three taxis?

Mālatī: Two taxis. There are so many of us and so much baggage.

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. So for me, I shall be ready to start as soon as we hear from you. Yes. And tomorrow I shall expect mail. I don't think I am going to Vancouver because from Upendra's letter it is not very encouraging, and I don't think Mr. Renogay(?) will, on his personal account, call me and pay me. I don't think so. So what is your next program here?

Janārdana: Then the next program here... Well, the busy season will begin. So I'll go to McGill and Sir George Williams Universities and some churches also, and I'll try to get speaking engagements. (break)

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Lord Caitanya Play Told to Tamala Krsna -- August 4, 1969, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not always. But people used to present some foodstuffs. Especially when the devotees would come from Bengal side, somebody is bringing something, somebody is... Whatever Caitanya Mahāprabhu likes. And they will prepare the whole year nice foodstuffs. That is, what is called, preserved food. You can keep it for days together. So His personal assistant was Govinda, and everyone will, I mean to say, offer Govinda, "Please offer this food to Prabhu." And Govinda will keep. And everyone is anxious whether his goods are taken. So he was inquiring Govinda, "Has Mahāprabhu has taken my food?" What can he say? "Yes, yes, yes, yes." But it is stacked in the store. So one day Caitanya Mahāprabhu He said that... He was Godbrother also, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He could talk with Him freely. He was not disciple. So "Guru Mahārāja sent me to serve You, and now the result is that for You I have to speak only lies." "What is that? You are speaking lies for Me?" "Yes. Why not? What can I do?" "Now, what is the matter?" "Now, Your devotees give me so many things for eating and just lying stacked. And they inquire and I say 'Yes, yes. He has taken.' So this is my business, telling lie." So then Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "All right. Bring something. I shall eat." So he brought one bag and He ate everything. "Bring next." In this way the whole stack, about 100 men's foodstuff, He ate. Then He asked him, "Bring more." "Now the bags are lying only. If You want to eat, (chuckling) You can eat." "All right. Stop." So in half an hour, one hour, He ate all the 100 men's stock. You see. This is also another miracle. He finished the whole stock to save him from speaking lies.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: Lord Caitanya says, in each and every name of God... There are many names of God. But in each and every name of God, the full potency of God is there. So... And there is no hard and fast rule for chanting the holy name of God. Anywhere, at anytime, anyone, in any circumstances, he can chant. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says "My Lord, You are so merciful that in this age..." Why...? Not in this age. Every age. "You are always in full potency in Your name. And I can associate with You simply by chanting Your holy name. But I am so unfortunate, I have no attraction for that." A simple thing, to chant the name. God has become so kind, "You simply chant My name." But I am so unfortunate, I have no attraction for that. Now, these people are being taught... They have got this bead bag. I have also got. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Now where is the loss? If I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, where is the loss? And where is the want of time?

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1972, Sydney:

Devotee (2): So much wasted effort.

Prabhupāda: You have kept there some other razor?

Nanda-kumāra: I have put yours back. Yours was in a bag I could not find immediately, so I put another one there, and now I've changed it back again. (break)

Devotee (1):...at least half of the energy that you have to preach.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (1): We may develop at least maybe half of your energy to continuously preach someday?

Prabhupāda: Continuously?

Conversation with the GBC -- May 25, 1972, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Automatically He handed (indistinct). (laughter) Hands are folded. So our idea is Vṛndāvana. So our love for Kṛṣṇa should be so strong that we don't care for anything. But for preaching if somebody challenges, yes, we are prepared to talk. That is authority. That is uttama-adhikārī. His love is Kṛṣṇa, enormous, but not sentiment. If anyone wants to talk with him, "Yes, come on," That is uttama-adhikārī, mahā-bhāgavata. So this is the position. Now something is in your hand—Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That was my plan that I shall carry this baggage and give it to the Americans and they will distribute. That was my plan, therefore I came to America. So now you are so many boys, young boys, you have understood. So do it and give me relief. I remain in the background. Let me finish my Bhāgavata Purāṇa and those who are assisting in the writing, I'll be there (indistinct). That this institution, ISKCON will give to the world so many valuable jewels. There is no comparison. That you will have to see, (indistinct).

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: You're always ready.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They have taken that, all bags and baggages, that's all right. I am ready. What is that Cleveland?

Kīrtanānanda: That's, I think, Śrīla Prabhupāda, there's a group in Cleveland, Ohio.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Kīrtanānanda: There is a colored lady who is leading a group, and they're dressing in dhotīs and saris, and uh, they're doing some...

Prabhupāda: So you just train them.

Room Conversation -- July 4, 1972, New York:

Prabhupāda: You know they are also (indistinct)?

Devotee (10): Match your bead bag.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee (10): It will match your bead bag.

Devotee: Handkerchief.

Prabhupāda: Popular. (laughter)

Devotee: (10) Time magazine, special issue.

Prabhupāda: (devotees are laughing as they look at magazine) What is that?

Room Conversation -- July 5, 1972, London:

Prabhupāda: All right, all right, all right.

Sumati Morarjee: I'll take, send you back your results. Did he give you (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: So he'll give you some paper, you'll wrap it.

Devotee: Here's a bag...

Sumati Morarjee: So, now what, what is your problem? Ah, this is better.

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) This boy, he's president of, of my Detroit.

Sumati Morarjee: So what does he want?

Prabhupāda: He wants to give me some car. (Hindi exchanges)

Room Conversation with Kenneth Keating, U.S. Ambassador to India -- October 14, 1972, New Delhi:

Mrs. Keating: May I ask the significance of the markings?

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is a sign that we are Vaiṣṇava, devotee of Kṛṣṇa.

Ambassador: You all have that.

Mrs. Keating: And the bag, is that, is that...

Prabhupāda: That is our chanting.

Mrs. Keating: Oh.

Prabhupāda: We are chanting always the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. These have got special significance because Kṛṣṇa is absolute. There is no difference between Him and His name. Here, just like this milk substance and the milk name is different. If I want to take milk, simply if I go on chanting "milk" and "milk," that will not satisfy. I must have the substance milk. But in the spiritual world the Absolute has no differentiation between His name, ...between His name, between His quality, form, entourage. They are the same. So this chanting of holy name means that directly associating with Kṛṣṇa. Directly associating with Kṛṣṇa.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Or you will find more in the elephant's body. So if I can create so many chemicals within my body, how much chemicals He can create? On that account... Your theory, that combination of hydrogen, oxygen makes water, that is a fact. But you are surprised, wherefrom such a big quantity of hydrogen, oxygen came so that the ocean is there. That you cannot calculate. But we answer: "This hydrogen, oxygen is there in the body, universal body of the Lord." Therefore you find. Why do they, do not understand this plain thing? Hydrogen, oxygen we accept; that's a fact. But you are surprised wherefrom this big quantity of hydrogen, oxygen came? That we answer. So let us cooperate. Then the people will be happy. That is acintya-śakti. If a poor man cannot spend ten dollars and if a rich man immediately spends million dollars, he becomes surprised, "How it is possible? How it is possible?" It is like that. We have got the capacity of not even ten dollars. We are thinking of millions and trillion dollars. Adara vapari yahan khabor.(?) You know this? Adar, adar, adar means ginger. A ginger merchant, he is asking, "When the another ship will come?" Ginger is never purchased ship loaded. You take little ginger. If you have got one bag of ginger, then it will be sold in three years. So adar vapari yahan khabor. (?) What you have got to do with ship, shipment? You just carry one bag or ten sheer(?) or ten kilos... That's all. So these rascals, they are adar vapari, and they are taking account of where is that ship.

Room Conversation with Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Famous Historian, at his home or office -- July 22, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Translation.

Pradyumna: "Translation. During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."

Prabhupāda: This was the position of the kingdom, that the cows felt secure. At the present moment, the cows are very unhappy. I have seen. They are almost crying. Because they can understand that "After some time, we'll be killed."

Dr. Arnold Toynbee: Yes, yes, yes.

Room Conversation with Lord Brockway -- July 23, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: And ignorance. If we give service in ignorance, without knowing what is what, that kind of service may lead us to become punished. So we must know what kind of service we shall give. So real suffering of the society, human society, or any society you take, real suffering is, because the living entity has forgotten God, so he is being punished in different way by the material nature. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). So many ways. But everyone is being punished. At least, the three kinds... Why three kinds? That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā, that this is also punishment, repetition of birth and death. This is also punishment. Because we are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We are spirit soul, we are eternal. So our, this constant change of body, birth and death, that is also punishment. Because nobody wants to die. Because he is eternal. How he'll like to die? He wants to keep his eternal position, but he, because he's criminal... Just like one man is condemned to die, murderer. So he has to die. But he wants to protect himself, placing himself in the court, "How to save? How to save?" So that is our natural tendency, that we do not want to die. Why? Because we are eternal. We have got the prerogative. So if... Anyone does not want to die. Anyone does not want to take birth even. Now we have forgotten. Otherwise, in the womb of the mother, everyone knows that we are kept in such a way, in a packed, compact water bag, without any facility to move, not only for one day, two day, but ten months. Medical science knows, everyone knows.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Śrutakīrti:

kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ
sarva kāma dughā mahī
siṣicuḥ sma vrajān gāvaḥ
payasodhasvatīr mudā
(SB 1.10.4)

"During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."

Prabhupāda: Now here is economics, politics and everything. So by Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we want to see that everyone is getting nicely the necessities of life. That is economic. Is it not?

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

Prabhupāda: As soon as you enter into the womb of a mother, it is painful. You are packed up like this, in this way. Can you, can you live for a few minutes, packed up like that, At the present moment, if I pack up and put in a bag, and then put in a box, how long you can exist?

Anna Conan Doyle: But we are not conscious at, at that particular moment.

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter. Just like surgical operation is going on. He's unconscious. That is another thing. By some method, he's unconscious. But the pain is there. The pain is there. The pain is not felt. Just like animals. They, they are in painful condition, but because they are animal, they do not feel it. On the horseback, you are driving horseback, like this, like this. It is painful, but because he's animal he cannot protect himself. It is very painful. Suppose if a chain is shackled on your mouth, and I constantly push like this...? Is it not painful? The horse is controlled by the mouth...

Room Conversation -- August 11, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: You say. They say, all rascals say. But actually this is independence, but because they're animals, they are directed by nature, more or less. Just like they do not... My point is they do not misuse independence as much as a human being does. You see. Just like a tiger. He is to eat animals, killing animals. He does not come to your orchard to steal your fruits. But you, rascal human being, you eat fruits and animals both. Animal, that is instinct. Animal... Suppose if you put—I've given this example many times—a bag of rice on the street. Many birds will come. But he will eat some grains, five grains, ten grains and twenty grains, as much he can eat, and go away. But you do the same favor to the human beings, there will be fight. Everyone will try to take some more quantity in the house and stock it. Therefore, the human being is more responsible for sinful activities.

Room Conversation with Graham Hill Former World Champion Race Car Driver -- London, August 26, 1973:

Prabhupāda: That is ultimate goal. So long we do not go back to home, back to Godhead, we have to, in our material existence, we have to change from one body to another. That is going on. And there are 8,400,000 forms of bodies. The cats and dogs, they are also living entities, but they have got a different type of body. Every one of us, different type body. Even they are children, their body is different from your body. Even the (indistinct). Although their body is obtained, there are some similarities. But if you analyze very scrutinizingly there will be some difference from your body, from your daughter's body, from your boy's body. So every body, every living entity is getting a certain type of body according to his desire. According to his desire. So that desire means material enjoyment. Just like you have got certain desire to become champion in racing. Another body has got desire to become something else. Another body has got desire for something else. So we have got this freedom by the grace of God or Kṛṣṇa. Because we are children. He has given freedom. "All right, if you want this, take it." In this way our life is going on. This is called birth and death. One chapter you are finishing in one life, next chapter begins another life. Next chapter begins another life. So the problem is birth and death. But nobody wants birth and death. Nobody wants. But it is there on account of our material life. So in material life there are four problems: birth, death, old age, and disease. So long one has to accept a material body, he has to accept these miseries also. Birth is also misery. When the child remains within the womb, in a compact bag... Very precarious condition.

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

Pradyumna:

kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ
sarva-kāma-dughā mahī
siṣicuḥ sma vrajān gāvaḥ
payasodhasvatīr mudā
(SB 1.10.4)

"During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag, and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."

Prabhupāda: Now, happy attitude. Now the cow are going to be killed. They know it, that "We are going to be killed." They're also intelligent living entity. So how they can be happy? If some human being concentrated in a camp, and they know that "We are going to be killed," can they be happy? So if one is not happy, if the cow is not happy, can she supply sufficient milk? No. No. Therefore just they were happy. Therefore milk was supplied so much that the grazing ground became wet with milk. Muddy. With milk, not with water. So we, we have no intelligence how to live. We... Our Bhagavad-gītā says, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya vaiśya. Means kṛṣi-go-rakṣya, to protect cows. Nowadays not to protect cows—to kill cows. Just see, business. Vaiśya means businessman. So vaiśya's business is kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). But no go-rakṣya. Cutting the throat of go. This kind of sinful activities are going on, and they want to be happy. Instead of giving protection to the cows... In the Bible, also it is said that the animals are given under the protection of the human being.

Conversation at Airport -- October 26, 1973, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ. So if there is regular rainfall, then you get all necessities of life. And the cows were so happy that the milk bag was so full that the pasturing ground became muddy with milk. They were supplying so much milk. So arrangement should be made how you can get more milk and more foodgrains. Then the whole economic problem will be solved. But instead of getting more milk, they are slaughtering cows, innocent animals. So people have become demons, rascals, so they must suffer. There is no other way. (end)

Morning Walk -- December 2, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That was answered by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. One of His devotee, Vāsudeva Datta, he said, "Sir, You have come. You take all the living entities of this universe and release them from this life. And if You think that they are so sinful, they cannot be, then give their all sins to me. But You take them." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "Suppose if I take this universe, the all living entities, do you think the business will be finished? This universe is just like a mustard seed in the bag of mustard seeds." (laughs) So from the bag of mustard seeds, if you take one mustard seed, what is the loss there? So this cannot be stopped. So anantāya kalpate. There are so many, unlimited number of living entities. So this will go on.

Morning Walk -- December 31, 1973, Los Angeles:

Jagajjīvana: Does that mean the same amount of gold is here?

Prabhupāda: No, larger scale... Suppose if you want to store, say, thousand kilos or a thousand bags of rice, so you have to pay me gold. But you have no such gold. Therefore large scale industry will be stopped. Just see.

Karandhara: Then the price of rice would go very low.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then you get actual price and actual value. Goods are there, any part of the world you..., there is enough commodity. But these rascals, they are hoarding, and they are not giving in right time. So people are suffering.

Karandhara: Yes. There's a... They buy now. They buy the goods before they are even grown, from the commodity market.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 3, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That will be still broader.

Karandhara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: The three figures and one is in a suit, one... They all have tilaka, neck beads and bead bag...

Prabhupāda: Religious man may be in saffron color, a sannyāsī, a tridaṇḍī sannyāsī. Our Gurukṛpā Mahārāja? Where is he?

Karandhara: Gurukṛpā Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Here are religious men.

Nara-nārāyaṇa: Oh! (laughter) Jaya!

Morning Walk -- January 5, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: That Chaganlal this, I pay him extra eighty-five thousand. That is also black. No more white. So the black money was paid in this way, that the money was counted and it was put in a handbag, and it was locked by him. So the key was with him, and the bag was with me. As soon as court accepted the agreement, then I handed over, "Take this bag." Then again this Ratna Parik, he first of all proposed twenty thousand to sell that house. Then when I went there, he knew that he's settling at any cost, he said, "Now that twenty thousand was cost formerly. Now things have gone very high, I cannot sell." So he knows that we are eager to purchase. Then I said, "Then what do you want to do?" "Now I want thirty thousand." "All right, yes. Take it." I did not argue. In this way I settled up. And our Girirāja's father appreciated that "It is better a bad settlement than to prolong the case." So I took this policy. It is bad settlement, from twenty thousand to thirty thousand.

Morning Walk -- March 27, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Going there and reading history is something different. You have seen only at a particular time, but... (break)

Prabhupāda: ...I was on the airport, they called police because they got, they saw one Bhagavad-gītā in my bags. You see. This is the position.

Dr. Patel: They are, they are translating Bhagavad-gītā in their own universities now. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...may be because it was Bhagavad-gītā, they stopped me.

Dr. Patel: This is a phase of the government. The government is not the people. (break) (Heavy wind noise throughout)

Prabhupāda: ...people everywhere good.

Morning Walk -- April 16, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Because you do not accept the soul, medical science.

Dr. Patel: Soul is already everywhere. But what do you say? Everywhere means only on the earth, not away from the earth, and then outer space. You want to say... Do you mean outer space also?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. Sarvaga. Sarvaga means...

Dr. Patel: But these boys have to be kept in those living bags, with saturation of oxygen, who have been to the moon. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...the statement in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, kṛṣṇa yei bhaje sei baḍa catur: "Unless one is very, very extraordinarily intelligent, he cannot be a devotee of Kṛṣṇa." Svalpa-puṇya-vatāṁ rājan viśvāso naiva jāyate.

Morning Walk -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Cranes.

Dhanañjaya: Cranes?

Satsvarūpa: The zoo.

Dhanañjaya: Those are pelicans, with the big bag underneath. And there are some South American animals, llamas. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...fight with tiger and elephants?

Atreya Ṛṣi: Lions.

Dhanañjaya: They would use a trident and a net and they would try to throw the net over the lion and fight the lion like this.

Prabhupāda: And kill?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Through the BBT Warehouse -- February 10, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: And that's a fact. There is no happiness. We are declaring, "That's all right, but if there is little happiness, that is in America." So you are favored by Kṛṣṇa. Utilize this favor of Kṛṣṇa in glorifying Kṛṣṇa. Then it is success. Avicyuto arthaḥ kavibhir nirūpito yad uttama-śloka, to become extraordinary in any branch of facilities, that requires austerities. So when one has acquired that, he should engage it for glorifying the Supreme. Yad-uttama-śloka-guṇānuvarṇanam (SB 1.5.22). (break) ...with the bag. (break) ...within the box.

Jayatīrtha: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...chance should be given during childhood. Kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha (SB 7.6.1). This bhāgavata-dharma, that is our idea in Gurukula. Learn Kṛṣṇa consciousness from the very beginning of childhood.

Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta:

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.

Devotee (4): They call it Penn.

Prabhupāda: That university, there is one professor, Norman Brown. I met him. He was a very nice gentleman. He carried my bags to the bus station. He was very kind. His father was a clergyman in India, so he was born in India. So he has got good respect for Indian culture.

Rūpānuga: Is that when you went to speak in Philadelphia?

Prabhupāda: Um hm.

Rūpānuga: Then that was when Nikhilānanda was there. Didn't you speak in his class?

Prabhupāda: Nikhilānanda was in New York.

Room Conversation with Jesuit -- May 19, 1975, Melbourne:

Jesuit: What was the meaning of the bag you wear on your hand?

Prabhupāda: These chanting. Beads.

Jesuit: Oh, beads in there.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I think in Christian there are beads also.

Jesuit: I saw them in the picture, they had'em, and I didn't know what it was.

Prabhupāda: This is covering of the beads because we put here, there may be some dust. So to show respect to the beads, we keep it covered. We do not touch on the floor. It is awe and veneration.

Jesuit: Well, I have kept you long enough. I...

Room Conversation after Press Conference -- July 9, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Brahmānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, there is one lady. She would like to come and see you. She is the mother of one of our devotees. But she is coming wearing tilaka and a bead bag.

Prabhupāda: Very good. (pause) But I am not speaking of my experience. When we speak, we speak from the śāstra. So this woman's dependence is described in Manu-saṁhitā. And there are many instances. Just like Kuntī. Kuntī was not ordinary woman. She was very learned, exalted woman.

Brahmānanda: This is one point, that in our devotional line there are spiritual leaders who have been women such as Kuntī. She gave...

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

Prabhupāda: (aside:) The windows this side cannot be opened?

Satsvarūpa: "... all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bags and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."

Prabhupāda: You can open this, these windows. There is no window? Just hear this.

Nara-nārāyaṇa: Close?

Prabhupāda: No, open this glass window so ventilation may come. Ah. So? Yes, so read the translation.

Satsvarūpa: "During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhisthira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."

Prabhupāda: That's all. Because the cows were very cheerful, the milk was dropping from the milk bag so that the grazing ground became muddy. It was muddy not with water but with milk. So how much milk was bein

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

Satsvarūpa: "Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude,..."

Prabhupāda: "Cheerful attitude." If cows know. They have got intelligence that "We will be killed." Therefore they are not supplying sufficient milk. They cannot, just like if your mind is full of anxiety, you cannot work fully. So because they are denied this cheerfulness, you are getting less milk. If you keep them cheerful, they will give more milk. This is nature's economic development. Artificially you cannot increase the production of milk. But according to the instruction of scripture, if you keep them cheerful without any fear, they will deliver double milk. So therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is recommended that cows should be protected in the human society. If you want to eat meat, you can kill insignificant, small animal, but don't kill cows. There are other animals-hogs, pigs, goats, lambs or birds, so many, fish—if you are at all interested in meat-eating; but don't kill cow. Find out this verse from Bhagavad-gītā, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). Those who are vaiśyas... Economic development... Vaiśya means economic development. They should produce ample food grains and give protection to the cows. Just like our Kṛṣṇa's life, His foster father was a vaiśya. So he is keeping so many hundred thousands of cows, and Kṛṣṇa was entrusted to take charge of the calves, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. So although They were very rich father's son, still They were taking the calves in the forest for tending in childhood. Still... You have seen in Māyāpur?

Morning Walk -- September 13, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. So you are going to the magistrate? You have calculated?

Saurabha: Ten thousand bags.

Prabhupāda: Ten thousand bags. No, I wanted to construct this building with bricks.

Saurabha: Yes, but we have to make some slabs and some...

Prabhupāda: Slabs? So still you will require ten thousand?

Saurabha: No. If we do with mud, then it will be much less.

Prabhupāda: Not mud. The mortar means sand and cement.

Guṇārṇava: No plaster?

Morning Walk -- September 13, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, no, plastering also.

Saurabha: No plastering.

Prabhupāda: No, plastering also.

Saurabha: But it comes to about eight thousand bags if I do the whole land like that around. That is the full thing, two stories. It comes to about eight thousand. And then there's always some extra for finalizing the floors...

Prabhupāda: No, no. I don't want to use this iron.

Saurabha: No, we don't require iron.

Prabhupāda: Simply brick. So in that way you still require ten thousand?

Morning Walk -- November 4, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No, he is also paṇḍita. (laughter)

Dr. Patel: Śrīmad-Bhāgavata Sanskrit little difficult.

Prabhupāda: Yasyātmā-buddhiḥ-kunape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). This body is just like a bag made of three dhātus: kaptha, pitta, vāyu. Actually it is so. They are thinking that this body is made of blood, muscle, bone, and urine, and stool. This is the constitution of the body. And these foolish people thinking that the living condition is coming from combination of these things.

Dr. Patel: Material things.

Prabhupāda: Not only material. Such abominable things as stool, urine, blood, bone, muscle—all rejected things. And they are so foolish that they are accepting that combination of the stool, urine, blood and bones can create a body..., a life. Body is already there. So if you are so big scientist why don't you take this material and create a life?

Morning Walk -- November 29, 1975, Delhi:

Tejās: In Bombay, even if any businessman brings more than five kgs of rice, they will seize him. They search the baggage many times in the trains at the station.

Prabhupāda: You see. This is the kalākendra.

Haṁsadūta: There was a political cartoon that people were shouting for food to Indira Gandhi, and the minister was saying, "The people want food." And she said, "But tomorrow we're going to have television."

Prabhupāda: Television. Kalākendra. (break) ...kalākendra? This big house.

Harikeśa: Rabindra...

Prabhupāda: Rabindranath. Oh, he is the foremost kalā, Rabindranath Tagore. He has shown biggest kalā to the people of India.

Devotee (1): Aurobindo kalākendra.

Prabhupāda: Aurobindo kalā.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: No good fortune. God, Kṛṣṇa, says, "You do it"; you do it. Here immediately you become fortunate. There is no question of waiting for becoming fortunate. You become fortunate immediately. Suppose if I say, "Take this bag, 100,000 dollars." You can take it. Immediately you become rich man. Why don't you take it?

Guru dāsa: How does kṛpā-siddhi work, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Guru dāsa: Kṛpā-siddhi. How does that work?

Prabhupāda: Kṛpā-siddhi means that you are not willing take this bag. I say, "Take it, take it, take it." (laughter) "No." That is kṛpā-siddhi. Even you are unwilling, I give you in your pocket, push it. That is kṛpā-siddhi. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: Yes, sir, that reminds me of a story that I read that one man, one English lord, had gone on a pigeon shooting. I told once this story. And he had got lot of pigeons in a gunny bag, and he would allow one pigeon to go and shoot. One pigeon, instead of flying, fell down at his feet. He could not shoot it. Like that. And this reminds me, this story, always reminds me, this complete surrender. He could not shoot that.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: So God will not mara na(?). He will never maro, cannot maro, because you are at His very feet.

Morning Walk -- April 16, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (break) And Kṛṣṇa is saying, and they still will not believe. Therefore rascal. It is clearly said. After analyzing all this material of the kuṇape tri-dhātuke... This body is a bag of this transformation of kapha pitta vāyu, tri-dhātuke. So this is not life. That is different. Kṛṣṇa says, apareyam itas tu viddhi me. But these rascals will not believe it. Therefore rascals. Very minutely analyze with this material in the body. What is there? The air is there, the blood is there, the muscle is there, the veins are there, the bone is there, the stool is there, the urine is there—a combination of all these, is that life?

Dr. Patel: No, it is kuṇape tri-dhātuke, kuṇape.

Morning Walk -- April 24, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: You can understand, provided you have got the sense. If you are nonsense, you cannot understand. You cannot understand means you are nonsense. That is the difference between sense and nonsense. That I have already given, the example: the same whip, to the animal it is not suffering, but for a man, simply by seeing it is suffering. It is the question of sense. That is the difference between man and animal. The animal cannot understand that he is suffering. Man can understand. That is difference. If you do not understand, then you are animal. Now, here it is clearly said, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). This is unhappiness. And if you think, "Oh, what is there, unhappiness in dying?" then you are animal. The animal are taken to the slaughterhouse. He is not disturbed. He is eating grass very peacefully. That is the animal life. If you do not understand what is unhappiness, then you are animal. You are not human being. But his unhappiness, that's a fact, to remain in a airtight bag for ten months. If you have no sense, "Oh, what is this?" And still being killed, is it not unhappiness? And if you say, "Where is unhappiness?" then you are a stone. The Bhagavad-gītā says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. Janma is unhappiness. First of all you have to remain ten months in a packed-up bag and that also risk your mother will kill you, and still you say, "It is not unhappiness"? Then what is happiness? You are so dull that you see there is no unhappiness in birth. Practically see.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Then don't try. Don't waste time.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a.... The Christians, they have a boat two hundred miles off the China coast, and they put little Bibles in cellophane bags and let the Bibles float into China.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Balloons.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Balloons. That's how hard it is to preach there.

Prabhupāda: That is also nonsense.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, it's nonsense, but the point is how difficult it is.

Morning Walk -- May 30, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Stena eva sa ucyate (BG 3.12). In Bhāgavata it is written that everything belongs to God. You take whatever is your necessity. You take more, then you'll be punished. This is Bhāgavata's statement. So now the business is to become capitalist. He's taking more, holding the whole stock, at least in India. It is not coming to the market, and people are starving. So they will be punished. (break) ...also. The excess grain they are throwing it into the sea. So they'll be punished. They are also waiting, (Sanskrit). (break) ...spiritual communism. Don't take more. Just like the natural birds, if you keep one bag of rice here, he'll come, but they will take three, four grains, and they'll go away. And if you ask a man, "Here is some stack of rice." "Ah, I'll take." Immediately finished. One man will take it the whole stack, everything. "Oh, I've got it free. Let me take it." But the birds, they're under natural law. They know, "Ah, I have finished. I have got my belly filled up. I don't require any more."

Garden Conversation -- June 10, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: And there is another problem, Irish problem. The Irish men, they are dropping bombs in London, in daytime. Creating always disturbance.

Gopavṛndapāla: I was in London just recently, and in the airport, where we distribute books, you cannot put your bag of books down because the police will come, hold you, and say, "You have a bomb in your bag." You must always keep it on your shoulder. And there are signs about every fifty feet, saying "Do not leave luggage unattended" because they are thinking anything which is unattended is a possible bomb.

Prabhupāda: London airport is very congested.

Gopavṛndapāla: Yes, very.

Morning Walk -- June 13, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: There is no first-class men. All fourth-class men. They do not know what is first-class men. If one has got money, then he's all right. That is Kali-yuga. No qualification. But if you have got money, then it is all right. You are big man. Money's everything at the present moment. People, they are trying to accumulate money by all means. Never mind first class, second class, third class, bring money any way. Rather, if one does not drink, he's a third-class man. And if one drinks, he's first-class man. Civilized. In India, formerly, any gentleman comes, a glass of water or two sandeśa was given. Now that is rejected. If a gentleman is not offered a bag(?) of wine and some chicken, then it is not proper reception. (break) ...building?

Interview with Professors O'Connell, Motilal and Shivaram -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: No, Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya mām (BG 18.66), you surrender, you become qualified. You agree, "Yes, I surrender, Kṛṣṇa says." Then immediately you become qualified. But that you do not do. Kṛṣṇa is personally canvassing, but we are not agreeing. What can be done? If I say, with a bag of million dollars, "Take this bag," if you don't agree, then you remain poor man. But you agree, "Yes, without any labor I'm getting the million dollars. Well, all right." Kṛṣṇa says, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). To come to that Kṛṣṇa consciousness rightly and surrender to Kṛṣṇa, it takes many millions of births. But if one is intelligent, if this is the ultimate goal, that one has to come to this point, to surrender to Vāsudeva, why not do it immediately? That is intelligence. That is intelligence. Kṛṣṇa is canvassing. One has to take millions of births to come to this point, and Kṛṣṇa is personally promising, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66).

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

Prabhupāda: You do not know expert. So if we remain under the guidance of Kṛṣṇa, then we also become expert to some extent. And Kṛṣṇa's expertly service or intelligence we can see in the flower, so many flowers. So why shall I not take shelter of Kṛṣṇa? Sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). That is intelligence. That is intelligence. We see Kṛṣṇa's expertly manipulation. So if we take Kṛṣṇa's shelter, at least we shall get little intelligence. Dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam. "He gets the intelligence directly from Me." And that is wanted. Why it is foolishly dealing with this rice, dahl and make spoil everything? Be little expert from Kṛṣṇa's instructions and make everything nice. Kṛṣṇa personally teaches how to deal with cows. He never showed the example of killing the cows. He maintained the cows, the calf. He was distributing butter even to the monkeys. And the pasturing ground became muddy on account of milk dropping from the bags. This is Kṛṣṇa.

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

Rūpānuga: One thing is these beef cows, the female, they only produce enough milk for a little offspring. They have made it like that. You cannot get enough milk from them. They have little bags, only just for their own offspring. They have made it like that.

Prabhupāda: Manmade.

Rūpānuga: Yes, a manmade idea.

Hari-śauri: How does that fit in with the species of life, Śrīla Prabhupāda, when they combine two different species, artificial?

Prabhupāda: You can make, by arrangement, artificial, cross-breeding.

Hari-śauri: But that cannot be counted as one of the 8,400,000 forms. I was thinking last night when we were coming down this road that it's very nice and smooth, but then I thought you were saying the other morning that in the heavenly planets they are made from coral and so many different things. Here we're using tarmac.

Prabhupāda: The more you go higher planetary system, the standard of living is many, many thousand times better than this. Many, many thousand times.

Room Conversation -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: It has begun from New York, eh?

Hari-śauri: Yeah, you had kidney trouble in New York, and then immediately after that, coughing and.... When we came on the plane it grew worse.

Prabhupāda: One doctor came, he gave me three bags of tablets.

Hari-śauri: He wanted to give you five. He gave us five different prescriptions.

Prabhupāda: I did not take anything, tablet. Rather, what one I was taking, I have stopped that also.

Jayatīrtha: You do not put very much faith in these doctors.

Prabhupāda: What this medicine will help?

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

George Harrison: That's quite cheap.

Mukunda: Yes, we were really surprised. But if it hadn't been for that, we'd have had no cow pasture. Cows are out there.

Prabhupāda: We have got one cow, many cows in Philadelphia. The milk bags, she gives hundred and two pounds daily.

George Harrison: Of milk? Who owns this? Who milks the cows?

Gurudāsa: Some of the devotees.

Prabhupāda: We have got tanks for storing milk, tanks.

George Harrison: Yes?

Morning Walk Around Grounds -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: But it is nice, why you are changing it? Unnecessary spending is not... (break) ...the sticks?

Devotee (3): From China.

Prabhupāda: What are in these bags?

Devotee (3): We're specializing in henna.

Prabhupāda: Honey?

Devotee (3): Henna. We're going to produce ten different coloring henna. (break) ...leaf of acacia making noncoloring henna.

Prabhupāda: Where you get?

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: That is all right.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Let me show you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: This is the key to this cabinet, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I put the bag in it. (break)... very expensive.

Prabhupāda: This is a rented house?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: What is the rent?

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

Prabhupāda: It belongs to God. This is accepted. And God... And everyone is God's son. Therefore as the son can enjoy the father's property, they can enjoy. But they cannot claim proprietorship. As directed by the father, one can enjoy the father's property, but he cannot claim that it is his property. This is the correct position. And the king is supposed to be representative of God to see that things are rightly going on, that's all. Nobody's unnecessarily claiming proprietorship. He should remind that "It is God's property. You can utilize it as far as you need; you don't take more. Whatever you need you take, but you cannot take more." Like the birds and beasts they are living. They do not make stock. They need to eat something, they'll eat some fruit, then they go away. When they are hungry they will go another tree. They never claim that "This is my tree, this is my fruit." This is natural. If you put a bag of rice here, the birds will come, they will eat some grains and go away. But a man, he'll go and try to stock something, and he will take more.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: He has performed all the ritualistic devotion. There are many statements in the śāstras, that when you come to the devotional platform, you haven't go to perform these ritualistic ceremonies. Because the end of ritualistic ceremony, you have come to the point. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Dharmaḥ projjhita kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2). Kaitava means cheating. Cheating type of dharma is rejected here. This karma-kāṇḍa, by performing some ritualistic ceremony you may go to a heavenly planet, but what benefit you will have? That one has to understand. You can enjoy there materialistic, highest type of materialistic civilization means eating, sleeping, mating. These things you can get, but you have to come back again. Kṣine punye martya-lokaṁ viśanti (BG 9.21). So what benefit there is? No benefit. Just like in British period, some Englishman was made viceroy of India. Then after five years they sent to London, again with his bag, marketing in the street. This has been seen practically. Lord such-and-such, he's traveling in a third-class compartment with a bag for marketing. But so long he was viceroy, oh, so much honor, so much prestige. So where is that prestige now? These ritualistic ceremonies are like that. For more years you become viceroy, and then again fall down. That is your Nixon. What is the position of Nixon now? He is ordinary man. That's all.

Morning Walk -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Brains, complete whole is pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate. That is complete. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). That is beginning of Īśopaniṣad. It is already explained, the complete. What is that complete? Complete means complete brain. That is complete. Complete means complete brain. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Because He has complete brain. Anvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ, He's complete aware of everything. Therefore there is complete arrangement. This is the definition of complete. Complete in awareness. Therefore there is complete arrangement. Pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate. There is the pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate. Complete arrangement comes from the complete, pūrṇāt. There is water. This water has come from a water stock. The arrangement is complete. Wherefrom the water has come? It has come from another water stock. Pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate. So what you call eternal, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Iso Invocation). It is so complete that if you take out the whole complete, again it is complete. The supply is again complete. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu was requested by one devotee that, "My Lord, You have come, You take all the sinful living beings by Your mercy. And if you think that is not possible, then give all their sinful reactions unto me, I shall suffer. You take them." Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that this universe is just like a mustard seed in the bag of mustard seed. So suppose this universe is taken away. Then what about the other? (aside:) You should cover your leg.

Arrival Conversation -- August 13, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh, how he can know?

Harikeśa: He had one key I think for one of these.

Prabhupāda: Keep in the bag everything.

Hari-śauri: Yes, they're all in the bag there somewhere. A couple weren't labeled. This is here.

Prabhupāda: Everything all right?

Indian man: Very comfortable journey?

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) There was no water. All over Europe there is no cloud. No water.

Evening Darsana -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...fruits, flowers, also grains, milk sufficient. In one farm, Philadelphia, they are producing so much milk that they are selling $1500 per month. And they've arranged so nice, and big tank. And the pipes regularly as they do in dairy farm. When it is not working, only hot water is passing through the pipes to keep them clean. And one cow, the milk bag is so big. He gives 102 pounds daily. Similarly, in France also we have got farm. New Orleans, Philadelphia, West Virginia, we have got four or five.

Kartikeya Mahadevia: San Diego near Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And all of them are successful. This time I installed Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Deity in France.

Kartikeya Mahadevia: Paris, near Paris.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Near Orleans.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

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.

Garden Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is for the devotee. A devotee can eat. As Caitanya Mahāprabhu was eating. Govinda, his servant complained, "Sir, so many things are lying here and everyone asks, 'Whether Caitanya Mahāprabhu has taken my preparation.' 'Oh yes, He has taken.' So I have to speak so many lies. You don't take. What can I do?" He said, "All right, bring it. Bring it." So He began to eat for one hundred men's foodstuff stocked. He finished. Then He asked, "Any more?" So, now only the bags are there. Everything finished. (laughs) So He ate. Everything, one after another, one after another, one after another. "All right. Bring, bring, bring." So He can eat. We cannot. This water is going there? It is going only one side and not other side? (indistinct)

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dhanañjaya: Actually Janmāṣṭamī celebrations were very bad and it's very...

Prabhupāda: Therefore the color has faded? He is a rascal.

Harikeśa: I remember that when these Deities... They're never to be washed. Never water was to touch. Supposed to put a plastic bag over the Deity. That was... If you have to use the big Deities, you're supposed to cover them with plastic.

Prabhupāda: Why did you allow? Just see, this is the disease. Rascals they do not know. And although I was...

Dhanañjaya: No, but everyone was listening to him. He was posing himself as the most learned in Deity worship.

Prabhupāda: That he's fond of.

Dhanañjaya: He was introducing Hari-bhakti-vilāsa.

Room Conversation (Bullock Cart SKP) -- September 12, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Tukārāma is a disciple of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Then it is in order. What is the...

Indian man: (Recites Sanskrit)

Lokanātha: It's a very nice question.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (Hindi) "By My order." That's all. That I was explaining to Mr. Gupta. If I say this bag of bead, you take it and give it to him, then where is my difficulty? There is no difficulty. This is called beadbag. You take it and give him. And you become guru. Call a spade a spade. And if you become ostāda, Kurukṣetra means this body and this means this, and this means that," then you spoil. You spoil yourself. (Hindi) (end)

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

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.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Here they never satisfied. This is the modern mentality. Nobody is satisfied with his income. He wants more money. And for that purpose he can do anything rascal. I have seen it. This peon puts his bag without any responsibility. Letters are strewn and maybe some letters stolen. Who can say? And he came to earn some money. For some time he'll compose and get some labor. And in Calcutta I have seen all the office peons, they are sleeping in Dalhousie Square, the peon book as the pillow, for hours together. And when they, after distributing, when they return to the office it is going to be closed. And if they are asked explanation, "Why you are so late?" "Oh, he was not there. I had to wait three hours," and so on, so on, so on. Everyone is dishonest. Nobody is working honestly. Especially in India, because poverty-stricken. If they can sleep two hours he thinks that he has made some profit.

Room Conversation -- November 15, 1976, Vrndavana:

Hari-śauri: But you can get them all on cassette...

Prabhupāda: Between fifteen dollars, sixteen dollars.

Hari-śauri: We can't carry it all. We've got so much baggage we couldn't possibly carry all...

Devotee: Actually cassette is more practical.

Hari-śauri: These cassettes we can get, we can have everything on cassette.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Devotee: OK, this is... Actually they're probably sent by (indistinct). This is quite nice too. (Change of Heart starts to play—break)

Prabhupāda: Yes. (voices in background)

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Indian (1): Yes, all over the world.

Prabhupāda: And they go, the so-called yogis, swamis go. They, it enters into this ear, goes out this ear. That's all. No effect. "Bag bhak."(?) (Hindi) ...effective. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. (Hindi) "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord."

Indian (1): It's a wonderful thing.

Prabhupāda: "And you just surrender unto Him." And anyone who is doing, he's getting the perfect wisdom.

Indian (1): Hundreds and thousands people are listening to the message of the Lord.

Prabhupāda: We are selling these books, daily five to six lakhs, daily. What is the message? "Surrender to Kṛṣṇa." That's all. In one week, how many books you have sold?

Jagadīśa: In one week we sold 700,000 books. Seven lakhs.

Prabhupāda: Seven lakhs' books in one week.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Any sane man will appreciate. Why this father, mother, came to congratulate me? "Swamiji, you have done so..." It is Kṛṣṇa's desire that everyone be happy. They'll take Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then?

Pradyumna: "It is said here that the cows used to moisten the pasturing land with milk because their milk bags were fatty and the animals were joyful. Do they not require, therefore, proper protection for a joyful life by being fed with a sufficient quantity of grass in the field? Why should men kill cows for their selfish purposes? Why should men not be satisfied with grains, fruits and milk, which combined together can produce hundreds and thousands of palatable dishes? Why are there slaughterhouses all over the world to kill innocent animals? Mahārāja Parīkṣit, grandson of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, while touring his vast kingdom, saw a black man attempting to kill a cow. The king at once arrested the butcher and chastised him sufficiently.

Morning Discussion about Kumbhamela -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Three thousand lost.

Dr. Patel: Because the prices was so down, you see, and fertilizer they are selling at a very high rate. Before it was available, a bag, for fifty rupees or fifty-one. Now it is more than eleven-ten. They don't want that a man in the city should be employed for less than five rupees a day. It's very expensive. And they don't work also. They used to work very hard in ancient times. Now they come at ten o'clock, go at five. Before they used to come early morning at six, seven o'clock and work up til five in the evening, and you used to feed them afternoon.

Gurudāsa: Use gobar instead of...

Dr. Patel: No, gobar is not that much available.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: There was a big parade in Los Angeles called the Rose Bowl, one million people. So we made ten thousand bags of peanuts and raisins and called it "Govinda's Nuts 'n' Raisins." We were tossing it to the crowd, and they were going, "Hare Kṛṣṇa! Here! Kṛṣṇa!" They were begging for it.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Rāmeśvara: We could have passed out prasāda for one million people if we had had enough money.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Earn money like that.

Room Conversation -- January 20, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: Yes, so much. There was always a stock of something.

Prabhupāda: That atta, one bag.

Gargamuni: One bag a week.

Prabhupāda: And Kīrtanānanda was preparing at a time at least ten capatis in that oven, very quickly. Yes. And Jadurāṇī was rolling. Everyone was engaged. And on Saturday we prepared so many samosas, puris and sweetballs, kept in stock, and Sunday people were coming. At least seventy-five guests.

Gargamuni: Oh, yes. In that little room...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 26, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Why you say, speak India or in England? The human intelligence is the same. There is no change. They have made like this: "East," "West" and "England," and... The psychology is the same. The ass is the same. The camel is the same. The dog is the same. We are talking of these dogs. Do you think that in Europe the dog is different from Indian dog? (laughs) They have created another problem. But we take: "You are all dogs. Either you be Indian or England or German, you are, after all, after dog. Your mentality is dog." They have created that "Indian dog is better than the English dog" or "English dog is better than German." What is better? It is dog. You are doglike and hankering after some job in America and amongst Europeans. The Indians are all doing that, the same education. Recently for a post of five hundred men there were three lakhs of applications. This is education. And you'll find uneducated Indian, still he's independent. You will find in Calcutta especially we have seen. Yes. In the morning they'll purchase a bag of potato.

Room Conversation -- January 28, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: It goes around. Do you have that photograph? I'll show you.

Prabhupāda: So where is that photograph? Find out.

Gargamuni: I gave you one small photograph of the building.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Find out. I kept it in that, inside that booklet.

Hari-śauri: Which booklet?

Prabhupāda: Gargamuni has printed?

Hari-śauri: I don't even know where that book... Someone took that booklet away.

Gargamuni: I have another photo I can show. If you get my bag... (end)

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm. What is that medicine?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I can bring them. I don't know.

Brahmānanda: Were you expecting something.

Hari-śauri: We already got one big bag full.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. There's so many more things now.

Hari-śauri: Did Kārttikeya give it to you?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know who... Girirāja gave them to me.

Prabhupāda: So in Bombay everything is going...

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Formerly they used to stock huge stock in Calcutta. Burma Sale. And new tin, if you exchange the container, then six annas less. Not very costly. Of course, in those days it was costly, taking consideration of the purchasing power of money. Four rupees, I remember, a few annas. My father did not like to purchase anything retail. For his daily necessity he'll purchase, he would purchase potato, one bag. So one bag means, maybe, one rupee, eight annas. (laughs) One anna per seer, kilo, I have purchased. Rice, fifteen mounds he will purchase. And what is the price? Three rupees, four annas. First-class rice. Coal, this coal, coke. Five annas per mound, purchase one cart load, fifteen mounds. The other day I was calculating. My father's income was, utmost, three hundred rupees per month in those days. And taking gold standard, my mother was purchasing gold from my cousin—he has gold shop-twenty rupees per tolā, first-class gold. Now it is six hundred rupees per tolā. (break) ...in those days thirty rupees per month.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: What do they believe?

Tripurāri: They believe that they're just a body, and to enjoy the body till death, and then nothing. You present such nice philosophy, but they would rather think that they were just a bag of bones.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This Ted Patrick says that celibacy is a sign of insanity. He kidnaps nuns, priests... Anybody who takes celibate vow, he says he is not in his right mind.

Brahmānanda: He took one of our devotees and brought him to the naked dance shows and even hired prostitutes to go with him.

Ādi-keśava: I asked him once, I said, "If you had a chance..."

Prabhupāda: You saw him?

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Puffed rice is costly!

Hari-śauri: I don't think... Not so...

Satsvarūpa: But you can't buy it nice and fresh. They buy it in a bag, like you say, three hundred years old. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Puffed rice is...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not like here.

Satsvarūpa: Stale.

Hari-śauri: They've never seen it like this, in this form, anyway.

Prabhupāda: You can learn how to make puffed rice. It's not difficult.

Hari-śauri: All our farms should learn.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Huh? Suitcase stolen?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In Calcutta at the... There's a big hotel at the airport, and he left his bags there, three bags. And when he came back, one of them was gone with all of his wife's jewelries. Hindustan Hotel, I think it's called. Yeah, Hindustan, that big airport hotel. When you go down to Māyāpur by that road there's a big hotel near the airport.

Prabhupāda: I do not remember, but may be.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So. Anyway, he's lodged a complaint with the Tea Board because he's a big tea importer, so he has connections. So he's lodged a complaint with the Tea Board. They're so dishonest. Even this is the five-star hotel. It's a big hotel in Calcutta, one of the two or three best, and they're so dishonest that as soon as a foreigner comes, they can figure out where the valuables are and they steal it. And most people will let them get away with it. He may not, because he's got so many connections. But it's so dishonest. Even they make an attempt to cultivate tourism and be professional but-spoiled.

Prabhupāda: Hotels are always unreliable. They have got duplicate key.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Dr. Bose, Kartik Chandra Bose, his father was a go-down clerk in a tanner position(?). So in go-down, dāl go-down, dāl was falling down from the bag. Dr. Bose, Kartik Chandra Bose, he was a boy, he was taking the dāl and trying to push within the hole. So his father's name was Prasana(?) Bose. His master was a European. He said, "Oh, this boy will be very big man, your son." So he had no idea how to save it, but he was trying to. Dr. Bose personally told me that "I was trying to push the dāl through the hole within the bag." That is not possible, but he did not want to see waste. Why things should be wasted? Immediately that Mr. Morrison said to Prasana Bose, "Your this child will be..." So I had the same tendency. Dr. Bose liked me very much. Very much. He found me a prototype boy.

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

Prabhupāda: This is real socialism. God is the supreme father. Everyone has got right to live at the cost of the father's property. But you cannot take more than that. Then you are a thief. Take whatever you... And even by nature you will find. You just immediately throw one bag of rice, so many birds will come. And they will take one or two grain or something... They will go away. And the human being, oh, he will take five shares, he will take ten shares. And within one hour, ten mounds of rice will be finished. The birds and beasts will not do that. Whatever he actually requires, they will take from there. Therefore they are not subjected to the sinful activities. Only human beings are subjected to sinful activities. But he has got developed consciousness and misusing it. There is no sinful activities for animals lower than the human being. There is no sin. Because they are under the laws of nature, the animals.

Room Conversation about Harijanas -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Our books for showing, carrying with us. One full set. I think the best way for that would be that maybe we'll have Kṣīra Gopīnātha Prabhu go by train with full whole set of books, because taking on the plane is very difficult. It will be overweight. But he can go by train. It is not very long. It is about one days, one and a half days complete journey. And then he can take easily a lot of baggage.

Prabhupāda: He will take from Delhi?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The train? No, actually he can take from Bombay.

Prabhupāda: From Bombay to Kashmir direct.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Either direct or through Delhi. The Punjab Mail. I think there is a Punjab Mail.

Prabhupāda: Punjab Mail goes up to border of Kashmir.

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

Prabhupāda: Translation?

Girirāja: "During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira the cloud showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) Now read the purport.

Lokanātha: "The basic principle of economic development is centered on the land and cows. The necessities of human society are food grains..."

Prabhupāda: About the land and cows, this is Bhagavad-gītā, mentioned, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). Never recommends factory. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam (BG 18.44). So there is no question of giving protection to the cows if it gives milk only. No. Go-rakṣya. There must be protection to the cow. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Even the cows pass urine and stool, that is beneficial. And if it gives milk, then there is no question. Hm. What is that?

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Go means, cow and khara means ass. So yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke. This body, bag of kapha-pitta-vāyu, if one thinks that "I am this body," then he is a go-khara. So this bodily concept of life is going on all over the world. "I am Russian," "I am German," "I am Englishman," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am this," "I am that." But India, especially Bhagavad-gītā, when Kṛṣṇa opens His mouth to speak, His first instruction is that "You are not this body." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). Dehinaḥ asmin dehe. Asmin dehe. This material body... Within this body, there is dehī, the owner of the body. Now, you will find so many scholars, commentators on Bhagavad-gītā, but nobody understands this first line. This is the fact now going on. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). If you accept this first principle... You have to accept. Accept or deny, it doesn't matter. You are young man. I say that you will become old man.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Yaśomatīnandana: "Kāmam—everything needed." Translation: "During the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man profusely. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk."

Prabhupāda: Introduce this, rascal. This party government, that party government, big, big belly, big, big monkey, eating cows and hogs and dogs, and they have become big, big minister. What they can do? That is not... This is the secret. What is the second line?

Yaśomatīnandana: Nadyaḥ samudrā girayaḥ...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no.

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

Prabhupāda: You'll be surprised how what quantity of spices toward(?) Indians. There is a Calcutta wholesale market of spices. They... Everywhere, not Calcutta... Chili, they are sold in big, big bag. We have seen in Hyderabad a spice shop, chili, large shop. And amongst the spices, the chili is most favorable.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, they like it very much. You also use it.

Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone. And there are so many spices.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The spice merchants are usually pious men who become members, I have found. In any city...

Prabhupāda: They have got money.

Letter from Yugoslavia--'Books!' -- June 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: How intelligent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Every language, all the books in all languages. "Feeling a little satisfied that this school had been properly inoculated..."—he called it an inoculation—"...I picked up my two bags and ran to the train station."

Prabhupāda: When all these standing orders will be supplied and they read it, we'll get more first order.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: So our book prospect is very nice future. So BBT must be very careful for distribution like this. Such reception, who is that author, he'll not be engladdened all over the world? Against odds. Against odds. It's simply Kṛṣṇa's arrangement.

Letter from Yugoslavia--'Books!' -- June 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All right. It'll be a little banging. I told them tomorrow morning, when you're in massage, when you're in the garden, then they can do. I don't want them to do it while you're in this room. "Feeling a little satisfied that this school had been properly inoculated, I picked up my two bags and ran to the train station with great enthusiasm, because now I was going to meet Gurudāsa Goswami, who had come to Yugoslavia to join me. Not having the association of the devotees for many weeks...," all by himself, "...this thought of meeting..."

Prabhupāda: So try to engage Gurudāsa also as your cooperator. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's a good word. If you said "assistant,"...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Look at this Mr. Myer. He has to go flying down to Madras, close his account, do this, do this. How complicated life has become. And they were householders.

Prabhupāda: And they shifted very organizedly. The cows, tuck bag, then the guards with bows and arrows, then old men, women, children in carts.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They were in carts.

Prabhupāda: Yes. By procession...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The early pioneers in America, they would also go in the wagons, covered wagons. Now I understand we have one wagon going in America. It's heading towards Washington under the banner of "Simple Living and High Thinking." That will be unique.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Also we are now going to have big distributors who are ready to take on our books, and we're going to have them distribute our Hindi, Gujarati books all over India. Plus, you know, those railway stands? We're going to come out with a plastic, small bag type, with six pockets in it, and it's going to say, "Bhaktivedanta Yoga Library." We're going to have Beyond Birth and Death, Perfection of Yoga, in Hindi, and in Gujarati areas, Gujarati books. We'll have a complete selection of yoga books. I've been speaking to many distributors, and yoga books are very popular in India. I was also thinking, I have this book all ready, The Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. I wanted to change the name to The Scientific Basis of Bhakti-yoga in Hindi. Just by replacing "Kṛṣṇa Consciousness" with "Bhakti-yoga," the appeal will broaden because people are buying books just...

Prabhupāda: You can.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Kulādri: ...dakṣiṇā, eight thousand dollars in dakṣiṇā, for... Before... With the new system of initiation that you've initiated, he asked them to write you a check for $111 for each devotee he's initiating for you. So he has a check for eight thousand dollars for you. One of the girls has taken silver thread and crocheted this silver bead bag with silver thread. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Silver thread on satin.

Prabhupāda: Silver thread.

Kulādri: Yes. Also there is some jewelry for you. We have taken some of the onyx from your palace and put some precious stones and made a little jewelry box. And here's one ring one of the girls... Sapphire, star sapphire ring on gold.

Upendra: All made by the devotees?

Kulādri: Made by devotees, yes. The box is also made by devotees. This is onyx from your palace with gold trim. This they have also made. This is a medallion made with sapphire and rubies on gold. The devotees have also made this. Here's some rubies and emeralds and opals.

Prabhupāda: So, why don't you find out some bride? (laughter)

Page Title:Bag (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, RupaManjari
Created:01 of May, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=87, Let=0
No. of Quotes:87