Bed (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"bed" |"bedbugs" |"bedding" |"beddings" |"bedfellow" |"bedroom" |"bedrooms" |"beds" |"bedsheets" |"bedside" |"bedspread" |"bedstead" |"bedsteads" |"bedtime" |"deathbed"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 16, 1968, Montreal:

Prabhupāda: All the members of the neighboring people, they will come, very big crowd, and they will hear, and whatever they can pay, they will pay. And with that impression, at nine o'clock or ten o'clock, they will go to bed. Very nice arrangement. Usually the meeting was taking place after night, dinner, you see? Say, about at nine o'clock. And from nine to ten, eleven, the discussion would go on, and then the members dispersed and go to their respective home. We have seen. And all the ladies, whole road, they were discussing, "The priest told me..." They discussed very seriously to understand. So they don't require any education. Simply by hearing they become advanced. This is recommended. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ... Śṛṇvatāṁ. Just try to hear, hear, hear. Very nice process. So we are inviting people. We have got so much big space. Unfortunately, nobody is coming to hear. Mr. Khanvar? Why they do not come?

Mr. Khanvar: I don't know.

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

Prabhupāda: There is amongst the brāhmaṇa, not now, in the Vedic system, the uñca-vṛtti. It is called uñca-vṛtti. Uñca-vṛtti means they will go the paddy field, and after the cultivator takes all the paddies, some paddies are thrown away. They will collect those paddies only. Just like birds, they collect. They collect those paddies, and that they will eat, not even beg, ask anybody for any morsel of food. So completely... And in the Bhāgavata, Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommends that "Oh, this open field is your bed, this is your pillow, this is your pot, and the water in river is sufficient water, the tree is full of fruits, and in the cave, there is sufficient apartment. So why should you go, anyone, to ask for your shelter, for your food?" Kasmād bhajanti kavayor dhana-durmadandhān: "Why should you approach the materialistic, puffed-up, monied men to give you some help?" So Śukadeva Gosvāmī was strictly following this, strictly following, completely independent.

Talk After Lecture (on Brahma-samhita, verse 29) -- November 8, 1968, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Oh, you have been? It is nice place?

Dayānanda: I think it has a fireplace in there.

Prabhupāda: That doesn't matter. (laughter) So you take that house. It is very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many rooms does it have?

Dayānanda: I think it has two bedrooms and a bathroom and a big living room and a dining room which you can make into a temple. And a kitchen too. There's a back yard with a tree in it.

Prabhupāda: Very nice. (Devotees discuss for some seconds.)

Prabhupāda: And on the broad road. A very important place. Very nice. You immediately take that house. Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Talk During Prasada After Kirtana -- November 8, 1968, Los Angeles:

Viṣṇujana: Would you like a plate, Swamiji?

Prabhupāda: No, no. A sannyāsī should always take in his hand. That is the system. Not in a plate. That means if you take in a plate, you'll take much. (laughter) So in hand, he cannot take much. Kara-pātrī. That is the instruction. But in this age such strict laws cannot be followed. The Bhāgavata says that when there is flat grass cushion, why should you ask for bedding? When you have got natural pillow, this hand, why you ask for a pillow? Then when there is river, so much water, why do you stock water? When there are fruits in the tree, why do you go and beg? When there is cave, why you are searching after apartment? (laughs) When the old garments are thrown in the street, then why you are searching after clothing? These are the instructions. Completely free. Kasmād bhajanti kavayo dhana-durmadandhān (SB 2.2.5). Why should you go and flatter these monied men? That is complete independence. But those days are now gone. (laughs) It is a different age. Los Angeles, I think it is a good place.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 17, 1971, Allahabad:

Prabhupāda: Bring mattress and spread. (Hindi) Sit down. This is comfortable.

Guest (1): In God's temple, what human wants? And what type of life he wants so that he can be happy?

Prabhupāda: Not upon that. You spread separately. You have no bed sheet? Bed sheet you can spread. The human demand is happiness.

Guest (1): Happiness, yes. But happiness means increase in which is already happy. It is...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now, the thing is, what is that happiness? That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam: (BG 6.21) "The absolute happiness or the perpetual happiness or the greatest happiness is that which is enjoyed by supernatural senses."

Room Conversation with Mayor -- November 10, 1971, New Delhi:

Devotee: I didn't find him anywhere.

Prabhupāda: He is not here? Huh? Resting? (background discussion among devotees) He went to bed very late last night?

Devotee (2): (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Devotee (2): He was trying to finish the Māyāpur thing.

Prabhupāda: Oh, oh, that's all right. Let him remain. So you can speak some discussion from our books? You can see he is very great speaker, Viṣala prabhu.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: It is very difficult to become a devotee?

Bob: For myself... It is... I don't feel so much the desire. I have... First the devotees tell me that they have given up material life. These four regulative principles, they have explained to me, means giving up material life, and that I see. And in place of this they have...

Prabhupāda: What do you mean by material life? I am sitting on this bed. Is it material or spiritual?

Bob: Material.

Prabhupāda: Then how we give up material life?

Bob: I think how I interpreted it was a desire for material gains.

Prabhupāda: That is material life.

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Material life means when you desire to gratify your senses, that is material life. And when you desire to serve God, that is spiritual life. That is the difference between material life and spiritual life. Now we are trying to serve our senses. Instead of serving the senses, when we serve God, that is spiritual life. What is the difference between our activities and others' activities? We are using everything: table, chair, bed, this tape recorder, typewriter. So what is the difference? The difference is that we are using everything for Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: Three main: maṅgala-ārati, bhoga-ārati and sandhya-ārati. These are main. Then you can offer śayana-ārati before going to bed. śayana-ārati. And these four, and dhūpa-ārati just after lighting, or before lighting. Then, after rest in afternoon, dhūpa-ārati. After dressing, dhūpa-ārati. So two, three dhūpa-ārati, and three, four full āratis. Three must be, and four also, four, full āratis. And dhūpa-ārati at least three, four. In this way.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Prabhupāda: When the Deities are going to bed. Before going to bed. Yes. śayana-ārati, it is called śayana-ārati. Sundara-ārati, bhoga-ārati, maṅgala-ārati. You write down. Maṅgala-ārati early in the morning, bhoga-ārati at noon, offering prasādam, then sundara-ārati just after half an hour or one hour sunset, then śayana-ārati.

Pradyumna: One hour after sunset?

Prabhupāda: Yes. One hour or half an hour. It must be dark.

Pradyumna: Oh, the śayana-ārati.

Prabhupāda: No. Sundara-ārati. Sundara-ārati must be as soon as it is dark. And then śayana-ārati. Śayana-ārati. Śayana means going to bed.

Room Conversations -- April 22, 1972, Japan:

Pradyumna: The temple should always have some prasādam there?

Prabhupāda: Temple must have. Even ordinary gṛhastha. That is Vedic civilization, not that we cook for ourself, for my husband, for my wife and children, eat it sumptuously and go to bed. No. Even gṛhastha, he should be always prepared to receive guest. Yes. And even a guest comes, your enemy, you should receive him in such a nice way that he will forget that you are all enemies. Gṛhe śatrum api prāptaṁ viśvastam akutobhayam. This is Vedic civilization, not that "Beware of dog. Please don't enter here. You are forbidden to come here. And if you come, I shall shoot you." Sometimes they do that. This is not human civilization. It is cats' and dogs' civilization. So actually we are teaching what is human civilization.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 26, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: First thing is, why you are working? What is the purpose of working? If the purpose of working is to work hard and then die, finished, then where is the difference between the animals and the men? They are also working. They are dying, too. Cats, dogs, hogs. Then after some time they die without knowing the purpose of life. Then where is the difference between cats, dogs, hogs and (indistinct) human beings. This question does not arise in the modern civilization. And one is thinking, "Yes, it is the same." But they're lying on the street, we're lying on a very nice apartment, bedstead. This is our profit.

Room Conversation with Indonesian Scholar -- February 27, 1973, Jakarta:

Prabhupāda: World is vast. So according to your karma... Just like you have got a particular type of body. You are young man, there is another young man also. Still, his body and your body is not exactly the same. His bodily feature, your bodily feature, his intelligence, your intelligence, they are all different. But a child grows to become young man, that's a fact. You are a child, another child was there. So they have got now different body. Just like you have got a different body from your childhood life. Is it not? But you know that you had a childhood body, although the body is not there. This is transmigration from one body to another. Just like a dream at night. You change this body. You accept another body. And although you're lying down on your bed, you've gone to some other place. Subtle body. Take for... This is a fact that we change our bodies so many ways, but I, the soul, I remain. So therefore, when this body will not exist I'll exist in another body. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, na jāyate na mriyate vā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We can experience this, and it is confirmed in the śāstra. After destruction of this body we are not disturbed. I, as living entity, I remain, I accept another body.

Room Conversations with Sannyasis -- March 15, 1974, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That if you sit down for chanting, they should automatically sit down. If one is left, then you can maybe say, "Why you did not come?" But if there is no chanting, no sitting, simply wake up, wake up, wake up, all right, I'm waking up (indistinct). But one may wake up or not, you begin your work immediately.

Pañcadraviḍa: We go to the āratik.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Pañcadraviḍa: We go to the, up into the temple for the āratik, so he stays in bed and sleeps and we go to the āratik.

Prabhupāda: No, that if he stays in the bed, then ask (him) to leave (?). Yes. Not that fight.

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: They like to do things in future.

Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. We say it is nonsense. In future, it is all right. You say, "In future...", but where is your method for future prosperity? That I am talking... If a child is getting proper education, then we can say that he has got a good future. But if the child is wrongly directed, then where is his future? A patient who has gone to the physician and undergoing treatment, he can expect in future he will be cured. But if he's lying down on the bed, and does not know who is physician, then where is his future? He has no future. So all these leaders, they're rascals, and who are following these rascals, where is his future? He has no future. They're all rascals. Anyone accepting: "This rascal is a great scientist." So his future is doomed.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1973, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: "In association with pure devotees." So if you are karmīs, then where is the..., What is the value of this association? Sat-saṅga. Sat-saṅga means assembly, discussion. Bodhayantaḥ parasparam, tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca. If you are not interested in association, discussion, then you are finished. So... karmīs, they are fools and rascals. When you have got this center, it is not that you should be engaged from morning till you go to bed for sense gratification. That is not life. That is karmī's life. You have no time for sat-saṅga, for association. You cannot make any progress by this sort of karmī's life. We have to work for organization, but not that whole day and night engaged and no sat-saṅga. That is a misguided policy, and it will spoil the whole structure. In Los Angeles, they regularly assemble during ārati and class. If this regulative principle is lost, then you are karmīs.

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

Prabhupāda: Ah. So increase the fire. Yes. But because we have got this body, we have to utilize it to make the best use of a bad bargain. Therefore marriage is allowed, gṛhastha life is allowed, not for increasing sex life, but to finish it as soon as possible.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But, Śrīla Prabhupāda, even in the very lower forms of life, there are some species, they reproduce without any sex? It's called asexual reproduction.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Oh yes. These bugs, bedbugs, they produce by this blood. You kill...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We cannot check reproduction.

Prabhupāda: No, how can you check? There are so many living entities. They have come to this material world to enjoy. So the reproduction must go on. Just like you cannot stop the jail. You come out, but another is ready to enter it. That is not possible.

Morning Walk -- December 8, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: There's a large group today, Śrīla Prabhupāda, called humanists and they have decided that this concept of God is not very useful. We can solve all the problems ourselves.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. These are rascals. You see, humanists, they are professing humanists and they are killing so many human beings daily. You see? These are all escapism. What is called? Escaping? They could not find any, I mean to say, solace and now humanity... What they can do? There are so many people suffering in the human society. What they can do? Suppose they are opening hospitals. Is that guarantee for a cure of disease or no death? Then what is the humanity. You cannot do anything. You may advertise yourself, " I have opened so many hospitals and beds." But what you can do? Is that guarantee that there that there will be no disease and everyone will be cured, nobody will die. Then what is the humanitarianism. You cannot do anything.

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: There was a snake. He was living under my bed. So you know katiya? (?) The rope, katiya? So I saw something is hanging like snake tail. So I called my servant, "There must be some snake. Some tail is hanging." So the servant, they called all their friends. They came with stick, about a dozen. And as soon as the mattress was taken, there was snake. So I told them, "Don't kill it. No, no." "Nei saheb, yei nei hatya." (?) Ah, immediately killed.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Well, it has no value. It is gone. And again, this night, when you'll sleep, you'll forget all these things. You'll dream. You don't remember during night, when you are dreaming, that "I have got my house, I have got my wife I have..." You all forget. So it is dream.

Hanumān: It is true or is not true?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Where is true? You forget at night. Do you remember when you sleep that you have got your wife and you are sleeping on bed? You have gone some three thousand miles away and seeing something else. Do you remember that you have got a place to reside?

Hanumān: No.

Prabhupāda: So this is dream at night. And night dream, what you saw at night, that is now dream. So both of them dream. You are simply visitor. That's all. You are seeing this dream and that dream. You are, you are fact, but what you are seeing, that is dream.

Morning Walk -- February 17, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is my point. If you can avoid death, disease, old age, then you are well. You cannot avoid all these things. You must become old man, you must die, you must be diseased; where is the meaning of this well? It is simply concoction. (break) Where is happiness? Where is well-being? That they do not know. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. That they do not know. Just like a man lying on sick bed, and some friends come, "How are you?" "Yes, today I am well." What is this "well"? You are lying on the sick bed, hospital, and you are speaking, "Yes, I am well." (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. There is no "well." So long you are subjected to birth, death, old age and disease, there is no question of "well." When you can avoid these things, then you are well. (break) ...but our independence. What is that independence? No rice, no geha. What is this independence? (break) (Hindi) "godless civilization" saba boka mare hai, bās. (break) ...take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, everything is false. You cannot escape. (Hindi) The death is there. Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34). So at the end everything will be taken away by Kṛṣṇa in the form of death. Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham. (japa) Everyone, especially the karmīs, they think that they will live forever.

Morning Walk -- March 24, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So you are late, late like that. Than me. I rise at one o'clock.

Dr. Patel: And you go to bed at twelve?

Prabhupāda: No.

Dr. Patel: Nine o'clock.

Prabhupāda: No. I go to bed between ten to eleven.

Dr. Patel: I go to bed at nine-thirty. I must go to bed early. Otherwise, I can't get up.

Prabhupāda: All right, let us go. (break) ...dāla, cāpāṭis, (indistinct) brāhmaṇas cook.

Morning Walk -- March 26, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...keeping dogs? Is that hygienic?

Dr. Patel: Dogs?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Unhygienic. They, they make dogs sleep in their bed.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Dr. Patel: On their legs and all that thing. And what not? (break)

Prabhupāda: ...standard. Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra...

Dr. Patel: That is the best medicine.

Prabhupāda: That is the best medicine.

Morning Walk -- March 31, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Subtle body... Just like your body at night is on the bed, but you are carried by the thinking, feeling, intelligence to somewhere else. Is it not? So how are you are carried? You are actually lying on the bed. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is carried by the subtle body. Similarly, death means that this body stops working. But the subtle mind... Exactly in the same way. Just as while you are sleeping this gross body has stopped to work, but the subtle body is working.

Morning Walk -- April 1, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Because by opening hospital, you cannot stop disease. That is not possible. Then what you are doing for the others? That is for your satisfaction. Try to understand. Because you cannot do anything, but still, you are wasting your time. That is for your satisfaction.

Guest (1): Naturally for myself.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Hare Kṛṣṇa. You cannot do anything. The hospitals are increasing, beds are increasing, and the diseases are increasing. Then what can you do?

Guest (1): We can do our own satisfaction.

Prabhupāda: That's all. (break) ...done not meant for Kṛṣṇa, that is for his own satisfaction. Just like Arjuna wanted to become nonviolent: "No, no, Kṛṣṇa. I cannot kill my kinsmen." That is a good proposal. But that was his satisfaction.

Morning Walk -- April 4, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Dress, everything, garment, all varieties.

Girirāja: (continues synonyms to:) "divya-divine..."

Prabhupāda: Divine. That means they are not material. Kṛṣṇa's dress, Kṛṣṇa's helmet, Kṛṣṇa's bedding, Kṛṣṇa's shoes, they are all expansion of Lord Sesa. They are not material.

Girirāja: (continues synonyms to:) "aścaryamayam-wonderful..."

Prabhupāda: Although this is virāṭ-rūpa, still, there are aneka, many varieties. And each one of them is personally described.

Morning Walk -- April 13, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: This is the Sukadeva Gosvāmī says that śrotavyādīni rājendra (SB 2.1.2), subject matter for hearing nrnam, for the human being, nṛnāṁ santi sahasraśaḥ, thousands of... Just like in the newspaper in the morning, thousands of varieties of news they will attend, and ask them to attend the maṅgala ārati for self-realization, "No, that is not... You are disturbing, nonsense." This is gṛhamedhi. Gṛheṣu gṛhamedhinām. Vedic culture is that one must rise early in the morning. And even Kṛṣṇa in His gṛhastha life, immediately He rose up. Rukmiṇī was disturbed because womanly nature, and again immediately taking bath, meditation. This is Vedic culture. And sleeping up to seven and then unless takes bed tea, without washing teeth, and he is advanced. You see. And if one is asked to "Rise early in the morning and wash yourself, take your bathing and attend maṅgala ārati." "Oh, this is old way, bhajana nonsense."

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Just like, the example is given by Viśvanātha Cakravartī that when a man kisses a woman and bites her, she becomes pleased. Is it not? Is not a fact that that biting is pleasing? Is it pleasing? But sometimes it is pleasing. So one has to learn where to bite and when to... (chuckles) But if a rascal thinks that "Biting is pleasing. I shall bite always," then he is a rascal. (laughter) (break) ...lying down on the Yamunā beach, on the sand with His friends. And if we think, "No, there is no need of bedding of Kṛṣṇa. He was lying down on the Yamunā beach, so He will lie down on the floor." So is... That conclusion is very nice?

Mahāṁsa: No.

Prabhupāda: So we must know how to please Kṛṣṇa. Generally, the śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23), that is pleasing. Therefore these rules and regulation for everyone. But when one becomes mature devotee, he knows how to please Kṛṣṇa. He knows.

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1974, Bombay:

Bhāgavata: (break) ...take Caraṇāravindam from the hospital. So before we left, we had kīrtana. And immediately all the patients became happier.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Bhāgavata: The whole attitude was very dull and unhappy and morose, that "Oh, we are in the hospital. My body, my body..." As soon as we had the kīrtana, they all got out of the bed and they came and stood around and they watched and some were clapping and chanting.

Prabhupāda: Just see. Immediately life. Oh, just try to understand how much great responsibility you have got.

Room Conversation with Robert Gouiran, Nuclear Physicist from European Center for Nuclear Research -- June 5, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: Now they're saying we have increased so many beds, that means suffering has increased. They are thinking that they have done so good in this so many hospitals, and so many beds have been increased but that means suffering has increased. Otherwise why is the necessity of the beds and the hospitals?

Robert Gouiran: Yes. It's not because some American hospital are not healer that healing does not exist.

Prabhupāda: No, no, they're trying, everyone is trying to heal, American or Englishman or European, it doesn't matter. Everyone is trying but there is no healing. That is our point.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Just like a diseased man, suffering for, from the very beginning of his life... Then, if somebody suggests that "When you'll be cured, you'll very nicely eat, nicely walk and nicely think," so he's coming to the stage of diseased condition, "Again thinking? Again eating? Again lying down on bed? Then what is the difference? No, no. It must be zero: no eating, no sleeping, no bedding, nothing." He's thinking like that. Because he has got bad experience of his diseased condition, he thinks, "Again if there is eating, again if there is walking, then how it can be cured?" He cannot think of. These rascals, because they have no idea what is spiritual thinking, they want to make this thinking zero only. That's all. Śūnyavādī. They are called Śūnyavādī, nirvāṇa, Buddhist philosophy. "Your body is subjected to pains and pleasure; so dismantle this body." This is Buddha philosophy.

Room Conversation with devotees about Twelfth Canto Kali-yuga, and Conversation with Guest -- June 15, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Anyway. So vāsaḥ anna. Food. Vāsaḥ anna. Vāsa means residence. Anna means food. Pāna means drinking, milk or water or whatever. You require something drinking. And śayana, sleeping or lying down on bed. Vāsa, anna, pāna, śayana, and vyavāya, sex. Sex also required. Vyavāya, snāna. I have seen in New York. They have no... In a humbug, they have no place for taking bath. They have to go elsewhere. Sometimes some friends come to take bath. The, our students, they were coming to take bath in my bathroom. So snāna. So these things, nil. "When these things will be nil," vāsa, anna, pāna, śayana, vyavāya, snāna, bhūṣaṇaiḥ, "and dress," hīnāḥ, "being devoid of all these things," piśāca-sandarśā bhaviṣyanti, "they will be just like, what is called, urchins."

Morning Walk -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Satsvarūpa: Because he can't perceive. He can perceive that he has changed from child to old man, but he can't perceive what is going to happen after death. So who knows?

Prabhupāda: But he cannot perceive that we, at night we change this body and go to another body when we dream? He cannot perceive? Your body, this body, is laid down on the bed, and you go away, and you are thinking that you are in Europe and America or in the sky or so many things. So what is that?

Satsvarūpa: Yes, while its happening he can't perceive it.

Prabhupāda: But that is happening. He is seeing. He is a man. He is seeing. Why he cannot perceive? What is the difficulty? What is the answer, anyone?

Mādhavānanda: He is in illusion.

Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer -- June 19, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: When we dream, my body is left on the bed and I go somewhere. That we experience, that I am separate from this body. At that time I forget my, this body is lying down on the bed. I am acting in a different atmosphere. So and again, in daytime, I forget that at night I was in a different body, and I went to such and such place or on the sky I was flying. I forget. At night I forget this body and at daytime I forget that body. But I am existing. Therefore I am not this body. I am existing in this body and that body, but that body I have forgotten, and this body I forget. So this is a structure on my mind only. Actually I am different from the mind. And that is self-realization. That is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ (BG 3.42).

Morning Walk -- July 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: They are very much proud, "We have opened fifty hospitals." That means fifty thousand people have become sick. "We have increased so many beds." That means so many people have more increased their disease. But they're proud of doing this. Our poor-feeding and their poor-feeding is different. We give prasādam—by eating he'll become Kṛṣṇaized. He'll become a devotee. And ordinary eating means he will eat and go to hell.

Room Conversations -- September 10, 1974, Vrndavana:

Gurudāsa: ...Rādhā-Dāmodara, did you cook yourself?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Gurudāsa: Sarajini helped?

Prabhupāda: Sarajini simply washed the dishes, cleansed the room, set out the bedding. I was cooking. (break)

Devotee (1): Soviet, Soviet Land, I forget the exact title. And this one woman was a poet.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (1): She was a poet. In one article in the magazine. And she was..., stated in her magazine how much she was sorry about her youth.

Prabhupāda: Youth.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Professors -- February 19, 1975, Caracas:

Professor: (translated into English by Hṛdayānanda) He says that he agrees that the goal of life is not that, but that from his childhood he's been trained in a certain way, and he has not been taught anything else, and how can he achieve a different way of life?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that we are teaching in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, how you can change it. Therefore we asking all leading men to understand this movement and join it. That is our request.

Professor: There is a question I would like to ask. I do know that it is not the aim of life just to every morning keep your family, go to bed and have sex. But it is part of life.

Prabhupāda: That I know also, everyone knows. But beyond that, there must be some aim of life.

Room Conversation with Professors -- February 19, 1975, Caracas:

Professor (Hṛdayānanda): All the religions say they have knowledge of God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Anyway, religion means searching after God.

Professor (Hṛdayānanda): He says for example they have a new god which is money.

Prabhupāda: Yes, because you are imperfect, therefore you are thinking like that. Now, suppose you are on deathbed, can money save you? Then why do you say money is all-powerful? God is all-powerful, but money is not all-powerful. Then therefore money cannot be God.

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Four sources of life: aṇḍa-ja, udbhi-ja, jarāyu-ja and sveda-ja. Sveda-ja. The sveda-ja means just like these bugs. Wherefrom the bugs in the bed come? Is there any laboratory arrangement?

Pañcadraviḍa: No.

Prabhupāda: So why these rascals do not understand? The bugs come from the perspiration. So in the perspiration, there is all chemicals, and the bug is coming. Now, where is their chemical? Who has put here chemical? This grass is coming. How it is coming? It is so...

Pañcadraviḍa: The chemicals are coming from the perspiration.

Prabhupāda: No, no. That is another.

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Therefore, because you have no brain, therefore you cannot understand the rasas with Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual; that is not material. Ānanda-rasa. Ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). That is the Vedic statement. There is cinmaya. In the spiritual world there is ananda. You... You have no knowledge. You, due to your poor fund of knowledge, you think that in the spiritual world there is no rasa; it is simply void, negation of this rasa. Just like a diseased man. He is practiced to drink bitter medicine and pass stool on the bed and so many inconveniences, so if some of his friends says, "When you'll be cured, you'll be able to pass stool in the lavatory. You haven't got to, haven't got to pass stool..." Then he shudders: "Again I have to pass stool after becoming cured? Again I have to eat? No, no, this is not good. Make it zero." He has no idea what is the meaning of passing stool in healthy stage. It refreshes the body. We get good energy. That he cannot conceive.

Morning Walk -- April 5, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes. "No business. Come on. Let us enjoy sex." That's all. This is their civilization. Yan-maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). Most abominable sex life—this is civilization.

Nalinī-kānta: They say that in the human form of life we can ejoy sex life better than the cats and the dogs.

Prabhupāda: That is imagination. They enjoy without any restriction, and you have to make so many arrangement. You require apartment, nice bed, nice this, so many. So where is the better facility? You have to work for it. They haven't got to work. They get in the streets sex life.

Morning Walk -- May 15, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: So you become patient and go to the hospital.

Śrutakīrti: Just like in our prisons, sometimes the prisoners, they don't want to leave because they don't have to work and they're getting food. They have a bed...

Paramahaṁsa: We can teach people how to live with their problems and at the same time learn how to minimize them through technology.

Prabhupāda: No, because you have got so many facilities to teach people that "You become patient, you become criminal, and you live comfortably." That is very nice, "You become criminal, go to the jail and live very comfortably." "You become diseased, go to the hospital and live comfortably." That is very easy.

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Four kinds of generating process is there. So what they have studied? That germs come out perspiration, that is already accepted in the Vedas. Under certain circumstances the germs come by, what is called? Scientific name?

Siddha-svarūpa: I don't know.

Prabhupāda: Just like bugs, bed bugs. Due to your perspiration of the body, the bed being unclean, they come.

Harikeśa: So the capability was already there in like seed, and you just watered it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Room Conversation with Dr. John Mize -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

John Mize: True, but the egg in the mother has been fertilized by the male sperm, whereas the egg laid by a chicken was not fertilized...

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily. They have got that potency. There are four kinds of birth: from the egg, from the vegetable, from fermentation, and from embryo. So from any of these four kinds of sources the living entity come out. Aṇḍa-ja, udbij-ja, jaraya-ja, and sveda-ja, the Sanskrit name. Sveda-ja, simply by perspiration. Just like unclean bed they produce bugs. The man gets perspiration, bad perspiration, and in contact with air, with this perspiration, the living entity comes. That is bug. This is called sveda-ja, "out of perspiration." Your coat, shirt, if you don't cleanse, or your body is unclean, you will find so many moths within the shirt. How it is coming? From the perspiration, bad perspiration, bad smell. Not that every time the male female combination required. There are other sources also.

Room Conversation with Dr. John Mize -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, that is called spontaneous generation and scientists have so-called proven that that cannot occur. It's called a folk myth or something like this, folklore, that birth can take place without the male and female union.

Prabhupāda: No. How it is coming from the bed, unclean bed. How it is coming the grass? They are also living entity. The seeds are already there. They are like egg. And as soon as there is watering then it is fructified and it comes. Similarly, the egg..., fermentation, what is called, fermentation?

John Mize: Fertilization.

Prabhupāda: Fertilization. Not fertilize. The birds sit on the egg.

John Mize: Incubation.

Prabhupāda: Incubation, yes. They are artificially incubating, and the chickens are coming from the egg.

Room Conversation with writer, Sandy Nixon -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia:

Prabhupāda: At the present moment, because you are not trained up to see Kṛṣṇa, so Kṛṣṇa kindly appears before you as you can see. You can see wood, stone. You cannot see what is spirit. Even you don't see yourself. You are thinking, "I am this body." But you are spirit soul. You are seeing your father and mother daily, and when the father or mother dies, you cry. Why you are crying? "Now my father has gone." Where is your father gone? He is lying here. Why do you say he is gone? What is that thing which is gone? Why you say, "My father is gone," although lying on the bed? You have seen daily your father. Now you say, "My father is gone." So... But he is lying on the bed. So who has gone? What is your answer?

Woman: Where is God?

Jayatīrtha: Who has gone? If you see your dead father and you say that he is passed away, what has passed away?

Prabhupāda: Who is that father?

Woman: Only this material body is gone.

Prabhupāda: Material body is there, lying on the bed.

Press Conference at Airport -- July 28, 1975, Dallas:

Woman reporter: Well, the regulation, for example, that there must be a bed for each child. How are you going to...

Jagadīśa: Yes, we'll have beds. Yes.

Man reporter: Swami, why are you here?

Jagadīśa: Why are you here, Śrīla Prabhupāda? He asked why are you here?

Prabhupāda: Why?

Jagadīśa: Why are you here? (laughter)

Prabhupāda: This is my home. (laughter) I have got so many children, grandchildren. So I have come to see them.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1975, Mauritius:

Prabhupāda: Just like one man becomes insolvent, loses everything. So he said that "I had no money. Therefore I become insolvent." But that is not the fact. He could not manage; therefore there was scarcity of money and he became failure. So that is effect. On account of his bad management, he came to a position that he could not pay to his creditor, and his business is failure. So that insolvency is not the cause. It is the effect.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Bhīṣma was able to remain in his body even on a bed of arrows.

Prabhupāda: So when you are going to die, these are the... On account of imminent death, these are the effects.

Harikeśa: But that means that the body breaks down.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation with Reporter of The Star -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Misdirected. They are not taking importance of the right thing. Just like we are in this body. Now, when the body is dead, we cry that "My father is gone away. My son is gone away." But if I reply that "Your father is lying on the bed. Why you're crying that your father has gone away?" what will be the reply? The father whom the son has seen since his birth, that body in the coat and pant, so that coat-pant and body is there on the bed, and why the son is crying, "My father has gone away"? What is the reply? What should be the reply?

Reporter: Well, I know what I would reply. I don't know what you would reply.

Room Conversation with Reporter of The Star -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: He has not seen his father. That is my reply. Now, the person whom he accepted as his father, he is lying there on the bed. And now he is crying that "My father has gone." That means he has not seen his father. So this is going on. The whole world movement is on the basic principle of that living force which makes the body so important. Either a politician or a philosopher or a scientist, so long the living force is there, the body is important. And as such, the living force is gone, then it is simply a lump of matter. So we are taking care of this lump of matter, not of the living force. This is the mistake of the whole civilization. We do not know what is that living force. There is no scientist, there is no philosopher, nothing of the sort.

Morning Walk -- October 18, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: The European lady will never take a burden on head like this, but Indians, they do. Even respectable family woman, they also carry on the head. You will find many Gujarati. Simple living is natural.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: How is it that the Europeans especially, they have become the vanguard of rascal culture?

Prabhupāda: Because they are rākṣasas. They are eating meat and drinking wine and illicit sex. Rākṣasa civilization. Hiraṇyakaśipu means... Hiraṇya means gold, and kaśipu means soft bed. To learn, this is rākṣasa civilization. They are searching after soft bed and gold mine, hiraṇya.

Morning Walk -- November 3, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: You go to bed at two-thirty.

Prabhupāda: No.

Indian (4): No. Two-thirty. Gets up two o'clock.

Dr. Patel: I go to bed at nine o'clock.

Brahmānanda: One.

Dr. Patel: I go to bed at nine o'clock, so I get up at three o'clock. So let us do like that. Both of us go to bed at nine o'clock, take a bath... (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No, I go at ten o'clock and get up by two.

Morning Walk -- November 11, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is very difficult to count this sand. Can you count? It is very difficult. But you can waste your time in counting. (laughter) You are rascal; you can go on: "I shall count how many." But it is not possible. So that is rascaldom. Which is not possible, that we'll get. Now it is... Everyone knows there are some particles. Now you go on counting. Don't eat. Don't sleep. Go on counting. And śāstra says, ""Even if you are able to count this, you'll not be able to know God, even if you are able." This is not possible to count, but even if you become so expert that you can count one day, still it will be acintya tattva. That is... There is a verse that even one day you become the rolled sky... The sky is so big. You can roll it just like you roll up your bedding. And even if you can, all the atoms constituted, still you'll not be possible to know, understand God.

Conversation on Roof -- December 26, 1975, Sanand:

Prabhupāda: Not unknown. It is unknown to you. But known to us. If it is unknown to you, you take, you know it from me. That is real knowledge. Why you persist that "It is unknown"? It should remain ever unknown? Why shall I take from anyone else? That's a fact. Either you answer what is that element which is missing so that the body is now dead. Simply your denial is obstinacy. That is dog's obstinacy. Then you are like a dog. You answer that: "This is the reason." Make experiment; prove it. Then you are right. So long you cannot do it, simply denying, that is dog's obstinacy. If you, as you say, there is no soul, it is chemical combination, so bring the chemicals and put him into life. Then your statement is right. You cannot do it and simply persist. This is doggish. You are calling a lump of matter your father, your child, your relative, and when the soul is gone, you say, "Oh, my father is gone." Why your father is gone? He's lying there on the bed. The same coat, pant, face, ear, eyes. Why do you say, "My father has gone"? What is this nonsense? So that chemical combination is your father? Bring your father again, chemical combination. Hmm? What is the answer? Some foolish, rubbish thing, presentation, will it be accepted as knowledge?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: So this is nice. It is very.... It will be very nice to live in these rooms. What is the cost of this kattan?

Jayapatāka: Of?

Prabhupāda: What do we pay?

Jayapatāka: Bed, the small bed, about twenty-five, thirty rupees.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Jayapatāka: And the bigger ones, a full man size, about forty-five.

Prabhupāda: Very good. It is nice.

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: They feel glad.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Sometimes.... One time I was in Boulder, Colorado. So I meet this boy on the campus and in five minutes I convinced him to...

Prabhupāda: I have seen in New York. Many tenants, they leave their whole possession and go away. I have seen it. And for the landlord it becomes a problem, how to cleanse this. I have seen it. All table, chairs, bedding, scattered in this way, and they went away. I have seen it.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Bumblebee. He collects little honey here, little honey there, wherever.... And not one place so much honey. So this is called bahudaka. Not to collect lump sum, food, from anywhere. To any gṛhastha a sannyāsī can go: "Please give me a little piece of bread." So that is not difficult. "All right, take." Because many sannyāsī may come, so it is not burden, little piece. So as soon as it is sufficient piece, that's all. It is called bahudaka. Then, when he's further experienced, then preaching country to country, place to place, go on preaching. That is parivrājakācārya. And when he has sufficiently preached, then he can sit down anywhere. That is paramahaṁsa. (break) ...system. In every big temple there is shenai. All through the year, morning, night, not only temple, rich man's house. And they are so nice player that early in the morning, people, the resident, will rise by hearing the shenai. And at night they will go to bed and sleep hearing the shenai.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Brian Singer: How do you awake that consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Then.... Therefore the books are there. The first of all, you have to understand, "Whether I am this body or I am different from body?" This is the first instruction. If you are.... If you are human being, we should analyze the body. We are now scientist, chemist, physicist. Analyze the body. What is the difference between dead body and living body? The dead body is there. The son is crying, "My father is gone." Where your father is gone? He is lying on the bed. Why you say that "Father is gone"? Hm? What is the answer. The father is lying on the bed, the same coat, pant, and bedding, and everything is there. Why you say that "My father is gone"? Where he is gone? He is lying there. Why do you say he is gone?

Brian Singer: We normally say he's dead.

Prabhupāda: No, no, death.... What is the distinction between death and life? You are now dressing with these coat, pants, and this same body, same hair. Now, something will be minus—you'll be called dead. What is that something? That you do not know. Eh?

Morning Walk -- April 26, 1976, Melbourne:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They can't stop, na śocati na kāṅkṣati. They have to go further.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And this is negation. Just like one man is diseased. He is also eating, he is also sleeping, but that is not healthy eating, sleeping. He has to get relief from this eating, lying down on the bed and eating by some instrument. This nonsense eating, sleeping should be stopped. And when he's healthy, he eats also, sleeps also. That is different. That is different eating, sleeping, but they do not.... He is suffering from disease. He thinks, "Again eating? Make it zero. Make it zero." This is Māyāvādī. He has no taste what is the other eating. He wants to make it zero because here the eating is so botheration, "Oh, let me commit suicide. Make it zero." So that is Buddha philosophy.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Materialism means capitalism.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Well, they want communistic materialism. In other words, by creating, forming communes, everyone will get equal portion of food and bedding and clothing and medicine.

Prabhupāda: No, that is not the fact. A man's tendency is that everyone wants to get more. So how they will check it? This is already proved in Russia.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They condemn Russia. They say Russia is a failure.

Prabhupāda: And similarly, they will have to condemn. If they follow the wrong path, they will have the wrong result.

Garden Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Just like in Los Angeles. When I am in tour in other places I forget about Los Angeles, but as soon as I come here, I know where is my bedroom, where is my sitting room, where is my garden, immediately. I haven't got to be taught that "Here is your sitting room, here is your sleeping room." Immediately, I remember. Similarly, this living entity is transmigrating from time immemorial in different types of body. So as soon as he comes to a particular type of body he remembers the activities immediately. They are interpreting as intuition—that is not intuition. It is old remembrance. This is the explanation.

Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Duṣṭā bhāryā. If wife is polluted, duṣṭā bhāryā, and śaṭhaṁ mitram, and friend is a hypocrite.... Duṣṭa bhāryā ṣaṭhaṁ mitram. What is that? Bhṛtyaś cottara-dāyakaḥ, and servant does not obey, gives answer or, yes, if your master asks, "Give me this," if he says, "Why are you asking?" Such kind of bhṛtya, servant, and polluted wife and hypocrite friend, three, and a snake within the bedroom.... (break) Family means father, mother, wife, children. Generally this is family. So family members are supposed to be all friendly, in one accord, so that family life is peaceful. But sometimes the family members become enemies. So how they become enemies? That is given by Cāṇakya Paṇḍita: mātā śatruḥ, ṛṇa-kartā pitā śatruḥ. Father is enemy if he's a debtor, he dies a debtor.

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

Prabhupāda: I write in the night. I get up at half past twelve. I go to bed at half past ten, and I get up at half past twelve. Then I finish my chanting, if there is any balance, and then I begin dictating. And the morning they take it and type it. So this dictaphone is always with me, wherever I go, so my writing book is not stopped. Maybe few pages, but something is there daily. Little drops of water wears the stone. So in that way we have translated so many books. About fifty-four books are already published, besides the small booklets. And, how many we have published, Bhāgavatam? About twenty-two?

Hari-śauri: Twenty volumes, and two more in print now.

Prabhupada Visits Palace and Garden -- June 22, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Kīrtanānanda: It has very good view, all the way around.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Kīrtanānanda: These are your quarters here. This will be your study room, and there will be a wall there. This is your bedroom.

Prabhupāda: These are all marbles? No.

Kīrtanānanda: Yes, this is all marble. The devotees—you see how the marble is all inlaid on the pieces there—they've done that. Then there will be a dressing room and a bath.

Prabhupāda: Oh. That side?

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

Devotee (5): How can we perfectly follow only what Kṛṣṇa has said? The other evening you said that the patient he is always a fool and a rascal.

Prabhupāda: Answer him.

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: But one should not remain a fool and a rascal. If the doctor has given the formula, you have to follow it. He says don't eat this but stay in bed, sleep so much. You have to do it, otherwise you will stay sick.

Prabhupāda: You'll remain a rascal if you don't follow the instruction. So what do you want? You remain a rascal or make advance? What you want? Huh?

Devotee (5): To become advanced.

Prabhupāda: Then follow. If you willfully remain a rascal, that is the difference. Otherwise, if you follow you'll become advanced. Everywhere you'll find Kṛṣṇa's intelligence. He says mayādhyakṣeṇa (BG 9.10). They explain, "Nature." But they cannot explain what is nature. We can explain. Nature is a system which is being handled by Kṛṣṇa. That is real understanding.

Room Conversation -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: There is much time difference from...?

Devotees: Same time. It is ten-thirty now.

Prabhupāda: No, New Vrindaban and...?

Devotees: Same time, New Vrindaban.

Rūpānuga: Should I close this, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: I'm going to the bedroom.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, would you like a fan that doesn't make so much noise perhaps?

Prabhupāda: May be required.

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

Sadāpūta: Do we accept the way bacteria's reproduce, by fission, splitting in half? I know Kapiladeva instructs there are four different methods—the egg, the lump of flesh, etc. The scientists are saying that bacteria split in half and produce two daughter cells.

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

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

Prabhupāda: So this is a great science. If we understand, then we can understand what is God, what is His position, how He is great, everything. That is His greatness. Although He is in His own abode, still, He is everywhere. That is His greatness. I am here, I am not in my bedroom, but about God it is said, goloka eva nivasaty akhilātmā-bhuto (Bs. 5.37). That is God. He is far, far away from our, this planet. There is a planet, goloka eva nivasaty. He's there, but still He is everywhere. That is His greatness. That is the distinction between Him and us. We are in one place, but we are not all-pervading. In another verse it is explained, kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor (BG 13.3). Kṣetra kṣetrajñaḥ. The living entity is kṣetrajñāḥ, one who knows about his body. The body is called kṣetra, field, field of activities. I am working with this body.

Room Conversation -- July 9, 1976, New York:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Pālikā wants to ask you something.

Pālikā: Would you like to take fruit now, or prasādam as regular?

Prabhupāda: No, no, I have taken breakfast. So Bali-mardana Prabhu, doing all right?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Those are your servants' quarters, and the kitchen, and there's also a dresser in your bedroom.

Prabhupāda: There is any closet with lock?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. This closet here is a walk-in closet. Small room with a lock. You also have a cabinet that locks. It's a big walk-in closet.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. So I shall again stay in New York? Nice place.

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

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

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You rented a room there?

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

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was taking bathing there.

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

Prabhupāda: They have to ask me, final decision is taken from me. From all over the world, from all over the world letters are coming some problem, some problem, some problem. Although I have got about twenty secretaries, still they have to consult, I have to give them advice.

Hari-śauri: In the evening Śrīla Prabhupāda goes to bed at ten o'clock and gets up at eleven-thirty to begin translating.

Interviewer: You just sleep a couple of hours, then?

Prabhupāda: No, one and a half hour.

Interviewer: That's it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Of course in daytime I take rest two hours. So in this way altogether about three to four hours. Our philosophy is not that you sit idly and God will send everything, no, not like that. We know God will send everything, still we work. Without God's sanction nothing can come. But we must be qualified to receive the favor of God. That is our philosophy.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Oh, this business is going on.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Mahāṁśa went down and stopped it.

Prabhupāda: Everyone can go, but the business will go on.

Saurabha: So that is your sitting room. Then you have a bedroom.

Prabhupāda: What is the sitting room?

Saurabha: That is about 900, 850 square foot.

Prabhupāda: Eight hundred means length and breadth?

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So people were enthusiastic to come to our festival?

Saurabha: Oh, yes, very much.

Prabhupāda: That is wanted.

Saurabha: And this place, when it is finished, it will be the most popular temple in Bombay.

Prabhupāda: They have done.

Saurabha: It's already the biggest. So this is the building, (unfolding plans) and these three rooms—this is 32 by 32—is your sitting room where you can receive people. Then here is your bedroom, and here is the secretary room, here is kitchen, and here is servant room. So personally you have this, four rooms.

Prabhupāda: What are these?

Saurabha: This is the elevator.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Not even you cannot see black, any black spots. Then it is clean. Otherwise not clean. If there's a single black spot, it is not clean. You can see from this poor class of men, how their utensils are cleansed. Before taking water the jug, the waterpot... You'll like to drink water. In our school days there were sweeper, they were a different quarter. So you like to sit down. So clean. The sweeper, cleansing the toilet, bangi. But when you come to his house, living quarter, oh, it is so clean. The bed, the room, the utensils. And they also will take twice, thrice bath, then they will eat. That is a Hindu culture. Even the sweeper class, lowest class. And I have seen one sweeper class who were in Allahabad, regularly worshiping Deity. Very nice worship.

Room Conversation -- September 3, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Is that correct? Is that correct key?

Hari-śauri: This one's for some of the locks on the doors.

Prabhupāda: Which door?

Hari-śauri: Ah, from the... I think it was one on the bedroom originally. They may have taken them off again.

Prabhupāda: Find out the door.

Indian man: (Hindi conversation with Prabhupāda)

Prabhupāda: ...special quality, he's very tolerant.

Room Conversation -- September 11, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He has already gone there?

Harikeśa: No, I mean I know. I've been there. But that one man who's there now...

Prabhupāda: So four men cannot live in that room?

Harikeśa: Three men not possible. Because they've got two beds in there. Two of these big huge...

Prabhupāda: At least you provide them two men there and one man with brahmacārīs. That's all. Not that we can spare so many rooms.

Harikeśa: If I ask that man who's already there to go to the brahmacārīs, he may become offended.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you do that. He can go to the brahmacārīs. That's all.

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

Prabhupāda: No, no. Our men will not be fifty to so much. Suppose for us, if you spare one camp, so how many men we can accommodate there. Because...

Guest (5): In one tent at least we can accommodate six people. Easily. With a drawing room and two bedrooms. We have the military tents. And just on the bed of the river.

Prabhupāda: So how many men you are expecting?

Girirāja: Fourteen.

Prabhupāda: Fourteen. (break)

Dr. Patel: ...you can serve how many people?

Guest (5): Each tent we'll accommodate with all sanitary conditions. We have in one tent, which is quite a big one, six people easily. With a drawing and two beds.

Prabhupāda: So at least three camps we shall require.

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

Prabhupāda: Confluence, confluence.

Guest (5): On the spot. We are in the bed of the river and this plot is reserved since last 200 years for us from the government when the Mela comes. Pūrṇa-kumbha, ardha-kumbha. And the boats ply from our spot downstream at Prayaga on the saṅgam. That we take them during the day according to the nakṣatra.

Prabhupāda: These gentlemen offering, why not take advantage?

Guru dāsa: If it's away from the Mela there won't be so much preaching there.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: At that time Harrison Road it was. Harrison Road and Holi..., Holiday, Halliday Street, yes. So one shop was being plundered. Putamat putamat putamat..." So I was child, a boy. I became... "What is this happening?" In the meantime all, my father, mother, members: "Oh, the child has not come." They became so mad, they came out of home expecting, "Wherefrom the child will come?" So what could I do? When I saw, then I began to run towards our house, and one Muhammadan, he wanted to kill me. He took his lāṭhi and actually... But I passed through some way or other. I was saved. So as soon as I came before our gate they got their life. So without speaking anything I went to the bedroom, and it was in the month of... It is winter. So I... Without saying anything I laid down, wrapping myself with quilt. So that time I was rising: "Is it ended? The riot is ended?" I was asking. I remember. So I would have been killed in that riot. So I have got experience of this riot. That is the first riot in Calcutta, in 1911.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: ...in Vṛndāvana. And try to organize this Gurukula as their world attraction. That will be your success. Simply teach them nicely English and Sanskrit. And our books are there. And regular habits: going to the Yamunā in procession, timely get up early in the morning, attending class, clean dress, clean bedding, clean room. Śikhā-sūtra. The Vāmanadeva gave this description. Where is that book?

Jagadīśa: I don't know. Pradyumna may have taken it.

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

Prabhupāda: The other day I went to a gentleman's apartment. He is.... The gentleman is earning two thousand, and the wife is earning seven hundred. But they are living in an apartment of this size. Within this, there is bedroom, and there is kitchen, and there is toilet, and everything is there. And if we say people, "Please come here. Take a room like this and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa," they'll not come. They'll prefer to remain in that tiny apartment. Am I right or not? Manda-bhāgyā. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu has declared, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva. They are rotting or rotating within this universe in different species of life. But if by chance he becomes fortunate, then take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: "Will," everything "will." (chuckles) Never practical. Such a rascal, they are going on as scientists. Everything in future. "Trust no future, however pleasant." And they are depending everything on future. "Yes, we are trying. We shall do it within millions of years." And people believe that. Rāmeśvara: Because there's no God, so this is the only hope-science. The only hope for immortality is science. That's what people think.

Prabhupāda: But that is bogus.

Rāmeśvara: That means people want to believe in immortality. They want eternal life.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is factual. Nobody wants to die. Even on death bed, one thinks, "If something could have been done for my saving..." One gentleman in Allahabad, he was our friend. So he was dying at the age of fifty-four. So he was requesting the doctors, "Can you not prolong my life for four years more? Then I could finish my scheme." Such a madman.

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: It is not finished. It is there. Where it is? Dehāntara-prāptiḥ: (BG 2.13) he has taken another body. A man is sleeping; he has taken another body. He's jumping on the tree. How we can see? It's a fact. He has forgotten that "I am on a nice bed," and he's somewhere else. How it is? You see that he is sleeping, that he's not working. But he is working. Where is that brain? And it is a fact. I see the man is sleeping, but he has gone somewhere else. That is our daily experience. You cannot see it, where he has gone. He has gone to the jungle. He's seeing there is a tiger and he's crying, "Tiger! Tiger!" You cannot see. So why he's crying? So how can you see his activities? You have no such eyes. You cannot see even how the subtle body is working, and what to speak of the soul. He's dreaming means his subtle body, mind, is working, and therefore, within the mind, he is seeing some tiger and he's crying, "Oh, here is tiger! Save me! Save me! Save me!" And the man in the gross, he cannot see: "Where is tiger?" You cannot see; it does not mean that he does not see. And that is another brainless proposal. "You cannot see."

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: My father was doing business, and he was a great devotee.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And you were also doing business during, when you were...

Prabhupāda: Yes, up to one o'clock, two o'clock, he was engaged only with his pūjā, my father. He was going late, at twelve o'clock, to bed. Then he was to... He used to rise little late, at about seven, eight. Then taking bath, sometimes purchasing. Then from ten o'clock to one o'clock he was engaged in pūjā. Then he would take his lunch and go to business. And in the business shop he was taking little rest for one hour. And he'd come from business at ten o'clock at night, and then again pūjā. Regularly. Actually his business was pūjā.

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

Prabhupāda: Just like we have got practical experience. I am sitting here, you are sitting here. Mind carries me to New York, and I am now dreaming or thinking I am sitting in that room and talking with somebody. I have forgotten this, but... It is practical. Although I am sitting here, I have forgotten it, and I am working, thinking myself that I am in New York. Similarly, in dream my body is on the bed. I am thinking I am on the Himalayan top. So as it is possible even in this body, similarly, I get another body, gross body. Then I forget this body. This is transmigration. I have explained it. This is the factual. Everyone can experience. I have got a period of remaining in this body. So as soon as this period is finished I get..., I create another body and enter it. And because the period is not finished, although in dream I am getting another body and going to the Himalaya, top, or I'm going to my New York apartment, still, I have to come back because period is not finished. Simple thing. This is transmigration. Why I shall be put into this condition because my original position is eternal? Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20).

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

Prabhupāda: You can keep some āsana like this.

Hari-śauri: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Indian man: (recites Sanskrit ślokas)

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

Hari-śauri: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (devotees are fixing something for Śrīla Prabhupāda) (pause)

Prabhupāda: Now you combine together and present this Kṛṣṇa consciousness throughout the whole world. (Hindi) You have been acquainted with the other scientists?

Talk About Varnasrama, S.B. 2.1.1-5 -- June 28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Vedic way of simple life is the best. And unless you adopt the Vedic way of simple life, you'll be implicated, material desires. There is no end. The Western civilization, they are after sense gratification, but there is no limit where it will end. The psychology is that everything new. They are changing—"change, change, change." And there is no limit. Where the sense gratification will be satisfied, this much? Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma. Kāmasya na indriya-prītir lābho jīveta yāvatā (BG 18.44). Na indriya-prītiḥ. We require sense gratification—we have got senses—but not for the matter of sense. Just to live. Just like sleeping—we require bedding. And why shall I be dissatisfied if there is no good bedstead and no silk, silver and, or, and this, that, so...? Within my means, whatever comforts are available, I make satisfaction. Why shall I make competition?

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

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Quinine is poisonous, isn't it?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Quinine is not kept in...

Prabhupāda: Quinine is fever and (indistinct). And he said like that. "I have no..." So why these three?

Śatadhanya: We'll move the bed. He brought the hot water.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It almost seems like Mr. Bose was like a second father to you.

Prabhupāda: Yes. My father's friend.

Room Conversation -- October 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All you should have to do is just think about Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kindly give me that chance.

Brahmānanda: (to a devotee:) "Kindly give me that chance."

Prabhupāda: In this condition, even I cannot move my body on the bed. Only chance you should give me—let me die little peacefully, without any anxiety. I have given in writing everything, whatever you wanted—my will, my executive(?) power, everything. Disaster will happen if you cannot manage it. Hm?

Room Conversation -- October 9, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What nutritional benefit does strawberry give? Tejiyas says they have sugar in them, so it gives good energy.

Prabhupāda: Where is Tejiyas?

Hari-śauri: Right here, at the bed, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: You are coming from Hyderabad?

Tejiyas: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: What is the news?

Tejiyas: We're harvesting the mung and the rice.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So Śrīla Prabhupāda, Upendra brought something for you. (break) I also cannot serve. I have no idea. I want you to know that I don't know. I don't know what to say medically what to do. Upendra says giving little at a time is better.

Prabhupāda: So you wanted to change...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Change the bedding?

Prabhupāda: You wanted to do something?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We were talking about... Not now. I think a little while later giving you full sponge bath and then changing the sheets. You want to do it now? We can do it now.

Prabhupāda: No. You can do later.

Room Conversation -- October 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...krama you can increase.

Trivikrama: Must increase.

Prabhupāda: Then you have to make a stretcherlike bed?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, it won't be exactly like a stretcher. It will be more just like the great kings used to ride in. It will be a palanquin, but full length. It will be just like about half the size of this bed, the same as this bed but half as wide. Six people can carry. Four or six people. At least four men will carry it.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Where is Brahmānanda?

Jayādvaita: Brahmānanda? Brahmānanda is resting.

Prabhupāda: So, I am on the deathbed. I may go away at any moment. Then... Now it is up to you to give protection to the sanctity of our institution. Who else is there from the GBC?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Svarūpa Dāmodara, Jagadīśa.

Prabhupāda: Svarūpa Dāmodara?

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: In Māyāpura I shall stay in my quarter?

Śatadhanya: Yes, Prabhupāda. Everything is very nicely arranged. There's one nice, big bed, this same size, with nice, soft mattress.

Prabhupāda: Why another bed?

Śatadhanya: The other bed is still there...

Bhavānanda: The other bed, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is not wide enough. (break) ...very high. We find for moving you about on the bed, sitting you up and turning you on your side, that it's safer and more convenient if we're able to get up on the bed itself. So the bed that you had at Māyāpura was single bed. It wasn't very wide. This will be much more comfortable for you.

Prabhupāda: How long it takes to go to Mathurā?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: From here to Mathurā? It would take about twenty minutes.

Prabhupāda: Not much.

Room Conversation -- November 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4).

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So these two views, completely opposed. And I'm going to propose that...

Prabhupāda: No, it is a common sense. There is mother and there is children. Where is the father? They have no common sense even. Everything is produced... There are four kinds of living entities: udbhid-ja, sveda-ja, aṇḍa-ja and jarāyu-ja. They do not know anything. You are taking account of the jarāyu-ja, Not udbhid-ja, sveda-ja, aṇḍa-ja. They think the trees are coming automatically. That is their theory. That's not fact. Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). Bījo 'haṁ sarva-bhūtānām (Bg 7.10). They do not consider this. A bug is coming from bed—they think it is automatically. No? The bīja-pradaḥ pitā... There are four kinds of births.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: As far as possible, take me in a comfortable position. That's all. As far as possible.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Comfortable position.

Prabhupāda: That...

Pañca-draviḍa: Arrange one bed on the cart. This mattress can go in nice arrangement.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We'll bring him by car. He can get his things and bring him back. He'll get his bedding.

Prabhupāda: His bedding and beading. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bedding and beading.

Jagadīśa: Bedding and what?

Upendra: Beading.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Is that all right? (Bengali)