Prabhupāda: First thing is that calculation of Candra, moon planet, there are different views. Different scientists, they have different views. It is not a standard. They have not agreed to the... Somebody says something, somebody says another thing. Speculation. That's all. But that idea, that it is very low in temperature, that is mentioned in Bhāgavata. You cannot live in the water. You have to qualify yourself. (Sound of ducks). Just see. Their body is made just suitable for the water. So you have to qualify yourself. That is... Just like, in the spiritual sky they can live only spiritual body, and material body cannot live there. Material body is not allowed there. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ (BG 14.18). Those who are too much passionate, they are meant to live in this planet. This planetary system, status. There are many other planets like this world. So they are allowed to live here. Here all living entities, they are very much passionate. And adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ. And there are other planets, they are dark, dark planets, below this earthly planet. And the animals, they are in darkness. Although they're on this park, but they do not know where they are, darkness. Their knowledge is not developed. This is the result of the modes of ignorance. And those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, they are neither in darkness, nor in passion, nor in goodness. They are transcendental. So if one cultivates Kṛṣṇa consciousness nicely, he is at once promoted to the Kṛṣṇaloka. That is wanted. You are all chanting sixteen rounds? No? (laughs)
Below (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Interviewer: What is your hierarchy in Kṛṣṇa conscious? That is, do you have anything comparable to bishops and the hierarchy of the Christian faith and of other major faiths? That is, you are the spiritual preceptor, and who are all those below you, between you and the congregation, the members?
Prabhupāda: It is not exactly the hierarchy, but in the Christian method, Roman Catholic method, the process of the Pope, Archbishop, and..., that is very nice. There is no objection of us. But our point is that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is lacking. In spite of all arrangement, if people lost faith in God, so simply by hierarchy, what is the benefit there? There is no benefit. You see? Bambarambhe laghu-kriya, in the Sanskrit word, that you can make a very high-grade arrangement, but the result is zero. So that hierarchical arrangement is exactly not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is very common sense. Suppose if somebody wants to land on your country, America. You do not allow. There are so many restrictions, visas, passport, and immigration. And how do you expect to land there, all of a sudden there? They are so intelligent and their duration of life so long. They are far advanced in knowledge. Everything they're advanced. So you cannot expect in that way to land there. This is common sense affair. Besides that, the scientists also agree that the temperature there is two hundred degrees below zero, so how you can expect to land there and live there?
Reporter: In other words, you don't... How do you yourself feel? Do you feel that if the United States or the Soviet Union were to attempt a landing and their spacecraft went down, what do you yourself expect...
Prabhupāda: No, so far our calculation goes, from the books, nobody can do so. That is impossible.
Prabhupāda: Very cold. So even taking the scientific statement, how you can live there if it is two hundred degree below the zero degree?
Reporter: Well I don't know unless they intend to land at a time that...
Prabhupāda: No. There is suggestion of the scientist that there the temperature is two hundred degree below zero. I have read some paper. So if it is a fact then how you can live? You feel uncomfortable even in the Arctic region within this planet. How you can go and stay there even for a few minutes where two hundred degree...
Reporter: Yes, that's an argument based on logic,...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Very cold. (laughing) India, all the year they are lying on the flat sky.
Kīrtanānanda: But still, it is very simple. We also experimented with that. You can build a nice shelter very... for ten, fifteen dollars.
Allen Ginsberg: Well, it depends. You see, where we are we're twenty below.
Kīrtanānanda: Well, we have pretty near that in West Virginia.
Allen Ginsberg: In Minnesota gets thirty, forty, sometimes, below.
Kīrtanānanda: There has to have sufficient wood sawed up.
Allen Ginsberg: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Formerly, in Europe they were also living.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Śyāmasundara: He says that he always understood that one should not eat in front of the Deity. What is the difference?
Prabhupāda: Difference is generally we should not eat before the Deity. But there is another injunction, prasādaḥ prāptir mātreṇa bhoktavyaḥ. As soon as we get prasāda you should immediately eat (laughter. Sound of Prabhupāda eating prasāda.) Take this. So we shall have to go there?
Śyāmasundara: Yes. We can go now. Here is some water. You can wash out the window. It's dirt below.
Prabhupāda: Everyone got? Everyone? No, I shall go there.
Prabhupāda: Too long. This is also too long.
Cintāmaṇi: Too long. How long should it be?
Prabhupāda: It should not come below, Rādhārāṇī, the waist.
Cintāmaṇi: Oh. And Kṛṣṇa's?
Prabhupāda: And Kṛṣṇa's should be up to the neck.
Cintāmaṇi: Thank you. Kṛṣṇa wears tilaka like we do? Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Rādhārāṇī only red spot.
Sudāmā: We have some...
Prabhupāda: Any other questions?
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Śyāmasundara: You're under nature's law.
Krishna Tiwari: Right, we all are. You, me, Swamiji, you, all of us are.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Exactly. Exactly.
Krishna Tiwari: Neither you are above me, nor you are below, nor I am above you. I may have respect for you, because I, on my own, believe that you are respectable. That is entirely different thing.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: That's up to you.
Krishna Tiwari: Then authority. That's what I'm saying. This is up to me. But authority and subjugation are, are the two things which will not come.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: It's a matter of your choice. Accepting...
Krishna Tiwari: It's a matter of personal choice.
Prabhupāda: If you are not under subjugation, that does not authority?
Krishna Tiwari: I'm no, I'm no, I'm no subjugation to anyone. I'm a part of the nature.
Prabhupāda: How is that you're not.
Prabhupāda: There is no need of taking this mechanical... That is not possible also. It is futile attempt. You cannot go by force. Because different planets, they have got different atmosphere. So you have to transfer yourself to a suitable body which is suitable in that planet. And for that, you have to prepare. You cannot go with this body into moon planet. Because atmosphere... Some scientists say... I read in the paper that the temperature in moon planet is two hundred degrees below zero. So how you can go and live there? It is not possible. But if you want to go there, you can go there after death by preparing yourself. You transfer yourself to a body there. That you can go. So in the Bhagavad-gītā we learn that you can transfer yourself, your soul, to any planet you like, but... Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6). "If you come to that planet from which you'll not have to come back again, that is My abode." So if I have to endeavor for getting another nice body in another planet, why not apply the same energy for going back to home, back to Godhead, unto Him? This is our conclusion.
Prabhupāda: Well, that is fact. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram... (BG 8.6). Animal-eaters, they'll become tiger, fox, cats, dogs. This is, they'll become. What are these different species of life?
Yogeśvara: They do not, they do not accept that the soul exists below the human level.
Prabhupāda: And that is their foolishness. That is their foolishness. Why does not exist? What is the proof of existence of the soul in the body? What is the proof? First of all, you have to understand that. Suppose I am a human being, so...
Yogeśvara: (to driver) You know where to go?
Prabhupāda: I am a human being. You accept that I have got soul. By what symptoms you accept that I have got soul? First of all you have to ascertain that. What is the symptom that we agree that I am human being. I have got, I am a soul. By what characteristic, analytical study, you accept that I have got soul, and the dog has not got soul? What are the different characteristics? First of all, we have to enumerate that thing. If we find in the characteristics, then we can say there is no soul.
Yogeśvara: He says: "No, that yes, this is the philosophy, that, that below the human level, the soul does not inhabit the body of other species."
Cardinal Danielou: The soul, the soul, the soul is, is human soul. In the animal you have some psychologic existence, but not life of spirit with freedom, with mind and with the reality of spirit. But you have the same idea because you said that there is a difference of nature between spiritual creation and the material world. You know, the material world is not of the same essence than the spiritual world. And the man, the man is a part of spiritual world.
Prabhupāda: No. Our Bhagavad-gītā says: sarva-yoniṣu. "In all species of life, as many forms are there, so the spirit soul is there." This outward body is just like a dress. You may have a very costly dress, and I may have a very shabby, poor dress, but both of us are human being, or living entities. Similarly these different forms of living entities, they are just like different types of dress. Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya (BG 2.22). Just like you are in black dress. I am in saffron dress.
Prabhupāda: Still there are so many respectable person came. The governor came, the high-court justices and that, the Canadian ambassador came. Many men came. And he was very humble. He sat down below.
Guest (1): You didn't see the high commissioner there. He sat down.
Prabhupāda: He's also a very nice man.
Guest (1): Maybe some pious activities that they have.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest (1): But this is their duty to respect.
Prabhupāda: (break) ...in this planet. In order to be elevated to the kingdom of God, they cannot go directly from the heavenly planet. They'll have to come here.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete puruṣaṁ puruṣarṣabha. That I have already explained.
- mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
- śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
- āgamāpāyino 'nityās
- tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata
- (BG 2.14)
Just like one is in winter season, and the winter... Not in this country. In Western countries, it becomes below thirty degrees. In Canada and what other places?
Acyutānanda: New Vrindaban.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Acyutānanda: New Vrindaban.
Prabhupāda: Virginia?
Acyutānanda: Oh yes. Thirty below zero.
Prabhupāda: So we have no experience below zero degrees. But in Europe, America, there is places. In Russia also, below fifty degrees. But they do not stop their business. They know that "Winter season has come. It will go away again." So devotees, even they are in distressed condition, they know, "It has come due to my bad activities in the past. It will go away. Let me suffer and finish it." Just like if you become, all of a sudden, infected with some disease. So what? You'll go mad?
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is for the Russians. But there are so many other islands like this.
Sudāmā: Tahiti.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Sudāmā: Tahiti. Also is... Below here.
Bali Mardana: There are thousands of islands in the Pacific.
Prabhupāda: Just see. Let them come and live here. Produce foodstuffs, have cows, fruits, flowers, live peacefully, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa; but they won't allow. Americans, yes, they have got so much land. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). Whatever is Kṛṣṇa's property, you can... You are Kṛṣṇa's son; you can utilize it. But one son is prohibiting, "No, no, you cannot enter here." This is the problem. The so-called nationalism is dangerous. Just see how nice flowers, fruits, plant. Everything is there, complete.
Prabhupāda: No, best, it is just one's conception, you see? Otherwise, all are best. All are best. But śānta-bhaktas do not take Kṛṣṇa very intimately.
Dr. Patel: (laughs) You are... You take me below the belt.
Prabhupāda: Yes, śānta-bhakta means the bhakta who appreciates the greatness of the Supreme, but does not take Kṛṣṇa as very intimate. That is śānta-bhakta.
Dr. Patel: How can, ah, can you imagine God without taking Him very intimately? These are two, I mean...
Prabhupāda: No, no. Just like... Intimately... Just like I can give this example, that you have got a great regard for me, but not as intimately as my other disciples.
Dr. Patel: Ah, that is possible. Because I am, I have not put on the order clothes.
Prabhupāda: This example is, I think, proper.
Prabhupāda: One only, less than minority. (laughter) The minority, majority, these are material conception. And spiritual is how much you are giving service to Kṛṣṇa. That is considered. That is to be taken into consideration. (pause) Kṛṣṇa says Himself, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye: (BG 7.3) "Out of millions and millions of people, one may understand Me." So if I have turned so many people to understand Kṛṣṇa, so that is service. At least, they are trying to understand Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...in winter in December, when I was going to the park, Regents Park, all the waters, frozen like stone, and with this stick, I was pushing, (makes sound-imitation:) "Tung, tung," like that. But I marked it that underneath the tree, there was no frozening. The water was there. Just like here is a tree. Just below the tree, there was water. And all around, frozen. The swans were walking on the... But on that place, they were floating. Hare Kṛṣṇa... (pause)
Prabhupāda: Yes. (German) Even the birds and beasts they will hear and be benefited. (German) Therefore loud chanting is recommended. So that even the birds, beasts, trees, plants, they can hear. (German)
Prof. Pater Porsch: I seldom saw so many happy faces as today, this evening, below.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the case. In America also the ladies and gentlemen ask them, "Are you Americans?" Because they do not see Americans with such nice face. One Christian priest—I was going from Los Angeles to Hawaii—so he came to talk with me. He inquired "Swamiji, how is that your disciples look so bright?" He inquired. Yes.
Prof. Pater Porsch: Without drugs.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And one Christian priest he showed one pamphlet that these boys, they're our boys but before this they're not coming to the church. They do not want to ask anything about God. Now they're mad after God. How is it? He admitted, "They're our men." And I give you another example. In our Los Angeles temple—this was a church, big church—but it was not going on. It was being closed.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like when you say, "United States of America," that's actually a place. There are living entities. There are men and mountains, rivers. Everything is there. Similarly, all these planets, they are inhabited by living entities. There are similarly cities and towns and mountains and rivers and oceans. Everything is there—of different pattern. Just like the moon planet. It is... The temperature is 200 degree below zero. So you cannot go and live there. But there are living entities who can live there. Just like even on this planet, there are living entities in the Arctic region, but for us it is very difficult to live there. And there are different climatic influences. Even on this planet. One place is suitable for one kind of man, another place is suitable for another. Just like we are Indian. We cannot tolerate such, I mean, what is called, pinching, cool. So similarly, in India you cannot tolerate scorching heat. So for each and every planet there are different patterns of living entities. They can live. Just like you cannot live within water. For that reason you cannot say nobody can live in the water. That is foolishness. You cannot live. You say. So there are so many fishes, varieties of fishes.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Singapore.
Amogha: That is the country that doesn't like us to come in. Just below Malaysia.
Prabhupāda: In the beginning don't talk of these details, just try to convince about the philosophy. What is the nature of God? What is your nature? How we are related, like that.
Paramahaṁsa: By details do you mean the rules and regulations?
Prabhupāda: No, that is not in the beginning. In the beginning one must know that he is not this body. He is spirit soul. Don't bring in controversy, but try to convince that you are not this body. Then, gradually. That is the mode of teaching in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Paramahaṁsa: As they become more interested they ask automatically how they can make advancement.
Prabhupāda: If they understand that "I am spirit soul" then he'll advance. Then you can say. The chanting is required.
Amogha: Yeah. It explains it very clearly. That will clear up any misconception.
Prabhupāda: That law of gravity is a bogus theory. The... Sixteen hundred thousand miles... Sixteen hundred thousand miles below the sun is the Rāhu. They are going there.
Amogha: Rāhu. Seems like all the planets, they have that space interval of sixteen hundred thousand miles. Most of the sun...
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Amogha: ...and then the moon and Venus. That two hundred thousand yojanas.
Prabhupāda: When the Rāhu happens to be between the two planets, sun and moon, there is eclipse.
Amogha: When the orbits intercross.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Amogha: Ketu is below Rāhu?
Prabhupāda: Ketu is not mentioned there.
Prabhupāda: Above the clouds?
Siddha-svarūpa: Just below the clouds usually.
Prabhupāda: Oh. (break) ...Siddhaloka the residents, men, they also can fly. Siddhaloka. They can go from one planet to another by flying. (break) ...eating, they come down, these birds?
Siddha-svarūpa: Do they come down to eat?
Prabhupāda: For eating?
Siddha-svarūpa: I've never seen them on the ground. I think they might be eating something in the rain. There's actually particles in the rain. Isn't there?
Prabhupāda: There is a bird, cataka. They drink rain water.
Siddha-svarūpa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Oh, what is the temperature?
Kuruśreṣṭha: Zero to twenty, thirty.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Below zero?
Kuruśreṣṭha: Sometimes, at night. Ten below.
Prabhupāda: Like New York? No, New York was never below zero. (break) Winter, how many months is continuing?
Kuruśreṣṭha: Four or five months.
Prabhupāda: Four, five months. Always snow?
Kuruśreṣṭha: Sometimes snow.
Prabhupāda: So why the temperature is so low unless there is snow?
Prabhupāda: Yes, cow, from where you get milk, that cow. So the exact word is used in Sanskrit, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). Vaiśya, the third-class man, is called vaiśya. So his duty is how to produce food, food grains, for both for the animals and the man. And he gives protection to the cows. As the second-class man, the administrator, he gives protection to the human being from danger, similarly, the third-class man is entrusted to give protection to the cows. Cow is very important animal in the society because it is supplying milk, the most nutritious food. And... Find out. This is the third-class man's duty. And the fourth-class man means general worker. He has no brain, he simply helps the other three classes: first-class, second-class, and the third-class. And below the fourth-class men, they are called fifth-class, sixth-class. So they are called lower class, less than the fourth-class. So the society should be generally divided into four classes. As I have given example, there is head, arm, belly, and leg.
Prabhupāda: Yes. We can direct our mind towards truth.
Dr. Patel: I did not mean mind is truth. All that is made up of māyā, all that is made up of, I mean, mahatsab(?) and down below, are all falsehood.
Prabhupāda: Therefore, experiment with truth is not experiment with the mind. So what is that truth, or what is that experiment?
Dr. Patel: What is.... First of all, let us know what is mind by experiment.
Prabhupāda: Experiment means to examine whether it is truth or not.
Dr. Patel: That examines, who examines and what? Who examines the mind, man's mind? After all, no? And examination of anything depends upon the state of the mind, sir, according to the psychology. More concentrated the mind, better it will be nearer the truth.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Oh. It goes to Krishnagar.
Sudāmā: Over here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, down below, there is the kitchen for cooking. And we have here small kuchulla(?) for coal cooking.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Can you open one of these boards, show Prabhupāda the... (break)
Jayapatāka: All is for storage.
Sudāmā: Underneath. You have to open.
Prabhupāda: (Bengali)
Jayapatāka: They put all rice and everything there.
Prabhupāda: Stock.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There is one popular music group in America called the Hog Farm. And what they do is they have their... When they are playing their music, just below the stage they have a big pen with many hogs in it, and at the end of the music they all jump down amongst the hogs, and then they do all kinds of nonsense things. And it's a very popular group.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) How they are bringing ruination. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). The blind men led by another blind man. It is not new. In the Bhāgavata therefore it is warned that "Don't follow hog philosophy." Viḍ-bhujāṁ ye. This kind of philosophy, that for sense gratification, laboring whole day and night, writing books, philosophizing and all these things, it is meant for the hogs, not for human being. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye (SB 5.5.1). This kind of civilization is meant for the hogs. So they are exhibiting that they are no better than hog.
Jagadīśa: They say the earth is turning. Therefore at a certain point the sun is actually below the horizon, but part of the sun's light, the red spectral, the red light of the sun, comes over the horizon and so the sun appears...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Red, but actually it's not reddish; it's white or yellow, whatever.
Prabhupāda: Actually it is white, that's all right, but if you see one fixed thing, a color, practical experience is the color does not change if it is fixed up.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Supposing you are... Supposing there's a white light, and you are situated here, and in front of you is a screen with many colors, and you are moving different ways along this screen. Sometimes you are looking through a green, sometimes... in that way although the light is fixed up, because you are moving behind different colors...
Prabhupāda: So where is that screen?
Prabhupāda: But for us there is nothing material. We have no such vision as "material" and "spiritual." Material means when we forget Kṛṣṇa's right. That is material. Everything is Kṛṣṇa's. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). He is the proprietor; He is the enjoyer. So, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā, īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam (ISO 1). Everything Kṛṣṇa's. So when we forget Kṛṣṇa's right on everything, that is material. Otherwise there is nothing material; everything spiritual. Everything is generated by Kṛṣṇa's energies, and there are two energies, material energy and spiritual energy. So in the material energy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is less or nil. And in spiritual energy, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is prominent and very acute. I think I give this example somewhere. Just like this nail, and just little below, there is skin. Both of them are my body, but in the skin there is sensation; in the nail there is no sensation. But both of them are coming from the same source, the body. Similarly, everything is Kṛṣṇa's. Idaṁ hi viśvaṁ bhagavān ivetaraḥ.
Prabhupāda: Volcano eruption. Is there any technical term? Varuṇāgni. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Hari-śauri: You mean like when there's an eruption from below? Say when an island's formed, or...
Prabhupāda: It is called varuṇāgni, fire in the water.
Hari-śauri: Would you say some eruptions from below the earth's crust comes up, and then, er, all the gases underneath push the land up above the water?
Prabhupāda: There is fire within the earth, just as there is fire within the stomach-fire. That helps digestion. In the Ayurvedic śāstra, when one does not feel an appetite, it is called agni-māṁdya (indistinct), rest and (indistinct) of the fire.
Prabhupāda: Scientist rascal. How ludicrous. Simply "maybe," "if it was" and "it will be." That's all. Simply "maybe."
Hari-śauri: Yes. They were speculating about, even they didn't know what the atmosphere was, and yet they know, yet they were stating that they were going to land this spaceship at a certain point just below the Martian equator in a valley which is just at the mouth of the valley, which is four miles deep.
Prabhupāda: And people are taking, "Oh, it is scientific research."
Hari-śauri: They are such rascals.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This cheating has to stop.
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This cheating has to be stopped.
Hari-śauri: And actually, on the same page, what was that, the percentage scientists are engaged in warfare?
Prabhupāda: Very nice. Thank you. This is plastic?
Kīrtanānanda: This is what they make the mold from. This one is in plaster. Now they will cast more. Below that the...
Prabhupāda: They can do Deity also, they can.
Kīrtanānanda: Yes, after they've done with your palace they're going to start on some Deities. I think they would like permission to first start with your Deity.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. Kulaśekhara is here?
Kīrtanānanda: Kulaśekhara, yes, he is editing Brijabasi Spirit now. We will put a wall around and then all nice gardens inside.
Prabhupāda: Cement wall or wooden?
Kīrtanānanda: No, a combination of masonry and fancy iron so that people can see through.
Prabhupāda: Reinforced.
Prabhupāda: This is all... They're misleading.
Hari-śauri: According to that report we read the other day, they had good information now that the atmosphere was water and ice, like that. So they were expecting to find some signs of life, and they were going to land a spaceship in a canyon which was just below the equator, just at the mouth of the canyon. And it's four miles deep, and fifty thousand years ago it was filled with water, so they are expecting to find fossils there now.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They've never been there, though. Speculation.
Rādhāvallabha: They never take into any consideration there can be another form of life other than that which they know.
Prabhupāda: No, they are speculating. But why people are victimized by this speculation?
Prabhupāda: So the general division in the higher planetary system is the devatās, beginning from sun, moon and other planetary systems, they are in modes of goodness prominent. Less, below that, bhūr bhuvaḥ, they are passionate, and below that, they are ignorant.
Devotee: Do the number of demigods have something to do with the number of species, like there are thirty-three million demigods?
Prabhupāda: There are thirty-three million. Thirty crores. There are also divisions, Gandharvas, Apsarās.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Do they belong to these species? They are also included in these eight million four hundred? These Gandharvas?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So they are counted, what, as human beings?
Prabhupāda: Some of them are devatās, some of them are human being.
Prabhupāda: ...underneath there is subway.
Rāmeśvara: Yes, yes.
Prabhupāda: About hundred yards below.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, quite far below. Beautiful church here, St. Bartholomew's Church. This is the Seagram's Building. Yes, this is Dhṛṣṭadyumna's father's building. The whole building, the Seagram's building.
Rāmeśvara: It's a liquor company.
Prabhupāda: Liquor?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His father is the president of the biggest liquor manufacturer in the whole world.
Prabhupāda: And father, and son is no liquor.
Prabhupāda: Um, hmm.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "The recipes given below, taken from the Hare Kṛṣṇa Cookbook'—another good advertisement, and they give you at least three or four recipes in here. They give recipes for, the recipes are for...
Prabhupāda: Anyway, he has given more pages for our movement.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, he's given us three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve pages. And the whole magazine, including many advertisements..., actually the nonadvertised part is about fifty-five pages, of which we have twelve. At least one fifth of the book is for Hare Kṛṣṇa. The other groups only have three pages, four pages. And he blasts them mostly. Some of them are really nonsense. Here's one called the Deichman experiment. You stare at a vase...
Prabhupāda: Another meditation.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, this is another one. Deichman experiment. Then they have one about Zen Buddhism, it shows Zen meditation. Here's a Zen master sitting in front of a basketball. I don't know why.
Rāmeśvara: The two figures on the throne of the altar represent an incarnation of God named Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda, and They both appeared in India approximately five hundred years ago. They are incarnations of God, God Himself, who descends into this world. So those forms represent the Supreme Lord. Therefore we are worshiping Them. And below, on the step, are the pictures of the spiritual masters coming in the disciplic succession from Lord Caitanya when He appeared in this world five hundred years ago.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Lord Caitanya started this movement, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa congregationally. It was predicted five thousand years ago in the Vedic scriptures that in this age, the present age, the Lord would appear and would teach the real religious process for this age which is chanting of the holy names.
Rāmeśvara: This is very traditional in India, temple worship and the figures are on the altar. It's very very traditional. It goes back many thousands of years.
Interviewer: Let me ask you one more question. Why are you returning to India? Had you ever considered staying here in the United States?
Prabhupāda: I have got branches everywhere. Just like I am coming here after traveling so many branches, similarly I am going to India.
Kartikeya Mahadevia: But in the new generation we think children are more interested in religion or the bhakti than the parents. That is a new development. People who are 25 or 15, they are not. But the children who are below 10. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...parents will encourage. They have no interest even.
Kartikeya Mahadevia: At the school level, something can be done.
Prabhupāda: The authorities will not allow. School authorities, if you say that you want whole Gītā, (?) they will not. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). This is Kali-yuga. All bad. And even one is interested, he is interested in something bogus. Sumanda-matayaḥ. They have manufactured a style of religious principle. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyāḥ. And all unfortunate.
Indian man: Yesterday I met one life member who belongs to a very reputed family in Bombay who has donated about fifteen acres of land to Swami Cinmayananda on the Vehar Lake side. Now he has become our patron member yesterday.
Prabhupāda: Behar Lake?
Prabhupāda: Only fifth, up floors?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, you can't go more than that. This is near the airport. Now they've introduced a new law that you can't go even below this. What we did is the new law has just come into effect, and so we did the slabs in the night.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a new law which reduces the height even further. You can't have any big buildings in Bombay now.
Prabhupāda: Why?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know the reason, but apparently Indira Gandhi doesn't like big buildings. So actually according to the new law we have already built more than what the legal limit is. So what we did...
Prabhupāda: No, we have got some assetship(?) for the road? We have left over? Where is Saurabha?
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: "Kṛṣṇa, when He was young, grown-up, He became contaminated by the gopīs." Therefore they do not touch that Kṛṣṇa. When He was below that age, Bal Kṛṣṇa, He is innocent; He has no desire. They think this is contaminated Kṛṣṇa, and Bal Kṛṣṇa is uncontaminated.
Hari-śauri: Then they don't accept Kṛṣṇa as being the supreme enjoyer.
Girirāja: I met someone who said that.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is their theory: "Kṛṣṇa is contaminated. In His young age He's contaminated." Now then why... So-called advanced gentlemen say that "We don't want Kṛṣṇa of Vṛndāvana. We want Kṛṣṇa of Kurukṣetra." They say that. They don't want Kṛṣṇa of Vṛndāvana, dancing with the gopīs. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, the great novelist, he had written on Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa-charitra. He has made distinction, that "Kṛṣṇa of Vṛndāvana is different from Kṛṣṇa of Kurukṣetra. Kṛṣṇa of Dvārakā is different." Like that.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So we can't go below that...
Prabhupāda: No.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...because then they...
Prabhupāda: That's nice.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Śrīla Prabhupāda.... (break) What do you think?
Rāmeśvara: Lower the better.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That is what I'm saying. Because...
Rāmeśvara: We are selling so many Gītās in America because we lowered the price.
Prabhupāda: So you consult and do.
Rāmeśvara: Did you mention about the loans for Bhūṣaṇa? Another thing.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I had spoken to you earlier that we can expand our printing, especially in India...
Prabhupāda: So now you have received nine lakhs' worth books. So how you'll pay?
Prabhupāda: ...below one person.(?) In the name of religious men, because they are not civilized even, it is further, further. This is going on. Actually there was no such...
Rāmeśvara: And another thing that came out of the hippie movement is this abortion. Because the whole thing... The slogan was "free sex." So now they have free sex.
Hari-śauri: Women's liberation was another thing.
Rāmeśvara: All based on sex. Abortion, divorce—everything related to sex has increased.
Hari-śauri: They used to carry signs, "I want the control of my body," the women, the women's liberation.
Prabhupāda: That is woman's liberation.
Hari-śauri: Yeah. "I can do with my body whatever I like. Nobody can tell me what to do. If I want to kill my child, I can kill." (break)
Prabhupāda: The child has father's..., the life from father's property, and the mother is only giving you shelter. She is not the proprietor. Even in other's, womb of other's wife, a child is born... I give birth to a child in other's wife, that is my child. Mother is considered the field, kṣetra.
Prabhupāda: Sūrya-maṅgala above.
Pradyumna: Before, below. Then comes Soma-maṅgala. Soma-maṅgala, last.
Prabhupāda: That's...
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Vahni-maṅgala, Sūrya-maṅgala, Soma-maṅgala.
Prabhupāda: So let us do something, (laughs) Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we can meet the any scientist also.
Hari-śauri: We need a Kṛṣṇa conscious astronomer now too.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: Then that will be complete.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Actually we started looking some on this astronomy thing. About this Sūrya-siddhānta. Sadāpūta is especially interested because he's a mathematician. So normally astronomy is subject of mathematics. So he found this copy in Princeton just recently, last month or so. There we found that the idea is very similar to modern science in the Sūrya-siddhānta.
Prabhupāda: Kaniṣṭha-adhikārī means he must be a brāhmaṇa. That is kaniṣṭha-adhikārī. The spiritual life, kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, means he must be a qualified brāhmaṇa. That is kaniṣṭha. What is esteemed as very high position in the material world, brāhmaṇa, that is kaniṣṭha-adhikārī.
- arcāyām eva haraye
- pūjāṁ yaḥ śraddhayehate
- na tad-bhakteṣu cānyeṣu
- sa bhaktaḥ prākṛtaḥ smṛtaḥ
The brāhmaṇa means from the material stage gradually he is elevated to the spiritual stage. And below the brāhmaṇa there is no question of Vaiṣṇava.
Hari-śauri: No question of?
Prabhupāda: Vaiṣṇavism.
Prabhupāda: I can go.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Will you be walking on the roof or down below? Which do you prefer?
Prabhupāda: I can go down very well.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You like it down.
Prabhupāda: On the pond side
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Would you like us to bring that chair over to the pond to carry you up to the pond?
Prabhupāda: No.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You don't mind those steps going up?
Prabhupāda: No. They say they have gone from the paper. We say from the paper they have not gone. Then where is the difference? We have got our paper; they have got their paper. They say they have gone. Nobody has gone with them. I have not gone. They have not gone. They say from the paper.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: Did you catch that?
Muralīdhara: It should be below the knees or...?
Prabhupāda: Hm? Yes. This is sannyāsī cloth. Should be shorter.
Rāmeśvara: Now, what's happening here is that his face is still very youthful, but his body is becoming very old like an old man's body. Gradually, his hands are old. The only thing left is his face and his neck.
Prabhupāda: No, no.
Rāmeśvara: It is like he's being transformed.
Prabhupāda: After cursing, the body was that, but not before.
Prabhupāda: So make arrangement.
Mr. Dwivedi: And very near about there are beautiful places. Mahārāja will be able to enjoy them only from below, but we have a Kedara Sakti, a beautiful cave temple.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Mr. Dwivedi: And round about the whole year from the mountain water flows back, water drizzles over a banyan tree and then inside into the mountain...
Prabhupāda: It is waterfall.
Mr. Dwivedi: Waterfall. The waterfall is different. This water drizzles from the mountain. Waterfall is five miles away, so I do not count it. They say 150 feet or so, waterfall.
Prabhupāda: How far it is, waterfall?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many people came?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yeah, some came in the temple. We also gave university, in the physics class, called "Physics for Skeptics," the title of the class. It was very interesting.
Prabhupāda: Now it is clearing. You can go inside.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Jaya. (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One basement is there where the restaurant is. You saw that. And kitchen. Then, below that, I was going to take you to the boiler room, but you didn't want to come. That's another basement, sub-basement. That boiler.
Prabhupāda: Organized very nice. Hm. "Gargamoney." (laughter)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Kindly fill in the form below to receive your first volumes." Then it says, "Name and age, date of purchase, address, city, state, country, type of business, phone, number of sets to be purchased." Number of sets to be purchased. It's very hopeful. "Whether encyclopedia is for personal use or other, please explain." 'Cause they're going to keep a file to see what people use it for. "Number of books to be received each year. Amount given as advance." He says, "At least fifty percent of the total cost can be given for the complete set as advance, and balance to be made in yearly installments. Signature of purchaser. Please note: The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust shall fulfill its obligation to supply all books to the purchaser as agreed upon and shall ship all books postage prepaid to any part of the world.
Prabhupāda: Why alone? Can live with others.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Other householders there also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Many householders can live there together.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. There's room on the floor below...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...his apartment for two other families. I don't know what...
Prabhupāda: That can be arranged. That is not...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't think he feels it's safe enough.
Prabhupāda: No, no. This is incidental. This is not permanent problem.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know what's behind it. I don't know the full reason why he doesn't want to stay there anymore.
Bhavānanda: There was no... Because the river was high, so it rained so much... In June it rained for nineteen days without stopping. It had nowhere to drain, and every time it rained after that it kept building up, building up. The Gaṅgā was just fifteen inches below Bhaktisiddhānta Road, fifteen inches from the top.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many boys are in the Gurukula now?
Bhavānanda: Now there're eighty-six boys in the Gurukula.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Eighty-six. How many residents are there at Māyāpur now?
Bhavānanda: We've thinned out.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many?
Bhavānanda: There's 160 including Gurukula. After the incident we lost some devotees.
Prabhupāda: How many?
| Page Title: | Below (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 02 of Aug, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=50, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 50 |