Bible (Conversations 1976 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"bible" |"bible's" |"bibles" |"biblical"

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: So what is the wrong there? What was the wrong?

Indian man: No, he said that "This movement has got these black sheep, and they have been banned in Japan. Everywhere they will be banned."

Prabhupāda: But there is something in Japan which is banned. But what you have got in Japan?

Indian man: Nothing.

Yaśodānandana: First of all, we are not even banned in Japan. The center is still there.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that's all right. Banned means we had something. But what proof you have got that you have done something in Japan?

Indian man: There is something; there is nothing.

Prabhupāda: So it is better. Just like one man said that "I have lost fifty thousand this year." His friend said, "You are still fortunate, because you had fifty thousand. But I have no fifty paisa even."

Indian man: So there is something. Here nothing.

Prabhupāda: "So you are so fortunate that you could suffer the loss of fifty thousand, but I have nothing to lose."

Indian man: But that is for a discriminating man. Here it is an ignorance, asuya, envy. When Acyutānanda Swami was addressing one man (he) said, "Why always have Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa? We can have Hare Christ also." Same answer as Your Holiness gave, he said, "Yes, yes, you can have it. Whoever says.... We don't say no. It is also possible, but degree, matter of degree," as Your Holiness the other day put it. And some chapters and words were read out to the people. They were convinced that same saṅkīrtana is also sanctioned in the Bible.

Prabhupāda: We have to follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu or you? Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). So we have to follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Morning Walk -- January 4, 1976, Nellore:

Prabhupāda: So, the tiger will say he will enjoy you. Why do you protest against the tiger?

Acyutānanda: In the Bible it says that everything was for the enjoyment of man. Man is sovereign over the animals.

Prabhupāda: Enjoyment does not mean that you kill him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Enjoy means protection. It means protecting, not eating.

Morning Walk -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In the Bhagavad-gītā it doesn't say you can't offer Kṛṣṇa meat.

Prabhupāda: So if you like, you can do that.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't want to.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) What directly He says, you have to take. And if you interpret, that can be interpreted.

Acyutānanda: They have rewritten the Bible, "Thou shalt not murder."

Prabhupāda: (break) ...can be used as paper weight. (laughter) (break) ...use anything for Kṛṣṇa.

Yaśodānandana: ...temples they are worshiping this Dvārakā-śilā with the śalagrāma-śilā.

Prabhupāda: That's all right, but we have no such instruction.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1976, Nellore:

Acyutānanda: ...so he has attacked. He has taken vengeance on this.

Prabhupāda: That they are doing. Still they are doing. Just like you said, some sprinkling water. They have no philosophy and they violate everything, what is stated there in Bible. Now you say that "Thou shall not kill;" they say, "Thou shall not murder." They are molding. Now this homosex they are sanctioning, man-to-man marriage. They are sanctioning abortion.

Morning Walk -- January 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: And why they should accept Bhāgavata? We are not accepting Bible, so why they should accept Bhāgavata? That is no argument. You must present the Vedic knowledge in such a way that they will be obliged to accept: "Yes, it is right." (break) ...something, Mr. Agarwal, that "Nobody complains about eating," you will do a great service, I tell you. Everyone will come and say, "Oh, such a nice food." They will come here for eating, if not for anything. (break) You were proposing about our Vṛndāvana. So if this thing is done, that the eatables are very nice, then visitors will come. Otherwise this manager, that manager, this manager will not help you. Phalena paricīyate. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, no. There is don't's and do's also. Sato vṛtteḥ. This is do's. Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Because it's translated as "Don't associate with the nondevotees."

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. All the ślokas, they are... In some śloka the do's are prominent, some ślokas don't's prominent, but in every śloka there is do's and don't's. Everywhere there is. In the Bible also: "Thou shall not do. Thou shall not kill." The don't's. (break) You are learning śabda-rūpa, dhātu-rūpa.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Cyavana: Śrīla Prabhupāda? In some parts of the Bible it describes how things were being carried out, and they say that the activities were going on according to the will of God. Does that mean that there was a God conscious civilization then?

Prabhupāda: Activities? These activities are going on. The sun is rising by the will of God; the moon is rising, will of God. You are being punished by the will of God. He is the Supreme.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Cyavana: But the Bible, it indicates...

Prabhupāda: Now, now, you see, try, understand. You are very good Bible quoter, but try to understand each and everything. Simply you go on quoting, but understand what is that quotation. It is by the will of God. You have committed sinful life by contraceptive method. Now you enter in the womb of another mother and be killed. That is Bible.

Morning Walk -- April 12, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: From Śrīmad-Bhāgavata. This morning only I read about this thing.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...becomes humble. God is for the humble and meek. In Bible also it is stated. And because everyone is trying to become God, how he becomes humble?

Dr. Patel: I think Christ taught humility by his own action.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Even Vaiṣṇava...

Morning Walk -- April 15, 1976, Bombay:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In the Bible it says, "On earth as it is in heaven," that the life on earth should be also under the domain of God.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But there is no program how to actually do that.

Prabhupāda: No, program is there. Kṛṣṇa is speaking, "Do this program, execute," man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad... Program is there, but rascal will not take it. There is no difficulty.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Well, Christian religion.... We are not talking of religion. We are talking of science, fact. When I say that "You are young man. You'll become old man," either you are Christian or Hindu, Muslim, this is a fact. So don't bring in "The Christian believe this" or "Hindu believe this." Fact is fact. A child becomes a boy—a Christian believes; a Hindu believes; a Muslim believes. Everyone believes. So we are talking of the science. The child becomes a boy, a boy becomes a young man, young man becomes old man, and the old man, when this body becomes rotten, he accepts another body. So this is applicable for Bible or Christian or this or that, everyone.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: ...that if they are rascals, then don't try. You see? Reject them. But there is good potency in your country. You do peacefully here. If they are rascals, means stubborn rascals...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You cannot imagine how rascal they are. That's why we wrote this report.

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

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

Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Balloons.

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

Prabhupāda: That is also nonsense.

Morning Walk -- May 15, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Soul is eternal, we admit.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But only from that point, not in the past.

Prabhupāda: Not in the past?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, because according to Biblical philosophy you only have one lifetime in this world.

Prabhupāda: Then who goes to heaven?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Persons who adopt the principles.

Prabhupāda: And if one life, then who goes to heaven and who goes to hell?

Morning Walk -- May 15, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: But if he goes heaven means there is another life. How do you say "one life"? This is defective philosophy.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But this is what God has said in the Bible; therefore we must accept.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This is what God has said in the Bible; therefore we must accept.

Prabhupāda: God, if He says something unreasonable, how it can be accepted? You say, "one life." Then who goes to the next life? That is defective. Why do you not talk back?

Morning Walk -- May 15, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Because they do not know the karma. Karmaṇā daiva netreṇa (SB 3.31.1). According to one's activities, pious or impious, he gets the next birth. That is quite reasonable. But they do not believe in karma. When I was student in Scottish Churches College, so we had to attend class, half an hour, Bible. So the Dr. Urquhart, he did.... The argument was: "So if karma is there and I am suffering for my karma, who is the witness?" But because they do not know that the witness is God.

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

Prabhupāda: Animal also knows that he's created by another dog. Otherwise why the little, what is called, cab, puppy, goes up to the mother?

Rāmeśvara: They don't have..., the reason they don't have an idea is because before you came to America, the understanding of the science of God was presented on a kindergarten level, the Bible. So it did not satisfy their scientific mind. So because before you came to give them the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they had not information, and they did not accept the Christian version.

Prabhupāda: No, apart from Christian or Hindu, the general mass of people, how they can say that there is no creator? From common sense?

Garden Conversation -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: You cannot... There is one God, and if you want to become God, you are immediately driven away: "Just become God in the material world. Go there and try to become God."

Dr. Wolfe: Prabhupāda? There is a parallel in the Bible that Lucifer broke away from God because He wanted to be God.

Prabhupāda: That's it.

Arnold Weiss: I was thinking that too.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) This rascaldom... This rascaldom makes him a dog. Instead of God, he become a dog. So this rascaldom is going on, that "I am God." For this purpose he's suffering, and still, he wants to continue it. Nobody can become God; God is one. Ekaṁ brahma dvitīyaṁ nāsti. So how we can become God? But that endeavor is going on.

Morning Walk -- June 9, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Christian religion is speculation. All these philosophers, talking on Christian religion, speculating.... No clear idea.

Hari-śauri: These church fathers that we've just done on the philosophy book, they are simply speculating about what was in the original Bible.

Prabhupāda: No clear conception, scientific idea. Therefore educated persons, they are not interested. "God, give us daily bread." They will say, "Why we shall go to church for begging bread? We can manufacture it, large quantity." (laughs) Why they should go? Formality: "God, give us our daily bread." "Just open a big factory and eat as much bread as we like. Why should we go to God?"

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

Richard: What would you classify, ah, other works, say, the Koran or the Bible or any other religious...

Prabhupāda: Well they are also aiming to this aim of life.

Richard: They are in the same aim.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Richard: But do you think they are successful?

Prabhupāda: They are successful if they follow the education. Just like Christ, he's speaking of kingdom of God. So if you follow Christ, there is hope that you go to kingdom of God. But if you don't follow, you simply rubberstamp, "I am Christian," then it is useless.

Conversation with Clergymen -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: Inquisitive, one is trying to understand what is God, and he is also pious.

Scheverman: "Lord teach me, show me."

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Kern: Do you use the Bible for that?

Scheverman: Do you use the Judeo-Christian scriptures at all in your work?

Prabhupāda: I know that there are good instructions. So generally.... We haven't got to fight with anyone or disagree. We have to accept the general principles for the welfare of the whole human society. Just like to become peaceful: it is the duty of everyone.

Morning Walk -- June 21, 1976, Toronto:

Indian man: It says in the Bible that animals were given to the man for protection and for service, they could take service from the animals. And they think the slaughtering of an animal is all right on that basis, that God gave the animals to the human beings.

Prabhupāda: And how intelligent they are. I give you my child for your protection, and you cut his throat. How intelligent you are. That is the proof. Something is given for protection, and they're cutting the throat. This is their intelligence. (break)

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

Prabhupāda: If I say I'm God and somebody accepts me as God, then he's a foolish man. They do not know what is meaning of God. If one wants God, he must know at least what is meant by God. Every scripture, just like in Bible it is said "God has created this universe." So if you come to me and accept me as God, why don't you test whether I have created another universe like this? Why you accept a cheap God who hasn't done anything? Simply he's bluff, and he says that "I am God." So why do you accept such God? Hmm? Why should we accept a cheap God? Everything requires intelligence. If you are not intelligent, then every transaction you may be cheated. Everyone has heard God is great. So great means there should be nobody equal to Him and nobody greater than Him. That is greatness.

Answers to a Questionnaire from Bhavan's Journal -- June 28, 1976, Vrndavana:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But if the Christians are saying that "This is the only platform, the Bible," and the Muslims are saying, "This is the only platform, Koran," and the community of followers of Bhagavad...

Prabhupāda: But we have to see by the result. The result is... Only platform, that only platform, that is decided... Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmaḥ. That is actually religion. How? Yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. If one has learned how to love God. If there is no love of God, then what is the use of claiming that this is the only platform? Where is the sign of love of Godhead? That is to be seen. Simply if you say... Everyone will say, "This, my, this property is the best, or my understanding is..." But there must be practical proof. The practical proof-say how to love God, what is the process of loving God? If you do not know your relationship with God and other's relationship with God, then how you know God? That is lacking.

Interview with Mike Darby -- June 30, 1976, Wheeling, W. Virginia:

Prabhupāda: So it is the duty of the Christians. But they are also... What can I say? They are passing resolution according to the time, changing the instruction of Bible. How they can be fixed-up? Our standard is Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. We accept guru as representative of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If he speaks what Kṛṣṇa has spoken, then he is guru. Similar in Christianity, if they actually take care that whether one is speaking according to the Ten Commandments, if he is living according to the rules and regulations of the Ten Commandments, then he is guru. Why people accept them? Because they are ignorant, they do not know who is real and who is fake. But the standard is there. Take for example in the Bible, it is said "Thou shalt not kill." But everyone is killing. Killing is the business of the Christians. They are maintaining big, big slaughterhouse. We are maintaining cows here, and there are others, they are maintaining cows for slaughtering. Why? In these Commandments it is clearly said that "Thou shalt not kill." How they will detect? If they are violating themselves the laws, how they will punish the lawbreaker? "Physician, heal thyself." The physician himself is diseased, and he's going to treat other patients.

Interview with Mike Darby -- June 30, 1976, Wheeling, W. Virginia:

Darby: Would it help if someone took the Bible and wrote a Vaiṣṇava purport or tried to simplify it so that people could understand it? The language is difficult for the common man now to understand.

Prabhupāda: That we are spreading. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that you act what Kṛṣṇa or God says, that's all. In our Bhagavad-gītā the guru's description is there, who is guru. Read the fourth chapter. On this all literature, simply guru and disciple, one is instructing, and one is hearing.

Interview with Mike Darby -- June 30, 1976, Wheeling, W. Virginia:

Prabhupāda: If we take the instruction of God and His representative as temporary, then he is not representative, He is not God. Whatever is spoken by God and His representative, that is eternal. You cannot change by your whims. So that is going on. We..., I do not wish to discuss very much, but that is actually going on. As people they, by votes in the Parliament, they pass any nonsense thing, so they want to do that in the case of Bible also. Then where is the authority of Bible? If Christ says that "Thou shall not kill," and if people, say ten thousand people in a meeting pass resolution, "No, this is wrong," then where is the authority of Bible? Then you become authority.

Darby: I see. Then in the Bible, the beginning of it says that God created the heavens and the earth, and yet they say, give the description in Genesis as the way God created the heaven and the earth. Does this not conform with Brahmā's work?

Prabhupāda: Yes, God has created everything. Just like father, son and the mother. Mother gives birth to the son when the mother is impregnated by the father. This is the law, everyone knows. Now you can see that so many trees are coming from earth. Is it not? Trees and plants and grass. And we eat them, we live.

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

Pradyumna: Venus is covered by clouds. So no one can see what is there. There's clouds all around the planet. Heavy, what do they call, so that no one can see. So they sent a rocket inside or something to go through the clouds to see what is there. Russians also tried. Fermament. In the Bible, they say that on earth there was also..., above the earth there were all clouds at one time according to the Bible. And then at that time men used to live very, very long, and then the clouds went away at some point. They call it a firmament. So the same thing is on Venus. No one can see what the planet is like, no one has ever known. That is also a heavenly, we say also... That is Śukrācārya's place?

Prabhupāda: Not Śukrācārya's, just Śukra.

Pradyumna: Just Śukra.

Prabhupāda: May be Śukrācārya's place. What benefit they will have? Nothing. This is science. Without any aim, without any objective.

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

Prabhupāda: He does not come in human form. He is like human being, dvi-bhuja. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. He's... In the Bible it is said that man is made after God. The human being, two hands, two legs, this body they have got, that is the original form of God. But because He comes in that form, avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11), they think that He is a man. His original form is (like) that. But because we are habituated to see two hands, two legs of human being, we take Him as human being. But that is His original form. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā. Find out. So if we accept Him as a human being like us, then we are mūḍhā, rascals. He says avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto (BG 9.11). They do not know what is behind this human form. God is omnipotent, almighty. He can take any form He likes.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. You take all details, inside, outside. That will be nice.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Can you take inside? Is it allowed?

Yadubara: Yes, I think so.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa... (japa) And you prove that sun planet is first. It is stated in the Bible.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I was going to inquire about that.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Guest (3): How does a man find out what his duty is?

Prabhupāda: Duty is... The śāstra is there. Bhagavad-gītā is there. The Bible is there. So follow.

Guest (3): Whether a man should be a shopkeeper or a teacher or a carpenter, the Bible won't tell me that, and the Bhagavad-gītā won't tell me that.

Prabhupāda: Bhagavad-gītā is there, the four divisions of human society, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. So each one's duty is prescribed. Brāhmaṇa's duty, kṣatriya's duty, vaiśya's duty, śūdra's duty, brahmacārī's duty, everything is there.

Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Guest (2): We didn't know why we didn't. But now I know why, because the animal is a living entity.

Prabhupāda: No, God says "Everyone is My son."

Vipina: In the Bible, they don't accept that the animals and certain living entities are eternal, are going to go back to God.

Prabhupāda: They may believe, but that is another thing. You may believe something blindly. Come to philosophy, come to science. Because you believe something, it is a fact—that is not...

Vipina: But they base that belief on their scripture.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Vipina: The Bible.

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: Well do you think that the Eastern sun, meaning Hare Kṛṣṇa, is appropriate in a culture that has a different religion traditionally?

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is ignorance. Why do you say...?

Interviewer: The Jewish, Biblical Christian tradition is traditional in the West, the Hindu tradition...

Prabhupāda: I never said that Jewish or Christian or Hindu or Muslim.

Bali-mardana: We aren't Hindus.

Prabhupāda: We do not belong either to the Hindus or Christian or Jewish. We belong to Kṛṣṇa or God. Kṛṣṇa means God.

Room Conversation -- July 17, 1976, New York:

Indian man: Yes. In Third Chapter where Kṛṣṇa is saying, "Renounce your everything to Me." Okay? And the word matam is used, matam. Now Swami Chinmayananda is saying, "That's my opinion," that's what Kṛṣṇa is telling, and they will be freed of all the work. And you have written matam means scriptural injunctions. And I tried to show the students who come to the class that "This is the difference. Look at this, very big difference," because if Kṛṣṇa is only giving His opinion, then He's talking like a diplomat, not talking like God. But if He says, "This is the law..." And I explained to them that like Bible has got ten commandments...

Prabhupāda: And another thing, even Kṛṣṇa says, giving His opinion—that's taking it as it is—Kṛṣṇa says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). So He's the supreme authority. So supreme authority's matam is a high-court judgment. There is no argument anymore. The judgment is given by the high-court. Final decision. So if Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme, then who can give him better opinion than Him? For argument's sake, even if He says... Any gentleman will say like that, that... Just like Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: (BG 18.66) "You do it." He is Supreme Lord, He can force you, but He does not do that. So although His matam is the Supreme, but as a gentle preacher, He says, "That is My matam." But if you are sane, if you know that Kṛṣṇa is the supreme authority, then His matam is final.

Room Conversation With French Commander -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Just like if I want to train my boy to become a medical man, then I teach him biology, botany, similar... So if... Because I know I shall make my boy a medical man. Similarly, we should know what is the aim of human life. Then we have to construct the social political, everything, favorable to that end. But they do not know what is the aim of life. That is the whole mistake. I think that in Bible there is a story, prodigal son? So we are prodigal son. We are all sons of God, now we have become prodigal sons. What is the meaning of prodigal? "Without any responsibility," is it not? Do whatever you like.

Translator: Run away from the protection of the family. Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our position, that we are sons of God, we have given up protection of God. God is protecting in all circumstances.

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

Prabhupāda: No, that is wrong. You cannot interpret, you cannot change by resolution. That is not.

Dayānanda: Then they must have someone to tell them. Then they must have an authority.

Prabhupāda: It is already there, just like in the Bible.

Dayānanda: A spiritual master, I mean. They must have the person.

Prabhupāda: Yes, spiritual master, yes, must be there. That is Vedic injunction. Tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Spiritual, that I have already explained. Spiritual master, good father, good king, good teachers, they are required. That is defect. There is no guru, there is no spiritual master, there is no nice king, nice father, whole society... (break) (in room) If you find out sand and rocks, you must also (indistinct) there was water. And from water, vegetation comes. From vegetation, other life comes. What we speak, we don't speak unscientifically.

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

Parivrājakācārya: Because they're desert people. The sheep eat all the little green, and then they have to move on.

Pradyumna: Same thing as the Bible. When the sheep eat up all the green in that place, then they have to go to another place with their sheep. In the Bible the same thing. All that Abraham, Joseph...

Prabhupāda: Bible was produced here, in this desert. Jerusalem is not far away. Mecca, (indistinct), Arabia.

Garden Conversation -- October 14, 1976, Chandigarh:

Indian man (4): But there are so many authorities presented to me. But there is the Bible, there is the Koran, there is...

Prabhupāda: No, first of all, you are born in India. Why you are jumping to Bible? (laughter) This is another foolishness. You take care of your own house. You are jumping like monkey to Bible. (laughter)

Indian man (4): In our own house there are quite a few dharmas.

Prabhupāda: Therefore ācāryavān puruṣo veda. You have to follow the ācāryas. In our country there are ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, those who are recognized authority. Ācāryavān puruṣo veda. In the Bhagavad-gītā, ācāryopāsanam. You have to worship the ācārya.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He was becoming very popular. So...

Haṁsadūta: And at least according to Bible, it appeared that the Jewish priests, they went to the governor or the chief man at that time, and they demanded that he has to do something about this man.

Prabhupāda: They have proposed it. That Houston politician, "It is spreading like epidemic." Hm? Come. "It is spreading like epidemic. Something must be done." Otherwise one day they'll capture our government." That's a fact. If so many young men join this movement, they will vote. Because your country is democratic. (conchshell blows) Do this what I suggested.

Room Conversation -- November 14, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He will suggest hundreds of things, but he cannot protest personally. That is not... What is the court case? That we have to place before the court that "This is genuine cultural or religious movement." We are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. What Kṛṣṇa has said, we are trying to spread. This is genuine, the simple thing. We have not manufactured anything, "transcendental meditation" or like that. That is not our business. We are presenting simply what is stated there in the Bhagavad-gītā. If somebody said that "Bible is not genuine," will it be accepted? Thousands and thousands are claiming to be Christian on the basis of... Similarly millions and millions of people in India, they know Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavad-gītā. How it is not genuine? That we have to prove, that's all. It's not that... Repeatedly we are speaking that what Kṛṣṇa said, that is perfect. That's all. This is our business. Who will object to that? You could not present to the governor that Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement... Anyone can say, "Yes, it is based on Bhagavad-gītā. It is genuine." Any Indian can say.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 4, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Oh. Last time you were not... I had been there. The cows are moving freely. They're very friendly, even to the children, just like family members. Yes. Kṛṣṇa... You'll find in India one boy taking care of twenty-five cows.

Jagadīśa: With just a stick.

Prabhupāda: Yes, with a stick. (chuckles) They are so submissive. The cow is going this side, "Raa-raa!"—immediately. (Jagadīśa laughs) When in Bible they say, "The animal is given to the care of man," like that... There is. This is care of, not that "Because we care of, we shall kill them." What is this interpretation? How demonic this Western civilization. "Because Jesus Christ, the God, has given the animals to our care, therefore we shall kill and eat." Anyway, try to introduce a renovation of civilization. Therefore they are trying to oppose us. Now they are conscious about the movement, that "If it is allowed to increase, then our program will be finished. And young men are taking. They are not rejecting." That is their concern.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So this is documentary. And the Europeans and..., they are not fools and rascals that they are interested in purchasing other religious book, not their Bible. You see? So it has got very great potency. So under the circumstances, we should now make combined effort that it can be pushed on more organizedly. I am doing now alone with the help of these... But no Indians are coming. This is the difficulty.

Morning Walk -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: There is a Bengali proverb (Bengali). In a village, if a saintly person comes from outside, he is invited. And if a saintly person there is in the village, nobody cares for him.

Trivikrama: Yes. The Bible says the same.

Prabhupāda: (laughs, repeats saying)

Dr. Patel: This will create some difficulty for your movement?

Prabhupāda: We don't care for it. We will go on. Caravan will pass. Let the dogs bark.

Dr. Patel: The dogs may bite.

Prabhupāda: No. Barking dog never bites. (laughter) They simply make their show. Neither they can bite. We shall go now?

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

Rāmeśvara: They say that if God had all of these things, then He would have revealed them in the Bible.

Prabhupāda: Because you cannot, rascal, manage that. That is the difference between him and God. Kṛṣṇa had sixteen thousand wives and sixteen thousand palaces. You cannot maintain one apartment.

Rāmeśvara: In the Bible...

Prabhupāda: You tell them like that: "You are so poor that you are afraid to maintain even one wife. So how you can be equal with God?"

Hari-śauri: His argument was that...

Prabhupāda: No argument! This is fact!

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

Hari-śauri: Actually, by practical example we can show that by following Kṛṣṇa, so many people are giving up intoxication, giving up so many sinful activities. But by following your Christian religion, it's not done them any good whatsoever. It's not changed their lives whatsoever. This man, he described our movement as very dangerous. On the radio he said, "This is dangerous," because we're trying to establish Kṛṣṇa as God and He's not stated in the Bible, and therefore we are very dangerous.

Prabhupāda: Christ is described as son of God, but where is the father? That means you are so rascal, you do not care to understand the father. And we are presenting the father, the father of Christ. And you are condemning. You do not know who is the father of Christ.

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

Prabhupāda: But you do not know the meaning of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means "all-attractive." That is God. That is God.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. I tried to explain. But he said Kṛṣṇa means that person who appeared in India five thousand years ago. That is Kṛṣṇa. So he said if God is Kṛṣṇa, then there would be some evidence in the Bible, but there is no evidence.

Prabhupāda: There is ev... There is evidence. Because... But you are so fool that you do not inquire, "If the Christ is son of God, who is God?" They never inquires. Why did you not inquire?

Rāmeśvara: He said that God spoke to Moses. God did not tell Moses that He was Kṛṣṇa. He told Moses that He is Jehovah.

Prabhupāda: Did Christ say that "Jehovah is my father"?

Rāmeśvara: That makes it very clear.

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

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa was proved, and still He is proved. Who is reading others' book all over the world? Therefore He is God. Where is that book so respected as Bhagavad-gītā? Who is printing so many books? Not even Bible. They respected Bible. Why the foreigners are reading Bhagavad-gītā? That is the proof that Kṛṣṇa is God. During the Christmas festival we sold our books greatest number in the history. How many copies Bible you have sold? That is the proof. Here is God. Otherwise why Christians should purchase Bhagavad-gītā during Christmas holiday? And because Kṛṣṇa is God, therefore you have come to fight. Who is going to fight with Jehovah? Who is going to fight with Jehovah movement?

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

Jagadīśa: Even in the Bible...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Apart from Bible, I am speaking from practical point of view. What is milk? Milk is blood. If the mother is unhealthy, anemic, you cannot keep. It dries away.(?) Milk is transformed from the blood. That's a fact. Now our cows in New Vrindaban, they are supplying more milk than in other farms. So you do not know how to utilize blood. You are so uncivilized. And you are claiming to be civilized. You are untouchable. You do not know what is the... Yes, in our New Vrindaban the men from other farms, they come. They are surprised. "Milk can give, this much?"(?) You know that? They are uncivilized, cutthroat. And therefore they are now eating better. You are not civilized. Don't talk of anything. First of all be civilized. Give up sin, sinful activities. Then come to understand what is God.

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

Prabhupāda: Even the demigods, they aspire after it. You are such a fool. You are rushing in. So we take pity upon you, and therefore we are trying to expand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But be sane; don't talk insanity. (break) And here you see big, big scholars that "Yes, here is Indian statement for the whole..." There are many saintly persons. Who cares for your Bible? And Bhagavad-gītā all over the world... Even if you take Dr. Radhakrishnan, elected as authority, he has tried to comment on Bhagavad-gītā, not on your Bible. Has he done? Who cares for your Bible? He may speak favorably or unfavorably, that is Bhagavad-gītā. But he has not spoken a word upon the Bible. Who cares for you? Not only here, all over the world, who is going to take the Bhagavad-gītā, er, Bible? And we are selling millions of copies of Bhagavad-gītā. That is proof Kṛṣṇa is God. We can say that we have got at home. Here is God. What do you think?

Rāmeśvara: When we argue like that, they cannot say anything. Prabhupāda: We must. "No, you have taken Dr. Radhakrishnan authority. Has he commented on Bible? Why not? That is not even worth commenting on." You have to attack like that. Hari-śauri: If President Nixon had written a commentary on the Bible, no one in America would accept it. Then why should they accept Radhakrishnan's?

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

Rāmeśvara: This man was saying that in the Bible there is a description of God speaking to Moses and Abraham, and He identified Himself as Jehovah, not Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: That is the main point, that what God said.

Rāmeśvara: What God said? He told Abraham to go to Israel and to worship only Him. He said, "There shall be no other Gods. Just Me." And then He told Moses the Ten Commandments.

Prabhupāda: So God said that... God must say. So you say God: Jehovah; and we say God: Kṛṣṇa. What is the wrong?

Rāmeśvara: "The wrong is that Kṛṣṇa was a man who lived on earth five hundred thousand years ago and..."

Prabhupāda: So Jehovah was God.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So that means He was God, you are man, how you are hearing from Him?

Rāmeśvara: Because it's in the Bible.

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

Prabhupāda: It's in the Bible. Then, that whatever is the... We can say the same way, "It is in the Bhagavad Gītā." What is the wrong there?

Rāmeśvara: What can be said?

Prabhupāda: "This is the Bible," and "This is the Bhagavad-gītā."

Rāmeśvara: "But history documents that Kṛṣṇa came to earth as a man."

Prabhupāda: Yes. So do you mean to say God cannot come as man? And Jehovah came as God?

Rāmeśvara: "But in the Bible God revealed a certain aspect of Himself, and the personality of Kṛṣṇa seems to be very different from this."

Prabhupāda: In which way different?

Rāmeśvara: "Because He had all these affairs with the gopīs. He was very different."

Prabhupāda: God will be just like...

Rāmeśvara: "And He was a king with sixteen thousand wives. That seems to be very different from the God that is described in the Bible."

Prabhupāda: So if God... What is described in the Bible, God symptom, that he has no power to enjoy sixteen thousand wives? He's limited?

Rāmeśvara: No. He's unlimited.

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

Prabhupāda: Therefore prove that "You are rascal, nonsense. You do not know what is God."

Rāmeśvara: They think that God has nothing to do. He does everything by His thinking. Just like in the Bible it says...

Prabhupāda: That why do you say nothing to do, rascal? That is doing. He is doing by thinking; that means...

Rāmeśvara: Yes. It is said in the Bible He created the world just by His thoughts.

Prabhupāda: That means—that's all right—that God is so powerful that He can do by His thinking. We also admit. But that does not mean God is not doing. But He is doing in a finer way. You rascal, you do in a grosser way. God does in a finer way. But that does not mean God is inactive.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: Hm. That's a fact.

Rāmeśvara: Then he mentions that in the Bible there is no information, so you have to look elsewhere.

Prabhupāda: Read Bhagavad-gītā.

Rāmeśvara: Unfortunately he has not come across the Vedas. I have already written a letter to some devotees in Los Angeles to meet this man and give him your Third Canto, Volume Four, which describes the movements of the living entity, development in the womb... I think he'll be shocked to read these things.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: He's also read this book called the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Prabhupāda: No, why not this also, Bhāgavata also, Bhagavad-gītā?

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: He must do it because He's God. You do not... You have no conception. You explain that if there is no such things, then wherefrom it has come? God is the origin. In the Bible also it is said, "God said 'Let there be creation.' " So in the creation there are so many things. So therefore everything comes from God. That is Vedānta philosophy. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). So why do you say, "Your God is like this"? God has everything. Otherwise how He's God? There is no meaning of God if He is deficient in something. But you do not know.

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: And in the beginning, when science began, modern science, the scientists would say something against the Bible that was different than the Bible. Then they would torture him. The church would torture him, this Galileo, big scien... So they point these things out, that the church is not tolerant.

Prabhupāda: That is not our point. We want to understand God through philosophy. "Through philosophy" means logic. Blind faith is not our business. (break) "...such date I have posted. You have got the literature. If you permit me, then I can show some of the books." Then our local representatives advise, "You go and see this gentleman." In this way contact him and leave some book with him, that "You first of all see. Then decide." Very honest business.

Morning Walk -- January 29, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Satsvarūpa: So if they chanted Christos and stopped eating meat but they still wanted to follow the Bible...

Prabhupāda: No, Bible... But if they follow Bible, that is religion, approved. But they do not follow. Bible says, "Thou shall not kill." They are killing. So what kind of Christian he is? He's a nonsense.

Satsvarūpa: They should be chastised.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They should be punished. That is the duty of the king. You follow any bona fide religion; you get all protection. But you don't follow; you must be chastised. That is king's duty. A king has no objection whether you are following Christian method or Hindu method. It doesn't matter. But you must have some religion. If you have no religion, then you are animal. You must be chastised.

Room Conversation -- February 3, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: Yes. (laughs) Catholic priests, they have a big stock in their cabinets, so much wine.

Prabhupāda: If they want to be reformed, we can reform them. On the basis of Bible, we can reform them. There is no difficulty.

Hari-śauri: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Most of my disciples they are coming from the Christian group. They can reform. Chanting is also recommended in the Bible, the glories of the Lord. I do not know why these rascals, Protestant... That means... The Protestant means last class. Why they should protest against Jesus law? Protestant means that. They protested. Is it not?

Room Conversation Varnasrama System Must Be Introduced -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Hari-śauri: So that depends upon our men who are giving recommendations.

Prabhupāda: So that recommendation is not good. Bible is giving so many recommendation. He's also not following them. (laughs)

Hari-śauri: Following them. So how will we implement? Right now we have... Every temple president can...

Prabhupāda: That is supposed. Where there is no tree, a castor seed tree is very big tree. That is going on.

Evening Darsana -- February 15, 1977, Mayapura:

Satsvarūpa: Did they try to make you Christian? Like that?

Prabhupāda: No. There was Bible class, compulsory, half an hour, from one to half past one.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda: Huh? No. They used to supply yearly one Bible, very nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Free. But no one became a Christian.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) No one. In India, in those days... (break) ...all the Jains. Jains... (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Only vaiśya community.

Room Conversation -- February 18, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I'm not forbidding. Kṛṣṇa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Well, in our Bible it doesn't say that."

Prabhupāda: "Your Bible, you take, but we have got our Kṛṣṇa. Dharmāviruddha-kāma. Then why you are taking contraceptive, rascal? You're killing your children. That is very good? Unrestricted sex, and when she is pregnant you kill. Are you human being or rākṣasa demon?" Challenge them like this.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: It is all Kṛṣṇa's grace. Let us try our best sincerely, and Kṛṣṇa will give us. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam (BG 10.10). Otherwise how it is happening? In foreign countries, a system of philosophy which is foreign to them, how they are purchasing? In India, if they purchase one Bhāgavatam, it has got meaning. But in Germany, purchasing Bhāgavatam, it is only Kṛṣṇa's grace. How it is possible? And India, nobody is interested to purchase Bible. So if they purchase Bhāgavatam, that is not surprising, but in Europe and America in Christmas festivities they are purchasing. So it is all Kṛṣṇa's arrangement. We sold more books in Christmas festivals.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: First of all become Christian, that you are following all the ten commandments. "Judge not others lest you be judged."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His second question is, "Considering that the Bible describes Jesus as the savior of the people of God, not only of Israel but of every man's sins, does it not minimize his actual position to say that he is simply an avatāra, and does it not contradict the teachings of the Bible...?" First of all he says isn't that minimizing him to say that he's an avatāra?

Prabhupāda: We accept him as avatāra, śaktyāveśa-avatāra, empowered incarnation of God. That we accept.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. He says, "Like any other revealed scripture, the Bible's teachings are absolute, but are they to be understood literally or symbolically, and are they applicable for all men?"

Prabhupāda: Literally, not symbolically.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda said those people should be hanged immediately.

Prabhupāda: When the Bible has said, that after death one goes to hell or heaven? If Jesus Christ has taken a contract, then where is the question of going to hell?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, that is for people who don't sign the contract with him. That is what they say. As long as you say that you accept Jesus, then you are going to heaven for sure.

Prabhupāda: So then Jesus Christ accepted sinful reaction of a certain class of men. He is not universal.

Room Conversation -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Whatever eating, he can eat. God has supplied.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That teaching I also remember from the Bible. There's a statement that "Everyone is being supplied, so don't you think that God will also supply for you?" That's there in the Bible, I think, also. But the Christians, so-called, they don't heed it.

Prabhupāda: And therefore we challenge them, "Who is a Christian?" It is not a single one.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, if one studies the life of Jesus, we live more like that than any so-called Christian.

Prabhupāda: So we have got very nice diamond. Try to sell. But if there is a purchaser, he will purchase. Otherwise not. It is our duty to canvas. But we cannot sell iron instead of diamond.