Calcutta (Conversations 1975 - 1976)

Expressions researched:
"Calcutta"

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Reporter -- March 9, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: Denmark, Holland, and Rome, then Switzerland, Geneva. So we have got several branches here.

Reporter: Are many people joining you?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Just see, many people here. Each center we have got not less than fifty men, up to 250. Similarly, we have got in Australia and New Zealand, all over the world. In India we have got six. In India I have got six. In Vṛndāvana, Calcutta, Bombay, Navadvīpa, Hyderabad—in so many places.

Reporter: Is the work you recommend your followers to do purely spiritual, or do you...

Prabhupāda: This we simply say, that "God is great. You are servant. Don't be befooled that you are God. Don't be befooled like that." That is our program.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Prabhupāda: He, or before him, another prince. Because that Prince of... We were at that time children. So I think King George V, when he was Prince of Wales.

Brahmānanda: Oh, when he came to Calcutta?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I have seen. We were school children at that time. So on the two sides of the road, our first place was, the king, queen passed, we saw. We were given a flag. (laughter) "Jaya Rāja, Rājeśvara." We were... And very good tiffin was supplied. Two samosa, two kachori, two sandeśa, and one big tangerine. Twice I saw. Once when he entered Calcutta, and again, one day, when there was a parade of military... military parade. So both days we were invited, and we saw the king. (break)

Brahmānanda: ...Calcutta, on the Maidan, there's that big building, that big memorial. Is that...

Prabhupāda: Oh, Victoria Memorial.

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran:

Ambassador: Like we did together in Delhi.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. You have seen it. They were very much eager. They were very much eager: "Swamiji continue." And the others, like Communist and others, they became upset. I have seen many big, big officers. They were chanting, returning from the office in the office dress, and they were chanting and dancing. And you have seen the crowd, twenty thousand, thirty thousand people. The same thing happened in Calcutta. Now the government did not give us again that land. Yes. Last time when we held that conference in Delhi...

Paramahaṁsa: On the LIC Grounds?

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. They gave us that Tal Kotara Park, you know? That is in the jungle. Nobody could reach there, and they gave us place there. (Ambassador laughs) Still, there were not less ten thousand people. It was not easily approachable. The motorcar cannot go. You have to leave your car three miles away to come there.

Room Conversation with Press Representative -- March 21, 1975, Calcutta:

Guest: Process as laid down in Gītā?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the ABCD. Then you can go further on. If you read Bhagavad-gītā as it is, there is everything explained, everything. All problems are solved. Any problem you propose, there is solution in the Bhagavad-gītā. Now this poverty, as you raised this question, poverty, so what is written there in the Bhagavad-gītā? Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). This is instruction, that "You produce food grain." Now, suppose Calcutta is a big city. Who is producing food grain? Everyone is trying to purchase food grain. But who is thinking that "Wherefrom the food grain will come?" Just see the foolishness of the people. You have to produce food grain. And there is ample facility. But throughout the whole world there are hundreds and thousands of cities. Now, who is producing food grain? The solution is there in the Bhagavad-gītā. He said, annād bhavanti bhūtāni. Kṛṣṇa never said, "By motor tire bhavanti bhūtāni." Bhavanti means flourish. Everyone is engaged in producing motor tire, car, and they are flattering the Arabians for petrol. The same energy, if it would have been engaged in producing food grain, then where is the poverty? (Someone enters) Oh! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Jaya.

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1975, Mayapur:

Pañcadraviḍa: Kill him again.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is their philosophy. And as they pass laws in the Parliament, similarly, these churches approve: "Yes, homosex is all right." Then it is all right. This cheating system is going on. Similar cheating system is the Hindus also. You'll find in Calcutta, in College Street, so many butcher house. And they have kept one goddess Kālī that "We are eating Mother Kali's prasāda." That's it. This is going on.

Brahmānanda: Kali eats meat.

Prabhupāda: Kali does not eat meat, but it is the śāstra's injunction that those who are unable to give up meat-eating, they may sacrifice one goat, not cow, one small animal before the goddess Kali, on amāvāsya (new moon) day, night, not day, and they can eat it.

Pañcadraviḍa: If it's offered, though, who accepts it? Whose prasādam is it? Who takes it?

Prabhupāda: The prasādam is not... That meat is not taken by Kali, but it is taken by the witches and others, associates of Kali.

Morning Walk -- April 7, 1975, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: ...into the lower species of life.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They will fall down. Śāstra says. They will fall down. The same example: if I ask you that "You sit down in this vacant land and you live eternally," you will leave this place: "No, no, I don't want this eternity. Let me go to Calcutta." (laughter) (break) ...perpetually. So that is wanted. The spiritual kingdom is Brahman effulgence, and there are Vaikuṇṭha planets. So if you take shelter of the Vaikuṇṭha planet, then you can stay. And if you take simply the impersonal Brahmān, sky, you cannot stay there. Arūhya kṛcchreṇa patanty adhaḥ. So without varieties, simply impersonal conception of Brahmān will not make you happy.

Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: The descriptions of Goloka Vṛndāvana, that even the dust is personal... So we have experience of personal form. Even Kṛṣṇa's form is personal. How is the dust of Vṛndāvana personal? How is it individual living entity?

Prabhupāda: If you want something from this dust, you cannot get it. That is material. But in Vṛndāvana, even from the dust if you want any, he will deliver immediately.

Morning Walk -- April 23, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Guest: One restaurant near Metro was serving that type. And one man suffering from leprosy was given only about one month to live, and "If you want to enjoy, you enjoy. But if you want to get cured, you have to eat human flesh." "I don't eat human flesh." So he started eating anywhere. And he liked one place very much, and he started eating for one month at that particular place. And eventually he was cured. Then a police report was found out that they were serving human flesh by inviting very poor people from the South India for washing the dishes at night, giving five rupees. When they come, they kill him and serve in the morning.

Prabhupāda: That was being done long, long ago in a Chinese house in Calcutta. They'd call hawker.

Guest: Hawker. And kill him up.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guest: It is a very confidential report. The government will not publish it. (break)

Prabhupāda: Supply large quantity of milk? No.

Guest: No, that milk is medicinally used for whooping cough. Anybody suffering from whooping cough, they have to take this camel's milk. And any children who do not increase their height, they are given this milk in winter. So height is automatically increased. They become like camel eventually. (laughter) Tall, I mean. I don't mean the..., in Western way. According to Āyurvedic principle, every animal have got a particular method of curing particular disease.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- May 11, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Eh? What is that? Woman?

Devotee (1): They said that the man cannot be convicted of rape if he honestly believes that the woman consented to his raping her.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is law always. Rape means without consent, sex. Otherwise there is no rape. There was a rape case in Calcutta, and the lawyer was very intelligent. He some way or other made the woman admit, "Yes, I felt happiness." So he was released. "Here is consent." And that's a fact. Because after all, sex, rape or no rape, they will feel some pleasure. So the lawyer by hook and crook made the woman agree, "Yes, I felt some pleasure." "Now, there is consent." So he was released. After all, it is an itching sensation. So either by force or by willingly, if there is itching, everyone feels relieved itching it. That's a psychology. It is not that the woman do not like rape. They like sometimes. They willingly. That is the psychology. Outwardly they show some displeasure, but inwardly they do not. This is the psychology.

Morning Walk -- May 14, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Therefore, if we do not give up lusty desires, either we keep separately or together they fall down in the... All these nuns, they are all complicated, although they live separately. There was a convent school in Calcutta, and it was detected that the head minister was supplying women outside for business. Now one brahmacārīṇi āśrama is started. This means that the authority of this āśrama, they supply young women to rich, richer class, and they pay money. Business is going on.

Amogha: Where is that āśrama?

Prabhupāda: Brahmacārīṇi.

Amogha: Oh. In Calcutta?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not only in India. They have got many branches.

Amogha: They call them brahmacārīṇi?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because nowadays almost every girl is unmarried. So they have devised this āśrama that "Come here." And women can be sold at any cost. People are lusty. So one woman supplied, he pays hundred rupees, two hundred rupees. Business is going on.

Room Conversation with Alcohol and Drug Hospital People -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: Ātmā, yes, soul is ātmā. And the soul of the soul is God, Paramātmā.

Guest (2): Is it possible for us to communicate with plants?

Prabhupāda: With...?

Paramahaṁsa: With plants. Is it possible for us to communicate with plants?

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have done. Sir Jagadish Candra Bose in Calcutta, Bose Institute, he has proved—he has got machine—that they feel pains and pleasure, which is recorded in the machine. If you pluck one leaf, they feel. Immediately it is recorded in the machine.

Guest (2): Could I come back to that eating of meat? Related to this alive, soul, matter. Aren't you in a sense eating another soul too if you're eating vegetables? Not only if you're eating meat?

Prabhupāda: No, the thing is, the material world... It is said, jīvo jīvasya jīvanam: "One living entity has to eat another living entity to keep himself alive." That is the natural law. But you should have discrimination. Because you have to eat some other living entity, it does not mean that you will eat your own son. You cannot support that "Because I have to live by eating another living entity, so what is the wrong if I eat my son?" Therefore the Vedic injunction is tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). You are given some jurisdiction. You can eat. And actually you do so. Because I have to eat something, we do not eat anything and everything. We have got discrimination. So according to Bhagavad-gītā... Find out this verse, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati.

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

Jesuit: ...am very pleased to meet you. Good of you to see me.

Prabhupāda: Yes

Jesuit: I've been in India just once.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jesuit: I was over in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Calcutta. Where?

Jesuit: Aaḥ, I was staying with Brother Andrew. I don't know whether you know him. He works with Mother Theresa in (?)pur over there.

Prabhupāda: Near Chowringhee? There is a place called Chowringhee.

Jesuit: Ah, no, it wasn't there. It was right in Calcutta itself.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Right in Calcutta proper.

Jesuit: Yes. Right in Calcutta. And he was an Australian Jesuit who founded an order of Brothers to work over there with Mother Theresa. So he used to work near there. And, er, how long are you staying out here in Australia?

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

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

Journalist: Yes. Is your son in the cult?

Prabhupāda: Yes, everyone. But they are not so advanced. Just like one belongs to some cult, religion, but one may not be very expert to understand that religion. So they are Kṛṣṇa conscious, but not so expert.

Journalist: In India or the United States?

Prabhupāda: India, in Calcutta, my family is there in Calcutta.

Journalist: You live in New York?

Prabhupāda: No, no, I travel all over the world. My, in America headquarter, Los Angeles. And European headquarter, London.

Journalist: Is Kṛṣṇa consciousness connected with any other religion? Does it derive from Hinduism or Buddhism?

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can call it Hinduism, but actually it does not belong to any "ism." It is a science of understanding God. But it appears like Hindu religion. In that sense Buddha religion is also Hindu religion, because Lord Buddha was a Hindu and he started Buddha religion.

Room Conversation with Dr. Copeland, Professor of Modern Indian History -- May 20, 1975, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Then I began translating from 1968 or '69. And I published my first book in 1962. Then next was in 1964. And then the third volume was published in 1965. And then I came to America. And then I translated all these books, whatever you see, about fifty books. This is about eleven hundred pages. Other books are not less than four hundred pages.

Dr. Copeland: Oh, yes. I have many in my shelf like these. Where and when did you learn English?

Prabhupāda: In Calcutta. I was educated in a college. My professors were all Europeans.

Dr Copeland: Which college?

Prabhupāda: Scottish Churches' College. You know that? In our time Dr. Watt, he was principal. And I was student of philosophy of Dr. W. S. Urquhart. He was my professor. And our English professor was Mr. Cameron,(?) Mr. Scrimgeour, Mr. Warren. And I was student of economics also. One Mr. Keith, he was also... All our professors were Scotsmen, Englishmen.

Dr. Copeland: And after you left the college, were you employed?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I was appointed manager of a very big laboratory, Dr. Bose's laboratory.

Dr. Copeland: Ah, yes.

Morning Walk -- May 28, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: After that, I don't remember I ever took bath in the sea.

Gurukṛpa: The water is very warm here.

Bali-mardana: You were taking bath in Yamunā.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that I was regularly, when I was in Vṛndāvana. In childhood I was going with my father to take bathing in the Ganges, Calcutta. That I was going regularly.

Devotee (4): It requires a lot of strength to bathe in the sea. You're being tossed very much.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...so many seeds are there? And as many seeds, as many trees are there. And each fruit, thousands of fruits there, and millions of seeds are there, and millions of trees are there. Where is that scientist, put into that small packet millions of trees like that? Millions of big trees are within this packet. Where is that scientist? Put in a packet, you take, and millions of trees you grow? And without any expenditure, they are present there. If you like, you can take. What the scientists will answer? "Yes, in future we shall do." In future you will do. That's all right. But why don't you give credit who has done already? You are taking credit by post-dated check, and one is actually paying cash, he has no credit. You are giving a false check, post-dated, and you want to take credit. And one who is paying cash immediately, he has no credit. Just see how foolish they are.

Morning Walk -- May 31, 1975, Honolulu:

Gurukṛpa: You said it was two rupees.

Prabhupāda: No, not two rupees. Jagannātha Purī at that time was four rupees, four annas or one anna. And Vṛndāvana was six rupees.

Gurukṛpa: Six.

Prabhupāda: Six rupees from Calcutta. So I was dreaming "When I get this four rupees or six rupees, I shall go." (break)

Gurukṛpa: That is not material.

Bali-mardana: You were desiring to worship... You were worshiping Jagannātha, weren't you?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Rathayātrā.

Bali-mardana: You wanted to go and visit Purī?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Gurukṛpa: All the people come out on their porch and they watch us. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...see (sea?), you can... Water is so clear, ten feet down you can see clear.

Gurukṛpa: Here.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Because even if you find somebody diseased, still, spiritual consciousness is not hampered. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, ahaituky apratihatā. Apratihatā means without any impediment. There is no checking. Just like in the Ganges water you will sometimes find the stool is floating there. But that does not mean the Ganges water has become polluted. It is practical. In Calcutta, in our childhood, I was taking bath in the Ganges with my father. Many gentlemen regularly takes bath in the Ganges. And the modern scientific method is: all the garbage, throw into the river. So we were taking bath, and here is some stool floating. So we used to drive away the stool and take bath. The stool is unable to pollute the Ganges water. You will find in India still. The advanced gentlemen... "The dirty water," they say, Ganges water. But you will find practically, that anyone who is taking regular bathing in this dirty water, he is healthy. You will find. It is very healthy. No disease touches him ordinarily. Of course, the body is susceptible to disease, but generally, those who are taking regular bath in the Ganges water, they are not diseased. You will find it practically still. So as the stool floating in the Ganges water cannot pollute the Ganges water, similarly, a devotee, even if you find scientifically that he is crazy or he is diseased, that is not impediment.

Garden Conversation with Dr. Gerson and devotees -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dharmādhyakṣa: Also, should this college have men and woman or just men?

Prabhupāda: No, why? Everyone. We have no such discrimination. But not cats and dogs. (laughter) Human being. Never mind what he is.

Bahulāśva: Śrīla Prabhupāda, in Māyāpur you were speaking about you wanted Māyāpur to become a college for the University of Calcutta?

Prabhupāda: No, why Māyāpur? Everywhere. The whole educational system should be changed.

Bahulāśva: We should take it over.

Prabhupāda: Not changed. At least this will remain as a departmental knowledge.

Bahulāśva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: It is not possible to make wholesale change, but at least let them accept this Kṛṣṇa consciousness as a departmental knowledge.

Morning Walk -- June 22, 1975, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Fast. (break) ...in my childhood, I remember, I went to see football match in the Maidan.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Calcutta Maidan.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So when I was returning—of course, I was walking—throughout the whole... At that time our house was that Mullik's house. So from Maidan to Mahatma Gandhi Road I came. And all the watches throughout the road, the same time. Means every watch was, every clock was wrong. But I was going, so I, suppose I saw 5:10 here, then few steps away, 5:10, 5:10, 5:10, like that.

Bhavānanda: Not any more.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Bhavānanda: In Calcutta it's not that way any more.

Prabhupāda: That's very strict in time?

Bhavānanda: No, every clock is hours off. (laughter) From each other.

Prabhupāda: Hours? (laughs)

Bhavānanda: Hours.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) ...today?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think in Los Angeles it is always...

Prabhupāda: Always.

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

Bahulāśva: Śrīla Prabhupāda, did you speak about Kant's philosophy in that book also? Yes? He is very popular.

Prabhupāda: Yes, Kant is very popular. I was also a student of philosophy. In my student life my professors were all Europeans. I was student of Scottish Church's College in Calcutta. So one professor, Dr. W.S. Urquhart, he was our professor for psychology, metaphysics. Later on, he became the vice-chancellor of Calcutta University. A very nice gentleman.

Dharmādhyakṣa: Dr. Mize finds that he's chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa a little in the shower now. When he takes a shower, he chants a little.

Prabhupāda: One press reporter in the Berkeley University in the beginning, he wrote his article and he wrote that after hearing this Hare Kṛṣṇa for a few minutes, I came home chanting all the road, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa." He gave this report.

Morning Walk -- June 30, 1975, Denver:

Satsvarūpa: He's bluffing.

Prabhupāda: He has simply collected money like anything by this bluff. Now people are asking that. Therefore Dalmia said one of the trustees, "You better give it to Bhaktivedanta Swami." They have seen. They have taken money from them. Or for maintaining the institution he regularly gets money from rich men in Calcutta, Bombay, one thousand, two thousand, 1,500, like that.

Satsvarūpa: He has given the school some title, "Oriental Institute." It is called the Oriental Institute?

Brahmānanda: Institute of Oriental Philosophy.

Prabhupāda: Institute of Oriental Philosophy? Yes. And the students are coming to him with knives. That is his popularity. Amongst his own students, he is threatened with knife. And he has to sign something by such threatening. (end)

Room Conversation with Lt. Mozee, Policeman -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: So our process is to cleanse the heart, not the opulence or poverty. No, that is not our... To cleanse the heart. If the poor man is cleansed in his heart he will not touch anybody's property. I heard that King, Emperor Edward VII, his habit was to steal.

Lt. Mozee: Yes, he was a kleptomaniac. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: And I have known many instances. In Calcutta one very rich man's son in the evening he would take his bath and dress nicely, and he would go to the Howrah station and beg, cheat men: "I have lost my purse. Will you kindly help me?" And any gentleman: "He has lost..." And he will go to the restaurant and eat and go home. That was his habit. He was a very rich man, but his habit was this. So we have to change the habit by changing the heart. You know very well. Many thieves, they have committed many times theft and put into the jail. So he knows that "If I commit theft, I will go to the jail." He has practically seen it, and he knows it. Still, he steals. Why? Because heart is unclean. So this process will cleanse the heart. Unless he cleans the heart, you cannot stop criminality simply by laws. Laws are already known. The professional thief, he knows the law. The professional murderer, he knows the law. But still, he commits because heart is unclean. And our process, to cleanse the heart. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), it is Sanskrit, "Cleansing the heart." Bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam, "Then all the troubles of this material world will be solved."

Morning Walk -- July 6, 1975, Chicago:

Prabhupāda: No, no, this much. Top of the little finger. (break) ...about forty miles off, there is a place known as Jneyo(?) Kali. There the Ganges is so vast. You have seen it? No. Eh?

Viṣṇujana: Yeah, I think so. I saw it three miles wide. One place where I was sailing on the Ganges it was three miles wide by Mangir.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Mungir. No, Mungir is far off. It is near Calcutta. (break) ...snowfall here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Snowfall?

Prabhupāda: Heavy?

Devotee (1): Oh, yes, it becomes very cold here.

Dhīra Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...all ice. In the winter time, this becomes ice.

Prabhupāda: Become ice?

Dhīra Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Oh? (break) ...walk?

Dhīra Kṛṣṇa: Yes, everyone likes to go out and walk around on it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ice skating. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...was seeing in that paper, the meeting, a photograph of Jaya Prakash Narayana and Mrs. Gandhi. Both of the meetings were overcrowded. So who is right and who is wrong? People were hearings in throngs both of them. So? Who is wrong, who is right? (break)

Brahmānanda: ...newspaper report here was that the crowds who came to cheer Indira Gandhi that they were paid, paid crowds. They would pay them one rupee each.

Press Conference -- July 16, 1975, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Let it be finished. Otherwise, attention will be diverted. (break)

Bhaktadāsa: ...photograph, we'd like to introduce the founder-ācārya spiritual master of the entire Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who founded this movement in 1966, coming here to America from Calcutta. Now His Divine Grace has very kindly once again come to San Francisco to lead us in this holy Rathayātrā Jagannātha cart parade. And we will ask him the questions that you have written down, and he will answer those questions, like that. So the first question, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is "What is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement?"

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means that every one of us is in some type of consciousness: "I am American," "I am Indian," and, "It is my property," "America is my property," "India is my property." But we say that "Everything is Kṛṣṇa's property." Kṛṣṇa is the... Kṛṣṇa, God, when we say Kṛṣṇa, we mean God. God is the original proprietor. And He is, therefore, the supreme enjoyer, and He is everyone's friend. If we understand these three things, then we become peaceful. If all the nations in the United Nations assembly accept that everything belongs to God, then their quarrel between one nation to another nation immediately stops. But present fighting is that two hundred years ago the Americans were mostly in Europe. Now they have migrated and claiming America is theirs. So we think always that "All land belongs to God." Just like this big ocean. Who has created this ocean? Man has not created. Therefore, if God has created, then God is the proprietor. Take land, water. These are the material elements. Who has created such vast sky? That is also material. So we think in that way and try to find out the answer from authoritative sources. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Morning Walk -- August 7, 1975, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Indian Man (2): How can we spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: If we go village to village. The village people are still pure, at least not so polluted as the town people, or especially the so-called educated. (break) ...hari-kīrtana koro... (Bengali) We held this hari-kīrtana in Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay. Oh, at least fifteen to thirty thousand people were daily... Even from the office with coats and pants, they are dancing. And they asked me, "Swamiji, continue it." (break)

Indian Man (2): I traveled all over India so many years, place to place, but I found the Gujarati is one of the best where the people have there some natural-born Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's fact. Everywhere—Gujaratis, Marwaris, Punjabis—more or less, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1975, Bombay:

Lalitā: (Bengali) ...American guru. Yesterday somebody came to me when I am just... (Bengali) ...Central Intelligence... (Bengali) ...whose house that Mr. Badiraja(?) house, and Guru Maharaj-ji is Indian or American. Twice they phoned from the prime minister's office. We are telling them in Bengali. From there, Calcutta, West Bengal. And I know, my grandfather knows him, and I told this. (Bengali) ...this American guru. And again and again they are phoning. I said, "No, no." (Bengali) What she will feel? She has got that power.

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) ...she is spiritually inclined, therefore... (Bengali) "I know Mrs. Gandhi is spiritually inclined." (Bengali) By 1928 Jawaharlal Nehru, Congress President... (Bengali) "Dear Panditji, I want to go to Congress as a delegate. Please give me delegate ticket." (Bengali) "You don't require any ticket. You come here. You'll get it." Delegate's seats are... (Bengali)

Lalitā: You born... When Guru Maharaj born... (Bengali)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: 1896.

Lalitā: Somebody has reported that he is American and this and that.

Prabhupāda: No. (Bengali) ...Calcutta janma... (Bengali)

Lalitā: I told you that Mr. Mani is Sai Baba's bhakta. So he is harassing, sending a letter and all. It's not especial any, that "Send to the member of ISKCON. They must leave." No. There is no report like that, but they are sending to say that he should learn and come to the Mr. Mani's bhakta of Sai Baba. (Bengali) There is nothing special. So if you are feeling better, then tomorrow or the day after tomorrow... (Bengali) ...can I mention that you must fit to see?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (Bengali) You know that? (Bengali) Between twelve to end of the day. (Bengali) Indira Gandhi... (Bengali) ...position plus spiritual knowledge, it will play wonderful in the world. (Bengali) Third-class, fourth-class rogue, they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Rājarṣayo. He must be royalty, at the same time great sage, saintly person. Then he will understand.

Morning Walk -- August 24, 1975, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Yes. They simply jugglery of words.

Tejas: All impersonal.

Bhāgavata: There was one man in Calcutta. You stayed in his house just before you left for America, and later he became a sannyāsī. He sings bhajans. He became a sannyāsī later. He knew you very well. You had written him a letter, and he just recently became a patron, and he is reading your books now also. I have forgotten his name, but he knew you very, very well. He used to sing bhajans. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...dranatha statue? (break) ...some contribution through that... What is that temple? No, no, Chandi Chowk?

Tejas: Ācchā. Gauri Shankar.

Prabhupāda: Gauri Shankar. I think, that Sita Ram? Sita Ram? He is living or not?

Tejas: Which Sita Ram?

Prabhupāda: He is one Mr. Sita Ram. He was secretary. Sita Ram barrister. So he introduced me there, and they agreed to pay me 1,500.

Tejas: For the books.

Prabhupāda: No. For some paper.

Morning Walk -- September 1, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: They make analysis—"This is good; this is bad." The whole thing is bad; they do not understand. Dvaite bhadrābhadra sakale samana, ei bhala ei manda saba manodharma. A mental concoction we analyze—"This is good." And because the whole population is such rascal, therefore we see whole world they are creating government, they are making this advancement, taking... Everything is spoiled. That they do not understand, that "We have tried so far, scientifically and this way and that way. Why there are so many things disturbing and miserable?" The whole policy is to give you trouble. That is the material nature. You must be always in trouble. Adhyātmika adhibhautika. "No." They will say, "No, this trouble is better than that trouble." (laughter) This is the... This trouble is better than that trouble. Hare Kṛṣṇa. This Dr. Ghosh, he said... When he was student in Calcutta he was doctor of tropical medicine. So one English doctor was his professor, Colonel Maylow(?). So he was lecturing and... Now the friends have come to greet. He said that "In our country 75%, at least, students are infected with syphilis."

Morning Walk -- September 15, 1975, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And you have no heart. You have simply stone. (laughter) That is sung by some Vaiṣṇava, that "My heart is harder than the stone, because I know that even the stone melts by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, but my heart does not melt. Therefore I think it is harder than the stone."

Indian man (2): Once somebody asked Prabhupāda Mahārāja in Calcutta that "When can you show me Kṛṣṇa?" Prabhupāda Mahārāja said that "Here is Kṛṣṇa. You cannot see because your eyes are stones. They are not the eyes. If you have got the eyes, you can see it here."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian man (2): "And these people have not come to worship stone. They have come to see Kṛṣṇa, and they are decorating, and they know that Kṛṣṇa is here." That at Calcutta, you said.

Prabhupāda: Hm. So what did he say?

Indian man (2): Yes, Prabhupāda, he accepted immediately.

Brahmānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we should return.

Prabhupāda: Return? All right. (break) ...seen by premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti (Bs. 5.38). Unless there is love for God, who can see God? Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu. One who is lover of God, such saintly person, twenty-four hours he sees simply God, nothing else.

Morning Walk -- September 26, 1975, Ahmedabad:

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Yaśomatīnandana: Upendra has come to India only for a few months, so it might take a little while to get used to situation here. And some boys are here who are already two, three years in India. They know how to do it. And again, if he has to go in a few months...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's very difficult at the moment, Śrīla Prabhupāda. If we have that choice, then I humbly say we not open the Ahmedabad temple now because... At other temples, like Calcutta, which have (unclear) and which are in a very critical situation because I haven't given them any men...

Prabhupāda: (break) You require one man to your selection. So nobody will stay. Everyone has to go. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa... (break) The Ahmedabad people cannot maintain this park. How they will maintain their center? And you are not making good life members? Then?

Yaśomatīnandana: These are only few days that they have started making... Last time we came they made eight members in five weeks.

Prabhupāda: Members are made after the festival.

Morning Walk -- Durban, October 13, 1975 :

Prabhupāda: "So if you make propaganda and pay money to go against the Hindus and incite them"—gradually it developed. And the money was being paid by the Britishers. And he saw that money is coming. He had no feeling, national or… He wanted money, that's all. For money you can purchase anything nowadays.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Why did the British build all so many railroads?

Prabhupāda: For drawing raw materials from villages and bring it to the Calcutta, Bombay port and export to their country because their country does not produce anything. They’re starving. Still England, London, is maintained by importing goods from Africa, India, here, there. They have no food there. They can grow some potato, maybe… Potato only, That was the reason of expanding their empire. They had no food at home, England. They were manufacturing cotton cloth. That cotton was not grown in their country. It was brought from Egypt. They manipulated things in such a way. In America also they wanted to do that, but Americans, just understanding, separated, George Washington. In America I have heard that each family was to maintain a British soldier. You know that?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No, I didn’t know that.

Morning Walk -- October 17, 1975, Johannesburg:

Prabhupāda: Ah, fumigation.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: When the termites get into the wood they eat up the wood and they hide in nests underneath the house. So the way that they try to kill the termites is by gassing them. They cover their house with a tent, and then they gas, and it goes into the nests and kills all the termites. They are perfecting this art of killing. You said that in Calcutta in a very expensive cloth shop... Your father's brother used to have cloth shop?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That when there was rats and they would eat the cloth that he would simply put some prasādam in the room.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: And the rats would come and take. They wouldn't eat the cloth.

Prabhupāda: No. Just like a man also. If he gets food, shelter, then he doesn't commit any criminal act. Man is also dangerous. Even if you give him food, shelter, he will do mischievous activities. That is man. But an animal will not do it. You can tame even a tiger by giving him food. He will never... If he sees that you are giving him food he'll never attack, the tiger also, feeling obliged.

Morning Walk -- October 28, 1975, Nairobi:

Indian lady (3): He was very rich. He used to...

Prabhupāda: I know that. In Calcutta, Kukumcha. This firm was very big. One of the richest Marwari. So eighty years old, he wanted to change the hormone to become young. Not only... There are many Marwaris. You know the (name witheld)? (name witheld)? His elder brother, (name witheld). His only business is to keep one wife and have a big establishment. He has got four, five wives—one Bengali, one U.P., one Marwari, one this—and each wife's establishment not less than ten thousand per month. And his business is morning to this wife and evening to this wife and noon to this wife, this wife. And he is old man. The wives do not care for him, and she is doing everything whatever, with the secretary. That's all. It is going on. I have seen. I was guest in his home, and this rascal is doing this. He is earning money, black market, white market, this mar... At any cost, and spending like this. That's all. There are many persons. Oh, in Europe also, the same thing. In Paris very, very old men, seventy-five years old, eighty years, they go to the night club. Entrance fee fifty dollar, then pay for the woman, wine. Spend few hours and spend two hundred, three hundred, five hundred dollars-go home. Then tranquilizer pill and sleep. This is going on. Therefore mūḍha.

Morning Walk -- October 28, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: In Bengal there is bird. Bengali is also. Every village is a garden like this, and these birds live in such nice garden. Bengal, it is now deserted. Otherwise wherever you go, it is garden. You have seen pukka?

Brahmānanda: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: When we go from Calcutta to Māyāpur, simply garden. All banana trees, all coconut trees, mango trees, nice green field. But they cannot maintain. Formerly they were maintaining. All gentlemen used to live within the village, they used to take care. Now all gentlemen, they have left. They have gone to the city. Only poor men are there. They cannot maintain.

Brahmānanda: We stopped one time at the home of that minister. He had his home on that road with big gardens.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Tarun.

Morning Walk -- November 4, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Now we are going to have the temple within three months.

Dr. Patel: But then drying of the cement, drying needs...

Prabhupāda: Everything is there. Just you take and... In Bombay, Calcutta, if you pay for, you can get tiger's blood.

Dr. Patel: That side, you can get tiger's blood and even tiger's milk. But then you can't get time. The cement a certain, takes certain time to dry, no?

Prabhupāda: Then the answer is... No, the architects have promised, within three months.

Dr. Patel: You must have some, some mantras then, architect. Have you got any mantras brought from America or...?

Devotees: Haribol!

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa! (break) ...is practical. (break)

Dr. Patel: ...because God does not want to come out and meet idiots. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No. They obstructed so much, so it must be wall against those persons. From the very beginning they were obstructing. So therefore we raised the wall so that they may not come.

Morning Walk -- November 4, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Huh? Death? He's already dead. What you can bring? Rascal, don't you see that he is already dead? If you have to bring something you have to bring life. Death is already there. (dog barking, woman yelling) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. (break) Bhāgavata has analyzed, yasyātmā-buddhi kunape tri-dhātuke. And this is the beginning of mistake, taking this body as everything and then bodily issues, bodily... Sva-dhiḥ kalātrādiṣu. And because I have got relation with some woman... There are thousands and millions of women, but because I have got bodily relation with some woman, I am so much attracted. That is due to the body. Actually I am not attracted to the woman. There are many millions of women, but that particular woman, wife, because I have got bodily relation with her, I think, "Oh, she is mine." Sva-dhiḥ kalātrādiṣu. Kalātrādiṣu, beginning from kalātra, then go on—children, grandchildren, father-in-law, mother-in-law, this one, this one. The beginning is the kalātra. If there is no kalātra, there is no father-in-law, mother-in-law. So sva-diḥ kalātrādiṣu. Then bhauma idya-dhiḥ—"This is my country. I am national," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this." Why? The body has grown from this land. You see, every, the whole world activities is going on on this basis. Sva-dhiḥ kalātrādiṣu bhauma idya-dhiḥ. Idya. Idya means worshipable. The brain is full with this idea, dhiḥ. Dhiḥ means buddhi. The brain is congested with all these ideas. Then he wants to become a religious man. What is that? Now, bhauma idya-dhiḥ. Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile. He goes to some holy place and takes bath. They go to Hardwar. The same Ganges in Calcutta, and the same Ganges in Hardwar, but he will go to Hardwar to take bath so that he may think that "I have come to some holy place." The holy place is Ganges, but Calcutta is not holy place and Hardwar is holy. Yes. Bhauma idya-dhiḥ. Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile. Actually Hardwar or Vṛndāvana, such places are meant to see great saintly persons, to take some knowledge from them. To take some knowledge from them, that is the purport of going to the holy place. But without consulting them, without seeing them, he simply dips into the water and he takes, "My pilgrimage is finished."

Morning Walk -- November 7, 1975, Bombay:

Bhāgavata: Hells, oh, Fifth Canto.

Prabhupāda: Yes. How one is going by cheating others, by stealing. So everything. You can display, what is called? That planetary system?

Indian man (1): Planetarium?

Prabhupāda: Planetarium. According to planetarium.

Dr. Patel: They have got a big planetarium in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have got, but we have also got. So it is little difference. Just like we are calculating that the sun is the beginning of the planets, sun, then moon. Therefore we say "Sunday, Monday." This is very quite reasonable. Tuesday.

Dr. Patel: And Tuesday is next word because Maṅgala.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And planet is 1,006,000 miles above, above. And Saturday, Saturn is the last. So now sun is calculated to be 93,000,000's miles from earth, and if the moon is still further 1,600,000, then it becomes about fifteen hundred thousand miles. No. Fifteen million miles. So how they are going, in four days, fifteen million?

Dr. Patel: You ask me?

Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- November 8, 1975, Bombay:

Bhāgavata: Eskimos.

Prabhupāda: I have got practical experience. In my childhood I used to go with my father for some purchasing some bhauma(?) flour in the interior districts. So there was one servant engaged. One day he did not come. So my father asked me, "He is living in there, in that cottage. You can go and ask him." So I went to his cottage. Practically there was no roof, and rain was dropping. So I saw him in a very bad condition. Then I asked him, "Why don't you come to Calcutta with us?" So he replied, "No sir, we cannot go, leaving home. (laughter) This is home." I have got practical experience. "Home sweet home." Janani janma-bhumiś ca svargād api gariyasi: Everyone is thinking that his birthplace and his mother is better than the heaven. That is the psychology. So everyone, however abominable... Everyone is living in abominable condition. That's a fact. But everyone is thinking that "Who is happier than me?" Everyone. This is called māyā. Unless he thinks, he cannot live.

Devotee (1): What is the throwing potency of māyā?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (1): It is described that there are two potencies of māyā.

Dr. Patel: Mam eva prapadyante māyām etan taranti te.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Devotee (1): What is an example of the throwing potency of māyā?

Prabhupāda: Throwing potency means somebody comes to take Kṛṣṇa consciousness and māyā will dictate, "Why you have come here? Go and enjoy life outside." And he goes away. That is throwing.

Morning Walk -- November 10, 1975, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: ...that man, and then Krodha Mahārāja knew that this man would be perhaps hanged by the officials. So the engineer... (break) He was smuggled into Africa. And there, in Africa, he learned Bengali by himself, reading book. And he was Bengali scholar. (break)

Prabhupāda: He was professor of Presidents' College, Calcutta. Their opinion is Sanskrit is the mother of all languages.

Dr. Patel: In Russian language there are so many Sanskrit words.

Prabhupāda: Deva-nāgarī. In the heavenly planets this language is... Heavenly planet the Sanskrit language is used. Therefore it is called deva-nāgarī. Nāgara means town, and deva means demigod. This language is spoken in the heavenly planets, deva-nāgara. But these rascals, they think there is no living entity in any other planet except this.

Dr. Patel: Now the scientists have started saying...

Prabhupāda: So what kind of scientists? They can change their opinion?

Dr. Patel: Then they are learning science.

Prabhupāda: Rascals, say rascals. No, no, say... Learning means rascals.

Morning Walk -- November 14, 1975, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Calcutta had called me up this morning. They are expecting about two lakhs' people in Māyāpur today and tomorrow. There's a big festival, and Jayapataka Mahārāja spoke to me also. He's going to come here next Wednesday.

Prabhupāda: Two lakhs' people?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: During the next three, four day festival...

Prabhupāda: What is that festival?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's... It happens every year at this time.

Prabhupāda: What is this time?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) Bengali Gītār Gān is ready and Jayapataka Swāmī is taking delivery of it in the morning.

Prabhupāda: (break) Copies. (break) They could not conclude when the battle of Kurukṣetra was fought.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They are speculating, though. There is one school which says it wasn't fought in Kurukṣetra.

Prabhupāda: As soon as there will be one school and other school, that means all of them are rascals. Just like the sun rises from this side. There cannot be two schools. If somebody says, "No, no. Sun rises from this side," if that is school, he's a fool. Sun rises from the eastern side. That's all. That is knowledge. If somebody says, "No, sometimes in the western side, sometimes in the northern side," is that any value? So as soon as there will be many schools, that means the conclusion is not like that.

Morning Walk -- November 19, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Jaya.

Brahmānanda: (break) He makes railway cars in Bharatpur.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Where? Bharatpur?

Brahmānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: That is in Calcutta.

Brahmānanda: Isn't there a Bharatpur near Agra?

Girirāja: Bharatpur.

Prabhupāda: Bharatpur. Oh, yes. (break)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: India exports to Africa and Middle East countries.

Brahmānanda: The bogies.

Prabhupāda: How they dispatch? By ship?

Brahmānanda: Yes, I think so. I remember reading once, in Tanzania they received twelve bogies.

Prabhupāda: Twelve bogies at a time?

Brahmānanda: This one shipment.

Morning Walk -- November 26, 1975, New Delhi:

Devotee (4): They're all trying to learn Russian here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for when the Russians come and take over their country. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...the talk amongst the high-court judges. So when there was fierce fighting was going on between the Germans and the Allies, so during their relaxed hours, the judges were sitting. So one, the Chief Justice of Calcutta, he asked one Justice Mukherjee. So Justice Mukherjee was very... He was vice-chancellor. So he asked him, "Mr. Mukherjee, now the Germans are coming. What you will do when they come?" He said, "Yes, as soon as they come, we shall: 'Come on sir, come on sir, come on sir.' We shall receive them." "Why?" "Now, you have taught us like that. You British people, you have taught us. (laughter) Our business is to receive. Anyone comes, we shall receive him. That's all."

Devotee (4): And they will do the same with the Russians.

Prabhupāda: Yes. (break)

Harikeśa: It seems like they are preparing now by eating lots of meat and drinking a lot of alcohol.

Prabhupāda: They cannot prepare us. That is the difference. Even they are preparing, but they cannot prepare us. That is the difference between fools and man with knowledge. (break) ...was existing? No. New temple.

Room Conversation -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi:

Prabhupāda: So, then Kṛṣṇa is speaking, otherwise how he heard? Hm? This nonsense is going on. Everywhere, it is very difficult position. So many rascals. And we have to push on our movement through so many obstacles, but still we are going on, that is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. Otherwise we are simply meeting with obstacles. What can be done? We have to go, forward. I, I met in... same idea! Impersonalism, bogus thought and no clear idea.

Bhāgavata: One man came to Calcutta temple, and he insisted that Kṛṣṇa was impersonal, that He has no form. That He was, ultimately there is just the Brahman. I said that Kṛṣṇa says in the Gītā, brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham; He says, "that aham means the Brahman." I said that if that aham means the Brahman, then why is Kṛṣṇa being redundant in saying that the Brahman is subordinate to the Brahman? Brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham, He just said Brahman is subordinate to aham, Me. So if aham means Brahman then why is Kṛṣṇa saying the Brahman is subordinate to the Brahman? And they are swamis, yogis and avatāras. It is very dangerous position, very dangerous. We have to deal with all rascals and fools. And they have made some position, of course that position is nothing, hm? A big big, I mean to say, Mr. Nanda is also big thing, of this idea, nirveśeṣa-śūnyavādī; still we cannot change our position. We must go on with our conviction and that is real. Reality. So, begin kīrtana. (end)

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So we shall return. (short discussion of actual time)

Dr. Patel: It is 7.20 a.m. You are airport?

Harikesa: Airport time.

Dr. Patel: Airport time is wrong. Every clock is very different time there. Each one has its own standard.

Prabhupāda: Some time back when I was a young boy, I went to see a football match in Calcutta. So after finishing, I came walking through the Bentink Street. So I saw one time in the beginning, and I came to my house, some watch, and clock is giving the same time. (pause) We are giving very simple formula: just become Kṛṣṇa conscious and all problems will be solved. All problems.

Dr. Patel: Very easy formula for all the mūḍhas.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel: Like us. (laughs raucously)

Prabhupāda: The Doctor is...

Dr. Patel: Before you came here... You can say anything...

Prabhupāda: This is intelligence. This is not mūḍha; this is intelligence. Guru mora mūrkha dekhi' koril śāsana. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that "My Guru Mahārāja saw Me a fool number one."

Morning Walk -- December 25, 1975, Sandau:

Haṁsadūta: Just recently?

Prabhupāda: No, last year.

Haṁsadūta: Two years ago.

Prabhupāda: He is keeping Jagannātha within his beadbag and chanting.

Haṁsadūta: Just before I came to India, Mukunda met him for about two hours. He said he was very friendly, and he would arrange a ninety-nine-year lease for us, give us the right to the Bhaktivedanta Manor.

Prabhupāda: No, he's our well-wisher, good boy. What is the time now?

Devotee (1): A quarter to eight.

Devotee (2): Sun shines very late, the sun rises.

Prabhupāda: Because it is in the west. The sun rises from the east, so from Calcutta to here there must be one hour difference. (end)

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 2, 1976, Madras:

Acyutānanda: (break) ...house in Bengali. Is this where Swami Vivekananda...

Prabhupāda: Yes. After coming back from foreign countries, he made his position here in Madras.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Beautiful building.

Acyutānanda: In Calcutta we have a life member, Veni Śaṅkara Sharma? You stayed at his house?

Prabhupāda: Hm, yes.

Acyutānanda: So he wrote a book called An Unknown Chapter of the Life of Swami Vivekananda. And in there he openly says that he smoked a hookah and ate meat.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is known to everyone.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Was he praising that?

Acyutānanda: It was.... You know...

Yaśodānandana: In Hyderabad there is a cook who used to cook for the Rāmakrishna Mission, and he said they used to cook any kind of meat.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 3, 1976, Nellore:

Hariśauri: A straw roof, they call that thatching. Thatch.

Prabhupāda: Thatching, yes. That is right. So the windows are thatched. So where is the production? Vivekananda is standing as preacher. So where is the preachers? People should have gone there in hundreds; there should have been some program. So where is the program? Simply "Vivekananda house." Lick up the house. (break) ...rows of statues on the beach, many statues—for passing stool by the crows. I have seen in Calcutta one statue of Sir Asutosh Mukherjee. So in the morning, on the day of the birth anniversary, in the morning the municipal sweepers with their brush, they will rub it to cleanse the solidly stuck-up crow's stool with water. It will be done for three, four hours. Then in the evening, big, big men will come, gather, and offer him garland one after another, just like they were offering me. In this way the meeting will be held. In the morning it is brushed with the sweeper's street brush, and in the evening it is offered garland. I have seen it. Here also I see that she has kept Kṛṣṇa's mūrti outside. It is aparādha.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Yaśodānandana: Once you mentioned the story that when you were young you saw a mother running across the street in Calcutta beating her child because his brother had typhoid fever and he fed him the paratha.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Acyutānanda: Even socially, though, without religious, scientific, practical God consciousness, how can there be a civilization? How can anyone know that there's a difference between right and wrong or morality unless there is God consciousness, to know that someone is watching everything I do? If you avoid that.... Just like we say, they want Rāma-rājya without Rāma. But they want the rājya.

Prabhupāda: Now, the laws and legislative assembly there are, and there is punishment, there is court—everything there is. That we were discussing last night, that where is the honest men? Why? In spite of laws, legislative assembly, court and everything, the wholesale rogues and dishonest. Then what is the use of this? What is your answer? Why you are checked on the airport just like a culprit, criminal? They cannot trust even a gentleman, although he is educated, may be holding very good office, but still, he is not to be trusted. So this is the result of your so-called function, that there is no honest man throughout the whole world. Then, what is the use of such education? And what is the use of their living? Let them die. No hospital for them.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Nellore:

Acyutānanda: A man in Calcutta, he was a devotee, rich also. He had some kidney thing. He wanted to go to the Calcutta hospital. They said, "All the beds are full of Naxalites with bomb wounds and stab wounds and fighting wounds."

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Acyutānanda: He could not get a bed in the hospital because it was full of guṇḍās. Hospitals were all full of guṇḍās.

Yaśodānandana: In America they have the highest quality of hospitals and schools and everything, but yet the young people are turning to be hippies. You have mentioned that in the introduction to your Nectar of Devotion.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. What is the use of such education?

Indian man: So your education which you gave may be something like..., not like that.

Prabhupāda: Education means to do the right thing, not the wrong thing. That is education. Education means enlightenment, to know what is right, what is wrong. That is education.

Morning Walk -- January 13, 1976, Calcutta:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What does he do there?

Jayapatāka: He is teaching Sanskrit to the devotees.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Jayapatāka: He is teaching the meter, how to chant them, to all the Western devotees and to the...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who's here?

Jayapatāka: I never had time to go. Bhāvananda knows. (break) ...the Bengali language also. We have one copy at Māyāpur. If we have a festival here in Calcutta with a Bengali film, many people can appreciate it. Of course, English they also.... That first paṇḍāl, we didn't have any movie then.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayapatāka: Those first paṇḍāls we never had a cinema.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Jayapatāka: Only kīrtana. (end)

Morning Walk -- January 16, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...arrange it so they don't know how to use it. They get caught.

Prabhupāda: Wherefrom you got it?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where did you get it?

Jayapatāka: This was manufactured in Calcutta.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Special made? Specially made.

Bhavānanda: This is American subway.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Bhavānanda: Engineering. To keep people going in single file.

Jayapatāka: There's no other door like this exactly.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In India. It's the only one in India.

Bhavānanda: Otherwise the people come and crowd up at the exit, and then, when we open it up, everyone falls down.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is.... (break) ...place to be utilized?

Bhavānanda: This will be playpen. This will be for the children, the little children to stay.

Prabhupāda: Oh? Why?

Bhavānanda: So many times there are always little babies. Their mothers are working, and they get into trouble, so this will be a nice area for them to play around in.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...abide by these rules?

Bhavānanda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- January 17, 1976, Mayapur:

Jayapatāka: I was going to go to Hyderabad, but instead we started our building, so I sent Pūrna-prajña from Calcutta, my man. I sent two farmers. They called up and said, "They're giving bad cows. Don't take the cows." And then Haribhai Paduka got on the phone and said, "Oh, they are insulting me. They're saying I'm giving bad cows, this, that. I am going to..." He gave some complaint. So someone said, "All right. Whatever you give, it's all right." Then he gave these.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One good one and three useless ones.

Prabhupāda: So why did you accept it?

Jayapatāka: I was in Māyāpur. I told them, "Don't accept bad." They called up, said, "These are no good. We won't accept." Then from Calcutta someone said, "You accept."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These are the two oxen.

Prabhupāda: Whenever somebody wants to give, you don't accept immediately. Tell them first of all, "Let us see."

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Not only there, here also.

Jayapatāka: In big letters here.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And there are so many places. Yes. First of all you place this and the other. We can give the upadeśa of Prabhupāda. I'll give you matter for writing. So writing, that charges should be reduced. One...

Jayapatāka: Yesterday Caitya-guru, the man he brought from Calcutta, he only wanted one rupee, seventy-five paisa.

Prabhupāda: For painting. And for writing that should be...

Jayapatāka: Writing, maybe one twenty-five.

Prabhupāda: No. One. One. Make it one.

Jayapatāka: One rupee.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Which way we shall go?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This way. We haven't gone walking this way.

Prabhupāda: So where you are going to give that shade upon?

Jayapatāka: So what we'd have to do is we'd have to break the top.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Jayapatāka: We'd have to break the top and then...

Prabhupāda: Break? Why break? Another expenditure. Simply you make two brackets, wooden brackets, like that, and have a tin. That's all.

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Hari-śauri: That John Paul Getty is the richest man in the world, and they asked him, "What would be your wish if you could have anything?" He said, "I just want to be healthy. I've got so much money but I'm not healthy."

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are many. There was a big, rich man in Calcutta, Raja Jyotindramana Ṭhākura. So just like you give me so many things, he was king, he was getting more supply, but he had no appetite. So one day he was given so many things—because it was routine. So one coolie was going on the street, taking a fish and chanting very pleasingly. So he said that "Instead of becoming Raja Jyotindramana Ṭhākura, if I could have been a coolie like that, at least I could enjoy by eating. And what is this? I have got everything but I cannot eat." He regretted, "I would have become a coolie like that instead of becoming a Ṭhākura."

Morning Walk -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: One person?

Indian man: From Krishnanagar he came yesterday and....

Prabhupāda: No, no, his rate is higher. Why should you engage him?

Indian man: So the other is coming on Monday or Tuesday.

Bhavānanda: From Calcutta.

Indian man: He is bringing a same person.

Prabhupāda: No, no, that's all right. But why should we pay him more, the Krishnanagar. He wants that one...

Bhavānanda: Three.

Prabhupāda: One rupee, eight annas, three. Why should I pay? Then? If he..., you pay him three rupees, then they will also charge more.

Indian man: Actually he told me.... He said, "Our rates are very higher in Krishnanagar. Don't tell anybody that we are charging three rupees.

Bhavānanda: But we're not going to hire him. (laughter)

Indian man: No, we are not going to hire.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. We cannot pay.

Room Conversation -- January 19, 1976, Mayapur:

Bhavānanda: Yes, they have to. They've all been here. They all know it. They come with different personalities, different friends... In Krishnanagar, we are like the cinema in terms of entertainment. As soon as any man, any official, government official, his friends come from Calcutta, immediately they get in one of the government jeeps and they drive out here and come to see the ISKCON Maṭha, Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir. Immediately. So many men, they come all the time with their friends from Calcutta. Same thing in Navadvīpa. They come for an evening's...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bhavānanda: Fully satisfied. The woman puts on her sari, the man dresses up in his kurta...

Prabhupāda: So our arrangement should be to give them some prasadam, very nice treatment.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We've got to do this. We've got to do this.

Prabhupāda: And if important man should write something in the visitor's... Reception.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There should be a reception, proper receptionist.

Prabhupāda: So where the reception?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Will sit?

Bhavānanda: We'll make some arrangement.

Prabhupāda: Make it immediately. Reception.

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: What ha... In the... Because now this field is the only field that is ripening, so that if he doesn't scare the bird away, all the bird will come and eat his field. When all the wheat is ripening at the same time, then nobody cares. They let the birds eat. But if one man only is growing one crop at one time, then all the birds come. They will clean out and they all get...

Prabhupāda: No, therefore everyone should grow seasonal grains. Everyone should take wheat. I think the number of men is more than the number of bricks. (break) ...rooms will be finished. They are not being finished. This? (break) ...Calcutta. So landlords became very perplexed. So one landlord asking, "You don't go. I shall reduce the rent." "Yes, that's all right, but your house is also not very good. There are so many rats." "All right, you can remain without rent." "And still, there are rats." "All right, I shall give you one cat so there will be no dis..." "Ah, who is going to keep a cat? I will require milk also to feed." "All right, I shall give you half kilo or one kilo milk also." "All right." So then he says, "Now no rent and one kilo milk, that's all right." This was in 1942.

Jayapatākā: (break) ...minister is coming to the district and...

Prabhupāda: Which minister?

Jayapatākā: The Ajit Panja. He's the health minister. So we didn't see him...

Bhavānanda: (break) ...that we must take drastic steps for curbing the population.

Prabhupāda: Why don't you become brahmacārī?

Hari-śauri: Too drastic.

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

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Formerly the Hindus, they used to purchase meat and cook it in Ganges water. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, boy.

Harikeśa: Purify it.

Prabhupāda: They thought, "Now it is..." And you will still find in Calcutta, "Hindu butcher." That Hindu butcher is pure. You have been in Calcutta? So they are going on.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The Jews have that, "Kosher butcher."

Prabhupāda: "Mother's prasādam." The rascals say, "It is mother's prasādam."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Durgā, Kālī-prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The Ramakrishna Mission, they take mother's prasādam. And they call...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And you will also be mother's prasādam.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Morning Walk -- February 27, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Bengali culture was very much adored. Surendranath Bannerjee started the political movement, and he was so well known. Even in Parliament, the Englishmen, English M.P.'s, he... They were speaking of Surendranath. They used to say "Surrendered not." "Here is a person who is not 'Surrender not.' He'll never surrender. 'Surrender not.' " Actually, the British Empire was startled by the agitation of Surendranath Bannerjee. The Congress was started by Surendranath Bannerjee, this one Congress. Two Bengali and one Englishman started this Congress sometimes in 1887, 1867, like that. So in our childhood we used to see that Surendranath Bannerjee was being elected president of Congress almost every year. And Gandhi came into prominence when Surendranath Bannerjee surrendered. Formerly he was not surrendering. But the government gave him the first ministership, that "You become minister." So he became a government man. Then Gandhi came in prominence. Surendranath Bannerjee was the first minister in India. (break) ...in our childhood, if he would speak, thousands, thousands men will gather in Calcutta. (break) ...Surendranath Bannerjee Road.

Jayapatākā: Yes, very prominent road.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Where my nephews have shop, Surendranath Bannerjee Road.

Morning Walk -- February 28, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he's māyayāpahṛta-jñāna. he's a... He's madman. Actually everyone is mad. That is the medical report. Do they give some present? No.

Kīrtirāja: Not some present, but even, even the policemen, they are stopping the traffic, especially when they see the devotees coming. In Calcutta we saw. We were driving from Germany with Gargamuni Mahārāja in those six vans, and the policemen were especially stopping the traffic so that we could come through. And in New York also, the policemen on the street, they are dancing.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Kīrtirāja: When the saṅkīrtana party is coming, sometimes they are raising their arms and they are dancing also, because they see that we are, that this movement is not like the other movements. The others, they are just staying hippies, and now they are... They have some guru.

Prabhupāda: These rascal gurus...

Kīrtirāja: Like you said yesterday, they are all rascals.

Prabhupāda: It has been discussed by that professor.

Morning Walk -- March 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: I don't know. (break)

Yaśodānandana: Parikrama

Prabhupāda: Parikrama?

Yaśodānandana: Acyutānanda Mahārāja just went to Calcutta to arrange everything.

Prabhupāda: What is to arrange in Calcutta?

Yaśodānandana: Well, all the devotees are coming, and they will be going to Śantipur, and when they come back, they will... We're working a schedule to take all the devotees to the various parikrama spots.

Prabhupāda: No, that's all right. I mean to say, if we make a procession, then first of all... That is my suggestion. Make the devotees first, chanting, all the devotees. And then the Deity, carrying. And then my carriage, my car, and then all the buses. So devotees who become tired, they can sit down in the bus and again go on. And keep one big pot of halavā so that others may be distributed, and the devotees, when they are hungry, they can also eat. In this way make. How do you like this arrangement?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We'll do it.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: That is our Indian system. Up to the family they have got separate house for men, separate house for women, separate house for kitchen, separate house for toilet.

Bhavānanda: Very nice. Compound.

Prabhupāda: In Calcutta, we have seen our big, big Mullik family, separate house.

Bhavānanda: One brāhmaṇa village, Sharmapur, I went to. They all lived like that. They had five houses in a compound.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. A woman's house, nobody can go. Bahir bāri bhitara bāri. Bāhir bāri. Bāhir. Who can understand Bengali?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Bāhir? "Outside," isn't it?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Bāhir bāri. Bhitar bāri. Then pūjār bāri. Rāmnā bāri.

Jayapatāka: Kitchen.

Prabhupāda: Ah, kitchen. Not that within the apartment, all bāris. This is European invention.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now it's very nice.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So this should be maintained. Thank you very much.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sufficient, ample, and very tasteful...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ... nutritious. This Santilal is very much accustomed to cooking for devotees, because when Gargamuni was in Calcutta for nearly two years, he was the chief cook there. So he knows just how to, how not to...

Prabhupāda: So he cannot give an equal good cook here?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, maybe he will be kept here.

Bhavānanda: He's staying.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think, personally, he should...

Guru-kṛpā: He's coming on the buses with Gargamuni.

Bhavānanda: He's going...

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Variety means beauty.

Morning Walk -- March 10, 1976, Mayapur:

Madhudviṣa: Yeah, it's very expensive. Actually the electricity would be very expensive, the bill, which would probably be paid by Mahatva(?). (laughs)

Prabhupāda: No, if it is very expensive, don't do it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Of course, an escalator is also expensive. If we're going to worry about expense, then... I think we should wait until we get that big building, the temple, because then, if you put it up there, it can be seen...

Madhudviṣa: In Calcutta.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even in Calcutta. But this is not very high. (break)

Devotee (1): ...ignorance, ignorance.

Prabhupāda: No, those who are inclined, they can become. Jnanam vijñānam āstikyam.

Devotee (1): Brahma karma...

Prabhupāda: So (Hindi or Bengali) śūdra-paricaryātmākaṁ kāryam. They should be engaged in serving. But sva-karmana tam abhyarcya (BG 18.46). Everyone should be engaged in the service of the Lord. That is perfection.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1976, Mayapur:

Sudāmā: Vaikuṇṭhanātha temple.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Sudama: Originally he came from the Vaikuṇṭhanātha temple, Calcutta.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's staying up in that...

Bhāvānanda: They're in the front.

Prabhupāda: They are expert in Madras.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, when we went to Nellore, remember they were greeting you each time with shenai.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Very good.

Pañcadravida: Very expert in South India.

Prabhupāda: You can engage a company, three, four men, for all the year.

Jayapatāka: So they should.... Before maṅgala ārati they should begin playing.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Yes, in Madras.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the idea behind this shenai-playing early in the morning?

Prabhupāda: It is very pleasing to hear.

Morning Walk -- March 12, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: That means he has no time. Then why he says that "I am in charge." He is not in charge.

Jayapatāka: He is trying to... (break)

Prabhupāda: After all, they are boys. They are not grown up. (break) ...your Calcutta program?

Jayapatāka: They're going tomorrow morning. (break)

Bhavānanda: ...maṭha, and then we went to Mādhava Mahārāja's maṭha. So Acyutānanda gave a very strong lecture at Mādhava Mahārāja's maṭha that in order to make devotees who are chanting the holy name, it takes more than any material calculation or business sense, that you have be infused with the potency of the Supreme Lord. All of the sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs were standing out on the balcony and hearing Acyutānanda glorify Your Divine Grace. All the devotees went in.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...small card. So one card is put into the shoes, and one card is in his hand. That's all. Number. Suppose twenty shoes duplicate, so one twenty card is put into the shoe and one number twenty in his hand. So a man can see that it is his shoe.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Pañca-draviḍa: In Los Angeles they have installed a speed walk at the airport, an escalator that you can walk on.

Prabhupāda: So you are not going to Calcutta? Calcutta?

Jayapatākā: I was going to go in a day or two.

Prabhupāda: So there is no news? (break) Of course, if there is devotee. Otherwise not.

Hṛdayānanda: I was thinking perhaps this year to begin with one car.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Yes. Last year, Philadelphia, there was one car. Oh, crowd was.... Like that.

Pañca-draviḍa: If there's no Jagannātha Deities we can use...?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Jagannātha.

Pañca-draviḍa: Has to be Jagannātha.

Prabhupāda: Don't try to manufacture ideas.

Morning Walk -- March 17, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: I therefore planned four buildings like that. You know. And that was my plan, four buildings like that besides temple and my house. That was the original plan.

Dharmādhyakṣa: There was one Kṛṣṇa-kṛpā Brahmacārī. You met him a few years ago, told him to come here, and he saw the prasāda room. He said he has never seen such a well-organized prasādam room, prasādam distribution. Everyone was very well disciplined and what-not. He was very impressed. He'll be coming today at five p.m. He was a physics professor at some college in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: No, no, all this credit goes to Jayapatākā Mahārāja. Yes. He is struggling from the very beginning. Others who were in the beginning, they have all gone away.

Pañca-draviḍa: He was the first.

Jayapatākā: Only your mercy, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You are always keeping...

Prabhupāda: So supply nice food, prasādam.

Jayapatākā: This new building is equal to three buildings.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Jayapatākā: The new building is equal to three of these buildings.

Prabhupāda: No, it is not so broad.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: It was discussed. And he agreed, "Yes," but his man has different idea. So if you think that he's serious, we can go today sometime. How long it takes by car?

Jayapatākā: It takes about an hour.

Prabhupāda: Hour.

Jayapatākā: But actually it's on the route to Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So we can.... But that will be very hastily. That.... The road is all right?

Jayapatākā: That.... The road to his place is all right. There's a shortcut from Krishnagara; if that's taken, then for a while, one kilometer, there's kacā road. After that, there's very, there's clear road with no traffic. Otherwise, if we.... We normally take that in the vans and in the jeep. We save about half an hour. But that way you have to go through one mile of kacā road. Otherwise, if you go by all pākā road, then it's a good road. Just takes a...

Prabhupāda: No, we shall go...

Jayapatākā: ...little longer.

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. We shall go by the pākā. Kacā road may damage the car.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: No, we shall go...

Jayapatākā: ...little longer.

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. We shall go by the pākā. Kacā road may damage the car.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Is that today or tomorrow, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: No. On the way to Calcutta, talking will not be very serious because we'll be busy to go fast.

Jayapatākā: We'd be in a hurry.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Yes. Yes. (break) So what is the use of such men? Why he's keeping these men? They cannot do anything. He gets some pension. Who spends that money? But they are not doing anything. So what is the meaning of this count?

Jayapatākā: He admits that many times he has told some of them to leave their family life and take up some preaching, but they don't do it.

Prabhupāda: How they'll do it? They do not know how to preach, neither they are trained up. That means it is his disqualification. He could not train them how to preach. Even Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He was training Haridāsa Ṭhākura, Nityānanda, "Go there. Preach there. Do that." My Guru Mahārāja was doing that. But he has no power. He cannot do it. He simply talks that he is a very confidential devotee. That's all. He cannot preach. Otherwise Prabhupāda developed this Māyāpur, and he could not do anything. That means he has no power.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Jayapatākā: He should have developed that place.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He simply talks of big, big words. In the beginning, Prabhupāda had no committee, nothing of the sort. That he'll not admit, that he has no power to do so. He's simply thinks that he's very confidential son of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. That's his.... (break) ...nobody has seen his chief disciple? He lives in Calcutta.

Jayapatākā: Yeah, he's not actually a bābājī. He's gṛhastha.

Prabhupāda: Oh, but he lives like a bābājī dress.

Jayapatākā: I don't know anyone lives by bābājī... He wears dhotī.

Prabhupāda: What is his name?

Jayapatākā: Śacīnandana.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Oh, Śacīnandana. So he.... I have seen several times. He's like bābājī, but what he is?

Jayapatākā: He's a clerk.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayapatākā: He's a clerk.

Morning Walk -- March 21, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Five bighās. That we can do. If they agree, then let them give us. We shall do.

Jayapatākā: Lalitā Prasāda Ṭhākura was saying that.... He was feeling that one more interview with you was necessary. However, I'm reluctant to say to go today because I haven't seen him for a month or two, and I don't want a two-three hour trip to just go. Maybe nothing may come of it. That's why I'm thinking on the way to Calcutta there would be more..., wouldn't be much expenditure of time, I mean, as far as traveling goes. And let's say, if something comes of it, then it's all right. If something doesn't come, it's not such a great loss.

Prabhupāda: All right, we can do that. Then we shall go by the nice...

Jayapatākā: Oh, yes. The nice. There's only one little bridge. Other than that, everything is all right.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Jayapatākā: There's one bridge like we went over yesterday. That's a little.... Otherwise, everywhere...

Prabhupāda: No, no, bridge, it is in good condition or not? Sometimes it is.... Last time we went, that injured.... It made some damage.

Talk at Radha-Govinda Mandir -- March 24, 1976, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Only two rupees. That's all.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Our young children are very fortunate also.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Our young children.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Yes. Very fortunate. That a small child, he'll take little grain of prasādam. He will not touch the big halavā. As soon as I'll give him a little grain, he'll take. Very nice.

Abhirāma: (break) ...travel on a coach like this, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm? Yes, in our childhood. Not so bad. At that time it was not so bad. In 1925 I purchased one Buick car. In our childhood days there was no electricity, and there was no motorcar. No. The tram car was drawn by horses in Calcutta. (break) ...quarter where our temple is situated. This is the best.... (end)

Conversation with News Reporters -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: So don't you think that we are self-sufficient? We are feeding at least ten thousand devotees daily, but we have no fixed income.

Reporter (8): They don't have any fixed income.

Prabhupāda: No. None of us have any fixed income, but we are traveling all over the world, New York, London, Calcutta. It is just like going from this quarter to that quarter. Our men are moving like that. Immediately coming, one dozen men from Germany, one dozen from London, and immediately going. We are paying so much money to the airplanes, and we have got so many centers. So how it is going on? On Kṛṣṇa's grace. We depend on Kṛṣṇa. Our income, daily collection, is not less than one lakh of rupees, and we are spending everything.

Reporter (8): One lakh daily.

Prabhupāda: That is minimum. Sometimes we collect five lakhs daily.

Reporter (5): What is the way you go about collecting money?

Prabhupāda: That book-selling.

Morning Walk -- April 13, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: They are fools, sir. You can go. I think one day I will have to go with them and fight out the whole case. These boys should be allowed. They follow the sanātana-dharma. And again in.... I mean, now the government has put the regulations that all the temples are open to all, anybody and everybody. How can they refuse? Who are at that maṭha, Jagannātha? Those people, they must be from Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Local men.

Dr. Patel: All the big temples in India have got management committees, practically people from various parts. Our own Jagannātha Purī, I mean, this, our Dvārakā temple is managed by people from Bombay. Bombay, Delhi, and many other places. So they must have all...

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even one of our Indian men they stopped. Caitya-guru told me that when he went there they thought he was Westerner. They wouldn't let him in the second time he tried to go in.

Dr. Patel: This gentleman is coming before the judge of the Bombay high-court.

Guru dāsa: We can see the cakra on the top.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

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

Prabhupāda: Ravi Shankar has become so rich? (break) ...ago some portion of Calcutta was like this, such greens and houses like that, not very big house. (japa)

Hari-śauri: It's certainly a very opulent area.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are opulent with dogs also. As soon as you walk on the street, so many dogs will bark. (japa) (break) ...park.

Rāmeśvara: (break) People who live here, whole two blocks...

Prabhupāda: Private house.

Rāmeśvara: This is a richer district.

Hari-śauri: There's a big sign on the gate. It says, "No Trespassing." (break)

Prabhupāda: ...patrolling here always to stop trespassing.

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

Prabhupāda: Germany is little recouped, but England is finished. Therefore I say India got independence not due to Gandhi. It is due to Hitler. That is my opinion. I have got reason. The Hitler fighting with England made them smashed, so their political power became nil almost, and on this opportunity, Hitler helped Subash Chandra Bose, one of the leaders of India, to organize Indian National Army. This Indian National Army, when attacked, at least made a show of attack from Imphala(?), especially on Calcutta dropped bombs, and the whole Calcutta became vacant. Perhaps myself and a few others remained. I sent my sons.... Of course, daughter was married, but they sent to Navadvīpa, Śrīdhara Mahārāja's āśrama. My wife refused to go out of Calcutta. She said, "I'll be bombed maybe, but I'll not go out." (laughs) So I had to remain in Calcutta. So I've seen bombing and Calcutta all vacant. And one day I was eating in the evening, at night—immediately bombing. Kachori... I was hungry, (laughs) but the eating finished.

Room Conversation -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: That is Kṛṣṇa's trick. Everyone talks of the "We Eastern, we believe in this," and "We Western, we believe in this." You remain peaceful, everyone. Everyone is thinking like this. We have no such thing, Eastern, Western. It is fact. For everyone, it is good. Eastern, Western, we don't take. Several times, this question.... I talk, I spoke in the American Embassy in Calcutta. They gave me the subject matter, "East and West." So I, in the beginning, I began to speak that we have no such dual..., East and West.

Hari-śauri: Hm. It's a higher consciousness.

Prabhupāda: If she can make samosā...

Hari-śauri: With the chewra.

Prabhupāda: No, chewra may be avoided. Samosā. One will do.

Hari-śauri: Either chewra or samosā, or both?

Prabhupāda: No. Either of them.

Hari-śauri: One or the other.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But I shall prefer samosā.

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

Kern: May I ask you, Your Excellency, your own background? Were you born in India? Were you born in any other...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I am Indian. I was born in Calcutta.

Kern: In Calcutta. And when you were there in Calcutta, did you receive the training?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I..., fortunately I was born in a very good family. So our familywise training was there. Especially in India, every family, it is like that. Trained up.

Kern: And your own schooling, then, in the local schools in Calcutta?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Not in the school, but in my family.

Kern: In the family. Any formal?

Prabhupāda: Not family. My mother taught us: if there is one grain on the floor, we shall take it, keep it on the head. It is God-sent.

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

Prabhupāda: It is God-sent. The grain, food grain, it is actually given by God. You should not misuse it. This was the beginning of our training.

Kern: And then were you at the university or the school or somewhere?

Prabhupāda: Yes, Calcutta University. I was taught at the Scottish Churches College. All my professor's were Fathers and Reverends. Our principal was.... They were all Fathers. Mr. Scott.

Scheverman: They were clergymen of the Church of Scotland, your teachers.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. My professor of philosophy was Dr. W. S. Urquhart. He was a very famous man in India. He became vice chancellor.

Kern: Did you then begin, after you finished the university, did you begin your writing?

Prabhupāda: Yes. No, I was family man. But even one is family man, he's trained up how to become God conscious. So that was the.... That is, practically every Indian, at least in our time, they were trained up how to become God conscious in the family life. Therefore there is classification—the brāhmaṇa, the kṣatriya, the vaiśya. So these four classes, that first-class man, brāhmaṇa, the brain..., taking instruction from the first-class man. And then the third grade, the productive class. So you read there the third class.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Everywhere. Rājanyaiḥ, dasyu-dharma. Simply wanting some bribe. They are in power. And that will increase. It will be impossible to deal with. Now it is already. In India, any work you want to be done by government, unless you bribe.... In Africa also. The situation is becoming very dangerous. That Mullik's Thakur, where he...?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In Calcutta, yes.

Prabhupāda: The state is in the management of official trustee. And this trustee in charge of the trust board men, they give us so much trouble and exploit the position for his personal profit. I have seen. Horrible. For instance, I can give you, if in some property there is some repair, it will cost you, say, one hundred rupees. And they'll give it to a contractor, and the contractor will present a bill, twelve hundred rupees. And he'll pass. And the contractor will be given, say, two hundred rupees, and balance he'll take. I have seen.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Stealing from the trust.

Prabhupāda: In this way he's.... The money's in his hand. If you want money for expenditure, so if I press you, you have need of money, so you do everything, give some back, get the money. You are in urgent need. Everywhere. All, whole world they have become dishonest. Even the high-court judges, magistrate, they are getting bribe.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: You see these two things especially, that they.... English is their mother tongue, mother language. They can easily become English scholar very easily. And Sanskrit language is no difficulty. Read and write, read and write, then he will learn. Our education in Sanskrit was in college. Of course, I was the best student in my class of Sanskrit. I was standing first. But we are not like the so-called Sanskrit scholars. But for our purpose we can read and write, that's all. Similarly, we don't want any very learned scholars, Sanskrit grammarian to manufacture jugglery of words, meanings. No, we don't want that. Simply we can conduct our business, that's all. Just like Marwaris, they, their education is up to their business understanding, that's all. They don't want to be scholars or technologists. You won't find in big, big Marwari family they have become a doctor, engineer or technologist, no. But in business dealings they are first class. (laughs) That they train. I had one Marwari friend in Calcutta. He was a very rich businessman and has got several (indistinct). So sometimes I went to his house. I saw that he had engaged a Sanskrit paṇḍita and an English teacher. That's all. So I asked him, "You don't send your children to school?" "No, no, no, no. I..." If we require some technologist, we can purchase. You pay some money; so many technologists you will get, M.A., Ph.D., D.H.C., C.H.C. All right, take payment and do business (indistinct). They employ very, very, very large salary. But on the head, management, their own sons, grandsons.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: German people still hate England. They do not like to speak in English; that I have seen. In the bank they know English, but they won't speak it. English everyone knows. The Kaiser was against. They said that Kaiser is the grandson of Queen Victoria, from daughter's side. And King George from the son's side—Edward's seventh son. They were cousin brothers. So this Kaiser, when he was young boy, went to paternal uncle's house, when he was a young boy. So there was some playing, cut with a knife. So royal family, so many doctors came. So the boy was saying, "Why you are trying to cure it? Let the English blood go away." So from the childhood he was so inimical, that "I have got some English blood in my body, my mother is English, father German, so let the English blood go away." I do not know if that is fact, I heard it. (laughs) Maybe. It is joking also and serious. In our childhood in school, a book was there, "England's Work in India." One Mr. M. Ghosh, he wrote this book just to flatter the Englishmen. This, that "white man's burden." And it was the impression in those days: just to become like Englishmen, that is civilization. The Parsees in Bombay, they were the first-class flatterer, imitation, how to become like English lords, barons. This Tata factory was started by such ambition. They wanted to be English baron, lord, industrialist. In Calcutta also. Where our temple is, that is called saheb quarter. In our childhood we used to say saheb quarter. Saheb quarter means European neighborhood. They say our temple is saheb mandira in Māyāpur. And in Vṛndāvana aṇgrejī mandira. The same impression. To become saheb, that was great prestigious. Yes.

Room Conversation and Reading from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1 and 12 -- June 25, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: Dūre vāry-ayanaṁ tīrtham. Tīrtham. If you go... Just like there is Vṛndāvana and here is New Vrindaban. But if you spend ten thousand dollars and go to Vṛndāvana, then it is pilgrimage. And here is Vṛndāvana-candra. So that is not very important. Dūre vāry-ayanam. You have to go far, far away, (laughter) then it will be pilgrimage. In India, there is Ganges in Calcutta. But they go to Hardwar. Then it is pilgrimage. (laughter) The same Ganges, coming from Hardwar. Then?

Pradyumna: Dūre vāry-ayanaṁ tīrthaṁ lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam.

Prabhupāda: Hmm. Lāvaṇyam, now you know very well in the Western country. Beauty increases by having long hair. (laughter) I was just trying to recite this verse only, and now see how it is current. Who expected that this foretelling is there in the Bhāgavatam? To increase beauty, have long hair. Is it not? Now just see. How five thousand years this thing was foretold? That is the proof. There was no hippie movement then. (laughs) But Vyāsadeva foretold that in the Kali-yuga if one keeps long hair he will think himself as very beautiful. There are so many things. Ultimately, with the advancement of Kali-yuga you'll have no food. Food means there will be no food grains, there will be no milk, there will be no sugar, like that. No fruits. If you get fruits, there will be no pulp, it is simply seeds. These things are there. You get a mango, but a mango means simply the big seed, that's all. So how can you check it? If nature's way, things are going to happen like that, what the scientists will do? If there is no rice, no wheat, will the scientists...? They can say replace with a pill, but they cannot produce wheat or rice or dahl or milk, sugar. That is not possible.

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

Pradyumna: Every year, before, last year, year before, year before, Caitanya Math, only, not...

Prabhupāda: Nobody goes.

Pradyumna: No, only their Math people, and some people they invite from Calcutta. But the regular people all come in to our place.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes we went to Mādhava Mahārāja's temple?

Hari-śauri: In Vṛndāvana.

Prabhupāda: In Vṛndāvana. Who was there?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Empty. Completely no one.

Hari-śauri: They didn't even have any of their own men living there.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They had to unlock the Deity.

Prabhupāda: And that is on the prominent roadside. And our temple is off. Still, so many people are coming. Neither there were inhabitants nor their outsider, visitors. Gate was closed, we had to open and then enter. And he constructed temple at least for the last twenty years.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: That's all right, do it.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: What will be the technique to attract the Bengali educational class? To attract the Bengalis who are educated, what technique will be most effective?

Prabhupāda: This kīrtana and prasāda distribution.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: But it seems to me they are not so much interested. There was a man who came from Calcutta about two months ago, a Bengali, and in fact we were class friends in Calcutta when I was studying in Calcutta. And I discussed this problem with him, why so-called Bengali intellectuals are not attracted to our movement. And his answer was that the Caitanya movement was mostly for less intellectuals. For those who are educated, they want to be followers of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. In fact, they have a society called Vedanta Society. All the Bengalis get together...

Prabhupāda: And waste their time. The rascals waste their time.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And they discuss... So I was a little mad at him, this friend.

Prabhupāda: Because the real fact is they do not want to give up meat-eating and fish-eating. Therefore they like Vivekananda. That is the real reason. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement, Vaiṣṇava, they have to give up so many things. That is the disease of the Bengalis. And Vivekananda is recognized only in Bengal. To some part, not all.

Morning Walk -- July 4, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So it seems to be that we need some strong preaching in Calcutta, in Bengal. We want to attract some intellectuals.

Prabhupāda: No, there are many intellectuals. Not that...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: My concern here, staying here in Atlanta, there are many Bengali families, but they never come to the temple. There was our life member program, and so many prabhus are going to make life members, and these Bengalis, they don't even have some respect. That is why I was a little, seeing their moto(?) I was a little disappointed.

Prabhupāda: Because you will ask them not to eat meat, and that they cannot do. What are these? Crows?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: At our Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandira, though, lakhs of people are coming.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Indian woman: Is Mirabai Lord Caitanya's disciple?

Prabhupāda: I'm talking of this Ramakrishna particularly. There is no śāstra siddha. Whimsical, sentiment, that's all. So far his yata mata tata pat is concerned, at last he proposed, "Now I shall worship according to the Muhammadan process. So I have to eat cow's flesh." So he was living in that temple... What is that temple in Calcutta? Daksinesvari. So the temple was owned by one big zamindar. So because it is temple, he cannot take... Of course, in that temple Kali was there. So they are taking fish and flesh. That was not objectionable. But he, when he wanted to take cow's flesh, so he wanted permission from proprietor, "Sir, I shall now practice according to Muhammadan system. So I take cow's flesh. So I want your permission." So he said, "Sir, I've given you so much licenses, but if you ask this, then I'll ask you to go out. I cannot give you this permission." Then he stopped Muhammadan way of worship. This is whimsical.

Dr. Sukla: We have another mentally retarded person in India, Sai Baba.

Prabhupāda: Yes, magic.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: We have that newspaper from South Africa.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Anyway, we are not after all this magic. We are laymen. We do not want this magic, neither we want to show magic. We simply, as canvasser of Kṛṣṇa, we are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, "Sir, Kṛṣṇa says like this, you do like that," that's all. If you like, you can do; otherwise let us do our own business. We don't show any magic, neither we speak anything which is not in the Bhagavad-gītā. If there is little success, it is due to this secret, that's all. (Bengali) Kṛṣṇa says that He is Supreme, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat (BG 7.7). So we are preaching, "Yes, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme," that's all.

Conversation with Prof. Saligram and Dr. Sukla -- July 5, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They questioned, many people think this is a hindrance to progress.

Prabhupāda: So what is progress? In India still, in so fallen condition, we have got practical experience. If there is some arrangement... Sometimes we arrange Hare Kṛṣṇa festival. Each day not less than twenty thousand, thirty thousand, forty thousand people come. Although these, mostly these foreigners, they are chanting, and we are speaking in English, still, to hear the kīrtana, they come from remote villages. In Calcutta I have seen. That is natural tendency of Indians. Bhārata-bhūmi, anyone who has taken birth in India, naturally Kṛṣṇa conscious. By artificial means, they are being suppressed. Just like this Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, they have questioned that... What they have said?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They said that there are many thinkers in India who consider that the Hinduism is fatalistic, and therefore it doesn't encourage people to make material progress.

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

Guest (2) (Indian man): Swamiji, excuse me for this, I read an article recently. One of my secretaries he brought that article to me, it was written by Dr. Bannerji in India-he's a professor at Calcutta University. And he says that Kṛṣṇa and the Mahābhārata, the Kurukṣetra, that is all a visionation.

Prabhupāda: That is his foolishness. He's a fool. He does not know the facts, and he has posed himself as a learned scholar. That is the difficulty-fools and rascals presenting themselves as scholar and misrepresenting. People are being misguided. Because he is a learned scholar, you are citing his example. But he is a fool. He does not know what is Mahābhārata, what is Kṛṣṇa. And still, he wants to say something, that is his foolishness. He does not know, and still he wants to speak something. That is cheating. The cheating propensity is there for conditioned souls. He does not know one thing, still he wants to speak as an authority. That is cheating. How you can differentiate? If you are actually student of Mahābhārata, then how we can differentiate the speaker in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra and Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa is accepted there as Bhagavān. Whenever Vyāsadeva writes Kṛṣṇa statements, he writes bhagavān uvāca. He's Bhagavān, as well as He's a historical person in the Mahābhārata. He never writes kṛṣṇa uvāca, he writes bhagavān uvāca. And Arjuna admits, paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān puruṣam ādyam (BG 10.12), "You are the Supreme Person." How can you differentiate Kṛṣṇa of Mahābhārata and Kṛṣṇa of Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa...? These are miscalculations.

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

Prabhupāda: If it is available, get it. (indistinct) He was one of the authorities about sun movements.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I heard that it will be very...

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) He got this Sūrya-siddhānta, Siddhānta Sarasvatī. He was very expert astrologer.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we were thinking that there must be some more information there.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) There are (in) Calcutta many... Some of them still, living or dead I do not know. But in India, in Benares you'll find many astrologers. You said in your book that the sun is the nearest planet?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: No, I didn't say that. We actually took the concept of the... I wasn't talking much there, saying that there is one star, the sun is the nearest star.

Prabhupāda: Nearest star.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So that means near star, nearest, which relationship, with the earth?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: With the other stars.

Prabhupāda: Ah?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: With the other stars.

Prabhupāda: Other stars? Nearest means?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: To the earth.

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

Prabhupāda: Actually that is the fact. We can live any condition. What he'll do?

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

Prabhupāda: Huh?

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, '44 edition is here?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, Library of Congress.

Prabhupāda: How they collected?

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

Prabhupāda: There are some mistakes also.

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

Prabhupāda: That is India's special...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: (laughs) Quality.

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: This is called Tapke?

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

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, the paper quality was good.

Prabhupāda: So it was first published in 1944.

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

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

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

Prabhupāda: There are so many experiments.

Sadāpūta: We were wondering... We knew that, for example, Jagadisha Chandra Bose did some experiments indicating plants having consciousness. We were wondering if some things of that kind might be of some use.

Prabhupāda: So in the Calcutta there is Bose Institute, you can go and see. They have got all machine, how the plants are feeling. Everything is there.

Rūpānuga: That's important because they are saying these animals have no soul. They are saying lower form of life, they have no soul, so killing them is not important. So his work was important. It showed...

Prabhupāda: No, killing or not killing, that is another point. You can kill your own son. They are killing, actually. That is another point. But they have got soul. All the symptoms are there; how you can say there is no soul? Where is the difference between man's behavior and animal's behavior? So far eating, sleeping, sex, defense is concerned, the same thing. How do you say that it is different from the human being? Why they differentiate the animal from the man? What is the main point?

Room Conversation -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Dr. Sharma: And before that with the Swami Ram Tirtha Mission in New York. I was a follower of Vivekananda.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Dr. Sharma: And at the Belior Math in Belior Math Daksinesvara in Calcutta. But I find that by really chanting... I was crying to God, literally, at night, that "Find me the path again," and then I found your movement. And I find it, yes, it does make a difference. I was also amazed that evening when the first two days ago I was thinking I will ask you five ślokas of Gītā to give me. Out of that, you discussed four. And I was meditating on Hardwar, where I was born. All the time your face was appearing behind Ganges, and it was very strange phenomena. I do not know when I will be fortunate enough to have your darśana again, but in the meantime, I'm slowly... I feel that this movement you have done supernatural thing. Now, somehow...

Prabhupāda: That's a great certificate, because it is coming from you.

Dr. Sharma: It's a supernatural thing. I do not believe that it is natural. It is in the world and eternal. I have been here... To be able to convert these people, to be able to make devotees, is unnatural.

Prabhupāda: Where is Svarūpa Dāmodara?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I don't know, Śrīla Prabhupāda. That indemnity bond? I think I can pack it away until New York City.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I could take care of that, pack it away until we get to New York.

Prabhupāda: Who will pack it?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: I think I put it on your desk in there.

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

Prabhupāda: One chemist of (indistinct), he sold one book, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, then he talked with me, he's pleased.

Hari-śauri: He sold him a Caitanya-caritāmṛta and then he brought him over and Prabhupāda spoke to him.

Prabhupāda: New York climate is very nice?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very nice, like Calcutta.

Hari-śauri: On July Fourth Prabhupāda went and drove into Washington to see the fireworks.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really.

Hari-śauri: In the evening we had traveling kīrtana all around the city.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think this is enough, Prabhupāda? I'll tie it together now.

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Hari-śauri: Kīrtana, the reaction was amazing, people were dancing and chanting and waving, Prabhupāda was in ecstasy.

Prabhupāda: Very nice.

Evening Darsana -- July 11, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Then you present them. That is, I have taken, that this is the summum bonum of Indian culture, Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is accepted all over the world as the greatest book of knowledge, so take this standard and preach, and people will be enlightened, without misinterpretation.

Guest: Here's a swami, Swami Krishna-prema Idavatakar from Gorakhpur Vinodiya from Calcutta.

Indian lady: Swamiji, I made this for you.

Prabhupāda: Oh, thank you very much. Very nice. He has come here? Let him come.

Indian lady: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Thank you.

Indian man (5): Swami? I have one question which is widely discussed everywhere, that eating of meat is sin. Now we see that while for our survival, while walking, while working we kill so many things, knowingly or unknowingly, is it not sin that?

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) (to swami guest) Ayi. Give him āsana. Ayi Jaya. (Hindi) What is that question? Just try to understand.

Morning Walk -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Ten feet.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At most.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise nine feet.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The best ceilings I've seen is in Calcutta in our place in Calcutta, very high.

Prabhupāda: Calcutta, all aristocratic buildings, they are made according to English pattern, London pattern. Just like our temple, it is made London pattern. It was designed by one high-court judge. (pause) The land acquisition at Māyāpur, no news?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No news. (break) ...who are building the Ratha-yātrā carts and who help in the temple construction? (break)

Prabhupāda: Ah, this is so cold. (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Unbearable (break) ...too cold then we can go in our bus to Florida for preaching. In the winter you go to Florida, eighty-five, ninety degrees.

Prabhupāda: Florida. And in summer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Summer it's not very pleasant.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's about the same.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really? Most people though, most tourists don't go to Florida in the summer time.

Prabhupāda: Very hot?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It is a little hot.

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

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Bali-mardana: ...and train others.

Prabhupāda: (break) Just like New Vrindaban they have a dozen brahmacārīs.

Kīrtanānanda: They have an expert teacher, Gopīnātha.

Prabhupāda: Also Los Angeles. (break) ...and big, big city like Calcutta, Bombay, there are many, many more pigeons. Why they are so small?

Kīrtanānanda: They kill them.

Prabhupāda: Kill.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They kill them?

Devotee: They poison them.

Kīrtanānanda: They put poison feed out.

Prabhupāda: Ah, killing experts.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This one is not, it's not bad, but it's not so accurate. "In size it was dwarfed by 'Operation Sale.' In popular concern it was outweighed by the Democratic National Convention. But for hundreds of Hare Kṛṣṇa followers, including many Indian immigrants to New York, yesterday's Ratha-yātrā festival was by far the most important event in an eventful month. Pulling three brightly-colored chariots down Fifth Avenue from Central Park to Washington Square, the religious group's adherents were celebrating one of the oldest holy days of the Indian calendar, the feast of Jagannātha, the Lord of the Universe, according to Kṛṣṇa doctrine. Most of the participants in the parade were young Westerners, followers from as far away as Caracas and Montreal. But the crowd included hundreds of Indians who brought the basic Kṛṣṇa faith with them from Bombay and Calcutta."

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that nice. "Like many other immigrant groups who preserved their forms of worship once they came to America, the Indians who watched or participated in the parade were pleased to see that they could keep the faith even in New York City." (laughter)

Prabhupāda: These rascals, let them come, they become baḍa sāheb.

Room Conversation -- July 31, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: In Bombay also I supplied to so many colleges. And the Public Library.

Bhūgarbha: That Royal Asiatic Society.

Prabhupāda: Āccha.

Bhūgarbha: In Bombay they purchase all the books. We had to do a little negotiation with them, but they purchased everything. Then the Calcutta Asiatic Society, they wrote us a letter, they said that "These books are the best," the letter came like that, "but that we have no funds to purchase, so can you please send us free of charge."

Prabhupāda: They have no funds? Asiatic?

Bhūgarbha: They say like that.

Prabhupāda: Maybe. Nowadays people are not interested in cultural societies. They are simply for belly. How to earn money, that's all. Śūdra mentality. The brāhmaṇa mentality is gone. In America also. People are not joining cultural classes of philosophy. Hayagrīva said that he has no job because nobody's taking English as literary study. Nobody's interested. They are taking to technology.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: In, actually, in Bengal, Bengal has lost its original culture. In other provinces the brāhmaṇa class, they are keeping very strictly the original culture. Even a brāhmaṇa would not accept foodstuff prepared by his wife, because woman is considered śūdra. The woman, when she becomes the wife of a brāhmaṇa, then she is called brāhmaṇī, but she's not offered brahminical culture. She remains as śūdra. So therefore a strict brāhmaṇa does not accept foodstuff prepared by his wife. Still there are in U.P. The wife will arrange for cooking, and he'll sit down and cook dāl, cāpāṭis. Then he will eat, and whatever remains, that is there, that will be taken by her. But he will not take foodstuff cooked by his even wife. And if there are several brāhmaṇas, so each one of them will cook his own food. In Calcutta, mostly the rich men they used to keep the collector's darwans, they are called darwans. Means guard, policemen, guard. They're all, very big, big brāhmaṇa family, they used to take, accept the job. But each of them, even in police, I have seen, they are cooking separately. They take bath thrice, cook their own food, very strictly. The government had to give them a big hall for cooking. So, it will not take much space, say, little space. One small oven and demarcated: "This, you see, is mine, and then I, you get, this is yours, this is yours." So within that space they'll sit down and cook dāl, cāpāṭis, rice, one vegetable, and cook, and immediately all the utensils will be cleansed and washed, and the space washed and kept. You'd like to eat, they cook so nicely, although simple. And I have got practical experience, if you cook your own food, whatever it may be, it is healthy.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Just see how rascal they are. My Guru Mahārāja every step condemned this Ramakrishna Mission and Vivekananda. He said frankly that if there are any impediments for our movement, that is this Gandhi and Vivekananda. He said frankly. Hodge-podge. Gandhi's also hodge-podge. He was a politician, and in politics he mixed some spiritual ideas, hodge-podge. And this Vivekananda was also politician. His name was recorded in the government as "sannyāsī-politician." Because after returning from America, he began to preach to make the poor man rich, and these weak, fatty, and so on, exercise. So the government took it that he's, under the dress of a sannyāsī, he's preaching social and political upliftment. So his name was recorded as "sannyāsī-politician." And his name was also recorded, "political saint," Gandhi. After all, the British government, they were very intelligent. They could understand what is what. Otherwise, how they were managing this big empire? Very intelligent, there is no doubt about it. And actually they were intelligent. When they were managing, we were happy, actually. Nobody can deny it. Although they were exploiting. But nobody could understand. Everyone was feeling happy. And as soon as they left, everyone is unhappy. That distinction I can give evidence, I can, from my personal experience. Things were very, very nice. Calcutta, oh, it was so nice city. Now it is hell. It is same Calcutta. Why it is now hell? Hidden(?) garden, that was a nice garden. So... Everywhere hell, only hell. Calcutta was considered the nicest city in India, better than Bombay, but it has become now hell. The streets, especially those quarters in our temple.

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Hari-śauri: I think Calcutta was voted the second dirtiest city in the world.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Ācchā? Just see. And it was next to London. People used to say, "In the British Empire, first London, second Calcutta." And now it is...?

Hari-śauri: Second dirtiest city.

Prabhupāda: And who is the first?

Harikeśa: Karachi.

Hari-śauri: Karachi. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Both of them got sva-rāja, Pakistan and India. That means after getting sva-rāja..., Karachi was one of the first-class city, yes. They cannot manage. Unfit persons, they are on the top of government.

Hari-śauri: Seems everything is devolving at a phenomenal rate. Every decade that passes, everything breaks down twice as fast. Just in the last twenty years or thirty years everything has become so much degraded and...

Room Conversation -- August 2, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: No, I have got experience. I am Calcutta born. What Calcutta was in our childhood days and what is now, I know everything. How we were happy during British days and what is now position, I can speak from my personal experience. We do not belong to the richest class nor to the poor class-middle class. So we have got practical experience. My father's income was not more than 250 rupees. How opulent we were. At least, there was no question of need. We were receiving daily four, five guests, and my father was functioning so many festivals and he was asking... My father gave in marriage four daughters. There was no difficulty. The income was not more than 250 rupees. Of course, that 250 rupees at least ten times now. But still, there was no needy. Not very opulent, but there was no need. The first necessity is to feed and to clothe. So there was no such scarcity. May not be very luxurious life, but there was no scarcity for food and shelter or cloth. There was no scarcity. Happy. That is wanted. Happiness in whatever circumstance. Not that because we did not possess a motorcar, therefore unhappy. I purchased one motor car in 1925, Buick car. Not for personal use, but for using it as a taxi. My one nephew, he was a good driver, so my father, "Why don't you give him? He can do that, we can use it our own car also taxi." So I took it, Buick car, I think I paid eight thousand rupees.

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

Prabhupāda: That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission,

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma

sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

(CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)

He has to preach in every village and every town on the surface of the globe about this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So our business is... Just this example I have given, that there is fire. I do not know the language. Still, I have to call and take help. So I am doing like that. There is a story. In Calcutta when the Britishers were establishing themselves, so one clerk was working in the office and some monkey came and scattered the office files and everything. So his boss came, he asked him, "What is this, why you?" So he cannot explain, so he began to jump like monkey, that on account of the monkey coming within the room. So when the language is unknown we have to jump and show that the monkey came.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Try to give to the people. If they are fortunate, they will take it.

Guest: I think you are from the south?

Harikeśa: He wants to know if you are from the south.

Prabhupāda: I am not from south, I am from Calcutta. West, west of India, no? Calcutta is east.

Jñānagamya: They say everything good comes from Bengal. The best poets, the best gurus.

Prabhupāda: Not always. (laughter)

Devotee: Ramakrishna.

Prabhupāda: Nowadays Naxalites are coming. It is the time, Kali-yuga.

Guest: No, I'm from far south.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Evening Darsana -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: But why the Indians, they are not like the Americans? You find in India still millions of people will go to the Kumbhamelā with torn cloth. They are not like Americans, riches. Why they take? Indian is well-known poverty-stricken. So why almost ninety-nine percent people, they are after Kṛṣṇa consciousness naturally? Still they'll go, when there is Kumbhamelā, so many saintly persons are coming. They will come by lakhs. Have you seen it? You have seen Kumbhamelā? You have seen? That is the proof. Not only Kumbhamelā. In Vṛndāvana, just like in our temple, recently it was jam-packed. Why they are coming to Vṛndāvana? Mostly they are coming from villages. Especially during this time at least twenty thousand, fifty thousand men are coming, daily. Still. We held Hare Kṛṣṇa festivals in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras. As soon as it is advertised, you'll find fifteen thousand, twenty thousand men come. And if you hold for weeks, for weeks they will come. You have seen? They are not like Americans, rich. They are all poverty-stricken. To the general eyes they are poverty-stricken. Kumbhamelā you'll see, Hardwar, in Vṛndāvana. Or even in big, big cities like Calcutta, Bombay, such festivals are held, people will come by thousands. It is training, culture. And this boy is taking three times bath, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is training and culture. And if he is kept in this culture, in future he'll be great saintly person. Then he'll do everything automatically. He will deliver others. It is training.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No. Yes. It is old man's disease. Liver doesn't work nicely, teeth does not work nicely, there is susceptibility to cold. Old age. All my young friends, they have all died. Nobody's living. One or two still. You know that Dinanath came? I think you know. He's living. He's seventy-five, seventy-six. Little younger than me.

Hari-śauri: Who's that?

Harikeśa: Dinanath Mishra in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: One man, a case pleader.

Hari-śauri: That very thin man? Oh, I know. Yes. He was very sick actually when we were there.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he was sick. He was half dead.

Hari-śauri: What about those people when we went back to where you used to live? When we came back from Māyāpur and we went out that night to, what they called? Your old friend's house?

Prabhupāda: Oh, Mulliks.

Hari-śauri: Mulliks.

Prabhupāda: They are just like my younger brothers. Their elder brothers were contemporaries. They are all died.

Room Conversation -- August 12, 1976, Tehran:

Hari-śauri: Just across the road? That one?

Prabhupāda: Yes, just opposite. That is His building. Very good income. Besides that, He has many other lands. They have got very good income.

Hari-śauri: They're very well looked after.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They're one of the oldest aristocratic families of Calcutta, Mulliks. The whole, from Howrah Bridge up to that street, all belongs to their property. Very rich men.

Hari-śauri: Now they don't own so much.

Prabhupāda: No, the Deity has got income. So they have got terms for worshiping the Deity. So one who gets the term for worshiping, he takes the income.

Hari-śauri: Oh, in the family members.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but practically that is now their income. The more one gets the worshiping term longer, he gets more income. (laughs) The Deity has got very, very good income. All the temples in India... Just like I am trying to make some fund for Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur. Even no contribution comes, it will go on. The sevā-pūjā will not stop for want of money. So there will be no want of money. Still, I must make some provision, by the income the sevā-pūjā will go on. Contribution may come or not. That provision should be made. Now in Vṛndāvana Akṣayānanda is collecting in so many ways. Suppose nobody collects. That does not mean this temple will be closed. It must go on. So I am trying to make some provision from that bank interest.

Morning Walk -- August 14, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: He introduced so many Indian drugs in the...

Dr. Patel: They have in Bengal this Standard Pharmaceuticals of Bengal, been able to isolate penicillin from cow dung, and they have a big plant in Calcutta producing penicillin from cow dung. It's stated, you know, how cow dung was considered sacred. Perhaps we did not know that, but by experience.

Prabhupāda: Before this, one Monmohan Gosh, Dr. Monmohan Gosh, he was pathologist in medical college. He proved the antiseptic properties of gobara. He was Dr. Gosh's friend. So he was working in his laboratory also. I know. Long ago.

Dr. Patel: And in gomūtra, sir, there are so many hormones coming, and a big sample of hormones which can be resynthesized as human hormones. That is why gomūtra is being drunk.

Prabhupāda: Gomūtra is good medicine for liver disease. If you drink urine of...

Dr. Patel: Yes, it is proved scientifically so many hormones and by-products and hormones which can be resynthesized into human hormones, modern science.

Indian: (Hindi)

Dr. Patel: That's right, gomūtra is considered sacred by we people that we put a drop in the newly born child's mouth.

Prabhupāda: Pañca-gavya, gomūtra is one of the parts. Pañca-gavya.

Dr. Patel: Milk and honey. Five ingredients, gomūtra is one of the five things. Honey, milk...

Prabhupāda: No, that is pañca-amṛta. Pañca-gavya a little different. Gobara, urine, milk, yogurt, and ghee. This is pañca-gavya, pertaining to the cow. And that honey, that is pañca-amṛta.

Press Interview at Muthilal Rao's House -- August 17, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: I am not interested in any particular country. This is meant for the whole human society. As you think "India" or "America," we do not think like that. We take the opportunity wherever it is possible to introduce more and more we take that opportunity.

Interviewer (5): What is the response in India?

Prabhupāda: Indian response we have seen when we held meeting in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, thousands and thousands of people come here to hear about Bhagavad-gītā. Inherently they are inclined, but there is no systematic education. That is the defect. Now the Janmāṣṭamī day is coming I think every Indian will observe Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī, without any fail. But they are not being educated systematically about Kṛṣṇa. They know Kṛṣṇa, they are inclined to Kṛṣṇa, the education of Kṛṣṇa is there, but nobody is interested to give them properly, systematically. That is the difficulty.

Interviewer (4): How is the response in the West?

Prabhupāda: Of course it is a foreign thing for them, but still they are coming and taking it very seriously.

Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Everything is all right?

Devotee (1): Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda

Prabhupāda: Let him dance (?). Wherefrom you are coming?

Acyutānanda: From Calcutta, Māyāpur, Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: My health is not well.

Acyutānanda: Yes, I have heard. We brought you some medicine from your sister.

Prabhupāda: Oh, oh!

Acyutānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes I wrote her.

Acyutānanda: Yes. We have that with us.

Prabhupāda: So. Everything all right?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Everything all right to have your darśana, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We have heard that you are not feeling well.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Acyutānanda: Everyone in Calcutta, they were asking how you are. Many people they are anxious to see. We have gotten very good recent publicity there. Three days in a row.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Acyutānanda: Three days in a row of front page news articles.

Prabhupāda: What is they have published?

Acyutānanda: Very good. Many ministers are also coming to Māyāpur. Very...

Prabhupāda: Here also the chief minister, many have come to see me.

Devotee: Yesterday.

Acyutānanda: Yes, he is OK. (indistinct background conversation)

Prabhupāda: Gradually they will appreciate. Everyone, all over the world.

Acyutānanda: This was on the front page of the Ananda Bazar, five lakhs circulation.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Acyutānanda: Front page.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is in the...

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Room Conversation -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: How people are receiving this movement all over the world, even (indistinct) to the communist (indistinct). They are trying to kill God, and we are putting God (indistinct) educated families.

Acyutānanda: Yes.

Jayapatāka: Show that other article that... This is the actual article against us.

Acyutānanda: Also this came in the Statesman, the pro-vice-chancellor of Calcutta University came to Māyāpur, he wants to affiliate Māyāpur with the Calcutta University. This came in the Statesman. And a few days ago the vice-chancellor...

Prabhupāda: It is not yet finished?

Jayapatāka: That's the old picture.

Acyutānanda: No, this picture's six months old.

Jayapatāka: It's more than half.

Acyutānanda: It's more than that.

Jayapatāka: (indistinct) We've received ten lakhs so far. The building total was twenty lakhs.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct)

Jayapatāka: (indistinct) ...building, six times longer than our building. Two hundred rooms. (break)

Acyutānanda: This is the first article. That was against us. In the same paper. Then these two came. But it was very good. Many people came to the temple. They said, "Your society is cleared." Many Bengalis, so many came, "We have read, 'Your society is cleared.' "

Prabhupāda: Now (indistinct) cleared. (indistinct) (end)

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gargamuni: For income tax. The government is making it so that no one can give any donation. They don't want any more donation. They want everything to come to the government. So it's not easy to get money locally. We are getting enough to do maintenance, but it is not like it was, say, two or three years ago, when you could get 25,000 fifteen thousand, especially in Calcutta, where the income tax, every day they are raiding the houses.

Jayapatākā: Even if people give, a life, patron member, 2,222, if they are not so big, they want to give in installment and even though they'll give at one time with postdated... They want different receipt because if they give one lump sum, then it makes it seem that they are very rich. Although they'll give you at one time, they want small, small receipt so that the income tax won't think, "Oh, they are are giving so much donation? They must be very rich. They must have hidden wealth which we can capture from them by investigation." So in this way they are very much pressurized. Sometimes they prefer to give money without receipt.

Prabhupāda: Soon the whole, our program is going on.

Gargamuni: Oh, yes. No, it's going on more. The book distribution is going on more. More people are joining. There's no hindrance.

Prabhupāda: That I want.

Jayapatākā: These are simply minor obstacles.

Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Pālikā was just wondering if you wanted anything tonight.

Prabhupāda: Yes. If she can... She can make little vegetable, potato, tomato.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Jayapatākā: I went to Haridaspur as soon as I received your letter because Bahusvarūpa was there, making arrangement for the Janmāṣṭamī festival. So I spoke to all those people for two days, Thursday and Friday. And the land is in the name of the zamindar, Mr..., Ghosh family. There's fourteen members who have to sign. So in Haridaspur nine members are living, and they are all agreed for signing. And they say the other five members live in Calcutta. Once they sign the deed, they'll also sign. There's no doubt because that's not even in their possession. That's in the public's possession. And all the public, Anchal-pradhan and all the other leaders of that village they are also all eager to have us start . I think that we can also raise some money in the neighborhood. There's some relatively rich people. So that... I was trying to register that before I came here but because Monday is... That zamindar has one haṭṭa. And that's... His haṭṭa day is Monday, so he was busy. And Tuesday was Janmāṣṭamī by government of West Bengal, and Wednesday was our Janmāṣṭamī and Haridaspur Janmāṣṭamī, and I came here today, Thursday, so we couldn't do it beforehand. But as soon as I go back, I can register that. And... But someone should immediately come, Mūrti or Saurabha or someone and see that land.

Prabhupāda: No, no, we have to... Yes. We have to see, make plans.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: And they are not giving citizenship?

Jayapatākā: Myself? What happened was I applied last September. So now it's nearly one year, so they had sent my application from Māyāpur to Calcutta, Writer's Building. Again back. Again Writer's Building, then to Delhi. Then Delhi sent again back. I went, and I asked the secretary, and I found out that they had sent again back from Delhi, again back to Māyāpur and then re-investigated me. At that time they brought in some local people, and one investigator, he said that "This Jayapatākā Swami, we have heard that he is a very bad person. He beats the people." They said, "No, We never heard such thing." "No, no. We have heard that he is very bad." In this way by negative they are testing. They came and told me that for two hours police is drilling three different people from Navadvīpa and Māyāpur. In this way no one said a bad...

Prabhupāda: No, if you are a famous man, then they'll do.

Gargamuni: Him and Bhavānanda.

Jayapatākā: Now Bhavānanda is more famous.

Prabhupāda: He is notorious.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gargamuni: ...Birla

Prabhupāda: It is difficult to go there. It is difficult to go there.

Gargamuni: And here there is more devotion.

Prabhupāda: Here are devotees.

Jayapatākā: We made this for distributing, and the public, the take and worship in their home, purchase it.

Gargamuni: (to Jayapatākā) Let's go.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Indian printing? Purchase?

Gargamuni: Yes. This is Indian printing.

Prabhupāda: Calcutta?

Gargamuni: Yes. (Break)

Prabhupāda: So, so far the building is concerned, that is already settled up.

Jayapatākā: Yes, that's all set up.

Prabhupāda: Then what other?

Jayapatākā: There were some other lighter matters.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So difficulty is that if we take charge, we may give it for worshiping to one disciple, but the immigration department will gag him. That is the difficulty. And we don't have many Indian disciples. Otherwise we can take all these important places.

Jayapatākā: Also, last time I was in Calcutta and I saw Tarun Kanti Ghosh, then he mentioned to me again that the people from Panihati, this time that they had reached a decision that they wanted to give us the sevā of Rāghava Paṇḍita's house.

Prabhupāda: So we take. Let us take it.

Jayapatākā: That's a very important... But that's in dilapidated state.

Prabhupāda: We shall repair.

Jayapatākā: In the letter of the Home Minister where he said that every disciple can stay for two years, possibly if he allowed that in every center, if a minimum of a few people could stay for citizenship that might...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: On my form I have already printed we give five books.

Prabhupāda: "When you finish, you return this; you take another. When you finish that..." In this way.

Gargamuni: What we've been doing with members in Calcutta, members who want more of the books, they sign the standing order and they pay us for the books.

Prabhupāda: That is another thing.

Gargamuni: Every month. One book a month and they pay.

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Gargamuni: And they sign the standing order.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Gargamuni: So we have taken many personal standing orders.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Gargamuni: And I gave them one book, and they're satisfied.

Prabhupāda: Any person who has money, we'll receive. So many places they are offering us land...

Gargamuni: There's another man who wants to give a big property. When you come to Calcutta he wants to see you.

Prabhupāda: In Calcutta?

Gargamuni: No, it's in Rajastan.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Gargamuni: It's a place which he's not using. He met you in Bombay. He also visited our centers in Paris and New York. He's a Marwari man, very rich, very nice. He's also donated good sums to the society. So now he wants to meet you, and he wants someone to go there. So I told him we will go and look at it.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Gargamuni: It's in Rajastan.

Prabhupāda: Rajastan? Where? Which side.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: No, kāca dhun kāca kaphe (?): "If some property is offered, we should take it." That is the... And washed cloth. Kācā dhun kācā kapha (?). If somebody offers you very nicely washed cloth, you should use it. And some property, you must use it. They are... You can utilize this property by inhabiting the persons, if they are inclined to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are rotting outside Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They may come to live. We are for everyone. So he... Where does he reside, this gentleman?

Gargamuni: In Calcutta. His businesses are there. He's a wealthy man, very nice man.

Prabhupāda: Where does he live?

Gargamuni: He's lives in Bara Bazaar. His name is Mr. Buwalka.

Prabhupāda: Bara Bazara Marwaris are all businessmen.

Gargamuni: Yes.

Prabhupāda: This combination of rich men, poor men, for Kṛṣṇa. The same—andha-paṅgu-nyāya. Both of them are useless separately, and when they combine in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are all useful. It is very good example. And there is another example, that a piece of wire is falling, rotting, and a piece of bamboo, rotting, and a piece of squash skin is rotting. And one gentleman collected. He nicely trimmed the piece and dried the squash, the outer portion, and took the bamboo and nicely cut it and joined the string and this became a sitar: "Ting, ting, ting." So it is the intelligent person who joins all these things and makes it very useful. These are the examples. The bamboo alone is useless, and a small piece of wire, useless, and a thrown out squash skin, useless. But if you can join them together,...you can "Ting, ting." Similarly andha-paṅgu-nyāya. Here is a lame man; here is a blind man. All right, combine together and use them. That is wanted. Svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya saṁsiddhi labhate. This wire does not change. It is wire. But when it is combined, it is useful. So our propaganda is, "They are separately planning useless. Let them combine together in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. All this planning shall be successful.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gargamuni: Yes, that's a fact. The Calcutta plan that you had, it is still under consideration. At first the Calcutta corporation refused, but then Abhirāma saw the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Mr. Subata Mukerji.

Prabhupāda: So I gave the meaning.

Gargamuni: He said, "No, I want this." But there's still a problem, is that they'll allow a monument, but they don't want the Deity. They'll allow us to build a monument for Bhaktivedanta Swami but no Deity.

Prabhupāda: Well, then take this proposal: "All right, no Deity." We shall hold meetings, lecture. What is that? In the park people come. And we decorate the whole hall with pictures. Gradually we worship one picture.

Gargamuni: Later on, maybe we can put Deity. Once it's built, they cannot tell us to get out.

Jayapatākā: That's what Mr. Choudhuri said.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: And one thing is that next thing will be... Now there are many flats.

Gargamuni: Now, we have one flat that we are renting.

Prabhupāda: Not renting. Purchase.

Gargamuni: Well, the only thing is with these flats in Calcutta, they are so mismanaged, these new places. They become a slum in two months. In Bombay the flats are managed nicely, but in Calcutta when they build a new one, within two months the whole thing is filthy dirty. The elevators don't work. It's not worth purchasing a flat. I have one now. I am renting. It's on the twelfth floor, and the members of our traveling party stay there. There is nice water and so many things. But the building is so mismanaged. Who wants to stay there more than a year? We need our own place. Then we can keep it clean and nice.

Prabhupāda: Where is that own place?

Gargamuni: Well, there are buildings that we can get. In Balijunj we have some offers. That's if this park doesn't come through. If the park does not come through, then we can...

Prabhupāda: Yes. First of all all try to make... This is the best place in Calcutta.

Room Conversation About Mayapura Construction -- August 19, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gargamuni: So he wrote the letter and now they forward that letter back to the Calcutta corporation without a letter from the minister. Because he went back there. He just told me that. So it's back again to the same guys who, you know... Of course, I don't know what letter he has written, but the officers would not tell us anything. Anyway, we will try our best.

Prabhupāda: Why not take the Victoria Memorial? What is, they are doing?

Jayapatākā: I have never gone inside. I heard it is simply old English armor and some swords.

Prabhupāda: Yes, I have seen.

Gargamuni: And the marble is turning black.

Prabhupāda: Because they don't...

Gargamuni: They don't clean it.

Jayapatākā: How they can afford to maintain such a building?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa will maintain. We can utilize it properly.

Jayapatākā: And we'll have British pūjārīs. For the glory of Queen Victoria.

Prabhupāda: Victoria. Let them send. Tell them that we shall bring. Victoria has... Let them send to worship Victoria with prasādam of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That is real Victoria Memorial.

Room Conversation -- August 20, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Not wearing saris? (pause) We have no problems except this immigration.

Hari-śauri: Yes. That's the main thing.

Prabhupāda: Otherwise we have no problem.

Hari-śauri: By the time they've finished all their investigations, they'll... Eventually they'll have to let us come. At least maybe in Calcutta it will be easier. In Calcutta, with the authorities there, if we get this... If we start building Māyāpur, then they'll be a lot more lenient than they've been before.

Prabhupāda: That is already...

Hari-śauri: Yes. They've taken the best area.

Prabhupāda: I think this leg swelling is gone.

Hari-śauri: Yes. It only came when we were in Iran because of the altitude. Then, as soon as we left, it went away again. That doctor in New York, he said it was because when your blood pressure goes up, then it's difficult for the heart to pump. So then fluid forms in the leg because of the bad blood circulation.

Prabhupāda: That was his diagnosis.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gargamuni: Even people come to the temple in Calcutta, they want ten, fifteen copies. Village people. Poor people. They come and say, "Gītār Gān, where is that? I have heard." And they take ten or fifteen copies, they wrap it in their cloth and bring it to the village. It is becoming very popular. Wherever you go, "Where is this Gītār Gān?"

Jayapatākā: I went to Writer's Building, I had four or five copies with me. I didn't go for selling. I went to see ministers. But all the peons, they were buying the Gītār Gāns from me. I sold out. People were coming up with rupees saying, "Gītār Gān." I didn't have any more.

Prabhupāda: Out of their own accord they...

Gargamuni: No, they've heard of it. It's becoming famous.

Jayapatākā: That's our inspiration, that if we can make Gītār Gān and Your Divine Grace famous all over Bengal, then we will feel that our mission...

Prabhupāda: Yes, I could not write any... I wrote some Bengali book, that is now... It can be collected from Devānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha. I continually wrote one book, Bhagavāner Kathā.

Room Conversation -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayapatākā: He doesn't write himself. He writes in old fashion. But he corrects for double-checking philosophy. Editing. And this Kiśora, he was a M.A. and he previously used to write. He was an honor student at Calcutta University, and he used to freelance write in Bengali. So his style is very nice.

Prabhupāda: Why not engage him in simply...

Jayapatākā: He is translating now our...

Gargamuni: That's all he does.

Jayapatākā: That and he greets the guests. He's also good at membership.

Prabhupāda: Gītār Gān has become popular.

Gargamuni: Yes. That name has become very popular. Everyone is asking, "Where is this Gītār Gān?"

Prabhupāda: So you can register the name so that others may not...

Jayapatākā: Yes, otherwise they'll cash in on it.

Prabhupāda: Yes. You can register it the name. Patron registration. Copyright registration.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: That's all right. Enclose this quote.

Maṇihāra: "ISKCON has generated many community farms like New Vrindaban, providing the ideal atmosphere of a busy, yet peaceful village, fully devoted to spiritual progress. Swami Prabhupāda has also established the first Kṛṣṇa conscious gurukula in the West, a primary school in Dallas, Texas, for one hundred boys and girls between the ages of five and fifteen. Soon after its success, many such gurukulas have sprung up all over the world. Aside from teaching reading, writing, mathematics, geography, etc., the gurukula teaches the child how to cultivate God consciousness. Once a year members of ISKCON journey to the Society's international headquarters at Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, ninety miles north of Calcutta, and the birthplace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It is the site of a ten crore rupees international Vedic village comprised of community farming projects, high-class gurukula school, free medicinal facilities, and handloom weaving center. An institute of Vedic studies is proposed to be established at this site. Other major ISKCON centers in India are in Vṛndāvana, Bombay, and Kurukṣetra, the site of a three-crore rupee international Sanskrit university. This project will be sponsored by Alfred Ford, a nephew of Henry Ford. This will be the cultural..."

Prabhupāda: Nephew, nephew of Ford, that's a fact. Alfred is from the daughter's side. So the present Mr. Ford, his nephew, certainly, because daughter's side. His mother is the daughter, granddaughter of Henry Ford. Alfred's mother is the granddaughter of Henry Ford. Therefore the present Ford is the maternal uncle of Alfred.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So you are keeping good health?

Prabhā Viṣṇu: Oh, yes, very good health.

Prabhupāda: So, wherefrom just now you are coming?

Prabhā Viṣṇu: Well, we've just come from Eastern coast. We came down from Calcutta through Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. We took some orders in Guntur. And before that...

Prabhupāda: Guntur there is university?

Pradyumna: Yes, there's a new one.

Prabhupāda: Guntur, our Tīrtha Mahārāja has got a branch there. Is it not? Gauḍīya Maṭha they have got branch?

Prabhā Viṣṇu: In Visakhapatnam.

Prabhupāda: No, that is another. In Guntur, yes.

Prabhā Viṣṇu: I didn't see.

Prabhupāda: Visakhapatnam, there is one of my Godbrothers, Purī Mahārāja. Did you go there?

Prabhā Viṣṇu: No. But we saw some books which they published and they had your picture in the front actually. Just on the inside page your picture was there.

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Maṇihāra: The sergeants and corporals go first. The leaders of the battalion, they will go first to start to ravage and loot, and then all their men will follow.

Prabhupāda: Everywhere, huh? So I have seen in Calcutta outside villages. So my maternal uncle's house was their "Tally-on." (?) So when they used to come there was a, what is called rumor, "Soldiers come..." They'll captured any woman from the street. No restrictions.

Maṇihāra: They are simply killing, killing, killing, for no reason; therefore this killing turns into..., they turn into animal. So when they see woman, they...

Prabhupāda: So everywhere the same business. The soldiers are let loose in the villages.

Pradyumna: Śrīla Prabhupāda? What is the program? Will you becoming down?

Prabhupāda: Why not? Yes. As soon as ready I shall go.

Pradyumna: As soon as ready you will come. We're not waiting for any minister or something to come or anything?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation with Pandita from Tirupati and Government Minister -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

aṇḍita: No facility. So I left there. I came all the way, decided to select a place for myself. After touring Mathurā, Vṛndāvana, all these places, Kāśī, I came to Lucknow. In Lucknow Ramakrishna Mission I had been to. There was one Gauda Shivananda. He discussed with me, and he directed me to Calcutta. Then I went to Calcutta, and when I went to Calcutta, that Swami Gambhirananda, who is the general secretary now, was there. He asked me to join the Mission. I joined Ramakrishna Mission. I was in Ramakrishna Mission in Calcutta for one year. And I was taking care of their printing section, this proof-reading, editing, etc., Ramakrishna Vivekananda literature for one year. But still, my idea of going to the original texts of this Vedānta commentary etc., was not fulfilled. So I was not satisfied. Then I left that Ramakrishna Mission and traveled all the way from Calcutta to Kerala. There is another āśrama at Kerala, Parlika near Trichu, where there was one Swami Purnananda Tirtha who used to come to Bombay every year for giving lectures. So I went to his āśrama. I knew of that. And there I started studying this Śaṅkara Bhāṣya, Gītā Bhāṣya and Sūtra Bhāṣya for six months under one Swami Atmananda, who is no more, who has written Śaṅkara's words, the words, in his own words, teachings in his own words. Bhavan's Journal has published and the four yogas and so on and so forth, such books. He was a disciple of Swami Ramadasa of Kanaiḥ. So after six months that was also not satisfying to me. I then came to Śrī Raṅgam. There I went to a Vaiṣṇava ācārya. He said, first you equip yourself with the fundamental śāstras of tarka, vyakāraṇa, and mīmāṁsā. Then come to Vedānta. Then, later on, in Sanskrit College I went and studied for two and a half years this fundamentals of Vedānta, tarka, vyakāraṇa, mīmāṁsā, and then I came to Śrī Raṅgam back and studied Vedānta. There for eight years I studied Vedānta. Say in all twelve years. Ten years. Another two years... I have been in Tirupati for the past two years, specializing in the higher texts of Mīmāṁsā. (pause)

Prabhupāda: Then?

Paṇḍita: So this is how for the past twelve years I have been going in search of this sources from where I can get all this knowledge, and after much roaming about, I have got this knowledge. So I would like to put it to proper use. I would like to teach it to so many people who are interested in it. At least...

Prabhupāda: So that opportunity you'll get in our mission.

Room Conversation -- September 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Because he gets money. One who has got money but no children, he takes some adopted son. So the adopted son thinks that "I have got so much money," and he has never worked. He is spoiled. I have seen many adopted son, our... Got lakhs and lakhs of rupees, and in one night he's spoiled everything. Simply after woman and wine. I have seen it. There was one gentleman, Narendranath Singh. Very big, palatial building and very rich man. And I have seen him when he was finished. He was friend of big, big person, Raja Maharlel (?). And one day I saw in Calcutta, there was raining and he was sitting in a rickshaw. And no friend. He had known practically all big men of Calcutta friend. Nobody is coming. "Well Narendra, you are sitting. Come on in my car." Nobody. I was (indistinct). And he was drenching, there was heavy rain. And sitting a... And he was keeping Rolls Royce car.

Akṣayānanda: Keeping?

Prabhupāda: Rolls Royce. When he was rich man.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Calcutta University purchased.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I said four hundred universities. I didn't... "Even Russian scholars have praised Bhaktivedanta Swami's books and placed orders. For your information, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is the leading seller of books of Vedic culture outside India."

Prabhupāda: Topmost publisher of religious and philosophical... In the world. That is admitted.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. I said outside India because Gītā Press... It becomes disputable in India. So this was my reply to point three. "Point four. Blitz: Most work in India is done by foreign devotees. ISKCON: The founder-ācārya of ISKCON is His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who is an Indian. His chief secretary for India is also an Indian. In total, ISKCON has presently about 270 devotees in India, of which at least 150 or about 60% are Indian. Our programs in India have been praised by all leaders. The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, while inaugurating our Hyderabad center on August 18, 1976, said, "History appears to be repeating itself. One found a revival of temple construction, temple worship, and Gītā-prayana in advanced countries like U.S.A."

Prabhupāda: Not Gītā-prayana. Gītā-parāyaṇa.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh. Parāyaṇa. Okay. I just copied the spelling from the paper, Parāyaṇa. Okay, I'll change it.

Prabhupāda: No no, that is understood.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Go and play. "In London, George Harrison donated a big castle which is now called Bhaktivedanta Manor. We have purchased many buildings and converted them to temples from the sale of our books. What is wrong if a portion of Bhaktivedanta Book Trust sales are transferred to India for construction of temples? Fifty percent of Bhaktivedanta Book Trust income is spent for further publishing and the other fifty percent is spent to build temples all over the world. In fact, Blitz should appreciate this because Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda's books are bringing valuable overseas currency into the country without any cost to the Indian public. Point seven. Blitz: In Bombay they have put up a temple with a barbed fence around it. ISKCON There is no barbed wire around the temple. We invite Blitz to show us the barbed wire." There's no barbed wire. "Point eight. Blitz: Already rupees twelve lakhs have been spent on an unfinished temple in Vṛndāvana. ISKCON: Blitz does not know that the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple in Vṛndāvana was completed and officially inaugurated by Dr. Chenna Reddy, governor of U.P., in April, 1975." They are saying the temple is still being made. "Point nine. Blitz: Their major center seems to be in Orissa, the land of princes and paupers. They have built a center close to an atomic energy commission complex. ISKCON: How foolish. Our major center is not in Orissa, but in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur in West Bengal. Māyāpur is the birthplace of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, an incarnation of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. We are coming in Lord Caitanya's disciplic succession and therefore we want to develop Māyāpur and make this an international center. In Orissa, we do have two devotees living in three huts in Bhuvaneśvara. They are living on a piece of land that was donated by one of our life members from Calcutta. If at all it is near the Atomic Energy Commission, it is only by coincidence."

Prabhupāda: It was donated by the late governor and Central Minister. Nityananda Kananda. (?)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He donated it. Okay, I'll write down his name them. "Gaura-Govinda Swami, a 45 year old retired teacher from Orissa is in charge of our Bhuvaneśvara center." So they'll know. "Point ten..."

Prabhupāda: So that land was donated by a prominent man. Nityananda Kananda (?) was central government minister and later on governor of Gujarat. And he often comes to see me in Calcutta.

Garden Conversation -- September 7, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That is mother and... (laughter) Jananī jana. (Sanskrit) Any rotten place, but birthplace has got some attraction.

Harikeśa: I feel perfectly at home there.

Prabhupāda: That is natural. Just like when I go to Calcutta. Therefore a sannyāsī is forbidden to live in his native place. There will be attraction. Caitanya Mahāprabhu never returned to Navadvīpa. (break) ...no striking six o'clock. Did you mark it?

Hari-śauri: I never hear him ring it. At least the one in the daytime. I think evenings he rings it.

Harikeśa: I heard the four o'clock.

Prabhupāda: He is not regular. That means he's another lazy fellow. All lazy fellows.

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

araṇāravindam: Prabhupāda? When we pass through the village how will we keep them engaged...

Prabhupāda: That he'll guide you. You do not know. He is from village, he knows. Village or no village, wherever you chant, people will come. That is a fact. Either you chant in Calcutta Maidan or in the village they will be... India is still alive in that sense. We have seen it. We have experience. Wherever we have chanted, people have come.

Lokanātha: When you went to some place in Gujarat, Sanand? It was reported that thousands of people will come. It was a small village...

Prabhupāda: Yes. Village, if you go out they will come like anything. Even in the city we have got experience. In Calcutta we did Maidan. Thirty thousand they were coming. They could not understand English, still they are coming, simply by kīrtana. This Haṁsadūta was performing kīrtana, and all the Bengali ladies coming from outside Calcutta by train, and they're praying, "take this." (indistinct) Still India is alive. And I was speaking in English mostly. Also in Delhi. Still ladies are sitting. (laughs) What they'll understand English? But that kīrtana was so attractive, they sat down only for kīrtana.

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Eggplant. And this banana. So whatever he's grown he takes in a basket, goes to the market, immediately sold. And they're all fresh. Collected in the morning, and it is sold by eight o'clock. All fresh vegetables. There was no export, there was no facility of transport. These rascals introduced transport. Big scale transport, this railway. There was no railway. So transport means this villager, instead of selling locally or one mile away, he will dispatch in Calcutta. The Calcutta people, they are sitting on table and smoking and printing paper money and exploit.

Haṁsadūta: We had this experience when we were traveling with our bus from Calcutta to Vṛndāvana. We would want to buy watermelon from people who were growing right on the bank of the river, and he would have huge piles. And he would say, "No, I'm not selling. I'm transporting these to Delhi, where one cannot get watermelon." He's getting five times the price he would get in his local...

Prabhupāda: And from Vṛndāvana, we have seen, they are exporting that drumbeats? Vṛndāvana?

Hari-śauri: Drumsticks.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Drumstick. So the transport is a dangerous thing.

Room Conversation -- September 16, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: A local man cannot get. He's starving. And the man in big cities, he's doing nothing, he simply has got paper to sign and paper money he's attracting. All production. And they are starving. This is modern civilization. Everything, milk, vegetables, fish, everything, this chānā. Otherwise, within the village you can get everything. Village economy. Everything very cheap. And as soon as they got these transport facilities, the local men, they could not eat, and these lazy rascals, they are getting everything. Big, big cities like Calcutta, Bombay, they (have) millions of population. They are not producing anything. The producer is different man. They are simply artificially cheating them by paper money and they take. This is modern civilization.

Haṁsadūta: And on the basis of this transporting of food, other industries grow. Like for instance packing. Sometimes the package costs more than the item which is being packaged.

Prabhupāda: Especially in your country. Packing is more important than the... They sent me some presentation in a huge package.

Haṁsadūta: Consequently those persons who are farmers, they become discouraged.

Prabhupāda: Now it has become a problem how to throw these packings.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So, if you can arrange. Now I am purchasing car, I have given money to Gargamuni...

Haṁsadūta: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So one car here in Delhi side, one in Calcutta side, one in (indistinct) for my going. And he is a good driver, he will drive. Eh? I do not know but he said. (laughter)

Hari-śauri: I don't know about in India, different thing altogether.

Prabhupāda: Haṁsadūta is also a good driver.

Haṁsadūta: I am good for nothing.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Driver we'll get, there is no... So I want to preach little in the village. For that purpose in the big bus like that, we shall go with our tents, and we camp in a place where there is water, and begin our preaching. And Hindi book we are getting. In this way let me try in India, in the village, not in the city.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Similarly here also, all the Kṛṣṇa conscious persons especially here in Vṛndāvana, all the goswamis, they should be approached that this is the genuine Indian culture.

Haṁsadūta: Yeah.

Hari-śauri: Perhaps we could even get statement from some of the favorable Indian ministers in the government? Just like this Home Minister and Tarun Kanti Ghosh in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri: That would be very weighty.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So do like that, that this is genuine, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is genuine, cultural and religious movement. This should be taken from all prominent persons and sent there. And the copies of the standing order for all the universities.

Haṁsadūta: Yeah.

Hari-śauri: The order forms.

Prabhupāda: Original orders, that should be copied and sent. This arrangement, ask them all over India and beside that we have recently got a testimony of one University authorities, just like one Goswami from Calcutta University and many others they have got. These copies should be sent immediately. We can approach even the chief justice of Allahabad high-court, he came here, the minister here, the governor of Punjab, he came to see me, the governor...

Hari-śauri: Andhra Pradesh government also.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Andhra Pradesh, chief minister.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1976, Vrndavana:

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

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

Akśayananda: Now that we've become devotee.

Prabhupāda: "Everyone is God."

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Jagadīśa: "Within the next ten years, according to ISKCON plans, the Māyāpur project will extend to a complete Vedic city with fifty thousand inhabitants, its own university, airport, and stadium. It will also claim the world's largest planetarium with 410 foot high Temple of Understanding..." (break) ...civilization.

Dr. Kneupper: It sounds like a beautiful project. That is near Bombay, now?

Prabhupāda: No, that is near Calcutta.

Dr. Kneupper: Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: About sixty miles.

Dr. Kneupper: Have they progressed much now?

Prabhupāda: Yes, the enquiry is finished. Now government is considering to give that land. (indistinct) that land. There were many others, land offers in Hyderabad, but I wanted to start this institution in the, on the birth site of Lord Caitanya. Otherwise we have got better land. We have asked government for 350 acres but we have already bought in Hyderabad, 600 acres. Here also we can get immediately 500, 600 acres, like that. We have already got another plot of land, 100 acres in Ahmedabad. So there are so many lands available but I wanted to start this project in Māyāpur, the birthsite of Lord Caitanya. Therefore we are (indistinct). If they say no, then we shall attempt it somewhere else.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kneupper: In Calcutta also there is a project?

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Dr. Kneupper: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: That is not very important.

Dr. Kneupper: Well, it's been most interesting to meet you and hear you. I... Unfortunately I have to go to Agra this evening. So I really want to thank you and I will remember this and I will read your writings and think very deeply on what you...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Kneupper: ...said to me and (indistinct) this...

Prabhupāda: Therefore I recited also (indistinct). It is the real utilization of every education.

Dr. Kneupper: Right. But the Bhagavad-gītā is very wonder... It's... Since I first read it it's been one of my favorite...

Prabhupāda: You are reading?

Dr. Kneupper: Yes, I... I try to read it frequently, because it gives me some real spiritual...

Prabhupāda: And if you want to know further, you can write to me.

Room Conversation with Dr. Theodore Kneupper -- November 6, 1976, Vrndavana:

Dr. Kneupper: The growth, the temple here, beautiful. On my next trip to India...

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can come and stay here or in Bombay, we have got...

Dr. Kneupper: But I want to see the one, the city when it's constructed. That would be really...

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is... Yes.

Dr. Kneupper: I hope that is... Calcutta will be a success story.

Prabhupāda: You have got the contemplative man with you. (indistinct)

Indian man: Yes sir.

Dr. Kneupper: This will be over 300 acres if it's...

Prabhupāda: Three hundred fifty acres.

Dr. Kneupper: It's a large city. Fifty thousand, did you say? People? How many people were there?

Jagadīśa: Fifty thousand.

Dr. Kneupper: Fifty thousand.

Prabhupāda: Expecting fifty thousand.

Evening Darsana -- December 3, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Bechel (?). So we want so many men to live there nicely, to eat sumptuously, and preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I have seen while coming from Vṛndāvana to Delhi, hundreds and thousands of young men. They are going to the factories on cycle, coming from distant place, at least twenty miles, twenty-five miles, and it takes two hours to reach the factory or more than that. And there he works hard eight hours and then again goes back, two hours, three hours, on cycle. I do not know what kind of rest he takes. This is life. And if we request these young men that "You come here. You live here comfortably. You eat here sumptuously and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa," they will not. Just see how unfortunate they are. Mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ (SB 1.1.10). This is Kali-yuga. All bad men, unfortunate and disturbed. This is the position. They will work so hard, they'll catch daily passenger trains, Calcutta, Bombay, I have seen. They are actually hanging, and some of them are falling down, lost life, and coming from hundred miles away. But still, if you ask him that "You come here. Live with us. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." Even with your family you can come." We are doing that at Māyāpur. He will not. How strong sense gratification propensity is. This is position of Kali-yuga. They are making propaganda, ruṭi kāpar makān. So we are giving, "Come on, ruṭi, makān, kāpar, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." "No. I want wine. I want meat. I want rundi (?)." This is going on. Simply they say, "Ruṭi, kāpar, makān." But no, they want wine, woman, and sense pleasure, that's all. Ruṭi, kāpar, makān is not difficult. You can get. But they want something more. You see how many advertisements for selling wine in your Hyderabad. Is that, ruṭi, kāpar, makān?

Evening Darsana -- December 3, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: And because we are trying to stop this thing in Europe and America there is agitation that "These people are propagating brainwash. How is that a man who will not eat, drink? This is brainwash." They spend ten rupees out of twenty rupees. Eh?

Vāsughoṣa: Yes, we were told like that, that they would take their twenty rupees pay and then they would go and spend ten rupees and on alcohol, drinking, toddy. (break) I was in... Last time at the festival in Māyāpur I was riding from Māyāpur to Calcutta. And so one man was saying that "Oh, fish, 80 paisa a kg. How much are potatoes?" I asked. So even their hard-earned money, so much more they spend just to eat meat, to enjoy their senses. It doesn't make sense in any way.

Prabhupāda: And that also, they cannot live on meat. They must have vegetable also. Without vegetable, simple meat-eating will not help them. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi) Jaya.

piśācī pāile yena mati-cchana haya

māyā-grasta jīvera haya se bhāva udaya

Just like a man, when he is haunted by a ghost, he speaks nonsense, he does nonsense. Similarly, when one is absorbed, overwhelmed by māyā, he speaks like that, he talks like that, he acts like that. (break) ...scientists manufacture? They are very proud of becoming scientists. Such nice flower, can anyone manufacture? And still, the rascal, they say there is no God. Hm? What do you think? How do they say there is no God, these rascals? What is the reason?

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: They'll come gradually, not immediately. Immediately, the psychology is, they have got attachment for their house. It may be worse house, but still, their attachment... That is natural. Long, long ago, when I was child practically, I went with my father in the village. So one man from the village was serving us. So my father: "This boy is nice. So why not take him to Calcutta?" So one day he was absent. It was dropping and... So I went in the interior of the village and I saw that his house was broken, there was no roof, and rain was falling and he was sitting, covering with a cloth. Then I told him that "Why not come with us in Calcutta? We shall give you nice place, nice food." So his answer was, nā bābu kanceri jabo nā (?): "Bābujī, I cannot go out of my home." That was his home. (laughter) This is my practical exp... He was sitting idly and it dropping and he could not come to serve. Still, that is his home, and he cannot leave home, that "Bābu kanceri jabo nā (?). That is psychology. It may be very worse condition; still, nobody wants to give up "home sweet home." That is natural psychology. So you have to manage. You see then why they, these Delhi passenger clerks... This morning I was telling that son was asking mother, "Who is this man?" His father, and he had never seen. "You have seen father." No, rather, he had no chance to see father because when the father comes back from the office it is night, ten o'clock or more than that. That time the son is sleeping, and again he has to go early in the morning. That time also, son is sleeping. So he did not know. So one Sunday, when he's grown up, he is asking his mother, "Who is this man?" "So this man..." Not only in India, in everywhere. I have seen in New York from the other island? What is that?

Haṁsadūta: Long Island.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Prabhupāda: And all the tīrthas are on the four sides. Very good road?

Mr. Malhotra: Last year in the month of December I went to Rāmeśvaram.

Prabhupāda: On this road?

Mr. Malhotra: On this road. Of course, I went by air to Bangalore and from there we went by car. But this road goes straight. (break) ...by car, to Calcutta by air, then from there to that Bhuvaneśvara by train, and then from there by car like that. (break) It is very small place, Dvārakā, it is very small place, and in that leak was, an entire area was destroyed completely. Even communications could not be restored for three months. But Dvārakā itself was untouched completely. But on the way we found, because we went by car from here, we found roads, everything was destroyed completely. You could see demolished, the tops of houses gone away in the cyclone.

Prabhupāda: Maharastra Province is rich? I don't think so.

Mr. Malhotra: It is like this, that Maharastra is industrially quite stable. But that only Bombay and one, two cities. The rest of Maharastra is poor. There is not much cultivation.

Prabhupāda: But industry it belongs to the other persons, not to the Maharastrians.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Mr. Malhotra: Mr. Biani, Biani. He is just Birla's tea (indistinct) looking after tea. Last time I was in Delhi about two months back, so I just talked about you that I had to meet you and we could go to Vṛndāvana. Because at that time I was told that you were there. So he knew you very well, he had been to your discourses, Mr. Biani. He's Marwari. They are in Calcutta. Tea business, export tea business. We agreed on one thing, that it is very easy, rather, to make Indians understand the spiritual teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa, because in homes, in houses, forefathers, grandmothers, mothers, they are doing, I mean, always. But to, I mean, impart this knowledge to the...

Prabhupāda: Foreigners.

Mr. Malhotra: Foreigners, and that to who have more or less completely, I mean very much away from the spiritual life, very much engrossed in material life, very much engrossed. And it was something very, very, very difficult, right? Without the blessings of Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself... (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Therefore their fathers are charging me that this man knows something, mesmerism. (laughter)

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

Prabhupāda: Where is that sitting place?

Dr. Patel: (Hindi) Go down. (break)

Prabhupāda: Harer nāma eva kevalam, kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...is a big tank of Calcutta Gas Company. That looks like this.

Dr. Patel: We have got also tank like this in Bombay. We have also gas company tanks. It's in (indistinct). We have bigger tanks here of the petroleum companies. Huge tanks, petroleum tanks.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Guru dāsa: When I was in Northern Ireland preaching, they blew it up. The gas tank, by bombs. They blew the whole gas tank up.

Prabhupāda: Where?

Guru dāsa: In Northern Ireland, Belfast.

Dr. Patel: Those terrorists.

Prabhupāda: It was here. Who has taken?

Guru dāsa: It is coming now. Āsana, āsana. (break)

Prabhupāda: The others, others is not.

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

Prabhupāda: Actually, I have got so many engagements. Actually, I have got engagement in Bhuvaneśvara...

Dr. Patel: And you are going to Bhuvaneśvara after fifteen days, no?

Prabhupāda: ...Calcutta, in Allahabad, then Māyāpur, then Vṛndāvana, then Bombay.

Dr. Patel: So to make you fit to go round, you must do something. It's very logical.

Guru dāsa: "Penny wise, pound foolish."

Dr. Patel: So let pound be wise for the penny foolish. If you do in right path then you may not break down like (indistinct) getting all this trouble. (break) ...at least for four, five days. We don't want any more. In one day we will find out what to, how to, this will be cured. I don't mean medicine, but even advice, food, this, that, other things. If you get rid of the medicine, well, all medicines are, I mean, synthetics. They are not produced from animals. Many of them. (break)

Prabhupāda: Harer nāma eva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). (break) ...that sound all the time. (sounds of birds)

Girirāja: Do they have many birds in Bhuvaneśvara?

Prabhupāda: Wherever there are nice trees, there will be birds.

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

Prabhupāda: What is this philosophy? What is the philosophy?

Guest (4): Philosophy is bhajana of the Śaṅkarācārya.

Prabhupāda: But whether you recognize Kṛṣṇa...

Dr. Patel: Yes sir, he was our guru. We have published a book from the Calcutta University, so just take your remise. Leave the book for you.

Prabhupāda: Oh, this is for me? Bheṭiye, bheṭiye.(?) Vedānta philosophy (Hindi) Let us discuss. What is Vedānta philosophy? Let us discuss something. You belong to this camp, so what is Vedānta?

Guest (4): Ādi Śaṅkarācārya's preaching, actually defining God as what he thought.

Prabhupāda: Then what is the meaning? Everyone can think of God according to his whim. You say, "As he thought." That is not standard.

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: In our childhood, my father's generation, in Calcutta, if a gentleman does not keep a prostitute extra, he is not a respectable man.

Indian man: That was in Delhi? That was during the Mogul time in Delhi? Even after the Mogul time? Not only keeping. In Delhi one of my very, my father's very close friend, Lala Sriram from Delhi...

Prabhupāda: Oh, Sriram is a famous man.

Indian man: No, not that millionaire. Another Sriram. And they were from Delhi. Just I'm talking only about 1939-40. In Karachi he came. He said every boy, before marriage, his marriage, he was supposed to go and take training from a prostitute for a month or so.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Indian man: If a boy was not trained there he could not find a good wife.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā.

Indian man: That was a part of his qualification to get a good wife.

Prabhupāda: Now how is this (indistinct) because the bride and bridegroom is selected by the parents.

Indian man: Yes, the parents would not select that boy.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Morning Walk -- December 27, 1976, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: And From cows' dung we have produced penicillin in Calcutta (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: That may be, but why penicillin is required?

Dr. Patel: No, but that means it had some value right from beginning. Our forefathers must have known it. Why they did not...

Prabhupāda: No, no, we are speaking... We are speaking... Because it is important, therefore Kṛṣṇa said, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya. Why go-rakṣya required, you do not require any explanation. Kṛṣṇa said, go-rakṣya, "You must protect." That's all. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious. Because we have no brain why Kṛṣṇa—giving up all other animals—He is giving stress on go. And that is meaning. He never said, animal-rakṣya, paśu-rakṣya, no. Those who want to eat paśu, let them eat nonimportant like hogs and dogs. There are class of men who eat dogs also, hogs also. Or, utmost, goats. But don't touch cow. This is instruction. And modern civilization first of all killed all the cows. And when they are no more available then can you eat other animals. I do not know why our government is now restricting cow slaughter.

Dr. Patel: They have banned the cow slaughter all over India now.

Prabhupāda: I know that. Eh.

Morning Walk -- December 29, 1976, Bombay:

Guest (1): If it is told by (indistinct) who accept it.

Prabhupāda: No, why these boys are attracted ? They have not come here to see your industry for materialism. They have come here for spiritual. They have not come to see your cycle and sewing machine. Actually, they have come, Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur. And they are not poverty stricken. We go to Europe being poverty stricken. That Lady Wellington, he (she) challenged one of my Godbrothers, Bhakti Tīrtha Mahārāja, that "You Indian people..." She was very proud, Lady Wellington. Wellington was Iceland. She said that "You Indian people..." Of course, it was friendly talk. "You come to our country, we give you some stamp, degree, and you earn your livelihood in India. What you have come here to teach?" This was the challenge. Actually, that was happening. We were sending our men to England to become bar-at-law, to become MS, CP, to become this and that, and they became here big men. So why you people come here to teach us? This was the challenge. In those days a little favor of Englishman was considered a great boon. In Bengal there is a word, saheb śubha. Saheb means European, especially Englishman, and śubha means "auspicious." So if anyone can make friendship with a European, then his life is successful. And that was happening. The Englishmen were opening business houses. If somebody became connected, he gets good business. He becomes a rich man. There is a family in Calcutta, Saubhaga (?) Raj family. So the head of that family, Navinchandra Dev, he was a minor clerk of Lord Clive's. So when Lord Clyde was in Delhi, he was young man, he was sitting on that peacock throne and slept. Young man. So Lord Clyde saw, "Oh, what is this young man?" So the Englishman, then he came to Calcutta. So "You are fortunate, all right I'll make you a king." Britishers they were giving title, king. So he was given the title Raja. So the whole family is Saubhaga (?) Raj family still. This was the Raj. He was a clerk. Why people will not say saheb śubha? He became favorite to Lord Clive, and his whole family became Raj family. Still that family is there, those who are known to Calcutta. One of the oldest aristocratic... So all these aristocratic families, they were made by these Britishers. Except the Tagore family. They were from the Mohammedan time. The people became attached to the Europeans. Saheb śubha. If you meet one Englishman then your fortune is... I think Bombay was there also.

Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I think Allahabad takes twenty-four hours.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Twenty-six hours.

Prabhupāda: Twenty-six hours by train?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And Calcutta?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Calcutta it is thirty-six hours.

Prabhupāda: Another ten hours.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: About thirty-six hours.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Preach as much as possible. By saṅkīrtana, big saṅkīrtana. Big saṅkīrtana is book distribution and small saṅkīrtana is with mṛdaṅga. Big saṅkīrtana is going on all over the world. Small saṅkīrtana locally. Overflood the demons' Godless civilization. Our declaration of war against this Godless civilization.