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Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- London, August 21, 1973:

So... bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi... matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā mitho 'bhipadyeta gṛha-vratānām. So their conferences, their United Nation, their scientific advancement, their educational system, philosophy, and so on, so on, everything is meant for how to become happy in this material world. Gṛha-vratānām. The aim is how to become happy here. And that is not possible. These rascals they cannot understand. If you want to become happy, then you must come to Kṛṣṇa. Mām upetya tu kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvataṁ nāpnuvanti (BG 8.15). Kṛṣṇa says, "If somebody comes to Me, then he does not again get this place which is full of miseries," duḥkhālayam. This material world is explained by Kṛṣṇa as duḥkhālayam. Ālayam means place, and duḥkha means distress. Everything is distressful here, but fools being illusioned, covered by the illusory māyā, that distress he accepts as happiness. That is māyā. It is not at all happiness. A man is working whole day and night, and because he's getting some paper where it is written, "We trust in God. Take this paper, hundred dollars. I cheat you." Is it not? "We trust in God. I promise to pay you. Take this paper now. Not even one cent worth. It is written there hundred dollars." So I am thinking I am very happy: "Now I have got this paper." That's all. Cheaters and cheated. This is going on.

Lecture on BG 3.8-13 -- New York, May 20, 1966:

The exchange of dollar and rupees is: five rupees make one dollar. Now, it was selling at 3.8. So about, I mean to, 75 cent. 75 cent for 82 pounds of best rice. I have seen it in my experiencing of life. When I was a boy in India it was selling. Can you imagine that? But that rice all of a sudden rose in 1940, ten dollars. Now, just imagine if something, the price of something, is raised from 75 cent to ten dollars, how difficult it becomes for the public, for general mass of people. So so many people were in difficulty, and so many people died for want of food, diseases, famine, because when there is want of food... But you will be surprised... I inquired in 1942. Persons who were in our line, I mean to say, engaged in devotional service... I also purchased at the same time. I had... In my family life at that time, I had some responsibility: my self, my wife, my five children, servant, and so many, about ten people. And I was purchasing rice. So anyway, management was going on. But so many people died. But you will be surprised.

Lecture on BG 3.18-30 -- Los Angeles, December 30, 1968:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "One has to act on the order of the master. One should not expect any fruitive results. The cashier may count millions of dollars for his employer, but he does not claim a cent out of the great amount of money. Similarly one has to take it for granted that nothing in the world belongs to any individual person, but everything belongs to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the real purport of Kṛṣṇa saying, 'Unto Me.' And when one acts in such Kṛṣṇa consciousness, certainly he does not claim proprietorship over anything. So this consciousness is called nirmama, or 'nothing is mine.' And if there is any reluctance to execute such a stern order, which is without consideration of so-called kinsmen in the bodily relationship, that reluctance should be thrown off. In this way one may become without feverish mentality or lethargy. Everyone according to his quality and position has a particular type of work to discharge and all such duties may be discharged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness as described above. That will lead one to the path of liberation."

Prabhupāda: Thank you. That's all.

Lecture on BG 3.21-25 -- New York, May 30, 1966:

Mercury. Yes. (chuckles) Yes. Mercury. They eat mercury. They eat mercury, and after, the next morning, they pass urine, and in that urine they put some copper coins, just like you have got, cents. And when it is heated, the copper coins becomes gold. And it is a chemical, theoretical truth that the mercury, molecules of mercury, the molecules of gold are almost similar. Only one molecule is different. So mercury can be turned into gold. That is a chemical fact. And we have got information from Vedic scripture that formerly gun metal, gun metal mixed with mercury, could be transformed into gold. So these are some of the chemical process, physical process, which is being done by scientific advancement of knowledge. There are many yogis who can do by yogic power.

Lecture on BG 4.12-13 -- New York, July 29, 1966:

So our duty is to become twice-born. Just by culture, by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, let us take another birth. Let us take another birth. Then you will be recognized brāhmaṇas. Brahmā jānāti. As soon as we know Kṛṣṇa, you are brāhmaṇa. Never mind whether you are born in America or Czechoslovakia or any other place. Doesn't matter. So try to become a brāhmaṇa. Here is a chance.

But how to become a brāhmaṇa? Simply by purchasing two cent worth this thread and getting on the body? No. There are qualities, karma. You have to act like a brāhmaṇa, and you have to acquire the qualification of a brāhmaṇa. Then you can become a brāhmaṇa. There is no impediment. Never mind wherever you were born. That doesn't matter.

Lecture on BG 4.13-14 -- New York, August 1, 1966:

So there was an old man. He said, "My dear such-and-such, oh, after working for ten years, you have learned something who is two cents worth." Oh, that man was very angry. "Oh, it is two cent worth, do you think?" "Yes, I think it is two cent worth." "Why?" "Now because you'll walk over the river. All right. But I shall pay to the boatman two cents. I shall walk over the river." (laughter)

So these things are two cents worth in comparison to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Don't be after them. Suppose you'll learn something to play wonderful. What you'll do with that? How it will help you? Your problem is how to get out this, get out of this material entanglement. Suppose if you play something wonderful in the... There are so many wonderful men here. They are showing. So a man who is after Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are not after these wonderful things. Because they know it perfectly well that "All this display will not save me." What is that? If I get anything I desire? That may be something wonderful for you, but how do I benefit. Oh, what I want here? I want simply to get myself, get free from these miseries of material existence. That can be done only by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not by playing all these wonderful...

So one who is serious about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all these wonderful things, they do not captivate. You see? For them, two cents worth. Two cents. Suppose you can fly in the air.

Lecture on BG 4.19-22 -- New York, August 8, 1966:

At the cost of the rich men, the prasādam was being distributed to the poor class of men at a nominal cost. You see? Now, poor men, they go to hotel. But if they take prasādam in a temple, oh, the far better quality foodstuff is supplied to him only at nominal cost. In a hotel, what will be charged, one dollar, he can have it in the temple for ten cents. So this is still more sane.

In our childhood, when I was a boy of eight or ten years, sometimes I used to accompany my father. My father was a great devotee. He would take prasādam from the temple. So I have got experience that we paid for two dishes, four annas. Four annas means, according to modern exchange, it is five cents only, five cents according to your exchange value. For five cents we were, very nice prasādam we can get. Two persons we were fed. Still there is a place which is called Nāthadvāra. Nāthadvāra, if you pay there two annas, you will get worth prasādam, two dollars worth. So this system is going on still.

Lecture on BG 4.39-5.3 -- New York, August 24, 1966:

So householder is the only earning member who will feed all these three different status of social orders. But in the Kali-yuga, in this age, some unscrupulous persons, they are taking advantage of this dress because this dress is not very costly. Any kind of cotton cloth, you take, two paisa worth from, or two cent worth, and color, and you get it orange-colored and put on. Because in this age nobody is inquiring whether he is actually a sannyāsī or not, simply by dress... Of course, the dress is the badge.

Now, people are taking advantage of this and they misusing the position. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, I mean to say, foresaw that this will happen in future because He was speaking this Bhagavad-gītā five thousand years before. So, as He is full knowledge, entire knowledge, because He is God, He knows what will happen in the future. Therefore he gave preference to working order than this sannyāsa order. Lord Caitanya also, He also said that in this age sannyāsa is not recommended.

Lecture on BG 6.2-5 -- Los Angeles, February 14, 1969:

So the whole yoga system means to make the mind strong. Not to deviate from the Supreme. That is perfection of yoga system. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). One should fix up, just like Ambarīṣa Mahārāja fixed up his mind only on Kṛṣṇa. And there was a fight between a great yogi, aṣṭāṅga-yogī, Durvāsā Muni. Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, he was a king, he was a householder, he was pound shilling man. Householder means he has to take account of pound, shilling, pence. Dollars, cents. King, he was actually king. So Durvāsā Muni was a great yogi. He was envious of this king. That, "How is that, I am so great a yogi, I can travel in the space, and this man is ordinary king, he cannot show such jugglery of yoga system, but still people honors him most. Why? I shall teach him some lesson." So he picked up some quarrel with the king, that's a long story, I shall state it some other day, so after all he was defeated. And he was directed by Nārāyaṇa to take shelter of the feet of the king, Mahārāja Ambarīṣa. These instances we see from authoritative scripture.

Lecture on BG 6.13-15 -- Los Angeles, February 16, 1969:

So yoga practice, such a nice thing. If you indulge in sex life, this is simply nonsense. Simply nonsense. And if anyone says that you go on with your sex life as much as you like, at the same time you become a yogi, simply pay my fees. I give you some mantra. These are all nonsense. All nonsense. But we want to be cheated. We want to be cheated. We want something sublime very cheap. That means we want to be cheated. If you want very nice thing you must pay for it. "No. I shall go to a store, Sir, I can pay you ten cents, you give me the best thing for it." How can you expect for ten cent? If you want to purchase some valuable, if you want to purchase gold, then you have to pay for it. Similarly if you want perfection in yoga practice, then you have to pay for it like this. Don't make it childish affair. That is the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā. If you make it childish affair then you'll be cheated. And so many cheaters are waiting to cheat you and take your money and go away. That's all. Here is the statement, authoritative statement. Free from sex life. One should meditate upon Me. And ultimately, where is the meditation. Not in void. Just on Viṣṇu, this Viṣṇu form. That is sāṅkhya-yoga.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.1.2 -- London, August 16, 1971:

Lord Buddha appeared on this planet 2,600 years ago, and this book was written 5,000 years ago and indicating that Lord Buddha incarnation of Keśava will appear in the Bihar province, Kīkaṭeṣu, Gayā Pradesh, near Gayā. This Gayā city is still there. And five thousand years ago, either the Gayā city was there or it was predicted that there will be city of the name Gayā. In that province, Lord Buddha, as the son of Añjanā—his mother's name, Añjanā—he will appear to cheat the atheists. Lord Buddha appeared to cheat the atheists. "Oh, God comes to cheat?" Yes. Sometimes required. Just like one little child has taken away from the pocket of his father one hundred dollar bill, and he's going to tear it. And the father says, "Oh, my son, what you will do with this paper? You take these lozenges." And the lozenges is worth one cent. So he's cheated, giving him one-cent-worth thing and he's taking hundred dollars, "Give me." But that is not cheating. That is required. Sometimes a child requires to be cheated to save him from making mischievous activities.

Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- Montreal, August 3, 1968:

Is it not a process of cheating? Yes. So this process of cheating is not exactly cheating; it is for the welfare of the so-called atheistic persons. Just like sometimes father cheats the son. The son is insisting to get one thousand-dollar note, and the father asking, "My dear son, please deliver it." "No, I shall not." So father gives him one lozenges: "My dear son, will you like to take this lozenges?" "Yes, give me." "But you must have to give me that paper." "All right, take." So this kind... (break) ...is not actually cheating, but father knows that "This boy will destroy this one thousand dollars, so it is necessary to give him that two-cent-worth lozenges and take out that one hundred-or thousand-dollar-worth paper." Similarly, when people become too much atheistic, so, in order to bring them back to the understanding of God, there is sometimes necessity like this.

Lecture on SB 1.2.24 -- Los Angeles, August 27, 1972:

Similarly, if you want to see Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth, then you have to come to the platform of goodness. You cannot remain on the platform of ignorance and passion. Therefore our training to the student is to bring him to the platform of goodness, brāhmaṇa. Brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ. Brahma-darśana. Brahma-darśana means one who has seen brahma, or one who has known brahma. He's called brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa is not that being born in the family of a brāhmaṇa and having a sacred thread, two-cent worth. No. Brāhmaṇa means one who has seen, brahma-darśana. Darśana means seeing. So, in order to see the Absolute Truth, one has to come to the platform of goodness. Tamasas tu rajas tasmāt sattvaṁ yad brahma-darśanam. Yad sattvam, the platform which is called goodness. And in that platform you can see God, or you can realize what is Absolute Truth.

Lecture on SB 1.5.13 -- New Vrindaban, June 16, 1969:

So he, he propagated this philosophy, Cārvāka Muni, that ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet. In India, according to Vedic civilization, one is very much afraid of taking loan from others because he has conviction, "If I do not pay, then in my next life I'll have to pay many times. So I must liquidate my debt." That's a fact. If you take one cent from somebody else without doing something good to him or without exchanging something, then you are debtor, and you have to pay him with interest and compound interest. That is the law of karma. You cannot take anything. We are debtor to so many things. People have no idea. Devarṣi-bhūtāpta-nṛṇāṁ pitṟṇām (SB 11.5.41). These are stated in the śāstras, that we are indebted, debtor to the demigods. Just like we are getting so much sunlight. We are enjoying: "Oh, today is a very nice day." But do we pay any tax? Do we pay anything? No. But in the Vedic injunction there is sun-god worship. Therefore we find that so many demigods' worship, yajñas. The feeling that "I am taking so much advantage from the sunshine, so I must give him something," this is called sacrifice.

Lecture on SB 1.8.25 -- Los Angeles, April 17, 1973:

Just like a token punishment. Sometimes in the courts a big man is culprit. So say, if the judge wants 100,000 dollars, he can pay immediately. But he asks from Him: "You just give one cent." Because that is also punishment. But minimizing. Similarly we have to suffer on account of our past deeds. That's a fact. You cannot avoid. Karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām (Bs. 5.54). But those who are in devotional service, those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, their sufferings are minimized, a token. Just like one was to be killed. So instead of being killed with his knife, he gets some little cut on the finger. In this way, karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca...

Lecture on SB 1.15.42 -- Los Angeles, December 20, 1973:

So what is the meaning of this business? Suppose you have got... That Mr. Ford, Henry Ford, he did a very... Now everything is left. He could not take even a single cent with him when he was dying. Everything was left. Now, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13), he has got another body. Nobody cares, nobody cares. Suppose Mr. Henry's children. They do not know. Not only they, everyone. Politicians, their statue is worshiped, but nobody knows where that Mr. Napoleon, Mr. Washington, Mr. Gandhi has gone. They do not know. They are worshiping the material statue. That's all. Ignorance. Bhūtejyā. It is called bhūtejyā. One of our big politician, Indian politician, some astrologer said that "He has become a dog in Scandinavia." But you cannot deny. You cannot deny. If you believe... First of all you have to believe that the soul transmigrates. That's a fact.

Lecture on SB 1.15.46 -- Los Angeles, December 24, 1973:

And strītve puṁstve ca hi ratir vipratve sūtram eva hi. You know, the brāhmaṇas, they are offered sacred thread. So people will consider, "Now I have got sacred thread. I have become brāhmaṇa. I may act like the caṇḍāla. It doesn't matter." That is going on. We introduced this brahminical culture, but things are deteriorated. I am very sorry, that taking brahminical initiation, he is acting as a caṇḍāla, angry caṇḍāla. You see? So this is Kali-yuga. He does not understand that as brāhmaṇa he has got so responsibility. But because he has got the two-cent-worth sacred thread, he thinks now he has become brāhmaṇa. Vipratve. And strītve puṁstve ca hi ratir eva hi. And husband and wife, they will remain together because it was liking. And as soon as there will be sex difficulty, there will be disliking immediately.

Lecture on SB 1.16.6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1974:

So either too much collection. Our society, international society, we must collect thousands and thousands of dollars, but for spending it for Kṛṣṇa, not for keeping in the bank. That is not our business. We must collect as much. Suppose for doing some business... We are constructing our temple in Vṛndāvana. We require fifty lakhs. That is required. But I shall not collect more than fifty lakhs even one cent. This is atyāhāra. Similarly, if your body can consume foodstuff one kilo or half kilo, you can eat. But not even an ounce or even a, what is called, grain more than that. That is atyāhāra. You eat. It is not forbidden to eating. But you must eat as much as you can digest very nicely, not more than that. This is against bhakti principle. Eating too much or collecting too much. Atyāhāra. And prayāsa. Prayāsa means do something with extraordinary endeavor. So, of course, we have to do sometime, but it is the general principle. We shall accept... Suppose you are constructing a temple. If it is..., suppose two millions of dollars required, or, say, five millions of dollars. If we cannot do that, we shall not attempt.

Lecture on SB 2.3.19 -- Los Angeles, June 15, 1972:

Not like, living like this, animals. Śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-khara. Not to live. That is not human life. Śva means dependent. "Unless somebody gives me food, I cannot live." That is the life of a dog. A street dog is never happy. One dog who has got master, he is happy. That is śva. Viḍ-varāha means eating everything, anything nonsense eatable. Varāha, viḍ-varāha. Śva-viḍ-varāha-uṣṭra. Uṣṭra means chewing or drinking his own blood, and he thinks it is very tasteful. And similarly ass. Ass is working hard for the washerman, not for himself, and still, he thinks he is happy. Therefore these four nice animals has been exemplified. That is our life. The karmīs are compared with the ass. Big, big businessmen, day and night working hard, earning money, not for himself. What he will eat? Two cāpāṭis, that's all. Or little milk or little... Not that he has earned 1000 dollars every day and he will eat it. No. He will eat, out of that 1000 dollars, he will eat fifty cents, and balance will be eaten by others.

Lecture on SB 6.1.3 -- Melbourne, May 22, 1975:

That I have already explained, that you are coming here. Even though you are not initiated, that is also service. So if you deposit one cent daily, one day it may become a hundred dollars. So when you get the hundred dollars, you can get the business. (laughter) So you come here daily, one cent, one cent... When it will be hundred dollars, you will become a devotee.

Lecture on SB 6.1.10 -- Honolulu, May 11, 1976:

So where is that culture? There is no culture. We propose that the beginning of culture is no illicit sex. This is the beginning. Who is accepting that? "Illicit sex? Why illicit sex? Sex is sex." No, that is the beginning of culture because in the dog society there is no marriage, and why in the human society there is marriage? They could avoid it. Nowadays they are being avoided. In the Kali-yuga there will be no more marriage. That is stated in the Bhāgavata. It is stated. Five thousand years ago it was foretold that during Kali-yuga, svīkāram eva hi udvāhe. Just see. This is called śāstra. Five thousand years ago it was foretold that marriage means agreement. It will be in Kali-yuga. Svīkāram eva hi udvāhe. This is called śāstra. Bhūr bhaviṣyat vartamāna, everything. That is śāstra and that is perfect knowledge. And dam-patye ratir eva hi. Rati means sex satisfaction. So husband and wife means sex satisfaction. It will be the standard of man and woman's relationship. Dam-patye ratim eva hi. Vipratve sūtram eva hi. To become a brāhmaṇa means a thread, a two-cent worth, one thread. That's all. This is going on. These are all foretold. So that is being explained.

Lecture on SB 7.6.9 -- New Vrindaban, June 25, 1976:

We should be careful, not that "Trample over the ants and let them be killed." No, everything should be carefully done. Of course, we cannot stop this, but we should be careful, and if it is done, then if we remain Kṛṣṇa conscious, Kṛṣṇa will excuse. Yajñārthe karmaṇo 'nyatra. Therefore the business should be, if we walk at all, we shall walk for Kṛṣṇa. Then if some ant is killed—not knowingly, unknowingly—then we are untouched by these sinful activities. Otherwise, we are immediately noted down, "Here is a man, he has killed, he has..." The nature's law is so minute. Every minute, the account is there. But if you remain in the business of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then there is excuse. Otherwise, everyone is become obliged. If I take from you one cent, I have to pay you with four cents, with interest, compound interest. This is the law of karma. We are... Just like taking money from others. Unless we spend it for Kṛṣṇa, then we shall be obliged to return.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Montreal, July 2, 1968:

Just like one gentleman he has got a little child, and if you try to please that little child, that gentleman automatically becomes pleased. You can please the child with two-cent-worth lozenges, and if the child is laughing and very pleased, his father immediately becomes pleased. But if you want to please the father, you will require at least two hundred dollars. So you can finish two hundred dollars' business with two cents. Similarly, devotees are so nice that if you give him anything... Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa is also so nice that He will be pleased if anything offer. You offer little water, little flower, little... And devotees are still higher. If you simply offer a devotee a little sweet words, oh, he is very pleased. You see? That is the nature of devotee. Devotee does not want anything from you. They simply want that you... Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he said... He has got a nice song that "If you simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, oh, I become sold to you." Nityānanda Prabhu also says like that. So to please a devotee is very nice.

Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Hawaii, March 21, 1969:

When her husband was defeated and he was exiled, rather, from his kingdom by the demigods, so he left his kingdom, wife, and children, and was exiled, and in that condition of exile, he made severe penances, austerities, to gain over the demigods, and he was empowered by Lord Brahmā that he would not be killed, indirectly. This story you know. In our Los Angeles temple they have made very nice puppet show, and people are appreciating very much. Even they are selling ticket at the rate of one dollar fifty cent, still, people are coming. Last Sunday I was present, and they invited, distributed pamphlets, and more than a hundred people came, and they participated with the kīrtana very nicely, they heard the lecture, and the function was for two hours. Still, they kept very busy themselves in eating prasādam, in seeing the puppet show and the cinema of Ratha-yātrā. So many things. It was very successful. And they collected about more than $150.

Lecture on SB 12.2.1 -- San Francisco, March 18, 1968:

The spiritual master is the father, and Vedic literature is the mother. Now here, it is said that in the age of Kali, vipratve sūtram eva hi. The sūtra, the thread, is only two-cent worth. So just to place oneself as born of higher class, especially in India that is now being done. One man can purchase a two-cent worth this thread and put it on the..., "Oh, I come from a brāhmaṇa family." Without any education, without any acceptance of spiritual master and without anything, simply by showing the thread, that "I have got this thread," he becomes a brāhmaṇa or vipra, or twice-born or... Nonsense. But this will be done in Kali-yuga. Actually, these things are being done in India especially. Because here, in your country, there is no sacred thread ceremony, but in India there is this division of brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, and still the sacred thread ceremony is there. So in order to pose oneself as born of high family, one can simply purchase two-cent-worth thread and put on the breast and he can introduce himself, "Oh, I am brāhmaṇa." And nobody is going to inquire whether he is actually a brāhmaṇa. As soon as one sees that sacred thread: "Oh, he's a brāhmaṇa." That's all. So this is the, another symptom of Kali-yuga, that simply by two-cent-worth sacred thread one becomes a brāhmaṇa.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.337-353 -- New York, December 25, 1966:

It is not story. Svīkāra eva hy udvāhe. Dāmpatye ratim eva hi: "And husband and wife relation means sex. That's all." If the husband has got sex power, then there will be no divorce. These are all written there. Simply sex life, husband and wife relationship. Simply sex life. Vipratve sūtram eva hi: "And one will be considered a brāhmaṇa simply by this thread." These are all written there. A two-cent-worth thread, you get it..., "Oh, you have got thread. Oh, you are a brāhmaṇa." That's all. This is going on in India. Two-paisa-worth brāhmaṇa. He has all the qualification of less than a caṇḍāla, but, because he has got this nonsense thread, he's considered a brāhmaṇa. So these things are all mentioned. And we have to believe it also that, in the last stage of the Kali-yuga, nobody will understand what is God, what is religion. And there will be no supply of these grains. Now we are getting all these grains. But, as you are, as you are thinking grain is not meant for human being, they are meant for animals, all right, God will stop completely. Then you'll have to live only on the seeds and animal flesh. That is also mentioned. There will be no milk. There will be no sugar.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

Sri Isopanisad Invocation Lecture Excerpt -- Los Angeles, April 27, 1970:

So therefore there is complete facility for the small complete units. We are complete units, small. God is great and we are small. So small... Just like a big machine, and there is a small screw. So the complete facility, completeness of that small screw, is to become fitted in the particular place. Then it has got value. And if it is out of touch of the machine, falls down, it has no value. So complete facility is there. Just yourself dovetail into that hole and the screw is placed there, oh, it has value. When a screw is lost, you have to purchase from the store at the cost of two dollars. And when it is fallen down, it is not even worth one cent. The same screw. (break) So we are complete units so long we are attached to Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise useless.

Festival Lectures

Sri Vyasa-puja -- New Vrindaban, September 2, 1972:

The all the śāstras in Vedic literature, they have declared that spiritual master is as good as God. Not God, but as good as God. The Māyāvādī, they think that the spiritual master is also God. No. We Vaiṣṇava, we don't accept that theory. But actually how a man can become God? No. But because he is God's representative, he is honored as God, not that he has become God. Kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya. Just like you have got a dear son. If somebody pats your son, even pats your dog, you become pleased. So the spiritual master is very confidential servant, dog of God. Therefore if you can please him, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. If you can please the spiritual master, then God is pleased. Just like your small child. If somebody pleases that child, you become automatically pleased. You can please that child with a two-cent-worth lozenges. But to please you it may require thousands of dollars. So you can finish the business by offering a lozenges.

His Divine Grace Srila Sac-cid-ananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura's Appearance Day, Lecture -- London, September 3, 1971:

They think that it is unnecessary expenditure. They are minimizing. But not unnecessary expenditure. They do not understand. Formerly, in India there was no necessity of hotel. Anyone goes anywhere, even in a village, he goes to a temple-prasāda is ready. There is no need of going to a hotel. You pay or don't pay. If you say that "I want little prasāda," "Yes, take it." That is the system still. There is the Nāthadvārā temple in Rajasthan. You pay two annas only. Two annas means one cent. You get sumptuous prasāda for two annas, all very nice prasāda, still. So prasāda distribution in temple is longstanding usage. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura... The Jagannātha temple is managed by a body, and it is the custom that the local magistrate of the district, he becomes the president, or manager. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was manager in that sense, because he was magistrate. The managing committee was being presided by him.

Jagannatha Deities Installation Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.13-14 -- San Francisco, March 23, 1967:

Suppose you are a businessman and you are doing some business. Now, it does not mean that because you are businessman, your perfection will be when you become a man like Rockefeller or Ford. That is not perfection. Perfection is that whether you are satisfying the Supreme Lord by your occupation. It doesn't matter what you are doing or what is your income. You will be surprised to know that Lord Caitanya had a very poor friend. In His childhood He had a poor friend. His name was Śrīdhara. His income was daily, in those days, five hundred years before, his income was, say, about five cent daily. And not even that. Suppose five cent. So out of that five cent, he would spend two half cent for gaṅgā-pūjā, for worshiping mother Ganges. And with the balance two half cent, he will maintain his family. So similarly there are many instances. So it doesn't matter what is your income, five cent or five hundred dollars. You must try to satisfy according to your capacity, the Supreme Lord. That should be.

Initiation Lectures

Initiations -- Los Angeles, January 10, 1969:

So one yogi, he came to his village, and all the people, relatives, surrounded him: "What you have learned, please?" He said that "I have learned this mystic power; I can walk on the water." This is called laghimā-siddhi, to become so light that one can fly in the air or one can walk on the water. So everyone became inquisitive. "Oh, please show me. Please show us one day." So he agreed, "All right. I shall show on that day." Then one old man said, "My dear friend, you have been so long with the yogis, but you have learned only two-cent-worth power." "What is that?" "Now you will walk over the water, and I shall pay two cent to the boatman. He will take me to the other side. (laughter) So what you have gained? You have so much labored, but you have gained only two-cent-worth thing." You see? So these yogis are after two cent. (laughter) Even they are perfection. There is no... If they are perfect... Without being perfect, they are nothing, simply rascals. But even they are perfect, that is two-cent worth. You see? But here is a yoga system—we are going to Kṛṣṇa. Just always remember this.

Initiations and Lecture Sannyasa Initiation of Sudama dasa -- Tokyo, April 30, 1972:

You don't take shelter of that action, good or bad... Kāryam: "It is my duty." Kāryam karma karoti yaḥ: "In this way, one who acts..." Sa sannyāsī. Everyone is trying to enjoy the result of his action. Suppose you are doing some business, and you get very huge profit. So you take the profit for enjoyment. But one who does not take the profit, he is sannyāsī. He may be engaged in business. He may make profit, thousand dollars per month or more than that, but he does not take even a paisa or even a cent out of it—he is a sannyāsī. So even a man in ordinary worldly life, a businessman, or in any other occupation, he can also become sannyāsī provided he does not enjoy the profit out of it. Then where the profit will go? It will be thrown away in the street? No. It should be given to Kṛṣṇa. So the real purpose is that whatever you do, yat karoṣi, whatever you eat, yat aśnāsi, whatever you sacrifice, yad juhoṣi, yad dadāsi, whatever you give in charity... Because these things are ordinary activities. Kṛṣṇa says, kuruṣva tad mad-arpanam: "You give Me that. If you are eating, the food must be given to Me first.

General Lectures

Lecture Engagement and Prasada Distribution -- Boston, April 26, 1969:

Prabhupāda: Cent percent.

Guest (1): Ten?

Prabhupāda: Cent.

Guest (1): Oh, a hundred.

Prabhupāda: Hundred percent. Yes.

Guest (1): Why would they practice yoga at a time when everybody was pure already?

Prabhupāda: Pure means materially pure. But yoga practice means go to the spiritual platform. Just like in the material qualities, some men are very good men—the quality of goodness—and some men are in passion. That is the rajo-guṇa. And some men are in darkness. So there are three qualities in the material world: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, and tamo-guṇa. So those who are situated in the modes of goodness, they are called perfect in the material world, very good men. That "very good man" does not mean that he is spiritually advanced. He may be moralist. He may be philanthropist, just like so many leaders of nations. That is another thing. The spiritual state is called viśuddha-sattva. Viśuddha-sattva means goodness where no other quality can contaminate. Here even one man is very good man, sometimes he is tinged with passion or ignorance.

Lecture 'Nobody Wants to Die' -- Boston, May 7, 1968:

Whoever used to come to him, he would at once take a plate and give him, and at once he'll find two nice sweetmeat. So by this extraordinary power, many learned scholars and professors and big men: "Oh, he is a great yogi. He can manufacture rasagullā." You see? "In a plate, as soon as you go, there immediately he presents." This is magic, they are captivated by the magic. They are not... They are so foolish that they did not consider what is worth this sweetmeat? Four cents and four cents, eight cents. So even if he has achieved that power, for producing this rasagullā what he has attained? It is worth eight cents. Suppose if I show some magical power and present one rose flower in your hand, you may be very surprised—now, "Oh, Swamijī is wonderful." But what is the meaning of that wonderful? Say ten cents. That's all. You can purchase one flower with ten cents. So don't be after these magical things. Just try to appreciate Kṛṣṇa, how He's great. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Do you follow what I say? Don't be after magicians. The magic, magician can also play very nice, wonderful..., so many things. But that is not perfection. Suppose if I can create by my yogic power two rasagullā or one rasagullā, what is the worth? A few cents only.

Philosophy Discussions

Philosophy Discussion on Karl Marx:
Prabhupāda: That use, it is for you but because your knowledge is so poor. Just like a low class man, he will think, "This police constable is government." Because he is a low class man, the police constable takes him to the custody, and he is controlled by the police cons..., so he is father and mother. But for a high personality the police constable is nothing. There are so many others. So this reality is relative according to the person. He is a man with poor fund of knowledge. Therefore immediate effective, that is reality. Just like child. He thinks a lozenges which is two cent worth, he thinks it is reality. But to his father that two cents worth lozenges... (aside:) Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. To his father, he will think, "What is this lozenges?" The child will ap... "Oh, father, it is so nice. It is heaven. It is so sweet." That means reality according to the person... So he is a man with poor fund of knowledge; therefore he is accepting reality which is giving him some immediate profit. That's all.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Questions and Answers -- September 6, 1968, New York:
Prabhupāda: So people want to see this jugglery. And those who want following some or some material achievement, they want to show... Actually it is a fact. Suppose if I could manufacture rasagullās by some mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, oh, thousands of people will come immediately. You see? People want to see me, and those persons who want to have a cheap following, they want to show such jugglery. But a devotee sees... (break) ...is not of that mentality. They will simply, humble servant. They are satisfied by serving the Lord. That is devotee's position. So your statement, that "Why one should bother with these things?" That's a very nice proposal. Why? There is no necessity. Suppose if I can manufacture some rasagullā, what is the worth of this rasagullā? Oh, we can, if we spend ten cents, we can make it. So why shall I waste my energy for manufacturing rasagullā in the yoga system? Actually, therefore, Kṛṣṇa says that the perfection of, real perfection of yoga, the first-class yogi is he who is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. That is first-class. He is recommended.
Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Prabhupāda: We have many books already published. One, first, is Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. This is published by Macmillan and Company. You can have any number of these books from our temple. And the next book is Teachings of Lord Caitanya. That is also available from our temple. And the next book, in three parts, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So if somebody... These are the, I mean to say, covering of the books. So if somebody carefully reads these books, Kṛṣṇa consciousness science will be understood very easily by him. Besides these books, we have got our monthly magazine, Back to Godhead. So if the students... It is not very costly. The monthly magazine is only 35 cents per copy and the subscription four dollars yearly. And this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, it is only $2.95. Of course, this Teachings of Lord Caitanya, it is hardbound, it is $5.95. So they will be greatly profited.

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

Prabhupāda: Dollar sixty?

Janārdana: Yes. We are paying forty-nine cents a foot, and they are asking there a dollar sixty a foot. They are asking three times more rent than we are paying. It's very expensive.

Prabhupāda: How many..., there? 16,000?

Janārdana: 15,000 square feet. It is a fortified place because they keep furs. They keep animal furs there, and animal furs are very expensive, and thieves very often break in. So I think that one of the reasons why it's so expensive is because it's fortified.

Prabhupāda: I do not follow. What is that?

Janārdana: It is a place... (break) ...of animals, and they are very expensive furs.

Prabhupāda: Yes, very expensive.

Janārdana: Very expensive. They want a dollar sixty a square foot per year, which is very expensive. We are paying 49 cents a square foot per year.

Prabhupāda: Oh. I thought that because it is a downstairs floor, the restaurant can be started there.

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- May 10, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then you will feel relieved. So therefore the real thing is that everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. We are artificially enjoying the stolen property. Therefore if you go on enjoying like that, then this frustration will come. But before coming to that frustration, if we return this property to Kṛṣṇa, then we become happy. So best thing is to return everything to Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And you will not be a loser. You will be gainer, just like Bali Mahārāja. Actually, if you think, everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. Nothing belongs to you. This is māyā. Kṛṣṇa's property you are thinking, "mine." Is this land of American belongs to you actually? It is stolen property. You have stolen from the Red Indians or from Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is, not you, everyone. Somebody is claiming, "This much my property," somebody is claiming, "This much my property," but this much or that much, everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. It is stolen property. There is another example in Indian words, that hira cauri kiya abhicaurya, khira caurī kiyā abhicaura. Hira means diamond, and khīra means... What is that called? Cucumber, a small? So if somebody has stolen a cucumber from other's tree, so he is captured. And another man has stolen some diamond. He is also arrested. So from the police, both are thieves. If the man says, "Oh, what I have stolen? I have stolen a little cucumber. It is nothing, worth not even two cent or one cent.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Yamunā: You explain that in Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes. What is the use, wasting time?

Revatīnandana: (indistinct) about when you walk on the water, walking on the water is a bogus thing (indistinct) two cent yogi because for two cents he could have taken (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: That's all. If that is the ultimate end of life, to walk on the water or to fly in the sky, so science has given them all opportunity. And the material science is so advanced, that all this yoga system is now almost accomplished because that is material only, material prosperity. Aiye.

Yamunā: (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes, eating flesh sumptuously and get fat. Flesh-eaters get fatty very quickly, flesh-eaters. Māṁsa. The skin becomes increased for flesh-eating. You see in your country, the Russia? Russian beauty-big belly, fat.

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- July 20, 1971, New York:

Prabhupāda: (aside:) Get that.

Pratyatoṣa: This here. It's my savings account, and there's a deposit slip in there, eleven hundred and thirty-three dollars and thirty-four cents, and I would like to present it as a gift.

Śyāmasundara: Ātreya Ṛṣi can take care of all this.

Prabhupāda: What is this?

Pratyatoṣa: It's a withdrawal slip. That's just... That's Ātreya Ṛṣi..., and Ātreya Ṛṣi can take care of the details of getting the money out of the account to do whatever you want with it.

Prabhupāda: (indistinct) the amount, you can charge my account (indistinct).

Pratyatoṣa: Originally we were planning on...

Prabhupāda: That's all, it is all right.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 1, 1972, Sydney:

Śyāmasundara: Cheaply and at once?

Prabhupāda: At once. Yes. The newspaper said that "Mr. such and such went to moon planet." Oh, immediately believe. See? A newspaper, ten cent worth newspaper. And in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, yānti deva vratā devān: (BG 9.25) "One who can... One can go to the demigods planets by worshiping them. You can go, yānti deva vratā devān, as others. Similarly, one can come to Me by worshiping Me." Mad yājino 'pi yānti mām. So they never worshiped Chandra, and how they can go to the Chandra planet, or moon planet? Then Kṛṣṇa is false. Kṛṣṇa is imperfect. They become perfect. They are defying Kṛṣṇa's instruction. They have gone to moon planet. Then our whole propaganda, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, becomes bogus. Therefore I always protest.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Prabhupāda: Fire, disease and debt. How he instructed us. If you take loan from somewhere, interest compounded, one day it will become so big, unmanageable by you. Similarly fire may be very, a spark, but gradually it will so increase, oh, blazing fire. Disease also. Now there is little pain. Now, if it increases, it becomes tuberculosis. So therefore he has said: Never neglect these things: fire, or smaller or higher." They're always dangerous. (pause) There is a, in India, there is a proverb, hīrā and khīrā. Hīrā means diamond and khīrā means cucumber. It has no value, a few cents. And diamond is very valuable. But if some, somebody steals khīrā, he's also criminal, and one steals hīrā, he's also criminal. The punishment is equal. If he says: "I have stolen one khīrā. What is the value of it?" But by law, he's criminal. Never mind. (pause) (break) ...that he'll be happy in that way.

Morning Walk -- April 30, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Rascals, they are thinking it is advancement. And if he goes to sell the plastic plates, nobody will pay even cent. But one of those metal plate, if he's in difficulty, he can get some money. This is scientific advancement. Instead of gold coins, now there is papers: "I trust in God. We trust in God." Cheating, "We trust in God." Take hundred dollars. And what is this hundred dollars? It is paper. "We trust in God." By the name of God, I give you. And it is scientific. That's all.

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor -- August 13, 1973, Paris:

Professor: Each of them, or...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, each of them. And as soon as they brought books in saṅkīrtana, people take it immediately—"Give me one, give me one, give me one..." That's... These books, we charge fifty cents. They pay easily.

Professor: I saw that in the streets of New York.

Yogeśvara: Oh yes, you've seen the saṅkīrtana party?

Professor: No, I have not seen the temple, but I've seen, last time I was in New York, I saw, just in front of the library on the Fifth Avenue...

Yogeśvara: He has seen our saṅkīrtana.

Haṁsadūta: He saw us on the Forty-second Street.

Professor: Not on Forty-second Street.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 13, 1974, Bombay:

Girirāja: "Actually a saintly person or a brāhmaṇa has no business visiting householders who are busy in the matter of dollars and cents." (break)

Prabhupāda: But that is now neglected.

Dr. Patel: So we have come.

Prabhupāda: Oh, thank you very much.

Dr. Patel: You came very early. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...guru more mūrkha dekhi karilā śāśana (CC Adi 7.71).

Dr. Patel: Now I own it.

Prabhupāda: It is better to remain a fool. That is very progressive.

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

Prabhupāda: Ghost, yes. Ghost, yes. Ghost-like. Hīnāḥ piśāca-sandarśā bhaviṣyanti kalau prajāḥ: "In the Kali-yuga, the prajāḥ, people in general, devoid of residence and proper food, then proper drinking, resting place or sex or bathing and dress, they'll look like ghost." Then?

kalau kākiṇike 'py arthe
vigṛhya ca tyakta-sauhṛdāḥ
tyakṣyanti ca priyān prāṇān
haniṣyanti svakān api

"In the Kali-yuga, for a cent, for the matter of taking a cent only he'll give up his friendship with others. And even his own man, family man, relative, he'll kill him to take that two cent or five cents." Na rakṣiṣyanti manujāḥ sthavirau pitarāv api.

Room Conversation -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Formerly we were paying two rupees. Two rupees, and if it is this name, at most, three rupees. Now the things have increased twice. Forty years ago that black Bhāgavata was bound only for two rupees. This is very nice one. In the U.S.A the binding cost is very, very... Just like Macmillan Company. Bhagavad-gītā, hardbound, they charge ten dollars, ninety-five. And softbound, softbound, they charge four dollars. Six dollar difference on account of binding. So they have charged one dollar, seventy-five cents, and in America they charge six dollars. So all the fathers clapped for long.

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: They appreciated.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: Six feet long.

Prabhupāda: Yes, so big. One cāpāṭi is sufficient for the whole family. They are sold in market, purchased.

Śrutakīrti: Very cheaply.

Paramahaṁsa: Only three or four cents apiece.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Paramahaṁsa: Yeah.

Prabhupāda: They don't make much profit. That is the oriental culture. They make little profit; they are satisfied. Still in India you will find many hotel, very cheap, very cheap. Especially Mohammedan hotels. Still, by paying eight annas, you can get full meal.

Room Conversation with Yogi Bhajan -- June 7, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Amritsar.

Yogi Bhajan: Five years ago we had a one-paper print. We used to give it away for five cents. That developed into a paper. This is how everything develops. And my basic idea is people must share. And why not come there, participate, share, say what you have to say? It is one of the funny coincidence that we both live in Culver City. We live very adjoining to each other. And I go to your temple, see how it is made and how they are doing and what kind of marble they are using. And I have a lot of things to criticize but... You know. They are messing it up, but they are spending a lot of money. (laughter) So I don't mind what they are doing, but it is really a waste, lot of it is waste. I go and watch and it hurts me. But I just go around see, after all. You must have very wise architects.

Prabhupāda: They are very expert in wasting. (laughter)

Morning Walk -- June 10, 1975, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Oh. (break) ...they're kept for sale?

Siddha-svarūpa: Well, no. It's a very strange thing. They just show everybody. They capture them and show everybody what they look like. The public pays 25 cents to go see what it looks like. (break)

Prabhupāda: For aircraft killing?

Siddha-svarūpa: Maybe. I don't think it's that bad in... (break)

Bali-mardana: It's a war memorial.

Prabhupāda: Oh. American or enemy's captured?

Bali-mardana: It looks like American artillery.

Siddha-svarūpa: When I was a young boy, we would play with my friends. We would stand on this and try to knock each other off, push each other off the cannon.

Prabhupāda: It can be... No.

Morning Walk -- June 23, 1975, Los Angeles:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Devotee.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. He was so respectful to the brahminical culture. Many places it is described. Therefore His another name is namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca, jagad-hitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya. In the Kali-yuga the so-called brāhmaṇa means having a two cents thread. Not that brāhmaṇa. Vipratve sūtram eva ca. "To become a brāhmaṇa, just have a thread, sacred thread, and then do all nonsense." That kind of is not required. That is Kali-yuga brāhmaṇa: "I have got the sacred thread. I have become brāhmaṇa. Now I can do all nonsense. Never mind." That will not help. (break) ...giving sacred thread on the Pāñcarātriki-vidhi, the same principle. There is a little spot, fire. Fan it. The process of fanning. But the fanning is stopped; then small spot of fire also extinguished. It will have no effect because the small fire cannot do anything. It must be blazing fire. So our this process... We are accepting from the most fallen condition. Because he has little spark of fire—he wants to get Kṛṣṇa consciousness—so our process is: "Fan it." And then it must be blazing fire.

Morning Walk -- June 29, 1975, Denver:

Prabhupāda: (in car:) Coca-cola is fifty cent?

Brahmānanda: Well, that's a very big glass of Coca-cola.

Prabhupāda: In India also, it is huge consumption. (break) ...devotee here?

Satsvarūpa(?): Yes.

Prabhupāda: Collecting flower?

Satsvarūpa: Yes.

Brahmānanda: There are more.

Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Nobody says anything?

Brahmānanda: No one is up at this time of the day.

Prabhupāda: Sometimes they fire. You know that?

Satsvarūpa: If they see us, they don't like that. That is not such a safe practice, to go in the neighborhood and pick flowers. I don't think they should do it. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...first came to America, Butler, one quarter, is exactly like this. You have been in Butler?

Brahmānanda:. No.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1975, San Francisco:

Paramahaṁsa: Well, it's not a medicine then. You don't...

Prabhupāda: No, they use as medicine, mercury mixed with sulphur.

Brahmānanda: There was an advertisement that a ten cent piece, a dime, that was minted ten years ago it was made with silver. So that ten cent piece today is actually worth twenty-five cents. And the twenty-five cents piece that they make today, because it's made with copper, it's only worth ten cents. So it's better to have a ten cent piece that was made ten years ago than a twenty-five cent piece that was made today.

Paramahaṁsa: In the British historical museum in London, I have seen there's a plate about this large, and half of it is pure gold, and the other half is lead. And they found this. They can't explain. It's just a straight line where they separate, and they can't explain how it was produced. So they're experimenting now to try to change lead because there's only, what is it, one proton or electron in the atom? Different. There's only like one proton difference between lead and gold. (break)

Prabhupāda: ...the sky there are many big, big planets where the millions of miles made of gold. Just like desert, there is gold desert.

Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans:

Brahmānanda: They were selling one gulabjamin for seventy-five cents.

Prabhupāda: Just see. (laughs) It may cost two cent. And you have got your sugar also. In this way organize. Avoid machine. Keep everyone employed as brāhmaṇa, as kṣatriya, as vaiśya. Nobody should sit down. Brāhmaṇas, they are writers, editors, lecturers, instructors, worshiping Deity, ideal character. They have no anxiety for food, for clothing. Others should supply them. They haven't got to work. Sannyāsī is always preaching, going outside. In this way keep everyone fully engaged. Then it will be ideal. Otherwise people will criticize that we are simply eating and sleeping, escaping, so many, so many. And actually that is the position. Unless one is fully engaged, oh, that is not good. That is tamo-guṇa. Tamo-guṇa, and rajo-guṇa very active, and sattva-guṇa, intellectual activity. Both of them, active, only tamo-guṇa, not active. (indistinct) Tamo-guṇa means sleeping and laziness. These are the symptoms of tamo-guṇa. Every saintly man can avoid these two things—laziness and sleeping. Of course, as much you require, sleeping allowed, not more than... And keep everyone active, man or woman-all. Then it will be ideal society.

Room Conversation with Professor Olivier -- October 10, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: No.

Prof. Olivier: I think about...around fifty-six cents or something. Somebody worked it out the other day.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But if one cannot distinguish between the car and the driver of the car, then he remains just like a child. A child may think that the car is running automatically, but that is foolishness. There is a driver. The child may not know, but when the child is grown-up, educated, still he does not know, then what is the meaning of his education?

Prof. Olivier: Now, this is the whole range of education in, well, as far as I am aware, in the whole of the Western world, and it covers primary and secondary and tertiary education. There is no place for an in-depth study of...well, of the soul and of the...

Prabhupāda: I talked with one big professor in Moscow. Perhaps you may know him. His name is Professor Kotovsky. He is the leader of Indology in Moscow. So I had a talk with him for about an hour. That talk was published in some paper. He says, "Swamiji, after this body is annihilated, everything is finished." So I was surprised. And he is holding a very responsible post, Indology, and known to be very good scholar. He was good scholar, but he also does not know.

Morning Walk -- October 16, 1975, Johannesburg:

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Gold coins.

Prabhupāda: Yes, gold, silver, whatever you want. That was the... Now this is stopped. You can not ask now gold coins and silver coins. Whatever government will give you, you have to accept. Where is honesty?

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, in South Africa they have a coin called the Krugerrand. And one rand is worth one hundred cents, one rand of paper money. But one rand gold is worth about seventy-eight rand.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Devotee (1): It's constantly going up and down, the price. Hundred and eight.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Here is the car, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Everything mismanaged, cheating.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 20, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Mimeograph. I was printing. Yes. Then he inquired this Dai Nippon, many place. At last he said that "Unless we print twenty thousand, they will not take up this work." I said, "Immediately take it." From three thousand to twenty thousand immediately. At that time they were giving us ten cent or less than.

Sudāmā: Ten cent. It was around ten cents.

Prabhupāda: So in this way. Then how you'll increase?

Jayapatākā: Now you can sell whole sets.

Hari-śauri: Now more than one million.

Sudāmā: And in the years to come, many millions.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Sudāmā: Many millions in the years to come.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There is good pote...

Jayapatākā: Many people ask for bound volume of the whole year, Back to Godhead.

Prabhupāda: But there is no remnants; we sell everything. Generally when there is some remaining copies, the publisher bound it up for future sale, reference. (break) Vedānta-sūtra, that is the topmost philosophy. So that first verse, athāto brahma jijñāsā. In this human form of life there is no other business—simply to inquire about Brahman. This is the fact. If anyone wants to fulfill the human form of life as distinguished from animal life, this is the only business, brahma-jijñāsā. And the whole civilization is on this basis. Therefore first brahmacārī, how to understand Brahman. So the children of human society is trained up, same principle, how to understand Brahman. So yesterday with that gentleman I told, "Where you got the sand?" Our beginning talk was that.

Morning Walk -- March 8, 1976, Mayapur:

Madhudviṣa: Because I have seen it in New Zealand. I have been there myself.

Prabhupāda: No, no, if he denies that...

Siddha-svarūpa: You know that they distribute Prabhupāda's books, but they can't give them away as cheaply, that's all.

Madhudviṣa: Back to Godhead is very cheap. It is twelve cents a piece.

Siddha-svarūpa: They give those away. They give those away.

Madhudviṣa: It is twelve cents a piece. You cannot say that.

Siddha-svarūpa: But anyway...

Jayatīrtha: One of Siddha-svarūpa's men bought some Bhagavad-gītās from us in Los Angeles, several cases, so they are distributing Prabhupāda's books at least as well along with others.

Prabhupāda: No, I think...

Siddha-svarūpa: I just bought five thousand dollars' worth of Bhagavad-gītās.

Madhudviṣa: That's very good.

Room Conversation with Siddha-svarupa -- May 3, 1976, Honolulu:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They said they would...

Prabhupāda: No, no difficult, but what is rate?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The rate, ah, 11.34 American cents equals one rupee.

Prabhupāda: 11.34.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I haven't converted into how many... I can do that.

Prabhupāda: 11.34, that is good rate. So I wish that... We should combine the work very vigorously when this (indistinct). They are just like women, equal in preaching (indistinct). You keep some women together, and they fight. The children together, they will fight. Dogs together, they will fight. Sane man, why they will fight? Where is the cause of fight? Then you are (indistinct) to become woman. Worse. This material world is such that even you keep some utensil together, when dealing, tung, tung, tung, tung, tung, what to speak of individuals souls. But our cause is the common, how to push on. That soberness must be there. I can give you points, instructions, you will have to put it into shape; otherwise how it will go on?

Morning Walk -- June 15, 1976, Detroit:

Prabhupāda: You make arrangement.

Satsvarūpa: Yes. Very nice clean house, but not much bigger than a house like that. But very nice and clean.

Prabhupāda: Forty-eight cents?

Satsvarūpa: I don't know. Ambarīṣa? How much are cigarettes?

Ambarīṣa: I think they're seventy-five cents. They are very highly taxed.

Prabhupāda: Who cares for it? (laughter) Wine is highly taxed in India. When I was manager in Dr. Bose's laboratory, he was manufacturing alcohol(?) for medicinal purposes. The cost was one rupee eight annas per gallon. The government was levying duty. For medicinal purpose, five rupees per gallon, whereas purchasing liquor, fifty-eight. The government would take profit out of it, fifty-eight rupees.

Room Conversation -- June 17, 1976, Toronto:

Hari-śauri: The police were helping the thieves?

Prabhupāda: Yes. I think the magistrate even was complicated. And when it was complained, the magistrate said, "Better not to take it seriously; it will be your.... I'll give you some guard."

Hari-śauri: They'll do anything for money.

Prabhupāda: Now, in the Kali-yuga, things will degrade so low that if I see I have no money and if you have got some few cents with you, I shall kill you and take it. That day will come. Very dangerous condition is coming forward. Yes, if things go on like this. Just like we saw in Detroit, the whole city is dangerously situated. Therefore nobody purchased that house.

Jagadīśa: Eighty percent of the people in the city are black.

Prabhupāda: And the white men, they are very much afraid of these black men. They have to be afraid.

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

Prabhupāda: Vipratve sūtram eva hi. And there is a brāhmaṇa. What is the proof that he is a brāhmaṇa? He has got a sacred thread, that's all. Or thread. It may not be sacred; purchased on the market. So at least we try to give a sacred thread by ceremony. But anyone can purchase a thread from the market, two-paisa worth or one-cent worth, and become a brāhmaṇa. "You are a brāhmaṇa?" "Yes, you see my sacred thread?" (laughter) Finished. "What you are doing?" "Never mind." Don't be such brāhmaṇas, at least in our camp. You must follow the rules and regulations. Don't show that "I am now doubly initiated, sacred thread." Don't cheat in that way. Vipratve sūtram eva hi. Then?

Pradyumna: Liṅgam evāśrama-khyātāv.

Prabhupāda: Liṅgam evāśrama-khyātāv. There are āśramas, brahmacārī, sannyāsī, gṛhastha. So they have got different dresses. So Kali-yuga, simply by dress, he becomes a brahmacārī, he become a gṛhastha, he becomes a sannyāsī, simply by dress. What he is acting, nobody cares, that's all.

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

Mr. Boyd: ...this is ninety-six cents, so why put it back?

Prabhupāda: That's all right, this is one way of studying, but when you have studied the chemicals, combine them and bring a human life. Science means observation and experiment. Simply observing, analyzing that it is a combination of chemi..., that is not perfect science. When you... This is theory. When you practically bring into action, that is called practical... What is called?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Experimentation?

Prabhupāda: No, no, in science there are two con..., theoretical and practical. So theoretical knowledge is no perfect. When you bring it in practical action, then it is science. In the scientific laboratory, they do not simply theorize; they test it in the laboratory. That is science. If you cannot test it by combination of the chemicals which you have analyzed in your..., then it is failure, is it not?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

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

Prabhupāda: He... Seventy-eighth. The Riverside corner. Yes, I was purchasing my goods from this store.

Devotee (1): Westend Superette.

Prabhupāda: They were charging, a little chili powder, twenty-five cents. In India it may be one anna.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were purchasing here.

Prabhupāda: Yes, because I was going to cook my food there, so whatever I needed, I used to...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How come you didn't cook your food where you were living?

Prabhupāda: Huh? There was no place.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What was it like there?

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

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: Another madman. In Hong Kong I have seen, they are searching some food.

Hari-śauri: You can see in every big city, mainly older people, they go and look in all the rubbish bins.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like they'll find an empty bottle, and if they return the bottle to the shop, they'll get a deposit, ten or fifteen cents for a bottle deposit.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In Māyāpur we've seen the little children coming looking for prasādam left over in the rubbish outside.

Rāmeśvara: This is one of the big problems in the world today. They don't know how to dispose of all the paper and garbage that they go through. They are selling so many goods, and then they have to throw away the packages. They don't know how to get rid of the garbage. They try to throw it in the ocean sometimes.

Prabhupāda: And for manufacturing the paper they are cutting so many trees and committing sinful life.

Rāmeśvara: The scientists report that by throwing all this garbage in the ocean they kill many fish. Here in New York there is one beach called Coney Island, and no fish can live near the shore, they are all dying.

Prabhupāda: Why they are so sympathetic to the fish? Because they will eat it. No? They are thinking that "We shall eat the fish, and they are dying." Is it not?

Room Conversation -- July 18, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) That is good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they were paying. Watermelon, for one slice, half a dollar.

Prabhupāda: Fifty cents. (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty cents. The whole watermelon only cost one dollar. We got about thirty slices out of it. And books...

Prabhupāda: People, they are simple here. They are not, about money matters, so much attracted. They have got enough money. They don't care. They want it is good taste, that's all. And why they did not give prasādam to that boy who was crazy?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He got. I'm sure he must have gotten. Everybody was given free feast. Feast was very good. I tasted it, nicely prepared.

Prabhupāda: How many preparations were there?

Bali-mardana: Very hard to estimate.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many preparations in the feast? There was halavā, sabji, very good sabji by Ṛṣi Kumāra, rice, sweet, lemonade, popper-six preps. And puri, seven preps.

Prabhupāda: Very nice. Very good preps, sumptuous.

Morning Walk -- July 19, 1976, New York:

Hari-śauri: They had big queues for buying watermelon. Bali-mardana had bought lots of watermelon, and they were selling slices for fifty cents each.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Lassi also, and lemonade, very tasty.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They were also selling lassi and lemonade. It was very big.

Bali-mardana: Burfi and lugloos, sweets, everything.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bali-mardana's wife, Taittirīya devī, she was in charge of the sweet table. So she had about four or five sweets, they were all the same, but she made them somehow look different. So everyone was saying, "Oh, which one is which?" And she would say "Each one is different. You have to take one of every one." But they were all the same. So people had to buy two and three kinds. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: She is good saleswoman.

Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Everyone has got deliberating power. If you go to purchase one two-cents'-worth lozenges, still you see three qualities are there. It is worth only two cents, but still he sees which one is better, which one is better. That power is there.

Hari-śauri: You say here in the purport, "Before surrendering one is free to deliberate on this subject as far as the intelligence goes."

Prabhupāda: Yes. You have got your intelligence. God has given you intelligence. Now you deliberate. But if you... A devotee, without using my intelligence, I surrender. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā (BG 7.19). Immediately you become the greatest mahātmā. If you simply believe in Kṛṣṇa, "What my nonsense intelligence...? What Kṛṣṇa says, I shall do. Bas." Your life is perfect. And if you think still that "I am more intelligent (than) Kṛṣṇa, let me deliberate and consider," then you remain rascal. You cannot be more intelligent than Kṛṣṇa. He says sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66), you take it. That is real intelligence. That is real intelligence. Just like obedient son, my father says to do it. "All right, I shall take it, although it does not appeal to me." That is good son.

Press Interview -- October 16, 1976, Chandigarh:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is, in America it's seven dollars, seven dollars ninety-five cents.

Prabhupāda: And what the home member has said?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The home minister recently said that he wants this movement to be spread all over the world. One of the prominent people said he wants this movement to be spread all over the world.

Interviewer: Now, sir, from your lips, how to attain this Kṛṣṇa consciousness and to maintain it?

Prabhupāda: Once you come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you will maintain. You won't have to...

Interviewer: No, from your own, direct from your lips how to...

Prabhupāda: No, this direction is there in the Bhagavad-gītā that... Find out this verse, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). It is very simple thing. Find out this verse. (Indian guest is entering or leaving and Prabhupāda says for him to take prasādam in Hindi)

Room Conversation -- December 28, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Why increase cost?

Rādhā-vallabha: I don't think it would be that much. The first volume has over sixty pictures and the second one only has thirty-two and the third only has twenty-four. Anyway, anything we do will increase the cost but not so significant. Few cents. We were thinking that the Kṛṣṇa Books were originally printed many many years ago and since then we have a lot of nice paintings of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes that we could put in.

Prabhupāda: If you can give without increasing price, there is no harm. Or for this cents. Let us.

Jagadīśa: Prasāda is ready.

Rādhā-vallabha: If it's only an insignificant increase then we'll put some in.

Prabhupāda: But you don't increase price.

Rādhā-vallabha: Oh, to the temples.

Prabhupāda: No, to the customer.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: No no, let him say.

Trivikrama: Well, you know the book we have, six chapters.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Trivikrama: It costs seventy-five cents, U.S...

Prabhupāda: Seventy-five cents. So multiply it by six.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It comes to about six rupees.

Prabhupāda: It's costly. I think here it must be cheaper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: There're very few... How many color illustrations in it?

Prabhupāda: Just take quotation. If you can, you print here.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And if it is for export, it will be even cheaper.

Prabhupāda: We can take quotation.

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Trivikrama: And this was... That was also for the corrections. No, the price is about seventy-five cents.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Only thing I've told Jayatīrtha and Bali-mardana Prabhus to do is to open a letter of credit now because we are going to be exporting these Gītās at export price. And the bank is giving our printer a loan of ten lakhs. So he has to show the bank a letter of credit, so I hope they send it, and then this will start rolling. End of February is our first shipment. We're going to ship ten thousand Gītās.

Prabhupāda: Letter of credit you can get.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I hope they give it.

Prabhupāda: Bank of America will give.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda? (break)

Prabhupāda: (referring to Kumbhamela?) When I was in midst of the crowd, the crowd was so big that I was afraid: "If there is any rush, this child will be finished." Because if there is little rush, you cannot go back; you cannot go forward.

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Bombay:

Girirāja: Of course that is our business to construct temples.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Temple (indistinct). Temple means preaching center. This Gurukula I have made for temple (indistinct) center. Now they have made it but that (indistinct). Purpose is, that whole world in the neophyte stage, they will (indistinct), man-manā bhava mad..., think of Kṛṣṇa, offering obeisances, offer (indistinct) from the persons maintaining the temple (indistinct). Therefore they do not like that a temple should be constructed, it is waste of... (indistinct) ...must be engaged to work hard, produce money and enjoy sense gratification. Hog civilization. We are restricting that "Don't work hard like hog and dog or animals, just satisfy your minimal necessities of life, save time and (indistinct) spiritual understanding. This is our mission. Their mission is, "What is this nonsense, spiritual understanding? Simply some sentiment, waste of time. Produce, enjoy, invent so many things for sense gratification." Western civilization. And this is very attractive to the rākṣasa class. Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy. This is the rākṣasa mentality. As soon as there is television, or similar invention, they become very much enthused. They purchase and sitting down, they waste their time. I have seen in America the old man of family, one dog, one television, simply wasting time. And 50 cents for eat. How they are wasting the valuable human life. How they are kept in the darkness. This is life. I have seen television. All some fictitious stories. Here, trained position. They have manufactured one big hammer and training strongly and these rogues they are sending their hammer to train and as soon as the hammer... smashed. They want to see. One man kept ferocious dogs and one girl (indistinct) the dog is chasing and the girl is screaming (indistinct) so many (indistinct). You know this?

Devotee: There are millions...

Prabhupāda: Shooting, one man. (laughter) At least 50 cents stories (indistinct).

Girirāja: They could see stories of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Mm? Mythology.

Girirāja: That is mythology.

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Bali-mardana writes to me that he even wants to order 7.2 and 7.3 from India. So what I'm saying is the demand is there for our books. Because we are selling the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for one dollar forty-five cents, same quality with plastic cover and two or three ribbon.

Prabhupāda: No, one thing is that if you export, you will come to the light of the government. They want. And then you will get a good supply of paper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We can import paper also.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So that's why I want you to spend a day or two. We have so many things I want to cover with you.

Prabhupāda: Yes. He can send paper?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, what I had earlier written to him was we can import paper and I can give the money into construction. And because I have... I know the Joint Chief Control of Imports and Exports in Delhi, and he told me he would give me a license to import paper duty free. So we can import paper which you can pay for in Singapore, you follow? I'll give you the dealer, everything. And the paper will come. We'll print...

Prabhupāda: You supplied paper to Japan, I think.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Not only that, if he makes bill for the paper, then he has to pay sales tax.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Also the income tax will say, "Your sales were so high," so he doesn't want the paper account to come under that. So what I'm saying, Śrīla Prabhupāda... The demand for our books is there. And like BBT Los Angeles sells a Bhāgavatam to the temples for $3.50, and we are selling it for $1.45. And that includes our profit already. Our real cost is 90 cents, 95 cents. So we can expand our printing capacity here. As I discussed with you last week, there's one machine from England that Usa Printers wants to import. And if we give him a loan... It will be his machine. He'll give us documents, and he'll pay back interest every month. In two years he'll pay back the whole money plus interest, which will be higher than what the bank gives us.

Prabhupāda: Is that all right?

Rāmeśvara: What is the bank rate?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The bank rate's about 12%. We'll do higher than the bank rate.

Prabhupāda: No, no, no.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: Bank rate is not less than 16%.

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

Prabhupāda: Spend it for prasāda distribution. Don't squander it. Every cent should be utilized for Kṛṣṇa, not for sense gratification.

Rāmeśvara: Now, some of the money could be sent to India for ISKCON Food Relief.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Rāmeśvara: That would be very good.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. That will make our movement very popular in India.

Rāmeśvara: They're always complaining that there's not enough money for food distribution in India.

Prabhupāda: So kindly send me as much as possible. Therefore these farming projects will be very nice.

Rāmeśvara: That'll be great, if we can use the money... Do you think I should set up a separate account for the records, so that all the profit is used for food distribution?

Prabhupāda: Why not? Very good idea.

Room Conversation on 1976 Book Scores -- January 16, 1977, Calcutta:

Prabhupāda: Mimeograph. Ha ha ha. So we were selling about five hundred copies, and gradually... But still, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa was selling almost major portion. Then I asked Brahmānanda that "Why not print?" So he took quotation from different printers, and Dai Nippon, we gave them, printing, this Teachings of Lord Caitanya. So he took quotation, ten cents per copy. But they want twenty thousand. So we were selling about one thousand, and it is a question of twenty thousand. So I consulted Tamāla in San Francisco. So he gave me some encourage. I asked Brahmānanda, "Yes, print twenty thousand." So from five hundred to twenty thousand, great jump. Somehow or other, it began like that. Now what we are printing per month?

Rāmeśvara: What? Hardbound books?

Prabhupāda: No, no, this Back to Godhead.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: More than American dollar.

Rāmeśvara: One dollar, forty cents.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: Or one dollar, sixty cents. Now it is almost equal.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So much.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. They had to do that because their economy was ruined. He had taken away... This man was crazy. He had taken away all the tariffs, so that foreign countries were supplying their products in Australia, and the local businessmen..., local manufacturers were going out of business. So many problems. And they're so proud of their modern culture, modern education and advancement, but they're being blackmailed by the Arabs. The Arab countries are considered very undeveloped, and the Western world is so proud how advanced they are, yet they are now being blackmailed by the Arabs for oil. So what is the use of their advancement? And now whatever the Arabs want, they have to do.

Prabhupāda: I think he is not returning. He's gone forever. Gargamuni: Who?

Hari-śauri: Devi-dhāma. Oh, no. He's back. He's back.

Gargamuni: Just now.

Evening Darsana -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Oh. What is this, 3.92?

Bhāgavata: Three dollars, ninety two cents, Australian money, for four pounds of ghee. Seven cans.

Prabhupāda: So Australian dollar, about ten rupees?

Bali-mardana: No, it is less. Now, devalued.

Jayatīrtha: Same as an American dollar now.

Bali-mardana: One dollar, eight. One dollar eight, US. Eight cents.

Prabhupāda: So about ten rupees, Indian ten rupees.

Bali-mardana: Although the rate in India they give less, for some reason, because it was just devalued. So it's about 8.90 for cash, about 9.70 for Australian travelers checks.

Prabhupāda: No, the Amer..., is ten rupees. It is one kilo?

Bhāgavata: This is two kilos. Four pounds, 6.5.

Prabhupāda: So about five rupees per kilo. Very cheap.

Room Conversation With Artists and About BTG -- February 25, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Paśu-ghna. Paśu-ghna, the animal-killer.

Rāmeśvara: If we increase the number of pictures, the cost of the book to us will be an additional, between five cents and ten cents, but in exchange for that cost increase, more paintings.

Prabhupāda: That is your consideration. But if you are going to add nice pictures, these words can be explained.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. Also, because in the Tenth Canto there are so many descriptions of Kṛṣṇa's activities, so Kṛṣṇa has sent more artists.

Prabhupāda: Now, I'll give description of the word, so you can utilize it for...

Rāmeśvara: (aside:) Do you understand?

Rādhā-vallabha: Like there may be description of someone that's fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, has no material desires. You have to figure out a way to illustrate it.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm, that's nice.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "15) Foreign temples will receive records for approximately 75 cents, while North American temples will pay one dollars. All profits made by the BBT for records will go to ISKCON Food Relief. Prices may increase if the costs rise. 16) Harikeśa Mahārāja will take responsibility to prepare the Māyāpur brochure. 17) The BBT Trustees for each division are responsible for setting priorities in each division." That means printing priorities. "18) The US BBT will experiment with importation of books from India as soon as..."

Prabhupāda: What happened to that book, Dialectic Spiritualism?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Spiritual Dialectics?

Prabhupāda: Yes, Dialectic Spiritualism.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dialectical Spiritualism. I think Harikeśa was working on that, wasn't he, when he was here...

Prabhupāda: No, no, it is finished. It was being edited by...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, okay, well, I'll write and ask.

Prabhupāda: ...Hayagrīva. But he is doing nothing and taking money.

Conversations -- May 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So make program indirectly.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We are actually making a brochure, saying that Bhaktivedanta Institute Natural Studies.

Prabhupāda: We have saved some money, Los Angeles. So you can arrange. Always keep busy every cent.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: We titled the series of the talk as "Bhaktivedanta Institute Lecture Series on the Origins of Life and Matter," and we will give a little synopsis of what Bhaktivedanta Institute is, and then we'll give the little biography of the candidate who's going to speak. We'll also announce the topic that we are going to speak.

Prabhupāda: Call Bhakti-prema Swami.

Room Conversation -- October 12, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Oh. What is the price?

Hṛdayānanda: Price? They're charging to the public around eighty cents.

Prabhupāda: So you have got a good collection?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good collection, Hṛdayānanda?

Hṛdayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Print more books.

Hṛdayānanda: Yes. Also in Brazil the Bhāgavatam is very, very popular.

Prabhupāda: This is life. This material world and the bones... The bones are not our... This is life. We are not concerned with bones and stones. Our real concern is the living force. Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakṛtiṁ parām, jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat (BG 7.5). The living force which is sustaining the bones... Bone is not important. It may remain; it may go. It doesn't matter. Real life, what is sustaining the bone, is steady. We have got history that there was a ṛṣi, he had only bones. So there is a science by which you can sustain life—only bones. Hiraṇyakaśipu did it, practically.

Correspondence

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Manager of Trade Bank & Trust Co -- Los Angeles 29 January, 1968:

Please transfer by air mail three hundred and eighty dollars and no cents ($380.00), to the Bank of Baroda LTD., Chandni Chowk, Delhi, India, for credit of my savings account No. 1432 And debit my savings account No. B 19282 with you.

Letter to Manager of Bank of Baroda -- Los Angeles 29 January, 1968:

I beg to inform you that today I have advised the Trade Bank & Trust Co. of New York to transfer by air mail three hundred and eighty dollars and no cents ($380.00) for credit of my S.B. account No. 1432, with you.

The purpose for transferring this amount is to pay press bill in India, for printing cost. The copy of letter from Radha Press, Delhi, is enclosed herewith for your reference.

Letter to Brahmananda -- San Francisco 9 September, 1968:

So you should be serious about taking quotation of the records as soon as possible and immediately we shall print some records. So far I know, that the records, small records, as Gargamuni told me, it does not cost more than 10 cents. But this big record will not cost more than 50 cents, including everything, I am sure. Anyway, you seriously take quotations about the album, about printing, and just see what will be the cost. Then we shall immediately invest some money from the book fund, to print our second and third record.

Letter to Krsna Devi, Dinesh Candra -- Seattle 29 September, 1968:

In continuation of my last letter, I have taken quotation from New York about record manufacturing and Brahmananda has sent me the following quotation as per leaflet enclosed herewith. Brahmananda says it will be still not cheaper so far printing of albums is concerned, so if we get 5000 albums, I have estimated, it will be more or less around 2000 dollars, or about 45 cents per record. So if Dinesh and you think that the record playing has come out very successful, then we must print 5000 copies. If you get $2000. from your father, that will be sufficient for 5000 copies, and if need be, we can arrange to invest one hundred or two hundred more, if so required. So you ask Dinesh to open correspondence immediately with Brahmananda, and it will be nice to print 5000 albums immediately.

Letter to Advaita -- Seattle 6 October, 1968:

Regarding binding: Some of our students also may learn the art, and so far I know, binding cost should not go beyond 40 cents. Please inform Balai dasi with my blessings, that I have received the report of the Istagosthi, and it is very nice. Especially the portion in which Rayarama and Purusottama's presentation to deal with newcomers is very nice. We should not disturb the newcomers immediately with opposite proposals, but tactfully we shall try to teach him in our ways, and gradually he will come to understand this policy is very nice, and approved by me.

Letter to Uddhava -- Seattle 6 October, 1968:

Regarding binding: The cost of binding should not be more than 40 cents. And the best thing will be some of our students learn binding also. The book size of Srimad-Bhagavatam will be exactly as it is, at present, but it may be that the pages may be increased. Because next printing I am thinking three volumes in one. And the papers may be just like Bible paper, thin, and pages will be not less than 1000, and we shall print in one volume; the binding should be very first class, and similarly, part by part, we shall have to print 12 parts, altogether. So if some of our students becomes expert in binding, that will be very nice. I think Devananda, who is in Boston, he has some knowledge in binding. Binding is not very difficult task. Anyone can do it, but I do not know how it will be successfully done. But the cost of binding must not be more than 40 cents.

Letter to Dinesh, Krsna Devi -- Los Angeles 19 November, 1968:

Regarding Kallman: The contract is in New York, there in a file, but this Mr. Kallman has failed to abide by the contract. He printed 10,000 copies of the record, but he did not pay a single cent. Although the contract was that he would pay me 15 cents per record. You can consult your father what is the position. I think Mr. Kallman has broken the terms of the contract, but Brahmananda told me that he has taken a letter from Brahmananda adjusting this account. Of course, Brahmananda had no power to adjust this account without my sanction. So you can inquire from Brahmananda what is the position. Otherwise, the contract is already broken. So by joint consultation with your father and Brahmananda you can do the needful. I understand you are coming here by the 23rd instant, and when we meet we shall discuss on this point broadly. But Mr. Kallman is very intriguing. But when he comes before me, he presents himself as a great devotee. So this is the position. But he has not paid me a single cent, that is a fact.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Los Angeles 31 January, 1969:

Regarding your letter dated January 25, 1969, I have already sent to you tapes #2 and #3. As an experiment, I sent tape #3 by ordinary mail at the concession rate for tapes. Please let me know when this tape #3 has reached you. If it does not arrive too late then we can continue to exchange in the mail at this postage rate of five cents. You do not require to send finished tapes to Dinesh. Please send them directly to me.

I think that work on the pictures shall remain suspended for the time being. Altogether I have received four pictures for the Krishna book, and two pictures for the temple, one of My Guru Maharaja and one of Gaura Kisora das Babaji.

Letter to Brahmananda -- Los Angeles 17 February, 1969:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated February 9, and February 10, 1969, as well as today I have received the article which was written by Howard Smith. Regarding the books, True Conception of Religion and Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu, for True Conception you may send 40 cents per copy to S. Brahmacari, and you may send $2.55 per copy to Swami Bon. As we are printing Nectar of Devotion, this is the summary study of Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu, there is no need of further ordering this book from India.

Regarding Back To Godhead, if Dai Nippon will come down to $1,500 for 20,000 copies, or even if they charge a little more, we should immediately accept, setting the magazine at first at 32 pages, one only color cover picture as in issue number 22, and three black and white pictures within, and no advertisements. It should all be reading matter of Krishna Consciousness articles. I am negotiating with the principle centers for consuming 5,000 copies at least and paying $750 contribution no matter if the copies are sold or not. The price should be 50 cents, and the paper's quality may be as it is now. In that way set up negotiations so that from number 25, we may be able to print from Dai Nippon, and they have to deliver 10,000 copies to Los Angeles or San Francisco, 5,000 to New York and 5,000 to London. These four centers may distribute the issues to the smaller centers as they are able.

Letter to Mukunda -- Los Angeles 17 February, 1969:

My next program is to distribute at least 20,000 copies of Back To Godhead from four centers, namely New York, London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. So each of these centers will contribute $750 and they will get 5,000 copies free delivery to destination. That means they will get the copies at 15 cents each, and the price fixed up will be 50 cents. So even by wholesale distribution the centers will get at least 30 cents per copy, and that means a 15 cents profit. If all the 5,000 copies are not sold, then we shall distribute the remaining copies to schools, colleges, libraries, institutions, etc. free of charges. This propaganda has to begin immediately. Please let me know your opinion. Los Angeles has already agreed, and I am very much encouraged. I hope you will also agree and encourage me. So on receipt of your confirmation, I shall immediately arrange for printing 20,000 copies beginning from the latest April, 1969.

Letter to Mukunda -- Los Angeles 20 February, 1969:

From practical experience I see that in Los Angeles on the average they are selling minimum of 50 copies daily, or in other words sometimes they are selling 100, sometimes 150, sometimes 85, sometimes 40, etc. So in this way, on the average they are selling not less than 1500 copies per month. Now the price is going to be fixed at 50 cents, so I have asked Tamala to contribute to me $750 against delivery of 5000 copies of Back To Godhead. By selling only 1500 copies at 50 cents, they cover the whole $750. The balance 3500 copies left for distribution either may be used for profit or they may be distributed freely. In neither case are we losers. But this program must be executed. I think you have got now license for kirtana on the street so you can now follow the same principle. In other words, I am just claiming this contribution as your pet child.

Letter to Cidananda, Dindayal, Aniruddha, Makhanlal -- Los Angeles 23 February, 1969:

But I am begging from you $750 per month against 5,000 copies of Back To Godhead. Out of this 5,000 copies, if you simply sell 1,500 copies you immediately realize your $750. The balance of 3,500 copies will be in your hands. If you can sell them at any price, not less than 30 cents per copy to stores, then whatever amount you realize will be clear profit for the Temple. If still there is some balance copies, then these copies we can distribute free by post to heads of the society, schools, colleges, libraries, and so many other institutions. So we have to make a list of them, and take concession rates from the post office. In this way we can make vigorous propaganda with Back to Godhead. Besides that, if you can introduce Sankirtana and classes and Back to Godhead in Berkeley, that will be another great advantage.

Letter to Brahmananda -- Los Angeles 27 February, 1969:

I thank you very much for your giving me your pledge that you will give me $750 per month for 5,000 copies of Back To Godhead. Similar assurance I have got from the other centers. So by calculation I shall be able to collect $3,000 per month of which $2,000 or less, as you may arrange, will be paid for the price of printing, and the balance will be spent for free distribution of copies to institutions, schools, colleges, universities, libraries, and respectable individual persons. I understand that for posting magazines in large scale the rate is 3 cents or 4 cents, so I have advised Subala to take definite information in this connection for posting Back To Godhead in large scale. I quite agree with your proposal that for small centers like Montreal, Buffalo, etc. as stated by you the New York center will be the distributer; this is nice.

Letter to Brahmananda -- Los Angeles 29 February, 1969:

Regarding the Back To Godhead scheme, the idea is that you pay $750 and receive 5,000 copies. Now you distribute this as you like. If you sell for 50 cents per copy, then it comes to $2,500, but I do not think it will be possible to sell them all at 50 cents retail price. So you appoint stores to sell copies, and you will get 30 cents per copy for these without fail. You are purchasing for 15 cents so even selling wholesale you make profit of 15 cents. If you sell 3,500 copies at wholesale price, then the intake is $1,050. If you are not able to sell all of the copies, then still you should have an income profit of at least $500, selling at wholesale price. If you make more profit you should do so, and I have no objection. But whatever you sell after the 1,500 copies sold retail is profit for your temple. What ever balance has not been sold will be distributed free, and you should apply for concession rates at the Post Office. In Los Angeles, we have already applied, and the postal charge will be about 3 cents or 4 cents per issue. So as far as I am concerned, I shall collect about $3,000 monthly. Out of this, $2,000 is to be paid to Dai Nippon, and I will keep $1000. Out of this amount, the postal charges will take about $300-400, and the balance $600 I shall spend for developing of the press department. So from Back To Godhead I don't want anything for my book fund. I simply want my books to be nicely distributed.

Letter to Gopala Krsna -- Hawaii 16 March, 1969:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 7, 1969, and thank you very much for it. I am sorry I could not acknowledge receipt of your money, but it was deposited in the bank less $3.00, and some cents—about $4.00. So, next time when you send me your contribution you can send it in American dollars. Otherwise, they deduct some exchange difference. You can send me always your long letters—it is very pleasing to me. And I am so glad that you want to chant 16 rounds of Hare Krishna Mantra every day. And you can chant immediately, but you should also, at the same time, follow strictly the four principles of restraint and avoid the 10 kinds of offenses in the matter of chanting, it will be quickly effective. I'm very glad to learn that you have vowed to follow these four principles, as far as you can in your lifetime. And because you are so sincerely trying to push yourself in the matter of Krishna Consciousness, Krishna is giving you some intelligence also and you are thinking in so many nice ways in the matter of serving the Lord. I am so glad to learn it.

Letter to Gurudasa -- Allston, Mass 27 April, 1969:

I am little disturbed hearing from Yamuna that you are in financial difficulty there. If you can sell our Back To Godheads and our books, how there can be financial difficulty? From the month of June you will have 5,000 BTG's, and you can make 35 cents profit on BTG. So roughly calculated, even if you distribute BTG wholesale, you make minimum profit of 20 cents per copy. Thus, you can easily make $1,000 profit simply by selling BTG, and what to speak of the books? Besides that, if you have got kirtana engagements, why should there be any difficulty of finance. The only problem is you have no place to live together. That you must make immediate solution. If you have no place to live together immediately, ask Mataji to give you a place. If she does not, then secure the mortuary at any cost. If they require a bank guarantee we shall arrange for this.

Letter to Upendra -- Allston, Mass 29 April, 1969:

Regarding Back To Godhead, when we get copies from Japan, I have program to distribute several thousand copies freely. In the meantime, get the concessional rate from the Post Office. They have got such rates in Los Angeles and New York, it is about 2 and a half or 3 cents per copy. So you may select some nice, important names; government men, leading industrialists, businessmen, and when you get the concessional rates you should distribute at least 100 copies from your center freely. The postage and copies will be supplied to you.

Letter to Murari -- Los Angeles 11 July, 1969:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 6, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am so pleased to learn that you have obtained a permit for soliciting on Sankirtana Party, and now you are collecting $60 daily. It is very encouraging news. Regarding BTG, you should purchase at least $350 worth of copies per month. This means you get 2,500 copies, and the price is 15 cents per copy. The price for selling is declared at 50 cents, so there is a 35 cents difference. So even if you make at least 20 cents profit per copy, that is $500 per month for your temple. Now you have got good opportunity for selling, so you help BTG by contributing this amount monthly. I have heard that you have mentioned to Brahmananda that your temple will contribute $3,000 dollars for my book fund. This is very good news for me, and try to send it as soon as possible. I am so pleased that you are arranging for the Rathayatra Festival very nicely, and similarly in London, Buffalo, and what to speak of San Francisco, they are arranging. In San Francisco it is going to be unique thing in this world. Regarding a house, you look for a place. Krishna will provide for the funds. Now, because Los Angeles has got a nice church, the situation has improved very hopefully. They are getting all help. In Sankirtana they are collected sometimes $250 daily, and selling BTG not less than 150 copies daily. Boston is not a small city, and it is better than Los Angeles because you have so many students there. So try to organize very nicely.

Letter to Gaurasundara -- Los Angeles 13 July, 1969:

Regarding BTG, I am so glad to learn that your center will be a good distributing place. Do you think that you shall be able to distribute 3,000 copies? Then I shall ask Japan to deliver the copies directly to you. We are charging from different centers $750 for 5,000 copies of BTG. Similarly, for 3,000 copies you have to pay proportionately, and the marginal profit will be 25 cents to 35 cents per copy. So even if you make 25 cents profit, and you can sell 3,000, that means about $750 to $1,000 profit. If you pay $750 per month, you get 5,000 copies, and by selling only 1,500 copies you realize your investment money, and you have 3,500 more copies to distribute. So we have to calculate business like that. If you think you can sell 3,000 copies, I shall notify Japan to send them directly to you.

Letter to Gajendra -- Los Angeles 20 July, 1969:

Regarding your proposal for distributing BTG through the agency you have contacted, I do not think this is very good idea at this time. Tamala Krishna has arranged so that there will be six devotees there in Seattle very soon, so there will be no need for such distribution arrangement. This agency is offering you only 25 cents per issue sold, and by Kirtana Party you will receive 50 cents per copy. Another thing is that we have found that our sales are much better through our personal endeavors on Kirtana Party, so this agency will simply be holding so many copies for one month, and what they do not sell will again be given back to you to sell on Sankirtana Party. They have asked you to advance $50 for their "Paperwork", but in Los Angeles there was one distributer who was taking 400 copies monthly and he did not request such fee.

Letter to Advaita -- London 15 November, 1969:

I thank you very much for your letter dated November 2, 1969 and the booklet of essays. There are improvements to be made because the essays are not adjusted on the right side. Besides that, it is being printed not on glazed paper. The photograph has not come out very distinctly. Also the cost is not very satisfactory. The Dai Nippon company is printing our BTG at 10 cents, but the size is bigger, the papers are more, there are color pictures and glazed paper. In that comparison, 6 cents cost is not very favorable. You have also printed 20,000. Anyway, it is printed in our press. If the cost is equal or little more, we do not mind. But from business point of view you should note down the points.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Bank Manager - So. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, Cal. 90034 Janury 19, 1970:

But I am surprised to see one item: withdrawal of $10.08 (ten dollars and eight cents) on the 16th December, 1969. I have not withdrawn anything, so how it so happens?

Letter to Manager of Security Pacific Bank -- Los Angeles 28 May, 1970:

Please transfer $2465.72 (Two thousand, four hundred, and sixty-five dollars, and seventy-two cents) to the First National Bank of Boston, Brighton Avenue Branch, in favor of account No. 516-5642, ISKCON Press, and charge the same to my account as above mentioned.

Letter to Manager of Security Pacific Bank -- Los Angeles 30 June, 1970:

Please transfer $2517.00 (Two thousand five hundred and seventeen dollars and no cents) to the First National Bank of Boston, Brighton Avenue Branch, in favor of account No. 516-5642, ISKCON Press, and charge the same to my account as above mentioned.

Letter to Manager of Security Pacific Bank -- Los Angeles 8 July, 1970:

Please transfer $546.00 (Five hundred and forty-six dollars and no cents) to the First National Bank of Boston, Brighton Avenue Branch, in favor of account No. 516-5642, ISKCON Press, and charge the same to my account as above mentioned.

Letter to Manager of Security Pacific Bank -- Los Angeles 8 July, 1970:

Please issue a cashier's check for $1,400.00 (One thousand and four hundred dollars and no cents) in favor of Dai Nippon Printing Company Limited, and charge the same to my account as above mentioned.

Letter to Manager of Security Pacific Bank -- Los Angeles 8 July, 1970:

Please transfer $1,500.00 (One thousand and five hundred dollars and no cents) to the First National Bank of Boston, Brighton Avenue Branch, in favor of account No. 516-5642. ISKCON Press, and charge the same to my account as above mentioned.

Letter to Manager of Security Pacific Bank -- Los Angeles 14 July, 1970:

Please transfer $636.80 (six hundred and thirty-six dollars and eighty cents) to the First National Bank of Boston, Brighton Avenue Branch, in favor of account No. 516-5642, ISKCON Press, and charge the same to my account as above mentioned.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Karandhara -- Bombay 16 March, 1971:

Now to make a solution to the problem the following formula should be followed: Print 200,000 BTGs without fail. The cost of this printing will be $14,000. Each center must collect at least 25 cents for each copy as donation, if not more. Any man will be able to pay 25 cents; it is not difficult. So by collecting 25 cents per copy is $50,000, expenditure is $14,000, and so there is a clear profit of $36,000. Out of that $5,000 per month may be paid towards the old debt. So still there is $31,000, so if this is divided proportionately for each temple, where is the question of poverty? This means that the management has not been done properly. Henceforward this policy should be followed. Collect $50,000, pay $14,000, leaving $36,000 profit. Pay the old debt of $5,000 and divide the remaining $31,000 amongst the temples.

Letter to Advaita -- Bombay 18 March, 1971:

Regarding Bhagavad-gita As It Is, this book is very urgently required. You had previously quoted a price of $17,000. So why print in Dai Nippon for $20,000 and lose $3,000? If it is possible to print on our press, that is better, but if not then Dai Nippon may do the printing. It is understood that BTG department has become debtor to Dai Nippon by $52,000 and they wanted to stop printing on BTG. I have therefore immediately paid them $20,000 out of my book fund so that BTG may not be stopped. I think that there is a lack of management in realizing the return on BTG. The idea is like this: If you print 200,000 BTG and collect at least 25 cents per copy, the collection is $50,000. Out of that, $14,000 is paid to Dai Nippon. So why there should be scarcity of money? It is simply mismanagement.

Letter to Sukadeva -- Bombay 25 March, 1971:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 27th February, 1971 and have noted the contents. It is very encouraging to note that you have been distributing 150 BTGs daily there in our newly established Tucson center. Actually we want that every American have a copy of BTG in his hand.

You should collect at least 25 cents per copy of BTG. We have to do in that way. Otherwise we will become debtor to Dai Nippon. Other instructions in this matter may be gotten from Karandhara, whom I have recently written.

Letter to Bhagavan -- Bombay 21 April, 1971:

For cheap circulation we can print small penguin book size paperbacks of KRSNA which can be sold at 75 cents, each book about 250 pages, so that KRSNA book may come in three books for a combined price of $2.00. What is your opinion about this? Then we can print cheaply KRSNA book for large circulation. I shall be glad to know your opinion in this connection.

Letter to Karandhara -- Calcutta 17 May, 1971:

The local GBC members and myself are considering a penguin size and style for KRSNA book, paper back edition in three parts completing the two whole volumes and selling at a cheap price of 75 cents per one part. Three parts will cost only $2.25. So what is your idea? According to their opinion, this cheap paper bound KRSNA book will have tremendous market in USA and Europe. Do you advise that such book shall be printed? On hearing from you I shall do the needful. But in my heart I want that KRSNA book in small or large form, should be distributed in every home who are English-speaking people.

Letter to Karandhara -- Calcutta 17 May, 1971:

The magazine should be published regularly, but if distribution is less, then the number of printing should decrease. Still if even distribution is smaller, we should follow the policy of 25 cents per copy. Artificially increasing distribution and having a big debt is not a very good policy.

Letter to Karandhara -- London 26 August, 1971:

Out of the nine responses you got from GBC members for your proposal to reduce the price of BTG to the temples to 10 cents, there are seven in favor. Therefore I say yes. By this system of taking a majority vote on any given proposal and then submitting the final decision to me for approval there is no necessity for holding a GBC meeting. So much money will be spent unnecessarily for travel and big big plans will be made only. So what is the use? Simply go on as you have done in this case and that will be best.

Letter to Tamala Krsna -- Nairobi 13 October, 1971:

Regarding record impressions, the price appears to be very much exorbitant. In U.S.A. I think such records are printed at 15 cents per copy. So that comes to Rs. 1.13. Why should we get from Gramaphone Co. at such high cost? What will be the selling price for these records? If the cost is about Rs 5/- per record then would they be sold at Rs. 10/-? I do not know at what price you have sold them in the past. Anyway if you have already placed the order with Gramaphone Co. then what can be done? We will have to take delivery of them. So in your next letter to the Bombay address you can mention the exact amount to be paid to the Gramaphone Co. and a check will be issued directly in their name. I think there is no need of issuing a check in the name of ISKCON and again have to transfer it to the company name. The real method is that the check should be issued directly to the payee's name.

Letter to Advaita -- Calcutta 1 November, 1971:

You will be interested to know that here Giriraja with the help of one Bengali professor and John Greisser the photographer have published a very nice edition of Bengali BTG. The price also is not very high; almost on the level of Dai Nippon. Ordinarily Dai Nippon charges 10 cents, so it is almost on the same level. It will be published regularly henceforward, so if they require any help from you, you should give them all assistance.

Letter to Rupanuga -- Delhi 5 December, 1971:

Karandhara has a copy of this letter from Mr. Ogata so if you need you can get a copy from him. I think some color pages will be nice, as many as possible, under the circumstances. We can get 16 color pages each volume for less than 25 cents each copy. Is that all right?

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Giriraja -- Tokyo 23 April, 1972:

"Read KRSNA, the Supreme Personality of Godhead" Available in all bookstores 3 Volumes - Rs. 15 So far funds from USA, if need be we shall help. The program should be that you take from the USA as much money as you want in the shape of books, and the whole amount can be engaged in building and construction work. For example, Krsna books cost 75 cents for 3 copies, so if USA has sent you the books at cost price, you can make profit by selling at $2. That is $1.25 profit per set, and you haven't got to pay back even the cost. This arrangement will be nice, otherwise in case of emergency, the other arrangement can also be adopted. If we get our plans sanctioned, automatically we will get customers for our flats. But we must get all these occupants as devotees, and you can consult with Indira regarding this matter.

Letter to Yadubara -- London 13 July, 1972:

I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 1, 1972, and I have noted the contents carefully. Dai Nippon has upped their price for Hindi BTG considerably, so it is better to print in Bombay just as you have done with Gujarati BTG. When you return to Bombay, you can try for this. Meanwhile, the manuscript is lying with Dai Nippon for next Hindi BTG, so they have quoted nearly 20 cents per copy or more than 2 rupees, so I think that it will be better to send the manuscript to Bombay. I shall await your advice before deciding the matter.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Jayatirtha -- Vrindaban 15 March, 1974:

There is a great blunder by the Union Bank in the matter of dispatching the monthly interest of $760.27 (Seven hundred and sixty dollars and twenty seven cents).As informed by your telegram they dispatched this amount to my account through the Charter Bank. I do not know when the Charter Bank received the money they advised the Punjab National Bank, however, on the 1st of March with some vouchers to be signed by me. As I was not here the vouchers were kept and yesterday I signed them. These vouchers have again been sent to the New Delhi branch to be again dispatched back to Vrindaban. According to the manager of the Vrindaban Punjab National Bank it will take 15 days. It has taken one month until I can get the money.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Bank of America -- Los Angeles 23 July, 1975:

Enclosed please find a copy of the cable transfer advice No. 177654 from Bank of America Branch No. 553, San Francisco to your bank in favor of INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS A/c. No. 16026 for the amount of Dollars 24,846.39 (twenty four thousand eight hundred forty six and thirty nine cents).

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Vrindaban 9 September, 1975:

Also I want that all centers follow the following procedure for handling the money. Whatever income is there, every cent must be given to the treasurer. Immediately he records it in the book. Then daily he deposits everything in the bank. For the expenditures, he withdraws from the bank the petty cash by check signed by himself and the President. Then the expenditures are checked by the President to see how the money is being spent. The important thing is that all monies must be given to the treasurer and he records it and every day deposits everything in the bank. And whatever is spent that also is withdrawn from the bank. This will stop the embezzling that is going on. Please arrange for this and inform me.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Ramesvara -- Mayapur 18 January, 1976:

ou are charging too much for the "Krishna Conscious Movement is Authorized". It should not cost the Temples more than 10 cents or whatever the cost price is. This is our advertisement and is meant for mass distribution. I have already suggested to you how to do this.

The Nectar of Instruction is also over-priced, in comparison with other books of its size. Print at least 100,000 and charge the appropriate price according to the other books.

Hoping this meets you in good health.

Letter to Manager of Central Bank of India -- Honolulu 5 May, 1976:

Herewith please find enclosed one bank draft for U.S. $2,871.45 (U.S. dollars two thousand eight hundred and seventy one and forty five cents). The check is a Bank of Hawaii check (Honolulu Main Office), draft number FH 099223 dated May 5, 1976. Please credit this amount to the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust savings fund account number 16066 with your branch. This is meant for printing books. Kindly inform me of this transaction upon completion.

Letter to Giriraja -- Honolulu 5 May, 1976:

Now, I originally owed Rs. 59,000/-, and I sent 2 telegraphic transfers totalling Rs. 23,654/32 from Melbourne, Australia (see my letter dated 27th April, 1976 to you). So this left the balance at Rs. 35,345/68. However, I gave you Rs. 5,000/- when I (by transfer also) was in Bombay, so the remainder is Rs. 30,345/68. Now, this check for U.S. $2,871.45 is approximately Rs. 25,411/06 at the rate given here of U.S. 11.3 cents equals one rupee. So this leaves the balance at Rs. 4,934/62. This amount will be paid by Yasodanandana Swami. He will give Rs. 5,000/- towards the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust account 16066, and the remainder of the loan, Rs. 10,000/- will be paid into my personal account at the Punjab National Bank, Krishna Balarama Mandir branch, savings fund account number 1. In this way he can repay the loan of Rs. 15,000/- and my debt to the BBT will thus be cleared.

Letter to Ramesvara -- New York 17 July, 1976:

Please deposit the sum of $4,138.50 (Four thousand one hundred and thirty eight dollars and fifty cents) in the above mentioned account and send the deposit slip to me by post.

Letter to Ramesvara -- France 5 August, 1976:

Please find enclosed one bank draft #672 from Provident National Bank on account 588 587 6 for the amount of #382.43 (US$ three hundred eighty-two and forty-three cents). This is for deposit in the Bank of America, Los Angeles, in favor of ISKCON Mayapur-Vrindaban Fund a/c no. 6004-07143. Kindly send me the deposit slip when the transaction is completed.

1977 Correspondence

Letter to Bank of America -- India 7 May, 1977:

Kindly transfer the amount of $40,000.00 (Forty Thousand Dollars and no cents) from our account number 6004-07143, "International Society for Krishna Consciousness Mayapur-Vrndavana Fund" held with your bank to the favor of "Bhaktivedanta Book Trust" account at the Union Bank, Los Angeles. Please advise me when the transaction has been completed at my above Bombay address.

Page Title:Cents (Lec, Conv, & Letters)
Compiler:SunitaS, Mayapur
Created:07 of Aug, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=35, Con=49, Let=49
No. of Quotes:133