Chanting gayatri (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"chant" |"chanted" |"chanting" |"chants" |"gayatri" |"say" |"saying"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: "gayatri chant*"@25

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

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

Professor: How many levels of initiation do you have?

Prabhupāda: Two.

Professor: Two. The first...

Prabhupāda: First initiation, experimental...

Professor: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Then, as he practices, becomes more purified, then second initiation. Gāyatrī. Gāyatrī-mantra. But the first initiation, according to Jīva Gosvāmī, that is sufficient. Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, that is sufficient. But still, to purify them more, the second initiation, Gāyatrī, is given. So we are creating brāhmaṇas in the western countries. Yes.

Professor: Yes. I know. Don't you think it's against the dharma-śāstra?

Prabhupāda: No.

Professor: No. Tell me why?

Prabhupāda: Because in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). There is nothing, such thing as janma.

Room Conversation with Dr. Christian Hauser, Psychiatrist -- September 10, 1973, Stockholm:

Paramahaṁsa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this gentleman is Dr. Christian...

Devotee: Hauser?

Paramahaṁsa: Oh, I see. And he's a very good friend of Gauracandra. He's a devotee from Amsterdam. And he's a professional psychiatrist.

Haṁsadūta: Prabhupāda's just saying his mantra, Gāyatrī.

Paramahaṁsa: Jaya.

Prabhupāda: So very glad to see you. (break)

Morning Walk -- December 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: This idea also. Now there should be examination whether so-called brāhmaṇas, they are actually following the brāhmaṇa regulative principle and chanting the mantra regularly. Otherwise they should be converted again śūdra. If we become safe simply by having a thread and do not do properly, then what is this? This should be examined. Every individual should be asked, "Now chant this Gāyatrī-mantra." He must. Are they doing properly?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- October 12, 1975, Durban:

Prabhupāda: We chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That includes everything. It is called mahā-mantra. It includes all mantras. Gāyatrī mantra is not to be chanted in the public loudly. That is not the system.

Morning Walk -- November 2, 1975, Nairobi:

Indian man (4): Prabhupāda, sometimes you have said that this Gāyatrī was first spoken by the Lord, and this is a sound vibration of the Kṛṣṇa's flute, and it was heard by Brahma. Right? And these brāhmaṇas, so-called brāhmaṇas...

Prabhupāda: There is no question of "so-called." We want real brāhmaṇa. That's all. It was heard by the real brāhmaṇa, Brahma. Brahma, Brahma.

Indian man (4): So they worship Gāyatrī. They say it like as a...

Prabhupāda: They... Whatever they say, you forget that. You do your own duty. You follow the rules and regulation and do the needful. Why you...?

Indian man (4): But we have to make them understand very clearly.

Prabhupāda: But they will never understand. You don't waste your time. Go on with your duty. When they will see that you are actually acting as brāhmaṇa, they will appreciate.

Indian woman: Time will come. They will notice.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they will appreciate. But if you don't follow strictly, then it is useless to criticize them also. You are also victim; they are also victim.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1976, Mayapur:

Madhudviṣa: ...Bhāgavatam you say that we should greet the sun with the verse from Gāyatrī mantra. Does that means we should wait for sunrise to say our Gāyatrī? Just as the sun is rising, we should say the Gāyatrī.

Prabhupāda: No. Early in the morning. (Gurukula boys in background)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes we take bath before sunrise and put on tilaka. Should the mantra be said at that time, after putting on tilaka? Or should we wait and then say it...

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...when the sun rises? After tilaka?

Prabhupāda: No, no, tilaka should be done after bathing.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And then when should the Gāyatrī be said? Right after...

Prabhupāda: After tilaka. Gāyatrī mantra is description of the sun. (break)

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

Prabhupāda: So Bali-mardana is doing all right?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he and I stay together. We get up at two-thirty in the morning, chant sixteen rounds before ārati, saying Gāyatrī strictly on time, eating very little, and he reads a great deal of the day, two or three hours he reads, and he's also preaching, giving classes.

Prabhupāda: His wife?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She's engaged in taking care of the life members, Indian life members who come, and the guest rooms.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. She is expert. She's very expert. She can do nicely. During winter here it will be so cold you cannot stand even.

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

Prabhupāda: So Bali-mardana is doing all right?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, he and I stay together. We get up at two-thirty in the morning, chant sixteen rounds before ārati, saying Gāyatrī strictly on time, eating very little, and he reads a great deal of the day, two or three hours he reads, and he's also preaching, giving classes.

Prabhupāda: His wife?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She's engaged in taking care of the life members, Indian life members who come, and the guest rooms.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that's nice. She is expert. She's very expert. She can do nicely. During winter here it will be so cold you cannot stand even.

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

Prabhupāda: This is their position, and they are proud of their knowledge.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not at all scientific.

Bali-mardana: But they make up many very big words.

Prabhupāda: That any rascal will do. Bambharambhe laghu kriya. Aparkulasvenavargolajagundakuligondoliojalīlāvale... (gibberish) (laughter) You can talk like that—what is the meaning? That intelligence they have got, to manufacture... I know, I was in the medical business. So any petty medicine, and you inquire medical man, and he'll present it in such a scientific way that people will think that it is very important thing. I know it well. In Bose's laboratory we used to do that. Aparkulavenavargolajdgunda... This is... (gibberish) Simply soda bicarb and little this and that. So the modern world means how to befool persons, that's all. Not to enlighten, but to keep them in ignorance and befool them more and more, and they like it. Under the influence of māyā they like to be cheated. (sounds of fire engines) Now just see the whole night there is blazing fire, and they are thinking they are happy. And if we sing saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka **, "the material world is blazing fire," that is sentiment. And this is not practical. Whole day and night, simply fire, disturbing. Such a big important city, and they are disturbing always twenty four hours, gongongongongongongon. They are so expert that this ordinary fire they can control. Another side is that nobody wants this fire, and why it is coming? Yathā duḥkha... Prahlāda Mahārāja, long, long years ago: yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ. As this fire business is coming without my endeavor, similarly, the other part, distress, this is distress, other part, happiness, also will come. Why shall I endeavor for it? So my energies should be utilized only for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is civilization. And whole life, day and night, they are trying for material happiness, and that is not happening. The problems are increasing. No intelligence, mūḍha. Mūḍho nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. They admit, the scientists, they admit that they are in ignorance. Simply bluff. Again one bluff, that Mars-going expedition. The business is going on in the Arizona, that's all. And after few years they will present some stone, "Now we went to Mars. There is no possibility of living there. Take this stone and sand and be satisfied for your millions of dollars that you have spent..." And they will say "Oh, we have made scientific progress. I have got this stone." Yo ko thako bhayargolihiya us ka tek lilaya(?). There is a song in Bengal that formerly anything European, sāheb, that is good. So one person is selling meat, flesh of dog. Flesh of dog nobody takes, at least in India. So he said that "This is not ordinary dog. This is the dog which was killed by Viceroy, that dog. And because Viceroy killed it, therefore it has become nice dog. You can eat it." So, anything these so-called scientists said, that is to be accepted. Without any common sense. This is your intelligence. But I am fool Indian, I don't believe it. (laughter) I immediately capture the point, why this rascal is talking of Arizona? That means the whole business is going on in Arizona.

Rāmeśvara: Deliberately cheating. You said that in Los Angeles.

Hari-śauri: Prabhupāda's saying gāyatrī.

Prabhupāda: Brought newspaper, and as soon as they say... Who said?

Hari-śauri: That was in Washington. They showed a picture of Mars...

Prabhupāda: Stop, don't read, it is now understood what is.... Mars, it is all in Arizona.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You were very perceptive to find it.

Rāmeśvara: No one is thinking like that. You are the only one who caught that, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Because I am the only one at the present moment intelligent.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are still as dull (Prabhupāda laughs) as the karmīs. We would never have thought like that, Prabhupāda, about Arizona.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: They mentioned that the pictures of Mars appear just like some of the picture of national parks in Arizona.

Prabhupāda: In other places they could not find, throughout the whole world, Arizona. That means the whole business is going on in Arizona.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 26, 1976, London:

Prabhupāda: Next.

Pradyumna:

sāyaṁ prātar upāsīta

gurv-agny-arka-surottamān

sandhye ubhe ca yata-vāg

japan brahma samāhitaḥ

"At both junctions of day, namely, in the early morning and in the evening, he should be fully absorbed in thoughts of the spiritual master, fire, the sun-god and Lord Viṣṇu, and by chanting the Gāyatrī mantra he should worship them."

Prabhupāda: Go on reading.

Room Conversation -- August 24, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Why?

Gurukṛpā: I don't know. I'm not in a management position. Mahāṁsa Mahārāja is ordering.

Prabhupāda: Get this cheap edition. You can order cheap edition. (break. Paṇḍita chants Śrī Īśopaniṣad and Gāyatrī. Prabhupāda speaks in Hindi, quoting Sanskrit ślokas.) (break)

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview with Mr. Koshi (Asst. Editor of The Current Weekly) -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: That is good. Unless you become brāhmaṇa, real brāhmaṇa, śama, dama, titikṣā, how you will understand? We are not for the hogs, dogs, cats. Therefore it is sometimes said that without becoming brāhmaṇa, nobody should try to understand Vedas. What he will understand? Paraṁ satyaṁ dhīmahi. Dhīmahi. This word is used because it is meant for the brāhmaṇas. Oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ... dhīmahi. Dhīmahi. Dhīmahi is gāyatrī-mantra. It is chanted by the brāhmaṇas. That word is used in Bhāgavatam also.