Prabhupāda: 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. Why you are arresting me? He is thief. He has stolen a big diamond," no, in the eyes of law, he is also thief; he is also thief. Everyone is thief. Anyone who is not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is thief. He'll not be happy. The best thing is to return whatever he has possessed: "Kṛṣṇa, it is Yours. Take." Finish business. Mānasa deha geha, yo kichu mora. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's song... Now, everything we possess in mind. Actually we don't possess. Suppose I am possessing all this. As soon as I go from this body, all possession will remain here. I'll not take anything. So I don't possess. But in mind I am thinking, "Oh, this is mine. This is mine. Where is another box? Why it is not coming?" And possessing in mind. If I leave this body, either the box here or in the Chicago or anywhere else, what is the difference? There is no difference. But because I am possessing in the mind, "Oh, that box is mine," so I am asking, "Whether it is Chicago or it is here, it is there? Why it is not coming?" So possession in the mind. Actually you don't possess. Mānasa deha geha. So by that supposingly possessing, we have got our mind, we have got our body, then expansion of body, wife, children, family, society, country. In this way we possess so many things.
Chicago (Conversations)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee (2): The place where mahā-rāsa took place?
Prabhupāda: (indistinct)
Devotee (2): So it is of no significance to us then?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Śyāmasundara: This... Words and films.
Indian man: (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi) New York, San Francisco, Los Angles, Chicago, Boston, Buffalo, Montreal. Sixty-six all over the world.
Indian man: (Hindi with Prabhupāda)
Prabhupāda: Oh. Give immediately, on the (indistinct).
Devotee: (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Give immediately. And you come to the Imlitala.
Devotee: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Anyway, it is better late than never. After my retirement, I was living in the Keśī-ghāṭa, Nāthagrāma(?) Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Temple. But this Gosāijī, Gauracanda Gosāijī, he asked me, "Why don't you come here?" So I left that place. I came here. And with some arrangement, I took this room. But I was always thinking that "Guru Mahārāja asked me, and he asked also some of my other God-brothers, but up till now, nothing has been done. So let me try, at least, at the fag end of my life." So I left Vṛndāvana in 1970 and went to New York. Uh, not. 1965. At the age of 70 years. But for one year I had no place to live. I took some of my books, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, printed here, up to three parts, First Canto. And I was personally selling these books to the book sellers and to the persons any way. With great difficulty I was pulling on. And New York is a very expensive city, a great city, a great forest. (laughs) And I am poor man. So then it is a long history. Then I began chanting in the Tompkinson Square, and I think, in the first day this boy, Acyutānanda Mahārāja now, he and another boy, Brahmānanda Mahārāja, he is also preaching in Africa, these two boys danced, and this photograph was published in the New York Times with great details. That was the first encouragement. And after chanting in the park, many young men and girls used to come to my apartment and my meeting place. In this way I started, first in New York, then in San Francisco, then Montreal, then Boston. In this way, now we have got about one hundred branches all over the world, forty branches in America. Big, big cities, Australia, I mean to say, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Boston. What is that? Other cities? San Francisco.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest: Swami Vivekananda, at that time...
Prabhupāda: No, who was not liberated?
Guest: This country of India. India was not liberated. So...
Prabhupāda: So what was the connection with liberation?
Guest: Ne. Because at that time there's some proud of nation and some proud of culture. He wanted to...
Prabhupāda: No, I don't think in America there was such conception. America had nothing to do with the British ruling. Rather, they declared independence from British rule.
Guest: I don't know what was the main idea of Swami Vivekananda at that time, when he preached that, this Vedānta.
Prabhupāda: No, I have read his Chicago speech. In that speech, he openly says, "Why do you care for God? You work hard, and why do you give credit to God?" Like that. Rather, one Christian priest protested...
Guest: But many times Swami Vivekananda himself went to temples and bowed down before Kālī, before Śrī Kṛṣṇa, before Śrī Bhavānī, and many other temples. He went to Kanyā-kumārī and prayed before Mother.
Prabhupāda: Hm. Distribute the prasāda. Bhagavān ka prasāda. Hm. That's all. So it is a great pleasure for us. Your Holiness visits us voluntarily. Although I could not invite you, but still, you are so kind, you came. So I am doing my bit, following in the footsteps of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That's all.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That is the test. The test is that he has got something. Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ. If he actually achieves Kṛṣṇa, then he does not think that anything better than this. That I see amongst these Europeans and American boys and girls. They have seen it, that "It is better than our so-called material life." Therefore they have been able to give up. Just like this boy Girirāja, he is very rich man's son. His father gave him a special car. His father is a big lawyer in Chicago. So he gave up everything. Now he is begging daily, although he is earning at least fifty-thousand rupees per month. But he has no... He is just like beggar. He doesn't care for his father. There are many like this. Bhaktiḥ pareṣānubhavo viraktir anyatra syāt (SB 11.2.42). These are the test. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (Hindi) (break) ...devotee. Then all the good qualities will be manifested in his person. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ mano-rathena asato dhavato bahiḥ. And if one is not a perfect devotee of Kṛṣṇa, of Hari, then he cannot possess any mahad-guṇa. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ. Why? Mano-rathena: "He is simply hovering in the mental plane." He is not fixed up. Therefore asato dhavato bahiḥ. Then he will have to do something which is asat. Asato maṁ sad gama. That is the Vedic... "Don't remain in the asat; just make progress to the sat." That is wanted. That cannot be done unless one is fully situated in unalloyed devotional service of the Lord. That is not possible. One must go to the asat, because he is hovering on the mental plane. Mental plane is not secure. Anyone who is in mental plane, he may fall down at any moment. So we have to transcend the mental plane.
M. Roche-dieu: Are you in touch with Professor M. Eliade who is in Chicago, department, religious department?
Yogeśvara: What is his name?
M. Roche-dieu: Mssr. Eliade, Eliade.
Yogeśvara: Professor Eliage?
M. Roche-dieu: E-l-i-a-d-e. He's a woman.
Yogeśvara: Eliage, Professor Eliage...
M. Roche-dieu: Eliade. Eliade.
Yogeśvara: Eliade. Chicago University?
Prabhupāda: No, I have never gone to Chicago.
Yogeśvara: Is not Professor Dimmock from Chicago?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Yogeśvara: Professor Dimmock, perhaps you are familiar with Professor Dimmock. He's head of which department?
Satsvarūpa: East Asian.
Yogeśvara: The East Asian Studies Department of Chicago University has written the preface to this Bhagavad-gītā.
M. Roche-dieu: I have seen it, yes. Chicago University Department
Bhagavān: We have a Ratha-yātrā Festival. You have heard of this festival, from Jagannātha Purī.
Professor La Combe: Yes, of course. I have been there.
Bhagavān: We have this festival in very big, in the same scale, in Australia, London, San Francisco, Chicago.
Prabhupāda: Where is that poster? Australia? Yes.
Bhagavān: And in all these cities we are joined... In San Francisco there are ten thousand people who come at least every year to help pull the carts and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: In Chicago also. Philadelphia. There will be Ratha-yātrā. this is the...
Satsvarūpa: This is for Melbourne, Australia, Ratha-yātrā parade, (shows a poster), picture of the parade last year.
Prabhupāda: It is actually rational discrimination. The Christians, they thought, "Now these Englishmen, they'll make Hindu religion very prominent." Because it is a fact. If we introduce such three-four celebrations, then Christianity will be finished. But what is there? Christianity, there is nothing. Simply some dry words. And actually, they're seeing, nobody's coming to the church. So in this way, if they some, relish something better, then whatever is there, that will be finished, also. Therefore in London we wanted to purchase a church.
Bali Mardana: A big cathedral.
Prabhupāda: Ah. And they said, "We shall burn it down; still, we shall not give to Bhaktivedanta Swami." They said like that.
Bahulāśva: Rascals.
Prabhupāda: "We shall burn it down." They are seeing practically. After all, they are businessmen. "Shopkeeper's nation." They see practically that if such kind of movements go on... People are already, have no interest in the church. In Chicago, they wrote "American Hindus." They wrote in the paper. Then Hindu, Hindu religion will be prominent.
Bahulāśva: The Catholic Church is a very wealthy institution, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Bahulāśva: The Catholic Church is very wealthy. They don't want to lose their...
Prabhupāda: So what will wealth do? If it does not appeal to the people, what wealth will do? In Chicago also, the Christians came with some wooden signboard. You have seen?
Bali Mardana: No, I didn't see.
Prabhupāda: "It is through Christ. It is through..." They were showing me. So that has been criticized by the newspapermen, that "Nobody cares for you." (laughter) Yes.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's all a concoction. Certain devotees have concocted. They have taken advice from other masters, food masters, what to eat, what not to eat, all concoction. It's clearly written in Bhagavad-gītā, those foods which are sattvic-juicy, fatty. Everything is mentioned there.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Guide them. (break) ...here the main business is slaughterhouse.
Brahmānanda: In this state.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cow country, it's called. They call it that. On the highway you see that, "Cow country."
Prabhupāda: Chicago is also this...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, very bad. That is very bad.
Brahmānanda: There's one area of the town that there's a bad odor.
Prabhupāda: Here also they say. Just like in Bombay, the Bandra(?).
Harikeśa: Ah, terrible.
Prabhupāda: So if we get a good place with the cooperation of the authorities, then our simple program is that, as Professor Judah has remarked, drug-addicted hippies, they have been turned into devotees. We shall invite anyone to come and chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and take prasādam and we are... I began this movement in New York alone, and these boys gradually came to me, but my process was this: chanting and giving them prasādam. He is one of the original student. He was. So this process, very simple process, everyone will be able to accept it. Chant, dance, and take prasādam. Within that process, everything is there. Then he will understand. They will read these books... They are practical examples. I am poor Indian, I did not bribe them neither I have money. (laughter) So now they have dedicated their life for this purpose. So I want to do it in a large scale.
Mayor: Yes.
Prabhupāda: But I have no money. So if the authorities give me a place, and for feeding them necessary foodstuff, then I am sure it will be successful. These two things I want. I don't want any charges for my mantra, no. My mantra is open, Hare Kṛṣṇa, and there is no charge for it. And I have no necessity. I require a little clothing and two capatis. That's all. Anyone can bring. I thought Chicago is one of the important cities of your country. And when I first came, I saw this is vacant. So I thought if this house can be utilized in the beginning and we invite anyone, especially young men, come here, live with us at least for one week and associate with this chanting, dancing, and we give nice prasādam. There is no difficulty. We can attempt. And if the authorities give us this facility at least for one year then we shall talk of permanent. They can see the result.
Prabhupāda: ...Kṛṣṇa, his all sinful reactions stopped. Kṛṣṇeti varṇa-dvayam. Rūpa Gosvāmī says, "What nectar is there in these two alphabets, kṛṣ-ṇa!" Kṛṣṇeti varṇa-dvayam. (break) ...greater enthusiasm you go on with book distribution. They will be benefited, and distributors also will be benefited. Kṛṣṇa says, ya idaṁ paramaṁ guhyaṁ mad-bhakteṣv abhidhāsyati (Bg 18.68). Na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priya-kṛttamaḥ (BG 18.69). If you want to become quickly recognized by Kṛṣṇa, then make propaganda, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And once recognized by Kṛṣṇa, then your going back to home, back to Godhead, guaranteed. (break) ...took from London to here come?
Ghanaśyāma: How many hours?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Ghanaśyāma: One the plane it took about ten hours.
Prabhupāda: Ten hours. From London to Chicago. Not much, ten hours. (break) ...staying at Bhaktivedanta Manor? No.
Ghanaśyāma: We stayed there most of the time. And the first two weeks we stayed at Bury Place because there are about six schools that are in walking distance from the Bury Place temple.
Prabhupāda: So everything is going right?
Ghanaśyāma: Oh, yes, cultivating very nice. The president there, he is taking out the saṅkīrtana party himself, and the whole temple has become very enthused by this. Bury Place.
Brahmānanda: Because Prabhupāda will be preaching, and he doesn't like photos taken while he is preaching. Also it may be possible to record the...
Prabhupāda: No, you can take. What is there? You can take photograph. You? Or you?
Brahmānanda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: So these two persons will be...
Jayapatāka: Bhārgava is also there if they allow him after it's over to come...
Prabhupāda: After that, yes.
Brahmānanda: What about tape record? We could tape record the session also.
Lalitā: They don't want that.
Prabhupāda: No, that's all right.
Lalitā: They say no.
Prabhupāda: No, she has got political situation, so that's all right. We should not record. We shall talk and photo can be taken. That's all. (Bengali) Where is my, that letter? I wrote one.
Brahmānanda: To Indira Gandhi?
Prabhupāda: Yes. I wrote one letter. When this trouble was there, so it came to my mind that, "Why there is trouble? All the leaders can follow Bhagavad-gītā and then things will be all right." So I sent that letter. Indira Gandhi letter. Here. What did I write?
Brahmānanda: "Your Excellency Śrīmatī Indira Gandhi." This is dated July 1st, 1975, from Evanston, Illinois.
Prabhupāda: Wherefrom I wrote it?
Brahmānanda: From Chicago.
Prabhupāda: Chicago.
Brahmānanda: "May it please Your Excellency, enclosed please find one copy of my letter addressed to Śrī Jaya Prakash Narayanji. I wish that both of you may sit together and agree to join together to work on the basis of the instructions given in the Bhagavad-gītā. It is practical and good for India as well as for the whole world situation. The whole world is expecting to receive something from Indian culture. Why not push this movement and solve the complete problems of India? I hope you will take this suggestion seriously and do the needful without delay. Thanking you in anticipation. I beg to remain..."
Prabhupāda: So letter is already there. (Bengali)
Brahmānanda: The Christians, they have a concept of sin. So when Vivekānanda went to America he was telling them, "No, you forget this concept. Whatever you do, it's all right because you are God." They were surprised.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That's why they liked him.
Prabhupāda: No, no. They did not like. The Christian priests did not like him. They condemned him, "Oh, you are come from India, and you are speaking nonsense, this?" In those hundred years the Christian priests were conscious: "But how is this? From India he has come and he's talking like nonsense?" They questioned in Chicago speech.
Faill: I was thinking we might try and get a photographer out and get the group leaving, if that would be all right.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. That can be done.
Faill: Have they modernized this at all, in that they've explained some of the...
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. There it is very lucidly explained.
Faill: May I have another one of them?
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, yes. You just read one big professor's remark here. You see?
Faill: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Professor Dimmock of Chicago University.
Faill: "A new and living interpretation." This is you, is it?
Prabhupāda: This is...? Yes.
Faill: That's you.
Prabhupāda: Yes. If you read these books and write regular articles on the basis of my talk with you, it will be actually great benefit to the public.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That new Gurukula picture that they had sent you in Illinois near Chicago? They have taken that.
Brahmānanda: It's a military school.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: A military school.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Military school or military barracks?
Brahmānanda: No, a military school.
Prabhupāda: What is the price?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: 420,000...?
Brahmānanda: Four fifty.
Prabhupāda: So they have paid?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They are going to pay 150,000 in January. It looks perfect for Gurukula.
Prabhupāda: How far? It is in Chicago?
Brahmānanda: It's about, I think, an hour and a half from Chicago by car.
Prabhupāda: Oh. It is a village.
Brahmānanda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: It may require... No, I said that "If you are equal rights, then make some arrangement: sometimes you become pregnant; sometimes he becomes pregnant. Why there is not right, equal right?"
Indian man: She was telling me when... She... I said that "Prabhupāda sometimes says these things that we feel all ashamed, you know, because..."
Devotee (2): The medicine is not always palatable for these people.
Prabhupāda: But in speaking spiritual understanding we cannot make any compromise. What to speak of in Mauritius, in Chicago I told. There was great agitation in papers.
Harikeśa: In the TV, on television.
Indian man: Same thing?
Devotee (2): In France also.
Prabhupāda: They were very upset. And when I was coming, I think, in Chicago, in the airplane, one of the host girl, she was seeing... (laughter) I asked her to supply one 7-up. And, "I have no key." She was so angry. But all the captains and others, they gathered around me. (laughter)
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Practically now it is commonplace that every day when our men go out, supposing each man meets in a day a thousand people or five hundred people, always, without a doubt, at least one or two of the people he's met, they already have another book, and they are taking a second or third book.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many of them have two or three volumes of Caitanya-caritāmṛta or Bhāgavatam. And although they may not read it, their children are reading it.
Prabhupāda: Somebody is reading.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. I made a study. I asked the men in our party, when they were all gathered, to raise their hand if they had received a book before joining our party, and every single one of them had gotten a book before joining the movement—without exception. They were attracted through reading a book or a magazine.
Prabhupāda: I talked with that police officer. He has published. In Chicago.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Crime: What to do?"
Harikeśa: "Why and what to do?"
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Why and what to do?"
Prabhupāda: Every paper, there are so many papers. Education so much advanced, and everyone is a criminal. Hmm. Have saṅkīrtana, then lecture.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You chant?
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa only. (break) That is foolishness. Why our men does not become ready before four o'clock and have maṅgala ārati and kīrtana? If our habits are not changed, then what is the use of spending so much money?
Prabhupāda: Who is this gentleman? Police?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This man? He's a military man. This is one of our airport distributors, distributing books. Here is the bus construction. You can see how they're building the buses. That's our head office in-charge, Keśava-bhāratī.
Prabhupāda: Where the head of office? It should...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now it's in Phoenix, but it may be shifted soon to New York. Airport distribution. This is the installation of all the Deities you were attending in Chicago. That was a big ceremony.
Prabhupāda: Oh. Chicago? Did I install? No.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, you were present on the vyāsāsana...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...when the ceremony was performed. Here is some of our vans and men, Viṣṇujana and Rādhā-Dāmodara. Here's the grandfather of airport book distribution, Tripurāri Mahārāja, dressed as a karmī to distribute in his distribution.... You can't tell, but he's wearing a wig. That's Tripurāri there. That's how he looks when he's in the airport. He never misses.
Guru-kṛpā: The master of book distribution.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's Tripurāri giving a class. Here's a priest buying a Bhagavad-gītā. Gurudāsa Mahārāja preaching on campus. Dhṛṣṭadyumna leading a kīrtana. Here's a television show. That was that television show.
Rāmeśvara: The women argue, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that they can be given.... If they are given a good chance, they can make equal contribution in business, in science. So they are demanding equal rights, equal employment.
Prabhupāda: So why.... Why not equal rights that you stop producing children like the man? The man does not produce. Why you are obliged to produce?
Rāmeśvara: That is their special qualification.
Prabhupāda: That is.... Similarly, everything is special. You are a different entity. You must have different engagements. That is your perfection.
Rāmeśvara: But we all have.... The women and men, they all have the same brain, they say.
Prabhupāda: No, that I protested in Chicago. Yes. "And no, that is not the fact. The fact is man has 64 ounce. The woman has 36 ounce.... Highest."
Devotee (2): They'll say intelligence is not dependent on the size of the brain.
Prabhupāda: They say anything because they are rascals. A rascal can say anything. Pāgale ki nā bale chāgale kibā nā khāya: "A madman, what he does not say? And a goat, what he does not eat?" (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Now formerly marriage was a religious ceremony. Marriage was, this boy and this girl should be married, it is a religious function where the father and mother will see their horoscope and see if they are compatible, they will agree, they will live peacefully, so many things are there. Still, in India such things are calculated by the parents of the boy and the girl. But in this Kali-yuga, dāmpatye abhirucir. Abhirucir means the boy and the girl, if he likes, if he says, that's all. No other calculation. And the, after three days after marriage, there is divorce. (laughter) Because abhirucir, "I like, I don't like," that's all. Now I like, and after three days I don't like, finished, business. In Chicago I saw a newspaper. One girl, within three weeks she has divorced two husbands. (laughter) Yes, I saw it in the newspaper. So this, formerly the father, mother used to see that this boy and this girl are going to be married. So by horoscope, by other circumstances, by family, cultural, by education, so many things, whether they will live peacefully. That was the understanding. Husband-wife means, a man requires a woman, a woman requires a man. They should be combined in such a way that they can live peacefully. If there is no disturbance of the mind, then they can make further progress in spiritual life. Therefore marriage is also necessary, and that must be properly done. This was the... Now there is no such consideration. The boys and girls are free, and if one likes the other...
Rāmeśvara: This is a photograph of what takes place in India every year. It's a traditional festival in India, we are bringing it to New York. We've got our permits and everything.
Prabhupāda: We have already got in San Francisco, in Chicago...
Rāmeśvara: Philadelphia.
Prabhupāda: In Philadelphia.
Rāmeśvara: In London.
Prabhupāda: London.
Sudāmā: Melbourne.
Prabhupāda: Melbourne.
Hari-śauri: Paris we're beginning also.
Prabhupāda: This year?
Hari-śauri: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: First year Paris.
Hari-śauri: This is our festivals that we've begun in the West based on the one on the front there.
Prabhupāda: You can take that book.
Interviewer: You are participating in it, are you not?
Prabhupāda: Somewhere when I have opportunity I participate, otherwise they do it.
Rāmeśvara: In other words, Prabhupāda doesn't attend every festival all over the world.
Interviewer: Will you attend the one here in New York?
Prabhupāda: Yes, I go.
Interviewer: How do you choose, you are responsible for the organization.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Interviewer: Are you the one who chooses who runs each center, who is responsible in each temple.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Our program is to open centers in every village, every town, to propagate Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Prabhupāda: There are so many things in India culture for becoming happy and advancing towards the goal of life. Now I am appreciating for more and more, seeing the whole world, what is India's culture. Formerly I was thinking, "It is custom. To become faithful wife, this is custom." But when I come outside I see what is wife and what is faithful wife. In India, still, in the village, even there is fight between husband, wife, the wife is faithful. Still. Completely dependent on husband. The husband also, in spite of fighting, is always careful that the wife does not get any inconvenience. It was the culture, now it is breaking. (about door or window) You can close that. In material world, for peaceful life, there must be peaceful condition between the husband and wife. Everyone requires wife, everyone requires husband. Sex is necessary, so make the condition of sex very peaceful. Why disturbed? Make the condition that there will be... It is necessary. As eating is necessary, sleeping is necessary, for ordinary man, so sex is also necessary. So make a condition so that nothing will be disturbed, and in undisturbed condition of mind execute spiritual advancement. This is Indian civilization. Aim is spiritual advancement. And to make condition favorable, there are so many things. So unless we get favorable condition... Here in the Western countries there is no favorable condition. First of all, they have no idea of spiritual life, the goal of life, neither there is favorable condition. And gradually things are becoming degrading. On my last tour in Chicago I saw. In three weeks she has twice divorced, one lady's advertised. You remember it?
Hari-śauri: I wasn't there that time.
Harikeśa: I remember.
Prabhupāda: You were there, yes. Is that life? How they can be happy if this is the condition? So what further advancement?
Gargamuni: Yes. As far as the people go. They are all saying Hare Kṛṣṇa and... They don't even mention... Sometimes they ask us, "Do you know who Ramakrishna is?" And we say, "No, we have never heard of him." They go, "You have not heard of Ramakrishna?" We say, "No. We only know Prabhupāda and Lord Caitanya. Everybody knows that, and nobody knows who is Ramakrishna."
Jayapatākā: They do not know what to say.
Gargamuni: Then they don't know what to say. They say, "You mean you don't know that Chicago Address?" We say, "No. What? Oh, when Prabhupāda went for Ratha-yātrā? Yes, that we know."
Prabhupāda: That Chicago Address was the worst. He is defying, "Why you give credit to God?" This is the... We have seen that Chicago Address. Now they are eliminating. Most blasphemous. One Christian priest, he was surprised, "What kind of nonsense these Indians are..." He asked him, "How you are speaking in this way, 'Why you are giving credit to God?' " He said like that, "You are working, why you are giving credit to God?" This is Vivekananda's realization. And he created God, a illiterate priest, he become God. Because he said, "I am God." That is the proof.
Interviewer: Can you give us the number how many temples are there in foreign countries?
Prabhupāda: I have established 102 temples. Small and big. Out of them, very big temples are in Los Angeles, in London, in Hawaii, Honolulu, in Detroit... And...
Haṁsadūta: New York, Chicago.
Prabhupāda: New York, Chicago.
Hari-śauri: Toronto.
Prabhupāda: Toronto, Montreal, Paris, so many. So many temples. Very, very big temples. The cost is sometimes fifty lakhs, fifty-five lakhs each temple.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: New York is more than a million dollars, New York temple.
Interviewer: Do you have any proposal to spread this movement in Communist countries?
Prabhupāda: Yes, we have already gone. I have been in Moscow. This, my secretary, he has brought some order from them. They are also appreciating.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: I condemn everyone, that "You are all dogs and hogs." And United Nations a pack of dogs barking. That's a fact. And in Chicago I said, all women, "You cannot have freedom. You have got only thirty-four-ounce brain, and man has got sixty-four-ounce." I told them. So I became a subject of very great criticism.
Ādi-keśava: So those people who may not want to hear that they are not...
Prabhupāda: That is another thing, rascal. A dog will not hear, that does not mean he has brain or he has intelligence.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's the proof he's a dog. (laughs)
Prabhupāda: That he's a dog. We are not going to give any credit to the dogs and cats. So you have to fight like this. Think over. There are different brain. Just like in Chicago I said...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Woman's brain.
Prabhupāda: Woman's brain and man's brain.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Half the size.
Prabhupāda: That is the... That difference is intelligence.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They were very upset.
Prabhupāda: Upset... That's a fact.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Imagine how upset they'll be when you tell them, "You have no intelligence. No brains." They were upset over half the size brain.
Prabhupāda: No. Anyone can understand there are different kinds of intelligence.
Prabhupāda: Human activity should be guided toward Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then it is human. Otherwise it is animal. Take minimum demand, be happy, and make progress. That is the platform of progress. Very little... (too faint) The same shape, (too faint) they are improving to make straighter, topless, bottomless, in this way and that way, miniskirt. They are arranging. The thing is the same, but they want to change the taste in different way. No knowledge. That means (too faint). Sex, you require under... You'll get it between husband and wife. There is no difficulty. What is the use of that? Daily pregnancy, daily... Three days divorce. Actually I saw in Chicago, within three weeks, three divorce.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In our temple?
Prabhupāda: No, no, some public...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, that... And even the fact that they got married is more than most people do nowadays. They don't even get married.
Prabhupāda: There is no marriage. And in Bhāgavata says, "There will be no more marriage. Agreement."
Prabhupāda: One man is kneading flour, five sers, and he's getting two hundred rupees' salary, and paratha and halavā. This is management, going on. Now today it has been checked. They are eating paratha and our men are starving. He is getting two hundred rupees, three hundred rupees. This is management. What can be done? And he has... Three dozen manager, four dozen cook. This is... That's all. I am giving you report which he has given to me. Money is squandered like anything, and live blindly, and "Still, I want everything for myself." Everything is in my notice. I can feel now actually (indistinct) is coming. Anyway, we want... In India, the affairs are most mismanaged. That we see. In foreign countries they are doing very nice. In New York, in Los Angeles, in Chicago. Now there is Toronto report. This Toronto report... I do not know how things are managed there very nicely, and here..., three dozen cook. "Too many cooks spoil the broth."
| Page Title: | Chicago (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Jahnu |
| Created: | 28 of Dec, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=28, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 28 |