Choose (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"choose" |"chooses" |"choosing"

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Revatīnandana: Beethoven's symphony. He means classical Western music. They make some music.

Prabhupāda: But if it is glorification of God, we can hear. There is no objection.

Revatīnandana: But there may be no reference to God in it.

Prabhupāda: No, then we don't hear. We reject.

Sister Mary: Inspired by God, given by God.

Prabhupāda: Given by God is everything. That is another thing. Just like everything is government property. But do you like to go to the prisonhouse? We say everything belongs to government. We are not so liberal, that "Because everything belongs to government, therefore I shall go to the prisonhouse."

Guest (2): I'm sorry, I didn't get that.

Sister Mary: I take everything is good because it belongs to God, but you do choose, in fact, or you wouldn't choose to waste your time when you should be doing something else.

Prabhupāda: But for God's cause we can go. Just like these boys are sometimes arrested and put into jail. That is God's cause. But they are not prepared to go to the jail by pickpocketing. That is not their mission. They are executing God's business and if somebody puts him into jail, "All right. It is God's desire. That's all."

Room Conversation -- August 14, 1971, London:

Sister Mary: I take everything is good because it belongs to God, but you do choose, in fact, or you wouldn't choose to waste your time when you should be doing something else.

Prabhupāda: But for God's cause we can go. Just like these boys are sometimes arrested and put into jail. That is God's cause. But they are not prepared to go to the jail by pickpocketing. That is not their mission. They are executing God's business and if somebody puts him into jail, "All right. It is God's desire. That's all."

Revatīnandana: The point is that there must be direct connection with God. If God's name is there, if God's service is there, if God's form is there, then we are interested.

Prabhupāda: Nirbandhe kṛṣṇa sambandhe. Everything must be related with God.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: But he, he has taken help from other scientists' method.

Śyāmasundara: In other words, everyone operates under a certain set of restrictions, controls that are not of their own choosing. Everyone is in that category. They may think, "I am the controller of my own destiny." But actually they are being pulled on every side.

Dr. Weir: That's so. But it's only when they break out from that control by, let's say making an observation or having an intuition that isn't inherent in the system of control in which they've been brought up, that they make an advance of any sort. You see, people with... I always give this example of Sir Alexander Fleming and Freud and others. People have been trained that dirty pet traditions should be thrown away, because they're moded and they will interfere with the experiment. This happens time again whereas a man suddenly thinks, "I will have a look at this. I'll ignore that." He breaks away from this control.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Mensa Member: Then what worries lots of people about lots of religions is the (indistinct) for example of pointing a finger at the (indistinct) choosing the finger with the (indistinct)

Dr. Weir: One of the difficulties, and I think this is true when I was saying simple people, using that in a broader sense, some people cannot get anything at all unless they have a little picture. You know, it helps them; not like the dear old lady who found...

Prabhupāda: That we give, the picture. Here is God.

Śyāmasundara: Just like Christ. He came to speak with a very ignorant class of men. He was forced to speak in parables and stories.

Room Conversation with Dr. Weir of the Mensa Society -- September 5, 1971, London:

Dr. Weir: Ah, yes. Now parable is better than analogy. An analogy is an intellectual thing whereas a parable is a human thing. It's a warmth thing. It's in three dimensions, not a cross-section. And He was, of course, awfully clever at choosing them.

Mensa Member: I don't think your friend, Christmas Humphries will agree with either of those statements.

Dr. Weir: Knowing him very well, I don't... One would be surprised (indistinct) perfectly happy to feel that I was disagreeing with him. I think he (indistinct) himself to Kṛṣṇa at times.

Mensa Member: Well, is that absolutely (indistinct)

Śyāmasundara: The Buddhist thinks that everyone is God.

Prabhupāda: In Buddhist theory there is no acceptance of God. There is simply to diminish, or to nullify the sense of pains and pleasures. That is called nirvāṇa.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 30, 1972, San Diego:

Prabhupāda: You will do, that's all right, you will do it, but it is already there. What is your credit, you will do it? It is already there, then what is your credit?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: They choose to ignore it.

Prabhupāda: Even if you do that, the already one who has done it, why don't you give Him credit?

Devotee (1): Yeah, instead of being envious.

Prabhupāda: Tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān (BG 16.19), they are envious, rascal. Envious means rascal. That is material quality. And spiritual quality means to praise good quality. "Oh, you are so nice, you have got so good quality." That is spiritual. And enviousness, "Oh, this man is surpassing me. All right, I..."

Devotee (1): Cut him down.

Interview with the New York Times -- September 2, 1972, New Vrindaban:

Prabhupāda: "All of them—as they surrender unto Me—I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā." God is everything, and we can associate with Him according to our choice. The ability to choose, or our conscience, is given to us in the human form so we can utilize it. All the ingredients are there. The spiritual master is there, the scripture is there, and God is there, within you and within me. The atmosphere is calm and quiet, we have a good boat and a good navigator, and the wind is blowing favorably. We should take our chance and cross the ocean. This human body is a very nice boat, and we have a very good navigator, the spiritual master. We also have a very favorable wind—the instructions of God. If we don't take this opportunity and solve the problems of life, we are cutting our own throat. If you cut your own throat, who can save you? We can say, "Now here is an opportunity.

Morning Walks -- October 1-3, 1972, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: ...how do you know that guru is qualified, spiritual master is qualified? Then I said everything is written in the śāstras, so we have to follow according to the injunctions written in the śāstras. So all the qualifications of a pure devotee, of a bona fide guru, is written there. Just like you are a professor of physics in the university. Before you came, you had some qualification, degree of doctors. And then there is a committee to decide you whether you are qualified for the post. So it is selected by a committee of members and then they interview and then they find out your qualifications. If they find that you are qualified for the post, so you are selected as a professor. It's like that in the spiritual field also. There are revealed scriptures and there everything is written what will be the qualification of a guru and then how to choose a bona fide one. So everything is written, you should follow the injunctions of the revealed scriptures accordingly.

Prabhupāda: Committee is his spiritual master, he orders that you do this.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 19, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: So how we, a sane man can trust a thief? A sane man cannot trust a thief. There are so many things. They could not produce even a grass, even a small plant in the biology, chemistry laboratory, and still they're claiming it is product of biology, chemistry. What is this nonsenses. What kind of scientists there are?

Locana: We couldn't even choose when we were born.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Locana: We couldn't even choose being born here.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Locana: So where is the question of control?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: That is why, in the ultimate analysis, the geologists, mostly when they trace the origin of life, they say everything started from matter. Living matters came out from non-living matters.

Morning Walk -- April 29, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: For all the six opulences, they will choose someone.

Prabhupāda: Eh? Eh?

Karandhara: For all the six opulences, they'll choose someone, someone very beautiful...

Prabhupāda: Yes. But there is none complete. Except Kṛṣṇa. Nobody's complete. Our pro, philosophy is that we have to select if we... That we must have to. Otherwise, there is no life. Just like you scientists, you quote so many leaders, scientific leaders. Without this, there is no life. So... Just like in the Bengali there is a proverb that if I to, if I have to steal and become a thief, why not plunder the government treasury? Why pickpocketing? If I have to be punished as criminal, as thief, let me plunder the government treasury and then let me go to jail. So this is our policy. So if we have to submit to somebody, why not the best and perfect? That is our philosophy. You cannot avoid submission. That is not possible.

Room Conversation With David Wynne -- July 9, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: Just like I started from India at eleven o'clock, and I came here at half past eight, the sunlight was still there. So if you proceed still further, further towards Western side, the night will not be able to come. So you can travel always in daylight. (laughs) Don't allow. It is an example.

David Wynne: Why do we choose the dark?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

David Wynne: Why do we all choose the dark? Why are we all in the dark, most of us?

Prabhupāda: Dark means without Kṛṣṇa consciousness—darkness.

Devotee (1): He asked why do we usually choose the darkness.

David Wynne: And most people.

Prabhupāda: Due to bad association.

Room Conversation with French Journalist and UNESCO Worker -- August 10, 1973, Paris:

Reporter: But, thank you. But, uh, so, in this way, you have to, in all of the science, you mean, economic, politic, etc., you have to take position, sometimes perhaps. For instance, for going to the knowing of Kṛṣṇa in politics perhaps you will choose one system or the other. And in science, in philosophy, etc. Do you... But this, those choose have never been explained to the people, you know.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it should be.

Reporter: It should be. Have you...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, we, we, we have explained it in our book, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, wherever possibility. Find out that verse: kāmam, kāmaṁ vavarṣa parjanyaḥ (SB 1.10.4). Find out this verse.

Room Conversation with Indian Ambassador -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: No, we are not discouraged. We are not discouraged. But sometimes we are sorry that such a nice movement...

Ambassador: Is not supported. I mean, I... We have this dilemma. I'm being very honest with you. First, we have got the dilemma of choosing the right thing, you know, because so many people claim to speak about reviving Hinduism.

Prabhupāda: But, as, as you find out... Just like you issue license to medical practitioner. Registered medical... Why don't you see that which movement is genuine? That is the duty of the government. But the government is also, they're unaware about which one is actually... (Devotees bring in prasāda.)

Ambassador: Oh, I'm... I'm very grateful to you, but this is, it is a meal.

Paramahaṁsa: Jaya. It is our pleasure.

Morning Walk -- December 5, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Yaśomatīnandana: Or sometimes the jīva may choose directly...

Prabhupāda: The jīva is atomic. It is smaller than the atoms. One ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. Keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatāṁśaḥ sādṛśātmakaḥ (CC Madhya 19.140). So every living entity, atom.

Yaśomatīnandana: Is he first allowed...?

Prabhupāda: Less than the atom. Smaller than the atom.

Yaśomatīnandana: Is he allowed to associate with Kṛṣṇa in the beginning?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Morning Walk -- December 13, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prajāpati: Kṛṣṇa has given us free will to choose or reject the godly life. Should the government take away that free will of whether they choose to...

Prabhupāda: No, that free will is not to be given. It is already there. Rather, Kṛṣṇa says He has given free will, but His personal advice is: "I am now talking to you the most confidential words." Sarva-guhyatamam. "You stop your so-called free will. Just surrender to Me." This is the most confidential. "If you surrender to Me, that is good for you. But if you go on keeping your free will you'll not be happy." There is also free will. When you come to the Kṛṣṇa platform you serve Kṛṣṇa with free will, not that you become a stone. There is free will. Just like our devotees they are dressing Kṛṣṇa nicely, is there no free will? They are cooking for Kṛṣṇa. Is there no free will? The free will is there. The Māyāvādī philosopher says, the Buddha philosopher says, that "Stop this free will, and then you become happy." But our proposition is not to stop free will but purify free will. Purify. Not stop these eyes. Just if it is suffering from cataract, cure that cataract. Keep the eyes. And their proposition, "Get out these eyes and throw it. Then there will be no more seeing what is right and wrong."

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: It is a very big business here, Śrīla Prabhupāda, medical profession. They have this American Medical Association. They control the whole business. Even government cannot interfere. So they choose students, and they keep the supply so low that the demand is always high. That is why the price always increases. It's terrible.

Karandhara: To stay in a hospital now costs about $150 a day.

Prabhupāda: That is a sort of punishment of sinful activities. When you fall sick, it is due to sinful activity. So you are punished.

Karandhara: It's a very high price.

Rūpānuga: Pay fine.

Prabhupāda: Yes. The more dangerous is the disease, you have to pay more.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 18, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is love. Just like you are being controlled by me. There is no force. Voluntarily, out of love... I am not paying you. Still, if I say something, immediately you do. Why? There is love. That's all.

Bali-mardana: One who actually understands the distinction, is it possible that he will still choose to be controlled by the material nature?

Prabhupāda: Yes, he has already chosen. But he's foolish. He does not know. He thinks that "I am now independent of the Supreme Lord." But because he's foolish, he cannot understand that you are not independent. You are being controlled by another agent of God. And because, although he's being controlled, he's thinking, "I am free," therefore he's in illusion. This is called illusion. Illusion means something which is not fact. That is illusion. So this materialist, the so-called scientist, he's thinking, "There is no God. We are independent." So many things, like rascal they are thinking. Foolish rascal, childish. And that is illusion. Ahaṅkāra-vimudhātmā.

Morning Walk -- January 22, 1974, Hawaii:

Prabhupāda: Yes. But if he does not chant, that will be bad example. If he does not agree, then it is fallen down. Now he's denying to chant. He's denying to chant; he's indulging in sex. What does it mean? He'll be a bad example wherever he goes.

Bali Mardana: Is that an example of free will, that someone can choose Kṛṣṇa and then turn away? That example of free will?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Because if you accept Kṛṣṇa, then you must follow what Kṛṣṇa says. If you don't follow Kṛṣṇa, then what is the use of talking of Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa says, satataṁ kīrtayanto mām: (BG 9.14) "Always chanting about Me." That is mahātmā. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ (BG 9.14). Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ: (BG 9.13) "Mahātmā, those who are devotee, they are not under these material influence." Daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ: "the spiritual influence." So how he's accepted Kṛṣṇa? By his own concoction? He... If he accepts Kṛṣṇa, he must abide by the injunction of Kṛṣṇa.

Morning Walk -- March 31, 1974, Bombay:

Dr. Patel: All your actions and their effects, which are collecting on you... (break)

Guest (5): ...knows the procreating from the first word or some people would exercise their so-called free will and choosing sin, and still He creates them. If He were not to...

Prabhupāda: No, no, no. There is no question of choosing. As soon as you associate some infections disease, it is not the question of disease. You must be diseased. This is the law of nature. If you infect the smallpox disease, then you must be suffering from smallpox. That is law of nature. Not that your father has created small pox disease for you. Try to understand like this. You infect yourself. (break) ...giving him chance.

Dr. Patel: But you, as a jīva, is so much engrossed in the māyā, in the tree, in the fruits of it, that you don't heed...

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Room Conversation with Irish Poet, Desmond O'Grady -- May 23, 1974, Rome:

O'Grady: Well, in my experience, the process seems to be that while you begin... First of all, you, for some extraordinary reason, are chosen to do this.

Prabhupāda: And that choosing is given. This is this verse: avicyutaḥ arthaḥ: "Infallible choice is this, that let them describe the glories of the Lord." This is infallible.

O'Grady: This one.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

O'Grady: Not his brother, not his sister, but this one.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Everyone is important.

O'Grady: But I'm talking about the process of ultimately doing it.

Prabhupāda: No, no, just. When we speak of God, that includes all brothers, all sisters.

Room Conversation with Catholic Cardinal and Secretary to the Pope -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: God has also some hobby.

Cardinal Pignedoli: Yes. What I used to do when I am traveling... I travel a lot. I used to make friends among young people, generally teenagers. And then I choose also—I try to do this—people who are unbelievers, who are in difficulties, who are men of the weak faith, and who don't love, at least, they say they don't love God. Because I think that we are few men who love God, friends to God... We are not many. And we have to go and to look for these people, and for these areas or environments, where these peoples live. And it is for this reason that I say always when I am good friends, you know... Priests, Catholic priests, well, go to an area because here is too many. They don't need you here, but go to, well, I would say Stockholm or Copenhagen where there are a few really also, Christians, I mean Catholic or Protestants.

Room Conversation with Catholic Cardinal and Secretary to the Pope -- May 24, 1974, Rome:

Prabhupāda: Yes, we go.

Cardinal Pignedoli: This is more important because you have not so many. If you go to South Africa, and although... I mean because also we. We have not so many. It's a question of possibility, of chances. Why don't you choose...? This is my question. These areas where Japan for instance is an area very atheistic and where yesterday I had this sect with me of the not perfectly... It's called... No. It's a different one. Mr. Kalyana is the president. He came yesterday. He came yesterday. Mr. Kalyana. Well, they don't believe, as you say. This is philosophy. Welfare, is happiness, but not in your meaning, in my meaning. Well, this is only to ask, then you go to Japan?

Dhanañjaya: Yes, we have a center in Tokyo.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We have got center in Japan, in Hong Kong.

Room Conversation with Roger Maria leading writer of communist literature -- June 12, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: No Anu-gītā. Anu-gītā is also another rebellious condition. Bhakti, Bhagavad-gītā as it is. That is required. (French)

Yogeśvara: He says that the great choice of scriptures from India allows us to choose like that. We can choose.

Prabhupāda: No, you can choose, but if you do not know how to choose, what is the meaning of your choosing? (French)

Pṛthu Putra: He says he choose Radhakrishnan, he choose all the seigneur...

Prabhupāda: But they, all of them...

Pṛthu Putra: He reject Aurobindo...

Prabhupāda: I understand. All of them, they make center Kṛṣṇa. So why not take Kṛṣṇa? (French) Now this Ramakrishna said, "I am the same Kṛṣṇa." So if we give respect to Ramakrishna because of his being the same Kṛṣṇa, why not go to the same Kṛṣṇa directly?

Room Conversation with Mr. Deshimaru -- June 13, 1974, Paris:

Prabhupāda: But if you do not know what is the goal of the treatment, then how the treatment will be successful? (French)

Yogeśvara: He says we may choose a goal for ourselves spiritually, but after all, we're the ones who chose the goal, so it's all an individual question.

Prabhupāda: No, we are not choosing, God is asking to do this. (French)

Pṛthu Putra: He says therefore we don't have to worry about what's the result. We just have to practice without being attached to the result.

Prabhupāda: No, without result, why should I practice unnecessarily? (aside) Go. Take sleep.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, other Guests and Disciples -- February 12, 1975, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: All right. Give them prasāda. Everyone should be supplied with.

Guest (2): What do you see as the future of your movement and are you planning to...

Prabhupāda: My movement is genuine.

Guest (2): ...to choose a successor.

Prabhupāda: It is already successful. Genuine thing is always success. Gold is gold. If somebody is fortunate, he can purchase gold, but gold remains gold. If somebody purchases and somebody does not, it doesn't matter. Gold is gold. So future, gold future is always the same as it is at present—if it is gold. If it is something glittering, that is another thing.

Guest (4): But there must be somebody, you know, needed to handle the thing.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that we are creating. We are creating these devotees who will handle.

Room Conversation with Psychiatrist -- February 22, 1975, Caracas:

Psychiatrist (Hṛdayānanda): As a doctor, he says he is naturally interested in this life in the problems of the body, but he also feels that a human being should follow whatever philosophy he chooses in order to achieve what one may call the spiritual world or eternal happiness.

Prabhupāda: Then it is something like that, that the motor mechanic is interested with the motor car, but he is not interested with the welfare of the driver. But the fact is, if the driver is not in order, the car will not go. It may be well-equipped, well-engined, well-oiled, but if the driver is defective, it will create another disaster.

Psychiatrist (Hṛdayānanda): He feels that you don't understand what he's saying, that actually he does not feel that we should dedicate ourselves exclusively to the body.

Morning Walk -- March 11, 1975, London:

Devotee (2): Even if we present a Kṛṣṇa conscious candidate, the people will still choose a rogue to lead them, even if we present a candidate who is Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Prabhupāda: Canada we have got already temples.

Brahmānanda: Candidate, someone to stand for the election.

Prabhupāda: You cannot do anything. Unless you turn the mass of people Kṛṣṇa conscious, what you will do there? Suppose one man is elected. All demons. What he will do there? Therefore the first thing is that turn the people Kṛṣṇa conscious, and when they will vote, that is shortened (certain?) Otherwise, it is waste of time.

Radio Interview -- May 25, 1975, Fiji:

Śrutakīrti: The following is an interview which took place on May 25, 1975, in Lautoka, Fiji, which was later broadcast on a local radio station.

Interviewer: Why did you choose to go to America and propagate the teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa in a western country?

Prabhupāda: Because Indian people, being subjugated for at least one thousand years, they have lost their original culture. And, being poverty-stricken, they are simply after money, by hook and crook. So in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayā apahṛta-cetasām (BG 2.44). Persons who have lost their consciousness on account of being too much attached to material enjoyment, they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So I thought that America, they have enjoyed enough of this material happiness, money and women, and they are now becoming disappointed. So they are at least on the platform of renunciation.

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

Bahulāśva: No, they are not finding... They are just making up these defects, Prabhupāda?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One thing they say is that the parents are not allowing the children the freedom to choose whether they want to be trained in this way or not. They are forcing the children to be trained in a very limited view, only Kṛṣṇa.

Bahulāśva: And they say that by repetitive chanting...

Prabhupāda: That means they do not know Kṛṣṇa means everything. That they do not know.

Bahulāśva: And big professors are saying that just by reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam you can learn everything. All the knowledge is given in there.

Prabhupāda: That is the Vedic injunction. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavanti. If you simply understand Kṛṣṇa, then you understand everything.

Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles:

Dr. Crossley: I think one of the things that Peter is saying, though, that I haven't really heard you address is that... He's not saying that he doesn't believe. He's saying that he has the same experiences as all the young people here, but he doesn't dress this way. He doesn't chant. He doesn't choose to call this praise to Kṛṣṇa. He chooses to call it something else. How is it essentially different? He's saying it's essentially the same.

Prabhupāda: That he can say also that he does not dress like him, that's all. Not different. Difference is that... We are all differently dressed. It is not that every one of us who is sitting down not differently dressed. But we are not talking of the dress. We are talking ourselves. When I talk with you, you talk with me, you are not concerning about my dress or I am concerning your dress; I am talking with you as gentleman, that's all. What is the impediment of the dress? Anyone can dress as he likes. But he is a gentleman; you are a gentleman. Talk like a gentleman, that's all.

Morning Walk -- November 1, 1975, Nairobi:

Jñāna: All living beings are independent, but some choose to serve and some choose to disbelieve.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is use of independence. Otherwise what is the meaning of independence? The meaning of independence is: "If I like, I can do. If I do not like, I do not do." That is independence. That means independence. If you are stereotyped, forced to do, that is not independence. Independence means if you like, you can do it, if not—you don't like-don't do it. That is independence. So misused independence means ignorance. He does not know that "If I infect this virus of this disease I'll suffer." But he does not know, ignorance. So he infects and he suffers.

Morning Walk -- November 10, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: But don't decrease. Don't decrease; increase. Therefore one number is fixed. "At least this much I shall do." That is sixteen rounds.

Lokanātha: But you are recommending sixteen as a minimum, and some devotees are choosing twenty as a minimum.

Prabhupāda: So who forbids? Who says that "Don't do it"?

Lokanātha: They can chant?

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is wanted. But because you cannot do it, therefore we have fixed up this minimum. Saṅkhyāta asaṅkhyāta Saṅkhyāta means with vow, numerical strength. And asaṅkhyāta means there is no limit. (break)

Yaśomatīnandana: ...are higher than any other activities or they are on the same platform? Any activities in Kṛṣṇa consciousness... Is chanting the most exalted or...?

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 13, 1976, Mayapur:

Mahāṁsa: It grows wild there. And out of the 600 acres, there's about 200 acres which is very fertile, and the other area is kind of dry. So it is fertile. So we would invest lot of money on cultivating all year round. So if we get 250 acres, then we'll get the good area.

Yadubara: We can choose our own land?

Madhudviṣa: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: So that...

Rādhāvallabha: There will be a second rail on this other side, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We will put that up today.

Prabhupāda: (break) ...now the visitors?

Rādhāvallabha: Just a few. Their sign just got up last night, so no one has seen the sign yet. Mostly devotees are coming to see it so far.

Morning Walk -- March 14, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa.... If everyone knows, why Kṛṣṇa does not know? "He knows everything" means this common sense everyone knows.

Madhudviṣa: Does He know what you will choose?

Prabhupāda: Eh? Just try to understand. Future means like this: nature's law; and it will happen. After summer there will be rainy season; it will happen, and they will call, I am foretelling future. It is not future; it is natural sequence, automatically happened.

Satsvarūpa: But that's predictable. If I have my own free will, what I'm going to do, you don't know.

Prabhupāda: No, no, if you are in knowledge, you can predict. But if you are fool, you cannot say. If I see that in July there will be rain, and if you are a fool, you'll protest. That is your foolishness. It is natural sequence, one after another.

Morning Walk -- March 25, 1976, Delhi:

Prabhupāda: Both of them are sinful.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. So how is the spirit soul involved in it? Is the spirit soul choosing, or is the decision already made by his karma?

Prabhupāda: Karma, karma... You can make your kar... You are doing that. Karma you are creating every moment by desire. Karma is.... What is that? Thinking, feeling, willing. You think of something; then you do it. That means you create your karma. You are thinking that "I shall go to the cinema"; then you go. That is karma.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: The question is choice.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is...

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Choice.

Prabhupada Inspects New BTG -- June 24, 1976, New Vrindaban:

Reporter: "So if we don't choose our leaders by popular election, how will society be governed?"

Prabhupāda: "You require brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras. Just as when you want to construct a building you require engineers. You don't want sweepers. Isn't that so? What will the sweeper do? No. There must be engineers. So if you follow the division of varṇāśrama, only kṣatriyas are allowed to govern. And for the legislative assembly, the senators, only qualified brāhmaṇas. Now the butcher is in the legislative assembly. What does he know about making laws? He is a butcher. But by winning votes he becomes a senator. At the present moment, by the principle of vox populi, a butcher goes to the legislature. So everything depends on training. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness society we are actually doing that. But in the case of politics they forget it. There cannot be just one class. That is foolishness. Because we have to engage different classes of men in different activities. If we do not know the art then we will fail, because unless there is a division of work there will be havoc.

Interview with Newsweek -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: And so that group of eighteen secretaries will choose another leader?

Prabhupāda: I am training each one of them as leader so that they can spread extensively. That is my idea.

Interviewer: So, in other words, you started this whole movement here in the United States ten years ago. Would you say that the United States had the most active, financially, group of followers.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Rāmeśvara: She wants to know, seeing you chose the United States to begin this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement ten years ago, now do you find that in the United States there is the most active membership financially speaking. In terms of contributing to this movement, supporting the movement, is the best field America?

Prabhupāda: No, without finance we can go on.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, 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.

Interviewer: And you choose the leaders, or Kṛṣṇa does and tells you, how does that work?

Prabhupāda: No, I have been chosen by my spiritual master.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Interviewer: And you choose the leaders, or Kṛṣṇa does and tells you, how does that work?

Prabhupāda: No, I have been chosen by my spiritual master.

Interviewer: Yes. And you in turn choose others?

Prabhupāda: Oh yes. That is our succession.

Interviewer: On what basis?

Prabhupāda: Basis, on the order of Kṛṣṇa. Originally the order is from Kṛṣṇa.

Interviewer: How does that come?

Prabhupāda: Comes by disciplic succession. Just like Kṛṣṇa said this knowledge to Arjuna and Arjuna said to others and it is open. Everyone can take it, there is no secrecy. We have to accept only, that's all.

Interview with Newsday Newspaper -- July 14, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: The order is already there, it is open, open secret. There is no secrecy. Anyone can take it.

Interviewer: All right. But in terms of specific, say, choosing, specific things, specific details.

Prabhupāda: Yes, in all details, how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, there is all details in this book, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Hari-śauri: So he's asking what's a man's qualification to be chosen.

Rāmeśvara: In other words Prabhupāda will decide who should be leader if he's qualified and there's a process for making him qualified and there's a process for testing to see if he is qualified. So in that way it all comes from Kṛṣṇa.

Radio Interview -- July 27, 1976, London:

Mike Robinson: But are you saying that if we live a good life we in some way determine our future as well?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mike Robinson: So we are free to choose in so far as what we believe important. I mean religion is important, because if we believe in God and live a good life...

Prabhupāda: There is no question of believe. Don't bring this question-belief. It is law. Just like there is government, you believe or not believe, who cares for you? That is government. Similarly, you believe or not believe, there is God. If you don't believe in God and do independently whatever you like, then you'll be punishable.

Mike Robinson: I see. Does it matter what religion you believe? Does it matter which religion you believe? Would it matter if one was a devotee of Hare Kṛṣṇa...?

Prabhupāda: It is not the question of which religion, it is a question of science, that what is your position. You are a spiritual being, you are under the laws of nature. So you may believe.... Just like you may believe in Christian religion, I may believe in Hindu religion, but it does not mean that a Christian child is not going to become a boy. We are talking of the science, that the child become a boy.

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No. You have got independence, little independence.

Atreya Ṛṣi: You have freedom to choose intelligence or be a rascal.

Prabhupāda: You have got independence to misuse your independence. That independence you have got. You have been given intelligence. Now you have got, because you have got intelligence, little independence, you can misuse that. Just like you are all my secretaries. So I give you some independence. You can misuse it. So that misuse is wrong. Then you'll become unhappy. Kṛṣṇa says that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Says. He doesn't force you—you must do it. You do it. That means independence. Now it is your choice. You have got independence of misusing it. So independence is a quality inherent in living beings, because he's part and parcel of God. The quality of the father is inherited by the son, even physically. Similarly, you have..., God is fully independent, you have got little touch of independence. Now that independence is properly utilized when you carry out the order of God. That is proper. Ordinarily, every country is independent. Does it mean that he is cent percent independent? No. Then why there is police department?

Evening Darsan -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Ali: In choosing a master you mentioned that the choice is yours, but you have to know what you are after. For instance, if you are after...

Prabhupāda: Our offer is you surrender to God. Now it is you choice, whether you want to surrender not. That is you business. We are offering everyone that you surrender to Kṛṣṇa, or God. Kṛṣṇa also says the same thing, "You surrender to Me," and we are asking, "You surrender to Kṛṣṇa." The business is the same, there is no change, as it is. Kṛṣṇa says, "You surrender to Me," we say, "You surrender to Kṛṣṇa." There is no difference. As it is.

Ali: My question was how could one choose when he himself is ignorant?

Room Conversation -- August 22, 1976, Hyderabad:

Gargamuni: There is in the other newspapers. Maybe not in this. But they do offer prize. You send in, then they choose prize.

Prabhupāda: So they work, originally it began for prize. (laughs) Otherwise, these karmīs, why they shall waste their time? They wanted some prize.

Hari-śauri: Sometimes they print their names in the next issue. "The last week's winner was..."

Prabhupāda: "Winner." That means prize.

Maṇihāra: There's no mention of any reward. Just...

Prabhupāda: Anything of these four prohibited regulations should not do. Yatra pāpaś catur-vidhā, four kinds of pāpa—sinful activities. From the very beginning, because I introduced this, no catur-vidhā, four kinds of pāpa. Therefore our Society is now so respected. From the very beginning we are following to keep these principles in forefront. This is appreciated by anyone. Even he is himself a debauch, he'll appreciate. It is so nice thing. A person may be a big drunkard, but he'll never like to see his son drunkard. That is natural.

Room Conversation -- October 31, 1976, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Differences of dress are expressed amongst orthodox Jews and amongst various Christian orders. Our own Pilgrim ancestors differed in dress form the popish gentry of their time. I have studied and tested the Hare Kṛṣṇa people and have not found them to be weird or insane, only different form the mainstream. Like any other evangelical or proselytizing religion, their converts could only become converts if they choose to believe. For example, no one can drag a person to a Baptist Church and brainwash him into taking God into his heart, he has to want to accept willingly. No one is ever held against their will by the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. I have never seen it, nor have my colleagues ever seen it. In examining the various members of this religion, I have not found one who appears to be brainwashed or dopey like. In fact their mental health and normality astounds me. If you cannot accept Kṛṣṇa, God, they will sympathize with you and hope that you will eventually find Him and will wish you well as you go on your way.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- January 27, 1977, Puri:

Prabhupāda: Tch tch. Just see.

Gurukṛpā: They feel that if you are not... If you are inhibited in your sex life, if you only choose women, then you are not progressive. You must become liberated from these moral or, they call it, "hang-up" feeling. This is not correct. Now they drive their children to the homosex dance, the parents, and let the boy out, and he goes into the homosex dance. Only men allowed. They take them there.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Gurukṛpā: Yes. In Los Angeles. They have only for boys, young men, age seventeen, sixteen, eighteen, nine... Their parents take them, and they let them out of the car, and they pick them up later on in the night.

Prabhupāda: Advancement.

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

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is ceremony.

Mr. Koshi: Don't you think that the children should be given freedom to choose voluntarily?

Prabhupāda: Do you want to give freedom to your children?

Mr. Koshi: I am asking you.

Prabhupāda: No, no. What is the use of giving freedom to a child with a razor? He will cut his throat, that's all.

Mr. Koshi: But at a later age, perhaps when he is better...

Prabhupāda: Later age, yes. That is enjoined. When child is sixteen years old he can do as he likes, not before that.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...but not now.

Prabhupāda: Yes. I shall choose some guru. I shall say, "Now you become ācārya. You become authorized." I am waiting for that. You become all ācārya. I retire completely. But the training must be complete.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The process of purification must be there.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, must be there. Caitanya Mahāprabhu wants that. Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā (CC Madhya 7.128). "You become guru." (laughs) But be qualified. Little thing, strictly follower...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not rubber stamp.

Prabhupāda: Then you'll not be effective. You can cheat, but it will not be effective.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- June 20, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa has arranged.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Everybody's attracted to go to the States nowadays. Even I was attracted. When I had a choice to go any place in the world 'cause I got a scholarship from Indian government, a Western scholarship. I could study in any part of the world, and I could choose any school I liked. And I told the interview board in Delhi... There was a man from England at that time. I told him that "I don't want to go to England." (Prabhupāda laughs) So he was little offended.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Nowadays all students, scholars, going outside means going to the States. That is the...

Prabhupāda: They give facility. No, I have got good respect for America.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, I'm sure that the scientists, some of the leading scientists, will accept.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So write them immediately that "The rascal editors, they are doing havoc, and they are being maintained by Rāmeśvara and party."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes there's a fear that some word will be unpopular, and on account of desire to gain popularity or acceptance, they lessen the strength of the word. They change the word. They choose a word which is more so-called acceptable.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Same thing is with the Back to Godhead. Just publish some photo, try to change so many things in order to make it popularized. They have been doing that even with the philosophy. (pause)

Śatadhanya: I remember when Rāmeśvara was here, he had mentioned that in one article you had denounced the Christians strongly, so he said he left one part out because he was afraid there would be a bad reaction from the Christians in America.

Prabhupāda: That is possible. That is possible. He should be careful. Then?

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: But in India, they take fresh, lobster.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They do that in America sometimes in the so-called high-class restaurants. You choose your lobster, and then you sit down and they boil it alive.

Prabhupāda: Fresh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They put them in live in the boiling water. The people who do that, they have to become a lobster and have the same fate? I think we'd better distribute a lot of your books to inform these people.

Prabhupāda: In India they make lobster and loki.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And loki?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation With Son (Vrindavan De) -- July 5, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Some things are quite clear. Then there's a description, though, that there's an axle, it's described, a tie made of wind going from the chariot to Dhruvaloka. So things like that we want to get a..., further information on. Just so that it can be somehow demonstrated. Our... To understand these things for the purpose of making an exhibit requires a very clear picture. So that's the only reason we're looking to other books. But only bona fide books. The ācāryas' commentaries, like that. And then it has to agree with the Bhāgavatam. If in any way there's a discrepancy, we choose the Bhāgavatam as the authority.

Prabhupāda: On the whole, the sun is not fixed up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, not at all. It's moving. As a matter of fact, it describes sometimes it moves in one way with Meru at its right side, and then sometimes it moves the other way with Meru at its left side.

Prabhupāda: That is dakṣiṇāyana-mārga, dakṣiṇāyanam, uttarāyaṇa.

Room Conversation Gaurasundara, Dr. Kapoor -- July 26, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So he offered everything he has to Prabhupāda. So Śrīla Prabhupāda has requested him to build a large building and put in a Vedic planetarium in Washington, D.C., capital of the United States, right near the White House, with the Vedic planetary system according to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Fifth Canto. So he has agreed to do this, and now they are choosing the property where they will develop this program right in the heart of Washington, D.C. So it will be very good. And also the dolls will be... Doll exhibit.

Prabhupāda: How they are making dolls, show him. How nice dolls.

Dr. Kapoor: Oh.

Prabhupāda: I brought them here and kept them in Māyāpur.

Dr. Kapoor: Ācchā, and they got the training there.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: I don't want, but if there is force...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But you said that Kṛṣṇa... And Kṛṣṇa will let you choose now, that you can live or go. Kṛṣṇa's given you that choice.

Prabhupāda: I am living still.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's so much to be done, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Your activities are not completed yet. You have to install the Deities in Bombay, you have to live in your palace in New Vrindaban, you have to show varṇāśrama, you have to complete the Bhāgavatam, you have to live in a new house in Māyāpur, and we have to at least make a good start to begin the big temple in Māyāpur. Everything is still incomplete, what to speak of the fact that we are all very much neophyte still. We need you more than anything else. This movement has to last ten thousand years. We're not ready yet. We're still very much conditioned and contaminated. If you stay with us for another ten years at least, then there's chance that we can become purified more. And it's within your... It's within you to be able to do that. Kṛṣṇa will allow you to do that.

Prabhupāda: People are coming like before?

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That I want.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The conference is going on. Anybody who's required in the conference is there. But some of the sannyāsīs and GBC's are choosing to go to Bhagatji's. But the conference people who are involved, they are all at the conference, and many devotees are there also. I think it's all right.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't want you to be disturbed about it. So should I go or not go, Śrīla Prabhupāda, to Bhagatji's?

Prabhupāda: That you make your choice.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We should be very careful to choose the right people to come.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not just that anybody goes to an Embassy and they immediately get three years and they come here, they move around India, then in two weeks or two months they leave and go back. Then the government will not like it.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And if some Americans find out that ISKCON had this special status, then someone can also pose as an ISKCON devotee and get this visa.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: So we should require that they have GBC authorization and..., with the Embassy.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No. What we will do I think...

Prabhupāda: Our GBC should select.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Śatadhanya: Even the airport officials were disappointed. They were saying, "Where is our Guru Mahārāja?" I was shocked to hear them saying. "Where is our Guru Mahārāja?" They had purchased very nice fruits and vegetables of all different varieties, and Prabhupāda could choose which he liked-portal, jinga, so many things.

Prabhupāda: What other news?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What other news?

Śatadhanya: Everything is very nice there, very organized. Jayapatākā Mahārāja and Bhavānanda Mahārāja have organized it very nicely. Calcutta is very clean. Also Calcutta was prepared in case your Divine Grace was feeling tired. Then you could have stayed at Calcutta for a day or so and then gone on to Māyāpur. Many life members had come to the airport. Sita Ram Daga.

Room Conversation -- November 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And this is also suicidal.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hm. Prabhupāda said, "And this is also suicide." Now you have to choose which suicide.

Prabhupāda: The Rāvaṇa will kill and Rāma will kill. Better to be killed by Rāma. Eh? That Mārīca—if he does not go to mislead Sītā, he'll be killed by Rāvaṇa; and if he goes to be killed by Rāma, then it is better.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Who is this Prabhupāda's talking about?

Devotees: Mārīca.