Prabhupāda: Expansion is direct, and incarnation is indirect. When expansion of expansion is accepted, that is called kalā, incarnation, avatāra, kalā. So Advaita is not direct. The example is given in Brahma-saṁhitā. Just like you get one candle kindled from the first candle, another from the second, another from the third. So similarly, either expansion or incarnation, they are all candles. The original candle is Kṛṣṇa. It is not that expansion of expansion is less powerful. The candle power is the same either origin or expansion or expansion of the expansion. It is not that Nityānanda is less powerful than Caitanya, or Advaita is less powerful than... No. Any incarnation or expansion has the same potency, Viṣṇu-tattva. The manifestation of potency is different. Just like Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Lord Rāma is also the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But one is original. Kṛṣṇa is original, and Rāma is an expansion. Why? Because Kṛṣṇa exhibited the qualities of God fully. Rāma exhibited qualities of God partially. Take for example, Rāma was manifesting Himself as an ideal king. He was not manifesting Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore as ideal king He was limiting Himself with the moral principles of this world. And Kṛṣṇa, being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He exhibited that He's above any principle of the material world. He's free to act any way He likes. Otherwise what is the meaning... Means full-fledged manifestation of God. Lord Rāma, He married only one, Sītā. And when Sītā was kidnapped by Rāvaṇa, He never married again. Or when Sītā was sent to the forest for public opinion, He never married again. He remained a sticked to, stuck to only one wife because He was setting example, moral principle, to the world. Kṛṣṇa married 16,108. Not religious. Religious, He married only eight wife. But these 16,100 girls were kidnapped by one demon, and they were concentrated in a camp. So they prayed to Kṛṣṇa to save them. Kṛṣṇa is kind to everyone. So Kṛṣṇa came to their rescue, and He killed that demon. He rescued all the girls. But the girls requested Kṛṣṇa that "Because we were kidnapped and we are concentrated under his custody, so if we go back to our father, it will be difficult for him to get us married to a suitable prince.
Concentration (Conversations)
Expressions researched:
"concentrate"
|"concentrated"
|"concentrates"
|"concentrating"
|"concentration"
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: What is called? Lunatic, compact in thought. (chuckles) So Kṛṣṇa lover is also another kind of lunatic effect.
Allen Ginsberg: Except that it would mean concentrating all my consciousness on the one single image of Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Not image.
Allen Ginsberg: Or the one single thought or name or feeling or awareness.
Prabhupāda: That we have got varieties of duties. Just like we are. You have seen all these boys. They are always engaged. Always engaged. Similarly, everywhere they are always engaged in Kṛṣṇa. We want extra time to work for Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Apparently the sunshine appears to be very, very big, but it is concentrated in sun globe. And when you enter the sun globe, it is concentrated in sun-god.
Allen Ginsberg: Where is the origin of this image of the sun? Where is the origin of this image of the sun? Is this a Vedic śāstric explanation?
Prabhupāda: Yes. There is śāstric information. He is incarnation of Nārāyaṇa, Sūrya-nārāyaṇa. He is powerful. He is driving in four horses. He has got chariot of four horses and very powerful. Yac cakṣur eśa savita. Savita, his name is Savita. The Gāyatrī mantra is oṁ bhur bhuvaḥ svāḥ tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi. That is worshiping the sun-god.
Śyāmasundara: So chanting along with devotional service, performing our duties while concentrating on Kṛṣṇa, is also part of the process, isn't it?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Anything, any way. The whole idea is manāḥ kṛṣṇe niveṣayet. Mind should be fixed up in Kṛṣṇa. That is the process. Either you go through philosophy or through arguments or through chanting. Any way. That is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā. Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ (BG 6.47). Of all kinds of yogis. In the... You might have read it. Yoginām api sarveṣāṁ. I think Maharsi has translated this Bhagavad-gītā, and in the sixth chapter...? You have read it?
George Harrison: Oh, his translation of Gītā?
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest (3): Chanting is mental concentration, is it?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Chanting and hearing, locked up. Mind is locked up. And because the Kṛṣṇa vibration is locked up, then Kṛṣṇa is locked up, because there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His name, absolute. Kṛṣṇa is absolute. Therefore there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His name, His form, His pastimes.
- nāma-cintāmaṇi-kṛṣṇaś
- caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ
- purnaḥ śuddho nitya-mūkto
- 'bhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ
Because nāma and the nāminaḥ, being inseparable, therefore nāma is also purna, nitya, śuddha, mukta.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee: Then how do you... Suppose, for example, last night. I was chanting, and then I thought to myself, "Oh, I'm not concentrating on the chanting any more. Now I should go to sleep." Then how...
Prabhupāda: Therefore you are, we have prescribed rules for chanting. You must finish sixteen rounds, then go to sleep, whole day sleeping. You finish that sixteen rounds and sleep whole day. I have no objection. (laughter)
Devotee: But then...
Prabhupāda: There is no then. Don't talk nonsense. If you are so much addicted to sleeping, you simply chant sixteen rounds and whole day sleep. But don't take food also. (laughter) Don't get up taking prasādam. "Now I have to honor prasādam. Let me eat sumptuous, then again sleep more."
Devotee (4): Why is Honeywell better than IBM for this?
Pratyatoṣa: Well, because they just concentrated on this more.
Devotee (4): On this editing program?
Pratyatoṣa: Oh, yeah, for the editing..., for our purposes, this is the best time-sharing system. I've used almost every one. It's unbelievable. It's so fast, it's so reliable. I used that for months and months and it never... It wasn't..., maybe... I can't even remember a time when the thing wasn't working. It was always working.
Devotee (4): So reliable.
Prabhupāda: They charge $180 per month?
Mr. Arnold: Near Oxford. A very large building, but it's, it's in a bad state of repair.
Śyāmasundara: We'll concentrate on the other ones.
Dhanañjaya: (indistinct) best as far as the land's concerned. It's situated in the biggest area of space.
Śyāmasundara: I have to try to find out when George is coming back.
Prabhupāda: George can give his..., what is called?
Śyāmasundara: Endorsement.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Prabhupāda: Other things?
Guest (1): Well, many things require your concentration.
Prabhupāda: Well, let us first of all chant the holy name. Then we shall think of concentration.
Sister Mary: You see, two, two things... You can't...
Prabhupāda: No. Concentrate, concentration automatically. If I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and I hear, that is concentration. That is concentration. Immediately.
Sister Mary: But you can't read or talk to someone.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest: He was doing if from the beginning, not exclusively that, but applying the Bhagavad-gītā to everything that he was doing. He was doing it really, but you are referring to concentrated, exclusive...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest: ...teaching of the doctrines and way life described in...
Prabhupāda: Sometimes I requested Dr. Radhakrishnan also...
Guest: Huh?
Prabhupāda: ...when he was vice-president.
Guest: Radhakrishnan? Nowhere in comparison with Gandhi.
Bob: Um, let me ask you about something else. Then maybe I'll come back to this because I'm still... I find that I think of myself too much, and this way you can't think of God so much. One can't think of God. I think of myself in too many places. How can I forget about myself so I can concentrate on other more important things?
Prabhupāda: As they have done.
Bob: (laughs) You are saying to me that my path... I think what you're saying is my path to purity is to become a devotee.
Prabhupāda: Do you hesitate?
Bob: Well, I...
Prabhupāda: It is very difficult to become a devotee?
Prabhupāda: One only?
Martin: One. (laughs) I, I concentrated on one. I learned of some of the (indistinct), (loud crack of thunder in background) maybe a thousand.
Prabhupāda: Nine hundred thousand, exact number. (aside:) Bring that socket.
Devotee: Oh, this? (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. And 2,000,000 of leaves and plants, botany, botanical. Jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati, kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ. Insects, there are 1,100,000 forms. (Sanskrit) Then (Sanskrit). From insect, they become flies and birds. (Sanskrit) One million. Then from birds, the beasts come, four-legged. (Sanskrit). Three million species of beasts. Then from beasts, the human form comes—either from monkey or from lion or from cows. Out of these three, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa.
Prabhupāda: Gaurasundara. He has been already agreed. Girirāja also. Those who are absent, I've written them. Now, so far Hayagrīva Prabhu is concerned, he has resigned from this. And he'll concentrate on editorial work. And Kīrtanānanda will become the president of New Vrindaban. So, that question is solved. Now, how the New Vrindaban will be managed, that we shall decide.
Devotee: We talked about that this morning, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: So Hayagriva Prabhu is exit from GBC. And now others? Sudāmā is there. So one exit and one new one, Girirāja is there. And, how many of you are now existing actually?
Devotee: There is seven here.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They cannot think so many things because they are concentrated in a small area of even their own...
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is we call kūpa-maṇḍūka-nyāya(?), the frog, Dr. Frog of the well. He cannot conceive what is Atlantic Ocean, but still he will theorize, "Atlantic Ocean may be so big, so big, so big." What experience you can get Atlantic Ocean living in a three-foot well? That is going on. And if I ask you, "What is the measurement of the space?" You cannot say that. You cannot say that. But there is measurement (indistinct). It may be unlimited for you, but as it is a created thing, there must be measurement. Any created thing has measurement. Unless they agree to submit... They must submit. Just like you have submitted, you are (indistinct), so you can understand God. This is the only qualification. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam (BG 18.66), "First of all submit, rascal, then I shall (indistinct), you will be able to understand the truth." There is no possibility of understanding the whole thing by challenge. That is (indistinct). Their only challenge (indistinct).
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are challenging the nature.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Prabhupāda: Yes. These rascals at any time can arrest anyone and keep in him the concentration camp. Oh, it is a dangerous government. And they will take you anywhere, nobody will know. Just like even a great person, Kruschev, nobody knows his whereabouts. It is a very dangerous government. But as they are advertising, people are not happy. Moscow city is nice, but it is old constructed. The same Communistic government has not done anything. There are very big, big buildings, nice roads, everything, but they are all old, not new.
Devotee (3): What they are doing with their wealth?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Oh. He says mām. He says everything mām, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65), mām eva, everything mām, "I". So why you should bring Brahmā? Kṛṣṇa says everything "I". You are asking about Kṛṣṇa. That means you do not understand Kṛṣṇa. But it is clearly said mām, Kṛṣṇa. We have, therefore, given the name "Kṛṣṇa consciousness", nothing else, neither Brahmā consciousness, nor God consciousness. "Kṛṣṇa consciousness." The whole concentration is to Kṛṣṇa.
Scholar: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That is the fact.
Scholar: The explanation here is that from this śloka to the seventy-two...
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Prabhupāda: I think I..., Germany, in the war, they extracted fat from stool because stool is full of fat and hypophosphytes. Stool. So there was scarcity of fat. So they were extracting fat from stool. By scientific method. There was no fat available in wartime. That my Godbrother, Sadānanda, when he came India, so I asked him that: "Your German people, I've heard that German people are very stout and strong. Why you are lean and thin?" So he replied that: "During the war days, there was control. So I was getting fat, butter, simply because we were children." He showed his wrist watch, "to this, this much. Only for children, this much butter, weekly, once." That means under, under-nourished. So therefore they are finding out fat from stool. And in the concentration camp, Kīrtanānanda told me, actually they ate their own stools. And who was telling me...? Śrutakīrti, you were telling me that in the, what is called? Capsule? They turn their stool into food.
Prabhupāda: They are simply set of rascals. All people are unhappy there. Unhappy. They cannot speak anything against the government and they have got so many protests to lodge. So many. But they cannot speak. If you speak, immediately he's sent to the concentrated camp. Some... Nobody knows where he has gone. You see the Kruschev, such a big man. Nobody knows where he is. That is their policy. As soon as you are suspicious,... Therefore Lelin... Lelin, Lelin...
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Lenin...
Prabhupāda: Not Lenin. Stalin.
Karandhara: Stalin.
Student (1): That's what I'm trying to find out.
Prabhupāda: No, if you want to concentrate, find out God... Do you mean to say simply by practicing, you'll find out? You must know what is God. Then suppose you are purchasing some ticket. You do not where to go. You do not know. You say, "I'll have to find out where to go." What is this? Then why you are purchasing ticket?
Student (1): Yeah. How can you focus your mind on God before you know what He is?
Prabhupāda: Yes. So then what is God?
Student (1): That's what I came to ask you.
Sir Alistair Hardy: I certainly believe that. Oh, I think we're very close really, in our views of God, except that I'm concentrating on studying the working of God in the people of today. You are studying the message of God given by Kṛṣṇa in the... And I'm trying to show they are the same, the same view as that revealed by Jesus and by other great...
Prabhupāda: No... When we speak of Veda, Veda means knowledge. So knowledge means knowledge of God. Any scripture that gives knowledge of God, that is Vedas. Don't think that Vedas means that only the Sāma, Yajuḥ, Atharva. Those who are following the principles to give knowledge about God, that is Veda. Veda means knowledge. Vetti veda vido jñāne. Vid-dhātu is called veda, vetti. Jñāne when there is question of knowledge, these three forms are used: vetti, veda, vido, jñāne. Vinte vid vicaraṇe vidyate vid saptāyāṁ labhe vindati vindate. (?) This is the vid-dhātu description. So vid-dhātu means to know. So ultimate knowledge is to know God. That is real knowledge. Vedaiś ca sarvaiḥ. Sarvaiḥ, all kinds of Vedas. All kinds, sarvaiḥ. So Bible can be taken as Vedas because it is trying to give knowledge about God, maybe for a certain class of men.
Sir Alistair Hardy: Well, I'd very much like to have records of experience, accounts of present-day experience. Although as I say, at the moment I'm rather tending to concentrate on the western. I'm hoping to get scholars who are really Sanskrit scholars and those people who can really understand the language of oriental affairs.
Prabhupāda: No, first thing is: this, this is a different science. Science of God is not material science. Simply material, academic career will not help.
Sir Alistair Hardy: No, no. I agree.
Revatīnandana: "Eastern-Western" will not help.
Sir Alistair Hardy: No, I get example (?) to both, both from the East and the West.
Prabhupāda: Simply by becoming Sanskrit scholar or Latin scholar, it is not sufficient. He must be God-realized, purified. Then it is possible. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ: (Brs. 1.2.234)
Prabhupāda: This child, she cannot concentrate because due to the body. Other gentlemen, ladies, they can concentrate. So she has to get a different body to have a different mentality. So in other words, with the change of the body the mentality changes. So in this body I am thinking of France, and if my next body, it is not in France or is not human, I will think otherwise. So the whole duration of my life which I thought in one way, that is simply wasted. Simply wasted. They do not know. This knowledge is lacking. There is no such knowledge in the university, any education, nothing. Simply they are wasting time. Simply. They have no perfect knowledge. They are wasting their time, and doing something just like childish, and going on as advanced in civilization, and so on, so on, so on. Now they should think. Simply on some utopian ideas they should not go.
Prabhupāda: Then how can I accept it? I cannot enter into some vague thing.
Yogeśvara: All the systems have to do with meditation, concentration, things that will reawaken your consciousness.
Prabhupāda: What is the object of meditation?
Yogeśvara: (break) ...different objects, many different.
Prabhupāda: But tell one of them.
Yogeśvara: The body for example. (break) He says that there is "the eternal meditation number three."
Prabhupāda: So what is the number one?
Prabhupāda: So according to your culture, mentality, your condition of life will be at the end of your life. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram, sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ (BG 8.6). The whole life, as we have thought, as we have absorbed in thought, the same mentality will be concentrated at the time of your death. So, a god's mentality, or dog's mentality or hog's mentality, or... There are so many kinds of. So you'll get next body according to that mentality.
Guest (2): Yes. Can you scientifically prove this, sir? I mean is it purely a matter of belief or...
Prabhupāda: This is science. Our science is perfect science. Because we are receiving knowledge from the perfect, Kṛṣṇa. And the so-called science is imperfect because the knowledge is received from imperfect person. However great scientist you may be, you have to admit that your senses are imperfect.
Prabhupāda: Now, happy attitude. Now the cow are going to be killed. They know it, that "We are going to be killed." They're also intelligent living entity. So how they can be happy? If some human being concentrated in a camp, and they know that "We are going to be killed," can they be happy? So if one is not happy, if the cow is not happy, can she supply sufficient milk? No. No. Therefore just they were happy. Therefore milk was supplied so much that the grazing ground became wet with milk. Muddy. With milk, not with water. So we, we have no intelligence how to live. We... Our Bhagavad-gītā says, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya vaiśya. Means kṛṣi-go-rakṣya, to protect cows. Nowadays not to protect cows—to kill cows. Just see, business. Vaiśya means businessman. So vaiśya's business is kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). But no go-rakṣya. Cutting the throat of go.
Prabhupāda: Dark room?
Lady: And he makes you concentrate on... Some people (indistinct) something...
Prabhupāda: It is all "something," nothing tangible.
Lady: I at least here practiced psychiatry of...
Banker: You go there, and you sit on cushions in a very dark room.
Prabhupāda: He does not know. She does not know.
Lady: No, I never practiced it...
Prabhupāda: She knows only "dark room." That's all. In darkness.
Prabhupāda: Oh. And we do not do anything in darkness. Our everything is open.
Lady: No, what are you doing, that is for the sake of concentration or something you must be doing...
Prabhupāda: But concentration. Best concentration in darkness is to sleep comfortable, no disturbance. If you make the room dark and go on sleeping, snoring, nobody is going to disturb you. That is best concentration.
Lady: What do you suggest for meditation?
Prabhupāda: We don't find anything in the Bhagavad-gītā that "You should concentrate, meditate in darkness." We take it as bogus. No religious system, even in Christianity, there is no such thing as darkness. Christian churches are very much illuminated. They pray. Prayer is there. The necessity. Why in darkness? That is his invention. Neither in Hinduism, neither in Buddhism, there is such recommendation that "You pray in the darkness." Therefore it is bogus. Not standard. Why darkness? Naturally, if you make this room dark, you will feel sleepy. That is natural tendency.
Lady: (indistinct) meditation?
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: But he is sarva-bhūta-hite ratāḥ. Why he should be concentrated one?
Mr. Sar: Adveṣṭā sarva-bhūtānām.
Prabhupāda: Ah, adveṣṭā. It is not, "I am Hindu. Why shall I preach amongst the Christian?" The dveṣṭā.
Dr. Patel: Adveṣṭā sarva-bhūtānām.
Prabhupāda: But one has to become adveṣṭā. This is adveṣṭā.
Dr. Patel: Maitraḥ karuṇa eva ca, nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ kṣamī (BG 12.13).
Chandobhai: Should be a real concentrated difference
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Chandobhai: When you do the work, you should be a real concentration.
Prabhupāda: That is not possible.
Chandobhai: Therefore there is no... Because your attachment is more to the...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Chandobhai: ...reserves of that...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66). You'll take a practical... My Guru Mahārāja gave me hint that book publication is more pleasing to me than Maṭha-mandira. So I took it and I began to publish books and that has come successful. Kāryaṁ karma. I took it, "Oh, Guru Mahārāja wants that books should be published. So let me concentrate on this instead of..." My creating so many centers, big, big temples, that is not my primary duty. My primary duty is to write books. Therefore I am going on still. These are coming automatically. Maybe this is the secret of my success.
Dr. Patel: Sannyāsa-yoga-yuktātmā vimukto mām upaiṣyasi.
Prabhupāda: Ah, karyam, that one should take the order of the guru, because guru is the representative of Kṛṣṇa. So when one takes... That is explained by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in connection with the verse:
Guest (3): But isn't the bhajana that you do for concentration?
Prabhupāda: Yes, bhajana is concentration, reading is concentration...
Guest (3): No, besides that, any other type of concentration you do?
Prabhupāda: What do you mean by concentration?
Guest (3): Meditation.
Prabhupāda: Yes. When you think... Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). The yogis, in dhyāna, in meditation, they always see the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu within the heart. So that is meditation. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). The jñānīs, they see by cultivation of knowledge, and the bhaktas, they see the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So Supreme Lord, the Absolute Truth, is understood from different angles of vision. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam (SB 1.2.11). That is Absolute Truth.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan. This is called bhakti-yoga. Mayy āsakta. The aśakti, the attachment, is for so many things. Now we have to concentrate it on Kṛṣṇa. This is bhakti-yoga. Mayy āsakta manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ. Simply by this concentration of an attraction to Kṛṣṇa, you become liberated. This is the process.
Dr. Patel: First you must perfect your thinking of Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. When you think of Kṛṣṇa, you are on the transcendental position. You are not in the material world. Māṁ ca vyabhicāriṇi bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate, sa guṇān samatītya etān. He is immediately transcendental to all the qualities of material world.
Dr. Patel: All mana buddhi should be concentrated to the sacred feet of Kṛṣṇa. (break).
Prabhupāda: ...Madana-mohan, nobody can be saved from the hands of Madana. Madana-mohana we have to see.
Dr. Patel: That day we talked about these things... (break)
Prabhupāda: ...perfection. They think of Kṛṣṇa that "He is our child. Now He is going to be vanquished."
Dr. Patel: Because it was very late to come back from... (break)
Prabhupāda: Same sentiment, but in relation with Kṛṣṇa.
M. Roost: I try to make a yoga with understanding from occident... I saw that occidental people is more intellectual, and I don't understand very easily the karma-yoga. The dynamics and... I don't understand we must work without, without goal, without intention, without personal intention. And I try to show through the practice of haṭha-yoga that posture and prāṇāyāma and concentration. I try to...
Prabhupāda: Beginning from abdomen?
M. Roost: The kind of meditation I learned in India with Swami Satyananda, it's a few different type meditation.
Prabhupāda: They begin from the abdomen, maṇipūraka, maṇipūraka. And then the intestines. They come to the heart; then ultimately, to the brahma-randhra. This practice?
M. Roost: And you must have the conscious of your breathing from rodha to ājñā, and ājñā through the Rājadvāra (?) column to mūlādhāra. This is one example. And it's a general technique of concentration. For example, to...
Prabhupāda: That I already said, dhyānāvasthita, dhyāna avasthita. Dhyāna means meditation, and situated, avasthita. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā, by mind, paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ. So these processes are approved, but they are more or less on the bodily concept of life.
M. Roost: Is according to...?
Prabhupāda: As the karmīs, they are in the bodily concept of life. They are working day and night trying to improve the material condition of life, not only in this life, but also in the next life. They are performing different ritualistic ceremonies for being promoted to the heavenly planet, like that. So they are all karmīs. Either in this world or in the next world, they are called karmīs. So karmī means they want comfort of this body.
Satsvarūpa: In the beginning of devotional service, the concentration is on the service more than on Kṛṣṇa the person.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Satsvarūpa: But then gradually, as we serve and serve and concentrate on the service, then there's realization.
Prabhupāda: Yes, realization comes.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Of who we're serving.
Prabhupāda: The disciple serves Kṛṣṇa under the direction of spiritual master. Vidhi-mārga, regulative principles. Vidhi-mārga, rāga-mārga. (break) ...gunarna jata nat krta mukha santi (?). So, I think it is mud.
Prabhupāda: No, in last war they ate stool also.
Yogeśvara: Concentration camps.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Really? What is the Vaiṣṇava point of view?
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Is a Vaiṣṇava, is he willing to maintain his body for the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa even if he has to break regulative principles—if it is necessary?
Prabhupāda: If it is necessary.
Yogeśvara: What's the name of that yogi who meditated for sixty thousand years?
Nitāi: Saubhari? Viśvāmitra.
Prabhupāda: Vālmīki.
Prabhupāda: Yes, He is divine essence. God is divine essence, just like you have volumes of milk and you churn it, then you get so much butter. So the butter is the essence of the milk. Similarly, the spirit is vast, all-pervading. The example, another example, is just like the sunshine universally spread, very big. Then you concentrate the sunshine, it is sun globe. And if you still concentrate, you will see within the sun globe there is sun-god. So he is the essence of this light, the sunshine light, the sun globe light, and the person—sun-god, Vivasvān, he is person—he is the essence among all this light. That is explained in the Brahma-samhitā, yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi (Bs. 5.40). The whole creation means expansion of the bodily rays of Kṛṣṇa. Yasya prabhā prabhavato (Bs. 5.40). By expansion of the bodily rays of Kṛṣṇa, this Brahman, yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam, tad brahma (Bs. 5.40).
Prabhupāda: And we say God is person. Impersonal feature, that is a feature only. Just like sun-god is a person and the sunshine is one of the feature of the sun-god. The sunshine is not final. You have to penetrate to the sunshine and reach the sun globe and go within the globe and see that there is the sun-god. But that requires strength how to enter into the sun globe and see this. But there is the information in the Bhagavad-gītā: imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavān aham avyayam, vivasvān manave prāha (BG 4.1), "I first of all instructed this yoga system of Bhagavad-gītā to the sun-god." The sun-god is there in the sun planet, and if you have got strength, you can go there and see. But you cannot go, although it is material. So similarly, in the spiritual world there is the Supreme Spirit, Supreme Being, He is spiritual, concentrated, essence of light. That is ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). He is the origin of everything. And He says, yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata (BG 4.7). Find out this verse. Find out.
Professor Durckheim: And I do believe that at the actual moment still, the treasure in the European peoples, the different peoples, who went through the war, through concentration camps, through battlefields and bombing nights, are hidden in their hearts certain moments when death was near and they were wounded and nearly torn in pieces. Because they had a certain experience they survived. And again and again, when I give a lecture, I have two or three people, waiting, telling me, "Now you just reminded me an experience long ago, ten days ago, two months ago, when I thought I was a little bit crazy, and now I understand it has been the experience, perhaps the most important of my life, on which I should have built my future inner way." And these experiences are still there. And once people understand, they don't need a war and a battleship and a concentration camp and a bombing night to take serious certain inner experiences when they are suddenly are touched by this divine reality, and they suddenly feel that this bodily existence is not lasting at all.
Prabhupāda: That's it. That we can experience every night.
Guest (3): ...it's a source of God. And there are some yogas which concentrate on the breath.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There are different airs within the body and controlling the airs and putting this soul... Soul is already floating in the air. So the yogi mystic process can bring the soul from different places, and then they bring it here and they ascertain where he has to go, and then, from this hole... What is called, this hole?
Madhudviṣa: Brahma-randhra.
Prabhupāda: Brahma-randhra, we say.
Madhudviṣa: Well, in Australia there is vast areas which cannot be cultivated, like deserts and semi-deserts. The gentleman's contention is that if we try to grow grains in a semi-desert area it would throw off the balance of the natural, the natural pulse of the earth, let us say, and it would cause havoc in other fields. One of the basic things that our spiritual master is putting forward is that if we put an emphasis on producing food grains and milk and vegetables to live on, concentrating on those points instead of complicating our lives with great industries for cosmetics and film industries and things that are really not essential to us... There's people that don't have the essentials and other people who have all the trappings of the modern technological science. Our spiritual master's contention is that real happiness lies in simple living and high thinking and this is the education that we're trying to put forward. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...these are all misconceptions because I am not this body. I am spirit soul. When the spirit soul goes away, then where is the distinction? Suppose in hospital some Hindu dies or some Muslim dies, some Christian die, the spirit... They are stacked together as useless matter. Is it not?
Dr. Muncing: With respect, sir, I notice you wear a watch. This must be obviously a product of science, and this is what it's about. But you are stressing time and again in your writings the need to concentrate on the laws that you set out in order to achieve some standing in the future, in the life hereafter. Isn't this at the risk of neglecting the people who are sharing this life with us here and now?
Prabhupāda: No, it is not the question of neglecting. Just like formerly there was no watch, but still they used to keep time by the movement of the sun on a dial, just making some marks on the stone. Do you know this?
Guests: Yes, yes, I know.
Prabhupāda: What is the standard of happiness? Maithu, sex, that's all. Yan maithunādi. All these gṛhasthas, you will find they are accumulating money, they are enjoying sex life, then daughter's sex life, son's sex life, grandson's sex life. They are busy. Especially in India you will find, they spend thousands lakhs of rupees for son's and daughter's and grandson's sex life. Is it not? That is their happiness. "I am enjoying sex life." Just like my grandmother-in-law. She is concentrating on sex life. She was old, she had no opportunity. Let grandson-in-law, granddaughter. One who is impotent, he wants to see others enjoying sex life. You know this? He enjoys. He cannot do it. There are many persons, he is impotent, so he brings another man to his wife, then he watches. You know this? This is going on. Sex. They will see the dog's sex life, very (indistinct), how he is enjoying. Cow's sex life. Dog is having sex, and there will be crowd.
Prabhupāda: That is the result. If one actually hears from the right source (indistinct), then this lusty desire of sex life will be finished. No more. Hṛd-rogaṁ kāmam apahinoty acireṇa dhīraḥ. Sober. But these people, they are hearing life after life by the sex concentration, making offense that Kṛṣṇa is also doing the same thing. They publish book. One rascal, Bhaṭṭācārya(?), has published. In Paris we saw.
Devotee (2): The Myth of Kṛṣṇa?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Rascal, sex life. Rādhārāṇī naked, he has given the first picture, and that is published by the United Nations.
Gurudāsa: The United Nations is also encouraging sex.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Devotee (5): When a new book comes we're very happy. We read it, and then, when we read it, we become enlivened to distribute it. And sometimes we read one like the Bhagavad-gītā or one new Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and then we'll concentrate on that book because it has made us so happy.
Prabhupāda: You have read Caitanya-caritāmṛta?
Tripurāri: Yes. We study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the morning and Bhagavad-gītā in the evening. Then in the day we read Nectar of Devotion, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and Kṛṣṇa book at night. All the devotees are reading...
Prabhupāda: It never becomes old.
Tripurāri: No.
Indian man: No, no, but then I can create in the form of Rāma as one.
Prabhupāda: That is not creation.
Indian man: No, not creation, but I can have my own concentration in the Rāma-mūrti.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Indian man: Instead of Kṛṣṇa mūrti, I can...
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Indian man: That way.
Prabhupāda: That's all.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like the Germans, they extracted fat from stool. And that was used as butter. This is scientific. They'll have to eat stool even. They have eaten. In the last war, concentration camp, they have eaten their own stool. There was no food. So nature will punish them in that way. They'll eat everything. This godless civilization will lead people to such condition of life. Kadharya bhakṣaṇa kare, tara janma adho pate yaya. This life they will eat everything, all nonsense thing, and next life they become pig, cats, dogs. That's all. This will be.
Nalinī-kānta: The scientists are saying that milk is the major cause for heart attack. Milk is a very harmful food. It causes heart attack.
Prabhupāda: Just see. Milk is the miracle food, and they are condemning by a scientific process.
Paramahaṁsa: Just like they had some people who came to Russia to start some Buddhist thing, and then they were sent away to some camp, concentration camp.
Prabhupāda: Never seen again.
Paramahaṁsa: No one has seen them.
Prabhupāda: Just see. This is their... It is the most fallen country. No freedom. No freedom at all. Horrible country.
Gaṇeśa: Why don't the people revolt if they're so unhappy?
Prabhupāda: Yes, they are revolting, but they are now so much suppressed they cannot... Sometimes there is revolt. Sometimes there is upheaval.
Amogha: But at present the caste system in India isn't actually representative of the original varṇāśrama dharma system. The original system was a cooperation, organized cooperation between four kinds of men which are naturally there in society. Just like now we can see that some people are working as laborers, some people are working as merchants, and some people politicians and lawyers, some are teachers. Originally they were organized so that the priests, or priestly order, were benefiting everyone by their teaching. And so that they could fully concentrate on that, they were not engaged in working for food and money. But what happened in this age, was that the higher caste became fallen, and they misused their high position, and instead of helping everyone by their teaching, they misused the position, or exploited the position, simply for selfish ends, so there became a conflict between the...
Prabhupāda: Vested interest.
Amogha: Vested interest. Yes. So then there was conflict between the lower and the higher and it broke down. So what we're teaching is not actually the caste system as it is now or it was recently, but...
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No. South Africans, they were Europeans. The British started the first concentration camp. They took these "Afrikaners" as they call them, Europeans. They put them on an island called St. Helena. That was actually the first concentration camp, by the British.
Prabhupāda: This is going on. Still, even the opposite party, they are not disgusted—"This material life is not very peaceful." They are not disgusted.
Brahmānanda: Now they are thinking, "We'll be independent..."
Prabhupāda: Yes. That... They are trying to be independent. And India... Just like India has got independent, and now the position is "emergency." They do not think in this way, that "Independence or dependence, we are actually dependent under the laws of nature." That they do not think. They are thinking... The same example as I gave, that "This boil is here. Why not here? It is very painful," like that. They have no sense that so-called dependence or independence, he has to suffer. That he does not know. Mūḍha nābhijānāti.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa explains, vāsudeva sarvam iti, that He is everything and that He is everywhere.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prof. Olivier: Thank you very much. Might I apropos of that just say here that we have here a department, Science of Religion. Then we have a department of Christian Theology. We have now started a department of Islamic Studies, which will concentrate more on the theological aspects as we go along. And then, if we can find the right guru, we can start a gurukula, a department of Hindu Studies or Hinduism. And Mr. Chotari and various other members of the local community here are assisting us to find the right spiritual leader. As far as Hindu studies are concerned, we give a course here in Sanskrit at the university.
Prabhupāda: You have seen our books?
Dr. Patel: They eat even stool. Just like hogs.
Prabhupāda: That also a human being does. You know in concentration camp in second war they had to eat their stool.
Dr. Patel: But the British army had a regulation that they could drink urine but not stool. They cannot eat.
Prabhupāda: You may make regulation, but necessity has no regulation.
Dr. Patel: I.... because I happen to be.... I, I was holding the honorary position of a colonel in the army...
Dr. Patel: Only by mind and concentration of the mind you get the truth.
Prabhupāda: Concentration is different.
Dr. Patel: But that is also of what? Of the mind.
Prabhupāda: The mind, when you concentrate the mind to the truth, then it is all right.
Dr. Patel: That is what I say. By concentration of the mind you get the truth. That is the right.
Prabhupāda: Mind is not truth.
Dr. Patel: Mind is not truth, but by mind we get at the truth.
Prabhupāda: The yogis, they have already found the truth. Jñānāvasthitā tad-gatenā manasa pasyanti yaṁ yoginam. So they have already found out the truth, and they are concentrating. That is not experiment. They have already know.
Dr. Patel: But, I don't say they have experimented on the truth, sir. I think I am not making myself more clear to you. What I meant to say is they have experimented by concentration of the mind to find out the truth, and they realize the truth that way.
Prabhupāda: No. Realize, that's a fact. Now they are acting, by.... Tad-gatena manasā, mind is fixed up in Supersoul, Paramātmā. That is yoga.
Dr. Patel: Yes. You mean to say, hm, that...
Prabhupāda: They have already, nobody (indistinct) truth.
Prabhupāda: Yes, he is concentrated. Just like our bhakti. Bhakti means we know, "Here is God: kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28)." So there is no question of experimenting. Now we are known, we are concentrating how to satisfy. There is no question of experimentation.
Dr. Patel: But the physical scientists' method, chemistry, biology, is, I mean, this physics, they have to experiment in their.... They are nothing but the finding out the truth behind the phenomena, the material phenomena. That is what I mean.
Prabhupāda: Phenomena is changeable, always changing. Just like this samudra—sometimes here, sometimes there.
Prabhupāda: There are some animals, they do not actually touch the egg-birds. Or the, I think, what is called, tortoise. They simply concentrate, and the egg comes into being.
Lokanātha: If you hear the truth, there is no need to make an experiment at all. Isn't it?
Prabhupāda: Hm. That is perfect experiment.
Lokanātha: That is, that happens with full śraddhā. When there is unflinching faith, he will not go for making the experiment.
Kīrtanānanda: (break) ...come and dance at āratik?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Hṛdayānanda: Lord Caitanya...
Jayapatākā: I think if we concentrated first in Bengal and Orissa, we get some, enough devotees, and then they could help us in the other villages elsewhere.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayapatākā: All over India. Like Madana already got three devotees when I was there in one week. By now he may also have more. Bengalis like kīrtana very much. (break) ...devotees are Bengalis.
Prabhupāda: ...ago Bengali culture was very much adored all over India. Even one big politician, Gandhi's guru, Goke, Gokule, he remarked, "What Bengal thinks today, other provinces will think tomorrow." He said like that. And actually all big, big movements started from Bengal. The national movement also was started from Bengal. Whatever we may criticize Vivekananda, when... He's a Bengali. He went first for preaching Indian religion. Rabindranath Tagore, he's a Bengali. All big, big...
Interviewer (1): ...were minstrels who wander who wander our city streets, mumbling about Hare Kṛṣṇa, then the man to answer your questions is the man who started the Kṛṣṇa movement, His Divine Grace Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. And if you have trouble following that, the best is yet to come. His message might seem complicated to the unconverted, but when it's all boiled down, it's quite simple. All you have to do is concentrate, like Carol Jarvis did during this in-depth interview. (sound of kīrtana)
Carol Jarvis: Your Divine Grace, what prompted you to start the Kṛṣṇa movement? (From here on follow excerpts of Interview, Melbourne, 4/20/76, combined with short, loud recordings of kīrtanas)
Prabhupāda: Well, the scientists make research. One does wrong thing to do that. So our process is to carry out the order of the higher authorities. So my Guru Mahārāja, my spiritual master, asked me to do this. (inserted kīrtana)
Prabhupāda: That is.... That you have to consider, that it is a fact. And the yoga system is meant.... This is the real yoga system, that because we are on the false understanding, identifying with the body, so the bodily function should be controlled, and concentration or focus should be placed: "What is that living condition?" That is yoga or meditation, to find out what is the real.... Analyze this body and find out where is the living pulse. And that is real yoga system, to control the senses. The senses are working. Now we are getting knowledge through the senses. How to get this knowledge of the living force? That, a mechanical arrangement, that is called yoga system.
Cameraman(?): Somebody move up.
Prabhupāda: Read this." He sādhavaḥ sakalam eva vihāya: "You are very learned, but forget what you have learned, all rascaldom. Try to read this book." Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkho yāvat kiñcin na bhāṣate: "A rascal fool is very beautifully dressed, very nice sitting. But his rascaldom will be disclosed as soon as he will speak." So these rascals, as soon as they speak, "We shall surpass the laws of nature," then we can understand what kind of rascals. Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkhaḥ. By their, these words we can take, "Oh, rascaldom," at once. "I shall break the wall. I shall push the mountain with my head." It is like that. If somebody is thinking that "I shall push the Himalayan mountains by knocking with my head," then we can understand. So where it is? A rascal, the innocent, he is also rascal. But innocent is eager to become intelligent, so there we shall deal. And the stubborn atheists, they are dviṣat. They cannot be corrected immediately, unless they become ruined. (break) ...their standard of life. Try for that. Concentrate in your country. There is no need of going.... I was written, asking you that, that "If it is very hard job, don't try for that, useless waste of time." Incorrigible. So what is the use of going to a person...?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Should I concentrate my time for this?
Prabhupāda: Yes, only. This will be your only business. All over the world, see how the books can be pushed. In their language or in English, now we have got several languages. You have seen the latest Portuguese edition?
Guru-kṛpā: Spanish.
Prabhupāda: Spanish. You have seen?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't think I have.
Prabhupāda: Give it to him.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I heard that, but is he being alright or not?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: From the report it appears that he goes occasionally into some eastern European countries. Mostly he's concentrating in England, Germany and Scandinavias. He has a party and they are doing speaking engagements and distributing books. And sometimes he went in which countries?
Devotee: Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Budapest.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is going to some communist European countries.
Devotee: They make their vans with false bottoms and they hide the books underneath so at the border they do not see. Underneath the van is all your books. When they get in the country then they distribute the books to these centers.
Makhanlāl: The māyā that harasses the devotee is just mental concoction, then? He should concentrate on just serving?
Prabhupāda: Māyā's harassing, that means you are not in devotional service. It is not concoction; it is fact.
Devotee (1): (indistinct) We're having a lot of trouble distributing books in the airports now.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What is the difficulty?
Devotee (1): It just seems legal problems. People don't like us there.
Mādhavānanda: People are opposing more. As our movement grows more and more, people want to check.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Hmm? No, I do not wish to interfere. You manage now. I want to see that you are managing without my interference. Now practically I want to concentrate more, or absolutely I want to do that. But sometimes this mismanagement gives me too much anxiety. I do not wish to see that somehow or other we have built up a nice institution, on account of lack of management it may be hampered. That is my only anxiety. Now what is the position of the Gurukula in Texas? Our Gurukula, I have repeatedly said that we want simply to know English nicely—English is international language—and Sanskrit just to read and understand our literature. But we don't find any progress in that way.
Prabhupāda: Just see how forcefully they are being kept into ignorance, and we want to give knowledge, they don't, won't allow. This is government. So anyway, it is good news that our books are being read in that way. That means people are very eager, but they are being suppressed by the so-called government. What is the wrong there, that they cannot read these books publicly, because there is God? What is the wrong? When I was in Moscow airport, as soon as they found Bhagavad-gītā, they called police, the customs checking. The foolish man was kind enough, he said, "Not serious offense. Don't send him in the concentration camp." They can do. In Russia, even if you are foreigner, they can immediately send you to the concen..., without any knowledge, they don't care for your embassy or your... Such a rascal state, there is no civilized method. They send their own men, such an important man like that Kruschev. He was sent into oblivion; nobody knows where he is. Such a rascal government.
Hari-śauri: Venus is the other one they concentrate... They think that Venus, there's a good chance there may be some life there.
Pradyumna: Venus is covered by clouds. So no one can see what is there. There's clouds all around the planet. Heavy, what do they call, so that no one can see. So they sent a rocket inside or something to go through the clouds to see what is there. Russians also tried. Fermament. In the Bible, they say that on earth there was also..., above the earth there were all clouds at one time according to the Bible. And then at that time men used to live very, very long, and then the clouds went away at some point. They call it a firmament. So the same thing is on Venus. No one can see what the planet is like, no one has ever known. That is also a heavenly, we say also... That is Śukrācārya's place?
Prabhupāda: Not Śukrācārya's, just Śukra.
Indian woman: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I read Ramakrishna when I was fifteen years old, and I became so restless and anxious for guru, and I began to concentrate so much, and I become so God conscious. But I don't know what happened to me by reading Ramakrishna, and I gave up my (indistinct). I don't know what's wrong with me.
Prabhupāda: Eh? (devotees laugh) What is the question?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The question is that she was so much inspired when she was very young, she read some words by Ramakrishna.
Prabhupāda: What was the particular thing?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Then she started looking for guru. She became very aware of the need for guru.
Indian woman: That's why I found you. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Therefore we have concentrated on Gītā. This movement—when I registered this association, so when I wrote "Kṛṣṇa consciousness," some friend said, "Why don't you write 'God consciousness'?" But no, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are particularly preaching Kṛṣṇa's teaching. Kṛṣṇa is God, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). But if you think that there is another God then you may do your business. We are concerned with Kṛṣṇa. That's all. We cannot allow any interpretation of Kṛṣṇa. That is our (indistinct). (aside:) Yes?
Guest (2): There is a Swami, Gangesvaranandaji, (indistinct) Vedas (indistinct) books that Kṛṣṇa's name in the Vedas is mentioned.
Prabhupāda: There is no fundamental difference. The same. Bhagavad-gītā recommends that you should select a very secluded place in a solitary sacred place, you should make your āsana, sit down perpendicularly, don't close your eyes completely, half open, and concentrate on the tip of the nose. Everything is there. "And then think of Me." But Arjuna said, he said, "Oh, it is not possible." He was a frank gentleman. He was not a hypocrite. He said that "You are recommending all these yoga practice, it is not possible for me. I am a politician, I have to execute so many other businesses. I cannot go to the secluded place and sit down like this. So you are recommending me for yoga practice, but I say I cannot." But at the present moment, they have become more than Arjuna. (laughs) What Arjuna denied, they want to practice.
Hari-śauri: They did an experiment, and they tried out..., if one chants... He claims that you have to have a special mantra that comes from him, and that will give you the bliss from transcendental meditation. But they did experiments where they just made up any mantra, just a few words, and concentrated on that, and the effect was exactly the same—sleep. Sleep, they enter into a...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Semiconscious.
Hari-śauri: Yes, a very low conscious level. The metabolism is very much slowed down. The breathing and heart rate and everything goes right down, and they stay like that, completely relaxed, for twenty minutes, and then for a few minutes they come out. That is the...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We can also do that; we'll hit them with our shoes. (laughter) For twenty minutes they can go unconsciousness. Free, we don't charge.
Hari-śauri: This opening comment in this magazine is very good, it says, "What is surprising about the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is not its conquest of the West, the USA in particular. The cultural impact of this institution, borne on the shoulders of Westerners in the main, has already reached amazing proportions in India."
Prabhupāda: That is my policy.
Bali-mardana: (laughs) He, Prabhupāda has explained to you previously that those who identify on the bodily concept, because the body itself is dead without the soul, it is considered the dead platform. Because the body itself without the soul is dead, whereas we are concentrating on the platform of life, the life within the body, the soul. So that is the platform of life.
Interviewer: Well is that what makes the people make this distinction between the life you are leading and the life of the world?
Prabhupāda: Yes, because we are working in different platform.
Interviewer: Uh huh.
Prabhupāda: We are working on the live platform and general people, they are working on the dead platform.
Interviewer: Not, if it's not in use it's serving no purpose.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Similarly if you simply concentrate on the car without any attention to the car driver, then what is your knowledge?
Interviewer: It takes both.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Interviewer: It takes both, the car and the driver.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Car is important so long it is moving and if it is not moving it has no importance, it is lump of matter. So the car in both the condition, while moving and not moving, it is lump of matter.
Prabhupāda: Oh! (laughs) (someone comes in?)
Interviewer: That they really shouldn't concentrate so completely on the world.
Prabhupāda: No, no. So long you are in the jail, you have to work according to the principle of the jail but you must know that jail life is not good.
Bali-mardana: You may work within the material world but you have to understand that the purpose is to get out of the material world.
Interviewer: Well, are your Kṛṣṇa members out of the, out of jail?
Prabhupāda: Just like, some of us are working like the hammerman, breaking bricks with hammer, but that does not mean he does not understand. So long one is in the jail, one is not in freedom, he has to work like that by force. But that is not his proper work. He has got a different work outside the jail or in his freedom life.
Interviewer: What I was trying to ask you a while ago, do you think that these particular Vedic disciplines and spiritual principles, concentration on the spirit instead of the body, has a particular usefulness in Western society nowadays?
Prabhupāda: It is useful for every human being. If the Western society thinks that they are not human being, that is another thing. (laughter)
Bali-mardana: In other words, this is the business of human life.
Interviewer: What's your view of Judaism and Christianity?
Prabhupāda: I have not studied, but any "ism," if it is meant for making the soul free from this bodily condition, that is first class "ism." Otherwise, it is simply waste of time.
Prabhupāda: Yes, Nārāyaṇa told me.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You know, Prabhupāda, I really feel like I should concentrate lot of my preaching here in New York.
Prabhupāda: Do that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What do you think?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Preaching is required, here or there.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You once said, "A good businessman, if he knows how to do it, he can make more money sitting in one place..."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, Prabhupāda. That's why if you concentrated here, just by your presence, even if you only spoke to a few important gentlemen... We have so many senior men here. We could do wonderful things. Within two or three months we could expand our movement so broadly here in New York, I think the whole country would take note. I really feel that there is a great potential.
Prabhupāda: That is right.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's why I'm not very eager to...
Prabhupāda: Yes, this is fact. Let me see what Kṛṣṇa desires. The roof is very nice.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: For open air.
Hari-śauri: Not so much tractors and things though. They've been trying to concentrate with just oxen and things like that, so it's taken a while to develop the whole concept, whereas in Pennsylvania they're using so many machines.
Prabhupāda: No, we are not producing various things(?).
Jayatīrtha: In our Vancouver farm, because we had machinery, we were able to put more land under cultivation in the first year than they had in New Vrindaban after so many years. They were very efficient.
Bhagavān: Thing is, we should not become dependent on machine.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: But it doesn't matter. Our purpose will be served anywhere. So, try to concentrate in this village organization life. Full of anxieties, city life. The houses already there, if you repair them nicely then it is a very nice place. They're gradually being repaired.
Bhagavān: Yes. No one is getting any salary here, they are just working and taking...
Prabhupāda: Yes, that's all. Why salary? Kṛṣṇa's servant. We are eternal servant. That is the beauty of our institution. We have no hired men. Unless one is sincere, why he'll work? What is the time now?
Bhagavān: Eight-thirty.
Pradyumna: And this is completely nonsense: "Their major concentration seems, however, to be in Orissa"—we don't have anything in Orissa—"the land of princes and paupers. They have built a center close to our atomic energy commission complex."
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: A hut center.
Jayapatākā: Gaura Govinda, he has a few huts. "Major complex."
Pradyumna: "Besides, they are planning to set up a Sanskrit university in Purī, the home of famed temples and one of the few spots in India blessed by Ādi Śaṅkara. Two devotees, Gurudāsa Swami and Abhirāma dāsa visited Bhuvaneśvara in April last to explore means to set up the university." Then in big heading, "Patnayak's interest in Kṛṣṇa cult."
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is going to get us...
Prabhupāda: Here is the first thing, that brahma-bhūtaḥ, Brahman realization. Then prasannātmā. He is no more under the material tribulation or anxiety. We are in anxiety on account of our material conception of life. Prahlāda Mahārāja said sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt (SB 7.5.5). Because we have accepted this asat body, material body, which will not exist, and we are concentrating our attention only on this body, therefore we are always anxious. Asad-grahāt. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt. On account of asat. So this is going on all over the world. Simply anxiety. They have created United Nations, but where is the United Nation? The people go there with anxiety, that's all. And come back again with anxiety. Because their asad-grahāt remains. The Indian is thinking, "I am Indian, this body." And the American is thinking, "I am American," and the Pakistani is thinking, "I am Pakistani." So asad-graha is there. So how the anxiety will go away? But they do not know this. There is no education.
Minister: No, for a country suffering from multiplicity of gods, Hinduism, you are doing a very great service, asking them to concentrate on Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: That is only God. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28).
Minister: How you are enlightening them, it is a very great service. No doubt about that. And you are making the man, the human being a servant of that (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: This is not my manufacture. Śāstra says kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam.
Minister: They have said so many things in the name of śāstra. They have said so many things in the name of śāstra. That you are making it one is very good.
Prabhupāda: No, those who are approved śāstra is accepted by the ācāryas. Śāstra, which is accepted by the ācārya, that is śāstra. You cannot make. As you cannot manufacture religion, you cannot manufacture śāstras.
Prabhupāda: ...the cause of bondage. This body, if the desires are not fulfilled, but the desire is continuing, so to fulfill the desire, Kṛṣṇa will give him chance for another type of body by which he can fulfill. That means he gets another body. Then another desire. (break) ...they're trying to put out the desire, but he is desiring to become liberated. That is another desire. The yogis are trying to concentrate on liberation by practicing yoga. And that is also another desire. In this way, one desire after another, another desire...
Bhavānanda: Then how to get free from those desires?
Prabhupāda: Locally?
Akṣayānanda: Here in the temple specifically. Haihaya has been concentrating very good.
Prabhupāda: Hindi?
Akṣayānanda: Yes, Hindi magazines and what we can get.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Viśāla alone does about two, three hundred every day.
Akṣayānanda: Viśāla is...
Prabhupāda: Where is our Viśvambhara? Viśvambhara is helping nicely?
Prabhupāda: ...they're reading now. Here, although we have got books, nobody reads. But there they are reading. But nobody is... (microphone moving) That means they are concentrating (indistinct) with so many books. There are other books also. Why they cannot sell so many books. Unless public is interested... If one has read one part of Bhāgavatam, he has got some impression, and actually that is the... (break) One young gentleman came, I do not know where. He simply asked me, "Swamiji, can I talk with you?" "Yes, sit down." His first appreciation was, "Swamiji, where you have got so vast knowledge?" I have already told some of you. So these people, these Americans and Europeans, they are intelligent. They are seeing that here are some ideas which is not to be found throughout the whole world. Therefore they are purchasing. Actually, it is right here.
Prabhupāda: What he will meditate and he requires so many primary rules and regulations before meditating, not that... In the Bhagavad-gītā before meditation it is clearly stated one should not close the eyes. As soon as you close the eyes and meditate, you will sleep. Immediately. They should be half closed and concentrate your eyesight on the top of the nose. That is meditation. Not that closing and snoring and huhuh. These rascals are going on. Who cares for the genuine thing? Nobody cares. Dharma (indistinct). That "I am your guru, I have followers," dharma principle, but he does not know this. This is going on. Neither the rascal guru knows neither his disciple knows. This is going on. Everywhere this is going on. All bluff. This very word used, adharma (indistinct), get a plan, "That I am (indistinct)." That's all. And have it, that's all, and do nothing, that's all. I do not know nothing but (indistinct), that's all. All these gurus all these chelas are doing that. This Anandamayi, Sai Baba, this, that, so many.
Guest (4): Concentration.
Prabhupāda: Which concentration? What is the subject?
Guest (4): It can be from man to man, from... One may do it on Kṛṣṇa and one may do it on...
Prabhupāda: That is not standard. If meditation is according to one's whims, that is not meditation.
Guest (4): But it depends upon the faith.
Prabhupāda: According to śāstra, meditation means to meditate upon God. That is meditation. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). Yoginaḥ, those who are yogis, they meditate upon the form of the Lord.
Guest (4): Then, in due course of time, do you see Him? Or in what form?
Prabhupāda: Yes, immediately you see Him. Kṛṣṇa's picture is there. Kṛṣṇa's picture and Kṛṣṇa is not different. So if you concentrate upon Kṛṣṇa, you immediately see Him.
Guest (4): You see Him.
Prabhupāda: Yes, immediately. But if you think Kṛṣṇa has no form, then it is difficult. Immediately. Now He says, man-manāḥ. He personally says, man-manāḥ, so where is the difficulty?
Guest (4): No, the form of the light, you see or...?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because he is limited...
Guest (4): As the man's concentration through which progresses, how, in what forms he goes on seeing Him? That is what my question is.
Prabhupāda: Therefore question is just simplified, that... Therefore we establish temple: "Here is Kṛṣṇa." That's all. If you say that "Kṛṣṇa is all pervading. Why shall I come to the temple?" And why not in the temple if He's all-pervading? But you say, "No, I am not going to see in the temple. I shall see outside in the sky." Then you don't see. Otherwise Kṛṣṇa is everywhere; why not in the temple? What is that argument? He is here also. But according to my capacity I can see temple, Kṛṣṇa, very easily. So Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ. You come daily to the temple and see Him and think of Him. There is no...
Prabhupāda: The other musical instrument, if he plays his attention will be diverted in musical instrument, not to chanting. "We have to see melody, whether it is going on nicely." But that is not good. Our concentration should be hearing Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is... That is bhakti. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, simply this karatāla, khola, that's all. In those days... Of course, there was no harmonium, but many stringed instruments were there. Sitar, esarāja, but these things were not used. Sometimes we do use to attract, but it is not required. (Hindi)
Indian lady: Yesterday I was (indistinct). The way it was for me, prema-bhakti. Through music it is very easy. (indistinct) You have to take rest now.
Prabhupāda: No, I have to take prasāda. (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: That is the explanation required.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Is to concentrate, and by concentration your health will improve.
Hari-śauri: The idea is to tone the body so the senses are subdued.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: So we engage their senses in kīrtana.
Prabhupāda: That is the actual fact. You read that portion.
Jagadīśa: They are coming to India to learn yoga, right? What is the perfection of yoga? Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: What we can do, have a small booklet on yoga...
Prabhupāda: Concentrate on viṣṇu-mūrti here, in the heart, and hear... This will immediately give some effect.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Or... Yes. We can have some pictures of people. And we'll publish your Sixth Chapter, like, just like publishing Sixth Chapter of the Gītā with a two-page introduction how this yoga is different from others and this is a guide, the Sixth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, the most ancient Hindu scripture, Indian scripture.
Prabhupāda: So keep some price for that.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Easy Journey to Other Planets. They finished printing it yesterday and they're binding it together. One or two days, it always happens. When I give a date sometimes it gets delayed. So I figured the distribution of Hindi books will be very good. Ludhiana and Mathurā and also not much investment will be required. It's very common, devotees go every year and they are tired of it. So this year we should concentrate on book distribution. If we have a pandal in Mathurā every evening starting at six o'clock. If we can reach Mathurā at five for book distribution it will be nice. Actually I was also thinking of having a three day pandal in Agra.
Prabhupāda: Agra is very good.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: A sannyāsī... A sannyāsī means he has ceased all material desire. There is no material desire. And the concentrated material enjoyment is sex. So if one could not control his sex life, then how he is swami? He's cheater.
Yogi Amrit Desai: That is the most potent of all the external attachments.
Prabhupāda: That is the essence. Mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes. Mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgī-saṅgam (SB 5.5.2). Tamo-dvāram. Viśatāṁ tamisram adānta-gobhiḥ. Adānta-gobhiḥ, by uncontrolled senses, one is going down and down to the darkest region of material existence. Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram. So those who are sensuous... One should not be sensuous. That is also... And if he mixes with sensuous persons, then he also going to the hell.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So the gṛha-vrata... If we keep ourself gṛha-vrata, then either guru or personally or by sat-saṅga, nothing will help us. Matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā mitho 'bhipadyeta gṛha-vratānām. Why? Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). Chewing the chewed. (break) Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśaya ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). If one is trying to be happy by material adjustment, that is durāśayā. It will never be.... (break) Yāvan na ghṛnita mahīyasāṁ pada-rājobhiṣekam. Yavan na ghrnita. Bhāgavata śloka, each word, each line, concentrated. Vyāsadeva's contribution, last thing; by Nārada's upadeśa. And this is the only means of anarthopaśamam. You have created anarthas, and human life is meant for arthadam. But.... Hare Kṛṣṇa. So therefore real Vedic civilization is that gradually we have to give up this gṛha-vrata position.
Rāmeśvara: The difference between Vedic culture and..., the Kṛṣṇa conscious culture and the modern culture is very, very dramatic, very big difference. So the transforming of society...
Prabhupāda: And besides that, if we concentrate in farm project there will be no need of exchange, because I'll be satisfied with my products. That's all. There is no need of exchange. Whatever I need, I get in my farm.
Rāmeśvara: Weaving, cloth.
Prabhupāda: Everything I get. So I haven't got to go outside for exchange. If you are satisfied in your farm—I am satisfied—then where is question of exchange? There is no need of artificial... So this banking, "fanking," everything will collapse automatically. There is no money, who is going to keep money in the bank?
Prabhupāda: A madman working... Chāgale nā khāya, pāgale ki bale. "A madman, what does he not say, and a goat, what does he not eat?" There is a system like that amongst the Muhammadan aristocracy. They keep one hundred chickens. Each day they kill one chicken, and that flesh, chopped up and given to the ninety-nine. Then, next day another. In this way, when one is left, that the master eats. Concentrating from hundred to one, and then he eats it. This is Muhammadan process.
Rāmeśvara: What is the use?
Prabhupāda: They know. (chuckling) They think the hundred chickens' vitamin comes into one.
Guest (1): All is concentrated—the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa līlā.
Prabhupāda: No, no. Why don't you present...? Kṛṣṇa has so many līlās. Just like... Where is our Kṛṣṇa book? You have got?
Hari-śauri: I can get a copy.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There is...
Hari-śauri: Any volume, or...?
Prabhupāda: That... Kṛṣṇa is killing Kamsa.
Prabhupāda: That's nice, but...
Guest (2): But if I have got the concentration, I can find you in me.
Prabhupāda: That is special case.
Guest (2): That is special case. That is devotion. That is surrender, actually a complete surrender.
Prabhupāda: Still, you know... Surrender... Surrender, but he did not do it properly. Therefore Droṇācārya did not like.
Guest (2): But he has got the devotion. He has complete surrender to Droṇācārya.
Prabhupāda: You know that Ekalavya. He asked that "You do that."
Guest (1): No, I mean desires... Just like your idol worship. Idol worship is not actually fruitless or anything. It's only to imagine God in it and just to have the concentration.
Prabhupāda: No, but idol worship is... These atheists, they say "idol worship," but we do not say. The... Here is Sākṣi-Gopāla. You know the story, Sākṣi-Gopāla? Two brāhmaṇas? So he never saw that He is idol. He saw Kṛṣṇa. So he said, "Kṛṣṇa, before You this man has promised. Now he's declining. So please come and give witness." And that is Sākṣi-Gopāla. So for a devotee, no. There is no idol.
Guest (1): No idol. No, that idol is actually, they are planned to...
Prabhupāda: No, no, that is actually happened. The so-called idol, He went to be witness. He came from Vṛndāvana to Cuttack. So "idol worship" is they say. But devotee... Just like people are coming by thousands to see Jagannātha. Do they come to see idol? Wooden Jagannātha? They come to see real Jagannātha, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise why they will spend so much money and take so much trouble and come here? The atheists may say, "How foolish they are.
Prabhupāda: They clapped. After hearing me they clapped. They purchased books. Now they are selling books. So I think my books are more important. We shall give more concentration for pushing on and publishing. What do you think?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That is our weapons. They are our strength, they are our guidance and they are our ammunition. Everything is based on these books, everything. We are...
Prabhupāda: One Indian, a very learned scholar in Chandigarh, he has given very good certificate. What is that?
Prabhupāda: But India, there is no such objection.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: None at all. Rather, they like our movement. So we should concentrate a lot of our energy here.
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think we're the only... I think that what you are telling us is perfect in that now what we have to do is we have to vigorously explain our philosophy.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's the only way. We have to educate them. If we remain silent now, then we will become squashed. We have to speak positively. "Yes, this is why... We are like this because of the following reasons."
Mr. Koshi: This is what you have tried to do. Why is it necessary to concentrate on this name, "Kṛṣṇa"?
Prabhupāda: First of all, you understand what is the importance of this movement. Then you will understand Kṛṣṇa. First of all, you have to know what is the important things are there. One thing is this bodily machine and the other thing is the power within the machine.
Mr. Koshi: The driving force.
Prabhupāda: But you do not know what is the power. You are simply embarrassed with the machine. So just try to understand your position in ignorance. As soon as the power within machine is gone, it is useless. Everything is thrown away, a lump of matter. So who is culturing higher...
Prabhupāda: Prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācā śreya-ācaraṇam sadā. This is premame(?) jīvātmā. Prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācā. (Hindi) Why people do not understand this philosophy? Making plans for welfare activities. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ (SB 7.5.31). (check this) Uru. Uru patim(?). Uru means (Hindi). Uru-dāmni. (Hindi) This is called gṛha. (Hindi) Expanded gṛha, and... What is called? It is concentrated...
Prem Yogi: Contracted.
Prabhupāda: Contracted. Contraction and extraction.
Prem Yogi: Expansion. Can I take leave, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Give them fruit.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm not sure if he's printing these... I think he is not printing a Sa-vijñānam Journal. He's printing some other booklets. But this regular journal, which comes out regularly, will be printed in India. "8) The scientists' book, Life Comes from Life, will be printed by BBT India, 5000 copies and paid for by BBT US. 9) No brochure will be printed for individual standing orders at this time. Rather, a selective market should be concentrated upon." This is in regard to Tripurāri Mahārāja's trying out some standing orders door to door in homes. So we decided that the BBT will not print any kind of special brochures at this time, but that he should first of all see what the market is like and make some experiment before we spend money.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Prabhupāda: By train. So it is nice place, educated.
Girirāja: One... There's a very big military concentration, so this time we didn't meet any of the military leaders, but I think next time we can arrange a big program there. It's the whole headquarters for, I think, central India or...
Prabhupāda: Which... It is... Very much. One program is clear. I think our this Cross Maidan pandal has given the people study.
Girirāja: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Bombay people.
Girirāja: When we meet people, they comment about it.
Śatadhanya: They have no civilization.
Prabhupāda: No, where is civilization? If you remain like animals, where is that civilization?
Śatadhanya: Just from the daily newspaper one can see that it is all madness, insane. (break)
Prabhupāda: Because whole Vedic knowledge is concentrated on the point how to stop birth and death. Eternal life. That is... (Bengali) (end)
Prabhupāda: Just... That is a psychology. I am not going out. But if I am ordered that "You cannot go out," then I become mad. I am not going out of this house, but if I have to maintain this idea that "I cannot go out," then I'll become mad. I know that I can go out whenever I like, but due to my diseased condition, I cannot go. That is another thing. But if I am able to go out and I am ordered not to go out, then I will become mad. This is psychology. So this is the position of the society, very, very bad. And our mission is para-upakāra, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission. So if we actually want... This is very good opportunity to train up from the very beginning to create vidvān, bhaktimān, jñānavān. Others also, they may be given opportunity. There is everything in the śāstra. We are presenting Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa has given all direction in every field of activity. So let us carry out the orders of Kṛṣṇa as it is, as far as possible. That is our duty. Now these, my programs, they're also taking the concentrating people in the village, government?
Prabhupāda: Let him concentrate especially on printing work.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, that's actually what all of the devotees here have tried to encourage him, that "You have so much to do in printing." Just like Rāmeśvara's job(?) took a full-time engagement.
Prabhupāda: So manage very nice. That is required. If there is good demand for Hindi books...
Bhakti-caitanya: Yes, every actually week we sell nearly...
Prabhupāda: And what about his complaint about books?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems like for the first few years you were... Our movement was very much engaged in establishing our centers, but now it seems that we can concentrate on actually pushing forward the knowledge we have to give.
Prabhupāda: Centers were meant for that purpose, for giving knowledge, not for show, a church, a show. What is knowledge?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now we have our centers established.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So we can concentrate on...
Prabhupāda: Giving knowledge.
Mr. Myer: We need in this country very much, in every city, in every town. For twenty years I was searching for something like this, and I think something exactly what I have dreamt of. And I think there are some very few problems that might come up, because most of the people are sannyāsīs. They are doing lot of preaching work. They aren't necessarily bothered with lot of administrative work. And if their administrative work is done by some other people, then they can concentrate more on preaching, which is very necessary.
Prabhupāda: Yes, sannyāsī, brahmacārī, means preaching. They are not meant for material management. They have dedicated their life for spiritual-although this material service is also spiritual—but they are doing on such a strength. You cannot expect a very expertly management and... But they act. Simply ask them to do the needful.
Prabhupāda: That will be done.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Let Akṣayānanda concentrate on preaching to the people who come here, making members, you know, classes...
Mr. Myer: Yeah, at the moment the quality of our programs is very poor.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So let him...
Mr. Myer: That's one of the biggest problems, where people having... They're not sticking...
Prabhupāda: Whatever I'll say to him, he'll do.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "By your mercy, now there is a very concentrated effort on behalf of Rāmeśvara Swami, Ambarīṣa dāsa and myself to plan and build an impressive theistic exhibition in Washington, D.C...."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "...which would attract the attention of some of the world's greatest leaders and dignitaries. The scope and implications of this task are breathtaking, and I am feeling very small and insignificant in confrontation with it, just like a dwarf trying to touch the moon. However, if you want me to perform this task, then kindly give me your mercy and bless me..."
Prabhupāda: Yes. You train up assistants and this will be recognized by government and everyone. You'll do more than Columbus. (laughter) In the Washington, in different compartments, a different explanation of Bhāgavata śloka by dolls will attract millions of people to see. Will it not?
Prabhupāda: Some sort of worship is there and instruction, many narratives. Women were advised to worship the Yamarāja, Sāvitrī, Satyavān. Then there was saṁskāras, purificatory method, out of which the higher class will be sacred thread ceremony. Always something spiritual, according to the... And actually learning Vedic knowledge, that was by the brāhmaṇas. They would give advice; people will follow. Brāhmaṇo jagato guruḥ. Just like Gargamuni came to Nanda Mahārāja. He took advantage of Gargamuni and performed some purificatory ceremony of Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. Why these big, big institutions for wasting time and dating between girls and boys, and then they learn expert how to kill child, how to make abortion? Expert. Simply concentration on sex. Then become hippie. Frustration. Worship hog. Do they not?
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa men. They want Bengal completely godless.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's interesting to see how the Chief Minister Basu, he concentrates on only one point—"They have entered India illegally, which means now they must be asked to leave." That's the only thing he's pointed on, this one point. It's like it indicates his whole motive: "Get them out somehow." Oh, it's a very clever plan. They knew we would defend, and then on the pretext that we're taking the offense, arresting. And they knew already that we were entering with these passports changed. They already knew. Very clever plan. The thing is that this is very, very much harmful to our preaching work for the time being in Bengal.
Prabhupāda: No.
Doctor: Small amount of protein. About... Percentage is about four percent or five percent. But this is a concentrated powder.
Dr. Kapoor: Ācchā. (Bengali)
Prabhupāda: (Bengali) (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. Did you call for me?
Prabhupāda: What did you do with food? (?) (break)
Śatadhanya: Prasādam. And they have kīrtana. They are so-called communists. Actually Bengalis are devotees, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Simply that they know your name is enough to purify all of Bengal, what to speak of if you remain present, the whole world will become completely flooded by kṛṣṇa-prema. That is why we are begging you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that you remain with us for some time longer, because we are very weak and are still attached to material sense gratification. But if you are present, it is like a transcendental ocean.
Prabhupāda: There is some strain here. Why not make big or...? (soft kīrtana in Prabhupāda's room)
Prabhupāda: That will be very good.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So we'll concentrate here, near Delhi and Punjab, this time, Aligarh and Agra. We'll try to finish this area within this coming month or so. And after that, I'll move to Bombay. I'll try to organize better in Bombay. Also Bombay will be much more effective. There are so many scientists there. I'd like to make a strong show in Bombay.
Bhāgavata: They have a space center there, don't they, in Bombay?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have got Trombay Atomic Research Center also. There is a place called Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
Prabhupāda: Later on...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Later on it may be done, but for now it's better to concentrate in bigger cities, where we're sure of the response.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's asking for your...
Prabhupāda: Svarūpa Dāmodara?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. Yes. It is true that in big cities... Say, Piyal(?) find it(?) in Delhi. They say they can fill up the Vijñāna Bhavana. Also coming here in Vṛndāvana, especially if we don't provide transportation right from..., by some good conveyance, actually it's not so easy to come here.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And that also would be such an expenditure, each time you want to hold a meeting you'd have to convey people, especially from other cities.
Jayādvaita: Everything that you've translated is edited so far, except for the last two sittings. It's coming out very nicely. Now by your instruction to concentrate on Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's commentary, I think it will become even more clear, because Pradyumna will be able to give the English more easily.
Prabhupāda: So do it.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You want to do some just now?
Prabhupāda: Yes, one or two lines. Let us...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. Yadubara wanted to film you translating. Is that all right? You don't mind. We can have a little light here while he films for about half a minute? It wouldn't disturb you.
Prabhupāda: Yadubara is good devotee.
Girirāja: Well, he's only made two members. I think he's going to get into it a little more. He doesn't have to be registered to make members, because the two members he made... Tax exemption has to be... Each case is considered individually. There's no system, but the lawyer and other people I spoke to felt that, since it was a Hindu state, and since they wanted to encourage such activities, that they would give us tax exemption. There's even a community of Marwari businessmen. So Prabhaviṣṇu had made one or two members by giving receipts from Calcutta, since we're not registered. So I suggested that he should concentrate on the Marwaris for the time being, and he can give receipts from Calcutta, and that would be good practice, because they are the most willing to become members. And then, by the time he got registered, he could start approaching the Nepali businessmen.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How will the Calcutta receipt help them?
Girirāja: Well, I don't think...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They care much.
Girirāja: No. Just to give them something official. He has seven boys there now, and a few of them ...
Prabhupāda: They are taking their prasādam and living there?
| Page Title: | Concentration (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Mayapur, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 11 of Oct, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=121, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 121 |