Prabhupāda: In Benares, the Mayavāda philosophy was very prominent. In Dharvanga, logic was very prominent. In Navadvīpa, philosophy was very prominent, and nyāya also. Similarly, in Bharampura, Bharatpura. There are many places, just like at the present moment there are many places, university. So He was great logician, Caitanya Mahāprabhu. In His boyhood He would ask His contemporary friends to argue with Him on a subject matter, and He'll defeat him. And again He'll establish it. The very point on which He defeated His friend, He'll again establish it, and again nullify it. He was so talented. His name was therefore, other name, was Nimāi Paṇḍita. One name is Gaurasundara, another name is Nimāi Paṇḍita. Paṇḍita means very learned scholar. And that is not hearsay, that because we are devotees we are speaking of Lord Caitanya very learned scholar. The evidence is there in the explanation of ātmārāma śloka. He has explained that śloka in sixty-four different ways, one verse. He has described one word, ātmārāma, in eleven ways. Similarly munayo, nirgranthāḥ, urukrama, bhakti. Each word He has enunciated in so many ways.
Contemporary (Conv. & Letters)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Nobody is found greater than Him." So if this Vedic injunction is followed, if somebody is claiming, "I am God," we have to see whether he has nothing to do and whether nobody is greater than him. And these two tests will make him false immediately. He has to prove that nobody is greater than... Even contemporary... Suppose I am claiming I am God. So I have to show that at the present moment, throughout the whole world, apart from universe, nobody is greater than me. Then I am... Will these pretenders be able to show that nobody is greater than him? This is a simple test. And na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate: "And he has nothing to do." There are so many things to test who is God. Ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇaḥ. Nobody shall be richer than him; nobody shall be stronger than him; nobody shall be wiser than him; nobody shall be beautiful than him. So these things have to be tested, whether he is God. And simply if I claim, "Oh, I am God," there will... No testament? If I say, "I am President Nixon," will you accept it? If you don't accept it, even an ordinary President Nixon, without testing his credentials, how you will accept a false man as God without testing? You must know what is that test.
Prabhupāda: Yes, in India it is very popular, Mīrā's song. Mostly they are written in Hindi, and some of them have been interpolated. But Mīrā was a devotee. She saw Rūpa Gosvāmī, a contemporary. She has written many poetry about Lord Caitanya.
Allen Ginsberg: Oh, she was a contemporary of Caitanya?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Allen Ginsberg: Did they meet?
Prabhupāda: No. She appreciated that Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa, and she has written one poetry, song, that "Now You have left aside Your flute, and You have taken the sannyāsī rod." In that way she has written nice poetry. "And where is Your hair and peacock feather? Now You are bald-headed." In this way. So Mīrā appreciated. Her life is also very excellent. Her father gave her a small Kṛṣṇa doll to play, and she developed love for Kṛṣṇa as husband. So when she was married... She was princess, daughter of king, and she was married with another prince.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: He was Subhash Bose's contemporary. Yes. Of the same party. (pause) How is your son?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, he is very well.
Prabhupāda: And father?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, he is okay too.
Prabhupāda: Father, son, he's middle.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I am trying to make him Kṛṣṇa conscious.
Prabhupāda: Father. And mother?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: She's a staunch Arya-samaji. She's the chairman of the Santa Cruz Arya-samaj.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā? Oh. What is the philosophy Arya-samaj?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know. But she's pleased, she likes Kṛṣṇa, she likes our movement very much, but she still believes in Arya-samaj very strongly.
Prabhupāda: Because she is president, how she can speak against them? (laughs) Arya-samajis are strictly forbidden to go to the temple.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Balavanta. He's also very nice. If we get some important votes in the government, then our mission will be successful. This, our philosophy is being properly ventilated, it is coming in the papers, isn't it? On account of this political leadership. And I see that his statements are published profusely. Not with other contemporaries. And what they'll speak? They have no sense, they have no leadership idea.
Satsvarūpa: Some devotees express the fear that after some time all these bogus groups, they will start running political men, too, and then the field may be ruined, that...
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Satsvarūpa: Soon, they say, especially the Bala-yogi, he always follows whatever we do, when we go out and distribute books, they do, when we have kīrtana, they do. So there's the fear that soon they'll all be running for office, all these bogus men, because we are doing.
Prabhupāda: But they cannot say anything.
Satsvarūpa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: They have... This, the followers of the Bala-yogi they're simply rascals.
Devotee: They'll just be more exposed... They'll have to study your books (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: They cannot even speak... Ah?
Prabhupāda: Yes, same idea. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam: (SB 1.3.28) "Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead." That idea is accepted.
Karandhara: No, he's saying that Aurobindo and Ramakrishna expressed that same idea in contemporary language in their own time.
Prabhupāda: So that existed temporarily. Now it is gone. That will not appeal. (French)
Yogeśvara: In other words, what he's suggesting is that that's not actually an argument because the important thing is that there were times, at different times, different people have come and have attempted or have actually represented the public sentiment. They have become the epitome or resume' or synthesis of the public sentiment at a particular period. In other words, he's saying the great reform..., the great preachers, they've always been representatives of people; instead of being representatives of Kṛṣṇa, or God, they've been the representatives of the people.
Prabhupāda: The people's representative is different from God's representative.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: You have seen yesterday's procession?
Prof. Hopkins: I didn't get to the one yesterday, no.
Prabhupāda: So, unless we have prepared groundwork, it is not possible.
Prof. Hopkins: A related question, which is a practical question also. I am collecting material for a kind of sourcebook, readings in Hinduism, contemporary as well as classical, and would like to include in these readings some of the things that you have written. Of the things that you have written what do you consider most important?
Prabhupāda: Premā pumārtho mahān: The most important thing is how to love God.
Prof. Hopkins: And where of the things that you have written would that come?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Prof. Hopkins: Where in the... In the things that you've written, where would that message come through most clearly?
Prabhupāda: In Vedānta philosophy, the most important philosophy.
Prabhupāda: But you are a mad. He is drunk, and you are mad. Where is the difference? So, if we can go? (break) It was a statement that the earth is flat. Eh? Where it was stated the earth is flat?
Harikeśa: Oh. That was a theory of one of the contemporary Roman philosophers.
Prabhupāda: It is not in Bible.
Harikeśa: No.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (Break) There is no information in the Bible at all about God. There's no information about God, simply that God is there, He's the creator, but nothing more.
Prabhupāda: That is in no scripture excepting the Vedic scripture. Clear conception of God is there in the Vedic. Definition of God, clear conception of God, everything is there.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: We are appreciating the brain of big, big scientist. But who has created that brain? No appreciation. Just see how fool they are. You cannot create that brain. You create another contemporary brain like that big, big man. Even that big man cannot. The big men, before dying, he should have considered, "Now I'll die now. Let me create another brain like me, and that will work." That they cannot do.
Pañca-draviḍa: So they think chance.
Prabhupāda: So there must be third man, third brain who has created. You cannot do it.
Yaśodānandana: There is actual proof, Prabhupāda, that when these scientists and great, so-called poets, when they die, refusing to admit the authority of God, they die a very terrible death. Just like in France there used to be a great philosopher named Voltaire, and at the end of his life, because his whole writings and existence he tried to disprove the existence of God, he went insane, and he was eating his own stool and urine. And a priest came to him and said, "Why don't you accept the existence of God? You have become such great poet." He said, "I will never accept the existence of God." But he became to the point where he was eating his own stool and urine.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Prabhupāda: I am eighty years old.
Carol Jarvis: And do you think the Kṛṣṇa movement has helped you? Are you a fit man for an eighty year old?
Prabhupāda: At least all my contemporaries have gone away. (laughter) All my young friends and childhood friends, there are no more existing, my relatives. And.... So I am moving still all over the world.
Carol Jarvis: Can you see an age that you could live until? Could you predict how long you might live?
Prabhupāda: No, if.... You see, this body is so made that it must end, but before ending, you must be competently Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then, next life, you become permanent in life, in knowledge, in blissfulness. That is required.
Prabhupāda: They are just like my younger brothers. Their elder brothers were contemporaries. They are all died.
Hari-śauri: Finished.
Prabhupāda: They are younger. They are all my childhood playmates. Their older brothers, the eldest one was my very, very intimate friend, Siddheshvar Mullik. We used to ride on the same perambulator when we were three, four years old. And Ratha-yātrā ceremony was performed with all these guests. They were about, in our neighborhood there were four, five houses. So all the children of the same age, I was the leader. (laughs) Yes. I organized this Ratha-yātrā. I was performing Rādhāṣṭamī and Janmāṣṭamī, and I was learning how to dress the Rādhā-Govinda. Yes.
Prabhupāda: It is used for my personal friend.(?)
Ātreya Ṛṣi: But it would be nice, Śrīla Prabhupāda, once in awhile...
Prabhupāda: No. There was devotee, Nityānanda's contemporary, he used to whip, and his whipping means as soon as he whips, the man becomes a devotee.
(visit to house which Ātreya Ṛṣi was purchasing)
Prabhupāda: You are not going to install Deity?
Ātreya Ṛṣi: Not here.
Prabhupāda: Oh, not here.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: The Deity will be installed in the other place.
Prabhupāda: Oh, this is only for restaurant.
Prabhupāda: Medicine. Just like a type of vairāgya, sometimes they do not eat. That does not mean eating is forbidden. It is not. It is my personal, I am trying to avoid, that's all. There was a big friend of W. C. Bannerji. You have heard the name W. C. Bannerji? He was one of the three inaugurators of Congress in the beginning. No, that Bannerji, Surendranatha Bannerji, he came later. Almost contemporary. But the Congress was started by I think, yes, W. C. Bannerji. W. C. Bannerji was a big barrister. So he had his friends, contemporary. So he was also brāhmaṇa. So when... He was taking daily his bath in the Ganges, and if he was diseased, was drinking Ganges water. So he became seriously sick. So this W. C. Bannerji, he was a big man. So he asked his permission to bring some doctor. "You'll die in this way."(?) So he persisted, "No, I shall simply drink this Ganges water." So it is not that medical science is in defeated position.
Pradyumna: This says, "God is an Indian." Putaparti. "God is an Indian. His contemporary avatāra..."
Prabhupāda: Putaparti? What is that?
Pradyumna: Putaparti is in Andhra. "His contemporary avatāra rests in the trinity of Sirti Baba, Sai Baba, and Prem Baba to come. So Satya Sai Baba, the second of the triple incarnation, asserted in the course of a marathon interview to add, 'In my present avatāra, I have come armed with the fullness of the power of the formless God to save humanity.' "
Prabhupāda: So, to whom we shall address this letter?
Pradyumna: Well, it depends where we want to send it for publishing. To this or to another magazine.
Prabhupāda: He says that "I'm avatāra." So therefore it should be addressed to him. He says. So address to Satya Sai Baba. Where is he, at Bombay?
Prabhupāda: (indistinct) ...that Kṛṣṇa will (indistinct) money.
Devotee: Also another thing, this is... You may remember when you were in Los Angeles last time, Kṛṣṇa-kanti and Mangalananda asked you if they could do this contemporary style music with Kṛṣṇa lyrics. So this is the very first copy. Actually there's not much to see it's just like any other album. This is the first test pressing.
Hari-śauri: He has a cassette which you can listen to some time if you want.
Prabhupāda: Yes, I can listen. Play it.
Devotee: You would like to hear something?
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Hari-śauri: It's done to like modern popular music.
Prabhupāda: Mm.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that's a fact. We do not make any compromise. Vivekananda went there. He came back. He said, "What is the wrong in meat-eating?" He introduced meat-eating amongst his contemporary sannyāsīs. This is his vedānta-pracāra. So he is advertised that he preached Vedānta all over America, and everyone has become Vedantist. What is...? What kind of Vedantist? Now, he introduced meat-eating amongst the sannyāsīs, which was never in India, any... There are two sets of sannyāsīs, the Śaṅkara sampradāya and Vaiṣṇava sampradāya. But their ācāra is the same. They may differ in philosophy, but their ācāra is the same. Rather, the Śaṅkara sampradāya sannyāsī are more strict than the Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī. Śaṅkara sampradāya sannyāsī, they'll never occupy a seat, those who are strictly following. They'll sit down on the floor. Without any āsana. They lie down on the floor. They are so renounced. And what is this, that sannyāsī smoking and drinking? And ordinary sannyāsīs, they are drinking also tea, one ghara (?). I have seen it.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. And that is our mission. We want to save.
Rāmeśvara: Here. "The set edition of the Bhāgavata series we hope will serve as a boon to the English-knowing world for its abiding values and ennobling thoughts of spiritual perspective to give the correct lead to mankind in the midst of sickening contemporary problems."
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is our mission. Who has written that?
Gargamuni: That's Dr. Krishna Gopal Gosvāmī.
Rāmeśvara: Head of the Department of Sanskrit at Calcutta University.
Prabhupāda: He has got good experience because university students they have become so rascal. In the university they don't care for professors, teachers. Don't care.
Prabhupāda: The thing is that you should not change abruptly without any sanction.(?)
Rāmeśvara: In the past I have sometimes asked you that we wanted to try to follow your example when you were first writing Back to Godhead, offering solutions to problems that people are currently bothered by, making the magazine contemporary and so on, rather than just giving them philosophy, but making it so that it can relate to their...
Prabhupāda: But we... Based on philosophy. You cannot go beyond the philosophy. Philosophy must be there. It cannot be changed. But we have to... You cannot change the wine. That should be the... So therefore, while changing, you can consult.
Rāmeśvara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That will be.
Dr. Sharma: The Communism, doesn't believe in God, etcetera, etcetera. It is simply fabricated things of the populace. Even Karl Marx when he wrote, he didn't talk anything about God. It was Engels, who was a contemporary, a great philosopher, materialistic philosopher, he started infusing certain things about this. And later on, because of being dogmatic, being wrapped up in this scientific discovery, we're being misled, and they would take many things for granted.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Guest: For example, my due respect for the medical profession, into which fortunately and unfortunately (indistinct) I have to tell this. Throughout the world not the best genetician doctor can prove to the soul of soul is the child of man. Nobody can tell who is the father. Medical profession. The real existence of his being is taken as sure faith. If the mother says, (indistinct). He takes it for granted, faith, (indistinct) praise the mother and calls so and so his father. Because he trusts.
Prabhupāda: Mother is called father?
Prabhupāda: He also died? He is the only person remaining. Otherwise all my contemporary friends gone.
Lokanātha: Dr. Ghosh likes you very much.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Lokanātha: And there's practical liking. Not just words, but he wants to render services unto you. That is better.
Prabhupāda: And Kṛṣṇa has made him happy in all respect.
Lokanātha: Yes. He was mentioning to me that.
Prabhupāda: From monetary point of view, from family life, position. He is the biggest medical practitioner in Allahabad. Everyone knows. Even in the street, Dr. Ghosh they know. So take care of him very carefully.
Correspondence
1947 to 1965 Correspondence
Please therefore save them from the great falldown. Believe me or not, I have got the clue of going "Back to Godhead" just after leaving my present material body and in order to take along with me all my contemporary men and women of the world, I have started my paper "Back to Godhead" as one of the means to the way.
Please do not think of me as an wonderful or a mad man when I say that I shall go "Back to Godhead" after leaving my present material body! It is quite possible for everyone and all of us.
In the Bhagavad-gita it is said very clearly that whosoever may adopt the specific principle of accepting Sri Krishna the Personality of Godhead, he will be able to achieve the highest transcendental goal of life,—never mind what he is either a born untouchable, a fallen woman, a laborer or a man dealing in rupees annas pies. His being so, what is there difficulty for a pious "Brahmin" and devoted king for going "Back to Godhead"? Everyone should therefore adopt this principle of going "Back to Godhead" in order to get released from the world of miseries, with temporary existence.
1968 Correspondence
I have noted with great attention your statement that you are sitting at one desk in a tiny office, room, which is ferociously hot in summer and freezing cold in winter. So people might think you mad if they heard of your crazy work. So spiritual activities are like that. Sometimes my contemporaries from India, they also write that in this age, the age of 73, when people would naturally like to retire, and I am working here. So this is all possible by Grace of Krishna. Krishna can adjust opposing elements. In the material world, yes and no are two opposing elements, but by Krishna's inconceivable power, yes can be no, and no can be yes. That is the law of Krishna. And austerity, Krishna Consciousness, there is some austerity. So we should not be afraid of any condition. Narayana para sarve na kutascana Vivyati—that means, those who are in Krishna Consciousness, they are not afraid of anything. Either they are in hell, or heaven, for them, they are all equal. They do not make any distinction in the material world; this is good, or this is bad, this is hell, or this is heaven.
1969 Correspondence
Advaita and his press contemporaries have agreed to pay me 10,000 per year for the printing of my books. So you can print at least two books, 5,000 copies each by that money. I hope you have by now settled something with Dai Nippon, and if they have agreed, you can hand over the Second Canto, Srimad-Bhagavatam immediately. There is one copy of Caitanya Caritamrta (No. 18) which is received from Calcutta with Bengali titles. This may immediately be sent to Gaurasundara by mail. You will find it on the shelf in my room. It is understood that MacMillan Company was to pay some hundreds of dollars to Gaurasundara for his design, so I do not know whether they have already paid or not. Anyway, you can immediately send him the above-mentioned book, and the price may be paid from his pay from MacMillan. I am awaiting your letter describing your progress with Dai Nippon.
This attitude should be maintained amongst your Godbrothers. That will elevate us more and more to the top of devotional service. This is called Vaikuntha attitude. In the Vaikuntha factually there is no fault in anyone, but there is another type of competition. The competition is that one devotee thinks of other devotees how nicely they are serving the Lord. In the material world the attitude is that everyone likes to think that I am doing better than others. This is material conception. In the Spiritual Sky it is just the opposite: Everyone thinks that my contemporary devotees are doing better than me. We are trained to address Godbrothers as Prabhu, which means Master. This means we shall try to find out always the serving side of our Godbrothers. Sometimes there are misgivings, but that we should try to overlook.
1970 Correspondence
Fortunately, we are now together and with great enthusiasm and patience let us erect this mission of Krishna Consciousness. I am so glad to read the portion of your letter in which you show your determination to preach this cult in all countries of the world. Please continue this determination and keep all your contemporary Godbrothers alive on this point. Surely we will bring in a new chapter in the history of the world.
Now first of all, let me inform you that in the Temple you finish Deity worship by 12 o'clock noon and then the Temple should be closed for 1 hour. Then after 1 o'clock you can continue earlier program for eight hours, as suggested by you, with out any impediment. Offer foodstuffs or Bhoga continually by batches as many times as you can manage and other things also—aratrik, kirtana and discussion may continue for eight hours from 1 to 9 p.m. I think this arrangement will be perfect.
We require hundreds of bona fide students in Krishna Consciousness. The world is in need of this function. People are going to hell for want of proper guidance. No other religious institution are so much serious about God consciousness as we are. So you must train your contemporaries in such spirit of alertness, then we shall be able to open hundreds of centers, and the people in general shall be saved from being misguided.
So this Krishna science can be understood through the process of sincere service, and so far any doubt which may sometimes arise in our mind there are the devotees, the Scriptures and the Spiritual Master. Did you discuss all your doubts with your contemporary Godbrothers and devotees? So there are many questions like this about you.
You say that within your heart you know that Krishna is the Original Personality of Godhead but when you think of Krishna or try to feel Him you think Krishna as foreign on account of Sanskrit language. Please, therefore, be careful that Maya is peeping at you and if you do not take care timely it may prove fatal. Please, therefore, chant regularly without the offenses and be steady in your situation without any tottering of the mind. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead without any question.
1971 Correspondence
I am glad to note on page 72 of your book that "They (the Soviet scholars) regard the ancient literary heritage of India notes a petrified miracle of bygone times but as a living and growing tradition that exerts a fruitful influence on present-day literature and remains an inexhaustible source of literary and cultural development of contemporary India."
The Russian people as a growing nation and having a good feeling upon India's culture may take advantage of this treasure house of transcendental literatures, not only for the benefit of the Russian people but for the whole world. Whatever is done by a great nation or a great man is followed by ordinary persons, so it is my mission to distribute the treasure house of India's transcendental knowledge to the whole world, and your cooperation in this connection will be a great asset. You wanted to see the manuscripts of my lectures, therefore I am sending herewith an Introduction, the lectures and if you so desire I shall be glad to send essays on these subjects:
1976 Correspondence
I am very glad to know that you are going to discuss the proposed matter amongst your contemporaries of the Subarnabanik Community and I shall be glad to hear the report.
I shall be staying in Hawaii at least up until June 1, 1976, at the above address, and then I shall go to Los Angeles where I can be reached at the following address 3764 Watseka Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90034, U.S.A. Thank you once more for your kind letter. Conveniently, if you find time you can visit our Krishna Balarama Temple in Vrindaban at Raman Reti which has now become the best attraction in Vrindaban.
| Page Title: | Contemporary (Conv. & Letters) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari, Mayapur |
| Created: | 08 of Aug, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=20, Let=9 |
| No. of Quotes: | 29 |